"ASH! ASH, YOU LAZY BUM! IT'S TIME TO GET UP!"

Ash springs out of bed awake. He checks his surroundings and remembers that he is in a small wooden bed in a small worn out cottage. He turns his head to see Iris, a dark-skinned woman with a long lock of purple hair standing next to his bed with an annoyed expression on her face. She is wearing farming clothes and is carrying a thirteen-month-old child with dark skin and green hair on her left arm.

"Well, it's about time you woke up," Iris rebukes. "It's past 7 o'clock and you need to get going on your chores if you want breakfast."

Ash groans as he reluctantly gets up. Iris glares daggers at him while he puts on his own farming clothes. Then she turns around to face the bed next to Ash's where a tall, tan-skinned man named Brock is snoring loudly.

"You too, Brock," she barks as she kicks the bed. "This is no bed and breakfast. There's work to be done."

Brock moans and says, "Alright, Iris, alright. I'm up,"

"Good," Iris bellows. "Now you two better check on the fishing nets and get some milk from Whitey. I don't want my Maynor to spend the day hungry again."

The dark-skinned, green-haired baby named Maynor cooes and whimpers as his mother carries him. Brock sighs as he knows how important it is to feed the child and gives Iris a confident smile.

"Don't worry, Iris," Brock says as he gets dressed. "Whitey just needed a good night sleep. She should be giving us more than enough milk to feed Maynor five times over."

Iris frowns menacingly.

"She had better if you want a bite to eat," she growls. "Now get going, both of you."

"Yes, ma'am," Brock and Ash say simultaneously as they quickly leave their room and walk downstairs to exit the cottage.

Ash and Brock both take deep breaths through their noses to get a whiff of the morning hair. They smile contently before they walk over to a small barn where a scrawny, spotless cow is slowly waking up.

"Morning, Whitey," Ash greets as he grabs a bucket and places it under the cow. "Iris expects a lot of milk today, so don't let us down."

The cow named Whitey merely moos glumly. Brock finds a stool, sets it next to Whitey and sits down before he starts squeezing her teats. Ash watches intently as Brock tries to get some milk from the cow only for nothing to come out. After a minute, Brock stops and looks at Ash with a nervous look.

"I thought you said she just needed some rest," Ash says concerned.

"So did I," Brock says scratching the back of his head. "That seemed to do the trick the last time she was having a dry spell."

Ash frowns as Brock starts squeezing Whitey's teats again, acting more determined than ever to see milk filling up the bucket.

"Come on, Whitey," Brock pleads. "Give us some milk before Iris throws a fit."

Ash shivers at the idea as Brock keeps on trying.

"Should I go ahead and check on the fishing nets while you try to get milk?" he asks.

"Yeah, go ahead," Brock says not looking at Ash as the shorter man exits the barn.

Ash walks down the hill to a river about half a mile through the woods where a couple of fish nets are placed under the water and tied down to a tree. Ash looks down to find a fish trapped in each net and smiles as he takes out one of the nets, holds one of the fish tightly and hits it multiple times against a nearby rock until the fish is killed. Ash stares at it to make sure that it is dead before putting the net on the grass and grabs the next net.

Unfortunately, the second fish is ready for him. As soon as Ash takes it out of the water, the fish starts struggling violently. Ash tries to grab it, but the fish is slippery and out of control. Eventually, the fish struggles so much that it breaks the net and falls back into the river and swims away. Ash groans frustrated before he turns to the other netted fish, unties the net from the tree and walks back to the farm. Ash feels glum with only one fish to bring back as he makes it back to the property just in time to see Brock exit the farm with a look of defeat.

"No luck with Whitey?" Ash asks.

"No," Brock says sadly. "Barely got so much as a drop out of her. Iris is going to have my head for this. How about you? Any luck?"

Ash frowns as he shows Brock the fish inside the net and says, "I got this guy, but another one broke the second one just as I was getting it out of the water."

"Dang it, that's the seventh time. Now we only have one left," Brock says frustrated. "I knew they weren't going to last long given how old they were, but I hoped they had a little more time in them."

Ash sighs sadly and says, "Well, at least we captured this one."

Brock inspects the fish Ash successfully captured and sighs again.

