When The World Ends
Chapter Two – Wake Up Call

There was absolutely no denying the fact that Ash had been a nervous wreck when he entered his first league tournament. Walking into the stadium and realizing just how many trainers there were with years of experience over him made his stomach twist in very unpleasant ways at the time. It honestly never occurred to him that 11 was a very early age to participate in a league tournament, though Gary and Ritchie too had been there too. He cried after he lost his match to Ritchie, feeling like an idiot even though, in retrospect, Ash realized something was off about the entire match. During his other league tournaments, he saw them delay matches when emergencies came up, but not his.

Still, coming in the top 16 was nothing to shake a stick at, especially for an 11-year-old. That was the first and last time he felt that nervous for a league battle. Instead, he started channeling all that negativity into excitement. The only unfortunate side-effect of this was the fact that it made it very hard to sleep the night before.

The teenager tossed and turned all night long, glad that all of his pokemon were with Nurse Joy instead. Pikachu would have been up with him the whole time, and his friend needed his rest for the battle that day. Ash did too, but not nearly as much as the pokemon.

It was strange though. Ash couldn't remember feeling this restless before. It was like there was something at the back of his mind that was trying to get his attention, but for the life of him, he had no idea what it was. The young man decided that it probably had to do with the fact that this was the final match in the tournament and it was the first time he participated in one. He was quite proud of himself as it was, especially after nearly falling on his face in Unova. If it wasn't for Ria and Pikachu, he probably would have came in eighth place or something like that, rather than scraping through to the semi-finals before losing.

Ash shook his head and looked at the digital clock that was in the room and groaning a bit. It was early in the morning, but there was no way he could keep lying there, letting his thoughts get the best of him. There was a lot to do that day too. He had to go get his pokemon and run through a couple last minute things with them. His battle didn't start until two o'clock, but the brown-eyed boy needed to do something with his time or he'd go stir crazy.

Rolling out of the small bed that he claimed in their tiny cabin, he looked over at the second one in the room as Clemont snorted, rolling over and covering his head with the blanks. Ash shook his head, an amused smile playing on his lips as he gathered up the jeans and black t-shirt with white sleeves that he intended on wearing that day. He headed to the bathroom that was beside their room so that he could get a shower in an attempt to both wake himself up and feel a little better.

Ash could feel himself becoming more excited with the prospect of actually battling Alain. He just knew that he could do it this time. Coming in second wouldn't be bad, but he really did want to win this time around. Once he was clean with the clothes he brought with him tossed on, Ash tried to silently sneak back into his room to leave the dirty items there, while trying to find the rest of his stuff. He grabbed his blue, short sleeved shirt, zipping it up over his other shirt, and searching around for where he tossed his socks, gloves, belt and hat before he passed out the night before. Finding most of it was easy enough, but one of his gloves was nowhere in sight.

"What time is it?"A tired voice asked him.

Ash peaked up from where he was kneeling on the floor, meeting Clemont's blue eyes. His friend was a bit unfocused without his glasses as it was, but add in the fact that he still seemed exhausted, and he really wasn't all there.

"Early," Ash replied as he finally found his second, elusive glove, pulling it over his left hand. "You got more time to sleep. I'm going to go check up on my pokemon."

Clemont waved to him, promptly burying his face into the pillow. The raven-haired boy chuckled a little bit and shook his head as he left the room.

Like most places that held a yearly conference, there were small cottages that they gave to trainers and their families to use while competing. There wasn't much to them really, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a small combination of a living room and kitchenette, not really big enough to actually make much food with a small confection oven, a mini fridge and a microwave.

That didn't stop Serena though. He raised an eyebrow when he saw the girl flittering around the kitchen, her Delphox standing beside her, watching with amusement. Something smelled really good, and Ash had to admit that he was very tempted to try and snatch whatever it was. Delphox would know what he was up to though, meaning that Serena would know what he was up to, and she was really good at protecting whatever baked treats she made, able to accurately smack his hand away from them without even looking.

She turned around with a bowl of mixed ingredients in hand and let out a surprised squeak when she saw him, blushing madly as she splashed some of the mix onto her pink apron. "Ash! Don't sneak up like that!"

