The New Order: Fading Light
Chapter 4: Stranded and Obligated
A/N: Thank you to all of my wonderful reviewers. Don't be shy people. I love reviews. Now this chapter is going to have a little bit of action in it but I'm still building to the real meat of the story here so you'll all just have to be patient. Some questions will be answered and the answers.
A warm breeze was his first clue that the day was beginning. He rolled over to see that the door of the shelter had been left hanging open, allowing the early morning rays of sunlight to play across the faces of the remaining occupants. Ash Ketchum rubbed his eyes and crawled out into the morning light.
Wendy was already awake as usual. The eleven year old girl was instructing her Pokémon, training them at the same time that she was preparing breakfast for the rest of them. Her Torchic was helping her stack the wood that they had collected for the fire. Budew was using its vines to pick fruit from the surrounding trees. And Rattata was helping collect the fruit.
Ash cleared his throat "How are they doing?" he asked of Wendy.
The girl smiled as she turned to look up at him "We've almost got this routine down pat," she informed him as she ran a hand through her shoulder length brown hair.
"Glad to hear it," Ash said as he removed a Pokéball from his pocket. He threw it into the air, releasing the only other Pokémon who had accompanied him to Pallet nearly fourteen months ago. Buizel appeared in a brilliant flash of light.
"Time for our morning swim," Ash smiled at the Pokémon.
Ash swam the length of the small island he had found himself washed up on all those months ago with Buizel. He had no idea where he was. As he swam his thoughts drifted as they often did to that night.
He had been in the forest; he'd been making good time on his way back to the resistance base. All of a sudden he'd heard a voice. He had turned to see a Rocket standing there, Pokéball in hand. The operative was just a kid; he couldn't have been older than thirteen. The Rocket recruits seemed to be getting younger and younger by the day. The boy had challenged Ash to a battle saying that if he won Ash would come back to Team Rocket headquarters with him as the boy's prisoner.
Ash had tried to talk some sense into the boy. Team Rocket was no place for this kid. Even in the darkness Ash could see the kid's hands shaking as he held the Pokéball. But the kid wouldn't listen to what Ash had to say, screaming at him that the resistance was a bunch of nothings that didn't understand. As the kid argued on behalf of Team Rocket, shouting to keep the truth that Ash was speaking from sinking in, he began shaking more and more.
"Your Boss is evil," Ash had said "You have to realize that. He doesn't care about you or anyone but himself."
"You're wrong!" the boy shouted.
"Giovanni doesn't care what happens to you," Ash had said. He hadn't expected the kid to react the way he did.
"Shut up!" the boy screamed as he threw a Pokéball "Ariados Hyper Beam!"
The Hyper Beam had thrown Ash a good twenty yards. He landed in the river, completely stunned and unable to swim against the current that dragged him away. Luckily he had the presence of mind to release Buizel from its Pokéball. Ash had grabbed Buizel and held on tight as the current continued to drag them both out to sea.
Ash had lost consciousness at sometime during the night and he wasn't sure how much time had passed when he'd opened his eyes to see Buizel standing above him along with a girl he had never seen before. It turned out that he and Buizel had washed up on an island. The girl had not known where they were either.
Ash had learned that the girl, Wendy along with her younger siblings, Ben and Ellie, had been shipwrecked on the island during a particularly unpleasant storm. Wendy, a novice Pokémon trainer from Hoenn had been unable to begin her Pokémon journey the way she wanted to because of the war. Her parents had made plans to escape to someplace where the war couldn't find them.
When the storm had hit, Wendy's parents had tied her and her siblings to the mast so that they wouldn't be washed overboard. But they hadn't been so lucky. Wendy had told Ash that she didn't remember much of anything between when her parents went overboard and when the ship crashed on the rocky end of the island. And Ash didn't want to press her for details. She and her brother and sister were all alone for three months before Ash washed ashore.
"Bui bui," Buizel said suddenly, snapping Ash out of his thoughts.
They had reached the rocky end of the island where Wendy's family's boat had crashed. What remained of the wreck, after Ash had salvaged planks to construct the shelter, had slipped off the rocks during a storm almost a month ago. Ash could still see the wreckage that had been left behind through the several meters of clear water that now covered it.
