Wow, I wasn't expecting to get that many reviews for the chapter!

Well, I'm a man of my word (most of the time) so here's the last chapter of the story!

I still haven't decided what my story after this one will be about... but it won't take long until I'll publish it!

All there's left to say is:

R&R

Enjoy the chapter!

"I don't want to!" May yelled and pushed them away as she sat down on the bed. "Just leave me alone! I don't want to talk to anyone!"

May's two friends were about to say something when they heard a knock on the door. They looked towards the half-open door and saw a head with brown hair look in.

"May..." Caroline began with a little worried and comforting smile. "There's someone who wants to talk to you."

The three teens looked at the man that stood in front of them, deep down, May had hoped that it was Ash who came to apologize, but that wasn't the case here.

"Who are you?" The blue haired girl, Dawn, decided to break the silence between them.

"I'm a friend of Master Ash." The man replied calmly as he eyed the three people in the room. "Which one of you is May?"

Dawn and Drew gasped as they quickly looked at their brown haired friend to see her reaction, they could see tears form in her eyes.

"I'm May...." The brunette said in a quiet voice. "What does Ash want? Does he want to send me flowers? Rub it in my face?"

Dawn and Drew looked on in pain as they watched their friend; they then turned their gazes towards the man in front of them and glared at him. But to their immense surprise, he just frowned and looked at her with disappointment in his eyes.

"May, I was expecting you of all people to know that Master Ash wouldn't do anything like that." He shook his head in disappointment. "Wasn't breaking his heart enough?"

Now the group got wide eyed at the revelation, wasn't it Ash that broke May's heart?

"What do you mean?" May demanded as she ignored the tears that streamed down her face. "He lied to me, what do you expect me to do?"

"I'm expecting you to look deep inside your heart, that is... if you aren't too afraid to do so?" The man mocked her slightly with his sad smile still plastered on his face. "What did Master Ash ever do to you?"

"Did he send you?" May demanded, was this just one of Ash's lackeys that he had sent to break her heart once more? "Who are you?"

"I'm a friend of Master Ash." The man smiled a little more. "And no, he didn't send me. I'm here of my own free will, he doesn't even know that I'm here."

"Why did you come here then?" Dawn was the one to ask now, she couldn't help it, she wanted to know everything that transpired between Master Ash and her friend. "What does Ash want from May now? Can't you see that she's hurt?"

The man looked at the brunette with a piercing look for a moment, then he just looked up at Dawn with his head tilted and pulled a weird face.

"If you compare this to Master Ash, this is nothing."

"What!?" The group now yelled, how could Ash possibly miss May? Wasn't he the one who had lied to her? "What are you talking about?"

"Master Ash misses you." He stated and just leaned against the doorframe. "But you think that he just wanted to have a little fun with you."

"That's what he wanted!" May almost yelled. "He broke my heart, my hopes, and my trust! You want me to just forgive him and be his friend again?"

"No." The man simply said. "I don't think he could live with the thought of you being just his friend, I think that Master Ash wants you to be more than just a friend."

"But he lied to me!" May felt like she was about to cry again and wanted to be alone. "He cheated me and hurt me!"

"He didn't cheat on you, and he didn't mean to hurt you." The man said with a slightly annoyed voice. "And did he really lie to you?"

"He didn't tell me who he was!" May felt like she wanted to throw something at the smirking man in front of her. "He didn't tell me that he was the freaking master of The Kanto Elite Four!"

"But did you ask?"

May was about to open her mouth and answer that question, but it hit her. Ash had never lied to her, she just hadn't asked him the right questions... but still, that wasn't an excuse to break her heart and trust.

"How do you know that he's regretting what he did?" Dawn decided to help her friend, whatever the outcome was. "How do you know that he's hurt? Has he told you anything?"

"No." The word made the group lose hope again and looked down in sadness. "But I heard him tell that to one of his pokemon."

That made the others look up at the squint-eyed man with brown, spiky hair.

"What?" They asked in confusion, and May felt a little hope light up inside her. "Why would he talk to his pokemon about that? Who are you?"

"As I told you before, I'm one of Master Ash's friends, my name is Brock by the way." The breeder smirked a little, he really hoped that this will work. "And I'm telling the truth, Master Ash talked to one of his pokemon about his trip, he refused to talk to anyone else about it."

