Hee, hee! I did it, didn't I? I said I'd get this chappie done and posted near at least New Years', and I did! To say the truth, I had this chapter done before Christmas, but the story of this chapter is a long story, which, in fact, I'm going to probably tell about on my website when I get it ready! In regards to the website, I have found a place where I can make one (thanks a bunch to everyone who gave me websites I could check out) and I am currently setting it up. It might be a while before it's ready, though, because I have a lot of stuff to post on it (and I've never made a website before). Congratulations to The girl who flamed, gladdecease, bluejolteon459, P.R. Dragonite, KasumiSatoshi, Funkyafroman, chipsyketchum, Uppa, Halfling Rogue, J.C. the Wabbit, and Sparklewolf, for getting Chapter Eight's title right. The line "…big trouble's gonna follow you…" is from the song Double Trouble (Team Rocket) (some of you called it Team Rocket's Rockin', which makes sense also, so I counted those right, too) from the Pokémon: 2 B A Master CD. Anyway, this chapter was quite enjoyable to write…mwahhhh! …No, don't get me wrong! I really love this chapter… hee hee… you'll see… how about going ahead and reading it, huh? …Enjoy, 'cause this is your Happy New Years' Present! (and what a present it is…)

CHAPTER 9: …Share With Me Your Secrets Deep Inside…

Ash's soul flew forlornly over the cavern floor, his head down, peering at the ice far underneath him. There was no reflection of him at all in the milky surface, for what could ever reflect the image of something invisible? Will I ever see another reflection of myself again? He glanced over at the ghostly Misty, who was flying along beside him, and staring down at the ice grimly, too. Will she ever see her reflection again?

The possibility seemed almost impossible at present. Ash hated to be pessimistic, but from the way everything was going now, the end result of whatever was going to happen to him and Misty didn't feel like it was going to turn out the way things had always turned out: happy. From saving Ferina from being destroyed by Groudon, to saving Alto Mare from destruction, to saving Celebi from destroying himself and a Johtoian forest, to saving Greenfield from being crystallized over, to saving the world from the imbalance of power between the legendary birds, nothing had ever looked so impossible or bleak. Everything, though at one point being dire, had always ended in a decent-enough way, even though some things had ended a bit sad, such as Latios giving up his spirit to stop the tsunami, and his friend Sammy going back to his own world in the past (Ash still wondered sometimes what had ever become of Sammy). Now, it seemed to Ash that the one thing he couldn't seem to be able to save was his and Misty's lives.

Misty glanced over at Ash as she realized that they were coming close to the cavern with the million-color crystalfall. He looks so… weary… and miserable. Misty wanted to float over to him and wrap her arms around him in a tight and loving hug, to stop him from looking so depressed, even though she felt the same way herself. She felt that she knew (and she truly did know) what was bothering Ash. He wishes that he could save us, I just know it. Misty wished that he could save them, too, of course, but everything was looking so desolate that it seemed unfeasible.

Sableye tried to stop Haunter from getting to us before we ever became spirits, then Ash tried to make Haunter send us back, and nothing has worked. What else can we do? We tried to get Team Rocket to help us out, but they were too scared of Haunter and too stunned seeing Ash and I not moving to do anything. They were trying to get away so fast and furiously that they're probably almost out of all of these caverns by now. It seems the last hope would be for Sableye to battle Haunter again, or for Brock and Max and May to find us all of the way down here and battle Haunter with all of our Pokémon. We couldn't ask Sableye to do any more for us than he already has, almost being killed himself …

…That leaves Brock and the others to finding us and battling for us in far less than an hour, and maybe only a few minutes… and after all, what are the chances? At that moment, Ash and Misty had turned into the cavern of the colored crystals, and Misty gazed up at them, not in awe anymore, but in hopelessness. One in a million?

"Maybe… we should rest here," Ash muttered suddenly, floating to a stop. Misty paused beside him. She knew that he meant that his mind was tired with worry, not that he was tired himself. Ghosts like themselves didn't need to rest, for they didn't need to regain energy because they didn't even need energy. Ghosts like them were simply there, but only just barely. Misty nodded. Their original semi-formulated plan for leaving the last cavern was to head towards the very first cavern again, the one above where they had found Team Rocket, to see if the rest of their group had, by some unforeseen chance, fallen into the hole as well. No pun intended, but their spirits seemed to be falling with every inch of ice that they flew over, and the chance did indeed seem to be one in a million.

"We can go rest up there," Misty half-heartedly suggested, pointing up at the top of the crystalfall, where there was a few feet of horizontal crystals before it curved down into its graceful arc. Ash nodded and they started their ascending hover. Both were silent in their forlorn thoughts, staring at the rubies and oranges and saffrons and emeralds and sapphires and violets as they whisked to the top of the crystalline structure. When they finally reached the top of the crystalfall, they saw that where the crystals stuck out from the wall, there was no hole to show where they came from. It was an extremely mysterious and unexplainable sight, too complex to put into words. Ash, however, was in no mood to ponder the strangeness of it, and neither was Misty. We'll probably have plenty of time to wonder about it in the future…

Ash cautiously seated himself down where the multihued crystals were about to begin their descent. It would have, perhaps, been a bit uncomfortable if he had done the same thing when he was in his body, but he couldn't feel much of the hardness of it as a soul. Misty, hoping that the invitation that she had received from Ash the night before wasn't needed for what she was about to do, sat down close next to him, only a few inches away from him, to Ash's left. She placed her elbows on her knees, and her chin in her hands, and stared blankly out at the cavern around them. Ash had been staring out at the cavern, too, but now turned his eyes to the oblivious Misty.

Though it had only been a bit more than an hour from when he and Misty had first found the beautiful crystalfall, to Ash, it seemed like ages. So many things had happened between then and now that it was still hard to comprehend. The cavern, so completely apart from everything above it at the surface of the earth, was like a world of its own, with its own bending and breaking of the indissoluble rules of time. Ash began to wish very hard, with all of his might, that they had turned back after they had found the crystalfall, or even before that. But it's like Misty said last night. This is one of those things where it's no good wishing for anything without Jirachi or an Unown around. …Man, Sammy, this would have been the perfect time for you and Celebi to show up. Could Celebi even go back in time in such a small amount of time as an hour? Or would Celebi have taken us back to last night, before Misty and I fell down the hole?

"Ash," Misty suddenly spoke tonelessly, still staring blankly at the silver wall opposite from where they were.

"…Yeah, Mist?"

She was very quiet and still a moment before she spoke again, quieter and more emotional than before. "…What will happen to Togepi?" She finally glanced over at Ash, saw his puzzled face, and continued. "I mean, what will become of Togepi… if I'm not there anymore? What if… really, what if… we don't make it? What's going to happen to her without me? She needs me. She's… she's my little baby."

