Chapter 19

June 17th, 2006

Gary felt something cool on his forehead. A drop of water just as cold dripped down the side of his face and tickled the fine hairs by his ear and it traveled down under his jaw. He fought the urge to wipe it away. He felt a hand gently brush back his brown hair. Fingers gliding over his scalp before being lifted off and brought back to run through his brunet locks again. He groaned as he fully woke up and tried sitting up. "Don't move." A familiar voice said.

"Finally coming to eh?" There was a snicker. Gary knew that voice anywhere. Anybody could recognise that obnoxious, mocking and ear-splitting, grating voice.

"Shut up Ash." He hissed and cracked open an eye, he saw Iris sitting above him; a small bowl in her hands, Ash was seen in the corner of his vision. Everything was clear and he felt a light weight on the bridge of his nose. He reached up to touch it. Gary felt reasonably normal, just exhausted as if he had ran for miles.

Iris slapped his hand away. "Cilan uses reading glasses. He was lame enough to bring them with him. Can you see okay?" Her voice changed at the end of her sentence, sounding more concerned than it did when she practically spat out Cilan's name.

"Fine actually." He moved to sit up again but Iris held him down by his shoulders, only noticing now that his head was in her lap on a pillow. "Why aren't you letting me get up?" He then smirked as a snide thought crossed his mind, "Like me in your lap?" He teased with a grin. "How about you in my lap?" His body shook roughly as he laughed at his own joke.

Iris had a genuinely disgusted look on her face. Gary heard another snicker from Ash. "You wish. Now shut up before you black out again. You blacked out the first time from the migraine, this time I'll punch you." She gave him a small, short glare. "I suspected it happened because of your eyes, because you kept complaining about them. We're lucky that his reading glasses are your prescription. This also means that your eyes aren't as bad a Clemont's. Woobat's have better eyesight than him."

"It wasn't a migraine." Gary muttered and finally sat up, taking advantage of a confused looking Iris. "I saw something; it was as if I was looking through somebody else's eyes, not my own." Gary then met Ash's eyes, remembering. "I saw her."

Ash frowned, confusion danced across his features as well. "Saw who?" He questioned. They had agreed not to say her name after they met in Sinnoh. It was too hard to think about.

"The one who went missing." Iris looked between the two, not understanding what they were talking about. She didn't need to know. Nobody needed to know other than Ash and himself.

Ash's eyebrows shot up. "Wait... You mean 2004?" Gary nodded once. "What did you see?" Ash demanded. He rushed forward and shoved his face into Gary's; every little detail on Ash's face could be seen. So many emotions were readable in his brown eyes; the most prominent one was hope. Gary pushed him back, not too intent on seeing his friend this close up.

"Team Rocket. I know who I was, or rather who I was looking through I guess." He said slowly. "It's not really a good thing."

"Who?" Ash sat next to his childhood friend. Gary and Ash knew each other the longest out of their group of twelve. Gary never expected all of this to ever happen to him, let alone the loser Ash. Gary was happy that they had a more solid friendship than they did when they first set off traveling though Kanto so many years ago. The two knew one another since they were infants, not even old enough to walk. It was Ash and Gary, and one other child. Close knit friends that always stuck together until things went bad for Gary and he changed. He regretted being mean and rude to Ash, but he couldn't help but feel jealous because he had a mother and Gary did not. One day he had a full family, a mother, father, and even an older sister. Then the next he didn't, all he had left was his grandfather.

Gary took a deep breath, adjusting the glasses that slid down his face. "The pokémon I'm supposed to protect."

He heard gasps around him, now just noticing the others standing in a circle around them, most were wearing different, normal clothes. "You mean you're protecting one from Johto?" Misty questioned, "How do you know it was them?"

"I could feel it. I saw a tail. I was chained up and was being electrocuted. I could actually feel the pokémon's pain. I... it was Lugia. Lugia's part flying type so it was drained from being shocked." He put his eyes back onto Ash. "Then I saw her. She said that the Rocket member was a monster for hurting a mother and its child. The Rocket member then pushed her on the ground. I remember her scream and she hit her head off of the ground. Things were still not in focus at that point. I just remember seeing her hair everywhere, it's gotten longer now Ash, not a short bob. I thought I recognised her voice but I didn't know it was her until I saw her actual body."

"They took Lugia and its baby?" Misty hissed. "How could they do something like that?"

