Hello All. Welcome to the sequel to the Best Around. You don't need to read it to understand this fic but it will help you with understanding the characters back story and the events that have happened over Ash's life so I would highly recommend it.

At the minute I don't have a working title so it will just be The Best Around: Orange Islands for now until I come up with a title

I own nothing except my own brain, which is questionable at times.

Edit: apparently when creating a new story on here it automatically uploads the first chapter in the file so...enjoy a short first chapter.

Life

A few days after the meeting with Mewtwo Ash sat down in his house reflecting on his life and the nonsense that had come his way over the last eighteen months. It seemed like only yesterday that he was getting ready to start on his long-awaited Pokémon journey and his quest to be the best there ever was. He looked over to a chair at the side of him and stared at his sleeping partner. Other than his mum and Sam Oak Pikachu was easily the most important thing in his life. The little mouse had come through for him so many times over the last year and a half and he owed him a great deal. Just thinking of the last eighteen months had him going through memories of his life. From receiving Pikachu at the start in Pallet Town, beating Brock and making his first friend, killing Rocket grunts in Mt Moon, saving Pikachu's grandsire Lord Zapdos from Team Rocket at the Power Plant, Porta Vista and being on the brink of death whilst fighting an Ancient, the events on Cinnabar where he uncovered his fathers final days, attacking Rota to finally discover what actually happened the day his father disappeared when they regained his Time Flower, Mewtwo and the events on New Island where he died and was resurrected by Lord Zapdos' sacrifice, the Indigo League and meeting Nia and finally beating John and his Dragonite to stand atop the mountain and becoming the Indigo League Champion.

Ash shook his head as the memories passed by him and he finally focused on where he was. He still had to pinch himself at times when walking around his house that this was his life, the house he was in was his but most importantly he was alive. Standing up he quietly left the living room to walk outside to his garden. That was another thing that often felt like this was all a dream. Where he lived was utterly beautiful. His mum and Sam had really come through for him on this and had far exceeded his expectations on where he thought he'd live in the future. His land and house, another thing he still struggled to get his head around, stood on the outskirts of Pallet Town, surrounded on three sides by Pallet Town Forest. A little dirt track led to Route 1 and his front gate underneath the canopies of huge Oak trees that stretched on for a good quarter of a mile. It was once a huge clearing, but Ash had been coming here for as long as he could remember to get away from Pallet Town and just soak in the Pokémon world and this was where he wanted to live the rest of his life, away from people. The forests were teeming with wildlife and Pokémon which made the area more special.

The back half of the land was where the more special elements were. As far as the eye could see were flowers and saplings leading down to a huge lake that was fed from the nearby river which was a very recent addition. There never used to be a lake there but Ash had a vision of water Pokémon swimming freely on his land and for that he needed a lake. So, he used the nearby river to feed it and redirected it further downland back into the river. The lake itself was at least half a mile long from its center, he couldn't see the other side of it, and it was at least thirty feet deep, easily able to support Pokémon that slept on lake beds. Just as he had designed the gardens for his Venusaur to tend he had designed his lake for his Blastoise. Ash had been thinking of adding some sheltered caves on the near side of the lake for any water Pokémon that needed a safe place to either rest or sleep on their way up or down the river. For that though he'd need to speak to the council and get planning permission, but he was sure it could be pushed through given what he was creating.

That was the main reason Ash had had his house built. It was to be a shelter for any Pokémon, whether they wanted to stay or not and as such it was pushed through by the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the provisor that he created a haven for Pokémon worldwide. It irked Ash a bit that his dream had been usurped by the local council but given what had been created he couldn't be too mad. It was a perfect conservationist place and Ash would be filling it with endangered species as best he could. He had until he was 16 to do what he could before he had to relocate here and take over the house full time but by that point there should be people in place to take most of his workload from him and let him relax in his home.

Hearing some noises, he looked over to the side of his house. Approximately one hundred meters from the main house was another two-story building. This was a place that the conservationists would be living and doing their studies on the Pokémon that would be living in the area. They had already been seen walking around the area looking at the various Pokémon that had been introduced into the local habitat, some of whom were being trained by Venusaur to take care of certain key areas where rare fauna and plant life had been planted. Thankfully they were only allowed on his property from 9am to 9:30pm so he at least got some privacy. Shaking his head in irritation he proceeded to the area that were waiting on saplings to be planted later this week. Along the banking of the lake there were huge holes in the ground, twenty meters long and eight feet deep in places that were going to be shelters and homes for pollenating Pokémon.

