Well, here is the final chapter! Hopefully all the questions get answered, and hopefully we get some closure! And I'm sorry that it kind of got darker and confusing than I meant for it to be. Also, Zoey has no romantic feelings for Dawn, it's all platonic friendship. And going crazy after a few years. And selling your soul to a ghost Pokemon.
I hoped you enjoyed this fic, and had a wonderful Valentine's Day!
I don't own Pokemon.
Four: Hand In Hand
Paul blinked in confusion at the orange haired girl. "Aren't you Dawn's servant, Zoey?" he asked.
She shook her head. "Don't change the subject! I'm not going to..."
"To what?"
"I won't let you take Dawn away from here!"
"What are you talking about!?" Paul asked, somewhat alarmed.
"You're planning on her running off with you. I heard you both on the stairwell. And I'd be stupid to let you do that."
"Zoey, we're not doing that any-"
"I never liked you. So arrogant, so cool...corrupting Dawn with these ideas of leaving the mansion. Well, now I'm going to stop that." she said, lifting the gun up.
"Zoey, that's crazy! You can't-"
"What Dawn doesn't know won't hurt her."
"Zoey!" he shouted, a hand grabbing at his belt to call out a Pokemon, any Pokemon. Zoey saw the movement and fired the gun, the slug hitting him in the chest. He staggered, coughing as blood gurgled between his lips. He felt himself falling, but he didn't feel himself hit the ground. Yet, he was still alive...for a few seconds.
Dawn...I...
Zoey appeared in his line of vision as she aimed the gun once more.
"No hard feelings. You understand."
He numbly felt something slam into the side of his head, and he knew no more, the last thing he saw was those haunted yellow eyes of that cat at Zoey's feet...
Ash groggily woke up, putting a hand to his head. Or, he would have, if his hand wasn't chained behind his back.
Wait, what!?
Ash opened his eyes wider, his mind completely clear as he found himself chained to a support beam. He was standing straight up, hands behind his back and being held by thick iron chains. He appeared to be in what might have been a ballroom at some point, but it was dusty, as if no one had danced in this room for quite some time. A couple of spiderwebs clung to the ceiling, and the only other sign of life was the roaring fireplace in front of him.
"Awake are we?"
Ash snapped his head around to see Dawn walking toward him.
"Dawn! What's going on? Why..."
"You see, you must be him. You're so nice and you remind me so much of him." she said without listening to him.
"What are you-"
"You must be him. Just wearing a different face this time. Time makes fools of us all I suppose." she sighed.
"Tell me what the heck is going on! What are you talking about!?" Ash shouted, struggling against the chains.
"I'll be with my Paul again soon. I just have to peel that body away and get to his soul..." she said, again disregarding him.
"My soul?" Ash asked, stopping in his struggle.
"Yes. I told him that I would always wait for him, he promised he would come back...and I believe that promise...even in death..." she said, and as she said this, her body seemed to flicker, like a projection.
"You're..."
"That's right. I'm dead. I died a very long time ago, waiting for him to come home." Dawn whispered. "And now, you're going to help me bring him to me."
"As if I'm really going to let you do that!"
"I'm afraid that you don't have a choice. You see, I've dealt with your friends..." she said, holding a hand up. A ball seemed to form in her hand, and like a movie, it showed images of Pikachu and Ash's pokeballs inside of a weird looking box. Ash gasped. She had Pikachu! He watched as Pikachu tried to electrocute the box, but suddenly, the box got smaller, pushing Pikachu farther inward.
"Eventually the box will crush your Pokemon. Zoey did it for me, what do you think? I was surprised that she actually knew how to do things like that..." she muttered with slight surprise.
"Don't! Don't do that..."
"And I think Zoey is already taking care of the girl at the moment..." she continued on.
Ash stopped. "Leave her out of this!"
"Why? You dragged her into it, didn't you?" Dawn asked.
"No...Just...let my friends go! I don't care what you do to me; just don't kill my Pokemon or May."
"And that's what I was waiting for." Dawn smiled. "Good to see that you know where you stand, Ash Ketchum."
Ash lowered his head as Dawn looked around the ballroom. "You know, me and Paul once used to dance in this very room." she said out of the blue, before glancing over at Ash.
