Thanks for the reviews guys I really appreciate you taking the time to write one. Chapter 37 broke the old review record which is now in the 30's. Admittedly the one person who simply put '!' as a review doesn't really count.

Once again this took a bit longer to get on but due to my other commitments and the fact that I spent any spare time I had over a couple of days training my new Diancie meant that my spare time was taken up.

Well it seems that Salem's betrayal has surprised the majority of you and has gotten a mixed reaction. I really had no idea how popular Shockshipping was with some of you, I have literally had people beg me to make Salem betray Rethant so she would stay with Ash. I'm sorry guys but that's not gonna happen. I know you're disappointed but I said in the notes of last chapter why I've have done this.

So far 55 of you have voted on the poll and right now it's 36 to 19 so it's pretty one sided. This poll will stay up for a little while yet so if you wanna have a say on that then you'd better vote soon.

Be warned this chapter is very dialogue heavy.

Here's chapter 38 I hope you enjoy it

In conversations:

'- Translation of Poké Speech – No human unless otherwise stated can understand it. Ash can get the gist of what his Pokémon are saying due to his close bond with them.

"- Human speech

'- Thoughts'

"- Telepathy

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.

Ash, Thalion, Vanya and their Pokémon all stared at Salem in shock, they watched as she smirked at them and then removed contact lenses from her eyes. The silver colour that had once entranced Ash was replaced with eyes just like Rethant's, one was blood red and the other was ice blue. Salem turned away from them and walked over to her father.

"I'd like to thank you father for your praise." Salem said.

"It was well deserved, I am proud to call you my daughter." Rethant replied.

Salem gave her father a nod and then turned back to face the people she had been forced to travel with. She saw the hurt look in Ash's face as he tried to recover from the revelation and a satisfied smirk appeared on her face.

"So Ash I suppose that after everything we've been through I might as well explain this whole charade. You see after you fought my father he wanted you to join us, so I waited just outside of Rustboro for you and when you got near I purposely pissed off those Zubat so we'd meet since I knew that you'd come running to the rescue. My mission was to gradually sway you to join us, unfortunately I learned early on that you wouldn't do that so I had to do the next best thing. Lure you into one of our bases so that you wouldn't be an obstacle in our goal to revive Ksher."

Ash stood in silence, he thought back to the cruise ship when she convinced him to let Echye go and wondered why he didn't suspect something then. They could have easily caught the helicopter and she had given Echye the chance to escape. He then remembered the secretive calls, the reluctance to reveal some of her past and her at times manipulative behavior and it all made sense.

"I was such a fool." Ash muttered.

"Yes, yes you were Ash. You were a naïve fool who was too love-struck to see the glaring flaws that I had sometimes accidentally revealed." Salem mocked.

Ash remained silent as he continued to internally curse himself for his stupidity. Salem looked at Ash and would happily admit that she enjoyed watching him break down.

"I guess you wanna know how I kept this little secret for so long. Well I'll start by saying that pretty much everything I told you was a lie, I was never attacked by Woobat when I was young and I don't only train electric types. They were all lies that I fabricated to gain your trust and I acted in a way that would also gain your trust. However there were occasions where I knew I couldn't pretend to like you or the situation we were in which is why I'm glad I was given this." Salem said as she took something out of her ear.

She threw whatever she had taken out of her ear on the floor in front of Ash who looked down and saw what appeared to be a tiny microchip.

"That is a computer chip that has a series of emotions programmed into it. When I knew I wouldn't be able to act well enough I simply turned this on and it did the hard work for me. I left it on for days at a time just to make things easier."

"But surely Togetic should have picked up on the fact that you were evil." Ash said.

"You clearly forgot what those doddery old gits said. They said that we'd have a connection to one of them; they never said anything about whether they were good or evil."

"Well what about your Pokémon then? They haven't shown any signs of being evil." Ash replied.

"The Pokémon I had when I met you all have similar devices to the one I wore. The Pokémon I caught since I met you on the other hand were all fooled into thinking that we were good guys just like you have been."

"So this whole time has been one big lie. Every word you said, every action you took." Ash mumbled more to himself than anyone else.

