Opening notes:
This could be considered the beginning of the climax for this first (it's technically the second but I consider 'Gives Me Strength' the real first chapter of this) installment of the series.
To clarify the languages mentioned in this story, Galarian is their name for the English language, Kantonese is Japanese (and Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh all speak it), Kalosion is French, and while there are no characters speaking it right now, Paldean is Spanish.
I usually post different stories in between chapters and while that wasn't the case this time, there's a few things from me that are nearing completion. On that note, I will now officially declare that following this story, not only will Ash and Iris get another story, there will also be a story about Dawn and Paul in this timeline. Neither will show up in this installment until the very end, however (Dawn will not watch the Finals like she did in the anime). I don't think I'll start writing it until this one is finished but do tell me if you want it now (er, next month probably if that's the case), it won't necessarily directly follow this in a way it needs the ending to be known.
Chapter follow below
This was going to suck.
Preferably, he'd be hyped about tomorrow's battle, but today, he just couldn't win.
Would nobody in Alola want this? He might as well stop being the champion if he was that out of touch.
Turning Alola into Kanto? Was he really going to end up doing that? Kalos didn't look like Kanto even with gyms, but Lillie must have had some basis for her thoughts.
And what if Professor Kukui didn't approve? Would he stop being Lei's brother? Would the school pretend he had nothing to do with it?
The against Leon couldn't come any sooner. Why did there have to be a break day?
He just laid around for about 5 minutes, cleared his mind a bit, then he set the Rotom phone for the group call. Because it was a Saturday, everyone would be calling from their own homes.
"Alola!" He heard upon entering the "room".
Kukui and Burnet, Kiawe, Mallow, Lana, and Sophocles.
"Lillie said something came up with Snowy and she had to go to the Pokémon Center and is real sorry she couldn't make it, hopefully, she can message you later" Kukui cheerfully explained.
So, Lillie did not say what they had messaged about. That would make things a lot easier.
"Ash, what's the food like at Galar?" Mallow asked.
"There's a lot of stews and meats, there's a lot of herding, they cook their food a bit more than they do in Alola, but their sauces give it a bit of a richness." Ash gave, not doing a very good job hiding his bad mood.
"And the taste?"
"…Okay, not as good as Alola, yeah, yeah. But food in this part of the world, Galar, Kalos, and I presume in Paldea, they don't taste as good for some reason." The Alolans were concerned about the flatness of his tone.
"I think that's just lovely." She said with a laugh, hoping it would go away on its own.
"Oh Ash, if ya' didn't hear already, she and Kiawe are a thing now." Sophacles chimed in.
"Cool." Was all Ash said.
"Thanks for your care." Kiawe snarked, annoyed that Ash's bad mood wasn't going away.
Ash just kept looking at him.
"All we needed was to get your stinky desk out of there to get love blooming." Kiawe responded with, which everyone laughed at. "In all seriousness, we started getting more time together since her dad's place started ordering more things from the farm, we ended up going to a couple of events together, and one thing left to another."
"Bow chika wow wow!" Sophacles exclaimed, with his eyes looking a bit snide.
Kiawe ignored him.
"We made it just official two weeks ago, after he was licking his wounds after losing to the professor and you, and, well, me consoling him was the last push we needed, so I suppose that could be another thing to add to your list of accomplishments, Ash." Mallow was still as plucky as ever.
"They're, imitating what Pokémon do at the Daycare. Or should I say, Kiawe is like a Ditto, or you could also say that Kiawe is doing Drill Peck but not just from his mouth." Sophocles said, sounding proud to himself for some reason.
"Sophocles, I can come over and show you how it feels when your Pokémon feint real quick if that's what you really want." Kiawe deadpanned at him, with very focused eyes.
"I mean, sex feels nice, right? I wouldn't call Kiawe or Mallow bad for doing it." Ash responded.
Everyone was shocked to hear him say that.
"Could one of you get Lillie here? I really need to talk to her." Ash continued, not waiting too long for a response.
"There's always another day, let's not disrespect Snowy like that." Kukui told him, much to Ash's chagrin.
"Well…I did speak to her a couple of days ago, and, she told me that Alola is going to have to ration drinking water, it's running out of places to put garbage, and the sea levels are rising, property costs are rising, there is a homeless problem in Hao'oli City…why aren't you all fixing that?" Ash asked.
"Ash…Alola is a series of islands. When you live on a series of islands, you never will have enough land to put your garbage in, there's no way to increase the water supply, there's no more space to build more buildings so there's nowhere to put the homeless, and no way to stop the price of property from rising because of the ensuing scarcity. It isn't that we don't care about them, there just isn't anything we can do about them." Kukui told them.
"You won't even try?" Ash asked him, sounding a bit rougher than he probably should have.
"You think I haven't? I was your age once. Spent a good three years on the water issue, because this isn't the first time we've had a scare like this. What I found, was that in order to generate just a week of drinking water, we'd need to have every water Pokémon alive right now constantly use rain dance for two and a half weeks. Twenty-Four hours a day until day 21. I hope you can tell that isn't possible. And it's just as impractical to try using Sunny Day to boil a massive amount of water. We just have to deal with it, and I wish Lillie would stop acting like there's some magic spell to solve it."
There's nothing we could buy that could change that Ash noted.
