"That was great, Jira. What a display it was." Ash congratulated his friend, shaking his hand.

"We were destined to battle each other in the final round."

"Ash, I'm sure you were waiting for this in a way or another. What a great sport you are… look, you actually was there for my battles together with your friends."

"Back at you, Jira. By the way… have you guys seen Pikachu?"

"I think you left him with his… girlfriends, so to speak." Jira smiled.

"Ah. It kind of slipped from my mouth. But still, he is my partner and I'm always thinking about him."

"Ash." Jira turned serious. "My opponent really hated Team Rocket, and I got his contacts. I want you to meet Stephen. You two probably have a lot in common."

"We all agree." Serena spoke.

"What do you mean, Serena?"

"Jira, is it okay if we go with Ash for a walk? We're sorry for interrupting."

"Sure. There's no hurry."

With Ash and the girls in a local park

"Hey Dawn, and everyone…" Ash spoke. "How come nobody recognizes you anymore?"

"It's just that we are no longer idols." Dawn said. "It's an insanely stressful job… we felt like we couldn't be ourselves."

"Ah… so you all relate so much to my experiences."

"Not me, Ash." Misty said. "I've never really liked the idea, but I've always supported my friends. I was never an idol myself and I just preferred battling and some sort of privacy. I know May and Serena were held under really abusive contracts."

"Yeah." May spoke. "People looking from afar would say that we were getting enough money to maintain a flashy lifestyle. But we actually needed to sign up for Contests in our own free time."

"At one point, Ash," Serena said with a hand on her heart, "we were only sleeping three hours a night on a regular basis. We were all jealous of Misty. She was always fresh. Three hours is just… awful."

"Holy shit." Ash gasped. "Three hours only?!"

"Yeah. My head was hurting, and my Pokemon were really unhappy. Glaceon and Blaziken were always there for me, but they were crying every night with me."

"And how come you escaped? Weren't you under some kind of contract?" Ash said, before Serena told him some details.

"Dawn signed with a Sinnoh television show, for a contract of one year. May and I were signed under a publication which we later found to be owned by Team Rocket. But being idols and showing off our sparkling moves with our Pokemon were the best things we could do. That was until we began to realize that our managers were taking most of the money and were barely giving us enough to survive."

"Ash," May added, "do you realize what that means? It was intentional. They wanted to keep us slim to the point of borderline anorexia. Moreover, they wouldn't even allow us to have our phones in public! We had to get secret small devices to talk to each other."

"Then to make matters worse," Dawn said, "we found out that the paparazzi were on our tails. We were getting really popular at one point."

"I actually saw that," Ash smiled. "Jira told me about it. You were even on the Galar tabloids!"

"Even in Galar?!" Misty shouted.

"Yeah… you girls are like me. You couldn't be yourselves for a while."

Ash realized something, that the three coordinators, as well as Misty, could relate very well to his own experiences. Like Ash, they were forced to live a lifestyle that was ultimately unsuitable in the long term. Like him, they needed to hide their own personas, and not share their true self in public.

"And how did you ultimately get out of it?"

"After we were caught by that paparazzo at that beach, Serena and I unilaterally broke our contracts. And we disappeared." May said.

"You… what?!"

"Yes, Ash. We were just gone. Dawn agreed to no longer appear for the Sinnoh company, which ultimately ended on friendly terms as her contract was up anyway. Dawn felt Team Rocket could expand its activities and take over, like they did in Hoenn. That was about eight months after you were gone, Ash."

"For about one year after that," Misty added, "we all reunited and agreed to wear helmets, and they wore full tracksuits, kind of like Formula One pilots. I was comfortable with being myself sometimes, but while we were searching for you, we were mostly hidden."

"We decided at one point we just wanted to return to our normal lives," May said, "and we just appeared as ourselves, since we were normal Trainers. I wore my green bandana, Dawn and Serena wore their pink and red skirts."

"The tabloids still posted a few articles about us," Serena added, "but we found out that we were no longer relevant for their uses. We're currently in a legal battle with Team Rocket."

"…"

"Girls… I wanted to ask you something."

"What is it, Ash?" all four said at the same time.

"Do you know anything about my mother?"

"Yes. Have people told you about it…?"

"No…? I guess Leon told me that thing with Team Rocket is mostly gone, but…"

"She is still with Giovanni."

Ash gasped, and began to fill his brain with hate speech, before Serena suddenly spoke…

"Giovanni has resigned as the boss of Team Rocket long ago."

"WHAT?!"

"It was before you dissappeared."

"…"

"…"

"What… did you… say?" Ash gasped.

"Giovanni has resigned exactly because of the way Team Rocket was going. Petrel is now the new chief executive officer, so to speak." Misty said.

"How do you know this?!" Ash said angrily. "They… were still talking about Giovanni months after I moved with Jira! What the fuck do you mean?"

"Ash," May spoke, "let me show you something." She pulled up her phone and showed Ash what at first glance looked to be a legal document.

"Giovanni made this resignation decision an internal document, but I managed to get a copy of it. Look, it says 07/02/2020. You ran away in October, if I remember correctly."

"Oh… Arceus…" Ash gasped, but suddenly asked something else:

"But what if the decision was just a farce? I mean Team Rocket is totally the kind of organization to do this."

"No Ash, it is real." Serena said. "We have never seen Giovanni. We were called up at the Team Rocket headquarters and even to what we thought was his personal house. Petrel owned it all now."

"So… that means…" Ash said as he began to tear up.

"Yes… Giovanni was no longer with Team Rocket… when he got with your mother."

"Look Ash… here is a pic of Delia and Giovanni being happy together…" May said. "It's from last month. They seem to be there for each other."

Ash looked as he was still fighting his tears, before May finally delivered the nail in the coffin.

"Here's a conversation with Delia. She misses you. Look at what she said right here…"

"I hope you take care of"

"my boy"

"Yes, ma'am. We found him yesterday… we're so happy ourselves!"

"Oh… no… m-mother..." Ash muttered his last words, before he began to cry silently, but in a very deep, and sincere way.

The four girls immediately took him in a more private place where no one could see them and then hugged him tightly. Poor Ash realized something…

"I've… I've betrayed her…"

Ash's friends were all hugging him and crying soft tears, empathizing with his struggles. Ash knew from that moment that it wasn't Delia who betrayed him...