Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws and taking it is plagiarism. Thank you. *Phantomness bows*
Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks
Pairing: Championshipping (Ash x Lance)
Chapter 7
“I…”
“What is it, Ash?”
He was dreaming again. Had to be. The mist was mainly clear now. He’d been dreaming in color for a few weeks, but this was the first time he’d seen Lance again. The dream area was pretty. Grassy meadows, forests, mountains, an ocean, lakes and streams…. Beautiful.
And it was full of pokemon who didn’t seem scared of humans, who ran around happily and even offered to play with him.
It was odd.
But it was nice, too… kind of nice, like something more real than the real world. Here, no one bothered him, he wasn’t busy trying to save lives and he didn’t have to deal with arrogance and stupidity every moment of the day…
Bruno was obviously showing signs of pregnancy now…
But it was his fault for raping a girl…
He hadn’t seen Lance during the day much, the Champion seemed… afraid of people. Understandable, after the Bruno incident! Whenever he came out, Karen was with him, or… Will.
He shouldn’t be jealous, since all they ever talked about was pokemon, and – he wasn’t interested anyways! Really!
Lance was just… attractive. Very attractive
But now Lance had popped into his dream again…
“Do you like me?” He blurted out.
Lance’s eyes went all shadowed. “I think so.”
“Oh.” He wasn’t sure what to say in response to that. “I don’t know you at all…”
“More’s the pity. Sometimes I wish you could remember, but then you’d feel pressured – and I’ve moved past that already.”
He idly petted the odd winged pikachu he had found – it was cute, if a bit of a glutton about sweets. “Why do you – why are you here?”
“I can travel in dreams if I wish. I’ve just never bothered to do it before. But you see, I chose you, because I needed someone to save me.”
He nodded, remembering the corpse on the bed, chained. “It’s not your fault.”
“Perhaps it is. Catelyn was too weak – I should have protected her!”
“But you’re not her, not really….”
“But I am her, and she is me, and we’re pieces of a mirror and we’re all me in the end…” Lance sighed. “But she’s free now, and Crystal will take good care of her.”
“Oh.”
A pause.
“It’s so simple for you to let go?” Ash’s voice sounded odd. “You just let her die?”
“She didn’t want to live.” Lance said sharply. “She’s too young to understand – and we need her to be that way. Otherwise, the balance tips and all three of us will die.”
“All three?
There’s another one of you?”
Lance seemed to blur, and
another girl replaced his form. She wore black and red armor, had long black hair
streaked with red and… dead eyes.
That was the only way to describe them.
“I am Crystal…” She said softly, but her voice crackled with danger. “And yes, there are three of us.”
“Is the
other one okay?”
There was another shift, and a
little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes stood there, cuddling a baby
Dratini.
“Everything will be all right…”
Then she was gone and he was talking to Lance again. The Dragon Master shrugged. “So.”
“But… but what about the baby?”
“Heh. Didn’t you tell me that it was all right for a single parent to raise a child?”
“But-!”
“I told you! That’s not my child!”
“But…if it were me, I’d be sad that my mother didn’t want me.”
Lance began to crackle with power, and Ash stepped back from the raw fury etched in his features. His eyes were blazing, almost demonic…
“Keep talking, Ashura, and even Destiny and Hope will not save you.” He hissed. “That man is nothing. He was never meant to be anything. And since his role has changed to villain, he will keep it!”
“Life’s not an act!”
“It bloody damn well is for us guardians! And all I care for is my duty! Step away from the sword or I swear, Serebii be damned, I will destroy us both!”
Ash froze as Lance began to twitch, little jitters of black lightning crawling over her form, wisps of shadow, and the air was turning darker… the pokemon seemed to sense this and faded away, quickly…
“You should be grateful that my body did not kill that misbegotten embryo the moment it was conceived! And I thought we had birth control, but then I forgot about Charlotte… heh. It looks like we have something in common now…”
“Lance…”
“You don’t know anything! How can you presume to judge me! I remember everything, and I’ll be damned if I fall again! I’d ask Father to kill me first!”
“Lance, calm down!” The last time he’d seen her – him this agitated was when he had been trying to get rid of the baby and die…”
Oh no!
Would she draw the line and kill herself – er, himself again?
He had to stop him!
Lance began to laugh, hysterical laughter, sharp and bitter. “You don’t know anything, do you?”
“I… I’m sorry.” He said lamely.
“You will not bring up the topic of the child again. If you’re going to be in my dreams, we should set some rules.”
“Your dreams? We’re in your dream?” That kind of made sense…
“Of course.” Lance shrugged. “You can’t enter the Dream Realm unless you’re a guardian… So. Rules. You can talk to me about other things, but mention another word about Bruno or his child and I’ll kick you out. And believe me, if I hurt you in this dream, it won’t necessarily affect your body in the real world.”
Ash paled.
“You think I’m an evil bastard, don’t you? Think what you will. But I really don’t care about anyone except my duty and the ones, who fall underneath that category, and Bruno is neither… and I will never forget what he did to me. True, he was bad enough that time, but he didn’t actually touch me then…”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. You can wake up now, if you think this is a nightmare.” Lance began to walk away, and it got really, really dark again.
Ash woke up. He sighed.
“I’ve got to talk to him in person. This is getting us nowhere…”
Dreams had to fade eventually, after all…
End Chapter
Completed 8/11/05