Well, new episodes are coming in January. I'm not entirely sure what I'll do until then, but I'll figure something out. I'm not gonna lie, there was a reason why I delayed the last two members of Ash's traveling companion group coming into the story. I absolutely hated those two so much that I actually couldn't watch Black and White, and I know I'm not alone in this opinion. Nevertheless, Cilan and Iris are important to Ash, so by default they're important to this. *I DO NOT OWN POKEMON OR STEVEN UNIVERSE*

Ash's assumptions about Lapis watching him were correct. Looking down from the sky hiding in the clouds, she watched him write something in the sand with a feeling of overwhelming guilt. Every part of her wanted to go down just to be with him again, to feel safe with him, to love him. But she had made her bed, now she had to lie in it, and she knew she couldn't just go back to him after emotionally destroying him. All she could do now was watch with longing, and try to find herself a new home after losing both of hers already. After Ash rejoined the others inside, she quickly dropped down and read his message to her. Now in tears, she grabbed the same piece of driftwood and added to his message to answer him. Rubbing her eyes with her arm, she took flight.

The message now read "I MISS YOU TOO"

She truthfully didn't know where she was going, or what she was even doing. All she did know was that she had betrayed him, and she could never go back. She felt her lower stomach to remind herself why she did what she felt had to be done. Now that she was with child she couldn't risk being taken again by Homeworld, for both her and the baby's sake. The air became colder and more thin as she began to exit the Earth's atmosphere, but she truthfully wasn't paying attention to the change in environment, all she could think about was everything she was leaving behind, Ash, Steven, Peridot, everyone who she considered a friend, she was probably never going to see any of them ever again. Now it was just herself, Kingdra and the unborn she carried. When she finally pulled her hand from her stomach, she saw a few spots of a bright, white light had now covered her hand. When she tried to rub them off, the light had begun to spread across her body slowly. Panicking, she began to rub herself desperately trying to escape it to no avail. When the light finally covered her entire body and everything went dark.

When she finally regained consciousness, she still had her eyes closed when she felt something heavy resting on her chest, and hot breath was caressing her face. Out of fear she assumed there was some sort of animal sitting on her chest and it was predatory in nature. After a few seconds and the creature had not attacked, she slowly opened her eyes.

The creature was small, probably only the size of Ash's Pikachu, with a thin tail and green fur, staring straight at her curiously. "Sage?" it asked looking very confused at her.

"Pansage?" she heard a male voice call from the distance.

Examining her new environment, she saw that she was now resting her back on a large oak tree, and was now in a forest with the unknown creature pinning her to the tree despite not giving off any hostile vibes towards her.

"Pansage?" she heard the male voice call again, this time much closer. The person calling finally stepped into her field of view and she saw he was a tall boy around Ash's age, with a black suit jacket, long pants and a green bow tie, he also had green hair to match his bow tie, and his eyes were a sea green color.

"PANSAGE!" he angrily told the creature, walking over and picking it off her chest "Pansage don't be rude. Say you're sorry to this lady" he scolded him.

"Pan Pansage"

He took a pokeball out and returned the pokemon, making Lapis realize this boy was a pokemon trainer "madam I am so sorry for the behavior of my Pansage, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I think so"

The boy extended his arm to help her up, when she finally stood up from the shadow of the tree and he got a good look at her, he lost nearly all the color of his face and looked terrified "Madam do you require me to take you to a hospital!?"

Worried that the light that brought her here had hurt the baby, Lapis began to panic "what, why?"

"You're blue"

She breathed a sigh of relief, "no I've always been blue. Why do you sound so worried?"

"Because people aren't supposed to be blue? If you don't mind me asking, why are you blue?"

"It's my natural skin color. It's a long story."

"Well then, it's getting dark and I'd love to hear your story. Perhaps as a way of apologizing for my Pansage's rudeness I could invite you to my home at the Striaton City Gym? It would be my pleasure".

Lapis looked at him very confused "Striaton City? Where's that?"

The boy looked at her astonished "The city just a few miles that way? Ma'am do you know where you are?"

She looked down in shame, "no"

"Well then, I cannot allow a lady to be out in the cold completely exposed. I insist that you accompany me to the Gym. How about I sweeten the promise with a home cooked meal?"

