We're getting close to the end of the story, only a few more chapters left now. This chapter is somewhat of a "part 1" to the group's adventure in the Split-Decision Ruins (hence the rather uncreative title this time), so I hope you enjoy the beginning of what should be the last real hurdle to their journey!

"Finally, we've made it!" Goh exclaimed in awe, as the group finally made their long awaited arrival at the ruins. The group of travelers took in the site, all equally in amazement.

The sunset still present in the background only added to the beauty of the location, with the last few remaining lights of the sun allowing the travelers to admire the exterior of the seemingly ancient temple. The ruins definitely looked rusted up and old, clearly having not seen much attention in the past decades, but the structure as a whole still looked decently intact. There were a good amount of stairs leading to the temple's entrance, stuck in between two walls, and a couple stone pillars held the foundation and the roof together, the roof having strange patterns on the front that nobody really paid attention to for the time being. Overall, a truly wonderful locale, although there was one thing that didn't sit well with a certain blonde haired girl…

"It's a great site and all but… The builders of this place could've at least chosen some better color pallets, I'm not really feeling this weird… yellow and burgundy mix…" She confessed with an unpleasant look on her face.

"Says the person with the mix of light blonde, bright pink and blue on her head…" Chloe muttered, noting the irony in the girl's statement. Peonia heard her comment from afar and obviously wasn't going to let her get away with it.

"Well at least I'm somewhat creative, being a single bland color isn't much better…" The Galar native replied sassily, not so subtly referring to Chloe's hair.

"It's better than your attempt at becoming a rainbow with all those colors!" Chloe defended back, practically growling at Peonia's comment. The boys of the group looked at each other awkwardly, not really knowing what to say at the sight of the two girls bickering.

Judging by Chloe's reply, Peonia knew she had hit a nerve and decided to tease her even more. She smirked before suddenly shifting towards Ash and laying her head on his shoulder, the action surprising just about everyone, and saying: "Oh please… besides, we've already established thanks to Team Rocket that Ash over here prefers blonde hair, and that's what matters right Chloe?"

"Huh!?..." Was all what Ash could utter, as he was too stunned and confused to say anything else. He tried to look to Goh and Brandon for help as to what was happening, but the pair shrugged, equally baffled. Even Pikachu, who had to move to the top of Ash's head since Peonia took his spot, seemed lost in the situation. Only Chloe had a visible reaction, the girl practically having steam come out of ears in anger.

"I-I have n-no idea what you're talking about! And t-that's just what Team Rocket said!" Chloe shouted back flusteredly. At this point, she had already started regretting telling Peonia anything…

"Well, why don't we make sure!" Peonia backed away from Ash and looked at him with a wide grin, before asking: "So Ash, which do you like more? Blonde or whatever color Chloe's hair is?"

"W-What!? U-Uhh…" He looked between Peonia and Chloe, blinking, not really knowing what to say. The Alolan Champion then looked back at Brandon and Goh again, and was originally met with the same confusion as earlier. That is until the Pyramid King and his research partner looked at each other and, after a moment, turned back towards the Pallet Town trainer… with a smirk on their faces?

As Ash visibly shifted to a questioning expression, Goh laughed and said. "Go on then, which one do you prefer, Ash?"

"Goh!? Brandon, come on help me out here-"

"It's a simple question Ketchum, shouldn't be too hard to answer for a Champion like you." The Frontier Brain mentioned, cutting him off in the process.

"T-That doesn't even make any sense! What does that have to do with any of this!?" Ash tried to reason. Why did everybody all of a sudden put him on the spot?

