A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Julie Togepi, about them being reincarnated, hmm, that's an interesting possibility. I just put it there though. DaniJIE, I might try Deviantart, and as for in Spanish, sadly I don't think I'd understand that much. However, the fight between Ash and Linnea will occur soon.

The next day as Gulliver and Ash set out, trying to rub the sleep from their eyes, they told everyone else what had happened at night.

In the daylight though, the whole thing sounded ridiculous even to those who were there, and Ash thought that most probably they didn't believe him, but they didn't say anything of course and it really didn't matter anyway.

Nothing of any much importance happened along the way. That is to say, several interesting things happened, but nothing overly dangerous.

Of course, Ash continued training as much as he could, but the thing was he was afraid he was slacking off in training. Training was only really good if you had someone to measure yourself against, and the thing was that he was already very strong compared to Gulliver and his gang so he didn't have much of a benchmark.

He did however start going through Sheldon's notes again. From whatever he read, he saw that the battle against Linnea would really be one of endurance, and not simply because she was allowed to use an octet of Pokemon. Out of her Gym Trainers, Li-han was the most formidable and an expert in tiring Pokemon out, weakening them so that his mistress could strike the finishing blow.

Unknown to our heroes, however, was the fact that a tragedy had occurred as they had passed by Hawthorne City along their way to Ponyta City.

Hawthorne City was like Aroughs in most respects, except for its governor, Otrar, who had been a loyal supporter of Linnea since her very roots before she had toppled the old Gym Leader. Now very old, Otrar had realized that in his last breath he might as well help in the expulsion of the barbarian that had threatened their domain.

And so, the moment his scouts reported that a small group along with Ash had left Aroughs and their movements were being tracked from afar- the scouts never risking contact and reported to Linnea who's henchmen later sent word to others- he had prepared the explosives for ridding the city of its grain, which was easy as Hawthorne City was where they were manufactured.

Once the gang had been spotted close to Hawthorne City, Otrar had demanded that the contingency plan be executed immediately.

Sadly though, someone had made a mistake. Someone had not been as careful as they should have been while someone should while handling explosives. We'll never know the name, or names, of the person or people responsible, but we will know that Hawthorne City blazed in a terrible fire for over seventeen days before it died down.

Ash maybe would have helped them, but he and his gang had traveled too far from the city to notice the fire...

Linnea was exhausted and sitting atop a raised dais in her palace. She had been training for a long time and now supposed that it was finally the time for a break.

After all, training had quickly gotten boring- as farming, in both senses of the word, was a deeply tedious task. Especially with no one close to her level for her to gauge how strong she had gotten.

The pretender was approaching her city, and would be arriving within a day or two. She had called for Li-han to return to the city- he had gone to the countryside on some sort of administrative matter or the other, but had yet to receive a reply.

She sighed, if only Selena didn't jack up the prices for her telephones so much, well, life would be easier.

Speaking of Selena, Linnea supposed that she hadn't heard from her in a very long time. As a possible cause, Linnea supposed, Selena had found out about Alan Lazar. Or maybe she was just having problems, but the silence was unsettling nonetheless.

A messenger entered and bowed, and said, "Milady, Li-han is dead!"

Linnea blinked. It took several seconds for the message to sink in. "What? How?"

"Lord Li-han had been looking very stressful over the days, and then a missive came that Hawthorne City had accidentally burnt itself to the ground. When he heard of the tragedy and of the people that had been killed, well- his heart froze in his very chest," the messenger said.

"But- but he's seen terrifying things before!" Linnea screamed. "How did this kill him?"

"Perhaps it was one too many," the messenger said. "And- I believe one of his grandsons was in Hawthorne City."

Linnea didn't believe it at first. When she did, she leaped from the dais, and using the Fourth Gym Badge, slew the messenger instantly. A simple thought, and the man simply didn't even exist anymore- having been separated molecule by molecule due to the Badge's power.

As Ash and his crew approached Ponyta City, so called for the vague resemblance of the land mass to a horse, a bedraggled welcoming committee awaited them.

