Awkwardly walks in, clears throat... Hey peeps! I'm back! If you aren't following my "updates" for this story, then this might be shocking to you, but I'm back to continuing this story...after a year. Hope you forgive me! I tried to get this out ASAP after I mentioned it on my "Updates" so hopefully, there aren't too many errors. If you don't remember the story I suggest you re-read/skim over it but without a further a do, here is the new, and long overdue, chapter!

p.s there might be some foul language so sorry if you're really sensitive to that kind of stuff.

Rain.

Lightning.

Thunder.

Lightning flashes, making the yellow mouse-type pokemon shudder. For an electric type, he was quite afraid of lightning. Within a second, a loud roar of thunder followed the strike and caused Pikachu to run to Ash in fear. Pikachu reaches the soaked trainer. Something was off. Pikachu could sense a terrifying aura. One that made Pikachu shudder even more than the lightning and thunder.

"Pika pi?"

No body movement. No verbal response. No...nothing. From what Pikachu could tell, Ash was gone. He wasn't in this world anymore, but another. One that not even Pikachu's strongest thunderbolt could retrieve him from.

"Pika! Pika chu pi!" Pikachu used its small paws and dug at him like a Lilipup asking for attention.

Pikachu knew he had to do something. He couldn't let his trainer stay out here.

Pikachu took two of Ash's fingers in his mouth. He gently, but firmly bit him. His hands were cold. Lifeless. Pikachu tried pulling him under the tree where Ash had originally told him to stay. To no avail, Ash didn't move an inch. Pikachu cried out for Ash. No response.

Pikachu didn't know what to do. Didn't know where to go. Didn't know how to feel. This wasn't Ash, it was the shell of him.

Soon enough, Pikachu left. He didn't want to disobey his trainer, his friend, but Pikachu knew that he had to find help. He used his electric abilities to try to communicate with Dedenne. A faint shock in response could be sensed. Pikachu slightly changed direction and followed it. With the storm going on, the current Pikachu picked up could well enough be a lightning strike, but Pikachu followed it, hoping that wasn't the case.

"Ash! Ash where are you!?" I cried out for the hundredth time. It's been an hour since Clemont, Bonnie, and I started looking for Ash.

None of us have found him. I want to break down and cry. What if something happened to him? His face when he left, it didn't look like Ash. It looked worse than the time in the snow covered forest, before...before he left for Kanto. Back then I had said he wasn't acting like the Ash I knew. But this time, on his face, I couldn't see him at all.

"Ash! Please! Don't leave! Don't lose yourself!" I cry out with all the strength I have.

If he loses himself. If he never returns to who he was. Will I be able to save him? The mere thought brings tears to my eyes. I begin to cry. Sobbing like a little child.

I start running, I need to find him before he's gone forever. It's getting hard to breathe. Crying and running isn't the best thing for me to be doing, but right now I don't think I can stop doing either.

It's getting hard to run. My boots are filled with rain water and make it feel like I have chains that are holding me back. Through my tear filled eyes, it's also getting harder to see. A lightning strike lights up the sky. I look up but the thunder that follows was sooner than I had expected.

Thrown off guard I slip. I catch myself with my arms to lessen the blow. At the same time, I heard a small thud and a cracking sound. I look up in panic.

"No no no no no!" In front of me was the walkie talkie that Clemont and Bonnie were using to keep in touch. I pick up the broken invention looking to see if there is any hope that it still works. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it will be serving any purpose anymore.

I pick myself up. I catch my breath and continue trudging my worn body through the rain.

"Uh, Clemont?" The blonde girl questions. "Serena's dot disappeared."

"What do you mean?" The inventor looks at the tracking device that he let his sister hold. She wasn't mistaken, Serena's dot did disappear. Clemont's face was a mix of confusion and worry.

"Clemont, is Serena alright?" Bonnie asked.

"Uh," Clemont wasn't sure if now was the time for truth or comfort. "I'm sure she's fine, but just in case, I think we should head in the basic direction that she was last in."

"Right!" Bonnie exclaimed.

Clemont took the device and set a waypoint to the position Bonnie said the dot was before it disappeared.

"Do you think Dedenne is worried about us?" Bonnie questions her brother again.

"I'm sure Dedenne is asleep and doesn't even know we left," Clemont said with a smile.

Bonnie giggled, "I guess you're right!"

The two continued to follow the waypoint, hoping that everything is going alright.

What a mess. If I'm right about my mom sending my friends after me, then, I know that they are out here. In another mess that I dragged them into. Another way for them to get hurt. All because I'm afraid to face reality.

I can't move. I can't see. I've fallen into darkness. It's like I'm floating in a void of emptiness that goes on forever, much like my dream when everyone I cared for was leaving me. When I tried to escape alone, I fell into a void, quite similar to what I'm in now.

