Hello everyone, something I forgot to mention in the last chapter is that this is actually my first ever posted fanfiction.
It is also being posted on AO3 alongside each other
I wanted to do a twist on the well known Ash died?!? Story as most I've read seem to have everyone believe that Ash is dead or take Serena along with him. I'm taking this in a different direction as even though both are "dead" even they believe the other is dead. I didnt expect to have any even reads in the first day but I want to thank those who've already followed both me and the story and hope I can give you the story you came for. Now for the fic.
-Face
Garchomp settled down in the grass on a hill just outside of Lumiose city. The journey from Mount Silver had taken around a week, with only 3 days in the air.
They had been delayed a few days when Gliscor had been knocked out of the air by a group of Peliper and Wingull who had decided that they were a group of easy pickings and had fired water pulses and hydro pumps at them, causing Gliscor to protect Ash and Pikachu, leading to it to almost faint due to the large amount of super effective damage it had taken.
This had prompted all of Ash's flying types to leave their Pokéballs, making easy work of the relatively weak group of water-flying types whilst allowing Ash to move from Gliscor to Noivern. The group had then settled down in Hoenn to allow Gliscor to heal for a couple of days.
When they had finally got back into the air, Pikachu had stayed on high alert, shooting weak thunderbolts at any nearby Pokémon, to dissuade any potential attackers.
Ash thanked Garchomp, then returned him, placing his Pokéball inside the cloak he had made to hold all the extra Pokéballs that weren't attached to his belt.
He carefully studied his costume, making sure that it didn't have anything that could reveal his true identity. The blue cloak sat on his shoulders, the blue accented black t-shirt slightly visible. On top of his head was a black and navy blue hat, one that mirrored the one that Sir Aaron had worn during his time as Aura Guardian.
It would be obvious to those who knew about aura guardians what he was but he knew that old children's stories would prevent them from approaching him, not that he'd be willing answer any questions anyway.
He checked the poster that he had found whilst foraging in Unova, the Tournament was in a couple days time and you'd have to visit any Pokémon centre in Kalos to put forward your team's application.
Nodding at Pikachu the duo took their first steps into any city or town in 3 years. They continued forward, walking around trying to navigate the confusing streets of Lumiose.
"Ok Pikachu, if I'm not mistaken then the Pokémon centre should be just around here"
Pikachu sweatdropped at this. It was already the tenth time he had said that. There were 3 different Pokémon centres and they couldn't find a single one.
"Told ya", Ash said pointing at the Pokémon centre before them, suprising the small electric mouse. "Its quite busy isn't it buddy?", he asked pointing at the crowded interior as they pushed their way through the door, in between groups of trainers of every size as they made it to the front desk.
"Welcome to the Pokémon centre. Would you like me to take your Pokémon or are you here to submit an application for the upcoming tournament?", she said, in the cheery voice he remembered from all those years ago.
"I'd like to submit an application please."
"Of course". She handed him a sheet of paper and a pen which he took with a thanks before walking to the nearest free table filling in all the necessary information and nothing more. He was thankful that you only needed to leave a name and a list of all the Pokémon you had to use in the Tournament. You had to have a minimum of 12 Pokémon which he easily cleared.
He then returned the form with another thanks before wrestling his way back through the crowd. He had just made it outside when he heard a familiar voice.
"Hurry up big brother or they'll have run out of forms by the time you get there"
He saw a young teenage girl stood next to the door, with a yellow bag. Her call was echoed by the dedenne that had its head poking out of the bag as well as the laughter of another blonde woman who stood next to her, in white and red clothes and wearing roller skates.
He also saw a panting man who wore a yellow accented blue jumpsuit with glasses who had messy blonde hair similar to the first of the two girls.
He finally reached the two leaning onto the girl who wore roller skates as he regained his breath.
"Why do you encourage her?", Clemont asked in exasperation, making Korrina giggle as she ruffled Bonnie's hair. "Sometimes I swear you do it just to spite me."
"Maybe you should leave all of your heavy sciency things behind for once, then you wouldn't be so slow", the Young trainer replied, sticking her tongue out as she grabbed both Clemont's and Korrina's hands, in an attempt to pull them both more towards the Pokémon centre but bumping into Ash as she did, making her fall backwards.
"Sorry Mister,", she said picking herself up and dusting herself off.
"No problem kid just try to watch where you're going next. You might want to give that brother of yours a breather. He looks like he's about to collapse."
Bonnie sulked for a second before begrudgingly agreeing.
Ash heard Clemont force out a thanks as he caught breath.
"Good luck in the competition. There's a lot of it if that's any indication". He said the last bit pointing a thumb back at the chaos in the centre.
Something flashed in Bonnie's eyes as she lowered herself down into one knee. "You seem like an awesome person, please come to my brothers wedding when he finally asks Korrina to marry him"
Ash stepped back in suprise as he looked towards the gym leader couple, who'd both turned redder than Pikachu's cheeks.
