Hello Nuggies! Here it is! The awaited sequel to 'A Different Start' is here! As usual with my fics this is a SLASH fic, and there will be more slash in this fic than its predecessor. I hope y'all are ready! This one is gonna be a long one! I hope y'all are as excited to be here as I am!

Main Pairing: AshxPaul (Comashipping)

Rating: M

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to the Pokémon Franchise. It belongs to its rightful owner(s) and I make no profit writing this. This is just for entertainment purposes only.

Chapter Warning(s): A brief bit about pokémon abuse, but for educational purposes.

Enjoy!

The messages Ash read in the morning, once he picked up the phone, gave him some relief as none of them were emergencies, but also disbelief because of the first message he read. Lance sent him a message saying that they had found Giovanni and the man was nowhere near the Islands, meaning that the man he found in the store was, quite possibly, his father. He felt as though his heart just sank into the earth beneath his feet as the thought hit him. Ash was just a jumble of emotions that he didn't know what to feel about the whole situation. He had just found out that his Father was in fact alive and for some reason or another never returned home to him and his mother. He wondered who he could turn to about how he felt about this. Paul? Lance? His Mother? Did he just walk up to the man and tell him that Ash was his son and that his wife was grieving for a man she thought to be dead?

Pushing away the hundreds of questions that filled his head he focused on who else sent him messages. Riley would be arriving earlier than his mentor thought he would have and would end up at the house in the evening. Leaving Ash feeling like that at least one thing would finally be fixed and once again in his control.

The last message he had received was from Silver. The Egg he had been given from Gardevoir had finally hatched into a very healthy girl, and to no one's surprise, the baby was shiny just like her parents. He sent his thanks to Lance and sent an affirmative to Riley and said that he would meet his mentor in town before leading the man to his home. He vidcalled his cousin, who proudly showed off Eevee and Ralts. Eevee had grown a significant bit since Ash had last seen the kit and the Ralts reminded him so much of when Gardevoir was that small, minus the malnutrition and skinnier build she had when he had gotten her. Ash gave Silver advice on how to groom Ralts, to be careful of her horn and what products would be best for a baby psychic-type pokémon, but to cautioned him to also let Ralts have a say in what she liked. He couldn't wait to meet Ralts in person even though it would be a while before he did.

After getting off the vidcall he quickly got ready for the day. Jangmo-o, who had been in the room, perked up when he saw Ash getting up and Ash wondered why the little dragon was here by himself, but quickly pushed the thought away. At least the baby had been quiet while he was on the phone with Silver. He did notice that the baby dragon was getting better at not making a ruckus at the drop of a hat, and being self conscious enough that some actions cause more noise than others.

After finishing getting ready, Ash picked Jangmo-o up and scratched under the deaf dragon's chin as he pressed a kiss to the large head scale. He wasn't ready at all to start teaching Jangmo-o sign, but he was close. Ash had finally gotten the hang of the Kantonian Alphabet for finger spelling and started to learn other basic signs. He wanted to learn a bit more before he started to teach another person or pokémon any signs.

Once he was downstairs he greeted the pokémon that lounged around the living area as they waited for food. He quickly started to mix bowls of various pokéfood for the various types the two teens had before splitting the larger mixes into smaller portions for each creature. He knew, from the classes trainers had to take before starting their journeys, that having pokémon would be expensive, but he never thought that one day he would be spending a couple thousand dollars just to feed them for a couple of weeks. He also had never been more thankful for the fact that the Silph Company managed to create a device, much like a pokéball, that could hold and preserve pokémon food. He didn't want to even think about having to lug that much food around on his back.

With everyone eating Ash started to make food for himself and Paul, who had gotten up earlier to deal with some paperwork for his brother. Ash honestly couldn't wait to meet Reggie. Paul had told him so much about his brother that he felt like he would genuinely like the man. Reggie had raised Paul, since his boyfriend was six and Reggie was thirteen, after their parents passed away. Paul told him that they had no other family to rely but they got by on what money Reggie had gotten during his travels and the insurance payout from their parents after their deaths. They didn't go into foster care since Reggie was already seen as being an adult according to their laws, and had taken custody of Paul to keep from being separated from him.

