Hey guys, welcome to the sequel of Finding the hidden feelings. This story has been set three years after the first one and the scene is as follows:

Ash, the Kalos League winner, has now already defeated and claimed the positions of the Sinnoh champion and the Kanto champion. During this time, the former Sinnoh champion, Cynthia, had managed to decode the strange stone tablets that had suddenly started appearing all over the world in all the twelve regions and had found out about the existence of aura guardians and the dormancy of those aura powers within all the humans. She had said as much at a press conference and the many trainers who wanted to awaken those powers had tried too hard, resulting in the loss of their life. These casualties forced the champions to form an alliance, called the United Regions, and form a set of rules to prevent anyone from trying too hard. There were still quite a lot of things that were unknown about the aura energies and therefore, anyone found to be even trying to use aura under unsupervised conditions would be sentenced to a year in prison. Ash and a select few were the only ones who had managed to unlock and control the excessive power that aura gave to humans, making them the rare species who were born with the talent.

Once every ten years, The Champions' League is held to determine the next Pokémon Master, and the trainer who wins after defeating all the champions and the current Pokémon Master through a series of matches is crowned the master.

I will explain how the matches are held in the story itself. And as you read, there is going to be aura as well. For those who had read the story I deleted (Sadly, I had lost the motivation to write it.), they will know what kind of aura mechanics I will include here. But no need to worry, I am going to explain it again in this story. To prevent any confusion, the earth of the Pokémon world (in this verse) is divided in two parts, the east and the west. The east part is where six of the regions are (Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos) while Alola and the remaining five are in the western hemisphere.

Now, without any further ado, let's start with the first chapter!

Chapter 1: The Tournament of Champions

"The Champions' League, eh?" The raven-haired trainer spoke, looking at his honey-blonde girlfriend. "Sounds interesting."

"I am not so sure, Ash," his girlfriend said, looking back. "You don't sound all that interested."

"Come on, Serena," said Ash, rolling his eyes. "I am not a kid anymore. Do you really expect me to jump around celebrating this?"

Serena chuckled at him. "Not really; if you ask me, being and sounding mature just doesn't seem to suit you."

Ash chuckled at her statement. "If I do something like that, I wouldn't be a good example for my students."

"True," said Serena, nodding. "But you do intend to participate, don't you?"

"Of course!" Ash exclaimed. "This is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; not to mention, all the champions will be participating. I bet every one of them has trained hard to try and win this league."

"Once you win this league, you will finally reach your goal, your dream, won't you?" asked Serena, looking up from the letter she had been reading.

"Yeah," said Ash, nodding. "I can't wait. After winning, I will finally be able to settle down and focus on passing on my knowledge of pokémon to my students."

"You know what? I really doubt you will be able to settle down," said Serena, smiling at him.

"Who knows?" Ash shrugged his shoulders. "What else does the letter say?"

Serena turned back to the letter and quickly skimmed through the rest. "They say you won't need to battle in the preliminaries, where they filter out the thousands of candidates. Since you have already defeated three of the twelve champions so far, you will be able to directly participate in the rounds before quarter-finals."

Ash frowned when she said that. "Pass me my Holo Caster, will you? I would better talk with Goodshow."

Serena stared at her boyfriend for a moment. "I guess you want to tell him not to make you an exception, right?"

Ash smiled at her. "You know me too well, Serena. It's no fun when you don't have to battle for a place and can simply skip the preliminaries. I don't want that kind of special treatment."

"Here," said Serena, handing him the device. "The letter even says that anyone can participate, so I guess all of our friends would be participating."

Ash paused and looked up from the letter he was writing. "You should have told me that sooner, you know. I can't wait to see them again. It's been three years since all of us met together at one place."

Serena frowned a bit, but then smiled again almost at once. "That's right. I wonder how everyone's been. Especially Max and Bonnie. Those two have been travelling together, haven't they?"

Ash, having become quite perceptive during these three years, had noticed the slight change in Serena's expression. He didn't bother thinking about it for she had smiled almost at once. "Yeah," he replied. "I know those two have been training their aura along with that Ace guy who has been travelling with them since then. I wonder how strong they must have become."

"As much as you, if not more," Serena guessed as she put away the letter and looked over her boyfriend's shoulder.

"I don't know," said Ash, hitting the send button and shutting down the Holo Caster. "It would be a huge thing if they are stronger than me."

"They might be."

The two looked towards the source of the voice and saw Ash's mother, Delia, entering their room.

"Hey mom," said Ash, waving her over.

"What do you mean?" asked Serena curiously. "You mean to say they will be stronger than Ash?"

Delia nodded, putting away some bedsheets in the closet. "The younger a person is, the faster he learns things. Ash was seventeen when he started training his aura, while those two were just around ten. Besides, they didn't have any reporters hot on their heels to disturb them during training."

"Well, you have got a point there," said Ash, clenching his fist and staring at it. "But still, many people I meet say that I am the strongest aura guardian to ever exist because I have reached the higher level in such a short time. Not even Sir Aaron himself could reach it so quickly."

"I guess we'll just have to wait until we see them all," said Serena, getting up from her chair. "Let's get going. If you want to, you can train once we reach the hotel that has been specially reserved for the champions. We have to go to Lumiose City."

"That will be perfect," said Ash, getting up. "We'll be able to meet up with Clemont and Meyer."

"Are you coming with us, Delia?" asked Serena, looking at the woman.

Delia shook her head. "I will come there when the tournament starts." She winked at them. "No need to intrude in a couple's private time."

