Chapter 38: Awkward Confrontation
"Ash can we talk?" Lillie asked Ash who was puzzled.
"Yeah sure. Come in." Ash reluctantly let her in his room and both sat on his bed looking each other in the eyes. "So what do you want to discuss about?"
"I want you to tell me what happened back then." Lillie without second thoughts revealed her reason of coming over his room.
"I think we discussed about this before. I don't feel like talking about the past." Ash instantly turned down her request.
"No, I'm not referring to your past. I'm talking about what happened to you during your battle with Drake." Lillie then became more specific.
"Now things are getting interesting." The voice inside Ash stated talking again.
"Oh that. I spaced out when I was thinking about a strategy. That's all." Ash lied about the incident completely ignoring the voice.
"You were talking to yourself. That's not normal." Lillie then started pushing Ash even further.
"A truly sharp and smart girl. So she isn't only about looks and wealth after all. No wonder you are staring at her like an idiot when she doesn't notice the same way you did with your friend's girlfriend." The voice kept taunting him.
"I was muttering my strategy. You are putting too much thought on that." Ash said as he clenched his fists and started getting annoyed by both sides.
"Never see you muttering and spacing out like that before. It's not a part of you." Lillie insisted in disbelief.
"Hahaha she is really hard to deal with."
"Lillie, I told you already that everything is fine. I just spaced out nothing more nothing less."
"Ash, why can't you be honest?" Lillie started looking disappointed and sad.
"Ok, that's enough! What's your problem, Lillie?!" Ash then snapped at her.
"My problem?! I am trying to help you!" Lillie then raised her own tone as well.
"Who said that I need help?! I just wanted to sleep and rest for a bit and yet I have you here in my room interrogating me non-stop about my well-being while clearly ignoring my answers!"
"Wow this is really fun. Go tell her, buddy!"
"Because it's evident that you are hiding something which is severely harming you right now! Just let it out and I… no we can help you overcome this!" Lillie claimed putting her hands on her chest.
"All this, is on your mind! Nothing is going wrong with me!"
"Wow the irony…"
"Then explain to me why you were whispering before I knock your door!" Lillie revealed.
"Oops, you didn't do a good job there, buddy."
"So you were eavesdropping." Ash then crossed her arms staring at her.
"Yes I did and I would do that again!"
"Whatever… just get out." Ash turned his back against her then.
Then he suddenly something warm touching his back and then two hands connected surrounding his chest which made him smile and slightly blush. It was Lillie who was hugging him from behind.
"I know you are doing this to protect us all. You are afraid that we will get dragged along with this. Everyone decided to help you here so we were prepared to face difficulties. So please don't feel like this. We can protect ourselves and if we couldn't, we wouldn't be here with you. But I understand why you feel burdened. This is your character after all. You always put everyone's well-being above your own ego. This is the main reason… I fell for you. I… like you, Ash." Lillie trying to warm up Ash she confessed.
Ash was dumbfounded because even though he knew about the whole thing he didn't expect to hear those words coming directly from her mouth.
"Didn't see that coming… Well you know how you should handle this. A relationship will only drag you down and make you vulnerable against your enemies. You know that from your past experience. Do I need to remind you what happened to Serena? If you weren't that stubborn to bring her home or wanting to make a party there then there would have been no casualties. So reject her to avoid another incident like this, buddy! Reject her! Reject her! Reject her! REJECT HER! NOW!"
"I DON'T FEEL THE SAME WAY ABOUT YOU, LILLIE!" Ash then pulled away from her hug and shouted at her leaving her completely shocked and unable to say anything. "I was trying to tell you that from the very first time we talked through Misty's phone after haven't been in touch for such a long time! I already knew about your feelings since the moment I started travelling again! So I was trying to tell you that when we were on this so called date but was distracted. You kept distracting me the whole time I was about to tell you that but it felt like you already knew about my intentions and you were distracting me on purpose! So let me get this straight! I'M NOT IN LOVE, I DON'T FEEL ANYTHING SPECIAL ABOUT YOU AND I NEVER WILL! WE ARE FRIENDS! NOTHING MORE NOTHING LESS! NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF MY ROOM!" Ash then started heavily panting after he finished.