To Ash, Reggie seemed like the kind of person he honestly wanted to strive to be.

Ash quickly finished making their late breakfast and after giving Paul his, along with a kiss on the cheek, he scarfed his down so he could get going. He was going to go to the school again today, upon invitation from Kukui, to shadow the class a bit and to help the man give a lesson on taking care of different types of pokémon, a lesson that was right up Ash's alley and one he would be happy to help in. He gathered all his pokemon and yelled to Paul that he was leaving and got a yell back to be carefull, which he always was, but trouble always seemed to find him anyway. Jangmo-o joined Pikachu and Rockruff in the car with the pup taking over to backseat while Pikachu preferred to take over the center console to be closest to Ash. The rattling of Jangmo-o scales moving from the wind didn't bother Ash as he drove and they honestly sounded a bit like windchimes.

The drive didn't take long to the school, the weather was great, and the drive uneventful, except for Jangmo-o getting a bit car sick. Ash had to finish the rest of the drive with a crying baby dragon in his lap refusing to move. At least Jangmo-o didn't get sick on him. Ash let Rockruff, Pikachu, and Jangmo-o down onto the grass as he cleaned the mess, grateful that he remembered he had gloves in his bag and paper towels in the back of the car. After that was all done Ash picked up Jangmo-o while Pikachu jumped up onto his shoulder as usual before walking into the school with Rockruff at his side. There was about half an hour before the class Kukui wanted his help in was to be taught, but he always was told to be early to something rather than to be late as being late was being rude.

As Ash rounded the side of the building, as the class was going to be held outside, he saw that the teens were already sitting at one of the picnic tables there with their own pokémon out and about around them. There was a small grey, white and yellow mouse, a small green and square bug, a blue seal, and Eevee with a funny haircut, a large reptile who had a large spiky shell, what looked to be a variant of Marowak, and a small Charizard, and a walking feminine plant that looked like a small girl with leaves for pigtails. Lillie was also there, sitting a bit away from the pokémon, but close to her friends with the Egg held close.

Ash was happy to see that she was getting more comfortable with the egg and hoped that it was giving her the much needed help and confidence to take care of the baby that hatched. Jangmo-o let out a squeak bringing attention of the group to them and it was just silent for a moment before the others walked over to greet him with Lillie staying where she was and waving to him. Ash smiled and waved back before his vision was filled with the other teens.

"What are you doing here?!" Mallow asked, excitement seemed to pour off her like an overly excited puppy pokémon.

"Kukui asked me to help with the lesson today," Ash answered as he adjusted Jangmo-o in his arms.

"I've never seen a Jangmo-o that looked like that!" Kiawe exclaimed while his hand twitched like he wanted to reach out and touch the baby soft white scales, but was restraining himself from it.

"Professor Juniper's father Cedric, who specializes in pokémon biology, said Jangmo-o was a black eyed leucistic Jangmo-o. If I remember what he told me the genetic mutation was caused when certain genetic lines came together to create him. His genetic testing showed that he had several shiny notes within his DNA helix and all of them came together in him making him turn out as he is." Ash explained as he ran his thumb over a hard clanging scale.

"Huh?" Lana asked as she tilted her head in confusion.

"His DNA showed that there were several shiny pokémon within his ancestry. It took several decades, but at one point all those shiny strands within Jangmo-o's DNA came together to mutate causing him to lose all his coloring and give him black eyes," Ash said, trying to simplify his previous words to help the other teens understand.

"Oh! Cool," Lana said with a slight nod to her head, but Ash could see that she was still a bit confused. Instead of trying to expand on the answer he had given he instead asked about the other pokémon around them. He was introduced shortly to the mouse Togedemaru, the small square bug Charjabug, the blue seal Popplio, Lana's Eevee Sandy, Turtonator, the Alolan Marowak, and of course the small Charizard, and last but certainly not least Steenee.

