Ah… Time Jump! Wonderful invention

Disclaimer: I don’t own pokemon. It belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This is non-profit fanwork, no copyright infringement is intended, and since I wrote it, ‘tis mine.

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks or just their language

Timeline: 2 years later (Ash age 15)

Warnings: Possible violence, insanity, hints of romance, angst…

Chapter 7: Stacked deck

“Here.”
Ash looked surprised as Lance placed the five remaining Unown in his hands. “How?”

“You need these and I don’t.”

“But how did you find them?”

Lance chuckled. < You’ve been watching me for years and you still haven’t figured it out? >

< Dream realm? > Ash guessed.

< Very good, little one… >

Lance smiled, before he took off, steel wings flying behind him. Ash smiled, as the new unowns linked into the system.

Part of me…

He hugged his arms round his chest as he smiled brightly. Wonderful…

Part of his mind noted that he had power now. Unown could always warp reality, in a complete set, so Serebii had trusted them and thus made them the writers. They kept the records and the legends straight, and hid the secrets of pokemon from the unworthy. Still…

Even the best fall.

Even angels fall…

Ash decided that the arrival of unown did not warrant another page in his scroll of history, so he put away his feather pens and the manuscript.

It was strange…

Ash staggered, suddenly. Want… that was a new feeling. Unown W had inherently multiplied his feelings.

Yield… Y wanted him to give in to them…

T… tell…

As the original alphabet tried to keep control and calm the three new arrivals, as well as dampen their strong psychic suggestions, Ash blacked out.

Inner conflict tore him apart every time.

< I knew it! >

W looked insulted. < I cannot help my power. >

< I know, but… you can’t encourage him! >

< Why not? It’s my own duty. >

< He… > T hummed. < He may change the future if you do so. There is a reason we were separated from you all. >

< I see. >

< I hope he can control himself to accept our power and our own points of view… otherwise this will be difficult. >

G sighed. < He might fall. >

< I won’t let him! >

< That isn’t your decision to make… we are all part of him, but he is his own person at some level. Have you forgotten? >

X looked worried. It couldn’t erase this history, as that was expressively forbidden. Hopefully Serebii… would not come.

That was why it had been important for Ash to check the shrine. Serebii would come if the history were not written properly, and then…

That usually caused destruction.

Sand shifted.

Ash yawned as he combed out his hair, still feeling slightly off. He attributed it to the addition of 5 power cells. After having only twenty-three for years, a sudden change in the upward scale would obviously disorient him.

He focused, his clothes shifting and the black changing to white. He felt like wearing something different today.

White was pretty too… but black was prettier. With a smile, Ash checked on the three pokemon… he still only had three – but they were better than normal – and looked satisfied. Everything was in order.

Perhaps today would be an easy day with nothing of importance to write down.

True enough, there was a small drought in one area of Houen, but that was it. Ash obediently copied down the words dictated to him, a rare occurrence, since the Unown usually let him write on his own…

Did they not trust him?

No, there was something else. Something… black? Odd. That couldn’t be! He knew his own mind, had seen the webs of energy running everywhere and linking him to them.

It was probably his imagination.

Ash finished his chocolate cheesecake and smiled at the timid serving girl in an apron.

“Here’s your bill.”

He paid and left the bakery.

They had very good pastries. It was too bad that was not important to history as a whole. But then, in a hundred years it would probably be gone. That was the fault of a sole proprietorship.

Partnerships rarely endured either… pity.

That was a pity.

Still, he was a Writer, not an Author.

That was the difference. Lance spun, the starts twinkling and the night flashing as he wrote out the tales.

Ash only copied them and passed them on.

They were different, but they were both Chosen. So maybe Lance had decided to help, as a favor.

Why not?

It was the most likely solution.

< Lugia-san. >

< I release you, Chosen. The time is striking. Running will do no good, as you well know. >

< Indeed. > Lance’s eyes glinted. < Tomorrow… it will begin. >

< I forgive you. >

Lance did not reply as he slipped out of Whirl Islands. Attire shifted, armor dissolving until he stood there in white with his steel wings stretched behind him.

It was time.

End Chapter

Of course I do cliffhangers… *hums*

4/18/04