YAY! We've reached to 100 reviews! It makes me so happy!

Wow… I never imagined that this fic would go so far as to 20 chapters! But here I am, writing it. Ah, it makes me so happy. And it takes my mind off of the two possible failing six week grades I'm almost positive I'm going to get. :( God, I hope my teachers have enough pity to just push me up to passing…

Anyway, I just looked "Kaiyou" up in my Japanese -English dictionary and it either means "ocean" or "ulcer". I'll let you determine which one it is. And, from Kingdom Hearts, Sora means "sky", Riku means "land" and Kairi means "nautical mile".

Price for Freedom

Chapter 20

Moving On

After we had all recouped from the battle with Anubo, and Saji's death, we made our way to Dewford, the last surviving city after Anubo's rampage. There, many gym leaders opened up makeshift gyms for themselves so they could carry on with business. Shayla also told us that it was the last place with a working pokemon center, so it would have to make do.

Unfortunately, more than half of the trainer population thought the same way Shayla did, and when we got to the tiny little island, there wasn't much room anywhere to rest. Nurse Joy did her part, but she couldn't give us any space in the center. We would have to fend for ourselves.

While in the pokemon center, however, Shayla did get Kazu (she didn't want to replace Saji quite yet) back into the team, bumping our number up to five, to which I was eternally grateful for. I didn't know how much I missed him until I saw his smiling purple face again. Of course, that same smiling face turned melancholy when we told him about Saji. The cynical part of my brain sighed and muttered, Great. One more sad face to ruin my mood.

In any case, Shayla said she was tired and we needed to find a camping spot so we could go against Wallace, the last gym leader on the list before the Hoenn League. I was surprised she wanted to go after that man so quickly after having one of her pokemon die, but I figured it was a way to take her mind off of Saji. After all, in all the battles I've seen her in, she always went into this other zone. So I dismissed it as a part of her grieving process and followed her to a cave, where she pulled out a blue nylon tent and began to set it up.

"All right everyone," she said in a determined tone, "We're going to be sleeping here for a while, at least until we defeat Wallace and stock up supplies, which will probably take a while since everyone before us has already cleaned the poke mart to its foundations. The pokemon here aren't that difficult to deal with, but just in case, be on your guard. I don't have very many potions, so please don't do anything stupid." With this, she looked pointedly at Tai. "Now, it's getting kinda late, so I'll go ahead and start supper up. You all can go exploring, just don't start any battles, all right?" She looked at me with a steely glare, to which I smiled meekly back at, and then began to retreat into the cave.

Kazu and Tai joined me, leaving the dragons with Shayla. The charizard always helped out with supper, whether Shayla wanted him to or not. Kazu told me he had helped her with meals since he was a little charmander, and he intended to keep the tradition going.

The cave itself wasn't all that bad -I could see well enough in it. The few sableye and geodude that graced us with their presence scattered away before we could even get within firing range. Tai took this as cowardice and began to yell at the startled pokemon, making them retreat even further into the darkness.

We found another camp at a corner of the cave. The tent was a ragged, green thing, with holes littered about the skin. There was a small fire within, giving it a homey, comforting look. We ventured near and saw that the trainer had to be experienced. The trainer himself was about 19 with missheveled, tawny brown hair that was short-cropped and soft-looking. He had striking features -high cheek bones, tanned face, and built muscles in the arm and torso. He lay asleep on his duffel bag with a houndoom, sandslash, milotic, ampharos, arbok and flygon encircling him protectively. The six highly trained pokemon looked at us warily as we approached, but Kazu managed to lower their guards.

"It's all right, friends," Kazu spoke cheerfully. "We don't mean any harm to you or your trainer. We're just kind of bored and are exploring. How long have you been here, in this cave? Where do you hail from?"

The houndoom laughed, a raucous, guttural sound. "Well, aren't we the curious one? You MUST be bored to be pelting us with all of these questions. Well, to satisfy your curiosity, we've been living here for about a week, since we first heard of that huge, evil pokemon rampaging around Hoenn. Our trainer, Isaac, didn't want any of us to get hurt, so we came here. He hoped that the remoteness of this island would keep the monster away. We hail, originally, from many different places. I myself am from the Orre region. Our trainer is from Blackthorn City."

Kazu nodded. "Well, the monster's dead now. I guess you can leave. We're here to restock, since this is the last place standing."

The sandslash's eyes widened. "You're kidding! You mean the monster wiped out all of Hoenn except for this little town? What about the League?"

