Author's note : Sorry it took me so long to get this new chapter done all.
I ran in solid writers block early in it and ran through many ideas of how
to handle this one before actually getting it done.
Anyway, here's the third chapter – hope you enjoy. Yes, I know there's a repetition of feelings from the end of 02 and the start of 03. I felt it was fitting given the character and scene.
Chapter 3 : Seeds of War
"You lied to me," Misty shook her head, closing her hands on the arms of her chair to steady herself.
Sabrina had known.
Sabrina had known everything about Ash, and had told her nothing. How dared she do that? With her powers, there would have been simply no way for her not to understand the pain left in Misty's soul. There was no way she could have failed to understand just how devastated Misty had been.
Of course she had never been much of a friend, certainly not someone Misty considered close in any way. She had been nothing more than an acquaintance, and yet the betrayal sent a serrated blade driving through her heart, leaving nothing behind but thorn ruins. It was the same pain she had felt in the past when abandoned by her friends.
"I told you," Sabrina looked at her sternly. How dared she take that kind of sententious attitude? How could she, after what she had done? "I owe him my life. If I have to watch you suffer to keep a promise to him, then so be it."
Misty glared at her, trying to hold back the fires coursing through her whole being. This was no time to lash out at anyone. Not yet. She tried to speak, but could find no words that did justice to her emotions without turning in a scathing assault.
"I'm sorry," Sabrina added, and for a moment – a mere moment – her face appeared truly apologetic.
She didn't have to be sorry, of course. Misty would have done the same had Ash asked – why not? She would have lied to her friends and would have betrayed them without a second thought for Ash.
Then again, she was Ash's girlfriend. Who did Sabrina think she was, claiming the right to react to Ash's needs just as Misty would have?
Of course, the answer to that was obvious. She was the girl whose soul Ash had saved. Misty had never stopped to consider really what that could mean – perhaps because part of her had been afraid of the answers? Ash had saved Sabrina's soul – and Misty could not claim he had ever done such a thing for her.
Why wouldn't Sabrina want to do as much for Ash as Misty did?
Why wouldn't Sabrina have for Ash the same feeling she did?
A shiver ran down her spine, echoing back in her legs and arms. It was not the competition in itself – she was a gym leader and a trainer, and one could not both be a trainer and unused to competing. But to compete for Ash's heart was another thing, one she saw no reason to take any pleasure in. Ash was hers, and if he left her any choice of the matter, he would always be hers and never shared.
If Sabrina really intended to compete with her...
No, the thought in itself was wrong. Sabrina and romance simply did not go together, no matter how much she tried to fit them. Then there was the matter of Ash himself – if there was one person in the world she knew wouldn't betray her, it was him. He knew just how much he meant to her, he knew just how little she would have left without him.
Except, of course, that it had not in any way stopped him from leaving her alone. In the end, there was only one possible thing to do.
"Do you love him?" she asked pointedly, cursing herself half a second later as she realized they were not, in fact, alone. Delilah and the professor looked at her in surprise, although from their eyes they obviously knew whom the question had been asked to.
Sabrina sighed, looking at Misty with her eyes still unreadable.
"I don't think love comes close to convening it," she finally shook her head. "It's not that, not in the way you think it anyway," she tried to explain. "He reminded me what it was like to be human."
"I don't get it," Misty accused. Why couldn't the psychic just use plain words that everyone would understand?
"I think she means that she sees Ash much in the same way Ash sees Samuel, dear." Delilah rose from her chair, smiling patiently. "Someone who taught her most of what she values the most."
"Who taught me the one thing I value the most," Sabrina corrected her. "Humanity."
Misty nodded. Part of her didn't want to understand or maybe to accept the explanation. But that part was alone and swiftly silenced – the words were perfectly sensible and they were everything Misty had needed to hear. Everything she had wanted to hear, too.
Which only left one question to be asked. She sighed, readying herself for an answer she only could fear. A gust of wind reached her back as if someone had just opened the door; she ignored it.
"If Ash didn't want me to find out because it was too dangerous," she began, swallowing hard. "Why are you telling me all of it now? Why did you even take me here – hell, why did you clue me in to all those answers back in the Tower?"
Sabrina looked at her for a long moment, saying nothing. Her eyes seemed to look past Misty, to something behind her.
There was something behind her. That much she was now sure of – the door hadn't opened at random, that much was for sure. And if she just focused on the sounds about her for a moment she could just hear soft breaths, or at least she thought she did.
Then there was the simple feel of a presence – even without psychic powers, she simply knew someone – or something – was coming closer to her.
Which did not keep her from having to bit back a shriek when a hand came to rest on her shoulder.
"I told her to get you out of the League," a familiar, so very familiar voice said.
She turned slowly, quietly. It could yet be a memory, a figment of her imagination that would vanish if she came to face it too quickly.
Figment or not, he had changed. His hair, unkempt and dirty, now reached past his shoulders. His face bore scars she had not seen before, mute testimony of what he must have passed through in the long months she had searched for him. On his chin, the shadows of a beard grew where he had kept his face shaven in all the years they had been together. His eyes had grown dark, retaining no shreds of the hope and innocence that had been there so long ago, on the day she had fished him out of a lake.
