Chapter 12: Drastic Measures

November 15

Ash tried to crush the Chesto Berry with his bare hands, but couldn't penetrate its thick shell. He had to hammer it a few times against a nearby tree to break it open.

"I hope this works," said Dawn, wringing her hands in anxiety.

"It will," assured Lance. Dawn grunted as she turned away from him.

Brock sighed in exasperation. "Can't you two just get along?"

"I have every reason to not trust him," Dawn argued. "Sure, he saved our lives, but I've never met him before. Even if you guys have, and even if you guys knew him, who's to say he still isn't with the Rocket Empire and is just luring us into some other trap?"

"You have a point," said Lance. His agreement with Dawn surprised the others. "There's no way that I can prove I'm on your side. But there's no way that I can prove I'm on their side either."

Dawn still didn't look too friendly. "OK, if I shouldn't consider you one of them, why should I consider you one of us?"

Ash and Brock both shouted, "DAWN!" at the same time, the two of them taken aback by Dawn's rudeness. Lance, however, only grinned. "You'll get used to it," he said.

Dawn didn't change her rude expression, even after the boys' reprimanding. "Would it at least kill you to change out of that uniform?" She pointed to Lance's Rocket uniform, which he hadn't taken off.

Lance chuckled as he pulled out one of his Poké Balls and threw it, which unleashed a pile of supplies ranging from clothes to food to who else knew what. He grabbed from the pile a bundle of clothes, and then hid behind a tree so he could change.

Ash then took the dry berry residue and rubbed it between his fingers under Pikachu's nose, hoping that the scent could possibly revive him. The residue turned into a powder as he gradually wore away at it, the dust having either flown into Pikachu's nose or into the open air, never to be salvaged again. He went on with this for a full minute, wearing away at the powder until all of it was used up.

Once he ran out of the berry powder, Ash stared longingly at Pikachu, clinging onto diminishing hope that the powder would somehow wake him up. When he didn't he looked over at Dawn, who was shaking her head sadly. He turned then back to Pikachu to see that his nose was twitching.

"Dawn, gimme the rest of those berries!" exclaimed Ash. Dawn shoved the berries into Ash's hands, and Ash then crushed several of them at a time, nearly breaking his hand in the process. The hard shell of the berries cracked open, letting the dry berry powder fall into his hands.

He walked back to Pikachu's body and rubbed the powder between his hands much more vigorously than before, determined that using enough of the powder would eventually wake him up. He had already made his nose twitch, couldn't he make him conscious?

"Ash, it's not gonna work," said Dawn remorsefully, "it won't-"

"It has to work!" cried Ash. Lance was popping his head from behind the tree, seeing what was the matter. He rubbed away at his hands until he could feel the powder filling in newly opened blisters. When he had exhausted what was left of the powder, he looked at Pikachu, who at first still lay unmoving, but then slowly fluttered his eyes open.

Ash sobbed in relief, thankful that Pikachu was awake, and alive for that matter. "Are you alright?" Ash asked through his sobs.

Pikachu looked dazed, yet drew a sly grin on his face. "Pikaaaa," he mumbled as he stood up.

Ash was going to say something about being worried about him, but before he could he felt a rushing force, some sort of supernatural wave wash over him. He registered that it was the Aura before he lost all sense of consciousness.

He found himself staring down at a wide river, flowing elegantly as it snaked and winded its way across the ground. Between him and the river was a steep hill, made of the same dirt and foliage as the forest that they were travelling through. He turned his head to see that this steep hill stretched as far as the eye can see in both directions. It'd be hard to navigate that hill down to the river without slipping and falling…

The scene flashed away, leaving him not in some other vision, but with nothing. Everything was pitch black; Ash couldn't see anything. That's when he realized that he was able to feel something smushed against his face. Dirt. Ash wasn't able to physically feel anything when he was in Aura, so he had to be back in reality.

"Ash?"

He lifted his head up to see everyone standing over him, worried expressions on their faces. Wait a minute, where was Lance? That was when he realized that a splotch of dirt was covering his right eye. Ash wiped the dirt away to reveal Lance, who had changed from his Rocket uniform into his signature outfit, which consisted of a navy blue jumpsuit with red lining down the chest, as well as a black and red silk cape.

"Even you're on the run for your life, you're still wearing that stupid ass cape?" said Ash, smirking.