Ash climbed up onto the rocks and stretched out in the early morning sunlight. It was during these alone times that the thoughts of the life that he had been forced to leave behind overcame him. He would love nothing more than to return to Misty and their child, who if he was doing his math correctly, was probably close to a year old by now. There was Pikachu and Ash's other Pokémon to think of as well. He knew he had left them in good hands but were they still safe? How was the resistance holding up?
He had contemplated trying to swim back to where he'd drifted from originally, with Buizel's assistance of course, but what was he supposed to do about the kids? When he had found them they'd barely been surviving. They had no shelter, very little food and Wendy's Pokémon had not been trained to help the group the way they were now. He had built them a shelter, helped them gather food and helped Wendy train her team. He couldn't leave them alone.
Ellie was five and still fearful of lightening. Ben had only just turned four and could not swim yet, a distressing point for Ash especially when the boy had been exploring the rocky part of the island and had fallen into the deep water near the wrecked boat. Wendy was too young to be expected to care for her siblings by herself. Ash was stuck.
Even if he could take them back to Kanto with him, would that really be the right thing to do? Their parents had wanted to keep their children safe from the war. Ash understood how they felt. He had wished that he could send Misty someplace far from the war, someplace that he knew that she and the baby would be safe. But of course Misty would have none of it. He prayed that she was alright, that their baby was safe. If it weren't for these three children he would have attempted to swim back to Kanto long ago.
Ash knew that Misty and everyone else must believe he was dead by this point. His heart ached for her and their baby every day. He often stared off across the sea after the children were asleep, wondering how they were. What would they do? Would Misty return to the resistance and leave the baby with Ash's mother? Would Pikachu go with her?
Wendy had asked him one night after Ben and Ellie had gone to bed if he had a family. He had been honest with her, told her all about his mother, his wife, the child that had still been growing inside her when he'd been separated from them. She had listened intently, especially to the parts in which he had mentioned the resistance. He hadn't wanted to lie to her but he had felt guilty later when he'd seen the look on her face as she'd said goodnight to him. She knew that she and her siblings weren't his family, would never be his family, and were only keeping him from the people he loved.
Ash had grown quite fond of the three children in the time he had spent with them and really did consider them family but after that night, Wendy kept her distance. She would no longer join Ash and the younger children in splashing in the shallows. When a storm would hit in the middle of the night and Ellie would curl up close to Ash and whimper to be held, Wendy would reprimand her that "Mr. Ketchum" as she'd taken to calling him, had better things to do.
Ash hated that he'd managed to push Wendy away. He hated that he had been so honest with a vulnerable child who had only a matter of months before lost her parents. He hated that she tried to remain so distant and because of that had even pulled away from her younger siblings as well. And he especially hated that she'd taken to calling him "Mr. Ketchum".
The sound of two sets of small feet pounding hard against the ground caused Ash to sit bolt upright. He turned to see the excited faces of Ellie and Ben. The two youngsters attacked him, throwing their small arms around his neck as they squealed their good mornings to him.
Buizel, not wanting to be left out, jumped up and joined the embrace with a loud "Bui, bui!"
"Wendy says breakfast is ready!" Ellie told Ash.
"Baked apples again," Ben pouted "I hate baked apples."
Ash laughed and ruffled the little boy's brown hair. Baked apples were all they had most days. Ash stood up, picking up the two children in his arms and recalling Buizel into its Pokéball. He carried the two youngsters back to the camp site where Wendy was waiting for them.
Ash set the two children down and retreated into the shelter to pull on some dry clothes. When he emerged he saw Wendy, staring at him stone faced, holding out a baked apple wrapped in a leaf for him to take.
"Thank you," he smiled at her as he took the apple, being careful not to burn himself. He sat down to eat with the rest of them.
"Can you and Buizel give me another swimming lesson today?" Ben asked with a mouth full of apple a few minutes later.
"Ben," Wendy scolded under her breath "Don't ask stupid questions."
Ash looked over at Wendy for a moment before he answered "You bet Benny," Ash smiled at the boy.
"Can Budew and I go exploring?" Ellie asked, looking up at her sister with wide innocent blue eyes.
"Budew and I have to do some training," Wendy replied.
