A/N - Don't worry, the remaining Elite Four will put up more of a fight than Aaron did, I've played around with their teams to at least give them a chance. Sort of.

Disclaimer - I don't own Pokémon

- Vermillion Port -

The ferry had been going all night and arrived early in the morning at Vermilion Port. Ash and Brock planned on taking the Diglett's Cave to Viridian City and their journeys together would come to an end as they parted ways for the final time. It wouldn't take the duo more than a couple of hours to get through the cave and the two set off reminiscing about all their travels together.

- Indigo Plateau -

It was coming up to mid day and again the centre battlefield was filled to capacity. After the match the previous day people were expecting another spectacular battle today.

Tobias would be facing Bertha, the Ground type specialist. Bertha was an experienced battler and her Pokémon were a lot more physically capable than Aarons.

The Sinnoh Elite member had watched her colleague lose badly the previous day and had thought long and hard about the Pokémon she would use in the battle today. After seeing Tobias use a Rayquaza she had specifically picked a Pokémon to help deal with him should he be used but the strange trainer had commented he had a plan for dealing with each Elite Four member. Bertha had hoped that Latios was the Pokémon designated to her team, It's Levitate ability would make most of the attacks her first choice Pokémon knew useless.

She wasn't going to do what Aaron had done and use the same predictable team she always did though, Tobias' Pokémon would be difficult to take down but not impossible, the three they knew of anyway, if she chose the right team.

The elderly lady had been through many battles in her time, but none would compare to facing Tobias and his legendaries. She was excited to say the least but she knew not to let the occasion get to her. She walked out in to her trainer's box as she was called. Hearing the cheers from the crowd she focused her attention on the battle and nothing else, she was determined to do the Sinnoh Elites proud.

Tobias walked on to the field in the same fashion he always did, a small wave to the crowd and bearing a calm smile. Taking up his position opposite Bertha the second Elite Four challenge match was ready to begin.

A randomizer before the battle had determined that Tobias would show his Pokémon first and that he would have the first move. This worked in Bertha's favour as it allowed her to see what Pokémon Tobias had planned to use against her.

"This will be a full six on six battle, substitutions are allowed, Tobias will reveal his Pokémon first and have the first move!" The league official was stood off the side of the plain battlefield.

"I will try to make this as quick as I did for your young friend. Let's go!" The pokéball split open to reveal Latios and after some acrobatics he hovered in front of Tobias waiting to see who he would face.

Bertha smirked as Tobias had made the same mistake Aaron had yesterday and assumed incorrectly. "I think you will find that I am not as predictable as my younger rash colleague." The comment got Tobias' attention but he wasn't concerned by it. "You're up Golurk."

The reveal of Golurk however did get him concerned. Bertha was right; he assumed she would use her normal six Pokémon and that Latios' Levitate ability with his Solarbeam would be enough to see him past most of what she would use. The old woman was clever.

"Latios fly into the air and use Solarbeam." The Eon Dragon flew into the open sky taking in the sun's rays.

Tobias was looking to do what he had done all along and overpower his opponent and Bertha had a plan to prevent this. "Use Substitute, then use Shadow Punch." Golurk stepped off to the side leaving a copy of itself behind as one of its fists crackled with purple energy.

Latios fired the Solarbeam at the Substitute Golurk making it take the damage instead with it vanishing soon after. The Automaton Pokémon threw a shadowy fist from its own hand and it homed in on the Eon Dragon. The blue dragon tried to evade it but to no avail as it connected landing a super effective hit causing him to fall towards the battleground. Latios managed to regain its senses and levitate a few inches off the ground.

Tobias groaned to himself. He wouldn't be able to plough his way through this battle as he had been doing previously. He didn't want to have to reveal another Pokémon yet, and needed to think a way to get past the tactics that Bertha would be using. He realised that Latios would just be cannon fodder if he left him out against Golurk, besides he had another Pokémon that could take the Ground Ghost type. He held up Latios' pokéball and recalled him. "I must admit Bertha, I did expect you to use the same Pokémon you usually did. I will have to rethink my plans from now. Darkrai lets go."

