Happiness? Such a feeling was dead, now only misery and melancholy existed in the heart of this girl. For so long she had lusted for a boy that she so dearly loved and cared for but it now seemed she would never see him again. This heartbreak provoked a social withdrawal from her, transforming her into the person she is. Now I'll stop there so I won't spoil most of the story for you.

I bet that you may be wondering right now, "Who the hell are these kids this guy's talking about?" Well I'll tell you, Dawn was the girl's name, a young and budding coordinator from the quaint town of Twinleaf in southwestern Sinnoh who had fallen deeply in love with a trainer whom if you frequently watch Pokémon tournaments in the stadium or from the comfort of your own home on your Television, needs no introduction but for the sake of the less informed folk I'll introduce him any who. Ash Ketchum is the name, a hot shot Pokémon trainer at 17 years of age from Pallet Town in the Kanto region who strives to reach his goal of being a Pokémon master.

He and his entourage of friend and followers and his trusted and loyal Pikachu have taken whatever life has thrown their way and thrown it back, even if it risked the lives of themselves or others. His brave, yet gentle spirit had stolen Dawn's heart nearly since the day they met each other. But alas, Ash had to have been the most ignorant person when it came to love and romance much to Dawn's dismay. While she found it cute most times but became frustrating as she tried to flirt her way under his skin to no avail what so ever, but she still kept a sliver of hope that one day she'd win him over and they'd both be happy.

This day would never come for her sadly. Shortly after Ash's defeat in the final round in the Sinnoh League championship against Paul, Ash would return to his home in Pallet Town for a short rest before heading to the next region of Unova. Dawn knew they would part their separate ways soon but hoped that she could try and shake a screw loose in Ash's heart of steel before they did. But however, her Buneary was selected to be a model for Pokestylist magazine and would be unable to travel with him to Kanto, thus making the remaining moments with Ash and his friend Brock even shorter than they already were.

Ash didn't seem at all phased by the whole thing as he and Brock got ready to board the ship. Dawn kept her head held high and a smile on her face, but on the inside she was slowly being torn apart. Neither of them saw through her fake smile and it made her feel even worse, like they had forgotten about her already. As the ship departed, her charade was beginning to crumble as she desperately fought back tears. She did win the battle over and she stood at the dock, her head hung low, she didn't even want to see the ship as it took her love away from her. Then she heard him call out to her.

"No need to worry!"

This perked up Dawn's spirits, perhaps he did care after all. She rushed to the end of the dock, thanking Ash (and Brock too) for everything he had done for her, and wishing them the best for their journeys from that point on.


Several months have passed, and Dawn grew more and more depressed by the day. Her dreams of being top coordinator seemed to have vanished as the weeks progressed. Once she would practice every day on new techniques and tweak some old ones, and as the weeks went by it changed to practicing every other day, till eventually she just stopped all together and sat in her room most of the time thinking about "him" as she did all the time to a point where it seemed like an unhealthy obsession with this boy. But what could her mother Johanna do about it? Basically all she could do was just sit in her kitchen and worry about her daughter. She barely ever saw her most days, only during lunch and dinner time. Dawn rarely ever spoke during that time, just quietly finishing her meal and headed back upstairs, only speaking only when spoken too, and even then her responses were often brief and blunt. And sometimes to Johanna, it seemed like her daughter's depression was beginning to rub off on herself, often lacking interest in activities once found enjoyable, spending time alone downstairs with her beloved Glameow by her side.

It was about 1:07 PM now and Johanna was setting the table for lunch with her and her daughter. It was a simple Curry rice dish that was quite popular in the area. She chose this dish because she couldn't be bothered to cook up anything fancy or elaborate given her and her daughters current state of mind.

"Dawn!" Johanna called up the stairs, "It's time to eat!"

There was no response, just the sound of footsteps and creaking of floorboards from upstairs. A few seconds later Dawn sauntered down the steps in her usual miniskirt and since she was at home, she wore no beanie atop her head. She looked to be a bit groggy, but then again she always had the same solemn look on her face these days.

"Good afternoon dear." Johanna said.

Dawn lifted up her head to face her mother.

"Hi mom..." She replied, in a rather halfhearted tone as she took a seat at the table and began to eat.

"Still feeling down I see?" Johanna pointed out.

Dawn rolled he eyes and sighed. "How could you tell?"

