Thread: The Greater Evil I : The Great Hunt (Chapter 8, 1/16)

Good, but...um...Leonheart? That sounds a bit Mary Sue-ish...

Uh? I mean, it's Richie. Leonhart is just me having fun making references to various games and animes with my name selection. In older versions of this Leonhart was assigned to Claire, but due to me finally finding out she was (officialy) Lance's cousin, she has a new family name now (a name of very similar origin, at that ), and Leonhart was free for redistributing.

Richie naturally got it at that point, because Richie comes from Richard and Leonhart from Lionheart.

As for his being a Gary Stu, nah. He's far too much of a third fiddle to be anything Gary Stuish. May seems like it now, but Gary will get much more screen time and a much bigger role overall - and Gary I wouldn't even consider one of the core main characters of the overall series (ie, not on the level of Ash, Misty and May (Oak)).

Yeah, but it just brings Squall immediately to mind, and the two are nothing alike. Not to mention that Sparky's Japanese name is Leon...

*shrugs* I know it brings Squall to mind, but then again, that's just what I usually do for names when I'm short one name - pilfer other books, games and anime for useful names.

Besides which, it'S not like the family name will show up all that frequently.

Originally Posted by Blackjack Gabbiani

Yeah, but it just brings Squall immediately to mind, and the two are nothing alike. Not to mention that Sparky's Japanese name is Leon...

Sparky's japanese name is LEON?

The manga i say had sparky's name as "Chuchino"

then again, that manga had Richie as a blond so... >.<

eh, nice fanfic... Very nice.

Thanks *grins*

Sorry for the delay in getting this up. Had a few things to take care of regarding this chapter, so it was slowed down a bit.

Chapter 7 : Threads

Sliding besides the pier, the ship shuddered to a halt. Even as it did, the morning sky seemed to fall apart, a single ear-piercing cry shattering it.

"Did you…" Todd began.

Brock nodded. Of course he had heard, though he could not blame Todd for thinking that perhaps it was something only he, or only the two of them had heard, not after the way their dreams alone had been troubled by nightmare, and by unexplained pains on waking.

"Sounded like a pidgeot."

He could have said more. It had not only sounded like a pidgeot, but like a pidgeot's death cry.

He should not have been surprised. There were, after all, pidgeot and pidgey aplenty near Pallet, but yet, his skin crawled as he matched the cry to memories in his mind.

"Didn't Ash have a pidgeotto?"

Brock shook his head. That couldn't be it, could it? Ash had released his pidgeotto – his pidgeot, he corrected himself – long ago. What were the odds that, of all the pidgeot in the world, the one that would die on the morning after those dreams was Ash's?

"A pidgeot…" There had been a tremor in his voice, Brock noticed. Whatever his mind said, he would not, could not help but worry…

"You think…"

Todd left it hanging. There wasn't really any need to go over the nightmares they had both shared in the night, of Ash caged, Ash imprisoned and crying his soul out…

"I think the nightmare means something happened to Ash," he bit. "Whether or not the pidgeot has anything to do with that…"

They were silent then, for a long moment, until they both at once noticed the commotion at the mouth of one of the streets leading further into Pallet.... A crowd gathered there, shoving and pushing, trying to see what they could…

"What the…" Brock barely held himself back. Even if his siblings weren't around, even if Ash was back in the Orange Islands, he still couldn't bring himself to swear.

"Something to do with the cry?"

As they made their way through the onlookers, Todd's hypothesis ceased being that, turning with a cold certainty into fact. There was, in fact, a pidgeot sprawled on the paved street, a pidgeot that would have looked as dead as any creature could possibly be, if not for the slightest stirring of its body.

And underneath the crashed bird…

"Todd…" This time it was Brock's voice that failed him, the same icy grip that held his spine closing in about his throat. "Look…"

Todd did look, following Brock's fingers, tracing them back to the pidgeot…and to the tuft of yellow hair under it.

"Oh no…"

Their eyes met, and remained locked for the splinter of a second it took the two of them to hurl themselves at the pidgeot, trying to push it out of the way. Neither of them said a word.

"A pikachu…" Someone in the crowd whispered.

Brock didn't care what they whispered. Far, impossible odds, he had called it just moments ago. Only, as their shifting of the pidgeot's body began producing result, the impossible didn't look so unlikely after all.

"It's him." There wasn't even any trace of horror or sorrow in Todd's voice. Just emptiness, a deep emptiness scarier than any wavering.

"Ash's." Brock agreed, and he was not too surprised to hear the same emptiness in his own words, to feel a void free of emotions filling him.

"Pi…" the little pokémon spoke out, beyond all hope.

It took the briefest hint of a moment only for the sound to register on Brock's mind. In that splinter, he already knew what to do.

"Someone get the professor Oak!" he shouted at the crows, heard several children shout in answer, the clatters of their feet on the stones telling him they were already on their way.

"There's no pokémon center in Pallet, is there?"

Brock nodded.

"We need to take them to Viridian."
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Tracey woke up to a cold sweat, a scream of pain still on his lips.

His eyes searched about, unfocused. Where was he? Why was he in such pain? Before answers presented themselves, a new mystery: the pain was gone. How could that be? How could he feel one moment as if someone had taken a baseball bat to his knees, and the next as if nothing had ever happened?

Warily, he stood up. His legs gave no sign of weakness, no signs of wounds, save perhaps for the slight twitch in his left ankle, twisted three days ago. It would take a few more days to heal, but it could carry his weight now. Barely.

With memories of his ankle, came memories of his location, the Leman Island pokémon center. Looking out from the corner of the bedroom's window, he could see the city bathed in light; the people already out in the street. It must be late, perhaps closer to noon than to morning.

Sitting back on his bed, he pulled on his clothes. His ankle had healed faster than he had expected, but even then, the one day stuck in bed had been one day too much. Ash and Misty had – at his own urging – gone on their trek in the mountain without him. Now, there would be no point in following them, except perhaps to lose their trail and his way.

A sigh left his lips. He remembered only too well what being fourteen had felt like, a few years ago. The hundred thousand situations he had landed himself in, before leaving to become an observer…

"I really shouldn't have left them alone."

There was no one to answer, of course. He was quite alone, unless one counted memories and doubts for companions. In any events, they held no answer to his words.

Loneliness drove him out of the bedroom soon, loneliness and hunger. Even if breakfast was long since past – and it was – there were still vending machines in the pokémon center; one of them would certainly have some sort of sandwich or snack he could eat.

For a moment, he did consider eating inside. The tables of the center, with their padded seats were appealing, and though the pain of the nightmares – what must, to any extent, have been nightmares – was gone, it remained unforgotten.

But the sky, barely seen with a glance through the windows, drove him outside. Setting his sandwich, soda and apple down on one of the wooden picnic tables he readied himself to eat.

