Disclaimer: Watch to the East – the feign beast rises. A withering call, Nintendo! Nintendo! Wherefore doth the challenge of 4kids go unanswered? Lo! The twin-crown of Pokémon rests only their heads. Fear and despair all, those whose spider-hands dare venture to steal it.

Grasping the Moon

Epilogue – Hardly an Epilogue

Misty twisted, loosening her back. Limbered up, she carefully planted her feet and climbed down the rocks until she came close enough to the stream. Kneeling, the Cerulean girl reached out with the first bucket.

"Gotcha." She said with a victorious smile, catching the water. Filling the container, she lifted it with her strong arms and set it on a rock above her before beginning on the next bucket.

As she did so, she looked across the stream to the rocks on the other side. Psyduck was there, hands clamped to the sides of his head and staring at her dumbly over his bill. When Misty noticed him, the yellow duck went wild, thrilled that his master had laid eyes upon him. In his dance of joy, his flippers slipped on the slick rock and he toppled into the water.

Sighing, Misty watched her pokémon carried helplessly downstream. "Hopeless." She muttered to herself. The Water Master was not too fussed about tracking her lost pokémon down – Starmie or Wartortle were on rotating patrol up and down this stream, and would probably pick up their comrade.

Probably.

Rising, Misty carefully hefted the two buckets of water up the rock bank to the grass, the high-altitude air crisp on her exposed skin. The cave was within viewing distance of the stream, and she headed back, preferring the feel of grass on her bare feet to the cutting stones. Charizard was standing guard at the cave's mouth, obviously bored as he scratched at his many scars, but still diligent.

Mewtwo had been unsurprisingly thorough, teleporting Ash and Misty's pokémon along with them. Ash's crew were furious to have been plucked from out of their battles, but their attitudes quickly boomeranged when they saw the state their master had fallen to. Charizard's change was the most pronounced – going from the most terrifying to the best-behaved. Misty still found it strange that the crimson dragon that had been so untameable and war-lustful would become so restrained whenever Ash was in trouble.

"Hi." She said politely as the dragon regarded her coolly, sweeping his burning tail.

Setting the water-buckets by the cave entrance, she peeked inside, but it was too dark. She knew her husband there, though, curled up in a ball with Pikachu mewing at him comfortingly. The redhead would work on him later – first she had to boil the water.

"Right." Misty told herself, setting her mind in order. "Firewood."

That psychic super-power had been far more generous than the Ketchums had any right to expect, even providing survival gear, but as much as Misty loved camping, she did sometimes wish that they were in a cushy safe house or something. All things considered, there was no good cause for complaining – Misty had the distinct impression that if they ran into any trouble with food, the purple giant would appear with plenty of supplies.

Walking in the unkempt grass (somewhat like Ash's hair, she mused) towards the pile of firewood, Misty's eyes drifted over the pine trees to a nearby mountain. Just beyond, perpetually blocked from sight, was her hometown – or rather, its remains. Shaking her head sharply, she forced the memory from mind.

Shuffling leaves seized Misty and Charizard's attention, and they looked down at the shaking shrubbery, expecting a wild Oddish. But it was the stout Ivysaur.

Looking pleasantly on the leafy turtle, Misty wondered why he wasn't patrolling as he normally did. Ivysaur looked at her significantly.

"Ivy-saur." He said. The redhead blinked – she hadn't quite learned to understand Ash's pokémon yet. Sparing her a game of charades, the grass-type jerked his head back from where he came.

On cue, the bushes shook, this time by a taller creature. Pushing through the green was a woman, dressed in a tight orange singlet with a black collar. She was wearing a green bandanna, and used it to wipe sweat from her brow with gloved hands.

Misty narrowed her eyes and May smiled awkwardly, waving. "Uh, hi."

-- --

Later, sitting on the rocks overlooking the stream, the two women sat tensely. May drummed her fingers on her well-toned thighs, glancing backward at the cave entrance every so often. Misty observed this suspiciously.

"I guess someone was bound to find us eventually." She said, making the opening move. "You must have been searching pretty diligently."

