Chapter Seven:
after hearing these instruction from Osiris the guardian of the sky and phoenix dragon guardian of the sun ash and Serena turn to one another as they say to each other in unison "now to find the others" this was followed shortly by princess Katie who just softly muttered out "right" this caused Serena to look down to the honey blonde haired girl who resembled her own daughter and asks her in a tone of voice which sounded so sincere and concerned it was almost as if she was talking to her own daughter; seeing Serena acting this way immediately caused Katie to relax as if it was her own mother talking to her and reassuring her causing the princess to turn to Serena and nod as she says "yeah I'm fine in a sincere and serious tone which was very reassuring to Serena who deep down had begun to develop a "bond" with the princess while ash on the other hand turns his attention to Osiris and the others asking them if they knew where to find their brothers Osiris took a pause to this question before he used his telepathy again to answer ash "we may be able to find Olympus in the west mountains" hearing this caused Serena to whisper under her breath "the west mountains" while ash asks the dragons how far away these mountains really were to which mirror wall dragon used his own telepathy to respond; "they're about a three day hike away!" this caused the princess to sigh out very similar to the way Serena just did "three days" while ash responds by turning to Katie and Serena and suggest that we better get moving while Serena just nods and says to him "right ash" as the three of them set off and begin the long hike for the west mountains after about four hours of walking the sun started to go down which combined with the cool late day breeze cooled the three of them off but didn't do much for their exhaustion which even Serena could tell was tiring ash out because after their countless adventures and years of being his partner Serena had never seen him get this tired the drive to get both of them home had pushed ash to just ignore the exhaustion was the only thing Serena could think of to explain it that's when she suggested that they all should stop for the night and have something to eat which was a relief to both ash and the princess who were both extremely famished while Pikachu on the other hand was so thankful to Serena for the suggestion he jumped off Ash's shoulder and right into her arms even to the point where he started to kiss her on the cheek with happiness an action which did make Serena laugh as she assured Pikachu that this was quite enough as she set the little electric mouse down as she began to dig in her bag for her apron as well as some ingredients she brought with them from Tempalizin after about 10 more minutes Serena had brought out sandwiches for everyone as well as some soup and while it wasn't anything fancy it was more than enough to at least fill their stomachs after a long day of hiking but before they dug in both Serena and ash felt it was important to introduce all the members of their current team to Katie as she was going to be with them for a while and with all the introductions out of the way the traveling party began to "dig in" eventually the princess began to grow tired because although she was determined to stay strong for her "passed" parents one thing even she couldn't overcome was her age so Serena helped the princess over to the tent and put her to bed and after making sure she was fast asleep Serena returned to ash who was sitting by the campfire with Pikachu Serena then walked over to ash and leaned her head on his shoulder an action which just caused ash to smile and hug her before she sat up again and began talking to ash; asking him if he thought Katie would be alright ash could tell Serena was forming a bond with the princess and assures her that she'd be okay she just needs time; especially after all she's gone through this caused Serena to whisper to ash; "yeah i can't imagine what it must be like for her losing her parents and finding out that her own brother wants her dead all in the same day" revelations that made both ash and Serena realize just how "crazy and insane!?" their new adventure has become a thought which once again required both of them to reassure one another that they'd get through this together just like they always do after these reassurances Serena couldn't resist the urge to lean over and kiss ash something she hadn't done for a while as she continues once again to rest her head on his shoulder while ash just pulls Serena in and begins to cress her side with his hand in attempt to try and make her feel better as they continued to sit and watch the campfire continue to burn together with the full moon shining bright above their heads.
