Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except Lorelei and Damien – they're the only characters
A/N: Thank you for your reviews thor94 and ultima-owner, it means a lot Thanks to anyone reading this story for doing so!
A/N 2: I've also got a little forum I'd love you to all check out – feel free to make a topic or post because everyone's welcome! forum/Pok%C4%97mon-Trainers-Unite/160978/
Chapter 07
Her eyelids flickered open and her blue eyes stared back into his. "Ash!" she squealed, throwing her arms around him. "I thought I'd never see you again." Lorelei squeezed him tightly and although she thought he was choking, ahe didn't care. "Is everyone okay? The island, my family, the townspeople?"
"Everyone is fine Leia, don't worry," Ash replied, slowly loosening his grip so that Pikachu could pop up in between them.
"Pikachu!" Leia exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear showing these little dimples in her cheeks.
Leia let the Pokémon to rub its cheek against hers. There was a slight spark and she was sure that her hair decided to go static, but she just laughed following a squeal from Pikachu. "It's good to see you too, Pikachu."
"Leia!" Holly exclaimed, rushing towards the coffin like stone altar.
"Holly – you're here too!"
"Of course. Where else would I be?"
"Where's Mum – and Dawn?" Leia asked, looking between Holly, Ash and Brock with a face that showed nothing but fear.
"They were making sure that everyone got to safety." Holly squeezed the younger girl's hand.
"But everyone's okay, right?"
The laughter was enough for Leia to know the answer.
"And Mew?"
"Mew released you, Leia… That's how you got out." Ash laughed.
"I think it was more to do with the friends of Mew," Holly added. "Ash – you broke the altar yourself. Me and Brock saw it with our own eyes." She looked up at Brock and he nodded in agreement. "See?"
"It's true," he agreed. "You broke it... Honest."
"Really? But how?" Ash asked, thinking that the two were only pulling his leg, but they weren't.
"Well, if you asked me, Mew has felt strongly about Leia, and from what Brock tells me about your Mewtwo encounters, Mew cares about you too. Maybe because of that connection, Mew decided to give you a reunion you wouldn't forget. I guess it's the mystery of being a friend of Mew…"
"What do you mean when you keep saying, 'a friend of Mew?'" Leia asked. "I mean, I was the protector of Mew, like my grandmother, but Ash… Well, he's Ash…"
"You'll understand when you're older," Holly replied, taking Brock's hand in hers. "One day…"
"You like riddles far too much," Ash said, rolling his head around.
Out of the corner of his eye, he was sure he saw a pink flash flying through the clouds, making him smile.
When Lorelei saw her mother standing on the porch of their house, they ran towards each other and wouldn't let go of for a good few minutes.
Over the next few days, Mrs Perwinkle wouldn't let her daughter out of her sight. The mother insisted that her daughter to divulge the whole story, from when she arrived at the tournament island to the moment she ended up colliding with the lift doors, to her battle with Ash and then flying across the ocean. Lorelei's mother barely said a word as she listened, unlike in the past, where she would normally just interrupted every five seconds with a string of questions.
It was the end of her daughter's story that made her sit up a little. "But what happens now?"
"Well I just thought that I would go to another region – that I would go to the another region like I always do, I thought that I would just go where the road takes me. Now that Damien's not around- he's gone Mum, I felt it – but now that he's not here, I can easily just go on a journey and make mistakes for myself, because he won't be there to push me down and tell me that I'm doing something wrong."
"You really want to go, don't you?" her mother asked.
"Of course Mum…" Lorelei turned to Ash, Brock and Dawn. "What about you guys- what do you have planned now?"
"Well, I'm going back to Sinnoh – I miss my mum and could do with going back home to my roots." Dawn smiled, holding Piplup tightly in her arms. "Besides, I'm getting bored of these two. I managed to get away from them whilst Ash was in Unova and Kalos and Brock was at home with his family. Getting away from them was the best and I'm pretty sure that there's another contest happening in the Orange Islands."
"I know you don't mean that…" Ash rolled his eyes. "What about you, Brock?"
Brock looked down and then back across the room at the people in the room. "I was thinking that I might stay here…"
"Me thinks that there is a girl in the young lad's sights, don't you Dawn?" Lorelei smiled at the other girl and then back at Holly who was now shying away slightly, perched at the bottom of the stairs. "Holly – you look a little flushed? Are you alright?" Though Lorelei knew the answer, she wanted to hear it from the people in question rather than her possible assumption.
"It's nothing really…"
"So you're saying there isn't any remote feelings for our friend here?"
"What do you mean?" Holly frantically rambled. "I think Brock is a- is a, nice guy and, and whichever girl he gets will be lucky to have him. I know that he will make her incredibly happy and that she won't be able to live up to the expectations I have of her. Brock is really just a great guy."
"Aw… That's really sweet," Lorelei and Dawn squealed in delight.
"You know." Brock started, walking across the room and kneeling down on both knees so that he was eye to eye with Holly.
The action certainly made Mrs Periwinkle cup a hand over her mouth.
"I feel something when I look at you that I've never felt before – well, maybe once before with a Professor Ivy, but you're different. I want to stay here and work with you. Lorelei told us that as well as being a junior professor that you like to study Pokémon breeding and I've been learning to be a breeder for nearly all of my whole life – apart from when I was a gym leader in Pewter City in the Kanto region. We could make the best breeding facility together, and we can share what we know with other people who want to be breeders. Like a breeder school."
