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Part 3 : Oath of Revenge

Chapter 11 : Abating Storm

The two grass pokemon stared at the attacking trainers, having been sent out by their rocket trainers to fend off the onslaught - and from what Gary could see, it seemed like they would be rather effective at the job, because Lily and Daisy had nothing save water types, which just so happened to be weak to grass attack.

"Venusaur! Razor leaf!" the first ordered, a vicious grin on his face.

"Victreebel! Vine Whip!" the second added, smiling at what would certainly be an easy victory.

Easy victory, yeah, I'm sure of it Gary thought, readying his own pokemon for the battle.

"Arcanine! Dodrio! You show them!" he yelled, releasing his two pokemon, whom he had recalled earlier. "You show them! Arcanine, Flamethrower on that Venusaur! Dodrio, Drill Peck on that Victreebel!" he yelled his own order. He might not be as good a trainer as he claimed to be, but he was far from bad, and he would show them.

Dodrio ran swiftly toward the carnivorous plant, stiking it with his three beaks repeatedly, while Arcanine feared a great wave of flame at the grass dinosaur. Meanwhile, the two pokemon had not been idle, and a flurry of leaves was coming rapidly toward the sisters' dewgong, while the Victreebel's vines shot out toward the Horsea they had brought with them.

The horsea was sent tumbling by the attack, falling off Daisy's shoulder, while the leaf badly wounded the dewgong as they covered the white body with ugly scratch. However, the attackers were not left with any time to congratulate themselves, as the flames of Arcanine burned the Venusaur until it's body was completely black, before causing its trainer to pass out, while Dodrio swiftly knocked the Victreebel out with constant pecking, then proceeding to knock out the creature's trainer with a well aimed kick.

"Good job guys." Gary smiled, before he felt a terrible chill down his spine. Something terrible had just happened, he knew it, though he could not explain how. Despite the oppressive feeling, he managed to brush aside worries about what it was that had happened, and to concentrate on the current situation. The two trainers were out, and with the guards they had eliminated at the door, that made for four guards out. Adding in what the others surely had managed to take out at their own doors, it made for a good nine guards out of a dozen or so - most of the Rocket, in fact.

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Sabrina felt a sudden chill, and recoiled as her mind, which she was using to probe ahead of them, encountered a dark and menacing presence the like of which she had never seen before. It was a man, yet at the same time it wasn't - it was something else as well, as if the man's soul had a strange second side, completely animal.

"Watch out! Someone's coming our way..." she whispered to the others, leading them in what seemed a side room as the strange and menacing presence came closer.

She almost closed the door, then hesitated and left it barely open, so that she could see outside, and placed herself to watch. A few seconds later, the mysterious presence passed by the door, walking with a smirk on his face. He wore a long black coat, and had short red hair. In his hand, he held a smoking gun, and Sabrina felt a chill at the sight.

I just hope he didn't use it on one of the others... she thought, before concentrating on tracking the alien presence until she could make sure they were safe to come out. When he was far away enough - out of the mill entirely, as far as she could tell - she signaled the others that it was time to go, but just as they were about to leave Tracey spotted a pair of pokeballs lying down on a desk.

He picked one of them up, and, experimentally, as if he was checking a suspicion, he threw it out. A great blue creature appeared, smiling as it was for the first time released in a long while, as far as Sabrina could say. It was also the first time in a long while that she saw a Lapras.

"I wonder who left a pokemon like that in here..." Violet said, extending her hand to take the ball.

"The Rockets." Tracey replied. "I know that Lapras - it's Ash's." he added.

"Really? But why would they leave two of Ash's pokemon - and a rare one like that - here?" Richie wondered.

"I don't know." Tracey admitted. "But I know that Lapras - and seems like that Lapras recognize me"

Violet smiled, and so did Sabrina, though only a very slight smile, when she saw the Lapras poking Tracey gently with his head.

"Seems so, yeah." She nodded, and watched as Tracey recalled the pokemon, adding the two pokeballs to his belt.

They exited the room, Sabrina still using her mind to keep watching out for enemies waiting for them.

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"Oh...poor little thing..." Daisy whispered as she picked up the fallen Horsea as they got ready to move again in their attempt to find out where Ash and Misty were held. Only, as she picked him up, light began to stream from his body - a telltale bright white light.

"It's evolving!" Lily shouted in excitement, and Gary winced and could only hope no one had heard that - at least no Rocket.

Spiked wings like appendage began to appear on the back of the little creature as it grew significantly, and as it took a shape that make it look definitely deadlier than what it had seemed, the cute appearance replaced by a vicious dragon-like look. When the light faded, Daisy held a Seadra in her arms.

Gary smiled as he realized that this meant Misty would have a second powerful pokemon, even though he didn't care much about the young red-haired tomboy - but Ash did care about her, though Gary had no idea if it was as a friend or something more, and he was determined to end his conflict with Ash.

"Hey! Gary!" a voice suddenly shouted from the opposite end of the hallway from the one by which they had entered. He turned to see Richie, Tracey, Sabrina and Violet coming in from that way. "Glad to get back with you guys!" Tracey added. "Where do we check now?"

Richie looked around for a moment, noticing the various doors in the hallway they were in. He pointed to one of them, the only one that seemed not to be leading in a simple room, but rather in a hallway, from what they could see through the small opening. He pushed it open, while Gary and the others stood ready to send in their pokemon.

