[Lance's POV]

My eyes opened again to see one of those nurse Joys hovering near my head, "Oh you're awake dragonair! We've been very worried about you after what happened to you and your trainer."

I just looked up at her uncomprehendingly, what was going on? Why did Joy call me dragonair? I tried to voice my questions but only managed to make a trill, what had happened to my voice? I began to panic when I thought, this is all a dream, so why should I be worried at all?

I looked around, by all the machinery around here I could probably correctly assume that I was in a pokémon hospital. I looked myself over dreading what I would find. I was in the shape of a dragonair, only instead of having the sleek blue fur I was completely swathed in bandages, I probably couldn't feel the pain because of pain killers, but that didn't matter at the moment.

I focused back in on Joy as she concluded her speech, "-Professor Oak was so overjoyed to learn that he would finally get to study a dragonair. You'll be sent there as soon as I can confirm that you are at full health." Nurse Joy managed to babble incessantly, a trait that was really annoying.

I pulled my head up to look Joy in the eye only to realize that I couldn't see forward, or more to say when I looked forwards I saw a blind spot directly in front of me. I sighed to myself thinking, if this is a dream why didn't I give myself binocular vision.

Oh well, I thought to myself, at least I can fly now.

[Satoshi's POV]

Mewtwo looked up at me from where he sat at Gary's feet, I gave him a dirty look, are you going to just sit there all day?

The illusion shrouded cat gave me the look back, You're just jealous because he's petting me not you.

I snorted, If he knew you weren't just a stray Persian I doubt he would be. I glared at him for a moment before looking at professor Oak.

The old professor looked like he had aged about ten years sense I last saw him. Although, I thought to myself, it might have to do with him seeing an unidentified and seemingly dark dragon lying in front of him and doing absolutely nothing threatening.

Unfortunately he seemed to be in s sort of shock so, I, like the kind heart I am surged to my feet and paced across the uneven soil till I was about a half a foot away from the old man's face and forced myself inside his mind to say one word to him, Boo.

The professor jumped a little in fright but otherwise returned to normal, he turned to where Gary was petting the ersatz Persian and fired off rapid questions about my origin.

I snickered as he continued to dress him down for not telling him about me when he first got back.

Gary himself looked a little dazed at his grandfather's seemingly sudden fierce countenance, I just snickered silently to myself and settled down to watch the truly amusing show.

[Lance's POV]

I sighed again as the Blissey entered the room, the smiling pink egg pokémon seemed to have a crush on me and had been doing it's best to get me to say that I really did love her, I just couldn't show it because of my mental instability. –What do you want now?- I groaned to myself as she smiled at me with tear filled eyes, completely ignoring my curt tone. I hate groupies.

-I know I shouldn't be saddened that you're leaving me today my love but I just can't stand the thought of us being apart.-

I snarled at her but she only took that as a sign of agreement and sighed theatrically, -I know you are saddened to by this loss of connection, our love is true love that has no bounds and cannot be stopped by mere distance between us.-

I started to try to speak but Blissey placed a hand over my muzzle, -There is no need to speak my love, you must conserve your strength for your journey ahead- I wanted to bite the bitch's hand but knew that if I did that she would only summon nurse Joy to sedate the obviously deranged dragonair. And then get the chance to take care of said creature, oh so carefully.

I sighed, I really hate groupies.

[Satoshi's POV]

I looked at the professor dubiously as he hooked me up to a machine, What does this do?

Samuel looked at me in startlement at my invasion of his mind before returning to connecting various wires to both myself and the machine, "It's meant to measure your vital signs, level status and ability status." He finished and walked in front of me to stare into my eyes, "I would like to know why you speak to me telepathically, I'm not a psychic and I didn't capture you."

I knew my amusement was showing through my eyes making him give me a look, I'm speaking to you this way because you don't understand my natural language.

"Alright but I would like to know the name of your species, I haven't heard you talk besides telepathically."

Ummm... I scratched the my left ear with my forepaw, I kindda think that I'm the first of my species so I really don't know.

"You don't know?" Samuel Oak looked at me skeptically, "you must at least have a name you call yourself by."

I thought for a moment, if I told him I was Satoshi he might recognize the name and question me on it. Then again I don't think I ever let him know I also went by Satoshi. I'm Satoshi.

He looked puzzled so I listened in to hear what he was thinking, I know that name from somewhere, but where? If I know whom maybe I can learn more about this 'Satoshi'.'

