Fate's Mission
by Lord Kadabra

Note: I wrote this story when I started thinking about fate and whether it was 
possible to alter or change the future.  And besides, this seemed like an 
interesting plot; the future of the universe depending upon Ash's assasination.  
So please enjoy!
***
	It was a huge web, a three-dimensional maze of fibers of every color 
imaginable, and some not.  The woman stared at it, floating slowly to another 
section, and examining the threads there.  Suddenly, raising her voice, she 
calls,
	"I've found the Flaw!"  A beautiful young blond and a crotchety old white-
haired woman appeared next to her.  The woman herself was a middle-aged, 
motherly woman with graying red-brown hair, and appeared terribly concerned.  
"There, you see?" she asked, pointing out a small ash-brown thread twisting its 
way through the web.  The elderly woman frowned, and the young woman rubed her 
hand along the strand.  She snapped her hand back when the old woman slapped it.
	"They know when we touch the threads, Clotho!" she growled.  "Now what 
about the Flaw?" she demands.  The middle-aged woman turned in mid-air.
	"You see here, someone bent the thread from its original path, keeping it 
in stasis for a single hour," she said calmly, "And then it began to rapidly 
alter.  Something...happened, that wasn't quite supposed to, and the man was, oh 
hell, I'll just show you."  With a wave, she caused the thread to expand, until 
it merged with the women, and they each saw a strange movie, as if seeing 
through another's eyes.  They each sensed a young boy, who was dragging a 
strange yellow mouse through a forest.  The creature did not seem to like him, 
although he seemed to be making an effort to be friendly to the mouse.  "I'll go 
forward a little bit," the middle-aged woman said.  "That being is a Pikachu, 
and the boy is a person who trains it to fight other beings like it, called 
Pokemon.  Ah, here!"  The scene stopped, and the vision continued.  The boy 
seemed to be trying to capture one of these...Pokemon, without the mouse's help.  
He threw a rock at a silouette, and the thing revealed itself to be a violent-
looking bird.  A flash of panic consumed the watchers, and they felt the boy 
stand up.  "I'm sorry, but this next part isn't really needed," the motherly 
woman said.  The vision showed a path rapidly speeding by, as if someone was 
fleeing, and slowed abruptly when they stopped, and saw that the boy was jumping 
off a cliff-into a rushing river.  "We need to become spirits," the woman 
interrupted, and they found themselves watching a young girl, about 10 or 11, 
fishing by the side of a river.  Suddenly, she got excited, until she pulled the 
boy from the river, along with his 'Pikachu.'  The scene froze, and the motherly 
woman glared down at it.  "This meeting was never supposed to happen.  If the 
thread had not been tampered with, he would have met her in the battle arena for 
these Pokemon in a place known as Cerulean City, and never would have seen her 
again.  But this meeting irrevocably entwined their threads."  The young woman 
looked confused.
	"Why?" she inquired.  The motherly woman smiled.
	"You'll see in a moment."  The boy grabbed the girl's bicycle and rode 
off.  They 'jumped' again, and found themselves in the body of a young girl, 
standing on the edge of a large plain.  A bike rode past,  the boy and his 
Pikachu hanging on tightly.  It fell over, and the boy stood up, trying to 
protect the Pikachu from a flock of birds that evidently followed that first 
one.  The Pikachu, in defense of its trainer, let out a burst of electricity 
that exploded into a huge sphere, incinerating bike and bird alike.  "The bike 
became a reason to follow him, as they are very expensive.  Through a series of 
misadventures, they became close friends, and drew in another to him.  His 
sphere of influence grew until-"  She broke off, and they stood in front of the 
present web, where many threads were encircling or bending towards the small 
ash-brown one.  Six threads, especially were nearly entangled with it: a blue-
green one, a dark gray one, a red-gray one, a blue-gray one, a white-gray one, 
and a strange rainbow one.  The motherly woman looked sadly at her companions.  
"The change in our plans twist the tapestry into an orbit around this boy, 
and..."  She paused, and the tapestry shifted again.  This time, they stood on a 
ledge, on the brink of a huge chasm.  Behind them, every thread existing in the 
tapestry ended abruptly, the terrible sign that reminded them of the first 
massacre of humans, nearly six thousand years ago.  Except no thread extended 
beyond a certain point.  "It's like this in every tapestry," the woman said 
quietly.  "The damage, however, can be reversed."  She stared sadly at the 
thread.  "If we end the thread here and now, the pattern will hopefully break 
down, drifting to its fated weave."  She frowned.  "Although I hate to do this, 
and although we felt so guilty after that whole Kennedy thing, the future of 
even our existence depends upon killing that boy."  The elderly woman gasped.
	"Lachesis, is it the only way?"
	"It is the only way that we have any hope.  But we cannot actually cut the 
thread; he must die before his time, or the remnant of the thread will still 
drag millions into destruction with it."  She looked up.  "I already have a 
plan.  I have set a seed of destruction in that girl, the one who saw his attack 
on those birds.  Hopefully, by now, or rather, the, er, present, she will be 
ready to kill him.  Now, all we need is your acceptance."  Clotho, the young 
woman, nods, and the elderly one nods reluctantly as well.  "Then we will hope 
for the death of this young man, and the preservation of the universe."  The 
elderly woman looks at her cautiously, and asks,
	"What is this child's name?"  Lachesis looked up at her.
	"It's a shame, this boy could've been great.  His name?  It is Ash 
Ketchum..."  The women frown, and then slowly drift to their places among the 
web.  And Ash Ketchum lived his life, blissfully unaware of the strange plot on 
his life.
Continued...Technically in The Greatest Trainer, which details the first attempt 
on Ash's life, but if you've read that already, wait for the first chapter of 
Fate's Mission, To Save a Life!