A/N: Hey, thanks for coming back to read my fic. Please review. Enjoy this chapter.

DARK SHADOWS

CHAPTER VII: WHICH SIDE WILL YOU CHOOSE?

So this was how it was going to end?

Ash Ketchum, the young man from the small town of Pallet dreamed of being a Pokemon Master. He and his friends endured harsh adventures and they always survived. Ash always had his friends standing by his side, especially Misty. Brock was a great partner, but no one could replace Misty, not even Hailen. This only proved that without his friends Ash was powerless. It was them all along. He knew he should have allowed Pikachu to come along. There was no one now.

How ironic. The very creatures that Ash sought out to

hunt were now the creatures bringing an end to his life. He thought he was the hunter, but he was merely the hunted.

But Ash Ketchum wasn’t the only hunted.

His mind told him he was done for, that there was no hope. He always knew there was a way out of everything. Alone, however, there was no hope. But he wasn’t alone.

A dark figure descended through the cool air and cascading droplets of rain. It was too dark to catch a good look at it. Ash had no idea if it were male, female, or even human. The figure did however have black hair and a lean figure. Now he could see the resemblance to a woman’s body. But thinking through the steps of her arrival it just didn’t add up. She fell out of the sky and landed as if it were a two foot drop.

It was definitely a woman. Ash could see the pale white skin of her neck as her hair finally caught up with her body. Her jacket also came to a halt encircling her body as it was accustomed. But before her jacket caught up with her Ash noticed she had long, thin legs. Not meek, but thin. But there were also the orange streaks of hair.

At the instant of her arrival the Lycans arched their head back in curiosity. The woman landed with one knee on the ground and her arms outstretched to the sides to showoff her grace. Her head was also down. Her stance resembled that of a bow.

The Lycans, nor the woman, moved. She continued staring down, while to Lycans waited for a motion from her. Slowly she lifted her head. Though Ash couldn’t see it he knew there had to be something to it to make the Lycans react as they did. But there reaction was expected: a loud and powerful roar and showing of their long teeth.

What was this woman doing?

While the woman was still crouched down she brought forth a silver sai from her waist and twirled it behind her back.

“You’re the Night Walker.”

The woman stood up and brought the sai in front of her pale face. She held the black leather handle tightly in her left hand. Her right hand remained out to her side. After standing up her height was identified. She stood at about five foot eleven, only a few inches shorter than Ash.

“Nothing touches him.” She spoke softly, but aggressively. Her voice was high pitched and the rough tone sounded forced.

The Lycans arched their head forward and roared at her. She acknowledged the battle with a long hiss like a cat or cobra.

Thirty feet up, standing in the breach to the Tower, Tristan, Mercedes, and each and every one of the vampires ho belonged to the coven, stared down with dissatisfaction. Their plans of old were now worthless. Tristan still believed it was because of Misty. He refused to believe that dogs such as the Lycan Clan could have counteracted their plan. Mercedes thought otherwise. She had taken Misty under her wing teaching her fighting, survival, and how to interpret her new instincts. Mercedes spent a lot of time with Misty. She knew the young girl would never endanger her own kind.

“She isn’t a warrior.” Tristan said.

Misty looked around the garden with her eyes as the Lycans advanced around her. She was clearly outnumbered. Ash couldn’t be expected to help though. It was her and them. Difficult as it may be, even impossible; she had to kill them all. If she didn’t they would go back after Ash, and Misty knew that Tristan could care less about a Mortal.

Three from her left leapt for her with five inch long talons. She however sprung over Gyarados’ head as it thrust toward the Lycans advancing on its trainer. Two were swatted away by the sea-creature but one was caught in the jaws of the beast. And as if Gyarados wanted to play with its catch before eating it, it threw the Lycan up into the air and caught it in its mouth and swallowed it whole.

Once more the pack tried moving in on Ash, but Misty wouldn’t have it that way. Before they could get close enough to ensure any physical damage Misty flipped off the head of the Gyarados and fell in front of the Lycans.

With one hard thrust she managed to impale one’s neck with her sai, another received a powerful karate chop to its throat. The Lycan flipped backwards and crashed onto its stomach, but did not get back up. Blood spewed from its pursed leather lips, but that was all. To one other Lycan, the other that tried attacking Ash, its head was sliced in half from its chin up by the sharp tip of the sai. And to the Lycan lying on the ground, Misty wanted to make sure it was dead. To make sure, she twirled the sai around her body once and brought it down hard and implanted the tip into the spine of the beast.

Tristan was indeed impressed by the display of hand-eye coordination. He didn’t even expect Misty to survive one attack. His plans were to watch her crash and burn. But no, she fought back with little adversity. This sight made a grin creep across his face as he looked at Mercedes wide smirk.

“Who taught Misty how to use sais?”

“She taught herself.” Mercedes replied. “I told you she did everything to ready herself.”

“I see that now.”

“Too late.” Mercedes looked at Tristan who had hope in his eyes. He was proud of the girl. “She won’t come back. She chose the human over you.” Suddenly his hope died as he stared back at Mercedes.

