Rippling Eclipse Chapter 3

Ignite the Fire Within - Valor

Disclaimer: All Pokémon characters used belong to the Pokémon Company, a Japanese consortium between Nintendo, Game Freak and Creatures. Furthermore, all other characters used are either of my own creation and thus are not meant to resemble anyone in real life. This includes creations used from other creators with their authorization. Thank you Amethyst.

**** Rippling Eclipse ****

Soundtrack List

Zack Hemsey – See what I've become (1)

Arn Andersson – Shards of Light (2)

**** Rippling Eclipse ****

"Ash…."

The tall man plunging into a wall of leafy greens ahead of the gasping light green haired woman barely glanced back for a moment, "Mmm?" He hummed questioningly in return, still a little too focused on the undergrowth around them to reply.

Julia gasped as she held one hand to her side, "Hold up will you?"

The man ran one hand through his dark hair as he slowed down enough for Julia to catch up and gave her a cocky grin, "For a Gym Leader, you're pretty out of a shape."

"Fuck you." Julia muttered between heavy gasps, "Even Gym Leaders don't go meandering around the forest so early in the morning."

"It's 11 am." Ash deadpanned, "Pretty sure that doesn't qualify as 'early in the morning' anymore."

"Yeah well, you ran off in a real hurry after your match before I could even finish yawning. Hell, the poor guy you were fighting didn't even have time to understand how the fuck you managed to slap his whole team out of the arena with a Rattata." Julia grumbled under her breath as she clutched her tummy with a groan, "Ugh. All these climbing before I even had breakfast makes my guts go all queasy. Why are you even in such a rush?"

"Don't worry, we're nearly there." Ash bore the woman's non-stop complaining with an amicable grin.

Julia squinted at him. His broad shoulders were heaving from the exertion and sweat had dampened the simple black shirt his friends had bought for him. Though the new heavy looking cloak that was draped over his left shoulder probably didn't help his situation considering the murky lowland Johto temperatures. A pair of sturdy steel lined boots and a pair jean rounded off his outfit, designed for travelling in almost any weather and the hazards of the road.

It was eerily similar to what he usually wore in Reborn, though Julia guessed he had simply got used to what was comfortable for him.

"Do you even know where you're going?" she questioned him curiously.

"Of course I do. I never get lost."

On his head, Pikachu burst out into a gut busting laugh.

Ash's left brow twitched as he jabbed Pikachu off his perch.

"You want to say that again so I can record it?" Julia retorted as an indignant Pikachu nimbly climbed up her shoulder instead, her expression a mix of amusement and long suffering, "Then the next time someone asks me what's the funniest joke I've ever heard, I can just play it back for them to hear."

"Okay… so I never unintentionally getlost."

Pikachu twitched before laughing even harder while Julia merely gave him a knowing look.

"Whatever." Ash muttered as he finally broke through the entangled wall of ivy and trees with a triumphant crow and dug around in his bag for six poke balls.

Julia looked around the clearing that the man had apparently found with muted awe.

Somehow, the idiot had managed to discover a full-fledged lake, ringed by a thick forest, right in the middle of Silver town. Save for a patch of burnt and threshed ground which she presumed was the location of the battle he had had with Corey the night before, the entire lake was crystal clear and she could see a multitude of water Pokémon leaping and playing in the shallows of the lake while a gentle breeze blew lazily and caused the tall grass to billow in waves.

She didn't even bother to ask him how he had managed to find a place like this.

His ability to randomly stumble on the weirdest places at the most random of times was practically legendary by now though she hadn't actually seen it in person.

Corey's daily complaints were more than enough for her.

There were a flash of six lights as some familiar Pokémon emerged from the lights.

Bronzong, metal plating cracked and burnt from several point blank Dark Pulses, hovered unsteadily, a Vaporeon, her dorsal fins ruffled and a little torn, a titanic Scolipede, its heavy shell armour cracked and burnt in places chittered tiredly as a Medicham got into a meditative position as best as it could without agitating all the burnt patches of skin on her body while an Arcanine, the most injured of the five, gingerly padded the grass beneath him down with his massive paws before carefully hunching down, the fur on his tummy was heavily burnt and blood could still be seen dripping from the fire Pokémon's lips.

The sixth Pokémon was a Blissey that Ash patted with affection before he handed her a small capsule. The nurse Pokémon made a happy sound as it nuzzled against Ash's hand before opening the capsule he had given her to reveal a well-worn container meticulously filled and with berries of almost every time.

Julia merely quirked one eyebrow as Ash wordlessly got his cloak out of the way and rolled up his sleeves and got to work with his Blissey, selecting some orange and green berries before grinding them into paste, when something tugged at her pant legs. Looking down, she grinned at the tottering little yellow rat as he held up a cloth wrapped package that was about as large he was.

Keeping an eye on the slender black haired man as he and Blissey start making some sort of salve with a combination of Rawst and Pecha berries from Ash's stock, Julia carefully relieved Pikachu of his burden and unwrapped it curiously, making a small sound of surprise as she realized it was a pack of sandwiches.

Apparently the man had had time to make something to eat before he snuck out of his apartment.

"Oi, you sure I can eat all of these?"

The man whose stubbornness was practically the stuff of legends in her continent merely waved one hand dismissively as he focused on helping Blissey carefully mix the grinded berries with some white, milky substance from her eggs every few stirs.

Julia possessively hugged the sandwiches to her chest, "Don't complain to me when you get hungry alright!? You're the one that gave me your breakfast willingly!"

"That was my lunch actually." Ash replied dryly. Two dark reddish brown eyes slid over to her with an impudent quirk of the brow before Ash lazily popped a Peppa berry into his mouth with a smirk before returning to the task at hand.

Popping a sandwich into her mouth, Julia grinned widely as she savoured the mix of mustard and ham before proceeding to shamelessly chow down on what was supposed to be Ash's lunch, though she at least remembered to pass one to a delighted Pikachu who promptly began nibbling on the sandwich while he was perched on her shoulder.

By the time she was finished, the raven haired trainer and his Blissey had already quickly and efficiently applied the paste to most of his injured Pokémon. The trainer from Pallet town was now carefully bandaging Vaporeon's back with a light smile, his lips moving almost silently. But Julia knew he was probably telling his Pokémon how proud he was of them if the way the Eevee evolution vacillated between preening and gazing up at him with pure adoration was any indication.

"You should just take him to a Poke Centre." Julia suggested with a muffled tone, "Actually, you should've taken ALL of them to a Pokémon Centre. No reason to let them hurt any longer than necessary."

Ash wrinkled his nose as he surveyed his injured team with a reluctant smile, "Probably." He agreed in a low baritone, "Unless it's urgent, I prefer to let them heal normally though. It helps in the long run, builds their resistances and strengths a lot more effectively than just stuffing them into a Poke ball for Nurse Joy to instantly heal."

Patting Vaporeon's rump with a smile, Ash gestured silently to the lake while Arcanine padded over to Julia and collapsed on her lap with great big adorable doggy smile that contrasted with his massive fangs and hot breaths, either begging for a petting or a sandwich.

Knowing the greedy Arcanine, probably both.

Relenting with a groan, Julia fed him one of the sandwiches and watched mournfully as the comparatively tiny piece of bread and meat disappeared down Arcanine's gullet. The huge puppy of an Arcanine yipped happily before nuzzling her so hard that she was bowled over, prompting Pikachu to make an unhappy noise at being dislodged from his perch.

The indignant Pikachu reflexively let out a bolt of electricity at the 6 foot tall puppy which Arcanine proceeded to ignore handily by rolling onto his back, legs kicking in the air as it begged for a good rubbing.

Ash for his part merely smiled gently as all his Pokémon drifted away to rest or play with all the other wild Pokémon around them….

Or at least he thought they were.

Those Rattatas didn't look like they enjoyed being chased by a drooling Scolipede very much.

He doubted Pede would actually eat them though. Scolipedes in general were carnivores but this one preferred his meat a little tougher, and a lot more… fermented.

Finding a comfortable spot by the edge of the lake, he patted Blissey one last time and let her wander off as well before lying down flat on his back, one hand laid across his eyes to block out the sun when he felt a light weight settle down on his tummy.

His lips curled upwards as he automatically reached down to scratch that one special spot below Pikachu's fluffy cheeks. Said electric mouse Pokémon promptly melted into a pile of contented yellow goo and purred happily as he heard the sound of rustling grass.

The raven haired man yawned and cracked one eye open to glance at the red headed trainer who was gingerly making his way through the tall grass, one hand idly switching between scratching a Pikachu between the ears or its cheeks, "Sup. Feeling better today?"

