I want to thank everyone who took the time to leave a review; I really appreciate your comments and feedback.

Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy holiday and to show my appreciation to those people I decided to spend a little time writing this chapter.

Anyway, without further ado here's chapter 15, I hope you enjoy it.

In conversations:

'- Translation of Poké Speech – No human unless otherwise stated can understand it. Ash can understand it due to his Aura.

"- Human speech

"- Telepathy/Aura

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon, if I did then Ash would have won a league by now.

Outside the stadium Ash had a huge smile on his face as the memory of a crying Max and Pikachu was still fresh in his mind. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't notice two figures that were once again watching him from the shadows.

"Now's our chance, he's all alone and just had a battle so his Pokémon will be weak." The taller man insisted.

"Stop being so foolish, he crushed that weak maggot. His Pokémon will be fine, we must wait and enact the plan we have in place." His shorter companion replied.

The taller man growled angrily at being told to wait again, he had been waiting several years to get vengeance on Ketchum and his patience was wearing thin. The shorter man could feel the irritation radiating from his companion and he would be unlikely to wait until the plan could be enacted.

"Fine, but I will not wait much longer, the next time I see an opportunity to strike I will attack him."

"If you do that then you'll be hauled off to jail."

The taller man glared at his companion and then took a Pokéball out of his pocket, he held it in front of the other man and smirked.

"Not with this beast under my control, with this creature I will eliminate Ketchum."

"If you think a strong Pokémon will be enough to defeat Ketchum you truly are a fool."

The shorter man walked away before his partner could reply, the taller man reluctantly followed him but grumbled in discontent as they walked through the dark back alleys.

Meanwhile Ash continued walking towards the clearing so he could tell the others about the systematic dismantling of Max when he was tackled by a colt-like Pokémon. It had a cream-colored body, a short, rounded snout with large nostrils and blue eyes. Along its head it had a large, feathery red mane, long, dark blue, ridged eyebrow-like protrusions and a single cream-colored horn that curves slightly. The back of its head, as well as its neck, was covered with fluffy, light blue fur. It had blue hooves and its tail was light blue with white spots.

"Hey Keldeo. Where's Alessandra?" Ash asked

"She's right here." a voice replied.

Ash looked up and saw Alessandra. She still had Waist-long brown hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a blue top, with a white jacket, blue knee-long skirt, white socks and brown shoes. She also carried a blue and white bag. To her left stood her Infernape and to her right stood her Leafeon. Keldeo got off Ash and let him get to his feet, Ash then walked over to Alessandra and he hugged her.

"Hey Alex what are you doing here? Are you competing?" Ash asked

"Yes I am. Actually I've just won my match and was hoping I'd run into you."

"I'm glad to see you. Hey how's Markus?"

"He's ok, he wasn't feeling too good so I told him to stay at home."

Just then Alex saw Max cradling Pikachu who was in terrible shape, she walked over to Max and Pikachu and saw the horrible injuries Pikachu had sustained. Ash sighed, he knew that Alex hated seeing Pokémon in pain and knew that she would send out her healers to fix the damage Charizard had done. He watched as Alex crouched down to inspect Pikachu and waited for to say she was going to heal the rat.

"It's about time you two got what was coming to you." Alex said.

Ash's eyes widened in shock at what Alex had just said, he was so stunned by what she said and by the harshness in her voice that he didn't notice Max run away. Alex turned her attention back to Ash and was confused by the look he was giving her.

"What?"

"Wow, sorry I just wasn't expecting that. I'd honestly been expecting you to heal Pikachu."

"If it had been almost anyone else I'd have helped but not them. Not after what they've done and who they've worked for."

Ash was about to reply when something rammed into his stomach, he grunted as he was winded by the impact and he staggered back to keep his balance. He looked down to see what was now resting in his arms and a soft smile graced Ash's face as he stared into the adoring eyes of Manaphy. Delia, Ariana and Dawn soon appeared relieved to see that Manaphy hadn't gotten into trouble.

"Papa won." Manaphy said happily.

"Yeah I did. Wait why are you with my mother and Ariana?" Ash asked.

"Wanted to be with grandma and auntie." Manaphy replied.

"Okay, did you have fun?"

"Yeah, grandma really nice."

"Thank you Manaphy." Delia said

Delia rubbed Manaphy's head making her sigh happily, a disgruntled huff from Ariana gained everyone's attention. They turned their gaze to her and saw her pouting at Manaphy.

"What about me?" Ariana whined.

"Auntie fun too."

Ariana immediately lost the pout on her face and smiled happily at Manaphy, everyone else chuckled at Ariana's quick change of heart. Ash turned to his mother and looked at her gratefully.

"Thank you for looking after her." Ash said

"It's no problem Ash, she's an adorable granddaughter."

