The Dragon Master IV: Chapter Thirteen

	Lorelei, Giovanni and I crouched beside a window. I looked inside, and saw 
that it was the room that belonged to the first of the Elite Four...Will. He 
was sitting all warm and cozy by a fire, reading a book. I generated my 
katana, and carefully cut open a window. My katana was so sharp, it was a 
silent cutter. I slipped in, and Lorelei and Giovanni followed. I snuck up 
behind Will, grabbed him so that he couldn't get away, and placed my katana 
to his throat for some extra incentive. He must have read my mind, because 
he knew it was me.
	"Bob," Will said. "Giovanni, Lorelei. I could say that it's good to see 
you, but you would most likely kill me. What do you want?"
	"Where is Misty," I demanded.
	"I seriously don't know, Bob," Will said. "I would tell you if I knew, 
because this guy in that black cloak-"
	"You mean trench coat," I corrected him.
	"He only wears that when he goes to meet you," Will said.
	"Go on," I ordered.
	"This guy in the black cloak," Will said, panicking. "He doesn't trust 
anybody anymore. Nobody that stayed with him. I'm actually locked in this 
room right now."
	"Why don't you just Teleport out," I wanted to know.
	"He sealed it with a Dark Shield," Will said.
	"Back to my original question," I said. "Where's Misty?"
	"He never told anyone else," Will said.
	"Who is 'he,'" I demanded.
	"I don't know that, either," Will said sadly.
	"Why don't you just read his mind," I demanded.
	"He's a Dark Master," Will protested. "I can't get in his head. He's not 
just dark...he's evil."
	"No shit," I said. "So you're telling me that you don't know where Misty 
is?"
	"Right," Will replied. I thought about it, and then let go of him.
	"Why did you stick with him," I asked Will.
	"The League is everything to me," Will said. "I had nowhere else to go..."
	"Neither did I," I said. "And yet I still managed to do the right thing."
	"Believe me, Bob," Will pleaded. "If I knew that it was going to turn into 
this, then I wouldn't have stayed." He looked down at the floor, as if 
ashamed.
	"Whatever," I said. "Is there any way out of here?"
	"Yeah," Will said. He pulled a book out of the bookcase and pressed a 
button. A panel opened by the doorway.
	"Through there," I asked Will.
	"Yeah," Will said.
	"How come you never used this to get out of here," I asked, suspicious 
again.
	"There's a Dark Shield blocking it out," Will said. "As a Psychic Master, I 
can't pass it. Good luck." I nodded, and walked through the passageway. Just 
as Will had said, there was a Dark Shield there. I walked through it, and 
Lorelei and Giovanni followed me. at the end of the passage there was a 
door. I pushed open the door, and walked out. When Lorelei and Giovanni 
walked out, I closed it, and found out that the door was a painting.
	"Let's go," I said, walking towards my old chambers. "Giovanni, Mom, go and 
help the others outside."
	"We're staying," Giovanni said.
	"I want to do this alone," I said. "I owe to Misty for not being here..." 
Lorelei pulled Giovanni's arm, and he didn't fight.
	"Good luck," Giovanni said. Those were the first kind words he had ever 
said to me my entire life. I ran away to my old chambers. I opened the door, 
and saw someone in a black cloak staring into the fire. He had his hood 
down. He turned around, and I was shocked.
	"Hello, Bob," he said. I stared in disbelief.
	"Ash," I said, not trusting my eyes. I had always known that he hated me 
for taking Misty from him, but I didn't know that he would do something this 
drastic to get her.
	"Surprised to see me, Bob," Ash asked. "I bet that you thought that I 
stayed loyal to you when this all started. I bet that you thought that I was 
locked in a cell, like the other Masters."
	"You can't be behind this," I said in awe.
	"I'm not," Ash said. "This wasn't my idea. It was Lance's idea."
	"What," I asked, not knowing what he was talking about.
	"That's right," Ash said. But it wasn't his voice. It was Lance's voice.
	"You," I yelled. "How did you do this?"
	"A little help from our friend Will," Lance explained through Ash's body. 
"You see, I am merely a guest in Ash's body. I have been ever since you 
proposed to Misty. After Ash slipped out of the room when you announced your 
engagement to Misty, he took Will aside and asked him to do this for him. Of 
course, Ash never told Will that he was letting me possess Ash's body. If he 
had, Will would've never done it.
	"Will cast the spell, and I am now living a half-life unseen by the human 
eye. The only way that someone could hear what I have to say was to live 
inside someone else. But, in order for that to happen, Ash had to do this 
willingly. And he did."
	"You bastard," I swore, calling my katana to me. Lance called Ash's katana 
to his hands. I swung at him over and over again, hoping that I could kill 
him once and for all.
	I swung at him again, but he flipped over me and stood at the door. I 
looked around the room. I spotted Lance, and he ran. I followed him. He was 
heading down to the dungeons. I had an instant feeling of déjà vu. It was 
the dream that I had in the farmer's basement a while ago. I had to stop it 
from coming true.
	Lance ran down to the dungeons, and I lost him. I looked in the cells, and 
nobody was in them. I heard a metal door slam at the end of the hall. In my 
dream, that was Misty's cell. I ran as fast as possible to her cell, and 
swung open the door. I caught Lance just in time. He was about to suck the 
life right out of Misty with Ash's Dark Mastery. I tackled him, and he fell 
against the wall. I started to wail away at him with my fists, cursing at 
him, and just beating the living daylights out of him. Black energy shot out 
of his feet at huge velocity, and he flew through the wall. I turned to 
Misty.
	"Misty," I whispered to her. Her eyes lightly opened, and she smiled.
