(Title is French and means "Love through life")
Escalator. Airport. A honey-haired girl runs towards a raven-haired boy. She kisses him. She blushes, the escalator takes her away. "Thank you!" she has time to shout. The boy smiles confusedly.
"I ... love you, do you wanna be my girlfrien.." the raven-haired boy says shyly and the honey-blonde girl interrupts him and wraps her arms around his neck. "And I love you!" she exclaims and presses her lips against the boy's lips. "And of course I want to be your girlfriend"
Restaurant. 6 years later. A young man kneeling in front of a young woman. Open a burgundy velvet box where a beautiful diamond ring rests. "Uh, will you be my wife?" the man asks and the woman's eyes are moistened with tears of joy and she replies, "I will! Of course I will!" and other customers at the restaurant cheer and clap.
"You can kiss the bride," the priest says, and the raven-haired man presses his lips to the bride's lips, and she responds to the kiss. In the front rows, the mothers of both wiped their tears with their handkerchiefs and the yellow electric mouse exclaims happily, "Pika!"
A year later. Honey Blond-haired woman whispering to her husband's ear: "I'm pregnant." When the man realizes the matter, his mouth spreads into a big grin. He wraps his wife in a hug and she giggles.
Hospital. Nine months later. A man and a woman look into the eyes of their newborn daughter, which is exactly the same shade of auburn as a man's eyes. The baby looks at her parents with her big eyes wide open and the woman says gently, "Lara. Our little Lara" and the man wraps his arms around them both.
A one-year-old little girl walks her first shaky steps. Her father is a little far away ready to catch the girl if she is going to crash. The girl shakes and her father grabs the girl before she falls to the floor. He lifts the girl in his arms and she giggles. The yellow electric mouse on the man's shoulder giggles as the girl reaches out her little hand towards it and strokes it from its head. The girl's mother looks at them a little further away and smiles.
The honey-blonde-haired woman's expression spreads into a wide smile when she is declared the Kalos Queen for the second year in a row. The audience cheers and the most cheering of all is a raven-haired man, a little yellow electric mouse, and a three-year-old little girl sitting on a man's lap and shouting, "Mommy! Mommy!" The woman notices them in the audience and waves at them, even though she thinks they don't notice it. She is wrong and while a man is watching his wife, he is thinking about the time she was on stage for the first time. Time has passed quickly, he thinks and watches her daughter cheer for her mother.
"Lara honey, would you come here for a moment, Mommy and Daddy have a thing for you," the honey-haired woman says to her daughter, sitting on the couch in the living room of their house and her husband wrapped his arms around her. A four-year-old little girl runs to them and asks, "What now, Mommy?" Her mother smiles and lifts the girl in her arms and says, "You get a little brother or sister" Hearing it, the girl's eyes spread and her mouth spreads into a wide grin and she exclaims, "Yes!" Then her expression changes a bit and she says, "I want a little sister" Her mother and father laugh.
A little girl who turned five a few months ago is in her grandmother's arms when they come together to see the girl's mother in the hospital. Girl's day-old little brother sleeps in her mother's arms and the girl stares at him eyes wide. Her father takes the girl in her arms and takes her to look at the baby. Dad gently lays the girl next to the mother on the bed and the girl gently strokes the baby's soft and surprisingly bushy dark hair and her mother smiles. "Would you like to hold him?" she asks and the new big sister nods. The mother gently lifts the baby into the girl's arms and shows how she should hold him. The girl looks at her little brother with the biggest eyes and decides that she will become the best big sister in the world. The baby is ruffled in his sleep.
A pink bicycle is lying fallen on the grass and a five-year-old little girl is sitting next to it and crying. She has boarded it for the first time without a wheelbarrow and has presumably fallen and injured her knee. Her mother has come to her and she lifts the girl in her arms and together they go to clean the wound from the girl's knee. When Mom puts the patch on the girl's knee, the girl says angrily, "I'll never get on that silly bike again!" Her mother laughs and says, "You shouldn't give up right away if you don't succeed. Never give up 'till the end. Remember it." And finally, after a few unfortunate attempts, the girl manages to stay upright on the bike and her parents look at her proudly.
5 years later. The girl who has just turned 10 is just about to get the first Pokemon of her life. Her 5-year-old little brother looks jealous as her older sister takes her bag and hugs her parents and flakes her brother's thick, black hair, heading for the professor's lab. The girl's father is sure the girl will choose Charmander as her starting Pokemon (They now live in Kanto) But when the girl arrives back home, she is not carrying Charmander, but Vulpix, whom she encountered on the road and stubbornly followed her to the professor's laboratory and where it eventually became the girl's first Pokemon. Her father grinned at the story and Vulpix licked the girl's cheek.
