In which Lily confronts a newfangled moral dilemma, hears a variety of solutions from a variety of sources, and does her best to play the thankless hero.

With Bulbasaur as her newest pokémon, Lily and friends are making their way triumphantly to Vermillion City.

Aren't they?!

Lily had lost track of the number of days they'd spent in the wilderness, but whatever that hideously large number was, it was only growing hideously larger.

The gang had admitted temporary defeat, Brock staring at a map in concentration and confusion (picking up where Wizard Lenin had left off days earlier), Misty sitting on the ground staring hopelessly into space, Pikachu, Clefairy, and Bulbasaur guarding their supplies, and Ash looking through a pair of binoculars at giant sparrows.

"Ah!" Ash cried in frustration, "There's nothing but Spearrow around here!"

"Well, that's the least of our worries, isn't it?" Misty looked petulantly across at him, long since having reached her limit days ago. Her mood not helped by the fac that their supplies really were dwindling as they kept trying and failing to reach the promised land of Vermillion City.

Lily was starting to think Vermillion City didn't even really exist.

Ash looked back down at her, looking oblivious as usual, and noted, "Just because we're a little lost doesn't mean I have to stop catching all the pokémon I can, does it?"

He had upgraded from claiming he knew exactly where they were going to terms like 'a little lost' which translated to them being hopelessly lost and at risk of starvation out here in the wilderness.

"Of course not," Misty said, voice dripping with venom, "Enjoy yourself."

Wizard Lenin, for his own part, had run out of energy to even give caustic remarks like Misty. For the moment he was moodily staring into space, likely contemplating the fact that he'd murder them all in their sleep if it'd help him somehow find the road to Vermillion City.

Fortunately for their health, it wouldn't.

Misty sighed, dropped her head, and moaned, "I just can't go one step further! We've been looking for Vermillion City for ten whole days!"

Ten days, really? It'd felt longer somehow. Maybe it was the fact that only a few days ago in Bulbasaur's hidden village Lily had fallen off a bridge and nearly drowned to death. That somehow made the journey seem perilously long.

It was at that opportune moment Brock felt the need to lean over, point to Misty's shorts, and note, "Hey there's a bug on your—"

He didn't get the chance to finish as Misty flailed away, screaming, jumping with incredible athletic ability onto Ash's back as Brock held up the offending piece of grass with a chagrinned smile, "Ah, it was just a piece of grass."

Brock, needless to say, had not been there for the gang's adventures in the bug infested Viridian Forest. Misty had been bad with bugs to start with, after that giant hornet filled nightmare, she was understandably horrified.

Lily, now looking at Misty's expression, wondered if it was really Wizard Lenin she had to worry about committing homicide. This feeling was not helped by Misty kicking Brock straight in the face with enough force to loosen several of his teeth.

"I'm going crazy!" Misty screamed to the heavens, "Where are we?!"

"Hell," Wizard Lenin blandly responded from his seated position on the stump with the rest of their things, "I am utterly convinced that we are, in fact, in Hell."

Lily, personally, would expect Hell to be a little worse than the middle of some random forest, but she had to agree that she'd had more enjoyable moments in life. She'd even had more enjoyable moments at Hogwarts, and that was saying something. Especially, Lily thought as she looked at her assortment of animal friend-slaves, given Lily's new and overwhelming goal.

Pokémon training, that was easy, Lily had been prepared for that. No, she'd been delighted by it, that was such a hopelessly trackable and easy goal to reach. There were clear objectives, clear goal markers to tell you exactly how you were fairing, and it was as if the yellow brick road had been paved and laid out in front of her all the way to that distant Emerald City. Ash knew what he wanted, and he knew exactly how to get there.

Lily had more than envied that, when she'd first heard it, she'd embraced it regardless of Wizard Lenin's contempt and apprehension.

Hogwarts had seemed so far away, still did, and instead she'd pictured herself as this mysterious pokémon master who was the best there had ever been. And it had been more than fine while it had lasted.

But it turned out this world was more complicated than the humans liked to think, and they had forgotten that they hadn't built this city on rock and roll or even friendship but something so dark the truth of it became unthinkable. This was an empire built off the backs of slaves, toiling away and destroying themselves for the sake of their master's profit and entertainment. More, it had been going on so long, had become so ingrained, that even the pokémon themselves seemed almost incapable of questioning it let alone resisting it.

Clefairy had asked Lily to dismantle the structure of the world and all societies in it.

Lily couldn't say no, could only say no to the sacrifice Clefairy insisted must be taken at some point or another, the one that was still held in an innocuous moonstone inside of Wizard Lenin's backpack.

And so, Lily had started her journey, one step at a time, with only a brick, a Bulbasaur, a Clefairy, and a promise to free their people to her name.

No one else, though, was even remotely aware of this.

"According to this," Ash said looking down at Brock's map in concentration, "We're right in the middle of nowhere."

