How many years had passed by as he slept secure within this shelter he had created for himself?  When would he return to the people he knew and cared for?  How long would he have to wait for an answer to any of his questions?

Time.  That was the problem.  Too much time now, when before there was not enough.

He cracked open one eye, cautiously surveying his surroundings as he always did upon waking.  He could not afford to be careless, not when so great a task had been laid upon his shoulders.  This time there would be no mistakes, no overconfidence, no failure.

He would not fail again.  The price was simply too high for him to pay.

Slowly he raised his head from where it had rested on his forelimbs, angling it so that he could see through the small opening near the cavern's ceiling.  Blue sky dominated his window, and he blinked in satisfied anticipation of the warmth of the coming day.

He tilted his head again, this time catching the echoes of noises from the outside world, channeled through the tunnel that was the main entrance to his home.  Nothing out of the ordinary was audible to his ears, although the faint music of the clefairy's song left an anxious feeling in his heart.

How long had he waited here, with that song vibrating through every bone, causing his flesh to shiver?

Enough!

Leaving his musings, he pushed himself to his feet, and began the long half-walk, half-crawl that would lead him out into the fresh air and sunshine.  He moved with the sureness of long familiarity, and swiftly achieved release from his self-imposed confinement.

The clear skies beckoned him invitingly, but he had other concerns this day.  There was something different about the clefairy's song, something dark and unpleasant in its urgency.  It was an obvious sign, and he would heed it as best he could.

He stretched his wings, loosening his muscles from their cramped state.  He would see the clefairy first, and hear what they had to say.  Then -

Then he would continue in his duty, and watch over that which he had sworn to protect.

He would not fail this time.

He could not.

"...we're still running a little behind schedule, so if you could delay them for another day or ..." Professor Oak's voice trailed off expectantly as he looked patiently out at her from the videophone screen.

Misty sighed heavily, but nevertheless nodded her acquiescence.  "They're going to know something's up," she predicted, already envisioning the suspicious looks and inevitable questions.  "Keeping the two of them away from Pallet gets harder every day.  Ash was expecting to see his mother here, and it took some fast talking to stop him from heading down there to investigate, especially since she wasn't answering her phone!"

"Ah, yes, well it won't be much longer now, Misty.  I'm sure you'll agree it's worth it when you see what we've accomplished - "

An urgent beeping intruded into the Professor's ramble, cutting it thankfully short.  He frowned at something just offscreen.

"Could you wait a minute?" he asked, then put her on hold before she had a chance to say anything.  Great.  Couldn't he just have let her hang up?  The delay was much briefer than she'd expected, however.  Professor Oak's face was soon visible once more - as was that of an old friend.

"Brock!" she greeted him in surprise.  Only a couple of weeks had passed since he'd hosted them in Pewter City; not long considering months often passed by between their meetings.  "Is something up?"

"It seems so," he replied, his voice deeply serious.  "Remember those reports I told you we'd heard about, of pokemon going wild and attacking other pokemon and people?"

"Of course I remember."  The reports hadn't been much more than rumours and speculation amongst people travelling to and from the city, really, but something told her that this was no longer the case.  "You've found something more?"

"Finally," he nodded.  "Something is definitely up with some of the pokemon here, and I don't know what's causing it."

"I think it would be a good idea if you took Ash and Gary to Pewter City to investigate this situation," Professor Oak declared.

Misty sighed, closing her eyes for a brief moment.  She'd just known that was coming.  At least it gave her a half-decent excuse to start with, but...  "If something really is going on, then shouldn't you be the one to go, Professor?"

"Oh, I will," he assured her.  "In a few days, after we've finished up here..."

"The situation isn't all that urgent," Brock added, "but it is puzzling.  I would like to hear other opinions on this, but I don't want people getting into more of a panic than they already are, either..."

"Alright, alright," Misty nodded her red head in resigned acquiescence.  "I understand the problems.  We'll head down your way tomorrow."

"Thanks, Misty," he smiled.  "I'll see you soon, then."  The splitscreen reverted to the solo image of Professor Oak as the former Pewter City Gym Leader, now turned Pokemon Breeder, logged off the call.

"Well, that worked out rather nicely," the professor commented with a pleased smile, but it was swiftly lost as a frown crinkled his visage.  "These reports are rather worrisome, however."

"Hopefully worry is all they are, Professor," Misty responded with an optimism that was far from heartfelt.

