Shadow
by Nightcrawler.
Part One
Contact me at ElementOfIce@gmail.com
Category: General.

: Note :
Pokemon and its associated characters are the property of its creators. Not me.
This fan-fiction is by me, Nightcrawler. 
Contains scenes of violence.
                    
On with it.

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Like so many nights before, tonight, Misty Waterflower could not fall into the warm 
embrace that was sleep. Like so many nights before, the reason was Ash Ketchum. Her 
former traveling companion and former League Champion had disappeared 5 years ago, 
but 3 days after becoming the League Champion, and about 10 seconds after she had 
finished the lengthy process of breaking his heart and breaking off their relationship. 

Some believed Team Rocket kidnapped him and they still have him, an optimistic few 
believe he is still out there, and most, like Misty, believe he's dead.

Like so many nights before, she wondered why she had broken up with him. She hadn't 
thought it over at all, she just caught him kissing a woman on the cheek and when she 
had him alone, she freaked out, screaming at him, throwing vases at him, telling him she 
hated him and bringing up all the bad things she had ever thought about him, in usual 
Misty style. That is, incredibly over-emphasized. 

Ash hadn't taken it well. Misty had broken his heart and then crushed the remaining 
pieces. He was a broken man. He had turned away, and gone away.
To someone who didn't know him well, it would have looked like he couldn't care less.

It turned out that the woman he was kissing was his mother.


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"Pika Pika Pi (Where to?)" said the Pikachu, balancing on top of a mans shoulder. It was 
a very strange Pikachu. For a start, it was totally black, apart from the eyes, which 
glowed gold. It had also gotten rather good at balancing on shoulders recently. His drop 
rate was down to just 6%. 

The man was dressed entirely in black, including his surreal-looking cloak. He had a 
hood covering his face, making it impossible to distinguish any of his features. If it 
weren't for his masculine athletic body, and his voice, it would have been impossible to 
work out what gender he was.

"Oak wants me to head to Celadon. Something about flames everywhere or something.. I 
can't be bothered. Want to grab something to eat?" he said casually.
"Pika! (Ash!)" 
"You know I'm not currently using the Ash identity, Pikachu-- Anyway, what?"
"Pika Pika Piika Pi Pi Pika Pika Piii! (You can't just shrug off something important like 
that!"
"Ah.." The man the Pikachu called Ash looked depressed. "I just don't care about the 
world now that.."
"Pika Pika Pi Pika (Misty broke up with you?)" Pikachu finished his sentence.
"Pikachu! That happened five years ago!"
 Pikachu shrugged.
"There's no point in life anymore. I have nothing to live for. Not that I have for the last 
five years." Muttered Ash to nobody in particular. Not that there was anyone to talk to 
except Pikachu. They were in a remote wooded forest, somewhere near Saffron. They'd 
been traveling for five years now, going nowhere in particular. They got their food by 
hunting. They got their water from lakes. They trained pretty much all day. Ash trained 
himself to focus by meditating and trained to himself to fight by practicing different 
styles of close combat. Pikachu was now more powerful than ever before. Ash had no 
other Pokemon. 

He was not the Ash he used to be. He showed a lot less emotion, and Pikachu knew that 
most of him was dead. He may not be physically dead, but emotionally, he was pretty 
much dead. He had no spark of determination in his eyes anymore, his face not sullen but 
not joyful. 
 
"You want to go see Sabrina? Haven't been there for a while." Ash asked his little friend.
"Pika! (Yeah!)." Said Pikachu happily.
Ash smiled. He knew his little buddy liked to see Sabrina, usually because she always 
kept a supply of ketchup for him.
Ash took out a chain around his neck. At the end of the chain was a little icon. 2 snakes 
wrapped around a sword. Ash touched it, whispered something, and almost instantly he 
was in front of Sabrina's door. He smiled, remembering the time she gave it him, and 
how useful it had been. Ash took his hood off, and knocked.

Sabrina opened the door in a couple of seconds. Unlike usual, she didn't seem happy to 
see him.
"What's wrong?" questioned Ash, seeing her face.
"Oh, nothing. I'm just a bit busy right now." said Sabrina, obviously worrying about 
something.
"Who is it, Sabrina?" called a voice from within the house.
Ash's face darkened instantly. He knew whom that voice belonged to. Misty. 
"Thanks a lot, Sab." Ash muttered, turning away.
"Ash, wait!" called Sab from her doorway. A sense of urgency was hinted at in her voice.
"What?" He was clearly angry. 
One emotion Ash hasn't forgotten, thought Pikachu.
"Just come in for a while. Please? You're wearing your Shadow attire, nobody will notice 
you."
"You promised me.."  
Betrayal. Over and over again... he thought.
"It's important. Please?" Sabrina said, urgency in her voice.
Ash was torn between curiosity and anger.
"Fine. One..One last time." 
Ash put his hood up, making sure nobody would be able to work out his identity. His real 
one anyway.
"Pikachu- hide yourself"
Pikachu morphed into Ash, a new move he had perfected recently.
He turned, and followed Sabrina into her house.

