ACT I: New Beginnings

Arc I: Kanto

Chapter 2: Restart

Once Ash had finished rejoicing, he remembered that today was the day that he gets Pikachu, and as such it was imperative that he be late. Seeing as his mother hadn't yelled at him yet, he decided to change into his traveling clothes lest he suffer the same embarrassment as last time, when he ran to Professor Oak's ranch in his pajamas. His outfit consisted of his original Kanto trainer clothes: a black t-shirt, a blue jacket with yellow outlines for the pockets and bottom edge of the jacket as well as white sleeves and a white collar, blue jeans, black and white tennis shoes, and of course his signature Indigo League hat which he sent "a million postcards" for. Once he finished tying his last shoelace, almost as if on cue, his mother yells at him from downstairs.

"ASH KETCHUM, WAKE UP THIS INSTANT OR YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE TO PROFESSOR OAK'S!"

If only she knew, Ash thought before replying "Coming!" an octave higher than he was accustomed to. Damn prepubescent voice, it's gonna take forever to get my old voice back, Ash thought as he walked downstairs.

Once he was downstairs, he saw a 29 year old mahogany haired woman making pancakes and completely froze in shock. This woman was his mother, Delia Ketchum, who he had not seen in over 3 years. She had passed away from a rare and aggressive form of cancer shortly after the end of his journey to Alola as he was getting ready to compete in the World Championship. It had utterly torn him up inside, and if Misty hadn't been there for him he wasn't sure what he would have done. Now, getting to see her after all this time made him have to hold back the unshed tears in his eyes.

"Mo-mom?" he squeaked, and ran towards her before he hugged her waist, burying his face into her apron.

"Ash?" she asked, wondering why he was acting so strange.

"I-I'm okay," he reassured her."M-Mom, thank you for everything that you've ever done for me, I love you," Ash said while trying not to cry.

Delia was momentarily surprised and wondered what brought this on, before smiling and returning the hug. "Oh, Ash, you don't have to thank me, I was just doing what any mother would do. And I love you too, sweetheart," Delia said.

"I know, but I just want to let you know that I really do appreciate what you've done for me," Ash said.

"Oh, all right dear. Now, you should get started on your breakfast or else you're going to be really late," Delia said.

"Right," Ash said before sitting down and plowing into breakfast of pancakes, sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast. It wasn't five minutes later that he had finished his breakfast and brushed his teeth, before he was running out the door shouting "bye Mom, I'll be back later!"

Once he was out of sight of his house, he slowed to a slow walk, wanting to make sure that he was late and that he had enough time to think of his plan.

Team Omni, just the name alone made his blood boil. 'Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent' was their motto, and boy did they take it seriously. They did anything and everything under the sun in order to achieve their goals, from cloning and genetic experimentation on pokemon, to creating artificial intelligence, to infiltrating every level of government for espionage and sabotage purposes as well as to frame those who oppose their will. It took everything he had to bring them down, and even then, he was only able to do so out of dumb luck.

He would have to do better, he can not afford to just leave his previous teams in the ranch doing nothing and letting their skills atrophy. He will need to rotate his party, and ensure that any of his pokemon left at the ranch were busy training and not just laying around. He will also need to catch many more pokemon than he did his first time, and catch types he never had the first time around.

I wonder if I'll stumble across a mimikyu before I go to Alola? Ash mused. He never really had any ghost or fairy type pokemon before. Sure, he had haunter help him out in his gym battle against Sabrina, but he was never really his pokemon. Regardless, this time he was going to try to catch at least one of every type to have a fully balanced team.

Ash briefly glanced at his hands before remembering that he could use aura. That's right, Ash thought, I didn't use my aura all that much on my journey, even after I learned about it at the tree of beginning. This time, I'll definitely make sure to use it throughout my journey instead of just towards the end when Riley offered to train me.

He tried to summon an aura sphere in his hand in order to see if he was still able to use his aura, but found that he couldn't. Strange, he thought, before the reason came to him. Oh that's right, I still haven't awoken my aura yet. In that case I'll need to perform the awakening ritual soon, but I can't do it here, Ash thought with a chuckle as he recalled nearly blinding Riley and Pikachu while performing the ritual. Riley had told him that the reason this happened was because he didn't wake up his aura at the age of five like he was supposed to, and thus ended up with a lot of backed up aura. With that thought, Ash resolved to train himself and his aura between now and the rise of Team Omni.

Speaking of which, how much time did he have before he had to fight Team Omni? Ash began to think back on his journey so far:

I spent about a year here in Kanto,

six months in the Orange Islands,

a year in Johto,

a year in Hoenn,

six months in Kanto for the Battle Frontier,

a year in Sinnoh,

a year in Unova,

a year in Kalos which is when I finally won the league,

six months in Alola with Misty, which is when we first started encountering Team Omni,

after that I took six months off of traveling and I spent it in preparation for the World Championship,

a year for the World Championship,

two years where Misty and I settled down and started our family,

and then that's when Team Omni put their plans into motion.