He looked around and noticed everybody was awaiting his answer and sighed, they clearly weren't going to let him go until he said something, so he decided he might as well be honest. Although, he wasn't expecting it to be something so difficult to say out loud, and he didn't know if it was because he felt peer pressured into answering or if it was the answer itself…

He took one final breath, and finally said. "W-Well… I-If I have to answer…" Ash looked at Peonia, who still had a wide grin on her face, then to Chloe, who seemed to still have a slightly triggered expression from earlier, but with a slight hint of eagerness, then finally, Ash looked straight down at the ground. "N-No offense Peonia, but I actually think I prefer Chloe's hair…"

… … … …

"...Huh?" Was all Chloe said after a quite long silence, as she went wide eyed at Ash's answer, with everybody else in the group seemingly equally surprised. They clearly weren't expecting Ash to give such a straightforward answer.

The Alolan Champion, not liking the lack of reactions from his companions, quickly added to his answer in an attempt to recover from the awkward situation. "I-I mean… I-It's not that big of a deal! It's just like Team Rocket and Peonia said… I've seen and been around a lot of… well, blonde haired people and…" Ash seemed to get flustered, his voice becoming almost a whisper, as he clearly was embarrassed. "I-I guess I like Chloe's hair more because it's well… different…"

Goh and Brandon took in what their friend said, and the Vermillion City researcher broke the silence between everybody with his comment. "I guess that makes sense…"

Peonia, who's grin turned into more of a smug look, conceded. "Hmm… That's fair enough…" The blonde haired girl then quickly made her way back to Chloe and whispered in her ear. "Looks like your competition got a lot smaller Chloe…"

The Vermillion City girl went beet red and immediately changed the subject. "C-CAN WE JUST GO IN THE TEMPLE ALREADY!? WE'VE W-WASTED ENOUGH TIME HERE!" She shouted to everyone, as she began marching robotically towards the entrance of the Split-Decision Ruins.

Peonia chuckled to herself before quickly following suit, and Brandon and Goh gave each other one last grin before doing the same. Ash meanwhile, sighed to himself, glad to know the attention was away from him, and took his time before joining his friends. Pikachu looked at him worriedly as he started walking, wondering why his friend seemed so flustered as he answered, but his trainer simply patted him on the head and reassured him that it was nothing.

Chloe arrived first at the entrance of the old temple, and her embarrassment from earlier was quickly washed away as she let out a quiet 'woah' at the interesting drawings all over the dual colored door. The rest of the group arrived soon after and they all had a similar reaction to the young girl. Ash then asked an important question that he hoped someone had the answer to…

"Okay so, does anybody know how exactly we get in?" He asked generally.

"There's something written here next to the door…" Goh noted, before getting closer and reading the message out loud. "When gather the three giants, the door of destiny shall be opened."

"Well that's awfully vague… The three giants? That could mean just about anything!" Peonia complained.

"The three giants… Hmm…" The Pyramid King muttered quietly. What Peonia said was definitely true, it could realistically mean a plethora of things, but if they took into consideration the information they already knew, and some of his own suspicions, then maybe…

"Got anything Brandon?" Ash asked, noticing the Battle Frontier's thinking expression.

"I'm not one hundred percent certain but… Remember when I told you three about the reported readings from here being similar to some of the wild Regi Pokemon?" He asked specifically to Ash, Goh and Chloe. The three confirmed with nods and Brandon continued. "Well, whilst they are four confirmed known Regis, only three of them people consider to be part of what is often called the Titan Trio, since Regigigas is technically their creator, and considering the possibility I mentioned yesterday that maybe these ruins are connected to an old myth of Galar detailing the possibility that Regigigas created two more Regis, then maybe the three giants mentioned in the message is a reference to the Titan Trio, or in other words, Regirock, Registeel and Regice."

"That definitely does seem possible… although, I'm not too sure what 'When gather' could mean…" Goh added.

"Well, let's find out." Brandon swiftly pulled out a trio of Pokeballs and threw them to the sky. "Alright, Regirock, Registeel, Regice, I require your assistance!"

As the three titan Pokemon appeared, Chloe, even though she knew Brandon owned Regirock and Regice, and suspected he owned the whole trio, was still surprised to see he also owned a Registeel. Meanwhile, Peonia, having only met Regirock, was fully stunned.

