Chapter 21 – Soul Sleep

"We've been silent for so long we've forgotten how to speak." Unknown

[19:45PM] – 26th May 2011 – Victory Road - Somewhere

Ash: "Zo? How the hell did you get here?"

Zo: "Uh… I teleported…?"

Lance: "Where's Dragonite?"

Zo: "I don't know. He flew off like someone had offered up human sacrifices."

Lance: "My Dragonite doesn't eat human flesh."

Erika: "No? Good to know."

Misty: "Why are we whispering?"

Erika: "Because this whole place is spooky?"

Lance: "Because the rockets managed to follow us in?"

Misty: "How? I thought you killed the entrance with that insane plan of yours."

Ash: "I did kill the entrance. The entrance we used at least. Then there's the real entrance, the caved in entrances and… well… they just happen to have a Rypherior which knows horn drill and dig."

Lance: "Dammit."

Erika: "How do you know?"

Lance: "Know what?"

Erika: "Not you. A…Shadow… How do you know that the Rypherior knows horn drill and dig?"

Ash: "It…*cough* uh…no reason."

Lance: "I don't want to know. Erika - stop asking Shadow questions that are going to have a weird answer."

Misty: "All his answers are weird."

Ash: "Well aren't you nice?"

Misty: "I try my hardest sweetheart, but it's rather difficult when our guide doesn't even know what direction to go in!"

Ash: "I do know! North! I'm heading north!"

Misty: "Are you sure?"

Ash: "Of course I'm sure!"

Misty: "Positive?"

Ash: "Yes!"

Lance whispered to Erika, "Even if she doesn't know who he is, they still act just like usual."

"Do you know where we're going?" Erika asked him, peering at the red haired champion in the dim light from the Eevee morph's electrified needles.

The champion shrugged. "Maybe… I think this is right direction. At least, I hope it is."

There was a loud screech from within the cave depths.

"And if it isn't?" Erika dared asked, chewing nervously on her lip.

Lance swallowed. "We get eaten by an angry Ursaring?"

"Or get clubbed to death by some obsessive stalker grunts." Zo grumbled. "Seriously, they chased us for over an hour. What is up with that?"

"They want us captured." Ash stopped arguing with Misty to speak up, "Dead or alive."

"Why us…?" Misty asked, wide eyed, "What it is that is so special about four rebels?"

There was a heavy silence which Misty, Erika and Ash seemed unwilling to break. Lance however, seemed to completely disregard it, speaking up. "Because one is the champion, the other two are gym leaders and the last is an aura guardian. Three are responsible for raiding their high security HQ and we're probably on their most wanted list."

"I'm offended." Ash admitted, "I mean, I've been causing trouble for them for years now, and only now do they deem me important enough to make most wanted?"

"What did you do?" Misty asked no mockery in her voice, "Escape from Sinnoh?"

It was a Sinnoh accent, the Celadon gym leader realised that had recently layered Ash's voice ever since Misty had joined them.

Ash nodded. "Something along the likes of that... Annoyed Galactic, stole a boat, got lost and caught and ended up back on Sinnoh. Pissed of Galactic a little bit more and managed to escape to the northern mainland. Took a while to get down to Johto, and then I had to battle my way through that mess." He whistled, "It's not nice."

"You're going to have to tell us that story someday." Lance glared at the aura guardian, who flinched slightly.

"Sinnoh is a mess." He admitted. "I think almost all the gym leaders and elites have vacated to the southern coast, that is, if they're still fighting otherwise I think they're in Johto. I think I saw Volkner in Blackthorn." He paused. "Yep, was definitely Volkner - I'd know that hair anywhere. He was with his girlfriend."

"Jasmine..?" Erika asked. "We used to be friends before the war."

"You still are friends." Ash corrected.

"Did you spend long in Johto?" the champion asked, ducking under a rocky overhang.

The dark haired man shrugged. "Yeah, for a while... I… Riley was there with Cynthia. They've given Sinnoh up as gone, although apparently the Hoenn elites, Drake and Phoebe are leading a force there. Apparently though they can't, or won't give help to Kanto. Something about the Indigo League breaking apart…" Ash shot Lance a curious glance.

The champion looked uneasy. "We were all for working with them, but that moron Goodshaw refused. Then again he was in Silph Companies pocket and they are in turn, working for Rocket." He sighed, "If there's one thing I can say, it's that I'm glad you killed him."

"Don't say that!" Misty looked shocked. "You… killing isn't good no matter which way you look at it!"

"Oh?" Ash glanced at her slight figure, with a Pichu clinging to her shoulder. "I heard you were dating that electric elite." His voice was flippant. "If you had the chance to kill his murderer would you take it?"

Turquoise eyes grew cold. "Shut up." She snarled. "Don't talk about Ash like that! He wouldn't want me to become a murderer! He…" she stopped herself, shaking her head. "I'm not talking about this."