"So Ash...are you ready to dance with me into death?"
"I'm sorry Dawn...but...he left. I checked with Oldale. He suddenly packed his things up and left without notice."
Dawn sunk down in a chair. "But...he..."
"Dawn..." Zoey said, concerned for her friend.
"He said that he would never leave me...that he was going to stay with me..." she whispered. Dawn didn't notice the quick fleeting look of shock that flitted across Zoey's face before Dawn suddenly stood.
"No, I don't believe that! He said he would come back, and I said I wait for him. And that's what I'll do! No matter how long it takes!"
But of course, Paul never came back. Many years passed. Dawn never left her room in those years. Soon, ten years had passed, and yet she still looked the same as she did when she was ten. Always sitting in front of the window, waiting for Paul to come. One day, when Zoey was delivering her meal, she heard Dawn whisper,
"I'll wait for you forever..."
The next day, Zoey woke up. The day seemed normal...except...
She was floating slightly.
Zoey screamed as she saw that she was floating an inch off the ground, her body see-through.
"W-what's going on?" she asked aloud. She forced her feet onto the ground. As she ran through the hallways to Dawn's room, she noticed that all the other occupants of the house also looked like ghosts, with no memory of how they had suddenly died without warning.
"Dawn!" she called. Dawn was standing at her balcony, also see-through and pale, paler than before anyway.
"Don't sound so shocked Zoey. I did say I would wait forever." Dawn whispered.
Zoey later found out that because of Paul's death, Dawn had slowly driven herself off the deep end. That night, she had slipped sleeping pills to everyone in the mansion, including herself. She had convinced herself that she might have to wait in death for Paul to come back.
"Now we really can wait forever!"
May was breathing hard. Paul had been right; the oxygen was thin in the room. Of course, he wasn't affected by it.
"Why can I see you?" May asked.
"Only those who aren't afraid of dying are able to see me. It might explain why Zoey could see me-she was already dead and she wasn't afraid of the possibility of passing over to the unknown. Dawn...I think she couldn't see me at first because she's afraid that she won't find me before she passes on. If she ever does." he added.
May looked down at the ground. Was she afraid of dying? Truthfully...no. She was not afraid for herself.
She was afraid for Ash.
"So how did Zoey find you?" May asked, looking back up.
"You have to realize that Zoey was also driven off the deep end. When you stay dead, a lot of crazy ideas form in your head. She thought I was cursing this house and its occupants. So one night, she spotted me, wandering around this hallway. She somehow tricked me into touching that portrait you see behind me, sealing me in it and making it so I can't leave this room. I can't move the portrait either." he pointed out.
"How could she do something like that?" May asked.
"I have a theory. I think Zoey might have made contact with one of the Gastlys or Haunters that float around here and it gave her those powers. Most likely in exchange for her soul."
"I didn't see any around while we were here."
"That's because she doesn't really need a soul. Those ghost Pokemon got tricked. She makes them obey her. She probably told them not to show their faces around Dawn or their victims, just to lead away the stray travelers into this room." he said disgustedly.
"But why would she tell Dawn that killing Ash would bring you back?"
"Give her a reason to not question why I haven't come back yet." Paul said bitterly.
May stood. "That's terrible! We have to do something!" she said.
"Well, the doors locked, I'm dead and you're a weak mortal. No offense." he quickly added. May scowled at him before pulling a pokeball from her belt.
"She forgot that I have Pokemon on me." she pointed out.
Paul watched as she tossed it into the air. "I need your help Blaziken!"
Blaziken appeared in a fiery flash, ready to fight, but then it noticed that there was no battle happening. She also noticed that it didn't seem to notice Paul at all.
"I need you to kick the door down!" May told it. Blaziken nodded before putting its foot up. It glowed with a fiery energy, and May had to quickly move to the side just as it used Blaze Kick on the door. The door, being so old, banged off its hinges, breaking off and skittering across the floor of the hallway.
"There's no time to lose, we have to...wait, aren't you coming?" she asked. Paul pointed at the cursed portrait.
"Oh right...wait...I think I have an idea..."
