Flashbacks and the Final Fight

(Battle of the Elements! III)

"Is there any sign of any of them?" asked the adult Misty to both Ash’s.

They rode on their dragons’ heads, looking around for either John, Mary, Neia, or Kyle, yet they were nowhere to be found.

"No!" they both called back.

"This is going to take forever," said the young Misty and looked down at the bluish purple scales of her dragon. "Maybe we should take a break."

"I’m up for that!" said the young Ash, perking up at the suggestion.

**

"What’s going on with the ground sprites?" asked Janelle.

Jim squinted to where the thunder sprites, were, anticipating that they’d be there. And there they were, beating out most thunder sprites and dressing into their clothes as disguise.

"They’re making their way to defeating the army… some of Ella’s army is distracting them, so this’ll be easier. Hmm, Satoshi and Kasumi haven’t found them yet."

Janelle looked over to the four on the two dragons, seeing them slid off the necks of either dragon.

**

The wind sprites were shot one by one from the sky by beams of water, and the bombs started to decrease in the lakes.

The word "Retreat!" was heard throughout the skies and the remaining wind sprites hid back in the clouds. They then awaited Hayato’s next commands.

"We leave. They’ll think we’re going away for good…" he said.

A water sprite went deeper into the water and to what seemed as the leader of the small group.

"What’s going on?" the leader asked. She put her hands on her waist, waiting for a reply.

"They’re going to try and make us think they’re leaving for good," the sprite replied.

The woman tittered. "We’ll attack once they appear from that stupid hide-away cloud of theirs."

"Yes ma’am," the sprite replied, and the sprites surrounding with them nodded.

"Evil will prevail and those rotten kids and their army will fall to their death," she hissed to herself.

**

High up in the volcano in the middle of the island, Christine stared down at the molten lava, in a lotus position (a little harder than regular cross-legged, eh?). She had almost thought she died, but somehow remained to come back to life.

Her dragon was positioned next to her, and her neck was stretched out around her, and she looked at Christine slightly mournfully. The fire dragon occasionally looked down at the lava along with Christine, and then looked back to her.

"My life," she muttered after a few minutes of deadly silence. "is… a lie. I have no meaning." A tear streamed down her cheek and there was a small sizzling noise when it touched the hot volcano surface. Soon more tears rolled down her cheeks, to her chin and when it reached the surface they all…

**

…froze into ice. A crack from the salty water freezing and a ring from the clang of the ice echoed throughout the small room and bounced off the ice walls and stalactites that hung from the ceiling. Stalagmites too amplified the sound and bounced it out the window where the ring and crack disappeared.

"I’m not evil, not good. I can only watch, and wait," the woman said slowly. She looked out from high above the giant mountain on the west coast of the island.

The woman stood up more straightly and dusted the frost off her kimono from pressing against the wall and looking out an opening.

Time passed…

She kept looking out the opening. "I still don’t know…"

The older Ash narrowed his eyes to focus onto the distance. His body became immune for the moment of the ups and downs of his dragon’s walking.

His ears pricked up a little as he concentrated on hearing as well. A voice softly sang through the air, floating past him, and he realized it was only the wind.

"There’s nothing here," he announced to everybody.

"We have to keep searching," said the adult Misty. "I know they’re out here some place."

"Your search ends here," said the young Misty in a frightened tone and tugged frantically on her counterpart’s arm.

They all looked behind them, seeing John, Mary, Kyle, and Neia either in the air or sitting upon a tree.

"So," said Neia, "You had decided to look for us?"

The two dragons growled at the enemy sprites. They now could clearly see the wooden pendants they wore and they smiled devilishly.

"Makes it all the faster," said the old Ash and he along with the other Ash floated up into the air, facing Mary and John.

All four water sprites jumped into the same area, following the thunder sprites’ suits. This left the pokemon, helpless and only sat on the two dragons to watch.

"No army? Nobody here to attack us along with you?" asked the older Misty.

"Hey, this isn’t the armies’ battles, they’re just fighting their heads off for no reason. We don’t want sides being completely taken in this battle," replied Kyle.

"How do we battle?" asked the young Ash sternly. "A duel at a time?"

"No!" a quick reply from everyone was shot at him and he winced.

"Each take a person," said John.

The older Ash faced against Mary and she sneered. The younger Ash went against John and both growled at each other. The older Misty faced against Neia and the younger Misty went against Kyle.

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

"I should say that this is my chance for revenge against your hitting on me long ago, Kyle," said Misty tossing out a spurt of water as a start and he quickly dodged.

"Hitting on you? And since when did I ever start hitting on a scrawny girl like you?!" he retorted, only getting a strong elbow in the stomach.

Misty’s trident glowed a dark blue, the ends swirled with mini twisters of water.

"When you gave Ash and me a so-called tour and you ended up giving me flowers, saying how much I looked so pretty to you, and you kept on going until we left you from boredom and from being scared off by your thoughts."

"I don’t know what you’re talking about, girl. The day I love you is the day the world ends."

"I think it already has."

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

"Not so powerful with your trident, Neia," said Misty, thwacking her with the bar of her trident and Neia tried jumping up to miss it. "What happened to it?"

"I gave it to somebody. To the right hands that will surely destroy half your army," she said.

"A few dozen people don’t matter," she said.

"A few dozen maybe," Neia replied, "but if more were to die, I do suppose we could bend the rules and get some other’s in a tag-team…"

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

A water sprite popped his head out from the water and looked around.

