Revised 22.11.2019 because WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME THERE WERE SO MANY MISTAKES ASDFGHJKL.

Endgame

Chapter One - In Which The Cards Are Dealt

When Gary Oak is five, he decides that Ash Ketchum is pathetic.

He is too loud, too obnoxious; never stops boasting about how he is going to become the best trainer of all time and catch every single pokemon out there. Neither of them know the first thing about becoming a trainer other than what they've seen on television, but that is okay because they're just kids and they still have time to learn.

Gary is an Oak. He has expectations from his grandfather and quite literally everyone because he's the grandson of the Professor Oak, and he has a legacy to fulfil. So whenever Ash boldly declares that he will take the title of Champion of the Pokemon League, Gary is always quick to scoff and say that he will take it first.

He is always quick to put Ash down about anything and everything.

Too short. Too slow. Too annoying.

Pathetic.

His Gramps is a very important person and that makes him important too. Obviously, it makes Gary better by default, because he has books and technology and sometimes he's allowed to actually touch the pokemon in the lab. Ash only ever gets to look at them. Ash does not have fame. Ash does not have fortune. Ash does not have access to the resources he does.

He has what Ash can only ever dream of having.

To Gary, that makes Ash Ketchum second-rate, and what was the point in being friends with a second-rate (future) trainer? Nonetheless, he still runs around and participates in mock-battles atop the rolling hills of Pallet Town with the boy he considered beneath him. There is another one, too; a girl with eyes the exact shade of those hills. He thinks they're pretty, a lot prettier than the delicate crystals that once hung from the ceiling of his old house before mama went away and his father abandoned him, but he'll never tell her that.

Sometimes for fun, and only for fun because girls were gross and have cooties, he picks a wild flower at random and presents it to her. It's only ever really to tick Ash off, though. Their rivalry is not limited to just being a trainer, after all, and anything that can be made into a competition is good enough for Ash and Gary. If that meant he had to risk exposure to Leaf's girl germs then so be it.

But then, neither knew just how deep that rivalry would run, nor the amount of impact the toll would take on the both of them during later years.

Their competitiveness sparks on the day Ash shouted to world that he would be the number on pokemon trainer, and it still burns on five years later when they are ten years old and ready to receive their very first pokemon.

Ash is late.

Gary is disappointed, but only because he wanted to see the look on his rival's face when his desired pokemon was chosen right in front of him. He picks squirtle anyway, and is delighted to find that Ash's reaction is still completely priceless. They'd staked their claims on Professor Oak's starters long ago, back in the days of carefree mock-battles and acting out their adventures.

But that doesn't mean Gary isn't above using that for his own amusement.

Leaf had her eyes set on bulbasaur, and he certainly didn't want to steal that away. Grass types have never been his thing. That left only charmander and squirtle, and squirtle clearly held the type advantage. Of course he would take it. It meant killing two pidgies with one stone; he'd get yet another leverage over Ash and have the pleasure of pissing him off.

Water against fire. Strong against weak. Gary simply could not pass that up.

Always, always one step ahead.

"Well Ash, ya snooze ya lose! I can't believe you're behind right from that start," Gary snickers. He twirls the pokeball containing squirtle on one finger, smirking as Ash, clad in his pyjamas, stands there positively fuming.

"Gary!" Ash yells, pointing a finger at him accusingly. "That better not be squirtle, 'cause I already called dibs on it!

"Whatever. It pays to have a grandfather in the pokemon business," Gary boasts, shit-eating grin never leaving his face. "Smell ya later, Ashy-boy!"

Ignoring the outraged cries behind him, Gary finally sets out on his pokemon journey. He's ten years old but already the burden of what lies ahead of him, the tasks he knows he has no choice but to accomplish, weigh heavily on his mind. The things he's gained barely scratch the surface to make up for that which has been lost, so being the strongest trainer is all that is left.

Status. Wealth. Pride.

Gary knows he has it all.

Still, he needs to prove to his father- even though the ideals of a dead man have never counted in his eyes -that he was wrong. And yeah, has his family name, but this is something he has got to do for himself. Because although he can have anything in the world, has a car to personally transport him from town to town, everything is riding on this journey.

He only has himself to rely on now.

His parents are dead and Ash isn't worth it and Leaf chooses to take a different path entirely.

Gary has never had to understand the concept of Ash having something he does not, so the first time he experiences it leaves him with a foul taste in his mouth that lasts for a week.

He's met Ash's travelling companions before and really, he wasn't impressed.

