ALL IN ONE PLACE

Azalea somehow finds herself in a location that she doesn't recognize, since it is covered in mist. She tried to call out Zoroark and Leon but it would seem she wasn't able to speak because when she opened her mouth, no words came out. Since she couldn't do anything but move, Azalea walked straight ahead. However, when she was walking, she had this weird feeling that she's been watched.

Suddenly, the fog started to vanish into thin air, making her see clearly now. She was about to take another step, until she saw a figure standing up ahead. Azalea slowly walked forward as she had a really bad feeling about this.

When she went closer, Azalea was able to see who it was and to her surprise, she was able to recognize them and she felt her body boiling rage. It was Scarlet, the one who once tried to destroy the Arata region. She couldn't comprehend what he was saying to her but before she blacked out, Azalea heard his voice.

You can run but you can't hide forever, Crimson Queen

A few minutes later, Azalea came out from the trance and woke up extremely groggy. She opened her white eyes and saw two Indeedee staring at her, smiling and she couldn't help but smile back. Azalea slowly got up and noticed that she was in a stretcher. She looked around the room and saw Eclipse, Solar and Raihan, who had a relieved expression on his face.

"Geez, don't scare us like that!" Solar ran and went for a hug, tears were forming in his eyes.

While she was trying to cheer Solar up, she saw no sign of Leon, Charles nor Zoroark. Azalea was about to ask about those two but it would seem Eclipse has beat her to it.

"He is in the lobby and Zoroark is there with him too." Eclipse answered.

"Don't worry." Raihan approached her. "Leon is alright. You don't have to worry about him." He reassured her, sending her a smirk grin.

Azalea sighed in relief. She was glad that they were okay. She went to the lobby, joined her pokemon and she saw Charles and Leon there as well. When Leon saw her with the others, he had a relieved expression. He came up to her and gave her a pat on her head.

"I am glad you're doing okay, Azalea." Leon gave her a warm but small smile. She could see a sad expression on his face but he was quick to recover before anyone could catch him.

Why do I have a feeling that Leon's blaming himself for what happened to me?

"Charles, mind telling us why you were in the Slumbering wield in the first place, mate?" Raihan glared at his best friend, Charles and all eyes were on him.

"Hehehe..Y'all would hit me if I told you." Charles nervously laughed, feeling everyone staring at him seriously.

Right where Charles was about to explain, someone entered the pokemon center. Raihan looked back and to be honest, he regretted it. Because the person is angrily marching towards them.

"Charles!"

Charles immediately freaked out, the only reason why anyone would call out his name out of the blue, was because they are really really really pissed off. What's worse is that it wasn't his mother. Charles felt his heart racing. It was Sonia!

"H-Hey, babe. What are you doing here?" Charles nervously waved at her.

"I...might've told Sonia what happened." Raihan scratched the back of his head, snickering.

The others watched Sonia scolding and yelling at Charles, telling him what he was thinking of putting himself in danger. Raihan, Solar and Eclipse went up and tried to calm Sonia down before she hit him with her shoe, leaving Azalea and Leon behind. She gazed at the champion, who once again had a saddened expression.

She slowly moved her hand over, uncertain if she should but still, Azalea grabbed the champion's hand. He turned his head and his golden eyes met her beautiful white eyes, the two of them, once again lost into each other's eyes. While they were locked into each other's gaze, Azalea felt something beating in her heart but she ignored it.

"Thank you." She started. "Back in the forest, I've almost fallen asleep before we could even get to Charles but..." Azalea slowly rubbed his hand with her thumb. "This hand of yours, comforted me. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be able to find him." Azalea could see his gaze softened before he looked away from her.

"I-..." Leon started to speak. A minute he was gazing away from her and the next minute, she felt his arms surrounding her waist.

Is he..hugging me?

"I am glad..you weren't hurt." Leon whispered so quietly into her back, making her almost not be able to hear his words but luckily, she did.

She didn't know what to do. Should she hug him back just as hard? Or push him away like the other boys that hugged her back in Arata. But before she even picked a decision, Leon let go of her just as quickly as he brought her close to him. Leon finally looked back at her, this time, with a real happy expression on his face.

Unknowingly to them, Raihan and Eclipse caught a glimpse of their little moment and laughed to themselves of how cute they were together.

"Hey, I know!" Charles exclaimed, making everyone look back at him with a confused expression.

"Now that we are all here, why don't you and Leon continue your battle?" He stared at Azalea, then at Leon.

"What do you say, Zoroark, wanna battle Charizard again?" Azalea looked over at her partner, who was talking to the fire pokémon.

Zor!

"Now that is something I want to see." Raihan walked over to his friend, Leon, his arm snaking around his shoulder.

"Alright Azalea, you're on!" Leon grinned, clearly excited.

Everyone went to the battlefield, Azalea and Leon went to their positions while the rest were watching them from the sidelines and Raihan decided that he'll be the referee.

"I've got to record this!" Solar brought out his rotom phone to record them.

"Zoroark, use shadow ball!" A black energy ball formed between Zoroark's hands, throwing it towards Charizard.

"Toss it away using thunder punch!" Charizard flew towards the shadow ball and punched it away, with his fist becoming outlined by yellow electricity.

"Use ancient power!" Multiple rocks surrounded by purple energy come out of the ground. The fire pokemon flapped its wings, sending those rocks towards Zoroark.

"Stop them using psychic!" Zoroark eyes' glow, making those rocks go in the other directions. In other words, they were charging at Charizard instead.

"Dodge it!" Charizard flew into the air before the rocks could reach him but since they were in Zoroark's control, some of them were able to land a blow on Charizard, sending it tumbling on the ground.

Raihan and Sonia were just so shocked, they knew Azalea was strong from Charles' letters but they never would have imagined that she was this strong to hold off against Leon of all people.

"Go Zoroark! Go Azalea!" Solar cheered.

"Use dark pulse/Fire blast!"

A beam of black and purple energy and a 大-shaped flame collided with each other, causing a big explosion. Once it was all gone, both pokémon were seen standing up, no sign of exhaustion. Both the trainers and their pokémon were having a lot of fun but that fun was soon interrupted by a call from Leon's phone.

Leon picked up his rotom phone from his pocket and answered it. After a couple of minutes, he ended the call and he looked rather disappointed.

"Sorry, people need me." The champion sighed, walking to his partner and patted his buddy on the head.

"Awww!" The others whined, wanting to see more of this battle. Leon can't help but let out a small laugh just because of their reaction.

He looked over at Azalea, who was hugging her Zoroark tightly and so did her pokémon, just from that, he could tell that those two share a very strong bond. Leon's smile was even bigger when he heard her praise her partner. Before Azalea returned her Zoroark into her pokéball, Leon was already on his feet, rushing towards them.

"Your one strong Zoroark." Leon chuckled, patting the pokémon. "Probably the toughest I've ever seen."

Behind him was Charizard, Zoroark let go from Azalea's grasp and faced the fire pokémon. At first, they were staring at each other seriously but after the battle that they've had, they exchanged smiles. Leon let out his hand to her, Azalea who didn't have any second thoughts or hesitation, gladly took his hand.

"I'll see you at the tournament." He cooed, offering her a wink.

"Right." Azalea nodded, giving him a big smile.

After Leon rode on his Charizard to do some champion business, the quadruplets said goodbye to Sonia and Raihan, continuing their own journey full of mysteries.

1468 Words

What did you guys think of this chapter? I really enjoyed writing the part when Azalea and Leon had their 'alone' moment. What about you guys