Thanks PokemonFreak90 for the reviews. They are among the few things that keep me going.
This is the longest chapter so far. And one of the major turning points. It was a pain to write.
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or its characters.
Chapter 36: Cold Fury
Ash and Dawn had one more conversation before the start of their battles.
"Hey, Ash," she greeted him.
"Hi, Dawn," he replied. "You had a good night's rest?"
"Not really," she answered. "I was just too excited. I hope you didn't have any dream about me to distract you?"
"What … NO! Not you too! Iris teasing me about it is already more than enough." Dawn giggled. It was just so much fun to tease him sometimes. "But I heard you had the same problem."
"Where did you hear that?" She blushed furiously. "I told no one!"
"I didn't. It was just a test. Guilty as charged." Her blush only intensified. She didn't think he could be that cunning. He just smiled. Revenge was sweet.
"Well, I just called to wish you good luck," she said, changing the subject.
"I don't think I need it but thanks anyway," he replied. "Good luck to you as well!"
"Thanks." She so wanted to feel his touch right now. It always gave her new motivation. But he was far away right now so she had to do without. "It's about to start. I better go now. See you later, Ash."
"Yeah, see you later!" They hung up and went to their respective destinations.
When Ash finally entered the battle field in the stadium he noticed that the audience wasn't as big as during the league. At the other end, Shauntal was standing, reading a book. She smiled when she noticed him.
"Ah, the challenger. I'm Shauntal. A pleasure to meet you," she said after approaching him. "It's your first battle against an Elite Four member?"
"Well, it's the first official battle," he told her. "And you won't stop me."
"Such confidence … I like it. I hope I live up to your expectations. But we should get ready now." He nodded and they went to their places at the ends of the battle field. Ash's thoughts shortly drifted to Dawn, whose own battle should start any second now.
"Welcome to the match between the Elite Four member Shauntal and the challenger Ash. It will be a full six on six battle with substitutes. Battle, begin!" the referee announced.
"Jellicent, please do this for me!" She called out her first ghost type.
"Scrafty, I choose you! Start with bulk up!" He flexed, becoming surrounded by a red aura. "Now faint attack!"
"Hydro pump!" The ghost type shot several streams of water at Scrafty, who dodged them and feigned a frontal attack before jumping up and attacking from above. "Very good. Use hydro pump and psychic!" It used the psychic move to surround itself with an orb of water, from where it fired water pulses in all directions. One of them hit Scrafty without doing a lot of damage.
"Thunder punch!" He hit the surface of the orb, shocking everything inside and causing the orb to burst. "Crunch!" The ghost type, who was being dragged away by the water, got grabbed and bitten by Scrafty.
"Will-o-wisp!" Shauntal's pokémon couldn't miss from that distance and caused a severe burn.
"Payback!" After a brutal punch, Jellicent was already finished.
"Jellicent is unable to battle!" the referee announced.
That was easier than I thought. Ash's confidence grew.
"Well done," Shauntal said, seemingly unimpressed. "I think you deserve to face my strongest pokémon. Go, Chandelure! Use flamethrower!"
"Dodge it and use faint attack!" He managed to hit it but got trapped by a fire spin before he could do anything else.
"Fire blast!" The attack was quick and brutal, knocking him out without a chance of preventing it.
"Scrafty is unable to battle!" Ash looked at him, shocked. He didn't expect Chandelure's attacks to have so much power.
"Well done. Take a rest now." He readied his next pokéball. "Krokorok, I choose you! Use earthquake!" Although it was a direct hit, Chandelure didn't even flinch.
"Will-o-wisp!" As it released a whole bunch of small flames and even controlled them with psychic there was no way it could miss. Despite Krokorok's best efforts to evade them, one of the flames finally hit him, causing a burn. "Now flamethrower!"
"Use payback!" He dodged the stream of fire and got close enough to attack but instead of hitting Chandelure, he used crunch, biting the center of its body. After he dealt a lot of damage, he had to let go due to it using fire spin.
"Flamethrower!" This time, the attack hit him directly, nearly finishing him off with one hit. He struggled but still stood proudly. "Wow, it's tough. Once more!" Before it could do that, though, Krokorok glowed white, starting to evolve. When it was over, Krookodile was standing there with new energy to fight.