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Misty looked up as Sabrina entered the conference room. "Hey, who was at the door?" 
"Just a friend" Sabrina answered. Shadow came in behind her. He was in a plush 
conference room, with a very large marble table, able to sit around twelve or thirteen. 
There were numerous paintings on the walls, mostly of Pokemon although one was of 
Viridian Forest, and seemed to have been painted by a professional.

 "Everyone, this is Shadow, the Shadow Assassin, Blood Assassin, Killer, whatever you 
know him as. I'm guessing he needs no introduction though." Sabrina announced to the 
room. The man looked around at the people seated at the large conference table. He 
smiled at everyone as he looked, cloaking his anger. He glanced at Misty, and then 
looked quickly away, not wanting to bring up old feelings and memories. It looked like a 
Gym Leader meeting, with some absent, and Lorelei of the Elite Four there as well, for 
some reason or other.
'Uhh..a Gym Leader meeting. And just my luck to have her here.' Thought Ash.
"Shadow will do though." Ash added, amused at his amount of names.
"Oh my god.."
"Ohhh my god.."
"My god.."
Sabrina gestured to Ash a chair and he took it, immediately dominating the room.
"So, what's on the agenda today?" He said smiling.
The entire room was silent.
"Well, if nobodies talking, I guess I'll go." He said, rising from his seat.
Sabrina pushed him back down.
"We have got something to talk about." She paused, looking around the room for support. 
Nobody offered any.

"Johto and Houuen have declared war on us." Sabrina said solemnly.
Shadow wasn't very surprised, or bothered. 
"Of course, you want me to help you fight them." Ash said, knowingly.
"Well..yeah." Brock seemed to have recovered and answered first.
"Okay." Shadow got up to leave. Sabrina pushed him down again.
"That's it? We have to discuss tactics and plans, y'know?" Lt. Surge recovered second.
"I doubt any of you have got any. Otherwise you wouldn't be holding this meeting," 
replied Shadow and once again, he was right.
Knowing that they were beaten, Koga was the next to recover. "Well, where are you 
staying?"
"I'll probably travel back to Celadon." He said, not actually planning to go back to 
Celadon but camp out in the woods, like usual.
"Shadow! A legend like you!? In Celadon!? You'd have to travel back through Fuchsia, 
and its getting late. Why not stay here?" Koga said, full of praise for Ash.
"Thanks for the invitation, but I'll manage. Besides, I'm used to traveling." He replied.
"Well..I'll be going, then shall I?" He rose from the table, for the third time that evening.
"I better be going also. I need to get back to Celadon as well. Shall we go, Shadow?" 
Erika said, smiling sweetly at Ash.
'Damn..so much for camping.' Thought Ash.
As soon as Ash and Erika let themselves out of the door, they heard a huge outbreak of 
excitable screams from within. 
"I guess I'm quite the hero with those guys?" Ash said, laughing.
"You could say that." replied Erika, amused.
"Well..have legs, will travel" He smiled.
"You're walking?!? I thought you were taking a flying Pokemon."
"Heh, no. I don't have any."
"Well." Erika released a Pidgeot and jumped on. "Hop on" She finished.
The Pidgeot was already flying away though, and it was steadily gaining pace.
Not exactly the most obedient of Pokemon Ash thought.
He started running straight towards a tree. A metre before he hit it, he jumped, pushed off 
using the tree as support and onto Sabrina's gym. He started running again, jumping from 
house to house, trying to dodge the odd loose tile, or strangely placed chimney.. Ash 
stumbled, re-balanced himself, and continued running. He could see the end of the row of 
buildings and the Pidgeot just getting near them. He pushed himself to the limit, and just 
as he was going to fall off the last building, he jumped and landed, albeit not gracefully, 
on Pidgeot.
Whoa!!
"Hell, I thought Gym Leaders could control their Pokemon." Ash said, slightly annoyed.
Erika broke down. "I'm so sorry! I'd--I--I've just caught this Pidgeot and its not used to 
me yet-You could have been killed.."
"Calm down, its no big deal." He flashed her one of his best smiles.
They were silent for a few minutes, each deep in thought.

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Misty's mobile phone rang, and she excused herself from the table and left the room.
"What? Already! Damn. I'll be there soon." She whispered into the phone. She had a 
habit of whispering when on the phone.
Misty stepped back into the room, making everyone sure of her presence.
"They're attacking Celadon as I speak."
Brock swore, grabbed his Pokebelt and left the room.
Everyone else followed.

