DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pokemon.
A/N: Wow, 16 chapters, can you believe it?! We've worked so hard on this, we talk every night about it, but never ever imagined 16 chapters! So prepare yourself for number 16!
Two days after the friend's horrifying discovery, they were standing in a cemetary on a unseasonally cold day, crying openly as Sabrina, one of the greatest gym leaders in Kanto, was laid to rest next to her parents.
Ash had an arm wrapped around Misty's shoulders when the beautiful white coffin made a final thud into the earth, confirming the horrible truth they all wished was a dream of some sort.
"I...I can't believe he would go for her...she did nothing to him..." Misty stammered, tears running down her face.
"That's why he went for her" Ash said quietly. "She did nothing to him, but he knew her death would get to us all." He didn't need to say it, but he was trying to sort out the situation himself. After four deaths, he still went through the same grief and shock as the other ones, but always tried to stay brave for the sake of his wife and unborn child.
The five friends walked back to the Pokemon Center silently after the extremely sad service ended. They only needed to pack their bags and get going to the next place, but Ash was worried that since Misty and Jessie's fall that this may have been too much stress on the girls.
"Do you think we should take another bus?" he asked softly as they walked into their room.
"I can walk" Misty and Jessie said in unison. The guys raised eyebrows but were too drained to argue.
"Well, if either of you collapse on the way..." Ash warned. Misty stood beside Ash and squeezed his hand.
"I won't collapse. And neither will Jess. You can count on us" she reassured him. She rested her head on his shoulder and heavily sighed. Brock and James started packing their bags and Misty eventually followed suit.
"Let me do that" Ash offered.
"No, I'm not an invalid, I'm pregnant" Misty smiled. "I can pack my own bag" she said.
"Let her, Ash. When the pitter-patter of little feet is about to hit your household you'll be doing more than just packing bags. You'll be decorating the nursery, stocking the diaper shelves, waiting on Misty hand and foot..." James grinned.
"Okay, since this smart and capable woman here has figured out the Gio route, where are we heading next?" Brock asked.
They all pondered for a moment. "Must be Fuschia" Ash decided. Misty and Brock agreed with him, and Jessie and James went along with it. They didn't exactly remember the route of their first journey, considering it was about eight years ago, but knew that their three friends had good memories.
"So what say we start getting there now? I'm sure we could make it in five or so hours" Brock said, studying their map. The others nodded, slung on their backpacks and headed out the door.
Ash had his pistol safely at his side, as did Jessie and Brock. Misty and James had theirs in their bags, since Misty seldom used hers and James had been ambushed by the others to tone down on the machine gun since he shot Ash. After all, that bullet could have gone in the wrong direction and gone straight through Misty's stomach, or worse, one of their hearts.
They walked quietly down the route, trying to make aimable conversation but all of them with too much on their minds to say something that made sense. The death of Sabrina had sent shockwaves through them all.
Brock lead the group, since he claimed to have the best sense of direction, but they followed without arguement.
"So do you think Iya's in any danger?" Misty asked no one in particular, curious for an answer.
"Yeah. Her brother would be a bigger target, but he's at the Pokemon League, so I suppose Giovanni would just settle for her" James explained. Misty nodded and hesitated before going on.
"What do you suppose he'll do when we get to Viridian?" she asked, causing everyone to stare at her in confusion.
"Why do you ask that, Mist?" Jessie inquired.
Misty shrugged. "I'm worried about what's going to happen" she replied with a slight tremble in her voice.
"Misty, try not to dwell on it, it'll only make you upset" Ash advised wisely.
"Of course it'll make me upset, it already has! Ever since I figured out this route thing, which was only two days ago, I've thought of nothing but Viridian. Is he just gonna blow all our brains out, or is he gonna tease us by kidnapping one of us, or...or..." Misty's breath went short at the thought of it and she tightly clutched onto Ash's arm.
"I'll make sure he doesn't get you, I've promised you and myself and him that" Ash said as he steadied his wife up.
"It's not me I'm worried about" she shook her head. "It's you."
Brock, James and Jessie smiled in amazement at this couple who had, almost, beaten all the odds and come out so in love that were risking their lives for the other.
Ash smiled and kissed the top of her head. "You don't have to worry about me, okay? You worry about yourself and the world's future Pokemon Master and we'll get outta this."
Misty nodded, but trailed behind the group. Her mind was crammed to the brim with thoughts and her husband's reassurances couldn't soothe her. She simply followed without complaint, she didn't want to send anyone into a panic over her, especially Ash.
They stopped for a brief break with about three hours hiking to go, and they all noticed Brock staring at the map with a frown.
"Hey Brocko, everything okay?" Ash asked.
Brock scratched his head. "Well, uh...there seems to be something wrong with this map" he stammered.
"We're lost, aren't we?" James asked rhetorically. Brock hesitated and slowly nodded, sending Jessie off her rocker.
"Oh good one, now what the hell do we do? I most certainly do not want to turn up at Fuschia Gym with a decapitated Iya!" she yelled. Misty went pale at the thought and James quickly covered Jessie's mouth with his hand.
"Jess please, we'll think of something, we didn't need that much detail" he sighed.
Jessie struggled free of James' grip and glared at Brock. "Hey, I've thought of something...how about we take the map off Mr. Pokemon Breeder and give it to someone with a sense of direction?" she said sarcastically, angrily swiping the map off Brock.
"Oh yeah Jess, and what are you gonna do, drop our location to Giovanni by, ahem, accident?" Brock yelled.
Jessie's eyes went wide and she scowled. "Are you implying that I knew about that bug?"
"Ladies and gentlemen, the redhead may not be so blonde as we once suspected!" Brock shouted grandly, sitting down on a rock in exasperation.
"Why you little..."
"GUYS, CHILL!" Ash yelled at the two of them. "You two are acting like we would eight years ago. Come on, I know this is frustrating but there's gotta be a way out..." He looked over the map with Jessie. "So where are we, around here? We're about three hours away, heading south, so if we stick to this trail here we should be home free."
James shrugged. "Then why were you saying we were lost?" he asked Brock.
"Because we're on the wrong trail. We've gotta go onto that trail on the left" Ash pointed out. They all nodded in agreement and Brock stood up.
"On that encouraging note, are we ready to get back into it?" he asked. They nodded again and started hiking along the new path.
Three hours later they were crossing the border into the seaside city of Fuschia, which seemed so peacful in comparison to everywhere else they had been. Misty looked out to the ocean wistfully, wishing she could escape from this for a couple of hours.
The gym was still half an hour away, but they decided to keep trekking along without checking in their bags at the Pokemon Center. They knew they had precious time to get to Iya, God only knew what kind of mark Giovanni had made there by now.
They walked into the gym, the girls hiding behind the guys in an effort to avoid witnessing any more brutally savaged bodies.
