THE QUEEN MEETS THE KING

Note: This chapter is based on Pokémon Journeys episode 12 and 13 or episode 1097 and 1098. Which is called Flash of the Titans! and The Climb to Be the Very Best! This won't go according to the episodes but it will be familiar. And yes, this is the chapter where they'll meet Leon and they're will be a cute interaction with him and Azalea Also probably the longest chapter I've written so far

"Incineroar, it's time to use Malicious Moonsault!"

It was now in the afternoon, the trio were watching Eclipse and her pokémon Incineroar, practicing their new Z-crystal that they've received from Professor Kukui in the battlefield of the Pokémon center.

ROAR!!

Incineroar strengthens its body using its Z-Power and crashes into the ground with full force, causing a huge explosion on the battlefield. Once the smoke was gone, the trio were all amazed to see how strong Incineroar is.

"Yeah, that's my sister for ya!" Solar jumped in excitement and so did Eevee and Mudkip.

"Guess you were right, the 20th time's the charm." Charles crossed his arms, looking at Azalea.

"You can't nail a Z-Move in one try, Charles. It takes time to perfect it." Eclipse rolled her eyes, walking towards him.

"Unlike Dynamax. All you have to do is to bring your pokémon back to its pokéball and wait for the ball to turn big and you throw it in the air and boom, your pokémon turns into a giant." Azalea sighed, giving a brief description of Dynamax.

"Hmm. true. Guess you do have a point." Charles hummed.

"Excuse me Charles, there's a phone call for you." Nurse Joy entered the field and looked at Charles.

"Ah, thank you very much Nurse Joy." Charles got up from the bench. "Be right back." He waved goodbye to them before heading back to the pokémon center.

"By the way, do you two have any idea why Charles brought us into Wyndon in the first place?" Solar asked, feeding his Eevee and Mudkip some snacks that they got today.

"Nope, no idea." Eclipse shook her head.

"I heard that Wyndon is the most populous city in Galar and apparently, it's the third-most populous in the whole world." Azalea stated, putting her finger under her chin.

"What are the others?" Eclipse tilted her head out of curiosity.

"Lumiose city from Kalos and Mesagoza from the Paldea region." Solar answered.

They saw Charles running back to them, this time with a big smile plastered on his face and four tickets in his hand.

"Ta-dah!" He gave each a ticket to them and kept one for himself.

"Woah, these are finale tickets from the World Coronation Series." Solar's eyes glistened.

"Oh I've heard about it. It's a big event that determines the strongest trainer in the world and they will be crowned as the Monarch." Eclipse smiled, staring at the ticket.

"So that's why you dragged us here to Wyndon." Azalea chuckled.

"Yup. Aren't I the best? Well, my mom is the best since she was the one that gave us these tickets." Charles laughed, putting his ticket inside his pocket.

"So when does it start?" Solar asked, his Eevee climbed onto his shoulder and his Mudkip onto his head.

"Soon, come on!" Charles grabbed Eclipse and Solar's hand and started to run alongside them.

'I wonder who the two finalists are.' Thought Azalea.

The quartets finally made it to the center of Wyndon. Eclipse and Solar were both flabbergasted by the size of the stadium.

"This stadium is nothing compared to the size of the League stadium in the Arata region." Charles snickered, staring at Azalea.

"I am aware of that, thank you." Azalea scoffed, playfully punched his shoulder.

"Come on, let's go." Solar grabbed Azalea's arm, dragging her inside, following behind are Charles and Eclipse.

The four of them entered the stadium and all took a seat. Solar immediately pulled out his rotom phone, ready to record the whole thing.

"The finalists must be really strong." Eclipse hummed.

The lights in the stadium turn off and a colorful light show starts as the announcer welcomes the audience to the finals of the World Coronation Series.

'The Masters Eight, the top trainers ranked by the Pokémon Battle Commission, have entered this competition of high-stakes battling so that they may vie for the much-coveted title of Monarch!'

"Wow, the masters Eight." Eclipse widened her eyes, surprised by the announcement.

'But who, you may wonder, are our two finalists?'

