As always welcome to another chapter of... Receding Lights? Yep I have changed the name and I have done some editing.
First things first as always thanks to Althea Sirius for checking for mistakes and improvisation. And also thanks to you guys for checking this story out. If you liked this please remember to Follow and Favourite.
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1 Day before:
High heels clattered on the tiled floor, as a blonde woman with a fierce, sadistic expression strode to the door; her Team Rocket outfit was visible.
The corridoor was dimly lit and the woman squinted her beady emerald eyes to recheck the sign.
He was back.
Domino was managing several prominent Team Rocket branches as an executive but most of the time, the work submitted was fairly tedious to look at.
When her shadowy boss placed an offer on the table, Domino reached out with both hands. She was back at the HQ set on Viridian City's sleepy underground and all she had to do was recieve the debrief.
Whulst cold sweat trickled down in nervousness, the executive knocked cautiously on the door twice, before a silky, caressing voice beckoned her to come forward.
Gulping in anticipation, Domino pushed the door forwards to be recieved with scythian eyes.
She didn't even have to look at the face of the leader of Team Rocket. Giovanni.
He smoothed his slick, jet hair and stared at the executive with a hardened smile.
Domino had only visited her boss's office several times and she felt insignificant in the eyes of the powerful yet mysterious leader.
The furniture was exactly as she remembered on her first visit, 6 years ago.
Cavernous walls made the office seem uninviting and enclosed. It had a palatial feel and an advanced security system made the office secure, far from the sight of G-Men or undercover intelligence operatives.
Her attention zoomed in permanence to Giovanni who was lounging on his dulled office chair, stroking his beady eyed Persian.
Finally the silence shattered when Domino handed a pressed file to her boss. Giovanni sat there observing the act before responding in his silky, monotone voice, "How...interesting..."
The blonde took a deep breath in and began to explain, "Sir, enclosed is the requested file concerning the textual information regarding the Pokemon Trainer Ash Ketchum."
Giovanni picked the file and eyed it with interest, "I see..."
The woman continued, "This has been properly expurgated and includes all the textual information concerning the 16 year old."
Minutes passed as Giovanni skimmed through the file before his smirk vanished and his eyes widened in shock, "5 teams annihilated! How is that even possible? How can 1 boy destroy an entire criminal organisation let alone 5?"
His stormy eyes darted to Domino, who was sweating profusely, and his lips took the form of a flared expression.
Giovanni was infuriated.
Whilst his arms were still shaking, the boss barked at his subordinate, "Terminate Ash Ketchum immediately!"
In a futile attempt to disagree, Domino opened her mouth, "But sir..."
Giovanni retorted, "DID YOU NOT HEAR ME?" Fear pulsed into the executive like a pack of wolves as she could feel her heart race in desperation.
"Do you realise the threat he poses? His existence threatens the survival of Team Rocket. If he were to find us like Red then it would spell the end for the entirety of all my hard industrious work. Make sure you send your best operatives and indefinitely ensure that Ash Ketchum of Pallet town is killed." Giovanni was pouring all his rage into his words.
After acknowledging and assessing the potential victim, Domino left her boss's office in haste; the assassination attempt would happen tomorrow afternoon and with major planning the plan would be put into effect near the labaratory of Professor Oak if possible.
The executive left leaving Giovanni alone reminiscing and within the reflection came a statement, "Red, I will take my revenge... starting with your son."
Back in the present:
It felt if searing bullets had struck his chest as the entire realisation dawned on him. His mouth gaped open as he tried to take the shocking information.
Ash stood there shell-shocked, he felt so unable to register the intake of information as a cold lump in his throat began to form.
Desperate to wake up from a nightmare he asked a rhetoric question, "This is all a joke, right? RIGHT!" Ash could feel small droplets emerge from his amber eyes.
Oak took a deep breath in as he tried to console the boy with gentle, soothing words, "Don't take it as an offence. Believe me Ash, we do think you are quite capable but I personally feel that your skills can be better utilised in research. Take your Bond-Phenomenon for example, we can analyse the exchange of power between you and your Greninja and then from that we can discover new things and make incredible breakthroughs. And that is why I think you should join me as a research asistant instead of following your lame dream of becoming a 'Pokemon Master'.
Ash took a step back and clutched the chair opposite him. Not only had Oak imperatively forced him to give up his life-long dream but at the same time the Professor was to use him as human experiment? The hypocrisy in it just made Ash feel even worse. He looked around with beseeching eyes, "You guys don't think of me like that do you?"
