Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Pokemon, its characters, locations, or names. All of them, with the exception of original characters, ideas, and places, belong to Nintendo.

Credits: Vanika, Silvanus, Gwen, Carina, and all locations involving Nara belong to me.

AN: We're getting steadily closer to the end, I'm afraid. By the looks of things there is only this one, Chapter Twenty, then the Epilogue. There might be another chapter in there, but by the way things are going with my work on Twenty, we only have three three left. Kinda odd really, considering how long it is now and how much work I've put into it. I'm kinda sad that it'll be ending soon.

Anyway, Chapter 19. Things really start getting bad now! XD Now to see if they all turn out alright. -cough-Probablywouldeveniftheyshouldn't-cough- Ahem.

Warning: None.

- Chapter Nineteen: Motherly Care -

"Ash! I knew you wouldn't disappoint me!" Carina smiled widely when she saw him approaching; it wavered when she saw his grim look. "I knew you'd see that I was right all along."

"You aren't." Ash stared at her, arms crossed across his chest. He looked away, scowling; he wanted to be anywhere but near her. "All I'm doing is trying to figure out what the hell is going on."

"But you know as well as I do that we're engaged. Our agreement, when you became..." she started, but the dark haired young man cut her off quickly.

"...when I became a Master, we would marry. Do I really need to remind you again that I was a fool that made an empty promise when I didn't know what it was I was even promising?" Frowning, he glanced at her. "Yet, a promise is a promise."

She squealed happily. "Does that mean you've left that other girl?" she asked cheerfully.

"Hell no!" Ash snapped, and Carina shrank back at how angry he sounded, "She is the best thing that's happened to me! I'm not going to break my promise though. I'm calling it off, right here, right now."

Carina paled. "You...you can't just call it off! We have to agree!" she cried, and Ash glared at her. "I won't agree to just calling the whole thing off! Can't we talk about this, please?"

"What's to talk about? I refuse, you can't do anything about it, end of story. Quite frankly, the only reason I'm formally breaking off what I said is because I know it'll make May feel better." The Pokemon Master shrugged. "So what's the point of talking about it?"

"But, Ash!" Carina's eyes filled with tears. Oh god, the waterworks, he thought, sighing. "You know I love you!"

"Well, I don't love you." Ash knew we was being unusually cruel to her, and felt bad for it. No matter how much he was starting to dislike her, she didn't deserve such harsh replies. "You didn't notice the ring May was wearing?"

She shook her head. "I'd given her a Promise ring." he said, "I love her, I want to be with her, not you."

"That doesn't prove anything. Anyone could buy one of those!" Carina hugged him, shaking her head quickly. "We're supposed to be together! I was first! Ash-"

"Get off me." Scowling, Ash pushed her away, trying to keep distance between the two of them. "And get a clue in that head of yours."

"I've known you longer!" Carina said, and he looked away. Her eyes narrowed then, and she advanced on him. "Ash...what...did you do? What is that?" He would have laughed at the expression on her face had he not wanted to slap her at the same time.

"And regardless, you apparently know nothing about me," Ash replied. Smiling sweetly, he put a hand up to his throat, knowing that the reddish mark was annoying Carina severely; it amused him. "What is what? I have no idea what you are talking about."

"You're hiding it!" Carina swatted his hand away, and put her own under his chin to tip it up; Ash bit his tongue to keep from making a smart remark. "You and her...you were...weren't you?"

"What if we were?" She stared at him, jealousy shining in her eyes. Ash put his hands up, his eyes widening innocently. He was about to ask what she was looking at that was so fascinating – Carina's attention had shifted to something out of his range of vision – when she caught him by surprise, putting her arms around his neck and quickly pressing her lips against his, keeping him locked into it as well as she could. Struggling, Ash slid an arm up to pry her off again.

He heard a short cry, and his head snapped to the side. Ash felt his heart sink. "Oh my god no."