"It's not that hard really," Johanna said, now sounding a bit annoyed at her daughter's attitude.

Dawn said nothing more and continued to eat her curry. Curry wasn't really something Dawn would eat too much of but didn't want to waste anything so went ahead and finished up well before her mother did. And it what was then typical Dawn fashion, got up to head back upstairs. A knock came to the door, since Dawn was already up; she went ahead and answered it. A familiar face was at the door, it was her old contest rival Zoey.

"Hey Dawn what's up?"

"Oh," Dawn tried sound happy to see her but again was rather halfhearted if anything, "hi Zoey, what are you doing here?"

"I hear you're feeling pretty down so I figured I'd be nice and try to cheer you up before I head out to the Hoenn region." Zoey answered, "how about a trip to Sandgem Town and hang out down there? What d'ya say?"

"Ummm… okay I guess." Dawn quickly ran upstairs to grab her beanie and a little bit of money and followed her rival out the door.


Sandgem Town was the neighboring town to Twinleaf Town, home to Professor Rowan's lab and whatnot. Other than that, it was not much different than Twinleaf Town, nothing fancy, just a few houses and small businesses dotted the landscape, all connected by a street system. When they got there they didn't goof off and do other things like shop for items that would be considered unnecessary to either of them in any context and just went to a small shop where they bought a couple drinks and sat outside on the sidewalk.

"So what's bringing you down?" Zoey asked soon after they sat down, apparently she had been waiting to ask that question for a bit but never got to it, being caught up in a discussion about contests and contest moves with Dawn, what would you expect from two Coordinators eh?

Dawn, who had been quiet for most of the time decided to reluctantly respond.

"Well, I've been like this since I parted ways with Ash and Brock." Dawn seemed to twitch slightly at the mention of Ash's name, and the hairs on her arms stood up.

"Well that seems like a stupid reason to be all depressed." Zoey remarked, rather ignorantly.

"No, that's not all," Dawn continued, "you see, it's about Ash… well I've always kinda… liked him."

Zoey seemed to crack a smile at this. "Oh now that makes much more sense!"

"But unfortunately all my attempts at contacting him are in vain," Dawn sighed, "I sent him countless messages but he never answers."

"I see," Zoey murmured, "I think maybe you should try and move on."

Dawn grunted softly and shot a glance at Zoey, softly clenching a fist with her free hand. "What do you mean by move on?"

"I mean, Ash is the densest kid I've seen when it comes down to that stuff, so why not go for someone else like Paul or Kenny?"

This sent Dawn over the edge instantly; never in all her life would she even consider having any kind of relationship with any of them, the thought made her sick to her stomach.

"I'd rather fuck myself with a knife then even think about dating Paul!" Dawn snarled, rather unnecessarily, "And don't even get me started with Kenny!"

"What's your problem?" Zoey responded, "I'm only giving suggestions."

"You don't understand Zoey," Dawn grunted, "Those chumps only want me for my body, they don't care about me as a person!"

"But neither does Ash apparently!" Zoey retorted.

That was it, now she had really made her mad, how could anyone be so inconsiderate to someone in Dawn's state.

"FUCK YOU!" Dawn screamed out and tossed the bottle she held in her hand to the ground where it shattered on the pavement and she took off running.

Zoey said nothing more, she just sighed and took another sip of her drink and hung her head low.


Johanna had long since cleaned up after brief lunch with her daughter and was quietly reading a book downstairs in her living room with Glameow and Dawn's Piplup, thinking that would take her mind off Dawn for the time being. Piplup was kind of shut out by Dawn like most things so spent his time down with Johanna where he was cared for. Johanna didn't mind it much surprisingly since Piplup seemed to be very gentle and chill during Dawn's period of isolation.

The door flung open and a teary eyed Dawn raced up the stairs without a word. Johanna tried to say something but had no time to speak, not that Dawn would respond anyway.

"I'm guessing it went horribly wrong…" Johanna whispered to the Pokemon beside her who both nodded in agreement.

Dawn crashed down on her bed, sobbing hysterically, apparently being crushed by Zoey's argument.

"I can't believe she'd say that! And she said she was trying to cheer me up!" Dawn thought through her sniffles, "She right, Ash doesn't care, nobody care about me, why did I even try to win him over?" Dawn looked up and sitting by her dresser was a 12 gauge shotgun that her mother used for self-defense. She had snuck it upstairs in case a moment like this arose and she didn't hesitate. She grabbed the gun placed the barrel of the shotgun against her forehead and whispered "Don't mourn" Before squeezing the trigger.