There was such a deep, mother-like sorrow in her voice and in the eyes that were now staring intently into his own that Ash felt his heart breaking in two. "Misty…" he whispered, and that was all he could say for a moment, until he was able to mutter, "I… I know she'd be taken care of. I mean, Pikachu would take care of her, and all of the others would, too. And they'd keep her safe, Mist." When he mentioned the electric Pokémon that he was so close to himself, Ash felt that the pieces of his heart that had broken apart were breaking in two again.

"…And Ash, what about our other Pokémon? Who would take care of them? Who would take care of Pikachu?"

"Max," Ash muttered solemnly but immediately, "Max would take care of Pikachu, because Pikachu would be a good Pokémon for him. I'd want Max to have him, anyway, if I couldn't. And our other Pokémon would probably go to live back in Pallet with Professor Oak and Tracey, or your Pokémon might go back to your sisters in Cerulean. And I guess that Brock would take care of Togepi… or maybe May."

"Why May?" Misty suddenly blurted out forcefully. A pause ensued, and Ash blinked, a bit surprised at her outburst.

"Well, I mean, May's a girl like you are, so she'd be kind of like a foster mother, I guess, and May likes cute Pokémon, you know, with her Torchic and all." Ash shrugged, still a bit bewildered. Misty had a hard time masking her vividly jealous emotions. Oh, so he knows that May is a girl, huh? Well, that's just nice, isn't it? And… wait… 'May's a girl… like you', is what he said… he really recognizes that I'm a girl? …Well, that's a start, at least…

"Brock," Misty firmly replied, in answer to who would take care of Togepi if everything didn't turn out right. Ash nodded sagely, believing that he understood why Misty was against May being Togepi's guardian. She probably believes that May isn't responsible enough to care for such a delicate baby Pokémon.

Misty turned to stare back out at the cavern, her mind drifting to hateful thoughts at May, but then increasingly-stronger amorous thoughts of the boy sitting next to her, it being the first time since her soul was taken out of her body that she had really nothing else to think about but Ash himself. Ash copied her movements, his elbows on his knees and his hands propping up his chin, except he didn't look out at the silvery walls as she was. He set his gaze on Misty.

As Misty had nothing to think about except Ash, now that their situation was gloomier than any Gloom, Ash had nothing to think about except Misty. All thoughts of ghosts and Haunter and dieing banished from his mind for a moment, Ash's mind slipped back into the almost-carefree thoughts of her that he had had in the caverns above, and before even that.

I wonder what Mist's thinking about right now… Suddenly, seeing her deep in thought, Ash remembered all of the concerns that he had had about Misty the night before, which had all started right before the Brace Hide-And-Seek game. He had noticed that she was worried about something, and try as he might, he had never been able to wrestle it out of her. I really wonder what it is… or was. All morning, she hasn't had that weird worried look that she had last night. Well, I guess both of us have been too anxious about Haunter and everything to think about any other problems, but even before we found that last cavern, she didn't seem so anxious. Maybe… I should ask again. After peering a bit deeper into Misty's profile face, though, Ash decided not to ask. She would surely tell him when she was ready to do so, for she certainly couldn't go forever without telling anyone, and Ash felt that he must respect her unvoiced wishes.

Ash glanced out to where Misty was staring at the wall, but he, for some reason, was now having a hard time keeping his eyes away from the ghostly girl. Suddenly, staring again at the pale blue Misty, with her hair down and Ash's vest around her shoulders, Ash remembered the pledge that he had made in conjunction with Misty's unknown worries. …I'd almost forgotten that I was going to try to make Misty be more comfortable with me. Ash, who hadn't noticed it before, realized how close that Misty was sitting next to him now, only inches away to his left. It kind of seems that Misty has grown more comfortable being around me anyway. I mean, she's sitting real close, and she's let me hold her hand to comfort her. She slept next to me on the rock last night and she's hugged me and… she's being… nicer.

Misty's been a lot nicer… she's actually opened up more to me, even though she hasn't told me what was bothering her. She hasn't yelled at me or hit me or gotten mad at me since, I dunno, yesterday. That must be a world record. I doubt that Brock would believe it. Well, she did poke a bit of fun at me because my stomach growled this morning, but she was just being friendly and playful, like we are when we argue sometimes. I'm glad, though, because she's a lot of fun to be with when me and her are like that, knowing that we're really not trying to hurt each other.

Though Ash was unfortunately known to sometimes be quite thoughtless, in Pokémon battles and otherwise, now that his mind was set on Misty, thoughts kept pouring into his brain without rhyme or reason, like opening up a floodgate. Now, he couldn't stop thinking, even if he tried. He sat up straighter, and reflected even more.

I know for sure that Misty doesn't really want to hurt me, even though she sometimes acts like it. After all, why would she stand up for me all of the times that she has before, against Team Rocket, or Haunter just now, or why would she even come back to travel with me in Hoenn if she wanted me to be hurt? She doesn't, obviously… but then why has she actually hit me or yelled at me before?

Somehow, his questioning thoughts made him think of Sableye. When they had left Sableye before returning to the crystalfall just now, Sableye had looked extremely sad and grief-stricken, but when Haunter had been present, Sableye's voice was thickly lined with hatred and anger. Ash began to wonder if Sableye was actually more heartbroken than enraged about the whole separation-from-bodies thing, for when anyone is against something as evil as Haunter, strength is important, and tears are never an indicator of strength to villainous opponents.

…Is it… is it a defense mechanism? Pretending that you're angry instead of sad, so that you aren't hurt as much? …That must be what is happening with Sableye… and is it happening with Misty, too? That would explain everything! Misty can have a quick temper by nature, like she has sometimes with Psyduck, so anger would be the perfect cover up if she was hurt about anything. …Misty's not really that tough… Misty is really just sensitive and playful and caring. She's compassionate about Water Pokémon, she's great as Togepi's adopted mother, and she's my best friend. …But if she's my best friend, and she's pretending to be really tough with me so that she isn't hurt, then what is she afraid that I am going to do to her?

If Misty had glanced over at Ash at that moment, she would have blushed to see the quizzical and penetrating look that Ash was giving her, but she didn't. She probably would have thought that Ash knew that she was thinking obsessive thoughts about him. However, Ash was simply confused, having no answer to his last question, and wishing, strangely desperately, that he could understand her more. Ah, Mist. You're so complex… You're like a puzzle… that I want to understand…

At that moment, Misty gave a small sigh, and her eyes drifted from the wall down to the vibrant, multicolored crystals, shining brightly underneath them. Ash's eyes followed the direction that hers had went, and gazed almost, but not quite, contentedly at the tiny glow of the brilliant hues. …It's like a big stained-glass window from church, back home in Kanto… it's even kind of reminds me of Ho-oh when I saw him those two times… I… I wonder what all of these crystals are made of… Are they glass… or ice… or something else? …Maybe… if they weren't so bright and colorful I might be able to tell…

Ash glanced back up at Misty, who still had her eyes fixed on the crystals below them. She was calm, but without one specific emotion in her face. Then, a deep thought came to him, as one had come to him when he had considered Misty's and Sableye's likeness, except this one was far deeper than even that. This thought was as deep as the caverns that Ash and Misty had accidentally discovered.