"You evolved!" Ash shouted excitedly. "Now we can …" before he could finish the sentence, a fire blast knocked out his pokémon. "What?"
"Krookodile is unable to battle!" Ash looked at his fallen pokémon in shock.
"Don't get distracted. It's common courtesy to not attack pokémon while they're evolving but when it's done you have to be ready," Shauntal told him with a frown.
"Alright, my mistake," he admitted. "Thank you, Krookodile. Noctowl, I choose you! Use extrasensory!"
"Flamethrower!" The fire move quickly overpowered Noctowl's extrasensory but she dodged it before it could hit her. "Psychic!" She stopped in midair. "Now fire blast!" However, she broke free of its control and countered with air slash, which hurt it quite a bit.
"Incredible! It's so tough. Use hypnosis! Then sky attack!" Her eyes glowed red and she shot red rings at it.
"Flamethrower!" The rings got destroyed but Noctowl dodged it again and used the time to charge up sky attack. Chandelure used psychic again to slow her down so that the attack didn't do a lot of damage. Then it shot a powerful fire blast straight at her face, knocking her out with one shot.
"Noctowl is unable to battle!" the referee shouted.
"So strong …," he mumbled. "Good job, Noctowl. Pikachu, it's your turn!"
Five minutes are over, he thought after looking at the display. She should have won her battle. Maybe she's already watching me now. And I have already lost three pokémon. I have to do much better now.
Dawn was wondering whether Ash's battle has already started. But she would see it soon anyway. Just five more minutes.
"Empoleon, Salamence! Go!" Kenny exclaimed. She wondered when he got a salamence but then she remembered that Looker had given him a shellgon.
"Scizor, Milotic! Spotlight! Use hidden power and ice beam!" Milotic shot a small ice beam at Scizor, whose left pincer 'ate' it, making it glow blue. He did the same to the big hidden power orb with his right pincer, which sparkled with energy now.
"Whirlpool and dragon pulse!" The dragon move turned the water turquoise and also made the whirlpool spin a lot faster. Then it came straight for Dawn's pokémon.
"Bullet punch! Reflect!" Scizor quickly hit it with his left pincer, causing it to freeze completely while Milotic was using the defensive move. "Now agility and hit them!" He jumped over the icy remains, hitting Salamence with his left and Empoleon with his right pincer before retreating near the ice.
"Metal claw! Salamence, use dragon dance!" While the dragon type was powering up itself, Empoleon tried to hit Scizor unsuccessfully due to his speed, hitting and smashing the ice instead. "Dragon rush!"
"Iron defense!" Although the damage was low, the force of the attack pushed him back quite a bit. "Twister!" Milotic spun her tailfins like a fan, creating a tornado, which blew the ice pieces at Salamence and Empoleon. In addition, Scizor rode the wind, hitting Empoleon with full force.
"Use dragon rush on Milotic!" While Empoleon was attacking Scizor with metal claw and drill peck, Salamence flew up high to charge straight at Milotic.
"Twister!" The tornado slowed it down considerably so that the damage was pretty low. Reflect helped to lower it even more. "Wrap!" She wrapped her body around it, holding it right in front of her face.
"Dragon pulse!" Both coordinators shouted at the same time. When the orbs met, a terrible explosion occurred which sent both of them flying far away. Scizor felt that something heavy fell to the ground behind him so he stepped to the side when Empoleon launched another metal claw attack. Unfortunately for the water type, it was Salamence who got hit instead.
"Fire fang!" Kenny commanded. The dragon type quickly recovered and tried to bite Scizor, who dodged it although he had some troubles.
"Ice beam!" Milotic froze the ground Salamence was standing on, causing it to slip. Scizor absorbed the next beam with his pincers, punching Kenny's pokémon hard right after.
"Hydro pump!" The powerful stream pushed the bug type back before it followed up with drill peck, hurting him even more. "Dragon rush!"
"Twister!" Although she didn't hit Salamence this time, she at least pushed back Empoleon so that Scizor could recover a bit. The hit from the dragon rush was powerful, dealing quite a bit of damage.
