Pokémon: Sparkling Dreams - Prologue

Also known as Amourshipping: The Promise

Original idea and script: Terry Wolles

I do not own any of the Pokémon characters.

ROUTE 1: Reborn after a loss

Dejected. Destroyed. Annihilated. This is how Ash Ketchum, the Pokémon trainer from Pallet Town felt. The young man walked aimlessly, just like an undead inside the Kalos League Stadium. He just lost in the final. His first final in a regional Pokémon League. And yet it ended as the Kanto League. And Johto. And Hoenn. And Sinnoh. And Unova. Although this finale was much crueler than any of the above. Just before making his final attack, Pikachu slipped in the middle of the arena, leaving him at mercy of Mega-Gallade's Psycho Cut. That move left everyone in shock, especially the trainer who had worked so hard to get this far. In the end, all the sweat spilled was in vain. The boy sat heavily in the middle of one of the corridors of the stadium, with the left leg bent and his white and red cap covering his face. His eyes were full of tears, but he didn't want anyone to see him like that. All the work done for so many months had been reduced to ashes. How long had he been pursuing his dream of becoming a Pokémon Master? Five, six years? To him, it felt just like if they had been twenty. And the best he could get was reaching that final, after many setbacks along the way. But as always, there was something on the road that stopped him from completing his dream.

That was the straw that broke the glass. Many people believed in him and gave him their support, and all had the best hope that this time would be the one, that the sixth time would be the charm. But no. His hopes had been broken once again into a million pieces, like a mirror hit by a hammer. As he wept inconsolably, all those people who he had failed, who could be disappointed to him, came to his mind: his mother, Professor Oak, his former companions, Sawyer, Bonnie, Clemont and she... yeah, that girl. The woman who had always supported him, no matter the consequences or adversity. The woman whenever things got rough, remained confident and kept encouraging him. The woman that in his mind kept calling his name with a smile on her lips.

"Ash!"

Although, that just sounded too realistic, so he shook his head from side to side. And to his left, coming from down the hall, he saw her. His childhood friend, the woman who had accompanied him for almost his entire journey through the Kalos region. Dressed in her pink dress, her red vest, the blue ribbon he had given her and her pink hat, the Kalos Queen, Serena Yvonne, stepped in scene. The honey blonde girl made instant eye contact with the Kanto trainer, while she strode to approach him. Her face showed a deep concern, and her blue eyes looked moist. Behind her, following her steps, was Ash's inseparable sidekick, Pikachu, with an almost identical look to the girl's face.

"Ash! At last I found you!" She exclaimed, at the same time she was stopping by his side. "You worried all of us… After the match against Maylon you disappeared without leaving a single trace...!"

The young man did not move, nor rose or anything. He simply lowered his head towards the ground. Pikachu was extremely worried about his trainer. Still he felt the pain of that Psycho Cut but he tried to make his master react in every possible way. He shook his leg, his arm, even climbed onto his shoulder as usual, but Ash didn't react. Pikachu was calling for his name, with an almost broken voice and eyes on the verge of tears, but he did not respond. He had the feeling that his trainer was very devastated by the defeat and the Pokémon felt guilty. Serena couldn't bear that. To see Ash in that state was just killing her.

"Ash, please... Can you tell me what's wrong? I know you lost your fight, and you have no idea how bad I feel for you, but there is no reason to be that depressed... You fought with all you got, you gave it all... Ash, for real, I'm really proud of the match you did, and everyone else is as well."

The raven haired boy did not move a muscle of his face. It was as if a halo of negative thoughts covered him completely.

"I fought with everything I got... only to end with my hands empty, as always." Ash replied. "Serena, for six years I've been travelling through all the regions of this world with the dream of becoming, one day, a Pokémon Master. I trained, I captured Pokémon, I won badges, I made friends in six different regions... but when the moment of truth comes, that's when I meet a concrete wall in front of my face. There's always something, some obstacle that prevents me from fulfilling my dreams..."

The Kalos Queen listened to his words with huge concern. Did Ash really reach such a level of frustration?

"I know how hard it is to find a wall in front of your dreams, Ash... That's what happened to me in Coumarine City, remember? It was from that moment that I decided not to give up, I tried my best, and with your support and encouragement I managed to fulfill my dream of being the Kalos Queen. You can also achieve your dream, the only thing you have to do is to give up until it's over, just like you told me once…" Serena insisted, and at the same time she knelt and gathered her hands with Ash's to encourage him.

Pikachu agreed with Serena's, and expressed it with conviction moving his tail. But his master was not so convinced.

"Serena... the problem is that I think this is the end. I can't go any further…" The raven haired boy answered, before taking a deep breath. "It's over, I give up."

That phrase hit hard on both Serena and Pikachu. Both were blocked. Ash Ketchum, of all trainers in the world, giving up? And what the hell he meant by that? Serena's hands were shaking in a very unhealthy way.

