- 18 -
A week went by, then another. Almost too quickly, three months had come and went. Already, everyone was restless and uneasy.
"What did she say?" Lance asked quietly, pulling Misty and Paran away. Looking toward May, Paran frowned.
"Well...." she started, hooking her arm through Fox's, "the doctor said May is very close to losing the baby...too close, in fact."
"Yes...she said it had to do with stress and strain, I think," Misty added. Lance sighed.
"This whole situation is endangering..." Paran nodded. Lance's eyes widened. "What in the name of hell...!"
Misty quickly turned around, to look at May. She was pulling her cloak on, as she walked over to the table and grabbed her dagger. "What are you doing?!" Paran asked.
May looked at them, her eyes narrowed. "What do you think?" she snapped, pulling the hood up to cover her hair and face, "I need to go find him."
Frowning, they looked at each other. It was much too obvious to them that 'him' meant Ash. Fox gripped Paran around the waist, shaking his head in warning. "Let Lance or Misty handle this one," he whispered softly.
Lance gently took hold of May's arm, and pulled back. "May, that would mean searching all of Kanto for him!" Lance said, his voice calm.
"And? If I don't, I'll of lost him forever." May looked at him, her stare angry.
"You walk out that door, and both are lost!" Lance finally snapped out, "We all know damned well Ash will put up a fight against coming here, and you leaving Indigo will just be putting a seal on that baby's death!"
Misty, Paran, and Fox froze in place. A nerve seemed to have been struck; May's expression of anger melted to the almost normal sadness. She dropped the dagger to the floor, where its sheath clattered along with the blade. "I had hoped none of us would have had to do that," Misty said, frowning again.
Lance staggered back, when May jumped full-force into him, clinging to him. "We have the cities on alert already, just so we know if he's fine or not," Fox suddenly said, "And didn't they just give a report yesterday?"
"A small one...just that everything seems to be, er....normal." Misty rolled her eyes. "In other words, Ash is being as distant with everyone and everything as possible."
"We'll find a way to get him to come back," Lance said, looking at May, "even if it means going out there myself and dragging him."
"Ok, you called us in here why?" Gazelle asked, rolling her eyes. Lance glared at her. He had called a meeting between the Elite Four (or what was left of it) and the Rebellion, and they all had just settled down in the conference room.
"To make a plan to find Ashura," Misty replied, staring at her. Lt. Surge sat forward, his arms on the table.
"Find him? He still hasn't contacted you all?" Lt. Surge said, his eyes widening. Lance nodded.
"Nothing. He's being stubborn, like normal, but this time it'll end up costing him and May if we don't find him," Lance sighed. All of them frowned. There was silence for several minutes, before anyone said anything.
"I take it...the doctor had bad news?" Duplica asked. Lance and Misty nodded.
"Very bad news. If it keeps up, she could loose the baby..." Misty said. They all gasped.
"Well, why not just send a search party?" Gazelle rolled her eyes. "Anyone smart would think of that."
Lance glared at her. "A search party? Are you mad? Ash would obliterate them!"
"Actually..." Erika finally spoke up, "That's not a half bad idea. If you go, along with Misty or Duplica and take a psychic with..."
Misty smiled. "We could find him, and possibly be able to get through to him! Yes, that just might work!"
"A psychic though? I can understand the others, but...a psychic?" he asked, frowning. Misty and Erika nodded, looking at him.
"Of course, so you can track him, at least mentally anyway," Gazelle said. Everyone looked at her. "What?"
"Well...it could work, except for one minor detail," Lance sighed, shaking his head. The phone rang, causing them all to jump. Lt. Surge quickly put it onto speakerphone.
"Hello?! Are you there?!" Paran's panicked voice said. Lance and Misty looked at each other, and frowned.
"Yes, we are here," Erika replied, leaning forward. Duplica looked around at them, before looking at the phone.
"We have a problem!"
