Yo, new chapter up, hope you all enjoy. Sorry for the delay. If anybody actually reads this part I've actually entered an Advanceshipping Fanfic competition and my entry is up right now so if you want to check it out it'd be on my profile here, I'd really appreciate it. Please leave a review if you'd like, stay safe everyone!

Chapter 7

May made her way back into the clearing that her friends were settled in. A wonderful aroma filled her nostrils as she stepped through the brush and her eyes followed her nose to see Brock finishing up what would surely be an exemplary meal. As he was adding the finishing touches, Ash was hovering over his shoulder with a dreamy look on his face. Meanwhile Pikachu had managed to sneak the bottle of ketchup away from Brock and was enjoying it all to himself while Piplup and Axew just shook their heads. May simply smiled at the sight at the Pokémon but her smile grew whenever she looked backed at Ash.

"Hey May, you were a long time." Serena remarked.

"Oh yeah, sorry," May replied, breaking out of her stare. "I was just taking in the nature." She then felt the object in her pocket. "Oh yeah, do any of you know what this might be?" May removed the marble like item to show the group.

Immediately Gaz's eyes widened, and Gary stood up from his seat and approached May. Brock looked away from his cooking and gasped, inadvertently allowing Ash to steal a bit of food from under his nose.

"Can I see that?" Gary asked, transfixed with the matter.

"Uh… yeah sure." As soon as she answered he snatched it from her hands.

"So, this is what it looks like." Gary muttered under his breath.

"Ummm Gary? Do you know what it is?" Misty spoke up.

Dawn noticed that Gaz also shared a similar reaction to Gary but seemed more familiar with it.

"Hey, you have any idea why it's such a big deal? What is it?" She asked him.

Immediately Gaz looked down at the shooter sleeve he always wore on his right arm.

"It's a mega stone." Gaz answered, he said it loud enough for everyone to hear and the group showed a look of collective surprise. It even caused Ash and Pikachu to stop picking at their food.

"No way." Cameron exclaimed.

"A mega stone…oh my Arceus." May said under her breath.

"What Pokémon could it be for though?" Iris asked.

"May it's a long shot, but when you found this did any of your pokéballs shake or anything?" Gary asked, still examining the stone.

"No nothing like that I …" Then she remembered. "Wait, I did get like a warm sensation from one of them."

"Can you bring out whichever Pokémon was in that ball?" Gary asked.

"Uh… sure." May picked up the ball and looked at it, she slightly hesitated.

She then felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Go on May you should do it." Ash told her. "This is great, this could be a real chance to prove how much your Pokémon care about you and you care about them, and we all know how true that is."

The slight hesitation May felt immediately disappeared as soon as she heard Ash's words and saw the meaning of them in his eyes.

She nodded and gave him a smile.

"You're right, thank you." May told him.

"First time for everything." Ash replied with a laugh.

Dawn and Gaz exchanged a look.

"You were right about those two." Gaz told her.

"Told you, I believe you owe me a meal next time we all eat at our next stop." Dawn reminded him.

"A bet's a bet." Gaz sighed.

"And I'll probably want dessert." Dawn teased.

"Make the most of it I'm winning the next one." Gaz said, lamenting the future loss of what's in his wallet.

The two then began to laugh.

"I don't think Ash and May are the only ones." Serena remarked, causing the two teens to blush.

All attention then again turned to May as she threw the pokéball into the air.

The pokéball opened and a mass of whit energy emerged from it and began to take the shape of a large bipedal Pokémon covered in red except for the cuffs of its legs which were a dull yellow. At the end of both his hands and feet were very sharp talons which would cause major damage if used aggressively against any person or Pokémon.

"Blazekin!" It roared throwing its arms out wide.

"Woah..." Cameron exclaimed in awe, having only been to Unova and Kalos he never saw one in real life. "It looks so cool!"

Pikachu ran forward to greet his old friend. He was followed by Piplup who met Blazekin had met before in Sinnoh.

"Pikachu Pi." Pikachu exclaimed from the shoulders of the Blaze Pokémon.

"Pip Piplup." Piplup followed up.

Blazekin greeted them both before turning to May.