"She was changed by seeing Kalos, Paldea, the regions in that part of the world. She's all into this environmental and poverty reform and thinks we're dumb because we can't do most of it. She wanted my farm to adopt all of these things but we can't afford to do most of those things, and she thinks we were being cruel even though we still managed to do a few of them!" Kiawe said, putting his hand on his cheek.
"She also called the prices of my dad's restaurant exploitive to the poor since she saw lower prices in Paldea, but we can't charge any lower, we wouldn't be able to keep our doors open! It's hurt our friendship…" Mallow admitted, giving out a big sigh.
That's like how N thought the world needed to change Ash noticed.
"It's easy to forget people change when we're in phases where we're doing a lot of personal things, which is all of us right now." Burnet said, giving a warm smile.
"Right, let's not forget she means well. After this, I'll see if I can help her find more realistic solutions." Ash said, hoping he sounded diplomatic.
Everyone have a hmm sound as a response.
"You need to be here to get it." Ash quickly clarified, not wanting to talk about his earlier argument.
Quickly changing the topic, Ash talked with them some more about the first two rounds, his feeling while battling and what encouraged him to use the strategies that he did. He also told them to forgive Cynthia's use of Dynamax as while it looked like a silly decision now, it would have looked genius if Togekiss had managed to take out Lucario.
"Now to discuss the gym idea you talked about at your press conference." Kukui finally started that talk.
"I know that money is a really big obstacle here, but there has to be a way to overcome that right?" Ash didn't hear of money ever stopping any of the other Leagues.
"Well, talking to the Aether Foundation is probably the first step, other companies might be willing to invest if they commit some sort of capital. Too bad Lillie couldn't make it, I bet she'd know more about what it would take. Although Lusamine does like you." Kukui said.
"What do you mean by capital?"
"Use money instead, professor." Sophacles chimed in.
"Right. Money. Though I did once tell you what Capital meant."
"Okay I get it. Money from the Aether Foundation. But backing up a bit, you're all for it?"
Everyone nodded their heads.
"I've been wanting them there for a long time and this really is the best time to make it a conversation." Kukui affirmed.
"That's more people to try our food!" Mallow pointed out.
"And I could be a gym leader, right? A water one, like Misty?" Lana asked.
"Potentially." Ash responded. Lana actually wasn't good enough, but that was for a different day.
"I don't know if I'd want to be a gym leader, but getting badges sure sounds fun!" Kiawe said. He actually could be a gym leader, so there was some irony in this progression.
"If you want it, I want it, Ash." Sophacles rounded out the opinions with.
Just then, there was banging on his door. And it didn't stop.
Ash opened the door, and he saw Iris, who immediately took his hand and went in front of the Rotom Phone.
"I'm Iris. You probably saw me lose in the first round. I actually travelled with Ash before, and we met again, and I caught feelings for him, so I kissed him before my match,and he caught feelings for me after that, so we're together now, so Lillie, be mad at me that he rejected you. Not him. And don't be so fucking self-centered."
And then she kissed him, turning his head to where she could do it on the lips.
Silence.
Dead silence.
Kukui, Burnette, Mallow, Lana, Kiawe, and Sophocles all instantly understood what that meant.
"So that's why Ash had a good reaction to Kiawe and Mallow! No helping Lillie after this!" Sophacles said, giggling.
"So she's mad at you?" Kiawe asked.
"Well, I kind of hung up on her after she told me, and she didn't respond to my text earlier." Ash explained.
"Hanging up on her like that is really piss poor of you." Lana said.
"What was I supposed to do?" Ash said, already dreading this.
"Maybe act like an adult?" Kiawe said, in more of an interrogative way than a question.
"I think it would still be a bad situation no matter what I did." Ash tried to stay diplomatic.
"No, stop acting like a kid. If you had explained the situation, she definitely would have understood, she's smarter than everyone else her age." He sighed "I guess this is what happens when you don't have to work a job and just get to keep walking around, except here where you've only come twice since winning the championship, even though you, well, won the championship, implying you'd have a presence. You got to immediately be the favorite student, everyone drooled over you, one of them even fell for you…All for you to turn around and think you're too cool for Alola. I bet you only came the second time because it would look suspicious to Lillie's family if you didn't go with them, didn't it." He said that in an accusatory tone, not a questioning one.
Ash was about to say something. He really wanted to say something. He was working for Professor Cerise and, well, getting into the Masters' Eight, doing a lot more than just working on a farm, but he knew he shouldn't say that.
So he just got up, and left without saying a word.
Iris remained. In a split second, without necessarily thinking about it, she realized that she would need to clean his messes if he couldn't. He had certainly cleaned some of hers back in Unova. It just felt like her duty now. Of sorts.
"Last night, I informed Ash that I had a falling out with a mutual friend, Cilan. He was distraught over this because he figured me and Cilan were doing everything together because the way we met, he always pictured me with him, so it was a total shock to him. This morning, someone who he is very close to, Cynthia, THE Cynthia, basically told him she didn't think me and him would work, and that shook him to the core, I think, because she's known for being right. So he just can't take anymore. You know how he's all emotion, right? That's why he needs people like you and me."
"Why does he care so much about what Cynthia says?" Lana asked.