"They’re up in the clouds!" he shouted down to the lake.

Thousands of the water sprites flooded out of the lake along with their leader, who now held Neia’s trident.

"Attack!" a voice called out from above and dozens of wind sprites shot down from the clouds.

"Ha!" said the water sprite and she raised the trident higher above her head.

Hayato was there along with the troops and blew out a hurricane at the leading water sprite, who quickly shot out a twister of water to push it back.

The hurricane became bigger with the water. Hayato furiously beat his arms that were covered in the kimono’s cloth like wings and the hurricane was bounced at the water sprite, even bigger. She threw out another twister and the hurricane started towards Hayato again. This went on several times and the hurricane was now filled with water and spun back and forth from the water sprite to Hayato.

The troops had stopped battling for a moment to watch, if not getting blown away by accident.

All this had included Christine, who watched from above, looking down from the volcano.

"<The power of the trident is large and can destroy many, but when not in the right hands, it can turn against you…>" her voice said inside of the water sprite.

"<And just what are you getting to?>" she asked back.

"<It mean’s ------ ---…>" the voice had been pushed away by a thought in the sprite’s head as she shot out another twister from her trident, only making the cyclone bigger… and bigger.

The hurricane couldn’t take so much water like this and blasted out in a rage. Hayato and the water sprite were both caught in the flash of white light and whipping water, giving them a slash of pain before disintegrating into oblivion.

"General Marina!" the water sprites shrieked.

"General Felost!" the wind sprites cried out.

Linda turned her attention from the water and wind sprites and looked behind her, where a few animals that lived in the mountain slept, for it had quickly turned night. She sat into a cross legged position against the wall with the hole above it and sighed. Maroon hair was cut unevenly at the shoulders and tied up in a loose ponytail, and icy blue eyes reflected what light there was. Her kimono was spread out around her, fluffy edges for warmth.

**

Ella laid down against a tree trunk and jerked off a dried piece of meat with her teeth and chewed it like tobacco. Her face healing quickly, although the bruise was still slightly visible, along with the scratches upon it.

A small boy sat next to her and looked up at her, switching his sight from her face to the dried meat. Ella noticed this and looked back down at the boy.

"What, do you want this?" she asked.

"No, I’m not hungry… I guess." The boy sneered.

"And what’s that supposed to mean?" she asked, taking another bite out of the dried meat.

"I’m hungry for your death!" the boy shouted out and his skin started to rip apart like a crustacean growing out of its shell too fast. Now a tall man dressed in a yellow robe stood, looming above her.

Ella’s eyes grew long and narrowed in fear and although nearly paralyzed, she immediately rolled out of the way before a clash of the thunder sprite’s body could slam upon her.

A twist of vines from behind her squeezed against the thunder sprite, beginning to suffocate him to death.

**

"You know, Satoshi," said Mary, hurling a flash of cackling black electricity at the older Ash, "If it weren’t for the fact I met John, I probably would have gone with you once you reached the right age."

"You would have, but I wouldn’t," he replied with the same attack from his wand.

"Awe," she said, high in sarcasm, "now I feel hurt."

Mary suddenly disappeared into thin air, and Ash looked around, wondering where she had gone. A strike on his back made him fall into the dirt. He looked behind him and up, seeing Mary with an exceptionally large stick she had used as a club.

"And I thought thunder sprites were known for their sorcery," said Ash, snorting.

"Who says a physical attack wasn’t allowed?"

Ash got back into the air, this time hovering on a blue fog that had slight forms and patterns of a curled up dragon. He tapped his wand onto nothing particular like a conductor tapping on a stand before a musical with a band. A couple golden sparks flew out with pure energy.

"Deynatsu… dragon-vines!" he shouted and green vines in the shape of a dragon roared and twirled out of his wand, whipping against Mary’s skin, if not tearing apart some of her hair.

"Erk~!" Mary grunted, trying to free herself from the strong vines wrapping around her like tentacles of a squid. "So… I guess I underestimated you?" she struggled to say, but still with sarcasm so as to say she could still beat him.

"No. Maybe you’ve overestimated me, or your guess is perfect. But maybe we should find out…"

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

The electricity bounced off of John and faded with a few cackles. Ash leaped up onto the back of his dragon, who turned her head near Ash protectively, but he shooed her off.

"Deynatsu… dragon rumble!" shouted Ash, and a visible sound wave was blasted out to John, who lost his flight control and fell to the ground. "Deynatsu underground!"

An earth quake now came to John and he was sucked half way into the crumbling earth beneath him.

He pulled himself out and dusted off quickly. "Natsuyed… shooting star!" he shouted and with a swipe of his arm in front of him, several blazing spinning stars lodged towards Ash and cut him across the cheeks.

"It’ll take more than a few stars to get rid of me!"

**

Linda looked down at Alex. Her slim finger slid along the railing of the window/hole in the snow-capped mountain.

Alex was now dressed as a thunder sprite, slowly bribing another and then killing him or her.

"Psst!" he whispered to one that was aloft in the sky.

"Hey, what are you doing down there?" asked the thunder sprite, crossing his arms.

"I’m workin’ on the horizon. You wanna hear a secret?"

"I’ve got better things to do," he snorted.

"It’s about Mary and John…" he bribed.

"I’ve heard that same rumor over and over… You are really pathetec."