"Wh-what do you mean you give up?" The Kalos native asked, still incredulous.

"I can't do this anymore, Serena... I'd rather go back to Pallet Town and help Professor Oak in his research before continue training at all... It's the best I can do, retire."

Serena was heartbroken after hearing that. Was she having a nightmare or she really heard Ash Ketchum say he was retiring? Pikachu was just as haggard as her, and he was even beginning to mourn. Did that defeat really affect him that much?

"No, I don't believe you... I don't want to believe you're being serious, Ash... No, you're not Ash... Who are you?"

Serena couldn't endure the anguish and hugged the Kanto trainer strongly. Tears fell abundantly from her blue eyes as she stroked his hair and his back gently with her hands.

"But Ash… what happened to you?" She asked him, while crying and sobbing. "How is it possible that you changed that much...? You're not the same Ash I had to say goodbye to in Glorio City… I don't understand... How did you end up like this?"

The honey blonde young was right. Since Serena had to end up her trip with Ash, Clemont and Bonnie after becoming Kalos Queen, things had changed considerably. Her commitments as Queen didn't allow her to physically travel with her friends, but she could maintain contact with them from time to time. Whenever she could, she called her friends to the Pokémon Centers and tried to talk to them as much as possible. But in each of those calls, the girl noticed something strange in Ash. His vitality, energy, optimism seemed to have died down completely, and she never saw a big smile on his face, only seriousness. When finally everyone could meet up again at the Kalos League, it seemed that Ash back to his trails, but she had a bad feeling about that. That gesture finally confirmed her that his childhood friend had changed. The young trainer had fallen into a depressive spiral that could lead him to retire and completely forfeit his dream of being a Pokémon Master.

"Serena, I mean it, I'm done with this, I can't do it anymore..." Ash answered, beginning to weep and sob. "I'm tired, tired of not being able to fulfill my dreams, not being able to win a fucking league... To have hopes and dreams that I will never accomplish..."

And so, Ash fell into tears, his body pressing hard against Serena and letting his cap fall on a really sad Pikachu. Serena continued her attempt to comfort him, rubbing his back with her right hand and stroking his hair. She also kept crying, but smiled to try calm her secret love.

"Ash, please calm down, you're not thinking clearly... Ash Ketchum can't surrender, nor give up, it would be terrible. If you give up, what image would you give to everyone who has done everything for you? You have been and are a source of inspiration for many people, myself included. It was thanks to you that I started my journey in Kalos, you taught me to never give up until the very end, and with your encouragement I felt that anything was possible... Ash, part of my victory against Aria was thanks to you because you taught me to give the maximum of myself, so you cannot give up... you made this adventure possible."

Serena, without breaking the embrace, looked at Ash with a sweet smile on her face, and approached her lips to his cheek and gave him a little kiss. On another occasion she would have turned as red as a Magmar only imagining what she had just done, but just to encourage the boy she loved so much, shame had to step aside. Meanwhile, Ash felt a kind of spark when Serena kissed his cheek. Not only for the fact that it was the kiss of a girl, which does not usually happen, but also for another reason. Something in his brain was activated. Hidden in the depths of his mind, a little box of memories emerged. It was a circle of moments that had been hidden for a very long time. Almost as if they had been missing or disappeared...

"Well, well, well... this is certainly interesting…" A woman's voice said, down in the left hallway.

"I can tell you that was pretty scene we just witnessed…" A male voice replied, from the same place.

"And on top of it's free, without paying like a movie!" A third voice cried.

Ash, Pikachu and Serena were taken aback to hear those voices. Suddenly, from the end of the hallway, three different shades began to approach. Gradually, Serena's face was transformed: from the initial surprise, to an expression of rage when she saw who they were. It was Jessie, James and Meowth, members of Team Rocket. Before they could say something, Pikachu stood between the trio of criminals and Ash and Serena, ready to release a good thunder attack on those lunatics.

"How dare you?" The Kalos Queen asked, legit pissed off. "Can't you have compassion for a minute or what?"

"Calm down, sweetie, we didn't come here to screw your moment or steal your Pokémon." Meowth told, gesturing to Pikachu to tell him to relax. "We came to contribute a little bit to what you said."

"What?" Serena replied, bewildered.

In those brief moments when Team Rocket appeared, Ash's face returned to the initial seriousness. Inside, he was still trying to connect all that chain of memories, to see where it led.

"We have been listening to your conversation, and we cannot help but say something else about it." Jessie started.

"Exactly. You twerp, the girl is right, if you stop traveling to become s Pokémon Master, do you think that it will only affect you? Of course it won't, you will affect many more people with this. Also, we're not falling for this, we've seen you do things that are out of the normal bounds of this planet..." James continued, trying to look into his eyes.

