Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Pokemon, its characters, locations, or names. All of them, with the exception of the original characters, belong to Nintendo
Credits: The original fan fiction Shadow League was based off, Pokemon Master, was written by Acey. I retrieved permission before starting this the first time. Kiall and Elizabeth belong to me. "Paran" is the property of Elemental Sorceress, who had requested that I include her in my fan fiction. "Shadow Fox" is the property of Shadow Fox 05, who also requested that I include him in my fan fiction.
A/N: Ignoring the fact that I'm getting lazy again, I do have some good news. I'm going to be taking Japanese classes now. XD So I can finally learn the language like I want to. Wheeee. So..yeah.
As for the story, there isn't much to say, once again. Though, one thing I still have yet to figure out, is how one of the characters doesn't know about Ash. Just about everyone else did, except for this one...and...I don't think I'll ever figure out why or how. Maybe one of you readers can? XD
Warnings: The pairing in this is RivalSibling. This fan fiction has a lot of violence and gore, not to mention some language, and implied rape/sex. Not for kids, that's for sure.
- - -
Chapter 18: Entering Indigo City
Ash held a hand out to stop them from continuing when he peeked around a corner, narrowing his eyes. He could hear people talking, two of them, and nodded. Recognizing one, his eyes lit up, and he smiled. "Perhaps I shouldn't run around with this, eh?" he said, letting his cloak melt into nothing.
Ready for the city, they walked toward the two guards, trying to look as unsuspicious as they could. "Halt!" one of the two shouted, and they looked at him questioningly.
"Is there a problem?" Lance asked lightly, and he eyed them.
"Names?" he barked out, and Ash gently pushed Lance back, smiling slightly. He looked at the glaring guards name tag – even though he already knew his name, having known him when he was still in the League – and nodded slightly.
"Nik, you need to let us in," he whispered to him, tipping his head slightly. Ash paused, running a list of names through his mind, and shrugged. "I'm Mazin, this girl by me is Nadia, the redhead is Rosemary, the blond is Leta, then the two other guys are Vincent and Quinn."
The guard, Nik, smirked slightly, and looked toward his companion. "Well, normally we'd have to do background checks, but since you seem like gentle enough people, you may enter," he said, stepping out of their way with a bow.
Before Ash could take even two steps, the other guard interrupted them, grabbing hold of his shoulder. "No," he said slowly, "this man here, he looks like..."
Raising an eyebrow, Ash looked at him. "Who, exactly, do I look like?" he asked, and was given a worried look by May.
The second guard scowled. "You look like Master Ashura, that son of a bitch who is trying to tear up all of our work," he growled.
"Oh, lay off him," Nik shushed, waving them through, "you know as well as I do he wouldn't come in this way, if he's coming here at all. Go on through, eh...Mazin."
"Mm, that got a bit tight there." May remarked when they were out of the guards' earshot, "How'd you come up with those alias' so quickly?"
"Luck." Ash frowned, looking around thoughtfully. "It doesn't look much different then it did before. We better get moving before we get into trouble."
"Which I'm sure you'll manage to get us into anyway." Ash glared at May, who shrugged innocently. "What?"
"I am going to pretend that I didn't hear you say that," he growled. Throwing himself down on a bench, he looked at them. "We should most likely try to rest before trying to find our way around here."
"I feel like I'm about to fall over dead." Lance took a seat on the next bench, leaving room for Misty to join him. "We've been up since four this morning..."
Their quiet discussion was ended when a harsh voice started yelling close by. "God dammit, how many times must I tell you/ If Master Kiall orders use to be on the look out for Ashura, we will damn well be on the look out for Ashura! Have I made made myself clear yet?"
Nervously, Ash glanced toward the voice, and visibly paled at the sight of the one man he had hoped he wouldn't see any time soon. When the angry man turned to face their direction, Ash pulled May over, and whispered softly to her. "I'm sorry."
Her questioning look went unanswered as he kissed her on the cheek, then the neck. As a handful of the League's Guard went by, he glanced over meekly as he heard the lead man still talking about him. "I was a General, even back then. That idiot was annoying as ever, following me around and interrupting my sessions. Bugging me about total nonsense. Asking me about the raids he didn't go on, asking about this, asking about that...bah, needed to get on with his life if you ask me. If he wasn't training with that fool pokemon of his, he was off getting on someone's nerves, whether it be some Trainers', a Master's, or mine."
"I'm not the idiot here," Ash growled, glaring in his direction, and felt May flinch. "Grant is."
"Oh, great job, Ash!" Lance snapped when Grant turned to regard them, his eyes narrowed. The general's eyes widened slightly, before he focused on Ash.