"No… it’s somethin’ different- I’m sure of it," Alex said and the thunder sprite showed a little more interest and looked down at Alex. "I heard they’re joinin’ up with those who wield the black pendant."

"Why would they join up with the metal-heads? They’re in charge of destroying them!"

Alex growled slightly at being referred to as "metal-heads". "Oh, well, it’s just that…"

Alex jumped high into the air and struck the sprite with his whip, leaving a dark red mark across his face.

"Hey, what was that for?!" he barked.

"Let’s see who’s more of a metal-head now!" Alex shouted and continued against the sprite.

"We’re under- AAAHH!" the sprite yelped, trying to warn any others but had been quickly slashed across the face with Alex’s whip.

"You ain’t tellin’ nobody that!"

Linda squinted a little at the small fight, and took out a thin pair of glasses. Her astigmatism faded instantly and she could clearly see the fight.

"Alexander, you fool," she whispered, her voice disappearing into the air.

And he was a fool, a fool that had thought that with the sentence cut off nobody would come. And thus, the point is that the voice attracted many, and eyes began to peep out from the trees around them, and soon heads popped out, along with flashes of light and water spraying everywhere, and the pain was too unbearable to describe after that.

**

"General Shetz! General Shetz!" Ella heard a cry and looked up from the dead corpse. A woman in a green cloak, wearing a hood ran over to her, and she recognized her as one of her best soldiers.

"Landsley? Is something wrong?" Ella asked her.

"We just heard that Hayato and Alexander were killed several hours ago!"

"What?!? Well what about their armies- are they still out there?"

"No, they retreated back to Janelle and Jim, but I doubt any low wills will help us now. We’re all that’s left of armies."

Ella gave a worried impression on her face and her fists clenched.

"Landsley, I want you to get all the armies together quickly, then divide them up into two groups. Have one go against the thunder sprites, and the others against the water sprites, and get all the nurses to help out as much as they can. We can’t afford to lose any more people."

"Yes sir- I mean ma’am."

**

A flash of purple caught the older Ash and Misty’s eyes and they took a quick glance to Jim and Janelle, who were waving their arms and hands frantically, along with shooting various amounts of poisonous liquid in the air.

To Ash, it seemed like it was a puzzle for trying to figure out Pikachu’s body language, but to Misty, she tried putting the blurs together.

Jim gave a wave of his arms forward and back, balancing on the tall tree on one foot like he was flying.

"Hayato…" said Misty, still trying to dodge Neia’s attacks.

Janelle gave a sweet little angel look, batting her eyes and pressed her legs together like a mermaid.

"And a water sprite…" Misty squinted, and ducked before getting a punch. "Fought… with a hurricane… going back and forth… then they both died?"

Janelle and Jim pointed upwards at the dozen wind sprites with gloomy expressions on their faces, drifting around, although there were only 13 there.

"Only thirteen left?!" screamed Misty.

"Stop talking to yourself, Kasumi," hissed Neia, plunging down at Misty and she was knocked into the lake.

"Stay still for a moment, will you?!" shouted Misty and she pulled in Neia before dunking her head in the water and keeping her foot on her head. She turned her focus to Janelle and Jim again.

Jim gave a strong, sturdy look and whipped his hand out like cracking a whip.

"Alexander?"

Janelle gave another boyish look and sneered at Jim. She soon threw herself upon him, making him topple over.

"…died? And there’s only five ground sprites… FIVE GROUND SPRITES?! What the f-!" she didn’t finish the exclamation out of frustration and snorted instead.

Neia tried getting out of the water but Misty’s foot tensed up and she was dunked in once again.

"Then that leaves us with Ella only… and now we’re outnumbered unless we actually kill Neia, Kyle, Mary, and John. There’s nobody else… how did we get into this mess? Why is the war here? Now?"

(*flashback*) (please note the fact that the older Ash and Misty have gone through the same things, but why is something you’ll have to find out later ^_^;;)

"Hmm? What’s this?" wondered Misty, picking up the tiny blue book. She opened it, and saw different dates and Ash’s signature scattered around. "Ash’s journal?!"

She was about to close it if a word hadn’t caught her eye. A word that was very common and written carefully, and it took her conscience away.

"Well, I might as well see what he has about me; no reason not to see what new reasons I can make to pound him to death when I’m angry…"

She read the most current update, eyes watering at the last sentence…

**I only wanted to be with him…**

Although still in their swimming suits, they had gotten away from the giant bird. Ash and Misty stopped to take a rest, panting and sweating from the current event.

She gave Ash a hug and lightly kissed him on the cheek.

"I want to thank you anyway…"

**…no matter what happens, but there was always something confronting us until defeating it…**

They popped their heads out of the water, but a dragon almost snapped its head at Misty, but Ash tried his best to keep its mouth shut and away from her.

"Rasky! Shame on you!" a girl ran over, helping to pull away the purple dragon…

**Through all the help we got, there was always something around that was partly evil…**

She was slammed into the cage before even screaming the word ‘help’. Tears streamed down her face as she looked up at the dark figure with a white, shiny mask.

"Where’s Ash? What have you done with him?!" she shrieked in between sobs.

"Quiet, girl…"

**And soon we end up on a place like this…?**

She and Ash were now teens, fidgeting with the metal pendants.

"What do you think they do?" she asked Ash.

"The wooden ones tried to kill us, do you think these will help us?"

