Welcome back to chapter 3! Took me a bit to update this one too. Decided to do it at the same time as my other story.

Anyway, onto chapter 3!

The light that took Serena away from the sex-crazed dimension disappeared, and Serena shielded her eyes from the bright sun that appeared before her. Usually whenever she transferred dimensions, the process made her vision blurry, but this time it didn't seem like it lasted as long as it usually did. Maybe she was getting used to traveling between dimensions?

"Oh, I hope not." Serena muttered, gradually taking her hand away from her eyes to get a glimpse on where Celebi had transported her next.

It was Pallet Town again. Specifically, it was the Ketchum household. This time though there wasn't a familiar sex cult coming for the house, and the lights all seemed to be off inside. The midday sun shinned directly overhead, and the temperature was noticeably too hot for Serena's comfort.

"Must be summer…" She wondered as she narrowed her eyes at the house in front of her. Serena then crossed her arms and squinted as she stared up at the blue cloudless sky, the sun nearly blinding her. "I'm not gonna see another naked Ash in there, am I, Celebi?"

"No, I did not bring you to another sex dimension, as funny as that would have been." Celebi's voice replied. With it, came the usual small headache that would gradually grow into a painful one. Serena was becoming used to it by this point.

"I wouldn't have found that very funny at all. I might register myself for therapy when I'm in Hoenn to try to forget everything I've seen so far."

"No amount of therapy will erase all of these lessons I've taught you, Serena."

Serena pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. She had to bite the bullet eventually. "Nevermind…Where did you bring me this time?"

"It's no fun if I tell you where you are before you get to see everyone! Go inside and see for yourself."

Knowing that it was futile to try and push the point, Serena built up her nerves and walked towards the door. She grabbed the handle and looked around to make sure that she was alone. Nobody was around, thankfully, and Serena took a deep breath to calm herself. If there was one thing that she did notice since beginning this debacle with Celebi a few months ago, it was that she seemed to be less nervous. She, of course, attributed that to the ridiculous things she had seen.

Serena opened the door abruptly, not wanting to drag it out, and everything inside was pitch black. Confused, Serena reached for the light switch next to the door, but her arm was caught by someone in the blackness.

She barely had enough time to let out a fearful scream as a hand was placed over her mouth and she was silenced. Her mind raced to where she possibly could have been teleported to by Celebi. A kidnapping dimension? The rape dimension that the pokémon referenced earlier? A dimension where murder was common?

Thankfully, most of her fears subsided when she heard a familiar voice say into her ear.

"Stop struggling, Serena! He's almost here!"

It was Clemont.

She stopped struggling when she heard his voice, which prompted him to let her go. She looked at his face, mostly hidden by the darkness, and saw that he had a very serious expression.

"Clemont? What are you doing here? Why is it so dark?"

He signaled for her to shush, and Serena gulped nervously. She made sure to put a little distance between herself and Clemont, just in case any of her previous guesses as to where she was were correct.

"Here he comes…" Came another voice a few moments later. It sounded like Delia Ketchum, but her voice was anything but the cheery voice that Serena was used to hearing. It sounded angry.

Confused as to who they were talking about, Serena simply accepted her place and stood in silence, keeping a few steps between her and Clemont just as a precaution. Another minute passed, and Serena heard someone outside the house come up to the door. The footsteps were hard and fast, as if the person was running, and in a flash the door flew open and light turned on abruptly.

Shielding her eyes to allow them a moment to get used to the sudden bright lights of the Ketchum household, Serena finally got a glimpse of everyone that gathered around her. In a semicircle around the living room seemed to be all of Ash's former companions. Serena recognized all of them as people she had seen before, either in the sex dimension or in the high school world, and they all seemed to be glaring at the newcomer to the house.

The newcomer was none other than Ash, and he was wearing his trademark grin as he too realized who was all gathered in his house.

"Hey guys! It's great to see you!" He said cheerily, and nobody answered.

Serena thought she saw May's scowl deepen as she shook her head. Brock was looking at the ground, his face holding a mixture of sadness and rage. Actually, Serena noticed, everyone looked angry. She was frozen in fear of what the dimension could be though, so she chose not to answer and look on. She wished to observe before she chose to partake in whatever was going on in front of her.

