Chapter 1: betrayal

"Ash, please sit down."

all of Ash's old friends and rivals were gathered inside his mother's house. Brock spoke up, getting Ash's attention. seeing this, he continued in a careful, considering tone.

"we've all been talking, and...well... erm..." the tanned man was sweating bullets by now.

Ash, who didn't have a clue about what was going on, sat down on the couch next to his mother. just like him, she didn't know what was going on either. one moment Ash returned from his travels in unova, and the next moment all the others just barged in. Misty, Brock, Tracey, Gary, Max, Drew, May, Dawn, Harley, Kenny and Trip were all standing across the room.

Ash grinned and spoke up. "guys, what's up? whaddya wanna say Brock?"

Ash's smile made Brock even more nervous and started to stutter even harder until Misty finally had enough.

"oh for arceus's sake, grow a pair. Ash. what Brock's trying to tell you, is that we've all been talking, and we all agree on the sole fact that you're a lousy trainer."

as soon as Ash's smile appeared, as soon it vanished, and became replaced with an unnerving blank expression.

"Misty. are you serious? don't tell me all of you guys actually agree with her."

everyone looked awkward, but hesitantly nodded. Gary spoke up. "sorry to tell you this, but you don't have any skill at all. you just rely on dumb luck."

"you're dumb as hell, and have no strength to compromise for it." Kenny sneered at Ash with a disgusted expression on his face.

"even me, who just started two years ago, already surpassed you." Max said haughtily, looking a little too confident.

"just face it, ketchum. your skills suck, you've reached your top and you can't get any better at all. just give it up, and hand your pokemon over to the REAL trainers like me or Trip." Drew laughed.

that was the last straw. something snapped deep inside Ash, and a dark shadow creeped across his face. his eyes, normally a warm amber color, turned into an ice cold stone-grey

only Dawn and May looked at the unfolding scene with guilty expressions apparent on their faces and Ash knew that they weren't sure if what they were doing was right.

"I...see... heh...heheh...heheheheh..." a horrifying chuckle escaped his mouth. one that would force giratina itself to shiver in fear. his form surrounded itself with a dark blue hue, only may, Brock and Max recognising Ash's latent aura energy. Ash whipped his hand out, and a wave of pure raw aura threw Brock back, hard.

"I SAVED YOUR ASSES COUNTLESS TIMES, AND THIS IS HOW YOU SHOW ME YOUR APPRECIATION?!"

the girls all cringed, and the other men's eyes became wide at Ash's sudden violent outburst.

"IF I WEREN'T THERE, YOU GUYS WHOULD'VE BEEN TORN TO PIECES BY LEGENDARY POKEMON ALREADY!"

Ash calmed down a bit, and the aura vanished like smoke. he took a deep breath and settled with a glare.

"I thought I could consider you my friends, but I guess I was wrong... I'm sorry mom, but I'll be leaving for a while again."

Delia, who was now on the verge of tears, nodded and gave him a bone-crushing hug.

"I understand sweetie... just take them with you okay? and promise me, you'll be safe."

Ash smiled a little at his mother's concern.

"I was planning to do that mom. I love you."

Ash almost felt sorry for the others, because his mother, while normally a very kind and gentle woman, was also a strong willed woman with a nasty temper when provoked.

keyword: almost.

pikachu jumped from the couch onto Ash's shoulder, and he growled at the rest, his pouches furiously sparking with electricity.

as he walked through the front door, he dug into his backpack, and found a small golden box. when he opened it, he grabbed one of the six red-black cherish balls from it.

"I'll show you, just who you've been fucking around with. take flight, lugia!"

the legendary majestic sea-dragon pokemon appeared, while the others just watched in awe. not believing what they were seeing.

"what do you desire, my lord?"

lugia spoke in a gentle hum, as if he could feel what was going on from inside the cherish ball.

"please take me away from these people... just fly, please..."

lugia saw the suppressed fury and sadness reflected in Ash's eyes, and lowered his neck, so that Ash could hop on.

