Battle of the Elements 2

Zoe yawned and drowsily went into the main cavern. She lit the lantern and shone it over at her dragon, which had a grin on its blood-smeared face, and abruptly looked away, not wanting to think of what he had done to his dinner. She then shone the dim lantern to Ash and Misty. Ash was laying back on the hay stack, snoring away with Pikachu on his jet black hair that now lost the mess from wearing a hat and was smoothed out more. Misty was more sprawled out, and only her feet were kept on her hay stack. The rest of her body was on the ground and her arm placed on Ash's stomach, and Togepi was scrunched in its shell next to Misty.

Zoe smiled a little, and rested the lantern on the wooden pole before walking into one of the two tunnels.

As she left, Ash opened his eyes slowly and his pupils narrowed at the sudden light, although it was dim. He yawned and arched his neck back so his head got deeper into the hay and Pikachu fell onto his face.

"Pfffkffchfu," he said through Pikachu's yellow belly.

He picked him up and off his face, then set him down on the top of the hay stack. He noticed a creamy long thing along his stomach, then realized it was Misty's arm. He poked it a little, and it twitched before curling up, crinkling his shirt and then as if surprised, spread out as a reaction. Misty opened her eyes and took her arm off of Ash's stomach.

"Is it morning?" she said groggily.

"I don't know- I just woke from that lantern," replied Ash.

At first, they weren't sure where they were until looking around and remembering they had slept in the Crystal Cave.

"No more nightmares?" asked Misty getting up and combing her hair with her fingers.

Ash shook his head and sat up. "No... I don't think I had any dreams."

Misty gave him a skeptical look, wondering how somebody doesn't dream in his or her sleep.

"...That I can remember," he said as a last minute finish.

"Did you sleep well last night?" asked a voice and they saw Zoe peeping out from the tunnel.

They nodded.

"Good. Come with me- I have something that might help you on your little trip up the mountain," she said.

"How did you know we were going to climb up the mountain?" queried Misty.

"There's no other place to go," she said, "unless you're going back to those other sprites."

Ash stood up with Pikachu poised by his heel, along with Misty, who picked up Togepi and her trident, and they followed Zoe into the tunnel she was in.

The tunnel had its own iridescent glow to it, and there was no need for a lantern. The crystals sparkled with a silver haze.

They turned to the right where there was a cavern filled with several items that were unfamiliar to Ash and Misty. They looked around, admiring the place with all the trinkets and bottles, coins and crystals. On the wall hung 11 pendants on wooden poles. Each had a symbol on it, representing an element. There would be a pair that was identical except for the backgrounds which were either black steel or wooden, which they suppose would represent a sort of white or whatever was opposite on this island.

"Black for evil and gray for good. That's how it goes," said Zoe and she took two wooden pendants. One had the symbol of thunder and the other of water. The electric symbol was made of wood as well and was carved outwards in the shape of a lightning bolt, painted with yellow. The symbol of water was carved outwards as well, but was shaped as a drop of water, painted blue. Although they looked to see if there was the opposing metal pendant with the lightning bolt and water drop, there was none. There was also a few other missing metal pendants, including one that would have had a purple drop of liquid on it, and that wood stand for an element they wouldn't even think as an element: poison.

"Here, take these," she said and handed the two pendants to them, taking off the string.

Ash and Misty stared at the pendants for a while, and intuitively put it close to their chests. It immediately latched onto their skin and small needles dug into them, releasing a liquid and they both fell onto the floor with the pendants still latched onto them.

Right before they completely rendered unconscious, they could hear running footsteps crunching crystals that chipped onto the floor. They saw a pair of golden boots, and an "ooghf!" coming from Zoe, along with some hard, bare feet that came afterwards.

There was a sharp pain in Ash and Misty's chests as they felt the pendants being taken off as gently as they could. They twitched a little and opened their eyes. Their first tendency was to touch their chests, seeing why there was a sharp pain and where the pendant went. Feeling none, but a shock was sent through them at the site of liquid on their hands, seeing a mixture of a green liquid with scarlet blood and puss.

"Awake I see?" asked woman's voice.

Ash and Misty saw a young woman with blue-green eyes, red hair that flowed down unevenly at her shoulders, and she sat barefoot. She wore a long blue cross between a shirt and dress. The sleeves were wide and ended right past her elbow, and the rest spread out down to her ankle. Along with that was a hood and it all seemed to come together at a black metal pendant with a blue painted water drop in the center. It looked a lot like the metal pendants that was hung up in Zoe's cavern. In her left hand she held a trident, much like Misty's. In her right were the wooden pendants being broken in half; her knuckles white as if with anger.

Pikachu and Togepi sat beside them- they had been waiting patiently for them to wake.

"Hey," she called over behind a huge rock, "get over here; they're awake."

"Huh? Okay," said a man's voice.

A guy came out from behind the rock. He wore that of a wizard's outfit- it was like the woman's clothes but it was golden-yellow, his sleeves were much longer and drooped down more at the end, and the bottom flailed out much more. He held a long metal wand in his right hand along with the same boots as the ones they saw before... which in turn looked like Ash's. It all came together, like the woman's, from a black metal pendant with a shining thunder bolt in the middle. His jet black hair was unevenly cut as if it were by any old sharp object.

"See? I told you that you were cute back then," she whispered to him.

"Well..." he said and cut himself off with a loud sigh and arched his neck back, looking up at the sky in defeat.

"Where are we???" wondered Misty, sitting up and rubbing her eyes a little.

"The mountains," replied the woman simply and stood up.

Ash and Misty looked around, and realized they were about midway on the mountain they had teleported to earlier. There were small concave parts occasionally in the mountain, and they happened to be in one. Behind the rock where the man had stepped from was a tunnel, that must have lead to a cave.

"So now I get to see that young, beautiful face of Misty again?" said the man, kneeling down in front of her and she gave a frightened and confused look.

"Don't do that to her- you're scaring her!" ordered the woman, pulling him back by his collar.

"How do you know my name?" asked Misty, still a bit shocked.

"Ash!" said the woman through gritted teeth, still with her hand on his collar.

"W-what?" the man asked.

"Eheheh," she laughed sheepishly and pushed him away, causing him to fall back on his bottom, "lucky guess."

Ash stared at the man for a moment. "How come he has the same name as me?"

The woman widened her eyes and covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh"- she peeped. 'Darn... this wasn't supposed to happen...'

Misty, being Misty, picked up the woman's thought. She looked over to the dazed man, who was apparently named Ash.

"Myst, geeze..." said the man, rubbing his sore bottom.

Misty started to sort things out. Myst... Ash... Mist... Ash... Misty... Ash, Misty, Ash, Misty, Ash, Misty, Ash...

"Holy shit!" screamed Misty.

Everybody stared at her outburst with a confused look.

"Pika...?" said Pikachu, twitching his right ear.

"Misty, you feeling okay?" asked Ash.

She ignored him and stared at the man and woman like they grew horns and a tail. "Just who are you guys, anyway?!"

"Well, if I said we were still on the same island, would you get an idea?" said the woman.

"And the fact that we're engaged?" added the man.