"Sorry," he laughed, holding his hands up in the air as a sign for surrender. "I didn't think you'd be up this early."

She set the bowl down on the counter beside her, tugging at the small ponytail that she had pulled her short hair back into. Then she put a hand on her hip and glared at him playfully, "I'm excited! You can't tell me you're not excited!"

"Yeah. I'm going to go get my pokemon now."

"Oh!" Her bright blue eyes went wide. "I'll come with you!"

"You're baking things," Ash waved his hand. "I'm sure they'll all like some when we get back, so you stay here. Can't have the whole place burning down with Clemont and Bonnie still asleep, right?"

"Alright then," she replied cheerfully as she went back to baking. "Bonnie will probably follow you there later though." That much was true. Ash usually did go to the Pokemon Center first thing in the morning, and the young girl eventually came barreling after him with whatever treat Serena had made.

Ash shook his head with amusement as he walked out the door, stretching in the early morning sunlight. There weren't nearly as many trainers up that day as in the past little while, but then again, many left after losing their battles, and those that did stay to watch the championship match had no reason to be up early.

He trudged to the Pokemon Center – a massive and up-to-date one that could service the many trainers that came through every single day. One of the many Nurse Joys that were working there smiled warmly, recognizing him.

"Hello Ash," she said cheerfully. "Your pokemon are all rested up and ready to go for your battle today. If you give me a moment, I'll go get them."

Ash nodded his head, leaning against the desk and watching the news as he waited. It was Conference season, starting with the Indigo League Conference back at the beginning of May, so there was always something interesting on. Newly crowned tournament champions waving excitedly, people preparing to take on the Elite 4. People failing to beat them. There hadn't been a newly crowned champion yet this year. Then again, there hadn't been one in years, the newest ones being Wallace from Hoenn and Cynthia from Sinnoh, and even both of them had been around a while now. Some critics said that his generation was generally talentless, but that just made Ash bitter. He knew so many amazing trainers that deserved so much recognition, not scorn to discourage them before they could keep going.

On the television Master Lance, the Champion of both Kanto and Johto, stood before the crowd, talking animatedly about how he wished the competitors next year better luck. The person who won the Indigo League hadn't even made it through one Elite Four member. Ash watched with interest before a voice startled him. "He's been Champion for a long time, hasn't he?"

Ash looked around, a bit surprised to see Alain standing beside him. Despite the fact that they would be squaring off later today for the title of Tournament Champion, Ash felt no bitterness towards him. In fact, he was relatively glad to see him beforehand. Remembering his question, Ash nodded. "Lance has been the Champion since before I was born."

"Huh. And you're what? Sixteen?"

"Seventeen," Ash corrected.

"Over seventeen years. That's a long time to be in power. Though he lost it to Master Red for a few years, right?" Alain's brow furrowed with thought.

"Yeah. Master Red was the youngest Champion in history. I think he won when he was 15 or something like that." Ash shrugged. He knew for a fact that Red had been 15 when he became the Indigo Champion, the man was his idol after all. "While Red was the Champion of Kanto, Lance became the Champion of Johto, but Red became the Master the year I was born, so Lance got that title back too. I don't think he's that much older than Red though." Both Red and Lance were something of heroes to Ash growing up.

"He definitely doesn't look it. I would have pegged him for late twenties or early thirties." Alain shrugged a bit.

"Mr. Ketchum?" Nurse Joy spoke up as she returned with five pokeballs, and a smiling yellow creature.

"Pikapi!" Pikachu jumped up onto his shoulder, nuzzling against his face.

Ash forgot about Alain for a moment, laughing as he stroked Pikachu's soft fur. "You had a good rest?"

"Chaa!"

"Giving away one of your choices already?" Alain broke in, a tone of amusement in his voice.

"I'm sure you were expecting it anyway," Ash quipped back as he grabbed his other pokeballs and attached them to his belt. "Doesn't matter, I can still beat you."

Alain smirked at him and pushed off the desk. "We'll see." He tapped the Mega Ring around his wrist and then walked away.