Lance wasn't amused. "What the hell just happened?" he said sternly. "You were having some kind of seizure, but you weren't twitching, just….shivering."

"It was the aura," Ash said as he wiped the rest of the dirt off of his face.

"Aura?" replied Dawn, "what's that?"

"It's this thing that lets him have these weird visions into the future," Brock explained.

"What was it that you saw?" asked Lance, "anything important?"

"You'd think it would be," said Ash. "No, just some stupid shot of this river. Nothing important at all."

"Maybe there's water nearby," Dawn suggested, "or some other path we can take." Pikachu nodded in agreement.

Lance grinned. "You're stranger than I thought, kid," he said as he helped Ash to his feet. "Let's settle in for the night, it's starting to get late." He turned away before saying, "Oh, and my cape isn't stupid."

Ash chuckled. "Why would you still wear it, though?"

"Sometimes, I feel like it's the only part of 'me' that I have left. Besides, it's more durable than you think. Makes for a decent blanket, too." He grabbed for his Poké Balls as he said, "Any of you have a Pokémon that can make a fire?"

Ash and Dawn both shook their heads, both of them struck by the newly renewed pain of having lost their Pokémon.

Lance smiled. "You're in luck," he said. Of the Poké Balls that were in the palm of his hand, he picked out four of them and threw them into the air. They shot open as they spit out red beams of light, which eventually transformed into Lance's Pokémon.

Of the four Pokémon that stood before him, Ash only knew one of them, which was his Dragonite. He knew what the other two were, an Altaria and a Camerupt, but he didn't recognize the last one, which looked like some sort of flying UFO. He grabbed for his Pokédex, but paused when he saw that Dawn had beaten him to it:

"Magnezone, the Magnet Area Pokémon. It evolves from Magneton in certain magnetic areas, and emits energy from each of its three magnets."

"Hmm," said Brock, looking very perplexed.

"What?" Lance objected.

"You only have one Dragon type," Brock pointed out. "Why'd you switch to…these?"

"Two Dragon types," Lance corrected, "Altaria's part dragon. Desperate times call for desperate measures. My other Pokémon all died off. I had to go with these."

"I'm sorry," Dawn said, her voice filled with newfound sadness.

Lance turned to her with a stern look. "For what? It's not your fault that they're dead. You didn't kill them. So don't be sorry. Don't ever be sorry." Dawn looked at Lance uneasily as he continued. "Being sorry doesn't get you anywhere. Not in this world. Not anymore." He looked at Ash, then Brock, who were both staring at Lance the same way Dawn was. "Someone get a fire going," he said as he began to walk away.

"Wait, where are you going?" Brock asked.

"I'm gonna try to find some wild game before it gets too dark," Lance replied without breaking his stride. "Magnezone, come with me. Everyone else help out the others."

"I'm going with you," Ash offered, "I haven't gotten a chance to try hunting yet."

If Lance objected to him tagging along, he didn't make it known. Instead he walked on as Ash joined him. "Brock, take my walkie talkie," said Lance as he threw it to him. Brock nodded as Ash and Lance walked away from sight, Pikachu following behind them.

When Ash and Lance were out of earshot from them, Ash said, "So I guess I'm just gonna use my knife for this?"

"No," Lance murmured, "you'll use the gun. The silenced one. You haven't been properly trained yet with the knife. The gun won't be the best hunting weapon in the world, but we might be able to nab a Rattata or two."

Ash was somewhat unsettled at the thought of eating wild Pokémon, and even more so when he thought of Pikachu eating this stuff. "Will any of the Pokémon have to eat this stuff?"

It took him a moment to answer. "Not at first," he finally said, "but once we run out of the food that you got they'll have to eat this stuff."

"Don't you feel guilty?" Ash asked, "About feeding them Pokémon? Or eating them yourself? Don't you think it's a bit cannibalistic?" He felt awkward about Pikachu listening to a conversation like this.

Lance sighed, but this time in exasperation rather than sadness. "I would," he said, "but what's the point? They have to do this, that or go hungry. Why feel guilty about something I can't control?"

Ash said nothing, letting the fact sink in that he wouldn't be the only one making sacrifices in the next few weeks. Soon, Pikachu would need to eat this wild stuff, and so would Dawn and Brock's Pokémon, who hadn't eaten in a day and a half as it was. Who knew what they were feeling, since they didn't even know what was going on?

