Chapter 4 Ash was infuriated, frustrated and just generally ticked. Ash looked around the too familiar white setting and groaned Why me? Why now!?! I had just come back! Why am I being called back to the other world when I was in such a serious situation!?! Ash's questions would not be answered this day. Ash was staring at the rushing yellow light that engulfed him once again. "Waaaaaa!" Ash let out a startled yelp as he was falling. Ash had reappeared over a huge chasm of sorts. Ash then recognized it as the Nightingale Cliffs from the battle of Myren. "Ash! Do something!" Ash looked over to see Pikachu falling right beside him and he grabbed his pokemon. Ash wove the spell and Ash landed with a thump on firm terra firma. "Thank you. Why is it that you pop up in the strangest areas? I mean, a pool and a cliffside?" "You're asking me?" Ash said in a moan. The landing was a little rougher than he would have liked. Then Ash surveyed the area. "Looks a lot better than the last time we were here." Ash said with a smirk. "That's because the last time we were here you had to go into battle." Mew reminded Ash. Ash looked up to see the pink pokemon circling the pair on the ground. Ash grimaced at Mews words. 'My first battle if you remember correctly.' Ash sent telepathically to Mew. Mew sat herself down on Ash's head and sighed. "The first battles are always the roughest. You had better change if we decide to go someplace." Ash nodded and changed his garb to suit this world once again. It was a regular pair of black pants that hugged his hips and was lose in the thighs, his sandals were of the regular brown tanned kind, his shirt and tunic were stark white, and his cape was a long flowing black. The only thing that indicated that Ash was an important person was his hidden backpack and the weapons that ordained his belt. Ash had a sword, a few daggers hidden, the pouch that hid his magik stones and his staff. "We had better get going. I'm sure Garnick is going to kill me if I don't say hello right quick." Ash put up his arms to chant the spell when Pikachu intervened. "Oh no! You are not shoving me through a portal again Ketchum! If you want to get there so badly, you can ride." Pikachu said with a growl. Ash sighed as Pikachu sparked a warning. Ash never understood why Pikachu hated to travel the magic way but maybe he was on to something. "Alright! We'll take Rapidash! I chose you!" Krofost Castle of Fortress Field 'She has to eat sometime.' Garnick thought with a growl. Garnick hated this! With Ash gone, the whole castle seemed to fall into a state of depression. Mysterious wouldn't eat, Bracken was healing slower than normal, Tracey had missed practice this morning and Brock had been so preoccupied with Ash's departure that he knocked himself out this morning during practice. "Even I am feeling it." Garnick said in a sad tone. Ash, he didn't have the heart to tell him that Mysterious had slipped into the worst case of depression that he had ever seen. That was almost a week ago. To top it all off, Mysterious seemed to be hallucinating about Ash. 'She's taking it the worst I think. Poor woman.' Right now, Garnick was taking her something to eat. Mysterious hadn't taken anything to eat in days and Garnick was about ready to sit on her and force it down her throat. Garnick arrived at the door and slowly opened it to reveal-Bracken? "What are you doing!?! Get back to bed at once!" Garnick hissed at the burley man sitting on the princess's beside. Bracken looked up at him with pitiful eyes. "How could he?" Bracken asked Garnick. "How could he leave us like that? How could he leave the woman he loves so easily and us? He may not be from this world but he has people who care about him damn it!" Garnick choked back his own tears and sighed. "You know he had no choice. He doesn't control all aspects of being the chosen one yet. You know that jumping from dimension is not something he can control." Bracken nodded and sighed. Ash would never have left them if he could help it. "If I ever find out that he did it on purpose, Chosen One or not, his butt is mine!" Bracken growled. Garnick understood his feelings. Garnick's gaze shifted across to the sleeping form of Mysterious and his heart almost broke. To separate her from Ash like this was inexcusable. "If he does it on purpose, I will personally help you." Bracken laughed and Garnick joined in too. Then, without warning, Mysterious began to toss and turn. "What?" Garnick let out a yelp of surprise when he realized she was crying. Bracken backed off the bed and looked over at Garnick in shock. "ASH!" Mysterious began to scream Ash's name over and over again. Thrashing around wildly in her bed, Garnick and Bracken had to pin her for fear of her hurting herself. "Hold her down while I chant the spell!" Bracken did as told with great difficulty. Garnick chanted in an un-audible voice. "Ash! ASH!" Mysterious sat bolt upright just as the spell was finished. Mysterious looked around groggily and went back to sleep. Bracken let go of his grip on her and sat down on the floor. Garnick was about to come over when he saw Bracken smack his fist into the floor, denting the wood. "Damn him! Where are you Ashura!" Garnick looked away for a moment and began to think hard. 'What was it that I just felt? I've cast spells over Mysterious before, why did it feel different now?' Garnick dismissed the thought and went out of the room with Bracken, leaving the meal he brought in to get cold. "Ohhh!" Brock said in a groan. When Brock tried to get up, a hand pushed him back down. 