Okay, credit goes to Alex Warlorn for one of the ideas in the next few chapters; read the reviews to figure out which one. And to dragon. Also, there won't be nearly as many flashbacks from here on; I intend to focus on Ash and Misty (and the family) moving on with their lives, and that includes figuring out who did this to them… And so begins part two.
—
"Hey, I'm Ash Ketchum; I'm here to do a commercial?" Ash said to the receptionist.

The receptionist, who looked like a near relative of Nurse Joy, glanced at Ash and turned to her computer screen. After about ten seconds she turned back and seemed to give Ash a closer look.

Ash himself was a sight. In addition to his usual getup complemented with Pikachu on his shoulder, he had another eevee hanging on his other shoulder, and several chattering eevees could be heard from the floor.

"I—" The receptionist faltered. "I'll tell Myamoto you're here. If you and your—er, guests could wait over there…" She motioned vaguely toward a bank of chairs and walked (rather quickly Ash thought) through a pair of double doors behind her desk.

Ash just smirked. "Welcome to the human world, kids," he said.
—
"So, you stand here and hold the phone," the director said to Ash, "and just talk."

"Talk?" Ash said.

The director nodded.

Ash looked at the phone. "What do I say?"

"Anything you want."

"Can I curse out someone?"

The director made a face, and Misty yelled from the shadows of the studio, "Not in front of the kits!"

"Pikachu!" Pikachu added.

Ash just smirked. "Okay, when do I start?"

"When I say, 'Action!'" the director said as he ran off the set to his chair.

Ash nodded and flipped open the phone. "Does this have service?" he asked an aide.

The aide looked confused but nodded slowly.

"And…" The director lifted his hands. "Action!"

Ash flipped open the phone and dialed a ten-digit number, a devious grin on his face.

Misty jumped as her purse started vibrating. She pulled out her phone and looked quizzically at Ash. Ash just nodded and mouthed, "Pick up the phone." Misty sighed and answered. "Hello?"

"Hey, baby," Ash said. "Whatcha doin?"

"Oh, I'm just waiting for my loser husband to get off work. How about you?"

Ash looked around. "I'm in a white box of emotion trying to score some dough. How are the kits?"

The director made frantic motions at one of the aids who quickly ran off the set.

"They're doing fine, though I'm a little concerned about some of the words Ember's picking up."

"Really? Like what?"

"Oh, he's been trash talking his siblings and they don't understand him. He's been fighting a lot, too."

An aide ran up to Misty holding a small microphone. He motioned for Misty to keep talking.

"Really? Put him on, let me talk to him."

"Sure thing, hold on." Misty put her hand over the phone's microphone and called Ember. When he got there, she put the phone on the ground and motioned him too it. The aide looked to the director who pointed impatiently at the eevee.

Ember looked at the phone curiously. He'd seen Mom and Dad use one of these before… "Hello?" he said cautiously.

"Hey, Ember," Ash said.

Ember jumped back, startled. Dad was over there; how was he in the phone? What sort of magic was this? "Dad?" he asked.

"Yeah. Put your ear on the—hold on, just come over towards me real quick. And bring—no, don't bring the phone. Give it back to your mother and tell her to hang up."

"Cut!"

There was a mild scuffle on the set as the director picked up Ember and set him down in another part of the set. An aide handed Ember a phone identical to Ash's and placed a call to Ash's phone.

"Action!"

"Hello?" Ember said again, this time with a little more confidence.

"Hey, Ember. What's going on?"

"Um… I don't know."

"What's Pikachu up to?"

Ember looked off the set. "He's playing with Dewdrop and Dreamer. What's going on?"

"We're talking on the phone."

"Why do we need the phone?"

"Well, normally you use the phone to talk with people that aren't around. Like when I'm over at Professor Oak's lab and Mom's at home, I can call her on the phone and talk to her."

"But we're right next to each other."

"I know."

"So why do we need the phone?"

"Because this is a commercial."