Ash turned his head slightly. Both he and Serena were stunned to see the intentions that Team Rocket had.

"We ourselves can say that to you, kid. We have chasing you throughout the world for six years, which are not few. You've blasted us off so many times we have lost count and we even have the marks on our buttocks. Hey, we've even seen beat legendary Pokémon and defeat bosses who try to be more evil than ours!" Meowth shouted.

"Besides... Don't think you can retire just like that, leaving us with the desire to meet our goal. Imagine how boring our life would be if you leave and we couldn't catch your Pikachu anymore." Jessie said, winking at Ash.

"Exactly, Jessie. If you stop training, we could even get fired!" Meowth insisted.

Ash closed his eyes and sighed deeply. He then broke the embrace with Serena and rose to face off against his old enemies. He only gave them a brief smile, and said:

"Yeah... I would be quite bored if I can't blast you off from time to time."

Night had already fallen on Victory Road. Ash, Serena, Bonnie and Clemont were at the Kalos League Grand Hotel, where all the participating trainers in the tournament had stayed. In one of the two main halls at their disposal, there was a special dinner hosted in honor of Maylon, the new champion, with his family and friends. In the other, the other coaches talked, had dinner and shared the experiences they had lived those days. Ash had retired early to his room, but asked Serena if she could come over when she finished dinner. The Kalos Queen again showed her usual nerves to the situation, while she tried to extract information from Clemont and Bonnie. The Luminose City Gym leader explained that since they took separate paths in Glorio City, Ash began to behave strangely. He slept little at night, he was clueless and kind of lost most of the time and he even looked more nervous and irritated. It certainly was as if he lived in continual stress since that day. The honey blonde haired lady couldn't believe what she heard. Was it true that her departure affected him that hard? She herself spent several sleepless nights crying and longing for her beloved trainer, but she always had a hunch that she would see him again.

"Not only that, Serena…" Bonnie said, who had been all that time holding the Queen's hand. "One night I heard him say your name in dreams, and several times... sometimes I've made jokes about how you wished Ash would dream about you, but that was really sad to see…"

That dislodged Serena completely. She never would have thought that Ash would think about her so much. But why? Had he discovered something that made him miss her that much? Her face turned so red it looked like Mt. Chimney from Hoenn erupted.

"Serena, please..." Clemont's little sister asked. "Make Ash go back to normal. If anyone can do it, that's you."

Bonnie's face said it all. It was a look of sadness and concern for the raven haired boy. Although she was not paying that much attention to Ash, the little one had noticed his drastic change of attitude and worried about him, as he was also her friend. Serena knew that the girl was being more honest than ever, so she replied with a motherly smile and a warm hug.

"Don't worry, Bonnie. I'm sure tomorrow he will be the same as always."

And immediately she went upstairs, where the bedrooms were. The Vainville Town girl decided not to tell the brothers what had happened in the stadium, in order to not make them worry more for Ash. Still, she remained concerned about his friend's behavior. Was he really serious when he said that or it was just a fit of rage and depression caused by the defeat? Anyway, she had to do something to bring Ash back to the path of sanity, because even his physical health could be affected. Serena briefly walked down the hall to find the door number nine. That was his room. The blonde girl took a deep breath and straightened a little her clothes and hair with her hand, just before knocking on the door a few times.

"Ash, it's me, Serena, are you there?"

There were a few seconds of silence, which quickly put a bright shade of red on the Queen's face. All kinds of thoughts came to her mind: what would she say, why did they had to meet that late... all of that was cut short in a matter of seconds.

"Come in."

Serena immediately opened the door and there he was, her platonic love sitting in bed only with his black shirt, blue pants and gloves. Both the cap and waistcoat were placed on a chair beside the bed. Right in front of that chair, there was a window overlooking a wide view of the Kalos Stadium.

"Good evening, Serena. I'm sorry it's this late, but there is something I needed to talk about with you…" Ash spoke, patting the bed to make her sit by his side.

"Don't worry, it doesn't bother me." She replied quickly, immediately sitting next to him.

For a moment, the girl could see Pikachu, who was already sleeping beside the bed. Serena blushed slightly seeing the situation, side by side with her inseparable friend.

"First of all, I wanted to apologize for what you've seen today at the stadium. I behaved like a little kid…" The Kanto trainer sighed, bowing his head.

Serena gave him a reassuring smile and prepared to respond.

"It's not your fault, Ash... I understand a little the situation you have exposed me, not entirely because I have not been with you in your other trips. But I know that frustration is very... fucked up, I guess. I had one of those attacks of rage at the Coumarine Showcase, and you can see how I ended up."

And then she pointed to her hair with a slight laugh.

"Thanks for understanding me, Serena. And your new look with short hair wasn't that bad. I like it." He answered.

The girl blushed as she continued smiling. Ash's face changed back to serious, as he put his left hand near Serena.

