"Ash!" Joey and Lillie cried out before suddenly vines shot out of the ground. This time many of them not only tied up everyone once more, but encircled them into spheres, trapping them all in a thick ball of vines.

The last thing Lillie saw before the vines fully enclosed her was Ash's unconscious body.

It was outstanding how it had all happened so fast… just like that night eight years ago. There was no warning, no preparations… just destruction and unwanted change.

Bill was looking over the totaled area around Professor Oak's lab. It looked like a war had gone through with all the signs of attacks and scattered debris everywhere. Yet, he recalled that last night, his eyes were not deceiving him: there were legendary Pokémon attacking them and kidnapping Miss Lusamine.

Why though? It made no sense at all.

But worst of all, young Ash and his friends were missing when the sun rose again.

"Excuse me, sir?"

Bill turned around to see two people walking up to him. One was a man in a trench coat with black hair and the other was a young woman with lavender hair.

"Uh yes? Who are you?" The scientist asked carefully.

The two people took out something from their persons, revealing a badge from Interpol. "We have a few questions to ask."

It appeared that questions would pop up more before answers would come.

[There was Thunder in a place without clouds.]

[There was darkness in a place full of light.]

[There was a spy among cultists, but he was forced to play his hand too soon in order to save innocent lives.]

[In this place of 'what ifs' and 'could have been', three children and their partners were dropped into the river of the abyss…]

[However, where it led them is something else completely.]

+Ash+

"…Uhh, m-mom?"

+Ash+

Soon, his senses were slowly coming back. He heard the sound of thunder and in an instant, snapped upward, gasping for breath as the memories flooded back into him.

"MOM!" Ash cried out as thunder exploded in the skies above. The aura user calmed down a second before looking around him.

For some odd reason, instead of a forest, he and the others were in some kind of valley. A blue valley of all places. The large blue valley cackled with bits of electricity and he thought he saw… metal giant plants?

Besides those odd, long coiling vines, the place reminded him of a picture of the famous Chargestone cave located in Unova, known for having its own electromagnetic charge that was unique to the entire world.

However, that was not Ash's main concern. What was his concern was the fact that he sensed his friends were also nearby him. He felt relief when he found out all of them were fine, but it seemed like they were all also unconscious. What had happened when he had decided to protect his mother's gave stone?

No, those thoughts would have to be put on hold. Ash had to get these guys to safety since it looked like a storm was coming.

However, seeing as there was a lot of them. Ash decided to use their Poké Ball to return everyone back into their sphere. With that done, Ash was careful to put Lillie and Joey safely in a small indentation that should have been safe if it started to rain.

Strangely enough, even though it took a while, it didn't seem like it was going to rain. Despite the dark clouds and the booming thunder, there seemed to be no sign of water which was… eerie to the boy with heterochromia eyes.

With his friends safely secured, he tried using his aura sight—

Ash clutched his head as he suddenly shut off his aura sight. That was horribly different than he usually felt. Whenever he used that ability, there was a balance and peace of mind when entering that state and seeing the energy of the world around them.

Now? It felt like the world was suddenly at war with each other, two different essences clashed but never mixed and their contrasting energies gave this horrible friction that was disorienting to Ash who could sense the energies of the world.

Information came back into Ash's mind as he recalled something about his mother's grave. The first time he had touched it, a portal opened up that made those Kartana creatures appear. Even though he was attacked, he did touch his mother's grave again. Did that mean he and his friend s fell through another portal? It would explain where they currently were.

Though seeing what originally came from those few portals the few times he saw them open…

Ash exhaled before trying his aura sight once more. With a lot more control and patience, he scanned the area. He found himself in some valley like he saw yet… something was amiss. He sensed something off about those metal looking plants. They felt like living things in the way Pokémon and humans were, not trees.

However, his eyes snapped open when he sensed something coming their way, something with a similar energy to that of the Kartana creatures.

"Xurki…"

"Oh no," Ash searched his person and extended his staff as he turned to see a creature that looked like a giant Christmas tree of death.

It sparked to life as it seemed to focus on the aura user. It brought up several of its tendrils that looked suspiciously like plugs.

Then it attacked.

It tried to grab Ash whole in one swoop, but the young teen back flipped away before it could pull it off. Electricity started to dance from its head down to the ends of its tendrils. As it did, Ash acted fast and got out of the way of several bolts of lightning heading his way.

Then it planted most of its plug tendrils into the ground. A small spark was all Ash needed to suddenly use his staff to lift himself upward as a shock of electricity shot the ground and turned the entire area into some kind of electrical field.

As Ash landed, he looked at the ground beneath his rubber shoes. "Electric Terrain? This move increases—oh crap!"