"I have a Charizard too!" Ash said as he started to study the large reptilian. The Charizard was smaller than his own, but no less weaker. He could tell from the musculature that the Charizard kept up his physique and his wing muscles seemed well toned.

"Really?!" Kiawe exclaimed, the normally stoic-esque look the teen had in his eyes gleamed in excitement.

"Yeah, unfortunately he's not with me at the moment. He's currently on loan to help breed Charmanders for the Ride Pokémon here. I'll have him back in a couple of weeks," Ash said as he looked at Kiawe a bit sheepishly, "I can show you some photos and videos of him until he's back with me though."

Before Kiawe could say anything Kukui appeared with a wooden box in his arms. Ash saw Kiawe nod at him though as if he did want to see the photos and videos of Charizard so he gave the darker skinned teen a nod back. Ash turned to watch Kukui place the box on the table beside the small group. Leaning over Ash could see that there were several pokéballs nestled into little depressions in the material.

"Thank you for coming Ash, do you have all your partners?" Kukui asked in which Ash nodded, "Fantastic! Okay class! Today we are going over something all of you should, at least, know the basics about. The upkeep of Pokémon! This time we are expanded what you all know, and while some of you are specializing in types, it is always good to know how to effectively take care of other pokémon of different types. Ash here has graciously accepted to let us use his partners to study and Principal Oak has given me a few extra for us to go over that have been in unfortunate circumstances."

"Unfortunate circumstances?" Sophocles asked as he raised his arm up but spoke before Kukui could call on him.

"Neglect," Kukui simply said, causing Ash to grimace. He always hated cases of abuse and/or neglect and he hoped that his own pokémon wouldn't get triggered by being near the others as they recovered. The other teens let out a collective noise of disgust at the notion of neglecting a pokémon.

"Lillie, while I would love to see you perhaps helping one of your friends as they cared for one of these pokémon, I do understand if you wanted to sit this lesson out. If you do, I want you to at least take notes and write a page or two for me so I know you understand the lesson," Kukui said kindly and Lillie nodded as she looked around. Ash was glad to see that Kukui wouldn't try to force Lillie into doing something she didn't want to, or couldn't, do.

"Now Ash, why don't you release your partners and introduce them!" Kukui said with a slight clap of his hands to bring everyone's attention back to him.

"Sure!" Ash said with a nod as he introduced the three already out of their balls. He made sure to tell the others that Jangmo-o wouldn't be participating in this lesson, but did tell them about him being deaf and how he has, so far, worked with him to make sure he was getting what he needed. The first of his partners that he released was Gardevoir, who gave the teens a twirl and a wave in greeting. The next was Krookodile, who scared the teens as he snarled and basked his tail on the ground as the crocodile usually did when released outside of a battle. The third pokémon he released with Ninetales, who sat primly beside him and yawned causing the air around her muzzle to mist a bit. The last of the partners he had was Persian, who had a big stretch that showed off her wickedly sharp claws and gleaming gem.

"This is Gardevoir, Krookodile, Ninetales, and Persian," Ash said introducing the four to the teens, "Gardevoir is a Shiny and Persian has a genetic mutation called Melanism causing all her fur and skin to become black.

"Does that mean she has black toe beans?" Mallow asked only to be answered by Persian simply lifting a paw showing off her, indeed, black toe beans. It seemed like even as a grass specialist no one could resist the call of the toe beans.

"What other pokémon do you have?" Sophocles asked, "Do you have any more electric types?"

"I do have other partners, they're all currently at Oak Pastures in Kanto, besides one who should by now be in the waters around Alola and another who is currently in one of the breeding facilities here," Ash answered, "I have Luxray, who is an electric type. I also have Aegislash, Nidoking, Charizard, Kingdra, Lucario, Zoroark, Tyrantrum, Leafeon, Snom, and Noivern." He had to leave out Mewtwo and Slither Wing, as one was a Legendary and the other he was under a NDA to not really speak about. He gave himself a reminder to head to a Center so he could retrieve Lucario just in case he was needed when Riley arrived.

