Paul paled when Brock spoke those words. Brock was always too clever for his own good.
"No, that isn't Ash," Paul stubbornly rejected. Dawn turned to look at him.
"Can't you tell him? You told me," Dawn said with a little pout.
Paul sighed, knowing what she was doing. Dawn always had a way to get to him. Paul weighed his options, not knowing what it was he should do. He definitely did not want to get on Ash's shit list, but knew he needed to tell the truth.
"Follow me Brock," Paul stated as he stood up. Brock, Dawn, and Paul all made their way down to Ash's locker room. Ash was getting himself situated with his belongings as his compatriots made their way to see him, plus Brock. Paul knocked a couple of times on the door, waiting for Ash to let them know they could enter.
"Come in!" The group heard the go ahead from the door, and Paul entered with Dawn and Brock close behind. Ash had returned his Ninjask and turned to face everyone.
"Paul, Dawn, excellent to see you both." Ash was cordial, yet curt, with both of them.
"Brock," Ash said upon seeing him. "I suppose you figured it out."
"I told you, you didn't try very hard," Paul spoke to Ash. "You know, you are most likely right Paul," Ash replied to his true friend.
"Ash, what happened to you? You just wiped the floor with Max without a care in the world. Do you not care about us?" Brock broke out. He couldn't keep it in. Tears tugged at his eyes.
"I did it to protect you, to protect them, all of you," Ash bitterly responded. "I did what was best for you all, and for me. I survived, and came back stronger than most trainers."
Paul put a hand in front of Brock, signaling that Brock needed to step back. "Ash did what he needed. When he's ready, he will explain."
Brock nodded. "I missed you, Ash. I just hope we can talk about what happened and be friends."
Ash gave a small, somber smile, "Brock, you'll always be a brother to me. I will tell you before anyone else. Even Dawn."
"Hey!"
Everyone gave a small laugh. Ash stuck his hand out. "I trust you, and things will get easier soon my friend."
Brock shook his hand, "I trust you too. I hope to see you soon Ash."
Brock made his exit. Ash talked over a few things with Paul and bid farewell to the couple before they left. Ash checked his pockets, making sure he had everything, then left. The arenas all shook with attacks colliding and titans falling. Trainers rose through the ranks, some fell out entirely. The day had been drawing to a close, and Ash was back at his encampment.
"Ninjask, can you check out the rustling?" The bug type nodded and quickly zoomed away. In what seemed like an instant, he returned. "Just some wild Pokemon? Invite them over! I want to meet them," Ash said with a grin. Ninjask gave a happy response and invited the other Pokemon out to visit. A Vullaby, a Bouffalant, and some Deerling came out, even a small Gligar. Ash smiled at his new found visitors.
"Hello there! I'm Ash, and this is Raichu," he greeted them. They all gave their greetings and soon mingled in with the camp. Ash called his Gliscor to meet the young Gligar; it was as if these wild ones were his own.
Ash invited them to eat with him, and they even spent the night there. Ash smiled as he began to fall asleep.
Well, he was going to fall asleep, but his senses were not at ease. There was a human somewhere, sticking themselves in a place they should not be. He got up with Raichu at his heel. Peering through the bushes, they saw a lilac haired trainer with an Espeon and Metagross by their side, just sitting at the edge of the nearby lake. Ash pondered on doing something, but just decided to watch.
Unfortunately, Anabel perked her head up and looked into Ash and Raichu's direction. "Shit", Ash felt he and Raichu were found out. His fears were confirmed when the bushes glowed blue and were moved away from the duo. Anabel's Metagross quickly made it's way over and threateningly loomed over Ash and Raichu.
"Hello, Tom," Anabel said with such rancor.
"H-hi Anabel, we were just getting ready for bed when we heard some noises. Guess it was you and your Pokemon," Ash said nervously.
Anabel's look of fury soon went as she soon looked ready to go to bed as exhaustion took over. "You're an enigma, you know?"
Ash gave a puzzled look as her Metagross backed off slightly. Espeon wandered up. The pure psychic type eyed Raichu. Raichu nervously looked away.
"What do you mean?" Ash asked.