"Hey Blaziken, I found this thing by the river and it seemed to cause a reaction from your pokéball, do you know anything about that?"

Blaziken shook his head but his eyes were transfixed on the small gem. The gem then began to glow slightly in May's hand. Blaziken felt a surge of warmth within him, he felt as if it was something natural to him, something that belonged to him.

This feeling was not lost on May. She understood Blaziken extremely well and she knew that this stone was compatible with her starter. She felt warmth spreading throughout her fingertips that held the stone.

"It's definitely a Mega Stone." Gary concluded. "I done some small studies when I visited Kalos but have never been this close to one."

"Go ahead May, give it to Blaziken." Gaz encouraged.

May looked at Ash one last time, he gave her an encouraging smile and nod. She breathed out slowly and held the stone out for Blaziken to take.

Slowly, Blaziken took the stone from May in his sharp talons and held it.

Everyone stood still, waiting to see what will happen.

"Of course, for the Mega Evolution to actually occur May would need a Key Stone herself." Gary stated.

Everyone at once fell over in disappointment.

"You couldn't have mentioned that earlier before we all got excited?" Misty yelled at the trainee professor.

"That was just anticlimactic." Max remarked.

"Where can I get this Key Stone thing?" May asked.

"Well usually you get one from a regional professor." Gaz told her. "At first only Professor Sycamore was allowed to distribute them but he then decided it was best to give every professor the right to do so because he trusts all of them."

"So, do I need to get one from Professor Birch." May asked.

"No, not necessarily. You can get one from any professor it doesn't have to be your regional professor." Gaz explained, he then turned his arm to show his forearm and the item that was attached to his sleeve. It was a stone with multiple colours illuminated within it. From top to bottom it went purple, dark blue, light blue, green then yellow. In the middle of the stone there was a symbol that resembled the structure of DNA.

"This is my Key Stone, though I'm from Unova I got mine from Professor Sycamore when I was travelling through Kalos. He saw the bond I had with my Absol and trusted me with it."

May's eyes gazed longingly at the Key Stone.

"I want one." She cried out. "I deserve one, me and Blaziken have a stronger bond than anyone."

"Well you better hope that one of the professors you've met believe that." Gary told her.

"Don't worry May, I bet you that Professor Oak will give you one." Ash chimed in. "I'm positive he knows how great your bond with your Pokémon is. I've told him all about you and how great you are with your Pokémon and-"

Ash stopped talking as his face flooded red.

"Poor Ash, it's both entertaining and painful to watch." Brock laughed.

"Thank you, Ash, ever since we started travelling again, you've known exactly what to say." May smiled at him, giving him a small squeeze on the shoulder.

"Come on everyone, dinner is ready!" Brock announced to the group.

Everyone settled down and began to eat the delectable meal that Brock had prepared for them. Once everyone had finished eating, they all sat around the fire and began to talk about their journeys thus far.

"So, Serena you competed in Pokémon Showcases right?" Dawn asked. "I've seen a couple of them on TV, they're so cool."

"Yeah during my travels through Kalos I competed in lots of them, hoping to become like Aria. But I decided I wanted to try something different, so I went to Hoenn to try Pokémon Contest." Serena explained.

"Hoenn contests are tough, aren't they?" May asked. "I heard you did really well though."

"Yeah I managed to reach the final, but I lost to someone named Solidad." Serena replied sadly.

"Solidad is tough, I haven't even beaten her yet." May remarked.

"Me neither." Dawn added. "If she had entered the Kanto Contests I probably wouldn't have won."

"So, what's next Serena?" Brock asked.

"Well me and Cameron are thinking are going to Unova next. He wants to make one more run at the league and I want to try Pokémon Musicals, they look amazing." She answered, her eyes gleaming.

"I really think I can win the league this year!" Cameron shouted. "I came so close last time I know I can do it!"

"Well if you're going to Unova after this journey I can show you around for a bit." Iris told them. "I need to get back to Opelucid City if I have any hope of becoming a Dragon Master."

"Xew, Axew." Axew nodded while perched on Iris' head.

"How's the world of Pokémon medicine Brock?" Iris continued. "I bet it can be tough.

