November 26

"I have an extra pistol for you, if you need one," Zoey offered. She pulled from her sack a gun that had no clip in it. She and Dawn sat across from each other on couches that faced the coffee table. "It might not have as much fire power as my rifle, but it'll help if something happens."

Dawn winced at the sight of the pistol as Piplup slept in her lap. It only reminded her of Lance's gun, the one that she had used to kill him.

"Just lay it down on the coffee table, alright?" Dawn said. Zoey did so, noticing her uneasiness.

"You okay?" Zoey said.

Dawn looked at her. "Fine," she said. "Just fine. How about some dinner? I have some Stantler meat that you can fry up."

Zoey grimaced at the sound of the word 'Stantler'. "I suppose," she said, "but only since we don't have anything else." Dawn handed her the Poké Ball that had the Stantler in it, and then Zoey walked into the kitchen to begin cooking dinner.

Stroking Piplup's fur, she sat in the living room in silence. "Oh Piplup," she said under her breath, but Piplup was still sleeping.

"You say something?" Zoey called from the other room.

"Just that I was starting to get a bit hungry," Dawn lied. Suddenly, the sound of bombs detonating from outside made Dawn and Piplup hit the floor. Zoey calmly walked into the living room and laughed.

"What the hell?" Dawn exclaimed, "There's a bomb going off and you're laughing about it?"

"When it's about three blocks away, then yes. Those happen a lot around here, almost daily. By the sound of it, it's just a reminder from the Empire to keep us in line. That's my guess, anyways."

Dawn let out a shuddery sigh of relief.

"Dinner's done," Zoey said, "it turns out that this stuff cooks rather quickly."

Ash surveyed himself in the bathroom mirror, taking in his egregious physical appearance. Bruises and cuts covered half of his face. The largest bruise, located on his right jaw, was the size of Pikachu's tail. His right eye was both blackened and bloodied, and looked like it was half shut. Dried blood was caked below his nose and mouth, making him look like some thirsty vampire. His raven hair, normally sticking out to the front, stood in all directions and had taken on a shade of brown. Ash swept his hand over it, which sent a cloud of dirt onto the floor ritualistically.

What was his chin was now a mangled mess of flesh and bone. It was twisted and deformed beyond anything that could look like a human chin. Ash was amazed that he couldn't feel any pain in that area. "Pikachu probably snuck in a painkiller with that penicillin," he thought.

Moving on to his chest, he saw that the blood turned all of the color on his vest and shirt into a dark shade of red. No, red was too common of a word to describe that. It was like he was wearing the blood, as if his whole upper body was composed of nothing but the blood that he had shed over the past two weeks.

No longer able to even look at his blood-ridden clothes much longer, he quickly stripped off his upper garments, now looking upon his beaten chest. "This doesn't look much better," he thought, "it's just as bruised and bled out as my face. And…oh shit, look at all of this weight I've lost! How many pounds could I have lost in not even two weeks? Five? Ten?"

He simply stood in front of that bathroom mirror, simply stood before his bloodied body. "More like my bloodied corpse," Ash thought distastefully. His throat made a retching noise as he turned away from the mirror in disgust. Accidently making eye contact with his bloodied clothes, he flung them into the garbage can that stood next to the toilet. They landed with a clang as they fell to the bottom of the metallic bin.

Ash knelt beside the wall, his feeble hands being the only thing keeping his head up as he moaned and cried. Tears stung at his ailing eye, for blood was undoubtedly getting in the way. The agony of everything that had happened came back to him again; almost everyone he was close to was either dead or presumed dead, including his pokémon. There was a pretty good chance that he'd end up dead, too. He was beaten to the point of being unrecognizable, even by his own self. Was there anything left that he could live for?

"Pikachu," he told himself, "there's Pikachu, and Lance's pokémon, and Dawn and Brock, assuming that they're alive. No, they are alive. You have to keep going. For them."