The aura user didn't even hesitate as he infused his arm with aura to increase its throwing power and threw it like a javelin to slam the metallic staff right into the head of the killer Christmas tree. The impact made the beast stagger before it could gather an electrical blast.

As it tried to get back up, it noticed a glow of purple light—before Ash's Aura Sphere exploded on contact and threw the creature back a considerable distance back.

The teen sighed in relief before picking up his staff that had bounced off the creature after it had first made impact. Yet, before the young teen could make his way back to his friends and wonder what that thing that attacked him was, he felt an odd spike in energy.

He turned around. The good news? That killer Christmas tree was still unconscious.

The bad news? There were now a dozen more of them of varying sizes coming fast towards his direction.

"Crap." Ash looked back to his friends and made a break for them. However, as he made it to his friends, he heard something—not sensed with his aura—he heard a loud roar of an engine.

Suddenly, he moved his head up and to his utter surprise, there was some kind of half hover bike with only a front wheel and a figure dressed up in leather clothes that landed behind the group of the strange electric Pokémon and still seemed to land without stopping momentum. The figure impressively took something from their back, revealing a musket with some designs Ash had never seen before and with amazing ease, the figure shot something right for the group.

The bullet exploded in the middle of the group, causing a strange gooey substance to cover the electrical creatures and cause them to have their shiny heads flicker.

The aura user could only stare in awe as the rider blazed past the incapacitated and struggling Pokémon and stopped in front of Ash and his unconscious friends.

"Get on! That Silicone Bomb won't last long!" To the raven haired boy, it was a woman's voice, but he didn't let it really bother him and quickly helped his friends on to the side cart of said motor bike.

No sooner when they were all fastened, the woman slammed on the accelerator.

Ash watched as soon, they were making their way out of the valley and away from the creatures. However, while they were moving, the young teen noticed in the distance, there were far larger creatures in the distance. He saw that they seemed to vary in size, but he wasn't expecting creatures to be the size of a mountain. Yet unlike the others, those seemed oddly still and dormant.

"Now what the heck are three kids doing, walking across a power field like this? And why are you wearing pre-disaster clothes when it isn't safe out here? Did you come out of a vault or something?" The heterochromia boy looked towards their rescuer as she said this.

She had just said around several terms that Ash was not familiar with. However, Ash was nothing if not adaptive to being thrown in situations beyond his control. "We were attacked by some Pokémon, when I came too, we were all there."

"Yeesh, what did you do to upset them enough to get them to abandon you there?"

"That's what I was trying to figure out," Ash thought back. "Wait! They took my friend's mother! Her, but with much longer blonde hair and a little sickly, did you see any sign of her?" The aura user pointed over to Lillie.

The woman driving the bike seemed to freeze. "I'm sorry, kiddo. I didn't." It seemed like she wanted to say more than that. Ash had the feeling that she thought that woman was as good as dead, but she didn't say it out loud.

She isn't dead, otherwise why go through all the trouble of capturing her in the first place?

"… Thanks for saving us. My name is Ash. The girl is Lillie and that's Joey."

"Don't thank me kid, I was originally going to leave you before you attracted more of those Xurkitree," Ash's eyes widened when he heard that. This woman was really going to leave them? "But then I actually saw you kick the ass of one of those things without a ground type Pokémon. How'd you do that?"

The young aura guardian in training blinked. "You mean my Aura? Well, a usually rare group of people are born with special powers, you know like telepaths? But unlike them our powers manifest more in our body and souls rather than mind." Technically, anyone could be an aura user; it just usually depended on their aura reserves.

"I gotta admit that was pretty awesome what you did there." The woman responded. "It seemed like a shame to let you kick the bucket after that. Anywho, my name's Delia."

Delia? That was the same name of his mom. Putting that coincidence aside, along with how her aura does feel eerily familiar, he started noticing something. "By the way, where are we going?"

Delia pointed over in the distance where there was a wooden sign in front of a forest with blue trees? Ash used his aura to enhance his vision, to his surprise, the sign said, "Viridian Forest."

Where the heck did that portal send him and his friends?

Lillie groaned when she woke up. Her mind started to ache as she tried to remember what had transpired before she lost her—

Instantly, she sat up straight on her bed with wide eyes. "Mother!?"

Wait? Bed?

Lillie looked around her a second time, she was actually in a small room that had a circular or cylindrical shape to it rather the square and sometimes rectangular shapes she's normally seen. It was much like a bomb shelter she once read about. Her bed was actually a cot with a blanket and a pillow and there were no windows, only a door to the exit.

When she got out the door, she was surprised to see Ash talking with a rather beautiful older woman with long brown hair while both were sitting on opposite ends of the table.

