“In the Arms of an Angel”

by: runite pikachu (fightingfalcon2007@yahoo.com)

A/N: This is my first fanfiction (actually it’s a songfic, but whatever...who cares), so bear with me.  This one is the first of two songfics.  The song I used in this fic is called “In the Arms of an Angel” by Sarah McLachlan.  Once again, this is my first fic, so some feedback is greatly appreciated.  If you’re going to flame, please flame in a way that you would want someone to flame you with.  But enough of that stuff, and on with the fic!

Disclaimer: I swear, officer!!  I don’t own Pokemon!!

Ages: (I’m not entirely sure here, so I’ll just wing it.)

Ash: 14

Misty 15:

Brock: 17

    Misty was sure she was going to die.  She could feel the increasing grip of immediate doom plague her mind as she ran as fast as she could through the base of Team Rocket, away from the room in which she had found herself imprisoned only minutes before.  With each step she took as she ran, she became more and more aware of the fact that she had led herself and her friends into a trap, a trap which was going to cost them all their lives.

    The high-pitched wail of the security alarm that perforated the long hallway was not registering with Misty’s ears through the thick cloud of adrenaline that purged her mind of all conscious thought.  Doors everywhere flew open, revealing Team Rocket Grunts armed from head to foot with nothing less than automatic assault rifles.  Without hesitation, the Grunts that surrounded the perimeter of the large hallway began to close in, guns drawn, towards Ash, Misty, and Brock, who screeched to a halt while realizing that their luck had run out.

    “Hold your fire!” roared a deep and ominous voice that caused a few Grunts to jump.  The Grunts rather reluctantly withdrew their lethal weapons and retreated a few yards back.  It didn’t take Misty long to find the source of the distraction that had arisen amongst the Grunts.  A tall man dressed in a red suit had abandoned the darkness of the shadows in which he had been encased and proceeded to walk slowly into the ring of silent yet trigger-happy Grunts.

    “It took you all thirty minutes to escape.  With your reputation I had expected a plot of escape to conglomerate together long before that, Ash Ketchum,” the man growled, removing a pocket watch from his pocket and opening it.  “However, it doesn’t appear that I am talking to you, Ash, given that it is not you that was leading you and your friends to apparent safety,” the man continued calmly yet darkly, focusing his gaze on Misty rather than Ash.

    “Who are you?” growled Misty, realizing that the center of attention had focused on her.  The man merely crossed his arms and chuckled, amused at how much spunk adrenaline can present a person with.  “My name is Giovanni, leader of Team Rocket.  However, that little scrap of information will be useless to you once I ensure your destruction,” boomed Giovanni, releasing two PokeBalls from his pocket and hurling them into the forty-foot gap that existed between him and Misty.

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    Giovanni began to slowly advance towards his defeated and weary opponent.  “Do you believe it now, girl?  Do you now realize that I am undefeatable?”  He took out a 9mm semi-automatic handgun and aimed it at Misty, stopping twenty feet from his target.  Misty closed her eyes braced herself for the barrage of bullets that she knew was destined for her.  Ash’s voice rang out in the hallway, “You shall not harm my friends!!”  A single shot was fired, but the sensation of immense pain she had been expecting never came.

    Misty opened her eyes wide enough to view Ash standing in front of her with outstretched arms.  In that split-second, all fear of being killed and all other concerns of their present situation were instantaneously erased from her mind as she realized what Ash had done.  He had taken the bullet for her.  The ear shattering scream never made it to her lips.

    Ash started to lose his balance as the reality of the situation he had put himself in combined with the increasing pain crashed over him.  “Why, Ash Ketchum, why?  Why do you do it? Why sacrifice yourself for someone who’s going to die anyway?”  Giovanni’s low growl rippled throughout the hallway as his smirk grew wider and darker with each word that escaped his lips.

    Ash, with tremendous effort he didn’t possess, raised his head to stare into his arch enemy’s dark eyes.  “Because I choose to,” he wheezed, straining to maintain his balance.  With a loud groan, his strength failed him and he collapsed onto the cold, tile-covered floor.

Spend all your time waiting for that second chance
For the break that will make it ok
There's always some reason to feel not good enough
And it's hard at the end of the day
I need some distraction oh beautiful release
Memories seep from my veins
They may be empty and weightless and maybe
I'll find some peace tonight

    Misty, the scream of terror finally leaping from her mouth and perforating the long hallway, rushed to his side, tears streaming down her face.  “No, Ash! Don’t die on me,” she sobbed, clutching and squeezing his outstretched hand.  “Everyone dies, Misty, and it might as well be me that dies here if it means that you get out alive,” said Ash hoarsely knowing that he had only seconds until he had one last breath left.