There was an awkward silence, and Erika glanced at Ash, who had flinched slightly. Even in the shadow of the cave, and the depths of his hood, she could see the raw pain that lay in his eyes, which were swirling between gold and silver.

"The war changes people." She said, quietly. "I don't think any of us were the same people we were five years ago."

Lance ran a hand through his spiky hair, which was run through with dirt and cobwebs. "I still can't believe Cynthia and Riley withdrew from Sinnoh." He sighed.

"It's a lost cause." Ash shrugged. "After Hoenn declared itself neutral Aqua and Magma moved in from the south to confirm their reign. They probably would have done the same here except Rocket… well… I guess even criminals have standards and working with scum like the rockets is lower than they'd stoop." He shrugged. "Johto is in about the same sort of mess that we are; they just have more people on their side. They lost Goldenrod and Mahogany, but the latter isn't a surprise at all, knowing the number of secret tunnels under there…"

"My cousin and the clan kept Blackthorn under wraps. It's in the mountain," Lance added, "Easy to defend."

"Falkner lost Violet." Ash sidestepped to avoid stepping on Zo who had paused to sniff a shadowy crack. "And Morty lost Ectreteak. They kept Cianwood though, the other side of the Whirl Islands, but it's so separated from Blackthorn the other side they're having problems communicating between the two."

"So even…" Misty's voice cracked. "Even if we manage to get time started and kick the Team out of Kanto, we've still got all the other regions to go?" she asked, voicing all their fears.

Erika was silent. She wanted nothing more after clearing Kanto of rockets to curl up and ignored the other regions. She would not be the only one, but at least she had the courage to admit that they needed to help them. They needed to end this.

They would have to help, whether they liked it or not.

But could they really keep fighting, after time restarted and Ash died once more?

[20:13PM] – 26th May 2011 – Victory Road - Somewhere

It was Erika, yawning who eventually convinced the others to stop and sleep. "I mean," she said, as she curled up with Chikorita in her lap, "It was only this morning that we were all still at Vermillion, and Misty was at Cinnabar. We should…" she stopped to yawn again.

"Agreed," Lance dropped down beside her. "I have food."

And that was that, stuck, in the caves once known as Victory Road, now delegated the title of 'Ruins', the four weary travellers stopped to rest, Lance's Dratini remaining on guard, curled up over an overhanging ledge, dark eyes bright in the darkness.

[00:04AM] – 27th May 2011 – Victory Road - Somewhere

Ash wasn't sure what woke him up, but his eyes shot open, senses wary at…

Something…

It wasn't very helpful, the odd feeling that screamed danger, and he uncoiled gracefully from where he had fallen asleep, half propped up against the wall, hood shadowing his face, eyes a currently vivid emerald green.

His movements roused Zo who, for reasons unknown to all but her, had decided to curl up on his stomach. Rai and Va lay, curled together so tightly you couldn't tell where one ended and the next began. The mouse stirred but quietened, tail flickering with a yellow and black glow before dying.

"What is it?" Zo asked silently. At the aura telepathy, Luca opened one blood red eye, instantly alert.

"Lance's Dratini was keeping watch. How is he?"

A soft scurrying was heard as Zo bounded up, shimmering into a small Pidgey and winging her way to the ledge where Dratini had sat. "He's gone." Zo frowned, anxiously shimmering into a small Vulpix, then a Shinx and back to her usual form.

"What do you mean gone?" The quiet black Lucario asked.

"I mean gone. Gone, gone… As in – not there." Zo mentally pouted. "I don't know where."

"Calm down." Ash instructed, "Let the others sleep. I'm sure it's nothing…"

He glanced around, at Lance and Erika, the latter having decided at some point in the night that Lance made a good pillow, and his cape was a perfectly good blanket. Across from them Misty was wrapped around Pichu, in much the same way she had wrapped around Togepi or Azurill. A lock of hair had fallen in her face and Ash gently reached down and tucked it behind her ear, smiling gently at the softly freckled face.

"Found him!" Zo declared, bouncing up, followed by the small snake. "There are rockets in the tunnels, about ten minutes away. We should get going."

Ash moved. "Wake the others." He said, out loud, instantly waking Rai and Va who sat up, ears pricked.

"More running?" Rai sighed.

"It's slimming." The now Leafeon told him, uncurling himself from where she was wrapped around him. "Up you get."

Erika was quite amusing to wake up, especially as she initially just curled herself deeper into her pillow, namely Lance. The red head woke up quicker, yet couldn't move due to the grass user on his stomach.

"Uh – Erika..?"

"What..?" she mumbled sleepily, half opening her eyes and seeing Lance's face peering down at her. With a startled cry she sat up, flinging his cape of his in disgust. "What the hell? Lance!"

The red head gaped at her, "What did I do? You're the one who decided I make a nice bed!"

"Yeah, but now you have to tell May I slept with you!"

"On me..!"

"Same difference..!"