"Iyaaaaa" Ash yelled. The deja vu hit them all as they got no response. "Shit" he muttered.
"No, not again..." Misty whispered. They were all relieved when they heard footsteps approaching to the main entrance and then prayed that they were hers.
"Can I help you?" Standing in front of them was Iya, Koga's sister, still in the same pink outfit she had had when they had last seen her.
"Don't you recognise us?" Ash asked with a grin.
Iya paused, examining the group before her. "Ohhh, you were the kid with the Charmander, um...forgive the rudeness, but I've totally forgotten your name" she said honestly.
Ash laughed. "No problem. I'm Ash, this is Jessie, James..."
"Oh yes, I remember, you're Brock" Iya said, pointing at a drooling Brock.
"She remembers me..." he sighed as she totally ignored his hopeful expressions.
"And you...you were the one with that amazing Pysduck" Iya recalled with a smile.
"Misty. My wife" Ash introduced proudly. He still made her blush every time he said that, and today was no exception. She smiled weakly at the shocked face of Iya.
"Wow, congratulations you guys, that's the sort of thing you hear with high school sweethearts!" she laughed. Ash and Misty both smiled at the comment.
"Hey Iya, have you had anything in the mail, any letters, any nuisance phonecalls, stuff like that?" James asked, remembering the task at hand.
Iya thought for a moment and slowly shook her head. "Not that I can recall, no."
The group looked at each other nervously. "Maybe we got the wrong place" Jessie said worridly.
Ash shook his head. "It can't be, the route we worked out fits perfectly. It would be too uncanny if it didn't work now" he replied.
Iya raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?" she asked curiously. She directed a gaze to Jessie and James and her eyes flew open at a sudden realisation. "Woah, wait a minute, weren't you two the ones who tried to steal my brother's Electrode? With that talking Meowth" she added, sending Jessie and James to go quiet.
"Meowth..." Jessie whispered, her eyes filling up with tears.
"They were a part of Team Rocket, but they're not anymore, they're on our side" Brock supplied, finally snapping out of his "Oh-my-God-there's-a-pretty-girl-in- front-of-me" mode.
"Why do they need to be on your side?" Iya asked.
Ash bit his lip and Misty grasped his hand. "Well, to put it simply, there is someone out there trying to ruin our lives and without these two we wouldn't be able to do anything about it" he explained.
"Wow. Come and sit down in the lounge, have a coffee or something" Iya politly invited them. She guided them through a short series of invisible walls and they quickly made it to the lounge, where a Venonat was sleeping on the main couch.
"Venonat, you lazy thing, get off there and make room for our guests" Iya said. The Venonat immediatly jumped off the couch and stood up.
"That's okay, we can sit somewhere else" Misty offered, but Venonat had already moved, so she shrugged and sat herself down on the three-seater.
"What do you guys have to drink? Tea? Coffee? Hot chocolate?" Iya asked, a tray of drinks already on the table.
"I could really go for some prune juice" Misty spoke up. The others looked at her in disgust, but Iya was only too happy to pour her some.
"Prune juice? Are you crazy?" Ash asked quietly.
"I feel like it, okay? I'm thirsty and to quench my thirst I would adore some prune juice" Misty explained more scientifically. Ash shrugged and figured she was getting to the stage of weird cravings. He figured she'd be asking for carrot topped pizza soon or something equally absurd, and made no objection at this point.
The rest opted for coffee and they all started chatting pleasantly, as though they had forgotten why they were there in the first place. Ash sipped the last of his coffee and decided to ask Iya a question that had been niggling at his brain since they arrived.
"Iya, would you mind if we stayed here for tonight?" he asked suddenly, causing the others to look at him in surprise.
"Ash! Don't be so rude!" Misty exclaimed. "You can't just bombard someone to let you stay!"
"I'm worried about a midnight ambush" Ash whispered back. Misty's eyes went wide and she nodded in understanding. He turned back to Iya. "I mean, we hate to intrude, but we can't even afford a night at a Pokemon Center right now" he lied.
"Sure thing, it's no problem. There's heaps of spare rooms here, you can take your pick" Iya said warmly.
"Thankyou very much" Ash said politly. She stood up with the others and showed them all the different rooms. After about two minutes the gym phone rang and she excused herself to answer it.
Ash opened the door to one of the rooms they had been shown, which had a bunk bed and one single bed. He flung his bag on the single bed and looked at the group. "Okay, here's how this is gonna work. The guys will stay here, you two" he pointed to Misty and Jessie, "will sleep four doors down" he announced.
"What? Ash, why?" Misty asked.
"Because if...if something happens tonight at least we won't be in one big group. They'd find us first and that would give you two time to escape" Ash explained quietly, hoping to avoid any sort of bugs they could have been carrying.
"How do you know they would find you first?" Jessie asked skeptically.
"Because I'm going to leave my bag outside the door" Ash said.
"Ash, isn't that kinda like asking for them to come and get you?" Brock asked.
Ash nodded. "It sure is. But I'll be ready, and so will you and James. It's better then them getting to Iya. And besides, you never know, maybe this lovely lady here did screw up the routes and we're in the wrong place so we might not get attacked tonight" he added.
The others nodded as Iya returned. "Just a trainer wanting to schedule a battle tomorrow. I can't believe kids actually schedule their battles now, it's too precise" she laughed. "Have you sorted out your rooms?" she asked.
"Yup, Mist and Jessie will be four doors down from us. We're just getting sorted now" Brock explained.
"Great. Well in that case, I'll leave you to it and I'll get dinner started. Nothing fancy sorry, it's just hamburgers" Iya said.
Ash's eyes lit up. Hamburgers were still his favourite. "Hamburgers are fine" he said with an eager smile. Iya nodded and walked off to the kitchen.
"Wow guys, it's 5:30. This day kinda flew past us, didn't it?" James observed.
"Yeah, it did. But man, I am beat" Brock confessed for the first time, flopping onto the bottom bunk.
"Woo-hoo, I get top!" James exclaimed. The others sighed and Misty discreetly spoke to Ash.
"Hate to be a wet blanket, but if you can, try not to get that bag stolen. It's your second one" she pointed out, reminding him of the other one they had left behind at their first and last hotel when it had been attacked.
Ash smiled. "I'll try. And you are never a wet blanket, don't talk like that" he gently scolded. He gave her a quick kiss to her forehead and took her hand. "Shall we go see if those hamburgers are ready?"
Misty sighed. "She probably only just got to the kitchen, Ash. Give her a minute."
"I'm sorry, but I haven't had burgers in sooo long" Ash whined, but no one could blame him. They had been living off canned food for the last couple of weeks and the thought of a real meal made them all a bit more famished then they usually would be.
"So what are we gonna do if nothing happens tonight?" Jessie asked, causing everyone to go into a serious thinking mode.
"Um...I suppose we just...go" Ash said.
