A/N: so if you read chapter one when I originally posted it then you may want to go back and re-read it. I changed a lot to fit the story that its becoming...but it is fundamentally the same story mostly
Nightmares
Hot.
It's overwhelmingly hot.
Misty tosses in her sleep, tripping her legs in too rough blankets. It's fire. The air is sand in the desert; dry and rough and …
Heavy? Why is it so heavy?
She can't breathe. She can't think. She can't...
Move?
Across her stomach there's something...an arm?
Ash.
Misty breathes a sigh of relief. Ash. She'd fallen asleep beside Ash. In a pokémon center in...well…she wasn't sure what town exactly they were in. or if it was a city. But they were inside. And safe. Probably.
It's cold, now that she's actually awake. Then again the nights always are. They'd found that out the first night, when they'd decided to camp. They'd been told of course at the port city that they couldn't, that it was just not a thing that was done.
But then, well, it had taken more of the day then they'd thought to reach the next town on the map. And the forest had been so nice…
They had been idiots.
They didn't set up a tent. It was warm and through the trees they could almost see sky, they'd thought that a night under the stars would be nice. They usually camped under the stars when it was warm enough and without Brock to help, setting up camp took time.
Then the sun had fallen and with it all of the warmth had bled from the air. It was too cold even to shift closer together and so they had shivered a foot apart...at least until the first screams had started. They were unlike anything either Ash or Misty had ever heard before, deep guttural rage filled calls that filled the night like water in a glass.
It made Misty's hair stand on end.
They didn't sleep that night and in the morning fought like hadn't since they were ten. They'd tried to turn back, head back to the port town and Kanto to catch the next ferry but hadn't been able to find the path. They'd spent, the morning after their night outside, near to three hours searching for the path back. They'd tripped over roots and bloodied their knees and screamed at one another until Pikachu shocked them silent, all to no luck. The path back didn't exist. It was almost as if it slipped out of their vision when they turned around. So they had walked on, figuring that someone in the next town could point them back. But no one could. It was always like that, the locals had said, you went around or through the region in one direction. You didn't turn back. Not even a hoothoot could point the way.
Misty turns again, trying to push herself up from the bed. She's shivering now and thinks that maybe she should see if the heater is on. Or existant. She's not getting back to sleep tonight anyway, she never does when she wakes up like this. Ash pulls her back down, tucks her against his body.
"Sleep, Mist." He says, gruffly. Misty sighs and settles back in-he's warm-and her eyes drift shut.
And open to water.
Her mouth opens.
And shuts.
Instantly.
Water floods her mouth and nose. Her eyes sting.
Salt.
It tastes like salt.
Her arms are slow, muscles straining through molasses. She can't…
Instinct takes over. Years and years of Cerulean training and she's swimming up to a lightening streaked sky. Her legs kick, slow but sure and steady. Her lungs burn. She needs…
Air!
Head clearing, she looks around. Her mind buzzes and ears ring. She feels, more than sees, a wave crest and gulps air before her head is under. She can't keep this up. Her muscles are already sore…she needs…her pokémon!
Wait…
Togepi!
Still under the water, she whips her bag around. It's closed tight but she can feel the baby pokémon inside. Misty breathes out and with her relief, so goes her air. That was stupid. She kicks to the surface again, but falters. Pins and needles and churned ocean floor beat against her arms and legs and face until…
Air.
She has a moment, before the waves crash again, where she can see the sky filled with purple clouds and the sea filled with water pokémon swimming towards…something. An island? New island!
A board drifts past her, bobbing in rough seas. And a body with long red hair and another with blue. She thinks, for a moment, that a third body is missing when her foot catches a current and another wave crests and she fumbles for a pokeball.
A red arc of energy and then, "Thank Arceus, Staryu." She mumbles through cold lips, and grabs hold as the water closes above her. Staryu pulls her back up, cold air blasting rain like knives against her face. Brock should be here. And Ash. She looks around, two hands bracing herself as keeps as much height as she can. It's freezing above the water, frozen below. She can't feel her legs, her arms are shaking but…
There!
A green vest. Brock. She and Staryu push over to him and pull him aboard. They shouldn't fit. Brock alone hasn't fit on Staryu in years, with Misty…but they do.
Her head spins and for a moment she's watching from far above, the two of them looking around. She hears herself, in a voice that's embarrassingly high, ask if Brock's seen Ash and Pikachu and her heart falls as he shakes his head. From above she sees the wave crash over their heads and then feels the air go out of her lungs. The world blurs.
Blue, everything is blue.
And black.
And Inky.
But there's a hand and she grips it. Together Squirtle and Staryu pull them up.
