Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws and taking it is plagiarism. Thank you. *Phantomness bows*

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks

Chapter 5

So if Lance didn’t love him, what was he going to do? Ash sighed as he flopped down next to the stream and stared at his reflection.

“I don’t understand. What about me doesn’t he love?”

Perhaps your inconsistency?

“Eek!” He jumped, before realizing it was just the Charmander.

“Oh, it’s just you…”

No more was said as Ash sighed and looked up at the sky, waiting for a solution to hit him in the head.

One did, as such. He happened to observe two Butterfree doing a mating flight, and his mind snapped. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of it before? I’ll just seduce him!”

Charlotte choked, but managed to disguise it as a cough as Ash looked at her. * I cannot believe this… *

Well, it was not her part to play in his love life, so she watched as he conjured up a mirror and began surveying this reflection, huffing out a puff of smoke.

This would not end prettily.

“I thought I told you to leave me alone.” Lance snapped.

Ash pouted.

“I don’t like repeating myself, Ash…” Lance warned, and a telltale glint of silver began to show on his fingertips.

“Must you always resort to violence, Lance? I thought you wanted me to be calm and collected and not attack anyone.”

“It seems that it is the only way to get anything through your thick skull now.” The Dragon Master retorted.

“I don’t understand Lance. You’ve changed, and it’s not for the better.”

“And I thought that I’d heard a click in your mind earlier. Perhaps it was not the right memory after all.”

“You erased my memory? Lance!”

“It hardly matters. You still don’t remember what it is a memory of.”

“It must be important.” He shook his head. “There’s no use reasoning with you, is there?”

“I sincerely doubt it.”

Ash nodded, watching as Lance’s expression shifted into almost remorse, before it was smoothed over. Interesting…

So Lance was hiding something.

He found the Charmander napping, and decided not to wake her. With a sigh, he smoothed down his hair and visualized his armor. Perhaps he ought to go back to earth and kill a few things until he felt better.

When he appeared in Indigo Plateau, invisible, a full celebration was in swing. It was the anniversary of Deoxys Defeat, after all…

There was a statue of Lance and Lugia.

His memories of fighting the foe were surprisingly blurred. All he remembered was making out with Misty, and a flash of white light, and finding Lorelei near dead and the invaders gone, defeated, dead…

He was missing a lot of the picture.

Why had Lance bothered to block something so significant? He was a bloody Realm Guardian too!
He had to see!

Well, if he really wanted to, even another guardian could not block him from accessing his memories. Anger burned in his heart, crystallizing into white-hot flame.

Lance’s power was Dark. Charlotte’s was Light. His was Shadow.

Shadow was light and dark, so he could use both as well, and if Lance had blocked his memories with darkness, he would use light to cut a path through it!

He visualized blades of light in his mind, and for a second, he could see a cover of hazy black ooze, almost a veil. There!

He knew the Seal shattered, and he shook his head. Now, there was nothing to do but to wait for the results. Now, to wait…

The memories cascaded over his head, and for a split second he felt as if he were drowning, only the sensation was not in his lungs but in his mind, before he passed out.

The other two watched as he slept fitfully, often waking up in screams.

“Did you block all his memories?”

“Of course not, but it’s obvious that not all of them transferred when he transformed the first time.”

“That makes sense. He isn’t Destiny that often…”

“He’ll wake up soon. You’d better hide.”

“Concerned?” She asked playfully, fading into Charmander form. “I’m touched.”

“You should be.”

No more words were exchanged.

When he woke up, the first thing he was aware of was the horrible annoying throbbing pain in his body. It really was dreadful!

This must be how … no! No one else went through this. They had their memories, but after lifetimes, he’d expect them to muddle together…

That didn’t signify that the ones from this life weren’t the clearest and freshet, however…

Lugia, what had he done?

No wonder Lance was acting so prissy! He really had every right to. And as the other memories crowded in, clamoring for attention, a wellspring of guilt surged up from the depths of his soul.

Why couldn’t he remember?

It was the cause and the cost of so many mistakes…

“You understand?”

“I remembered… Lance, why don’t you ever stop me? Why do you let me hurt you? If I can’t remember I can’t learn…”

“You’ll have to ask Serebii the answer to that. She was the one who decided our memory patterns.”

“I don’t deserve it, but…”

“I cannot give you forgiveness yet. It still hurts too much.”

“I understand.”

“But I can give you understanding.”

“I suppose, in the end, that matters more.” Ash sighed. “I can keep hoping, right?”

A faint smile touched Lance’s face. “Yes, because you are our hope. Someone, someday, things will be all right.”

“I have to believe that.”

Lance nodded, and they sealed the promise with a kiss. No more. If he moved too quickly Lance could fall off the precipice of sanity completely, and no matter what he wanted, he could not doom his friend, his love, to that.

It wasn’t paradise, far from it. But it was enough.

End Chapter/END FIC!

Completed 3/27/06

Started 3/18/06

Yep, Ash grew up. ^^ About bloody time too!