Part 7! Shadow smiles happily and hands out chocolate chip cookies and soda to all the readers who made it this far.

 

Disclaimer: Shadow does not own pokemon. Shadow holds up a silver pendulum and swings it back and forth, back and forth, while chanting under her breath…

Note: <> indicates telepathic communication, ** indicates thoughts, and italics indicates poke speech!

Timeline: Well, right after part 6

 

Ranma – YEP! You’re absolutely correct! Why do you think Lance ran away?

Lauren Black – Thaddeus is a creep. Did I warn you?

Tmp – Sorry, Lance’s secret won’t be revealed for a while, since Thaddeus is 100% dead. Ash loses his red hair quite soon, as I don’t really mention it any more. Saves him the humiliation…

Part 7: Aftermath

 

            “Where do you think he is?” Ash asked Poliwag as they hid in the hallway, watching pokemon run past.

            I don’t know. But I hope he’s okay. Poliwag said.

            Ash would have said more, but a hand suddenly clamped over his mouth. When Ash looked up, he saw Lance put a finger on his lips.

            “Shh…”

            “Lance, you’re okay!” Ash said in a whisper.

            “Yes, I’m fine. However, I had to kill your uncle, so the pokemon are trying to kill me right now.” Lance said. “Do you know how to get out of here?”

            Ash thought back to his only visit to this mansion. “No.”

            “I guess we’ll have to sneak out then.” Lance said. He sighed and opened a poke ball. “Charmander, can you dig us out?”

            Charmander nodded. It pulled a miniature shovel out of subspace and began digging. After the tunnel was completed, both trainers climbed in and succeeded in escaping from Thaddeus’s clutches. Once they got back to the cave they filled it up again.

 

            “Lance, are you okay?” Ash asked, once they were back in the cave. “You look really drained.”

            “Too much energy use, I guess.” Lance said, as he sprayed himself with a Super Potion. “Your uncle is really cruel.”

            “What did he do? Did he hurt you?” Ash asked in a worried tone. * He can’t have hurt Lance, can he? I remember that he hurt mom really bad… *

 

            “No, I’m fine.” Lance said. * I hate lying to Ash, but I can’t tell him. * “I’m just kind of sore.”

            “Oh.” Ash said. “Are you sure?”

            Lance ruffled Ash’s hair. “Yes, Ash. I’m fine. I’m just going to have to skip a few intensive training sessions. Don’t worry about it.”

            “All right.” Ash said. “I know! I’ll make you dinner in bed! Don’t move!” Ash happily skipped off to make dinner for Lance.

 

            Lance smiled. * He’s so cute. So innocent… I’d hate to shatter that illusion, so I won’t. He deserves a happy childhood at least. *

            < You’re sacrificing your own to make him happy? >
            < I lost that a long time ago, Dragonair. > Lance said. < I lost my childhood when I saw what humans were doing to the environment, when I was engaged at age nine to a man more than twice my age, when I discovered my hidden power and how terrible my parents really were… >

            Dragonair appeared and nuzzled Lance. < Don’t worry. He’ll be fine. >

            “I hope so…”

            Ash hummed as he attempted to fry an egg. The resulting explosion could have equaled a 6.7 on the Richter scale.

            “Ash! Are you okay?” Lance asked, as he ran over.

            Ash pointed to the smoking bits of egg flying around the room. Lance sweatdropped. “How about if I make dinner, Ash?”

            “But I wanted to make you feel better.” Ash sniffled as tears formed in his eyes. * I really tried! I just wanted to make Lance feel better, but I always end up making a mess of things. *

            Lance patted Ash on the head. “Don’t worry about it.” He said. “Tentacruel, could you please help?” The jellyfish pokemon shrugged and began popping the bits of flying egg into its mouth.

            “Well, I guess that will work. What do you want for dinner, Ash?”

            “Can we have hot dogs?” Ash asked.

            “I’ll check. I think we might still have some left.” Lance walked over to the refrigerator and peeked in. “Yes, Ash.”

            “Yay!” Ash ran around doing cartwheels on the floor. Lance smiled, released Charmander, and began toasting the hot dogs. As a reward, Charmander received two hot dogs for supplying the ‘grill’. Charmander happily munched the food.

 

            Ash was playing go fish with his Spearow.

            “Do you have an ace?”

            Go fish! Spearow squawked. Do you have an eight?

“Yep.” Ash said, handing over the card. Lance smiled. Then, he noticed that the wall was still fractured and stained.

“Magneton, could you fix that for me?”

Magneton popped out and hummed as it whirred over to the wall and began welding it together. Lance nodded and took out ketchup and pickles. “Ash, do you want pickles?”

“I can do it myself.” Ash said. “Oh, go fish Spearow!”

Spearow picked up another card with its beak. I win! I’m all out of cards! See? Its last pair of threes lay on the floor.

“Okay, you win!” Ash said. “I’m going to go eat now.”

Spearow nodded and went back into its poke ball to take a nap.

 

Ash and Lance ate dinner quietly. Ash still felt kind of bad for exploding the eggs, but Lance kept assuring him that it was all right.

“It’s fine, Ash. You don’t have to keep apologizing.”

“But I feel really bad.” Ash said as he ate his third hot dog.

“I’m not mad at you.”

“Really? I remember when I was at Uncle Thaddeus’s house. Whenever I made a mistake, he would-.” Ash stopped abruptly.

Lance flinched as his eyes glazed over for a second. The viridian power also allowed him to sense people’s feelings as well, and the memories coming from the young trainer were anything but good.

“Don’t worry, Ash. I’ll never do anything like that to you.” Lance reassured Ash.

“All right…”

“And take a bath after dinner. Okay?”

“Okay! Can I play in the tub with Poliwag?”

“Go ahead.”

 

Lance smiled as Ash skipped off after dinner. < You know, Dragonair. I think that he’s the one who has the hidden power. >

< You mean the one with the power of Destiny? >

< Yes. Maybe I’m wrong… >

< No, I trust you. > Dragonair said. < You haven’t been mistaken in this before. >

< I know. But he’s still too young. And the hidden power doesn’t manifest itself unless absolutely necessary. >

< I guess we’ll just have to wait. > Dragonair said as she yawned. < Good night, Lance. >

< Night. >

 

End part 7! Like it? Hate it? Drop me a review! Flames will be donated to Tasuki.

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