Shout out to AyameChi, of DeviantART, for her artwork above!

Ash felt a ringing in his ears, as he began to return to consciousness. He fought to open his eyes. His already shaking vision was blurred, as a groan escaped his lips. In front of him, he could barely make out the image of Pikachu and Lucario huddled over him. He could faintly pick out the movement of their lips, but could only hear the ringing that had captured his ears. The cries of his Pokémon began to fight through the ringing, their voices becoming more audible every second.

"Pika pi! Pikapi, pi pika Pikachu!" the yellow mouse Pokémon shouted, as he heard the grunts, coming from his lifelong friend.

He skirted to his side and began pushing Ash, helping his friend to get up.

Still dazed and confused, Ash brought both hands up to the ground by his shoulders and started the painful process of pushing himself up off the ground. He managed to get to his knees when a sharp, hot feeling hit his chest. He coughed harshly, as he finally realized the choking sensations that captured his lungs. Each breath he brought in, it came with dust and further burning. He reached up and tore the mask from his face, as he gasped for air.

With his mask off, each breath came easier than the last. His vision and hearing began to slowly come back to him, while he stayed on his knees. Suddenly, the screams of familiar voices rang in his ears. He slowly turned his head to the elite suite, where his friends sat in. Each of his friends was standing up from their seats, as they were screaming their hearts out, for him to get up.

A soft chuckle escaped his lips before a grimace of pain replaced it. He managed to pull himself up to a single knee. His eyes moved from his friends to his opponent, who stood in his box, laughing.

Giovanni looked on with amusement at the struggling figure, before him, and the shouts from his friends above. The smile grew with every gasp of air, that Ash took in, and every expression of pain that moved across his face.

I finally broke him. Whatever confidence, that he may have felt, has all but vanished. Giovanni thought before he stopped laughing and spoke up.

"I can see it in your eyes." Giovanni purred out. "You know you can't win! How it must feel to come so close to finally bringing me down, twice, and coming away empty handed. Tell me, how does it feel, Ash Ketchum!"

Ash took in the words from his opponent. Was he right? Had he come so far, gotten so much stronger, abandoned everything for five years, only to come up short again? Ash closed his eyes and his face fell to the ground, while the memories played through his mind, once more.

---

Ash fell to the ground, like the hallway, he was running through, began to shake. This isn't good! I don't have much time!

He got up and continued his journey through the hallway. He had climbed the stairs of the Team Rocket HQ and was nearing his destination.

Ash paused, as he finally got the door that he was seeking. Taking a deep breath, he placed a hand on the doorknob and swung it opened, to reveal an extravagantly decorated office.

"Ah! I see you finally made it! Took you long enough!" Ash's eyes shifted to the chair, behind the large wooden desk, to see it turn to reveal Giovanni. "I was wondering if you were ever going to get past my guards."

Ash snarled at the comment. "Where is she, Giovanni?! WHERE IS SHE?!" he snapped.

Giovanni chuckled, as he slowly rose from his chair and began to make his way to the far end of the room. He was stopped, as a hand grabbed his arm firmly and spun him around.

"You aren't going anywhere, you son of a bitch!" Ash roared. "It's over! You'll tell me where Serena is and surrender now!"

"Oh how wrong you are, boy." Giovanni purred. "You'll let me walk out of here, without so much as a scratch."

"And why is that?" questioned Ash.

"Turn around and see for yourself," Giovanni responded.

Ash tentatively turned around. His eyes widened at the sight that he took in. Sitting in a chair, leaning against the glass window, which looked out over the fifth story view, was Serena.

She was wrapped in ropes, to constrain her movements. Ash began hearing the muffled screams that the restrained girl tried to let out through the roped, which prevented her from speaking.

"YOU BASTARD!" Ash turned around to see Giovanni smirking. "YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS!"

"Oh yes, I will." Giovanni retorted. "You have two options here, boy. Either you stop me or save your girlfriend. You see, there's a box, right behind her chair. It's set to detonate, not enough to blow this place up, but enough to shatter the glass, while allowing her to fall to her death!"

Ash turned to see that what the man said was true. "So either we duke it out here," Giovanni continued, as he enlarged a Pokéball from his belt, "which would take some time, something which she doesn't have much of, or you let me walk out of here and save her life, instead."

Ash didn't hesitate. He quickly turned and ran to Serena's side.

"Good boy." Giovanni laughed. He entered an elevator and began to descend to the lab, located in the basement.

Ash ran and slid until he came to a stop, in front of Serena. Not wasting time, he quickly grabbed the chair and moved her away, from the glass, and then, untied her.

"Ash!" Serena gasped, once she was able to talk. "You shouldn't have saved me! You sho-"

She was interrupted, as Ash crashed his lips against hers and wrapped her in a warm embrace.

"I can stop him any day," Ash said, as he broke the kiss. "but I can never get you back. Now, come on! We aren't done here yet!" He grabbed Serena's hand and led her quickly to the computer.

Ash sighed in relief, as he noticed the computer was still on and logged in. He stuffed his hand into his pocket and pulled out a black flash drive, which he then proceeded to connect it into the computer. Serena looked on in confusion, as a black screen suddenly appeared on the computer. Stars began to appear, as Ash's fingers glided over the keyboard. He pressed enter; and suddenly, a loading bar came on.

"Ash, I don't understand. What is this?" Serena asked.

"It's a code that Clemont wrote, the other day," Ash explained. "He made it, in order to download all the information, in the Team Rocket mainframe, including deeply encoded information. This will allow us to get the identity of every single bank account and agent used by Team Rocket."

Serena was going to respond, but her thoughts were interrupted by a loud, piercing noise. Before she could react, she was brought into a protective embrace, as Ash moves in front of her. There was a loud bang and the sound of shattered glass filled the office.

"Are you ok?" Ash asked, as he looked down to the girl, who was still in his arms.

Serena looked up from the embrace, that she was in, to see the glass, which she had been leaning on earlier, had shattered. She looked back into Ash's caring brown eyes and nodded slowly.

Ash smiled. He bent down and gave her a soft kiss on the lips.

"Good." He said to her.

She returned his smile, before hearing a beeping from the computer. Ash glanced at the computer and quickly removed the flash drive.

"Perfect timing! Now, let's get out of here!"

Ash grabbed Serena's hand and the two ran out of the office.

---

Ash opened his eyes. The voices of his friends snapped him out of his flashback. He turned to see them all standing up and encouraging him. His eyes danced across them, each friend had a look of determination in their eyes, allowing him to get up. His gaze finally ended on Serena.

I can stop him any day, but I can never get you back.

He smiled, as his own words played through his mind. This will finally be the day that I stop him and get her back!

With one last glance up to his friends, he forced himself back onto two feet. He stumbled a little bit but was caught by Lucario.

Lucario looked upon him with guilt and sorrow. "Master, I'm sorry. This is all my fault."

Ash looked over and gave the aura Pokémon a shake of the head. "No, it isn't Lucario. How could you have known that he was going to pull a stunt like that?"

Ash groaned, as he straightened back up and continued to his trainer's box.

"Now, come on. We've got a match to continue."