No POV

The week after Cilan's death

"Ash?" Deliah looked at her son, devastated by what he had to go through. And now, he was packing things and ready to walk out of the house. "Where are you going?"

"I am going away." he said with every intention not to yell, scream or cry.

"What do you mean 'away'. I don't understand."  Deliah placed her hand on his shoulder on which he hissed a little bit. "Sorry, I forgot."

"No it is ok." he said looking at and hugging her. "I have too many things on my mind that I need to figure out and I can't do that here." he said, when during that he felt how his shirt was getting wet and his shoulder lighter as he saw his partner or going on her shoulder and petting her.

"D-don't leave me Ash. Wh-when they called me, I thought I lost you. Please Ash..." she said hugging him even more. Ash sighed, but pulled away to look her in eyes.

"I will come back mum, but I need to make sure none of this happen again. Cilan died because of me and my pokemon as well. I can't let that stop me in trying to prevent happening it again. I have also things I need to do." Ash said with firm voice, but it didn't seem to convince his mother.

"But, what if-"

"Mum." he said with firm voice, looking at her. "I will come back. Say it." he held her, but she was hesitating. "Say it mum."

"Y-you will come back." this gave Ash small smile, while hugging her again, taking back his buddy. After some time, they pulled away and Ash started to walk out of the doors. "D-did you pack enough underwear?" Deliah asked, making Ash chuckle.

"Yes, yes I did." was all he said and was gone in the dark.

"Look out for each other!"

Presence

Serena looked shocked at the tombstone. Confused by it.

"Cilan died?" Bonnie said when they arrived a few moments ago and all of them noticed the tombstone. Iris eyes widened when she heard that.

"You told them about Cilan but not about his death?" Iris almost yelled at Ash which seemed to snap Ash out of his mourning at her.

"You mean when I failed the most I could in my life? Oh yeah, I am pretty sure you could say it also without hesitation, am I right Iris? You were always more mature than me. I was always just the kid Iris." Ash made quotation marks with his fingers. "Right?" Iris looked at him and after a moment sighed.

"I don't want to argue here Ash. Not in front of him." she ended their fight, ignoring others around them. After few minutes, Valerie walked away, saing her good bye and was slowly walking away. But before that, Serena caught up to her, with question that was on her mind.

"Um... Valerie?" Serena asked nervous. Valerie turned to her with smile.

"Yes?" Serena didn't know why she was nervous. Either it was because of  this whole situation or because she was talking to her most favourite fashion designer.

"Why did you cancel your entire day?" Valerie looked at her confused for a moment but smiled again.

"I didn't know Cilan Dent. What I know is that he was a gym leader from Unova and chose to be buried here.  And I wish to honour it by coming here every year. So I make time on this day. It was exactly two years ago and that is the same time since I saw the boy here." she said with sad smile and turned her head. "What is your name?" 

"Serena." honey blond hair girl answered  with smiling back. The gym leader smiled at her and walked away.

Ash left most of his pokemon behind and walked past by Iris. "Hah, I guess I am lucky Chilly isn't here to hear this."

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The whole thing was left behind for time and there was much to talk about thanks to Bonnie. Iris and Miette both had the same confusion and surpries. Although was having a fun, Ash was once again gone.

"So you want to tell me you waited to meet for two years? That's nice." Miette joked on which Bonnie gave her slight punch.

"You are giving yourself too much credit... but yeah, I did miss you." she said with slight chuckle.

"So how was it?" Miette asked, getting Bonnie's confusion. "I mean, I know it was bad for you because you couldn't talk to anyone you knew for those years, but I mean things like knowing about things that were about to happen. And other things." 

Bonnie looked at her and let out huff. "I felt completely powerless." she said with annoyance but Serena heard the pain behind it. "I knew about the crisis with Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza. I knew about the explosion that was about to happen in Lysandre's labs that killed many people that time. But I couldn't do anything about it because it would cause more destruction than before." she remembered how she watched the same news over again. "But there were good parts too. Like when I could see Papillons day again or I could see how Ash can be badass sometimes."

Everyone stayed quiet for a moment before Iris finally spoke. "Yeah well, the moment Cilan died, it changed Ash completely. And I know that for sure because I saw him change from that always battling spirit come to this." she said, which made everyone look at her. Most of all it made the trio, Clemont, Serena and Bonnie, know something.

"What happened?" Miette was the one ask, because she was the only one who wasn't stunned for this situation to happen.

"It happened during our last travel through Decolore Islands. You see, Ash was always the one to get into situations to face evil and he was there everytime when some evil organisation went down. But the team Plasma was the one that got into our backs after they have fallen." Iris explained, seeing the memories how N ended up helping them.

"Oh yeah. Team Plasma. I heard they wanted to take away free will of all pokemon." Clemont commented and Iris nodded. 

