`"Serena," someone shouted.

Serena turned to face the source of the voice, it was Ash. Blood was trickling down his face from a cut under his right eye, his clothes were torn and he overall looked like he'd been through hell.

"Serena we have to go, maybe if we get far enough away," he stopped, knowing there was no escape from this attack.

Serena looked out towards Anistar City, members of Olympia's gym were the last line of defense against the full-powered Megalith, and it didn't need to be said that they would fail, and Lysander would create his "Beautiful World".

She started crying, Ash looked over and the last light of hope faded from his eyes. He looked back at Serena and stumbled over to her, wincing every step he took and pulled her into a hug. Serena sobbed into his shoulder, Ash watched the Megalith connect with the Sundial and the explosion that ensued. He shed a single tear and pulled Serena closer to him.

"I love you, Serena," he whispered as he closed his eyes.

Serena bolted upright, breathing heavily. Absol woke up and got ready to fight.

"No, Absol, I'm...fine, don't worry about me."

She pulled out her phone from her bag and checked the time, it was 4:15 in the morning.

"That's the earliest I've woken up from one of these nightmares."

Serena dug around her bag for her bathrobe, put it on, and walked out on the deck of the ship, propping her head on her hand and staring at the sea. Absol laid at her feet and gently nuzzled her leg, to offer comfort. Serena gently smiled and held out her keystone which glimmered in the light of the full moon. She couldn't stop thinking about Ash while looking at it, all of the memories, his battles with Diantha, Korrina, Alain, Sawyer, Wulfric, and even him battling side by side with Stephen, Professor Sycamore, and Clemont's father, came flooding back. Tears gently rolled her cheeks as memories of her adventures in Kalos overwhelmed her senses. Spending nights playing games with Bonnie, watching Clemont's inventions work, before the inevitable self-destruction, and watching Ash's battles. She must have cried for at least an hour.

After she managed to dry her eyes and watched the sunrise. She almost started crying again until Brock got her attention.

"Serena? You're up early."

Serena turned and faced Brock, "Actually I woke up an hour ago and came here to clear my thoughts, I'm gonna go get dressed though, we should be at the Petalburg City Gym by lunch."

Serena went back into her cabin and fished around for her clothes. Her outfit was loosely inspired by Ash's, a royal blue, ¾ sleeved shirt, black, skin-tight jeans, a white, knitted cardigan which sleeves stopped half-way down her forearm and the bottom of the cardigan stopped at about mid-thigh. Simple brown ankle boots and black fingerless gloves, complete with the ribbon Ash had given her in Coumarine City tied around the hairband holding her low ponytail.

It was about 7:30 by the time Serena left her cabin, all packed and ready. Sylveon and Absol were both out of their Pokeballs.

"'Bout time, your majesty," Brock said in a mocking tone.

Serena rolled her eyes at the nickname, Marian had coined the "Kalos Princess" nickname after Serena ended up with perfect punctuation in the Rustboro Contest. And it led to the occasional question about her "alleged romantic relationship" with random competitors in the Kalos League, some of the more embarrassing being Alain, Sawyer, Trevor, and Tierno, though he must have had a field day with that question. Surprisingly, no one had asked about Ash, until yesterday.

"Earth to Serena Yvonne," Brock said, snapping his fingers.

Serena snapped back to reality and sat down to eat breakfast.

"So, the boat will dock at 10:30, it'll probably take us until about 11:55 to get to the Gym since we are the last to depart and there are probably hordes of photographers and reporters waiting for you."

"Good point, it probably doesn't help that I'm going to the house of a top coordinator either," Serena said, appearing to dig through her bag to grab something until her hand brushed a Pokeball.

Oh, thank Arceus it's here if I lost it...Serena thought.

"Serena," Brock said, snapping Serena out of her thoughts.

"Sorry, just lost in thought."

"It's okay, May was the same way, she spent so much time training for her contests so she barely ha time to think so after the Grand Festival that's all she could do," Brock said.

Serena smiled and ate, shoveling food into her mouth, she'd missed dinner last night because she was training for the upcoming Wallace Cup, but she made sure her Pokemon were fed. After eating, Serena gathered up her things and walked to the ship's battlefield to train.

"Alright, everyone, come on out," Serena said, tossing her Pokeballs into the air.

Delphox, Fletchinder, and Riolu were released and all seemed to grin at their trainer.

"So, the Wallace Cup is coming up soon, next week. It'll be our first performance after we won the Grand Festival so we need to give it our all, and never give up until the very end."

She realized how much she'd been saying that phrase, she'd even used it while encouraging Max to keep collecting gym badges after Juan defeated him. It's been six months and I'm still using his lessons and teaching them to others.

Serena had almost decided the pair she was using for the Wallace Cup Performance Rounds, but she wanted to know where it was hosted before officially choosing.

While training with her Pokemon, she made sure to keep one eye on the egg, in hopes it'll hatch sooner or later.

She'd been training for about two hours until Brock interrupted her.

"Serena, we're docking in half an hour, you might wanna make sure everyone looks their best for the inevitable paparazzi horde," Brock said, half-joking.

