Disclaimer - I don't own Pokemon or any of its characters; only the idea belongs to me.

3 - Valid Concerns

Enroute Lavender Town, 12th November

Ash couldn't sleep even if he wanted to, he knew he had only a few hours to get as much sleep as possible, but he just couldn't. He tried everything he knew for the sleep to come, counted reverse numbers, counted imaginary Mareep; he even tried to shut his eyes as close as he could and stop all the thinking – but nothing seemed to work.

There was an obvious thought running through his mind and he needed to let it out, but he did not want to bring it up in fear of jinxing himself. Changing his side for the Nth time, he sighed and sat up.

"If you can't sleep" an irritated voice cut through their silent cabin, "then for the sake of mew, go take a walk or something. Some of us are trying to sleep"

"Sorry" Ash apologised, peeking down from his upper bunk bed to Gary who was occupying the lower one.

Gary sighed and sat up too. There was no point trying to sleep as he was rudely interrupted. He looked at Ash and beckoned him to come down. Ash carefully looked at the other two occupants of the cabin – Tracey and Goh – who were fast asleep without a care in the world. Leaf was in the ladies' compartment just down a few cars; and then climbed down from his perch to join his now wide-awake friend.

"What's got you into such an antsy mood?" Gary asked as soon as Ash sat down, leaning back against one of Gary's pillows making himself comfortable.

"It's nothing" Ash waved it off and chuckled.

"Sure is" Gary leaned in a bit "You are like a kid, bouncing around the whole day and first to fall asleep in the night. But if that's not happening, then it must be something that's bothering you" Gary pointed out "If it's related to my findings, something you don't trust or think is wrong, you can tell me. We researchers have always believed to take all the perspectives into account, so you don't have to hold back"

"You have grown up, huh?" Ash smirked at him, making Gary roll his eyes. But Ash took his words into consideration and decided he could voice his concerns. "I don't have proofs like you do, it's just what my gut feeling is telling me" He started but stopped, hesitating.

"Go on" Gary prompted.

"Okay, so you said this whole Time-Clock is a thing from the past; like centuries or so ago." He waited for Gary to give a nod of affirmation and continued when he received one "So, if it's such an old concept and the whole affecting memory thing is correct, then don't you think it's a bit weird someone normal would be able to do anything to it? Like this whole thing was supposed to be lost and unless someone was actively looking for it, they won't know or be able to keep at it for this long. And if they are going at it with the intent to find it – or have already found it; don't you think it makes this an international issue or something. Like this could be anyone dangerous" Ash took a deep breath, he knew he was rambling, but he couldn't stop himself "What I'm trying to say is, there are Evil organizations all around the world who have time and again tried to wreak havoc for all of humanity and Pokémon; it could be anyone of them. I have fought many such people and have barely made out; but this is the first time I am feeling dread, a strong feeling that is telling me to forget about it and just go home. It's telling me this is beyond what we had faced till now, something so sinister that we could never expect, that –"

A hand on his shoulder stopped his rambling fit, with panicked eyes Ash looked up at Gary who, for the first time in his life, was giving a look that Ash could call sympathetic

"You don't have to do this" Gary said earnestly "I have heard about all your escapades, and while many of them sound ridiculous, I have been present for one of those, so I know others are just as true. You don't have to do this because this is something I am doing to satisfy my curiosity, it might be just a trek around a mountain range for all I know; and in this situation if you decide to return to Pallet from Lavender itself, no one will hold it against you."

"I can't leave you alone"

"You won't; I have Leaf here, and for what it's worth, she won't leave until she proves I am wrong."

Ash sat there, taking deep breaths trying to even out his thought process. It took him five minutes, but he came to a decision nonetheless.

"I'll see till where I can follow you on this" Ash gave him a weak smile "I really don't want to miss out on the adventure and the first time for the three of us to travel together."

"You can back out at any moment you feel like it" Gary nodded in affirmation, but both of them knew once Ash takes the bus to Cerulean, there won't be any turning back. "And as for your concerns, I did think about them all. It could be any of the criminal organizations who are involved in it – for that I have searched up a few contacts from G-men & Poke Rangers, if need be, we will call them. The other possibility is that it could be just an accident, then we will only have to put the rings in motion again. And of course, all this will only happen if the Time-Clock actually exists and that it actually is in the place we are looking at."

"That makes it so much easier" Ash said sarcastically and rolled his eyes and got up from the lower bunk and climbed up to his. "Well, I gotta take a nap now, we have quite a journey ahead of us. Good night, Gare"

"Night Ashy boy"

And with that, both went to sleep. Unknown to them, there was a third person who had witnessed their conversation.