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Erika broke the silence.
"Celadon should come into sight just about--now"
Erika gasped as she saw not Celadon, but flames. Smoke surrounded the sky, like a 
predator surrounding its prey.

"Celadon marks the beginning." Ash said, quietly.
He jumped off from the Pidgeot, signaling to Erika that he'd catch up with her later.
She nodded reluctantly.

"Pikachu, go." He said, almost under his breath.
The same small black Pikachu as before materialized.
Ash had long since stopped using Pokeballs, since Pikachu could just morph into him 
whenever he needed to be out of sight.

Ash looked for the cause of the trouble. It wasn't that hard to find. An abnormally large 
Flareon and its trainer. Ash concentrated for half a second, and a tight black t-shirt and 
blue jeans replaced his all black attire. He disliked having to use 'Shadow' unnecessarily 
"Too long has Kanto been useless! Surrender to the Johto forces!" The trainer kept 
shouting.
Hmmph. A single lone trainer. I expected an army. Must be an over-excited Johto rookie 
with a powerful Pokemon.
Ash walked up to the trainer.
"Want a battle?" He said, casually.
The trainer was obviously shocked. Who was this person who interrupted him while he 
was destroying a city, just to ask for a battle? Oh well, he wants a battle so he shall get a 
battle!
The trainer didn't speak, but signaled the Flareon to now concentrate its attacks on the, 
admittedly strange, Pikachu.

"Pikachu, Agility."
"Pika!"
"Flareon, Fire Blast!"
"Flare!!"
The Flareon exhaled a huge ball of flame straight at the Pikachu. Or rather, where it had 
been a couple of seconds ago.
The trainer blinked. He'd never seen a Pikachu that fast. This wasn't looking good.
"Ok, Pikachu, lets finish this." Said Ash softly. "Element Of Thunder, now." 
Almost instantly, sparks came from Pikachus cheeks as it charged up. The clouds above 
began to darken, and seemingly focus above the Flareon. The clouds seemed to enlarge 
and finally let out an almighty lightning strike right upon the Flareon. The Flareon 
collapsed and disintegrated, so powerful was the attack. The trainer stood there, stunned 
by the powerful move, scared of the Pikachu, afraid of Ash, shocked by the death of its 
Flareon.
The trainer shook his head and turned red.
"NO!!" screamed the trainer, anger visibly coursing through him.
He ran at Ash, his arms trying to batter him, to get revenge for his Pokemons death, to get 
revenge for his humiliation. To get revenge.

Unfortunately for him, Ash was a good fighter and he was not. Ash lazily blocked the 
punch with a hand, and conjuring a black curved dagger from nowhere, he stabbed the 
man in his stomach, and pushed him away.

Unfortunately for Ash, he had been too distracted destroying the trainer to notice that 
someone was watching him. Or rather, some people. To be specific, it was Erika, Misty, 
Brock, Koga, Sabrina and Lorelei. Everyone at the meeting.
Unfortunately for Ash, he was not in his 'Shadow' attire. 
Luckily for Pikachu, he didn't get seen and instead morphed into Ash's body, a new 
move he had perfected recently. 
Damn--I hate revisiting the past. Being seen as 'Ash' is going to mean a lot of questions. 
At least I'm saved from a question about why the hell you're black, Pikachu. Ash thought 
to his Pikachu. 
This is going to take a while thought Pikachu back. His thoughts were automatically 
English when 'thought' while morphed inside Ash.
"Ash!!" Misty screamed running up to him sobbing. "I thought you were dead!"
"Misty." Ash replied without emotion.
Misty was shocked. She had thought he was dead. Now that she had found him, it seemed 
true. This wasn't the Ash she knew. No fire in his eyes, no determination in his body 
language, no spark in his voice, such violence in his fight with the trainer. She stepped 
back from the cold exterior. He seemed dead.
The rest of the group ran up to them. Ash hardly heard all the questions that were asked, 
all the laughs that were laughed, hardly felt all the slaps on his back, all the happiness and 
sadness of the others. 
Brock though, was also shocked to see Ash like this. Five years back, he felt like a 
brother. Now, he felt like a stranger. 
Misty wondered if it was her that had done this to him. She couldn't stand seeing him like 
this. I'm going to win him back--whatever the cost. He must hate me—I've got to make it 
up to him. To resurrect his emotions, to resurrect our love. 

                   The man that stood in front of her was broken.
                   The woman that stood in front of him was breaking.


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That's Part One over.
Would love thoughts, comments, constructive criticism =) Part Two coming soon.

        Thanks for reading,
                                   Nightcrawler.  ElementOfIce@gmail.com