BP: This is it, the final chapter of Pokémon: The PAL Chronicles, after five long years. Thank you to all the readers who have stuck by my story until the end and followed me on my journey as I develop the story and tried to keep the story going despite the falling out with mysterpink98.

Sorry it took so long (again) but it took me quite a while to assemble the list of award winners for the sake of a scene in my final chapter, and your suggestions were very helpful. If you still wish to make suggestions, there is always the AV, since I am not sure to use the same list or not. Due to the difference between the two stories, it seems unlikely.

Frankly, I did lose my spirit on this story after falling out with mysterypink98 and how this story is tainted with her suggestions that I didn't like, but I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for supporting me until the very end.

"How do we know where they are?" Jude asked.

"Easy. I threw a needle with an aura thread at one of them. He was here watching our matches all along." Pakura replied, as Ash used aura on his eyes and saw the blue thread that were invisible to non-users. "We'll be able to track them down with this."

"What about us?" Cynthia asked. "We want to fight too." Jasmine, Grimsley and Lance nodded in agreement. There was no way they'd leave them to fight alone. Unknown to him, two people were also listening in from behind separate pillars.

"Ok fine. You have ten minutes to prepare your equipment." Ash sighed. "Paku, heal up our Pokémon."

"And where do you think you're going without us?" A voice said.

Everyone turned to see Karen, Lance's Elite member, and a girl with long black hair, emerald green eyes, and carrying a pretty parasol. She seemed to be dressed for going out rather than fighting as she was dressed in a light pink jacket that ended just below her shoulders and above her chest and had white trimmings on top and is white on the inside, with a pink choker on her neck. Her tank top was white in color and she was wearing a pink skirt with white stockings, along with pink boots.

"What are you doing here?" Lance pointed to Karen.

"Who are you?" Ash asked the girl, as Pakura narrowed her eyes in recognition.

"Pakura Ameyuri." Akeno addressed his Leader, smiling serenely. "Been awhile. You promised you'd write."

"Well, Akeno, what can I say? I've been busy." Pakura replied curtly.

"Wait, Akeno? As in the Akeno Calfuray Cheveyo?" Phillip gasped. "I didn't know you came back already!"

"Wait a minute…" Ash remembered where he heard that name before. It was the person who owned the spa called the Magicae Springs Spa and also had her own line of beauty products called 'Beauté Magique!' and it also includes soaps and shampoos and even perfumes. If he wasn't wrong, Aquamarine and Jin use her products for prep, as those are the best quality anyone can get in the world. Every single issue of PokéSTYLE would usually have adverts on her brand of products.

He had also heard they were planning to use the hair dyes from that brand alongside Phillip's hair-styling machine. It was thanks to her wealth and fame that her entire clan was allowed to move to Ariolo Village since it provided a training regime for the trainees and it would allow her to train with her fellow clan members, and eventually Ariolo Village was known as the hometown of the of Cheveyo Clan of spirit mediums.

A two-star Botanical Hunter, Akeno liked to travel around to find new plants and flowers as components to make new dyes and beauty products. However, there was something dark about the history of the Cheveyo Clan, which he had not discovered yet.

"Why are you staring at me like that, Champion Ash?" Akeno tilted her head. "After all, I got you a peace offering in the condition you let me come."

"What is it?" Ash frowned at her.

Akeno smiled, and walked over to Ash, handing him a Poké Ball. When Ash opened it, out came Brock's Croagunk.

"Hi, Ash." Croagunk croaked.

"How did you get him?" Ash was surprised. He thought he'd been with Brock when he went missing.

"He was left behind in the party." Akeno shrugged. "I was there trying to see if the flowers May and Max used for decorations could be used as ingredients, but apparently not. I found him, so I decided to pick him up."

"Ugh, fine, you can come. But your life is your own to protect." Ash warned.

"Sounds fair." Akeno said in a dreamy voice.

Meanwhile, Karen was arguing with Lance.

"If you can go, I can go too!" Karen argued, poking Lance in the chest harshly. "You do not tell me what to do in this region, Lance, cause we're not in our turf!"

"But Karen, do you even know what you're getting yourself into?" Lance was exasperated.

"I'm an Elite Four. We're the ones who rose against all odds and slipped the noose of losses that strangled the rest of the trainers. We are the regions' very embodiment of hope to oppose any adversary when there is none." Karen said firmly. "If you don't let me go, we're just showing the trainers that even that hope was an illusion and the only true threat is the Champions. Besides, I can't let him go unchecked." As she said this, she pointed to Jude.

"Me?" Jude was incredulous. "I can handle my own, thank you very much."

"What Karen means is, she wants to make sure that her dream of a wedding with you is secure. Won't want you to die out there." Lance rolled his eyes, as he understood where Karen was going.

"Wedding?" Jude echoed, looking horrified. "But we haven't even started-"

"Shhh, let her have this moment." Grimsley covered Jude's mouth, watching Karen having an expression that indicated she was fantasizing about something, no doubt something Jude related.

"Let's just go." Ash said. "Longer we stand here and talk, who knows what would happen."

Pakura nodded. "But what about those who can't travel as fast as us?" She nodded towards everyone other than the PAL Elites.

"Don't worry. I can run as fast as you." Akeno smiled mysteriously.

"We can use our Pokémon to fly after you." Cynthia suggested.

"Not good enough." Phillip stated. "All of us can definitely run faster than your Latios or Dragonite can fly."

"I'm not going to have you slow us down." Pakura agreed.

Ash weighed his options. They could slow down for them, but that would mean a waste of time. On the other hand, they risk leaving them in the dust if they ran at the ideal speed and possibly open to adversaries. Suddenly, he had an idea.

"Why not I go alone? With the CommuniDex, you can track where I am, and someone can teleport everyone else here, to where I am." Ash suggested. "Paku, give me the thread you put."

"But-!" Cynthia tried to protest, but Ash silenced her, as he took the thread.

"No, Cynthia. I can hide until then. You don't trust my skills?" Ash smiled wryly. "I'll have my Pokémon, and I believe in my Elites abilities." Oddly enough, when he said this, he looked to Pakura.

"Alright then. Stay safe." She kissed him on the lips, and Ash headed out of the Battle Arena, running where the thread led him, while Phillip opened his CommuniDex to track Ash's movements.

As Ash ran past the forests and cities, Pikachu said, "I have a bad feeling about this, Ash."

"Me too." Ash replied. "Something tells me they did something that would make it much more difficult to take them down…but what?"

"We're about to find out." Pikachu pointed, as they reached what looked like a rundown castle in a junkyard city, which Ash recognized as Pègre City, which was usually inhabited by outcasts.

According to Pakura, people who live there do not exist in any official records and the existence of the city itself was known to very few people, even those living in the PAL Region and much of the information on it is shrouded in mystery. It is rumoured to be founded by the Fourth Prince Hisoki Yumeno, who wished to give those outcasts a place, having apparently been one himself. This city was said to have the most diverse ethnic background.

When asked of why don't they keep track of these people despite them mediating all kinds of underworld dealings, Pakura told him that as long as they do not harm Pokémon or people, she is fine with leaving them alone. In addition, those people always have their own form of ethics, and always complete their jobs to perfection when called upon.

Combining with the fact that most of inhabitants do not have any personal track record, the city became a huge source of untraceable hitmen and assassins that are part of her Blacklist Department.

One fact about this city was, the inhabitants share remarkable bonds with each other which has been described as "thinner than water on the surface but deep down it's thicker than blood", to the point they are ready to put their own lives on the line for their fellow inhabitants.

Ash remembered the story Pakura told the story about the Pègre City resident who was wrongfully convicted for murder in Unova a decade ago.

"Before I came into rule, there was this story that a vagabond that did not have any papers was arrested for murder in Unova." Pakura had told him. "When the local law enforcement tried to look for information about the vagabond, they found nothing. It was then that he confessed that he was from Pègre City."

"Then what happened?" Ash asked her.

Pakura sighed. "The Officer Jennies of Unova refused to believe his innocence from the murder, instead forcefully extracting a "confession" that he did commit the crime."

"That's horrible!" Ash gasped. "But I never encountered anything like that in Unova."

"Then you obviously don't look hard enough. Some law enforcement people are corrupt." Pakura snapped calmly. "That's why sometimes it's better to rely on yourself, take matters into your own hands. Anyway, during the trial, the lawyer appointed by the court did not do anything and allowed the vagabond to be condemned."

Ash widened his eyes. "He got wrongfully executed?"

"When has the law been perfect?" Pakura asked bitterly. "Anyway, three years later, the truth came out. The real murderer was arrested and his crime was brought to light. It was then recognized the vagabond was falsely accused. Shortly after this was made public…"

Ash blinked curiously, as Pakura went on, "A total of 45 people consisting of the police, judges, inspectors, witnesses, jurors and lawyers who took part in the false accusation of the vagabond were assassinated. In each corpse, a message was found on them, saying, 'While we accept whatever you leave here, never take anything away from us.'"

"Who killed them?" Ash enquired.

"It was 45 Pègre City residents that attached a bomb onto their chests, then exploded themselves with their victims, all at the exact same time, in different locations. All because one of their companions was falsely condemned, 45 people sacrificed themselves, and 45 others were killed, in the name of revenge." Pakura finished the tale. "You may not like the nature of that place, but you cannot deny their bonds with each other."

"Is that why you keep them around?" Ash gave her a look.

"Well, you know the rule. We cannot demolish whatever the previous rulers built unless it poses a threat and so far, I see nothing wrong with them. They did deserve to die." Pakura answered, having a small smirk. "I will get rid of whoever tries to overwrite the legacy of the other rulers."

"I wonder why they didn't stay in their own regions, where it'll be safer." Ash muttered. "Their resources are all in their own regions after all."

"Because they'd be recognized in their own regions. Besides, PAL has a lot of natural resources." Pikachu shrugged. "Even if they used a disguise, chances are Pokémon could recognize them, so they need to find a region where no one knew them too well, like PAL."

"I'm sure it's no coincidence that they chose this place." Ash narrowed his eyes.

"It isn't." Pakura said from behind him, making him jump. It seemed Pakura had arrived with the rest of the group. "It has a very high population, so chances are they could use those people too."

"Ooh. It's been a while." Jude commented. "I haven't been here since a photo shoot. This place hasn't changed at all."

"Do I even want to know why you had a photo shoot here?" Phillip was incredulous, as the others outside of PAL looked bewildered that a place like this could be in a beautiful region such as PAL.

"What's the status?" Pakura asked one of the residents.

"Over 300 dead, including victims and suicide bombers. Bombs don't work on them and we're not sure what to do." A resident replied.

"That explains the unexpected deaths I've been hearing about. So it wasn't from missions." Pakura nodded.

"And we didn't hear of it, why?" Cynthia was glaring.

"It's confidential to the Blacklist Department." Pakura retorted.

"And the assembly is divided over the definition of 'dead', Prince Ash." The resident continued.

"What do you mean?" Ash asked, as he watched the wounded from the mentioned bombings being brought in on homemade stretchers, in wheelbarrows, on carts, slung across shoulders, and clenched tight in arms. Bleeding, limbless, unconscious. Propelled by desperate people to a warehouse with a sloppily painted H above the doorway.

"Normally it wasn't like this, but the five leaders must have somehow used up whatever resources that we send to them." Pakura explained.

"That's right…they've been taking everything from us, and fighting back was no use." The resident admitted, leading all of them inside the warehouse to show them something. "We daren't ask for more help, for fear of being seen as greedy and we're usually independent. So all we're doing is scraping together what we could for now."

Ash didn't think it was a good idea, as any contagious disease would spread through this place like wildfire. As they stepped in, they saw corpses lying side by side, curtain brushing their heads, white cloth covering their faces. However, the resident pulled open one of the cloths, revealing what looked like a mutated creature.

"He was human just a few hours ago." The resident explained.

"They did this?" Lance was outraged.

"He's obviously dead." Cynthia noted. "What's the problem?"

"Some of them survive in this transformed state, and went over to their side. If there's no way to turn them back into humans, most of the assembly wants to mark that point as the definition of death."

"Whatever they did to them, it's obviously they want to turn the dynamic like how animal tamers control animals. They did something to the DNA." Phillip said thoughtfully.

"It must have been based on the experiments done on Paku." Jude gasped.

"That's sick…" Grimsley spluttered.

