Hello everybody and welcome back.

So the schedule thing... eh, 1 day late. Anyways, cause of school and my up-coming pre-public exams I will be moving the chapter updates to... Friday. Yep, just one day. With me moving it Friday instead of Thursday, I notice that I have a lot more time to write without feeling burdened by guilt or shame of not doing homework and I can solely focus on this so... Yay? i guess.

I just want to quickly thank you all for 600 followers on the dot when I am writing this so thank you all so much for following and favouriting or even just reading without doing that; it truely does mean alot so once again, thank you... Again.

Now, I will just warn you that this chapter gets sort of heavy handed. Not like chapter 11 heavy handed, but just heavy handed. So, proceed with caution.

Quickly though, some reviews.

TiredOfCannon: That will be explored later on but for now, just keep it there. Maybe it was just Ash's mind changing to fit with his new found over-protectiveness due to his Aura or it could be mind tricks or it could be something else... Who knows... Well I know.

Animaman: Maybe, I dunno yet.

UnsanMusho: Nope, they don't know about that.

Burgenator: Call it... instinct. I guess... Or just call it foreshadowing.

Nick: 1. I like the misleading nature of the 'little plot' that is then dragged deeper in a way that I haven't really seen others do before but hey, that is just my way of looking at it as an author.

2. The Island is very south of Kalos and that is about it as for current locations.

3. I said this in chapter 2 but it takes place 5 years after the Kalos League where Ash would have been 13 if he actually agd properly so it is set 5 years from that.

4. Like the previous point, the ages were all pointed out or at least the important ones were. But just to cover it Ash is 18 along with most of the rivals and most of his harem group who are around 17-19 but there are a few exceptions in these groups who are younger like Bonnie and Max.

5. The ones that they had on their teams originally but fully evolved unless stated like Bunneary.

Now, I will just warn you that this chapter gets sort of heavy handed. Not like chapter 11 heavy handed, but just heavy handed. So, proceed with caution.

Anyway, onto Chapter 21! Enjoy.

The air was thick and tense.

Droves of people were screaming and cheering around their forms but the Mother-Son duo couldn't care less; to them it was practically silent. To them, the only sounds were the clashing of cartilage as the raven haired teeth smashed and ground his teeth together in a grinding motion while his hands curled painfully in on themselves until he felt his nails begin to pierce his gloves. Delia wasn't any better, either. Her gaze was far away and her eyes were glazed over with glassy intentions, not meeting Ash's own narrowed pair of eyes; whether she was doing this on purpose or not… the teen didn't really know. With low, baited breath, Ash spoke out.

"So… what do you want?"

His voice took and unnatural and icy edge to it that he didn't mean to add intentionally but judging by the look on the older woman's face, it made his point very clear to her withered figure. Her frame seemed visibly shook and shaken and her feet danced around each other in a tiny tango at her ankles as she appeared to be making her mind up about what to say.

"Hello Ash. H-How have you been?" A shaky smile, just as clumsy as the rest of her body, fell on her face but her eyes stayed the same with the brown becoming lost into the black edges like a monotone stain glass piece. At one time, Ash may have said that looking into those eyes filled him with joy such as only a few days before hand. But now… the veteran could only see longing and despair when he stared at those lost, chocolate orbs.

They were so much like his own; even now.

Letting out a scoff, Ash moved to lean up against the wall. However, in the corner of his eye, he watched as the woman's frame tensed up at his movement. It was almost as if she was expecting him to… lunge out at her. Now, while Ash may have been furious, outraged, feelings of betrayal floating around in his mind like a game of Pong, he had the decency and the amount of honour left in his being to never hit his own mother. Whether she was lying about it all, it didn't change the fact that she raised him… better than that. She raised him to be respectful and nice… She was always there for him. Looking down, Ash started off his sentence.

"Good. Good, Mom. I've been good… How about you?"

Glancing back up to her general direction, he saw the tension that shook her body like lightning snake its way up and around her spine until it finally reached her eyes where they became wide and lively while the rest of her body just sort of… slumped over. There was something off about this; the tension around him even after knowing that he would never do something like this, her glassy look, her strange dependency of pills all of a sudden. It was just too much strangeness that never came packaged along with his mother's loving and caring attitude. Then again, this attitude of hers may have just been some sort of shitty cover-up to stop him from finding out about Ash's father.

He chuckled under his breath. Great, now he had two different viewpoints in his head again.