"Wait, Lugia has a baby?" Drew asked. He quickly shook his head in disbelief. "That's impossible, legendries don't breed; they're one of a kind are they not?"

"No." Paul answered quickly. "There's always more than one legendary." He grabbed his bag and opened it up, pulling out a book. The title flashed in the thin stream of sunlight near him. Legendary Legacies. "This book is focused on legendary pokémon. I was reading about them. You can look at it if you want, its full of research from different people."

"That makes sense." Ash agreed. "I've seen so many of the same legendries but they were all different. I just thought that something changed since the last time I saw them and they just didn't recognise me."

Gary stared at the book in Paul's hands. "Damnit." He cursed. "I have that in my grandfather's library. I should've read it. We're lucky that you brought it with you."

Paul shrugged. "I bought it in Hoenn so I could ignore people." Three sets of eyes whipped themselves onto Paul. Two blue and one green.

"Paul!" May hissed. "You said that you were studying something for school!"

"I'm not in school anymore." Paul rolled his eyes. "You should know that."

"You're not... what the hell? You're old enough to still be in school!" May stared at him in disbelief. There was a frown on Dawn's face and her mouth hung open slightly. Drew had an eyebrow raised, otherwise showing no surprise.

"Extra classes, summer school." Paul listed off. "I don't have to take a certain amount at a time."

"How should we know that?" May asked.

"Anyway," Ash started again. "So you're sure it was Lugia?"

Gary nodded once. "I don't know of any other pokémon who has a tail like Lugia's."

"Was there anything that could be recognisable? I might be able to figure out where it happened!" Lyra crouched down in front of him. "What did it look like? What was in the room? What did the Rocket member look like?"

Gary scratched his head, remembering everything he could about the room. "Well it didn't look too sinister. The lighting wasn't that bad, it was pretty dark though, it mostly came from the windows. There was tiled flooring and the walls were orange, but I think they were painting because I saw a few cans. There wasn't really much, the room was mostly empty."

"Did you see anything through the windows?" Lyra pressed.

Gary shook his head. "No I was busy being in pain and watching a girl and a full grown man fight. Right, the Rocket guy had blue hair and a hat, I couldn't see anything else. It was pretty much empty; it looked like people cleared out an office building."

"An office building?"

"Yes."

"We're going to Goldenrod City." Lyra announced. "It's the biggest city in Johto and most of the office buildings are located there."

"Even at this point in time?" Iris asked warily. "We're in ancient Johto, thing are different."

Lyra nodded. "Even in this pint in time. Johto always had huge towers. The Sprout Tower, the Bell Tower and the Brass Tower. The Brass Tower shouldn't be burned down at this point so it still has the original name."

"The Embedded Tower." Gary added.

Lyra whipped her head to face him. "How do you know about that? It is strictly known by Professor Elm and his colleagues."

Gary rubbed his cheek, "...I don't know..."

June 19th, 2006

The group had avoided going to Celebi's shrine and made a direct route to Goldenrod. If needed, it wasn't too far of a walk back. The large city was still very much the same since she last visited two years ago or now many years into the future.

"We should split into groups and walk around." May suggested. "To spread more coverage y'know?" She shrugged.

"That's a good idea." Lyra quickly agreed. "I could go with people who aren't familiar with the area."

May nodded. "Yes! I'll make the groups!" She looked at everyone with a sly smile on her face. Iris could only guess where this ordeal was going. "Okay! Ash, Misty and Gary are one group! Then Serena, Clemont and Lyra are another!" Her gaze flicked onto Paul and smirked. "Then me and Drew, then Paul and Dawn," She laughed lightly. "And then Iris and Cilan."

Iris groaned. "Are you sure it's a good idea to put me with him?" She jabbed her thumb in the connoisseur's direction.

"I think it's a very good idea!" Ash butted in. He quickly grabbed a hold of Misty's hand and even Gary's and tugged them along, "Meet back here okay?" He lifted the arm that was holding onto Gary's and attempted a wave. "See you all later!"

Iris raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Ash..!" Cilan called but it was useless.

"I don't really—" Dawn started.

"Paul." May said as she looked at him like a scolding mother would look at her child. "Remember what I said."

"I don't care." Paul responded and begun to walk away.

"Dawn, go with your partner." May ordered. Dawn opened her mouth to refuse but May shot her a look. Dawn gave out an annoyed huff paired with a small scowl and followed in Paul's direction.

