Ash shook his head, momentarily sheltering beneath an overhang. He was only a few blocks away from the Silph building, in the heart of downtown Saffron surrounded by glass and metal.
Team Rocket was in disarray. Loose groups ran every which way, often carrying wounded trainers. Squads ran into each other and got into arguments. No one was looking in the hiding spaces Ash used.
And then just a few blocks out from the Silph building the city became deserted. No members of Team Rocket. No signs of refugees or evacuation. No signs of recent habitation. Ash shuddered as he thought of what must have happened to the people who had lived in the area.
If Ash was more knowledgeable about the urban landscape he might have realized that there were no apartment complexes or private residences around the Silph building. It was filled by offices, mall complexes, convention halls, shops, restaurants and bars, places for people to go and work but not to live. Team Rocket hadn't needed to do much to clear out the area, only force the few workers who had been around during the night of their invasion building into hotels.
But that wasn't something that Ash would realize, not in the dark and the rain, not after seeing all the other horrors wrought by Team Rocket's actions.
Ash crept under the overhang that featured a fancy neon sign, currently dark. He sheltered in the doorway of the establishment and sent Butterfree to scan the area. When the bug-type announced the block was clear Ash recalled him and then continued his journey.
He didn't bother skulking in the shadows for the next leg of his journey. Ash just ran, boots splashing in the rivulets of water running through the street with Pikachu at his heels. Ash hadn't quite made it to the next block when he heard the rumbling, growing loud and growing fast.
Here! Ash said, pointing to an alleyway. He and Pikachu dashed inside and found a loading dock. They pressed themselves against the metal door, barely hidden in the shallow indentation. Ash turned his head to watch what was coming, peeking out of the loading dock.
In no time at all the source of the rumbling grew closer. A long stony shape rushed by with familiar looking silhouettes on its back-
"Brock!? Misty!?" Ash couldn't help himself. He stumbled out of the loading dock as he called out and the shape instantly started to decelerate and come to a complete stop.
"Did you just hear…" Ash heard Brock say.
"I couldn't have heard Aaron say anything because he should be at the outskirts of the city with the rest of SAR," Misty said. "Obviously we didn't hear anything because if we did then I might have an aneurysm, die, and come back as a ghost TO ETERNALLY HAUNT A CERTAIN INDIVIDUAL!"
Should've stayed quiet, Pikachu chuckled. Ash just rolled his eyes and exited the alley.
"What are you guys doing here?" Ash asked the gym trainer and former gym leader. Onix reared around so that his passengers could speak to Ash face to face.
"Nope, it's him," Brock sighed. "I don't know what else I was expecting. I guess I must have foolishly thought that he'd be careful like we asked."
"One crisis," Misty groaned, pulling at her hair. "Can we just have one emergency without having to worry about what stupid thing Aaron's doing?"
"Hey!" Ash protested. "I didn't do anything stupid!"
"You're in the middle of enemy territory alone-"Brock began.
"No, I'm not, I've got Pikachu and my team with me," Ash interrupted. "And now I've got you two!"
Misty's eye twitched at that and she began to growl and mutter.
"That- I'm not even going to think about that," Brock rubbed his head. "How'd you even get here? When did you get here?"
"A little bit ago Ash answered. "And I snuck here. Well, Leaf and I snuck here but we had to split up when we got attacked."
"Oh no," Brock groaned, resting his face in his palm.
"There's two of them," Misty moaned.
"It was that lady with the electabuzz from the forest," Ash went on. "She had some new pokemon but I was able to beat her faster this time. I think she attacked us because she saw us go over that place with all the Rockets and barbed wire."
"Ninth Street?" Brock picking his head up just a little bit.
"I guess," Ash shrugged. "Leaf and I got through by flying through a window when we thought no one was looking, but she must have saw us."
"Why did you two even decide to come here?" Misty demanded. "What in Kygore's name possessed you to do this suicidal, stupid, stunt?"
"It doesn't matter," Brock said. "Aaron, you're going to find somewhere to hide. I'll radio HQ to pass on the word to Karen's people to pick you up-"
"No," Ash shook his head. "There's something I need to do."
"Yes," Misty nodded jerkily, teeth gritted. "Not die! That's what you should be focused on, you little idiot!"
He didn't want to die. But Ash also knew that there were things that could be more fearful than death for those who were taken. The dead were free from fear and from needing to watch over their shoulders for shadowy hunters. They no longer needed to fear capture.
There was no way Ash was going to leave Gary in that state, no matter what he needed to do.
"I'll be fine, and even if I'm not, I still wanna help Gary!" Ash shouted back at her. "And unless you wanna fight I'm gonna do it!"
