I sometimes dream that there's more to life then meets the eye...

The Light Within

Ch.1: The Dream

The darkness in the room overwhelmed him. There was no where to go and no where to come from. Nothing. The strangeness of it all made him think this was a dream...but a dream where nothing happened? For hours it seemed like, there was nothing but this dark nothingness.

Then a light appeared, and for a moment that was the only thing that made sense to him. He was afraid to look away and lose sight of it somehow. The dimness of the light did not comfort him, and it shown over some type of big...pot? No a cauldron. A strangely beautiful cauldron bubbling with the clear liquid within it. The light grew brighter with each passing second.

In a single breath, the light became so bright that he had to cover his eyes, and when he could look again, he saw a lady hovering there. The weirdness of this whole entire scene started to get to him. The woman towered over him in a white robe, her long blue hair curled down by her small feet.

" Do not be afraid. You two are here for a good reason." She spoke, a smile upon her lips and then began to laugh "You both look around for the other. Maybe a little light will help make it clearer?"

She mumbles something he can't hear, and soon the entire chamber is filled with light. The stone room seems empty, except for the cauldron in the middle.

Ash stood up, frowning. What a weird dream. He turned to walk around the cauldron, curious as to his mind would pick out to be the other person. Ash nearly tripped over him.

" You!"

James folded his arms and looked back at him, "...you."

"Of all the people for me to dream about..."

James shrugged looking the other way.

" Now, this is not just some strange dream and I hope you'll believe me about that, because this is a matter of great importance. The entire existence of the earth and the universe depends upon it." The lady began.

Great, I get to save the world in my dreams now, Ash sighed.

James bit his lip with worry, I wonder if they needed a human sacrifice or something…

" You see this caldron? It's the fairy cauldron. Every living creature has their own cauldron. Each of these cauldrons contain the power of that certain being, so if anyone every claims a cauldron for themselves, they have all of that power. They could control those creatures to do anything they want." The fairy explained.

" Fairies? Cauldrons? This is the weirdest dream I've ever had." Ash said, laughing.

" What does this have to do with us?" James asked. Please don't say sacrifice, please don't sacrifice, please oh please oh please...don't...

" Well," The fairy said, with a stern look at Ash. " The largest cauldron is the world's cauldron. It's been hidden for hundreds of years, and no one knew where it was at or that it even existed, until now. There's a new bad these last few years, and he's real evil and has a lot of power and money right now. You should know him"

" The boss." James muttered.

" Yes, Giovanni is consumed with his desire for more power. Even his closest advisors have no idea what he's all about, they think everything's about making money. When Giovanni found out about the cauldrons, he sent his top researchers to look for it, study it, whatever it took. He wants it for himself. And if he get's it...the future of the world is in jeopardy."

" How can I believe this?" Ash demanded.

" You may deny it, but you know in your heart that it is true. It's your destiny, you are a cauldron warrior."

" What?"

" Every cauldron has a protector. Typically there's only one, but the world's cauldron holds the most importance, so two have been assigned to it. It's both of your jobs to protect it from harm in every way possible"

So this is who I am, Ash smiled, the fairy lady was right, he could feel the truth in the very blood running through him. This must be a mistake, James looked around him uneasily, not me. I don't do things right...

" What I don't get is why did they choose a bad guy." Ash said, then glanced at James as though he'd just remembered the other was there. " Uh, no offense or anything. You just kinda pride yourself in being evil and all..."

" I was wondering the same thing.." James admitted and held his breath. This is it... she's gonna say 'Oh evil? There must be some mistake'.

" James," The fairy said sternly, " You know very well that you're not evil. You've never been good at being bad."

The team rocked member hung his head with a sigh. And Ash frowned. Not evil? Well this is...different. If team rocket is ever in my dreams I'm usually beating them, not watching them become...good...

" But that's good, I mean that means you aren't supposed to be one of the bad guys. Remember the few times you actually helped Ash? Remember how well those times went? Well, that was a sign... You were always meant to be one of the good guys, you were just brought up by the wrong people."

James felt better and maybe even a little stronger too. He looked at Ash afraid to see hatred there, but instead the boy smiled at him and James couldn't help but smile back.

" We've got a lot to do before this dream state you're both in is over. You two have got to get at least some training from my friend on fighting and magic..."

" Oooh, will I get to throw fireballs at bad guys and stuff?" Ash asked, with a grin.

" And maybe I could fly!" James jumped sharing in the excitement.

" No, I don't think that's the kind of magic you'll be learning. You'll learn how to fight mostly, you can't use pokemon to defeat these bad guys."

" Wait, what will happen to our friends? Will they come with us?" Ash asked, suddenly worried.

" No, you'll still get to see them all the time, but I don't think you'd want to put them in any kind of danger." The fairy told them. " Come, we're running out of time."

The fairy put her hands together and moved them around to form a blue ball . The ball surged with immense power and she flung it into the stone wall in front of her. A door appeared and she gestured for the two to walk through it.

As the two young men began walking out, Ash looked over at James and had to hold back his laughter.

" What?"

" Cauldron warriors? What a corny name."

And they laughed as they walked through the door, with no idea of what awaited them on the other side.

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Author's note: July 6, 2005 is when I decided I needed to finish what I started. I loved writing fanfiction, but got distracted with so many things. My writing style has developed a lot and looking back at these makes me cringe, lol, so that's why I decided to go back and edit each of these chapters and I'd love to finish this story so we'll see how that goes. Please review, so I know I'm not editing and rewriting in vain. ;)

Hope you enjoyed.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters except for the fairy lady.