The hallway before them was empty, with only one more door at the other end, a close door with what seemed a bit like a cat door, but too high for it to be of any use for a cat, as if it had been meant to push things to people inside.

"I think that's the place." Sabrina said. The glow in her eyes became a bit more intense than it had been, and she added. "I sense one...no...two presence I encountered before there...Might be Ash and Misty." She told them slowly.

Gary smiled, knowing it was time for him to act. "I'll deal with that door." He said as he took one of his pokeball and threw it. His nidoking appeared ahead of them, and raced toward the door, smashing it with one huge blow from his fist, opening the door, and letting them look at two very startled teenagers - a black-haired young man and a red-haired girl. Gary sighed in relief - they were done, they had gotten Ash and Misty back.

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As the door broke open with a loud cracking noise, Ash whirled to face it, feeling Misty doing the same just behind her. As the dust settled, he felt a grin settling on his face as he recognized the figures standing outside - they were definitely not with Team Rocket, though some of them he hadn't expected to see going out of their way to rescue him. Misty's sisters were there, unsurprisingly, and so were Tracey and Richie, as well as Sabrina, surprisingly, and even more surprisingly, leading the group, Gary with a grayish cloak made of wool on his back.

And then, realization came to him, and a strange exhilaration as well. They were free. After over a week prisoners of the mill, they were FREE! He felt like dancing, like shouting, like jumping around, he just wanted to let the whole world know how happy he was. Misty was already running toward her sister, but before Ash could run toward his friends, they were joining him.

To Ash's astonishment, Gary did not come to him to boast about saving him, or about Ash's being captured. He stood off to the side, his face filled with - was it relief? There was no way to tell. There also seemed to be some strange kind of fear in his eyes as he looked at him. Turning back to Richie and Tracey, he smiled at them.

"Thanks guys!" he told them, once again feeling as if he was impossibly light now that he was free, as if he could fly.

"Hey, you seriously thought we'd leave you hanging Ash?" Tracey replied, smiling. "You'd have done the same for us." He added, grinning.

While he talked to them, Ash found his eyes drawn to Gary once again. There was something undeniably different about his one-time friend, he seemed so much like...like his old self, from the time when they had been friend.

"Hey Gary, thanks for coming, too." Ash told him, uncertain how the young man would react.

"You're welcome Ash." He replied simply, almost - was it possible? - shyly. "And...I...I'm sorry for all those things I told you those last few years, all those time I bullied you or belittled you. I...I don't know if you'll be able to ever forgive me, but..." Gary said, and Ash felt his mind shudder at the thought of how much will it must have taken his once-time - and maybe future? - friend to simply admit that.

"Well, I certainly hated you a lot while we were both on our way to become masters but..." He sighed. "I guess we can both put that behind us, uh? You came to help me here, so I owe you that much." He added, and wondered if he was busily falling for a trap from Gary, or doing the right thing.

"Uh...sorry to interrupt your chat, Ash, but so far, there are at least three rocket members unaccounted for, and three of the others might wake up and get in any moment...I'd rather not face them anytime soon..." Sabrina interrupted them suddenly, after talking with Daisy and Lily.

"We took care of those three rocket." A voice said in a somber tone from the entrance of the room. Ash turned again to see Brock entering. From his look, it was obvious that he had been weeping, and so had the others with him - Todd and Erica.

Ash heard someone gasping behind him, and turned to see Gary's face becoming white as a sheet. Looking at the other, he could also see that they all suddenly had fear in their eyes. He wondered why they would become so afraid of a simple thing such as Brock coming in and telling them he had defeated the last three rockets...

"We took care of those three rocket." Brock continued somberly. "But they took care of Duplica..." he added, then stopping, and Ash had the impression for a moment that his friend was fighting back tear as he walked toward Gary and put an hand on his shoulder.

"I'm very sorry Gary...but she's dead..." he told him, and Gary's face became even whiter, as Ash tried to understand why Duplica being dead would affect Gary so much.

Chapter 12 : The Oath

The moment the words from Brock's mouth confirmed his deepest fear, Gary staggered back, falling down in one of the half ruined chair in the room that had served as a prison for Ash and Misty. He curled up, and wept openly, his heart shattered by the news.

Duplica was dead. The girl who had given him a new life, given him a new hope, the girl who had told him she loved him that morning, was dead. The one girl he had cared for more than anything, the one girl he loved.

She was dead.

Warm tears ran down his cheeks, and he felt a comforting hand on his shoulder, but didn't even bother to find out who the owner of the hand was. He had lost his sole reason to live, his will to go on. He wanted to die, to be with her. Forever.

A memory floated back to the surface of his mind. A promise he had made to Duplica, back when they had been on the ship, on the way to the Orange archipelago. A promise he could not decide not to keep - he cared for Duplica way too much for that. He heard Richie telling Ash about Duplica and him, and the promise came to his mind again.

He had to rebuild his friendship with Ash, and he would do that. He had promised Duplica he would, and he would.

"Team Rocket's going to pay for that." He heard Misty stating, and slowly the pain of the loss of Duplica withdrew, though it was still very much present, but now there was an even stronger feeling in his broken heart - the thirst for revenge. Duplica had been murdered, and the murderers would pay.

"They'll pay, all right." He replied.

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When Richie told him about the reason of Gary's reaction, Ash felt a wave of wrenching pity overcome him. Gary had just lost his reason to live, that was obvious. He felt an overwhelming urge to go to his one time friend and comfort him, to offer him friendship, the very same friendship that they had lost before, to help support him, but before he could do so, Tracey and Brock stopped him and handled him three pokeball.