"Dragon claw!" It tried to follow up with its claws but Milotic blocked them with iron tail.
"Use hypnosis and twister!" She shot a glowing symbol at it, increasing its speed with twister but Salamence just flew up so it hit Empoleon instead. Kenny's pokémon fell asleep instantly.
"Thunder fang!" Before it could attack, something landed on its back. And, judging from the heavy punch it received, it had to be Scizor. This gave Milotic enough time to push it back with another twister. "Shake it off!" It tried everything it could think of to get rid of the bug type while Milotic was shooting ice beams at it. She wasn't successful either, only creating giant icicles on the ceiling. Soon Empoleon woke up again. "Hydro blast!" I charged an orb of water, aiming at Scizor. Salamence flew nearby, trying to give a better view on him.
"Stop it and use rock smash! Milotic, dragon pulse!" He jumped off, eating the orb with his pincers before Emoleon could use it. Its power made his next punch much stronger, sending Kenny's pokémon flying. Milotic's dragon pulse hit the ceiling, causing the icicles to fall down. Whereas Scizor and Empoleon had little trouble with them due to their steel type moves and resistances, Salamence was struggling to keep them away with flamethrower. In addition to those falling down on it, Milotic was deflecting others at it by using twister. It managed to shoot a dragon pulse at her, though, which dealt some damage. However, it was nothing compared to the damage it received from the icicles hitting it.
Kenny looked at the display. There was only one minute left and Dawn had more points right now. He had to do something and he had to do it quickly.
"Dragon pulse! Empoleon, use hydro pump on it!" The water move greatly increased the orb's speed.
"Light screen and bullet punch!" Scizor deflected the orb but got hit by the hydro pump althoughthe damage was reduced by the light screen. Suddenly, Salamence charged straight at Milotic with dragon rush. She could only try to block it with iron tail. It quickly overpowered her, though, sending her flying. "Superpower!" Before it could use another attack on her, Dawn's other pokémon grabbed its tail with both pincers and smashed it right into the ground in front of Milotic, who wrapped her tail around its neck, holding her face in front of it. "Hypnosis!"
"Dragon pulse!" However, the water type was faster and since it couldn't dodge now, the glowing symbol hit its forehead, causing it to fall asleep. Then Empoleon flew right at her with high speed, spinning like a drill. Fortunately for her, Scizor got in the way just in time and blocked with iron defense.
"Use hidden power!" Dozens of small orbs started to surround Dawn's pokémon, creating an electric shield. Empoleon tried to use it against them by using water moves but Scizor wouldn't let that happen. After a few attempts the time was over with Dawn still having more points.
"And the first finalist is Dawn! Congratulations!" Marian announced.
"Well done, you two! You were like Milotic's knight in shining armor, Scizor," Dawn remarked, which annoyed Piplup a bit. He wanted to be the one to protect her.
"You did your best," Kenny said, recalling his pokémon before going to his rival and shaking hands. "It's still not fun losing but it's so much better to at least lose in the battle rounds. Anyway, you did a good job."
"You weren't bad either. But now I have something to do." She called out Espeon.
"You want to watch his battle?" he asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"Sure! I hope I didn't miss too much. See you later! Espeon, take us to our room!" After a bright flash they were gone.
They reappeared in her room, where she quickly turned on the TV and she didn't like what she saw. Ash has already lost three pokémon whereas Shauntal was still using her second. Pikachu was currently battling Chandelure, hitting it with a powerful thunderbolt.
"Yes! Knock it out, Pikachu!" she shouted at the television.
"Use electro ball! Then volt tackle!" Ash commanded. Pikachu charged at his opponent immediately after shooting the electro ball at it. "Quick attack!" He used the move to close the distance faster and to dodge his own attack, which was used against him with psychic.
"Protect!" However, Pikachu was faster, attacking it with his combination of volt tackle and iron tail and smashing it into the ground. To Ash's surprise it got up again. "Fire blast!"
"Thunderbolt!" This attack, which hit before it could use fire blast since it was already weak and slow, finally finished the ghost type off. It fell to the ground but didn't rise this time.
