FicWad

Loyalty

Chapter 04: Revelations

The gusts of wind in that particular altitude were harsh, especially given the traveling speed, but Ash didn't care. Faster Charizard!" He urged almost desperately as he clung to his pokemon and Pikachu clung to him, both trying to avoid falling to the ground far below.

Naturally, Team Rocket had information gatherers scattered about. Hacking into the radio frequencies of the police was not hard with their technology. It was that which revealed the location of the Azure Alliance's hiding place. The question still remained as to why the police knew where they were and fueled the theory that the police might have been manipulating the Azure Alliance from the shadows. Either way, they had gone too far, this was personal and those vigilantes would be stopped permanently.

At top speed, Ash finally arrived at the hideout in the outskirts of Fuchsia City, near the coast. The old warehouse was easily identifiable as the place he was looking for, due to it being surrounded by a multitude of police officers, cars, motorcycles and police trained pokemon. "All they're missing is the tanks," Ash muttered bitterly, though he knew his father could provide plenty of those if his mother wasn't safely returned to him soon.

"Let's go down to the main door, I'll need to have a word with the officer in charge." Following Ash's instructions, Charizard swiftly landed in front of a shocked officer Jenny. "Are you leading this operation?" Far from leaving any open room to be questioned, Ash's tone demanded to speak with the one in charge.

"Yes," Jenny almost stuttered, before she remembered who she was and in what position she stood. Sure, Ash was the Indigo League champion, everyone recognized him these days, but he too was under the law. "You can't be here."

"I heard my mother was taken hostage for ransom," Ash stated, cutting into Jenny's speech with a tone that made her and all the other officer's present feel forced to listen. The identity of Ash's mother was known to the general population, who thought his father had passed away many years ago, before he became a public figure. "I don't want her to be harmed, that's why I'm here."

Jenny tried to gain her authority once more. This wasn't the way she usually was, no one made her feel so small like this young man's atmosphere of authority did. It was unnerving. "The police will handle the situation." She had to follow the protocol even if she knew who he was, the son of Giovanni, though revealing that fact would only bring repercussions if they had nothing to bargain with against the criminal mastermind himself.

"I won't risk it," it was obvious that Ash would not permit anyone to kick him off the scene, regardless of how many laws he might be breaking by disregarding the police's orders to leave.

Without a hint of a warning, the silence that emanated from the inside of the old warehouse was shattered along with the door itself. A current of water swept forth, knocking most of the officers off their feet and even pushing some of the lighter vehicles back. A Kingler, Dewgong, Poliwrath and Seadra stood together ready to generate another devastating team water gun.

Ash was one of the few who escaped the attack. Charizard had reacted with amazing speed, picking up his trainer and gaining considerable altitude with just one sweep of his wings. Pikachu, who had been perched on Ash's shoulders was also spared from the water offensive. "Smokescreen, thunderbolt!" Ash didn't even take notice of his mother's attackers as he had been focused on her. By the time his eyes thought to wander elsewhere, the area was already obstructed by Charizard's smoke and the atmosphere carried Pikachu's heavy voltage.

Charizard, accustomed to his own smoke, held Ash and Pikachu on one arm, grabbing Delia with the other and swiftly gained altitude above the cloud in which the officers tried to find their way out of. Once at a safe vertical distance, their lungs enjoying the fresh air beyond the smoke, Ash climbed on Charizard's back, helping his mother do the same. "Are you alright?" He gave her a quick visual examination, searching for any obvious injuries.

"I'm fine," it was clear that Delia's answer referred to the physical sense and that she was emotionally disturbed.

"We can cover this," Ash tried to console her, assuming that she was worried about the repercussions the stunt might have for Team Rocket or perhaps more so for his own image.

Delia shook her head, "the Azure Alliance... they are..." Just as Delia spoke, the smoke below cleared out with the help of a young officer's Pidgey generating a whirlwind to blow it all away. His fellow officers wouldn't criticize his choice in pokemon after this, it's not like their Growlithe did much to help. "Gone..." Delia finished. She didn't see Misty or her sisters anywhere below and it looked like the officers were also consumed by confusion.

"Over there," Ash pointed discreetly. He wanted to catch the culprits but he didn't want to hand them over to the police. He was giving them to Team Rocket. He couldn't clearly see the culprits as they swam away mostly under water, aided in speed by their pokemon. They only peeked out to the surface for short moments to take in quick breaths of air, once again disappearing beneath the soft waves of the sea. "The police probably can't see them from the ground, we can follow them."

"Ash Ketchum!" Jenny called from the ground below, clearly angered at the fact that the Azure Alliance slipped through her fingers and using them in the future would be very difficult. "Order your pokemon to come down immediately!"

Ash glared down at the officer, "my mother has been through a lot. Her health is my priority. If you want to ask questions, you'll have to wait. Or can you really be so cruel?" He was using his reputation as the beloved noble champion against them. If the press caught wind of the situation, the authorities would be severely criticized.

Besides if she went any further, given her fruitless stunt, Jenny might be uncovered as the Azure Alliance informant and manipulator, helping them with both secrets and police funds, all for the sake of taking justice into her own hands beyond what her uniform permitted. It was ironic, a vigilante that betrayed vigilantes. Jenny knew she had to let things go. "Very well..." her voice was almost inaudible under the confused and shocked expressions of the other officers.

The police had not seen in which direction the Azure Alliance escaped, they couldn't perceive the gentle movements of their trails in the water from the ground, but Ash followed the kidnappers with his eyes from the air. Flying off in the direction of Cinnabar Island, which appeared to be the enemy's intended runaway destination, wouldn't be odd. Giovanni had luxurious residences everywhere, the tourist trap island included. "Charizard, let's head over to Cinnabar Island or wherever they're heading. Stay hidden above the clouds, but don't lose them."