"Just a minor headache." Ritchie admitted with a half grin as he took a seat next to the other trainer who was lounging on the side of a beautiful lake surrounded by thick trees.

The trainer from Frodomar watched Ash hum agreeably, "This actually reminds me of something."

"Hmmm?"

"I wasn't really thinking right yesterday," Ritchie winced as he felt his head throb again, "but we bumped into each other somewhere in the Whirl Islands in Johto didn't we? Bumped into you on a cliff overlooking a lake like this in that area."

"Yep." Ash nodded to himself absent-mindedly, "I remembered last night, but I didn't feel like correcting you. Mostly because I figured you would be too drunk to bother about the little details anyway."

"Yeah…." Ritchie sighed as he shoved his hands into his pockets awkwardly as he looked around the forest with a downcast expression, "I was taking a short break from my Hoenn run at the time I think. I distinctly remember thinking that catching a legitimate Legendary might help my chances at winning and followed some clues about a Lugia until I reached Whirl Islands."

Behind him, Ash was still watching the surface of the lake when a sleek head with blue markings attached to a slim, long white neck slowly rose from the surface with a quiet coo. It cast its eyes around the shore before noticing Ash had already seen him and was currently rubbing his temples with an exasperated expression.

"Sometimes I think about Silver you know. Wonder the little guy is doing right now…" Ritchie said with a nostalgic smile.

The Pokémon swiftly swam through the water before lunging at Ash who only had time to glance at Ritchie who was still talking to himself a little bit away while Pikachu quickly made a quick exit not a second too soon as the Pokémon essentially bashed Ash in the stomach in its excitement.

From her seat under the tree, Julia stared uncomprehendingly as a smallish Lugia barrelled into Ash like a dump truck.

Releasing a pained smile, Ash affectionately rubbed the excited Lugia currently nuzzling his stomach for all he was worth, its body half way out of the water.

"Where's your mom?" Ash whispered quietly in his usual low and hoarse tone.

The Lugia's neck undulated in pleasure from the rubbing as its eyes sparkled mischievously.

"Ah… you ran away again didn't you?"

The Lugia cooed, unrepentantly proud when Pikachu leapt back onto Ash's shoulder with a chirped greeting.

The young Legendary blinked slowly for a moment before it proceeded to lunge again, this time at Pikachu.

'Big Brother!' A loud, happy, childlike voice reverberated in his head as the Lugia, prompting Ash to grin. Watching someone else get bowled over like that was significantly more amusing when he wasn't the one getting bowled over.

"Did you ever bump into that Lugia again, Ash?" Ritchie asked, with a misty look in his eyes as he gazed in the opposite direction of Ash.

"A few times." The raven haired trainer admitted with a crooked smile as he glanced at the other trainer who was still busy reminiscing, "He's grown up to be a pretty playful guy who has a habit of running away from his stressed mother, randomly teleporting into every large body of water he can find just so he can scare the Pokémon he finds there, each time he gets bored."

Lugia turned back, leaving a thoroughly nuzzled and flattened Pikachu gasping for breath on the ground, and gave Ash a few more playful licks good bye before going back to the water with a quiet splash.

Ritchie turned back around and grinned wryly just in time to see the tip of a white tail slither into the lake, "Speaking of large bodies of water, I didn't notice yesterday on account of how drunk I was, but how the hell did you find a forest and a lake in the middle of Silver town?"

The green haired girl who was sitting under a tree nearby chuckled dryly, startling Ritchie since he hadn't even noticed her there until she made a noise.

Ritchie stared at the green haired girl and the familiar looking Arcanine that was snoozing next to her, its belly bandaged heavily, and went a slight pink colour before blurting out, "MayIhaveyourname?"

The girl tilted her head innocently as she happily ran one hand through Arcanine's thick carpet-like orange and black striped fur, "It's Julia. Are you Ash's friend?"

"I think so?" The red headed man looked away shyly while Ash gruffly snorted with amusement, "Are you… with Ash?"

"In a manner of speaking." Julia remarked cheerfully, "I'm supposed to make sure he doesn't go around wandering and looking for danger, Legendary Pokémon included. Obviously didn't work…" Julia muttered with a pointed look at Ash who simply shrugged as if to say that it wasn't his fault that Legendary Pokémon seemed to enjoy messing with him as he nonchalantly brushed Pikachu's fur back down, "but at least he's still in town. I think. Maybe?" the peppy green haired girl concluded to herself.

"I... I guess so?" Ritchie coughed awkwardly, "But don't you think this is a rather nice place to rest and everything?"

Julia, dressed in a disturbingly short pink skirt and a tight yellow blouse that did strange things to Ritchie's guts, looked around the peaceful area pointedly.

"I suppose?" She said uncertainly and pouted, "It's… a bit boring though."

"Boring?" Ritchie echoed blankly before nodding hurriedly, "Yeah I guess. It's just an empty space and some water. Would be nice if there was some flowers right?"

At the edge of the water, Ash rolled his eyes as Pikachu grumpily climbed onto his shoulders, licking that one stubborn patch of fur that just wouldn't lie down. Ash grinned as he scratched Pikachu under the chin with one finger.

"Flowers?" Julia giggled, "No, no. It'd be even better if there were stuff going boom!"

"What."

She glanced at Ash with an uncharacteristically timid expression that Ash knew was perfectly fake, "Hey, Master Ketchum… do you mind if I…"

"No." the dark haired man cut her off dryly.

"But I haven't even finished my question!"

"It doesn't matter. I already know what you want to do." Ash gravelly replied with an amused grin, "And I don't think that releasing your Pokémon just so that they can blow up, probably setting the forest on fire in the process, is a very good idea."

"But I think it's a great idea!" Julia protested childishly.

"Didn't Titania already tell you that you're forbidden from blowing anything else up until you get back to Reborn after the four of you had to pay for the damage to our hotel room?"

"I wasn't the one that did that! She kicked the door in herself!"

Ash quirked one disbelieving eyebrow at her.

"Okay… so I helped blow the frame up before she kicked the door in but just a little!"

"I'm not even sure how you can blow up a door 'just a little.'." Ash muttered under his breath.

"Muu…" Julia wrinkled her nose and stuck her tongue out at Ash.

"Also. If the two of you want to flirt, please do it somewhere else. Specifically, somewhere where I can't hear whatever the two of you are doing."

"Flirt?" Julia tilted her head questioningly while Ritchie went as red as a burned tomato, "But I wasn't flirting, we were just talking." Her light green eyes turned onto Ritchie, "Right?"

Ash grinned and was about to say something else when Ritchie hurriedly clapped his hands on the taller man's mouth, "Yes! Yes we were! Just talking that is!"

The Pikachu on Ash's tummy snuffled and glared indignantly at Ritchie, losing a light tendril of electricity at the red head for jostling his bed, causing Ritchie to yelp and fall back as his fingers were shocked. Pikachu smirked at Ritchie's muttered cursing before it curled back up into a ball and went back to his nap.

"Of course you were." Ash yawned lazily, "So? Still feel like going to Reborn to get stronger?"

"Maybe not without some prior preparations first." Ritchie commented hesitantly, "I was thinking you could help with that?"

One lone reddish brown eye cracked open under the curtain of untidy and spiky jet black hair as a smile slowly spread on his lips, "What did you have in mind?"

"I'm… not sure really." Ritchie admitted, "It feels like there's a whole world of things I need to know after our match, though it really only hit me after I watched your battle with that poison guy."

Ash shot up with a wide grin, "What say we go through a video recording of our match first? There're are some things I think you can work on starting from there before we work our way up."

Ritchie stared at the enthusiastic trainer as he pulled out a PokeNav and began fiddling with it. He had actually expected Ash to just laugh off his request and tell him to go and learn by experience. Instead, the enthusiastic black haired trainer had not only accepted, it almost seemed like the guy had been planning lessons or something.

Feeling the other guy's stare, Ash looked up with an expression of innocent confusion.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" He squinted at Ritchie suspiciously, "You're not falling for me are you? Because you were flirting with Julia not even ten minutes ago."

"How the hell does staring at you equate to falling for you!?"

"Oh." Ash nodded with some relief, "That's better then. I was wondering if I needed to get some protection for my backside."

"Die. Seriously. Just die."

"Now that's not very nice of you." Ash pouted, "How am I supposed to teach you anything if you keep telling me to die?"

"Ah. This guy is an idiot that cannot be saved anymore."

"Glad you noticed." Julia muttered from her spot under her tree.

