Disclaimer: I do not own pokémon! They are copyrighted to Nintendo, Creatures Inc., Game Freak, WB for Kids, and whoever else I left out, please accept my apologies. I am just writing for my amusement (and yours) not for profit like everyone else so don't sue me! Lupusa, Michelle, and Casey are mine, I guess, and so is the plot for this fic.
Author's Notes: Now comes the return of something that I would bet most of you forgot about…
Friends to the End
By Ark9
Chapter Fourteen
The Master Inside
At the breakfast area:
Brock is sitting quietly until he notices Misty and Casey coming in and goes into "pretty girl" mode. Misty sits down across from him. Casey sits down next to him and gives him a sideways glance. He continues to stare. She raises her eyebrows, getting a mischievous gleam in her eye. Misty, however, is watching from the other side of the table, growing more and more scared by the second.
"Um…I'll go get Ash…okay?" she asked nervously.
Brock looks across the table and snickers. "Fine with me!"
Casey smiles and goes to get something to eat (and is soon followed by Brock).
*************
Misty opened the main door to her room and walked over to the door on the opposite wall of her bunk. She knocked a few times with no response.
"Ash! You better get up soon if you want to eat something before the awards ceremony!" Misty called from the other side of Ash's door.
It was as if they were only a movie cast and someone had pushed the fast-forward button. Ash bolted around the room, out the door, and down to the breakfast are where Brock, Casey, and Misty are sitting. Pikachu comes in just a few seconds behind Ash.
Ash hums as he gets a "few" things to eat and then starts to walk over to sit down with everyone else. Pikachu sighs and then decides that it just is going to eat some of Ash's food.
Ash and Pikachu sit down, wondering why Misty is eyeing Brock and Casey as if they are acting out of the ordinary. Ash and Pikachu, of course, eat very quickly and loudly. Soon they are done and throw away their paper plates.
Ash walks over and puts his hands on Misty's shoulders.
"So! Are you ready to go? We need to leave! Come on!" he starts babbling and then runs over to the door. They all roll their eyes at Ash's anxiety to get to the awards ceremony. *Surely he is the only one who gets so worked up about it, right? There's no way anyone else does…* they thought.
So they strolled out of the hotel, Ash practically dragging Misty there, and Brock and Casey running to keep up.
"Ash, will you please slow down?" Brock yelled to his friend, almost fifty meters away. He panted as he struggled to keep running.
"I can't!" Ash shouted back. "I'll miss it if I do!" he continued and actually sped up until he reached the stadium.
"Ash!" Misty panted. "Don't ever…do that…again!" she managed to say, hands on her knees, as she tried miserably to catch her breath.
Ash looked down at her and wrinkled his eyebrows. "Sorry, Mist," he said and then smirked. "I'll carry you there if you want! Come here!" he said and started to pull her closer to pick her up.
"No, thanks!" she shouted and sprinted into the stadium, startling a few people in the back.
Ash walked in and looked for Misty. He saw her a few feet away, behind some people. He sneaked up behind her and covered her mouth with one hand and her eyes with the other.
"Guess who?" he whispered in her ear and uncovered her mouth so that she could answer.
"Ash! Don't do that!" she whispered back in a very annoyed tone.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. "Sorry, Misty," he whispered.
Misty felt like she had a wildfire spreading through her body. She squinted her eyes closed, not wanting to become attached to anyone, but finding that increasingly difficult. "It's okay," she said.
Ash smiled when he felt her tense up. He whispered sarcastically, "Don't let me get to you! Fight it!"
Misty whipped around and threw her arms around him. "Some day I'll get you for this," she whispered back threateningly, pushing her face against his chest. "Just you wait," she added.
He looked down, his eyes starting to get watery as she said that. "I will," he said. "I'll wait as long as you need."
She chuckled under her breath. "Come on, you. It's about time for the ceremony to start," she said and pulled him away by his hand. Brock and Casey walked in then, and followed them slowly to the front.
"Welcome to the Pokémon League Awards Ceremony!" an older-looking man announced. "First, we will hand out the participation trophies…"
—EPILOGUE—
Everyone got his or her participation trophies and Misty sent hers to the gym with a letter that she wouldn't even show to Ash.
Ash, of course, sent his to his mom, promising that he would tell her about them whenever he was home next.
Brock sent his to his father to show that he was still trying, and got knocked out by the new master, himself.
Casey disappeared. Ash and Pikachu refused to look for her, so Misty didn't either. Brock was once again heartbroken, or so he thought. Her last words were, "Gotta catch me, 'cause you gotta catch 'em all!"
No one understood what that was about. Misty swore that she was going to ask Lupusa and Michelle at her next opportunity. Ash said that he'd help find them, too, so Pikachu will be there as well.
So now Brock is trying to find his way back to where he found Lupusa all those years ago. Misty is once again hanging out with Ash, much to the resentment of her three older sisters. But she only took Gyridos, Starmie, and Staryu with her. Togepi is off of its vacation and back with Professor Oak. Her other pokémon are in the hands of her sisters to help guard the gym in her absence, as well as Kingler, who still thinks that it lives there.
Pikachu resides on Ash's shoulder most of the time. Ash is making up his mind about what he is going to do next. That's who we are going to continue with, of course. He is the main character after all!
"Pika!" Yeah! it nods and then is consumed by the darkness of the disappearing screen.
*************
"Come on, Misty! Are you packed, yet?" Ash asked playfully from the other side of her door.
"No, Ash. Just hold your ponytas. I'll be done really soon, okay?" Misty shouted from her room.