"Indeed.  Well, I'd better let you get some rest now - you'll have a long day tomorrow.  Goodnight, Misty."

"Goodnight, Professor."  She maintained a bright smile until the screen had faded to black, the let it crumple under the onslaught of emotions that had lain in ambush for that smile throughout the conversation.  She just couldn't help thinking that something bad was going to happen...  She just knew it!  Yet if anyone had queried her on it she could not have been any more specific - there were so many things that could go wrong that she didn't want to think about the numerous possibilities.  She didn't want to be caught by surprise, either, which left her tense in anticipation.

Glass clinked behind her.

She spun around, heart racing at the suddenness of the sound, arms raised defensively, fists clenched for a fight - only to see blue eyes blinking owlishly at her.

"Damn it, Richie!  Don't do that to me!" she snapped, as a wave of relief washed through her limbs.

"Do what?" he wondered as he paused in mid-step.  Misty's eyes lowered to the objects he was carrying, then narrowed sharply.  She stalked her way towards him, reaching his side just in time to rescue him as he began to topple over.

"Thanks," he murmured sheepishly as she righted him, then removed the mostly-empty bottles from his hands.

"I think you've had quite enough," she commented dryly as she placed the bottles carefully away in a cupboard.  Where had they come from anyway?  It wasn't like the staff kept alcohol stocked in the rooms!

"Oh, I know that," Richie nodded a little too vigorously.  "But they didn't think so..."

"'They' being Gary and Ash, right?"  She groaned mentally as Richie nodded once more.  Idiots.  Abandoning Richie to the support of a convenient wall, she marched down the short passageway to the bedroom Ash and Gary had shared for the duration of the tournament.

It looked like a disaster zone, but that was nothing unusual; despite some obvious effort on Gary's part, Ash continued to act like a chaos magnet, drawing his surroundings into a confusion that made sense only to him.  What was unusual were the glasses on the floor in the middle of the room, the thick smell of alcohol in the air - and a semi-glazed-eyed Gary pontificating on his League victory at the half-prone form of Ash.   The latter seemed to be held upright purely by a few strategically placed cushions.

Idiots.

Three steps would have brought her to a stop just in front of Gary.  A second thought to the matter drew her to a halt at two, a marginally safer distance from the pair.

"- and that's why - "

"Gary."

"- always said - "  His dark eyes turned uncertainly upwards,  squinting as he was unable to focus properly on her face.  "Mmm?"

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Talking to Ash," he answered, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, frowning as his attempts to focus his sight met with continued failure.  Misty rolled her eyes in exasperation, while behind her the muffled sound of a laugh was audible.

"Gary," she tried once again to breech the haze around his mind.  "Ash is asleep."

He stared through her for several moments, taking his time to process the information.  "Ashleep?" he echoed in slightly slurred speech, prompting a chuckle from Richie, who was lurking in the doorway.  "Are you sure?"

"Gary, he's snoring."

"He is?"

She covered her eyes with one hand while he leaned over the body of his fallen comrade, checking for signs of life and consciousness.  The first he miraculously found without too much poking and prodding, but the second was far beyond Ash's grasp at that point in time.

"Hey, wake up!" Gary insisted, shaking Ash by the shoulders so that his head lolled like a doll's.  "How are you supposed to know I won our bet if you fall asleep on me?!"

The thump of something heavy landing on the floor managed to capture Misty's attention for a moment, attracting it away from the drunken duo in the centre of the room and towards the third who'd just slid down the doorframe in a fit of giggling.  Misty focused a glare at him, as he was the only one of the three currently in a state to even attempt a logical answer to her question.

"What bet?"

"They bet," Richie gasped out around his laughter, "on who could stay awake longer!"

Misty stared at him for a long moment.  Then, she calmly stepped over Richie and into the hallway.  Turning around she rolled him into the room with a nudge from her toe, catching a quick glimpse of Gary's ongoing assault on Ash's defenseless body before slamming the door closed.

Idiots.

At least she'd be able to watch them suffer for it in the morning.

Tyres screeched in protest as he swung the car around a tight corner, leaving him fighting a grimace as the harsh sounds echoed relentlessly inside his skull.

"You know, this road has a speed limit for a reason."

