It was never easy to accept a loss, especially when you worked so hard to get to the top, sweating water droplets of hope and crying tears of strain to train your team to win. He wasn't mad at his team, they trained as hard as they could, and their combos were perfect, but it seemed as if no matter what he tried to do, when he was so close to his dream of conquering a league, he was defeated by the oddest of circumstances. For the Ever Grande Conference, the most recent competition he lost in not more than a few hours ago, he lost to Tyson, a fellow trainer who reminded him a lot of himself in many ways, except for one thing.

Tyson's Meowth.

Now, he has seen plenty of Meowth, both wild and trained, but something about that particular Meowth reminded him of the first Meowth he saw, Team Rocket's Meowth, who caused him plenty of trouble since that faithful day in Viridian City. He wouldn't deny that he always found that little Pokemon a unique breed of its kind, seeing as it learned to talk and walk like a human, but-

"Ow!"

"Are you okay Ash?" Ash turned around to see May, one of his two traveling companions ever since he arrived in Hoenn. Ironically, she was the daughter of the Petalburg City gym leader, which meant she was one of the many companions who had a strong connection to league competitions, and joined him on his journey soon after she picked up her starter Pokemon, a Torchic.

"Yea...I guess I didn't drink enough water or something. My head is starting to hurt." May's face changed from worry to calm joy, an expression she wore during most of their journey together, and was about to speak when another voice interrupted her.

"If that is the case..." Ash looked over to his left and saw Brock, a tall, tanned friend of his that was with him ever since his Kanto journey. Well, to be completely technical, he joined him and Misty after Ash defeated him in a gym battle, yet another friend who is connected to the league, but those details didn't matter completely. "Why don't we go to the diner nearby and take a break? That last battle must have taken a lot out of you, considering how over the edge you were." Ash nodded, hoping to focus on the thought of food rather than the headache that randomly spiked.

It was strange...Every time he tried to think of his hometown, Pallet Town, and any sort of memory from his childhood gave him a rather painful headache. It was one of the unspoken reasons he always left home as quickly as possible, for he could never get over the headaches that ran rampant during his stay, as well as the only reason he didn't talk about his time growing up with his mom and Professor Oak. He couldn't believe as to how many people wanted to hear all about his time growing up around the Professor, but he felt even worse when he had to brush them off due to his headaches.

'It isn't as if I can do anything about these headaches.' Ash thought to himself as the trio walked into the random diner Brock suggested and sat at a booth near the righthand side of the building. Ash and Brock sat on one side of the booth, leaving May to her lonesome on the other side, not that she seemed to mind the open space at all, and waited for their waitress to arrive. Ash, not enjoying the silence between them, looked around the room until he noticed the painting of a smirking Meowth that held several gems of different value and colors in its paws. Despite his annoyance at Tyson's Meowth, he couldn't help but to chuckle at the painting.

"Whats up Ash?" His two friends asked him. Though he felt the headache starting up again, he couldn't help but want to talk about what he remembered. It was going to, at least to him, be funny to see Brock's expression.

"Hey Brock."

"Yea?"

"Remember the Black Arachnid tale we heard last year in Catallia City?" Brock gave him a humored look before nodding. He, being Brock and all, most likely recalled more about the Officer Jennies in that town than anything else.

"Ahhh...Yea, I remember that town." Case and point. Brock normally responds quite fast, so him taking a moment...Why was he thinking about Officer Jennies at a time like this?

"Well the Black Arachnid is actually my great-grandfather." The only person who looked surprised was May, who dropped the menu in the process and looked at him with...fear? Brock, on the other hand, gave him a glare the likes he never seen his friend use before. Should he have kept that to himself?

"When...when did you find that out?" Brock asked. Ash shrugged and pointed at his head to make a point.

"I've known that since I was about six. I was looking through some of my parent's stuff in the attic, and I found his mask and journal in a hidden box. It was so-"

"So I think I'll get the parfait!" May shouted rather rudely, causing Ash to look at her with a raised eyebrow. May was normally more collected than this, so why was she acting so odd today? Ash decided the best action was to nod at her decision.

"Thats nice May. Now, as I was saying, when my mom found me upstairs looking through the box, he pulled me to the side and asked me what I had gone through. I told her-"

"Well Ash," Brock interrupted, "have you decided what you would want to eat off the menu?"

'Really?' Ash thought to himself in annoyance. Now HE was going to say something while he was talking? With a sigh, Ash glanced at the menu before picking something.

