A/N: so…another more than 50 days…I am thinking I tempted fate last time so we'll just….You know I had all of these goals when setting out to write this thing and they've kind of one by one been smashed…you know things like finish before summer, finish before summer camps start, finish before summer camps end and now I'm just at finish. If I could finish, that'd be awesome.

Two to Go

As they round the corner to the same dimly lit blank walls and weird metal doors that they've found down every corridor for the last hour of searching, Misty practically has to shove her fist into her mouth to keep from screaming. How did she get here? How did it come to this? She'd been the one doing reckless things this time and yet...somehow…

She sighs audibly, pushing somewhat singed hair away from her face with a rough stream of air.

Leave it to Ash to somehow manage to get captured while hiding out somewhere and making her rescue him.

Again.

Once, just once, she'd like to be rescued.

Well...she'd like Ash to rescue her before she got around to doing it on her own.

...

Maybe.

It would beat… this... anyway. Because right now? This? This is her legs aching from running and ducking behind walls just out of sight of Team Rocket grunts. This is her throat scratched raw from choking breaths stolen between bursts of smoke and fire. And this is…her head pounding in time to the alarm that's been blaring since they'd walked in hours (or was it only minutes?) before. This? This is... Mew, Misty doesn't even know what this is anymore. She just knows that she's...tired; that sort of bone weary tired borne of lack of sleep.

Sleep…Misty blinks, eyes staying closed just slightly longer than she should have. Just long enough that when she opens them it's a little jarring; like she's missed a few seconds.

Arceus, when was the last time she slept? Was it at that pokémon center?

…

Was that really just the day before?

No, it has to have been more than that. Scrubbing a hand down her face, Misty blinks once more groaning at the entirely unpleasant sensation. It's like she's rubbing sandpaper against her eyes. She bites back another groan. It has to have been more than one day... surely they spent at least a few at the center? Or in the woods? Misty groans out frustrated yawn and blinks back tired tears; she only remembers one night passing. But too much has happened...right? I can't have only been one day.

She shakes her head, eyes dizzily tracking the hallway as she moves. She's too tired for this. Too tired to think. Too tired to…

Just… too tired.

Of course, it may not be solely lack of sleep contributing to her fugue...no some of that blame might rest at the feet of her current partner in this endless search for Ash. Yeah, the fact that she's teamed up with a pokémon who she's pretty sure is keeping an eye on her until he gets the chance to kill her probably isn't helping her exhaustion.

She swallows hard.

For some reason, some reason now entirely lost to her, she'd thought it would go well; searching the facility-and there was no better word for the literal castle on the beach that Team Rocket had chosen to center their operations. She had a psychic pokémon with her for Arceus's sake, it should have made for easy searching.

And it had been easy...at first. They'd barely stepped into the facility when they'd found Brock, huddling behind the first door they'd checked. It'd been a cell, of course, stark white and empty of anything excepting Brock, his bag and a bed. And his pokémon...he'd had his pokémon for some reason, though didn't seem to be able to let them out within the room.

Regardless of the...weirdness of the cell, Misty had been so happy to see him; at least until Mewtwo had made her stay back until he was sure that the man in front of them actually was Brock and not some awful copy of her friend. Misty swallows hard thinking about it. That Team Rocket could just so casually copy someone she knew until they were standing in front of her and smiling and reaching out for a hug that might hide death and Misty wouldn't even know.

But it was Brock.

Or so Mewtwo said. And since she and Mewtwo seemed to have some sort of a truce, Misty was willing to trust him.

For now.

On this anyway.

It hadn't been just Brock that they'd found, though. No, she and Mewtwo and Brock had turned up a few of the other Strayanthe trainers. Actually, Misty wipes her brow against the heat from yet another fire, it was mostly the fault of the few remaining Strayanthe trainers that the facility was in flames. Misty and Mewtwo had turned up others as well...from Strayanthe...but they'd been...not as lucky. Misty shudders at the thought, wiping a hand down her eyes as though to erase the images of what they'd found from them.

They'd found a lot in their hours searching: pokémon, Brock, surviving trainers but...

Not Ash.

It didn't seem to matter how many halls and doors and labs they pulled apart; he was nowhere.