But the voice...it was his voice, and for all the changes his face bore, it was still the face of the man she had shared so many years of her life with.
There were many questions to ask, many things she so wanted to say. Words she had dreamed of whispering to him, words she had hoped against hope he would one day hear from her.
She tried to say them, to ask the questions that came to mind.
"How..." she began, unsure herself what would follow. Her throat seemed to thicken with each syllable out of her mouth. Her hands, without conscious commands, went to the one that still rested on her shoulder, gripping it tightly, bringing it in front of her. "How are you?"
Ash smiled, although a pained smile. For a moment, Misty almost thought he was going to laugh at him, but he did not. Perhaps she would have deserved it – what kind of question was that to ask when he had made her think him dead for all those months?
She let go of his hand, reassured perhaps at last that he was there and not a dream. His eyes met hers, and she suddenly found herself in his arms, trying as best as she could to avoid sobbing. She would not cry; she would not waste time with something as silly as crying. Not when she had Ash back at last and ought to be happy.
He closed his arms about her, holding her in his embrace as he had so often done. Misty felt a single tear trickling down her cheek; she closed her eyes to hold back any others that might come. She had shed enough tears for him when he had gone, she would not shed more now that she had him back at last.
"I'm fine, I think," he hesitated before smiling. "Awfully glad to see you, of course." The last was added almost as an afterthought, a slight embarrassed blush coloring Ash's features.
Misty smiled slightly, perhaps too small a smile for anyone to see. Whatever he might have gone through during the war and since his disappearance, there was still something of the Ash she had fallen for so many years ago left.
"You think you're fine?" Part of her wanted an answer to that; part of her just wanted to slap him. After all he had done to her, what right did he have to pretend to be the suffering one? He should be overjoyed they were reunited, and that was it.
He looked at her, his eyes for the briefest of instant filled with a pain Misty simply could not believe any human being could bear. In that instant, she silenced the part of her that wanted nothing more than to pay Ash back for her months alone.
"Maybe we should leave the two of you alone," Ash's mother suggested. Misty didn't need to turn to imagine the smile that must be on the older woman's lips.
Ash sighed, gently taking a strand of Misty's hair in his hands and playing with it for a moment. There was something about him, as if he was troubled.
"I don't think we've got time right now," he finally sighed. "I'll make it up to you," he added, a handful of whispered words in her ears. Misty did not answer – there was nothing she could think of saying now. She simply pulled closer to him, resting her head against his shoulders, reassuring herself again he was no mirage. She couldn't be sure, but she though his arms had tightened about her, pulling her closer.
"Are you sure?" Sabrina asked.
Misty sighed. Had she really suspected the psychic of trying to take Ash away from her just moments ago? Had she really even given more than half a second of though to the notion that anyone would manage to take Ash from her? She closed her eyes. It didn't matter what she had thought, whatever figment her imaginations had conjured up.
"We don't have any time left," Ash sighed. "The protesters will be here any minute."
Misty blinked, drawing back in surprise and taking a better look at Ash's face. It was set, hard – the face of someone readying himself to weather a storm they knew would come.
"Protesters?" she asked, her voice small. She had an idea what it could be about. She had one, and didn't like it in the slightest. "Against the league?" she shivered.
They had suspected it would come, of course – no one except perhaps Lance had been blind to the way the trainers were turning further away with each day from what the everyday people of Johto and Kanto wanted. No one had been blind either to the growing hatred between the commoners, the League and the government. There had been too much blood spilled as a result of the trainers' war on Team Rocket, too many dead for forgiveness.
"Yes," the professor confirmed. Misty turned her head slightly to look at him, seeing in a glance the pain in his features. He had been one of the main movers in the creation of the original league from what she had been told – she couldn't begin to imagine what it would be like to see the world turn against it for him.
"Though I believe the term 'protesters' might be somewhat of an understatement." Sabrina's gaze turned to the window. "Revolutionaries might be closer to the truth. They do not intend to leave anything standing."
"They aren't even the worst part," Ash shook his head, and Misty slowly began to understand the pain in his eyes. If there was worse than the protesters...
It could only really mean one thing.
"The government's sending the army, aren't they?"
Ash only nodded. _______________________
"Was that Giovanni?" Yoshi asked, trying to steady his trembling hand.
Ghost pokémon were one thing. Dani had her Misdreavus, and besides even that if one was going to be a top trainer, on had to learn to deal with the unnerving spirits.
Ghost pokémon were one thing, but nameless shadows that vanished into thin air were something else entirely.
"Is it still around?" Bruno asked Agatha, turning toward the older woman.
"No," the League's elder shook her head, her eyes narrowing. "I do not know what it was. "
Yoshi slowly looked around the room, taking everything in. The trainers who were there, stunned perhaps for a moment, had slowly begun recovering, eyeing warily the charred remnants of the white cloak.
Whatever the thing had been, it would be talked about for days if not months to come among the trainers. Whatever it had been, most of them would remember it for the rest of their days, and Yoshi first of them. There was no way he could ever forget the horrible sensation that had come over him when the thing had appeared.