"What in blazes? How in hell did you get in here?!" The soldiers – Masters and Trainers, mainly, it appeared – watched them silently as Grant advanced on him. Ash quickly stood, purposely not even acknowledging it when Paran started to try to talk to him.
"What can I say, I'm just that good." Ash smirked, letting Pikachu climb up to balance on his shoulders. "I don't know about anyone else, but I for one can not allow a nitwit of a man to call me an idiot, when he is one himself."
"How dare you!" Grant roared, glaring at his soldiers, "What the hell are you all doing? SEIZE THEM!"
"Run, all of you! I'll keep them back!" Ash shouted, and Lance, Fox and Misty took off in one direction, with May, Lucia, and Paran going another, leaving Ash and Pikachu to fend off the hordes.
"They split into groups!" one of the Trainers said, "What'll we do, General?"
"Gah, you split into the same number of groups, you brain dead moron!" Grant snarled, "Some of you, stay with me! I'll need help in handling Ashura."
"Oh, and why is that, Grant? If I'm such a terribly annoying idiot, shouldn't it be a breeze for you to capture me alone?" the Shadow Master asked coolly, smiling as he stepped back, letting his cloak form around him. His eyes didn't stray from Grant or the small army behind him. "I could take out every single one of you if I really wanted to."
Grant stared at him, not even flinching. "You'd dare try it, inside of Indigo City? You are surrounded by more Masters and Trainers here, then even you and the Light Mistress together could beat!"
"You think I should care? I can get to your precious Master even with the whole of this city on the look out for me. You'll be begging for mercy after I get through with all of you." Ash folded his arms against his chest, cocking his head and giving Grant a haughty smile. "Scared, General? I wouldn't blame you, as I have been able to defeat Sabrina, Agatha, and Blaine, not to mention Aerodactia and Blaine's Rapidash. And I've fought the League army countless times."
Grant knew what game Ash was playing; he was trying to bait him into giving a reaction. "Scared? Ha! I would never be scared of someone, especially someone the likes of you!"
"The likes of me?" he asked, and glared at a Trainer that dared to step forward to attack; they cowered down behind one of their comrades, getting disgusted looks from most of them.
Grant smirked. Ash had backed into a wall, surrounded by the army, and Pikachu's cheeks sparked dangerously; both knew it was a bad position to be in. Quickly glancing up, Ash saw his only way of getting out of the situation quickly. "SEIZE HIM!" the general hollered.
Pikachu leaped up, kicking off the wall to gain more height, and disappeared onto the rooftop. Following suit, Ash did the same, having to dodge the attacks of the Masters. With one last kick, Ash flipped onto the roof, and peeked down at them. "Nice try, Grant!" he called down, smirking, "But not quite good enough!"
Before they could make moves to follow him up, Ash took off at a run when Pikachu jumped back up onto his shoulder. He frowned. "Pika?" the pokemon asked.
"It's no good. With them going to be on alert now, I'm going to have to watch out for any members. I'd like to go find the others, but it's just putting them in more danger then they need to be," he mused, swiftly jumping from rooftop to rooftop, ignoring the afternoon sunlight that beat down on him. "I might be better to wait until evening...I stick out like a neon sigh in this light."
"Chu, pikapi..." Ash shrugged, and slipped down onto the ground, taking to the back allies until he was in the housing district. Quietly sliding the window of the first house open, he slipped in, hoping it was empty; he found out it wasn't.
"Who're you?" a small voice asked, and Ash peered at the small child that stood staring up at him curiously.
Oh shit Smiling slightly, he bent down to be at his level. "Where's your parents?" he asked gently, and the boy looked toward what Ash assumed was the kitchen.
"Mommy!" Frowning, a young woman walked in, wiping her hands.
"What is it?" she asked, before looking at Ash, "Oh, who're you?"
Ash brushed his hair back out of his face, sighing. "What, is that the question of the day today?" Realizing she actually had a reason for asking, he shrugged. "My name's Ashura."
Even though he knew he was probably about to get attacked, he put his hand out in hopes that she wouldn't report him if it appeared that he wasn't purposely trying to break into her house. "Ashura?" she echoed, walking toward him, looking at him curiously, and circled him, disbelief etching across her face. "Ashura...I can't believe it." she murmured, stopping to stand in front of him, a smile forming, "It's been years. Do you remember me?"
Ash tilted his head slightly, looking at her thoughtfully. As Pikachu slid off his shoulders, he shook his head. "I can't say...well...I'm not sure. You look sort of familiar..." he admitted.
"Remember any teenagers you used to talk to?" He snickered, the woman's name surfacing from the depths of his memory.
