In which the gang discovers that Wizard Lenin's Butterfree is one seriously ugly pokémon, Wizard Lenin is clearly traumatized from previous events, and nobody trusts Lily after the Puerto Vista disaster for good reason.

Once again, we join our hero Ash on his continuing quest to become a pokémon master. With his friends Brock, Misty, Lily, Lenin, and Pikachu Ash's next adventure is on the horizon.

Lily and Lenin's next adventure, however, is being carried in Lenin's backpack.

As usual, rather than following one of the many clearly laid out routes in Kanto that could lead one from one town to another, they were taking a short cut. A shortcut meaning, they were walking on luscious green grass, under a clear blue sky with only a smattering of clouds, walking right up to the edge of a cliff with the sea crashing beneath them.

In other words, not Saffron City.

For once though Wizard Lenin didn't seem to mind the delay as he stared out with all the enthusiasm of the newly dead towards the endless horizon.

The others, as usual, were suffering from their usual memory issues that had them forget they even had a destination in the first place.

"Wow, look at those rocks!" Ash cried out as they peered down at the rocks just beneath the cliff, jutting out from the sea, and looking like they'd be very uncomfortable to land on.

"That's a long drop," Ash muttered to himself, crouching over the edge of the cliff with a drip of sweat running down his temple.

"Fall from here," Misty added, "And the ball game's over."

Lily, too, liked to make grand metaphors about life being like a good old game of baseball. Only, halfway through you realized it was actually a game of golf, and you wanted to keep your score as low as possible, because round too many bases and consequences in the form of giant eggs caught up with you.

Brock peered at his map then back down at the cliff face and the small, barely visible, ledge jutting out just above the surface of the sea, "The map says that this ledge leads right to Saffron City."

Or to half the gang's drowning.

"And to our next challenge at the Saffron gym," Ash added with a determined grin and no sense of self-preservation whatsoever, "Yeah!"

Oh, so they hadn't forgotten why they were here and what they were doing. Lily always had to wonder, and usually made a point to complain about it, but for understandable reasons she'd spent most of their time since that unfortunate visit to Maiden's Peak keeping to herself.

She did not need Ash and the gang remembering her existence right now.

That said, if they did manage to reach Saffron City so soon, Lily wasn't sure Wizard Lenin was exactly ready to take advantage of it. Lily may not have been in the best mood or the top of her game since Maiden's Peak but she was leagues ahead of Wizard Lenin.

If Lily had only spared the odd word or two since Maiden's Peak then he'd spared none. He just kept walking forward, not even looking at the map, and stuffing the egg deep inside his backpack where no one could look at it.

Lily assumed it hadn't done anything, or hatched, but honestly with that backpack sealed shut the world might never know.

She didn't think he was any condition to start seriously looking for ways to jump dimensions. She didn't even think he was in any condition for the usual weekly bullshit they got dragged into. Which, considering their last adventure, wasn't exactly hard to understand.

Lily wasn't exactly prepared for another go around with a Ghastly either.

She might, in fact, run away screaming at the top of her lungs.

Thankfully, nothing too strange had happened since—

"Huh, what are those?" Ash asked, pointing out into the distance where, if Lily squinted, she could make out hundreds of white fluttering shapes. Wings, probably, maybe angry seagulls.

"They look like Butterfree," Misty chimed in.

Lily guessed she could say that, but either Misty had much better eyesight than Lily did or a very fanciful imagination. From this distance, it could be a horde of giant white locusts out there.

"The Butterfree are celebrating their season of love," Brock explained with a nostalgic smile on his face.

Brock had gotten over his star-crossed relationship with a ghost pokémon in drag very quickly.

Wizard Lenin silently started, the hair on the back of his neck rising dangerously, and his eyes getting an almost feral look as his hands tightened their grip on the backpack carrying not only the key to Lily's evolution but also the still as of yet unnamed egg that both he and Lily were pretending didn't exist.