"No, really?" Wizard Lenin asked, dry wit having given way to heavy sarcasm, "It told you all of that?"

Not that Wizard Lenin's bitter sarcasm was appreciated any more than his wit, but, at the very least Ash understood when he was being insulted.

Ash ignored Wizard Lenin as he turned the map towards Misty, pointing at the drawn road, "But it looks like Route Twenty-Four will lead us right to Vermillion City."

"Route Six and Eleven, Route Six and Eleven lead to Vermillion City," Wizard Lenin snapped, rubbing at the bridge of his nose, as if to will his headache away, but Ash as usual wasn't inclined to listen.

"Well who's got the map, Lenin?" Ash asked before sniffing and telling the suddenly eager Misty, "I'm telling you, according to my calculations, this trail will take us straight there."

"Your calculations?!" Wizard Lenin balked, that familiar miasma of overwhelming rage forming around him, "Your calculations got us into this mess in the first place!"

But Wizard Lenin had been outvoted, and apparently a small sign of hope was better than none, as both Brock and Misty picked themselves up in a far better mood than before.

"Who cares as long as we get out of this place!" Misty said, suddenly in good cheer as she stood, picked up her bag, and marched straight ahead, "Let's get this show on the road!"

The rest grumbled, picking up their things, while Lily stayed seated. Vermillion City, what was she going to do when they got to Vermillion City? Out here on the road Lily had some time to think, to come up with something regarding Wizard Lenin, pokémon, and the rest of them.

She had the feeling though, that once they reached Vermillion City, that things would change and start charging ahead without Lily's permission. The time to think would be gone, action would be required, and Lily was going to have to do something about all this.

"Clefairy?" Clefairy asked, looking down at Lily with a concerned expression on her adorable marshmallow face. Lily forced herself to grin back, picking herself up and preparing to move ahead.

"Just thinking," Lily explained cheerfully, as if it was nothing to worry about in the slightest.

Besides, things had been moving along so far without a plan, she could just continue to use Brick in the gym battle and everything would be fine. If there was one thing she'd learned from Wizard Lenin, amassing power wasn't a bad idea, and gym badges represented some kind of authority. Lily didn't have to use actual pokémon during them and maybe if she got all of them, defeated the Indigo League herself, people would start listening to her. And if they ran into another Bulbasaur incident Lily could take care of that as well.

It was fine, she'd figure it out as she went along—

"Hey Ash," Misty cried out, having come to a dead stop facing a rather large rock in the middle of the trail, "Take a look at this thing!"

"Already?!" Lily asked, shuddering to a halt, because dammit she wasn't prepared for this! She hadn't been prepared for one pokémon, let alone two, and how was she supposed to prevent the others from hassling or else enslaving this next one?

Worse, Lily thought in some horror as she took in Wizard Lenin's quiet and speculative look, what if he wanted it? If he gave up on going home, or even if he didn't but really put his heart into this pokémon training thing, then could Lily really spit in his face and prevent it?

"It looks like some kind of giant pokémon!" Ash said, that glint in his eyes whenever a new and exciting pokémon appeared in their lives.

"Pikachu!" Ash summoned, but Pikachu having self-preservation took that moment to dive behind Brock's overstuffed hiking backpack and away from the ensuing battle. One could never say that Pikachu didn't know how to pick and choose his battles.

Ash grabbed the unwilling Pikachu, who put up only a mumbling resistance, and all of them came forward to stare at the mystery pokémon. Which, in better lighting, wasn't nearly as large as they had thought it was.

It was a rather adorable, if oversized, red lizard curled up on the rock with a weak orange flame emitting from its tail.

"A Charmander!" Brock exclaimed.

"Char!" it either yawned and or threatened adorably.

Ash whipped out his handy dandy calculator friend, Dexter, who proceeded to categorize the fire lizard in its typical robotic tone, "Charmander, a flame burns on the tip of its tail from birth. It is said that a Charmander dies if its flame ever goes out."

Well, that was certainly ominous, Lily couldn't help but think. Especially she thought, as looking up that flame on its tail looked like it'd fizzle out with a stray gust of wind.

"When I went to get my first Pokémon from Professor Oak," Ash said with a grin as he stared up at the lizard, "I was disappointed because I couldn't get a Charmander. Now I can catch my own!"

Oh no.

Lily stiffened, eyed Ash's overeager interest, one that was all too familiar from every single time they'd managed to run into some strange and exciting pokémon that could join his party. Never mind the fact that he was signing them up to fight his boxing matches for him for the rest of eternity.

"Ah, Ash," Lily said, her grin strained as she tried to laugh off the situation, "You're hilarious, don't you think you have enough pokémon?"

"I only have two!" Ash cried out, looking at her in accusation, "You have more pokémon than I do!"

