Aaron watched in horror as the attacks made their way toward him and Greninja at high speeds. Before he had time to think, he jumped right in front of Greninja and shielded him from the attacks, something that Greninja seemed shocked about.
Greninja covered his face as the attack made contact with Aaron, sending him back and causing him to curl up into a defensive position. Greninja had no idea why Aaron had jumped in front to take the attack but was more worried about what had happened to Aaron upon getting it.
The debris was brought up around Greninja as the force from the attacks was transferred. Landing hard on the ground, Greninja frantically tried getting up in an attempt to try to save anyone from the impact of the attack, knowing that it must've done a lot of damage to the surrounding area.
The dust settled, allowing Greninja to sit and glance around at the state of everyone around him. He looked back at the group of people standing behind him, his eyes resting on one individual with raven hair. His eyes widened as he realized Ash had been knocked back and knocked unconscious, alongside everyone else.
He quickly snapped his head back towards where Aaron was and was upset to find that the same fate had occurred to Ash's father, only much worse. Aaron was profoundly injured all over his body, and Greninja noticed that his legs were facing directions that they weren't supposed to normally be facing, indicating that his injuries were quite serious.
Greninja crawled over to Aaron in an attempt to rescue him from directly in front of Giovanni, who was still trying to see beyond the dust. Greninja reached his arm out and tried to grab Aaron's arm, before hearing Giovanni command, "Rhyperior, Earthquake." Greninja looked at the ground and watched as it began trembling in an unstable manner.
Giving one last try to grab Aaron's arm, Greninja was shocked as he was flung into the air as a result of the ground being flung upwards. Soaring high in the air, Greninja was able to see the catastrophic damage that was occurring to the Ninja Village. More Team Rocket Grunts had shown up and began forcing the villagers out of their homes and onto the streets.
The worst part for Greninja was seeing everyone, especially Ash, blacked out on the ground and injured. He quickly understood that he was going to end up like them if he didn't something about it, so without hesitation, he positioned his tongue which was usually wrapped around his mouth so that he would land on it softly.
Unfortunately, Giovanni saw his plan to protect himself and whispered, "Oh no, you don't," in a chilling voice. "Mewtwo, use Shadow Ball," he commanded quietly. Mewtwo's eyes glowed as it held out its hands and formed a large ball of dark energy. Greninja looked out of the corner of his eye at Mewtwo and stared directly at its eye, attempting to break through into Mewtwo's subconscious.
For a moment, Greninja thought he saw a moment of hesitation from Mewtwo as the ball made its way towards him and made an impact, causing him to come crashing down to the ground at high speeds. It might've been his imagination, but as he was knocked unconscious, he recognized that there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
[-]
It's really quiet. That means they're gone. We need to find them.
Ash opened his eyes and looked up, only to see an empty sky with no clouds. Whose voice was that? He thought to himself, trying to sit up. He instantly fell back to the ground once he felt an immense pain run through his arm, so he instinctively grabbed it as he lay back down on the ground.
How long have I been laying here? Ash knew what had just occurred that had caused him to be in this state, but he had no idea how long ago that was. For all I know, Giovanni has the Zygarde Core. He heard some rustling from behind him and tried slowly getting up while supporting his arm to see who was causing the noise.
Upon bringing his head up, Ash was met with a horrendous sight. Most of the buildings within the village had been completely leveled, along with many trees and plants that had been nearby. The streets were riddled with crying villagers mourning over their physical possessions.
It pained Ash to see this amount of chaos and destruction inflicting the place that had treated him so kindly. He stood up determinedly and looked around him, trying to see if any of his friends were conscious yet. He found that no one had gotten up yet, so he used his good arm to wake up Goh first.
"Goh...Goh..." Ash whispered repetitively, softly nudging his partner. "Just a few more minutes," Goh whispered back, putting his head back in his arms. In any scenario, Ash would've burst out laughing and begun teasing Goh, but he found it inappropriate at the moment.
"Goh, you need to wake up. Giovanni's gone," Ash said more sternly, nudging his friend a little harder. Goh turned over and opened his eyes, facing the sky. He blanket stared at the sky before realization dawned on his face. He quickly jumped up and exclaimed, "Giovanni's gone? Like, he just left!?"
Ash nodded and stood up alongside a panicking Goh. "What does this mean?" Goh asked hysterically. "Is the world gonna end now? Do I need to be worried?" He kept a barrage of questions coming before Ash put his hand over his mouth to shut him up.
"It means that we need to find him," Ash responded calmly. "We don't have time to go crazy. Understand?" Goh stared at Ash momentarily, realizing that he had grown a lot more mature since they had shown up in Kalos together. "Got it," Goh responded calmly, mirroring Ash's emotions.
Ash gave Goh a melancholic smile and looked at his friends, all on the ground. "We need to wake them up and make sure they're fine," Ash said matter-of-factly. He grabbed his bad arm with his good one and began walking towards Serena before Goh stopped him.