The two blushed lightly and chuckled. "Come on, mom. We haven't crossed the line yet."

"Maybe," said Delia, smiling knowingly at them. "But I want to be a grandmother soon. Don't make me wait."

"Mom!"

Delia left the room, laughing at them. The two exchanged awkward glances and chuckled. Ash shook his head at his mother's antics. He might be used to it but his mother knew just how to embarrass him.

"So, how are we going to go to Lumiose?" asked Serena, walking up to the wardrobe to choose the dresses she wanted to take.

"You'll see soon," replied Ash. "And don't bother choosing any clothes. You can purchase them with the others. I can bet all my money that you girls will go on at least one shopping trip throughout our stay at Lumiose."

Serena giggled. "I guess you are right."

The two left Ash's home, where they had been staying lately and helping Professor Oak with his summer camp, and went to the airport. A helicopter landed just as they arrived. The two boarded it and left for Lumiose.

"I guess being a champion helps," said Serena, nestling in the crook of Ash's neck happily.

"I guess," said Ash, smiling at her. He looked back ahead. Champions' League, here I come!

"Hey Bonnie, let's go to Lumiose," said Max, looking at his friend. "It'll be fun to participate in it even if we lose in the preliminaries."

"Why not?" Bonnie said, grinning at him. "It'd be great to see Clemont again."

"I bet he'll be surprised to see how much you have changed," said Max, grinning back at her.

It was true. During the three years that had passed, Max had lost his glasses and had started wearing jeans, while Bonnie's eyes had ended up weakening a bit, leading her to wear glasses – with red frame since that was what she preferred. She too had started wearing jeans and had stopped tying up her hair. Instead, her hair had grown quite a bit and was shoulder length now, which seemed to suit her well. What was more that the strange liquid, which they had ended up swallowing back when helping Ash fight Team Rocket, had somehow sped up their rate of growth twice than normal. Because of that, both of them looked in their mid-teens – around fifteen years of age – even when they were just around twelve.

"I guess we'll be meeting up with everyone," said Bonnie with a smile on her face. "It'll be good to see the others personally after three whole years."

"Yeah," Max nodded. "I wonder how strong they would be. Especially Ash."

At his mention, Bonnie frowned. "I am not too eager to meet him at the moment."

Max turned towards her, shocked. "You don't mean that, do you?"

Bonnie turned to look at him. "Let's not forget about Ace. He hates Ash, doesn't he?"

"Oh, I see," said Max, nodding. "I can bet Ace will be there to meet up with us."

"That's why I said I don't want to meet up with Ash," said Bonnie pointedly. "He's bound to make a scornful or a sarcastic remark."

There was a bit of silence as the two thought over her statement. After a while, Max shrugged. "There's nothing we can do about it. He can whine for all I care. All I want is to battle Ash. Now that both of us can use aura, I can't wait to test my strength."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let's go now."

The two ran for a while before jumping and taking off into the air with their bodies surrounded by a light-blue glow. During the three years of training, the two hadn't only trained for aura. Their friend Ace had made sure to train them in their psychic powers as well. So now, they were psychics strong enough to not just levitate but fly in the sky for as long as they wanted.

"By the way, Bonnie, do you think Ace is going to be there?" asked Max as they flew over the forest near Laverre City.

"Knowing him, probably," replied Bonnie. "You know how he is – always popping out of nowhere. We're probably in for a shock when we finally manage to discover who he is. It'll probably be a test from his point of view."

"Yeah, probably," said Max slowly, turning back to look ahead. "Anyway, let's focus on reaching Lumiose for the time being."

The two had been travelling in Kalos after having travelled through Sinnoh and Max's native, Hoenn. While Bonnie hadn't been able to participate in contests while travelling through Sinnoh, Max had participated in both the leagues. He had been able to score a place in Top 16 in Sinnoh and Top 8 in Hoenn, and now he was working to at least reach up to Top 4 in Kalos League.

Bonnie, in the meantime, had studied quite a lot about contests and had been able to think of some interesting combinations that had helped her score a place in Top 8 in the Hoenn Grand Festival. Right now, she was focusing on the Showcases that were a speciality of Kalos, and had already gathered two princess keys.

Their friend, Ace, who had travelled with them through Sinnoh and half of Hoenn, had decided to leave this journey completely up to them for he had wanted to see how much they had grown in terms of their aura training – after all, he was the one who had trained them because he could see a lot of potential.

His training, while seriously exhausting, had affected the two quite a lot (in a good way), and because of that, they were so healthy and fit that they hadn't contacted any disease at all throughout their travels. Not only that, he had already taught them how to use their aura in the most effective way, which had been really helpful quite a lot of times. In short, Ace was the reason why they were so skilled with aura. And they intended to brag about it to Ash – that is, if they did manage to beat him.

Of course, they had no idea what kinds of things were going to happen at the league.

A short chapter but it was a kind of introduction filler... if that makes sense. Once again, after three years, all our heroes are going to meet up again at a same place. There are going to be strange secrets, dark pasts and even love rivalries with Ash in the middle of it. To prevent any confusion, here are all the characters' ages in this story:

Ash, Serena, Clemont, May, Dawn, Gary, Iris: 20
Max: 13 (looks like 16)
Bonnie: 12 (looks like 15)
Misty: 22
Brock, Cilan: 23
Ace (OC): 18

About Max and Bonnie looking like they are in their mid-teens, it's been mentioned in the last chapter of Finding the hidden feelings. Ace is an important character in this fic. I won't spoil anymore so wait a little while for the next chapter where the real story starts.