"We have to stick together!" one of the boys calls. "It's the only way we'll make it." Misty can't tell who has spoken, the voice is so…childish to her ears. Still, she nods. Grips Ash tighter and together they struggle forward until the current tugs them smoothly under. There's no time. They have to get…somewhere…up? The air bubbles from Misty's lungs. Her vision fuzzes around the edges. She shuts her eyes….
…and opens them to her cheek smashed against a rough pillow. She's soaked, drenched in sweat, and shivering. Beside her Ash rolls over, tugging with him the last if the thin blankets. She's not cuddled against him anymore. She's at the opposite edge of the bed, her arm trailing off the thin mattress. Her hand is curled against a dusty floor and trailing in something sticky. Repulsed, she jerks her hand back and accidentally smacks Ash's shoulder.
He bolts up. "What? What's happening?" He looks around, glances blearily at Misty. "You ok, Mist?" She nods and he falls back against the bed, rolling over to pull all of the covers with him. Misty shivers.
"Give back the blankets, Ketchum." She hisses, glancing over at the sleeping pokémon on the other bed. Ash grunts in response and Misty scoffs. "I'm not kidding Ashy-boy, give them back." He grunts again and Misty sighs. Sparing another glance at the sleeping pokémon, she leans over and shakes Ash roughly.
"Hey, what's with the earthquake?" He asks loudly. Pikachu lazily opens an eye and reprimands him with a hoarse pika.
Misty shakes her head, "You took all of the blankets."
"Did not." He whispers, offended.
"Did too, hand them over."
"Did not."
"Did too," Misty grabs the blankets under Ash and gives a hard tug. He doesn't move but she falls backwards off the bed. He catches her arm as she flails and pulls her back. She squeals and from the other bed comes the telltale crackles of Pikachu powering up. They fall silent and Pikachu, seemingly satisfied that they've stopped, settles back down. It's still late. The room is dark, bathed in the black of the darkest nights that Misty has seen. She takes a dep breath and turns to Ash, muttering blanket thief under her breath.
"I heard that," He snickers, pulling the extra blankets from himself. "But since I'm not a thief, I'll share." And he holds them out. Misty reaches for them but he grabs her arm, tugging her back into the middle of the bed. "It's still night. Go back to sleep." And she doesn't think she will. But his breathing slows and Togepi coos and Pikachu offers a sleep slurred chuu and it's a sound not unlike the waves on the Cerulean beach. Her eyes drift shut.
And open somewhere high.
She's looking down, three trainers sit in a large stone hall filled with pokémon. They all look tired and wet but they talk and joke as if everything is fine. Their pokémon run and swim and fly. Fools Misty thinks, and is unsure where it comes from. From somewhere to her left—the lab, her mind supplies—she hears machines turn on. The hum of electricity fills her mind and then it cuts off, replaced by concerned grumbles and questions. Meowth's voice intercedes and the concerned grumbles resolve into the worried voices of Jessie and James. Misty takes a deep breath, but nothing moves. Her mouth doesn't open, her lungs don't inflate, and any panic she had vanishes into confusion. What in the world is happening? Meowth calls out in alarm and the machines turn back on. Misty scoffs, though why, she has no idea, and looks back down into the stone room.
The trainers are introducing themselves and their pokémon, marveling that they're the only ones to have made it to New Island. Well, two of them marvel at this, the third laughs.
"There's no way I wouldn't have made it." He boasts.
The only girl of the group laughs uncomfortably at this, "Well, from the look of it, we've all been training for a while." She says before a look of horror crosses her eyes. "I hope everyone else has made it."
The third pf the group shakes his head grimly. "I saw a lot of pokémon go under out there, from up above?" and he nods at his pidgeot. "Some of those other trainers were young."
All three trainers look away at that, hoping that the others have made it. Misty knows many haven't. There were near twenty trainers that started out to the island riding on their swimming and flying pokémon. Six made it.
Six? Misty wonders, unsure how she knows this. There are only three in the hall. And then suddenly Misty has a moment where she feels as though she's seeing out of four eyes at once. She's following Ash and Brock up a beach and watching the three trainers interact below and it's too much.
Much too much.
Her head hurts.
She clutches her head and kneels to the ground. But even as the sand bites into her knees, she knows she hasn't moved and is still somewhere high, body ramrod straight. And breathes.
One breath in.
One breath out.
Her chest never moves.
She closes her eyes. And looks out only on a stone room with three trainers and their pokémon.
The pain is gone and she opens her eyes.
It's a decision she regrets.
