"Ash, where are you going?" Brock asked, watching as Ash haphazardly shoved 
supplies into his knapsack. 

"To find Gary."

"Ash," Brock said. "He may-"

"I know he could be dead already," Ash said, cutting him off. He zipped his bag. 
"I have to go. If there's even a chance he's alive I can't sit here doing 
nothing."

"Where will you even look?"

"The gyrodactyl headed towards Cerulean," Ash responded.

"Oh that's smart," Brock said. "You're going to go straight to Giovanni. Ash, 
that's a really stupid idea."

"Look, Brock, I know you hate Gary. I'm sure his current situation doesn't 
really upset you." Ash shrugged his pack on. "But I refuse to sit here when he 
needs my help."

"I don't hate Gary," Brock said. Ash shot him a disbelieving look. "No, I really 
don't. The more I get to know him the more I realize that he's a good guy. I 
should have known it from the start, if you're friends with him he would have to 
be."

"You talk like I'm an angel, when you know that's not true."

"No matter what you've done, you're still the same Ash," Brock told him. "Always 
putting others before yourself, going out of your way to save your friends, 
risking your life. Gary tried to tell me that and I refused to listen, but I've 
seen it for myself. You saved a boy from death when Lance was out of control. 
You went to find Bruno when you knew he was in danger. You've been helping us 
all the way, despite how horrible we treated you. You're still the same old 
Ash."

"Brock, the same old Ash would not have the blood of innocent people on his 
hands. Would you really feel the same way if you were in Erika's place?" Ash 
asked. 

Brock looked at the floor.

"Ash!" a voice called from outside the tent. Misty's head popped in, a worried 
look on her face. "You need to come out here."

He nodded, following her. Outside, the silhouettes of rebels stood scattered 
about camp, whispering to one another. Standing a few feet from his tent were 
two shadowed figures. Light from the lanterns held by a few people illuminated a 
pair of blue and a pair of green eyes.

"What the hell are you two doing here?" Ash asked, recognizing them immediately. 

"We have a message from Giovanni," Jessie said, stepping from the shadows into 
the dim light. Her long red hair was pulled into a high ponytail and she was 
dressed in a black Team Rocket pants uniform: her standard tracking outfit. It 
was much easier to move when she didn't have to worry about James looking up her 
skirt. 

James stepped forward and joined her. "He wants you to know that Gary is in 
Cerulean."

"I figured as much," Ash replied. "You can tell him I'm on my way."

"Ash!" Misty said. 

"Twerp," Jessie said, concern in her voice. "He wants you both dead."

"Of course he does," Ash replied. 

"He's not going to let Shigeru go if you give yourself to him," she said.

"I know."

"Then why would you go?" James asked.

"Because Gary would go for me," Ash said simply. "I will not leave him alone." 
His tone left no room for argument. 

No one spoke for a moment. 

"Then here," James said, walking to Ash. "You'll probably need this."

Taking the object from James he looked at it. "Who's side are you on anyway?" he 
asked, his eyes scanning over James' ID card. 

"Twerp, you're the hero and Giovanni is the villain," Jessie said. "We want you 
to win of course-but he holds our lives in his hands. We do what he orders 
because we have to. We help you out because we want to."

With a short wave from Jessie and a nod from James, they slipped into the 
shadows and disappeared. Ash watched them go before turning and heading towards 
the entrance of the Safari Zone. 

"I'm going with you," Misty said, hurrying to his side.

"No," he said flatly.

"Why?"

"This has nothing to do with you, Mist," Ash said. 

"Giovanni is my enemy and you and Gary are my friends. This has everything to do 
with me."

"Misty, he wants me and Gary dead. This is a trap to bring me to him. I can't 
let you get involved in this. The rebellion needs you. Stay here." Ash continued 
walking and Misty didn't attempt to follow. 

"Be careful," she called.