He did not even take a bit. As he moved the apple to his mouth, something, someone caught his eye.

He was not wearing his uniform. That in itself was not surprising, but that he was only marginally disguised was just as much of a surprise. Had he really been trying, Tracey would never have recognized him.

"James!" he challenged, reaching out for his pokéball, springing to his feet….

And falling back on the wooden bench with a barely bitten back howl of pain, his ankle screaming in protest. James was gone before Tracey even had the time to rise back up.

What had he been doing there? Some nefarious plan, of course – when was Team Rocket not up to nefarious plans? Jessie must be near as well, then, and if she was….

He took a deep breath, relaxing. If Jessie and James were down in the city with him, then they could not be threatening Ash and Misty up in the mountains. If they were here, that was only one less reason to worry.

"Mister Tracey Sketchit?" a girl called out behind him – close behind him.

This time, he did remember his ankle in time, managed to make himself stay seated. He turned his head to look at her. She was close, too close behind him. Had she had the slightest hostile intents…

He shuddered.

"Are you mister Sketchit?" the girl asked again, and Tracey nodded.

She reached in her coat, and this time, Tracey did try to whirl as beast as he could. If it was the Rockets, if they were up to no good…

But, no. The girl looked nothing like Jessie, acted nothing like her. She didn't resemble that other Rocket agent, Cassidy, any more. She was no older than he, no older than even Misty – she simply couldn't be one of the Rockets…

"I was asked to deliver this message to you."

She threw a scrap of paper on the table, covered in hasty markings.

"What's that?"

It looked like a map, as far as he could make it. A map, but to what? Why would he want a map? Who would want to give him a map?

"I was also asked to show you this token," the girl added with a nod, drawing something else from her coat.

A shadow passed across the sun. The map, he did not understand, not yet to any extent. But the token, red and white with a single green mark, he knew better than he cared to admit. Official Pokémon's League hats were rare, all the rare in Orange where another League reigned, but still he knew of at least one on Leman Island – the one now lying on the table – Ash's.

His eyes remained fixed on the hat a second too long. By the time he could think of something, anything to do, the girl had already faded in the shadows.
______________________

Had it been up to Gary, he's have still been in bed. The fight had, in itself, taken them much later than they should have stayed up, and between worries about visions and pains, and Nurse Joy insisting on giving them both a thorough talk on the importance of curfews and responsibilities, he had found no sleep until four in the morning at least.

Of course, Nurse Joy hadn't exactly given him a choice. At ten, sharp as a whip, she had barged into the room Leonhart and he had shared, waking them both up. The lack of sleep, she had called a fair punishment for their disregard toward the rules. When offered the alternative of losing his trainer license, Gary had found that, after all, he wasn't really all that eager to go back to sleep.

Now, opening the door, his body seemed to screen in disagreement. His eyes, dulled by lack of sleep, took one moment too long adapting to the streaming sunlight, and for the briefest of moments, they felt as if aflame.

It took him only the moment to adjust, but in that moment, he could think of a thousand things to hate for getting him there – having to wake up with so little sleep, perhaps, and letting the vision affect him so much in the first place, too. Irrationally, the fact that he had remained in Viridian long enough to face Richie Leonhart in a pokémon battle struck him as something to hate as well. Perhaps, had he left earlier, the visions would have left him alone…

But, no. They would not have. He knew better than that, knew he would have thought of Ash even had he been sitting on the summit of Mount Moon or in the bowels of Silver Cave, alone. Pathetic as some deeply buried part still screamed Ash was, must be, he could not take his mind off him.

"Hey, Oak," Leonhart greeted him, stepping out of the pokémon center in turn.

"Good morning." Gary replied without a thought. He had things to think of, a friend of Ash was perhaps the last thing he needed to face right now.

"I wanted to ask something."

Gary sighed, yet lifted an eyebrow. What question did Leonhart have now, and why did it warrant bothering him?

"Well, you see," the trainer apparently had taken his polite interest for a permission to ask, "I remembered Ash mentioning you a few times at Indigo last year. Told me you were giving him a hard time, so I was wondering…"

"Why I'd help him now?" A frown. Did he really want to tell? "I don't want to talk about it." Not now, at least. Perhaps later, there would be someone..."I'll be going to Pallet to talk to my grandfather about it all. Tag along if you want."

Leonhart glanced at him, his eyes shocked. There, for the briefest of moment, Gary looked at him, looked at Leonhart but saw dark hair, a league hat....

How could two trainers be so similar?

"If you want to take it that way..."

Gary sighed. He hadn't meant to hurt the other trainer, but how could he talk now? How could...

No. What he had seen near Blackthorn, he would keep to himself for a while yet. No one else needed to know. No one else...

The wind had been silent. Only, now it wasn't anymore. Now, a roar filled the skies, and Gary's woolen cloak flew up, tossed wildly.

"It's an helicopter!" He thought he heard the other boy say. Thought, but it just as well could have been the engine's roar and his own imagination.

It was, of course. There, coming in for a landing right in front of the center, was a league – an official pokémon league helicopter.

"Now what?" He hissed, reaching instinctively for his pokéball. Not that he thought the league would cause any problem, simply that was how he reacted to surprises, especially when worried. And worried, he had reasons to be.

The helicopter touched down, the door already open, the passengers jumping out of it swiftly. He had met all three in person, had been thinking of two of them, had known one his entire life.

The first, he ignored entirely. Not that they didn't know each other; Todd Klaus had spent many months working for Gary's grandfather on projects Gary had been told nothing about. Gary barely paid him any attention, looking intently at the other two.

"Looks like I'm not going to Pallet, after all." There was no need to, not when both one of Ash's closest friend and Gary's own grandfather were the other two passengers.

"Brock?" This time, there was no mistaking Leonhart's voice.

The gym leader made no answer. His hands turned about, seizing something, a bundle, in the helicopter behind.

"Gramps? What's going on?"

One hand raised, a look in the eyes, and that was that for answers. Samuel Oak shoved the doors open, and both Klaus and Slate stormed in the center, carrying two inert figures, wounded pokémon.

"Is that...?"

It was. Yellow fur, red cheeks, a bolt-shaped tail...

"Ash's pikachu?" he completed the question.

The gym leader nodded briefly, the door closed. Gary looked away, his eyes met Leonhart. The other trainer reached for the door…

"Brock!" someone called out. It was a girl's voice.

Gary whirled, half-expecting the other of Ash's companion, the redhead. But the girl running to the center was no redhead, the pokémon behind her no water-type, blurring from the form of a pidgeot to that of a ditto perched on the girl's shoulder.

She was past them before Gary could even blink, the door once more slamming shut, Gary's eyes lingering where the girl had been only a glimmer of a second ago.

Leonhart shrugged, stepped in the center. Gary shook his head, following. There was too much going on at once, there were too many questions to be asked.