From his perch on Ash's shoulder, Pikachu snickered with amusement while Ash glowered at Ritchie and Julia.

"Suddenly I feel like just going to sleep and ignoring all of you." Ash pouted childishly. He poked Pikachu's soft, furry tummy, "You too. Traitor."

Pikachu poked his tiny tongue out at his trainer and then quickly scampering away before Ash could grab him.

Ash dropped to his knees, "Why?! Why don't my Pokémon respect me at all?! Is there NO JUSTICE IN THIS WORLD?!"

Grinning at the trainer and antics, Ritchie shook his head and decided to take pity on the moping Ash, "Alright, alright. I'm sorry. Can we get on to whatever it is you have planned?"

"That totally wasn't sincere at all." Ash muttered under his breath as he hunkered down next to Ritchie, "But I'll take what I can get."

(1)

The red head trainer quirked one eyebrow in interest as Ash offered to him the PokeNav as their match played out on the smallish screen, "Okay. So what am I supposed to be seeing here?"

In response, Ash rewinded the match back to the period right before Rattata got hit by Cruise's Stone Edge and adopted a lecturing pose. Ritchie could almost imagine that there was a white board next to him, "We start here. The basics, which essentially means understanding your Pokémon first and foremost." He pointed at the way his Rattata hunched over in slow motion.

"Rattata in general have great speed, however this is offset by their less than stellar damage and endurance. In any other situation, even though he's trained for endurance, your Tyrannitar's Stone Edge would have knocked him out instantly. Therefore, the question here is how did Rattata minimize the damage dealt to him enough so that his Counter would still pack a punch and not lose consciousness in the process?" He pointed at the way Rattata slowly edged his hunched over body so that the rocks, hurtling at him in slow motion, "From this, we can clearly see that he hunched over so that he could take advantage of his smaller size, however that wouldn't be anywhere enough to stop the damage, so can you tell me why?"

Squinting at the video, Ritchie re-winded the video again and again before offering a hesitant answer, "He turned around to make sure that any rocks that hit him would hit non-vital areas?" Ritchie frowned as he stared at the screen intensely, "The rocks barely clipped his side. He made sure that none of them hit his head or his legs. One hit his tail though."

"That's part of it yes." Ash nodded with a wide, approving grin, "But you're not looking at the whole picture yet. Look at the shape of the rocks. They way they're shot at him makes sure that the brunt of the impact lies at the sharpest point. Rattata knows that, so he allowed the sides of the rocks where the momentum would be lowest, minimizing any damage done."

"And the subsequent Counter was just the cherry on top of the cake."

Ritchie frowned, "You didn't order Rattata to do anything though. It sort of knew anyway."

Ash merely quirked one eyebrow at his friend, "Are you asking 'Why' or 'How'?"

"Both?"

"The How is easy." Ash admitted, "It's a routine I developed in Reborn. Most of my active Pokémon are trained to recognize the situation they're in and all possible responses to it, tailored to their specific abilities and skills. This was after I realized that shouting orders was a little too slow to win a battle there. Rattata has some experience in routines, but only in one or two specific ones designed for something a lot bigger and stronger than him."

"So… what you're saying is that if I had sent out a Ghost type or something that could null his Counter, your Rattata was basically sunk?"

"I would at least have had to manually give him orders to prevent him from getting an instant KO." Ash allowed nonchalantly.

"That… makes sense I guess… And the 'Why'?"

The dark haired trainer shrugged, "Like I said. Shouting orders was a little too slow. I can even show you a great example if you wish." He pulled up another recording of a battle between two trainers Ritchie didn't recognize with two Pokémon out. One was a bipedal Pokémon with a turtle like head and covered in heavy grey plates shaped like an orb while the other was twice as tall as the Golem, played in acidic purple armour and disturbingly sharp spikes.

"The people fighting and the Pokémon involved are irrelevant." Ash commented when he noticed Ritchie's expression of confusion, "It's the moves they use that I want you to see."

The video played out about as well as Ritchie had expected, "The first guy orders an attack, but the second one almost instantly orders his Nidoking to Counter it. The first guy hears it, and mid attack, he gets his Pokémon to abort and use something else…. I don't really see the problem. That's standard tactics amongst trainers of my level." He admitted.

"Don't worry about it. That simply means you already have an instinctual grasp of the How but not the Why, which is what we're about to rectify." Ash re-winded and slowed down the video again to almost glacier levels, placing one finger on the timer bar at the bottom of the screen, "It takes the first trainer 0.8 seconds to yell out an order and reach the Golem, but you can tell that the Golem only understood the order to use Earthquake 0.2 seconds later by the way his fingers twitch for a total of 1.0 second."

Ash murmured, his finger moving with the bar, "0.7 seconds later, Nidoking's order to Counter the Earthquake comes. It takes him 0.5 seconds to understand and react. Counter is activated within 0.2 seconds. Within that time span of 1.4 seconds, the Golem has just only started to gather his energy to use Earthquake. If left alone, it will take him a further 1.6 seconds to use it and promptly get slapped out of the field with his own attack. The first trainer realizes this and changes the order into a Rock Polish instead, obviously intending on upping Golem's speed and take advantage of the fact that the Nidoking is currently a sitting duck until he lets go of his Counter."

"It took another 1.0 second for Golem to receive, understand and execute the order. But it is enough. There was still 0.1 seconds left before it became too late." Ritchie watched the video with an almost mesmerized fascination as the raven haired trainer next to him broke down and analysed every possible move with an unnervingly clinical tone.

"Golem transfers the power he has gathered into Rock Polish just in time with no ill effect to himself whatsoever. The Nidoking is left standing there for the next 2 seconds. If he cancels Counter early, he will hurt himself. If he doesn't, Golem's enhanced speed will ensure whatever attack he uses when the Counter drops will hit Nidoking straight in the face before he can recover. Within the space of 5 seconds, the first trainer has gained an undeniable advantage."

Ash flipped the video back to their match, "Now watch this one again. Tell me what do you really see?"

Ritchie's brows furrowed deeply as his brains exercised harder than they had in ages, "There…. 0.1 seconds before the rocks hit him, he activated Counter." He pressed a button that slowed the video down even more, showing them the red beam of light that lanced out from Rattata's body before colliding with Tyrannitar's face, "The attack took 0.03 seconds to hit. There was no order given from you. And even if I had noticed the glow, with only 0.1 seconds between impact and activation, there was no time for me to give an order to dodge." Ritchie muttered quietly.

Ash nodded with a grin, "Correct. Now we move on to the third part of this match up. There was barely enough damage done to activate Counter. Even with the type weakness, it wouldn't have been enough to bypass Cruise's armour and deal a fatal hit, so why do you think he still went down?"

"He aimed it at Cruise's open mouth," Ritchie looked up at Ash in awe, "He made sure to take just enough damage to activate Counter without crippling his speed too much, sped over to Cruise so that there was no way he could avoid it, and then he released the energy with pinpoint precision. All in less than 0.5 seconds."

Ash grinned gently, "And that is the Why."

Ritchie blinked slowly. "Wow."

The raven haired trainer preened, "You may start licking my toes now if you wish."

From behind him, Medicham snorted and Scolipede rolled his compound eyes.

The red haired trainer buried his face in his palms, "What kind of insane place is Reborn if it turned you into someone that can train a Rattata of all things, into a monster strong enough to execute crazy moves like that? Was it that bad? Were you like chased day and night into the mountains where you lived like a cannibals forced to scrounge and take advantage of every single opening with maximum impact or something?"

Ash stared at his friend.

"What."

"Well? Were you?"

"Uh, no?"

Ash paused.

"Ok so I did go up into the mountains once or twice… or thirty times…. Possibly more…. mostly because I got lost…." Ash chuckled a little nervously, "but then who doesn't eh?"

"So you DID do some sort of crazy intensive training up there!"

"That would depend on what you consider intensive." Ash replied with an awkward grin.

"You mean there weren't all sorts of incredibly strong monsters up there?"

"None that I would really consider abnormally so." The raven haired trainer muttered as he scratched his right cheek.

Ritchie stared at him doubtfully, "So there wasn't any Tyranitars taking chunks out of you and your team and then pushing you down a cliff where you found a secret cave that taught you and your Pokémon advanced battling skills?"

"That sounds like a terrible plotline for a second rate fiction novel."

"No rampaging Aggrons that forced you hide in a cave and scrounge for food day in day out?"

"What have you been smoking and where can I get some?"

"Then why were you going up into those mountains so often and what were you doing there?" Ritchie finally exploded in frustration.