"Go? Go where?" Brock asked.
Ash shrugged. "If nothing's happening here then I suppose we just keep going to Viridian" he said uneasily. "But for now we just wait and see, okay? We stick it out tonight, keep an eye on Iya and figure something out tomorrow." The group nodded and walked toward the kitchen, wanting to help Iya out for being so hospitable.
Three hours later, after a hearty meal and even more catching up, the group decided to turn in for the night, claiming fatigue was overtaking them. Iya also went to bed early, warily realising she had three battles in a row the next day.
Misty and Jessie grabbed their bags that were still in the guys room and said their goodnights, Misty especially cautioning to Ash to be careful, and they made their silent journey four doors down.
Jessie knew that Misty was concerned about Ash's plan and she put an arm around her friend's shoulder. "Don't worry about him, Misty. He has a gun, he has skills, he's got Brock and James for backup, and he's done this a million times before and he's always got through."
Misty smiled warily at Jessie. "What do they say about there being a first time for everything?"
"Screw what they say, this is Ash Ketchum we're talking about" Jessie grinned as she opened the door.
"He's not invincible, Jess. He's just Ash" Misty said sadly. "And I kinda get the feeling he's forgotten that."
"What do you mean?" Jessie asked with a puzzled frown, setting her bag down on a single bed.
Misty sighed. "He thinks this whole Viridian thing is gonna be cake, that Giovanni will be easy, but...he seems to have forgotten that he's only a boy from Pallet Town with a gun. A gun makes no difference to him, he's the same Ash I met eight years ago." She tried to explain her fears as best she could, but she was finding it difficult.
"You might be surprised, Mist. You've obviously done wonders for him in the last two years. He's grown up so much" Jessie said.
"Maybe" Misty said with a tinge of doubt in her voice. She sighed again and crawled into bed, desperatly trying to push out all thoughts of Viridian from her head.
It was 1:30 in the morning when James woke up with a start. He could've sworn he had felt something cool on his neck, and soon found out that he hadn't been dreaming. An evil face was peering down on him with a gun held to his neck. He drew in a quick breath at the sight.
"Okay, where is she?" the henchman asked.
"Who are you talking about?" James asked back.
"You know damn well who I'm talking about. Don't beat around the bush. We've got men all over this gym, so don't even think about lying or escaping either" the henchman warned.
At this, Ash woke up and froze at the scene. Brock also stirred as Ash began to speak. "What do you want, asshole?" he asked, feeling under his pillow for his revolver.
The henchman spun around to face him. "Well Ketchum, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed, leaving your bag outside your room was kind of a, ahem, dead giveaway" he grinned.
Ash glared. "Where's the rest of you?" he asked calmly.
"Oh, here there and everywhere, wandering round, enjoying the place..." the henchman said vaguely.
"How did you get through the mirrors?" Brock inquired, finally speaking up.
"We have our ways. But for now we have a much bigger target..." His voice stopped as his walkie talkie made a beeping sound.
"All rocket members, we found her. South end of the house. Bring any Ketchums you find." The short message ended and Ash suddenly feared greatly for Misty.
The henchman smiled. "Right kid, you're coming with me" he announced, pointing a gun in Ash's direction. Ash almost had a mad desire to go with him, just to make sure Misty was alright, but he knew that it was almost a suicidal attempt.
"Don't think so" Ash replied, and with that remark, opened fire on the cocky henchman. The bullets penetrated his flesh and Brock grabbed his gun as it flew out of his hands.
"Should I grab my gun?" James asked hopefully. Ash and Brock looked at each other in doubt, but knew that it would probably be best if he did. They nodded and James happily dragged it out of his bag.
The three guys ran down the hall, lucky not to run into any Team Rocket members on the way, and they all burst into the girls bedroom.
Misty and Jessie instantly woke up from the noise and rubbed their eyes. "Ash? What's going on?" Misty asked, already guessing the answer.
He sat next to her on her bed and spoke in hurried but hushed tones. "The gym is under attack. I think they've got Iya, so we've gotta get outta here" he said, loading his pistol.
Jessie sighed and got out of bed, grabbing her gun on the way. "So much for my beauty sleep..." she mumbled, loading the weapon.
Brock heard footsteps down the hall and gasped. "Guys, there are men all over the hallway now. There's no way we're gonna be able to escape that way" he whispered.
James spotted something on the ceiling and grinned. "Don't worry Brocko, there's an escape route ready for us right here." He jumped on top of Misty's bed and opened up an air vent, to which everyone sighed with relief at him finding an escape route.
He clambered through it and urged the others to follow him. They all made it to the dark, narrow passageway and shut the vent again just as a henchman walked into the room. They all held their breath, fearing the worst, watching the henchman shine his torch in almost the entire space of the room.
He finally left, and they all quietly sighed. "Okay, now what?" Jessie asked. "Where's Iya's room?"
Ash thought hard. "Wait, that guy on the walkie talkie, he said something about south" he recalled.
"South, south...well, where are we now?" Brock asked.
"Who would've thought this thing would come in handy?" Ash muttered, pulling a compass out of his pocket.
"You went to bed with a compass in your pocket?" Misty raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't mean to, I went to sleep with my jacket on and it was still in the pocket...anyway, south is this way, so let's go." Ash pointed down the passageway and James lead the way. They all crawled as quietly as they could, not wanting to disturb any of the activity going on downstairs.
Four minutes of crawling resulted in five pairs of sore knees, but successful entry to Iya's room...well, it was entry from above, but entry nonetheless. They all silently watched as Iya was gagged and tied to a chair, desperatly trying to escape, and Misty felt tears well up in her eyes.
"Ash, we gotta do something" she whispered.
"Well what are we gonna do, Mist? We haven't got any sort of strategy sorted out" Ash replied.
"Can't we just go down there and blow their brains out?" Misty asked hopefully.
"Me, Jess, James and Brock will. You can stay here" Ash said quietly.
"What?!" Misty gasped. "No way, I'm going with you" she protested.
"There are a lot of henchman down there, Misty" Ash warned. "Even if you don't get shot, the stress could be a lot on the baby" he pointed out.
"I've been through this, I can handle it" Misty said confidentally. Ash looked at her doubtfully but she only nodded in response.
"Fine, but keep out of the way as much as possible" he cautioned. Misty nodded, not caring that her husband sounded like he was talking to a toddler. She couldn't have beared to stay up there while he went about shooting random people and possibly getting shot in the process.
There were about twenty henchmen in the huge room, and another dozen walked in as news got around that Iya had been found.
"No Ketchums?" one asked. The others all shook their heads.
"We've searched every room. They must not be here" another replied. The first one sighed and smiled wickedly, loading a pistol.
"Well, they're gonna be in for a shock when they finally do decide to grace us with their presence" he said, aiming the pistol at Iya's head. She tried to scream, but the gag restricted her voice, and Venonat had been shot with a tranquiliser to keep it out of the way.