Muted responses from his friends meant only one thing. But surely he could convince others.
He first looked at Misty with pleading eyes but the orange-haired girl waved him off with a voracious reply. "Ash Ketchum, I've been held back until now because of you. Had you not fried my bike I would have easily become the best water-trainer in the world; as well as that my seemingly tarnished reputation as a gym leader is so because of you. Your influence is... damaging."
The raven-haired boy couldn't even comprehend what she was saying, it just didn't seem to make sense to him. Misty was his fiest ever travelling companion and aside from Brock, his best friends.
Ash kept thinking as he could feel the lump in his throat grow heavier. Misty was against him and that had drained him. But what about his other friends it was possible their opinions were different to the traitors.
May and Max were up next and their poised almost furious eyes almost told him the result.
"You're the shittiest trainer alive. I mean at least I came second on my very first Grand Festival. It took you 7 bloody years to get to that point." May's answer made Ash's heart drop, before they previously had a mentor-student relationship but that too had dissolved.
Ash felt his knees drop to the ground when Max's answer came, "I'm so smart that I'm gonna win every league I'm in. You were just a setback. Nothing more." The snooty trainer held his thickly lensed glasses back to almost show how self dignified he was. The nerve.
Amber eyes met dark, brown. Iris.
But her expression was jagged as the next statement as the Unova native flambouyantly waved her thick hair in disgust, "Psst. You were never worth any of our time. Besides in the end you would always remain a 'little kid'."
Instead of emptying the insults into an endless pit of sadness, the statement made Ash's blood boil, as he tried to express his frustration he was interrupted by a green-haired trainer.
But the result was the same and Ash fell into a depressed state after the sentence was read out by Cilan and the edge to it was especially vulgar, "I don't even think you would qualify as a Pokemon Trainer considering your lame skills. Take me as an example, I happen to be a masterful S-Class connoisseur... and you would be nothing..."
As the last 4 words struck Ash's heart, silent tears streamed down his face. How could the always energetic Misty and May, the genius Max and the jovial Cilan agree to this vile plan of Oak's.
Trip and Drew insulted his battling strategies and told him he just came so far because of dumb-luck.
Clemont was a genuine shock. Despite the timid look on the blonde's face, the Pallet town native almost guessed the answer as several stutters rushed out from Ash, "Clemont... do you realy think I'm weak?
A single tear drop fell slowly staining the tiled floor. Clemont spoke as gentle crying halted his speech, "As...h I never meaned to... but Bonnie..."
Ash not understanding the final words broke down in tears as the once brotherly relationship was completely dissolved.
Bonnie had left the scene on the insistence of Oak but she was visibly upset at the pitiful state of Ash.
This left only one person... Serena.
Meanwhile:
As the final stages were set, Domino sat with several groups of grungs situated on the green luscious trees that surrounded the nearby evergreen forests. All eyes were situated on Oak's laboratory, the signal was the only thing remaining.
Each of the grunts carried missiles which consisted of highly powered Hyper Beam projectiles; the danger it posed was undisputed with a single shot able to decapitate a single person.
"Delta 2 this is Delta 1. Target has ben identified. Prepare to fire in T-30 seconds. I repeat 30 seconds. Over and out." Domino clearly enjoyed her job and assassinations were her specialty.
At Oak's:
But the the biggest shock of all was Serena.
"Se..Serena. What happened to you? Why are you siding with these traitors? Why are you even here? I thought you were in Hoeen? Didn't that kiss mean anything to you." Ash almost begged for an answer.
Serena's response was unnaturally quick but answers stuttered and messed up everywhere, "Ash... Of course... not. I've moved on. I've got a new boyfriend." She said it but tears floated in her eyes and she broke down hammering her fist on the floor.
The last words ripped Ash's heart and with that sentence he slumped on the floor practically lifeless. How could all of his friends betray him like this, his breathing came to a halt as Pikachu came to comfort his trainer. Serena included, at one point he had potential feelings for her.
Professor Oak casually walked up to him declaring, "I see you've now submitted. It is time to begin research on you and your Greninja. Now give up on your dream otherwise you'll face our fury. Join us now, I'm taking the right decision as your current father-figure. Some people had to be convinced to come here, others didn't at all. But we received a pretty good turn-out."
