The Book of Ash
Chapter Five: Blooming Paranoia

Ash idly glanced at the door when it opened, though seeing Cyrus enter with bags of groceries threw her off. She looked away from him, frowning as she made herself focus on what she was doing.

"Come on, Pikachu. You can do it!"

She had to focus on something. That Night guy was taking too long and she was getting too restless again. She'd immediately did what he (she?) said to do in that dumb letter, and when she checked it later on, it was gone. But she'd gotten nothing back since and it's already been a week. Maybe she should –

"What are you doing?"

She nearly jumped in fright. Instead, she turned around and gave Cyrus a suspicious look. But he just stood there, quietly watching her as he put away groceries in the cupboards.

"Trying to get Pikachu to repower these batteries," she reluctantly admitted.

She stiffened up as he walked over to her. He took the batteries away from Pikachu, who shifted closer to her while the blunet examined the batteries.

"If they weren't connected to a power grid, they should be fine," he said suddenly. "Batteries are made up of metal plates that are unaffected by EMP's."

"But I put them into all the flashlights I could!" she protested.

"The flashlight is an electrical object, so the ones you tried are most likely fried from the EMP burst," he pointed to the window outside. "The cars on the other hand are all probably useless, unless they're vintage cars. Older models relied less on electronical components. That combined with the many of them piled up around the city and the rubbles still needing to clear, and it's probably going to take a while to clear out the roads."

Feeling despondent, Ash held out her hand for the batteries. He gave them back and hesitated in front of her.

"There could still be electronical devices that work," he said. "There are some small electronical devices that could've survived. Cell phones too, though you wouldn't be able to make calls or look up anything on the internet. Any type of signal would be dead since telecommunication antennae would be down."

She sighed and nodded, resigning herself to the fact that she'd have to look harder to find anything she could that would help or at least was usable.

"It won't last forever," he awkwardly tried to comfort her. She gave him an odd look that he ignored. "EMPs aren't like how they in the movies, at least not anymore. We've got the technology to rebuild, and if anything, it was will take at least 10 to 20 months to rebuild the region. While an unfortunate side-effect of the blast, the EMP fallout wasn't the main problem."

"It was the damage done by Yveltal's blast," she muttered, scowling at the floor.

Ash shook her head and offered a small smile to the other. He was playing nice and trying to be polite and helpful. She should at least try to reciprocate.

"Maybe we can scavenge around for things tomorrow?" she said, almost wanting to take it back as soon as she'd said it.

"That would be nice," he surprisingly answered and Ash hid her flinch. She hadn't actually expected him to accept.

Just then, there was loud rumbling and noises coming from outside and Ash curiously went to the window. Her eyes widened and she let out a silent gasp. She was so caught off guard she didn't even notice Cyrus coming up behind her and peering over her shoulder out the window.

"What is the military doing here?" Ash asked.

Cyrus watched the outside, with the tanks and the soldiers coming in. A lot of the rubble that was still in the way got crushed under the power of the tanks' tires.

"My guess is that they are here to take over the city," he said stoically.

"That's…that's grim," she laughed lightly, but at his serious look, her eyes went wide. "You're serious?"

Cyrus shrugged. "I'm naturally pessimistic of course. And according to you, you said I was a blank-faced, no personality, soulless nihilist."

"I stand by that," Ash said wryly, but it had less bite than it would've had before.

"I'm working on the soulless nihilist part," he retorted, which made her blink.

Did he…did he just crack a joke?!

He nodded towards the kitchen. "I'll finish putting things away."

"Okay, I'll make dinner after," she said faintly.

"Thank you," he said simply and then focused on his task. Ash watched him for a bit, before she went back to Pikachu and decided to groom him a bit.

She had enough strangeness for the night.

Ash left early in the morning when it was still dark, not wanting to really deal with Cyrus. But as she walked through the streets, she noticed some people out and gathered in small groups and duos, watching the military stroll around and begin directing things. It looked promising really. It seemed like they were there to help and were fixing thing sup already.

So why did her gut feel like it was screaming at her?

She quickly made her way to Augustine's, darting into the lab and making her way to the second floor. Though it was early and most of the patients were sleeping, she caught sight of Augustine and Diantha in a corner talking, while Cosette was tending to a bandaged up, moaning patient at another part of the room.

"Ash," Augustine whispered-yelled, waving her over. "What are you doing here?"

She reached them and hugged him and then Diantha, who had stood up when she was with them. Ash shook her head.

"Did you see the military?" she asked.