The boy was right, she had no idea where she was, and since she was in no condition to be exposed like this, she decided to take his offer, "alright, but just for tonight"

The boy clapped his hands together happily "excellent! If you would please follow me. My name is Cilan by the way".

"Lapis Lazuli. Nice to meet you"

"An intriguing name for an intriguing young lady" he complemented. Cilan then lead her through the forest until they reached the outskirts to a small city just as the sun had set. "You said you didn't know Striaton City Lapis, you are a foreign traveler perhaps?"

"Very foreign"

"Well then, allow me to be the first to welcome you to the Unova region! I'm excited to hear about your home. Welcome to my home, The Striaton City Gym!" he announced pushing the doors open. The inside of the building appeared to be a dining room restaurant, with beautifully decorated tables lining the floor, a crystal chandelier hung above them giving a soft candle light ambiance. The restaurant itself was quite empty, aside from two boys wearing suit jackets similar to Cilan's. "Please make yourself at home!" Cilan declared, pushing her into a chair.

"Welcome," one of the other two boys told her pushing a menu into her face. Unlike Cilan, he had red hair styled in the shape of a flame, with mahogany colored eyes and a red bow tie.

"Perhaps I could bring you something to drink" the third suited boy offered her. He had dark blue bangs styled into waves, with one of them covering his left eye. "Might I recommend a tall glass of lemonade?"

She looked at them uncomfortably, "Uh, no thanks"

"Well would you like to take a few minutes to look at our dinner menu?" the red haired boy asked, "it's reasonably priced"

"No need for that Chili," Cilan told him "this young lady's dinner is complements of me. Order anything you'd like Lapis. These are my brothers, Chili and Cress. We'll take care of anything you like"

She awkwardly accepted Chili's menu and began skimming it, of course her pregnancy cravings had begun to kick in and so she was starving. Flipping the menu over to the desert section she became spot for choice. "Well maybe I'll have some cake. Or some tiramisu, or a brownie sundae. Or a…"

"My my, you're awfully hungry." Cress joked "Perhaps you'd enjoy a sample platter of one of every desert we have?" And before she could even answer him, the trio sprung into the kitchen and began to argue over who got to cook for her. After a few minutes, they returned, and placed a platter in front of her covered in sweet treats. "Bon appetit"

Lapis began to eat at a pace that would put Amethyst to shame. Of course her eating habits were not only affected by her pregnancy, but also were impacted by Ash's fast eating habits because he would often eat like a pig. When she noticed that the three brothers were looking at her, she paced herself.

"So, what can you tell us about yourself?" Cilan asked sitting down with her.

She swallowed the remains of her tiramisu and finally regained herself. "I am not of this world, or even this universe"

"Ah, that would explain your skin being more blue than the deepest ocean" Cress commented.

"I am from a world run by beings of great power, power given to us by the gems we possess" she continued, turning her back to the boys to show them her teardrop shaped gem. "We Gems are controlled in a caste system with the most powerful Gems, The Diamonds, conquer other worlds to gain their resources to expand the empire and create more Gems. The Diamonds tried this on my universe's Earth, but were stopped by a coup of Gems calling themselves "The Crystal Gems". Now they're trying again, and have traveled to your world to take this Earth over using pokemon".

"Alien invasion?" Cilan asked "oh my."

Chili threw his fists down on the table "and if that's the case, than what are you!? You say that "the Crystal Gems" are on our side, yet you refer to them as "they", whose side are you on?"

"I don't have a side. I'm only telling you because you were so nice to me, in fact I should leave. There are eyes everywhere, be careful". She explained while trying to leave.

"Oh no you don't!" Chili angrily told her, blocking her escape.

"Get out of my way Chili"

"No, you can't just come into my home, and say something as major as this and just leave with no proper explanation!"

"Both of you, cool off!" Cress ordered them.

"NO BROTHER! I don't trust her at all. How do we know she isn't a spy from this Homeworld she speaks of?"

"If she were a spy, why would she be giving us the information she already gave us?" Cress debated him.