"Venusaur" Ash called out as he sat down on the banking next to one hole and waited for his Pokémon to appear. Soon the flowers parted, and his huge green dinosaur Pokémon came lumbering up to him.

"Hello Ash, you called?" Venusaur said as he sat beside him.

"Yes, I'm just wondering if we're all set up for tomorrow for the arrival of the trees?" Ash asked giving him a look.

"We are" came the reply "we even dug extra holes along the banking if we had surplus saplings, but we can easily fill them in and plant wildflowers in them so they're not wasted effort."

"That's a great idea" Ash said smiling.

"I've been known to have them" Venusaur said as they looked out over the lake. The sun was beginning to set and as it hit the water the shimmering of the sunset made the area look majestic. "Is our friend still here?" he asked quietly.

"Yes" Ash said softly moving his head in a certain direction "and our other friend will be arriving in the next few hours too. We're planning on doing it in the early hours tomorrow morning."

"Very well" Venusaur said "I shall go and make sure everything is ready." Standing up Venusaur lumbered off in the direction he had come from and soon disappeared into the undergrowth of the forest. Ash wasn't looking forward to what was going to happen.

At 9:30 Ash made a big show of seeing the scientists off his premises for his admirer before going back into his home. He had told his mum he planned to spend the next few days here to get to know people and to get used to being in a working environment. Luckily his mum was too busy at the minute to question him and accepted his story. If she'd have known the true reason, she certainly wouldn't have been happy or understanding. Going to sleep that night Ash slept fitfully, very nervous about what was planned for tomorrow. At around 4:30 am Ash felt a presence appear in his room and opened his eyes slowly, giving no indication that he had felt them. As it got nearer Ash tensed and waited for as long as he could before leaping out of bed and throwing an Aura Sphere at his assailant who cursed as he dove out of the way before another spike of aura felt its presence known and the assailant was frozen in place, held in a psychic grip.

Standing up Ash calmly walked up to his attacker and took the single pokeball from his belt, picked up the knife that had fallen to the floor and placed them on his bed trying to look as calm and nonchalant as he could. Inside though he was anything but calm at his near-death experience. Flipping on the light he got a good look at his attacker. The man was around 5'9, brown hair, brown eyes and had a huge scar going down the right side of his face.

"Andrew, I presume" Ash said looking at the man who was still frozen in place "it's nice to actually put a face to your name at last. I believe you have heard of my friend Mewtwo" he said nodding at the Pokémon who had him in his grip. "Come, we'll talk in the living room" he finished walking out of his room and down the stairs and walked into his living room only to find Mewtwo and Andrew already there.

"You can release him Mewtwo, his only means of escape is upstairs on my bed and Machamp is protecting my room" Ash said as he walked past the room and into the kitchen where he put the kettle on. A few minutes later he walked back into the room and placed a tray with a teapot and two cups on the table with a jug of milk and sugar cubes and proceeded to make himself a brew. "I hope you don't mind Andrew if we chat for a while do you? Help yourself to tea and biscuits by the way" he finished sitting down holding his cup. Warily Andrew proceeded to make himself a brew before sitting down opposite him and took a sip.

"This is nice tea" Andrew said with a gravelly voice, clearly a voice that wasn't used much. Helping himself to a biscuit he sat back and waited for Ash to start the conversation.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I'm doing this?" Ash asked receiving a nod "well there's a few reasons actually. The main one is that despite you trespassing on my property and attempting to kill me there's no reason we can't talk like civilised people before I kill you. I won't have it be said I have no class. And you've been outside for days on end now so I'm sure you could do with warming up a bit before we conclude this messy business."

"Commendable" Andrew said grabbing another biscuit "so you're planning to kill me then?"

"Oh yes, you're far too dangerous to be kept alive" Ash said having a drink "and I have no doubts you would ever betray Silver given how loyal I've heard you are so there would be little point in me even trying to convince you to spy for me so I'm not going to even bother."