Zoey stood next to Dawn as she was preparing for the ceremony that would rip Ash's soul out of his body. She gave him a somewhat pathetic look. He was really nice and she did feel a little guilty that he was going to end up dying for nothing. But it was for the best, she knew. What did it matter if another pair of trainers and their Pokemon went missing? No one would ever know. Besides, her only goal in the afterlife was to keep Dawn happy, and if this was what Dawn wanted to do, then so be it.
True, Dawn wanted to be with that deplorable Paul, but Zoey knew that Dawn was better off without him. Her eyes narrowed distastefully. To hell with that logic, seeing as how Paul dominated her life, before and after. Nothing mattered. As long as Dawn didn't know. She wouldn't admit the mistake she had made in thinking that Paul was going to take her away from her rightful place. Eventually, he would have. Now Dawn would be where she belonged...forever.
It was better this way.
May looked over at Blaziken, who was running alongside her, the portrait tucked under its arm. Paul was floating on her other side as they traveled down the hallway.
"So tell me, why are you going to such lengths to save your friend?" Paul asked.
"I...he's...he's my best friend." she said after a moment. "I don't know what I would do without him."
"Do you love him?" Paul asked abruptly.
May turned red. "I don't think that's really any of your business."
"Listen, you're running down a hallway carrying a cursed portrait of a ghost of the lover of the person that's about to kill your best friend, running into certain danger. I think it is my business now." Paul said gruffly.
"Well..."
"Do you get a warm feeling in your chest when you're around him? Do your palms sweat when he smiles at you? Do you wish that he would hold your hand just a little longer?" Paul asked.
May felt herself slowing down. Yes...she did feel those things when she was with Ash...it...it was why she came back...because she didn't want to forget those feelings...
"Yes...I do."
Paul put his hands in his pocket. "You better tell him when you get the chance. Neither of us knows if you're going to make it out of this alive. Don't end up dying without telling the people you care about that you love them."
May frowned. "Is that what happened?" she asked.
Paul smiled a little. "No...I was lucky enough to tell her how I felt before I died. That might have been what kept me here instead of moving on...because I promised her that I would always be here with her..."
May didn't say anymore as they turned the corner, just as they heard a loud inhuman screech.
"It came from that room." Paul pointed. May nodded to Blaziken, who kicked the door down for them. May looked inside, but instead of finding Ash...
"Pikachu?" she asked.
"H-how exactly does this work?" Ash asked nervously as Dawn held up a dangerous looking silver knife. She chuckled.
"It wouldn't be very fun if you knew, would it Ash?" Dawn asked. She walked over to him and pushed the knife against him, the knife pressed against his neck flat-wise.
"Is there anything left you would like to say, Ash Ketchum?" she whispered.
"..." Ash looked up at the ceiling. What he wouldn't give to go back, to have just agreed with May to leave this place. In fact...May had still been angry at him. He wished he could apologize to her...and...tell her...that...
Ash blinked. For a second, he thought he had seen May above him, in one of the rafters. But it had been quick, a glimpse of red.
"Well?"
May suddenly appeared in his line of vision, nodding to him. And next to her was...Pikachu!
"Yeah, I do have something to say. Pikachu, use Thundershock!"
"What?" Dawn looked up as Pikachu jumped down from the rafters.
"Pi-ka-chu!" it shouted as the electricity shot down and slammed into Dawn's body. She was knocked off her feet, hitting the floor a few feet away from Ash. The knife hit the ground hear her foot, stuck in the ground standing up.
"May, Pikachu!" he said as they jumped down from the rafters, who May had some help from Blaziken, who was holding a portrait for some reason. "How-"
"I escaped and found Pikachu. Blaziken helped it escape from that strange box. Here's your pokeballs by the way." she said as she took the portrait from Blaziken and handed him his pokeballs as Blaziken kicked the chains apart.
"Thanks May. But...what's with..." he started to say, pointing at the portrait, but they were interrupted.
"How dare you!"
May turned to see Dawn standing, the knife back in her hand. "You can't stop me from getting him back...even if I have to kill you personally!" she hissed, eyes ablaze. For the first time, May noticed a dark glow around her eyes...as if something was possessing her.
