A/N: When we last left our heroes, Ash, Dawn and Irene were cornered by a red ninja who was looking for a crystal. Why was he looking for the crystal? Why did he need it? Will our heroes get out of it? Read to find out! :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon. (Do I really have to repeat this for every chapter?) :)
The young ninja stared down at the three trainers who looked as if they were hopeless. Ash couldn't reach for a Pokéball in his pocket, and Irene and Dawn were too mortified to even move. There was no way that they were going to stop the red ninja—unless…
"Are you ready to say your final words before you are annihilated forever?" the red ninja continued to stare over the teenagers.
"Yeah, I have a few…" Ash's face turned into a cunning smirk. "Pikachu! Thunderbolt!" Ash looked up at the tree to see his friend standing on one of the branches. Pikachu's cheeks were full of electricity, staring at the ninja that had his trainer and friends surrounded. Pikachu aimed the thunderbolt towards the ninja, making him fly back with one direct hit. The ninja stared at the adolescents, seeing Pikachu jumping down onto his trainer's shoulder. Irene stood up quickly, staring at the ninja.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Irene interrogated.
"Why do you care about what I'm doing here?" the ninja countered. "I'm here on orders of Team Plasma to take a red crystal, so let's have it!" The ninja took out a Pokéball, throwing it in the air. The Pokémon revealed to be none other than a Pansear, a fire type monkey Unova Pokémon. Dawn stared at the Pokémon with a jumbled gaze, not sure what Pokémon it was, or how to fight it. In seeing his girlfriend's confusion, Ash pulled out his Pokédex for it to explain the Pokémon to her.
"Pansear, the High Temp Pokémon. Pansear lives in caves near volcanoes. The temperature on the tuft of its head can reach 600 degrees when its angry." The Pokédex said.
"If you're trying to find out more about my Pansear, it's not going to help you!" the red ninja shouted, pointing over to Ash.
"We're going to beat you regardless!" Irene stood up, looking confident.
"Oh really, then you're not going to like this." The red ninja let out a smirk, looking away from his Pokémon. "Pansear, use Solar Beam." Pansear was about to charge out a powerful solar beam, which meant that Ash and the others had to think of a way out of this mess, and fast.
"Cinccino, use Aqua Tail!" Irene looked over to her Pokémon. Dawn took out her Pokéball, throwing it in the air.
"Piplup, use Whirlpool!" Dawn yelled out. In a flash, Piplup and Cinccino teamed up together to let out the largest water attack of all time. Ash had wished that he could have helped, but right behind him a Pokémon let out a powerful water attack, hitting Pansear in the chest and causing it to fly back. Piplup and Cinccino stopped in their tracks, turning around to the figure that used the Pokémon. There wasn't a person that used a Pokémon, it was just the Pokémon itself, and that Pokémon—was Ash's Buizel!
"Buizel?!" Ash's eyes widened in surprise. He didn't remember calling Buizel over to Unova, and he certainly didn't bring him along. Buizel must have followed Ash all the way to the Pokémon Center. Right behind Buizel was none other than Ash's Bulbasaur, leaving Ash to scratch his head in confusion. "Bulbasaur?! What are you two doing here?!"
"Bui, Bui!" Buizel paid no attention to his owner, focusing on the Pokémon that was in front of him. Pansear tried to get up, but Buizel wasn't going to have any of that. Buizel emitted a powerful attack from his tail, striking the Fire Type Pokémon to the ground and causing it to faint.
"That was Sonic Boom!" Irene exclaimed, shaking Dawn by her arm in excitement.
"Yeah, I know." Dawn pulled her arm away from Irene, still a little upset that Irene had flirted with her boyfriend earlier in the day.
"I will be back for the red crystal! And when I am, you will be sorry!" the red ninja returned his Pokémon back into the Pokéball and made a dash into the forest. Ash, Dawn and Irene stood there, looking at the red ninja with concern. Ash then realized that he had to focus on his Pokémon, mostly the two stowaways that made their way to Unova without Ash's permission.
