Sorry it took me longer than expected. I was pretty busy with packing on Saturday, and on Sunday, i spent 18 HOURS riding on a train. And i couldn't use my laptop, because there were no outlets, and my battery died, and.. I almost went insane. But i'm here now, soo...

(I don't own Pokemon, but what if i did?)

Ash tried to concentrate on breathing the next morning. He hadn't gotten one wink of sleep the last night, which helped him develop one hell of a headache. And then there were still all those cuts… And he just learned that Team Rocket was going to take his other pokémon to their boss today… Once they got back from wherever they went…

I can't let them take the others away… And they're too weak to break out on their own. And I don't think I can get out of these ropes myself… I've tried all last night and it didn't work… Unless… Ash's mind was struck with an idea.

"Hey, Grovyle…" Ash pushed his back up to Grovyle's cage. "Do…do you think you can use a weak Leaf Blade attack to cut through my ropes?"

"Vyle…gro…," Grovyle whispered, not looking so well. Nonetheless, the leaf on his right arm glowed and turned into a small blade, and he carefully used it to slice through Ash's ropes like butter.

"Thanks, buddy," Ash said, beginning to work on the ropes around his ankles. "I'll get you out, and then we can go to the pokémon center to get you guys better." Sliding the ropes off his ankles, he grabbed the keys to the cages from the table just ten feet away from him, ignoring his body's protests.

Five minutes later, Ash and his pokémon walked out of Team Rocket's base. He would have returned his pokémon to their pokéballs, but he couldn't find his backpack that held the pokéballs inside the base, so he assumed that the bag had fallen off outside.

He might have taken about ten steps onto the grass before he heard a snap of a twig behind him.

"Ah ha!" James exclaimed loudly, jumping behind Ash and pulling a thin but strong rope around his neck, making Ash gasp for breath. "Jessie told me that you'd pull something like this!" He looked to the pokémon. "You better get back inside, or I'll kill twerp…" And to demonstrate, James pulled the string so hard, Ash grabbed for it on reflex and tried to get it off.

No such luck. But James did loosen up as the pokémon seemed to begin to obey.

You can't make my pokémon do anything…, Ash thought angrily, jabbing James with his elbow as hard as he could.

James yelped, and for a second, the string pulled tight again, and Ash almost blacked out.

After jabbing more forcefully, Ash managed to squirm free of James's grip. "This is for all you've done!" And Ash punched James right in the jaw, driving the Team Rocket member into a tree and into unconsciousness.

Grabbing his backpack, Ash took the pokéballs out, gave his pokémon a look that said, 'don't worry', and returned them.

Ash was about one or two miles from the nearest town when he stopped in his tracks, realizing that he still looked……pretty bad.

Looking down to the blood stained shreds that used to be his shirt, Ash decided he better do something about that before he went to the pokémon center. It was his pokémon who needed help, not him, and he was sure that if Nurse Joy saw him like this…well, he was sure that it wouldn't help him in any way.

Still walking pretty fast, Ash suddenly pulled off his backpack and held it close to his chest. There…now no one will ever notice… Yeah, now I better step on it. And with that, he began to walk a little faster.

Twenty minutes later, he handed over his pokéballs to Nurse Joy. "And um…I'd like a room, please."

"Okay." Nurse Joy smiled at him. "For how long?"

"Just for a day, please." Inwardly, Ash was pleased that Nurse Joy didn't seem to notice that he was hiding his chest, or the cuts on his leg—but she wouldn't be able to see those from behind her desk.

She told him what room he would be staying in, and Ash quickly went there.

He dropped his bag on the bed and went into the bathroom, turning on the shower and stripping off his dirty clothes.

Stepping into the cascade of hot drops of water, Ash ignored the angry stinging of his cuts and focused on cleaning himself thoroughly.

He closed his eyes for a second, being so tired from no sleep and nonstop walking. But he also found his thoughts drifting back to his friends. They were probably in Mossdeep City by now—if they decided to go there, that is.

He wondered if they had been thinking about him lately…if they had worried at all…

No, Ash thought. Of course they wouldn't worry. It's not like they care… He scrubbed at the cuts on his chest in frustration, telling himself that he was just cleaning the dirt out. But all it did was make the cuts bleed again…

"You WHAT!" Max exclaimed loudly, disbelief written all over his face. The three had made it to Mossdeep, and now they were in their room at the pokémon center.

"I don't think it's that bad of an idea," Brock commented.

"Good, that means you're out voted, Max," May said.

Max folded his arms across his chest. "Well, I claim Ash's voting rights, so I say two 'no' votes!"

"I knew Ash way longer than you have," Brock pointed out. "I'm claiming his rights. Ha. Three against one. It's settled. Drew is traveling with us. Or at least until Ash comes back."

"Why are you so against it anyway?" May asked her little brother, a little annoyed.

"The question is, why are you so with the idea?" Max queried suspiciously.

"Well…um… You know, I could learn a lot from him, since his contest methods differ from mine……," May tried.

"It doesn't matter why," Brock said. "He's coming with us whether you like it or not, Max."

Max's eyebrows creased irritably. "It's not fair you get Ash's voting rights!" he spat out.

Brock's amused smile gradually turned into a frown. "Speaking of Ash, we should try and contact him… I mean, we haven't seen him in…like…three or four days now." As he said that, he began to look worried. Going over to the phone and taking out the phone book, Brock began to dial a number. "Ash couldn't have gotten that far from Lilycove in only three days. So I'll call every pokémon center that's near Lilycove…"

"Once he gets back," Max said to May, "Drew's leaving."

"Not necessarily. Besides, how long is it going to take to get Pikachu back? Ash could be gone forever."