Charizard let out a low growl of acceptance and loyalty, proud to help the trainer that had earned his respect through hard work. The large fire pokemon followed Ash's instructions, staying hidden above and keeping his well trained eyes on the ones he was following.

"About the kidnappers," Delia breathed, it was best to warn Ash of who he was dealing with before he found out for himself.

"Don't worry, I won't let them hurt you," Ash assured with a certain threatening tone directed at anyone who might try to lay a harmful hand on her. He reminded her of Giovanni. "I wish I could stop to drop you off, but that might mean losing them and I can't let them run free after they took you hostage. I can't let this happen again."

"Ash, listen to me," Delia raised her tone momentarily in a voice she used when communicating something vital. Ash turned to look back to where his mother sat behind him, arms around her son's torso in a motherly hug both to prevent falling and to give and receive comfort. "Those people are the Waterflower sisters. Misty never left the Azure Alliance nor was the name stolen from her past organization, it's the same group with a new purpose and I would imagine new members. I don't know how many there are, but at least the Waterflowers are directly involved."

Delia could feel Ash's heart beat faster, his face full of perplexity and betrayal. "Misty..." Denial was to follow, then anger, Delia expected it. "It can't be! You were confused, dazed, you must have made a mistake."

"There's no mistake," Delia insisted gently. "I wanted to warn you before you saw for yourself. Those people swimming down there are Misty and her sisters. They're the ones who kidnapped me. Apparently, the Azure Alliance has been getting input from the police, though they were actually being used by them. At least that's what I could gather from what I heard."

The revelation left Ash in shock. Before he could fully absorb the fact that Misty was now an enemy of Team Rocket, something else stood out to Ash. He wondered about her motivations. Would Misty go this far for the sake of justice in general or some other equally impersonal ideal? It felt like too much to do if something didn't hit close to home. "What's her motivation? Did the police push her into this? Maybe they're playing dirty, she didn't want to do this, maybe she meant to keep you safe from them."

"Are you theorizing or thinking about how to excuse her with Giovanni?" Delia was sincerely unsure which of the two it was.

Ash remained silent because he didn't have an answer to that question. He really didn't want to have Misty as his enemy; he had many fond memories of their friendship and his childhood crush. They've grown a little distant in the past ten years, but she was never forgotten and when her memory would surface from time to time she was truly missed.

Misty and her sisters finally reached what could be considered the 'backside' of Cinnabar Island, if there was such a thing. It was a desolate area lacking the constant coming and going of tourist filled ferries. The cliff was stiff and hard to climb. It was part of a volcano, though it looked more like a giant wall from that perspective. Four human heads surfaced above the waves moving back and forth gently against the wall. They made their way around the natural structure until they reached a cavern that eradiated warmth due to the lava that lay a few feet away with layers of thick stone in between.

Unknown to them, the Waterflower sisters were being watched by a perplexed young man upon his Charizard. "It really is them... Until the last second I was hoping it was all a mistake," Ash let out a breath of disappointment. "It could still be; they could have an explanation.

"I honestly don't understand the nature of their apparent vendetta against Team Rocket," Delia paused and rephrased her statement. "Of course there's the entire enemy of society and major criminal organization angle, but Misty said something about a desperate vengeance that caught me off guard. I honestly can't understand what that's about, it did sound personal, but I can't remember Team Rocket affecting Misty or her family in a direct way."

"Well, we're about to find out, let's go down Charizard." With confusion still present and the tension rising, Ash kept his eyes on the cavern as Charizard approached it. The fire pokemon landed with relative silence, though if the inhabitants of the cavern were alert enough, they would pick up on the soft thud of his landing. "Get some rest," Ash whispered as he recalled the large pokemon into his pokeball in a red beam that faded back into the cavern's darkness.

The darkness was once again pierced by light when misty stepped forward holding a flashlight. The voice of one of her sisters called out her name, but she insisted, "just go!" Then turned to face those who stood before her, guarding the escape route her sisters took. "I'll take sole responsibility," she offered bitterly.

Ash shook his head, feeling quite out of place in such an unexpected situation. "I'm not here to hunt you down; I'm here to get some answers." He took a deep breath, not that it helped to calm him as the atmosphere was contaminated with heavy tension. "You know who mom is, you know who I am. It's only fair that I should know something too. I want to know why. I know you wouldn't do something like this without a good reason. It's not like you to be so rash, that's more like me," he admitted.

"I can't forgive him..." Misty's eyes were downcast carrying a great sadness. "I can't forgive the man who killed my parents."

A gasp escaped Delia as all the pieces fell into place in her head. What had happened took place so long ago that she unconsciously disregarded it as being unrelated to the current situation, it had been over twenty years. The event wasn't recent enough to surface in her memories until it was directly referenced.

Misty slowly looked up, her eyes traveling from the shocked Ash to his mother. Sadness, frustration, shame, realization, all those emotions and others overtook her face in varying proportions. "You just realized something, didn't you? You remembered something... You do know what I'm talking about."

With incredulity still holding on to some of his features, Ash slowly rotated his head towards his mother and waited expectantly. He didn't say anything, but pleaded for honesty with his eyes.

To be Continued

A little back story on this... When I started Don't Give Me Diamonds, I thought it would turn into a dramatic soap opera, but it turned into an epic saga instead. I made a mental note to get around writing that Pokemon drama filled story one day. It's kind of Romeo and Juliet style in a sense, but without the protagonist deaths.

Next Chapter: Everyone has a hidden history, grudges and connections may run deeper than anyone could imagine.