"I got lost." The Pallet town trainer deadpanned before pulling his travelling cloak a little tighter around his left arm with resigned sigh at the other man's disbelieving stare.

"I'm serious. All I really did up there was let them do whatever the heck they wanted. There wasn't a lot of people up there to train with in the first place, so I mostly just let them loose and spent most of my time watching how they lived in the wild… because they knew how to find food better than I did."

"That sounds more like a goddamned vacation than training!"

Ash winced as a memory of him rocking back on forth in a cave, half mad from starvation and dehydration, as he nibbled on his last berry like a chipmunk while his Pokémon basically took turns rolling their eyes at him.

He also vaguely remembered Pikachu, suffering from ketchup withdrawal, sitting in a corner and repeatedly banging his head on a wall after they got lost in the same cave for the twentieth time in a row.

"Something like that." He replied evasively, "Also, Rattata wasn't there with me." The raven haired trainer commented absent-mindedly, "I only found him about two months ago when I first arrived in Sinnoh. I don't really know about the cannibal part either. There was a distinct shortage of people to eat up there."

"Hold up. What did you say?"

"Uh…. There wasn't a lot of people up there to nibble on, so you weren't really correct about the cannibal part?"

Ritchie resisted the massive urge to bang his head on something hard, "No you idiot. Before that!"

"I only had Rattata for about two months since I only met him in Sinnoh?"

"Seriously? Two months?"

"Why? What's wrong with that?"

"I take it back. Your Rattata might be a monster. But you're an even bigger monster than him." Ritchie muttered disbelievingly.

"Oi!" Ash scowled, "Don't call Rattata a monster!"

"That's the part you're worried about!?"

(2)

Ash tilted his head to the side and sighed softly.

"What did you want me to say? That I intentionally went looking for the grittiest, strongest Pokémon with the best potential and then caught that one so that I would be strong as a trainer?" He jabbed one finger at Ritchie, "I might sound a little pretentious but in my book, that's not strong Ritchie. That's called using a crutch."

Ash shook his head with a faint smile as his voice rasped eerily in the suddenly quiet clearing "Whether or not that's how you train them yourself is irrelevant. I don't really think I have the right to tell you what's right or wrong. But I like to believe that Pokémon are more than raw statistics, they're more than what their types indicate, that the circumstances of their birth does not matter. I believe in the strength that each Pokémon holds in them. I believe in the explosive power that each Pokémon has when they combine their abilities with the connection they have with each other and their trainer…. I believe in the flames that burn bright in them even in the darkest depths."

Ash smiled wryly as he stood up slowly and stretched, bones cracking with a satisfying 'crack' after relaxing on the ground for so long, while the travelling cloak covering his left arm flapped softly in the gentle breeze.

"Rattata wasn't really the strongest Pokémon in his forest or anything. In fact, he was probably somewhere below average. He just wanted to be strong enough to live the life he should have had. And that was all the potential I needed to see, that was all the determination I needed him to have. As a friend, and as a trainer, it is simply my duty to help him ignite the fire within him and make it burn even brighter."

Ritchie opened his mouth to retort before closing it with a click, feeling strangely small.

"I see." Ritchie finally said in a subdued tone after a moment of humbled silence, "Can we… can we see the next fight with Teddy?"

"Ted… Ah the Snorlax." Ash nodded as he let the video play at normal speed to the point where the Snorlax made his appearance.

"At this point, Rattata had already taken enough damage that even a glancing hit would knock him out." Ash opined as he pointed at the way the purple rat was bruised and panting on the screen, "It was actually lucky for us that you picked Snorlax, or Teddy as the case may be. Rattata had lost some speed from the first round, but so long as he could enhance it with a partial Quick attack, it would be enough to avoid most of Snorlax's attacks. The problem here was taking down your Snorlax before the combo drained his stamina completely." Ash hummed to himself, "The fact that Snorlax was pretty damn bulky didn't really help either. It was a bad matchup no matter how I look at it, and we only won by chance."

"That's what I was thinking." Ritchie admitted, "I was a little more wary of you by then, so I figured it would be a safe bet instead of telling Teddy to just use Earthquake instead. Thought we'd finish off Rattata with minimum effort so that we could reserve the bulk of it for whatever you threw out next."

"That would have been bad for us, but for a different reason." Ash agreed with an enthusiastic grin, "A field wide Earthquake would have hit even something as nimble as Rattata, so his only way to avoid it would have been to jump, which would just turn him into a slow moving airborne target for Snorlax. And even if we managed to dodge Teddy's follow up, the damage to the field would have rendered his enhanced ground speed all but useless. Same result really. Just different reasons."

"Hindsight is twenty-twenty I guess." Ritchie admitted, "But what I'm really interested in is how Rattata took that opening. We both know that no matter how speedy Rattata was, there was no possible way he could have taken Teddy down without a trick of some sort."

"The Quick Fang combo." Ash allowed with a crooked smile, "You were right when you said Rattata doesn't have the power to take down Teddy, and in most situations you'd be right. But you're overlooking something again. Pokémon are still live creatures. Therefore they still operate by the same logic as everything else."

"I… don't see what you're trying to get at." Ritchie admitted sheepishly.

"Call Teddy out. It's easier for me to show you what I mean." Ash suggested enthusiastically.

Doubtfully, Ritchie reached for his Snorlax's poke ball before the colossal Snorlax appeared in flash of white light, landing with a massive thud that threw up a small cloud of dust.

The dark blue and white Pokémon looked around the area curiously while Ash approached him without a hint of fear.

"Amazing." Ash muttered to himself admiringly, "I knew it already, but your Snorlax really is powerful." He grabbed the Snorlax's large mitt and raised it up with a happy hum, "Look at the scars and burns on his paws…"

"Snor!" The large Pokémon yelped in protest and glowered at his trainer while the raven haired Ash happily poked and prodded him.

"Most Snorlax in competitive matches tend to be trained around their bulk and high base strength to maximize their inherent strengths, but yours is pretty unique," Ash muttered to himself absent-mindedly as he molested the Snorlax's legs.

"When I first noticed the muscles on his thighs and the fact that he's leaner than most Snorlax I've seen before, I suspected that you went otherwise and trained him for speed and attacking power. By definition, that makes him a little less bulky comparatively. The scars on his paws confirm my theory as well, it shows how much he has practiced punching. Going by the smell and the burns on his claws, I'd hazard a guess that Teddy here is a pretty good boxer with at least Fire Punch and Ice Punch available to him. Chances are he also has Thunder Punch to round out the trio. Probably surprised quite a few people too I bet since his reduced weight increases his metabolism and makes him less lethargic than most people would expect."

"SNOR!" the Snorlax growled as Ash began pinching his thighs.

"There problem here is that for a Pokémon of this size, he would need exponentially more training and investment than a Pokémon of a smaller build to reach anything that could even be reasonably considered fast, hence the leg muscles. They're strong, no doubt, but Rattata was already faster by default. And he was certainly fast enough to bite Teddy's hamstring repeatedly until your Snorlax went down like a rock. Without the fat covering his weak points such as his joints and hamstring, your Snorlax was defensively weaker than the others of his ilk."

The Snorlax finally had had enough and began to run away from the strange dark haired man that he vaguely remembered meeting just yesterday and wouldn't quit molesting him in strange places.

"COME BACK HERE AND LET ME TOUCH YOU!"

Ritchie pointed at Ash and his loopy, manic smile as he chased the Snorlax around the lake, "Is that…. normal?"

"You mean the randomly touching Pokémon significantly larger and more dangerous than him and then fanboying over them?"

"Yes."

"For people like you and me? Not even remotely." Julia grinned, "Normal for Ash? Hell yes."

"How is he not dead yet?"

"I ask myself that every time I find myself near him." Julia admitted.

The Arcanine on her lap covered his snout with his paws, as if he was embarrassed to be even remotely associated with Ash while Pikachu who was hanging out with Julia after realizing that Ash really did think that playing with a an angry, stomping Snorlax was a good idea, sighed despondently.

Julia pointed at the Snorlax who was now trying to stomp on Ash, only to find it surprisingly difficult to actually land a hit on the happily laughing trainer who apparently thought they were playing a game, "You'd probably be better off summoning your Snorlax back before he kills Ash. You could probably say it was self-defence and get away with it, but I suspect that Titania wouldn't be very pleased with you."

"Titania? The really scary woman who looks like she uses her slightly less scary Aegislash as a teddy bear every time she goes to bed?"

"That's the one."

