He got back to Cerulean later than he'd hoped, but he didnt really care. He'd named his new teammates, decided on his final Pokémon, and had gotten some of the rage out by training his team until they dropped. Rook and Mankey, now named Knight, had worked the hardest of his team. They fought pretty much non stop, and were decently matched. Pawn, the Poliwag, had done some running practice, getting used to moving on dry land until his new legs ached from overuse. Porygon, now called Ace thanks to Paul's earlier comment, had worked on floating unpredictably, being able to change directions almost instantly. It wasn't great at it yet, but Ace had made some progress. He'd partnered Bishop and King together, so that they could try and outsmart each other. Queen worked alone, trying to lift his backpack to gain the strength she'd soon need.

Overall, they had made a bit of progress, but not much. Just thinking about how much work they would need to do before hunting down anyone made his head hurt.

Admittedly, the most difficult part was exactly how close they were to Mt. Moon. If he'd had the supplies, if his team was a bit stronger, if the other three weren't waiting on him, he would have set out for the mountain in order to start his search for his dad's old lab. But he couldn't. Not yet.

If anything still remained after this long, it could wait a bit longer for him to be ready.

He hadn't just sat back and watched his team either. He'd worked on himself, knowing that he wasn't physically good enough yet. Sprints, push ups, sit ups, jumping jacks, and a jog later, he was more sore than he'd ever been in his life, but also strangely satisfied. It was hard to feel anything, especially the deep, cutting rage, when he was so physically exhausted.

He shrugged off the concern of his friends, once he found his room, and let himself curl up on the arm chair, seeing as the two beds and couch had been claimed by the others. After a moment to think, he let out both King and Ace to keep watch, even if the others only had their starters out. He let his head press into the arm of the chair and fell asleep almost instantly. He didn't see the way Ace had already landed on the back of the chair, or how King curled up on his side and wiggled until he was tucked under his trainers arm. He didn't see the worried looks of his friends, or the annoyed glances Gary sent his way for disappearing so quickly.

All he knew was his dreams.

Not surprisingly, Ash was the last one to wake up in the morning. Or, well, afternoon. From the moment he opened his eyes, he'd felt... off. His head ached, but not bad enough that he couldn't ignore it, even if his wakeup call had made things worse.

Gary shoved him off the chair, after carefully picking King up and cradling the Pokémon. Granted, he had a good reason, seeing as they were all being called to the Pokémon center, but Ash made a note to get revenge. Then again, Gary and the other two had gone out while he was gone to replace what they were missing, so maybe he'd be nice. Maybe.

Still, something felt wrong, very wrong, and Ash insisted that they all have their gear with them, just in case. He knew the other three thought he was being ridiculous, and he probably was. That didn't mean he'd get caught without his things should everything go to shit.

How exactly that would happen, he didn't know. Was his paranoia probably causing problems? Yes. Either way, he'd be damned if he let himself be unprepared once again.

Once the four of them were ready, they headed towards the Pokémon Center. It was probably to make sure they, and their teams, were alright. It was a smart move, he knew, but it didn't make him any less paranoid.

From the moment they left their room, though, Ash knew he was right. Something was wrong. At first, it was subtle, but the longer they walked, the more obvious it was. They were being watched.

Maybe it was for an innocent reason, after all, they had just survived a tragedy. Maybe it was because they all still looked awful, and probably needed at least another twelve hours of rest. But he didn't think so. He wasn't entirely sure what was going on, though, and he was more than happy to possibly be wrong.

He hoped he was wrong.

--

He wasn't wrong.

There had been a secondary attack. The gym had been blown up, from, what looked to be hundreds of Weezing using self-destruct.

They all would have been dead if Wally hadn't noticed and called out his Ralts to use teleport on as many people as he could. Ralts was still young, though, but forced himself past his limits. Ten people had been grabbed in the teleport, and they had only gotten just outside the building.

On the positive side, that much strain had forced Ralts to evolve into a Kirlia. On the negative side, the survivors of the SS Alice were dwindling even further.

Thankfully, they weren't the only ones to react, and several dozen people had survived their second life threatening attack in just over a day and a half. Once again, Cerulean was flooded with police, and even the E4 made an appearance, along with Sabrina, Giovanni, Blake, Koga, even Lance.

The incidents were both linked to the same group. They called themselves the Controllers. Officer Jenny had told them that they were a new gang, of a sort, trying to rise to power. Their goal was to topple the Leagues in every single region, in order to unite all trainers under a single flag. They weren't known for being in Kanto, instead they had been causing havoc in Paldea, Galar, and Kalos. They had a habit of targeting large events for trainers, but had always been unsuccessful with their mission. Until today.