He took a deep breath, trying to steer his mind to less depressing topics. They had successfully pushed back the specter. There was no need to worry anymore – he could now let Lance and Agatha come up with some plan regarding the young woman and return to Dani.
Of course, he had no sooner made as if to turn for the stairways that the Headquarters' alarm system began sending its high-pitched wail throughout the enormous building.
"What the?" it was Domino who spoke, rising to her feet and glancing about.
"The war's over, isn't it?" Karen suddenly drew closer to him. She was trembling; her eyes closed but too late to keep the first tear from rolling down her cheek.
For the briefest of moments, Yoshi thought he could hear Karen's siblings screaming, just as he had heard them on that day, two years back when Team Rocket had last stormed the League's headquarters – screaming, then one by one becoming silent as they were killed.
And he had been too late to save any of them, any of the other children who had been there on that day.
"It's not Team Rocket," he stated, his voice wavering as he did so. Why wouldn't the scream stop? He had done all that he could back then. They all had.
But the screams didn't stop. For two years now they had left him alone, allowed him to go on his own – and now they were back, as if they had never stopped echoing through his mind.
"Whatever it is," Bruno agreed, "it's not them."
"What then?" Domino glanced about still.
They were all silent for a moment. Lance drew out his cell phone, moved away from them. His lips were moving, but against the wail of the alarm and the cry of the children still echoing in his mind, he heard nothing of the League champion's words.
"I fear it is far worse than Team Rocket," Agatha shook her head glumly.
What could it be then? What could be worse than Team Rocket, all the death they had caused over the last few years?
"The army?" Bruno hazarded the guess slowly, his eyes widening even as he did so.
"The souls of those our war killed have come back to demand justice," Agatha nodded shortly. "The blood that was spilled for our pride must be paid back in our own blood."
Yoshi shrank back. The blood that had been spilled for their pride. The blood of the children they had failed to save. The blood of the civilians killed in the endless cycle of retaliation Team Rocket had lived by for all those years of conflict...
"We deserve it, don't we?" he asked softly, his hand shakily reaching for his pokéball all the same. Deserved or not, they had gone too far now to die kneeling.
"Do you really believe more blood spilled will atone for all we have done?" Agatha questioned quietly.
Yoshi shook his head, knowing the answer even before the question was finished. More blood would atone for nothing, regardless of whether the blood was his or anyone else's. The only thing more blood spilled would mean was more suffering, more pain...
More screams.
"It's them," Lance confirmed, closing up his cell phone and turning to face them, his eyes grim. "We are surrounded already."
"How bad is it?" Bruno reached for his pokéballs even as he spoke.
He was not alone in doing so. Karen and Agatha moved to his side, each drawing their own pokéball. Yoshi made as if to join them – then drew back. They were alone, left without families, without obligations, without loyalties other than to the League. He could never begin to claim the same – not with the solemn promises he had made so long ago, on the day Dani had become his wife.
"Their orders are to make prisoners only as far as it's convenient."
How could it come to that? Didn't the government realize how much more blood that would leave? How much more pain and suffering all of Kanto would go through?
"Why?" Karen breathed even as she released her houndoom.
"It's what the people want. They aren't interested in peace – they want payback for everyone they lost. Since you took care of Team Rocket, that leaves you as the only people they can pay back," Domino explained. "That's the thing with democracy. It's all about putting power in the hands of the idiots."
Karen nodded slowly and then turned to face him, instantly sending his senses on the highest alert. What did she want now?
"You aren't going to fight with us, are you?" she asked, her voice soft. There was no trace of hope left in her face, no traces of any emotion.
"I can't," he confirmed, as simply as he could. More words would have been too much for him.
She sighed, averting her eyes for a moment.
"You were a fun game," she whispered. "Go to her."
Yoshi drew back in surprise. Was that really the same Karen who had been trying to seduce him mere minutes ago? Why would she say that now of all times?
"Why?" he whispered. Had she remembered how he had failed to save her siblings? Perhaps the cries had reached her, too.
She did not answer, not at first, looking deep into his eyes and seizing her hand. "As I said – you were a fun game. The time for playing is over."
A shiver went down his spine at the last. Judging by the way her lips shook, she liked it no more than he did. Reluctantly, one of her hands rose to point at the stairways.
"Go save your wife Yoshi. You didn't let her down all the time I was trying to get you. Don't start it now."
He nodded reluctantly, trying to bring his mind back to what truly mattered. Dani was somewhere above, and if he died now, there would be no one to get her out. They would take her, brand her a criminal, perhaps jail her for a time, or worse...
"I'm going," he turned, making his way to the stairways, barely hearing the footsteps behind him. He didn't turn, didn't care. Dani needed him, and he dared not look back – not when his friends were about to throw their lives in a last fight.
The doors to the lobby crashed open in a shower of glass.
"Attention trainers!" a voice bellowed. "Surrender now, and you will be spared!"
He couldn't look back. Whatever was behind him, it was the past. There would never be any going back to it. Friends or no friends....
"Dragonite! Hyper beam!" Lance commanded.
