First off, BIG thanks to ShadowKing1988. He is helping me with this story and I'm really grateful about that! I probably couldn't even make/start this whole story without him.

Secondly, I do not own Pokemon, or any character from it. If I do, there would be more Advanceshipping!

A young girl was walking road to Petalburg City. She was wearing a red shirt, shoes, black biker shorts, white mini-skirt, white-black cloves, a yellow fanny pack and a red bandanna. This girl also held a trophy. It wasn't just any ordinary trophy; it was only for the winner of Johto's Grand Festival. She smiled and took out a pokeball.

"Come out, Eevee," she said and threw it. A bright flash appeared from inside of the pokeball. Soon, there was little brown creature standing near her.

"Isn't this exciting?" she asked to her pokemon, who simply nodded. "I can't believe that they'd hold a party, just for me," the girl continued, a big smile on her face.

"I wonder how many people there are?" she asked, putting a finger on her chin. "Or who there would be…"

"Mom, Dad, Max, Professor Birch, and his son Brendan, at least. Drew said that he might come. Maybe Brock, Dawn and… " She started looking at the ground, blushing. 'No, why he would come, after I abandoned him twice?'

"Eve?" her pokemon asked. Because of this, she snapped out of her thoughts.

"It's nothing, Eevee," she smiled to her pokemon. "I was just thinking…"

"Eve eevee"

"I wasn't thinking about him!" She started to blush and turned her face from Eevee's sight.

"Evee…"

"Oh, shut up…" she said and grabbed Eevee's pokeball. "I'm not in the mood to fight with you," the girl pointed the pokeball at her pokemon.

"Return." The pokeball shot a beam of red light towards Eevee and pulled it back into the pokeball.

After walking alone for a while, she reached Petalburg. It was one of the biggest cities in Hoenn. The girl continued walking towards her house. Many people came to congratulate her.

"May, I know that you could win it!" one of them said.

"That final battle was awesome!" Another person spoke up. "What else could you expect from the daughter of Petalburg's gym leader!"

"Thank you all…I guess," she thanked them, sweat dropping. "Sorry, I have to go on my house," she said, starting to run, waving back to them.

Finally she reached home. Her house was big, probably because of the Pokemon Gym, which was under the same roof.

"Home sweet home!" she declared and turned the doorknob. Inside, everything was dark and seemingly lifeless. The girl blinked her eyes. "I thought that they were having a party for me…"

May shut the door behind her and placed the trophy on the ground. Suddenly, the lights went on.

"Surprise!" Everyone shouted. She looked really surprised. There was everyone here who she thought would be here, except one.

The first person who congratulated her was Drew. He had lost to her in the finals. "Great job, May." He pulled out a rose and gave it to her.

"Umm…thank you, Drew…"

"Congratulations, May!" her dad, Norman, said to her. "Your mother and I are so proud of you," he continued. Between her mother and father came a boy a few years her junior.

"Congratulations, sis!" her little brother Max said and hugged her.

"Well, thank you, Max," she spoke and hugged her brother back. Seconds later, May's stomach growled. She turned red with embarrassed and everyone started to laugh.

"Let's go to eat" Her mother, Caroline spoke. "I'm sure that you all are hungry."

They went to dining room, where there was a large assortment of various food items. May started to drool and sat down.

"This is great, Mrs. Maple!" Brock and Dawn said in unison. Everyone else agreed with them.

"Thank you. I'm glad that you like it," She answered to them. Then she saw that her daughter wasn't eating anything, just staring her food. "May, aren't you hungry?"

'I knew that he wouldn't come…Maybe he just wasn't interested...' She thought, continuing to gaze at her plate.

"May? Aren't you hungry?" her mother repeated. May snapped out back to reality.

"What? Oh, I just am not as hungry as I thought…" May said to her mother.

"I see…Well, you can always eat later," was her mother's reply. May nodded and stood up.

She walked to her own room, placed her fanny pack onto a table and started to search for something. 'Where it is?' May thought and finally, she found what she was looking for. May sat down on her bed and looked at it. In her hand was her half of the pink Teracotta ribbon. 'Ash…' Memories start to flood in her mind. How many times had Ash helped her? How many times did he cheer her on when she needed it the most? And how she could leave him?

May let out a sigh and sat up. She put the ribbon back into her fanny pack and headed towards the living room.

After everyone finished eating, they were in living room where May rejoined them. Dawn asked many question about coordinator stuff. May was trying to answer all of them. At one point, there was a moment of silence.

"Can I ask where Ash is?" May decided to break silence. Brock and Dawn looked at her.

"Actually, May," Brock started. "We don't know." May looked at him with a perplexed face.

"What you mean by 'you don't know'?"

"Ash… He just vanished without a word…" Dawn trailed off.

"What?!" May blinked. Dawn was about to continue but Brock stopped her before she could.

"I'll explain," Brock took deep breath and began speaking.

Flashback

"Come on, Ash," Dawn said to him. "'Always' is next year."

"I can't believe it…" Ash mumbled. "How could I lose to that guy?"

"Dawn is right," Brock placed his hand on Ash's shoulder. "Besides, you can always try again next year."

Ash moved Brock's hand off. "You guys don't have to try to cheer me up," he said, looking at ground.