In the arms of an Angel fly away from here
From this dark, cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie
You're in the arms of an Angel; may you find some comfort here

    Fighting the extreme pain of the bullet wound in his chest, Ash unclipped his belt of PokeBalls and painfully handed it to Misty, his arm visibly trembling.  “Here Misty.  Take them, keep them safe.  Pikachu’s there as well,” he said softly, pushing the belt hard into Misty’s arms.  She took the belt with shaking hands.

So tired of the straight line, and everywhere you turn
There's vultures and thieves at your back
The storm keeps on twisting, you keep on building the lies
That you make up for all that you lack
It don't make no difference, escaping one last time
It's easier to believe
In this sweet madness, oh this glorious sadness
That brings me to my knees

    Ash lifted his whitening hand to his love’s face and wiped the river of tears from her face.  “No, Ash. Please don’t leave me here.  I love you too much!”  Misty wailed, unable to accept the fact that Ash’s grip was loosening on hers, unable to accept the undeniable reality that Ash’s consciousness was gradually slipping away and becoming nonexistent.  “I love you, too.  Kiss me like you did the first time, like you should have done long ago,” he whispered softly, smiling despite the excessive pain in his torso, a sign that his time was almost up.

In the arms of an Angel far away from here
From this dark, cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie
In the arms of an Angel; may you find some comfort here

    Misty, grinning for the first real time in hours, bent down and kissed him with newly-found passion, passion that had accumulated from all those times of being in a state of fear.   Seconds seemed to last for hours.  As Ash and Misty broke apart, the last of Ash’s remaining life became void from his weak and beaten body, and his hand fell limp to his side, head turned to one side.  Misty didn’t bother to wail, for her emotions became too much for her to do much of anything.  He died in her arms, in her loving embrace once believed to be strong enough to last forever.

You're in the arms of an Angel; may you find some comfort here

    She stood up, clothes stained by Ash’s blood, and stared at his broken and blood-stained body.  “Goodbye, Ash.  I love you always forever.”  With that final statement, she turned on a dime and ran in the opposite direction, not bothering to glare at the man who had cut her relationship with Ash short, sobbing as she sprinted past some armed and bewildered Grunts.  Brock, who stood rooted to the spot to which he had been fixed for the last fifteen minutes, followed suit.  As he ran after Misty, Brock silently muttered a final goodbye to his old buddy, tears raining down from his slit like eyes.

    Misty lurched upwards in her sleeping bag, unaware of the countless drops of sweat that dotted her body.  Her breathing was heavy and her heart was racing, mind void of all conscious thinking.  She franticly looked around at her surroundings, viewing nothing but a dirt trail and a bunch of trees.

    She looked down at her side.  There lay a sleeping Ash, Pikachu dozing by his side and muttering unintelligible words in his own Pokemon language in his sleep.  Misty breathed a sigh of relief upon the realization that it had all just been a dream, a hellish nightmare she never wanted to relive, never wishing to see her love die before her a second time.

    Misty bent down and gave Ash a slight kiss on the lips, and action from which he did not stir, much to her satisfaction.  She lay back down to sleep a bit more, for the sun’s faint light was barely visible above the skyscrapers of Goldenrod City, an indicator that there was a little more time to sleep.  She soon found that she could not sleep, aware that the nightmare she did not wish to repeat was still haunting her.

    Thoughts began to race through Misty’s mind.  What did the horrific nightmare mean?  How was she supposed to summon up the courage to tell Ash how she felt about him?  As the feeling of sleep began to take its hold on her, the questions that were speeding through her mind began to slow down.  The thought of her love for Ash and her lust for the day that she would become his girlfriend fluttered across her dream-filled mind, causing her to smile and slowly coaxing her into the deep realms of dreamless sleep.

A/N: Hope you liked reading this short fic as much as I enjoyed writing it!!  All thoughts and flames (PLEASE don’t be too hard on the flames!) regarding this fic are welcome at fightingfalcon2007@yahoo.com.  I should have the second part (which will be way longer than this one) up in parts as soon as I can find enough writing time.  Thank you for taking the time to read my first fic!