…People and Pokémon are like that, too… What are they made of? What makes all of us the people, or Pokémon, that we are? What makes me me? What makes Pikachu himself? What makes Brock who he is, or Max who he is, or May who she is? …What makes Sableye be the way he is? …What …what makes Haunter… be the way… that he is?

Ash glanced down at the crystals in amazement, in amazement not at the colors, but in amazement at the thoughts he was having. It's not what we're made of, or what we are, but who we are, our…our… soul. …We're all like the crystals in that way… we don't know what makes us the way that we are, just like I can't know what the crystals are made of… we just have to accept that we are who we are, and that everyone else is who they are… the crystals aren't glass or ice, because that's just what they are made of, not what they are… The crystals are color. The crystals are rainbows. The crystals are red and orange and yellow and green and blue and purple and brown and black and white and everything like that. The crystals are color. That's who they are, if you can say it like that; their souls.

Who is Misty, then? Not 'what is she'. …Who?

His eyes automatically shifted back to Misty, absolutely and completely clueless as to all that was going on in the brain of the boy that she so dearly loved for who he was.

It was then that, in the puzzle that Misty was to Ash in his mind, the second-to-last piece had fitted itself into place.

The sight of the soul of Misty had suddenly caused a warm, then an even stronger burning sensation in the pit of his stomach to flare up. Ash was so dazed from his profound thoughts that it took him a second to realize what had happened. …That's weird. Swiftly, Ash realized that the feeling in his stomach was the same one that he had experienced before, that had plagued him several times before, when they were in their bodies in the cavern. After a moment, Ash realized that this was very unnatural. Wait a minute. That weird warmness is a physical thing, right? …Then I shouldn't have felt that because I'm not in my body. …It's just like being hungry or cold or in pain. I can't feel pain from where Haunter attacked me because I'm not in my body, and I can't feel how cold it is in this cavern because my soul can't feel temperature, and I know that I must certainly be starved after all of the time that has passed since I last ate, but I don't feel hunger in my stomach. The only feeling in my stomach is that… burning feeling.

Ash remembered that before, he had concluded that the sensation had something to do with Misty, but he hadn't figured out what exactly it meant. Now, Ash was a hundred percent positive that the feeling was about Misty, and it was a bit of a surprise to Ash when he realized another thing: this last sensation was at least twice, or three times, stronger than the others had been.

Why? What is this? I remember feeling this even before the caverns… After Misty had given Ash the russet crystal that matched his eyes to absolute perfection, Ash had felt the sensation and he remembered, very specifically, one moment that the sensation had gripped him a long time before, but he had been unable to remember that moment before it had left him. The moment had just come back to Ash, and this time, hot on a roll of this complex thought process that had immersed his mind, he didn't let the moment escape from him again.

Lavender Town, Kanto.

Pokémon Tower.

In Ash's memory of the moment, he was watching, high from the rafters of a ceiling, the scene that was below him. He was a spirit, a soul, as he was now. Pikachu, also a ghost, was floating next to him, along with a Gengar, a Gastly, and a (perfectly normal) Haunter. Far below them lie Ash and Pikachu's bodies, flat on their backs, motionless, just as his and Misty's bodies were lying in the last cavern now. Brock and Misty were kneeled on the floor beside them, calling to them, begging them to wake up. Ash could hear Misty's voice, much higher and stressed than normal, and could hear her words. "Ash! Open your eyes! Please, Ash!"

"Huh…" Ash had muttered, slightly perplexed at Misty's tone. "…I guess it's time to go back, Pikachu." Ash remembered the whooshing feeling he had experienced, as the violet Haunter had undoubtedly been sending them back to their bodies. All had been dark for a moment, until he had hesitantly tried to open his eyes. They had flickered for a moment before he could open them completely, but after they were open, he had tilted his head a bit to the right to look at Misty. Her head had been down, and he hadn't been able to see her eyes. "Hi, Misty."

There had been great surprise in her face, not only when he had finally waken up, but when the first words out of his mouth had been to her. "You're alive!" she had breathed, and the look on her face had, for a split second, been tremendously tender and caring. It was then that the warm rush deep in his stomach had made its appearance and had left an impression on Ash that had lasted for more than a score of months and thousands of miles of journey and adventure. However, he had not given the sensation any thought at the time, being too busy thinking about his coming gym battle with Sabrina and hoping that the Haunter would battle for him, even though Ash had spotted, out of the corner of his eye, Misty, the skin above her cheeks pink, wiping her blurry eyes with the back of her arm.

Ash, letting the vivid memory fade from his mind, felt that the warm sensation was not yet gone from his stomach. It was still there, burning stronger than ever. He couldn't tear his eyes away from Misty now, not even if Lance the Dragon Master had come to him at that exact moment and proclaimed Ash the greatest Pokémon Master of the entire world.

His brain fell into a thought-silence, where he wasn't thinking at all, where his brain was just white. His sight, and the sight of Misty, still with her head in her hands, overpowered all of his other senses. He didn't move, or blink, or say a word. He didn't breath, either, so it was a fair good thing that he was a spirit at the moment that didn't need air, or he might have passed out from lack of oxygen. It was at least thirty seconds before Ash's brain kicked back into motion.

…She's beautiful.

When she had taken her hair down to cover her bare neck so that it wouldn't get cold, Ash had thought the word, 'pretty'. However, in no form or fashion could Ash now describe Misty as just 'pretty'. 'Pretty' was a word for describing flowers. 'Pretty' was a word for describing Bellossom or Vulpix or Roselia or Gardevoir, not Misty. Ash felt that if someone put a Milotic, considered the most beautiful Pokémon in the world, up against Misty in a contest of beautifulness, the Milotic couldn't have even won the 'pretty' prize. Misty was the most beautiful, hands down.

In his mind, Ash could see Misty in many of the times before that he had thought that she was pretty, but now, most certainly, he should have thought of her as, pardon the expression, 'drop-dead' beautiful. Ash could see Misty in her magician's assistant outfit, a white leotard, white shoulder-length gloves, and her Goldeen-patterned silk skirt, which she had worn only once at a festival because Pikachu was in his blue suit and red bow tie. He could see Misty in her mermaid costume, with the long silky tail, that she had worn helping her sisters produce an underwater ballet at the Cerulean City gym. Most of all, Ash could clearly see Misty in her outfit that she had worn for the dance party at Maiden's Peak: her pink kimono with the red sash, printed with red Golden and blue bubbles, with her blue paper fan… and her hair down around her face, as it was now. It had been the first time that Ash had seen Misty's orange hair out of its sideways ponytail. She didn't even need beautiful clothes to look beautiful, though, for Ash thought she was as beautiful as ever right now.