"Neither of them will outright say this, but they're the closest thing to a sibling each other has. You should have seen the look on her face when Ash was captured by Team Rocket in Unova a year ago, she looked like she was going to kill someone." Iris answered, hoping that was satisfactory.
"He was always so happy when he was in Alola…hard for me to imagine him not being that way." Burnett chimed in with.
"Then again, all he did was succeed in Alola, other than a couple of battles that he always quickly made up for." Lana clarified.
"I don't know what he did over there, but what I do know is that Ash was anxious to talk to you all because of his current mood and he wasn't sure how you would react to his Gym plan…I would probably be nervous in his shoes as well! There's a lot of logistic issues I don't want to think about that will need to be resolved for there to be a chance for Alola to have gyms. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be the one in charge of building eight gyms in Unova! Also, I could tell he was frazzled when he was told he didn't come to Alola enough, I assure you he isn't apathetic about it, he tried to talk about it a bunch last night.
"Tried?" Kukui asked.
"Well, before I…" Iris said, giving an awkward smile as she made a motion with her hand.
"With respect professor, you walked right into that." Sophocles said with a laugh.
"It is true we were frustrated by how little he came, but then again, it is true we didn't really ask." Lana cut in, thankfully ending the awkwardness and getting the conversation back on track.
"For a while, he would never return to a region other than Kanto after he was done with it. I myself had to wait a while before he came back to Unova. But trust me, he wasn't trying to avoid Alola, it wasn't that he thought he was too cool for it…he's always thinking about what's ahead, not what's happened. And like I said, he talked a lot about Alola last night so I think he was going to visit real soon after this."
"We had all decided we were going to confront him about not coming enough, but now that you put it that way, that does seem unfair." Lana admitted in response.
"The only person more scatterbrained than him, is me" she said with a chuckle. "But you know that he always means well."
"You've had media coaching, haven't you?" Burnett told her.
Iris chuckled. "That's one of the things they don't give the Unova Champion an option for. Though don't watch my interview after I lost."
"I guess I was a little too harsh…I guess I'm frustrated that he gets all the success and not me. And I know that's selfish but it's hard to just forget." Kiawe explained.
"I'm sorry it had to be that way." She answered, not fully sure how to answer that.
Cilan felt that way towards me after his restaurant went down Iris privately realized.
"Ash didn't ever tell us about his Unova journey." Kukui noted, raising his eyes when trying to remember any mentions of it.
"Well, it was a slump period for him, so I don't blame him for not talking about it a lot. He lost a full-battle…against a team of five."
The Alolans were shocked about it.
And I grieved him a ton she realized, though she wouldn't say it out-loud.
"I sympathize with that. I got destroyed in the quarterfinals of the tournament, and I get made fun of constantly because of it. Make sure you tell Ash to make me a gym, by the way." Lana said, putting her head down a bit.
The fact that this blue-haired girl was actively asking her was a bad sign to Iris, no Gym Leader had to ask to be considered, although she couldn't tell this Lana at the moment.
"Anyway, Cilan was the other person I traveled with. We had a falling out because I was too cautious to help him with his restaurants, he wasn't able to make it work on his own."
"I feel that." The girl indicated as Mallow said. "It's hard to get people to try new things, especially with how loyal people are to food."
So she was into food too? Iris didn't want to ask about it now but she made a mental note of it.
"Well, keep supporting him, today and tomorrow. And tell him I apologize, even if he doesn't want to hear it." Kiawe said.
Right, she needed to get to Ash soon, but before that, she wanted to take advantage of having an older woman without the ego of a champion.
"I should probably get going, but before I go, hey, uh, Burnett is your name? What would you give to a woman who's mad at you?"
Burnet leaned in and gave a bit of a stare that Iris noticed even with them not being in the same room.
"Give her a drink. Make it Royal Alolan so its unique."
"It's the PWC contestant Marnie who is trashing you all over social media? Sounds like a bad person, what's the point?" Sophacles asked.
"Because we were getting along very well before something happened. And I know that she truly isn't a bitch."
"Wow!" Lana and Mallow both shouted after hearing that.
"Alright, let Ash know if you want to send any more communication! Bye!" She said, turning it off, not wanting to say any more before she got out of line herself.
"Hey wait – before you go, tell Ash I just sent something over to him, I'll be there by now. He may not like it, but he always does what you don't expect him to, right?" Kukui said, ending it before she could respond. There must have been some sort of nervousness to whatever it was
Ash himself was leaning on the door, listening in on everything that was being said.
He had always dealt with his problems himself. He had helped others, but he never let his companions help him. He yelled at one of them for trying to help him. That might have been why it didn't amount to anything.
He figured that doing it without any help is what made him so good. Leon and Lance didn't get any help like that, as far as he could tell.
But hearing her do all of that – calming Kiawe down, explaining his situation, seeing the Alolans gain sympathy for him just from her words, without any of his input…
He felt something he had never before. A mix of hope and relief.
He then realized what this all boiled down to.
Attachment.
He didn't just love Iris. He needed her. He desired her. He couldn't function without her anymore.
Kukui…when I asked you about Burnett…I think I know that feeling now.
And it brightened his mood instantly.
He knocked on the door, and received permission to enter.
"I'm sorry for that." He simply said.
