Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon nor will I ever own Pokémon.

Chapter 3.

Ash's P.O.V.

The days following the death of the wild Gardevoir, the mood was sombre, but we all progressed quickly with what we were aiming for. Bonnie had made leaps and bounds with her senses and was up to using her sight with her ears blocked to make quicker connections. So far, while on the road, I had placed three items that would not be considered normal to be there. All three were small and almost unnoticeable. Bonnie noticed every single one.

Gary had made research notes on mega evolution with my help and Clemont had started attempting to make a new invention, which I believed was a silly idea. He was trying to make a machine that would allow people to go between realms without the aid of Pokémon. No matter how many times I told him that it was too dangerous to even be attempted, he didn't listen. Even I couldn't travel between the realms without the assistance of a legendary Pokémon.

We were about a day out from Cyllage city when I heard Serena begin panicking.

"What's wrong Serena?" I asked her.

"The egg is hatching!" she yelled.

"Sit on the ground and give it as much warmth as you can. You have to be the first person the Pokémon inside sees," I told her.

"What? Why do I have to be the first person it sees?" she panicked.

"Imprinting is a very important part of a hatching. The first person a Pokémon sees after hatching becomes their parent in their eyes. You have already formed a bond unconsciously with this egg and after the traumatic events that brought it to you, it will need you to help continue giving care to it," I explained. She took a few deep breathes and steeled herself in order to stop herself from panicking further. Within only a few minutes, the egg had hatched and Serena was cooing over the two little Ralts that had hatched. One had a pink dress and blonde hair with pink horns that faded to white while the other had a blood red dress with black hair and black horns that faded to blood red.

"They're adorable," Serena whispered as their eyes opened to show that they both had brilliant blue eyes.

For the next few hours, the two Ralts were dubbed as 'Sakura' and 'Crimson', Sakura being the female pink one and Crimson being the male red one. Serena was very attached to the two newborns, and vice versa. The problem was, the two Ralts were unknowingly making a psychic bond, meaning that Serena would need to be taught how to control her own psychic energies.

"Serena, it's time," I told her. The others just looked at me strangely.

"What do you mean, it's time?" she asked.

"I mean that it is time for you to begin your training. The psychic bond that is forming between you and the twin Ralts is bringing your dormant psychic energies to life and if you don't receive training for yourself, you could end up hurting all three of you," I explained.

"Right," Serena said. I grabbed a spoon from the cooking supplies and held it up.

"Try bending this with your mind," I told her. She focused carefully and slowly, ever so slowly over half an hour, it bent just a tiny bit.

"I can't do it!" she exclaimed. I chuckled.

"Actually, you can. You just did. You may not notice it, but you did bend the spoon, only very slightly, but you still bent it," I told her.

"I did?" she asked. I nodded. She started cheering in celebration and Bonnie tripped over a rock.

"Ouch," she muttered and I helped her up before she crouched down again.

"Hey, it's an egg!" she exclaimed. I chuckled and picked up so that it wasn't left behind.

"You know what that means," I told her.

"No, I don't," she told me.

"Caterpie, it means that you have finished most of the work with you senses. You are ready to begin the next section of your training," I told her. She started dancing around. The rest of the day was spent with Bonnie attempting to climb the cliff walls, me catching her when she fell, and Serena continuously trying to bend the ruddy spoon. By nightfall, we were at Cyllage City.

The next morning, we headed out to the gym. Bonnie and I climbed the wall, well, more like Bonnie struggled up the wall under my watchful eye before I leapt up the wall. Serena, Gary, and Clemont took the elevator. Like before, Gary went first and beat the gym leader, Grant, before I had my full six on six battle, Charizard vs Onix, Gengar vs Tyrantrum, Sceptile vs Aurorous, Lucario vs Rhyperior, Greninja vs Cradilly, and finally, Pikachu vs Mega Steelix. Grant put up a better fight than Viola, but it still wasn't that much of a challenge.

To be honest, watching how Gary fought his battle was more interesting for me than my own battle. I just hoped that I would get some form of a challenge eventually.

The next day there was a baking contest which Serena decided to participate in after she got into a tiff with a new rival named Miette. Sakura and Crimson were fast learners and had already learnt to control the small amount of psychic energy they had, meaning that when it came to cooking, they worked together to help Serena multitask.

The end product for Serena's first round entry was a fluffy pink Poképuff that had a perfect combination of berry toppings for psychic, fire, and fairy typed Pokémon. She got through to the finals easily. the problem then lay that neither of them could find any ingredients to cook with. I just smirked.