Ash's smile seemed to falter for a brief second. "Why is everyone here? You all come for a surprise visit?" Pikachu seemed to brighten up at this idea, straightening up on Ash's shoulder and smiling.

Misty shook her head then, keeping her eyes on the ground. "You could say that, Ash…"

"What do you mean?" Ash replied, worry beginning to enter his voice. "What's going on?"

"We're here because we need to have a talk, Ash…" Brock hissed with venom in his voice.

"A-about what?" Ash asked. He took a step back then, as if afraid of what they were going to say.

The dark-skinned girl Serena had seen before stomped forward and poked her pointer finger onto Ash's chest. "We're here because you're such a kid and suck at battling!"

"Suck at battling?" Serena finally repeated, but nobody paid any attention to her.

"You have never won a championship ever, Ash!" Gary added, crossing his arms.

"And you never will," Came Professor Oak's voice as he walked into the room from the kitchen. "It's best that you give up your dream and settle down to a more reasonable lifestyle."

"Settle down!?" Both Ash and Serena said at the same time. Still, nobody continued to pay attention to Serena and everyone looked at Ash as if he had spoken some great lie.

"Yes, Ash, settle down." Delia Ketchum said with a stern look. "You've been traveling around for years at this point, and you've never even come close to winning!"

"That literally isn't tru—" Serena tried to add, raising her finger up, but she was quickly silenced by Clemont yelling over her.

"Your pokémon all deserve better than you, Ash! Let them have the rest they deserve. They're the ones that have been working hard! You, on the other hand, have not been."

"W-what do you mean?" Ash stuttered out. He and Pikachu both had looks of absolute shock on their faces, and Serena's mirrored theirs. "I-I've been working hard every day for my dream for years! You all saw how hard I've worked!"

"Exactly, Ash." Dawn added. "And where has that gotten you? When you are working, you fail. You've failed so many times now that I've lost track of how many regions you've been to!"

"You all want me to give up on my dream of becoming a Pokémon Master?" Ash asked.

Serena was about to open her mouth to answer but decided not to. She had been ignored at every point so far, so she knew that nobody was going to allow her to speak now. It was then that Calem, of all people, appeared and put his arm around her. She looked over at him with a confused look as he glared at Ash.

Ash finally acknowledged that Serena was in the room by looking at her as soon as Calem had his arm around her. "Serena…you too?" He croaked out. Tears were beginning to form on his face then and Pikachu averted his gaze to hide himself

"What!?" Serena replied, realizing that Ash had only started paying attention to her when Calem had his arm around her shoulder. She walked a few steps to the side quickly, removing herself from Calem's grasp, waving her hands in front of her. "It's not what it looks like, Ash! I'm just as confused as you are."

Ash didn't answer, and instead he closed his eyes tightly and balled his hands into fists. He looked angrier than Serena had ever seen him, and briefly, she thought that he was going to punch her in the face. Thankfully, he didn't though, and he took another step backward towards the door.

"I can't believe you would side with them, Serena!" He said through clenched teeth.

"Actually, I never sided wi—"

"And to make it all worse!" Ash interrupted loudly. "All of my best friends and my own mother don't think I can become a Pokemon Master! I trusted all of you!"

"What are you going to do about it?" May teased. "Go out and train and then become stronger than Arceus himself and come back and beat us all in a randomly scheduled tournament?"

"Maybe!" Ash yelled, a tear escaping his eye.

"…What?" Serena asked, totally dumbfounded. She looked back at Calem, who reappeared at her side and put his arm around her again.

"And Serena is mine now, Ketchum! We make love every night—"

"No we don't"

"—and I'm better than you in every way!" He finished. "I'm a better trainer, a better boyfriend, and a better friend." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a ribbon, and May did the same thing. "You see? Even May thinks I'm better too!"

Disgusted by their prideful smirks, Serena scoffed and got away from Calem's arm again. She said nothing more, as she knew that nobody would listen anyway.

Ash clenched his teeth and fists even harder and he glared at the entire group. "You'll see! You will all see! I'm the best there ever was! And I'll never give up on my dream!" He ran out of the house then, screaming at the top of his lungs "Never!" Over and over again until he was out of sight.

Calem put his arm around Serena again, irritatingly, and smiled down at her. "Wasn't that nice, babe? We really showed him."