"Yeah she's really cute." Ariana added.

Manaphy blushed in embarrassment at their praise and buried her face into her papa's shirt, Ash chuckled at his daughters' reaction and kissed the top of her head. The young Pokémon then surprised Ash by moving up and kissing him on the cheek. Manaphy blushed again and then quickly went back to her previous position.

"Love you papa." Manaphy mumbled.

"I love you too Manaphy." Ash said softly.

Alex then suggested that they should go to the Pokémon Centre to wait for the others, everyone agreed with Alex's idea and they headed towards the Pokémon Centre. While they walked Alex got acquainted with Dawn, Delia and Ariana chatted as they walked alongside Ash who was focussed on Manaphy who had fallen asleep in his arms.

It didn't take long for them to reach the Pokémon Centre, they sat around one of the larger tables and conversed about the most random of things. They were sat talking for only a short while when Richie appeared grinning at them confirming that once again he had won. They only had enough time to ask how Richie's battle went when they heard the doors open again and saw Paul who walked in looking incredibly smug, Ash knew that look very well.

"So you won as well then." Ash stated.

"Yeah the only challenge was his Hydreigon. It was a little disappointing to be honest, I guess Unova isn't that much of a challenge really."

"Hey I'm from Unova." Alex said angrily.

"Your point being?"

Before Alex had a chance to responded to Paul's comment Keldeo did it for her by drenching Paul. Everyone started laughing at the now furious Paul who was on the verge of attacking Keldeo before he thought better of it and sent out his Magmortar. The laughing quickly died down as Magmortar dried Paul, once the room was quiet the Sinnoh native looked at Ash.

"So did you crush the rat?" Paul asked.

"You bet I did. Max sprinted here with the rat and he must be under constant observation after what Charizard did."

Anabel then walked into Pokémon centre, she immediately saw Ash talking with Paul, Richie and a woman she had never met. She thought Paul looked annoyed but then when doesn't he she though. Anabel walked up to the group and watched as Dawn, Delia and Ariana chatted at a nearby table. Anabel wrapped her arms around Ash and he quickly returned the embrace

"Hi Ash. Who's this?" Anabel asked

"Hi Anabel. This is Alessandra Cesarini."

"It's good to finally meet you Anabel. Ash told me a lot about you." Alex said.

"Well it's good to meet you too Alessandra."

"Please call me Alex."

"So Ash how did you meet Alex?"

"Well..."

Flashback (three Years ago)

Alessandra is with her Infernape, her Leafeon and her Keldeo were walking around Mt. Coronet. Alessandra had come to Mt Coronet to train her Servine, her Tranquill and her Chansey hoping that would evolve. She came upon an area suitable for camp and decided to stop and camp for the night. Alessandra opened her bag and took out her home made Pokémon food. She put out the Pokémon food for them but as she placed the last bowl the she noticed someone missing.

"Hey, where's Keldeo?" Alessandra asked confused. She looked around hoping to see where the Colt Pokémon was. Unfortunately, she couldn't see him anywhere. She let out a sigh.

"Oh come on...Not again!" she yelled in frustration.

She then looked to her faithful Tranquill, Penelope.

"Penelope, can you help me?"

Penelope nodded and took flight, Alessandra then returned her Chansey and Servine after promising them that she would let them eat as soon as they found the Colt Pokémon. She looked to her Infernape, Blaze, and her Leafeon, Leaf.

"Come on, let's make Penelope's work a little easier." she said to them.

They nodded and they started the search for Keldeo.

Meanwhile Ash was watching his Pokémon training. He was about to tell then to stop for the day when he heard a sound. He turned to where the sound was coming from and before he knew it, he was tackled by something. Ash looked at the Pokémon that was now lying on him.

"Who are you?" Ash asked

'My name is Keldeo.' the Pokémon replied.

Ash then remembered reading something about him when he did some research into Pokémon from the Unova region. But Ash was puzzled as to why a legendary Pokémon from Unova would be on Mt Coronet.

"What are you doing here?"

'I was with my trainer, Alessandra.'

"And where is she?"

All of a sudden everyone heard a female voice.

"Keldeo? Keldeo?! Are you here?!"

Keldeo got up from where he was and ran to the girl that had just reached Ash's camp site. Everyone watched her kneel down to be at Keldeo's level and tickle his chin.

"Keldeo I know you're still young. But you shouldn't get away from us. You could get hurt or captured." she said.

Then she noticed the hooded man and his Pokémon watching them. She saw that the man was brushing snow off his coat indicating to her that Keldeo had probably just tackled him. She walked over to the stranger.

"I'm sorry. Did Keldeo bother you?" she said.

