Fourteen

Zoey closed her eyes and clenched her teeth. Would the bullet hurt? Would it kill her instantly? Would it kill her at all? Oh, wouldn't that be terrible, if the bullet raced through her brain and left her a drooling, paralyzed vegetable? That was certainly a fate worse than death.

And shouldn't the bullet have reached her by now?

Warily, Zoey opened one eye.

There was the bullet.

She blinked. The bullet was still there, three inches from her forehead. It spun in the air, like it needed to move some way since its forward process had been halted.

"The hell?" Cassidy snapped, and she fired the gun one, two, three more times. All the bullets came to a silent stop inches from Zoey's face.

"Do excuse us," someone cooed. Zoey did not think she had ever heard a more beautiful voice.

Another voice, this one crisp and male (and maybe a bit British, if the Pokemon World had a Britain), added, "But our interference is needed."

Zoey looked around wildly, as did Cassidy and Butch. No one was to be seen. "Psychics," Butch hissed angrily.

"And how," replied the disembodied male voice. As Zoey watched, the back of Butch's collar twitched, as if grabbed by an invisible hand. Not a moment later, both the Rockets were dangling in the air, their feet just a smidge too far away from the ground. "Tsk tsk, so noisy!" the voice complained as the two protested and screamed. Suddenly Cassidy and Butch were knocked against each other, falling silent as they went unconscious. "Much better." And then he appeared.

Steven let out an audible gasp. Zoey did too, though not as dramatic. She did not know what she was looking at, except that it was blue, floating, and resembled an airplane.

"Latios," Steven breathed, shocked.

The bullets hovering before them fell to the ground, making little noise in the grass. Another creature appeared off to the side, and this one, Zoey recognized. "Cresselia?" she stated.

"Of course, dear," Cresselia replied sweetly.

Zoey stared. "You can talk?"

Cresselia and Latios exchanged a look. "When it is necessary," the lunar Pokemon replied slowly, "all Pokemon may use human speech."

Latios made a face as he floated over the fallen Rockets. "Not all," he disagreed.

"Yes, all," Cresselia snapped, shooting him a glare.

Steven was too mystified to speak. Zoey, luckily, had a fully-functioning tongue. "What are you doing here?" she wondered. "You're not Kanto Pokemon."

Latios sighed. "Always the stupid questions," he complained. "What are you? Why are you here? Will you climb into this cage so I can sell you on the black market?" He rolled his red eyes. "Stupid humans."

"Didn't your mother ever teach you to keep your mouth shut?" Cresselia demanded, all the patience gone from her pretty voice.

"No, because she died," Latios retorted.

Cresselia did not look impressed. "What a sob story. I'm married to the lord of darkness. You don't see me crying, do you?"

Latios looked ready to kill something, so Steven and Zoey both took a wide step back. "It's your own fault you married the living nightmare!"

"Don't you dare insult my husband!" Cresselia cried furiously.

"Hey!" Zoey shouted. The two Legendaries glared at her, angry at being interrupted. "What's going on?"

Latios folded his arms as best he could. "Just an old argument," he said bitterly.

"I suppose, for all our sakes, we should put it behind us," Cresselia suggested, though it clearly pained her to do so.

"For now," Latios added.

Cresselia nodded. "For now," she agreed. She looked to Steven and Zoey, smiling. "Well then. Let's get to Viridian, shall we?"

After her father died, Dawn had nightmares. They were horrifying terrors that haunted her sleep, invading the dream world that used to be her safe haven.

It was never the same dream, not exactly, but the general plot involved Dawn standing on the edge of something terrifyingly tall. Sometimes, it was a great, evil monster with too many mouths and hissing tongues and more eyes than she could count that ran her over the edge. Other times, she slipped and fell. Still others were with her father, gripping his hand as he smiled at her, bending her knees with him and taking that leap together.

Those were the ones she feared the most.

But now, as she twitched and whimpered in her sleep, she stood alone on that cliff, or rooftop, or tree branch. There was no one beside her, just her feet on the very edge and the ground so very far below. Or maybe it was water. She was so far away she could not tell.

Dawn turned around, and reached out her hand. She said something, but the words meant nothing. The wind blew about strongly, throwing her hair in front of her eyes, and she brushed it behind her ear.