"Chandelure is unable to battle!" Dawn let out a squeal when she heard that.
"Not bad. Not bad at all," Shauntal said. "Good job, Chandelure. Let's whether you can handle Cofagrigus!"
Good. Her strongest pokémon is out of the way, Ash thought. And Dawn's probably watching this right now. Why … why am I thinking about that now? This isn't the right time! Alright, Pikachu took some damage from a shadow ball but he should be fine. I still think I'll recall him. I need him later.
"Return for now, buddy. You were awesome. Torkoal, I choose you! Use flamethrower!" The fire hit Cofagrigus directly but didn't seem to do any damage. "Again!"
"Psychic!" It deflected the attack before creating four shadow balls in its hands. "Telekinesis!" Torkoal got surrounded by a green aura and started to float above the ground. "Shadow ball!"
"Iron defense!" The shadow balls still dealt a lot of damage.
"Disable!" A blue aura surrounded him for a second, disabling iron defense. "Now shadow ball again!"
"Overheat!" A powerful blast of fire shot right at the ghost type who managed to its move before it got hit. It was very tough, taking the damage without even flinching. Torkoal, on the other hand, was knocked out instantly by four shadow balls.
"Torkoal is unable to battle!" the referee shouted.
"You were great. Take a rest now. Glalie, I choose you! Start with ice beam!" Cofagrigus got encased in a block of ice but immediately broke free.
"Disable!" It disabled the ice beam. Then it followed up with four more shadow balls.
"Gyro ball!" Glalie easily evaded them and smashed into the ghost type. Once more it created shadow balls in its hands, attempting to shoot them at the ice type from close distance. "Again!" Glalie spun rapidly, deflecting the attack, which resulted in Cofagrigus getting hit by its own shadow balls.
"Psychic!" It smashed him into the ground, where he was attacked by even more shadow balls. He tried to use gyro ball again but the psychic move was too strong. A few attacks later, he was finished.
"Glalie is unable to battle!" Ash gritted his teeth. Only Pikachu was left and she still had three other pokémon left. It seemed like he couldn't win this.
Dawn was having similar thoughts. After all, this wasn't a normal trainer but an Elite Four member. She had a lot of confidence in his abilities but this seemed impossible. Still, it didn't stop her from hoping for a miracle.
"You were awesome, Glalie," he mumbled, recalling the ice type. "Pikachu, it's all up to you now! Use Electro ball and thunderbolt!" He created an electro ball at the tip of his tail and used thunderbolt on it to increase its size and power.
"Destiny bond!" It was too slow, though. Before it could finish the move, the electro ball knocked it out almost instantly.
"Cofagrigus is unable to battle!" Shauntal was surprised.
"That was unexpected. Good job. Ash, you defeated three of my pokémon in your first battle against me. That's very impressive. But it's over now. You won't defeat Golurk. Go!" The automaton pokémon was huge compared to Pikachu. "Use earthquake!"
"Dodge it and use iron tail!" There was no other choice as Golurk was immune to electric moves. Pikachu hit it several times, without doing a lot of damage.
"I admire your determination. Shadow punch!" Ash's pokémon couldn't dodge this move so he was sent flying. "Earthquake!" The shockwave hit him, nearly knocking him out. But he got up again, ready to continue the fight.
"Iron tail!" While he was charging at his opponent he collapsed from exhaustion. Once more he got up despite all the pain.
"Finish it with shadow punch!" He tried to attack it when it was close enough but didn't have enough energy left. Instead, he got hit by another shadow punch, which sent him flying next to Ash. He tried to get up again with all the strength he had left. But it was no use.
"Pikachu is unable to battle! Victory goes to Chauntal!" Ash kneeled next to his pokémon.
"You were simply amazing. Don't feel bad. We'll defeat her next time." He was approached by Shauntal.
"You are a very talented trainer. I'm sure you'll become stronger and then we'll battle again," she told him. "Until then, work hard. Good luck!"
He managed a weak smile but Dawn saw that it was fake.
He looks so disappointed, she thought. I'm sure he had bigger plans than to lose his first battle and only knocking out three of her pokémon. I wish I could just go to him now and give him a big hug. The least I can do right now is to call him. Yes, I should do that.