"I'm not loyal to Homeworld" Lapis finally spoke against him. "And to prove it, I'll beat you in a Pokemon battle. But not just you Chili, I'll defeat all three of you. Then you'll see that if I was trouble I would've hurt you all immediately".

The three brothers looked at her astonished for her proposal.

"Only once has a Pokemon trainer ever challenged all three of us" Cilan revealed.

"And how did it work out?"

Cilan smiled, "that trainer became one of my closest friends, I trust him now with my life. Let us battle!"

After closing the restaurant, Lapis took the gym battlefield along with Chili. Cress acted as referee.

"Both opponents shall use one pokemon each." He decreed.

"Pansear, turn up the heat!" Chili exclaimed summoning his fire type pokemon.

"Time for my training to pay off. Come on out Kingdra!"

"BEGIN!"

"Alright Pansear, use fire punch!"

"Dodge and use dragon pulse!"

Kingdra avoided Pansear's punch and responded with its own attack.

"Dodge!"

Pansear jumped into the air with tenacity, giving more than enough space between it and the attack. "Now use flame charge!"

"Counter with hydro pump!" Kingdra again obeyed her master and attacked fired it's most powerful attack at the opponent at a speed so great Chili wasn't even able to order Pansear to counter. Pansear's fire typing was at a serious disadvantage to the powerful water attack, and since the attack struck him head on, he was obliterated.

"Pansear is unable to battle! Lapis and Kingdra are the winners!" Cress decreed following the relatively quick battle, replacing his brother at the other side of the arena while Cilan took over as the referee.

"Lapis will now battle Cress" Cilan ordered "Please select your next pokemon"

Because Lapis only had the single pokemon, she looked to Kingdra, who then looked to her determined to make her master proud. Cress on the other hand summoned his Panpour.

"BEGIN!"

"Kingdra use bubble beam!"

"Panpour, double team!". The pokemon obeyed and duplicated itself to confuse its opponent.

Lapis remembered from her training with Ash what different types of pokemon were strong against each other. While in her match against Chili, he used a pokemon that had a major type disadvantage and preferred a head on attack strategy, Cress used a pokemon that was the same type as hers and had a strategy that involved actual planning. She knew this wasn't going to be as easy. "Use ice beam!" Kingdra followed her orders and used the ice type move.

"Dodge and use water gun on the ground around Kingdra!" Cress unconventionally ordered. Panpour soaked the ground around Lapis's pokemon and it was reduced to slippery mud. Although Kingdra was a water type typically found in water, the water Kingdra now sat in was pure mud, thick and sticky. With Kingdra now stuck, Cress saw his chance. "Use scratch!"

But Lapis was anticipating this. "Kingdra, use ice beam!"

Cress realized what Lapis was doing, "Panpour stop your attack!"

But his order was too late. Panpour was already within grabbing distance from Kingdra, and was frozen solid by the ice beam.

"Finish it with dragon pulse!" And Kingdra did just that, knocking Panpour into submission.

"Panpour is unable to battle! Lapis and Kingdra are the winners!" Cilan then relieved Cress as Chili became the referee.

"The third and final battle between the gym leaders of the Striaton City Gym and Lapis Lazuli will now begin, please select your pokemon!"

"Pansage, let's go!"

"You've put up one hell of a fight Kingdra, are you up for this?" Lapis passionately asked. Kingdra nodded. "Alright then, let's do this!"

"BEGIN!"

"Pansage use vine whip!"

Lapis knew that grass types were super effective against water types like Kingdra. But Ash had trained her to utilize every part of the battle, including the field. From her battle with Cress, the field was covered in mud, she decided to use this to her advantage. "Kingra use hydro pump on the field and dodge into the mud!"

Kingdra used her trainer's attack and turned the field into a mudhole, dodging Pansage's attack by hiding in the mud.

Cilan looked on in surprise, he knew he had seen this unconventional battle style before, but he had to focus on the battle at hand. "Use grass whistle!"

"Stay in the mud Kingdra!"

Pansage removed a single sapling from its head and began to softly whistle a melody to put Kingdra to sleep. But Lapis's strategy worked, and the dense mud muffled out the sound. When the attack failed, Lapis knew how to attack next.

"Ice beam!"