Although Ash didn't realize it the main reason of Clemont and Serena coming was to tear Ash's heart bit by bit.
Just then as the menacing spectrum was brought upon the table, happy memories enveloped the boy before using every inch of his will power to stand up.
Rage poured into his wounds as it slowly began to envelop the boy. Why should he care about the words of worthless people and thus a bold answer was retorted, "So you guys think I should just give up on my dream."
Oak not understanding the intended sarcasm, proceeded to clasp his hands in delight acknowledging the submission, " Yes! Yes!"
But Ash wasn't done and the next four words came out like a spitting cobra, "I HATE YOU ALL! Give me my Pokemon and let me leave this nightmare. If you don't I'll order Pikachu to electrify you on the spot!"
Pikachu leapt off his partner's shoulders and yellow sparks emitted from the rodent's cheek sacs. "Pika. Pi!"
To set an example, Pikachu jumped in the air and let loose a powerful zap that narrowly missed frying Trip's toes. And the Unova trainer jumped back in surprise.
The traitors were clearly stunned by his sudden outburst. They had expected him to give up but now he seemed as determined as ever.
Oak signalled a hand to the traitors and a vile smirk spread across the Professor's face, "So be it. Your Pokemon are just on the opposite side of the laboratory. Get to them and you can take them. But you need to get through us."
Suddenly remembering he had 3 of his loyal Kalos Pokemon still with him, Ash clutched their containment balls and threw them in rage.
The first to come out was a large, draconic Pokémon that resembled a bat. It was primarily black with a purple underbelly and blue-green wing membrane. The large, teardrop-shaped ears had alternating rings of blue-green and black on the interiors and they each resemble loudspeakers.
Noivern shook his head at the traitors in disgust as if to mock them.
Talonflame was the next to be sent out. Its appearance as an avian Pokémon that closely resembled a falcon. Red-orange plumage covered its head, wings, and most of its chest and back before tapering off into a flame pattern. As well as being the apex predator in the air, the Predator Pokémon gracefully took flight before perching itself on an unsmiling Ash.
However the last but certainly not the least was Hawlucha, a bipedal bird-like Pokémon with colorful plumage. Its red, cape-like wings have blue-green undersides and are connected to its feathery tail, indefinitely the pride of Hawlucha. As it floated to the ground in a performance style, Hawlucha performed a series of moves to the traitors as almost to say 'Bring it on, Traidores'. (Spanish for traitors if you didn't understand) Before turning to Ash with a confident smile.
Oak sighed almost in pity, "Well we tried, and honestly we did our best. But you Ash are just a stubborn person; even when we try to teach you to teach yourself you refuse, and even when the backup fails, you still refuse. Well so that means me and the others will just have to teach you ourselves. I don't care a damn if I have to torture you..."
"NOOO!" Samuel's speech was interrupted by a cry of anguish. It came from Serena. Her puffy red eyes spilled out even more tears, "Professor, this was never part of the plan! You said Ash wouldn't get hurt!"
Professor Oak was starting to get irritated and the old man yelled, "Shut Up!"
Disheartened by the turn of events, Serena left the room with a saddened Clemont running after her.
The elderly professor then shifted his attention back on Ash and then signalled to the other traitors, "Bring him to me."
Ash stepped back in caution as the rest of his 'so called' friends grabbed a Poke-Ball each.
Misty with her Gyarados. May with her Blaziken. Max with a Ralts. Drew and Trip respectfully sent out Roselia and Serperior. Iris brought her Dragonite to the spectrum whilst Cilan threw out a Panpour. And despite the enclosed space, Oak's lab was big enough to house giants like Gyrados.
Ash gritted his teeth as the traitors prepared attacks and to counter Ash shouted, "Pikachu use Thunderbolt to block any attack coming from Panpour or Gyrados. Talonflame take down Seperior and Roselia whilst Noivern, I want you to obliterate that disobedient Dragonite and wipe the cocky smile from that Novice's face by destroying his Ralts. Finally Hawlucha I want you to manage Blaziken as obviously that pesky fire-type is the biggest threat."
In a series of moves Pikachu countered Gyrados' and Panpour's water attacks with a resolute Thunderbolt. Talonflame was having an easy time destroying the two fire types with Flame Charge. On the other hand though, Hawlucha was being kept on his feet as the fighting Pokemon narrowly dodged a Blaze Kick. Noivern easily wiped out Ralts with a BoomBurst and countered Dragon Rush with Acrobatics. Ash lokked on at his loyal Pokemon with a happy smile as they were risking their lives in order to protect their trainer.