Yelping to himself, Ritchie quickly tapped the button on Snorlax's Poke ball and retrieved the obviously relieved Snorlax in a flash of red light.

Seeing that his new friend was not around anymore, Ash plodded his way back to Ritchie with a pout, "What was that for? We were having fun."

"The kind of fun that would end with both of us as red splatters on the ground, but yes. Fun." Ritchie commented with a nervous look at the green haired woman grinning at him innocently.

"Don't worry about it." Ash chirped cheerfully, "I've done it so many times now that I've actually gotten pretty good at sewing my guts back into my body.

Ritchie stared at him blankly.

"I am seriously re-considering this whole Reborn thing."

Ash tilted his head, his expression filled with innocent curiosity, "Why so sudden?"

"It suddenly feels like I'd be losing a lot more than I'd gain." Ritchie muttered tonelessly.

"Well…." Ash spread his hands with an awkward grin, "You'd probably an even better trainer than me with some time there."

"I'd also be a nut job."

"Pipipipi!"

Ash glared at his Pikachu who had burst out into laughter again and was rolling around on Arcanine's expansive fur clad tummy.

"Maybe… it's better if we stop the lesson here." Ash remarked almost reluctantly.

"Preferably before Ritchie gets even more traumatized from spending time near you." Julia added cheekily.

"Can I at least learn how to do the Quick Fang combo tomorrow?" Ritchie asked with a hopeful glint in his dead fish eyes.

Ash pursed his lips thoughtfully, "It's not impossible to learn the concept behind it, but it takes a while."

Ritchie grinned, regaining some of his former vigour, "That's something I guess. So tomorrow at noon?"

Ash nodded with a wan smile as he waved his friend off.

Sighing to himself, the tall man went over to tree where Julia was lounging under and plopped himself next to her.

"I wonder if that was a good idea…" Ash murmured.

"He was set on going anyway." Julia commented, "You just made sure he will at least have a somewhat decent shot at staying alive until you get back."

"You seem awfully certain about that."

"I am." The green haired Gym Leader agreed with a grin, "Remember when we first met?"

"I do my best to forget ever being near you. Period." Ash retorted dryly, "Mostly because being near you usually involves something exploding in a spectacularly dangerous manner. Typically with me inside it."

"You're… still holding a grudge from that huh?"

"Damn right I am."

"But still…"Julia's eyes sparkled as she sighed dreamily, "You can't deny how glorious those flames were when the factory exploded, and that sound…. Mmm….. the way it pierces straight to your heart and shakes your soul up with its smallness…" She licked her lips in such a disturbing manner that Ash wished Ritchie was still here to see it.

His constipated expression would have been priceless.

"It certainly was." Ash agreed with a perfectly straight face, "And considering I was still inside it when you decided to blow it up, there were a lot of things being pierced and shaken other than my heart and soul."

"Oops?"

"Arcanine. Can you please bite her?"

The huge orange and white canine lolling on her lap merely cracked open one crimson eye to give him an imperially dignified look as if to say, 'Do it yourself.' before going right back to sleep.

Julia rubbed his wide and furry tummy even harder with a triumphant grin.

"Traitor." Ash muttered under his breath, "Melting like ice cream the moment a pretty woman comes and scratches your tummy. Lucky bast-Traitor."

"But no. I was referring to something else. As the first Gym Leader you fought over there when you arrived, I think I'm probably the one most qualified to tell you how much you've changed." Julia reached over to ruffle Ash's already mess hair affectionately, making it look even more like a bird's nest, "You were such a scrawny kid back then."

"At least that's something." Ash deadpanned dryly.

Julia grinned and looped one arm around his shoulder.

"When I first fought you, you were just like that boy. I could immediately see that both of you had great instincts. Both of you have an amazing empathy for Pokémon, and the corresponding drive to help them. I could see that in you, Ame could see that in you. Hell even Fern could see that or he wouldn't have gone out of his way to talk to you."

"Now you're making me wish I wasn't that great." Ash muttered sourly.

Julia chuckled and then smiled soberly, "The foundation was there. Both of you just lack that little something to push you over the edge. I dunno what that something is for him yet, but in your case, you just needed something to help you understand what you were seeing and make use of the conclusions you came to when you observed. You lacked the confidence and courage to take that last step. You've always had people guiding you and caring for you in your journeys, so you've never had a reason to, and I honestly wouldn't say that's a bad thing either."

Julia, the Electric type Gym Leader of Reborn smiled sadly, "You were still pretty young back then, you had plenty of time to naturally develop your own style further. But Reborn sort of accelerated the whole phase in return for something you'll never regain. Something none of us will ever regain."

Ash shrugged uncomfortably, refusing to meet her light green eyes, "It worked out in the end."

"In a way it did I guess." Julia grinned, "Now you're trying to help give him that push he needs without sacrificing too much in the process."

"It's what the Gym Leaders did for me when I was there."

"That we did." Julia thrust out her chest proudly, "We taught you a lot didn't we?"

"All you taught me was that being in the middle of a collapsing factor while it's on fire is a very, very bad idea." Ash deadpanned.

"Ahahahaha…..that's still a lesson right?" the green haired trainer pointedly refused to meet his eyes, "So…. When are your friends and mother arriving?"

The raven haired man rolled his eyes at the painfully obvious attempt to change the topic but let it go without a comment. Squinting at the sun shining through the leafy canopy above them, "In about 3 hours if Misty is right." Ash noted, his fingers fidgeting nervously.

"Don't worry about it." She hugged him tightly, "No matter how much we mess with you, you know that we all love you right? Even Alice no matter how much, or how loud, she denies it."

Ash stared at her.

"If we included you, there have been at least eight Reborn Gym Leaders who have openly tried to kill me. Five of which were supposedly accidents. Not to mention the fact that I know there's at least two of you still trying to kill me."

"Titania does look like she desperately needs a good lay." Julia admitted, "She's just cranky about the whole being away from Amalina part."

Ash chuckled reluctantly.

"Come on." Julia rolled Arcanine off her lap, and pulled herself up, "We better get back and get you bathed and ready then. Wouldn't want the Champion's mom thinking we did a bad job of keeping him alive while after all.

Ash regarded her dryly, "You do realize I'm perfectly capable of bathing myself right? I'm not your damned baby brother."

"Physically? Probably not?" Julia grinned teasingly, "Mentally? You're really no better from that idiot."

Rolling his eyes, Ash got up as well.

Packing up their stuff took them a little less than 5 minutes and they were back trekking through the thick forest, cutting through the leaves and foliage with occasional cursing.

"Hey Ash."

"Yeah?"

"Kiki would be proud of you."

Ash smiled thinly as they pushed through the foliage.

Under his rugged cloak, his right fingers closed around a small steel pocket watch.

"I hope so." Her friend rasped.

His green haired friend chuckled as a slight beam of light cut through the thick trees.

"Finally, we're back in civilization. I miss my bed already." She sighed in relief.

Hurriedly, she pushed through the trees only to skid to a stop, right before she could take a long step off a short cliff, into a river of lava, as she stared disbelievingly at a volcano.

An honest to Arceus volcano.

She could even see a little Slugma bathing in the lava river in the crevice not even two steps in front of them, the sheer heat emanating from the fiery river washing over her face and sending danger signals down her spine, prompting her to take a very big step back from the edge of the cliff.

"Hmm…" Behind her Ash rubbed his chin absent-mindedly, "I guess we took a wrong turn somewhere."

"A wrong turn? No, no, no, no. Taking a left instead of a right is a wrong turn. Ending up in the men's toilet instead of the women's toilet is a wrong turn." She stared at him incredulously and jabbed one finger at the volcano in the distance, "That is not a wrong turn."

"Meh."

She whirled around and stared at his Pokémon.

The Blissey, Pikachu, Scolipede, Medicham, Vaporeon, Bronzong and Arcanine stared back at her with the dead fish-like eyes of Pokémon who had seen things no Pokémon were meant to see and were already resigned to a lifetime of getting lost as long as they stayed with Ash.

"Is this normal?"

All of them began to cry miserably.

Pikachu began banging his head on the nearest rock.

****Rippling Eclipse****

Corey yawned as the sound of insistent knocking on the door woke him up.

Blearily, the Poison Pokémon specialist reluctantly left the warmth and security of his bed before plodding over to the door, preparing his best death stare for whoever had dared to disturb his sleep.

What he wasn't prepared however, was for a green and yellow blur to burst straight through the door the second he had unlatched it, giving him less than a second to jump back unless he wanted a stubbed toe, bawling her eyes out as she headed straight for Serra who was sitting on the couch and looking remarkably amused as Julia latched onto her and began sobbing incoherently.