"I'll take a burger with fries. Now, when I told her I read the first few pages of his journal, she told me that he was the reason that my grandparents were able to live in the Kanto region. Back then, it wasn't cheap getting past Mt. Silver-"

"Ash!" Brock and May shouted, causing him to stand and slam his hands on the table.

"What?!" His answer seemed to shock the two, for the recoiled and glanced away from him. Oh now they were going to let him speak huh? "Why is it that every time I try to talk about my past one of you are trying to interrupt to keep me from speaking? Huh? Huh!" At this point May was starting to tear up, which made Ash feel bad about shouting, yet it was Brock's glare that made him even more angry. What reason did he have to glare at him huh?

"We don't care about your lame, most likely fake story of your thief of a great-grandfather Ash. Now sit down and lets talk about what you plan to do from here huh? That is something I'd rather talk about!"

"No!" Ash turned to Brock with his eyes set on his friend. This must have disturbed Brock, for he looked away in the opposing direction. "I DO care about my great-grandfather, for it was due to him that I tried to honestly be the best rule abiding citizen of every region, especially when it came to not having an unfair advantage with taking my trained team to other regions!"

Unknowingly to Ash, the painting of the Meowth began to glow, triggering the building to shake very faintly. May noticed this; however, and tried to stand to leave the building.

"It was because of that history that helped me decide to become a Pokemon Master too! They're seen as the ultimate symbols of good people. Heroes! The symbol and public icon of hope, justice, and righteousness that helped inspire people to become better themselves! It was because of knowing that bit of my family tree that I didn't like Meowths for the longest time, which was why I didn't like Meowth, nor do I care for plenty of the feline Pokemon that I could have caught along the way!"

This shaking grew to even further intense levels, making the other people within the cafe scream as they ran out of the building. May wanted to leave. No, she needed to leave, yet something seemed to keep her pinned to her spot at the booth, furthering the tears that had nothing to keep them from falling. Brock looked as if he wanted to punch Ash, yet did nothing but listen to what he was saying.

"Yet now, after losing to another Meowth for some stupid reason...I need to let it go! I need to accept that not only are Meowths aren't a bad species of Pokemon, but to accept that I am my own person, and not a shadow of my great grandfather's fame and history. That is the reality I need to accept, and I'm prepared to do just that!"

"No!" May screamed out as she intensely shook her head. "You can't! You just CAN'T!"

"I need to grow past my fears of growing up to be anything like him too! I need to accept that there are unknowns I'll be faced with that will make me question myself, yet that isn't frightening at all. It is a fact of life that I didn't want to accept relations to my history, or to finding out the kind of person I really am!"

"Ash!" For a moment, Ash broke away from his thoughts and looked down to see the fury upon Brock's face. Such anger didn't look right at all, yet something about that look...Seemed to be the truth that Ash saw in Brock all the time. "Shut up and SIT BACK DOWN!"

"I will NOT shut up!" The floor of the cafe suddenly cracked into a horrid web that threatened to break away with the slightest of pressure. May seemed to shake in utter terror as Brock tightened his fists in rage. If Brock was going to do something, he would have already do it at this point. "I am Ash Ketchum, and I don't need to limit myself any longer!" Ash paused, glancing at the two of his friends who now said nothing, yet looked at him with such emotions he had no understanding of.

That didn't stop him from lifting his foot to leave the booth.

"If you take another step Ash, you'll never see us again!" May desperately shouted, making him pause mid-step and glanced at her. She had a small, joyful smile that was smeared with the tears she cried moments ago, though why such a reaction he couldn't understand. "Please Ash...Just sit back down and lets talk things out, okay?" He didn't know for what reason he paused at May's words, nor did he realize that he was about to turn back into the booth; however, when he glanced over to the Meowth painting that now looked directly at him, he knew that if he sat back down, then everything he said would have been for nothing.

He would never change.

He would always rely on others to keep him going, rather than move on his own two feet.

His responsibilities would always be done by his friends, yet he would never learn what he had to do to survive or raise his Pokemon on his own.

He...needed to move on with his life, and no longer keep himself weak with his self-restrictions.

"I'm sorry May." He looked away from her, keeping his eyes closed and did all he could to mute the choked sobs that seemed to break his heart with each of her breaths. She didn't realize how much this hurt him too, but it had to be done. "But I'm done not being all that I can be!" With that, he took the step that broke the cafe. No...

