Hey guys, TheDoctor1998 here with a new fic! This time it's gonna be a Fem Ash fanfic, with a female Ash named Cinder. A few warnings first though. First of all, English is my second language, so forgive me if I make some mistakes. Second of all, there are going to be a few fanmade things inside this fic. Most are things that should logically exist, such as the Original Dragon or an ancient form of Genesect, though there will be other things as well. Third, this is eventually going to be a yuri fic, and I've already decided who I'm going to pair Cinder up with. Finally, the M rating is there for multiple reasons. Those reasons being adult language, some gore, and sexual content, either in this part or a sequel. Don't like, don't read.
This fanfic is just the first of the Cinder's Journey series, which follows Cinder as she travels across the world. This part of the overall fic, the Rainbow Arc, is going to follow Cinder's journey through the Kanto region.
Disclaimer for the entire fic: Don't own Pokémon or anything originating from said franchise, all rights go to Nintendo and Gamefreak. Now, on with the show!
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Cinder Ketchum was not a happy child. Sure, her life at home was good with a wonderful mother and a good father/grandfather figure in Professor Oak, who was always happy to have her over and teach her about Pokémon. But she was also often bullied by the other kids in Pallet Town, spearheaded by Professor Oak's grandson Gary Oak.
The reason why she was bullied was because of one thing, she was different. The most obvious difference came from her eyes, her left eye being a striking purple and the right being blood red. Her heterochromia always caused the other kids to think she's a freak, and her Aura abilities weren't helping in that regard.
And yes, Cinder did have the ability to manipulate her Aura like the Aura Guardians of old. It's something hereditary in the Ketchum family, though her mother simply didn't have the strength to use her own Aura outside of making her eyes glow sometimes. Cinder on the other hand did have the strength, even though she didn't have the training to properly harness her abilities. But sometimes her Aura visibly flares up when she's experiencing strong emotion, which can obviously be frightening for others.
Her "freakiness" was so bad that not even a single person of her own age wanted nothing to do with her, and this even extended to a few adults. This caused Cinder to seek out the comfort of Pokémon, who cared nothing for the things that made her different. She did have one human friend though, a cute girl named Serena from another region she met recently at Professor Oak's Pokémon Summer Camp. Unfortunately, being the stupid kids that they were, they both forgot to give eachother a way to contact the other.
But still, Serena was just one person, and she didn't live in Kanto. And today was especially bad, which is why Cinder was walking through Professor Oak's ranch, where she was playing with various Pokémon. The young girl thought that today was going to be a day just like any other day.
She had no idea how wrong she was.
As Cinder was walking through the forest at the edge of the ranch, simply enjoying the sights and the warming presence of the Pokémon around her, when she suddenly heard a Pokémon cry in distress.
After hearing that, Cinder jumped into action and ran towards the Pokémon, only to run into the backside of a human, causing her to fall on her behind. Looking up, she saw something that horrified her. Two Team Rocket grunts, one male and the other female, with the male one having a beaten up Pichu in his hands.
"Well well well, what do we have here? A little girl with weird eyes." The female grunt talked with utter smugness in her voice.
The male glared at Cinder. "A girl who's obviously seen too much." As he was talking, he was slightly shaking the Pichu, who obviously didn't enjoy it.
Gathering her courage, Cinder stood up once again. "Leave him alone!"
The female laughed. "See that George? Little missy here thinks she can stand up to Team Rocket."
The male, George, glared at the female. "We got the abnormally strong Pichu, let's just kill the girl and get out of here."
Hearing that, several emotions rushed through Cinder. Anger, fear, willpower and sheer survival instincts flowed through her like water in a river, and her Aura reacted to her feelings. The only warning that the Rockets received was a blue glow coming from the girl before a massive blue explosion covered the area.
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Professor Oak was working in his lab, as always. However, today he simply could not concentrate. His grandson had once again bullied Cinder, which is the reason why he was so distracted in the first place.
He still could not believe that his grandson had become such a bully. Well, he could believe it, but he never imagined something like that would when he held him as a baby. Today was one of the bad days, which made Cinder take a hike around his ranch and also caused the Professor to ground Gary.
Still, he couldn't help but worry about the Ketchum girl. And not just in the way an adult would be worried about a bullied child, but more like he knew she was going to be in trouble today. Of course, he wrote that off as just him being worried for nothing as there wasn't anything to indicate that Cinder was in danger.
That's when he saw a blue explosion at the edge of his ranch.
He knew that something was wrong the moment he saw it. The Voltorb, Electrode and every other Pokémon on the ranch knew that they weren't allowed to explode like that unless there was an emergency, or during a battle in the designated training area. Besides that, the Professor knew that an explosive move wasn't blue like that.
'That shade of blue, I know I've seen it somewhere.' He was thinking where he had seen it before, when his mind fell on a Lucario he once saw during his younger days. 'Aura, but that means-' "Cinder!" Knowing the girl was in danger, he quickly grabbed the Pokéballs of his oldest friends and rushed to where the explosion had taken place.
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When the explosion cleared, Kathryn was flabbergasted. She and George had a simple mission, sneak into Oak's ranch and steal the abnormally strong Pichu. She didn't expect a little girl to show up, let alone one able to create an explosion like that.
Glancing at George, Kathryn saw that her partner was knocked out and the Pichu was lying on the ground. 'Shit, guess he's out.' She then looked at the girl, seeing that her clothes were little more than rags and that she was looking at her still glowing hands in surprise, before she snapped out of it and rushed to the Pichu, picking it up.
