[Ash’s POV]

As days passed by it was beginning to get hard to keep up with the building pressure from the inevitable war coming towards us. I can only imagine what Giovanni might be doing to all the Legendary Pokemon. He might turn them into invincible weapons that know nothing but destruction. He might absorb their energy and use that for his advantage. There can be many possibilities to what Giovanni might reach.

With the limited resources left for us, we had come up with the best plan we could. I know he will be attacking the moment he feels right. We don’t know what burrow he’s hiding. We don’t know if he had a drilbur among us. He could be watching us working on our plans while planning his own to finish us.

He has all the Legendary and Mythical Pokemon, the Jewel of Entity and a huge army, maybe bigger than what I can even imagine. And no love for anyone’s life, He will send them all to their deaths to defeat me no matter what.

All I have is a small number of soldiers, My trusted friends, the four Jewels and my pokemon. And my selfishness for all of them. I don’t want anyone to die. If anything, I’d rather fight him alone. But that would just be dumb. So here I am building my own army for destruction.

I was brought back from my thought by an explosion, I lifted my head to see pikachu doing his best to deflect Max Charizard’s Flames.

Charizard’s ultimate form was named Max. Though he was mostly immobile due to his huge size in this room. He was invincible, his body was harder than anything, his flames were hotter than lava. The training facility inside the headquarters wasn’t adapted to his power. The fact that our minds were connected, I could tell he was only letting out a fraction of his strength. Not just that he was holding back but the terror I sensed from greninja was horrible. Even after being a water type, Greninja had a hard time getting in close to Charizard. None of the pokemon were able to reach within metres of Charizard due to the immense heat. The nearest anyone made was Zygarde, almost reaching about 5 metres in before its cells got blown away.

I watched every Pokemon trying his best to defeat Charizard. I wanted to test out his limits but there didn’t seem any end to it. The energy from the Jewel had increased his durability exponentially. I was impressed at how well he was able to control the immense power without losing his mind. Usually Charizard were known for becoming rebellious when they felt their trainer wasn’t up to their level of power, but seeing Charizard obeying my orders made me realise that I wasn’t the same old trainer I used to be, the one who trained a little charmander.

Yeah, I had a terrifying look on my face all the time. As the days passed by my temperament seemed to get worse. Pikachu was doing his best to keep me in check. I had stopped taking naps, I barely ate food, and I was always on round checking up on the training.

I was yet again brought back from my thoughts as the flames from Charizard’s horns intensed in front of me. I was about a metre above him, afloat in the air inside a barrier I made with the power of the Jewel of Energy. Pikachu, Greninja, Pidgeot, Xerneas, Rayquaza, Zygarde and Zeraora were breathing heavily on the field. Charizard seemed to be tired as well but was doing far better than any of those.

“Okay, that’s enough for today. Take rest.” I ordered as both Greninja and Charizard reverted back from their evolved forms.

I hovered down on the field and walked up to everyone. I felt like I was going too hard on them lately. But I had to make them ready for the war.

“Pikachu, you’re small, so you’re hard to target, but you say way too much in the air. That way you won’t be able to dodge the attacks better. Try to stay low and in contact with obstacles as much as possible. Use your limbs to change course at point blank range.” Pikachu nodded as he plopped on the ground.

“Pidgeot and Greninja, you guys are fast, but you’re not made for strength. So don’t head in for the attack on heavy attackers. Practise on ranged attacks accuracy more.” Greninja gave me a thumbs up, while Pidgeot gave a huffed nod.

“Xerneas, you’re a vital component for our team. You will be taking charge of the Jewel of Life so I expect you to be on guard and not be in the centre for everyone’s attention. You can manage the rest on your own.” Xerneas gave a gentle bow from its sitting position.

“Zygarde, you’re bulky, and not that agile. Dodging precision attacks will be tough so stay in the defence guard. Use your defensive ability to keep in check with the nearby soldiers or pokemon. You will be supplied plenty of energy to stay in our 100% form so don’t worry about heavy attacks.” Zygarde gave a low grunt of approval.

“Zeraora, you are strong and fast. You will be alongside Pikachu on the vanguard.” Zeraora bowed slightly giving acknowledgement.

“Rayquaza, you keep the sky in check from way above. The weather condition, meteors, and anything that cannot be seen from the ground. Pidgeot will be leading the air unit so you won’t be required until later in the battle. When the enemy confirms your location in space and has a weapon to counter you, descend down and take the lead of the air unit while Pidgeot will go into attacking. Switch in with him from time to time.” Rayquaza gave a soft grunt of its own.

“Charizard, you won’t be assuming your Max form from the start. It would be too foolish to do that. We don’t know what counters they might be using. But you will be in the front for your first shift then after evolving move above and check the range attacks.” Charizard grunted as a response.

“Our first and foremost priority is to achieve the Jewel of Entity. Once we get that, I want all units to retreat immediately. Charizard will then exterminate everything ahead. No remorse.” Most of them looked at me confused, but Charizard and Greninja just nodded in reply.

I thought for awhile before saying, “he held back a lot more than needed. His Max form has no limits.”

With that I turned around, “you can have rest now. Training is complete. From tomorrow just train your own units and convey the plan down to everyone. The war can happen any day.”

I walked out of the training facility and took a long breath. I made my way towards my office, while I pulled out my phone and dialed Serena’s number. I had several of her missed calls and I didn’t answer them for about a week now. I felt bad but I wasn’t feeling up to it.