"Do you have any other partners with a genetic mutation?" Lillie asked, her voice a bit soft, but heard clearly.

"I do! Charizard is an Albino, which is the exact opposite of Melanism while Lucario is half Albino. Aegislash is a Shiny like Gardevoir, and Leafeon, while hers isn't a genetic mutation, took on an orange autumn color because of the evolution stone she used was an orange Leaf stone. Lastly, my Noivern is a case of Adaptive Evolution."

"Adaptive Evolution?" Kukui asked to Ash's surprise as he thought a Professor like him would know about Adaptive Evolution.

"Professor Rowan can explain it a lot better than I can, but at some point while Noivern was still a Noibat something must have happened in its environment that changed it drastically and upon evolving Noivern had extra bits to help it in its new environment. It's similar to Regional Variants like Kantonian Vulpix and Alolan Vulpix," Ash explained, "Though Noivern would usually have the normal colorations of a Noivern, but his genetics took more of his father, Garchomp's, coloration and he's just all blue, all over."

Eventually they moved on from his partners to the box of pokéballs Kukui had brought. One by one the man released the creatures inside and one by one did Ash feel more shocked. Kingler, Nidoqueen, Arcanine, Blastoise, Dodrio, and Umbreon. All of Gary's current pokémon as far as he knew. Looking a bit more healthy than the last time he saw them, but still not up to standard. The crack Nidoking had given Blastoise in his shell was completely healed, but the damage was still noticeable. Dodrio had noticeable stress plucking while Arcanine was panting, drooling, and looking around anxiously. Kingler barely lifted their claws and plopped down where it was released as Nidoqueen, who was pretty skinny for their standard, sat next to Kingler. Umbreon simply sat there looking at them with no emotion in his eyes.

Ash took a deep breath as he pulled his phone out to message Oak. The old man never did tell him about what was going on with Gary and his pokémon, but then again he never asked the old man either. He tuned out Kukui as the man began to speak to his students about what he wanted them to do, what to look for, how to do it, and so on. It didn't take long for Oak to message him back.

'Dear me, I did forget to tell you, didn't I? We did have quite a bit going on at the time that it slipped my mind. After the conference I had Gary give me his partners and run long overdue medical tests on them. Needless to say, the results were deplorable and I, as a mandated reporter, had to report it to the right people. To say that I am ashamed of myself for not seeing it earlier is an understatement. I do blame myself for not watching Gary closer, not only as a Professor, but as his Grandfather and his Guardian. His punishment, given to him by a judge, was house arrest for a year and mandatory therapy as well as pay a hefty fine. His pokémon were signed over to me, and I sent them along to Samson to get away from any memories they may hold here and to be away from Gary as they too recover from what Gary had done to them. Samson has been giving me updates when they can, but if you could I would appreciate one from you as well just to make sure they really are recovering as they should be.'

Ash shook his head as he wrapped his head around the novel Oak had sent him. To think someone he had once been so close to could do this? He must be more naive than he had once thought. Of course he would give Oak an update of the group and quietly asked Kukui for a moment with them after class had ended so he could do so. The rest of the class time was spent helping the other teens learn how to groom various other pokémon and how to see the physical signs of neglect and/or abuse.

Ash told them about his own experiences with finding signs without outing his own partners just in case they didn't want others to know about it. He knew a few of them had just wanted to put their pasts behind them and not think of them again, and he respected their wishes. Soon enough though the class began to wind down with Kukui giving his students some homework making Ash glad that he wasn't in school anymore and that he had a job that didn't require for him to continue on learning in a school setting. As much as he loved to learn, he didn't like school.