"You know," Ash put in "Sometimes it's good for a Pokémon to have a day off once in a while." Wendy pushed her little team hard on a daily bases. Ash suspected that she might be trying too hard in order to earn his respect seeing as how she had already resigned herself to the fact that she would never earn his love the way her siblings seemed to.
Wendy was silent for a moment, looking from Ash to her sister to the Pokémon in question "I guess it couldn't hurt…" she said finally.
"Yippy!" Ellie clapped her hands in delight.
Ash shook his head and finished off his apple, throwing the core into the fire. If only Misty were here… He didn't understand girls. Ellie was young enough that there really wasn't anything complicated about her. She just wanted to be loved, to have fun and for someone to hold her and comfort her when there was thunder and lightning outside. Wendy was an entirely different issue. Not only had he made the mistake of telling her the truth that he did have people waiting for him who cared about him but she was old enough that she could interpret that information anyway her eleven year old mind could concoct. Misty would know what to do, know what to say to get Wendy to start acting the way she had when he'd first showed up on this island.
XXX
"Thank goodness it's not a row boat," Dawn said as she settled herself into the motor boat that they had been able to acquire from a resistance sympathetic old man who lived nearby and ran the marina. He had told them that no one would miss the old girl. It had belonged to a client who had been imprisoned by Team Rocket months before.
"Sinnoh here we come," Brock said as he started the motor.
On the dock behind them, a commotion suddenly erupted. Dawn turned and her mouth dropped "Rockets!" she yelled in Brock's general direction "They've seen us!"
"Get down!" Brock screamed at her as his eye caught a glint of metal. He hunched down near the throttle and gave it all that the little craft had as bullets started flying over their heads. If they could put enough distance between them and the docks before the Rockets managed to come after them on boats of their own, they might have a chance.
Back on the dock the Rocket soldiers were angrily crowding the entrance to the marina. The owner stood in front of them refusing to move "I need to see some identification before I can allow you to take a boat out on the water," the man said.
"This should be all the identification you need," a tall Rocket with dark green hair slicked back said as he pointed to the red letter "R" on his uniform.
"I'm sorry," Mr. Lake said, not giving the slightest sign that he was backing down even though he was badly outnumbered and the lead Rocket with whom he was speaking towered over him by a good two feet "I have to do things by the book. If you cannot provide me with proper identification I cannot allow you to have use of a boat."
The Rocket grew red in the face and lifted the little old man by his collar "I've had just about enough of you old man," he hissed, tossing the man into the water.
Mr. Lake surfaced almost immediately "You can't just do whatever you want!" he shouted, shaking his fist at the Rockets who simply laughed at him.
"We can and we are," the leader of the group told Mr. Lake as the other Rockets made snide comments at the old man's expense.
Mr. Lake looked over his shoulder. The boat with the young resistance fighters was still in sight. He turned back to the Rockets "I didn't want to do this but you've forced my hand," he snapped his fingers, summoning his "security system".
A Gyarados swept beneath Lake and lifted him out of the water on its back. A Blastoise and a Tentacruel surfaced on either side of the Gyarados. "Yeehaw!" Lake shouted as his Pokémon prepared to attack.
Caught completely off guard by the show of force the group of six Rocket soldiers ran for the hills, their guns having been knocked from their hands by Blastoise's Hydro Pump.
Lake looked over his shoulder again to see that the boat he had given to the resistance fighters was no longer in sight. "They're safe," he whispered as he patted Gyarados's back lovingly "Thank you my friend."
XXX
Brock and Dawn could finally breathe again. The boat was speeding towards Sinnoh. They knew they would face a similar problem trying to land but right now they took the opportunity to breathe. Catching one's breath was a rare thing in the resistance.
Dawn closed her eyes and let the spray of the ocean hit her face. She smiled softly, enjoying the moment of peace that had seemed to come upon them.
Brock kept an eye on the compass and on his steering but he could not deny that now that the Rockets were no longer shooting at them and it appeared that they weren't being followed, that it was nice to have a moment to relax and to think.
"I miss just being able to relax," Dawn said finally.
"Piplup," Piplup agreed with her as it rested on the seat beside her.
Brock nodded "At this speed we should arrive at Sinnoh in three hours," he remarked "So enjoy the peace while you can."
"Do you suppose we can retake Veilstone City?" Dawn asked a few minutes later.