"We found those two in the mill Ash. One is your Lapras, the other I don't know. Might be one of Misty's." Tracey explained.

"And this one...well, it's an old friend...your Pikachu - he's waiting for you down in the city - ran in her a while ago, apparently." Brock added, handing him the pokeball. Ash called out the two pokemon, and felt his heart leap in joy as his Pidgeot and Charizard appeared, both of them seemingly very glad to see him. He turned to see Misty's sister handling her two more pokeball, and to see Misty releasing the two pokemon - her Starmie and a Seadra. He saw her head lowering, and instantly knew she was thinking about Togepi, Staryu and Psyduck. Her sisters started to comfort her, and Ash turned away. There was someone who need the comfort far more than Misty did. He put a hand on Gary's shoulder, noticing that Sabrina had put an hand on his other shoulder.

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Four days. Four days already had passed since the eventful assault on the Rocket base, and now, now that the various local police forces were done "investigating" and concluding that they were indeed telling the truth, it was time for the sad moment they had all avoided for so long. As the coffin was slowly brought down in the small shrine, Gary felt tears rolling down his cheek as Duplica was laid to rest, as he remembered one last time the perfect look of her face as he had looked at her one last time before the burial.

His friends were gathered around him, and all of them had their head bowed in grief just like him, though he knew that their grief was nothing like his, that his grief went much deeper than any of their.

Yet at the same time he felt a powerful urge to destroy, to kill, to destroy. The priest's words about forgiveness and peace, and about Duplica being born to a better life went unheard, as he only though about running a knife through the body of every last rocket member.

At length, the ceremony was over, and everyone but the ten trainers who had assaulted the rocket base, Ash, and Misty left. The twelve of them moved closer to the tomb, and to the little marble shrine that Sabrina, the Waterflower sisters and Erica had managed to have build with their money. Outside the small shrine, rain started to fall, one of those savage late summer rainfall.

"What do we do, now?" Brock was the first to voice it, though the question was running through every mind. "I don't think any of us want the Rockets to get away with that, do we?" he added.

They all agreed on that, for sure. Some of them nodded, some of them said "no" in a low tone, but they all agreed that the Rockets could not get away with what they had done.

Gary was the first to do it, but once they saw him doing so, they all imitated him.

He put his hand on the stone marking Duplica's grave, the stone that marked the slab in the small shrine floor under which the coffin rested. He put his hand on it, took a deep breath, and started speaking in a low tone.

"I, Gary Oak, swear that I will not rest until Team Rocket is finally defeated, it's plaguing evil forever removed from the face of the world. I will only rest when all those rocket involved, from afar or from close, in the murder of Duplica will be dead or in prison." He said, taking as formal a tone as he could muster, though he had no idea why he was doing so. It just seemed fitting that such a tremendous oath would be taken that way.

One by one, the others did the same. Ash was first to follow, and his eyes shone with the fires of revenge as he did so, both revenge for Duplica, and revenge for the long time they had spent imprisoned in the dark room of the mill. That fire was mirrored in Misty's eyes as she swore, barely a moment later, her words so very similar to Gary, while Ash had used a different way of saying it, though just as binding.

Brock came next, and with him Tracey, both of them having fought Team Rocket for years without end, both of them having been friends of Ash and Misty for a long while. Then came Richie and Todd, both of them with strangely blank face, both of them eager to fight. Richie had been the one responsible for the plan that had led to Duplica getting killed, though no one of them could blame him for how events had turned out, while Todd had been forced to watch while she died - watch and do nothing.

Then came they gym leaders, Lily and Daisy first, then Violet, then Sabrina and Erica together, all of them somehow more reluctant to take such a strong oath, all of them bound by worldly obligations. Yet they all swore, though it seemed to Gary that in hunting down Team Rocket, they would probably loose much, even perhaps their gym. But if they wanted to help, it was their right to do so.

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The plan had worked without problem, and May was in a self-congratulatory mood as the small VTOL* plane came closer and closer to the strangely shaped mountain north of Cerulean, dominating the northern reaches of the Moon sea.

The two enormous propellers of the craft were now in a horizontal position, parallel to the plane and to the ground. With their help, the machine made its way forward in the sky, coming still closer to what was the Lotus headquarters from all that she could guess. In the hold of the plane, the pokemon they had stolen from her grandfather laboratory were all in their pokeballs, and she knew all of them would probably be killed as soon as they got there.

For a fleeing instant, she almost felt guilty. Those pokemon were prized possession or loyal companions of their owners, and to take them away somehow seemed wrong, yet on the other hand, she could only feel contempt for the creatures. And the teaching of the Lotus, while hard to believe, were clear on the point that pokemon were creatures of darkness, and that they had to be killed.

An opening appeared close to the water at the base of the mountain, a huge gaping maw in the mountain, and the plane entered the cavern. May readied her eyes for the darkness, and was surprised when she realized the cavern was in fact well lit, and that she could easily see what was inside - and it was more than enough to cause her to gasp.

In the water of the cavern, ranks of powerful warships were anchored to concrete piers, some of them enormous and bristling with guns, some smaller and with fewer weapons. Some of them had flat decks and were filled with planes just like the one she was in, and some of them had absolutely nothing on their deck save a single tear-shaped small tower - obviously, submarines.

"Impressive, isn't it?" the man besides her, who had identified himself as Colonel Eric Nelson, told her.