The four of them looked at the entrance of the first finalist. Wondering who it could be.

'First up, I introduce to you...Lance!'

"Wait Lance?!" Solar gasped.

'One of the Kanto League's Elite Four and winner of the prestigious Elite Four Cup, Lance then went on to emerge victorious from the trainer's ultimate dream, the Pokémon World Tournament in Driftveil city!'

"Wow, he's part of the Elite four and Kanto's Champion." Eclipse widened her eyes in amusement.

'Lance showed his attack skills as a member of the Pokémon G-Men! His use of Dragon-type pokémon has been described as battling art! A world-class trainer with world-class pokémon!'

The quadruplets looked at the other side of the battlefield to see the other finalist that will battle Lance.

'I am now pleased to introduce our other finalist. It's Leon!'

'Born and raised in Galar and known for winning the Galar Champion Cup on his very first try in battles that weren't even close! One who has never tasted defeat! A trainer who takes on any challengers, even once taking on a hundred challengers from throughout the world and beating every single one of them! The king of the kingdom! The superstar of Galar! The undefeated Champion, Leon!'

"Man has a big introduction." Charles chuckled, crossing his arms.

"What do you expect, he's apparently the undefeated champion." Azalea crossed her arms, staring at the champion.

Throughout the whole battle between Leon and Lance, instead of focusing on the battle, for some reason, Azalea can't help but stare at Galar's champion instead. His movements when calling out a move to his Charizard, how he stays calm during the battle and just...his voice. She was so focused on him that she didn't even know that the battle was over.

'Gyarados is unable to battle! So the winner of this match is Leon! And Leon pulls out a stunning victory!'

"Wow, Leon's amazing." Solar's eyes beamed out of pear joy, ending the recording from his phone.

Azalea senses something weird. She looked over her Zoroark, who seemed to be all tense. She looked at where Zoroark was looking, and it turns out that her pokémon was staring at Leon's Charizard very intensely.

"I know, I also want to have a battle with him." Azalea cooed, petting Zoroark's head.

"Now that the battle is over, what do you guys wanna do?" Charles looked over at the trio.

"Well it is getting late. So why don't we-

Suddenly, the whole stadium started shaking, causing the whole spectators to panic.

'What's going on here? A Gigantamax Drednaw, and it's on a rampage!'

"Come on, we have to do something or else it could ruin the stadium." Azalea got up, grabbing her backpack.

"Right!" Said the trio in unison.

The four of them dashed to the entrance of the stadium. Once they were out, they were welcomed with a Gigantamax Drednaw. They looked up ahead and saw Ash and Goh.

"Ash, Goh!" Azalea sprinted to them, grabbing the little kids away from it.

"Someone or something must've hit the ground too hard to cause Drednaw to turn big like this." Charles groaned, observing the size of it.

"Enough analyzing, we need to stop this pokémon." Eclipse brought out Incineroar's pokéball.

"Solar, stay back. Let us handle this." Azalea stood in front of Solar, next to her was her Zoroark.

Charles brought out two pokémon, Braviary and Diggersby. He ordered Diggersby to protect Solar, while Braviary helped him out.

"We want to help out too!" Both Goh and Ash said in unison, hoping they'll let them.

Pika!

Scorbun!

"Fine but if it gets out of hand, you two need to run as far away as possible." Azalea sighed, putting her hands on her hips.

The little boys and their pokémon nodded, agreeing with what she said.

"So, got any bright ideas?" Eclipse looked over at Azalea and Charles, uncertain how they're going to do this.

"Hit it a bunch of times till it turns into a normal size." Azalea answered, staring at the giant Drednaw.

"At least it's better to have no plan." Charles smirked, crossing his arms.

The gigantic Drednaw finally looked over at the quintet. Immediately, the five of them commanded their pokémon to attack. With Incineroar using fire blast, Braviary attacking it with a brave bird, Pikachu shocking it with thunderbolt, Scorbunny's double kick and Zoroark using dark pulse. Although it hit Drednaw, it only slowed it down and showed no sign of shrinking.

"You guys, incoming!" Solar shouted.