"No, I'm sorry." She responded, with a frown.
"Hm?"
"All I did, for weeks on end, was call you a little kid. And seeing Kiawe there, I now see how much that hurt."
"I mean, I had sex with you last night, so do know that means I forgave you a long time ago. Even though you called me that as late as yesterday."
He was the one who giggled a bit at that.
Iris stared into nothing.
"Iris?" Ash asked her.
"I…don't know if it's my fault or not. About Cilan. And now it's bugging me." She responded.
"Alexa said she'd be contacting me tonight, she's in this time zone, so you can ask him soon!" He responded his energy now almost completely back.
"That isn't really something you tell someone, though I'm glad you have your zip back." She responded, clearly not satisfied with that answer but appreciating his attempt regardless.
"Zip…about that." Ash said with a smirk, undoing the button of Iris' pants.
Iris was surprised at his aggressiveness, and braced for the kiss, but saw him move his head down and instantly felt a different kind of joy.
A knock stopped them and Iris quickly buttoned back her pants.
Hopefully, whoever was there didn't hear her.
"I'll get it." Ash said, sighing, figuring it was that delivery Kukui mentioned, or something like that.
But he shouldn't have been annoyed.
It was Goh and Chloe.
"Sorry we're so late. We went a bit south of the Tangle and had to stay in Stow-On-Side for the night." Goh explained.
After a brief pause, Ash and Iris assumed this meant they did not hear anything, Ash started to move.
Ash stepped over and hugged Chloe.
"Chloe, earlier today, I think I felt what you felt when I was aloof towards you at Lilycove. And it really does suck. You were right to be mad at me."
"Ash, training with you last night…doing more things after that…I actually understand why you did that. Using Ponyta to…I'll tell you later, but I was going to say I completely forgive you. But something happened between you and Cynthia?"
He wasn't sure how, but Chloe knew her stuff. She always quickly figured things out. He released his hug, motioning Iris to come to his side.
"She thinks Iris and me will quickly crash and burn. She used me having so many female friends against me."
"She's never taken me seriously in the first place, for more context. She decided it was time to retire after seeing I still wasn't a threat to her." Iris added.
"Well, she didn't become the champion of Sinnoh because she was nice." Goh pointed out.
"And also, this girl named Lillie confessed to Ash and, well…" Iris explained to them.
Both of the teenage Kantonians were visibly shocked, among the most shocked Ash had seen either of them, and they had been through a lot recently.
"I can't get to her right now, but I'll get to her eventually."
"That's what happens when you go around the world charming every lady you meet, Ash." Chloe said.
"You know it isn't like that!" He responded, eying her.
"I know there isn't anything between you two now, but Dawn told me that at one point, the trio of you, her and Brock met a pair from Johto and one of them, Lyra, asked her if you were her boyfriend, so this stuff isn't new."
"Wait, Lyra said that?"
"Actually, Dawn told me that to when she first came to Unova." Iris said, causing both Goh, Chloe, and she to giggle, albeit awkwardly.
"Well, just remember that the reason I know Iris is because of my preference of always traveling with another guy and girl. Well, and a younger sibling."
"I'm not telling you to feel bad about it, but this was bound to happen because of that." Chloe surmised.
"Yeah, you're right." Ash said, conceding as she was not wrong on any of that.
"It's interesting Lillie did that, she came across to me as the type to not do something unless she was sure it would work, unless she was forced to do something."
"And nobody would force her to do that. Well, she did doesn't know who Iris is, and you did publicly reveal you want to develop a fully-fledged league in Alola more, so maybe she figured you were planning on spending most of your time in Alola after this tournament? Remember how Mohn joked to us that she immediately told him why he didn't remember her in a way that could have been logical but it wasn't how it happened, that she had already thought up of before-hand? Maybe, like that, she thought up this perfect situation for after the Tournament?" Goh theorized, picking at his lip, giving it way too much thought.
"I think your thinking way too hard about that Goh, but she did tell me she wants me to settle down in Alola so you're probably right." Ash admitted to him, silently knowing that was exactly what was happening.
"Look, Ash, it isn't like my situation. She didn't tell you she hated you, this is the opposite, right? Maybe she'll actually soon reach out to you and you can hash it out then." Iris pointed out.
"I know the situations are different but I still don't want to risk waiting for too long, so I'm going to keep calling her."
Iris sighed. He did have a point.
"Situation?" Chloe asked, tilting her head (Ash noticed in somewhat of an "Iris-like" way).
"So, remember when I told you both about Cilan? Turns out he and Iris had a falling out. Haven't spoken to each other in about five months." Ash explained, with a sorrowful look, he already hated talking about it.
"So he hasn't talked to you at all in that time-span?" Chloe asked Iris
"He removed me from all his socials and-" Iris took a deep breath and held back any tears from showing up, talking about it affected her that much…
"He was only known in Unova, so after leaving there, he was off the radar of any gossip website or anything like that."
"That's weird," Chloe said, stumped.
"Adult problems, I guess." Iris responded, not looking at anyone while saying that.
"Whatever, anyway, I want you both to come out, I got some things to show you!" Chloe said, both Ash and Iris noticed an enthusiasm that wasn't there previously.
Heading out to the area right outside the front, Chloe took out a Poké Ball, but it wasn't Eevee or Ponyta that came out.