"Buizel! Bulbasaur! What were you two thinking, stowing away like that? You could have gotten hurt!" Ash scolded them. Bulbasaur suddenly looked sorry, but Buizel seemed unfazed by his trainers' words. "What do you two have to say for yourselves?" Ash crossed his arms, hoping to hear some sort of apology from them.
"Bulbasaur." Bulbasaur apologized quickly to his trainer, not meaning to disobey him. Ash's face softened towards Bulbasaur, patting him on the head.
"I know you wanted to help, Bulbasaur but next time if I need you let me call for you, all right?" Ash's small smile quickly diminished turning over to Buizel. "And what do you have to say for yourself Buizel?" Buizel crossed his arms, staring at his trainer in a defiant manner.
"Ash, you have to admit, Buizel coming when he did was actually very helpful." Dawn tried to vouch for Buizel.
"But he stowed away after I told him to stay put back at Professor Oak's lab." Ash continued to stare at Buizel, his stern gaze not faltering even though he was speaking to Dawn. Buizel realized he couldn't win the staring match, so he relented and bowed his head in defeat.
"Bui, Bui." Buizel apologized. Ash's stern gaze once again softened at Buizel's apology.
"All right, I forgive you Buizel. Next time, you have to listen to me. All right?" Ash patted the top of Buizel's head, showing his Pokémon that he wasn't mad anymore.
"Buizel looks so cute!" Irene gushed over the water type Pokémon, then staring at Ash. "Kind of like you."
SPLASH!
Irene once again was covered in water from Cinccino's Aqua Tail attack, causing Buizel and Bulbasaur to snicker at the wet trainer.
"Oh, come on Cinccino! That wasn't funny!" Irene huffed. Dawn couldn't help but join in on Buizel's and Bulbasaur's chuckle fest.
"Oh, I don't know about that." Dawn said through her laughter. "I think it's kind of funny. You're like the girl version of Brock."
"Yep, you kind of are." Ash agreed with Dawn. Irene simply let out a sigh and headed back into the Pokémon Center with Cinccino and Jigglypuff. Hopefully she had a pair of dry clothes in her backpack that she could change out of—before Paul saw her and poked fun. Irene entered the Pokémon Center hoping to go unnoticed, until she noticed Paul and Misty sitting by the tables, staring at the young Pokémon trainer. Seeing Irene wet from her Cinccino's attack was enough to make Paul to burst out into a fit of laughter.
"What happened to you? Did you fall into a lake?" Paul laughed, unable to control himself.
"As a matter of fact Paul, Ash, Dawn and I were attacked by some ninja." Irene crossed her arms to the trainer. "By the way, why do you like to poke fun at me?"
"He does it to everyone." A voice said from behind her. Irene turned around to find Cilan standing before her with a smile on her face.
"You're Cilan! You're a Pokémon Connoisseur, you're able to determine a relationship with a person's Pokémon!" Hearing Irene fan girl was enough to snap Paul out of his laughing fit, in which he covered his ears.
"Can you stop screaming like an annoying fan girl? Gosh!" Paul's expression was cold yet serious. The next thing Paul knew, he was hit in the back of the head with a Water Gun attack, causing him to fall out of the chair and Misty to grab the laptop before it hit the ground. "All right, whose the wise guy that hit me?!" Paul shouted. Misty turned behind her to find—Jigglypuff with an angry expression on her face.
"If I tell you then you might try to destroy the Pokémon." Misty turned back to Paul.
"Try me." Paul gritted through his teeth.
"It was Jigglypuff." Misty answered after a moment of hesitation. Paul got up from the floor with a Pokéball in his hand. He was seriously about to hurt the poor Jigglypuff!
"That's it you little monster! You're going down!" Paul was about to throw the Pokéball until he felt a hand snake around his waist to pull him back. Paul turned around, to see Misty attempting to hold him back and prevent him from doing something he was going to regret.
"Paul, getting even with Jigglypuff isn't going to solve anything." Misty tried to reason with the Pokémon trainer. Paul looked back to Jigglypuff, seeing that she had an apologetic look on her face. Jigglypuff then held out her hand for Paul to take, as if she was asking Paul to shake her hand.
