Chapter 5: The New Beginning

Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING BUT THIS STORY OF MINE. xD

A/N: Re-edited on June 30, 2017

At the stadium,

Ash was standing in the stadium among the other participants for the award ceremony with a visible frown plastered on his face. He had joined the other trainers just after he had seen off Dawn. Yes, he was sad for her departure but it was soon replaced with excitement as the final match went underway. He was told to wait at the Player's Tunnel till the match was over but that didn't take long. The person, to whom he had lost had obliterated his opponent in his vintage style, by just using his Darkrai. He wasn't surprised at all, but the look on his face would suggest otherwise. Actually it was a strange mix of emotions. Emotions like sadness, longing, excitement, sympathy and pride. He was sad because he wasn't the one to be fighting against him, excited because he was too mesmerised to see such a power display, sympathy for the trainer who had lost to him and pride because of the fact that his pokemon had done something that neither of the other trainer's could do.

Soon the stage was set up at the middle of the arena which now contained the league officials and the Sinnoh champion herself. Tobias was called to the stage where he was handed the Trophy by none other than Cynthia. She congratulated him and as per the tradition, she asked him if he would challenge the Elite Four, to which he smirked and admitted. She responded him with a smirk of her own and nodded knowingly. With that she was called to the mic to address the tournament.

"The past few days have given each of us a lot to memories for us to remember for the rest of our lives. It has taught us the fact that there are some heights to be reached" she paused a bit to glance over to Tobias with a smirk. She then turned her gaze to look towards a certain raven haired trainer. Her smirk turned into a soft smile as she closed her eyes for a moment and then turned to look towards the cameras.

"It has taught us that there is more to training a Pokémon than just getting stronger to win matches." Ash dropped his gaze to try and cover his face using his cap as he was too embarrassed to make any eye contacts cause he knew what she meant and whom she was addressing.

And then there was a loud cheer from the crowd. It caught him with surprise causing him to jump off a bit off the sudden eruption. He raised his head to figure out what the whole commotion was all about but was caught off guard to see himself on the display screen. It was obvious that everybody knew who she was referring to. Flustered with the reaction of the crowd, he raised his head to the place where Cynthia was standing and he wasn't surprised a bit to see that she was looking at him with a somewhat proud expression. He gave her a nervous smile to which she chuckled and turned to the cameras again.

"It has shown us the strength of the bond between a trainer and their Pokémon" she continued.

"In the end I would like to congratulate all of you for making this event such a success and I would like to give my best wishes to all of them, who strive to be at the very top and with that I, now announce the conclusion of this year's conference." With her words the whole sky lit up with beautiful colours as the firework began. The scene was 'breath taking' which was supported by all the 'awes' that could be heard from the crowd.

Ash was enjoying the beautiful exhibition himself when he heard a voice, which turned out to belong to Cynthia. She motioned him to follow her which he obliged. But it wasn't a comfortable walk because he realized that he was the center of attention of the whole stadium. Everybody was looking at him as he followed her and the scene was getting, well bit of an awkward one for him.

He followed her as she led him to her green room. She stopped at the door to look at him with an assuring look. She opened the door and made her way towards a couch. She then asked him to come inside and close the door behind him. With the door closed, she broke into the couch.

"Well make yourself comfortable, have a seat" she told him while motioning over to another couch beside hers. Well if it would've been anyone else, he would have been nervous to be alone in a room with a girl like her, but to him she was just another friend. So, he did what he was told after a slight nod.

"Finally its over" She sighed loudly and stretched her body a bit. "It's tiresome to be a champion you know" she said in a complaining manner, to which Ash chuckled. He had to admit it, he had never seen her behaving in such a folksy manner.

She gave him a forced smile and because of all her complaining, it made it look kind of a silly one. She then got up and turned to approach the fridge, she opened the door and took out a soft drink for her. She then turned around to look at him.

"So what would you like to have" She asked.

"Well, I think I'll pass" he waved his arms to refuse with a nervous grin, but it didn't matter as she handed him his own can.

He thanked her and she once again took her place. She took a few sips to see that he was just sitting there, his can yet to be opened. She sighed and leaned towards him.

"You don't have to be shy with me you know. After all we're going to be together for some time now"

"Y… Yes you're right" he stammered out as he started drinking his own drink.

After he had finished it, which he did real quickly, he turned to her.

"So what now?" he asked her doing nothing to hide some bits of curiosity.

