It was a few days after Ash had left and Serena was continuing to train hard with her Pokemon. She was doing her best to understand them the way Palermo and Sycamore wanted her to, but it was beginning to frustrate her. She didn't know what she could do differently. She didn't even know if she was supposed to change much in her actual performances. Regardless, she was still doing the work. She had nothing to do in the meantime. It was better to use her time to practice.

Serena was currently having a break with her Pokemon by the river. She had wondered if Greninja would show up at some point, but he hadn't. She supposed he felt it was better to stay out of the way. It wasn't like he knew they'd been watching when Ash had asked him to watch over them.

The thought of Ash and what he'd asked Greninja, made Serena smile to herself. He really did care about her. He even seemed hopeful that he could come back to her. It was a little alarming to see his old friend Dawn with him, and it had made Serena a little jealous, but seeing Ash talking to Greninja, made Serena realize that she was the only one he saw that way. Much like he was the only one she saw that way.

Serena looked at Delphox. She knew that her partner Pokemon was hoping to see Greninja, but she was clearly pleased, just knowing that Greninja was going to be there if anything happened. Sylveon also seemed a little reassured, after seeing Pikachu.

After a few minutes of relaxed silence, Serena was about to start practising with her Pokemon again, but she was interrupted by a happy squeal of excitement. Serena turned and smiled, seeing Bonnie running up to her, Clemont and Mairin behind her. This was the first time Serena had seen them all since watching Ash leave, and she hadn't mentioned it. She was hoping they'd let her know on their own, but she suspected that Ash probably told them not to.

"Serena!" Bonnie yelled. She ran up to Serena and hugged her. "We've been looking all over for you. Clemont wanted to take a break from the gym, so we decided to go for a walk. We all wanted to find you."

"Well it's nice to see you, Bonnie." Serena said, smiling. She looked at her Pokemon. "Do you three want to join them?" Her Pokemon all nodded. Serena then looked at Clemont and Mairin who had finally caught up to Bonnie. She could barely control a laugh at seeing Clemont panting. Clearly his gym battles hadn't been helping him get in shape. "Hi, you two." Serena greeted.

"Hi Serena." Clemont said, gasping. "I'd like to just get out of the city for a bit. I've been getting challengers non stop lately. A lot of people are trying to rush to get their gym badges so they can train for the Kalos League."

Serena was a little hesitant about leaving the city, considering what had happened with Mauve, but she decided that if she was with the others, she'd probably be ok. "Sure, that sounds like a good idea." She agreed.

In a few minutes, the four of them were approaching the spot where Serena had been attacked by Mauve. As uneasy as she felt being at the spot, it was probably the best place for them to all relax. The tree provided some good shade and the noise of rushing water in the river was quite peaceful.

They sat quietly for a few minutes, and no one said anything. Clemont was fiddling with an invention, Mairin was staring at her Pokedex in an attempt to figure out moves Chespie could learn, Bonnie was humming to Squishy and Serena was brushing Sylveon's fur.

Finally, the quiet started to bother Serena. She was irritated that it was becoming clear that none of them would say anything about Ash, so she decided to nudge them to it. "So...anything you guys want to tell me?" She asked.

"No." They all said, a little too quickly.

"I was by the river near Prism Tower a few nights ago." Serena said. "I saw something pretty interesting."

Bonnie broke first. "I'm sorry, Serena. Ash told us not to tell you. He didn't want you to feel bad about him not going to see you. He was going to Shalour City for some kind of training with Gurkinn." Then, she smiled. "But, Serena, he still really cares about you. He came to Lumiose City just to check on you. He said he felt like you were in danger."

Serena immediately thought of what had happened at this very spot. Had Ash somehow sensed that it had happened? "He came only to check on me?" She asked.

Bonnie nodded. "Yeah. He was really worried. And then he-"

"Asked Greninja to watch over me." Serena interrupted.
"What?" Bonnie asked. "He only told us that he had talked to Greninja."

"I saw them talking." Serena explained. "He asked Greninja to keep an eye on me. To make sure I didn't get hurt."

"He's thinks it might have been Malva." Bonnie explained. "Apparently Mauve is Malva."

It didn't exactly surprise Serena. Mauve definitely had seemed quite similar. "So maybe Ash sensed it when she attacked me."

Apparently Ash had discussed something like this with Bonnie, because she seemed to know Serena had been attacked, despite Serena not telling her. "Yeah. He knew you were attacked, but he didn't know what it was. I guess that's why he rushed here to check on you."