The director was nodding his head furiously.

"What's a commercial?"

"It's where a big company pays famous people like me a lot of money to say that talking on phones is cool."

"You're famous?"

"Heck yes. Ooo— don't say that, your mother won't like it."

"Okay, Dad."

"So what's Pikachu doing now?"

"Running away from Dreamer."

"Cut!" The director yelled. "That was brilliant!"

"Not exactly the words I'd use," Misty muttered to herself.
—
They stayed at the studio well into the afternoon. The director wanted to get a few more shots of Ash and Ember, then Ash and Misty, Ash and Pikachu, and even Pikachu and Ember. After an eventful trip to the Saffron Burger (involving an angry pikachu and several missing ketchup packets), the Ketchums checked into the Pokmon Center.

"Why are we staying here?" Misty whispered.

"Quit whining," Ash whispered back. "We are not staying here. I want the kits to experience a Center at least once. I've got a room for the two of us at the Mind's Eye Hotel."

"Just the two of us?"

"Not even Pikachu."

"Pika?" Pikachu's ears perked up at the mention of his name.

Ash put on a "cheerful" smile. "That's right, buddy. You get to stay here, tonight."

"Pika!" Pikachu yelled back angrily. "Chaa, Pikapi, chu pika!"

Ash was taken aback. "What do you mean? You've stayed he—"

"Kaa pii-chupi, Pikapi!"

Ash inhaled sharply. He looked like he was about to yell something at the top of his lungs, but somehow he managed to will himself to keep his voice low. "Can we take this outside?"

Pikachu stormed out the door. Ash was about to follow when Misty called him.

"They're not captured," she said.

"What?"

"The kits; they can't stay here if they aren't captured."

"Then capture them," Ash said shortly.

"What?"

Ash threw up his hands. "I don't know, Misty. Think for youself," he yelled. Immediately he turned to her and said as calmly as he could, "I'm sorry I yelled, I'm just…"

"Having an argument with Pikachu?" she finished. "It's okay; I picked a bad time to ask."

Ash nodded sadly. "Just—I don't know, buy a value pack and do the two-second capture-and-release on them. I don't really… I don't know."

"It's okay," she said. "Do you want me to wait until you get back?"

"No, just go ahead and follow your motherly instinct or something," Ash said with a smile. "I gotta…"

"Don't say anything you'll regret," Misty said as she walked back to the counter.

Ash took a deep sigh and walked outside.

Pikachu was waiting around the side of the building. "So," Ash began, "what do you mean by, 'I'm not one of your kits'?"

"I mean exactly that!" Pikachu yelled back. "It's always, 'Pikachu, be nice.' 'Pikachu, don't run.' 'Pikachu, go to bed.' 'Pikachu, stay in the center.' You're treating me like one of your kits! I mean—who was the one keeping you alive and teaching you how to survive for six months? Who's the one that's been babysitting for you and being a freaking punching bag for the little runts? Who's the one that won the freaking league championship for you?"

Ash waited until Pikachu had clearly stopped before asking, "Is this about the ketchup?"

"Yes! And the bed. And the shoulder space. And the personal space. And—"

"Pikachu…"

"What?"

Ash sighed. "You knew this was going to happen," he said quietly, crouching down so he could talk more on Pikachu's level. "Granted, none of us expected the jolteon thing, none of us expected… five, six more intelligent objects around, but… I told you before I proposed that I'd have to spend more time with Misty. I—I'm married, Pikachu. She's my mate. I have to spend time with her. Heck, you were one of the people telling us to get married; well, this is what marriage is."

"Marriage is shutting out your best friends?" Pikachu asked sullenly.

"I'm sorry," Ash said. "This isn't the first time I've taken you for granted, and I'm sorry for that too. I guess… I never really thanked you for all the help you gave us back in the wilderness, so I'll say it now: Thank you. Thank you for making sure we didn't die or do anything stupid. And I'll do something special for you, I promise."