She's so beautiful. How could I not have noticed? Any girl that Ash had ever seen in his life was, though he didn't want to think insultingly, very ugly compared to Misty. Not Kasey, not Duplica, not Bianca, not Melody, not any girl that Brock had ever drooled over in his life… and not May, either, could ever beat Misty. For a brief second, Ash even went so far as to wonder why Brock himself had never drooled over Misty, seeing as Misty was so beautiful and all, but then Ash dismissed it. Obviously, Brock doesn't know what beautiful is… or else he hasn't realized how beautiful Misty is yet, given that I just realized it myself. It didn't occur to Ash that someone could say that Misty wasn't beautiful, or didn't think it to the extreme that he had fallen into.

Any more thought of how beautiful Misty was were suddenly canceled when the warmth in the pit of Ash's stomach grew into a crescendo. He blinked, even glancing down at his own stomach, but quickly reverting his eyes back to Misty. It was an emotion, he realized then. The sensation wasn't a physical-feeling, which is why Ash could still feel it. The feeling was an emotion, a mind-feeling, that had to do with Misty, and was so strong that it had become a kind of physical-feeling. But what IS it? What does this…feeling mean, in association with Mist?

All the time that Ash had been thinking, Misty had been completely oblivious of his repeated stares at her and the mixed emotions that sprouted onto his face when he thought of some new revelation. She was thinking rather infatuated thoughts and pining thoughts of him all the while. All the time that Ash had been thinking, the thoughts in his brain had mostly spilled out in a rhythm, like the cogs in the clockwork of a watch. Then, as his wonderings about the warm, sensational emotion grew, the thoughts, new and very radical thoughts, began to spill out faster and faster and faster, like the progression of a locomotive as it picks up steam and begins to speed up to a point where it can't stop even if someone is tied down to the rail a mile away. Soon, thoughts began to spill in such a fast rate that they were merely flashes of light in his mind, not even words or sentences, and were immediately replaced by new thoughts.

The first radical thought was, not of Misty, but of Brock, and Brock's very bizarre fascination and obsession with 'pretty girls'. Why does Brock think all of those girls are so pretty? FLASH. Why does Brock find 'pretty girls' so fascinating? FLASH. How can anyone find someone fascinating if they don't know them? FLASH. Why would you say that anyone is pretty if you don't know them? FLASH. Why would you say that anyone is beautiful, or sensitive or playful or caring, if you don't know them? New radical thought streams sprouted off of this one, leading to random things that didn't always seem to follow the other thoughts logically and things that Ash had barely, if ever, thought about before.

FLASH. Why did Misty like that gym leader, Danny, when we were on Naval Island in the Orange Archipelago? Just because he said that she was pretty? Is that any reason to say that I'm 'just a kid'? Is that any reason to offer your blanket to him? Is that any reason to want to root for him instead of me during the ice sled race down that mountain?

FLASH. Why was I so jealous of him?

FLASH. Why did that gym leader guy, Rudy, on Trovita Island, seem to like you so much? Just because you saved his sister? Why did you accept flowers from him? Why did you go to dinner with him? What did he say to you? What did he mean when he said that I'd 'understand someday'? What was that? Why did his sister think you should cheer for him? You were traveling with me!

FLASH. Why was I so jealous of him?

FLASH. Why did that girl at the Johto League, Macy, seem to make you so mad? Was it because she loved Fire- Types? Was it because she was trying to get me to go on a… date with her? Why would you care about that anyway?

FLASH. Were you jealous of her?

FLASH. Why did you get so surprise when Latias, well, kissed me on the cheek when she was in Bianca's form? Were you mad? Did you think that it was Bianca? Do you still think that it was Bianca? Why were you so mad when Melody kissed me on the cheek on Shamouti Island? It was surprising, I'll tell you that, but did you think that I was glad she did? Why were you so mad when we were at the Chosen One feast? Why didn't you come with me when I was going to go get the three spheres? Were you mad at me… or at Melody?

FLASH. Were you jealous of them?

FLASH. Why do seem to hate May so much? May never did anything to you, did she? What reason do you have to hate her? Her younger brother is your friend, so why isn't she? If you don't hate Max, or even Brock or Tracey, then why do you hate May? Is it because she's another girl? Why does that have to do with anything? Is it because she traveled with me for a little while with no one else, and you didn't? We've traveled, just me and you, together before, through Viridian Forest before we met Brock, and after we left Brock with Professor Ivy and before we met Tracey, didn't we? Why do you hate May?

FLASH. …Are you jealous of her?

A new succession of thought occurred, and it was faster than if the locomotive had gone downhill at full speed, coal bin blazing and whistle at full blast. The flashes grew into a series of wicked fast white strobe lights in a pitch black room.

FLASH.

Why did Danny say that you and I must be really close?

FLASH.

Why did that Nurse Joy in Vermilion City say that you and I must be really close?

FLASH.

Why did Tracey say that we were like Emily and Ralph, with the Nidorans?

FLASH.

What exactly is it meant by, 'you hurt the ones you-'

FLASH.

You got your bike back, so why did you want to travel with me again?

FLASH.

Are you just my best friend?

FLASH.

Who is Misty?

Then, it all stopped. The locomotive had run into a brick-and-concrete wall that was as thick as ten Wailords set head-to-tail would be long. …I know who Misty is. It's like I thought before, but different. She's sensitive and playful and caring, but that's not just what she is. It's who she is. Who she is is sensitive to others, like when she was worrying over Sableye. Who she is is playful, but only when she feels that she can't be hurt inside and when she feels safe, because another part of who she is is shyness, no, insecurity, because she's not always sure that someone will back her up no matter what. Who she is is caring, when she was worrying over Togepi, or when she was telling me not to jump off the cliff edge in the third cavern. Who she is is brave, when she confronted Haunter, stubborn, because she has had to work to escape the 'girly' influence of her sisters, loyal, because she always stayed with me until she was basically commanded to leave, and strong, to not give up and cry even through all of the bad things that have happened to us in this past hour or so. Who she is is beautiful… not just on the outside, but so much so on the inside, because of, not what, but who she is.

And I like who she is. I like her… soul. Ash felt a bit of a wave of contentment fall over him, and at the same time, the warm emotion swell to the strongest that it had ever been. Ash did like who she was. In fact, Ash liked who Misty was a whole lot. He liked who she was so much that he felt that he-

When Ash had gotten into this whole thought process, he could never have imagined, with all of the amazing imagination-like things that he had factually seen in his travels, that he would have thought something like this.

The final puzzle piece had clicked.

He loved her.