"Well, you seem too familiar. Are you sure your name is Tom?" Anabel almost had an accusing tone. Espeon walked closer to Raichu. A small breeze wafted through. Espeon caught a certain scent. Her eyes widened as she remembered. Quickly, her trainer caught on before Ash could speak.
"It's you!" Anabel yelled out, causing a flock of Vullaby, Murkrow, and Noctowl to fly off into the dark night.
Ash tried to play dummy and gave her a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"
Anabel marched right up to him, staring into his amber eyes. Ash felt himself get nervous.
"Look, I don't know who you think I am. I'm Tom, from Celestic town. My partner has been Raichu since the very beginning."
Anabel continued to just look in his eyes, searching his soul for the truth. Ash took a step back, feeling Anabel's presence permeate his body.
"You, you just… Ugh!" Anabel threw her arms up in frustration and took a few steps away, turning to face away from Ash.
"Anabel?" Ash felt himself get worried. He took a step forward with an arm reached out.
"Don't lie to me. You're truly Ash, aren't you?" She turned to face him, tears were starting to well up in her lilac eyes.
Ash looked at her, wanting to spill out everything but his body dammed his mouth shut. Feeling his brain betray his heart, he nodded his head 'yes'.
"It is me, Anabel. It's been me, always here in front of you. I did what I had to do, and I'm not sorry for the choices I made with going away. But I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. Scott, Paul, they know. Scott found me, Paul has always known. Paul told Dawn because he can't say no to her for anything. I just told Brock today, and now you. So I guess this is, four? You're the fourth person to know."
Anabel just stood there, looking into his eyes. She felt a maelstrom in her head. Where did he go? What did he do? She suddenly felt what she needed to do.
"Battle me."
Ash merely looked at her. "What?"
"Battle me. Double battle, I will use Espeon and Metagross."
Ash did not argue as Anabel took several steps away before facing him again. "If you battle me, then I can make my choice."
Ash internally shrugged but nodded in agreement. "Alright, Raichu you're up. Eelektross, I choose you!"
Ash unleashed the floating eel to the right of Raichu. It had a fierce look on it's face, a noticeable scar on it's left eye.
"I figure if you're using two psychic types, I'll use two electric types." Ash felt confident, but he knew he would be facing Anabel in a much more difficult battle than in previous battles.
Suddenly, Metagross launched forward with a bullet punch attack. Anabel's eyes glowed pink. Ash smirked, his eyes glowing blue as Eelektross dodged underneath and retaliated with a quick flamethrower.
"I have my own tricks, and we are truly much better than we've been able to show. Don't disappoint us, old friend."
Metagross righted itself after Eelektross' attack. Raichu launched a quick thunderbolt which Eelektross combined with it's own thunderbolt. Espeon jumped on top of Metagross and put up a protect barrier.
Eelektross quickly switched to a flamethrower as Raichu raced forward, combining a quick attack with a volt tackle. Eelektross was pulsing his flamethrowers, trying to get Espeon away from Metagross to separate the two. Espeon launched several psychic attacks to counter and a few were able to strike the electric eel. Raichu was able to get a hit onto Metagross, who quickly struck back with a devastating meteor mash.
"Raichu!" Ash called out worriedly. Raichu shook his head and got back up. The clearing was already showing signs of an intense battle. Scorch marks were on Metagross' body as well as on trees and rocks. Branches were strewn and trees split from electric attacks.
Raichu quickly launched a thunder across to Espeon, who redirected the attack to Eelektross. The electric eel quickly used a protect as Metagross closed in with another meteor mash. Anabel could feel herself begin to sweat. Eelektross quickly dodges, hitting home with another flamethrower. Raichu then struck down with an iron tail, knocking Metagross into the dirt. Eelektross quickly followed with a thunderbolt onto the steel type as Raichu used quick attack on Espeon. The psychic type quickly retaliated with a shadow ball.
Metagross slowly got up, looking up at Eelektross. Animosity was growing between the two as Espeon and Raichu danced with each other, launching strong attacks at each other. thunderbolts and shadow balls, iron tails splitting psychic attacks. The two were taking serious damage from each other.
