A/N: Thanks for the reviews guys! aleking74, yeah, that was a Dark Souls reference. Julie Togepi, yeah that battle was kind of short, but I've received comments that I focus on the battles a bit too much, and to be honest I've read other fanfics and they don't really care that much about describing the individual battles. It seems to always focus on the characters more than they do on the battles, and I seem to sort of get that now. I mean, a battle is essentially always going to lead Ash to victory rather obviously. I'm not going to cut down on them entirely, but I might change the focus a little. I'd like to know if you guys maybe agree.

Also, I don't know if this should be there or if it makes a lot of sense to be there, but I might as well put a 'trigger warning' in that this chapter is quite darker and more serious compared to the others.

As Ash woke up, he realized first of all that he was lying down on something that didn't feel like sand. No- he was definitely on a bed. He could feel a mild headache originating behind his ears, but it wasn't too uncomfortable, and he didn't feel like he had a fever anymore.

He opened his eyes. He was in some sort of cottage- he vaguely remembered that there had been one on the island where he had fought Wade. He saw Brock, Misty, and Gulliver in the room. They were all in chairs and were snoozing away, and Misty had changed into some sort of male navy uniform for some reason. The curtains were drawn and the lights were turned on, so Ash guessed it was probably very late at night.

Ash saw his Pikachu sleeping at the corner of his bed. He finally noticed a clock- it was around four in the morning.

He didn't feel like moving though, or going back to sleep. So, he just sat there, not wanting to wake anyone up. After about an hour though, he accidentally moved a bit too much and startled Pikachu, who became really excited and made a lot of noises, waking up the others.

"Oh look, Ash is up," Misty said and got up.

"How're you doin'?" Gulliver asked.

"No mommy, I don't want to go back to school," Brock moaned, still in some sort of stupor before Misty pulled on his ear and brought him back to his senses.

"What happened?" Ash asked.

"You passed out," Gulliver said.

"I know that, but I mean, afterwards?" Ash asked.

"Oh, we called a doctor," Brock said. "All of the ones we called said that you were reacting badly to the Badge's powers, but they had no clue how to do anything to fix it. The only thing they could think of was to get you away from your Badges, but they said that they're pretty much stuck to you."

"Oh," Ash said. "Well, I feel a lot better now."

"Right, I bet you're hungry after all that," Brock said. "Let me see what I can whip up." He disappeared into another room that Ash guessed was a kitchen.

"Where's Wade?" Ash asked.

"Oh, he looked really upset when he lost," Misty said. "I almost felt sorry for him." She didn't sound sorry at all.

"I went to try an' arrest him, but he said that he had no plans to run anymore," Gulliver said. "I still had some people bind him and lead him to a holding cell."

"Right," Ash said.

"Was that the right thing to do?" Gulliver asked, probably scared that he may have acted out of line.

"No, that was probably the best thing to do and, I mean, you are my second-in-command, right?" Ash said. It was a bit of a joke, but Gulliver perked up anyway. "So then you guys took me in here?"

"Yeah, we were waiting for you to wake up," Misty said. "And Gulliver was filling us in on what this place is. I guess we all fell asleep."

"Wait- the fight happened yesterday, right? I haven't been asleep for more than a day, right?" Ash asked.

"Yeah, it was yesterday," Misty said.

"By the way, why the change of clothes?" Ash asked.

"Oh that," Misty said, snorting. "Apparently my shorts were far 'too short' and 'too revealing' according to that old guy and a lot of people here and they wanted me to wear a dress or something that at very least covered my knees, but I thought this was better as I could at least move in it."

Ash smiled. He had a good idea who that old guy was. "Yeah, they seem to be like that in Galea for some reason. At least it wasn't Dawn- though she might have agreed to wearing a dress."

They passed a few hours talking, with Brock and Misty filling Ash in on how they had ended up there and Ash giving them more details on what Galea was like. Breakfast was served and Ash was feeling a lot better.

It was about nine that they heard someone knocking on the door.

"I'll get it!" Gulliver said.

The door opened to reveal a woman wearing a female version of what Misty was wearing- in other words it was exactly the same except for a business skirt that went way past her knees. From what Ash could see, she had light blue hair wore in a bun. "I have a message for Sir Ash."

"Oh, well he's restin', so you can give it to me," Gulliver said.

"I have to give it only to him," she said.

"I guess you can let her in," Ash said. The door opened fully and the girl, who was probably no older than twenty, looked at Ash. Her eyes were the same color as her hair.

"You're- um, Lord Ketchum?" she asked.

Brock and Misty both guffawed. It was beyond hilarious for them; seeing their friend being called that.

"Yes," Ash said. "You're sweating a lot for some reason. Is it really hot outside?"

"No," the girl said. Her legs were trembling slightly too. Ash chalked it up to propaganda that the Gym Leaders were spreading about him. She had probably been expecting someone more impressive or rather, someone far more terrifying than Ash. "I was told to give this message only to you."

"Oh, it's okay, they're my friends, you can tell them stuff too," Ash said.

The girl glanced around. "I… I… understand that, b-b-but this is the sort of news meant for y-your ears only."