So that's seven years before we start seeing Team Omni, and 11 years until they put their plans in motion. Ash thought, doing the mental math. He should have plenty of time to bring down Team Omni before their reign can begin.

But all of this will have to wait, because just then he turned a corner and saw Professor Oak's lab, standing there in all its glory. And of course, just like his first day as a trainer, there was a crowd gathered around the gate to the laboratory, as well as a familiar red convertible parked out front, and six cheerleaders crowded around the gate waiting.

Ash passed the crowds and started walking up the steps to the laboratory, before being stopped by a familiar voice.

"Well, if it isn't Ashy Boy," said a familiar snarky voice. Ash turned around and was confronted with the familiar visage of Gary Oak.

"Hi Gary, how are ya?" Ash said deciding to be polite, not wanting to have to endure such a bitter rivalry like last time. "I bet your pokemon is strong, what do you say we battle once I get mine? I bet I could learn something from the grandson of the great Professor Samuel Oak."

Gary blinked, several times in fact. "U-um sure," Gary said, almost choking at how surprised he was that he wasn't able to get a rise out of Ash. "I believe gramps is waiting for you, so you shouldn't keep him waiting," he said cockily.

Ash nodded as he turned back around and headed towards the lab. Played him like a fiddle, Ash thought while smirking.

Ash opened the door, before looking around. Seeing no one he decided to call out to the professor. "Hello, anyone here?"

"Yes, who is it?" said Professor Oak as he walked to the door. "Ah Ash, there you are, I was beginning to think you weren't going to come today."

"Of course I was going to come, no way was I going to miss out on getting my own pokemon!" Ash exclaimed.

The elderly professor nodded. "In that case, come with me so that you can get your starter," Oak said as he walked to another room. Ash followed him to a familiar room that had a pedestal with three pokeballs sitting on it. "All right Ash, here you go, the three starter pokemon available to trainers in the Kanto region. Charmander, the fire lizard pokemon, squirtle, the water turtle pokemon, and bulbasaur, the seed pokemon," Oak said while pointing to the respective pokeballs. "Choose wisely, for they will be your partner for life."

Just like last time, Ash tried all three pokeballs only to find that they were empty.

"C'mon professor, isn't there another pokemon you could give me, please?" Ash begged.

"Well... There is one, but it's not very friendly. I just caught him this morning," he said uneasily.

"I'll take it!" Ash said happily, glad to have his old friend back.

"Erm, well if you're sure," Oak said as he took the pokeball from the cabinet and released the pokemon inside.

The pokemon materialized, and before anyone could even react it suddenly squealed, "PIKAPI!" and leaped up onto Ash's arms, rubbing his head against Ash's chest.

"Well, I'll be darned," Oak said while chuckling and looked at the scratch marks on his hand from when he tried to put Pikachu into the pokeball, "he seems to like you a lot."

Ash chuckled. "I guess so."

Professor Oak led Ash to a desk in the room and for the next five minutes began to explain the rules of pokemon. Once he was finished he opened a drawer in the desk. "Ash, here are some pokeballs as well as your pokedex," Oak said as he pulled out 5 pokeballs, a Kanto pokedex, and Pikachu's pokeball and handed it to the raven-haired trainer. "Now go, make Pallet Town proud!"

"Will do, professor!" Ash said as he left the room with Pikachu scurrying up Ash's arm and sitting on his usual perch on his shoulder.

Ash stopped at the door, and turned his head to Pikachu. "Now remember Pikachu, you're supposed to be a beginner level pokemon, so try to go easy on your opponent," Pikachu nodded. "Do you still remember all your moves?" Pikachu just gave him a look that said 'Do you even need to ask?' "Right..." Ash chuckled before opening the door and stepping through it.

Ash looked around the crowd before spotting Gary with his new squirtle. "HEY GARY!" Ash shouted causing the brunette to turn around, before giving him a smirk.

"Ashy Boy, so I see you got a mouse!" he said as he laughed at Pikachu. "This should be way too easy! Squirtle, take care of it!" he shouted as his water turtle got into a battle stance.

"Pikachu." He nodded, giving Pikachu a glance to remind him to go easy on him.

"SQUIRTLE, USE WATER GUN!" Gary exclaimed. Squirtle then puffed up its cheeks summoning a small jet stream of water.

"Pikachu, Dodge and then unleash a thundershock!" Pikachu then pretended to have a hard time dodging before jumping to the left and unleashing a weak electrical current on squirtle.

"SQUIRRRR!" it cried out in pain, before falling back with swirls in his eyes. Gary looked as if he himself had been hit by a thundershock, before he was able to snap out his shock.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" cried Gary while returning his Squirtle. "How did you beat me so easily?!" Gary demanded.