"What is it? What's wrong?" Misty asked, her frown deepening. The room was silent for a moment, before Paran responded.
"May! I was in the kitchen making lunch, and I went in her bedroom to make sure she was all right...well, she was gone!" she said.
"WHAT?" Both Lance and Misty stood up in alarm, staring at the phone. There was a sigh, then silence before Paran continued.
"I looked for her pokemon, and they were gone too! So, I went to see if her dagger was still on the table in the living room, and it was, that's the odd thing!" Duplica laughed, leaning back into her chair. Both the Rebellion and Lance stared at her.
"Huh? She tried to trick you! Leaving her dagger there would make it look like she went out for a bit, and that was it." They exchanged a shocked look. "What, you think I'm not smart enough to pick apart a situation?"
Lance smiled. "I must admit, I thought she possibly had...well, let's get out there and find her now."
"None of them get it...either way, I'm screwed!" Lucia's ears bent back, and she frowned. May looked at her distraught pokemon, before sighing. "Don't tell me you agree with them?!"
Lucia looked up at her, and whimpered. May looked at her, keeping a tight hold on Articuno's neck. She looked up, when it started raining gently. "I don't care what they say, we're going to make it through this, no matter what!" she said, "Fiona, land!"
Fiona made a sweet, melodic squawk, before doing into a small dive towards the ground. Flapping her wings, she landed gracefully amongst the trees. Returning Fiona to the pokeball, May quickly got up behind one of the trees and sat down on the ground. "All we have to do now is find him."
Ash looked up. He was wrapped up in his cloak, with Pikachu sitting on his lap. "Something isn't right..." he said, "I don't know what it is though...or why."
Pikachu tilted his head, and looked up at his Master and friend. Ash sighed, looking up into the tree branches sadly. "Chuu?"
"Maybe we should go look around...it might be something around here." He shooed Pikachu off, before standing up and pulling his cloak up over his shoulders, and clipping it. "Let's get to it before the sun sets."
"Come here, girl..." the man growled, prowling through the trees. He had just enough pokemon to equal May's, and to keep them busy for a while. "You know you can't hide from me..."
May bit her tongue to keep from saying anything, and crawled into a hollow tree. She stayed back, hoping he wouldn't notice the tree... Holding back a cry, May felt the tree shake as he leaned against it to rest. She shuddered.
She thought he had finally left after several minutes. May quietly went to get out, when the man appeared in front of the tree, smirking. "I told you," he said, "you can't hide from me."
Growling, he swung the dagger he was holding, slicing her across the arms. May glared at him, and whistled loudly. He stared at her, as if she where insane.
There was a cry of anger behind him, and two separate Ice Beams struck him in the back, along with an Ice Punch and Thundershock. He fell over, knocked out from the attack, if not killed. Fiona, Dewgong, Sneasel, and Lucia all stood nearby, looking worst for the wear and quite disgruntled.
Pushing the stranger out of the way May crawled out of the hole to be tackled by her pokemon. "Oh, thank you!" she said, hugging them back, "Fiona, Atlantic, Ira, return."
The three pokemon returned to their pokeballs. Lucia jumped up onto her head, ready to continue on. "This is going to take some time to heal," she said, looking at the gashes on her arms from the dagger.
"Pikachu, pi!" Lucia said disapprovingly. May sighed. She looked at the small pokemon.
"I know, I know..."
"Piikkaachuuu!" Ash skidded to a stop, his boot heels dug into the ground. Pikachu fell out of his pack, staring around dizzily. "Chuu."
Ash sighed. "What now?" he asked, picking Pikachu up and walking to get out of the rain. "It better be important."
Pikachu stared at Ash, his ears bent back. The small Shadow pokemon needn't even say a word to tell Ash what he thought. "...well...you're right. No matter, I'd be useless by the time we found out what happened if I kept it up, so we'll just stay here."
Looking around at the surrounding area, Ash frowned. "How far have we come anyway!?" he asked.
