Part 5 : Shades of Black
Chapter 21 : Against the Shadow
It was as the night slowly fell over the rubbles that were all that remained of the city of Ecruteak that they reached the once-proud city. From the tale of horror that Danea had brought to their ears, Richie expected a huge ruined city, but even all the mental preparation he had made since first hearing about the disaster was nothing in comparison with seeing if firsthand. Yet, where the devastation was shocking, even more shocking was the fact that it had only affected whatever man-made buildings there were in the city, leaving everything else intact. Concrete, steel, glass, all of those had been shattered by the powerful blast of energy, yet trees much closer to the center of the devastation had been left untouched, as if nothing had happened to them.
It was a disaster, the like of which no human had ever witnessed before, save twice in history, two days years, over half a century, earlier that would forever remain marked in the imagination of mankind as the days on which a new era of terror began. That era was over now, or so they had all thought, yet someone still wielded a power as destructive as the one that had finally been laid to rest forever, though it was a power that could destroy without killing or, darker perspective, kill without destroying. Any conquest-eager tyrant would have been ready to give his soul for such a dreadful, atrocious weapon, and now someone had one.
The thought was disgusting to the young man who had grown up in the later years of the era of terror under the threat of nuclear weapons wielded by powers across the world. Those weapons had now been destroyed, forever lost in the mist of time, fortunately, and Richie, young as he had been, had shouted with relief on the day the last missile had been destroyed.
Now, however, someone else had found a weapon with the same destructive power, and worst as far as he was concerned, rather than aiming the weapon at some foreign capital for a tactical advantage, it had been aimed at them, to allow a mysterious figure to catch Ash for whatever reasons it had. It was a definitely frightening prospect, that of one day having to face the dreadful creature that had such power, but on the other hand, loosing Ash without even fighting to save him made Richie's skin crawl with disgust.
"I never imagined" he started whispering, awed by the widespread devastation. "I never thought psychic powers could got that far." He completed his thought.
"Danea...could you have done that...in under a minute?" Gary asked, his voice inquisitive.
"Alone, no..." she answered thoughtfully. "But linked with my Espeon, I think so." She added.
"Linked?" Brock asked in surprise. "I never heard of that. What is it?" he asked.
"Well, you probably know that most psychic trainers have some kind of link to their pokemon, right?"
"Yeah, a telepathic link..." Richie said, nodding as he wondered what she was about to explain them.
"Well, that's a good way to put it. Now, in some cases, a trainer will develop a far stronger link to the pokemon than just the link by which they pass information." She continued. "Using that link, it's possible for a psychic trainer to tap in the raw psychic energy of his pokemon and uses it as well as his own energy. Which is what I was saying." She finished. "Alone, I couldn't have done that in less than a minute. Tapping in Espeon's powers, yes." She told them.
"I guess that makes sense..." Richie said slowly as they got out of the car, an hooded sweet shirt covering Ash's face so that no one would attack him. They walked in the rubble-filled streets, that were only distinguishable from the rest of the city because of the narrow strips of relatively clear black ground in the middle, where the falling debris from either side had not reached the street in quantities as great as that which had reached the sides.
In the middle of what had been one of the town squares, a sizeable tent had been erected to serve as headquarters for the local police forces, such as they were after the disaster. The prisoners jailed inside the local police station had fled of course when the wall of their prison had crumbled, and most of the few police agents in the small city were now affected to helping the homeless which had so suddenly become legions.
"Hey! Danea! It's been a long time!" one of the officer shouted as the silver-haired woman walked in the tent. "I'm glad you could come that quickly. That Shadow person got to be taken care of as soon as it can be done." She added seriously.
"I noticed...if she visits any more town..." the brief shuddering motion that shook her body was barely visible, but Richie caught it. "But outside that Shadow thing, how are you Helena?" she smiled, and Richie could only guess that the two had to be friends, or at least had been at some point in the past.
"I'm fine...or I'd be, rather. But you asked how I was outside that shadow thing, and I guess I'd be fine without that." She said with a thin smile that was mirrored on Danea's otherwise serious face.
"We would all be better without Shadow, wouldn't we?" Danea commented sadly.
"Oh, definitely not. I mean, she's done such wondrous thing for us...Thanks to her we'll have decent-sized streets now instead of the narrow ones that were way too old anyway." The policewoman replied sarcastically.
"Still the same, aren't you?" Danea answered, amused at the comment.
"Why should I change?" her friend shrugged off the comment with a smile. "Follow me, I'll show you what we have." For the first time, she seemed to notice that Danea was not alone. "Your friends can come inside, too...you'll have to present them to me." She said, grinning.
They walked inside the tent, and found that it was surprisingly well organized for an emergency police station. The officer led them to a sheltered area in the back where they would be able to talk with a certain degree of privacy normally not associated with tents. As soon as they were there, the woman sat down at her desk and looked at them all.
"Now, from your faces, I'm thinking you didn't want to tell everyone who your friends are, right?" She smiled. "Well, I know a few of them. One of my co-worker told me about the infamous Pewter gym leader, after hearing about him from all of her sisters." She said, smiling at Brock as the young man eyes flew widely open to stare in dismay at the woman. "And since I am an amateur photographer, I of course heard about mister Klaus here." She added, pointing at Todd. "It's an honor to meet you." She added, shaking Todd's hand.
"Well, I'm not THAT great..." Todd answered, blushing as he tried to free her hand and finally suceeded.
"Well, anyway." Helena said after shaking her head for a moment. "I have no ideas who the other are."
"Yeah, I guess I should do the presentation." Danea admitted with a smile. "This one is Richie Cotter. He's a trainer from Viridian City. Not a bad one, too." She smiled at the young man. "Got pretty far in the Indigo league two years ago, from what he told me." She explained. "This one is Gary Oak. The grandson of Samuel Oak - I'm sure you heard about him." Danea continued. "And this last one is Ash Ketchum..." she began, only to be interrupted by her friend.
"Ketchum? Why...A relative of yours?" she asked, astonishment pained on her face.
"Uh...well..." Danea started, obviously wishing very much Helena had kept her mouth shut. "Yeah...my nephew, actually." She finally admitted, actually obtaining a reaction from Ash for once, a startled gasp.
"You...you're my aunt?" he finally asked, and for the first time since the fire Richie heard him saying something that had nothing to do with Misty dying, or death and despair.
Danea sighed. "You just had to go and say it Helena, didn't you? Yes, I am. Which is why I took you in the other day, and why I am very much interested in this Shadow matter. Among other things. But please don't ask me about your father, he really doesn't want you to know...yet." she told him.
"Wait a minute!" Helena suddenly said. "What's the link between his being your nephew and Shadow?" she asked. "Unless...he's the one, isn't it?"
"From what I can tell, yes." Danea replied with steel in her voice. "And you can bet I'm not letting Shadow anywhere near him. I owe my brother that much." She added, and as she said the last part, Richie could have sworn there was a faint touch of pain in her voice, as if she was recalling some events from long ago, yet painful events.
"Amen to that. The mayor would disagree, but he's an idiot who has no idea how to run things in life. I'm not about to let him fall for terrorist traps. Especially not since doing so would involve betraying you Danea." The woman said with steel in her voice and fire in her eyes. "Still, I'd like to know if he has any idea why Shadow might be after him. Do you think you have one young man?" she asked him with a warm smile.
"I don't know...I don't really care..." Ash answered blankly.
"Someone's out to track you down, probably to kill you and that's how you take it?" she asked in utter surprise.
"Helena..." Danea started with a calm, yet somehow sad voice. "He just lost his best friend in that fire in Violet..." she explained, her eyes somehow carrying the notion than it had been more than friendship, though neither of them had admitted to having these feelings.
"Oh..." she answered, obviously wishing she had not been as hard with her last remark. "I'm sorry Ash...I didn't know..." she apologized.
"It's all right." Ash replied emotionlessly.
"Still, you do have a bit of problem on your hands...that Shadow seems really after you."
"I know he does." Danea nodded. "I just brought him here so that you could see who it is that Shadow is after - and because with that one after him, I prefer being close at hand...speaking of wich, what can you tell me about that one?"
"Next to nothing..." she said bitterly. "She has psychic powers, that's for sure. She clothes herself completely in black and hide everything of her except her eyes and a narrow strip around them, and she is willing to kill."
"Are you so sure about that?" Danea objected. "So far, she destroyed a lot, threatened to kill, but didn't kill..." She explained her objection.
"Yes...maybe she only want to give herself a reputation as someone who'll do what it takes to get what she wants. But still..."
"I know. I was just speculating. Did anyone see her since she destroyed Ecruteak?"
"Not that we know of...as of yet Personally, I expect that I'll get a call about another city being destroyed sometime soon."
It was then that another policeman entered the office, and went to whispers a few words to Helena. Her face blanched as she heard what he had to say, and she turned toward them.
"Well, seem I was right...our "friend" just visited Violet City. Not as bad as what she did here, though - she "only" destroyed the gym. But I suspect that's because someone there actually remembered you, and told her about you leaving and probably coming this way." She repeated the message to them. "I think you should run for your life." She told Ash.