The Pitch Black Pokémon that Tobias was famous for using emerged from its pokéball and eyed its opponent waiting for orders.

"Use Curse Golurk." Bertha was the first to call an order and her Pokémon responded. A ghostly pin appeared in front of the Automaton Pokémon and proceeded to stab through him. His body outlined in a red glow as his health drained away, the curse taking affect.

Groaning to himself again Tobias knew he needed to take out Golurk quickly or Darkrai would start to lose health. Bertha's battle style was going to frustrate him. "Darkrai use Dark Void, take the Curse then finish it with Dark Pulse"

Darkrai put both his hands above his head forming a crimson ball between his palms, multiple smaller orbs began to fire from the central orb leaving Golurk no way of avoiding it. A number of the orbs made contact with Golurk and surrounded it in a large purple bubble; once they faded Golurk was asleep. Once the attack had ended Darkrai took some damage from the Curse and formed a ball of black and purple circles, releasing the attack in a beam Golurk took a direct hit. Its health had already been drained by the Curse and it couldn't take the Dark type attack.

"Golurk is unable to battle." The referee lifted a flag showing the round had gone to Tobias as Golurk's image faded to black on the big monitor.

The Elite Four member recalled her Pokémon and thanked it, it had done what she wanted it to and it had given her a really good chance of taking out two of Tobias' Pokémon now. This was only the start of the battle and she had plan she would stick to. "Sudowoodo your turn."

The log shaped Pokémon took up a position in front of Bertha.

Tobias' frustration was calming down, Golurk had been dealt with and the curse lifted. Darkrai was still in good shape and decided to continue with him. "Dark Pulse Darkrai."

The Pitch Black Pokémon again formed the rings of purple and black energy and fired the beam in the direction of Sudowoodo.

"Break through it with Hammer Arm, then use Sandstorm to hide you." The Imitation Pokémon braced itself as her arm glowed red as she lifted it above her head. "Now Sudowoodo."

Sudowoodo brought her arm down on the beam of dark energy breaking through it causing its power to falter and dissipate into nothing. Sudowoodo then kicked up a Sandstorm and moved into it without it bothering her.

Tobias and Darkrai lost sight of their opponent as the Sandstorm grew. The Dark type Pokémon floated above it hoping to get sight on its opponent and avoid the affects of the Sandstorm. "Darkrai use Dark Void, either flush her out or put her to sleep." The Pitch Black Pokémon draw both arms back and formed the large crimson sphere throwing it into the Sandstorm, letting it get pulled along by the winds.

"Sudowoodo jump up and use Hammer Arm" The Rock type Pokémon ran as hard as it could for extra momentum and jumped out of the Sandstorm beneath Darkrai, her arm glowed red again before uper cutting and connecting into Darkrai's underbelly. Both Pokémon fell back to the ground as Darkrai began to feel the Sandstorm beating against it slowly whittling away at his energy.

Both Pokémon landed on the ground, the Pitch-Black Pokémon narrowly missing his Dark Void attack as he hit the ground, Sudowoodo however wasn't as lucky as it surrounded her and sent her to sleep.

The challenger saw his chance as a little bit of luck went his way. "Darkrai, get up and use Dream Eater." Darkrai's eyes glowed red as shadowy image of himself lurched forward passing through Sudowoodo feeding off the nightmare that Dark Void had induced, the shadowy copy returned some health to the original as Sudowoodo lay on the floor shivering from fear.

Bertha either needed Sudowoodo to wake up soon or she would have to recall her. "Sudowoodo, it's only a nightmare, it's not real please wake up!" Sudowoodo took some extra damage because of Darkrai's Bad Dreams ability.

It wasn't looking good for Sudowoodo as Darkrai prepared an Ice Beam. The Pitch-Black Pokémon didn't know any moves that would cause massive amounts of damage to the Rock type, but it was going to do as much damage as it could while its opponent slept. Darkrai followed orders and fired the blue beam at the sleeping Pokémon, and at that moment Sudowoodo's eyes opened in time for her to bring her arms up to protect her face.

