And here's the next chapter! yay! I hope everyone is liking it so far...

Now i answer the anonomous reviewers.

? - I GOT IT OUT FAST! (lol) thanks for the much needed enthusiasm. I know it was so evil, but you have to do it once in a while. (evil grin) lol

Ash and May 4ever - Thank you, and you'll have to read to find out.

I still don't own Pokemon. If I did, understand that I would fill it with so much angst, people would be crying every episode.

And here we go again.

"Mmm, those pancakes were almost as good as the ones that Mom makes," Max commented, rubbing his belly and following May and Brock out of the restaurant.

"I hear that," May added, smacking her lips. "But I hope Combusken didn't get too hungry waiting for me to return with the pokémon food…"

"I'm sure he's fine," Brock said. "And May, did Ash mention why he didn't come to breakfast?"

"Well, he did say he wasn't hungry earlier this morning, but don't worry about it, because he'll probably be complaining about his empty stomach at lunch," May answered.

"Hey, look!" Max said, pointing to the sky. "It's a hot air balloon!"

May looked at the balloon. "If it's any balloon other than Team Rocket's, I'll be happy," she replied sourly.

Just then, Brock spotted something sprinting toward them. Turned out to be Combusken.

"Com! Busken, ken com… Combus…ken bus…," he cried, catching his breath.

May's eyes widened. "What's wrong Combusken? Where's Ash?"

"Ken, busken!" And Combusken ran away, apparently wanting the others to follow.

"I wonder what Combusken's problem is," Max muttered, not wanting to run after he had just eaten a ton of pancakes. But it did sound urgent… So he followed the others.

May was pouring on a lot of speed. She knew her Combusken, and when he speaks like that, she knows something is wrong. She was way ahead of the other two, and reached Combusken's destination first.

Combusken raised a claw and pointed to—

"Oh, my God!" May cried in horror. "Ash!" She ran over to his limp form. "Ash…you gotta…wake…up… Ash, are you okay? …Oh, my God…" She looked him over.

He looked like a wreck. His clothes smelled…singed. A nasty looking cut on his forehead that was drizzling blood down his face…

But what was most noticeable was a big rip on the left side of the left pant leg of Ash's pants, from just above his knee down to his ankle, revealing a long cut just as big underneath.

May gasped and began to cry. What happened? What?

She didn't even notice Brock and Max come up behind her. Max had just gasped and backed away slowly, while Brock rushed forward and felt for Ash's pulse.

"He's still alive, but he's unconscious…," he informed Max and May. He then ripped open the tear in Ash's pants a little more. "Max, please get me the antiseptic and the bandages…"

May just couldn't stop crying. Seeing Ash like this… Just the sight of him sent tears streaming down her face. And she was the one who had left him there alone. Wait, not alone, May corrected herself. I left him with Combusken… What happened then? How…?

Brock grabbed the antiseptic from Max and drenched a part of a hand towel with it. He then carefully applied the towel to Ash's big cut…

"Ow…," groaned Ash, his eyes flickering.

Brock and May leaned in closer. "Ash, are you awake?" Brock asked.

"Would…I be talking…if I was…asleep?" Ash countered quietly.

"Ash!" May cried, not hesitating as she hugged Ash tightly.

Ash was more than a little surprised. "Umm… May… That…kinda hurts…"

May jumped back. "Sorry!"

Brock pressed the towel to Ash's leg again. "What happened, Ash?"

"OW!" Ash protested as the antiseptic stung into his skin. "Cut it out!" And he did his best to sit up. He did, eventually, painfully. He snatched the towel from Brock. "I'll do that myself, thank…you…very much…"

He dabbed his cut carefully, but while he was doing it, he drew a look from Brock.

"What happened?" Brock asked again.

"Combusken," Combusken said guiltily.

"Don't be that way," Ash told Combusken. "It…it was my choice…" He looked to Brock, unsure. "Um… Team Rocket…dropped by…"

"Please don't tell me you did something stupid," Brock pleaded, beginning to help Ash bandage his leg.

