Title: Mess
Author: Shadow/Phantomness
Pairing: None
Fandom: Pokémon
Theme: #56, Mess
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws and taking it is plagiarism. Thank you. *Phantomness bows*

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks

Warnings: Fanon, character death

Sometimes, Ash thinks, as he looks at Lance, who is standing there, thin-lipped with cold eyes, silence cuts more deeply than words ever could. It’s his fault, he knows it’s his fault, and Lorelei is dead because he gave what he thought was a chirpy beginning trainer a tour of the Indigo Plateau, and didn’t realize he was a suicide bomber.

He’s surprised he’s still alive, really, but before the blast went off, he saw a shimmer of something, like gold, around him, and it protected him, but now Lorelei is dead and Agatha’s in a coma and they haven’t dug Bruno out of the ruins yet, so no one knows how it will go.

Lance is staring at him, with his eyes that are so very blank, and Ash shivers, and then Lance smiles, a smile that isn’t really a smile, and he clasps his hands in front of his chest, and Ash sees more gold out of the corner of his eye, and he wonders what’s going on, but then Lance is falling, and there is something shining in his hands, and it takes Ash a few seconds to place it as a sword, and by that time, it’s too late.

He doesn’t know why Lance did this, he really doesn’t, and to his horror, he feels like he might cry.

Lance…

He can’t though, because he knows inside his heart, that this entire mess is his. Fault.

End Fic

Completed 3/16/07

Lance: *Hiss*

Phantomness: Sorry, Lance, but you die a lot in my fanfics

Ash: *Sighs*

Phantomness: And if you didn’t get the fanon references, I was making the Sacred Sword and Shield come into play…