"Love?" Misty asked.

"Yeah, the season of love is when the Butterfree lay their eggs," Brock said, oblivious as Wizard Lenin's head slowly turned towards him, "The Butterfree find mates then lay their eggs across the sea."

They all stared out at the sea in front of them, no sign of any islands or continent on the distant horizon.

"Across the sea?" Ash asked in awe.

"That's right," Brock confirmed.

"How cute!" Misty exclaimed, as she did with all things she found romantic.

Though this one was better than the time she thought a meteor was the most romantic thing she'd ever heard of.

Ash stared out then looked at Wizard Lenin, "Hey, don't you have a Butterfree?"

Wizard Lenin's hand whipped to his belt storing the few pokémon he'd caught or else coerced into coming with him. One, of course, being the Butterfree in question.

"Well, if he doesn't let it cross the sea it will never have babies," Brock noted.

Wizard Lenin cracked, "What's wrong with not having children?!"

They all turned to stare at him blankly.

"Some people never have children! Some people never want children! Some people never ask to get brainwashed by a malicious spirit conning humans left and right and then wake up with a giant egg, not even a human fetus but a blasted egg, that could hatch any minute now!"

"Geez, Lenin," Ash said, "Why are you so touchy?"

"He's right," Misty said slowly in concern, "You're getting really defensive."

"I am not getting defensive!" he spat back, very clearly defensive not only by his words and posture but the aura of magic steadily growing around him.

"No, really," Ash said, "You've been on edge all week. Ever since we left port. Is it because you guys found that pokémon egg?"

Per Ash and the rest of the gang, Lily and Wizard Lenin had gone on some grand adventure at Maiden's Peak which had resulted in the pair of them finding a mysterious pokémon egg. As Wizard Lenin was the actual human trainer, he naturally had a right to it whenever it eventually hatched.

Lily felt like she should ordinarily object to that kind of logic, but, well… He was the one with the backpack.

"It is not because I found a pokémon egg!"

Dragonite, one of the few in the know and the only one of the pokémon able to talk about it to the humans, finally cut in awkwardly, "You know, that's really something you should let Butterfree decide. I mean, even if he goes out there, he may decide he doesn't want a mate. It's not like anyone's going to threaten him into it."

At seeing Wizard Lenin fuming he quietly added, "Or, you know, place him under a hypnotic illusion."

Dragonite stumbled back just as Wizard Lenin lit the grass beneath his feet on fire.

Everyone turned to look at Lily in accusation, clearly waiting for some kind of explanation. Why did this feel exactly like those last few days in Hogwarts where everyone blamed her for everything, especially Wizard Lenin's pyrotechnics?

"Sorry," Lily said with a small sigh, covering for the emotional train wreck that was Wizard Lenin as always, "I just… felt like lighting all the grass on fire."

"You don't need to worry about the egg," Brock said slowly, turning back to look at the rattled Wizard Lenin, "It'll probably take a few months, maybe even a year, but it'll hatch eventually."

Brock didn't seem to notice that the egg hatching was the last thing Wizard Lenin wanted. Well, not quite. He hadn't dashed the egg against the rocks yet or tried to break it before it was born. Similarly, while he might not have looked at it long, he did add in extra padding to his backpack before he stuffed it in there out of sight.

In other words, Wizard Lenin had yet to take the easiest way out, the one Lily herself wasn't certain how she felt about.

That didn't mean Wizard Lenin wanted it hatching today either.

"In fact," Brock said with a smile, "The more pokémon you catch, the stronger your team becomes, the faster it'll hatch!"

You could almost see the lightbulb above Wizard Lenin's head turn on.

Wizard Lenin brought up a pokéball, presumably Butterfree's, with a look of sudden determination. The kind of determination that had seen the wizarding world fall to its knees, "You're absolutely right, we must see to Butterfree's future, help him find a wife, and build a beautiful life across the sea and far away from me."