Chuckling shyly, May rubbed the back of her brown hair. "Ah, well, not so much." She confessed. "But I heard these rumours of a secret Cerulean cave, and I got curious."

Not making an effort to mask her hostility, the taller woman brazenly searched May's face for lies. Slowly, she was convinced.

"You happened to be in the area, huh?" Misty looked down into the water.

"Yeah, sorta." The brunette didn't quite want to broach that topic just yet. She looked over her shoulders again to the cave, where the red dragon was watching her. "Um, how is he?"

Misty observed her previous rival from the corner of her eyes for a moment. "Better." She said, at length. "I've managed to get him to come outside a few times." She didn't mention that she had ordered the pokémon to carry him out.

Face falling, May took this as news that Ash was in very bad condition. She couldn't stop herself looking again. "Oh. Do you think he'll be okay?" the beauty asked in a low voice.

"Of course he will!" Misty declared, deciding to rub it in. "Have a little faith in him – he's Ash Ketchum!" Taking a glance herself, Misty smiled towards their temporary home. "He can overcome anything, even this."

Nodding slowly, May didn't rise to the bait, but instead regarded Misty, the woman she had hated for such a long time. Said woman was unsure why she was even talking to May – but then again, it was getting lonely on this moutain without human contact besides her perpetually silent husband. And she needed news from the world at large.

"So, what's everyone been up to?"

Rubbing her gloves together, May licked her luscious lips. "Well, Brock's been retooling Pewter. Pulled down the Palace of Steel and everything. Your mother-in-law's been staying with him." Misty nodded, and May was strangely uncomfortable with having the redhead hang on her every word. "He started going out with a girl -" The brightening of Misty's face was tangible. "- but she broke it off."

Groaning, Misty rubbed her eyelids. "Geez, that man! It's only been a month!"

Still uncertain of her standing with the thin woman, May giggled hesitantly, and Misty smiled back. They were sharing a laugh? This was so weird...

"We all sorta parted ways," The Elite-Second went on. "There's so much to rebuild."

"You going to return to Hoenn?"

May looked pained. "Probably not – I'm not exactly going to be welcomed back with open arms."

Following carefully, Misty ventured a cautious question. "And what about Gary?"

The tone of the words drew May's eyes. Pandora was running her fingers around the edge of a box she obviously knew she shouldn't open. "Celadon, I think. Rebuilding."

Misty bobbed her head quickly, too scared to press for further details. As her host went quiet, May ran a finger down a bang uncertainly as she decided to attempt her first objective.

"I've met someone." May announced suddenly. Misty jumped.

"Really?" The mood lightened as the Cerulean native realised what that news meant for the two of them vis-a-vis her husband. In a rare moment of insight to the conversation's subtext, the lanky girl realised that May was telling her this to make peace. "That's great! Who is he?" She inquired, crossing her fingers and hoping it wasn't a 'he'.

No one gets double-lucky. "You know him – he's Brock's brother." May answered. "Forrest."

Misty was so shocked that she sprung to her feet. "What?" She cried instinctively. "The one with no legs?"

Her hand slapped down over her mouth, wishing she could force the words back inside. May said nothing and stared into the stream, blushing. Slowly, Misty retook her seat, seeing the attractive woman sitting next to her in an entirely new light.

"I wish you both the best." She mentioned in a subdued tone, hoping to amend for her initial outburst.

A silence passed as Misty tried to repair her blown mind and May rallied her courage for objective two.

"I've been helping with the reconstruction effort at Cerulean City." She finally advised. The ex-Cerulean Gym Leader perked up again, looking appreciatively at the Elite Second. Today seemed to be a day of good news for the redhead – maybe Ash would finally have it in him to 'be' with her tonight as well? "It's been going really well."

May could see the wide, glorious smile on Misty's milky-white face, and enjoyed it for as long as she could before she knocked it off the woman's face.

"Listen." May took a long breath of mountain air and tried to stretch out her shoulders again. She dropped the bomb. "They've asked me to be the new Gym Leader there."