- - -

May looked over the list, frowning. She didn't know what half of the stuff on it was, and where in Viridian to get it; she also didn't know where Viridian was to begin with. Sighing, she tucked it away, looking around. Ash said one of the cities is Viridian...

Try the one that is close to here. May looked over to see Silvanus hiding in the bushes near one of the houses, hunched over in the branches and his tail curled around him. You have to go through the forest you were in yesterday to get to Viridian.

"I don't see why I have to be the one to get all of this. Why couldn't he get it instead?" she asked, and Silvanus shrugged. "At least I don't have to look at him. Ugh."

The silver creature bounded into the next set of foliage. His Link had turned red and angry, and it bothered May seeing him getting mad. What is going on over there? he asked, looking off toward one of the side streets. She looked around, not seeing anyone, and started the trek down it, curiosity overtaking her common sense. I don't like this.

"You usually don't like it," May pointed out, smirking when he scowled at her, and blinked. "Oh, hey, look! Ash!...oh." She tilted her head, seeing Carina with him. "I guess he decided to go talk to her while I was with Grandpa." Silvanus' wings went out, parallel to the ground.

"What if we were?" The words were clear to her ears, and May wondered what Ash was talking about. She took a step back instinctively when Carina looked in her direction. Something is going on, the dragon commented suspiciously.

"I know," she said, and froze when the other girl leaned up and kissed him. What? May whimpered, then cried, turning and running back the other way, ignoring the outrage she could feel in her father figure and the shouts she could hear from behind. The acute pain was all she could focus on; it was like she had been stabbed in the heart. It...hurts...so much...

- - -

"May!" Ash yelled, before turning to Carina, glaring angrily at her. The cute smile on her face only enhanced the boiling emotion. "You bitch, what the hell was that for?"

"It was to show you that I'm being serious," Carina replied lightly, moving to touch him, "very serious."

"Well, I'm being serious. Stay the hell away from me, I hate you! Take a hint, I don't like you, I don't appreciate your trying to ruin my life, and...dammit, MAY!" Jumping back, Ash slapped her hand back, frowning in disgust, and he ran after the fleeing girl, shouting after her. "May! Stop! Please!"

Skidding to slow her momentum, May twisted to take off down another street, diving toward the closest house. She could barely see where she was going; everything was blurred to her, the tears distorting her vision. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, hiding in the shrubs quietly. I don't want to talk to him, she thought, more upset then she had ever felt before. Don't worry about it, Silvanus soothed, and she felt him slither next to her.

"No way..." Ash rubbed his hands down his face, and groaned. "No freaking way...May...dammit...dammit! It figures that when I try to fix something, it gets ten times worse!" He looked around desperately, seeing no sight nor sound of her, and sighed. "I need to get...Pikachu and them first. Yes..."

Leaning back against the house, May closed her eyes, heaving a deep breath. "Why?" she asked softly, once she heard the footsteps fade away to nothing. She got to her feet, sniffling as a numbness fell over her. Silvanus trotted by her side as she walked, disregarding the danger he was in from being exposed. "Why'd he...let her...do that..."

Silvanus shook his head. He knew something wasn't quite right; he could feel it. May wobbled, making a small suffering sound, and fell over. May! She lay still, unresponsive; she had fainted.

- - -

"Shhhh, it's okay." May blinked her heavy eyes, and she saw a pair of blue eyes enter her vision. When her mind cleared, she was able to register that they belonged to Donna, and she jumped. "You're safe here."

"Where's Silvanus!" she asked, sitting up and clutching onto the baffled woman. "Where is he?" I'm here, he replied vaguely, and May felt his presence in the room, along with Vanika's. "Where am I?"

"You're in your old room," Donna said calmly, gently touching her forehead, smoothing the hair back. May bit her lip, feeling little comfort from the old woman. "I found you outside when I was coming back from the lab. I was afraid you had fallen ill...You must have had an attack of some sort."

May started crying again, and the sniveling girl didn't complain when her mother embraced her, rocking her silently, shushing her. She felt Vanika creep up next to her, laying by her side, and sniffled. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Chewing on the inside of her cheek, May shook her head; she just wanted to be left alone, to have no one to bother her and hurt her anymore. "No," she replied, yet she clung onto Donna nonetheless.