"Spice up this battle with rock tomb!" Pansage was able to now throw it's rock type attack at the mud, exposing the pokemon yet again, "now use vine whip again to hold Kingdra in place!"

Before Kingdra could stop the attack, Pansage held the water type down, having learned from her battle against Cress and kept his distance. "Now finish this with solar beam!"

"Kingdra, use ice beam on the wall!"

As the brothers looked on confused, Kingdra used its ice attack on the wall behind Pansage, ricocheting off the wall and striking the grass type in the back.

"I have seen this battling recipe before" Cilan finally said to himself, having remembered his first match against Ash for his gym badge where his friend used the same strategy against him.

"Pansage is unable to battle! Kingdra and Lapis Lazuli are the winners!" Chili decreed.

"I told you, if I wanted to hurt you I would've"

"Sorry we, I, doubted you" Chili told her, shaking her hand out of respect. "Although now I'm especially worried. If you can take all three of us out with your battling styles, I'm scared to see exactly what this Homeworld is capable of"

"Oh, Homeworld doesn't battle like I do. My-" she was about to say "fiance" when describing Ash, but she stopped herself because the pain of what she did to him came back "someone on our side trained me. Someone I wound up hurting and probably doesn't want to see me again"

"I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you find your peace with that person." Cilan gave his condolences. "But right now we should approach this new information about Homeworld"

"And say what?" Chili asked "I mean it's not like we can just go to the police station and say: "hey Officer Jenny, we've got an alien invasion on our hands, a blue lady told us" they're gonna think we're all insane!"

"I agree, we must do something. But we must keep this to an inner circle of people we can trust. You heard her, they're already on our world so there must be a spy network of sorts around the regions. There might even be spies within Striaton City" Cress also addressed.

"This sounds like something up Ash's alley" Cilan thought aloud.

Lapis felt her heart sting when she heard that name, but she wanted to be sure he wasn't talking about the same Ash. "Ash?"

"Yes, he was the trainer who challenged all three of us we told you about. Afterward I traveled across the Unova region with him and another friend to improve myself. His name is Ash Ketchum, and he is the greatest and most honorable man I've ever met"

When she realized they knew Ash and were his friends, Lapis broke down to her knees and began to cry her eyes out, taking the brother's by surprise.

"What's wrong?"

"Ash Ketchum was the man who trained me" she finally choked out through her tears.

"The man you hurt? My apologies if it isn't my place to get involved but might I ask why?" Cilan asked placing his hand on her shoulder supportively.

She wiped her tears away with her arm, "I, we, were together. We loved each other. We were going to get married. And I abandoned him out of fear."

"Lapis, we are not here to judge you. You were scared and you ran, Ash will understand."

"No you don't understand, you're all in danger because I'm here. Before I began my relationship with him another Gem named Jasper attacked us. To save him I fused with her and became another gem called Malachite and trapped her at the bottom of the sea. For two months I was trapped with her, only with thoughts of why I was doing it to keep me sane. But Jasper took it worse, her already fragile mind became obsessed with the anger I took out on her. She liked every minute of it. And now that we're separated, she is now out to get me and Malachite back and will kill anyone to get to me."

"We are gym leaders, and gym leaders do not stand down from a battle" Cress explained to her "no matter what, we will get you back to him. We're at your disposal"

"You can stay here for as long as you want" Cilan insisted "allow me to show you to your room"

Lapis followed him upstairs to a guest bedroom and sat down on the bed. "Cilan, I don't deserve this"

He chuckled "you say that a lot don't you?"

"What?"

"I can see it in your eyes. My job as a connoisseur requires me to see through a person, and when I see you I see a girl who is hurting inside. My brothers and I give you our word we will help you, but only if you allow us."

She finally sat up and hugged him "thank you Cilan"

He turned on the TV for her and left her to herself. She watched the TV and saw it was some sort of love story about a Jigglypuff and a Psyduck that fell in love despite being of different backgrounds. Given her current situation, she couldn't stomach seeing the romance and exited the room. Sneaking down the stairs and listening in on the brothers talking from the staircase.

"Are you sure she's not there Jervis?" she heard Cilan ask a video phone call. The man he was talking to was an older man with a moustache.