Swallowing another groan of frustration, Misty punches one of the weird metal doors and grimaces as it creaks under her fist. She pulls her arm back, shaking out a fist that doesn't hurt, and stares dully at the hand shaped dent in the metal door; a door that is now painfully easy to see despite the smoke and dim lights in the hall.

So there was that too.

Whatever that meant.

Misty sighs, quietly, and turns from the door before she can catch her reflection, she doesn't need to deal with seeing her eyes just this second. Back to the door, she scans the hallway, glancing down towards the bend at the end. A bend that's currently consumed in smoke. But there are four more doors before it's too hazy to see, maybe…

She shivers suddenly, the air seeming to drop ten degrees even though the fires are still burning in front and behind her. She rubs her hands against her arms and leans back just in time for Mewtwo to whir past her, Pikachu at his feet. Misty rolls her eyes and walks after them, carefully picking her way around the twisted metal of melted fluorescent lights. They do make quite a show, Mewtwo gliding relentlessly forward with Pikachu dashing along in his wake, shocking anything that moves more than a twitch while Mewtwo hurls deep purple balls of glowing energy.

Misty coughs, holding her breath as smoke floods the hall, moving forward until she's against the wall just behind the two pokémon. Quietly, she waits while Pikachu sends out another surge of electricity, this time at the cameras around another corner.

The alarms stop.

"Huh" Misty breathes out at the sudden silence. Mewtwo hold up a hand and anything else she might have said is quieted as Mewtwo glares around the corner.

It's a tense few moments until Mewtwo lashes his tail and Pikachu heaves a relieved chuu.

"Are we getting any closer?" she hisses, leaning forward to peer down yet another hallway. It seems empty, but then again almost every one that they'd gone down so far had seemed empty until the grunts had begun pouring in.

Mewtwo scoffs at her and glides ahead, sparing her neither a word nor a glance. At the end of the hall, ages behind them, Misty can hear Brock's heavy footsteps as he rounds the corner in their wake, searching rooms for survivors or pokémon. She shakes her head and glances down at Pikachu.

"You'd think a psychic would be better at finding your master, huh buddy?" she asks, rubbing his head. Pikachu twitches his nose in agreement before scurrying out around the corner.

"There are many types of psychics" Mewtwo whispers in her mind, the words sliding like frozen slime through her brain.

Misty scowls and, shivering, bats her hands about her burnt hair as though to wipe his voice from her mind. "You'd think a psychic could also warn me about explosions." She mumbles back, pulling on a few now particularly short strands of hair with her thumb and forefinger. Cracking her back with a growl, Misty steps around the corner into a hallway that smells unsurprisingly like the air around a thunderstorm.

"One might think you'd learn to duck after the first one." Mewtwo retorts, hauling a ball of frozen purple energy towards something Misty is certain will explode. She flattens herself against a wall just as the wave of heat and smoke pours past her, no doubt singing her hair even further and chasing away any thoughts of shivering in the not quite physical cold. Behind the walls, she can hear the usual sounds of beds rattle and things falling but something...something sounds different. Like a pounding against a door. Or feet running or… is it Brock maybe? Has he gotten too close? She'd thought they'd developed a routine-her, Pikachu and Mewtwo clearing the way while Brock and a few other checked the doors and rooms left in their path, but maybe?

She cocks her head and listens, a puzzled expression settling on her face as she hears Brock cough behind her, around the corner. He is too close but...he can't be what she heard.

She closes her eyes against the smoke and heat and listens.

There! A door halfway down the hall.

Someone is pounding on it.

Without thinking Misty crosses the hall, hits the door and calls out, "Ash?"

She holds her breath.

"Yes." comes back and she nearly cries. It's him, or it sounds like him anyway.

"Thank, Arceus." Misty gestures to Pikachu, a simple gesture that the mouse immediately recognizes. He stands, feet braced, in front of the door, ready to let loose. Misty stands beside him, feet apart and draws her arm back with her hand balled tightly in a fist. She takes a deep breath and then…

Wait… "Listen, Ash? Step away from the door." She pauses a beat and nods at Pikachu. Together they hit the door and it bursts inward in an implosion of steel and sparks. She can practically hear Mewtwo raising an eyebrow at her-they're not supposed to check room, just clear the path-but she doesn't care. She steps through the door and, faster than she can make out she's surrounded by the crushing hug of her best friend…

Or…

Can she still call him that? Or are they…

Is he her…

Mew, they need to have that talk… not that now is even close to the right time...

