Disclaimer: Pokemon and its characters are copyright of Satoshi Tajiri. Additional characters and story by me.

(A/N: This chapter took longer to edit than I thought it would due to having to totally rewrite it -it's been three years since I originally wrote it and the old version was like watching a video on fast forward. Having said that the edit extended this chapter an extra two pages. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing I'll let you guys decide)

Chapter 2

Ash didn't stop running until he was back in the safety of his own bedroom, not even to acknowledge his mother in the living room.

"Ash? Is everything okay?" She called up after him.

"Yeah!" Ash replied, shutting the bedroom door firmly behind him.

The incident had happened so quickly that the memory of it was now fuzzy and somewhat surreal-the only thing that stopped him from just pretending he'd imagined it was the blood splatter on his clothes, which he'd hastily changed out of. He stashed the incriminating pieces of clothing at the bottom of his wardrobe underneath a collection of toys he didn't play with any more and prayed his mother wouldn't find them before he could find a more permanent disposal method.

He'd just closed up the wardrobe door before there was a knock and Delia invited herself in.

"MOM! I didn't say you could come in!" Ash protested, mentally cursing himself for not remembering that his door had a lock.

"Why? Are you doing something you don't want me to see?" She teased.

"No." Ash replied, though as shaken up as he was he couldn't avoid the suspicious tone in his voice.

"Are you sure everything's alright? You came up here in a rush," she asked.

"Certain!"

"Okay then, I'll be downstairs if there is anything you want to talk about," she smiled at him as she turned to leave.

"Wait, Mom?"

"Yes honey?"

"Am I... not like other kids?" Delia looked at her son.

"Where did that come from?" She asked in surprise.

"Sometimes I just feel like I'm different from the others," Ash replied.

"In what way?"

"Uh... well..." He started, scrabbling for a non-incriminating answer.

"Are the other kids telling you you're different?" Delia volunteered after a moment. Ash nodded, quickly jumping on the convenient excuse handed to him. "Oh Ash, you shouldn't listen to what the other kids say," Delia replied, giving him a comforting hug. "Sometimes others will say things just to get a rise out of you, but you're perfectly normal. Just remember that okay?"

"Okay Mom." Ash gave Delia a fake smile. That had been a risky question but at least he knew she wasn't keeping anything from him -either that or she was just really good at acting ignorant. He sighed; maybe he was just imagining the whole thing after all, including the blood.

Yeah, that's gotta be it! There's no way I could do anything like that! Ash told himself as he followed his mother downstairs.

Gary stood for a moment in disbelief before his sense kicked back in and he rushed to get help. All at once the scene was flooded with activity and he found himself being questioned about it. Without hesitation Gary denied seeing the culprit -Ash had been the first real friend he'd ever had, someone who actually wanted friendship in return and not just hanging around him to be popular or to take advantage of the fact he was the famous Professor Oak's grandson. He wasn't about to turn him over that easily, especially when the idea of an eight year old being able to do something like that was so unbelievable anyway.

Gary waited for Ash at school the next morning as usual but became concerned when the younger boy didn't show.

Of course word had gone around school about Josh's murder and Ash wasn't the only one who hadn't shown up today, but he was the only one of those who wasn't a close friend of Josh's so it still looked suspicious. While nobody would say anything while he was in the room Gary had the feeling Ash's name was being thrown around in the gossip. Still, he didn't have much time to think about it while his classmates were buzzing around him asking if the rumour of him finding Josh was true and wanting all the gory details. Gary declined from talking about it -he knew they were expecting him to give them some big exciting story and under normal circumstances he would've delivered, but right now it just didn't feel right, especially if it was possible Ash was responsible.

Straight after school Gary made a beeline for his best friend's house, running a number of different reasons for his absence through his mind and hoping it was just something as simple as a bad cold. He was greeted at the door by Ash's mother who smiled when she recognised the spiky-haired boy waiting on the doorstep.

"Oh Gary! Ash wasn't feeling very well this morning. It'll cheer him up to see you," she said inviting him in. That was a good sign, at least he hadn't been caught.

Gary hesitated briefly at Ash's bedroom door-it was a sensitive subject he wanted to approach and it wasn't something you could just drop into normal conversation. He would just have to wing it until an opportunity arose.

He knocked on the door and entered when Ash answered.

"Hey Ash," Gary said cheerfully, "How are ya?" Ash sat up in bed quickly when he realised who it was.

"Gary! What are you doing here?"

"Is that any way to greet your best friend?" Gary replied in mock irritation. "And after I came all this way just to check you're okay!" Ash responded with a smile, showing that he knew his friend well enough to know he wasn't really offended, but it was an uneasy smile. That and the following silence strengthened Gary's suspicion that Ash's current 'illness' was related to the events of the night before. Gary sat down on the end of Ash's bed.

"Is something bugging you?" He asked after a moment.