With the other teens on their own ways, Ash began his own examination of Gary's partners. He kept it short and brief seeing as they just had half an hour of other teens prodding at them every which way and Gardevoir was an Arceus send as she told him what they were thinking or talking about. All in all it seemed like they were all recovering well, even the silent Umbreon, the only pokémon that didn't tell Gardevoir anything. He wondered if the dark pokémon was just shy, but after looking into his eyes and not seeing a single emotion, it was clear that Umbreon had checked out mentally and was just going through the motions automatically.

With his examinations over he locked his phone, where he had taken notes, and stuffed it into his pocket. He would write a detailed report when he returned to the summer house and email it to Oak with emphasis about Umbreon on the report. It concerned him, even more so when he didn't have his Aura to gauge how the Eevee Evolution really was. He thanked Kukui before gathering his own partners to leave. Ash did make one stop at the Center after remembering his mental note and retrieved Lucario from Oak.

He spent the rest of the afternoon writing the report and sending it to Oak before spending time with Paul. The two made tentative plans for a beach date depending on what Riley says about his Aura and started to meal prep for the next day. Ash put together his Mother's famous cinnamon rolls to bake in the morning while Paul chopped some chicken to pan sear for sandwiches. The rest of the time was spent, after food prepping, going over the training plans he had made before his coma. He revised some, scrapped others, and made whole new plans for those he didn't have a plan for. He did ask Oak if it would be a good idea to send Charizard to Charicific Valley, after a bit of a break, with Oak's Charizard the next time the old lizard went and Oak had nothing but praises for the reserve.

It was a place for Charizard to gather to learn from the older Charizard, to battle among their own kind, and to get stronger. It was a Region Protected Reserve for the rare pokémon and had caretakers as well as security in the case of poachers coming to harm the pokémon. Ash thought it sounded well, so well in fact that he was very seriously contemplating on sending Charizard there for a bit even though he would miss Charizard. Ash didn't know what was going to happen in the future, but he did know that he needed to get his partners stronger to face what may come.

A ding from his phone alerted him to a message and once he read it he jumped up. He shouted to Paul, who had been upstairs to fill the bathtub with water for Vaporeon, that he was going to get Riley and that he would be back as soon as he could. He got a yell back that dinner would be done when they got back and hurried to leave with Pikachu. Ash hurried down the stairs and into the car before taking off. Even though he made sure to still obey the law, it felt as though he arrived at his destination much sooner than he usually did.

Ash looked around for a moment for the man. Riley said that he would be standing by one of the totem poles outside of the small airport and sure enough the man was. His mentor, wearing the same suit and hat he had seen Riley in the first time he met his mentor, stood stiffly by the totem pole with his Lucario at his side and a bag hanging from his shoulder. As the man walked nearer Ash could see a newly healed scar along his jaw and wondered what happened and if the man was injured anywhere else.

"Evening," Riley said with a tip of his hat as he opened the back door for Lucario and placed his bag on the floorboard, "Thank you for picking me up. I was prepared to either make the journey on foot or get a rental myself."

"Evening," Ash parroted back in greeting, "It's no problem. You're here to help me after all and picking you up and letting you stay with us is the least I could do."

"Nonetheless, thank you," Riley said after closing the door, giving Ash a silent signal that he was ready to get going.

"Are you injured any? I noticed the healing cut on your jaw," Ash asked as he turned the car onto the main road to start their journey back to the house.

"I'm perfectly fine. No other injuries. Now, your Aura," Riley began to say as Ash picked up speed, "you're still unable to see it? Use it?"

"Yeah. No amount of meditation I've done shows me my Aura any longer. I've gone to my core and it's still empty. It's all black space and I can't feel anything to even try to gather," Ash said with a deep breath that he slowly released. He saw Riley nod from his peripheral.

"I have a theory about what is going on, but I'd like to meditate with you when we get to the house just to confirm if I am right or not," Riley told Ash who nodded and told him that Paul would have dinner done by the time they got back if the man wanted to eat before they meditated. With a plan in place the two fell silent for the rest of the ride. The drive going back to the house seemed to stretch for forever as opposed to when he was leaving to pick Riley up, but soon enough he was parking the car and leading the man and pokémon up the stairs and into the house.