The adventure of the day decided, they quickly moved away from the cliff and stumbled conveniently on a hot air balloon available to rent for the Butterfree mating season. It was a bit of a tight squeeze for all of them, especially given Lily's many pokémon friends, but they did all fit.

(God help them though when Charmander and Bulbasaur started getting any bigger and heavier.)

It was still crowded enough that Wizard Lenin, stuffed into the very corner of the basket, had protectively moved his backpack off his back and held it delicately in front of him to avoid its contents getting crushed.

He dutifully ignored the wary looks that Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Clefairy, and Charmander were sending in his direction just as he had all week.

"What a view!" Ash crowed as they took off.

And it was, under normal circumstances, Lily would probably be equally awed by the sight of the sun glittering against the sea as they rose into the sky.

The view grew to include the Butterfree themselves, giant purple butterflies, each paired off and looking so lovesick you could almost see little hearts forming above their oversized heads.

"Wow, the Butterfree are pairing off into couples," Misty exclaimed with a giant grin on her face.

"Okay Lenin," Brock said but Lenin just glared out at the Butterfree as if they were the source of all the injustice in the world.

"Uh, Lenin," Ash said, nudging him in the ribs, "That's kind of your cue."

Without another word Wizard Lenin grabbed Butterfree's pokéball and threw it down into the basket. Butterfree appeared as a ball of bright light, then materialized, and slowly began to fly towards the others as Wizard Lenin shouted at his back, "And don't even think about coming back!"

"Wow, you're so supportive!" Ash said with a grin, slapping a hand on Wizard Lenin's back, "I always thought you were kind of a jerk, but you really do care about your Pokémon."

"Shut up," Wizard Lenin hissed back, pale eyes trained on Butterfree, whose future conquests in love apparently had direct effect on when Wizard Lenin's consequences in love would emerge to bite them all in the ass.

"Go out there and find your mate!" Ash shouted towards Butterfree as he slowly floated away from them.

"Good luck, Butterfree!" Misty joined in.

They watched, each with a smile on their face, as Butterfree approached first one giant butterfly, then another, then a third. Each of their smiles disappeared slowly as Wizard Lenin's butterfly darted all over the place and finally flew away from the flock of Butterfree altogether.

"Maybe none of those Butterfree is it's type," Brock hypothesized slowly.

Wizard Lenin, meanwhile, looked as if he was about to collapse on the floor in despair.

"What do you mean by its type, Brock?" Misty asked, "The Butterfree all look exactly the same to me."

"Some must fly better than others," Brock explained, "Or maybe they have slightly different patterns I guess."

"So, what you're saying is that Lenin's Butterfree is not good looking," Lily slowly concluded.

"Well," Brock started, then stopped, because that was exactly what he'd been saying and they all could clearly see it from Butterfree's constant rejections.

"But surely, someone else out there must be the homeliest girl at the prom," Wizard Lenin said desperately, lifting himself to stare at the other Butterfree in despair.

Before anyone could tell Wizard Lenin that this was very rude, surely his Butterfree wasn't that hideous, there was the sound of pokéballs opening en masse. Turning around, Lily spotted several other hot air balloons ascending into the sky and with them their own Butterfree released for mating season.

"Look at all the balloons!" Misty cried out.

"They're all Butterfree trainers," Brock explained, "They come at this time every year to release their Butterfree."

"Thank god," Wizard Lenin cried out, looking towards them with a joyous expression he surely didn't deserve, "There's still hope."

One trainer, in fact, was a beautiful young woman with purple hair. Looking down fondly at her pokéball as her balloon rose next to theirs, she said, "You just go find yourself a nice mate, Butterfree."

She released her Butterfree, which to Lily's eye looked identical to Wizard Lenin's, which let out a joyous "Free" as it flew off towards the rest of the flock.

At the sight of her, laughing as her Butterfree pursued love, Brock's face turned the bright red only seen on a burning kitchen stove. The demented gurgling coming out of his mouth could only be described as the gurgles of love.