"Y-You have all three of them!?" Peonia asked with a shaky voice. The Pyramid King nodded and the blonde haired girl questioned herself just who she was traveling with…

"So… What now? We gathered them, but the door is still closed…" Ash said, mentioning the fact the door didn't budge.

"Maybe we have to say something for the door to open?" Chloe suggested randomly. Goh was the first one to shoot down the idea.

"Come on Chloe, there's no way that's how it would work..." The Vermillion City researcher laughed before mocking his companion. "Do you really think saying something like 'Oh secret door, we've gathered all three giants, please let us enter your domain!' will do something-

Goh was cut off by Brandon's three Pokemon, who started making incomprehensible noises and their braille patterns started reacting to something. After a good 10 seconds of strange noises from the Regis, the ground started shaking and the door suddenly opened.

Chloe looked smugly at Goh and said. "You were saying?" The Project Mew participant was left mouth agape.

"I'm just going to pretend that was one heck of a coincidence…" He muttered, before Ash took the lead.

"Well, no matter how the door opens, at least we can get in now! Let's go, everyone!" Ash shouted as he entered the ruins. Peonia, Goh and Chloe quickly followed their good friend.

Brandon, who was left behind, was just about to join them, when suddenly, he spotted strange patterns just above the door that he didn't recognize. He narrowed his eyes and saw two different combinations of circles and wondered if they had anything to do with something. The Pyramid King mentally took a note of them, before recalling his three Pokemon and entering the mysterious temple.

After entering the ruins, the group were faced with a pretty long set of stairs. It was a pretty narrow path and looked quite ominous, but the group were far too excited to finally see what the mysterious temple had within to care. The young teens were practically racing up the stairs, grins on their faces, to the point where even Brandon following right behind them was surprised by their enthusiasm.

The Pyramid King smiled to himself as he tried to catch up with his younger companions. Despite not being much of an emotional guy, he was truly enjoying this little adventure. It was definitely more enjoyable than just traveling alone, and he got to befriend people such as Goh, Peonia and Chloe. Even though they were noticeably not used to traveling like this, it surprisingly didn't really bother him, since it definitely made his adventure more exciting. And on top of that, there was one more thing, or rather person, that he started seeing differently…

Brandon started seeing a certain raven haired trainer in a new light. Indeed, Ash had taken him by surprise quite a bit. The Pyramid King had been following Ash's journey throughout the multiple leagues and competitions he had participated in from time to time, and whilst his results alone told you enough about his fantastic progress as a trainer, this trip allowed Brandon to appreciate his growth as a person as well. Whilst the Alolan Champion might not have noticed it himself, he had changed quite a lot since originally defeating him in the Kanto Battle Frontier.

Yeah, he still had the same goofy and childish attitude as before, but his mentally towards life had changed drastically. He was no longer obsessed with just winning, winning, winning; he had learned to not let his ego take over and truly appreciate the small moments in traveling and the people and Pokemon around him instead. It's the little things like seeing how him and Goh joke around as the best of friends, how he reacted so innocently to Peonia basically fanboying him on the first day, how he managed to get a bunch of random trainers to start a snowball fight, how he managed to earn Chloe's trust in just under two days after the girl seemingly hated him, or even as simple as how he always seemed to have smile on his face not matter what happened, those were some traits you'd only see influential people like Champions have, and it made Brandon wonder just how far the kid could go in life… and as a trainer, it made the Pyramid King want to see him battle more often just to see how good he could get. He was even starting to consider joining the Pokemon World Coronation Series just so he could face Ash head on again...

"Woo… Whoever made this place sure must have liked stairs!" Ash commented, as he finally arrived at the top of the giant staircase, and put his hands on his knees, exhausted. The trainer only looked up when his starter Pokemon poked him from his shoulder and pointed ahead. "What's up Pikachu?" He turned and looked to where his Pokemon was pointing and let out. "Woah… What is this place?"

