Chapter 13: The Promise

Authors Note: This chapter picks up IMMEDIATELY after the last one, so if you haven't read this since I last updated I suggest that you re-read the ending of the last chapter. Enjoy!

November 15

"And exactly how will you go about doing that?" Dawn scoffed. "Just walk through the front door like, 'Hurr durr' and start causing chaos?"

"Pretty much," Lance said casually, "We go in, we cause all hell to break loose, and we get out. Just like that." He grabbed his Poké Balls from his pocket and called back his Pokémon, who by now had finished eating.

"Excuse me," said Dawn, sarcasm seeping into her voice, "but I think you left out the part where we get killed right as soon as we walk in."

"She has a point," pointed out Brock, "there's no way we could get into their headquarters or wherever the hell they're at and do anything against them for more than a few seconds without being pumped full of lead."

"Yeah, maybe" said Lance, "but if we're gonna die at their hands, then maybe a few more of them should die first."

"What's the point?" objected Dawn, "we're already in trouble with them because of this damn egg, why should we make it worse?"

"Because if we're gonna be in trouble, we may as well be in big trouble."

They sat in silence as Brock dished out wooden bowls to everyone. Ash couldn't even think of doing something as drastic as going in to the HQ of the Rocket Empire and somehow take them down. Now that the thought seemed real…could they really do it? He looked at Pikachu, who was tossing his bowl playfully in the air. What would he do about him, if they actually did this?

"How would we do this exactly?" Ash finally asked, "What are the details?"

"We'd go in under the radar," Lance said, "obviously it'd be suicide to just walk in and start creating chaos. We'd have to sneak in somehow."

"I have an idea," Brock offered. "What if we got ahold of some more of those Rocket uniforms? That way we could just walk in and no one would know it's us."

"But how would we get them?" asked Dawn.

"I think that the answer seems rather obvious," said Lance. "The only problem though is that when we do…well, um, you know…anyways, when we do it we'd have to aim for the head. Otherwise, he'd tear the clothing when we shoot them anywhere else, and that'd be a huge giveaway if we used those."

"There's so much that I don't like about all of this," Dawn retorted, "including killing those Grunts for their clothes and going into their headquarters and doing whatever it is that you plan on doing in there."

"I'm on her side," said Ash, "it seemed like a good idea a few hours ago, but now it just seems more malicious than vengeful." Pikachu and Brock both nodded in agreement as Brock dished out the food between their bowls. "Besides, I can't let any of you guys get hurt, or worse, killed. I couldn't live with myself if any of you died."

Lance shrugged. "Suit yourselves," he said as he shoved a spoonful of Pork & Beans into his mouth. "But don't think I won't pull my gun the next time we run into those Grunts. Any of you have a radio?"

Ash pulled out his radio from his backpack and handed it to Lance. He turned it on, coming up with nothing but static. As the other four began eating, Lance was fiddling with the dial on the radio, giving up after he came up with nothing after a few minutes. He set the radio down, not bothering to turn it off as he hacked away at his bowl of food.

They ate in silence for the remainder of the meal, the only sound being the low hum of the radio's static. As was becoming the norm, they all ate their small ration quickly, yet quietly. When they all finished, the five of them stared longingly at their bowls, willing for more of the food to magically appear, even though they all knew that that would never happen.

"We should lay down for the night," said Lance when he took Pikachu's empty bowl and handed it to Brock. "I'm hoping that after last night's little…um, episode that you're sleeping with a bit more cover?"

Dawn looked at Lance with confusion. "And just how do you know what happened last night?"

"He was with the same group that was near us last night," said Ash, realizing that it was Lance who was staring at him the previous night. "I remember seeing Jasper with them last night. And then Lance…" he turned to Lance, "I think it was him that was staring at me, after they left."

"If you saw me last night, then why didn't you do anything?" asked Lance, "why not signal out to me or something?"

"Well, I didn't know it was you at the time!" argued Ash, "and besides, even if I did know I'm not about to signal to you when those Grunts were so damn close!"

"Point taken," Lance mumbled. He stood up as he said, "Dawn, would you mind taking the first watch tonight if I take over after you?"

"Sounds fine to me," Dawn said flatly.