Corey took one look at the Gym Leader before he released a shit eating grin.

He knew that reaction well.

Anyone who travelled with Ash did eventually turned out like Julia.

The only difference was the degree of severity.

He glanced at the depressed man still standing in the door way, "Got lost didn't you?"

"Yep."

Corey drew in a deep breath of pure satisfaction and contentment, "Ahh… the smell of suffering in the morning always wakes me up real good."

"And that is why Titania keeps trying to stab you." He croaked dryly.

"She hasn't succeeded yet and she won't any time soon." Corey replied dismissively, "Besides, it's always more fun to see someone else other than myself suffering from being in your presence. They always think I'm exaggerating your habit of getting lost, but now I have managed to open her eyes. One down, 10 to go. Kukuhahahaha!"

"Can you please stop talking as if I'm a walking disaster or something?"

"Do you know anyone else that fucks up as often as you?"

"…. Not really."

"Thank you for making my point for me."

Corey scratched his belly as Ash leaned on the wall next to him.

Both of them watched as Julia retreated to the darkest corner in the room and hugged her knees to her chest as she began to shake violently.

"How many times did you get lost on the way here anyway?" Corey wondered dryly, "Even I didn't react so badly the first time around."

"You wouldn't leave the toilet for three whole days."

"Completely missing the point here, Ash."

"I stopped counting after we somehow popped up under deep Mount Silver." The raven haired man finally admitted after a long and awkward silence.

Corey glanced at his watch, "Huh. No wonder you're so late. It's already 4.15pm, and I know the two of you left after your match about 10 in the morning."

The two of them fell into a comfortable silence as they watched Julia rock back and forth, muttering madly to herself.

"Okay, so it's a little amusing." Ash admitted with a wry grin as he idly petted an equally despondent Pikachu between the ears.

Corey grinned, "Well done, young man. You're well on your way to being a cynical monster whose only joy in life is revelling in the suffering of others. Well done indeed. Now if only I can persuade Serra to go with you next…."

"Why not Titania?"

"Do you like getting stabbed?"

"At least you have some compassion in you."

"Not really. I was thinking more along the lines of how much of a pain it would be to drag your crippled and bleeding ass all the way back to Reborn."

"Tsk." Ash grinned widely, "Heather's gonna hate you if you can't be honest y'know."

"Don't you have to get ready for something?" Corey tapped his watch lightly with a haughty expression.

Ash screwed up his face in confusion, "Like?"

"Your mother's ship is supposed to arrive in ten minutes."

The tall man winced before he did an about face and began sprinting for his room.

Corey merely smirked and patiently tapped his foot on the floor when he heard the sound of steel skidding to a stop on linoleum.

It didn't take long before Ash's head popped up from behind the corner sheepishly.

"Where was the harbour again?"

****Rippling Eclipse****

"He's late." Misty muttered angrily under her breath as she tapped her daintily heeled feet impatiently on the cobbled stone pier where Delia was supposed to be disembarking from, "This is his mother and he can somehow be late."

"To be fair, he's already 5 years late." Dawn commented wryly, "I'm pretty sure a few more minutes won't make much of a difference."

Misty promptly rounded on her friend, "You were the one that said he'd be okay since he had one of those Gym Leaders keeping an eye on him! That's why I thought it would be okay!"

Dawn nervously took a step back. It was a never wise thing to be anywhere near Misty when she was doing one of her meltdown solo acts, "Calm down, Misty. Even if he doesn't look it, I'm sure he wouldn't miss this."

"I hope so." Misty tapped her foot irritably, "Where is your adopted sister anyway?"

"Cynthia?" Dawn tilted her head, "She's at the airport I think. The Sinnoh Gym Leaders and Elite Four are arriving today, so she went to meet them."

"You think?"

Dawn brushed back a stray lock of lustrous blue hair and shrugged, "I dunno what time they're supposed to arrive and I didn't bother to ask. They might even be in town and having lunch or something right now."

She briefly glanced aside at her friend and gave an exasperated sigh, "Seriously Misty, It'll fine. Ash will be here for sure."

"Yoo!"

Both of them whirled around at the sound of a gravelly voice and steel unevenly clinking on cobblestone.

A tall frame lightly jogged towards them with at a steady pace, a slight limp in his step. A plain and serviceable travelling cloak he had insisted on buying was thrown over his left shoulder, concealing much of his frame and backpack, but what they could see was a form fitting, short sleeved black shirt finished off with a pair of dark blue jeans and two plain but sturdy steel toed boots while a small yellow rat attached to the back of his head waved at them as well.

"Well, well. Speak of the devil." Dawn chuckled.

The heat waves around him didn't seem to affect him at all despite the fact that he was jogging and wearing a thick dark cloak in public for some idiotic reason but by the time he was within hailing distance, all of them could see that the beads of sweat lining his temples.

"Hey." Ash smiled with relief as he glanced around the harbour, fidgeting slightly as his right thumb repeatedly brushing over a silver pocket watch, "At least I wasn't late."

"We've already been here for 15 minutes." Misty pointed out impatiently.

"The fact that you were early doesn't mean that I was late." Ash pointed out.

Misty's lips quirked upwards as she tapped her watch that showed displayed the numbers "4:35" in bright neon green digital type.

"But we promised we'd meet here at 4.15 sharp, so by definition you are late."

"Not really. I promised that I would meet her at the harbour. I said nothing about coming with you." Ash replied with a familiar crooked grin as he shaded his eyes to squint up at the sky, "Besides, I was pretty sure they were going to be late by 30 minutes anyway."

The orange haired woman, dressed in a form fitting white dress that displayed the lines of her body merely quirked one brow, "And you knew that because?"

Ash shrugged and gestured at their right where Kanto lay behind the horizon, "There was a strong west wind blowing this morning. It smelt like a thunderstorm."

Misty's lips thinned but she refrained from saying anything as Ash turned towards Dawn with a grin.

She didn't really know what she had expected.

For five years, she had thought when Ash came back, everything would go back to the way it was. He'd still be that dense, single minded idiot that always gave his best. She knew that wasn't possible of course. They had all changed, her included. There was no way Ash would remain the same as he was 5 years ago. But this Ash…

This Ash… was just as dense, just as single minded, just as focused on Pokémon. To a point, it was pretty reassuring, but there was something… off about the way he smiled and acted, and it niggled at the back of her mind.

As she stared unseeingly into the distance while Ash and Dawn seemed to be talking about some inconsequential battle, Misty sighed softly.

She wanted her best friend back.

"They're here." Ash suddenly said to no one in particular.

Misty blinked. Brushing back the soft orange fringes that fell across her eyes and squinted at the small shape that had just appeared over the horizon.

Beside her, Ash Ketchum began bouncing on the balls of his feet with an obvious grin on his face as nervous energy practically poured out from his very being. His eyes tracked every swell and swirl of the waves until the ship finally anchored and shouts could be heard from the cruiser, the voices of people hustling and bustling as they unloaded their passengers and cargo.

"Oh my, I'm glad that I wasn't late."

Ash absent mindedly waved at the woman whose hair that reached all the way down her back, impossibly shimmering with all the hues of the rainbow, as she joined their group.

"Glad to see you could make it Serra."

The beautiful model-like woman smiled gently as Ash grinned at her, "I was held up by Julia."

The aforementioned trainer refused to meet her pointed look as he coughed nervously, "Look, their starting to disembark!"

As Ash began moving towards the cruiser, Misty's eyes glanced at her watch and she stopped short.

5.00pm.

The ship had been scheduled to arrive at 4.30pm.

Ocean blue eyes shot up incredulously.

The four of them halted just underneath the shadow of the ship's hull when they heard a high pitched voice floating down from the bridge.

"Neh. C'mon missy. I just want your number. You should be honoured that I'm asking you know."

"And I'd like to see you wandering in the desert without a map. It's too bad we can't have everything we want no? Now get lost creep!"

Almost at the same time, Ash let out a resigned chuckle.

"Oh, my." Serra laughed into her hands with a fufufu sound, "That's a familiar voice isn't it?"

"Who's that?" Dawn asked curiously.

"A mutual acquaintance from Reborn." Ash deadpanned, "Now if you'll excuse me for a moment…"

Their little group watched as the tall, raven haired trainer bent down and retrieved the biggest rock he could find.

It was the size of his palm, rounded nicely and a fairly normal rock for all intents and purposes.

The four women watched as Ash patiently bounced the rock up and down in his palm, apparently waiting for the speaker to appear.