Ash suddenly got an idea, silently communicating with his two partners. Quickly, Eelektross and Raichu swapped targets. Raichu used quick attack to get over to Metagross, striking an iron tail right in the center body. Eelektross used a protect as it neared Espeon who was using psychic. Eelektross used a dragon claw to distract Espeon, before latching on with a crunch attack to deliver a devastating hit. Espeon cried out in pain, and then Eelektross used a massive thunder attack.
Raichu received another critical meteor mash, getting launched into another tree. Metagross then fired a flash cannon at Raichu who was barely able to dodge. Eelektross used a crush claw and using it's mouth and two pads, launched a critical discharge attack. Espeon could feel herself waning as Eelektross relentlessly attacked her. Fortunately, Metagross fared better against Raichu.
Using psychic, Espeon finally pried off Eelektross, launching him at Raichu. After taking a bullet punch, Raichu was starting to wear down. Eelektross felt the psychic attack, his defenses were not as good as Raichu. Espeon fared the worst out of everyone.
Anabel and Ash were panting, feeling their energies drained. "We aren't done yet, we're just getting started!" Ash said out. Raichu and Eelektross regrouped, ready to finish the battle.
"My friends and I are going to see this through. You haven't seen our strength yet!"
Ash could feel the dynamic change. He mentally gave a pep talk to his electric types. The pause did not last long as Espeon launched a Shadow Ball attack that was quickly followed by Metagross using Flash Cannon. Ash could see that Anabel was trying to separate Raichu and Eelektross. Ash came up with a counter quickly.
Eelektross slinked under the attacks and used crush claw on Metagross to latch itself onto the steel type. Raichu began using thunderbolt on Espeon to draw attention before using quick attack to zero in. Eelektross began alternating between thunder attacks and flamethrowers causing Metagross to roar in pain. Ash could sense the behemoth was wearing down.
On the other side of the clearing, Anabel knew that her Pokemon were in worse shape than Ash's. Whatever he did in his time missing, he certainly was keeping busy. Eelektross was relentless, enduring psychic attacks to keep unleashing the full throttle assault. She knew what his Raichu was capable of and it was showing, but it seems all of Ash's team is on that level.
Regardless, Anabel felt confident in her abilities as a trainer as well as her Pokemon to win.
Ash suddenly got an idea. After getting tossed aside from a psychic attack, Eelektross began to focus on Espeon. Metagross was shaken and had a hard time standing. Ash knew Metagross needed a breather and Espeon was certainly not under assault enough. So he decided to have Eelektross and Raichu target Espeon. With their speeds as well as Espeon's frail defenses, this would be quick work.
Eelektross launched a discharge that even whipped Metagross and Raichu remained unaffected. Espeon took the brunt of the damage while Raichu knocked her over with a quick attack. Eelektross then launched a flamethrower which Raichu mixed with a thunderbolt, delivering a powerful attack of energetic plasma. Espeon managed to dodge but the shockwave launched her. Metagross was zoning in on Eelektross with a meteor mash. Raichu managed to get Eelektross out of the way, but at the sacrifice of a large chunk of health. Eelektross followed up with a flamethrower on Metagross who dodged with a bullet punch and side struck Eelektross with a devastating meteor mash.
Ash wiped his brow. That was just dumb on his part. Realizing that Espeon was on her last legs and Metagross was on defense. Ash switched his target to the steel type. Eelektross launched a thunder while Raichu used an iron tail to lodge Metagross into the ground. Espeon did her best to use psychic to distract but she was so weak that they hardly did anything.
Anabel felt herself get weak. This was going on for far too long. She lent all of her strength to her friends. Unfortunately, a flamethrower and thunderbolt combo took out Metagross as Espeon merely collapsed from fatigue.
Suddenly, the battle was over. Raichu stood bloody and bruised, as Eelektross floated next to him with a large bruise on his spine. An intense feeling and look was emanating from the eel.
Anabel returned her Pokemon and looked up at Ash.
"It's really you, isn't it?" Anabel said in a hushed tone. Ash just merely nodded.
This was going to take a while.
AN: Promise I'm not dead, just sick. I'm still determined to finish these stories as best as I can. These will be seen to the end. Thank you for your patience. As always, read and review, I will see you all next time!