"We found them near Pallet harbor a few hours ago." Nurse Joy must have asked, she was now listening attentively to the explanations.

"Take them to the emergency room," she commanded crisply. "Can you help me, professor?"

A nod, and they were both gone past the doors at the back, the two pokémon with them.

"Can someone tell me what's going on here?"

The room fell silent, Leonhart's scream shaking everyone for a moment.

Gary shook his head; he would have thought he'd have lost his temper before Leonhart. He certainly had never been a very calm person.

"Calm down!"

That had been Slate, though as far as Gary was concerned, he looked no calmer himself. Still, there was another moment of silence, and even Gary took the opportunity to catch his breath.

"Brock, did you have any strange dreams..."

The girl had spoken first. She did not finish her sentence alone; Ash' names was on all their lips.

"Then it can't have been a dream. Especially not with his pikachu here, and Ash nowhere to be seen."

Gary nodded; there at least he had to agree with Leonhart. One, even two of them sharing a dream, it could have been a coincidence – and even then he had not been willing to dismiss it as such. Five of them now...

The phone rang, five pairs of eye met, turned to the back door.

"There isn't anyone else to answer."

Gary nodded, following the unspoken suggestion. He turned the camera and screen on.

"Is this the Viridian pokémon center?"

It was a young man; one Gary could have sworn he had heard, seen, before. But where?

"I'm sorry, I was trying to contact professor Oak, I was told he was at the..."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Gary shook himself. "He's here, but he's extremely busy. He..."

Something shoved Gary aside. An arm caught him, if not for that, he would have gone down to the floor. The girl helped him get back to his feet while Slate took the call.

"Why did..."

He did not have to ask further. The one-time gym leader was talking, and...

"I've seen you on television. You were with Ash – where is he?"

The boy shrugged, his eyes pleaded. Slate, however, didn't seem to notice. His narrow eyes were dark embers, smoldering.

"I don't know. We were on Leman Island, they went for a trip in the mountain, I couldn't follow because I twisted my ankle..."

Slate's opened his mouth, his eyes grew darker, a snarl left his lips. Gary sighed, shoved him aside in turn. Answers were what they needed, not blame. There would enough time for that, too much time for that, later.

"Something else happened." He didn't phrase it a question, didn't mean it as such.

"There was a girl. She gave me this."

There was little need for further explanation. They all saw the hat, all knew what it meant. It was Leonhart – no, Richie – who finally spoke for them all.

"He'd never leave both his hat and his pikachu behind. Something's happened, and he needs our help."

Newie Chappie!

BTW, this book is technically divided in 6 part of 5 chapters each. The titles of these 6 parts are (so far) :

1 - The Nightmare's Beginning (Chapter 1-5)
2 - Before the Storm (Chapter 6-10)
3 - Trail of Blood (Chapter 11-15)
4 - End of the Dream (Chapter 16-20)
5 - Shades of Black (Chapter 21-25)
6 - Lost in Darkness (Chapter 26-30)

The tentative parts title for book II ("The Crimson Lotus") will be :

1 - Journey's End
2 - Hope and Memory
3 - The Road of Indigo
4 - Fire Requiem
5 - The Price of Victory
6 - Love and Sacrifice

Chapter 7 : The Long Wait

Off the coast of Leman Island, smaller yet infinitely more pleasant, Spectra Island had once been a popular beach resort for the people of Johto and Kanto. Its sandy beach had at one time been accounted a wonder of the world, its emerald forests a splendid jewel to a glorious crown.

That had been once. Time had changed, and one day, blood had been spilled. The death at Spectra Island had officially been the work of the wrong people running into a break-in, but that explanation had never satisfied anyone. Talk of ghosts, of secret societies had flared like wildfire, and within a few years, the island had been all but abandoned.

Had been, of course, being the keyword. From his vantage point, on the high cliffs of Leman Island less than half a mile from the coast of Spectra, he could clearly see the dark figures patrolling the island's coast. Others might have taken them for television crews putting together a show on the tragedy, five years ago. Tracey, his binoculars in hand, knew better – knew what the black uniforms stood for.

Truth to be told, he should not even be out there yet, of course. His ankle had recovered some, enough that it could carry his weight again, but to go hiking on the slopes of Mount Leman until he reached the stunning cliffs, dropping in the sea from a hundred and fifty feet, that had been a mistake he would pay for.

Mistake or not, it had been the thing to do – the only thing he could allow himself to do, once he had found the meaning of the map handed to him a little over a day before. The frantic hours he had spent in the libraries of Leman Town had told him what he had needed to know, and he had climbed the mountain.

Now, at least, he could rest. Crouched as he was at the top of the cliff, he was well out of sight of the Rocket, and his legs could easily recover for the trip back downhill.

They would need to. So far, watching as best as he could, he had seen five rockets. There were more, there must be more, but he had been able to identify the five separate ones. Spotting the tiny details that allowed him to tell them apart would have been hard for most people ; for a trained pokémon observer, it was nothing but a routine job.

"This is bad," he whispered, to himself more than anything else. Five Rockets already, and if his guesses where anything close to the truth, at least as many again he had not seen yet. Then, of course, there was the strange man in a lab coat. That one had appeared a few times, and he seemed by anything Tracey could figure out to be the one in charge. Of Jessie and James, there were no traces.

His frown deepened in a scowl as he turned to study the island itself. It wasn't large, not much larger than a large liner ship when you got right down to it. The hotel stood out quite clearly, five floor of white stone and crystal windows jutting out of the trees. But the fact that it was visible would not make the approach any easier.

The first step would have to be the beach. For all that Spectra had been a vacation resort, it only had one, although a beautiful one. Any attempt at attacking the island would have to come from there, unless they found enough flying pokémon to carry them all. That didn't sound too likely. Then the trails from beach to hotel, according to the map he had found, where few and far between. They'd be guarded, too – were guarded, if the one Tracey could see from his vantage point was any indication.

What were they to do?
_________________________

They had arrived at Viridian before noon. By the time Samuel Oak stepped out of the emergency room, his eyes red, a headache threatening to swallow his every waking thought, night had long since fallen. Brock, Todd, the others were all asleep now.

Samuel's eyes surveyed the room, lingering from a moment on a panel on the wall. He had seen the panel many times before, of course, but one particular memory drew his mind to it now, a glimmer of a twelve years old trainer pointing at it, yelling triumphantly…

Oh, he had laughed back then. Berated Ash, even, telling him that even trainers who had searched for Articuno all their lives had never seen it. Back then, it had seemed perfectly reasonable that it would preclude the notion of a trainer, barely even a teen, would just run in them by chance.

Back then. The laugh that escaped his lips was not bitter, not really – but it was not happy either. That teen could and would see the legendary birds was no longer an open question. How much more of everything Samuel had believed in had been simple make-belief?