It was at this point the five friends jumped through the air vent, Ash going first and landing on top of another henchman. He knocked him out with the metal of his gun and swiftly stood up and started taking out others with bullets.
The others were doing the same, and all around the room bullets flew and rebounded and penetrated henchmen's flesh. Misty took out a couple of people, but not before being nearly strangled to death by one of the men. She had nearly passed out before Brock came and hit him over the head with his gun, causing him to collapse completly.
Misty then went to work trying to untie a panicking Iya as most of the henchmen fell to the floor. She finally finished her task and spoke to Iya quickly.
"Okay, we're getting you out of here now, if we say run, you run, okay?" she instructed, sounding very military and leader-like. Iya could only nod and crouched on the floor with Misty, trying to avoid the now ceasing bullets.
Ash was still going at it with one guy, who seemed invincible. "God, you're harder to kill then a tick!" he yelled, his gun now out of ammo. The henchman grinned and pulled away his jacket to reveal a bulletproof vest. "Oh shit, I should've known" Ash scolded himself. The henchman raised a gun and fired as the others all ducked.
Misty grabbed Iya's hand and yelled, "RUN!" The group ran as fast as they could, avoiding the oncoming bullets from the last henchman, until finally James let his gun loose and took out the final one. The others ran outside, totally out of breath and absorbing the shock that was hitting them.
"Where's James?" Jessie asked immediatly. No one could answer, but he appeared in front of them with his gun, grinning proudly, but sensing the others shock.
"That was too close for comfort" he commented.
"Tell me about it. What was that all about, anyway?" Iya asked. Ash shook his head.
"You don't wanna know. You'll be safer if you take a vacation somewhere, right now" he suggested, the same strategy they had used on Misty's sisters.
Iya was visibly trembling and tears were spilling over her cheeks. "A vacation? Why do they want me, Ash?"
Ash looked back at the building that was now silent. "I honestly don't know" he replied quietly. He turned to Misty and shook his head. "Do you have any idea how close you were to being shot?"
"I could say the same for you" she snapped back. "You knew how dangerous that was, Ash. But you went in there without even bothering to check your ammo? You know we've got more than enough to take out 100 at a time!" she exclaimed.
"Oh come on Mist, what do you know? You don't know anything about guns, you have no idea what kind of risk you're putting yourself at right now!" Ash argued back.
"At least I'm thinking straight! Can't you just stop pretending you're the tough guy and remember that you're Ash Ketchum, from Pallet, not the world's next Hercules. This guy is powerful, he knows how to get to you! Be true to yourself, for God's sake!" Misty yelled. "If you go to Viridian you know you're not going to come back alive!"
"Well thanks for the vote of confidence, Mist. I'm sooo assured right now" Ash said sarcastically.
"Don't talk to me like that!" Misty warned. "I only come around here to look out for you, but all you seem to do is ignore the fact that yes, you can die doing this."
"Speak for yourself!" Ash shot back. He sighed as he noticed Misty breaking down into tears. "Aw come on, we shouldn't fight like this. There's no point. We're both riding incredibly high risks here, I just don't wanna see you die in front of my eyes" he said, holding her close.
Misty nodded, sobbing into his shoulder. "Please just look out for yourself once in a while, and forget about me" she pleaded.
Ash smiled. "Misty, you're not easy to forget." At this statement Misty smiled back and they shared a soft kiss, oblivious to the rest of the group looking on.
"Um, hate to break this up, but where the hell are we going to stay now?" Jessie asked.
Ash broke the kiss and realised what she had said. "Hm, didn't think about that...does anyone here honestly think they're gonna get any sleep now?" he asked, getting a response of head shakes. "Well, neither do I. Let's just stay in the house and keep watch for now and we'll figure something out when we settle down from this." They all agreed and slowly walked back into the house.
They sat in the same lounge they had had their first catch up in, and although they showed increasing signs of fatigue, they all kept their eyes open in fear. Misty was finally the first to doze off at about 7:30, and it didn't take long for Brock and Iya to follow. Ash smiled as he laid her down in her bed, grateful that she was now getting a bit of a rest.
They were all aware of the fact that the dead Team Rocket henchmen were still lying around Iya's bedroom, but felt they could do nothing about it. They decided to let the police deal with it, since Iya had insisted they come and check it out. They had never called in the police, they didn't think it would help in any major way.
By 12:30 the police had arrived, checked out the house, removed the bodies and commended the group on its bravery and skill. As one officer gave them his best wishes and guided the other officers out, Misty finally stirred awake.
"What's going on?" she asked as she sat up, watching the police leave.
"Nothing, they're just removing wasted carnage" James explained. Misty understood and nodded. They were all in her and Jessie's room, contemplating their next move.
"Well, we all know what's after this one..." Brock muttered reluctantly.
"Viridian" Ash said with a blank face. The news certainly wasn't cheering, that after all this work, all this struggle, they were only halfway there. They had taken out numerous henchmen, but that was nothing compared to what faced them in Viridian City.
"Should we stay another night in case Iya gets targeted again?" Jessie suggested.
James shook his head. "No, she's leaving today, off to Celadon City. Apparently she's friends with Erica, so they're going to have a catch-up until all this is over." He repeated the details Iya had told him earlier. She would be leaving at two o'clock, which left her an hour and a half to tidy the gym and get packed.
"Well she's been so understanding through all this, I'm going to help her" Misty volunteered, standing up. They all agreed this was a good way of showing their gratitude for her hospitablity, so they followed her out to the kitchen.
An hour later, the gym was spotless. It reminded Misty of the many times she had cleaned frantically for the League inspector, one time in particular...
"Thankyou guys so much for helping" Iya said in an exhausted tone. They smiled in reply, helping her with her bags and their own. She finally locked the door and sighed. "Please be careful, guys."
"Ah, don't worry about us" Ash grinned, forcing all his fear and nervousness down as best he could. A cab pulled up beside the group and Iya climbed in with a final, weary smile to all of them, and the cab pulled her away into, safety.
They all turned to each other with the same fear in their eyes, even though the burden of the whole thing had been placed on Ash.
"It'll take us about three days to get to Viridian City, so...do you wanna start now?" Brock asked Ash carefully. Ash nodded, but inside he screamed, OF COURSE I DON'T WANNA START NOW!
The forest they approached was thick and dark, and Jessie was keeping a careful eye on Brock's navigations.
Night settled in faster then they would've usually preferred, it always delayed their travelling. But today it was different. Today the delay was almost welcomed, and they snuggled into their sleeping bags.
Misty looked up at the sky through the towering trees. She knew Ash was still awake, but she also knew he wanted to think things through. She sighed at the stars, gleaming brightly as though it was all bright and bubbly in the world. But Misty knew better. In three days, everyone would know.
AN: One word: REVIEW! More soon!