"Yes. They weren't scared of anything and the only way we won was thanks to our friend and because they were messing with us." Iris chuckled and continued. "After they failed, they were captured by police and we didn't hear about them for some time."

"What changed?" Bonnie knew it wouldn't be the end of it there if she was talking about them.

"There was a secret squad that was working for team Plasma, but we never met them until that day. They were calling themselves...Shadow Triad." Iris felt how goosebumps were running down on her back. "They are three ninjas who would work only when they wanted. At least what I know about them. And so after some time, the team Plasma was broken out of the prison by them and then they came for us." Iris unconsciously ran over her scar, that she had over jawline, with finger.

"Revenge?" Miette seemed to very interested, although she didn't know about Ash's secrets he was hiding.

"Not only that. Ash knew location of our friend who was helping us and they wanted to have revenge on him too. So they attacked us one day. Me and Cilan were captured but Ash somehow wasn't." 

"Wait, you don't know how?" Serena asked confused.

"No. After the whole thing, Ash wasn't much of a talkative about it but all I know is that when he got back trying to save us, he was with some boy who was also ninja by the clothing I saw him wearing." Iris held her hands over her face, sighing.

"And?" Miette asked impatiently.

"What would you expect Miette? They knew Ash would come back so when they showed up, they killed the boy with sword from behind and captured Ash along with us. They took Ash's pokeballs and tied Ash up with chains..." Iris than stayed silent, her face showing trouble to talk about it.

"What happened then?" Clemont asked and this seemed to woke up Iris.

"They-"

"Tortured me." everyone's eyes snapped to Ash who came inside the room they were sitting in. He was taking sip of water with indescribable expression. "They wanted to know where he was hiding and they knew I knew it. But before they got to the point of asking, they took their time with me." he turned his head to Iris. "At least you got only one scar." he said with cold voice and as he was here, he was again gone. Others looked at Iris, but she didn't look at them and held her hand over chin.

"Yeah. They didn't go easy on him and if it wasn't for what happened after it, I think Ash wouldn't survive it." Iris's words sent chills down everyone back. "After that and also some psychological torture too, they put all of Ash's pokemon in huge metal cage and did something we thought wouldn't happen again."

"What?" after Miette's question, Iris pulled out pokedex and typed something into  and then showing them big flying white pokemon and others eyes snapped to the name. "Reshiram?"

"Yes. The first time we stopped them, we also released Reshiram that they had under their control. We never expected for them to capture it again but they did and used even stronger mind control on it." Iris's eyes landed on Linda on which she knew how it was the best.

"They knew about True power and used it on Ash's pokemon." Linda filled in for Iris.

"So that's how Pignite ended up in this state?" Clemont looked surprised, but he was interrupted by Miette.

"Wait, hold on. True Power and what kind of state?" Serena pulled her pokedex and also picture she took of Emboar and showed it to her. Miette looked at it all confused and suprised at the same time.

"It is hard to explain so ask Linda after it. Anyway, it wasn't just because Pignite got hit by it." Iris eyed Linda, on which she shrugged. "Well Pignite that time tried to deflect it with its own flames but in just a moment it hit all of them and because Pignite only let out energy, he needed to take something in and so that is how it happened." Iris didn't have mood to explain it even more. "Well most of Ash's pokemon died in those flames. They let those few pokemon alive and were about to hit Ash." Iris murmured something to herself but not letting others to hear it. "Ash was at that time in such state he couldn't sit straight, but that didn't matter because he was still chained..."

"And then what happened?" Serena asked on verge of almost yelling it. Iris raised her eyebrow at her but sighed.

"And then Cilan did something none of us expected. He somehow got out of the binding that was holding him and and got into cross fire, protecting Ash. Although Ash had some burns, it was still nothing compare to Cilan." Iris fell silent, images flashing through her mind. How Cilan's body was covered in burns and fell to the ground. 

Nobody said anything because they knew it was hard for Iris in this part. After Iris held back her tears, she took a deep breath. "And then Ash happened."

"What do you mean 'Ash happened'?" Bonnie asked confused on which Iris chuckled a little bit.

"He screamed and I wouldn't be surprised, but then he broke out of the chains and some of his injuries healed in mere seconds." this information got Clemont's attention, but didn't ask more. "And when they were planning to hit him again, some strange huge pokemon showed up and knocked out Reshiram in one hit. And then it was all just a chaos. I couldn't even comprehend most of the things before I was knocked out by something. The next I think saw was how Ash had bloodied hands and held burned Cilan in his arms. And multiple team Plasma grunts unconscious and Shadow triad gone." 

"What happened with Ash after Cilan's death?" Serena asked, as she confirmed her suspicious.

"He distaned himself from almost everyone and it didn't help when he found out he was suppose to take care of Cilan's pokemon. But... I didn't really care." Iris said with anger. 