The room brightened for a moment, and it was all that Yoshi could do to keep his eyes on the stairways, shielding them with one hand for the briefest of moment. Perhaps if he did they wouldn't look back of their own accord. Perhaps if he did, he would avoid the sight of his friends...
With one last hesitation, he flew up the stairs. Someone behind him cried – Karen, he thought – and he ignored her. It would, after all, be nothing more than another cry to haunt him forever.
Shouts of surprise and pain echoed behind him, and his hand faltered on the railing, his eyes drawn to the floor below no matter how much he tried to hold them back. His friends were fighting there. His friends would die there.
Why wasn't he with them? Dani could save herself, she was strong, she...She could, but would she?
Another scream rose, but this one came from above.
"They probably landed helicopters on the top floor," someone said, racing past him in a flash of blonde air. "Hurry!"
He blinked. Why was she of all people helping him? If there was anyone in the League's headquarters without the slightest reasons to want any of them to survive...
"What do you want?" he asked her as he caught up with her. Friends or not, his wife was there, and she would always come first.
"A way out!" Domino shouted. "You're about the only one with any reason to get out of this deathtrap!"
He nodded darkly. A reason to get out...He had one, didn't he?
"I'm coming Dani..." he hissed through clenched teeth, _______________________
"The army?" Sabrina asked, and for the first time that Ash could remember, her voice sounded weak, even faint. "Have things really gone this far?"
Ash sighed. How far had things gone? He couldn't even begin to say for himself. Too far was the only possible way to describe it.
"It isn't even the worst part Sabrina," he began. How could he – how could anyone – say what he had to tell them? They had been his friends, his family for too many years. He knew just what they valued, what mattered to them.
He knew they were on the verge of losing one thing that counted at the heart of each of their lives. How could he ever tell them that?
"They can't be..." Misty began, her eyes widening. How she had found, he had no idea but a single look in her eyes was enough to realize that she now knew, too.
As they would all know – as they all needed to.
"As of tomorrow..." he began, trying to remember all the details he could, at the same time hoping no one would question his knowledge. Perhaps he would tell Misty one day, but even that he was not sure was a good idea. The questions it could lead her to ask...
No, they were questions better left unanswered.
"Yes?" the professor asked, his eyes flashing about nervously.
"They'll ban training altogether," Ash finally let out, trying to ignore the icy hand caressing its way down his spine. "No more pokéballs to be sold, and people who own any of them are to surrender them outright."
Misty's head fell on his shoulder, her body shaking, though he could not tell whether it was from anger or sorrow. His mother shook her head, her eyes closed as her lips traced the words of a silent prayer. The professor said nothing, his eyes staring blankly ahead as his hands shook. Sabrina's hands fell to her side, and the glass she had been levitating toward her outstretched hand fell to the floor as well, shattering in a thousand shards just as he knew the dreams of so many young trainers would in a few hours at most.
"I hope you're not planning to fight the law, young man," his mother was the first to speak. Her words were in no way surprising – she had always be the one to look to his own safety first.
"As far as the government cares mom, I'm dead," he reminded her gently. It had been odd in too many ways standing in the back of the small temple, disguised while his own funeral took place. Odd, and less than pleasant – how could it have been otherwise when he had been forced to stand there, watching Misty's tears rolling to the ground?
It had been all that he could do to hold back and keep his secret.
"That still doesn't allow you to run around with pokéballs," his mother threw him a level look, her dark eyes glinting.
Ash smiled slightly. Pokéballs, he did still carry. They were a reminder of days pasts and long gone. They had been at his side for too many adventures for him to abandon them, even if he had no longer any need for them.
Faintly, from beyond the walls, the first echoes of a shouting mob rose.
"Actually Delilah, I believe that's already taken care of," The professor's tone sounded calm enough, as if he had recovered from the shock. His trembling hands, however, told a different story. "I..."
"Oh, yes," his mother's eyes suddenly widened as if she realized what she had been saying.
"You're a tamer aren't you?" Misty asked simply, still holding close to him.
He nodded. Saying any more in answer would require hours of explanations, hours they could not afford. Later, perhaps.
He looked at Misty, holding back a sigh. There were so many things he wanted to tell her, so many things he wanted to do with her, and so little guarantee there would ever be the time for any of it.
Outside, the cries grew closer.
"Professor, are you ready to leave?" he asked.
There was no more time for emotions really. If they were to leave, to survive, they would have to do so now. There could be no more waiting, not with the mob drawing ever closer.
His old mentor only nodded, his age suddenly showing in his every feature. He was too old for the war, no matter which Ash looked at it. Why couldn't he do more for him?
"Mom?" he asked then. She too was beginning to show sign of the many years of worry life had thrown her way. If there was any justice to the world, she would be able to enjoy some calm now.
She nodded as well. "I...I'm ready Ash. Please be careful!" she added the last, just as she had every other time they had been about to become separated.
He said nothing, only giving a slight nod in answer.
Sabrina stepped forward, her eyes blazing, extending her hand. Ash's arms reached to hold Misty tightly next to him. There were so many stories about teleportations gone wrong and people separated in them...
The world about them seemed to freeze for a moment. Slowly, the colors drained out of it leaving only outlines of shadow and light. Then even the outlines were gone, and the world faded to a silvery gray.