Ash looked down at his and then back at Alain's retreating figure, feeling a strange twist of emotions. On one hand, he was almost twitching with anticipating for the upcoming battle, but that nagging feeling from the back of his mind was back again, trying to tell him that something was wrong.

There wasn't much he could do about the feeling, except pray that a legendary pokemon wouldn't come bursting through the walls of the Pokemon Center, demanding his help for something. That really wasn't an option at the moment. Ash decided that he'd just focus on the upcoming battle, and whatever happened after that would come later.

"Serena's baking," Ash said to Pikachu, who's face lit up. "What do you think, wanna head back?"

"Chaa," his pokemon cooed happily.

Ash laughed and was about to walk out of the sliding doors when Nurse Joy called out to him. "Mr. Ketchum?"

"Yeah?"

She smiled at him brightly. "Good luck."

He stared dumbly before returning the smile and raising his hand into the air. "We'll do our best, right buddy?"

"Pi pika!" Pikachu mimicked the motion.

Feeling slightly more uplifted, Ash walked out of the Pokemon Center, stopping to take in the Trainer Village that surrounded the stadiums. He loved places like this, seeing all the people who were so dedicated to their pokemon and their friends. There was so much positive energy there that it made him almost hyper.

Many trainers left after they lost their battles, and it was still very early in the morning, so there was really no one else around. That would explain why no one else reacted to a scream of terror. Ash whipped around, looking in the direction of the sound as Pikachu's fur stood on end. It was familiar, putting him on edge and forcing him take off around the corner.

He had always been a fast runner, never losing the boundless energy that he had since he was an overly hyperactive child that should have made his young mother go grey by now. Something was wrong, really wrong. Trusting his instincts, Ash tucked his mega ring into his glove, though he couldn't quite say why at the time. He rounded the corner, his brown eyes going wide with horror when he saw two men holding a struggling blonde girl.

"Bonnie!" Anger coursed through him and he took a few steps forward, but the man holding her actually held a gun to the girl's head. Her eyes brimmed with tears, but she was trying to keep a brave face. On the ground not far from her were a couple of crushed cupcakes and Ash mentally cursed. Bonnie always met him at the Pokemon Center, no matter what time he seemed to get up.

"I just wanted to come to the Pokemon Center with you," she said, her voice shaking.

"It's okay." Ash could sense another person walking behind him, but didn't acknowledge their presence, keeping eye contact with the man holding the young girl. "Let her go."

"Pika!" Pikachu jumped on the ground, his cheeks sparking dangerously.

"Put the rat in its pokeball first. Or I'll put a round of steel in this little cupcake's skull." The man squeezed Bonnie and the other laughed cruelly.

Ash focused on the gun. This person's finger was on the trigger, and even if he attacked, Aura or not, he could still so easily hurt Bonnie in the process. He wet his lips with his tongue before his hand went to his belt, pulling off an old pokeball with a lightning bolt on it. "It's just for now."

"Pikapi." Pikachu's ears dropped. He understood but he didn't like it at all.

"It's okay. Everything will be fine. You'll see."

Pikachu nodded, and Ash pressed the button, feeling something clench tightly in his chest the moment Pikachu disappeared. That was the first time since meeting that he had gone into his pokeball. Pikachu never wanted to be in there, but this was Bonnie's life on the line and no amount of their own pride or comfort was worth that.

Bright brown eyes narrowed and looked up, his fist clenching around the pokeball. "What do you want?"

"You." The man said simply enough and the one behind him shifted closer. "You be a good boy and come with us quietly, and we don't kill your pretty little friend."

They weren't bluffing, he could tell that much. He tried to get a feeling of what they wanted, but all he could sense were convoluted feelings of greed mixed with a sick pleasure. These were the type of people who would get rid of an innocent child to get what they want, and Ash wasn't willing to risk anyone's life that way. "You let her go first. You let her leave and don't go after her."

