Chapter 2:

Tragedy

"Hey," Ash said, feeling awkward for breaking the omen silence. "Guys, what're you all doing here?"

Nobody offered him a reply. They looked between each other, then at Professor Oak, who un-subtly nodded, then they moved like robots to his dictation, surrounding him almost defensively. Ash watched them shuffle around into formation, their heads bent to the floor. Serena's delicate fingers fiddling with her skirt attracted his attention. It was a tell of hers, something she did whenever she was nervous. That was one of few things Ash had learned about her over their journey, another being how she lowered her head whenever she felt ashamed or embarrassed in an attempt to avoid eye contact because she was a poor liar. Ash was worried now: something was very wrong. His heart quickened. Ash's tenseness softened as he faced her. She was his weakness. "Serena… Why aren't you in Hoenn?"

"Ash, whatever is—" Serena started – Ash noticed her eyes glistened with worry – until the mystery boy nudged her in the back. Ash frowned, and glared into the boy's blue-grey eyes, quickly becoming defensive over Serena. His desire to protect her was another quality forged over their time acquainted, merging with his affection into an unrivalled love nobody but herself could shatter.

"A-Ash. You're home early…" Professor Oak cleared his throat, sweeping forward to meet the young trainer at arms' length, his TV-famous voice completely vacant of its chipper lilt, "A week early."

"Professor, what's going on here?" Ash repeated.

"I took it upon myself to gather your friends to welcome you home from your Kalos journey, of course," Oak said, crossing his arms. There was a smile on his face, but it was forced, perhaps even rehearsed, done so many times it became a tedious habit.

"Pika…" Pikachu mumbled. He's lying.

Pikachu was right. Ash had known Professor Oak since he was a child and never had he seen him so stern, so awkward. His personality was carefree and charming. He'd never lied to him before, so it was easy to tell when he was. That wasn't the genial reunion Professor Oak was suggesting – especially with the absence of his closest friends, Brock and Gary. Everything felt wrong, and Pikachu noticed it too; he leapt down onto all fours, his cheeks sparking as if verging on releasing a warning jolt at Oak's side.

Ash chose to adopt the ruse, hoping he could fool Oak into unveiling his intentions, why he was lying, by playing on the fact Oak hadn't realised he had matured. If he believed Ash was still naïve, Oak would let his guard down, conforming to the stereotype of underestimating their juniors adults unconsciously enacted. "Thanks, Professor, and all of you for showing up."

"Hmm, not a problem, Ash. Now–"

"Hey, where's Brock? I need to talk to him." Ash didn't look around for him. He stared right at Oak, unblinking, trying his best to notice a sign he was lying.

"Ah, you see, a few of your friends wouldn't comply—" Professor Oak cringed, quickly stopping himself, a momentary contortion of his face telling Ash he'd already messed up.

"Comply? You make it sound like you forced them to come here!" Ash jested, but the intent wasn't humorous, and neither was the hardening stare he zoomed on the worried Professor. Quickly peeking around him, Ash noticed his comment seemed to make others uncomfortable too – especially Clemont. He fidgeted more than before, moving his feet, twisting his hands, hunching his shoulders, looking shiftily side-to-side. He was hiding something, just like Serena.

Misty groaned impatiently, "Professor! Stop avoiding the subject! Just get on with it!"

"Get on with what?!" Ash asked, feeling even more confused as if there was something, a little bit of information, he should have known.

"Now, Ash, we've known each other for a long time – all your life to be exact. You know I am like a second father to you so when I say this, I don't want you to take it the wrong—"

"You're not–"

Misty intervened again, "Oh for – Ash, what the Professor is trying to say is that we all think you should give up on your childish dream of becoming a 'Pokémon Master'! You've failed so many times already, so what's the point in continuing? Just come home!"

Ash stopped breathing – he bizarrely felt Pikachu do the same. His heart dulled in his chest, the bliss he felt being back home suddenly deflating into emptiness. He hadn't expected that. Sure, he'd thought it would be something sad or displeasing from their suspiciousness, but not something so demoralising, questioning of his life choices. Was his naivety still the same after all? "W-What?"

It appeared as if the foreign feebleness in Ash's voice was the fuel his friends needed to further Misty's statement. The lifeless shells they'd been seconds prior suddenly humanised and a messy barrage of insults and Pokémon cries overlapping one another blared across the silent fields. The incomprehensible words jumbled together, like the rallying of a mob, but Ash heard everything, no matter how much he wished he didn't.

Drew swaggered forwards first, only a few steps, his hand flicking the curl of his green hair. "Yeah, man. You've been trying for what, six years now? Surely those failures have gotta tell ya something," he said, "just give up."