Kazu shrugged. "As far as major cities go, yes, this is the last one. I don't really know about the League."

Tai smirked. "So I take it you guys are planning to go to the League?"

The flygon smiled. "Hell yeah! We're gonna go and win the thing! Isaac keeps on telling us about it -his big brother went before him and told him what it was like. The brilliant lights, the crowd cheering for you the entire time, oh, I can't wait to go!" He was grinning and clenching his little clawed hands into fists. I smiled myself. This flygon really loved to battle. I could probably get along with him rather easily.

However, the arbok shook her head. "It's going to take us a while, though. With the Hoenn region being in the state like you said, it isn't going to be easy to travel anymore. It's just better to stay here and wait until things calm down a bit before moving on to the League. It doesn't start up for a few months anyhow."

The flygon frowned at her. "But that's so droll!"

Kazu laughed. "Well, we're all waiting for the League to start up. So how long have you been together, as a team?"

We talked for a long time, with that team. They were really nice. And even when their trainer, Isaac, woke up, he offered us food from their table. We thanked them but refused -much to Tai's dismay. We then left them, going back to our own camp to eat.

………………………….

Night was a long time for me. I couldn't sleep again. Probably due to the fact that I don't do well in caves. I got up from my pallet and went to the mouth of the cave to stargaze. I sighed for some unknown reason and wondered if my family was still okay. If Kaiyou and the others were doing all right. If Saji was happy being free among the stars I was looking at. If my former trainer had died of his wounds Kaiyou had given him like he should. The thought made me smile sadistically. Then, I heard a noise behind me.

I looked to see the houndoom from earlier, walking up to me. I cocked my eyebrow and asked, "May I ask you why you're out here?"

He smiled as he sat next to me. "Same reason as you, probably."

I returned the smile. "Couldn't sleep?"

He turned his amiable gaze to the stars. "Like an insomniac."

I laughed softly, enjoying his company. He wasn't that bad of a guy, to put it bluntly. I wasn't surprised by the fact that he couldn't sleep, though. Houndoom tend to be light sleepers and a cave full of interesting, curious pokemon isn't a good mix with said fire dog.

"Did you lose someone to that monster?" he asked softly, then turned to me with a solemn expression on his face. "Not to be rude or anything, but…"

I nodded solemnly. "We did. A scizor. I didn't know him very well since I'm… kind of new to the team, but…" I saw my vision get blurry. "…but he was still a good friend." I turned away from him and tried to get the image of Saji's corpse out of my mind and asked, "Why do you ask? How did you know?"

Out of the corner of my eye, the houndoom's expression turned to sympathetic. "Your expression. My whole team's wearing it. We lost one too. That's actually why Isaac moved us here. He's not the smartest human, so he didn't think that we could get hurt. But when it went through Fortree, it killed Fenris, the manetric that was with us. I didn't want to say it because the wound's still fresh." I looked at him and saw his own eyes begin to shine with moisture. "He was a good friend of mine. We knew each other since we were pups."

I laughed bitterly. "I often wonder why I let myself get captured. Why did I let that damn ultra ball hit me at that moment? Why didn't I just get out of the way? Was it because I was weak? Because I had no will?" I shook my head. "I really wish… sometimes… that I hadn't let myself be captured… otherwise, I wouldn't have to go through this. Life has really gone downhill since I was captured."

The houndoom laughed in agreement. "But it makes us stronger."

I half-glared at him. "So says the average trainer."

He laughed again. "So says the average dumb-ass."

We talked for a long time. I found that his name was Loki, after a pagan god some humans worshipped. He had been owned twice before, once abandoned as a pup since his original trainer found she didn't want him anymore, and the second trainer had tied anchors to his horns and left him in the sea to drown after the houndoom disobeyed an order. Isaac had found him on the beach and Loki stuck with him ever since.

It was nice to talk to another darkling, since I was now deprived of Kaiyou's presence. But he didn't really count since I felt I couldn't talk freely with him. Even with his casualness around us, he was still a Legendary. There are rules of conduct with Legendaries that must be obeyed, no matter how friendly and easygoing they may be.

We kept talking until the stars began to disappear with the approach of dawn. However, when he asked me my name, and I told it to him, he stared at me strangely and the conversation paused for a moment.

"What?" I asked. The sudden change in his expression startled me.

"Ayako…" he said slowly. "You said that was your name?"

I nodded slowly. I really wasn't liking the way that this conversation was going. "Yes… Why do you ask?" I asked softly.

