Author's note: Hey everyone! Sorry again for the long delay; college classes have been taking a toll and therefore have been occupying my schedule for most of the week _ Anyway! I hope that you all enjoy the chapter! I'll be doing more writing as I head into the summer, so I'll try to update more often. As always, please feel free to leave a review to let me know how you like it! Enjoy! :)
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Ash tried to open his eyes, feeling the black void of his subconscious trying to sense his surroundings, but every time he tried to open them a massive pain would shoot through his skull and would cause him to blackout again. All of his sense became so out of whack that Ash had no direction as to where he was being taken to. He continued to catch snippets of locations but couldn't learn enough before loosing his consciousness again. It was extremely frustrating and confusing, in which would just cause more pain to erupt.
Finally, after what felt that hours of pain and darkness, Ash began to regain his consciousness, this time without feeling the same sharp pain from earlier. He slowly tried to open his eyes, feeling a warm sensation upon his forehead; though it wasn't a hot towel of any sorts. Ash felt himself trying to slip away into blackness but he continued to try and get himself to stay conscious. As his vision improved, he noticed that the source of the warmth on his forehead was actually from a lightbulb that was pointed down unto his face. Ash looked away from the light so as not to burn his tender eyes and doing so made him discover that there was a figure that was standing in front of Ash; looming over him.
"Uh.. what the.." Ash spoke groggily, his head giving a slight twinge of pain as he spoke.
"Wakey wakey," the voice spoke. Even though Ash was still coming into consciousness by the second, the voice sounded very familiar.. but he couldn't pick up who the figure was.
"What the.. w-what going on? W-Where am I?" Ash fumbled to say. Constructing his own words was hard at the moment, as it felt like he just wanted to pass out again, but he knew that he couldn't afford to.
"As to where you are, you shouldn't be concerned about that.. but you should be concerned with what you know.. and what we don't know.."
"What are you talking about?" Ash felt himself come into full consciousness. As he did, he realized that any movement of his arms was impossible: he was chained up to some massive pole. Ash's legs were free to move but without his arms it was impossible to go anywhere. "Why in the world am I chained up like this?!"
"Hmm well you see, we didn't want you going anywhere any time soon… unless you told us something.."
"What? What are you talking about? I've got nothing to hide!"
"Sure you do.." the voice mocked Ash. The figure moved to Ash's left side, slowly and majestically, keeping its face in the darkness. "You know exactly what I'm talking about," the figure spoke, continuing to move, "The dark entity that is locally called The Messenger.." Ash's eyes opened up larger at the mentioning of The Messenger, thinking about what Misty had told him earlier that day.
"What about it? It's just an urban legend around here, right?" Ash tried to play off, but to no success but only to piss off the figure even more. The figure stepped forward into plain sight, slowly, exposing its true form. The sight caught Ash off by surprise. The figure ended up being some type of foot soldier of some sorts, which looked a lot like a C.D.F. soldier but… something was very different.. The soldier was wearing all black clothing, with a matching black boots and a silver bandana that wrapped around his arm. What was the most disturbing was the fact that the soldier was wearing a mask that looked very similar to a Marowak skull, except that the mask covered the entire face of the individual, leaving three narrow gaps for places to breathe in and out of the mask. The eyes were clearly visible but everything else was covered up. The sight was very creepy and it look Ash off surprise quite a bit.
"Don't mess around with me, boy," the soldier replied, "You're not really in a position to play innocent right now. You're losing precious time and if you don't tell me what the Messenger told you.. then I will be forced to do something that you are really not going to like."
"Like what?" Ash replied, trying to maintain his ground. The soldier did not move.. it continued to look right at Ash, with its piecing eyes, as if the soldier was trying to test Ash's luck.
"Like this" the soldier spoke, turning away from Ash. It then pulled a button out of it's pocket and pushed it, revealing a beam of light off to Ash's left-hand side, to which he turned his attention to. What Ash saw in that beam of light caused a shot of pain to go right through is entire body… there, sitting tied up in the beam of light, was a red-headed girl that looked like she had already been tortured to all knows what-not. Cuts, brushes, ripped parts of clothing… it looked so bad from afar.
"Misty!" Ash called out, trying to wake her up, though it looked like she might have passed out in pain. He gridded his teeth and turned back to the soldier. "What the hell did you do with Misty!?"
"Ahh so I've finally struck the sensitive chord, now have I? It seems I might have" the soldier spoke cheekily through his mask. "You see, I asked her the same question earlier before you woke up. I think I might have smacked you up too much earlier because you weren't responding at all, so she took the brute force for you… I asked nicely to the young lady, but she didn't give me any sort of answer, so I had no excuse but to punish her for her disobedience…" As the figure continued to speak, Ash looked back over at Misty, feeling a wave of great worry flood over his body.