"Yeah, but that one will hardly be enough to fill all three of our adult stomachs," Brock says. "Though at least it's more than enough to fill Maynor's little belly."

Ash nods in agreement before Brock continues.

"That said, it's not good that Whitey is not producing milk, and who knows if we'll ever be lucky enough to catch a fish again with just one net," Brock says before he sighs glumly. "I really hate to say it, Ash, but it looks like we're going to be starving pretty soon."

Ash frowns sadly as his mind dwells into the possibility that he, Brock, Iris, and Maynor might starve to death. He drops the net containing the dead fish and walks away with his head hung low. Brock watches his friend walk away and sighs before he picks up the fish and follows him knowing where he is going. Brock follows Ash to the other side of the hill which is filled with green pastures until the short, raven-haired man stops at a hill where he can see far beyond the countryside of Kalos.

At the center of the view, there is Lumiose City: a large city with many of its buildings worn down or boarded up as many of its residents have left the country. The people that remain glumly go about their business at the city market struggling to make any sales or to keep any stands running as everyone is down-on-their-luck and barely able to purchase a scrap of food if any at all.

But Ash and Brock have their eyes on what is behind the city. For at the north side, there is a giant crater neatly made and over 20 feet deep. The two men continue to stare at the crater until tears begin to run down Ash's eyes. Brock barely manages to keep himself from sniffing as he pats his friend on the back.

"It's just not fair, Brock," Ash whimpers.

"I know, Ash," Brock says, trying to stay strong for both of them.

Ash feels tears run down his face, but he doesn't care. His mind drifts to the day that the crater was made; when the city was filled with happy people who flourished without a care, Brock was an engaged man, Iris was living blissfully with Maynor's father and Ash himself was happy as an esquire of Kalos.

Back when people would proudly cheer for her.

************************************************************************************************

"LONG LIVE THE QUEEN! GOD BLESS THE QUEEN! HAIL TO THE QUEEN! LORD BLESS THE QUEEN!"

Ash smiles fondly as he hears the citizens of Kalos praise their ruler through the castle walls. In the three years since the queen has taken her father's throne after he passed away, her precious citizens have been living joyfully and prosperously. The young esquire feels a strong sense of pride as he walks down the halls to meet the monarch that the people love so dearly.

As he makes his way to the great hall, he finds three people walking the same path. One is Brock covered in armor and a sword on his belt, the second person is a tall man with light skin, green hair and wearing minstrel clothes, and finally Iris walking next to the green-haired man wearing a handmaiden dress.

"Well, there you are, Esquire Ash," Brock says with a smirk. "Where have you been? The queen's about to make her announcement very soon."

"Sorry, Captain Brock," Ash says with a salute. "I had trouble making my way back inside the castle with so many people flooding the courtyard for the festival."

Indeed, for the last 3 years, the people have grown to love their queen so much that they have all decided to hold a festival in the castle courtyard on her birthday every year. Even her royal guards and her castle staff have pinched in on this joyous occasion. The queen has always been humble yet thankful to her subjects for doing this on her birthday and by the third year of her reign, it has become an annual tradition in the kingdom of Kalos. However, word has spread throughout Lumiose Castle that the queen herself will be making a special announcement halfway through the festivities and everyone is eager to find out what she has to say.

"Typical excuse from you, Ash," Iris rebukes with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face. "You probably got distracted again from hearing the people praise our queen so fondly. You're just too proud of what she has become because of your infatuated feelings for her, you incompetent child."

Ash blushes lightly and scratches the back of his head. It is no secret that he has had feelings for the queen and while the queen herself hasn't said anything, she has shown a special amount of fondness to the esquire since they became friends in their preteens.

"Now, now, Iris, my beloved," the green-haired man says as he wraps his arm around the handmaiden with a loving look. "There is nothing wrong with such infatuation. Indeed, his is a growing love that might one day make the sun and moon stand still every day and night to witness his chemistry with our queen and the mountains will face Lumiose Castle eager to watch their connection grow stronger with each passing day."

Iris rolls his eyes before giving the green-haired man an unamused glare.

"Cilan, only you could say such silly, lovey-dovey words that remind me what I got myself into when I married a minstrel," she says.

"Oh hush, darling. I know you love it when I say such words with or without my music," Cilan claims with a smug look.