"Yeah, Ash," May continued, bouncing behind Drew and purposefully hugging his shoulders, "we've made names for ourselves in the coordinating world while all you've been doing is losing. You're not good enough to win."

"Face it, little kid, you're a crap trainer – nothing like me and my dragon types." Iris swept her hair flamboyantly, crouching to pet Ash's Gible. It looked to Ash as if she was claiming him as her own.

Max, now a pre-teen, snootily thumbed his glasses and flicked his thumb and index finger at Ash, "My knowledge of Pokémon equates to double or triple yours. Surely you'll give me your Pokémon to try my hand at the league too, won't you?"

"I'm just here 'cause I'm salty a little wimp like you beat me. The calibre of trainers that fought in the Unova League last year was high, and I was outed by a freaking Pikachu. Seriously, did you give him steroids or something? That's the only way an awful trainer like you could beat me. Although, you do have some pretty interesting Pokémon here. How about you give me your Torterra? He'll have a real trainer then!" Trip announced next.

Zoey shouted with a bellowing voice that Ash was a failure, Tracey belittled him by declaring his own achievements in comparison, and Cilan voiced his disappointment in how Ash's ability hadn't grown at all from the moment they parted. Amidst the heartache, Ash saw what was happening. The way they were talking, their actions; they were trying to get him to believe what they were saying. They wanted him to give everything up willingly.

"You see, Ash," Oak resumed, the monotonous sound of his voice dragging Ash from his realisation, "after your disappointing loss in the Kalos League despite having a unique Pokémon that was undoubtedly the strongest in the competition, we believe you should branch out, put your talents to use in another field of work. After all, you're a disgrace to Pokémon trainers."

A disgrace. Ash was so shell-shocked at hearing that he didn't register when they continued slandering him, each deceitful 'friend' having something to contribute except the evasive Kalos crew who concealed themselves in the others' moonlit shadows, listening. Their taunting reverberated in his head, each remark ripping deeper and deeper into his heart with the slow, agonising sensation of sandpaper. All he could do was stare while his heart cracked. But his friend's words weren't the most torturous: his Pokémon's were.

Naturally, to everyone else, his Pokémon's cries were just that: Krookodile's roar was a roar, Donphan's snort was a snort. But to Ash, they were severe rebukes that caused his heart to ache like the dull pain of being jabbed with a blunt blade. They told him to give up, to stop wasting his life, but most significantly that he'd neglected them, ruined their lives. Hearing such fatal criticism from the Pokémon he'd raised by hand, as his partners and friends, was devastating. He'd thought his new ability enabling him to understand them was a gift, but it turned out to be a curse. Was his naivety still the same after all?

A punching bag for their comments, Ash found it hard to muster any words that were loud enough to reach anybody. The constant derision overpowered and interrupted his meekness. When his cracking voice allowed some words loud enough to be noticed, he looking pointedly at Serena, who shied away from his life-lost eyes. "Do you – Do you all think that?"

"Indeed, Ash," Oak interrupted, "All your friends and Pokémon believe that you should give up."

"And try your hand at something else," Cilan added. Ash wondered if that was supposed to make him feel better.

"W-What about Brock and Gary… Dawn, Barry, Paul? Infernape, Heracross, Staraptor, Sceptile, Torterra, Charizard…." Ash's desperation, the need to know their betrayal wasn't real, came out in the only way he could think – rambling. If he just kept talking, maybe he could convince himself it wasn't real; it was all too real.

"They were mere inconveniences. They wouldn't see the truth – that you are not qualified to bring your childish 'dream' to fruition. Therefore, I did not invite them." Oak said.

Ash ignored him, turning to scrutinise Clemont with pleading eyes. He couldn't comprehend how Clemont, Bonnie, and Serena had reformed their godly opinion of him so quickly and effortlessly. "Clemont, please… We're like brothers…"

"I-I'm sorry, Ash." He and Bonnie turned their backs, sealing their disloyalty, and Ash's sanity cracked a little bit; he missed the remorse in Clemont's voice.

Finally, Ash faced Serena, his blood running cold, and he hated himself for asking the next questions, but he needed to confirm it. "Serena… Do – Do you – Do you think the same? Did that kiss mean anything to you?"

Serena's blue eyes widened from hysteria, quickly brimming with tears. "Ash, of course—" She hesitated, looking down again, "n-not. It was just a kiss goodbye. That's all. It didn't mean anything. I've – I've moved on with Calem – my boyfriend…."

In an instant, Ash was comatose. Complete agony was all he felt as his heart decimated into fragments, then, as if the pieces burst his lungs too, Ash became winded and disoriented, suffocated. All at once the blissful squeeze seeing Serena again gave his heart twisted into a searing ache in his chest, the notion of her exchanged immeasurable happiness for endless despair, and her lovely voice, still trying to talk to him, was piercing. Ash couldn't be around her anymore: he had to escape the detrimental heartbreak.