A navy-colored bird, with Matte black accents on its wing-tips, ruff, a face that had a mask like crest, black talons, grey feet, and with red eyes that looked ready to fight.
"That looks like Corviknight, I take it that this is the pre-evolved form?" Ash asked, not too familiar with Galar Pokémon.
"Bingo." Chloe said with a smirk.
"Wait, that can't be the first stage…" Iris said, taking out her Rotom Phone.
"Yeah, that's not the first stage, Chloe. You need to be careful that it doesn't disobey you."
"I heard about you and Dragonite, but this one here is not the third stage and I'm a lot smarter than you were at my age so I think that I'll be fine."
She kind of sounded like Iris there Ash thought with a smirk, though he knew better than to say anything.
"And also, after some more practice, Buzzy Buzz started paralyzing targets most of the time! I won a battle after you left! Two vs two, I had Eevee paralyze the opponent then switched to Corvisquire and quickly knocked it out, and then I did it again! Galarian Zigzagoon and Abra could only try to move!"
"Show us." Iris said, sending out Dragonite.
"Alright, nap-time is over, Eevee! Buzzy Buzz on Dragonite!"
Eevee came out and assumed a stance not unlike what Pikachu did before he did a Thunderbolt. Dragonite folded his arms, not expecting to feel anything. And while he didn't feel pain…the electric was around him. He was indeed paralyzed. Iris quickly applied a Paralyze Heal before he could think too much about what happened, and quickly recalled him, not wanting a fuss.
"It's not as complicated when the opponent can't move, right? Maybe I should visit Lieutenant Surge when I get back to V-"
"It won't be as simple as just paralyzing the other team. There are a lot of Ground-Type Pokémon that your Buzzy-whatever attack won't affect, and opposing Electrics can't be paralyzed either. And really, people will figure out ways to stop that, the only way you'll paralyze every opposing team is if you become very persuasive and convince each one to let that happen." Iris said, keeping a straight face but secretly enjoying she came up with that wit.
Goh gave a slight chuckle at it while Chloe gave the eye-roll everyone knew her for.
"Well, I've never seen anyone be convinced that. Besides Chloe, if you really start with him, Surge's Pokémon are all Electric Types." Ash added. Iris could make a joke about his hat and he'd still only know it was a joke if he was told that.
Chloe made a "hm" sound.
"But I'm glad to see you excited about it." Ash said, giving her a pat on the shoulder.
"Look, Chloe, I'm really happy you're starting to like battling, but it's time I find Marnie." Iris was getting bored of standing around, she said earlier she was going to talk to Lillie and Marnie and while the former didn't happen, nothing could stop her from getting to the latter.
"She could be anywhere in Galar…it's small enough that you can fly anywhere in two or three hours." Ash noted, moving his eyes to the upper left corner to think.
"No, she's here somewhere, she'll want to watch you in the finals." Iris said, beginning to take deep breaths to try to control her emotions for when she got to Marnie.
"About that, she texted me last night that she'll stop speaking of it." Ash said, taking out his Rotom Phone and wishing to show her the texts.
"She won't do that." Iris responded, waving it off.
"Give her a chance…" Goh said.
"Because I would keep speaking of it if I texted that." Iris took out her phone, wondering if she could find a place Team Yell often met at.
"Look, over there!" Chloe said, pointing to a Yell member leaning against a wall near the corner of a pharmacy store next to the Rose.
Before Iris could do anything, she walked up and started talking to him. They quickly took out Pokeballs.
And beat his Zigzagoon to get it.
"Seeing you be given crap because of your skin color, that really motivated her to start doing something after being so indecisive about everything. And she's already getting into battling a lot, and the Pokémon she caught aren't as weak as a beginner's first catches usually are." Goh explained.
Chloe had a zip in her step while walking back, Iris noted.
"The timing is pretty good. It's the time of the day she breaks from the rest of Yell, goes to a bar called The Gold Tap. Go down half a mile West, and at the crossroad with Mustard Avenue, it's the second building to the right, and it has a big sign." Chloe explained.
"Thanks." Iris said as she immediately started moving. None of the other three could hope to catch her.
"IRIS!" Ash stopped her with a shout, louder than she had ever heard him. Even during a battle.
"I don't want to wait!" She told him.
Running up, he took both of her hands.
"Promise me no fighting."
"It's her that acts like a bi-"
"Promise me no fighting." He interrupted her with.
"Promise. I'm getting her a Royal Alolan in fact! But the one time I avoided a fight, when I let Cilan just walk away, it screwed me over big time." She said, eye to eye before taking her hands off his.
Ash hoped she would think about what she just said before she got there.
"Do you think you can beat me with that paralyze spam?" A voice called from behind them, after Iris had disappeared from view.
"I already know that disguise, Diantha." Chloe responded, having already been told about her black coat and hat disguise by Ash when discussing his Journey in Kalos.
"Pretty genre savvy, not letting me beat you to wipe that smugness out of you face." She said with a snarky smirk.
"Do you really enjoy beating newbie trainers?" Chloe asked her.
"No, but I guess Ash can do it later."
"Iris is talking to Marnie. She's going to offer her a Royal Alolan, so hopefully that does something." Ash explained to Diantha.