"I believe I already answered that but to clarify yes it has been one big lie. Although I have to admit that there were fleeting moments when I shared genuine emotion for you, mainly when you were displaying your power. However most of the time I was merely acting or it was the computer chip making me say things and act how I did. It's a shame that your feelings hold you back, if you were cold and ruthless like my father then you could conquer any foe in the future. You'd be treated like a King in the new world that we will control, hell if you were like that I'd have probably been your Queen but you're too weak to fulfill your potential."

Rethant smirked as he watched his daughter berate the Ketchum boy. It filled him with pride to see his daughter psychologically break the irritating boy who'd been a very annoying thorn in his side. He stepped forward until he was stood alongside his daughter and placed his left hand on her shoulder, he then looked around the room at his legion and pointed at Ash, Thalion and Vanya.

"Attack." Rethant commanded.

The red and blue garbed villains and their Pokémon didn't need to be told twice and they started to close in on the trio of trainers and their Pokémon. Ash saw the approaching Team Firestorm members and Pokémon that were now closing on them and pushed his feelings aside, there would be time to mope and deal with what has happened at some later time.

He heard Vanya scream behind him, he turned around immediately and saw that one of grunts had grabbed hold of her. Ash ran at the grunt holding Vanya and threw his fist at the man's face. Ash's fist connected with the grunts jaw which made him release his grip on Vanya and he staggered back. He spat out some blood and glared at Ash.

"You little shit, you'll pay for that." The man snarled.

Ash smirked at the grunt and flipped him off, the grunt roared angrily and charged at Ash who knew that he was no match for the man when it came to strength so he'd have to just dodge any attacks and take any opportunities that presented themselves. The grunt aimed a punch at Ash who quickly ducked under the wild strike, he could tell from just that one punch that this guy had a lot of strength but didn't have the technique to properly use it. Ash was about to counter attack when a foot swung up from behind the grunt and slammed into his crotch. Ash winced as he heard the grunt give a pained cry and then the grunt collapsed. Ash looked up from the grunt and saw Vanya who was looking at the grunt, she turned her attention to Ash who gave her a thumbs up.

"Nice Job Vanya." Ash said.

"Thanks."

Suddenly Ash felt something very hard hit him in the back of the head, he fell to his knees as he vision started to blur and the room began to spin. A fist slammed into his face and the last things he heard before he lost the battle with consciousness were the sounds of battle, Vanya's screams and Rethant cackling.

Ash groaned as he slowly opened his eyes, he sat up quickly and immediately regretted it as pain shot through his skull. He placed a hand to his head and wasn't surprised when he saw blood on his fingers.

"Cowardly fuckers, had to sneak up behind me." Ash murmured.

After a minute or so the pain started to subside and he suddenly realized that he could hear sobbing nearby. He looked around and saw a series of bars in front of him indicating that he was in a cell. He turned around and saw Thalion sat in the corner, the minute their eyes met Thalion started to glare at Ash. The Kanto native wondered what he'd done to deserve such a look but decided to worry about it later as he looked in the other corner and saw Vanya who had with her knees pulled to her chest, her arms were wrapped around her legs and she had her head down as she cried.

Ash was confused that Thalion wasn't trying to comfort her but he decided to not ask questions and instead he sat down next to Vanya. He pulled the girl into his arms which made her look up, Ash felt his heart break for the second time today as he looked at Vanya who's eyes were red and puffy and her cheeks were tearstained. He pulled her tightly to him, she wrapped her arms around him in response and he held her as she shook in his arms.

"I was so worried Ash, I saw the blood and you were barely moving and I-I thought that you weren't going to wake up." Vanya sobbed.

"Hey calm down Vanya. I'm fine now." Ash murmured softly.

Ash eventually felt her shaking lessen and her cries turned into quiet whimpers, Vanya pulled back enough so that she could look at Ash but was still in his embrace. Ash smiled sadly at her and wiped away her tears.

"What happened Vanya? The last thing I remember is being hit by someone."

"They knocked you out and then they did the same to out Pokémon, they fought hard but there were way too many of them. They then took our Pokéballs and anything else we had and dumped us all in this cell."

