Author's note: Thanks to all of the people who reviewed my last chapter. I was really happy to get feedback so quickly after I posted the story. I love all the encouraging words that you have for me. And now on with the chapter!

Last time…..

Bianca ginned," I'm going to help you change your human appearance!"

Bianca laughed at Latias' confused expression.

"Since you have used my form for so long, you are starting to act like me and not act like you used to" Bianca explained.

'Is that a bad thing?' Latias looked hurt. She thought that Bianca liked that Latias looked like her.

"Not really, you should have a personality that you can call your own and a form that no one else has."

What was one here, is now gone Chapter two

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. All rights go to Nintendo. Insert more legal stuff here.

Chapter two

At the same time…..

A boat was sailing toward the small island city of Altomare. A young man, about the age of fourteen, was completely oblivious to his surroundings. He was staring intently at the horizon thinking about his latest defeat. He was looking around so hard, one because he was trying to get a glimpse of the island he had longed to return to for the past three years and two because he was trying to figure out what he had done wrong during the Lily of the Valley conference. He had come so close to winning yet had been do far away. Seeing the Latios that Tobias had brought back some painful memories to Ash's mind from several years earlier. While Ash was yelling at himself internally, Brock came up to the deck from his room below the ship. He noticed that Ash had a look of absolute pain on his face. Ash had never told anyone but while they were on their way to save Pikachu at the Tree of Beginning, Sir Aaron's Lucario recognized what a powerful aura Ash had and forced him to train in the ways of aura to prevent the knowledge of how to use aura to fade away and be lost forever. Ash felt so guilty that he let his pokemon down once again was using his aura to hurt himself on the inside. He was trying to make up for all of the hyper beams, giga impacts and takedown attacks that his pokemon endured for him. But also in a way he was healing himself to symbolize all the healing that he did for them. Brock walked up to Ash and lightly tapped Ash on the shoulder to gain his attention. Ash flinched violently as if Brock's touch had hurt him. The only attention that Brock gained from Ash was that he looked at Brock out of the corner of his eyes, shrugged Brock's hand off of his shoulder and turned back to look at the sea. Brock tried to keep a straight face and not look like Ash's gesture ad hurt him but it was hard. Ever since they had left Altomare all those years ago, Ash never spoke a word as if he blamed Latios' death on himself and acted like he could have prevented it. Brock had no idea how Ash was able to communicate or give commands to his pokemon on the battlefield but Ash was able to somehow. That gave Ash the element of surprise because his opponents would not be expecting what the attacks would be. But it also hurt Brock to see the once lively kid turn in to a shadow of his former self.

"Ash, it's okay to be upset that you didn't win, but you can't keeping beating yourself down and hurting yourself over one loss. I really wish you would talk to me and tell me what's wrong and how I can help you." Brock looked at Ash sadly.

Ash looked at Brock out of the corner of his eye again and stood up from where he had been leaning on the rail of the ship. When he stood up straight, Ash was about as tall as Brock. Ash looked Brock directly in the eyes and Brock could see all the pain and sorrow Ash had been holding in since they had left Altomare.

The door leading down towards the rooms below the deck opened. Dawn, Max, May and Misty had come along on the trip to the island to see the place that had caused Ash to become mute. Misty had already been to Altomare but had come along to revisit some places and try to prove to Ash that there was more to life then living in the past. Misty also had some secret motive to gain Ash for herself but tried to hide them. May had come to Altomare because after they visited the island, she planned to try contests in the Kanto region. Like Misty, May had hidden motives for coming along besides competing in Kanto. Dawn came along with Ash and Brock because she had nothing better to do. She too wanted Ash for herself, though in her mind, Ash would want to date a girl three years younger than him (A/N Sorry to burst your bubble Dawn, but not all men are like that). Max had purely come along because they were going to an island that was known to have the legendary Eon twin dragons as guardians of the city. Brock hadn't had the heart to tell Max that one of the twins was dead. The four off them had been listening to Brock's almost one-sided conversation through the door leading down below the deck of the ship.

Max ran over to try and comfort Ash about his defeat. Like Brock said Ash, you can't let yourself get down about one defeat. Try and cheer up, we're going to an island where there are legendary pokemon! We might get lucky and see them."