His thought drifted back to present, to the pikachu now recovering in the back of the center. He had done all he could, and even things he had not remembered he knew until tonight. Still, his studies had never been in healing and medicines, and there was only so much a single human being could learn in the course of a lifetime.

He took a cautious step in the room, trying not to wake up anyone. His grandson's eyes flew open in the silence. Samuel sighed, remembering that Gary, much like he, had never been a sound sleeper.

"So?" he asked, and there were no traces of sleepiness to his voice.

"They'll make it, both of them," he breathed, collapsing in a chair. "We think. It's hard to be sure yet." He would not have said that, once – would have made himself sound sure, even if he wasn't. A look at the carving had changed his mind on that.

"What's wrong with them?" Brock yawned, raising his head from the chair he had let it fall on.

"Just exhaustion," Samuel sighed, and for an idle moment thought he could understand the two pokémon very well. "As far as we know, again."

"Did you find anything?"

His grandson's eyes came to rest on him, deeply intent. He wished, truly did, that he had some answer to give. But he could only shake his head ; there had been no sign of how Ash's pokémon had found their way to Pallet when the boy was in the Orange Islands.

"It happened on Lemand Island, whatever it was…" Brock began explaining.

What he had to say, all that had happened while Samuel was busy, took up many long hours. Explanations and theories hate yet more of the night, of the sleep his whole being yearned for.

He listened to them all the same.
____________________

They had finally gone to sleep shortly before the sun's first ray shyly caressed the top of the trees. Despite the yawns, the red eyes, they had woken up again less than four hours later.

Nurse Joy did not seem in any better condition than they. There had been few sightings of her in the pokémon center since their arrival, most of her time spent in the back watching over the two pokémon. Whenever she stepped into the main hall, any of them who happened to be there would raise their eyebrow, ask the question.

"He's still asleep."

This time, there had been no questions. Gary, left alone in the room, had barely even had time to turn to look at her before she spoke.

"Right. You'll tell us as soon as there's anything new, won't you?"

It was the twelfth time or so he asked; she had already promised and sworn in all ways humanly possible. Still, he could not help but ask to be reassured once more.

"Of course. Please don't bother me, I have paperwork to catch up on."

She turned her bacfk on him, shuffling the papers on her desk around before chosing one. At the back of the room, the door to the vending machines area opened.

"Hey, Gary."

It was the girl – Duplica, Brock had said her name was. There had been little time so far spent on proper introductions.

"Hey. Nothing new."

He didn't even think before adding the last; it was just what they all expected whoever was in the waiting room to say whenever they passed by, the news they all wanted.

"I don't think either of them will wake up for a while." She collapsed in the chair next to his, her eyes red. "Can't say I blame them, either. Did you get any sleep at all?"

He shook his head. "You?"

Her answer was about what he had expected ; none of them had slept more than an hour here or there since the two pokémon had arrived at the center, more than twenty four hours ago. Coupled with the short night before, Gary could almost envy the two pokémon.

"So, you're a trainer?"

He nodded, his eyes heavy. It took him a second or two to wonder why she would even ask, another to realize she sounded like she did not care. She must have been looking for some way to start talking.

She sighed, turned her eyes toward the roof. "Look, this isn't my idea but..."

"The others want to know what's going on with me?"

It was an easy enough guess. Richie had already shown him they'd be curious about his change of heart ; he should have known better than to expect any of them to feel differently.

She sighed again. "Brock, not all of them. He doesn't think you can be trusted. He..."

"It's alright," he tried to reassure her. "I can't blame him any way."

She nodded, looked at him. There was something about her, curiosity perhaps? She wanted to know too, he was sure of it – but she'd take no for an answer, unlike Slate.

"I don't suppose you'd believe me if I told you I just want to see his face when I rescue him, no?"

He hadn't even given the lie a fair try ; there had been dripping sarcasm all over the words. What did it matter, anyway? There had been nothing in the last twenty-four hours but time to think of what he could say, nothing but time to realize his reasons could not stay secret forever.

"I might have," she chuckled. Chuckled, of all things. "Well, if you had tried to sound more convincing, anyway."

He looked away. Time to make a choice, then. He could lie to her now, lie to them all one after the other. Or he could tell them.

"It's a long story," he began, and his voice did not tremble. He had expected otherwise. "Have you ever been to Blackthorn?"

She shook her head ; few people Gary knew had ever gone that way. Johto, to them, was the far side of the world, regardless of actually being only on the other side of a mountain range.

"Blackthorn's reputed as perhaps the best place to find Dragon-type pokémon." Not that it was a falsely earned reputation ; there were indeed more dragon-type pokémon at Blackthorn than anywhere else Gary had heard of. If only you could do more than watch them….

"So I went there, after I lost at the Indigo League about half a year ago. I thought with a dragon type pokémon, I could show them all." He paused, she nodded. "It took me a few months just getting there, a few more months wandering around the place trying to find the dragons. I didn't actually have any luck until about two months ago, when I heard about a shrine high up in the mountains…"

Not told, actually ; what he had learned of the shrine in Blackthorn, he had learned in a written message. He still had it, for what little comfort it had afforded him on the cold trek up the mountain, for the long weeks in the shrine…

"And?"

"And I went there, what do you think? I wanted to become a better trainer, a master," this time, he snorted. A pokémon master, indeed. The words, carved on the shrine's door, had shattered that illusion. These words, he would keep to himself. "Almost got me killed. For some reason that made me rethink my position on a lot of things."

Not quite true, not quite false either. The encounter with death had been a part of it, but so had many other things seen, heard, read at the shrine. But the near-death had been perhaps the single largest factor, the only one, too, that he was willing to discuss now.

"I see."

One moment, their eyes met. Did she really believe any of what he had said?

"What about you?" He frowned.

She blinked. "Well, I knew Ash was…" She stopped, took a long look at him. "Right, you don't know how Ash and I met. Sorry about that."

"Why don't you just tell me, instead of apologizing?" Hadn't he, after all, answered her questions?

"Right," She smiled. "It's not much of a story, really. Ash, Misty and Brock helped me out against Team Rocket a year or so ago. We became friends, and, well…he's my friend and I owe him, so when I got that…dream, I guess…"

Gary nodded quietly. "Another of his friends." He sighed, weary. He ached to sleep, to close his eyes and rest, to forget all about Ash and friends. Ached to be left alone, yet feared losing what little human warmth the last few days had brought.

