DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pokémon.

A/N: IMPORTANT! YOU MUST READ THIS!!! If you read the last chapter I suggest you go back and read it again because I made a HUUGE mistake at the end! It affects the whole story! I changed it, so just check and see if you read the right version! Anyways, here we go!


Misty couldn't bear to look at the charred remains of the car as she stood clutching to Brock, tears endlessly streaking her face.

"This can't be happening" Jessie choked out. "It can't..." She trailed off and took Misty out of Brock's gasp, engulfing her in a consoling hug. She could now partly relate to what her friend was going through, with their children now gone. But their situations were still immensly different.

"I'd better go check this out" Brock said quietly, wiping away silent tears that had unwillingly creeped out.

"Why bother, Brock?" Misty sobbed. "There's nothing you can...y-y-you can't..." She stopped talking and slowly crumpled to the ground, still feeling tears burn into her skin. But she stopped sobbing. Her three friends found it even stranger when her tears dissolved altogther and she instead stared vacantly ahead.

"Misty?" James said softly. It seemed like she hadn't even heard him as she continued to silently stare.

Jessie had an arm around Misty's shoulders and was quietly crying beside her, when she suddenly gasped.

"Jess, what's wrong?" James asked, sitting down where Misty had collapsed only moments ago.

"She's...she's so pale, James. Is that normal?" Jessie asked worriedly. James got a good look at Misty's face and frowned.

"I think it's normal. She just lost her whole family..." James had to pause and bite his lip before he continued. "Put yourself in her shoes, Jess. You wouldn't exactly be walking around fresh faced, would you?"

Jessie slowly shook her head and, as the reality hit her, she held her husband tight and cried into his shoulder.

"God, James...first it was Suzie, now Ash, and the kids..." She broke into even harder sobs as she realised that herself, James, or, unknowingly, Jack could be next.

"Shhh, try not to think about it" James said soothingly, holding his distraught wife. But it was impossible not to. The horror had happened in front of their very eyes.

Jessie and James were snapped out of their embrace by Brock's loud exclamations.

"Holy shit!"

"Brock, what's happened?" James asked nervously, fearing the answer.

"Well for one thing Misty just passed out!" Brock shouted, not attending to the unconcious Misty.

"Oh God..." James said, helping Brock out. "Is she breathing?"

Brock nodded. "She's in shock. Feel her skin, it's freezing." James did so and gasped at her cold touch. "And her lips are practically grey. We've gotta get her to a hospital. Now." He had taken first aid and knew how shock could be potentially fatal when it crossed over from an emotion to a medical condition.

Without another word he picked Misty up and placed her in the back of his car.

"Like, hold it!" Lily yelled, charging up towards Brock. "She wasn't in the blast, what's going on?"

"She's gone into shock" Brock said simply.

"Well shouldn't we, like, call an ambulance or something?" Lily asked.

"There's no time for that!" Brock snapped. Lily was taken aback by his tone and backed off. Peering through the car window, she held back her tears as she softly spoke.

"Hold on, little sis. Stay strong..."

"Wait, Brock!" James said hurriedly. "He might've rigged your car too, you never know" he pointed out.

"Shit" Brock muttered. "Now what?"

"You can, like, borrow my car" Violet offered. "It's been sitting in the garage. Which is locked" she hastily added. "No one can get into it without some kind of alarm going off."

"Thanks Violet" Brock said gratefully. "That would be a huge help." Violet rushed inside, unlocked the garage and handed the keys to James, who had offered to drive. Brock and Jessie sat in the back, supporting Misty who still hadn't come to.

The somewhat speedy drive to Cerulean General Hospital took only a fraction of time in reality, but dragged on in the minds of those in the car. James pulled up outside the accident and emergency unit of the hospital and Brock and Jessie left him to find a park as they took Misty in.

She was admitted but refused visitors until her blood pressure went back to normal and her pulse strengthened a bit. Jessie, James and Brock sat in the waiting room like zombies, hating the familiarity of the situation as they remembered back to five years ago when hospitals almost became a second home.

The three of them had been waiting three hours with Misty's sisters, who had arrived half an hour after they had, when Jessie suddenly spoke up.

"So what happens now?" she asked softly, watching the Sensational Sisters walk off to grab themselves coffee.

"We find Jack" James replied, his voice muffled from his head being buried in his hands. "And then it ends. I'm not jeapordising any more lives. We've been through enough. It has to end once we've found Jack."

"But we can't just let Gary pick us off one by one" Brock pointed out. "Today just proved how goddamn powerful he is by himself. And sneaky. And..." He lost words and turned away so his friends couldn't see the tears in his eyes.

"Okay, so Misty recovers, we find Jack, we kill Gary and then it's over" James decided.

"Jack..." Jessie sighed, tightening the grasp she held around James's hand.