This did nothing to boost Ash's confidence. Ash slowly began to pry Max off of his shirt from where Max had been gripping it tightly as if Max was going to try and shake some sense into Ash. The three girls hung back to let the boys try and get through to Ash. They would try later on when they were alone with Ash in maybe a secluded romantic spot in the city. Before they had come up onto the deck, the girls had, had a really long debate about who Ash really loved. That was one of the reasons that Brock had come up on the deck in the first place. The girls had forced Brock to listen to their debate about who Ash loved for HOURS! For all Brock knew, Ash was oblivious to the feelings of the three girls. But after he became mute, Ash became a lot more observant of his surroundings and wasn't as clueless as everyone thought.

Ash turned suddenly to stare back out at the sea again. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. He could see Altomare in the distance, getting closer with each passing minute. Ash closed his eyes and silently sent out his aura to scan the shoreline. His vision turned a light blue with a hint of silver in the outline to show what a pure heart Ash had. Each person on the shore had a distinct color that showed how good or bad their heart was. Ash sighed with disappointment; Latias was not at the shore. Not that he expected her to be, he hadn't told her that he was coming back to the island. But Ash had to check, even though he knew what he was going to find. Ash slowly turned around to see his friend's confused faces. Brock looked at Ash with understanding in his eyes but Misty looked angry. She was upset at the thought that Ash would be that enthusiastic about seeing a certain red and white dragon. Misty stormed over to Ash and proceeded to try and hurt Ash without saying a word to her other companions. As she tried to punch/slap him, Ash ducked and safely moved to the other side of the ship, where he turned to stare out at the city again trying to sense Latias. He sighed and opened his eyes again; he still could not sense Latias anywhere close to the shoreline. Behind Ash all of his friends looked utterly confused at what had just happened but Brock and Misty. Luckily for Ash the boat docked at the harbor at that moment. The horrible thing about that was that Misty now stood between Ash and the dock. And Misty had made no move to disembark off of the ship with all of the other passengers. Ash looked at Misty, who was slowly advancing on him, and the water. Ash made a spilt second decision and pulled out one of his poke balls.

Ash calmly turned his back towards Misty and sent out a huge shiny Gyarados. Misty's mouth fell open, the Gyarados was way better than the ones she had trained. Even for it being a shiny, the color was like looking into a moving pool of bright red and orange lava. Misty had no idea that Ash owned a Gyarados, let alone a shiny one. Ash jumped on the water-types back and made a beeline for the shore. Moments later he was standing a small distance away from where his friends were standing on the shore.

Ash calmly returned the water-type and prepared himself for what was going to end up being Misty screaming at Ash and attempting to hit him. Misty soon rushed toward the group and attempted to smack Ash on the head. Ash, once again, ducked and moved a safe distance away from Misty. He turned his back to the group once again and sent out his aura to find the fastest way to get to the secret garden. Brock, Max, May and Dawn looked amazed at Ash. He had pretty much ignored Misty and the rest of the group and was doing what he had been doing for most of the two day boat ride.

Ash, with his eyes still closed moved out of the way of Misty's fist as she attempted to hit him from behind. Ash's eyes shot open as he thought he detected a familiar aura in the city. He motioned to Pikachu to follow him and they both ran off towards an unknown place.

"Ash come back here! You're going to get lost again!" Dawn yelled after Ash.

"Don't worry about Ash, Dawn. Ash, Misty and I have been to Altomare before. Ash knows his way around the city pretty well. But just in case, Misty, I want you to take Max, May and Dawn to the pokemon center and get us checked in for a couple of nights." Brock said without taking his eyes off of Ash's retreating form. "I'm going to follow Ash to make sure he is all right and doesn't get lost o badly."

'Was it really necessary to just run off like that?' Pikachu looked at his trainer long and hard. 'You don't have to make it that obvious that you want to see Latias.'

'Yes Pikachu, it was and you know it. If we had stayed any longer, Misty would have eventually found a way to pound my face into the dust.' Ash shot back just as quickly.

'Just try not to get us lost like you did last time we were here.' Pikachu was referring to the time when they had first met Latias and she had led them through a chase around the city. It had taken them hours to find their way back to the pokemon center.

Ash rolled his eyes, 'You have no faith in my sense of direction. You're starting to act like all the other people in our group of friends. All those times we had gotten lost in Sinnoh and Hoenn were not my fault. It's not like they follow the way I suggest we go. This then turns out to be the way we actually needed to go in the first place.' Ash pointed out. 'Besides I've been to Altomare before. I know where I am going this time.'

As Ash thought this, they arrived in the square where they had first met Latias. 'All that we have to do now is to sit and wait. I know she felt us as soon as we stepped foot on the island.'

Author's note: And that is the end of chapter two. Thank you again to all of the people who reviewed my last chapter. I have decided on all of Ash's team except the legendary. Thank you for reading and remember to review!