"Where are our Pokéballs?" Ash asked.

Vanya pointed out of the cell at the chest that was sat on the other side of the room which had all of their Pokéballs and any other devices that they were carrying.

"The bastards are taunting us." Ash growled.

"Ash what are we gonna do?" Vanya asked.

Ash looked at Thalion was still glaring at him, he turned his attention back to the terrified girl in his arms and didn't really know what to say. Without their Pokémon they had no way to escape from the cell and it didn't look like there were any structural weaknesses to take advantage of. Suddenly he heard a strange noise that sounded a lot like Butterfree's wings when he used Bug Buzz. He released his grip on Vanya and crawled over to the front of the cell to see if he could spot what was making the noise. After a few moments he saw something fly around the corner, the creature landed in front of the cell and Ash couldn't keep a smile from forming on his face.

"Vibrava." Ash said happily.

The dragon type nodded and then fired a green and yellow beam at the cell bars. The Dragonbreath melted the bars in seconds which allowed Ash to leave the cell, he picked up Vibrava and hugged him. The dragon enjoyed the embrace and nuzzled Ash.

"Thanks for saving us Vibrava but why are you here?" Ash asked.

Vibrava pointed to himself and then to Ash, he then nuzzled Ash again. The young trainer was pretty sure he knew why the dragon type was here but he wanted to make sure.

"You wanna join me?" Ash guessed.

Vibrava nodded which brought a smile to Ash's face.

"I'm happy to hear that Vibrava. Come on guys let's get outta here."

Vanya quickly stepped out of the cell followed by Thalion. The trio took all of their gear and out of the box and put everything back in its place. Ash then looked at Vibrava who was sat on his shoulder.

"Right Vibrava can you lead us out of this base."

The dragon nodded and flew off of Ash's shoulder and started flying back the way he came, Ash was right behind him but stopped when he realized that neither Vanya nor Thalion were following him. He looked back and saw that Thalion had a grip on Vanya's arm, the girl was looking between Ash and Thalion. The Kanto native walked back to the siblings and saw that Thalion was still glaring at him.

"Thalion what's wrong?" Ash asked.

"We're not going anywhere with you." Thalion growled.

"What? Why not? Vibrava knows the way outta here."

"It's your fault we're stuck in here in the first place. There is no way I'm risking my sister's safety by following you again. Come on Vanya let's find our own way out of here."

Thalion wasn't going to be argued with and he started to walk in the opposite direction the one Vibrava had led Ash. Vanya looked from her brother to Ash and felt torn between the two. Ash saw the conflict in Vanya's eyes and placed his hands on her shoulders which made her look up at him.

"You... you should go with him. He is your brother."

Vanya threw her arms around Ash who returned the embrace, the pair held each other tightly for a few moments.

"Vanya!" Thalion yelled in annoyance.

"Go, I promise that I'll see you again."

The girl released her grip on Ash and looked up at him sadly, he saw the look and gave her a sad smile and a quick nod. She turned around and ran to her brother who led her out of the room. Vibrava landed on Ash's shoulder again and looked at him.

'Is it safe to let them go off like that?' Vibrava asked.

Ash shook his head and gently stroked Vibrava's head.

"I think that we have to respect his decision. Personally I wish they'd have just come with us until we left the base but I can understand why Thalion has chosen to do this. Come on I'm sure that someone will check the cell soon so we'd better leave quickly."

Vibrava nodded and flew ahead of Ash who was right behind the dragon, they quietly moved through the first corridor making as little noise as possible.

"We've just gotta hope we don't run into much resistance. You're the only one that is in any state to battle so we have to be careful." Ash said to Vibrava.

The duo were extremely cautious from that point on, they were forced to hide behind anything they could to make sure that the patrols didn't spot them.

As they moved through the base they both heard the sounds of Pokémon being attacked. Ash and Vibrava were tempted to ignore it and get out of the base but when they heard cries of pain they had to investigate. They quickly made their way to where the sounds were coming from and crouched behind a crate near the entrance to the room. Ash and Vibrava peeked over the crate and saw Salem watching her Pokémon attack Plusle and Minun with a sadistic smile on her face.