As Paul said, he did indeed have food ready for them and was working on food for the pokémon, in which his boyfriend made plenty for any pokémon Riley may have. Lucario was gracious to get a portion of food and the little Riolu, a small pup, that Riley had released was ecstatic for the food. Riley explained to Ash that Riolu would one day go to Aster once the small boy was fully healed and Riolu had a bit of training. It was unfortunate that Aster couldn't hatch Riolu on his own, like an Aura Guardian Trainee, but Ash did feel better that Aster would get a partner that already had some training to better protect the small boy.

The couple that had taken Aster in given regular reports to the Queen, who in turn gives them to Riley whenever the man was able to visit Rota. The physical injuries have all healed, but the mental and emotional ones remain. At least Aster's new guardians have found someone Aster could talk to, to help heal from those invisible wounds. Despite that, Aster was a happy, hyper, and very smart little boy.

The simple meal Paul had made was quickly devoured and the time had come for Ash to finally get some type of answers. Riley asked Paul to sequester the other pokémon away just to make sure that the four, Riley and his Lucario with Ash and his own Lucario, wouldn't get disturbed. With a bit of grumbling from the pokémon, Paul was able to get them out of the room leaving the four on their own. Riley took four pillows off the couch and placed them on the floor for them to sit on.

"I want you to meditate like you usually do," Riley said as he settled on one of the pillows while gesturing to the pillow in front of him, "I'll follow you down to your core."

Ash gulped as he settled and nodded. Before he closed his eyes he saw Riley's Lucario settling on the pillow by his trainer while he felt his own settle on the pillow beside him. He felt a warm furry paw rest of his shoulder before he fell into a simple easy meditation. As usual his core was dark and empty. Ash was just barely able to see his own hands and was surprised to see Riley as clear as day beside him. He didn't know if Riley was able to do that before, but he didn't let it distract him from what they were really here to do. His eyes followed Riley's form as it simply floated around the abyss.

Ash followed the man when Riley gestured for him to do so and was shocked when Riley took his hand and guided it to touch something. It felt cold against his palm and like glass, but Ash was very easily able to feel it shudder against his hand. He was about to ask Riley what it was when his Mentor sent out a gentle burst of Aura against it. The bright blue aura danced along the glass like form and from far below them Ash could see something sparkling in the darkness.

Just below them was one of the small golden balls he had seen in his coma.

He turned to Riley, he would have spoken if his voice didn't seem to be stuck in his throat, only to see that Riley had moved a bit further away. Ash willed his body to move towards his Mentor and saw that Riley was doing something with his Aura. Just below his hands, which were a few inches away from the glass, was a crack. It wasn't large, but it was gapping. He watched as Riley used his Aura to fill in the crack, seemingly closing it off before moving on to another, and then another, and then another, until they had gone fully around the, now could be seen, glass sphere.

Ash looked around at all the cracks, filled in with soft blue Aura, and did his best to not break down. His core, that was what the sphere was, was so broken. How would he ever be able to use Aura again? He turned to Riley, who held a sad smile on his face, and saw the man disappear, which Ash took as a sign to leave the meditation. Before he did so, Ash took one last look at his core, and at the very center was a small twinkling gold orb.

"My theory was right," was the first thing Riley said to him after he got out of meditation, "but it is fixable."

"What happened?" Ash asked as he placed his hand on his chest as if he could physically touch his core.

"At the end of that battle," Riley began as he visibly took a deep breath, "you said you felt as though something in you snapped. That snapping was your core. I've read about it a few times in different books, about Aura users going past their limits and breaking their cores. Some were irreparable while others took time, but were able to heal stronger than ever. In your case, your core can heal. It just needed some help in closing the cracks so it could replenish and heal itself the rest of the way."

"So I'm okay now? I can use Aura again?" Ash asked as almost overwhelming relief filled him.

"Once your core heals, then yes. You will be able to use Aura again."