"That doesn't show them anything," scolded the woman, whacking him with her hand.

"Oh- well fine then," he said and went behind the rock. He came back with an old, but healthy looking pikachu that was taking a nap. "Wake up, boy."

"Pika?" it mumbled and opened its eyes. "Pikapi."

"See? It's Pikachu," said the man and placed it down next to Ash's pikachu.

While Misty calmed down a little, sorting things out, but still staring at the woman, Ash was in complete shock with the pikachu.

"I didn't know there were pokemon here!" he exclaimed and everybody face-faulted.

Misty, who recovered first, grabbed Ash by the collar and shook him when she talked. "Don't you get it, Ash?!"

"No," he replied, shaking his head.

"We're in the future!"

"Well, yeah, a few minutes ago was our past, meaning this is the future, but also our present, but there's still our fu-"

"No! That's not what I mean!" her grip got tighter on his collar.

"Well, then, what do you mean?"

"Ash, we're ENGAGED!!!"

"Aren't we kind of young for that? And you never asked me if we could be engaged, and I really wouldn't know weather or not to say 'yes' or 'no' since what if I still love you but I don't want to really marry you and..." he trailed off when seeing her angry glare at him.

She sighed and let go of him. "You're hopeless..."

"Ash," said the man, putting a shoulder on him.

"What?"

"Let me put this plain and simple, okay?"

"Okay."

"I..." he said, pausing to see if Ash was paying attention, "am... you."

Ash gave a confused look while shaking his head as an 'I don't get what you're saying.'

"I don't think 'plain and simple' will work. You were too dense to do the math," said the woman.

"Hey..." he said, giving her a look.

The woman kneeled in front of him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Ash?" she said in a high voice.

"What is it?"

She lunged forward and kissed him. Ash got a feeling of déjà vu, but he mostly became surprised at this. Misty, who definitely didn't see this coming, gasped at thinking if she'd ever have to do this in the future if she saw a past Ash. Meanwhile, the man, or adult Ash gently covered his mouth as a memory of this started to form in his mind.

"I-I- I'm sorry, miss, but I don't feel the same way, a-a-a-and I already love somebody... that's my own age," he said, scrunching up into a ball.

Misty stood up and sat down next to her adult self.

"Do you see any similarity between us?" asked Misty.

Ash alternated his views between Misty and her older self for a while before pointing out, "Yeah, you look a lot alike... kind of."

"Right..." said Misty slowly, and then she went over to the two Pikachu's. "And do you see any similarity to these two Pikachu?"

"Pika!"

"Pika!" they both said.

"Yes... I suppose."

Misty walked up to her adult self and said, "Get out Togepi."

She made a few little clicking and whistling noises that you'd make to lure over a cat and a shadow of something appeared.

"TogEchick!" it chirped and flew over onto Misty's shoulder.

It looked sort of like her togepi but it had no shell or anything related to it, and instead, it was blue with darker blue triangles over its torso, and it had wings on its shoulders.

"Toge! TogE! Chick!" it said.

"What happened to it?!" screamed Misty.

Her adult form gave a sheepish laugh and shrugged. "It evolved."

"Hey, wow! What's that?!" shouted Ash, forgetting the strange woman had kissed him and looked at the strange creature.

For the last time, everybody sighed...

"Okay," said Ash, rubbing his chin in a thoughtful position, "You mean to say that the portal Misty and I went through just sent us to another place on the same island, but it also sent us 9 years into the future?"

"That's the bones of it," said his future self.

"But... I thought the old island was so happy and cheerful," said Misty, looking at the dark skies with black clouds and the dying forest.

"We don't know what happened either..." said the adult Misty. "But when we landed here the sprites had turned against us and we've had battle after battle with them- each ending in a draw."

Misty had a sip of tea as Ash tweaked at his bandage on his chest.

"...but I see you've taken care of half the job now," she finished the sentence as of her special cognition of finding out how they had actually killed some of the sprites.

Misty finished her tea and set down the spell-made cup on the rock they sat at.

"So, did you meet your future selves at this time?" she asked.

"Yes," replied the adult Ash, "we looked for a portal that would lead us to Viridian City... or any place that would get us someplace near there, and it would also lead us back to the right time, but we couldn't. We still looked on except since we kept track of what time it was, and realized you must have come here and into Zoe's cave... where she tried to poison you." He paused for a second and looked at Ash, then said mainly to him, "and this tea will help destroy the poison that was injected in you."

At this, Ash quickly started to gulp down the tea that was set in front of him, making Misty and her adult self snicker.

"So you met your future selves... what happened to them?" she asked.

The adult Ash and Misty looked at each other for a moment, then hung their heads down.

"We had thought Zoe was our ally, and when she turned against us, that's when our future selves came- before she had pinned us, but then her back wasn't turned and she fought back... and now they're..." Misty trailed off.

"It's strange to hear that you died... when it's actually you-yourself, and not somebody else," said Ash.

There was a small moment of silence except for Togepi and Togechick, who ate some of the meat on the table.

"Now I really wish we were back in Viridian City," burst out the adult Misty and dug her face in (the adult) Ash's chest.

Ash got a sympathetic, and sad, look on his face at watching her and burst out in tears as well, collapsing on Misty, "Me too!"

Misty sweat dropped at this awkward position, but still patted him on the back. She then started to get uneasy of the tears dampening her stomach and looked around for something to make him stop crying.

"Ash, look! Togechick is using its metronome attack!" she said and everybody popped up their heads and looked at Togechick.

"Hey, it's not doing anything!" said Ash, seeing it was just popping in another piece of meat in its mouth.

"I know," replied Misty and poked his nose to get him off her lap, "I just needed a way to prevent my stomach from getting damp."

Ash gave a small frown, only to get a small kiss on his forehead and it turned to a sheepish smile and laughed a little. He looked over to the adult Misty and his laughed turned to a small chuckle.

"Hey, wait a minute- you kissed me!" he said.

They all stared at him blankly.

"Was that a bad thing?" Misty asked.

"Well it's just that... she's... 9 years older and... it's weird and stuff..." he stuttered, not knowing really how he felt about it.

"But it's still me," said the adult Misty in a high-pitched voice so she sounded like the younger version.

"No, I wasn't talking a b o u t y o u, M i s t y..." he said and looked to the young Misty who was too busy chewing food to talk, making him wonder who said that.

"I'm just in different clothes, Ashy-boy."

"Ashy-boy?" repeated both of the Ash's and both Misty's laughed a little.

"Hey, speaking of clothes," said Misty, "isn't that the pendant in Zoe's cave?" she asked, looking at the pendant that was on her adult self.

"Mmhmm," she replied, looking down at it as well. "Black is good in some ways, and gray is bad in some ways. It just happens that these black pendants have helped build our power a little," she looked to Ash, "And this so-called 'Master Magician' over here has his own," she said, poking at the metal pendant on Ash.

"Okay, so I mess up sometimes, nobody's perfect," he said, folding his arms. "And I'm certainly better than Mary and John."

"You three always end up in a draw, that doesn't mean you're better!"

"That's because there are two of them and one of me!"

"Well, you said 'better than Mary AND John, so..."

