Adventure's Past

Chapter 24 - Ash

"Woah! So you and Pikachu managed to swim for a whole week?"

"Yep!" Ash replied, proud of himself. The group, which now consisted of the Lumiose siblings, Chloe, Ash, and most recently, Serena, had all departed on different flying or floating Pokemon to their destination, which was Snowbelle City, in search of S and hopefully Goh. Right now, however, they were slowly cruising through the night sky, soaking in the experiences

"I can't believe you trained that hard on the island!" Clemont remarked from his Magnezone, which held him and Bonnie. "Yeah, it was pretty rough, but me and Pikachu got through it together," Ash replied, smiling at Pikachu who was sleeping on Dragonite's back. Chloe was with Serena on her newly acquired Togekiss, a Pokemon she found as a Togepi four years ago in the forests of Kalos.

"Didn't you train with your other Pokemon?" Chloe asked Ash. His face became serious and he shook his head. "Nope, my mentor wanted me to focus on just using Pikachu," he answered. "At first, he claimed that we were going to be able to find Greninja and Lucario again, but as time went on, I guess he was just saying that to keep me there."

"Your mentor?" Chloe asked, confused. Clemont looked her at from his Magnzeone and shook his head silently. "Never mind, it's not important," she quickly said, much to Ash's comfort. "I know we're already going to find S, but we really don't know where A is?" Ash suddenly asked out of the blue.

Clemont shook his head. "Hasn't shown up since the Cell War. For all we know, he could be the main reason behind all of this," he explained to Ash, who secretly knew A was never going to do something so horrible. "I have hope that he's trying to better himself still, despite his outward... differences," Ash replied.

For the next few hours, they took turns sleeping and talking amongst themselves, overall catching up on their current goals and aspirations. Chloe was able to tell Ash all about her contests, Clemont was able to inform both of the girls about his company and its progressions, and at one point, Serena was finally able to formally apologize to Chloe for leaving her to do Performances on her own, something that Chloe appreciated and accepted.

But the tensest and most explosive conversation happened when everyone but Ash and Serena was asleep. Ash was quietly petting Pikachu, who was still sleeping, while Serena was only a few meters away, making a few text messages to people who she felt needed to hear an apology about her absence from her, including her mother, Palermo, and even May, who had become Top Coordinator in Hoenn two years back and had taken a break at her home in Petalburg City.

The night sky had begun fading away, leaving a beautiful orange and blue hue in the sky as the Sun and the moon clashed. There was a lot that Ash wanted to say but didn't in understanding that his ideals just didn't line up with Serena's at this moment. He knew they both cared for each other immensely, but they didn't agree with how to act on these emotions.

Ash had been thinking really hard for the entire flight about Bonnie's words, even stressing over them. The major point he got from Bonnie's little talk with him was that he should apologize for what he did. The whole flight, Ash didn't quite understand what that meant, but as he stared at Serena against the rising sun illuminating the horizon, it dawned on him.

"Hey, Serena," Ash said softly; not very loud, but enough for her to pick up his voice. "Hm?" She asked, looking up from her phone. She tried to act like she didn't care that much about his presence, but in reality, she was quite nervous to talk to him, given that they had fought a few hours ago.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you and asking you to leave your life for me. That was stupid, and I'm hoping you can forgive me."

Serena's heart fluttered. Not in a million years would she have expected an apology from Ash Ketchum that had to do anything with love and emotion. "O-Oh yeah. Thanks," was the forgiveness that she could muster for him. "I'm sorry, too. I guess I expected you to just be okay after everything that happened in the Cell War, so I get why you left," she added.