The step that broke the world!

Ash could suddenly see the café from a third person's perspective, allowing him to witness it being torn into pieces by an invisible force. The walls were being peeled like the skin of an apple as the floor dropped into the blank, lifeless abyss below. The windows shattered into tiny fragments of light that floated high above him, mixing with the sun that grew darker with each fragment that ascended. The Kanto and Johto region suddenly became engulfed by a series of tidal waves that took entire cities into the watery depths to never be seen.

He could feel the agony of millions of people and Pokemon alike crying, pleading, becoming enraged at the world for it rejecting their very presence, and yet could do nothing but be taken in by the tide of the abyss. Hoenn was the region that currently had the most physical destruction being done to it, as Kyogre and Groudon ripped the land as casualties for their battle, never caring for neither the people or their fellow Pokemon who were killed with each attack by the Legendary Pokemon. Amongst these new, unexplored emotions that ran amok through Ash with each passing fragment, his sight fell upon Brock and May, who both looked up at him with a different expression upon their faces.

May seemed to be partly happy with herself, despite all the destruction that roamed around her. The smile on her face looked lovely with her open eyes, yet that changed as she was encased in a blinding light that made it impossible for him to focus on her. When he did find himself able to see again, she was no longer there, though her bandana remained long enough for him to see it with the whisper of "Thank You" before it too was gone.

The look of pure demonized anger upon Brock's face made Ash question what he truly saw in him in the first place. He could see the jealousy in the man's eyes as black tendrils started to latch to him, draining the colors off of him and his clothing with each tendril. When there was no longer color to drain, his flesh had been removed, revealing the full glare of a cruel, uncaring, selfish person who only wanted whatever he desired; however, the heat that pulsed off the skeleton that remained scared Ash.

"I hope the world you awake to...is a nightmare!" What remained of Brock disappeared in a fiery blaze of jealousy and pure madness, which acted as the final trigger for what was left of the world Ash loved to disappear in a flash of light, never to be seen again.

When Ash found himself able to see past the blinding light, he realized that he was in a white room that reminded him of a rental room in a Pokemon Center. Was he in here due to some debris falling on him as he escaped the building? The sound of broken glass caught his attention, and made him turn to see his mom and Misty sitting by the bed he was in, yet he noticed that he had an IV in his arm. Was he hurt that badly that he needed more than some bed rest to heal him, and what were with all of the books that were beside Misty? She wasn't much of a reader when they travelled together, and, now that he was looking at her, she looked younger than he remembered seeing her. Tired too...

'Speaking of tired, mom looks tired too.' Ash realized for a moment that maybe the two ran over to the Pokemon Center to check up on his recovery, but he didn't remember Misty being in the stands, which would have meant that she would have had to get there by Pokemon or plane. He... "Ow!"

"Relax Ash!" His mom shot up from her chair and cradled his head to her chest. Her shirt was partially wet, though his thoughts were interrupted by something wet pelting the top of his head. "Oh Ash...You have no idea how happy I am to see your beautiful eyes again...I love you so much Ashy poo!"

"Ugh, MOM! Don't call me that! I'm not four years old anymore!" He felt his mouth become dry and began to cough, instantly pulling away to put his hand over his mouth. He heard his mom shout at Misty to pour for him a glass of water, and suddenly found a glass being held in front of him. He didn't know why, but as soon as he saw the glass in front of him, he felt as if his entire body was a dried husk of a mummy, and drank the water in one gulp.

"Not so fast Ash! You'll-

"Ack! Ack!"

"Choke..." When he was able to calm his choking and turned to Misty, he noticed that Misty was crying with a smile on her face that the word happy just couldn't cover. She looked as if she hadn't seen him in a long time...

"Hello Ash." Startled, he turned to see a doctor with short brown hair and wore a white lab coat. The man stared at him rather intensely before looking down at the chart he was holding. With a clink of the pen, the man pressed it against the paper as he began to talk. "Can you tell me as to what day it is?"

"Its June twentieth. The day after the Ever Grande Conference." The doctor shook his head, which worried Ash the moment he saw that. Was he in the hospital for a few days? Did Brock, May, and Max leave without him?

"No Ash. It's the seventh day of June, of the year 2000. You're in the Viridian City hospital. Do you know as to why you're here?" No. No. That couldn't be right! There was no WAY that it was the second day of June! He traveled for nearly two years with Misty and Brock, as well as a year with May and Max! Surely Misty would have corrected this man right?

