Here we go, this is an idea I had after I got around to thinking about all the possible situations that could happen to Ash, such as disappearing to become a better trainer/person.
Character List:
Ash, May, Misty, Brock, Dawn,Max, Paul, Drew, Gary, Tracey, Xavier(My OC), Neva(My other OC), Leaf, Red, Yellow, Blue, Cilan, Iris, Trip, Cynthia, Alice(A new OC that I made especially for this story), Ash's friends parents.
Now, I have changed this chapter to include a partial background from Ash, but that's not really going to change the chapter that much.
Italicized words/sentences will be used to convey the thoughts of a person.
Flashbacks will always have a bold word indication such as the second sentence in this chapter.
I will be taking recommendations for characters to add to the story, as long as it doesn't compromise the flow of the story.
Return of a Hero
My past name was Ash Ketchum, now I call myself Satoshi Redcross, I've been away from home for a long time now. There are very few people who know where I've been, those who don't either never knew me or were people I couldn't tell I still lived. I lost the tournament to Takuto, lost my mother, lost the trust of the parents of my friends. I have been alone with no company but that of my friend Xavier and my Pokemon. This is my Story.
6 years ago
Ash had just returned from Sinnoh after Losing the Sinnoh league to Takuto. He had hoped to ask Prof. Oak about any other regions he could visit as well as seeing his mother again. Unfortunately, that wouldn't be possible. Night had fallen allowing the fires consuming Pallet Town to glow bright in the dark night.
Ash ran towards his house as others ran away. Along the way he noticed his mom laying on the ground dead, bleeding from a stab wound. Her Pokemon Mr. Mime lay across from her already dead from burn wounds. He was so distracted by the horrifying sight that he didn't notice the grunt sneak up from behind him and prepare to strike him. Fortunately for Ash, Pikachu noticed and shocked the grunt.
Ash grabbed the grunt by the front of his shirt, "Why, why did you do this?" he yelled at electrified grunt. "Might as well kill me now, you're not going to learn anything from me." the grunt said.
Ash knocked out the grunt and brought out his Charizard. He grabbed his mom and Mr. Mime's body, got onto Charizard and flew off to get help.
A week after the event, Delia Ketchum's Funeral
They were all there, Ash's friends. They had been shocked to learn that his mother had been murdered by one of the groups that he had gone against. They all gave him their condolences. Brock even tried to cheer him up, give him hope for the future.
One week after the funeral, the parents of Ash's friends came to his house which was being fixed for the damage that had been done. The parents had apparently asked their kids if Ash had met any villainous organizations on their journeys. The kids told their parents about the various different groups that they encountered on the journey.
The parent's were mostly calm about ordering him to leave their kids alone, except for Norman who was annoyed at Ash for getting his kids into trouble. He told him Ash that he was to blame for his mother's death, that if he had left the groups alone then no one would have tried to hurt his family.
Ash didn't reply, he only listened, agreeing inside of his head with what Norman had said. That very same night, he packed up a few things and left, disappearing without a trace.
Present day
Now, Ash stood there on the top of mt. silver, reading the letter that he'd received from Lance.
The letter was an invitation to some tournament under the name of The Alpha Indigo Tournament.
On the letter it was written 'Dear Satoshi Redcross, I am pleased to tell you that with great consideration, the Alpha Indigo Council has deemed you a worthy Pokemon trainer. You are hereby invited to the Alpha Indigo tournament. This tournament will decide who will be the best of the best, the strongest Pokemon Trainer. Oh, and by the way, they have all agreed to keep your identity a secret for the time being, until you reveal it that is.'
He stood there, looking off into the distance before finally bringing out his Pokemon. "Listen up guys, we've been invited to a very important tournament, one that might actually test our current strength. Before I decide on going, I want to know if you're all OK with it." The answer he got was all the Pokemon crying out in joy.
"Alright then, let's go." he returned all of his Pokemon to their Pokeballs and noticed someone's presence behind him. "So, where have you been, Xavier? For a few seconds I thought I was going to have to leave without you."