Drednaw extended his neck, which caused them to flee back. Luckily, it reached its maximum length. Charles looked down, noticing that all of them, including Solar, were standing on glowing red cracks in the ground.

"Shit this is-

Before he could even finish his sentence, red glowing lights came out and flew right into Zoroark. Knowing what's going to happen, he dragged his friends away from Zoroark. Immediately, Zoroark started to turn big, shocking Solar, Goh, Ash and Eclipse.

"Azalea, Zoroark can use these three corresponding moves: Max strike, max darkness and max guard. But if I were you, I would focus on the first two." Charles guided Azalea, telling her the moves that her Zoroark can use.

"Right." Azalea nodded.

"Zoroark, use max strike!"

Now, dynamax Zoroark strikes the ground with her red claws, causing energy to erupt across the ground; when the energy reaches Drednaw, the ground explodes underneath it. Creating a big wind coming their way.

Solar and Eclipse tightly held on to each other, while Incineroar stood in front of them, Ash and Goh were protecting their Pokémon from getting blown and Charles was standing next to Azalea, in case something unexpected happened. Once the light was gone, there was no longer a Gigantamax Drednaw but a normal size.

"Phew." Both Solar and Eclipse sighed in relief.

Azalea watched her Zoroark shrunk back into her normal size. When it became normal, she grabbed her and swung her around in the air.

"Good job, Zoroark!" Azalea smiled, proud of her pokémon.

Zor, Zoroark!

"Are you guys alright?" Azalea looks over at the siblings and the two boys, addressing it to them.

"Yup, we're okay." Solar nodded, showing no sign of fear.

"We're fine." Goh reassured her.

Ash nodded. "Yeah like what Goh said."

"Zoroark, you were incredible." Eclipse praised Zoroark, by petting her.

"Braviary and Diggersby return/Incineroar return." Both Eclipse and Charles returned their pokémon back to their pokéball.

"Excuse me!"

All of them searched for the source of the voice, they were shocked to see that the Monarch himself was heading towards them.

"You're not hurt are you?" Leon asked them but Azalea felt like he was addressing her more but she didn't know why.

"No need to worry, we're just fine." Azalea shook her head, reassuring Leon.

"That's good." The man sighed in relief.

"It's been quite a while, mate." Charles playfully punched his shoulders, surprising the others from his sudden movement.

"Hey Charles, long time no see. I saw you from the crowd during the match. I thought you weren't interested in watching my matches." Leon placed his hand over on his shoulder, laughing at the last part he said.

While the two of them were telling how much they missed each other, Azalea can't stop but stare at Leon's features once again. His beautiful long purple hair, the way he smiles when talking to Charles and his amber eyes, oh especially his eyes, they look like gold now that she looks at them. It was when Leon caught her gazing at him that she snapped out of it, quickly looking away from embarrassment.

"Charles, your friends with Galar's champion!" Ash widened his eyes, not expecting it.

"Well, more of my childhood friends. We used to travel together when we were kids." Charles laughed, crossing his arms.

"My name's Ash from Pallet town."

"I'm Goh, from Vermillion City!"

"I'm Solar and this is my big sister."

"Hello there, I am Eclipse."

'Why do I have to be the last to introduce myself.' Azalea thought, feeling everyone's eyes on her.

"And I am Azalea."

Should I ask him? I mean, he did just have a battle. But it didn't look like he was struggling. He was calm the whole time.

"I was wondering..." Azalea continued, looking away from Leon's gaze.

"Would you do me the honor of having a battle with me." She requested, this time, looking at his beautiful amber eyes.

"Huh?" Leon gasped, surprised at what Azalea just asked him.

"You can't be serious, Azalea." Eclipse looked at her with concerned eyes.

"And here I thought Ash was crazy." Goh sighed, shaking his head.

Even if it was just a brief moment, both Leon and Azalea stared at each other in the eyes. She didn't know why but...she didn't want to stop looking at him. Leon was about to say something, until a stadium personnel came up to them, looking really angry.

"You know you can't dynamax your Pokémon here! What do you think you're doing?"

"We didn't mean any harm sir, promise!" Eclipse tried to explain for the group.