They kept on walking through the forest, which was beginning to thin. "Looks like we're heading east," Lance commented, "that's where the open plains are." The sun's golden hue was brightening into a beaming red as it began to hide over the horizon.

"It's starting to get dark," Ash said, "we should-"

"SHHH!"

Ash and Pikachu immediately darted behind a tree to his right, fearing the worst. When Lance didn't move and nothing else happened, Ash emerged from behind the tree to find not a group of Rocket grunts, but a herd of Stantler.

"We'll be eating like kings!" Lance whispered as he handed the gun to Ash. "Okay, now just like I taught you earlier – aim right for their eye."

Ash nodded as he held the gun and aimed. The Stantler, as many as there were, were roaming around and chewing the grass, so Ash found it hard to concentrate on one spot. He tried to focus on the eye of a particularly large member of the pack, who was herding his young that were roaming off away from the others.

He must have stepped on a twig or somehow made noise, because half of the pack suddenly perked their heads up, several pairs of eyes now on him.

"Now!" murmured Lance. Ash quickly refined his aim before pulling the trigger. The bigger Stantler, the one that Ash was aiming for, fell over as a bullet crashed through his jaw while the other ones fled hastily.

"Nice shot," Lance commented, "but you didn't kill it. Look, it's still moving."

Ash looked back at the Stantler to see that Lance was right; it was struggling to get up despite the blood that was spilling from the bullet hole. He raised his gun to fire again, but Lance held up his hand to signal him not to. "Give me your knife," he said instead.

"My knife?" asked Ash. "Why would he need my knife?"

"Yes, your knife." Ash handed his knife to Lance, who then walked up to the floundering Stantler. Ash realized what Lance was about to do a second before he did it. He turned away just before he heard the scream of the dying Pokémon as Lance slit its throat. The sight of blood spewing from the dead Stantler reminded Ash of the Rocket grunt that he had killed the day before, and he started feeling sick to his stomach.

"We can take this back to camp," he heard Lance say, "and there I'll show you how to-"

He didn't hear anything else after that, because by this point he was on his knees, puking his guts out as his head was filled with renewed thoughts of the grunt he killed, and of the grunts that Lance had killed earlier in the morning. And, of course, the Stantler that just lost its life.

When Ash finally stopped retching, he stood up only to find that he was feeling dizzy. Lance, who had stored the dead Stantler in a spare Poké Ball, rushed to Ash's side when he saw that he had fallen, and in his own pile of vomit for that matter.

"Ash, c'mon," said Lance as he snapped his fingers in front of Ash to keep his attention, "stay with me." He handed him his bottle of water from his backpack, which he shoved away.

"I'm fine," Ash assured, "I was just thinking of something that-"he didn't finish his sentence, for another round of vomit was spewing from Ash. When he finished with that, Lance lifted him up and placed him on top of Magnezone.

"Magnezone, we're going back. You're carrying him, okay?" Lance said to his Pokémon. He gave a short nod with his body as he started floating toward the direction where Dawn and Brock were, Pikachu riding on Lance's shoulder.

Ash felt bad that their hunting excursion was cut short, and all because the sight of blood made Ash sick. But didn't have a reason for that? He was still getting used to the whole "kill or be killed" thing, wouldn't it take a while to get used to it?

"Lance, I-I'm sorry that-"Ash began, but Lance interrupted him before he could explain.

"Don't worry about it," he said. "You'll get used to it. We'll try again tomorrow."

Ash was going to say something else, but stopped short when he heard a faint rushing sound. At first he thought that the Aura was coming back, and he held onto Magnezone so as to avoid from falling off. When he never went into the Aura, however, he realized that the sound, which never increased in volume, was coming from his left.

"You hear that?" asked Lance. Ash nodded before he leaped off of Magnezone and started running toward the sound, with Lance and Pikachu chasing after him.

"Ash!" Lance shouted, "What the hell are you doing?"

Ash didn't answer back, not stopping until he found the source of the sound; a large, rushing river of crystal clear water. It wasn't the same river that Ash saw in his aura, but it had water nonetheless, and it would keep them alive that much longer.