Misty felt a sudden attachment to the pendant with the blue drop of water on it. She held it up to her chest and it glowed a bright blue. Streams of cloth shot out from the pendant and around her body, leaving a long shirt/dress with sleeves that hung down and ended right below her elbow.

Ash did the same, a cackle of electricity shooting around him and golden clothes were placed about in a wizard’s outfit.

"It doesn’t seem to do much harm…" said Misty, patting her body to make sure this was all real…

**There was barely any time when something good happened…**

Misty moved out of the way before her ankle was spiked by Neia’s trident. She jumped up onto a branch, but two glowing eyes gleamed at her.

There was a shrill scream as Misty fell out from the tree with Shaharazad over her…

**We were always fighting against evil…**

She struck her own trident at Lila, but missed, and Lila flew into the air bombing a mini-twister at her…

**…always…**

She was knocked out by a tree trunk against the side of her head and Christine held it up high over her head…

**…I only want the island back to normal… I want to go back to Viridian! I just want peace…**

(*End flashback*)

The last words echoed in Linda and Christine’s heads.

Linda’s hand scrunched up and her eyes narrowed.

Christine stood up from the lotus position and her dragon looked up at her, digging her claws in the hot volcano’s surface.

"I’ve decided who to go to," said Linda to herself.

Christine held up her wooden pendant and gripped it so hard it cracked in half and the short, tight red dress around her faded off.

Covering her bare chest, she walked down some ridged, crumbling stairs that were crudely built in the volcano’s opening, spiraling down like a tower. She went to a small metal box. She opened it, staring at the metal pendant with the fire symbol fused in. The pendant broke into two halves and she placed them on both of her shoulders.

A stream of ribbons flowed around her, coming together as a more lofty dress that drifted around her body, ending at her knees.

**

Linda looked at the two pendants that lay on a dark blue satin cushion. She chose the metal pendant that had the symbol of ice- an icicle fused onto the front. Putting the pendant on the clasp of her loose ponytail, it immediately rolled up to the back of her neck as a more sporty advantage, and her kimono became more of a thick, furry dress.

Linda turned to the scaly part of the wall and slid her fingers along the surface. The wall moved and twitched, and when part of it opened up with a slit, an eye was glaring at her, a golden-brown. It was now revealed as a giant white dragon with silver horns and light blue hairs along its back. Golden claws sparkled and emitted a freezing temperature around it. It gave a large roar that echoed out through the mountain.

**

Ash ducked thinking that Mary had given a kick to his face, but instead was crushed by her boot on the back of his head.

"Evil is darkness, and darkness sucks up light, so just give it up, Ashy-boy," said Mary with a smirk formed on her lips.

Ash felt a deep rage build in him from the nick name, which he hated oh-so-much, although even more with it now turning into an insult.

"Satoshi!" a voice called out to him from behind. It seemed very familiar and was enough to make both Mary and Ash gasp.

Christine stood with her dragon, and a fleet of other fire sprites behind her. She stood wither her arms in a cross position over her chest, covering her shoulders as well.

"How dare you interrupt my battle!" shrieked Mary so loud that John, Neia, both Misty’s, and the young Ash turned to them. They looked at Christine.

"I thought I killed you!" said the older Misty menacingly.

"A resurrection can be made," she said, taking her hands from her shoulders and revealing the two halves of her metal pendant. "When one is of your own kind…"

Everybody lost their voices for a moment.

"Christine…" the young Misty stared at the two halves of the metal pendant.

(*flashback*)

**So then… now I finally know…**

"Oh, a pokemon! What’s this one called?" she said excitedly and patted Pikachu. Pikachu gave a wide smile and Christine laughed…

**Maybe she was psychic…**

Christine stood in front of Ash and Misty. She looked at Ash, looking into his mind, and she could now tell because of the blank look on her face.

A thought did seep into her mind.

Misty never heard it loud enough for her to think it was real. But, what was the second thought?

**I always wanted to know how that journal got onto my lap… Could it be that… it was all a plan from her?**

(*end flashback*)

Misty looked up at Christine with her eyes vertically thinned although watery. Her nose wrinkled and she tried to get into Christine’s mind, but she was blocked in shock and cringed.

The two got a blank look on their faces, and their minds disappeared into darkness and soon they stood in front of one another with nothing else around them.

"<Misty… so now you know? I knew you’d try to…>" Christine said, talking in the darkness, although still able to see Misty.

"<So you were the one who got Ash and me together…>"

"<Yes. Are you mad, then?>"

Misty suddenly jumped out of the darkness and Christine could no longer see her. Misty looked hesitant for a moment and a flint of red appeared on her cheeks. She then fell back in. "<No. I-ah- can’t think of a reason to be.>"

There was a pause.

"<Let me help in your battles.>"

"<I’m glad of your services, and I can understand how you could have gone to a great extent in trying to decide which side you should go on, but I can’t let you do that!>"

"<You’ll never win.>"

"<I’ll never lose.>"

"<But neither will Kyle or Neia.>"

There was another pause.

"<They’re stronger than you. You need somebody to go with you,>" Christine continued.

"<Your dragon can’t battle- only you, and there’s only one of you. Besides, helping me won’t do anything. Water easily defeats fire.>"

"<But I’ll still have a chance against electric.>"

A smirk formed on both their faces from outside, meaning they fell out.