"No, I just don't feel well."

"You sure? You actually look nervous."

"Well I'm not!" Ash snapped, though Gary couldn't help but notice him blush as he said that. He considered mentioning it but figured he'd just get the same response.

Something was definitely off; the atmosphere between them had never been as tense as it was right now and, as much as Gary wanted to just blurt out what he'd seen he was stopped by a sudden twinge of fear of how Ash might react.

How far would he be willing to go to avoid being caught?

"What about you?" Ash piped up, bringing Gary out if his thoughts. "You look like you've got something you wanna say."

"Not really, I was just thinking," Gary replied. He paused for a moment. This is ridiculous, he thought to himself, we're best friends! we shouldn't be this awkward around each other!

"Actually I did want to tell you something," Ash stated.

"Yeah?"

"Even if you won't let me travel with you, I still think I want to be a Pokémon Trainer."

"What, really?" It wasn't the news Gary wanted to hear but he knew it wasn't going to be that easy. Still, this did surprise him; Ash very rarely did anything alone and he certainly never showed any sign of knowing how to take care of himself. All the same any conversation subject that broke the tension was sorely needed right now and Ash was starting to look a lot happier all of a sudden-there was a spark of determination in his eyes that Gary had never seen there before.

"Can't let you hog all the glory!" Ash retorted. Gary smiled.

"So long as you know I'm not gonna go easy on you just because you're my friend!"

"Wouldn't expect anything else!"

Despite the happier mood on which they'd parted that day the two boys' friendship was on tenterhooks from that moment on. All of a sudden Ash had become a lot more confident and competitive, which started to clash with Gary's own cocky personality and lead to frequent arguments between them. As the months passed games which used to be fun started to turn into vicious battles as Ash struggled to get one over on Gary, usually running his mouth off only to fail and embarrass himself. It was becoming tiresome for the older boy and while he was still nervous of him this new personality was playing on Gary's arrogance.

Ash on the other hand had let the incident completely slip from his mind -for some reason it just didn't feel important anymore. Instead he'd found himself starting to resent being in Gary's shadow all the time. It had never bothered him before but now it was starting to irritate him every time he lost to the older boy. He didn't know why he suddenly felt like this, but he could tell Gary was getting pissed off with it.

Ash's desire to defeat Gary only became stronger over the next few months and after a particularly rough argument was sparked over their choice of hangout for the afternoon the two of them agreed rather vocally to spend the rest of that day apart. It left Ash at a loss for what to do -though feuds with Gary were nothing new lately he'd been particularly uptight the past few days; he got the feeling if he went back home now his mother would get the full brunt of his hostility.

After wandering around aimlessly for a while Ash found himself in a very small wooded area on the border of Pallet Town, where the route to the next city lay -the same route Gary and himself would be taking in just a couple of months.

The idea was still daunting to the young boy -he hadn't got the slightest idea where to start nor had he even decided which of the three Pokémon usually offered to new trainers he was going to choose. His mother had proudly presented her son with a beginner's guide for his birthday which he always carried around with him, but so far he had been procrastinating on reading it.

Now's a good a time as any, he thought, settling down in front of a tree and pulling the book out from his pocket. He had barely read two pages in when a voice made him jump.

"Hi there, are you from Pallet Town?" Ash looked up in surprise to find a young blonde girl, who looked to be a few years older, staring down at him with a friendly smile. She was a Pokemon Trainer -that much was apparent by the red and white Pokeballs attached to a belt on her waist which stood out obviously against her yellow and pink attire. These were the devices Pokemon usually resided in when traveling with their trainer.

"Uh, yeah," Ash responded awkwardly, immediately standing up and stashing the book away again; for some reason he just didn't feel comfortable sitting with this girl looking down on him.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, catching sight of the paperback's cover. "You're planning to become a Pokemon Trainer? I still remember when I started my journey. In fact I think I used the same handbo-" Her sentence was cut short when a pair of what looked to be pincers appeared to shoot out of nowhere, slicing through her throat like a large, very strong pair of scissors. It happened so fast that for a moment Ash just stood there and stared as the trainer fell to the ground, clutching at the hole in her neck in a futile attempt to stop her lifeblood from draining away. It wasn't until her dying gurgles had stopped and the girl lay completely motionless that Ash shook himself out of his dazed state and attempted to take stock of the situation.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see the offending pincers floating to the side of him. Ash eyed them nervously, scarcely daring to breathe until it eventually dawned on him that he was the one controlling their movements. Now able to take a closer look Ash realised the dull gold serrated pincers were connected to a tail covered in dark reddish-brown armour, moreover the tail itself was connected to him.