“After all I’ve done for her? I gave her the power to fight for her friends.”

“You won’t let her fight for her friends though. “

“What is she doing now?”

“Disobeying you.” And that was all Mercedes said before jumped back after witnessing Misty break the jaw of a Lycan off by pressing on both the jaw and cleft of the mouth.

And so the fight raged on. Ash still was lying on the grass not knowing what to do? He didn’t even catch what was going on. All he knew was that a woman was fighting a pack of Werewolves while he lay on the ground. That wouldn’t do.

Ash stood up and readied himself for combat, but was pushed back down by the woman.

“Stay down. Stay out of danger. You don’t know how to handle these things.”

“And you do?”

Before the woman could answer she was slammed in the back of her head by the arm of a Lycan. She flipped forward but used her dexterity to land on her feet and thus strike back by flipping high over the Lycan with a back flip, and during her dissension she probed her sai into the top of the Lycan’s skull. As it tumbled to the ground she pulled it back out and wiped the blood and entrails off with a thrust downward.

“You were saying, Ash?”

His eyes grew wide. His jaw dropped. His complexion became pale. “How do you know my name?”

“I know more than just your name, Ashy-boy.”

“Like what?”

“That’s for another time.” Misty turned toward Gyarados who awaited orders from its trainer. “Gyarados, Hyper Beam!”

To this point Ash had yet to see the woman’s face. Her voice however he heard and noted that it was similar to Misty’s. But he knew she had been attacked by the Werewolf, he knew they never found her body, and he knew it was impossible to escape a Werewolf attack. So the odds were against this woman being Misty. Besides, having a high voice wasn’t uncommon for a woman.

It wasn’t until the woman’s Gyarados fired off its Hyper Beam that he saw her prime assets. The light from the attack was enough to lighten the color of her dark black hair, and even the faint strands of orange that accented it. He also saw the blue of her eyes, her pale complexion, her thin facets. She looked so much like Misty.

Once more her features were shrouded by the darkness as the light subsided. Now Ash didn’t know if what he saw was real. It looked real, but then again, none of this war was supposed to be real.

“Misty, behind you!” Mercedes shouted.

“Misty!?”

Misty turned around to fight off her attacker. She wasn’t quick enough though. The Lycan dropped down from one of the trees and threw her ferociously through the third story wall of the Pokemon Tower. Debris plunged down toward Ash in the form of glass shards and stone fragments. Ash narrowly rolled out of the way as some of the debris splashed into the pond beside him or sunk into the wet lawn.

Now with Misty gone, he was truly alone. Of course he still wasn’t sure if that was Misty. But he knew he was alone.

Mercedes was tempted to leap down and defend Ash. She figured that if Misty would risk her life to save him then he must be important. But she restrained herself and denied her temptations to help out a friend in her absence. Plus Misty was a big girl, she could handle herself. It wouldn’t be long before she rejoined the fray. But she didn’t...

Gun shots were thus heard. The pounding of bullets behind sputtered out of nine millimeters and dozens spewing out of long muzzles belonging to automatic rifles. Branches were blown off trees and plummeted to the moist ground. Leaves exploded and their remains fluttered down and were covered with the blown off bark of the trees. Smoke clouded the garden and hid the warriors entering the premises.

“Whose team is that?” Tristan asked irritated.

“Not ours. All the Death Dealers are in.”

“Well then,” Tristan ran his hand through his long hair and wiped his mouth. “It seems we have a war brewing in our coven. Bring me Misty. She’s responsible for all of this. She brought the mortals right to our base! And kill the mortal! He showed the Lycans the way!”  

Mercedes shook her head sympathetically. It was now her job to bring her best friend to be punished, if not killed.

The battle below continued. Every Lycan that stepped within five feet of Ash had its head blown off or its body pumped with silver bullets. The bodies began piling on top of each other as more and more Lycans dropped from the trees and charged toward Ash.

While the battle went on the vampires watched from the cavity as their grounds were used as a battle field for their enemies. The Death Dealers waited along side the corridor inside the Tower for their leader to give them the go to strike back. They stood armed with MP5Ks, six Pokeballs wrapped around their wastes, and their long jackets that surrounded their bodies. Each man had long dark hair, pale faces, glowing blue eyes, and their fangs were slightly protruding from behind their upper lips.

“Not yet.” Tristan twitched his hand downward at them. “They may tear each other apart. At least we will rid ourselves of the Mortals.”

That phrase made a smirk grow wide across his face. For centuries Tristan assumed that the mortals grew weaker and weaker, and that now they were incapable of defending themselves. But that all changed as soon as he saw a blonde woman run onto the field and take down Lycan after Lycan with only a single sai. A silver sai.

Hailen was good, she may even be as good a fighter as Misty; however she wasn’t near as flexible, agile, or powerful. That didn’t stop her from impaling a few Lycans on her way to Ash. Every slash she made the smirk upon Tristan’s face leave even faster. From slide between the Lycan’s legs and slash to its Achilles tendon, to the one hundred foot throw that cut into a Lycan’s eye. She was good; there was no doubt about that. But she couldn’t sense the Lycans, nor could she defend herself if she were caught by one.