5 years later. A fifteen-year-old girl stands in front of her parents in her living room and holds a purple-haired boy by the hand. "We're dating," she says and her parents smile. Their little girl has grown up.
A 10-year-old black-haired boy holds the first Pokeball of his life in his hand and looks at it with his bright blue eyes. "Show us which Pokemon you chose," his mother says and the boy smiles. He throws the ball in the air and a blue frog Pokemon emerges. "Froakie, like a father," the boy says and the boy's father smiles. (They live in Kalos again)
A seventeen-year-old girl hugs her parents and takes her backpack from the hallway bench. He is determined to go around each region, just as her father did when he was young. She disengages from the hug and flakes her twelve-year-old little brother's hair. "Be good boy," she says, and then she joins her yard-waiting boyfriend as well as her best friend Mayce. Her parents watch as their little girl walks away from them and her father wraps his arms around her mother. Mom wipes her tears from her eyes.
Three years later. A raven-haired man holds his wife in his arms and the wife cries against his shoulder. She has just heard that her mother has died of a heart attack. Wife's old fox Pokemon Delphox has wrapped her arms around her trainer, comforting.
A middle-aged, honey-haired woman wipes her eyes and watches her husband escort their daughter to her fiancé. The daughter looks beautiful in her white dress and she has wrapped her mother's old blue silk ribbon in her bun. Across the church, the old enemies of the girl's parents are crying against each other and watching their son smile at his bride. Old Meowth shakes his heads at them. Old resentments have been buried a long time ago and now is the time to turn a new page in their story.
Christmas. A honey-haired young woman and a purple-haired young man look at each other. They hold each other's hands. Their two families have come together to celebrate Christmas. The gifts have just been distributed, but they have one more gift for their parents. When everyone is focused on opening their gifts, the woman suddenly says, "Mom, Dad, we have one more gift for you." Her parents look at her in surprise and Mom asks where it is. The woman grins and says, "It will take some time to deliver. About nine months. You will have a grandchild next year." The woman's mother solidifies for a moment and then the package in her hand falls to the floor as she rushes to hug her daughter. The woman's father grins wide when he hears that he is going to be a grandfather and the woman's little brother looks amazed. Her husband's parents look surprised.
Five years later. A raven-haired man, already showing a little gray in his hair, drops the phone on the floor and his wife, who also looks older, peeks out of the kitchen about what happened. Seeing her husband's faded face, she rushes to him and asks worriedly about what he has. The man says he has just received a call from a hospital where his mother has been taken after he suddenly fell on the street. Doctors speculate that her heart will not last long and the man's wife wraps her arms around him. The old electric mouse looks at his best friend sad and says quietly "Pika.."
A year later. Pokemon Center. Nurse Joy shakes her head apologetically and looks sad. The world of a raven-haired man collapses. He feels his knees betray and he feels tears flowing down his cheeks. His best friend, his faithful helper during all these years, is gone. The man feels his wife wrap her arms around him and he asks to see his friend one last time. Nurse Joy nods.
The magenta-haired, 10-year-old girl proudly shows her grandparents her first Pokemon of her own. It's a little fox Pokemon and the girl's grandmother is smiling. "Fennekin!" Pokemon says and the girl announces that she will become the next Kalos Queen, just as Grandma became when she was young. The girl's grandmother smiles and says the girl is sure to become the next Kalos Queen.
Three years later. Now the already grayed-out man and woman are watching on television as their granddaughter is crowned the new Kalos Queen. The grandfather grinned and says that the girl resembles quite his wife. Grandmother smiles and says that something big can be expected from the girl.
A black-haired and blue-eyed man stands in front of his parents and they look proudly at their son, who has just become a new professor. Next to the man stands his assistant and at the same time his girlfriend, a blond woman, from behind who peeks a small, slightly shy Riolu. The woman says it is a descendant of her mother Lucario and she straightens her glasses in the same way her father used to do. The man's parents smile and say they are happy that their families are united like this.
10 years later. A blue-eyed old woman sits in her living room and looks at photos from her photo album. Pictures of she, her husband, their children as young, their children as teenagers, their children as adults, their friends and Pokemon, and many other important moments and people. She smiles at all the memories associated with taking pictures and suddenly an image falls between the album and falls to the floor. She picks it up and looks at the already yellowed and old picture. She remembers this picture especially well. It's a picture of her and her friends back then at the beginning of their Kalos journey a long time ago. She still remembers how she was drawn just before taking the picture closer to her current husband and when she remembers it she smiles.