"Yeah..." she whispered softly, watching the warships in amazement. "How did the lotus get all those?"

"I can't give you the details, but many of those were "supposedly" lost in storms, or scrapped...the Lotus just so happened to be in the right spot to prevent them from being wasted. Of course, that's the explanation we give for fun. The truth in most cases is that the captains and sizeable parts of the crews were willing to abandon their former allegiance, and join the Lotus definitely. They brought their ships along." He told her, grinning.

"That's got to be the largest gathering of power I've seen ever..." she added, her eyes filled with amazement at the war machines waiting.

"Yeah. When the war start, no one will stand a chance." Nelson replied, a smile on his face. May shuddered at the term. War. It certainly meant soon it would no longer be just a simple statement that she didn't like pokemon. Soon, she would fight, and kill, in the name of that belief.

Joining the Lotus didn't sound like such a great idea, at that point, but it was far too late to sign off.

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"I wonder what's so precious about these two books that your father would send you to get them like that." Elayne told Damian as they were walking back toward the headquarters, a few days away from where they were.

"I don't know. At first I expected them to have to do with the Prophecies of Twilight, but they have nothing to do with that." Damian replied, looking at the books wonderingly as he followed her.

"Prophecies of twilight?" she asked, and Damian silently cursed himself for being so careless as mentioning them in front of someone who had no idea what this was all about.

"Some old prophecies. He likes to read them." Damian replied, carefully avoiding to mention that Damian was probably an even bigger reader of those prophecies than his father, and that as far as he could muster, he was destined to play a key role in them. Not one of the nine heroes, but he was definitely mentioned in the prophecies, though he didn't like what he thought applied to him.

"Ah, ok." She nodded, and started walking once again. It would take them a few more days to reach the mill, and they both were eager to put that mission behind them, except of course for one thing that had happened in it. Damian smiled as he accelerated a little, catching up to Elayne and taking her hand as they both walked eastward. She smiled back at him, and lightly kissed him as they headed that way.

* VTOL: Vertical take-off and landing. A airplane that can take off and land like an helicopter.

Chapter 13 : Plans of Campaign

The sun shone trough the windows of the hotel room, illuminating the whole place as a new morning rose, the morning after the seven of them had taken the oath to hunt down Team Rocket. Ash sat on a bed, holding Pikachu in his arms looking at his companions.. Misty was sitting in a rocking chair, holding Seadra close to her. It was one of her last two pokemon, and she wasn't letting him out of her sight...Gary was by the window, lost in thought, his eyes still filled with the pain of loosing Duplica, which was not very surprising. Knowing that she was dead had been hard for them all, and of course, for Gary even more so. Ash once again promised himself that he would be the loyal friend Gary needed in these hard times.

Brock was close to Ash himself, apparently lost in though - or perhaps lost in looking alternatively at both Sabrina, Erica, Lily, Daisy and Violet. All the while that they had been about to storm the mill, he had managed to put his instincts out of the way, but now they were back with a vengeance. Tracey, Richie and Todd were looking at the heaps of maps on the table. The five gym leaders were talking together, apparently trying to come up with a solution to the problem of their oath conflicting with them wanting to hurt Team Rocket. Todd, Richie and Tracey were sitting around the table, elaborating a strategy. Which was to say, Richie explained his plan, while the others listened and nodded from time to time. Ash slowly got up and joined them, Pikachu perched on his shoulder.

"Best way to get them is to make them be overconfident." Richie was explaining, looking at them all. "We have to make them think we are all busy elsewhere, and have lots of us doing just that, while the others snoop around quietly - some trying to start from the mill and following their tracks until they find something, the others investigating in Kanto, since we know there headquarters is almost certainly there,, and try to find out just what is up with all that." He added. Tracey, Todd and Ash nodded.

"We won't be luring or snooping, though." Sabrina suddenly interrupted. "We've been talking," she said pointing at the other gym leaders "and we all think that we would be able to help much more from our gyms, sending you the money and the information we can come up with." She explained. Richie nodded quickly.

"That makes sense. If you send us the money, it will make things easier for us, and we'll be able to concentrate more on the hunt." He replied. "That means we'll have about four of us going..." He looked at the map, hesitating, then pointed an area, west of Kanto. "there, to Jhoto. They'll be the ones doing the beating around in the bushes." He added.

"I'll go in that case. I don't think Ash or I would be very good at sneaking up." Misty was first to talk. And I'm sure Ash will come with me. As she said that, she walked closer to the table, and Ash smiled at her.

"I might as well tag along. I wouldn't be very good at the snooping quietly." He admitted. "Anyway, Team Rocket knows Misty and I too well." He added. He didn't like admitting it, but he knew it was true, and it wasn't a time where they could let pride get in their ways.

"Good. I think I'll tag along, too. I'd like to see what kind of pokemon they got around there, anyway." Richie added thoughtfully.

"I...I think I'll go along to...if you guys will let me come." Gary slowly said, seemingly very afraid of being rejected. Ash turned and smiled at him.

"You can come Gary. I have no problem with that...and if we are going to rebuild our friendship, we might as well be in the same area." He replied, grinning.

"Thanks Ash." Gary replied, relief clear in his voice.

They were all silent for a while, as the remaining three members of their group considered the map, both of them wondering where it would be better to go. Brock had his eyes even smaller than usual, while Todd was just as concentrated as he usually was when working on taking a picture of a wild pokemon, a hard to get shot. Tracey was looking at the map as well, his eyes apparently weighting two possible choices.