"That's right. It also has been used on the wild Pokémon here, and…we had no choice but to euthanize them because whatever used on the humans reacted differently when used on Pokémon. It turned all of them into mindless killing machines."

Ash gritted his teeth. This was worse than he thought, if Pokémon were affected. "There isn't any antidote to it?" He turned to Pakura.

"Whatever thing they used, they affect the genetic code. Problem is with DNA, they affect one letter out of three billion in the entire human genome, it's over. That's why the humans aren't human anymore." Pakura answered. "Also, we have an incoming problem."

"What?" Jasmine asked.

"Incoming bombers." Pakura replied. "Move."

Unsure of what's going on, Ash took off running along the front of the warehouse, heading off to the castle he had spotted, looking to the sky for any threats. But contrary to what Pakura said, there wasn't any immediate threat. The sky was an empty, cloudless blue and the street was empty except for people either repairing the destroyed buildings or the people hauling the wounded to the "hospital".

There wasn't any enemy or alarm. Then he heard it. The sirens began to wail. Within seconds, a low-flying V-shaped formation of hoverplanes appeared above them, and the bombs began to fall. Before Ash could react, Pakura sliced the bombs in half with her katana

"We got to stop them!" Jude cried.

"But how? We can't leave them behind!" Ash protested.

"Leave this to us. We'll handle the bombing and evacuation." Jasmine, Grimsley and Karen volunteered. "You guys go on to the castle."

"Are you sure?" Jude was worried.

"Of course. We'll be fine. We're Elites…and Gym Leader." Karen declared.

Ash hesitated. He knew they never faced a situation quite like this. On the other hand, they are not Elite Four members or one of the stronger Gym Leaders in Johto for nothing. Chances are, they can come up with a strategy like how they do in Pokémon battles.

"Alright, very well. Good luck." Ash nodded, and the three smiled at him deciding to believe in them. "But before you go, take this. Contact my Battle Leaders if you find yourself stuck." He handed a phone over to them.

The three nodded and left to handle the bombing, as the rest of the group headed towards the castle.

"Through their front door?" Jude suggested.

"Sounds good to me." Ash shrugged, as they all entered, only to see an army of mutated humans that looked like animals now.

"We'll handle this one." Lance and Cynthia suggested together. "You guys need to handle those five."

Ash nodded. "Alright then, I'll leave the army to the two of you." With that, the remaining five headed towards a point where there were five corridors leading down to another place.

"Did you sense any of them?" Jude asked his group.

Ash knew who he meant. However, he did not sense any of their aura signatures despite the fact that he knew that the five leaders got them. This meant two things: Either they were dead, or…

No. He didn't want to think about it. After all, if that happened to them, he would have known immediately, or at least Paku would have been able to notice and he was sure if she did, she'd have told him by now…right?

"I'll go this way, then." Phillip pointed to one of the corridors.

"Ok, then I'll go that way." Ash pointed to another corridor.

"Are we splitting up?" Akeno was surprised.

"Of course." Jude grinned. "It's nothing we can't handle on our own."

"Just dispose of anything that comes at you." Pakura told Akeno.

"If you do come back unscathed, you might find yourself taking Rosaline's spot." Jude joked.

"Careful what you say, Jude." Pakura scoffed. "Although I don't mind having a fellow female Elite."

Akeno narrowed her eyes. "Got it." She said.

"Ready, set, go!" Everyone went into five different directions.

Meanwhile, Matori opened her eyes and said, "They've split up." To Giovanni, who was sitting on his throne.

"So, the PAL group has finally come after us." Giovanni noted, smirking as he stood up "Then I'll make my move, and face whoever is heading my direction head on."

"Do you need me to-" Matori gasped as her head was sliced off.

Giovanni narrowed his eyes and looked around for the intruder, his eyes laying on the woman before him, glaring at him with murderous amethyst eyes.

'Hmm…now how do I prove myself to those people?' Akeno wondered, tilting her head. 'Rosaline may have gotten in on a technicality, but I think they'll want someone legit…'

"Well, well, look what we have here." Ghetsis said, approaching Akeno. "Hey pretty little lady, come over here."

"No." Akeno said flatly.

"Oh, I've been rejected." Ghetsis laughed. "I guess I'll have to just take you by force."

Akeno sighed and said, "I'm in quite a hurry here." As she said this, she took out her parasol, as ghostly petals seemingly started to fall around her. Ghetsis unleashed a fiery shot at Akeno, promoting her to flip backwards so as to avoid the blast, landing in a crouch.

Akeno tried attacking with her parasol, but something invisible blocked the attack, and uppercutted Akeno, sending her staggering back. Akeno prepared an aerial kick as Ghetsis leapt towards her. Ghetsis avoided Akeno's kick and, where confused Akeno is knocked to the ground by something again.

Akeno used Aura on her eyes and saw what looked like a small girl with large silver eyes and white long, wavy hair but a very expressionless face hovering over Ghetsis. She was dressed in a light red dress and a gold, long-sleeved shirt underneath with frilly lace outlining the ends of her sleeves. Judging by how blank her eyes were, it was clear the guardian or whatever had no emotional attachment to Ghetsis whatsoever.

'Isn't that the Fourth Princess' Guardian or something?' She remembered the Phoenix Princess having a guardian to fight in her stead at some point in her life because of her continued use of the ability to transfer souls into stuffed animals, shortening her lifespan and had to spend time in the hospital at one point as a result.

However, she did not care because she wanted to use those toys to make children happy. It was unknown what happened to those toys once she died. The Guardian dashed forward, unleashing a flurry of several flaming fists which Akeno blocked with her umbrella.

Ghetsis countered with his own punches and kicks, with Akeno dodging each attack, moving her body swiftly in order to avoid them in a very laid back, but extremely effective style.

A roundhouse kick was attempted from the Guardian, but it allowed Ghetsis to attack Akeno from above, and Akeno blinked as boulders fell on her, seemingly crushing her.

"That's what you get for interfering, little girl." Ghetsis said, about to walk away. However, he spotted what looked like green vines emerging from the rocks, and a closed white flower was being pushed out.

The flower opened to reveal Akeno sitting in the middle of it, and jumping out. The Guardian attempted a psychic blast, but Akeno blocked it with her parasol and fired a purple spiritual blast at Ghetsis. The Guardian intercepted, protecting Ghetsis before lunging forward with another punch. However, Akeno made ghostly copies of herself and evaded the attack.

With the Guardian taking on Akeno's ghostly mirages, Ghetsis backed away from the action. However, amidst the action, the real Akeno appeared before Ghetsis, pulling his arm in with her own left arm and performing a well-executed axe kick to hit Ghetsis, before kicking him in the abdomen with a perfect side kick.

She then began pushing Ghetsis back via her parasol on the offensive as Ghetsis tried to counter her movements with psychic-based punches. Any further follow-ups were stopped when the Guardian grabbed Akeno and threw her, but she backflipped effortlessly and landed on her feet. She switched to Ghost Dust and blasted the Guardian with a slash leaving damage to Ghetsis.

The Guardian then surrounded Akeno with psychic and fire-based sparks and Akeno countered by sending out a ghost that went through the Guardian, making it very depressed and negative.

"You little…" Ghetsis realized that the Guardian's feelings also affected him significantly. Akeno then rushed him down, kicking Ghetsis back. Ghetsis unleashed smoke bombs, causing Akeno to cough and unable to see Ghetsis, and when Ghetsis decided to aim for her head, but found himself being blown back with wind.

He looked up to see a woman who resembled Pakura smirking at him with a staff in hand.

'Where did that girl go?' He thought, as he fired fiery shots towards Goldstein, each of which were deflected against her hand with a bored expression. Pakura Goldstein twirled the staff around her body, kicking up the winds and blasting it towards her opponent, forcing Ghetsis to slide back.

Pakura Goldstein launched magical arrows at the ground around them, which erupted in a high whistling noise and a burning explosion from each projectile. Ghetsis felt the full force of it all, his Aura disappearing entirely from the damage. Due to him running out of Aura, the Guardian faded away.

"Naïve girl!" Ghetsis threw a hidden steel rope at Goldstein, who simply conjured up smoke. A slicing sound was heard, and Ghetsis was surprised as a paper fan was shown. The smoke cleared, revealing Shiki Kurobane.

"My fan may be made of paper, but you mustn't take it lightly." Shiki commented. "Even normal people can cut a chopstick with a business card when done right."

Shiki sent a wind blade towards him, seemingly dealing no damage. A beat later, Ghetsis screamed as his left arm was sliced off.

"Your right arm would be next." Shiki smirked.

As Jude walked on, Archie snuck up from behind Jude, and dissected him. Thinking he got him, Archie grinned, only for Jude to dispel into water, signifying a clone. The real Jude jumped from the darkness of the ceiling, intending to impale him with his trident, but Archie narrowly dodged it, jumping back.

"Should have known it wouldn't be that easy." Jude commented twirling his trident. "No matter."

"Heheheh. I knew you were the real deal the moment I saw you, Jude Harrison." Archie laughed, taking out a gun that Jude was familiar with. "We have something in common. We both love the seas."

'That's one of the weapons Third Prince Kilian Rezonite used.' Jude thought. 'He must have stolen it from his resting place. Oh, how dare he desecrate the dead.'

Archie then shot lightspeed lasers at Jude, who used his trident to conjure a water forcefield to shield himself from the projectiles. He then created a waterspout and began hovering on the wave.

"You may have stolen Prince Kilian's equipment, but you'll never match up to his skills." Jude sneered, jumping off and directing water tornadoes towards Archie, who laughed and froze the water wave, only for Jude to melt it by increasing the temperature of the water, forcing Archie to dodge it.

Only to find bubbles, surrounding his face with them and popped them. However, it created a puff of red powder that momentarily blinded him. Jude took this time to kick Archie back and impale him with his trident, only for Archie to grab him and throw him towards the sky, making Jude crash through the ceiling towards the moon.

Archie flew after him and punched Jude back down to the castle and was about to impale him with a punch that could break the sound barrier, only for Jude to catch the punch, and throw him down on the ground from his position on the ground.

Jude took his opportunity to darken the area, making it completely black.

'If you want to be like the Third Prince, you may as well have his disability too.' Jude thought.

Archie looked around for Jude, only he could not detect Jude and had to listen for his footsteps. He heard powerful water projectile that he turned into ice, but was redirected and hit him in the stomach, but leapt out of the way to dodge a Dark Pulse coming his way.

'Must have somehow gained Kilian's ability to hear very well. That was how he made up for his blindness back then.' Jude blew dozens of bubbles that made their way towards Archie. Wary of the bubbles, Archie tried to dodge them, but they popped, causing bright yellow and white flashes along with variously strong explosions that obscured his hearing.

Archie knew he could not let Jude get the upper hand like this. Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, the former Team Aqua Leader focused on his implemented Aura and began to send it out around him in small waves. It was similar to how Pakura used it, except it took much more effort for him to use it due to his body and Aura not being used to this sort of thing.

Sweat was running down the back of Archie's neck as he tried his best to find Jude. For all he knew, the Water/Dark Elite could be behind him, ready to impale him with his trident. Suddenly, one of his waves felt a response to something more human. It had to be Jude, as Jude was the only other person in the room with him.

Reacting as quickly as he could, Archie turned around, opening his eyes. What he 'saw' with his Aura was someone with his trident drawn out, ready to be thrust through his body. The trident was struck towards his target and blood fell to the ground. For a moment, both combatants stood completely still and silent.

Archie felt a tug, presumably Jude attempting to pull back his trident, but realized he can't get it back. Jude realized that Archie caught the trident, stopping it from dealing any serious damage, though from the fact that his palms were cut, his aura must have been nearly depleted.

"What's the matter? Didn't see that coming?" Archie taunted, and breaking Jude's trident.

"Oh, I saw that coming alright." Jude's tone indicated that he still had a trick up his sleeve, summoning what looked like an array of throwing knives from a box, and fired it at Archie, who deflected them, only for them to explode into electricity, electrocuting him. 'Thank you, Pakura.' Knowing this weapon was from Pakura.

Jude then took out a blue flaming sword out of nowhere, and took a stance, slicing Archie in the stomach multiple times before jumping back. 'Thank you, Rosaline.' Archie extinguished the fire attack with the laser gun, shattering the sword in the process.

Jude then his super-speed to attack Archie in multiple directions while using a special whistle and blowing on it, making use of the water that was flooding the room.

