AN: This is the first chapter for a Pokémon AU story. It will involve a much colder and more aggressive Ash. Warning: Pikachu dies to set off his new personality.

AN2: This is also my first Pokémon Fic. so I would appreciate any advice.

AN3: As I have said before I am a part of a video game review Channel on Youtube. I redid my original video on the site as my friends and I got some better technology, and I thought of a lot of ways to improve the way I did the video, so please check our vids out. I have a link to both my videos, the original and the remake, as well as to the channel on my profile.

I am Phantom

Staring across at his opponent Ash sweated nervously, he had two tired Pokémon left and she had her fresh and ready to battle starter. His opponent, Cynthia Shirona, stared back with a determined gaze. He was trying to win her title as regional champion away from her and had already bested her elite four. Unfortunately he had been unprepared for the strength of her Pokémon and every match had been down to the line.

He had started out with his Gible and her with Spiritomb and the battle had been grueling and ended up with a double knockout. Gible had fought hard but had been outclassed and only managed to win by using a Draco meteor which took out winded Spiritomb. He would have felt bad about using such a powerful move if it hadn't been for the fact that her Spiritomb had more than enough health to take the hit and in the end both were unconscious.

He had followed up with his Staraptor and her with Lucario. He had expected this win to be much easier but was caught off guard when her Lucario used stone edge followed by a flurry of extreme speeds which ended up putting Cynthia in the lead.

Gritting his teeth he had pulled out his torterra for some muscle and the moment his gargantuan Pokémon hit the field he called out for him to use earthquake and shook things up. The winded Lucario was unable to avoid the attack and took a lot of damage before being knocked out by an energy ball.

Cynthia quickly sent out her next Pokémon, Roserade, and had it use extrasensory to fly and avoid Torterra's attacks while simultaneously dealing damage. His grass Pokémon was quickly rendered unconscious and a similar fate met infernape when he sent out the fire monkey.

Taking a deep breath he had taken out the pokeball for one of his strongest companions, Charizard. The massive pseudo-dragon came out with a roar of flame and power and a quick flame thrower put the Roserade out of commission.

Cynthia had only smirked at him and sent out her Milotic. He had tried to win the battle, even with Charizard's type disadvantage, through use of moves such as mega punch and steel wing but he eventually returned Charizard when he felt like his friend needed a rest.

Turning his head he had nodded to his starter Pokémon on his shoulder and sent Pikachu out onto the field. It had only taken a single electroball to knock out the drained Milotic.

Cynthia had then sent out her Togekiss and a barrage of Thunder's had rendered that Pokémon unable to battle as well.

It was now a battle of the starters and he knew he was in trouble as her Garchomp was not only powerful but immune to all electric attacks which left him with only four available moves to use for the battle while Charizard still had to rest.

Quickly he shook away his doubts and prepared to battle, "Pikachu!" he called out "use quick attack into iron tail!".

"Pika!" his loyal started called out and followed his order, managing to land a decent blow before Cynthia could counter it.

"Earthquake Garchomp!" Cynthia yelled out.

"Use iron tail to launch yourself into the air and come down into double edge!" he countered and smirked as it seemed to work only to pale at Cynthia's counter.

"Flamethrower straight up!" the Sinnoh champion yelled to her starter.

Pikachu took massive amounts of damage as he dove into a flamethrower by the powerful pseudo-legendary and, even though the double edge hit, it did more to tire him than help him win.

"Giga impact!" Cynthia called out which sent Pikachu flying back injured.

"Come on buddy!" he yelled out desperately, more worried for his friend's wellbeing than the match.

He could tell though that his starter was unable to take any more damage even though he could tell that Pikachu was attempting to get back up. Nodding to the referee to call it he waited to her the words about how his starter was unable to battle only to her a different phrase that chilled him to the bone.

"Draco Meteor!" he heard Cynthia yell out and when he looked at her in shock he saw she was staring at his Pikachu that was still struggling to get up.

"No!" he yelled only to be too late as the powerful dragon attack struck his starter and sent the little yellow mouse flying back into the stone wall of the arena with a crack. Scared he ran to his best friend and picked up the electric mouse. Scared he felt for a pulse but he felt as if his heart stopped when there wasn't one. Throwing his head back he roared his agony to the heavens at the death of his best friend.

Spinning around he glared at the scared looking Champion, "Murderer!" he yelled angrily and the crowd began whispering in shock before they were shouting angrily at the blonde Champion of Sinnoh.

