The Elite Four battles took place in the same, familiar stadium, but after the crowd had left, and Ash waited outside a few minutes before his appointment.

"This is going to be so weird," he said, softly.

"Yeah," Pikachu agreed.

He was back to his customary position on Ash's back, but offering commentary was all he was going to be doing today. His new way of accessing extra power might have had the potential to make him stronger, or tougher, but right now all it had really done was give him new and exciting ways to become completely exhausted.

And that meant Ash was going into an important battle without even the option of using Pikachu.

"I'm sorry I can't help either," Latias sighed. "I can't really help much with any of the Elite Four, can I?"

"They're not a great set of types for you," Ash said, frowning. "But Sidney is probably the worst because you fly through psychic powers. Your Mystical Fire could still help against Glacia, for example… still, I guess that's for us to decide after this battle."

Pikachu shrugged, the movement making him bounce up and down on Ash's back slightly. "That's how types work out sometimes, right?"

"Yeah," Ash agreed.

They still had a bit of time before he was meant to enter the arena, and he glanced back at Pikachu. "Are you sure you're okay with this whole… Noble… thing?"

"Ask me again when I know how to use it," Pikachu advised.

Ash tried not to react, but something must have shown, and Pikachu shook his head. "I didn't mean… Ash, I just meant that I haven't been able to use it yet, so I don't know what it's like to use it. But – from what you said, what Unown said, it happened because we were so closely connected. And that I don't regret at all."

That made Ash smile, slightly.

"Thanks, Pikachu."

"Any time," his starter replied.

Then they entered the arena – together.

"Okay, so I looked you up, kid, and you haven't had any formal Elite Four battles yet," Sidney began. "No worries, everyone begins that way sometime, it's a great honour to be here, yada yada."

"Sidney," Steven said, trying not to laugh. "If you're going to try and give the Elite Four some mystery you need to… actually give them some mystery."

"Nah, that's more of Phoebe's thing," Sidney said, then paused and thought about that. "...Glacia's thing? Maybe?"

Latias had both paws over her muzzle to stifle a giggle.

"Anyway," Sidney said. "On to the actual… you know, topic. So, this is a Full Battle. Six Pokémon a side. There's currently no restrictions on what Pokémon you use, except for the way you have to lock in your choice before you come in. I hope you did that?"

"He did," Phoebe confirmed, giving a thumbs-up. "No hints from me, though."

"All right!" Sidney said, expanding out a Pokéball. "Let's have some fun!"

Ash floated his first Pokéball up as well, then the two of them sent them out.

For his first choice, and in lieu of Pikachu, Ash had picked Miraidon, while Sidney opened with a Scrafty.

"I'm looking forward to this," Steven said, then waved his hands. "Okay, begin!"

Miraidon activated their Electric Terrain straight away, throwing an electrical field across the arena floor.

"Thunderbolt!" Ash called.

The Scrafty sprang into the air, evading the first blast of the attack, and Sidney pointed. "Brick Break!"

Scrafty did not use Brick Break.

Instead, the Dark-and-Fighting-type crashed down on the ground next to Miraidon, releasing an explosion of flames which washed over Miraidon, and the Electric-type yelped as they caught fire.

"Miraidon, are you okay?" Ash asked, then overrode himself. "Discharge, quick!"

Miraidon's eye screens had switched from normal to shocked, then they switched again to determination, and they pulsed out an omnidirectional blast of electricity.

Scrafty was already dodging, but not fast enough, and when the electrical blast washed over him it revealed that he wasn't a Scrafty at all – but a Zoroark.

"Dark-type, baby!" Sidney said. "Night Daze!"

"Get up speed and dodge!" Ash called, wincing as the extra speed Miraidon put on only made the flames whipping behind them more apparent.

It was obvious right away that Sidney fully deserved his position in the Elite Four, and Ash leaned forwards slightly in concentration.

This was going to be a lot of work.

Miraidon took a repeated hammering from Zoroark, the Dark-type darting in and throwing Night Daze attacks at them to keep them off-balance as the flames weakened them, but eventually the Electric-type managed to catch their opponent in a double Thunderbolt attack.

That was about as much as they could manage, though, and Ash recalled them as they sank to the floor in a state of total exhaustion.

"You did great," he told them, then frowned slightly as he thought.

Sidney sent out his own Pokémon, which was probably a real Scrafty this time.

With Zoroark out of the fight… he had some options, but right now the best choice seemed to be – "Koraidon!"

"Yeah, you know what to do," Sidney waved vaguely at Scrafty, and the lizard flicked a rude gesture back at her trainer before folding her arms and sticking her tongue out at Koraidon.

"Um," Koraidon said, glancing back at Ash. "That's… rude, right?"

"Yeah, it is!" Ash agreed. "Watch out, it might be a trick!"

"Good eye!" Sidney agreed. "Not always right, though, or it's be obvious!"