When a head of grass green hair popped up, harassing a girl with a red bandanna tied around her brown hair, Ash let out another resigned sigh before striding towards them.

The girl who was fighting with the green haired boy seemed to notice him approaching from behind, her mouth dropping open incredulously as she instantly recognized her old friend.

Or at least an older version of him anyway.

An older, significantly more rugged and serious looking version.

Said old friend then tapped the annoying pervert who had been bothering her the entire boat ride on the shoulder with a polite smile.

The boy turned around and his mouth had barely opened when there was a loud crack.

May stared in absolute shock as the person that resembled her friend so much essentially brained the annoying sex deprived idiot with a rock the moment he turned around. Behind her, there was a quiet gasp as Delia, Gary, Brock, Iris, Cilan and even Professor Oak could only stare with complete and utter shock.

"It's great to see you again, May." Ash grinned apologetically as he knelt down and pulled a length of rope and a black sack out of… somewhere, "I'd give you a hug, but I kinda need a moment to deal with this."

The brown haired girl stared mutely as the older trainer quickly and rapidly wrapped the sack around the unconscious green haired man's head, tied it with the rope, and then unceremoniously rolled the body back onto the ship with a loud thud.

The captain eyed Ash with one blood shot eye as the lump of flesh rolled to a stop by his peg leg, "What's that for? I don't want no corpse on mah sheep."

"Shee… Oh." Ash shrugged, "It's not a corpse. He's alive."

"Don't really matter. I don't want him on mah sheep one second longer." The crusty old sailor shivered unconsciously, "Bloody bastard wuldn't stahp talking for a minute. Even asleep he was telling everyone how great he was."

The corpse at his feet made a moaning sound that was abruptly cut short by a sharp thud.

"Sounds like the Fern we all know and love." Ash agreed pleasantly as if he had not just as he had not just stomped on the boy's face.

He stomped on Fern's nose again.

Just because he could.

The Pallet Town trainer dug around in his pocket for some of the winnings he had collected over the past day. Handing the captain a nice lump sum, Ash smiled pleasantly, "Just dump him on a beach somewhere about a day's journey from here. You don't even have to stop. Just throw him overboard when you get near enough."

The old man eyed him suspiciously, "And what do ah do if he wakes up and starts ashking questions?"

"Feel free to brain him again if he starts waking up." Ash replied with a pleasant smile as he dropped the blood stained rock into the captain's rugged hand.

Misty nudged Serra gently.

"Hmmm?"

"How is he not in jail yet?" Misty whispered urgently.

"He? Ash or Fern?"

"Fe- oh that guy. And I meant both of them."

"Throwing Fern in jail means someone will have to guard him. We couldn't find anyone dumb enough to do it." Serra shrugged with a sheepish expression. "Besides, we leave him around because he's pretty harmless. The fact that he tends to follow Ash around means that we at least know that Ash will be close enough to stop him from doing anything too stupid."

"By introducing his face to a rock?"

"It works doesn't it? Not that it seems to bother Fern at all if the way he keeps trying to follow Ash is any indication." Serra remarked with a grin, "Besides, I know for a fact Ash doesn't really mind. He seems to think that finding more and more creative ways to shut Fern up is a rather cathartic exercise."

The former model tapped her luscious lower lips with one meticulously manicured finger thoughtfully, "That said, a rock to the face is rather uninspiring isn't it? I guess he's just not in the mood. Oh well."

Misty and Dawn slowly edged away from the Icy Gym Leader and the creepy killer smile tainting her beautiful lips.

Back with Ash, the captain glared at the wad of paper before shrugging, "No skin of mah shulders if he's ahlive then. But if someone comes ashking, I'm pointing them in yous direction." He muttered grumpily, giving the limp body one last kick with his peg leg.

"Gladly." Ash happily waved as the ship slowly began to sail away with its rather unpleasant passenger.

He turned around to face his old friends and family before grinning, "First, don't worry. Fern's skull is as thick as a Bastiodon so all a rock to the face will do is give him a minor concussion that he'll sleep off in a day or two before he's back and as annoying as ever. Secondly…" He strode over until he was in front of his mother, their difference in height was as stark as it was 5 years ago. Only in reverse.

Ash bent down slightly and engulfed his mother in a tight one armed hug.

"Hey, mom." Ash said with a crooked smile.

"I'm back."

Delia bit down hard on her trembling lower lip, her eyes darting between the man standing before her and the ship sailing away, as if she couldn't quite decide whether she wanted to welcome him home first or tell him that attempting to commit murder in broad daylight is a very bad idea.

No one blamed her.

Ultimately, the urge to hug her son back seemed to win over the usually sensible woman and Delia Ketchum collapsed into Ash's one armed hug as a silent sob wracked her significantly smaller frame.

As she clung to him, the reality that her son was really home finally seemed to sink in and then the tears really began to flow.

Her son really was home. Even if he was so much taller and heftier, even if he now had a litany of scars all around his one visible arm, even his voice seemed to be so much more croaky, even if his usual crooked smile now looked more like a smirk rather than a smile, even if he seemed to limp every other step, all Delia cared about was the fact that her son was back.

For his part, Ash's grin almost seemed to split his face in half as Pikachu jumped down from his perch and joined the hug by attaching himself to Delia's face, fat drops of tears splashing out.

Delia cried even harder as she tried to hug both him and Pikachu at the same time.

He buried his face and his mother's hair and drew a deep breath. He had never quite realized how much he had missed his mother's scent, a mix of clean soap, freshly baked bread and lavender.

Misty covered her mouth with her hands, eyes glittering with unshed tears.

When Delia finally let go, Ash grinned and headed towards Professor Oak, Delia still at his side.

He took Professor's Oak's hand with a firm shake and a crooked smile.

The older man glanced between the grinning man before him and the ship drifting away.

"That… was an interesting way to make a reintroduction." Oak finally commented noncommittally.

"You were one step short of throwing him overboard yourself, grandfather." Gary Oak pointed out with a dry grin as he stepped forward and offered a hand to his old rival, "Ash just saved you the trouble." Turning to Ash, he smirked.

"Ash Ketchum. Nice to see you in one piece."

"Gary." Ash rasped stoically before breaking out into a wry grin of his own, "Still the same infuriatingly condescending jackass I see."

"Meh. I only do it to piss you off."

"This coming from the guy who legitimately thought renting a car, a driver and an entire cheering block with his parents' inheritance was a perfectly good idea."

Gary winced.

If the ever needed proof that the man standing in front of him and his old friend wasn't quite the same person any more, that dry, clinically sarcastic tone of someone who had no fucks left to give was probably it.

Ash turned to the last five members of his mother's entourage.

Their eyes were almost watering as they watched him, disbelief, relief and desire-to-punch-him-silly-and-then-hug-him-until-he-died-of-a-busted-lung mixed and played across their expressions.

"Brock… Cilan… May… Max… Iri-" Ash cut himself off as he stared blankly at her dress.

Her frilly, fluttery, dress complete with angelically flowing scarf attached.

He pursed his lips.

"Whoever's helping you pick your dresses needs some help. Desperately."

The shorter girl went completely red, "5 years…. 5 years and THAT'S the first thing you say to me after reappearing out of nowhere?!"

Ash grinned so hard his lips almost cramped up as he dodged Iris' flying fists and swooped her up with one arm into a tight hug, "Thank you Iris," He looped the arm around Max and May as well, "Thanks for worrying about me. Thanks for taking care of my mum. Thank you… all of you. For everything." He whispered fiercely.

Hiccupping quietly, May smiled and pecked his cheek while Max seemed to be frozen in place. Iris resolutely refused to look at him, though he wasn't sure if it was because she didn't want him to see her crying or if she was being shy.

He turned to the last two.

"You don't mind if I pass on the hug right?" Brock replied with a wide smile, eyes crinkled up into a thin line.

"I'm with him." Cilan agreed with a whimsical smile that wavered and trembled every few seconds, "Wouldn't say no to a manly handshake though."

Ash grinned widely, "Shut up and come here."

Laughing, all three men piled onto each other and slapped each other's backs the way men always did when they were too embarrassed to cry openly and honest say what they really thought.

"C'mon, lunch is on me!" Ash enthusiastically declared.

"Ash." Delia interrupted him calmly, "Don't you think you should introduce that lady you were waiting with Misty and Dawn first? Your manners are more important than your stomach."

Serra smirked, she liked Delia already.

She bowed gracefully, brushing her glimmering hair back with a motherly smile, "It's good to meet you, Mrs. Ketchum. I've heard plenty about you."