"Huh," Ash said, peering out into the distance. "What're all those people doing?"

After watching them for a minute, someone piped up, "I think it's a funeral."

"Yeah, that'd explain the glum faces," Ash said. "But whose? And why are there several hundred people then?"

"Must be someone important," someone besides him whispered. "Maybe Linnea died?" He sounded hopeful.

"Don't be stupid, Linnea can't die. Not with the Tempo Badge," came another voice.

"I can dream, can't I?" came the reply.

They slowly made their way towards the city walls, but the funeral party had withdrawn till then. Once they were within a distance that could be heard, a voice came from the walls.

"Halt there, stranger! Are you Sir Ash, current wielder of the first three Gym Badges?"

"Yes!" Ash shouted back. He couldn't see who it was that was talking to him though.

"Lady Linnea then wishes to accept your challenge," the messenger said. "She awaits you at her palace."

The person still didn't become visible, but the gates swung open.

Ponyta City was much like Aroughs, except for the fact that since it was near the sea there was a large harbor visible, and in addition to that, the whole city seemed to be draped in large black banners. Lots of people hurried through the streets but gave Ash and his gang a wide berth. A lot of them seemed to be mourning.

The imperial palace was even larger than Freyja's villa and was far more imposing, though it wasn't as superfluously grandiose with waste. There were lots of soldiers, though the gate opened up for them and led into a main hallway.

Ash tried not to stare at the various lilies and ornaments that he would have probably stopped to look at and take a couple of photos with in a normal instance.

Linnea was in a large chamber sitting atop a dais, with the arena painted in wood.

Linnea was dressed in a fine purple kimono, though it wasn't pompous enough to impede her movements during battle. She shot a disgusted look at Ash as he walked in.

"I challenge you to a-" Ash began.

"Yes! I accept!" Linnea said. "I trust you already know my special rule, that I can use eight Pokemon?"

Ash nodded. Gulliver and his crew went towards the sidelines to watch.

"You'll face my Gym Trainers first," Linnea said. "All four of them."

"But you can use five, right?" Ash asked, confused. "And where's the guy named Li-han?"

That broke Linnea. She hadn't initially planned to get into a fight with the small child regarding her deceased tutor and adviser, but that broke her. "Where is he? Where is he? You should know, of all, child, he's dead," she spat.

Li-han's death was a major blow to Linnea's preparations for battling with Ash, as the majority of his Pokemon had given up the ghost along with him. Only his Miltank remained, and she seemed really depressed and Linnea didn't know how well she could fight in those circumstances. She couldn't arrange for another Gym Trainer worth his or her salt, and so had decided to forego one entirely, and pawned off the Miltank to one of them hoping that it would be of some use at the very least.

"Dead? How do I have something to do with it?" Ash asked, confused.

"Thirty-two years," Linnea said. "Thirty-two years that I ruled in peace and my domain prospered, until you had to show up and begin ruining everything. To stop you, I had ordered a scorched earth strategy, but the city of Hawthorne, sadly, has burnt to a crisp due to an accident. The poor old man's heart failed him when he heard the news."

A bunch of guilty feelings welled up in Ash, but these were quashed by a rising wave of rage. "My fault? My fault? It's your fault for trying to starve innocent people out, and your fault for giving orders to burn everything!"

Linnea glared at Ash. "Let's dispose of words, child. If you want to fight, let's settle this in a ritual as old as time itself."

Ash had made a vague sort of strategy for handling the gym and obtaining the Tempo Badge for himself. Roserade was still one of his most skilled Pokemon, and he decided to start it off with her.

Roserade plowed through the Trainers. They were much stronger than other Trainers he had seen before, but that wasn't much of a threshold really.

The only thing that sort of resembled something along the lines of resistance was a Miltank.

At first, when Ash had seen it, it had seemed so morose and depressed he thought that it wouldn't even stand up right. After quite some prodding from her Trainer, which Ash was sure bordered on Pokemon abuse, it finally decided to fight.