Ash and Brock are gone, somewhere up ahead if their distant voices mean anything, and the stone room is there but phantomed against her vision are two bodies, lifeless and blue, lying on a beach. The same bodies she knows are in the lab beside her. She feels her mouth open in a wordless scream that she hears as though from a distance before a voice calls her to catch up. She swallows her scream and hurries ahead before her vision snaps and she's looking up at an endless ceiling with a pidgeot flying above. She stumbles, feet hitting the stone like a hand on a door and someone grabs her arm to steady her.
"You ok, Mist?" the voice asks, and Misty has to look down to see who it is. Ash? She hasn't been taller than him since they were thirteen.
"You didn't get hurt in the water did you?" Another voice asks. Misty looks up to see Brock staring down at her, concern etched on his face.
"I'm, fine." She groans weakly. "Did you see…" but then the other trainers are running up to them and excitedly introducing themselves. She's exhausted and leans against Ash, closing her eyes as they talk.
And opens her eyes to a still dark room. "Again?" she says to the quiet room. Her arms flail on the bed in frustration. She's still drenched, though not shivering tucked as she is next to a living furnace.
"You say something, Mist?" Ash asks, voice somehow strange after the Ash from her dream. Misty shakes her head, eyes already drifting shut. Something knocks against the door, a rhythm that lulls her down.
And up.
Her eyes shoot open in a stone room with strangely colored pokeballs flying all around her. She can't see how they're floating, these strange things. There's no energy anywhere around them.
And yet.
They fly.
For a moment, Misty is dizzy, watching them soar from the ground and air in unison. She stares, straight ahead, closes her eyes and hopes she's somewhere else when they open.
The moment passes and she opens her eyes to the stone room, staring at She staring at Squirtle and Bulbasaur. They are back to back in a corner, shooting the strange pokeballs down. Some older trainers are swatting them away from what Misty assumes are their own pokemon. A ninetails is pulled into a pokeball and a pidgeot and tentacruel.
Behind her, Misty knows her Psyduck is out, whining as the pokeballs come close. Togepi is in her bag, crying, but Misty knows the baby is as safe as possible. She watches horrified as pokeball flies close to Psyduck and is relieved as Staryu shoots it down. Another two are right on its tail and they pull Psyduck and Staryu within.
"Hey," Misty says. And that vertigo returns, tumbling her as her vision is doubled. No one notices and it clears as she shakes her head, though not before she has a weird view of a pink and purple creature reflected in a pool below her.
"You've got to hit them away." Brock says, smacking one from Vulpix.
"Mewtwo can't catch them if they're in their pokeballs." Ash suggests from across the room, recalling Bulbasaur and Squirtle. The strange pokeballs claim his pokémon almost instantly. Pikachu shocks a flock of the strange things as they come close and starts running, Ash running after him.
Mewtwo? Misty wonders but can't puzzle for long as Togepi trills in alarm. Unthinking she swats the strange pokeball away and gasps in pain. It's cold where it hits her. Her arm stings like a beedrill attack. The strange pokeball falls to the ground as soon as it touches her arm, whatever force has been keeping it up clearly gone. Misty looks around. None of the other trainers are reacting in pain when the pokeballs touch them. Maybe they're older, just used to the pain. But the pokeballs aren't falling either.
Her vision blurs again and she's looking down at herself, swatting the strange pokeballs away and wondering why they are failing. She's going to do something about that when that young trainer catches her eye. She turns, though doesn't feel her neck move, to see him chasing after a pikachu running ever higher on a spiral stair. His feet knock on the stone dully, pounding on old stone like splintery wood. The pokeballs are flocking about the Pikachu, briefly falling when shocked only to return in greater number. The poor pokemon reaches the top of the staircase and jumps, trusting his trainer will catch him. The trainer tries, leaping after his pokemon only to catch the pokeball that captures the pikachu.
"Ash." Misty hears herself call from below, and suddenly is dizzy once more. She knows he follows Pikachu into a lab and yells at Jessie and James in passing—though she's sure that she's seen their bodies. But Misty doesn't know how she knows any of that. All she knows, as she closes her eyes to fight the waves of nausea, is that she's staring at herself from somewhere far above. Intrigued. She blinks.
And opens her eyes to a room filled with weak light. She sits up, shakes her head, and looks around. Togepi and Pikachu are still sleeping on the other bed. Beside her, Ash has laid claim to all of the blankets, again, and looks to be plotting an assault on her pillow. And she's…still drenched in sweat and exhausted and cold. She's done. Completely done. She'll just…stay awake until morning.
Walking to the next town when tired can't be a bad plan.
Really.
Ash will be there.