"Alright, then. I'll find a big enough tree for all of us. Someone put out the fire and get out the blankets, it looks like it'll be a chilly night."

Lance walked to a nearby tree and began to climb it as Ash released one of the Poké Balls that held his supplies. He dug through the pile until he pulled out a bundle of blankets that he divided between the three of them.

"Hey guys!" Lance called down from the tree, "this one should be big enough, but the branches are pretty high up. Whoever comes up first gets to be the highest up!"

"I'll go first," said Ash, "I just gotta do one thing." He walked back over to the pile of supplies and grabbed the coil of rope, which was lying on top of the pile. After uncoiling the rope, Ash then unsheathed his knife from his waist belt and cut the rope into four equal pieces, each of them being about ten feet long.

"Here," he said as he handed a piece of the rope to Ash and Dawn, "you'll need this if you don't want to fall to your death." He smiled as he re-sheathed his knife and threw the empty Poké Ball at the pile of supplies, beaming it back into the Ball. Ash slung two of the blankets over his shoulder as he approached the tree that Lance was in, gripping a protruding branch as he began to climb.

Lance was right; the nearest branch that would be wide enough for any of them was at least forty feet above him. He climbed up the tree as the canopy that surrounded it grew increasingly thicker, which would prove to be convenient in terms of cover.

Ash handed the third piece of rope to Lance as he finished the climb, laying himself down on a wide branch just under the one that Lance had occupied as Pikachu laid down in his lap. He then handed one of the two blankets to him, which he refused.

"My cape will be fine enough," mumbled Lance as he tied the rope around his stomach, fastening him to the branch. Ash said nothing as Dawn and Brock both laid on branches a few feet below him.

"Sweet dreams," Lance said to everyone, "we'll need 'em."

Ash pinched himself when he woke up in the middle of the night that night. Perhaps, by some astounding miracle, that everything that had happened in the past three days hadn't happened, and that he'd be back to where he was before he found the egg; outside of Hearthome City, trying to fall asleep as he looked at the unblemished night sky.

Unfortunately for him, he felt the slight pain of the pinch, sighing as he was pulled back to reality. He had no idea what time it was; in the moonlight he wasn't able to see what time it was on his watch. The chilly air of the November night forced Ash to wrap his blanket tighter than he had originally. Dawn was taking the first night watch, with Lance taking the second one, but neither of them were moving, both of them sitting upright against the tree as they lay on their branches.

He didn't feel like seeing which one was on shift. "No point in waking everyone else up", he thought. "Might as well go back to sleep."

Well, going back to sleep was much easier said than done. Ash couldn't bring himself to fall into a slumber, so he was left there, staring at the dark canopy that surrounded him. The only sounds he heard were the chirping of several Hoothoot, even though he couldn't see them.

As he was gently stroking Pikachu, who was lying on his chest, a reel of thoughts flashed quickly through his mind. Thoughts of Dawn, of Brock, of Lance, of Pikachu, thoughts of anything and everything were flowing through his mind at a breakneck pace.

There was one thought, however, that kept on appearing as an image in his mind that he couldn't quite identify. It was like the thought was staring him in the face, but Ash was looking at it as if he were underwater. When he finally realized what that dangling thought was, he was so astounded that he whispered it out loud:

"Death."

"What was it like to die", he thought? "What would it be like to just receive the bullet or the knife and feel everything fade away? I've been so close to death a few times already, how much longer before it finally happens?" He looked up at Lance, who was still laying upright against the tree. "Is he worried about the same thing? About pointlessly running from death? What about the others?"

Pikachu gave a small snort in his sleep, which diverted Ash's attention to him. How long would he survive in all of this mess? How long could he survive? Even if he wasn't killed like everyone else could be, how long did a Pokémon his size live for anyways? He was at least eight years old by now. Would he live for another two years? Five? Ten?

Ash decided, right then and there, that he would find out someday. He wouldn't let Pikachu die because the Rocket Empire was hunting them. He wouldn't die because Ash and everyone else had died and he was alone. He would watch Pikachu die, but not anytime soon. He would watch him die when the time was right, when he was ripe and old years from now. But not anytime soon.