The man that wasn't holding Bonnie laughed loudly. "Do you think we're stupid, Ketchum?" So they did actually know who he was. "What would stop you from attacking us? No, you're both coming with us. We'll drop her off in a safe spot and leave her alone. Don't trust you not to do something stupid if we let her go too soon." He motioned to the ominous black vehicle that Ash hadn't noticed until that moment. Sadly, in a place like this were so many important people were making appearances, especially for the final battle of the tournament, a dark SUV didn't stand out as suspicious at all.

"What if she runs for help?" The other one asked.

"Won't matter. We'll drop her off far enough away so we'll be long gone by the time she finds someone." The first one kept his dark eyes trained on Ash.

The young man wasn't in the habit of trusting people who were holding a gun to his friend's head, but he could actually feel the honesty in his words. That was more than a little bit unsettling. They really didn't want Bonnie, just him, and they were willing to let her go.

"Deal." The person behind Ash moved quickly, grabbing his arms and slamming him into the ground. Pain rushed through him and he coughed a bit, looking up at Bonnie's terrified eyes as his hands were bound. The person holding him grunted with exertion, but Ash wasn't going to make his life any easier, letting himself be basically dead weight to drag around. Though he had been a rather short boy through his childhood and early teen years, he shot up quite a bit in the past two years, so he wasn't exactly small or easy to drag around.

He grunted as he was slammed into the car, his ribs twinging uncomfortably. He felt someone grab as the pokeballs on his belt, taking them away and throwing them into some sort of box, probably to stop them from opening. It was just as well, since they were starting to twitch and shake as his pokemon realized something was horribly wrong. The door opened beside him and he was roughly shoved inside.

"Ash!" Bonnie cried out in horror. He shifted so he could actually see her, because he would have absolutely no mercy if they tried to do something to her. He wasn't afraid for himself, he could get out of this situation on his own, but he didn't want anyone else getting hurt in the cross-fire.

"Get them both in." Ash was shoved roughly into the back of the SUV, his head hitting the door frame on the way in. It was one of those ones with three rows of seats rather than two, and he was forced into the middle row. Bonnie screamed as she was practically thrown in after him. Ash wanted to reach out for her, but with his hands bound, it was impossible. Someone shoved her into him, climbing in beside them, a gun still in hand.

"Ash," Bonnie whimpered, grabbing onto his arm. She was such a brave girl, trying desperately to keep her expression straight, but he could feel the fear rippling off of her.

"You'll be okay," he whispered, not daring to promise anything about himself. "You'll see."

"Don't make promises that you can't keep," a feminine voice whispered, and Ash gasped as a black bag was thrust over his head. From the sounds of it, the same thing happened to Bonnie. Ash struggled, trying to focus his Aura, but pain rushed through him as something slammed into his head, and everything went black.

...

It wasn't uncommon for Ash to just disappear before a battle, but it was pretty uncharacteristic of him to show up at the last minute. He didn't say much about why that was, not beyond a bad experience in his first tournament. It also wasn't uncommon for Bonnie to stay with him until he was ready for his battle, but he would always drop her off with them before hurrying on his way.

Clemont looked down at his watch and muttered, "2:10." Ash's battle against Alain was supposed to start ten minutes ago, and no one had seen or heard of the black-haired trainer. If that wasn't nerve-wracking enough for the blond, Bonnie wasn't there either.

Whispers formed a dull rumble in the stadium, many people discontent with the fact that the match had yet to start. Alain was already there, standing at the edge of the arena and looking rather concerned, a younger girl with red hair leaning over the stands and talking to him.

"Where are they?" Serena muttered quietly, voicing the question that he was wondering as she looked around the stadium, as if she was hoping that they'd appear in the stands.

Clemont shook his head and said, "Five more minutes."

"Until what?" The teenage girl turned around and stared at him with worried, bright blue eyes.

"If Ash doesn't show up in five minutes, he's disqualified." Clemont knew that rules, and to some people, fifteen minutes seemed like a very short amount of time, but he understood why it was that way. If a trainer was serious about participating in a tournament, especially the last battle, they would have been there on time, or would have at least sent word about what was happening. Once a trainer was disqualified, that was it. They were out of the tournament with no do-overs, no matter their excuse. "Ash knows the rules as much as I do. He wouldn't leave it this close."

