Alolan Danger **ON HIATUS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE**

Chapter 40: Ultra Doubts

In the Ultra Space, Serena was laying down on her bed. She was in her pajamas, which consisted of a black sweater and white shorts. Serena's Ultra Beasts were lying around her, fast asleep. And yet, no matter how much she struggled to sleep, she found that she could not. Something inside Serena's mind was troubling her.

How am I even still alive after the events of the last two days? Ash, Kevin, and Bonnie sacrificed themselves to protect me from Jason. Then that rogue International Police member...wasn't his name Nate? Yeah, he helped me escape certain death. Then Ash saved me and Serenity from being frozen solid by Lance's Dragonite. And now the most bizarre of all the incidents happened yesterday. Tapu Lele, one of the Guardians I vowed to destroy, who I know has something against my family and the Ultra Beasts, protected me from someone who has close ties to Alola. Is this a dream? she mused. Serena pinched herself on the nose...and winced painfully.

Nope. This is no dream. All of this really happened. So many questions... she brooded.

Suddenly, Serena remembered something that Ash had said to her during the battle against Jason: "Serena, let this be a warning to your Ultra Beasts. I'm coming to the League for one reason and one reason only: to retake your heart from them!" She flinched as she held her now throbbing head.

Retake my heart from them? What does Ash mean by that? And why am I getting headaches when I think about him? It's almost like my memories of him, in particular, are being blocked off somehow... she thought bitterly. Deciding that sleep was inevitably not going to come, Serena sat up on the side of the bed and took out her tablet. She tapped on the Internet app and typed "Ash Ketchum" into the search engine. The first result Serena found was Ash's Pokebook page, which she decided to look at later. She became interested in the second one: "Ash Ketchum's battle history".

"Here we go..." Serena mumbled to herself while clicking on the link.

"OK, so Ash's first League appearance was at the Indigo League six years ago. He lost to someone named Ritchie after his Charizard disobeyed him..." she started reading. Serena looked genuinely confused by that one.

"Strange...Those two look like the best of friends nowadays." she muttered. Serena continued to read, and she almost yelped when she found out that Ash was the only non-Champion trainer to ever knock out Tobias's Darkrai.

"Dang. If he can even put a dent in one of Team Rocket's finest three years ago, just how strong is he now? I mean, two of his Pokemon have already knocked out Guzma's Darkrai in one battle apiece." she said, clearly impressed. Eventually, Serena got to the Kalos League. All of a sudden, a sharp pain entered her brain as her heart started thumping loudly.

"ACK!" Serena screamed, clutching her head. The Ultra Beasts stirred, but didn't wake up. And for once, Serena was glad that they were asleep.

"Ow...stupid headache. I need to ask Serenity why I get these pains in the ass so often." she groaned, rubbing her temple. Once the feeling subsided, Serena shrugged it off.

"Let's see here...Ash's performance in the Kalos League was his best one by far. He was able to make it to the finals, but lost to the winner, Alain...wait, that guy with the Charizard I destroyed?! Interesting..." she stated with a smirk. Serena clicked on the link for the bracket from the Kalos League. When it loaded up, one of the names she saw made her quirk an eyebrow.

"So, Tierno was in the League too, eh? And he lost to some guy named Sawyer, who ended up losing to Ash in the very next round. Intriguing. Maybe he knew Ash before joining Team Skull. I'll ask him when we head out to Lush Jungle today." Serena muttered in an intrigued tone. She pressed the previous button twice, going back to the search results.