Whee!

Another chapter!
Disclaimer: Phantomness does not own pokemon. Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me!
Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks

Chapter 11

At the beach, Ash let Catelyn out to stretch her legs, er, tail.

Catelyn frowned oddly as she splashed in the surf.

“Is this it?”

“It seems familiar.” Catelyn said hesitantly. “Like… almost home, but not quite. Maybe some of my relatives live here.”

“You could check.” Ash offered helpfully.

“Hai… Ash, could you come see me tomorrow?”
“Sure. If it’s home, I’ll say goodbye. It was nice knowing you.”

“Hai. It was.”

After Ash had gone, Catelyn swam deeper into the water. However, instead of finding mermaids, she found a colony of Dratini.

The dragons welcomed her warmly – too warmly, she thought. Was there something going on she didn’t know of?

Maybe it was ‘be nice to mermaids week’?

They seemed shocked when she asked.

Why Dragon Master, of course we would hail your coming.

Yes. We are esteemed that you chose to visit us.

But she wasn’t a Dragon Master! Was she?

I do wish I could remember.

However, after a delicious dinner of various seafood, the dratinis brought to her several wounded members of their clan and requested healing.

She placed her hands over the wounds, preparing to use her wishing power, when suddenly, pale blue light streamed from her body, healing all wounds.

What? Where had this power come from?

It felt natural though, and right…

I want to know… I want to remember what happened… most of all, I want to know who I really am… am I a mermaid at all?

The tail felt… off. She didn’t mind the scales, those were smooth and comforting, but for some reason, legs would have been more appropriate

Of course, that might simply be because of a desire to stay as human as possible.

Wait! Where had that thought come from? She hated humans, didn’t she?

Huh?

She placed her hands over her ears, attempting to shut out that horrendous sound. Voices began clamoring in the back of her mind.

How dare you poach dragon eggs? In the name of the Dragon Master, I, Lance Dragyn, cast the curse of Dragon’s blood on you!

Screams erupted from the Team Aqua members.

Father! Father!

Do not worry, child…

I killed them, didn’t I? Should I have?

You did well, my son.

Son? I’m a girl, aren’t I?

Lugia, welcome… oh. You brought your Chosen.

He could feel the coldness in Moltres’s reply.

< Jealous, are we? >

Why should I be jealous that you went and rutted a human?

< Did I? > Lugia asked serenely.

The child blinked large golden eyes but said nothing.

< Does he look human to you? >

Well no, not exactly, but how?

< Trade secret. >

Wait… did that explain why she had no mother?

Pretty…

“Aren’t they?”

Catelyn smiled at the fireflies. “Hai.”

Ash smiled back timidly.

Friends…

Flash.

“So you have come?”

< Cut the pleasantries, Vanessa. >

“Very well, but do you honestly believe you can defeat me? Hahahahaha; it seems that you’re more foolish than I heard.”

< As you will… > Lance smirked.

Vanessa stood up. “Shall we begin?”

Lance simply shrugged, letting his black cloak vanish in a flash of night, revealing razor-edged, crimson-streaked silver wings.

Vanessa took an involuntary step back. However, she quickly recovered to some extent. “Showing off, are you?”
< That is for you to decide. Oh? Well… if you’re not going to start… >

A Hyper Beam smashed into Vanessa, sending her flying.

Vanessa got up, coughing up blood. “Bastard! How dare you hit a girl! That was a lucky shot!”

< *You* attacked me. >

“Oh yeah? Take this!”

Lance blinked as a weak Powder Snow attack appeared and… attempted to hit him. He teleported out of the way, so all the shards missed him… well, almost.

Vanessa cursed.

A tiny trickle of blood dripped onto the floor. One drop, two…

“Activate special ability! Curse of Dragon’s Blood unwillingly shed, Chain Destruction!”

Lance smiled coolly as Vanessa imploded.

Cold.

Ice.

Snow.

Shiver.

What was going on?

Pain and agony and fire and white and black and gold and crimson and pain…

Catelyn’s eyes snapped open as the memories ended.

“That bitch…”

She had planned it all along, hadn’t she? Luckily, now he knew what was going on, he knew how to break the curse…

It was so easy…

All he/she needed was the blood of one guardian willingly shed, and that would cancel out the earlier curse.

Finito.

Unfortunately, using his/her own was not an option. Catelyn sighed. She couldn’t take on her real form until later.

It was a pity, but Ash wasn’t attached to Catelyn anyways, so she’d grant him a wish, say goodbye, and everything would be just fine.

Unless… was Ash a guardian? If so, he could free her from this cursed form, and everything would be all right.

End Chapter

Completed 12/15/04

So it’s night and I’ve finally finished almost all of my finals. Yay! One left!

Lance: A plan so simple is doomed to fail…

Shoyko: Don’t be so pessimistic! I don’t want to write darkfic!

Kairo: *handing around lollipops*