Ash buries his face in her hair and Misty stiffens at the weird gesture, he's never done that before...wait.

Her eyes widen-is this even Ash?

She shakes her head, Mewtwo is right behind her, if Ash isn't….if…

Mewtwo will know.

"What took you so long?" Ash asks, voice muffled slightly by her hair.

Misty blinks, rigid in shock for a few moments and then smiles, shaking her head against his shoulder. She throws her arms around Ash and hugs him back, accidentally thumping his back with her full strength. He cringes in her arms. "Shut it, Ketchum. I'm here, aren't I?" She laughs, Pikachu agreeing with a happy kaa.

He smiles into her hair and for the first time in what feels like days, Misty relaxes-at least she does until Ash tenses against her.

"Mewtwo." He hisses.

"Wha-" she starts, words lost as her teeth start to chatter violently in a cold that she knows isn't there. Something...Mewtwo, it must be Mewtwo. Setting her jaw rigidly she opens her mouth to explain to the person she hopes is actually Ash just what is happening when the world blurs around her. She stumbles, dizzily gulping in air as she tries to regain any sense of the room. Something-someone's?-holding her wrist and it tugs, pulling her into something soft and heavy and warm.

Ash.

She must have run into his back. She shudders and brushes her hands against her arms to ward off the…

Hang on...

...it's not actually cold anymore and...the room isn't as dim as it was. She can even make out the tiny red stain on the back of Ash's hat from the last time Ash'd allowed Pikachu to wear it while eating.

Which she shouldn't be able to see...at least there's not a mirror nearby.

She shifts, stepping just away from Ash's back and he pivots, staring at both her and Mewtwo. Briefly, his eyes meet hers and something like...fear seems to pass across his face. He shivers and Misty... looks away. Eyes flicking towards Mewtwo with her eyebrows raised slightly in question. Mewtwo dips his shoulders in assent and Misty sighs in relief.

It is Ash.

It's really Ash.

She starts to smile but stops when she catches his face….he's still looking at her like….

Oh. Right...

Misty smacks her head, and to her surprise the temperature plummets and the world dims. Which is...interesting...it's more control then she's had but...

Ash shrugs and turns from her to glare at Mewtwo like...he doesn't know. Arceus, how much had happened in the short time they'd been apart? How long has it been since she and Ash have shared nearly everything that's happened to either of them? And really it's not like she can expect that Ash will somehow just know about the sort of truce that she's established with Mew...hang on.

Had Ash said Mewtwo?

Outloud?

Misty's eyes widen and Ash, with instincts borne of many friendly slaps, shrinks back slightly.

"You remember Mewtwo?" she gasps.

Ash nods back with wide eyes. "Of course," he huffs, as though this isn't earth shattering news.

Misty steps back from Ash and raises an eyebrow, arms crossed in a distrustful gesture. "What about New Island? Or the storm?"

"Uh… yeah?" Ash blinks and steps back, his eyes searching her face. He's confused, that little upturn in his lips the mark of a growing smirk-he probably thinks that she's joking but something serious must pass in front of her eyes because the smirk melts before it's even formed. He nods, eyebrows quirked in a question despite the firmness of his tone. "Of course I do."

Misty takes a deep breath. He remembers. He remembers! It's not just her, it's not Mewtwo returning the memories. It's not...Arceus, the pokedex must even be effected! It has to be...this place. So when they leave…

She whirls from Ash, stepping past him to face Mewtwo with a grin spreading on her face.

"It's… not you." She exclaims in a tremulous voice. "It's...here...this place...the information...if no one from Team Rocket leaves then they won't know…" Mewtwo stares at her impassively and she tilts her head up, frustratedly exclaiming to the ceiling that, "We don't have to..."

"It will violate our truce." Mewtwo intones boredly, ending her statement before she's even gotten the words out.