"Why?" He answered darkly.
"We'll be leaving soon." Danea answered her friend, shooting a warning look at Ash.
"I think that's for the best...you staying with him and catching that damn Shadow when she come close to him is the best idea we came up so far, but I don't think we want that showdown to happen here."
"Good point." Danea nodded.
"Though...are you sure you are strong enough to take on that thing?" she asked worriedly.
"I think I am...And that's quite beside the point. Now the question is, where should we go?" Danea shrugged off the question.
"Well, from here, considering that Violet and route 36 are not options, it's either Olivine - wich would allow you to take a ship bound for Vermilion or the Orange islands, or Mahogany - which would allow you to hide in the forests around Lake Rage. It's your choice tough..."
"We'll go to Olivine...better leave ourselves as many options as we can...and lake Rage is slightly too isolated for me..." Danea made her choice, earning nods from Brock, Gary and Todd. Richie kept his mouth shut, though he agreed with the choice, and Ash, of course, made no comments.
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It was five days later that they reached Olivine, after walking in the plains rather than using a car on the road. Shadow obviously would be moving from cities to cities looking for them, so moving slowly in empty or scarcely populated areas seemed to be the best tactic to avoid the beast until they reached a better battleground, one where they could bring in more firepower to bear against Shadow. As far as Gary was concerned, bringing Sabrina and the Elite Four in on this would do about the trick. Hopefully.
Olivine was a large seaport, challenging even Vermilion for the title of the largest seaport of the world. The two towns had been rival for years, even centuries, and the rivalry showed no signs of vanishing. The enormous lighthouse in the vicinity of the harbor was said to be the largest in the world, according at least to the people at the tourist information center they went by while entering the town. One major difference with Vermilion seemed to be the enormous sandy beach that stretched for miles between the city and the sea, and that was, as they passed by it, filled with people despite the fact that it was already autumn, albeit only early autumn.
They quickly inquired about the best hotel they could find, always careful to keep Ash out of view, and rapidly they were settling for the night, planning to go the harbor and book tickets aboard a ship the next morning, a ship that would leave as soon as possible, even if only for Cianwood on the nearby island.
The next morning was dark, stormy, and the sky was covered with at thick layer of dark clouds that blocked the horizon. To anyone who had lived near the sea at some point, such as Gary, it was obvious that a savage autumn storm was brewing and would break out soon. They walked out in the streets, going down toward the harbor. As they approached the harbor, the steady beat of rain falling in the streets started to mirror the sound of their feet hitting the pavement, followed by the random and a bit stressing sound of crashing thunder. The dark sky would briefly be lit by the brilliant flashes of thunder, and the rolling sound of thunder shattered the silence of the early day more and more frequently.
It was as one of the lighting shattered the darkness that had partly began to cover the street as the inky black clouds blocked out all view that the dark cloaked form of their nemesis appeared in the street. Danea motioned for them all to hide, and Gary tackled Ash to the ground in a nearby stairway that lead to a door below the street level. Richie took cover with them, while on the other side Todd and Brock took cover in an alleyway.
"I know Ash Ketchum is with you. I suggest he steps out now, or else I'll kill you all..." she said, her voice menacing.
"Oh, really? I don't think so..." Danea stepped forward, readying herself for the battle from what Gary could see. The strong wind that was picking up made her long silver hair and her dark blue cloak-like coat fly.
"You think you can oppose me? Did you hear what happened to Violet? They tried to oppose me too. Now, they are willing to cooperate..." Shadow mentioned.
"Oh, stop it. I could have done the same, you know..." she answered, obviously disgusted at the empty threats. She then picked one of her pokeball and threw it, revealing the cat-like form of an Espeon.
"An Espeon. What a pitiful defense...A pokemon like that won't do you any good against me."
"Alone, no. But linked with me, we'll just see about that." Danea answered threateningly.
"A link...interesting. But tell me what you think of THIS?" Shadow yelled, gathering the darkness of the could in a ball of energy that she flung with all her might at Danea.
Danea's eyes took the familiar glow of the psychic powers, and the dark energy was deflected, bouncing harmlessly off her, but hitting the walls of a nearby house and leaving dark marks on it as it bore a hole for a certain distance.
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Ash watched the battle without much interest, knowing that no matter what, death was the end result of what would happen in his life. What was the point of trying to continue living when you could just let yourself be killed, and end it all? He watched as Danea retaliated to her opponent's first move, and as a flurry of arrows of light flew from her hands, bouncing harmlessly off Shadow's wall of darkness and going to hit the nearby buildings, though the destruction each of these brought was nowhere near the destruction that.
Even though he wished to die with all his heart, Ash could not help to wonder who else wished to see him die to the point that they would send assassins after assassins to get him - first, the fire at Sprout Tower, then the whole Shadow deal. In his mind, there was no doubt the two were linked, and no doubt also that Team Rocket had nothing to do with the whole deal.
While he thought about the two murder attempt, and tried to puzzle out the link that made him so sure they were by one and the same person - after all, he had made a number of enemies since becoming a pokemon trainer, and he would certainly not be surprised if more than one of them was after him - Ash watched the majestic chaos that could be seen in the street. Arrows of lights and orbs of darkness crashed in each other with astounding regularity, and those that went past each other would find themselves flung back to hit walls or the street, or fly off harmlessly in the sky overhead as they struck the barrier of mental energy that the two fighters had established around themselves.
But what could be the link between the two things? The one thing that made him so sure that they were linked, and not different? Setting a fire and sending an assassing after him didn't sounds like the same at all...Yet, somehow, he was sure there was a link between the two, and that if only he could find it everything would make sense.
More bolts of psychic fire struck the walls on each side as the two combatants continued their astounding struggle, mental energy taking life in light and darkness to kill. A dark orb of power from Shadow flew toward Danea, only to be intercepted midway by a arrow of light that went right through it, stopping in the middle to detonate with a flash of light, obliterating the orb.
Psychic energy. Ash watched, stunned by the display of power before him. Even the powerful elemental attacks that Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres and Lugia had traded back and for back in the Falangir islands earlier that year were nothing in comparison with the destructive, life-taking power of the bolts of energy that went from one fighter to another. For some reason, the duel vaguely stirred Ash's memory, as if he had seen something somewhat similar once before, but he couldn't recall at all what it had been.
Chapter 22 : Legacy of the Seers
Tracey entered the city of Valencia slowly, despairing of ever finding clues of the whereabouts of Team Rocket. There had been nothing at the mill, except a tin lead that had brought him from place to place here on Valencia island, were the track ended brutally, leaving no hints that it had ever existed at all. Frustration had long ago left him, replaced by a feeling of weariness and hopelessness, the sure and utter knowledge that no matter what they wouldn't succeed.
And now he was there, with no idea of what to do next, and no way to get in touch with his companions. He had not spoken with any of them since they had left the Orange Islands. With a touch of wry amusement, he noted a sign by a nearby shop, advertising the services of one Irma, supposedly able to predict the future with the help of her Alakazam.
Having nothing better to do, and reflecting that the wacky predictions of a fortune teller would always be better than the dark musing that had been his for the last few days, he stepped in the shop, and went to the woman sitting at the counter. As he approached her, an Alakazam sitting besides her looked oddly at him and he fell on the ground, fighting at his best to remain conscious, aware that in all probability he had just fallen in a trap, and that he would be helpless if he indeed had.
As he felt in a strange sleep, the last thing he could remember was the face of the woman, a strangely gentle smile that almost seemed to mean she was relieved to see him fall, the face of someone who had waited for something a long time to finally see it.
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Dark mists swirled in front of his eyes, obscuring his visions. He passed a hand before them, trying to clear his sight, but it was futile, the swirling darkness still covered everything he could see.
Suddenly, the mist cleared, as if he was sitting in a theater and the curtains were rising before the actual play started, as if the he was the only spectator to a show no one had witnessed before.
What had been the swirling darkness took shapes, shapes that Tracey could hardly perceive at first, though they were certainly not human. At first it was the shape of a rocky island somehow made to float in the sky, and a warrior bathed in moonlight, wearing a full armor standing on it. The armor reflected the light of the moon, or perhaps created a light identical to it, and the being seemed to be tall and defiant.
The lord of night stands tall and defiant The words came unbidden to his mind, as though he had always known them in the subconscious depth of his soul.
More figures appeared out of the mists, first of all that of a great dragon, covered with golden scales, a fiery mane flowing in the wind as its claws seemed ready to claim the life of the warrior with ease, ready to strike. But the great dragon suddenly vanished, living a much smaller one behind, though despite its smaller size, the new dragon seemed just as fierce as the one before, his father perhaps, has been. Somehow, Tracey knew the magnificent beast was not meant to be alive, that it had died already, but that powers beyond measure had ended its death.
The Child of the Dragon, over death he comes to lead them again the words came to him unbidden, perhaps fragment of a long-forgotten memory, or perhaps the expression of his artistic soul describing what he saw.