"A peace offering…That could work." Diantha said, nodding her head.
"So what are you up to?" Ash asked her.
"I was looking for Leon, actually."
"Haven't seen him." Ash admitted.
"Sonia is in the Rose, we can go ask her." Goh pointed out.
"Oh, that's a close friend of his." He clarified to Diantha. "All right, let's ask her." Ash was surprised at how quickly they could solve this.
The four walked in, seeing Sonia at the bar.
Goh immediately rushed to her.
"You can't be drinking at this time. That's crazy!" Goh told her.
"You wouldn't get it. And I was just having two, the bottle you see and this." Sonia replied (which was a lie).
"You know that you'd become a laughing stock of the research community if you got some sort of citation!" Goh said.
"You wouldn't get it Goh, so stop annoying me. Adults have big problems and they have their own ways to cope with-"
"Get a hold of yourself." Came a voice to her right.
A certain Trainer-Actress had taken the seat next to her.
"You-" Sonia began, realizing who this was.
"Goh clearly looks up to you a lot. So show him what he can aspire to and don't pretend you shouldn't do that. And you're just going to get torché? There's a lot more productive things you could be doing than drinking these things, and he's right that drinking this early will only get you in trouble. You'll lose all your licenses, others won't want to work with you. Women like us need to constantly be our best, we need to show we can keep up with the men, show we can't just be told what things we can and cannot do."
Sonia's phone was buzzing a lot, but she wasn't interested at all in checking it.
"Yes madame, when you steal the guy I've always dreamed of, that's pretty much the only thing I can dooo. And, and women will be fine, you know that a 19-year-old one is in the Masters' Eight, riiight? Me drinking won't hurt anyone." Sonia said with a gulp.
Diantha gasped upon hearing that.
"I told her she should give Leon a chance. But I guess that was a mistake." He said, looking down.
Automatically, like she already knew the situation, she tapped on the counter.
"Bartender, I'd like a Royal Alolan."
"Huh?" Sonia visibly wondered
"Look, you have it all wrong. I only very passively knew him before this, so all there is there, is good chemistry. Take this drink as your last, and as a peace offering. When you get sober, and not a moment before, I want you to go to him and make your feelings known. If it works out, I will not be an obstruction whatsoever."
"…Oh?" Was all Sonia could respond with said, her senses not quite able to make a response.
Diantha tilted her head, sort of trying to convey take it.
"Alright. I'll take it. Though, though honestly, this is m-more his problem than yours."
"Find out why, then. Something must have angered him if you think he stood you up. People don't just do that on a whim, I've found. When I was just starting out, I told a joke at an audition and I swear the casting people not liking that is why I didn't get the part, I fit the description perfectly."
"Like a joke I-Iris would make?" Sonia asked.
"Kinda. I…used to be just like her. I was so bummed when she made the same interview mistake I once made to boot. Though none of you better repeat that." Diantha said, trying not to smirk, but both adults couldn't help themselves from chuckling.
Ash noticed that while Diantha was a problem-solver like Cynthia, she was much warmer and more personable, while Cynthia was usually focused just on finding a solution and had no time for humor or anything like that, except for a calculated smile here or there.
He realized…if the media was going to associate someone to him as his big sister, he'd much rather have Diantha than Cynthia!
Brushing that aside, seeing how smoothly Diantha diffused the situation, it made him feel hope that Iris and Marnie had worked something out.
"So, Iris did go to talk to Marnie, and, seeing you two quickly hash it out, I feel good about what that outcome will be! They're so damn similar and have that trainer mutual respect, they'll probably both be here any minute!"
Iris moved at a brisk pace, not quite running but just about. About six minutes later, she saw The Gold Tap…and courtesy of a giant window in the front, she saw who she was looking for, sitting by herself at the counter, with a Pokémon that kind of looked like Pikachu, only brown and black on both sides with yellow in the middle of it, on the counter sitting in front of her. Walking in, Marnie immediately spoke, not turning her head but she must have seen Iris as soon as she became visible.
"I knew I'd see ya here. Just…that feelin' ya know? Did ya come to gloat about spendin' the night jumpin' in the sack with Ash? Put Spikemuth in the dirt any more?"
"I just want to be friends. Really, you're the type of girl I've been looking to meet, funnily enough. You obviously know how a lot of girls our age tend to be backstabbers or only want to gain prestige by a connection or, well, just disparage others, and from our first conversation, I could tell you aren't like that. Others believe in you as well. Look at this" She said, raising a Poke ball and releasing Emolga, who immidietly flew next to Marnie's Electric type and they nuzzled each other's cheek.
Marnie recalled her Electric Type, and just kept looking at her.
"I get you're attracted to Ash but I love him, and I won't deny I did that with him, but it isn't something you should get hung up on, and frankly, I don't want to just keep talking about it with everyone." Iris continued, also recalling a disappointing Emolga.
"I already told Ash I wouldn't make it a big deal, by the way." Marnie clarified.
"You just did. Look – what am I supposed to say? We can't both have him. But think about what I said at first."
"Bold of you to say that after yo-"
"And you know I wouldn't say any of that. Come on!"
Marnie again didn't respond for a few long seconds, than began to speak, her elbows still on the counter.
"It really don't matter what happened. I just wanna to prove I'm better than ya'."
