A/N: Thanks for your reviews. Hall Gowrt, kind of too late for me to change that now. So sorry about that.

Ash panted. "Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to give out Fearow to Gulliver."

"Pika pi pii," Pikachu muttered.

"Yeah, well, I'd want Charizard to be here too, but he decided to fly off for a bit. I think he's back in Charizard Valley," Ash said. "Guess we'll just have to go the long way then."

The ocean simmered while reflecting the sky above him. Across the shores was Constantinople- but he was going to be late for the meeting he had set up at this pace.

"Go! Greninja!" Ash said and released his Greninja.

Ash had sort of wondered about whether or not Greninja, too, would wander off like Charizard had, but for the time being Greninja was apparently okay with being with Ash for now.

Ash and Greninja raced over the waves as he left the island and watched the sun begin its descent towards the horizon. He knew that if he kept on surfing past the island he would end up in Kalos- but that would take several weeks with the distance between the two.

There was no doubt that he was late as he finally reached the coast. Celera was there, waiting for him, and tapping her hip disapprovingly.

"Late," she said.

"I didn't know that you were waiting for me- how'd you know I was going to come here?" Ash asked.

"You don't exactly have a plane or Flying type Pokemon with you, and your Greninja is distinctive enough so that I could tell the guards what to watch out for," she said.

Ash returned Greninja to his Poke Ball and said, "Uh, so how's Emily doing?"

Immediately he realized this was the wrong thing to say as Celera seemed to get even angrier. She had gotten pretty angry once she realized that her sister had gone ahead and tried to kill every single person on Galea. It wasn't until Mr. Jennings and Gregor had convinced her to just meet up with her once that she agreed to even see her face again.

"Can you believe her? For one- after all this time, she had no explanation for why she did all of that," Celera said. "She just smiled at me and patted me on the head like I'm some sort of lost puppy and just said that I wouldn't understand, and she didn't even seem to bother to look happy to see me! And she was always like that, mind you, even before she sent Galea into limbo, as if she didn't think I was important anymore. I tried having a conversation with her and we couldn't go anywhere- we are practically strangers now."

"Well, that's, uh, awful," Ash muttered.

Most people, Celera included, really didn't seem to 'get' why the Elite Four had done what they had done, mainly because, Ash thought, they hadn't felt Arceus' rage like the Elite Four had.

"You can bet it is," Celera said. The two of them began walking towards what had once been Selena's palace. Lots of people noticed them as they passed by and bowed to them.

It was something that Ash felt he had gotten a bit too used to at this point, and was one reason that he couldn't imagine leaving Galea. It kind of did bruise him on the inside to realize that he had become so used to power and being treated like a feudal lord he would have trouble adapting to a world where his presence didn't carry so much weight.

Could he really ever go back now? His mother would probably be very disappointed in him- as would his other friends like Brock and Misty, if they saw what was slowly happening to him. Of course, Celera and Gulliver would probably consider how Ash acted as pretty tame by comparison of the other Gym Leaders.

But Ash also knew that that wasn't the kind of person he'd want to grow up to be. He was pretty sure that if kept living in Galea- that power would eventually go to his head.

"So, well, I mean it's hard to hear about your sister," Ash said.

"And to think that I went through all of that just because I thought she was right…" Celera said gloomily. Now that the anger was gone, her demeanor was pretty downcast.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll get better with each other if you try," Ash reassured her.

"Pika pi," Pikachu said.

"Thank you, Pikachu," Celera said.

"…You can understand what he's saying?" Ash asked.

"No," Celera said with a faint smile. "But I suppose he was trying to cheer me up, so it seemed polite to answer like that."

They continued to walk in silence as some burning thoughts swelled up in Ash's mind. Part of him told him to remain quiet- it was not exactly his business regarding what was going on between Emily and Celera. But then again, Ash couldn't help but feel that he needed to say something.