"I'll take care of the Orange island, and of snooping around the mill." He finally said. "I know those islands the most of everyone here, so I'd probably be the best at handling things in them." He explained, getting nods of approval from mostly everyone.

"Well, I'll team up with you Brock if you want..." said Todd.

"Well, I have nothing against that Todd. Between the two of us, we should be able to uncover something in Kanto." Brock told his friend.

They continued their planning for a long while, considering how best to coordinate their efforts so that they would not start anything too quickly, and so that they would have drawn all the eyes in Team Rocket to the group of them beating around in the bush in Johto.

"We'll have to find ships for most of us..." Gary realized at some point, and told them. Ash nodded, knowing his recovered friend was right - though it was not hard to know, seeing as Kaerlan was an island, and as Johto and Kanto did not happen to be on that island.

The door to the room opened, and someone else entered, a man with gray hair Ash knew well, whom he had seen a few time since they had been freed of the Rocket base. He moved close to the table as he heard them talking.

"The St. Anne II will be leaving toward Pallet soon..." he pointed out. "Pallet is close to Johto anway, so you might as well visit your mother before going there Ash." He told him as he neared the room. "She's been very worried about you." He added. Ash nodded, realizing that the knowledge that her only son had been kidnapped must have been terrible for his mother.

"I'll take the St. Anne too..." Brock added, and Todd nodded. "It will put us in Kanto, and going along with you is probably the best idea." He grinned. "Won't look as suspicious if most of us travel together on the way back there.

"I think we'll go along. It's a longer way to reach Cerulean, through Viridian, then Pewter and Mount Moon, , but we might as well tag along for a little while." Lily added. "It's not much slower than by Vermilion and Saffron."

"We'll get back on our own, though, Erica and I." Sabrina warned. "Getting back by way of Pallet would take way too much time for the two of us." She explained.

Suddenly, as they were talking, a phone rang. Brock walked up to the room phone, but when he pressed the key that would have normally caused the image of the person on the other end to appear, nothing happened, and the screen remained blank.

"Odd." he whispered.

"Oh! That must be this new cell phone I took with me..."Professor Oak said suddenly. He drew the small machine from the place where it hung at his belt, and took it in his hand. He pressed the contact button, and the face of a police officer appeared. She spoke to the old scientist in a low tone for a while, and Ash could see his mentor's face becoming whiter by the minute as she spoke.

"Thank you officer. I hope you'll be able to catch them." He said finally, his face white like a sheet, then hung up the phone.

"It was the police." He told them, his voice shaky. "It appears that someone came to my laboratory late a few nights ago and stole all the pokemon there...Apparently, the same someone also kidnapped my granddaughter..." he added, his face still very much white.

"WHAT?" the yell came from two mouths, Ash's and Gary's.

"They think it was Team Rocket." The professor continued, oblivious to the expression of stupor on the face of the two young men.

"Team Rocket again..." whispered Misty. "They'll pay..." she added, her voice cold as ice.

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The next morning, they left, each heading his or her own way. Sabrina and Erica boarded the Queen of Aqua again, headed this time for Vermilion after some extensive goodbye. They promised to keep in touch, and send in whatever money they could muster to help with the hunt. Tracey, on his own, watched on the pier as the two great ship left, one for Vermilion and one for Pallet, within minutes of each other. Ash and Misty, as well as Brock, Todd, Richie, Lily, Daisy, Violet, Gary and professor Oak filled in the SS. Ann II, as it headed for Pallet.

Tracey was left alone on the pier, watching the rapidly disappearing shadows of the two great ships on the horizon.

The hunt had begun, and the prey would not know it until it was too late.

Chapter 14 : Shared Nightmares

The great ship SS Ann II was heading at full speed toward Pallet, the light from the various windows seeming like a thousand stars all gathered in a singe point in the night sky. She was headed for the harbor of Pallet town, and would reach it within a few days, but she was still in the middle of the ocean.

In one of the bedroom of the great ship, a single girl was lying on a bed, tossing restlessly in her sleep, her red hair loose around her shoulders. Tears were streaming down from her face, mute testimony of the nightmare she was making. The pillow under her was wet, and that certainly added to her discomfort, making her toss all the more so.

In her mind, Misty was relieving some of the more terrible scene of the recent ordeal, and they were nothing short of painful...

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She felt the crude ropes biting in her skin as they held her tightly to the huge tree trunk as she woke up, She knew that soon the tree trunk would head for the saw, and that unless a miracle took place, she would soon die.

Jessie and James called for Ash to surrender, and she tried to say something, but only to be stopped by the gag they had inserted in her mouth. She could not say a thing, could not do a thing. She was tied down to a log, and unless Ash accepted to sacrifice his life's dream, she would soon be dead.

And while in reality, he had accepted to pay that price for her sake, in the shadow-filled world of her nightmares, he instead ordered his Charizard to attack the two bandits - condemning her in the process.

Just as the saw was about to reach her skull, shadows flickered, and she found herself facing another vision, just as painful, though not because it was showing what could have been, but rather because it demonstrated how much she had lost.

It was a single face, the joyful face of her Togepi, smiling at her, happy as ever. Only now, even though she could see him in the shadow of her mind, he was gone, taken away by the thugs of Team Rocket, stolen to be sold for money. To become a slave, one might say. As she reached out to take Togepi in her arms, to hold him here in this world of dream as she no longer could in the waking world, the shadows cruelly flickered, and another vision was there.