"You two do realise that I have about two hundred of each berry known in my bag along with hundreds of many other unknown berry types, right?" I asked them. Serena hit herself in the head.

"How did I forget that?" she asked herself.

"I didn't know that you were a berry grower," Miette said. I chuckled.

"I'm not, but berries are a very good way to manage the battling status of any Pokémon. I myself have a small addiction to a few berry types," I said. "In any case, I'll let you two use some of the berries I have on hand, but I'd still like to find out why there are no berries in town."

"I'll come with you!" Bonnie said, grabbing my hand. Miette nodded.

"Slurpuff and I will help," she said. Serena nodded as well.

"I'd be more than happy to help,' she said. Gary and Clemont just exchanged eye contact and shrugged. Within very little time, we were walking through the forest and Serena had ran ahead. I heard a scream and ran after her. What I found made me blink in shock.

Serena had put up a psychic shield to keep her from being attacked.

"Serena!" I yelled out, attracting the attention of the Swirlix. I braced myself for them to attack and held out my hand, a very sweet berry in it.

"Here, Swirlix, if you take me to the ones that angered you, you get this," I told them, extending my aura to show I meant no harm. They nodded and I helped Serena dismantle her shield.

"Nice job with the shield," I told her.

"I didn't know I could do it. It was just instinct to throw my hands up and the shield was there," she said.

"Your psychic energies are growing quickly. Yesterday, you were struggling to bend a spoon, today, you are putting up shields through instinct alone," I told her.

"Is it supposed to grow this fast?" she asked.

"It varies from case to case, but yours is growing faster than mine did, mainly because you have two psychic bonds while I have none, but individual potential is something that I have a higher amount of while yours is lower. This isn't that bad, it means that by yourself, your psychic energies wouldn't be as strong as mine, but with the bonds you have, you can rival me eventually," I told her while helping her up. The others caught up and we followed the Swirlix.

What I found made me fume.

"Team Rocket," I growled out. They shivered visibly when they saw me and I pooled my aura in my hands.

"You have two seconds to run before I blast you all the way to Johto," I told them. It took them one second to get out of their machine and by the time another second had passed, they had only gotten five metres. The aura spheres in my hands were fired and they were sent flying straight upwards. When they came back down, I let Charizard out and told him to haul them to Johto and dump them in the ocean. There were many berries around and I managed to deduct that Team Rocket had stolen all the ingredients.

The next day, the finals of the bake off were underway. Serena made an elaborate pure white Poképuff that had two miniature Ralts that looked like Sakura and Crimson with a Fennekin between them eating from a miniature berry basket filled with tiny little berries. Every decoration was made from berries and batter, fully edible. Miette's on the other hand was simple with an Oran and Cherri berry topping.

"The winner is…" the judge began, pausing for emphasis.

"Come on Serena," Bonnie whispered.

"Serena!" the judge announced.

"WHOO! GO SERENA!" Gary, Bonnie and I all called out as one. Miette looked defeated and as we said goodbye, I noticed that Serena and Miette had a rivalry over something bigger than just their baking.

Half an hour later, I noticed that Serena's psychic energies were all over the place.

"Serena, what's wrong?" I asked her.

"What? Nothing, nothing's wrong," she tried to say.

"Something is very wrong. You can tell me," I told her.

"It's just, you wouldn't understand," she brushed me off.

"Yes, I would, I know more about you than you think I do. When I offered for you to travel with me, I picked up on some of your thoughts, your reason for seeking me out personally. I would understand better than you might think." I told her. She sighed.

"Miette's what's wrong. She seems so determined to win you over without even knowing the real you, and I don't want to lose you to someone like her," she told me. She turned her head away as if she was ashamed. I grabbed her chin and kissed her square on the lips.

"Never. Miette doesn't hold a candle to your flame, Serena. In the past week, despite my logical side saying that I shouldn't fall in love as it would only put them in danger, I have fallen for you, and I have fallen harder than the time Gengar decided to use gravity as I was free falling from ten thousand feet," I told her after I pulled away.

"Why me?" she asked.

"Because you know the real me, because you didn't just take one look at me and judge me on my appearance. Because you knew the me before I became this. Others, they would have hated the past me but try to take advantage of the new me, you don't treat me differently to anyone else you meet. You treat me like any other person. You are the one person who I don't feel like I have to hide from," I told her before kissing her again.

She grinned into the kiss, and I could tell that there was a lot of camping gear getting thrown around from her psychic energies.