Anyway, here's the third chapter – hope you enjoy. Yes, I know there's a repetition of feelings from the end of 02 and the start of 03. I felt it was fitting given the character and scene.
Chapter 3 : Seeds of War
"You lied to me," Misty shook her head, closing her hands on the arms of her chair to steady herself.
Sabrina had known.
Sabrina had known everything about Ash, and had told her nothing. How dared she do that? With her powers, there would have been simply no way for her not to understand the pain left in Misty's soul. There was no way she could have failed to understand just how devastated Misty had been.
Of course she had never been much of a friend, certainly not someone Misty considered close in any way. She had been nothing more than an acquaintance, and yet the betrayal sent a serrated blade driving through her heart, leaving nothing behind but thorn ruins. It was the same pain she had felt in the past when abandoned by her friends.
"I told you," Sabrina looked at her sternly. How dared she take that kind of sententious attitude? How could she, after what she had done? "I owe him my life. If I have to watch you suffer to keep a promise to him, then so be it."
Misty glared at her, trying to hold back the fires coursing through her whole being. This was no time to lash out at anyone. Not yet. She tried to speak, but could find no words that did justice to her emotions without turning in a scathing assault.
"I'm sorry," Sabrina added, and for a moment – a mere moment – her face appeared truly apologetic.
She didn't have to be sorry, of course. Misty would have done the same had Ash asked – why not? She would have lied to her friends and would have betrayed them without a second thought for Ash.
Then again, she was Ash's girlfriend. Who did Sabrina think she was, claiming the right to react to Ash's needs just as Misty would have?
Of course, the answer to that was obvious. She was the girl whose soul Ash had saved. Misty had never stopped to consider really what that could mean – perhaps because part of her had been afraid of the answers? Ash had saved Sabrina's soul – and Misty could not claim he had ever done such a thing for her.
Why wouldn't Sabrina want to do as much for Ash as Misty did?
Why wouldn't Sabrina have for Ash the same feeling she did?
A shiver ran down her spine, echoing back in her legs and arms. It was not the competition in itself – she was a gym leader and a trainer, and one could not both be a trainer and unused to competing. But to compete for Ash's heart was another thing, one she saw no reason to take any pleasure in. Ash was hers, and if he left her any choice of the matter, he would always be hers and never shared.
If Sabrina really intended to compete with her...
No, the thought in itself was wrong. Sabrina and romance simply did not go together, no matter how much she tried to fit them. Then there was the matter of Ash himself – if there was one person in the world she knew wouldn't betray her, it was him. He knew just how much he meant to her, he knew just how little she would have left without him.
Except, of course, that it had not in any way stopped him from leaving her alone. In the end, there was only one possible thing to do.
"Do you love him?" she asked pointedly, cursing herself half a second later as she realized they were not, in fact, alone. Delilah and the professor looked at her in surprise, although from their eyes they obviously knew whom the question had been asked to.
Sabrina sighed, looking at Misty with her eyes still unreadable.
"I don't think love comes close to convening it," she finally shook her head. "It's not that, not in the way you think it anyway," she tried to explain. "He reminded me what it was like to be human."
"I don't get it," Misty accused. Why couldn't the psychic just use plain words that everyone would understand?
"I think she means that she sees Ash much in the same way Ash sees Samuel, dear." Delilah rose from her chair, smiling patiently. "Someone who taught her most of what she values the most."
"Who taught me the one thing I value the most," Sabrina corrected her. "Humanity."
Misty nodded. Part of her didn't want to understand or maybe to accept the explanation. But that part was alone and swiftly silenced – the words were perfectly sensible and they were everything Misty had needed to hear. Everything she had wanted to hear, too.
Which only left one question to be asked. She sighed, readying herself for an answer she only could fear. A gust of wind reached her back as if someone had just opened the door; she ignored it.
"If Ash didn't want me to find out because it was too dangerous," she began, swallowing hard. "Why are you telling me all of it now? Why did you even take me here – hell, why did you clue me in to all those answers back in the Tower?"
Sabrina looked at her for a long moment, saying nothing. Her eyes seemed to look past Misty, to something behind her.
There was something behind her. That much she was now sure of – the door hadn't opened at random, that much was for sure. And if she just focused on the sounds about her for a moment she could just hear soft breaths, or at least she thought she did.
Then there was the simple feel of a presence – even without psychic powers, she simply knew someone – or something – was coming closer to her.
Which did not keep her from having to bit back a shriek when a hand came to rest on her shoulder.
"I told her to get you out of the League," a familiar, so very familiar voice said.
She turned slowly, quietly. It could yet be a memory, a figment of her imagination that would vanish if she came to face it too quickly.
Figment or not, he had changed. His hair, unkempt and dirty, now reached past his shoulders. His face bore scars she had not seen before, mute testimony of what he must have passed through in the long months she had searched for him. On his chin, the shadows of a beard grew where he had kept his face shaven in all the years they had been together. His eyes had grown dark, retaining no shreds of the hope and innocence that had been there so long ago, on the day she had fished him out of a lake.
