Chapter 6

So, quick note before we continued. I want to address somethings such as, the involvement of the Solgaleo and Lunala in this fanfic. I know that, obviously, we don't know too much about them yet, but their appearances (especially Solgaleo) inspired this good vs. evil story. Ultimately, that is what this story is about...like so many stories, it will address the evil vs. good inside us and the evil vs. good in the world, and how the choices we make can effect those we love.

It will address the subject of love too, of course, and address its purpose in our lives, its powers and limitations, and its necessity.

This story is also about how people cannot save others. We cannot change a person unless they desire to change themselves and even then, we cannot make them want to change. I wanted to write a story where not only Ash is more complicated, but where the love between Serena and Ash is more complicated too. Ever since the snowball scene, I've been thinking about how deep I could take the development of their relationship...I've also always been curious as to the origins of Ash's density and wondered what would happen if it were to finally break.

Anyway. I just thought I'd explain some of the complexities you'll see here. I don't mean to go super deep here, but I feel as though depth is what brings a story to life. Another side note: I'm pretty sure I mentioned Serena still being stuck with her fennekin or Braixen...? but no, by this time it's definitely a Delphox and so you'll see that I changed the evolutionary state of her pokemon...so, make a mental note. I didn't mean to be inconsistent.

Let me guys know what you think. Reviews are more than welcome, as well as questions and structured criticism. I'm always wanting to know in what ways I can improve.

before

The voice began like a dull murmur; like that grumbling in the back of a throat one doesn't realize he or she is making. At first, the whisper could only be heard in nightmares, and it began about the time Ash fell in love.

In the nightmares, Ash would see his pokemon. He would see Serena. He would see his father walking out the door—his mother crying. He would see Serena leave too. And the voice would hiss, as though it were the manifestation of his anger, verbalized in the dream.

See, you're not good enough for them…see, they don't love you…

Ash would wake up. Serena would be holding him, sweat dripping from his hair and on to her arm. Ash would look up. He would take a minute to make sure she was real.

When she kissed him, he would know that she was.

xxxxx

When the losses continued, Ash would dwell upon the voice. He would recall the hissing and found that it had grown louder than before. He began to hear it even while he was awake. It began to whisper all sorts of things.

See how weak you are…you will always be weak…it is why they all leave…

Ash would rub his eyes, his head, his hair, and his eyes again. He would look around and see nothing, and still hear the voice as clear as a refined diamond. Pikachu would look at him concerned. The pokemon would try to cheer him up, cuddling up against his cheek.

Serena would ask him what's wrong.

Don't tell her…she'll know how weak you really are…it is why they all leave…

Ash would say nothing and hide the lie with a smile. He would wrap his arms around her waist and bring her in to a kiss. He would feel her heart against his chest and, for the time being, he would feel content with just that.

after

Time did not exist. Serena stood outside of it. She saw Ash, and nothing but Ash, standing before her. The rest of the world—the fire, the wood, the floor, the people—dissolved in to the air like the wisps of a dandelion. Her memories projected themselves on to his shadow, and she watched her old life fall in to the arms of his. She watched a boy touching the face of a girl. She watched the girl reach out to touch him and she watched the boy pull away. She watched the boy disappear. She watched the girl disappear too.

The flood of memories disappeared in to the dark, absorbed by the shock of the man Ash had become.

He had grown tall—as tall as Brock—lean with muscle. His hair was shorter, but still untamed and unruly; as thick and black as the scales of his dragon. His face did not reveal any twitch or hint of emotion. Even as he stared at her, he watched her the way stone watches those who pass by it, with no regard.

Even then, out of all his physical changes, his eyes pierced Serena more than all the rest. They were no longer that golden-amber color, glowing the warmth of boyish innocence. They were no longer full. They were without reflection. They no longer belonged to a boy. Everything they saw was absorbed in to a hole, emptier than the voids formed in space. His eyes were colorless.

"Ash…"

Serena heard Brock whisper. She heard voices begin to rise, but she couldn't make sense of them. She felt hands shaking her and she felt the weight of Pikachu's unconscious body in her arms.

Ash was still watching her. His face began to soften until—

"Get out," Drifter ordered, as one with authority, "you have declared your war, now go."

With what looked to be great effort, Ash tore his eyes away from Serena and the face of stone returned.