"What did he say?" May decided to speak up now, Dawn and Drew had been the ones that talked for her for a while now. But now she wanted to stand up for herself. "Exactly what did he say?"

"It all started two days ago..." The breeder began as he sat himself on a chair, ready to tell a long story.

Pallet Town... Three days ago...

Brock and Misty were waiting eagerly for Ash and Amelia to come home, along with Delia and Silver. They spotted something that looked like two figures, one of them much taller than the other one.

The group began to smile as they saw Ash and Amelia walk towards them, along with Pikachu on the elite's shoulder.

"Mommy! Daddy!" The little girl laughed as she ran to hug her parents. "I missed you!"

"Amelia!" Delia yelled as she got down on her knees and took the little girl into an embrace. "We missed you too!"

Silver walked up to Ash and greeted him with a hug, but he was confused when he felt that Ash only hugged him back a little mechanically, like it was a rather half-hearted attempt at doing so.

The silver haired man broke the hug and looked at his step-son with a worried look.

"Is everything alright, son?" He gently shook him, it felt like his body was rather lifeless.

"Yeah, everything is okay..." Ash mumbled and broke away from his grip and greeted his mother in the same, half-hearted way, he did it with Misty and Brock as well.

Silver was about to say something, but then he felt a little girl run up to him and hug him, that made him forget Ash's mood and knelt down in front of his daughter and took her into an embrace.

"Are you okay, Ash?" Brock asked his friend worriedly, he had never seen Ash like that before.

"Yeah, don't worry, Brock." The elite looked at him with resignation in his eyes. "I guess I'm just a little tired..."

"What's wrong, Ash?" Misty demanded as she stood in front of him. "You aren't just tired, where's May?"

The name of his former girlfriend felt like a knife to his chest, he held his chest and just walked away from his friends and family with a few parting words:

"I need to get back to the Kanto Elite Four, I'm going to swap my pokemon here and then I'm off."

Amelia was about to run after her brother, but she was held back by the tall breeder that shook his head at her.

"No Amelia, I got this."

Brock walked after Ash, but he made sure to keep a certain distance so Ash wouldn't notice that he was being followed.

They walked like this for maybe twenty minutes, Ash had his head down all the way towards the professor lab. Brock could see him greet the professor rather stiffly and then walked into the pokemon ranch, to the place where his pokemon were kept.

Brock followed him and could see several powerful pokemon run up to their master and greet him in different ways.

"Hi guys, how are you?" Ash asked in a depressed voice that made Brock really worried. If Ash didn't sound cheerful when he talked to his pokemon, then something was really wrong.

He watched his friend as he picked out the pokemon he should bring with him to the Elite Four.

Soon Ash had picked his pokemon and put them inside their balls, all but two pokemon.

Pikachu was still placed on Ash's shoulder, but there was one pokemon that stood next to him, eyeing him suspiciously. The cat-pokemon knew that something was wrong with his master, and he wasn't going to let it slip away so easily.

"Hey, Ash." Meowth looked at him worriedly. "Something is wrong with you, you mind telling me what?"

Ash looked at his pokemon. Meowth, that he had adopted after Jessie and James had died. Meowth hadn't been able to fight at all, but after Ash's training he was surely the strongest of his kind.

"Why would anything be wrong?" He asked in a tired and depressed tone. "I'm fine."

"Yeah right...." The cat said skeptically. "And I can kick Charizard's ass whenever I want to..."

His comment made Ash laugh a little bit, but it wasn't his normal laugh.

"Tell me what's wrong Ash!" Meowth demanded. "When you took care of me you promised that you would look after me, and I did the same thing for you!"

"You're right." Ash sighed and sat down on the ground. "But this conversation will stay between us, promise?"

"Of course!" The cat looked at his master with a curious look. "Tell me the story now!"

"Fine..." Ash sighed and looked back at his pokemon. "I didn't just experience a vacation in Hoenn, I also experienced love while I was there..."

Brock's eyes grew wide, he knew that Ash had strong feelings for the girl back there, but he would never have guessed that he actually loved her!

"Love, huh?" The cat shook his head. "That's a powerful feeling, dangerous if it's used the wrong way."

"Tell me about it." He sighed and continued his story. "When I met her, it was... I can't even describe it anymore. I felt like everything was good, no, better than good... perfect. That I felt invincible and would live forever."