It took until she made it to Ash until she was finally down. After kneeling by Ash’s side she tried asking him if he were hurt, if he was bleeding. But before he could answer her she had been picked up and thrown at least twenty feet into the trunk of a tree. She never stood back up after the toss. The thought of her suffering a concussion made Tristan smirk once more.

The Lycans kept dropping in from the trees, leaping over the twelve foot high stone fences. The mortals kept firing at the Lycans as if their guns never ran out of ammunition. Their battle raged on. Their loud screams of pain and suffering, the roars of war all mixed with the gun shots and splatter of blood that coated nearly every tree trunk, and even the leaves and branches.

“Pathetic humans.” Tristan chimed cheerily. “They actually think they stand a chance.” Tristan scanned the battlefield and noticed that all the new arriving Lycans were moving for the black haired human, the same human Misty tried protecting. He realized this battle was over him. “Misty already fucked up our plans. I don’t see why we can’t make our existence known. Kill Misty’s mortal. He’s on our turf therefore he’s our trophy kill. And make sure you don’t hit any vital organs. I want him to suffer.” With that Tristan stepped aside with the same smirk stretching across his face.

As the Death Dealers lined the cavity with their MP5Ks held up against their shoulders his blue eyes illuminated and his fangs grew longer.

(A/N: Please don’t flame me for this.)

He could feel their hearts pound. They were seconds away from pulling the triggers. Next were the glorious gunshots. The mortal was dead! But wait, none of the Death Dealers’ weapons recoiled. The gunshots continued. Tristan realized where the shots were coming from and they were sourced at the middle of the corridor, one level up. Bullets rained down through the intricate wood work and created a circle that soon fell from the rest of the upper level. It crashed on the floor Tristan’s level and there kneeling on top of the third story cutout was Misty with her two pistols aimed down.

Before Tristan could order her restraint she had already ran for the Death Dealers and pushed each one out the cavity of the Pokemon Tower. Some splashed into the water of the pond, others to the soft grass.

“Misty, thanks for dropping in.”

She turned around and was met with an open palmed punch to her torso. She flew out of the cavity at a high rate of speed and crashed into the trunk of a tree. From there she slid down and into the pond next to her Gyarados.

Mercedes stood at the edge of the cavity. Her blue eyes swelled with tears, and she covered her mouth with her hand to subdue her sobs. “Misty. I’m so sorry.” She repeated those words over and over as she watched her best fiend fall slowly down the thirty foot distance. She moved so slowly as she fell, at least it seemed like that. But in reality she fell at an increasingly high rate of speed. This was proven by the massive splash of water that erupted as soon as her body made contact with the top of the pond. Once more Mercedes sobbed as her friend was swallowed by the black water.

The Death Dealers were still on the ground level and encircling Ash. Their weapons were already in their hands and pressed against their shoulders, and they looked extremely pissed off.

“Kill him.” Tristan said coolly.

“No! Please, don’t!” Mercedes replied. “Please spare his life. He did nothing to hurt us. He never fought back against us. He wants what we want: the Lycans extinct. And besides if you kill him what would Misty do?”

“Nothing. She’d be dead as well. It’s very simple, Mercedes. It’s Vampires versus Lycans, versus Mortals. Triple Threat. In the end which side will you choose?”

Mercedes stood frozen in front of Tristan. She hadn’t assumed her reaction to Tristan’s orders would result in this. At one end she had the Vampire coven, a safe house where her family was. She had been a part of that family for centuries. But at the other end was a lone vampire who Mercedes had the distinct pleasure of knowing for only four years. Mercedes didn’t really know what would go with Misty. Would they be alone? It was true that Misty was fighting for the mortals, but would they join forces? Would Misty and Mercedes be hunted down as well as the rest of the coven?

But then she saw Misty finally come up for air. Her eyes were open, not glowing blue, but the same blue color. She looked horrified. After all, she had just been betrayed by someone who claimed to be her best friend.

“What about Misty?” Mercedes asked softly, a detectible quiver in her tone.

“She has already chosen a side. And whether that is with the mortals at her side or standing alone, I don’t give a damn.”

“She’s-“

“Dead to us.” Hissed Tristan. “You did nothing wrong, you’re still a member of this family. She was only holding you back.”

“No, I was holding her back. You don’t know of her full potential.”

“What potential? She showed off everything she has going for her! It’s the same trick again and again!”

“No, you’re wrong this time, Tristan.” Replied Mercedes still locking eyes with Misty.

“Am I now?”

“Yes.”

“I see otherwise.” And with that Tristan took his leave into the Tower, leaving both Ash and Misty alive. The Death Dealers soon leapt back up to the second story cavity and followed as well.

Mercedes however remained positioned on the edge, feeling the cold of the air and betrayal. With the rain finally stopping her tears were visible. Her eyes were puffy and bloodshot. Her hands quivered at her side. “You just made the biggest mistake of your immortality, Tristan.”