And yet, when he turned to her, he noticed that she looked at him with a sadness he never saw her show to him before. The hand that partially covered her mouth told him that he shocked her, yet that shouldn't be right. Unless...

Unless...

'No, I need to think.' Ash looked down with his hands clutching the covers. He needed to remember what happened on the seventh day of June. If he was right, then he was either traveling through the Viridian Forest still, or he was just entering Pewter for the first time; however, something about that felt wrong. As if he should think further back by a week.

A week.

It was a week ago that he got Pikachu!

"Pikachu!" He shouted, widening his eyes in realization that he had not seen his starter Pokemon at all. How could he not notice the lack of his best friend? The presence he had always brought his mood up, so the lack of it was rather unusual to feel for the first time in years. "Where is Pikachu?!"

"He is fine Ash!" Both the doctor and his mother replied, causing him to pause with a deep breath finding its way into his body. He needed to calm down and listen. Listening would help him out to help him what was wrong with what was happening in front of him. Did he somehow travel back in time?

"Your Pikachu is currently being held in its Pokeball at the Pokemon Center in the city."

"But Pikachu doesn't like being in its Pokeball at all! He hates it!" The doctor nodded as he wrote something on his chart before looking up again.

"Very good. Do you remember what happened to cause Pikachu to be in the Pokemon Center?" The man used Pikachu for the question, plus with the day he was put in the hospital meant that the two were connected. But he never went to a hospital just as injured as Pikachu, but there was that one time on the first...day of...his journey.

"The big Thunderbolt." Ash whispered. That day was very stressful for him for several reasons. He wasn't sure if Pikachu was going to survive through the night, and not to mention Officer Jenny questioning him as soon as he came within her sights. He wasn't sure if the Spearow were going to come after him either, and, no. Pikachu was being healed at this very moment, so he was fine! He didn't have to worry about Pikachu at the moment.

"Yes Ash." Misty must have been the only one to hear him, for he, his mom, and the doctor turned to her. She nodded as she looked down at her knees. "Your Pikachu made an overpowered Thunderbolt that knocked not only the Spearow out, but you and itself as well. It-it, God Ash, you were unconscious for nearly a week!" At this point, Misty was doing all that she could to hold back the tears, yet this didn't stop Ash from widening his eyes in a mixture of feelings at what he was just told. Shock for sure, and slight amazement at Pikachu's range of attack striking him as well, yet to know that he was asleep for just about a week was frightening.

It, if what the sense of dread and despair he felt was the truth, meant that EVERYTHING he went through for the past three years with Misty, Brock, Gary, May, Max, and all of the rivals he met along the way were nothing but figments of his imagination. He never caught all of the Pokemon that he did, nor did those truly special moments of evolution ever happen, which meant that everything he ever accomplished, such as winning the Orange Leagues, or all of the times he ranked in the official league tournaments, never meant anything at all. His entire life for the past three years.

Was.

A.

Fantasy.

"Ash?" He didn't know whose voice that was calling out to him. He glanced around and saw that his mom, Misty, and the doctor were giving him worrying looks of concern, yet he also saw THEM standing behind them. He saw THEM frowning at him, staring right into his soul with several of them, Pokemon and human alike, crying tears of sorrow for being forgotten and shunned for what was reality. He didn't mean to kill them all. Really, he didn't! He suddenly saw him looking at him from the back of the group, laughing at him with a wicked joy at what happened this moment. This wasn't real! They weren't real!

But did that mean that the people who helped him wake up were with them? Were they punishing him for ending a world he didn't mean to? No, in truth, that was completely wrong. Deep down inside he knew that he meant to kill the fantasy. It took him three years of his journey, yet he accomplished waking up a week later; however, those looks...Could he live with those faces looking at him whenever he slept?

"Yea?" He slowly replied with another deep breath. He needed to ignore the crowd standing behind them for now. They no longer mattered to him, as they didn't truly exist in reality. All that mattered was that he was now safe in the real world with his mom, Pikachu, and Misty by his side.

That is, if Misty will join him when he wants to leave Viridian City.

"So...I've been dreaming for a week?"

"To put it in simple terms," The doctor began with a short nod of his head, "yes. You've been in a coma for six days Ash, and during those six days you were fighting the coma quite a few times. We thought that we lost you a few times to be honest, and we weren't sure how many attacks your body could handle. Your mom and Misty here were very helpful to your recovery though, for you would mumble every now again as they talked to you about Pokemon and various facts and the history of different regions. Did you happen to see any of this influence during your dream?"