What made even less sense was how they had snuck into the Pokémon center, set explosives, all the while not being found or stopped by any of the trainers or police. No one had been expecting a second attack, and, once the police knew which group had targeted the SS Alice, they had gotten cocky. They hadn't thought that gathering the survivors in one place was a bad idea. The incompetence was ridiculous.

Because of that oversight, Ash and his group had stayed just long enough to give their statements, before they left the cursed city. Only once they were safely alone, having traveled for the rest of the day and well into the night, did they finally make camp. They had kept silent, with only a few scattered conversations though the day.

Everyone was shaken, but none of them were as off as Ash himself, who was still fighting the same headache he had been all day. His vision had been graying in and out all day, and he wondered if he'd hit his head and forgotten. Every single bit of his energy was focused on walking, or making sure that they were alone.

He knew that the other three were all wondering how he'd known what would happen, but he hadn't. If he'd known they would be attacked again, nothing could have forced him inside that building. So how did he know that they needed to be prepared?

Once their campsite was set up, two tents, and a campfire, with one person looking for enough wood to last the night, they finally settled. All four released their teams, with Ash letting King worry over him.

He took a moment to glance at Wally, who was gushing over a still exhausted Kirlia. The Pokémon was gorgeous, taller than a typical Kirlia, but also leaner than he'd usually see. Because of the stress they had been under, Kirlia evolved prematurely. It wasn't healthy, but, with some tender and loving care from his trainer, the Pokémon could recover.

"Hey, Ashy-boy," Gary drew his attention towards the fire, where he sat with his own team, the female Nidoran in his lap, "do you remember those stories gramps used to tell?"

A wave of nostalgia washed over him. He missed those days, when all they had to worry about was remembering simple chores, and getting to help at the Ranch was the best thing ever. "You mean about his journey? Yeah. Why?"

Gary looked towards the flames, curling further into himself. "Do you think they were true?"

A blink. "Most of them? I'm sure some of them were made up, but they couldn't all be. Wait." Ash froze. There was one story that stood out as a lie, but that was less about the professors trustworthiness, and more about how unlikely it was. "You can't possibly be thinking of-"

"Celebi."

Ash shook his head. "No, you remember how dangerous that is! And Celebi is rare, hell, its impossible to find in Kanto. Even if we could find one, what then? Go back and live through this nightmare again? We'd end up insane from splitting the time line, and everyone we saved would end up dead in a new way. We're not... we can't focus on undoing the past."

Gary had never known exactly how much Ash looked into Celebi. It had been his first plan, after all, to find one and go back to the day half of his family was stolen from him. He wanted to warn them not to go, beg them to stay, but, when Professor Oak caught him going through the books on mythical Pokémon, he'd been warned. Even if he found a way to get his hands on a Celebi, the chances it would help were slim to none. If it did, then a secondary time-line could form, which would only lead to insanity.

The scariest part, though, was that, most likely, death would still find a way to claim those who had been within its grasp, but worse.

At least like this, everyone who died on the SS Alice passed fairly quickly. He didn't want to think about death chasing everyone who should have died, and killing them off a second time, worse than the first. No, time travel was not an answer to anything. It couldn't be.

Ash glanced down, golden eyes dimming as he remembered just how helpless he felt when the Professor caught him, and brutally ripped his hope in half. He'd needed the harshness, but oh, he still remembered how much it hurt.

His eyes turned gentle, before meeting the desperate black he'd always known. "Look, we can't change what happened, we can't. We're weak, Gary. Right now, we're useless. But what we can do is make them pay. We can get strong enough to make them regret what they did. We can make sure that no one would dare to do something like this again. But we need time to grow first. I mean, if you want to look into Celebi more, we can, but even if we could go back, do you really think we're strong enough to stop that Arceus forsaken explosion? Either of them? Do you really think we're strong enough to save anybody right now? I mean, let's be honest, we couldn't even save ourselves. We got lucky that Ralts evolved when he did, but without that? We'd be dead too."

The brunette went silent for a moment, before heading into one of the tents, Wally crawling in after. Paul sent him a sympathetic look.

"You're right. It wouldn't have worked." Paul muttered, glancing at him through his hair. "It would be worse if he found out later."

Ash sighed. "I know. I used to think that Celebi would fix my problems too, but..."

"Some things can't be fixed."

He nodded slightly, hating that he'd hurt Gary. "Can we talk about something else?"

Paul shrugged. "Sure. Why don't you want a large team?"