"Aww, you see. Jigglypuff wants to apologize." Irene gushed. Paul continued to stare at Jigglypuff, reluctant on if he should grab her hand. In the end, Paul decided to walk forward and accept Jigglypuff's apology. Paul bent down to the ground, holding out his hand for Jigglypuff to take. Jigglypuff reached for Paul's hand, then—
SMACK!
She ended up smacking Paul on his cheek, her body puffing up in anger. Paul grimaced while rubbing his cheek, then turning his attention to the Jigglypuff, deciding that revenge was the way to go. Paul grabbed a Pokéball from his back pocket, about to throw a Pokémon until Misty grabbed the Pokéball from Paul's hand.
"Irene, can you keep your stupid Jigglypuff away from Paul?!" Misty had enough of Paul being beaten up by the young Pokémon. Irene walked over to pick up Jigglypuff, cuddling with it.
"They just don't understand what a sweetie you are." Irene cooed Jigglypuff.
"A sweetie?!" Paul scoffed. "That Pokémon is dangerous! And it's stupid!" Jigglypuff turned around with daggers in her eyes, about to attack Paul once again had Cilan not intervened.
"Is Jigglypuff your premiere brand?" Cilan questioned. Irene turned back around to Cilan, unsure what he had meant.
"What?" Irene and Jigglypuff gave one another a quizzical look.
"He's asking if Jigglypuff your best friend." Paul explained in a harsh tone.
"I just met Jigglypuff, but Cinccino is my best friend. We've been through a lot together." Irene smiled. Paul turned his attention back to the laptop, opening it up and observing the red crystal on Irene's bracelet. Paul continued to look at the bracelet, curious as to what the red bracelet could mean. "Before I forget, there was this red ninja that came and asked me for some red crystal." That caught Paul's attention as he turned around in shock.
"Wait, there was a ninja that wanted the red crystal? Was there a reason why?" Paul wondered.
"I don't know but they said that they worked for Team Plasma." Irene thought for a moment, wondering who Team Plasma was. Paul turned back around and typed something in the search engine.
"Misty, do you think you can bring everyone into the room? I think I found the reason why Team Plasma and Team Electric are interested in the Electric Project." Paul's eyes widened at the computer while Misty did what Paul asked.
"What is it Paul?" Cilan walked over to the Pokémon trainer, looking over at the computer.
"This is bad, this is very bad." Paul scanned the article, turning to Irene with a frightful look. "This means that as long as Irene has this bracelet, she's in big trouble."
20 minutes later, the entire gang had gathered around Paul reading the information that he discovered. Paul hated to be the bearer of bad news, but there was no way around this.
"When Irene said that she, Ash and Dawn were attacked by a ninja from Team Plasma for a red crystal, I did some research and there's a legend that says that if there are three crystals that when activated it releases the most powerful crystal of them all: the rainbow crystal. The three crystals are found in different regions that match their element, sort of like if it was a fire crystal it would be found in a place where fire Pokémon reside."
"But I don't understand." Daisy looked to the Pokémon trainer. "Why did the red ninja from Team Plasma want Irene's crystal?"
"I was getting to that." Paul became annoyed that the Pokémon researcher interrupted her. "Apparently, you need a special crystal that could tell you where the other three are, the one that's on Irene's bracelet."
"So that means that the crystal on Irene's bracelet knows exactly where the others are." Dawn turned to the Pokémon trainer.
"Isn't that what I just said?" Paul shook his head, sure that none of them were actually listening.
"You never explained what the rainbow crystal can do." Ash pointed out to his rival. So someone was listening, Paul thought to himself.
"The rainbow crystal can control the world of Pokémon. It could be used for good but it could just as easily be used for evil." Paul explained. "That's the key to the Electric Project. The reason that Zapdos is on the island is because it's guarding that thunder crystal along with the other thunder Pokémon."
"And that's why the world's most powerful Pikachu is helping Zapdos too, right?" Gary questioned.
"Right." Paul answered. "It also says that the crystals have to be found in a specific order."
"So we have to find one after the other in the order the computer says?" Dawn sounded a bit skeptical.