A second later, a shark came out of the water and attempted to chomp down on Archie, only for Archie to dodge and knock Jude into the dark depths of the water he conjured. "I got you now!" Archie decided to conjure up a surfboard and harpoon and spun the surfboard on the water, and created a vortex of water that he threw at Jude. Jude deflected the water back to Archie and said, "Let's see who is truly the master of water."

"I dig it." Archie grinned, as Jude leapt at him and both clashed their respective weapons multiple times, for a long minute, the two fighters exchanged blows as they slowly circled each other, Archie always on the attack and advancing, Jude blocking and deflecting looking out for patterns.

Beads of sweat were starting to form on Archie's face from his exertions. He was used to doing constant attacks, but it was a little different when doing them at full force against someone who was blocking and deflecting most of the force back at him. At one point, Jude even used only his left hand to use the trident, winding his right arm for some reason like he was charging a punch.

Jude took this opportunity to strike. When Archie next struck him, he simultaneously stepped to the side, and said, "It's over." His right arm was glowing with so much Aura, and he punched the steel harpoon, shattering it into a million pieces.

"W-Wait!" Archie was horrified at the Aura emitting from Jude's right arm.

"One punch is all I needed to defeat you, but I needed a workout." Jude grinned, giving Archie a punch that killed and disintegrated his body, leaving only the equipment stolen from Kilian's grave.

'Well, that technique increases in strength the more I wound my arm. Half that many spins would have done the job.' Jude thought, checking through his camera. 'True, I could have ended this in one hit, but where's the fun in that? Also, it looks like they are using the abilities of the other rulers somehow, but they can't use it fully…'

Jude shrugged. "Now which way should I go?" He wondered, coming to a fork.

Unknown to him, on the left was Pakura battling Giovanni, and on the right was Phillip battling Maxie.

The distinctive clashing of duelling blades echoed intensely throughout the room as the combatants stepped into the middle; Maxie with a military sword and Phillip with his machete. Both were halfway through their battle, with neither side giving in or bringing out their best moves yet. However, Maxie was clearing tiring out.

Maxie dodged a slash attack and charged in with a thrust, but was parried and ducked, as Phillip continued his assault and finally blasts Maxie with his electric attack, briefly staggering him. From there, the inventor began to comment on his opponent.

"You've gained the abilities of the Military Princess, Gertrude Blade." Phillip commented.

"That's right, but knowing this will get you nowhere." Maxie replied. He fired his laser but Phillip dodged it, leaping and kicking Maxie away, forcing him to cartwheel back to regain his position. Maxie tried kicking Phillip, but Phillip summoned a steel wall, effectively blocking the kick and making use of electromagnetism to fly.

"Can't touch me, Dry Land Lover!" Phillip mocked. He launched forward down towards his target, who successfully blocked and tossed him right back, but he was saved when he used electromagnetism to slow down his decent. He ran up to Maxie and delivered his own electrified punches and kicks, eventually kicking Maxie into the air.

He threw a makeshift wooden spear at Maxie, only for Maxie to summon his droid to use a missile to take it out, surprising Phillip.

"I will bury you by my own hand, kid." Maxie declared, running up to Phillip and delivering a speedy and bloody combo to him, but Phillip managed to block or dodge them all. Phillip grabbed Maxie and electrocuted him and delivered a punch that sent Maxie back. It was also the opening to deliver a vicious kick to his head, almost knocking Maxie down.

Now ready to move in for the kill, the inventor leapt into the air and dived down aiming his machete. Maxie, however, saw this coming and blocked it with his spear, throwing Phillip to the cold, hard floor.

Now brimming with revived confidence, the Team Magma Leader decided to bring out his own "big guns". Maxie activated his drone, which appeared behind Phillip. The drone started firing it's machine guns, which Phillip started dodging. Maxie hid behind a pillar to avoid fire as Phillip used his field to deactivate the drone.

The drone fell, useless, as Maxie summoned more military drones to overwhelm Phillip. However, Phillip simply changed his machete to a Gatling gun, shooting away at all the incoming drones, taking them out easily.

He took out a stun grenade and threw it towards Phillip's direction and it went off and electrocuted Phillip, but it simply made him stronger. Maxie pressed another button. A robotic creature, with sharp arms that could cut anything, came up from behind Phillip and trapped Phillip in such a way if he moved, he'd most likely be cut in…very bad places. This also caused Phillip to drop his weapon, which turned back into a briefcase.

'Well, I did see that coming, to be honest.' Phillip thought. 'It's a good thing he didn't know the electrocution actually made me stronger.'

"Thought you were so smart, weren't you?" Maxie sneered, panting. "And look who has fallen into my trap. Now all I need to do is take you to Giovanni. We could use someone like you in the team."

'Hmm…I'll have to use that technique to get out if I don't want to be injured.' Phillip thought. 'I hate using that technique though.'

"So…what's going to happen to me?" Phillip asked.

"You'll be a slave, working for us." Maxie replied. "Not so different from you now."

"In a way, you're right." Phillip grinned. "But the difference is for whom I work for. I rather die than serve someone I don't even like."

"Aren't you a bit mouthy?" Maxie replied. "Well, it's the only thing you can move."

"But I don't need to move to fight sometimes. Also, when it comes to manipulating targets…it's first come, first served." Phillip smiled, using polarity to stick a metal antenna to himself.

"He stabbed it…in himself?" Maxie gasped, as an immense amount of aura burst out from Phillip, freeing him from the robotic creature and landing on the ground. The device on Phillip's hand said, "Enemy sighted. Terminate target."

Before Maxie knew it, Phillip caused all the metallic debris from the multiple drones Maxie had used to rise after him, barraging him with metallic projectiles and summoned the other weapon that he dropped earlier and turned it into a machete to stab Maxie in the back, before obliterating him with a single aura-enhanced punch.

"Mission Complete. Cancelling Autopilot." The device stated.

Phillip blinked as his Aura shut off. 'I hate how much Aura this uses up. Well, can't be helped. I rather use Aura to dish out hits rather than take them, since I can't guard very well.'

As he proceeded to leave, something occurred to him. He made a thoughtful pose, before deciding to head off in another direction.

"This is a bad habit." Shiki said to himself, looking at the remains of his opponent that was splattered all over the room. "I really have to break this bad habit of toying with my victim…" Shiki smiled at the thought of how much Pakura had grown, before turning back into Akeno.

Akeno blinked at the mess and said, "Well, I guess I'll go see how the others are doing…" With that, she headed off.

The distinctive clashing of her katana and Giovanni's scorpion tail went at blinding speeds. Giovanni attempted to both kick and shoot Pakura, but she dodged with ease. The two exchange several more attacks and parries until Pakura kicked Giovanni several feet away.

"You're no match for me, girl!" Giovanni declared, laughing as Pakura's kick only sent him back. "Come back when you've gotten your act together."

'What a joke.' Pakura inwardly scoffed, swinging her katana. While both were not injured yet, it was clear Giovanni could not keep up to the sheer speed Pakura had displayed. Pakura understood why he needed his weapon back- it was to protect him.

Although really, she was disturbed at how willing he was to turn himself into a monster just for power, as she looked at the scorpion-like tail Giovanni now had. She somersaulted away from the scorpion tail and rushed down with a thrust. However, it was parried and ducked, but Pakura continued her assault, slicing Giovanni a few times.

'She's getting faster as the battle progresses...' Giovanni thought.

'Hmm…I haven't really needed to go all out when I fight.' Pakura inwardly noted. 'If Giovanni somehow gained Goldstein's abilities, that means most of Giovanni's options don't work against me.'

She used his katana to block the incoming scorpion tail and kicked Giovanni backward and landed a strike on his right arm, causing him to grunt in pain. She blocked another strike from the scorpion tail and use Electric Dust to electrocute him, forcing him back and landed a roundhouse kick against his chest, causing damage to his Aura in the area of the strike. Giovanni crashed into to a pillar as the knife Pakura threw to follow up comes at light speed which Giovanni blocked until the sword was switched to Pakura as the princess struck at him with a tornado vortex, sending him flying and crashing on the ground.

Pakura used her katana once more and during the weapon combat, she spotted a brief opening but was instead met by Giovanni's telekinetic power, much to her surprise. Giovanni then send a gale of wind towards Pakura with the help of magic.

To his surprise, Pakura did not dodge this attack. She stood in place as the gale of energy attack flew toward her and hit her…only to dissipate, leaving her unscathed.

"Fighting with magic? Ironic…and a waste of time." Pakura commented.

This comment made Giovanni realize something. "So you're the one I was looking for."

'It's likely whatever turned the humans into those creatures and Pokémon into monsters. There is a chance I'd turn into one of them if that hits me.' Pakura thought. 'I need to disable it somehow.'

"Won't you come to my side?' Giovanni offered.

As answer, Pakura gave him a look of disgust and in quick succession, he delivered a right hook to his face and a palm strike to his torso, damaging his Aura each time. She then used her leg to knock Giovanni towards the ceiling and made him hit it and jumped up to meet him before he landed. She smashed him in the abdomen with a drop kick, breaking his Aura.

Giovanni growled, but swung his tail two times which was blocked by Pakura as she summoned multiple icicle spears and shot them at point blank at Giovanni.

Giovanni managed to deflect some of them, but others pierced him, and Pakura was onto him, punching him twice in the face before leaping backward to avoid the scorpion tail trying to stab her from above. Only for Pakura to only to have catch the tail with her left hand and send a fiery palm blast to Giovanni's stomach with her right, causing smoke to be emitted from impact.

When it cleared, he realized Pakura was gone. Pakura was behind, about to stab him, but was stopped by the scorpion tail and she could not retrieve it immediately.

Pakura smirked, and fired a bullet made out of Steel Dust towards him. Giovanni got his on the face, causing him to stagger quite a distance back. Pakura raised her eyebrow, as she realized that Giovanni only had a tiny scrape to his face, indicating a durable skin.

"You bitch! How dare you injure your master?" Giovanni screamed, seeing the blood on his hand where he touched the scratch.

"The only one getting served is you." Pakura replied.

Giovanni tore off his tail, and Pakura looked slightly surprised as he slowly became much larger and transformed into what looked like a grotesque humanoid crocodile-like monster. 'I don't think that was one of Pakura Goldstein's abilities…must have developed it on his own. But a scorpion to a spider? How does it even make sense?'

She leapt onto the beast's back, using all her aura on her katana to try and stab Giovanni, only for the blade to split in half. Pakua blinked in surprise and jumped back as he swung an attack with one of his legs. Pakura blinked as she found herself injured, tearing her shirt in half.

'That attack backfired against me.' Pakura thought, healing herself in an instant. 'I used all my aura for that attack and it not working surprised me, leaving myself defenceless for a split second. I was totally exposed and he must have sent a little psychic power into it, as at that point, even a weak aura attack would deal severe damage. I can see he did do his homework well.'

"See? My body is indestructible." Giovanni laughed.

Pakura hated that laugh. It was the same laugh she heard as a kid, the same smirk he had when she was under his control. She found herself shaking very slightly. She dodged all the punches Giovanni was sending her way, noting it was so much stronger than in his human form. Or could she call that human?

"Keep running, I'm going to knock you out!" Giovanni taunted.

She hated those taunts. She still hates it now.

Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate!

With a cry of anger, Pakura threw Giovanni into the air and froze him solid. "This is for my life you ruined!"

As he descended, she stabbed Giovanni, saying, "This is for Shiki!" This shattered the ice and him at the same time.

For good measure, she then said, "This is for even thinking about getting me back!" and unleashed a devastating stream of fire onto where she still sensed his Aura, assuming it to be his soul.

The punishing overkill was just too much for Giovanni's soul, as unknown to Pakura, Giovanni's soul deteriorated piece by piece until there was nothing.

Pakura smirked triumphantly over the million pieces of the late Giovanni, before walking away.

'What in the world?' Akeno thought, watching as Cyrus propelled himself forward with a stream of what looked like demonic fire, attempting to ram Ash into the wall. Ash leapt upward, grabbed Cyrus, and used the momentum to hurl his opponent onto the floor.

Hovering above the ground, Cyrus created a large light-based blast causing Ash to block with his crystal shield, which shattered. Due to its luminous quality, the blast shone so brightly that it temporarily blinded Ash, but it did not faze him as he dodged another blast by rolling to his right. He evaded a dark purple blast by performing a midair roll, twisting his body to his left as he fired a Dark Pulse from his blade to counteract the third projectile.