Serena managed to control herself from shaking with emotion. It meant so much to her that Ash still cared about her this much. She supposed it should have been obvious that he still cared about her. It wasn't like either of them had really wanted to break up, but she had let some doubts creep into her mind. This only vanquished those doubts completely. She knew that at some point she'd be with him again.

XXXXX

"Ow!" Ash yelled, holding his head from where the log had slammed into it for about the sixth time in two minutes. "This is stupid. I can't do this. I'm not using aura, I'm using my skull to get slammed into."

It was the first day of his training with Gurkinn and it was definitely not going well. Gurkinn had him doing the obstacle course in his aura guardian room. It might have been at least a percentage point possible to navigate the swinging logs and obstacles with his eyes open, but when Gurkinn announced he'd have to do it with his eyes closed, Ash nearly fainted. He'd only tried the first two times because Dawn encouraged him. The next two times, he'd tried because Gurkinn showed off that he could do it. And then these last two times he did it, because Pikachu had given it a go, and despite his best friend failing, Ash had to try again to match the spirit.

"It's not easy." Gurkinn explained patiently. "You are likely the youngest person to ever even try this." He smiled. "I didn't learn until I was an adult and it took years to learn. Even now, I doubt I have the same talents as you."

"I don't exactly feel talented." Ash muttered. "I feel like I have a pounding headache."

"Think, Ash, have you ever done anything like this? The things you've done, perhaps you've managed to sense your way with aura before." Gurkinn asked.

Dawn stepped forward from where she was standing to the side with Korrina. "Didn't you use aura to sense where Riolu was when J captured him?" She asked Ash.

"Sort of." Ash nodded. He then groaned. "But I didn't have to see through closed eyes. I've never..." He stopped. Wait...he had done that before. He did that only a few days ago. First, when he'd run to the river and after that when he'd looked for Greninja. He looked at Gurkinn. "I'll give it another go."

"Good." Gurkinn smiled.

Ash stood at the front of the obstacle course and studied it a moment. It wasn't like he'd be able to get a pattern from the swinging logs. Gurkinn had set it up so that they'd swing randomly. That wasn't why he was studying them though. He was trying to get a sense of their aura. These logs might not be living, but at one point they were part of living trees. Ash had no idea how he knew he needed to do this and why this was important, but he supposed it was his instinct. Suddenly, he started to feel something. It was a gentle pressure, nothing painful and actually a somewhat pleasant feeling, in his mind. It was coming from one of the logs. And then, he started to sense more than one.

"Ash?" Dawn asked.

"Sh!" Gurkinn hissed. "He's sensing it."

Ash managed to ignore them. He closed his eyes and immediately everything went dark. However, after a moment, he could see shapes. He could see Dawn, Korrina, Gurkinn and Pikachu. Their shapes were clear in blue lights. Pikachu's was clearer and Ash wondered if that had anything to do with his own connection to aura guardians. Then, the logs started to appear. They seemed to be less, the further away they were, but Ash could tell that at least close to him, all of them seemed to be there. And they seemed to be swinging slower.

"Pi...ka...chu?" Pikachu was asking. However, the voice was slow. Ash looked down at Pikachu and saw him slowly, very slowly, tilting his head while looking up at him. Aura slows things down? Ash thought, amazed at what he was doing.

Ash then looked forward. This was the hard part. As slow as things were moving, Ash still needed to concentrate and make sure he didn't even lightly brush one of the swinging logs. If that happened, he knew he'd feel it in full force and snap back to what he now supposed should be called, the regular world.

One foot went forward, and Ash was once again on the obstacle course. A log was inching towards him from his left and he pulled his head back and watched it, with his aura vision, slowly move past his face. He smiled, knowing it was working perfectly. He would have already been hit, the way he was going earlier. He took another step forward and stepped carefully over a log that jutted out of the ground. Another log came inching from the right and Ash slid aside and then carefully stepped over another stump in his way.

And then Ash was moving more and more swiftly. He was almost toying with the obstacle course now. He was sensing everything and everything around him was almost brighter than if it was the middle of a sunny day. Not only that, everything was slower too. Ash could take as long as he wanted, navigating this obstacle course. He slowly ducked to avoid a log and then he hopped over another. It was so easy. But then the exhaustion started to set in.

At first, Ash managed to steady himself. He stumbled on a log and one of the swinging ones started to speed up, but he focused hard and managed to slow it down and duck underneath it. However, this only made him feel even more exhausted and everything started to gradually speed up and the visions of light started to fade. He knew his control over the aura around him had gone and he opened his eyes. It was just in time to see a log smack him in the middle of the forehead and then everything went black.