"Serena, control yourself," I told her.

"Sorry," she muttered before the gear settled back down.

"Its fine. When I was just starting to get control, it was hard to keep in control. Things went flying everywhere," I told her, and she laughed. I picked up a spoon and gave her a stern look. "Now, bend the spoon," I told her. Within seconds, the spoon was bent over double. I nodded to myself and levitated two spoons in the air along with fifty forks and knives.

"Only bend the two spoons," I told her. This time however, she couldn't do it. She bent all of the cutlery instead of just the two spoons. I used my own psychic powers to straighten them back out again though. "Again," I told her. She nodded and this time she only bent half of the cutlery, including one of the spoons. We continued like this for another half an hour until she could focus her power on just the spoons. After that, I set Serena doing meditation exercises in order to help calm her power down a bit. Then I started teaching Bonnie some simple hand to hand combat. The first lesson was how to kick. She would not be moving forward until she could kick straight upwards without falling over. The first few tries were funny to say the least. She would try kicking straight up but ended up falling onto the ground before she could even straighten her leg.

"Again," I told her each time. When she finally got her leg into the correct position, I put up a hand.

"Hold it there," I said. She strained to stay in position and I supported her leg so that she didn't have to worry about falling over. "Can you feel the muscles that are keeping you upright?" I asked her. She nodded. I pulled my hand away and told her to retract her leg slowly.

"Eventually, I'll have you kicking like this," I told her before spinning on my heel and kicking a kick straight up as I lifted off the ground and snapping my leg around in a spinning kick on the way down, landing in a predator-like way. Without waiting a single second, I pushed myself up out of the crouch and allowed my body to flip around and kick in a circular wheel like motion. Once again, I had landed in a crouch but with a spinning kick as I jumped straight upward fixed that as I landed upright on two feet. Bonnie clapped.

"Your turn. Kick out to the side," I instructed. She did so and I noticed that she put her body sideways in order to do it. I nodded. "Good, but straighten your body out," I told her. She tried but couldn't quite get there. "The first step to kicking straight up is kicking to the side. Once you can kick to the side and keep your body straight, then all you need to kick upwards is a jump and rotation of your body," I instructed.

Working on that for a while longer until food was ready. Serena was sitting on her hands and levitating the cutlery to her mouth in order to eat and I smiled as I could remember doing the exact same thing. Bonnie was jumping around still, but once I told her to calm herself, she managed to do so. Gary and Clemont were talking about Clemont's latest inventions, as per usual. He had finally given up on the cross dimensional transporter. Smirking at Serena, I sat on my hands and mimicked her by using my own psychic powers to not only get my cutlery to float up to my mouth, but to mess around with Serena's cutlery, bowl, and the food itself. It was a test of sorts. Every time Serena got close to getting a fork full of food to her mouth, I would make it jump off and fly around the table. The test was to have her battle for control of her cutlery and chase the food. It ended up with everyone having food covering them except me as I kept the food away from me.

"I guess I'm not that good yet, Serena said. I chuckled.

"No, but you are getting better. Didn't you notice that it got easier for you to chase after your food and plates even though I was moving them faster and faster?" I told her.

"I didn't really notice, and I lost control over my own cutlery," she said. I chuckled.

"I was contesting your power with my own to control your cutlery. You did well to keep control because when two people use their psychic power to contest for control over the same object, it can be slightly dangerous as there is the possibility of the object literally exploding and each person getting dust particles of the object they were fighting for control over," I told her.

"It just doesn't seem like I'm getting any better," she says. I shake my head.

"You are. A few days ago you were struggling to bend a spoon, now you are able to have a telekinetic food fight, that, is pretty impressive," I tell her.

It took a few more days until we were half way to Geosenge town, and we met a girl named Korrina. She and her Lucario beat Gary and his Umbreon pretty badly. During lunch, my Lucario popped out of his Pokéball and I groaned at his intentions.

"Brother, make sure you ask for consent. I do not wish to have any tension between as because of your actions," I say. Korrina just stares.

"What do you mean?" she asks, but it wasn't too long before both of the Lucario are at it. I put up an aura screen so that Bonnie was not traumatised.

"Just go along with it. Pokémon have mating seasons, and well, Lucario, my Lucario, has supressed his instincts for quite a few years now. The rest of us used to tease him that he couldn't even feel them he was so stoic. Apparently, he was waiting for the right partner. Your partner Lucario hasn't ever been through a mating season and had urges after maturing, would I be right?" I asked. She nodded. "Let's just say, you may be walking away with an egg after this," I said. She grimaced slightly but didn't say anything, wise girl.