"You were there pretty quickly after the visions. How did you…"

"I knew where Ash was from, so going to Pallet to get some information on him was a no-brainer, pretty much. Then I heard about that pikachu and Viridian, and…"

"You flew here." He frowned, mind racing. Yes, with a pidgeot for mount, the timing would have been safe enough. Helicopter, fast as they were, could not even begin to rival with pidgeots. The flying pokémon were at least five time as fast, perhaps even more. "Thanks for telling me all that."
__________________________

Usually, the Saffron municipal library was a tidy, clean place. A few people would sit at the tables with a handful of book, browse through them, bring them back to the shelves, take more books…

Of course, Sabrina Stevens was by no mean part of the definition of usual. Usual was, browsing through one book at a time, accomplishing no more than perhaps two or three tasks at once. Exceptional was two, perhaps three books, a handful of tasks.

Being a psychic, being herself, meant browsing through ten books at once, literally, her mind finding the time to not miss a single detail of the world about her. It meant having seven more books floating lazily toward her, and yet eight others on their way back to whichever shelves she had lifted them from only moments before.

It involved doing all this, and all the while remaining seated comfortably at an empty table.

There were whispers behind her. Perhaps the librarians – it was them – thought she wouldn't hear. Again, usually they would have been right. Again, too, Sabrina was not usual.

"She's keeping everyone else from researching on pokémon…"

"She has no respects for the other users…"

"Psychics like her should be locked up, if you ask me…"

She ignored the words. Had they really bothered, she could have shut her mind to it, but there was always the off chance someone may say something useful, and that was enough.

"Excuse me miss Stevens," one of the librarians coughed once, then again, echoing his own words.

"I heard you the first time," she did not turn to face him. Let him make what he would of a turned back…for the time being.

"Well, ah…" He was, of course, hesitating. Strangely enough, mostly everyone in Saffron hesitated before talking with her. The more disagreeable what they had to say, the more they seemed to wait. For all that she regretted the doll house incidents, there were effects of them she could learn to live with…

"Well, you see," another librarian stepped in, "the rules states that you are only allowed to have up to five books with you at a given time, and…"

She frowned, and cast her thoughts outward, to the glass-covered panel listing the rules. She could not see it from this far, but she could feel it, feel the ink in the paper, form the vision into an image. Few psychics ever bothered to develop that application of their powers, but she had.

"I see nothing in those rules about having five books with me. I see something about having five books on the table, but…"

She gestured toward her table. It was, of course, quite clear of books.

"But…but…but…"

Sabrina shook her head, looked at the man. There was something she needed to do now, wouldn't have needed to do if not for the man. But now she was getting irritated, and…

She turned toward him. Slowly, deliberately, she winked.

For a moment, she wondered if she had gone too far, given the poor man an actual heart attack. Her laughter to the side, she was in fact relieved when he shook his head, looked at her. Over their shared link, she could feel Haunter's mirth from over at the gym. Much as she had once tried to pretend otherwise, she was no longer all that unlike the ghost pokémon. Then again, she rarely ever tried to pretend so anymore, not with the alternative keeping on the appearance of the empty monster she had once been.

Before the librarian had the time to say anything else, one of the book she had still been browsing through stopped in midair. There, white fur and black skin, wicked-looking tail and dark scythe above the head, was the pokémon she had seen in her vision. The other books were back on the shelves within a second, and the one she had found, in her hands.

"An absol, then," she shivered at the name, didn't know why. "Disaster pokémon, named so because all of its recorded appearances immediately preceded large-scale disasters, natural or human…."

She had not considered it in eighteen months. She had thought the answer evident. But there and then, with a shiver unlike any she had ever known running down her spine, the question could not be avoided.

Was it really for the best that she was no longer the empty monster she had once been?

I have critiqued the fic line by line. My comments are added all over the place. So I'll just post it instead of dawdling over words.

Chapter 1
~~
section 1
P1 ln2--In itself, that was not unusual, and the presence on the slopes of the massive Mt. Leman of swarms of pidgey in search of their sustenance was much the same
is repetitive of the certain words such as "of the" or "on the". WHile not a big deal over the long run, a single sentence shouldn't be riddled so.
A suggestion can be
~~In itself, that was not unusual, and the presence of swarms of pidgey searching for sustenance on massive Mt. Leman's slopes was much the same.
In the line right after the above one
--The laws of nature, which they had always obeyed, were clear : eat, or be eaten,..
should be
~~...were clear, eat or be eaten,...
p4.ln2
--...two-legged hunters showed up with the dreadful orbs they called pokéball,...
simple problem of plurals and such. it shoudl be either pokeballs or "a pokeball"
p5.ln2
--They should have known humans would known...
Huh? Is taht supposed ot mean that the humans would know..if so what? or did you just put the second known there accidentally instead of "humans would come"?
p9 ln 1
It's not necessary. You try to have a little suspense throughout the chapter, yet you blatantly tell. This is a fanfic. It should be obvious from the name, and from the next few lines.
*
Section 2

P1.
--"I thought," Misty Waterflower insinuated, her lips curled, "that there were rare pokémon here?"
wrong use of the word insinuated. insinuated either means to talk in a sublte or a clever manner. nothing clever about the way she says it. Her tone is sarcastic if anything.
P4
--"That's what nurse Joy said!" he defended himself, raising a hand in pathetic defense. "She said…"
I'm not too sure about this, but since nurse is part of her name, it should count a collective noun. So it should be capitalized as well.
P10.Ln1
add the word "the" before topic. it's the right expression.
*
Section 3
p9
--then his and Jessie's next mission would be to the bottom of Vermillion harbor, involving concrete shoes.
err rather cliched there. THe whole concrete shoes thign takes away from tehs erious tone you seem to be building. I expected to hear a sitcom like taped sound effect when I read that.

and more to the end of the section - huh? the beginning hints at death as a very real possibility. Now you say no death. Gio seems contradictory. more of an observation than a mistake.
*

Section 4
p1.
--Somewhere in the hotel lobby, someone coughed.
repetition. dont' know what to suggest though.
p3
--People went back and forth throughout the lobby, some just walking in circles, other moving swiftly from the main doors to the elevators or the other way.
while the sentence is artful, it seems artificial. maybe change it to something along the lines of...
~~People moved through the lobby often, some just loitering, others moving swiftly form the main doors to the elevator or the other way.
p5
The only remarkable thing, really, was the tulip petal that fell out of her hand to land in front of his eyes, as black as any midnight sky.
seems like wrong structure. a suggestion woudl be..
~~..was the tulip petal, as black as any midnight sky, that fell out of...
p6
the word "once" seems redudndant. "never leaving the report" works just as fine.
P8 ln2
err, you put "their" for "the" or "that" in front of blonde curl
P13.
the "is it true" makes it sound very gossipy. her tight lipped personality should just suffice with "they say you are giovanni's son?"
*
~~
A great chapter. I love the set up. Good suspense. THe story has changed a bit. Misty bites..and hard.