When it looked like she was going to say something he pulled out Charizard's pokeball and called out the dragon who appeared in a roar of flame as he had before seeing his tear stricken face. "She killed Pikachu." he sobbed out to his friend who froze at the words.

Glaring one last time at his opponent who had yet to move a muscle he climbed on Charizard's back "Let's go my friend." Before, with a powerful stroke of his wings, Charizard took off.

For hours they flew, for hours they travelled, and for hours their tears fell as the journeyed. Finally they stopped and landed on the snowy peak of Mount Silver and he released the rest of his team who looked around confused before their gaze focused on the dead body of Pikachu with horror. "Cynthia," he choked out gaining the attention of his friends, "Cynthia killed him.".

The roars of outrage nearly deafened him as his friends showed their anger at the news. "I intend to bury him here but I would like you," he pointed to Infernape "and Charizard to head out and collect the rest of our team. They should be here too when we put him to rest.".

Nodding in agreement Infernape hopped onto Charizard and the two took off. "Staraptor," he turned to the flying type "I want you to fly around and make sure nobody, human or Pokémon, interferes in the ceremony.".

"Raptor!" the powerful avian creature called out before flying off.

"Gible, Torterra," he turned to the remaining two Pokémon "I want you to help me build a tomb.".

He set to work after that, digging with his hands through the snow as the two Pokémon with him helped him dig further and further into the earth. After an hour Staraptor returned and, to his surprise, had brought along a larvitar and Tyranitar. It only took a moment for him to recognize the little Pokémon he had hatched from an egg and pulled the small rock Pokémon into a hug as he sobbed, grief racking his body. The two rock type Pokémon quickly began helping build the tomb.

Charizard and Infernape returned an hour and a half after Larvitar arrived Charizard and Infernape returned with a sack of pokeballs that opened to release all the Pokémon that he had kept at Professor Oak's ranch and even Lapras had been brought along.

Another half hour passed as the work continued on the tomb before a loud caw drew his attention to the sky as he saw Pidgeot and Haunter arrive carrying Squirtle. He hugged Pidgeot close to him as he remembered the good times they had had with Pikachu and the work continued.

More Pokémon showed up throughout the day, Butterfree appeared with his mate and three smaller Butterfree that he assumed were their children. Mewtwo teleported in along with the clones form his island and seeing Pikachu's clone he nearly lost what little control he had as he collapsed in sobs, as the cloned mouse Pokémon tried to comfort him. Ho-oh and Suicune were the next to arrive, trilling sadly. Lugia arrived after that along with the three legendary birds who sang a song of mourning for his friend . Celebi arrived with Mew and Latias who all tried to comfort him as they held him close. Shaymin was the next to appear along with Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie as the small Pokémon mourned the death of Pikachu. The last group to arrive surprised him as Darkrai, Giratina, Palkia, Dialga, and Arceus showed up to mourn at the tomb.

They mourned through the night as he laid the body of his best friend to rest in the tomb which had been carved with scenes from their adventures together by Mewtwo before it was sealed up and marked with a crystal spire courtesy of Arceus.

After the ceremony had ended the legendary Pokémon slowly drifted away apart from Mewtwo, Mew, Celebi, Latias, Lugia, and Suicune who told him they intended to stay as he needed them. Darkrai had left but had also promised to do what he could to punish Cynthia for the murder of Pikachu.

That night as he stood at the tomb he was surrounded by seven Pokémon. Larvitar, Gible, Snorlax, Charizard, Squirtle, bulbasaur, and the cloned Pikachu who all stayed up with him.

"It feels strange," he heard the Pikachu say in his mind and mentally sighed at the new ability he had gained when his aura had unlocked from his grief "knowing that my originator, my other half, is gone…". He didn't say anything so the mouse continued "I want you to train me Ash, I want to make her pay, and I want to avenge my brother.".

"We all do." Charizard choked out in a deep voice, tears still flowing down the dragon's face as they gazed at the diamond spire that marked the tomb.

Looking around at their determined faces he nodded "We shall train," he told them, determination clear in his voice "we shall train and we shall grow stronger. We shall take this world by storm and we shall honor our fallen brother, our fallen friend.".

"Thank you Ash." The cloned Pikachu said with a nod.

He stopped the sound of his name, it no longer felt right to use it while his best friend who was as much a part of him as his name was, was gone. "I am no longer Ash." He said solemnly "Ash Ketchum died along with Pikachu. I am what is left, I am his ghost, I am his spirit, I…am his phantom.".