An hour or so later, the two fighting types had finished. During that time, Bonnie had found out that Korrina and her Lucario were attempting to achieve mega evolution.

"You finished you two?" I asked. Both Lucario nodded and I sighed in relief. "Thank you for finishing up, I told them. Korrina's Lucario walked forward and handed her an egg. She held it awkwardly and I got the feeling that she had never held an egg in her life.

"Here, hold it like this," I told her while moving her hands into a position better suited to holding the egg.

"Thanks, I'm not that good with being gentle, so I was kind of scared I would break it," she admitted. I laughed.

"Trust me, it is usually like that for most people. The first time it happened with me, I almost did drop it and once the egg had been put down, the parents proceeded to attack me with their strongest attacks. After that, I haven't even gotten close to dropping a single Pokémon egg," I told her, making everyone laugh and Pikachu sparked dangerously.

"I said I was sorry, Pikachu, I didn't mean to almost drop your unhatched offspring," I told him. Lucario just laughed at my predicament.

"So, how many of your Pokémon have mated?" Korrina asked.

"As of now, only three. Pikachu and Charizard are the only other ones that have mated. The others have yet to connect with another Pokémon on that level, let alone a compatible Pokémon. Greninja has gotten close, but the two of them were just not compatible enough for them to mate. Sceptile will settle down once he finds the right grass type, and Gengar just acts so childish, I sometimes wonder if the urges have ever hit him to start trying to find a mate," I share.

"Hey Ash, how is my egg friend?" Bonnie asked while holding up the egg. I take it from her hands, and inspect it.

"They seem alright to me. Maybe another few weeks before they hatch, okay?" I tell her. She nods.

"Yep, I can't wait until they hatch," she says. I laugh.

A day later, we had made it to Geosenge town, I could feel a Lucarionite nearby, so I excused myself so not to ruin the test in place for Korrina under the guise of having to call my mum, which I did do. I even met up with Korrina's grandpa, Gurkin, and I watched on as Korrina instructed her Lucario. I nodded to Gurkin and we ended the test by walking out.

"I don't understand," Korrina said.

"You see, I have mega evolving Pokémon myself, and I know how irresponsible it is for a person with mega evolving Pokémon to be helping someone who is chasing mega evolution as it could form a false bond. Could sense the aura of the Lucarionite nearby so excused myself. I wouldn't have come here at all if it wasn't for the fact that Gurkin here invited me to tag along. Oh, Gary, I spoke with my sister Misty, and she wanted to know when you were coming to visit Cerulean City again," I said making Gary blush red, "so I was wondering whether or not I should worry about you stealing my sister."

"We've been dating for about a year, okay. Nothing that big," he said. I laughed and punched him in the shoulder.

"I was joking, and I already knew in any case," I told him. He sighed in relief. Once we had all walked outside, Korrina tested the mega evolution bond between her and her Lucario. It ended in disaster. If it weren't for Lucario and I absorbing as much of the aura as we could, the aura winds would have been extremely destructive. I noticed however that Gary was absorbing some of the aura as well.

"That was a disaster. You need to learn how to help Lucario control her aura," Gurkin said.

"It would have been worse, Gurkin, if the aura winds hadn't been absorbed as much as they were by my partner Lucario and I. If it had been left unabsorbed in such a raw and uncontrolled state, it would have destroyed quite a few buildings," I told him and he nodded.

"I'm sorry, grandfather, but we'll do better, I promise we will," Korrina apologised.

"Before anything like that can be done though, Lucario needs to be taken to the Pokémon centre. Lucario, pick up your mate and run her to the Pokémon centre ahead of us," I instructed. Lucario nodded and began his mate run to the Pokémon centre. The rest of us followed as quickly as we could.

Thankfully, there wouldn't be any lasting damage to Korrina's Lucario. Unfortunately, when Korrina battled with Gurkin, she and Lucario still couldn't connect properly.

Gurkin decided to send Korrina with us to an expert on mega evolution and forming the right bonds named Mabel. For a few days, I wondered if their bond was too strong for the stones, but after looking through the bonds using Aura sight, I could see that they were not in sync enough for mega evolution to work completely, let alone Synchro evolution.

The way to Mabel's home was long and winding, but interesting to say the least. The old woman insisted on us making flower arrangements and while the others couldn't understand it, I could. You had to work together in this area to get the best flowers. Pikachu and I would go and cross the lake together and climb up into the tallest trees in order to get flowers from up there. The others didn't quite get the meaning, and Korrina was getting extremely frustrated.