Pikachu looked down. "I'm sorry I yelled."

Ash smiled. "Hey, we all have to yell sometimes. Next time just tell me before you have to yell, kay?" He reached down to scratch Pikachu behind the ears. Pikachu leaned into it and closed his eyes contentedly.

"Maybe I'm just jealous of you and Pikachupi," he muttered.

"Maybe so," Ash answered. "Maybe you just need to evolve."

Pikachu's eyes shot open. "What? But you promised—"

Ash motioned for him to calm down. "I promised I wouldn't make you do it if you didn't want to. And I won't. But you may want to start considering it. After all…" He dropped his voice and nearly whispered, "we all have to grow up sometime."
—
"So how did the kids do?" Ash said to Misty as they enjoyed the sunset from the balcony of their hotel room.

"Eh, most of them were a little apprehensive at first, but it worked eventually. I had them boys registered in your name, by the way. The girls are in mine."

Ash nodded. "By the way," he said, "we need to call Brock sometime."

"Really? Why, just to catch up?"

Ash mentally kicked himself. "Oh, he hasn't heard from us since the wedding, has he?"

Misty smiled. "Relax, hotshot. I gave him a call not too long after we… you know, returned."

Ash breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Now where was I…?"

"Calling Brock?"

"Yeah, I think Pikachu needs a mate."

Misty frowned. "So you're just going to call Brock and—"

"No, no, nothing like that," Ash interrupted. "I was going to ask him for a little advice. You know I can't just stick him in a room with some pikachu he's never met and say, 'Here ya go buddy; have at it!' He'd hate me for that. No… I just want to find the best way to go about doing this. I'm sure Brock will understand."

Misty nodded. "Yeah, he actually thinks things through, unlike some guys I know?"

Ash blinked. "Really? Like who?"

Misty playfully slapped Ash. "You know who."

Ash sighed, got up and stood behind Misty. "I know I'm included," he said, massaging her shoulders. "I want to know who else."

Misty just moaned.

"I want names, Misty."

Misty took a deep breath and said, "Eoooooooooooooooon….."

Ash closed his eyes and gave up and just concentrated on his hands. He wasn't a professional by any stretch of the imagination, but apparently it was good enough for Misty. Slowly he sank into a rhythm, not even thinking about what he was doing. Something felt slightly odd about the whole situation, but Ash just tried to relax. If he was tense, it would make Misty tense. And he had had enough tension for one day.

He took out a deep, slow breath through his nose and nearly fell over backwards. He could smell a lot, but the scent was heavy with Essence of Misty: the cheap hotel shampoo, the burgers they had devoured for dinner, the slightly damp fur from—
Fur?

Ash's eyes shot open and he uttered an inhuman yelp in surprise. For starters, there was a yellow muzzle blocking a good chunk of his vision. Which led to the conclusion that he had morphed back into a jolteon. Which couldn't be true since he was standing on two legs, hadn't changed in height, and still had hands with opposable thumbs.

Ash glanced down at Misty. She was the same as him, except a vaporeon, obviously. Her tail went between the chair's back and seat, but Ash wondered what kind of shape her pants were in.

"Misty?" he asked gently.

"Why'd you stop?" Misty whined. Her voice hadn't changed. She started to stretch, paused, opened her eyes, and apparently went through the same shock Ash had just gone through.

Except she didn't yelp. She jumped up and screamed.

Ash clamped down on her muzzle. "Shhh, quiet," he chided. "Do you want to attract everyone's attention?"

She shook her head, the frightened look still in her eyes.

"I'm going to let go, Misty," Ash said gently. "Are you going to scream?" No. "Are you going to yell?" No. "Are you going to come inside so we can get a better picture of what's going on without being out in public?" Yes. "Okay, then." He gently lifted his hands off her muzzle.

"What happened to us?" she yelled.

With a little more force than he meant to, Ash forced her inside and closed the sliding door.

"Quiet!" he whispered loudly.

