A/N: This Chapter is incomplete.

Summary—The Avian League, the last League I'm going to explain in this story. (I'm only placing the Leagues that Ash went to which were stated in The Death of Ash Ketchum, because, I'll admit it, I am really running out of different ideas on how they can be run.) Ash must face Legendary Flying Pokémon (this does not mean win), and Shamin must conquer a certain fear of Heights.

Chapter 17:

Fly Away

****

Shamin gritted her teeth, muttering every curse under her breath as small landslides of rocks hit around her, the chilly cold air bit her cheeks, muscles ached from the strain, and her sweat-damp hair clung to her face. "Ain't I almost at the frickin' top?" she swore vehemently to herself, taking a chance to push back her bangs with a scraped up hand, blood on the knuckles. She could really, really learn to hate rock-climbing!

"Chupi," Pikachu sighed in understanding, coming down a bit to climb next to her friend.

"Remind me to kill him, all right?"

"Pika pikachu chu," Pikachu countered.

"I don't care if it was my idea to climb the mountain. I'm gonna kill him!" Shamin cast her eyes upward to look at the lip of the cliff, where Ash was belaying her, but refused to look down to see how high she was as she removed one of the carabiners that protected her from a fall. Why oh why was she climbing a mountain when she was afraid of heights? She gripped the belay rope to make sure it was still attached, and hoped her carabiner was still locked as she slipped on the other. Hey, just because it was five minutes ago didn't mean it still was. "He knows I hate climbing alone. Why couldn't I just fly up?"

Pikachu nodded, then looked down the rock face. This height gave her no great comfort, and the mouse was exceedingly thankful that there were many deep ledges she could climb on. It was a long way down, even now. Even her mini harness—Shamin made her wear it—didn't reassure her.

"You think we'd at least halt a bit for a rest, ya know," Shamin continued, talking more to herself than to Pikachu. Reviewing all the reasons she had to kill Ash when she finished gave her that extra boost to keep going.

"Am I almost done?"

"Almost!" Ash called back down, a tiny speck. "I'm sure you can see the edge now!"

Shamin snorted. "Well, I could see the edge from on the ground, and that didn't say I was close to the top."

"Pi," Pikachu agreed.

****

In fact, by the time both Shamin and Pikachu did manage to pull themselves over the lip (actually, Shamin pulled them both over, for Pikachu had fallen asleep in her pack some time ago) it was almost dusk, a time Shamin really didn't want climb during. They had no choice but to continue the climb until they were finished, for the mountain-face gave no rest points for the idiot climber.

Ash extended a hand down to pull her up. He had been up for most of the day, as Shamin was a very slow climber, and camp was already messily set up, at least his half. "Finally. Jeez, couldn't go any slower, could you? My hands were getting tired from holding that rope. I was tempted to just pull you up!"

"Well, sorry," she gasped, taking the hand and sliding on the snow as he dragged her away from the ledge. "I could have fallen or freaked or something! I'm not a fearless idiot like you!"

A look of amusement crossed Ash's face. "Yeah, just a idiot."

"Yes, wait no," she disagreed, feeling off-balanced as she stood up, but she did not continue into the area. "What'd you attempt to cook?" she asked as she brushed off the snow and slowly undoing the rope and latches of her harness. (There had to be a more comfortable one!)

Ash looked up from cleaning the rope. "Umm . . . my pack doesn't have any food it in. That's why I've been waiting for you to get up here, besides the fact that you would have freaked if the rope had any slack in it."

Shamin looked at him from under her damp bangs, then slung off her pack. Pikachu blinked blearily at her. "Pika?"

"Hungry? Oh, I see not," Shamin said in a hard voice as Pikachu leaped out of the bag on onto Ash's shoulder, a trail of empty wrappers coming out with her. "You could have asked if I wanted one."

Ash laughed as Pikachu gave an apologetic look to her. It was remarkable, Shamin thought, at how similar both Ash and Pikachu looked in facial expressions. Kinda cute, at times. Not now though.

"What's left?" Ash asked.

"Mystery packets," she sighed, slamming the packet back into her bag and stomping her foot. The snow crunched under her boot. "Sure, eat all the good stuff, Rodent, and leave us with the chance of Death."

