"So, Ash, what did you think of battling?" Max asked, as their boat pulled out of Sootopolis harbour. "You've done a Contest and a Gym Battle now, right?"
"Hmm," Ash frowned, thinking. "I guess…"
He paused, thinking about both Lilycove and Sootopolis, and how it had gone each time.
"I think… it's hard to tell?" he said. "Because I was definitely feeling kind of panicked and overworked during the Sootopolis battle, I was having to battle and do the strategy at the same time, and it really pointed out how much having a trainer helps a Pokémon to battle okay."
He shrugged. "So I'm not sure if that's why I coped better with Lilycove. It was interesting to see how much Juan was doing Contest battle things alongside his Gym battle things, though, if that counts."
"Huh, that is a unique perspective," Max said, glancing up at Swablu. "That means if you or Ralts ever battle, I'll have to do my best to give you the instructions you need!"
Swablu chirped her assent.
"So… where are we going now, actually?" Latias asked. "I've been with you for all of Hoenn, but I think I joined just after you'd won your eighth Johto badge?"
"That's right," Ash confirmed. "I think it's a few… months? Before the Hoenn League happens, and a lot of that will be training, but we do have May's next Contest to get to. And I don't think this boat is going directly there, either."
"That's right, there isn't a boat going directly to Pacifidlog," Max told them. "I helped Brock check the schedules – there's a couple of stop-offs on the way to Pacifidlog, then… not far from there, I think it's a few islands over, there's a place where the SS St. Flower stops off en route to Slateport. So we can take that and get to Slateport in time for the Grand Festival, because that's exactly what the SS St. Flower is for."
"Huh," Ash said. "That's neat… they didn't do that for the Indigo Conference or the Silver Conference. Do they do that for the Ever Grande Conference?"
"Not that we noticed," Max shrugged. "I guess we're going there the normal way… whatever that is. Hire a boat, I guess."
"Or…" Ash frowned, thinking, then shook his head. "That probably depends on whether Miraidon has a flight mode, and if they're both interested, but if they are then Latias and I might be able to tow Koraidon and Miraidon and that way we wouldn't need a boat."
He shrugged. "It's an option?"
"Though I bet there's a lot of people heading from the Grand Festival to the Pokémon League, even if they're just spectators," Pikachu said. "We should be fine."
On the first island they stopped off at, Ash made sure he had his whole Hoenn team available, plus Unown, and then they all went to the beach.
Octillery promptly began exchanging attacks with Snorunt, teaching her teammate how to refine his targeting to hit very specific targets, which was absolutely not an excuse for the two of them to occasionally bean someone with an Octazooka.
Ralts began working on his Teleport, trying to surprise Absol, which worked out to be quite easy because Absol was Absol and Ralts's Psychic was completely ineffective so it didn't even blip his danger senses. Marshtomp got back to training to improve his Water attacks despite Koraidon's Sunny Day beating down around them, Grovyle and Swellow worked on Extremespeed… it was a day for relaxing and working on whatever you wanted to work on, and all the Pokémon were doing just that.
Max, meanwhile, was building a large sandcastle. And Ash was… going to experiment.
"Do you think it counts as surfing, without a board?" May asked.
"I'm not sure," Ash replied, then smiled at a spa-loosh as Koraidon went diving. "But I guess it's going to be interesting to see if it works."
He picked up the Rain Badge, changing Type, then trotted out to the edge of the water. Whatever was letting him just stand on the surface of the water promptly turned out to work a bit differently from his flying, since with flight he could just hover there but with water-walking the movement of the water under his hooves actually dragged him along.
The first time he tried walking out onto a wave backwash, he nearly fell over and then got tripped as the next wave-swash swept his hooves out from under him.
"I'm sorry!" Latias said, wincing, as she tried to avoid breaking out into gales of laughter.
Her attempt was unsuccessful.
After a few hours of experiments, during which Ash got wet several times and Latias towed him out almost as many times, he'd worked out how to not only stand on the water but to let his hooves sink slightly – or let a wave that was coming in raise him up slightly, instead of knocking him over.
He also got quite good at swimming.
From there, he moved on to being able to ride an incoming wave, and even though not having a board did make it harder – presumably – he was still able to balance and move along a bit, at least so long as he didn't try anything too drastic.
"So, do you think you know Surf now?" Pikachu called.
"I'm not sure," Ash replied. "I guess I was surfing, probably, and if you mean the going-across-the-sea bit, maybe, but I can't shoot lots of water."
"True," Pikachu allowed.
He stretched. "Actually, now you've learned a lot about how to do it, can you still do it if you switch Types? Like how you can still Flamethrower even when you're not Fire-typed."
"Let's find out," Ash decided. "Latias, can you take this?"
He held out his hoof, and Latias took the Rain Badge.
The moment the exchange happened, Ash dropped three feet into the water, made a sort of yelping noise, then fell over.
"Ash!" Latias said, quickly putting the badge on his ring as the first thing she thought of, and Ash struggled back upright.
"So, I learned a new thing I can do when I'm Water-type," he said. "Breathe underwater, apparently."
"I sort of wish you'd found out a different way, but, good to know," Pikachu said. "Why didn't you come into the shallows first?"
"I… didn't think of it," Ash admitted.
Then a green shape appeared out of the water.
"Ash," Rayquaza said, looking quite pleased with himself as everyone jumped. "I saw you and wanted to say hello, but I realized that it would probably draw attention if I flew down to meet you. Instead I entered the sea a long way away and swam underwater."
"Whoa," Ash replied, seriously impressed, then rose up to the level of the water. "And… yeah, thanks. For thinking of that."
