Chapter 3!

Don’t die Plotbunny!

Chapter 3

“You’re staying?”

Pidgeot nodded respectfully. Lance fixed Ash with a questioning look. Ash gulped nervously.

“I…I didn’t drug or hypnotize my pokemon! Really!”

“Oh, I wasn’t about to accuse you of that!” Lance laughed. “Besides, Pidgeot is a native species.”

“But… you took some other trainer’s pidgeots and pidgeottos…”

“True, but they chose to leave. Yours chose to stay. You must be an exceptional trainer.”

Ash colored hotly. “Er, ah… well… I’m okay I guess.”

The prince smiled as he pressed something into Ash’s hand. “Call me if you need help. You’re a rare one to find, Ashura…”

“Huh?”

But in a second, he was gone… how weird.

Ash swallowed as he saw exactly what the man? Teen? Boy? Had given him. It was a round, smooth blue stone, sapphire-shade, but no sparkle…

How pretty!

He put it in his pocket and promptly forgot about it for a few days. Meanwhile, all hell was breaking out on earth. Without the pokemon, most of the industries collapsed – Silph, Devon, went bankrupt, the Pokemon Centers shut down, the Marts as well…

Luckily, his father had installed a pokemon-healing device that could heal 6 pokemon at a time in his house before he left on his journey. But with hardly any pokemon in the world now, would he finally come back?

Ash hoped so. Unfortunately, his mom had died three years ago… so she wouldn’t be here any longer…

It didn’t matter…

Jacques Ketchum sighed as he and his Onix stood on the bluff overlooking their house. “Nothing ever works out, does it?”

You have to tell him.

“I know, Onix, I know, but how am I going to explain?”

Just tell the truth. The rock snake said sagely. Surely that’s better than lying to him, and I daresay he deserves the truth?

“He’ll hate me if he knows.”

Perhaps he will, perhaps not. You haven’t seen him in eight years – he’s no longer a little boy.

“You’re right…”

A knock sounded on the door as Ash looked up from his pokemon encyclopedia. Smiling, he and Pidgeot walked to open it.

A man with dark red hair, almost auburn, and kind brown eyes stood there, dressed in a dark blue jacket and pants, a thin band of silvery material in his hair, six poke balls on his belt and a knapsack which boasted many more.

“Who are you?”

Jacques looked disappointed. So his son had forgotten his voice and face? It had been a long time…

“Don’t you recognize me, Ash?

“Not really.” The boy said. “Are you my father?”

He didn’t think anyone else would bother to come visit him…

Jacques sighed in relief. “Yes, Ash! I’m your father!”

Ash nodded. “Hold on just a second.”

Jacques blinked in confusion, but a second later, Ash returned with a thin band of reddish gold, a single sapphire in the center, flanked by two small opals. “Do you recognize this ring?”

“That’s the engagement ring I gave your mother!”

“Correct.” Ash paused. “Now, what did her wedding-ring look like?”

“It was a simple band, but made out of platinum, about half an inch thick. I teased her since it wasn’t feminine…”

“One last question.” Ash smiled. “What pokemon did she have, father?”

“Delia? No pokemon at all, although I did give her a Mr. Mime to help with the housework… why all the questions? And where is your mother?”

“She died three years ago, father.” Ash said calmly, as Jacques paled.

“Oh no! How?”

“Car accident, Mr. Mime died too...” Ash shrugged. The grief had faded over the years. “I’ve lived here alone with Pidgeot…”

“Why didn’t you ever come back to see us, father? Where did you go? Was your dream that important, that you chose it over us?”

Oh, how was he to explain, to tell his son that he wasn’t human, and although he had broken the laws by intermarrying, he…!

He still had his duty, but now that the pokemon had left this planet, it no longer mattered….

He was a wanderer, but not one of those who could call the pokemon home. He was only an Observer, to live amongst and observe…

But he had truly loved Delia. How could he have told her the truth though? And now, he ought to return home….

But what was he to do about Ash?

Ash waited patiently for several moments, but when no answer came, he closed the door and went upstairs to his room.

This wasn’t the kind of father he had wanted…

Jacques was left speechless. Oh, what was he to do? He looked at his pokemon beseechingly, but they clearly gave him a look that said ‘He’s your son, figure it out yourself.’

Could he possibly take Ash back to the other place with him? Ash was technically half-Wanderer, so maybe….

But he did not boast the red, blue, or green hair all Wanderers had…. And in any case, he was only half…

Oh, what was he to do? He had to think of something, fast…

Ash sighed. This was no good…

He shouldn’t be sulking, really! It was his father after all, but he couldn’t help being… well, he was angry.

Why had father just left them behind?

He pulled out the blue rock the strange boy had given him and stared at it. It made him feel better.

“Ash?”

He looked up, and quickly tucked the stone into his pocket, but not before Jacques saw it. How had his son gotten his hands on a soul-stone?

Those were rare and only given to high-ranked officers!

“Ash, where did you get that?”

“It was a present.” Ash replied calmly.

Well, in that case, if his son had already made friends among the Wanderer aristocracy, why shouldn’t he take him there? And before Ash knew what was happening, his room faded away into a tunnel of silver light…

End Chapter

Completed 5/30/05

Ah, complications… ^^