The boy couldn't even try to hide his fear. It wasn't reaching to say that Bonnie was probably with Ash, and if something was forcing him to miss the match, it had to be bad. Sure, Clemont was worried about his friend, but the thoughts of his sister truly preoccupied his mind. Ash could take care of himself, but Bonnie was his baby sister. Clemont groaned and cleaned forward, burying his face in his hands. "What if something really bad is happening to her right now and I'm just sitting here? I'm a horrible older brother."

Serena placed a hand on his shoulder. "You're not a horrible brother Clemont. We'll wait, just in case Ash shows up at the last minute, and if not, we'll look for them, okay?"

"I promised my mom that I'd always take care of her," he said quietly. Clemont sat up straight when he saw the announcer walk onto the field. "Due to his absence, Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town, Kanto, has been disqualified. This year's Kalos League Tournament Champion is Alain!"

The crowd booed loudly, while Alain just shook his head, clearly unimpressed. The blond knew that the boos had nothing to do with the trainer, but rather the cancellation of the match. There wasn't time to think about that though. Serena stood up and looked at him, "Lets go find them."

Standing up, Clemont nodded his head and they started searching for the fastest route out of the stadium. "Be careful, Bonnie," he whispered to himself.

...

Bonnie didn't want to admit it, but she was terrified. The black, canvas bag over her head only made the anxiety worse. The only comfort she had in the situation was that she had Ash with her. At the same time though, the young girl knew that they had done something to hurt and knock him out earlier. She was pressed against his side for comfort, so she could still feel him breathing, but he was also slumped a little bit. If he was awake, he would have been talking the ears off of their captors.

The blue-eyed girl wasn't quite sure how long that they had been driving, but it felt like days to her. She couldn't even see anything to know if it was still day, or if it was night.

What she did know was that the SUV was slowing down. It pulled to the side of the road, coming to a complete stop. She cringed back a bit, wondering if they were wherever these guys intended on taking them.

"What are you doing?" The woman in the car asked.

"Letting the girl go."

"What? Just get rid of her."

"She's not part of the deal and we don't need her. I'm not going to kill a little kid." One of the doors opened, and Bonnie could hear the crunching of travel coming from outside as someone walked around the car. The door right beside her was yanked open violent, and one of the men grabbed her arm.

"Let go of me!" she yelled, her legs flailing. A scream escaped her lips as she was roughly thrown to the ground, tears welling up in her eyes from the sting of the gravel scraping her skin. She took a few deep breaths, trying to keep her pain hidden. Suddenly, her hands were freed and the bag was ripped off of her head.

Bonnie took several deep breaths of fresh air before looking up. For a brief moment, before the man closed the door to the black SUV, the young girl could see Ash slumped over in the back seat. She jumped to her feet just as the man climbed back into the vehicle, and it sped away.

"Stop!" Bonnie yelled, running a few paces after it with her arm outstretched before stopping. "Ash..." She looked around, not recognizing anything on the tree-lined highway. It only occurred to her then that those people had kept their promise to Ash to let her go, but it didn't really matter.

Panic started to well up in her, but the young girl managed to squash it. She took several deep breaths, closing her eyes briefly. She opened them again, determination writing across her features. Her hand clenched into a fist as she turned around. "This is the way I came." She would follow the highway until it led her somewhere. Her friend needed her help, so she wasn't going to let her fear get the best of her and let him down.

Walking alone was a lot different than walking with someone else. They had gone to more dangerous places, but she always had her brother, Serena and Ash there with her. In the very least, she had Dedenne.

Bonnie didn't know how long that she had been walking when she heard rustling in the pushes. Gasping, she took a couple steps back onto the empty highway, her eyes brimming with fear. Then, a small creature with orange fur jumped out of the bushes. "Denne!

"Dedenne?" Bonnie breathed out, catching the pokemon's attention. The young girl laughed and rushed forward, catching the electric-type as she jumped into her arms. Bonnie nuzzled the pokemon and said, "You saw what happened and followed me all this way?"

