A Journey's Link

Chapter 16 - Burden

Serena couldn't believe her ears. Ash? she thought. As in, the Ash I traveled in Kalos with, the Ash who helped me follow my dreams, the Ash who I admired and adored? Her mind was racing with a lot of thoughts. It was at the airport when I last thought of him, she continued thinking.

Her train of thought was interrupted by May, who had a noticeably worried look on her face. "Serena?" she asked. "You look troubled and your face is a bit red." Serena quickly responded by exclaiming, "I'm fine!" She turned away from May and stared out the window. Drew, who was barely listening, continued scrolling through his phone, clearly not caring about May's story or Serena's odd behavior.

May, on the other hand, did care and continued to pester Serena. "Do you know Ash or something?" May asked. "Are you sure you're okay?" Serena turned back and tried to calm down. "Yes, I promise I'm fine," she replied; she needed to change the subject fast, or else more details were going to surface regarding Ash.

"What do you think caused the storm?" Serena asked May; she had a feeling she could've caused it due to the loud noise happening alongside it, but she tried to shake it off as the only other subject was Ash, and that was something she didn't want to talk about out of embarrassment.

"Honestly," May began, leaning forward on the table with curiosity in her eye. "I think it was a legendary Pokemon, like Lugia or Thundurus!" She began walking around the room as she thought. "I mean, what else could cause weather like that? It had to be a Legendary Pokemon!"

Serena could not care any less than she did currently about the origins of the weather, so she reached into her bag and pulled out the crystal. She looked at it closely, trying to figure out why it had suddenly turned orange, and why it had been purple when it was making the loud noise.

Drew, who had still not been listening, peeked at the crystal out of curiosity. He snobbishly commented, "What is that? Some sort of jewelry?" and craned his head to get a better look. May, who was caught up in her fantasizing about what caused the weather, noticed Serena's crystal and formed a confused look on her face.

"Wait," May said. "Wasn't that crystal red last time we saw it? Which was just last night?" She sat down next to Serena, who didn't answer Drew's pointless question but did answer May's. "Yeah it was red," Serena said. "It turned orange for no reason during our performance." She decided to end her answer there because she didn't want to give them any reason to suspect she could've caused the electric rain.

May sat silent for a second before groaning out loud. "This is all too confusing!" she exclaimed, putting her head down on the table, before just as quickly pulling it up again. "I know! How about we get food!" she offered. "That'll be a good way to figure things out!"

Serena softly giggled, as she knew May loved food almost as much as Pokemon Contests. "Yeah, sure," she said. "That's a good idea!" She put her crystal back into her bag and stood up, willing to go to any restaurant; anything that would help keep her mind off of the many things weighing it down was welcome.

Drew stood up and grabbed his bag. "I've got to get back to Mauville City where I'm staying, so hopefully you two don't blow up the city while I'm gone," he sneered. May's eyebrows creased as she began walking toward Drew angrily; she was tired of his rudeness and needed to teach him a lesson.

In response, Drew pulled out a rose and forced it into May's face. "Here," he said. "A little parting gift for helping out the city." May was speechless at Drew's sarcastically kind gesture and failed to think of a response as Drew smugly walked out of the Center and towards Mauville City.

Serena laughed at the whole incident, teasing May about it. She mimicked Drew with the rose and mocked May's reaction when he stuffed it in her face. May slightly blushed as she held the rose near her. Serena stopped after a while and suggested they go find a restaurant before they got too hungry.