Ash sighed, feeling tired and sore. "I…I don't want to talk about it… I'm tired… I have a headache… Everything hurts…" He touched the cut on his forehead gingerly and winced. "And I bet I don't look too good either."

"You look like you got hit by a train," Brock agreed. "Fine. You can rest a little while, but you've got to tell us what happened later."

"Great." Ash began to get up, but the sharp pain in his leg made him sit down again. "Umm…maybe I'll just rest here…"

"I can help you," Brock offered.

"Thanks but no thanks, Brock…"

Combusken went closer to Ash. "Ken busken ken combus com!"

Ash knew exactly what he was talking about. "Listen, I know you feel responsible for what happened. But believe me, I had no choice."

"Combusken, busken busk!" Combusken protested.

"Oh, you might think I had that other choice, but I was not about to let that happen. So it's my fault that my leg got cut open, that I have a headache the size of three million Steelix… It's my fault I feel like I got trampled by hundreds of Tauros. It's my fault that"—Ash stopped for a second and looked around—"that they stole my hat!" He shook his head as Combusken walked away.

Ash's eyes narrowed for a second. "Um, May, have you been crying or something?"

May wiped her damp face. "Maybe a little…"

"Why?"

Dense, dense, dense, dense. The word repeated over and over in May's head. "Well if you found your friend on the ground, unconscious and bleeding everywhere, you'd cry too!"

Ash paused for a second, just trying to imagine how bad he really looked to someone else. "Umm…"

"Ash, you may be hurt, but your voice box is working just fine. Can you please tell me what happened? Why couldn't Combusken help you? What did Team Rocket do to you?"

"It wasn't what they were going to do to me, May." And as Ash said this, Brock began to creep back into hearing range, sensing that Ash might continue his story.

May waited for him to explain, giving him an expectant look.

Ash sighed. "Fine," he groaned. "So… It was just a few minutes after you left to get breakfast when Team Rocket came… They did their little motto thing—"

"Don't they ever get tired of that?" Max asked, not really expecting an answer.

"Anyway… Of course they had…had…Pikachu…with them, and they told me that they would have Pikachu attack Combusken," Ash went on slowly.

May gasped and hugged her Combusken close. It was just like yesterday when she got Torchic from Professor Birch. She had loved him to pieces ever since.

"They said that the only way to protect Combusken was to have him use an attack on Pikachu… Therefore, they essentially gave me a choice: let Pikachu get hurt or let Combusken get hurt," Ash continued, feeling more tired. "But since I didn't want either of them to get hurt, I didn't say anything. So they ordered Pikachu to use Thunder on Combusken and—"

"Thunder!"May squeaked.

"—and asked me who it was going to be. So…I jumped in front of Combusken right before the attack hit and said that it was going to be me," Ash explained. "So after I got hit by the Thunder attack, they hit me with Iron Tail." He indicated his long cut. "And then a Thunderbolt… When I got thrown back from that attack, I hit my head on that rock, so I don't know if they did anything else…" Ash closed his eyes, everything feeling sore. At least they weren't going to interrogate him on that matter anymore.

"Ash," May breathed. "Why?"

Ash's eyes snapped open. "Why? Why what?"

"Why'd you let yourself get hurt instead of Combusken?"

Ash's eyebrows creased. "I wasn't going to let Pikachu—my Pikachu—hurt your Combusken, May. Pikachu is still my pokémon, and I wasn't about to just let him hurt yours. You love Combusken to death, and it's not like I was just going to stand there and watch while either Combusken or Pikachu got hurt. So I chose the best option. Let them attack the alternative target. In other words: me." He touched the cut on his forehead again. "So I saved Pikachu and Combusken pain…"

"You realize that saving them pain, you intentionally caused yourself pain," Brock said.

"Of course I realized that," Ash grumbled.

"But, Ash, if you had let one of the pokémon attack the other, the one getting hit wouldn't have felt even half the pain that you felt. It's the way pokémon are built. They can withstand a lot more pain than us…," Max pointed out.