"We will find him" James vowed, sealing it with a kiss. "We will."

It was at this point that Misty's sisters returned, a quick pace at their heels and excited smiles radiating from them all. Brock raised an eyebrow at this and stood up.

"What's up, guys?" he asked.

"I can't believe it!" Daisy exclaimed. "He's alive! We know he's alive!"

"Woah woah, slow down, who's alive?" James inquired.

"Ash!" Violet shrieked. "He's alive!"

Jessie, James and Brock all felt their stomachs lurch at the news, but all mentally reminded themselves not to get excited. Misty's sisters were bad enough as it was, being dealt this much pressure might've made their ditzy condition even worse.

"How do you know?" Jessie asked.

"We were, like, walking past the intensive care thingy...geez, what is it called? IUC?" Lily guessed.

"ICU" Violet corrected as the others rolled their eyes.

"Yeah, that thing. Anyway, we saw the list of paitents on there and guess who was admitted two and a half hours ago? A. Ketchum!" Lily exclaimed.

Jessie physically fell back down in her chair and placed a hand to her mouth in shock. "Are you sure?"

"Positive!" Daisy nodded.

"Did you ask a nurse or something?" Brock asked, praying that maybe, just maybe, they were right about this.

"Well...no..." Daisy confessed and the other three felt their hearts hit the floor. If it wasn't confirmed, it wasn't confirmed. Nothing changed that. It could've been any Ketchum in there, Lord only knew how many there were in existance.

"But come on guys, what are the chances? Someone called A. Ketchum, admitted two and a half hours ago, half an hour after the accident...don't you think it kinda adds up?" Lily pointed out.

"Well were there any sign of the kids?" James asked. "No R. Ketchum or C. Ketchum in there?"

All three sisters silently and sadly shook their heads. "But that could mean anything, right?" Lily said hopefully. No one replied and Brock stepped forward.

"Well I'll go and ask someone, but no one get your hopes up. The odds of surviving something like that..." His voice went vague and he turned to Jessie and James. "You guys coming?"

"Of course" James replied, helping a fully shocked Jessie out of her chair and telling the three sisters to keep an ear out for news on Misty.

The ICU was on the other end of the hospital but it didn't take long for the three of them to get over there. Their pace was quickened by the aniticpation of Ash's potential survival.

"Excuse me, would you know about a paitent in ICU?" Brock asked a passing nurse.

"Depends who you're asking about" the nurse replied.

Brock scanned the list outside the unit doors and, sure enough, A. Ketchum was printed on in bold red letters, alongside other anonymous names.

"This guy here" Brock pointed to the name in question. "Why was he brought in here?"

The nurse scanned her clipboard. "I believe it was some kind of road accident. Must've been pretty nasty, he's got a lot of burns apparently."

Jessie and James gasped but Brock continued to persist. "Would you happen to know what his first name is?"

"Um...says here that it's Ashton. He was brought in two and a half hours ago, only had his driver's licence on him. That's how we've identified him, there was no family or anyone who knew him at the site. Appears to have a head injury, which has put him in the coma he's in now, and a few fractures" the nurse explained.

The three friends were split in half by the news. By now it had become obvious that Ash was alive, even if he was in the ICU and had some pretty bad injuries. But the nurse had said there was no other family there. Which meant the kids would not have been there.

"Are you sure there were no other bodies in the car?" Brock asked hesitantly, hating to say the sentance.

The nurse shook her head. "He was the only one brought in from the accident. There were no other casualties or fatalities."

Brock nodded and smiled. "Thankyou. You've been a great help. We can't see him, can we?"

"No, not unless you're immediate family with ID" the nurse said. Brock nodded and the nurse walked off. Jessie had, again, fallen into a chair and was quietly crying.

"I don't believe it. Misty's going to be so happy" she whispered. "He's alive."

"But barely" James added. "Doesn't sound like he's in a good state right now."

"So what happened to Rose and Cory?" Brock asked rhetorically. Jessie and James stared at him with blank faces, unable to answer the question. There was definitly a piece of the puzzle missing concerning the kids.

"I think only time is gonna answer that" James said sensibly. "For now, do you think we should head back to Misty? She might be coming to soon, and she has to know."

Brock and Jessie nodded and they slowly walked back down to the ward where Misty was recovering from her severe case of shock. Her husband was hanging by a thread, but to the best of her knowledge, that thread had been cut three hours ago. And now fate had thrown a golden arrow at them by letting Ash live.

But the fates had made up for it with the disappearance of the children. And the three friends knew that that would be the hardest thing of all to tell Misty.


A/N: Not much of a cliffy, but this was the hardest chapter I've ever had to write in my life! The next one will be up as soon as it's written by Geodude, which I suspect will be very very soon! So keep an eye out and keep reviews coming! (o^_^o)