"Then what happened?" Meowth asked curiously. "Why isn't she with you, or why aren't you still in Hoenn then?"

Ash just shrugged his shoulders. "Somebody told her that I'm the leader of the Kanto Elite Four, she got upset and told that she hated me and never wanted to see me."

Meowth knew that Ash tried to sound like it wasn't a big deal, but he could tell that his master had almost lost his will to live. He looked so sad and devastated!

"You know..." Meowth decided to break the silence between them after a while. "I think I know how you feel right now."

"Why do you say that?" Ash asked a little puzzled and looked at the cat with a curiosity in his eyes .

"Don't you remember the story I told you a while ago?"

Ash gasped slightly, he now remembered Meowth's story about how he learned to speak the human language just to impress a girl, and then she didn't want him and left him heartbroken.

"I'm sorry." Ash apologized. "I forgot that you had been in this position too..."

"Don't worry," Meowth assured him as he patted his back. "You have a lot to think about right now."

"Yeah..." Ash sighed and looked towards the woods, he could see some pokemon that were playing inside and there were a few Mankeys that were hanging from the trees. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, Ash." Meowth smiled a little sadly. "What'd you wanna ask?"

"How did you get over it?"

There was a moment of silence, as Meowth tried to think of an answer that was good enough to respond to his question. After a while, the cat just sighed and said:

"I didn't."

That was the signal that made Brock turn around and run towards the harbor and get the earliest boat to a certain region and meet a girl who was special to his friend.

Ash just nodded and made a gesture for both Meowth and Pikachu, that had been resting on his head listening to their story, to jump up on his shoulders.

Meowth placed himself on Ash's right shoulder and Pikachu jumped up on their master's left. Then Ash took out Pidgeot's pokeball and called him out and ordered him to take them to the Kanto Elite Four building.

Present day... at the Petalburg gym...

"Happy?" Brock had just finished his story and was about to get up. "Now, all that's left to do is for you to ask yourself one question: Do you think the story is true?"

"What do you mean?" Drew was the first one to speak after the rather baffling story, who knew that Ash was as sad as May? "Why would you come all this way just to lie to us?"

"I don't lie." Brock responded him with a little smile. "But the question is: Do you believe me?"

"What are we going to do?" Now it was Dawn's turn to speak up. "What would be the right course of action then?"

"That's only a question that May knows the answer to." Brock sighed. "I'm going back to Kanto, a ferry leaves from the harbor in six hours. I've booked three tickets, one for me, one for May and one for one of her friends."

As he said those words, Brock handed them two tickets.

"You can tear them apart, or you can use them." He walked out from May's room. "It's your decision on what you should do."

One day later... The Kanto Elite Four facility...

"Venomoth, use Poison Fang! !" Shouted a girl with long brown hair and blue eyes. "Don't let him get away!"

"Meowth." Ash sighed. "Dodge it and use Scratch."

The bug-pokemon flew towards the cat with his teeth glowing purple as he prepared to strike the cat down, he wouldn't let his mistress down!

But Meowth easily jumped away from the attack and responded by slashing the pokemon on the head with his glowing paw, making the bug-type pokemon fall to the ground.

"Venomoth!" Shouted the girl. "Please, get up!"

"You haven't defeated me in two years." Ash sighed once again. "What makes you think you can do it now?"

"Don't listen to him!" The woman told her pokemon. "Get up and use SolarBeam!"

"Wait for it Meowth." Ash just replied bored, and the ones who knew him could tell that he sounded a little sad.

Venomoth got up from the ground and glared evilly at the cat as he took in the sunlight and charged up the powerful attack, Meowth only stood there calmly and awaited his master's order. Meowth would even stand still and take the attack head on if Ash wanted it.

Soon the attack was fully charged and the bug let loose a green/orange light towards Meowth, that still stood his ground.

The beam was just a few meters from the cat until...

"Dig."

Meowth quickly jumped up into the air and used his paws to dig himself underground, making the beam to sail right over him.

"Watch out Venomoth!" The brown haired trainer shouted. "He can come up from anywhere!"

"Let's take it easy, Meowth." Ash said in a bored tone as he watched the pokemon fly around the arena, keeping his guard up. "We have all the time in the world..."