"huh? Oh yeah" She bit her lower lip while smashing her fist into her palm as if she had just remembered something, earning a huge sweat drop from the Raven haired trainer. She then took out a tablet and began working on it. After a couple of minutes, she turned to face him.

"Well, we are leaving tomorrow morning. We've got a plane to catch at 2 in the afternoon. So I'll just pick you up at 9 AM from your room" She explained him their plan, making Ash raise a delicate brow.

"But if the flight's in the afternoon, then why leave so early."

She smirked, "You'll see tomorrow" His other eyebrow joined the first one as he was confused but nodded nevertheless knowing he won't be getting anything else.

"Another thing" she added, "No one should know that I'm training you" she told him seriously. The tone making Ash stiffen a bit as it was the first time in the day that she'd actually said something like that.

"But why" he asked sounding ever so confused.

She sighed, "If everyone would know that I'm training you then, "she paused a bit to think how it would be as a shiver went through her spine "Well, there goes our privacy."

He just nodded, not getting a single point though. He then shook his confusion off to continue, "Well you haven't told me which Pokémon I should bring or where we are going."

She stood up and now went to the dressing table and took a seat in front of the mirror. She then began to remove her earrings.

"Where we are going, mmm, well it's a secret till tomorrow and about your Pokémon, you don't have to worry about it. Just take your Pikachu with you" she told him while looking at him through the mirror, her nonchalant tone earning her another sweat drop.

"Okay, I guess I should leave then, I've got to collect my Pokémon from the Centre" he told her while turning to head to the door but before he could do it, she called him, "Wait Ash"

"What is it Cynthia" He asked while turning to face her.

"Uhh, just don't worry if someone says anything weird about "Us" Okay?" She paused a bit, her body language making it pretty obvious that she wasn't comfortable "And yeah when you leave the room just don't say a word to them, whether the ask you anything." She told him with a silly expression.

"What do you mean and who they?"

"Well you'll know, just close the door behind you." He nodded slowly, though still wondering what she meant.

"See you tomorrow then" She said at the moment he turned the door knob.

"Yeah really looking forward to it" he said with a huge grin. He hadn't noticed that he had opened the door and someone was standing behind him and as he turned to leave, he saw well nothing actually. He couldn't see a thing as he was blinded by a bright light. He shielded his face with his hand in instincts as his eyes slowly focused making the light slowly die down.

"Mr. Ketchum, what were you doing in Ms Cynthia's room." A voice said which seem to belong to a woman.

"What's going on" he asked himself.

"How long you've been together" said another voice. He raised his brow to the question. He wasn't getting anything at all.

"Mr Ketchum, is it true that you and Ms Cynthia are in a relationship" said another voice.

'What? Relationship' he thought to himself.

"When did you two meet?"

"Was it during a training session?"

"Do you two train together? Was that the reason for your great performance?"

"What are you looking forward to? "And what are your future plans?" said the first woman.

Ash was now close to panicking. He waved his hands to try and calm them all down but it was a vain attempt as he was bombarded with more question. He frowned 'So this is what she meant. Aw man' he thought to himself.

Suddenly someone grabbed his hand and pulled him through the reporters. It turned out to be Brock as he leaded Ash out of the commotion. After running for about 15 minutes, they were able to shake them off their tails. They now stood in their room, trying to catch their breaths.

"Thanks a lot Brock, I owe you big" Ash thanked him while still trying to catch his breath.

Brock Chuckled a bit before admitting. "Yup it looks like so"

Brock stopped laughing to stare at him with a calm expression. Ash noticed his stare and he didn't know why but he was starting to get a bad feeling about it.

"What is it Brock?"

"Just thinking about the time we first met." He paused a bit as his lips curved into a small smile. "You sure have grown Ash, grown a lot"

Ash had to smile himself to that. But the next moment his smile turned into a frown. It was beginning to get clear, where it was heading to.

"You're leaving aren't you?" he asked in a very calm yet sad voice, to which Brock nodded. He dropped his gaze to stare the floor and nodded himself. Brock was there with him from the very beginning. He had started to look at him as an older brother, a brother he never had.

He was the one who taught him all about training a Pokemon. It was him who had set the bars for him. Yes, saying goodbye was never an easy task. But with Brock, it wasn't like that at all, because he knew he's family to him. And it doesn't matter how far you've gone or for how long you've been away, you would always find them waiting for you.

