Serena slept on the plane ride to Kanto, her nightmares had kept her up the last night so she was trying to get some rest.

"Is she awake?" Drew asked, distracting May from her sleeping friend.

"Nope, she's out."

"Finally," Dawn said, "Now we need to talk, what's up with Serena."

"When we were traveling to Petalburg City from Slateport after the Grand Festival, I saw her outside her cabin at sunrise and she told me she'd been up for an hour," Brock said.

"Yeah, she told me she gets recurring nightmares after I asked her," Max said leaning forward so his face wouldn't be blocked by Drew.

"And we know she walked out and talked to her mom last night after the Wallace Cup announcement and then couldn't sleep cause her nightmares kept her up," Dawn said.

"I can imagine not being able to sleep before going to Kanto is because it's Ash's home region, but why her nightmares were more frequent I've got no clue," Brock said, still trying to figure it out.

"Wait," Max said.

Everyone turned to look at the boy, he started to explain, then Absol, who was calmly sleeping on Serena's feet, opened one eye to look at the group. May noticed and quickly changed the subject.

A few hours went by until they landed in Vermillion City. Absol gently nudged its trainer's leg to wake her up. Serena blinked a few times then sat up, realizing they had landed.

"It's about time sleepy-head," May said with a grin.

Serena rolled her eyes at her friend and stood up. They all packed lightly, so they were off pretty quickly and then were immediately bombarded with reporters, photographers, and questions. It wasn't a surprise, three top coordinators all traveling together, this was to be expected.

Serena quickly released Sylveon, who wrapped one of its feelers around her wrist. Absol moved to her right and Sylveon stayed on her left.

May and Drew together only distracted the press for a short time, a lot less than Serena had hoped. She raised her right hand, smiled, and waved. The number of flashes from the cameras practically caused Serena's bracelet to become its own source of light, it was so bright Serena squinted to keep the light out of her eyes.


"So you know her too?"

Ash looked over at his friend, "Yeah, that's May from Petalburg City, her dad is the gym leader, and I'm not surprised about her and Drew, I think Brock was onto something about him liking her."

Chloe rolled her eyes, she'd rather be studying but her dad insisted on her watching, she looked at Yamper, who seemed to be absorbed in the event of trainers exiting a plane.

"Dad, why do I have to keep watching this?"

Professor Cerise looked at his daughter and smiled, "These trainers have exotic Pokemon some people, including you, have never seen before, and it's good to have knowledge of a lot of Pokemon, even if you aren't a trainer."

Chloe rolled her eyes.

Yamper had scrambled up onto the couch and settled in next to Pikachu. Ash gave Yamper a rub.

"Woah, what is that Pokemon," Go said, practically jumping out of his seat and pointing at a Pokemon with fur that was white like the stars in the night sky and a horn that was the color of the sky after the sunset. It stood proudly next to its trainer but looked ready to pounce at anything that threatened her.

Ash noticed the pokemon first, "Oh, that's an Ab…" Ash noticed the girl it was standing next to,"...sol."

It's her. Her hair grew back and, wow, she looks good, and happy too. And with the attention she's getting, no wonder Diantha and Aria wear disguises in public.

Serena quickly turned to the side and knelt. The camera focused on a little girl with an Eevee who was holding something out to her.


"Excuse me, Miss Serena?"

Serena turned around to see a small girl and knelt to get on her level.

"Hi there," Serena said with a smile.

The little girl smiled and Serena noticed a small Eevee walk out from behind her.

"What's your name?"

The girl looked shocked, "My name is Carmen and this is Pepper, my big brother caught her for me."

"Hi, Carmen," Serena noticed the girl was holding something behind her back, "Is that something you'd like me to sign?"

Carmen nodded and held out a picture, it was Serena during the Master Class, dancing with her Pokemon.

Serena gently took the picture and grabbed a pen from her backpack.

"So, Carmen, what do you want to be when you grow up," Serena said, resting the picture on her knee to sign it.

"I want to perform with Pepper and my future Pokemon, and someday be as good as you."

Serena smiled, "You know, I'm sure you'll be better than me in no time, you'll have your younger years to practice when I didn't discover Showcases until I'd been away from home for a month, and before I left I was trained to be a Rhyhorn Racer like my mom."

"I'm just not sure I can do it."

"Carmen, I'm going to tell you something one of my friends told me when I was your age, 'Never give up until the very end' and the only reason I've made it this far is because of that phrase, you'll be an incredible performer one day, and I hope to perform along with you."

Serena gave the signed picture back to Carmen and hugged her. She gave her one last smile and jogged to catch her friends.


"Alright, Ash, don't even think about lying to me, was that the girl you have a crush on?"

Ash tried to hide his face, it was fully red. She looked gorgeous, and her kindness towards others, no one can match it, I don't deserve her, or anyone even remotely like her, I'm worthless compared to her.

"Ash?"

He got up and left the room, going up to the room he was sharing with Go.

"Why. Why do I have to be so pathetic and worthless."

"Mime?"

Mr. Mime poked his head into the room and found Ash lying on his bed, staring off into space.

"Mister Mime." Ash said, sitting up, "What are you doing."

Mr. Mime walked over to Ash holding a package, Ash swung his legs over the side of his bed and looked at the package.

"Pallet Town?" Ash mumbled, "So it's from Mom."

Ash opened the box. Inside was a royal blue jacket and a black shirt, with black fingerless gloves. Underneath was a set of gray jeans and a red hat with a white design that resembled a Pokeball. There was a note in his Mom's handwriting

Ash,

I saw her too, and you better talk to her because of how much you moped around when you got back.

Love you,

Mom

"Mom," Ash groaned.

He knew that this was his mom's way of showing him that she cared but he wished she'd leave him alone.

Ash changed clothes and grinned. These clothes were always special to him, surviving the Team Flare Crisis, Greninja's Battle Bond, he did it all, and his face went red at the memory of Serena in this outfit when she battled that Pikachu trainer in his place because he was sick, and how good he thought she looked.

There was a knock at the door.

"Ash, you okay?" Go said, opening the door.

Pikachu rushed over to Ash and jumped on his shoulder.

Go looked at his friend, "Wow Ash, where'd you get those new clothes?"

Ash smiled, "These are far from new, I wore them in Kalos."

"Hmmm, because of the girl?"

Ash put his hand on the back of his head, "Yeah, you caught me. It was actually my Mom's brilliant idea."

"So what's the plan, I'm assuming you'll talk to her at some point."

Ash smiled, "I'm sure I'll run into her and I'll make it up as I go."

Serena had gotten to her hotel room, of course, her bag started rustling, thank Arceus everyone's first thought was that the egg was hatching.

Serena set her bag on her bed and sat next to it, digging through it to find something.

When she did she pulled it out, it was a Pokeball that somewhat radiated an aura of power.

"If he's really here, I'll find him, but I have no idea if they know that Korrina and Alain have a fake and I have you, so please be patient."

A/N: Alright, back to my normal chapter-length again. Yes, I did change Ash's design back to what it was in Kalos because I prefer how he looked there to how he looks in Journeys. I promise, they'll reunite soon. Thank you for continuing to read, y'all are awesome and I hoped you enjoyed this part.