He pointed. "Foul Play!"

"Flamethrower and dodge up!" Ash replied, and Koraidon exhaled a jet of flame as she sprang into the air. Her wings unfurled, giving her height, and Scrafty's attack missed.

The other Fighting-type wasn't done, though, turning her lunge into a handspring. She went spinning around on her palms, building up momentum, then hurled herself into the air for a High Jump Kick.

Koraidon dodged as best she could, avoiding the main impact, but that hadn't been what Scrafty was after in the first place. Instead she grabbed on to Koraidon's wing, swinging in close, and hit her with the Foul Play attack she'd been preparing in the first place.

Koraidon might have been Fighting-type, but that attack hit hard nonetheless as it was fuelled by her own strength. She yelped, then did a roll, and while it meant she sort of wobbled down to a landing it was better than the crash as Scrafty hit the ground.

"Hoped that would work," Sidney muttered, then raised his voice as Scrafty stood again. "Outrage!"

"Dodge away, quick!" Ash shouted.

Despite the opening, Koraidon managed to beat Scrafty, then went up against the third Pokémon Sidney had available – a brightly coloured Muk, who accelerated himself to blazing speed with a Rock Polish before glooping in close and firing jets of gunk at Koraidon.

Then he set them on fire with Flamethrower.

The clashing explosion colours made it hard for Ash to see what was going on, not impossible but hard, and he didn't realize that Muk had also been using Shadow Sneak to poison Koraidon until she came bounding over to ask why she was feeling funny.

"That's going to be a problem," Pikachu said.

"Yeah," Ash agreed, thinking. "Uh… okay, Koraidon, time to give your next teammate an easier run, okay?"

"Got it!" Koraidon agreed, then looked around. "Muk's coming!"

"Sunny Day!" Ash said, so that the sunlight would last as long as possible once Koraidon left the field. "Then – Iron Head!"

Koraidon charged back into battle, hitting the oncoming Muk with a high speed Iron Head attack, and Ash glanced at the third Pokémon he was going to use.

Out of the ones he had left to use, he would get the most benefit from Sunny Day.

By now, Ash was really hoping that Sidney was out of Pokémon whose job was to hit one of his team with something that weakened them over time, and wait.

It wasn't that he was complaining about it, so much as that it felt more like a Poison-type thing than a Dark-type thing… even if a big part of Dark-type moves was being sneaky and underhanded.

Koraidon had hit Muk hard, but not quite hard enough to knock them out, and Ash sent out his next Pokémon – Cyndaquil.

"Flamethrower!" he called, and Cyndaquil spat out a spear of flame that caught the approaching Poison-type and engulfed them in reddish-orange fire.

Sydney recalled the multi-coloured Pokémon, and chuckled. "Heh… not bad so far. But you might have trouble with the next guy – Crawdaunt, let's teach 'em a lesson! Aqua Jet!"

Crawdaunt launched themselves forwards, and Ash pointed. "Left – Wild Charge, as fast as you can! Keep it up!"

Sparks fizzed off Cyndaquil's paws as he ran, his flame quills bursting up and subsiding again every second or so as the little Pokémon tried to get just a little more speed, and Ash directed him to turn – left, first, then right, tracing a path across the arena.

He was staying just ahead of the rapidly-running Dark-type, which was great, but…

"He can't keep this up for long, can he?" Latias fretted.

"Yeah," Ash agreed. "Now, swerve hard right! Keep swerving!"

Cyndaquil turned across his own path.

Sidney blinked. "Wait – stop!"

His order came too late, because he hadn't questioned why Cyndaquil had been using Wild Charge. Sure, it might have given Crawdaunt a shock if or when the Rogue Pokémon caught up with Cyndaquil, but more importantly it also meant that when Cyndaquil crossed his own path he also crossed the path of water that Crawdaunt had left behind.

The shock conducted itself back into Crawdaunt, who went "OW!" quite loudly, and skidded to a halt as his high-speed run abruptly halted.

"Now!" Ash added. "Jump on Crawdaunt and use Wild Charge again!"

He wasn't sure how much longer Koraidon's Sunny Day was going to last without being refreshed, but Cyndaquil was doing brilliantly so far.

And it was Ash's job to work out what to do next.

Cyndaquil managed to evade just before Crawdaunt snagged him in a pair of pincers, then ran circles around Crawdaunt for another few minutes with quick turns rather than raw speed, but eventually the inevitable came and Crawdaunt managed to hit Cyndaquil with a no-longer-underpowered Whirlpool attack that trapped him in place.

One Crabhammer later, and Ash withdrew his Fire-type to switch out for Grovyle.

"Razor Leaf!" he called, and Grovyle blurred past Crawdaunt – firing a cloud of Razor Leaves at close range, then pulling away again.