The older boy with sun-kissed skin used to be a Gym Leader which, he admits, is pretty cool. But he isn't now and Gary is training to be leagues above mere Gym Leaders so it doesn't matter. The girl has freckles and red hair and bright blue eyes. She isn't anything special. Water pokemon were her thing but they weren't so great, aside from his prized squirtle, of course.

He supposes that she has the Cerulean Gym's legacy, but she isn't quite able to measure up to that yet and so why should he care about her?

Gary snickers at the sight of Ash failing again at commanding his pikachu. "I've never seen anyone as pathetic as you!"

"Have you tried a mirror?" the girl, Misty he thinks her name is, snaps back.

Gary Oak is genuinely stunned. He stares open mouthed, eyes wide and finger pointed but unable to get a sound out.

"What?" Misty demands, crossing her arms and tapping her foot impatiently. "Are you trying to catch flies in your mouth or are you just too stupid to respond?"

Ash snickers and Gary feels his cheeks burn red. Why would she stick up for somebody like Ash Ketchum?

It isn't until later that night, when Gary is alone in his hotel room with nothing to entertain him but his thoughts, that Gary realises Ash has what he's never had: friends. People who actually like him and care about him and don't just follow him around for money like his cheerleaders do.

He tells himself that the ache in his chest is from a bad burger.

Misty is twelve when she falls for the boy from Pallet Town.

At least, she thinks she does. It's the closest thing she's ever felt to that magnitude, especially for a boy. She loves Brock, and she loves her sisters, but it isn't the same thing.

Love is a strange concept.

To feel so much you don't feel anything at all. It is completely unpredictable; one moment her heart is about to explode just over his damn smile and the next it's about to concave from hiding how she feels, and she hates it but at the same time she wouldn't give it up for the world. Wouldn't give him up for the world.

Beautifultragicbreathtaking.

She wants to kiss him senseless and wring his stupid neck at the same time.

He drives her up the wall, drives her absolutely crazy to the point where she wonders what she's even doing here anymore. Often, she questions her sanity because it really can't be healthy for a girl of her age to feel so many emotions all at once. If she wanted to she could leave and be free of it all. It would be so easy, so effortless to just grab her bag and walk away. Walk away and discard everything, leave the soreness and the heartache and the grief behind, and just forget it all.

But she knows that would be impossible.

As much as it burns white hot and searing when it hurts, and Mew, does it hurt, she'd never be able to just leave. Because through all of the screaming and fighting and tears she knows she loves him, loves him as much as she loves being here. She believes that love and pain go hand in hand, and that really isn't so bad. Love is blinding and the agony that comes with loving Ash Ketchum is just as much so. But it's beautiful, too, it really is. The moments she spends with him and Brock are worth all of the torture her heart provides twice over.

And then at thirteen Misty finds that she does not have a choice in the matter. Her sisters yet again force her hand like they have the right to have anything to do with her life or the decisions she makes, because Misty has always been willing to sacrifice for love but never sacrifice love itself.

All it takes is one phone call and she finds herself standing back in the Cerulean Gym.

She swore she'd never return until her goal had been reached, but she supposes that doesn't matter anymore.

And that hurts, too.

She wonders why it is possible to fall in love with someone who will never love you in return. Not in the way you want them to.

The years go on and Ash continues his cycle of come and go, forever on a new adventure with Pikachu by his side.

His feelings for Misty never change, but he also can't stop the pull that takes hold of him every time he comes home.

The Sensational Sisters are away, Ash isn't here, and everybody else who could have possibly been on the list isn't around to help, so it is Gary whom Brock turns to when something goes wrong.

"One of the new pokemon aimed wrong," Brock explains through the phone solemnly. "She was testing out mega evolution so it was twice as potent and... and it hit her instead."

Gary is silent.

He doesn't know what he has to do with this. He and Misty were never particularly close, despite the childhood rivalry between himself and Ash having long dissipated. Just because he was friends with Ash it didn't mean he was friends with Ash's friends. Misty Waterflower wasn't someone he'd ever planned on pursuing a friendship with. They see each other maybe three times a year and sometimes she'll answer the phone when he needs to call the Gym about a pokemon related inquiry, but other than that they have no contact.

They have no reason to.

"I'm a researcher, Brock," Gary says back after a few moments. "I get that nobody else is here, but what can I do?"

Brock says it slowly, "The attack used was Amnesia."

Gary feels a cold flush sweep through him, the not often felt dread creep up as he anticipated the words that would surely follow.

"Gary... Misty doesn't remember anything. All of her memories are gone."

notes:

Apparently I don't need sleep and am able to smash out 14,000 words in two days. Who knew?