But Ash didn't account Domino to the tally.
Patiently sitting on a shady ledge that overlooked the full moon, Domino held her hand up. It was time to strike.
Each grunt fired their missiles simultaneously and the motioning whistle-like sound caught the attention of both the traitors and Ash.
The sixteen-year old had no time to even register the commotion as several missiles exploded against the exterior wall causing shrapnel to be sent everywhere. One explosion caused a room to cave in, blocking both Ash's sight of the traitors and also his only escape route.
Cursing in vain, he held his eyes as a blonde woman accustomed to the Team Rocket outfit strode into the room accompanied by several grunts.
She walked up to him and looked at the teen in the eye, "Hello sweetie," The tone used was almost seductive, " Just wait here while we exterminate you."
Suddenly several Hyper-Beams flew out of the window causing an impact that sent Ash flying into another room. He sat there defeated until words sparked in his head, 'He had to never give up.'
His Pokemon were worn down after trying to dodge several damaging missiles but standing firm, Ash crawled and stood precariously almost falling down in the process but Hawlucha ever alert caught his trainer.
Unfortunately he had no where to run, the room he had hurled in to was a dead end.
Raucous laughter fell in the room and from the corner of his tired eyes, he could see a faint shadow pass from the room.
It revealed the Blonde Executive from earlier, she was grinning like a madman and to top that off, she was holding a Glock 17 handgun. The Glock was a semi-automatic pistol and Ash knew what her intent was. " What are you going to do? Shoot me?"
A simple answer was returned, "No killing you with 1 shot would be painless. The boss specifically asked me to terminate you and watch as you squirm around in excruciating pain."
Ash's Pokemon made as much noise as possible to express their hatred at Domino who in turn sent out a Carnivine who was a green Pokémon resembling a Venus Flytrap . Its circular eyes had small pupils, and it bared its spiky teeth.
Before Ash could react Domino muttered under her breath, "Use Stun Spore."
Ash held his breath and used his torn jacket as a mask as yellow smoke intoxicated the air. He could feel his eyes burning like hell and when he sensed the pilfering pain ended, he opened his blinded eyes to see all three of his Pokemon slumped on the floor, unconscious.
She levelled the revolver at his chest, Ash's fingers quaking as he felt the cold metal grow increasingly heavy on his broad chest with the passing second. He spoke, his voice a soft plea, "Please. Don't do this."
Domino just laughed in a sadistic tone.
With a breath and a blink of an eye, he didn't even feel her finger twitch on the trigger. The shot was muffled, as though the sound traveled through sea water to his ears. Pikachu could only watch, still, as his trainer stumbled back and stared down at the red blossoming at his chest, before he collapsed.
The sixteen year old gasped as blood splurted out from the wound.
As he thought, 'Well this is it. My goal in life was to never to be.' But then he stopped thinking his palpitating thoughts and his mind envisioned a blue sphere. Aura.
He had originally thought that all of this was due to a lack of blood and it was in reality just a faked illusion. But actually, his breath was deepening with each second. Soon, his breathing had returned to near-normal and his wound started to retract and close upon itself. Ash's body was healing itself as each wave of experience washed over the Pallet native.
In this moment, he felt something that would surely stayed with him intensely for days, like an emotional hangover: Ash felt completely free of worry. It sounded simple, but he was not sure that he would ever experience this feeling in life.
From childhood to adulthood, worry persisted in varying forms and amounts. The experience of mental weightlessness showed him just how much unnecessary burden people take on as part of the human condition. Then he completely realised it. His aura had healed him partially.
Ash was overcome with the emotion of forgiveness: not for others, but for himself. In that moment, the teen felt a peace and buoyancy that words cannot even begin to describe. It was then when a vision rushed into his mind. A vision of his dad. Red. He beckoned him to follow him and Ash ran over to do so. However Red seemed farther and farther away in every step he took.
But a new voice entered his mind. Once again it was Red but it actually felt that he was telling him something, "Ash. Open your eyes and get up. An aspiring master like you won't give up so easily." The words strung Ash like a silver lining.
And then when all hope seemed to be lost and when Pikachu wandered weakly over to his trainer in tears, Ash opened his amber eyes and step by step, stood up weakly, much to the shock of Domino and Pikachu, "But... I just killed you...that's impossible."