She quickly went to her videophone and called him although he wasn't even at the pokémon center yet.
Meanwhile, Ash was going there with Iris and Cilan following him.
"What are …" Iris started.
"I know, that was lousy. Are you going to tease me for the rest of the day now?" he retorted.
"Ash! We are your friends! We wouldn't do that!" she replied angrily. "I understand that you are mad but you don't have to take it out on us!"
"I'm sorry." He sighed. "It was just … I hoped to do so much better. And after the good start it …"
"You don't need to explain. We know how you feel." But this made Ash even angrier.
"No, you don't!" he snapped back. "You don't know how it feels to always try and lose in the league. And once I finally won it, I failed to defeat even one Elite Four member, not even knocking out four of her pokémon."
"Ash, we're just trying to help you dealing with your disappointment," Cilan explained.
"Well, you're doing a lousy job." They couldn't believe what they heard. This was so unlike him.
When they entered the pokémon center, nurse Joy told Ash that he got a call from Sinnoh. Reluctantly, he went to the videophone and dialed Dawn's number.
"It's normal to lose on the first try." Cilan tried it once more. "I'm sure she told you that."
"She did but maybe she just pitied me," Ash replied bitterly. "I failed miserably."
"Maybe you should sleep over it before you talk to her again." He could only imagine what would happen if Ash snapped at Dawn the same way he did at them.
"Don't tell me what to do! It's just a little call, nothing special." But he wasn't convinced.
"So what are you going to do? Yell at her? After everything she's done for you?" Iris asked.
"Done for me?" Ash's voice was dangerously low. Slowly he turned to her. "What has she done for me?"
"Well, she stayed for the league despite the grand festival. She helped you with your training whenever she could. And now she's probably horribly disappointed that you didn't win. You …" Cilan pulled her away as Ash looked like he was about to burst.
Just then, Dawn's face appeared on the screen. Before she could say anything, though, Ash yelled at Iris.
"You know what? She did more harm than good!" Cilan and Iris begged him to stop but he wouldn't listen now. "And everyone wants me to be together with her. Just after they did the same with Misty. Why is it such a big deal? Why does everyone want me to date someone? Maybe I just want to be alone? Because of her I entered that stupid Wallace Cup! Because of her I couldn't think straightly! She was just a distraction! Maybe if she hadn't been there I would have won the Sinnoh league. Maybe it would have been better if I never met her!" He sighed and was about to apologize for his outburst.
"I-I see, Ash …" Dawn's voice caused him to freeze instantly.
He hoped she would be angry at him. They would have an argument but they had them before. There weren't a lot of them but they always quickly apologized. However, she wasn't angry. It was far worse. When he turned around he saw that she was smiling. You had to be blind not to see that it was fake.
"I … understand. I'm sorry and I won't … bother you anymore," she said with a trembling voice.
"No, Dawn! I didn't mean it! I was …" She hung up before he could finish the sentence.
He tried to call her again about a dozen times. She simply ignored it, though, crying all the time instead with Piplup, Espeon, Buneary and Lucario trying to comfort her.
So I held him back, after all. If he had only told me earlier… What should I do now? I don't really want to battle right now. But … maybe it will distract me, at least for a while. Yes, that's probably the best idea. Oh, Ash. I'm so sorry.
Meanwhile, Ash's fury has been replaced by shame and regret. And to make things worse, he didn't even get a chance to explain as Dawn ignored his calls.
"Damn it! Why did it have to happen? Why am I so stupid?" he yelled. "So many lies ... she must think I'm a monster."
"Stop it! Yelling won't help you now," Cilan tried to calm him down. "You have to talk to her. And if she won't answer your call, you have to talk to her personally."
"You're right! I have to go to Hoenn. Wait, she'll be in Sinnoh after the grand festival so that's my destination." He remembered the other things he said. "I'm sorry for yelling at you. There's no excuse for that."
"It's alright, Ash. You're still a kid, after all." For the first time, he had to agree with her. "But maybe you should look whether she made it to the final first?"