"Ash, we know that yo-" Dawn started but she was cut off by Ash.

"How would you know?!?" Ash shouted to them. Brock and Dawn gawked him. "You weren't there!"

"Ash, calm down!" Brock replied. "Why are you taking this so hard?" Ash seemed to calm down.

"Because they said if I lose this tournament," Ash started, tears starting come in his eyes, "I'd get punished and so would my closest friends."

"Who said that?" Dawn asked, taking a seat next to Ash.

"How should I know?!" Ash snapped at her. "But now I lost…you guys can get hurt because of me…" Tears were rolling down his cheeks. Dawn pulled him into hug.

"It isn't your fault."

"We can always ask Officer Jenny to help," Brock said. "Don't blame yourself!"

But Ash wasn't listening to them and broke off his hug with Dawn. He clutched his fists.

"If even one of you gets hurt, I won't ever forgive myself!"

"We won't get hurt, Ash," Dawn said "I promise!"

"Can you please calm down now, Ash?" Brock asked.

"…Yeah, I s'pose so," Ash answered. "It's late, I'm going to sleep. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Brock and Dawn said. Ash went to room, which he, Brock and Dawn shared. Back in lounge, Brock and Dawn continued their conversation.

"Who you think it was?" Dawn asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, who was making these threats to Ash?"

"I bet it was just somebody who gambles. And made a pretty sick wager."

"Oh, you mean someone betting on Ash to be the winner?"

"Something like that," Brock started. "And that someone was only scaring Ash with that punishment thing."

"I hope you are right," Dawn sighed. "Ash is really taking this hard."

Brock smiled before replying to Dawn.

"That's how Ash is, always taking care of his friends."

Dawn let out a small laugh.

"You're right."

"Let's go to sleep," Brock yawned. "I'm really worn out."

"Me too," Dawn agreed with Brock.

They walked silently through the Pokemon Center, reaching their room. Brock opened door and saw Ash sleeping. Brock moved into his own bunk, which was above Ash's. Dawn shut the door behind her and walked towards her own bed. She was about to crawl under the covers, but then she saw Pikachu sleeping in her bed. Dawn let out a sigh and climbed to the upper bed. Soon all were in a state of deep sleep, or so it seemed.

The following morning, Brock woke up and stretched. He got out of his bed. First thing he saw was that Ash wasn't in his bed. He also noticed that neither Pikachu nor Ash were around, and Ash's gear was missing from the room as well. Brock decided to wake up Dawn and climbed half way to Dawn's bed.

"Dawn, wake up!" Brock cried while shaking Dawn to awaken her.

"Oh, give me just five minutes more," Dawn mumbled. Brock let out sigh.

"Dawn, Ash isn't in here!"

Dawn opened her eyes instantly. "What?! What do you mean?"

"Ash's backpack isn't here, either!" Brock said while climbing down. "And Pikachu is missing, too!"

"Maybe he is in cafeteria?" Dawn yawned and rubbing her eyes. Brock opened door.

"I'll go check, you get ready."

When Brock got to the cafeteria, it was only to find that the raven-haired trainer and his companion weren't here. Brock spent the next several minutes searching as much of the area as he could, but still no sign of Ash was to be found.

Clearly, Ash had given them the slip and made a break for it.

End of Flashback

"And we didn't find him anywhere, and his mother didn't know where he would be" Brock said. Everyone appeared shocked by this revelation, especially May.

"I hope he is alright," She managed to say. 'I really hope he is…'

"You know Ash, he will be okay!" Norman said, placing his hand on May's shoulder. "Don't worry about him."

"Your father is right," Caroline said. Everyone else was in agreement.

"Guess you're right…" May said. "I go take a little walk, I'll be back soon." She got up and walked out the door.

"May is taking this quite hard," Brock said. Drew decided to speak.

"I didn't think that she cared about him that much!" Everyone blinked at his last statement, unsure of whether they had heard him correctly.

"What?" Drew asked. Caroline started to walk towards the kitchen.

"I believe that May really cares about Ash," she said with a smile.

'May can't like him!' Drew thought. 'She likes me!'

"Well, I have to go" Drew spoke and flipped his hair. A moment later, he was out of sight.

"Guess I have to get going, as well," Dawn said. "Goodbye and thank you for inviting me!"

Dawn's departure was the first of several that followed. Without the guest of honor present, there wasn't much point in continuing the gathering.

May was walking on beach. 'Dad is right,' she thought while watching far to sea. 'I don't have anything to worry about, do I?' May sat down on sand. 'But what if something has happened to him? I never even got to tell him what I felt deep down...' May realized what she was thinking and start to shake her head 'No, May! Don't think like that, he is alive' she stopped shaking and resumed her vigilant watch of sea once more. 'Somewhere…'

Suddenly she noticed something drifting towards the beach. May saw could see a humanoid figure, lying motionlessly in the water. She got up and walked slowly towards it. By now, May could tell this was indeed a person, a young man by appearance. His clothes were shredded. She moved closer to him. Now she saw a number of cuts, gashes, and other superficial injures across his body. May kneeled beside him and gently turned him that she could see his face. May was shocked by what she saw.

"…Ash?"