A Journey's Link

Chapter 31 - Lurking

He felt himself being lifted by an intangible force. What the? he thought, looking around to see what was carrying him. He looked at the mysterious green Pokemon and saw his hand outstretched, seemingly controlling Mr. Stone in midair. I've got to resist! Mr. Stone thought, struggling to get out of the green Pokémon's grasp.

"No use in struggling, Mr. Stone," Z said matter-of-factly. "Mewtwo has enough strength to stop an entire army, let alone one single man." Despite the man's words, Mr. Stone continued trying to release himself from the Pokémon's control to no avail. He felt himself slowly floating out of the room and into a dark, rocky tunnel. He lost all hope in trying to escape and positioned his head towards Z.

"Hey!" Mr. Stone exclaimed. "I know you're listening, so hear this! I will make you pay for this!" Mewtwo opened the door, revealing a dark hallway. "And I will get my son Steven out of here, even if it's the last thing I do!" And with those words, the door closed, leaving a smirking Z in silence.

[-]

"My love for Serena?" Ash confusingly thought. "What are you talking about, Azelf?" He continued staring around at the black landscape, still wondering about where he was and what he was doing here.

Azelf sighed as well as a Pokemon could sigh and said, "Ash, you care for Serena a lot, right?" Ash looked up at Azelf and nodded. He didn't know much about love and all that, but he knew that cared for Serena and admired her for who she was.

Those thoughts went through to Azelf, who used them to continue its point. "You just thought about her, so clearly you must feel a certain way about her that's different than someone like Goh?" Azelf said, looking at Ash expectedly. What it was saying made sense to Ash, as it was true he felt different towards Serena than any other person he had met before.

"I guess this is true," Ash thought. "But that's because she's a really good friend who's super caring towards everyone!" Azelf nodded in agreement and said, "I don't doubt your ability to recognize this, but have you considered trying to use a word to describe your feelings toward Serena?"

Ash stood there for a moment, deep in thought. "A word to describe my feelings?" he thought, thinking back to a situation similar to this. It was at Moomoo Farms when he had asked Goh how to describe the way Miltank and Tauros had felt towards each other.

"Goh had said the word love," Ash said. "He said that Miltank and Tauros had a love for each other." He looked at Azelf with a perplexed expression. "But I love my Pokemon and people, how is Serena any different?"

Internally, Azelf knew Ash had a point. How exactly was this love different? It sat there for a moment trying to think of a response that could make sense to both if and Ash when a rumble was felt throughout the place. "What was that?" Ash thought, looking around to find the source of the tremor.

"Uh oh," Azelf said, panic spreading across its face. "I think our connection is being severed. But why?" The look of genuine confusion on Azelf's face worried Ash, who realized that he probably needed to get out of this place for his safety.

"Azelf, come on. We need to go," he thought, grabbing Azelf's arm and attempting to pull it along towards a random direction, hoping desperately to run away from whatever caused such a large tremor. "Ash, I can't come with you," Azelf sadly said. "Our connection is solely based on your love for Serena, so I can't physically come with you."

Ash looked at Azelf and understood for a split second what his love meant. "My love is powerful enough to talk with you right now?" he thought, realizing that maybe this kind of love was different after all and that he had been ignoring it all this time.