One of Sudowoodo's arms froze over but it was better than having her face take the hit. Bertha could see that Sudowoodo could probably take another two hits and decided to go all or nothing against Darkrai as the Sandstorm died down. "Give it your all, use consecutive Hammer Arms" The Imitation Pokémon stood back up and charged forward with both arms glowing red.

Darkrai managed to dodge the first swing and began charging a Dark Pulse as Sudowoodo brought down her frozen arm, shattering the ice around the green spheres at the end. She continued on and brought the next arm to bear full force into Darkrai's stomach as he unleashed the beam of energy into her at point blank, both Pokémon flew through the air and landed unconscious at their trainer's feet.

Bertha smiled kindly at her Pokémon, she was the second Pokémon to take out Tobias' Darkrai. She had given a lot in the battle and would get a well deserved rest. Tobias had recalled Darkrai and proceeded to send out Latios, clearly annoyed his Darkrai had been taken out again.

Both fainted Pokémon's pictures blacked out on the scoreboard and Bertha chose her next Pokémon, Mamoswine.

Tobias was beginning to realise that Bertha would push him a lot further than he wanted to go; she had planned well to face the three Pokémon he had revealed.

- Viridian City Pokémon Centre-

Ash, Brock and Pikachu had made it to the end of the Diglett's cave with little trouble, but had decided to visit the Viridian City Pokémon centre to have a short break and a snack before they finally parted ways. The battle between Tobias and Bertha was on a television and Ash was surprised to see that Bertha was holding her own against Tobias and even looked to be slightly in control as her Mamoswine was making good use of Blizzard and Hail to overpower Latios.

"It looks as though Bertha has a chance." Brock mentioned as he and Ash sat down in the cafeteria.

Ash would have liked to stop and watch the battle for a while longer but he planned to keep a promise to an old friend as he was so close to where they had last been together. If he could find her, he was sure he would be able to make it to Indigo Plateau before night. He wouldn't say it out loud but he was nervous, it had been over four years since he promised to return for her. Hopefully she would forgive him.

Brock could see that Ash wasn't paying much attention to anything at the moment and got a snack for the both of them. Within a few minutes the two were leaving the Pokémon centre and on their way out they could see on the television the referee had declared the round in favour of Mamoswine. Ash smiled and decided he would stay and watch the battle after he and Brock parted ways.

He walked outside the Pokémon centre with his oldest friend.

"It's been good Ash." Brock held out his hand which Ash took.

"You to Brock, and thank you, again." Ash couldn't hide the emotion in his voice. This wasn't goodbye for good, but travelling without Brock wouldn't be the same.

"It was my pleasure to have travelled with you Ash, I've experienced so much that I probably never would have got the chance to experience had I stayed in Pewter City, and so it's me who should be thanking you. Besides, this isn't goodbye; we will see each other again." Brock let go of Ash's hand. He patted Pikachu on the head and turned to walk north towards Pewter City. But not before one last look at Ash. "I'll see you later Pokémon Master Ash."

"Yeah, see you later Pokémon Doctor Brock." The two smiled at each other and Brock started on his walk. Ash and Pikachu stood watching for a moment remembering when they had first met the ex gym leader and thought about how much they had grown and learnt as a result of travelling with him. He sighed as one chapter in his life ended and another began.

A/N - I could have kept going with this chapter but here's a good place to break it up a bit. I'll put the ending and Ash's reunion with Pidgeot up tomorrow hopefully.

Lightningblade49, The Immortal Doctor Reid, Inferno792 - I plan to do a chapter soon on Tobias' back story that will reveal some interesting things.

Inferno792 - I understand what you're saying about Rayquaza and Tobias becoming overpowered. I have tried to show that there is something about Tobias' Pokémon that Ash doesn't get without outright saying 'Them Pokémon's is wrong.' If it helps I will say that all the unique legendary Pokémon are at the Hall of Origin at the moment.

Remisolleke - I try to keep my chapters short so I can put them out quicker. I've done a few chapters where I could have kept going and put out a bigger update, but I prefer to split them down when I can. Like I said before, so far I'm updating about every day and a half or every other day and I'll try keep to that.