He briefly considered ignoring the comment, as he had all the other 'comments' Misty had lobbed in his direction since he'd first clawed his way back into consciousness.  He almost envied Ash, who was completely oblivious to the young woman's pointed remarks - almost.  The constant moaning and groaning arising from the back seat was just enough to convince him that the pathetic wreck of a human lying there, curled on his side, under the watchful eye of his pikachuu was not worth envying.  Besides, he was sure she'd make up for it later.  And if she didn't, then he would.  He'd had more than enough of her sharp tongue to cover both himself and Ash for the next couple of weeks.  It was time his so-called 'friend' took a turn at being on the receiving end.

Course of action decided, he turned his head to glare across at her.  She raised her eyebrow inquisitively as he stared at her through the darkened lenses that were his only salvation form the too-bright morning sun.  He stared some more, and was gratified to see the dawning of apprehension in her expression as she darted quick glances away from him and towards the road ahead.  He continued to stare, feeling his lips start to twitch into a smirk as her eyes widened impossibly.

"Gary!" she hissed at last, driven frantic by his apparent carelessness.  "The road!"

Still smirking at her, he swung the steering wheel without looking, deftly guiding the car along the roadway as it curved around the hill.  He knew the road like the back of his hand.  He didn't have to look.  Or so he thought.

Fear was still etched onto Misty's face - or would 'terror' be more appropriate?  Curious, he finally looked forward again - just as a horn started to blare out in front of them.

"Oh shit!"

They missed the truck by a bare inch as Gary swerved the car onto the shoulder of the road, wheels protesting loudly as their forward motion at last came to a halt.  The quiet that followed was almost deafening in contrast.

"Gary," Misty spoke after a prolonged moment of stillness, her voice deceptively calm, "I AM NOT AMUSED!!!"

The shout triggered a cascade of pain, racing at lightning pace from his ears to his brain and overloading his synapses.  His body only remained upright due to his intense grip on the steering wheel, which threatened to distort its shape.  He sat there, concentrating on the suddenly arduous task of breathing, vaguely aware that Misty was still yelling at him.  Her words failed to register in his mind; Ash's, however, did.

"I think I'm gonna be sick..."

"Not in my car, you're not!"  Spurred into action, he unceremoniously dragged Ash from the floor of the back sea and over to a convenient ditch - just in time.

"Can we not do that again, please?" Ash implored when his retching had subsided, blinking blearily up at his companion.

"I'm not planning on it happening again," Gary assured him.

"You mean to say you planned it this time?!" Misty accused, obviously still agitated about the near miss.  Gary hadn't yet moved past thanking the powers that be that it had been a miss.  Misty's continuing outbursts might possibly have changed his mind as to the merits of such a prayer, except for one salient point: she'd stopped.  Her silent stare was enough to gain even Ash's shaky attention.

"What's up, Misty?" Ash managed, pale-faced as he was.  "Pikachuu?"

The bright-yellow pokemon was also gazing steadily in their direction from its position by Misty's feet.  It was only then that Gary realised that they weren't staring at them, but past them.  He turned his head, catching Ash's dark eyes for a brief moment as he started to look behind -

A battle-cry from Pikachuu was all the warning he had - and was the last thing that he remembered before the darkness swallowed him whole.

"So."

The word was anticipation given voice, the emotion echoed in the expression of the boy who had exhaled that single word so eloquently. His violet hair was ruffled gently by the breeze as he gazed around the small clearing at the multitude of eyes focused upon him.

So.

He gestured with one hand, and an ekans darted up out of the ground at his feet.  He smiled tenderly, resting the satchel he carried on the ground, kneeling on one knee as he reached forward to caress the pokemon's smooth skin with light touches.  Abruptly, his smile fell like a suicide from a cliff, and the fingers that had touched so gently curled in on themselves, clenching into a bloodless fist.

Surging to his feet once more, he wrenched open the satchel, scattering the contents on the ground before him in a swift, angry movement.

A hairbrush; a scarf; a stuffed toy ekans; a jacket with the letter 'R' blazoned upon it...

"Find them," he ordered tersely.  The forest whispered with life as dozens of small creatures hurried to obey his command; but some were hesitant, looking back at him with uncertain gazes.

"Go!" he snarled, eyes glinting blue fire to reinforce his desire.  Soon no stragglers remained.  He knelt once again, resting his palm on the stuffed toy ekans, as though in mimicry of his earlier actions.

But this time he did not smile.