At least the bunny is alive!

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 5

In his dreams, he sees that he gave up everything – body, spirit, heart, and mind, to the person he loved.

He killed pokemon for him.

He destroyed worlds for him.

He killed to protect him.

He died to save him.

And he sees, in the last frame, the one who he has given everything to, in the arms of the one who is an enemy, in the arms of one who has betrayed the world, in the arms of one who is not human or pokemon but DEMON…

And he screams.

And he wakes up.

The last thing he remembers is passing out. He supposes that it was all those horrible memories, and they were horrible, no wonder he blocked them! Maybe it’s safer not to remember.

He looks at the necklace and feels calm again. Whatever strange Eastern medicine his counselor is using, it’s working pretty well. Now if only…

He remembers her words from years ago, and more recently, telling him to avoid things that bring back the bad memories, because if he doesn’t want to remember, he shouldn’t try!

But… but surely, there are some good memories in his head too, right?

And before he knows it, he’s slipped into a trance.

When he pulls out of that memory, he’s smiling. It was a perfectly normal one, just himself splashing in the water with a Magikarp and Dratini. He must have been quite young, but he was at a beach…

That wasn’t so bad.

He writes it down, in the little black notebook his father went out and bought for him, not two days ago, to write down his memories in.

The other two were unpleasant, but this one isn’t so bad.

He tries again, but it’s like he hit a wall, and he feels frustrated, but nothing can be rushed, and he’s lived seven years of his life just fine without that interference, so he goes downstairs and makes himself breakfast.

His father is already off to work, and he has class… its lucky yesterday was a Saturday, or else he would be very late for school right now. He must have slept through both of his alarm clocks.

He decides to go on a walk.

The walk helps, and it’s in the middle of the road, unfortunately, when the next blast of memory hits him. He comes to when he realizes that a Nurse Joy is shaking him and that he must have passed out near the Pokemon Center.

He gives her Sha-san’s number and she advises him to stay home if his condition is that bad, but he has class to teach.

That’s when he remembers what happened in the memory and he shudders.

He remembers battling – over a lava pit, can you imagine that, on the back of … something glowing white, and falling, falling into that horrible fiery hell…

And he remembers a girl with a big hat and short blonde hair in a ponytail, laughing, laughing, and her laughter echoes on and on…!
He almost cries with relief when he realizes that he is in one piece and there are no scars on his pale skin. But even so, when he gets back home, he collapses into bed and cries, until his tears have dried up, because there’s pressure building up in his chest and he has no other way to release it.

If he were Lance, he would have laughed and killed people until the rage burned out and his smile was as mad as the moonlight above, as brilliantly bright as the Dragon Blades in his hand.

But he’s not Lance anymore. He killed Lance, and he knew it, when he made his decision to forget.

Now, he’s just Wataru-san: a perfectly normal grade school teacher who lives a perfectly normal life.

Catelyn wonders, as she watches from the Dream Realm, with Crystal, if Lance really is happier as Wataru-san.

They doubt it.

After all, Lance would never cry himself to sleep.

She is sketching. She knows that she should be focused on her bloody patients, but her job is just a cover anyways, and the few other patients that she takes in besides Lance are just decoys, illusions, puppets, call them what you will. She is drawing, and underneath her pen a picture of a dying dragon blooms.

She draws the bloody sword in the hands of a boy with spiky hair and a devil may care smile, but when she’s finished, she can’t tell whether she drew Ash or Lance holding the sword.

Maybe it really doesn’t matter.

But just in case, she hides it beneath a pile of tax reports and sets her coffee mug on top so he can’t see it on his next visit.

It wouldn’t do to trip up and ruin all their efforts.

He is flying. His child always loved to fly when he was distressed, and what works for the son works for the Father too.

Lugia sighs. It’s been so long since he was able to fly. He’s had to act like a perfectly normal human, as normal as a psychic is, really, and all Lance knows is that he can teleport. He thinks that he’s done a pretty good job.

But hiding as a human is so difficult. He sighs as he lands at home, their real home, the crystal caverns in Whirl Islands, not that small house he now has to share, with prying neighbors on all sides and the stench of pollution in the air.

One part of him is sick, utterly disgusted that his own Child would sink to such lows. Living with humans, and not even gifted ones, and teaching them.

Another part of him is sad, sorrowful, wishing that Lance hadn’t resorted to such dire measures.

Part of him pities the child, because though it was Lance’s choice to fall in love, his choice has been set in stone every since, with Serebii’s manipulation, and surely, he knows that even if Lance weren’t ‘in love’ with Ash, he’d wind up that way sooner or later, thanks to the blood-binding performed so many years ago, so many centuries ago, that never fades and never weakens.

Part of him is blazing anger towards Ash. How dare he hurt his child so! How dare he, after all that Lance has done over the years! How dare he forget and repeat his mistakes! How dare he!

But the final part of him just feels old, and wishes the life were done and over with so they could start with a blank page.

The fire guardian wasn’t such a bad person after all.

The next day, Wataru-sensei doesn’t go to class.

That’s because he never wakes up.

End Chapter

Completed 3/6/06

*YAWN*

The first flashback is just Chibi! Lance in Pokemon Special/Adventures, the second one is one of those Yellow-villain Pokemon special-verse fics I’m wont to write, can’t quite remember which one at this time of night…

Catelyn and Crystal are different forms of Lance. Catelyn is the Ice Guardian, the first of Lance’s forms, and she’s a genki little chibi girl with ice powers. Crystal is the Master of Dark Illusions, and she’s basically an insane version of Lance who only deals destruction and wears black and red armor. They’re both female.