She didn't feel a thing, no pain or anything. She opened her eyes to find she was still in her room just as she left it. She was quite confused, she couldn't feel anything, not the breeze from the open window, or the soft, cotton bed sheets, just nothing.

"Whoa… what just ha- a-am I dead or what?" Dawn looked behind her and saw the blood spattered remains of her body slumped over on her bed. There was blood everywhere, a hemophobe's nightmare on the walls, the bed, her clothes, and worse, her beautiful hair was stained a sort of purplish color from the blood that slowly spilt out of the self-inflicted gunshot wound. Not to mention the fragments of her skull and grey matter that was blown about too. Her face was calm, her soft lips were parted open, her eyes were also wide open and rolled back into her head, again slathered in her own blood.

This sight would unnerve just about any person, no matter how sick or twisted they were. Even the dead Dawn found it hard to look at considering it was her own body she was looking at.

Dawn's spirit appeared solemn and looked down at her ectoplasmic body. She appeared faint and transparent, and was a ghostly dark blue. She looked at her right hand and made a soft fist. She didn't feel anything like before; it was like she didn't have a body. She didn't… at least not anymore.

She heard soft pitter patter of footsteps racing up the steps toward the door. She turned to see her Piplup push the door open and let out a shriek of pure horror when he saw his trainer lying dead. All the blood and knowing his trainer had taken her own life was too much for him to bear and he fainted right on the spot.

"Oh…" Dawn murmured to herself, since no one could hear her anyway, "poor Piplup."

Some more, hurried footsteps came from downstairs; it had to have been a dead ringer to whom this was going to be. Sure enough, Johanna ran into the doorway finding Piplup fainted on the floor.

"Piplup what happened?" Johanna knelt down to pick Piplup off the floor then she looked up and saw her now deceased daughter. Johanna's reaction was little different than that of Piplup, sans the fainting part, an ear piercing scream that probably could have been heard throughout all of Sinnoh.

"Oh my god Dawn!" Johanna managed to get out of her throat, already tears beginning to spill down her cheeks, "…Why Dawn? There were better choices to make! You could have…"

Johanna couldn't finish, she collapsed to her knees and went hysterical for a few seconds, how else might one react to finding their offspring dead? This was brief as Johanna stood up and took a couple breaths and hurried down the stairs to report the death of her daughter.

Unbeknownst to her the spirit of Dawn still lingered in her presence, watching over. She was still, levitating a few inches off the floor, thinking to herself. Did I make a mistake? If she did or not it was too late to change anything now, what was done had been done.

"Maybe suicide wasn't the best choice…" Dawn took one last look at her mangled body before drifting outside into the moonless night, to where she was going, she didn't know, she just went to wherever she chose. The experience of flying around was a very surreal one to say the least, she could not feel any breeze blowing past her, and just the overall weightless, disembodied feeling she had. She felt more alone then she did when she was alive, needless to say that she was not as happy as she had imagined she'd be in this life.

"Oh man what do I do now?" Dawn said to herself, even though there would be no one around to hear her anyway. She thought for a moment and got an idea.

"Maybe I should check on Ash and see how he's doing; to see if he even cares."

Dawn hadn't the slightest clue where the Unova region was since it was so far away from all the other regions including Sinnoh. So she did as she had been doing and just gliding away in whatever direction she went in, in hope that she would find her way there, and she did.


It was a bright sunny day in the big, booming metropolis known as Castelia City in the Unova region. Everywhere you looked except for up at the sky you saw the cold, grey, walls of the towering skyscrapers that covered more than half of the surrounding area inside the city. You had to leave the City if you wanted to get some fresh air and wide open space if you needed it. However these details not important to a certain trio of travellers passing through here. It was old friend Ash Ketchum, and his new lineup of trainers to accompany him throughout his trek through the Unova region. First starting with Iris, a rather wild sort of girl with a very tan skin tone, who loves to swing from vines and climb trees whenever necessary. She has an enormously large head of dark purple hair where her Axew took up residence. And last to join was Cilan, whom Ash battled and defeated at the Striaton Gym. He is a very well behaved fellow of average skin tone. He served as the cook in Ash's group since the gym he used to be joint leader of was also a part restaurant. Now of course this information is basically useless in this particular story but for those who might not be familiar with those two I added that in.

