Serena eventually found her way to the Ketchum residence. Despite only visiting it once, it was a relief to see it. It looked largely untouched by time. There was a Mr Mime tending the garden. The house looked the same and Serena knew that Mrs Ketchum was inside. All that was missing was an excited Ash running up the path to show off his latest achievement. Serena sighed and took a steadying breath before going up to the door and knocking. Mrs Ketchum answered the door. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her face a little pale. She had clearly been crying. Team Rocket's appearance obviously stirred up some painful memories. "Hi, Mrs Ketchum… How are you?" Serena asked gently. Delia frowned and then her eyes widened. "Serena?" she asked uncertainly. Serena nodded reassuringly. She was trying to be there for Mrs Ketchum as Aria had been there for her before. "It's wonderful to see you. Please come in," Mrs Ketchum continued, clearly happy to see Serena and led Serena into the living room. "Can I get you anything?" Mrs Ketchum offered. Serena gave Mrs Ketchum a small smile but shook her head. "No, I came to see if Misty was here," Serena informed her. Delia nodded and told her that Misty was upstairs. Serena guessed that Delia meant in Ash's room as she could see fresh tears welling in Delia's eyes. Mrs Ketchum quickly excused herself to the kitchen and Serena sadly watched her go. Delia was clearly broken without Ash. Serena then went upstairs.

She remembered the way to Ash's room and knocked on the slightly ajar door. She saw Misty sitting on the bed with a hat in her hands lost in her thoughts. It wasn't one that Serena had seen Ash wear but she could see that it meant a lot to Misty. Serena sat next to Misty and waited for Misty to acknowledge her. Serena looked around the room. It was exactly as she remembered it. The dresser was covered with prizes including the Orange Islands league trophy and the Kalos League trophy. There were pictures framed on the walls now. She recognised the one with her, Ash, Pikachu, Korrina, Clemont and Bonnie. But there were others. There was one with Ash, Pikachu, Misty and an older boy that Serena guessed was Brock and another boy that had fallen. She saw a picture with Ash, Pikachu and a boy that looked a lot like a waiter and a girl with big bushy hair. She saw a picture with Ash, Pikachu, a guy, who she assumed was Brock, a girl and a younger boy that could only be her younger brother. There was a picture with Ash, Pikachu, Brock and another girl with a blue penguin Pokémon Serena had never seen before. And finally there was a picture with Ash and his mother. Serena noticed that Ash was a lot younger in this picture and there was no sign of Pikachu. Serena realised that Ash's room had become a memorial to him. This room had been left untouched as a way of remembering him.

Serena realised that Misty wasn't going to speak first. Serena had noticed that Misty had kept back certain things when she had explained what had happened and thought this was the best opportunity she had to learn the truth or at least the rest of the truth. "Misty, what happened to Ash?" she asked softly. Misty looked at Serena angrily but almost immediately sighed in resignation. "You saw then," Misty replied. Serena nodded slightly, calmly waiting.

(The next bit is about the day Ash died from Misty's point of view)

Misty walked up to Professor Oak's lab. It had been a while since she had last seen Ash. She was excited to see him but she was also upset at the circumstances, Mrs Ketchum had told her. She knocked on the door and Tracey answered the door. "Hey Misty, here to see Ash?" Tracey greeted Misty. They saw each other regularly as Cerulean City wasn't too far away. Tracey led her out the back as he told her what had happened in detail. She spotted Ash almost instantly. He was talking to his flying types. Misty noticed the soot on Ash's shoulders and realised that Charizard still loved to use its flamethrower on Ash. Pikachu was first to notice Misty and he left Ash's side and ran over to her happily. Pikachu had always had a soft spot for her. He leapt into her arms and rubbed into her face "Chaaa," he exclaimed happily. Ash heard Pikachu and saw Misty. He smiled broadly and motioned for her to come over. She obliged. Pikachu jumped out of her arms and up onto Ash's shoulder.

"Hey Mist… did Tracey tell you what happened?" Ash asked. Misty nodded. She motioned to his flying types. "Tracey told me you've been looking around for her. You do know that Celebi probably took Serena to the future or the past?" Misty reminded him. "I know that, but looking makes me feel better. I'm not good at sitting around and waiting. Besides Celebi could have brought her back and she's lost. She doesn't know her way around Pallet Town," Ash replied defensively. Misty shook her head and smiled. Same old Ash. "Okay, why don't we all look? We can cover more ground that way," Misty suggested. Ash smiled and sent his flying types off to look. Then they split up and started looking. Professor Oak and Kurt were busy working on the GS ball. Kurt had suggested that perhaps the GS ball was different because it held a Celebi meaning it had to be able to counteract Celebi's ability to time travel.