"These heroes are the ones who save the stadium from ruin. At least treat them with some respect." Leon, instead, bailed them out.

"Well Azalea did the most part." Charles mentioned, nudging her shoulder.

"This was a teamwork effort." The woman sighed, glaring at Charles.

"Ah, please forgive me for being so very rude!" The personnel apologized.

The personnel noticed a Zoroark next to her. He looked closely at Azalea's features. Crimson red hair, white eyes and not to mention her name was Azalea. The man widened his eyes and gasped.

"Y-Your...Arata's Crimson Queen, correct?" The personnel looked at her with wide eyes, this time, everyone was shocked.

"I knew that you were somewhat famous but god dayum!" Charles snickered, putting his hands on his hips.

Azalea only took a few steps back and laughed nervously.

"W-Wait before you go, may I please have-

"My autograph? Course you can!" Leon stepped in front of her, taking the pencil from the personnel.

The champion looked back and gave her a look that screamed Now's your chance! Immediately, she grabbed Charles ears and Eclipse's arm and quickly ran away, with a confused Solar running behind them.

"Ow Ow Ow Ow!"

The four of them went to Rose of the Rondelands, according to Charles, it was a five-star hotel located in the western of the city. Since there wasn't enough room for everyone to stay in, they decided to be in pairs.

"Charles, can I stay with you?" Solar grabbed onto his vest. "I want to know what you and Leon did before becoming grownups!" His eyes beamed with excitement.

"Sure thing, mate." Charles chuckled.

"Looks like it'll be you and me, Eclipse." Azalea looked at Eclipse, smiling at her.

"Mmhmm!" Eclipse nodded.

The girls and the boys grabbed the keys and said goodnight to one another before going to their rooms.

"I am going to take a shower first if you don't mind." Eclipse grabbed a towel and her sleepwear, heading to the bathroom.

"Nah, go right ahead." Azalea shook her head, insisting that she'll shower first.

While the water was heard dripping from the bathroom, Azalea wasn't busy writing a letter but instead, she was on the balcony, staring at the beautiful lights from the city, alongside her Zoroark.

The silence was interrupted when she heard sounds of flapping wings. Despite a small gust of wind, a part of her hair covered her face. When she removed them from her view, she was greeted with a smiley Champion and next to him, was his Charizard.

"Is it alright if I join you?" His low, smooth voice caught her off guard. She just nodded and continued looking at the magnificent view, with her hands holding the railings.

The quiet continued. Even though they didn't speak to each other, it wasn't awkward, on the contrary, it was relaxing and calm. But it soon died down when Azalea opened her mouth.

"You see..." Azalea turned to look at him, just with his beautiful smile made her almost forget what she was about to say.

"There's... someone that I really want to battle in the World Coronation Series and I thought maybe having a battle with you will tell me how much training I need to win against them." She explained, looking deeply in his golden eyes.

Leon looked a little bit surprised. Normally, people's reasons to join the tournament was to battle and take his crown away. He was about to say something, until another gust of wind stopped him. Strands of Azalea's hair were all over her face, he couldn't help but let out a small chuckle and whispered to himself how cute it was.

His fingertips reached and gently brushed the strands of hair away from her face, putting it behind her ear.

"I am looking forward to our battle tomorrow."

After chatting with each other a little more, Leon wished her goodnight before departing. Since it was getting late, Azalea decided to head back inside. When she entered the room, she saw Eclipse sound asleep.

Before she decided to head to bed, Azalea opened her bag, grabbed a piece of paper, an empty envelope and a pencil.