"You really outdid yourself out there. That was one hell of a rejection, buddy! I'm so proud of you!"
Then awkward silence engulfed the whole room till Lillie who was staring at the floor seemingly annoyed from Ash's words raised her head and faced him again.
"You are a big hypocrite. If you were ok as you claimed, you wouldn't react like that. I don't know what's going on with you but after this I really don't want to learn. Do you think you are the only person who had it hard in life? I was unable to leave from Alola for years because my mother fell ill from her exposition with Nihilego sometime after you left. I and Gladion had to take care of her along with the Aether Foundation by staying behind and working there. I had to cancel all my plans about travelling to other regions because of that!"
"At least you still have a mother."
*SLAP*
Lillie then angrily slapped him after hearing his answer.
"That was low. Really low. I couldn't even think about comparing our situations. We are done. And I mean as friends. I will keep travelling with you mainly because of our friends and the fact that I always wanted to do it."
"Do whatever you want." Ash responded coldly while holding his cheek.
Then Lillie headed towards the rooms door.
"Shit! We weren't listening!" X3
Brock, May and Dawn who were leaning at the door eavesdropping the whole time fell down once Lillie opened it but she did ignore them due to her frustration. Pikachu which was playing around on the ship with Dawn's Piplup decided to follow Lillie without her noticing as she was entering her room. The moment she got in her room she entered under her bed sheets while tears started dripping from her eyes.
"Pika-chu." Pikachu then jumped on her bed.
"Agh! Pikachu! What are you doing here?" Lillie was startled by Pikachu while she was trying to wipe her tears so the yellow mouse won't notice that she is sad but in vain.
"Pika…" Pikachu then patted her head trying to confront her which made Lillie smile.
"Thank you." She chuckled at Pikachu's gesture. "I am going to take a nap. Do you want to join me?" Lillie asked him.
"Pika!" Pikachu agreed and as he joined it showed his affection for her by rubbing his cheek against her nose.
"Hahaha oh Pikachu! Thank you for being here for me." She said as she cuddled him and then fell asleep together.
Meanwhile in Ash's room
"What was that about, guys?" Ash stared at them with a disappointed look.
"We're sorry." The trio apologized.
"It's ok. I guess we were shouting too much." Ash assumed the obvious with a sad look.
"When do you intend to apologize to her?" Brock then asked Ash.
"I don't know if I can do it. I'm already pretty confused with myself right now. I don't really want to talk about it either."
"That's understandable but please try to reconcile. We don't want to see you two like this." Brock claimed with both girls nodding their heads.
"Yeah… By the way where is Pikachu?"
"The last time I saw him he was playing on the ship with Piplup." Dawn mentioned.
"Pipipiplup!" Then Piplup started crying at Dawn who was holding it in her arms.
"What is it, Piplup?"
"Pipipiplup!" Piplup then with his fin pointed at Lillie's room.
"Lillie's room?" May asked as she looked where Piplup was pointing at.
"Piplup seems to agree." Dawn stated as she noticed her penguin nodding his head.
"I guess he is spending time with her now." Brock said as he held his chin.
"Hmm, that's fine by me. At least he is in good hands." Ash sounded relieved.
"Really? Are you ok with that?" Dawn asked surprised with Ash's reaction.
"Of course. The fact that I had a big quarrel with her doesn't mean that Pikachu isn't allowed to interact with her. Who am I to decide that? Also, Pikachu really loves Lillie after all so it cannot be helped." Ash calmly stated.
"I see. That's good then." Dawn smiled.
"Well if you don't mind, I want to take a nap now." Ash then sat on his bed.
