It has been a month since Ash and Serena use the Infinity Gems to save the world, everyone has changed for the better as they continue to do their own work in the regions. Because they are capable of learning Pokemon moves, they have been training with Pokemon and they are also capable of hearing the thoughts of their Pokemon as well.

Ash and Serena have married and they invited a lot of people to attend their wedding. Their rivals and their true friends have come to show gratitude to them as they are happy for the two of them. They didn't forget about Team Alpha with their work in the past, but they know it is time to move on and they aren't going to hate them forever.

Delia is still living in the Kanto Region, but they have made a teleportation pad on the new Island so that they can meet her and have their own family time that they have missed since they are seven years old, and the others have their own jobs for their lives as well.

Right now, Ash, Serena, and Saphira are standing in front of the Legendary and Mythical Pokemon, there are Meloetta, Keldeo, Ho-oh, Eternatus, Zygarde, Diancie, Genesect, Marshadow, Jirachi, Victini, Manaphy, Shaymin, Zeraora, Mew, Kyurem, Rayquaza, Zarude, and Magearna. Saphira and Serena are looking at Ash, who takes a deep breath and he puts the Infinity Gems on the ground.

"These Infinity Gems are powerful, but they aren't supposed to fall into the wrong hands. So I want to ask you all a favor." Ash says as he takes a deep breath, "I want you all to take these gems to a faraway place, anywhere, just keep them away from others."

The 18 Legendary and Mythical Pokemon nod as they take each of the gems and leave. Serena kisses him on the cheeks and she asks, "Ash, are you sure that it is the right choice to make?"

Ash smiles at his wife and he says, "Those gems are more trouble than their worth, and quite honestly, I've had enough trouble for a lifetime."

"That may be true." Serena says. "I am glad that you accepted me, everything happened when I was hypnotized by those traitors...and yet, we are still together in the end."

"I know, we had a rough past, but the truth that we couldn't forget about our love proves that we still want to be together." Ash says.

"And I want Papa and Mama to be together as well." Saphira says as she gives them each a hug, Ash and Serena smile as they hug back their daughter.

As they head back into the castle, they smile at a Pokemon who is waiting for them at the doorway. It is a short, chubby rodent Pokémon covered in yellow fur with two horizontal brown stripes on its back. It has a small mouth, long, pointed ears with black tips, and brown eyes. Each cheek is a red circle that contains a pouch for electricity storage. It has short forearms with five fingers on each paw, and its feet each have three toes. At the base of its lightning bolt-shaped tail is a patch of brown fur. The Pokemon is Pikachu, and he is also revived with the help from Xerneas.

"Hello, buddy." Ash says as Pikachu jumps onto his shoulder, giving him and Serena a nuzzle. "How are you doing?"

Pikachu gives them a thumbs up, and the three of them are laughing at the mouse's antics. Ever since the war ends, Xerneas have all Ash's Pokemon revived and he is happy about it. Without the traitors, they don't need to suffer from starvation and beatings, they can live like a Pokemon used to.

Speaking of which, everyone is also having a good life. Mark returns to Hoenn and opens a resort at the site where he was used to working in. He is now the owner and with Lillie's help, they hire a lot of people and Pokemon, but they won't exploit the workers like what his former worker used to do to him.

Minami and Alain are dating and they are working with Professor Sycamore with the Mega Stone searching, a lot of people had never seen it coming, but they are happy for Minami and Alain to be together. Golly is now working with the International Police, and because she was dating the current president of the Aether Foundation, Gladion, they have been saving a lot of Pokemon from their beatings and they also make sure the Pokemon world is in peace.

Insey is helping her mother with the restaurant in Pallet Town, their business is quite booming since Insey made some best desserts to eat. She is dating Gary, who is now the regional Professor of the Kanto Region. Gary has been eating in this restaurant not only to see his girlfriend, and because the restaurant is close to the lab, so he can relax when he is there. As for Trenor and Chloe, they are working with Professor Cerise with Pokemon researching, and they opened an orphanage to help orphans have their own homes. A lot of people have treated the two of them as their father and mother because of how they are taking care of them, but they don't mind any of it.

Ash and Serena are now sitting on the sofa with Saphira sitting on the ground playing with Pikachu. They are now happy in their life, and they are also satisfied. Ash says, "Serena, what do you think will be our future?"