"May! I can't believe you would say that!" Max cried. "If I didn't know better, I would say you don't care about Ash whatsoever!"

"Shut up, Max," May ordered in her big sister voice. "I was just stating the obvious. No one else seems to want to." And she returned the glare that Max was throwing her.

"Uh-huh, I see. Thanks anyway… Bye," Brock said to his third Nurse Joy. He began to dial once again. He looked to the two siblings. "Be quiet, you two…"

"Hello?" asked Nurse Joy.

"Hello, my name is Brock, and I was wondering if there's an Ash Ketchum there?"

"Oh, yes, he just came in a half an hour ago. I'm assuming you wish to speak with him?"

Brock threw a triumphant look over his shoulder. "Yes, please."

"Okay. Please stand by while I connect you to his room…" And the screen went blank, a sound telling Brock that Ash's phone was ringing…

Bring! …Bring! …Bring!

Ash glared into thin air, annoyed because the phone just had to ring when he was just about to try and get some sleep. Flipping off the screen switch to the phone, he answered it with a simple, "Hello…?"

"Ash?" Brock's face filled the screen, but of course, Brock couldn't see Ash. Hence the turned off screen.

"Who else would it be?" Ash asked no one in particular. "What's up?"

"Nothing… We just arrived in Mossdeep…so…yeah…" Brock paused, looking puzzled. "Why isn't your screen working?"

"Because I don't have it on," Ash said tightly.

Brock's face showed a little suspicion and he didn't say anything for a minute.

"And as you probably already figured out, I still don't have Pikachu back," Ash added, trying to keep the emotion out of his voice. "So I'm not going to meet up with you guys…yet… As if you care…," he said the last bit just under his breath.

"Hey, Ash," Max began, coming into the screen. "If me, May, and Brock were going to vote on something, who'd you give your voting rights to?"

Ash didn't see the point to this question, but answered, "Brock."

Max groaned and Ash saw him collapse in a bed that was behind Brock. "Why? Why me?"

"Anyway," Brock continued. "We just decided to check up on you…"

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why?" Brock asked indignantly. "You've been gone for three days! We haven't seen you in three days!" Ash could see Brock frowning. He could also spot May and Max next to Brock.

"Turn that screen on," Brock ordered.

"Why?" Ash asked again.

"Because we want to see you," Brock replied.

Ash was silent for a very long time. "Fine," he finally retorted, flipping the screen on.

Three pairs of eyes bored into him for the longest time.

"Umm… You don't look too well, Ash," Brock said, frowning even more.

Ash rolled his eyes. If you think I look bad from just seeing me from the shoulders up, then you should see my bare chest. Now there's something you would frown about.

"You look like you haven't slept in days," Max added. "And…" He frowned. "Did—did something happen?"

Ash shrugged. "I just ran into some………trouble. Nothing too bad."

"Ash, seriously, you don't look well," Brock repeated.

Ash glared. "It's not like I want to look like this, Brock. And so what? I'm a little in— I mean, tired. It's not like you can do anything about it. You're not here, Brock. None of you are! Do you know why you aren't here? Because what happened to me would have happened to you. And I would never, never, put you through that."

"What do you mean, 'what happened to you'?" May queried.

Ash briefly wondered how he should answer that question when there was a knock on his door. Looking back to the screen, he said, "Hold on, someone's knocking…"

He got up and opened the door, to find Nurse Joy there.

"Here's your pokémon back, Ash," she said with a smile, handing his pokéballs to him. "With a little more rest, they'll be fine." And she left.

Closing his door again, Ash let out his pokémon, just to see how they were doing.

Swellow and Corphish looked much better. Swellow began to stretch his wings experimentally.

Ash smiled slightly, happy that his pokémon were feeling better. He opened his window and said, "Why don't you stretch your wings out there, Swellow? Just don't push yourself too hard."

"Swellow!" And Swellow flew out the window happily, soaring across the skies.

"Vyle, gro vyle vyle?" Grovyle asked tiredly.

"Just seeing how you guys were doing," Ash said, returning Grovyle to his pokéball and looking to Corphish, giving the crab pokémon a 'glad-you're-okay' look before returning him to his pokéball. Last but not least, he looked to Torkoal, who was crying again.

Ash sighed and sat down in front of the phone screen again. "It's okay, Torkoal…"

Torkoal ignored his words and plopped himself next to Ash's chair.

"What's wrong with Torkoal?" May inquired, looking to the orange turtle pokémon.

"Um… You know Torkoal… He's……easily…worried," Ash replied carefully.

There were three frowns on the other end of the line. "Which brings me back to my previous question…," May began again.

"Nothing. Nothing 'happened' to me," Ash answered curtly. "You don't have to 'worry'."

"Kooooooaaaaal!"

"I'm fine, Torkoal, buddy," Ash soothed. "I'm fine now… It's okay… It's going to take a little more than that to bring me down…" Even as he said that, he shuddered, remembering the nasty trick Pikachu played.

"Ash…," Brock said in a 'tell-me-what-happened' voice.

Ash's cuts flared angrily, letting Ash know that something was irritating his skin. Placing a hand on his chest, trying to stop the cuts from hurting, Ash said, "Um, as much as I'd love to talk to you guys all day—"

"Don't you dare do what I think you're about to do, Ash," May spat. "You're not just going to—"

Ash hit the disconnect button, ending the conversation. It was getting a little too uncomfortable for him anyway. Pulling up his shirt, he looked at the cuts underneath and wasn't pleased with what he saw.

They were everywhere. Crisscrossing and some still bleeding. Some weren't as deep as others, but even the thinnest ones were pretty deep. All in all, his whole chest burned like hell.

Ash let himself fall onto his bed and tried to get some sleep.

You can read the next chapter now )