"I-I'm fine baby, just fine. I-I watched your battle, you did great against that… that…" Delia seemed lazy, sluggish in her movements and tone as if there was something completely wrong and twisted with her. And her choice of language; Ash knew that his mother always watched his battles but the way she said it as if it was some sort of critique on a single moment and not as the battle as a whole (such as she did all those years ago) just put him off. Shifting uncomfortably in his place at these thoughts, Delia seemed to notice.

"A-Ash what's the matt- Ah!" Stumbling forward with a clumsy wobble, the older woman almost fell flat onto the hard, marble flooring of the locker rooms or worse, she could have hit her head clean off the side of a bench located near the entrance. On instinct and without much actual input, Ash shot forward to stop the woman from hurting herself.

However, as he grabbed the bare flesh of her shoulder, his arms flared up in… something. It was painfully, while at the same time it felt off-putting and uncomfortable; basically, it felt a more intense version of pins and needles that stabbed and daggered at his arms skin. Sinking his teeth into his tongue to stop himself from letting out a wince at the sudden shock, Ash slowly pushed through it and placed Delia down on the bench with her back to the lockers.

Like his fallen relative, Ash slightly stumbled back to see his mark bathed in a dark bluish-red tone that coated his entire form as well as the room in similarly coloured light. This… pins and needles effect was strongest around the marking; it felt like the 'pins' were prepping him for some sort of surgery and the 'needles' were sinking into his flesh to sedate him. Recovering quickly, Ash returned to his place at the wall.

"Are you alright?" He asked, concern clearly there as he broke his mask for a second. And not 2 seconds later did he get a response.

"M-Me? Hahaha… That's f-funny Ash… Trust me, I'm f-fine. Just getting o-old is all." She gave him a smile but… it was those eyes! They couldn't fool him anymore! She wasn't Delia as long as those windows clogged up her visions. Bawling his hands into fists to try and contain his rage, he began to walk away to try and vent but before he could, he felt something hit his toes before bumping and rolling away under his feet.

And standing there at his ankles… was a fresh bottle of pills.

Recently opened by the ripped covering at the top of the neck and the loose lid that had already fallen off and the fact that a total of 0 pills had come flying out of the tiny bottle. When he had been to Delia's room that morning, he had seen many of these similar bottles but he had seen one that was at least half full… And it looked like it could last you a month and a half just based on that. So to see this freshly opened, already empty bottle of pills… it scared him. Distantly, he heard her quiet voice telling him to ignore it but even her tone told him that she knew that he knew about this.

Bending down in silence, the roars of the crowd continuing in the background, Ash picked up the container and against his mother's wishes, began to read its properties out.

"Prescription based Anxiety Pills. Assigned by Dr. Basker to Ms Delia Ketchum for medicinal properties and relieving her ever growing anxiety. Contains approximately 90 pills, only consume up to 3 in one day and that is to only be done at allotted times set by your Dr. For this patient, these times have been listed at; 09:00, 14:00 and 20:00. You must not consume more than 3 a day as they will weaken the drugs effect on your body and your anxiety will not be helped. If you need any more concerns, see Dr. Basker for more details."

Gripping the bottle tightly, so tightly that he felt the plastic break and crack under the pressure, he turned back to see Delia staring at him with a shattered and distraught look on her face. Well, at least the windows were gone.

"How long?" It was a simple question. It required a simple answer.

"A-Ash, listen baby, I- "

"How. Long." This time, it was far harsher. All was quiet for a few moments before she spoke up.

"6 months after you left." She replied quietly and Ash let out a sigh. Of course it was him… It was always him that fucked everything up.

"Okay… and how many of these pills have you been taking in a single day?" He felt like an interrogator going in on his test subject but he needed to do this, to know what the fuck happened when he was gone.

"3… Like it says on the bottle." Delia's tone was shaky and nervous and Ash didn't even need to look to know that she was lying.

"Yes. The bottle does say that. But that wouldn't explain why you have around 5 months' worth of pills stuck in that damn room of your when you've been here for little under a fucking week! Now tell me, how many of these pills have you been taking a day!?" Ash's tone was like icy dagger by now and as they cut into Delia's body, it felt like a tiny piece of her was dying.

"…" She remained quiet. Angrily huffing, Ash turned on his Aura to look to see if anything was affecting it. And what do you know…

"Why the Hell do you have 5 doses in your system…" It was a quiet question, perhaps the quietest that the room had been that whole day. But it made its point.