As if it were cued, Pikachu came scurrying in from the living room. He noticed Ash crying and immediately gave him a consoling hug. Ash responded with a pat on his back. He saw then that a small blood stain was visible on Pikachu's leg. Panic swelled inside of him as he swept his Pokémon's body for gunshot wounds. Ash sighed in relief when he didn't find any. He scratched the back of Pikachu's ear as he gave him a look of confusion.

"Pikachu," said Ash, "do you remember last week, when Lance and I…well, when Lance shot down all of those grunts, and Brock threw himself on top of you? To protect you?"

Pikachu, unsure of what Ash was trying to get to, nodded.

Ash went on. "And know how yesterday, when I was running away from that firefight? How I kept you clutched against my chest? And when Lance found us, how you wanted to defend us with Thunder Bolt? You know how I kept you from doing that?"

He nodded again.

"I know that you want to keep us safe, when stuff like that happens." Ash said. He saw that Pikachu was gazing at him deeply, absorbing every word he said as if he were Arceus himself. "But you need to understand that I'm trying to keep you safe. That's why I haven't had you battle or anything. If you got seriously hurt, or even killed, I don't think I could live with myself."

Pikachu looked disappointed, yet he understood what Ash had said. "Pika Pika Chaaa?" he asked.

Ash figured that he was asking about Lance's pokémon. "Lance never used his pokémon in battle, either," Ash said, "so I'm sure that they already know."

He nodded as he licked Ash's bruised cheek, making Ash crack a smile despite the pain. "Thanks, bro," Ash said. He glanced at the shower, which was to his right. "I think I wanna take a quick shower. Hell, I probably need one. You mind waiting in the living room?"

"Pika-chu!"

"Great. Maybe one of the other pokémon will play with you while I'm in there."

Pikachu nodded and left the bathroom. Ash stripped himself of the rest of his clothes and turned on the showerhead. Stepping into the shower, he let out a long, content sigh as the hot water pelted his skin. His leg bandage kept his wound dry, so he didn't have to worry about that. Blood and dirt were flowing down his body and into the shower drain. "This hot water is probably the best thing I've felt these past two weeks!"

He noticed the bottle of body wash that hung on a rack above the showerhead. Brimming with giddiness, he squirted more than a handful of the gel into his palm and rubbed it over his body. It stung some of the cuts that were on his torso, but the sense of glorifying cleanliness that he felt immediately trumped that.

Once he was done with the gel, Ash let the steaming water flow over his body. He was certain that he had never felt anything so renewing, so refreshing, so rejuvenating in his whole life. "If Pikachu wasn't an electric type, then he'd be able to enjoy this, too. I almost feel a little bit guilty. Same goes for Lance's pokémon!"

After thirty minutes, he forced himself out of the shower and began to pat himself dry with a towel. His foot found contact with his jeans, which were stained with blood from his leg. Suddenly, the thought of putting on his old clothes made him sick to his stomach. He kicked his jeans to the side as he walked from the bathroom and into the master bedroom, wearing only the towel around his lower body.

The first thing that caught his eye was the pearly white sheets. How he didn't notice them beforehand, Ash didn't know. Next to it was a chest of drawers. He walked over to them and opened up the top drawer. A collection of hoodies and sweaters greeted him. He picked out a black hoodie and slipped it on.

The next drawer held nothing but underwear and socks. "I wouldn't wear that if Jasper had a gun to my throat!" he thought. He moved on to the last drawer, which had several pairs of work pants and khakis. After looking it over for a moment, he settled on a pair of dark work pants which, when combined with his black hoodie, turned him into a living shadow, his head, hands, and shoes providing the only color among his pallet of black. "Great, first it's murder, breaking and entering, and now robbery!"

He wanted to do something about his shoes, which looked gaudy compared to his new attire, but he decided not to. There probably weren't any extra shoes lying around, anyways.

For what seemed like no reason, he found himself in front of the bathroom mirror again, taking himself in. With his new, darker clothing, he looked completely unrecognizable now. He had lost his hat a long time ago, not long after the invasion. His clothes, which he had worn dearly since he arrived in Sinnoh two years ago, now lay crumpled in the trash like a paper bag. His face was cleaner, true, but it was still bruised and cut up beyond recognition.

