Author's Note:

How's it going everyone? I'm extremely sorry that I haven't updated basically since the summer but after the end of last chapter I just lost what motivation I had to write so I decided to take a break for a while and just do my own thing. It was a culmination of a lot of different thing; my Beta bailing on me, my job sucked, and I just missed my friends at school but everything is much better now! I just feel so much more rejuvenated and ready to bring you guys some new content!

Now, the first thing on my list is to get a new Beta so if anybody would like to become my Beta for the story then just send me a PM to let me know and we can talk about it for sure!

I know that this is the first chapter in a while, plus it's the first one after a pretty big battle and big moment in the story so far so I'll try my best to make what has to happen now as painless as possible but there are going to be repercussions for sure.

One thing I will also add is to please not be too harsh with my grammar and everything since this is obviously not Beta read but I'm gonna try to make it the best I can for you guys!

It's been quite a while but I'm glad to say, welcome to chapter 14 of Crossroads and please enjoy everyone!

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon and I don't plan on starting a campaign to try and buy Pokémon or anything like that so the point is that I don't own Pokémon. Although I do own my OC Corey as I was the one that created him.

Crossroads Chapter 14: The Birth of a New Ash!

Previously on Crossroads: Paul ambushed Ash and Anabel which led to a huge battle between the rivals. Thankfully Corey arrived to save Anabel from Paul's Drapion which led to Ash and Anabel revealing their true feelings for each other. Unfortunately, Ash ended up losing to Paul and his Electivire which caused Ash to have a major setback in his development. Ash will now have to struggle with the inner battle that currently raged inside of him and the bad part is… the bad side might win.

Tohjo Falls, Woods Near Anabel's House – Kanto Region

After the harsh battle with Paul had ended, Ash, Anabel, and Corey headed back to the cabin.

Anabel clung to Ash's while saying soothing things softly in his ears to try and calm him. However Anabel couldn't see the red that slowly made its way into his eyes and once the glow had nearly engulfed them Ash harshly ripped his arm away from Anabel and took off in a dead sprint.

"Ash where are you going!?" Yelled Anabel with her arm stretched out and then turned to her brother and said quickly "come on Corey we have to stop him before he hurts himself!"

"Right!" Replied Corey as the pair took off after Ash although in vain as they tried to look for the raven-haired trainer but realized that at near midnight, finding Ash would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

"Anabel we have to get back to the cabin, it's not like I don't want to find Ash or anything but this is becoming impossible" said a now sleepy Corey as the violet-haired trainer's along with Boltblast's eyes was drooping in sleepiness.

Anabel, who didn't look any better than her brother, if not worse, shrugged Corey's comment to the side and said angrily "damn it Corey, how can you think like that? Of course we'll find him, we have too…"

Corey noticed the sadness in her voice and got down on a knee to look her in the eyes and said softly "Anabel I understand where you're coming from I really do and if it was my girlfriend then I would be acting the same way if not worse then you are."

Anabel was about to respond but Corey silenced her by saying "However… trying to find him now, at 12 in the morning, pitch black out, and when he probably doesn't want to be found at the moment isn't going to help anyone mainly both of us. I promise that we'll go look for him right when the sun comes up again tomorrow but for now we need to go back to the house and wait."

Anabel opened her mouth to respond but closed it slowly knowing that there was no argument to give and nodded her head in 'agreement' if you could call it that.

"Good" said Corey softly as he stood back up and threw a Pokeball into the air which released his powerful fire type Magmortar (Volcanus).

"Volcanus can you give us some extra light so we can find our way back to the cabin?"

"Mag-Magmortar" said the Blast Pokémon with a nod as he lit a small flame on one of his cannon-like arms.

"Come on Anabel, we really should get back and get some sleep. Something tells me that were going to need it."

The Salon Maiden nodded as she followed her brother and the Blast Pokémon as the same feeling was sinking into her as well. Tomorrow would surely be a very interesting day.

The sun had just risen and Anabel was already set to go out and look for Ash while Corey almost fell out of his bed when Anabel barged into his room yelling "get the hell up Corey! If you're not fully awake in less than 1 minute you're getting sprayed by Starmie!"