"Don't draw it out Master Ash!" The woman shouted, annoyed at him. "Just get it over with so I can beat you sometime!"

"Fine..." Ash sighed once again. "Meowth, use Thunderbolt from the hole."

The woman's eyes grew huge as she realized her fatal mistake.

"Venomoth! Get out of there, now!"

But it was too late, the yellow lightning shot straight out from the hole and struck the bug-pokemon, that was hovering right over it.

Venomoth screamed in great pain as the electricity flowed through its body, it wasn't as strong as Pikachu's lightning, but it still hurt a great deal though.

After a few seconds, that felt like hours for the poor pokemon, the electricity stopped coming out from the hole and Meowth came up from it instead and slashed the pokemon making it collapse on the arena floor.

Venomoth didn't move.

"Venomoth is unable to battle!" The referee declared and raised one of his flags. "The challenger is out of pokemon! Master Ash wins the match and gets to keep his position as the leader of the Kanto Elite Four!"

"Oh yeah!" The cat yelled and started to punch his fist into the air along with the rodent. "Bring it on bug-woman!"

"Meowth!" Ash scolded his pokemon. "Don't make fun of the challengers."

"Sorry, Ash." The cat looked down towards the ground.

"Don't worry." Ash petted the cat a little on the head before he walked up towards his opponent. "You fought good today, Aya."

Aya, the sister of Koga, looked at the master with a sad little smile.

"Thanks, but I didn't beat you."

"Don't worry." Ash assured her, even if he didn't sound so emotional. "You almost beat me this time, a little more training and who knows?"

"Yeah..." Aya felt a little better by his words. "We're still going out?"

"We never agreed on going out." Ash frowned and turned around to return to his room, with Meowth and Pikachu on his shoulder.

"I know!" The brown haired woman called behind him. "But can we?"

"No."

"Fine!" She pouted and walked out from the arena with a little smile on her face, she had been really close to defeating him this time.

"You see what I'm saying, Misty?" The dragon master said to the redheaded gym leader. "He isn't putting his heart into his battling anymore."

"I see what you mean..." Misty seemed thoughtful. "But I don't get why though."

"He almost lost this match." Brandon stated with his arms crossed as he gazed down towards the field. "He usually wipes the floor with Aya, but this time she took out five of his pokemon!"

"I know!" Misty replied angrily. "I'm saying that I don't know what's wrong with him! I haven't seen him like this before!"

"Calm down, both of you." Lance scolded them as he looked towards the shattered battlefield. "Bruno, what do you think?"

The fighting master just looked at his superior for a moment before he shrugged his shoulders. "I think that we should just let him be for awhile, time heals all wounds."

The others nodded at his wise words, but deep inside they still felt a little worried for their student, yet master.

"You did good today, all of you." Ash praised his pokemon with a tired voice, he only wanted to go and sleep now. "Tomorrow, we'll train."

"Ash." Meowth sighed as he sat down beside him on the bed. "You really need to cheer up, you seemed to have only focused half of your thoughts into this battle, you need to move on!"

"I know..." Ash sighed along with his pokemon. "I know that I need to move on, but I don't think that I can."

"Just give it time, Ash." Meowth assured him. "I know that it will resolve itself, sooner or later!"

"Pia, pikachu PikPi!" The little rodent agreed and rubbed its cheek against his master's, earning a small chuckle from him.

"Thanks, guys." Ash replied them as he changed from his battle-clothes to his normal attire. "I'll do my best."

He was about to call his little sister as he hadn't talked to his family since he came back, but he got interrupted someone was knocking on the door to his room.

He got up from his bed, fully dressed, and opened the door, Pikachu was still perched on his shoulder.

You can say that Ash was more than a little surprised when he saw a beautiful, yet insecure, brunette in front of him.

"May!"

1 day earlier... at the Hoenn harbor...

Brock sighed, it looked like his plan wasn't going to work. He was about to board the ship, but then he heard someone call his name.

"Brock! Wait up!"

He smiled as he turned around and saw two girls running towards him, one with blue hair and the other with brown hair.

They stopped at his side and panted heavily; they had been running the whole way and were really tired.

"Where's the guy who was in your company?" Brock asked puzzled as he remembered the green haired boy that had been in May's room.