"Yes, the battle starts in an hour. Let's have a look." They quickly went to their room and turned on the TV.
Dawn was going to the contest hall, where she met Zoey and Kenny.
"There you are! Ursula is your last opponent. It's …" Then Kenny noticed her bloodshot eyes. "Were you crying?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Zoey answered, rolling her eyes. "What happened? Is it about Ash?"
This just caused her to cry again. It took them some time to calm her down again.
"Yes …" she replied weakly. "He lost … badly. He complained how I … distracted him all the time. And he …" Tears formed in her eyes again. "He said that it would have been better if he … had never met me."
"What?" Zoey could hardly believe it. "Let me talk to him. I'm sure you he didn't mean it. And if he did, I'll beat some sense into him."
"It's alright … I …" She got interrupted by a familiar voice.
"He said such things to you? I didn't think he was that kind of guy." They turned around to see Ursula standing there with a frown. "I always thought he liked you too much to admit how much of a distraction you are."
"Leave her alone! She doesn't need you to make everything worse," Kenny yelled.
"Leave it to me," Dawn told him before turning to Ursula. "Don't you dare speak of him again!"
"Or what? Just admit. He wasn't as great as you thought," Ursula replied defiantly.
"That's enough!" she snapped. "I'm glad to have you as my opponent at the final. Prepare to lose!"
"You don't frighten me. Anyway, I'll see you later." Ursula was surprised at how a minor insult enraged her and was hoping that this event would make the battle easier for her.
"Let's go," Dawn mumbled.
About one hour of waiting later, the battle finally started. Ash saw her eyes, feeling a surge of guilt running through his body. She didn't look sad but furious. He could only guess that she was angry at him. Little did he know that she was angry at Ursula right now.
"Welcome to the last battle of this year's Hoenn Grand Festival! The competing coordinators are Dawn and Ursula! Enjoy!" They readied their pokéballs.
"My two friends here are still angry because of their loss at the last grand festival. But it will be different this time. Go, Flareon and Garchomp!" Ursula exclaimed.
"Typhlosion, Gengar! Go!" Her pokémon looked at the coordinator, surprised about what she said and the way she said it. Her expression made even Gengar's grin vanish. Since she was looking at Ursula, they could only guess that her rival did something horrible. For this battle, they decided to ignore their differences and just work together to win it. "Start the shadow fire!" Typhlosion used a combination of flamethrower and smokescreen, creating a wall of fire, which emitted an unnaturally high amount of thick, black smoke.
"Sandstorm! Flareon, use shadow ball!" As it didn't know where its opponents were, it just shot them randomly at the wall of fire. Meanwhile, Garchomp was preparing the sandstorm, which would put out the fire.
"Sludge bomb! Typhlosion, cancel it once it's ready!" When the sludge bombs passed the wall, they started to glow red and didn't explode upon making contact with the floor. Instead, they just stayed there, waiting for someone to step on them. Then Gengar flew into the cloud of smoke above the stage where she was nearly invisible. Typhlosion canceled the sandstorm before it could do any harm to the fire.
"Earthquake!" The powerful shockwave did nothing to the fire or Typhlosion as he jumped up after receiving a warning from Gengar.
"Disable and burning rollout!" The ghost type stopped Garchomp from using earthquake again for a while. The fire type used flame wheel and dug into the ground where he charged up his next attack.
"Use dragon pulse and shadow ball!" Ursula had noticed that Gengar was in the cloud but since her pokémon would have a lot of trouble breathing there, she wanted them to attack her from the distance.
"Use double team! Then scary face!" Several faces kept appearing in the cloud, no matter how many they shot. Suddenly they got bigger, turning into demonic visages, which scared Ursula's pokémon.
"That's my combination! I did the same with sandstorm!" Ursula yelled. "Flareon, get in the fire! Garchomp, use dig!" She was hoping that Flareon's flash fire would increase its power.
"Telekinesis and will-o-wisp!" Before it could reach the fire, Typhlosion burst through the ground, knocking it into one of the sludge bombs, which exploded and poisoned it. Then he proceeded to push her into others while using rollout. Garchomp was levitating and got hit by a will-o-wisp, which had absorbed some of the flame's energy, right below the neck. There it not only caused a burn but also started to emit smoke, clouding Garchomp's view.