The following morning:
as ash, Serena and, Katie awake to another cool damp morning on the dimensional plain miles away from Tempalizin the capitol city their day begins very similar to the days when ash & Serena traveled the Kalos region with their friends Clemont and bonnie all those years ago however Serena noticed that Katie seemed unusually quiet something that deep down was truly bothering her. Ash then turns to both of them and asks them if they are ready to go? Serena just answered ash with a yes in her normal charismatic tone of voice while Katie on the other hand answered the question with a "yeah" in an almost inaudible tone of voice which immediately caused Serena to walk over to the princess and place her hand on her shoulder and ask her if she wanted to talk about it. An action that clearly caught Katie off guard as she begins to think to herself about; how amazing ash & Serena are and how they were treating her just like her parents and probably the most surreal feeling that feels like her parents were still here with her. this causes Katie to turn to Serena but before she could even get one word out they were interrupted by a rustling in the bushes which caused Katie to go quiet again as she whispers to Serena; "what was that?" but unable to answer and fearing that it could be Raphael or even Katie's brother the "rouge prince" ash just calls out; "show yourself" with Serena quickly following ash's lead; "come out" after Serena finishes her demand they notice a orange & grey colored creature coming out of the bushes and onto the path in front of them and much to ash and Serena's relief it was just a "regular" pokemon ryperior but that relief didn't last long as ryperior began to charge them which forced ash and Serena's hand as Serena nudges Katie to get behind her before reaching into her pocket for Braixen's PokéBall and calling out her best friend Braixen and asking her to use her flamethrower attack while ash commands Pikachu to use his thunderbolt attack in tandem with Braixen's flamethrower which both hit ryperior but didn't inflict enough damage to overwhelm it which was apparent as it continued to stand there un-phased the tense moment of silence didn't last long however as the ground began to shake and while feeling the ground trembling ash and Serena could quite believe what they were witnessing as a large white creature appears from the ground behind ryperior and uses its "blade like arm" to send ryperior flying into the horizon after the shock from seeing this wore off ash and Serena quickly realized that it was him the same creature they saw in Alola with Lillie before being sent to the dimensional plain the sight of this behemoth at first caught ash, Serena and even, Katie off guard but that went away as soon as Katie broke the silence by looking to ash & Serena who were both staring straight up in awe and tells them; "it Gorath the guardian titan of destruction!" Katie's statement didn't cause ash and Serena to look at her though as they continue to look up and Serena just reiterates what the princess had just said... "the guardian titan of destruction!?" while ash begins to shout up to the guardian of destruction in hopes that he'd hear him from all the way on the ground; "Gorath!" and to ash's amazement Gorath's gaze wonders downwards to him as ash continues to shout up to him; "we need to talk to you!" while Serena who has realized they now have his full attention adds on to what ash just said; "please" Gorath answers the what to him seemed like ant sized dots using his telepathy; "very well and you are!?" after hearing the guardians request that they identify themselves ash, Serena and, Katie happily obliged...
Ash: my name's ash...
Serena: and I'm Serena...
Katie: my names Katie princess of Tempalizin...
Katie's statement caused Gorath to stop for a second as he confirms that he heard her right that she was the princess of Tempalizin which Katie says that was right; while ash felt it was necessary to get down to the business at hand as both him and Serena inform the guardian of destruction inform him that his brother Dragonus had been kidnapped news that Gorath didn't take to well which of course when ash & Serena realize they hadn't thought this through as he angrily asserted that ash, Serena and, Katie were responsible a fact that just wasn't true and when they tried to reinforce this Gorath begins to assume they're lying to him and in a fit of rage lifts his giant blade shaped arm up and swings it towards them and as a reaction ash runs over to Serena and holds her close to him as Katie runs over and clings to them both as they all close their eyes and begin to cower as they believe that they are just moments away from quite literally "feeling god's wrath" but that when they heard another voice calling out in telepathy; "enough" this voice seemed to be enough to halt Gorath's rage as the skies begin to blacken and the terrain surrounding them began to violently shake that when the voice called out once more this time in a gold-ish colored glow emanating down from the sky "that's enough brother!" after those words were spoken it was only a couple more tense seconds until a flame began to appear it was the guardian of the sun phoenix dragon! phoenix dragons presence clearly confused Gorath as he begins to question why his own brother would appear and defend these humans but phoenix dragon on the other hand realized that fighting was futile... just as futile as this discussion would be so he gives his brother only one demand; "now's not the time brother, just hear them out..." "they're here helping us!?" this demand/revelation clearly just added to his confusion as he looks to phoenix dragon; then to ash, Serena and, Katie as he reiterates what phoenix dragon had just said; "helping us!?" that's