DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN POKEMON

Chapter 4: Separation

Charizard was silent. What had just happened to him had certainly took its toll on him by deeply scarring his heart and letting fast flows of tears run down his face like they were never-ending river streams.

He snapped out of his trance when he finally saw Ash disappear into the trees and out of his sight. He looked away to another direction and spotter a small lake in another clearing. He flew above took off from the ground and gently hovered about the tops of the trees until he came to the clearing with the lake. He landed softly on the green grass at the edge of the lake.

He peered at the water of the lake and saw his reflection.

Except it wasn't the reflection of a Charizard.

It was the reflection of a monster. A monster that was a horrible friend and an even more horrible partner. His tears slid off his face and splashed on the water, creating small ripples in the water. When the ripples cleared, a Charmander was reflected upon in the water.

Being reminded of when he was a Charmander certainly brought back lots of memories, both good and bad.

The bad when he was abandoned to die in the rain by his former partner Damien. When he was almost dead if Ash had not come in time to save his life. When he was small and weak.

Good times when he joined Ash's team when he performed an unselfish act to save his life, and it was one of the best decisions he made back then. When Ash had provided for him with food, sleep and water when he was hungry, thirsty or tired. Or the couple of gym battles they had won together.

Then that image from Charmander had changed into Charmeleon. Things started to go really downhill when he had evolved. He didn't know why, but when he evolved, he just decided to stop listening to Ash altogether. He didn't think why Ash's wasn't worthy to be his trainer anymore. He just wasn't. He was disobedient all the time and wouldn't do anything, no matter how nicely his trainer asked him or how simple the task really was. Charmeleon would just sleep or nap about.

Then the reflection changed back to Charizard. His relationship with his trainer had definitely not improved. In fact, Charizard had only made it much worse by completely ignoring his trainer no matter what and burning him in the face with a Flamethrower practically every time Ash would even speak to Charizard.

But there only very few things that he did when he would help Ash, battles or not. When they were on Cinnabar Island for Ash's gym battle against Blaine, Charizard actually listened to Ash since he saw Magmar as a worthy opponent and he only needed Ash's guidance to help him win.

Then there was the battle between him and Ritchie's Charmander. He only battled Charmander because he was of his own evolutionary line and that he seemed like he was a worthy opponent at the time as well as being a fire-type like Magmar was. Charizard saw potential in the young fire-type. A potential that he saw could make him a very strong Charizard in the future. A worthy opponent.

Now two sides of him were in a battle for control. One side of him told hi on the indi

At Ash's villa block…

Ash had just arrived at his villa block, went inside quietly and closed the door behind him. He then walked over quietly to his bed and sat on it without waking up any other pokemon.

His mind soon became clouded with thoughts and images relating back to what had just happened to him. Charizard finding a new, worthy and powerful trainer than him in just a matter of days, Charizard training by himself in the most harshest of environments to strengthen himself with a trainer's supervison. Even one of where Charizard was with an abusive trainer, who had a mind set to make his Charizard the most powerful of his kind. No matter the cost.

"Ugh, stop it, Ash.", mumbled Ash quietly to himself, "Stop thinking about Charizard! He's gone as of now. He's not your friend anymore. Since he thinks he's so strong, he can find his own path without a doubt."

Although his talking was rather quiet, Pikachu was awoken by it. He looked up to see his trainer and friend, whose face was buried in his hands. He got up from his sleeping spot and gently crawled over to his trainer.

"Pika?", said Pikachu out of curiosity.

"Don't worry, Pikachu. It's nothing. I just went out for a little stroll to take my mind of things. There's nothing to be worried about.", stated Ash.

This didn't seem to convince Pikachu. He looked at his trainer's belt and was surprised to see that Charizard's pokeball was missing.

"Pika Pikachu.", said Pikachu, pointing at Ash's belt and where Charizard's pokeball was supposed to be.

"Pikachu, it's nothing. Charizard's gone.", replied Ash.

Pikachu's eyes slightly widened at that statemet. Gone? What did he mean by gone?

"Pikachu?", asked Pikachu in a slightly shocked state.

"I released Charizard. He's no longer part of our team now. He's gone.", said Ash, whose face looked slightly more gloomy, "I tried everything I can think of to try and get his respect so that we can still be great friends, but I've now completely given up on him. After everything he's been through with us, he still doesn't care. Sure, we worked together to get the Volcano Badge and a few other time we got along well, but he always reverts back to his old self and doesn't listen to me."

Pikachu gave Ash a sympathetic look for his sad trainer. He sat down next to Ash.

"Pikachu, now that I've released Charizard, thinking that he can go on by himself without my help, do you think it was that right thing to do? Will the other pokemon hate me for this?", asked Ash before turning to his partner, "Do you hate me for this?"

Pikachu immediately shook his head. He thought that it was perhaps the right thing to do in releasing Charizard. The beast had an ego and he personally believed that his time of being with a trainer was over. He can be his own self and challenge the great big world and prove that he didn't need anyone else to hold his paw. And besides, it kinda seemed that the longer that Charizard was with them, the more negatively he behaved to everyone else. So it was probably for the best.

"Pika Pika Pikachu.", said Pikachu while still shaking his head, "Pikapi Pika Chu."

"Okay, but what will the other's say when I tell them about what had happened? Do you think they'll understand?", asked Ash.

Pikachu looked at the other pokemon in wonder at that question. He knew some of them had made a friend in Charizard when he was a little Charmander , but that was the past now. That little Charmander was gone and was replaced by this figure of a Charizard.

"Pika.", said Pikachu with a nod to his trainer.

All of a sudden, an explosion was heard. The sound itself wasn't very loud to wake up the whole villa, but it did get the attention of Ash and Pikachu since their villa was the closest to the source of the noise. It even managed to wake up the other pokemon from their slumber.

"Prime?", said Primeape groggily with a hint of anger, showing that he wasn't happy about being awoken from his beauty sleep.

Ash quickly dashed to the balcony of his room. He opened the sliding glass door and stepped outside, searching for the source of the explosion. He quickly noticed that there was some light in the forest, away from the place where he just released Charizard. He also heard the faint noise of what sounded like a pokemon in pain.

"FLAMEEEE!", the pokemon screeched out.

"What the heck?", said Ash in confusement.

He quickly ran back in to his villa to inform the others.

"Guys, I think there's a pokemon in trouble out in the woods. I think it's best that we go and find out what's going on down there and see if we ca nhelp out in any way possible.", said Ash.

The pokemon all shouted in agreement to this.

They were all soon out of the villa and running through the forest towards the light.

But unknown to them, Charizard also hear the loud explosion sound. He himself also went to it's direction ot find out what it could be. He figured that if it was Ash in trouble, this would be a good time to apologise to him by helping him.

Everyone, I'm back. I'm finally back! After all this time.

I've got my new computer and ready to write again. I'm not gonna say much, since I know I have a lot to make up for, but I'm gonna say this.

DeltaRaptor762 is back in business!