	"Bob," she said. I pulled out the Water Ring, and placed it on her right 
ring finger. The jewel in the center glowed blue, and so did she.
	"I'll be right back," I said, kissing her lightly on the lips. I turned to 
glare at the hole Lance had left. I ran through it, and saw Lance up over 
the battling armies. I pulled off my cloak, and called my wings and my 
katana. I followed him up into the sky.
	"Finally caught up to me, eh," Lance said through Ash's body.
	"You will pay," I said.
	"For what," Lance asked.
	"You will pay for Delilah," I started. "You will pay for the spirit of 
every person that you broke trying to control the League. You will pay what 
I had to go through avenging Delilah's death. You will pay for all the 
people that trusted you, and were let down. But most of all, you will pay 
for Misty."
	"Let's go," Lance said. The two of us rushed through the air at each other, 
katanas raised. They clashed so hard sparks flew off. Again and again we 
struck swords, each time getting more sparks produced. I kicked him in the 
stomach, forcing him to fly back through the air a bit. I took this chance 
to attack.
	"HYPER BLAST," I shouted. A small beam of energy went sailing at Lance. 
Right before it connected, the beam exploded into a huge blast. The attack 
knocked Lance back even farther.
	"SHADOW BLAST," Lance yelled, taking advantage of Ash's Mastery. A beam 
identical to mine, save it was black, came careening towards me. I didn't 
have time to react, and the attack hit me full on. I nearly fell out of the 
sky, but stayed in flight.
	"RAIN DANCE," I called. Clouds rolled in, and rain started to fall. 
"ELEMENTAL STORM!" Fire, Ice, and Thunder shot down from the sky, hitting 
Lance forcefully. Lance was severely damaged, and I made sure of it by 
following up by slicing my katana across his chest. It wasn't a deep cut, 
but he was bleeding.
	"We're going to finish this now," Lance said.
	"With pleasure," I replied.
	"Let me rephrase that," Lance said. "I'm going to finish this now." He 
charged at me with Ash's katana. I blocked, and retreated about three yards.
	"Lance, why do you persist," I asked.
	"Because my life wasn't worth living unless I kill you," Lance shouted at 
me. I shook my head.
	"Then I guess that your life wasn't worth living," I said. "It was just one 
big, gigantic mistake." He shouted in fury at me.
	"YOU WILL DIE NOW," Lance emphasized.
	"Then I'm taking you down with me," I shouted. In the pouring rain, the two 
of us charged like madmen at each other. We each had a different reason. 
Mine was to make him pay for everything he's ever done. His was that I had 
previously defeated him three times.
	I charged my katana with dragon energy, and Lance charged his with dark 
energy. As the swords collided, a large sonic boom went out throughout the 
land. The both of us fell to the ground. Lance looked at me, but his figure 
started to change. Ash's body transformed into Lance's.
	"Thank you, Bob," Lance said. "Your energy allowed me to use my own body." 
I was in shock.
	"OUTRAGE," I cried. My fists went up in teal flames. I went over to Lance 
and started to punch the living shit out of him. Each time I hit him, the 
flames on my fists went higher. After the flames could go no higher, I 
jumped up and spin kicked him in the stomach. He fell against a rock.
	I slowly walked up to him. He opened his eyes, and looked back at me. We 
stared at each other for a while.
	"Lance," I said. "I'm going to kill you now. Do us all a favor, and don't 
come back." I rammed my katana through his stomach, giving him the fate that 
was meant for me, as foretold by the Psychic Shard. Lance died, and his body 
changed back into Ash's. Ash looked up at me.
	"I'll see you in hell," Ash said.
	"I know," I said. Ash's head fell, and he died. The two armies behind me 
had stopped fighting long ago to watch the battle. Everyone on the clearing 
gathered around the dead body of Ash, and me. I was still staring at Ash's 
body, when his eyes shot open and glowed teal. What seemed to be a blast of 
wind was expelled from Ash's body, and it flew into the air and far away. 
But before it did, the blast of wind said something to me.
	"It's not over," Lance's spirit said as it whizzed by my ear.
	"Unfortunately," I said, degenerating my katana and calling my cloak. Ash's 
eyes closed once more, and another battle in the war between Lance and I was 
over.
	Everyone was looking upon me and the body of Ash. Not a word was spoken. I 
could hear the rustling of the leaves on the ground; it was so quiet. Then, 
out of nowhere, a clapping broke out. After about three seconds, it had 
erupted into a applauding of shouting, and people knowing that the reign of 
the Man in the Black Cloak, otherwise known as the Man in the Black Trench 
Coat, was over. Out of all of the applause, I heard someone faintly running 
toward me and calling my name.
	"Bob," Misty shouted, running towards me. I made my way through the crowd, 
breaking into a full out run.
	"Misty," I called, getting ever closer to her. When we met, we embraced, 
and I looked in her eyes.
	"Oh, Bob," she said.
	"I'm sorry I didn't come sooner," I apologized. "Is there anything I could 
ever do to make up for this?"
	"You could just shut up and kiss me already," Misty said with a smile on 
her face. I didn't resist, and just fell into her, and she fell into my 
arms. Someone tapped me on the shoulder, and it was Bruno. He pointed to the 
steps of the Palace of the Elite Four. Five figures were walking down the 
steps. One was dressed in a maroon cloak, another one was dressed in a ice 
blue cloak, the third was dressed in a yellow cloak, the fourth one in a 
light gray cloak, and the last one in a cloak that was deep purple. They 
were Chuck, Pryce, Lt. Surge, Falkner, and Will...the Masters that had 
stayed with Ash..the ones who had turned against me...
-                                         End of Chapter Thirteen            
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