"Dawn, wait!" May pleaded. "There's something you should know..."
Zoey stood up straighter as May flipped the portrait around. "This is him right? The one you love?"
Dawn found herself looking at her Paul...the picture of him trapped in the portrait and the blood that he was covered in.
"How...Paul..." she muttered, at a lost for words, the knife falling from her hands. Her eyes seemed less clouded.
"Don't listen to her, Lady Berlitz." Zoey suddenly spoke up sharply. "She's just trying to trick you."
"Y-yeah..." she said weakly, the fire starting to light again.
Suddenly, she heard a voice. "Dawn..."
"P-Paul?" Dawn asked. The Paul in the portrait suddenly leaned forward, his body breaking forward from the holds of the portrait. Now it was in its ghostly form once again, having gone back in as a request from May.
"Yes, it is me." he said.
"It...It really is you!" she whispered, the cloudy look in her eyes fading away. She ran forward, arms wrapping around his bleeding form. "Why...why didn't you...what happened?" she asked, her words falling out faster than she could control them.
"Why don't you ask your friend Zoey?" he said rather coldly. Dawn looked around to face Zoey, who had a defeated look on her face.
"Zoey..."
"You didn't need him anyway." she said without looking at her.
"Zoey! You didn't..."
"He was ruining you! He was going to destroy everything that you had worked for, Lady Berlitz. Your place was here, not out there!" Zoey suddenly snapped.
"But you killed him! You killed the love of my life!" Dawn screeched at her.
"It was all for you! You were better off without him! Can't you see that?" Zoey also screamed back.
"I can't forgive you Zoey...I can't!"
"I don't need your forgiveness. I don't care anymore! I thought I did, but now I realize that I don't. For all I care, you people can just rot!" she shouted as a dark energy seemed to swell around her. Her hands were covered in the energy and shaped into menacing claws. Her eyes were wide and deranged as she shot a blast of energy at the group from her hand.
"May, look out!" Ash yelled as he grabbed May around the waist and pulled her to the side. Paul did the same with Dawn, grabbing her by the arm and floating out of the path. The blast hit the support beam that Ash had been chained to, causing the ceiling to shake above them.
"It's going to fall!" May thought she heard Dawn yell.
As if it will really hurt you two, you only get hurt by Pokemon attacks... May thought to herself just as Ash suddenly put his arms over her.
"Ash?" she asked.
"Don't worry, I won't let anything hit you." he reassured her as pieces of the ceiling started coming down.
They braced themselves as wood started falling around them. Blaziken and Pikachu moved into position, kicking or using Iron Tail to knock the falling pieces away. Eventually, the entire ceiling above them came down, engulfing the room in a cloudy smoke.
May coughed, the grit and dust in her throat as she shakily lifted her head up from the rubble around her. She spotted Dawn and Paul floating nearby, watching them. Pikachu and Blaziken seemed alright, shaking off any pieces that might have clung to them.
"Ash? What about you?" she asked, looking down to see Ash on her chest, pinning her down to the ground. He lifted his head up, sporting a nice developing welt from where a stray piece had conked him on the head.
"I'm alright..." he said.
"Are you sure?" May asked.
"Positive."
"Good...mind getting off me?" she asked.
Ash looked down and noticed where he was, quickly standing up, and red in the face. "Uh, yeah."
May stood up as well, somewhat red as well. "Yes, well...thanks Ash."
"Heh, no problem..." he laughed.
"Still alive? Well that won't be for much longer." said a hateful voice near them. Everyone turned to see Zoey, still shaking with rage. The only thing in tact was the fireplace, which still supported a roaring fire.
"Why would you do this? How was this supposed to make Dawn happy?" Ash asked.
Paul suddenly muttered something. "You were jealous. Dawn would get to go out into the world while you were stuck here, it was meant to be the other way around, right?"
"Shut up!" Zoey snapped.
"Why can't you just move on? Rest in peace?" May asked.
"Don't you remember what I told you May?" Paul spoke up as he and Dawn landed next to them. "She doesn't have a soul anymore. She's just a shell of the former Zoey. In a sense, she's nothing but a ghost Pokemon's corrupted puppet."