Serena rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, Calem. You really showed him." She looked back at the people all gathered in the room. "So now what? You all just chased him off. What will you do now that he's gone?"

"Absolutely nothing." They all replied in unison, and Serena sighed.

"Nothing? No traveling, training, or anything?"

"Nope. Nothing." They replied again. And true to their words, nobody moved. At all. Serena looked at Calem to make sure he was even still blinking and breathing, which he was, but he refused to move.

Confused, Serena left the house and nobody even acknowledged her. She walked out into the front yard. The summer sun beat down on her, and she was thankful that she had her hat to protect her face. "So, what was that that I just witnessed, Celebi?"

"That was "betrayal", dear Serena." Celebi's voice replied with a small chuckle. "You wouldn't believe how many dimensions of that exact scenario I've seen."

"More than the high school ones?" Serena asked, eyebrow raised.

"Yes. This is the dimension that I see the most, actually. Where Ash gets betrayed by his best friends. Virtually the same thing happens every single time. He comes home from a failure of a journey, all of his friend are in his home, and all are unreasonably angry. They tell him to give up, he doesn't, and storms off."

"Okay, but I didn't betray him? Why didn't anyone listen to me whenever I spoke?"

"Because they're idiots, Serena. I chose this dimension on purpose because I thought it would be funny."

"Why am I not surprised…"

"In this dimension, you're dating Calem, what a shocker, and you betray Ash along with everyone else. If you were this dimension's Serena, you would be sitting in that room doing nothing for the next three years until Ash came back."

"Poor Calem. He really just serves to be my boyfriend whenever I'm not with Ash, doesn't he?"

"You are correct. The guy is really hit or miss in the other dimensions. Like I said back in high school, he's either a good guy or a really bad guy. Never in between."

"Why aren't they doing anything?" Serena asked, gesturing back towards the house.

"Because they're idiots, remember? Nobody cares about them now that they've betrayed Ash! Everyone only wants to see what pokémon Ash returns with and how he destroys everyone in his brutal quest for revenge!"

Serena was silent for a few moments, unable to think of what to say to the time-traveling pokemon. The sun was starting to hurt her eyes from looking up at the sky for too long, so she gazed down at the grass below her. "So, since they're in there doing nothing, and Ash isn't coming back for a few years, what am I supposed to do?"

As if anticipating this answer, Celebi laughed with a level of excitement that worried Serena. "Ha! That's the point. Nothing!"

"You can't be serious!" She replied, raising her voice and stomping her foot. "You want me to do nothing for three entire years!? That's longer than I was with Ash, Clemont, and Bonnie in my own dimension!"

"Hey if they can do it, so can you."

"But why couldn't I just go with Ash?"

"I picked a dimension where you betrayed him as well on purpose, Serena. Believe me, dimensions where you go with him and become a pokemon god are just as common as dimensions where you betray him."

"Well why didn't you pick that one!? What am I supposed to do now?"

"Are you even listening to me? Nothing! That's the point. Just do nothing."

Serena was stunned for a moment, unable to comprehend what Celebi was telling her. She attempted to stumble out a reply, only for it to become garbled speech. Finally, she yelled in frustration and glared at the sky. "Celebi! Do NOT just leave me here to do nothing for three years! That would be cruel, even for you!"

"Hey, I don't think I'm cruel. I just look at things a different way than you do."

"Leaving me here would be cruel, Celebi!"

It was silent for a moment, and the silence only served to increase Serena's dread at having to stay in the same location for three entire years. Thankfully, Celebi did sigh. "Fine. We'll just speed everything up a little bit. You're no fun."

"Thanks Celebi!" Serena replied with a small cheer. "Maybe then I can go home next?"

"Don't get too excited here…"

The bright light returned, and in a few moments, Serena opened her eyes and saw that she was still in front of the Ketchum household. Confused for a moment, Serena turned around and saw that Ash's friends were finally emerging from the door.

"Serena!" Calem said with a great smile as he ran up to give Serena a hug. She pushed him away, but he didn't seem to care, acting as if it didn't affect him at all. "Why didn't you sit and do nothing with me?"

"Doing nothing isn't really my thing, Calem. Don't you have a bus to catch?"