"How? We only needed a truce in the first place because you thought..." Misty hisses at the same time as Ash leans to her, eyes still locked on Mewtwo, and whispers, "Truce? Misty, what is that thing talking about?"

"Just- Just a deal we made, Ash." Misty starts, waving his words off with the shaking of her hand. Her eyes narrow and she shifts, full attention on the large pokémon in the room's door. "One that should change now that we know better."

Mewtwo hums noncommittally "I'll think on it, girl. But it won't change the prophecy."

Behind Misty, Ash scoffs and scrubs his hand down his face. "Arceus, what am I supposed to save now?" he groans, voice muffled by his palm.

"Not you, her. But no doubt your time will come again, boy."

"Misty?" Ash asks quietly, voice shaking strangely.

Misty glances towards Mewtwo, catching his eyes in a moment of uneasy silence. A silence broken by Brock voice ringing stridently behind them. He doesn;t sound alarmed though, more like...searching...is he calling her name? Pikachu's ears shoot up and he quirks his head for a moment before darting from the room, pushing past Mewtwo with a warning shock as he goes.

Misty takes in a deep breath and turns back to Ash, only to let it out again in surprise. He's laughing, quietly, his shoulders shaking in time with swallowed giggles.

"How's it feel, Mist? Having to save the world? What are you going to do, punch it until it listens?"

"She doesn't-" Mewtwo starts, only to stop at Misty's glare.

Ash doesn't seem to notice, having given in to the apparent hilarity of Misty saving anything in any way other than violence. She groans and, plastering a fake smile on her face grits out, "Laugh it up, Pallet Town." She punches him, lightly, but his laughter only increases.

"I'm surprised you find her death funny." Mewtwo states.

His laughter stops suddenly, a light going out in a storm. "What?" he croaks.

"Nothing." Misty rushes, shaking her head at Mewtwo. The pokémon falls silent but Ash grabs Misty's arm once more and spins her towards him.

"Hey," he whispers, grabbing her other shoulder so that she has to meet his eyes. "What does Mewtwo mean?"

"Nothing," Misty sighs.

"Misty?" Ash pleads and she breaks.

"It's a prophecy, Ash. So you know...all the normal junk: end of the world, death, annoyingly vague language. It's just, you know, a little more focused on me with the whole death part."

Ash breathes out and Mewtwo is quiet. In the silence they can hear small feet scampering down the hall followed by larger, heavier steps-more than would just belong to Brock. The others must have caught up. They listen, the three of them, for a few moments before Ash breaks the quiet, whistling out a long sigh.

"OK, so the prophecy is about you dying?" He reaches out and gently pushes what's left of her bangs from Misty's forehead. "So what, Mewtwo wants to keep you safe? That doesn't sound terrible."

"Safe," Misty smirks wryly, leaning into his touch. She pushes away, wiping an angry tear as she rounds on Mewtwo. "That's not how he sees it."

The footsteps get closer, more frantic but Mewtwo pays them no heed.

"Once that might have worked," the pokémon intones. "But now...she can't fall into their hands."

"What does that mean?" Ash's voice drops to a gruff demand and Misty shivers. Dangerous, he sounds dangerous.

"It means, "Misty spits, "that he wanted...wants...to…"

"I must remove the temptation she provides."

Ash swallows hard. "And we're just supposed to let that happen?"

"Well, I wasn't exactly going to just go quietly. But it doesn't matter." Misty puts her hand up, preventing Ash from breaking into the conversation without even glancing to see that he had opened his mouth. "Mewtwo, you have to see...it's just being here...outside of this place…" She trails off.

Mewtwo leans back, his expression never changing but somehow conveying disbelief.

Misty groans. "Just...Ash, did you remember Mewtwo before we got here?"

"...No." Ash answers after a beat, surprise raw in his tone.

"Me either, it's just here. So if only we leave…"She trails off once more, hoping that Mewtwo will see reason.

"Perhaps," the pokémon hums in response. He straightens out and glances down the hallway, "Perhaps not. In either case however, we should-"

But whatever he was going to say is lost in Brock pushing past him into the room, Mari following quickly behind.

"Thank Arceus, you found him." Brock exclaims, throwing an arm around Ash in a quick hug. He pulls back, relief fading from his eyes as quickly as it had entered. "We need to get out of here."