"Oh no," Misty said with a sly look on her face, "Not this again."

Before Brock could respond to that a dejected Butterfree returned to hover silently in front of their basket, officially having struck out.

Brock, however, no longer seemed to care about Butterfree's feelings, "Listen up, Butterfree! See that Butterfree that girl just released!"

Brock pointed at one of the random, indistinguishable, purple butterflies flying just beyond their basket, "That one, that one right there, pick that one!"

Butterfree looked at the butterfly then slowly looked back at Brock.

"Don't you get it?!" Brock asked, struggling to contain the intensity of his emotions, "If two Butterfree fall in love then their trainers will meet, and they can fall in love too!"

Misty knocked Brock on the back of his head, "Don't butt into pokémon love affairs!"

"But Misty," Ash said slowly, "If Butterfree never finds a mate it won't ever have babies."

"There are worse fates!" Wizard Lenin interjected, clutching at his backpack in desperation, "It could actually have those babies!"

They all, once again, gave him a look with raised eyebrows as if they were watching him slowly lose his mind. Which, they were, watching him slowly lose his mind that is.

He then pointed out towards the mob of Butterfree, loosening his hold on his backpack as he commanded his Butterfree to go forth and conquer, "You're not good looking enough to be picky or find one after only a few attempts. Go out there and keep looking until you find the one with low self-esteem!"

Butterfree gave him a small, almost spiteful, glare before he did as he was told and made his way back into the mob of butteflies.

"Go get em, Butterfree," Misty said with a fist raised, "The perfect mate for you has got to be out there somewhere!"

"Don't aim for a ten," Wizard Lenin shouted after him in desperation, "A three! Try for a three!"

For a moment Butterfree roamed listlessly somewhere in the mob, floating from butterfly to butterfly with little interest anywhere. Then, suddenly it was moving with a renewed energy towards one of them in the middle.

"It looks like Butterfree really found someone it likes," Misty noted with a fond smile.

"Yeah, love at first sight with that pink one," Brock said with his own fond smile, his own striking out with the purple haired girl who hadn't even noticed his existence summarily forgotten.

He was right about it being pink. This new butterfly wasn't the same dark purple as the other Butterfree but a light bubblegum pink. Lily leaned out of the basket, squinting as she tried to get a good look at it, "Does it have a skin condition?"

"Good," Wizard Lenin said, "Then it's more likely to actually get lucky with this one."

They watched as Butterfree hovered around his pink friend. Wriggling his body like a stiff white man pretending he understood funk on a dance floor.

"Butterfree's acting kind of weird," Ash said with one eyebrow raised, clearly not sure what to make of what he was seeing.

Wizard Lenin just had his head buried into one hand.

"That's Butterfree's courtship dance," Brock explained, "It's Butterfree's way of saying 'I want to be your Butterfree.'"

Lily herself wasn't a giant butterfly but somehow, she just knew that Butterfree couldn't bust a move to save his life.

"Oh, that's so romantic," Misty said.

"If it's successful the other Butterfree does a dance too."

The other Butterfree remained right where it was, flying straight as an arrow, giving no one any chance to say that any of its movements were a dance of any kind.

"It's doing… something," Misty said, and by something she meant that the pink Butterfree was now flying straight up, away from Butterfree's wretched dancing.

And, upon Wizard Lenin's Butterfree's refusal to take no for an answer as he flew after her, she then slapped the purple Butterfree across the face.

"Ouch," Lily said with a whistle.

"Not even the one with the skin condition," Wizard Lenin said in despair.

An hour later they found Butterfree on the ground, hiding in a local forest, slumped against a tree as it sniffled to itself.

Butterfree didn't even lift his head to acknowledge them as they circled around the tree to get a full look at him. He just let out a pitiful, trilling, "Free" that held all the disappointment of every young man who couldn't find a date to the Prom.