Ash and Misty sweat dropped as they watched themselves fight. Misty scooted in as close as she could to Ash. "I promise I'll never have a fight with you in a day's range."

"Same," agreed Ash, still with a 'I never thought we looked so stupid when fighting' look on his face.

"...and therefore meaning you are not better than Mary and John!" screamed Misty.

"Yeah, but that's not what I meant when I said 'Mary and John!'"

All of a sudden, they stopped fighting and their eyes widened and narrowed menacingly. Ash and Misty looked at their adult selves, wondering why they had suddenly stopped their bickering. The older Pikachu and Togechick also looked up and around.

"Did you hear that?" said the adult Misty just above a whisper.

"Yeah," replied the adult Ash, "they're attacking again..."

"What? Who? Who's attacking?" asked Ash and Misty.

"The sprites," replied the adult Misty, "and they have one heck of an army along with them."

"An army?" the two kids wondered, but they weren't answered and only grabbed by either of the two 20-year olds.

"Togechick!" exclaimed the adult Misty and her togechick flew onto her shoulder.

"TogEchick! TogE!!"

"Teleport!" she ordered.

"TogE!" replied Togechick and a white surrounded her and Ash/Pikachu, who she held closely.

Meanwhile, the adult Ash was carrying Misty in his right arm tightly and waved his wand in the other. She held Togepi closely and protectively so he was squeezed between her and Ash's stomach.

"Deynatsu... golden dragon- NO!" he cut himself off and the golden spark on his wand stopped. "Deynatsu... green dragon!"

His wand was sparking green and a dragon made out of green electricity came out and waited for them to board on. Ash and his pikachu quickly got on and the dragon swept the three of them upwards on the mountain.

*************************************************

Misty, Togechick, and the young Ash appeared someplace in the large forest by a lake.

"Where are we?" asked Ash.

"Someplace away from Neia and Kyle I hope. We can't attack them head on," replied Misty, "We'll attack when their back is turned."

"Where should we go right now, then?"

Misty looked at the lake, then at Ash. She didn't want to breathe for him. Great, now what was she going to do? Being in the forest would make them too vulnerable.

She put her hand in a low pocket in her shirt-dress and took out a pokeball.

"Staryu!" she shouted and threw the pokeball. Her staryu came out, grunting in its dual voice.

Misty pressed the water drop on her pendant and the blue cloth that was what she wore disappeared into it, leaving her with the old black waterproof shirt and pants that left her mid-riff showing.

"I can't breathe underwater!" exclaimed Ash.

Misty ignored him and fidgeted with her pendant and it started to mold into a strange looking tube.

"Now you will," she said and stuffed one end of the tube in his mouth. "Now grab onto Staryu and follow me."

She and Togechick dived into the lake. Small fins appeared on Togechick's body like a fish and its wings acted like motor on a boat, and long dark blue tail and fin took form on Misty's legs. Ash wrapped his arms around Staryu and it dived into the water immediately, following Misty wherever she'd go.

She looked around the lake, which appeared very small and nothing was in it except abstract forms of rocks and sand at the bottom.

"Hur Hya!" said Staryu, and gestured to what looked like at underwater tunnel (think of Spyro the Dragon: Ripto's Rage (if you have it) when you're in a lake).

They swam through and it became darker.

"I can't see!" said Ash.

Misty held up her trident and it started to glow blue, emitting enough light for them to see.

Once they came out of the tunnel, Ash took a deep breath, took out the oxygen supplier and gave it to Pikachu, who was starting to run out of breath.

"We'll go up," said Misty. Staryu followed her quickly up to the surface.

Ash took a gasp of breath, and Pikachu spit out the tube. Misty picked up the floating object and got it back into her pendant as she got out of the lake with Ash.

Misty's ears perked up a little and she tried to listen for the cries of any sprites, but heard none.

"We'll stay here for the night and I'll try and find out when we should strike," said Misty.

"It's night already?" asked Ash.

They all looked up at the sky and saw only the glow of the moon through the endless darkness and Ash withdrew the question. Misty held the pendant up in front of her chest and it clasped onto her top. The blue cloak streamed out and wrapped around her body.

A wind swept by and Ash shivered and coughed. He almost felt like a popsicle from being in the water. Misty slowly walked over to him and wrapped her hands around him from behind.

"Try not to catch a cold there," she whispered.

*************************************************

"Alright, we're wait up here and attack when their backs are turned if they don't find us," said Ash to the young Misty.

"I don't think anybody can see us through all these clouds," pointed out Misty.

They sat on a floating platform that was somewhere above the clouds in front of the middle of the mountain. Below the dark clouds swirled about like a brewing storm inside an ocean of black mist. With such an altitude, the air was thin and it was hard to breath. All of them started to get a little sleepy from lack of oxygen, and laid down on the 30 feet of land, looking up at the bright moon. The pattern of craters on it slowly made a picture of a dragon.

With such a beautiful sight in the sky, especially since it was a rare moment to see the stars, they didn't mind the chilled air, and almost forgot that they'd be in battle soon.

Misty could smell the scent of Ash and his body heat almost made her feel like it was the younger version of him and she would fall asleep next to him, but when she looked at him, she saw the bigger, older Ash with the wizard outfit and it immediately looked alien to her. But it didn't feel alien, and half her mind told her it was still Ash, and no matter what his age was, she loved him.

Slowly, she moved her head forward and kissed him softly on his lips. With a small hug, she then started to drift off into a dreamland, while Ash gently touched his mouth with his left hand and looked up at the stars, still keeping a close lookout for any sprites.

*************************************************

Misty ran her fingers through the young Ash's hair until they came to an impossible knot and she'd go up to the top again. He was laid down on her lap, lightly snoring with his mouth opening a little with each breath. Her arms were still around him to prevent catching a cold.

Ash turned to his side and his arms slid around Misty's waist, thinking it was still just the 11-year old girl he was in love with, but at the touch of a soft, silky material, he opened an eye to look up and remember just who he was hugging.

"Shhhh..." she whispered, "go to sleep."

She put her left hand on his head to keep it down and prevent him from looking up more often. She leaned against the rotting tree trunk and some of the bark snapped.

"Huh? What was that?" asked Ash, shooting his head up.

"It was just tree bark, Ash. Go to sleep and don't worry about the sprites. You need some real rest," she said a little louder and put his head back down.

Once he settled down a little and let his mind completely drift from his body, Misty propped him up into a position he could stay in while not being held. Misty hugged him tighter at the feeling of the young Ash she once knew 9 years ago.

Eventually, she lay down as well and blinked more heavily. She moved her head closer to him and gently kissed him. Her cheeks became reddened with the slight embarrassment of this, but it was covered with her tiredness and she fell into a light sleep.

Pikachu and Togechick silently watched, almost falling asleep themselves. A distant rumble startled them, and they looked over to the horizon.

"Pikachu?"

"TogEEEE?"

A louder, closer rumble came and Misty cracked open an eye, wishing she could get more "sleep". The rumbles came in steps and the ground shook a little. Gradually, the steps became thicker and the air became colder.

