This is in response to a challenge... you'll find out what at the end of
the fic, if you can't already guess from the title.

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Soul Mates

Fanfiction written by Ace Sanchez.
Pokemon and its associated characters
copyright by Nintendo / Game Freak. 
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Rustling gently in the cool night breeze, green leaves of the forest
trees reflected moonlight on to the canopy floor in a gentle caress. Free
of clouds up above, uncountable bright points of light that were the
stars flickered softly in a brilliant display of glamour against a
backdrop of pure ebony. A full moon shone overhead, shining brightly amid
clusters of constellations, almost seeming to be as one with them.

Down below, in a small campsite, next to a boy sleeping in a green
sleeping bag, a small yellow electric mouse looked up at the beautiful
night sky and sniffed, in a melancholy mood. A tear dropped from one
small dark-brown eye as it gazed heavenward and thought inwardly. Like a
round diamond, it rolled down one rosy cheek and splashed on to the
underbrush, clinging on to a blade as a raindrop clings to grass.

Dropping its gaze from the luminous night, the cute mouse looked down at
the sleeping boy by its side. Then jerking its head quickly as if it
could no longer stand the sight, it dropped to all fours and ran off into
the forest, the crackling of grass and underbrush underneath tiny paws
barely audible.


<><><>


"P-Pikachu?" Ash sleepily felt by his side for his best friend. When his
searching hand felt nothing but the fabric of his sleeping bag, his
light-brown eyes blinked open. Twisting over to his left side, a knotted
feeling arose in his stomach at realising that Pikachu was not there.

After unzipping the bag, and flicking long black hair away from his eyes,
he sat up and quickly looked around the campsite. Judging from the
amount of darkness, it was still somewhere around midnight, he guessed.
But Pikachu was nowhere to be seen in the small everglade he had chose to
spend the night. Something moved in the corner of Ash's eye, but when he
quickly turned around, he realised it was but the shadow of a gently
rocking leaf on a branch above him.

Cupping both hands to his mouth, he called again, louder this time, but
not so loud as to disturb the tranquillity of the forest. "Pikachu!"

But there was no answer. The feeling of panic that had arisen in his
stomach grew higher now, somewhere in the vicinity of his chest. He
unzipped his sleeping bag the rest of the way and rapidly stood up. His
bare, lightly muscled chest felt cold in the slight wind and he folded
his arms. When he had gone to sleep, it had been hotter than usual and so
he had only slept in his jeans.

Beneath his bare feet, the soft brushy floor felt slightly moist as he
stepped around, twisting his head to peer around trees. Dropping his hand
toward his pocket for a poke ball, he decided to use Golbat to help him
search. But when his fingers only touched air, he remembered that he had
left all of his other Pokemon back at Pallet. This was a specific
training trip that only he and Pikachu had gone on.

Cursing beneath his breath, Ash continued to look around, jogging in a
spiral shape outward from the camp. As he was moving in a westerly
direction, suddenly he just felt an overwhelming sense of premonition
that this was the way that his friend had went. So he abandoned the
spiral movement and just continued west through the forest, ducking
unerneath low-lying branches and stepping over shrubs and rocks.

The feeling grew stronger as he continued on his way, and the soft sound
of water sloshing began to filter into his hearing. He was nearing Lake
Viridian now. Maybe Pikachu was taking a nightly swim, Ash thought with
relief.

As the trees and vegetation began to clear out as he knew it would when
he reached the outskirts of the lake, he began to spot moonlight
reflecting from water through the leaves and branches of the forest.
Finally, he burst out into the clearing and smiled in relief as he
spotted a familiar small form sitting quietly on a rock overhanging the
shore of the lake. Its back was turned against him as it seemed to stare
at the softly splashing waves.

Ash began to approach when abruptly, a bright white light began to
emanate from it, like what happened when a pokemon was about to evolve.
He stopped in surprise and almost thought that the moonlight reflecting
from the gently lapping waters of the lake was playing tricks on his
vision. Was Pikachu evolving? How could that be when it required a
thunder stone? A tight-closed feeling invaded his throat. But he didn't
want a Raichu, he wanted Pikachu! His Pikachu...

But when the white light cleared, something far more strange had
happened. No longer was a small one-foot or so tall pikachu sitting on
the rock, but ... something else. Pale as cream skin adorned a smoothly
arched, slim back. Slender arms braced itself against the rock, while 
long smooth legs was crossed in front of it. Loose, long hair, as
blonde as spun wheat rustled sinuously across lithe shoulders in the
light breeze of the wind.

It-it was a girl.

"P-Pikachu?" Ash breathed, lighter than a whisper.

The girl jerked around in surprise and then dismay as she spotted him
standing there looking at her with an unreadable expression.

Slender fingers rose up to her rose-bud mouth as big eyes, as light-brown
as his own, looked at him over a pert nose. "A-Ash?" Her pink-tinged lips
mouthed the words slowly as if she had trouble speaking.

"It-It can't be..." Ash whispered, in denial. "Who-Who are you?"

Tears like raindrops dropped from one of her brown eyes, wetting her long
dark lashes. Abruptly she tore her gaze away from him, long blonde hair
falling across her face, and folded her arms over her naked chest.
"Y-Yes... I'm your Pikachu..." she said softly. Her voice was feminine,
almost sounding like a caress.