Ash cringed at the question. He knew the answer though, even if it wasn't a nice one, it was better than talking about Gary. "My mom caught one hundred, twenty seven Pokémon on her journey, and ended up catching another twenty two after she retired. Most of them, she hasn't seen in years. Growing up around the Ranch, you see a lot of trainers like that, people who catch a lot of Pokémon for one use, or to say they have it, but never interact with them again. My dad was just as bad, he had over two hundred, but when he... disappeared, his Pokémon didn't even notice because they hadn't seen him since he was a teenager. Mom kept his Pokémon, to feel closer to him, but she never visited any of them. She never got to know any of them. They never asked to be caught, but their lives were uprooted by an upstart brat. I promised myself that when I got my Pokémon, I'd only have a few, just enough to do what I needed to, and I'd get to know every single one for who they were. I never want to abandon even one of my team."

It was true, his mom didn't treat her Pokémon right, she just left them at the ranch, never using or talking to them. As for his dad's team, he wasn't even sure if they knew he was gone, or if they would have noticed seeing as he was never really around them. It was why he planned on releasing pretty much all of them.

"You're going to let them go." Paul said softly, tilting his head slightly. "You know that your parents being irresponsible isn't your fault, right? You won't turn into them if you have a few more."

Ash shrugged. "Yeah, I know. I'm planning on keeping one or two, but I was going to offer some of them to you, Wally, and Gary."

"Why would you want to do that?" Paul asked, confusion in his baritone voice.

Ash resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "The stronger you guys are the stronger we are as a group. If giving you guys access to some old school battlers makes us stronger, and gives a few Pokémon the chance to live out their glory days, its worth it. Besides, I'm pretty sure Gary has the same idea, seeing as we're headed to Pallet Town."

Paul growled, a soft frustrated sound. The purple haired boy bit down roughly on his lip, trying to keep from saying whatever he really wanted to.

"I know what you want to say. Go ahead." Ash told the other boy. He had a feeling he knew exactly why the thought was so frustrating to Paul. Paul saw his team differently than Ash did. He'd been up front and honest about wanting dozens of Pokémon, so he'd have a way to get through whatever situation he had to. He knew how annoyed Paul was that he didn't have a Pokémon that could have helped in either explosion. He got it.

Paul shook his head, long purple hair falling over his eyes. "It doesn't matter. I think I need to go to bed."

Well that made Ash feel like shit. He had been trying to distract himself. There was no part of him that was ready to confront his own emotions, but that that didn't mean he was the only one suffering in silence.

Paul's brother had been a breeder, someone who raised Pokémon for other people. Of course he'd get upset with Ash being ready to give up his parents Pokémon so callously. He hadn't meant it in a cruel way, but that didn't mean he hadn't accidentally reminded the other boy of his brother, Reggie.

He felt awful. Emotions were difficult, but he should have been being more careful considering what they had just gone through. He watched the other boy for a moment, capturing Paul's wrist when he stood.

Slowly, he stood up too, trying to figure out how to comfort the other boy. Ash swallowed heavily, before wrapping his arms around Paul, holding the purple haired trianer tightly. He kept himself silent, cheeks flushed in.. something he didn't understand, knowing that words had been useless when his family had been lost all those years ago.

It took a few minutes, but Paul relaxed in his grip, grabbing Ash's shirt in tight fists. He wasn't sure how long they stayed there, Ash's eyes locked on the flames while he attempted to comfortt his friend, but it took a long time for Paul to pull back. If his shirt was wet, or Paul's eyes were red, he said nothing about it.

He kept the other boy in reach, locking his fingers around Paul's wrist as he led the other towards their tent. Wally had Gary tonight, which left Ash with Paul. He'd been failing at being a friend all night, but now that he knew, Ash would be more careful. He could be the friend Paul needed.

Once Paul was settled in his sleeping bag, Ash came back out, reclaiming his seat next to the fire.

He let out a long, slow breath. He'd been selfish earlier for focusing only on how he had been effected, but never again. He couldn't afford to forget about his team, or his new friends. He needed them to trust him, which meant that he needed to be trustworthy. Such a simple concept, yet in practice, it was much more difficult.

He stared into the flames, letting his mind race as he tried to figure out what to do next.

He had a target: the Controllers. They killed his mom, and so many more people. But why? The police had told them that the group wanted to unite all of the trainers under one flag, but what did that mean? Some regions didn't even have Pokémon trainers, so what was the point?

When they got back to Pallet Town, Ash knew he'd need to spend some time on Professor Oak's computer. Maybe the man had...

Wait. He didn't need to be there in person, did he?

His phone, his Pokédex was connected to Professor Oak's main terminal, so that the man could access the information on all of the trainers he sent out.

A slow grin started to form, as his headache was forgotten. He and Ace had some work to do.