when ash and Serena began to shout up to the tall white creature; "listen if we're going to save Dragonus we'll need your help!" Gorath who still wasn't entirely convinced listened to ash and Serena but still hadn't made a decision on whether he'd actually help them or not and it was right about this time a whitish glow illuminates from the tree line as primus and Kenneth appear this caused ash, Serena and, Katie to lean back a bit as primus began to use his telepathy to communicate to his brother "what are you doing!?" to which Gorath answered back to his brother "i was about ready to help these humans search for our missing brother" a revelation that didn't please primus as evidence by his response "why would you do that; they don't care about Dragonus or us they only care about themselves" this not only confused Gorath but infuriated ash and Serena who rushed to try and convince Gorath that wasn't true and in the confusion Kenneth began to approach his sister and asked her "if she was ready to die?" this stunned Katie in silence so her brother proceeded to answer his own question for her "I'll take that as a yes" as he reaches for a Pokèball and calls out his ryperior and ordering it to use his hyper beam on Katie who was still in paralysis from her own shock and fear she didn't even attempt to move as ryperiors hyper beam charged up and then discharged causing Serena to once again grow fearful for the princesses safety as she starts running to her in attempt to remove Katie from danger. while Gorath turns to his own brother and demanded to know what he was doing and further more violating Dragonus' philosophy of leaving "innocent humans" alone to which primus replies by pointing out that it "wasn't him but the human" but Gorath wouldn't take this "crap" as an excuse after all primus has partnered with this human who was clearly violating their philosophy but as the two divine guardians continued to argue over Kenneth's actions Katie and Serena were about to feel his actions as that hyper beam continued heading right towards them but not just Katie and Serena but now ash who had ran after Serena to help her and make sure that she didn't get hurt in the process; but the princess was trying to urge ash and Serena to not worry about her and to get back something ash and Serena weren't about to do as they explain to the princess that they "weren't about to let her get hurt!" and as that hyper beam comes closer to them Gorath makes his decision right then and there that he could not and would not watch anymore of this as he slams his blade like arm into the ground in front of ash, Serena and, Katie as a makeshift shield to deflect the blast which caused a heavy black smoke to build and hug the ground obstructing everyone's view as phoenix dragon calls out to his friends, partners, family and, comrades to make sure they were all alright! as Kenny proudly exclaims "finally my annoying sister is out of the way which means i now rule!" but for the guardian of the sun terror soon changed to relief as he sees the smoke clearing out revealing that his comrades and brother Gorath were all okay; " Serena are you okay" ash asks Serena with a look of concern on his face as Serena responds; "yeah ash I'm fine; how about you Katie?" to which the princess just looks at her still in awe over what happened responds to Serena; "I'm fine thank you" the fact that they all survived clearly angered Kenneth as he shouts "what the hell" across the field to which as and Serena just responded with a sarcastic "don't thank us thank Gorath" this infuriated the "rogue prince" as Gorath assured ash and Serena that he would indeed help them in their mission to save Dragonus! after hearing that the guardian of destruction was now on their side ash turns to lock his auburn eyes with Serena's blue eyes and it's like their connection allowed them both to sense what the other was thinking as they each call out Pikachu and Braixen respectively to defeat ryperior with one more combo attack seeing this primus couldn't help but be angry at his brother as he uses his telepathy to call out "if you won't side with us you can die with them!" but before primus could launch his attack both ash and Serena commanded both phoenix dragon and now for the first time Gorath to attack primus together however today was clearly not the day fate had in store for them to defeat Kenneth and primus who had both once again "vanished without a trace" this did concern ash and Serena but for now the danger was gone and it now has become a fight for another day after realizing this they both turned to Gorath and thanked the guardian of destruction for all of his help to which Gorath returned with " your welcome now; if you ever need me just call!" ash and Serena both nodded in acknowledgment of these instructions before phoenix dragon turned to his brother and suggest they go as the two divine dragons fade away in the sky back to their home and with Gorath and phoenix dragon gone Serena ran over to ash and hugged him thanking him for protecting her as ash assured Serena that he was just glad she was okay as the young trainers share a brief kiss. After a few moments of silence though both ash and Serena were interrupted by the sound of Katie's voice; "ash... Serena..." hearing their names caused both of them to turn their attention to the princess and ask her what was wrong and it was then Katie decided to ask a question that frankly she's wanted to ask both of them for a while now; "back there when you protected me..." before the princess could finish she was interrupted by both ash and Serena who asked her; "yeah?" almost simultaneously, that's when the princess finished her question; "why did you do that?" the princess's question clearly caught ash & Serena off guard as they lean back