Pikachu leapt to his shoulder and Ash stopped walking. "Pikachu, I want you to 
stay here," Ash said softly. The pokemon looked like he was going to protest. 
"I'll be fine," Ash told him. "If Giovanni attacks again you'll have to defend 
the camp." 

Pikachu looked torn, but then puffing out his little chest with pride, the 
yellow pokemon jumped down from his shoulder and ran to sit at Misty's feet. 

"I'll be back in no more than a week," Ash said. "If not, don't worry about us 
and go on as planned."

As he walked out of camp he noticed a familiar silhouette. He stopped. "Erika," 
he said, not looking towards her. "I'm sorry."

She didn't respond and he continued on.

~*~*~

The air was violently forced out of Gary's lungs as Butch's fist connected with 
his stomach. His wrists had been chained and hoisted above his head, so when 
Gary's knees gave out he hung limply from the ceiling. He had been Butch's human 
punching bag for at least an hour and he had numerous bruises and cuts all over 
his body. 

"Not so cocky now, are we Shigeru?" Butch sneered. Gary didn't answer, his head 
hanging because he didn't have the strength to look up. Butch threw a hard right 
into Gary's jaw. Gary coughed, spitting blood onto the concrete floor. 

In his time with Team Rocket Gary had often wondered what the basement of 
headquarters was used for. Now Gary knew that there was a hallway lined with 
barred cells, one of which he was currently occupying. It was dark-there were no 
windows and light was provided by a few dim bulbs that would flicker on and off 
at random intervals. He was the only one down there as far as he knew, so no one 
was listening as Butch continued his physical and verbal assault. 

"What's wrong Shigeru? All out of your witty comments?"

"It's just not worth it, Butch," Gary rasped, spitting out more blood. "You're 
too stupid to understand when you've been insulted."

There was a pause where Butch allowed the words sink in, and then with 
unsuppressed rage he kicked Gary in the ribs, smiling at the satisfying crack 
and groan of pain. The kick rocked Gary's whole body and he swung slightly from 
the chains. His wrists had begun to bleed from the metal constantly rubbing his 
skin and he hung limply, his sweaty hair falling into his eyes. Gary breathed 
heavily, feeling a shooting pain in his lower chest from what he could only 
assume was a broken rib.

Butch stood before him and roughly grabbed his hair, forcing Gary to look up at 
him. "You're so weak," Butch spat. "You're nothing without Satoshi here to 
protect you. You're no threat at all."

"Then why," Gary panted. "Go through all the trouble to kidnap me?"

"Live bait," Butch said with a vicious grin. "Satoshi won't leave you here. And 
when he comes for you, we'll be waiting. Once he's dead, I'll come finish you 
off."

Gary's gray eyes widened. 

Butch's fist tightened painfully in Gary's hair. "You're nothing but the worm." 
With that he sharply brought his knee to Gary's stomach and dropped his head, 
leaving him hanging in the middle of the cell, gasping for air. 

~*~*~

Sneaking back into Cerulean had not been as difficult as sneaking out of it had 
been. Ash chose to stick to the roofs, where security cameras couldn't see him, 
using his bow to pole vault between buildings that were too far apart to simply 
jump. 

Ash landed on the roof of Rocket Headquarters, sliding along the concrete before 
his boots gained traction. Placing his bow back into its holster he stood for a 
few minutes deciding where to go from there. He was fairly certain Gary would be 
in the basement; he had seen the cells once before when he was fifteen. Giovanni 
had left him there for a few weeks to "help him decide" whether or not to join 
Team Rocket. He had never told Gary, who thought Ash had been in training for 
those three weeks. 