"I remember a few. How're you doing, Destiny?" he asked, "I'm...er...sorry about the entrance. I really didn't think it bright running around in broad daylight, and this was the closest house."
"Oh, don't worry about it. Just be grateful you barged in here and not into the neighbor's house." As she led him to the dining room, which was where her son had ran off to and was colouring in, she continued talking. "Everything is alright, though what's happening with you?"
Ash sighed. "Well, I'd hoped to get to the League headquarters without making any trouble beforehand. Call it sneaking in, if you like. Though when I first came in, General Grant decided to show his ugly face, and...well, you can imagine that it didn't go so well when he started insulting me to the soldiers." He sat down at the table with her.
"Aha. You got into a fight with him again, didn't you?" she asked. He nodded slowly.
"What else? So now I have to stay low until nighttime before I can even think of going over to the headquarters." Ash chewed on his lip. "I'm rather obvious in daylight," he added, and Destiny laughed.
"Yes, of course, you would be. Why don't you stay until dinnertime? You can rest up, and then can have a bite to eat before you go off to do what you have to do?" Destiny suggested, and Ash learned his chair onto its hind legs, rocking back and forth.
"Hmm...that's a good idea. Tonight's not going to be easy. Where do I go?"
"Just down the hall. It's the last door on the right." Nodding, he stood, and walked out.
- - -
"Of all the bushes...did we really need to hide in this one? It's a thrickel bush!" May sighed, picking the thorns out of her sleeves. Paran laid next to her, peering out at the street.
"It isn't my fault that we have to sit and hide in bushes! If Ash hadn't made a fuss when Grant was being a jerk, we wouldn't have to hide at all!" she whined.
"Well, he didn't have to go off insulting Ash like he did either." May added, "I admit, I think he overreacted, but...did they not get along all that well before? It sounded like they knew each other."
"I think so. Grant mentioned something about Ash following him around all the time and bothering him. What was that all about?" Paran asked. The brunette frowned, and shrugged.
"I don't know."
- - -
In another part of the city, Lance, Misty, and Fox sat in an alleyway, discussing plans on what they could do next. "Who knows where they are?" Lance said, "We can either go look for May and Paran first, or go look for Ash."
"Paran knows her way around already, so I'm assuming they'll be fine on their own. Ash hasn't been around here lately, so..." Misty replied. Lance shook his head.
"Ah, but he said it hadn't changed much since the last time he'd been here." Fox frowned at them.
"It's pointless looking for Ash. You know as well as I do that the minute that we were to get within five feet of the League Headquarters, he'd run off again anyway." Lance pointed out, "It might be better to group back up with May and Paran."
"That's true." the Water Master admitted reluctantly, "He won't want us involved in his fights. That's why he left early at Cerulean for Sabrina, after all, even though his plan did backfire."
"Let's go find them then," Fox said, standing up warily. Doing the same, Misty and Lance followed him out of the alley.
- - -
"Mister, you've gotta wake up!" a girl's voice said. Ash mumbled under his breath, turning over. Scowling, Pikachu crawled out from under him. "Mommy said to come wake you up. It's dinnertime!"
"Five more minutes, kid," he said, pulling the pillow over his face. Blinking, she walked out, returning once again with Destiny several minutes later.
"Come on Ash. You need to have some dinner!" Ash twisted to look at her, irritation evident on his face.
"What time is it?" he asked, stretching out lazily, and pushing the blanket off.
"Six in the evening." she replied, "I'll leave so you can get ready. Come on Rach."
"I wanna stay here," Rachel whined, and Destiny sighed. She looked at Ash.
"Do you mind if she stays in here?" she asked, and he shook his head. "I want you to behave, young lady. Don't badger him, right?"
"Yes Mommy." As Destiny left, Rachel propped her head up on her hands, elbows on the bed as she watched Ash. He swung his legs over the side, and bent down to reach for his boots. "Why's your pikachu black?"
As he pulled them on, checking to make sure they were snug, Ash shrugged. "It's because Pikachu is a Shadow Pokemon," he said, and Rachel walked around to look up at him thoughtfully.
"Whatsa Shadow Pokemon?" she asked curiously, and Ash picked her up gently to sit her on his lap.
"What's a Shadow Pokemon? Well, I guess you could say they are like any of the other pokemon, except that they are dark, like Pikachu, and have red eyes. They're stronger then normal ones too." She looked at him.
"But why doesn't yours have red eyes too?" Pikachu's ears flattered, clearly miffed at such a question.
"I'm not too sure." Ash shrugged. "I guess he's just special." Rachel jumped down, and pointed at his cloak.