After that, everyone stayed silent. But Miette got a little bit annoyed by it and so she asked about the True power. Serena saw how Ash walked out of the pokemon center and so she quietly sneaked out and followed him. The moment she was out, Serena's pokeball opened and Braixen came out. Serena looked at Braixen confused until she noticed that when Ash was walking back inside the graveyard, Lucario was there, leaning on pole with closed eyes.

Lucario's eyes snapped open, noticing two females following his trainer. Serena walked past by him and followed Ash. Braixen stayed by Lucario's side looking at them worried. Braixen felt a paw on her shoulder and Lucario was looking at her with assuring smile.

Serena walked to Ash. He was lightning up candle and beside him a green pokemon as well. "What is it Serena?" Serena stayed silent for a moment, watching him. She saw how his fists were clenched enough make them white and pressed against ground

"I needed to see if you are fine." Serena said without hesitation. Ash slowly stood up, still his fists clenched and looked at her over shoulder and for a moment, Serena saw how his eyes flashed with purple.

"I am completely fine." he said with cold voice which showed he was everything but fine.

"It doesn't look like." Serena countered and Ash scoffed.

"Well, these past months were better for me to hide it that I wasn't fine." Ash chuckled as he looked at Cilan's grave, not looking at Serena and feeling one tear coming down. "I mean, it is not like everytime I had to somehow remember on Cilan or anything with him would stab my hearth because I mean-" Ash scoffed as he quickly wiped his face. "it was my fault. And since I didn't want any of you to find out, I controled my emotions more. The moment you noticed my reactions about my dad, I knew I had to hide more my emotions if it came to Cilan and every pokemon that perished in those god damned flames." Ash yelled at Serena and it made her to freeze in place and she saw how his emotions were completely breaking inside him. He was crying, smilling and yelling with anger at the same time and she could see how his eyes were nonstop changing with colors.

"Why do you think it was your fault?" Serena said, on which ash smacked himself.

"Why? I don't know. Because I always have to meddle with evil teams without thinking if I can even beat them by myself? Or because of my weakness my pokemon and one of my best friends died? Do you want to know who didn't make it so I could? Leavanny, a beautiful pokemon with awesome ideas with making beautiful clothings. Snivy, a pokemon that would act as is above others but would show sympathy and would help other pokemon when they were in a bad spot. Unfezand, my flying pokemon that wouldn't give up without fight. And even freeking Scraggy. Fucking HELL! He was still baby pokemon, so many things ready to see in world and died too soon and also Emboar who is now in state nobody can almost explain. And then Cilan, a gym leader, A-class Connoisseur and the man that would help out everyone in hard situations and yet trying to see a good side in it. Everything was beautiful in a way for him and even after his fucking dead he is someone who wished to be buried here instead of his home in Unova because he felt this would give him an infinite inspiration and gave me HIS pokemon to take care of because he felt like I was the best one to take care of them. So tell me, this man. He sacrificed himself for a boy, who haven't done anything that would anyone know about. I mean, hey. This boy was in five different pokemon leagues and couldn't even get in top 2 but his father was someone who did on first try. For a boy, who wasn't strong enough or smart enough to prevent in any way of happening it. Tell me now Serena, is or isn't it my fault?" Ash's words finally stopped, his face begging for answer he was looking for another two years and yet couldn't find it.

Serena was completely stunned by it and it broke her hearth to see him in this situation. Before she could answer him, he collapsed on his knees, punching ground under him. Pokemon that were there watched. Pikachu upset and Frogadier as well. Pansage knelt against his former trainer's tombstone while looking at his new. On other hand, the stone home pokemon was hidden inside showing no reaction and Stunfisk truned upside down.

"I-I think you are asking the wrong question." Serena finally spoke and Ash seemed to finally stop. 

"Wh-"

"You are asking if it was your fault or not, but I think you should have asked yourself the question why Cilan did it." Serena's words confused Ash, but for Serena it was the way she saw it. "I didn't know Cilan, but by your and Iris's reaction when you talk about him makes me believe he was a good guy and smart one. So if the reason is what I think it was, then you should do other thing than self critize yourself and mourn like this over him." Serena's said the things that she was thinking about the moment she heard about the whole thing from Iris or at least the important parts.

"Than what should I do?"

"Get up, don't give up and show the world what you are capable of. Cilan wanted a bright future for a good person that would change the world for better." Serena said with new found smile and courage. She looked down at Ash and this time, she could see that his face muscles were relaxed and he was calm. Finally he made smilled that wasn't forced, looking still the same way not up at Serena.

"Thanks Serena." he said and after a while, a shadow of Serena covered him for a moment. Then he felt for a moment soft preasure on his cheeck. He looked up at Serena, who was smiling at him.

"You are welcome." she said and quickly ran off. When she walked past Braixen, Braixen was grinning at his own trainer while Lucario seemed very confused.

And his reaction was reflecting his trainers.