Technically, given that Stack of Bricks was just a stack of bricks, Lily really didn't. However, she wasn't about to correct Ash on that statement, Lily's future free from heartwrenching hypocrisy relied upon that stack of bricks.

"Well, who's counting?" Lily asked, "I'm just saying that Charmander here looks perfectly content to sit on his rock."

Charmander looked anything but content, Lily couldn't help but notice, in fact he looked so weak that he could barely lift his head to stare at them with unnervingly large blue eyes. Even now, his chest was heaving, barely managing to take in enough oxygen.

"I don't know," Misty said, "He looks in pretty bad shape."

"Yeah, catch it and we'll take it to the pokémon center for help," Brock added, causing Lily to stiffen that much more, her grin freezing into something that was far too close to a grimace.

Ash seemed decided after that, turning his hat backwards like usual and grabbing a pokéball in hand, "Pokéball go!"

He through the pokéball, aiming right for Charamnder, only before it could reach him Lily summoned a gust of wind out of nowhere which blocked the pokéball aside. Lily, keeping up the consistent breeze, turned to her travelling companions with that strained smile, "Oh, look at that, it's so windy you can't possibly capture this Charmander. Let's move on, shall we?"

"Says you," Ash said with a pout, "That was just bad luck! I'll get him next time, you'll see!"

Then, looking at the others, he asked, "Do you think I should battle him first to weaken him?"

Oh, this just kept getting worse, didn't it?

"No, look at its tail," Brock pointed to the weak flame emitting from the lizard's tail, just on the edge flickering out, "There's no way Charmander has the strength to battle. Ash, try the pokéball one more time."

This…

According to that calculator, if Lily left Charmander here in this condition, didn't seek immediate medical attention, then he very well could die. However, if she allowed him to be captured by Ash or even Wizard Lenin, she was selling him into a lifetime of slavery just for the chance that he might live.

Lily hadn't realized she'd face this kind of a dilemma so soon, or in fact, at all.

The idea that sometimes it really might be better to just let him be caught, if only for a moment.

Ash though had made up his mind, threw yet another pokéball at the lizard, "Pokéball go!"

This one managed to reach the lizard, engulf him in familiar red light, only as the ball twitched it almost immediately opened to reveal the Charmander glaring weakly down at all of them. Apparently, willing to die rather than be captured by them.

Lily found herself, for some reason, breathing a sigh of relief. For better or worse the decision had just been taken from her, Charmander wouldn't come, even if it meant death. That decision, at the very least, Lily could and would respect.

No one would be catching the lizard today.

"It sure has a lot of spunk," Brock noted calmly, arms crossed as he surveyed the glaring lizard.

"A little too much if you ask me," Ash spat back.

"I think this Charmander has an attitude problem," Misty concurred.

Lily nearly bit in that she thought these people had an attitude problem for being so blind as to see what exactly they were trying to get out of this. Had Lily been in Charmander's position, she sure as hell would not go gently into that dark night of pokémon training.

Wizard Lenin, apparently, felt no need to keep his thoughts to himself, "I think you're all being unbelievably petty."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!" Ash asked, stamping his feet, and the rest of them proceeded to quarrel over how it was either Charmander's problem or theirs while, with them distracted Pikachu waddled his way over to the rock and climbed up to speak to Charmander directly.

"Pikachu? Pika pika?" Pikachu asked as he lifted himself up, apparently immune to Charmander's glaring and defensive position.

"Char," Charmander weakly responded.

The pair then proceeded to converse in different syllables of their own name, entirely unintelligible to everyone, and Lily watched feeling… Clefairy's words from the dream world were echoing in her head again, that Lily should be able to understand this, could if she chose to abandon humanity, and that until she did there wasn't much she could do for them.

Watching this exchange, realizing they could easily understand Lily but that Lily couldn't understand them in the slightest, she was beginning to agree.

And that terrified her.

"What's the story, Pikachu?" Ash asked as Pikachu bounded back down towards them.

Pikachu straightened and began his usual game of overenthusiastic charades to compensate for the fact that none of them could ever understand what he was saying. And Lily, for the first time, felt oddly embarrassed by the ordeal.

Because he shouldn't have to go through this every single time.

"Pi, Pikachu," Pikachu said, making a line from his chin to his neck, as if adjusting a man's necktie. And how the hell, Lily thought with alarm, did he know what a tie was or even a noose?

"A necktie?" Misty guessed.

"A man maybe," Ash said, earning a joyous cry from Pikachu over being slightly less of an idiot than the rest of them.

Pikachu then moved onto the next motion, an arching movement as if moving an object from one place to the next. At this rate, Lily thought, she almost expected the typical charade motions indicating number of words and syllables.

"I don't get it," Misty said, blue eyes wide with confusion as she looked down at the mouse who really was trying far too hard for them.

"Hey Ash," Brock asked, "Why don't you figure out what Pikachu's saying?"