"Aaron, do you understand what insubordination or mutiny means?" Misty asked through gritted teeth.
Brock let out a low dark chuckle.
"I guess you'll just have to go complain to his gym," Brock said with a smirk. Misty shot him a glare.
"Hey, I'm not happy about it either, but this is karma," Brock said. "And it's not like he hasn't had some real experience before, either."
Misty's glare intensified, but there was a tiny waver in her expression. Like a dam suddenly breaking from a tiny crack, the waver destroyed the glare and then Misty's visage twisted into something Ash couldn't quite place. She rested her face in one hand.
"I know. But he shouldn't have it." Misty said quietly, all the anger gone from her voice. "If I had done a better job or been stronger-"
"You were strong enough to save him when it really counted," Brock said gently. "Right, Aaron?"
"Yeah," Ash nodded. He didn't understand what she was talking about. She had been strong enough to save his life that night and that was all that mattered. "You saved me in the Viridian Forest. Now I'm gonna save Gary."
"You shouldn't have to," Misty said, raising her head.
"Neither should you," Brock told her, before Ash could say anything. "But he'll be safer with us and he is strong enough to help."
Ash nodded. He knew he was strong enough to help. That was the whole point of his journey. He needed to be strong enough to help himself and if he was strong enough to help others while he was at it, why shouldn't he?"
"Fine," Misty said eventually and Ash was surprised at the thrill that ran through him at her words. "Aaron, if you die, I will personally find a way to capture your soul and entomb it in the eternal ice of the Wanting Dragon," Misty went on, offering Ash a hand up.
"And if you die, I'll have Pikachu shock your body until you are alive again," Ash said, taking her hand and getting on Onix behind her. Then the rock-type started to move and they were under way.
Even though they were headed into the heart of enemy territory, Ash felt more comfortable than he had felt all day. If there was a next time that they had to face terrible danger, Ash hoped that they didn't need to split up again.
"It's nice that you two have plans for each other if you die, but what about me? What are you two going to do if I die?" Brock asked as they sped forward.
"We'll give your body to a Nurse Jenny for the autopsy," Misty told him and Ash could hear the smirk in her voice.
"Thanks… I think."
A Team Rocket trainer and their tentacruel cried out as deathly pale blue fire blasted them away. Gravel crunched as Torch walked past, not bothering to watch.
He looked up at the dark sky, remembering a much happier day in the rain when they first started the investigation. A day like this seemed so impossible back then.
But that was the way the world worked; Torch knew that very well. So many things that people thought were immutable were merely illusions. The idea that the next day would be like the last, the idea that there were clean lines separating people, the idea that things would endure, and the idea that life and death were separate things; all illusions that a mystic needed to see beyond.
Torch stopped in front of the Saffron City Gym. Rubble was piled around the entrance; Team Rocket hadn't bothered to clear it. There were holes in the large overhangs, many windows were shattered, and some of the walls had fallen. Torch could see lights coming from the inside, obviously no one had turned off the lights either.
He sighed. It had been his home for a while. Sometimes even he needed reminders that nothing endured in the end. It would have never remained Torch's home, one way or another he would have left it or it would have left him.
His pokemon, Jester and Caster, hovered behind him, putting comforting limbs on his shoulder. Torch gently touched them and then returned to his business. He reached into one of the many pockets of his long coat and drew forth a pinch of gray coarse grains with a dull sheen. The mystic placed them in his palm and then drew his dagger. Sticking out his tongue, he pricked it against the tip of the dagger and then deposited a single drop of blood into the grains.
The hand holding the grains clenched into a fist and Torch began to chant in an inhuman tongue, chanting words that reverberated in the hidden, secret places of the soul.
Blood red fire engulfed his hand and Torch thrust it out towards the gym. He continued to chant, the fire growing brighter and brighter until-
Until it suddenly went out.
Torch looked at his hand with widening eyes. He looked up at the gym.
"It failed… but that means…" Torch looked at his hand again and then sprinted into the ruined gym.
They ran into trouble on the last block before the Silph building.
Racing down the deserted streets on Onix's back, Ash, Brock, and Misty were nearly thrown off the stone serpent when he came to a sudden halt. Onix reared back, his riders holding on for dear life, as something engulfed in dark energy swept through the space that his head used to occupy. Onix circled back on himself and raced away just something large lunged out of a nearby building in a shower of broken glass.
Ash caught a glimpse of a pair of large and spikey silhouettes that brought back memories of his first encounter with Team Rocket.
"Tyranitars!" He called out to Brock and Misty. "Two of them!"
"You've got to be kidding me!" Misty cried out as Onix stared down the two intimidating shapes waiting further along the street.