**
Ch2
Section1
p10
"in savage pokemon" rather than "is savage pokemon"
*
Section2
p5
--Ash shouted, thoughts of finding a cabin and the ilk
err rather strange the end. and the ilk?
~~..a cabin and its ilk/...finding a cabin and shelter...
p14ln1
change "realized" to "realizing" and it should be "this" and not "that" it's a clear fact, not somethign distant.
*
Section3
p1 ln2
"fancy" not "fanciful" fanciful is about imaginative and such. fancy restaurants would be posh.
*
Section4
p12 ln2
--And if they were here, the chances that they had nothing to do were somewhere along the line of zero.
err line isn't clear. that TR had nothing to do with the situation, is that what you meant? if so clarify a bit there.
P20 ln4
armed not harmed

The last line of the chapter is horribly corny.
Overall the chapter could be better. But it's still good.

**
Ch3
didn't see any errors. it's late so i probably missed any that might have been there. my favorite chapter so far.
**

Ch4
section1
p20
meowth's dialogue seems contrived. one second it's almost early 19th century with the whole posh "top cat be damned" then it goes to "the boss got wrong in the head" he's a schizoid. consistence is necessary. one way or another.

P23 ln3
--... and the only picture of Jessie's mother she had ever showed him was there as well.
err doesn't make sense. even if it hadn't been shown to him.because he wouldn't know about it then. (oh also that's she had ever/never shown him.)
*
section2
nice save with the migratory comment =P. I was wondering about distance between the orange archipelago and Viridian forest after the last chapter ^_~

p8 ln2
it should be "if indeed she had that" rather than did that. did that signifies she was having doubts about whether or not she SHOULD catch pikachu rather than if she would. had that goes back to the marginal chance and the doubt about if she WOULD catch the rat or not.

p9 ln1
The ground came EVEN (not ever) closer
ln2
spare not spar.
ln3
-- Soon, too soon, she’d have to pull out of her dive, or she would be too low, and there’d be no pulling out before she struck the ground.
ugly sentence. take teh first soon out, and add an "and" before "she'd have to". also split it into two sentences. one for too son and one for too low. it makes it work better. the sentence doesn't get confusing or ugly.

Also oww. I know how sharp wild sparrow talons are =P. especially of a falcon. poor rat. serves him right though

*
Section3

P1 ln1
--Midnight was now long since past, and the moon had risen only to vanish again beneath the dark shape of the continent to the north.
first part's awkward. "midnight had since long passed" is more correct, and much more smooth. and add the word "briefly" after risen. that's just for fluidity. not necessary
ln2
shouldn't that just be Cinabbar volcano rather than Cinabbar island volcano. redundancy there. and "sometimes" instead of sometime.

p2. ln1
different word for faint. wrong context. far or short would be better. depending on what you were giong for.

p15
drop "guy"

p16
change "just it" to something like "about it" or "nothing else". "thats just it" seems to imply something about Ash being something of a hero but idoesn't go anywhere, and Todd doesn't respond to this topic change from what's seen in the next few lines. So...


haha only Todd would go to his belt in pokemon to take pictures out rather than pokemon ^_^.

*
section 4
p1 ln1
it's EBB and FLOW. but ebbed and flowed seems so odd. maybe if you add an analogy like "With time passing by, the world was like the tide's ebb and flow." it's odd still but better.
ln2
drop the "more" and add a comma before "new".
ln3
while the prophecy or vision is fragmented. your sentence shouldn't be fragmented. It should still flow. connect the three parts of the line to maybe
"A swirling mass of mists was the world, and it changed" A little more wordy and still ugly. I don't know what to do with that line to be hoenst.

~~

definitely not a fun chapter to go through. an edit would help. It's fragmented and very odd at a lot of places. Transition phrases would help bring certain sentences to justice. parts of teh same sentence seem alien to each other without transition phrases.
BTW: sabrina woot. and she's quite the voyeur for spying on ash often. this we know because she talks about the weak weak psychic link between haunter and ash. which she apparently tested out before =p. can't trust them psychics.

**
Ch5

Section1
playing at Sanchez are we? Duplica-Ash love? Well Sanchez made ash a pimp. but meh. also quite a strong psychic link there. even sabrina couldn't get that link out. incidentally that's 3 new characters in 2 chapters. maybe more to come
*
Section 2
oops make that 5 new characters.
*
Section 3
haha we at least see Ash and misty finally =P.
~~
nothing to say except umm wow. 5 new characters in two chapters. I know who they are and their significance. But simmer down now. pace it a bit.
Also what is Absol (thanks BJG) doing in the room? isn't Absol a pokemon surrounding disaster areas? Or something. from what I remember from a few chats.

Also do we see a Tribal alongside a leonhart? or is it only ff8? =P
**

Ch6
it is chapter 6 and not chapter 7 as you put it ^_~
section1
good job not putting out another psychic link with ash. you would have had me put up strange yaio couplings =P Ash-Brock...Ash-Todd...Ash-Brock-Todd... (cough)

*
section2
p1
in a cold sweat... not "to a cold sweat"

make that 6 characters in three chappies ^_^.
*
section 3
p18
A helicopter, not AN helicopter. (the h isn't silent nor doesn't it sound vowelish in this instance)

Who is SLate? Tracey? were you mixing names again? because tracey got the hat last section. now i'ts Slate.

oh btw: Gary and Duplica sitting in a tree..D.I.N.T.E.(n.g) the paranthesis is silent ^_^

~
very fast paced chapter. not for the action, but for what's goign on. you try for a movie when you are writing a book. at least it seems taht way with some of the section cuts.

**

Chapter 7

Section 1
TEAM SPECTRA? haha please don't do that to me ;_;

*
Section 2
Sam's not an important enough character in imy book to count as #7. However his development is brilliant. I love the bitterness of a scientist knowing mythological myths to be true. brava

*
Section3

Gary and duplica... sorry

by the way Gary for all that secretiveness to an ash-lookalike. opened up way too quickly to duplica in my opinion. he wasn't even reluctant.

*
section4

aha Absol as a disaster pokemon. dun-dun-dun. not only that. you give Ash damned much importance in very few words. WOW. by the way you took blackthorn and put it here. wasn't that book two? ^^;; But rewrite.

and again Sabrina=w00t.

~~

Overall I like the rewrite. However it's still roughwork. most of the chapters need reworking. Chapters 1 to 3 remain my favorite, and after that the fic's quality gets a little to rushed for my taste. pacing has to slow down a bit.

Character development has fast become your forte though. But introduce them a little slower in the next rewrite. It's so fast. And they are all important characters from how you have placed them. But Brava B. Brava.

I shall read, and I shall critique in the same way I have now. SOrry if it was harsh or not, but you do the same to me, and I figure you deserve the truth. I still drool over you ability. But, you seem to be falling into a smaller pitfall that i knwo very well. jello. or at least the usage of big words that can be replaced with smaller more fluid words.

