Darkness Falls
"Ash calm down. Take it easy!" Misty cooed soothingly trying to calm him.
"Calm down? I can't see!" Ash was blinking rapidly and shaking his head. He began to frantically rub his eyes.
Misty took his hands in an attempt to reassure him. She rubbed her thumbs across the backs of his hands as she spoke. "Hold on Ash. Pikachu, come here please."
The electric rodent cautiously moved towards its trainer, tears in it's eyes. "Pika?" It's voice was quivering. It's flash attack illuminated much of the surrounding cavern.
Misty inspected Ash. He stared blankly back at her. His breathing was heavy, controlled. It was obvious he was attempting to stay calm. She waved her hand in front of his face. Nothing.
Misty motioned for Pikachu to move closer. As it did, it illuminated the left side of Ash's face. She inhaled sharply when she saw it. Blood ran freely from a nasty gash bisecting his eyebrow. She touched it lightly. Ash winced and pulled back.
"Did you knock your head?"
"I guess. I can't really remember." He explained, blinking as blood ran from the cut and into his eye.
"Hold on. I'll just get my first aid kit."
He heard her move away from him. Gingerly he lifted his hand in front of his face and waved it back and froth. He could feel the slight breeze caused in it's wake but his eyes registered nothing. He stared into complete darkness. Suddenly he felt very alone.
"Misty?…….Misty?" He reached his hands out to search for her as he attempted to stand.
Misty was searching her bag when she heard him call out to her. She looked in his direction. He had his hands out in front of him, searching for any tangible evidence of her. She could even see his hands shake from her position seven metres away. He attempted to stand only to trip over his bag and fall once more to his knees. He looked so pitiful, so helpless.
She retrieved her first aid kit and ran to his side. "Sush Ash. I'm here" she gently pushed him into a sitting position. "First I'm gonna fix your cut, ok?" she told him softly. Ash nodded.
Gently she pushed his hair back off his forehead. Ash closed his eyes at the contact. Misty looked at him strangely before she dapped the wound with an anti-septic wipe.
"Agh!" Ash jerked back, opening his useless eyes. "That hurts!"
"Quit being a baby and stay still!" She ordered. She again pushed back his jet back hair and resumed cleaning the cut. Once all of the blood had been removed she closed the wound with four "steri-strips". Gently, she moved his head from side to side checking for any further damage. She studied his face intently. He hadn't changed much in the past two years. He stared blankly back at her, as if he was staring right through her.
"Myst?" he asked nervously.
"All done." She replied. "Hold on a sec." She grabbed Ash's flashlight and shone it into his eyes. The pupils shrank to become small black pinpoints.
"What are you doing?" he asked nervously.
"Your eyes seem to be focusing properly."
"Is that a good thing?"
"I don't know. I think the knock on the head might have screwed up your brain," she paused, "more so."
He smiled crookedly. "Where are we?"
"A large cave, maybe ten metres high, ten wide. I don't see how long it goes on for. There's a small stream running through it."
"Check the communicator. It's in my backpack. See if you can contact the others."
Misty searched through his pack until she found it. She switched it on and attempted to contact the others. "Gar-" She looked at Ash. "Brock are you there? Can you hear me?" The communicator remained silent. "It's not working. We must be too far under ground!"
"Great! How are we gonna get back? What about where we came out?"
Misty shone the flashlight up onto the roof. "Damn it. It looks like it's become infilled with rocks and crap. We'll never make it through there"
"Which way then?"
"I don't know. Your guess is as good as mine"
"Which way is the stream running?"
"South, why?"
"Well, it makes sense it would flow in the same basic direction as the river we were following, so I guess you should follow it."
"Me? What about you?" Concern was written all over Misty's face, she was glad Ash couldn't see her.
"I'll only slow you down. We don't know how much time we have left with the prophecy. You'd be better off alone"
"I'm not leaving you alone! You're helpless!"
"Thanks Myst." Ash deadpanned.
"I can guide you. I'd never forgive myself if I left you here and something happened to you"
Ash bowed his head, attempting to hide his blush.
"Come on" Misty ordered pulling him up. "I don't even want to think about the amount of bugs down here"
She clasped Ash's hands in hers and cautiously led him forward, Pikachu illuminating the cave.