He began to speak. In a voice deeper than she remembered, cold and void of any melodic intonation, he addressed the strange man:

"Drifter; man of many faces. My master has called for your death. I have been ordered to kill you. I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry," Drifter sighed, his eyes softened by the pain of a deep sorrow, "you are doing what you believe you must."

Ash kept his body rigid. "It's the only way I'll be free."

"Ash," the old man's voice broke in the way a father's would at the sight of his dying son, "he will never free you. He will never let you go."

A shadow fell over Ash's face. "He's promised."

"He'll promise the world and give you nothing but ashes, don't you get it? Why are you so afraid?"

"This is my fate," and there was a tremble. Serena saw Ash fight to stay focused, "I didn't choose this."

"You chose it the day you chose to fear," Drifter looked at Serena.

Ash followed his stare and Serena began to weep. She bit her lip to stifle the sobs in her throat, but one, and two, and three tears ran freely down her cheeks.

"I'm not afraid," Ash whispered, his eyes widening. He ripped them away from Serena again, and set them back on Drifter, who had a bright pokeball in his hand.

"Oh, but you are." Drifter released a Dragonite, as large as the Charizard and with scales as bright as his opponent's was dark. The pokeball returning to his hand then became a tall, luminous sword of yellow light. Drifter charged at Ash.

Ash jumped back with supernatural speed and drew a tall blue sword from his belt. He grabbed one of Charizard's horns and swung himself on to its neck.

Drifter leapt on to his Dragonite. He looked at the defenseless crowd of people scattered on the floor of the foyer and flew out of the castle, drawing Charizard's fire away from the others.

Ash took one last look at Serena, and the pokemon in her arms, before taking off towards the night sky in hot pursuit.

xxxxx

Brock stared after the dragons, as shocked as all the rest. He moved his mouth, but found that he could not formulate a sound. He crawled back on to his knees. He watched, through the hole in the castle where the doors should be, dragon fire sear the sky in bright blue and red flashes as hot and fast as lightning. He felt the ground tremble at the power of their sound, and picked up a piece of rattling glass off the floor to look at it in wonder.

The room had been shocked quiet. Whispers were beginning to form at the thundering battle raging outside. When pillar of fire struck close to the castle, someone screamed. Brock lifted his head to look around the debris.

"Brock!" Gary hissed, grabbing on to Brock's shoulder, "Snap out of it, we need to get out of here,"

Brock found Serena, lying on the floor a few feet away, Pikachu still in her arms. She was staring out in to the darkness, the way Brock imagined she would—pale from a stunning fear.

"Those pokemon," Gary watched the exchange of power light up the night, but was still shaking Brock to snap out of his daze, "those were not Mega's…they didn't have key stones, their pokemon weren't holding mega stones, and they were at least three times bigger than they should be. What the hell is going on?"

"Gary's right," Clemont coughed up some smoke from his nostrils and took out a small cloth to wipe the dust from his glasses, "those pokemon were Ultimates."

"Ultimates?" Gary echoed, shaking his head, "What do you know?"

"Hey! What's your problem?" Clemont groaned, sitting up from the floor uneasily. He flinched as a shock of pain webbed through his arm.

Brock rubbed his face and his eyes and his temples. Everything sounded so distant, like hollow reverberations swallowing him through a funnel. He looked at the Gary and then Clemont, and saw them arguing. At one point, Gary shoved Clemont over and the blonde retaliated with a tackle.

"Stop! Stop it, please!" Bonnie ran from Kaleb's side to break the two up, "Guys, that was Ash. Ash is back…after five years…he's back!"

"Yea, and he tried to make us all stir-fry just now," Gary growled, taking out a pokeball from his belt, "he's as good as dead."

"Are you crazy?" Kaleb snatched Gary's arm, struggling to hold him back. "You'll get your pokemon killed."

Brock stood up. He yanked Gary back by the collar and threw him down to the floor in a display of effortless strength.

"What the—?" Gary choked, grimacing up at the others, covered in dust and debris.

Brock pushed past everyone, careful to maneuver through the fallen pieces of stone and wood. He walked past the burning doors, lying in pieces off their hinges before the entrance to the castle, and searched for the dragons. He searched for Ash. He needed to see him again. He needed to make sure that he had been real.

It was too dark. Brock couldn't see anything but the silhouettes of the dragons flash by whenever they flew through explosions of fire. He fell back against the charred doorpost. People began running out of the castle, screaming and yelling and calling out their pokemon to fly them away or make a path through the swarms still flying within the storm.