It was a half-hearted attempt, but still managed to damage Roserade a bit, but that was compensated later on with a Giga Drain that left Roserade in perfect shape.

Linnea growled. All in all, this meant that her Gym Trainers had done quite literally nothing to this kid's Pokemon.

But no matter. She more than far outclassed her Gym Trainers.

"Flareon! Go!" she said and released her Fire type, with the specific purpose of picking on Roserade's weak point.

"Come back Roserade! Arcanine, go!" Ash said. He had no Water Pokemo, and he suddenly realized that one would have nicely filled in the gap with his team being weak to those Mamoswine, but he would have to concentrate on that later.

"Flamethrower!" Linnea said.

"Dig!" Ash said.

Arcanine dug beneath the earth and avoided the red-hot flames that sailed harmlessly above the hole it made in the ground.

"Flareon, figure out where it's going to come from," Linnea said.

Flarean kept an ear to the ground, and when Arcanine finally came up, it moved out of the way, but not fast enough, and it still sustained some damage, which Ash followed with a Bite.

If Linnea had meant to keep it as a war of attrition she was doing rather badly, Flareon eventually succumbed first, and Arcanine was hurt, but not very badly.

"Golduck!" Linnea said.

"Arcanine! Come back! Pikachu, you go!" Ash said. "Thunderbolt!" he ordered.

As the blast of lightning moved towards Golduck, Linnea withdrew him to instead switch out with a Steelix. The Pokemon was huge, with a head that scraped the ceiling. The Electric attack didn't hurt it in the least.

Ash withdrew Pikachu and switched out for Roserade, once again regretting that he had not thought to bring a Water type Pokemon, then again, he hadn't known about the Steelix or Flareon.

The Steelix and Ash's Roserade fought each other, with Roserade using Giga Drain, and Steelix using Crunch and other moves.

Linnea's Steelix was very sturdy, and might have been able to give Roserade a significant amount of damage, if it wasn't for the fact that Giga Drain kept restoring some health.

Steelix eventually toppled down, and cheers came from Gulliver and the rest of the gang.

Ash smiled, this was turning out to be easier than he had expected, but this was quickly wiped off his face as he noticed how much damage his Roserade, arguably his strongest Pokemon save Pikachu had taken despite the healing that Giga Drain provided.

"Skarmory! Go!" Linnea said. "Use Spikes!"

The spikes scattered around Ash's team would do their toll later in the battle, though they also discouraged Ash switching out. He didn't let it stop him though, as he sent Pikachu.

Pikachu was damaged slightly, but still up and kicking.

"Thunderbolt!" Ash said.

"Skarmory! Dodge!" Linnea said.

Skarmory weaved around the bolts of lightning- it was much faster than Ash had anticipated.

"Use Return!" Linnea said.

The attack did severe damage to Pikachu, though in good news, when Linnea went and used it again, it paralyzed her Skarmory. With it slowed, Pikachu took it out with a Thunderbolt.

"Go, Golduck!" Linnea said.

Despite the type disadvantage, Linnea was able to win with a single Water Pulse that Pikachu, being worn out, wasn't able to dodge.

Pikachu fainted, making it the first time that Ash had lost a Pokemon in the battle. Ash withdrew Pikachu and sent out his Roserade instead.

"Ice Beam," Linnea said coldly.

Now that was an attack that nearly knocked out Roserade, who had already taken damage from the spikes, but it barely hung on.

"Giga Drain!" Ash said. The resultant damage was encouraging, as was the fact that Roserade seemed to be slightly better.

"Ice Beam! Again!" Linnea said.

Roserade was just able to dodge it and sent a Magical Leaf out at Linnea's Golduck.

Her Golduck was now on the brink of defeat, but took down Roserade first with an Ice Beam.

Ash withdrew Roserade, his two best fighters were down. And though he had four left and Linnea had lost three, she still had one more than he did.

But not, as it would turn out, for long, as Haunter dealt a swift Shadow Punch before Linnea's Golduck could do anything.