Rayquaza looked even more pleased with himself, and lifted enough of himself out of the water that his forearms emerged.
Then he and Ash just sort of looked awkward for a bit.
"How have you been?" the Sky High Pokémon asked, eventually. "How is Miraidon doing?"
"Both Koraidon and Miraidon have been doing great," Ash said. "They're over there – and – it still sounds odd to me, but I've accepted that they are my children. In a… weird way, but in the way that actually matters."
He shook his head. "I'm still a kid myself who doesn't really know how to deal with this, but… I'm trying."
"You are definitely trying, Ash," Rayquaza replied. "And you are succeeding."
Another awkward pause ensued, for a moment, then Ash decided he was going to do something to break it.
"I think Koraidon is Fighting and Dragon type," he said. "And Miraidon is Electric and Dragon type. Koraidon got hit by a Fairy attack during one of her gym battles and it really hurt, and Miraidon's… more obvious. And they both had a Gym Battle just yesterday, and they won!"
"We're helping!" Koraidon said, swimming over. "And Dad helped win his own gym battle yesterday, too! That's why he can walk on water now, it was a water badge."
"Did you meet anyone else?" Ash asked, as the thought occurred to him. "Any of our… brothers and sisters, I guess."
"I did not," Rayquaza replied. "Most of them are quite busy, and so am I. Were you hoping I had?"
"It's not a problem," Ash hurried to clarify, shaking his head. "I just… was curious. Because I met Groudon and Kyogre not long after I met you. Two – two groups of criminals had imprisoned them, and when they got broken out again they each assumed the other was responsible."
"That sounds like them," Rayquaza said, with a sort of groan. "Half my job is stopping them having arguments."
Ash tried not to giggle. "Then – uh, then I told them to stop fighting, and I had Unown and Koraidon and Miraidon with me. And… they thought I was Dad, we think, and they both ran away."
Rayquaza stared.
Then started sniggering.
That turned into laughter, and his laughter made the sea ripple around him, and it was so infectious that Ash started laughing as well.
"I truly wish I had seen it, Ash," he said. "Oh, that is marvellous."
"You are the only trainer I've actually had a chance to talk to," Rayquaza said, a little later.
Brock had handed out snacks for everyone, even managing to provide something that let Rayquaza feel included, and the green dragon had hauled himself half out of the water to enjoy it.
"So… I have to ask," Rayquaza went on. "What is the Gym challenge? I've heard of it occasionally, but I was never able to ask."
Ash began to speak, then stopped, trying to think about how to explain it.
His brother hadn't grown up knowing what the League was, because… really, the Pokémon League wasn't very old. Not to Rayquaza, at least, even though it was a lot older than Ash.
"I… don't really know the history of it, not well," he admitted. "But the way it works now is that a lot of people set out on journeys when they're ten years old or so, with their first Pokémon, and one of the things they can do is challenge the gyms. There's at least eight gyms in most regions, like Kanto or Johto or here in Hoenn, and… well, they get harder the more of them you do."
"I'm a Gym Leader myself, though my family is running the gym at the moment," Brock contributed. "The challenge actually depends on how many badges you've already got. It's supposed to make it so it's easy to win your first badge if you know the basics, but it's harder and harder to win each one."
"Right," Ash agreed. "And most people don't get eight badges, but if you do get eight in the same region you can go and take part in the Pokémon League."
"It's so easy to forget that," Max admitted. "Even though I knew it. The bit about most people not getting eight badges, I mean."
He waved at Ash. "Because you have, and you're the one we're travelling with."
"I know," Ash said. "It is hard to remember that. But… most people don't do that, most people stop partway through or don't do it at all, I guess? It's just… what I've always wanted to do, and I've been doing it, and it's what my Pokémon and I enjoy."
He resumed. "Then for the Pokémon League, it's a tournament between lots of trainers who've all won eight badges, and the winner gets a chance to challenge the Elite Four. They're four really strong trainers, and then there's the region Champion who's even stronger."
"And they're nice, right?" Koraidon asked. "We've met two champions! And that Drake person was nice, too, he was one of the Elite Four."
"Koraidon's right, yeah," Ash nodded. "Lance and Steven were both really nice."
"So… it is a battle to see who is the best at battling," Rayquaza summarized. "A test of skill."
"That's about right, yeah, but it's skill and strength and some other things," Ash replied. "And – I think I'm doing the right thing by doing it, because I've been getting badges from it and when I get them they seem to make me react like they're plates."
Rayquaza hesitated, then nodded, but Ash had already remembered something.
"Do you know if dad's… lonely?" he asked. "The badges all mention things, I think they're about dad not about me, and the Mind Badge one was… I think… 'The Original One breathed alone before the universe came.' That sounded really sad, I thought."
Rayqyaza was silent for a long moment, then closed his eyes.
"It sounds entirely possible," he said. "It is never something I considered, because I do not mind solitude, but I was created for a job that is mostly solitude. Father… came into being, in a way that I do not understand, and he is older than time in every respect that those words have meaning."
A slow nod. "Ash – youngest brother – I believe that your journey may ultimately lead to your meeting our father, one way or another. Please, from myself, tell him that I would never regret his company. Even if it was for his own benefit."
AN:
It's nice to stay in touch with family, if you can.
And since what I mentioned last time seems to not have been sufficiently clear – what I meant is that I have re-done, revised, or edited every chapter of Ashes of the Past up to the end of the second movie. There's some 33,000 words worth of extra length and a lot of what was there already has been improved, which should make the quality of the fic much more consistent throughout.
If you're reading this after the initial posting date… well, it's not especially relevant.