"How is this, my fault?"

"Because you're the big over protective brother who happens to be wearing a very nice and warm cape..!"

"Shut up!" Misty snapped, just the same as Ash remembered, an irritably morning person. "Let's just… get going so we can go back to sleep again – got it?

She staggered to her feet, heading unsteadily off down the corridor.

"Uh – Misty..?" Ash called, "It's the other direction."

She spun around silently and stalked of the other way. "I knew that." She muttered, "Stupid moron."

Ash wondered how someone who was already moronic could be stupid as well as a moron – wasn't it sort of contradictory or just like saying the same thing twice? - Before he realised that she had insulted him, a scowl working its way onto his face. Grabbing his pack, he stalked off after her, followed by a still bickering Lance and Erika.

[00:19AM] – 27th May 2011 – Victory Road - Somewhere

The sleepy company hurried north through the catacombs in relative silence. Their footsteps thudded on the cracked soil, and in the distance, a wild Pokémon roared, making them nervous.

"How far do you think it is?" Erika's voice broke the silence.

Ash shrugged. "Who knows? Has anybody been through here before?"

"I have." Lance admitted. "It took ages, that's all I remember."

"Well that's a load of help," Erika snapped. "This is going to be one hell of a boring journey."

"Let's make it more interesting then," Misty said, quietly, "What's your favourite Pokémon?"

"Dragonite," Lance answered, instantly.

Ash frowned, "Like that wasn't obvious. I can't really say without offending one of my team. Probably … Charizard …"

"Hey!" Zo complained, and Rai grumbled something under his breath which Ash missed, although it sounded suspiciously like 'fat overgrown lizard'.

Erika hummed, "Chikorita," she said, hugging her starter to her. The Pokémon in question let out a happy squeak. "But Bulbasaur and Oddish are cute as well. What about you Misty?"

"Azurmarill," She said, "And Psyduck and Golduck are totally awesome."

Lance burst out laughing, which hid Ash's choked attempts to hold back his chuckles. "This is your Psyduck?" the champion glanced at the water type. "He evolved?"

"Gol!" the blue duck announced proudly.

"Wow – congrats!" Erika told the duck, who puffed up his chest proudly. "Okay, my turn. What was your easiest battle ever? Mine was this poor kid who sent out a Squirtle and I sent out Gloom and the poor unlevelled turtle didn't stand a chance. His next Pokémon was a Magikarp which thankfully did not evolve during the battle. It only knew splash as well."

"Probably a rocket grunt, up north in Johto who challenged me and sent forth a Rattata, professing it was in the top percentage of Rattata everywhere." Ash frowned, "Strange kid. Lucario hit it with an aura sphere and that was that."

"A Zubat," Lance said, "I used to get Dragonite to use thunder on them in Dark Cave south of Blackthorn. We were training there and some picnicker picks a fight, and sends out a Zubat. Easy."

Misty thought about it a second. "This challenger came to my gym all prepped out with electric types. I sent out Quagsire."

Lance chuckled. "Good one. Okay… how about – hardest battle?"

"Six on six," Ash spoke up first, "I lost really badly, and it put me off battling for a while before my friends could cheer me back up again. I battled the guy again though and won."

"It's not hard, per say," Misty pondered, "But we never ever seem… seemed to get around to finishing it. His Pikachu either refused to fight me, or Togepi used Cute Charm to infatuate him, and it never really seemed to go anywhere. We would always draw or get interrupted mid-way."

Ash glanced away.

"I battled Whitney once." Erika admitted, keeping the conversation rolling, "And every time I would whittle down her Pokémon she'd get her Miltank to use Milk Drink and be healed right up. Gloom was using absorb and giga drain, and it just kept going back and forth. What about you Lance?"

The red head winced, glancing at Ash who pretended to ignore the look. "I lost to a challenger who only had a team of five," he admitted, and kept it like that. Everyone knew who he meant. "I beat him next time though." He added, rather positively, as an afterthought.

Ash longed to shoot back a comment, and barely refrained from speaking, when Misty spoke up.

"Uh… Shadow?" she asked curiously. "I don't want to sound rude, but what's up with your…" she frowned. "Eevee?" she ventured, despite the current Jolteon padding along in front of her.

"TeoEev," Va flickered her ears nonchalantly. (She's actually asking rather nicely.) "JolTeo," (You can tell her).

Ash nodded at the consent his Eevee had given him. "She can morph." He told the Cerulean leader, "Between her evolution forms. Her genetic make-up is really unstable due to Rocket experiments and then …" he winced slightly.

"They dropped the Eevee into a vat of toxic sludge." Zo finished for him, bluntly. "I think they must have wanted a poison type, but Va turned into a Vaporeon and they threw her out. A-Shadow found her when we were in Johto and helped her, and then we discovered she could morph between the forms. It scared the crap out of me when this Umbreon snuck up on me with a faint attack." She shuddered slightly.

