Chapter 3

"Okay, let me get this straight. You were sitting here happily when the G-Men came in, this very large grunt comes over and threatens the three of you, particularly Serena? And then he made fun of Red and his Pikachu so Red walks up to him and punches him with a red glowing hand once which somehow made him fly six metres and broke four of the guy's ribs?"

"Pretty much..." Janine answered.

"I like this guy" Paul said smirking.

The rest of the group had arrived a few minutes after the incident to find medics crowding around someone on the floor, all the G-Men backed up away from two people who looked like they hang out in the shadows. Immediately all of them left leaving just the group alone with the two people to gossip about the recent incident.

"Paul you shouldn't say that, Red broke one of the G-Men, you know the guys who are meant to be on our team?" Dawn scolded.

"I'm sorry Dawn but I'm siding with Paul on this one, some of the things he said were plain out of order and I'm glad Red put him in his place. But you said his hand was glowing?" Maylene said joining the conversation after munching down her food, Janine nodded.

"It was like his hand was on fire and it was the exact same colour as his eyes I swear" she added. "What do you reckon it was?" She asked Paul.

"I've never heard of anything like it, what about you Sabrina? Have you heard of anything like it?" Paul asked turning to the women who had finished her noodles. Sabrina remained silent for a moment before answering.

"His hand being on fire I could explain as being aura, however the fact that you said it was blood red is unusual. Aura is normally a light blue, even those who have turned into dark aura users would be a navy almost purple colour, but Red is a unique colour for it." She explained clearly not liking the fact she didn't know. "Did anything happen beforehand?"

"No, Serena and I were just coming up with codenames when the G-Men arrived. Oh that reminds me, unless we are alone or with Lance then you must call us by our codenames. Mine is Whisper and Serena's is Siren" Janine added.

"Siren is a cool name, did you come up with it Serena?" Maylene asked but she got no answer. Serena had been sitting next to them and had not said a word. "Serena?" Maylene asked worried. Serena just stood up and left the table heading out of the same doors Red had earlier.

"Gary, how do you know Serena?" Dawn asked inquisitively. Gary remained silent a few seconds before speaking up.

"I know her because of Ash" he said quietly. And the room went silent. They had all known or heard of him so his death had been hard on all of them. Even the cold and emotionless Paul couldn't help but feel down whenever his name was used. "We were eight at the time and were on one of my grandfather's camps. You know to teach young children how to treat and look after pokemon. Anyway there was this one girl who was incredibly shy, she had just moved to Pallet and nobody really spoke to her. We were all sent on a treasure hunt to find this random assortment of things. I obviously finished first and was going to rub it in Ashy-Boy's face but when I got back I found him talking to the new girl. Turns out Ashy-Boy had found her injured out in the woods and had helped her back, he would have won the hunt as well but that isn't his style." They all nodded in response. "They became really close friends, closer than he has been with anyone else, even his mother. Sadly a year later Serena moved away and Ash was heartbroken, even I knew not to make fun of him about it"

"They were that close, even closer than him and Misty?" Brock asked. Gary just nodded.

"What do you reckon would have happened if you had made fun of him?" Janine asked. Gary had a dark smile on his face when he heard this.

"I know what would have happened, there was this kid who had moved shortly before she left and was clearly trying to upset Ash to try and make himself more popular among the rest of us. Since Serena and Leaf had left us and me being who I was back then as well as his father leaving him a few years before meant that Ash was pretty lonely" Gary explained. "Anyway this kid started making fun of Ash about how his father had left him because he didn't love Ash"

"That's so cruel!" Dawn exclaimed, Gary just sighed when he heard this.

"No the cruel thing was that none of us defended him, Ash just took all this like it was nothing. But then he moved on and started talking about Serena and how she never liked him. Ash went silent for a second before he had this dark look, I've only ever seen it once and it was then when Ash launched himself at the kid before punching him in the face giving him a nosebleed. I literally had to drag Ash off the kid so he couldn't hit him again." Gary paused to look at their faces. Everyone looked stunned, Ash the most kindest person they ever knew, had once punched a kid for making fun of someone. "That was the last time anyone mentioned Serena, Ash just couldn't handle it afterwards. The kid moved away, Ash tried to forget and our lives went on. It was the last I heard of her" Gary finished.

