Despite the fact that he had just won, he recognised that he had lost so much.
The darkness of the room pressed around Alain, the only natural light coming from the slits in the blinds behind him, and he was very aware of the fact that he was alone. Of course, he was used to being alone and often preferred it to being surrounded by crowds of people but occasionally the silence would get to him. This was one of those times.
Alain took Charizard's pokéball from his pocket and allowed himself to smile slightly as he reflected on his battle.
"Both of us grew from that battle and Ash made it all possible," he muttered to himself, staring at the reflected light which danced across the smooth surface of the ball. "Let's go gather a bit more Mega Evolution energy. Almost there."
It had been his unspoken promise to Mairin that had given him the strength to deal the final blow which had secured his victory. The news that her Chespin had been injured had infuriated him. He blamed himself for shunning her away, which had most likely led to the incident, and had vowed to find a cure. He had thrown himself into collecting Mega Evolution energy with a passion after Lysandre told him that he believed it was the key to both his own research and healing the young girl's poor pokémon. Alain knew that the energy he had gathered was very nearly, if not already, sufficient. All going well, Chespie would be well again very soon, Mairin would smile again and maybe, just maybe, Alain would be able to find the strength to forgive himself for what he had put her through.
Most trainers would be overjoyed to win a pokémon league but Alain's feelings were a little more mixed. Earlier, he had passed a room similar to the one he sat in now but brightly lit, where Ash Ketchum was talking to his many friends. When Alain had first met Ash he had been curious about the younger boy's strange Greninja and had challenged him to a battle. He had been surprised to discover that the transformation was not linked to Mega Evolution but the battle with Ash had nevertheless excited Alain. Ash had had a sense of energy in his battling style which Alain had not sensed in a long time and it was infectious; his battles with Ash had been some of the most enjoyable ones he had experienced. Their third match, the finale set in the grand stadium hosting the Kalos League, had been long and uncertain since every time one gained ground the other quickly caught up. But although their teams had been evenly matched and the battle was incredibly close, it was Greninja that had collapsed first as the smoke from the final blow cleared to leave Charizard as the barely-standing victor.
Was he strong enough now? He had proven himself to be the strongest out of all the trainers who had entered the prestigious Lumiose Conference, but was that enough? A memory sprang to his mind, a memory of being thrown with Charizard across a platform of ice, of hitting an ice block and feeling his consciousness slowly fading. He had not been strong enough to stop Groudon and Kyogre, though not even Steven Stone had been able to do that. Was it even possible to stand at the summit when you were up against such impossible odds?
He clenched his fist. He had to become stronger if he was going to protect those he loved. Even if it was impossible he would try his hardest; he would not lose anyone else. And if that meant leaving them for their own good, as he had done with Mairin, then so be it. Sometimes, purpose had to come before feelings.
And yet, there were times when he felt lonely. He was only realising now that that was the feeling he felt when he saw Ash smiling, surrounded by friends, in that brightly lit room. Part of him wanted to be able to travel with friends, to have people to lean on whenever his quest became too difficult for one person alone. But he had always taken pride in his self-sufficiency and to actively seek out friends would be to admit that he was weak.
Mairin had been different. Initially, she had been a pest, relentlessly following him around everywhere and causing drama with her natural clumsiness. Not to mention the fact that she had embarrassed herself in front of several important people that he had met, including but not limited to Siebold of the Kalos Elite Four, Hoenn Champion Steven Stone and Alain's boss Lysandre, which in turn reflected badly on him.
But as time went by and she continued to follow him around, Alain began to care for her. At first, he had been ashamed to admit it, as Steven had pointed out. It wasn't that Alain was uncaring - in fact, he was fiercely loyal to those that had earned his trust - but he had taught himself to hide and suppress his emotions because if he let them rule him, he would be unable to think clearly. He had been hurt too many times in the past and had eventually come to the conclusion that people, as a general rule, should not be trusted and opening up to them would only cause him pain. However, Mairin had somehow found a way into his heart and, through sheer stubbornness, simply refused to leave. He wasn't sure exactly when he had realised this during his travels around Hoenn with her but he had known it to be true by the time he had faced Groudon and Kyogre with Steven. It was then that he failed to protect her for the first time if he didn't count shunning her away during the first part of their travels together. In fact, she had been the one to save him, much to his embarrassment.
Her smiling face had been the first thing that he had seen when he regained consciousness and warily opened his eyes to find himself tucked under a formation in the ice which provided a crude shelter for him and his rescuer. When he eventually found out what had happened in his unconsciousness, he had been horrified to discover that Mairin had snuck onto Steven's helicopter and nearly gotten herself killed by jumping out and running across the ice sheet to drag him to safety.
He had told her to stay. She had been afraid and yet she had still followed him because she was afraid for him. And because of that, because of him, she had nearly died.