"Very wise" Andrew said smiling looking around "this is a very nice house, why build it here?"

"My original plan was to build a house as far away from people as possible but close enough that I could see mum whenever I wanted to" Ash said looking around "and this place has a special meaning to me as it was the very place my Aura was unlocked six years ago. Sadly, I have to share it with the people you've seen milling around but it is my land and my dream. It's going to become the best area in the world for repopulating endangered species."

"Oh" Andrew said "a very laudable goal. I didn't know you were friends with Ash Mewtwo."

"Friends is a loose term" Mewtwo said making Ash snort "at the minute we just have the same goals of eradicating Team Rocket, so it made sense to become allies for a time."

"What he said" Ash said laughing "Silver is my cousin, and he kidnapped my father over a decade ago. Mewtwo is helping me find him so for now we're working together. After that I think we'll go our separate ways." Mewtwo nodded in agreement.

"Ah" Andrew said finishing off his drink and placing the cup on the tray "well sadly I know nothing about that. My job is assassinations not kidnappings. Just for my own peace of mind how did you kill that wanker Fuji?"

"You didn't like Fuji?" Ash asked.

"No" Andrew said "the man almost cost us everything with what he did. Not only that but we discovered he was planning on a coup with his creations. If I was given the order, I would have killed him for free."

"Ah ok" Ash said, "I broke his legs and threw him into his cloning machine, and it took his head off breaking the machine in the process."

Andrew let out a big booming laugh "Very apt. So, how are we doing this?" he finished standing up as Ash followed suit and started to walk outside and led them down the path in silence to the lake.

"I didn't know how this was going to go" Ash said looking out over the lake as the sun rose on it "I didn't know how messy this may be, so I planned a few options. Now that we're here however I can't go through with either of them. I was going to have you kneel before I broke your neck but that would be a dishonour to you so instead, I brought you here so you could at least see another sunrise as your final memory."

"To what end?" Andrew asked calmly.

"I don't know" Ash said thoughtfully looking at him "I just know you don't deserve a humiliating end. Don't ask me why because I don't know."

Looking over the horizon Andrew looked at the sunrise on the water "it really is a beautiful place you've picked out. I hope your plans work out Ash."

"Me too" Ash said placing his hand behind Andrews head and forcing his aura out into a lance which pierced a hole in Andrews head causing him to fall to the floor like a marionette with its strings cut "me too Andrew." Silently Ash looked back out at the horizon before bending down and picking Andrew up and taking him over to one of the holes Venusaur had dug and placing him down at the side of it. "Venusaur, can you place him down there please as gently as you could."

His lumbering dinosaur came out of the flowers and proceeded to do just that before Ash grabbed a spade and began shovelling the soil over the top until the body was buried by three feet of soil. Tiredly Ash placed the spade back into the mound of soil left at the side before looking down into the hole. "I think this one will be wildflowers Venusaur, something nice." Without saying another word Ash turned and walked back to his house his mind full of what he'd just done. Mewtwo followed at a sedate pace and soon they were in his living room.

"Thank you for your help Mewtwo" Ash said picking up the tray and taking it into the kitchen and washing the pots.

"Glad to help Ash" Mewtwo said "are you ok?"

"No" Ash said factually "but I will be. I have to keep reminding myself it was necessary to eradicate Team Rocket one piece at a time."

"Very well" Mewtwo said "if you should need my aid, I have a base on Mt Quena. It's very isolated by design."

Nodding Ash dried the cups and put them away feeling Mewtwo teleport away. Sighing Ash turned off the lights and made his way back to bed, putting the pokeball and knife on his bedside table before he lay on his bed going over what had just happened. It would be hours before he drifted off to sleep. The next day he awoke in the early afternoon to a lot of noise outside. Walking downstairs he exited his back door to find lorries being backed down his driveway with trees on them. They were only fifteen feet high at the moment but in decades to come and with the right nurturing they would be as big as the forest surrounding him. He saw his Venusaur talking with his mum and walked over and hugged her before watching them direct traffic. The entire day he was kept busy making sure everything was where his Pokémon wanted them to be and by early evening it was all done, every hole had been filled with trees and his garden and lake was completed, for now.