"I told you, I wasn't going to let them get hurt at all," Ash said firmly. "So what? I…I… Pikachu attacked me. It hurt. But I know he would have done it anyway…" He looked to the others. "I know, because I saw Pikachu's face when he attacked me… He liked it, you guys."

"You must have imagined it," Brock stated. "He may have amnesia, but he will never enjoy hurting you."

"No, Brock, you're wrong. I know what I saw. He was enjoying it, I know. Maybe…… Do you think he ever wanted to attack me before he lost his memory?" Ash asked no one in particular. He drowned out the chorus of no's he knew was coming and tried to relax.

It was a few minutes before Max and Brock left to do who knows what, but Ash could still see May lingering until Brock and Max were out of sight.

She then turned her gaze to him. "Ash… I don't know what to say…" She came up to him and gave him a careful hug. "Thank you for saving Combusken!" she cried. "But…but…you're…"

"I'm fine," Ash said, a little surprised. Not one, but two hugs from May today… Weird… "Besides, you need Combusken for your contest tomorrow. Yah can't win with a hurt pokémon."

"Yeah, but you can't win your next gym battle with an injured you," May protested, pulling out of the hug.

Ash looked away from her. "I don't know, May…"

"Don't know what?"

"Um… I mean… I don't know if I want to…" Ash cleared his throat. "It's just… Ever since day one, Pikachu's been right at my side, at every gym battle… And now that he isn't here… I don't know, I just don't feel like battling for a badge now."

"Come on, Ash. You know your dream is to be a pokémon master."

"So? It's not the same without Pikachu. Maybe it was a dumb 'dream' anyway. I mean, I already tried getting somewhere before. The Indigo League? Nope, didn't do very well there. The Johto League? Pretty much the same thing. Why did I think the Hoenn League was going to be any different than before? Maybe I'm just not that kind of trainer… Or maybe I'm not allowed to get my dream," Ash replied. He shrugged. "Even if I did make it pretty far in training, it's next to impossible to actually get to where I wanted to…"

"Don't talk like that, Ash. Your dreams can come true if you work hard and really put your mind to it," May said, instantly wondering who this kid was and what happened to the real Ash.

"Funny. A few years ago I probably would have given that exact same advice to a person who just said what I did."

"Ash, get real. You know you're going to get there someday…"

"Right…," Ash muttered. "You know, ever since I first set out on my journey, I've been fighting for badges… Just hunks of metal or plastic or whatever. There's no real value for them. Sure, you have to do a lot to get them, but it's the pokémon who do it, not you. So why am I fighting for a title when if I get it, it would really belong to my pokémon?"

May was silent.

"Maybe I should just go home," Ash whispered. "It's not like Pikachu's coming back…"

"Ash!" May cried in protest. "Pikachu is going to get his memory back! And you can't go home, because…well…because you can't!"

"How do you know? Even Brock said there was a chance Pikachu will stay like this forever…" He gestured to his cut. "He's just going to keep doing this to me… It's not like I care, because I'm not going to attack him, but… If he's lost every single memory… And Team Rocket is now filling his head up with false ones, to make him think that he was a member of Team Rocket, to make him think that he really belonged… Maybe if Pikachu feels he belongs there…" Ash shrugged. "I…I don't really know anymore…" He closed his eyes. "Just forget I ever said anything… I'm going to try and rest now…"

May was about to protest, but changed her mind. He just had a hard day…he wasn't thinking clearly…

She walked over to Combusken and hugged him again. "Oh, Combusken, I'm glad you're okay."

"Busk… ken busk… Combusken bus…," Combusken replied guiltily.

"It's okay, Combusken… Ash got himself hurt—you couldn't do anything to help him… This is his problem…" And even as she said it, tears shimmered in her eyes. She didn't know why…but… "He's going to be okay… Yeah…"

Combusken sensed her worry and just gave her an apologetic look.

"It's not you, Combusken. I'm just worried about Ash. He's been acting like a completely different person since…since what happened to Pikachu… So naturally I'm worried. But if he ever tries to let Pikachu attack him again…" May looked to the fire pokémon helplessly. "But we're not going to worry about him now. What we are going to worry about is that contest tomorrow…"

are you ready for more yet?