Iris keeps glaring at the minstrel before she lets up and smiles before giving him a brief but tender peck on the cheek.

"True," she says plainly as she tightly hugs her husband's arm as if it is Cilan himself.

"Alright, lovebirds, knock it off," Brock says. "Time's a wasting. The Queen will make her announcement without us if we don't hurry."

"Oh hush up, Brock," Iris says to the captain with a wave of her hand. "You can't fool me. You're just saying that so that you can see your fiance."

Brock blushes and has a goofy look on his face as he thinks about the queen's head handmaiden and his fiance, Holly. The captain and the handmaiden have been crazy in love ever since the day they met two years ago. Holly was a foreigner from Sinnoh before she gained her citizenship in Kalos and began to work for the queen. It wasn't long before she and Brock met and they became lost in each other's eyes ever since. For four months now, they have been engaged and since then, neither of them have been able to contain their excitement whenever they are in the same room or not.

"Never mind about that," Cilan says. "Pointing fingers won't help us if we don't reach the main hall."

"Cilan is right," Ash says. "Let's get to there fast."

The four of them begin running down the halls, barely making it to the main hall in time before a convoy of people consisting of trumpeters, bannermen, counselors and handmaidens lead by Holly arrive from the main entrance. Ash, Brock, Cilan, and Iris run over to the other side of the hall which leads to a balcony. A tall, overweight old man with white hair and a long mustache turns to give Brock and Ash a hard glare.

"Captain, Esquire," he barks. "I thought I told you two to get here twenty minutes early."

"Sorry, General Wulfric," Brock says as he and Ash salute. "We got held back."

General Wulfric humphs in annoyance as he says, "Never mind why you took so long. Get into position. The queen is almost here."

"Yes, sir," Brock and Ash say simultaneously as they follow the general to the end of the hall that leads to a balcony. General Wulfric says, "Alright, a ten-hut!" and he, Brock and Ash put their arms and legs close together while Cilan and Iris stand next to them in a respective stance. The bannermen and the trumpeters stop marching at the center of the hall and the handmaidens turn around and bow at the last person entering the hall, making Ash's heart leap.

Entering the hall is a tall, beautiful woman with honey blonde hair and ocean blue eyes wearing a golden crown, and a pink and golden dress. This is Queen Serena and her very presence makes everyone smile as she walks down the hall with a look of kindness and joy written all over her face. Ash struggles to keep his stance as his knees feel weak the closer she gets to him, Brock, General Wulfric, Cilan, and Iris. Unfortunately, as the woman makes it to the five of them before she enters the balcony, her eyes immediately turn to look at Ash's directly and her face glows as he walks over to Ash with a sweet look in her eyes making his body feel weaker.

"Ash, my beloved, faithful esquire," she says. "Thank you so much for coming here on my birthday."

Ash blushes and makes a goofy grin that rivals Brock's much to the woman's amusement.

"I fear you give me too much credit, as usual, Queen Serena," he says humbly. "I am doing no more than my duty as your servant."

Queen Serena pouts somewhat childishly at his reply.

"Ash, how many times must I tell you not to call me so formally?" she asks. "I may be a queen, but you of all people should never need to address me by my title."

Ash chuckles nervously and says, "I'm sorry, Your Maje - I mean Serena. I shall aim to do better once more as always."

Queen Serena smiles, satisfied with the answer.

"And once more I shall hold you to that, my knight-to-be," she says. "Regardless, I deeply value that you have come on this day of all days and I wish that you more than anyone take heart for what I have to say to our entire kingdom."

Ash looks at her confused and asks, "Really? How come?"

Queen Serena smiles and giggles cutely which makes Ash's heart grow numb.

"I'm afraid you're just going to have to stay by my side as ordered and wait, my dear esquire," she says while giving him a playful wink.

The raven-haired esquire's blush grows as the queen makes her way to the balcony. General Wulfric clears his throat and says, "Right, Captain, Esquire, turn left and follow!" Leaving Ash to recollect himself as he and Brock follow him to the balcony with Holly, following them and secretly stealing a big kiss from Captain Brock.