The 18 year old teen walked out from behind the rock "I've been out scouting, making sure that there wasn't any trainers trying to get up here. However, since you seem eager to leave, I have to assume that you've decided to go to the tournament." Xavier said. "Speaking of the tournament, what are you going to do about your identity? Your friends are going since Paul, Max and Gary were invited as well."
"I don't know, I don't know if I'll ever be ready. We'll just have to see when the time comes. Anyway, let's get going, I have to go drop off a few Pokemon at Prof. Oak's and don't forget, until I reveal my identity you'll call me by the name Satoshi Redcross." Ash said.
"Of course, I'd never forget such an original name, Mr. Redcross." Xavier replied sarcastically. "*Sigh*, let's just get going." Ash said as he brought out his Charizard while Xavier brought out his Flygon.
An hour later at Pallet Town.
As they landed in front of Prof. Oak's lab Xavier noticed that people were giving them strange looks. He pointed this out to Ash. "I don't think we should pay them any attention, they're probably just wary about some Pokemon trainers considering what happened 6 years ago." With that Xavier dropped the subject and followed Ash to the door of the laboratory, but not before telling his Flygon that he could do what he wanted as long as he didn't get into trouble.
Ash knocked on the door and waited a moment before being greeted by an old professor, "Is there something I can help you gent-" he cut himself off as he noticed the Pikachu on Ash's shoulder.
"A-Ash, is that you?" the Professor asked. Ash started to reply but was cut off by the Professor pulling him into a hug. "It's been too long Professor."
The old professor released Ash from the hug, "You've been gone for a while now, that reminds me, I have to tell the others that you're back. Oh, Ash they're going to be ecsta-" the professor was cut off by a hand being raised in front of him by Ash. "Unfortunately, that's not going to be possible at this very moment Professor. I can't allow you to tell them, not yet that is. I know it's unreasonable of me to ask this, but keep my identity a secret for a while longer, I'll reveal myself to them when the time comes."
"May I at least know why you wish to keep your identity a secret?" Prof. Oak asked, "I'm not ready to let them know that I've returned, plus I haven't planned out how I'm going to deal with the backlash I'll get from my disappearance. Anyway, getting to the reason i'm here, I've been invited to the Alpha Indigo Tournament and have come here to ask you if you could hold on to the Pokemon that I won't be using" Ash brought out a few Pokeballs.
"Wait, you've been invited to the Alpha Indigo Tournament?" asked Prof. Oak, Ash nodded. "Well, you'll find that trying to hide your identity is going to be extremely hard. Max, Paul, and Gary have been invited.".
Ash's expression stayed calm, "I already know Professor, which is why I said to wait on telling them."
"Oh, there's one more thing I should mention Ash. After you left, all of your friends grew closer, they started hanging out, going to contests or Pokemon leagues to participate or watch, hoping they'd find you. Paul, well Paul opened up to the rest of the group after Dawn started talking to him. They've become quite the couple. Anyways, back to what you came here for. I'd be happy to take care of your Pokemon for you Ash, just leave the Pokeballs right there on that tray and I'll let them out in the fields later. While you're here, you should go have a gander around town."
"I think I will Professor, and it's nice to know that Paul has finally opened up." Ash said as he walked out the door after leaving his Pokemon on the tray. Xavier was about to follow Ash, but was stopped by Prof. Oak "How long have you known where he's been Xavier?".
"I've known ever since he left. I didn't tell anyone because he made me promise not to. I would've contacted everyone if he hadn't told me why he left and made me make that promise." with that Xavier left after Ash, leaving the Professor confused.
As they walked through the newly renovated Pallet Town, they heard a high-pitched scream come from the forest, they ran to investigate the source.
When they found the source of the scream they saw a little girl being shielded by another girl, who was older, from one of Xavier's Pokemon. Xavier face-palmed, he brought out his pokeball, "Return, Flygon, you've caused enough problems as it is".
He turned to the two girls, "I'm very sorry for my Pokemon's behavior Leaf, and little girl." Leaf reacted to her name being called out and looked at Xavier. Taking a second to realize who was in front of her, she walked over to Xavier and slapped him. "That's for not controlling your Pokemon" Xavier was about to say something but Leaf ignored him and walked over to Ash and slapped him even harder. "That's for not contacting me and telling me you'd be in town, Ash Ketchum!"