Although Ash was a veteran of 7 years in the field of Pokémon training, he never tired of the rush he got every battle he partook in. Especially since his journey through Unova was going exceptionally well so far only a few months into the journey, having conquered 2 gyms already and was hoping tomorrow to bring this to 3 when he would challenge gym leader Arti, whom Ash and his group had already met.

So in typical Ash fashion, he spent every waking moment training his Pokémon, I'm proving on his own battle techniques and strategies so he could be mostly prepared for what Arti had to throw at him.

Of course since Arti specialized in grass type Pokémon, his trusty, loyal companion and best friend Pikachu who was Ash's first ever Pokémon would be sitting out for the most part due to Electric type Pokémon such as Pikachu would have little effect on grass types. Thus Ash would have to rely on the other 5 Pokémon he had on hand as of that moment.

"Man I don't think I'll get any sleep tonight I'm already pumped about my next gym battle and my next badge I can just smell it already!" Ash gloated from one of the many sofas in located in the Pokémon center lobby, Pikachu chiming in return, mirroring his trainer's optimism.

Iris and Cilan stood adjacent to the aforementioned sofa focusing attention on Ash.

"I'm sure you'll succeed Ash," Cilan added in support, "just don't get too cocky though, you're Pikachu won't do much good against grass types."

"Don't worry about it I'm good." Ash assured his friend, "I've got my strategy all figured out and if that don't work I'll just wing it for the most part."

Cilan crossed his arms and eyed Ash suspiciously, puzzled by Ash's idea of strategy. Surely someone who has been battling for as long as Ash has would have a well thought out strategy as well as some backups in case one goes awry.

"Now don't be a complete downer Cilan." Iris tried to keep a mutual sense of optimism within the trio.

Cilian said nothing but smiled and nodded, perhaps he shouldn't be too expecting of Ash; he was still a young one and learning everyday like himself, he supposed.

"Mr. Ketchum?" Came a soft female voice from behind.

This voice of unknown origin startled the trainer who swung around to face the Pokémon center's Nurse Joy, who had a tray full of Pokeballs and a small card.

"Oh, hi Nurse Joy…" Ash greeted with a faint shakiness in his voice, "I'm guessing those are my Pokémon?"

"Yes they are indeed; they're all healed up and in good shape." Joy answered with a joyful smile.

"Thanks Nurse Joy." Ash took the tray and stashed the Pokeballs back onto his belt, it was then he noticed the slip of paper, almost like a post card of sorts and picked it up, "Hey what's this?"

Joy looked down at the card in Ash's hand and was immediately reminded of what else she was told to tell Ash.

"Oh! I almost forgot! You have an urgent message from someone in Kanto, they said for you to call as soon as possible."

"Someone from Kanto huh?" Ash thought, assuming he knew who it was, "maybe its mom worrying about me, cause I haven't called her lately."

Ash read the note briefly and didn't recognize the number written down but figured if he was to call as soon as possible he should do so and find out what this was all about. He stood up and walked over to one of the many video phones that lined the walls of the lobby. Iris and Cilan followed behind him out of curiosity to find out themselves what this mysterious message was about much like Ash.

Ash didn't seem to notice his friends watching over his shoulder from a short distance away as he entered in the number. The phone rang about 4 times before it seemed that whoever was on the other line wouldn't pick up. Soon the call was returned and up appeared on the screen was the visage of a familiar face, he knew that tan skinned, spikey haired, squinty eyed person on the screen anywhere.

"Hey Brock!" Ash smiled, almost immediately after he appeared on the screen.

"Ash my old friend!" Brock mimicked his friend enthusiasm, having never seen each other let alone talked in forever. "How've you been?"

"Brock?" Both Iris and Cilan quizzed, popping up behind Ash's shoulders.

Ash looked over both shoulders; both his friends had appeared have come out of nowhere and were breathing right down the back of his neck, this made the conversation seem less private and comfortable.

"He's a friend from WAY back." Ash answered both their queries.

"Ah yes," Brock added on, "I've been traveling with Ash from the very beginning of his Journey. I used to be the gym leader of the Pewter City gym, the first gym he ever challenged." Brock cleared his throat before speaking once more, "So I those are your friends here in Unova I see?"

