Waking up today was different from all the other days Hannah had woken up for the league. Either the day was filled with an easy battle to win, or a boring event that was necessary for the young trainer to attend.
However, today was different.
Today Hannah has her toughest battle yet.
She needs to fight someone she's starting to fall in love with.
Well, starting may not be the right word, she needs to fight someone that she is in love with but is too stubborn to admit it.
Hannah tries to lay in bed a little longer, but Weavile at her side is having none of it.
All of her Pokémon are having none of it.
Either in their Pokéballs or out in the open, they all know that Hannah doesn't want to face today. They all know that she doesn't want to get up, walk out of the door, then fight the first person in a long time to understand her.
The last time she did that it ended up with a horrible case of stalking.
But they all also know that her current crush isn't like that. They know that he would never do that to Hannah, and they know that at the end of the day, everything between the two of them will be just fine.
It will all be just fine.
Right?
Well, that's what Hannah has been asking herself for the past 15 minutes in her bed, wrapped up in a cocoon in her sheets.
After this whole league with Alain and Lysandre acting so strangely, she is seriously starting to question what she did in her past life to have such a weird and busy life, where she doesn't want to be an Aura Guardian.
But she knows she cannot think this way, she knows that pestering voice in the back of her head is only spewing lies to try and have her stay in bed a little longer, to try and make her really question everything.
She knows, okay?
So when Weavile and Laura finally pull the covers off of her sleeping form, she doesn't moan and groan as much as she normally would, rather she just gets up to start the day with defeating her love interest in a very important battle.
Hannah moves to the bathroom to look at her reflection in the mirror. It's obvious to all her Pokémon and herself that she did not have a good sleep last night. Hair crazy messy, eyes baggy, and full of desire to sleep yet again.
She jumps in the shower almost immediately, needing to erase that horrid image of herself from her mind. She makes it quick and comes out feeling more refreshed, energised, and looking more like her normal self, a very... prideful person.
Hannah ridicules herself at the thought and moves to out of her bathroom and into the bedroom, where she sees her Pokémon packing her bag and opening her Pokéball to feed their fellow friends.
Hannah looks at them with endearment before beginning to speak, "Hey guys."
All 6 of her Pokémon look up to what Hannah has to say. "No matter what happens today, I just want you all to know that I couldn't have asked for a better team. I love all of you, more than anything."
All of her friends look up at her with admiration, nodding their heads in agreement.
Hannah then continues on with her rambling, "No matter the outcome, let's attack this battle with bravery and compassion, and give him and his team a run for his money, yeah?"
Another set of nods erupt in the room, and they continue on their normal routine. Hannah's Pokémon know at this point to continue like normal when Hannah becomes all sappy, it just happens sometimes, enough for them to fall into a somewhat routine when it does happen.
They all get ready and Hannah summons all five of them to their Pokéballs, save Weavile who sits right in her normal spot on her shoulder.
Hannah holds her necklace in her hand and she smiles, moving towards the door for her exit from the hotel, for one of the last times.
Hannah hopes to avoid anyone she knows before the battle, never a big fan of chatting before something big. So, she walks strategically, not moving anywhere she knows people may be going. She purposely takes the long way around buildings, back exits to avoid people.
Since she took the long way, that means she's cutting it close with her arrival time.
She begins to walk down the unnecessarily long hallway, her footsteps the only thing that echoes through it.
Hannah walks down the hallway to the waiting room, minutes away from her final battle in the Kalos region. She nervously walks slower than usual, not wanting to battle at all. Her nervous glances have her looking everywhere but the end of the hallway, somehow trying to escape what's inevitable.
Her gaze did catch onto something familiar. She faults in her tracks to turn to look at the wall where she sees the Johto region photo that she saw with Ash.
She smiles slightly, looking down at the description of the piece once more,
"A few moments peace between the ongoing feud amongst two species of the same evolution line."
'A feud Ash permanently ended,' Hannah smiles fondly, looking up at the photo again, 'Once this is done, I'm taking him with me somewhere new... if he wants to of course-'
Hannah hears the call for her name and stops her train of thought to head to the waiting room, but not before muttering to herself, "Even if I'm dragging him, we're going there together."
She walks until she hits the door to enter the battlefield, in the waiting room no one is with her. She looks out of the window to view the other waiting room, it holding her opponent.
She looks away from it, trying not to think about the battle but it's all in vain when the door is opened by security to let her onto the field when her name is called.
She takes a deep breath before walking out, standing next to the security guard and out of sight to the public. she can't help but look toward Ash's side of the arena, and sees him and Pikachu looking at her, he waves, but Hannah doesn't reciprocate, the weight of the situation finally hitting her as she needs to battle him to win.
She looks away quite awkwardly, leading Weavile to flick her on the back of her head out of annoyance, her knowing her trainer a little too well.
Ash looks on at the two with confusion, looking to his companion for an explanation to what happened but only receiving a shrug in confusion, him also not knowing what on earth she is doing.
'Might be nerves,' Ash wonders, but then remembers she doesn't have nerves, she doesn't get scared, and she certainly doesn't feel anxious to battle him.
Right?
His train of thought is interrupted by the crowd screaming louder than normal. He looks to the big screen to see the screen has turned on to display both himself and Hannah, six Pokéballs on the screen per trainer and their photo on either side of the screen. The stock standard layout for a tournament.