Misty's eyes widened and she shot up, dropping Ash, who then woke up from his ungraceful fall. He yawned and rubbed his eyes a little, looking around for where he was.

"What's going on, here?" asked Ash groggily.

"My... my... my dragon! But I thought he was...!" Misty stuttered and grabbed her trident.

"Poisoned with a sleeping grain?" suggested Ash.

"No- I though he was dead!"

"Dead-? But we met both of the dragons a long time ago and they gave us these large crystal things that are the source of our power."

"Whaaaaaaat?" Misty asked, turning around to Ash. "You mean you got a crystal?"

"Is that a bad thing?"

"NO!!!" she exclaimed, "It only means you're the luckiest boy on the whole island! Why didn't you tell me before?!"

"Well, what's so important about it?" he asked, confused.

"You two got the crystals, meaning you're the most powerful of our line in time shifts!"

"Can you rephrase that?"

"This whole thing goes in a time lapse- there was the original 'us', and they were the ones who saved me and your older self, so later, we came, a bit stronger than them, which is why we're still alive, and now you and Misty come as the oldest- I mean newest- I mean, the latest of our line and you're the strongest!"

"So I'm stronger than you?" he asked.

"Well, not yet. But you will once you're older and develop your skills after seeing me and Ash get roughened up."

"What does that supposed to mean?! You're planning on getting beaten up for our sake?!"

"We don't matter, we were predestined, but you and Misty matters since you're the youngest, and if you die, your older self dies, and if Misty dies, I die. Right now, all me and Ash are trying to do is keep you alive so we can find a portal to Viridian City."

Ash couldn't get much of what she what she was trying to say, but almost fitted in the last puzzle piece, being what she had meant by 'predestined.'

She knew this, and searched around in his mind secretly for what he was thinking of, but before straightening anything out, the small quakes had grown and they could barely keep their ground.

They could now see a clear view of Misty's dragon stampeding towards them in a rush.

"MISTRESS KASUMI! MISTRESS KASUMI!" the dragon called out and slid to a stop in front of the two, who had tried their best to get out of the way of falling trees.

Tumbling out of the several rotting trees that toppled over Misty, she stood up wearily before looking up at her blue dragon, waging his tail and whipping it around excitedly.

"I thought you were dead!" she said, hugging her dragon's snout and warm air breathed slowly on her.

"I though you were sleeping," said Ash, staring at him.

"Sleeping?" said Misty with much sarcasm, "Sleeping grains only works on dragons for a few days."

"But the sprites said..."

"They lied."

*************************************************

Lighting cracked in the sky silently, but many times and danced around the sky. A wind had broke and Ash and Misty were trying to keep hold on the floating piece of land.

After a few minutes had past, they saw Ash's dragon zooming towards them, wings beating furiously and rapidly.

"LORD SATOSHI! I HAVE FINALLY FOUND YOU!" she shouted and landed roughly on the floating land. Once she had, the lighting stopped and the wind died down.

She nuzzled at him and he fell back a little like she was his dog greeting her master.

"But I though you were dead," said Ash.

"I thought she was asleep," wondered Misty, scratching the back of her head.

"Why would she be asleep? She's either dead or alive and thank goodness you're alive!" he said, turning his sentence more to his dragon.

"WHERE IS THE YOUNGER SATOSHI?" she asked, looking around.

"He's with the older Misty," he replied and his dragon looked to the side where the blue dragon and she had split up.

"OH, I HAD THOUGHT THAT WITH THE GREATER POWER, YOU'D BE OVER THERE INSTEAD."

"The greater power? Who has a greater power?" asked Ash.

"WHY, YOUR YOUNGER SELF! HE WAS GIVEN THE CRYSTAL, AND SO WAS KASUMI."

Ash looked to Misty with a bewildered expression.

"Why didn't you tell me you were given one earlier, Myst?"

"I didn't think it was that important... and I thought you may have gotten one as well."

"The thing only enhances the power, it's not the source."

"OH DEAR, I HAD TOLD THEM WRONG, THEN," said the green dragon.

Misty searched through his mind a little, and tried to keep herself from crying when knowing that if Ash and she ever got back to Viridian, he'd disappear along with her older self. Although only gulping down the knot in her throat didn't work and she still had her sad expression.

"Are you okay, Misty?" asked Ash, wondering why her eyes were so red and watery.

"No, I just have an eyelash in my eye," she said and rubbed her left eye like there was something in it.

Ash and his Pikachu gave a skeptical look.

"I don't believe you. And I'm not sure what to think since it's been long since I've seen you this young," he said and kneeled in front of her.

Misty let a tear roll down her cheek, but abruptly stopped crying, hence the fact her eyes were still a little red.

"I won't let Ash or myself leave if it means you're going to die," she said and crossed her arms.

Ash then became invaded from now knowing she had gone through his mind, but concentrated on her statement. "But I don't matter," he protested firmly, "And what good am I? You and Ash-err me- err... umm... the other me are the ones who matter, and I'm trying to keep you alive so that me and your other self can at least go away happy." His tone changed to persuasion and he begged of her not to start a fight.

Misty hugged him and the side of her face leaned into his stomach. Her hands were clasped around at his back and yet another tear slid down from her eye and onto the golden clothing worn by Ash.

"IT WILL BE JUST AS HARD FOR ME, KASUMI," said his dragon, who had seen the small scene. "TO HAVE ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS JUST... DISAPPEAR..."

"But I love him," she whispered and squeezed Ash harder.

"Myst... please, don't..." he didn't finish his sentence, and gave up.

He hugged her back and sighed. Although both knew Misty and Ash would have to leave at some point, unless failing to find a portal, and that their older selves would be gone forever and there will be none of their future or past selves to come and see them, for time can lapse, and they were just trailing last with the end parallel behind them.

"Oh, I might just break apart from that little scene," said a voice, high in sarcasm.

The two let go of each other and looked up, seeing Lila in her translucent form, floating above them.

"AND WHO INVITED YOU HERE," hissed the female dragon, growling at the same time.

"Myself," she replied and whipped down to Ash and Misty.

"So I get a little bundle to destroy you two," she said slyly, "isn't it awkward to be in love with a man nine years older than you?" she asked Misty from behind her shoulder.

"U-u-m-m..." she stuttered with a shiver.

She coiled up behind Ash. "And it seems strange that you love a puny little girl that only ranges her height at below your shoulder."

"Well- I ..."

Both sweat dropped nervously at her remarks.

"And I believe there is just something plain strange about it. Well, killing at least one of you will make it right... Very right..."

*************************************************

"I won't let you hurt him!" shouted Misty. She aimed her trident up Christine and a strong beam of water was shot at her.

Over next to them, Lila's sister was flying all about, annoying the water dragon.

Dodging, Christine jumped out of the way of the water and onto a tree.

"Then I'll give him something to shout about!" replied Christine and tackled at Misty.

"Au~ha!" she gasped as she felt like all the air was squeezed out of her lungs.

Ash dived down at her second, trying to pry away the angry fire sprite.

"Get... off... BOTH OF YOU!" she screamed kicking up at them and both Ash and Christine were thrown off.

