"Ash you have to agree! We need to find out what happens to Emerald. What happens here is proably what causes Kanto's war." Gary's image leered at him.
"That means another month here Gary." Ash thought of Misty.
"I know, but we have to pay that price to save our worlds. I...I know how you feel for Misty, Ash." He took in a gulp of air. "I also know as one of Pallet Town's top trainer you have a sense of duty to save it."
"What if Will and Sabrina oppose?"
"We cut contact and wing this alone Ash. We're not the little kids we were back in Kanto. And we can't afford to be at each other's throat either so I'm laying all my secrets down for you."
He told Ash about his grandfather's hidden meeting with Giovanni, of all he heard and saw. With a lot of effort he confessed his love for Misty.
"In the interest of keeping this mission sucessful I bow to you Ash. She loves you and I don't want to speak anymore on this subject. I had my chance and I blew it. Now your turn."
Ash gave Gary every detail of his journey through Emerald so far omitting little mostly the link in which he kissed Misty again. He poured out truthfully and Gary listened. The two felt closer now, like the friends they had once been before rivalary split them apart.
Ace wandered the streets he played in when twenty somewhat long years ago. He had his friends, he had his pokémon, his family except, except he didn't have the girl he loved. He visited the castle walls, watching through the bars he saw a lazy magicarp slap the surface of the pool.
Draco peered on it as well. Cynder nudged Ace's shoulder. He turned to see them not as they were now but, the young things they had once been. He saw Cynder as the small, odd green cyndaquil he had been. Draco was a charmander playing happily with Charcole. The three spent hours exploring every inch of the palace courtyards.
Then Ace had walked happily in the company of Angel. She would laugh at his jokes. She loved his stories, yet she did not love him. She loved another and it wasn't till Ace was older he realized that fact.
Draco remembered this place well, he gave his heart to Charcole promising never to love another. She had sat as a Charmeleon licking his cheek when he uttered his vow. She stopped grooming him, with a whoop she threw her arms around his neck making the same vow.
The love and vow born of it was not meant to be. Chah had not deemed it fit for Draco to take Charcole as his mate. Draco saw it this way but, Cynder was always coming up with excuses to explain that it was Chah's will that the two should be together just not yet.
Ace thought as he walked about his youth. Pain was a real living thing, it twisted it's spined back across Ace's mind. Each spine piercing a forgotten pain. It brought that thought into the light to attack Ace.
He loved Angel since he was four. He longed to be her husband yet, she seemed to draw away from him when he tried to tell her he loved her. He felt he was just a clumsy dolt she out up with. He had been a clutz but, he long had grown out that phase. He trained with the best which killed his akwardness.
When he was given his license to fight Draco he gladly went to every event in Emerald City he could attend. Draco quickly went from contender to champ. Ace turned down the money awards only taking the trophies.
He hoped this all would impress Angel yet, she didn't seem to want hims still. Then it happened. She choice to love another. The flowers he held flew to the ground as he watched them kiss from a distance. He crushed them underfoot. The tears he cried he vowed would not fall uselessly.
At sixteen he threw off his parents' home to fight in Emerald's vast assortment of gyms. Draco slashed, flamed, bit, roared and flamethrew them to the Championship. At Eighteen Ace was renouned as Emerald's Prince of Pokémon. Yet, he felt empty. Angel still loved his friend.
His anger for both caused him to leave. He went to fight obscure gyms for little known titles. He quickly bored himself with Emerald. He went on to sweep Johto clean. Draco evolved in a Johto gym. He tried his luck in Amber, he came back with more trophies then anyone could imagine. He held no Amber titles and he left out that trip.
He was eighteen then. Traveling home was getting harder. No matter how far he ran when he came home they would be there in each other arms. He wanted nothing more of it yet, his love for the family he left behind for two years. He found all the pain waiting baring fangs of discomfort.
Ace discovered many things had changed yet, one didn't Angel. Draco rolled in the lawns with Charcole following right after him. The two played all day. His former friend was out in Johto searching for him. There was big news to tell.
She told them they were to marry by twenty. Screaming in his room, he tore everything apart in sight. He slashed a paiting to ribbons, he stood staring at himself in a mirror. He had to get out of Emerald again.
Outside Draco was proclaiming his love to Charcole. Inside Ace wrote a long letter telling Angel how he really felt. He sealed up. He went to her house hoping his bravery hadn't died yet. But, when he saw her sitting on the porch kissing him he put the letter in his pocket. He found another letter there. Opening it he discovered Amber was inviting him to return for the following year's tournament.
Angel noticed him standing there. She waved him over. He slouched over to the house. She and her love made the big announcement together and as he promised he pretended to be surprised. They invited him to have some coffee with them. He had his own announcement.
"I'm leaving for Amber! They want me to compete against their best. It will take a few months to get there by foot because the gyms on the way are promising also so I'm leaving tonight."
"I want you to be the best man okay?" He offered Ace his hand.
"Draco! Get out of that trash can!" Ace pretended to keep from shaking his hand. He had no trust in his former friend. "Sorry he is been a bit of a trouble maker.
Draco gave him a hurt look. What did he do? He shrugged and kept toasting ants with his tail. Popping them in his mouth he waved back at Ace.
"I should really be going." He waved and leapt from the porch.
He kept his word, leaving that night he enjoyed the freedom of the road again. He was no longer a young man of obligation twenty-four seven, rather he had no troubles to attend to. When his Father decided to retire he would take up his position and lose the privilege of the road.
In Greenfield he debated on sending the letter. In front of the mailbox he tapped it against his forehead. Draco was humming something while he used the box as a drum. Ace crumpled it. Tossing it aside.
Draco picked it up. He remembering seeing humans put these things in the drum. With a big smile he unfolded it and tossed it into the drum. Banging the sides with his paws he kept up with his strange song. Ace was up the street calling him, he sadly left the big blue drum behind.
Ace fell in love with Amber when he returned. Of course he had a hard start making a new life for himself in Amber. Until that night he saw a miracle. Things changed and he was Amber's champion soon. Though nothing could replace the void he felt without Angel's love.
Draco saw the sadness in Ace's eyes. He put a hand on his shoulder and mumbled something in Charizard. Ace smiled back. Cynder patted his back. Smiling he knew he was among old friends. They returned to camp late.
Ace had yet, to find old Philly Slims. He rolled over deciding to look tomorrow. He slept while Draco played in the fields overlooking Emerald.
Ash and James didn't even question why he was so late. Meowth with his big mouth did. Ace ignored him.
Pikachu chased around Draco. It had been sometime sense Pikachu played with a charizard, he was forgeting the games the charizard played were mostly flying games. So Pikachu tried Pika games. Draco was surprisingly able to use agility. Near dawn the two rejioned camp. Cynder had turned down the Pikachu games to track down a female he was smelling nearby.
Brock was tired of Pryce's games. He was near having thirty different pokémon. A month had gone by and he was no closer to learning Pryce's secret.
Someone leapt into the center of the camp that night banging a pot and shouting. Everyone shot up with pokéballs in hand. They flashed a light onto the intruder.
"Nero!" They shouted and welcomed him back.
To be continued.......
-JLB