"I almost look like a completely different person," Ash thought. "It's like I'm not even Ash anymore." He took one last look at the new Ash, the Ash that had been changed by death and tragedy, and left the bathroom.

When he entered the living room, he saw that Pikachu and Magnezone were playing a game of hacky sack with a small ball of electricity, which provided most of the light in the room; the sun had nearly set by now. On the couch was his jacket, which was just as bloodied as his old clothes. He tossed it to the side, which revealed the pack, the one that he had taken from the grunt he killed, lying underneath.

Out of impulse, Ash opened the backpack and dumped its contents onto the couch. On the top of the pile was a box of ammo. Ash picked it up and, seeing that it was for an automatic rifle, put it to the side.

Next came two sets of the Rocket uniforms. Each set had the dull gray jumpsuit, gloves, and flat cap. Ash found it rather odd that the jumpsuits didn't have any kind of bulletproof reinforcement. He tossed the uniforms into another pile. "If I'm seriously broke for clothes, then maybe I'll wear these."

There was a bottle of water next to a pocket radio. "Enemy water is better than no water," he thought, "and I lost my radio yesterday. These will be useful." He tossed them in the same pile as the uniforms.

By now, Pikachu had taken notice of what Ash was doing. "Pika ka chuu?" he asked, which translated into, "Is that Lance's bag?"

"No, it's-"Ash began, but the thought of Lance's sack made him remember what he had done with it yesterday. "OH SHIT!" he exclaimed as he ran out the front door of the cabin. "His stuff is probably ruined, now that it's been out there for a day and a half, and in the rain no less!" He was hardly able to see a thing in what little light the dusk provided, and the dark camouflage of the surrounding forest didn't help any. Pikachu and Magnezone quickly followed Ash, who was running in the direction that he thought he had left Lance's supplies.

Ash knew he had found them when he had stepped on his supplies with his bad leg, which still wasn't full free from pain. He let out a short cry of pain as he felt Pikachu and Magnezone slam into him, knocking him down.

"Guys, help me get this stuff back into the house." Ash said, pulling himself back onto his feet.

They nodded as they grabbed a small handful of loot, with Ash left to handle the brunt of it. They carried it back to the cabin, which was only harder now, given the added weight that they had to lug back. The three of them burst through the front door and dropped everything on the kitchen floor. Pikachu couldn't even make it that far; he had dropped everything as soon as he got past the door.

Ash chuckled as Pikachu scrambled to pick everything up. "Here, let me help with that," he said as he picked up what Pikachu had dropped. When Ash placed it all by everything else, he found himself with a rather large pile of goodies to sort through. "'Goodies' is too selfish of a word," Ash thought suddenly. "'Belongings' sounds more like it."

Before he got to work, he took the Grunts pocket radio and flipped it on, finding a news broadcast almost immediately:

"…possible resistance movement forming within the Northern Sector…"

Ash stopped listening, but left the radio on anyway. It was nice to have some ambience while he worked. He shifted his focus back to Lance's pile, where a wad of paper stuck out. Confused as to what it could be, Ash grabbed for it to see that it was a lump of money.

"…new confirmed causalities, including that of Lance…"

He hastily unwadded the money and counted each bill. He ended up with twenty hundred-dollar bills, damp but otherwise usable. "Where did Lance get all of this money?" Ash thought amidst his shock, "And why didn't he use it? He could've done anything with two thousand dollars!" He looked over at Pikachu, who shared Ash's expression of shock. Ash pocketed the money as he moved on to the rest of the pile.

"..an estimated twenty five percent of registered trainers in the region though dead…"

Next in Lance's pile was a box of ammunition. Ash opened it to see that it was the right kind for the pistol that he had. He placed it in the pile of things he planned on keeping, which was growing at a faster rate than the discard pile.

"…mysterious Empire reports of grunts being killed…bzzrt…bzzrt…we on?"

The sudden disruption on the radio caught Ash's attention. He quickly dismissed it, however, and went back to the supplies. He hadn't noticed that the voice that came back was different from the one before.