"Are you going to put that on?" she asked, and he picked it up from its place on the back of a chair, where he had flung it haphazardly. He nodded.
"My cloak? Yes." He fastened the clasp at his neck, tapping it for good measure, and smiled when she looked at him in awe. Ash pulled the hood up over his head and face, a shadow falling over his features.
"You're scary looking," Rachel mumbled, and Ash grinned, picking her up.
"Oh, I am scary! I am the evil shadow demon!" he growled, swinging her up to sit on his shoulders, and ducked down as he ran out of the room to avoid the door frame. Destiny froze in surprise when Ash bolted past her.
"Woah!" Ash had to skid to a stop when he near ran into another man, his boots sending up sparks on the tile flooring. Rachel giggled in delight. "I take it that you're the Ashura I've been hearing about?"
Ash nodded as they looked at each other critically. "Yeah, that's me. You're Destiny's husband?" he asked, getting a nod in return.
"That's me. The name's Dallas." He sat down at the table – which was already set for dinner, with five placements – heavily.
"I'm surprised at how good with children you are, Ash. You always did seem to have a thing with them," Destiny said as she walked in behind him. She smiled. "Could you get her into her seat?"
"Noooooo," Rachel squeal, refusing when Ash moved to let her down, "I wanna keep playing!"
"Maybe after dinner we'll play more," he soothed, letting her slide off, and sat down once she was seated.
Once dinner was underway, Destiny turned to Ash. "Did you ever find that girl you had been crying over?" she asked, and he nearly dropped his silverware in surprise.
"Oh yeah, I found her. Though it was actually more like she'd found me." She noted the smile Ash suddenly had. It didn't appear forced like it had been years ago; it was genuine. "We're even Bonded."
"Bonded?" Dallas asked politely. Ash nodded.
"Yes. I'm not sure how to explain it. I guess it has something to do with our Elements."
Dallas spit his drink out, shock evident on his face when he looked at him. "Elements? You're a Master?" he said, "Shadow Master?"
"Even though most people know this already, yes, I am." Dallas turned to Destiny angrily.
"Destiny!" he snapped, "You know how I feel about all of these damn Masters!" She was quiet for a minute.
"Yes, of course I know." she replied waspishly, "You never stop nagging me about them usually."
"Then why in hell didn't you tell me he was one?!" he asked, pointing at Ash, who stared back at him loathingly. Destiny frowned.
"Because I knew how you'd react. We were better off without you knowing about it." she said, "Ash, could you please do me a favor? Take Rachel and Sirius to their room and watch them for me? Just for a few minutes?"
Nodding, Ash stood as Rachel helped her little brother out of his own chair, and started toward the living room with them when Dallas rushed over to stop them. Peeved, Ash rose an eyebrow. "Do you have a problem?" he asked, his voice sickly sweet. The venomous undertone didn't go undetected by the other man, who moved out of the way.
As they got into the bedroom and Sirius crawled into his bed to make a fort out of his blankets, they could hear Dallas and Destiny arguing in the kitchen. It took nearly an hour before there was the sound of the front door opening then slamming shut, then silence. The woman walked in frowning, and shook her head. "I'm so sorry, Ash. He can't seem to get it through his head that not all Masters are total monsters." she said, "Dallas had no right to react like that, and to treat you like he did."
"If I had known, I wouldn't of bothered saying anything." Destiny shook her head again, and frowned at him. "Ugh, it seems like I've screwed up again. That's been happening a bit too often lately."
"No...oh, no! You haven't, not at all! I've had that issue with him for awhile now, it wasn't you that caused it." She smiled slightly. "Look at Rachel. She's usually very shy around strangers, but she's been giggling and talking to you and everything." Ash was silent, letting Pikachu jump up onto his shoulder.
"I've got to get going. I need to get to the headquarters before daybreak." He tugged on his gloves restlessly, and looked out the window, pulling his hood forward again to hide his face.
"Why don't you go through the door this time?" Destiny asked as he edged the window open, and poked his head out to look around. He slid a leg out to sit on the ledge.
"Nah. That's too obvious, and this is just easier," he replied, and the two children ran over to see what he was doing.
"Where're you going, mister?" Rachel asked, pulling on his sleeve, "You're supposed to play with me!"
Ash forced a smile. "I'm in a bit of a hurry, so I have to go. But I'll come back later, and I'll play with you then!" he quickly apologized, jumping up to get onto the roof. Destiny hung out to look up at him.
"Be careful Ash! There'll be a lot of Trainers and Masters patrolling the streets since it's dark out," she warned him, and he nodded, thanking her for mentioning it, and started his short journey, jumping from house roof to house roof rapidly.
- - -