"These stairs are gonna kill me…" Chloe said, as she was the next one to arrive, and upon seeing Ash dazed, she worriedly asked. "Ash? What's up? See anything?"

"Take a look for yourself…" The Vermillion City girl walked up just next to Ash and looked ahead, and she went mouth agape at what she saw.

The two humans had reached a giant and vast open room. The split color pallets from earlier were more present than ever, with half of the room having its walls completely colored in yellow, and the other half in burgundy. It was a pretty empty space in general, with the only noticeable things being some strange dots scattered on the ground and a giant statue at the back of the room, but the emptiness mixed in with the simplicity of the temple's interior design made the space feel a lot more mysterious and ominous.

Due to their temporarily dazed state, Chloe and Ash failed to notice the rest of the group had caught up to them and had similar reactions to them, with Peonia commenting: "Jeez…This place is basically empty, yet it somehow gives me the creeps…"

Brandon, also noting the deserted nature of the place, said. "Let's look around, see if we can find anything." The group nodded and spreaded out all across the room, analyzing anything that could be of use to them.

Goh and Chloe started doing laps around the room, mainly looking to see if anything was written on the walls, but to no avail. Peonia and Brandon decided to take a look at the statue in the far room, and Brandon noted they were braille patterns engraved on the statue, indicating they were probably right about the place having something to do with the Regis. Ash took an interest towards the dots on the ground, which he found out could be lit up, and proceeded to have way too much fun with Pikachu jumping on them in a weird attempt at creating a light show.

A couple minutes went by and the majority of the group reunited. "Find anything guys?" Peonia first asked.

"Sadly no… the room really is just empty apart from the statue and the dots on the ground" Goh responded

"Hmm… How about we try turning the dots on in a certain way? Surely those have some kind of purpose?" Ash suggested.

"Well, since we don't have any other ideas, it's worth a shot…" Brandon approved, as he and the rest of the gang started approaching the formation of dots in the center of the room.

As they were walking, Ash noticed Chloe seemed hesitant, so he told Pikachu on his shoulder to go on ahead so he could ask her about it privately. "You okay Chloe?"

"Oh! Y-Yeah, just… starting to feel a little nervous I guess…" She replied, twiddling her thumbs. Despite originally being excited to finally be able to explore the ruins, after all they went through in the past 2 days just to get here, she was starting to feel a little worried about what could happen now that they are here, considering all the danger they've faced already.

Ash smiled softly at her response. He couldn't really blame her for how she was feeling right now, but the girl clearly seemed excited when they entered the temple, so he wanted to raise her morale back up. The Hyper Class trainer took Chloe's hand reassuringly, earning a shocked look from the girl as she flinched in surprise, and said. "There's nothing to worry about… After all we've been through to get here, we're ready for just about anything!..." Noticing the girl's startled reaction, Ash turned sheepish and added jokingly. "W-Well, I think so anyways!"

Chloe, blushing slightly, chuckled at Ash's attempt to make her feel better. Whilst she definitely wouldn't admit it out loud, just him taking her hand was already enough to reassure her. "You're right… T-Thanks Ash."

He gave her his signature toothy grin and the girl laughed again, and Ash retracted his hand, to the girl's slight dismay. Though, this made Chloe start to wonder since when Ash got so comfortable with her to the point where he could just take her hand abruptly. Not that she complained or anything, it was just amusing to her to see how differently they interact now compared to two days ago…

The girl mentally cursed herself at her train of thought. Whilst Peonia might have made Chloe realize she had fallen for the boy, which was definitely a good thing since she finally figured out why she felt so weird around him recently, it also made her realize just how much of an effect he had on her. All Ash did was take her hand, and all of sudden Chloe felt her stress wash away. She was surprised she's never noticed just how easily Ash made her feel more comfortable…

"Pika Pikachu!" The electric mouse suddenly exclaimed from just ahead of the group, indicating he was getting impatient and wanted to get a move on. Brandon smirked at the electric type's enthusiasm and gave his orders as they reached the dots.