"Va?" Misty was staring at the Jolteon. "A nickname..? Is it short for anything?"

"No."

Misty glanced suspiciously at the hooded figure, but she didn't press it.

"Eva." Rai silently told them, through his aura. Ash shot him an annoyed look. "Well at least I'm being honest!" the mouse mentally grumbled, stalking along beside Golduck. Lucario was bringing up the rear, occasionally glancing over his dark furred shoulder.

"She can't hear you." Ash sent. "And even if she could you can't tell her. Come on buddy… we've been through this!"

The orange mouse hopped forward, leaping effortlessly up to balance on his best friend's shoulder. "Yes. And I want to tell PikachuPi…" he paused, frowning. "There are times I forget I'm evolved." He sighed.

"If it's any consolation..." Ash added. "I prefer PikaPi and PikachuPi to RaichuRa and RaiChuChuRai."

"You do?" Rai brightened. "Okay then, that's good. Being a Pikachu meant I had more syllables to work with when talking, but it doesn't matter, because no matter what you're still my idiotic PikaPi!"

"No need for the adjective." Ash sighed, running a hand through his long fringe, thankful that the conversation had been averted, because he wanted to tell Misty, he really did. So long had passed, and she thought he was dead… he was as good as dead though and he couldn't do that to her. He couldn't come clean; to show her how much he had changed from the person she had once known.

Something echoed in the distance.

Ash stopped, and just ahead of him Lance froze, glancing back the way they had come. "Did you hear that?" he frowned.

"Sounds like Rockets," Zo commented, not really concentrating, her tone completely nonchalant. Everyone stopped and stared at her and she looked up, wide eyed, trying to work out what she had said wrong. "What? What did I say… oh… crap…"

"Not again!" Erika whined. "I'm outta here right now!" and she set off at a jog and a "Hurry up Va! I'm not wandering around here in the dark!"

The group hurried forward, pace speeding up.

A terrible howling split the air and Erika paused, glancing backwards. "Oh no." she whispered, heart beat speeding up as she staggered backwards, trying to put as much distance between herself and them. "No, no, please, no."

There was a pounding of paws and her eyes met Ash's, the same thought running through their heads.

"RUN!"

Rounding the corner, with slobbering jaws and a wide, gaping maw with silver fangs, was a morph of several different species. The four paws looked like that of a Mightyena, but the fur was striped like an Arcanine, and a large scythe of an Absol curled around its head. Yet it was mismatched, patched together, fur missing in placed and hanging off in clumps. A spot on the one front leg was missing all skin, and you could see the muscle showing through the gaping wound.

Charred blacked fur of a Houndoom head had meshed with the reddish body, and the fire from its breath battled with the electricity of an Electrike, while a tail that looked broken in two places lashed out angrily.

The morph slowed down, gleaming black eyes alighting on its prey, soulless pits lacking any coherent thought, and filled with blood lust and rage. With a savage snarl it leapt forwards, speeding into a run.

Poison seemed to follow the hell hound, shadows bubbling under the white, red, black fur like a demon of the night, mindless and a single mind in pursuit of its prey.

Another one rounded the corner behind it.

It was eerily reminiscent of running around Saffron HQ, except there were no nicely lit corridors, and instead dark soil and rocks, sending you tripping over if one stumbled or slipped. Lance had grabbed onto Misty's arm to steady her at one point, and hadn't let go. Misty herself had scooped up her blue duck, and Chu clung to her shoulder. Rai raced along with his tail streaming behind him, Luca help a bone club in hand and Va…

Va had twisted around snarling, looking as if she was about to leap for the creature's throat and thought better of it, instead morphing into a Flareon and shooting a torrent of flames towards the hell hounds.

The monsters continued right through, if anything energised by the flames, and only now did Erika note the curving Houndoom horns, and realise the significance of the Arcanine stripes.

These monsters were impervious to fire.

Va promptly turned tail and fled, morphing into the swifter and light Jolteon, and racing ahead, providing a much needed light source, and with relief Zo dropped her momentary illusion of a Luxray.

"I hope you know where you're going!" Lance spat, as they rounded the corner.

"Why are you relying on me?" Ash snapped back. "Just keep running and find the exit. I'll hold them off!"

"What do you mean 'hold them off'?" Lance glanced back to his friend, only to see Ash had whirled around, gloved hands lighting up blue with Lucario spinning his bone rush grimly beside him. Va continued to run and Rai had slowed, looking after the girls. "Damn you Ketchum." Lance grumbled, before moving backwards to help his friend.

"Hey! Look!" Erika spun around, spotting light shining down from above. "It's the exit…" Her voice trailed off and she stared in horror at the two guys and their Pokémon, making what they no doubt thought was a heroic last stand against the hell hounds. "Lance! Ash!" she shouted wildly, too busy to care she had slipped and used the wrong name.