"Why would you pair them up?" Iris demanded. "Do you not remember what happened last time they were together?" Iris felt very protective of her small blue-haired friend. There was nothing Iris wanted more than was for Dawn to feel comfortable with her partner, and that didn't include Paul.

"I do. I want them to build their relationship back, that's why I put them together. I talked to Paul about it; I just hope he takes my advice." May replied, she did look slightly guilty. "I want them to go back to normal."

"Is that also what you're trying to do with us too?"

"No." May shook her head. "That's what Ash wants. He wants all his friends to be happy again." She grabbed Drew's hand, lacing her fingers with his. "We'll see you soon." She too, turned and left with Drew.

"Iris—"

"Cilan please don't." Iris said slowly. "I can barely look at you so please don't bother me anymore."

She heard a sigh from him. "I understand—"

"But you don't understand! You don't understand me at all!" Iris retorted hysterically.

"Then I think you're very wrong." He said slowly. "I travelled with you through a region. I know and understand you better than you think." She crossed her arms, but made no movement to interrupt him. "Actually, I don't understand you enough. Ash made this pretty clear to me." He let out a small anxious laugh. "I want you to ask me again."

Iris turned a tentative look onto him. She could see that he was nervous, which was a strange sight. It actually made her feel a little better. It made her feel as if she was more composed even though she wasn't; Cilan was the one that definitely had more control over his emotions in the current situation. "Ask you what?"

"The same question that started all of this." He gestured to the air around him. "I will give you a full answer with proper reasoning."

Iris suddenly felt nervous herself. She would be lying if she said that she wasn't afraid of him rejecting her again. She didn't know if she could live with the pain again. She clenched her fists and pulled her arms back to her sides. She took a deep breath and locked eyes with him. "Do you think we should be in a relationship?" Her hands were clammy and she wiped them along her yellow tights.

"Yes." He answered and she took in a deep breath, a euphoric feeling rushed throughout her body. "The first time I thought that I was thinking for you, but a friend made me realise that I was only being selfish and thinking of myself. It's more important to follow your heart when you know that the person in front of is the person you know you should spend the rest of your life with. I do think that we should be in a relationship. If you could do me a large favour, please forget what I have spoken in the past. It was all a lie. I do not think of you like that at all. Iris, you're a person who can make people smile and laugh. You wild personality draws people to you, including myself."

A smile broke out on Iris' face and she launched herself at him, Wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. "Why did you say no the first time?" She asked quietly.

"I thought it was too inappropriate for you to be in a relationship with somebody older like myself." He admitted.

Iris laughed. "That's ridiculous, who cares? You're hardly older than me."

He laughed back, the sound making her smile grow even bigger. "You're right. Who cares?"

She pulled her head back an in a flash, she pressed her lips onto his. Shocks travelled throughout her body and she didn't doubt that Cilan was experiencing the same thing. It was a short kiss, but it was perfect.

"I love you Iris."

Huehuehue! Were any of you expecting this? I think not! Also I've added dates because I'll be using other dates within the story so I've put them on there to make it easier to understand. Wattpad will be getting these changer, but will have to wait longer as it is a different process. And by putting the dates, each pokemon character is actually a year older than what I previously said because I suck at math! So here are the ages of the main characters listed below, the italics and bolded names mean nothing, just little notes to myself that I'm to lazy to change.

Ash Ketchum- 18 May 22nd, 1987

Misty Waterflower- 18 March 16th, 1987

Gary Oak- 18 March 3rd, 1987

Brock Harrison- 23 April 6th, 1982

Tracey Sketchit- 22 June 28th, 1983

May Maple- 17 February 25th, 1988

Drew Hayden- 17 May 17, 1988

Max Maple- 13 July 3rd, 1992

Dawn Berlitz- 16 October 14th, 1989

Paul Robelldo- 18 February 10, 1987

Lyra Stevens- 17 June 18, 1988

Iris Arifiani - 17 October 31st, 1988

Cilan Griffith- 20 February 1st, 1985

Clemont Liscico- 18 August 28th, 1987

Bonnie Liscio- 10 May 12th, 1995

Serena Paschall- 18 August 8th, 1987

Do you share a birthday with anybody? If so, tell me who! I wish I did, but I thought it would be too weeniesh to do that hahaha!... so I may have made one of their birthdays a day before mine :)

Have a lovely week guys!