I felt as though the prologue had to be its own separate story, because no one's required to read this to understand the next…arc, if you will. However, it is still recommended that one reads this first because it gives some background. This is inspired by the story Auraless by MrQuestionMark, and I've had the idea for quite some time now.

Oh, and I don't own Pokémon.

"Hey, get back here! You worthless, little–!" A young brunet screamed towards the fleeing figure. His dark blue eyes glinted with malice as he gave chase, two others trailing behind him. The wind whipped his spiky auburn hair as he ran, and he shivered despite his long-sleeved purple shirt and khaki pants.

The retreating boy didn't dare look back at his pursuers in favor of keeping distance. After a while, however, he started to slow down from the sprint, his wild black hair that was blowing crazily in the wind slowing down as well. Finally, several minutes later, he came to a complete stop, panting all the while.

He felt a slight surge of triumph at the thought of outlasting the others, though it didn't last long. His heart sank as he heard the sound of footsteps tearing through the underbrush without a care. Less than a minute later, three children surrounded the helpless five-year-old.

"Gotcha now, Ashy-boy." The brunet spat in a disgusted, albeit mocking, tone. The two others made noises of agreement, both sneering at the young boy.

"Shut up, Gary!" He countered, although one could easily make out the fear in his voice. The children of the quaint town of Pallet had a history of bullying the slightly younger boy.

The brunet smirked as he, no doubt, picked up on the scared demeanor of his victim.

"Oh, is Ash going scared on me?" He taunted. The raven-haired boy flushed a light shade of pink that was hardly visible, but didn't respond.

After a few minutes of silence, the six-year-old brunet growled impatiently and charged up a glowing sphere of energy. Swinging his right arm back, he thrust his dominant hand forward and the compressed azure-blue ball struck the boy in the back and he screamed as a searing pain tore through him.

Gary and the two other children stared in horror as Ash's skin almost immediately became covered in blood. They had never gone to such lengths before, and realized that they'd messed up badly, too late.

They fled the scene, leaving Ash in the forest as he yelled in agony at the indescribable pain.

It was almost nighttime, and a young woman, only twenty-five years old, was in her house, fretting. Pacing next to her door, she jumped slightly in surprise when there was a knock. "Yes? Who is it?"

"Delia?" Came a familiar voice, "It's Samuel. Can I come in?"

"Oh, yes! Of course!" She said frantically while opening the door with clumsy hands. "Sorry Professor, but I–"

"I get it," the man assured, "and it's alright. I was just asking if Ash is here? Gary came back around one something and it's been hours. I hadn't noticed Ash come back yet, but I thought that maybe he'd've snuck past me somehow…"

Before the older man even finished his sentence, the brunette had already rushed out of the door.

"…I'll take that as a no." He said to himself with a sigh.

In the forest, a brunette walked quickly, her amber eyes, once bright, now shone with an inexpressible worry.

"Ash? Ash!" She called out. She used her enhanced senses to listen clearer, trying to pick up on her child's voice.

…Nothing.

When she couldn't hear anything, she started to panic. She ran off into the forest aimlessly to search for her son.

It was only minutes later that she found an unconscious five-year-old boy with messy raven hair lying on the ground, his simple clothes torn and dirtied. There was dried blood splattered all over his back and on the ground around him.

Delia Ketchum paled and built-up tears began to fall as she took in the sight of her son. Her sadness was almost instantly replaced by an immeasurable wave of anger and guilt. What had Gary done to her Ash, and why hadn't she been there to keep it from happening?

She had heard about how the three treated him, and knew that it was bad, but she always thought that he'd been exaggerating. But now this happened…

Delia looked towards her senseless child, and numbly picked him up in her arms, cradling him. As she moved in the direction of her house, all she did was stare at him.

When she opened the unlocked door and finally stole a glance upward, she saw the old researcher sitting on the forest-green couch, looking at her in concern.

"Delia…?" He spoke tentatively, as though knowing that something bad would come out of it. All she did was stare blankly, and that was when Oak noticed the child held protectively in her arms. He gasped in shock at the sight.

"What happened to him?" Oak, still horrified at the condition of the boy, could only process the first thought that popped up in his mind.

The brunette turned towards the man with a look of pure fury, one that made Oak cower in fear under her wrath. "I don't know exactly, but one thing's for sure – Gary did…this!" She practically spat at the petrified man as she gestured with one hand towards her limp son for emphasis.

"What? Gary?!" He yelped in disbelief.

"Yes, Gary!" She replied without losing the rage in her eyes. "Look at what he did to my poor son! If you can't tell, he's barely alive!"

That broke her. As she was just saying the first thing that came to her mind, when she mentioned her son's ragged and choppy breathing, she was mentally denying it up until that point. But when the revelation fully came to her, her whole body shook. She let out choked sobs until she started to cry wholeheartedly.

"H-he's… My A-Ash… H-he almost d-died… Ash was almost killed because of your Grandson! He almost died and it's Gary's fault!" Delia screamed. "He…he almost died…" As sobs racked her body again, she shook in fear and clutched her son to her tightly, as though she were scared that he would just vanish and leave her if she let go. Oak sighed and came closer to the woman who he saw as a daughter, but she just pushed him away.

"Just…go away." Her tone reflected how broken she was emotionally, how disappointed in Oak she must have been. Disappointed because of what his grandson did.

As she tried to go to sleep after she'd noticed how fast the time had gone by, Delia found that it was no use. Every time she thought she'd get some rest, her dreams always seemed to lead back to her wild mind thinking up ways of what would've happened to Ash had she not went and found him.

Would he be okay? Would he have even survived out in the woods? How would he have changed his underwear?

These thoughts became the things that the distraught Delia thought of whenever she tried to sleep that night. That was what plagued her nightmares all throughout the several times she tried to doze off. And every time, she would wake up screaming and/or panting heavily. Finally, at two AM, she realized that she wouldn't be able to rest any time soon. Not until she knew that her son would be alright.

As she went to Ash's room where she'd previously laid down the still unconscious boy after she had healed the wounds, she walked in and frowned when it became noticeable that they'd reopened. She sighed and closed them once more, again having the vision of what caused her son's, and thus her, dilemma flash through her mind.

In a last-ditch attempt to try and keep the worry out of her head, she took the nearby phone and dialed a number. It went to an operator, and Delia sighed before speaking.

"Hello. I'm Delia Ketchum and my son was hit by an Aura Sphere, could you get someone on hold?" As she said that, the one on the line changed to a worker. "Yes, I'm Delia… What?… No, it didn't… I'm sorry, I wasn't there at the time of the incident… Yes, please… Alright, thanks, bye."

She sighed again, but much of her nervousness had faded away at the relief of knowing that what she wanted would happen soon, only for more than before to come crashing back at full force as the weight of the situation came into perspective.

Ash had no friends, only his mother and Professor Oak. He was already half-dead, on the edge of his life. He had no aura, none at all.

What if no one could save him?

A/N: Okay, so first, I really hope you enjoy this story. I intend to make somewhat frequent updates, but don't expect much unless either I just get a ton of inspiration for this or a lot of people really like it. I give the 'auraless' idea full credit to MrQuestionMark, as already mentioned above.

Please leave a review telling me how I did.