Misty had heard, and had spun around wildly at the name. She blinked, seeing only Lance and Shadow.

She must have been imagining it. Leaf was right; she had to get her head out of the past.

"Shadow..! Stop fooling around!" Erika screamed again, watching the two monsters approach at a run. A scatter of dust and Rai slid up to them.

"Rai!" he snarled, cheeks bristling with electricity. "RaiChu!" (Go! Get out!)

"He says go!" Zo translated, skidding into Erika's legs. "Now!" she emphasised. "Follow Va and the guys will come."

"But…" Erika looked torn.

"Just do what I say!" Zo shifted, form flickering purple until she was a purple haired girl, straight blackish violet hair and casual clothes, tugging at Erika and Misty's hands.

Lance wondered if he was slightly mad, staying to face these hellish creatures, but with the aura guardian at his side, he knew that he at least wasn't the only one. Drawing his sword, he spun it once, experimentally.

"The one on the left is mine." Ash said, black and blue blades forming in each hand.

"What, you're fighting too?" Lance mocked, stroking his baby dragon's scales with his free hand. "The one on the right," he claimed, preparing for the slavering jaws and soulless eyes.

Ash completely dodged the first lunge of his morph, by teleporting behind it and spinning around. The beast swirled to meet him, maw wide and Ash tried to throw a sphere towards the skull.

It hit, but the impact did nothing. Alarmed, Ash instinctively teleported backwards a metre or so, allowing Lucario to rush in with his bone staff, whirling it around while dodging the paws, flames and jaws. Ash was about to move into help, when something barrelled into him, sending him flying to the ground. He rolled over, eyes widening at the new morph which had arrived.

It might have been a Feraligatr at one point, but now it was so horribly mutated and deformed Ash could not even identify what it was spliced with. A claw slashed thought the air, and the aura guardian rolled to the side, wincing as the force of the shudder travelled through the earth and up his spine. His hands scrabbled in front of him, as a flamethrower (Feraligatr couldn't learn flame thrower!) formed.

His protect shield bubbled weakly, but held against the flames. The heat seeped through, and with a hiss Ash forced it back, the aura imbued fire hurtling towards the monster.

The alligator didn't even wince. It was as if it didn't feel the burning flames. Its fangs were growing long and icy, while its claws were extending, razor sharp water collecting at the edge.

Ash scrambled to his feet, shield deflecting the first blow before shattering, while with his other hand he reformed a blade of aura, slashing it towards the ice punch.

The scales tore, but the beast did nothing more than snarl angrily and reach its giant head forwards, jaws widening.

Ash hurriedly teleported back several metres, instantly ducking as Luca hurtled an aura sphere over his head, the blue sphere colliding with the side of the hound the jackal had been harrying, and cracking something by the sounds of it. Now lightning sparked out of the jaws, and Ash deflected it, conveniently sideways towards where Lance was parrying off blows with the other hell hound.

"I need some help." He called to Luca, before moving back to deal with the Feraligatr, which had gained a few steps, lumbering forwards. Ash spun around, aura sphere flying from his hand, hitting that fearsome head, knocking it sideways under the impact. The second sphere was battered away with a paw, crashing carelessly into the rocky wall and making the tunnel shake.

As the already fragile Victory Ruins shook, in a mock earthquake, the hell hound Lance was dealing with let out a whine, pausing to dodge a falling stalactite from the ceiling. Lance used the opportunity to lunge forwards, ignoring the bite of the electricity, and to slam his blade through the eye of the beast.

It screamed in rage, shaking its head, but only sending the blade deeper as Lance grimly held on. Glancing at the spiky, blood encrusted fur he winced slightly. "This is going to hurt." He muttered, before swinging himself around onto the hounds back, still holding onto his sword. He twisted it in deeper.

The beast wailed once more, shaking wildly to lose its unwanted guest. Its struggle was growing weak, thrashing slowing as bright crimson blood, speckled with blood dribbled out of the eye.

With one last violent jerk, which threw the champion tumbling towards the ground, the hound reared up, clawing at the air blindly before falling back down.

Lance rolled, to avoid the falling body, and it thumped down next to him, barely missing the dragon master lying there, sprawled on the ground.

Pushing himself wearily to his feet and staggering over to the fallen hell hound, Lance tried to pull his sword from the beast's eye. It wasn't easy, but it came clean, dripping with the speckled blood and with a sneer of disgust, the champion wiped it down, simultaneously spinning around to see where Ash and Luca got to.

The jackal had disposed of his hound, with what might have been a force palm to the chest, pulling apart ribs and flesh to tear out the still beating heart. The two were now trying to persuade the three metre high Feraligatr that it made a better tasting meal that they did.

Ash ducked another swipe of the claws, throwing an aura sphere while Feraligatr worried about batting aside his aura partner. Ash formed another sphere, letting it crackle with black electricity before throwing it forwards, catching the alligator on the chest and making it pause, as the static raced through him.