"Bonnieeeee", Clemont whined as two ambipom arms reached out, one grabbing Bonnie up into the air and the other covering her mouth, "What did I tell you about trying to rush me and Korrina?"
Bonnie pushed herself out of the ambipom arms before mumbling something about respecting their privacy.
"Sorry for bothering you", Clemont apologised, bowing down like he had when Bonnie had asked someone to take care of him.
"It's all good", Ash said waving his hand in dismissal to Bonnie's actions
"Good luck to you too then. Hope you have fun.", Clemont said walking into the centre with Korrina's hand in his. Bonnie quickly took out a rotom phone to take a picture of the scene before hurriedly following the couple.
As she turned to run away, Ash noticed a familiar green blob carefully examining him. Squishy.
"Well what do you know buddy. Squishy's travelling with her".
"Pikapi Chu Pi Ka"
"Yeah you're right buddy, they've probably already had some amazing adventures together. Now let's go and find somewhere to stay. Some food too. It smells amazing here"
Pikachu sighed in agreement as he yet again took in the amazing smells of Lumiose City.
Serena called out her 11 other Pokémon as she dismounted Rapidash. She was proud of them all.
Braixen has finally evolved into Delphox, Pancham had decided not to evolve even though he could. Sylveon was much stronger than she had been after the difficult training.
She and Absol had managed to perfect their bond, managing to find the perfect balance between their opposing battle styles.
Metagross had grown so much from the scared Beldum she had met in her travels with Mewtwo.
Gardevoir no longer panicked when she was injured, allowing her to take full advantage of her power.
Mawile still had problems, he would still bite onto Serena's arm for comfort but now knew his own strength and could do so without hurting her.
Her (alolan) ninetales had learned to control its ice, now no longer over exerting itself when it was attacked with its powerful ice type attacks, leaving it defenceless after only one attack.
Altaria had been overconfident when Serena had first met her. She had panicked when all of her dragon type moves did nothing to Sylveon and after being defeated she had begged for Serena to reach her, becoming one of Serena's strongest Pokémon
She had met Milotic when it was a Feebas and had helped it achieve its dream of becoming Milotic, joining the still growing group to express its thanks.
Vileplume had been very similar to her Ninetales and the two had a close sister like bond after Ninetales had helped Vileplume to control its poison, in a similar way that Serena had taught her to control her ice.
"Ok everyone it's almost time. We've just reached Lumiose City and I'm about to go in and apply for the tournament. It's time for us to finish this. I want all of you to return except Delphox. I'd like you to walk with me and see if we can detect anything suspicious like Mewtwo thought there might be." All of the Pokémon returned as Serena had told them to as she began to walk into Lumiose with Delphox at her side.
Truth be told she felt more comfortable with Delphox nowadays. They both benefit from simply walking with the other as they subconsciously boosted the others psychic abilities allowing them to see if they're in danger. Sure she loved the rest of her Pokémon but the special bond the two shared couldn't be replicated with any other. Sylveon was a close second but she could only calm Serena so much.
Serena remembered the first few nights after the explosion, she had woken multiple times a night from the nightmares. After a few days she had her first good nights sleep and when she woke she found both Sylveon and at the time Braixen curled up next to her.
Although he'd denied it when she had asked she was sure that Mewtwo had been the one to let them out of their Pokéballs.
She easily located a Pokémon centre, happy that her knowledge of the area hadn't declined too much in 3 years.
Although it was crowded she managed to weave her way to the Nurse Joy where she'd been given a piece of paper and a pen to fill in the tournaments application form.
She felt a tinge of guilt as she took them as she saw the mixed expression on the nurse Joy's face, who was no doubt tired because of the loud noises and sat at the nearest table quickly filling in the bare minimum information proceeding to return them both, thanking Nurse Joy for her time.
When she left she noticed the setting sun, mostly suprised about late it was. It had taken her around a week to reach Lumiose from Geosenge. Mostly because of being delayed by the reflection cave, which she had been lost in for almost a day before she found her way out, only to emerge where she had gone in.
She had decided to instead camp again that night and went around to get to Shalour City. The rest of her trip was quite uneventful, mostly because of being repeatedly stopped by other trainers who wanted to battle her, all of which she won, wiping some whole teams of 6 using only one of her own Pokémon.
She yawned before heading back to where she had decided to stay during the tournament, a reasonably small hotel that wasn't too close or too far from the stadiums.
In his domain Arceus smiled. He found it ironic how the two trainers who believed the other was dead could be so close together yet so far. He knew how they'd react when they met the other, after all it always happened when an Aura Guardian met a Psychic. At least it would be amusing.
He then turned his attention to those who'd soon face his wrath. The 6 Team Leaders had joined up and, much to Arceus' annoyance even, Archie and Maxie were working together.
Whatever had been agreed he didn't like. They seemed too close. He'd kept a close eye on them for the past 3 years. The squabbles the Aqua and Magma leaders frequently had were now a thing of the past as they all worked together like a well oiled machine. Whatever happened he knew he just had to trust in his chosen to sort it out.