"Thank you Brock, for everything" he said while glancing towards the floor. Broke smiled and gave him a brotherly hug.

"If you ever need me, just let me know" he assured him with now smiling broadly.

"Yeah I know" he replied with a grin of his own.

"The rest of the day went out quite quickly for him. When he had seen off Brock, he had returned to the Pokemon Centre to collect his Pokemon, whom he had left earlier for a final checkup before he had transported them to Oak's laboratory. All but Pikachu of course. Now he was in his room, lying on his back while staring at the ceiling.

"I'm spent" He complained in a childish manner before sighing exasperatedly.

"Pii?" Pikachu tilted his head in confusion.

It was true he hadn't done anything to feel that way. He had just been to the Pokemon Centre to collect his pokemon. But doing so with a crowd surrounding you and asking for pictures and autographs isn't the same thing. He was saved yet again by another person, though this time the person being Nurse Joy.

Though being tired couldn't stop him from being excited about the adventure they were to begin.

Next morning, he was up early. Well not exactly as he had hardly slept. He was too excited to sleep. He had already finished his packing the previous night, so he had nothing to do but wait for Cynthia to get him. The level of his excitement could be estimated by the fact that he was literally standing at his door with his backpack on and Pikachu on his shoulder, at the moment the time was 9.

He was growing impatient with every passing moment and when the door knocked, he opened it instantly. It was Cynthia, she jumped in surprise because of the sudden movement but the moment she saw the looks in his eyes, she burst into laughter.

"Looks like someone's excited" she said while trying to rhythm her breathing.

"You bet" he admitted while thrusting his fist in the air.

"Pikaaa" Pikachu squeaked from his shoulder while mimicking is trainer's actions.

Cynthia smirked to see his anticipation but something was missing. Dawn and Brock were missing. She'd thought that they would be there to see them off as she had never saw them separated before, but that never happened. Trying to suffice her curiosity she decided to ask herself.

"Where are your friends" She asked in curious tone.

"They had to leave," he paused a bit as he calmed himself down. "You see Dawn's mother is hospitalized so she had to be with her and Brock got a call from his gym."

Cynthia nodded understandingly and motioned him to follow her. He did precisely what he was told.

"Where are we going" he asked her.

She stopped in her tracks to glance towards him with a look that was a little too enthusiastic for Ash's taste. Now Ash was never paranoid but he couldn't shake this forlorn feeling "We're going shopping" She said with a wink. The moment he heard the word shopping, Ash had to regain his footing.

"Whaat?" he asked in a bit of surprise and exasperation.

She chuckled, "Yeah, now come on" she said while turning back to walk ahead.

"But…" He tried to ask her why, but she was getting well ahead of him so he just shrugged his shoulders and followed her.

Soon they both arrived at the shopping centre and as expected they were surrounded by a huge crowd. They all were asking for a picture or an autograph and to Ash's surprise they all seemed to be more interested in him than the Sinnoh Champion herself, as majority of the crowd being girls.

"Hey what's with all the commotion" said a voice which probably belonged to a boy.

"It's Cynthia and that Ash Ketchum from the news earlier" answered the other boy, who was standing with him.

"I don't get what she liked about that little punk" he said while irritation leaking from his voice.

"I'm way better that he could ever be" he added in a smug manner.

"Well he's quite strong to reach to the league's final and if you ask me, he happens to be kindaa cute too." Said another voice which belonged to a girl, who was with the other two boys.

"Strong my foot, I'll show him what real strength is." He spat as he started approaching them. The other two shared a nervous glance before they ran after him to try and stop him but failed as he was way too bigger than them both.

"So you are that Ketchum boy" he yelled pointing towards Ash. The whole noise died down on noticing the harsh tone.

"You think you're strong, please" He said in a taunting manner.

"If you think so then you're pathetic" he paused a bit to glance over Cynthia, "and it's even more pathetic that a girl like you would chose a kid who is nothing but a weakling.

Ash was furious, who was he supposed to be to call him a weakling.

"Hey" Ash yelled as he began to approach him but was stopped by Cynthia. He tried to oppose her but the moment he looked at her he stopped. He had never seen her like that. He gulped with fear and took a step back unconsciously as he saw pure rage in her eyes. She now turned to face the person who was creating the scene.

"Who are you" She asked coldly.