Ash shook his head and heavily breathed. He had crashed into a tree, and it fell over into little bits of moldy bark.

"Fire can beat water! It can! It can! IT CAN!!!" barked Christine in a rage and slowly got up, wobbling on one ankle.

"No it can't!" shouted Misty and shot out another beam of water from her trident.

It hit Christine, square in the torso and she went flying back and when she hit the ground, the water went over her with little drops sprinkling at her face. The water started to die down like a hose and she got drenched a little more.

"Catch me if you can!" squealed the little wind sprite, Kinu, and she zipped away from the large blue claw trying to slash at her.

"LITTLE GIRL, YOUR BECOMING QUITE A PEST," boomed out Misty's dragon.

"That's what I'm here for!" she said and flew up, high in the sky. "Haha!" she giggled in a high tone, "Come on, you big fish with legs! Take your best shot!"

"I AM NOWHERE RELATED TO A FISH!" he said and got down on all fours.

He lowered his body so his stomach almost touched the ground, then sprang up high to Kinu. He flapped his wings vigorously, so to keep aloft in the air, for his wings weren't built for flying.

The flying blue dragon swung a clawed hand at her, but she flew out of the way, and didn't get a scratch.

"Slow-poke! You're boring! We have to get some excitement! Maybe Rasky is here!" she said and turned around, "Rasky!"

A large roar cried out in the distance and Kinu smirked. Though there was yet another roar and it sounded more like pain.

A large flash of green and gold caught everybody's attention. A second later, a large purple dragon was dropped to the ground with a thud, along with Lila on top of it, apparently not breathing. Above them, was Ash's dragon along with him and the younger Misty riding on her.

"Rasky! Lila!" Kinu cried out and ran over to them, and the water dragon landed.

"I believe your stereotype-sister has said her last word," said Ash.

His dragon landed onto the ground with dirt flying up from the wings' land flaps and Ash and Misty slid off of her.

"Well, you may have lost the battle against most of us, but the other four have a whole army for you to fight off!" said Kinu, standing up and putting her hands on her hips.

"Well, we'll be prepared for them," said the older Misty and slowly walked up to her. "And you'll never tell them where we are."

"Well, maybe I will, since you'll never catch m-!" but she was cut off before she could launch up into the air by Misty grabbing her arms and holding her firmly. "Let go of me!"

"No way," replied Misty, "you have to answer a few questions first."

"Like what?"

"Like why you're still 14 years old. And that's the same to all the other sprites! While Ash and I are now 20 instead of 11, everybody stayed as their age."

"So you don't know? You're half sprite and it hasn't clicked into your head?"

The two dragons silently scowled at not telling them sooner.

"What hasn't clicked into my head?"

"The fact that sprites only live up to a certain age and then stay that way! But again, you're still part human and so you get older and older, you'll die eventually instead of needing physical death to kill you."

"Wha-?" everybody gasped in shock.

"And 14 is my limit!" she finished while trying to free herself from Misty, who still held her back. "Now let me go!"

"No! Why are you trying to kill us?" she continued to ask.

"I'll never tell," she said and gave a snotty look with her nose high in the air.

"The more you tell us, the longer you live," she threatened.

"Then why should it matter if I'll just die even after I do tell you?"

"The more you tell us, the less painful it will be."

"I'll still just die and it will be worth it since I'd do anything for revenge on Lila!"

"Then goodbye," said Misty.

There was a sharp stinging pain in Kinu's back in three spots, and she only had a second to realize that it was Misty's trident going through her. The second after she was limp and dropped to the ground with blood spilling out from the black silk she wore.

"Did we really have to kill her?" asked the older Ash.

"If we let her go she'd surely tell everybody she saw and we'd be in really deep trouble. We had to," she replied.

"Hey, wait a minute- what happened to Christine?"

"She's no threat to us now- she's too weak to fight us. A sprinkle of water and she's down," said Misty and she started to walk back to the tree trunk she and Ash were at earlier.

Though Christine's hand twitched and clenched into a fist, grabbing some dirt. A drop of water slid down to her knuckle and onto the soil, dampening it.

A sudden feeling of this grasped their attention and they turned to her. But it seemed as if only their stare made her finally breath her last breath and her hand laid limp again, letting go of the dirt.

The older Misty looked down at her pendant, then at herself, who stood next to her, leaning against another tree. She then looked at the two Ash's and secretly eavesdropped on them, for they were whispering quietly on the other side of the clearing by the lake.

"Here, this will probably help during the war. I have a feeling that this is going to be more than any old battle," said the adult Ash and he took off his metal pendant. The clothes around him flailed back into the pendant with a spark of light and he immediately felt like part of his power was drained away. He handed the pendant to his younger self, who took it and stared at it for a few seconds.

"Don't you need it?" he asked, turning the pendant over on the other side carefully.

"I don't need it. I don't matter."

"Thank you," was all he could say.

*************************************************

Misty looked at her pendant and then to herself again. Ash was right- she didn't matter either so why have the pendant?

"Here," she said and took off her pendant. Along with nearly half of her power, her shirt/dress went along with it and sunk into the pendant.

Misty didn't need to ask her what it was for or why she was getting it. She just... knew and gratefully took it.

"But do you really want to give it to me now? You're still stronger than me, and I couldn't do as much as you do," she said. "You could do so much more it than I could."

"That's why you're getting it. So both our power is equal, and it might be easier that way."

Misty nodded and held the pendant over her heart. It glowed a light blue before blue cloth was sprawled over her and she felt a jolt of her power come into her body.

"It feels different," she said, lightly putting her hand over the pendant.

"It's okay. You'll get used to it. It doesn't feel like your own power- more artificial- but the pendant was made to increase the power of anything with the element of water."

"So it could make Neia and Kyle more powerful too?"

"No," she replied, "They need those wooden ones. The metal ones will try and destroy them like the wooden ones did with you. Though you still shouldn't get it into the wrong hands..."

There was a loud shriek and the adult Misty cringed at it.

"You mean like THAT?!?" asked the young Misty pointing at a water sprite that had slipped his way out of the lake.

"You must die, under Lady Neia's orders!" he said and loomed over them.

"HA!" a voice shouted and a splash of purple liquid was shot at the sprite.

The sprite fell to the ground, melting like acid and the two Misty's stared bewildered.

There was a light lavender flicker that they sensed above them, and a figure fell down from the tree and landed with light thud. A shadow was cast over him, and so they couldn't see his face, but they saw he wore a purple cloak and it seemed to emit from half of a metal stone with half of a purple drop. He walked towards them and away from the shadows, and his form was better sought.

He had blue hair... almost like James. In fact, they'd think it was him if his face hadn't had the presence of kindness on him. His eyes flashed with green and he stood solemnly in front of them.

Surprisingly, he bowed deeply with one arm out as a greeting, regardless that the water dragon was growling at him.

"I believe you two are... Kasumi? And Kasumi?"

*************************************************

The woman curtsied and her long pink hair drooped down to her waist. She wore a cloak like the man's, but it was made more as a women's dress and flailed out more. It was obvious she was with the man, since she had that other half of the pendant on her.