Dear Leah, today has been one of the crazy but fun days. Well, nothing interesting happened in the morning, other than us taking care of our Pokémons. The crazy part starts when Eclipse wanted to practice her Z-move with her Incineroar. Although it took a lot of time, she had finally perfected it and I couldn't be any more proud of her. The interesting part comes when Charles' mother gave us tickets to see a tournament here in Wyndon. Good news, I'll compete in the event too, well, only to battle Darius of course and maybe, if luck is on my side, I might have to battle Ash as well. The competition was about two very strong finalists, one is Lance, who is the Kanto champion and Leon, the champion of Galar, oh yeah, did I mention he is also ranked as THE most strongest trainer? I, uh, didn't pay attention to the battle however. I know, it's not like me to not be attentive, instead, my eyes were locked on Leon, strange, huh? The battle ended and Leon emerged victorious. The celebration was quickly interrupted when a Gigantamax pokémon tried to create havoc in the stadium. I couldn't just do anything so my friends and I stepped in. You wouldn't have guessed how we defeated it, Zoroark dynamaxed and defeated the giant pokémon! Awesome, isn't it? What's even more amazing is that the Monarch himself went and checked up on us. I don't know why but when I look at him, I somehow get lost in his eyes everytime. I know, it's crazy. Do you know what's even more crazier, is that Leon-

Her pencil that she was writing was now lifting away from her grasp. She looked over at Zoroark, who was telling her to go to sleep and that it was getting late. Since she didn't want to argue, Azalea decided to call it a night and went to bed, with Zoroark close in her arms.

It was now in the morning and everyone was enjoying eating the local's scones, Solar's favorite food in Galar. Well, almost everyone, Azalea was only drinking coffee for breakfast and she let her Zoroark eat hers instead.

"I thought you liked the scones, Azalea." Eclipse tilted her head, noticing that only Zoroark was eating the scones.

"I do but..." Azalea took another sip of her coffee. "Nothing and I mean nothing, beats coffee." She sighed, enjoying the taste of coffee on her tongue.

"Wow, we have a coffee lover here, ladies and gentlemen." Charles laughed, grabbing a piece of scone from the plate.

"What, you've got a problem with that?" Azalea scoffed, raising an eyebrow.

"I AM DONE!" Solar shouted from the top of his lungs, which scared his Mudkip and Eevee to death and it made Charles fall from the chair.

"W-W-What was that, Solar!" Charles groaned, trying to get up from the ground.

"After hours of editing this video I recorded yesterday back at the tournament, I finally finished." Solar jumped off from his chair and ran around excitedly.

"That's good, I am proud of you Solar." Eclipse nodded, helping Charles get up.

Eclipse gazed back at Azalea, who looked very focused looking at her phone. She took a peek and saw that she was watching an old recording of the Lumiose conference final battle. It was a battle between two trainers with Mega Charizard X and Greninja.

"Ash had a Greninja?" Eclipse raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"Wow, he looked more mature and serious in that video." Charles snickered, taking a closer look at the video.

"Hey Solar." Azalea slightly pushed Eclipse and Charles away from her, since they were in her personal space. "Do you mind if you could send your battle recordings to me from now on?" She asked him, grabbing the last piece of a scone from the plate.

"Oh sure, of course." Solar nodded.

"Thanks, I really-

"Over here, mate!"

Azalea looked at where Charles was talking to. She saw a figure running towards them. No, it couldn't be. It was Leon! She can't help but let out a small laugh when she noticed that his cape was flapping behind him.

"Leon, what are you-

"This morning, I told him where we would be going to be." Charles chuckled, showing his phone to them. "I am surprised you got here without having twigs stuck in your hair." He playfully punched his shoulders, laughing.

"Argh come on, I am not THAT bad with my directions." Leon rolled his eyes, crossing his arms.

"Huh, what do you mean?" Solar tilted his head in confusion, his Mudkip went on his shoulder and Eevee was nudging his knee.

"Get this, the world's greatest trainer has the worst sense of direction than anybody." He placed his hand over Leon's shoulder, with a big grin on his face.

"So you're telling us that you don't have any bad habits as well?" Azalea hummed, staring at Charles

"Well, I am not Mr.Worldwide." Charles scoffed, scratching the back of his head.

"Is his bad sense of direction that bad?" Eclipse hummed, having her Vulpix wrapped into her arms.

"No."

"Yes."

"Mate, your Charizard had to get me from Postwick to get you from Pallet town." Charles furrowed his eyebrows, hands over his hips.

"Okay okay, maybe I do have a really bad sense of direction." Leon sheepishly grinned, scratching the back of his head.