Ash's ears feel like his eardrums are about to explode as soon as he reaches the balcony. Tens of thousands of people flood the castle grounds where there are many stands for food, drink, and entertainment for all of the people of Kalos to enjoy as they celebrate their queen's birthday. Ash turns to see Queen Serena smiling brightly at the sound of the people cheering for her. After a while, she raises her hand for silence and the entire kingdom immediately becomes quiet before she clears her throat.

"My beloved subjects," she begins, "It gives me great pleasure to see you all so happy today. As surely as The Lord lives, I am truly humbled to have such loving and thankful citizens in our beautiful country."

The people respond with another roar of applause before Queen Serena raises her hand for silence again.

"With all that said, I have an announcement to make," the queen says. "For as proud as I am to rule single-handedly as your queen, I have decided that I wish to have a husband to spend the rest of my life with."

Ash's eyes widen and he turns to Brock and General Wulfric who are equally surprised. They turn to Holly who looks just as baffled at the Queen's words as they are. The audience stares at the queen with intrigue, wondering if she is going to announce a jousting tournament or something of that nature to decide who shall marry her before she continues.

"I know that many of you are thinking that I'm going to announce something like a jousting tournament or invite a great band of suitors to come to me and try to woo me with words of praise and proclaimed love," Queen Serena says. "But let me state firmly that I wish none of those things. I have no desire for my heart to be won by games of chance like many women of royalty in the past and even those who still follow such customs in our allied kingdoms. For you see my heart is for me to give willingly and wholeheartedly as it should be for anyone, woman or man."

Everyone looks at her just as baffled as before to hear her rebuke the royal traditions as she continues.

"Furthermore, the truth is I am already in love with someone," she says, earning a gasp from everyone. "This person is my other half in every way, but he does not realize he means this much to me. And yet, he is someone I know I would want by my side whether he is a prince as the law dictates I should marry, or a duke, or an earl, or an esquire, or even a blacksmith's apprentice. I love this man so much that I want to spend the rest of my life with him whether he is by my side as both my husband and co-ruler of Kalos or merely just my husband while I still rule alone. And to prove that he means so much to me, I am going to ask for his hand in marriage in front of all of you."

Ash doesn't know whether or not to feel joyous or worried about this news. Even though his friends tease him, he cannot deny in his heart that he has grown to deeply love Queen Serena. Yet, even though he and the Queen have known each other since they were twelve-years-old, he has often doubted that she has ever felt the same way for him. So to hear that there is a man that she already wants to marry, he hopes that by some miracle it's him given that she said that she does not care what title this man she wishes to marry has. Even so, he knows that she also knows many people all over the kingdom of Kalos and beyond and there may be someone else that has captured the beautiful queen's heart. General Wulfric clears his throat to help Ash keep his cool before Queen Serena puts her hand in her heart and looks at her subjects and gets ready to speak with an excited smile.

"People of Kalos, I would like -"

Suddenly, the ground begins to rumble. Citizens down below panic as the very earth shakes. General Wulfric, Brock, Ash, Cilan, Iris, and Holly struggle to stay on their feet while Queen Serena holds on to the railing in alarm. The ground soon stops and everyone sighs in relief until the sky begins to darken until it looks like nighttime despite it being the middle of the day. Everyone looks at the sky in worry has Ash runs over to Queen Serena.

"Your Highness, are you alright?" he asks.

"I...I think so," the queen answers. "What happened?"

But before Ash can answer her, a loud and evil cackle is heard from above the clouds and the people down below run in fear has chills of green and black lightning begin to strike around the castle. Ash, Queen Serena, Captain Wulfric, Brock, Holly, Cilan, and Iris stare at what's going on horrified before General Wulfric speaks.

"Your Highness, we need to go," he says. "We should get into lower ground."

"Yes, you're right," Serena says before turning to all the maidens, bannermen, and trumpeters who are cowering in fear. "Everyone evacuate the castle at once!"

No one dares questions the Queen's orders as all of the castle staff begin running as fast as they can. Ash helps Queen Serena up and with General Wulfric leading, they begin making their way down to the lower levels of the castle with Brock, Holly, Iris, and Cilan. Loud thunder is heard all over the halls as people run as fast as they can.