Ash smiled thinly, "This is Serra. She's a Gym Leader from Reborn and I owe her a lot for taking care of me while I was there."

"Re…born?"

Gary frowned, "Isn't that the new place that just joined the Coalition?"

Serra nodded with a sweet smile that struck the hearts of every male within a 10 meter radius as she stood on tip toe and ruffled the tall man's raven hair affectionately, "I'm here on a diplomatic journey with one of our Elite Four. Ash just happened to be around, and since he's been here before, we thought he'd be able to show us the sights."

Ash who had been glancing at her a little nervously practically beamed as he nodded along furiously.

Behind Delia, Serra showed him a fist with one finger held up and mouthed, 'You owe me.' Together with a sultry wink.

"How did you even get there Ash?" Professor Oak asked curiously, "As far as I know, there was no way for people to even go there without special permission until a couple of months ago."

"I got on the wrong ship. Fell asleep under a bag of beans that I thought was a bed." Ash deadpanned, "Didn't wake up until I got there because no one noticed a snoring kid under some beans."

"Ah…." Professor Oak smiled wryly as he thought back to all those years ago when Ash went missing for entire months trekking through Kanto, "Sounds about right."

"I'm not sure if I'm hurt or amused by the fact that you don't deny that at all" Ash said cheerfully, "But I'm sure none of you want to stand in the heat any longer. We have a hotel room in the city, so we can talk about my little misadventure there yes?"

Shrugging on his mother's luggage with inordinate ease, a widely grinning Ash fell into step next to his mother.

"So I heard you've joined the Tournament?"

Ash blinked and looked down at a pair of glasses shining up at him.

"Pretty much. Figured I might as well do something while I waited for you guys to arrive."

Max blinked owlishly, "So you don't intend to win?"

"It would be nice, but it's not my end goal." Ash gave the younger boy an easy going smile and ruffled his hair, "You here to watch the Tournament too?"

"I'm joining actually."

This time it was Ash's turn to blink owlishly, "But… the registration is over?"

Brock chuckled quietly to himself. Same old day dreamer. Despite looking a lot mature than he had expected, it was nice to see that some things hadn't changed at all.

"That's cause the brat's in the first seed."

"Seed….?" Ash stared at May blankly, "Like… Bullet seed kinda seed?"

May giggled, "It means that Max was given a good estimate, so he gets a free pass through some of the earlier matches because if the organisers tried to make everyone who wanted to participate fight every single match, it would take a lot longer than it already is. Now, all he has to do is win 2 matches and he'll qualify for the Tournament."

Ash squawked indignantly, "I did one yesterday and 2 more today, why the difference?"

"Possibly because you're not seeded at all." Professor Oak commented, "If you had a good track record of recent battles in any of the Coalition's regions, they'd probably give you the same rating. As it is, you are essentially a blank piece of paper to the organisers, so they lumped you in with the rest."

Ash blinked, "Oh. So the one I have this evening is the semi-finals?"

"You didn't know?" Dawn blurted out incredulously.

"I wasn't really keeping count." The tall man admitted, his arm still around his mother's shoulder, "Was enjoying the match too much to bother."

"Glad to see some things haven't changed that much." Delia remarked wryly.

"So there's a chance I can battle you tomorrow?" Ash said to Max with a hopeful look in his eyes, "I seriously can't wait to see how much you've grown."

"Nooope." Dawn cut in, grinning a little at Ash's downcast puppy dog expression, "There are four blocks in total. You're in Block D. Max is in Block A. The only way you'll get to fight him is if both of you win all your qualifier matches and meet each other in the Tournament itself."

"Huhuhu…" Ash rasped as he rubbed his hands delightedly, "All the more reason to win today I guess. Might even have to change my line-up a little."

Misty hummed to herself, "Normal Tournament matches rules say that you're allowed to switch in between matches. However, once you have selected your 6 Pokémon, you are not allowed to change them during the match itself. That said, I haven't seen you use a full six yet."

Max's eyes went wide, "He hasn't used a full six?"

"Nope." Dawn snorted, "Forget six. He hasn't even used three. The only Pokémon we've seen him use so far is Pikachu and Rattata."

"A Rattata." Max echoed blankly, "A Rattata. In a Tournament level league?"

"Don't look down on the little guy." Dawn noted wryly, "Ash's Rattata singlehandedly took down an entire team this morning and wasn't even winded. His opponent wasn't playing around either after everyone saw that Rattata take down a Tyranitar yesterday in less than 2 seconds."

"A Tyranitar? In less than 2 seconds" Max blurted out dumbly, directing a gaze filled with awe at his old mentor.

Ash chuckled with some embarrassment as he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, "I didn't really have anything to do with it. Rattata was the one doing all the fighting."

"Sure you didn't." Dawn muttered under her breath, "I'm sure that Rattata learned how to run circles around everybody by itself."

"Are you going to use that Rattata later?" Max asked enthusiastically while the rest listened in curiously.

"Probably." Ash shrugged, "I haven't had a reason to change my set. It's still the same six since I started the Tournament. Only three of them are from Reborn though."

Brock's eyes started shining, "Really? Who are they? Did you get some super strong Pokémon from Reborn? Does the food there make them stronger?"

"They're strong, but I don't know about "super" strong." Ash noted with a chuckle, "I'm pretty confident in them though."

"Speaking of which," Gary suddenly interjected, "I have something, or someone for you, Ash."

Giving his old friend a perplexed look, Ash tilted his head, "What do you mean?"

Gary casually threw a Poke ball at Ash with a smirk, "It's one of yours. Been helping you look after him."

"You really should come back to Pallet after the Tournament though." Professor Oak added calmly, "All your Pokémon miss you terribly. They're alright of course," He assured Ash after seeing that the trainer looked terribly guilty, "But they miss you."

"I'll go there immediately after I finish the Tournament." Ash promised as he opened the poke ball.

A sleek, dark bluish grey, shark like snout looked around curiously once the white flash had faded away,

"A Gabite?" Ash murmured dubiously before realization dawned, "Gible?"

"Garr!" The Gabite stared at him for a long moment before lunging at the startled Ash.

The raven haired trainer yelped as the Gabite's clamped down on his face as tenderly as a 5 foot tall land shark with extremely sharp fangs could.

"GAAAAH!"

"GARRR!"

Which is to say not at all.

After a few moments of panic and pulling, the group finally separated Ash's face from the Gabite's mouth. Tenderly touching the bite marks on his cheek, the dark haired trainer chuckled wryly, "Yup it's Gible alright." He rubbed the Gabite's head affectionately, making sure to keep his digits away from those sharp fangs as Pikachu leapt onto Gabite's shoulder, sniffing the Gabite curiously before the two old friends started chirping and talking to each other excitedly.

"I wonder how much the others have changed." He murmured with a tight smile tinged with a slight sadness as Delia held his arm a little tighter.

"Just one or two of them." Professor Oak noted with a sympathetic smile, "The rest refused to level or evolve without you around."

Ash nodded silently, his throat seemed to stop working, as they finally reached Silver town.

As they reached the hotel in a companionable silence, Ash stood by at the back of the group and silently watched his friends checked in one by one when he frowned.

"Wouldn't it make more sense for May to just bunk with Misty and Dawn?" Ash asked curiously, seeing that Brock had requested a twin bed room, probably for him and Max while May had apparently asked for an extra-large one with three beds for herself.

"Ahh… there were some change in plans." Brock explained with a smile, "Some of our members didn't make it from Kalos in time, so they'll be arriving tomorrow. In the meantime, May's going to be staying with Max until Max's friend from Kalos arrives."

Ash tilted his head, "Oh. Then what bout you? Why not just stay with Gary and Professor Oak and save the rent for a room?"

"I'm going to stay with my fiancé. She's coming with Max's friend."

"What."

Brock looked up and cleared his throat with shit eating grin that told everyone there he had been waiting to hear that exact question from Ash for the past three years.

"I'm. Going. To. Be. Staying. With. My. Fiancé."

The group watched Ash very calmly dig around his ears before slapping himself.

"What."

"I'm. Getting. Married."

Pikachu fell off Ash's shoulder in a dead faint.

Ash glanced at Pikachu for a long moment before nodding decisively, "That looks like a really good idea."

He proceeded to pass out as well.

Brock pursed his lips.

"I…. feel kinda insulted that he's more surprised about me getting married than everything else."

Cilan patted his back sympathetically, "Don't worry bout it man."

"Thanks Cilan."

"I fainted too."

"Fuck off."

****Rippling Eclipse***