Zoey's eyes seemed to get smaller, like tiny pin-pricks of red. "What would you know?" she hissed.
"Zoey...if you're so unhappy...maybe I could help..." spoke the Haunter.
"How can you help?" she asked. "I'm as dead as you are!"
"I can give you powers. I can give you the ability to make Dawn happy."
Zoey hesitated before looking in the direction of the room where Dawn was. "I...I'll do it then. Take anything you want from me."
"I plan to. A dead person doesn't need a soul, right?"
Zoey gulped, but as the ghost Pokemon glowed, she had to keep telling herself that she was doing this for Dawn...
"Nothing! You know nothing!"
The flames in the fireplace seemed to roar, surging upward behind her, giving her a demonic look. "But I can fix this. I can just take you all with me into the pits of darkness! Then everything will be how it should be!" she shouted as her claws seemed to shoot outward. One grabbed Dawn around the waist and the other grabbed May by the neck.
"May!" Ash shouted as May was roughly shot forward. The flames of the fireplace seemed to overwhelm Zoey, covering her completely as the ground around the fireplace broke apart beneath their feet. An endless pit seemed to be underneath them, to take them to who knew where. Zoey laughed once before dissolving as nothing more than shadowy arms that started dragging May and Dawn into the pit.
Ash threw himself at the ground, sliding as his hand reached for May's barely slipping. May grabbed the edge, trying to use all her strength not to get pulled in.
"May, take my hand!" Ash shouted.
May reached out, but the arms jerked harder, causing her to almost let go of the edge.
"May!"
"I can't!"
"Yes you can! You have to trust me! I won't let you fall!" he shouted. May breathed deeply before trying again, this time being able to firmly hold onto his hand. Blaziken put its arms around Ash's waist and helped him jerk May out of the grasp of the arm.
Paul on his end wasn't having the same luck; her hand's slipping from his. He looked around. There's got to be something!
He then spotted the portrait, lying on its face side.
"You, May! Throw me the portrait!" he ordered. May picked up.
"But won't you..."
"Just do it!"
May threw it toward him, and Paul moved to the side and allowed the portrait to fall, striking the arm that held Dawn. The arm let go as it and the portrait fell into the pit. Paul pulled Dawn out just as the ground started sealing itself back up again.
"We...we did it." Ash breathed.
"But Paul, won't you end up disappearing?" May asked.
"I...I don't think so. I think it had to be destroyed while I'm not in it in order to set me free." he said. "Like it mattered anyway."
"What do you mean?" Ash asked.
"I think it's time for the both of us to start passing over to the other side. We've been waiting for far too long for us to be together again." Paul said, pulling Dawn closer to him.
"Paul...what if we can't? What if we can't find heaven?" she whispered. "I've done a lot of terrible things..."
"It wasn't your fault Dawn. It was all Zoey's doing..." Paul said, looking down at her and trying to assure her. She hugged on to him tighter.
"I just...I just don't want us to get separated again!" she wailed. Paul's hand found hers.
"Then I'll just make sure that we stay connected so that we don't. As long as I'm holding your hand, I won't leave you behind..." Paul whispered.
Ash and May smiled. They were happy to see that the both of them had found each other and were together again. Dawn suddenly turned to look at Ash.
"Ash, I'm sorry about earlier...about...what I did."
"Huh?" Ash asked. Then he remembered. The kiss.
"What did she do?" May asked, when she noticed Ash's face burning.
"Well...she...ahh..." Ash muttered, at a lost for words.
"She kissed you, didn't she?" May muttered quietly. Ash turned even redder.
"How do you...?"
"Girl's intuition. Was it forced or..." she trailed off, eyes narrowing a little.
"It doesn't matter May. Because...I love you." Ash suddenly slipped out.
May went pink instead of red, eyes wide and mouth falling open. "W-what!?" she asked.
"I love you May. I would do anything to make sure that you were safe and happy, even if it meant risking my own life. I can't imagine not being with you anymore!" he managed to say after a moment. It looked like all those words had been a bit awkward to say from that dense head of his. May wrapped her arms around him.
"I love you too Ash. I always have. That's why I came back. It didn't feel right without you. I knew that my place was at your side."