"It's a lot of study and research but it's very rewarding." Brock stated with a smile. "Helping a sick Pokémon to become healthy and happy again is one of the best feelings in the world."

"Yeah you really helped me out when my Starmie got hurt, I was so scared when her jewel began to dull." Misty chimed in. "You managed to get her back healthy in no time at all."

"Well I couldn't let the star Pokémon of the Cerulean Gym Leader be injured, could I?" Brock laughed. "Otherwise your reputation as one of the strongest Gym Leaders in Kanto would be on the line."

"Hey, I have plenty of strong Pokémon!" Misty protested. As soon as she said this one of her pokéballs immediately opened.

"Psyduck?" Misty's Psyduck emerged, confused himself as to why he was outside his ball.

"Not now, I wasn't talking about you!" Misty yelled and withdrew Psyduck. She then turned to Gary. "With all your Pokémon research can you not figure out why that keeps happening?"

"Hey if you're having problems with your pokéballs talk to Kurt, it's not my department." Gary laughed. "I'm just trying to understand Pokémon on a deeper level, if me and Gramps come across a solution though we'll be sure to let you know first."

Misty just smiled and shook her head.

"I may have to challenge your gym when I go to Kanto Misty." Gaz told her. "I mean your Psyduck looks eager for a battle, hate to disappoint it."

There were a few laughs shared as Ash stared deeply into the campfire, there has been something on his mind ever since Viridian Forest and he figured it was about time he asked it.

"Hey May, Dawn?" He spoke up. "What happened between you and Kenny and Drew?"

Everyone fell silent and all eyes pointed at the two co-ordinators.

"What do you mean?" Dawn asked.

"Well after what happened in Viridian Forest. I thought neither of them would do anything to hurt you but after that I figured something had to have changed."

Dawn took a deep breath and turned to May.

"I don't know what happened with you two but with Kenny and I things just fell apart for no real reason."

"After me and Buneary finished up with her Pokémon modelling, my original plan was to go to Unova for the journey and meet up with you Ash. When I thought about it more though I decided to go on my own travels because I never done it before and I wanted to know that if I was to travel with you guys again, I wouldn't be a burden. That I could be independent and useful to the group."

"You were never a burden Dawn." Brock told her.

"Yeah, you were great to travel with." Ash stated. "We had so much fun and we got us through a lot of tough situations."

"Thank you." Dawn smiled, but her eyes were still sad. "Apparently Kenny thought I'd be fun to travel with too. Remember he offered me to travel with him towards the end of our Sinnoh experience? Well I turned him down because my plan was to continue to travel with you. I don't know if I told you this, but I sent him a letter saying I'm not going with him. I didn't want to hurt him though, so I let him down easy, I told him as long as we shared the same dream of winning a Grand Festival that we'd meet again. Turns out we did meet again when I competed in the Kanto circuit, I thought it'd be fun to meet with a long-time friend whenever there was a contest."

Dawn breathed out slowly gathering her thoughts.

"Turns out he wanted more than that."

Dawns mind was cast back to her first journey through Kanto.

Dawn stood looking out from the balcony of her room in the Pokémon centre of Saffron City. She swept her eyes across the landscape of the town until they rested on the gym. Apparently, it happened to be one of the strongest gyms in all of Kanto led by Sabrina. She wondered how Ash fared in his battle against her, he must have beaten her to get to the Indigo Conference, but it couldn't have been easy. Just as she finished this thought, she heard a knock on her door.

She walked over and opened it and saw Kenny standing in the corridor.

"Kenny, what are you doing here?" She asked surprised.

"I came to see you Dee-Dee." He said with a smile before then walking past Dawn into the room.

"Oh, well come in..." She said bemusedly.

"To be honest Dawn, I came here because I need to talk to you about something." Kenny told her, his tone changing from his usual light-hearted one to a more serious one.

"You can talk to me about anything Kenny, we've been friends as long as I can remember." Dawn replied with a sweet smile.

"Right, well, of course I mean-" Kenny seemed very awkward and his cheeks were tinged with red.

"It's okay Kenny, don't worry, whatever it is you can tell me." She gave him another smile for encouragement.