Ash knew Giovanni was waiting for him and just walking down to the basement was 
not an option. Leaning over the side of the roof Ash judged the distance to the 
ledge beneath him as well as he could in the dark. With a shrug he swung a leg 
over, then the other, and hung from the roof before letting go and landing on 
the narrow ledge below. Ash stood still for a moment, regaining his balance as 
the wind whipped through his black hair. He needed to go down one more floor, 
where he was hoping he could get in a window. Realizing this might not have been 
the most thought out plan he sighed, crouching, then carefully slid himself down 
to the ledge under him. Inching slowly towards the window at his right, he 
silently hoped no one was working late in the labs. Poking his head in front of 
the window, he was relieved to see an empty lab. Only a few computers glowed, 
monitoring the sleeping pokemon that were caged around the room. 

Giving the window an experimental tug, he was pleased when it opened without 
resistance. He climbed in and turned to close the window. The click of a safety 
alerted him that the lab was not as empty as he had thought. 

"You came quickly Satoshi," a soft female voice said.

Turning, he saw a young blue haired woman, a white lab coat over her clothes, 
aiming a gun at him and standing far enough away from him that he couldn't take 
her by surprise before she could shoot him. She knew better than to 
underestimate him. 

"Late night tonight, Suzie?" he asked, watching her carefully. 

"I wanted to monitor a few new hybrids," she said, keeping her eyes and gun 
trained on him as she inched towards her desk. "I hear you already met 
gyrodactyl. What did you think?"

The sleeping pokemon around the lab began to wake at the sound of their voices.

"Ingenious," he said. "Immoral and disgusting, but ingenious."

Suzie laughed. "You always did have a problem with my experiments. Maybe that's 
why the pokemon all liked you so much, they could tell you hated me." She 
reached her desk and picked up the phone, never taking her eyes off him. 
Punching a number, she spoke. "He's here." Hanging up she said, "Where's your 
pikachu?"

"Didn't bring him with me."

"Rather confident, huh? Didn't even feel the need to bring your pokemon."

"On the contrary, I wasn't confident at all, so I left him to keep him out of 
danger," Ash said. 

"Isn't that sweet," Suzie said, rolling her eyes. "You're such an idealist. You 
treat pokemon as if they are human. They are things to be used and nothing 
more."

There was a snort from the charizard in one of the cages. 

"They are intelligent creatures with feelings, Suzie, and it's because you seem 
to have forgotten this that you will never have their respect or mine," Ash 
calmly replied.

A blastoise rumbled in what could have been agreement. 

"Their respect? I don't need or want their respect. They aren't of any 
importance. And as for you, your respect is just as worthless-"

Suddenly, with a loud roar of "Blast!" Suzie was hit with a powerful water gun 
attack. She screamed as the water sent her flying across the room until she 
slammed into a desk, loosing consciousness. 

Ash smiled. "I told you they were smart," he said. "They knew exactly what you 
were saying."

The faint sounds of footsteps in the hall beyond the lab warned that more agents 
were coming for him. Grabbing the key ring from Suzie's pocket he quickly went 
to the blastoise's cage. 

"Thank you," he said, letting the pokemon out. 

Ash went around the room quickly opening the cages and releasing all of the 
unnaturally evolved pokemon he had once trained with. "Can you all do me a 
favor?" he asked as the footsteps grew closer. "Just-go on a rampage."

They looked at him in confusion. 

"I need a distraction. A bunch of powerful pokemon running through the building 
smashing things ought to be distracting enough."

The charizard snorted in amusement and agreement. The blastoise, venasaur, 
pidgeot, and nidoking all nodded. 

The door burst open and agents poured into the lab and the pokemon sprung to 
action. With a swipe of his tail Charizard knocked a large amount of agents to 
the ground. Blastoise just broke through the wall and pounded down the hall, 
shooting water gun attacks at anyone and everyone. 

Pulling his bow from his back Ash jumped into the fray, knocking Rockets aside 
as he broke through the crowd, running down the hall and towards the elevators. 
Swiping James' ID card he quickly got into the elevators, the doors closing on 
the chaos in the hall. 

~*~*~

Gary hung from his chains, hovering between the states of consciousness and 
unconsciousness. His breathing came in short rasps as he attempted to keep the 
sharp pain in his chest from becoming any worse. 

