Author's Notes: Based on/inspired by dialogue from the Japanese version of the second Pokémon Movie. So go get familiar with the Japanese versions of the scenes typically taken as Pokéshipping hints, or prepare for this to get a bit weird.
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She knew something was wrong the second she grasped him. He was still, impossibly still, his body deadwood in the water. Pikachu repeatedly cried out for him to wake up, but he didn't respond. Misty silently cursed to herself. This is what happened every time, every time she left him alone. He'd go off and do something. Something reckless, dangerous, and downright stupid.
She tugged the rope, and Tracey started pulling them in. She searched Ash's face for something, anything at all. A shift, a twitch, any sign of anything that said he was alright. Nothing, the perfect contrast to the raging sea trying to drown him.
They reached the shore, Tracey pulling Ash up as Misty forced the air into her lungs, she couldn't stop, couldn't rest. "Lay him down!" She'd grown up in a Water-type gym, around bodies of water since she could remember, long-knowing the measures and procedures by memory in cases such as this. She was soon upon him, leaning down, listening for the sound of-
Breathless.
He wasn't breathing, and suddenly water was spilling into her heart. Cold, merciless water.
"Tracey, do you know CPR?"
"Yeah!"
"You press his chest!"
Thankful for his knowledge of this vital information, Misty focused on her task, recalling the procedure, silently reciting the steps, fighting the impending terror that was the fact that this was nothing like practice. The bright lights of the gym had become the dull background of a dark sky. The various voices speaking and laughing had been swallowed up by the sounds of the raging sea. The controlled temperature of the water, the water… the cold, merciless water...
The warm body of the gym-hand whose name she wasn't sure of had become the already-cold body of someone so much more important. Someone irreplaceable.
She took a breath, and leaned in, sealing her mouth over his and breathing into him.
Nothing.
A fresh burst erupted inside her, the cold deluge flooding her veins.
No. Not here, not like this. It couldn't end like this, he couldn't end like this. He had too much left to see, too much left to do, too many battles left to fight. He couldn't go before he'd shown the world what he was made of!
No. Misty, calm down.
She forced her growing fear down, she couldn't let herself drown now, not now, he needed her. Remember the procedure, remember the procedure, remember the-this was her fault.
He didn't want to go. In one of the all-to-rare moments of common sense he'd feared for his life. He knew what he'd been asked, understood what he'd been asked, more than any child should've been, and she'd joined in talking him into it. It was his job to come up with stupid ideas, it wasn't her job to encourage them! She'd just stood there and waited. She could've done something. Why didn't she do something?
Tracey was counting to himself, quickly approaching thirty as he pressed Ash's chest again and again.
This was her fault.
Ash, wake up.
Never again.
She breathed deep, and breathed into him.
I'll be your bodyguard.
Ash didn't do too well by himself. She'd never let this happen again. The next time he walked into hell, she'd walk with him.
I'll be your sister.
It seemed all she ever did was yell at him, or berate him, or something or other. No wonder he never listened. Figures the one time she encouraged him he'd wind up like this. If it wasn't for that bike he probably wouldn't even put up with her. Not that she let him forget. She'd reminded him enough (when she remembered), mentioned it every time she had a chance to list his screw-ups, and, very, very, very occasionally, she'd threatened him. All that, but she'd never done the most important thing.
She'd never thanked him.
He was starting to turn blue. The water was rapidly freezing, becoming a wall of ice that would never thaw. She couldn't let this happen.
I'll be your girlfriend. I'll be your girlfriend, Ash! Just wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
She breathed into him again, and was met with silence.
Don't leave me, Ash.
Silence, quieting silence, being drowned out by the raging sea. She breathed into him again.
Wake up.
He was so cold. She pulled back, the image before her crystallising in her mind.
Please.
She took a deep breath, perhaps the deepest she ever took, before she leaned down again, forcing everything she had left into him, her last ember against the cold world around her, within her, everything growing colder and colder. The light of the sun was becoming a memory in a world growing dark. Ash, I-
"Gck!"
Like a jolt had run through him, Ash violently thrashed as he threw himself on his side, sputtering, coughing up seawater on the snow. He pulled in air, loudly, desperately, grasping for life in determined gasps. It was only when she heard the thump that she realised she'd struck his back, acting on reflex to expel the merciless water from him. The ice in her heart was cracking with every cough he expelled, bursts of hope seeping out from the frozen wall. His reactions became less violent, choked gasps giving way to a more steady rhythm of breathing, until all she could hear was the sound of his breath, the singular sound of his life.
He sat there a moment, whatever was going through his mind known only to him. He gently pat Pikachu in response to a quiet "pikapi", before, with one final deep breath, Misty felt the ice in her heart melt away. He was alive, he would survive.
Ash rose to his feet, refusing any help, he turned, making the next trek on his mission. She followed silently, Tracey with her, watching the battered trainer by move forward with near-impossible will. The best and worst of him was all coming out at once. When he set his mind to something, nothing short of-of…
Nothing would stop him. Not a thing. She wouldn't let it. She couldn't.
Soaked to the bone, in freezing snow, with his body at the brink of collapse, Ash pushed on, only ever speaking to repeat the mantra that he had to go on. His heavy steps crunched in the snow, the weight of his exhaustion visible in every step, heard in every breath. He reached the stone stairway, stopping only to map his path for a brief second before charging on, the only sounds the crunch snow, his repeating mantra, and the distant sounds of battle. Step by step, breath by breath, they walked on.
Ash suddenly collapsed. Misty rushed to his side, and, silently, he just got back up. He placed his hand on her shoulder. His eyes, his very being was focused only on the mission. She felt his grip tighten for just a second, and she couldn't help but feel it was a silent message. I'm okay. Who he was trying to convince was anybody's guess, but she would not decline the comfort. She didn't speak, didn't respond, just let him walk on, a couple of steps behind. Following, watching, for the moment he'd need her again. For a shoulder to lean on, a word to push on, a way to move on.
After what felt like forever, he reached the top of the stairway. Ash leaned forward, hands on his knees, the effort finally reaching him for a brief instant. She knew he wouldn't rest, not until he'd finished his mission. Almost as soon as he'd stopped, he moved again, rushing towards the end of his trial, and the next few moments passed in a desperate blur. Placing the orb, and hoping that the song of the flute would prove the legend true. Misty sighed in quiet relief as the world began to make sense again, Ash's fight of the day was won. She watched him mount Lugia, the great guardian the saviour on a flight, rewarding his efforts with a visual wonder, as nature's balance fell into harmony once more. He'd saved the world, and so few would ever know of it, but he wouldn't care. That was Ash Ketchum: Reckless, dangerous, downright stupid.
Heroic.
He'd done this before, he'd do it again, something utterly heroic. That's why she was here; to pull him back from the brink. When he went out to save the world, she'd save him, for as long as she was by his side. That was her choice, her promise.
Her burden.