"Well, I guess you'll have some idea of why I made you come here... I must admit that I had a bad time accepting our goodbyes at Glorio City."

"Ash…" Serena whispered, surprised to see him recognize that.

"Since you had to leave to follow your duties as Kalos Queen, I have been through a very strange time." He continued. "I wasn't fully aware of my surroundings, I couldn't sleep or eat as well as before, I couldn't talk nice to Clemont and Bonnie... even with my Pokémon I had a bad time. The only thing I could think of was you, and didn't understand why..."

Serena blushed furiously with all of that. Ash was acknowledging in front of her that he couldn't get her out of his head after the Master Class.

"W-we-well, I... I must admit that I had some pretty bad days as well..." The honey blond replied, removing her pink hat. "I missed all of you, and I know this will sound so bad to Clemont and Bonnie, but you are the one I missed the most, Ash... but it was clear in my head that I would see you again in the Kalos league."

Ash blushed a little hearing that Serena missed him that much, and continued with his story.

"Yeah, I knew it too, but I just couldn't feel comfortable about it. I had no idea why I missed you like that... But today, when you kissed me on the cheek, I remembered something very important. Something that didn't come to my head for about ten years."

Serena's facial expression was a mixture of bewilderment and total surprise. What did Ash mean? And how was it possible that with a simple kiss he could react that way? Meanwhile, the Kanto native was taking off his gloves, revealing something that left Serena even more confused. On his right wrist, Ash was wearing a bracelet. It was the first time she saw it, simply and obviously because it was hidden under his glove. It was a seemingly simple bracelet, made with colored beads and had four small wooden dice in the middle. The first three had painted each of them a letter of the name Ash in red and the fourth one had a pink heart on it. The dice were a little worn, probably because the bracelet was pretty old. Still, the honey blonde girl couldn't understand anything.

"Serena... I have to ask you a question. Do you... do you remember this bracelet?" Ash asked, showing the bracelet close to his friend.

Serena held his right hand and carefully checked Ash's bracelet, analyzing every detail of it. The colored beads, the letters, the heart... somehow, all of that was pretty familiar, too much she could say. But how? Did she already seen it before? All she could do was snort, because she couldn't identify it.

"Well... I really couldn't tell you, Ash, I have no idea..." She replied, somehow uncomfortable. "But I swear that it's just so familiar to me, as if I had seen it before..."

Ash lowered his head, but this time showed a smile on his face. Meanwhile, Serena was still wondering where she could have seen that bracelet before.

"I don't blame you. It's been a long time. To be honest, I also forgot what this was about. But for some reason, I had to continue wearing it. I just couldn't remember what this bracelet was, or even who gave it to me... until today."

Ash turned his head and looked right into Serena's eyes. The Kalos Queen blushed furiously again, to a scarlet tone of red, seeing the seriousness and conviction with which his friend looked at her.

"Serena, this bracelet... You... you gave it to me."

"What? B-but how? When did I gave you this bracelet?" She questioned, eyes wide open and extremely surprised.

"The same day we made a heart promise. Ten years ago, at Vermilion Harbor." The raven haired boy answered, still with a serious look on his face.

"Vermilion Harbor... A... a heart promise?"

This was the question asked Serena to herself completely bewildered, when suddenly she put both hands in her mouth and gasped in disbelief. She just remembered that.

"No... Don't tell me..." She mouthed, her eyes watering.

Before concluding this episode, I would like to thank all of you for reading and make some notes on this project. This is my first Pokémon fanfic, and I visualize it as the possible anime after XY&Z. This doesn't mean that this is a Pokémon Sun and Moon fanfic/anime, but a spin-off/alternative canon series to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Pokémon. As for today, we still don't know if Serena will beat Aria and become Kalos Queen (that chapter is scheduled to air on March 24), and wholeheartedly I... would prefer her to lose, because with the obligations of the Queen position she would have to say goodbye to the group and Amourshipping would die dramatically. :(

But for the succession of events in this fanfic, it will be better that Serena wins and separates from the group during the final part of the journey to the Kalos League.

Although Sparkling Dreams is quite a large project in my head, for now I will only publish this prologue, which also serves as an Amourshipping one-shot. This part of the fanfic, which will take approximately 2-3 chapters, can also be seen as the last episodes of the XY&Z anime. I want to make sure I have a good number of chapters of the main fanfic written before, so you can have regularly scheduled update without leaving it hanging, as has happened to me before. If you really like it, I will make an effort so that you can read and discover everything that holds for Ash in this adventure.

And before saying goodbye, I want to make a brief clarification. In this story Ash, Serena, Clemont and any other major companion that could appear in the adventure (such as Brock, May, Dawn, Misty, whoever), are 16 to 17 years old, while Bonnie is 8 years old.

That's all for now, see you next week with the second episode of this prologue. Until next time.