Crimson Tears
Author's Note: Man. Sorry if this took a while to put up. I had to do research up on making my elders realistic. This next couple of chapters might be confusing to understand if you don't know this so… Tracey will explain!
Chapter Twenty Four: Countdown
Up on the top of the hill, Delia stood waiting. She perked up when she saw a fast moving object heading there way.
"Ash?!" Delia cried out. The reply was sort of muffled for the distance but she couldn't mistake it. Her son was fine.
Ash jumped off the speeder before Richie had even slowed down for them. He scrambled up the snowy hill to where his mom stood waiting. He was immediately brought into a hug by Delia. She was overwhelmed with tears. Mrs. Ketchum thought she might never see him again.
"Aw, Mom," Ash grinned. "You couldn't get rid of me even if you tried."
"Pika!" Pikachu nodded in agreement.
Misty and Richie parked the speeder and ran up to Delia. Richie was slightly sluggish because of a large bundle he was holding. They both had big smiles on their faces. When they drew nearer, Mrs. Ketchum discovered the bundle was a young girl.
"Is she okay!?" Delia asked in a panic.
Richie glanced down at the sleeping child.He smiled, "She just needs some rest. Ash got to her just in time."
Delia gave Ash a uncertain look as if afraid to ask him. She mounted her courage and muttered barely above a whisper so only he could here, "Did you run into… her?"
Ash nodded vaguely. He looked slightly distant when she brought it up. Something was puzzling him. Pikachu noticed it too.
'What happened between you and Cassidy, Ash?' Pikachu asked demandingly.
Ash shrugged still not looking as if he heard Pikachu at all.
"Pikachu asked you a question, Ash… Ash?" Delia gazed uncertainly at her son. The group stared at one another wondering what was wrong with him. They followed Ash's gaze Delia's wrist watch. He was watching the minute and hour hand as they neared ten.
"Well, you won't believe who we found," Mrs. Ketchum announced proudly as the group walked up to the cabin's door, "They'll be happy to see you, Ash."
Ash blinked his eyes curiously. He cast a uncertain look at Pikachu who sent the same look back.
"Is it Team Rocket?" Richie guessed.
"Why yes."
"What! They are alive!" Ash exclaimed in bewilderment.
"You don't have to seem so surprised about it," A familiar drawl caused the group to look up.
Team Rocket stood in the door way to the cabin with kind smiles on their faces. They weren't wearing their normal Team Rocket uniforms so Ash almost mistook them for some sassy college students.
Jessie wore some loose jeans and a soft blue sweater. Ash could just see the top of the white tee underneath it. Meowth of course didn't wear anything, but James was wearing a black sweatshirt with the words pokemon league printed in white across it. He also wore some jeans. They all looked awfully tired.
Ash's face broke into the first smile in hours. He raced over and brought them all into a hug.
This caught them off guard. They never thought he would care if they died.
"I am so glad you guys made it out alive," Ash smiled pulling away from the stunned trio.
"Well… thanks," They said in unison.
"Well, Tw- Ash… We were wondering. Have you… uh…" Jessie's eyes tailed over to Misty, Richie, Asa, Pikachu, and Delia behind him. The words seemed to of got lost on the way to her mouth.
Ash cocked his head suspiciously, "Have I what?"
"Cassidy said dat you should-of already transformed by no-" Meowth blabbed in till James gave him a swift boot.
Ash's eye brows rose along with everyone else's.
"Transformed?" Ash repeated bemused. "What do you mean?"
"Oh. Meowth is just joshing around," Jessie laughed falsely, she gave Meowth a piecing stare as she continued. "Aren't you, Meowth?"
"Yeah. Yeah," Meowth said quickly. "Just pulling yer tail, twerp."
Ash didn't look convinced but everyone else did. They all laughed and commented on Meowth's joke. Ash only shook his head and looked up at the remote stars. They seemed to shine with a vague light. Ash's amber eyes trailed back to his mom's watch as the seconds drew nearer to midnight.
"So how did you survive?" Misty asked Team Rocket curiously as they all sat about the fire with cocoa.
Delia had gone to the back room to care for Asa.
