So I was thinking about Pokemon romance fics where one dies and the other mourns, but mention is rarely made of the dead person's Pokemon. Then I got to thinking about the first movie, and thus this fic was born.

To the less observant eye, it almost looks like you're sleeping, master. Psychic blasts don't draw blood, after all.

Why did you do it? You knew what would happen if you went in there, the old man said it himself. Many people go into that cave and only half have come back...those who didn't were just like you, master, they thought they could subdue the beast. Thought they could use their words or their might to cow it into submission only to be destroyed from the inside by its power.

There's a reason he never leaves that cave.

When you fell, I thought it would be like every other battle we lost, you'd be standing in the Pokemon Center while Nurse Joy healed us, and afterwards you'd apologize for failing us. I guess this time we're the ones who failed you. Even my strongest shocks couldn't awaken you, the doctors said it was hopeless.

Why, master? I remember the day you first captured me and introduced me to Squirtle, you said we'd be a team forever. That's why I loved being with you, master, it's why we all did. Me and Squirtle and Pidgey and Diglett and Nidoran and Growlithe, we were all so happy. We grew and changed, we went through so much, we were going to challenge the Pokemon League.

I'm scared, master. What's going to happen to us now that you're gone? We're lost without you, no matter how strong we've become over the years we were nothing without you there to command us. We can't go back into the wild, not after we've walked beside you for so long.

Perhaps the girl you loved will take us in. She's not a trainer, but that's okay with me. I'll be cared for by someone else, but I would never obey anyone but you.

Goodbye, master.

*

Author's notes:

1) The trainer was Ash's father. My pet theory is he left and never came back because he got himself killed. The girl he loved is obviously Delia, and he has no idea of Ash's existence.

2) The beast is not Mewtwo. Rather, it's an overpowered angry Alakazam. It was going to be Mewtwo, but I didn't know whether or not it'd fit with the timeline of events re: Mewtwo's creation.

3) I was originally going to have Raichu be the parent of Ash's Pikachu, but I couldn't figure out how to work that in so I scrapped it. But Raichu being the BFF Pokemon mirrors Ash and Pikachu, and Squirtle was Ash's first choice for a starter in the anime so I thought it was appropriate that Ash's father had it as his starter.