"Does this...have to do with what happened? What I mentioned earlier?" the mother asked, and May paused. Both Vanika and Silvanus were staying silent, but she could tell they didn't feel right about the grey-haired woman that was trying to comfort her. Frowning, she nodded, tears leaking out.

"I went to go get what Grandpa needed." she explained hoarsely, "And I saw Ash. He was with Carina, and he was talking to her and I saw he was talking to her, then..." May hesitated, her throat tightening again. Donna rubbed her back.

"Don't worry. If you want, you can tell me later. You need to rest." May watched her, frowning as she left the room, the door clicking shut. Vanika and Silvanus materialized once it was safe. You're suffering, Vanika said, without knowing the full story.

May hugged her. "I saw him. I saw what they did." The image shocked Vanika into silence. "How can he ever explain that?" Well...May...child...we don't know what happened. How long were you there? "A few seconds with Silvanus." Vanika stared. You need more information then.

"How though? It's...I can't talk to him! I can't talk to Ash!" She pouted. "I don't know what to do..." Hearing sounds in other parts of the house, May blinked. "I can ask Donna later..." Her eyes darkened when she felt weepy again; thinking about Ash just made her feel worse then she already did, and talking about it to her birth mother would surely make it worse yet again. "Why can't it of been different..."

- - -

Ash watched out of the window. He was confined to the house by Delia until he calmed down enough that she deemed it safe to let him go out; until then, he was content with having his pokemon patrolling and searching, though none of them were turning up with anything. "I can't even find Vanika," he said to himself, wiping his eyes with his sleeve.

He felt sleepy, the adrenaline rush of his anger at Carina long gone; in its place was an emptiness, one that didn't seem to want to leave. Ash knew it wouldn't, not when he was still on rocky grounds with the missing girl. "No luck?" a voice asked.

"None," Ash replied as Delia took a seat next to him, taking his hand into hers and squeezing it. "I want to go find her..."

"I know. It might be better if you both let off some steam first, then go looking for each other? It'll give you time to get it straight in your mind what you want to say." He smiled sadly.

"I don't think letting steam off is going to help much." Ash looked away. "Did you call Professor Oak?"

She nodded. "He hasn't seen her since she left for something. He wasn't sure why either, as she was supposed to help with taking care of more pokemon, and Gary couldn't tell him anything."

Ash's eyes narrowed. Something was looking suspicious about the situation to him, and he had a feeling he knew who would possibly be behind it. "I think I have an idea of where she might be."

- - -

May yawned, stretching out under her covers. She felt Vanika next to her, and Silvanus farther down, and she sat up. The male dragon's head lifted up at the sign of her being awake. You slept well?, he asked, prodding his mate gently to rouse her. "Better then I thought I would," the teenager admitted.

She could hear clacking downstairs, and Donna's voice floating up as she talked on the phone. May kicked the sheets off, crawling out of bed quietly. "I think I need to go talk to her." You can do it. Vanika's encouragement helped her slightly, May padded out into the hallway, noticing that her parents had disappeared from view, and started toward the stairs.

When the doorbell rang shrilly, she shrank back against the wall, holding her breath as she heard Donna walking over to answer the door. At the prompting she was getting from Silvanus, May crept along, getting on her hands and knees to look between the railing. "Hello?" her human mother asked, unlocking and opening the door, and May had to shove her fingers in her mouth to stifle the cry she near let out. "Oh! It's you!"

"Yes Ma'am." May watched them in silence, biting hard on her hand; she couldn't believe that the first place she went was the first place Ash would look. Donna appeared to be unfazed by the sudden visit, as she smiled when he glanced away awkwardly, tapping the toe of his shoe on the floor. "Um...I'm..."

"Looking for my daughter?" Donna asked, and May near yelled at her to not give it away that she was there; then her mind caught up and she mentally slapped herself at even considering it. "Well, she certainly isn't here. You'll have to look elsewhere."