But the voice...it was his voice, and for all the changes his face bore, it was still the face of the man she had shared so many years of her life with.
There were many questions to ask, many things she so wanted to say. Words she had dreamed of whispering to him, words she had hoped against hope he would one day hear from her.
She tried to say them, to ask the questions that came to mind.
"How..." she began, unsure herself what would follow. Her throat seemed to thicken with each syllable out of her mouth. Her hands, without conscious commands, went to the one that still rested on her shoulder, gripping it tightly, bringing it in front of her. "How are you?"
Ash smiled, although a pained smile. For a moment, Misty almost thought he was going to laugh at him, but he did not. Perhaps she would have deserved it – what kind of question was that to ask when he had made her think him dead for all those months?
She let go of his hand, reassured perhaps at last that he was there and not a dream. His eyes met hers, and she suddenly found herself in his arms, trying as best as she could to avoid sobbing. She would not cry; she would not waste time with something as silly as crying. Not when she had Ash back at last and ought to be happy.
He closed his arms about her, holding her in his embrace as he had so often done. Misty felt a single tear trickling down her cheek; she closed her eyes to hold back any others that might come. She had shed enough tears for him when he had gone, she would not shed more now that she had him back at last.
"I'm fine, I think," he hesitated before smiling. "Awfully glad to see you, of course." The last was added almost as an afterthought, a slight embarrassed blush coloring Ash's features.
Misty smiled slightly, perhaps too small a smile for anyone to see. Whatever he might have gone through during the war and since his disappearance, there was still something of the Ash she had fallen for so many years ago left.
"You think you're fine?" Part of her wanted an answer to that; part of her just wanted to slap him. After all he had done to her, what right did he have to pretend to be the suffering one? He should be overjoyed they were reunited, and that was it.
He looked at her, his eyes for the briefest of instant filled with a pain Misty simply could not believe any human being could bear. In that instant, she silenced the part of her that wanted nothing more than to pay Ash back for her months alone.
"Maybe we should leave the two of you alone," Ash's mother suggested. Misty didn't need to turn to imagine the smile that must be on the older woman's lips.
Ash sighed, gently taking a strand of Misty's hair in his hands and playing with it for a moment. There was something about him, as if he was troubled.
"I don't think we've got time right now," he finally sighed. "I'll make it up to you," he added, a handful of whispered words in her ears. Misty did not answer – there was nothing she could think of saying now. She simply pulled closer to him, resting her head against his shoulders, reassuring herself again he was no mirage. She couldn't be sure, but she though his arms had tightened about her, pulling her closer.
"Are you sure?" Sabrina asked.
Misty sighed. Had she really suspected the psychic of trying to take Ash away from her just moments ago? Had she really even given more than half a second of though to the notion that anyone would manage to take Ash from her? She closed her eyes. It didn't matter what she had thought, whatever figment her imaginations had conjured up.
"We don't have any time left," Ash sighed. "The protesters will be here any minute."
Misty blinked, drawing back in surprise and taking a better look at Ash's face. It was set, hard – the face of someone readying himself to weather a storm they knew would come.
"Protesters?" she asked, her voice small. She had an idea what it could be about. She had one, and didn't like it in the slightest. "Against the league?" she shivered.
They had suspected it would come, of course – no one except perhaps Lance had been blind to the way the trainers were turning further away with each day from what the everyday people of Johto and Kanto wanted. No one had been blind either to the growing hatred between the commoners, the League and the government. There had been too much blood spilled as a result of the trainers' war on Team Rocket, too many dead for forgiveness.
"Yes," the professor confirmed. Misty turned her head slightly to look at him, seeing in a glance the pain in his features. He had been one of the main movers in the creation of the original league from what she had been told – she couldn't begin to imagine what it would be like to see the world turn against it for him.
"Though I believe the term 'protesters' might be somewhat of an understatement." Sabrina's gaze turned to the window. "Revolutionaries might be closer to the truth. They do not intend to leave anything standing."
"They aren't even the worst part," Ash shook his head, and Misty slowly began to understand the pain in his eyes. If there was worse than the protesters...
It could only really mean one thing.
"The government's sending the army, aren't they?"
Ash only nodded. _______________________
"Was that Giovanni?" Yoshi asked, trying to steady his trembling hand.
Ghost pokémon were one thing. Dani had her Misdreavus, and besides even that if one was going to be a top trainer, on had to learn to deal with the unnerving spirits.
Ghost pokémon were one thing, but nameless shadows that vanished into thin air were something else entirely.
"Is it still around?" Bruno asked Agatha, turning toward the older woman.
"No," the League's elder shook her head, her eyes narrowing. "I do not know what it was. "
Yoshi slowly looked around the room, taking everything in. The trainers who were there, stunned perhaps for a moment, had slowly begun recovering, eyeing warily the charred remnants of the white cloak.
Whatever the thing had been, it would be talked about for days if not months to come among the trainers. Whatever it had been, most of them would remember it for the rest of their days, and Yoshi first of them. There was no way he could ever forget the horrible sensation that had come over him when the thing had appeared.