"There are more?" Lance stared in shock over the hell hound corpse. He was staring beyond the alligator, to the red eyes and snarling silver fangs in the gloom, the shadows creeping forward.

"Change of plan." Ash freaked out slightly and taking advantage of the paralyzed gator, he teleported back to Lance. "We might be retreating but at least we're still victorious!" and he grabbed the champion, darting for the stairs out of Victory Caverns, without waiting for the Feraligatr to recover.

Zo must have gotten Erika and Misty out, even if it was literally by pulling them up the stairs which lead to the open surface. Ash spun around to his black jackal. "Can you break the stairs?" he asked.

Luca nodded once.

"Then do it!"

Lance took the stairs three at a time, skidding slightly on loose rubble. He paused near the top, checking that Erika hadn't slipped back down, or that Rai was up there already and Misty's Golduck hadn't been forgotten.

Dratini shifted around his neck and he made for the light, hoping that Ash… what was Ash doing now?

At the bottom of the stairs, the dark jackal was spinning his bone club, before slamming it point first into the stairs. From the blue aura club, cracks spread outwards, like cracking ice. Ash had paused to throw aura spheres and the odd black aura blade or two at the approaching morphs, but at the horrible cracking sound of the bone rush in the stairs, he had spun around, in two teleports appearing once at the bottom of the stairs, and once more at the top next to Lance.

It appeared that his ability was working quite well today, Lance mused.

Lucario didn't hesitated, bounding up the stairs, and even his light steps made the wobbly stairs creak and crack further, and then they were falling, falling into dust and rubble and he wasn't going to make it. Ash had lunged forward, prepared to dive after his aura partner, but with a leap, the jackal jumped up, spinning through the air, the last few metres before landing lightly in front of his trainer, one knee touching the ground and his paws spread eagled to each side, eyes closed.

"Move away from edge!" Ash dragged Lance back, as snarling jaws emerged from the dust, spittle flying, and claws scrabbling for a grip, before sliding back down into the abyss, a whine escaping from the hell hound. Lucario spun around, throwing a dark pulse down into the hole. Growls and yelps could be heard, and Lance shivered slightly, at the memory of those silver fangs.

Ash was right. If the other criminal teams were the lowest of the low, then Team Rocket had managed to fall that little bit lower.

"Are you okay?" Ash glanced sideways at him, and he nodded, glancing around for the girls and Rai. He froze, and the champion watched as the aura guardian's body stiffened, spinning around fully to face the scene in front of them.

Lance turned, dusty and dishevelled but all of that paled in comparison to what was in front of him. He was staring a score of black suited rockets and Team members, weapons raised and pointing straight towards them, Persians snarling and a Seviper baring its fangs. Va struggled weakly under a Persian, form shifting and blurring but the cat did not release its grip. Misty and Erika were held, hands bound behind their backs and guns pressed against their head. Rai was still snarling, surrounded by three Sandshrew and a Marokwak, the electric mouse desperate to get passed, Pichu clinging to him. Golduck was knocked out entirely, lest his psychic swing the favour back around for the rebels.

Lance glanced at Ash, who was entirely fixed on Misty. Said gym leader was struggling, eyes desperate, and gaze falling on the dark haired man whose hood had miraculously managed to stay up that entire time.

Oh, Lance could continue hoping that Misty might find out before the sacrificial suicidal idiot managed to put time back together.

Misty was cursing herself mentally at the moment, and the last thing on her mind was the strange coincidences between Shadow and her dead boyfriend. If they were any similarities she did not want to see them, and with the gun pressed to her temple she had worse things to worry about.

This was why she never joined SECTION dammit!

She and Erika were held by rockets, along with Zo who had remained human. Ash and Lance stood there, stuck, and behind them in the pit the hell hounds screeched in anger at their lost prey, and they stepped away from them, all too aware that there was nowhere to run.

"It was a trap." Misty gasped, glancing pleadingly at them. "The hell hounds were to chase us out. It was a trap. And we fell for it."

"It was either that, or be ripped to death." Lance tried to reassure her, but it didn't really work.

"Hands up!" one called. They seemed a bit lacking in leaders, to be promoting ordinary grunts to giving orders. "Pokémon to the side and weapons on the ground, or we kill your friends."

"No!" Erika protested. "Don't!" But she saw the way Ash's body was directed towards Misty, and even if she couldn't see the pain in those brown-blue-gold-green eyes she knew it would be there. Misty had two gears. Lance had several and Ash… no… the rockets couldn't get them. Not now!

Yet she could see the utter look of defeat that seemed to frame what little of his hooded face she could see.

"Do what they say." He said, in a low voice to Lance, slowly raising his glowed hands in the air. The red-head looked reluctant, but seemed to agree.

"On your knees aura guardian," the rockets snapped, honing in on the biggest threat first.

Ash swallowed, and obeyed, dropping down.

"And you, champion! Tell your Pokémon to stand down!"