I pulled out of his mind and chuckled to myself, he wouldn't be able to learn more about me except from myself, or possibly Gary.

He gave me a considering look, "your eyes are definitely unique, giving a new meaning to the saying 'eyes are the gateway to the soul."' I just stayed silent until he moved to another subject, I sighed, why did I agree to this interrogation?

[Satoshi]

I yawned and stretched, I had just woken up from a rather depressing dream where Lance had died, that of course couldn't be true because Lance was too smart to die.

I sighed and looked around me, Mewtwo was still snoozing on the grass not to far from me. I moved silently closer to him and he still didn't wake up, he didn't wake up when I poked him lightly with a clawed finger. I grinned, I was going to have fun with this. Maybe he wouldn't mind being striped?

I started walking up to the house to see if I could find a good marker to use when I noticed that Gary still had his light on. I quickly glanced up at the sky, by the positioning of the moon I realized that it had to be morning already. I sighed thinking back to the person who had taught me to read stars. Lance.

[Flashback]

"Right," I rolled my eyes and glanced at the figure laying a few feet away, "next thing you'll be saying that snorlax can fly."

I heard a disappointed sigh, "I'd been hoping you would have believed that."

Gary spoke up from by the fire, "My Ash couldn't possibly believe such an obvious lie. Really who would believe that you had managed a dratini for your second pokémon let alone your starter?"

Lance harrumphed, "actually Diamond was my second pokémon, my Charzard, Obsidian was my starter, even though he was a charmander then."

I turned to look at where other man was laying in his sleeping bag and asked, "are you serious?"

"Yes."

Gary just snorted incredulously and changed the subject to his favorite complain., Lodging. "I still don't see how sleeping out in the woods is helping out with training, we could just as easily be renting rooms out in that hotel a few miles back instead of sleeping on the ground."

Lance and I shared a glance of amusement at Gary's 'misfortune,' "You do realize that if you really wanted to stay at the hotel you could have?"

"But if I had I wouldn't be here with you Ash." I sighed, Shigeru was really possessive almost to the point of obsession. He wouldn't even let me be alone with another guy, he would just appear and then wrap himself around me. It was even worse with Lance, for some reason Gary had the idea that Lance liked me and would therefore never let me be alone with him.

I looked over at said dragon master, he does look good, I admitted to myself, but I highly doubt he is interested in me. I looked away before he could see me staring at him and saw Gary glaring at Lance as if me not giving him a hundred percent of my attention was his fault. I grinned ruefully, this time that was pretty accurate.

I slipped out of my sleeping bag careful not to disturb the sleeping Pikachu and sat next to Gary wrapping by arms around his waist and resting my chin on his shoulder, he turned enough to put his arms around my shoulders but didn't speak.

After a little I heard footsteps and saw out of the corner of my eye that Lance had sat down near us but closer to the fire. I heard a rustle and turned my head to see what Lance was doing. He was pulling out what looked like gray stones out of the fire's edge.

"It's already eight, so will anyone else be eating before they go to sleep?" I shifted out of Shigeru's grasp so that I could take the plate with the two grayish clay packets that was offered me.

Gary took the other plate and grimaced at the things, "what are we suppose to do with there things?" I pointed at one of my own packets which I had already broken open to reveal the baked potato inside.

Gary made a face of disgust at the things and broke open one of his to reveal a skinned Huntail, I heard him mutter something along the lines of 'gross' and 'disgusting.' I ignored Gary's mumblings in favor of food and contemplating sleep. I had after all just spent the day training with Lance and any other wild pokémon I could find.

I realized something though, Lance didn't have a watch, so how did he know what time it was? "Lance?" I asked, "how could you tell what time it was? Or did you just guess?"

"No, you can tell what the time is by where the moon or sun are positioned in the sky."

Now that's interesting and helpful thing to know, "can you teach me how to tell then?"

I think that startled him a little and I caught him beginning to grin before he caught himself, "sure."

[end flashback]

I would have to go see Lance sometime soon, only make sure that he didn't catch me, after all he was obsessed with dragons and as a new dragon he would probably become obsessed with me. I snickered at the thought, Gary would be right about Lance then.

I suddenly realized that I had become completely distracted by memories. I looked back at the house and started moving silently towards it again with my reason fixed firmly in my mind, find a marker and draw stripes all over Mewtwo.