May felt tears well up as Ash turned his look back to Donna, his face showing just how upset he was getting. His shoulders slumping, he sighed. "If you see her, could you tell her I need to talk to her?"

"I can." She closed the door hastily, giving him only a quick 'good bye.' Donna peered up at her, raising an eyebrow. "You've been there the whole time, haven't you?"

Pulling herself up with the railing, May nodded as she started sobbing. Donna rushed up to her, gently embracing her and stroking her long brown hair, cooing softly. "I love him," she said quietly, sniffling loudly.

"I know, I know..." Donna looked over her head, toward the window that was above the door. "You poor thing...do you want to talk?"

Feeling like her heart had been torn to shreds just from seeing him again, May nodded. Leading her into the den and sitting her down, Donna listened intently to the story, having to hide her satisfaction when it came to hearing that everything – even though May didn't know it – was going exactly how Gary had planned it. Her daughter was walking right into their hands. She felt uncomfortable then, as if someone was glaring at her, but no one else was in the room as far as she could see; it was only the two of them.

What she didn't know was that both Vanika and Silvanus could see, clear as day, that she wasn't as caring and sympathetic as she was acting. May turned her head, looking in their direction, then bit down on her knuckles to stifle her whining. "He let her! I love Ash. ..I love him..." You don't know that, Vanika pointed out to her, but was silenced when Donna started talking then, her voice dripping with sympathy.

"Oh, hun, I know it hurts being betrayed by someone that's supposed to care for you, but...well, men in general don't seem to understand the concept of actually 'caring.'" May narrowed her eyes, turning her look back to the human woman. "There are very few exceptions to the rule, and that's that they only like a woman for her looks. It's usually better to just stay away from them altogether. I learned that thanks to your father, in fact."

Her eyes widened. "No..."

Donna smiled sadly. "I know you don't want to believe it, but it's true. I thought your father was different, and yet...well, he has issues. Quite a few. But this is about you, not me or him." She sighed softly. "I can tell when someone is shallow, and that boy of yours is. I have no doubts about it."

"He isn't!"

"He is, dear, and no amount of 'No!'s and 'But he isn't!'s is going to change that." Donna said, and May stared at her, "He...Ash...I've yet to see any proof that says otherwise about him. He's most likely just like the rest, thinking about one thing, and would force it-" She was getting desperate; it amazed her that she had a child that was so set in believing in the man that had hurt her – even if that hurt was not from anything he had done. As it was, desperate times called for desperate measures, and exaggeration was in order.

She's wrong, the green creature insisted in May's mind, confusing the girl even more then she already was; so much was going on, and she couldn't figure out what was happening, who to listen to, what to do... "Ash isn't like that!" the brunette cried, her face in her hands as tears fell down between her fingers, as she shook from the stress, "You don't know him! He's never forced me to do anything I didn't want to!"

Donna's expression changed from sad, to surprise, to suspicion. "What do you mean, never forced you to do anything you didn't want to?" she asked slowly.

Silvanus snarled softly, getting a bad feeling about her. May smiled weakly, ignorant to the older woman's thoughts and to Silvanus' growing discomfort. "He's never made me do something I didn't want to do..." No May! Vanika cried out, waving her claws in front of her rapidly regardless of the fact that no one but Silvanus could see her. Glancing in the direction that she knew Vanika was curiously, realizing that the female dragon was trying to deter her from continuing on the train of thought she was on, she switched to another one. "He let me decide whether I wanted to come here or not. Ash...Ash didn't want me to leave Nara unless I was sure about it."

Donna seemed to relax. "Well, that is one redeeming act...that I've seen a fair few people do one nice thing, when inside they were really quite rotten." May scowled at her. "Dear, can't you see? You shouldn't get disillusioned! You saw for yourself just what can happen when you let yourself trust someone like that!"