"Okay, so could you guys go into the kitchen or something?" Ash asked. He didn't really care, but he guessed that if she was being so insistent they might as well humor her.

"Okay," Gulliver said, who seemed to have caught on.

"Well, I have thought of a new recipe right now that we can try," Brock said. "Do you want to come too, Pikachu?"

"Pika pii!" Pikachu said and went off with Brock.

Once the two of them were alone, the girl approached the bed, which Ash found odd; he could hear a message from across the room just as easily.

"I have your message here," she said once she was at his bedside and reached into her pocket.

She then took out a knife and lunged at Ash's neck.

Ash felt his Badges rumble with power, and the knife break into fragments before it could touch his skin. The girl dropped the knife's handle as if it had burned her hand, and now grabbed Ash by the throat and began suffocating him, putting one hand over his mouth so he couldn't shout for help.

Ash tried to break free, but the girl's grip was as hard as iron and he had been weakened due to his episode. He figured it was futile trying after a minute of it didn't do anything to loosen her grip.

By then his lungs were screaming for air. He noticed that oddly enough, it was raining… no, no, that wasn't rain. His assailant was crying and the tears were falling on him.

"You deserve to die…" he heard her say. "You're a monster."

Just as he thought that he was about to lose consciousness as the world began to blur, his Badges rumbled again, and he felt a searing-hot flame emerge from them and make a hole in the assassin's abdomen as big as a quarter.

The girl fell off the bed, screaming in pain.

Once Ash had a few deep breaths, he screamed as loudly as he could for his friends.

They all rushed in and saw the girl lying on the floor, who was sobbing.

"What happened?" Brock asked.

"She… just tried to kill me," Ash said.

"What?" Gulliver said- sounding really shocked. "But how? I mean, don't the Badges protect you and all? So what would the point be?"

"They did," Ash said. "Otherwise I wouldn't be alive." Once he had calmed down somewhat and gotten some air into his lungs, he tried climbing out of bed to get a good look at his attacker.

"Um, guys," Brock said, looking at the girl. "She's has a hole in her stomach. I'm not a people doctor, but based on how much blood she's losing right now, I think she injured her inferior vena cava or abdominal aorta. She's going to bleed to death in minutes if we don't get someone."

"I'll go try to get a doctor," Gulliver said.

"No, let me try to heal her first," Ash said. He took a deep breath and then tried drawing on the power of his Badges.

Immediately, his previous symptoms came back even worse, and along with them there was the accompanying sensation that his skull was going to burst. And that was when he had only tapped into a small amount of their power. He stopped trying and instantly felt much better.

"I can't," Ash said. "I can't draw any more power. I'm sorry, if I try to heal her, it's going to end up killing me first."

"I don't get it," Misty said. "You could make a wound like that but you can't fix it?"

"No, I didn't do that," Ash sobbed. "The Badges did. If an attacker's too vicious, they eliminate the threat. And that's different because it's an automatic thing they do, they'd do it even if I was asleep or unconscious. But I can't consciously draw on their power anymore."

"Leave it anyway," the girl said, opening her eyes to send a last hateful glance at Ash. "I don't want to live and be tortured..."

"Why'd you do this?" Ash asked.

"I- I had a family in Hawthorne City," she said. "They died in the fire because of you… I heard that you were sick… and I knew I would probably fail, but I wanted to try. You're a monster… we'll never forgive you. Why couldn't you just leave us alone?"

With that, she closed her eyes, but the tears were still flowing down her face.

"You can try to get a doctor," Brock said. "But I think it's too late." Gulliver left anyway to try.

"What's Hawthorne City?" Misty asked.

Ash frowned and told them about Hawthorne City and what had happened to him. He was in tears by the end of it.

"And she's right, it's all my fault," Ash said. "I know I wasn't the one who burnt the city to the ground, but it might as well have been!"

"Ash, you can't blame yourself," Brock said. "I mean, you didn't mean for those people to get hurt."

"But people do get hurt!" Ash said. "And they keep getting hurt because I- just because I kept wanting to go back! I wanted to go back home, go back to my family and friends so bad… that I went ahead and didn't even think about what was happening to other people and their families. She's right, I should've just left everyone alone after I beat Marley. I should've agreed to the same Accord that the other Gym Leaders did. I wouldn't get to see you guys again… but then so many people wouldn't have to suffer…" The tears didn't stop flowing. They had been bottled up inside Ash for too long. For far too long.

"Ash… I don't know all about what you've been through, and I guess I can't really understand right now," Misty said. "But Ash, you've freed the people from the Gym Leaders… What I mean to say is that Wade was the best of them right, and he kidnapped us and tried to steal your Greninja!"

"Yeah, the Gym Leaders are terrible," Ash said. "But the people are used to it. Go outside! Look around! Go to some small village in Linnea's territory and see if anyone cared that I won. The average guy on the street doesn't care. Most of them don't, or were even better off before."

"Yeah, Ash, I think that's kind of because they didn't know any better," Brock said.