This time, Ash was weeping. It was after they had been captured, and as they were coming up with the realization that no one knew where they were, that no one would ever be able to save them. Of course, someone had managed to save them, but seeing the despair of Ash, the despair she had brought about with her carelessness, she felt like a thousand knifes were stabbing her in the chest.

Shadows flickered yet again.

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She woke up screaming, sweat and tears mixing as they rolled down her cheeks, wetting the pillow under her. She rose slowly, unable to go back to sleep, knowing it would be futile as the nightmare would only come back, she curled up on her bed for a while, holding her knees with her arms. It was her fault, really. She had been the one to want to go in that mill, first and foremost. Even though Ash's objections had been jokes more than anything, she should have listened to them. They had been there.

And now, she had almost died for it. Lost most of her pokemon. And had made her best friend, one of the two person she cared the most about in the world, suffer so very much. She briefly wished that Ash would not have surrendered to Team Rocket, that way she would be dead instead of having to live with the guilt of having brought. She continued hugging her knees and weeping, until she heard a knock on the door.

"Yes..." she said slowly, through the tears.

"Misty? It's me, Ash. Can I come in?" his voice asked from just outside, and Misty slowly rose to go open the door. He entered, looking worriedly at her. She briefly noticed that his eyes seemed filled with pain, like hers probably were.

"Is something wrong Misty? You just screamed so loud..." he asked, concern filling his voice.

"No...yes...I don't know..." She slowly began, confused, wanting to share with someone, yet not wanting to bring more pain to Ash.

"Misty...what happened? " he asked her gently. They slowly walked outside, to look at the sea, reflecting the stars and the moon from the night sky.

"I had a nightmare...I kept seeing Togepi's face...The scene at the mill when I woke up and found that I was tied to that log...The time when they told us pikachu was dead." She slowly admitted, knowing he would not stop until she told him, and eager for the comfort only a friend could bring her.

"I know...I've been having the same kind of nightmare myself." Ash admitted, looking at the sea.

"I should have listened to you Ash...the mill was not a good idea..." She slowly told him, reluctant to admit having been wrong to him, but knowing she had to. Ash slowly shook his head in answer.

"Nah...I was only joking, those weren't serious objections...And it was my fault...if I had not decided to go visit this mountain, nothing would have happened...I'm so sorry Misty..." he told her, putting an hand on his shoulder.

"Don't say that it was your fault...it was mine..." she replied. She would not let her take part of the blame that was hers. It was painful enough to bear, and with what she had already done to him, she would not let him do that.

"Well...it was at least partially mine." Ash replied, apparently after ending the discussion quickly. "And now...I feel...wrong." He continued, slowly taking a pokeball from his belt. "It's so unfair that I got three of my pokemon back and you got none." He slowly told her, playing with the pokeball.

"Well, at least I have Seadra and Starmie..." she answered in a half-bitter tone. The loss of her pokemon was more painful than most of the rest of their ordeal, especially that of Togepi, but also that of Psyduck.

Ash smiled at her.

"Well, yeah," he began, "but...I want you to have this..." he said, handing her the pokeball he had been playing with. She looked at it, feeling extremely surprised. Ash was giving her one of his pokemon? That hardly seemed likely, yet there it was...it seemed even less likely that he would have found the money to buy her one...especially since he still owed her a bike.

She released the pokemon that was inside, and out came Ash's prized Lapras, Nessie. The blue creature looked at the two of them, and Ash made a small smile.

"Nessie, I want you to obey Misty. She'll take good care of you, and she needs you more than I do now." He slowly told the creature, who nodded, though a few tears were coming from its eyes.

"Oh, Ash, I can't...I mean, you will probably never find another Lapras to catch..." Misty started to say, not willing to accept such a magnificent gift.

"Maybe...but...fair's fair. That way we both have as much pokemon...." he told her, and the slight catch in his voice more than told her how hard it was for him. Yet his eyes seemed determined, and she knew it would be useless to refuse the gift.

"Well...thank you..." she finally said, not knowing what else she could say. They stood on the railing, looking at the sea, and from time to time a small tear from one of their cheek fell in the water below.

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As they separated, Ash suddenly realized that for the whole discussion, Misty had been nice to him - and he had been nice to her. Perhaps something good would come out of this whole mess...and maybe they would stop fighting all the time. He would miss his Lapras, but he knew that he had done the right thing - Misty deserved the Lapras, and he knew she would handle Nessie well.

He went back to his cabin and nightmare-filled sleep, barely resting, and knowing he would be exhausted from lack of sleep by the time they reached pallet, but he could not help it. When he slept, nightmare kept him from rest, and when he fled the nightmare, he would find no sleep.

It was at dusk two days later that the great ship reached Pallet town, the light of the town being like a beacon for the great liner. His mother was waiting impatiently for them on the pier, and when Ash set foot on the ground, she raced toward him and hugged him fiercely.

"Oh, my poor little Ash...don't worry, I'm here...you're safe now" she told him, her arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders.

"MOM! Please..." he told her, very conscious that his friends were watching him. His mother slowly let him go, and turned toward the others.

"Oh, sorry...hi Misty," she started, smiling at the young red-hair. "Hi Gary, hi Brock," she added, looking at the gym leader, before turning toward Richie, and looking at him for a while, trying to identify him, her eyes revealing that she remembered seeing him before, but had problems recalling where or when, and his name. "Hello...Richie? Isn't that your name?..." she finally said, and Richie nodded. She then turned toward Todd, obviously trying to identify him - and failing miserably.