"Can I come in?" Ash asked, a little bashfully.
"I guess," she replied and then opened the door. "Because I am finished re-packing!" she finished.
"Well, all you had to pack was your little red bag," Ash said smartly. He ducked out of the way as Misty aimed a kick at his head. He caught her foot and held it up. "What're you going to do now?" he smirked.
"Ash!" she shouted, hopping on the one leg underneath her and holding onto his shoulders for support. "Alright, I get the point!"
He gently lowered it down to the ground and smiled, "Ready to head out, now?" he asked.
"Yep," she replied.
"I haven't been north of here before, have you?" he retorted. "Maybe we should head that way…"
"Here we go again!" she said and started off right after Ash.
They ran off, Pikachu momentarily running beside Ash as they ran over several hills, each gaining a little height.
Eventually, they stopped being quite as excited and slowed down as they realized that they weren't on little hills anymore.
"Ash, where should this take us, anyway?" Misty called from a few feet behind min, trying to push through the wind.
"I have no idea," he yelled. He held Pikachu tight in his arms, trying to keep it warm. He had his eyes squinted almost completely shut against the harsh blizzard wind that tried to push him where he didn't want to go.
"Let's stop, Ash. We're going to get so far lost that we won't be able to get back. I'm staying right here," she shouted stubbornly, folding her arms across her chest.
"Suit yourself," he replied and turned around to see if she was serious. Suddenly the wind whipped Pikachu out of him arms. "Pikachu!" he wailed and tried to catch up with the wind that carried his friend away.
Misty collapsed on the ground, too exhausted to move, let alone to keep up while chasing the wind.
Ash pushed on, determined to get to Pikachu, wherever the wind had taken him. But soon his voice started to get hoarse and he could hardly convince his feet to keep moving. The cold bit through his clothes, and stung his skin, so he was more than relieved when he saw an ice cave nearby. Gladly, he crawled inside, sat down against the ice wall and leaned his head back.
"Good think we found this, huh, Misty?" he whispered, his voice about ready to give out. He waited for a few seconds before it hit him that Misty wasn't there. Then it hit him.
"This is just like that dream!" he thought out loud. "Whoa! This is just weird." He walked around and felt to make sure that the walls were real. His eyes narrowed at the realization that this was real and he was living his dream.
"Well, I'm Ash Ketchum, Pokémon Master. I won't be defeated by a mere dream! I'm going to get them back or go down, trying!" he said, voice returning through his determination.
With that, he ran out of the cave again, calling to his friends. "Pikachu? Misty? I know you are out here somewhere!" Over and over he repeated that, until he heard a faint, "Pikapi!"
"Pikachu? Where are you? Just keep calling! I'll find you!" he called and then started running towards where the Pikachu chatter came from. Eventually, he stumbled upon what looked like a small yellow rock with brown stripes across its back. "Pikachu!" he said in excitement.
"Pikapi?" it cried weakly as Ash dug it out. When he finally finished, Pikachu jumped out and hugged his trainer. "Pikachu," Thank you. it said.
Ash wiped his frozen nose and petted Pikachu's back softly. "Pikachu? Do you remember five years ago? …when we ran away from the others?"
"Pika," Yeah. it said softly.
"Well, I said that I was scared. That it would happen some time, you know?" Ash continued, tears forming in his eyes. "It happened, Pikachu."
"Pikachu?"
"I found you," Ash sad, trying to make his voice cheer up a little, "but I still haven't found Misty, yet. She'll die out here in this whether! What should I do?"
"Pika!" Follow me! Pikachu shouted suddenly and started sniffing the ground, but finding nothing other than Ash's scent. Thinking that they would eventually lead them to Misty, or her scent, he started following it.
Ash followed behind his pokémon, knowing that the only person who had been out there any time recent enough to still have their scent in the new wave of snow was him, but he trusted Pikachu, and followed, anyway.
Soon Pikachu came to the cave and let out a small "pika" in recognition of what Ash had always described from the dream. He continued a few yards from the cave and found Misty's scent and sighed in relief.
"What is it, Pikachu?" Ash asked, worried about why it had sighed.
"Pikachu! Pika pika!" I found a scent…and it's Misty's! Pikachu called back excitedly and then kept its small nose against the ice.
"Misty!" Ash shouted in excitement and ran up to where she lay, obviously unconscious. He felt her pulse and smiled when he found it. "She's okay, Pikachu. It's going to be fine," he said happily and picked her up.
"Pikachu!" Yea! Pikachu said and smiled its cutest smile.
"Come on!" he said and started walking towards the cave. "We're all going to make it through this."
"Chu," it nodded.
Ash walked back to the cave and sat down against the wall again and held Misty in his lap. He wrapped his arms around her cold shoulders and Pikachu jumped into her lap to join the huddle to keep warm.
A few minutes later Misty's eyes flicked open. She looked at the yellow pokémon staring right back at her and then up at Ash, who had already fallen asleep in total exhaustion. She smiled. Pikachu relaxed and closed its eyes. She now knew what they all had found; they would be friends to the end.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Did you forget about the dream? I said it would come back, eventually. I thought that it would probably be at the end, too…
So…should I do a sequel? Did it make sense? Where the characters "in character" at all? Most importantly: Did you enjoy reading it? Will you please review? (…and you're probably wondering "Will she ever stop asking me questions?")
I'll shut up now. I just can't believe it's over! ;_;
*starts bawling* WAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"*!_*! (Eighth notes)
…In the end, there is beginning,
In our time, infinite,
What remains until its season,
Something God alone can see…*!_*!"