The Team Rocket executive cocked another bullet and loaded it into the pistol in puzzlement and caution.
Pikachu bounded over to his trainer in genuine happiness after almost seeing his trainer die and nuzzled Ash, almost electrocuting hin in the process, "Pika. Pika."
"I know it's great to see you to see you two."
Ash's other Pokemon had recovered from their previous and had congregated around their trainer relieved that he was alive. They then turned their attention to Team Rocket and glared daggers at them.
Domino was utterly confused, was this boy just super-human? Never the less, she still pointed her Glock at Ash with the intention of ridding the 'pest' once and for all.
Ash knew his chances were fairly low, he was severely injured thanks to the shrapnel embedded in his thigh and he probably wouldn't be able to survive another attack. There was no way he would sacrifice one of his Pokemon's life, if he did that would make him as vindictive as Team Rocket themselves.
He had to take a risk.
Impulsively leaping forward, Ash slammed into Domino with all his remaining strength and a tussle for the possession of the gun ensued. Grunts jumped forward to protect their commander but they were fended of by the rest of Ash's Pokemon.
But Ash had underestimated Domino's capabilities. She was an expert martial artist and a veteran in hand to hand battle whilst Ash was a sixteen year old with very little experience in combat.
The blonde jumped back and gave a spinning-hook from her fit legs which left a winded Ash choking for breath. She grabbed the teen by his cuff and gave a deadly uppercut which knocked the poor guy out.
Smiling in anticipation, she reloaded her gun and pointed the raw metal directly above Ash's heart. There was no way he was going to escape this time, assuming he didn't have superhuman rejuvenation.
Pikachu and Ash's Kalos Pokemon watched in horror as they relived the previous experience that occured roughly 5 minutes ago. Ash simply grunted in pain and nodded at them as to accept defeat.
Domino shot the bullet and there was no reserves of Aura left to stop her now.
Ash woke up with sweat running profusely down his forehead.
His eyes adjusted to the blinding light that surrounded the blank room.
Was this a dream?
What happened?
Was he in heaven?
And finally, where was he?
The space surrounding him was dull to say at the least. Initially the thought of it seemed to intensely muddle up Ash's mind. Despite the unrealistic feature, it clearly wasn't a dream as everything seemed pretty real. The downside was that there were none of his Pokemon accompanying him. So the surroundings felt alienating. Yet he felt perturbed by the betrayal. In particular, he was downcast due to one.
Ash began to question whether or not he was in heaven but a loud booming voice that spoke confirmed the truth, "Ash Ketchum. I finally see you have arrived."
'Finally arrived?' Ash didn't understand the context but unusually he vaguely recounted listening to the very same voice on multiple occassions.
The voice began to speak again, "Open your eyes Ash. Open them."
Ash did exactly that but nothing happened. Then it clicked inside of him.
The voice was possibly referring to aura.
Hoping that he still had the tiniest reserves of Aura after it was wiped out from the supposed incident.
He concentrated hard and surely enough, blue waves passed through his body emanating the colour of the sea.
Then it happened.
Ash opened his eyes to the twilight sky with it's stars glittering in silence. He turned his head to meet indigo eyes staring ruthlessly at him. Ash recognized the legendary straight away.
A Pokemon created by science. It was bipedal, humanoid Pokemon with a few feline features. It was primarily gray with a long, purple tail. The legendary was created after years of horrific gene splicing and DNA engineering experiments based on Mew. It was said to have the most savage heart among all Pokémon, with the prominent attributes that included: a lack of compassion, and the ability to strike fear into its enemy with cold, glowing eyes. Because it was engineered to be the ultimate in battle, it could only think of defeating its foes. However Ash knew that the Pokemon's traits were actually more caring, protective, and even altruistic.
Ash whispered in awe, "Mewtwo..."
And wrap. Whew this was one of the longest chapters that I've ever written.
Long plot short, Ash got betrayed by his friends, Team Rocket tried to assassinate him and a supposedly dead Ash got rescued by Mewtwo.
If you have any feedback please let me know AS RESPECTFULLY AS POSSIBLE OK!
I usually have a 2 week schedule so you know.
Anyway thanks for reading. And see you next time.
I don't own Pokemon.
But I kinda own this phrase, "PLEASE BURN MY SOUL IN THE REVIEWS."