A third figure walked out of the dark swirling shadows hanging out on all the sides of the room, this one undeniable the figure of a woman shrouded in eternal mist, walking through fire and shadow as she came to stand beside the dragon. A small crown rested upon her head, identifying her as someone of great stature, a true lady at least, if not more.
The lady of the mists, through fire and shadow she stands at the child side
A blizzard struck the scene with fierce fury, seemingly out to freeze everything with the cold shards of ice it carried in its breath, bringing death and destruction to those who stood in its way. Yet the three figure stood unflinching in the face of the storm, and as it receded the three were still left unharmed, and the only trace that the cold storm had ever existed was a single baby, lying on the ground. Without warning, flames enveloped the island, swallowing all, yet again all four figures, even the baby, stood unmoved, ignoring the flames as a fifth shape materialized.
The Son of Storms and the Daughter of Flame, forever bound the verse came to his mind immediately. He had never been a poet, his artistic talent lying more in the fields of drawing, but now he was seemingly able to find the most poetic ways to say things.
From a perfectly clear sky, a sizzling thunderbolt fell on the ground, and a man appeared in the sky, throwing bolts of light everywhere, at all those who stood in the island, before joining them, his eyes still filled with the rage and power of the fiercest thunderstorm.
The thunderer, whose eyes will carry the wrath of heavens
The darkness that had vanished for a while, being held back at the corners of the room suddenly flooded it all, as a single figure walked alone in the middle of the night, as if lost in a thousand dreams, but then the dreams turned toward her, and bowed, before vanishing. The Darkness receded again, and the figure joined the others to stand, ready to fight, which was what Tracey was now sure would happen the instant they were all there.
The Mistress of Dreams, bound by no limits save her own mind.
A strange, eerie light filled the stage, a light that sometime seemed purple, but at other times seemed to be a rainbow of shimmering colors. A lonely figure walked on the stage, and she stood alone, as the darkness appeared on all side to tear her apart. The hand of the dragon suddenly appeared, pulling her forward. The eerie light vanished, and she stood with all the others.
The One Who stood alone, who walked the darkest path his subconscious mind told him.
One last figure appeared, and she seemed just as lost as the one before had been, torn by powers beyond what she could understand, darkness swirling around her. She looked around wildly for a path, despair and darkness showing in her eyes, a lone kid lost on the way from home. A young woman lost in a dark, deadly world that did not want anything of her, a world she had harmed, harm that she eternally regretted somehow.
The Lost Soul, doom of her own blood the name came to him, as well as the explanation of what it was that she had done.
Two more figures appeared, though he knew they were not as important as the first ten. One just was there suddenly, and he knew with a deadly certitude that that one figure had never been born, that he just was, never born. The second was the image of a singer, a soft voice calling in the depth of the night for something or someone through the power of her voice. Summoning more to the islands, bringing in those who should have been there but weren't.
Chaos erupted, and when he could see again, the vision was completely different, except that they were still on the strange rocky floating island. The dragon was nowhere to be seen, and the Warrior of the Moon as he had called the mysterious being that had been first to appear was standing, his swords raised proudly.
But the one that had been lost, the Lost Soul appeared before him, attempting to disarm him in a fierce attack. The Warrior tried to parry the attack and fell backward, but before Tracey could make anything more out of the vision, it vanished completely, leaving the strange setting to slowly ebbs away as the living darkness that had made it regrouped, and became itself again, a swirling mass of darkness that he could not pierce, no matter how hard he tried to..
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He felt his eyes slowly opening again, and realized that he was lying on the floor of the shop, and wondered if it had all been a dream, if he had simply fainted or been knocked out, before realizing that the woman was standing guard over him. Now that he took a closer look at her, she seemed vaguely familiar, as if he had heard of her before, though he simply could not replace who she might be.
"What happened?" he asked, panting.
"You simply became what you were meant to be." She answered cryptically. "The one who'll come after me." She added, smiling at him.
"But...what...was it a dream?" He asked in bewilderment.
"No, that was no dream. A prophetic vision, rather." She answered. It was a...symbolic...vision of an even that will take place in the future. Though from what I know, and what you said while you were in trance, I'd gather what you saw wasn't that symbolic, aside from a few major things..." she replied.
"But...why did I see that? How?" He simply had no idea anymore what was going on.
"You saw that because you are my successor. The next Seer." Her answer was calm, quiet even. "As you probably guessed already, I'm not any Irma. I am Agatha, of the Kanto Elite Four. And also, the current Seeress of the world." She added.
"Seer? Seeress?" He didn't understand a thing of what was going on.
"The Seer - or in my case, seeress - is a chosen individual of a given generation who can see the future through prophetic trance. There can only be one seer at a time, and his - or her - apprentice." She patiently explained. "A seer find his apprentice by...you could call it pure luck, but there's more than that. At one point in his life, the seer will be compelled to go to a specific location, so that he can meet his future apprentice, the other one with the second sight. The meeting of the two will create a reaction from the apprentice - what happened to you - and then, the Seer will know who he'll be teaching." She explained quickly, and though things were actually beginning to make a certain measure of sense, he would have paid a lot for more explanations.
"I'd love to tell you more, but that will have to wait. Now, you'll have to come with me to Indigo so that I can teach you." She told him in her old, used voice. She nodded once, and the Alakazam - which probably wasn't hers, as she wasn't a psychic pokemon trainer - vanished, taking the two of them along.
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More psychic energy flew in the air, and as a bolt flew closer to his group, Ash gasped as the link suddenly struck him. The fire at Sprout tower had been a psychic fire, controled by the mind of someone, and here again there was psychic energy. Maybe it was the mysterious Shadow who had set the fire in Sprout Tower, but Ash doubted it. There was something else, something deeper, something...darker. He looked closely at the woman, and some oddity struck him.
During his travels he had seen psychic powers being used more than once, and somehow, the way Shadow used her powers was nothing like he had ever seen, as if the powers weren't her in the first place, but rather coming from far away and focused through the body...through, he noticed with surprise, an unwilling body- Shadow's hand seemed to fight against throwing each ball of energy, but simply couldn't resist the will controlling them.
It was with a loud clicking noise inside his mind that everything fell in place, perhaps fueled by wishful thinking, perhaps by the hope that nothing was ever over. But yet, the picture that appeared in his mind as a thousand tiny clues fell in place - tiny clues, clues that he would never even have considered as clues...but now, they were. Now that he was so sure he knew the truth, they were all clues, and these clues were strengthened by the look of Shadow, even as shrouded in mystery as she was. The brief glimpse of her eyes he had caught before the psychic onslaught had begun only confirmed his suspicions.
Suddenly, Shadow seemed to loose it for a brief moment, half a second, to be completely out of the fight, and Danea aimed another bolt at the defenseless enemy. Knowing that if he didn't act now, he would live to regret it, Ash sprang to his feet.
"DANEA! NO!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, drawing both fighter away from their battle. As Shadow recovered from her momentary mental absence, she struck out with another ball of shadow, this time aimed straight at him.
Ash felt a weight on his legs and stumbled forward as Gary gripped his legs from behind, throwing him to the ground just in time so that his head went under the first ball of darkness, while Danea's arrows of light pierced the following ones, obliterating them. Yet, the first dark sphere struck the wall of the house just behind Ash, and a loose brick fell from it, crashing down toward Ash and knocking him out.
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Danea looked at Shadow as Ash fell to the ground. There was something so very odd about the figure, a strange sense of familiarity from the presence, yet somehow overlain by an evil darker than the darkest evil. There was something so very wrong in this fight, something she knew, yet something that she couldn't identify.
Ash had wanted her to spare's Shadow's life, and with the doubts she was now having, there was no way she could deliver a killing blow. She just couldn't kill someone while that person was so obviously not fully in control.
As she thought that, she realized just how fully appropritate the expression had been, and gambling that Shadow would wait a moment before delivering the next strike at Ash, she launched a powerful strike at Shadow, but nothing that would even hurt the creature.
The strike, for one, struck true. Shadow suddenly felt to the ground, clutching her head as a sheet of light enveloped her and causes a scream of pain and loss to echo from her lips.
And suddenly, as it had begun, the whole madness ended, and Shadow rose, looking around them in surprise, though not in very much surprise. She spotted the body of Ash face-down on the ground and raced toward it with a scream of pain and guilt.
Chapter 23 : A Moment of Truth
Gary looked at the completely transformed Shadow as she rushed toward Ash, after letting out that cry of pain and guilt. There was no reason that he could see for Shadow utter transformation, from wanting to kill Ash to feeling so bad about wounding him.
"What did you do?" Richie asked Danea in amazement.
"Well...From the moment the battle started, I felt there was something odd about Shadow, as if she wasn't entirely what she seemed, as if there was more to it. Something kinda familiar about it, both in the feeling of her presence and in the way she fought. I didn't realize what it was until Ash gave me the final clue though."
"Yeah, but what WAS it?" Richie asked in frustration as Danea explained how she had realized what it was, but conveniently forgetting to explain what it was.