"…we on? Are we? Alright. Ash Ketchum."

The sound of his name being recited alarmed him again. His eyes were fully focused on the pocket radio now, waiting to hear what it had to say about him.

"Ash Ketchum," it repeated, "if you or your friends are listening to this, then listen up. The G-Men are in the region. We have resistance camps set up all over the place. We can't tell you where they are, but if you're hearing this, Ash, then know that you're not alone in trying to fight these guys. I repeat, you're not-"

The radio cut to static, the broadcast never to return. Ash realized then just what had happened; "The G-Men…Lance was in that organization…if they're in the region, and they're forming a resistance, then…"

Ash looked down at his leg. The pain was still obvious, but it had deadened heavily. It no longer felt like a gunshot wound, but more like a pulled muscle. He noticed the egg, which lay on the couch and had resumed its odd, bluish glow.

"We can survive," Ash said to Pikachu, who was smiling, "there's still hope. If we can find those guys, then we just might make it out of this one alive. We just might…"

Dawn poked at her Stantler that Zoey had cooked. Zoey, on the other hand, was wolfing her portion down. She was halfway done before Dawn could even bring herself to take one bite.

"You know," Zoey said with a mouthful of meat, "I said that I didn't want to eat this earlier, but man is this stuff good. If I had known how good it was I would've eaten this stuff way more often!"

Dawn said nothing, her sights transfixed on the rays of the dying sun that poured in through the window. It took her a few seconds to register that Zoey had spoken. "What's that?" she said.

Zoey looked at her with worry. "Look, I know that things aren't exactly looking the best in your situation, but thinking about it is only going to make it worse. You may as well just-"

"No, it's not that," Dawn said, "it's just…I don't really know how to explain it."

"You don't need to. I don't wanna pry in on this." She took her plate to the sink as she said, "But you never did tell me about why the Empire is looking for you. Now that is what I wanna know about."

Dawn sighed. "What have you heard?"

"Only what's on these Wanted posters." Zoey pulled from her pocket a small slip of paper, which she handed to Dawn. What she read on it disgusted her:

WANTED

These trainers, known as Ash Ketchum (age 18), Brock Harrison (age 20),

Lance Luxforde (age 26), Dawn Berlitz (age 17), and Zoey McHale (age 16)

are wanted for varying crimes of theft, murder, assault, treason, and evasion of arrest

against the Rocket Empire. Ash, Dawn, and Brock were last seen in Hearthome City

on November 14, 2082. Lance was last seen on November 15, 2082. Zoey was

last seen on November 16, 2082. The reward for information leading to the

capture of these fugitives is 500,000 dollars, ALIVE. Zoey's

bounty is set at 10,000 dollars, ALIVE. They are considered to

be extremely dangerous and, if seen, should be immediately reported

to your nearest Rocket official.

LONG LIVE THE EMPIRE

Their pictures, all but Lance's grinning brightly, were at the top of the page. Lance's cold, crimson eyes seemed to stare into Dawn's as if they still belonged to a living body. Dawn shuddered as she covered his face with her thumb.

She wasn't surprised to see that their bounty had been raised; it seemed to go up every day that they went unseen. But she was surprised to see that they were only wanted alive. 'When did you get this?" she asked.

Zoey shrugged. "Three, maybe four days ago. I was outside of Celestic when I managed to pick one up."

"It's out of date, then. Assuming they know that Lance is…well, dead, that is. But most of this isn't exactly true. Yeah, we killed and assaulted them, but in self-defense. And the parts about theft, treason, and evasion of arrest are bullshit." She put the flyer back on the table.

Zoey scowled. "So why would they say that, then?"

"Because we have something that they want."

She stared at Dawn, expecting her to tell Zoey what it was that they wanted. "Well?" Zoey finally asked, "What is it that they want?"

Dawn was silent, nearly zoning out again before Zoey nudged her.

"An egg," Dawn snapped, her voice starting to crack, "we found this egg, and-"

Hold up," Zoey interrupted, "they're trying to kill you over an egg, of all things?"