"Lillie! You're awake!" The heterochromia boy waved with a smile.

"Ash? W-What's going on?" The blonde Alolan asked.

The woman sitting across from Ash stood up. "I think it's time I checked whatever supplies were left in this place." With that she up and left through another door.

"Okay," Ash rubbed his head before he went to Lillie and gently helped her to the couch nearby. "First of all, breath in and out. A lot happened, and we're going to get up to speed now."

"I'm not a kid, Ash." Lillie sharply noted.

The aura user sighed before saying something with the straightest and most serious of faces. "Are you aware that we are currently in an alternate dimension where the world has been taken over by hyper volatile alien Pokémon that have completely geo-magnetically reformed the earth to be a giant electron battery over the course of twenty plus years, causing the planet to be some super negatively charged wasteland?"

It took Lillie a full second to check if she was indeed still half dreaming when she saw how straight faced Ash said this one long sentence. "… What?"

"Are you speaking Kalosian? Because I have no idea what you just said."

The two turned to a recently awake Joey who was staring dumbfounded at what he had just heard.

"Think: the evil aliens from Super Mon and Mon League: The Animated Series." Ash spoke up.

"Aahhh! The evil Deoxys who tried to change our planet into theirs with their Super Earth Changing Doomsday Device! I see!" Joey nodded in agreement, but Lillie just stared back at Ash in confusion much like Joey a while ago.

"What? I still watch super hero movies," Ash innocently shrugged his shoulders. "But I was serious."

Lillie pushed aside the tidbit about the cheesy superhero movies and thought back to the other confusing part that came out of Ash's mouth.

"How are we here?" The Alolan asked the aura user who only stared back at her. He just kept looking back at her until it hit her. "We went through an Ultra Wormhole, didn't we?"

The young boy nodded as memories of an Ultra Wormhole opening up flooded back into Lillie's mind. "Yeah, I remember enough to know I think I saw one opening before I got knocked out." Ash spoke up before looking at his hands. "I still don't know how we escaped though."

Lillie and Joey had similar thoughts. They lost that fight, so why were they there?

"How did you know about all of this?" The blonde trainer asked the boy with two different colored eyes. "And who was that woman?"

"She's the one who saved us." Maybe he should omit the part where she originally wasn't going to. "Her name is Delia and I think… she's an alternate version of my mom."

That information surprised the other two for different reasons though.

"Wait, alternate?" Joey repeated the word in shock.

Ash was quick to translate into Joey language. "Think Super League: Crisis in Two Worlds where there are different versions of people we know."

"Ooohhh!" The ten year old understood completely.

"Your mom?" Lillie gasped but noticed how… calm Ash was."A-Are you… alright?"

Ash blinked. "Lillie, she's a different version of my mom. Not my real mom." He stated so plainly and simply.

"O-Oh? I guess that makes sense." Lillie was a bit bothered by that. Wouldn't Ash feel a bit more… no never mind. This wasn't the time for that! "What about my mom?"

A frown appeared on Ash's face. "I haven't seen or sensed her…. I don't think she was dropped off with us."

There was silence in the room as Lillie looked down in disappointment. However, it wasn't long before her eyes started become livelier and somewhat angry. "We need to find her again. I lost my mother once, I am not losing her again after getting her back."

Joey of all people seemed to put his hand on his chin and think carefully… as much as a ten year old could muster anyway, "But how? We aren't the Super League; we don't have the capability of opening up Einstein-Rosen Bridges."

Lillie looked at Ash again. It was the aura user's fault that Joey was now speaking in super hero lore.

The aura user in question felt sheepish under Lillie's judgmental gaze before coughing and trying to build on what Joey said. "He means wormholes, which also means he had the right idea." A nerdy ten year old kid, having the right idea? If Lillie wasn't in an alternate dimension, she would have probably questioned what was going on. "It was an Ultra Wormhole that got us here, so finding one should bring us back, right? Lillie, you traveled through the Ultra Dimension before, how'd you get back?"

The blonde girl put a hand on her head as she processed the question. "My friend, my mom, and I only got to and from there because of Nebby."

"Nebby?" Now it was the two boy's turn to look utterly confused.

Ash seemed to have his eyes widen. "Oh! You mean the Ultra Beast you made friends with?" The words he spoke out made him process his own sentence in his head. "Didn't you leave him behind with your friends back in Alola?"

The heiress of the Aether Foundation nodded somberly at the simple question. "If he was here, he'd more than likely get us back home, or help us find mother like he did the first time. Now I don't know what to do."

"Hey, hey! Come on, it's not that bad! Take it from a guy who's practically lived his whole life on a Pokémon infested island: all situations, no matter how bad, can always be salvaged from! We just gotta keep a positive attitude or we'll die horribly!"