XXXXX

Serena and her friends enjoyed the rest of their afternoon in relative quiet. It was nice for them all just to sit and relax and not have to worry about what went on in the city and, of course, what was going on in their own lives. Unfortunately, the peace couldn't last forever.

At first, it was excitement. Mairin had suddenly started shouting out, looking ecstatic about whatever she saw. She was jumping up and down and animatedly pointing towards the sky. For a brief moment, Serena felt a similar excitement, recognizing that it was a Charizard flying towards them. However, she quickly realized it wasn't Ash's, but in fact Alain's Charizard. This did, however, explain Mairin's extreme excitement.

Alain apparently had noticed them, because Charizard immediately started to dip down and fly towards their spot. In a couple of minutes, there was a thud on the ground and Charizard had landed. Alain quickly hopped off of him and was immediately embraced by Mairin.

"Alain! It's so good to see you again." Mairin yelled.

Alain smiled politely, but Serena could see that something was making him feel uneasy. He was clearly worried about something. With a pit in her stomach, she remembered that he had actually set off after Geosenge Town in search for Lysandre. If Alain was here...that could really only mean a couple of things. Either he didn't find Lysandre...or...

Clemont asked before Serena could. "So, Alain, what are you doing here? Did you manage to track down Lysandre?"

Alain took a deep breath. "That's exactly what I was able to do." He looked around at everyone seriously. "Lysandre sent me here."

Serena immediately backed away, standing in front of her Pokemon. She hadn't forgotten that Alain had actually fought alongside Team Flare before. It was definitely possible that Lysandre had once again managed to brainwash him against them.

"Don't worry." Alain said. "I know he's insane. I'm not here to tell you to join Team Flare or anything." He looked towards Lumiose City. "I do need to pass along his message, though. It's...pretty convincing what he has to say." He narrowed his eyes. "But that's no reason to bow down to him."

"What is it?" Bonnie asked.

Alain sighed. "I'm afraid we aren't done with Lysandre. Not even close." He pulled out something from his pocket. It looked something like Serena's tablet. It had a little monitor on it and Alain clicked a button and a video started to play. "He's got complete control over Zygarde." Alain explained. The video showed a repeating image of Zygarde blasting a mountain into...nothing.

"Ah!" Bonnie yelled, as Squishy hopped out of her bag and onto Alain's tablet. It fell to the ground and then Squishy started jumping up and down on it in anger. "Squishy, stop it."

Alain just waved his hand, though. "It's ok. I get why he's mad." He didn't bother picking up his tablet and they all just watched as Squishy continued to stomp away at it. Squishy was definitely furious with what he saw. Serena realized he must be friends with the other Squishy, or Zygarde, she supposed she should call it. It would make her mad too.

"So...what does it mean if he has complete control over it?" Mairin asked. "Is he going to try and take Squishy?"

"I'm sure he'd like to." Alain nodded. "However, that doesn't seem to be his main objective. He's more interested in making a big splash to show off his new power. He wants to take over Lumiose City and show all of Kalos what he's got."

"What does that mean?" Clemont asked. Everyone knew what it meant. It was more that they all needed to hear it for some reason. Maybe they would have forced themselves to not believe it if they didn't actually hear it.

"He wants the people of Lumiose City to back down while he rolls in with Zygarde and Team Flare." Alain explained. "However, I don't think we can let him." He looked furious. He was clearly thinking about how wrong he had originally been about Lysandre.

Serena nodded. It was terrifying, but Alain was right. "We'll get all the trainers we can and we'll fight back." She said. "We won't give up till it's over."

XXXXX

"Interesting." Giovanni said, watching and listening to the conversation taking place on the screen. "So Team Flare is about to begin their assault? Things are moving along quite nicely."

"Yeah, boss." Meowth agreed. "Um...but if you don't mind my asking, when are we going to move in? Aren't we going to attack Team Flare to get the Sundial?" He asked.

Giovanni shook his head. "They are far too powerful right now. That Zygarde may possibly be the most powerful Pokemon in all of Kalos and it definitely rivals the power of legendary Pokemon around the world." He thought for a few moments. "We do need to get things moving, though. I do have a plan."

Jessie looked most interested. "What is it? Could you tell us, boss?"

Giovanni considered this a moment. As much as these three had failed in their quests over the years, they were actually proving quite useful with this operation thus far. He needed information first, though. "How strong is the boy's Greninja? I assume it won't be easy to deal with."

Meowth nodded. "It might be stronger than the Pikachu. It...um...has a special power."

"Without the twerp it probably can't use it." James pointed out.

"Either way, it's really strong." Meowth continued. "If it's guarding the twerpette, it won't be easy to get her."