"He's doing better now." Jude commented, having been watching the battle for quite a while now. "Still not at the top of his game, though."

'The others are already watching from the sidelines.' Akeno thought, watching as Cyrus tossed his weapon, only for Ash to deflect each one, before being tackled to the ground by Cyrus. With Ash in his chokehold, Ash simply crystalized the weapon Cyrus held to his neck, and shattered it into a million pieces. 'I may have dallied a little, but I was sure I wasn't slow or anything.'

"Oh, you guys are here already?" Phillip walked in and saw Pakura, Jude and Akeno.

"You're late. What took you?" Jude asked, frowning.

"Just had some things I wanted to hand over to my department for analysis." Phillip shrugged.

Ash reappeared behind Cyrus, slashing his face with a vicious swipe of his rapier and drawing blood. Cyrus' eyes glowed white and dark red in rage as he struck with a punch straight to Ash's chest. He smirked at the successful attack, before realizing that all he punched was the remnants of a pillar.

Cyrus tried kicking Ash but he flipped over it and tried striking back with his rapier only to be blocked. Ash managed to prevent his weapon from being smashed by using his arm to block the next strike. As his arm was covered in crystal, it softened the damage done to his Aura.

Cyrus summoned what looked like white blasts that Ash leapt over. He backflipped when Cyrus went on the offensive, launching two red demonic blasts, which Ash dodged, before shielding with a stone wall the incoming powerful stream of dark red and black blast which enveloped both combatants in the explosion.

'Welp, of all the abilities he gained, he had to gain the First Prince and the second Prince's abilities.' Ash thought, running and sending Cyrus backward through the explosion chaos. The two exchanged multiple strikes and counters with their weapons. Cyrus tried striking forward once again, but Ash blocked the blow with his wrists covered in crystal armor.

'Time to stop holding back Ash!' Ash thought. Ash hurled an aura disc towards Cyrus, only for him to deflect it- before realizing that Ash had only been distracting him while using telekinesis to lift several giant pillar rubbles all around him. Before Cyrus could do anything, Ash had tripped him with a low kick to send him off balance and sent a pillar rubble hurtling towards his stomach, knocking him down. Ash buried him with the pillars. However, Cyrus used Dark Dust to disrupt the telekinetic powers, sending all of the rubble flying, including one at Ash, but Ash blasted it apart, leaving him unharmed.

Cyrus then followed up with a barrage of energy blasts, but Ash sent the bolts of energy flying back at Cyrus. In return, Cyrus took out what looked like a ruby-hilted two-handed sword and deflected two of the energy blasts, before decapitating Ash.

Or so Cyrus thought, as Ash appeared from behind and slammed Cyrus to the groundAsh then attacked him with globs of lava, causing him to scream out in pain. Then, however, Cyrus' eyes began to glow, and a burst of energy erupts, dispelling the lava. From within, a being that was half white and half black emerged, with the white side having an angel wing and the dark side having a devil wing.

"Behold true power!" Cyrus laughed, as Ash blinked in surprise.

"Of course." Phillip muttered, looking at the form. "The first two princes were brothers and one had angelic and one had demonic based powers. He must have combined both together."

"Some say they were half angel, half demon." Jude noted.

In response, Ash slammed his blade down and rising up from the floor, his summon appears; Arceus, the God of Pokémon. It raised its hooves, ready to battle alongside its master. Ash and the summoned Arceus charged at each other, where Ash dodged what looked like blood red blasts that corroded everything when touched, while Arceus forced Cyrus back by launching an orb into the sky, which left behind orange streaks as it fired.

The orb then exploded in the air, releasing multiple pink meteors to come crashing down on Cyrus, while Ash attacked Cyrus from above. However, Cyrus caught Ash, and threw against the pillar, smashing it and as Ash recovered, the creature fired a series of blasts directly at Ash's back. Ash spotted them coming, but before he could react, a giant shadow towered over him and took the damage.

Ash looked up and saw his loyal summon shielding him from the fatal assault and looked on as the summon vanished into mist.

"You'll fall by my own hand, just like your mother, boy." Cyrus sneered.

Ash was angry. Angry that Cyrus had taunted him about his mother. At this point, there is no way he was going to accept defeat, especially not from the person who killed her. He thought, 'I'll do this on my own.'

Cyrus then rushed down Ash, who used lava to impede his speed and swiped at him with his two-handed sword. However, Ash did not anticipate Cyrus overwhelming him and even breaking his arm despite his aura protecting him.

"Ash, need help?" Jude called out.

Ash muttered "Don't press your luck." darkly as a lot of aura was pouring out of him, and Akeno was puzzled, until he saw the other members' except for Pakura's, faces pale.

"Uh oh, let's get out of here." Jude said, as they started running, Pakura grabbing Ash's Pikachu with her. "We'll get caught in the fallout."

"Ash must be really angry when Cyrus taunted him about his mum." Phillip said. "He must be using that technique. I tried to watch it once, and I got my Aura depleted in an instant."

"That ability is a wide range. Because he's angry now, it's unlikely he'll hold back." Jude muttered. "It'll probably obliterate you in an instant, Akeno."

"Meh, I could shield it with my ice dome, but…" Pakura shrugged, as she paused and said, "Wait why are we running?" She snapped her fingers, and teleported everyone away.

'Darn, I really want to see it…' Akeno looked back at Ash who was surrounded by Aura, before being teleported away by Pakura.

The Aura conjured up a white armor for Ash, making Cyrus wonder when did he change clothes and that he was clearly stronger than before.

'I'll pay back the damage taken…by transferring it into scorching heat.' Ash thought, throwing what looked like a red orb into the ceiling, and it turned into a miniature sun. Cyrus screamed as he was slowly being burnt as he also started suffocating due to the oxygen being drained by that sun.

Due to its huge attack radius, the structure of the castle was also falling apart thanks to the power of the technique. Thanks to his armor, Ash was not harmed by the heat and even had a supply of oxygen.

"Is it hot enough for you, Cyrus?" Ash laughed. In response, Cyrus tried to fight back with his Aura, but it's not enough, and he was eventually overwhelmed by the heat. Ash was unfazed as to how Cyrus was clearly suffocating and being burnt in front of him.

"What's wrong? I thought you were going to end me like you did my mum." Ash said to Cyrus, smirking at how Cyrus could only writhe around on the ground, trying to dissipate the heat burning inside him, but was slowly becoming unresponsive and eventually became a completely burnt husk of flesh.

When the sun dissipated, Ash walked over to his fallen foe and said, "Oh, out of energy to fight already? How disappointing, it'd have been quicker if you damaged me more. But that is what you deserve." With that, he made his way back to his team.

They had finally put an end to the five leaders' reign of terror.

When he caught up to his team, Pakura said, "Look what we found." She held out a white hat with a pink Pokéball print. He recognized it as Dawn's hat.

"They may still be alive, Ash." Phillip suggested. "I've also found their research room and took all their materials. We might be able to find a cure for those people affected. Bad news is that they don't revert back at his death."

"But the good thing is, whoever was infected by the poison was released from their influence. They won't threaten others anymore." Akeno smiled.

Ash nodded, as this gave him hope. Hope that they could undo whatever damage they did. He couldn't help but wonder if Iris and Misty, the ones shot up by the channelled Dragon Prince, survived as even they were taken from the hospital.

"Let's go check how the others are doing." Ash suggested, as all of them nodded.

When they returned, they were surprised to see the Battle Leaders, all of whom were helping with the remaining injured people from the bombing. One of them saw them and walked over to them.

"Did you eliminate the threat?" Akira asked.

Ash nodded. "What's…the status here?"

Akira shook his head, and pointed to the warehouse that was the makeshift hospital which was…

"No…" Ash gasped, seeing that the bombs have collapsed the roof and set the building on fire, effectively trapping the patients inside. If the crushing debris and the flames didn't get them, the smoke would have. "Are there any survivors?"

Akira shook his head. "Those that were inside were all confirmed dead. We are currently trying to identify them, and treating those injured."

"Dammit!" Jude cussed. "How's…"

"They're alive. So is Lance and Cynthia. We got them in time and they are being transported to the nearest hospital as we speak." Jin confirmed, walking up to his fellow Wind Symbol holder.

"Now I think of it, those five leaders have admins with them." Ash thought, remembering Courtney and Shelly and funnily enough, never meeting them in the castle. "I wonder whatever happened to them?" However, he was sure he already knew, and the thought made him want to puke. Would they really do that to their own subordinates?

"We'll take care of things from here." William assured. "You guys just go back and rest in the hospital. We'll prepare the ceremony once we're done here."

"Ceremony?" Ash asked.

"You know, for the Pokémon World Championships?" William shot him a look.

"Let's leave them to it." Akeno suggested. "We can go see Grimsley, Jasmine, Karen, Cynthia and Lance."

"Thank you, William." Ash nodded, as they left for the hospital.

Ash was having a great time talking with Cynthia, alongside with his PAL Elites and their love interests. Akira had the foresight to place them into the same ward, which he would thank him for later.

"I see," Ash said, "so you were actually overwhelmed, but the Battle Leaders saved you."

"Yes," Cynthia nodded, "although to be honest, they did most of the work when it came to eliminating the threats."

"I'm sorry I couldn't save those people, Ash." Grimsley frowned. "How are you holding up with the news?"

"Well…we'll manage somehow. After all, deaths are nothing new for us." Ash replied, "After all, I'll have my team by my side and…you guys are ok." Ash had a smile on his face, "I'm so glad you're ok."

"Me too, Ash. Me too." Cynthia whispered.

"Thank you, Cynthia." Ash answered.

Phillip spoke about what he found out when he saw the records. In fact, he had waited until Pakura left before revealing the news.

"Wait, what?" Jude's mouth was open, "Pakura's actual birthday is tomorrow?"

"Yeah, to be honest I was surprised too, but Giovanni's records stated it, so it must be true." Phillip said, "Giovanni kept records of her hoping to try and track her down… but it also provided useful information on her. We should have a celebration for her, since she never really had a great birthday since he died."

"I agree with him." Lance said.

"Yes, we should." Grimsley said with a nod. "You guys can get the preparation by tomorrow, right?"

"Yes," Ash grinned happily, "We can even prepare enough for a big celebration bash with our connections."

There was a knock on the door and Ash called out that he was coming as he went to the door. Ash opened the door and was pleased to see William and Ken along with the other Battle Leaders. The others were also pleased to see them and then they saw someone who looked nervous and was hesitant and it was Akeno.

Ash smiled and approached Akeno.

"Akeno," Ash greeted.

Akeno was surprised and looked at Ash who smiled.

"Hi Ash," Akeno said and she had a sad expression, "I knew what happened and I thought I'd drop by to ask…um, well, are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine," Ash said with a smile, "and thank you."

"Huh, why are you thanking me?" Akeno blinked.

"You helped eliminate one of the threats. You proved yourself to be a capable fighter." Ash said.

"It wasn't much." Akeno admitted. "I wish I came sooner so I could have…" Akeno looked at Pakura, "done more for you."

"It's fine," Jude assured, "trust me, all of us are grateful to you."

"Yeah, what he said," Phillip said.

"Thank you." Akeno smiled sweetly.

"See, I told you," Kenta said to Akeno. "Yet you didn't want to believe me."

"It's not that I didn't want to believe you, Kenta." Akeno replied.

"Oh right, we forgot to mention one thing." Lance said.

Tenma and the others were surprised when Lance spoke up.

"Are you in pain anywhere, Champion Lance?" Ai asked. "Akira and I can-"

"No, no." Lance said. "Tomorrow is Princess Pakura's birthday and we were hoping…"

"Wait, what?" Ryoko spoke surprised.

"Seriously, her birthday," Mika gaped and then she turned to Tenma, "We've got to get presents for her! Oh no, what would she like?"

"Stop shaking me!" Tenma exclaimed.

"Just thought you ought to know." Cynthia shrugged.

"We definitely got to celebrate it, but we got the PokéAwards thing." Ran replied in a shocked but calm tone.

"Well, if the others are feeling alright, we can do the closing ceremony for the Pokemon World Championships tonight, and then the PokéAwards in the morning and then for the rest of the day, her birthday." William suggested.

"We're definitely alright. Well, if we can get Pakura to heal us." Jasmine smiled.