Also you need transition statements, phrases, words even statements. The biggest thing about writing is that it HAS to flow.yes, plot, character, etc.. are all important but the medium you put them in has to be fluid and smooth. I can't do that yet. You do it at spots, but not always. Also if you need a proofreader in the future, ^_^. I love reading ahead of schedule ^_~.

~~

And then you won't even reply :-P

Chapter 08 : Reluctant Alliances

The liner SS Vermillion Queen was a veteran. For forty years it had crossed back and forth the seas between Kanto and the Orange Islands, too many trips. It should have been retired, would have been retired had ship travel retained its long-gone popularity. But in days of planes and pokémon travel, there was no more time, no more place for ships, and the scarred veterans remained alone on the seas.

However, according to the flyers, it was still seaworthy enough, and the sales clerk at the ticket booth at insisted it would be a way for them to remain undisturbed along the way: few people went on each journey, barely enough to justify running the line anymore.

"Are you sure that's the best we can come up with?"

Richie was growing used to the questions, the frowns that came with them. Sometime, it seemed Brock had nothing better to do than to criticize.

"You asked two hours ago." He tried to keep his voice calm.

Brock glanced, his frown only deepened. "Maybe because I think we're running with a lot of stupid ideas?" A growl, and Richie rolled his eyes. If only this particular dialogue was something new…

"Look…" he began. Brock did not seem to notice.

"That ship is slow! We'll be ten days at sea before we get to Leman!" Brock paused, took a glance at the ship. "That's if we get there at all."

"We can't get anything better," Richie formed the reply, breathing deeply. He had to remain calm. Had to, and would. But why hadn't there been anyone else willing to step to the plate, to assume leadership once it had become obvious Brock would be too busy blaming people to be a leader as well? "We tried, remember? There just wasn't a damn other choice. The ship is all we have."

"Then you didn't try enough. Like that Tracey."

Richie signed, not bothering to answer the actual accusation. Brock had said that, often, too. If one were to listen to him – and it was hard not to hear what he had to say, the way he repeated it at the slightest provocation – Tracey was a traitor who had abandoned Ash and Misty for his own safety.

"Did you talk with him again?" He tried to keep his voice even, tried to pretend he had not noticed the accusations. Even to his own hears, he was not very convincing.

He felt more than saw the glare. No, of course Brock hadn't talked with Tracey. If he had, the shouting would have kept half the town awake and drowned the other half in nightmares.

"Forget I asked," he muttered. Was there even a point in talking to Brock anymore?

Silence followed, a long, painful moment of it. After the shouting, the accusations – both the voiced and silent ones – it should have been soothing. Instead, the silence was charged with questions, regrets, worries. It was, as far as Richie was concerned, already something of a wonder that none of them had broken apart so far. Could it really last?

"I should have been with them, you know," Brock broke the silence. "Should have been there, to protect them, instead of that…."

"We're not going there," he raised a hand, making his voice as firm as it could possibly be. "It's not going to do anything for any of them."

He was shouting, now. Why did they have to be shouting at each other? Why couldn't the shouting stop?

"But…"

"Look, you know Ash. I know Ash. He's perfectly able to handle Team Rocket on his own. If something happened, it's because they used something extraordinary. I don't think you'd have done any better there than anyone else."

"I…"

Whatever it was Brock was to say, Richie did not find out. With one last reproachful glance, the gym leader instead turned away, storming back toward Ash's house.

"Hey Richie." He barely had the time to breath a sigh of relief before Todd's voice threw entirely out of his grasp any peace of mind he had been trying for.

Another sighs, exasperated, and he resigned himself to yet more complaints about the ship. So far, nearly all of them had voiced them, except Gary Oak. Most likely that had to do with Oak keeping to himself, and not any satisfaction on his part.

"What's the matter now?" he tried, he did try, to keep the irritation out of his voice. Even then, he felt it dripping.

"Sorry…" Todd glanced at him. "But I think…are we even sure the Rockets have Ash? I mean…"

"He's been gone for four days. Pikachu arrived here wounded when he's supposed to be in Leman, and someone handed Tracey Ash's hat, and a map to an island full of Rocket. What more do you need?"

"Isn't that a little too obvious," he frowned.

Richie sighed; tried to think of what to say; tried to ignore the headache Yes, it was too obvious. But then again, wasn't that part of the definition of the Team Rocket they all were familiar with?

"It could be a trap," he finally admitted. Had there ever been a point to denying it? "But what if it isn't? What if they really have Ash and we do nothing?"

Todd nodded, his face darkening. They turned a street corner, headed now toward the ticket booth.

"Maybe, but…" the young man began.

Richie lifted a hand, silencing him with no words. His eyes turned from the sky to straight ahead, to the girl at the ticket booth.

Even seen from behind, he recognized her. It was not a good thing. Better to face perfect stranger than this particular girl, her name a curse among trainers for years already. She had, if rumors were to be believed, improved over the last year, but rumors were more often than not thinly disguised lies.

A shiver ran down his spine.
___________________________

As usual, the beach of Pallet was quiet. As usual, too, the empty echoes of wave crashing on the golden sands resounded, bringing back memories, peaceful and painful, loathed and treasured.

Gary breathed a long sigh, eyes on the sea. Behind him, gray wave, tainted by the clouds, erased his footsteps one by one, bathed his feet. His mind, not for the first or last time, drew back to Blackthorn, to the shrine high above the city. What had really happened to him there? How could so much he had thought certain turn out to have been illusions?

"Gary?" The voice calling him was soft. Faces of his past drew forth, trying to claim the voice for their own. His sister, May. That girl he had met in Blackthorn, whose handwriting had been on the message that had led him to the Shrine. Others, their faces and names half-forgotten.

He shook his head. It was none of them, but Duplica. Not his past, but the present.

She stood at the edge of the beach. Trees, rising beyond the edge, drew their branch about her in a protective shadow. Half visible, more there because memories told him it must be, a rocky trail leading to Gary's grandfather's lab began.

Since Viridian, there had been little time for them to talk. For the most part, when they had been anywhere close to each other, the others had been there as well. There had been more pressing concerns then – plans to be made, moves to be decided on – than private discussion between two of them.

"Yeah?" He did not bother to raise his voice. He knew this stretch of beach, knew how far his voice would carry.

"Well," she seemed to hesitate, "the thing is…it's just…. How good a trainer are you?"

He wanted to laugh in answer to that – a bitter laugh. It was a question he had asked himself too often to care anymore. Part of him wanted to answer yes, to believe it, mean it. Then again, how could that part be right when he had failed to even make the top sixteen at the last tournament, something even Ash had done?

"I don't know," he admitted. "I suppose I'm not too bad." It had been so easy, once, to lie about that. Why couldn't it be that easy now?

