A Heartwarming Christmas

A/N: I wanted to finish this chapter earlier this week because I'm also trying to see if I could update another story this week other than this one, and I think that the hardest part of this chapter was writing about the reasons why Dawn hates Christmas; but at least I got it done. I think that the next chapter will be a bit easier to write. And my co-author and I will obviously going to be continuing this story into the new year, too. (This will likely be the last chapter of 2020.)

 Well, let's get on with it, then! Chapter 5, here we go! And roll it!

Chapter 5

Dawn's Painful Memories

Just as expected, Dawn was furious when she heard of Ash's plan to bring back Christmas. Of course, she didn't hear it from Allegra. The enchanted Infernape had reported it to Ursula first, who was all too happy to share the news of the discovery with the Zoroark-like beast.

"Christmas?!" She snarled, pacing back and forth in the west wing. "He's planning Christmas?!"

Ursula hid a smirk. "Yes. Awful, isn't it?"

Dawn growled as she headed over to her bed and plopped down on it. "Maybe he doesn't know how I feel about Christmas." She thought out loud.

"Oh, but he does know." Ursula said, secretly knowing that it wasn't true, but Dawn didn't need know that. "He just doesn't care. Not like I do. He's actually trying to bring Christmas back to the castle. And you know how much we despise Christmas."

Dawn slightly bared her teeth as she gazed into the fireplace. "It's the day that my life ended." She muttered. "Twice."

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Flashback

Ten years ago

An eight-year-old Princess Dawn, then human, was happily opening presents with her twin sister, Salvia, by the Christmas tree in the ballroom. The servants that were around their age were hanging out with them, everyone laughing merrily. But there was one girl with curly pink pigtails who stood away from the crowd of friends, glaring hatefully at the twin princesses.

But then, the king arrived in the ballroom, looking grave and stern. The servants quickly backed away from him and bowed their heads in respect when they saw him. The twins stopped laughing when they saw their father approach them without their mother.

Salvia noticed that there was something a little different in the king's posture. He looked almost...hollow, as if he wanted to be sad, but couldn't.

"What is it, Father?" Salvia asked.

"When is Mother coming down?" Dawn questioned.

The king stared down at his daughters. "Your mother has fallen ill." He said, and their eyes widened with shock. "She will not be coming down, for she could barely even get out of bed."

The girls both looked saddened by the news and slowly let their partially opened presents fall from their laps.

"Can we see her?" Salvia asked their father while Dawn was struggling to hold back her tears.

The king just nodded curtly and the twin princesses hurried over to their parents' room to check on their mother, the queen.

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Five and a half years later

Dawn stood in the empty and darkened ballroom. She remembered when the room used to be full of wonder and light. But now...it didn't. Not long after that Christmas, her mother had died. To distract himself and his daughters from their grief, he sent Salvia away to study abroad and to become an ambassador to Sinnoh while he kept Dawn at the castle, restricting her to the grounds. He then forbade everyone from celebrating Christmas, for it only brought him misery.

Then, just a few months ago, the king had also died, and Dawn was all alone. It seemed that her loneliness and her grief had turned her into a selfish girl with no respect or love for anyone or anything. But honestly, she could care less.

Dawn then left the ballroom and headed over to her quarters in the west wing to get ready for bed. Christmas brought nothing more to her life, other than painful memories, and losing not just her mother, but also her sister.

As she was brushing her hair in the mirror, she saw three brief flashes of light; one pink, one blue, and one yellow, coming from behind her. She immediately turned around and saw three small Pokémon floating in the air behind her, ones that she had only seen in books, for they were considered to be the Legendary Pokémon of Sinnoh.

"The Lake Trio of legend?" She asked. "In my castle?"

She was about to get excited at what luck fate had bestowed on her, but then Azelf stunned her into silence by beginning to speak in his telepathic way. "Princess Dawn, we have been observing you for the past couple of days due to some complaints and pleas from the Pokémon who live around this area. In our observations, we have learned that your heart is as cold as stone and that your soul is dark and ugly to match it."

Uxie then spoke up next. "You treat the Pokémon who live here and around your castle grounds just as cruel as you do your own human servants." Now, Dawn was starting to get a little scared, learning that these Legendaries were angry with her.

Mesprit continued on sternly. "Because of your selfishness and ungratefulness towards your servants and the Pokémon, you will become as ugly on the outside as you are inside. And to add to this punishment, your servants will pay the same price as you, and you will no longer be remembered by those who have loved you before."

Dawn screamed out in terror as blue, yellow, and pink orbs of light began to surround her, swirling around faster and faster until they were blurs, making her vision white. Then, a huge wall of the same colored lights flooded throughout the entire castle. There were cries of surprise and fear throughout the entire building, but they were all soon silenced, as well as everything brightening up until everything was white.

End of Flashback

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The Zoroark-like beast glared at the crackling fire as memories of Christmas continued to plague her mind. Even with the little bit of mercy that the Lake Trio had given her, she still wasn't feeling ready to hope. How could anyone learn to love a beast like her, much less someone like Ash?

From behind her and out of her sight, Ursula smirked. "But we've come so far since then." She said. "We've risen above the tragedy."

Dawn stood up and faced the enchanted Gabite, snarling. "Where is he?" She demanded, wanting to know where Ash was.

"I believe he's down in the boiler room." Ursula said. "Or so a little birdie told me." She added, smirking sinisterly, looking from out of the corner of her eye to see Allegra hiding out of sight from the beastly mistress of the castle.