"Ok, we will see you later." May said as she waved at him and exited from the room along with the others.
"Sigh, I hope you are satisfied now."
"Of course I am, this was really enjoyable."
"You are nothing more than an annoying nuisance. Because of you I ruined my friendship."
"Because of me? It was doomed to fail from the beginning because of your determination to achieve your goals. The only thing I did was to speed things up for you so you won't get distracted by petty things anymore."
"I was doing perfectly before you interfere."
"Oh really? You did well thus far no doubt but you were also quite lucky as well. If you keep going on like this you will fail miserably."
"Like I said you are only a nuisance to me. I will figure out a way to get you out of my head."
"I would like to see you try. You don't even know what I even am yet."
"Tch! Wait and see!" Ash replied before falling to sleep.
Unknown location: Arceus Cult HQ – Main Hall
"We lostour signals from the abandoned base on Mirage Islands." A white hooded guy reported to his boss.
"So they actually got caught up in our trap. Those International Police goons are really dumb. This explosion should have sunk the whole island by now taking a bunch of their units along with it." The golden masked boss stated.
"What are we going to do now?"
"Why… do you even… need to ask?" the purpled hooded guy stated with a horrifying look in his eyes making the white hooded guy to shiver.
"Caius, relax. I haven't announced our next move to the rest of our brethren yet." Then he turned his gaze towards the white hooded guy."Here is your job. Tell to all of our brethren to prepare for a trip to Johto in five days from now."
"Yes, master. I'm going now."
Then the guy left the place.
"Kane, Morg. Come here." The boss called other two Admins to join who wore a red and a green hood respectively.
"What is it, master?" Kane asked.
"Before I go in full detail about our plan in Goldenrod City I will have to mention that through our spies Ash Ketchum and his gang are heading to Evergrande City."
"Are we going to engage him there? It can be a bit risky with Champion Steven being there." Morg expressed his concern about the idea of an attack.
"Don't rush into conclusions."
"Oh I'm sorry."
"I only mentioned that so we can keep an eye of him so he won't interfere in our plans again. Leave him be. Now back to our plan on stealing the GS Ball. Look this 3D hologram map of Goldenrod City." Then he revealed a map by pressing a button on the table they were sitting.
"Professor Elm's speech will take place outside from the Goldenroad Radio Tower. We will have to blend with the crowd so we won't get much attention before we act. Kane will guard the southern gate while Morg will guard the northern one. Caius with a bunch of our brethren will steal the GS Ball before anyone can react in time and ran away towards one of the two gates. Then you will head towards the nearby mountains where I will use Celebi so I can go back in time and prevent the Fiore incident. Of course there will be more of us around Johto since the tighten security no longer exists. This is the plan. It's quite simplistic if you ask me. Any questions?"
"May I provide my questions?" Morg asked.
"Please go ahead."
"If we steal the GS Ball in front of those people, aren't we exposing ourselves in the public? The point of our cult is to convert people but from the shadows. If we get exposed this might create problems for the future of our cult in case our plan won't work. Also, we are not entirely sure if the International Police will be truly there or not."
"Analytical as always. Don't worry I have taken this into account as well. I expect the International Police to appear but they will be weakened from their failed attempt in the Mirage Islands. I decided to abandon that base because it wasn't going to hold out anyway. So instead of losing both the base and its personnel at least we saved the latter and we will extra help for our mission. And since I know you well you will ask why we should take a risk at capturing Celebi while we can keep doing what we are doing from the shadows. Well as you can see we have already lost two bases in Kanto and Hoenn and there is the danger of losing Sinnoh if Ketchum gets there with the help of the Police. Also, we are not ready to deal with a possible Ultra Beast invasion. So it's better to prevent things in the past and be better prepared for our ideal alternative present. Do you have any other questions?"
"No I have no more queries, master."
"Well then. It's time to visit Johto again!"
TO BE CONTINUED
~ HAPPY NEW YEAR! ~