Pressing the device to my ears I walked the silent path to my office. The ring went for three rounds when someone picked up.

“Hello?” I spoke.

No answer.

“Hello? Serena?” I called again.

Again no reply. This didn’t seem good..

“Umm Serena? You there? Hello?” I waited and tried really hard to listen to something, but nope.

Welp, looks like I’ll need to make up..

“Listen baby, I’m sorry ok? I really am.. I-I- was busy. I saw your missed calls but I had a lot of tension and work load. I didn’t want to abandon you either but I couldn’t do anything. I’m sorry okay.. How is Leaf? Is she doing good? Please answer me.. I will be there for dinner tonight alright. My work is done so we can have our time together now. I’ll stay for as long as you want. I have everything under command now. I just have this last thing to do and then i’ll be ba-”

“I don’t wanna talk to you.” She croaked out in a hoarse voice. Then the call ended.

Shit.

I looked at the phone for a moment before taking a running start for the office. I rushed through the door and opened my PC. I called my assistant and told him what to do and handed him all the things. I then asked a worker to get me a box of pastries from lumiose city bakery as fast as he could.

While he was gone, I called Alain and asked him to cancel all my meetings for the day. I told him to manage the day on his own and let Calem and Marnie know too. He replied with ok and best of luck. I was confused for a while before I realised I was the only one who didn’t know I was dumb. I mentally cursed myself. As soon as the man arrived with the pastries, I made a run for the residence. I grabbed a bouquet from the vase in the lobby on my way up.

I stood before the door to my room and straightened my clothes. I held the bouquet and pastries in front of me before knocking the door. I heard sounds from inside before it opened.

Serena stood there with an unamused expression staring at me. No one said anything for a while.

“Hi.” I said nervously. I was scared right now. I recall being pissed off for a week to everyone and here I am standing in front of my Girlfriend who is pissed off at me. Guilty.

Leaf walked around the door to see who was there but went back as soon as she saw me. I seriously messed up here.

“You look horrible.” she said. No emotion.

I did, I haven’t slept in three days, and was wearing the same clothes for a week. Not a clue when was the last I ate something, my stomach was dying after all the running. If I don’t get food soon, I’m dead.

I stretched my arms and handed the flowers to her. She took it without question and.. She threw it away. Okay that was something.

“I got pastries, your favourite ones.” I handed the box to her hoping she wouldn’t throw it away as well.

She looked in the box then placed it on the shelf near the door. Phew.

“I’m sorry…” I pleaded. I really wanted to make things good again.

After a while, she sighed and moved back. I waited until she said to get in. I nervously walked in, I saw Leaf sitting on the couch watching TV, not giving a glance at me.

Serena closed the door behind me, “I missed you..” she said softly.

“I’m s-”

“Don’t you say you’re sorry!” She screamed, tears starting to roll out her eyes. I was silent.

“You made me wait for you, for a whole week when you were literally in the building ahead. Have you ever checked your phone, Missed calls, unread messages and unread voice notes. Do you even know how much I missed you? I wasn’t permitted to go to meet you so it was your duty to come to me, isn’t it? But you never even called me once let alone come here. Alain came to visit me and Leaf, Marnie did, Gary too and even Calem visited but you. You don’t know how much Leaf wanted to see you. She used to cry herself to sleep for the past few days because you never came. I knew you weren’t in trouble because you’re not anywhere far. But I still cared for your health. Have you been eating well? Have you taken rest or not? Not with that horrible look. I know you were busy but at least you could let me know that you’re doing well or at least try to get some food and rest. If you care for me then take care of yourself more.” she cried out.

I stood there with my head hung low. I didn’t know what to say here.

She wiped her tears before coming forward and taking me in a hug. I hesitantly wrapped my arms around her as she cried over my chest. I probably smelt really bad but she was too broken to think that. “I’m sorry Serena..” I whispered out.

After a while she backed off, and wiped her face.

“Go take a shower, you stink.” she said pointing towards the bathroom. “I’ll get the dinner ready.”

I nodded and did as told. For now I am no longer the president of Pokenation. After bath I changed into comfortable clothes and sat at the table with both of them and had dinner. no one spoke anything during then. After dinner we sat at the couch, Serena and Leaf seated across the coffee table from me.

“Now, we would like to hear all the things you did back there. We wanna know what kept you away from us for so long. And if it feels okay we will forgive you.”

And so I told them everything, the work, the plan, the final decision and the danger. Leaf came to my side after hearing it all and gave me a hug. She cried her heart out on me, she missed me a lot and I felt really bad for leaving them for so long. I glanced at Serena who was smiling at me, she mouthed me the words “I forgive you” to which I replied with a smile. She got up and took Leaf from me who was now calmed a bit.

“Let’s get you to bed, sweetie.” she said as she took her to her room.

I went to my own room and got settled on the bed. Serena came back soon and crawled in the bed and cuddled me.

“I missed you alot.” she whispered. I planted a soft kiss on her lips before replying.

“I missed you too.”

To be continued...

Hey, sorry I couldn't update last week for an important reason. But today I will be updating both my stories. One is done, now ASKOL is left which will be updated soon today itself. I hope you like this chapter, vote if you think it was good enough and comment me your thoughts and do share with other readers.

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Goodbye until next week.

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