"I'm Todd, a pokemon photographer." The young man explained, shaking her hand.

"Well, hi Todd." She smiled, then turned toward the others. Before she asked any question, Misty presented her sisters, while Ash smiled, but then the smile vanished as the pain of the events in the mill returned at full force.

They all gathered at his house for some sleep - for those who would be able to get sleep - knowing that the next day they'd all leave, each of them heading on a different path.

Chapter 15 : Danea

From Pallet town, it was two days of walk westward through a dense, evergreen-filled forest to reach the foothills of the Silver Mountains. For a traveler coming out of the forest, such as Ash, Misty, Gary and Richie, the gigantic rocky peaks broke the horizon - there was little sky to the west, most of the horizon being covered by an unbreakable wall of stone. Those few patches of sky they could see seemed to burn with fire as the sun sank behind the mountain.

Beyond the great wall, Richie knew from studying the maps a lot, where the sparkling waters of the bay of Bark, and past that New Bark town and the land of Johto. The land they were going to wander around, trying to make as much noise as possible, luring Team Rocket attention away from the real menace, if his plans worked.

"According to this map, the only way to make it past those mountains is by following Road 26 and 27...then we will find a bay, and on the other side of the bay is Wakaba town." He explained them, pointing out the landmarks on the piece of paper.

"Well, then, let's go." Gary said, his voice filled with steel. His eyes shone with the cold fire of revenge.

"No way!" Richie countered. "Reaching road 26 will be hard. We have to cross some mountains by following little used forest paths." He explained, then suggesting his own plan. "We'd better stop now and get started early tomorrow, so that we can reach it by day." He offered.

After a long discussion, were Richie's carefulness was met by Gary's hunger for revenge on Team Rocket, they finally decided to stop when Misty and Ash pointed out they were too tired to go on, though from what Richie had seen in the last few days, the hours of nightmare-filled sleep would do them little good, if any. The shadow inside them, the memories of the ordeal, were just too strong to be so easily brushed aside.

Yet they stopped there, in a small grove close to the edge of the dense forest, knowing that soon they would be tackling the Silver Mountains, a part of their journey much harder than any they had faced so far. Yet, chances were that of them, only Richie would find the restful sleep that he needed, while the others would be overcome by dark nightmares, or painful, saddening memories.

Needless to say, on the next morning, as Richie slowly woke them up, they were all tired, having gained no rest from the dark hours of the night. The nightmares had drained the energy of Ash and Misty, who looked like they had not slept in years, while Gary's eyes were red from weeping yet again. For a fleeting instant, Richie wondered how it would be possible for them all to even see the end of the week, to survive their wounds until then.

Yet, despite the lack of sleep, they started their crossing, each of them ready to pull every last ounce of strength they could muster in the war against the Rockets. The old trails on the foothills of the Silver mountain had not been used in years, and rubble had fallen everywhere, yet it remained possible to pass. Ahead, the mountains loomed larger, but below them, the valley of the Viridian River seemed smaller in the distance, and Pallet, beyond the forest, was barely visible.

They walked at the bottom of small canyons, then up small ascending ledge that lead them to the bottom of another canyon. Or some time, the trail would follow the edge of a cliff, and Richie would always watch carefully that none of them stepped too close to the cliff, whether from tiredness or simple will to end it all. He knew if they did, he would have little time to react, but he was ready to try what he could to protect them.

Sometime, they would cross small springs cascading down on the rocky terrain, or some small patch of wood, though unlike other mountains they had seen - such as Mount Kaerlan. - they were far from covered by forests. The air was definitely a bit chiller up at the altitude they had reached - close to a good three thousand feet above ground level - than it had been down bellow, in the middle of the Valley, but it was far from cold, especially with no shadow, and the sun pounding on their back as strongly as it could. Slowly, though, the sun began journeying downward, and the highest snow-capped peaks shone with the fierce light of the glowing star.

As the sun touched the highest summits ahead of them, they finally reached what seemed like an area of relatively even ground, seemingly a long, stretched plateau between the high foothills and the yet higher central mountains of the range. Down the middle of the plateau, a narrow black strip ran, one that could easily be identified as Route twenty-six.

Surprisingly, while they had expected the whole area to be desert, they could easily see from their location a small house away from the road, in the middle of nowhere. Knowing, all of them, that they would need rest before continuing on their trip, and that they were far more likely to rest effectively in a well-built house than outside, under the stars, Richie made a suggestion.

"Why don't we go ask whoever live there if they can take us in for the night?" he asked. his face questioning.

"Why not." Gary shrugged. "Ash and Misty could sure use some rest in a relatively safe place." He explained. And with those few words, they set down, heading toward the house. Richie was in the led, hoping fervently that whoever it was who owned the house would prove to be nice and willing to cooperate. Behind him was Gary, and further behind, Ash and Misty walking slowly, their faces void of any emotions.

Richie slowly knocked on the door, and by the time it slowly opened, Gary had joined him. As the opening became wider, a strange woman appeared. She seemed to be young and old, both at once. While her facial feature were that of a woman in her twenties, perhaps even younger, her pure white hair belied those, and gave her a look that was halfway between that of an old woman and that of a girl barely an adult.

"Who are you? And what do you want?" she asked them, looking at them with suspicion in her eyes.

"We're just travelers." Richie replied in as soothing a tone as he could manage, hoping to calm down the suspicions. "We were in this area, and wondered if you had rooms for us to spend the night...some of our friends are tired." He added.