I want to cry. I want someone to save me. I want to feel something other than this pain that's eating away at my heart. I want someone to comfort me. I want them to understand what I'm going through. I want someone to wrap me in their arms and tell me everything's okay.

But why? I don't understand why I feel this way. I can't stress this enough. It's like everytime things start to look better, I fall right back into a sea of hopelessness. I'm lost. I've lost all hope.

My mind can't choose an emotion. My father, why does he bring this feeling of anger? Why am I so angry?

Why doesn't it make sense? Why did he leave? More so, why did he come back into my life?

All my questions are making me frustrated. The more I think, the angrier I get.

I need to release these feelings, but I can't escape the grasp they have on my mind.

Serena senses something. Like, a presence that makes her skin crawl. A presence she's somewhat sensed before.

She follows it, like a wild pokemon following a scent.

"A-ash?" She calls out in question. No response. I know he's here... somewhere.

She keeps following the direction. Soon enough, there was a clearing.

There stood the image of the boy she was looking for.

It was Ash, soaked with rain, sitting up against a tree with a large hollow.

"Oh my gosh! Ash! I've been looking all over for you!" When there was no response she grew worried. She slowly approached him.

"Ash, are you okay?" She asked him now a few feet away. Again, there was no response. She reached out to touch his shoulder. Again, no response.

The rain seemed to slow down to a sprinkle, but at the same time lightning struck and the sound of thunder made Serena jump. She clutched Ash's arm.

"Ash please just return home, your Mom and Dad are waitin-" Serena was thrown off of Ash's arm and landed on her back a foot away from him.

A subtle voice arose from the previously frozen boy.

"Shut the fuck up."

"A-ash?" Serena could feel an immense cloud of anger lofting above him. "Whats got into you? As soon as your dad came home, you ran away. What's going on?! Why did you run away?"

Ash stands up with his face still covered by his hat. He steps closer to Serena. She begins to stand up but Ash grabs her shoulders and pins her to the ground. Serena can tell that it hurt him, but his strength was still too much for her to escape.

Serena was too stunned to speak. Her legs were trapped under his and her upper body was constrained by his hands. He lifted one hand back, ready to strike.

"I said, shut the fuck up!" Ash threw his hand at Serena. Serena closed her eyes waiting for it to land.

THUD.

The ground next to her shook. She looked in the direction and saw Ash's hand right next to her head.

He... missed? Serena thought.

Ash clenches the hand that was next to her face.

"What the hell do you know!?" Ash yells.

"I-" Serena is cut off by another outburst.

"You wouldn't understand Serena! You don't know what its like, after SIXTEEN FUCKING YEARS, to see your 'Dad' for the first time! To know that I was probably the reason for him to leave! MY VERY EXISTENCE SERENA! YOU HEAR THAT!? That was the reason he left my mother, the reason he is who he is right now!" Ash clenches Serena's shoulder harder.

"So, you want to know the reason I ran away?! It's because none of you know what it's like to have your father avoid you for your whole damn life!" Ash was crying now. His tears fell from his eyes onto Serena's cheeks.

"Don't be so ignorant," Serena spoke up. Ash's hat fell off of his head and landed above Serena's. Her tone made him freeze. He finally looked up to Serena's face. She had tears running from her eyes.

"You say I don't understand. You say that, but you don't even know the beginning of it." Serena says calmly but Ash can feel her body trembling. Ash wanted to argue but something about her words made him stop. His tears stopped flowing but Serena's words didn't.

"Ash, I've never met my dad," thunder roars in the distance.

Ash's eyes widen, though what Serena says next surprised him even more.

"And I never will." Serena continued.

"W-why? Why won't you ever see him again?" Ash questions. He starts to feel a pain in his heart but, it's not anger this time, it's guilt.

"Because, Ash," Serena makes direct eye contact. Her eyes are fierce, cutting deep into him. "He's dead, and I'm the one who killed him."

Coming back after a year of no updates, just to leave you guys on this kind of cliff hanger... I truly am cruel, aren't I? But to no worries, the finale of the "Birthday Suprise " chapter arc will be posted sometime this weekend. This'll give time for those of you who want to re-read the story to get all caught up just in time for the finale. I'm not gonna spoil anything, but let's just say that there is sooooo gonna be some amourshipping moments!

I tried to make this chapter as smooth as possible to make it seem like I never left!

Sooo, tell me if you have any predictions for the finale and your thoughts on the chap!

If you have questions leave them in the review section(if you're a guest, please have some sort of name for me to recognize you by).

See you all soon! Luv you all! XD

ALSS signing out!