"PIKA!"

Ash was not ashamed to admit he screamed as he slid down the mail shoot. It was like the worlds driest, dustiest, and most terrifying, waterslide in the world. Wind rushed past his ears, whistling as I whooshed away, and slapping him in the face with cold needles. Pikachu's claws dug into his shirt, causing pinpricks of pain as they sank through the fabric and into his skin.

What was weird was that Amanda wasn't screaming. Ash only managed to catch a glimpse of his cousin during the fall. Her expression was non-existent. Just a blank face, like he had looked at a mannikin.

The end of the utter terrifying ride came abruptly. Ash hit the rough ground, clicking his teeth together making his jaw ache, and then rolled like a rag doll who had been thrown. He had dirt stuck in places he hadn't even known existed and mouth and nose full of fur from Pikachu landing on his face. At least his little buddy wasn't hurt too badly.

Pikachu shook himself off, and then climbed down Ash's stomach. The electric mouse's little claws thankfully not hitting everything important on their exit. With Pikachu in his lap, Ash sat up with a groan. There were brush burns and scrapes covering his exposed skin, and tomorrow there would be stiff muscles and bruises adding to it. Wonderful. He'd ask Nurse Joy if she had painkillers at the Poke-center they hit.

"Fuck."

Ash turned to look at his cousin. Amanda was kneeling in the dirt. Her posture ridged, and her eyes wide.

"What's wrong?" Ash said.

"Do you see my glasses anywhere?" Amanda said.

"Your glasses?" Ash said getting to his feet, only now noting that the eye-wear was missing from her face.

"Yes, my glasses! Can you see them?" Amanda turned to look at him, but she wasn't looking I his exact direction, face turned to look at something just off of where he stood.

Her greys looked oddly empty, pupils twitching from side to side, trying to focus on something but could grasp it. Even with the rest of her face squinting to find something in the fog. Ash raised his hand and waved it close to her face. She didn't react.

"Did you see that?" Ash asked.

"All I see is a world of fuzzy blobs," Amanda said flatly.

"Oh, you really can't see."

"Yes, I can't!" Her voice rose a few octaves, "Now help me!"

Ash raised his hands in a surrendering mannerism and began to look around their landing site. Behind him he heard Amanda make a whistle noise. He turned briefly, seeing Umbreon run up to her trainer's side. Amanda then put a hand on Umbreon's back and slowly stood up, before moving her hand to rest a little further up the dark types back. Ash recognized the position. It was blind trainers did with their seeing eye Pokémon when they didn't have a harness.

Thankfully, Amanda's glasses had only flew a few feet away from where she landed. Ash picked up the glasses, by the side of the blue frame. The eye wear was dusty and the plastic frame was scraped on one side, but the lens looked intact.

"Found them!" Ash called.

"Thank Arceus!" Amanda said, "Are they broken?"

"Just dusty, you want me wipe them off?" Ash said.

"No! Do not use your shirt on them! The last thing I need is for you scratch the lenses."

Amanda held out her hand, and Ash placed the glasses in her palm. Her fingers were hesitant when she closed them, subtly shaking. Ash didn't miss the quiet sigh of relief she breathed once the glasses were once more on her face.

"Come on," Amanda said in a quiet voice, like she was exhausted, "We need to find the others."

Amanda began walking, Umbreon sticking close to her side. Her arms crossed, held close to herself.

Ash shared a glance with Pikachu.

"Are you okay?" Ash said once he caught up.

Amanda raised a brow, rigidness back into her posture, "Why wouldn't I be?"

Ash raised a brow of his own, "You were made into angsty older copy of Regan from the Exorcist."

"I'm fine," Amanda said, "It wouldn't be the first time a family member has tried to take away my free will," She made a sound that was cross between a laugh and whimper, that was being hanged from a tree.

"Arceus," Ash said rubbing his face, "Your right, he's, our uncle! We're related to a murderer!"

"Murderer? Wow, I know you and Uncle Aaron think that what happened in there was bad, but..." Amanda said.

"No," Ash said, "He let them in."

"He let who in?"

"Team Normalcy. Anwir opened the doors for them."

"How could you possibly know...?"

"I used a time flower. They're basically ancient magic surveillance cameras in a plant. I learned about them when I first met Lucario."

"You watched him do it."

"And then I watched a dude with a feathered hat decapitate someone, who was apparently great grandfather. Then the sword was turned on him, and dear old uncle was impaled on the fucking table!"

"Pikapi?"

"I hope you realize how crazy you sound right?" Amanda said, "How can he have been impaled on a table, when he just rose an army of skeletons to catch us?"

Ash didn't answer right away. Arceus he knew how psycho he sounded. If ten-year-old him was here, he would've been laughing at himself. However, in the past six years, if Ash had only learned one thing. It's that death wasn't as permanent as everyone thought. Especially when it came family. Sir Aaron, Lucario, Pikachu, his mom escaped from war, and of course himself with all his ventures into the great beyond. He had no idea if Amanda and Riley's side of the family had the same issue, but that didn't mean Anwir didn't have the not-immortal-enough-to-live-forever-but-have-enough-dumb-luck-not-to-die, genes.

And Ash knew that Anwir was the one to open those doors. Sure, the man he had met in the flesh, and the man in the memory looked different. Anwir's hair used to be the same bluish-black that everyone in the family seemed to have, and his skin while still pale, wasn't ashen. Not hollow shell of a body that his uncle now was.

"Yeah, Yeah I do," Ash said.

"I guess your at least smart enough to realize that Ketchum," Amanda said, begging to walk, "Come on we need to find the others."

"I'm not stupid you know," Ash deadpanned.

"Really? Couldn't have guessed," Amanda said.

"You know..." Ash huffed, "I really don't get you."