Ash loved Misty.

Before they had found the cavern, Ash had inwardly divided his journey into Before Hoenn and During Hoenn (BH and DH, obviously). Afterwards, after Ash's last revelation, he would eventually, to himself of course, refer to all time that occurred in his life as Before Misty and During Misty (BM and DM), not referring to when he met Misty, but in accordance to when he finally realized that he, Ash Ketchum, loved Misty Waterflower with all of his heart and (yes, ironically enough) all of his soul.

If Ash had been in his body, and the last time he had stopped breathing hadn't killed him, this time surely would have finished him off. As soon as the thought was formed, Ash knew immediately that this was no silly crush, like the ones that Brock had all of the time. This was love, real and true, and even though he was still very, very much in his youth, the love he was feeling felt very permanent. The love he had found that he had for Misty was also very shocking to say the least, perhaps, just perhaps, even more shocking than the Thunderbolt that Pikachu had used on Team Rocket (and him and Misty and her bike) on the day that Misty had returned to the group. After all, it's not every day that one realizes that their best friend had actually been more than a best friend to them the entire time that they knew the person, and it's not every day that someone who is like Ash realizes it, either.

I… I can't believe it. I… I… I love her. I love Misty. I …I love her so much… I… this is a dream…

It made perfect sense, though. All of the times that people they met had said things about he and Misty being 'together' had to have come from somewhere and had to have a factual basis, and they obviously must have known how Ash felt for Misty, even though he hadn't known it. Ash, though stunned for a moment, warmed up to the idea of loving Misty so much and so quickly that he gasped a trivial breath. A smile slowly lit up his face, and his eyes, gazing happily at Misty, began to glisten in excitement and exhilaration. He loved this, this feeling of… romantic love that he had found, and he was very glad that he felt it for Misty, too, and not someone else.

Strange as it was, the object of his newfound affection never felt the atmospheric change that had occurred. Misty stared carelessly at the crystals. She was lost in thought, as Ash had been a moment ago, though it was not as deep. In fact, Misty's thoughts, though they started rather amorously, had become almost bleak. Oh, Ash. What am I going to do? We seem so much closer now than we were before we came to these caverns. If we ever do get back in our bodies, then what will happen? If we ever get back to the rest of the group, what would you do if… if… May started fussing over you or something? Would you like it? Would you like her? Do you like her? Do you love her? Oh, Ash, do you love me? Oh, how can you? You don't think like that! You'd never think deep enough to think that, would you? …Would you? Oh, I wish that I knew how you felt about me! …Oh, this is getting depressing… I wish I could tell you how I feel… oh, Misty, that's ridiculous. You wish that same thing at least… twenty times a day! Will this ever change? …Ever?

Ash gazed smittenly at Misty with an unconsciously quirky grin on his face, his eyes narrowed as though he was drunk. Oh, Mist, I love you so much! I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you… Ash continued to think the same thing over and over until it had buried deeply in his mind. The thought had become a part of him, burned and etched into his very being. Then, one final thought, to top everything off, occurred to him. I gotta tell her.

He was suddenly immersed in a tidal wave of wondering that so many who have loved before have gone though: searching for the right words to say in order to explain the deep emotion that connects the two people together, at least, in one of the two hearts. Though most have been nervous in their hunt for words, Ash was simply wound up and eager. He began to form sentences in his mind, and when one didn't sound right, he tried something a bit different if it was just okay, or something completely different if it was messed up. In a moment or two, he had thought up at least twenty different things when he finally decided on one that, at least in his mind, sounded right. He quickly repeated the words in his mind a few times so that they would hopefully come out of his mouth in second nature. He wasn't sure that his choice was incredibly romantic or anything, but he felt that it got across what he wanted to say so dearly (he had yet to realize that he was dealing in romantic things with a self-proclaimed romantic).

The question to Ash had been how to say how he felt about Misty. Strangely enough, he had never considered the question that had always plagued Misty: when. Oh, I can't stand this much longer! Oh, I have to tell her now, I have to! Okay, do I know what I am going to say? …Uh… uh… yeah, I got it. Okay! I gotta tell her! Oh, how can people bear waiting to tell someone how they feel when they realize it, if the person they love is far away? How could anyone wait?! How could anyone keep something like this inside for a long time?! Oh, that would be torture! I gotta tell her! Now!

Misty, still sunk in contemplation, was completely taken by surprise when she heard her name being whispered. She jerked and sat up quickly, glancing at Ash with renewed amazement at how close she had sat next to him. There was something in his eyes, some sparkle that made her consciously wonder what it was that Ash wanted, and the smile that was obviously threatening to come to his lips made her wonder more. "Ash?" she asked quickly.

He opened his mouth to speak, but paused, and his eyes flickered to his right, back to where the crystals were laying horizontally. After a quick mind deliberation, the ghostly Ash stood up and reached a hand down to Misty. Somewhat hesitantly, she took his hand and he helped her up to her feet. Ash quickly walked up higher, leading Misty to stand on the horizontal crystals, still holding her hand in his. When they were standing on 'level ground', so to speak, Ash guided Misty around so that she was standing straight across from him. He dropped her hand, and gazed down at the crystals at his feet to regather his thoughts. Misty watched him uncertainly. She couldn't see his face or tell what emotion he was feeling, and the strange swiftness of the action that had occurred, after the very long thoughtful period, was a bit nerve-racking. However, when Ash looked back up at her, Misty saw an unfamiliar glisten in his eyes that immediately informed her that whatever Ash was about to do or say would be very important, maybe much more important than anything that he had ever said before in his life.

For perhaps one of the first times in their lives, it was Ash that was the one of the two that was thinking about love and Misty was the one that was completely clueless as to what the other was thinking about.

"Misty," Ash began, looking her straight into the eyes, trying to send to her the loving message that he was about to say before he could say it. It was then that Ash realized that he had absolutely and completely forgotten the elaborate sentence that he was going to say. His mind suddenly went blank, like an erased chalkboard, and he froze. Ash couldn't even think enough to wonder if this had ever happened to anyone else when they were about to say how they loved someone. Misty saw immediately that Ash had forgotten what he was about to say. Fighting the impulse to ask what was wrong, given that this must be very important, Misty waited patiently, hoping that Ash would catch the calmly-waiting look on her face and not get nervous because his first attempt at talking had failed. It was a good thing that Misty hadn't interrupted, or it would have certainly messed Ash up even more. Darn, Ash thought, I'll have to improvise. Battling strategies he could improvise; words, he couldn't, not without them turning out wrong. Ash tried to stay optimistic.