Before they had gone ten paces Ash tripped and fell, inadvertently pulling Misty down with him
Ash sighed. "I told you this was a bad idea"
Brock, Duplica and Gary were standing over the hole that had swallowed Ash and Misty. Brock had sent Onix down to investigate, Gary was pacing back and forward, muttering occasionally and Duplica was fumbling with the communicator.
"Ash? Misty? Come in. Are you guys ok?" Duplica held the communicator to her head, straining her ears. Loud static came as a reply. "Agh!" She dropped the communicator.
"Onix return" The giant stone-snake pokémon was engulfed in red light as Brock recalled it.
"Onix couldn't find anything. The bedrock was too hard. I guess it couldn't get through"
"What are we going to do?! We have to find Misty!" Gary insisted.
"And Ash" Duplica reminded him.
"Whatever"
"I know this sounds cold hearted but we can't wait around here for much longer. Having to avoid the river is gonna add at least another day to our journey. We can't risk much more time" Brock explained.
"We can't just abandon them!" Duplica jumped up.
"Yeah!" Gary agreed enthusiastically.
"We're not abandoning them! But we can't abandon our mission either. Ash and Misty have enough common sense to head for the temple. They know we'll meet them there. And Ash has the communicator-locator thing."
Duplica looked as if she was going to interrupt.
"I know we can't use it right now but that may be because they are so far under ground. As soon as they come out of the cave I'm sure they'll contact us. The map also shows a cave entrance at the base of a waterfall a few kilometres away. They might come out there, we can check once we get there. It's in our path. The best thing we can do now, though, is head for the temple and keep our eyes out for them, ok?"
He turned and made his way in the assumed direction of the temple. Gary slowly followed him.
"Assuming they made it" Duplica deadpanned.
"Ok, it gets a bit rocky here" Misty led Ash through the cavern, still holding his hand.
"Chu, chu. PIKA PIKACHU!" Pikachu shouted "directions" at the fumbling Ash.
"Whoa!" Ash stumbled on an out crop of rock and fell forward, blindly clutching Misty's back in a vain attempt to remain up right.
"Are you ok?" she asked as she turned to face him.
"I'm fine" Ash answered impatiently. He struggled to get up off the rocky floor.
Misty bent down and began helping him up. He shook off her attempts and managed to stand by himself. "Come on"
"Ash I think we should rest for the night. We've been walking for hours. Aren't you tired?"
"Fine." He began cautiously feeling for a place to sit. Once he was relatively comfortable Pikachu bounded to his side and embraced him. "Hey buddy!"
"Well we can't make a fire, no wood" Misty sighed.
"What's there to eat?" Ash asked scratching Pikachu between it's ears.
"Not much. Some porridge stuff"
"Euh! I'm almost tempted to go hungry" Ash complained.
Misty began preparing their meal. She took it to Ash.
"Do you need a hand?" she asked sympathetically.
"What you want to feed me like a baby?!" Ash spat back. "I'm not that pathetic. Yet!"
"Ash." She touched his arm gently.
He snapped it away from her.
"Here" She took his hands. In his left she placed a bowl, a spoon in his right. Shakily, Ash began to eat.
Misty gave a bowl of Pokémon food to Pikachu. She sat opposite Ash and began eating herself.
Once he finished his meal, Ash stood up. With his hands held out in front of him, he began to walk away. Misty jumped up, dropping her bowl, and ran after him.
"Ash, where are you going?"
"To pee. I think I can still manage that myself." He replied impatiently, shaking her off.
Misty blushed. "Mmmm….ok. Be careful." She returned to the campsite.
After a few minutes she heard him returning to the site. Suddenly, she heard a splashing and a fury of curses coming from his direction.
"Ash!" She ran towards the disturbance. She found Ash sitting in a large pool of water, looking very sorry for himself. "Oh Ash" She bent down and began to help him up. Slowly she led him back to the resting grounds.
"Come on, let's get these wet things off you before you catch a cold." She began to pull his soaking T-shirt out of his combat pants.
"Misty stop" He removed her hands from his waist.
"Ash you're gonna get sick. Look you're shaking"
He sighed deeply and lowered his head. His dark unruly hair obscured his eyes, but Misty could tell he was crying.