"Dragon rush!" She charged right at Typhlosion, who dug into the ground again.
"Icy wind!" The wind also blew a lot of smoke into the dragon type's face. Then Typhlosion got out of the ground right behind her and attacked with focus punch.
"Dragon claw!" Although she managed to block the attack, her own attacks missed him due to the smoke from the will-o-wisp. Flareon had absorbed the fire's energy and shot a shadow ball at Typhlosion, who simply retreated into the ground again. It got hit by Gengar's hex attack in return. "Garchom, use dig. Flareon, follow her! Use shadow barrage!"
"Earthquake!" Typhlosion shook the ground, forcing his opponents to get out again.
Ursula was already desperate. Not only were her pokémon suffering from status alignments but the smoke just wouldn't go away. Typhlosion couldn't be reached without earthquake right now. Unbeknownst to her, he was already waiting for further instructions behind the wall of fire. And Gengar was nearly impossible to hit in that giant cloud of smoke. Dawn's commands were only based on Ursula's since she couldn't see anything on the other side of the wall. Therefore, her pokémon often had to act without her commands and they used this freedom to its fullest. But there was something else. Dawn was behaving very differently. Her style was much more efficient. In addition, only two more minutes were left and Ursula had lost much more points so far.
"Create an illusion with psychic! Typhlosion, use flamethrower" Gengar gathered most of the smoke with psychic to form it into a much larger version of her own body. With a scary face and the flamethrower illuminating it from within, it made a frightening illusion. Then she simulated a shadow punch, which didn't do any damage but covered the whole stage with smoke, making breathing difficult for Ursula's pokémon. Dawn waited for her to make the next move.
"Use dragon rush on Gengar!" Finally, the will-o-wisp stopped emitting smoke. She charged right into the cloud but, of course, didn't hit the ghost type. Instead, she was slammed into the ground on the other side with psychic, where she was met by Typhlosion's focus punch. "Shadow ball!" Gengar's glowing eyes during the psychic move revealed her location to Flareon who shot a large shadow ball at her but since she was too far away and very fast, she had no trouble dodging it and hiding in the smoke again.
One more minute was left.
"Get back here!" Ursula had no idea what Garchomp was doing as Dawn only gave commands when she wanted a certain combination and left the rest to her pokémon. Nearly ten seconds later, the dragon type jumped through the fire before a powerful flamethrower hit her in the back. Then Gengar pushed her right back with psychic. "Alright, just stay there and use dragon claw!" Ursula shouted. However, she didn't see that Typhlosion had dug into the ground again. He jumped out just behind Flareon again, attacking her with rollout.
For the rest of battle he kept doing that, escaping to the other side as soon as he got attacked by two pokémon at once. Ursula also learned that dig was very valuable to avoid the wall of fire but it didn't help to catch the elusive fire type or to avoid Gengar's attacks. Nothing special happened until a signal ended the battle.
"It's over. The winner and therefore new top coordinator is, what a surprise, Dawn! Congratulations!" The audience cheered but Dawn didn't really listen.
"Well done, you two. I knew you could work together perfectly." They pushed her towards Mr. Contesta, who was already waiting with the ribbon cup.
Ursula silently recalled her pokémon and sneaked away.
"Well done. After your second place at the SInnoh Grand Festival it was only a matter of time. Congratulations! Enjoy your new title and trophy," he told her.
"Thank you." She raised the trophy and waved to the crowd, smiling brightly. Or so it seemed. But Ash saw that she was very sad despite her victory.
"Look at her," he said to Iris and Cilan. "She has just become a top coordinator. She has just fulfilled a dream. Wouldn't you expect her to be much more happy? Especially considering her cheerful nature. And that battle ... so much different from her usual style."
They looked at her and couldn't help but agree with him. When Ash won the league, she went berserk. But here, she only waved at the people weakly.
"I have to talk to her. As soon as possible." He stood up and looked at his friends. "What are you going to do now?"
"I'm sorry, Ash. There are still a lot of things I have to do in Unova," Iris told him.