"very well. off we go!"

he flapped his mighty silver wings, and soared into the sky. unfortunately, Max recovered from the suprise in time and flung a sharp rock at Ash. it connected with his right eye, and the poor teen roared in anguish as blood splurted from the socket. when lugia reached the appropriate flying height, Ash sat up straight, holding his bleeding eye.

"pikachu. could you get the bandages from my backpack?"

pikachu nodded, and dug inside the bulky thing. when he popped out, Ash took it from his hands.

he used his sleeve to wipe the majority of the blood away, and wrapped his head with the white bandages. it was a messy job, but Ash was tired, both emotionally and physically. he bound his hands around lugia's neck with the rest of the bandages, and drifted off to sleep.

they flew for three days straight, until lugia too, started to show slight symptoms of exhaustion.

"lugia... please land in that open field over there." Ash had not slept since the first night of flying. he had redone the bandages, but by now they were more red then white.

by now, a clear vertical cut was slashed from his eyebrow, till his cheekbone. as soon as lugia landed, Ash jumped off, and returned lugia to his cherish ball.

"thank you my friend. rest well."

he hung the ball onto a silver chain. connecting it to the five other identical cherish balls, and hung that chain around his neck. (the same way as alder does.) Ash checked his pokétch, and saw he was very close to the seaside city, undella town.

"well pikachu, it seems we're back in unova huh?"

his yellow rodent rubbed his head against Ash's cheek, and cooed.

"Cynthia's vacation home's somewhere around here, if I'm not mistaken. let's go and try to get there... wether she's home or not... there should be something useful there..." by now he was wheezing. he put up his hood as the sun got to him. he got a half full bottle of water from his backpack, took a sip and gave the rest to his yellow friend.

said mousey friend ran off into a nearby bush, and came back out, dragging a long thick branch along. Ash chuckled a bit and used the branch as support to stand with.

using the branch as a cane, he slowly hobbled over to the seaside town and soon came upon a familliar white villa. Ash looked around a bit, and lowered his hood as they decided to go 'round back. he focused his aura a bit, and cut through the iron lock. he stumbledinto the rose garden and the duo were greeted with a familliar blonde.

"Ash ketchum? pikachu?"

the two flinched, as they saw a beautiful tall woman stand in front of them. she had blond hair, long enough to reach her feet. it also covered about half of her face. though she had the face of an angel. she was wearing a long black coat, along with wide black pants and a black tank top underneath.

"C-Cynthia..." he managed to grind out, before unconciousness finally caught up with him. the last thing he saw before blacking out was a black and yellow blur moving toward him as he fell into a deep slumber.

when Ash woke up, he noticed that he was laid down on a hospital bed. he touched his right eye, and felt that the bandages were refreshed.

"your old bandages were completely soaked in blood, so we changed them. I'm afraid that you won't be able to see with that again, Ash." he looked to the left, and saw that Cynthia and nurse Joy were standing next to his bed. pikachu was curled up on his stomach, sleeping soundly. he stared at the yellow mouse for a while, and sat up straight. pikachu rolled from his stomach to his lap, but he didn't wake up. Ash grabbed the cup of water from the desk next to him and drank some, before he finally responded.

"so... I'm officially half-blind now huh?" he said with a dry chuckle as looked over to the desk and grabbed the silver chain with cherish balls. he hung it around his neck.

Cynthia looked suprised by his calm response, the look turned to confused when she saw the cherish balls.

"Ash? what are those?"

Ash grinned, before explaining the basic idea. it turned out to be a combination between a master ball, and a premier ball, and thus very hard to find.

he snapped one of the balls off of the chain, and enlarged it.

"Ash, what are you going to do?"

"see if my old friend can do something about my eye. he's an expert healer, who can put any blissey or an audino to shame."

he threw it up in the air before it released it's content. "come on out, celebi!"

a small green fairy-like pokemon with large blue eyes emerged. both nurse Joy and Cynthia went wide-eyed by the sight of the legendary guardian of the forests of johto.

"bi bi beeeee!" the green creature flew straight at Ash and hugged his face.