"Basically put, Shadow wasn't acting of her own free will - she was under the mental control of someone else, probably far away. The same someone who was in fact launching the psychic attacks, focusing them through Shadow's body." She added. "But now that poor girl is going to have to live with the knowledge - and probably the guilt - of what Shadow did, even if it wasn't her fault."
"So you're saying she wasn't even a psychic?" Gary asked in surprise. That much damage, and yet the girl had no power of her own?
"She had none...but I'm not sure how having so much power focused through her will change that...she might have some small powers now. Or not, it's hard to tell." She told them.
Brock and Todd were already near Ash, trying to keep Shadow away, as they had obviously no ideas of what Danea just had told Gary and Richie. Shadow was trying to push them back, but seemed almost reluctant to do anything to them that might result in them being hurt, so she spend most of her time pleading, begging, her voice still made strange by the cloth that covered her face.
"Let's take him to the hospital." Danea told Brock and Todd as they came closer to Ash. "Oh, and stop fighting Shadow...she's all right."
"But she just tried to kill him!" Brock protested. Shadow's shoulders slumped at the accusation and she -lowered her head even more. A few crystal tears fell to the ground at her feet.
"It wasn't her. She was being controlled. Trust me." Danea told them with a hard glare, putting a comforting hand on Shadow's shoulder. Brock and Todd nodded reluctantly and the two of them, with the help of Gary and Shadow, began to pick up Ash.
"Don't do that...I think it'd be safer if I did it." She told them, using her psychic powers to lift Ash in the air. "That fight was exhausting, but I still have enough strength to carry him to the hospital...it isn't far." She added.
They walked slowly, and as Danea seemed to be exhausted physically, Gary helped her for the final few step as they reached the hospital. They entered, and a doctor in a long white coat immediately rushed to them, followed by a nurse pushing a stretcher. With a final effort, Danea lifted Ash onto the litter with her powers, then staggered to the seats and fell down on one of them, exhausted. Gary joined her as the doctors took Ash away to see what there was to be done about him. Shadow sat down besides them, and Danea wearily picked up a cellphone form her pocket, and dialed a number.
For a brief moment, Gary wondered what it was she was doing, and when he heard her first words - "Hi Helena. It's Danea." - he easily understood. She was calling her friend of the Ecruteak police to get her word about the events, and how Shadow had been under the mental control. They talked on for a while, and in the meantime Gary wondered about the mysterious Shadow.
There was still something odd about the whole situation, something he could not quite put his finger on, something so very odd...The cry of Shadow after Ash had fallen to the ground seemed somehow to go deeper than that of anguish at the thought of having killed someone. It had seemed to be intensely personal, as if Shadow had somehow known Ash. And then, there was Ash, who had rashly thrown himself in the open to tell Danea not to do something, he had no idea what. What could it have been? There was very little that made sense, and the only thing Gary could figure off would have been not to kill Shadow.
Impossible as it seemed, he was almost certain that it was that, though had he been asked he would have been unable to explain why.
Danea, who had just finished her phone call, turned toward him and nodded slightly, confirming his doubts, yet giving him no explanations as to the why of it. He just had no way to explain why Ash would go out of his way to protect someone who seemingly was after killing him, destroying a town just to do that ? There was an answer, one that explained why Ash would have done it, and why Shadow would have reacted as she had to seeing Ash on the ground, but it seemed so impossible, so far removed from reality and the world of things that could be that Gary stopped thinking about the whole thing.
It was after many unquiet hours sitting in the waiting room of the great hospital that one of the doctor who had taken Ash in earlier came to see them, his white hair somehow reflecting the fiery light of the fading sun that could be seen in the window, now that the savage storm had ended and that the howling wind had cleared away the clouds.
"He's going to be alright. He was lucky tough. If that brick had hit him just slightly higher or slightly lower, he'd be dead by now. As it is, we're going to have to keep him here for the night...one of you can stay with him until he wake up."
The six of them hesitated for a while, then Danea spoke.
"Well, after that fight I really need to sleep..." she explained. "I think you should stay though." She added, pointing at Shadow, who had not yet removed her hood nor her mask as if somehow reluctant to reveal her true self.
"I think I will." Shadow answered. "Thank you." She added. Brock seemed torn between not wishing to leave Shadow alone with Ash and extreme tiredness, but he finally agreed with Danea. "I think I'll trust Danea as to what she said about you...but you'd better not prove her wrong." He growled, an hint of steel in his eyes.
"Don't worry" Shadow answered sadly. "I'd rather kill myself than harm him...now." she added, shaking her head slowly.
Todd nodded slowly, and so did Richie as they followed Danea outside and left Gary and Shadow alone in the waiting room facing each other.
"You know." She told him. "Don't you?" she asked, and as she did Gary felt his suspicions strengthening. He nodded slowly.
"I think so, yeah." He answered. "Take care of him...he's my only friend, and about everything I have in the world now." He added before leaving.
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She allowed herself a private smile as he left. Ash was far from the only thing that Gary had in the world, though it would take a long time for him to realize he had more friends now. And then, the smile faded as the memories of what she had done came back in a rush. She entered the room quietly and sat down on a chair by the bed.
She slowly pushed back the hood of her cloak and undid the knot that held the black mask fixed behind her head. Her orange-red hair, which had been held back by the cloak, fell down on her shoulders as she buried her eyes in her hands and wept.
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A laughing dark face stared at him, again and again taunting him, letting him think he had a chance to save Misty, only to push her in the dark void of dead just before he could reach her. The figure kept laughing, an hollow, mysterious kind of laugh.
As light finally came in his eyes, it seemed he had slept for eons after the falling rubble had knocked him out. For a brief moment, he thought it was a pity that he as still alive, as he would still have to cope with Misty being dead, and he continued thinking so until he opened his eyes.
And as he did, the one vision he had hoped against hope to see appeared before him, the one person he had thought lost forever. The dark despair that had been in his heart ever since the fire suddenly vanished, swept away by a wave of hope, of renewal.
"Misty...you...you..." he started, at a loss for word. "So I'm dead? I never thought heaven would look that much like an hospital room..." he said jokingly.
A slow smile crept on Misty's lips as she looked at him. "Might be because this in an hospital room...But I have no idea..." she said, though Ash seemed to hear a faint touch of sadness hidden in her voice.
"Then...how come you're here? I mean...you're dead, aren't you? The fire?" he asked, though memories of the fight nagged at him, as if there was something he should remember about it.
She slowly put an hand on her shoulder and looked at him, her eyes somehow carrying the sense of deep emotional wounds. "No, I didn't die then Ash. I didn't...but sometime, I'd rather have died back then." She said slowly, and the words slowly seeped in his mind.
She was alive, against all hope. They were both alive, they had made it despite everything. And they were together.
"You're alive...I...I...I can't believe it...It's just...so much..." He closed his eyes, the feeling of pure bliss overwhelming her. She was still alive, and this time, nothing would ever keep them apart again, he would make sure of that. He just couldn't take loosing her again. But there was that one thing, that one thing he had known and yet not known for so long, and only realized when he had thought he had lost everything.
"There's something I have to tell you Misty." He began. "When we all thought you were dead...when the tower collapsed...I realized..." He took a deep breath. "I mean...I realized...how...how much you mean...to me...I..." He gulped, knowing that he had already gone too far to go back. "I...well. I..." he stammered, but was interrupted as Misty gently put her finger in his lips.
"Shhhh." She whispered. "I know. And you mean a lot to me Ash." She said quietly, almost in a whispering tone. "When I saw you in the street...I felt like I had killed part of myself. And I wished very much I had died in that fire..." she slowly shook her head. As she did, Ash suddenly realized that she was clad in the same clothes that Shadow had worn, and his earlier suspicions came back to him.
"So I was right...that was you..." he shook his head slowly. "You were being controlled, weren't you?" he asked.
"Yeah, but sill...I destroyed a town, nearly killed you..." she shook her head sadly. "I'd really rather have died in that fire." She said, and a few tears glistened in her eyes.
Ash moved his hand to brush the tears away from her eyes, and she looked at him, smiling through the tears. She put an hand on his shoulder.
"Misty...if I hadn't found you here today, I'd have killed myself as soon as Team Rocket was dealt with." He told her. "I'd have been dead, and you would have to. Now, we are both alive instead." He added. "And none of what Shadow did was you...it wasn't your fault Misty."
"I could have fought back...I did, but it wasn't enough...I tried my best Ash...I just...it was so awful! He controlled everything I did..." she said, shaking violently as the painful memories came to her like a blow. Ash tried to comfort her as best as he could. "I...I watched...I tried to fight back, but I couldn't do a thing...He just kept controlling me..." she continued her tale of horror. "When I woke up...well, when my mind woke up after being knocked out in the tower, he already controlled me...I never even saw him...by the time I woke up, I was already Shadow and already on the road to Ecruteak...I had no idea what was happening, only thing I knew was that I had no control over what I did...I was completely there, I could see, feel everything...but I had no control over what my body was doing." She said, putting her arms on the bed near him, then resting her head on them as she wept. Ash slowly caressed her hair in a comforting manner. "And we arrived at Ecruteak...and he used me to destroy the town when they wouldn't help me...I destroyed a whole town...just so that he could get his way..."