A/N: Wow, 16 chapters, can you believe it?! We've worked so hard on this, we talk every night about it, but never ever imagined 16 chapters! So prepare yourself for number 16!
Two days after the friend's horrifying discovery, they were standing in a cemetary on a unseasonally cold day, crying openly as Sabrina, one of the greatest gym leaders in Kanto, was laid to rest next to her parents.
Ash had an arm wrapped around Misty's shoulders when the beautiful white coffin made a final thud into the earth, confirming the horrible truth they all wished was a dream of some sort.
"I...I can't believe he would go for her...she did nothing to him..." Misty stammered, tears running down her face.
"That's why he went for her" Ash said quietly. "She did nothing to him, but he knew her death would get to us all." He didn't need to say it, but he was trying to sort out the situation himself. After four deaths, he still went through the same grief and shock as the other ones, but always tried to stay brave for the sake of his wife and unborn child.
The five friends walked back to the Pokemon Center silently after the extremely sad service ended. They only needed to pack their bags and get going to the next place, but Ash was worried that since Misty and Jessie's fall that this may have been too much stress on the girls.
"Do you think we should take another bus?" he asked softly as they walked into their room.
"I can walk" Misty and Jessie said in unison. The guys raised eyebrows but were too drained to argue.
"Well, if either of you collapse on the way..." Ash warned. Misty stood beside Ash and squeezed his hand.
"I won't collapse. And neither will Jess. You can count on us" she reassured him. She rested her head on his shoulder and heavily sighed. Brock and James started packing their bags and Misty eventually followed suit.
"Let me do that" Ash offered.
"No, I'm not an invalid, I'm pregnant" Misty smiled. "I can pack my own bag" she said.
"Let her, Ash. When the pitter-patter of little feet is about to hit your household you'll be doing more than just packing bags. You'll be decorating the nursery, stocking the diaper shelves, waiting on Misty hand and foot..." James grinned.
"Okay, since this smart and capable woman here has figured out the Gio route, where are we heading next?" Brock asked.
They all pondered for a moment. "Must be Fuschia" Ash decided. Misty and Brock agreed with him, and Jessie and James went along with it. They didn't exactly remember the route of their first journey, considering it was about eight years ago, but knew that their three friends had good memories.
"So what say we start getting there now? I'm sure we could make it in five or so hours" Brock said, studying their map. The others nodded, slung on their backpacks and headed out the door.
Ash had his pistol safely at his side, as did Jessie and Brock. Misty and James had theirs in their bags, since Misty seldom used hers and James had been ambushed by the others to tone down on the machine gun since he shot Ash. After all, that bullet could have gone in the wrong direction and gone straight through Misty's stomach, or worse, one of their hearts.
They walked quietly down the route, trying to make aimable conversation but all of them with too much on their minds to say something that made sense. The death of Sabrina had sent shockwaves through them all.
Brock lead the group, since he claimed to have the best sense of direction, but they followed without arguement.
"So do you think Iya's in any danger?" Misty asked no one in particular, curious for an answer.
"Yeah. Her brother would be a bigger target, but he's at the Pokemon League, so I suppose Giovanni would just settle for her" James explained. Misty nodded and hesitated before going on.
"What do you suppose he'll do when we get to Viridian?" she asked, causing everyone to stare at her in confusion.
"Why do you ask that, Mist?" Jessie inquired.
Misty shrugged. "I'm worried about what's going to happen" she replied with a slight tremble in her voice.
"Misty, try not to dwell on it, it'll only make you upset" Ash advised wisely.
"Of course it'll make me upset, it already has! Ever since I figured out this route thing, which was only two days ago, I've thought of nothing but Viridian. Is he just gonna blow all our brains out, or is he gonna tease us by kidnapping one of us, or...or..." Misty's breath went short at the thought of it and she tightly clutched onto Ash's arm.
"I'll make sure he doesn't get you, I've promised you and myself and him that" Ash said as he steadied his wife up.
"It's not me I'm worried about" she shook her head. "It's you."
Brock, James and Jessie smiled in amazement at this couple who had, almost, beaten all the odds and come out so in love that were risking their lives for the other.
Ash smiled and kissed the top of her head. "You don't have to worry about me, okay? You worry about yourself and the world's future Pokemon Master and we'll get outta this."
Misty nodded, but trailed behind the group. Her mind was crammed to the brim with thoughts and her husband's reassurances couldn't soothe her. She simply followed without complaint, she didn't want to send anyone into a panic over her, especially Ash.
They stopped for a brief break with about three hours hiking to go, and they all noticed Brock staring at the map with a frown.
"Hey Brocko, everything okay?" Ash asked.
Brock scratched his head. "Well, uh...there seems to be something wrong with this map" he stammered.
"We're lost, aren't we?" James asked rhetorically. Brock hesitated and slowly nodded, sending Jessie off her rocker.
"Oh good one, now what the hell do we do? I most certainly do not want to turn up at Fuschia Gym with a decapitated Iya!" she yelled. Misty went pale at the thought and James quickly covered Jessie's mouth with his hand.
"Jess please, we'll think of something, we didn't need that much detail" he sighed.
Jessie struggled free of James' grip and glared at Brock. "Hey, I've thought of something...how about we take the map off Mr. Pokemon Breeder and give it to someone with a sense of direction?" she said sarcastically, angrily swiping the map off Brock.
"Oh yeah Jess, and what are you gonna do, drop our location to Giovanni by, ahem, accident?" Brock yelled.
Jessie's eyes went wide and she scowled. "Are you implying that I knew about that bug?"
"Ladies and gentlemen, the redhead may not be so blonde as we once suspected!" Brock shouted grandly, sitting down on a rock in exasperation.
"Why you little..."
"GUYS, CHILL!" Ash yelled at the two of them. "You two are acting like we would eight years ago. Come on, I know this is frustrating but there's gotta be a way out..." He looked over the map with Jessie. "So where are we, around here? We're about three hours away, heading south, so if we stick to this trail here we should be home free."
James shrugged. "Then why were you saying we were lost?" he asked Brock.
"Because we're on the wrong trail. We've gotta go onto that trail on the left" Ash pointed out. They all nodded in agreement and Brock stood up.
"On that encouraging note, are we ready to get back into it?" he asked. They nodded again and started hiking along the new path.
Three hours later they were crossing the border into the seaside city of Fuschia, which seemed so peacful in comparison to everywhere else they had been. Misty looked out to the ocean wistfully, wishing she could escape from this for a couple of hours.
The gym was still half an hour away, but they decided to keep trekking along without checking in their bags at the Pokemon Center. They knew they had precious time to get to Iya, God only knew what kind of mark Giovanni had made there by now.
They walked into the gym, the girls hiding behind the guys in an effort to avoid witnessing any more brutally savaged bodies.
