I'd Sacrifice My Happiness for You – An AdvanceShipping/Pokémon Story
Chapter 7 – Why Throw it All Away?
Dawn, Misty and Max followed Team Rocket through the streets of Vaniville Town to a small farmhouse for rearing Rhyhorn.
This was it, Max thought to himself. Time for Serena to regret the day she chose to mess with his sister and the guy she loves.
As they reached the door, Team Rocket fled to the side, telling the trio that they'll wait until Serena's out of her house. Misty rang the doorbell. An older woman, presumably Serena's mother, answered and opened the door.
"Hello." she said. "My name is Grace. How may I help you?"
Misty stepped forward and introduced them. "Hi. My name is Misty. I'm the Gym Leader of Cerulean City-."
"A Gym Leader?! And from the Kanto Region too?!" Grace exclaimed. "What an honour. My daughter used to travel with a Gym Leader. She used to also travel with someone from Kanto. And your friends here?"
"I'm Dawn. I'm a Co-ordinator from Twinleaf Town. And this is my partner, Piplup."
"And I'm Max, from Petalburg City."
"You're all from different regions? And yet you're all friends?" Grace exclaimed.
"That's right." Misty answered, "You see, we're all friends with someone who we believe had travelled with your daughter. You said she had travelled with someone from Kanto, right?"
"Right." Grace said. "And she's currently hanging out with a friend from Hoenn right now. I believe you said you're from Hoenn, Max."
"Yep." Max answered.
"Nice. The Kanto Trainer my daughter had travelled with was called Ash Ketchum, whom she was QUITE attached to. Is that your friend?" Grace asked.
They all nodded their heads in response.
"SERENA!" Grace called out to her daughter. "You've got some visitors. They say they're Ash's friends from other regions. and bring your Hoenn friend down here with you. One of his friends is from Hoenn too."
Serena walked down the stairs nervously, with her friend right behind her. Ash's friends from other regions? One of them from Hoenn? She really hoped that Hoenn friend wasn't May but maybe one of his rivals he had potentially made friends with during the Hoenn League. She could only hope.
Dawn, Max and Misty waited patiently for Serena to come down. Eventually, she did, accompanied by a tall guy, with long, green, hair, and a hat that made him look like a Cacturne. Unfortunately, Max recognised him.
"Harley!" Max exclaimed. He should've known they'd run into him eventually. After all, he was involved in this scheme too.
"Ah! So you've met Harley, Max? He's such a nice guy." Grace said.
"Yeah." Max said sarcastically under his breath. Harley has played this 'I'm a nice person' card before, he thought to himself, and it had always resulted in him trying to ruin and humiliate his sister.
"It seems like you kids have a lot to catch up on." Grace continued. "Why don't you all head outside? I'll stay here and let you all be."
Serena gave her mother a look, as if saying it would be her mother to abandon her when she needed her the most. The two groups headed outside.
As soon as Serena had closed the door behind her, Team Rocket jumped out of their hiding place and began reciting their motto.
"Prepare for Trouble! It's Payback Time!"
"Make it Double! You've stepped out of line-"
"YOU GUYS AGAIN?!" Serena and Harley interrupted.
"EXCUSE ME, KALOS TWERPETTE!" Jessie yelled at the Performer. "You have NO RIGHT to interrupt the Team Rocket Motto!"
"Besides, we're with them!" James chimed in, pointing to Dawn, Misty and Max.
"Really Max?" Harley retorted, "I thought you HATED them."
"Oh, trust me. I DO." Max replied, "This is just a temporary convenience."
"And you call yourselves Ash's friends?" Serena retorted, "Backstabbing him by teaming up with his most annoying enemies who've spent YEARS trying to catch his Pikachu?"
"Oh, you have NO right in lecturing us about backstabbing Ash, teaming up with his enemies, and stealing his Pokémon, Serena!" Dawn fired back. "We know you and Harley here are, alongside Trip, the criminal masterminds behind theirs and May's Pokémon's kidnapping!"
"Yeah!" Misty joined in. "That's why we're here! To give YOU a piece of our minds and to find them!"
"Well, isn't this nice?" Harley smirked, "You came all this way for revenge."
"More like teaching you two a lesson on Ash and May's behalf!" Dawn responded.