"It wasn't you...you had no control..." Ash protested, his hands still caressing her hair.
"No matter...I should have been in control..." she answered. "So many people without homes...because I couldn't control myself..." she continued weeping. "And I realized that he was after you then...and that if I wound up killing you...there was just no way I could live with that." She continued. "It was so horrible when he sent that shadow ball at you...I was so sure you would die..." her wet tears rolled down her arms on the hospital bedcovers.
"But now, he's gone, and he won't come back...and we are together." Ash whispered in her hears, propping himself. "Together, and we won't be apart ever again." He told her. This time, he wouldn't let himself be interrupted. "I never realized it before...but I love you Misty." He told her, finally letting out the feeling that had been torturing him for the past weeks.
"Well...I can't say I'm unhappy to hear that." She replied through the tears, a small smile creeping on her face. "I love you too Ash. But I don't know how you can love me after what I did..." she shook her head, as if denying that he could love her after the dark days that they had faced.
"That wasn't you. That was whoever was controlling you, and that guy is going to pay for what he did." Ash muttered. "He tried to kill me, and destroy you at the same time. You, on the other hand, have been at my side since the very first day of my journey. You are the one who's been taunting me for days to no end for the last two years. And even with all the taunting...you are the only one I would give anything to have at my side." He said. Unvoiced was the fact that he had given much for her, what seemed a lifetime ago in the mill, apparently abandoning his life dream for her life.
She smiled, a truer, no longer sad smile that seemed like a new spring on her tear-streaked face. "Thank you Ash. I don't think we'll even be the same, either of us...but if you feel that strongly about me...If I decided to end it all, you'd kill yourself, wouldn't you?" the question hung in the air between the two of them. A few weeks ago, Ash would have thought that killing himself would be the last thing he would consider. Now, he knew better.
"Yeah."
"Then I guess I'll have to face what happened." She said with a sight. "I can't let myself die...not when it means that you'll die too. I love you too much for that." She told him, and somehow managed to put herself in a position to hug him fiercely. "Thank you Ash...thank you." She whispered. "You just gave me something to live for."
He simply wrapped his arms around her as best as he could, content to hold her as an answer. For an irrational moment, he wished that time could stop, that they could remain in each other's arms until the last day of the world. But all too soon, there was a knock on the door, and the now-familiar voice of Danea.
"Ash? Can we come in?" she asked, and without waiting, opened the door. Misty and Ash barely managed to break their embrace in time, and they returned to their position, Ash lying down on the bed, and Misty sitting on the nearby chair.
Danea was first to enter the room, and she smiled briefly as she saw that Misty no longer hide her true identity. Ash could only guess that she had guessed the truth during their psychic duel, and that she had broken the mind control instead of killing. Next was Gary, who looked first at Ash, then at Misty, with very little in the way of surprise on his faces.
"So, did you know?" Misty asked him with a grin after he entered, though Ash had no idea what this was all about.
"Yep." He replied. "Between Ash's reaction and what Danea said, it made sense..." he explained.
He moved out of the doorway to let the door in - and where Danea's and Gary's reaction had not been a reaction of surprise, far from it, their, however was. Brock was first to break the stunned silence.
"I...of all things...How did..." he started to say, apparently unable to formulate his thoughts clearly. "It's great to see you again Misty." He finally said, breaking through the stunned amazement.
"Yeah!" Todd nodded. "I dunno how you managed to make it through everything and find yourself as Shadow, but I'm sure glad you are back." Todd added.
"Definitely...and as for the Shadow thing...none of us blame you for what happened. Danea told us about the mind control thing...we're all with you." Richie finished. "That's what friends are for, isn't it?"
"Thanks guys...I'm glad to be back with you too..." She turned toward Danea. "And thank you Danea...for freeing me." She said quietly.
Ash smiled as he reached out and took her hand. She turned toward him and smiled back, and he couldn't help but think that for once things had taken a definite turn for the better instead of a turn for the worst.
Chapter 24 : Returning Enemies
The storm was raging outside the small tower in the middle of the Silver Mountains. The tower had been built eons ago, and had long served as a gathering point for the servants of the night. From time to time, a brilliant flash of lightning would illuminate the night sky, and shortly after the roar of thunder would be heard. Garbed in his ceremonial black robe, Setras almost wished the lightning that danced around the temple would stop. Not that he was afraid of something as simple as a thunderstorm, simply he did not want to see what was around him. In the middle of the room, the fire crackled, and he knew the presence within was awaiting him.
Setras wondered what the Lord of the Stars wanted with him, why it was that he had be summoned before him by a pair of lowly under-priests. Hopefully, it would have nothing to do with his trying to net his master an advantage in the events that would soon come - hopefully, he had heard nothing of that yet, and would not hear of it until it was too late for him to do a thing about it. It had been his daughter's idea, really, to try to obtain an advantage for their Master in the very close battle, but his attempt at doing so had failed. And the Master, who was too honorable for his own good, would not like the idea at all. As he came closer to the fire, a face appeared inside, a face dark as ash.
"Setras...What have you done?" the figure asked sadly. "I trusted you not to disrupt what MUST be."
"But my lord...I was only trying to serve you as best as I can..." he protested, shaking. Disobedience was not something his master was too fond off.
"You have disobeyed me Setras. You have, in fact, failed me." The answer was frosty.
"But...I only sought to make it easier for you to win that most important battle..." Setras sais meekly.
"And you would throw awry a thousand year of preparation for that? Be thankful your plan failed Setras. Had they not, you would be dead on the spot." The voice was low and threatening. "The nine are not to be harmed until the day of the meeting, and if there is any harming them to be done, I'll do it. Do not interfere again Setras." The voice was steely.
"You shouldn't trust him Great One..." a voice said from the door of the shrine room. Setras' daughter walked slowly in the room, her flowing black hair hard to distinguish from her robe. "Who know? Maybe he serves your twisted brother..." she suggested to the figure.
"True..." The figure in the fire slowly whispered. "If he was to cause chaos by disrupting the prophecies, only my brother and his foul master would benefit." The fire flared brighter.
"Great One! She was the one who set me up to it! She did!" Setras yelled in desperation.
"Oh, really...father, is that the best lie you can come up with? That's a pitiful defense..." she said scornfully. "Admit it...maybe the master can be persuaded to be nice toward you." She smiled. "A quick and painless death is better than the torture you'd have to suffer for lying to him.
"But...I did not..."
"He is pathetic, isn't he, Master?" Syraelle asked of the figure. "Even when his dark plot have been laid bare, he continue to lie to us, to pretend that we are the ones lying."
"True, my daughter." The figure admitted. "Setras, why? Why have you gone over to my twisted brother?" he said, with the pained voice of a father whose son had been found smoking, or taking drugs. "You know I can't allow you to live now..." the voice was sad now - beyond sad.
As the eternal fire reached up toward him, slowly conquering his body, Setras screamed. The pain was unbearable, and when he passed out to die, he felt only relief.
________________________________
Miles and miles away, the city of Olivine was under a bright early autumn sky, and not a dark stormy day. Ash and Misty walked slowly along the beach, alone, sharing a moment of peace and tranquility before leaving the city again on their quest to find Team Rocket. Misty had her left arm wrapped around Ash, and Ash's right arm was around her shoulders as they walked closely side by side. As they looked at the water before them, the vast expense of the Inner Sea a single tear rolled down Ash's cheek to fall in the sand.
"Ash? What is it?" Misty asked, concerned about the way he was acting suddenly.
"Nothing…it's just…last time I just stood there and just looked at water, it was after your funeral…when I thought I'd never see you again…never get the chance to tell you that I loved you."
"Oh. I'm sorry..." She drew him close to her. "I didn't know...it was still so painful for you..." her whisper was barely audible as she pushed his hat out of the way and gently caressed his hair.
"Well…I think what's worst is that I'm afraid of loosing you again…of being without you." He answered, slowly wrapping his arms around her.
"Don't ever be afraid of that Ash…I won't leave you. Never." She said softly, before bringing him closer to her and lightly kissing him. Ash tightened his hold, and his lips met hers in a long kiss. Misty felt as if she was flying, as if nothing was holding her down on earth now, then as they slowly separated, she felt gravity dragging her back again, but just as she was about to hit the ground, he kissed her again, and she forgot all about thinking for a while, just content to be with him, and that they would never be apart again.
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"The question is, how do we get back at them?" Damian asked, his faces like a dark storm. "There's only two of us, and they got the whole of team Rocket backing them. We'll need allies."
"Great job Sherlock." Elayne answered sarcastically.
"Hey! Why'd you make fun of me?" Damian protested with a smile.
"Isn't making fun of her boyfriend part of the job of a girl?" she asked innocently, and came to sit close to him. "I know you want to get your father back, but sitting there and doing nothing isn't going to do us much good Damian."
"I know." He answered soberly. Elayne sighed and put one of her arm on his shoulders.