"Lance?" Ash whispered. There was still no movement from any of them, so everyone must have been asleep. "What the hell?" he thought, "someone was supposed to be keeping watch!"

"Lance!" he whispered loudly. This time, Lance visibly stirred himself awake before letting out a slow groan.

"Whutizit?" he said groggily. "Somethin' happen?"

"No," Ash said quietly as he undid the rope that fastened him to the tree, "I just need to ask you something. Something important."

"Is it really that important that you had to wake me up an hour before I was supposed to take shift?" Lance said in exasperation.

"Yes." Ash didn't waste any time having to think about that.

Lance sighed. "Alright, what is it?"

Ash stood up on his branch so that he was eye-level with Lance, waking Pikachu in the process as he jumped onto Ash's shoulder. "Do you think you could promise me something?"

"I can't promise you anything about that promise," he said, "but I'll try."

Ash nodded. "Listen, I don't know if I'll be able to survive much longer out here. I mean, we're doing fine and all, but we can only run into those Grunts so many times before something happens."

"Right," Lance said, looking as if he was in deep thought. "So what are you trying to say?"

It took Ash a few moments to answer. "If I…well, you know…if something happens to me, could you take care of the others? Pikachu, especially. I don't think that they'd survive much longer if I died."

Lance was silent, staring intensely at the canopy that was directly above him. Eventually, he said, "Can you promise me something in return?"

Ash was perplexed at his response, but said, "Yeah, sure."

"You're right to be worried about your friends, your Pokémon. And you're right to be worried about dying. I would know; I've had to deal with that every day for a year now."

Ash nodded in understanding of Lance's sympathy. "But," he continued, "the psychological pressure was worse for me, because if I died no one would be there to take care of all of my Pokémon."

"So are you asking that if you die…?"

"Yes," Lance said, "that you take my Pokémon. And my stuff, too, if you can. No reason that that should go to waste. In return, I'll do the same for you when, I mean, if you should die."

"Thanks," said Ash. "You're really doing me a favor, knowing that they'll be safe if something happens to me."

"Sure thing, said Lance, "tomorrow we'll re-sort our supplies so that, besides what we keep in the Poké Balls, we have one pack that we keep on hand."

"That sounds good," said Ash. "Well…good night, I guess."

Lance said nothing as he closed his eyes, leaving Ash to return to his branch and re-fasten himself in with the rope. Pikachu re-settled himself in as Ash laid himself upright against the tree, much like Lance and Dawn were.

"Do you really think we'll die?"

Ash looked down from his branch as he saw Dawn, who was looking up at him in return. "Of course not," said Ash, "it's just in case something else happens."

"Don't give me that bullshit!" snapped Dawn, "Do you really think that I don't know what's going on?" She looked fearful, almost ready to cry. "Do you think we'll die?" she repeated.

Ash sighed. "If they find us," he said, "they'll just want me, not you or Brock. Lance, maybe, but – "

"I don't give two shits about Lance!" she hissed, "what I care about is whether we're going to die out here!"

Ash was hurt by Dawn's comment, sensing that when she said "we're", she didn't include Lance. Hopefully Lance hadn't heard her. "No. Please, just don't worry about it now and just go to sleep. We'll be fine."

"Alright," Dawn said, even though Ash could tell she still didn't believe him. In all honesty, Ash didn't think that he could ever make her believe that they wouldn't die out here. The number of times that they had stared death in the face seemed too numerous to count. Who's to say one more encounter with the Empire wouldn't finish them off?

"Screw it," he thought, "just go to bed and worry about it later."

And that's what he did.

November 16

The walk to the river from the previous day was a short one; from where their tree was, they reached the river in a matter of minutes after waking up. Dawn rejoiced at the sight of the transparent, flowing water. Brock wasn't as marveled at the sight as Dawn was, but grinned nonetheless at the thought of having water for a few more days.

"I'll make a quick fire and boil some of this water," Brock said. "It might look clean, but we can't risk getting sick, especially out here."

"You're right," said Lance. "We can't afford for any of us to get something like dysentery, especially out here. I learned that the hard way last winter."