"Iyaaaaa" Ash yelled. The deja vu hit them all as they got no response. "Shit" he muttered.
"No, not again..." Misty whispered. They were all relieved when they heard footsteps approaching to the main entrance and then prayed that they were hers.
"Can I help you?" Standing in front of them was Iya, Koga's sister, still in the same pink outfit she had had when they had last seen her.
"Don't you recognise us?" Ash asked with a grin.
Iya paused, examining the group before her. "Ohhh, you were the kid with the Charmander, um...forgive the rudeness, but I've totally forgotten your name" she said honestly.
Ash laughed. "No problem. I'm Ash, this is Jessie, James..."
"Oh yes, I remember, you're Brock" Iya said, pointing at a drooling Brock.
"She remembers me..." he sighed as she totally ignored his hopeful expressions.
"And you...you were the one with that amazing Pysduck" Iya recalled with a smile.
"Misty. My wife" Ash introduced proudly. He still made her blush every time he said that, and today was no exception. She smiled weakly at the shocked face of Iya.
"Wow, congratulations you guys, that's the sort of thing you hear with high school sweethearts!" she laughed. Ash and Misty both smiled at the comment.
"Hey Iya, have you had anything in the mail, any letters, any nuisance phonecalls, stuff like that?" James asked, remembering the task at hand.
Iya thought for a moment and slowly shook her head. "Not that I can recall, no."
The group looked at each other nervously. "Maybe we got the wrong place" Jessie said worridly.
Ash shook his head. "It can't be, the route we worked out fits perfectly. It would be too uncanny if it didn't work now" he replied.
Iya raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?" she asked curiously. She directed a gaze to Jessie and James and her eyes flew open at a sudden realisation. "Woah, wait a minute, weren't you two the ones who tried to steal my brother's Electrode? With that talking Meowth" she added, sending Jessie and James to go quiet.
"Meowth..." Jessie whispered, her eyes filling up with tears.
"They were a part of Team Rocket, but they're not anymore, they're on our side" Brock supplied, finally snapping out of his "Oh-my-God-there's-a-pretty-girl-in- front-of-me" mode.
"Why do they need to be on your side?" Iya asked.
Ash bit his lip and Misty grasped his hand. "Well, to put it simply, there is someone out there trying to ruin our lives and without these two we wouldn't be able to do anything about it" he explained.
"Wow. Come and sit down in the lounge, have a coffee or something" Iya politly invited them. She guided them through a short series of invisible walls and they quickly made it to the lounge, where a Venonat was sleeping on the main couch.
"Venonat, you lazy thing, get off there and make room for our guests" Iya said. The Venonat immediatly jumped off the couch and stood up.
"That's okay, we can sit somewhere else" Misty offered, but Venonat had already moved, so she shrugged and sat herself down on the three-seater.
"What do you guys have to drink? Tea? Coffee? Hot chocolate?" Iya asked, a tray of drinks already on the table.
"I could really go for some prune juice" Misty spoke up. The others looked at her in disgust, but Iya was only too happy to pour her some.
"Prune juice? Are you crazy?" Ash asked quietly.
"I feel like it, okay? I'm thirsty and to quench my thirst I would adore some prune juice" Misty explained more scientifically. Ash shrugged and figured she was getting to the stage of weird cravings. He figured she'd be asking for carrot topped pizza soon or something equally absurd, and made no objection at this point.
The rest opted for coffee and they all started chatting pleasantly, as though they had forgotten why they were there in the first place. Ash sipped the last of his coffee and decided to ask Iya a question that had been niggling at his brain since they arrived.
"Iya, would you mind if we stayed here for tonight?" he asked suddenly, causing the others to look at him in surprise.
"Ash! Don't be so rude!" Misty exclaimed. "You can't just bombard someone to let you stay!"
"I'm worried about a midnight ambush" Ash whispered back. Misty's eyes went wide and she nodded in understanding. He turned back to Iya. "I mean, we hate to intrude, but we can't even afford a night at a Pokemon Center right now" he lied.
"Sure thing, it's no problem. There's heaps of spare rooms here, you can take your pick" Iya said warmly.
"Thankyou very much" Ash said politly. She stood up with the others and showed them all the different rooms. After about two minutes the gym phone rang and she excused herself to answer it.
Ash opened the door to one of the rooms they had been shown, which had a bunk bed and one single bed. He flung his bag on the single bed and looked at the group. "Okay, here's how this is gonna work. The guys will stay here, you two" he pointed to Misty and Jessie, "will sleep four doors down" he announced.
"What? Ash, why?" Misty asked.
"Because if...if something happens tonight at least we won't be in one big group. They'd find us first and that would give you two time to escape" Ash explained quietly, hoping to avoid any sort of bugs they could have been carrying.
"How do you know they would find you first?" Jessie asked skeptically.
"Because I'm going to leave my bag outside the door" Ash said.
"Ash, isn't that kinda like asking for them to come and get you?" Brock asked.
Ash nodded. "It sure is. But I'll be ready, and so will you and James. It's better then them getting to Iya. And besides, you never know, maybe this lovely lady here did screw up the routes and we're in the wrong place so we might not get attacked tonight" he added.
The others nodded as Iya returned. "Just a trainer wanting to schedule a battle tomorrow. I can't believe kids actually schedule their battles now, it's too precise" she laughed. "Have you sorted out your rooms?" she asked.
"Yup, Mist and Jessie will be four doors down from us. We're just getting sorted now" Brock explained.
"Great. Well in that case, I'll leave you to it and I'll get dinner started. Nothing fancy sorry, it's just hamburgers" Iya said.
Ash's eyes lit up. Hamburgers were still his favourite. "Hamburgers are fine" he said with an eager smile. Iya nodded and walked off to the kitchen.
"Wow guys, it's 5:30. This day kinda flew past us, didn't it?" James observed.
"Yeah, it did. But man, I am beat" Brock confessed for the first time, flopping onto the bottom bunk.
"Woo-hoo, I get top!" James exclaimed. The others sighed and Misty discreetly spoke to Ash.
"Hate to be a wet blanket, but if you can, try not to get that bag stolen. It's your second one" she pointed out, reminding him of the other one they had left behind at their first and last hotel when it had been attacked.
Ash smiled. "I'll try. And you are never a wet blanket, don't talk like that" he gently scolded. He gave her a quick kiss to her forehead and took her hand. "Shall we go see if those hamburgers are ready?"
Misty sighed. "She probably only just got to the kitchen, Ash. Give her a minute."
"I'm sorry, but I haven't had burgers in sooo long" Ash whined, but no one could blame him. They had been living off canned food for the last couple of weeks and the thought of a real meal made them all a bit more famished then they usually would be.
"So what are we gonna do if nothing happens tonight?" Jessie asked, causing everyone to go into a serious thinking mode.
"Um...I suppose we just...go" Ash said.
"Go? Go where?" Brock asked.