"I love you." She whispered softly.
"And I love you. But that doesn't help with our problem…how do we get back at them…it's not like we can say it in the newspapers or anything…" he smiled. "That would make a pretty sight…"help Team Rocket Boss" printed in every newspapers of Johto and Kanto."
She smiled slightly.
"That wouldn't be a good idea." She admitted. "But still…"
"I know."
He sat back down in his chair, and picked up a week old newspaper that was sitting on the floor rolled, waiting. He started reading through it, wondering what had happened since they had withdrawn to the out of the way house. Elayne went out regularly to buy food and sometime brought the newspapers back with her, but he hadn't bothered to read them much lately. As he looked through the pages, an article drew his attention because of the familiar picture besides it.
"There was a fire in Violet?" he asked suddenly.
"Yeah…what's wrong with that?" Elayne answered.
He kept silent, reading through the articles then let out a choked cry, a few tiny tears falling down his cheeks as he read about one of the few person who had ever cared about it to the point that they would treat him as a human being, and as he found out about her death.
"Why? What's wrong Damian?" she asked suddenly, holding him protectively.
"That girl who died in the fire…" he started, shaking violently. "She…she's"
"Yeah, what about her? You knew her?" her question came a bit sharp as far as he was concerned. He had just lost one of the most important person in his life, and he was supposed to bother to explain everything?
"Yeah…" he answered slowly. "I knew her. Before I found out about my father…"
"Really?"
"Yeah…I knew her for a long while."
"Oh…Where did you met her?" she asked in a comforting tone.
"I think the first time I saw her was the day I was born…" he answered slowly, his faces tear-streaked. "She's - was - my twin sister."
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"You have a twin brother?" Ash looked at Misty in stunned amazement.
"Yeah..." she admitted. "I dunno why I never told you before..."
"Why wasn't he there when we went to Cerulean - either time?" the question came quickly to his lips, as there was no way he could understand.
"He ran away from home when we were ten...I haven't heard from him ever since..." she admitted, and Ash looked at her in surprise. "I know he's still somewhere...when I left, it was to get away from my sister, but I also hoped to find him...Maybe when it's all over we could try to find him together?" she asked slowly. "I know you want to be a pokemon master, but..." she left it hanging.
Ash hesitated for only a second, and then he made his choice. Being a pokemon master was his dream, and he wanted to fulfill it...but Misty was his life, and didn't want to loose her.
"We'll look for him together." He told her softly, holding her hand. "And we'll find him."
"What about your dream?"
"The last few weeks made me realize that there's more to life than being a pokemon master. As long as I'm with you, I don't care whether I am a pokemon master of the worst trainer."
Suddenly, they heard someone calling for them - at least, they thought it was them, since there was no one else on the beach at that time, as the sun slowly came down in a stunning sunset.
"Hey you!" the yell came from a blue-haired guy to their left. Slightly behind him, a girl with fiery red hair was looking down on the ground. Ash went toward them, and he heard Misty sighing and muttering something like "At least there's no cross-dressing today..." But he couldn't be sure of what she said.
"Did you call me?" Ash asked them, is hands on Charizard's pokeball, while Pikachu, who had been playing not too far from them, looked at the group curiously.
"Yeah...my sister here lost her lenses...could you help her look for them? Maybe that Pikachu of yours could..." she started.
"Stop it James!" Misty told him, her eyes glowing in the night, sending out both her Seadra and Starmie at once. "I know it's the two of you, so just go away." Her smile was dangerously frosty.
"No...my name's Derek...I don't know who this James is..." the man replied, obviously shaken.
"Cut it James! How did you recognize us, twerp?" Jessie asked, throwing away the long coat that kept hidden the all-too-familiar Rocket outfit.
"I don't think I'd like for you to know that." Misty replied frostily. "None of your business. Starmie, thunder wave on Jessie. Seadra, uses your Ice Beam on James." She ordered calmly, and the two attack went off. The two of them jumped out of the way just in time to avoid the elemental strikes.
"Them again..." Ash muttered, sending out Charizard.
"How DARE you!" Jessie yelled as the electric blast from Starmie struck her hair, sending crackling energy trough them. "ARBOK! LICKITUNG! GO!" she yelled at the top of her lung.
"She's right! Weezing! Victreebell! You guys take them out!" James added, sending out his own pokemon.
"Dat's Right!" Meowth added in his unmistakable voice as he appeared to join the fight.
"Seems like you twerps are at a disadvantage...five on four. We win." Jessie said in a cocky tone.
"I wouldn't be so quick to think that." A new voice added from somewhere off to the left. "Let's see how you handle these." The voice added, and two pokeball beam appeared, releasing an enormous Gyarados and a much smaller Eevee. Gary smirked at the Rockets as the two of them glared at him.
"Just what do you think you are doing?" Jessie asked.
"As Misty put it, none of your business. Gyarados, why don't you show them your stomp attack? And you Eevee, just bite them where it hurts." Gary ordered.
"Victreebell! Uses your Razor Leaf attack on that Gyarados!" the order came from James. "Weezing, take on that Charizard with Sludge!" the order came.
"Charizard, fly to avoid the attack then dive at him! Pikachu, thunderbolt on Weezing!" Ash ordered in reply.
"Lickitung! Uses your lick attack to paralyze Pikachu! Arbok, poison sting on them all!" the order came from Jessie.
"I'll take on dat Eevee!" Mewoth yelled, charging at the little brown creature, all claws drawn and ready to strike.
"Starmie, thunderwave on Jessie and James. Seadra, Ice Beam on Arbok." Misty ordered, burning fury in her eyes.
The eleven pokemons glared at each others, ready to fight, and approached each other warily. Meowth was first to take action, jumping toward Eevee, all claws drawn, and swiftly striking at the creature. Eevee narrowly dodged the attack off to the right and jumped behind Meowth, biting his tail viciously. Weezing fired a wave of dark matter toward Charizard who easily dodged by flying high above, then diving back toward the ground at high speed, striking the poison ball head on with his two horns.
Arbok jumped high in the air, and fired thousands of little poisonous stings at the defending pokemon, but instead of attacking Jessie and James as she had been ordered, Starmie fired a wall of electricity between the poisonous snake and her allies. None of the sting came through, and the retaliating Ice Beam from Seadra went right through the defenses, freezing the helpless snake in place. Pikachu's Thunderbolt attack took Weezing at full strenght, and the pokemon, already weakened by Charizard's dive, fell to the ground helpless. However, just as Ash was about to shout in victory, the chilling vision of Lickitung's awful tongue wrapping itself around Pikachu presented itself, and before he could do a thing, the poor rodent was paralyzed.
In the meantime, Meowth was still trying to get rid of the Eevee that had attached herself to his tail, desperately swinging it, or trying to, in order to do so. Gyarados was charging wildly around, swatting the Rocket pokemon with his great tail, and sending the already fainted Weezing rocketing toward the horizon.
With a shattering sound, Arbok broke free of his icy prison, sending waves of poison sting at their pokemon, all the sharp tiny stings catching the light as they flew toward their target. The great Gyarados stopped his swatting as he slowly reared, then felt with a heavy thud in the soft sand. Struck in the middle of her attempt at getting up a thunder wave defense, Starmie also fell down, but managed to find the strength to fire one last paralyzing burst of electricity at Lickitung, stopping him as he was about to swing his tongue at Eevee.
Ash glanced at the situation, looking at the pokemon that were still ready to fight. On the Rocket side, Arbok, Meowth and Victreebell were still standing, while Pikachu, Starmie and Gyarados were out of commission, leaving only Charizard, Seadra and Eevee on their sides, and a situation that didn't seem half as good as it had been only seconds earlier.
"All's fair in love, war, and pokemon fighting." He whispered, remembering the line that James had used during their fight in Viridian Forest so long ago. "Pidgeot! Go!" He yelled, releasing the magnificent bird to join the battle, soon joined by Misty's Lapras. Seeing as how they were launching all they had in the battle, Gary grinned and picked up two more pokeballs. "Let's add to that...Arcanine! Nidoking! Go!" he yelled suddenly, releasing the two of them. At the same time, the giant lizard-like horned beast and the fierce fire dog appeared in the middle of the battle field, one stamping his left foot in the ground, the other shaking his great mane.
"Hey! No fair!" James protested. "Pokemon fight aren't supposed to be seven on three!"
"You should have thought of that in Viridian, the first time we battled." Ash replied smirking. He had fought by the rules against them too long, and now he would fight by their own rulebook. "Pidgeot, Charizard, just deal with them." He ordered bitterly. "Make sure they don't get away, though." He added, a plan suddenly forming in his mind.
"Right!" Misty answered. "Lapras! Use a surf on them!" she ordered, and Ash wondered why she wasn't ordering Seadra to attack.
"Arcanine, Fire blast on that Arbok. Let's take it out for real this time." Gary ordered, a smirk on his lips. "Nidoking, fire an horn drill at that Lickitung." He then added, and Ash recoiled from the order he had given...even with his recent decision to break the one pokemon rule, he wasn't really ready to fall back on the one-hit knock-out moves.