"Harley, I knew you took pleasure in trying to ruin my sister." Max said, "But I NEVER in a million years believed even YOU would go THIS FAR!"
"Are you THAT cynical towards us that you'd hire OUR GREATEST ENEMIES, BUTCH AND CASSIDY?!" Jessie chimed in. "Talk about teaming up with the enemy."
"NOT NOW, TEAM ROCKET!" The five trainers yelled at the trio.
The two groups continued their argument.
"I just thought Ash and I had something!" Serena pleaded.
"You did." Misty answered. "You had a great friendship, which you've potentially ruined by stealing ALL of his Pokémon AND by threatening the girl he LOVES!"
Dawn turned to Harley. "And you've got A LOT OF EXPLAINING TO DO, YOU JERK!"
"Ah, Dawn. Now I remember you." Harley tried to change the subject. "You're the Co-ordinator who humiliated May by defeating her in the Wallace Cup in Sinnoh. I saw the whole thing on TV."
"I DIDN'T humiliate her!" Dawn responded, angry at this guy's big ego. "We had a friendly-rivalry battle that was fair and square. You probably wouldn't know what THAT'S like because you probably don't have ANY friends! Besides, she travelled all the way from Johto and competed in the Wallace Cup! YOU DIDN'T! That already makes her a better and more hard-working Co-ordinator than you! You tried ruining her life because you CAN'T handle defeat!"
"YEAH! YOU'RE WORSE THAN US!" Meowth chimed in.
"Look, Serena." Misty told the Performer. "For a very brief time, I too thought I had feelings for Ash. But I quickly realised he was more like the little brother I never had. Kind of like May and Max. I then became happy that he and I are close friends, and he sees you as a great friend too. So why throw all that away?"
Serena took Misty's words to heart. She realised that Misty and Dawn were right. She had let her jealousy towards May get the better of her, and she had allowed her jealousy to magnify by taking up, what she now realised was, bad advice.
"You're… you're right." She admitted, starting to cry. "I'm… I'm sorry. I just really wanted Ash to see me as more than a friend. Sometime after I had left him, Clemont and Bonnie, I had gotten a letter from him saying that he appreciated my honesty about my feelings for him, but he didn't feel the same way, but that I was just a great friend of his. I was sad that that's all he saw me as, even after everything we had been through together, and had ended up pouring out my heartbreak out loud unknowingly at the Pokémon Centre in Slateport City in Hoenn. That's when I had met Harley and Trip. I had told them my whole story, and they told me they knew Ash too, and their respective histories with him in Hoenn, Kanto and Unova. Harley told me he had feelings for his rival, May-"
"How did you figure that out anyway, Harley?" Max interrupted.
"Oh, it was quite obvious." Harley answered cockily. "The way they looked at each other, how supportive and defensive Ash was over her that he was able to snap her out of her rage towards me during the first Contest we had met, to him often training with her. It didn't take too long for me to put two and two together. At first, I thought May and Drew had feelings for each other, but I eventually saw how much May and Ash cared about each other more, and how strong their bond really was."
"Anyway," Serena continued, "that's when Nurse Joy came to us, and we had told her out stories. She had told us that if we're so mad at Ash and May, we should make them feel miserable, and suggested we come up with a plan to make sure they NEVER get the chance to be together, and make them the unhappiest they've ever been. Trip and I were hesitant at first, believing that idea would be too extreme, but Harley liked it a lot, reminding us of how much they had taken away what we had wanted, so we should take away what they wanted, which was each other. In hindsight, I had really let my jealousy towards May and my anger at Ash for not looking at me as more than a friend consume me. You're right, Misty. I should've been happy he still saw me as a great friend."
"Nurse Joy gave you THAT idea?" Misty reacted to Serena's explanation, not convinced in the slightest. "I find it VERY hard to believe that ANY Nurse Joy would give such advice to ANYBODY. Are you SURE it was a Nurse Joy?"
"She certainly looked and sounded like her." Serena responded.
"Unless.. No! It can't be!" Max thought.
Dawn, Misty, Serena, Harley and Team Rocket turned to Max, puzzled by his implications. He then ran to the Vaniville Town Pokémon Centre, with the others close behind him, wondering who he was thinking had suggested that to Serena, Harley and Trip.