He glared at Pikachu, who had fallen over in a fit of laughter. It took several seconds for the pokemon to regain itself, hanging onto Ash's shoulder to keep stable. "What is so funny?...Oh."
They had, by chance, went a little over a mile. Ash sighed and sat down to rest using his cloak to keep the rain off. "I can normally run farther then that..." he said, "Must be the fact I've not had to do this for a bit of time that's got me worn out already."
Pikachu shrugged, before sliding down onto Ash's lap. "Chuu."
May felt the rain start coming down, as she walked with Lucia. She held her arm close to her chest, the wound still heavily bleeding. "This isn't right!" she said, "It should have stopped by now!"
Lucia's ears and tail drooped down. She grabbed the pokeball holding Fiona, and let her out. "I...really don't feel so good."
Stretching her wings out, Fiona looked at May curiously. Wincing, May carefully got up on the ice bird's back with Lucia, and wrapped her uninjured arm around Fiona's neck.
"Pikachu!" Lucia yelled, shaking May fearfully. She feared that the excessive bleeding could kill her friend...
"I'm...I'm all right," May said, looking at the pikachu. Fiona, with a flap of her wings, sped up her flight. Lucia's ears shot up straight, as she felt the familiar Shadow energy somewhere nearby.
"Chuuu, pika!" Lucia cried at Fiona, crawling up to her head. "Pikapi!"
May watched her two pokemon talking, before slowly going unconscious. Lucia looked at her, before panicking. She once again sensed out the energy and used most of her remaining energy to trace it.
Fiona took the hint and lowered closer to the trees, and sped up, letting Lucia look around at the tree tops into the forest below for any sign of movement or life. "Pika!"
Pikachu yawned, curled up warmly on Ash's lap, who had only minutes before fallen asleep, his head tilted to the side and frowning. It was once again a rarity to see him even give a hint of a smile.
After several moments, the silence was broken by a loud screech. A bird of some sort was flying over the treetops. Pikachu looked up at it, before his eyes widened. That was an articuno. "PIKAPI!"
Mumbling, Ash sleepily opened his eyes into slits, looking at Pikachu. In turn, Pikachu started jumping and pointing up at the articuno franticly. Yawning, Ash rubbed his eyes, before looking up. He took a double take. "Articuno? What the hell?"
Without even thinking about it, Ash quickly got up, Pikachu falling onto the ground. "Chu!"
"Sorry, Pikachu...Articuno!" Ash called up at it. The articuno didn't even take notice of the call. "Huh? Why is...Fiona."
Ash jumped, when Fiona looked down at him right after he had said her name. Pikachu jumped back up onto his shoulder, and waved its small paws. "What in the world, why is Fiona here and not with...oh no, she didn't!"
Lucia looked over Fiona's head at the ground below, and spotted the two of them. Ash sighed exasperatedly, watching Fiona as she hovered in the air. "Fiona, Lucia, come down here."
Ignoring the rain splashing him in the face, Ash continued to watch as Fiona slowly but steadily lowered down to the ground, until her claws touched the earthy surface. She pulled her wings back against her sides, and made a small sad tune.
"Oh...no, you can't be hurt, no..." Ash jumped up onto Fiona's back roughly, hurting the ice pokemon when his boots hit. "Er, sorry..."
"Pikaaachu?" both Lucia and Pikachu said, when Ash lifted up his unconscious wife. Ash frowned, looking at the pained expression on her face, but whether it was from mental or physical pain, he couldn't tell. His entire expression changed from worry to panic within seconds, when he saw that one of the sleeves was cut and bloodstained.
Ash pulled back the cloth, and looked at the still bleeding gashes. "How long has she been bleeding?!" he yelled at Lucia, pulling his gloves off.
Lucia whimpered. Pikachu frowned, and mentally sent the answer. "An hour?! Why didn't you make her go to a hospital or something?! May's bleeding to death!" Ash snapped, tossing the gloves aside and carefully adjusting both his and May's position so her back would be against his front, and used one arm to hold her upright. "My healing...it could just hurt her more...but either way it's a risk..."