"Not at all. Trust me I've taken far worse than just a tackle." Ash replied.

"Sorry about that. Keldeo has been with me for a year now but he's still young so sometimes he tends to run off and tackle people."

Alessandra looked around and noticed it was getting dark and she was a long way away from her camp site.

"Excuse me sir but is it ok if I let the rest of my team out and we stay here tonight?"

Ash nodded and she let out her team who began eating the food she'd prepared and they began talking with Ash's Pokémon. Ash looked at the Pokémon smiling. He was happy that his Pokémon were able to trust other's so easily. He wished he could do the same thing. There was probably only five people he trusted completely which saddened him. He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard the girl talking.

"I'm Alessandra Cesarini. But my friends call me Alex. And you are?"

Ash was silent for a moment. He considered telling her his real name but instead chose the name he had gone by for the past three years.

"My name is Takeo Hayashi."

Flashback over

"She found out a few days later that I was actually Ash Ketchum thanks to a certain cat."

"I thought dat she was back at camp, it's not my fault that she snuck up on us." Meowth replied.

Everyone laughed at the cats' defensive response, when they all calmed down Alex spotted the clock above Nurse Joy's desk.

"Dammit I promised I'd call Markus twenty minutes ago. I've got to go everyone; I'll catch up with you soon."

"Alright Alex, we'll see you soon."

Alessandra quickly exchanged numbers with everyone and left the Pokémon Centre in a hurry, Paul then started walking towards the doors clearly intending to leave as well.

"I need to start training for the next round, I'm going back to my Pokémon and preparing." Paul said.

"I should do the same." Richie added.

Richie caught up with Paul and they left the Pokémon Centre, Ash then turned to where Dawn, his mother and Ariana were sat and realised that he hadn't seen Dawn for several days now and she had been incredibly quiet today. He got up and moved around the table so he was next to Dawn, she was surprised by the action and immediately averted her gaze.

"Hey Dawn why haven't we seen you much over the past few days?"

"I knew the contest battle was coming up and that Ursula and Zoey would be here so I hid. I couldn't bring myself to face them after what I did to you."

"I don't blame you for wanting to hide, I know that Ursula was waiting for a chance to rip your head off. But you don't need to worry I told Ursula and Zoey that I'd forgiven you. I didn't tell them what happened though, I felt like that would be better said by you."

Dawn sighed and finally looked at Ash, she gave him a small smile which reassured him.

"You're right Ash, I do need to tell them and I'd love to have you there but I've got to do this on my own."

"Okay Dawn, they should be at the café near the hotel you're staying in. I'd hurry though, Ursula wasn't planning on staying long."

Dawn responded with a nod and with a determined look in her eyes she got up and left the Pokémon Centre fully intent on explaining what happened to Zoey and Ursula and hopefully regaining their respect. Ash watched Dawn leave and was proud to see her looking so confident and determined, he wished she would see how strong she was.

"Come on we've got a group of Pokémon to inform about the battle with Max and the embarrassment of Pikachu too." Ash said.

Anabel, Ariana and Delia agreed with Ash and followed him out the doors of the Pokémon Centre. Once outside they were confronted by May, Ash sighed in annoyance at the sight of his Hoenn companion. He had thought that he'd have gotten a little of respite from this irritant but unfortunately it seemed not.

"What do you want now?" Ash asked.

"I want Manaphy back." She growled.

"Manaphy already made her choice." Ash replied.

"Only because you poisoned her mind to think that bitch is her mother." May snarled.

Ash stormed over to May and looked at the Hoenn coordinator with a terrifying glare.

"Do you remember what I said in the Pokémon Centre the other day? I would seriously consider the next words that come out of your pathetic mouth." he growled.

"You don't scare me Ketchum, Anabel I challenge you to a battle. The winner is Manaphy's true mama and gets to keep her."

"There is no way I will agree to that. Manaphy is a living creature that I love. She's not some kind of betting chip." Anabel replied.

Anabel then felt Manaphy tug on her shirt, she looked down at Manaphy and smiled at the innocent look in the young ones' eyes.

"Mama battle her." Manaphy said to everyone's surprise.

"But if she wins she would take you away. We'd never see each other again."

"Mama won't lose, mama beat her. I know mama can do it." Manaphy said confidently.

Anabel still wasn't convinced though as she didn't want to risk losing Manaphy.

"May how about if you win you get Manaphy. If we win you leave us alone." Ash counter offered.

"Fine, I'll agree to that since there's no way she can beat me." May said dismissively.

"No we can't do this; I don't want to lose Manaphy. I don't care if she'll leave us alone, I will not risk losing Manaphy. I love her!" Anabel said clutching on to Manaphy.