"I recall battling a pokemon -a mightyena to be precise- saying something about an absol named Ayako. Isaac wanted to capture him, but he was really stubborn. He said that he wanted to find you. Do you know a mightyena?"

I was a little scared now. Why did Hicha want to find me? And why was he a wild pokemon now? "Why?" I asked, not really sure I wanted to know the answer.

He shrugged. "He said we wanted to find you and make you his mate, I guess. I don't really know. He was a little vague on the details. But what I do know is that he wants you to be his mate and 'take you back to where you belong'." He looked at me. "Is that… a bad thing?"

I was startled and a little mortified. Why was Hicha so obsessed with me? Why me? Why wouldn't he leave me alone? At my silence, Loki poked me in my side. "Are you all right?" he asked.

I nodded absently and he sat back on his haunches. "Yeah, yes, I'm fine," I replied distractedly. My mind was frantically going in circles. Hicha never talked about him wanting me to be his mate! WHAT THE HELL?

Loki turned and looked over my head to the innards of the cave, where Isaac was calling for him. He stood up and then gave me a little nudge with his snout on my cheek, a friendly gesture for four-legged pokemon. "Nice talking to you, Ayako. Don't let sadness get the best of you -you're too strong of a girl to let things like that get you down. Maybe we'll see each other in the League."

I nodded again and then let my distressed mind resume in its raging reverie. Last I saw him, Hicha wanted me dead. How could he have such a change of heart? Did that ninetails, Koka, do too good of a job?

I felt a small paw in my back and turned to see Kazu's smiling face behind me. "Breakfast's ready. I assume you didn't sleep?"

I shook my head slowly and let out a yawn that I didn't know was there. "No… but I did get to talk with the houndoom we met yesterday. He was nice." Hicha was forced out of my head as I talked to Kazu.

Said espeon chuckled. "That's good. Tai was beginning to worry about you. He said something about 'Xena getting kidnapped' or stuff to that extent. But nevermind that, you must be hungry. Let's go and eat -Shayla's letting us have some of her syrup."

I followed the espeon to the tent, where inside, Shayla was desperately trying to keep Tai from eating everyone else's share of syrup. She then put him in his poke ball, to which we were all relieved. The syrup tasted wonderful on my food, mixed in with the berries and spices she always gave me with my meal.

After we had finished and Tai was let back out of his ball, Shayla said we were going to fight Wallace, and we needed to be at full strength. It was here that I started to feel my sleepless night when we started to make our way to him.

Wallace's makeshift gym was actually located on a little spit of land half a mile out to sea, so we got to swim there. When we reached his little island, I saw a little shelter behind a rock that probably served as his home. He himself was sitting on a lawn chair under an umbrella with sunglasses and a fishing hat on. When he noticed us climbing out of the water, he began to laugh. "I assume that you want to battle?" he asked of Shayla, who didn't look too intimidating with her clothes and hair sopping wet.

She stood to her full height, all of which is about 5'6", and then put up her fists as if she herself were going into battle. "You bet, mister, so get all that crap out of the way and battle us!"

He smiled and then took the sunglasses off, which revealed striking blue eyes. "Very well," he replied in a low, intimidating voice. "I hope you know what you're getting into."

Shayla's own brown eyes sparked with battle lust. "I wish the same for you."

He smiled and then sent out his first pokemon, which happened to be a luvdisc. Shayla called Tai out and he went happily, saying he couldn't wait to fry it and serve it with chips. The heart-shaped fish didn't know what hit it when Tai's thunderbolt came down.

Wallace frowned. I guessed he hadn't counted on his first pokemon being felled in one hit. He brought out another ball from his waist and threw it into the air. In mid-arch, it exploded and revealed a whiscash. Tai backed away slowly. If he wasn't careful, he could be in serious trouble. Shayla called him back and sent Amburna in, telling the dragonair to use ice beam.

The whiscash survived. Amburna, now at a loss, fell victim to the thing's earthquake. Fortunately, she survived it and then used a surf attack against the ground/water type. It wasn't so lucky, and then fainted at the dragonair's hands.

Wallace was getting a little nervous now. I figured the other three pokemon he possessed would all become victims to Tai, but he didn't give up. I had to hand it to the human, not giving up in the face of hopeless odds. (One of the few redeeming qualities of the human race.) The next pokemon he sent out was a sealeo. Amburna gasped and then floated back a bit. Ice and dragons don't mix.