"Yes, we have to find them in the exact order. First, we have to find the fire crystal, which is in the shape of a star. We then have to find the ice crystal, which is in the shape of a diamond. Finally, we have to find the thunder crystal, which is in the shape of a heart." Paul continued to read off the computer screen.
"That explains the heart marking on Zapdos." Daisy looked to Gary, seeing that her brother was deep in thought.
"So where are we going to find the other crystals? There's no way that we can find them with just Irene's bracelet." Max told Paul. "I mean, it will tell us where it is but it won't tell us how to get there."
"The computer and the bracelet won't know how to get to the islands…" Cynthia rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
"But, us Champions do." Alder finished Cynthia's thought.
"You know where all this is?" Paul raised an eyebrow.
"But of course." Cynthia answered. "We are champions of Sinnoh and Unova of course."
"All right, so where's the location of the fire crystal?" May asked the Sinnoh Champion.
"The first crystal could be found hidden in Mt. Coronet." Cynthia answered.
"But I never noticed any place for a fire type Pokémon in Mt. Coronet." Ash adjusted his cap while Pikachu nodded his head.
"That's because it's hidden." Cynthia said.
"But then that means we have to go back to Sinnoh." Dawn looked over to Lucius who was standing by the corner eyeing the young Pokémon coordinator. There was something oddly familiar about the man, but she wasn't sure what. What Dawn did know was that Lucius was beginning to give her the creeps.
"Maybe Ralts can get us there?" Brock turned to Max, in hopes that Max would agree. Max sadly looked down, unsure if Ralts could help this time.
"I don't think that Ralts can get us all to Sinnoh. That would take too much energy." Max admitted.
"That's all right Max." Ash assured his friend. "We could use the exercise and the adventure anyway."
"Sounds like a plan to me." Zoey agreed.
"Well then, let's start heading to Sinnoh." Alder exclaimed, running out of the Pokémon Center in haste. "Team Electric and Team Plasma can't get to the crystals first! Or else the world will be destroyed!" Everyone stared at the Unova Champion, letting out a sigh.
"This is going to be a long journey." Ash slowly followed Alder.
"Pika." Pikachu agreed with his friend. Paul handed the laptop to Daisy, walking past most of the trainers.
"Well, Paul looks ready for an adventure." Gary satirically said, giving Zoey a small smile. Zoey responded by giving Gary a smile, but when Gary walked ahead of her, the smile vanished. She continued to stare at Gary, wondering if everything was all right.
"Eevee?" Zoey heard Gary's Eevee say. Zoey petted the fox like Pokémon, staring over at her boyfriend in concern.
"Eevee, do you think you can do me a favor and keep an eye on Gary?" Zoey wondered. Eevee quickly nodded her head, willing to help Gary in any way she could. "I just don't think that he's feeling 100%. Something feels off about him."
Day had turned to night and the trainers along with the champions were still far from the Unova ferry to take them to Sinnoh, meaning that it was time for them to get some sleep for the night. The teenagers had no choice but to set up camp, but Ash was still determined to get to Sinnoh to find the crystals before Team Plasma and Team Electric got their hands on them. Ash didn't notice that Lucius was behind him, staring at the Pokémon trainer and his Pikachu. Pikachu's ears went up and turned around to see Lucius standing there, Ash following his Pokémon's lead.
"What do you want?" Ash bitterly asked the former Team Electric leader.
"I was just checking to see on how my daughter's boyfriend was doing." Lucius smirk wasn't pleasant or friendly. Ash cringed; still unbelieving that Lucius was Dawn's father.
"I'm fine, so why do you care?" Ash stared back out at the road ahead.
"Well, I couldn't help but notice that Dawn still doesn't know the truth about me." Lucius noticed the Pokémon trainer turning back around towards him.
"Maybe because I don't want Dawn to know the truth about you. Did you ever think of that?" Ash continued to have a bitter temperament towards the man.