"We'll stop at a store morrow, and buy some more. It wasn't like we weren't going to do that anyway," he said nonchalantly, going over to the fire and resting on his bag. He watched only slightly interested as Shamin kicked out her bag and laid down on it, looking up at the stars. "Then we can head to the next League. I think Luam said it was something with Cat and Dog Poké—"

"Who cares?" Shamin demanded hotly, still peeved at the lack of food and climbing.

Ash blinked at her. "I care. I mean, to be a Master I'm going to have to go to all these Leagues and see what I can learn."

She turned her head to look at him, at his brutally honest face. Her resolve melted. "Sorry. I guess I'm just tired."

He nodded in understanding, lying down as well. "We'll get an early start tomorrow," he said, curling up into the sleeping bag.

"How early is 'early'?" Shamin sighed, turning on her side to look at him. Ash smiled, petting Pikachu's head, and did not answer the question.

"Good night, Shamin."

"Good night."

***

"Shamin," Ash whispered, touching her shoulder gently. She moaned slightly. "Come on, wake up."

"No."

He smiled. "Yes."

"No."

"Come on, Shamin."

"I just fell asleep."

Ash stood up, shaking his head. "Come on, Shamin. Get up. We've got to get going."

Shamin pried her eyes apart and pushed herself up. Then she blinked again. "The sun's not even up!" she complained, jumping up.

He smiled at her, shoving his bag in his pack. "I said we'd be leaving early." Pikachu looked at Shamin hopelessly, also suffering from sleep deprivation.

She glared at him, then, with less neatness than Ash, packed her own bag. "What's with you, dammit?"

He turned to look at her. "Pardon?"

Turning on her heel, Shamin faced him savagely. "It's rush, rush rush! We can't even have any fun and sightsee!" Pikachu nodded her agreement, lying down to fall back asleep. If the two fought, she figured, it could mean an extra ten . . . minutes . . . of . . . sleep . . . Night, night . . .

"Hey, we climbed this mountain!" Ash countered. "That was fun!"

She threw her hands up. "We only climbed it because I said that it was impossible. You took it as a bloody challenge!"

"Well it wasn't impossible!"

"That's not the point!" she screamed, her breath in clouds, advancing on him to poke him in the chest. "You're gonna end up burned out if you keep this up!"

"What are you talking about!" he yelled back. Pikachu brought her ears down to muffle the sound.

"Look at you! You've gone through the Ratwa, Ossature, Pooka, Indigo, and Avian Leagues in what is probably record time!" She wasn't quite sure, but Shamin could assume that it was. "I mean, you're fifteen! Have some fun!"

"Battling is fun!"

She shook her head. "Not when you do it," she said lowly. "I've watched you battle. At first it looked like you did it for fun, but now it's like an obsession! Like you're getting a high off it!"

He scoffed, turning away from her. "Come on!"

Shamin gripped his shoulder and wretched him around to face her. "You think I'm making this up? Dammit, Ash! Ever since you started going to these Leagues, you don't notice anything!"

"I do too!"

Her hands on her hips, Shamin smiled cruelly. "Do you? Prove it. What color were the birds in the Avian gardens?"

Ash opened his mouth, then closed it when he realized he didn't know the answer. "What does that matter?"

Shamin's eyes lit up dangerously. "All right. How about that poor Tibuma's? What was wrong with it?"

"How should I remember?"

"Last time you wrote to your mum or Miriam?"

"Umm—recently," he half-lied.

"When we were at Indigo, Pikachu—" The mouse's ears twitched in her sleep at the sound of her name, but she didn't wake.

"This doesn't prove anything!" Ash yelled, knowing he couldn't answer any of the meticulous questions.

"Yes it does! You don't care about Pokémon anymore! All that matters is winning!"

"I care about my Pokémon!"

"But what about the others? The wild ones! You don't even see them anymore. You only care about yours because you need them to win!"

Ash's face flushed. "Take that back!"

"Make me! You can't change the truth no matter what!"

"It's not true!"

"Dammit, yes it is! You don't see anything anymore. You live only for the next Battle."

That's not—" He was cut off by Shamin's hand across his face, leaving a red hand-shaped mark on his cheek in its wake. He raised his own hand without even thinking and looked at her defiant face.

"You didn't see that coming," she said quietly, massaging her stinging hand. "You don't see anything anymore. Not the beauty of Life, Pokémon, friends, Nature. Nothing. You're frinking blind."

He narrowed his eyes at her and did not lower his hand.

