Ash snuck through the halls quietly, Mewtwo walking beside him.

Suddenly, Mewtwo stopped while Ash kept walking. "Shadow! In here!"

Ash backed up and looked inside the room. He grinned when he saw a bunch of Dark Balls being guarded by a couple of Team Rocket grunts who weren't looking in their direction.

Ash whispered a plan into Mewtwo's ear before slipping out of sight.

Mewtwo threw a Shadow Ball at the grunts, grabbing their attention.

"Hey!" Grunt #1 shouted. "Get out of here!"

"Actually, don't bother leaving! We'll just capture you!" Grunt #2 yelled with a wild grin.

He pulled out a Dark Ball and threw it, revealing an Absol.

"Sol!" Absol roared.

Behind the grunts, Ash shivered before grabbing all of the Dark Balls on the table and slipping out of sight once more.

"Sol?" Absol looked around.

"Absol, use Night Slash!" Grunt #2 yelled.

Absol used the move, but not on Mewtwo. Mewtwo gasped as Ash was hit, his wound reopened. The boy hit the ground hard as the grunts stared at him in shock and anger.

"That's the boy everyone's been talking about! Shadow!" Grunt #1 shouted. Both grunts spun around to see that the Dark Balls were gone. "He's got the legendries! Get him!"

Mewtwo scooped up Ash and raced out of the room. Grunt #2 hit the alarm, which blared throughout the building.

Meanwhile…

Tracey breathed a sigh of relief as the alarm distracted Giovanni and the Team Rocket grunts, allowing him to slip away unnoticed. He still held Hope in his arms. Giovanni had been about to kill both him and the baby.

The other prisoners had managed to slip away as well, but the cry of outrage in the room behind them showed they wouldn't be missed for long.

"RUN!" Tracey yelled, taking the lead.

The group ran through the halls, dodging Team Rocket grunts who tried to stop them at every turn and grabbing their pokemon on the way out.

Eventually, they reached fresh air, but they weren't out of the woods yet. Running into Viridian Forest, they didn't lose them until they were halfway to Pewter City.

"Is everyone here?" Tracey asked, looking back at the group.

Everyone looked around at each other before confirming that no one was missing.

"Good." Tracey said. "Let's hike off the path a bit and find a place to set up camp. I'll make us something to eat."

"Who made you leader?!" An older girl exclaimed. "You're just a kid! With a baby!"

Tracey glanced at Hope. "So? At least I'm doing something."

Everyone else shifted uncomfortably.

"Now, let's get out of sight so that Team Rocket doesn't manage to catch up to us." Tracey said. "Come on."

Meanwhile…

Mewtwo laid an unconscious Ash down not far from where Tracey and co. were setting up camp.

The boy was very pale, having lost a lot of blood over the past couple of hours.

"He needs a type of help I can't give..." Mewtwo murmured absentmindedly. "But where can I take him? Team Rocket is surely searching for him. Who is able to help us?" Just then, Brock and Misty's faces came to mind. "His friends. Where can I find them? They will surely be fighting with the Resistance, but where can I find the Kanto Resistance?"

Just then, he heard footsteps. Someone was coming.

Meanwhile…

Tracey and co. looked up when they heard footsteps.

Tracey quickly grabbed a rock and threw it in the direction the sound was coming from. The rest of the group followed his example.

"Woah! It's okay! We're not with Team Rocket!" Another group, wearing ski masks, stumbled into the clearing.

Tracey's group temporarily halted their throwing.

"Who are you?" One of the escapees asked.

"They're part of the Resistance." Tracey said. "Am I right?"

"Tracey!" Misty pushed her way out of the group, yanking off her ski mask and racing over to hug Tracey.

"Misty!" Tracey replied in both surprise and happiness.

"Tracey! I thought I'd lost you!" Misty said, crying with joy.

Tracey smiled. "I thought I was going to die, but we managed to get away."

Hope crawled over and tugged on Tracey's pant leg with her little hands. Tracey picked her up.

"Whose baby is that?" Misty asked, surprised.

"It's Mrs. Ketchum's baby. Her name is Hope." Tracey answered, wincing.

Misty looked around. "Where's…"

"She's dead. They killed her." Tracey answered quickly.

"That must mean… Hope's an orphan… and so is Ash…" Misty murmured.

"Misty…" Tracey began. He didn't get to finish the sentence.

"Well, there's an underground passage leading to base not far from here." One of the other rebels interrupted. She turned to her fellow Resistance members. "Check them for trackers. Then, we'll leave the guard duty to Brock's group. I'll contact him to let him know."

Meanwhile…

Mewtwo guarded Ash carefully against the group of ski-mask-wearing people.

One of the people took off their ski mask. "Mewtwo?" It was Brock.

Mewtwo blinked in surprise before glancing at the rest of the group uneasily.

Brock glanced at them too. "They're not going to hurt you. We can all help you."

Mewtwo looked behind him at Ash's pale face. The boy was getting worse, giving Mewtwo no choice.

The pokemon put the mask back on Ash's face and picked him up gently.

"Normally, I would not trust so easily, but he needs help badly. Waiting is not an option." He said.

Brock nodded in understanding. "Let me see him. I was studying to be a doctor before the war. Perhaps I can help." He pulled a first aid kit out of his bag as Mewtwo laid Ash onto the ground once more.

Brock gently pulled up Ash's sleeve revealing the reopened wound. Mewtwo hadn't had any bandages left to recover it after the old bandage had fallen off thanks to the Absol.

Brock gently cleaned the wound, resulting in some flinching and wincing from the unconscious boy. Then, Brock stitched up the wound carefully before wrapping it in bandages. After that, he fashioned a sling out of some leftover bandages and stood up to admire his work.

"Thank you." Mewtwo said, picking up Ash. "We must be going now."

"He needs blood." Brock announced before they could leave. "You need to come back with us to base."

Mewtwo turned back to face him. "Pardon?"

"His skin is too pale. He's lost too much blood. If we don't get him some more soon, he might die." Brock explained.

Mewtwo thought it over. "Fine, but you'd better not have ulterior motives for this."

"I promise that we don't." Brock assured him. "Now let's hurry."

Meanwhile…

Tracey and co. followed Misty and co. to the secret entrance. Brock and co. were already there, Mewtwo carrying Shadow not far behind.

Tracey glanced at Mewtwo and Shadow, knowing they had probably been the ones who had set off the alarm that had allowed his, and the other prisoners', escape.

"Brock, what's wrong with that boy?" He dared to ask.

"He's injured. He's lost too much blood. He needs help." Brock answered before realizing who he was talking to. "Tracey! I barely noticed! Thank goodness you're okay!"

Tracey gave a small smile but was too worried about Shadow to answer.

"Um, Mewtwo, what's his name, anyways?" Brock continued.

"He is going by the name Shadow." Mewtwo answered.

"I see… That sounds more like a codename than a real name." Brock said. "Is that his real name?"

"It is what he would like you to call him for now." Mewtwo replied.

"Uh… okay then…" Brock murmured. "Misty, some of us need to stay out here and keep guard. We can't leave the place unguarded."

"I agree." Misty said. "You need to go because you're a doctor. Half of my group and half of your group will stay behind. I'll stay with them."

Brock agreed to the plan and they split up, said their goodbyes, and half set off for base while the other half stood guard.

(A/n) Ash will be called Shadow in Tracey's accounts until he knows who Shadow actually is. Hope you are enjoying the story so far. (A/n)