(A/N: I drew pictures of the characters in their new outfits and looks and the links will be in my profile soon!)

4 Years After

Chapter 2. The Loss in Absence

The boy then moved from Brock and began to look at her, "Misty?"

When she heard his voice she felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. It was him. It was Ash.

"Uhh-I-I," Misty found herself at loss for words. Ash extended his arm out to her, to shake her hand, but she couldn't move. Her heart raced, and so did her mind as she tried to think of something to say. But after a second or two it came to her.

"HMPH!" She stood up and held her head up high. Ash looked confused. She folded her arms tightly against her body and began to walk into the back – to the guest rooms. Brock watched her and sighed deeply, his shoulders falling a bit as well.

"What's up with her?" Ash turned to Brock, but he got no reply.

"So where have you been?" Brock switched his attention from Misty to Ash.

Misty got to her room, closed the door behind her, and then slid down the door. She began to cry uncontrollably. The shock of seeing Ash like that – all of a sudden - was too much for her. Never in her wildest dreams had she believed Ash would come back, not ever.

"He acted like nothing ever happened! How could he-?" She reached into her bag and took out something. She looked at it and clenched it tightly against her chest. She began to cry again. It was the one thing that she had of his.

"I don't know why I even keep this thing…" She looked at it hard. It was the hat he had won in a contest years ago. "Why am I even crying?" She asked the hat as if it was going to talk back to her. "Am I happy or… angry….now that he's here?"

"Well, actually I went to a lot of places. I didn't stay in one area too long. I trained anywhere I could find pokemon. I battled anything or anyone I could see," Ash told Brock.

"Sounds like an adventure," Brock said. "How did you survive without any of my food?"

"Now that was the real adventure!" Ash laughed and Brock followed. Brock then looked at the time.

"Well, we better get going. We have to go see the Professor. I mean that is the reason why we're all here anyway."

"Yeah. Should we go get Misty?" Ash looked in the direction of the guest rooms.

"Yeah. Could you go get her?" Brock asked Ash. He nodded and then began to make his way to the back.

Misty stood up and fixed herself up a bit. She still had the hat in hand as she wiped her face clean of any signs of crying. She took a deep breath and then gripped the doorknob.

Ash walked up to her door and took a deep breath, then clenched his fist. But before he could knock on it the door already started to open.

"Oh...I-" Misty was tongue-tied again.

"I-I was just about to come get you. We're going to go see the Professor now...Hey, is that my hat?" Ash spotted his old hat in her hands.

"Oh…this? You dropped it the night you left," Misty said as she looked down at her most prized possession.

"I didn't know what happened to it. I looked everywhere for it!"

"Here you can have it," Misty shoved it into his hands and walked passed him. She went by Brock but didn't even glance at him. Ash stood there speechless, only being able to watch her as she stormed out of the Pokemon Center.

The trio went to Brock's car, which was parked outside. (Walking was not one of Brock's favorite things anymore as he had gotten older. So he bought a car, which brought a whole new crowd of ladies for him to fall over.)

"Do you want to sit in the front Mis-?" But before Ash could finish his question Misty had already gotten in the passenger seat, without saying a word or even looking at him.

Ash shrugged it off and sat in the back. Brock started the car and they made their way down to the hospital.

There was an awkward silence in the car between the three, and the good hour drive to get there didn't help much either. Brock finally decided to break the silence though.

"So hey," he looked in his rear-view mirror to see Ash. "Where's Pikachu?"

Ash laughed as he answered, "In his pokeball."

"Really!"

"Yeah, my training really changed Pikachu…as well as me," Ash looked towards Misty, who was looking out her window, as he explained. She kept her silence and not once even turned her head to look at him or Brock.

Eventually, they finally reached the hospital in Pallet Town. They found Tracey waiting for them in the lobby. When he saw Brock and Misty he smiled, but when he turned and saw Ash his jaw dropped. He was in total surprise. He greeted Ash with a big smile, but then realized he needed to get to more serious matters. He told them what room Oak was being held in, but also filled them in that only one visitor could go in at a time. Brock told Tracey that Ash should go in first for obvious reasons. Tracey nodded and asked Ash to follow him. Misty sighed and let her arms fall to her sides, which led to one of her hands reaching for her other, fully extended arm.

"Ash - I still can't believe how fast you got here – Oak's been wanting to see you."

"He has?" Ash asked.

"Even with his injuries he wanted me to find you. He wanted to discuss something with you. So that's why I called Brock to call Max. I knew he would be able to help and he you are."

"I see," Ash stared down at the floor tiles as they walked towards an elevator.

"You and Gary seemed to have come back at the same time," Tracey pressed the button for an elevator to come down to their level.

"Gary's been gone too?" Ash asked, oblivious that Gary had done such a thing.

"Yeah. Actually, he felt that researching pokemon wasn't as fulfilling as he thought it would. And when he heard of your departure he decided to go on his own journey," an elevator came down and they both got in. Tracey pressed the 4th floor button and the doors shut. "I guess he felt he didn't wanna be out done by you." Tracey smiled, but Ash was in deep thought. Tracey then randomly mentioned how much Ash had grown. They were now the same height. Ash rolled his eyes.

When they reached their floor they got out and Tracey led the way to the Professor's room. A nurse was standing by outside of the Professor's room to make sure no one bothered him, besides visitors and doctors. Ash looked to the nurse and said he was going in to see how Oak was doing and the nurse nodded. Tracey waited outside.