"Sooner would be better." Mari adds, warily glancing at Mewtwo.

"Why?" Ash questions, only to be answered by Mari grabbing his arm and drawing him through the door.

Misty and Brock nearly have to sprint, pushing past Mewtwo to get into the hall, to catch up.

"What is happening?" Misty calls just outside the door. Brock grabs her arm and pulls her along as well, following Mari down the hall to join the small collection of Strayanthe trainers waiting.

"There may, or may not be, but definitely are, a few bombs rigged in the building. So we need to be leaving… if you like keeping your limbs attached to your body that is." Mari calls over her shoulder.

Ash stops, digging his feet in so Mari is stopped with him as she attempts to haul Ash down the hall. "How did you…" he trails off, incredulously, gesturing at the building around them.

Mari shrugs. "When you literally grow up in a rebellion you learn a few things. Mostly about how to make things go boom. Like this building. We should go." She shoos her hands and the trainers waiting, scatter, running down the hall and vanishing out of Misty's view.

"We need to leave." Mewtwo agrees from behind Misty as he glides past her. "Before.."

But for the second time in the night his sentence is ended by someone else cutting him off, this time a cold laugh echoing down the hallway and over his words.

In front of her, Ash seems to huddle in on himself, swallowing hard as the sound echoes. He clenches his fists and turns, eerily slowly, towards the laughter.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here, James?" a high, cold voice asks. Misty gulps, swallowing a mouthful of smoke filled air painfully hard and turns to stare down the opposite end of the hall. With all the smoke and still flickering fires, the whole hall is just barely visible even a mere two doors past Ash's own. There may as well be nothing there, but that laugh, it's unmistakable.

"You." She hisses.

"The Boss was right, Jessie. She took the bait." A male voice replies smoothly.

"That's right." A third voice breaks in and together, Meowth, Jessie and James step out from the smoke.

"Surrender the twerp and twerpette." Jessie calls down.

"Or don't, I'd much prefer to fight." James adds.

Misty cracks her back and steps away from Brock. "Fine," she starts but Mari stalks in front of her and pushes her back.

"Oh no." The other girl hisses. "These two are mine. Just get out of here."

"We can't leave you." Ash starts,

"In like two minutes you won't have the chance." Mari calls back as she pulls a pokeball from her belt. Victreebell and Koffing already materialized before her.

"We can't let her do this alone." Ash responds.

Misty digs in her pocket and tosses him Lapras's pokeball.

"This might help." She winks and pulls out Staryu's pokeball.

"Together then?" Ash asks, reaching out a hand. Misty nods and takes it, enlarging her pokeball.

She's going to call the star shaped being out when Mari cuts her off screaming over her shoulder towards them "Hey, cat-thing, want to get in on this?" Mari gestures towards Jessie, her charmander already trading razor leaf for flame thrower with Victreebell

Misty shivers as Mewtwo's eyes glow blue. A shard of twisted metal launches from near Misty's feet and skims just past Mari's head striking Jessie through her arm. "Do not address me as such."

"Then hit your target." Mari shoots back.

Jessie laughs, her dripping blood glinting in the fire, and demands that Koffing self destruct.

"Shit." Misty hisses, "We need to get out of here."

Mari turns back to them, and looks as though she's about to run when charmander calls out a frightened screech. He's trapped in Victreebell's vines. Mari winces and turns back around, only to be caught by Meowth and a scratch mid turn.

"Mari!" Ash screams.

An energy ball sails over past Misty's ear and hits Jessie, knocking her back. She stands up again, laughing despite the burn that covers her torso. Misty swallows hard.

They're all going to die here.

She glancing at her hand, clasped with Ashs'. At Pikachu on Ash's shoulder, the pokeballs in their other hands and at Brock fumbling for a Pokeball of his own.

This is it; the end.

She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. At least they'll go down fighting.

"Stary-" She starts, but Mari cuts her off with a shake of her head.

"Hey, Mewtwo," Mari shouts, punching Meowth from her knees. "You're a psychic right? Get them the fuck out of here. This isn't their fight."

Mewtwo hums at her and another energy ball dissipates in his hand, he reaches out and grabs Brock with one hand, the other landing firmly on Ash's shoulder.

