It had now been just over a month since the tournament first began and it came down to the last few people. Ashton, Brock, 3 people from Auran and one visitor were still in the tournament. By the end of the next round only three will remain, two of them will battle while one does not (automatically moves to the final) then the final two will battle in the final.

The previous day they had just had the battles that would take them down to the three, Ashton and Brock as well as someone from Auran were the three finalists in the tournament. Two of them would battle for the chance to be in the final while one of them progressed without doing anything.

"How are you wanting to face him Ashton?" Max asked the day after these battles, tomorrow would be the day when the two who are chosen will battle for their place in the final.

"I want to face him in the final's, when I win against him I will reveal myself and he will feel like a fool for betraying me the way he did." Ashton said with a smirk.

"You look evil when you smirk like that, did you know that?" Paul said with a small smile, the rest of the group bursting into laughter when they heard this and saw the pout on Ashton's face.

"Oh I know, that is why I do it." Ashton said joining in the laughter.

"I personally think that Brock will be the one to move ahead without battling, he wouldn't get past this round looking at those Pokémon." Max said pointing. The whole group turned to look at Brock and his Pokémon, all of them were lying on the ground in front of their trainer and looking very tired.

"Does he not heal them and let them rest? I thought he wanted to heal Pokémon." Melody asked confused.

"That is what he wanted, but by the looks of it he isn't doing a very good job with his own Pokémon let alone others." Paul said with a grimace.

Brock saw them looking over at him and returned his Pokémon before walking over to the group. "Hey I want to talk to you Ashton." Brock said, the look on his face showing this was not a friendly talk.

"What do you want?" Ashton asked, he growled when he saw the man continuing to look at his wife lustfully.

"I want you to drop out of this tournament." Brock demanded.

"Now why would I do that when this is my tournament?" Ashton asked, inside he was boiling with rage.

"Because there are only three of us left, if you drop out then things will be much easier." Brock said with a smirk, he knew how strong the Prince was so if he was able to make the boy drop out he would win this tournament easily.

"If you want that to happen then you can drop out yourself, we all worked our way to these battles and we should all fight for our place in the final. Dropping out is the cowards way to go." Ashton said with a sneer, he knew exactly what Brock was trying to do and it was not going to work.

Brock huffed and stomped away somewhere out of their sight. "Well now that he is gone want to head to the Palace?" Alain said, he and Paul were already heading back to the castle.

"Nah you guys go ahead, I want to stay out here for a little longer." Melody said with a smile.

"I'll stay with Melody." Ashton said, the others nodded and began to walk away.

"Ashton you go with them, I kind of just want some time alone." Melody said, Ashton just looked sad when she said this, Melody understood. "No it has nothing to do with you Ashton or the life I now have, I just have some things on my mind." Melody said with a smile, her husband was always trying to protect her.

"Are you sure?" Ashton asked, he was reluctant to leave her in case he had done something wrong.

"Yes love, I am not angry nor am I upset with you or the others, I just want to take a relaxing walk on my own." Melody said with a fond smile.

"Well okay then, if you are sure." Ashton said, though he did sound hesitant to Melody.

"I am a big girl love I can take care of myself when I need to." Melody said with a wink to her husband which caused him to blush.

"Oh I know you can. Call to me if you get into any trouble." Ashton said, the last bit was said sternly. They could communicate with one another in their minds which came in very handy when you needed help and couldn't move or make a sound.

"I know the drill Ashton calm down, if I get into any trouble I will call you." Melody said with a shake of her head, she loved him dearly but he was very protective of her more so now that she was pregnant.

Ashton kissed her on the lips before running to catch up with his friends, Melody on the other hand walked in the opposite direction towards the town.

"Well, what do we have here?" A female voice said from her right side. When Melody turned to look it was Misty standing to her right, when she looked around her she could also see Brock, May, Clemont, Iris, Cilan and Dawn.

"What do you lot want now?" Melody asked, she was getting sick of these people getting in her way as well as her friend's way.

"Oh nothing much we just want that stuck up Prince to drop out of the tournament. And you are going to help us with that." Cilan said with a smirk, one that was shared between the whole group.

"And why would I help you with that?" Melody retorted.

"Who said you had any choice in the matter." May said, her and the rest of her group soon began to advance on Melody.

Ashton! Melody yelled through the link she shared with her husband. She only hoped that he was able to get to her in time.

Melody! What is it? What's wrong? Ashton returned in a rush, you could hear the worry within his tone.

Its those traitors Ashton! They are advancing on me and I am surrounded with no where to go! They want to use me to make you drop out of the tournament. Melody explained, she could then feel the anger her love was now feeling.

I am on my way love, please just keep calm! Ashton said, he stopped talking but kept the link open so he would have the basics of what was going on.

"You are alone, no one can help or protect you this time!" Iris said with an evil glint in her eyes.

They then rushed Melody knocking her to the floor, she groaned when they landed on her swollen stomach and began to struggle.

"Struggle all you want, it is not going to help you." Brock said. They then took turns landing a hit on the Princess, Melody was a strong Pokémon and their hits were weak so all it would do was bruise her, however they still hurt when inflicted.

The traitors got up a couple of moments after the beating begun and looked to Melody with hate. "You are to tell no one that this happened alright?!" Brock demanded.

"If we find out you blabbed then we will kill you!" Clemont said loudly, Melody realised these were not at all like the people they once were when travelling with Ashton, they were monsters.

Melody nodded her head, she could feel that Ashton was very close to her position, it had taken his longer since the Palace was quite a distance from where she was.

The traitors laughed at her before quickly getting away, just as they left Ashton and her friends appeared.

"Melody!" Ashton yelled, he raced over to his fallen wife and sand to the floor next to her. She was covered in bruises and bleeding slightly from cuts to her body, but there was nothing broken that Ashton could see.

"I'm fine, don't forget I am a Pokémon so their hits did not do as much damage, besides their hits were weak." Melody said with a smile, she grimaced a little when she was sat up but the pain passed quickly.

"I should have been here with you! I should have known they would try something like this to someone I cared about!" Ashton said, he blamed himself for this happening to his wife.

"This is not on you Ashton, the only ones at fault are the ones who caused this." Gary said with a sad smile.

"Gary is right, this is not on you. I am partly at fault for wanting to be alone when they were here, however it is mostly their fault for doing this in the first place." Melody said, Ashton smiled as she could always make him feel better.

"What are we going to do about them?" Alain asked.

"First things first we are getting you to a healer so they can check you and the baby out, as for what we are going to do there is nothing we can do." Ashton said helping his wife into a standing position.

"What do you mean there is nothing we can do?" Bonnie asked shocked.

"There is no evidence that they had anything to do with this and if we use my witness the people will think the King is punishing innocents based on my opinion." Melody explained to them.

The healer informed them that both Melody and the child were lucky, some of those hits landed right on top of the child, however he strong body was able to take all of the hits without causing much damage to her own body let alone her child's.

Ashton sighed when he heard this, both his wife and child were safe.

Those traitors were going to regret betraying him and hurting his friends as well as annoying them all while they were in Auran. Now they were going to regret one more thing:

Hurting his family!