"Name's Steven, 'The Fire Master'" he replied in an arrogant manner, obviously enjoying all the attention he was getting.

"Alright…. So who are you?" She asked him again with the same expression.

"What? I just told you" He said now sounding a bit of confused.

"I mean who are you to question my decision and consider Ash a weakling?" She said now showing irritation in her voice.

He smirked, before laughing a bit, 'Oh he would make her see her fault. Then she would be with him not that brat' "Oh he's just a weak little boy. He ain't got no idea what real strength is."

Cynthia smirked herself and closed her eyes, "So he don't know what strength is hun?"

"So tell me what strength is for you?" She said in an obvious mocking way but the poor man didn't seem to see it.

He grabbed his a Pokeball and released his Pokemon who turned out to be a giant Charizard. Her smirk widened as she took a look at the abnormally giant lizard Pokemon before closing her eye and bringing her head down. Steven beamed to see that as he thought that he had made his point. He soon had a cocky smirk on his face as he totally failed to see the hidden smirk that Cynthia wore.

"Have your Charizard defeated an Articuno?" She asked offhanded in a somehow mocking tone.

"What do you mean? It's a legendary Pokemon we're talking about" he said sounding rather annoyed not seeing her point.

"You know Ash has a Charizard of his own, who had done that"

"What?" he squeaked, he tried to state his doubts on the claim but was interrupted by her yet again.

"Have you defeated a Darkrai or a Regirock?"

He just stood there stunned which encouraged her to go on.

"How could you say Ash's weak when he had done that with his Sceptile."

She stepped forward with confidence leaking from her.

"Have you defeated a Latios or a Regice, 'O mighty Fire Master'?" She asked now totally in her zone refraining nothing to show her amusement.

He just listened with his eyes and mouth wide open. She turned to point towards Pikachu before continuing.

"Well that little Pikachu over there has done that." Steven and everyone else had their jaws on the floor up to this point. Nobody had known anything that she'd said. They turned to stare at the now flushed Pokemon Master to be with looks of awe and respect. They'll were broken out of their stupor when they heard the Champion continuing.

"How many Pokemons do you have?" she asked him.

He somehow gathered himself with that. At least now he had a chance to save a little dignity. He puffed his chest and said, "24" with a smirk.

But he was surprised to see that her smirk grew wider. She turned to face Ash who was now completely flustered due to her words. "Ash" She called him ever so softly with a huge smile. "How many Tauros do you have?"

He scratched his cheek with his finger nervously while saying, "ummm 30"

She turned to face Steven again with a mocking smug expression, who now held his head down, while the sounds of excited whispering could be heard from all around.

"And finally, what's your age?"

"20", he said in a low voice while still his head held down."

"Ash is 13 and has saved the world so many times, that you can't even imagine."

He just stayed silent which declared her the winner. She loosened a bit to face the now speechless crowd. "Is there anyone else, who thinks that 'my Ash' is a weakling?" No one made a sound to which she smiled. She turned to head towards Ash, grabbed him with his hand and started to lead him toward a shop. Ash on the other hand was blushing furiously. He was so embarrassed by her action and words that he wasn't even able to raise his head. But then a question crept to his mind.

"Hey Cynthia? How do you know about all that?"

She turned to him with a sly smile.

"Well I've done my research" She said with a wink.

"And what was 'my Ash' all about" Now it was her turn to blush as she cursed. She was completely sure that he hadn't noticed that. She looked away from him to stare at the path ahead.

"Well I guess that you've already figured out that everyone see us as a couple now. I thought it would be good for our training as people would give us privacy. So I kind of played along with it" She explained him.

Ash thought it made quite some sense so he nodded understandingly. To him it was nothing to which she sighed. At least he wasn't mad. She maintained silence for the whole walk and after a few minutes she finally broke it.

"We're here" She said with all the enthusiasm she previously held. He raised his head to see that it was a clothing shop. He sighed, shopping was really not his thing.

She once again pulled him into the shop and started to head towards the men's section, which confused Ash.

"What are we doing here Cynthia?" he asked her.

"We're getting you a new attire." She said while searching over the displayed clothes.

"But I don't need it" he told her with a lot of force. Hey he liked his clothes.

"Yeah but you have to" She said while doing her work.

"But why" he asked in a puzzled manner. She sighed and glanced over him to explain her point.