a little before answering her; "Katie; we weren't about to sit back and let you get hurt" ash started off as his thought was finished off by Serena; "we're not those kind of people!" and although both ash and Serena couldn't have possibly been more genuine, sincere and, truthful about those statements the princess "didn't by it and could tell something was off." as she informs them that she could tell that they were hiding something. as she asks them; "there's another reason isn't there?" the princess's question confused ash and Serena as ash quickly tried to deny that there wasn't anything else but Serena on the other hand realized that denying that there wasn't another reason was "pointless and just not true" as she walks over next to ash and whispers to him; "ash we may as well tell her the truth" ash reluctantly nods to Serena as he asks Katie one last question; "you're right Katie there is another reason but if we tell you why will you promise not to laugh!?" in what may have been the most serious tone the princess had ever come from ash. so Katie agrees to not laugh as her new friends finally open up about why they had been taking "special care" of her; as ash begun in a quiet tone of voice; "well Katie..." followed by Serena who was almost just as quiet; "you remind us of..." as ash joins her to finish their revelation to Katie "our daughter..." "You remind us of our daughter!?" Katie jumped back almost out of her skin hearing this as she reiterated; "i remind you of your daughter!?" this was just answered by ash and Serena with a quiet and solemn "yes" as Serena reaches into her pocket and pulls out her digital assistant and brings up a photo of Kate before sliding it in front of Katie while telling her; "Katie this is our daughter Kate!" As she stares at the picture it felt to her like he was looking in a mirror as she exclaims; "no way... that's... that's... me!?" while still trying to process this. ash begins to explain to the princess; "Katie we're positive that you are our daughter's different dimensional counterpart!" as she continues to "stare like a deer in the headlights" while she comes to grips with the fact that ash and Serena are right and that this is most likely true as she mutters out; "this does explain so much" after several minutes of trying to digest this "their moment" was interrupted by a "rustling" coming from the woods surrounding them fearing that it could be Kenneth... Raphael... or worse ash wasted no time in demanding that whoever was there to; "show yourself!" that's when an elder gentlemen comes walking out of the tree line and approaches them as Serena asks this stranger who he was; my name's Jacob leader of the guardian research group; ash and Serena still in a state of confusion reiterate; "the guardian research group!?" as Jacob answers them; "that's correct the king & queen created our group after they met you, back when the guardian titans found you & your world!" this just made a confusing situation for ash and Serena even more confusing as Jacob goes on talking; that's right see our group discovered that the world was split into two, yours which was more technologically advance & the amazing creatures known as pokemon thousands of them, and ours less technologically advanced & little or no pokemon plus the ten guardian titans!" ash and Serena were both completely amazed by this in less than five minutes "a lot of their questions had been answered; despite more being raised!" luckily for them however Jacob continued to go on and explain more to them; "two worlds vastly different but both relying on the other for survival linked together by two different but at the same time the same family, yours ash and Serena and the former king & queen." upon hearing the word "former" Katie who was still grieving over her parents just upset Katie as she walks over and began hugging Serena, although it wasn't the same Katie still needed someone to hold onto and although she couldn't explain why she went to Serena or why Serena made her feel comfortable in her sadness an embrace that felt awkward to Serena but if it made Katie feel better she was perfectly fine with it as she begins to hug the princess back. Ash on the other hand continued to ask Jacob questions to try and see what else he knows; "so Jacob Raphael & the grandmaster?" Jacob could deny the fact that he knows what's happening so he answers ash's question; "they plan on destroying this less advanced world and bring it's people into yours, under one rule; one cemented under the guardian titans "unlimited divine power!" after hearing this ash and Serena began "piecing what has been going on together; so that's why they captured Dragonus, he has the power to make it happen!" this however wasn't entirely accurate though there was more going on and Jacob became compelled to tell them this; "not exactly you see even though Dragonus is the un-definitive ruler of the guardian titans, his power can't do something like that alone." after hearing that ash and Serena were able to take a pretty good guess as to what was happening now; "and that's why they need more of the others!?" to which Jacob answered "exactly!" now realizing the stakes ash turned to Serena and Katie to talk to them; "that just shows that we need to find the others & save Dragonus!" Serena knew ash was right and didn't hesitate in telling him so while Katie looks at ash and Serena and told them; "that she looked forward to helping them anyway that she can" ash and Serena appreciated the gesture as they thanked her before turning to Jacob intending to thank him for answering their questions but when they turned around to do so they were amazed to see that Jacob was gone! The three of them were just staring at an open field trying to figure out where this mysterious man had gone.