"No!" Ash shouted. "You aren't! You aren't!" And then blissful darkness
rose up to greet him. He fainted.


<><><>


He awoke to the sound of birds calling in the distance. Blinking, he
realised he was in his sleeping bag back at camp. There was a fair amount
of sunlight brightening up the forest branches above him and he realised
it was early morning.

Ash closed his eyes again in relief. "What a nightmare!" He opened his
eyes again, unzipped his sleeping bag and sat up, happily feeling the
cool morning air flicker against his chest. He breathed it in, shook his
head, fine black hair falling into his eyes and looked down at his lap
with a joyful feeling. "Damn! You should have seen it, Pikachu!" He threw
his arms up to the sky.

"Seen what?" a girl's voice said from next to him.

"You were a girl and ... and..." His voice trailed off as he lowered his
arms. Reluctantly, he turned his head. Next to him was the blonde girl
from his dream. Dream. At least he hoped it was a dream. She sat there on
the grass, dressed in one of his spare black t-shirts and nothing else.
Big brown eyes were focused on him as she hugged her bare legs to her
chest, loose amber-yellow hair splayed over her slim shoulders.

"And ... you were a girl," he finished lamely.

She said nothing, just stared at him.

Abruptly realising that his chest was bare, he folded his arms. He felt
blood rushing to his cheeks.

"Look, I've seen it all before," she said quietly, still hugging her legs
to her chest.

"Oh yeah," he said softly. He had changed in front of Pikachu more times
than he could count. Then his mixed-up mind sorted itself into as much
order as it was going to. "How ... what ... who," he stammered. "You're a
girl!" he just shouted again.

She looked away. "Yeah."

"How?"

"I-I don't know. All I know is that I'm a girl ... and also a Pikachu."

"When did this happen?" he asked incredulously.

She met his eyes again. "I've always been like this."

"Y-You mean ... ever since I got you, you were really a girl?"

"Yeah... kind of. That's one of the reasons I didn't want to go with a
Pokemon Trainer."

Ash pulled his legs from the sleeping bag and crossed them. "Why ... why
didn't you tell me?"

"I-I like to keep it a secret," she mumbled. "I-I, don't want to be
famous."

He looked at her accusingly. "You mean you would've kept it from me our
whole life?"

She didn't meet his gaze and hugged her legs tighter. "I-I would've told
you eventually ... it's just that you caught me during my monthly
transformation. You see, every month I have to change into my human form
at least once. That's just how it is." Then suddenly she turned back to
look at him, brown eyes appealing. "But-but this doesn't change anything
right? I'm still your Pokemon - I'm still your best friend! Who cares if
I'm a girl too!"

Ash closed his eyes and combed the fingers of his left hand through his
black hair. "I-I don't know. It just doesn't feel the same anymore. I
even thought you were a *boy* Pikachu. You sure acted like one." Then he
looked back at her, his eyes moistening. "But I don't know Pika-" He cut
himself off and laughed bitterly. "See? I can't even say your name
without it feeling all wrong."

"It-it feels wrong?" she said aghast. "But how? I'm the same. It's me!"
Abruptly, her form became shrouded in white light just like last night,
and her body shrank until only a cute yellow Pikachu sat there, its head
poking out the top of a black t-shirt. "Pikapi!" she tried again, small
dark-brown eyes moistening.

"Pikachu!" Ash said, feeling much better at seeing his Pokemon in the
form he knew it ever since he had gotten her. But still the feeling of
wrongness pervaded his thoughts. Tears fell from his eyes as he jerked
away and stood up. "I-It's just not the same! How can it be, when I know
you're really a girl?" It was like one of the supports he had based his
life on and counted on had just been destroyed. Ripped away from him.

"I-I know it should be the same, but ... still I have this feeling inside
of me like my best friend has just ... died." He began to run away, away
from *her*. He felt he would suffocate; he couldn't breathe. "Everything
is just wrong!"

Left behind in the camp, tears were also streaming down Pikachu's cheeks.
"Pikapi!"



*** The end or just the beginning?


And this my dear readers, was the challenge:

This leads to my second idea. ...Why do Ash and Pikachu have such a 
strong emotional connection? What if they were close, in another life?
What if they were once both human and Pikachu was his child...or best
friend...or soulmate? What if they died in an electrical storm one day,
and came back as you see them now?

I think it would be interesting to see the Pokemon characters (even Team
Rocket) with the same personalities but different bodies and social
relationships. ...I always did picture Meowth as a human stuck in a
Pokemon's body...

Please consider these challenges and tell me if you decide to take them.
I would be very flattered. I would write them myself, but I am currently
in the middle of a long- term project that demands all my attention.
                        TAH IN AZ
                        (Tiffany)
>>>>

Hmmmm ... I think the hentai peeps would have a field day with this. But
I'm not writing lemon scenes ya understand? This is a relationship fic
and it will focus on relationship only. Kind of an experiment.

Tell me what you think okay? If you want more of this that is.

(FFML peeps if you're reading this, please respond privately)


Ace Sanchez
Email: jsa@fl.net.au
WWW: http://jsa.users.fl.net.au