They then all crouched down, closer to Pikachu's level, and watched as he earnestly and quickly pantomimed his message with all the physical energy and comedy of Jim Carrey. Ash nodded along, deeply focused, and as Pikachu finished said, "Okay, I think I get it, Pikachu's saying that Charmander's waiting on that rock for somebody to come and get it!"

Lily nearly fell over, that was infinitely worse.

"You mean it belongs to somebody?" Misty asked, as she looked at the wheezing lizard that seemed as if it was barely clinging to life.

"Well, I'm not exactly sure," Ash hedged, though Pikachu's lack of interruption at Ash's interpretation went a long way towards proving him right.

"If it's waiting for someone," Brock said picking himself up off the ground, "I think we better leave it. It's probably best if its own trainer takes care of it."

Lily gaped at them, looking back at the lizard, then back at them, "Does it look like its trainer is taking bloody care of it?!"

"Well, things happen," Ash said, chagrinned, "Remember when I caught Spearrow? He looked terrible, had to go into an operation. Charmander's probably in that kind of situation."

Sitting here, alone on a rock, looking for all the world like he'd been abandoned? No, Lily thought, waiting for someone or not that was the look of someone who had accepted their death and come to meet it.

Whipping her head back towards the lizard, still glaring at them, she said, "We can't just leave him here!"

"His trainer will come back soon," Ash insisted.

"Lenin," Lily said, spinning to the only person who might have some spark of sanity left in him, "Tell them we can't leave him here like this!"

"It's a bit early in my career, Lily, to start stealing other people's pokémon," he said with a laugh that was all too charming, taken in easily by their newfound pokémon training friends, "I think he should be fine enough."

And Lily, just like that, was abandoned along with Charmander as the rest of them with easy smiles turned back the way they came towards the greater trail. Ignoring as the small lizard weakly lifted its head, staring up towards the darkening clouds rolling in, indicating a storm well on its way.

A storm was putting it lightly, Lily thought later, after the group had relocated into the pokémon center. It was coming down in thick, dark, sheets combined with enough wind to have it hitting the windows sideways in cold drops.

Lily should have been happy, this was their first sign of civilization, of a true road, in days.

As it was, she just found herself sitting at the table, Clefairy across from her with a bowl of hot soup and Bulbasaur in the seat to her left, sitting and staring out the window into the cold, black night and wondering about the fate of a single Charmander.

It was funny, Lily thought, that for all that talk of trainers all she could see when she looked out the window was a lone red spark in the dark as the creature shivered curled protectively over its tail.

"I wonder," Brock said, echoing Lily's thoughts, "Do you think anyone picked up that Charmander yet? What if its trainer left it there?"

"I don't think the Charmander would wait around this long," Ash said, brow furrowed as he looked across at Brock, "Do you?"

Lily's hands clenched, her eyes closed, and for a moment however strange it was it wasn't Charmander she saw out in that rainstorm. Instead it was a younger, terribly vulnerable, Lily who had no one in the world and only the desperate hope that there could be someone. What if Wizard Lenin had had the ability to abandon her in the beginning, what if he hadn't had need of her then or now, how long would she have waited?

She knew exactly how long she'd wait, through wind, rain, and hail, she would wait until she died.

And what if this trainer did come back for Charmander? What would happen then? Because his relationship would surely be different, far more toxic, than Lily and Wizard Lenin's had ever been.

Nothing good would ever come of this story.

"I don't either, Ash," Brock said in relief, "Its trainer must have gotten it by now."

Lily stood, causing her log of a stool to wobble dangerously behind her.

"Fairy?" Clefairy asked, peering up at her, but Lily didn't look, kept her gaze focused on the grains in the wooden table.

"I think I'm going to take a walk," Lily said tonelessly.

"A walk?" Wizard Lenin balked, looking at her as if she was being odder than usual and he was a touch concerned, "In this weather?"

Lily didn't respond though, because he wouldn't understand, couldn't possibly understand what this was like. Even if he'd been in her head, even if he'd never abandoned her even when he had his body and the world in front of him, he would never truly understand.

She walked away from the table, quietly and quickly, ignoring the sudden burst of laughter from the other end of the lodge, near the great roaring campfire, and without a word stepped outside into the deluge.

Lily soon found her cotton sweater and shorts drenched, the cold rain soaking through her skin and all the way through to her bones, still Lily didn't move but instead stared out into the darkness towards the road where Charmander undoubtedly still waited.

"Fairy?"

Lily turned, watched as the door opened to reveal Clefairy and Bulbasaur making their way towards her. Both looked up with large, concerned eyes, uncaring as they too got soaked through.

"I don't think his trainer came back for him," Lily confessed to the pair of them, and by the looks on their faces, she could tell they understood exactly who she meant.

"Bulba," Bulbasaur agreed darkly, red eyes narrowing as he looked up at Lily.