Soon, everyone makes it to the ground level and exits the castle. Unfortunately, as they run through the castle grounds, one of the trees gets hit by lightning and starts tumbling toward the group. Ash, Brock, and Cilan realize that the falling tree is heading toward Queen Serena, Holly, and Iris and so Ash and Brock push the Queen and her head handmaiden away facing the castle while Cilan pushes Iris forward away from the castle. The tree crashes leaving Iris, Brock, and Ash separated from Cilan, Holly, Queen Serena, and General Wulfric. Before the queen, the general, the minstrel and the handmaiden can go around the tree, two more bolts of lightning strike right in front of them and the evil cackle roars from the sky again.

"I GOT YOU WHERE I WANT YOU, YOUR HIGHNESS!" a loud, female voice bellows from the sky.

Before anyone can ask what that voice meant, a large hole in the sky opens right above the castle, and a large, green flame flies straight down toward it. Queen Serena's eyes widen as she turns to Ash and stretches out her hand toward him despite the tree blocking them.

"ASH!" is all she says before the fire it's the ground and hits the castle and everything from the Queen's side of the tree barrier. Ash, Iris, and Brock move away to avoid getting burned as the giant green flame burns brightly on the spot before it suddenly lifts up from the ground and flies back up in the sky and disappears as instantly as it appeared. The evil cackle returns before the clouds suddenly break apart and the sun is allowed to shine again. Everyone gets up wondering what happened until they turn to face the castle and gasp in horror.

Ash stands up and walks over to where Queen Serena and her castle used to be only to find that from where the tree fell is a large crater covering the entire area of where the castle used to be. There is no one in the crater, no object or any ash from the fire. Just a semicircle hole right where the queen and her castle and Cilan, General Wulfric and Holly used to be.

Brock walks over to the crate next to Ash with his eyes full of shock.

"Holly?... Holly?... Holly, where are you?" He calls out fearfully.

Iris walks over to Ash and grabs him by the shoulder forcing him to look at her with a look of pure worry in her eyes.

"Ash... Ash, where is he? Where is my husband? Did he make it out?" she pleads.

Ash does nothing but stare at her helplessly. The shock in his eyes is all Iris needs for an answer as she slowly let's go of his shoulder, turns to the crater it begins to let out a long and loud wail. Tears begin to run down her eyes as she cries out Cilan's name and at the same time, Brock begins to break down with his own tears as the reality of what happened to his beloved fiance sinks in. Ash can hear people behind him spreading the word of what has happened and before long everyone in the entire city begins to cry and weep loudly.

Eventually, Ash himself gets down on his hands and knees and fights the urge to cry bitterly for a moment before he breaks down. Tears cover his face as he grieves for General Wulfric, Holly, Cilan, and above all else Queen Serena.

There are no ruins, there is no ash, no bones or damaged tapestries to reveal that anyone or any place was ever standing before them.

Nothing.

*********************************************************************************

Ash still feels tears running down his face as he finishes going through the memory in his mind. Brock is still rubbing his back as he thinks about that day too.

"To think that in a couple of months it will be two years since then," Brock says with a scoff. "Then again who is really counting?"

Ash chokes out a chuckle as he wipes away the tears in his eyes.

"It's a miracle that there are so many people still living in Kalos after that," he says.

"That's true," Brock says nodding. "With many of Queen Serena's officials gone, the economy has really collapsed. We're lucky that Iris has an uncle that allowed us to look after it before he sailed to Unova, but..."

"But even that's not saying much now," Ash finishes sadly.

"Right," Brock says with a sigh. "And Iris might not care so desperately about food on the table as much if she didn't have Maynor. But since she did..."

"Yeah, it seems like it was both a joy and a cruel curse that Cilan unknowingly got her pregnant before he died," Ash says. "Maynor's all she has left of her husband, but that still leaves us with one more mouth to worry about feeding."

Brock nods before the two men turn back to the crater. Silence fills the area for a few minutes before Ash looks up at the sky.

"Do you think there's any hope that they still could be alive?" He asks. "That they were just taken to some other world or something?"

Brock frowns at Ash disapprovingly.

"Ash, I know you want to believe that somehow there's hope that they're still alive. Lord knows nothing would make me happier than to find out Holly is alive and is just waiting for me to save her so that we can finally get married," he says. "That said, there is no such thing as magic."

"You don't know that," Ash says. "With the green lightning and fire and then that voice surely that was something magical happening."