'What?' Brock looked up to see a fabulous looking woman staring down at him. Before he could do something he hadn't done in three years, go into full-blown girl mode, she slapped his chest. "Serves you right you idiot!" She growled at him. "Practicing without your helm on right. If Tracey was there, you would have your head on you lap instead of me." "Uh?" Brock looked down to see she was sitting on him and in a panic he tried to sit up. When he was forced back down again he went beet red. "I swear, if you don't stay still, you'll never get back up again!" Noting that her temper was somewhat like Misty's, Brock decided to comply. "And before you start whining about 'it's not good for the men to see me like this' let me remind you that the war is over and you can relax." "But-" Brock was silenced by her putting a finger to his lips. "Just let your little Rose play nurse for a while. I haven't had you like this since before the war started. I like it when you're at my mercy." The woman winked at Brock before she disappeared from his gaze. Brock was so stunned that he didn't move. 'WOW!' Was the only word going through his mind at that moment. Then, before Brock could try and get up, he felt an unfamiliar sensation go through his body and Brock passed out again. At the base of Krofost Castle "Home sweet home. Huh Pikachu?" Ash looked at the pokemon perched on Rapidash's head and sighed. Pikachu hadn't stopped grumbling since they left the chasm. "No pokefood in a can, no pokecenters, no ketchup, no gyms, no badges. Why are we here again? Oh right! My trainer is the Chosen One so that means I have to dimension hop with him." Pikachu said sarcastically. "Cheer up Pikachu. Mew's happy to be home. At least you get to sleep on your own pillow tonight, make fun of some guards and eat chef Jenny's cooking." Pikachu sighed and jumped onto Ash's shoulder. "Let's go give the natives a shock shall we?" Pikachu said evilly. Ash shook his head and laughed. "You have got to stop hanging out with Charizard. I think he's beginning to rub off on you." Ash snickered as he urged Rapidash in a trot towards the castle. "You say that like it's a bad thing." Pikachu snickered. The pair was interrupted when Mew suddenly landed on Ash's head. "We're finally home." Mew said in a singsong voice. "I get to fly aro-ound. I get to fly aro-ound" Mew did a little dance on Ash's head to show her excitement. Ash, Pikachu and even Rapidash had small beads of sweat run down the back of their heads. "You are way too excited to be back here." Rapidash snorted. "I prefer being back where the trails are soft instead of worn into a grove." Ash patted his head. "Well, at least you'll get to sleep in a stable instead of a pokeball. That's a plus at least." Ash looked up to the castle ahead and sighed. Since when did he start thinking that this was his home? It didn't matter really but the feeling of leaving Brock and Misty in such a dangerous situation had him thinking. 'Why do I get a strange feeling that I'm back here for another reason than saving the world? I feel that something exciting and wonderful is about to happen. It's probably my imagination.' First World 'This cannot be happening!' Giovonni, the great gym leader of the Viridian Gym and underground leader of Team Rocket, was at a loss. With the entire network of Team Rocket at his disposal and his position as a pokemon gym leader, he still could not find Ash Ketchum. 'That explosion couldn't have killed him! It's not possible!' It was almost as if the child -no- teen, had fallen off the face of the earth….again! "Sir?" A timid voice asked by the doorway. Giovonni looked up to see his main informant about the Ketchum incident. "What do you want?" Giovonni growled at the cowering grunt. Before the grunt could answer a smirking scientist appeared and sidestepped the grunt. "Lost again didn't we?" The woman asked in a self-confident smirk. Giovonni's eyes narrowed at the taunting woman before him. "Maybe now you will consider my offer?" The man in the oversized chair let out a clenched hiss of anger. "You try my patience Niome." The woman didn't seem to be effected by his anger. "I'll take that as a yes. Have your men get the necessary things, I don't care how and have them delivered to my lab." Giovonni's eyes didn't shift in gaze. There was always something about this woman that he didn't like, it was like she was using him for her own purposes. One day, she would disappear from team rocket and never return. Giovonni's eyes brightened a bit when he thought of her imminent demise. "You shall have your items. " Was all the leader of team rocket would say to her. Niome turned from the office and walked back to her lab. 'Oh, what a fool these first worlders be! You create a few weapons of mass destruction at his command, do some brutality in your work and he trusts you with his secrets!' A light laugh echoed through her now empty laboratory. "Ah, yes soon." Niome thought out loud. The woman then clamped her lips together as if she said too much. 'Soon. You will be mine Ashura Satoshi Ketchum! That fool Krofost will feel my scorn as well! Then, you will all regret your past actions against me and bow down to me as queen!' Niome went back to the poor pokemon that now had her attentions. Laughter ran in her mind as she managed to make the pokemon squeal in terror. Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon or anything related to pokemon. Pokemon and its associated characters are copyrighted by Nintendo/Game Freak. This is a pokemon fanfic created by my mind only. Author Note: Brrrrr! Is it cold in here or is it just me? Sorry to leave this for so long. Anyway, what did you guys think of Niome? And what about the new revelations on the second world? Review and let me know.