"And they won't know better," Ash said. "Now that a lot of them are dead! And her," he said, pointing to the girl. "She's probably gone already, and… she didn't deserve to die! I don't even know if I'm worthy. I can't control the Badges… and I think I know why now. Celera told me that the weak-willed can't use their powers. And the thing is, these problems have started ever since I beat Linnea, I haven't stopped feeling guilty. Someone like Emily wouldn't have worried like I have. I- I keep thinking, what would my mom think if she knew what I'd done since I got here? What would Professor Oak think? Heck, what would Team Rocket think, because they haven't done anything this bad?"

"Okay, Ash, first of all," Misty said. "You're not a bad person. Brock and I have known you since basically forever, and I bet there are over a hundred people around the world who would say that you are a good person."

"Plus, you cant' beat yourself up about feeling bad," Brock said. "Only a psychopath wouldn't feel bad about so many people dead. And you're not a psychopath."

"Ash, you've been stuck in some sort of weird land where apparently murder and theft are endorsed by the ruling authorities," Misty said. "Almost anyone could've got lost here- literally and morally- but you still have never done anything bad to anyone that you could've avoided."

"But that doesn't change the fact that indirectly everything happened because I was here," Ash said. "I never wanted to be here in the first place. But once I was here, well, what if I'd just stopped somewhere along the line? I know there was the deal with the grain and them not giving it to us, but Linnea was willing to make a deal for it if I signed their Accord."

"And then what would you do?" Brock asked. "Sit there for all eternity and leave Galea to the mercy of the other Gym Leaders? You would've just ended up like Wade did Ash, wanting to be good and to do something but you wouldn't be able to do it when the time came."

Ash thought about it, and the more that he did, he realized that in a way, he could see himself growing up to be Wade. It was actually quite remarkable really, how easily he could imagine himself in Wade's shoes, when day in and day out he'd be exposed to the harshness of Galean life and only able to change a part of it. It made him wonder… when Wade had started out fifty years ago as a Gym Leader, what had he wanted to do? What had he aspired for? And just what had made him support the other Gym Leaders?

"And what's important Ash?" Misty asked. "That one part of Galea is free, under you? Or that we free all of Galea and bring in a new era, huh? And anyway, we both know that no matter what happened, Ash, you wouldn't have given up on finding your friends. You could never abandon us."

"That's what makes you a dork," Brock said. "But you're our dork."

Ash let out a groan that seemed to be a cross between a sob and a chuckle. "Thanks guys."

Both Brock and Misty got on the bed to embrace him. "We'll be here for you Ash," Brock said.

"Yup," Misty said. "Always!"

"Pika pii!" Pikachu said and sent a mild shock across Ash's hand that travelled up his arm to his elbow and made him smile for some reason. When did Pikachu learn how to do that?

"So you could try smiling for once," Brock said.

Ash had to admit that if felt nice after all this time, having some people who really understood him and who he could talk to. Two minutes later though, he decided to address the Donphan in the room. 'Yeah, see guys, I can't really smile right now, I don't know if maybe you guys kind of forgot, but THERE'S A DEAD BODY ON THE FLOOR!"

"Yeah, that is pretty disturbing," Brock said. "And Gulliver isn't back yet. What's taken him so long?"

Gulliver had been delayed as there the motorboat they had rented was out of gas, and his Psyduck apparently didn't like swimming for some reason. He could've called someone from the phone in the cabin but sadly hadn't thought of that.


Forty-Five Years Ago...

The sun shined brightly outside, but little save darkness was there in the small house.

The man trudged home, passing through the surrounding fields. He had a worried, haggard face.

For sixteen generations, his family had passed down the small farm which was present on the outskirts of Constantinople. It was passed down from father to son traditionally.

The man once had a son.

The man entered his house, where he saw his wife setting up the meal. The meal always looked small to him, because he always expected a third person to be there.

"How was it?" his wife asked him.

"There is still no sign of him," the man said. "Lady Selena herself has tried looking- she cares for her students, but has come back empty-handed. He has perhaps gone to some other domain."

"I see," his wife said, looking even more crestfallen than she usually did. "Perhaps he will be happy where he is." The man didn't mention the more plausible alternative, that the boy was dead.

The meal was eaten without aplomb. There was some good news- the harvest was going very well, but neither of them smiled or laughed. Neither had smiled truly for the last ten years.

For they had once had a son.

The man then went and wandered the rooms throughout the house.

The sun shined brightly outside, but little save darkness was there in the small house.

The house was small, though it appeared huge to the man, for one person was absent from it.

He found himself in an unused room, which had been left untouched for so long the dust obscured everything. Tears fell down his face.

"My son! When will you return to me?" he cried out as regret tore through his heart.

A/N: Wow, this chapter turned a whole lot more depressing than I had planned.

aleking74, I fixed that mistake.

As a note here, I went back through the earlier chapters, Marley and Thomdolt's arc and noticed several mistakes and I spent some time cleaning them up, fixing up some things that contradicted what I wrote later, and then added a few lines (though the plot is still the same). So if you go through them and wonder why they're different, well that explains why.

Also, from now on it's going to be an update per week as before.

Thanks for reading, and do please review if you liked! Happy New Year everyone!