"You bet!" Ash grinned; he then turned to his group to let them introduce themselves to Brock.

"Hi, I'm Iris," Iris kept her introduction brief and blunt, simply because there wasn't much to say about herself quite frankly.

"And my name's Cilian," Cilan bowed in a polite, formal fashion, "pleased to meet you."

"These guys are gonna be following my around Unova and have a blast while we're doing it like our journeys before!" Ash rose up a clenched fist to emphasize his optimism, Pikachu chimed in the further the motion.

"Hey uhh… I'm not disturbing you in your research am I?" Ash asked, inspired by the various books and papers and other assorted documents stacked up in large piles behind Brock or shelved or filed away semi neatly in overflowing bookshelves and large metal filing cabinets.

"No not at all," Brock reassured him, "hey, I took time out of my research to send you the message in the first place."

"Who's running the gym back in Pewter City now that you're getting serious about what you're doing?" Ash asked another question.

"My younger brother Forrest has the honors of that now. The gym was in a heap of trouble when I came home and I helped sort the situation out and now everything is how it should be back home."

Brock after finishing, realized that he had gone way off track from his intended message, his happy, content face turned to a more solemn, serious look and cleared his throat once again.

"But I digress," Brock continued, "I've got some bad news for you Ash; I got the news just yesterday."

Ash nodded in understanding, "Well whatever it is don't hold back on me."

"You remember Dawn right?" Brock then asked without hesitation, even though he surely knew he hadn't forgotten about his old friends in such a short period of time.

"Yes of course I remember her!" Ash stood up out of his chair, seeming to show a great deal of concern for her, which was not unheard of in Ash but to this degree it may have been in question, "What happened? Is she alright? Is she hurt or what?" Ash went on almost in a panic, skipping and tripping over his words like a stutter or something.

"She's dead!" Brock called out to silence Ash and to answer his desperate questioning.

Ash's spine chilled at the news, his jaw hung open in shock. It now seemed like only yesterday when he was on the stern of the ship taking him back to Kanto, waving goodbye to Dawn and her Piplup and now he was told she exists no longer.

"Wh-wh-at? Ho-w, why… I can't… what happened?" Ash barely managed to clearly make out a barely articulate sentence.

"She shot herself, with a shotgun" Brock said, whilst preforming a gesture where he shot himself in the head with an imaginary pistol with his right hand, even though it might not have been the best idea to gesture in such a manner and since the deed was done with a shotgun, not a pistol.

"Oh… my…g… that's horri- why would she do that? She had so much to live for!"

"Johanna said that since we left she grew increasingly depressed by the day until one day she went to her room and did the deed."

Ash spoke no more; he just bowed his head it was quite clear he was broken from the news. He had toiled through some tough times before but the news of Dawn's suicide blew all of them out of the water. Under his tipped hat, it could be seen that he was trying not to break down emotionally and cry in front of his friends, the pride within his soul would allow no tears to fall from his eyes.

"I'm very sorry Ash; I'll give Johanna your condolences." Brock finished off.

Just barely heard out from the hallway came a commotion, some of Brock's brothers and sisters were complaining about something.

"I have to go and prepare dinner for my family, bye Ash and take it easy alright?" The screen went black once more. The room although packed with trainers passing to and fro from the city, they didn't exist anymore to Ash. He just sat still at the booth, not moving, nor speaking a word. He couldn't speak, his emotions would seep through and he didn't want to burden anyone.

"Ash?" Iris finally broke the silence, trying to coax something out of her friend. She did, Ash stood up and walked away again without any word or anything. Neither of his friends made any attempt to talk to him so they left him alone as the figured it would be the best and went outside to run a few errands.


Ash walked his way to their little rented room within the Pokémon center where they were to stay for the night. He quickly shut himself inside and locked himself in to ensure the solitude that he desired right now. He was not completely alone as Pikachu accompanied him inside since Pikachu was now a part of him, Ash couldn't go places without him. Ash sat on the bottom bunk of one of the two bunk beds in the room where he sat and thought over what he had just heard. It was particularly cold inside the little confined space that he sulked sorrowfully inside of. This proved to be quite annoying for Ash and he stood to check the air conditioning unit.

"God what do these people think this is a refrigerator?" Ash grunted as he looked over to the unit looking for the temperature control, "I can see my breath in here." Ash fumbled with the machine and found the temperature and humidity controls that were conveniently and quite located on the front side of the wall mounted appliance. Ash looked over the temperature control and found that it was set for a relatively warm temperature.

