Love in the Time of Tribulations

Chapter 10: A Conflict

I loved all of your responses last chapter. It feels nice to know that I could surprise all of you so much! I hope you enjoy this chapter just the same. Now, read Chapter 10!

Chapter 10

A Conflict

"What...the heck...is this...?" Miette's voice screeched, echoing around the forest loudly. Ash wanted to share her sentiments but he was truly dumbfounded and speechless. He couldn't know what to say, and it seemed that neither did Sawyer. Around them, the various ARC agents seemed to look ready to fight while his father was contemplating something. "Who are you? And why do you look like me? !"

Mimi's facemask clattered to the ground and left Ash staring at her. Just as Miette had observed, Mimi's face was an exact likeness to her own. The hair might have been a little differently styled, and the clothes certainly weren't the same, but the similarity was downright uncanny...though it had nothing on the boy next to Paul who had lowered his hood. That allowed Ash to find his voice.

"Gary...I don't understand..." he said. His fellow Pallet Town native was smirking at him, as though he was looking down on him. Ash tried to regulate his breathing from such a gut punch. Three familiar faces, one being downright impossible, though he had to ask. "Do you have a twin sister, Miette?"

"No, I don't," she answered, and she looked ready to faint. "I'm an only child..."

"Okay, then who are you? !" Ash demanded of the girl. "And you...you're not Gary, are you?"

"I am Gary Oak, though," he responded. Ash wasn't exactly sure how he was supposed to refer to the boy that looked so like his friend. He chose to just call him "Fakey" for the time being. "But I'm certainly not the Gary Oak you remember."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you're pathetic," Paul snapped. Ash now shifted his eyes over to the purple-haired trainer, watching his rather cold expression. There had always been something off about the boy, and not just him forgetting Ash entirely. No, Ash felt his entire demeanor had been off since he'd met him back at the stadium...he was too cold. Even with every mannerism that Paul had had, he'd still been warming up a little before they'd last parted ways. Yet this Paul...

"Ash, don't be fooled," Lionel spoke up, striding forward with a pokeball in hand. "They wear the masks of people we know, but they're monsters."

"We're monsters?" Mimi asked, and Ash felt it more than unsettling that she was saying it with Miette's face. Taking a glance over to said girl, he could see her being supported from behind by Sawyer as Sceptile readied himself for a battle. "How dare you say that with such self-righteousness? ! It's your faults that all our-"

"Gah! Shut up, Mimi!" Fakey snapped. "We've kept ourselves anonymous as much as possible for a reason. Don't go running your mouth just because a cute boy is here."

"You know me so well..." Mimi sighed out. "Fine. Sorry, Ashy, but I'm afraid you're going to have to settle for less than the answers you wanted.

"How about a beating instead?"

"Drapion, Cross Poison, let's go!" Paul suddenly yelled. Drapion crossed its arms and immediately began to fling the sickly purple cross shape at their party.

"Pikachu, use Iron Tail!" Ash knew there could be no time for doubting. No time for confusion. Mimi had Miette's face, but clearly wasn't her. Paul seemed to have lost his memories of him, but was acting almost worse than he had before they'd met. And Gary...well, he seemed roughly the same except for the jerk attitude he'd had when they set out on their journey; the Gary nowadays would never act like that. It helped to make things a little easier in fighting them. Even if he didn't understand, and wondered if his father did, none of it mattered. He had to fight. That was how he'd have to get answers too.