Augustine's face screwed up slightly while Diantha's shuttered and closed down. That made Ash feel even worse and more paranoid about the military having come into the city.

"Saw, felt, and heard them. It's not a welcoming move from out lovely government," Augustine grumbled. "I don't like it at all."

"I'm hoping it isn't as…restricting as I'm thinking it will be," but Diantha sounded like she wanted to say something other than restricting.

"Do you really think it will be that bad? Them being here?" Ash asked anxiously.

"I think –" Augustine started, but was interrupted as someone coughed and they turned to face them.

Ash didn't recognize the man in the wheelchair, but Diantha apparently did as she rushed towards him.

"Wikstrom! You're awake! Why are you out of bed?" she cried out, though she still tried keep her voice quiet for the other patients on that floor.

"I couldn't sleep," Wikstrom said, his dark eyes looked worn down while his dark hair was out of its usual style that Ash remembered from TV.

Diantha sighed, but nodded. The usually elegant women turned back to her and Augustine. She looked at Ash while placing a hand on Wikstrom's shoulder.

"Ash, this is Wikstrom. Wikstrom, this is Ash Ketchum," she introduced them.

"Oh, this is the Ash you talked about a lot," he sounded surprise.

Ash had no idea Diantha talked about her. It made her want to hide her face.

"Hi! It's nice to meet you," Ash smiled brightly at him.

His lips quirked up slightly, and for a moment his tired face lightened up.

"It's nice to meet you too. I just came here sometime last night, so I'm sorry I was only just able to greet you."

"It's fine. You came last night after all. And I, uh, live elsewhere."

"It's funny," Diantha giggled slightly and Ash was glad to see the older woman seemed a bit more relaxed for the first time in what felt likes years. "You've now met practically almost all of my fellow Kalos Elite. You just need to meet Drasna now and it'll be complete!"

Ash almost laughed, but Wikstrom made a strangled noise that caught their attention. They looked to him and he looked back with his face sweating a bit, eyes looking dazed and tiny gasps escaping him.

"Wikstrom?" Diantha question in worry as she moved in closer to him again.

"Drasna," Wikstrom's voice came out raspy. "Drasna's dead."

Shock moved through Ash. Then horror.

He was still and not limp, meaning he'd been dead for more than a good few hours, letting rigor mortis set in.

Ash flinched and started to back away.

She checked his pulse and let out a sob as she felt nothing but cold skin.

Clemont, Drasna…it felt like the horror in Kalos would never end. She wanted to go home. She wanted to be back in Kanto, dealing with those three idiots again. She wanted to go back to battling in gyms and having such a simple life. She didn't have too many worries before.

Now everything was collapsing around her, even though the explosion had long since happened.

"I…I have to go!"

She didn't look at them as she fled.

She went through both of her jobs in a numb daze that she couldn't shake off. It clung to her like a second skin, and she wanted the day to be over already. But instead it felt like time slowed down and she was stuck like this.

Once she was done at the restaurant, she left in a hurry and hadn't even noticed Siebold looking after her in worry. No, she was oblivious to much of anything and just rushed to her apartment, running into it and slamming the door behind her. Sliding down against it, Ash closed her eyes and tried to take deep even breaths. However, the more she tried the more it became a struggle and she was gasping and having trouble breathing.

"Pika?"

When she opened her eyes to see her Pikachu and Oshawott looking at her in concern, she gave them a watery smile.

"Sorry, Pikachu, Kawai," she muttered as she got up and came over to them. She bent and rub their heads, with Pikachu purring and Kawai preening.

Straightening up, she tiredly trudged into the main room and they followed after her. She saw Cyrus hunched over something on the floor, fiddling with whatever it was.

"Cy? What're you doin'?" she muttered. Then she wanted to backtrack. Damn, she hadn't called him that in so long…

He startled and almost dropped what he was holding. He cleared his throat as he stood up and showed her the huge flashlight in his hands.

"I looked around the building and found this. It's…pretty fortified, so I believe it should –" he clicked the button on its handle and the flashlight shone brightly, more so than a normal flashlight would. "Work. It should work."

Ash stared before she took a shuddering breath and found herself falling to her knees and burying her face in her hands.

"Ash?!"

She ignored his alarm, feeling homesick and hopeless.

Ash just wanted to go back home.

Started 11/27/17 – Completed 12/2/12

A/n: I think this was edited. Sorry it's been a while, but here's a new chapter. Hope I can update much sooner! Please remember to review.