A/N: Chapter 2 is up (as well as the epilogue of chapter 1)! I hope you continue to enjoy!
CHARIZARD — EPILOGUE.
"You're a real weakling, y'know?" Ash spat, and time stood still.
Charizard crooned at his trainer's back, features soft and open. Brock hadn't seen the pokémon look so vulnerable since he was a charmander, barely clinging to life under a torrential downpour.
"Ash…" Brock breathed, confused and questioning.
"He is!" At that, Charizard warbled in protest. "You are! Can't even…" Ash trailed off. "You need to train. Get stronger! Prove to me you deserve to be on my team!" He tugged his hat down low, as though anybody could see his face. As though it hid the broken tremor in his voice. "Good for nothing…" Something inside him snapped. He scrubbed his face with his hands and sighed. "You'll do it for me, won't you? Become the most powerful charizard in the world? So— so none of these ones will ever be a problem for you. Right?"
Something hardened in Charizard's eyes. He stretched his wings, smoke puffing in rings from his nostrils.
"Well– don't just stand there! Go! I'm leaving now — and you better not follow me! I don't want to see you again until you're stronger."
Silence. Brock hadn't thought Charizard capable of such conflicting emotion, pain warring with resignation, anxiety wrestling with excitement.
Ash didn't give the fire type time to process. "Goodbye!"
And he broke out into a run, leaving Charizard — and Brock, and Misty, and Pikachu — behind.
"What the hell was that about?" Brock demanded once they caught up with him, cornering him, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him when he refused to look up. "Don't you think you could've been nicer about it?"
Ash peered at him, face wet, taking deep, shuddering, gulping breaths. "I– I had to," he mumbled, swaying into Brock numbly. "Char– Charizard understands. He knows… he knows what I meant. It'll do him good, the– the valley. The charizard there are stronger than him, stronger than I can make him. And he wants to get strong. He'll be happier there."
Brock squinted suspiciously. "Couldn't you have been– I don't know– a little less harsh? After everything you and Charizard have been through, everything you've done for him, you–"
"I know– I know," Ash agreed weakly. "But this… he wouldn't have left otherwise. If I'd been… less sure. He'd have– he'd not have wanted to leave me. But he knows I can handle it– handle things without him. He won't be mad. He gets it."
"I hope so," Brock sighed, and the two went to help Misty set up camp for the night.
CHAPTER TWO — INFERNAPE.
"Chimchar, you need to rest!"
Chimchar didn't seem to think so. Paul certainly didn't. Whether the former's conviction was out of a need to please the latter was beyond Brock, but he had a sneaking suspicion that Chimchar was only still standing because he feared what would happen to him if he fell.
Ash bared his teeth, body tense with frustration. "Turtwig," he said pleadingly, "protect Chimchar through this battle!"
The plan fell through within minutes.
"I can't believe it!" the announcer roared over the comms, barely audible over the frenzied crowd. "It seems as though Chimchar is attacking its teammate!"
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Ash snapped. Turtwig, trembling, fought to stay standing, body blackened and charred. "We're meant to be a team!"
"If your turtwig can't take one hit, then it's useless," Paul retorted. "Just stay out of my way!"
Paul battled without regard for who stood in his way, friend or foe. If Turtwig was in the path of Chimchar's flame wheel — well, that was Ash's problem, not his. And if Chimchar flinched under the opponent's zangoose's powerful claws–
Then he wasn't worth training.
/
"Hey, Chimchar," Ash said, holding out his hand. "Wanna come with me?"
Brock paused. Turned, slowly, to face Ash. Paul, metres away, mimicked him, expression perplexed and angry.
"I think you're really strong," Ash continued, "and smart, and brave, and loyal. You saved Turtwig in that last battle! We wouldn't have won without you." His eyes were bright and earnest; Brock's stomach plummeted. "You're the kind of pokémon I want on my team. Whaddaya say?"
Chimchar — after a brief altercation with Team Rocket, who were as terrible at their job as they'd been back in Kanto — agreed with a resounding "Char!" and Brock's stomach somehow plummeted even further.
They were older now, bruised by three regions. Ash was more soldier than child now, something cold behind the light in his eyes.