"He couldn't come..." Dawn tried to find the right words. "He was detained by... well, let's just say that he has found his true love!"

"I see..." Brock hesitated a little. "Well, what are you doing here then?"

Now it was May's turn to speak, she walked up to Brock and looked him in the eyes with a serious expression.

"I want to hear Ash's explanation."

"I see." Brock smiled, those were the exact words that he wanted to hear. "But here's a tip, when we get to Kanto, call him Master Ash, it will sound weird to the people who lives there if you just call him Ash."

May didn't like it, but she nodded and boarded the ship along with her blue haired friend and the breeder.

The nautical journey between Hoenn and Kanto wasn't all that interesting, May barely said anything and Dawn was talking to Brock the whole time as she wanted to know everything about Ash and his pokemon. Although Dawn had accepted that Ash liked May and not her, but that didn't mean that she couldn't act like a fangirl towards him.

May shivered a little as they reached Kanto, it was a lot colder here than it was in Hoenn and the wind was slightly stronger too.

Brock had rented a car so they all could travel to the Elite Four facility quickly, it would take too long if they traveled on foot and they didn't have any flying pokemon that was big enough to carry them.

A few hours later, they had reached the Indigo Plateau, Brock knew some shortcuts that allowed them to bypass Victory Road

Dawn and May gasped at the size of the huge building, they couldn't believe that this was the home of the four strongest trainers in Kanto.

Brock parked the car and gestured for them to exit the vehicle. They then walked up towards the door, the guard recognized Brock and let them inside the building.

The two coordinators and the breeder could see that the arena was being used for a battle, by none other than Ash himself!

"You wanna see how a real Elite Four battle works?" Brock smirked at his two guests.

Dawn nodded eagerly but May was slightly hesitant, she was here to talk to Ash, not watch him battle.

They walked up to an empty box, that was located in such a way that the people in on the arena couldn't see the occupants of the box.

They saw Ash battle a woman slightly older than him, it was a really intense battle and they were astounded by how strong Ash and his pokemon were. They also freaked out when they heard the Meowth talk!

"How was it?" Brock smiled a little, he saw how badly Ash had battled.

"It was awesome!" Dawn chirped excitedly. "I never knew that a person could be so strong!"

"He's usually much better than this." Brock sighed. "I should know, I was the one who coached him through it all. But he has lost something that makes his battle-style a lot worse, I think he misses something very dear to him" He ended his speech in a dramatic tone and looked for their reactions.

Dawn looked very worried and May looked like she was losing the will to live.

The brunette now understood why Ash felt like this, she understood why he didn't tell her about his position, she understood everything now. The only thing she wanted to do now was to talk to him and apologize.

Brock seemed to read her mind, because she felt a hand on her shoulder and saw him stand there with a warm smile as he looked at her.

"You want to see Master Ash then?" he asked, comfortingly.

May only nodded and choked back a sob as they began to walk towards Ash's room at the back of the building.

The brown haired coordinator felt her heart thumping in her throat as she stood in front of his door, Brock and Dawn stood hidden in an adjacent corridor, they told her that this was something she needed to do by herself.

She knocked the door with a trembling hand and waited for someone to open it from the other side. She heard footsteps come closer and closer until she saw the doorknob being turned and revealed a surprised, yet handsome face.

"May!" Ash almost shouted in surprise and delight as he saw her standing there in front of him. "What are you doing here?"

"Can..." May started to stutter a bit. "Can I come in?"

The rodent recognized May now and jumped onto her with a delighted cry and started to rub his cheek against hers.

But Ash just stood there and looked at her with eyes that May couldn't read.

"Let's talk here." He said simply and leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed.

"O... okay." May gulped and looked him straight into his eyes.

"I'm sorry." She finally managed to say. "I'm so sorry for everything I've done to you!"

She started to sob uncontrollably, she didn't see how Ash was about to reach his hand out but then he quickly withdrew it.

"I'm sorry for not letting you explain, I'm sorry for not letting you defend yourself, I'm sorry for the things I called you, I'm sorry for everything!" She was crying openly now and Ash looked at her with pain in his eyes. "Can you forgive me, Master Ash?" She finally managed to choke out through her crying and looked at him with puffy eyes.

Ash just looked at her, she couldn't see any emotion in his eyes and she held her breath when he opened his mouth and said one word:

"No."