"Ash, what do you think Dawn will do when she finds out that you haven't been exactly honest with her, that you've known who her father is but refuse to tell her." The tone in Lucius voice was almost as if he was purposely trying to mess with Ash's brain. Ash's face looked guilt-ridden, thinking that maybe what Lucius was saying was the truth. Ash didn't lie to Dawn, but not telling her the truth was just as bad.
"I, I don't know." Ash muttered but then snapped back into his defensive state. "Dawn doesn't need someone like you."
"And who are you to decide?" Lucius sneered. "How long have you actually dated my daughter?"
"Why does it matter to you?" Ash became self-protective. "What happens between me and Dawn is none of your business."
"So something has happened between you and my daughter?" Lucius became intrigued in Ash's relationship issues.
"Nothing has happened, all right? Now leave us alone and stay away from Dawn. The only reason you're here is so that you can help us stop Team Plasma." Ash started to walk away from Lucius but the older man called after the teenager.
"She will find out the truth eventually. And when she does, let's see if she'll want to stay with you then!" Those words were stuck in Ash's mind for the rest of the night.
That night, Ash stared up at the sky surrounded by his thoughts, contemplating on whether or not he should tell Dawn the truth about Lucius. If he didn't tell her the truth, then Dawn was going to become infuriated and possibly break up with him. However, if he did tell Dawn the truth, she was bound to get angry and blame Ash for not telling her. Ash continued to worry about what he was going to do until Paul and Gary who walked past Ash knocked him out of his thoughts.
"What's going on?" Ash questioned towards his friends. Paul and Gary turned back around to see that Ash wasn't slumbering.
"We were just checking something out." Gary told his comrade.
"We thought we saw someone in the bushes." Paul pointed past the trees.
"Let me go with you guys." Ash got up from the ground and dusted himself off.
"Fine, but you better be quiet." Paul looked away from the trainer, walking towards the bushes. Gary and Ash followed Paul—until Irene stopped them.
"What's going on guys?" Irene batted her eyes towards the teenage boys.
"We're going somewhere and you can't come." Paul taunted. Irene simply pouted but followed the boys anyway into the woods. Apparently, Paul wasn't petrifying enough to discourage Irene from anything. As the four teenagers entered into the woods, they couldn't help but hear quarrelling behind one of the bushes. What was there and why? Ash, Gary, Paul and Irene hid behind the bushes seeing the same red ninja that tried to attack them earlier along with a ninja with a blue emblem on his chest. What were they talking about?
"Do you realize what you've done? You could have jeopardized the entire operation!" The blue ninja said to the red ninja.
"They have the crystal that we need!" The red ninja retorted. "We need that in order to find the crystals and to control the Pokémon world."
"Well we can do that without trying to hurt the operation." The blue ninja relented. "Don't worry; our green triad is taking care of everything else."
"He better, because if he doesn't then we won't have good news for Ghetsis and we'll be in trouble." The red ninja ran off into the forest along with the blue ninja. Ash, Gary and Paul turned to one another before looking out into the wilderness.
"There's another ninja just like them?" Ash pointed.
"I read about them during dinner." Gary spoke in a thoughtful tone. "I was doing research on Team Plasma and they have these types of servants called the Shadow Triads."
"What's a Shadow Triad?" Paul questioned.
"A shadow triad is one of the highest servants to Ghetsis and Team Plasma. Apparently the reason that they exist are because Ghetsis saved their lives at one point, making them loyal to them." Gary answered as the boys and Irene made their way back to camp.
"So they're going after us in order to get more information out of us?" Ash questioned.
"Yeah, you could say that." Gary nodded his head, turning to his friend. "But what I don't get is that they said that there was a third one, one in green."
"So that means there's a third triad out there." Paul concluded.
"We better keep an eye out for the third triad. We're going to need to stop him before he gets information to Ghetsis." Ash turned to Paul and Gary. When the boys and Irene returned to camp, they noticed Dawn, Zoey, Misty, Daisy and May searching high and low for something. "Is everything okay?" Ash looked over to the girls. Dawn quickly turned to Ash, running over to him to engulf him in a hug.
"Where did you go? We were so worried." Dawn stared into Ash's brown eyes.
"We heard something out there." Paul pointed past the trees. "We just wanted to see what was out there."