"I've been incredibly kind so far despite your disobedience now I'll tell you this one more time. You have two options. Option number one is that you can willingly serve me. Option two is I put one of these very painful collars on you that will force you to serve me and will eventually break any free will you once possessed. I'll give you an hour to think about your choice."

Salem's Pokémon hit Plusle and Minun with one more attack before their trainer tossed them in a cage. Salem walked out of the room quickly followed by her Pokémon, when Ash and Vibrava were sure that they were gone they came out of hiding and walked over to the cage where Plusle and Minun were. The injured electric types managed to open their eyes and saw Ash looking at them.

"Hey you two, I'm gonna get you outta this cage and then we're escaping from this base. Once we leave you're free to do whatever you want."

Plusle and Minun nodded weakly and then stepped away from the front of the cage, when they were at the back of the cage Vibrava shot a weak Dragonbreath at the cage which melted the bars. Plusle and Minun stumbled out of the cage and collapsed in Ash's arms. The unconscious electric types were cradled in Ash's arms and Vibrava started to lead him back to the way out of the base. The exit came into view when they suddenly heard a scream ring through the base.

"THALION!"

"That was Vanya. I have to go back and help her. You should take these two and get to safety." Ash said frantically.

Vibrava shook his head, he had no intention of leaving Ash alone in this base. Ash was touched by the dragon's loyalty.

"Alright then, come on we've got people to save."

Vibrava nodded and then followed Ash who charged through the base towards where the scream came from. Moments later they burst into a room and saw Salem and several Team Firestorm grunts stood in front of Vanya who was crouched over her unconscious brother. Ash and Vibrava quickly stood between the Team Firestorm members and Vanya. Salem smirked at Ash and then spotted Vibrava.

"I was wondering how you got out of your cell and I see now that it was that worthless little Vibrava that helped you."

The dragon growled angrily and scowled at Salem who merely laughed at the dragon, she then turned her gaze back to Ash.

"To be honest I was expecting you to show up and save your damsel in distress? Well this time you won't be saving anyone Ketchum."

"We'll see about that Salem. Let's do this Vibrava."

Salem smirked as she watched Vibrava get into a battle stance, Luxray, Chu, Zebstrika and Galvantula then surrounded the dragon who looked around at the quartet wondering which one of them was going to initiate this battle. Ash already knew that this was not a battle that Vibrava could win, he saw the dragon looking back at him and could see no fear in his eyes, all he saw was determination and courage. He felt the same emotions rush through him as he looked at Vanya who was still crouched over Thalion, he then looked up at Salem.

"It seems you're just as cowardly as the rest of your pathetic organization. You know you can't beat me which is why you're having to fight me four vs one."

"Do you really think I give a shit about what you think? I know that when you battled my father he fought you one on one but that was because he just wanted to prove that he could beat your Pokémon in a fair fight. Me on the other hand well I don't care about that, I just wanna crush you. All of you attack that Vibrava." Salem said.

Ash knew the only chance Vibrava had to do some damage was by using his flying abilities.

"Get in the air Vibrava."

The dragon flew into the air dodging several attacks that landed where he had been. He was forced to quickly duck and dive as orbs of ice and fire were shot at him, the orbs shot past Vibrava and slammed into the ceiling which made chunks of it crash to the ground. A large piece slammed down on Raichu who cried out in pain as she was crushed, Luxray, Zebstrika and Galvantula all quickly helped remove the rubble and the quartet stood up and glared at Vibrava.

"Hit them with Dragonbreath then dive down and land on Raichu's back then use Giga Drain."

Vibrava opened his mouth and shot green and yellow flames at Raichu, Luxray, Galvantula and Zebstrika. The electric types were bathed in draconic flames which caused them all to stagger back as they tried to fend off the attack. Vibrava cut the Dragonbreath and dived down at Raichu and landed on the mouse's back. Raichu flailed around trying to shake the dragon off but was unable to. Vibrava then glowed green and several tendrils shot off of him to Raichu who screamed in pain as she felt her energy being drained.

'Get it off. For the love of Arceus get it off!' Raichu screamed.