It was getting late and everyone was starting to get hungry. Misty glanced at her phone and noticed that it was already two in the afternoon. She shrugged and decided that she should probably head back to the lab. Misty spotted Ash's Bayleef through the trees and smiled. Ash's Pokémon had willingly joined the search. Then the silence of the forest was disturbed. A huge explosion sounded in the distance. Misty sprinted towards it. Anything could have happened, it could be Serena or it could mean one of her friends or Ash's Pokémon was in trouble. As she ran she could hear voices. "Surrender now, or prepare to fight!" a male voice recited. "Meowth, that's right!" a Meowth concluded. "Pikapi!" Pikachu called, clearly frightened. "Give me back Pikachu now!" Ash growled angrily. Misty ran into a clearing and saw Team Rocket sneering at Ash from their hot air balloon with Pikachu in a glass container. "Yeah, like that's going to happen," Jessie laughed. Then the balloon began to float away and Ash gave chase. Misty followed quickly behind with Bayleef who had followed her.

Then a streak of blue passed them and slowed to Ash's pace. It was his Greninja. Ash nodded to Greninja meaningfully and Greninja sprinted ahead slightly and became engulfed in water. Misty had seen Greninja transform on television from watching the Kalos league but it was different in person. Within seconds Greninja had changed and had a massive water shuriken on its back. Ash called to Greninja to use its water shuriken and they both reached over their shoulders to fling the shuriken at Team Rocket. Team Rocket laughed and Meowth pulled out a remote and punched a button and the balloon sprouted miniature rockets and sped up considerably causing the shuriken to miss.

Misty spotted the cliff and called out to Ash. He stopped just before he went over the edge. Greninja jumped after the balloon and Ash shouted for Greninja to use Aerial Ace. Jessie pulled a rocket launcher up out of the basket and fire it at Greninja. Greninja dodged it and flipped back on to the ledge directly behind Ash. Except the rocket continued on its path and hit the cliff directly beneath Ash's feet and caused it to crumble. "Pika!" Pikachu tried to warn its friend but it was too late. Ash realised in horror that the ledge beneath his feet was gone and fell down the cliff in the growing landslide. Misty watched in terror, froze in place. Bayleef and Greninja ran to the edge and fired vine whip and its tongue respectively but they missed Ash and then Greninja collapsed. Team Rocket continued to float away, stunned by what they had caused. They may have hated Ash but they didn't want him dead. "Pikapi! Pikapi!" Pikachu screamed as the balloon disappeared from sight, desperate for Ash to call out that he was fine, and that he was coming like he always did.

At that moment Tracey arrived and saw Misty, who still hadn't moved. He saw Greninja passed out at the edge of the cliff and went up to Misty. "Misty what happened? What happened to Greninja?" Tracey asked softly, gently coaxing her out of her trance. "Team Rocket stole Pikachu… Ash… Ash went over the edge," Misty managed to say softly. Tracey's eyes widened and he rushed to look over the edge and saw the remains of the massive landslide. He pulled Greninja and a frozen Bayleef away from the possibly unstable cliff edge and ran to get help. Within an hour, most of the town were moving the rumble that trapped Ash. It was almost nightfall before they found him. He was a pitiful sight. His clothes were torn and bloodied. His hat was missing. His head had slightly caved in and one of his arms was completely crushed. He was cold to the touch. He was gone.

So… that's how it happened.

This was originally chapter seven but I messed up when I was publishing the story. So sorry, I didn't notice this until now. But if anyone's interested, it's up now.

After this little note, it's what ended up being chapter seven.

Serena listened to Misty silently. After Misty had finished she burst into tears. Misty had only told this story in full a handful of times and it was never easy describing her friend's last moments. Serena allowed Misty to regain her composure. "What happened afterwards?" Serena whispered. Misty sniffled. "We told Officer Jenny what happened and all of Ash's friends were told what happened. The funeral was a week later. One by one everyone left to continue their lives. Brock went back to school to become a Pokémon doctor. Cilan went back to Unova to study to be a better Pokémon connoisseur. Iris went to Blackthorn City in Johto to study with Clair. May and Dawn grew really close and started travelling together, going to compete in contests. Clemont and Bonnie went back to Kalos. Max went home to Petalburg City. And I went back to my gym. But it was too hard. When I took over the gym I wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do and what kept me going was the confidence Ash had always had in me. With him gone… I wasn't so sure anymore. Challengers scared me. Especially the ones that reminded me of Ash. One particular trainer had called me pathetic after I lost against their Pikachu. And they were right. I quit pretty much directly afterwards. I started travelling through Kanto again. Then one day I came across a couple of Team Rocket operatives. I was so angry that I stopped them from stealing any Pokémon they went after and I vowed that I would get Pikachu back. For Ash," Misty explained. As she talked Misty changed from the despairing sobbing girl into a hardened, angry one. Serena realised that Misty had had strong feelings for Ash, maybe not love exactly but certainly strong feelings.

