Fic…

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

Chapter 6

 

            < Really? Life is more important than pokemon? >

            < He’s changed so much… not in looks, of course, but… >

            < Shh, shh… there’s nothing you could have done. >

            < Nothing? I could have been there to greet him when he came home! What kind of Father am I, when I…! >

            < Lugia! Come on, if you were a negligent father then surely I was the negligent mother! We’re both – we’re both paying the price for it! >

            < But it doesn’t make it  - it’s wrong. >

            < He ought to hate humanity… they burned him after all… >

            < Ash is special though. He’s Honou’s child; so he's not a human, remember? >

            < But life is more important than pokemon? >

            < Perhaps it’s just a phase. >

            < Lance doesn’t ‘do’ phases! > Two voices yelled in unison.

            The others shrugged. < Maybe he does now… >

 

            He wasn’t sure how they made it to Cerulean in one piece. He couldn’t really look at Lance without blushing and that was a problem when they were walking down a dirt road together but he managed, somewhat.

            “Lance?”

            “What is it?”

            “So… er…”

            “Yes, Ash?”

            “Aren’t you hot? I mean, I got heat stroke, and I don’t want you to get it!”

            How considerate. But his blood ran cold, as cold as moonshine and ice. It seemed that even his blood couldn’t warm after the fire. It felt too foreign.

            “No, I’m cold-blooded.”

            That got a laugh out of Ash and he forgot about the question.

            Lance didn’t bother to enlighten Ash as to the real reason why he covered his skin. He wasn’t sure he liked the sun much either. It hurt his eyes.

            He put on his sunglasses. He hadn’t worn them much while in school, them being indoors, but… now he needed them.

            Sometimes, life was annoying…

 

            “Cerulean Gym, here we come!” Ash called, as he walked in through the doors. Lance followed quietly. A prickle of… something skittered on the edge of his nerves.

            Fear?

            He wasn’t afraid of anything. He had Gligar on him, after all, and if he really needed help, he could cast spells – he could inflict wounds with a touch now, just as he had been able to heal them in the past…

            He could hurt people with a touch.

            It made him feel better sometimes, when the anger burned his blood and he needed to kill until he felt better but he never hurt pokemon. Never.

            He liked pokemon.

            But he liked Ash too.

            Now his priorities were getting confused…

 

            He met blue eyes and red hair across the room, and he – he had a sudden urge to run far, far away, and take Ash with him, where she couldn’t steal him away, and that had barely ebbed when he felt an intense, blazing fury towards her, which didn’t make any sense, because she wasn’t one of the people who had burned him at the stake so why should he try to hurt her, but his mind wasn’t making sense because he almost had the knives out and he would have torn her throat out if he hadn’t caught himself in time.

            The barest flicker of magic passed by everyone else, unnoticed.

            Lance closed his eyes and began taking deep breaths. Something was wrong. Something was missing. Maybe he was just antsy because he wasn’t a full dragon yet, but if that was the case…

            Why did it hurt so much?

            Why did this place seem to stifle him?

            He’d have called it ‘evil’, but what was evil, really? Was he evil because he killed? If she killed as well, he’d be a hypocrite, but-!

            He wasn’t even paying attention when her Starmie drowned Ash’s Butterfree until Ash’s shouts brought him out…

            And they fished the waterlogged bug out but…

            Was it too late now?

 

            “Come on, Ash, don’t worry, the Pokemon Center’s just across the road, and Butterfree will be fine…”

            They raced their as fast as they could, but was it too late? Was it too late now? Was it too late for Butterfree?

            Nurse Joy took one look and began intensive resuscitation, but…

            It wasn’t working…

            The bug’s lungs were logged with water, and the water from the pool, the Starmie had submerged Butterfree in water and had destroyed the delicate scales of the wings.

            Even – even if it didn’t suffocate, the Butterfree would no longer be able to fly…

 

            He watched as Nurse Joy labored for several long moments, before she finally shook her head. No motion came from the pokémon.

            He watched Ash’s incredulous look melt into grief, and he held out his arms as Ash began to cry.

            Maybe it had been an accident, maybe not, but a pokémon had died and the blood-price had to be paid…

            Even if no one – even if he was caught, he had to do this.

            He waited until Ash had fallen asleep at the Center – they had to give him sleeping pills otherwise he wouldn’t have slept at all – before he slipped out.

            He cast darkness around his form and throughout the gym. Normal eyes couldn’t see, but he had dragon’s eyes.

            He found her sleeping. She was still a child – a teenage girl.

            It didn’t matter.

            Another man perhaps would have done something different to hurt her more. But he didn’t believe in that. Besides, it was not his to take, nor did he want it.

            Cheating wasn’t too beneficial to a relationship after all…

            He slit her throat – it was quick, and then he left.

            They could deal with it tomorrow.

 

            And in the morning, they woke up, and the sirens were blaring, and the gym was still overhung with a pall of gloom, and the leader was dead, but he didn’t care.

            She’d killed a pokemon.

            Therefore, it was her death in return.

            Who would argue?

            Perhaps he ought to feel guilt, but he didn’t like people – except Ash. They’d killed him first, after all…

            What made Ash different? If he had found another subject to force himself to love, could he have done it? Did it matter?

            If it didn’t, he might have to kill Ash one day too…

 

            Now he realized something – he must have felt the aura of death. She must have killed other pokemon too…

            He decided to give it a try.

            The pool was large – it was excellent for scrying, and he gasped – over twenty had died here in the last year.

            Horrible.

            No wonder the aura clung like glue…

            At least the cause was gone now. Perhaps in time, the uneasiness would fade to nothing, perhaps not…

            Who knew?

 

End Chapter

Completed 8/4/05

I type with my eyes closed because I have photosensitive eyes with an insanely high prescription… so apologies for mistakes…

Ash: Lance kills people without remorse?

Phantomness: Some things don’t change…