Ash looked around in a panic to make sure nobody else was watching then looked back in disbelief at his newly acquired appendage. He reached out for it just to be sure it wasn't a hallucination but stopped when he caught sight of his hand. With everything that had just happened he hadn't really noticed the strange feeling in his hands, but now he could see quite clearly the three large clawed fingers covered in the same armour as the tail. Immediately he began to look for any other unusual features until his claws connected with a pair of boney protrusions on his head which -though he couldn't see them directly- he could clearly feel to be a pair of swept back horns.

"This can't be real!" Ash exclaimed. "People don't just grow tails and things!" Pretty much frozen on the spot out of sheer confusion, all Ash could do was look back at the deceased trainer laying there, eyes open and glazed. He studied her carefully; he hadn't really stopped to get a look at Josh before so it was his first time getting a good look at a dead body, and strangely he found himself curious more than disturbed or afraid. It was like there was a part of his brain telling him that this was okay.

A cracking sound in the trees nearby brought him back to his senses and he once again looked around frantically, certain that someone was just about to walk in on this horrific scene. As it turns out, it was nothing more than a Raticate -a medium sized brown rat- scuffling around for food in the detritus, but it made Ash painfully aware that time was running out.

Panicking Ash turned and made a dash for home, not thinking much about the fact that the body was left out in the open or even that he currently looked like some kind of demon-spawn. It was only when he ran into Gary that he realised that he'd changed back at some point between the woods and now -hopefully before anyone else had seen him.

"Ash? Where's the fire?" Gary asked. Ash gulped and scrabbled for something to say but at that point in time his brain had gone numb and he found he couldn't think of a single excuse.

Gary's expression changed to one of concern when he realised how unsettled his best friend looked.

"Ash?" He asked again when he didn't get an answer "What's wrong?"

"N-nothing!" Ash stuttered back, avoiding Gary's gaze and making a move to pass him. Gary blocked his path.

"Don't give me that crap!" He snapped. "What. Happened?!"

"I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!" Ash yelled, pushing his way past him and almost knocking him over in the process.

"ASH, WAIT!" Gary called out, but Ash wasn't stopping and chasing after him would only result in another fruitless argument.

Instead Gary turned his attention to the path Ash had hurtled in from; it lead directly out to the border between Pallet Town and Route 1. Ash wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but even he knew that it wasn't safe to head out that way without a Pokémon for protection; it made Gary all the more curious as to why he'd risked going out that way.

He went over his options for a moment, trying to decide between heading out that way for the possibility of finding out what had upset Ash or just going home and pretending nothing had happened. Ultimately the curiosity was too strong and after taking a detour to sneak back home and "borrow" his Grandfather's Arcanine - a Pokémon he'd played with since he was very young - Gary quickly made his way out to the border, releasing the large tiger-striped dog Pokémon as soon as he entered the wood.

Immediately Gary noticed Arcanine begin sniffing the air, looking somewhat interested in whatever scent it had picked up.

"What is it Boy?" Gary asked, his heart leaping into his throat in a mixture of excitement and anxiety, "Show me!"

He instantly regretted making this choice when he laid his eyes on the lifeless corpse of a young girl, surrounded in fresh blood and with a Raticate gnawing at a horizontal wound in her throat. Despite normally being the calm and collected type, the sight almost made even Gary throw up and he turned away from the body to regain his composure.

He was pretty certain this was Ash's work-it would be too coincidental for this to be a second murderer, especially when he'd seen Ash scarpering away from this general direction.

"What can I do Arcanine?" Gary asked, turning to the fire type Pokémon. "I can't report this! If I do the police might get suspicious of me! And even if they don't it's giving them more evidence to lead them to Ash!" Arcanine gave a low comforting growl.

"I know, I know," Gary continued, answering the question in his head as though it was Arcanine who'd asked it, "it is selfish of me protect him like this... it's selfish and condemning others to death but... he's my best friend. I just can't rat on him like that. He'd do the same for me... right?" Arcanine cocked it's head to one side, unable to give the answer its temporary trainer was looking for.

"Bury it!" Gary ordered finally, "Just dig a hole and bury it!" Arcanine gave Gary an inquisitive look, not used to this new tone of voice.

"Now!" Gary ordered again. Sensing his panic, Arcanine jumped to attention and started digging as quickly as possible. Once a big enough hole had been produced Gary ordered the dog Pokémon to push the body into it and cover it back over, all the while avoiding looking back until Arcanine's bark announced it had finished the task. He turned to the scene to think about what to do with the blood puddle.

"Cover it with the extra dirt." Came Gary's next order. It was a desperate move; he could cover the sight no problem, but there was no way he would be able to hide the scent from sharp-nosed Growlithe - the unevolved Arcanine were commonly favoured by the police force. He just had to hope that they wouldn't come out this way before the smell dispersed.

Once again Arcanine obeyed the order, heading back over to the boy when it had finished. It was in a sorry state, with its front and underside covered in a sticky mixture of mud and blood -he was going to have to give the poor dog a thorough wash before putting it back.

"Well... I guess this makes me an accomplice huh?"