"Someone like that?" May said quietly, feeling anger bubble up. No matter how much she hurt inside, she didn't like listening to someone bad talk any of her friends, and especially not Ash of all people. She felt Vanika and Silvanus edge close to her. As Donna was about to start talking again, the distressed girl cut her off, standing up. "I don't care! You've only met him twice!"

"That's all I needed! He's just like your father!" May stood in stunned silence, her mouth hanging open, before the anger that was simmering blasted out of her finally.

"Ash isn't like Daddy!" Feeling as if her insides were dying, May bolted out of the room, forcing the front door open and racing out into the warm evening, not letting the shouts and screams from Donna stop her. He isn't! He isn't, he isn't, he isn't!

- - -

Carina sighed, staring up at the ceiling ruefully. She had returned to her own room, and crawled onto the bed. Being rejected -again! - then getting a metaphorical slap in the face made for a very depressed woman. She couldn't believe that someone could be so cold. "He..hates...me..."

Turning over, she took a deep breath, letting it out in a loud gust. "Why can't he understand! I made it as clear as I could! I admitted how I felt, and he still pushed me away!"

An idea forming in her mind, Carina picked the phone up, dialing in the number she needed. She listened to the ringing, letting it cut her hearing until there was an abrupt silence, and then an answer. "Hello?"

"Gary!" she cried, rubbing an eye as she felt them sting, "It didn't work."

He was quiet for a minute, then he started laughing harshly, surprising her considerably. "What's so funny?" Carina asked defensively.

"It didn't work, you say! You idiot, it's worked perfectly!" Gary snapped, and she sighed, disbelieving. "Don't you see? This is the perfect opportunity for you to get in."

"Ash said he hated me!"

"So what? He's hurt, you know it and I know it. He lashed out at the first thing he could." he replied coolly, smirking, even though Carina didn't know it, "Now is a good time to get in there to comfort him, and prove you aren't going to run off like my little sister tends to do."

"He said to stay away from him..." she whined, and Gary rolled his eyes. He was amazed at just how dense she was being with what he was saying; he sincerely hoped he could be rid of her fast.

"So? Do what you damn well have to do!" The researcher hung up, his lip curling; he wouldn't talk to her longer then he really had to. It always gave him a headache to do so, listening to her annoying voice.

- - -

Misty whistled quietly. She had gone out for a night to do some private training out on the peninsula, and had returned only an hour ago. Smiling at her playing pokemon, she sat at her computer and turned the Internet on.

While it loaded, she clicked the button on the answering machine, and saw a picture pop up on the screen of the phone; it was Delia. Quickly getting her E-Mail up, she opened one, then frowned when she noticed how uneasy the older woman appeared on screen, and turned her attention to the message, clicking to make it start over from the beginning and turning the volume on it up higher.

"Hi Misty, if you're home, I really need you to pick up. I need you to get Brock and come here. Some bad things are happening." Jumping in surprise, she leaned closer to the screen, her eyes widening. "May ran off, and we can't find her anywhere, and Ash is...he's in a bad state. We've had all his pokemon out searching, and he's even gone out himself to look for hours at a time, and there's been nothing coming up. I've just had to force him to go to bed and rest. We don't even know where Vanika is, or Silvanus."

The gym leader was surprised that the two dragons were known by Mrs. Ketchum, and shook her head. After a brief pause, Delia continued speaking. "I'd give you all the details over this message, but...that can wait until you get in touch. Please, I wouldn't ask you to travel this far if it wasn't an emergency. We need some help. Thanks Misty, bye!"

It went blank. Misty leaned back in her seat, her hand against her mouth in shock. "This can't be good. I wonder what happened?" she asked to the air, quickly calling the Pewter Gym. When it was one of the children that answered, she answered hastily, "Brock! I need Brock!"

They blinked, nodded, and ran off. Misty tapped a fingernail on the desk, getting antsy just as the older leader appeared. "Where's the electricity?" Brock joked. He went solemn when he saw the look on her face. "What's wrong?"

"We need to go to Pallet Town. I'll explain everything when I get to Pewter."