Ash winced at the thought of getting sick, especially from something as mundane as water. As Brock scooped up some water with his pot and Lance was showing Dawn how to properly gut the dead Stantler, Ash went to work re-sorting the supplies that were in his Poké Balls, heeding Lance's advice from the night before. He decided to fill the one backpack that he kept on him with only the most essential items that he might need.

After completely emptying both the backpack and his Poké Balls, he immediately put the egg back in the backpack. You couldn't have anything else in a Poké Ball with a Pokémon or an egg, so that had to stay with him. Next came some ammo for the gun, which Lance had given to him the previous day. He was about to drop it into the backpack, but after reconsidering he slipped it into the waist belt next to his gun, since he'd be able to access it easier.

"Hey, Ash," Dawn called, "haven't you sorted all of that crap out already?"

"I'm redoing it," Ash responded, noticing that Dawn seemed unusually calm for having to witness Lance dismember the dead Pokémon. Shouldn't she be either looking away, or vomiting from sickness, or both?

He shrugged it off and went back to the supplies, placing two of the folded blankets in the backpack as he saw Brock deposit the boiled water into his bottle. Pikachu began to help Ash sort through the pile, making a separate pile of stuff that they wouldn't immediately need. He looked at the boxes of medicine that Brock had gotten. He decided that one of each should go in the backpack and the rest could go to everyone else, in case they got separated.

"There," he thought when he was finally done, "that should be enough." Besides the egg, he had in is backpack a box of matches, the piece of rope he cut up the night before, a flashlight, and some food, among some other necessities. His waist belt carried the gun, ammo, his knife, and all of his Poké Balls, both empty and filled with items.

Between this and breakfast (cooked Stantler and boiled water), there wasn't much conversation. Lance and Ash were discussing where they would go from there. Brock was completely silent, only having spoken once all day.

"We should follow the river, just to see where that takes us," Ash suggested.

"Or maybe head North, toward Snowpoint City," Dawn chimed.

"That's a bad idea right there," Lance said. "The November weather is cold already, it's much worse up there."

"I was thinking more of something like Route 228," Dawn said curtly.

"Wrong again. It's warmer, but Route 228 is on a separate island, there's no way we'd be able to get there."

Brock had pulled out his map of the region and unfolded it, studying it for a few minutes.

"I think that this is the river that we're by," he mumbled quietly, "and if it is, it heads straight toward Sunyshore City."

Lance nodded. "The climate there is slightly warmer, more so in the winter time. That might be our best bet."

Ash was going to respond in agreement, but before he could he spotted a group of gray-clad men in the distance. Rocket Grunts. He silently pointed them out to Lance, who immediately pushed Brock and Dawn behind cover as he and Ash did the same. Lance drew his gun, carefully aiming at the grunts before lowering his gun quickly.

"There's eight of them," whispered Lance. "I don't think they can see us, but there's too many of them to be able to just walk away without risking them noticing us. We'll have to fire at them and hope for the best." He glanced again at the group of Grunts, who had still not noticed any of them. "We'll need to be especially careful with these ones," he said. "Look at their guns."

Ash poked his head from behind their cover to get a good look at the Grunts. About five of them held automatic rifles in their hands, a step up from the pistols that they had been carrying before. But the others had guns with larger barrels, barrels that contained what looked like slender, neon orange rods.

"Lance, what are those?" asked Dawn, the fear mounting in her quivering voice.

"Sleeping Syringes," murmured Lance. "One hit with those and you'll be out cold in a minute. That's why they're just as dangerous as those automatics. Either of them will easily get you killed." Ash grimaced as he remembered the Sleeping Syringe that knocked him out at the Pokémon Center a few days prior. Lance glanced one more time at the Grunts before raising his gun again. "Ash, get your gun out."

Ash did as he was told and pulled out his gun, taking out the clip to make sure that it was full. Once he had filled it and inserted the clip, he unclicked the safety and raised it, aiming for the grunts.

"Brock, when we start shooting you and Dawn stay down. Okay?"

Brock nodded.

"On my count of three," said Lance. "One."

"What if they kill us?" Ash thought. "there's so many of them this time, what's to prevent them from finishing us off? Or some of us? What if I die, or Lance, but not the others? How will they survive without us? Would they survive without us?"

"Two."

"Crap. Oh crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap crapcrapcrapcra-"

"Three."