"May..."
"Ash..."
"You two going to kiss yet?" Dawn asked. May and Ash blushed furiously. "Well, we...uhh..." they said clumsily.
Paul looked nonchalantly off at the wall. "Hey Ash..."
"What?"
"If you screw that up, I swear to Ho-oh that I'm going to haunt your ass from the grave. I can't stand people who mess up the best thing that ever happens in their life. I would know." he added as Dawn smiled at him.
"R-right...I won't..."
They looked over at Pikachu and Blaziken, who were trying their hardest not to laugh.
"Oh you two stop!" Ash and May said at the same time, before bursting out laughing.
Everything was as it should have been...
"I hope you get to your town safely Ash!" Dawn waved from the doorway of the mansion. Ash and May waved to the two of them before starting down the path back to the forest and back on track to Eterna City.
"Goodbye!" they called.
Dawn and Paul smiled as they watched them leave. Dawn looked up at the sky, frowning a little.
"There's no mist..."
Paul looked up as well. "Huh, you're right..."
"Also...I...I think I see something. You don't think..." she whispered, turning to face him. He took her hand reassuringly.
"I guess we'll just have to see for ourselves." he said as he leaned down and kissed her, and slowly, the two seemed to rise up into the sky until they faded away before even reaching the clouds.
Ash and May didn't see this though, for by this time they were in the forest. "Do you think that they'll make it?" May asked.
"I'm sure they will." Ash nodded. Pikachu nodded as well from its usual perch on his shoulder.
"I feel bad about Zoey though. She thought she was doing what was best for Dawn, but ended up selling her soul in the end." May whispered.
"I think Zoey might have found peace somewhere too. Somehow..." he muttered. He put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about it. I don't like seeing you sad."
"Yeah...you're right." she muttered. Ash smiled before placing a light kiss on her lips. When they moved apart, they were both pink.
"So, I wonder how Brock is going to take us being a couple." May mentioned aloud.
Ash grinned. "I guess we'll just have to find out." he laughed as he grabbed May's hand and started running off into the forest.
"Ash!" she laughed, "Slow down!"
"But don't forget, I still have to get my gym badge too you know!" he reminded her.
May smiled. He just went through a life changing ordeal, and he's still thinking about badges...
What neither of them noticed, was that as they started to race off, they stepped on an old Pokemon Weekly magazine that someone had lost in the woods, a large shoe-print now across it. The only thing readable was the small article in the corner of the page, depicting a somewhat faded picture of the Pokemon Chateau and a young girl in pink standing outside of it.
Pokemon Weekly News
Rumor Patrol: The Pokemon Chateau
Lady Dawn Berlitz, the maiden of the Pokemon Chateau, was found dead in her home one Wednesday evening. Not only was she dead, it was found that the rest of the inhabitants had also died. Cause of death was listed as "murder-suicide" as it appears that all the people in the house were slipped sleeping pills. It suggests that the Lady was suffering from depression. Not all the details are clear, but rumor is that it was because of the disappearance of one Paul (the last name was faded), apparently Dawn's best friend.
It's been 10 years since her death, and the rumor of the week is that anyone who enters the house...never comes out again.
Is it haunted? Does her ghost wander the mansion, waiting for her friend to come back? What happens to those that enter this supposedly haunted mansion?
I guess we'll never know.
The wind picked up and blew the magazine up into the air, sending it twisting through the trees like a plastic bag caught in an updraft. May paused for a second, hearing the strange rustling.
"What was that?" she asked.
"What was what?" Ash asked, looking at her with concern.
After a second, May shook her head. "Never-mind, it was probably nothing."
"When you say it's nothing, that's when I start to worry." Ash mentioned. Pikachu nodded as well.
"Don't worry Ash. It's nothing to worry about." May reassured him.
"Ok May, if you say so." he said distractedly, as if he wasn't really listening to her.
"I don't think I like that tone, mister!"
The two laughed as they raced off for their destination, hand in hand as they took off for the next town to reunite with their friend, and off to their next adventure, whatever that might be, but what they both knew was that as long as they were together, nothing could ever tear them apart.
The End