The older Misty switched glances at the two sprites. She walked up to Christine and then faced towards Ash.

"Ash, give me your wand," she said.

Ash walked up to Misty a few steps and handed it to her. Misty tapped the wand on each of Christine’s shoulders where the halves of her metal pendant were as if she were a knight. Out of each tap, there as a small flash of light.

"I now declare Christine on the Metal Thunders!" shouted Misty for all seven to hear, but shaky with concern that this couldn’t be a smart thing to do.

She walked to the older Ash and gave him back his wand.

His ears twitched a little. He looked east, expecting somebody, and everybody else looked east as well.

The ice dragon appeared and set down his head so that Linda could easily walk off.

"Who are you?" asked the older Misty, gripping her trident.

Linda put her hand behind her head, and took off the metal pendant, making her dress disappear and in place was the kimono.

Misty observed the metal ice pendant, looking at the icicle symbol fused on it.

"As long as one is with thunder, I suppose I could help with water. My name is Linda Nasadga, general of ice," said Linda.

"Ice is weak against water- you’ll be killed by Neia and Kyle," said Misty, and gave the pendant back to Linda and she put it back onto her ponytail.

"Ice can still freeze water when powerful enough. You have a little ice power in you- besides, you need the extra help weather it’s a little or a lot."

Misty nodded slowly, still unsure if it would be alright that they were letting in two others in their own battles. Although Linda seemed to give her a feeling that she’d be reliable.

"I’ll let you help me and Misty," she said, referring to her younger self, "but I don’t want you doing all the work, this was supposed to be one against one only."

Linda nodded. "I understand."

Misty set the middle point of her trident on Linda’s head and there was an aura of blue.

"Linda Natsagii, you are now with the force of the Metal Waters!

"Let that battles continue!"

**

Landsley seemed to be surrounded by the water sprites. She gritted her teeth, wondering where to go.

A flicker of blue and bubbles made her jump up and sink into the branch above her. She slipped out on the other side and looked down at the water sprites, who now came out of their hiding places.

The moon cascaded black light down from above all of them. It was now a black sphere in the middle of the sky, and a few planets were seen hovered around it.

Now Landsley appeared nowhere in the complete darkness. There was a whipping sound and a flutter of green and brown before a groan was heard from the ground.

A lantern was lit from another water sprite and they now saw the sprite that had made the groan, who was now dead. A vine was twisted around his neck, and another through his stomach.

Out of a tree, a small green animal jumped down with dark grass blades sprouting out at each step it took.

"Serebii…" it said in a high, but cackling voice.

"Serebii, give ‘em all you got!" said Landsley.

The two foot high creature scampered around upon the water sprites, digging out their skeletons and tossing them into a pile, leaving the skin and muscles to lay in a pile of the corpse…

**

"To kill, or not to kill, that is the question…" said a thunder sprite, and she pinned down Ella on her stomach.

"How about not," hissed Ella. She let out a shrill scream and the sprite covered her ears.

"It’s General Shetz!" cried out one tree sprite. Her personal troops knocked out the thunder sprite.

"Even if you do kill me, you’ll never win the war, you stupid metal-heads," said the thunder sprite.

"Insults only makes the pain…" Ella slapped her. "…harder."

"Not only are you a Metal-head, you’re an uptight bitch, a vixen, a very large piece of…" continued the sprite until suddenly stopping with a squeak.

"Ohhh," Ella pouted, "do be quiet," and she then took out the poisoned pin on of the woman’s side.

**

Jim and Janelle sighed. Their third companion was not only not known, but not with them. Where had he gone? They missed that annoying voice of his, even when he was complaining of all the traveling. Without that member they were nothing.

"Janelle, I miss him!" complained Jim.

"Shut up! We have to put up with it."

"Well, even if we don’t have him, why did we have to join Satoshi and Kasumi?"

"Because we have nothing else better to do!"

Jim pouted a little, and at the same time he gave a confused look at the last reply. They both sighed again.

**

"So, now we get a little challenge, eh?" said Neia.

"Three against two- that’s not fair," said Kyle, and he crossed his arms.

"There is no ‘fair’ in war, Kyle," said Linda, "I was going to go on your side… but it wouldn’t feel right. I think that maybe good was meant to be kept over this island."

"Well, no matter now. Three against two is okay. You know, the power of love is very strong," said Neia.

"Just what are you getting at?" asked the young Misty with one of her eyebrows cocked up.

"You do realize that Kyle and I are a couple- we thought you would have known by now."

"I thought that you wouldn’t believe in love… like Jay," said the older Misty.

Kyle cocked his head like he was throwing the word ‘Jay’ off of her sentence. "You can only believe in love if you’ve experienced it. Jay hasn’t."

"He had a crush on Shaharazad."

"It wasn’t a real crush. He thought he liked her… but with her not loving him back they were both isolated from believing in it. Now stop stalling like a bunch of sissies and fight!"

"Don’t you dare call me a sissy!" cried out Linda and she through out a giant rock of ice at him.

He shot out a stream of water and it shattered.

"Ice doesn’t work on me," he said.

Linda snorted out air from her mouth and frowned.

"Maybe not that kind, but I can still freeze you up," said Linda and this time she showered out several beams of ice.

"Yeah, now take your ice beams like a man, Kyle," said the younger Misty. She teleported in back of him and held his hands tight so he couldn’t escape.

The center beam of ice hit his chest and his upper torso became was then flaked in ice.