Calem looked confused for a moment. "Bus? What do you mean?"

Serena sighed and faced away. "High school memories. It's a long story."

"Are you ready for the tournament?" May asked as she ran up to Serena, a small sparkle in her eye, and apparently not noticing that Serena was in the middle of a conversation.

Serena shrugged. "I didn't think I was going to participate, really."

"Oh honey, everyone participates. We all have to enter so that we can walk together in a giant group as we enter the tournament stadium?" May replied gleefully once more. "I've already entered you into the roster anyway!"

"How did you do that if you sat in Ash's house not doing anything?"

May laughed and began walking behind Serena on the path towards Pallet Town. "Silly Serena. You think too much."

Everyone joined in a synchronized group laugh and walked past the confused honey-blonde towards Pallet Town. Serena looked up at the sky as the group gradually began getting further away.

"I suppose you want me to go with them?"

"Yes."

Serena pursed her lips before running to catch up with the group. "Fine…"

She caught up with the group in no time, and the only thing they did the entire walk to Pallet Town was laugh and talk about how stupid Ash was. They seemed to be convinced that he was dead for some reason, despite the fact that everyone saw him run away, and there was no reason to believe he had died. Turning a corner around a building, Serena stopped in place upon seeing the massive coliseum that seemed to appear out of nowhere right next to Professor Oak's lab.

"Is that where the tournament is?" She asked. "It's huge!"

Delia laughed, which was a sound that was beginning to become irritating after hearing her tell the same embarrassing story about Ash four times in a row, and nobody acted like they literally just heard it a few seconds before. It didn't even sound like her real laugh. "It has to be used for Pokémon battles, Serena. So it has to be big!"

Nobody seemed interested in continuing the conversation, and Serena accepted that she would never understand everything that was going on in this dimension, so she remained silent the rest of the walk to the entrance. As they were registering their attendance at the coliseum, Serena noticed a figure standing off to the right under the shadow of an oak tree, seemingly staring at them. He was wearing a mask, but she could see his familiar black hair rising up around it, and she immediately knew who it was. Next to him was a Lucario that was standing and glaring at the small group Serena was mixed into, and a Pikachu who was idly sipping on a bottle of ketchup.

"Hey Dawn." Serena said, still peering over at the mystery man. "I'm almost certain that guy over there is Ash."

Dawn looked over at the masked man for a brief moment before laughing dramatically and patting Serena's back. "No need to worry! That can't be Ash! Ash is too much of a failure and/or dead and can't show up here, at a tournament which would announce the Pokémon Master of the world. You know, his dream?"

"Yes, precisely that reason, actually." Serena replied, deadpanning. "He has the same hair and is even wearing the same clothes! There's even a pikachu on his shoulder! How could you ignore that?"

"It isn't him!" She said with a wave of her hand as she signed her name on the paper.

Serena sighed and wrote her name on the registration paper. She attempted to ignore the ominous staring of the mystery man that she was certain was Ash Ketchum and his angry Lucario while walking with everyone else into the tournament grounds. The coliseum was just as big on the inside as it appeared from the outside, and Serena had to do a full-360 just to see the entire thing. The stands were packed with people, all cheering loudly as their little group walked in, waving. Serena waved a few times, but didn't commit to more than a few turns of her hand. She already had a decent idea of what was going to happen.

"I'm sure you can guess how this tournament is going to work, right?" Came the loud voice of Celebi.

"I'm sure this is going to be some sort of a tournament that is going to pit Ash against his former companions?"

Celebi laughed. "Look at you! I've taught you well, I see. You guessed it exactly right."

Serena looked up at the sky as her group stood in the center of the coliseum, still waving at the crowd. An announcer began talking loudly, but Serena paid no attention.

"It was easy." Serena rolled her eyes. "I'm willing to bet my life on the fact that the masked man is actually Ash. Why else would he hide his identity?"

"Dramatic effect. You'll see. These tournaments always end up the same. Just hope that you don't end up facing Ash on the battlefield. You won't want to see anything he can do while you're here…"

Serena didn't respond to Celebi, choosing instead to look at Clemont walking up to her. "Hey Serena. I'm sure you are ready for the tournament?"

"You could say that." Serena said with a shrug.

Clemont patted her shoulder with a smile. "That's the confident Serena I know. You'll rock this tournament, just wait and see."