"Lance, you can't be serious," Grimsley said as he was shaking his head.

"Huh?" Lance looked at Grimsley, "What, can't a guy be excited to celebrate his girl's birthday?"

"Oh my," Ai said, "it seems we have a lot of work ahead of us. Would it be invitation only?"

"Absolutely. Don't want any party crashers now, do we?" Ash answered.

Tenma looked excited at the prospect though. "But for our princess, we'd do anything, right?"

"Huh, yes," William agreed, "of course we would."

"Speaking of Pakura, where did you send her?" Jude asked Phillip.

"Oh, I sent her to tell the news of Rosaline's death to her family and then arrange to send her body back to Hearthome City." Phillip shrugged.

"Wait, but aren't we supposed to-" Ken started, but was cut off by Ash.

"We'll just do things her way this time. I'm sure she'll come up with a nice send-off for Rosaline that doesn't need us involved." Ash grinned.

The gathering continued in the hospital and there were joys, laughs, and funny times with everyone in the hospital. Ash looked around and felt blessed at the moment.

Unknown to them, someone had overheard the celebration plans and went off to tell everyone.

Meanwhile, Pakura hummed a little tune to herself. Her headphones were on, and an upbeat song was playing from her phone. As she idly placed another arm into the big plastic bag, Pakura, sensing her increasing exhaustion, paused her work to release a long, tired yawn and stretched.

She picked another appendage up and carelessly tossed it in the bag, not too bothered. She was looking forward to a good, long sleep tonight, along with some wonderful dreams, as soon as she'd finished the last phase of the task given by Phillip.

Wide-open, her pupils looked back at her. It reminded her of the white eyes of fish that lay dead in heaped piles of heads in supermarkets where she usually bought her groceries, besides them their pink innards and fillets exposed in neat, yet somewhat grotesque rows, spread for the world to see.

Finally, Colette Sanders was finished too, surrounded with, and surrounding, her parents in a pile. She snapped her fingers, and all the parts were set on fire, and she watched in fascination as their bodies started to melt into puddle, eventually becoming unrecognizable. She made sure to put a bubble around it to prevent anyone from detecting or smelling the smoke.

When everything was disposed of, Pakura shut the back door of Rosaline's birth house and locked it, just as it had been before she'd first arrived. She pocketed the key - she would toss it into some river later.

For anyone who went inside, whether the concerned neighbour or Officer Jenny, it would seem as if the Sanders family had simply ceased to exist. There would be no trace left of them.

Pakura smiled grimly. After all, at the end of the day, Rosaline was simply a nuisance, always trying to keep up her fancy masquerade, and fashioning a new name and using her Elite position to claim a high-class ancestry.

"Pakura, be a dear and break the news to her family. Do whatever Rosaline's family requests of."

Phillip never said in what order she should do it. They asked to see their daughter when she came in, so…

'Technically I did do what Phillip told me to do.' Pakura shrugged, walking away and taking the burnt evidence with her in a trash bag. Maybe Sharpedos like burnt meat.

Later that night, at the Battle Arena, which was miraculously repaired thanks to Phillip, Mr. Goodshow stepped up to the microphone, "Finally, after a period of over two weeks, this tournament has come to a close. And I must say that this year's tournament was one of the best ones ever in the whole of history."

The crowd cheered as well as did the top fifteen participants, one participant being already dead. However, Ash, Pakura, Wallace and Cynthia were standing on the winners' pedestal. "Now all of the participants of the Pokémon World Championship are to be commemorated for their skills, but we must give a special applause for the trainers that made it to the Top Sixteen, so please everyone let us applaud these fifteen trainers."

The stadium began cheering for the sixteen trainers on the ground and on the pedestal. Most of those trainers couldn't keep the grins off of their faces as the crowd cheered for them. Pakura, however, just nodded politely.

Once the cheering died down Mr. Goodshow spoke again, "Now we shall commence with the award ceremony." William had carted in the trophies, alongside the cheques and prizes for each winner.

"Now we shall proceed to the award the prizes to the top three trainers" Mr. Goodshow said. "In third place…we have Sinnoh Champion Cynthia and Hoenn Champion Wallace!" William took two small sized bronze trophies and two cheques and handed it to Cynthia and Wallace.

"In second place…we have Elite Pakura of the PAL Region." Goodshow grinned at the looks on the Blackthorn Clan's faces when he refused to say her original region. Unknown to them, Ash had requested this specifically as he knew how much Pakura hated them. William took a medium silver trophy with a larger cheque and handed it to a stoic Pakura.

"And finally, in first place; the winner of the Pokémon World Championship…Champion Ash of the PAL, originally Kanto Region!" William took the large diamond and gold encrusted trophy with the large cheque and the box of inventions Phillip contributed and handed it to Ash.

The three winners held their trophies high into the air and waved to the crowd as the crowd cheered loudly and the other thirteen participants cheered as well.

"I guess that trophy belongs to our region now." Pakura commented, looking at the uniquely engraved trophy Ash held.

To end it they had Cynthia, Wallace, Pakura and Ash all stand next to each other and they took a photo of each of them with their signature Pokémon. Once the picture was taken Mr. Goodshow spoke to the crowd again, "That concludes the Pokémon World Championships."

"Now that is over with, we can prepare for-" Ash cut himself off as Pakura was next to him.

"Prepare for what?" Pakura asked.

"Oh, for the PokéAwards." Ash replied, but his excuse was ruined when Candice ran up to her and asked, "Princess Pakura! Are you really going to have a birthday party tomorrow? Are you inviting us?"

"Huh?" Pakura was blinking in surprise.

"Everyone knows you're going to have a birthday party after the PokéAwards! Please say you're going to invite us!" Whitney pleaded, joining Candice.

"What is going on here?" Pakura whispered to Ash through gritted teeth.

"Er…we were organizing a birthday bash for you because it's your birthday tomorrow." Ash whispered back sheepishly. "I think someone let slip about it…" He handed her the invitations that was already designed.

"We promise to get you a really great gift if you'd let us come." Elesa pleaded, as all the Gym Leaders, Elite Fours and Champions gathered around Pakura.

"No, I don't need a gift. I'll give these." Pakura indicated the invitations. "if you'll tell me who was the idiot that let it slip."

"We heard about it from the Unova League," Candice answered, indicating the Sinnoh Gym Leaders.

"We heard about it from the Kanto League members," said Drayden.

"We heard about it from the Hoenn Elites," said Lorelei.

"Don't look at me. We heard it from the Johto League." Phoebe said.

"We heard it from the Johto Elites." Falkner said quietly.

"Will told about it to us." Koga said.

Pakura turned to look at said psychic. "How did you find out about it?" she asked while somewhat dreading the answer.

"I…uh…" Will stammered. "Eavesdropped?"

'You're the idiot that leaked it! Wait until I tell Lance and Karen.' Ash thought angrily, as Pakura nodded, which made Ash hand her the invitations to give it to them, making them cheer in delight as they both left.

The moment Ash told them, Lance had this scary look in his eyes and left the PAL Elites floor, and he swore he heard Lance scream, "WILL! I HAVE COME FOR YOUR HEAD!"

Said Psychic started to turn pale from horror. "Uh-oh." Upon hearing the downright dangerous tone of the red-haired Champion that promised him eternal pain, Will did the only thing he could. He jumped through the window with his Xatu in an effort to escape the wrath of his regional Champion.

Even Bruno hid under Will's bed in fear despite not being the target of Lance's fury. Almost as soon as Will had jumped through the window, the door to the dorm was blown up by a Hyper Beam from a certain livid Champion and his Dragonite.

Lance's face was twisted into one of absolute anger and his body was surrounded by an aura courtesy of his Dragon Champion powers, incinerating anything around him. He stormed his way to the window, intent on chasing the one who dared eavesdrop and leak the birthday event to everyone else, complicating their plans and ruining any chance of having a small, quiet celebration which he knew Pakura preferred.

"YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY FROM ME! I'LL GET YOU FOR RUINING THE BIRTHDAY PLANS I HAD FOR MY GIRL!" Lance roared as he smashed the window and chased after Will.

Once the furious redhead had left, Bruno slowly crawled out from under Will's bed.

"Lance has really changed a lot since he came here. I'd hate to anger him at this point." the muscular Fighting Elite mumbled to himself.

The next day, after breakfast, everyone was being driven to Natus City, where they were led to an opera house. They were sent tickets after dinner yesterday to come to this destination for their PokéAwards ceremony, where a red carpet was already lined up leading to the entrance of the opera house.

At the sides, paparazzi were awaiting to take their pictures as they walked down the red carpet.

There were a lot of different people coming to the opera house, but none of them looked like the typical citizens at all, as they wore clothes that were clearly expensive, and the people also walked around in a manner that told everyone of their higher-class status.

It also meant that all the League members going in have to dress in formal clothing, much to most of their chagrin.

"I hate wearing tuxedos." Ash said, tugging uncomfortably at his black bowtie.

"You and me both, Ash." Phillip sighed.

"You think yours is bad? Try walking in heels." Pakura was in a dark blue mermaid diamond gown with matching diamond heels. Her hair was put up in an elegant bun decorated with a platinum hairpiece.

Akeno chuckled sweetly. She was wearing a light pink off the shoulder dress with matching heels and her hair was tied to a French braid decorated with gold butterflies.

As they walked past, paparazzi started taking pictures of them, and Ash grimaced at the flashes going off in his face. He was almost sure that this PokéAwards would be the event of the year, considering what he heard plans on having a famous classical band that was going to perform one of the shows as part of the entertainment.

True, Pakura's birthday would be another event everyone would love to talk about, but Ash had specifically told the guards he hired NOT to let any paparazzi into the party venue. Only those with invites can go in. He had hoped Pakura would like whatever that they had planned for her, considering they had to make changed after Will had complicated their arrangement plans.

Ash swore that he could still see smoke coming out of Lance's ears when he saw him this morning. When Ash asked what he did to Will, Lance said, "Let's just say Will has a phobia for masks now." Sure enough, when Ash saw Will, he wasn't wearing a mask anymore.

As they took their seats to await the others, Ash chatted with Gary and Paul, the latter who admitted that the tickets for this was not only expensive, and he had to use everything he had in order to get himself in here, unlike League members who got the tickets for free. This was turning out to be a huge event as there was press from everywhere, from Pokémon Journal to Pokémon Fan and even Pokémon Time Magazine.

"Many Pokémon Coordinators were rioting that they did not get free tickets." Paul told Ash. "They were even angrier when only participants of the Pokémon World Championships would have a discounted price since even the Battle Leaders got them for free. I couldn't even get one for Princess Salvia."

"Well, you could get at least eight of them in, with Dawn's, May's and Cilan's, Brock's, Misty's, Trip's, Iris' and Max's tickets." Ash said, taking out his Pokégear to do the deed. Akeno herself had used Rosaline's ticket to get into the event. "Just tell me who you want to get in."

"Thanks, Ash!" Paul smiled in relief.

"It means we can get Tracey in too." Gary grinned.

"You seem to have taken a liking to Princess Salvia." Ash commented, as Paul blushed.

"You know Ash, this whole time, we haven't asked you how you are, or what you're feeling. You're undergoing way more stress than both of us combined. We should be giving you more attention than we have been." Gary made a soft sigh and gave Ash a wry smile. "Some friend I am, right?"

"No, it's fine." Ash waved him off. "Pakura healed all of us up, so we're good as new."

Meanwhile, Steven Stone was looking at awe at the girl next to Pakura. He nudged Wallace and whispered, "Do you know that girl?" He asked, pointing to Akeno.

"No, but she must have been a friend of Pakura's. Why, do you like her?" Wallace grinned.

"No, no, I just think she's pretty…" Steven trailed off.

"Then go talk to her! Sit next to her!" Wallace pointed at the empty seat. 'I can be your wingman!" He laughed, dragging Steven over to the empty seat next to Akeno.

"H-Hi." Steven stuttered.

Akeno looked up, and smiled beatifically. "Hello." She replied.

"So uh…is this seat taken?" Steven pointed to the seat next to Akeno.

"No, feel free." Akeno replied, patting the seat next to her.

"Er…My name is Steven. I'm…" Steven stuttered.

"Champion of Kanto, and specializes in Steel types. I know." Akeno smiled. "But I don't want to know that. I want to know what you like outside of being a Champion."