"I've been wanting to be better than Cynthia for a while now. And even after becoming the champion of Unova, that still hasn't happened yet. Here, have this." She waved at the bartender, "Give this girl a Royal Alolan!"
And the bartender put it right in front of Marnie.
"And I'm just five spots behind her! You're like fourteen spots behind me! Look, there's this girl named Georgia, she had all these Ice and Steel and Fairy Types all meant to beat Dragons but never stood a chance against me after a while, just think of her and feel good you're way past that!"
Iris chuckled a bit after saying that. While she would never admit it outright, it still felt a little good to talk about how much better she was than Georgia now.
"And Ash was six spots behin' her."
"I don't know where I'm going with this, but…it's kinda dumb. I guess that's my point."
"Scared you'll lose?" Marnie asked before taking a sip of the Royal Alolan. "This tastes like total arse.
This wasn't going anywhere. Iris needed to get to business.
"Look, I, heard from Leon that the Galar League was getting tired of your gym, and I'd like to offer my help with that." Iris said, trying to sound as diplomatic as possible, no more giggles.
But Marnie just laughed and rotated her seat a bit so she was now kind of facing Iris. She had the same black jacket and collar she had on yesterday, but under that was a black shirt that cut down in the middle to almost her breasts, and a red-pleated skirt, with pure black laced up shoes, still very much a goth outfit.
"Leon's been protectin' the Spikemuth Gym for a while now. As long as Piers is there to face all the challengers on a consistent basis, nobody can do nothin' to the gym."
"But he's not. Leon said Piers is slacking off."
"You're just full of porkies, ain't ya." Marnie spit at her.
"Do you want to lose the Spikemuth Gym? I had a friend who lost his, and his whole life was ruined!"
"Do I need to keep sayin' it aint' gonna happen?"
Now hearing that really frustrated Iris. She clenched her fist. There was something about the mention of Cilan, it made her completely forget about trying to be diplomatic. She was not thinking about what Ash asked her.
"Dammit, you have a thick skull!" Iris shouted as she got up, done with this.
"Still not gonna do our match? Or are ya' going to keep dodgin'…" Marnie asked as she was walking.
"I'm way above your fucking level. I got into the Masters' Eight. By the way, I'm Unova's champion! What the fuck are you? Would anyone care who you are if your brother wasn't a Gym Leader? Probably not, I had no family and nobody cared about me until after I became champion, and most still don't!" Iris said, stopping at the door.
"Who did ya' beat gettin' to the Masters' Eight? I looked it all up, and I didn't know who any of them are. And the Unova Elite Four is ranked as the worst one by pretty much e'ry publication"
"First off, Caitlyn and Shauntal have gotten to a higher place than you got in the PWC. Also, I beat Aldar. There isn't anyone like him you could possibly have faced. Did you know he got to the finals a few times in the PWC seasons he participated in decades ago?"
"I heard he always lost to Cynthia even during her first year as Sinnoh Champ. Though that checks out with how you did."
"You know what? I don't even have to keep responding to a weird-speaking goth girl. Bye."
Iris turned and tried to walk away even though it had begun to rain heavily, but Marnie wasn't letting her walk away this time.
"By the way, I see you're often introduced as from Opulucid City in battles. I found that's not really where you're from. You're from the Village of Dragons. Ya' tried to empathize with me caring for Spikemuth when ya' ditched your hometown as soon as ya' made it big, that's another lie from you. I got into contact with one of them, ya' abandoned them a while back."
Before Marnie knew what was going on, Iris was right in front of her, grabbing her leather jacket with both hands. This was not the Iris she knew. This Iris had a dark purple aura surrounding her and her hair was now white. Not any shade of gray, there was no color in Iris' hair now.
The purple aura flooded the room from Marnie's perspective, like a Terrain move was used.
"So you're the new Elder. Congratulations." Iris said flatly to the new Elder, this was her first time back since the death of the previous-one that Iris had a very good relation with. Iris never got along with this new one.
"Indeed. And I want everyone to be involved in this humble village."
"Huh?"
"I'm not going to let people associate here without contributing. That includes you. You need to find a home here and focus more on us than everywhere else."
"Do you not get what me being the champion means?"
"I don't think anyone from the Village of Dragons should be the Unova Champion. We need to look out for each other, not get glamorous titles."
"Trust me, it's not glamorous."
"Regardless, I need you to stop with that song and dance and stay here."
"You know I can't do that. Heck, that list you have of all the things we need, what Blackthorne City has but we don't even though that's the other Village of Dragons, you need me being champion to have any hope of making that list happen!"
"I don't want any of that shit."
"Then you're an idiot."
"What did you call me?" The new Elder said, raising her voice.
"An idiot. Want me to get close to your ear? We'll be forgotten if we keep acting like it's a hundred years in the past."
"You clearly don't want to be here."
"It's not like that, but it is frustrating seeing the village get left behind like this! Anyway, I'm not giving up being the champion for anyone."
"You know what? If you're so far more advanced than us, you might as well leave. And don't come back."
"What?"
"Do you want me to be the one to come up to your ear."
"Bad move. Real Elders would do everything they could to help the village, you just want to sit there and do nothing! Keep sitting on your traditions while I continue to be someone."