"They were that close?" Dawn asked quietly, Gary nodded in response.

"That's not all though..." Clemont said making everyone turn to him, they looked at him for a bit only for Sabrina to gasp next to them.

"You're kidding me?!" she asked Clemont stunned. Clemont just shook his head.

"While you may have heard that Ash had gone to Kalos, I doubt you knew what happened during his journey" he explained.

"No Ash was going to tell us, but then...you know..." Brock said quietly. A short silence fell upon them.

"What happened?" Janine asked not knowing the full details.

"He was going to tell us when he got to Pallet Town but it was interrupted by Team Rocket's attack on Pallet Town" Gary explained. "What happened in Kalos?" Gary asked,

"Ash had been travelling with me, my sister and Serena" Clemont announced.

"Wait, you had been travelling with Ash?" Dawn asked surprised. Clemont nodded in response.

"Wait, Ash travelled with Serena? What were they like?" Gary asked quickly.

"At first he couldn't remember her until she brought out a handkerchief he had given her which she kept all the years they had been parted. After that Ash and Serena became incredibly close, they talked about everything, did everything together. They were incredibly cute with them even sharing food sometimes"

"Woah hold up, Ash shared food with someone? He never shared food with anyone" Paul said surprised.

"Yeah he even let her have the biggest half." They just looked at him stunned. "Then when the holidays came up Ash and Serena had to go back home but we agreed we would meet up after the holidays. Ash gave Serena the handkerchief back saying that he promised he'd come back for it" He stopped and they all realised where this was going. "He never did come back for it, we never finished our journey. Bonnie, my sister, cried for days afterwards. But Serena, she refuses to believe he's dead and that if she becomes the best trainer then Ash will come back to battle her someday..." Clemont finished sadly.

"She loved him didn't she" Dawn asked, a couple of tears in her eyes.

"Still does to this day, I pray to Arceus that she will one day recover. But I pray to all the legendaries though that Ash will come back to us..." They all nodded sadly. They all agreed with him but at the moment their thoughts were on Serena, and her feelings for Ash.

With Serena

Serena made her way through the corridors towards Red's room, she was determined to get answers from him and she wasn't going to take no for an answer. Once she was at his door she knocked on the doors three times before taking a step back. She was rather surprised however when his Lucario opened the door, they stared at each other for a moment before she spoke up. "I need to speak to Red" She said sternly.

"I'm sorry but my master cannot talk to people at the moment" Serena looked stunned for a moment before realizing he was speaking through his aura.

"I have to speak to him" She said a bit more desparetely.

"I'm sorry but you..."

'Oh for Arceus sake just let her in Lou, I need you to take away this aura before he hurts someone and she was going to find out anyway` A voice spoke to them. Lucario just sighed.

"Fine but it's on you" He then begrudgingly let Serena in. Lucario made his way into the room that Red was in. When Serena walked into the same room she gasped. Red had the sleeve on his right arm rolled up to his elbows so she could see his arm. His right arm up to his elbow was black and crackled like it had been left in a fire. She watched stunned as Grace who was standing next to Red with her hand on his head sent pink pulses into Red while his Lucario seemed to be absorbing a red aura from Red's hand. She saw how as this went on, the black crackling slowly faded from his hand until all that was left was a normal looking arm and two very unhappy looking pokemon.

"What was that?" She asked stunned. Red looked at her from under his hood, he still had it and the scarf up so she could only see his eyes.

"My gift and my curse..." Was all he replied with.


A.N: I have some serious exams coming up over the next month so I wont be posting another chapter for a while. However once these are all done I will carry on with this story so don't worry if I disappear, this story will be finished.