"Why does she keep making us arrange these stupid flowers?" she screamed into her pillow. "She should be helping Lucario and I learn to control mega evolution."

"She is," I state from where I was meditating.

"What do you mean?" Korrina asked.

"There are three main stages of bonds between human and Pokémon. The first is just a regular bond, these are common. The next is the bond that allows a Pokémon to mega evolve. The third and last bond is when trainer and Pokémon is completely in synch with the other, these are extremely uncommon and as far as I know, I'm the first person to have such a bond with my Pokémon partners in eight hundred years. You and Lucario are not working together. For example, Pikachu and I run across the lake together before climbing up a cliff face and a few trees in order to get our flowers, to do that, Pikachu has to rely on me to run fast enough to go over the water, I have to trust that Pikachu will choose the safest route up the cliff, and we both have to trust each other to help the other up the tree. You and Lucario each find your own flowers and then try to work together to put things together. This is where you two are not meshing together correctly. If you work together the entire time, then you will progress faster. While yes, there are abilities that can make this connection form quicker, they will do nothing unless you start looking through Lucario's eyes and see what Lucario is seeing. Only then will mega evolution work for you. The stones amplify the connection, yes, but if you are in disharmony, then it will amplify that disharmony," I explained.

"Couldn't you teach me-," Korrina began to ask but I cut her off.

"No, I can't. No one can teach you, only guide you. You have to find your own path, Korrina, but others can help you down the path. What Mabel is doing is the right thing, only when you and Lucario are truly together can you pass her first and only test. The most I can do to help you is to tell you this, forget what you see and open your eyes to see what Lucario sees," I told her before standing up to help Bonnie with her exercises.

"Did I get it?" Bonnie asked me.

"Not quite," I told her. She had gotten her basic kicks up to standard and I was teaching her how to punch. I had her punch the air again and noticed how her hand was curled incorrectly.

"Your hand is not in the correct position. If you were punching an actual target, you would break the bones in your hand-," I paused to put her hand into the correct position, "- There, that's better," I told her.

"Oh," Bonnie said. The rest of the evening was spent with Clemont working on an invention, Serena practising her psychic powers, Korrina mulling over what I had said, Gary on a video chat with Misty, and me tutoring Bonnie on how to punch.

The night was peaceful, and I wondered to myself whether or not Korrina was truly ready for mega evolution.

She will be, my son, she is close to the point of understanding and true bonding, but she will not make it to a perfect synchronisation with her partner. I heard Father-Arceus project into my mind.

A/N: Hey everyone who is reading this! I am so sorry it took me so long to update, but I am accident prone and managed to hurt my wrist and then my computer got stuffy, followed by a mountain of school work, then getting my finger jammed in the freezer door. Needless to say, I don't seem to have the best of luck in that department.

So, anyways, keep sending in your OCs, any character is welcome, try to make them as unique as possible. even if you do not have an OC to submit, please review, give me some feedback as after last chapter I didn't get much and I was worried that people had lost interest. I decided to post this today because today Pokémon Sun and Moon come out and this is to celebrate even though it has nothing to do with that set of games. I bought Pokemon Moon to celebrate surviving the marathon of exams that is the first day of my exam block (three exams in one day). Unfortunately, my mum says I need to study for my remaining three exams so I don't get to play Pokemon Moon until Wednesday.

List of accepted OCs (the ones with an asterisk are mine): Lucki Middling, Kirby Hoshi, Lucy Meyer, Melody Reae, Rico Bastian, Coral Rodda*, Auriella 'Aurora' Funke*, Nickolas 'Nick' Funke*, Elizabeth 'Lizzy' d'Lacey*, Chrysanthemum 'Crystal' Paolini*, Emma Wilkinson*, Belladonna 'Bella' Black, Summer O'Hearn*, Louana 'Lou' Lowry*, Orion Riordan*, Astrid Rowling*, Thorn Lochel*, Nettle Lochel*, Char Smith, James Morpurgo*, Nathan Small.

If you can guess the theme for my characters, you will get a special shout out and (if you have an account) a special insight to what is going to happen later in the story.

Also, as pretty much no one gave ideas on Bonnie's last Pokémon, I will have to use a randomizer until I find a suitable match, unless you put in a review with a suggestion (not eeveelutions as Serena is getting one and I do not want to be overly repetitive).

Till next time,

-RebeccaMagic9