"Hey," Ash said squatting down to Butterfree's eye level, "How come you look so sad, buddy?"

"It was rejected by someone it loved," Brock explained with his own pout, taking Butterfree's rejection a little too personally, "That's a terrible shock. Believe me, it's a terrible feeling. I could write a book about the secrets of love and heartache!"

"I guess that book would be your autobiography," Misty noted only for Brock to look utterly crestfallen.

"Well," Wizard Lenin said slowly, "I guess there are other fish in the sea somewhere out there."

And now it was Butterfree's turn to look utterly crestfallen.

Ash pulled out his pokédex with a considering look, "Do you think Dexter can tell how Butterfree can get that other Butterfree to be its mate?"

"Dexter's never been in love," Misty pointed out.

"I don't think that's the problem here," Lily said slowly. The calculator having never found a calculator to breed with was the least of Butterfree's problems.

"I just don't understand it," Ash finally said as he lowered the pokédex, "It might be Lenin's Butterfree, but I almost caught it and it's great. Why would any other Butterfree reject it?"

"Because I'm beginning to think that Butterfree looks like the Phantom of the Opera by Butterfree standards," Lily said slowly. She'd never had to personify Butterfree before but now she was rather glad she'd never had the occasion to.

God only knew what would end up greeting her.

"Hey!" Ash shot back, "You can't say things like that!"

Ash looked down at Butterfree, "Butterfree, maybe you just have to show off your strengths and let the others see great you are. Show how powerful your tackle is! Or how you can use stun spore!"

"That's right, Butterfree," Misty added with a determined smile, "You've got to be assertive! Love is all about attacking your opponent first. Get in a quick punch and surprise them! Then, while they're still weak, take the lead and you'll beat them hands down! Trust me, I know! That's the best way to win!"

Lily was now seriously wondering what kind of relationships Misty had been in and if she hadn't mistaken them for MMA fights.

"You mean it?" Brock asked, looking at Misty like she'd just shown him the meaning of life.

"Sure do, that's love!" Misty said with no hint of uncertainty.

"I wish I'd known that sooner!" Brock said, rubbing at his head, envisioning all the times he could have tackled a woman into submission.

Lily opened her mouth, about to add that when all else failed they could find a Ghastly to give them roofies, then closed it. She wasn't sure Misty's advice was the one they should follow, but, well, at least it was advice.

"Let's give it another try!" Ash said with determination.

"Hold it!" Brock said, "A new look might help!"

Brock reached into his backpack and pulled out a single, yellow, ribbon. With dexterity that comes with tying many bows in many little sisters' hair he tied it around Butterfree's neck. When he was done it looked just like it usually did, except with a ribbon on its neck.

By its expression though, you'd think he'd just had an extreme makeover.

Lily was not nearly as hopeful.

Wizard Lenin didn't look out at the flock of Butterfree as they took the hot air balloon up into the sky again. Ash was the one with the binoculars, trained on Butterfree's every move, and probably ready to start pulling a pokémon version of Cyrano de Bergerac if all else failed.

"We've got to find it," Ash muttered, focusing and refocusing his binoculars as he looked out at the flock, "Where did that pink Butterfree go?"

"This is important to you, isn't it?" Misty asked in mild surprise.

Ash turned to glare at Misty, "It might not be my Butterfree, but I almost caught it, and I'll show everybody just how good it is. Especially if somebody else won't!"

This was pointed at Wizard Lenin, but he was far past the point of caring about Ash's good opinion. Wizard Lenin, sitting on the floor of the basket staring dully at his backpack, looked like he was past the point of caring about anything anymore.

Finally, Ash caught sight of it, "There it is!"

He looked over towards their own Butterfree, hovering next to the balloon, "Now Butterfree, this time just have confidence in yourself!"

Wizard Lenin gave out a weak, sad, laugh at that terrible terrible advice that could only come from someone very well meaning but had no idea how the world worked.