The reverie Ash immersed himself in made Oak's next words sound a mile away. "Ash, as your current father-figure, I'm demanding that you give up on this foolish quest! Your Pokémon agree, so what use is there in protesting? We'll take them off your hands if you try to keep following this dream."

Suddenly, Ash thought of two thing's he'd recently said: "I'll finally get to see him!" "I can finally have my dream!" They didn't know, and Ash couldn't blame them since he hadn't told anyone but Brock, but the stimuli were too much. He couldn't handle their words anymore, and Oak declaring himself Ash's father figure was the prick in the balloon, bursting the feeble blockade Ash restrained his emotions behind.

"You're not my father!" Ash bellowed, the strain in his voice so emotional that tears crystallised in his eyes. Everybody flinched, not expecting an outburst. Or maybe they weren't expecting the pain steering his voice. "If you were, you wouldn't tell me to give up. You'd support me, and help me! Do you know why my dream is what it is?! Because as a kid I used to go to Pallet Town's park to play, but I'd sit alone watching my classmates playing with their fathers, having fun, and being loved by them! I've never had that! So, I begged my mum to tell me about my father one day. Mum told me he's an amazing, loving man who couldn't be with us for some reason, then she said that he's a Pokémon Master, and if I can become one, I can meet him! That's the only thing I have in my entire life that connects me to my father. It's the only way I can meet him! That's a foolish goal to you?! You're telling me my desire to meet the man my mother loves - the man I want to love – is foolish?!"

Ash panted, somehow feeling something akin to relief having unleashed the tumour of pain from his chest. Professor Oak looked startled, and looking around, Ash saw Serena and Bonnie silently in tears, Clemont staring downwards in shame, and everyone else stood speechless. Pikachu, the only one who understood, whose cheeks sparked threateningly with rampant lightning, was crying, just as Ash was.

"Professor just – just give me my loyal Pokémon, and I'll leave," Ash said.

"No," Oak had the gall to reply, "they're safe in the lab–"

"Shut up!" Ash wiped his eyes with his sleeve, "Move! I won't hesitate to give Pikachu the command! I'm sure he'd love to get at you all!"

"Pikachu!"

"You haven't just betrayed me; you've betrayed both of us! After everything that we've done for you people! If I were you, I'd comply, Oak. You of all people know how powerful Pikachu can be! Now—"

Ash didn't get to finish. He stopped talking when a sudden, glass-shattering, deafening noise boomed across the sky, which, when Ash looked up, had ominously lost all its stars and the moon beautifying it. Complete darkness enveloped everything. Suddenly, Ash could hardly see the traitors standing two steps away. A kaleidoscopic cylinder appeared, unnaturally embedded in the blackout sky like the sprawling roots of a tree, something entirely otherworldly, providing the only form of light. Curiously glancing at the phenomenon was the last thing Ash did before chaos disabled his rationality.

Falling faster, and more destructive than a meteorite, a familiar, dreaded purple laser materialised from an apparent nothingness in the sky and plummeted into the centre of the group. The Hyper Beam tore the ground apart, ripping up boulder-sized clumps of dirt and grass, embedding a deep crater into the field. The shockwave from the blast hurled each member of the group across the plain, scattering them effortlessly into the air. Caught directly in it, Ash was blasted backwards; he instinctively caught Pikachu before clattering to the ground at least ten metres away. A storm of targetless attacks followed, each savage ray wrecking the terrain with divets and splintered fencing, tainting the perfect-green-grass red.

Another blast almost hit Ash, landing a millimetre away, launching him from point-blank into the glass doorway of the lab. He shattered through it, an agonising tear ripping into his side, to which he screamed, and collapsed to the ground after harshly colliding with a pillar. A third crashed into the roof, toppling the steel which collapsed on top of them. They were spared fatalities though, thanks to a crooked steel beam halting the roof, that left a tiny pocket for breathing.

Ash was dazed; nothing he thought was coherent or meaningful, he only felt the fresh cuts slowly pealing open, and aches everywhere that would undoubtedly form bruises later on. Whatever chaos was happening outside – the tortured screams, harrowing cracking sounds he knew were bones breaking, and the repeated explosions – clobbered his head until it ached even more, but the only sensical thought he had told him to escape.