Serena smiled and called Delphox, Fletchinder, and Riolu back, leaving Sylveon and Absol out, as they were considered her signature Pokemon, and sat down to brush Sylveons fur since Absol somehow managed to keep his fur clean.

It wasn't long after when she and Brock finally disembarked, and as they thought, there were countless photographers, all trying to get photos of the Kalos Princess without any special outfits made specifically for this.

Serena mostly kept quite mostly just smiling, but she broke silence for the occasional question asked by a team from Kalos, she did want her friends to know how she was, especially if she wasn't able to talk to them in person. This continued for about twenty minutes until Serena managed to get through the crowd. Okay, I did it, and there were no random questions about Ash, I guess him winning the Alola League got international attention and everyone is remembering the fact that we traveled together.

Brock and Serena kept walking towards the gym where they would meet their friends and got there at about noon. Serena opened the door.

"Surprise, Happy Birthday Serena," A chorus of voices shouted, her friends jumping out from where they were hiding.

Serena stepped back in shock but then looked around. They hadn't forgotten, she thought while smiling.

"And that's not the only surprise," Dawn said, grabbing Serena's arm and gesturing to the back of the room where May's father, Norman, was standing.

Norman moved aside to reveal another group of people.

"Surprise," the group shouted.

Serena gasped in delight, it was all of her friends from Kalos.

She stood there speechless for a few seconds.

"What, did you think we weren't gonna come and congratulate you and wish you a happy birthday," Shauna said.

"Yeah especially since a certain Alolan Champion is a no-show," Bonnie said with a smirk.

Serena's face went red, "Bonnie," she grumbled.

"You have no idea how much it cost to get tickets to Hoenn on the day of the Grand Festival," Clemont said, trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, if it weren't for Clemont, we'd have never been able to come here and say hi," Tierno said, winking at Serena.

She rolled her eyes, she was well aware of Tierno's crush on her, but the feeling wasn't mutual.

"Alright, Tierno, it's time to stop, even though we all know you won't," Trevor said.

Nini nodded.

"Especially since her heart is somewhere else," Miette said.

Serena was about to say something before someone else came out of hiding.

"They're not the only ones that came to say hi."

Serena turned around.

"Mom."

Grace pulled her daughter into a hug.

"Being your mother and a celebrity in my own right has its perks."

Serena pulled away from the hug, "What?"

"I saw the Grand Festival, I was in the V.I.P booth and hid when you turned to look."

So she was watching. Serena thought.

She enjoyed the rest of the day surrounded by her friends and family.

"Hold on," Clemont said, a few hours later when she was opening her gifts.

"What's up?"

Clemont grabbed a small box and gave it to her. Serena opened it and inside was a silver charm bracelet.

"It's a gift from the gym leaders, the elite four and Diantha herself, with your mom's help we tried to make a charm for major things that happened in your life."

Serena looked closely, it had five small keys, one for each of her showcases, win or lose and a small crown for the Master Class, eight small silver ribbons, for each contest she participated in, including the Grand Festival, a small mega evolution symbol charm for her and Absol's mastery of the ability, there were a few more but a small Poliwag charm caught her eye. She looked over at her mother, she was the only person, other than Ash, that knew how the two met. Grace was smirking at her daughter.

Serena was about to say something until Max burst into the door.

"Guys they're about to reveal where the Wallace Cup is being held," he said, out of breath.

May grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.

"...And now we go to Wallace for the official announcement of where this year's Wallace Cup will be hosted."

"Everyone shut up," May yelled, making Drew flinch beside her.

The screen changed to show Wallace with Milotic.

"Good evening, afternoon, or morning Coordinators and performance fans from all across the world. My name is Wallace, the creator of the Wallace Cup. This year, I am pleased to announce that the Wallace Cup will be held in Kanto's Vermillion City."

Everyone started talking over what Wallace was saying, they had the information they needed, but Serena stayed quiet.

"Serena?" May asked. "Are you okay?"

"I just need to go outside and clear my head."

Serena left, after a few minutes, her mom left as well.

"Serena?"

"Mom, I didn't know you were out here," Serena said, turning to face her mom.

"I followed you because I was worried about you, so, are you really okay."

Serena looked down, "No, it's just, Kanto, and it's where Ash is from and he might be there and-"

"You're worried about seeing him again, right?"

"Well, I mean, the last time I saw him was six months ago and well, I sorta made our friendship really awkward."

Grace smiled and walked over to hug her daughter, "I'm sure he'll be excited to see you if he's there."

Across the world in the distant Kanto Region, a raven-haired boy groaned because he wasn't there.

A/N: Y'all are incredible. This is actually my first published fanfiction and the support I'm getting is awesome, so thank you. I do want to clarify that this is during Pokemon Journeys, and I watch the dub so I'm limited to what Netflix is giving me, but I did watch the subbed episode where Korrina returns so Ash and Go have their teams and Pokemon from that episode. Also, let me know how I did on my dream sequence. And this is a long one, the next one will be a bit shorter I promise.