"Anabel I don't want to lose Manaphy either. But I know you can win and Manaphy knows you can win. When you beat her we can prove she's guilty and then that's one less scumbag to worry about." Ash replied.

Anabel was torn, on the one hand she wanted May to pay for what she did to Ash and by extension to her but on the other she didn't want to risk losing Manaphy. She looked down at Manaphy once again, she had to be sure that this was wanted Manaphy wanted.

"Are you sure Manaphy?" Anabel said looking straight into her eyes.

"Yes mama."

Anabel sighed, it was clear that Manaphy wanted this so she would not deny the young Pokémon.

"Ok I'll do it, I'll battle her and I'll beat her. I just need to get Espeon, I didn't use her in my battle today." Anabel said.

"It's okay I'll get Mewtwo to Teleport her here." Ash whispered.

"Mewtwo can you bring Espeon here please?"

"Of course Ash."

Moments later Espeon was stood in front of Anabel and Ash looking around confusedly, the look of confusion quickly switched to anger when she realised she'd been dragged away from her beloved Glaceon.

'Hey what am I doing here? I was spending some quality time with Glaceon.' Espeon growled angrily.

"Sorry Espeon but Anabel needs you for a battle against May." Ash replied.

A smirk appeared on Espeon's face, her anger had immediately subsided at the thought of getting a shot at one of the scum.

'Well I suppose I can spare a few minutes to beat her.'

"Thank you Espeon." Anabel said.

"So you're really using that wimpy looking Espeon." May taunted which made Espeon growl angrily. "I'll show you a true Eeveelution Glaceon take the stage."

May's Glaceon appeared and smirked at Ash as she recognised the foolish boy, Espeon quickly blocked the ice Eeveelutions gaze and glared at him. Glaceon growled angrily and stepped back as he switched his gaze to Espeon.

"Shadow Ball." May called out.

"Match it then use Signal Beam." Anabel said calmly.

Glaceon and Espeon formed a ball of black energy in front of them and launched them. The orbs clashed and cancelled each other out. Espeon quickly followed up by forming a white orb in front of the jewel on her forehead. She then fired a rainbow coloured beam from the orb at Glaceon. The beam struck Glaceon and knocked him back but didn't confuse him.

"Ice Beam."

"Dig then Iron Tail."

Glaceon opened his mouth and a light ball orb formed in his mouth. He then fired beams of ice at Espeon. However, the psychic Eeveelution had dug underground easily avoiding the Ice Beam. Glaceon looked around frantically trying to guess where Espeon would reappear. Suddenly the ground beneath him shook and Espeon came bursting out of the ground. Espeon then slammed her metallic tail into Glaceon's gut which sent him crashing down next to May.

"Giga Impact." May yelled.

"Psychic Rush."

Glaceon charged at Espeon and his body became surrounded in orange streaks. Meanwhile Espeon's body was surrounded in a blue glow and charged at Glaceon using Psychic to increase the speed and power of her attack. The Eeveelutions clashed and their combined attacks raised a dust cloud which shrouded the area. When the dust finally settled a triumphant Espeon stood over an unconscious Glaceon.

"Yay mama won." Manaphy shouted exuberantly.

Ash smiled as he handed Manaphy to Anabel who hugged Manaphy tightly. Ash then walked over to May who had collapsed to her knees. Ash knelt down to look at May who looked completely heartbroken.

"It's over May. Anabel beat you fair and square, now keep your end of the bargain and leave us alone." Ash said sternly.

May didn't respond to Ash, she just continued to stare brokenly at the ground. Ash smirked at the completely broken traitor in front of him, he then got up and walked back to Anabel and Manaphy. He wrapped his arms around both Anabel and Manaphy and he briefly pressed his lips to Anabel's.

"Way to go Anabel. You really crushed her."

"Thanks Ash but why didn't you make the bargain be her confessing to her being part of Team Rocket?"

"She'd have never done that; I doubt she'll keep to this one either but this way she doesn't know that I intend to prove her guilt. Alright now that's dealt with let's go back to the clearing."

Ash and Anabel broke apart and walked straight passed May who was still on the ground crying. Ash then chose to release Pidgeot who nuzzled him making him laugh. Once she stopped Ash asked his mother if she wanted to meet his other Pokémon but she politely declined as she was due to meet some old friends from her travelling days who she'd kept in touch with but hadn't seen face to face for years. Ariana on the other hand wouldn't be separated from Ash as she hadn't seen him for so long. Ash, Ariana and Anabel began walking back to the clearing.

Notes

Please give a review telling me what you liked/didn't like.

I'm still waiting for someone to correctly guess who the taller man is although I don't think anyone will.

BTW Legendary Fairy I know that Alex isn't from Unova.

If you have any questions PM them to me. I am more than happy to answer them.