That didn't mean Brock didn't worry. No child was meant to be so resigned to his own fate, no matter how giddy he seemed in daylight.
He pulled Ash aside the minute he could, dragging him bodily out of earshot and pushing him against a tree.
"Are you kidding?"he hissed. Ash blinked rapidly, vapid. "Do you not remember what happened the last time you took in someone's discarded pokémon?"
"He helped me win lots of battles and became one of my best friends?"
"Before that. Don't act stupid, Ash, you know what I'm talking about."
Ash studied his arms, quietly mapping the scars. Bite marks, scratches, minor burns. Permanent reminders of his inability to know when to quit.
"Chimchar has suffered a lot more than what Charizard ever did. If any pokémon ever had a reason to freak out on you, it'd be him. I know I said it before–"
"– and I was fine in the end," Ash muttered stubbornly. Brock glowered as best he could.
"– but he could get you killed, Ash. This isn't just a bite or an ember — this is a genuinely dangerous pokémon with an ability that makes him go berserk! Whatever Paul was trying to replicate — that's not something an ordinary person can handle."
"I'm not an ordinary person," Ash pointed out. Silenced, Brock folded his arms over his chest.
"I'm not an ordinary person," Ash repeated, "and I've handled way worse than a chimchar. And I'm not giving him up. I didn't abandon Charizard and I'm not abandoning him! That might be Paul's style, it might be Charizard's old trainer's style, but it's not mine."
Brock recognised that tone. It was the self-righteous, noble I've died before and I'm no longer afraid of anything voice. It was a bluff, but it was impossible to reason with. Ash had a nasty habit of wanting to fix every broken thing he saw — Brock couldn't change his mind.
"You're not going to listen to me, are you?" he said, voice gentler. Fond, almost, despite his resignation.
"Nope. I know what I'm doing, I promise."
So Brock relented. Chimchar was a quiet, obedient little thing who clung to every scrap of kindness thrown his way. Something as simple as the otherwise monotonous routine of preparing a meal became a luxury, and Brock used Dawn's confusion to distract himself from Chimchar's exhausted sobbing.
"Chimchar's never been allowed to just feel before," he explained to the girl at his side. "To finally have a trainer who cares for him, and after everything that's happened to him… sometimes you've just gotta let it all out."
"Poor lil guy," Dawn sighed, hugging Piplup close. "At least he's got Ash now, right? He deserves to feel loved."
"Yeah," Brock mumbled begrudgingly, tactfully omitting the I guess. "He does."
After that, he made a point of leaving Ash to his own devices. Even when Chimchar lost his mind in a battle against Paul's ursaring and gave Ash nasty burn scars in the middle of a rampage, sinking his teeth into his trainer's shoulder and leaving puncture wounds that wouldn't stop bleeding, Brock stayed quiet. And if his hands shook as he patched Ash up–
Well, that was his problem, not anybody else's.
Ash, being Ash, didn't recognise the severity of the situation. Chimchar avoided him for days afterwards, guilty and skittish — Ash seemed stumped, as though his arm wasn't in a sling and he didn't walk with a pronounced, shuffling limp.
"He's scared because he's dangerous," Brock pointed out one evening, if only to end Ash's perplexed misery.
"But I'm fine," he replied, "and I'm not mad, so why should he be?"
"Maybe because if you keep running headfirst into blaze, you just might suffer worse than a few bite marks. Ash–"
"I get it, Brock," Ash chirped, eyes bright and strangely cheerful. Brock stared, stupefied. "But that doesn't change anything. He's my partner, and he's earned his place here as much as anyone else. I'm not gonna let a setback like this ruin everything."
"Yeah, great," Brock grumbled. "Doesn't change the fact that he goes crazy under pressure."
"We'll work on it," Ash said agreeably, nudging him with his shoulder. "And hey. At least he listens most of the time. That's better than what Charizard was doing at this point, right?"
Charizard. As a charmeleon, he'd been a wild and indomitable spirit. Chimchar, no matter how ferocious when fired-up — pun intended — by his ability, remained subservient so long as blaze was inactive. Brock bit out a laugh. "Mm," he agreed, "I suppose so. Just… promise me you won't do anything reckless, okay?"