Serena shrugs and says, "I don't know. Life is filled with unanswered questions, but it is the courage to seek those answers that continues to give meaning to life. We can spend your life wallowing in despair, wondering why we were the ones who were led towards the road strewn with pain, or we can be grateful that we are strong enough to survive it."

"And love is the one that makes us where we are." Ash says with a smile, then Serena leans at Ash's shoulder as they are watching their daughter playing with Pikachu. Despair is an obstacle that blocks your path, if you have love, you can overcome anything and walk to your ideal future.

THE END

And this is the final chapter of my story, Love and Despair. Now the rest of this chapter will be my thoughts about this story.

I start writing this story on June 15th, 2020, I decided to stop writing this story at Chapter 22 after my birthday on July 24th, 2020. After hiatus, I start to continue this story on March 13th, 2021, and then I finished this story today, April 28th, 2021. I am surprised how many people like this story and I know that some people hate this story as well, like Ash mentioned, Never give up until it is over, so this is how I manage to finish this story until the very end.

I have a lot of inspirations to make this story, so I will be listing them. The first one is a story in the Fanfiction Net, from the author named Complete Hollow, the story is called Light into Darkness. In that story, Ash is the leader of an organization known as Team Omni, Dawn has cheated on him for Drew, and at the same time, his mother died in a fire. He hated the world and even tried to fuse with Arceus to destroy it, but in the end, he decided to save the world as he sacrificed himself, also giving him another chance from Arceus as well. Ash and Serena's pairing is something that I like, but because there are quite a lot of them, so I mostly write Ash and Lillie's pairing's the most. This story is my second Amourshipping story, and I am a person who likes to write Ash betrayal stories, so I decide to combine them into this story.

The second inspiration is from The Avengers, I tried to refuse to admit that my story was inspired by them, but in the end, the Infinity Gems are actually from the Infinity Stones, only that I increase triple the amount because there are 18 types of Pokemon. The death of the traitors is actually the same as how Thanos uses the snap, and how Ash and Serena were about to die is like how Tony Stark was in a similar situation. I watched some of the Avengers movies, and I like some of the heroes, such as Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, and so on. Though I didn't make this story into a crossover story is because I want to make sure that this is still a Pokemon story.

And the final inspiration is from the other fanfiction that I wrote. Ash being an Arceus is a common material for my stories, and the fact that he has five siblings is also common. Though I usually paired Mark with Serena when Ash was with Lillie, so I decide to change their positions to make Mark pair with Lillie and Ash pair with Serena. The siblings' backstories are similar to the ones in the Sevestar Prince series, but the difference is that in those stories, they are adopted into the family, but in Love and Despair, they are blood-related siblings and Professor Oak is the one that forced them to split.

Now I should talk about my hiatus from this story, why would I stop writing this story for what? 8 months? After this story, I decided to write 18 more stories, so I couldn't find any time to write this story, and second of all, I read some of my previous chapters, and I feel that the chapters are too short, I like to read stories with long chapters, so I decide to do something known as rewrite, I have all my stories for rewrite until each chapter is over two thousand words. It is a challenge to me since I am not sure how to lengthen them when some of the chapters have only 800 to 1000 words, but in the end, I have still done it.

And here are the questions that someone asks me about this story, the first question is about Ash and Serena's daughter, Saphira, how did I choose this name? Actually, this name is from the fan game known as Pokemon Reborn, the final gym leader of the game is Saphira, and she specializes in Dragon Type. And for the reason I choose this name...let's say that I had run out of name ideas since I have too many OCs, so I decide to use it because of Serena's eyes. The second question is about the traitors, why am I making them this evil? The truth is, I have nothing against them, only a small amount of them that I disliked. When I was thinking of this story, my friends in real life have asked me to try writing a betrayal story with all the travel companions as traitors. I couldn't make Lillie and Chloe a traitor, so I decide to make the two of them side with Team Alpha. And the final question: is there a sequel for this story, my answer is no. This is just one of the small stories that I write for fun. I usually don't write sequels because I am not sure how to write them. Of all my stories, only the Sevestar Prince have the sequel known as After Story, and I have been struggling for that story since I almost run out of ideas.

That is all I want to say about this story. Thank you for reading this story and I have other stories that are still ongoing, be sure to read them after finishing this story.