"Satoshi and Satoshi, I see. It is a pleasure to meet you," she said and looked down to them, for she was just a little taller than both.

"Who are you?" asked the adult Ash.

"My name is Janelle," she said. "Please rest, I have come as help."

The two only gave a questioning look to think of weather or not she should be believed in or not.

"I have been watching you for some time, and have decided you are of those who are good."

"The last time I ever followed a sprite who said she was good, she turned against me..." the young Ash whispered to his older self.

"She has the metal pendant. She can't be evil if she can stand it," he whispered back.

"Just how long were you watching us?" asked the young Ash, feeling invaded of his space.

"Long enough- although I've probably only been here for as long as you have, and I watched the young one for a week or so."

"A weak?! You've been watching me for that long?!" he exclaimed now really feeling invaded with him and Misty...

"Yes, me and my partner. He wields the other half of this pendant," she said, cupping the half of her steal pendant.

*************************************************

"And you say you're name is Jhim?" asked the older Misty.

"Or is it Jahim?" said the younger Misty.

"Wait, did you say Jhim or Jahim?"

The man sweat dropped. "Just call me Jim."

"Oh, okay," the two girls said.

"So just why have you been watching us, and how are you planning to help us?" asked the younger Misty, putting her hands on her hips.

"My partner, her name is Janelle, and at first we thought you were evil, like all the other sprites we've met. Although seeing that you've done barely any damage, we decided to follow you and see just what was up. Believe me, following you is not an easy task.

"We thought maybe we could help you in your future battle... we've seen the army and there are several elements that you may have some trouble with."

"And just what element are you? What's purple supposed to be?" asked the older Misty.

"Poison."

"Is poison an element? Sure it's a type of something, it's not considered an element, is it?"

The man reached behind him and pulled out a red and white ball. Both Misty's gasped.

"A pokeball?! There aren't supposed to be pokemon living on this island! How can you catch one here?"

"A simple matter," he paused and put the pokeball back in a pocket, "that it's not like I was born here."

Both tried to get into his mind and see just where he was from, but it seemed that he was immune to their telepathy and blocked them off.

"Is something wrong?" he asked the two, who seemed to be in a hard trance.

They snapped out and looked at him for a moment. "Yes," they replied.

"Good. My partner should be..."

"And here he is," said a woman's voice and they saw Janelle with both Ash's.

*************************************************

It had soon become night, and the two new-comers, or perhaps, old-comers disappeared off together someplace, as if used to being someplace else at night than with others.

The water dragon's long scaly neck arched over the old couple curiously and the tip of his tail twitched gently.

"Glad to be back with the old you," said the Misty to Ash.

"Mhmm," he agreed.

"And I missed seeing an Ash the same size as me."

"Mhmm."

"And I missed kissing you," she pulled her face in closer slowly.

"Mhmm."

She held herself back and put her hands on her hips.

"Damn it Ash, say something else besides 'mhmm."

"I love you."

"I already know that! Say something meaningful."

"Err..." he scratched his head a little and shrugged with a sheepish laugh, "I- I don't know what to say."

Misty sighed. "Sometimes, I just don't know why I love you."

*************************************************

The thunder dragon made a small last breath of consciousness before drifting to sleep and her long whiskers were blown up by the warm air.

The younger Misty crossed her arms and turned to Ash from behind the bushes, as they were spying a little.

"And I happen to think the same thing now."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!"

"You know perfectly well what I mean! I don't know how I could possibly love such cubone-head like you."

"And what's that supposed to mean?!"

She replied with a kiss. "That I love you so much!"

"I don't get it."

"You aren't supposed to," she replied.

"Well now I really don't get what you're trying to say."

Misty sighed. "Oh forget it."

*************************************************

"Oh, just lay down," said the older Misty.

"How come?"

"Just lay down."

Ash grudgingly laid down on his back.

"Now close you're eyes," she said and he did so.

Misty crawled over so she was at Ash's head and sat cross-legged. She set Ash's head on her lap and smiled a little.

"Now you go to sleep."

Instead of doing that, he opened one of his eyes looking up at her face, which looked back down at him.

"I said go to sleep, not open your eyes."

"How come I have to sleep on your lap? Shouldn't it be the other way around?"

"If I was on your lap, then how could you go to sleep?"

Ash shrugged, now having both his eyes opened. Misty lifted his head, scooted away and dropped his head with a small thud on the soil. She laid down next to him.

"Better?"

"Much."

Misty gave a look of 'Why is it always his way?', but still settled down, cuddling in to him more. She pressed her mouth against his, and felt him kissing back a little.

*************************************************

"How romantic," whispered Misty, peering over the bushes.

"But that's us, Misty," said Ash.

"So what? It's still romantic." She slid into his lap, looking up at his face. Ash laid down, still with his legs crossed and Misty resting in his lap.

"There aren't any stars as usual," he said, looking up at the black sky, which had then just gotten darker like he had said something to disrupt it.

"I can see a crescent moon," said Misty and she pointed upwards to a white moon that was managed to be seen through the dark clouds.

"I see a cloud."

"No duh."

"And it looks like Pikachu."

Misty looked over to Ash, but upside-down, and saw Pikachu looking over him.

"That's because Pikachu is in your view."

"It was a joke- as in 'funny ha-ha?"

"Ha-ha," said Misty monotonously.

"TogEpi!" said Togepi snuggling up to Misty, who picked it up and said a little goodnight to it. She hummed a slow, small tune and it quickly fell fast asleep, snoring limp in her arms.

While putting it down, she noticed another, deeper, snore and saw it was Ash, who had eventually fallen asleep through lack of talk.

Now both Misty's lay awake under the moonlit night on either side of the shrubs.

"<Why did we fall in love with such dense guys?>" asked the older Misty.

"<Because they're so cute?>"

"<Ash isn't cute.>"

Both laughed a little at this.

"<Because they have some strange irresistible force that makes us love them?>" continued the young Misty.

"<Yeah right.>"

"<Because... because we do?>"

"<Maybe that's a mystery not even the greatest psy could ever figure out.>"

Janelle narrowed her eyes, looking down from a tree at the two Misty's that looked like they just spaced out, looking up at the sky. Jim silently jumped from one tree to the one she was on and watched along with her.

"What are they doing?" whispered Jim.

"They look like they're in a trance."

"Was a spell cast over them?"

"Let's go see," suggested Janelle.

The two people jumped down. Jim landing at the two adults and Janelle landing at the two kids.

"Something wrong there?" asked Janelle, waving her hand in front of the young Misty, at the same time Jim was at the older version of her. The two stopped their spacey look and glared at whoever was looking down on them.

The young Misty immediately detached herself from Ash, who woke up from the sudden lost of weight in his legs.

"What!" she demanded.

"I should ask the same thing, what's..."

*************************************************

"...with the blank look? Are you under some trance?" asked Jim.

"What are you talking about?"

"The blank look you had just a while ago."

"That's because I was in the middle of telepathy!"

"Y-you can use telepathy?"

"What gave you the first clue? And I thought you were following us for a week. Almost all water sprites are half psychic!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"Now shoe! Go away with your girlfriend, or whatever. I'm trying to fall asleep."

