Neo Dark Ages
                          by Bartholomew Qbiak 

Edited by Anonymous 2003

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WARNING: This fic contain scenes of violence and some inappropriate language.
***
NOTE: I do not own Pokemon or any characters related with it. 

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Part 3 - Truth

Misty woke up.; she didn't want to open her eyes. She didn't know what she would 
see if she opened them, but reluctantly she did so. Her vision was blurred. She 
sat up and after a few seconds her vision returned to normal. Misty looked 
around. She was sitting on sofa, blankets lying in her lap. Across from her, 
several feet away, was a fireplace. It was complete with a fire, happily 
crackling and devouring wood. On her right side were big purple curtains; in the 
left upper corner of room was a door. Misty got up. As she did so she felt 
burning pain in her ankle, which was now bandaged. Somehow, supporting herself 
against the sofa, she managed to walk to the curtain. She bent it back slightly 
and peeked outside. The sky was blanketed with black clouds and it was raining 
profusely; lightning wandered through the sky, illuminating Misty's face. She 
turned away and walked to the sofa, then sat down. Misty focused and tried to 
remember what happened. The last thing she remembered was drowning... Again she 
looked around and thought, Where am I? Suddenly she heard someone turning the 
door-knob. Where's my gun?, she thought frantically, before she spotted it lying 
on the coffeetable. She grabbed it and unlocked the safety lock; after that she 
aimed it at the door. The door-knob was fully turned and the door opened with 
loud creak; from the shadows of the door emerged a young man. When Misty saw his 
face her hands loosened their grip on gun, which landed on a red-and-green 
carpet. Her jaw dropped, her hands started to shake and her heart started to 
pump more blood. "No, it's impossible..." she said, little above a whisper, her 
lips barely moving. The man started to approach her. "Don't come any closer. You 
don't exist, you're a hallucination, YOU'RE DEAD!". Misty started to scream. She 
quickly picked up her gun and aimed it at man. 

"No, I'm not." he said calmly. "And I don't want to be either." With that he 
smiled. His smile was so warm and full of life, just like Misty remembered it. 
"Ash, is that really you?" she asked, voice shaking. 

"Yes." he said, then added under his breath "At least I think so...". Misty was 
at a loss for words. She didn't know what to say or how to react. 

"I see that our princess already woke up." said another man, who was leaning on 
door-frame, his hands crossed on his chest. 

"G-Gary?"

"Yep. The only one." he said, smiling. Then it hit her. She quickly took a few 
steps back and aimed her gun at Ash. 

"You're the thieves!" Ash and Gary looked at each other and then at Misty. Her 
face showed a mixture of terror, sadness and betrayal. In other words she was 
completly confused. Her eyes started to water... She wished that this was some 
kind of bad dream from which she would soon wake up. Her hands were still 
shaking. 

"Yes we are." said Ash with a sigh. "But please, let me explain everything.".
 
Misty's mind didn't want to hear any of their explanations, but her heart wanted 
to hear everything. She wanted so badly to hug Ash and cry in his arms. She 
always listened to her heart. This time was no otherwise. 

She dropped her gun and nestled herself in Ash's arms. She was crying. When she 
found herself in Ash's embrace she felt his warmth, she felt so safe. Between 
sobs she managed to say to him, "I was.. sniff.. on your funeral... sniff.. 
everyone was there... sniff... your mom Ash, your grandfather Gary... everyone. 
I couldn't stop crying... sob... I cried and cried just like your mother... ". 
She looked at his face, into his golden eyes and said "Why, Ash? Why?". Before 
he could ask Why what?, she continued. "Why did you hide? Why didn't you tell 
anyone that you survived? Why you didn't come back to us? Why?". She was 
confused. She couldn't think properly. With every minute she felt more and more 
betrayed, sorrow and rage slowly started to fill her heart.

Ash knew that everything was going in wrong direction, and that he had to react 
before something unexpected happened. He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook 
her slightly. "Misty, listen to me. We couldn't to show up. Do you know what 
would have happened if anyone saw us? We were dead. We shouldn't be walking 
around. If Team Rocket found out that we're alive..." Ash paused. Before he 
could say more Gary continued.