"Huh… must be broken or something." Ash flopped back down on the bed in defeat and stared up at the bottom of the mattress that was the top bunk and sighed sadly.

"Pikaka…" Pikachu cooed silently, that was what he said when referring to Dawn.

Ash looked up at Pikachu briefly, and then let his head drop back on the mattress once again.

"I still can't believe she'd do that…"

Pikachu looked at his master again, a little bit suspicious of him. He had never acted like this about any of his other female friends but he didn't bother trying to coax something out so just lay down on the bed and pretended to sleep to see if anything came out.

Ash looked up again and saw that Pikachu had fallen asleep, now he had a chance to be alone and say what he felt. However he was not alone, not because of Pikachu but something else. Upon the top bunk of the adjacent set of beds unseen, sat the spirit of the girl he was just now mourning, Dawn. It was a wonder that she had found the place since she had no idea where to go or where she had been going but somehow found her way to Unova and caught up with Ash. However she appeared discontent, a rather annoyed look plastered upon on her ghostly face.

"Of course he remembers me now, probably because he knows I'm dead." She continued to watch over her former traveling partner to see what he would do or say.

"I promised her we'd see each other again." Ash whispered to himself, "I waited for that day but that'll never come now."

Dawn continued to watch, her mood stayed unchanged.

"No one really knew how much she meant to me," Ash went on, "I always kept it boxed up so I wouldn't embarrass myself but she meant more to me than Pikachu ever had."

A distinct glassy appearance came into Ash's eyes and a few stray tears rolled out over his cheeks. This began to move Dawn's spirit from a spiteful demeanor, and began to show compassion. This was not the Ash she remembered at all, the onset of her death appeared to have brought out Ash's soft side in a way not many had seen before.

"I don't think I could have gotten through Sinnoh without you Dawn," Ash whispered once more, apparently trying in some way to talk to Dawn even though he knew it would fall upon deaf ears, "I dreaded the day when we parted from the very moment I got on that boat, I missed you dearly. You were precious to me Dawn, know you can't hear me… but I loved you Dawn."

The spirit was speechless; Ash just said that he loved her. Immediately Dawn broke down crying overwhelmed by the huge wave of remorse that surged through the lost soul.

"Oh I'm an idiot! I made a horrible, horrible mistake I'm not any happier then I was when I was alive! I'M SO SORRY ASH I LOVE YOU TOO! I just wish I could tell you, but I can't!" However after saying this, she found that she actually could, she looked around for something to use to tell him.

Pikachu had taken a brief nap although unintentionally but he couldn't help it, he was already tired from travelling so it made it quite easy to dose off. Pikachu opened an eye and immediately he caught sight of something on the wall behind the bed that he knew wasn't there before.

"Pikapi!" Pikachu cried out to Ash, pointing franticly at the aforementioned wall.

Ash had curled up in a ball for him to sob and sulk for the rest of the evening and wasn't too happy to be disturbed, even by Pikachu but still looked none the less and he was astonished by what he saw.

On the wall there was drawn a single heart with an arrow piercing through and in the middle of the heart it read. I love you too.

Ash stared at this doodle that seemed to appear out of nowhere for a few seconds, how did it get there and who was it for? Surely this may have been a coincidence of some sort but Ash recognized the handwriting immediately and looked around the room in confusion; there was no one else around but Pikachu. Out in the corner of his eye was a mirror and in that mirror he saw Dawn in the mirror looking at him, she looked just like he remembered her. Ash was flabbergasted and a little bit terrified and he rubbed his eyes to make sure his brain wasn't playing around with him and found she was still there. She stood still in the mirror, expressionless before she smiled at him, then she disappeared in a blink of Ash's eyes.

Ash was obviously spooked by the appearance of his deceased friend but at the same time found it as a source comfort at the same time. Now he knew that she felt the same way but unfortunately he longed for her touch again, something he would never feel and that was felt dearly by him.

Dawn never appeared before Ash again even though time he really wished she would just to see her face and his longing to see her again made him not quite the same person. He did continue his dream and tried to conquer the regions after but now as a more mellow spirit, not as energetic as the 10 year old kid he was when he started. But he knew she was there with him and he knew he'd see Dawn again someday, not in this life but one day they would be together again.