Pakura, who was watching their conversation, inwardly smiled slightly. Lance, who was looking at where Pakura was looking, commented, "Well, looks like Steven found some love."

"I wouldn't say love yet." Pakura replied, knowing about the Cheveyo Clan's history. But that'll be a story for another time, as at that point, Ken had taken the stage, and called for everyone's attention.

"Ladies and Gentlemen." Ken said. "Welcome to our very first PokéAwards ceremony, where we acknowledge the outstanding performers and the favourites among our population. My little brother, Will, and I-"

"William, Kenneth!" William warned.

"Ok, you big party pooper." Ken stuck out his tongue, causing laughter to erupt. "Anyway, before we begin the award cermeony, we would like you to feast your eyes and ears on our classical quintet, Meloetta's Philharmonic!"

Everyone clapped politely as the classical band took their places.

About half an hour later, everyone had been sitting in the theater, watching the concert, which had been enough for everyone to make up their minds on classical concerts.

'Hmm, I can see why Paku has a taste for classical music. I'm quite enjoying this.' Ash thought to himself, as he wanted to do nothing but lose himself to the music being played. The songs they played had a theme relating to Meloetta, hence the name of the band.

What Ash realized was that the concert they were watching would last a total of two hours. So far, they hadn't even reached the halfway point yet, meaning that they were in for a long concert.

Ash started to look at her teammates to see how they were faring with classical music like this. Ash checked out each of his teammates' faces to see if they were paying attention to the concert or not.

Much like he had expected, Pakura was completely taken by the concert, though she did not show it. Jude and Phillip were half paying attention, half talking to each other. Akeno had actually fallen asleep, though Ash suspected it was likely due to fatigue rather than finding the concert boring.

On the other hand, Paul, Gary and Tracey had a pained expression on their faces, which made Ash chuckle. After all, he knew music was not to their liking, but Princess Salvia, who was seated next to Paul, seemed to be enjoying it very much.

In the end, most of the audience fully enjoyed the concert, but were in such a stupor that they took five minutes to realize the concert had ended. Those who didn't were either on their Pokégears playing games or talking to the person next to them.

"Alright, here's the moment you've all been waiting for!" Ken announced as William wheeled in all the trophies that were engraved in different colours and shapes, as Akeno woke up with a start. Ken was followed by Tenma, who was wearing a white suit lined with gold at the edges and holding a velvet red box.

"We would now start the PokéAwards Ceremony, and it's time for our first category, the Best Performing Normal Specialist. It's as the title says, the people vote for whom they thought performed best as the Normal Specialist, and the winner is…"

As Ken said this, Tenma stepped forward and held out the box as he opened the lid, where everyone can see the tidy, upright rows of gold envelopes lined up with different colours, presumably pertaining to the differing awards. Ken took out one with a beige colouring at the edge and opened it to take out a square piece of paper.

"Leader Whitney." Ken announced.

Everyone clapped and cheered as Whitney gasped, but went up to the stage to take the trophy that William handed to her. She was crying tears of joy at having won an award. The press also started taking pictures of this moment.

As the clapping subsided, Ken had already announced, "Our second category is Favourite Normal Specialist. It's as the title says, the people vote for which Normal Specialist they like the most, and the winner is…" He took the envelope and opened it and read, "Leader Norman!"

Norman, despite having lost both his daughter and son, forced a smile as he went up to the stage to take his award. He held his trophy high to the cheering of the audience.

"Do you think he's doing ok?" Ash wondered. "He did lose both his children."

"He'll be fine." Pakura waved it off offhandedly. "After all, they aren't confirmed dead."

"If you say so." Ash was unnerved at Pakura's callous dismissal of the matter, but knew that he's still holding out hope that they'll be found.

Ash watched as the other awards were given out. The Best Performing Fighting Specialist was awarded to Bruno, Favourite Fighting Specialist went to Marshall, Best Performing Flying Specialist was given to Winona, Favourite Flying Specialist was received Skyla, Best Performing Grass Specialist went to Gardenia, Favourite Grass Specialist was given to Erika, Best Performing Poison Specialist went to Koga, Favourite Poison Specialist was awarded to Roxie.

"And now, next we'll move on to the Best Performing Electric Specialist, and it goes to…Elite Phillip!"

Phillip gasped, but smiled as he went to the stage to receive his award, and as he left the stage, Ken said, "And for Favourite Performing Electric Specialist, it goes to…Elite Phillip again!"

Poor Phillip had to turn and walk back towards the middle of the stage amid gales of laughter to get the other award, but it was an achievement as he was the first known person to perform the best and be the favourite specialist. Phillip was surprised to be the favourite, considering the world didn't even know about them being Elites until the tournament.

Ash wondered if his family was watching Phillip proudly as he seemed to spot something and waved happily. He smiled, as Ken announced that the Best Performing Ground Specialist goes to Bertha while the Favourite Ground Specialist award goes to Clay.

Ash cheered as Ken said, "And now, next we'll move on to the Best Performing Water Specialist, and it goes to…Elite Jude!" Jude smiled winningly and received his trophy. To his surprise, he also won the award for Favourite Water Specialist and as he was handed the second award, Jude had tears of joy running down his face.

To everyone's surprise, the Best Performing Psychic Specialist actually went to someone who was already dead: The Dragon Prince. Everyone did not know what to do, until someone next to Pakura stood up.

Pakura gasped, tears falling from her face, and saw Shiki wink at her, and go up to receive his award.

"Shiki…" Lance whispered, seeing his best friend in person. Shiki nodded at Lance to greet him as he walked past him, as Lance responded by also nodding in return.

'So that is the power of spirit channelling.' Ash thought, knowing who was sitting next to Pakura prior.

Shiki gave everyone a smile that could charm anyone as he received his posthumous award, and Pakura to feel saddened. Meanwhile, it took a while for Ken to recover and announce the Favourite Psychic Specialist, which went to Sabrina.

While Roxanne won the Best Performing Rock Specialist, Brock had won for Favourite Rock Specialist. His brother, Forrest, had to receive it in his stead due to Brock being missing. Ash was a little saddened as he still remembered that Brock was still one of his first friends and had travelled with him for the longest.

"And the Best Performing Ice Specialist: goes to…Elite Pakura!" Pakura stood up, and received her award stoically, unlike most who had smiled. She also received the title for Favourite Ice Specialist, something that surprised no one.

Ash watched as Burgh received the Best Performing Bug Specialist award while Bugsy received the Favourite Bug Specialist award. He wondered if Aaron didn't get it because he offended Pakura, and chuckled a little at the thought.

"And the Best Performing Dragon Specialist goes to…the Dragon Prince…" Ken announced.

A channelled Shiki chuckled, and went up to get his award. Lance watched and thought that Shiki truly deserved that award. However, the Favourite Dragon Specialist went to Pakura, and Lance watched as the Dragon Duo raised up their trophies together. This time, Pakura had a single tear down her cheek, as she had a moment with Shiki, something that she would treasure.

Ash smiled at the bittersweet moment, as everyone fell silent at the Dragon Duo members seemingly raising their trophies in farewell. The regional press was having a field day with this moment, but was stopped from taking pictures by the PAL press, stating that they should remember the moment in their hearts.

When it was over, Ken was hyperventilating. Who could blame him? He was the one who crowned them and remembered how much they had done, until everything was gone. It was to the point where William had to take over, and announce that the Best Performing Ghost Specialist went to Agatha, and the clapping was subdued as she went to get her award. Meanwhile, the Favourite Ghost Specialist went to Morty.

"And the Best Performing Dark Specialist goes to…Elite Jude!" William announced. Ryoko had taken over the handing of the trophies from William as Jude received an award for the third time. As Jude left, William announced that he also won the Favourite Dark Specialist Award and he had to go back to receive it.

"And the Best Performing Steel Specialist goes to…Elite Phillip!" William announced.

"Eh? Me again?" Phillip pointed to himself.

"Just go." Ash nudged him, as Phillip jogged up to receive his award. Much to his pleasant surprise, he also won for Favourite Steel Specialist, inwardly thinking that he wasn't really expecting to be anyone's favourite. He was sure Champion Steven wasn't going to be very happy with him, considering he felt Steven would have deserved the award more than he did.

"And now, the next award is for Best Performing Kanto Gym Leader. The award goes to…Leader Gary!" William announced.

"Oh ho, you actually won something." Tracey said, as Gary blinked in surprise, before grinning and going up to the stage to receive his trophy. Meanwhile, Sabrina won the award for Favourite Kanto Gym Leader.

Ash watched as Jasmine won for Best Performing Johto Gym Leader, while Clair won for Favourite Johto Gym Leader. Lance clapped politely for his cousin as he watched her receive her award with delight. Best Performing Hoenn Gym Leader went to twins Tate and Liza and Favourite Hoenn Gym Leader went to Norman. Norman was surprised to win more than one award, but Ash knew he certainly wasn't complaining.

As for Best Performing Sinnoh Gym Leader, it went to Fantina while Favourite Sinnoh Gym Leader was received by Volkner. Volkner himself was surprised to even win anything, considering he lost the Electric awards to Phillip. However, even he had a smile on his face as he received the award.

The Best Performing Unova Gym Leader went to Brycen while Favourite Unova Gym Leader went to Elesa, and finally it was time for the Elite member awards.

"And now, the Best Performing Kanto Elite Member goes to…Elite Lance!" William declared, reading from the square piece of paper. Lance blinked. So he did win something after all! Lance tried hard to fight a smile as he received the award. However, he found it even harder when he realized he also won Favourite Kanto Elite Member.

Bruno whooped in joy as he won Best Performing Johto Elite Member and Karen was looking over to Jude for approval when she won Favourite Johto Elite Member and was pleased to see he gave her a thumbs up. Best Performing Hoenn Elite Member Award went to Drake while the Favourite Hoenn Elite Member Award went to Phoebe.

Lucian calmly closed his book and received his award for Best Performing Sinnoh Elite Member on stage while Flint was shouting, "Oh hell ya!" when he received Favourite Sinnoh Elite Member, and Volkner had to whack him to clam him down.

Caitlin gave an elegant smile when she won Best Performing Unova Elite Member, while Grimsley was looking up to the sky, presumably to Rosaline when he won Favourite Unova Elite Member.

"And now, the award of the Best Performing PAL Elite Member goes to…Elite Pakura!" William announced. Pakura politely received it to applause.

"Next up, we have the award of Favourite PAL Elite Member. And this goes to…Elite Jude!"

Jude blinked as he won again, but he went up to the stage to receive the trophy.

"And now, we are moving on to the next award, the Best Performing Overall Gym Leader. This award goes to…Leader Fantina!" William said.

"Oh, my, my, my! This is my most magnifique moment! What an honour!" Fantina said in her accent, as she received the trophy.

"Next up, we have the award for Favourite Overall Gym Leader, which goes to…Leader Gary!" William read from the card.

"I won?" Gary was surprised.

"Congratulations, Gary! You're the favourite among all Gym Leaders!" Ash grinned. "Go up there and receive the honour!"

"Hush, you." Gary's cheeks were red, as he went up to the stage to receive his award.

"And now, the Best Performing Overall Elite Member goes to…Elite Pakura!" William said, to cheers.

"Congratulations, you deserve it." Ash assured her, as she stood up to receive the award. He wasn't surprised when William declared that she also won the Favourite Overall Elite Member award, considering how much the public liked her.

"And now, for our second last award, the Best Performing Pokémon Champion. And that awards goes to…Champion Ash!"

"Yes!" Pikachu and Lucario were cheering.

Ash smiled as he went up to the stage to shake hands with Ryoko and receive the platinum gold trophy from her. At the plaque, it said, "Best Performing Pokémon Champion." As Ash proceed to leave, he heard William announce the last award, which was the Favourite Pokémon Champion, which…also went to him.

While Cynthia expected it, she was a little disappointed not to win anything, while the whole group won at least one award. Pakura herself had her arms full of awards when including Shiki's posthumous awards.

She watched as Ash received the last award and William saying, "And that's the end of the PokéAwards ceremony. Remember, everyone, the journey is never ending. There's always gonna be growth, improvement, adversity; you just gotta take it all in and do what's right, continue to grow, continue to live in the moment. Thank you all for being a great audience today, and we look forward to seeing you again next year!"

With that, the curtains closed for the PokéAwards ceremony. However, there was still one more event to celebrate.

Ash knew it was time to fake an emergency and he knew who could help him.