Kyle flexed his arms and emitted water from under the ice, giving a strained look on his face until the ice shattered off of him, and Misty was thrown back, landing on Neia.

Neia shook her head uneasily and then teleported in front of Misty in a standing position and aimed her hands at her to shoot out a stream of water.

"No way are you going to kill both of us," shouted the older Misty and she tackled at Neia, knocking her away.

**

Christine took in a deep breath and shot out a blast of fire from her mouth like a dragon. Fire circled around Mary and when it ended she toppled to the ground, body slightly scorched.

The older Ash paused for a moment. "This can’t go on forever…"

Though still clinging onto his thoughts, he recited a spell and thunder crashed down on John.

The younger Ash jumped out of the way from John’s later attack, and shouted out "Deynatsu dragon bomb!"

He threw a black bomb with a symbol of a dragon with electricity surrounded by it, and it hit John. It exploded and he was thrown back at a tree.

Mary flew up into the air and thought for a moment, then she looked up a little at the older Ash loomed over her and she screamed.

"Gotcha," was all he said and elbowed her in the stomach then followed her downwards, crashing her into the ground.

Christine’s whole body flared up with fire and she dived down at John, her mere touch burning his flesh and he shouted out in pain.

Mary shook her head, then turned her attention to John and Christine. Annoyed by the yelling mostly, she knocked away Christine and she landed on her back.

"Stop that racket!" yelled Mary and she stomped away.

The two looked confusedly up at Mary while she walked away, blinking twice each. While Christine held the face, John turned upon Christine and rammed her into the ground.

**

Kyle narrowed his eyes. He stared at Linda for a moment, and she was prepared to fire an attack.

"Linda, there’s something strange about you… you don’t seem right," he said.

Linda crossed her arms. "If you want something that doesn’t seem right then look in a mirror."

"I think you need to get out of this picture!"

"I’m not going anywhere! As long as there is evil, I’m here to destroy it!"

"You can’t kill any of us because ice is not a ruling element!"

The younger Misty turned away from Neia at hearing this.

"I’d like to know what all this stuff about ruling and leaders is about…" she said silently. "I don’t want to be the leader of anything or anybody. I just want to get this island back to normal before ever getting a chance of leaving it."

"Misty, stop daydreaming, I can’t fight Neia alone," said her older counterpart, gripping her shoulder to turn back to their battle.

The young girl turned to the woman, and looked up at her eyes. It was both their eyes. Now she was really looking at herself.

The older Misty looked back down at herself. Her eyes were so wide, clear, and full of color. But her own eyes had grown small, dull, tired of looking at tragedy for years. This wasn’t the kind of woman she should have grown into. She needed a simple, gentle life that had the small adventures, and she needed somebody to make all the tragedy seem small and petty. The older Misty suddenly felt a small, but deep sense of envy inside of her when looking down at her younger self.

The young Misty looked up at the tall, slim figure; scales shimmering in the light from the thunder sprites, and a cold, blue aura surrounding her ever so lightly. It looked like she was looking through a window into the future, and perhaps she was for a moment. The only thing making it real was the hand through that window and on her shoulder.

When Misty used to picture herself as an adult when she was young, she’d always think of a tall, beautiful woman with long red hair wearing a white blouse and a blue skirt down to her knees. Her eyes still the same: large and blue like the ocean.

But no. She looked up at a towering woman with her red hair streaked with the dark of night, cut unevenly with most likely a sharp rock, a black sleeveless shirt and black pants that ended at her knee cap, and here eyes as mossy as swamp water. Was this the kind of person she’d become if she never left the island? If nothing ever returned to its happy state? If evil would remain?

‘I don’t want to become that way…’ Misty turned to Neia to fight.

‘I can’t become like this…’ She prepared to fire out a powerful streak of water, and her shirt/dress flapped as wildly as it could from behind her from pressure.

"You hear me?! I’ll never end at this point!" she shouted out and blasted out water and it hit Neia square in the stomach. She was bolted back against a tree.

Kyle looked behind him. At Neia, who struggled to get up.

"The kid’s got spunk," he said to her.

Neia nodded and looked at Linda, who was preparing for another attack. "You know, Linda really doesn’t belong in this battle- she’s just a waste of time… we need to get rid of her."

"I agree… but how?" asked Kyle.

Misty, Misty, and Linda looked questioningly at Neia and Kyle.

"Don’t just stand there!" shouted Linda.

Kyle and Neia jumped up high in the air and landed in the center of their battle area. Both blasted out water and it swirled around in a whirlpool, blazing with blue, white, and black.

Neia and Kyle looked up at Linda, their eyes glowing with dark blue. A psychic wave was blasted at her, uprooting the ground it touched as it zoomed by. The whirlpool became a twister and engulfed her as the wave hit her, and she was thrown, unconscious, into it.

Soon, Neia and Kyle disappeared, and only a whisk of blue energy was left.

"Where did they go?!" screamed the younger Misty.

The older Misty tried searching for any of them through her mind…

"I can’t get a reading of where they are."

**

The tree sprites looked up at the sky. It was becoming darker, darker, darker…

Pitch black. None of the groups could see now.

"Damn it, how are we going to fight like this?" asked one of them.

A lantern was lit, for so they thought. The small group that was supposed to be against the thunder sprites turned around. The light was only emitted from the cackling electricity.

"Bye-bye," he said, and the light went out.