Ash and Xavier looked at her stupefied before Xavier asked "So, what's with the little girl Leaf? Your sister, maybe a cousin?"
Leaf was caught off guard by the sudden change of subjects. "No, she's not related to me. Her name is Alice and I found her out in this forest crying. Her parents abandoned her here."
"Abandoned!", both Ash and Xavier said shocked. "You're going to have to tell us the whole story later. Anyways, Leaf, what're you gonna do with her?" Ash asked.
"I'll be bringing her with us on the way to the tournament. For your information, I've been invited to the AI Tournament, along with Red, Blue, and Yellow. Unfortunately, they left me here thinking that I'd already gone ahead of them." she said.
"Well, let's go check in with the Professor one last time before we leave." Xavier said while noticing that the little girl hadn't said a thing at all.
10 minutes later at Prof. Oaks Lab
The four of them arrived at Oaks Lab. Ash knocked on the door and waited a moment before the door opened to reveal Tracey in the doorway.
Ash froze at seeing Tracey while Alice hid behind Leaf as Xavier laughed at the situation. Tracey stood there confused at what was happening. "Can I help you four?" he asked.
"Tracey, who's at the door?" Professor Oak asked from behind Tracey. "I don't know who two of them are, but it seems that Xavier and Leaf are with them."
At hearing these words Prof. Oak made a mistake and blurted out, "Hey Xavier and Ash, what're yo-..." he stopped himself as he realized that he had just given away Ash's identity.
Leaf and Ash glared at Prof. Oak while Xavier continued to laugh at the situation. Tracey took a little bit to soak in the information that had just been revealed. "Ash, is that really you?" Tracey asked as Pikachu jumped onto the ground in front of him. Ash sighed "Yes Tracey, it's me, but before we continue this conversation, you have to promise me that you won't tell anyone about seeing me or anything relating to me. If you do, well, let's just say that Xavier here has been looking for someone to play a rough game of hide and seek with."
"I understand Ash, I won't say a word about the subject to anyone." Tracey said making a zipping motion around his mouth. "By the way Xavier, I heard you were invited to the AI Tournament, mind taking me there with you guys. I was originally going to go with the others but I lost track of time." Xavier nodded in response after finally stopping his laughter.
"Yeah, that's fine with me. As long as you don't try to draw me in my sleep that is." Before Tracey could reply Prof. Oak asked "Xavier, have you decided on the Pokemon you're going to be using?"
"For the beginning rounds I'll keep it simple with a mix of my Pokemon from each region I've visited. For the later rounds I'll hope that my Unova team can be used as a surprise for those thinking that they can just base their strategies off of my first rounds. For the last few rounds I'll go back to using a mix of Pokemon. Yes, I know it's cocky of me to have things somewhat planned out before they happened but it's always good to be prepared."
"Well, it seems that you're all set, I guess you guys should get on your way." Oak said. Xavier turned to Leaf noticing that she and Alice looked somewhat worried. "Something wrong Leaf?" he asked. "Well, Alice and I only have one pair of clothes right now, so I was wondering if one of you three could help us with shopping.
Xavier was about to respond but was interrupted by Tracey and Ash yelling "No!", Leaf stared at Ash and asked, "Well why not?".
Before either Ash or Tracey could respond Xavier spoke up, "Don't mind them Leaf, they don't like shopping with girls. The girls they've shopped with have taken forever to decide on what they want. I'll help you two shop for stuff though considering they don't seem to be up to it. While we're doing that they can have Mewtwo prepare to teleport us to the Island." he said.
Leaf yelled "Oh well, let's get going then Xavier, Alice." And so Xavier was taken to the mall to help Leaf and Alice shop for some new clothes, while Ash and Tracey had Mewtwo prepare.
After reading this chapter and editing it, I realized that I didn't really like the original versions of this chapter, so I might or might not have changed a good bit of it to match what I would like nowadays.