"Maybe we shouldn't do it then." James suggested.

Giovanni glared at him. "Do you remember what I told you?"

James nodded, eyes wide. "Yes, boss. I only meant...with the twerp's Greninja guarding the twerpette, maybe we should try something else."

Giovanni shook his head. "As I said, I have a plan. If we can't deal with one Greninja, we might as well cancel this entire operation. Now, tell me about the one with the Charizard."

Jessie answered. "He helped the twerps get Pikachu back from us once. I'm pretty sure he can mega evolve his Charizard."

"He can mega evolve his Charizard?" They all nodded. "That could make things more difficult." He thought for a moment but then shook his head. "No, we can manage that. He'll be busy planning a defence against Team Flare. Getting the girl won't be easy with the Greninja likely there to fight us, but I don't think it will be impossible."

"What about Team Flare and the Sundial?" Jessie asked.

Giovanni smirked. "We will make our move very soon. However, we need to be cautious with that Zygarde. Perhaps...we allow that problem to become easier to deal with. We aren't the only ones Team Flare needs to deal with."

XXXXX

Ash opened his eyes and stared up at the faces of Pikachu, Dawn, Korrina and Gurkinn. His head was pounding. He put a hand up to his forehead and felt a bump on his head.

"Are you ok?" Dawn asked.

"I think so." Ash answered. "My head hurts a bit."

"That's just because you're trying to think." Dawn smirked.

"Ha ha." Ash looked at Gurkinn. "So I did it, right? I was using aura."

Gurkinn nodded, smiling. "Almost perfectly. Ash, I would never have imagined you could do that so fast. And especially with the interference from the Sundial."

"How far did I make it?" Ash asked. He looked at the obstacle course. "Halfway at least, right?"

Korrina laughed. "Ash, you were almost at the end. That was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. I really want to learn how to do that." She looked at Gurkinn. "Please, grandfather, can you teach me?"

Gurkinn smiled. "In time, Korrina. We must not rush into that. Ash is a unique case, as I said. I didn't learn until I was much older than you."

"Is it normal that I got tired?" Ash asked.

Gurkinn nodded. "I expected it to happen after only a couple of steps, though. For you to nearly finish the course...that was phenomenal." He started laughing. "Are you sure you haven't been practising this since birth?"

Ash laughed nervously. "Not that I know of." He looked at Pikachu. "So...I'm guessing I'm not the only one that needs to do this?"

"Correct." Gurkinn answered. "While your Pokemon can't control aura like you, I believe you should be able to lend your power to them."

Ash smiled at Pikachu. "Well, buddy, why don't we give it a go?"

Pikachu nodded confidently. "Pika!"

In a few minutes, Ash and Pikachu were standing in front of the obstacle course again. Ash's headache wasn't bothering him as much as when he'd woken up, so he was perfectly willing to give things another go.

"You sure about this?" Dawn asked, looking a little uneasy.

"Of course." Ash said. "I need to learn and there's no point in waiting until it's too late."

Korrina laughed. "No point arguing, I guess."

Gurkinn nodded to Ash. "Begin when you're ready."

Ash smiled and looked forward, as did Pikachu. He closed his eyes and focused. It wasn't long before he saw the dark world with the lights of aura around him. He didn't know how he would guide Pikachu, as he knew that things were once again moving slower for him, but he decided to give something a try.

Ash focused on the bright blue light that represented Pikachu's aura. He wondered if perhaps he could reach out with his own aura. He focused hard and imagined the light that was flashing from his own body, his own soul he supposed he should call it, flowing towards Pikachu, as if to nudge him forward.

Pikachu's ears perked up, clearly sensing something. Ash told him, controlled him, or guided him a step forward. He had no idea which was the way to explain it. Pikachu didn't hesitate, though. He moved flawlessly and swiftly forward. Much faster and much more graceful than Ash had moved. He even used attacks to knock aside swinging logs and to dodge ones just about to hit him. Iron tail at one point to hit aside a log from the left, thunderbolt for one on the right and quick attack to slip through two converging ones.

Ash realized he and Pikachu were as close as ever in that moment. It wasn't quite like his connection with Greninja, he could feel a little more separation here, but it was as close as he'd ever gotten to something like that with Pikachu.

And then, it was over. Pikachu had made it to the other end. Ash opened his eyes and he saw Pikachu do so at the other end of the course. They smiled at each other. The exhaustion was still there, but excitement trumped it. Ash looked around at everyone else, suddenly noticing they were very quiet.

"Did I do something wrong?" Ash asked, looking at Gurkinn.

Gurkinn shook his head. "Of course not." He whispered. "That...that was perfect."