There was a moment of confusion and several screams before a real lantern was lit, and it shone upon the area. The thunder sprite was gone, but what was left were a few people, blood splashed over them.

**

Linda twitched a little, waking up, but waking up made her feel immense pain. She pressed her hands on her temples. It wore off after a moment, and she remembered what just happened.

"Neia? Kyle? Where are they?" she wondered.

She then realized she wasn’t out at a clearing in the forest, she was in an empty, blank, dark room with no windows, no doors… no anything.

"Where am I?" she wondered and stumbled up.

Linda shivered. She thought she heard something, but it didn’t really sound like somebody in the room with her. It seemed so distant… so fake.

She heard it again! Now she was sure she heard something, but where was it coming from?

"Who’s there?" she shouted out.

A light beamed out from nowhere and shone on a woman. Blonde hair was tied in a ponytail that curved to the right and upwards.

Brown eyes stared blankly, and a robe the color of a clear, Earth’s night and the golden staff she held split into two curved spikes, one a little bigger than the other.

"Who are you?" asked Linda, a quiver in her voice.

"I am the sprite of time," she replied, her voice sounding quite mechanical and fake.

"What happened?" asked Linda, she stumbled backwards, looking for a place to lean against in fear.

"Neia and Kyle tried to attack you, but we did you a favor…"

"What?"

A man came out of the shadows, a staff of his own and a midnight blue/purple cloak.

"We have killed Neia and Kyle for you," he said, his deep voice crackling.

A light shone upon Neia and Kyle, both lying on a block, not breathing.

Linda’s eyes widened. "But only Misty was supposed to kill them! Not me! Not you! Not anybody!"

"We can get you back in time if you want," said the woman.

"Fine (anything to get away from you)," said Linda, her nose wrinkling like a prune.

"But you must do us a favor… just like we did for you," said the man.

"What?"

"You must go on the side of evil," said the woman.

"No way! I’ve decided that I’d be good, not evil! And I’ll never change!"

"If you don’t we will kill you," said the woman and in the space between the two curves of her staff balls of light began to form.

"Hmph. Fine… I… I’ll go," said Linda, "But I won’t be liking it."

"Remember, if you ever double cross us, we’ll destroy you one way or another," said the man.

The two sprites, clicked their staffs together, then aimed it at Linda and she gulped.

There was a flash of light, and Linda screamed, but her scream was engulfed by the screeching light.

**

"Say goodbye, Satoshi!" screamed Mary and she was about to kill the young Ash.

He was splayed on the dirt, blood smeared on his forehead, right hand, and there was a tear on his left pants sleeve. He groaned a little, struggling to get up and he slowly crawled.

His older self was no help, he was in the same condition.

Where was Christine? She suddenly disappeared.

"Natsuyed…" John and Mary began, but couldn’t finish.

Christine held their arms in a tight rope of fire and their wrists started to burn. "Okay, get them now Ash!"

Both formed a bow and arrow in their hands.

**

Linda shook her head and got up from the ground wearily.

"Linda!"

"Linda!"

"Linda!"

She kept hearing, and saw the two Misty’s coming towards her and helping her up.

"Are you okay? What happened?" asked the younger Misty.

"I- I…" she stuttered, then remembered what happened. She looked at Neia and Kyle; they were standing, waiting to fight.

"We hope the psychic blast didn’t hurt too much, or that twister.."

"But I went to…" Linda stopped in the middle of her sentence.

"You must go on the side of evil…"

"If you don’t we’ll kill you…"

"Linda, are you okay?" asked the older Misty.

Linda looked up at her sincerely. "I’m sorry, Kasumi," she whispered.

"What?" asked Misty. Although she couldn’t speak another word for Linda punched her in the face.

Misty lightly felt the heat on her cheek, holding a surprised look.

Linda looked as if she were about to cry, but she held it in and walked slowly across the field, going to Neia and Kyle.

"What the hell is she doing?" she asked, still holding her cheek.

"So very glad you came to your senses, Linda," said Kyle with a chuckle.

"Yeah…" said Linda.

"Now let’s get this show on the road!" said Neia, her blue/purple hair flapping in the breeze and she got into a fighting position.

Linda didn’t feel right. She wanted to go back to the other side.

There must have been something to let her just nail those two idiotic sprites she stood by down…

The time sprites, perhaps. Linda thought for a moment. What kind of a sprite is a time sprite? There’s no such thing as a time sprite- even she’d know that and she knew little of the island. Time wasn’t any kind of element and they couldn’t just appear out of nowhere.

They seamed all too fake, as well. Even those dead bodies of Neia and Kyle. She didn’t see a scratch on the bodies- not a bruise, no blood, no twisted limbs of any sort. Or maybe their was a little gray thing on Kyle’s neck. What was it? What could that little gray thing she took a glance of be?

Linda concentrated. She wasn’t fully psychic, but she had a sixth sense of everything and anything she couldn’t explain. Maybe it was related to her well communication with animals. She used to ignore humans most of the time, and when she landed on this island she was able to make good friends of the animals up at the snow-peaked mountains.

Linda closed up on her vision of the dead bodies… maybe they weren’t even dead. The gray thing on his neck… or under his neck?

The skin had been peeling off. She was sure of it. Linda looked at Neia and Kyle; they were waiting for the right time to attack. They reminded her of the time sprites though, and it wasn’t of themselves. They didn’t look a thing like the sprites. Maybe it was how fake the sprites sounded?

