I am such an idiot.

I was looking over my story, wondering why on earth the reviews had stopped coming, and the traffic was declining. I looked it over, and OMG! I forgot to upload this! No wonder!

I apologise for being an idiot. But, somebody has to be, so you should be glad that I'm willing to do it.

DISCLAIMER: Yes, this is the last one. I DO NOT OWN! I ONLY OWN THE PLOT FOR THIS MESS OF A STORY!

Fire and Ice (Or Maybe Not)

Ash backtracked, searching for that cruel mask of a face, rage fueling him on. 'I'm going to slug him so hard he's gonna wish he'd never messed with Anabel!'

He yelled, fueling himself forwards to the office. "GIOVANNI! You're going to PAY!"

Ash turned the corner, almost slamming head first into another Team Rocket grunt.

"Hey! What are you doin-"

He grabbed the grunt, slamming him into the wall. "Where's Giovanni?"

"Ak…gah… in his office! Down the hall, the one at the end! Please don't kill me!" he added as an afterthought.

Without a word, Ash lifted the grunt by his shirt collar, and grinned. "You and I are going to have a little talk…"

Minutes later, Ash emerged from the side-hall, dressed in a grunt uniform. His hat covered his face, a large red 'R' was on his chest, and the Pokémon on his belt was trembling in fear.

Alright Giovanni. Here I come.

Taking a few casual steps down the hall, he scanned the door at the end. It was solid metal, with a fingerprint scanner on the side.

That'll be tough to get through. Good thing I brought this guy.

Reaching for his Pokéball, he pressed the button, releasing a very frightened Houndour. Ash knelt down beside it, stroking its head.

"Hey little guy. Can you do me a favour? I just want you to burn a hole in that door there, OK? Can you do that?"

It whimpered, and buried its head in Ash's sleeve. "Dour… Hou!"

"Please!"

The Houndour drew itself back, staring at the door. Letting out a tiny roar, (well, whimper) it blew a small stream of flames at the lock, melting the mechanism into a puddle of twisted, molten goo.

There was a click, and the door swung open.

"Good job! Return!" Ash tapped the Houndour with its Pokéball, clipping it back to his belt. He stood up, pushing open the door, glancing around the office.

"Giovanni?"

Something flashed to his left, and Ash swung blindly at it. "Yaaah!"

Clonk.

A hologram flickered, Giovanni smirking into existence. "Ash. You got the girl out of range of the stones. Now they are unusable. Meddling fool." He scowled, continuing. "This is not over. If you manage to escape the explosion, we will have a battle. Let's find out who is truly the Pokémon Master."

Ash pounded the machine, and it flickered off. "No! Battle me now! Don't run like a coward! Fight me! Why are you being such an-"

BANG

Oh no… the explosion!

Smoke billowed into the room, chunks of the ceiling raining down from above. A faint rumbling sound vibrated, and a fissure opened up, burying half of the room.

"NO!"

"Hound!"

The Houndour burst from its Pokéball, shielding Ash from a large chunk of rock. "Hound… hound… hou…"

It struggled, then a bright light flashed, surrounding the Pokémon. "What the-"

"Houndoom!"

With a mighty roar the newly-evolved Pokémon slammed into the rock, sending it flying to the other side of the collapsing office.

"An evolution... it got experience from protecting me." Ash grinned in spite of himself. "Alright! Houndoom! Get us out of here, now!"

The Houndoom grunted, and it lifted Ash onto its back, bounding away, dodging flaming chunks of debris. "Doom!" It leaped up, over top of the collapsed machine the nightmare stones were in. Roaring, it shot a blast of flame, melting an exit into the side of the wall, daylight shining through.

"Yes! Almost there! Just-"

BANG

A concrete slab crashed down from the roof, falling from the ceiling above the pair. With a final burst of energy, the Houndoom threw Ash past the hole pushing the boy out into the morning air. It barked a final goodbye, a millisecond before the ceiling collapsed, burying the entire Team Rocket base.

Burying the Houndoom.

Ash placed a bundle of flowers on the stone, a single tear dripping down his cheek. Anabel hugged his arm, crying softly into his shoulder.

"He saved me… he saved me so I could live, and so we could be reunited… he gave his life for us." Ash blinked back tears. "Thank you, Houndoom. You gave me back my life; you gave me the best gift you could. I only knew you for minutes… and you offered everything you had. You were loyal to the end."

Anabel sniffed, and in a shaky voice she murmured, "He was the bravest one of us. He saved us."

Ash nodded, the tears flowing freely. "I made it back to you because of him. I got to come back to you, I got to save you… so I think that he should hear what I was writing on the day Team Rocket struck."

Ash pulled out the paper from his jacket, smoothing it out.

"Anabel. The Salon Maiden of the Battle Frontier. Our time together has made me realise something, that something has created a bond between us. We are the best of friends; at least I hope we are. That's why I did something I should have done three years ago.

"I took up on Scott's offer. I am now member of the Battle Frontier, and I will be sharing one of the Battle Facilities with a Frontier Brain. I think you can guess who.

"I hope that for the rest of our time together we can become a bit more than friends. Anabel, I am the Salon Knight Ash. And I am sworn to protect you for the rest of my life."

Ash saw the tears of joy shining in Anabel's eyes; he felt her happiness as she flung her arms around him. And he knew that he had made the right decision, and he carried that thought with him forever.

Don't cry. I'm not *sniff* crying.

This has been a truly wonderful writing experience. By the way, this is my first FanFiction. Surprised? I hope you guys have enjoyed as much as I have. Thanks to all! You guys are so awesome!

TheElementHero