Misty was breathing quickly, and to all appearances seemed to be going into hysterics. "Ash, what's going on, I don't understand, we were there, and then we were—what's happening?"

Ash rushed over to her and put his arms around her. "I don't know what's going on," he said gently, "but we can't panic. What does The Hitchhiker's Guide say on the front cover?"

"'Don't Panic'?"

"Right. So take a deep—" Wait, a deep breath would probably end in a scream. "Hold on." He grabbed a pillow and gave it to Misty. "Take a deep breath, and I want you to scream into this pillow, okay?" Misty nodded, took a deep breath, and tried to bury her muzzle into the pillow. Quickly Ash grabbed another pillow and held both of them for her.

The scream was still very audible, though probably not as loud as the first one.
—
The chancy walked through the dark room between the shelves of sleeping pokemon one last time before she turned in for the night. It had become part of her bedtime routine lately: shut down the rejuvenator, check on the little ones, turn off the light and go to bed.

She got to the last row and tried to fight off the sleep just a few more steps. Asleep, asleep, asleep, empty, aslee—
The empty bunk stood out to her like a sore thumb. Slowly she tried to search her sleep-deprived mind for who was supposed to be there… It was one of those eevee kits, wasn't it? Where could he (or she, she reminded herself) have gotten off to.

Then she noticed the murmuring coming from the window on the other side of the bunks. Quickly she finished checking the row and discovered yet another empty bunk belonging to an eevee. She sighed, but was slightly thankful that the two out of bed weren't fully evolved; otherwise, she would have a problem she would not want to deal with.

She found the two sitting on the windowsill, talking softly to each other. Walking closer, she allowed herself to eavesdrop for just a little while.

"I lived in the wild for about a season," the boy eevee said. "Then my parents went back to their trainers and took us with them." He chuckled. "This is actually my first time in a pokemon center."

"Must be nice," the girl said. "I was barely old enough to remember my mom before her trainer gave me to Brian."

The two eevees continued to stare out the window. Finally, the girl ventured another question. "Do you… do you hear anything?"

"Not here," he said softly. "There's too many lights, too much noise. But out in the wild, I could hear the stars as clear as—well, like I can hear you now."

"What do they say to you?"

The boy remained silent for a moment before answering. "That time is running short. Events have been set into motion that will bring darkness… but there will always be light to guide the way." He turned to the girl. "What about you?"

The girl chuckled. "I hear them sing. It's… beautiful, really." She closed her eyes and repeated,

"'Great are the birds that soar up high,
Great are the stars that fill the sky,
Great are the beings that walk the ground,
Their Creator is greater than all that is around…'"

She giggled again. "I'm really an awful translator," she said with a blush.

The boy didn't laugh. "I liked it," he said simply.

The chancy sighed audibly. Young love, she thought to herself. She hated to break up such a nice conversation, but she had a job to do.

"Children," she said softly, trying not to startle them (which she did anyway), "it's time for bed."

The two eevees slowly hopped down and made their way back to their bunks. The chancy followed them and helped them in, making sure that they went where they were supposed to and stayed there. Satisfied, she walked out of the room toward where she slept.

"'Night, Trill."

"'Night Sparky."
—
A sharp rap on the window startled Ash and Misty. A man… or something, was standing on their balcony wearing what appeared to be a monk's outfit, except the hood was pulled over his head so far that his face was completely hidden.

"That's…" Ash muttered, "that's the guy who gave us the stones…" Nervously, he walked over to the door and opened it.

"I see you've been adapting to your situation," the stranger muttered. His voice was gruff, like he had been yelling for the past few years and was still hoarse. "Of course, you can't expect to know everything on your own, now can you?"

"Is this another 'Ash is dense' joke?" Ash said testily.

"It could be," the stranger said. "But why should I insult you? You see…"

He let his hood down, revealing a fox-like head with pure white fur, oversized ears, and piercing green eyes. At the same time he brushed aside part of his cloak, letting several tails poke out.