Lapras summoned an enormous wave of water that fell on Team Rocket, surrounding them, but somehow as it fell, Ash had an idea. "Pidgeot! Use your whirlwind in the middle of that wave! Be sure not to hit Team Rocket with it, though!" he yelled. The great bird, who was about to engage Victreebel moved off to instead do that, sending the water spiraling upward around Team Rocket, in a kind of cone that came from teh ground and up, a huge spiraling mass of water. Misty smiled.
"All right! Seadra, ice beam the water! She ordered, and the spear of ice struck the huge column of water, freezing it over in a matter of moment, with Jessie and James trapped inside. In the meantime, Nidoking launched a tremendous charge at Lickitung, his drill rotating at high speed as he approached and tried to spear the poor beast with it. Yet at the last moment, Lickitung managed to dive out of the way, and the great dinosaur roared in frustration. But before the small pokemon could celebrate his victory, he was taken up in the sky by the massive draconic form of Charizard, and dropped unceremoniously on the ground from high above, easily fainting.
At that point, the battle was pretty much over. With the help of Charizard and Pidgeot, Eevee easily delt with Meowth, who was then dropped inside the frozen column with his companions. Left alone, Arbok made a valiant stand, using his dreaded stings to take Eevee out of the fight, then shortly after Charizard, but after that, the combined attacks of Pidgeot, Arcanine, Nidoking, Lapras and Seadra proved too much and he crashed down on the ground, defeated.
They gathered at the feet of the quickly melting pillar, and waited for Team Rocket to be free of it, surrounding them with their pokemon. Gary released his Nidoqueen and Dodrio to help with their siege, and as the pillar vanished at last, they were ready to intercept the trio of criminal.
"Uh...aren't you supposed to send us blasting off again?" Jessie asked, confused.
"Not until you tell us where your headquarters are, no." Misty replied, frostily. "We haven't forgiven you for that mill things..."
Jessie and James looked at each other for a long time, as if debating without a word on an important question. Ash looked at them, puzzled, wondering what they could be thinking about. Apparently, Meowth had no idea what was going on either.
"We aren't going to tell u dat!" he whined, before being hit on the head by a fan. Ash looked in surprise at Jessie and James.
"Actually, we're going to talk." James said suddenly. "More than that. I didn't like that mill thing at all."
"Neither did I." Jessie nodded, and they looked at each other.
"We've both had enough of the boss. This time, Team Rocket's not going to blast off again." James said slowly, as if trying to strengthen himself to allow him to walk the path he had just chosen.
"Yeah. We're quitting." Jessie said simply. "The headquarter is in the forest between Pallet and Viridian, by the way." She added. "Maybe we'll see you there. We have a few things to talk over with the boss." She added.
They all stared at each other for a while, each of them, a different feeling in his eyes. Misty's eyes carried pity, or maybe sympathy - she knew what they were going through, the feeling of having done so much wrong, despite being forced to it - though less so in their cases than in her case. His own feelings were closer to hatred, but a memory of only a few months earlier crept back in his mind, a memory of the two of them coming to help him in the Shamuti Islands, and of them letting go of Lugia to give him a chance to reach safety.
And Gary's eyes mirrored pure hatred, an hatred fueled by the loss of Duplica, but somehow there was something else in his eyes, too. Something different.
"After all you've done to us..." he started, and the two Rockets recoiled. "We could kill you, and I don't think to many people would find much to say about that...but I don't know...it feels as if someone was forcing me to trust you. I'll let Ash and Misty choose what to do with you two."
"I don't know. After the mill, I feel like dealing with you two once and for all...but on the other hand, when you said you would help, you held true to your word - in the Shamuti islands, against Butch and Cassidy in the Orange Islands...If you say you are out of Team Rocket, I say we leave you alone." He finally decided. Misty nodded.
"I know how hard it is to go back and live with what you've done...Good luck, both of you." She told them slowly. "Hopefully, we'll meet again."
Chapter 25 : Shades of Gray
The SS Queen of Aqua had been at sea for three days, having left Olivine toward Vermilion city. Todd and Brock sat on the main deck, looking at the sea as they planned their next move, how to hut down Team Rocket once they reached Vermilion. None of their strategy before Misty's apparent death and unexpected return had succeeded and they were at a loss of ideas as to what to do.
"Weren't you the genius who planned our attack on that mill?" Brock asked Todd in disgust after yet another fruitless hour of thinking.
"Yeah, but that was different. Give me the plan of a place, the forces in presence, and I give you a good attack plan. Don't ask me to plan how to sweep an area that huge with only two guys doing the sweeping." He replied bitterly. "Best idea is to wander from place to place...I'm sure we'll run in someone who would be able to help..."
"That'll take a lot of time." Brock noted.
"If you have a better plan..." the answer was not in a very pleasant tone. "I know it's not perfect, it's just the best we can come up with so far."
"True." Brock nodded soberly. So far, all the plans they had come up with were far more impractical than that one, as impractical as it was. He sighed, knowing there was nothing more they could come up with at that point and that they would have to think more on the matter before coming up with any plans. "Did the others tell you what they were planning to do?" he asked instead.
"Gary mentioned some vacations in Olivine before we left. A few weeks, he said." The younger man answered. !"They can do the same luring job there, and they can also give Ash and Misty some rest...the two of them definitely needs it." Todd shook his head sadly.
"True. And some time together without worrying about things too, I noticed." He grinned.
"You saw that too?" Todd smiled back.
"Who didn't?"
"Sounds reasonable to me...I..." he started to tell, but was interrupted by shouting coming from the front of the ship.
"Why don't you save yourself some trouble and give us your pokemon?" An unfamiliar voice asked, that of a Rocket agent doubtlessly, from what she was saying.
"You can't win against us...we can have the whole of Team Rocket after you." Another voice, that of another woman, surprisingly seeing as most Team Rocket strike teams were made of a man and a woman.
"Geez, I'm scared. I've just been fighting off you pathetic Rockets weaklings for the last year or so." The voice was extremly sarcastic. "Espeon, psychic them off the boat." The woman voice added.
"An espeon. Like you were going to beat us with that." The voice was that of the first woman. "Raticate, bite that pitiful beast." She sounded full of scorn.
"Let's go see what's happening..." Todd told Brock as they both raced toward the rear of the ship, their hands on their pokeballs.
"Right." He nodded quickly.
They reached the back of the ship just in time to see three more pokemon appearing on the battlefield sent by a duo of woman in black clothes with the telltale R on the chest. Between them and the familiar-looking young woman in white standing by her Espeon, a Raticate and an Umbreon seemed ready to fight. The white-clothed young woman sighed and sent out another pokemon, a magnificent long blue serpent like creature, with great wings on both sides of its head and a pearly white horn protruding from it. The tail and the neck were adorned with saphirre-like jewels "Dragonair, why don't you give Espeon a hand." She said smiling.
"Oh, you think you'll beat us, uh? Well, let us just do our motto and..." one of the woman said, her blonde hair catching the light of the sun so that it seemed to shine just like the hair of movie heroes would do, though she was no hero.
"Prepare for Trouble and Make it Double!" They said together, their voices rising on the exact same inflection.
"To bring all guys' hearts to devastation!" The blonde whispered softly, looking at the two of them and batting her eyelash.
"To unite the girls of every nation" The others added, directing a much fiercer look at the two of them.
"To denounce the evil of a man's love!" The blonde smirked at them.
"And to extend our own to the star's above!" The red-hair smiled at her comrade, a smile that carried somehow the feeling that the two of them definitely weren't just friends.
"Thelma!" the blonde shouted triumphantly.
"Louise" the voice of the second was soft, the voice of a seductress as she said her name.
"Team Rocket, drowning the world in eternal night!"
"Surrender now..." Louise started, talking to the young woman in the white clothes.
"Girls, girls, girls. How often did I tell you not to waste surprise effect for a stupid motto?" a voice said from the deck above, that of an older woman. The two young rocket pulled closer to each other as they looked in fright at the woman.
"But...miss Felicity..." one protested "We only wanted..."
"To show off." The so-named Felicity completed. "And that's not the way to become good agents."
"But...Butch and Cassidy and Jessie and James do it all the time..." Louise noted.
"Butch and Cassidy have the worst track record of team rocket for the amount of time spent in prison." The agent explained patiently, though it was obvious from her voice that she was tired of having to repeat the same things over and over again. "Jessie and James have the worst mission success rate of all Rocket commandos. They've been spending two years trying to get a pikachu from a kid. Does that sounds like the kind of thing a true Rocket agent would do?"
The two of them hesitated, then looked at each other and stormed out in anger, recalling their pokemon as they did so. The older woman walked down the stair and turned toward the three of them - the white-clothed young woman, Brock and Todd - with a smile.