Linda stared at Neia and Kyle furiously. Her mouth in a pout and her nose wrinkled up, her fists clenched and she felt herself stiffen under her dress.

"Okay, Linda, on the count of three I want you to freeze those two girls with all you got," said Kyle and he turned too look at Linda for her reply. Although he got none- only a stiff look from her.

"Something wrong?"

"No, nothings wrong," she said and walked next to him, preparing to fire a beam of ice.

"One…" said Kyle and Linda powered up, a light blue aura shining in between her cupped hands.

"Two…" The ball of the starting ice energy cackled with blue spurts of ice.

"Three!" Linda shot the ice beam at both Kyle and Neia, who were frozen with a surprised look on their face from the sudden coldness around them. Their heads were turned to their left just to be frozen in that position.

"Quickly! While they’re frozen!" shouted Linda to the two Misty’s.

The two water sprites were a little surprised at this, but turned to each other, nodded, and aimed their tridents at Neia and Kyle.

**

"But we might kill you!" The young Ash shouted at Christine.

"I can’t let go or they’ll escape!" she shouted back. "Just shoot!!!"

"Ash," said his older self, "This is not a time to be afraid… even if it means killing a friend."

Both Ash’s brought up their bows. An arrow generated it their hands, and they stretched the string back. They aimed. And they shot.

**

The two Misty’s shot out two frantic, wild, streams of water that was mixed in with a psychic blast that made the ground uproot in a trail, leading to Neia and Kyle.

For a moment, the whole place seemed to slow down. They felt a strange feeling come over them. The older Ash and Misty went in a slight shock, knowing the feeling was familiar. They got out of shock, but then went back into shock.

It seemed like time was reversing! The psychic blast and water, along with the arrows kept going back and forth. A visible wave of deformation was trailing all over the island and any other place they could imagine.

"W-W-Wha-ahW-W-W…" Misty tried to yell out, but ended up playing like a broken record, along with everything else.

"It’s happe-eppah-happening again!" the older Ash managed.

"Pi-i-i-i-" Pikachu lost balance and began falling off of the thunder dragon.

"TogEEE-EEE-EEE!" Togechick fluttered around, backwards and forwards off of the water dragon.

After a moment, it stopped. The waves had ended, and everything went forward again.

Pikachu landed onto the ground with a light thump, and looked up and around. Togechick landed back on the water dragon, perched on his head.

At the same time, the psychic blast and water jets hit Neia and Kyle, the ice shattered, and they drifted off into oblivion, leaving only the wooden pendants to drop onto the ground.

The arrows that cackled with electricity bolted into Mary and John’s hearts, but the younger Ash’s arrow on the right pressed through Christine’s as well, and all three of them faded off, and the arrows, and pendants dropped on the ground.

"Christine! I killed her!" the young Ash shouted, wishing he had aimed more carefully and tears started to well up in his eyes.

Ash’s shout was the only noise that had occurred for the moment. Everybody else was silent. The four giant dragons’ long necks and heads swayed towards whomever were next to them, then back.

A wind blew past. The trees that were left swayed in the wind and the gray clouds moved slowly in the black sky. It was still night, but what a night it turned to be.

There was a sudden burst of light from the horizon and everybody stared there. Just a small hint of dark green was shown near the constant light.

Slowly, but surely, a shimmering crescent moon took place from behind the clouds. From then, a bright light dripped, shimmering across the island. It covered the island and the ocean around it until the whole stratosphere was coated with the light.

It had even gone upon Misty, Ash, the dragons, and every other inhabitant around them.

The dripping light then dilated with a ring of delight and the island was seen in a whole knew way.

Although still night, there was a serious change. Grass sprouted from the ground, high, strong, and wild. The trees grew back to life, leaves turning green and giant, plump fruit hung down from each stem.

Animals were returned to their normal state, and every place you’d look, you felt like you were in a dream.

Each pendant, wooden or metal flew off from wherever they were, weather they were on a sprite or not. They all grouped together, the element-symbolized pendants, and faded away with a spark of write.

Then, the sprites. The remaining thunder and water sprites collapsed onto the ground, their evil frowns disappearing and turning to petty pouts, and they got up with a small worried expression on their now large eyes, full of wonder.

Both Ash’s and both Misty’s weren’t sprites anymore. The young versions back in the clothes they usually wore at Indigo Island, and their backpacks returning to them.

As for the older Ash and Misty; Misty wore what she always dreamed of wearing… a white blouse and blue skirt down to her knees. Ash still wore a black T-shirt, although his hat remained away. A comfortable pair of jeans… all that was left for evidence they were ever sprites were their hair and either a wand or trident in hand.

The bright sliver of the moon in front of the sun shone upon them, reflecting off visible planets in the sky. Fireflies fluttered about in the forests and clearing, and waves silently, but powerfully hit against the rocks at the beach. All was well on the island now…

Crystal Dragon: Yeah, figures *I* had to be the one writing the end, and then Alexandria sees if it’s okay (mwahahahaha… I’m adding this in while she’s gone ^_^)

So, what happens now? Do Ash and Misty return? Well, if you asking that last question, you can just anticipate by looking on our site at the next chapter: "On the Road to Viridian City!" or whatever it’s going to be. (Alexandria walks in suddenly) "Hey, what are you doing there?! Author’s notes?!"