"Amburna, come back!" Shayla cried. She looked down at the jolteon beside her and said, "All right Tai, it's your turn again."

Tai gave a little "Woo!" and jumped back into the battle. Unfortunately, the sealeo used "sheer cold" and wiped Tai out in one move. The poor jolteon dropped to the ground with a sick thud after the ice blast hit him. Shayla was furious.

"Oh, you want to play that way, huh?" she asked with gritted teeth as she picked the downed jolteon off of the arena ground. "Fine. Let's. Demi, get in there!"

I snarled and then jumped into the ring, staring at the sealeo with angry eyes. I wasn't about to let this giant tub of lard get past me. "Demi!" I heard behind me, "Use thunderbolt! Faint the bastard!"

Gladly, I ran to the seal and dug my claws into the rubbery flesh, electrocuting it as I did so. The sealeo howled in pain, and then fell limp under my paws. I gracefully jumped off and back to my spot in the arena.

My next opponent was seaking. Not too difficult. One thunderbolt knocked it out. It was then that I saw defeat brew in Wallace's eyes. He knew he was done. But then, as I saw him stare at his last pokemon hidden in the depths of the poke ball, a glint of hope glimmered in those sky blue eyes of his. He looked to Shayla, then me, and then sent out the anchor to his team.

It was a milotic. And even though it was a guy, he was beautiful. He looked down at me with those beautiful crimson eyes and then swished his red and blue scaled tail about him. Shayla's voice snapped me out of my thoughts and I shot a thunderbolt at him.

He howled in pain, but then he came back and, at Wallace's command, used a water pulse attack. And then, at that moment, for some strange reason, the world went crazy.

I was really dizzy and confused. I didn't know which way the milotic was. "Demi!" I heard from some direction, "Demi, snap out of it! He's to your right! Use thunderbolt on him!"

I swerved my swimming head to the right, but I didn't see anything. All I saw were images of the world around me being jumbled up and going everywhere, as if I had spun around for a long time. I couldn't get a straight view of anything. Where was the milotic?

I found out where he was when he rammed his body into mine with a body slam attack. I was thrown into a boulder -which bore my imprint- and fell to the sandy ground. I opened my eyes and saw the same dizzy, confusing world around me. I struggled to stand, but my balance was off. I fell to the sand again.

The milotic scoffed. "Dear me, are you confused?" I frantically tried to pinpoint his location from the sound of his voice (since my vision wasn't really helping), but he kept moving. He was smarter than that to let his opponent have an opening. "Here, let me help you straighten up."

"Milotic!" I heard Wallace's now confident voice cry. "body slam again!"

The milotic hit me against the boulder again, squishing me against it. I figured that some bones had to have been broken right then, (or at least bruised) and when I tried to get up, my legs wouldn't obey me. I fell to the sand again. My mind clicked. I was paralyzed!

I heard Wallace's laughter. "You really had me worried, absol. I thought my milotic would be done in by your electric attacks, which I admit I didn't really expect. But now, with you laid to waste like this, I don't have a doubt that I will win. Ta ta!" he sang. "Milotic, body slam!"

Suddenly, the world cleared and I could make sense of everything again. With unwavering determination and pure frustration on my side, I rushed forth myself, charging with sparks flying around my running form. We clashed, and I sent the milotic flying into another boulder, where he fell and didn't get back up.

Wallace was flabbergasted as the milotic returned to his poke ball. "You beat me…" he whispered as if he couldn't believe it. Then his shock turned into a smile and he went over to Shayla and held his hand out for her to shake. "What a wonderful battle. I will remember it for many years to come. Now, what you've been waiting for…" He opened the blue vest he was wearing and pulled out a metal pin in the shape of a triangle with a little triangle cut out of it. "Take it," he said proudly. "It's yours."

Shayla took it from his hands and then danced around in the sand crying, "We did it!" and "That one's for you, Saji!" Eventually, we all joined in on her rejoicing and danced around on the sand with her, happy as can be.

She looked down at us and then cried, "Next stop: Hoenn League!"

I smiled and then cried for joy myself. I was looking forward to the Hoenn League, a wonderful competition I had heard so much about. I wanted to battle stronger pokemon and prove that they were all pushovers. I was happy we were going.

So why was I filled with such dread?

…………………………..

Woo! That chapter was a little better. :sigh: I guess I'm not losing my touch… yet…

Thanks for all of your reviews! They fill my heart with joy!

Ja ne!