"I think this confirms that their headquarters is in the Silph building," Brock said. He looked back at Ash and Misty, brow furrowed, face grim. "Misty, I'm going to need you to keep one of them busy. Aaron, I need you to very carefully sneak around and find a way into the building. Once you've found a route, stay low until you can reach Misty or I. Got it?"
"Sure," Ash nodded, slipping off the stone serpent.
"I'll take the one on the left," Misty said, jumping off Onix, pokeballs in hand.
"Onix, let's do this!" Brock shouted as Misty sent out her pokemon with a blaze of white light. Ash scampered into an alley, the ground shaking as Onix charged forward and clashed with the enemy.
Leaf, Gary, and their pokemon swung into the opening on the other side of the skybridge that was being constructed between the Silph building and one of its neighbors. They couldn't stick the landing and ended up as a group of tumbling bodies, Leaf instinctively pulling Gary closer as they rolled to a stop.
"Are you okay?" she asked, sitting and holding Gary around the shoulders so she could look him over. But instead of letting her look him over, Gary grabbed her back and buried his face in her shoulder.
"Uh, Gary…" Leaf said, a strange heat rising in her cheeks. "Gary, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"
He didn't say anything.
"It's nice to see you too, but I really need to see if you're bleeding or anything…" Leaf went on, gently pushing the boy. He still didn't say anything.
"Come on, Gary," she said, pushing a little harder. It was then that she felt how Gary was shaking. Craning her head away from Gary she saw water running down his face that didn't seem to be from the rain.
"Oh," Leaf said softly and then embraced the crying boy. "It's okay, it's okay."
Gary began to cry louder, shoulders visibly shaking. Leaf rubbed circles in his back while cooing soothing nothings.
"I didn't- I didn't think I'd get out," Gary sobbed, squeezing Leaf tighter. "I thought I was going to be stuck there forever. I thought they were going to kill me."
"But they didn't," Leaf whispered to him. "You got out."
"I didn't think I'd see anyone again," Gary continued. "Not Gramps, not my uncle, not Aaron, not you!"
"Well, as your math scores show, you get things wrong an awful lot," Leaf said, stroking the back of his neck.
"Hey," Gary managed to protest through his tears. "I was second best in the class."
"Yeah, second best after me!" Leaf told him. "And both Aaron and I decided that you were going to be saved, so there!"
"Aaron's here too?" Gary's red rimmed eyes widened. "I guess I should've expected that he'd be mixed up in all this."
"You didn't think we'd come and save you?" Leaf said, pulling back so she could look him in the eye. "Well, guess again. You're my friend. If you're in trouble I'm always going to come and save you. And Aaron's the same. Got it?"
Tears began flowing out of Gary's eyes once more and he hugged Leaf close.
"Let it out, let it out," Leaf said, gently rocking him. They stayed like that for a minute.
Leaf looked around the room. Vines and Golbat were by the skybridge opening looking out into the rain for pursuers. Gary's eevee was pacing behind them and his squirtle was slumped against the wall, tenderly prodding its burns.
"Alright Gary, we need to get moving," Leaf said, gently shaking him. "Come on, stand up. I need to tend to your pokemon."
"Oh no… Squirtle," Gary moaned as Leaf helped him to his feet.
"It's not a problem, I've got a burn heal and some potions," Leaf said, pulling the supplies out of her pack. She crouched down and quickly applied the treatments to the water-type before standing up again and turning to face Gary.
"Oh, one thing first," Leaf said. "Give me a hug."
"Uh, sure," Gary said, opening his arms and the two squeezed each other close.
"Ha!" Leaf said once they let each other go. "Now I've officially claimed my reward for being the one to get to you first!"
"Um… we sorta already hugged," Gary said, rubbing the back of his head.
"But that wasn't official," Leaf told him. "Aaron and I made a bet about who would get to you first and the prize was to get the first hug from you."
"And you complain about me competing with him," Gary said with a faint smile.
"Guess I felt the need to fill your spot until you got back," Leaf said with a smirk and a shrug. "Now come on, let's go down a few floors and find a place to hide until they're done with the building."
Gary's face fell instantly at the reminder that he wasn't out of the woods quite yet. Leaf grabbed him by the wrist and then turned to lead him through the skybridge's construction site, not noticing how his cheeks flushed at the touch.
They found a stairwell and started to descend, stopping when they heard a noise. Leaf held a finger up to her lips and grabbed a pokeball, her and Gary's pokemon silently moving forward while the boy moved back. They pressed up against the side of the wall and peeked over the railing of the stairs to see what was approaching…
AN: I'd like to thank Amationary for beta reading
Short chapter this week simply cause of formatting.
Anyway, don't forget to review! Concrit welcome!