Luxray, Galvantula and Zebstrika didn't need to be told twice and moments later several orbs that were engulfed in flames, ice encased orbs and a rainbow colored beam shot towards Vibrava. The dragon saw the attacks headed his way and leapt off of Raichu quickly flying away. Raichu saw the attacks and was frozen in place as she watched the trio of attacks headed towards them. The attacks hit Raichu and exploded on impact shrouding the mouse in smoke. When the smoke cleared it revealed an unconscious Raichu. Salem growled angrily at such an incompetent display and she glared at her Pokémon who were all yelling at each other and then returned Raichu.

"All of you shut up! I can believe how worthless you all are sometimes, I have to do everything for you. Galvantula Bug Buzz, Zebstrika use Hidden Power and Luxray hit him with an Ice Fang."

The tufts on Galvantula's back turned red and he emitted sound waves from them, the sound waves hit Vibrava and the dragon cried out in pain as skull splitting pain rushed through him. The pain paralyzed the dragon who had no chance to dodge the ice encased orbs that were flying his way. The orbs crashed into Vibrava and made him slam into the ceiling, he then went plummeting to the ground and landed in a heap.

Luxray saw this as his opportunity and his teeth became encased in ice as he charged at Vibrava. The dragon pushed himself up just in time for Luxray to sink his ice encased teeth into his body which made the dragon cry out in pain at the ice attack. He struggled in Luxray's grip but he couldn't free himself, after a few moments he felt himself getting weaker. He fought to stay conscious but his vision was darkening every second, after a minute of fighting Vibrava finally lost the battle with consciousness and fell limp in Luxray's mouth. The lion threw Vibrava back at Ash who caught the dragon, he looked down at Vibrava and felt immensely proud.

"You fought hard against terrible odds Vibrava, thank you." Ash murmured.

Vibrava's eyes slowly flickered open and he nuzzled Ash before losing consciousness again. Ash looked from Vibrava to Salem, he was sickened by the satisfied grin on her face.

"Weak just like I thought. You're not even worth my time." Salem paused and looked at the grunts. "You guys deal with them, I don't honestly care what you do just make sure that they don't follow us."

Salem then walked out of the room leaving Ash, Thalion and Vanya to the grunts who leered at the trio evilly, Ash handed Vibrava, Plusle and Minun to Vanya and put himself in front of Vanya and Thalion in an attempt to protect them. The grunts started to slowly walk towards the trio who stepped back until they had their backs to the wall. As the grunts got closer something in Ash's pocket started glowing. Ash pulled the item out and was amazed to see that it was the G.S. Ball, glow became blindingly bright forcing everyone to shield their eyes. A few moments the light died down and Ash gasped in shock as he saw that the G.S. Ball was open and the Pokémon that had resided in the G.S. Ball for so long was now in front of him.

"It can't be you…." Ash said in disbelief.

Notes

Did I just make one of the evilest cliffhangers I've ever done? Yes I did. I'm leaving the name of the Pokémon inside the G.S. Ball as a cliffhanger.

I want to warn you guys that updates could become pretty sparse for the next couple of months due to the games that are coming out in the next few weeks.

Thanks for reading this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it.

Please give a review telling me what you liked/didn't like.

If you have any questions I am more than happy to answer them.

Ash:

Kanto - Raichu, Meowth, Ivysaur, Wartortle, Charizard, Pidgeot, Kingler, Muk, Tauros(x24), Snorlax, Sandshrew & Aerodactyl

Johto - Totodile, Meganium, Cyndaquil, Heracross, Noctowl (Shiny), Phanpy, Hitmontop, Togetic & Sneasel

Hoenn - Marshtomp, Ninjask, Shedinja, Treecko, Zangoose, Sableye, Raimodo & Kirlia

Sinnoh - Monferno & Glaceon (Shiny)

Kalos - Meowstic & Amaura

Pokémon on hand – Raichu, Meowth, Cyndaquil, Heracross, Sneasel, Sandshrew, Raimodo, Charizard, Aerodactyl, Amaura, Togetic, Kirlia & Glaceon – Pokémon in the G.S Ball, Plusle, Minun & Vibrava – Not officially caught yet.