Sir Michael makes his appearance on the screen once again as he begins one of his last speeches of this years tournament, "A very warm welcome to everyone tuning in to the final battle."
The crowd roars in excitement and anticipation, "Out of 64 amazing and talented trainers, two shone brightly and ended up being the last two remaining, them now versing one another for the title of Kalos League Champion."
Ash swallows nervously, his nerves getting to the better of him as he keeps talking. He looks to Hannah to see her nervous as well, her never showing this side of her to anyone. But she doesn't know that he can see her, her thinking that she's out of sight from everyone.
"It gives me great honour and pleasure to introduce the two trainers one final time, with one of them becoming your Kalos League champion."
"First is the boy from Pallet Town in the Kanto region, it's Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town."
Ash walks out onto the platform with a smile on his face and waves to the crowd. They immediately roar in return, smiles and arms waving everywhere with every second person pointing a camera or phone at him.
He takes his place at the platform to overlook the battlefield, which appears to be a forest driven scene, with trees and flora being seen everywhere. However, there is a decently sized path from his space to Hannah's, making sure he is able to see her commands.
He looks towards where Hannah is still standing outside of the camera's line of sight, her still fidgeting and beginning to crack her knuckles and shake her hands after doing so.
"And next we have the girl from Snowpoint City in the Sinnoh region, it's Hannah Abernathy."
The moment she is called upon, her face changes back to what the public normally see, the girl who appears to have very minimal emotions.
She walks with confidence, shines with confidence, and radiates confidence. She barely acknowledges the crowd by looking around before her eyes zone in on Ash.
'Concentrated and conniving' Ash decides is how she looks in his mind. Hannah stands on her platform and looks to Sir Michael.
"Good luck to both trainers, I wish you both a fulfilling battle where I both hope you learn something."
The referee calls for them to release their first Pokémon. Ash releases Hawlucha while Hannah releases Laura.
"Battle begin!"
"Hawlucha, use Flying Press!" Ash commands. Hawlucha then runs forward to jump in the air, about to hit Laura.
Hannah hesitates before commanding Laura to do her move, "Use Bone Rush!" Hannah says, and Laura questions her trainer's decision but does it regardless.
When Hawlucha is hit, he is swung further away, but it does no damage to him.
'What is she doing?' Ash wonders to himself, slightly annoyed.
"Why would she do that?" Sawyer asks from the bleachers with all of his friends, "Ground moves have no effect on flying types like Hawlucha."
All of them ponder on her decision except for Bonnie, who worriedly looks to Hannah, 'She did this sort of thing in her first battle of the league to show her strength, so why now when we all know anyway?'
Ash looks to Hannah to see he was wrong about when she first walked out here. She isn't radiating confidence, she's exerting fear.
"Laura, use Flash Cannon!" Hannah says, and Laura worriedly looks to her trainer before doing so. Hawlucha dodges it at Ash's command, significantly easier than he would've expected.
"What is she doing?" Ash asks Pikachu, however, he also has no idea what the girl is doing.
Hannah worriedly snaps her head up and looks at Laura dead in the eye, communicating what she is thinking, about how she doesn't know what to do. Laura looks shocked, then worriedly turns back to the battle at hand.
Hawlucha prepares and X-Scissor attack when Hannah weakly commands Laura, "Use Aura Sphere."
And she does. She makes one and sends it a little slower than normal, as soon as she sends it off feels something is wrong.
'Aura Sphere is a move that will never miss!' Ash recalls Hannah once saying, but he's already commanded Hawlucha to jump out of habit.
He jumps considerably high, and the Aura Sphere naturally changes its path to try and hit Hawlucha.
Ash glances at Hannah to see her eyes open wide at the Aura Sphere, so his eyes follow in suit.
The Aura Sphere narrowly misses Hawlucha.
Ash is stunned at this, he looks immediately to Hannah to see her anxious, only in her eyes so no one else really notices.
Except for Ash.
He observes that Hannah is freaking out more than before, her breathing becoming quicker and sharper, not thinking about what she's doing, instead of absorbed in her own thoughts.
'If I beat him, I'll lose him. I'll lose him like I lost Alain, but if I don't win then there was no point coming to Kalos and disappointing my sister, I'll lose him, I'll lose her, I'll lose him, I'll lose he-"
"Hannah!" Ash yells from across the stadium, looking at her, "Where's the Hannah I know? Please let me see her true colours." Ash is pleading, begging in his eyes for them to have a true battle of strength.
Hannah freezes momentarily, 'True colours?' Hannah thinks to herself. Hannah remembers that Ash isn't like Alain, that he isn't that petty to stop being friends with her just because she won. Then she remembers something he said to her the night of the ball.
'Hannah, I will always be with you. I will support you through anything you need. I will always be by your side when you need me. I can be your rock whenever you need me, and you can count on me forever and always.'
Hannah smiles at the memory and lifts her head to crack her neck and makes eye contact with Laura. Laura then summons an Aura Sphere and throws it at Hawlucha with the blink of an eye, stunning the both of them and rendering the crowd silent.
"Alright Ash, you asked for it," Hannah exclaims, eyes boring into Ash's own as her confidence comes back, "Here's the real me."
---
Hi everyone! Hope you're having a good day/night!
Thank you for 5,000+ reads, that's insane! It really gives me the motivation to continue the book on when you read it :)
Also sorry if the last part feels rushed, I really wanted to get this chapter out.
Hope to see you next time!
- Hannah ✨