"Oh Ash." She put her arms around his neck and embraced him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and cried into her shoulder. She held him for some time, gently stroking his hair.
Slowly, Ash turned his head and began nuzzling her neck. Softly, he placed a trail of light kiss on her neck leading to her mouth. He hesitated before gently kissing her lips. Misty remained motionless for a second, shocked by his actions before she reacted and began kissing him back.
"Ash" she sighed. "Ash stop" she said forcefully pulling her head away. She leaned forward again, their foreheads touching. She looked him in the eye, desperately searching for recognition. She brought her hand to his face and gently caressed it. She sighed. "Ash, I'm engaged to Gary now"
He inhaled before pushing her away. He stared directly at her for a second, Misty wondered if he regained his sight. Then he turned and began shakily walking in the opposite direction.
"Ash, where are you going?" she called after him.
"Away from you" he replied coldly.
Misty quickly gathered their things and ran after him.
Brock, Duplica and Gary surveyed the sight before them. They had come to the waterfall. It cascaded over a high cliff and onto jagged rocks below. Strong currents swirled the water at the base into a treacherous plunge pool. The river extended out from the waterfall and headed almost due south. In the distance Brock thought he could make out a building of some sort but he couldn't be sure.
"Well, the entrance should be around here some where" Brock indicated to the rocky cliffs on each side of the waterfall.
Using Onix, Brock, Duplica and Gary reached the bottom of waterfall. Duplica picked her way among the rocks on the right bank.
"Ditto, transform into a Machoke. Start moving the rocks and search for an entrance to the cave"
Brock released Geodude and ordered it and Onix to do the same on the left bank.
Gary scaled a mound of rocks and searched the area with binoculars. He noticed a flash of colour behind the waterfall. "I think I see them!" He pointed to the waterfall as he began to make his way towards it.
"Come on Ash. I think I can see light ahead." Misty hesitantly moved to take Ash's hand but he pulled away on contact. "Fine." They walked on in an uncomfortable silence. Ash hadn't spoken a word since the "incident". What was she going to say to Gary about it? Gary was so jealous of Ash, it would be better to keep quiet about it. But Ash hated Gary so much, any pain Gary received would undoubted bring Ash pleasure.
"Ash?" she asked cautiously. He remained silent. "About what happened-"
"I don't want to talk about it"
"I know, its just-"
"I don't want to talk about it to you, Gary, anyone, ok?"
This time she remained silent.
"Do you hear that?" Ash asked eventually.
Misty strained to hear. "It kinda sounds like running water."
They once again fell into uncomfortable silence. With each step the light and sound increased, until eventually they were faced with a wall of water, masking the sun light behind.
"Ash, we're out!" Misty exclaimed. "I'm gonna have to take your hand now. The rocks are really slippy. I'll guide you out."
Slowly, cautiously they made their way towards the cave entrance. They made their way to the right of the waterfall began to descend the slippy sides, getting thoroughly saturated in the process. Once they were out from behind the waterfall they heard someone call their names.
"Ash, Misty!" Brock called running to the base of the waterfall. "Hold on. Onix get them down."
The stone snake pokémon rested it's head on the ledge beside them. Still holding Ash's hand Misty guided him onto Onix. Onix then brought them down to Brock. Duplica and Gary ran to meet them.
Gary noticed Ash holding Misty's hand. "What's going on?"
Misty helped Ash off Onix and immediately noticed Gary's angry stare. She relinquished her hold on Ash's hand but helped him to sit on a tree stump in the shade. Turning to face the questioning looks on Brock's, Duplica's and especially Gary's faces she said. "We have a problem."
Ok, I apologise for this chapter. It's crap, but necessary (unfortunately). I know its rushed and lacking in well……anything good, but I couldn't help that.
Anyway, that's really it for notes this time. I'm all noted out after last times notes! (God, they were long!) The next chapter should be out soon. This one took so long cause I'm studying for exams and it was real hard to write.
As always reviews appreciated!!! PLEASE! PLEASE!
P.S. I hope this chapter didn't put you off!!
And this is an AAMRN DESPITE what it may seem. (It's a sneaky fic, Don't trust it!!!)