"Go!" Ash commanded, and Butterfree, with a tiny trilling war cry, went out to pursue his pink lady love.

"Butterfree!" Ash shouted out to the pokémon once it reached its pink target, "Show it your whirlwind attack!"

Butterfree complied, letting loose a small whirlwind by flapping its wings, only to earn the complete disregard of the pink Butterfree who apparently had seen better.

Ash watched, stunned for a moment, before commanding, "Now use your tackle, that should do the trick!"

Butterfree tackled empty air in front of the Butterfree. It didn't do the trick, the pink Butterfree couldn't even stand to look at him.

"Ouch," Lily said for the second time that day.

She then looked down at Wizard Lenin, "Um, Lenin? You might want to be prepared for Butterfree not flying off and having any babies this year."

He looked up just enough to give her the kind of glare that could strike terror into the souls of the dead.

"Just thought you should know," Lily added.

Before she could say more, or Butterfree could come pitifully flying back in defeat, a black chopper suddenly rose among the hot air balloons.

No, it wasn't just black. It was black with a few red highlights, an R painted onto the side and behind it a banner with that same red R as well as two cartooned familiar faces trailing behind as they moved forward.

"What's that?" Ash said just as Lily said, "Oh no."

It'd been about a week since they'd seen them last, after all.

"Prepare for trouble," a familiar voice warned over a megaphone.

"Make it double," another, very familiar, voice added.

And they were doing the same speech they did every time Lily saw them. Did they honestly do that every time they happened to run into the gang or was it just whenever they walked through a door?

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all peoples within our nation!"

Well, Lily was hardly going to let them finish. She let out a breath, concentrating, and prepared herself to blow them straight to hell only for Dragonite to snatch at her arm.

"Hey!" she shouted, glaring over her shoulder at him, but he didn't let go.

"You can't go blowing them up here!" he hissed, "You'll hit the Butterfree!"

"I'm capable of aiming!" Lily spat back.

Dragonite just shook his head, kept holding onto her arm despite her struggling, "Forgive me if the last time I trusted you on that you blew up a town!"

"I was aiming for the town!"

"That makes it even worse!"

Before Lily could note that no, it didn't, because it meant that she could make the helicopter blow up in a very contained fashion that didn't even touch the Butterfree Wizard Lenin finally spoke up.

"Lily, don't blow up the helicopter."

"But—" Lily motioned towards the helicopter, to the oversized pokéball now lowering from it, and then back to them, "We can't just—"

"And we won't!" Ash cried out, pointing towards Team Rocket with a grim look before looking back at Lily sheepishly, "But Draco's right, you did blow up the town last time."

"It was one time!" Lily cried out, "And you guys left me no choice!"

The pokéball then turned into a giant net, capturing all the Butterfree not swift or nimble enough to avoid it.

"They're stealing the Butterfree!" Misty shouted, as the Butterfree screamed in terror as they found themselves trapped in the net.

"Stop, or you're going to disrupt their whole egg laying season!" Brock shouted as if the Team Rocket could hear him and would even care.

"Can't you see these Butterfree are in love!" Misty shouted, as if they cared about what she had to say too.

"Do you still want me to just sit here and—" Lily didn't even get a chance to finish her sentence.

"You blow them up now and you'll just be blowing up the Butterfree with them!" Ash shouted back, pointing at the net now half full of terrified butterflies.

"Well maybe if someone had let me just get rid of them before they brought out the net then none of this would have happened!" Lily shouted back, before motioning to the net, "And I can just destroy the net and then—"

"Can it, Lily!" Ash said, "Sometimes you have to do things the old-fashioned way."

The old-fashioned way? What the hell did that even mean? So far as she could tell the old-fashioned way was just Ash and the gang shouting useless profanities at a helicopter. Lily was sure, somewhere in that helicopter, Jessie, James, and Meowth were quaking in terror.

Well, more likely, they were wondering why Lily and or Pikachu hadn't blown them up yet.