Ash sat away from the group on the floor with Pikachu. He was staring up at the ceiling absentmindedly while he stroke pikachu to sleep. He caught bits and pieces of their conversation.
It turned out that Cassidy caught them personally and made sure that they were not in the building when it exploded. She tortured them for answers on Ash's location but to no avail she got nothing. She was planning to kill them but they managed to escape. Although they didn't know everything that had happened when they escaped or how they did it, they managed to get to this cabin somehow. Ash had to give them credit for their bravery and determination. They had gone through an awful lot to get here.
"We do know one thing though," James said in a hushed whisper, gazing over to Ash.
Ash looked over to him suddenly interested.
"She kept saying that the time of reckoning had come. Kanashii ummei hametsu was here. Whatever that means," Jessie shrugged.
"It's not much but its a lead," Richie nodded. "It's in Japanese. I wish I knew what it means though-"
"Doomsday," Ash muttered.
All heads shot in Ash's direction. He was gazing at the clock again. He looked awfully pale and fearful.
"She is talking about Doomsday," Ash repeated.
They all exchanged looks of dread.
"Are you sure?" Richie asked.
"Positive," Ash sighed. "My dad was part Japanese."
Richie gazed over the couch down the hall where everyone was sleeping, "Maybe we should wake up Tracey and them. They conked out waiting for us…"
Ash counted off his fingers the number of rooms (five) and the number of people that had to be sleeping in them.
'Gary, Tracey, Brock, May, Asa, Mom, Lily, Violet, and Daisy. Girls in left rooms. Boys in the right. Center was where Mom and Asa were. '
"That's a lot of people to wake." Ash muttered.
They all looked at each other when was a suddenly slam of a door being knocked opened. Two figures ran into the room one carrying a radio and the other carrying a laptop.
"Hey! You got to listen to this Team Rocket…" Gary gasped.
He took a glimpse over at Ash, Misty, Richie, and Pikachu, and smiled, "Welcome back, guys."
Tracey flopped down on the couch in between Meowth and James and began typing madly in his laptop.
Gary took a seat next to Richie and placed the radio on the coffee table.
"You won't believe what is happening!"
He flipped the radio on. The voices crackled into focus…
'I just can't believe it can you, Bob?'
'Not at all. I am just as bewildered as you. This is just too much.'
Ash cast Gary a puzzled stare. Gary kept his eyes on the radio without answering. The conversation continued, 'If you are just joining us we hate to unveil a terrible but important discovery…'
'In the events of Salem City, Agatha tried to get into contact with the elders. All but one remained. Kimi, the elder of Wind, claims that the other elders had just vanished into thin air. Before Kimi could finish her plea for help the phone when dead. Agatha could not get through to her again.'
"What is Agatha using the phone for?" James muttered. "When she has mental powers?"
"They don't know that," Gary muttered. "Agatha will not reveal her powers to the whole public. Only to ones she wants to know."
As he said that he looked over to Ash who was staring at the radio in silence. He didn't as much twitch when Asa and Delia walked in.
"Hey. Asa's awake now…" Delia smiled faded from her face as she glanced about the room, "Who died?"
Asa glared over at Ash with a look that clearly said, 'Fill me in or else.'
The radio broadcast continued, 'Yes. very sad. It looks like the legend is coming true after all…"
They all jumped when Gary quickly turned it off.
"What legend?" Ash snapped.
All eyes fell on Gary. Gary looked over to Tracey with pleading eyes.
"You tell them. I can't explain it…" Gary looked over at Ash when he said that.
Tracey looked a little overwhelmed. He too was looking at Ash strangely.
"Alright…" He sighed.
He clicked enter on his keyboard and gazed over at Ash.
"You guys might want to look at this screen if you are gonna get any of this…"
Everyone huddled around Tracey except for Gary who sat away from the group as a onlooker. He looked extremely tense. He took had started looking over at the clock wondering when it would strike the death toll midnight.
"Well, a long time ago," Tracey began as a image of the crimson tear appeared on the screen. "There was a teardrop."
"Is this gonna take long?" Jessie moaned.
"No. Not really."