His eyes glow blue and Misty's stomach lurches.

"What?" Misty hears herself call just before the fight disappears in a gut wrenching whirlpool of sparking blue power. She's frozen, trapped in the path of sheer cold. Her headaches and her arms throb and everything…

Just…

fades….

She opens her eyes on the beach, everything bright and glowing even though she knows it's dark. Her stomach lurches and she rolls over, retching in the empty sand beside her.

Finished she takes a deep breath of salty air. The world goes dim and she coughs out frozen breath. No longer nauseous, she sits up suddenly and the world spins for a moment before slowly settling back. That….castle is still in front of her but...where are...she whips her head quickly to the right and left and breathes out a sigh of relief to find Ash and Brock and Pikachu and her bag in the sand beside her. Pikachu is dizzily sitting up, pawing concernedly at his trainer. He nods at her, offering a weak chuu before returning to Ash.

Ash doesn't move.

Crawling, Misty makers her way over to him and Brock.

"Ash?" she whispers. "Brock?"

Brock stirs, rolling over in the sand before slowly sitting up.

Ash doesn't move.

Her breath catches in her throat...his hand twitches. In the dim light of the stars she's not even sure she's seen it but then he mumbles something that sounds suspiciously like a request for five more minutes into the sand.

Misty breathes out.

"You'ok?" Brock slurs, sitting beside her with his head in his hands. Misty nods and then stops mid motion, the action causing stars to swim behind her eyes.

"'Bout him?" Brock continues. She opens her mouth to say something when a light bursts onto the beach, read and orange bathing them in garish hues better fit for a magmar. Misty winces and throws herself to the beach and the sound of the explosion rocks over them.

Misty's ears ring and her mouth and eyes are gritty. She sits up once more, brushing sand from her hair and legs and takes a deep breath.

It's gone.

The base.

Team Rocket.

Everything.

She closes her eyes, a negative of the bright lights from moments before painted in pulsing red light behind her...

Wait….

The explosion hadn't…

Something is bright red and blinking...in...her pocket?

"Zzat my 'dex?" Ash croaks, he's sitting up but covered in glittering sand. Misty reaches out to brush it from him but stops mid motion. Her whole back is sore and raw like she's spent too much time in the sun. They were closer to the base than she'd thought. She looks over to Brock and frowns. He's shaking his head like he can't quite hear. His face is red. But seeing her eyes he smiles and points to the blinking light in her...well...Ash's jacket pocket.

"Think so." she whispers, voice hoarse against the empty beach.

"It has a signal!" Brock cheers. "And...we're on the coast...it's over."

"We have to go back for Mari." Ash forces himself to his feet and unsteadily walks forward, weaving a path towards the Team Rocket labs.

"We can't" Misty grabs him, knocking him off balance so that he falls back to the soft sand. "Besides…" she trails off.

Ash shakes her off and stands once more. "We have to. We can't just leave another trainer…"

"I understand that, Ash. But look." She points towards the empty space where the labs had been. "There's nothing left." Ash follows her hand, swallowing convulsively as he takes in the crater that had been the lab. "...There's no one left." She adds in a whisper.

And there isn't. No one could have survived that.

Nothing could have survived that.

Mewtwo can't...their deal has to be different now.

She looks up to the sky, shivering to find the giant pokémon there.

"Mewtwo," She calls up, pointing, "It's..." her words are swallowed by a huge whirring like a beedrill lifting off.

A wind whips up in the crater of the labs, swirling dust and ash and sand and stomach sinks. A bright yellow helicopter swirls from the dust and slinks away, across the sea.

Giovanni's helicopter.

He's gotten out, or someone has.

"Misty." Mewtwo replies coldly from the skies. "It's time." He glows a bright blue and Misty shivers, pushing herself to standing. Behind her, distantly she can hear Brock asking Ash what's going on and Pikachu cooing worriedly, but she doesn.t turn, choosing instead to brace herself.

She crosses her arms, tosses Ash's jack behind her and sets her feet. Defiantly, she glares upwards. "Bring it." She screams at the sky.

Mewtwo does.

A/N 2: So…someone has caught on to my madness…which is hilarious