"Or if he did come back for him…" Lily trailed off, trying to find the words that this was not the solution she was looking for. That Charmander shouldn't have to live in a world where he'd wait for a man to return for him in a storm like this.

At the same time though, she remarked, "He didn't want to leave though. He'd rather die than leave."

"Clefairy," Clefairy agreed solemnly, as sage as ever, and Lily wondered what exactly that was supposed to mean. So much was lost in translation between all of them, in both word and expression, and Lily wondered if she was only hearing and seeing what she wished to.

"What should I do?" Lily finally asked, both them and anyone else who could provide her a meaningful answer.

Did she tear Charmander away from that place and potentially save his life? Or did she let him make decisions for himself however terrible they were? Did she acknowledge that he knew full well what he was doing and there was nothing Lily could or should do to stop it?

Neither Bulbasaur nor Clefairy appeared to have an answer for her, just looked at each other then back at her, like Lily was supposed to be the one with the answers.

What would Lily have done in Charmander's place? Hissed and spat if anyone came for her, of course, she'd tear their bloody eyes out for even thinking of removing her from that spot. Except, if she had been given time, and something more than that…

Things would have been different and Lily liked to think that she could move past that spot and move forward.

That was what life was, a chance to move forward, death for normal people… With death there was nothing, not hope, not pride, and not honor either.

"Bloody hell," Lily cursed, and with that dashed out into the night, because that giant lizard was going to come with her to the pokémon center whether he liked it or not. He was going to live, and he was going to get over his waiting, or if not get over it at least live with it.

He wasn't going to kill himself out of loyalty and pride on Lily's watch.

The rain, which had felt cold enough earlier, now felt like ice against her skin. She could feel her feet through soaked socks and shoes growing numb, her hands were turning that ice-white shade of blue and were beginning to shake. Still, she ran, Clefairy and Bulbasaur fast on her heels, and soon enough came back on Charmander's rock where he was curled in a ball, only a large leaf protecting him, as giant sparrows like vultures circled in for the kill.

Lily wordlessly sent them flying, crashing into trees as she dove over the shivering lizard. He didn't even look up at her, didn't seem capable of it, only capable of protecting that small flame at the end of its tail that was now the small size of a candle.

"Come on," Lily said, hoisting him up and cradling him next to her chest, shivering even as she glitched the rain and the wind away from the pair of them and his flickering tail, "Let's get you out of here already."

"Bulbasaur!" Bulbasaur said, vines extended to offer assistance.

"No, I think we're good, although this is cold as all hell," Lily complained, she really should have brought a rain jacket, or thought about dispelling the rain and wind before she'd gotten to the fire breathing lizard.

"Hey, Lily, hey!" Lily skidded to a halt, watching as three familiar hooded figures approached her.

"Oh, good, you got Charmander," Brock said, halting in turn, "Turns out his trainer left him here on purpose."

"Yeah, that guy was a real creep!" Ash confirmed, then hesitated as he looked at her, "But you didn't bring a jacket, you're soaked, and Charmander…"

"Charmander's fine," Lily said, dropping her protection just enough so that the rain and wind buffeted her but left the lizard alone, just enough to convince the three of them that nothing untoward was happening, "It's fine."

"You could catch pneumonia like that," Misty said, "It's really dangerous out here."

"Danger is my middle name," Lily said back, chattering through her teeth, noting that she was now starting to lose feeling in all her limbs, "Now let's get going before I start losing fingers!"

"You're an idiot."

Those were Wizard Lenin's first words to Lily on their return, after Charmander had been rushed off to the pokémon ER. Lily had immediately curled on the couch by the blazing fire, somehow still feeling cold even after returning inside.

Bulbasaur and Clefairy sat guard next to her, or had intended to, but had quickly drifted off to sleep next to the fire.

No, that was a lie, it was an odd light-headed sort of feeling of at once being too cold and then too warm and sweaty. Like her body couldn't decide what it wanted except that shivering was a much and thinking was out the window.

"You look like bloody hell," Wizard Lenin said, seated next to her, warm dry and looking as smarmy and adorable as ever in his twelve-year-old rented body.

"No-no-no-no one asked you, Lenin!" Lily managed to stutter out, feeling a little too much like Quirrell.

"You should have asked me," Wizard Lenin sniffed with contempt, before placing a hand on her forehead, "You feel like you have a fever."

"I do—do—do—don't get sick!" Lily spat back, but Wizard Lenin seemed unimpressed.

"You also typically don't go dancing in the rain," Wizard Lenin replied, "And there's a first time for everything."

"And you did it all for nothing," Wizard Lenin said, crossing his arms with a sigh, "I hope you know that."

"What—what—what are you talking about?"

"You're losing perspective again," Wizard Lenin said, brushing damp hair away from her face, "You always do this. Get yourself wrapped up in everyone else's problems, never minding the fact that it has always gotten you into trouble."