Her eyes looked fearful for a moment, but she continued bravely. "Go on. I dare you. Start another battle to win. It's all that matters to you." She felt something on her neck and briefly turned to see the first rays of the sunrise.

"Look at that, Ash. Can you see the Beauty of it, or is it just a clock that you have to beat, to get as far as you can before the sun sets? The ultimate battle, the one you can't win?" She looked back at him, eyes just daring him to contradict.

Ash's eyes softened by degrees, and he brought his hand down ever-so slowly. He stepped forward slowly, past Shamin, to stand nearer to the lip of the ledge and watch the sun slowly paint the sky.

"Can you see it?" Shamin asked mockingly. "Or are you already too burned out that even the sun's heat can't touch you? Fifteen years old . . . and not even a kid anymore. You lost your childhood already."

He jumped unnoticeably at her words, the terrible déjà vu feeling they brought with them, the terrible weight upon his mind.

Shamin's words fell on deaf ears, and Ash watched the sunrise like it was the first time he had ever seen one, like he was the only one in the world who could see it. The sun seemed to turn the mountains—they went on forever—to gold, the snow reflecting on the sun. A tiny river flowing through the valley was shimmering silver, and the sky slowly changed from dark purple-blue to the pinky-orange, yellowy-gold, bluely-green, indigo-blue watercolor painting. Stars that were blinking slowly disappeared into the light.

"Are you even listening to—" She wrenched him around to face her, then blinked in surprise when she saw the tears. "Are you all right?"

He nodded after a moment, looking back at the sunrise, uncaring as the tears themselves froze on his face. "Thank you," he whispered.

She blinked, but then nodded. "You're welcome," she smiled, leaning up against him. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yes."

They were quiet for a moment. "So now what are we going to do?"

"I was thinking about going to that League . . ." He trailed off.

"Yeah?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Ya know, I think there's a real nice park a few miles—a few days' travel, if I lead—from here?"

"Really?"

"Yep, that way." He pointed towards the sun in front of them.

"Which way's the League?"

"That way." He pointed behind them.

Shamin smiled. "Cool."

He turned his head and smiled at her as well. "Hey, those Leagues been around for years. What's another few days or weeks or whatever?"

"A drop in the bucket." Shamin grinned. "We'll get there though."

At that Ash nodded with certainty. "Yes. But not now. Sooner or later, though, but not too late."

"You're never too late if you keep at it."

Again he nodded. "Right."

Shamin smiled and slowly walked back to the camp. Pikachu was sleeping—lucky Rodent—and Shamin smiled at her. Then she scooped something in her hands. "Hey, Ash?"

"Yeah?"

"If you ever get obsessed, can I slap you again?"

He grinned, stepped backwards a few steps, taking one last look at the scene, then turned to face her. "You just make sure I—" He stopped when something hit him square in the face. When he wiped the snow from his face, Shamin was demurely sticking out her tongue, rolling another snowball in her hands.

"You know," she started, bringing back her arm. "There are some battle you can't win. A snowball fight against me is one of them."

He grinned, crouching down to get his own ammunition. "Wanna bet?"

She laughed, tossing the snowball, which he dodged easily.

"Missed me!" he laughed, running over to throw his own snow creations. Shamin, with all her grace, dodged them all and somehow managed to get behind up to push him in the snow.

"Face wash!" she yelled.

Ash rolled over laughing in the snow and threw a ball up without aiming. It landed on Pikachu, who sat up with a start.

"Pika!" she yelled as she escaped the sudden coldness, cheeks emitting bolts in annoyance. Then she looked over at Ash and Shamin, who were laughing at her. "Pikachu!"

"Come on, Pikachu!" Shamin laughed, pelting Ash with snowballs as he tried to do the same to her. "Help me get him."

"You really think she's going to join your side?" Ash asked with a grin. "Pikachu is my Poké—Hey! Hey! Traitor!"

Pikachu laughed, dodging his snowball and throwing her small ones.

"No fair!" Ash whined, covering his head for protection as they threw their rapid shots. "Two against one! No fair! No fair!"

"All's fair in Love and Snowball Wars!" Shamin quoted mischievously.

"Pikachu!"

"Cowards! Girls cheat!" Ash accused, jumping up and running away. "Cheaters!"

Both Shamin and Pikachu just laughed, continuing their attacks. And they say cheaters never prosper.