She should probably go back to sleep. Arceus only know what trouble he'll get them into in the morning if she's not paying attention. Though maybe they could stay another day…no. They need to keep moving and to move she needs to sleep.
Misty pulls her pillow back from Ash, tugs some of the blankets and lies down. Her pulse beats in her head like a steady knock but slowly, slowly, she drifts off.
And wakes up high above a battle. Pairs of identical pokémon are battling, though it looks like none of them are using any moves any trainer in any battle would call. They're smacking one another like children on a playground. Misty should stop it, stop them, she thinks. But then, suddenly, something pink flies at her and she staggers, falling back into an explosion of stone dust. For a moment she's dizzy, the world blurs and she's staring out both at a strange pokémon in a pink bubble and a field of pokémon fighting all around her. Before she can even rub her eyes, the bubble flies at her at the same time as charizard's tail hits her stomach. She flies backwards, hitting something sharp and bony and the pink bubble clears from her sight. The world shifts and from beneath her Ash groans, pushing Misty so that she hits the ground. It's a softer hit then she would have had, had she hit the ground first, but she hears it thud dully like a kick against wood.
"You ok?" Misty asks, once she's gotten herself upright.
Ash nods and turns his head out to the fight. "We've got to stop this." He says. His voice is wavering with tears threatening beneath his resolve. "Someone's gotta take a stand. Someone's gotta say "no" and refuse to fight. Just like Pikachu." He's turned away from her, eyes trained on the fight before them.
Misty turns and follows his gaze to find a pikachu clone slapping Pikachu. Pikachu is standing ramrod straight letting the hits happen without retaliating. As she watches, the clone collapses and Pikachu catches him. Misty gulps. She knows what happens here, somehow. She's seen it before a dozen times and she's sure she'll see it again. Ash is going to do something monumentally stupid. And she can't stop him. She never can. All she can hope is that he comes out of it the other side.
She reaches out a hand, thinking maybe she can grab him, at the same time as he dashes forward screaming "You've gotta stop right now!" Another strange moment of dizziness passes where she sees him running towards her at the same time as he is running away and feels a strange pressure building in her mind. The pressure ends and she sees and feels a beam headed straight towards Ash as he screams "Stooo-"he never finishes the word.
"Ash!" Misty hears herself say at the same time as Brock, distantly screams "Oh, no!" Ash clatters to the stone ground, dull and grey and rock. She watches him from two sides of the room thud to the ground in nauseating detail.
Fool! Trying to stop our battle. Misty feels and hears herself think in a voice not her own. Her head spins and the double vision stops and she watches Pikachu run forward to shock Ash.
"Please, no" Misty whimpers as the pokémon start roaring all around her. And thudding. The whole of the room vibrates with heavy pounding knocks. The knocks grow louder and desperate as the pokémon cry. Then suddenly everything is glowing bright, blinding blue. Misty closes her eyes…
…and opens them to a room she's grown tired of waking up in. She bolts up in the weak blue light of the early morning, clutching her head. At least the pounding should be done. Misty flops back on her one pillow and looks over enviously at Ash, still fast asleep. The whole side of his face is one bruise and she shudders to think what she must look like. A sound like a fist on wood pours into the room and Misty curses, she would have sworn that was just in her dream.
Seriously considering rolling back over and trying, yet again, for a few moments of sleep, Misty stretches. She'd rather find out who has found them then return to that dream she can't seem to shake. She pats her head, trying to get her hair in some semblance of order before giving up. Its bad bedhead to be sure, but no one knows them out here. She throws her legs over the bed and stands on wobbly knees. A burst of pain shoots from her ankle and she curses to have forgotten that.
Out from beside Ash, the room is cold and she shivers, picking Ash's discarded jacket from the floor. It engulfs her, covering her from shoulder to mid-thigh and for a moment she misses the days when she was taller than Ash. The thought makes her shudder again as thoughts from her dream swim back to the surface. Misty doesn't remember any of that happening, though she hazily recalls being invited to new island for some tournament or another which had been canceled last minute.
Jacket wrapped firmly around her frame she goes to the door. Her hair is a mess and she must look frightful with the dreams she's been having, but no one knows her here. Likely it's just Nurse Joy letting them know their pokémon are healed or something of the like. Still, it's not always been safe her. She palms a poke ball and slides open the door.
Brock stands on the other side. She starts to exclaim in surprise but quickly catches herself and looks behind guiltily. Ash is still asleep and so are the pokémon. Quietly she steps through the door and shuts it, leaving it open a crack so that she can hear.
It's Brock.
It's honestly Brock.
He'll fix all of this.
She knows it.