Luca reluctantly let his staff dissolve, into blue sparkles stepping slowly forward and kneeling. Dratini uncoiled himself from around his trainer's neck, sliding to the ground where an Arbok slid over, hissing threateningly.

"Hands behind your head where we can see them..!"

They obeyed. Lance and Ash both hated the shattered expression on the girl's faces, but both were in no position this time to argue. The latter was glancing around the clearing, looking for an escape, any escape but it was futile.

"You are under arrest for resisting Team control. You will be taken to Giovanni, and your Pokémon either retrained or used in experiments. All objects of value belong to us, and …" the voice droned on, but all Erika could feel, captured and trapped, was an overwhelming sense of failure. This was it – their mission had come to an end. They had failed.

Failed…

She barely noted the speaker breaking off in a choked gasp, until another grunt shouting brought her back to reality.

"Stop it! Let her go Guardian!"

"I'm not doing anything!" Ash was flustered, from where he knelt, hands behind his head.

"Like shit you are," the man cocked his gun, pacing forwards towards them angrily, only making it several steps before stopping, his face curiously blank. The gun in his hand rose towards them and Misty flinched, but it continued rising, until it pressed against the side of his own head.

"And press the trigger."

The psychic command echoed inside her head, but it was the grunt who obeyed, and Erika shut her eyes, pre-empting the hollow shot that rang out.

Screams echoed out and protesting cries, and then there were more shots, and she knew she was so dead, but nothing hit. After a pause of terrible silence, she cracked her eyes open, blinking around. There was something cold pressed to her temple, but the grip of the rocket had loosened and she pushed away the heavy arms, stumbling forwards towards Ash and Lance. The former had stood at the commotion, and she grabbed onto his jacket, staring into the shadowed face.

"Ash?" she asked, forgetting to use the nickname but Misty wasn't really listening any way. "Please tell me this is you."

"I'm not psychic Er. Sorry." Ash breathed eyes wide.

She spun around, staring at the frozen rockets, the bullets hanging in mid-air, faintly surrounded by what, from spending too much time with Sabrina, she recognised as a psychic glow.

Misty also stumbled loose, and Zo took the joy of kneeing her grunt in the crotch, but the face was curiously blank. Gaining no satisfaction from it, the purple haired girl sniffed, stalking over to Ash and the gang, totally unaware, oblivious of the psychic presence due to her dark typing.

"Tia!" (Stop!) a form shimmered invisibly, before appearing into view, as if a cloak had revealed the creature underneath. Zo almost walked into it, and she started, falling over backwards with wide eyes. The red and white eon dragon titled her wings; gold eyes staring judgementally past the fallen Zorua, at the blank faced rockets, before crooning softly, uncaring, as if dismissing the grunts. "IaTiaLalATia." (Okay, you can kill them if you want.)

The casual tone made Ash flinch. He watched as the rocket's face began to regain their awareness slowly, wondering what had happened.

Another patch of air ripple as the invisible became visible, a grey form appearing, purple tail and short cat like ears, skeletal fingers and violet eyes, glowing purple with psychic power. A worn brown travelling cloak was around his neck, a clasp holding it in place as the worn material billowed out from behind him. One arm raised, and just like that, the twenty grunts in front of them, blinking in confusion and rapidly growing anger and fear, stopped breathing.

Mewtwo was always well known for his hatred of Team Rocket.

And Erika fell to her knees, dragging Ash down with her as he patted her back, trying to comfort her, both watching them choke, clawing at their wind pipes, weapons clattering to the ground, gasped sounds escaping them and said nothing. Her gym was gone because of them, her friends dead. Once she might have protested, soft hearted and weak. But now she said nothing as she watched with grim eyes, neither pleased nor disgusting by it, just simply accepting.

Lance seemed more detached, as if the reality of the people choking to death hadn't occurred to him. He stayed on his feet, watching silently, not willing to bring himself to interfere.

And Ash… the light caught his eyes, flashing them red, and Erika shivered. The aura guardian had slumped down to the floor with her, watching the proceedings with callow indifference, and a slight hint of viciousness, which faded as soon as it appeared, only to be replaced by isolated interest and curiosity.

Misty however, who hadn't seen as much of the war as the others, who still knew what it was like, to be shocked by death, had had enough.

"Stop it!" she cried. "Mewtwo! Stop it! You're killing them."

"That's the idea." Ash spoke, drawling Sinnoh tones.

"Shut up." Misty snapped at him, staggering to her feet. "Mewtwo. Stop it. They're only human."

The head of the purple psychic snapped around at that, his stare fixed on Ash who stayed still, not meeting the Pokémon's eyes. Finally the cat conceded. "As you wish."

And at that, the grunts were released, falling to the floor, limp and unconscious. The purple Pokémon glanced at Misty silently as Latias spun in lazy circles, uncaring.

Erika slumped down next to Ash and cried.