"I assume we are all going to be civil here?" she asked, waiting for the answer of the young woman in white clothes as well as that of Brock and Todd, letting them know through her stare that she had noticed the fact that they were about to intervene in the battle. Finally, the three of them slowly nodded. "Good. I'm not after a fight, far from it." She added. "I was just taking these two idiots on vacations...I don't care much for the orders coming out of the Rocket headquarter these days so..." she was suddenly interrupted by two bright beam of ruby light as a Raticate and a Umbreon materialized in the middle of them, soon accompanied by an Houndour and a Koffing. She sighed at the four pokemon came out. "Girls, what did I tell you?"
"We'll beat you Felicity! And those friends of yours as well!" Thelma yelled in defiance from the upper deck.
"Right." The tone of Felicity's voice was empty, though one had no problem imagining the volume of sarcasm she carefully kept out of it. "Can you guys handle these pests? I'd deal with them, but I'm afraid their mothers - and mine - wants me to avoid hurting them, so..." she smiled.
"You can bet we will." The woman answered. "Right, Brock?" she asked, and Brock recoiled in surprise as he recognized her.
"Suzie? That's you?" he suddenly asked.
"Can we wait for the happy reunion until later?" Todd pointed out, calling out his only pokemon, Dragonite. Brock rapidly picked two of his pokeballs and threw them in the middle of the battlefield.
"Geodude! Vulpix! I choose you!" he called out as he summoned the fire fox and the boulder pokemon. Zubat was too weak to do much in a fight like that and Steelix too heavy for Brock to call him during a battle on a ship. Suzie smiled, and watched as her Espeon joined the ranks of attackers. She readied a second pokeball, and called out its denizen.
"Vaporeon! I choose you!" she smiled as the water evolution of Eevee joined her psychic brethren.
"So you guys want to fight?" one of the two asked from above, though Brock could not really tell which.
"Sure seems so to me." The reply was sarcastic, as Felicity abandoned her previous pretense at neutrality.
"All right." The voice this time was undeniably Louise's. "Umbreon. Faint Attack, then bite that Espeon. Arbok. Wrap that Vaporeon out of the way."
"Houndour, use fire blast on that Vulpix!" Thelma ordered. "Raticate, Hyper Fang on Dragonite." The next order came.
There was little time to think once the battle had begun, so Brock decided to go with feeling rather than thinking things through. Geodude's Earthquake attack would obviously be useless on a ship, so that meant rock slide would do, while Vulpix, being a fire type, was not particularly strong or weak against any of them. "Vulpix, fire spin that Raticate! Geodude, Rock Slide on that Houndour!" he ordered.
Todd didn't hesitate before ordering Dragonite to perform an outrage attack on the ennemy, while Suzie was quick to order Vaporeon to uses a bubblebeam on Houndour and Espeon to perform a psychic attack on Arbok.
Chaos broke out as Raticate, jumping to bite Dragonite with his huge fangs, was met by the armored wing of the flying dragon, which then slashed at the beast face, sending it reeling it back at the foot of the stairway that lead to the upper dock. Houndour fired a roaring wave of fire at Vulpix who nimbly dodged the blast, somehow redirecting the flames in a great spin that encircled Umbreon, or at least tried to. However, just as they were about to hit, the dark pokemon vanished from view and the flames died.
Espeon directed a powerful purple beam of psychic energy at the Arbok who somehow managed to dive to safety, but as he did so, he of course failed to wrap the Vaporeon in his coils. Vaporeon thus had no problem firing its bubble beam at the Houndour, who recoiled and faltered as the bubble gathered around him, slowing him down.
Seeing that the battle wasn't going too well for them, with Raticate out of comission and Houndour wounded, the two girls above seemed to hesitate before giving a new set of order, but their pokemon didn't wait before rushing in for another wave of attack. They, unlike their trainers, knew that a delay would seal their doom.
The Houndour, though slowed down, managed to hide in the shadows, using a faint attack of its own, while Umbreon appeared from behind Espeon to bite her. The psychic pokemon wailed then shuddered before falling to the ground, defeated. Arbok, without the benefits of a faint attack, had still managed to sneak in close enough to wrap his coils around Vaporeon, but Vulpix whirled, letting loose a stream of flame that knocked the serpent down while barely damaging Vaporeon.
The now revealed Umbreon was faced with problems as well, as Dragonite drove his powerful fist right in the stomach of the dark pokemon, while Geodude, who had been too slow to hit the houndour, threw itself at the Umbreon, slowly strangling it with it's two stony arms,
The two girls upstairs easily realized how grim the situation was for their side as their pokemon were slowly getting butchered by those of Brock, Suzie and Todd. Yet, there was little they could do but watch and hope for a sudden reversal of fortune. Off to the side, Felicity grinned as the battle unfolded before her eyes.
Houndour struck out of the shadow, latching itself on Dragonite's back, biting him behind the neck. Dragonite reared his head and wailed then slowly, pounderously crashed down on the ground with a sound like thunder, defeated by a single attack. As he jumped off the falling dragon, Houndour suddenly glowed brightly, evolving all of a sudden in a deadly houndoom as the two girls above yelled. Brock shuddered - even with Vaporeon and Geodude both having a sizeable type advantage, winning the battle would prove hard.
The sky overhead, which had been rather cloudy, suddenly cleared, and the sun shone with an unparalleled brightness. Brock used one hand to shield his eyes, and noticed Todd, Felicity and Suzie doing the same. He wondered for a brief moment, then noticed the newly evolved houndoom howling, and realized with a gasp what was happening - a sunny day attack. Which meant that the type advantage of both Geodude and Vaporeon had suddenly been reversed.
The Houndoom howled again, and as he lowered his head, a bright spark of sunlight glowed in his mouth. The spark jumped forward, becoming a deadly beam that took Vaporeon in the head, sending the water Eevee sliding toward the other end of the deck. Geodude launched a charge toward the dark hound, but his speed simply didn't allow him to reach his target in time as the beast turned and let out another powerful solar beam that sent the rock pokemon down on the ground. Brock looked around - now, it was a one on one fight, and as brave as Vulpix was, Brock doubted she had any chance of taking out the Houndour. Zubat wouldn't help in any way, and Steelix was too heavy to join the fight. Todd has no other pokemon, and Suzie shrugged helplessly, telling him she had no other pokemon to send.
Vulpix, however, had not given up the fight, far from it. Determinate to oppose the dark pokemon, she dove under his head, sliding down then jumping to bite the unprotected belly. The dark type bellowed in pain, then shook violently, sending the fire fox sliding. Vulpix, however, was not about to give up, and she jumped back to her feet. Off to the side, Felicity smiled, and threw something on the deck, though Brock could not really see what it was. Vulpix looked at it briefly, then a vicious grin split her face as she recognized the object. She rushed toward the strange stone, and as she reached it, Brock finally realized what it was.
The instant she touched the fire stone, Vulpix body started to glow as she grew, her tails splitting. When the glow faded, the red-brown fire fox had vanished, replaced by a pure white creature of magnificent beauty, a ninetales. The two fire dogs faced each other, their eyes locked and ready to engage in battle. Houndoom eyes were cold and cruel, where Ninetales were shrewd, and glowing like embers. Ninetales, unsurprisingly, moved first, with a powerful agility attack, racing circle around the larger fire dog, suddenly stopping behind him to fire a beam of flashing light toward the dark hound. The great dog reeled, looking around confusedly.
Ninetales watched emotionlessly as the Houndoom ran in circle, apparently not realizing where it was, stumbling on various obstacles, and hitting itself on the head more than once. All it took was a single wall that the great hound struck a bit more violently than the other it has ran in so far, and he faltered then finally fell down, defeated. Bright beams of red light appeared, recalling the four fainted pokemon. At the same time, Brock finally recalled his geodude and watched as his ninetales was left alone on the battlefield, the other three pokemon having been recalled by their trainers earlier during the battle.
The fox pokemon slowly trotted close to him and rubbed her head against his leg affectionately. Suzie watched the two with a small smile as Brock patted the magnificent beast on the head. Brock heard the sound of footsteps quickly fading away on the upper floor as the two rocket fled, and as he tried very hard not to think about Suzie being there.
Fortunately, he was saved before he could make a fool of himself as Felicity called them over to her.
"I'm sorry about that." She told them, then looked in particular at Todd and Brock. "So, how close do you think you are?" she asked, and Brock wondered what she was talking about.
"What?" Todd asked, his face puzzled.
"Well, how close do you think you are to fulfilling that oath of yours?" She added. "I was on Leman island during that mill fiasco, and I was curious about what you do, so I kinda spied on you during the funerals. I can tell you one thing. The boss never ordered anything like that. I'm close enough to him to know that he'd never goes for low tricks like what they did." She shook her head.
"I find that hard to believe." Brock countered. "You Rockets *are* a criminal group...and you're telling me you won't kill people or kidnap them, or any such?" His voice was disbelieving.
"I'm not asking you to believe me. Just telling you what things are like." She replied. "And I'm not going to tell you were the headquarters are, so don't bother asking." She smiled. "It shouldn't be too hard to find it, though. At least soon it shouldn't be." She finished, then rose and walked away, leaving two puzzled young men and an extremely puzzled young woman.