"Alright, if we look at the pattern here…" Brandon first said, as he examined how exactly the dots were aligned. There was a vertical line of four dots in the middle and three dots lined up in some sort of triangles on either side. "Hmm… We can try turning on only the ones on the side."

"Worth a shot." Goh said simply, as the group went and stood on the six dots on either side of the middle line, with Ash, Brandon and Pikachu lighting up the ones on the left, and Goh, Chloe and Peonia lighting up the ones on the right.

Nothing happened, and the group of travelers proceeded to try for the next several minutes multiple different combinations, only to get the same result every time, eventually causing slight frustration to some of the humans.

"Argh… Nothing's working…" Goh commented, mentioning the obvious. "Maybe there's something around here that has a clue as to how we should light them up…"

As everybody started thinking of any clues to help them solve the puzzle, Brandon had a thought that maybe the hint wasn't actually in the room they were in, and was in some place prior instead. The Pyramid King tried to think back to something he might have seen earlier, and unconsciously drifted his eyes towards the statue at the back of the room…

All of a sudden, some of the lights of the braille patterns of the rock sculpture abruptly flickered on, so fast that Brandon probably would have missed it if he had blinked. The Pyramid King didn't get a good look at the pattern to remember it, but it looked familiar to something he saw outside…

The man went wide-eyed, as he finally remembered the strange patterns he saw on top of the door of the temple earlier, and thought that maybe those were the clues all along. He was about to share his discovery with the rest of the group, when all of a sudden Ash spoke up.

"I just realized…. We haven't tried just turning on all of the dots at the same time, maybe that does something?" He suggested.

"Huh, you're right Ash. Well, we can try I guess. How about it guys?" Goh questioned the rest of his companions.

"Sure"

"I don't see why not."

Replied Chloe and Peonia accordingly. The young trainers then looked at Brandon awaiting his response.

The man in question frowned. He really wanted to try his own theory of the patterns he saw from earlier, but what Ash suggested wasn't completely illogical either. The Pallet Town trainer's idea was worth trying, and if he didn't work, they could always just try his own idea right after. On top of that, he didn't quite remember the patterns from outside anyways, so they would have to go back just to see them again… and maybe the flickering dots on the statues was just his old eyes messing with him… He was getting on with age after all…

"Yeah… Let's try that." Brandon ended up saying with nod, temporarily pushing aside his theory. They could try it if Ash's idea didn't work… and besides, why would there be two different patterns of dots in the first place anyways?

"Ok well, since there are ten dots and only six of us including Pikachu, how about you guys send out a Pokemon each to fill out the rest of the dots?" Ash asked to the unanimous approval of everybody.

Chloe released her only Pokemon, Eevee, who hadn't been out of its Pokeball for a while because Chloe thought she deserved a break after all the battling she had done recently, which made the normal type visibly ecstatic, as it was practically dying to do something, proven by the fact Eevee immediately started running all excitedly once it was released from it's contraption, forcing it's trainer to have to calm it down. Goh released his 'starter' Pokemon Cinderace, who was also equally keen on being able to do something, Peonia released her trusty Tyrantrum, and finally, Brandon released his steel type Pokemon Registeel.

After the trainers explained to their Pokemon what they had to do, they lined themselves up as follows: In order, on the middle line of dots, Ash, Pikachu, Brandon and Registeel were to stand, Chloe, Eevee and Goh were to stand on the triangle of dots on the left, and Peonia, Tyrantrum and Cinderace on the triangle of dots on the right.