Linnea then sent out her Kricketune. It was a Pokemon wide renowned for its singing, though sadly, despite Linnea's intense training, it was not a particularly powerful member of her team. And Haunter had managed to avoid any damage due to Spikes thanks to its Levitate ability.

As such, Linnea decided to open up with a Confuse Ray attack. This was a bit of a gamble on her end, but it paid off as Haunter hit itself twice in row before Kricketot finished it off with Bug Bite.

Arcanine finished off Kricketot quickly as Ash sent it out.

Linnea was down to a last three Pokemon. The tension in the room was palpable, this seemed to be one of those, 'it could go either way' sort of things.

Linnea sent out an Alakazam.

Ash had fought a Psychic type before, and his earliest memories of one was Sabrina's Abra.

But this wasn't going to end like that.

"Arcanine, Fire Fang!" Ash said.

The attack did damage, but not nearly enough, and the Alakazam's Psychic took out Arcanine.

"Skorupi! Go!" Ash said. This was bad, his only Pokemon besides her was his Grimer. Both of them were Poison types, and this would not go well.

However, it wasn't much of a problem as Skorupi used an X-Scissor quickly to take out the Alakazam. As a bonus, it even evolved into a Drapion.

Linnea's next Pokemon was her Liligant. It fought valiantly, but the type disadvantage was too much and all it managed to get in was a Stun Spore before fainting.

Only one Pokemon was left with Linnea, and if she hadn't changed her roster since Sheldon fought her, it would be an Elektross.

Linnea sent out her electric eel.

"Poison Jab!" Ash said.

"Dodge it and use Thunderbolt!" Linnea shouted.

The Elektross was fast, though Drapion managed to avoid the Thunderbolt. The two Pokemon kept striking and missing, until finally one of Elektross' Thunderbolts hit home.

Drapion seemed to be hit bad, but it also seemed to be pretty mad about the whole thing.

"Drapion! Sludge Bomb!" Ash said.

For the first time though, Drapion completely ignored his orders and went with another Poison Jab. This was effective, though it put it in range for Elektross to finish it off.

"Aww, Drapion," Ash said. He had lost to Richie when his Charizard had stopped obeying him, and this seemed like a replay of that.

Only he couldn't lose. He just couldn't.

"Grimer! Go!" Ash said. "Use Sludge Bomb!"

This attack not only hit its mark, but also poisoned the enemy Elektross. Now it was just a matter of outlasting it…

"Thunderbolt!" Linnea shouted.

"Minimize!" Ash said through gritted teeth. He only had to hold on just a bit longer…

Luck was on Ash's side though, as the Thunderbolts missed twice in a row, and the Elektross finally toppled over.

"NO!" Linnea screamed so loudly that even Ash was impressed- he didn't know humans could make such a loud and shrill noise.

The Tempo Badge which was a small blue harp hovered over and joined the rest of Ash's collection. However, instead of feeling triumphant, Ash had a sick feeling in his stomach. This was followed by a sour taste in his mouth as if he had just thrown up, and some dizziness.

"I wouldn't have lost…" Linnea said, so angry she could hardly speak, "if Li-han hadn't died…"

Ash knew she was right, and that made him feel worse about the whole deal. Was guilt why he was feeling so bad, or something else?

Unlike Marley or Freyja, Linnea didn't go quietly and tried assaulting Ash before his Badges put an end to that and knocked her using his Badges though, Ash felt a strange strain in his head that hadn't been there before. What was going on?

Now the ruler of the territory, Ash wandered the palace in silence. He needed a few moments to himself and motioned for Gulliver not to follow him.

Outside, the streets were still filled with people mourning Li-han. The funeral hadn't been something ordered by Linnea, it had been done by the people of Ponyta City in respect for a man they knew as one of the best administrators ever. And it wasn't just for him- but for all the citizens of Hawthorne City who had perished.

Ash hung his head. They had won, but what had it accomplished?

A/N: Thanks as always for reading, and do review if you liked!