"What's wrong with your arm?" He asked worriedly. Ash sighed and softly admitted, "It hurts pretty badly, which is all the more reason to make sure no one else got hurt even worse." Goh frowned and nodded, realizing that he had gotten lucky with not sustaining any major injuries.
"Let's help everyone out," Goh said, walking over to where Chloe was to help her. As they began waking people up and breaking the news, there was a sense of dread amongst the group, with Ash being the only one trying to hold out hope for the future. "How will we even find Giovanni?" Chloe had voiced her worry.
Ash didn't have a true answer, instead just responding with, "We'll cross that line when we get there." The problem was that he knew that they had already gotten to the line and crossed it, meaning a real solution was inevitable.
Everyone found that, surprisingly, no one had injured themselves to the extent that Ash had. "Did you do anything reckless before the attack?" Sycamore had asked upon hearing this revelation. Ash tried recalling what had happened right before the attack had occurred, but couldn't procure a confident answer.
While everyone was putting themselves together and trying to recover from the attack, Ash realized something. "Where's Aaron?" He suddenly blurted, realizing they had never woken him up. There was muttering before Serena spoke up. "He was right next to the attack when it hit Greninja," she said.
Ash's eyes grew wide as she spoke. "Greninja!" He suddenly exclaimed. "Where's Greninja at?" He had completely forgotten about Greninja, as so much had been going on. There was a group-wide panic as they all began searching.
"Found him!" Serena had suddenly yelled, causing Ash to sprint directly towards where she had yelled. He was found behind a bush, completely knocked out, and visibly injured horribly. "Oh Arceus," Serena whispered as she knelt, seeing many different bruises and cuts all over his body.
Ash was speechless as he stared at Greninja. He felt incredibly guilty that he hadn't thought to find him at first. His other Pokemon had simply woken up after hearing the commotion of the group reconvening, but he had never thought that Greninja was simply too injured to be woken up by such noise.
Serena stood up and stared at Ash with a worried expression. "Should I go find someone to help out?" She asked, finding it awkward to communicate with him during this time. Ash silently nodded at Serena, who began walking away slowly. "And Serena," he said, causing her to stop momentarily before trying to find a person who could heal Greninja.
"We'll get through this," he said promptly. Serena stared at Ash and nodded in understanding of what he was talking about. "Right," she responded, before running off to find a helper. She now knew, without a doubt, that there was some mutual understanding of their feelings towards each other, no matter how unspoken it was.
Ash looked back at Greninja and stared at him before sighing loudly. "I'm sorry, buddy," he whispered sadly. "I shouldn't have let you stand there in front of Giovanni," he apologized, finding small tears forming in his eyes.
"I just don't understand what happened with our bond," Ash continued, fisting his hands angrily. "And it's not your fault, either. One second we were in sync, then the next I couldn't even get you to listen to my commands," he said to himself, finding this roadblock incredibly annoying.
Ash knelt and used his good arm to try to pick up Greninja. He was secretly hoping for Greninja to wake up upon being moved, but he was upset to discover that Greninja was still knocked unconscious. Anger surged through him as he thought of Giovanni sending the attacks toward Greninja, so he used that anger to grab Greninja and began walking towards where Serena had run off.
"I've got you, Greninja," Ash grunted as he attempted to use his one arm to put Greninja over his shoulders. There was a slight pain that was sent up his arm as he stomped onwards towards whatever could save his friend. He looked in the distance and saw Serena walking alongside a boy in a blue ninja outfit.
Serena saw Ash carrying Greninja and ran over alongside the boy. "I brought Sanpei," Serena said, panting from the run. "Let me help you, Ash," Sanpei said, grabbing the other side of Greninja. "Hey, Sanpei," Ash said weakly. "I'm sorry about the village," he said empathetically.
Much to Ash's surprise, Sanpei gave him a soft smile. "Don't worry about it. I'm just glad that everyone is relatively okay," He responded cheerfully. Ash gave Sanpei a weird look but kept on walking. Serena walked alongside Ash and occasionally gave him worried looks, as he kept on grunting as the pain in his bad arm increased.
She would've offered to help Ash with Greninja, but knew that she also was too injured and weak to do so. As they walked towards the remnants of the village, the rest of the group spotted Ash and began walking toward them in worry.
"Is Greninja gonna be okay?" Bonnie had asked when they caught up to them. Sycamore offered Ash to carry Greninja, to which he declined politely. "Greninja should be fine once we get to the medic," Sanpei explained.
Once they entered the village area, Ash looked around and saw people crying again, filling him with negative emotions once more. His anger for Giovanni had now risen beyond its threshold. I'm gonna come straight for you Giovanni, Ash thought to himself angrily as he kept on carrying Greninja. And you're gonna feel my wrath.