Disclaimer/Notes: See previous chapter

Timeline: 7 months later

Warnings: Violence, darkfic

Chapter 5: Observation

 

            Seven badges.

            < The Dragon Master keeps busy, doesn’t he? >

            < I never realized it was such a consuming job. >

            < Well, Lugia takes good care of his Chosen. >

            < Like you do of me? >

            < Of course. >

            Ash had spent quite a bit of time following said trainer’s adventures. From his observations, Lance was a good trainer, powerful, capable of a variety of magic, and cared for his dragons.

            That wasn’t to say he didn’t have a streak of evil.

            Ash had watched as he had broken every single bone in an abusive trainer’s body when he refused to talk.

            He had seen him casually Dragon Dance the staff of a polluting factory to bloody remnants.

            Lance was trained for war, any idiot could see that. Well, maybe not, but Ash wasn’t your average trainer either.

            He knew just about everything.

            After all, he chronicled the history into the scrolls of symbols.

            He refused to translate them to English, though.

            The unown understood.

            History was not all told, there were certain things that humans should not know about.

            The Chosen.

            The balance of power in the legendaries, the ceremonies of magic, the sun and moon and stars and how they worked truly…

            The Final Judgment

            The Dream Realm

            The Triple Guardianship, broken and whole

            The lesser powers

            The lesser masters

            The End.

 

            Still, there were short segments that were open to the public. They were records of history. Past mistakes made, that should not be repeated…

            Still, no one listened.

            They paid the price over and over, the Chosen purging the land. That was not evil, just justice.

            True justice.

            A pain for a pain, a life for a life, and the Golden scales of Fate and Destiny flashed.

            Lance watched as one plate tipped.

            “You lose.”

 

            Mark shrieked, the wind tearing him apart.

            The three plates bobbed in the wind.

            Fire, ice, lightning… but fire slept, weakened by her battle against the dark tempest, and she would sleep in Sleep of Death for lives to come.

            So it was up to two, left out of three, to keep the balance.

            Dark and Shadow guardians

            Did that bode well for anyone?

            At least Shadow could temper the Dark, right?

            Lance giggled. * Maybe… but he can fall to dark too… *

            Lugia sighed. < There we go again. I wish Fire would revive soon, Ice is kind of freaky without her. Not that I hate my Chosen, or anything, but… he’s more predictable if she’s around. >

            That was somewhat true.

           

            Lance flicked the blood off his fingers and frowned at the splotch on his cape. “I just had this dry-cleaned, too…”

            < Chosen! >

            < Ne, Lugia-san? >

            < B careful, all right? >

            < Hai ~! > Lance promised. * And since he’s watching me, why not perform? I love showing off after all. *

            He smirked.

 

            It was a very good thing that Ash couldn’t read his mind yet. No, the unowns only showed the actions, not the thought process.

            Perfect.

            Lance felt the hum of the three remaining unown, searching for the rest of their family. The dream realm would open soon.

            Well, he had to work on catching his little one again, but that should not be too hard. He undid the spells and dropped his armor to the ground, before heading off to the bathing pools.

            Let’s see if he’s spying on me now…

 

            Ash furiously blushed. < Stop! >

            The unown blinked and stopped their surveillance. < Hmm? >

            <I…I’m not comfortable seeing him in those conditions. >

            A looked slightly angry, but let it pass.

            He was so shy!

            Strange, though… ash had seen plenty of death and destruction, but apparently he was still a child in those ways.

            Hmm…

            How to remedy this situation? Something important could be happening. Although it was unlikely that anyone would attack the Dragon Master, many petty trainers had attempted in the unlikeliest of times.

            Well, let Ash calm down for a few minutes and then we can re-establish contact with them.

            He had found the last three.

            Unown liked being in the complete alphabet together, but… two remained in Houen and still had to be found.

            The three left letters were temporarily staying with the Dragon Master, just in case he needed help.

            That was almost laughable.

            Lugia’s Chosen might not be the strongest power-wise, but in skill and agility and manipulation, he was the best.

            Heartstrings were easy to pull too.

            Ash dunked his head into a handy bucket of water, and then sighed. * I really don’t like this… it’s like peeping, but… *

            “Let’s do it.”

 

End Chapter

Complete 4/18/04