"It's necessary Ash, you see you're quite famous now, so if they see you in your present attire then, they would easily recognize you and then we'll have to deal with what happened earlier regularly." She noticed that he nodded understandingly.

"And besides, people think you as my boyfriend and to tell you the truth, you in this attire really make me feel old and hey am just 17. So we have to do something about that." She finished with a wink. 'And perhaps that way people won't call me a cradle robber. Meh... who cares what they think' she thought to herself with a sigh.

Ash blushed to the word 'boyfriend'. Though he knew it was just to show but couldn't help the awkward feeling about it.

"Here, try them on" She said while handing him some clothes. He sighed but obliged and went to the changing room. Pikachu was now waiting over Cynthia's shoulder as she petted him behind his ears. After a few minutes Ash showed up and what he got was an excited squeal from his buddy and a smirk from Cynthia as she said, "Perfect".

He was now wearing a grey Jeans with a grey muscle shirt and a black leather jacket. He had put on a pair of grey and black hiking shoes and had his cap off. He went back to the changing room and had to admit it, he was looking way older than before. He took his normal attire but remained in the new one as he was told by her.

He then headed to pay for the clothes but came to know that it was already done. He turned to Cynthia, "Come on Cynthia, I can buy my clothes" she waved him off to ensure him it wasn't as he was thinking.

"It's a gift from me. Yeah I know you can buy your stuff but I am allowed to give a gift to my apprentice, right?" She said playfully.

He smiled and nodded. "Yes Mistress" seeing no harm, he played along, before breaking into laughter which she joined.

"So now that it's been taken care of, should we head towards the airport?" She asked him to which he nodded enthusiastically.

After what seemed to be like years to Ash, they arrived at the airport with about two hours to spare before the flight. So Ash went to have some food while Cynthia left saying she had a business to take care of.

After about an hour, she returned to him. She handed him the boarding pass. He was now on the peak of his curiosity. He wanted to know where they were heading, which Cynthia realized.

"We're heading Rota" She informed him with a knowing smile.

"The Tree Of Beginning" Ash mumbled with his eyes wide open.

About an hour ago.

"How are things turning out to be?" Asked a voice which seemed to belong an old man.

"Just as we planned, I've got him with me" replied another person, seeing how high her pitch was, it was obvious it belonged to a young woman.

"But I still don't understand why are we doing this to him?" Continued the woman. Doing nothing to hide her disapproval about the said plan.

"It's been already discussed, people of his kind are threat to the society. So it's our duty to save the society from the likes of him." He told her as a matter of factly.

"Just because he's an Aura guardian doesn't mean he deserves to suffer. How can you justify that, he's just a boy with some dreams to fulfill." She said raising her voice to almost yelling at the end.

"No more argument, just do what you're told. By the way what was the big idea of showing him as your boyfriend?"

"Are you questioning my decision?" the man could feel her eyes narrowing on the other end. Getting on her wrong side wasn't something that he wanted so he smartly tried to cool things off a bit and just let the topic slide.

"No, I am not" he paused a bit, "Just remember your mission is to take him away from the society for some time. He's kind of become a hero in public view and it seems like my decision of using him to destroy his will didn't work. I had thought he would be broken and give up but." She smirked at his obvious irritation. Deciding to juice the most out of the moment, she replied in a sing song way.

"I told you" She mocked him. She had to stifle a giggle as she could practically see him twitching off irritation.

"Yes, so now that you've volunteered for the mission, see to it that it's a success"

"You don't have to worry about it, I'll take care of Ash" She said confidently.

"Good." The old man said seemingly satisfied with her reply as he hung up the phone.

She sighed before rubbing her temples to shake the small ache that had formed due to the conversation, "Ohh… Don't you worry old man, I'll take care of Ash" She said to herself and then she closed her eyes and soon her frown turned into a smile as the image of a grinning raven haired boy formed in her mind.

"Ash"

Author's note: So guys first of all I would like to apologize for the late upload but past few days, well they were just awful. I was hospitalised and the doc said that its a case of acute stress. So I was told to do things I like the most and guess what here I AM 3. Anyways I would like to thank all of you for your support and reviews (Especially Ayush and ChloboShoka). I actually wanted to ask all of you guys something, do you want me to give you some training events or I could give them later as flashbacks whenever needed, to create some suspense. SO I leave the choice to you guys or I'll go with the second plot. Anyways what do you think about the 5th chapter. xD Next chapter would be out by 26th, till then peace out :P xD