"Same here," Cilan replied. "But I will accompany you to Castelia City if you want me to."
"Yeah, me too," Iris agreed.
"Thank you, guys. So let's go!" Ash shouted.
"What? Now?" Iris asked.
"Of course! As I've said, I want to get there as soon as possible." In moments like this he was mad at himself for not having a psychic type with teleport. "Wait for me, Dawn," he mumbled.
Dawn had simply teleported to her room to avoid journalists since she wasn't too keen on talking about her victory right now. So she also ignored the calls she received or told them that she didn't want to talk at the moment. Soon after, Kenny and Zoey were knocking on the door.
"Come on, Dawn!" Kenny shouted. "Just open the door. Why don't you want to talk to us?"
"Why don't you just leave me alone?" she replied.
"What's wrong with you? Is it because of Ash?" Zoey asked.
There was no answer. They just kept knocking on the door. When they realized that she wouldn't answer, Kenny went outside to throw pebble stones at her window. After a while she had enough and opened it.
"Just go away!" she yelled. "Can't you see that I want to be left alone?"
"I'll go away after a nice, long talk," he told her. "You just won the Hoenn Grand Festival. Forget about Ash. You should be happy."
"Happy? After I learned that I ruined the life of the boy I love? You can't be serious!" He couldn't believe that she just admitted that she loved him.
"Aren't you even a bit happy?" She went into her room and returned with the ribbon cup.
"Happy about this stupid piece of metal? You know what? I don't care about it right now. If I can't be with Ash, I don't care about anything! You like the ribbon cup? Here, take it!" She threw it on the ground and since her room was on the third floor, it shattered upon impact. Then she closed the window and went back to her bed, crying into her pillow.
Kenny didn't know what else to say. She had just destroyed her own ribbon cup. Zoey soon joined him and together they picked up the pieces. They decided to talk to her after a good night's sleep.
During the night, Dawn went to her window to get some fresh air. It was cold but she didn't mind.
It's so strange. I always wanted to become a top coordinator and now that I am one, I feel nothing. Just why did I have to hear him? Maybe he was just angry and frustrated and didn't mean it? Who am I kidding … I always knew that I was holding him back. He was just too friendly to admit it. What am I going to do now? Coordinating? It would just remind me of him. I can't do that anymore. But what else can I do? She looked at the street below her. It's a long way down. Maybe if I just … jumped? Would he miss me?
Immediately, Lucario, sensing the negative feelings, came out of his pokéball and dragged her away from the window. Her other pokémon soon joined him, yelling at her angrily after she was next to her bed. She could understand their reaction even though the thought of suicide was only there for a second.
"I'm sorry," she said, starting to sob. "I can't go on like this."
Her pokémon stopped, trying to console her instead. She hugged them tightly and they fell asleep that way soon.
The next morning, she teleported to the harbor directly after paying and took the next ship back to Sinnoh. There she would decide what to do next.
Ash arrived at Castelia City a few days later. He had to wait one more day for the next ship to Sinnoh, though. It gave him time to spend some time with his pokémon again. Most of them were a bit angry at him when they heard what he did as during their training battles, they have developed quite a bond with Dawn.
Then it was time for something he knew all too well: Saying goodbye to his traveling companions.
"Well, I'm not really good at this," he admitted. "I just wanted to say that I had a lot of fun traveling with you."
"You're not the only one who's going to miss the travels," Iris told him. "I must say, your childish behaviour has been very amusing. But now go and win her back!"
"Yes, Ash," Cilan agreed with her. "She needs you now and you need her. And once you're back together, come and visit us here in Unova."
"You can count on that." He saw that the ship was about to leave. "I better go now. Good luck to both of you. We'll see each other again. Bye!"
"Do you think she will even listen to him?" Iris asked while they were watching him leaving Unova.
"Knowing her, she will probably try to apologize to him. But he'll find a way. I'm sure of it." The ship started to move a few minutes later.
The journey through Unova was over even though not the way Ash had hoped for. Now SInnoh was waiting for him again. And a challenge more difficult than any battle.
So it ended before it really started. But they'll meet each other again soon. Even though it's maybe not the way they expected.