*Author's Note: For those of you who read Chapter One before this came out there was an error (which I have now corrected) it said that Crimson's battle against Giovanni happened ten years ago when in fact it was six years ago, at the same time that Chapter 2 takes place, on the very same night.

Chapter Two:

Casualties of War

Six Years Ago - Viridian Forest

Ochre lifted his ten year old daughter high up into the air and spun her around. She laughed, her giggle sounding to him as the song of fairies making him young and carefree once more. He plopped her down on his shoulders so she was straddling his neck. She was getting a bit big for all this but neither of them wanted to stop. She clasped her hands across his forehead and he trundled down the forest path. These nightly walks were a family tradition.

His wife, Tawny, walked beside them with a bit more grace, shaking her head and smiling ruefully. In her hands she held her husband's Pikachu, he had found the dear thing as a little pichu shivering along under a bush in the forest. Ochre never could leave an innocent creature to fend for itself so he brought it home. They were shocked so many times in those first few hours that Tawny could have sworn she was becoming numb to it. Soon though it realized that it couldn't have found a safer place to be. Ochre had tried to release it back in the wild but the little pichu would always beat them back home and sit waiting for them on the doormat. How could they throw such a loyal creature away?

"You two are so silly," Tawny giggled as her daughter "played drums" on her husband's bald head while her husband pretended to be in intense pain.

"No! No! I need my brain!" Ochre cried in mock terror. Suddenly his face went slack. "Duh! Who am I? Who are you? Why are you on my shoulders?"

"It's me, daddy, it's Yellow!"

"Who's the pretty lady?"

Another giggle. "That's mommy!"

"Then you have one lucky daddy," Ochre raised his eyebrows in a pseudo-seductive manner. He leaned in toward his wife, Tawny. Rolling her eyes she gave him a quick kiss on the lips. She tried and failed to hide her smile.

"Ew!" Yellow shrieked ending it with a giggle. Glancing slyly up at her daughter Tawny grinned and kissed Ochre again. "Eeeeeww!"

They kissed again, this time a little more earnestly. "Ooooh what's that?" Ochre could feel Yellow twist on his back to look behind them.

"Nice try, honey, but daddy's still gonna kiss mommy," Ochre chuckled at what he assumed was his daughter's attempt to distract them.

"Pretty . . ." Yellow actually sounded entranced. Tawny opened her eyes mid-kiss, Ochre sighed.

"Okaaay what is it?" Ochre turned around and paused. Brilliant streaks and flashes of color appeared in the night sky, orange then blue.

"Is that fireworks?" his daughter had never seen them.

"I don't think so, honey," Ochre watched some other colors flash, purple then green, a flash of yellow. It definitely wasn't fireworks, there was no design to the chromatic display, no flowery explosion.

"What is it?" This time it was Tawny who asked.

"I'm not sure," Ochre unconsciously began walking in the direction of the colorful display, Tawny followed. It was then that they noticed some sounds. A boom, almost like distant thunder, then the roaring cry of a large animal. A pokemon cry. They stood watching for a moment, Ochre's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Run!" Ochre started turning his wife around, being rougher than usual with his large calloused hands, shoving her.

"Honey, what?" she wasn't moving.

"That's a massive pokemon battle!" Ochre called out. "If they come down here or dislodge a boulder . . ." he didn't need to finish his thought, realization dawned on Tawny's face and she ran. Ochre slung Yellow down from his shoulders and wrapped her in his arms, holding her tight.

It was too late.

The thunderous roar of the rocks crashing down the mountain in the landslide deafened their ears. Tawny grasped their pikachu close to her body, copying Ochre's grasp on Yellow. Ochre looked back just in time to see the avalanche of rocks reach the valley floor and bounce towards them.

"I love you!" Ochre cried out to his family just before a large boulder crashed into his head, bringing him down, barely enough life in him to keep his daughter protected in his thick muscled arms. Tawny fell just after him. The family was buried just as the avalanche came to a sudden and deadly conclusion around them. Then, silence. Dust choked the air and obscured the sunlight.

Once the silence had fallen Ochre's bloody and broken body began to move. His arms and back moved loose and unnaturally, most of his bones broken. Ten year old Yellow, a dazed look upon her face, painted by blood streaming down her face from a head wound, emerged slowly and painfully from under the protective custody of her father's arms. She turned to her father's now still body.

"Daddy," she grabbed his shoulder and shook it gently. He didn't move. "Daddy, please I'm scared!" the girl began to cry, tears streaming down her dust caked face, mixing with the blood and grime, covering her worse in her own ichor. She wasn't thinking about her own horrific state, she was completely focused on her father's still form. She shook him harder this time.

"Daddy, please don't play, I'm so scared! Daddy! Daddy!" the girl cried and shook her father for a full minute but he didn't move. "Daddy!"

A small movement caught the corner of her eye. She gasped then turned to her left. "Mommy?"

Her half-buried mother's arm moved awkwardly, once then twice. The girl choked out a cry and started to get up. Pikachu suddenly came crawling out from under her mother's arms. Yellow dropped back onto her bottom and sobbed, then, just as suddenly, she went completely silent. She was relieved to find that at least someone was left alive, she was horrified and brokenhearted that it wasn't her parents.