Paul stood silently a few feet behind her, his arms folded. He watched her with his black eyes, considering. Slowly, he stepped toward her. Dawn's heart beat faster. She wanted him to take her hand, pull her close.

And he did. He grabbed her outstretched hand and stepped to where their chests were touching. "I love you," he murmured. But the words meant nothing.

With agonizing slowness, Paul pushed her away. Her hand slipped from his as she fell backwards. She kept her wide gaze on his emotionless face as she plummeted. The speed of the dream picked up, and she was no longer drifting through the air but shooting through it like an arrow. Paul became a shadow, a silhouette in the clouds, and then invisible altogether.

Dawn woke as her fall came to a sudden halt, starting awake with a small gasp. Her eyes opened to total darkness. Blinking she sat up, groaning at the stiffness in her back and neck. She pulled on her head, causing her neck to pop deliciously.

What was she supposed to do? The love of her life had murdered her father. It was eating her up inside.

"Dawn."

Dawn looked around. In the darkness, she could see someone sitting up, their hands around their knees. He stared at her, a gleam in his eyes. "You said my name."

"Oh," Dawn said. She bit her lip. Sleep talking. "I'm… sorry."

Paul shrugged. "If something is wrong, you should say something. It's stupid to keep your emotions bottled up."

"Isn't that a little hypocritical?" Dawn snapped.

Paul went silent. For a long while, neither he nor Dawn spoke, until finally he asked, "Were you dreaming about the other me?"

Dawn scowled. "Maybe."

They went quiet again.

"Do you see me as a fake?" Paul questioned, fixing his gaze on her.

Dawn's brow knit in confusion. "What?"

Paul kept his face placid and his gaze unblinking. "Do you think I'm a fake," he repeated, and his tone was difficult to place.

"Why would you even think that?" Dawn stared at him, baffled.

His eyes shifted to the sleeping form of Ash and he scowled. "I thought it was obvious."

"Of course you're not fake," stated Dawn. "You're very real."

Paul blinked once. "I hope so," he murmured. "All right. Good night," he said, louder.

Dawn watched him lie down, a look of confusion on her face. Had she been meant to hear his quiet plea? She didn't think so.

When the blue-haired girl finally fell asleep again, she dreamed the same dream, but with two Pauls. One pushed her from the cliff, and one caught her as she fell.

She could not tell which was which.

Ash woke up with Pikachu sitting on his face. Gingerly, he lifted the yellow animal so that it wouldn't shock him and placed it carefully in the grass. His dreams of the night were still fogging up his mind, and for some reason he had dreamed about his father.

He blinked and shook his head, trying to clear it. Why Dad? It had been a long time since that man had haunted his dreams. Was it because he was dead? Ash frowned. It did not make sense.

The premise of the dream also left him puzzled. It had started out like those dreams of being tied to the chair, with doctors leaning over him, with the new installment of Misty. But instead of waking up when the light came over him, the scene changed, putting Ash in a place that was not home but his dream self thought it was.

And there was his father, telling him something very important, but he could not hear. Ash scowled at the memory of the dream. It was stupid to dwell on such things.

Except perhaps the Misty part.

Ash glanced at his girlfriend, sleeping with her arm splayed out under her head. If she had been part of the Company, then was it possible she had headed his blanking? Surely she had been too young, right?

Or did she think she was younger than she actually was?

He continued to stare at her, losing himself in his thoughts. Would he be able to figure out her trigger word? And if he could, would it be safe to say? He had no way of knowing where the old Misty's loyalties lay.

What Ash could not figure out was why Misty was not in his memory. He had served at the Kanto branch, as she had, apparently at the same time. So why did he have no recollection of her?

His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden appearance of two slender figures from the bushes over yonder. Ash jumped, staring at them.

"Prepare for trouble!" cried the one of the left, whose hair defied physics.

"And make it double!" exclaimed the other, whose silhouette showed him holding a rose.

"To protect the world from devastation," stated the first, changing poses dramatically. Ash craned his neck, trying to see the source of the bright light.

"To unite all peoples within all nations," continued the second. Ash squinted. Their silhouettes changed poses again.

"To denounce the evils of truth and love."

"To extend our reach to the stars above."

"Jessie," said the first, and suddenly she flashed into view. Ash gaped in confusion.

