A/N: First part of the major Amourshipping plot in the story! I hope you all enjoy.

I kinda had to change the rating of the story to T after this chapter… It's just a little graphic; no blood, however.

Yeah, I probably made you freak out with that warning: but there's no character death, I promise! Even if it seems like that will happen…

Nevermind.

Twenty Five – Poison, Part One

Ash and Serena were on the way towards Vaniville Town, where Grace was waiting- they had called her earlier to let her know.

Suddenly, the HoloCaster that Serena owned began to ring- she quickly took it out of her bag and answered the call, which revealed a hologram-like figure of Delia, Ash's mother.

Ash jumped back in surprise. "Mom?!" Pikachu waved, saying: "Pika pi!"

Delia smiled. "Finally, I get a hold of you- first Professor Oak, then Professor Sycamore, then your nice friend Sky… She was nice enough to give me your HoloCaster number." She turned towards Serena. "And who might you be? Are you the Serena that Ash keeps talking about?"

Ash frowned, his cheeks getting a little red. "Mom, why are you calling?"

Delia blinked. Mr. Mime could be heard sweeping in the background. "I forgot to say I called Grace- your mother, right, Serena?" She smiled. "We talked and she told me you two were visiting her; so she invited me to come along too! I'm going to get on the plane to Lumiose City tomorrow, okay Ash?"

He nodded. "Alright, thanks Mom."

Delia turned back to Serena. "Now, as I was saying… you must be Serena."

She smiled. "Yeah. Nice to meet you, Ms. Ketchum. I remember you- I saw you when you picked up Ash from summer camp."

Delia looked confused. "Summer camp? You mean Professor Oak-"

Ash cut her off. "We got to go, Mom! Talk to you later!" Then he reached over and hung up, breathing a sigh of relief.

Serena frowned. "What was that about, Ash?"

He looked down. "She doesn't know that we met in the summer camp… If she did, she's tease me about it."

"Tease?" She put the HoloCaster back in her bag. "Why would she do that?"

Ash turned away and didn't answer. "Let's just… Keep going, I guess."

Serena wanted to keep questioning him, but let it go. They walked along Route 3 in quiet until they finally reached the Santalune Forest; they would have to go through to get to Vaniville Town.

Serena sighed. She'd had a lot of trouble with forests during her journey… Especially with the Trevenant event.

"You ready?" Ash final asked, looking ahead into the forest. "I don't think it'll take that long to get through, and then we'll be on our way to your mom's house okay?"

"Do you think we'll have to spend the night in there?" Serena asked quickly.

Ash shook his head. "Nah. I think we can make it there by sundown."

Serena nodded. "Then let's go."

Together they stepped into the forest, Pikachu looking around at the Pokémon in the trees.

After around half an hour, Serena proposed that they take a break- Ash agreed, saying him and Pikachu were pretty hungry.

They found a nice log to sit on, and Serena got some granola bar snacks for them to munch on- plus some Pokémon food for Pikachu.

They all ate peacefully, listening to the calls of the bird Pokémon.

Suddenly, the chirping stopped. Serena looked around curiously, and she heard a thumping noise nearby. It kept continuing, much like footsteps.

Her eyes widened. "Ash, we gotta get out of here-"

But before he could react, a large Scolipede appeared. It stared at Pikachu's food, the charged at them and began eating.

Ash, Serena and Pikachu moved away quickly. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Ash said. "That was Pikachu's!"

The Scolipede growled as its hrons began to glow, then it charged- it was using Megahorn.

Serena moved out of the way in time, but Ash wasn't so lucky. The horn struck Ash in his stomach, and avoided Pikachu.

He fell over, clutching his stomach in pain. "Ow…"

Pikachu, now furious, sent an ultra-powerful Thunderbolt towards the Scolipede, who fled.

Serena ran over to him, panicking. "Ash! Are you okay?!" She kneeled down next to him, examining the wound. Her hand went to her mouth: It was a large wound, and probably hurt a lot- yet there was poison left over from the Scolipede. This was bad.

Serena got to work with her first aid kit- but there wasn't much she could do for such a large injury. Pikachu was trying to comfort Ash by hugging him.

But what made her really worried was Ash's comments: he kept saying he was fine; but he was obviously lying.

Serena looked around unsure of what to do next. She couldn't carry Ash all the way to Vaniville Town; and there was no Pokémon Center nearby. None of them had any large Pokémon that could carry him, either.

She quickly took out her HoloCaster, beginning to worry. Her mother didn't have a HoloCaster- the only numbers she had on this one was either Sky or Delia; who were both far away.

Quickly, she called Sky: who answered after around a minute. She seemed to be in the middle of a battle- until Serena heard Meowth yelling something and knew it was Team Rocket. "Th-this had better be important, I'm kinda busy, Serena! Dragon Breath!"

This made Serena even more worried: Sky, Clemont and Bonnie could be in trouble, too. "A-Ash got hurt really badly, and he's poisoned! I-I don't know what to do!"

Sky's hologram looked panicked. "W-well… I don't know what to do either… I-I'll call you mom and let her know, okay! Just make s-sure he's bandaged and d-doesn't move! Use Moonblast!" Sky then hung up, and she hoped that she got Grace here quickly.

Ash squirmed around. "N-no! Stop… Beedrill, no!"

Serena looked down at him. "Ash, what is it? There aren't any Beedrill!"

He appeared dazed, as if he couldn't see or hear her. "Don't hurt Serena!" He yelled, causing some Pidgey in the trees nearby to run away.

"Ash, snap out of it!" Serena yelled, shaking his shoulder lightly. It wasn't doing anything.

As much as he didn't want to, Pikachu minimally shocked Ash. His hair stuck up, yet that seemed to do the trick. Ash looked up at Serena.

"Serena… What's going on? Why does my-" He looked down towards his bandaged stomach and his eyes widened. "What-"

"A-A Scolipede poisoned you…" Serena sniffed. "I don't know what to d-do, but my mom should be coming here soon…"

Ash shook his head. "No way. I can get up, really-" He tried to get to his knees but then recoiled: "Ow… Nevermind…"

Serena frowned. "Sky said you have to stay still. I-I really hope you'll by okay…"

Ash winced. "I don't think so…"

"Why not?" Serena asked worriedly.

"I can't feel my legs." He stated simply.

Serena's hands flew to her mouth again as she covered it. "N-no, Ash… You can't-"

He flinched again, his breathing slowing down. "S-Scolipede poison is deadly…" He mumbled.

'So this is it… It isn't fair. I didn't get to tell Serena. I never really achieved my dream. I don't even get to say goodbye to anyone- how is this supposed to be fair?' He thought- but all he really felt was doubt. 'Something could happen, right? There's always the possibility that I can hold on...'

A/N: I'm really sorry; I'm no good at writing stuff like this…

I just didn't really feel any inspiration, and when I tried to edit it I was stumped. Sorry about the crappy update… And the cliffhanger.