Pakura should have known. There was no emergency. Ash faked one to have her taken away so she could spend her birthday getting pampered with Akeno at the spa she owned before her birthday bash this evening.

The good thing is, she wasn't alone and Akeno had invited her…friends with her. So Cynthia, Karen and Jasmine were all here getting pedicures next to her, while Akeno was tending to a few customers who needed a massage.

At least Akeno understood that she had people she could tolerate and not like Rosaline, who would try to force her to hang out with whoever she thought was suitable for someone like her. As they sat, they discussed the results of the PokéAwards that happened earlier.

"Oh, I feel Phillip deserved the Steel Specialist awards." Jasmine said in response to a question Cynthia asked her, while the lady doing her feet rubbed salt granules all over her calves. "He did throw his match against you."

"I didn't win anything at the PokéAwards," Cynthia said all mournfully.

"Neither did Rosaline." Karen had cucumbers all over her eyelids. "Besides, you were at a disadvantage. You don't have a type specialist and you're a Champion. There's only one category you fit in."

"Yeah, but Rosaline's dead." Cynthia practically muttered.

"Doesn't stop the Dragon Prince from getting two awards now, did it?" Jasmine said dryly. "We're all surprised that even he received the awards."

"To be fair, they didn't say it's based on our performances in the Pokémon World Championship." Karen said. "In fact, the ones under Favourites are based on popularity."

"Well, they are voted in by the audience." Jasmine shrugged.

"That is true." Cynthia conceded. "I thought I had a good shot of winning something, but…" Cynthia sighed, as she sat back.

Meanwhile, Pakura wasn't really listening. She was still quietly fuming at how her time with Shiki was interrupted. She knew they meant well, but…

Pakura was on the way back from Luonto City and was walking to the Dragon Duo cave. She soon arrived at the icy tomb of her late lover, Shiki Kurobane. Pakura looked at the tomb sadly and held her hand over to her heart, "Shiki…it's been five years since your life was taken away. I'm so sorry that this happened."

Pakura placed the trophies that Shiki had won at the foot of his icy grave and went on her knees and prayed for Shiki closing her eyes. After a long silence of prayer, Pakura opened her eyes and looked at Shiki's tomb. She then got up and stood on her feet but when she did that, she heard someone approach. Pakura looked and was surprised to see Ash.

"Paku, so you're here," Ash commented.

"…Ash," Pakura responded curtly.

"I knew you'd come to pay your respects for him."

"Of course I did," Pakura replied trying to keep calm while internally she wanted to strangle Ash for preventing her from resurrecting him, which she always thought was the better option. She also wanted to despise herself for putting him in the situation that cost him his life in the end.

"I see…" Ash walked over to the icy grave, "It's been five years since he died."

"…Yes…" Pakura was definitely not happy seeing Ash. "What do you want?"

Ash just looked at Shiki's resting place with a sad expression. Pakura just looked away from Ash

"Sorry, Akeno had an emergency and told me to come get you," Ash said surprising Pakura.

"What?" Pakura spoke surprised, "Why me?"

"Well, she had trouble channelling Shiki and she wanted you to come help her out." Ash invented.

"Really?" Pakura was intrigued, and Ash knew he got her attention.

Ash nodded, and Pakura told him to give her the address. When he did, she ran off, presumably to look for Akeno.

Unknown to her, Ash had a few more things to say when she left.

"You know Shiki, it would be a difficult thing to do, but we're going to do our best to help her get over your death. I know it would be something you would have wanted, right? Of course, and that's logical. Be patient with me Shiki, because she had already atoned for your death. I just hope she could one day forgive herself for your death, but I promise that we'll always be by her side…and we'll make the entire clan pay for what they did."

"What about you, Pakura? What do you think of the results?" Karen asked, gracefully changing the subject. Or rather, changing the target of the subject. This snapped her out of her thoughts.

Pakura panicked a little when the question was directed to her. Truth be told, she wasn't really over Shiki's death and seeing him like that in front of her just brought back memories.

Also, she was already extra sensitive when she had been cornered by some of her former clan members, being asked how Shiki was able to win those awards despite Lance and Clair being in the game longer and asking her to return to the clan as her status as the runner-up in the Pokémon World Championship was a great contribution. That actually rendered her speechless, as she did not know whether to strangle them, or bite back with a remark.

While she was rescued by Jude and taken to the limo, they actually pressed their hands and faces against all the windows, flattening themselves against the limo in an effort to keep them from leaving, forcing Phillip to electrify the limo to get them to let go.

So she found herself saying, "Well, I'm sorry if you guys feel he didn't deserve those awards, but I can tell you he is the best at what he does! So sue me! I don't want any of those Dragon users to win because they'll lord it over me that they were the better Dragon users. Is that all right with everyone? Or should I go wait in the limo until you're done with this?"

For a second all three of them (seven if you count the ladies doing their feet) just stared at her in total silence. The silence was finally broken by Karen, who said, "I'm sorry, Pakura. I didn't realize that was how you felt. I forgot Jude told me what happened after the PokéAwards."

"What?" Cynthia looked stunned. "What happened?"

"Well," Karen said, after exchanging nervous glances with everyone else, and told them the story.

"Oh yeah, we were in a different limo, that's why we didn't notice." Cynthia muttered. "Well, I'll look at the bright side. Aaron didn't win anything either. He was wondering whether it was because of the way he treated you."

Upon hearing that, Pakura could just say- well, she was insulted actually.

"I didn't rig it." Pakura rolled her eyes. "Look, forget it, alright? I don't need to rig it to make sure Aaron loses."

This caused all the ladies who were doing their feet to giggle hysterically.

"That's true, Princess." They all said, nodding.

Pakura sat back and thought of her conflicting feelings the moment Shiki received his awards. It was almost as if she didn't want him to leave her again, and she shouldn't feel like this because she's dating Lance, but she had to admit that Lance would always be second to Shiki in her eyes.

'Or would he really remain second?' Pakura thought.

Ash had never seen so much pre-party psychosis. Then again, he hadn't been to a lot of parties, this duty having been given to Pakura, who was much better at establishing connections. It was lucky that he was able to book a cruise ship for the party.

First of all, the florist brought in the wrong floral arrangements- white roses and purple lilies, not pink- and the caterer's crispy seafood spring rolls came with an orange sauce instead of a peanut sauce. Not that Ash cared, but it was pointed out that Pakura did not even like orange, preferring peanut.

It also explained why Ken and Ryoko were having coronaries about it, forcing Ash to order the caterer to quickly deliver the peanut sauce. Although from the way they reacted, they might as well be reacting to a wrong mission report.

On the bright side, the dress arrived safely, and Ash had gotten Paku to dress in the sparkly, silver form-fitting dress and Aquamarine had dragged her off to somewhere to get her hair done and was probably now waiting somewhere out of everyone's way and not move until it's time to make her grand entrance, once all the guests have arrived.

As Ash helped set up the entertainment with the help of Pikachu and Lucario, he nodded as they promised to do their old-school stuff, in addition to some of their new songs. While he had initially planned for Shiki to be channelled to be the musical entertainer considering the Dragon Duo's musical career, he couldn't guarantee Pakura wouldn't do something, such as kiss him in front of Lance or something.

While technically that is not cheating, he didn't really want any drama, or Lance's heart to be broken. He watched as the League members and their Battle Leaders coming up the gang plank to the cruise ship, chatting away in their formal clothing after exiting from the limos and taxis dropping people off.

It was nice of Pakura to agree to invite them all, Ash mused. However, Pakura had vehemently refused to invite the Elites' families for understandable reasons, so Jude and Phillip had to promise their families to bring back something from the party and tell them all about it. Well, Ash expected they can't convince her quickly as to how important family is, so he wasn't too surprised.

Ash had to admit it was super weird to see most of them outside of their Pokémon League clothing. The fact that they were basically wearing evening clothes made them basically unrecognizable, and Ash reminded himself that they were wearing formal clothing just this morning. Then again, he did arrive early and he was sitting in the front row, so he had no chance to getting a glimpse.

When it was confirmed all the guests have arrived, Ash went over to where Pakura was waiting and knocked on the door to tell her that it was time for her big entrance. He heard a grumble, but there was a shuffle, indicating she had gotten up from her seat.

Hopefully it'll go well, despite the reservations on Pakura's side that it's too extravagant, though Ash knew compared to all the socialite parties she'd been to, it's actually pretty drab in comparison.

The party was a smash hit. Pakura and her Sylveon and Espeon came out and the entertainer sang, "Alluring Secret Black Vow", to everyone's applause and everything looked nice despite the pervious worries, especially the purple flowers.

Ash took this as his cue, and stepped from behind the biggest batch of purple flowers. Everyone listened to a speech Ash had prepared in her honor as to how great of a princess and mentor she was. Pakura blinked at the speech, but had a small smile.

Ash then hugged her and then gave her this giant black velvet box, and inside was a very sparkly tiara. Ash had told everyone that it was the one Princess Pakura Goldstein wore in the portrait at the building that honoured all rulers. "If anyone deserved this tiara, it's Paku."

It had been missing ever since Pakura Goldstein died, but Ash went to look all over the place where Goldstein had established her rule, Caldia City and finally found it in a dusty corner of the jewellery vault and he had polished it all up and cleaned it just for her.

Pakura was stunned at the gesture, as Aquamarine removed her old tiara to slip in the new one, which took five minutes due to all the hairpins.

Ash smiled as everyone went to Pakura to thank her for inviting them, to compliment how pretty she was or that the food was delicious. While Pakura made no effort to find company, she was constantly sought out. Despite not having an interest in the people, she obliged and chatted with them for a bit about various topics.

Then it was time to dance, and everyone had a blast rocking to "Hit Me Baby One More Time". They then paired up and slow-danced to "Magic Works".

While Ash was dancing with Cynthia, Cynthia nodded, "Look." Ash looked over and saw Akeno slow-dancing with Steven Stone.

Ash said, "Why? Do you think Akeno would be joining up with us?"

"Well, you do need a new member now Rosaline is dead." Cynthia said casually yet sadly.

"I suppose so. But I figured we'd be given time to find a member. We would have to be careful who we let in, though. Paku would be mad if we made the same mistake as she did letting Rosaline in. If Akeno wants in, we'll have to screen her and make sure she truly has what it takes to roll with us." Ash answered thoughtfully.

"I'm glad Pakura decided to send her home to her family. I guess she has some humanity left in her." Cynthia smiled.

'I doubt it.' Ash thought, but simply held Cynthia close and danced. He smiled as he watched Pakura with Lance, with the former staring after Clair who was scuttling away after drinking too much punch, eating a sundae Lance offered her. "Where is she going?"

"To the toilet, probably." said Lance. "Hey, you got ice cream on your lips."

"Whe-" Lance cut her off by pressing his lips towards her, and licking the ice cream off.

"Hey, you're not a bad kisser, are you, Princess?" Ash mocked.

Lance and Pakura broke up, and shouted, "ASH!" at the same time, both of them flushing. Ash and Cynthia chuckled. Just then, Jude tapped Ash's shoulder.

"May I cut in?" Jude smiled, as Ash stepped aside.

"Of course." Ash went over to talk to Grimsley as Jude began to dance with Cynthia.

"And how's your stay been?" Jude asked Cynthia.

"Mmm...pretty eventful. More exciting than I expected." Cynthia replied.

"That was only a sample of what we've been through." Jude smiled wryly.

"Should we be worried?" Cynthia said coyly, looking over to Ash.

"Hardly...you've got us, after all." Jude grinned. "I'm sure we deserve a break after everything. Let's just enjoy the rest of the night. After all, it is a party."

After the song ended, everyone then rumbaed to "La Isla Bonita." Even the Pokémon had a blast dancing to the music. Ash smiled as he saw Pikachu and Lucario having some sort of dance off.

Meanwhile, Jude started to film everything, probably for the web series or something. Eventually, Jude lowered his camera to say, "Ash, you did a great job organizing this."

He almost choked on the shrimp cocktail he was eating. This was because due to how busy he was organizing this, he didn't even eat anything all day and he was busy dancing and greeting people, and Gary had just come up to him that minute with a little plate of food, going, "Ash, you've got to take a minute to eat something, or you'll pass out."

"Thanks, Jude." Ash said, after swallowing.

"Nice party hat you've got her, though." Grimsley said, referring to the tiara. He bent down to pet his newly evolved Umbreon.