They both knew Ash couldn't. It was as much his nature to leap into the thick of danger as it was a talonflame's to fly, or a sandshrew's to dig.
He hummed his agreement anyway.
Reconciliation was inevitable, though. Ash was never one to sit and let things fix themselves; he was a doer, impatient and well-meaning. He coaxed Chimchar out of his self-imposed isolation and combed his fingers through the tuft of fur on the fire type's head, and if his shoulder ached under Chimchar's grip, then he refused to let it show.
"I dunno what Paul used to tell you, but it was all wrong, y'know?" he said. "I think you're great. You're super strong, you work harder than anybody else I know… so what if you can't control blaze yet? You'll get there, I know it!"
Chimchar sniffed guiltily. Ash plucked quietly at the hem of his shirt, deep in thought. Then–
"Hey, have I ever told you about Charizard?" At Chimchar's questioning look, Ash launched into a dramatic retelling of his journeys through Kanto, the Orange Islands and Johto, equipped with sound effects and exaggerated re-enactments of otherwise mundane events — not that there was anything mundane about Ash and his adventures.
By the end, Chimchar seemed to have returned to his typical, optimistic self, eyes burning with a renewed excitement for his future, and Brock resumed his vow of silence on the fire type's presence. Blaze became a diminishing issue as time passed, and when it evolved into a monferno mid-battle against Paul, the problem seemed to disappear entirely. Monferno's anger manifested as an energetic tail-flame, but blaze failed to activate irrespective of the damage dealt by Paul's electabuzz.
"Maybe he's grown out of it?" Dawn asked after the match.
"Maybe," Brock agreed dubiously.
Weeks later, a battle against Barry and his empoleon triggered another rampage. Team Rocket's intervention barely provided a distraction; Ash tried, largely in vain, to prevent Monferno from hurting anybody, but if the pokémon heard him, then he didn't think to obey. He lunged at Team Rocket; they were sent flying; and without them, their mecha creaked and slumped, pressing heavily on Paul's electabuzz's protect;
"Ash, it's too dangerous!" Brock yelled, trapped inside one of Team Rocket's spherical contraptions. Ash struggled against Monferno's claws, teeth and flames regardless, clinging onto him desperately.
"Don't you remember the promise we made?" he begged. Red stained his shirt, skin torn and blistering. Monferno thrashed and screamed, eyes glassy and unseeing. "We said we were gonna get stronger together! I know you can control this!"
Ash's words did little to calm Monferno — if anything, they only served to whip him into a higher state of frenzy. Brock pounded uselessly against the barrier separating him from Ash and watched, helpless, as Electabuzz's protect shattered, the mecha collapsed towards it, and Monferno–
Monferno evolved.
/
"Hey, Paul," Ash called, stopping the boy in his tracks. Infernape clenched and unclenched his fists, countenance bright with an emotion Brock couldn't quite discern. "Thanks for helping us back there. Without your electabuzz…" he trailed off. Paul remained silent, back turned. "You should battle me and Infernape someday. Now he's fully evolved, we can show you just how strong he really is!"
Paul scuffed his shoe and said nothing for the longest time. "My brother wants to see us battle again, at our full strengths. At the Sinnoh League."
Ash's eyes widened.
"That's where I'll face Infernape."
Infernape brandished his fists with a cry and Ash grinned, buzzing with new determination. "Alright," he said, barely leashing his excitement. "Let's meet at the Sinnoh League!"
But Paul was already stalking away. Something uncertain flickered in Ash's gaze, jaw tight.
He looks so much older, Brock realised suddenly. Like a soldier, world-weary but still fighting.
"You need to show him how much stronger your pokémon have become since the last full battle," he said. Ash turned to him with a small smile.
"You can't lose this time, Ash!" Dawn added, ever the optimist.
"Yeah," Ash agreed, bouncing on the balls of his heels. "With Infernape by my side, I'll be unstoppable."
He's my partner, and he's earned his place here as much as anyone else.
"I don't doubt it," Brock said, and he meant it.
A/N: Reviews/comments are always appreciated! I try to take all constructive criticism into account so I can improve any future writing I do. :)