The Legend has it that the tear was formed from the legendary pokemon, Mew. When it cried for the other pokemon in the storm of raging waters one of its tears formed a crystal as red as blood thus it got the name the crimson tear. As time passed so was the stone. It was handed generation to generation most preferably to elder child.
Not far away, a glove was crafted to hold this stone. The maker named Herutte decided it was a mistake once he discovered how deadly the stone could be. Legends of the stone and the glove coming together grew.
The most famous was the probably the most feared.
A young female would place the glove and stone bout her hand. Her anger and rage would so destroy the world bring the human and pokemon race to extinction. But as the legend says, the girl got tired of killing. She wanted more after the world was gone. She wanted to all powerful. With the moon of the new year drawing near its peak in the sky, she summoned Wind, Water, Light, and Earth. Then she summoned the elemental. With that she stripped them of their powers and spirit killing them. Her plans fulfilled she traveled throughout the galaxy destroying planets and lives where ever she went.
"Me-owth don't like dat story. It stinks," Meowth muttered.
"So evil won?" James asked curiously. "That can't be possible."
"That's the legend," Tracey shrugged.
"My goodness," Delia gasped, "How horrible."
Tracey looked over to Ash who was yawning lightly. He had gone through a lot tonight. Maybe telling him tomorrow would be wise.
No, he has a right to know.
"Uh Ash…" Tracey began, "I think you deserve to know this…"
Gary looked even whiter. He glared at Tracey with a death glare. Tracey ignored it.
"What is it?" Ash asked.
"Me, Gary, Lily, and Agatha have done some looking into the elemental master and… and this might sound crazy but… it might just be you."
Ash blinked, "Huh?"
"Well, you do have mysteriously more powers than just lighting…" Richie commented.
Ash shrugged, "So? Big deal. Doesn't mean I'm special."
"Does too," Misty said softly. "That means you are the Elemental Master."
Ash looked stunned, "Okay. First Chosen One and now this? Come on. How gullible do you think I can get?"
"We aren't pulling you leg, Ash," Gary said sternly. "We need to consider to possibilities."
Ash smirked and laughed, "You guys are too much."
He walked to the other side of the room and leaned against the wall. He looked extremely tired.
Gary scowled, "If you are, we can't risk the fact that Cassidy might come here for you. Like the elders."
"Cassidy isn't after me over that. She just want me dead cause she thinks I killed her boyfriend," Ash yawned.
Delia looked frightened, "I think you should listen to them, Ash. They may be right."
Ash shrugged, "Okay. Prove it."
Gary looked over at Tracey who nodded. Gary stood up and glared at Ash, "Tell the truth. Have you or have you not had some strange dreams lately about Cassidy…"
Ash froze staring at the ground. His eyes clouded and his insides turned to ice. He had predicted Cassidy getting the stone.
"And I notice you have been looking at the clock a lot," Tracey added. "Why is that?"
Ash looked up at them, fear painted across his face.
"I- I- Cassidy told me that tonight… something would happen."
"But you are waiting for midnight. You keep looking at it watching and waiting for midnight," Gary smiled. "You are doing things with out thinking, Ash. It's written all over you. You must realize it now too."
Ash was still frosted with shock. He couldn't reply. His mind kept fighting that possibility. But the more he thought about it the more it made sense. Everything was becoming clear.
"I am-"
A golden circle appeared at Ash's feet. Ash looked down bewildered. A slight hum filled the air as golden beams shot from the circle, it wrapped about him and when they released him Ash was dressed the same way as in his dream. The same pure white robes.
"What's going on?" Ash shouted.
No one could answer him. Pikachu woke up with a start. It jumped out of Misty's arms and looked over to Ash,
'Ash, stay calm.'
"How can I?" Ash cried. "I dunno what's happening to me."
'We'll come get you, Ash. Just don't let Cassidy take your-'
"What?" Ash cried. "What... my powers? My master abilities?"
'No. Your soul.'
Ash felt slightly numb. He looked down at his hands as they slowly faded into thin air. He tired to keep a strait face but he was beginning to panic. The last thing he heard was Misty's scream… everything went black.
To Be Continued…
Please oh please r + r!
Man. Now this was a evil cliffhanger! Mwhahaha! No touchy?!