They had decided that Ash should give a countdown to three, and at the end, everybody would jump on their designated dot, turning them on at the same time. The group were mentally preparing themselves when Ash asked:

"Alright everyone, ready?" He asked with a hint of excitement and eagerness. Nods from the humans and Pokemon were all Ash needed as confirmation. The Hyper Class trainer took one last big breath and started…

"Okay… Three…"

Goh felt a lump in his throat as Ash started the countdown. This could actually be it, everything they went through just to get here all led up to this moment, where hopefully, they would finally resolve the mystery of the Split-Decision Ruins. He looked across to Brandon and his own partner Cinderace, both of which gave the young researcher a smirk, causing the trainer to form a smirk of his own.

"... Two…"

Peonia felt her heartbeat speed up, as the thrill and excitement of the mystery of the temple was starting to catch up to her. She had had so much fun so far on this trip with everyone despite all their issues, and in all honestly didn't want it to end, though she knew that whatever was hiding in this temple was definitely worthy of being the grand finale to this awesome adventure. She looked at her Tyrantrum and smiled, with the Pokemon smiling back, as they waited patiently…

"... One…"

Chloe felt a rush of adrenaline as Ash reached the final number. A bunch of images from multiple different events from the past two days suddenly flashed in her mind, reminding her of how far the group had come in such a short period of time. The girl glanced at her starter, who showed no sign of fear or stress, before glancing at her newfound crush. Ash quickly caught Chloe's glance on him, and grinned, making the Vermillion City girl grin back, before finally saying…

"...Now!" Ash shouted, causing the entire group to jump on their dots, lighting them all up instantly.

… … … …

"Well, that was… anticlimactic…" Peonia expressed, as after the over dramatic build up, nothing really happened. The rest of the group lowered their heads, disappointed.

"Dang… I really thought that was going to work-

Before Ash could finish his sentence, the ground suddenly started shaking violently, making the group struggle to stay on their feet. The mini earthquake was accompanied by a loud crackling sound coming from the statue at the back of the room, its lights flickering on and off at an alarming rate.

"W-What's happening!?" Chloe shouted in a slight panic, as whatever was going on didn't seem at all normal.

"Whatever it is, this doesn't seem good!" Goh shouted back similarly, starting to think jumping on the dots all at the same time wasn't what they were supposed to do.

Their panic was interrupted once again by the marbled statue, this time letting out one last crackling sound before completely collapsing. The group looked at the hole in the wall revealed by the statue and 2 unknown figures appeared, a red looking floating orb and a yellow looking floating orb, appearing not at all pleased with the humans' presence. The two figures seemed to resemble some type of Pokemon, but it was clear by the travelers' expressions that none of them had ever seen anything like them before.

The yellow looking orb resembled a golem-like Pokemon and had a round yellow body with three spikes on top of its head. It had a pink pattern on its face that resembled the letter "X" and seemingly had five blue, metal-like insulated rings with two serving as shoulders connected to electric-like arms, while the other three served as a combined bottom for the triangle body shape with lightning-shaped legs. The Pokemon was seemingly made out of pure electricity and let out an eerie cry upon arrival, making its body glow an almost blinding shade of yellow.

The red looking orb had a dark red body with a blue dot pattern on its face that resembles the capital letter "Y'' and also looked like some sort of golem-like Pokemon, except with parts of a dragon's mouth as arms. It had two red legs with black feet that were shaped like teeth. The right arm resembled a dragon's upper jaw, while the left arm was shaped like a bottom jaw with dark red coloration underneath both arms. Two red spikes shaped like wings were located behind its back. Similarly to its electric friend, its body glowed after letting out a cry, this time, a blinding burgundy color.

At this point the ground had stopped shaking, but the two Pokemon now standing in front of the group did little to lower the nerves of the travelers.

"A-Are those… Pokemon?" Peonia asked generally, not really knowing the nature of the figures that abruptly entered the room. "And why are they looking at us with d-deadly glares!?" She added as well, in slight worry.