A portcullis slammed down with resounding force, Misty's happy face bathed suddenly with darkness. May couldn't meet her eyes.

Mrs. Ketchum could see what was happening here: May wanted permission to take the offer. Misty's first reaction was a total, uncompromising 'NO!' in her mind.

But glancing back to the cave where Charizard's attention had moved from the visiting work colleague, the Water Master had second thoughts. It was not like she could re-inherit the title with things as they were – Ash was a fugitive from the law and she, for all Misty knew, was as well. As little as the swimming trainer liked to face it, there were far worse hands than May's for the Gym to fall into.

Whatsmore, Cerulean City Gym had always been run by beauty queens, why break the tradition? Misty owed it to her sisters not to let the place be run by a runt. It would be a fitting tribute to the Sensational Sisters of Cerulean to hand the Gym over to the most beautiful woman in the world.

Turning a serious face back to the woman they called 'Rose', 'Turner' and 'Heart-Taker', Misty told her: "Sure."

All the stress evaporated from May's shoulders, and she slumped forward in release.

"Ah, great." Rose muttered. "I wanted to check if you were okay with it first."

Misty flexed the corners of her mouth. "Appreciated." She said with absolute honesty.

Her business completed, May stood up, brushing off her perfect behind. She helped Misty to her feet before looking again towards the cave. It seemed so lonesome up here.

"Should I visit again?"

Misty shrugged as she walked May back to the tree line. "You don't have to."

"Should I tell anyone else you're here?" May asked, wanting to help. Her blue eyes went to the cave.

"Better not to risk it."

"Right." May stared into the thick forest she had forced her way through to get here. It was a long journey without a path – no wonder no one ever stumbled across this place. Pulling at the collar of her shirt, May reminded herself that she had promised Forrest that she wouldn't be gone for more than a few days, but...

She looked again to the cave, and Misty waited for the inevitable question.

"Should I see him?"

Misty let a sadness enter her eyes as she looked with May to the dark cavern that encaged the man that they both loved. The redhead weighed up how much good it would do the beauty to see Ash squeezed into a ball by the force of overwhelming guilt, depression and maybe even madness – the way he'd remained for a whole month. To see that great man reduced to a vegetable...

Misty turned and looked directly into May's cobalt eyes.

"No."

Accepting this response without a word, May sought some way to say goodbye properly. Fidgeting for a moment, she stuck out a black-fingered glove.

Mildly shocked, Misty took her hand with a bemused smirk. They shook once, strongly and professionally, before they released each other and May squeezed back through the greenery.

-- --

James kicked in the door, causing the old lady at the counter to jump in surprise. Her five Chatots erupted into frenzied squawks. The foppish man was shoved into the store by his two partners, who slammed the door behind them.

Ignoring the lady at the register shout at them, Jesse pointed and gave orders. "Quick, out the back!"

Persian dashed through the shop, knocking over a stand of pokémon accessories, leaving his human comrades to jump the mess. As they fled into the store room, the old woman proved faster than expected and grabbed James' hand.

"Come on, ya lug!" Persian shouted to the blue-haired pretty boy as Jesse threw her shoulder into the backdoor.

Desperate, James pulled against the storekeeper's grip, letting his black glove slide off as he broke free. He jumped long, rolling out the door into the back alley, which Jesse drove closed behind him.

Pushing up onto his elbow, James dabbed at his thick sweat with his dirty shirt. "Did we lose him?" He asked through gasps.

"Shut up." His female partner growled, punching at the steel door in frustration. Her pokémon belt quivered.

"Wobuf-" Jesse's Wobbuffet shouted with an idiot smile on its blue, bulbous face as it broke free from his ball. She didn't even let the odd pokémon finish before she booted it in the face.

Persian found a fire escape.

"Keep going, keep going!" The cat implored, athletically leaping up to the first floor. Recalling Wobbuffet, his partners scrambled to follow him and retreat over the rooftops.

Since the Kanto League's collapse and the disappearance of its much-feared Champion, the three neighbouring great nations of Johto, Sinnoh and Hoenn had been more than happy to send in 'relief'. This aid took the form of food, materials for restructuring and troops for peace-keeping, but everyone knew it was less an act of philanthropy and more a bid to claim as big as slice out of Kanto as they could while it was still up-for-grabs.