"Okay, here's what I think," Ash burst out. "Look- I don't know what's going on between the two of you, because I don't think any other two sibling in history have ever gone through stuff like that, but she's your sister- and you fought for over thirty two years just so that you could be together. And look- what's happened to Mr. Jennings? He went to go spend time with his granddaughter, because he said he was so old he wanted to be with his family. So, it's like that."

"Are you calling me old?" Celera asked.

"No, that's not the point,' Ash said. "The point is that you shouldn't give up so easily when you're confronted with this- go back to her and try to talk things over once. I'm sure deep down inside, at heart she's still the same person you looked up to."

Celera looked at Ash warily. "You seem to be excited today."

"Yeah, just thinking about some… things," Ash said.

"Well, I guess it is my fault really," Celera said. "I never should have had such high expectations- she was never very cordial to me even before all that happened."

They climbed the stairs to reach the main hallway, where Ash could see that there was a huge banquet set up.

"Look who's finally here!" Brock said.

Pikachu bounded up to the table and began nibbling on the desserts. And he wasn't the only one of Ash's Pokemon there.

"Charizard! If you were gonna fly all the way over here, don't you think you should've gone and tried to pick me up? I could've been on time," Ash said.

Charizard shrugged and tossed another truffle into his mouth.

"Don't blame him for you being a slacker," Gary said as he stepped from out behind Charizard and tapped the Pokemon on its leg. "Thing is that he just appeared near Gramp's lab where I was working and seemed to want to go back, so, well, I came."

"Good to see you're back," Ash said. "Where's Misty?"

"Out on a stroll," Gulliver explained.

"I would just like to ask you, what did Phineas ask you for?" Duke Hamnet asked. He was dressed the most pompously in the room- and had dark circles under his eyes. Trying to do his own job and filling in for Mr. Jennings as well was clearly taking a toll on him while Ash worked to find a replacement.

"Eh, he basically just wanted to get to know if I was staying here or leaving," Ash said.

"Oh, and while I was in Kanto, I met up with Lance," Gary said. "He said the Pokemon League wants to finalize an official treaty with Galea. So that's Kanto down- after that the other regions should follow."

"Great," Ash said.

"So what'd you tell him?" Brock asked. "Are you staying here… or are you leaving?"

There was pin drop silence at that time as everyone waited for Ash's answer.

"Uh, not sure really," Ash said. As he had watched Duke Hamnet, he couldn't help but feel that if he left, he would not exactly be leaving power in the most unscrupulous hands. And it got him thinking- Phineas was doing pretty well despite having virtually unlimited power. Maybe he could stay normal too if he still chose to be in Galea. But was it what he really wanted?

He glanced at his Pikachu. He had set out to become a Pokemon Master- but he had always told himself it would mean beating a League Championship. Not just that- but to be the strongest in the world. And it was still there, the desire to just go out and walk into a patch of grass to see what kind of Pokemon he would encounter. He could feel the thrill deep down in his heart.

But was that all he would do? Was that all that would be his life forever? It sounded like a dream come true to just wander around forever. But at the same point there seemed to be something very off with that.

"Hey- tell you what," Gary said, interrupting his chain of thought. "Remember you wanted a battle? Let's have one- and if you lose, you'll be coming with me back to Kanto. Win, and you decide."

Ash could tell that Gary was joking, but he smiled nonetheless. "You know, why not? Just know that I won't lose."

His Charizard brushed the crumbs off its belly and Gary sent out his Blastoise. "How about one-on-one? I still need to repay you for the that time in the Johto League."

"Yeah, I remember that fight," Ash said.

The others kind of protested, but Ash and Gary found themselves some open space in the courtyard and stood facing each other.

Thing was, no matter what happened, Ash was sure that he would regret it. He would constantly think of what would've happened if he chose differently.

"Ready?" Gary asked.

Ash smiled. This wasn't even really about his choice- he just wanted to battle one last time.

"Go! Charizard!'

"Go! Blastoise!"

A/N: That's the ending.

Again, thank you so much for reading up till now. If you still have questions about the plot or want to comment something, feel free to PM me.

Again, one last thank you.