Suddenly she feels severe pain in her chest and she falls to the floor. A picture of her hand falls to the floor. She has time to yell at her husband and he rushes to her. The man calls an ambulance and she is taken to the hospital, but the doctors are unable to rescue her and she dies a few hours later, squeezing her husband's hand and saying this name one last time. "Ash ... thank you for everything," she says, and then she's gone.
A few years later. Winter. An old man has come to light a candle on his wife's grave. He finds it sad and all those memories of her flood his mind. A few tears run down his cheeks and he wipes them away. "I wish that you would still be here," he whispers.
Pain. Sudden pain hits his head and he falls to his knees holding his head. A few people rush to his aid and one of them calls an ambulance. He's still somehow conscious when he's taken to the hospital, and the doctors are talking about something about cerebral hemorrhage. He is taken to surgery and when it is finally over, he wakes up alone from the room, and the monitors beep around him. He feels terribly tired.
Night. The moon shines from the window of his room and the fatigue feels overwhelming. Suddenly a voice whispers "Ash .." and he opens his eyes and sees his wife in front of him as she was 70 years ago. Young and beautiful and a blue silk ribbon wrapped around her hair. She reaches out and pulls him along and together they disappear into the moonlight. "Serena .." he whispers.
At the same time, the monitors that measure his heart rate are finally silenced and the last page in his story closes.
Well... I cried when I wrote the last chapter. And I don't cry easily for stories, especially my own. I hope you liked this slightly different story. And no, this is not over yet. The next clip is like an epilogue. Enjoy.
Attic. 80 years later. A young girl, maybe about 14 years old, walks between dusty things and is looking for something interesting.
Suddenly, her gaze catches on a cardboard box covered with a white sheet and underneath something red peeking. She pulls the sheet off the top of the box and with it a cloud of dust flies into the air. A little cough girl pulls the box closer and peeks curiously at it.
The red thing that caught her attention is an old, worn cap with a white picture of a Pokeball. The girl tries the hat on her head and it suits her perfectly.
Next, something blue hit her eyes. She dug it up and realized it was an old and pretty worn blue silk ribbon. She put it in the pocket of her jeans and continued to examine the box.
Soon she had examined almost the entire box and all that was left was a book-like thing at the bottom. She took it in her hands and realized it was an old photo album. She opened it and started browsing old photos.
Most of the photos depicted a woman with honey-blonde-hair and a man with raven-hair. In many pictures, they were with two children, a honey-haired girl, and a black-haired boy, and she realized that the girl and the boy were probably the children of a man and a woman.
She turned one more page again and noticed that there was a loose photograph at that opening. She took it in her hand and looked closer at it.
The picture depicted five people plus a few Pokemon. They smiled at the camera and to her surprise, she found that she resembled quite a lot of a honey-haired girl who was strangely close to a black-haired boy. The girl realized that they were the same honey-haired woman and the raven-black-haired man who also appeared in other photos, but were much younger here.
The girl turned the photo around and noticed that there was text on the back. However, she did not get a proper explanation of it, as the text had faded and something had fallen on it. However, she found out two words and they were "Serena" and "Ash"
Serena. The name sounded familiar. It was as if she had heard it somewhere. But it was a pretty old name, many didn't have it today. It was most commonly heard in the elderly.
And then she remembered where she had seen it. They had gone to take a candle to the grave of her relatives and she had examined old tombstones. And had found a grave that had caught her attention.
The girl quickly got up, ran quickly up the stairs downstairs, and out the door. She took her bike and set off to tread towards the cemetery. A place she didn't usually visit because it scared her.
She left her bike at the cemetery gate and set out in search of the tomb, which had then caught her attention.
It didn't take very long to find it. It was at the end of the older graves and it was beautiful in its own way. The tombstone was white marble and had text engraved on it.
The girl crouched closer to the stone and read what had been engraved on it. The text was old Kalos and read:
"L'amour est la plus grande force de la vie. Il ne finit jamais et il trouve toujours de la place, même lorsque vous vous y attendez le moins."
("Love is the greatest force in life. It never ends and it always finds a room, even when you least expect it.")
Below the text were the names of the people who were resting on it and below the names was a golden rose carving. The girl looked at them for a moment and then got the idea.
She took a blue silk ribbon from her pocket and a cap from her head and placed them next to the old candle. She tied the ribbon around the hat, leaned up, and looked at it a little distance away. She smiled sadly and then stood silent in it for a while. Then she turned and went back home.
But ever since, she took a candle to that same grave every year. After all, Ash and Serena had been her, Lora Ketchum's, great-great-grandmother and great-great-grandfather.
And now this story ends.