"That's—that's—that's—" Lily tried to get out but Wizard Lenin was no longer in the mood for a patient conversation.

"Let this one go, Lily," Wizard Lenin said, "Neither you nor I can help these creatures, even if we wanted to, because I am certain that many of them do not wish to help themselves."

Lily didn't respond, just glared and shivered, waiting for Wizard Lenin to finish.

"Do you know where the Charmander will go once its recovered? Because I do, Lily. He'll go straight back to that rock tomorrow, sit there and wait until the next typhoon hits, and then he'll die waiting for that dick of a master who will never come."

Wizard Lenin had the nerve to smile as he looked at her, fondly, as if Lily was being foolish as always and adorable for it, "It's not a unique trait, humans do this very often as well. Your parents, even, until the bitter end they believed Peter Pettigrew was a loyal friend and even when I murdered them in cold blood, I'm sure they still wished to believe it."

"Short of dragging that thing kicking and screaming," Wizard Lenin said, "There's nothing you can do for it."

No, Lily had done this much already, Lily had bought him a night and that had to mean something. It had to mean…

Abruptly, with the fire burning, and a blanket thrown over her, Lily was too tired to stay awake any longer. Shivering, she burrowed into the folds of her blanket, falling into a strange restless sleep.

She was still in the pokémon center, still hardly able to think let alone move, except Wizard Lenin was gone and instead she was sitting next to Clefairy the human with Pikachu the human only a small ways away, sprawled out on the couch with his hat tipped over his eyes.

On Lily's other side was a young boy, probably close to Lily's age, with hair the color of Lily's eyes and eyes an alarming and vibrant red. Lily was willing to guess that this one must be Bulbasaur.

She hadn't realized he was so young.

"Oh, we're doing this again," Lily commented, shivering and sneezing at the end of her sentence, feeling altogether quite miserable.

"Well, you called us," Clefairy noted with a smile, "You keep doing that."

"Sorry," Lily said, not sure she felt all that apologetic, but not really in any condition to think enough to feel anything significant either. Anything other than cold, wet, and miserable that is.

"It's alright," Clefairy said with a brighter and cheerful grin, "I don't mind."

"You didn't have to let yourself get so sick though," Pikachu commented, apparently awake as he tilted his hat away from his dark eyes, "If you really do have a fever then we never will make it to Vermillion City."

"What—what—what was I supposed to do?" Lily asked, curling in on herself, "Leave him?"

Pikachu sat up right, considering Lily and some of his natural pride and cynicism showed through as he looked at her, "I don't see why not."

"I couldn't just—"

"He's too naïve to function and there's nothing you can do about it," Pikachu interjected, pointing an accusing finger at her, looking genuinely irritated, small bolts of electricity visibly emanating from his cheeks, "It's all well and good to play hero, but if he's just going to jump back into the noose why bother. He had freedom at his fingertips, handed to him on a silver platter by that jackass trainer, and he's too stupid to even realize he was throwing it away. Do you know what I would have given for that?"

Crossing his arms, Pikachu cynically concluded, "One must always keep humans and your own circumstances in perspective. If he hasn't learned that lesson by now, then he doesn't deserve to."

"That's unfair," Clefairy said gently.

"Is it?" Pikachu asked pointedly, "Do you disagree then? You're willing to sacrifice someone like Lily for that idiot?"

Clefairy flushed, looked pointedly away from both Pikachu and Lily, lacing her fingers together and twiddling her thumbs in a very awkward manner, "Well—"

"Sac—sac—sacrifice is a bit much," Lily stuttered out, but that just caused Clefairy to look at her, those deep blue eyes colder and deeper than Pikachu's.

"He's not wrong," Clefairy finally said, "You are worth far more than a simple Charmander."

"I'm not—not—not dying," Lily spat back, so she was a little cold and miserable, but she wasn't dead or anything. And even if she was dead she'd just come back anyway so it was hardly a big deal.

"It's the principle of the matter," Clefairy calmly responded, looking Lily straight in the eye, and for a moment looking anything but human.

"You're both wrong!" Bulbasaur then said, scrambling over towards the pair of them with his red eyes burning, "This is why the world is the way it is! Why we can be thrown about and abandoned by those humans who call themselves trainers! It's all because pokémon like you do nothing!"

"Well look at you," Pikachu drawled, entirely unimpressed by Bulbasaur's tirade, "The little hero out to save the world. No wonder you practically threw yourself at our dear little heroine over here."

"That's right," Bulbasaur said, invading Pikachu's personal space with reckless abandon, those red eyes still so unnervingly bright that even Pikachu couldn't help but look a little bewildered, "And I'm not afraid to admit it either. She, at least, does something and will always do something no matter the consequences! Even if he goes back there, even if he doesn't believe in her, she believes in him and that's worth more than anything in the world!"