"If something like that would have happened, everyone that we love and care 
about could be in danger. Team Rocket would be chasing us... again. They'd want 
to know how we survived and they would do anything to find out where we're 
hiding. Probably, they'd kidnap someone we care about to torture until they find 
out where we are. We didn't care if we were killed again. We didn't show up and 
fight because we care about our families and friends. We didn't want anyone to 
be in danger.".

Misty thought for a while. Now she did understood why they didn't show 
up. However, she still had a few questions. "Sorry I acted like that." she said, 
ashamed of 
herself.

"We understand how you feel so don't be sorry. Either one of us would have 
reacted just like you did." Ash said, gesturing towards himself and Gary.

"Umm... Why'd you say that you couldn't fight with Team Rocket? With all those 
supernatural skills you have, you would easily destroy the whole organization. 
Damn, it doesn't matter! How'd you managed to survive and how'd you leave your 
coffins?" she asked, a few tears slid down on her cheek.

"Hmm... It's little complicated..." started Ash, "... maybe I should start from 
the last question: How we survived and how we left our coffins? The answer for 
this question is easy: We don't know." explained Ash and scratched the back of 
his head just like when he was a kid.

"What?" asked Misty, obviously surprised. 

"We remember bullets piercing our chests. Pain and then darkness. Next thing we 
know, we're awake in a graveyard. We were wet, dirty and sore." explained Gary.

***FLASHBACK***

Grey clouds stretched over the graveyard. It had been drizzling for a long time, 
and mud was everywhere. In the mud layed two people, teens. One of them coughed 
and slowly opened his eyes. He felt so cold. Hugging his legs to his chest, he 
tried not to tremble from coldness. He turned to face his unconscious friend, 
and managed to crawl over to him, gently shaking him by the shoulder. His friend 
coughed and opened his eyes before weakly asking:

"Where are we?".

"I don't know." He answered the query in a low voice.

"Are we dead?".

"I'm hurt and cold, so I don't think so." His friend smiled a little at the 
comment.

"I see that even now you haven't lost your sense of humor."

"Heh, somebody's gotta have a sense of humor. C'mon." He stood up and helped up 
his friend. Then both of them looked around and spotted two graves. They 
approached to them, lightning illuminating the tombstones as they read: 

   R.I.P.         R.I.P.
ASH KETCHUM     GARY OAK 
 1994-2010      1994-2010

When they saw the grave markers, they remembered what happened. They were killed 
by no other than Giovanni. Rage filled both of them and Gary punched nearby 
tree, which cracked into splinters at the point of impact. It landed on the 
muddy ground with a loud crash.

"We swear we'll get revenge!" both of them said in unison.

***FLASHBACK***

"And that's how it was. We didn't know what happened and even now we don't. We 
knew that we couldn't show our faces in public again. Fortunately for us we 
found this old mansion, which became our new home. With time we restored it to 
some state of use. And now the answer for first question: When we first woke up 
at the graveyard we didn't consider our skills supernatural. Even now with every 
day we're learning new tricks or abilities. Most of our techniques we discovered 
by luck and we still don't know all of them. What you've seen isn't even half of 
what we're capable of." explained Ash.

"So you're saying that after 5 years, you don't even know 50% of your 
capabilities?" asked Misty.

"Yes." answered Ash with hope in his voice. He still wasn't sure does Misty did 
believe them.

"That's why we broke into PokeTec Laboratory and Cerulean Museum. We heard that 
Museum will be exposing the "Book of the Darkness". It's an old book written in 
Dark Ages. We have basis to suppose that we can find out what happened with us 
and learn about our abilities from this book." explained Gary.

