Disclaimer: I don’t own pokemon, it belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This is non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction by me!

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

Link Masters – ok!

Akiko Koishii – thank you!

Kyua the Aqua Faerie – well, the more updates I get the faster I update something usually, at least on ff.net. On my web page its another story.

Chapter 10

The trials over, the Elites had been decided. Lance with the dragon pokemon, Lorelei with the Ice pokemon, Karen with the Dark pokemon, and Will with the Psychic pokemon.

*Four varying elements, all of them powerful.

Gary was infinitely pleased with himself.

The elite four were getting settled into their rooms. Gary shifted the security camera that would show all of them.

At the moment, Karen was mopping her floor. Lorelei was swimming in the near-freezing water with her ice pokemon, Will was meditating, and Lance was arranging bottles of healing items neatly on a shelf.

Gary shut off the viewing lens and went to go check on someone. He was bored, okay? Stupid championships were over and now he did not want to face a load of paperwork.

At least not yet…

“I suppose I can start now.” Lance said. Closing her eyes, she reached out with her power and drew the auras into herself.

By the power of the ice, the fire, and the lightning,

Brought to this world by fateful mistake,

Return to where you belong, of dreams…

All over Indigo, pokemon vanished.

Oh, it was mostly wild pokemon, so nobody noticed for a few weeks.

Until all the security pokemon guarding the Plateau vanished. That was when Gary decided to do something.

He called a meeting.

Lance looked up from where she and the other elite were eating lunch. “What is it, Gary?”

< You seem troubled. > Will put in.

Karen nodded. < Is it because we’ve lost our protection? >

“Only partially.” Gary concluded. “I think there’s a serious problem.”

“Like an epidemic?”

“Sort of.” Gary frowned. “I’ve been getting reports. Pokemon vanishing everywhere.”

“Space aliens?” Karen suggested.

“Maybe…”

Lance closed her eyes. “But where would they all go?”

“No idea.” Gary replied with a grimace.

Will frowned. < It’s unnatural. >

< I know that, > Karen chided.

Lance sighed. “Well, anything we can do about it?”

“Not that I know of.”

Gary scowled at the helplessness of the situation once again. He wished he could do something.

“But what if the pokémon don’t’ belong here?” Lance volunteered in a strange tone.

Will considered. “It is strange…”

“Yes, there’s so many of them and yet for years and years there were nothing but six or so types, and then a boom.”

“I wonder…”

Karen trailed off and decided not to say anymore.

Lance got up and got a glass of water, before sitting down again. “It’s strange how fate plays out, very strange…”

Something in her voice warned him not to press further, so he didn’t’.

However, he did follow her when she left the Plateau that night.

“Ash…”

Gary blinked. *She knows Ash? *

A shadow separated itself from the wall and walked over to her. “Lance-chan, I’m lonely…”

“You are?” A smile peeked through that voice.

“Claire will stay, but she’s not good company like you are. I think moping is a hobby of hers.”

Lance chuckled. “Oh.”

“And I’m hungry.”

“Well, let’s go grab a bite to eat.” Lance said. Ash followed her obediently.

Gary went back to the Plateau. He was still surprised that Ash was here though.

Ash spun his illusions as the air-headed cheerleader stepped into his web, before she collapsed.

Smiling at his success, he fed.

Lance watched, nodding. “Very good, Ash.” She stroked his wings gently after he had finished. They watched the moon in silence.

I love you. This isn’t a fling or anything like that.

We’re two of a kind, alone and together.

I don’t want to leave you. It’s no sickly clinging façade of romance. It’s the fact that you’re my savior.

You’re my light in the dark, you know.

I know. But you taught me how to love the darkness, and how true friends did not always look fair.

Looks are superficial things, very false.

We’re all wearing our masks, you know.

I know.

There was no smog up on the rooftop. They watched the moon continue its path across the sky, unchanging.

It was a reminder, in a way.

Love was more than a brief tumble in the grass together. It was commitment and promises and loyalty.

In a way, it was like training a pokemon, only you were binding yourself to someone else.

It was in the early hours of the morning, as the pink streaks of dawn stirred the grass in neatly kept lawns, before they returned to the realm.

Peace.

No, not really, just stability in a calm world, but still, it was wonderful.

End Chapter!

Completed 12/31/03, created 12/30/03