Romance is so hard to develop! *Scowl*
Disclaimer: If I owned Pokemon, I’d do stories on all the gym leaders I like – Clair, Winona, etcetera… ^^
Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks!
So after long debate, back to Ash x Karen (Almostchampionshipping)
Chapter 6
Will…
Why did he have to die? It wasn’t his fault!
Karen sighed as her Gengar told her the news. Well, perhaps it wasn’t such a shock as initially assumed. However, it was still disappointing…
She hurt… No, she hurt inside, not a physical pain…
Karen sighed. No use moping. Time to deal with the future. After all, the past could not be changed unless one netted a Serebii…
Well, there was no wa in all nine hells she would be able to capture one of the flitting time guardians, so there was no use in hoping for a future with her love then. At least they’d been left in peace, she supposed once in a few lives couldn’t hurt… they all had sacrifices to make for the greater good for the realm, whether it be life, love, or something worth less…
Ash quietly left her alone, not wanting to intrude. She didn’t seem angry, but you could never tell…
Well, what now?
No one ever sees the whole truth, except Serebii, and even Serebii is blinded… because she thinks too much of right and wrong and light and dark and doesn’t understand that the world evolved in shades of gray and will continue to do so…
Well, what was the world if not perfect?
The world if perfect, would be heaven – paradise – Elysium – whatever it could be called. But no, the world was far from perfect. And that hurt most of all, sometimes…
Karen looked at Ash.
Ash looked at Karen.
No words were spoken. They were both in pain, though for different reasons. She slipped inside his mental shields and saw hat he had just lost his mother. Poor child. No wonder he seemed so out of it.
Surely it could not be all that bad?
< I’ll do it. >
“Huh?” Clueless again. It was a common enough state the child was found in.
< I’ll marry you. >
< Oh! >
That caught Ash’s attention. < But I thought you had a boyfriend… >
< He’s dead. This arrangement will be advantageous to us both. So will you take it? I will. >
Ash nodded hesitantly. It couldn’t hurt, right? He smiled at Karen shyly and the next day, they signed the papers. It was extremely brief, no stuffy formal ceremony…
That was all?
Being married was… weird.
Karen changed her trainer ID – Agatha had left h her the pass code before Team Rocket took over the system, and when he hair was cut short, with her new dark green contacts, she didn’t look like herself at all. She also hid her dark-type pokemon, keeping only Vileplume and Gengar out, and those were pokemon anyone could have, if trainer properly and with a hefty dose of perseverance…
No, there was nothing special. Oddish and Gastly were easily obtained…
The next day, Karin Kao was married to Ash Ketchum. It was all very straightforward. Ash was issued a new chip for his pokédex that registered him with Karin, Karen, and that was that!
Of course, that meant they now had to share living quarters. They sold Ash’s house, it being rather large for only two people, and having too many negative emotions associated with it, and moved to Cosmos.
Cosmos was safe from Team Rocket by virtue of a natural phenomenon called the Aurora Fog. It prevented people the Champion judged ‘unclean’ or ‘evil’ from crossing the barrier. Admittedly, she was biased and used it to keep certain gym leaders out, but it worked well on Team Rocket’s agents…
Even their secret agents and disguised members could not pass…
However, Cosmos desired neutrality and so, any anti-Team-Rocket activities were quickly curtailed and removed. Harsh? Perhaps. But every war needs a safe haven or two… otherwise, where would peace treaties and strikes and temporary time-outs be signed?
Besides, Cosmos had a wide variety of Pokemon from both Kanto and Johto, even a few from Houen, so it was a natural reserve. That also imposed strict laws on people who were found hunting or catching endangered pokemon.
That was just the way things were. If you didn’t like it, you left…
If you didn’t like Cosmos, perhaps you did not belong there. So the Champion was a rigid control freak. Everyone said so, but as long as she didn’t interfere in their daily lives, who cared?
Security over freedom was the decision the inhabitants had chosen to make here. Fitting.
Team Rocket now had Kanto – they were going for Johto next, but the gym leaders there were putting up quite a good fight…
It didn’t matter, as usual.
This isolation was a method of self-defense as well…
That was just the way things were. There was no point in arguing it!
“Karen?”
“What is it, Ash?”
“Do you think we should be doing this?”
“What else would we do?”
“… I see.”
“No, you don’t.” Karen shook her head. “We’re running on borrowed peace…. And any happiness we may have is built on the sacrifice of others.”
“Is that wrong?”
She considered. He did have a point there. “Well, it’s difficult, you see… I’m sure that Lance wanted us to live, so I don’t mind his death that much, but I still miss Will. I won’t be seeing him until so long…”
“Oh.”
“Have you ever loved anyone?”
“You.”
“That’s very sweet of you, Ash, but what you feel for me isn’t really love. It’s more like friendship, and you are too young…”
Ash deflated but nodded.
Karen must still miss Will…
He would wait then! She’d have to like him sooner or later!
End Chapter
Completed 9/7/05
The only way to do this is to kill the ones they love/love them off… ugh