Going stiff, Ash put his other hand over the gash running along her arm, and forced his healing to go into affect. The wounds closed up slowly, the bleeding stopped and skin healing over the gashes. When it was all finished, all that was left was pink skin where the cuts had been.
Sighing, Ash carefully jumped down from Fiona's back, and lifted May off. He sat down once again under the tree, and pulled May up so he was holding onto her. Shivering slightly, Ash wrapped his cloak around both himself and her. Lucia and Pikachu both curled up next to them.
Several moments went by in silence. Fiona moved over to use her wing to stop the rain from hitting them. Ash shook his head, trying to stay awake and alert. His eyes had already began to feel heavy, since he hadn't actually slept in four days, except for the odd hour long nap here and there when he couldn't stay awake any longer.
May latched onto Ash, frowning. Blinking her eyes, she stared at his chest, quietly. "Ash?" she asked.
He looked at her. "Are you alright?" Ash asked, hugged her closer, and kissing the top of her head.
"Well..." May said, looking at him, "I could be better, I suppose. Except that someone is being a brat at the moment."
Ash frowned, and leaned back against the tree, looking thoughtfully at May. She was still pale from the loss of blood, but it looked like the color was returning to her cheeks slowly. "I'm not putting them in danger, and I'm not putting you in danger either, and me returning would do just that. I've already killed one person, I don't want to hurt another."
May stared at him for a few seconds, before making any reply. "Killed one person? Misty?" she asked.
He cringed, answering the question without even saying anything. May looked at Lucia and Pikachu, both of which where up and watching them. She hugged Ash, rocking back and forth gently. "You do know," May said, "you didn't hurt Misty. She is very much alive and well."
There was silence, before Ash finally looked at May, his eyes widened. "What?"
She sighed. "Ash, your little fight with Kiall didn't kill Misty, or anyone for that matter. Her cloak got caught on a bush and it tore! She's in Indigo right now actually."
Pikachu looked up at them, waiting along with Lucia for the reaction. Ash bit his lower lip. If Misty was all right...and no one was hurt, that meant... "...I endangered you for being a damned idiot."
May sat on his lap quietly, staring Ash in the eyes. She took a deep breath, and sighed. "You did what you thought was right. No one can be angry at you for that."
Ash frowned at her. "But you're losing the baby."
Both Lucia and May's eyes widened. "How could you know that?!" she asked, leaning forward.
"Um...I don't know..." Ash's expression changed to worried. "It doesn't matter how I know, the point is you are! And it's my fault!"
"If I do miscarry, we'll still have time to try again! And it's not like she'll know the difference, she hasn't been born yet!" May said, hugging him. "Get real, not everything is your fault. I didn't have to come look for you! If anything, it'll be my fault for not listening to Lance and them and leaving!"
He stared at her. "You...Lance said...WHY?!"
May fell over, onto her back on the ground next to Ash. She mock-glared at him- at that point, she couldn't actually get mad at him. "Either way I was screwed, Ash," she replied softly, "Do you know how miserable I felt? I wanted to die, Ash. I don't like it when you leave like this..."
Ash frowned, hurrying to get up and hug May, who had started crying. He rocked back and forth, staring at the sky. The rain had gotten heavier, and Fiona was fidgeting. 'I have got to fix all of this...'
Using his cloak as a shield, Ash pulled May to standing. "What...?"
"I've done so much damage..." he muttered, motioning for Fiona to get down. Pikachu and Lucia jumped up, and waited for them on Fiona's back. "No more..."
"Wait a minute, what are you up to?" May asked, looking at Ash. He shook his head.
"Fixing the mess I've made." Ash helped her climb up onto Fiona's back, before doing so himself. "To Indigo!"
"This is impossible...we have been out for three days already!" Misty sighed, "How could she get so far away?"