"Misty," Ash began again, and gave a quick deep breath, which was unnecessary for oxygen consumption. She waited intently. "I… I just w-wanted to say… well, I wanted to t-tell you that I, uh… what I mean is that I… well, I brought you up here, because I…" He paused, breathed deeper to calm himself, and continued. "Misty, I brought you up here because I… I wanted to tell you something really important." Misty nodded her head slightly. Ash paused, then bravely continued on. "It's really important, and I wanted you to know… now… even though there have been a lot of bad things that have happened, and, well, are still happening, I guess. …It's not a bad thing, in case you're wondering." Misty, a small grin flitting across her face at his stammering, nodded again. Ash gulped. Why was this so hard to do?

"Anyway, what I wanted to tell you is…" I need an… introduction to my… speech, or whatever. …Darn… "Well, first… I want to thank you for… saving me from Haunter, well, I mean, sticking up for me against him. …Yelling at him like that, you know. It was really… brave of you. And kind of funny," Ash muttered the last sentence quietly as an afterthought, glancing down at his feet, then back at her. Misty heard his aside, though, and giggled. Ash immediately brightened at her smile. It was only Misty he was telling this to, after all, not some strange girl that he had fallen in love with by chance, not someone that he didn't already know very, very well.

"I don't know why I did that, yelling at Haunter," Misty chuckled a bit at herself, "I was just really… mad and all." She suddenly realized that she had interrupted his little speech, and she quickly shut herself up, dreading that she had ruined his train of thought.

"No, no… I'm glad you did," Ash grinned, and Misty inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. "It was… really cool, even though Haunter didn't really listen to you. … And… I want to thank you… for… well, being there, you know? I mean… staying with m-me, and not running off to find a way out of these caverns and leaving me behind. And, I want to… thank you for… not getting mad at me, or… or pushing me away when I was, well… holding your, uh, hand, you know, and sleeping next to you, and everything like that. I just wanted to say thank you… oh, and thank you… thanks a lot… for the crystal that you gave me, Misty. I… I really like it." Misty just didn't know what to say to all of this, but she didn't have a chance to say anything anyway. Ash had suddenly dashed headlong into a stack of thoughts and words that suddenly came spilling out in a rush.

"I really like the crystal a lot, Mist, both of the ones that we have, because it's, I dunno, kind of like, well, something special for, you know, just the two of us, to have one each that we gave each other, and I, well, I think that maybe, well, you and I are, you know, kind of special when we're together, 'cause we make a pretty good team together, like in Double Battles, you know, and I really like that it's me and you that are kind of, you know, like I said, special and all, because I really like it when you and I are, well, together and, you know, having fun and all, just being ourselves, and I'm really glad that we seem, well, I think that we seem at least, kind of closer than before we fell into these caverns, you know, closer as in, well, knowing each other or, uh, you know, things like that, and well I'm just really glad, and, even though I think I already said this, but I don't remember if I did or not, well, I wanted to say that I really like it that we're closer and that we seem to make a pretty good team together and, well, I really enjoy being with you, and, well, you see, I want to say, well, I'm going to say something else, so, well, I…"

Ash finally paused, wishing that he could have the excuse of needing a breath of air, but having no real reason to stop now. He had sputtered out half of the gist of what he wanted to say, but it would be a miracle, he thought, if Misty had caught even a word between all of his 'well's and 'you know's. Misty had, in fact, understood most of what he was saying, and she liked everything that he had said, for she felt exactly the same way. She had absolutely no idea, however, what Ash's final thesis was going to be, and as a credit against her, didn't even think that Ash could possibly be talking about what she had been thinking the whole time they had been sitting still. Ash, knowing that he was on the homestretch, gathered the last amount of courage to continue after his messed-up start.

"Anyway," Ash began to state more calmly, and impulsively, grabbed both of her hands, which were hanging to her side, and held them tightly in his own. This sent Misty into a great state of curiosity and anticipation. "What I really wanted to say, Misty, is that… you're… so important to me, and I really, really, really enjoy being with you, and for whatever reason caused you to come back to travel with me, well, I'm glad you're here. To tell you the truth, Mist… life was really miserable when you were gone. …I don't think… that I could ever stand… to live anymore, or, since it kind of looks like we might, well, really die now, I don't think that I could ever stand to spend eternity as a ghost or whatever, without you with me." Ash hadn't thought much about the death that might be extremely imminent, and though he was now discussing the deepest part of his heart with her, it loomed very close, so Ash felt that he ought to say what he really meant: if he was to die forever, he didn't want to be alone without the one that he loved so very much.

"Misty, I really did want to say all of those things to you, but, well, I haven't said the most important thing yet." He glanced at the hands that he was holding in his own. He squeezed them gently, and when he felt the faint and shy tightness of Misty clutching back, it gave him the strength to finish what he started. "What I want to tell you most of all, and I want you to know this forever, whatever happens, is that-" In a split second, an idea, seemingly very preposterous, hit Misty as to what Ash had been doing all along. … A…confession-?

"I love you."

For the first time, the notion suddenly hit Ash that he should not only have wondered what to say or when to say how he felt, but if! Oh. My. Ho-Oh. …What… if… she… doesn't… love… me… back… The idea that Misty might not feel the same way hadn't occurred to him, as excited as he was. He had simply wanted to tell her how he felt. All of the evil things that could result from his proclamation, all of which Misty had worried and fretted and lost thousands of hours of sleep over herself, hit him like ten tons of bricks: her not taking him seriously and laughing at him, her wondering if Haunter's attacks on him had given him brain damage and made him insane, or, worst of all evils, complete and utter rejection, and the pending loss of, not only the one he loved the most, but his best friend, too. Ash felt like he was about to faint. What had he recklessly gone out and done?

Misty also felt like she was about to faint, but for a different reason. Oh. My. Ho-Oh. …This… must… be… a… dream… The idea that Ash might feel the same way as she felt about him was an idea that she had never taken serious, not truly seriously. Yet here was Ash, flat out telling her that he loved her. This wasn't, couldn't be possible, but suddenly, it was. In all of her wild dreams, such as the ones that she had been having as she sat by him on the crystalfall, he had been so romantic when he told her how he felt about her. This was so very different, but Misty loved the true version that had just factually happened to her more than any of the ones of her imagination. He hadn't been extremely romantic, but he had said what he had said in a very Ash-y kind of way, and Misty would truly have it no other way than to have it from his heart, even being the romantic that she was. And it suddenly occurred to her that, after all the long time of her pining to tell him and worrying that May might say something first, he had beating her to the punch, and confessed the same feelings she had to her, before she had even tried, on a leap of faith that Misty had been so scared to commit to. Little did she know that Ash was now hurting in his mind because he felt that he had leapt too soon without thinking of the consequences.