"Yeah, but this one is…different. It came from the sky, and it doesn't look like any old egg. It's heavier, almost like a big rock. No one has any idea of what it could be."

Zoey let out a low whistle and said, "Where's it at now?"

Dawn shook her head remorsefully. "Not sure. Ash had it last, but if he's dead, then…" she suddenly burst into tears, the thought of Ash dying being simply too much for her. She felt Zoey's hand gently grasp her shoulder.

"I know that you're worried about the others," Zoey said, "and I'm really, truly sorry that you don't know where they are. But it's not worth dying out there to try and find them. Besides, you guys have been separated like this before, and it turned out all okay, right?"

"Yeah," Dawn mumbled as she lifted her head, "but this is different. We weren't running for our lives then. For all I know, Ash and Brock are dead."

"No, they're not. You have to believe that they're okay, because if you keep thinking that they're dead then you're just gonna give up. You'll want to stop living. You can't let that happen."

Dawn said nothing, her eyes focused again on Lance's petrifying eyes.

"Dawn, look at me!" Zoey snapped. She turned to meet Zoey's face, which looked almost angry. "This is about Lance, isn't it? Look, I'm sorry-"

"This isn't about Lance!" Dawn asserted. "Don't kid yourself, Dawn; you know this has everything to do with him." She thought.

"No, this is about Lance," Zoey said, "and you need to forget about him. It's not your fault that he's dead."

Dawn nearly broke down again when she said that last part. Only she knew that it was entirely her own fault. "I just wish that I had done something," she said in a lie. "If I had done something differently, maybe he'd still be alive." "Did he just instantly cut to black when I killed him?" she thought, "or was he able to feel his skull, his brain, his thoughts being shattered to pieces…"

"It's a good thing that you didn't do anything. If you had, they would've killed you too."

Dawn sighed. "Still, I feel like it's my fault." "I can't keep this up much longer without cracking. Oh god…"

"Dawn, you need to understand that this isn't your fault," Zoey said. She was starting to look frustrated with Dawn. "I mean, it's not like you killed him."

"THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I DID!" Dawn screamed, slamming her fists on the table as she stood up. "I KILLED HIM! I TOOK HIS GUN AND I SHOT HIM DEAD!" Zoey looked at her in horror before she collapsed on the table, her head buried in her arms while she sobbed.

She half-expected Zoey to start screaming bloody murder, or even just have some kind of freak attack. But she didn't. Zoey sat still, staring at Dawn with an expression of…what was it? Shock? Anger? Fear? Dawn wasn't sure.

"Was it quick?" Zoey finally said.

Her calm demeanor surprised Dawn. She lifted her head. "I'm sorry?"

"His death. Was it quick?"

Dawn wiped her tears and said, "I…Yes. He…he hardly had time to even react."

"Then that's all that matters." Zoey got up and began to walk toward the staircase.

"But what do you mean that-"Dawn began.

Zoey turned to face Dawn. "Better for him to die quick like that then have it be a slow one at the hands of the Empire, right?"

As much as Dawn hated herself at the moment, she had to admit that Zoey was right. "Sure, but…I mean, I killed him, for shit's sake!"

"And I don't know why you did, but I'm not sure I want to know. If it was out of malice, then you'd be a fool to try it on me. The pistol I gave you is hardly any match for my rifle. If it was out of self-defense, then hoorah for you. Looks like you defended yourself pretty damn well."

"It was a combination of both," Dawn explained, "he seemed like a threat, and-"

Zoey silenced Dawn with her hand. "Don't," Zoey said, "just don't. I'm really not in the mood for this. It's getting late, and I'm going to bed. When you decide to turn in, you know where your room is." With that, she jogged up the rest of the stairs.

Dawn began crying again when she heard Zoey slam the bedroom door shut.

Hey guys, longer chapter this time around. Per usual, any and all reviews/concrits, etc. are appreciated. Next chapter will be out at the same time as usual. Oh, and if my followers have had their email blown up with notifications about updates to my story, I apologize. I've been fixing previous chapters, so that's why it might have happened.

Thanks for reading!