"No one ever does, so why are you trying?" Amanda said.

"Well, we're kinda family, and I would think we should at the least have each other's back?"

"Family? Ketchum, we're only related because two people who were born centuries ago were siblings. Distantly related is as close as we're ever going to be. Not to mention one of our uncles just tried to suck out our souls or some shit!"

"That doesn't mean we can't choose to be family. All my Pokémon, and my mom, they're my family. They were all I had for a long time. I know you had your brother, and maybe that's all you need, but wouldn't it be nice to have a big family? My Mom always dreamed of something like that."

Amanda rolled her eyes.

"What?"

"I hate that word."

"What word?"

"Dreams. It such a pointless concept."

"In what way?"

"Because, everyone says 'dream big' 'shoot for the stars' 'dreams come true' and it's all lies. No matter how hard you dream, it doesn't always work out. And that's even if you can have a dream."

"Dreams aren't lies, sure they don't always work out the way you want them too, but if you have a plan and work hard enough, they'll come true."

"Oh, Arceus you sound like one of the Pokémon leagues commercial! Those things are made for children! They're a chewed up and spit-polished view of the world. The truth is, that dreams are a privilege, not everyone can have them, and even fewer achieve them. Enjoy your dreams Ketchum, cause one day you'll have to wake up."

"You've really never had something that you've wanted to do, or have, or be?"

"Of course, when I was a child. Then I learned to be an adult, and I realized it was time-wasting to dream of something that can never be."

"What about going to school, and all that education you're getting? That's not working towards some goal."

"I'm required to have a doctorate."

"Required? Required for what-"

A thunderclap, a scream, and then there was a splash into the raging river next to them.

Amanda wasn't even sure what was happening. Instinct was kicking in. She didn't even remember dropping her bag or grabbing the fallen branch that was now in the grasp. Only that she was jumping in straight into the raging river.

The wrathful waves swallowed her whole. Their cold claws sinking into her skin, numbing her flesh. She took one last breath before her head was submerged, and then the cold and silence settled in. She breached the surface and began to kick forward. The quiet fury of the storm, churned the water with emotional strength, thrashing her body around, but Amanda was stronger. Her legs spasming in memorized movements, thrusting her body forward, cutting through the watery chaos.

Her glasses were wet, and hearing was flooded out (not that it would matter, drowning was usually a silent death), but she knew where the victim had fallen. It was instinctual. A knowledge that came with watching people tumbling towards what could have been their own wet graves over and over again.

She was close enough, and once more years of training made her limbs reach down in reflex. Amanda hooked her arms underneath the victim's armpits and pulled.

"Grab the log!" She felt her tongue speak, but the sound of her voice was lost to her.

The victim-Goh she had a name for this one-Goh complied with weak limbs. Loosely holding on to the broken branch with shaking arms. His torso spasmed with wet coughs, but he was breathing and still conscious. Active drowning. Stable. Get to shore.

She kicked her legs out, and began to push the both of them towards the first soft bank that she spotted. They were slower, more weight meant more drag. They were both gasping for breath when they arrived to shallow water. Amanda feeling the cold burned of chilled air in her lungs. She ditched the log once she could stand, and hooked Goh's arm around her shoulders. Without the buoyancy form the water supporting, and the adrenaline wearing off, she fell on to her knees into the sand of the bank. After laying Goh down in the recovery position, Amanda flopped on her back, eyes closed, and breathed.

She opened her eyes, and looked to the right seeing Ash, Uncle Aaron, Umbreon, and the others towards them. Their lips moving with words, but no voice, and footsteps silent.

She winced, closing her eyes, and reached towards her ears while her face flooded with hot shame.

Goh coughed a few times; the shore was rough digging into his shoulders and getting stuck to his wet clothing and skin. He opened his eyes, and looked at his savor. Amanda was laying on the sand, her hair wet and messy, clothes dripping, and make up running down her eyes and lips. He honestly, didn't think that she'd be the one to save him. No offense meant to her, but she was a stick. Thin and long limbs and torso (but clearly stronger than they looked).

Amanda gave a tired sound, that was the mix of a groan and a whimper. Her hand creeped up towards the side of her head. And pulled something out of her ear.

And in a brilliant moment of exhausting washing away any filer that Goh would usually have, he blurted, "You're deaf?"

Which in itself was a stupid thing to say, it was proved a fact when Amanda didn't react to him speaking. She only repeated the action on the other side of her head. In her palms now rested a pair of earing aids. Goh began to re-think a lot of the odd interaction he had with older trainer. Particularly ones where she seemed able to sleep through anything.

"Goh! Amanda!" Sir Aaron called running up to them, Ash and the other Pokémon trailing just behind the knight.

"Are you okay?" Ash said.

"Cold, tired, and I really want a warm bed, but yeah, we're fine," Goh said.

Amanda stood up from where had been on the sand, her eyes on the ground, not meeting anyone's gaze. Her fist holding the hearing aids, was clutching them tightly. She had grabbed her bag from Ash, and then began to walk away. Her arms crossed, held close to her body, protecting herself, holding herself together. Her steps made hesitant and whole body shaking. Her expression...like someone had just admitted to a felony.

"Amanda are you alright?" Sir Aaron said confused.

Goh swallowed. Amanda had always made sure no one could see her ears.

"Amanda?" Ash said.

"Ash?" Goh said, standing up, "She can't hear you."

A/N:

Alright here's the next chapter.

I was a life guard when I was developing this story and Amanda as a character and I guessed some of it bled over into her. I tired to make this as accurate as possible. With out a proper floatation device, Amanda would approach Goh from behind and pull him up from his armpits.

So, yeah, Amanda is deaf. The reason behind this and her behavior, after this is revealed will be further dug into later on.

Now I have way too many final assignments! Good bye!