When I reached the door I shifted into my previous human form, opened the door and closed it silently behind me. I quickly located the office and found a permanent marker inside of one of the drawers, I turned around to go back and saw Gary standing in front of me, wide-eyed and slack-jawed, I too stood frozen for a moment, caught up in shock and panic at the moment. Shigeru whispered, "Sato?"

That was enough to pull me out of my shock, I transformed quickly into a Gengar and turned transparent within a split second, dropping the pen as I quickly walked past him and out.

[Gary]

I stood frozen staring at the spot where I had seen Satoshi I thought, that couldn't have been him, at the same moment I though, that must have been him.

I walked a little further into the room and looked down when my foot hit something, it was the marker that the ghost had been holding. I picked it up and headed back upstairs not thinking about anything, not even wondering about why Satoshi had wanted a permanent marker.

[Satoshi]

I woke up rather abruptly; the sun was shinning in my unprotected eyes. Well, unprotected except for my eyelids, which didn't do much good. I snapped my eyes open and winced, mental note to self, don't open your eyes. I yawned.

I heard a mental snicker and stopped midway, what now Mewtwo? I closed my jaws with a snap.

Oh nothing.

I looked over to Mewtwo and saw the cat arching his back and an angle that made me wince. Or I suppose it would have if I were still a human, instead I just mentally winced but remained undeterred, what?

What, what?

I growled and turned away from the annoying thing, intending to go and bathe by plunging into the pond, Mewtwo, I thought decisively, is by far too mischievous to be of any use.

Oh I wouldn't say that, after all, I'm not a ghost. I spun around to face the mind reading mutant, managing to whack my tail on a few trees in the process. Oooh, that looked like it hurt. He cooed.

I pulled back my lips from my teeth revealing a row of long wicked dagger-like fangs and snarled loud enough to scare the pidgeys from the trees, I am NOT, in a good mood right now, so unless you want your head up your ass, I suggest that you SHUT UP, and leave me alone.

I turned back to the water, being careful not to hit my tail again it hurt, but I wasn't about to let that damn fuzzy purple cat know he was right.

[Lance]

"Now professor, remember not to remind dragonair of his trainer, you really don't want for him to go rouge on you." I lay perfectly still as I listened to nurse Joy talk to Samuel Oak on the phone. Today I was suppose to be transported to his lab so that he could do research on how the loss of a trainer affected the pokémon.

I would have been sent over yesterday, that is if I hadn't bitten a chunk out of Blissey's arm.

[Flashback]

I had my eyes closed so that I couldn't see that annoying, bitchy, ugly pink blob that was currently trying to cry all over my neck.

I ground my sharp teeth together an annoyance as the thing started squeezing my neck as well as crying on it. All right, I thought, That's it. I rolled off of the bed I was sitting on, slipping off on the sheets that Blissey was sobbing on.

-My love,- She sobbed, -I just cannot let you go, all my brave words, all of my assurances, they were all false.- Just like you, I thought viciously, any sympathy I felt for the bitch had long since vanished.

-Pink and red, both colors of love, showing how we were meant for each other.- I snorted, maybe pink could be love but red was not, my red scales didn't mean that I had to do anything, let alone love anything pink that decide I must love it.

-Does that mean that I love everything pink? That I'm destined to fall for any Chancy and Blissey I see?- She looked up from where her head lay on the bed, tears still streaming downward, making a pool on the sheets.

-My love you to are distraught,- she walked towards me, her eyes having stopped wasting water but still threatening to overflow.

I slithered backwards, trying to evade the nurse without damaging her, I didn't want for her to keep me here and in her care longer than necessary. Unfortunately that didn't work, she had managed to back me into a corner before caressing my snout and kissing me lightly on the nose and continued to caress my head as she whispered soothingly to me.

My body froze in shock, How dare that, that thing, kiss me? I looked at the egg pokémon with a rage-clouded mind, the blood red of my scales infecting my vision as I lunged for the creature.

My jaw clamped down on a flailing pink arm and tore viciously at the flesh. My mouth came away with a chunk of blood, muscles and fur, which I quickly spat out with disgust.

The Blissey screeched as red liquid splashed down her body, -there you go- I snarled, -a union of pink and red.- She looked at me with fear filled eyes and ran out the door as I calmly flew back to my bed, ignoring the wet pool of tears as well as the slick red wetness coating my scales and curled up to go to sleep.

[End flashback]

Blissey had left him alone after that and anytime he saw her she would flee with terror. Blisseys were truly weak pokémon, they got beaten once and after that they never fought back.