From behind her blonde friend, Serena saw the masked man—Ash—waltz into the center of the coliseum with Lucario and Pikachu standing next to him. Narrowing her eyes at him, she saw him saunter and stand as far away from everyone as possible. He then turned his angered gaze back on the small group.

Several thoughts went through Serena's head at the moment that she made eye contact with masked-Ash. The first was a memory of seeing her dimension's Ash fall off Prism Tower in order to save Pikachu well over a year ago. Then, she joined him, Clemont, and Bonnie on their journey through Kalos, and she nearly completely changed as a person. She grew to love Ash, and saw Clemont and Bonnie as her family.

Fast forward to the Kalos League, and Ash's disappointing defeat. Then the Team Flare crisis. Then her decision to go to Hoenn. All was going well.

That is, until Celebi decided to come along and ruin everything.

Now she has spent over 2 months being thrown into confusing worlds that were almost like hers, but just different enough that they gave her terrible headaches.

All she wanted to do was go to Hoenn and accomplish her dream, and maybe even confess her feelings to Ash along the way. But no. No, now she is sitting in a coliseum that may or may not actually exist in Pallet Town (It had been years since she was last in Kanto in her dimension), and this dimension's Ash was currently giving her a death glare while all of his "friends" laughed along like nothing was happening.

And they still didn't acknowledge the fact that it was Ash Ketchum standing not 50 feet away from them.

Serena's left eye twitched, and she started walking towards masked-Ash slowly. After a few moments, her pace increased to where she was briskly walking towards Ash. All the while, he was watching her with great intent, and the Lucario and Pikachu next to him intensified their death glares on the honey-blonde.

"Hey I don't know what you're doing, but it probably isn't a good idea." Celebi's voice rang inside her head, but she didn't acknowledge it.

She increased her pace into a run, ignoring the calls of Clemont and Dawn after her as she approached masked-Ash.

"I'm not going to sit in some tournament for weeks while Celebi keeps me stranded here!" She yelled out, now only a few paces from Ash. Nobody seemed to stop her though. Not masked-Ash, not his pokemon, and not any of the people watching her in confusion. "I'm going to end this right now!"

Serena grabbed the corners of Ash's mask, who reacted too late, likely from surprise, and pulled it away.

Underneath the mask was Ash's scarred and surprised face, which was no surprise to Serena at all. She merely tossed the mask to the side and pointed at Ash's shocked face.

"I told you! I told all of you!" She yelled with a small laugh. "I knew it was Ash all along!"

"H-how did you know?" Ash replied as he squeezed his fists tightly. "I worked so hard on my disguise! Years of revenge was supposed to culminate here!"

"You worked hard on your disguise?" Serena said sarcastically. "You're wearing a cloak and a mask! That's hardly a disguise. You didn't even bother to cover up your hair!" She pointed at Pikachu then. "You also brought Pikachu with you! How would anyone not know it was you?"

Dawn raised her hand and opened her mouth to speak, but Serena quickly cut her off with a point of her finger. "Don't even say it!" She interrupted.

A dark chuckle from Ash brought the honey-blonde's attention back to him. "No matter." He cried out. "I waited years for my revenge against you, Serena. Nothing will stop me now!"

"What do you mean!?" Serena replied loudly. "I'm the ONLY one who didn't say anything bad about you back when we were all at your house!"

"Your betrayal hurt me the most, Serena…" He replied, seemingly ignoring what she was even saying. A small tear escaped from his eye and slid down his cheek. "I meditated on it for three years on top of Mt. Silver. It was there that I trained and mastered the ways of the aura! I found an abandoned Lucario and raised it as my own, and even befriended every legendary Pokémon in the world!"

At that moment, much to the disbelief of everyone, every legendary Pokémon in the world did appear above the coliseum with great roars. Rayquaza, Mewtwo, Dialga, Groudon, Latios, Serena stopped keeping track after that. The flying legendaries all carried the ones that were unable to fly, and it their raw power sent off shockwaves that everyone in the coliseum could feel.

"What are they all doing here?" Serena asked loudly, hoping Ash heard her over the wind torrents of the Pokémon flying over them.