The problem for Team Rocket was that these more stable governments were far less willing to stomach organised crime. This particular trio's world had fallen down around them very quickly – all their bank accounts had been frozen, all their safe houses marked, and even the emergency hot air balloons were all confiscated by the 'police'. Whoever was out to get them was not only smart, he had a lot of insight into the modus operandi of these three.

"I knew it was too good to last!" James whinged, tears pouring down his face as he sprinted along the Viridian roof and leapt for the next. "All of our money!" He grieved.

"Shut up!" Jesse hissed with increasing animalism, her long hair whipping like a tail as she launched over an alley. She had always been poor, but to have made it and then lost it was so damn humiliating.

"Da sub's probably locked down." Persian remarked, thinking aloud while easily making each jump. He was verbally working through their escape options. "But dere's no way dey've got da whole town circled."

"On foot, then." The redhead declared finally, ignoring James' moan. "Once we hit the edge of town, we're in the clear."

Something big and white hurtled through the air and into Persian, the two white furry pokémon tumbling across the concrete of the rood. It was between a sloth and an ape, and pinned the Team Rocket cat brutally with its gangly arms.

James squealed and squeezed his arms to his chest effeminately. Jesse growled and clenched her fist. A man was climbing up a ladder at the side of the building.

He was dressed in a well-made blue suit and would have stood eye-to-hairline over James. There was a badge pinned to the lapel of his jacket identifying him as a member of the Hoenn Relief Corps. This was that man who had started chasing them so persistently just a while ago.

"Well, it's been so long!" He announced with an even voice that was spiced with a subtle tone of amusement. The two standing Team Rocket agents peered at this man and tried to recognise him.

Now close enough to get a good look at his face, the two Rockets noticed that he was vaguely familiar. With his black hair in a sophisticated cut and thick square glasses, the man was somewhat attractive in a nerdy, straight-laced fashion.

"You recognise this jerk, James?"

The fop shook his head vigorously.

"It's okay if you don't recall my face, I understand." The Hoenn native mocked politely. "You were always so focused on Ash's Pikachu. I guess you have an eye for talent after all."

James covered his mouth in shock. "A twerp?"

Grunting, the man's Slaking nodded at Team Rocket, still clenching so tightly to the subdued Persian that the feline couldn't speak. The brutish pokémon seemed to be asking if he should take out the humans too, but nerdy man shook his head with a thankful smile.

Jesse decided to take her chances – he didn't seem so tough. Charging inelegantly, she threw a wide fist. The man expertly side-stepped, tripping her and producing handcuffs in one motion.

As she fell, he clipped the bindings on one wrist, and when she collapsed chest-first onto the concrete, he stepped over her and cuffed her hands behind her back. As she squirmed fiercely, he set a knee firmly on her lower back.

"Unhand me at once!" The Rocket demanded, trying to knock the man off her with her hair alone. "Don't you have any idea how to treat a lady?"

While the temperamental woman ran off her mouth, the Hoenn gentleman turned to smile at her partner. "Max, Petalburg Gym-Leader. Pleasure to meet you again."

Yelping, James threw his arms straight up in surrender.

-- --

Nidoking and Nidoqueen were clearing way the last of the rubble in the immediate vicinity in the fading twilight, hoping to have the block open for construction by the next day. Their work was illuminated by Arcanine's burning mane as the fire dog pulled a pallet of bricks across the cracked road.

"Ar!" He barked, pushing the two stone lizards to leave room for him to leave the materials so they could finish up for the day.

"Gar!" Nidoking threw back aggressively, but the fire dog ignored him while his mate patted his shoulder calmingly.

The Johto aid workers and Celadon Rangers had long since completed their work, returning to the camps to drink and rest. The green-cloaked gym members carried a light mood of camaraderie now that they had traded in their rifles and bows for shovels and picks. Whatever political agendas the men from Johto had, the Rangers were appreciative of the opportunity to re-found their home.