"I knew it…" Brandon muttered, earning the attention of the other trainers. "Those are the last two creations of Regigigas that haven't been seen since ancient times, the electric type Regieleki, said to be powerful enough to generate Galar's entire energy, and the dragon type Regidrago, said to be sealed away long ago because the people of Galar feared the destruction it was capable of if it was ever fully complete by Regigigas…"

Goh, in absolute disbelief, turned to the Pyramid King very slowly and blinked. "Brandon… S-So you're saying one is capable of generating an entire region's energy, and the other one is so powerful it had to be locked away…"

"Yes, old myths from Galar say so…" The Regi Master replied indifferently.

Goh looked at the rest companions, then back to Brandon, took a huge breath and shouted. "YOU DECIDE TO TELL US ABOUT THAT NOW!?"

The Pyramid King frowned and argued. "I wasn't sure until now, and I didn't want to worry you all with things that might not even have been true. And remember, those myths are thousands of years old, who knows how much of those stories have aged poorly. You and Ash specifically should know that not everything old legends say is true, the darkest day legend of the two heroes and Eternatus turned out to be something completely different after all didn't it?"

Goh frowned at his response, but Brandon did have a point, Galar had a strange reputation of badly retelling their old myths, although that still didn't make the Vermillion City researcher more reassured about the whole situation they now found themselves in.

"Whatever those myths say it's not like we have a- WOAH!?"

Ash, once again not being able the finish his sentence, was immediately cut off by Regidrago who suddenly used Hammer Arm on the ground, causing a opening in the floor in the middle of the room, which unfortunately for Ash, Brandon, Pikachu and Registeel, forced them to fall into a black abyss.

Brandon and Registeel were the first to fall, but Ash managed to quickly grab hold of the edge to the opening and clinged on desperately with one hand on the edge, and, acting instinctively, barely managed to catch Pikachu by his paw with his other hand, the Pokemon dangling in the abyss.

"PIKAPI!" Screamed the electric mouse in horror, as the only thing separating him and unknown fate was his trainer's loose hand barely holding on to his paw.

"ASH! BRANDON!" Exclaimed worriedly simultaneously Goh, Peonia, Chloe and their Pokemon. They started running to the hole in the ground in an attempt to salvage their companion on the verge of joining the Pyramid King in the abyss, but were swiftly interrupted by the same burgundy figure, who shot an unrecognizable purple beam just in front of them stopping them right in their tracks, before it quickly dashed towards the opening in the ground.

The Regi Pokemon barely acknowledged the fact Ash was still hanging on the edge of the abyss and shoved him whilst racing down towards where Brandon had fallen, causing Ash's grip to slip even more.

"WOAH!" The Alolan Champion screamed as he barely saw the burgundy figure float pass him down into the abyss, and struggled even more to hang on.

Chloe was the next one to act as she immediately started sprinting in an attempt to save Ash from falling. "ASH!" She screamed once more, as Ash's grip started to loosen even more.

Goh and Peonia and their Pokemon were about to join Chloe in helping their good friend, but were once again stopped, this time by an unfamiliar Thunderbolt from the Regieleki, causing them to fall on the ground, narrowly avoiding the lightning bolt.

Chloe, ignoring the commands of Pokemon behind her, had finally reached the opening, and managed to grab Ash's arm right just as the Pallet Town native lost his grip. Unfortunately for them, Chloe, obviously not being quite as strong as her companion, struggled keeping Ash from falling, as she now lied down on the floor and desperately tried to use anything to stabilize herself, but the weight of her companion was just too much for her to handle.

"EEVEE!" Screeched out Chloe's only Pokemon, as it expressed its panic. It desperately wanted to help out its trainer, but the Regieleki was having none of it and decided to relentlessly shoot out Thunderbolts at the group, forcing the group and their Pokemon to fight back with their own moves as Chloe was left alone in trying to save Ash.

"Chloe don't!" Ash practically pleaded, as it was clear the girl wasn't strong enough to hold him up, and the Alolan Champion didn't want her to join him into a fall of uncertainty just for his sake.