Snarling, Kathryn grabbed a Pokéball and spoke up. "So, little missy has a few tricks up her sleeve. So what? I've got a few of my own. Go Koffing!" Throwing her Pokéball, Kathryn released her Pokémon. "Use Sludge on that freak of nature!"
Koffing hesitated. She didn't want to hurt a child, but she could not disobey her mistress. Ultimately, her fear of her mistress won over her unwillingness to hurt a child, so she did as her mistress commanded and fired a blob of toxic goo at the child, aiming for her head.
Cinder was too busy trying to help Pichu to notice Kathryn's actions, only glancing up when she heard a loud "Koff!" coming from that direction. The last thing she saw was a purple blob hitting her in the face, creating an extremely painful burning sensation.
As Cinder was screaming from the pain, she heard someone yell. "Charizard, Flamethrower! Dragonite, Ice Beam!" And that was the last thing she heard before passing out.
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It was dark when Cinder woke up, and her head was hurting like heck. Cinder wondered why it was so dark when she finally registered a feeling other than pain. Her eyes were covered by something, it felt like some kind of cloth. Bandages maybe?
Not knowing what else to do right now, Cinder decided to call out to someone. "H-hello, anyone here?" The young girl's voice was raspy, likely because she's been unconscious for a while.
She heard a shuffle, likely a response to her calling out for someone. "C-Cinder?" The raspy voice belonged to an adult, one that Cinder recognized all too well.
"Mom?" After that one word, Cinder felt herself being tightly hugged by her sole parent, who seemed to be shaking. "W-what happened? Where am I?"
Before her mother could answer, a door opened up, and a female voice Cinder didn't recognize started talking. "Oh, you're awake. We didn't expect you to be up this soon."
Cinder started getting scared. "Wh-who are you?"
The woman seemed to be getting sad. "Dear, my name is Doctor Jodie. I'm the one who's been assigned to treat you for your injury."
Cinder really started getting scared now. "I-injury?"
"Your mother didn't tell you?" The Doctor's voice obviously betrayed her surprise.
"N-no, I just woke up." Doctor Jodie's response to this both confirmed Cinder's fear, and broke her mother's heart all over again.
"I'm sorry Cinder, we did everything we could. You'll never see again."
Both Cinder and Delia cried themselves to sleep that night.
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Over the next few days, Cinder managed to calm down. Somewhat, at least. After all, finding out that total and absolute darkness was all that you're going to see for the rest of your life does tend to create some kind of stress.
But having managed to calm down somewhat, Cinder remembered the reason for her encounter with Team Rocket. The Pichu.
Apparently, the Pichu was suffering from a few cracked bones, but due to the abnormal rate at which Pokémon tend to heal, he would only have to stay there for a few more days at most.
A few more days where Cinder decided to get to know the little mouse.
Having been cleared from the hospital herself, as the doctor's said she wouldn't get any better anyway, Cinder wanted to form a friendship with the Pichu. After all, she always had an easier time bonding with Pokémon instead of people.
At first, it was difficult. The little guy had a deep distrust of people, no doubt due to those Rocket grunts. He would shock any human that got near him, and Nurse Joy was forced to rely entirely on Chansey to nurse him back to health, something that the Pichu barely allowed.
With her however it was a different story. Sure, at first the Pichu was a bit hostile towards her, but he quickly recognized the girl who sacrificed her sight just to save him.
Over the last days of Pichu's stay at the Pokémon Center, he and Cinder quickly bonded, just her talking and somehow understanding Pichu without understanding Poké-speak.
Then the day came that Pichu was released from the Pokémon Center, a day that Cinder didn't look forward to. Sure, she was overjoyed that Pichu managed to get back to normal, but she knew that she was going to miss him. Out of all friendships she ever forged with Pokémon, this one seemed to be… special. Like Destiny itself had a hand in their meeting. And she knew that this goodbye would hurt more than the Sludge that took her sight.
Pichu's thoughts were in a similar place. This girl, this one human girl, had shown him more kindness and love in these past few days then anyone else had in his entire life. He knew that, even if she didn't become blind because of him, he'd regret this goodbye until the day he died.
Cinder stayed with him the entire day, but started to shed a tear at the upcoming goodbye. They were outside, on the border between the Pokémon Center and Viridian Forest, Pichu in Cinder's arms.
"C'mon Pichu, i-it's time to say goodbye." Cinder could not help the waver in her voice, and she knew that a stream of tears was going down her face.
Pichu couldn't stand it, he just could not leave this girl. "Pi!" In defiance, he just started hugging the girl's torso, not letting go.
"P-Pichu, n-no. You n-need to g-go back" Cinder was practically making a waterfall out of her useless, discolored eyes. She did not want to say farewell, but the Pichu made it far more difficult than it needed to be.
Pichu though was bawling his eyes out as well, not letting go. "Pi, Pi!"
Nurse Joy saw what was happening, and got an idea of what was going through this Pokémon's head. "I think he wants to stay with you, Cinder." She said with a smile, to which Pichu nodded.
And while neither Cinder nor Pichu knew it at the time, this was how a friendship was formed that would last for a lifetime.
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And that's a wrap. What did you guys think? It's been a while since I've dipped my toes in the writing waters, but I hope that I'll be able to continue this one for as long as I can. TheDoctor1998 here, signing out.