At this, Ash truly didn't know how to respond. He was having so much trouble to fully accept that, in a span of nearly a week, lived out three YEARS of traveling, growing up, and doing so many other things that would take days upon days to describe! The things he saw, did, touched, felt, and remembered wouldn't be useful in this world, so why should he try to keep on remembering them?

And yet he couldn't make himself forget. He knew that he could never forget the day he finally filled his team up to six Pokemon, or the time he battled Misty for the Cascade Badge. The way May looked up to him to help her learn the basics of being a Pokemon Trainer, along with watching her mature and grow up with her team of Pokemon during his time in Hoenn. There were so many moments, both small and immensely important, that he knew that he could never truly forget due to several reasons. Some of those reasons being good memories, while others...

Brock's final words made him shiver for a moment. He wasn't surprised that Brock, the imaginary one he created, figured out that the world they were living in was nothing more than a dream. Brock was always smart like that after all.

"I don't want to talk about it... If that is okay with you doc." The man's face scrunched up at that, but he nodded and wrote something before looking at his mother.

"I'll leave you three alone for now so I can look through some files and see if there is something else I need to look over." He turned back to Ash with a smile on his face. For some reason, the smile didn't make Ash feel better about his situation. "Welcome back to the world of the living Ash. If everything goes well, you'll be able to leave in two or three days." The doctor left after that, leaving him with his mom and Misty by his side. He didn't know what to say right off the bat, but he turned towards the books and couldn't help but to chuckle about what he saw.

"So you were reading to me right?" He saw Misty and his mom nod at the question, though they suddenly looked at the books as if they were a stain they wanted to hide. Considering all of the books they had over there, he doubted that they would be able to hide them very well.

"Your mom came up with the idea as soon as she heard the doctor say that sometimes talking to the patient about things they would be familiar with could help speed up the process. Your mom dashed straight out of the hospital with the look of determination on her face, and returned about ten minutes later with all of these books in hand, sat right next to you, and began reading about each of the cities and landmarks of Kanto." Misty spoke up, looking at him with a small smile on her face. Ash could only nod and waited to hear more from either of them. His mom seemed to catch the hint, for she turned to Misty and winked at her.

"And your cute little friend here told you all about her gym leader friends, as well as some of the other gym leaders she met during her childhood too!" Misty's face became bright red, and at one point in time Ash would have looked the same, yet he felt like doing something a bit different than just be shocked and blushing away. He wanted to do the shocking for a change.

"Well that would explain why a cute girl appeared in my dream and took me all over the Kanto and Johto region." The blush Misty had became a dark cherry red explosion of embarrassment, which made him laugh at her reaction. She looked just as cute with a blush on her face in real life as he imagined in his dream. His mom, on the other hand, looked at him with a concerned, yet surprised expression on her face that made him realize that he partially exposed himself to them.

"You...were able to hear us while you slept?"

"I don't really want to talk about it to be honest mom." When he saw the saddened look on her face, Ash knew he couldn't keep what he dreamt hidden forever. He would tell her, just not right now. He couldn't believe that he just woke up from a coma to be honest.

To be honest, there was still a part of him that didn't believe that he woke up from a coma. That this place he was in was nothing but a dream to him and he would find himself waking up back in Hoenn within moments. He had to do something to make sure that he was actually awake. That he was free from the clutches of the coma that fought to keep him asleep for so long...

"But I'll tell you about it soon mom. I just need to..." Ash paused to find the right words to say. It wasn't as if he was talking about what kind of Pidgey he was looking at after all. "...Get use to the fact that I was asleep for nearly a week. Actually, that reminds me of something." He turned to Misty at this point, who looked at him with a light blush on her face. "You said something about training to become a Water type Pokemon Master, right?"

"Yea, that's right!" The look of shock and awe aside, Ash knew what he could ask of her that would help him realize if he was still in the coma or not. If she told him what he expected, then he would know that he...No! He needed to think positive!

"So what can you tell me about Gyarados?" She gave him a curious, if not bewildered look for the question he asked, but proceeded to tap her chin in thought.

"Well..." She began, unknowingly holding him over the edge with his desire to know about the Pokemon. He just had to know what she knew about it! "Gyarados is a rather large Pokemon, normally reaching around twenty-one feet in terms of height. They're commonly known as the Atrocious Pokemon due to how often they enter a fit of rage and thrash about in rivers, lakes, and near the shore of cities and towns alike."