"Apparently Ghetsis Shadow Triads were following us." Gary told the girls.
"They were? But why would you try to go after them?" Zoey crossed her arms at Gary.
"Eevee, Eevee!" Eevee scolded her trainer. Gary picked Eevee up, giving an apologetic look to Zoey.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you." Gary apologized. Gary wrapped Zoey into an embrace, causing the red head to forgive him.
"All right, you're off the hook." Zoey gave Gary a playful grin.
"I was hoping you would say that." Gary returned the playful gesture. Paul looked over to Misty who walked up to him with interest.
"Are you okay?" Misty questioned. Paul thought for a moment before letting out a smile.
"I'm fine. Thanks for asking." Paul and Misty's moment felt their moment intruded when Irene came in between the both of them, a sly grin appearing on her face.
"You so like Paul." Irene looked to Misty. Misty felt as if she was going to hurt Irene any minute, until the look on Paul's face suggested that they needed Irene for the mission. Misty walked away from Irene and Paul, causing Paul's face to twist into confusion. Was she all right and most importantly—did he do something wrong?
"So there's a third triad?" Cilan walked up to the others, unsure why everyone was so worried.
"Yeah, there's a red one, a blue one and a green one." Ash answered his friend. Ash didn't notice that Irene was staring at Cilan, keeping Ash's words in mind. A green triad, it can't be. Irene thought to herself. Cilan noticed Irene's gaze, quickly turning his head back towards Ash.
"We might want to get some sleep." May suggested to her friends, letting out a yawn. "It's going to be a long day tomorrow."
"Yeah, we still have to find a way to get to the Unova ferry terminal." Ash agreed with his friend. The others slowly walked away into their tents—except for Gary who grabbed his laptop from his backpack, something that Zoey noticed.
"Gary, I think that you should really get some sleep." Zoey whispered. Gary looked to Zoey, holding the laptop in his hand.
"I want to know more about the Shadow Triads." Gary answered, causing Zoey to become unsatisfied.
"Gary, you can't possibly want to do research so late at night." Zoey tried to reason with him.
"It will give us a bigger edge against Team Plasma." Gary tried to explain.
"But is that bigger edge really worth you not taking care of yourself? I noticed you during dinner; you were too busy reading about the history of Team Plasma that you barely touched your food." Zoey tried to enlighten how Gary's habits weren't healthy. "I know you love to research, but you have to really consider taking care of yourself."
"Zoey, I'm fine." Gary was beginning to become exasperated as well. "I don't need you to tell me what to do every ten seconds."
"What?!" Zoey incredulously stammered, taken aback by Gary's statement. "I do not tell you what to do every ten seconds."
"Get some sleep Gary, you need to eat Gary, put the laptop away Gary, you need to stop obsessing over the Electric Project Gary." Gary said, mocking Zoey's voice before turning serious. "Does that sound familiar to you?"
"I'm just trying to help you!" Zoey yelled.
"Well, I don't need your help!" Gary yelled back, heading back to the tent.
"I'm trying to make sure you take care of yourself because I love you Gary!" Zoey felt her voice breaking, something that pained Gary. "But, apparently you don't love me enough to take care of yourself. I need you, but I guess you don't care." Zoey turned to her tent, going inside without saying another word to the researcher for the rest of the night. Gary thought about Zoey's words for a moment, but being as stubborn as Gary was, he entered the tent with the laptop in hand to research more about the Shadow Triads.
Dawn continued to stare out at the sky thinking of none other than her relationship with Ash. She had to wonder that ever since Ash saved her from Team Electric, he had seemed more distant towards her, as if there was something that he wasn't telling her. Dawn was confused as to why Ash let Lucius come along since she wanted nothing to do with Lucius, but Ash insisted that he had to come, although Ash wasn't thrilled about it either. Dawn noticed Ash's tent, and decided that maybe she should pay him a visit to see if she could get some information out of him. She knew Ash would never hide anything from her, so why did it feel like he was? Dawn walked over to the tent and opened it slowly, seeing that Ash wasn't asleep like the others. Dawn entered the tent slowly, noticing that Ash was staring out at her looking relieved that it was only her.