It was like time had stopped, everybody that heard it gasped in surprise and shock, Pikachu looked at his master like he was an idiot or something and Meowth was seriously considering beating him up just for that answer.

"Oh..." May felt her heart sink in her stomach and then break into pieces, that was until she felt Ash's hand lift her chin up so she could look him straight in his eyes.

"I'm not going to forgive you if you call me 'master'." Ash said with a serious look as he looked straight into her eyes. "However, if you call me Ash and answer one question then I will consider it."

"And..." May hesitated, she didn't want to get her hopes up for fear of the possible heartache. "What's the question?"

"Do you love me?"

May thought it over, did she love him? First she had loved him and then she said that she didn't know if she loved him. What did she feel now? She tried to consider the question with all sorts of thoughts and scenarios, but the only word that popped up into her head every time she thought of the question was:

"Yes." May said as she look Ash straight in his eyes. "Yes, I do love you, Ash."

At first Ash's face didn't show any emotion, then it cracked into a smile and he opened his arms wide to take her into a hug.

May felt her eyes water up as she leapt into his embrace and felt the strength and comfort of his arms as she nuzzled her face into his chest and sobbed lightly.

Ash took in the sweet scent of her hair as he smiled, it had been a long time since he had felt this happy. Over the top of May's head could he see his friend standing there with another girl at his side, he frowned a bit and wondered what Brock was doing here, but when May tightened her grip around him he figured it out and mouthed a 'thank you' to the breeder that just nodded with a smile plastered on his face.

After a few minutes they broke the hug and May looked at him once again.

"Do you love me?" She asked and waited expectantly for his answer as she looked into his warm, brown eyes.

"Will this answer your question?" Ash smiled and pressed his lips softly against hers, still in the embrace.

May smiled and responded to his kiss with all the passion that she could muster and they stood there and kissed for several minutes until they heard a sound that startled both of them.

Dawn couldn't help herself, it just looked so cute! She let out a big squeal of happiness as she probably made the breeder next to her to crap in his pants.

When everybody looked at her in confusion she started to blush deep red and held her hands up in an apologetic gesture.

"Dawn!" May laughed as she still was in the arms of the elite. "Come over here and say hi!"

Dawn walked up to Ash, trembling, who wouldn't do that if you were going to meet your biggest idol?

"H... hi." She stuttered and waved a little. "My name's D... Dawn and I'm a friend of Ma... May."

"Hi Dawn, it's nice to meet you." Ash smiled and extended his hand. "My name is Ash Ketchum."

Dawn couldn't hold it back anymore, she quickly began to jump up and down at a speed that could put Amelia to shame as she looked eagerly at Ash.

"Can I get you autograph? Can I!?"

"Sure..." Ash sweat-dropped, but a sudden memory came to him.

"Hey, I remember you!" Ash suddenly burst out as he looked at Dawn. "You're the girl who was at that match of mine, last month! Weren't you the one who threw in your..."

He stopped midway through his sentence as he saw Dawn gasp and blush before she fainted.

"Dawn!" May cried out and started to try and wake her friend up .

Ash just looked puzzled at the scene, then he looked at Pikachu who just shrugged his shoulders, then he turned his gaze to Brock who just shook his head in amusement as he watched the scene.

"Can you understand any of this?" Ash smiled as he asked his longtime friend. "Any of the events that have happened in the last couple of weeks?"

"No, Ash." Brock laughed a little bit as he patted him lightly on the back. "But one thing I do know for certain."

"And what's that?" Ash asked in confusion.

"This is definitely a love not too soon to be forgotten!"

Ash looked at Brock for a moment before his face cracked into a smile.

"That's just lame, Brock."

End of chapter 12

ATTENTION:

Well, this ending sentence wasn't maybe as poetic as in "The Return Of The Forgotten", but it wasn't bad, right?

People usually says that every authors second story is much worser than his first, what do you think?

You can now tell me what you think I should write, romance/drama or action/adventure?

It's better to review later than never and I'll be seeing you in my next story (If it doesn't turns out as pearlshipping, then I'll probably just see a few of you. But if I write a pearlshipping story it will just be a little in the end of it!)!

Can I ask you for another favor? I really wants to beat my first story's review-count, so it would be nice if as many as possible could review about this story! ^^

R&R