Brock scratched his head, staring down at the compass for a long time "I suppose anything is possible," he said quietly.
"Yeah," Dawn replied "I suppose." There was no way around it. Lt. Surge's abandonment of Kanto had left them doubting themselves and their chances. With Veilstone and now Saffron City having fallen to Team Rocket within less than a week the feeling of powerlessness was unavoidable.
The feeling was a familiar one. It was the same feeling that they had all experienced when Ash had gone missing. It was the same crushing inner pain they had all felt when Angie had discovered his hat in Viridian Forest. But somehow as time went by, as Aurora was born and they watched her grow, hope seemed to come back to them.
Perhaps it had been their own separation from the fighting. Pallet Town had been low priority after the Rockets had ransacked Professor Oak's lab the first time. But Dawn didn't think it had been the separation at all. The weekly Pidgey reports from the front lines of the resistance had seemed not as bleak as they had in the weeks after Ash's funeral.
A clap of thunder shook Dawn from her thoughts. She opened her eyes to look at Brock "Did I just hear what I thought I just heard?" she asked.
Brock looked up at the sky. Thick black clouds were fast approaching "This looks bad," he remarked "Grab onto something and hold on tight, this could get rough."
XXX
"Thunder," Ellie shook as she grabbed on to Ash's leg with all of her might.
Ash bent and picked the girl up "It'll be okay," he assured her "Let's get inside the shelter." He carried Ellie inside the shelter to see Ben already huddled in the corner. Ash sat down and pulled them both into his lap "It'll be okay," he told them.
"It looks like it could be a big one," Wendy remarked as she entered the shelter with Torchic, Budew and Rattata.
Ash looked up at her to say something to the effect of how she shouldn't try to scare her siblings like that but the retort died before his mouth even cracked open. She looked nervous as well. Ash patted a spot next to him on the floor "Come sit with us," he said softly "I thought I'd tell you guys a story."
Wendy looked reluctant for a while but when a particularly brilliant flash of lightning lit up the interior of the shelter and a deafening boom followed it she ran to Ash and planted herself firmly beside him.
"What story are you going to tell us?" Ellie asked.
"I thought I'd tell you about why I'm not scared of thunder and lightning at all," Ash smiled "You see, it all has to do with a very good friend of mine who I met when I was a kid…"
XXX
"Where are we?!" Dawn yelled over the roar of the waves.
"No clue!" Brock yelled back "This is really bad!"
"Should we head back?!" Dawn asked. Being put in prison was starting to look good compared to drowning during a storm like this.
"We'd never make it!" Brock called back.
"What do we do?!" Dawn asked.
"Just hold on!" Brock called back as he tried frantically to put them back on course.
"Piplup, pipiplup!" the water type screeched.
"Piplup!" Dawn gasped, just managing to catch Piplup before the Pokémon was washed overboard.
XXX
The storm lasted all that afternoon and all night. Some time just as it was winding down Ash thought he heard something. It sounded like a motor but that was impossible. Ash lay there, watching Wendy, Ellie and Ben sleeping peacefully when he heard something else. It was a splashing sound like people, in the water. And there was another noise like the people were trying to pull a boat up on the beach.
Ash's body snapped upright. He grabbed Buizel's Pokéball and crept out of the shelter. His first thought was that it might be danger and he'd be damned if he was going to let anything happen to those kids.
The clouds were just beginning to break and a few golden rays of early morning sunshine were making their way through. Ash moved cautiously, finding as much cover as he could as he made his way to the beach that he had washed up on over a year ago.
He was close now. So close in fact that he could hear voices. He stopped in his tracks, those voices… Could they really be…? No, that made no sense. Why would they be here? Wherever here was in the first place.
But when the beach finally came into view there was no doubt. He stood there, staring in disbelief "Brock…? Dawn…?"
His look of disbelief was nothing in comparison to the two looks he got from the figures on the beach when they turned to the source of the voice which had called them. A mixture of surprise, confusion and utter joy adorned both their countenances.
Dawn was the first to speak "Aaaaaa… Ash…?"
A/N: Ash is 20. I didn't want to put that in the first chapter because I wanted to leave some mystery to whether he was still alive or not but since I listed him as one of the characters in the story I guess that sort of blows my cover. Anyway, hope you like it. Please review and let me know what you think.