She turned her eyes back on Ash and gasped at what she saw. His eyes were now blood red and the wind began to pick up around them, blowing all of their clothes around violently.

"Throughout my meditation, I focused on the one thing that kept me going. Throughout all of that time on Mt. Silver, vengeance was my only goal. Revenge on all of my former friends, and especially revenge on you, Serena!"

"What did I do!?"

Ash didn't answer. Instead, he threw his arms up into the air, his blood-red gaze garnering the attention of all the legendaries in the sky. "Ever since that day where you all betrayed me, I have trained without rest. Now I am the most powerful trainer in the world! I have thrown off my old name; I am no longer a Ketchum! From the ashes of my old name comes my new one. I am now known as Red!"

"From the ashes of your old name…?" Serena asked, dumbfounded. "Are you serious?"

It seemed everyone else that was present finally decided to act and all of them ran over to stand next to Serena, pokeballs in hand.

"Stay away from her, Red!" Brock yelled out, putting himself between Serena and Ash—Red.

Clemont and Dawn joined him and shielded Serena with their arms, while Delia grabbed the honey-blonde and held her in a tight hug. "I'm so sorry he said those mean things to you, Serena!" She cried out, as if attempting to console her.

Serena was silent for a few seconds, taking in the scene in front of her. She attempted to free herself from Delia's clutches but couldn't break the mother's grip. "What is wrong with you people?" She yelled out.

"We need to protect you, Serena!" Brock, Dawn, and Clemont all yelled out at the same time. It wasn't the first time that had happened, and the honey-blonde attempted to ignore her many questions that were building up.

"It's time I had my revenge!" Red said, pointing at the small group. "Tear into them, Lucario! Show them who is boss!"

Lucario nodded and put his rage-filled eyes on the group. In his hands conjured an aura sphere, and he launched it the cluster of people. Dawn's Piplup attempted to stop it, but failed miserably, and the aura sphere sent the penguin pokemon flying into the sky. It disappeared with a twinkle, but Dawn didn't seem to care at all. She only glared at Red harder.

"You'll pay for that!" She yelled back.

A loud roar was heard, and Serena looked up to see all of the legendaries flying down at impossible speeds, sending hyperbeams and flamethrowers and attacks Serena didn't even know into the innocent crowd. Red, meanwhile, was laughing as his Lucario was singlehandedly taking down every Pokémon that his former friends threw at him. He even joined in the fight every once in a while, sending an aura sphere of his own.

Serena managed to break free from Delia's grasp and ran away from the battle. She sprinted as fast as her legs would take her as far away from everyone as she could get. Unfortunately for her though, Red seemed to have godlike powers, and he teleported in front of her just as she was going to reach the exit.

"Where do you think you're going, Serena?"

"I'm not sure, but anywhere that isn't here sounds good to me right now!" Serena replied.

Ash chuckled dryly. "I didn't wait three years for my revenge just for you to escape…"

Much to Serena's dread, he put his hands to his left side and gathered up an aura sphere. The honey-blonde gulped, knowing what he planned on doing, and silently she accepted her fate. It was a fitting end, almost. Ash would be ending her, just as he was the one who began her journey over a year ago. Ironically though, it wasn't even her Ash that was in front of her. She wished it was though.

She took one last look at Red's seething eyes before closing her own tightly, waiting for the deed to be done.

A few seconds passed, and nothing happened.

A few more seconds passed, and Serena let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

She opened her eyes and saw that Red was still standing in front of her, but his aura sphere was gone, and his face was no longer filled with rage. Instead, he looked remorseful, and his eyes looked like they were threatening to spill over with tears.

"I-I can't do it." He whispered, allowing his arms to fall limply. "Not to you. Not to anyone."

Serena then heard a collection of screams as Rayquaza vaporized a large crowd of people with a hyperbeam, but tried her absolute best to ignore it. Despite his statement, Red made no attempt to stop the carnage around them. She would attempt to process that trauma in therapy whenever she got the chance to go to Hoenn.

"W-what do you mean?" She asked tentatively.

"I was so focused on revenge, Serena, that I think I forgot who I was."

Another set of screams, this time from a particularly large thunderbolt from Pikachu. "Y-yeah, you did. N-now could you please stop the attacks from on the crowds? You're kind of committing mass-murder by having them do all this."

