Disclaimer: I don’t own squat. Don’t sue.

A/N Wow, it didn’t take me forever to update. Amazing…

Pikachu sniffed disdainfully, smelling his trainer’s sour breath. Ever since Misty had come in and told Ash that she was going to be marrying Gary, Pikachu had only been pretending to sleep, Ash had been acting strangely.

As soon as everyone had left the meeting, ash had dug out a bottle of wine Pikachu didn’t even know he owned, and set forth to polish off the thing in record time. Ash, having a horrible head for such things, was drunk.

“You know Pikachu,” slurred Ash, “It’s not like I’m in love with Misty or anything.”

Pikachu sighed dramatically, even drunk, Ash couldn’t admit the truth.

Ash continued with his disjointed rambling, “It’s strange buddy, I never would’ve thought I’d of ended up like this. When I first set off on this quest, I knew I would become a pokemon master. And I did. But I never once thought misty would beat me and become the league champ, or that she and Gary would get married, or any of the stuff that’s happened recently. It’s like, I dunno,” Ash paused for a moment, and Pkachu found himself longing for his trainer to lose consciousness. No such luck. “It’s like, the paths we started on are different than the ones we wound up on. Or did we just start on a path different than what we thought or…”

Thankfully for Pikachu’s sanity, Ash did drop off at this point. The yellow mouse heaved a great sigh of relief. Silently and quickly, he covered up the young man and then settled off into sleep himself.

***

Ash stood blinking in the harsh midday sun. His head felt like a whole pack of Gyardos’ had been practicing Dragon Rage in it. Every step seemed to snd a jolt of pain through his skull. He glared at Pikachu, who was staring at him with a look torn between pity and amusement.

Ash swore, then swore again, just for good measure. He was doing that more often he realized, swearing, probably not the best way to conduct himself.

Ash glanced around, the whole camp was busy packing up. Packing up? Wait…

He thought back a moment, why was everyone packing up? For that matter, why had he gotten himself dead drunk last night. Both memories came at him simultaneously. He nearly swore again, but stopped himself this time.

Misty marrying Gary was the reason he was drunk, though that just led to more questions he didn’t want to have to answer. And the plan that had been concocted last night was the reason everyone was packing up.

Ah, the plan.

It wasn’t a great plan, but it was the best they had, and they weren’t likely to come up with any better ones in the time allotted.

What they would do was march some distance away, to a nice field just to the north. Once there, the army would settle down. Hopefully presenting an irresistible target to the Blue Dragon. From there, hopefully, the Blue Dragon would be lured into an attack. That wouldn’t be hard considering the troops would be in bad position. To the north, mountains, to the south and east, forbidding forests, and to the west would be the enemy. Ash would oversee the battle that would follow, acting as captain for the pokemon trainers in the battle. Misty would be in charge of the sentries. This Ash was thankful for, it would mean that he would see little of Misty.

Meanwhile, Sabrina and Gary, as well as five others, would teleport into the fortress, and rescue the captives. The captives would then be teleported to Saffron. In Saffron, a large force of psychics had been contacted and were standing by. As soon as the captives arrived, the psychics would begin teleporting the army in bulk.

Ash wasn’t sure about the plan. Sabrina had assured him that the psychics in Saffron were more than capable of pulling off this stunt, and he trusted Sabrina’s judgment.

But, Ash hesitated, he wasn’t quite sure why he had misgivings. They were vague, and formless. He sifted through the misgivings like sand. He didn’t find anything helpful, so he pinned his apprehension on the fact that he had no real idea how the teleportation would work, and also that more people would probably die than that there were captives. Somehow, that seemed to defeat the point. But no one else seemed to notice, or care.

It isn’t fair, he whined to himself, I’m a pokemon trainer, not a fighter! I have no experience in battle, or ordering people to their deaths! Sure I’ve saved the would, but then I’ve only risked my own life. And the chance I might die far outweighed the consequences than if I didn’t try at all!

“You’re right, it isn’t fair,” said a new voice.

Ash swirled around, startled, and winced as a jolt of pain shot up his head.

Before him stood Gary, Ash wince again. One of the last people he wanted to see. Ash then realized that he had spoken aloud. “Umm,” he muttered, “How much of my rambling did you hear?”

Gary flashed him his familiar cocky, arrogant, Garyish grin, “Just the first sentence. Why? Is there more?”

Ash just grunted, he was no mood for conversation.

Gary smirked and ran a hand through his brown hair, “You’re friendly this morning.”

Another grunt.

Gary’s face took on a worrisome look. “Listen Ash, is this about me and Misty getting married? She said you said it was fine with you, but… I’m not so sure.”

Ash stretched hi slips at him. If he hadn’t been feeling like a pokemon whose just lost match, it might’ve been a smile. At this point, it just looked scary. “Oh no,” he lied, ‘I’m perfectly fine with that. I just got drunk last night.”

Gary barked a laugh, “You, drunk? Mr. Great-role-model Ash Ketchum?”

“Shut up.” snapped Ash, “I just realized I might die today, so I figured I might as well as get drunk.”

Gary laughed again, but it was humorless. “Can’t argue with that logic,” he replied. The brown haired trainer then turnd around and sauntered off, but a only a few feet away, he turned back and called, “C’mon old pal, let’s go get ourselves killed.”

A/N I’m happy. I have everything figured out. The answer to life the universe and everything is 42. Ah, enlightenment. How many of you actually understood that? Very few I’d wager. Pity. Anyways… I managed to get my title into this chapter, heh, and I’ve got Ash’s dream worked out. As well as the love triangle, (is that the correct term?), worked out as well. I even know who the bad guy is, and how I’m gonna work in Team Rocket. I’m not sure how many more parts this is gonna be, 3 at the very least, but I do have a plot and ending worked out. It’ll be easy street from now on. Now all I have too say is please review.