"Alright, alright I'm up sheesh" said Corey as he sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

Anabel quickly turned on her heel and slammed the door shut so Corey could have his privacy while the violet-haired trainer mumbled to himself "jeez, we better find Ash, I don't know how much longer I can deal with Anabel like this."

Once Corey had finished getting ready, Anabel basically shoved him out the door as they went to start looking for the raven-haired trainer.

"Alright so I think that last night we looked around the south side of the forest so we should probably check the north end today" said Corey while looking towards Anabel with a questioning face.

"I just want to find him, we'll search this whole forest if we have to" said Anabel with her arms crossed over her chest.

Corey nodded and followed the extremely determined lilac-haired teen into the woods.

After an hour or two of searching Corey sighed and said "to bad I don't have any flying Pokémon with me or this could be a lot easier."

"Same, but there must be some way that we can search the area thoroughly to make sure that we don't accidently miss him" replied Anabel as she continued to scan the trees in search of something that resembled Ash.

"Yeah… Ash's Pidgeot would be perfect right about no-" as Corey was about to finish off his sentence an enormous bolt of lightning shot into the sky about a mile south from their current position.

Anabel quickly turned herself to see the scene, the amount of pure electricity was astounding as it turned the sky black, which then caused more bolts of lightning to rain down from the sky striking tree's all around the area causing them to emit into flames.

"What in all holy hell is going on!" Roared Corey as he moved his hand quickly to his belt and threw a Pokeball into the air while yelling "Titan! I need your Assistance!"

What emerged shook the earth as a full grown Rhyperior materialized from it Pokeball and announced its presence with a powerful roar "Rhy-perior!"

Corey pointed in the direction as to where the bolt of lightning appeared and yelled "Titan we have to make it to that area, you gotta cover us until we get over there!"

"Rhy-perior!" roared the drill Pokémon while nodding at his trainer's request.

"Alright Anabel let's go! Titan will cover us on our way there, I'm sure that whatever's at the center of that is where we'll find Ash so let move!" Anabel nodded at Corey and the trio began running towards the location.

"Why isn't the lightning hitting us?" Asked Anabel and then looked up to see that Rhyperior was absorbing the electricity.

"Rhyperior's ability is lightning rod which directs all kinds of electricity towards its drill, the drill then destabilizes the electricity and causes no kind of effects to Rhyperior. It's a very handful ability to have especially for a time like this!" Answered Corey while Rhyperior gave another roar in approval as he absorbed another bolt of lightning.

"Yeah I'd say so" said Anabel as they continued to run towards their destination.

After a couple more minutes they arrived at the center of the storm and couldn't help but to gasp at the scene before them as Anabel put her hands on her mouth in pure shook. What stood before them was an open field with a flock of Pidgey and Spearow lying helplessly defeated on the ground with swirls in their eyes. Their bodies had the type of char that could only be caused by 1 type of attack, Electric.

They continued to look on as in the center of the field stood the person they looked all night for. To put it frankly Ash didn't look good from the outside as his jeans were torn around the knees, his jacket was long gone and there were several thin tears in his black undershirt. Ash's trademark hat was also nonexistent leaving his raven hair looking messier than ever. The worst part of it all through was his eyes. It wasn't a blood red, but the kind of red that just seemed to glow and stand out as they could be clearly seen from where Anabel was standing.

Standing on all fours next to Ash was his faithful partner Pikachu who didn't look any better than his raven-haired trainer. The mouse had several cuts and bruises on its body but didn't seem fazed at all, it was as if it couldn't feel any types of pain on its body. Pikachu also held the same red glow in its eyes as Ash did.

"Ash…" said Anabel softy as she looked on tears forming in her eyes while Corey yelled with a clenched "Ash! What the hell do you think you're doing!"

As Corey was about to yell out again Anabel ran forward to engulf Ash, Corey turned his attention to her and yelled out "Anabel don't!"

Ash looked towards the running Anabel and put on an almost deadly smirk on his face, he then looked down towards Pikachu while pointing towards Anabel and called out "Thunderbolt."

Pikachu responded almost instantly as it charged forward and unleashed a deadly surge of electricity towards Anabel.

"Anabel no! Titan use Rock Polish and intercept it!" Roared out Corey as the drill Pokémon quickly put its arms in an X and smoothed out its body, increasing its speed dramatically. Rhyperior quickly rushed forward so it could use its ability to redirect the bolt of lightning. Thankfully Rhyperior was successful as just before the Thunderbolt reached its target, the lighting surge took a sharp detour and was directed towards Rhyperior's drill where it materialized into nothing.