Serena waited a short time before clearing her throat. "Misty… er Gary is back and he asked me to find you and ask you to come back to the lab," Serena informed Misty slowly. Misty looked at Serena. "What for?" she asked suspiciously. Serena shook her head with a shrug. She didn't know. Gary hadn't told her why. "Alright, just let me put this back," Misty decided. Misty reverently placed the hat back in the wardrobe alongside three others. Serena noticed that the hat Ash wore in Kalos wasn't there. Together, the girls walked through the town again and returned to the research lab.

"Thanks for coming Misty," Gary greeted her as they all sat in the living room. There was tea and sandwiches on a tray in front of them but no one paid attention to it. Serena noticed the Meowth and saw it was very wary of her. Gary noticed this also. "Serena, this is Meowth. He used to work for Team Rocket," Gary began. Serena's eyes changed from confusion to outrage. She couldn't understand. If this was Team Rocket's Meowth then what was it doing here. "Meowth helps with my research now. He's sorry for what happened and left Team Rocket after what happened to Ash," Gary continued seeing Serena's expression and tried to calm her down. Meowth walked up to Gary and held a hand out to motion that he would take over. "Serena," Meowth began. Serena was shocked by this alone as she had never heard the Pokémon say her name instead of twerpette. "We… I never wanted to hurt Ash before. We were just thieves and admittedly not very good thieves at that. When we took Pikachu to our Boss and told him what happened, he didn't care. He ordered us to go on another mission. After a while, James, Jessie and me all started to drift apart. Jessie's temper got worse. James became her punching bag and he soon left, unable to cope. The last I heard he was getting married to Jessebelle. Well… when James left, Jessie and me started arguing constantly and I had had enough. I decided that Pikachu didn't deserve what happened to it and I tried to help it. But I was caught and thrown out of Team Rocket. Shortly after that I met Gary and he offered me a chance to make up for what I'd done," Meowth explained. Serena had to admit to herself that Meowth did seem different. He was less gruff and almost seemed to care what Serena thought about him.

Meowth noticed the fight leave Serena and nodded to Gary. Meowth had always had a way with words. Gary took a breath and prepared to say what he had planned. "What would you say if there might be a way of saving Ash?" Gary asked carefully. Tracey looked at Gary dumbstruck and Serena was confused. Misty however was shocked and angry. "There isn't a way! You can't change the past!" Misty exclaimed angrily. She couldn't believe that Gary would say something like that. But Gary just looked at her serenely. "But it isn't all of our pasts," he countered and motioned to Serena. Misty and Tracey looked at Serena confused. Serena began to feel a little uncomfortable. "I've been waiting for Serena to return. I knew it would happen sooner or later, I just had to bide my time. Celebi is the key to saving Ash," Gary elaborated.

Serena scowled. "How can I save Ash? I was told I never went back. Celebi was stolen and we have no idea where it is," Serena interjected before Gary could continue. Gary simply smiled. "Then we just have to find Celebi before it's too late," Gary replied. Misty frowned. "Too late?" she repeated. Gary nodded seriously. "Yes, as soon as I heard what happened with Ash I started researching Celebi and time. Professor Rowan was a great help. He was and still is an expert on Dialga and Palkia the time and space Pokémon of Sinnoh. I learned that time isn't as fixed as people think. Think about it, we can't change the past but we can create the future. If we can make it that the past hasn't happened yet then we can change things. By which I mean, by going into the past then the future or our current present can be altered. But in order for that to work we'd need to be able to time travel and that is only possible with Dialga or Celebi," Gary began to explain. "That doesn't explain what you meant by "too late"" Misty interrupted.

Gary nodded slowly. "Like I was saying, I started researching Celebi and I learned that while Celebi can time travel, there are certain restrictions. Celebi can travel forward and back in time but the Celebi has to return to the time it left before it can time travel to another time. That means that the Celebi that brought Serena to our time can only time travel back to when Ash died… but there is a slight catch. Time continues to move. Celebi is bound to return to the time it left but it is also bound by the amount of time it spends in the future or past. So for example if a Celebi time travels five years into the past and spends three days in that time period, then when it returns to the present, three days will have passed. So Serena left the day before the landslide… we have to get her back to her time before the time of the landslide tomorrow. Also Celebi can only travel through time, not through space meaning Celebi will time travel to the spot it's in only in the past or the future. So we have to make sure that Serena can get to the cliff before the time of the landslide also. If we can manage all that… well then we can stop Ash ever going over the cliff edge and maybe, just maybe Team Rocket will never take over and everything won't turn out like this," Gary concluded patiently. Everyone was silent. "Gary… I never realised that you had thought about this," Tracey murmured softly. Gary looked slightly hurt. "Look, I know Ash and I didn't always see eye to eye but I did and still do care about him. We were friends long before we were rivals," Gary admitted quietly.

You all probably guessed that something like this might happen. I don't know if everything I've said about Celebi and time travel is true. This is something I made up as I needed there to be a deadline and for it to play out like it does at the end. So yeah I already have the ending. I also wanted Meowth there for reasons you'll see in the next chapter.

So until the next chapter…