the kanto gym leaders were stupified. not only did Ash return from disappearing from the face of the earth for 2 years, he became the leader of the sinnoh elite four. known as the strongest of all regional elites, but he also mercilessly beat two of their strongest gym leaders down in a double battle. beating a golem or a gyarados was quite the feat. beating Misty's gyarados or Brock's golem was nearly impossibe.

Sabrina, Koga and lt. Surge were watching the battle with great interest, and were impressed with how much the naïve, moronic little boy they once knew had grown up into a fine young man. Falkner, Chuck and Clair agreed with the three kanto leaders on that front.

Wattson, Drayden , Drake, Blaine and Pryce, however looked at Ash's retreating form. all with one and the same thought. ( Ash... what in the world happened to you...)

Norman simply glared in the direction Ash walked.

Ash went throught the sliding doors, back into the conference building, not bothering to wait for anyone else, or answering any of the other's questions and compiments. once out of the view of everyone else, he started running. he ran through the hallways, not caring where to go. he smiled. he smiled like he did on the day he got pikachu. he was glad that he could finally extract revenge on that traitorous bitch and her perverted lapdog. he noticed that he passed the conference room, and went inside.

now that it was empty, pikachu jumped off of his shoulder, and went exploring. (A/N yes he's been there the entire time, but I kinda forgot about him. WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN!)

Ash saw a beautiful white-wing piano in the back, and he decided to play a little, while waiting for the rest. he sat down, tinkered a bit, and decided on a song to play. his face became softer, he smiled thinly and closed his eye.

(search on youtube: yiruma, kiss the rain.( helluva beautiful song))

when he started playing, he started swaying to the sides for a bit. because he was completely into his music, he didn't notice the rest coming back. Cynthia had a warm feeling in her chest and a proud smile on her face, while Iris, Cilan, Clair, Sabrina and the older members were completely suprised. none of them knew that Ash had such refined skills, so this was a complete shock.

the song managed to loosen the tense atmosphere, because soon, almost everyone just stood there in silence. eyes closed, thin smiles and enjoying the soft melody that floated through the air. after a while, two of the cherish balls on Ash's belt popped open, releasing lugia and meloetta. lugia just stood there next to Ash, listening to the soothening tune, while meloetta hummed along with it. pikachu jumped on top of the wing, and curled up.

when Ash was done, he stood up. he smiled at the two legendaries, and his best friend.

"allright guys, better get back inside, before the others-" he looked back to see all of the current league members except Cynthia, Gajeel, Allen and Rukia, completely shellshocked.

"-come back... oh... fuck." Ash started sweating bullets. he felt his heart throbbing, and he began shaking.

realising that they were seen, the two legendary music-lovers quickly shot back into their respective pokeball, and Ash turned white as a sheet.

(that's it. I'm fucked.)