"Unfortunately there is one problem. This Book has a special lock. From what we 
know scientists have tried to open it with everything they had, but failed. From 
another source we found that The Key to the "Book of the Darkness" has been 
found and is being examined in the PokeTec Laboratory. Everything would be fine 
if The Key was in one piece, but The Key was split into two pieces six centuries 
ago to protect the knowledge contained in the "Book of the Darkness". We only 
need one thing to connect the two pieces and open the book, the Ring of Contact 
made out of mythril. We're still searching for any information on it." said Ash 
and looked in Misty's emerald eyes.

Misty stood there dumbfounded. Two of her friends stood before her eyes, two 
friends who were supposed to be dead. Everything she heard sounded so incredible 
and unbelieveable. No sane person would believe them, but Misty felt that they 
had spoken the truth; again she listened to her heart. She did believe them.

"I believe you." After admitting this she nestled into Ash's arms and a few more 
tears slid down her cheek, but this time they were tears of happienes. Ash put 
his hands around her, pulling her into a hug. 

<><><>

"I'll show you around." said Ash. He seemed happy to have a guest like her. 

They walked along corridor. Oil paintings hung on eastern wall; the western wall 
had windows hidden behind dark purple curtains. Misty peeked outside the only 
uncovered window and saw hectares of forests. It was still raining and the sky 
was the color of lead. The floor was covered in long, red carpet with marvellous 
green patterns. In a corner at the end of the corridor stood a suit of silver 
armour. They turned right. 

"We don't have much of stuff here. Also, the mansion isn't completly 
reconditioned. Only few rooms and corridors look nice, the rest are ruined. A 
bunch of ghost Pokemon live in the ruined rooms, but we live in harmony with 
them." Ash stopped and opened a nearby pair of double doors. They entered. 
"Here's the kitchen." It wasn't a small room but not big either; in center stood 
a massive, wooden table. On one of walls stood a long countertop, with two 
cupboards above it and an oven nearby.

Ash and Misty crossed the kitchen to the next room, which turned out to be the 
living room. On the left side was a lit fireplace, cracking and snapping. On the 
right side was a window. In the center stood a small table with a sofa in front 
of it and a turned-on TV behind it. Then Misty spotted something strange. She 
saw two yellow pointy ears protruding from behind the couch. They twitched and 
disappeared.

"Pikachaaaa!" cried Pikachu happily and with light speed he was in Misty's arms.

"Pikachu?" she asked not believing her eyes. Last time she saw Pikachu was when 
they escaped from Team Rocket Headquaters after Ash and Gary's death. Pikachu 
had disappeard after his master's funeral.

"H-how?" asked Misty. 
"After 'awakening' we were 'linked' to pokemon to which we were most connected; 
I was linked to Pikachu and Gary was linked to his Umbreon. I simply called 
Pikachu to me and Gary did the same with his Umbreon." explained Ash.

"So you can use telephaty to communicate with Piakchu?" asked interested Misty, 
still playing with Pikachu.
"Yes. In a way. So Pikachu, what are you watching?"
"Pi chu pikachu pika."
"Oh yes... I'd like to know what they will say."
"What did he say?"
"He said that he is waiting for the news, and personally I'd like to know what 
they have to say."

Ash and Misty sat on sofa, and a few seconds later Gary also entered the room 
and rested his hands on the sofa's back. There was a news intro and next they 
heard a female voice.

"Yesterday, late at night two thieves broke into PokeTec Laboratory and stole 
two artifacts of unknown origins. When reinforcements finally arrived on the 
scene they found the entire S.W.A.T. Team unconscious on the ground. None of 
them had been shot, a few of them had broken arms or legs, and the rest of the 
team was badly beaten up."

"About hour later there was another break. This burglary occurred at Cerulean 
Museum. From unofficial sources we've found that the break was commited by the 
same thieves who broke into PokeTec Laboratory. From what we know, they stole an 
ancient book, better known as the "Book of the Darkness". We also know that the 
massacred bodies of Team Rocket members were found outside of the museum. 
Unfortunately, this is not end of the bad news. The final scene between police 
and thieves took place at museum's roof. Officer Misty Waterflower was tackled 
by one of the thieves and fell off the roof, straight into raging sea. 
Unfortunately, the thieves used the commotion to make their getaway. The search 
of Officer Misty Waterflower, the 4th Sensational Sister of the Cerulean Gym, 
are still underway. Now we go over our correspondant Mike, reporting from the 
Cerulean Gym."