"Anyways..." Charles cleared out his throat, walking towards Azalea.

"I want to see the battle between Arata's Crimson Queen Vs The Monarch." He crossed his arms, winking at her.

Azalea and Leon gazed at each other, eyes full of passion and determination. Neither of them wanted to break eye contact, until Solar wished her good luck, which made Leon win the staring contest. The four of them, including Leon, went back to Wyndon's stadium for their battle.

"Here Azalea, take it." Leon offered her a dynamax band, surprising her.

"That's right. You didn't have the band around your wrist back when battling that Gigantamax Drednaw." Charles recalled, chuckled.

"Charles already told me the moves my Zoroark can use, so I won't need the instructions." Azalea said, putting the waistband on her.

Leon did nothing but nodded. Both of them took their positions on the battlefield, Dan, the referee from yesterday's battle told them to bring their Pokémon.

"Zoroark, are you ready?" She looked at her Pokémon, whose eyes were full of determination.

Zoroark!

"Charizard, let's go!" Leon brought out his ace Pokémon, Charizard.

"Solar!" Azalea looked back at a confused Solar. "Make sure to record this battle."

"You betcha!" Solar nodded with excitement, pulling out his phone.

"Battle begin!"

"Use Dark Pulse/Use flamethrower!"

Both Charizard and Zoroark simultaneously used the move their trainers told them. Moves collided with each other but surprisingly, Zoroark's dark pulse overpowered the flamethrower. Everyone, including the referee, were shocked to see that Zoroark's move took control of Charizard's flamethrower.

"Quick Charizard, dodge it!"

Charizard was able to easily dodge the dark pulse by flying away. Before Leon could call out a move, Azalea beat him to the punch.

"Zoroark, use psychic!"

"What! Zoroark knows a psychic move?" Charles exclaimed, not expecting for Zoroark to use such a move.

Zoroark's eyes glow bright teal, making Charizard lift in the air.

"I am impressed, you've trained your Zoroark well!" Leon grinned brightly, praising her.

"We're not done yet." Azalea chuckled. "Zoroark, release Charizard and use giga impact!"

Once Charizard was free from the psychic, it was greeted with Zoroark's giga impact. This time, it wasn't fast enough to dodge the move, causing Charizard to take a direct hit. However, Charizard was still standing.

Suddenly, Charles felt his phone vibrate. He grabbed it from his pocket and saw that he received a message from a certain someone, which made him pay no attention to the battle.

"I am really glad that I am on this battlefield with you, Azalea!" Leon snickered, returning his Charizard back to his pokéball.

"I feel the same way, Leon." Azalea nodded, also returning Zoroark back into her pokéball as well.

The anticipation hung in the air, thick with excitement, as they readied themselves to unleash a massive pokéball into the mix. But just as the tension peaked, Charles's voice shattered the moment with a resounding "Stop!"

"Urgh, Charles, what in the actual heck was that!?" Azalea scowled, clearly miffed at the unexpected interruption. Charles, however, seemed undeterred, his eyes sparkling with excitement. "C'mon, we're going back to Wedgehurst!"

"But-But, the battle-" Azalea attempted to protest, only to have her words cut off as Charles seized a handful of her hair, determinedly pulling her away from the battlefield. "Ow, ow, ow!" she yelped in protest, but Charles seemed impervious to her discomfort.

Solar, in the midst of recording the showdown with his Rotom phone, raised an eyebrow at the sudden change of plans. "Wait, why are we going to Wedgehurst all of a sudden?"

"We're going to see my girlfriend, that's what!" Charles declared with infectious enthusiasm, still yanking Azalea along by her hair. "Sorry about this, mate," he added, throwing an apologetic glance back at the confused and pouty Leon.

"Uhh... sure," Leon responded, scratching the back of his head, utterly bewildered by the sudden detour and the comedic chaos that had just unfolded. And just like that, the group set off on an unplanned journey to Wedgehurst, leaving the interrupted Pokémon battle hanging in the air like a Metapod in suspense.

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What do you guys think about this chapter? I really liked it where Azalea and Leon had their little interaction on the balcony, what about you guys?