"Misty…" Ash softly spoke, feeling his emotions rise up. Never had he seen Misty like this before.. and she's not even being emotionally responsive either… she looked such absolutely thrashed over and in so much pain..
"Now it is your turn, Ash Ketchum," the soldier continued to speak, "All I want is a simple answer to a simple question. Should you answer my question, I will release both of you and you would be free to go your own way; back to trying to fight against the infection. However, if you don't answer my question, I will cause pain… but not to you… physically.."
"What do you mean?" Ash spoke, feeling the fearful answer coming up, as he continued to look back over to where Misty was chained up.
"I will, instead, hurt you through physiological pain.. for if you do not answer my question, your pretty girlfriend gets another smack to her body… she will take the hits for your causes… is that clear?" the soldier spoke once more. Ash felt as if time just froze in place, as he felt so much guilt come over his body… and so much pain come over his body from seeing Misty looking as beat up as she was; seeing all the damage that had been done onto her.
"I can't tell them about the Messenger's plan, it'll jeopardize the entire effort of fleeing towards safety! But then again.. I can't afford the sight of seeing Misty getting assaulted further.. I just couldn't live with myself if I learned that my stupid actions caused this massive amount of pain to her… Misty.."
"Well? I'm waiting" the soldier spoke, crossing his arms. Ash continued to think about the predicament at hand, wishing that there was a better solution to all of this.. but it ended up coming around to one solution…
"You said that if I responded to your question, then you will let both of us go freely without any further questions, right? Ash asked, trying to remain calm, even though his instincts where kicking in like crazy.
"That is correct. I will cause no further harm and you two will be left to your own device once you are set free of these braces. But, if you should chose to answer my question, if I let you go, I need your word that you wouldn't try here and now to try and assault me" the soldier spoke.
"Think about it," Ash replied, "If my best friend was left in a state of severe pain and suffering.. the last thing on my mind would be trying to get my revenge right away..
"True true, but that doesn't mean that that sort of thing doesn't happen, you know? It's hard to trust anyone these days," the figure spoke, shaking his head in mere shame, "So.. what'll it be then? The information.. or the pain?" Ash felt that he shouldn't… it would be going against what the Messenger would want him to do.. along the fact that Misty went through all of that torture to just have him just simply say what the information was… unless…
"Okay, okay.. I will tell you what the Messenger told me.."
"And?" the soldier responded, without displaying any interest in sympathy.
"… but first, how long have I been out? So I can get the sense of time" Ash asked, trying to be reasonable with the soldier. The unit sighed, shaking it head in disbelief.
"You're were out for four hours and you were picked up at 7pm" the soldier replied, with no change in tone. Ash's mind began to turn gears, trying to calculate when exactly they would have to move out. Since it was currently 11pm, that means that the right time to try and head out of the time would be.. the following mid-day, like what the Messenger had told Misty.
"..The Messenger told us that we could safely make it out of the city, mid-day, on the following day from when he told us about this.. which was earlier this afternoon…" Ash admitted, speaking truthfully from what he had calculated, "Now please! Let us go!"
The soldier moved closer to Ash, pulling out what looked like a baton stick from his pocket, "I'm not playing out, you do realize this, right?" the soldier threatened him, leaving Ash but stunned!
"What are you talking about? I told you what the Messenger told me!" Ash disputed, but was soon interrupted by a smack to his stomach by the baton. He felt as if his insides had been severely jabbed.
"You know what I'm talking about! That cannot be all that the Messenger told you about! It would not make sense for it to just tell you when to leave without a complete plan! Now TELL me! Where does the Messenger want you to go!?" the soldier yelled at Ash, threatening him with the baton next to his head. Ash took a deep breath before speaking. If he told a bluff of the direction, he might be sending these freaks to their doom.. but they might be taking the civilians with them… but then again, how does he know who these freaks work for?
"The Messenger told us to leave the city to the east, during a time that it looks like the infected have stopped coming into the city," Ash spoke, "Now please, let Misty and I go! I've told you everything that I know!" Before Ash could react, there was a smack by the baton to his stomach, making Ash almost keel over in pain.
"That's strike two," the soldier, sounding more impatient than ever, "Surely he must have specified a particular city! The Messenger would have told you where you would definitely be safe!" Ash tried to speak right away but the last hit had stunned him in place. The soldier slowly began to move away from Ash, retreating back into the shadows.. and walked over to where Misty was crumpled up.. Ash looked up and saw him move over to her and started to panic, feeling his adrenaline kick in.
"No! NO! Get away from her!" Ash protested, trying to get up but still finding himself constricted to the pole, falling back onto his bottom. "I swear, if you touch her I WILL KILL YOU!" he yelled out, anger clearly noticeable in his face. The soldier just looked over at Ash, his baton moving around like a cat's tail when curiosity has been struck.