"T-They really do help in bigger portions… I feel far more relaxed and less anxious when I take more than 3 of them. To be honest, I don't really understand why the Doctor only set the maximum amount to 3 pe- "

She didn't get to finish before Ash's fish collided against a group of lockers to the far side of her with a sickening thud and a crack of scrapping steel. Strips of red aura bathed him in radiance and rolled out into the skies as he tried to hide his eyes behind his cap. Once again, the air went dead.

"No they don't, Mom. It specifically says not to take more than 3… SO WHY THE HELL ARE YOU DISOBEYING THOSE ORDERS?! FOR FUCKS SAKE, YOU ENDANGERING YOUR OWN LIFE HER AND YOU ARE THROWING THAT AWAY FOR WHAT?! REALLY, WHY?!" Ash's tone started off slow and breathy but it soon erupted into just anger and agony that ripped apart his throat as Delia just sat staring with wide eyes.

"THIS IS NOT HELPING YOU! YOU ARE NOT HELPING YOU! NOTHING YOU ARE DOING IS HELPING YOU! YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING?! YOU'RE BECOMING LIKE SOME DRUG OBSESSED PERSON WHO CAN'T EVEN LIVE WITHOUT THEM, YOU KNOW THAT!? AN ADDICT! AND ALL I HAVE TO ASK IS WHY!" Storming over, Ash once again saw her tense but this took more president. Crouching down in front of her, his angry face still remained with his inky sclera's and red iris' burning but his tone became softer.

"W-Why… Why are you doing this to yourself?"

"…" Silence.

Gritting his teeth further in anger, Ash turned back on his heels.

"FUCK!" Kicking the floor, he watched as small chunks of marble flew off into another set of lockers.

And then the killing blow.

"Dad was right… you're just lying about everything." It was almost like she locked up like a machine without power, the tears that threatened to flow just stopped being produced and her shaking ground to a halt.

"And when I ask what's wrong, you just don't tell me… I want to help you Mom… But all of this is just tearing us apart; the lies, the dependence on drugs, the isolation… Please just let me in."

Tense and silent.

"You wouldn't understand." Turning on his heels, Ash ground his teeth again as he stared at the woman, her voice void of anything. "You don't know anything about the situation… Nothing Ash, nothing."

Sighing, Ash let his Aura dissipate before he slowly strolled over to his hunched over mother.

"Mom… you need help. And you need it now." She appeared to take this information in but didn't seem to want to answer again.

"Being here, with all this noise and the people isn't helping you at all. And that is just increasing your need for these pills, Hell with how many you have been taking it's a miracle that you haven't overdosed. But I'm being serious, you need help. This Dr. Basker person, how often do you see him? He's your assigned Doctor right, maybe he can help you. Hell, even Professor Oak could probably help you talk it out and help you understand all of this. And then all the lying and all the pain and all the isolation goes away."

Reaching up, he gently pulled her shoulder so they could face each other.

"I may hate what you have been doing, what you have been doing to yourself and others, and I may even hate you as a person right now but no matter what you are still my mother. My mother that saw me off on every journey that I have ever been on, my mother that helped me over come so much, my mother that did everything in her power to raise me the right way… Even it was morally shady. You will always be my mother and for that I will always love you."

Leaning back, Ash stood up and looked towards the exit to the main entrance of the stadium.

"Look, I'm going to take you back and I will book a flight for you back to Pallet Town. I'll call up Professor Oak and I will have him be ready for you when you get there. I'll explain the situation to him and he will help you or at least offer you support while you get help, okay?"

She nodded.

"Okay… Now let's get you back to your room. You looked shattered."

Delia didn't at all protest as Ash loaded her onto his back before sprinting off in a blaze of dazzling blue light. And after her 5th wink, she was back in her room, in her bed, wrapped up in the covers while Ash stood at her doorway. It took her a minute to reconfigure herself, but she did it.

"Alright then… Get some rest while I go and do the arrangements, okay? I'll try and get a flight within the next 2-3 days so you can spend some time with the girls… if you like." Taking the door handle into his grasp, he began to shut it but before it could close fully, his gaze shifted to meet hers once more.

"Get well soon… Mom."

And then he was gone and Delia was left all up to her own devices. She didn't really know for how long she stayed there or anything like that but when she finally came round, she knew that she could only squeak out one thing.

"You just don't understand…"

Whoo. that was a doozy to write. In my head, this was going to be a far more aggressive confrontation but nope, my head now want feels instead so here you go. Next chapter... I dunno, Ash talks to the girls about some stuff and Legends and things. Eh, I'll figure it out. Anyway, thank you for reading and goodbye!

-Jack