"Erm..." Ash was unsure of what he should say. "Well... Pikachu is an electric type while Squirtle is a water type. But aside from that, I think I just got lucky with one really good critical hit. You're a good trainer, so I'm sure that the next time we battle you'll be able to beat me," He said encouragingly.

Gary blinked. He really was not expecting any of this from Ash, he's acting weird today. "Um... Well, thanks Ash, you're right. Next time, I'll beat you! Smell ya later Ashy boy!" Gary said with his usual arrogance before climbing into his convertible along with all of his cheerleaders and was driven away.

When he was out of earshot, Ash looked at Pikachu and whispered "I told you to take it easy with him."

Pikachu merely looked away bashfully while rubbing the back of his head "Pikapika..."

Ash chuckled "Let me guess, you forgot to lower the amperage or something this time?" He nodded. "Well, be careful next time. Anyways, we're gonna have to get a lot stronger if we're gonna take down Team Omni before they rise up, and we're going to have to train really hard until then." Pikachu nodded once more, understanding the gravity of the situation. Truth be told, he always wondered why his trainer never rotated his party, or had his old pokemon train while they were at the ranch.

"So, let's go back to mom, I'm sure she's waiting for us."

"PIKA!" Pikachu readily agreed, it's been a while since he had mom's homemade ketchup.

It was later in the day when Ash had everything he needed packed into his traveling bag, that the human and electric mouse made it to the entrance to route one. Pikachu groaned from his perch on Ash's shoulder's, and brought a paw to his belly.

Ash looked at his best friend, and chuckled. "Pikachu, I warned you not to eat so much ketchup."

"Piii kapii chuchupii kachupi~!" Pikachu moaned in obvious discomfort.

The raven-haired trainer once again chuckled. "I know you think it was really good Pikachu, but you really gotta control yourself with that stuff, you may be young again, but you wont be for long if you keep this up, especially since you're pretty fat again."

Pikachu narrowed his eyes at his trainer. "Pikachu? Pi chuchu pi ka chu pi?"

"How old do I think you are? Uh, I really don't know Pikachu, you never really did tell me how old you were. On that note, how old are you anyway?"

"Pi chu pi."

"Wait... Was that before or after the time travel?"

"Chuka pi."

"WHAT?!" Ash shouted in disbelief.

Pikachu snickered, they've been together for fourteen years and he never bothers to ask how old he is? He was about to open his mouth to give a snarky remark, but held it back as he felt a wave of nausea overcome him. Before Pikachu could do anything, Ash quickly grabbed his sick starter and ran to a bush.

Once Pikachu finished purging the contents of his stomach, Ash began to look for a clearing to perform the awakening ritual. The clearing needed to be somewhere away from the main paths, and devoid of any wild pokemon nests, as the ritual tends to be quite bright when performed by anyone over the age of five. After a half hour, Ash finally found a suitable clearing and began setting down his pack.

"Pikapi?"

"I'm gonna be performing the aura awakening ritual, Pikachu. Can you keep a lookout and make sure I'm not disturbed?" Pikachu widened his eyes upon learning what Ash was about to do. Ash chuckled before continuing. "It wont be as bright as last time buddy, as I'm not as old now as I was then." Pikachu nodded and sighed in relief. The last time Ash had tried this, he'd nearly blinded Riley, Lucario, and Pikachu. Not to mention that people halfway across Sinnoh had seen the light emanating from his aura.

With that out of the way, Ash sat down cross legged and entered into a meditative state. He would need to focus in order properly complete the ritual, lest he have to start all over again, or end up doing something far worse to himself. Once he was properly focused, he began diving into his soul in search of the source, where an aura guardian's aura comes from. He needed to be careful however, as there is another source that looks just like the one for his regular aura, but that one is for life aura, and breaking that one open instead of the regular one normally leads to a... drastically shorter lifespan.

As Ash was doing this, Pikachu began to patrol around the area making sure there weren't any wild pokemon nearby. Looking around he found that they were in a very familiar part of the forest. He began to wonder if they were gonna run into Misty again, though considering how they haven't run into that spearow yet he began to doubt that they would. Just then, Ash began to glow a very bright blue as aura began to shoot out of him. True to his word, it wasn't as bright as last time, but it was still very hard to look at.

After breaking open his regular source, Ash sighed in relief. The tricky part was over, now he just needed to fashion a reservoir in order to hold the aura that would leave him otherwise. This reservoir is where aura guardians store and use the aura that they are not using. For most, making a barrel or something of similar volume would be enough for their needs, as their source is comparable to that of a gardening hose. For aura guardians like Ash however, this is hilariously inadequate as their sources are like vast rapids, Thus their reservoirs need to be extremely large, like a lake or even a sea. Of course, these reservoirs don't exist in the physical sense of the word, they are built within the soul of the user (the space between the user's physical body and spirit, where the user's thoughts and emotions reside), which allows for such massive structures to exist in a relatively tiny space. Of course, this is also the reason why aura users must keep their emotions in check, as strong emotions tend to react quite violently with aura.