Even this long after the official defeat of the League, survivors were still appearing from the crowding jungles of the Celadon area, keeping Nurse Joy busy. She was happy, though, as the worst she had to deal with was malnutrition rather than the bullet wounds and amputations that had been her daily task in years previous.

Despite this merry atmosphere over the work, the Rangers all stayed clear of one man, and the Johto visitors learned to do likewise.

Remaining in Celadon's burned out husk, Gary lay on the roof of one stone building, having had Blastoise wash away the layer of ash. He lay down and stared at the stars.

"You here Eevee?" He asked. The dog was below at street level, and came when called, jumping up Blastoise's shell and onto the roof. Gary scratched the pokémon behind the ears.

The war hero listened as Nidoking, Nidoqueen and Arcanine finally decided to leave the rest for tomorrow, and went to join Blastoise relax. Scizor, who had never been social, elected to return to his pokéball after all his set objectives had been completed. Gary sighed deeply, exhausted from his day of hard labour.

"A long, hard day, hey?" He asked his hound, whom yapped in confirmation. "This isn't so bad, is it?"

Eevee tightened his brow and looked away. He may have forgiven his master for abandoning the fight of the century, but that didn't mean he'd condone this life of mundanity.

Gary was separated from all his comrades-in-battle. Tracey had gone on a journey to find himself again – and try to make peace with his girlfriend's death. Snap was gone like a puff of cigarette smoke – that sniper was nothing and went to nothing, true to his ideals.

"I suppose I could have gone with Brock to Pewter, or that May girl to Cerulean..." He mused aloud, finding privacy in the dark. Eevee's ears twitched. "But I guess I don't really know them all that well... And I'm not sure if Brock could look at me without thinking of the 'A-word'."

Of course, going with Misty had been impossible. Staring at the night sky, he remembered something she had once asked him.

"Do you think there are pokémon up there in space?" He could hear her ask, her shaken voice wavering with misery shivering through his ears as though she was again next to him on the lake of rubble that had been Mt Moon. "Do you think they look down on us here and cry?"

Buffered by several kilometres of cold night air from the distant sounds of laughter around campfires, Gary turned the question again. Whoever up there was watching, did they laugh or cry or both? Why? Was it a hateful laugh, or a sad laugh at human tragedy, or were they chuckling because there was actually, eventually, a happy ending to it all?

"Tsh." Gary scoffed at himself, rubbing his forehead. "This is Tracey's sort of thing."

Eevee gave his master an odd look for talking to himself, but looked back up to the dark sky. There was no moon tonight, after that long run of full moons. But just because they couldn't see it, that didn't mean it wasn't there, ensnaring them all like the world's pokéball.

With a smirk, Gary grabbed his green-versus-yellow ying/yang necklace and lifted it above his head. Squeezing an eye, he fancied the symbol of balance as the moon he couldn't see.

"What a crap moon." He assessed after a moment, pulling and snapping the cord. "I like the real one better."

Breaking the two coiled teardrops into equal parts, he threw the remanent of his dearest trinket into the city's dark remains, ignoring where it landed. Eevee watched all this with surprised eyes.

"Ee?" He asked tenderly, but Oak didn't answer. Settling his hands back underneath his head, the trainer hummed gently.

The last time he'd been star-gazing had been here in Celadon, except that time he'd been joined with some key members of the Resistance. Brock, and Melissa – may she rest in peace – and Tracey. And Misty was there too, telling that story...

Shifting uncomfortably, Gary finally grabbed his dog, which made a noise of surprise. "Ah, I'm such a dumbass." He confided in the pokémon, thinking about that beautiful orange-haired girl. Even after her... choice, she was still a pleasant memory to him.

Eevee's nose twitched. "Vee." He agreed curtly.

He'd been caught between Ash and Misty – that is, caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. Was it any wonder he'd been beaten?

"I can't believe I went through everything and still lost to Ash!" He declared, thinking less of the swords and guns than of that enchanting beanpole girl. Gary was smiling, and it was mostly genuine, as he wrestled playfully with his pokémon.