Ash shrugged. "If nothing's happening here then I suppose we just keep going to Viridian" he said uneasily. "But for now we just wait and see, okay? We stick it out tonight, keep an eye on Iya and figure something out tomorrow." The group nodded and walked toward the kitchen, wanting to help Iya out for being so hospitable.
Three hours later, after a hearty meal and even more catching up, the group decided to turn in for the night, claiming fatigue was overtaking them. Iya also went to bed early, warily realising she had three battles in a row the next day.
Misty and Jessie grabbed their bags that were still in the guys room and said their goodnights, Misty especially cautioning to Ash to be careful, and they made their silent journey four doors down.
Jessie knew that Misty was concerned about Ash's plan and she put an arm around her friend's shoulder. "Don't worry about him, Misty. He has a gun, he has skills, he's got Brock and James for backup, and he's done this a million times before and he's always got through."
Misty smiled warily at Jessie. "What do they say about there being a first time for everything?"
"Screw what they say, this is Ash Ketchum we're talking about" Jessie grinned as she opened the door.
"He's not invincible, Jess. He's just Ash" Misty said sadly. "And I kinda get the feeling he's forgotten that."
"What do you mean?" Jessie asked with a puzzled frown, setting her bag down on a single bed.
Misty sighed. "He thinks this whole Viridian thing is gonna be cake, that Giovanni will be easy, but...he seems to have forgotten that he's only a boy from Pallet Town with a gun. A gun makes no difference to him, he's the same Ash I met eight years ago." She tried to explain her fears as best she could, but she was finding it difficult.
"You might be surprised, Mist. You've obviously done wonders for him in the last two years. He's grown up so much" Jessie said.
"Maybe" Misty said with a tinge of doubt in her voice. She sighed again and crawled into bed, desperatly trying to push out all thoughts of Viridian from her head.
It was 1:30 in the morning when James woke up with a start. He could've sworn he had felt something cool on his neck, and soon found out that he hadn't been dreaming. An evil face was peering down on him with a gun held to his neck. He drew in a quick breath at the sight.
"Okay, where is she?" the henchman asked.
"Who are you talking about?" James asked back.
"You know damn well who I'm talking about. Don't beat around the bush. We've got men all over this gym, so don't even think about lying or escaping either" the henchman warned.
At this, Ash woke up and froze at the scene. Brock also stirred as Ash began to speak. "What do you want, asshole?" he asked, feeling under his pillow for his revolver.
The henchman spun around to face him. "Well Ketchum, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed, leaving your bag outside your room was kind of a, ahem, dead giveaway" he grinned.
Ash glared. "Where's the rest of you?" he asked calmly.
"Oh, here there and everywhere, wandering round, enjoying the place..." the henchman said vaguely.
"How did you get through the mirrors?" Brock inquired, finally speaking up.
"We have our ways. But for now we have a much bigger target..." His voice stopped as his walkie talkie made a beeping sound.
"All rocket members, we found her. South end of the house. Bring any Ketchums you find." The short message ended and Ash suddenly feared greatly for Misty.
The henchman smiled. "Right kid, you're coming with me" he announced, pointing a gun in Ash's direction. Ash almost had a mad desire to go with him, just to make sure Misty was alright, but he knew that it was almost a suicidal attempt.
"Don't think so" Ash replied, and with that remark, opened fire on the cocky henchman. The bullets penetrated his flesh and Brock grabbed his gun as it flew out of his hands.
"Should I grab my gun?" James asked hopefully. Ash and Brock looked at each other in doubt, but knew that it would probably be best if he did. They nodded and James happily dragged it out of his bag.
The three guys ran down the hall, lucky not to run into any Team Rocket members on the way, and they all burst into the girls bedroom.
Misty and Jessie instantly woke up from the noise and rubbed their eyes. "Ash? What's going on?" Misty asked, already guessing the answer.
He sat next to her on her bed and spoke in hurried but hushed tones. "The gym is under attack. I think they've got Iya, so we've gotta get outta here" he said, loading his pistol.
Jessie sighed and got out of bed, grabbing her gun on the way. "So much for my beauty sleep..." she mumbled, loading the weapon.
Brock heard footsteps down the hall and gasped. "Guys, there are men all over the hallway now. There's no way we're gonna be able to escape that way" he whispered.
James spotted something on the ceiling and grinned. "Don't worry Brocko, there's an escape route ready for us right here." He jumped on top of Misty's bed and opened up an air vent, to which everyone sighed with relief at him finding an escape route.
He clambered through it and urged the others to follow him. They all made it to the dark, narrow passageway and shut the vent again just as a henchman walked into the room. They all held their breath, fearing the worst, watching the henchman shine his torch in almost the entire space of the room.
He finally left, and they all quietly sighed. "Okay, now what?" Jessie asked. "Where's Iya's room?"
Ash thought hard. "Wait, that guy on the walkie talkie, he said something about south" he recalled.
"South, south...well, where are we now?" Brock asked.
"Who would've thought this thing would come in handy?" Ash muttered, pulling a compass out of his pocket.
"You went to bed with a compass in your pocket?" Misty raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't mean to, I went to sleep with my jacket on and it was still in the pocket...anyway, south is this way, so let's go." Ash pointed down the passageway and James lead the way. They all crawled as quietly as they could, not wanting to disturb any of the activity going on downstairs.
Four minutes of crawling resulted in five pairs of sore knees, but successful entry to Iya's room...well, it was entry from above, but entry nonetheless. They all silently watched as Iya was gagged and tied to a chair, desperatly trying to escape, and Misty felt tears well up in her eyes.
"Ash, we gotta do something" she whispered.
"Well what are we gonna do, Mist? We haven't got any sort of strategy sorted out" Ash replied.
"Can't we just go down there and blow their brains out?" Misty asked hopefully.
"Me, Jess, James and Brock will. You can stay here" Ash said quietly.
"What?!" Misty gasped. "No way, I'm going with you" she protested.
"There are a lot of henchman down there, Misty" Ash warned. "Even if you don't get shot, the stress could be a lot on the baby" he pointed out.
"I've been through this, I can handle it" Misty said confidentally. Ash looked at her doubtfully but she only nodded in response.
"Fine, but keep out of the way as much as possible" he cautioned. Misty nodded, not caring that her husband sounded like he was talking to a toddler. She couldn't have beared to stay up there while he went about shooting random people and possibly getting shot in the process.
There were about twenty henchmen in the huge room, and another dozen walked in as news got around that Iya had been found.
"No Ketchums?" one asked. The others all shook their heads.
"We've searched every room. They must not be here" another replied. The first one sighed and smiled wickedly, loading a pistol.
"Well, they're gonna be in for a shock when they finally do decide to grace us with their presence" he said, aiming the pistol at Iya's head. She tried to scream, but the gag restricted her voice, and Venonat had been shot with a tranquiliser to keep it out of the way.