"Even if he just crawls back out there to die?" Pikachu asked, leaning away from Bulbasaur as far as he could, sinking back into the couch pillows.

"Even then," Bulbasaur insisted, then he turned back, smiled at Lily, "Because I believe in her, and someday, even Charmander might believe in her along with everyone else. I believe this world can change."

Lily stood then, unsteadily inside her dream, and declared even through her shivering and sneezing, "He's right."

"Even if no one else has faith, even if he has too much faith, I have to do this and trust that one day he'll have the strength to leave on his own or understand. I have to believe I can change his mind for the better."

"That's," Lily said pointing straight at Clefairy, "Is what I'm here to do and what I can do!"

"You do realize it will be an entirely one-sided conversation, don't you?" Pikachu pointed out.

"Shut up!" Lily said, filled with the burning fire of either a raging fever of else her overwhelming and irrevocable destiny in this strange world, "No language barrier can stop us now!"

And with that Lily forced herself back into the land of the living, promptly fell off the couch, shivering and sneezing and feeling like her head was filled with lead. All the same though, she forced herself up, looked out the window at the early dawn light, then stumbled over to the ER to check on the lizard that wasn't there.

Because he, apparently, had forced himself out of this place even earlier than Lily had.

"Right," Lily said to herself, and with no further word, slowly made her way out of the pokémon center where Charmander and his rock would be waiting for her.

Clefairy and Bulbasaur found Lily not too long later, in a spirited discussion with the recovered Charmander she'd caught up with just a little way down the road. Lily, inspired by Bulbasaur the night before, had somehow thought this would be easier.

"Oh, come on," Lily said, pausing to sneeze again and sniffle, "You know as well as I do that this guy, this Damien, is a jackass."

Charmander glared, blue eyes narrowing, and gave her a warning, "Char"

Bulbasaur and Clefairy looked to Lily, waiting silently for her response.

"Even if he wasn't, you can't just wait for life to happen to you, you should go and find him," Lily said, pausing to think of another award-winning point, only to break down into a hacking fit. Jesus, being sick was terrible.

"What I mean is," Lily tried to say, only to hack again, this time having to bend over to get enough air in between barking coughs.

"What I—" Lily tried again, only to have the same terrible lackluster result.

She should have just stayed in the pokémon center and slept. As it was she curled in the middle of the dirt path, not convinced she could even make it back to the pokémon center without some kind of a power nap out here in the middle of the wilderness.

"Bulba?" Lily felt one of bulbasaur's vines nudging her.

"Just five minutes," Lily moaned out, coughing at the end of it.

Apparently, that was too alarming as both vines were wrapping themselves around Lily's torso, Bulbasaur grunting out as he tried to lift her into the air.

"Clefairy!" Clefairy joined him, pushing one of Lily's legs over her small head, and together the pair almost managed to hold Lily upright.

Just as Lily suspected she as about to crash down on their heads a third pokémon joined them, "Char!"

And with Bulbasaur supporting Lily's upper body and Clefairy and Charmander handling the legs, the three of them set off back towards the pokémon center, not to save Charmander from his own stupidity but instead to save Lily from hers.

Still, she thought as she coughed and stared blearily upwards at the clear sky, it was a nice gesture.

If she could stop coughing, she'd thank him for it.

God, this was terrible, Lily swore to herself that she would never become sick again.

Suddenly, they stopped, "We're here already?"

Looking over her shoulder though, she saw that they were not there at all, but instead facing some of Lily's least favorite people in the world. Team Rocket was there, as fabulous as ever in newfangled blue rubber suits, a giant hole beneath their feet and Pikachu glumly trapped in a red rubber bubble.

Charmander dropped Lily, causing the other two to buckle under her weight, and stepped forward with determination in his eyes, "Charmander!"

"What is that thing?" Jessie asked in contempt as she looked down at the lizard.

"No, no," Lily said, coughing, "It's cool, Charmander, I—I've got it."

Charmander paid no mind then, as he instead proceeded to threaten Team Rocket, "Char mander!"

Meowth sniffed, amused and rather catlike, "It's saying you better give Pikachu back to those guys right now."

Oh Jesus, Lily coughed, she was not in the mood for the weekly bullshit that was Team Rocket. They'd best go flying off again already. Before they could laugh at Charmander's threat Lily hacked out, "Stack of Bricks, Disco Inferno!"

The trio was engulfed in the burning passion of the 1970's in all its wondrous and catchy glory. Fleeing for their lives once again as they endured what, in any normal reality, would have been debilitating third degree burns.

"Charmander?!" Charmander cried out in shock, taking a step back, and looking down at Lily with blue eyes practically bugging out of his skull.

However, in this place, these people always seemed to bounce back alarmingly well.

"Pika," Pikachu said, entirely unamused as he wormed his way out of his red rubber sack, glaring at Lily at yet again being saved by a stack of bricks.