Holly's eyes began to light up and curiosity flashed about in her mind. "Brock… Of course, I would love that. I'd love for you to stay here on the Montazul island!" She lurched forwards and practically bowled Brock over. "Thank you!"
Lorelei grinned at Holly and Brock, the first thought in her head was that there would be a wedding on the horizon – she had never seen Holly so happy in the whole time they knew each other. When she was with Damien, it seemed like he wanted to have control over her, but Lorelei knew that Brock would be good for her.
"Isn't this just lovely?" Mrs Perwinkle stood up and squeezed her daughter's shoulders. "And even my little baby girl's growing up before my very eyes… Maybe Professor Maple can tell you where you could go – I'm sure there are some brilliant regions out there that she might suggest to you. You could take Leafeon with you and get just a start fresh."
"Mum, I couldn't possibly leave the others behind. It would have to be Raichu and Leafeon – and, no that's it, no other Pokémon. " Lorelei stood up nearly knocking the chair back.
"That's it," she squealed in delight. "It's decided. Professor Maple's going to sort out the next step of my journey!"
"So what about you Ash?" Mrs Periwinkle turned towards Ash. "I mean, now that the tournaments over, and that Dawn and Brock have their own plans… Where does that leave you?"
Ash froze, taken back by the question- he hadn't expected it to come so suddenly.
"Don't worry about Mum, Ash." Leia smiled. "You have so much time to decide. There'll be another region that you can go and you can get the eight badges, and then you can win the league of that region."
"Yes, I guess so."
Something was wrong with Ash- Leia could see it in his eyes as he looked out the window. Pikachu bounded over to Leia and up onto her shoulder.
"Hey! Maybe you should come with me to see Professor Maple? She might suggest another region you can go to." Leia pulled at Ash's arm. "Come on."
"Alright, alright, I'm coming… Hold up Leia!" He laughed, struggling to follow her out of the door. "What's with the rush?" Ash called out, jumping down the wooden steps of the Periwinkle house porch.
"I'm just so excited, Ash. There's so much to plan and I can't wait to get on with my next journey and win the next region's championship."
Leia slowed down and started to walk over to the nearby Mareep herd.
"Hello Mareep," she said calmly, brushing the Pokémon she passed. Occasionally, she would jerk at the static shock she would get from their electric coats. "Isn't this great?"
"What, Leia?"
"That we don't have to worry about Mew. I don't understand it myself, but not that the island is safe, Mew doesn't need to be protected- there's nothing to worry about." She rushed back towards Ash. "There's no Damien. No fear or worry of the island being submerged. No fear at all."
"Someone's being overdramatic aren't they?" Ash said, walking past her and heading down the path towards the PokéLab. "Come on, what are you waiting for?" He glanced over his shoulder at Lorelei before carrying on his way. "Leia, live in the moment – you have this huge adventure ahead of you and you're going to conquer another tournament."
A pair of arms wrapped themselves around his neck in a calm and slightly affectionate manner, rather than a strangling kind of way.
"Is that a way of you saying I'm better than you, Ash?" Leia giggled, feeling her cheeks flare up.
"No, of course not. I didn't mean it like that, I- I- just didn't think that you would cheer up if I didn't say something like that."
"Ash…" Lorelei let go of him and they were at the gate that led the way to the lab. "You say the sweetest things sometimes, come on now- enough of this fluffy stuff we got going on here!" Her laugh made Ash smile as she turned away and opened the door to the lab.
"Here we go on our next adventure, eh Pikachu?" Ash said, looking down at his partner who was darting about the path to the lab.
"Pi-ka!" Pikachu squealed.
When Ash pushed open the door, he saw a lab that was totally different to any he had seen before. There was so much greenery. Mosses and lichens were crawling up the walls and flowers bloomed from vines in amongst that.
"Woah," he gasped in amazement.
"I know – you must be Ash. I'm Professor Maple." A tall thin woman wearing round glasses held her hand out to Ash. "It's nice to meet you."
"Yeah, Mrs Periwinkle says you can help me and Leia find somewhere to go on our next journey."
Leia raised an eyebrow. "Who said we were going together?"
"Well I thought that, because of what-"
"Oh, Ash, I was only kidding. See what I mean Professor?" Leia grinned at the professor before standing in front of a large touch screen that was mounted onto the wall. "So, Ash has been to the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos, and some island regions too. I've been to the Johto, Hoenn and Montazul Islands, the Indeneen and Chicatan region. So where can I go?"
"I heard from a Professor living in another region – Professor… Professor, oh what was their name? Oh I remember. Chestnut. That's what it was."
"Yeah, where does he live? In what region?" Leia was intrigued, the bait had been set and she was hooked. "What's the name of the region, Professor Maple?"
"In the Zol-lee-ya region. Spelt z-o-l-y-a."
As Leia typed in the region in question into the computer, it rerouted over to the region.
The Zolya region was shaped like a T with curved rocky edges. A small island could be seen off the coast at the right.
"It looks perfect, don't you think Ash?"
Ash wasn't sure what to say. "I guess so." A wave of emotion was bedding itself down in his head which pulled at his emotions.
He was beginning to question whether or not he was ready, but what he did know, was that he had made a friend in Leia and that they would always be connected because they were, and always really have been, the friends of Mew.
Thoughts from AspiringWriterGirl = So this is like a double chapter post because that is the end of the first effective 'volume' of the series (I guess you could call it a series, I'm freestyling it a little!) So the first chapter of the second volume- called "Strings of the heart" which can be found here s/11121995/1/Strings-of-the-Heart