"James." And James was suddenly visible, holding his rose gingerly.

"Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light!" shouted Jessie.

James pointed dramatically at Ash. "Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

Suddenly, a small cat burst out of the bushes. "Meowth, that's right!"

Ash's eye twitched as he stared at them. Jessie was instantly furious. "What's the matter, twerp? Didn't you hear us?"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!" James repeated, louder.

"Or what?" Ash said. He was somewhere between bewilderment and amusement.

"Or we'll steal ya Pokemon, dat's what!" stated the cat.

Ash glanced down at Pikachu, still sound asleep in the grass. Then he looked back at the two of them. "Uh huh," he replied. It was the same Jessie and James from his days in the Company, in the Sinnoh branch, but it looked like these two were on the other side. And that appeared to be an advantage for him.

"Don't disregard us so easily, twerp, or you'll regret it!" screamed Jessie.

"Weezing, go and show this nuisance what Team Rocket's all about!" James proclaimed, hurling a pokeball out.

"Would you keep it DOWN?" screamed Misty, snapping up like a sapling. Unfortunately, she sat up right in the path of the flying pokeball, and it smacked into her face.

"HA!" Ash shouted, and a bout of laughter overcame him. He rolled onto his back, cackling like a madman.

The pokeball cracked open, and out popped two large purple balls. "Weezing!" they cried, and it sounded like they had a chest cold.

Misty was on her feet in an instant. "Oh yeah? COME AT ME, BRO!" she screamed. She chucked her pokeball at James.

He let out a yelp and dodged. The ball went soaring past his head. "You missed!" he said, excited. There was a flash, and James was suddenly in Gyarados's shadow. He visibly paled.

"EEK! DRAGON!" Jessie shrieked. This, finally, is what woke Dawn and Paul.

"Sic 'em, Gyarados!" ordered Misty.

Gyarados glanced at the three Rockets, then swooped them up in its tail, picked up Weezing, and hurled them all into the sky.

"Team Rocket's blasting off again!" they all yelled, but their voices were lost as they became little more than a twinkle in the sky.

Misty rubbed at her nose angrily. "Effing jerks, frickin' pricks," she mumbled. She turned around, and her eyes fell on Ash. For a moment, there was silence. Then she cracked her knuckles and slowly approached him.

Ash waited, wondering what she was going to do to him. After all, there was no way she could even think she could beat him at hand to hand combat (at least, not until she got her memories back). But that was clearly what she was going for. Ash sighed. He could go easy on her, give her the sense of victory. He didn't want her too mad at him.

Finally, Misty was right in front of him. She rose to her full height, fists balls and shoulders wide. She inhaled sharply through her nose, readying to attack.

And then she swung her foot back and gave Pikachu a sharp kick.

"Pika!" the mouse screeched, jumping a foot in the air and pumping everything in a ten foot radius with a generous amount of electricity.

Ash was smoking afterward, his skin charged and his brain fuzzy. All he could make out was Misty on the other end of the clearing, well out of Pikachu's range, victorious.

The light was overwhelming. He shook and jittered in the bright white room, so very unlike him. It had been a long time since he had felt such fear. Perhaps because he knew what was to come.

She would not be kind. He knew that. Had known it since he first laid eyes on her, all those years ago. He remembered thinking, I should not cross her. Not ever. Looking back, he wanted to laugh at the irony, but he could not. He was too scared.

He ran a quivering hand through his hair, wondering what she would do. It would not be quick. The wait in itself was torture. He would not put it past her to have him drawn and quartered between four Ponyta. Maybe he could coax one of the horses to stomp on his head and kill him before that started.

There was a noise outside, making him jump up. Oh, please let it be her. Please, get it over with.

But the door remained closed, and no one came.

*AN: I WAS gonna do an April Fool's chapter, but it didn't work. But this is my birthday update instead, cuz my birthday is on Friday (yeah, I'm early, sue me). Misty kicking Pikachu is NOT abuse. It was just to get him to electrocute Ash. I didn't mean it that way. *defensive*

Saw Hunger Games at the premier, it was AWESOME. Seen it twice already. I just read Eon by Alison Goodman. Good book. I hope you all had a good Spring Break! Ciao for now!

Also, this is not edited. I'm lazy. Point out mistakes and you win a cookie!*