"Thank you, okay here goes... Dee-Dee, I like you, I've liked you for a long time now. I mean like as in, like-like."

Dawn kept her smile going despite knowing just how much her response will hurt her fellow friend from Twinleaf.

"I know." She said simply.

"Is that all you have to say?" He said, his voice full of hurt.

"I don't know what else to say." Dawn said, dropping her smile. "I've known for a while. I suspected it when you asked me to travel with you back in Sinnoh, but I knew for sure when you followed me to Johto last year. You left halfway through your progress of Hoenn just to see me and go against me."

"I didn't know where you were by the time, I had started in Hoenn! I even went back to Twinleaf to see your Mom, but she was out of town. I wouldn't have known until I saw you competing in a contest in Lavender Town. So, I followed you there because I just want to be with you!" Kenny's voice was getting louder as he talked, transforming his hurt into anger, denial and sadness.

"I'm sorry Kenny, I just don't feel the same way. You're my friend and I'll always care for you, but only as a friend I'm afraid."

"Why?" He shouted, spit flying out of his mouth in his rage. "What's wrong with me that you don't like me? And why did you say those things in your letter if you didn't like me?"

Dawn was starting to get a little afraid of Kenny, he looked as if he could lose control. She also didn't have any of her Pokémon, Nurse Joy was giving them a check-up downstairs.

"There's nothing wrong with you Kenny, I just don't like you in that way. It's just how I feel. I meant everything in my letter, I wanted to see you again and I'm happy we shared a dream of winning a Grand Festival, it's a connection we have that I still treasure to this day."

Kenny's eyes were still filled with anger and Dawn was even wondering whether he was listening to her at all.

"You didn't come with me because your plan was to stay with Ash, right?" He asked her, his voice low now but still aggressive.

"Yes, I wanted to keep going with Ash and Brock, but I decided to stay in Sinnoh for a while because an opportunity came, and I couldn't pass it up." Dawn answered honestly.

"Ever since you've met him all he's done is get in between us." Kenny clenched his fists tighter with every word he spoke.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Dawn asked, she was getting slightly angry herself, having a sense of where Kenny was going with this.

"You chose him over me Dawn! You chose a trainer you knew for about a year over your lifelong friend who shared your dream!" Kenny couldn't hold back tears anymore, they began to streak down his face.

"It's not that simple," Dawn shouted at her friend. "I went with Ash because he was the one who taught me about everything, he showed me how wonderful life alongside Pokémon is, he showed me how to make the most of everything in life and supported me whenever I needed it. You never done that; all you did was tease me. The only time you ever acknowledged me was when I got one over on you. Be honest, you only saw me as a friend once I started doing well in Contests, before that you only saw me as a laughingstock!"

"SHUT UP!" Kenny roared as he threw something across the room. The door to the room then opened and the two teens turned to find Nurse Joy standing there.

"I could hear the commotion downstairs, is everything okay?" She asked with a concerning look in her eyes.

"I said all I came here to say, I got your answer." Kenny then turned to leave. As he was walking out Dawn picked up what he had thrown across the room. It was a blue clasped bag and Dawn recalled it was what Kenny used to hold his contest ribbons.

"Kenny, don't forget you ribbons." She said extending her hand out with the bag resting there.

Kenny only stopped walking once he reached the doorway.

"I don't want them, I don't care." He spat; his voice venomous. "I don't want to share a dream with you anymore."

Dawns hand dropped limply to her side as Kenny disappeared out the door. After being asked was she okay by Nurse Joy a couple of times, she stood alone in her room once again, and it was then when she finally could not hold back the tears anymore.

"That was the last I saw of him until Viridian Forest." Dawn finished up.

"I'm so sorry Dawn, he was totally out of line." Misty told the Sinnoh native with a hand on her shoulder.

"Pip, Plup Piplup." Dawn's longest Pokémon nuzzled up to his trainer, hoping to cheer her up.

"Thank you, guys." She said sweetly with a smile. "That's my story anyway, what about you May?"

All eyes turned to the co-ordinator from Petalburg.

She took a deep breath, getting ready to tell her tale.

"Drew finally showed his true colours."