"Sensitive aren't we?" the soldier calmly replied. He flinched the baton in Misty's direction, making Ash jump in fear. Upon seeing that it was just a flinch, he couldn't help but just to start breaking down.
"P-Please," Ash spoke, looking down, "I-I've told you everything that I know.. what more do you want from me?" Tears of both confusion and pain started to develop in his eyes.
"I told you, The Messenger would not be that vague with his instructions. He specifically told you where to go, Ash Ketchum" the soldier replied quickly. Ash noticed that the baton was moving slowly closer to Misty.
"But how can you know that? Even if he is someone that appears in people's dreams, how can it be certain that he'll be precise with his information?" Ash asked, trying to be reasonable with the soldier.
"Because out of all of the reports given about the case with regards to The Messenger, each individual has explained that this being gave them almost pin-point information about what they needed to do. Therefore there would be no reasoning as to why he wasn't specific with you." The soldier then moved up to Misty, standing right behind her, with his baton next to her throat. Ash flinched at the site of this, both concern and anger rising in his body.
"My patience is running out," the soldier spoke again, the sound of anger in his voice, "I need you to tell me where The Messenger wants to exactly send you.. and if you don't, then your precious friend here is going to get quite a beating for your lack of information… so what'll it be? Your information or your beat up girlfriend?"
The pain inside Ash continued to rise.. but not physically.. but physiologically.. the pain that he saw in Misty's face was horrific to look at. Various cuts, brushes, and gashes lay all over her face and her body, and closely looking at her face.. he could tell that she was crying through the entire beating… he couldn't stand it any longer, feeling that his world might die if she got hit once more.. that if something happened to Misty.. then his whole world would be shattered.. there wouldn't be anything left in his world..
Ash hung his head low in defeat. "Saffron City… that's where The Messenger wants for us to go… it is there that the city's population will be protected from the infection, with the help of their gym leader…" he spoke, with the sound of pain in his voice.
"Saffron City, eh?" the soldier replied, with a tone of satisfaction in his voice. "Hmm, very well then. It is settled". Ash looked up at the soldier, waiting for his next decision. Slowly, he placed his baton back in his holder and moved away from Misty. A wave of relief came over Ash, seeing him walks towards a now visible desk.
"Thank goodness.." Ash thought to himself. He looked back over at Misty, who was still crumpled up from all of the pain that she endured. "I'm so sorry.. but I couldn't let him do any more harm onto you…" he silently apologized. As he was thinking this, he could hear a few scratches of a pencil against paper. Ash looked over at the desk to see that the soldier was writing something down; probably some time of report stating what he had said. The soldier finished writing the report and got up from his desk.
"Your information will save thousands of lives here in Celadon City," the soldier spoke as he approached Ash, "You should be ashamed from holding back this information… normally this would be on the grounds of jail time… but be thankful I am a forgiving man who is very busy at this time."
"Forgiving!?" Ash yelled back, catching the soldier off guard. "You beat up and interrogate citizens, forcing information out of them, and you claim yourself as being forgiving!? How dare you say that!"
"You're not really in a position to be yelling back at me. I just spared your girlfriend's life.. along with yours. I could've just left you outside and let you become infected from the hordes. You should be thankful for where you are currently at - safe inside."
"How can I be thankful after what you did to me? After what you did to Misty? How can I even trust that you're telling the truth!?" he continued to yell at the soldier. The soldier stood there for a moment, silent behind his skull-printed mask.
"Because this is what happens when you are passionate to protect the people you care about.." the soldier replied, almost startling Ash with his response. "The way you acted when I approached Misty, threatening to kill me if I touched her.. you acted that way because you care about her and that you want to protect her from further harm… that is how I see the people of this great city. They are hurting.. badly from this infection. We've already confirmed that 20% of the city has already turned in the initial 12 hours alone.. and the rates are only going to increase.. I only acted the way that I did because you contained information that would be vital to the survival of the innocent civilians within this city… I mean no personal harm, but this is what I had to do.. I'm sorry for the pain that you and Misty have endured," the soldier spoke, while moving to the pole that Ash was attached to.
He could hear the key unlock behind himself and his hands were allowed to return to their normal position. Ash moved his hands to his front and started massaging the area that was chained up, feeling the spots where the chains were cutting into his hand… "You are now free" was the last thing Ash heard before he felt a shock go through his body. He yelled in pain from the shock, stunned by whatever was doing this to him and feeling the strong current tear through his body. The pain overcame Ash and soon passed out from the shock. Before his eyes closed he could see that the soldier was removing his mask and walking back to the desk, but soon the darkness came over him once again..