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Lavender Town, 13th November

Early next morning, they all got down in Lavender town and made their way to the bus station. The walk was filled with normal conversations about Pokémon. When they reached the bus station, they wasted no time booking seats to Cerulean and were on the bus for the next half a day. There weren't many passengers on the bus thus the group of five occupied the last seats. Their conversation then turned to Ask and his many adventures, the four describing Leaf about how they had met with some awesome legendries and the situations around them. As for Leaf, each story was becoming more unfathomable than the previous one for her.

"Wait, so you mean, you actually saw Arceus?" Leaf looked at him like he was telling her he saw the god of all Pokémon and basically the world, because it's what he said, which was completely impossible, right?

"Well yeah. That was when we were travelling through Sinnoh" he shrugged

"You know that sounds completely ridiculous and impossible, right?" Leaf chuckled, waiting for them to join in on laughing with her and tell her she caught their act and all, but they never did. They were dead serious.

"Mew! You can't be serious" She huffed and leaned back in her seat "I mean common, I can understand Celebi and Latios and the three Legendary Birds and all, their sightings are confirmed by many. Hell, I will even believe that you" she pointed at Goh and then at Gary "have caught Suicune and Regieleki and Gare caught a Regidrago; because there are records from many trainers of seeing them. It would have been easy to believe only that, but Arceus is a bit too much, don't you think?"

"Those aren't just some made up stories Leaf" Gary rolled his eyes, pocketing his Pokénav after sending a message and looking at her "There are witnesses for all the encounters Ash just told, I personally was there for one. It is what it is; you can deny it all you want"

"You seem to not believe what Ash said" Tracey said, he has been observing her since they met, and till now she seemed to be in this for some very different reasons than the others were

"Sorry for not believing such out of the world stories, because normal trainers like me don't have such encounters, say – like, ever!" She deadpanned at Tracey, who understood from where she was coming, it sounded a bit of stretch for normal trainers unless they experienced it first-hand.

"But Leaf, I'm telling the truth. That's exactly what happened" Ash looked at her with earnest eyes and Leaf, took a deep breath and nodded her head.

"I'll believe you if you say so" She muttered but then she turned to Gary "But your theory about the whole Time Clock thing, I'm not believing it"

"Why the hell not?" Gary huffed "I showed you all the data points I have. Even Ash and Goh can testify that there is some truth in the theory"

"Well," Goh started, rubbing the back of his head; "The points he made does sound right"

Goh had known for a long time now, not to mess with girls in any way; and Leaf clearly had the 'Mess with me, I dare you' sign etched on her forehead. And so, he was even more hesitant to be on her bad side.

"How can you say that?" Leaf asked with an eyebrow raised.

"The simplest one is" Goh started, "Ash was born in 1998 and currently he is 10 years old. I was born in 2005, but even I am 10 years old. The math of the years does not match, until we apply Gary's theory to it; making this whole situation more real. That until all the life forms from Kanto came to standstill in 2008 and the other regions continued to move to the next year, then subsequently other regions, one region at a time, came to a standstill; Every region has a different year they are stuck in. If we consider this true, then only we can justify the situation at hand"

"But aren't you from Vermilion? Which lies in Kanto? Making it so that you should also have stopped growing with Ash, and according to your birth year, you should be three years now?" Leaf asked

The group instantly fell silent. Ash and Tracey looking at Leaf and Goh, just now realising what she said was true, jeopardizing Gary's whole theory; while Gary stared at Leaf suspiciously, no one mentioned Goh was from Vermilion, then how did she know that?

"That's because" Goh cleared his throat "I wasn't born in Vermilion or Kanto. My family used to stay in the outskirts of Wedgehurst. But soon after my birth, my parents received a large contract and fundings from Kanto, so we all shifted here" He cleared, "So, technically, I'm native to Galar"

"Wow!" Ash was impressed, "I didn't know that"

"Well, I don't remember much as I was around one something, so I don't talk much about it" Goh laughed.

Gary looked at Leaf, now challenging her to counter his theory again; but she didn't.

"Whatever you say." She muttered "We will find out what's right or wrong soon enough anyways"

The conversation soon faded; silence took over the group & they enjoyed the passing by scenery that Trainers don't generally see. A few of them even tried to get a bit of sleep before they reached. By noon they had reached Cerulean.

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Cerulean City, 13th November

"Huh" Ash looked around confused when they got off the bus, Pikachu following soon after, "Why are we in the middle of the city? I thought we were going directly to Mt. Moon"

"Because" Gary said as he motioned the group to follow him "We are going to Cerulean Gym for the night and tomorrow we will start for the mountains. I said our trek to Mt. Moon should happen early in the morning only. Keep up, Ash." Gary rolled his eyes; it was so like Ash to forget about details and only focus on end goal.