"Do you mind if I come in?" Dawn asked her boyfriend. Ash shrugged his shoulders, letting out a sly grin.
"You're already in the tent. I think it's safe to say you can come in." Ash noticed Dawn blushing as she came closer to him. Her smile diminished giving Ash a serious face.
"Are you sure that you're okay Ash?" Dawn interrogated. Ash looked over to his girlfriend nodding his head.
"Yeah, I'm fine. There's no need to worry." Ash shrugged his shoulders, still staring into her eyes. Dawn wasn't content with Ash's answer, causing her to sit closer to him.
"That's when I worry the most." Dawn noticed Ash repeating her catchphrase as she softly repeated the answer he gave her all the time. Dawn once again turned serious towards Ash, wanting to know what was going on. "I mean are you sure you're all right? Did Lucius say something or do something that upset you?" Dawn probed. Ash looked down, thinking if he should tell Dawn the truth about Lucius, but once again decided against it.
"He was just bugging me about how we've been together for a long time and that what we have might not last." Ash slightly lied, just so Dawn wouldn't get suspicious.
"Ash, you can't let Lucius bother you." Dawn placed a hand through Ash's hair, giving him a small smile. "I know that we're going to last, you know why?"
"Why?" Ash wanted to know Dawn's reasoning.
"Because, I love you and I know you love me. I think that's just enough." Dawn lay down next to Ash, causing Ash to follow her lead.
"Yeah, I know that." Ash intertwined his fingers with Dawn's, staring in her eyes. "I guess I was just letting Lucius get into my brain."
"Don't worry about that loser." Dawn looked into Ash's eyes. "He's just jealous because he won't have what we have. People like that don't seem to ever be content with what they have." Dawn then recalled the first conversation she had with Lucius, wondering if she should bring it up to Ash. "He said that he knew my mother, but the crazy part was that my mother never mentioned him."
"Really?" Ash's eyes widened, causing him to sit up again.
"Yeah, I guess she didn't like him very much." Dawn tried to figure out a reason as to why her mother never talked about Lucius.
"But were they like the best of friends or something?" Ash tried to get more information from Dawn.
"Lucius said that they were, but I'm not so sure about that." Dawn sounded deflated, looking out to the entrance of the tent. "If I tried to talk about Lucius with my mom, she'd probably try to deny it." Ash then had an idea flowing in his mind. If he couldn't find the heart to tell Dawn the truth, then maybe Dawn's mother could!
"Why don't you talk to your mom about that?" Ash tried to convince her.
"You want me to talk to my mom about Lucius?" Dawn questioned.
"It couldn't hurt." Ash tried to sound nonchalant. Dawn considered it for a moment before letting out a smile.
"All right, I will as soon as we find the fire crystal." Dawn lay back down, turning to her boyfriend. "Do you mind if I sleep in here tonight? It was getting pretty lonely staring out at the stars all night."
"Sure." Ash didn't hesitate to answer. Ash lay back with Dawn wrapping his arms around her and placing a kiss on her forehead. "I just hope you know that whatever happens with Lucius and all that, I'm still going to love you and that's never going to go away." Dawn felt her face reddening at Ash's comment, seeing that he was being sincere.
"I hope that asking my mom about it will work out." Dawn whispered.
"It will, all right?" Ash assured her. Ash leaned down and placed a sweet kiss on Dawn's lips. Dawn ran her hand through Ash's hair, making the kiss more passionate. After what seemed like an eternity, Ash removed his lips from hers, pecking her lips once more before cuddling with her. "Goodnight Dawn. I love you."
"Goodnight Ash. I love you too." Dawn placed a kiss on Ash's cheek before becoming content and falling asleep with Ash by her side. Dawn's heart was filled with so much love that she almost forgot why she came into the tent in the first place—almost.
A/N: Hmm, what does Lucius have up his sleeve? Who could be the green third triad? Will Gary and Zoey's relationship survive their latest argument? And will Dawn eventually find out that Ash knows about Lucius being her father? We'll find out...next time on Pokémon: The Electric Project!