‘Then is it my duty to fall in love with you? Is it?’

Chapter 8

“Any trace of him in Johto?”

“I’ve only been searching for two days, Green…” Blue murmured.

“I know, but…. Oh, I can’t help worrying over my rival.”

Blue gave him a smile and then went back to her conversation with Silver via cell phone.

“So you’ve checked Violet and Ecruteak, and those two are clean? Lake of Rage and Mahogany are next, okay? Thanks little brother.”

Blue hung up with a sigh. She did think of Red as a friend, since…. Well, all right, perhaps she had a tiny crush on him, but that wasn’t important.

Now what were they to do?

“Again!”

Ash gritted his teeth, as flames flickered to life on his fingers and held out for maybe ten seconds before going out.

Lance smiled. “At least it’s an improvement over no fire at all.”

“… I guess so, aniki.” Ash sighed.

“Are you tired of these exercises?” There was a hint of warning in the soft tone. Ash shook his head.

“I just wish were as talented as you are.”

“You forget that I’ve been training since I was five. It’s different.”

“I suppose so…”

Ash shook his head, as he brought the flame up…. And concentrated on the happiest memory he could think of. How about when Pika saved him from Brock’s onix?

Flames roared from his fingertips, for a whole minute, but as he thought of Pika, his thoughts swung to betrayal and the fire died.

“Interesting.” Lance said, writing it down. “Passionate emotions may raise your power…what were you thinking of, Ash?”

Ash blushed. “Pika…”

“Ah yes your lost Pikachu….” Lance smiled. “Maybe try memories not involving that traitorous rat.”

He bristled a little, but the majority of his mind clamored that Pika deserved this, for abandoning him, and so he concentrated again, perhaps his win against the melded legendary birds in Saffron…

Lance slowly shook Ash, and when he awoke, to his surprise he found the fires still flickering brightly.

“Bravo, Ash. You did it.”

“Aniki.” Ash hugged Lance tightly. “Thank you!” He expected the flames to burn, but Lance was untouched. Maybe it was fire-type versus water-type or something?

Or he really didn’t want to hurt Lance.

After all, Lance didn’t have to take care of him….

He managed to keep the fire going for half an hour, before they died, but it was still significant improvement.

He was happy.

And when Lance made him chocolate chip cookies to congratulate him on his skills, that just made him feel even better.

It was classical conditioning. Correctness received a reward….

Pity Ash didn’t realize this… well, Lance did, but he felt no remorse. If Ash didn’t see it, he was just being nice to his little brother.

Someone had to do it. Father was too busy grooming or trying to groom Ash as his heir. He trusts me, but….

He needs a protector. It’s my title, my life, my duty, either way…

So I’ll protect him.

I will never forget you, even if you forget me….

“Lance? I’m finished.”

He broke out of his musings and smiled, hiding everything behind a pleasant façade. * Tis lucky you see only what you wish, my dear brother…. Or else you would be living a double life, and that only hurts…. *

Yes, those were very yummy cookies….

He went back to their bedroom, and let his pokemon out to play with them.

True, they were not exactly the happiest pokemon upon hearing of their master’s alignment, but they did understand honor, however much it hurt. Therefore, they stayed loyal to their mater, like good pokemon should….

Aeroy was ready to eat and devour Pika should the traitor rat ever show his face around. How dare he…

Pokemon did not abandon their trainers. They didn’t!

Only traitors did…

That meant Pika was a traitor. It was all simple logic to a pokemon, in any case.

“Nothing.” Silver replied. “He hasn’t shown up in the Johto trainer database, and I even checked the wanted criminals list, just in case – oh, don’t say that, Blue, anything could be possible, but there’s no trace of him.”

“Do you think, Houen?” Green asked, but considering how far away it was…

“No, I doubt it. He’s… I’m afraid we will have to give him up for lost, if not officially, at least we ought to prepare ourselves for that eventuality.” Oak stated grimly.

The two other Pallet trainers looked worried. If Red was gone…. Were they next on the list?

Elsewhere…

“No sign at all?”

“No.” Agatha sighed. “He’s protected by a strong psychic force… but it’s not Sabrina. I recognize her aura, as we’ve battled before. This opponent is a tough one….”

“Red is the only trainer who might have the Earth Badge. We need him for our plan to work.” Lorelei said.

Bruno did not reply from where he was napping on a rug.

The two exchanged looks. Whatever happened next would not be pretty…

It was time to pull out the stops.

Agatha’s eyes went purple as her body dissolved, for lake of a better word, into a misty, ephemeral form. Time to spy….

Now where would she go?

Viridian seemed good….

Ash tensed. Lance did as well.

“Ghost…. Approaching, well, you’ll be fine, since Dark is strong to ghost and he’ll never be able to pierce your mental shields, but…”

“It’s all right, aniki, I understand.”

Lance gave Ash a grateful look before he looked into the mirror and cast hypnosis on himself. Normally, a sleeping mind would be less difficult to infiltrate than an awake mind, but whenever Lance slept, Catelyn and Crystal guarded for him.

Catelyn had ice powers – she was possibly an Articuno element. Crystal had fire/dark, just like Ash.

Giovanni had integrated quite a bit of pokemon DNA into the trainer’s body, to make him compatible with his child.

After all, he needed to protect him always, so…

It made sense, right?

Agatha slowly made her way into the Team Rocket base. Perhaps she ought to check out Giovanni first…

What?

A presence caught her attention. It seemed to be warning her away…. How intriguing! Perhaps she’d found what she was looking for!

And an instant later, a Crunch attack smacked her upside the head, and she reappeared in Cerise, with her nose broken and quite unconscious.

End Chapter

Completed 5/3/05