Hearing the name of the very familiar Gym, Ash's mood picked up and the residuals of sleep from the eight-hour long journey were all gone as well as Gary's jab was ignored. He then took off in the direction where he knew the Gym was, calling out a "Race ya there!" to the others.

"Pikapi!" Pikachu exclaimed and rushed after his trainer.

"Hey Ash! Slow down" Tracey called out as he also took off after him, Goh following them closely, not wanting to be left behind. Leaf looked at them perplexed.

"What's up with that kid?" She asked Gary, who shrugged and followed the trio who were now turning around the corner. Rolling her eyes, Leaf decided to humour them and followed them towards the Gym. By the time she reached the Gym, others were already gathered by the entrance and were waiting for the double doors to open and let them in. A few minutes later, the doors opened, and a Blonde came out, surprised to find a horde of teenagers in front of their door.

"Like, what can I help you with?" She asked them and then noticed the Pokémon watcher amongst the others "Oh, hey Tracey; what brings you here?"

"Daisy, we were here passing through the town, thought we could give Misty a visit while we are at it." He explained.

"That's good," Daisy nodded and called them in. "But I'm afraid you can't meet her just yet; like, she isn't in the Gym at the moment"

"She isn't here? Where did she go?" Ash asked as they passed the front desk and the other two sisters who occupied it, none of whom paid the visitors any attention.

"Don't know the dets, she just grabbed her Pokémon and left." Daisy shrugged and turned around another corner, leading the group to the stairs to living quarters.

"Will she be returning anytime soon?" Gary asked.

"Mm… She did say she will be back for, like, feeding the Pokémon. So, it shouldn't be long. '' She pushed open the large doors to the living quarters, "You guys can, like, relax here. I'll be downstairs to tell any incoming challengers that their battles will have to, like, wait for a bit. You know where the kitchen is, so like, help yourselves to it"

And with that she left.

"That's" Leaf started at the door from which Daisy just departed "generous of her"

"Is it okay to be here?" Goh asked the others, which only received a shrug of shoulders from the researcher and watcher.

"Man, I'm hungry!" Ash was the first one to turn in the direction of the kitchen, knowing his way around well with all the time he spent here. Gary was the second to follow. Leaf heard a few noises of containers being hit with each other, still a bit uncomfortable by entering someone else's house like this, Goh was not much different.

"Don't worry, we know the Gym leader quite well" Tracey told the two and ushered them towards the kitchen "Till the time she comes, let's have something to eat, I'm sure even you guys are hungry by now. We had only a few rice balls last night before we caught the train"

By the time they entered the Kitchen, Ash had made himself comfortable on one of the stools at the kitchen counter and was eating what looked like pre-cooked pancakes and had served Pikachu with Pokémon food. Gary was on the other side of the kitchen, seeming to have found a cereal box and was eating directly from it.

Leaf, followed by a reluctant Goh, occupied the other spots at the kitchen counter. Tracey took it upon himself to cook something healthy and appetizing for the young teens.

"Does pasta sound good to you?" He asked the other while rummaging through the cabinets "Because it seems the Waterflower sisters only have that left"

"Saunnd wonndefuf" Ash said with his mouth, Gary smacked him on his head as he joined the other three at the table.

"Don't speak with your mouth full" He chastised.

"Pasta works" Goh nodded as he pulled out his Pokénav, finding its battery about to die.

"It's free food" Leaf shrugged.

Fifteen minutes later, Tracey was done with the pasta, Goh had found a charging slot for his Pokénav and was eating, while the three pallet native trainers arguing over something he didn't bother to ask.

"Pasta is here!" Tracey announced as he passed the served plates to everyone at the table and others were quick to dig in. They all were interrupted by the Gym leader who now was standing by the entrance of the kitchen.

"I really hope something is left for me here, or so mew help me –"

"Misty!" Ash exclaimed, forgetting all about his food and rushing to the red-head. Pikachu not far behind, as they both tackled her into a bone-crushing hug. While Ash separated from his former travel partner, Pikachu nuzzled in the side of her head and made himself comfortable.

"Hey Pikapal, I missed you" Misty said, scratching the electric type, who let out a content sigh.

"Only Pikachu?" Ash raised an eye-brow at her crossing his arms.

"Obviously!" Misty replied and passed him to occupy one of the chairs "I don't know no one who can't send at least a message once a month or two."

"Pika!" Pikachu agreed from his perch, high-fiving a sniggering Misty.

"Traitor" Ash sends a glare towards the two, the betrayal he felt was immense, but he at least had food to forget about it. So, he went back to his seat and started to dig in.

"So, what the occasion?" Misty asks the party gathered in her kitchen; Tracy serves her a plate of her own. She knew what this was about, and she was not very fond of the looks Gary was giving her.

Fin