"I try." Ash smiled, as Pakura touched the tiara. Lance was currently at the bar getting a refill of her sparkling grape juice.

"You didn't really have to do it for me." Pakura said.

"Of course I do. You are better than you think we are, and it's time we show it." Ash reassured her.

"Although it's too bad Jessie and James couldn't come. They got stuck with clean-up duty in Pègre City." Phillip mused.

"Ah-ha, they probably volunteered for the job to see if they could find Giovanni's remains." Akeno, who was standing next to Jasmine, spoke up.

"I can see why." Paul said dryly. "But really Pakura, it's nice for Ash to do this for you, considering we only knew now that your real birthday is today, and how you had lonely birthdays after he died."

It was at that moment Lance returned with her sparkling grape juice. The reason why he took quite a while was because he was arguing with his cousin Clair about his refusal to send his awards back to Johto. Lance managed to convince Clair that the clan didn't know what was best for them, as evidenced by Pakura's story.

"What were you guys talking about?" Lance asked.

"Nothing much." Jude shrugged. "Oh right, I've decided to expand my career a bit. I figured I should try to be an actor who does my own stunts and be a Variety Show Host."

"Wow," Ash said with a smile. "That's great, Jude!"

"If anyone can do it, it's you." Paul nodded.

"Don't you have enough fame already?" Karen nudged him.

"No, I'm doing it because I enjoy it, not for the fame." Jude shrugged.

Just then, they heard a noise and what looked like a small Pokémon with a gaseous body similar to a nebula. The gases that made up its body range in color from violet to light blue. The very center of its body is black both in from and back. The black space on the front contains its face, which consists of beady yellow eyes, circular blue cheeks, and a small mouth. The space on the back has only a single blue dot. There was a golden half-circlet on both the top and bottom half of its body, which divides it exactly in half. Two wispy extensions containing starry specks serve as its arms

Ash and the others were surprised and they saw this Pokémon landing on Pakura's head.

"Hi!" the Pokémon greeted.

"Wait, what?" Cynthia was surprised. "What Pokémon is that?"

"We don't know…" Jude shook his head.

"Ashura. The world is a big place. There's bound to be lots more even we hadn't seen yet. I thought so too, until well…I found some of them. I believe you had a run-in with some of them, actually. It's unfortunate you didn't see them before they fled."

'Was this what she meant?' Ash thought.

Meanwhile, Pakura spoke to the nebula-like Pokémon and it was apparent she enjoyed speaking to it meanwhile people like Jasmine was confused and Cynthia was still trying to wrap his head around the whole thing.

"Seriously, a living nebula," Karen said and then she turned to Pakura, "Are you familiar with this nebula?"

"Well, it's only a Pokémon," Ash said casually. "What else can it be? Where did you come from?" He tickled it, as it giggled.

"It's not that big of a deal," Phillip said.

"Huh, well, you see something new in PAL every day," Jasmine replied in a shocked but calm tone, as the mysterious Pokémon started floating away.

"What the…?" A male voice said.

The others looked over and saw the Dragon users along with Aaron drenched in punch. Pakura looked over and saw the Pokémon giggling as he had teleported the punch bowl to over their heads.

"Did it just…?" Gary spoke as he pointed at the mysterious Pokémon.

"Must have been a Psychic type." Pakura deduced.

"Or part Psychic," Ash added, "it seems we have a little troll."

Ash looked excited.

"Ash, you can't be serious," Paul said as he was gaping.

"Huh?" Ash looked at his best friend, "What, are you scared of that Teleport?"

"Huh, no," Lance said, "of course not." However, his wary eyes indicated otherwise.

"That's ridiculous," Gary said, high tone slightly higher than normal, "we're not scared of an unknown Pokémon, especially one who plays tricks."

"I'm sorry, but are you sure?" Ash asked, "But your body languages are saying otherwise."

"You're reading it wrong Ash," Jasmine was chuckling nervously, as the little troll had now teleported some people into the ocean and back.

"Are you sure?" Jude asked, "Because it seems that you guy are—"

"We're good!" Grimsley's voice seemed to break, as everyone laughed, just as the Pokémon hovered over to Pakura and landed on her arms to sleep.

"I guess that Pokémon represents a new beginning for you." Ash commented to Pakura.

"I'm having at least 12,000 happy birthday posts, texts, emails and voice mails." Pakura commented, looking at her Pokégear. "Looks like news has gone out that my birthday is today."

"Well, that's what we get as public figures. Total strangers wish you happiness on your birthday, which could be nice." Ash smiled.

"But birthday wishes form people who know you and who still care about you, despite your character flaws, are even nicer." Cynthia interjected.

The party went on for the rest of the night, with everyone chatting, eating and dancing. In particular, Pakura was seen by Ash admiring a table of elaborately decorated cakes and the bakers were practically tripping over one another to answer her questions. Ash laughed, knowing the bakers were probably attracted to her.

Pakura also enjoyed opening her presents from everyone, which consisted of a ton of totes, clutches, wallets and stuff; a lot of scented candles; a cute costume for her Sylveon; what looked like a airbrushed dress; a Disney Princess pendant; diamond and sapphire hairclips, and a total of two million Pokédollars worth of donations to various orphanages and Pokémon Pounds.

When the party ended near midnight, Many people were expressing the wish that the party could have gone on longer as they headed to their suites that they had in the cruise ship for the night, but they knew they had go to bed, because they are leaving back to their own regions the very next day.

The next day, everyone was getting ready to go home through the train. Unfortunately, this also meant that the love interests would have to return to their home regions, away from the PAL Group. For a while, they just stood there in silence, delaying the inevitable.

Then Ash said it, "I guess this is where we say our goodbyes."

"Yeah." Cynthia said sadly. She took him by the hands, and with actual tears in her eyes, promised that she'll write letters and keep in touch.

Ash smiled, as he kissed her. "You know I'm just one call away." He and Cynthia watched as the others made their goodbyes as well, with Karen and Jasmine having tears in their eyes. In particular, he swore he heard Pakura thank Lance.

The announcement of the train leaving soon was heard and all of them went to their respective trains, turning back time and again to wave at the PAL Group. Ash watched as Cynthia boarded her train and the doors closing behind, but she still peeked out the window to look at him as the train moved.

"Alright, shall we get going?" Ash said to the group.

"Skarmory/Drifblim/ Mantine/Togekiss/Charizard, let's fly!" Phillip, Akeno, Jude, Pakura and Ash all shouted in unison.

And with that their mighty flying Pokémon took off, leaving Luonto City for their home.

Epilogue: One Year Later

Ash sighed. He remembered not finding any clues of the former friends whatsoever despite his best efforts. Ash had agreed to give the case to someone else, but they were not faring any better than him. Pakura had made him give up on the case to give to someone else at one point, saying it is not healthy to dwell on the people who gave him pain.

What he knew was that they could not even find a trace of them among the ones affected by the venom Giovanni injected in them. The update on their whereabouts William had promised him turned out to be someone else, someone who went missing after a boating trip.

Ash walked into the back door of his home with his Pikachu and Lucario at his feet. He saw Akeno in the living room, watching Pakura performing on a Pokémon Showcase.

True to Cynthia's word, Akeno had joined up with them as part of the PAL Elite Four, being a Grass/Ghost specialist. Unlike Rosaline, she truly earned her spot, beating Jude and managed to take out two-thirds of Phillip's team before being defeated herself.

Ash did not need to worry about her not being a Hunter, for she was already a Botanical Hunter before deciding to take the Elite spot. Furthermore, she had already established her capabilities outside of her birth right as a member of a clan of spirit mediums, being a renowned spa owner and establishing her own brand of cosmetics and beauty products.

During the one year, Pakura had taken an interest in Pokémon Showcases and decided to participate, winning herself the title of Kalos Queen, beating the pervious one without breaking a sweat. He shook his head. All those years of Pokémon Coordinating must have made her unbeatable.

Jude was eating a meal Pakura had made in the kitchen as he heard Phillip chat away, presumably to Jasmine, about a new invention, which Ash was sure was going to work. It also sounded like he was watching game shows again. After inventing things or playing/developing games, it was probably his favourite past time.

He saw the nebula-like Pokémon, whose name was Cosmog, playing with Pakura's Eevee and Skitty. Cosmog had more of less become a sort of pet to the group, and it babbling like a baby just seemed to endear it to the other members, especially the females.

Ash smiled. At least his best friends and his Pokémon were always there for him. Just as he was about to join Akeno, the house-phone rang.

"Hello?" Pakura said as she picked it up, scaring Ash a little as he did not see her earlier and it was like she came out of nowhere. She listened for a second before pressing her hand over the speaker and looking at Ash.

"It's for you." Pakura said, handing the phone to Ash.

Ash looked puzzled, but pressed his ear to the phone. He listened for a while in silence, thinking deeply. It was obvious to everyone else it wasn't a congratulating phone call.

"Alright, I'll think about it and get back to you." Ash said, hanging up quickly. Ash turned to everyone and saw everybody looking intently.

"So, what is it?" Jude asked, getting straight to the point.

Ash sighed and said, "William wanted to tell me that he had an idea of the Pokémon World Championships after it was a smash hit. It'll go a little differently this time, in the sense that we'll not be competing."

"We aren't?" Akeno was surprised.

"Yes. He wanted all the regions to compete and whoever wins would earn the right to form a team of five and challenge all five of us to take the trophy I won last year." Ash explained. "The thing is, Kalos, Alola, Galar and Genesis would be joining the fray."

They all exchanged looks but stayed quiet. They knew that technically speaking, they have proved to be the best last year, but apparently new competitors are coming up to see if they could measure up against them. They smiled. That would be a good way to find out indeed if they are still the best.

"Well, nothing like meeting new people, am I right?" Jude smiled. "We'll be fine, Ash. It just means they can come over again."

"Yeah, we need to prove to those new people that we are not to be messed with." Phillip declared.

"Okay, if that's how you guys feel." Ash muttered. "Then we'll agree?"

"Of course we do." Akeno replied. "I want to see how well I'll fare too…although I'll only be fighting at the end, it seems."

"Does it mean we have to organize Interregional Contests and Pokémon Showcases too?" Pakura asked.

"Probably." Ash shrugged, patting Pakura on the cheek for comfort. "But you'll be fine."

Ash smiled when he heard Pakura chuckle a little before he looked at the others. Each of them had a determined look on their faces.

"No more throwing away matches." Jude said.

"No more mercy." Pakura agreed.

"No more playing games." Phillip added.

"No more holding back." Akeno nodded.

"And no more cushioning the blows of reality." Ash concluded.

With that, they left the home to make their way to the Hunter's Association along with their Pokémon. No matter what happened next, Ash knew one thing for certain. They wouldn't allow anyone to take their regional trophy without a fight.

For now, what they had to do was to hear what they had in mind regarding the arrangements of the upcoming tournament.

'This would be fun.' was Ash's thought, as he dialled his wife's number to tell her the news. 'Let's see what new tricks they have, and what the new competitors would bring to us.'

BP: And finally, the story is complete after 5 long years! Do check out my other works as well, especially AV, which is still ongoing.

You might be wondering why Pakura's actions at the end with Rosaline's family seemed like the girl from the beginning but remember, it takes a long time for someone to recover mentally from trauma. Furthermore, she is less morale and humane than other Elites in the first place.

Before you go, however, I'd like to ask you guys two questions. I've been thinking of trying out a fanfiction under a fandom called Yandere Simulator, a still on-going developing game and had ideas in mind already, but I'm not sure to put it in story form.

Should I go for it?

A: Yes, go for it! Try something new

B: Nah, I like your old stuff enough already

Please vote on the for the plot of my next story if the answer is yes. The basis of the story is below:

A: Ayano's mother was assassinated while in America and Ayano makes a decision to change for herself and break the yandere curse in her own way after making a mysterious deal with the blacklist group that got her mother.

B: Ayano was raised by one of the PAL members, and sees things in a different way despite her yandere curse. In this case, if you want a specific PAL member to raise her (e.g. Pakura), PM me.

C: Unknown to Ayano, someone else has a crush on her, and unfortunately, they are also a Yandere. Ayano has to find out who it is before they kill her Senpai. Or would she fall for that Yandere?

Thank you for reading this once more, and do review, favourite and follow my other stories! Please do vote in the poll for the plot, because I always write for you readers.