"With Fiona? May could manage to get to Lavender Town in a day if they tried hard enough," Lance replied, leaning back against the log. "Then again...what in hell?"
A shadow had abruptly fell over them then vanished. "What was that?" Paran asked, looking up. Fox looked up also, frowning.
"A bird?" Lance suggested. Fox shook his head.
"Only one of the legendary birds could throw a shadow like that," Misty commented. Lance, Paran, and Fox looked at each other, then at Misty. "....Fiona."
They jumped up and got back onto the Ponyta's they borrowed from the Pokemon League, and went at a gallop in the direction the ice bird went. "This is unreal!" Paran called out to them, "What is going on with her?"
"Who knows," Lance said, staring up and at the legendary Master Pokemon of Ice. He let go of the reins, and shot a Hyper Beam at an angle where it would go past but not hit anything. "Hopefully Fiona will know what that is..."
They stopped and watched, as Fiona moved slightly to the left, away from the energy beam, before turning in their direction, and looking around. Their eyes widened.
Fiona was just close enough to where they could see who was with her, or at least if someone was. "May...I can't believe it..." Lance gasped, staring up.
Two people had appeared, looking around Fiona's neck to see what was going on. Paran kicked her ponyta in the side, and the fire pokemon neighed and rushed forward. "May!" she yelled, looking up at the bird, "Ash!"
The ice bird seemed to look down, before going into a shallow dive into the trees. Paran watched Lance, Misty, and Fox ride up to her, their ponyta's panting. "Where did they go?" Fox asked.
"Over there somewhere," Paran replied, pointing toward the general direction of Fiona. They looked at each other, before quickening their pace.
Within minutes they came to the clearing Fiona had landed in. May slid down off her back, landing with a thud on her feet. "What are you guys doing out here?!"
"We came to look for you!" Paran said, climbing down off the ponyta, along with the others. Misty sighed, and ran forward, grabbing May by the arms.
"You shouldn't have ran off like that! Something could have happened to you!" she said, checking May over. Ash jumped off of Fiona, scowling.
"Like I would let anything happen to her? Pfft." They looked at him. Ash sighed. "What? You all look like you've seen a ghost."
May laughed. "Well, I don't think they expected me to be able to actually find you. I'm shocked myself, actually!"
Lance and Fox looked at each other. "Not asking," they muttered.
Ash looked at the group. "So?" he said, "Can we please just go to Indigo or something?"
"Hold up, hold up...who died? What happened to you?" Misty interrupted. Ash frowned at her.
"What happened to me? Nothing...I've just been talking to May..." They looked at each other skeptically. "I did!"
"And now you're all happy? What could you possibly talk about to make you happy?" Fox asked, stating everyone's question. Ash scowled.
"About my past, alright? I just told her everything...even the things I thought I had been able to just forget..." he said, sitting down on the ground next to May, "And I'm just happy to see you all...it can't be that unusual, I wasn't that morbid!"
Misty rolled her eyes, before smiling at him. "Oh, yes you where sometimes," Misty teased.
May sat down behind Ash, and hugged him. "I like it when he's happy," she said into his shoulder blades. They looked at her. There was silence for a few minutes, before anyone responded.
"Well, how about we go to Indigo now?" Lance asked. Everyone nodded. Ash helped May up and back onto Fiona, before getting up himself.
"It'll be nice to see the house again." Ash laid down on his back, closing his eyes. He relaxed, when he felt May beside him.
"Yes...and this time, you aren't walking out on all of us again!" May said, teasingly. Ash smiled, before actually laughing. It felt almost foreign to him.
"I guess I won't be...not even if the League somehow resurrects and attacks us all again. You all are stuck with me this time."
AN: -cries- Final chapter. ;-; I know, the ending sucks XD and that you all are wondering about the baby. ill make a short fanfic or something later maybe, or make a prologue on the sequel...when I write it, which will not be immediately this time. Well, until then ja ne!