"And they know the move Hyper Beam right?" Ash interrupted, which normally annoyed Misty. Instead, he saw her smile at him and gave him a nod of approval. That was certainly different.

"Yes. It is true that they naturally learn Hyper Beam, but only the high leveled members of the breed ever get that far. They normally just hit you with a Tackle or use their tail to make some waves, if they're in water of course!" That was certainly different to hear. If he remembered correctly, just about every Gyarados he came across to battle or see in a battle in his coma used Hyper Beam just about repeatedly, especially with the ones that recently evolved from a Magikarp! Since Misty knows her facts about Water Pokemon, then he knew that she wasn't wrong about the Gyarados.

But what if there were exceptions to this rule?

"So no wild Gyarados could learn Hyper Beam?"

"In most circumstances no, but scientists and people like Professor Oak tell us that some Pokemon just naturally learn the move due to factors we don't understand yet. We grade the strength of a Pokemon by leveling them Ash, yet who knows how Pokemon judge power and bestow learning attacks? We do them at times with TM and HMs, yet they could hold little classes on how to use Double Team or Sand Attack, for example, to make the other wild Pokemon harder for us to catch." Ash nodded, but said nothing as he allowed what he learned to sink in. So no wild Gyarados could learn Hyper Beam unless it was insanely high leveled, which made sense for the most part, except for the plenty of Gyarados he saw while he was asleep. Was it possible that he only heard parts of what Misty and his mom told him while he slept, and based Pokemon based on the bits and pieces of information he learned that way?

"Do you think I could get Pikachu and its Pokeball back soon?" Ash asked without thinking his comment through. He knew what he wanted to do, and he had a feeling it would keep him in the hospital longer than he would like once he did it later; however, he had to do it. He had to make sure that he was truly awake! "It feels weird to be awake without Pikachu by my side." Ash's mom glanced at him with a look of concern before she smiled and the look was replaced with happiness.

"I'll see what I can do honey. Relax and I'll be back in a bit." As soon as his mom left the room, Misty looked at him with a stern look that she always used during their travels together. It was the look that told him that she wanted to ask him something, but didn't know of a nice way to ask him. With a sigh, he turned to face her a little better.

"So is there anything you'd want to ask me Misty?" His question snapped her out of her thoughts, as well as made her stumble a bit in her chair.

"Why are you curious about Gyarados all of a sudden Ash?" While he was trying to think of something to help cover his curiosity, Misty took the action of waving her hands in front of her in a wild way, which made him chuckle. This made her puff her cheeks for a moment before she turned to the side. "Not that I don't think that they're NOT interesting or anything! I just figured that you would have asked something like what happened to the Spearow, or about how to avoid having Pikachu battle during a storm?"

"Well," Ash began, allowing for what Misty told him to become part of the lie he thought of, "I am curious about those too, except the Gyarados played a bit of a role in my dreams." No, it didn't have much of a role, now that he thought of it, but it would be a nice excuse, especially with the bit of truth he was about to reveal. "Before you fished me out of the river, I jumped into it not too far upstream from you, and that was due to the Spearow following me. I narrowly avoided being seen by a Gyarados that was in that river-"

"There was a Gyarados in that river!"

"In my dream there were quite the bit of Gyarados references, so I wanted to make sure that I knew what a Gyarados could actually do, rather than let what happened in my dream take control of me." Though he was happy to see the understanding look Misty gave him, Ash felt a little horrible for lying to her despite everything she and his mom did for him. Hopefully soon he would be able to do what he needed to do, or else he would have to take Misty with him, and she would do more distracting than helping him, especially if she had nothing but Water Pokemon.

They would be nothing more than distractions.

The sound of the door being opened made him and Misty turn towards it, but Ash lost all sense of self when he saw Pikachu, fat and fully healed like he first saw him in Professor Oak's lab, looking at him with a happy expression of its own. He didn't care about the tears that fell from his eye without restraint, nor did he feel any pain from suddenly leaning forward with his arms stretched out to catch his Pokemon with his arms.

"Pikachu!"

"Pika-pi!" The warmth that flew through Ash as Pikachu pressed into his chest filled a void he felt ever since he awoke from his coma. There wasn't much he needed to think at that moment, other than that he was happy to have Pikachu by his side, and that with him back, he could now make sure he was awake once and for all.

All he needed to do was wait for the night to come.