Lily looked down at her electric friend, "Why aren't you doing anything about this?"

"Pika?!" Pikachu asked in surprise. Then, seeing that Lily was serious, flailed his stubby little arms towards both the helicopter and the flock of Butterfree, "What, you think you'll hit them too? Are you telling me you can't aim?!"

"Pikachu!" Pikachu shouted back and, without warning, Lily found herself in the tender embrace of Pikachu's electric rage.

After recovering, Lily turned to look at the rest of her pokémon friends, "And the rest of you?"

They all shrugged somewhat awkwardly, none of them meeting her eyes, and she didn't have to hear human words to know that 'we'd also hit the Butterfree' was on the tip of their tongues.

Ash looked to Brock, "Can't we speed this thing up and catch them?"

Brock, now working the hot air in the balloon, shook his head, "I'm trying, Ash, but their chopper's a lot faster."

"We don't have to catch up to them," Lily hissed, "I can just—"

"Don't even think about it," Wizard Lenin hissed.

Butterfree, not yet caught in the net and distinguishable by his yellow ribbon, began slamming against Team Rocket's helicopter with reckless abandon.

"Yeah, that's it Butterfree, use your tackle attack!" Ash encouraged, seeming to pay no time that Butterfree was having absolutely no effect on the steel chopper.

"Oh, come on," Lily said, "He's allowed to do something?"

Ash paid no mind, eagerly commanding Wizard Lenin's Butterfree when it was clear trying to knock the helicopter off balance wasn't going to work, "Butterfree, stun spore now!"

Butterfree rose above the whirring blades and attempted to use stun spore. Now, Lily could do what everyone said and watch as the blades prevented the dust from settling into the helicopter or she could cheat.

With everyone fixated on the Butterfree Lily concentrated on the pilots she knew were in there and paralyzed them for him.

"Oh look," Lily said with a grin, "Butterfree's stun spore worked!"

"Alright!" Ash said, and then, blinking in confusion exclaimed, "Hey, what's happening to the helicopter!"

The helicopter kept moving forward for a few moments and then began to take a perilous nosedive with all the screeching Butterfree still trapped in the net.

"The pilots are paralyzed!" Brock exclaimed, "They can't steer the chopper! They're going to crash!"

Oh, oh no.

Lily watched as the helicopter did indeed crash into several of the hot air balloons, blades slashing through the fabric, causing the shrieking pokémon trainers to plummet towards the ground miles below.

Oh no.

She couldn't watch.

"What are you doing?!" Dragonite said, shaking her by her shoulders with a desperate look in his eyes, "If you just stand there then they'll all die!"

"Oh, I don't know," Lily said with a small laugh, "Team Rocket's indestructible."

Seriously, they appeared to be just as immortal as Lily herself. Every time they were caught in an exploding building or flung off into the horizon they just kept coming back.

"Lily!" he said, and you could practically see flames coming out of his blue eyes.

Just before the helicopter crashed into the ground Lily cut open the net, letting the Butterfree scatter just in time. Team Rocket ejected out of their seats, blasting off again into the distance, just before the helicopter crashed and burst into flames.

Wizard Lenin's Butterfree and the traumatized pink Butterfree, who having just faced death head on was no longer so picky, joyfully reunited. Now they both partook in their gleefully awkward mating dance.

Clearly, it was true love.

"Oh, look at that, it worked out for Butterfree after all, hooray," Lily said, clapping her hands together for Butterfree.

Nobody seemed distracted.

Finally, Dragonite said with a small glare, "What happened to being able to aim?"

"Why are you looking at me?" Lily asked, "It was Butterfree's stun spore."

Come sunset, after the trainers were rescued and bandaged up and the Butterfree flock slowly but surely departed, the gang found themselves on the cliff where they'd started, meeting with Butterfree and his new love for the last time.

"Well, I guess you have to leave us now, don't you?" Ash said slowly only for Butterfree to nod.