"great to see you too celebi, I know it's been a while... sorry."

celebi pouted at that, but got worried at the sight of the bandages.

he flew at Ash again, and put his hands on the bandages, while emitting a faint light.

"beeeeeeeee..." as if he was in a trance he groaned. after a while, he took his hands away, looking sad.

"no use huh... well, if even you can't heal it, I guess I'll have to live with it. thanks for trying anyway."

celebi flew up, and circled the room for a few times, before landing on top of Cynthia's head. she scratched his ear while he purred in delight.

"seems he's taken a liking to you cynth." Ash had no choice but laugh at the sight. Cynthia and nurse Joy both cracked a smile, and nurse Joy told Ash he had been asleep for about two days straight. the lack of sleep combined with the blood loss from his eye had certainly taken their toll on him.

"Ash... it's not my place to ask, but.. what happened to you? when you stumbled into my backyard, you looked like a mess!"

Ash's face became serious, and told Cynthia everything that had happened in the past five days. the betrayal, the fleeing on lugia, Max throwing that rock, and the flight towards unova. by the time he was finished, Cynthia had tears running down her face, and a disgusted look in her eyes.

"those ungrateful little BASTARDS! and there I thought, Brock and Misty were actually decent people. and that Kenny... don't get me started on him."

Ash looked very depressed at the memories.

"h-hey Cynthia? am I really a worthless trainer?"

she gained a shocked expression at the question, and replied with a heartwarming smile.

"of course you're not. you did things no-one else can, you've met pretty much every legendary, AND pseudo-legendary pokemon there is, and you even pushed ME, the champion of sinnoh in a corner during a battle. something even the elite four couldn't do when they combined their forces. and believe me, THAT is an admirable feat!"

he smiled at the compliments, but still had a depressed look in his eyes.

suddenly an idea hit her.

"you know... Ash, you have every sinnoh gym badge don't you?"

Ash nodded and threw his badge box over. it contained every badge, ribbon and medal he's ever earned in the seven years since he's become a trainer. (this'll be a really long list!)

badges:

boulder bagde

cascade badge

thunder badge

rainbow badge

soul badge

marsh badge

volcano badge

earth badge

coral-eye badge

sea-ruby badge

spike-shell badge

jade-star badge

zephyr badge

hive badge

plain badge

storm badge

mineral badge

glacier badge

rising badge

stone badge

knuckle badge

dynamo badge

heat badge

balance badge

feather badge

mind badge

rain badge

coal badge

forest badge

cobble badge

fen badge

relic badge

mine badge

icicle badge

beacon badge

trio badge

basic badge

toxic badge

insect badge

bolt badge

quake badge

jet badge

freeze badge

legend badge

frontier symbols:

knowledge symbol

guts symbol

tactics symbol

luck symbol

spirits symbol

ability symbol

brave symbol

contest ribbons:

terracotta contest champion ribbon. (half of it.)

Cynthia first looked shocked 'oh my arceus! he has 45 gym badges, all 7 frontier symbols and even a contest champion ribbon!' then she smiled.

"Ash... did you know bertha wants to retire from the elite four?"

Ash raised an eyebrow. "oh does she now? well... I guess we all saw that coming, I mean she DID mention something about getting too old for this shit when we last met."

she chuckled, but then looked dead-serious. "we DO need a replacement for her absence."

Ash had a gut-feeling where this conversation was going.

"yeeeees?" his face became incredibly suspicious.

"a-hem... Ash ketchum, from pallet-town, kanto. I, Cynthia shirona officially ask you to become one of the sinnoh elite four pokemon trainers." her face was a mask of seriousness, but Ash could see a certain hope in her eyes.

Ash pondered about it for a bit.

"Ash. you are at LEAST on my level of battling. please consider it."

his face became dark, and he grinned.

"no... I won't even consider it..."

Cynthia looked quite disappointed.

"...because I accept your invitation."

her face lit up as soon as he said that. while beaming, she handed him his certificate of entrance.

"welcome to the world of the elite four, kid."

he smiled broadly while he shook her hand. "please take care of me from now on... my champion."

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