He took a deep breath, trying to steer his mind to less depressing topics. They had successfully pushed back the specter. There was no need to worry anymore – he could now let Lance and Agatha come up with some plan regarding the young woman and return to Dani.
Of course, he had no sooner made as if to turn for the stairways that the Headquarters' alarm system began sending its high-pitched wail throughout the enormous building.
"What the?" it was Domino who spoke, rising to her feet and glancing about.
"The war's over, isn't it?" Karen suddenly drew closer to him. She was trembling; her eyes closed but too late to keep the first tear from rolling down her cheek.
For the briefest of moments, Yoshi thought he could hear Karen's siblings screaming, just as he had heard them on that day, two years back when Team Rocket had last stormed the League's headquarters – screaming, then one by one becoming silent as they were killed.
And he had been too late to save any of them, any of the other children who had been there on that day.
"It's not Team Rocket," he stated, his voice wavering as he did so. Why wouldn't the scream stop? He had done all that he could back then. They all had.
But the screams didn't stop. For two years now they had left him alone, allowed him to go on his own – and now they were back, as if they had never stopped echoing through his mind.
"Whatever it is," Bruno agreed, "it's not them."
"What then?" Domino glanced about still.
They were all silent for a moment. Lance drew out his cell phone, moved away from them. His lips were moving, but against the wail of the alarm and the cry of the children still echoing in his mind, he heard nothing of the League champion's words.
"I fear it is far worse than Team Rocket," Agatha shook her head glumly.
What could it be then? What could be worse than Team Rocket, all the death they had caused over the last few years?
"The army?" Bruno hazarded the guess slowly, his eyes widening even as he did so.
"The souls of those our war killed have come back to demand justice," Agatha nodded shortly. "The blood that was spilled for our pride must be paid back in our own blood."
Yoshi shrank back. The blood that had been spilled for their pride. The blood of the children they had failed to save. The blood of the civilians killed in the endless cycle of retaliation Team Rocket had lived by for all those years of conflict...
"We deserve it, don't we?" he asked softly, his hand shakily reaching for his pokéball all the same. Deserved or not, they had gone too far now to die kneeling.
"Do you really believe more blood spilled will atone for all we have done?" Agatha questioned quietly.
Yoshi shook his head, knowing the answer even before the question was finished. More blood would atone for nothing, regardless of whether the blood was his or anyone else's. The only thing more blood spilled would mean was more suffering, more pain...
More screams.
"It's them," Lance confirmed, closing up his cell phone and turning to face them, his eyes grim. "We are surrounded already."
"How bad is it?" Bruno reached for his pokéballs even as he spoke.
He was not alone in doing so. Karen and Agatha moved to his side, each drawing their own pokéball. Yoshi made as if to join them – then drew back. They were alone, left without families, without obligations, without loyalties other than to the League. He could never begin to claim the same – not with the solemn promises he had made so long ago, on the day Dani had become his wife.
"Their orders are to make prisoners only as far as it's convenient."
How could it come to that? Didn't the government realize how much more blood that would leave? How much more pain and suffering all of Kanto would go through?
"Why?" Karen breathed even as she released her houndoom.
"It's what the people want. They aren't interested in peace – they want payback for everyone they lost. Since you took care of Team Rocket, that leaves you as the only people they can pay back," Domino explained. "That's the thing with democracy. It's all about putting power in the hands of the idiots."
Karen nodded slowly and then turned to face him, instantly sending his senses on the highest alert. What did she want now?
"You aren't going to fight with us, are you?" she asked, her voice soft. There was no trace of hope left in her face, no traces of any emotion.
"I can't," he confirmed, as simply as he could. More words would have been too much for him.
She sighed, averting her eyes for a moment.
"You were a fun game," she whispered. "Go to her."
Yoshi drew back in surprise. Was that really the same Karen who had been trying to seduce him mere minutes ago? Why would she say that now of all times?
"Why?" he whispered. Had she remembered how he had failed to save her siblings? Perhaps the cries had reached her, too.
She did not answer, not at first, looking deep into his eyes and seizing her hand. "As I said – you were a fun game. The time for playing is over."
A shiver went down his spine at the last. Judging by the way her lips shook, she liked it no more than he did. Reluctantly, one of her hands rose to point at the stairways.
"Go save your wife Yoshi. You didn't let her down all the time I was trying to get you. Don't start it now."
He nodded reluctantly, trying to bring his mind back to what truly mattered. Dani was somewhere above, and if he died now, there would be no one to get her out. They would take her, brand her a criminal, perhaps jail her for a time, or worse...
"I'm going," he turned, making his way to the stairways, barely hearing the footsteps behind him. He didn't turn, didn't care. Dani needed him, and he dared not look back – not when his friends were about to throw their lives in a last fight.
The doors to the lobby crashed open in a shower of glass.
"Attention trainers!" a voice bellowed. "Surrender now, and you will be spared!"
He couldn't look back. Whatever was behind him, it was the past. There would never be any going back to it. Friends or no friends....
"Dragonite! Hyper beam!" Lance commanded.
The room brightened for a moment, and it was all that Yoshi could do to keep his eyes on the stairways, shielding them with one hand for the briefest of moment. Perhaps if he did they wouldn't look back of their own accord. Perhaps if he did, he would avoid the sight of his friends...