Coughing and blinking when rotten dust flurried into his mouth, nose, and eyes, Ash tried to move, but his sore muscles blazed, his body tensing in brief paralysis. He groaned and tried again. His back grazed the unmoving steel above him, and he fell at the sudden sting of the cold metal. Realising getting up was impossible, Ash took a moment to collect himself with a calmness that was only attained by experiencing similar situations. He knew that, while trapped under the rubble, he was safe from further harm unless it toppled, something that panic often prevented people from realising. Ash examined Pikachu first for any injuries, and then checked himself for the severity of his. Aside from his unconsciousness, Pikachu seemed fine to Ash's relief; Ash was glad he was able to protect him, no matter how hurt he was. Cradling the electric-mouse close to his chest, Ash rolled over to face the rubble above him, a difficult task in such a confined space.

Pushing hard on the rubble proved pointless. It didn't budge, or rather, Ash didn't have the strength to move it, whether it was mental or physical. Whatever the cause, he felt drained. Feeling defeated, Ash slumped, panted, and shut his eyes. Maybe, if he regained some energy, he could move the rubble.

Outside, things hadn't calmed down. The mayhem and an overpowering scent of blood invaded Ash's senses. Blindly, Ash hoped Serena was okay. He couldn't help it: he loved her too much. Reality quickly rushed back to him as his heart ached to remember her words, dislodging his memory from the temporary blockade created by shock. Heartbreak revived his desire to escape; it was always Serena.

Craning his neck and opening his eyes, Ash saw a blurry world. The pain was finally beginning to overpower his adrenaline. He knew he had to escape quickly. Through a gap in the rubble, Ash deduced four red, spherical objects scattered on the ground. If they were his loyal Pokémon, his chances were higher. Exhibiting the determination he'd forgotten he had, straining his muscles, he pushed on the rubble again, this time inching it upwards a few centimetres, grunting. His efforts allowed him enough room to wriggle free.

Spent after shimmying out just in time for his arms to fail, Ash fell at the foot of the table the Pokéballs sat atop. Using the last of his energy, Ash grabbed the leg of the small table and pulled it. It fell, littering the contents over the floor, the Pokéballs rolled across the room. With the state the lab was in, he didn't care about a few more shattered glasses. Crawling to and gathering the Pokéballs – his obscured vision caused him to miss them a few times – Ash tossed one as forcefully as he could into the air. When the Pokémon appeared, his flaming mane was unmistakable.

"Infernape," Ash slurred, "lead us outta here!"

The loyal Pokémon cried, and bounded over to Ash, looping his trainer's frail arm over his shoulder. They exited the lab, and Ash's heart died even more. Pallet Town's beauty was gone; the houses were scattered rubble now, edged with dominating walls of fire, the paths cracked and up-turned, and people ran in a panic. It was a war zone. Wanting to help, Ash slipped from under Infernape's arm but tumbled down Oak's hill. He didn't notice his hat disappear off his head, blowing into the frenzy. Staring up at the sky when he stilled at the bottom of the hill, Ash saw a purple light block another looming Hyper Beam before he lost consciousness.

The world re-focused for Ash in Viridian Forest. The chaos was gone now, the silence of the forest around him somehow overpowering. It hadn't been like that when he'd arrived. Through a gap in the trees, the first glimmer of morning light appeared. How long had he been out?

"Pikachu!" Pikachu shouted. Ash painfully looked at his partner, then at Infernape.

"Hey guys," he said weakly, "we got out?" Infernape nodded. "Awesome… What do we do now?"

"Pika…"

"Yeah, we can't go back," Ash agreed, his mind hazy to the events because of his exhaustion.

"Infernape! Nape!"

"Viridian Airport? Yeah. We should leave. Good idea."

Finally conscious, but still not logical, Ash stumbled to his feet using Infernape's arm as a crutch – Pikachu supported his legs as best as was possible. Ash headed for Viridian, an impulsive plan set, but the journey was long and painful. Through the winding paths and the vacant long-grass, Ash arrived in Viridian in double or triple the time he'd run the forest earlier.

People stared at Ash as he trudged through the door, but he didn't care. Reaching the desk, Ash asked for a ticket to the furthest region from Kanto in a sentence interrupted by coughs and heaving. The woman asked about his condition, but he told her he just wanted to leave; he almost begged her for the ticket. Twenty minutes later, he collapsed again into a hard but somehow comfortable plane-seat.

Blanketed in dust and ash, and marred with cuts, Ash looked like a mess, but his only care was for sleep. As the plane lifted off and his eyelids closed, Ash thought one thing:

I'm sorry, Mum.

Here you go, readers, I hope you like this chapter! Let me know your thoughts either in a review or a PM, and thank you to those that have already reviewed! I really appreciate the comments!

For anybody that's wondering if this is all they will get to see of some of their favourite characters, don't worry! Their stories will also be explored.

Did anybody get the easter egg from the last chapter? If you think you did, let me know! I'm gonna try and add in some more here and there in chapters to test you guys, and see if you know some stuff. So, look out for them!

Thank you all for reading!