Pikachu, limping, slowly crawled over to her and crawled into her lap. His cold wet nose touched her bloody scratched arm. It made a purring noise and began licking one of her many small wounds. At first she didn't react but then he rubbed up against her with its head and let out a single lonely cry. He looked her in the eye as if to say "I lost my family too, I understand. I am right here for you."

At least, that's what she wanted it to say.

"What are we going to do, Pikachu?" Yellow asked, her voice tremulous. The little yellow rodent mewed again in reply.

10 Hours Later

Pallet Town was quiet, as it was every day. If one but stopped to listen one could hear pidgey calling in the distance and the occasional caterpie cry. Even the usually fierce spearow seemed more at ease when they visited Pallet Town. It moved at a slower place than most towns in the Kanto region.

Usually when Professor Oak returned to Pallet after being away he felt relief at the sight of his hometown, today he felt nothing but dread. He walked with a pause in his step toward his lovely hometown. Trailing behind were Daisy, his granddaughter, and Tracey, his laboratory assistant, he was sure they felt the exact same way.

It couldn't be helped, it had to be done and it was only right they be the ones to do. They had to tell Crimson's widow and son that he had died rescuing them from Team Rocket. Ash, Gary and Misty had continued along their pokemon journey, a great deal more somber than before. The three of them had traveled all night to make it back to Pallet Town in time to make sure Crimson's wife heard the news from them instead of on the television. Reporters had swarmed them the moment they had passed through Viridian City.

Pallet was such a small town it didn't take them long to make their way to Crimson's three bedroom house. The sun shining and the coo of feeding pidgeys belied the way Samuel Oak felt. His hand trembling, he reached up and knocked on the door. A tight knot had formed in his gut and it grew longer with each silent second that passed.

Then the door opened.

Inside stood a pretty woman, just on the cusp of thirty, and a curious young boy of about ten glancing up from behind her. The woman smiled but Professor Oak couldn't bring himself to return it.

"Scarlet, I was wondering if we could come in for a moment to talk?" Professor Oak indicated his two companions with a nod of his head. Daisy managed a weak sad smile. Tracey did not.

"What is it?" concern immediately etched Scarlet's face as she stepped back and let them in. The door opened into the livingroom and the Professor nodded at Tracey and Daisy to sit.

"Scarlet, I am not sure if you are aware of this," Oak swallowed hard, it was so difficult to speak with a giant knot in his stomach and another forming in his esophagus. "I was kidnapped by Team Rocket yesterday, in the morning.

"I had heard something in passing but couldn't believe they had become so brazen," Scarlet looked aghast. "I must admit, out of control trainers like that have always terrified me, that's why I never became a trainer myself. What if something happened and my pokemon attacked someone and injured them or worse."

"About that, Scarlet," Professor, tried to get her back on track. He needed to get it out now or he was afraid he wasn't going to get it out at all.

"Oh, yes, Professor, I am so sorry. You were kidnapped, I didn't mean to ramble on like that. What happened?"

"Well, they wanted me to work on something for them, I never got all the details, I of course refused."

"How did you get away."

"I was rescued. By your husband, Scarlet."

"Really? Then where is Crimson . . ." Upon saying his name realization dawned on Scarlet.

Why else would Professor Oak come to tell her this story.

"No." She shook her head in disbelief, it barely came out as a whisper. "No, no, no. Not my Crimson."

"I'm sorry," Oak managed to choke out before tears stung his eyes and his chin trembled uncontrollably. "I'm so sorry."

"It can't be." Scarlet cried out, suddenly loud. "I always knew this could happen. Playing around with those dangerous pokemon. You encouraged him. You know that, right? If it weren't for you he would never have even been a ranger. This is your fault."

With that sudden realization Scarlet turned her tear-streaked brown eyes on Professor Oak. They were filled in venom.

"This is all your fault!" He grief turned into sudden furious rage. Oak could swear she grew until her presence filled the entire living room, he waved at his two companions to get behind him quickly.

"You killed him, Samuel Oak!" Scarlet was screeching now, jabbing a single pointed finger at his chest. "Crimson's death is on your head! It is your fault! You killed my husband! Get out!" By now she was screaming with the fury of a banshee as her young son began to wail behind her in fright.

Samuel Oak edged toward the door.

"I said leave!" she charged toward him, raising her white-knuckled fists in his direction. Oak opened the door and fled. "And never come back!"

"Daddy!" the boy was crying out loudly. "I want daddy! Where's daddy? Mom? Where's my dad?"

Professor Oak cursed as they fled the house, he fought back the bile that was threatening to come up. He had to make this right somehow. He knew better than to take the words of a new widow to heart but he had been the one to encourage Crimson to become a trainer and even guided him into becoming a ranger as well. That's why her words burned like fire in his brain. She had a point. She was right. This was all his fault. He would make this right, by all the gods that might be out there he would make this right. Somehow.

Back in Crimson's house the widow Scarlet clutched her son, Red, close to her breast. "I'll never let anything happen to you. You hear me, son? I won't let the same thing happen to you, as long as I live."

"Where's daddy, mom?" Red cried, his young mind could not yet accept what it already knew to be true.

*End of Chapter 2

Author's Second Note: I promise there are no deaths in the next chapter, which takes place six years after the events of Chapters 1 and 2