"I told you, I don't know what I heard," Brock says. "And even if some magical spirit or something was out there abducting transporting them or something, there's no guarantee that they are still alive after two years and even if there is, there is no heaven forsaken way we can get there to save them."

"I know, but...but..." Ash protests before he sighs and Brock pats his back again.

"You wish you could have saved the queen," Brock says sympathetically.

"Yeah, I do," Ash admits. "I wish there was some way I could have known that the green fire would have come down in that spot and I would have tried to figure out a way to pull her toward me when that tree fell so she would have been saved from getting incinerated."

"There's no way you could have known, Ash," Brock says. "And there is no way you could have brought her to safety by pulling her toward the other side before the tree fell. Believe me, sometimes I wish I knew myself. Maybe I could have made the decision to run before General Wulfric did or perhaps I could have been on the same side as she was so we both would have died together. At least that way I wouldn't be feeling this emptiness without my Holly."

Ash nods and says, "And I had more time to gain the courage to tell her straight out how I felt, no, feel about her. How she means everything to me, how I wish I could have asked her on the level how she felt about me, and if she would ever consider the idea of asking for my hand in marriage even though I was nothing but a mere esquire. At least I wish I knew who she was going to propose to so that I knew whether or not she ever felt that way to me. Honestly, Brock, you're lucky that you knew how your woman felt about you."

"Luck has nothing to do with this, Ash," Brock says seriously. "They are all gone and we have to face what's going on right now, and right now we need to face the music with Iris."

Brock holds the net containing the fish close to Ash and the raven-haired man robotically takes it before Brock walks away heading for the cottage. Ash keeps his eyes on the crater as he thinks about what his friend just said. On the one hand, he thinks that Brock's logic makes sense and he should worry about what's going on now, and yet deep in his heart he wants to still believe that someway somehow the Queen of Kalos whom he loves deeply is still out there somewhere and just needs to be found so that she can bring her beloved kingdom back to its former glory. Even if she would go back to eventually marry another man, Ash would be happy as long as the queen would be safe and all of his other friends who fell victim at that day would be reunited with their loved ones.

"I miss you, Serena," he says sadly before he glumly walks back to the cottage.

********************************************************************************

"Blast it all, Brock, how could you let this happen?" Ash hears Iris shout as he enters the cottage to see her slapping the former captain upside the head.

"I'm sorry, Iris," Brock says sincerely. "I really thought Whitey still had some milk left in her."

"Sorry doesn't give my boy milk to drink," Iris rebukes while turning to Ash, making the raven-haired man flinch. "And you, you clumsy man-child, you know better than to break one of my uncle's fishing nets."

"It's not my fault," Ash protests. "One of the fish broke it. Besides, Brock keeps telling you that they weren't going to last very long because -"

"I don't want to hear your excuses," Iris rebukes. "Honestly, what kind of men are you two? I let you live in my uncle's cottage and all I ask is that you work to earn your keep and help me keep my son fed and ever since I've been hearing excuse after excuse about any of the work you have to do."

"Iris, please try to understand," Brock says calmly. "We've been doing the best we can, but there is only so much we have been able to do with all of the old equipment your uncle left. Your uncle even said himself that Whitey was already three years old when we all moved in, so she's way past the age that she is able to produce milk anymore. You can rebuke us all you want, but that won't make the situation any better. We've got to do something."

Iris glares angrily at the two men. Then her gaze turns to her thirteen-month-old son as Maynor innocently crawls around the room looking around the environment and babbling baby gibberish. The purple-haired woman's face softens slightly as the sight of her beloved child melts her broken heart.

"Very well," she says with a sigh. "I know my uncle would be displeased when he hears that we got rid of his last cow, but I'd rather face his disapproving glare than see my Maynor starving."

Brock lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding, Iris then turns to Ash, walks over to him and gives him a serious look.

"Ash, take Whitey to the butcher," she orders. "Make sure you get a fair price for her. No less than five gold coins, understood? That should be enough money to last us a while, while we think about what else we can do to stay here."

Ash feels uneasy to take the responsibility Iris is bestowing upon him, but he musters his own serious face and nods in understanding.

"Good," Iris says as she takes the net Ash was holding containing the fish. "I'll get this fish ready for lunch. Once you've eaten, you start your journey right away."