It was at this point the five friends jumped through the air vent, Ash going first and landing on top of another henchman. He knocked him out with the metal of his gun and swiftly stood up and started taking out others with bullets.
The others were doing the same, and all around the room bullets flew and rebounded and penetrated henchmen's flesh. Misty took out a couple of people, but not before being nearly strangled to death by one of the men. She had nearly passed out before Brock came and hit him over the head with his gun, causing him to collapse completly.
Misty then went to work trying to untie a panicking Iya as most of the henchmen fell to the floor. She finally finished her task and spoke to Iya quickly.
"Okay, we're getting you out of here now, if we say run, you run, okay?" she instructed, sounding very military and leader-like. Iya could only nod and crouched on the floor with Misty, trying to avoid the now ceasing bullets.
Ash was still going at it with one guy, who seemed invincible. "God, you're harder to kill then a tick!" he yelled, his gun now out of ammo. The henchman grinned and pulled away his jacket to reveal a bulletproof vest. "Oh shit, I should've known" Ash scolded himself. The henchman raised a gun and fired as the others all ducked.
Misty grabbed Iya's hand and yelled, "RUN!" The group ran as fast as they could, avoiding the oncoming bullets from the last henchman, until finally James let his gun loose and took out the final one. The others ran outside, totally out of breath and absorbing the shock that was hitting them.
"Where's James?" Jessie asked immediatly. No one could answer, but he appeared in front of them with his gun, grinning proudly, but sensing the others shock.
"That was too close for comfort" he commented.
"Tell me about it. What was that all about, anyway?" Iya asked. Ash shook his head.
"You don't wanna know. You'll be safer if you take a vacation somewhere, right now" he suggested, the same strategy they had used on Misty's sisters.
Iya was visibly trembling and tears were spilling over her cheeks. "A vacation? Why do they want me, Ash?"
Ash looked back at the building that was now silent. "I honestly don't know" he replied quietly. He turned to Misty and shook his head. "Do you have any idea how close you were to being shot?"
"I could say the same for you" she snapped back. "You knew how dangerous that was, Ash. But you went in there without even bothering to check your ammo? You know we've got more than enough to take out 100 at a time!" she exclaimed.
"Oh come on Mist, what do you know? You don't know anything about guns, you have no idea what kind of risk you're putting yourself at right now!" Ash argued back.
"At least I'm thinking straight! Can't you just stop pretending you're the tough guy and remember that you're Ash Ketchum, from Pallet, not the world's next Hercules. This guy is powerful, he knows how to get to you! Be true to yourself, for God's sake!" Misty yelled. "If you go to Viridian you know you're not going to come back alive!"
"Well thanks for the vote of confidence, Mist. I'm sooo assured right now" Ash said sarcastically.
"Don't talk to me like that!" Misty warned. "I only come around here to look out for you, but all you seem to do is ignore the fact that yes, you can die doing this."
"Speak for yourself!" Ash shot back. He sighed as he noticed Misty breaking down into tears. "Aw come on, we shouldn't fight like this. There's no point. We're both riding incredibly high risks here, I just don't wanna see you die in front of my eyes" he said, holding her close.
Misty nodded, sobbing into his shoulder. "Please just look out for yourself once in a while, and forget about me" she pleaded.
Ash smiled. "Misty, you're not easy to forget." At this statement Misty smiled back and they shared a soft kiss, oblivious to the rest of the group looking on.
"Um, hate to break this up, but where the hell are we going to stay now?" Jessie asked.
Ash broke the kiss and realised what she had said. "Hm, didn't think about that...does anyone here honestly think they're gonna get any sleep now?" he asked, getting a response of head shakes. "Well, neither do I. Let's just stay in the house and keep watch for now and we'll figure something out when we settle down from this." They all agreed and slowly walked back into the house.
They sat in the same lounge they had had their first catch up in, and although they showed increasing signs of fatigue, they all kept their eyes open in fear. Misty was finally the first to doze off at about 7:30, and it didn't take long for Brock and Iya to follow. Ash smiled as he laid her down in her bed, grateful that she was now getting a bit of a rest.
They were all aware of the fact that the dead Team Rocket henchmen were still lying around Iya's bedroom, but felt they could do nothing about it. They decided to let the police deal with it, since Iya had insisted they come and check it out. They had never called in the police, they didn't think it would help in any major way.
By 12:30 the police had arrived, checked out the house, removed the bodies and commended the group on its bravery and skill. As one officer gave them his best wishes and guided the other officers out, Misty finally stirred awake.
"What's going on?" she asked as she sat up, watching the police leave.
"Nothing, they're just removing wasted carnage" James explained. Misty understood and nodded. They were all in her and Jessie's room, contemplating their next move.
"Well, we all know what's after this one..." Brock muttered reluctantly.
"Viridian" Ash said with a blank face. The news certainly wasn't cheering, that after all this work, all this struggle, they were only halfway there. They had taken out numerous henchmen, but that was nothing compared to what faced them in Viridian City.
"Should we stay another night in case Iya gets targeted again?" Jessie suggested.
James shook his head. "No, she's leaving today, off to Celadon City. Apparently she's friends with Erica, so they're going to have a catch-up until all this is over." He repeated the details Iya had told him earlier. She would be leaving at two o'clock, which left her an hour and a half to tidy the gym and get packed.
"Well she's been so understanding through all this, I'm going to help her" Misty volunteered, standing up. They all agreed this was a good way of showing their gratitude for her hospitablity, so they followed her out to the kitchen.
An hour later, the gym was spotless. It reminded Misty of the many times she had cleaned frantically for the League inspector, one time in particular...
"Thankyou guys so much for helping" Iya said in an exhausted tone. They smiled in reply, helping her with her bags and their own. She finally locked the door and sighed. "Please be careful, guys."
"Ah, don't worry about us" Ash grinned, forcing all his fear and nervousness down as best he could. A cab pulled up beside the group and Iya climbed in with a final, weary smile to all of them, and the cab pulled her away into, safety.
They all turned to each other with the same fear in their eyes, even though the burden of the whole thing had been placed on Ash.
"It'll take us about three days to get to Viridian City, so...do you wanna start now?" Brock asked Ash carefully. Ash nodded, but inside he screamed, OF COURSE I DON'T WANNA START NOW!
The forest they approached was thick and dark, and Jessie was keeping a careful eye on Brock's navigations.
Night settled in faster then they would've usually preferred, it always delayed their travelling. But today it was different. Today the delay was almost welcomed, and they snuggled into their sleeping bags.
Misty looked up at the sky through the towering trees. She knew Ash was still awake, but she also knew he wanted to think things through. She sighed at the stars, gleaming brightly as though it was all bright and bubbly in the world. But Misty knew better. In three days, everyone would know.
AN: One word: REVIEW! More soon!