[00:44AM] – 27th May 2011 – North Of Victory Road – Somewhere

It was the middle of the night, and according to Lance's Pokétch the day was now the 27th of May. It was so hard to believe that ten days ago, Erika had been working in her gym, practically a slave and completely unknowing of what was to come.

How things changed.

"I'm sorry." It took her a few moments to realise the purple Pokémon was talking to her.

"For what?" she asked still slightly freaked out by the telepathic Pokémon.

"Celadon City was your home, was it not?"

Her eyes widened, "Yes." She breathed.

Ash moved forward from where he had been checking the guards for pulses. It had seemed at first that he was thoroughly tempted to kill them, but he refrained, instead raiding them for supplies and weapons. "That was you?" he asked.

"Yes." Mewtwo nodded, "I wanted to ruin one of the rockets strongholds. I had been wandering the world, seeing the destruction they had wrought, and when I arrived there, I could not withhold my anger."

Lance crossed his arms, Dratini shifting in his usual position around his trainer's neck. "So were you responsible for Lavender as well?"

Erika swallowed, and met Ash's gaze, the latter speaking up. "Lance, that wasn't Mewtwo. That was us – me and Erika. We… uh… actually I don't know what we did, we just pressed a whole load of buttons and ran like hell."

"They deserved it." Erika was surprised by the hardness of her own voice. "Those hellhounds – they had a whole basement full of experiments like them... wild and savage, half monsters, half victims."

"The teams are vicious and will stop any who stand in their way."

Heads swivelled to the source of the light, female sounding voice. The Latias twisted her long neck to look at them. "What? Did you think that I, a psychic dragon could not use telepathy?"

"Latias..?" Misty broke the shocked silence, "What happened to Alto Mare? What happened to the…?"

"To the Soul Dew..? Rockets came, and they tried to steal my brother's spirit. In the fight it shattered, and the waters reclaimed the island. The monsters rose and any residents were killed." The eon dragoness was calm, seemingly detached from the incident.

"I'm sorry." Ash said, "It must have been hard on you."

"Thank you guardian..."

Mewtwo was looked at Ash curiously, as if he knew who stood there, yet said nothing. Mayhap a deeper levelled telepathic conversation had flowed between them, such as the link Ash seemed to hold with Zo, Va, Luca and Rai. Or maybe he just respected the elite's need for discretion. Instead, the purple Pokémon spoke to the four humans and Pokémon. "You are near to Indigo." He noted.

"What of it?" the Cerulean Leader challenged warily.

"We will aid you in the last stage of your quest." The DNA Pokémon stated, and the calm tone to his mental voice left no room for argument.

"A dragon approaches." Latias noted, gaze drifting to the sky.

Heads glanced up, eyes focussing on the approaching shadow in the sky. Erika felt panic set in again. Weren't they going to get a moment's peace?

"What is it?" Misty asked, peering up at the dark sky.

Mewtwo looked as if he was about to respond, but Lance beat him to it. "It's my Dragonite." And Erika felt a breath of pure relief escape her. Lance frowned, peering upwards at the sky. "He's got a message bag on – oh that was so May's idea."

"A message bag..?" Erika laughed, heart lightening "How quaint. A big scary dragon carrying messages?"

The red-head glared at her.

We're nearing the end, not quite there yet, still veering wildly towards an unstoppable end.

April 2013 – I admit, all the A-Shadow slip ups were me, trying to call him Ash and realising I couldn't. And to anybody wondering why Misty still isn't asking Ash about anything, she's getting there. She just doesn't want to get her hopes up. Next chapter though, she finally snaps.

I know… more morphs. It's a theme of the story, I guess, and next chapter, and the final battle you will see more examples. I hope you don't hate them too much, but it's better than fighting against normal Pokémon or humans. This chapter is probably the darkest after the Cinnabar one, and not just because they were stuck in the caves.

Unknown is revealed as Mewtwo, but then that wasn't a surprise to anyone, was it? Latias has previous made an appearance in the beginning of the bell chapter, gliding over Kanto. The pair seemed to have ganged together to stop the rockets. I considered using Deoxys who is probably either vacationing in Sevii or Hoenn, but as a space virus, he probably doesn't care much for human issues. Latias however, lost her home as mentioned in chapter 3, so I needed to come back and see how she was.

Okay, so just to confirm there is definitely going to be several prequel chapters which will be posted as part of this, after the main story had included. It will cover how Ash became an aura guardian, how he became an elite four member, the general gap between the end of the Sinnoh Saga and the beginning of this story. This story was written without the background stuff, so you can find it out as you go along, but it's going to be posted to make it all a bit clearer and to show how relationships (Ash and Riley friendship, Ash and Lance friendship, Ash and Misty romance) develop.

Thank you so much for the reviews – you guys are totally amazing! And even though this week is filled with mock exams and school once more, it brightens my day to read your comments and ideas!

~ Eclipse