To Ash's surprise – and gratification – that was enough to sort Crawdaunt out. All of Cyndaquil's Wild Charges had done so well against Crawdaunt that it was as if Cyndaquil had beaten Crawdaunt more-or-less by himself.

"Hmm," Sidney said, contemplating two Pokéballs, then shrugged and threw one out. "Your job, sweetheart!"

A Mightyena landed on the field.

"Finally!" Max shouted from the stands, and Ash and Latias both snorted as they tried not to laugh.

"Fire Fang!" Sidney began.

"Extremespeed!" Ash advised, and Grovyle blurred out of range of the attack. "Now, Razor Leaf!"

"Incinerate!" Sidney said, and the incoming leaves burst into flame.

Ash was very relieved now that Cyndaquil had managed to wait out the entire Sunny Day.

When Grovyle managed to defeat Mightyena, putting Sidney down to just one Pokémon, Ash was practically dancing on his hooves with nerves – it had been the most intense battle he'd had in months, already, and it wasn't even over yet!

Then Sidney held up his final Pokéball, and sent out an Absol… and Mega Evolved her.

And suddenly, despite how the battle had gone so far, Ash felt like he was on the back foot all over again.

Mega Absol beat Grovyle, her blade flashing as she intercepted him and used an X-Scissor to defeat him, then went up against Swellow.

The Flying-type slashed back and forth, using his Extremespeed and Boombursts to hit Mega Absol without engaging her directly, but Mega Absol's reactions were incredibly fast and more than once Ash had to snap out a warning to Swellow to abort his attack run.

The first time Swellow slipped up, he got electrocuted by Shock Wave, but that just made him faster as he powered right through it. That was the only time Mega Absol tried that, though, and eventually she caught him with a Feint Attack that concealed her true intentions until it was too late for Ash to warn or Swellow to evade.

Swellow crashed in a slithering impact that took him halfway across the arena, leaving a panting but still hale Mega Absol, and Ash waited long enough to see if the tough Flying-type would pull himself up for one last attack – then recalled him.

And took his bags off.

"Huh?" Sidney asked. "What's this about? Hey, Phoebs, what's his final Pokémon?"

"I'm not supposed to tell you that," Phoebe pointed out.

"Yeah, but I'm on my last Pokémon!" Sidney defended himself. "It's not like I can do anything with it!"

Latias flipped open Ash's badge case for him, and Ash looked for a moment.

"She used Psycho Cut, right?" he asked Pikachu and Latias.

"I saw it, yeah," Pikachu confirmed.

Ash nodded, then took his Togepi Kingdom medal, and changed to Fairy-type.

"I'm my last Pokémon!" he explained, passing his hat to Pikachu as the Electric-type switched to Latias's back. "Pikachu's going to be giving me warnings about stuff I can't see, though, if that's okay?"

"Yeah, sure," Sidney said, still sounding not quite sure how to take it. "If you say so, I guess you are a Pokémon… Absol, Psycho Cut!"

Ash burst forwards in an Extremespeed attack, hitting Mega Absol as she was still preparing her Psycho Cut attack, and knocked her backwards. Then he fired a Dragon Pulse as well, though by that point Mega Absol's Psycho Cut was ready and she slashed the attack in half.

And hit Ash with a Thunderbolt.

Lightning flowed around Ash's ring, sparking off it as he did his best to throw off the attack, then Pikachu called a warning and Ash saw that Mega Absol was loping forwards at a dead run.

Turning, Ash used Extremespeed again – this time to get distance – and shot a Flamethrower at her, then began trying to learn how to use Dazzling Gleam very quickly.

When the battle came to an end, after Ash had used Recover so many times he'd lost count and been hit by every single move in Mega Absol's arsenal (usually at least twice), it took him several seconds to really realize how it had ended.

He'd managed to learn Dazzling Gleam in time, but even using it hadn't been enough to stop the Dark-type. She'd taken three hits from Dazzling Gleam, on top of everything else, to go down – and Ash's coat burned, his ring ached, it felt like he couldn't have managed a single extra Recover that day.

And he'd won.

"Damn, kid," Sidney said, shaking his head as he returned his Dark-type. "Now that was a battle and a half. You're all right, you hear?"

He paused. "No, seriously, you hear? I've never had to talk to a trainer who's been in a battle like that before."

"I hear you," Ash confirmed. "I'm just… still a bit overwhelmed?"

"Congratulations, Ash!" Latias cheered, returning Pikachu to his customary position, then wincing as the extra weight made Ash stagger slightly from fatigue. "Um… sorry, I'll just keep your bags and things…"

"Is it okay if I… don't challenge the rest of the Elite Four?" Ash asked, looking up at Sidney. "At least not yet? After that… I don't really think I'm ready yet."

"Up to you, man," Sidney declared. "No skin off my nose, you've got past me, after all."

AN:

"Elite Four Member" is a weighty title.