"S-she isn't my girlfriend!" he retorted.

"Just leave! Please!"

Jim waved his hands as a "Okay, stop- I'm leaving!" way and jumped up and back to the tree, where Janelle was waiting.

"A couple," she said, "is not something to mess with."

"You're not something to mess with," said Jim with a smirk.

"And just what is that supposed to mean?!"

"It means..." he paused for a second, and without finishing his sentence first, he kissed her.

*************************************************

"Ash, wake up," said the young Misty.

He groggily opened his eyes and rubbed his head. Pikachu jumped into his lap, greeting him.

"Morning," he said, but looking around, he saw that the sky was its usual black and scarlet self. "Err, night, or evening... afternoon?"

"Morning," said Misty plainly.

"We must prepare," said a voice and they saw Jim looking down at them. The thunder dragon awoke and moved her neck forward a little to hear the conversation.

"For...?" they wondered.

"Battle."

"The sprites must have located us by now. We have to find them, hide, and attack."

They could see the older Ash standing by Jim.

"How will we hide?" asked Misty.

"Green dragon?" suggested the older Misty, coming into the conversation with Janelle.

"Yes, but where do we go?" asked the young Ash.

"The best place would be back at the mountains, since they're probably heading back here... we should to climb up, that way we can get a better view."

"Yeah, unless some wind sprites bomb us," said the young Misty.

"Which is where our two Ash's come in," said the older Misty, patting the old Ash's shoulder.

"Wait up. Hold on- you're using me as artillery or something?!"

"Yeesh, like we won't be taking care of any fire sprites?"

"I can fend off water," said a voice.

Looking to the left, where they anticipated the voice came from, they were surprised to see a tree, full grown and blooming with crisp green leafs and the branches were spread out over them.

Though it started to shrink back to its dead form, and out of the tree came a tree sprite with a green dress and brown leather boots on.

Her blue, short hair waved a little from the fall.

"Who are you?" they all asked.

She lightly bowed her head, and when lifting, her eyes glowed a light green. Throughout the rest of the forest, there were glowing green lights in pairs, popping out and they were soon surrounded. After a moment, it seemed as if 20 to 50 tree sprites leaped out of the forest and into the clearing. They looked like a ripple of people, rings and rings of men, women, children, and they all were faced towards the blonde with their heads bowed, in front of the other group of our protagonists.

"At ease," she said and the sprites lifted their heads. She made more of eye contact with the group of half sprites and pokemon. "I am General Shetz. Ella Shetz."

"And you will be helping us on our battles?" wondered the Janelle.

"Wait," said the adult Misty firmly and everybody's attention turned to her. "I forbid any of you to interfere with Misty and my battle against Neia and Kyle, but any of their armies are welcome to be fought off by you."

"Why is that?" asked the young Ash.

There was no answer from her, only a comment from his older self as well, "And I forbid any of your to fight Mary and John. The rest are free at will." He turned to the young pokemon trainer. "It is only our battle with them."

Ash understood now, that after taking a closer look at the two thunder sprites, they must have been searching for the wooden pendants, although they also needed nobody to get their hands on the metal pendants or even half of them.

"I do believe," said the young Misty, who seemed to have come out of deep thought, "that we will be getting our own armies now."

And so they did, as now dozens of wind sprites dived out from the sky, shimmering with blue.

"General Hayato Felost," said a man, who had soft, blue hair and a light blue robe and sturdy, black shoes. He also wore a cape, which was pinned together by a metal pendant with spirals of white and blue.

Finally, it seemed like an earthquake was approaching, but it was actually that people started to pop up from the ground quickly, like plants sprouting out quickly. The last person that tunneled out of the ground was a man with spiky, green hair and she wore a brown out. A metal pendant that had the symbol of a brown sphere.

"General Alexander Jernin'hang," he said with a bit of a country accent.

"Well..." said the adult Ash, "It's -err- nice to meet all of... you."

They seemed surrounded by different elements of sprites. From a birds eye view, there was a mix of gold, dark blue, purple, and two giant dragons on either side. To the north was green, to the south was brown, to the west was light blue, and then, simultaneously, three giant dragons came behind each new army.

Behind all the ground sprites there was a loud rumble until a giant dragon the size of the other two tunneled out. It seemed to be made out of dirt, and each thrust at its wings threw out dirt, although more dirt replaced it. Each step made a pound in the earth and the ground around it shook.

Behind the wind sprites there was a fierce wind that kicked up and everybody's hair was swayed around. A huge blue dragon with gigantic wings and white whiskers everywhere landed gracefully and settled down.

Finally, all the dead leafs around them turned green, fresh, and crisp. The leafs whirled together and formed a dragon, with the leafs being the scales and a razor sharp tail swished about.

"So now you have your own little army," said a voice.

The crowd looked over north, and, sitting on a tree, was Jay, looking as lazy as a bum. Several dozen sprites of the tree element growled at his presents, including the green tree dragon.

"Sure- kill me if you want. I am outnumbered by you, but you're no match with Neia, Kyle, Mary, and John's army. Yes, they will overpower you, conquer the island, maybe all of the dimension..."

"Jay," said the young Misty, "I remember you. You're the guy who had a crush on Shaharazad, right?"

Jay face-faulted, but got up again. "I had no crush on her. And why would it matter? She's dead." He turned his head to Misty a little more and glared at her Togepi in her arms. "And it's all because of your little egg thing."

"Togepi?" wondered Misty, looking down at it.

"To! TogEEEEE!" it said, waving it's arms and legs happily.

"Well, yeah, so maybe it did..." she trailed off, but then came to her senses. "Well, it doesn't matter, now does it?"

"What do you mean? You stand there, loafing around unguarded for me to strike? You are a very crazy girl, Misty. Very crazy."

"Except Togepi DID kill Shaharazad, the girl you had a crush on."

"I didn't have a crush on her, and even if I did, why would it matter?"

"It would matter because you loved her."

"Love?!? That's rubbish! I don't 'love'!"

"Oh, but you do," said Ella. "You love yourself! You're an egotistical brat!"

And just to prove it, there he was, giving her a look, but at the same time giving himself a look of 'perfection.'

"And you don't bathe yourself in jewelry?"

"What jewelry?"

"Well, there's those ugly black things on your boots if you must know."

"Oh, I know what you're trying to do. Like I can fall for that trick?! And how dare you even show your face in front of me, you mis-hap! You son of a bitch! You're a disgrace to all tree sprites just like Shaharazad was!"

Jay's ears twitched, and he seemed filled with anger. "You can leave her out of this!"

"But she's dead. We can use her in any way we want."

"Her body is dead, but her soul lives on!"

"Yes, on as a good soul, for her body was the only thing caressed by evil."

"Hmph," snorted Jay, "I don't need to hear about this nonsense! I'd rather die!"

"Your wait ends hear!"

"Wha-!?"

*************************************************

"Okay, you sack of weaklings, I need you to git' down there and attack at north-east at John and Mary's army!" ordered Alex. He cracked his whip and glared down at his own small troop of ground sprites. "Are y’all followin' me?!"

"Yes sir!" a shout of men and women replied.