Anabel let out the breath she didn't realize she was holding as he face grew into one of shock at the pure fact that the one she loved almost just hit her with a huge bolt of electricity.

Corey ran up to Anabel's side and put a hand on her shoulder while saying quickly "Anabel are you ok!?"

Physically she was fine, however the only thing that Anabel could do was shake her head 'no' at the sight of Ash who still had the same deadly smirk on his face.

Corey then turned to look at Ash and yelled out "What the hell was that Ash! 12 hours ago you said you loved her and now you're trying to kill her! What the hell is wrong with you!"

Ash stared into Corey's eyes for a second before closing them and shaking his head while chucking at the sheer question that was asked of him. Ash reopened his eyes and said with a much deeper, old voice "nothing is wrong with me, I'm simply doing what I should have all along, pushing my Pokémon, making them use every little ounce of energy in their pathetic bodies so they can actually become a fraction of what Paul's Pokémon actually are."

"How could you say that about your own Pokémon! About your friends! They have stood by you since day one and just because you lost one battle doesn't mean anything to them! They will still love and respect you just like I do!" Cried Anabel.

"Hmph, please, the only way to succeed in this world is to be ruthless against every single thing you come across. You see all of these Pokémon, they were too weak to be in my presence… so I disposed of them" replied Ash as one could see his smirk grow even bigger.

Anabel ran forward to charge Ash however was held back by Corey who simply glared at 'Ash' and said "Anabel you have to calm down, this isn't Ash."

"What do you mean?"

"You see his eyes… it's his aura. After his loss to Paul and what Paul said to him, his aura spun out of control and everything that we have been working on has been shattered. What spawned from it is the total opposite of whom and what Ash is, somebody who is even worse off than Paul. Not even Paul is cruel enough to hurt random Pokémon of this mass, no it's definitely Ash's aura."

"So then what can we do?" Asked Anabel.

Corey continued to look on towards Ash and said "what else… battle him, and beat him!"

"A fantastic plan Corey but I don't think that even you have the power to stop me right now" said Ash in a deadly tone as you could see his hand twitch in anticipation of a battle.

Corey got down on one knee just as he did last night and said softly "Anabel you have to do it, you have to beat him. In order to quell something like this, a person who is very close to the person being possessed has to stop it themselves. Anabel… do you really love Ash?"

"Yes" said Anabel almost automatically.

"Then do it sis, get Ash back" said Corey as he stood up and took a step back, allowing Anabel to face her beloved.

Ash stood waiting with his arms crossed as Anabel collected herself and took a deep breath and said softly "Ash… I love you and if this has to be the final test before we can finally be together then I'll gladly go through it!"

"Hmph, you really think you could beat me, fine… I have been looking for some fresh meat all day. Pikachu" said Ash with a shake of his head as Pikachu raced onto the burnt grass battlefield, electricity sparking on its red cheeks.

Anabel unlatched a Pokeball from her belt and threw it into the air while calling out "Go my Friend! Alakazam!"

"Ala-kazam!" called out the Psi Pokémon calmly before he saw who its opponent was and quickly turned its head back towards its trainer in question.

"It's ok my friend, we have to do this" said Anabel calmly before turning towards Ash and calling out "I'm ready Ash!"

Before the first moves were made, only one thought ran through Corey's mind "I hope you are ready Anabel. Because if you fail here, we may never get him back…"

Author's Note:

Alright so I hope that everyone enjoyed chapter 14! Sorry about the cliffhanger sort of lol but I think it set up everything great for next chapter at least!

Anyway, if you already haven't, make sure that you follow/favorite the story and please leave a review, I really love hearing from you guys! Also if you could, go to my profile page and answer my Poll question, it's pretty straightforward hahaha.

I'm really looking forward to bringing everyone some great content within the next couple of months, you guys have been so supportive of the past couple months with PM's, story follows, favorites and reviews and I couldn't be happier to be back so with that said here's the name of the next chapter!

Crossroads Chapter 15: Radiant Dawn Part 1!

That's it everyone so I'll see you later and have an awesome day!
Cyclone20