"Are you alright?" a man's voice asked from the cell next to him. 

Gary jumped, not having realized there was anyone else in the basement. "How 
long have you been over there?" Gary asked.

"Well," the man replied, rather jovially Gary thought, considering the 
situation. "I've pretty much lost track of the days, but I think it's been a 
month or so."

"You don't sound too upset about it."

"I try to stay positive."

Something about the man's voice struck a familiar chord in Gary. 

"You never answered my question, young man," the man said. "Are you alright?" 

Gary's eyes widened. He hadn't heard that voice call him young man since before 
he joined Team Rocket. "Gramps?" he asked softly.

There was a long pause before the other man spoke. "Gary?"

"You're alive?" Gary asked, feeling numb from shock.

"Giovanni decided I could be useful to him alive," his grandfather responded. 

"What about May?" Gary asked desperately. "Mrs. Ketchum?"

Silence for a few moments, then, "They were killed in the attack. As far as I 
know, everyone was."

Gary hung his head, swallowing the lump in his throat. 

"Where have you been all these years?" his grandfather asked. 

Before he could answer the basement door slammed open. They both became quiet, 
waiting to see who it was and what they were coming to do.

"Gary?" Ash called, concern evident in his voice.

Relief rushed through Gary at the sound of his voice. Ash had come to help him, 
and he obviously hadn't been caught. "Over here," he called as loud as he could.

Ash grabbed the keys from the wall and made his way to Gary's cell. He sucked in 
his breath when he saw his friend's battered form hanging from the ceiling. It 
was dark, but Ash could still see the bruises on Gary's face and the blood 
running down his arms from the metal chains around his wrists. His fists 
clenched in anger at whoever had done this to his friend. 

Opening the cell door Ash went to Gary's side, unlocking the chains that held 
him up. Ash caught him before Gary crumpled to the floor. 

"This is a trap," Gary told Ash, panting for breath as the pain of his injuries 
swept over him. "They know you're coming."

"I know," Ash said, helping Gary to his feet. "I already had a run in with Suzie 
and a bunch of Rockets." With Gary's arm around his shoulders, he began to help 
him walk out of the cell. "We have to go quickly."

"Wait," Gary said. "Get my grandfather out of here."

Ash's head snapped towards him. "Professor Oak?" he called.

"Right here," the older man answered, appearing behind the bars of the cell next 
to Gary's. He obviously hadn't been chained like Gary had. He looked thinner and 
older than Ash remembered him, but otherwise he appeared no worse for the wear. 

Ash helped Gary lean against the wall for support, then quickly let the 
professor out of his cell. Professor Oak immediately went to his grandson. 

"Gary, are you okay?" he said, worriedly looking over his injuries. 

"I'm fine, Gramps," Gary said quietly, looking anything but fine as he leaned 
against the wall, one of his bloody arms covering his abdomen.

Ash looked around before hesitantly saying, "Is there...anyone else?"

Both Oaks looked at him. "No young man," the professor said. "I was the only 
one."

Ash's face fell.

"I'm sorry Ash," Gary said sympathetically. 

Ash only nodded, feeling stupid he had allowed himself to hope. 

"Ash?" Professor Oak said. "You're here too," he said in astonishment, only just 
realizing who the young raven-haired man was. "You both look so much older," he 
said.

All three looked up at the sound of loud crashes and what sounded suspiciously 
like a roar above them. Gary looked at Ash with raised eyebrows. 

Ash grinned sheepishly, muttering something about a distraction. "We need to get 
a move on," he said, sliding an arm under Gary's shoulder and helping him stand 
once more. "There's not much time."


A/N: An update that didn't take three months! Aren't you all thrilled? Anyway, I 
tried not to end on a cliffhanger, since I seem to be doing that an awful lot 
lately. This was the best I could do. Please review. 

Also, has anyone by any chance drawn fanart for this or any of my other stories? 
I'd love to see them.