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid..." she began, the cut short as Ash and Misty came closer. While none of the other seemed to notice, Richie definitely saw her eyes glowing blue, the trademark of a psychic using her powers. For a brief moment, Richie reconsidered the whole notion of even asking. That person seemed to be somehow interested in either Ash or Misty, and a psychic, part of a group which usually tended to be very untrustworthy.

"You can come in. I don't have much room for the four of you, but I'll make room. Between my daughter's room and the living room, things should work out." She told them. "Now maybe you could introduce yourselves?" she added.

"My name's Richie Cotter. I'm a pokemon trainer from Viridian City." Richie replied.

"And I'm Gary Oak. From Pallet Town." Gary added, and the steel in his voice seemed somehow sharper.

The white-haired woman nodded, then turned toward the last two of them.

"I'm Misty Waterflower. From Cerulean." Misty said slowly.

"And I'm Ash Ketchum. From Pallet." Ash added, his voice sounding hollow. The woman seemed to react as if she already knew who Richie's friend was, but Richie brushed it aside. She had probably pulled that out of his mind with her psychic powers.

"My name's Danea." She told them. "You'll excuse me if I keep my last name for myself for now. I barely even know you all, so..." she explained.

She led them inside the house, showing them the various important room - living room, kitchen and the bedrooms, among others. She decided, and told them, that Misty would have her daughter's bedroom, and that the three guys would sleep in the living room. After that, they all ate from their own food supplies, none of them wishing to take more than a roof from the night from the woman.

As the sun vanished completely, and the stars covered the sky over them, Misty rose from her seat in the living room, declaring that she was going to get some sleep, and that they should do the same. Before she went, Danea spoke,

"Sleep well! And don't let nightmares trouble your sleep!" she said mysteriously, and once again Richie caught her with her eyes glowing, and this time he also saw her make a strange gesture with her hand, as if cleaning a table with the back of it, sending the crumbs of bread down to the ground As he looked at her, he saw that Misty's eyes had a speculating look as well, and he realized that this time, he was not the only one who had caught Danea in the middle of using her psychic powers.

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As she headed for the bedroom upstairs, Misty definitely thought that it would be better for everyone if she managed to stay awake...Danea was a psychic, and her earlier encounter with a psychic had not exactly made Misty very trusting of them as a group. Sure, Sabrina had been later part of the group which had rescued them, but she still had trapped them in the size of tiny puppets for a while...

Anyway, she reflected that there would be no point in her trying to sleep, knowing that the nightmare would just prevent her from getting any rest. Yet as she sat down on the bed, the tiredness of getting no rest for nearly a week caught up with her, and within moments, she was in a deep sleep, oblivious to the world around her.

As the morning sunlight streamed in from the windows of the mill, she woke up, and found herself in a better state than she had been since before the kidnapping - well rested, and as she realized that, she also realized that for the whole night, her nightmare had left her alone. That alone seemed odd, and suspicious to Misty. Maybe that Danea woman had used her psychic power to put her to sleep so that she could pull off some kind of trick on Ash and the others?

Misty hesitated, then decided to put on her clothes and gather her things instead of running down in her pajamas to check what had happened. She did so, then quickly ran down the stairs, finally reaching the living room with her hand on Seadra's pokeball...

And as she looked inside, she felt like being in the bed again, sleeping, would be a very nice thing. Danea, Ash, Gary and Richie were all there already, talking, and looking at some maps of the mountains, and none of them gave anything that something suspicious had happened. Feeling very much ashamed of herself, Misty slowly stopped holding the pokeball, and took a seat next to the others.

"Slept well Misty?" Ash asked, smiling. He seemed well-rested, too, as if he had slept just as well.

"Yeah. You?" she answered, thinking that being a few feet under the earth would be a very fine thing right then.

"Fine." He answered shortly, then returned to the map. "No nightmares, at least."

"Things are going to be easier today than yesterday. We'll be going downhill for most of the trail." Richie told her, turning from looking at the map.

"That's nice." Misty answered, as she took some food from her bag to eat, and watched as the other put what they had taken out of their bags back in them.

She turned toward Danea.

"Well, thanks for giving us a place to sleep." She told her. "And thanks for the help with the nightmares." she added in a lower tone, still feeling a bit ashamed of herself. The others also thanked the woman for her help, though none of them mentioned the nightmares. A few minutes later, they were out of the house, heading southward along the road.

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Danea watched them go with a weary sigh, then watched with a thin smile as a cloaked man approached the house from the north. He walked up to her, and smiled.

"I just saw a few teens leaving...where they who I think they were?" he asked, a look of curiosity on his face.

"If you mean "him", yes, it was." She replied. "It's been a long time since I last saw you big brother. I missed you." She said, hugging him tightly. The man smiled.

"I missed you too, little sister." He replied, holding her close to him. As child, Danea had been very close to her brother, and that closeness had remained in the many years that had flowed by since them. "Thanks for taking care of them." He added, a small smile on his face.

"Hey, I couldn't miss the chance...he grew up a lot, didn't he? It's been years - twelve of them? - since I last saw him..." she smiled.

"It's been even longer for me, you know..." the man replied, a wistful note in his voice.

"Wishing you hadn't decided to hide things from him?" she asked

"Yeah...but if I had the chance to change things, I'd still do it the same way...it's for the best." He answered, a tone of finality in his voice. His sister knew better than to continue on with the discussion.