"-all right professor, I'll just send dragonair over now."

Nurse Joy entered the room with a cautious step, even though she had been the one to make sure that he wasn't going rouge, she was still scared of him and therefore walked on eggshells anytime she was around him.

He noticed she was holding a pokéball and sighed, those things were damn annoying. She called out, "Dragonair! Return!" The customary red light issued from the thing, outlining his form as it separated every molecule in his body to absorb him. After that all he could see was darkness.

[Gary]

I walked downstairs, my mind was still a little fuzzy from sleep. Unfortunately I couldn't seem to get the picture of Ash out of my mind. What had he been doing there? Had he been a ghost? Or was he just a hallucination? I fingered the small ash filled trinket as I walked, my mind so clouded that I didn't notice where I was going.

I was standing on the back porch when I come back to myself and looked around, all the pokémon were still lounging around, it was after all six in the morning. I spotted the odd furred dragon sitting by the pond, it's tail curled around it as it peered at the water in what seemed to be deep concentration.

I walked over to it and sat down next to it, looking first at the creature and then at the water. We sat there for some time- doing nothing but stare companionably at the water, not thinking at all- just, relaxing.

I vaguely heard someone moving around back at the house but ignored it. The dragon on the other hand developed twitchy ears. Almost as if it were anxious about something. I heard someone's footsteps as gravel crunched underneath their feet and looked up to see gramps standing over me.

"Gary- I just got off the phone with nurse Joy, the one from Saffron city who was sending me that dragonair—"

"Oh yes, how is it?" Grandpa wordlessly held out an ultra ball and pressed the button to release the creature inside. The dragon the came out wasn't the normal blue- it was red.

"But that wasn't the reason I wanted to talk to you." The old man sighed and sat down next to me as the two dragons stared at each other unblinkingly. "After I talked to Joy I got a call from Clair."

I looked at him curiously, why did he think that I cared if he got a call from a dragon trainer? "And?" I asked when he didn't seem to want to continue speaking.

"And I'm sorry Gary but your friend Lance is dead." I blinked at him, so what if that dragon freak died? All he ever did was stare pathetically at my Satoshi. No, I thought, Sato isn't yours anymore, he's dead and thinking about that dragon trainer isn't going to help any.

I looked up at gramps whom was looking at me expectantly, "Is something wrong grandfather?"

The old man looked at me in exasperation, "I tell you that one of your friends is dead and you don't react, you don't even ask how he died. When Ash died you were depressed and now not even two days after he was buried you are back to acting as if everything is normal." Gary's grandfather threw up his hands in disgust, "It's like you don't even care that two of the closest people in your life are dead!"

Gary stood and looked down at his relative, "I don't act like I care because I don't, Ash probably wouldn't have wanted for me to mourn him and as for Lance,--"I snorted, "I never cared for him. I only dealt with him because Ash seemed to like him." I couldn't stop the bitterness from entering my voice, I had seen the heated glances that Lance sent Sato when he thought no one was looking; I could hardly stand the red haired freak so I was glad he was dead.

I started walking towards the house so that I wouldn't have to deal with my memories but something stopped me, a very very angry dark purple dragon to be precise. It looked at me from bloodied red eyes and drew back it's forepaw to strike at me with it's long claws. I stood paralyzed with fear, unable to do anything but stare at the suddenly fearsome dragon, "Satoshi, stop!"

I felt my eyes widen as I heard my grandfather, that dragon was named Satoshi? My mind raced, Ash and I had called each other by a name we had each chosen for ourselves, Satoshi and Shigeru. It couldn't be just a coincidence that the dragon had appeared at Sato's burial, bearing his name. It really must have been him last night when he was down in the office, not just a figment of my imagination.

I looked at the dragon in growing comprehension, he saw this and I saw satisfaction growing in his eyes, "Ash?" My voice sounded broken, even to me as I stared in disbelief at the creature.

It lowered it's paw but instead his head shot out towards me and delicately grasped the pendant holding all that I had of Ash.

It jerked it's head back savagely, breaking the silver chain holding the bauble onto my neck, Ash to ashes and now to dust. Sato's so familiar voice filled my head as the creature tossed the trinket into the air and shot a gout of flame at it, incinerating the thing.

You don't deserve to be happy. And with that Satoshi sprang up into the air and flew away from me and my house as I collapsed, staring blankly at the ground.