"Professor?" Ash called in a low voice as he entered and closed the door behind himself. The lights were dimmed down so it was hard to see. He walked in slowly and saw someone in a bed. That person stirred in their bed when they saw Ash.

"I said to go find Ash…" Oak said as if he had been telling Tracey this all day.

"-but Professor, it IS me," Ash undimmed the lights a bit.

"Huh?" Oak tried to raise his head on his pillow to get a better view of the boy. "Ash? Is it you?"

"Yeah, it is," Ash walked up to Oak's bedside so the Professor could get a better look at him. The Professor noticed that he had gotten a lot taller since he last saw him. He wore a black dressy type shirt that hid a white muscle shirt underneath. A new hat covered his usual messy hair. He wore dirty blue jeans, which he was now able to get away with because it fit his style. Hanging from the side of his pants was a chain and studded belt. And clipped onto that belt was his old hat (the one he had just got back from Misty). Also, he noticed a pokeball necklace around his neck. The pokeball had a lightning bolt on it.

"Ash Ketchum. It is you!" the Professor smiled widely. "I knew you'd come! I knew it!"

"I heard you had been hurt, I had to come," Ash explained.

"And so you have. It's great to see you-argh-" the Professor tried to get up but he fell back onto his bed. It looked as if he had just remembered a bad pain in his side.

"You shouldn't move Professor. Tracey told me how bad your injuries are so you really should just try to rest."

"Don't worry about me boy," Oak looked up from his pillow. "What you should worry about is what I'm about to tell you."

"What's wrong?" Ash now looked very concerned as Oak's attitude changed.

"My lab…it's been totally destroyed. All of the pokemon stolen and I myself was left for dead," Oak looked up at the ceiling.

"But who did it?" Ash asked desperately. Oak then turned his head to him.

"Who else, but Team Rocket."

"Team Rocket?" It took Ash a second to think. "But what would they want with you?"

"Well, since you've been gone their plans sort of have changed."

"What do you mean?"

"A year after you left, Team Rocket wasn't doing so well. It was almost non-existent for quite some time, until a drastic change occurred," Oak paused for a second then continued. "Team Rocket's head was overthrown by two Rocket's alone. Because of their actions, the two were promoted by the executives of Team Rocket and given leadership of the whole corporation."

"So their old leader's been done away with?" Ash thought deeply.

"Yes, and along with him was any restraint the company once had, because now they pull off crimes here and there without control. Everyday there's another report of Team Rocket being involved with some sort of disaster one way or another. But with me, I wasn't just an average target. They came to my lab for a reason. They were searching for something."

"What were they looking for?" Ash asked impatiently. Oak looked up at his concerned expression and then leaned over. He lifted his hand and reached out for Ash's hanging necklace.

"For this Ash…" Oak said quietly.

"Pikachu?" Ash asked and Oak nodded.

"The agents in charge of Team Rocket are two that you know very well," Oak told Ash.

"Jessie and James…" Ash's voice trailed off. "How the hell did those two idiots get to where they're at?"

"Trust me Ash, they aren't idiots anymore. They've single handedly brought back the fear that Team Rocket used to be known for. And they were the ones who've got me like this and destroyed my lab."

"What could they want with my Pikachu?" Ash thought aloud.

"When they discovered that Pikachu wasn't with me they set my place ablaze, but I seriously believe they knew I wouldn't have Pikachu. They destroyed the Lab in order to get you to come out of hiding. They've challenged you to come back," Oak told Ash.

The doors to Oak's hospital room opened. Ash came walking out taking off his hat and scratching his head. He walked over to Tracey who was sitting on a bench waiting for him.

"So what did he say?" Tracey got up. Ash continued to scratch his head. "Well?" Tracey asked again.

"You know what?" Ash said as he put on back his hat. "I think I need to take a bath. I'm gonna go visit my mom." Ash walked over to the elevator without saying another word to Tracey. He went through the doors and watched as Tracey stayed in the same place. Ash shrugged and went down to the lobby where Brock and Misty were. He told Brock exactly what Oak told him and Misty overheard. From there he told Brock that he would really like to visit his mom since he hadn't seen her for four years.

"She was worried sick about you when you first left you know that?" Brock said as he looked in the rear-view mirror to look at Ash in the backseat. "Your mom that is."

"Really?" Ash said as he looked out his window and saw the stars shining over his hometown.

"But she said you'd eventually come back one day," Brock smiled. Misty looked out her window and didn't react to anything the two were saying. It was as if she wasn't even riding in the same car as Brock and Ash were.

Ash heard Brock speak again, but he wasn't listening. He looked over to Misty. She was silent as she had been all day. Why was she acting that way? She never used to get like this. Was it because of him? She still couldn't've been mad at him for leaving four years ago could she? It was all boggling his mind.

And on top of everything, he had just learnt that it was his fault that Oak's lab had been attacked. And ever since his disappearance, Team Rocket had slowly become a great power that was now towering over all of Kanto.

He had also heard that Gary had gone back to training pokemon again. He wondered what it would be like to battle him again, the way they used to. So much stuff was happening all at once. Everything had somehow changed since he'd been gone. He really had missed a lot.

"Okay Ash, we're here," Brock put the car in park. Ash looked up and saw his mom's house lit up with lights coming from the inside.