Ash was laughing in relief when he found the river. Their current supply was almost empty, and had they waited three days they'd be dying of dehydration.

"Did you really have to run off toward some sound you couldn't identify without at least letting me know?" Lance said sternly, "for all you know, you could've been running headfirst into a pack of Rocket grunts, and what would've happened then?"

"Who cares!" exclaimed Ash, "we found water!" He pulled out an empty water bottle from his bag and held it under the rolling water as it filled, reacting only slightly when the cool water made contact with his skin.

"Just fill that one and let's go," Lance said, "we can come back tomorrow." Magnezone gave a low hum, which Ash assumed to mean that he was agreeing with him. Once his bottle was completely filled, he screwed on the cap and placed it in his bag.

"I can walk from here," Ash said, "I'm feeling fine now."

"I'll take your word for it."

They silently walked in the darkness of the night back to their makeshift camp, where Brock and Dawn not only had a fire going, they were already feeding some form of hash to the other Pokémon, Lance's included. Every single one of them looked ready to drop dead from hunger, especially Togekiss, since she had to fly Ash and Dawn out of the city the day before.

Lance looked horrified. "When was the last time you fed them?" he half-asked, half-shouted.

"Probably two nights ago," Dawn admitted sheepishly, "at the Pokémon Center, just before everything started going to shit."

Lance grunted. "Just make sure that they eat up all of that." Pikachu hopped off of his shoulder to have his share in the grub.

Brock took notice of the vomit stains on Ash's clothes. "What happened?" he asked, "you look like you threw up all over yourself."

"I did," Ash said bitterly. "But we found a river in that direction, so I can wash them tomorrow."

Dawn was ecstatic. "Great! Now we can all freshen up and refill our bottles and-"

"Don't get too excited," Lance joked, "it's only water. But even better was that I caught us some fresh meat."

"What kind?" Brock asked, "A Rattata?"

"Nope," said Lance, hardly able to contain his excitement, "a Stantler!"

"How'd you take down a Pokémon as big as Stantler?" Dawn asked.

"Rather simply, actually," said Lance, who sat down by the fire, "all it took was a bullet to the jaw and a cut to the throat."

Dawn suddenly looked queasy, the thought of killing a Pokémon obviously making her uncomfortable.

"But let's not talk about that," Lance continued, "we'll deal with it tomorrow. Brock, can you fry up something from the canned food that we have?"

Brock nodded as he rummaged in his backpack for something to cook up, eventually pulling out a can of Pork & Beans. "I just realized that we haven't eaten anything all day," commented Brock, "just looking at this can is making my stomach growl."

"I've eaten a bit more recently than you guys," said Lance, "so I won't eat much. I have some of my own food anyways." He pulled out an energy bar from his pocket.

"That won't be enough for the night," said Dawn, "you're having some of this, and I'm not arguing about it."

Lance shrugged, pocketing the energy bar as Brock dumped the food into a pan that he held over the fire. Ash was going to mention something about what happened earlier, but before he could he noticed an odd gaping wound on Lance's chin. It was then that he realized that his chin was unusually short, much shorter than any of theirs. "Lance," said Ash, "what's wrong with your chin?"

Any sort of emotion that Lance had was wiped clean once Ash asked him about his chin. He shot a bitter look at him. "Bullet," he mumbled with a hint of resentment in the tone of his voice.

They were all silent for a few moments. "By them?" said Ash, breaking the silence.

Lance nodded slowly, not having to ask what he meant by "them". "When the invasion began in Johto, all of the League Officials were rounded up by the Empire and were executed."

"Wait, I thought you said that you left," said Ash.

"I did," explained Lance, "but I had to put up a fight to get out. They almost had me, but I got out. I took this bullet in the process, and one on my arm, too. I barely made it out alive." He rolled up his sleeve to reveal two similar wounds on his left forearm. "The other one I took just last month, a few days after Hoenn fell."

"Great!" exclaimed Dawn, "just great! So what're we gonna do now, just wait around and hide until they kill us? Act like we're gonna be fine when we're starving and freezing and waiting for the Empire to kill us?" Her voice held nothing but pure fear. That, and anger, which seemed to be aimed at Lance more than at the Empire.

"Exactly the opposite," said Lance, "we're gonna fight back."

"Wait, like against the Empire?"

Lance grinned. "Who else?"