And Iris turned and walked away.
Walking out, she went to Shannan. She had an idea! And she didn't want to be without her lifelong best friend, obviously.
"I'm out, and I'm not coming back as long as she's here."
Shannon just looked at her.
"So I was thinking, how about get out of here too and live with me? Of course, I already have the champion's apartment in Castelia, I also have something in Opelucid so you have your choice of THE city or a small city! Doesn't that sound fun?"
Shannon just kept looking at her with a blank expression. Of course, Iris knew that that was the face Shannon made when she disapproved.
"Why aren't you ever satisfied?" Shannon asked.
That completely interrupted Iris' flow. Why did she asked that? Iris just felt…janky after that.
"What do you mean?"
"You could be filling whatever needs that we need met here, but you continue to do all this BS outside, it was one thing when you were raising Axew but now you're permanently outside the village and the freaking Champion of the outsiders? Being friends with the Pikachu guy and the cook was one thing, but being the champion and doing all these public things throughout Unova? That's not your calling!"
That gave pause to Iris for a few moments. Shannon was right. She wasn't supposed to keep staying outside the village like this after Axew reached his final stage. They didn't tell her to become champion, they had something else planned for her after.
But Iris didn't need to spend time realizing that, she didn't care. That was already obvious.
"I…guess I can't deny I've been doing lots of things I wasn't supposed to but I'd rather do what I want to do. And that's what I'm doing. And if this place doesn't like that, I guess that's that."
Shannan sighed.
"I'm…actually expecting now. Learned just last week so that's why I don't have a bump. Well, I'm happy with my family and Pokémon breeding venture that is right here. I at first thought about naming it Lavender if a girl or Aster if a boy, a purple flower like an Iris, and heck, I wanted to ask you to be the baby's Godmother, but I guess you're too ambitious for that, and you know what? The baby won't know we were friends, because I sure hope she doesn't grow up to be like you. Goodbye." She matter-of-factly said.
And then she walked away.
"There was no one to tell you this before, but guess what? Your name is basically a Galarnization of what Iris is called in Kantonese, your name comes from your hair color, no, OUR hair color too, so think twice about acting like it's a poisonous name" Iris spat out while watching her walk, then turning around and running out of the Village.
She didn't want to admit it, but…that hurt. A lot.
"That…that's what happened?" Marnie asked after seeing all of that.
Iris was glaring at the goth Galarian. Her eyes were now red.
Before anyone could respond, just then, he felt something…weird. Not Aura, but not something normal either. A different type of energy.
Suddenly, by instinct, he got up and started walking towards the door.
"Goh, Chloe, Diantha, get Sonia somewhere she can sober up."
When he got out, he saw that the rain, and the sky, were both now purple.
The grip being released during whatever was happening to Iris, who was still emanating a weird energy around her, Marnie turned around and ran away, as did everyone else in the bar.
Eventually, it stopped, and Iris was now back in control of her body. But she was feeling very different compared to how she had felt just a few moments prior.
"Not such a tough goth after all, huh? Just a little wimp, like all those random people in the first round of every tournament I was in before the Masters Eight! Spikemuth must be a dump after all!" and then she laughed. She didn't know why she laughed or even said that, but it felt good. Really good. It dulled some of the pain she was in.
Cilan, Shannon, Dragons, being a champion, not owning absolutely everyone…she wasn't caring about any of that right now.
This was who she was.
"Fuck anyone else who says otherwise!" She said in her laugher.
That power, a human shouldn't be capable of it. Not even the person who helped those two dogs long ago had it to that degree. She heard a voice…speak into her head.
"Who said that?" Iris said, turning around.
On the other side of the window, staring right at her, was a vaguely draconian Pokémon, with a skeleton-like shape, mostly dark purple, like Iris' aura at the moment, with red highlights. It's main body and tail were like a spinal column, with claws formed from spindly appendages attached at right angles.
I'm Eternatus. I am not like the other dragons, which is why you can hear me communicate and not just feel me. You're so interesting, I broke myself out of that boring cage I was chilling in for a while to see where all this Dragon energy was from. It's been a long time since I've seen a human with this much power, and I think we could have…Let's call it a win-win scenario involving us both.
Ending notes:
The dragon girl meets one of the ultimate dragons! There was no way I could set this in Galar without Iris meeting Eternatus. Again, do not think of Lillie as evil here, she just wants several reforms to happen NOW but they are impractical given the current conditions in Alola, perhaps she's being selfish about it, but I do think those things ought to happen. When we get to Alola more of that will be fleshed out. And we now have the reason Iris never talks about the Village of Dragons in the current tense anymore! If you go back, she only ever referred to it how it was under the previous Elder, but she doesn't like how it is now, that's why she now lives in the city. It happens in real-life all too much sadly, someone gets too big for their small town and they want to move in a way the town doesn't and they became unrecognizable to everyone else. That said, I'm not saying she and Shanon and everyone else can't make amends at some point. I decided Chloe would get into battling in this story so it's different than how Chloe is in other stories here. Yes, the Diantha and Sonia bit was mostly so there was a reason Ash didn't follow Iris, but I have some stuff planned for Leon after this story that will be influenced by that. At least Burnett helped someone! Torché is French slang for Drunk (Or here, Kalosion slang).