"N-No! I-I've got to! I'm not letting you down again- AH!" Chloe tried to argue, but was caught in her words and let out a scream as she started losing Ash's grip, and she was getting dangerously close to falling herself. But she couldn't let go, Ash had saved her so many times already because he didn't give up on her, so she had to return the favor, and not give up on him.

Ash, also feeling his grip on Chloe loosened, knew the girl was too focused on saving him that she didn't realize the danger she was putting herself in as well. The trainer looked at his Pokemon and gave him a nod. The electric mouse hanging on to his trainer seemed to understand the message his trainer was trying to relay and nodded back.

Ash took one last look at Chloe and mouthed a silent 'Sorry'. The girl in question frowned in confusion, but before she could try to understand what he was trying to say, the Hyper Class trainer shouted. "Pikachu Electro Web!"

"WHAT!?"

Pikachu, with absolutely no hesitation, shot an Electro Web straight upwards. Chloe, obviously not expecting the sudden attack, flinched backwards, causing her to finally lose her grip on Ash. She screamed out his name once more, but it was futile, as the trainer was long gone into the abyss.

"Ash… Why…" The Vermillion City girl said more softly this time. She stared at the opening in which her companion had fallen for a while in silence. 'Why…? Why was he so dang selfish…?' She repeated in her head a couple times. She didn't get it, why was Ash always like this? First the Galarian Articuno incident, now this. Both times, Ash made the conscious decision to sacrifice himself for her, and if she was completely frank, she hated it. This time, Chloe tried to save him, to repay him for all the times he put his friends before himself, but once again, he chose to let himself be the one to deal with all the consequences. 'For Arceus sakes Ash, just let me save you! Let me be able to repay you for all the times you saved me!' She screamed in her mind once again.

"Chloe watch out!" Goh warned as he brought Chloe back to reality.

Chloe turned her head only to find Regieleki staring her down, before letting out another Thunderbolt. Chloe was left paralyzed as the bolt of electric approached, but fortunately, Peonia noticed her immobilized stated and said:

"Tyrantrum, block it with Ancient Power!" The blonde haired girl ordered. Her loyal Pokemon immediately formed a silver ball with a green core, before hurling it between Regieleki's Thunderbolt and Chloe, intercepting it, and causing a mini smokescreen.

Peonia then looked at Chloe and said. "It's Ash, he'll be fine! Now help us out, this thing's kinda strong!"

"R-Right!" She replied, pushing her thoughts of Ash aside temporarily, and regrouping with Goh, Peonia, Eevee, Cinderace and Tyrantrum.

The trio of humans and Pokemon stood as bravely as they could in front of the mysterious threat. The Pokemon suddenly glowed a blinding yellow, causing the group to temporarily cover their eyes, bolts of electricity seemingly bursting out of the Electron Pokemon. Once they had reopened their eyes, the group were shocked to find the opening Ash and Brandon had fallen through was now completely covered up, like nothing had happened.

"D-Did Regieleki just do that?" Peonia asked in confusion.

"I don't know, but it seems like we have bigger issues right now!" Goh responded, as the Regieleki once again glowed yellow and let out a dome of electricity covering the entire room, signifying Electric Terrain.

"Come on! I've done enough battling today already!" The blonde haired complained, before reluctantly ordering her Tyrantrum to get ready. "Let's do this Tyrantrum!"

"Time to shine Cinderace!" Goh added, as his starter cried back in affirmation. The young researcher had trained a lot with Brandon recently, and it was time to put his ace Pokemon to the test.

"You're up Eevee!" Chloe also added, her only Pokemon jumping in front of her. She might not have been able to save Ash, but she decided to use her frustration from that as a weapon against Regieleki.

As the group got in a battle stance, Regieleki seemed to do some sort of laugh, before using Extreme Speed to run around the group at blistering speeds, warning them about what's to come.

'This is gonna be annoying…' Unconsciously thought the three humans at the same time.