"Unfortunately yes. Master Cynthia is no longer at the villa. She has returned to her home in the Sinnoh region. If you'd like I can send her your message."

"No, just tell her we're gonna have to meet her face to face because of how important what we have to tell her is. We'll be boarding a plane in the morning. Tell her, we'll see her then"

Jervis the butler nodded and hung up the phone.

"Are we seriously going to Cynthia?" Cress nervously asked "how can you be so sure she'll even listen to what we know?"

"She'll listen to us" Cilan insisted "she trusts me. And if Cynthia believes us, than the rest of the world will have to believe us as well".

"Who's Cynthia?" Lapis asked from behind them, causing all three of them to jump back in surprise.

"Oh Lapis, you should be in bed".

"Who's Cynthia?" she asked again.

"She's the pokemon champion of the Sinnoh Region. She's a trusted friend of both Ash and myself. And she's one of the most powerful pokemon trainers in the world. If we need allies to fight Homeworld, then she'll be a good one to have on our side."

"Besides, you said spies are amuck. If what you say is correct than she could be in danger." Chili provided his input.

"We'll leave for the Sinnoh Region in the morning".

"NO!" Lapis insisted.

"Well why not?" Chili angrily asked.

"I ran away because I can't get involved in this war! I left the only person who ever loved me because I can't do this!"

"Why not?"

"BECAUSE I'M PREGNANT!" she screamed. "If Jasper got her hands on me the baby definitely wouldn't survive."

After the three took a moment to comprehend what they were told. "You are a mother who is doing her best to protect her child" Cilan told her, "We understand your fear, and I'm sure Ash understands to"

She broke down further, "I haven't told him yet. Now I never will."

"Well that's no way to think. Don't you think Ash deserves to know?"

"It's not like that. The reason why I can never tell him is because I'm dying. Gems cannot have children, and to have this child I have to sacrifice my form to become it. When that happens the baby will be born, and I will cease to exist."

"Lapis-"

"It's not the dying part I'm upset about, I've made peace with that fact. Because of my selfishness Ash will never know. I've destroyed everything we built. There's no way he'll ever love me again after what I did to him."

The brothers all hugged her "that's not the Ash we know. Ash Ketchum never gives up. And never holds hard feelings." Cilan then approached the grand piano in the dining room. "In addition to being a pokemon and food connoisseur, I also happen to be a connoisseur in music. And it seems to me you have to express yourself. Go ahead and sing your feelings" he insisted as he began his melody.

Lapis searched her inner spirit, knowing Ash had a passion within his soul for her that she never knew why. She finally took her true feelings for both herself and Ash into words to match Cilan on the piano.

"If I could begin to be, half of what you think of me. I could do about anything. I could even learn how to love. When I see the way you act, wondering when I'm coming back. I could do about anything, I could even learn how to love like you.

I always thought I might be bad now I'm sure that it's true cause I think you're so good. And I'm nothing like you.

Look at you go. I just adore you. I wish that I knew, what makes you think I'm so special.

If I could begin to do, something that does right by you. I would do about anything. I would even learn how to love.

When I see the way you look, shaken by how long it took, I could about anything. I could even learn how to love like you.

Love me, like you"

Lapis's song had brought Chili and Cress to tears. Cilan then left his seat from the piano, eyes watering as well. "Pack your things, we're going to the Sinnoh Region".

Lapis now understood, she knew she had limited time. Now she had to make the most of it for Ash. "I'm coming to".

Her friends looked at each other knowing what had to be done "let's show Homeworld that this world isn't going down without a fight!"

"Guys"

"Yes Lapis?"

"When the baby comes, I want Ash to know. I want him to be a part of his child's life. If we don't get to him in time, will you bring the child to him?"

"Absolutely. We give you our word, we'll give our lives to protect it. Now get some rest, we're leaving first thing in the morning".

"But before you do" Cress announced as he presented a box to her "as per the rule of the Striaton City Gym, because you defeated all three of us in battle, we proudly present to you the trio badge!"

Lapis accepted her gym badge and hugged them before returning to her room, laying down and falling asleep.

"Did we just become dads?" Chili asked his brothers.