"She's officially written herself into the history books as the very first coordinator from the Kalos Region to win a Grand Festival, Serena Yvonne has won the Hoenn Grand Festival."

Tears welled up in her eyes. Serena looked at her Delphox beside her and ended up hugging it and started crying it. Marian held the ribbon out to Serena who let it drop into her palm and held it close to her heart, against a royal blue ribbon and a keystone necklace. She smiled and waved at the crowd, scanning for her friends.

"Serena," May bellowed, flailing her arms.

Next to her was her "boyfriend" Drew and Serena's friend Dawn, with Max and Brock off to the side. After seeing her friends, Serena's eyes drifted towards the V.I.P booth, where the dignified Kalos Queen Aria was bouncing around like a young child with Palermo smiling, a rare thing for the old woman along with Wallace who appeared to be having an active conversation with the Kalos Queen. Serena smiled until Champion Diantha caught her eye, she and Stephen Stone stood side by side cheering for the winner. A woman from backstage managed to gain Serena's attention and motioned her back.

Serena moved into the dressing room. A dress had been laid out for her and a note from Palermo saying it was a gift from the Gym Leaders of Kalos for restoring hope and happiness in the people in the healing region. The fabric was a brilliant, dazzling white, for Absol, and the sleeves went into an ombre towards black and the edges appeared to be charred. The dress faded from bright white to navy blue with a large lavender bow in the back. The matching shoes were simple, white high-heels with some minor detailing with matching lavender bows. Serena smiled and put on the dress, it fit snuggly, but with enough room to move. Courtesy of Grant, Korrina, and Clemont I bet. She thought. She arranged her hair into a braided ponytail variation and tied her ribbon at the beginning of the braid on her right side, the blue ribbon that matched her eyes was beautifully arranged to fall perfectly down the side of her face. She pulled out three Pokeballs from her brown leather backpack and released Absol, Sylveon, and Delphox, these were the Pokemon the public wanted to see her with. She was about to leave when she noticed a small box. She sat back down to open it and found a note written in Aria's handwriting

Serena,

If you're reading this, consider it an informal congratulations on winning the

Grand Festival, as the Gym Leaders, Diantha, Palermo and myself all

believe that this is what home needed after the Team Flare Crisis, which

you were on the front lines of. In honor of your service to Kalos, your

victory in the Grand Festival and your title of Kalos Princess, I would

personally like to give you a gift. As this is the offseason of the Master

Class and I dislike performing with my crown, I am loaning it to you for

your contests, so you can get a feel for it before you return to Kalos to

challenge me and become the next Kalos Queen. Serena, believe me if I

could decide who would become my successor, I would not hesitate to

choose you.

Her Majesty,

Kalos Queen Aria

"I can't believe it, Aria is loaning me the crown and saying she would choose me as the next Kalos Queen," Serena said, trying to stop her tears from ruining the minimal makeup she had already. She looked at her Pokemon who all seemed to encourage her.

Serena smiled and placed the crown atop her head. Serena was shocked by how natural it looked. She'd spent months traveling with Ash dreaming of him by her side and Aria's crown on her head, but she'd never truly thought about what it would look like. She gave a tearful smile at the thought of Ash not being there, she hadn't seen anyone from Kalos come to cheer her on, except Sawyer, but he was busy cheering on his cousin Drew.

Sensing Serena's sadness, Absol came over and nuzzled her palm, both for comfort and a reminder to start leaving. Serena smiled and grabbed her bag, with her Pokemon behind her, and left the building.

Before Serena walked out the door, she was bombarded by paparazzi. She managed to get out to the street and smiled for the innumerable cameras and answered simple questions about Kalos, her dress, her Pokemon, and was doing fine, that was until a reporter wanted to dig deep into Serena's personal life.

"Ms. Yvonne, what is your relationship with the Kalos League runner-up, Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town?"

Serena froze, her heart started racing, Absol tried to move into a position to protect its trainer before Sylveon stopped it. Serena couldn't even tell whether or not her face was bright red or paler than a ghost. She stuttered and mumbled incoherent nonsense before her friend Brock caught her eye. He looked concerned for her, as everyone joked, upon learning about her crush on Ash, Brock had sort of adopted her. She took a deep breath and faced the reporter.

"That is strictly personal," Serena said, turning on her heel and walking through the crowd to get to her friends.

They cleared a path for her and dispersed afterward. She walked over to Brock who was holding a Pokemon egg.

" Did anything happen to eggy while I was battling Harley?" Serena joked.

Brock shook his head. "We thought it might hatch after you won, it glowed for a bit but then it stopped. You've had this thing for two months and even Professor Sycamore is stumped on how it hasn't hatched yet."

Serena scrunched her nose and frowned, is it possible that this egg will never hatch, she thought.

"So where are the others," Serena asked.

"They already went back to Petalburg City, if we hurry, we should be there tomorrow."

Serena smiled but couldn't help but feel hurt, she'd just won the biggest competition of her life and her friends had gotten up and left just after. It almost hurt as much as a certain person not being there to support her, but she had hope he was watching her from wherever he was.