Chapter 3: Journey To The Heart

I do not own Pokemon

A different voice cried out "Hold it!" he whirled around, cloak swirling

around gracefully, to come face to face with the one who destroyed his

life

Ash saw in front of him a girl with flaming red waist length hair with the

only accessory being a Togepi barrette, a yellow elbow length jacket with

bell like sleeves, a red tank top underneath, a pair of worn capris, and a

pair of simple red sneakers. The trainer's eyes narrowed as Pikachu jumped

forward from some plants, willing to protect its trainer from any kind of

danger.

"Ash!" she cried out. Everyone did a double take but he remained unfazed.

"What?" he hissed "What do you want? To ruin my life further?"

"Ash, no! I would never want to hurt you! Please, I just want you to

forgive me! I'm so sorry!" she begged.

"Why should I forgive you?" he spat. "You said so yourself, our friendship

is over. Besides, the damage is done. Do you honestly think that a sorry

will make things all better?!"

"Ash!" May shouted. "Why are you acting this way? What did Misty ever do to

you?!"

He turned to her with cold, dead eyes. "You want to know what she did to

me? Fine, but why tell you when I could show you?" By now the entire gang

had arrived and watched as Ash reached inside his cloak and pulled out a

time flower. It started glowing and unweaving as a sphere of light came

out of it and expanded into a holographic image. "I found this the other

day when I was coming to visit my mother. If you want to know what

happened, watch and be quiet. If you don't, go away." he said coldly.

-Flashback/what they're watching-

A thirteen year old Ash Ketchum ran frantically down the worn dirt path.

He was stopped by a water gun right at his feet. A familiar angry redhead

ran onto the path and blocked his way. "Misty! What are you dong?! I need

to go see my mom!"

"Oh no you're not!" she growled "There's no way I'm gonna let you into

that town ever again!"

"What?! What are you talking about?! Misty, let me through!"

"No! You don't even what happened, do you? They attacked, do you know who

attacked? The heads of Team Rocket! Giovanni, Domino, Vicious, Annie, and

Oakley! Do you know why? Of course not! They attacked because they were

tired of you messing up their plans and they knew you wouldn't be here to

protect it! Ash Ketchum, this is your fault! If you had been here, the

people here- including your mother- wouldn't have been hit! You little

irresponsible, arrogant, over-confident brat! Why am I even friends with a

loser like you? You know what?! Just give me back everything I ever gave

you and we'll say we were never friends at all. Got it?!"

Her words sliced through him like a knife. He was shocked into silence for

the first few moments, before he finally regained his composure. "Fine" he

said quietly "I'll give them back" he pulled out a pink handkerchief and

an odd lure out and tossed them at her feet "There, you can forget about

ever seeing me again. That's a promise" he then left before she could see

the tears running down his face. The memory ended and Ash stood

motionless, still holding the flower up.

"Get away from me. All of you. Just leave me be and keep it that way." Ash

turned away from them and entered the hospital.

Ash sighed as he entered his mother's room "Hi Mom" he greeted

"Hello Dear" she responded. She couldn't help but feel something was off.

"What's wrong?"

"I just ran into Brock and the others downstairs" Delia nodded for him to

continue "I'm not ready to see them yet... or at least Misty. When you

fell into a coma, I tried to get here as fast as I could. I couldn't get

here though. Misty stopped me on a path and wouldn't let me through. She

blamed me, she blamed me for the attack. The one where you were hit and

started this in the first place. She insulted me, blamed me, and then she

demanded I give back everything she gave me. I couldn't hold it in!" Ash

finally had someone besides his Pokemon to explain it to, and he was

pouring out as much as he could "S-so I did. I felt horrible! First

Professor Oak told me you were in a coma, then Misty said it was my fault,

and then she said we weren't friends anymore. Then I ran. Now she thinks

that just because I'm back, a sorry will make it better! That I'll just

forget! Oh, I don't know what to do!"

"Sweetheart, come here" Delia wrapped him in the best hug she could manage

"Just follow your heart. It'll be alright. Just follow your heart"

"Thanks Mom" he smiled slightly "I think I know what to do. I need to go.

I'll visit. Bye" he then left the room.

Ash was about to disappear into the forest when he heard "Wait!"

He growled "What do you want this time?"

Misty ran up, tears in her eyes. "Ash! I'm sorry! Please wait!"

He just continued to walk, not responding.

"How do you care?" he then waved his hand at her and watched as she let go

of his arm and flew back five feet.

"Ash, please, where are you going?" he still didn't respond "Where are

going?"

He sighed at her stubbornness "If you must know, I'm going to the only

place in the world where I'm safe from you" he then closed his eyes and

murmured "The Aura is With Me" then disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Misty fell to her knees crying "He's gone" she sobbed "he's gone and I'll

never find him again"

"Hold on Misty" May said "Remember the last thing he said? 'The Aura is

With Me', right?"

"That's right" Brock said "I haven't heard him say that since..."

"Yeah!" Max said "It makes sense, he said he would be safe from us, and

that's because those orange blobs would eat all the humans there except

the ones Mew wanted to live!"

"Huh?" Dawn asked "What are you talking about?"

"No time, we need to head to Cameron."

In the trees young man in a light blue cloak saw and overheard everything. 'Aura Control.' he whispered, disappearing in a swirl of leaves as Ash did. Dawn looked in time to see a pair of Cerulean blue beast like eyes fade.

'It can't be…'

I added that last part. You probably know who the cloaked figure was already. If you do, please do not give it away. Please read and review. Constructive criticism is welcome but no flaming.