Red didn't seem to hear her, or, he didn't care, instead he looked down at his bloodied hands. He didn't look like he had any wounds on him, and Serena stopped herself from asking where the blood came from. "Life is too fleeting to focus on revenge, Serena. I realize that now…"

"Can you hurry this up a little?" She nearly begged. Mewtwo was about to release a psychic attack on another group of people, and Serena covered her ears to stop herself from hearing the screams. It didn't work.

"It took me a long time to realize why I was so hurt by your betrayal, Serena. Truthfully, I was more hurt by you than anyone else."

"That's funny because I was the l-literal only one who didn't say anything bad about you that day."

"I realized that you meant a lot to me, Serena, and you still do."

Serena rolled her eyes dramatically. "You can't be serious…" She said, so soft it was almost a whisper. "Here too…? Didn't you want to kill me less than 30 seconds ago?"

"I'm not good with feelings, Serena, but…I think I love you."

At that moment, he grabbed Serena by the shoulders and leaned in for a kiss. Gasping in shock, Serena barely had a second to spare as she ducked, ripped herself away from Ash, and spun around him to get away. Wrong move, apparently, as she spun directly into the angered gaze of Rayquaza.

Apparently not satisfied with mass-murder on the scale it was committing, the legendary Pokémon charged up a hyperbeam and launched it directly at the honey-blonde. She would have been vaporized, if it wasn't for Celebi stopping time just before it hit her.

Still breathing heavily, Serena uncovered her eyes with her shaking hands and saw the hyperbeam just a few feet away from her. Not another second and she would been disintegrated.

"I think that's enough of this one, Serena…"

Serena took a moment to catch her breath, her hand on her ribbon in a feeble attempt to calm herself. "I…I just watched hundreds of people die…"

"Honestly, I forgot that happens here. It wasn't going to happen until tomorrow, but you kind of rushed things along by removing Ash's mask before the tournament started."

"How…how is Ash in love with me here too? I thought he hated me!?"

"Love conquers all, Serena. That's part of the point of this dimension..."

Her breathing not even coming close to slowing down, Serena fell down to her hands and knees. "I didn't even spend that much time here, but I can already tell that even the sex-dimension was better than this one! I'd honestly take high school again. Everyone here is insane!"

"That's the real point, Serena. Everyone here is either dumb or crazy. Ash in this dimension is hell-bent on destruction. Sometimes you take part in that too, but other times you're on the receiving end of it. Sometimes Ash realizes he shouldn't be a rage-filled maniac and calms down, and other times he vanquishes those whom he deems his foes. He also has a Lucario in virtually every dimension too. Always a Lucario. And sometimes is friends with Mewtwo for some reason."

"When can I go home…?" Serena begged, staring up at the sky. She didn't feel like continuing the conversation with the time-Pokémon. The heat from the sweltering sun only seemed to increase and the smell of blood was in the air. Both combined almost made her gag.

"My, my, somebody's impatient today."

"Just…if you're going to send me somewhere else, please do it. I really need to get away from here."

"You're no fun. Alright, let's go. This next one is a doozy."

The bright light returned, and Serena let it overcome here in silence, attempting the let the images and screams of the deceased leave her mind.

At this point, Serena had just accepted that she is along for whatever ride Celebi has. She may also be going a little crazy.

You ever notice how many betrayal fics there are? I mean, there are tons of them. I could not get away with not including "betrayal" in our little list here. I'll be honest, didn't really have a lot of ideas for this one. I know Ash had to go by "Red", as he pretty much always does in a betrayal fic. There's always a tournament of some sort, and Ash always hides his identity behind a mask. Also always has a Lucario. I'm not really that much of a Lucario fan, but I know that Lucario is super popular in the fandom. Ash is also one of two things in betrayal fics. He's either hellbent on revenge and has anger issues, or is a god-tier level trainer and absolutely dominates everyone. He's sometimes both, and often trains on Mt. Silver. Serena either joins him when he leaves, betrays him too, or is the person who is responsible for Ash winning. Didn't include Giovanni in this, but let it be known, he's usually in betrayal fics too.

Anyway, I'll see you in the next chapter. The next one isn't really a "trope" in the Pokemon fanfiction world, but more so just something I've noticed since joining this fandom. See you then!

Twilly