His hands still clutching hers, Ash gazed down at his shoes in udder disbelief at himself. Before any worse thoughts entered his head, however, he heard her voice, as if from a far-off distance, saying his name. He looked up, very fearful, full of more fear than he had felt when they first saw Haunter. She was gazing at him, her eyes wide. "…Do you mean it, Ash? …That… you… love me?" A pause, then Ash nodded slowly. "…And… how, Ash?" At his slightly puzzled look, she quietly prompted him a bit more. "…I mean, like… romantically…?" Slowly, Ash nodded dismally, barely able to look her in her beautiful eyes. Then, he heard the gasp, and he quickly noticed how wide and excited her eyes suddenly seemed. It was when the edges of her mouth began to twitch upwards in a smile that Ash felt a strong glimmer of recovered hope. Her eyebrows had knitted together, and her eyes began to look watery as if she was about to cry. She bit her lip gently, but had a smile on her face the whole time. Ash felt his worries begin to vanish slowly and his excitement to rebuild.

The breaking point for Misty had finally, after all of this time, arrived. She could wait absolutely no longer. "Oh, Ash!" Misty cried, holding his hands tighter than she had ever done before as tears threatened to fall, "…I …I love you, too!" There it was. She had done it.

A wave of relieved exhaustion rushed out of her, and unable to stand anything more, she dropped his hands, rushed to him, flung her arms around his neck, and began sobbing into his right shoulder in relief and ecstasy. Ash immediately wrapped his arms around her, too, one hand around her waist and one touching the back of her head, and found, to his surprise, that he had broken down into tears, too. At this discovery, he began to laugh and cry at the same time, just as Misty was now sobbing joyfully into his neck. He had almost, in a short amount of time, believed that this could never be, and now it was. She was his, and he was hers, and this perfect-ness would always be for as long as forever, multiplied by as many crystals as there were in the crystalfall, and past the boundaries of time that the world had so strangely, and sometimes cruelly, set up. Ash understood this. Misty understood this. They didn't say a word about it, but both understood better than if they had spoken it a million times over.

They stood, for the longest time, just holding each other this way, sobbing, until tears were no longer possible. Misty couldn't remember another time when she and Ash were this close together. They had both locked onto each other so tight that if they had been in their bodies, they might have suffocated each other. She could feel his fingers slowly and tenderly intertwine themselves in her short, fluffy hair as he pulled her closer with his other hand, and Misty responded by latched her fingers onto the back of his shirt and bury her nose in his own fluffy hair. Her mind was so full of happiness, and questions, and surprise, and wonder, that she could do nothing except hold him, as she had wanted to hold him for so long. Ash was completely, and rightful so, astonished. He had thought that almost an hour of time had gone by fast, but these past few minutes, the ones spent on the crystalfall, had seemed like an eternity in their own right. Not only had he gone from not giving much thought on love to realizing how much he desperately loved Misty, but he had told her how he felt and discovered that she felt the same way.

A bizarre thought occurred to Ash. I've… I've got a… a girlfriend. But it was more than that, and he knew it. No… I… I have… a soulmate.

Soulmate.

Ash suddenly pulled back from Misty a bit, for he wanted to see her face. Misty didn't get upset, for she immediately knew what he was doing, and pulled back, too. Then, still holding onto one another, their noses touched at the tip and they saw how many tear of joy had been shed for the other person. Misty, still choked up, raised her left hand and began to wipe Ash's tears away with one finger, and began to quietly mutter, "Oh, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you." Ash choked up again, spilling more tears onto Misty's fingers, and making Misty cry more, too. As her right hand began to wipe away tears from his right eye now, Ash slowly raised his own right hand to his Pokémon League hat and slipped two fingers between it and his hair. He was able to get a hold of what he wanted, and he slowly pulled out Misty's pale blue bloodstained handkerchief. Misty simply laughed and choked up again as he began to wipe her eyes with the edge of the handkerchief, and softly mutter himself, "Oh, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you."

After most of the tears had been dried away from both of their pairs of eyes, even the fresh tears, Ash placed both of his arms around Misty's waist, the handkerchief wadded up in one hand. Misty wrapped her arms around his neck. They were standing once again with their noses touching right at the very tip, and their eyes locked. They were still and quiet for a moment, and then Ash saw an emotion in Misty's eyes that he had seen before. He had seen the look directed at himself from Misty, and he had seen May with that look sometimes when she was staring off into space for no reason at all. Ash now knew what it was. It was love.

The warm sensation in his stomach had burned for this whole time, but seeing the love in her eyes made it boil over so that Ash felt like he was using the Overheat attack. Then, a different sensation overwhelmed him, and, very oddly enough, he knew exactly what it was. The same new sensation hit Misty, too, and, of course, she knew what it was, too. The smallest of looks passed between Ash's and Misty's eyes, and they both understood. Ash was afraid, but ready. Misty was nervous, but exhilarated.

Slowly, they shifted their noses so that they were no longer touching and let another part of themselves touch instead: their lips. Suddenly, their slightly opened lips were touching gently to the other's, their eyes closed, letting the brand new sensation filter into their bodies. Ash's hand went back up to finger her hair, and one of Misty's hands leisurely reached up and swiped Ash's ghostly League hat backwards off of his head so that she could run her fingers through his hair, too. The hat hit the crystalfall top without a sound. Her nose pressed into his cheek softly, and he pressed his lips further into hers, tasting her soft ghostly skin. They both thought of nothing, but let the feel of the other person overwhelm them.

Ash had shared his first kiss with Misty, and Misty had shared her first kiss with Ash. The kiss lasted a bit longer than a normal first kiss would have, but this was all right, and is all right, if your first kiss is with the one that you know that you will love from now until the end of time.

As they had started it at the same time, both Ash and Misty slowly withdrew their lips from each other at the same time, and wound up back with their nose tips touching and eyes penetrating the other's. Fear and nervousness were gone and completely replaced by happiness. Ash smiled. Misty smiled. They understood. With slow movements, Misty slowly buried her head back into Ash's shoulder, this time his right shoulder. Ash wrapped his arms around her shoulders, still holding tightly to her handkerchief, and leaned his left cheek against her hair. They were quiet and still, feeling the peace that now flowed through both of them.

"…When?" Misty whispered, talking into his shirt. Ash understood, even when Misty didn't elaborate in her question.

"…Well… probably about… five minutes ago." Ash heard a small sigh of astonishment come from her. After a moment, he whispered back. "…When?"

She was silent for a moment. "…Ever since… I saw the way you acted when… your Caterpie evolved into Metapod…" Ash didn't ask. No reason for how a person could discover how they felt about someone else would ever seem strange to Ash, not now.

They stood there for another moment, and then Misty straightened up, still wrapped in his arms, and looked into Ash's face, which was so full of love and happiness and excitement. Misty wasn't scared anymore. She wasn't scared of being who she really was. She wasn't scared that Ash wouldn't love her. She wasn't scared that May might be able to take Ash away from her. She knew, more than she knew anything else, that she was loved. She was loved by Ash. Misty felt complete. Misty felt at home.