"Denne denne," Dedenne nodded her head. The small creature jumped out of her arms and spoke rapidly, running in a circle and staring at her.

Bonnie blinked and said, "They drove in circles?" Dedenne nodded her head. "That means...are we closer than I thought?" Another nod. "We need to go find help! The bad people still have Ash! Can you show me where to go?" The pokemon ran ahead slightly before looking back.

Relief rushed through the young girl. Alone, she was afraid, but with Dedenne, she was pretty sure that she could do anything.

...

His head was pounding as Ash slowly regained consciousness. It took him a few minutes to remember why there was a sack on his head, and why he was in a moving vehicle. It took him a second after that to realize that a small figure definitely wasn't beside him anymore.

Jerking up roughly, someone in the car let out a startled yelp at his sudden movements. "Where's Bonnie?" He grunted in pain as someone nudged him roughly with the muzzle of a gun.

"Be nice," a feminine voice spoke up, sounding more amused than anything else. "We took pity on her and dropped her off, just like we agreed."

She was telling the truth, and while he was relieved, Ash couldn't help but feel wary. If they wanted something from him, surely it would have been smarter to keep someone to use against him? If these people knew the first thing about him, they should know that he wasn't at all worried about hurting himself in the process of stopping them.

With that in mind, Ash tried to think about what he could do. It would be easy to break his bonds with his Aura and attack the driver, but he really didn't want to do that.

Without warning, the sack was suddenly ripped off of his head. The teenager took an instinctive, deep breath before glowering at the people sitting around him. The female that was speaking to him suddenly moved from the front seat, climbing back and sitting down where Bonnie had been before, sandwiching him between her and the other man beside him. Her leg brushed against his, and he quickly jerked away from her, scowling.

"Oh, you're funny," the young woman laughed as she turned on a tablet that was in her hands, pressing a few buttons on it. She scooted closer to him, and there was no where for Ash to go, so he settled on glaring at her.

"You don't like attractive women sitting next to you?" Her voice was viciously teasing, her cold eyes amused. "What if I had red hair and green eyes? Wore yellow and collected water pokemon." Ash's eyes went wide at the description and she laughed.

"That's why we didn't need the little girl." She pushed the tablet in front of him. "If she could motivate you to surrender to us without much of a fight, I wonder what you'll do for these two?"

Ash's brown eyes glanced towards the screen, and his stomach dropped, horror creeping through him. The tablet was set up to a live feed (or so it said) of a small room. In that room, bound and unconscious, was his mother and Misty.

"Why are you doing this?" The question escaped his lips before he could stop himself.

"Boss' orders." She leaned forward to look at the man on the opposite side of him. "Better cover up his pretty face again. Wouldn't want him to know where we're going."

The sack was roughly shoved onto his head again, and he felt the woman grab his arm. Ash shrugged a bit, wincing when he felt a small prick in his arm. "There, that'll do you longer without any brain damage. Wouldn't want that right now, would we?"

Ash just groaned as he began to feel light headed, his body swaying and then falling as he once again lost consciousness.

...

Note

Before anyone starts asking about 'why isn't Ash using his Aura', he's being very cautious with it to the point where it's almost stupid of him not to use it. At the same time, he has no idea what these people know about him so maybe they're ready for it. Another life wasn't worth the risk when he thought he might be able to get away later.

And yes, if it's not obvious here, Team Rocket are the bad guys in this. I've been setting this up for a long time now.

Keep in mind that some discrepancies in personality or how you think they'd react to different things, are based on the fact that they're older, so they are growing up, and everything that they've gone through does build up, it doesn't just get wiped out every time Ash goes to a different region.

All of my reviewers seriously give me life! You have no idea how much I appreciate you all! That includes: JediMasterDraco, ultimateCCC, amandaalb4, Leonais Frostwind, MaxKnight1010101, remisolleke, Kauris Azurai, Phoenix Keeper Avalon, awolflover2, VolcanicPanic, EchidnaPower, Wraith Five, thedarkpokemaster.

Til next time!

Written by: Skylight Sparkle

Edited by: CLAVUS