"Well, they went well as expected today," Ash told Trevor, Pikachu, and Lucario as they exited from the stadium.

"Yeah. Harrison was a tough opponent, but thankfully, my Empoleon put up a good fight and defeated his powerful Blaziken." Trevor stated as he faced Harrison, in his match today, and won. "My opponent, in the quarterfinals, will be Ritchie."

"Yeah" Ash responded. "You against Ritchie will be an interesting quarterfinal matchup tomorrow, but other than that, the other three battles won't be much of a contest."

"Don't get cocky, man," Trevor stated in a bit serious tone. "You're up against Paul tomorrow. He's one tough cookie to beat. Even though you finally managed to defeat him, in the Sinnoh League, he has gotten stronger since the last time you two faced each other."

"No need to worry, Trevor. You just win your match tomorrow, and I'll win mine." Ash responded. "If we win both our matches tomorrow, we'll be facing each other in the semifinals."

"That's right," Trevor replied with a smile. "Mewtwo and I have been dying to face you and Lucario, for quite some time now."

"I hope so. It'll be a very interesting battle." Ash said with a smile on his face.

Ash, along with his faithful Pokémon, and Trevor walked toward the hotel, which was shining, in the already darkened sky, outside of Saffron City.

"Remind me again, how you lost to Ritchie, back in the Indigo Conference, Master?" Lucario questioned with a smile on his face.

"Pika pi, pika, pika cha. Chu Pikachu, Pikachu pika pi Pikapi," Pikachu answered for Ash, from his shoulder.

"How does Charizard feel about being, technically, beaten in a battle by a Pikachu?" Lucario asked with a smirk on its face. "I mean, that overgrown lizard has so much pride, that you would think it would be embarrassed by that."

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Ash asked as he expanded Charizard's Pokéball in one of his hands.

"I'd rather not and say I didn't," Lucario answered with a nervous chuckle.

Ash, Trevor, and Pikachu all laughed at their friend's comments and expression, as they entered the hotel lobby.

---

"May, I don't know how I feel about this plan," Dawn said with a nervous look on her face.

She was scanning the lobby of the hotel searching for Aaron, who was expected to be coming into the hotel at any moment after the last match of the Round of 16 ended a few minutes prior.

"And you think that I'm feeling any better about it?" May questioned back.

She, too, had a nervous look on her face, as she held a faded blue handkerchief, in one of her hands.

"I mean, it's really manipulative, but if Serena thinks it'll work, then we should trust her."

"Yeah, but I think this is overdoing it. I mean, Aaron might flip out on us." Dawn whispered.

"Don't remind me," May muttered under his breath. "Oh man. Here he comes!"

She saw the figure of the trainer, with his Pikachu and Lucario, along with Trevor, walking past a window of the lobby.

"You know what to do, right Dawn?"

Dawn nodded her head tentatively, as she saw their target walk through the door. "Yeah, let's just get this over with."

"It's showtime, I guess."

---

When the group of four entered, they noticed two girls in, what seemed like, a heated conversation. Ash noticed it was May and Dawn. He gave a weak smile, under his mask, as he headed towards the two girls.

"Hey, you two. What seems to be the trouble?" Ash asked as he got the two girls' attention.

His eyes fell to a familiar piece of cloth that May held in her right hand. He felt his body tense at what the conversation might be about.

"Oh. Hey, Aaron," Dawn said casually, turning to the newest member of the conversation. "I'm just talking with May about what we should do next."

"What do you mean by 'next'?" Ash asked as he felt a pain in his stomach.

"Well, you see Aaron, Serena has been carrying this stupid thing around, for nearly five years," May said while flipping the piece of cloth around. "It was given to her by her ex-boyfriend. We kept on telling her that she needs to move on, and well this time, the conversation got a little heated."

"Why is that?" Ash could feel his blood begin to boil.

"She started crying about how he was the only one for her and blah, blah, blah," Dawn mocked. "So we took this away from her, saying it was trash and all of that. She needed to grow up. She went through a hissy fit and ran off into the woods. If you ask me, she needed a wakeup call, eventually."

"Why would you do that?" Ash yelled as he felt his control, on his emotions, quickly vanished.

"Because he's never coming back!" May snapped back. "Plus, this stupid thing is keeping her from hunks, like you!" She winked at Ash with a playful smile on her face.