Suddenly, Ash twitched. A bit of fear crept into his eyes. Misty stiffened at seeing his expression. "Ash, what's wrong?" she asked quickly, letting her worried voice keep its truly worried tone.

"I'd… I'd almost forgotten," Ash spoke softly but urgently, "The hour! It's almost up, if it's not gone already! We… I know it seems hopeless, Misty, but we need to try to do something!"

Misty nodded, stepping back a bit to get a better look at Ash. "You're right. We can't give up without a fight. Let's… well, we were headed for the first cavern when we stopped here. I think we ought to keep with that, don't you think?"

Ash agreed instantly. "Yeah, let's do that. Come on, Mist, let's go." He was more reluctant than he realized to let go of Misty now, but she slipped her right hand into his left one immediately when they parted, and Ash was content for the moment.

"Don't forget your hat," Misty whispered in a playful hiss, tugging him back down as Ash was about to float away from the crystalfall. Ash giggled rather naughtily, face completely blushed over in blue, remembering what had caused his hat to fall off of his head in the first place. He picked it up, replaced Misty's bloodstained and tearstained handkerchief in the lining, and flopped it back onto his head. Misty smiled at the homely sight. "…And I like it when you call me 'Mist'. …It's sweet."

"I'll remember that!"

Sableye was curled up into a dull motionless heap between two close-laying stalagmites. If his unblinking stare could turn into laser beams, the ice in front of him would have melted a long time ago. He knew that it was selfish to feel pity for himself, but failing to save three people from being killed in the same way wasn't a record that would make anyone have good self esteem. He could feel Shuppet's presence nearby, and he was certain that it was watching him, even though he didn't look up to see if this was true. Sableye wished that he could understand the Shuppet. Did it want him to do something about all of this? He didn't have anything left that he could do. Did the Shuppet know something that he didn't? Sableye gave the smallest sigh, the first time in a few minutes that he had shown any sign of being alive himself. It would be just his luck if the Shuppet knew someway to stop Haunter that Sableye didn't, and then Ash and Misty would die because he couldn't understand the strange blank stares that it sent-

Sableye flinched, his eyes suddenly growing wide. His internal clock's alarm had just gone off. An hour, sixty minutes, had just gone by.

At that precise moment, malevolent laughter filled the dark last cavern, echoing from the biggest black hole in the back wall.

…I am so bored. Geesh, where's are's those two already? Meowth sighed. He had been sitting by himself in the same spot, next to the hole in the ground that Jesse and James had disappeared through, for an hour now. The summer sun beating down on him in the meadow caused his cream-colored fur to be rather oily with sweat, which definitely wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world to the talking Pokémon. Rather grumpily, Meowth stretched his stiff front paws out in front of him, and shifted his weight to the opposite side of his body to attempt to get more comfortable while sitting in the dust grass blades. His ears drooped, and he sighed, a whine in his voice. Well, this is what's I get for hangin' around undependable kinds of humans, I guess, huh?

"That's it!" he finally spat out loud, "I's aint taken no more of this! I'm gonna go find where's they left that 'ot-air balloon if'n I's drop dead from heat stroke!" With his worn-out impatient mindset, Meowth was about to stand up and leave, when his sharp ears caught a whirling sound, coming from somewhere that he hadn't yet identified, which eventually turned into a whoosh. The sound grew closer, and Meowth was about to panic when straight out of the hole in the ground came a rope with a large grapple hook on the end. Meowth continued his train of thought by actually panicking, covering his head with his paws and yowling bloody murder, but only until he saw that the grappling hook was lodged firmly into the soil, and not into his back. He sighed, slumping over. Oh, Persian curses! It's only Jesse and James comin' back up on one of their's Escape Ropes.

Meowth hastily tried to brush himself off to look more presentable, as if he hadn't been drug down in the least, as the rope grew taunt and wiggled as Jesse and James undoubtedly were climbing out. It took a little while before either appeared, which showed Meowth just how deep the hole had been. Suddenly, Jesse's hand came over the side of the hole, and she dragged herself out sluggishly. She crawled, on hands and knees, away from the hole as James clambered over the edge at the speed of a Slakoth. The grappling hook was tugged out of the ground by James' last pull and it fell back down the hole. Meowth was astonished, and to say the truth, frightened. Jesse and James looked absolutely beat. Both were on their hands and knees, gasping for breath, heads down.

"You's two okay?" Meowth muttered uncertainly. "You's look like you been runnin' for miles."

Jesse responded with the faintest of laughs and a, "Mmmmh."

Meowth blinked. He leaned down to see if he could see what expression was on Jesse and James' faces. He was disturbed even further to see how flushed and stunned their faces where. Both pairs of sapphire and emerald eyes looked dull, yet full of intense fear, and seemed to have a far-off expression on them. Meowth chuckled nervously, trying to lighten the dark mood that they had brought with them, as he had no clue as to what could have possibly happened. "Heh, you two's, it's… uh… heh, it looks like you two's have seen a ghost!" Meowth's laughter died in his throat as James immediately burst into tears, quite unbecoming for a male human his age, but appropriate if someone knows what Jesse and James knew.

"…Wha… What happened?" Meowth cautiously asked. Neither responded. Meowth was about to ask again, when suddenly, the noise of pounding feet began to be heard and started to grow louder. All three flinched and perked up as they realized that the sound was growing closer to them. James had stopped crying, but Jesse had begun to unconsciously shake all over. Meowth's claws instinctly opened up, but he retracted them, knowing the probability that if it was a Pokémon, it wasn't going to weak against a Normal- Type attack.

The pounding in the woods began to become more distinct, and was obviously of more than one creature, whatever that creature may be. They also began to hear a rustling through the branches of the trees, and a beating of wings. By now, all three were shaking, tense, and scared out of their wits. The pounding footsteps were soon identifiable as human feet, and there were three distinct patterns of gaits that could be felt on the trembling ground.

Suddenly, the bushes at the edge of the meadow shook violently, and three figures burst through the foliage screaming two words ferociously and angrily at the same time at the top of their lungs.

"TEAM ROCKET!"

TO BE CONTINUED…

…Good present, huh? Actually, I don't see why anyone reading this kind of book wouldn't like it, but I hope you really appreciate it! I've been really stressing over it, hoping that it is okay, and I've reread and edited it at least six times! I'm not sure how long it's going to be until Chapter 10 is ready, because I'm going to work on it along with my 'site (and illustrating, too). As always, feel free to e-mail me, and I'll try to get back, even thought I've had a hard time getting internet time to return e-mails lately (I'm working on it!). And please, REVIEW IT! You have NO idea how much your reviews motivate me to get working harder! Happy 2005!

NOTE: Every chapter title is a line from a song, and all of the songs are songs from one of the many Pokémon CD's. If you have identified the song that Chapter 9's title is from, review and let me know, and I'll post your name with the correct title on my next chapter. :)