"I can't hear you!"

"YES SIR!"

"Now go!" he ordered, cracking his whip again.

The sprites dove down into the ground and tunneled away far north-east under command, leaving nothing but several dozen holes in the ground. Now only the ground dragon remained. Alex made a twirl on his whip and cracked it louder, and the dragon glided over to him. He climbed onto the dragon and peered over on the head.

He then followed, riding the dragon behind the army.

*************************************************

"We're going north and scattering out," said Ella, "we attack at the electric and water armies, and show no mercy!"

There was a cry of cheers and "Yeah!"s throughout the army of tree sprites.

"Now let's move!"

They spread out north, going in different directions, wherever they pleased. Ella got onto the giant leafed dragon and rode her out. following the main group of sprites into the war.

*************************************************

"I know you're all used to fighting directly in offense, but we have no advantage in this war, and we're going for back-up," said Hayato to his army. "Is this clear?"

The wind sprites all nodded simultaneously.

"When I give you a signal, I want all of you to get down from your cover up in those clouds," he gestured to the swirling black clouds above them, "and bomb away onto the water sprites, but don't you dare lay a hand on Neia or Kyle under request of Kasumi!"

The wind sprites again, nodded simultaneously.

"Now scatter!" he ordered.

Immediately, the army of wind sprites flew up in a giant aura of blue when turning translucent and hid in the clouds above, with General Hayato following with his wind dragon.

*************************************************

(**WARNING: The next scene is.. well... a little limey. It doesn’t go THAT far- geeze, it's rated PG-13, right?**)

Ella peered into the cave that was on the left mountain (not the crystal cave if you were thinking that).

"I'll go in. You stay here and I'll tell you if it's safe," she informed the several sprites behind her.

They nodded and she walked timidly into the cave, using her lantern to see her through the darkness around her.

After a few minutes she saw a sudden spark of electricity. She shot her lantern up and to the right where it was coming from. She couldn't see anybody, but felt a draft from behind her, and turning around, she could see a figure loom over her from the shadows.

Outside, the several tree sprites loafed around until hearing a high-pitched scream that echoed throughout the cave.

"General Shetz!" they cried out in a wave of voices and ran into the cave, not caring if they kept bumping into each other from lack of vision.

They could soon see, although surprised at seeing the lantern had been dropped onto the floor and rolled its way down a little bit, still with the fire flickering wildly inside the glass. They looked beyond there, and to Ella, who had a pair of hands on her breasts and her lips were cruelly forced against another's in a kiss. A thunder sprite had sneaked up on her, and looked intent on going on and raping her if it weren't that the sprites had lunged out at him and knock him down. Ella then was freed of a very uncomfortable position, and prepared to kill.

*************************************************

Alexander looked out from the small hole he dug and saw several thunder sprites either whispering, laughing, or talking to each other, not keeping guard.

"What a bunch of losers," he muttered to himself, "Thees'll be a piece of cake." He turned to his army behind him, which had split up around corners of the forest to go on their own. "Okay, each one of you get in their costume and git all the others."

There were several grunts and each ground sprite slowly tripped a thunder sprite, and dragging the victim to them, they'd kill him or her.

A few moments later they'd come out from the ground dressed in the victim’s clothing and would one by one kill a soldier.

*************************************************

Thousands of water sprites were looking around from a few lakes, prepared for a battle, although not looking up at Hayato's army.

"Bomb attack!" was the only thing they heard before a blue blur was swiped across them and their bodies were practically blown apart by the falling bombs from the sky.

Dozens of wind sprites appeared from the clouds, swooping down like airplanes and holding glowing blue bombs of their own power. They'd drop the power ball down onto a water sprite and it would be like a mini-tornado blasting out in their faces.

Although this alerted most of the remaining water sprites and they dived under water so as to make themselves a harder target, and tried their best not to get in the way of the now giant whirlpools waving around in the lakes and even underwater twisters spinning at them.

*************************************************

Janelle and Jim climbed up onto a tree, preparing as lookout for the three active armies.

The four half-sprites sat in couple's facing each other. The adult Misty tended to the four pokeball-less pokemon.

"How did we get ourselves into this mess?" her younger counterpart asked.

"Why us?" asked the old Ash.

"Whatever it is, it's wise not to get any of the pokemon involved with the battle," said the adult Misty, looking up from the four monsters. "I don't care if a sixth of our power went into them, they're still inappropriate for the battle."

The pokemon looked up at her confused at why they don't get to participate.

"And as much as I'd love them to... they're too... well... weak."

The two Ash's looked shocked at her having to use it in that way.

The young Misty could sense this and gave a small glare at the two boys. "Well, they'd be incredibly powerful in a battle against another pokemon, but this is no pokemon battle! This is a war against humans, and pokemon should not be dealt with at this point unless necessary."

The two thunder sprites grudgingly agreed and nodded slightly.

"Now, getting back to what's a little more important, we need to find out a way to get to the other four enemies."

"Right," said the older Ash. "We should start searching for them soon... tomorrow maybe."

"The real question," said the young Misty, "is weather or not they'll be searching for us."

"Yes. They wouldn't just sand there waiting for us," said the young Ash. "And no doubt they'll be in the pairs of Neia plus Kyle and Mary plus John. So maybe we should split up as well and confront them?"

"No. We stay together at all times, and I mean ALL times," said the older Misty. "They might have a trick of psychology and if we split up, they'll all be together and hunt us down by our pairs, outnumbering us by two. We can stay together as four, and even if they are split up, it'll make all the more advantage for us."

"So in other words, we should expect the unexpected and take no chances?" queried her younger counterpart.

"It all seems too easy... Jim and Janelle are watching out for us, we'll take so much of an advantage, and right at this moment we've got a whole army that can put out the others," said the young Ash.

"That's because our battle will be one of the toughest we've ever had, and anybody could turn their backs against us," said the older Ash, crossing his arms.

"Just the more reason to stay together, as long as we know we're the only people to trust," said the old Misty.

"Together," agreed both Ash's.

"All the time," said Misty.

"Let's go!!"

To be continued...

Alexandria's Comments: Truthfully the whole fanfict was at first meant to be very clear to the reader, although C.D. and I keep shifting to different plots and now we are making the reader slightly confused to why all these sprites appear out of nowhere. Heheh- looking at the first chapter, you see that the URL has "Fantasy Dreams" in it, no? We changed it, though.

Crystal Dragon's Comments: Alex, stop giving it away. Well, there will be a "more info" on this chapter later- when we finish. Please note that this fanfict has gone to a simple fantasy/romance genre, to fantasy/romance/dark a little bit, and that's because we had originally wanted this to be romance/dark, but our stupid thought of the sun-up on the second island they landed on clogged it up. Yup, we would have had Ash and Misty land on a dark island where there were dragons trying to trample them everywhere and they'd eventually tame a few, but what was the point of that? Nothing. Well, I hope that-

Alexandria: WE!! IT'S WE!!!

Crystal Dragon: Yes... WE hope that you're enjoying my-

Alexandria: OUR!!

Crystal Dragon: *ahem* OUR fanfict as much as we like to write it. Bye-bye!!!