Trevor did a facepalm as he was really annoyed and frustrated with the girls' hurtful actions towards Serena.

"You're wrong about that," Ash said cautiously.

"Kind of hard to bring back someone from the dead," Dawn said with a chuckle. "Plus, I don't think the time spent, six feet under, would be nice to his face. Yikes! He could make Frankenstein look like a hottie!" Both girls laughed at the comment, even though they wanted to throw up, on the inside, from what they were saying.

"Give me that!"

Ash grabbed the blue handkerchief from the May's hand, before turning to his two Pokémon.

"You two, stay here with them!" He glared at the two girls. "Make sure they don't follow me or cause any more trouble for people, around here."

"And where exactly are you going?" May asked in a huff while putting her hands, on her hips.

"I'm going to find Serena and fix the mess that you two idiots made!" Ash said while turning to the door. "Try to keep your mouths shut, before you get yourselves in trouble!"

Ash burst through the hotel doors and dashed to the tree line of the woods.

Inside the hotel, May and Dawn let out a sigh of relief, before collapsing to their knees. They both held an exhausted look, as they saw Ash run through the doors of the lobby.

"Finally! I don't know how much longer I could have gone," Dawn said exhausted, from the act the two had just put on.

"I agree with you, Dawn," May said with a hopeful look in her eyes. "But hopefully, Serena can find a good guy in Aaron. She deserves someone special, after all, she's been through and why are you two smiling?"

Both coordinators turned to the two Pokémon, who were entrusted to keep watch on them. Pikachu and Lucario both had smiles that stretched from ear to ear, as they simply looked at each other. Their trainer would finally be reunited with the girl of his dreams, once again.

As for Trevor, who was standing next to Lucario, on its right side, however, he had a worried expression across his face. His thoughts raced as he's thinking Serena's reaction after Ash revealed himself to her. Ash, I hope you know what you're doing here. Once your mask comes off, in front of her, you better be prepared for whatever emotional reaction that Serena throws at you.

---

Ash ran through the woods, as he made his way to the only place, he could only think of, which she would have gone to. He was praying and hoping to find her, in the clearing, where they had met, on the night of the opening ceremony. He turned around a tree and came into the clearing, which has been drenched with the light of the moon that shines above.

In the middle of the clearing, he could see the huddled form of a sobbing girl. Her weak cries could be heard from his position, near the tree line. He walked a little closer but stepped on a twig, which alerted the girl of his arrival. Her head jolted upwards to see who it was. When she saw it was him, he noticed a sparkle in her eyes, behind the tears. He continued to walk toward her.

"I think this belongs to you," he offered the faded blue handkerchief to the crying Serena.

She sniffled a bit, before taking the piece of cloth from him. She was looking at it fondly, before stuffing it into the pocket of her skirt. "Th-thanks," she stuttered. "I appreciate it. It means a lot to me."

"You know those two were acting like jerks, right?"

Serena gave a sad smile, while she chuckled softly. "But they're right, you know."

"What do you mean?" Ash asked. He felt his heart slowly beginning to break, as he watched the mess that Serena was in, all because of him.

"I've been waiting for so long," Serena said as she turned away from the masked trainer. "I have been waiting for years, for him to return. I saw the explosion. Remember that nightmare I told you about, a few nights back?"

"Yeah. I do," Ash answered softly.

"Well, it wasn't just a friend that died then," Serena spoke timidly. "He was the only boy that ever made me feel special. He inspired me to follow my dreams, further than I ever thought I could. I mean, I wouldn't be here without him," she said as she gestured to the area that they were in. "I owe him everything, and when he died, it was hard, for me, to move on. I still haven't. I still wait for him to return. I'm so sorry that I have to tell you this, Aaron. You're a great person, but I will always wait for him, even though that's the only thing I'll ever do, for the rest of my life."

Ash felt a surge of confidence overtake him. He didn't want to do this, until after the tournament, but he just couldn't watch the girl, he loved, keep on suffering, emotionally, like she was now. He took a deep breath in before speaking.

"What if you didn't have to wait anymore?"

Serena took a quick gasp, before turning to Ash. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," Ash said as he bent his head forward. He slowly took off his hood, to reveal his jet black hair. "What if he didn't want you to wait anymore, either?"

And then, he took off the mask that covered his face and down to his neck, as he lifted his head up while revealing his face to Serena.

"See? Now, you don't have to wait anymore."