With one last hesitation, he flew up the stairs. Someone behind him cried – Karen, he thought – and he ignored her. It would, after all, be nothing more than another cry to haunt him forever.
Shouts of surprise and pain echoed behind him, and his hand faltered on the railing, his eyes drawn to the floor below no matter how much he tried to hold them back. His friends were fighting there. His friends would die there.
Why wasn't he with them? Dani could save herself, she was strong, she...She could, but would she?
Another scream rose, but this one came from above.
"They probably landed helicopters on the top floor," someone said, racing past him in a flash of blonde air. "Hurry!"
He blinked. Why was she of all people helping him? If there was anyone in the League's headquarters without the slightest reasons to want any of them to survive...
"What do you want?" he asked her as he caught up with her. Friends or not, his wife was there, and she would always come first.
"A way out!" Domino shouted. "You're about the only one with any reason to get out of this deathtrap!"
He nodded darkly. A reason to get out...He had one, didn't he?
"I'm coming Dani..." he hissed through clenched teeth, _______________________
"The army?" Sabrina asked, and for the first time that Ash could remember, her voice sounded weak, even faint. "Have things really gone this far?"
Ash sighed. How far had things gone? He couldn't even begin to say for himself. Too far was the only possible way to describe it.
"It isn't even the worst part Sabrina," he began. How could he – how could anyone – say what he had to tell them? They had been his friends, his family for too many years. He knew just what they valued, what mattered to them.
He knew they were on the verge of losing one thing that counted at the heart of each of their lives. How could he ever tell them that?
"They can't be..." Misty began, her eyes widening. How she had found, he had no idea but a single look in her eyes was enough to realize that she now knew, too.
As they would all know – as they all needed to.
"As of tomorrow..." he began, trying to remember all the details he could, at the same time hoping no one would question his knowledge. Perhaps he would tell Misty one day, but even that he was not sure was a good idea. The questions it could lead her to ask...
No, they were questions better left unanswered.
"Yes?" the professor asked, his eyes flashing about nervously.
"They'll ban training altogether," Ash finally let out, trying to ignore the icy hand caressing its way down his spine. "No more pokéballs to be sold, and people who own any of them are to surrender them outright."
Misty's head fell on his shoulder, her body shaking, though he could not tell whether it was from anger or sorrow. His mother shook her head, her eyes closed as her lips traced the words of a silent prayer. The professor said nothing, his eyes staring blankly ahead as his hands shook. Sabrina's hands fell to her side, and the glass she had been levitating toward her outstretched hand fell to the floor as well, shattering in a thousand shards just as he knew the dreams of so many young trainers would in a few hours at most.
"I hope you're not planning to fight the law, young man," his mother was the first to speak. Her words were in no way surprising – she had always be the one to look to his own safety first.
"As far as the government cares mom, I'm dead," he reminded her gently. It had been odd in too many ways standing in the back of the small temple, disguised while his own funeral took place. Odd, and less than pleasant – how could it have been otherwise when he had been forced to stand there, watching Misty's tears rolling to the ground?
It had been all that he could do to hold back and keep his secret.
"That still doesn't allow you to run around with pokéballs," his mother threw him a level look, her dark eyes glinting.
Ash smiled slightly. Pokéballs, he did still carry. They were a reminder of days pasts and long gone. They had been at his side for too many adventures for him to abandon them, even if he had no longer any need for them.
Faintly, from beyond the walls, the first echoes of a shouting mob rose.
"Actually Delilah, I believe that's already taken care of," The professor's tone sounded calm enough, as if he had recovered from the shock. His trembling hands, however, told a different story. "I..."
"Oh, yes," his mother's eyes suddenly widened as if she realized what she had been saying.
"You're a tamer aren't you?" Misty asked simply, still holding close to him.
He nodded. Saying any more in answer would require hours of explanations, hours they could not afford. Later, perhaps.
He looked at Misty, holding back a sigh. There were so many things he wanted to tell her, so many things he wanted to do with her, and so little guarantee there would ever be the time for any of it.
Outside, the cries grew closer.
"Professor, are you ready to leave?" he asked.
There was no more time for emotions really. If they were to leave, to survive, they would have to do so now. There could be no more waiting, not with the mob drawing ever closer.
His old mentor only nodded, his age suddenly showing in his every feature. He was too old for the war, no matter which Ash looked at it. Why couldn't he do more for him?
"Mom?" he asked then. She too was beginning to show sign of the many years of worry life had thrown her way. If there was any justice to the world, she would be able to enjoy some calm now.
She nodded as well. "I...I'm ready Ash. Please be careful!" she added the last, just as she had every other time they had been about to become separated.
He said nothing, only giving a slight nod in answer.
Sabrina stepped forward, her eyes blazing, extending her hand. Ash's arms reached to hold Misty tightly next to him. There were so many stories about teleportations gone wrong and people separated in them...
The world about them seemed to freeze for a moment. Slowly, the colors drained out of it leaving only outlines of shadow and light. Then even the outlines were gone, and the world faded to a silvery gray.