The screen flashed and they saw a young man with a microphone in his hands. Next 
to him stood Misty's sisters and Brock.

"We're here with Officer Waterflower's sisters and her partner." said Mike, then 
he gave the microphone to one of Misty's sisters - Daisy. She took it and said:

"First I would like to thank everyone who is, like, helping search for our 
sister. Second, I want to, like, announce that we will not give up the search 
for her and, like, that we hired mercenaries to hunt this thieves down. They 
will, like, pay for what they had done to our little, beloved sister."

Ash grabbed the remote and switched off the TV. "Incredible. We tackled Misty of 
the roof and killed TR members? What they will think up next?" growled Ash, 
especially when saying 'TR members'.
"Even if we didn't, we're still the bad guys. But I don't remember having an 
encounter with TR, do you Ash?" said Gary calmly.
"No."
"You didn't kill them?" asked suprised Misty.
"No. We only beat up the S.W.A.T. Team, a few officers in the alley and another 
group of them in front of museum and then... then... I don't remember... and 
then we were at the entrance to museum." again said Ash, who was now thoughtful, 
thinking about his hole in memory.
"It was exactly like Ash said and... and I don't remember what happend after 
beating up officers in front of museum, either. Just like Ash said. Were at 
entrance to museum."

Damn, it happens too often, thought Ash. This loss of memory... damn!

All three fell silent. Then Ash spoke up. "Even if they're dead, who cares? Even 
if there was any Rockets why they did attack us? They wanted to rob the museum 
too." said Ash.
"There were TR members. I saw their dead bodies. They were killed in an unusual 
manner, sliced and ripped apart by something. It was terrible." said Misty, then 
she closed her eyes like she was trying to get rid the image from her memory. 

After a while she laughed a little.
"What's so funny?" asked irritated Ash.
"Oh, nothing, just only that my sisters are out to get you. You heard what they 
said." replied Misty.
"I think they have changed over this 5 years, Brock have changed too. Of course 
you haven't changed." 
"What do you meanby that?"
"You're still beautiful." said Ash with smile.

Misty was taken aback with this answer and said only "Thank you." 

"Anyway." started Gary "I found info of possible location of the Ring of 
Contact. Archeologists found some kind of Gothic temple, in a strange place in 
my opinion, on the Seafoam Islands." informed Gary.
"Okay, how much of a chance do we have of finding the Ring of Contact there?" 
aked Ash.
"About 97%. They saw a floating ring in some sort of dark light." Then Ash cut 
him off and said
"And I guess they can't move it no matter what they do. Am I right?".
"Yes." 
"Then are we going to Seafoam Islands?" aked Misty who felt that new adventure 
begins.
"We?" asked Ash and Gary in unison.
"Yes WE!" said Misty forcefully.
"But Mist it can be dangerous! You can die! And I don't want it to happen." said 
Ash in caring voice.
"I don't care! I'm going with you!" shouted Misty.
"No, you're not!"
"Yes I am!"
"No!"
"Yes!" 
"No!"
"Yes!" 
"Stop it! Your not children anymore! Behave like adults!" Gary shouted. Calming 
himself, he continued. "Tomorrow morning we head to Seafoam Islands." 


***End of Part 3


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A/N: This part may be a little boring but I had to explain few things. In the 
next part there will be more action. Please review. I'd like to know what you 
think about it. See ya soon!
Thanx Anonymous 2003!!!

E-MAIL: bartholomew_qbiak@op.pl

STARTED: 
Date: Thursday (2), October, 2003 
Time: (GMT +01:00, CET) 18:23 (06:23 PM) 

FINISHED: 
Date: Sunday (12), October, 2003 
Time: (GMT +01:00, CET) 19:24 (07:24 PM)