With this in mind, Ash decides to just make what he made last time: a dam over 700 feet tall and over 1200 feet wide, as well as a vast lake behind it. The dam would act as a regulator, allowing him to turn on and turn off the flow of aura at a whim, with the lake acting as the reservoir proper. It took him around five minutes to finish, and once he was done the aura finally stopped leaving his body.

"Done? Can you use your aura now?"

Ash smiled at his starter. Looks like his aura already translating pokespeak for him. "Yep, though I gotta build up my reserves and let the changes settle down before I can do anything meaningful with it. What's weird though is that it's already translating what you're saying."

Pikachu shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, don't look at me, I'm not your aspect of wisdom. Though if I were to take a guess, I'd say your aura probably read your mind and figured that you wanted to understand pokemon."

"You're probably right, though now that you mention my aspect of wisdom, don't we need to make that connection we had again? You know, to make you my aspect of loyalty?" Ash asked.

"Nope, your aura already took care of that as well. I felt the connection form right as you awakened your aura."

"Well, that's... convenient... Why would it just up and do that though? It normally doesn't do anything without me explicitly willing it to do something."

"Aura has a mind of its own, I'm sure it has its reasons. Though you gotta admit that it's being oddly helpful this time around, might want to look into why it's doing all this without being asked, it might have a good reason."

Ash nodded at his starter's words. "I'll ask it when I get a chance, it's still getting settled in." He was about to say more, but was interrupted by a caw. Ash looked towards the source of the sound and saw a spearow who looked as if it was itching for a battle.

Must have been drawn to my aura, Ash reasoned. "You want a battle?" he asked. The spearow said nothing, and merely nodded. "All right, Pikachu you're up!" he said as his starter jumped in front of him, cheeks sparking with determination.

"Go easy on him," Ash telepathed through his aura. Pikachu nodded, and got into a battle stance.

Ash waited for spearow to make the first move before the pokemon flew up into the air and then dove towards Pikachu in what Ash recognized to be a peck attack.

"Pikachu dodge and use thundershock!" Pikachu waited until the last second before swiftly dodging to the right and unleashing a weak thundershock.

The spearow cawed in pain before flying back up and turning back around for another peck attack.

"Pikachu, zigzag through the grass before unleashing another thundershock!"

Pikachu went forth and began to sprint towards the spearow, rapidly zigzagging through the grass in order to throw his opponent off before unleashing a wicked thundershock at the flying type. The attack once again struck the spearow, knocking him out in midair. Ash threw a pokeball at the pokemon, causing it to disappear into the ball in a mass of red energy. The pokeball shook 3 times before finally giving off a ding to signify a successful capture.

As luck would have it though, when the thundershock had struck the spearow, it also arced off in a seemingly random direction. It wasn't long after Ash had picked up the pokeball that they heard a familiar voice yell "Ah! My bike!"

Fuck, no, not again, Ash thought while turning to the sound of the voice. Just as he finished turning he saw a familiar girl with fiery orange hair walking up to him looking absolutely livid.

Misty.

Author's Notes: Aaaaand, that's all she wrote. Okay, not my best work, and it certainly falls short of my 7-15k target, but I intended this chapter to be a sort of warm up/mini exposition dump. Just giving you guys a general overview of what happened to Ash the first time around. I stopped this chapter at the same place that Back To Protect stopped its second chapter, because to be honest this is actually a pretty good stopping point for this chapter. That being said however, next chapter will actually be quite a bit longer and will cover more than Back To Protect's third chapter, so I'll be bleeding into its fourth and maybe fifth chapter. That should keep you guys satisfied for a little while, as well as help in getting the original's content out of the way as soon as possible so I can start getting into more original territory.

Needless to say, this story IS in fact AU, because in this story's universe, water is not flammable.

Anyways, responding to the reviews:

Nami: Yes I am indeed not going to change their dynamic all that much. There'll be some differences of course, as Ash has matured and has gotten a lot better at diffusing Misty's anger over the years but a lot of the bickering and play-fighting will remain. And of course, as you can clearly see, I changed it back to him frying her bike again. :)

St. Elmo's Fire: Thank you for this, I actually needed a refresher in grammar. I've been referring back to your review every once in a while when I'm unsure on how exactly I should structure the dialogue as it's quite enlightening, though I am of course still a bit unsure in certain parts. Still, I'll always give it my best shot. Thanks again, I appreciate it.

And with that, I bid thee, adieu. Until next time!

Have any comments? Constructive Criticism? Questions?

Let me know, I appreciate them all!