"We are not all that different."

"You're a ninetails?" Ash asked.

The ninetails morph laughed. "Wonderful perception of the obvious, boy! They'd never tell you were your mother's son. As for you, Miss, might I say that you look positively—"

"What do you want," Ash said forcefully. Misty stood behind him, glaring at the newcomer.

He dismissed the show of force with a wave of his paw-like hand. "Nothing you need to yell at me about," he said. "I simply came to tell you how to activate the stones."

"So tell us."

The ninetails sighed. "Impatience… definitely not from your mother. As for the stones, all you really need to know is that it is tied to your memories. If you immerse yourself in the memories of a particular form, if you become who you were then, then you will assume that form now. Any questions?"

Ash was about to tell him to get lost when Misty said, "Why?"

He cocked his head. "Pardon, Miss?"

"It's Mrs. Ketchum to you!" Misty yelled. "I asked you why you did this to us! So?"

The stranger was taken aback. "Are you saying you didn't like it?" Misty flinched, and he pounced. "Are you saying you wish it didn't happen? Are you saying you don't want those kits of yours?" By now his voice was at a yell. "I gave you a chance to experience what few humans have ever experienced. Are you saying that it would have been better if they had never been born?"

Misty sat down hard on one of the beds, but Ash stepped in. "She didn't say that. We've still got the kits, right? We're still taking care of them, right? They've still got both their parents, right?"

The realization of Ash's words hit himself, and for a second he couldn't figure out what to say. However, he was able to notice a strange emotion on the ninetails… Ash wasn't positive, but he was sure he could smell panic on the stranger.

"It doesn't matter if we want them or not, anyway," he said, this time at a normal volume. "We're going to take care of them. Sure we didn't expect it, but sometimes you just have to take life as it comes. But that's beside the point anyway… because we do love them." Realizing he had nothing left to say, Ash straightened his posture and said, "I think it's time for you to go."

The stranger walked briskly to the balcony. Without a word he opened the door, walked out, and jumped over the railing.

Quietly, Ash closed the door and the curtains. Calmly, almost too calmly, he walked over to the bed and sat next to Misty.

"Should we give it a shot?" he asked without looking at her.

Without a word, a faint white glow surrounded the two as they slowly began to morph back into their human selves.

Misty opened her eyes first. Giggling, she glanced back at Ash's pants and the hole that was torn in them when his tail poked through. "Guess we'll have to fix our pants, Ash."

He didn't answer.

"Ash?" She leaned forward to get a better look at his face and the tears that were starting to well up in his eyes.

She edged closer to him. "What's wrong?"

"What was your memory?" he whispered, his voice starting to crack.

"Our wedding."

Ash smiled grimly. "Sorry, then… mine was me and my mom."

"That's sweet of you."

"Alone."

"Oh."

They sat in silence for a few more moments before Ash continued.

"I mean… I never even knew him. Maybe there's a few faint memories floating around in my thick head somewhere, I don't know. But… everyone said he was dead, but mom always said he was alive… that he'd come home someday… but he never di—"

His voice finally cracked, and Misty just sat there, holding him while he cried.

"It's not your fault, Ash," she said after he had calmed down a little. "Sometimes people just do that. It's not your mom's fault; it's not your fault; it's his…"

Ash took a deep breath and tried to recover himself. "I know," he said. "I just…"

"Need to be reminded sometimes," Misty finished.

Ash sat up and looked Misty straight in the eyes. "Misty, promise me something."

"What?"

"If I ever run out on you, chase me. Don't let me get away and leave you like my dad left Mom, okay?"

Misty smiled. "I don't think I have to worry about that, Ash."

"I don't think so either, but just promise, okay?"

Misty let herself fall onto the bed. "Okay, I promise. It won't be easy, though."

"What do you mean?"

"You've got the type advantage."

Ash groaned. "I'll show you a type advantage," he growled as he started tickling her mercilessly.