Mairin was so young, so innocent, only just old enough to start travelling on her own as a trainer. But she had chosen to travel with him, her curiosity about Mega Evolution motivating her to follow him as if she couldn't bear to be on her own for too long. She was adventurous, clumsy and selfless. But above all, she was young and he should have been there to protect her. But he wasn't. So he had left, hoping that she would be safe in Hoenn with Steven and far away from him and his dangerous mission. And still she had followed him and once again harm had been done. Chespin was in a coma, the reason why and when it would wake up completely unknown.
However, there was hope. He had managed to gather a massive quantity of Mega Evolution energy and Lysandre was convinced that it, along with the giant megalith that they had successfully retrieved in Hoenn, would be able to heal Chespin as well as allow him to complete his research goals. Alain remembered clearly the first time that he had met Lysandre a couple of years ago. With his partner, at this point still a charmeleon, he had been trying to find a Key Stone and Mega Stone which he hoped to one day use, having heard rumours that Charizard was capable of Mega Evolution. At the time, Mega Evolution was still a relatively unknown technique to all but a select few, such as the experts who lived in the Tower of Mastery in Shalour City. His main goal had been to learn more about Mega Evolution in the hopes of eventually mastering it, but unlike other trainers who had visions for their training careers in mind, he sometimes felt like he was wandering around the region with no real purpose since his attempts to find a Key Stone were continuously fruitless. And then Lysandre had stood before him, holding the Ampharosite and challenging him to a battle for its ownership. Alain had agreed, even though Ampharosite was not what he was looking for, eager to prove himself to the man who was rapidly becoming a public figure in Kalos.
Charmeleon had fought with all that it had but in the end, it had been no match for Lysandre's pyroar which was obviously far older and more experienced. At first, he had been disappointed but Lysandre had encouraged him, said that he saw value in Alain and invited him back to the Lysandre Labs facility on the outskirts of Lumiose City. There, Lysandre had explained about his mission to harness Mega Evolution energy for peaceful purposes which Alain had been curious about because of his own intentions to learn more about this strange new power. When Lysandre offered him a Key Stone and Charizardite which gathered Mega Evolution energy each time he used them, the very items which Alain had been searching for for so long, he was sold. This was the opportunity he had been waiting for.
Above all, Lysandre had emphasised that mastering the power of Mega Evolution and aiding in the research would allow Alain to become far stronger than if he did otherwise and, with that power, he would be able to protect the ones he loved from anything. Mega Evolution was an incredible power but there were those who would intend to use it for ill and in the past, the phenomenon had only been harnessed by select groups or very skilled and determined individuals due to the extreme rarity of the stones it required to work and the stress it placed on the pokémon involved. But with Professor Sycamore's research popularising the method of improving a pokémon's strength it was becoming increasingly common - indeed, this was the first year that more than one trainer had been able to Mega Evolve their pokémon at the Kalos League - and with that came the consequence that more people were capable of exploiting the incredible power. Lysandre had therefore decided to keep what he was working on out of the public eye for the time being and this meant not collaborating with Sycamore. Alain found it frustrating that he was unable to discuss his findings with his original mentor but understood and trusted Lysandre's reasoning.
He had applied the same logic when he had received a call from Lysandre shortly after his first battle with Ash, asking him for a strange request. Until then he had not known about his boss' research on Z1 and Z2 but from what Lysandre told him, they were capable of wielding great power which could do enormous damage to people, Pokémon and the landscape and they had escaped from the laboratories. Alain did not know if they were natural or synthetic, just that if they were out of control, they were extremely dangerous. Lysandre explained that some of his scientists, a particular research group who worked for him on confidential projects out of the public eye who he called Flare, had run into some trouble while trying to recapture Z2 and were in urgent need of backup. When he arrived at the location where their distress call had originated from, he was surprised to find that the form they were fighting was far larger than Lysandre had initially described; an enormous snake-like creature firing powerful attacks in every direction. Even with Charizard in its Mega-Evolved form, it had been near-impossible to restrain Z2 and if it had not been for the presence of the Flare scientists, Charizard would have been defeated or worse. But the strangest part of the experience had occurred when the Flare scientist had finally managed to subdue the creature; it had broken apart into green energy which had been distributed over an enormous area, leaving only the core form that Lysandre had described. What surprised Alain the most was that the green energy was identical to that which surrounded Mairin's Chespin - had this somehow been what had caused its illness? Afterwards, he had continued on his mission, but with even more to think about than he had had before.
So here he was. His gym challenge had been far shorter than the average trainer's since his Charizard was already fully trained and could even fly him from town to town. Now he was the winner of a league he had not intended to enter until he had met Ash Ketchum, the one who had shown him that there was possibly more to battle than a show of strength. But even with these realisations, the fight was not over.
Just a little more and everything would be fixed. Just a little more and Mairin would smile again. Just a little more and he would stand at the summit and be able to protect the ones he loved.
Little did he know that everything he had fought for was about to fall apart.