"You're," Lily coughed, "Welcome."

By his expression, Pikachu was dearly tempted to electrocute her into the next century. Maybe it was because Lily was so sick and sad looking, but instead he just sniffed, sat down, and waited for the rest of them to claw their way out of Team Rocket's hole.

Lily instead turned her attention to Charmander, still staring at her in alarm, "You know, Charmander, you don't have to live up to anyone's expectations."

Lily coughed again, pulled herself into an upright position with great force of will, and continued looking down in those blue eyes, "Loyalty is a virtue, but it should be rewarded, I think at any rate. Don't waste yourself on someone who only needs you when you're useful."

She coughed again, holding up a hand before Charmander could interrupt, even as the rest of them finally were starting to emerge from the pit, "I won't force you to leave, you can wait if you want, but keep it in mind."

With that, she fell back down, curled into a ball, and tried to catch up on some of the sleep she was so dearly lacking.

"Don't tell me I summoned you again," Lily said, her dream world once again imposing on her as an entirely too humanoid Clefairy looked down at Lily with a bright smile.

"Perhaps," Clefairy said cheerfully as she crouched down closer to Lily, "Or perhaps I somehow found the means to visit you."

"Wonderful," Lily responded, hardly meaning it, and wondering why she still felt like dying even though she was clearly sleeping.

Finally sniffing, Lily pointed out, "It's probably about time for you to say that you told me so."

"Hm?"

"Charmander," Lily said, "I tried, failed, and got myself miserably sick in the process."

Wizard Lenin, after all, would certainly be telling her that he told her so and then some. In fact, he already practically had the night before in the pokémon center.

Clefairy shook her head, "Oh, I don't know about that."

"What?"

"Wake up, Lily," Clefairy said, nudging her slightly, "And you'll find yourself pleasantly surprised."

When Lily came to it was to the sight of a group of huddled faces looming over her. There was Wizard Lenin, Ash, Mity, Brock, Pikachu, Clefairy, Bulbasaur, and to Lily's surprise Charmander as well front and center.

"Lily, you moron," Wizard Lenin said, "If you delay us reaching civilization because you pranced about in the rain and then ran off at dawn, I'll never forgive you."

(She'd known that was coming.)

"Hey, that's not very nice," Brock said back to him, "She looks really sick!"

"Don't worry," Wizard Lenin groused, "Lily is impervious to permanent consequences such as death."

Lily opened her mouth to disagree, or else to caveat that she was not impervious to being miserable, but was interrupted by her own choked fit of coughing. Wizard Lenin, entirely unimpressed and unsympathetic, just crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows as he waited for her to finish.

"I'll keep up," Lily said miserably as she finished.

After all, in Vermillion City at least, there was likely to be a doctor's office.

"Charmander!"

Lily looked up, blinked, and noticed Charmander holding out a clawed hand towards her, as if reaching out for a handshake. Tentatively Lily took his hand in his, squeezed it gently, and watched as his blue eyes lit up.

"Yeah," Ash said slowly, looking a tad regretful but with a small smile, "I guess you should get Charmander since you're the one who went after him first last night."

"And went after him this morning too," Brock added.

"Though you could have told us where you were going!" Misty sniffed, "We looked all over the place for you!"

"Huh?" was all Lily could say.

"Charmander's trainer returned just in time to assume he had defeated Team Rocket," Wizard Lenin explained, "Unfortunately for him, he was stupid enough to show absolutely no remorse and was promptly abandoned by his scorned Charmander. So, all's well that ends well, and it seems Charmander has decided to accompany you."

Lily blinked, blinked again at Wizard Lenin's entirely too cheerful and accepting smile, like this was all just wonderful, "Huh?!"

"Although you really should start putting your pokémon in to pokéballs," Brock said with a laugh, "Pikachu's hard enough to explain."

Ash laughed, putting his hands behind his head, "That's for sure!"

This was…

This was too neat, too easy, and what the hell Lily hadn't really planned for this? Wizard Lenin was too easy going, he was planning something, clearly. More, he hadn't fought for the lizard himself, what was that supposed to mean?

Lily did not have the ability to figure this out right now.

Still, looking back at Charmander, staring at her with hopeful big eyes she couldn't say no to that adorable face.

So, shaking his claw, Lily got the fire pokémon that Ash had always wanted.

And so, Charmander joins Lily and her friends on their journey. Maybe getting lost isn't so bad after all. Especially when you're lost with your friends. Of course, finding your way with your friends is even better.

Author's Note: And Lily unwittingly earns herself yet another of Ash's dream team, for shame, Lily. New in the universe of "Wearing the Faces of Men" "Maybe Next Time" in which Lily truly is treated as a pokemon.

Thanks to readers and reviewrs, reviews are much appreciated.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Pokémon