Eventually the brown pup broke free and retreated a few steps, barking in victory. Throwing up his hands, Gary rolled onto his back and stared up into the night sky where the moon was hidden by the world's shadow.

"That's it, I've decided." He decided, sitting up. Eevee recognised the look of firmness in his features and stiffened his stance at his master's seriousness. "I'm becoming an astronaut."

-

-

Author's Notes:

Wow, I wrote that quickly...

IT'S FINISHED! Thank you everyone for enduring until the end!

These notes are going to be long this time around, but considering I just completed a fanfic the length of a frikkin' novel, I feel entitled to ramble a bit.

It's true, in the end I'm a pokéshipper. Sorry.

The idea for this story started all the way back in high school (when the earth was still called flat), when I read a fanfic called 'Pokémon Master' by Acey (you can find it in my 'favourite stories' section). Looking back now, that story followed a fairly cliché anime story-line, but I ate it up at the time.

Anyway, after reading it, I wanted to do an epic fighting fic of my own – but I couldn't just rip his off, so I got to thinking about interesting twists I could give it, non-obvious stuff. What if Gary was the 'goodie' and Ash the 'baddie'? And what if the 'baddie' turned out not to be so bad? And what if the mad dictator got the girl in the end? What if there were guns involved, not just sword'n'sorcery weapons? That sort of thing.

So, the idea gestated. It continued to do so for years until, finally, I just said 'screw it, I'm writing this.' And I swore to finish it, since I never actually would get around to finishing projects I started.

That being said, most of the real work actually happened in the actual writing. A lot of the character development was not planned a head of time, but just happened – of particular note was Will and Janine, a relationship I wish I could have done more with. This thing really wrote itself.

Despite the focus remaining largely on the human characters, I felt it would do injustice to Pokémon to not give due credit to the pokémon as characters themselves, so I took pains to give them decent roles, even though it was burdensome story-telling-wise.

With fanfics, you can't really go back and rewrite like with a novel, so here are some things I would do if I had the ability or inclination to edit this monster properly:

- Streamline some of the characters a little bit, make the early characterisations smoother

- Solidify Snap – you could probably see me tie myself up in knots trying to decide whether he knew who Ash was or not.

- Get rid of that 'ghost-detector' from Chapter 4

- More Team Rocket – Jesse, James and Meowth are my favourite characters and they hardly got a showing in this fic! How bizarre is that? (for that matter, change Persian back into Meowth)

- Have more of a view into the rank'n'file of both sides – it felt really aristocratic to only focus on the leadership and the super-elite fighters. What about the common trooper? What did they think?

- A deeper sense of ecology and the whole system of living in Kanto, especially in a war. Most of the fic focussed on how it all related to war, but not so much on the other aspects of the nation. I needed better world-building.

- A more consistent sense of time and space

CONCERNING THE SEQUEL:

I have decided not to start writing it, even though I have half the bloody thing plotted out already. There's no time, and too much to do in my life. It would have involved Sinnoh, Johto and Hoenn, not to mention Teams Aqua, Magmar and Galactic. Lots of familiar faces, plus new ones, including Dawn, Harrison, Max and many more! I particularly wanted to explore May and Forrest's relationship, and reconcile May and Max.

But since I'm not doing it, nyeh.

Instead, imagine the most awesome possible thing you can, and that will be the sequel for you.

If I do take leave of my senses and start writing it, I will add a chapter to the end of this fanfic saying that I started posting it. So if you want to cling to that lingering hope, please place an alert on this fic! (How sneaky am I?)

Please read and review!... wait, I don't need to do that anymore, do I?

All you long time supporters – thank you humbly for your readership!

RedheadtheGirl: Thank you for your patronage of my fic! I'm glad the epic-ness was up to standard, I was a little concerned it might fall flat.

As for the memory... I'm not quite sure why I ended up putting that in, it wasn't planned long in advance. I guess I just always enjoyed writing the peaceful scenes more. Juxtaposition? The 'hurt the ones you love' line? More development for Snap? I don't know.

And Mew saving Ash? I guess it was just fate. :D