"I was wondering…could you help me with my battling skills? I've got the basics, but…"

"You'd better ask Richie," he cut in. "He's so much better than I am." He regretted the words before she even seemed to hear them. Yet, what else could he say, considering Richie had gone two rounds further at the League, had defeated him clearly not even a week before at Viridian?

She frowned, opened her mouth, closed it again. "It's you I'm asking," she finally said. "Richie's busy planning everything, and…"

"I know." He had wanted to give her the choice. Yet, if she was determined to ask him…. Could he even begin to pretend he wanted it any other way? Not with the weight now leaving his shoulder. It wasn't a victory, it wasn't the triumph that would clear his own doubt…but knowing someone though him good enough to teach helped all the same. "I'll do it."

"Thanks." Her smile was warm, honest. It, too, seemed to push back some of the questions that had been haunting Gary for the past few months. "Can we start now?"

He nodded, and the sky had long since cleared and the moon risen by the time they left the beach.
____________________________

"What," someone growled behind her, "are you doing here?"

Sabrina's hand had been in the process of taking her league credit card back from the sales clerk, it froze in mid motion. She titled her head back, took in the young man who had just spoken. No more than fifteen, perhaps younger, and a trainer by the looks of him, most likely a talented one. He certainly had the arrogance.

"May I ask what business of yours my actions would be?"

Her answer, she decided, had been just a bit more than it should. The questions could well have legitimate reasons behind it, even if she did not see them.

"The business that I'll be on that ship and I don't want to have a monster like you looking over my shoulder. So, what are you doing there?"

She rolled her eyes. A monster, was she? Had he spoken in anger, she might have understood, but there had been no anger to his words, only a deadly, even voice.

"Buying tickets for Leman Island." Her tone was just as level as his; at least she hoped it was. "I certainly did not expect some sort of Spanish inquisition." A smirk passed her lips; the boy's accusations drew further from her mind. There was indeed much to be said for humor.

"What are you talking about?" He stared blankly at her. His eyes never left hers.

She sighed. Young as he was, he might perhaps have known some of the humor classics, but obviously, he didn't.

"Forget it." She waved her hand. His frown deepened to a scowl, and Sabrina wondered for a moment if her eyes had rolled skyward of their own volition. "Oh, for crying out loud! No, I didn't just try to wipe out your memories of that joke."

He really was trying her patience, she decided. She had tried not to take out frustration on trainers for the past few months, but a few more of his suspicious looks, of his accusatory glances, and she'd seriously reconsider. A new doll in her collection wouldn't be that bad, would it?

"Ah. You didn't answer my real question. Why are you going to Leman?" He looked at her, eyes challenging her to speak.

"Who said I had to answer your question?" Was it really that much to ask for a little privacy or, failing that, for at least some politeness?

She shook her head. Had she ever faced a trainer any less arrogant herself? They all seemed to think the whole world revolved around the size of their gym badge collection, to think that if they had collected enough badges for even one league – out of how many? – they were owed respect if not outright worship.

"I'm sorry." He didn't sound like it. He didn't feel like it, either. He did, however, now that she stopped to think of it, feel tantalizingly familiar. There was something haunting about him…

"Shouldn't you be at the Saffron gym?" a new voice asked. She knew the voice, knew the mind it belonged to.

"Gym leaders are allowed to take vacations, you know. You should, anyway." Her mind raced furiously. The new presence, the new voice, explained many things.

Brock Slate nodded, his narrow eyes blazing. Of course he'd know the rules governing the life of a gym leader; he had been one himself. But why did that make him so angry?

"Tell me Brock," she turned her eyes toward him. "How much do you know of what happened to Ash Ketchum?"

She felt the stare of the other trainer, felt his jaw opening up. She heard nothing, was quite sure nobody heard anything.

"You…you know him?" It was a long minute before the trainer finally got the reply out, a minute Sabrina used to browse through the memories, the knowledge that flashed through Brock's mind. She had her answer long before he could form his question.

"You know me by reputation. You've probably heard the rumors about me changing."

He nodded. Much as with Brock, the positive answer was a given; who in Kanto had not heard of Sabrina the evil witch? She had been feared from Lavender to Pallet, from Indigo to Fuchsia.

"The rumors are true," she asserted. The important ones, anyway. The rumors that had her in any number of romantic entanglements were something else entirely, amusing as they could be. "And it was Ash who changed me. I owe him, and I intend to see that debt repaid."

"I doubt he was doing it for you when he brought you Haunter," Brock spoke up, his voice flat. "I don't see any reason to trust you, considering you turned him in a doll once."

She let out a long, deep sigh. "I was trying to put things nicely." She kept her voice low, just loud enough for Brock and the other trainer to hear. "Let me put it another way. I know where Ash is. I know he needs help, and I happen to owe him that much. You can stand in the way, or help me pay my debt, that's up to you."

They stared at her for a moment before the young trainer offered her his hand. Brock glared, but said nothing.

"Name's Richie Leonhart," the boy offered. "Welcome to our nuthouse."

She smiled.
____________________________

Loneliness was a feeling Todd knew well. His life was as a photographer of rare pokémon in the wild; friends to travel with were a luxury he rarely if ever could afford. That, in part, was why he had appreciated Ash so. The young man had understood the need to respect wild pokémon, had not been a burden. But even with that incident in mind, he was more than used to loneliness.

Yet now, with the strange sight before him, green mountains and shaded valleys sinking beneath the waves as Kanto vanished beyond the horizon, he could not help the sudden empty fear. Used to be alone or not, he didn't want to be right now.

It wasn't the first time he watched the sinking shoreline; he had done it mere months ago, leaving for Pokémon Island. But Kanto was his home, and he had hoped to rest there for a while before leaving again.

For all that he had hoped for months, it had been four days, and now there he was on the sea again. The only difference between now and the last time he had left for Pokémon Island hung from his belt, carefully hidden. None of his few friends would truly understand. Not after his long explanations on the matter, not after all that he had told them.

But what other choices had there been? There, leaving Pokémon Island, the creature refusing to return home, refusing to do anything but to follow him as it had ever since first coming out of that whirlpool in the river canyon?

Even then, he would not have captured it. The creature, after all, belonged to Pokémon Island. Capturing it, even if technically outside the island's boundaries, would still amount to a crime, at least as far as he could tell.

Except, of course, that there were other realities to take into accounts, realities the professor Oak had only been too quick to point out.

When the choice had been put in terms of capturing the creature for himself, or letting team Rocket capture it for experimentation, for cloning, for all that everyone knew they would do to such a creature, it had stopped being a choice.

"You really had to shackle yourself with me, didn't you?" he patted the pokéball, and for all that he had been reluctant to capture the creature, a thin smile played across his lips. There were things in the world he could never understand, but here, suddenly, he didn't feel so alone after all.