"They have to cross the ocean to start their new family," Brock explained for the wordless Butterfree.

"I'll miss you, Butterfree," Misty added.

Wizard Lenin, looking not quite sure how he was supposed to feel about this whole situation said, "You deserve a better life than this one anyway."

"Hey, don't say that," Ash chided, "You had some great times together. But you're right, it's time to let go."

"I'm surprised," Lily said to Ash, "I didn't think you'd be one to so easily let a pokémon go."

"Huh?" Ash asked.

"You can't really go and catch them all if you just set them loose at the first opportunity," Lily pointed out.

He considered that for a moment, "I guess, but I can't make my friends stay. No, I won't force them to stay when it's not what's best for them or what they want. Butterfree's in love now, wants to start a family, even someone like Lenin gets that that's more important than staying here."

"Yes," Wizard Lenin said, "Please leave, I need my pokémon team to be as small and weak as possible."

In other words, Wizard Lenin was going to drag out that egg hatching until the end of time. Lily… Well, Lily might superficially be handling it better than him but that was because she was choosing not to think about it.

Nope, that whole Maiden's Peak adventure was out of sight and out of mind, and Lily's biggest worries were getting home, saving the world, and the fact that somewhere along the way she maybe agreed to be Ash's pokémon.

"You are the biggest jerk!" Ash exclaimed, "You might never see him again! Is that all you have to say?"

Wizard Lenin looked a bit longer at Butterfree, who looked right back at him. In that moment, Lily realized she had no idea what their relationship was. They'd been in each other's worlds for such a short time and exchanged next to no words.

Wizard Lenin had caught him out of pettiness and spite, grew to pity the creature and feel the small pangs of guilt for catching him in the first place, battled with him once to a stalemate, and that was about it.

The way they looked at each other though, it wasn't as if nothing was there between them, just that Lily had no idea what it even was, and Wizard Lenin probably didn't either.

Finally, Wizard Lenin said with all the enthusiasm of a man watching his teeth get pulled out, "It was fun."

"I guess it's up to me then," Ash said with a look of disgust towards Wizard Lenin. He dropped to one knee in front of the Butterfree and said with a smile, "This is a great Butterfree, so take care of it for me."

The pink one nodded enthusiastically well and truly smitten with her toad of a prince in shining white armor.

"Your babies are gonna be beautiful," Misty said, which, well, probably not by Butterfree standards. But looks weren't everything, they'd probably have a mean tackle.

The pink Butterfree took off into the sky, leaving only the purple one behind on the ground.

"Don't worry," Ash assured him, "We'll just tell all the other pokémon that you're on a trip and you'll come back someday maybe."

Wizard Lenin looked awkwardly away, knowing that Butterfree was never coming back, but never one capable of truly emotional goodbyes either.

"Say goodbye, Lenin!" Ash chided, staring down at the ground so they couldn't see his face, or the tears building at the corners of his eyes.

"So long," Wizard Lenin said slowly, awkwardly, not sure how to inflect the proper sadness into his voice, "Good luck out there."

The Butterfree both took off into the sunset then, fading into the golden light, until neither could be seen. It was likely a long journey ahead of them, hard and with no islands to land on, but Lily had a feeling they'd make it.

Ash patted Wizard Lenin on the back, "It's okay, I know you have a hard time with your feelings, but he'll be okay out there. Better than okay."

Then, grinning, he motioned to Wizard Lenin's backpack, "And when that egg hatches you can raise and train a new pokémon all over again."

Wizard Lenin slowly turned his head towards Ash, eyes burning with rage once again, and hissed, "Don't touch me."

Good friendships last forever, even though friends don't always stay together. Helping Butterfree to grow, Ash just might have grown a little himself.

As for Lenin, well, he tried.

Author's Note: Bye Bye Butterfree.

Thanks for reading and reviewing, reviews are much appreciated.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Pokemon.