Brock turned around and began walking back inside. He was bumped and jostled by the current swimming against him. Even Maximus Klein led a battalion of castle security out the front, Palermo tucked safe inside their ranks, and they pushed past guests and staff and pokemon as though they were swatting away flies. Brock returned to the center of the foyer, finding most of his companions still dazed on the floor.

"Where's Serena?" Brock asked, looking to where she had been, finding nothing. He whipped back to Clemont and the others, "Did you see where she went?"

"Brock, what's wrong with you?" Clemont tried grabbing his friend by the arm, but was overpowered, "you're acting like a psycho!"

Bonnie tugged on Brock's sleeve and pointed to the other end of the hall, "Serena's over there."

Brock squinted through the dark and saw Serena crouching near a small girl wearing dirty ribbons in her dusty hair. The girl was crying beside a large wooden beam, trying her hardest to lift it off of something. Serena, with Pikachu still in her arms, called on her Delphox and Sylveon to uphold the huge pillar long enough for a man underneath the debris to crawl out of his prison. The small girl ran up to, Brock assumed, her father, who thanked Serena before scooping his daughter up in to his arms and running with her out the door. Serena then moved towards a Mudkip and a Machop lying motionless on the floor. She had Sylveon heal them and the Pokemon jumped to life and ran, realizing they had been abandoned by their trainers, at the sound of the dragon fire.

"Kaleb, you're hurt!" Bonnie cried, seeing blood seep from a hole in the young trainer's sleeve.

Kaleb lift his arm, but gave a deep groan. Brock watched Clemont examine the wound and assessed that Kaleb had been wounded by a deep laceration on one of his triceps. The gym leader ripped a piece of tattered curtain he found on the floor and wrapped so tightly around the cut that Kaleb gnashed his teeth together in pain.

Look down at your belt…

Brock heard a voice invade his mind. He looked around and saw nothing but chaos, but the voice that had spoken to him just sounded like a summer wind. Heat vibrated from its tone. The broad-shouldered trainer looked down at his belt and noticed a Pokeball that hadn't been there before. It was glowing within a bright, red light.

Gather your friends…call upon the pokemon at your side and it will bring you to safety…you must hurry.

Without question, Brock ran over to Serena. He grabbed her by the arm and told her to return her pokemon. Her eyes, red and swollen, questioned him, but she did not have the energy to refuse. He led her back over to the others. Gary demanded to know what was going on now while Clemont continued to work on Kaleb's injury. Bonnie watched the scene, stricken with fear.

Before things could grow even more out of hand, Brock took hold of the pokeball glowing at his belt, and released it from his hands.

before

Serena could feel his breath on her neck. She could feel his fingers, light and timid at her stomach, moving down and around her waist. She could feel his body press against hers, hungry to feel her skin against his, but careful not to hurt her. She could feel his lips moving back up to her jaw, up to her ear, back down to the corner of her mouth.

She touched the sides of his face. She slid one hand under his cap, letting it fall off as she ran her fingers through his thick hair. She pulled his lips on to hers and felt herself soar under their heat. Her hands worked their way back down his neck to his shoulders, where she helped him out of his jacket.

And then out of his shirt.

He stopped to look down at her. His bright eyes, amber and glistening with nervous fear, meeting her in a fragment of frozen time. Serena only arched up to kiss his neck in response and he fell back down with her. She guided his hands to her skirt, to her cardigan, and then to the blouse underneath.

He kissed her again, so deeply she thought they'd melt together, right then, in to one person. Eventually, farther in to the night, they did.

Serena had been 17.

after

Serena was dreaming. She was dreaming about the moment she loved Ash, when she gave herself up to him. In her dream, she remembered thinking she could save him. She remembered thinking he would stay.

She remembered waking up and seeing the sunlight pour in to the window of his room, washing over her naked back, and still feeling cold. There had been a note on his side of the bed. She had read it and had begun to cry.

She remembered running to his closet. She remembered running downstairs.

She remembered finding everything gone.

So what's going to happen next? Where did our heroes end up?

Also, other questions that we should be thinking about:

What exactly happened to Ash? Something corrupted him...but how, why, and when?

And why couldn't he be saved? Why is he back now? Who is he possessed by?

Also, who is Drifter?