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Just as Ursula had reported, Ash had made it to the boiler room, where mostly Fire type Pokémon and Fighting type Pokémon were collecting firewood and making sure that the fire kept on burning so that it heated up the castle during the winter. He looked around in awe, not having been in this part of the castle before. But then, he noticed that there were some Pokémon that were eyeing him curiously.

"That's it, everyone!" A Combusken with sharp sky blue eyes suddenly appeared from behind a large pile of wood, the Hoennian Fire and Fighting type sounding female. "Keep it going. We need lots of wood to keep this giant glorified heap of stone warm."

Ash chuckled under his breath and the Combusken looked over at him. "Hey, what are you doing down here, kid?" She asked him, making him flinch.

"Uh, sorry about intruding." Ash said.

"No worries." The Combusken waved it off with a smile. "Name's Mikaela. I manage the underground of the castle." She then looked up and down at Ash with an analyzing eye. "And you must be the famous Ash that everyone's been talking about."

"That's me." Ash said.

"Pleasure to finally meet you." Mikaela said. "So what can I help you with?"

"I'm looking for a log." Ash answered, picking up a log. "A special kind of log."

"Anything you're looking for in particular?" Mikaela asked. "We have all sorts of wood and lumber in here. We got birch, maple, pine, oak."

"I'm just kind of browsing for now." Ash replied.

"Okay." Mikaela said. "Take your time. But I got a lot of work to do. Nice to meet you, Ash."

"You too, Mikaela." Ash said, waving goodbye before inspecting the log in his hands. After a couple of seconds, he put it away to look for a different log.

As more firewood was added to the boiler, Ash carefully began to climb up a pile of logs. When he stopped near the top of the pile, he looked around and soon found a dark spruce log.

"Perfect." He said, picking it up. He then slid down the pile and inspected the log. It looked just right and it wasn't cut in half, either.

Suddenly, he jumped when he heard Dawn storm into the boiler room. He quickly hid the log behind his back and started humming a little ditty, pretending that he wasn't up to something. The Zoroark-like beast approached him, glaring suspiciously.

"What are you hiding?" She asked him.

Ash just shrugged at her, smiling innocently. But Dawn just narrowed her eyes and then quickly circled around him, snatching the log away from him. She looked over at the log, curious as to why he was hiding a log from her, of all things.

"It's a Yule log." Ash said.

"What's that?" Dawn questioned, raising a brow.

"It's a tradition." Ash explained. "A specific log is chosen and then everyone in the household gets to touch it and make a Christmas wish."

Dawn growled as she looked back at the log in her paws. "Wishes are stupid." She snarled and tossed the log away. Ash watched it fly away, and then hurried after it. He was grateful to quickly find it again and see that it hadn't broken into splinters.

"You made a Christmas wish last year." The Zoroark-like beast muttered under her breath as Ash slowly straightened himself up, feeling frustration build up in his veins as he slowly turned around to face her.

"Is THIS what you wished for?!" Dawn yelled, gesturing to the stone walls around them, and all of the Pokémon that were working suddenly froze in terror at the sight of their mistress so angry, while the young man just stood still silently in front of her.

Ash narrowed his eyes at her. "No." He answered firmly, holding the log closer to him, making Dawn growl again. "But I'll keep wishing. And when this log is burned on Christmas morning-"

"There will be no Christmas." Dawn snarled at him.

"But-" Ash tried to speak, but the beast standing in front of him cut him off.

"NO!" She shouted. "I'm the mistress of this castle!"

Ash gritted his teeth. "How can you be so selfish?!" He asked her with fire ablaze in his amber eyes.

Dawn only growled once more. "You couldn't possibly understand." She said coldly, making the Kantonian Trainer frown deeper. "You have no idea what it's like to lose everything, to be trapped in your own castle, to be a-"

"Prisoner?" Ash cut her off, finishing her sentence quietly.

Dawn blinked at him with wide eyes, while Ash's own just flared up even more. "Can you be any more hypocritical?" He asked. "The only one holding us prisoner here is you! I've been trying to help you, but you won't let me! Well, I'm not giving up! Not on Christmas, and not on you, either!" With that, Ash stormed out of the boiler room, the Yule log in his arms.

Dawn watched him leave, not saying anything, and then turned back around to see that the Pokémon who had been watching her and Ash immediately stiffen up and quickly go back to what they were doing, pretending that they weren't paying attention to her and Ash's argument. But Dawn wasn't going to reprimand them. Her thoughts were flooded with the echoes of Ash's words.

"A prisoner..." She said quietly.

Ash was right. She was a hypocrite. She had been wallowing in sorrow for such a long time, feeling like she was a prisoner, when in reality, she was keeping Ash captive herself. And Ash was just trying to help her and be her friend, but all she had been doing to him was shutting him out. She'd never break her curse this way.

She sighed heavily. What was keeping her from opening up? Was she afraid? Hurt? A combination of both? If so, then why? Was it just because of her past, or was it also because she was afraid of her future, which was still clouded with uncertainty?

A/N: No wonder Dawn hates Christmas. It's a time of too many painful memories. But...maybe Ash can help her start making some new ones, ones that are happy? If anyone could do it, it's Ash. He has a way of touching people's hearts.

Well, that's it for now, y'all! I hoped you enjoyed this chapter! And I'll see you guys in the next chapter! Please leave a comment about what you think. And remember to stay healthy.

Enjoy when the New Year comes, and pray that it will be better! Got to fly! ;)