…

…

"I probably should have omitted that last part?" Ash slowly asked.

"Yes." "What's omitted mean?" Lillie and Joey respectively said at the same time.

"W-Well!" Ash said, trying anything to cheer them all up. "Don't worry guys! I can't see this current setting becoming more awful than it is right now!"

Joey just stared at Ash in dumbfounded surprise. "Did you just say another version of, 'at least things, can't get any worse'—"

"Agent Flowers, report." A deep and professional voice came from the radio.

"Sir," Delia saluted as she stood in front of her motor bike. "I've entered into The Viridian Forest. I'm set to enter Johto within two days."

"Hmmm, I expected this report an hour ago. What held you up?"

Delia smiled. "Sir, what do you know about Aura?"

"Okay," Lillie exhaled to better calm herself and hugged Raijin. Currently, all Pokémon but Vayu were out before Ash could properly explain what he knew. "Let's start from the top. What do you know so far, Ash?"

The Aura user was quick to nod and explain. "I found out that this world wasn't all that different than ours. But around twenty years ago, these Xurkitree creatures flew en masse starting from Johto. Soon, everyone and every main government in the world was overrun by these creatures and when all the fighting stopped, the Xurkitree started terra-forming the earth into some kind of giant magnet field." Ash pointed above. "There's been no sign of the sun for twenty years due to the constant storm clouds and there is no rain, leaving resources scarce. It's basically like every post apocalyptic movie out there but instead of sand, its thunder storms and blue rocks."

'There better not be a cult of death racers.' Rojo folded his arms as he said this.

"Also, I probably should say this, but I never told Delia we were from another world." Ash pointed out.

Lillie and everyone else was surprised. "What? Why?"

"I didn't know how to explain it to her! Instead, she seemed to assume we were 'Vault' kids. From bits in pieces, I guessed that Vault kids meant kids born in bunkers like this one. She must think we're kids who only lived underground like this, and I pretended that I was a very sheltered one in order to learn more about where we are now."

On one hand, lying was wrong, but on the other hand, they probably shouldn't try to scare away their one source of knowledge by dropping the other world idea without any ease into it. Lillie didn't really like it, but she understood why Ash did so.

"Actually, she was about to ask me about my Aura when you came in." The heterochromia boy added into the conversation.

"Aura? She was curious about it?" Joey, now sitting on one of the seats, asked.

'Uuuhhh…' Everyone's attention looked to Raijin, the Pikachu when they noticed him sparking his cheeks.

"Raijin? What's wrong?" Lilile asked with worry.

The electrical mouse slumped. 'I-I don't feel so good…'

Suddenly, the lights in the underground bunker started to flicker.

"And that doesn't look good either." Ash noted obviously before standing up. "Lillie, I think you should put him back in his Poké Ball."

The blonde girl tried to do so. However, Raijin's sparks hit his container, causing it to instantly shrink back. Lillie tried to open it back up. Unfortunately, it wasn't working anymore.

"Aah! It's getting worse!" Joey cried out as the lights started to flicker uncontrollably… like a rave.

Ash quickly used his aura sight. "Well let's see if Aura can't fix this!" He instantly noticed some kind of connection the ground had to Raijin's electricity. It seemed to be, feeding off his electrical powers.

"Sorry, Raijin, I'm going to plan B!" Ash quickly ran to the Pokémon and touched his head. Instantly, a voltage struck everyone nearby. However, the Aura user quickly focused his energy and with a small pop sound, the attack stopped and the Pikachu was out cold.

"O-Ow, is Raijin?"

Ash gasped for air as he nodded. "Don't worry. A little aura pulse on a pressure point. He's just going to be knocked out for a while."

Suddenly, a sound of steps caused everyone else to look at the door. Delia came in with her eyes wide. "What the heck was that!?" She looked around the group of kids and her eyes fell on the unconscious Pikachu.

Her mouth dropped. "You… had an electric Pokémon with you!?"

Sensing the horror in her tone, Ash tried to bravely ask, "Why?"

"Those types are extinct because the Xurkitree—" Did she just say extinct?

However, before she could even continue, the underground bunker started to shake violently.

"Oh no! Come on, we gotta get out of here!" Delia cried out as she led the kids up some stairs and back into the blue wasteland. Everyone but Ash stared in shock at the area around them before the aura adept pushed them towards Delia's hover cycle.

"W-What's going on?!" Joey asked as he, Lillie, and Ash had to cram into the passenger seat while Delia hurriedly activated the device.

Delia put on her goggles but practically snarled at the kids. "Look, this isn't a Vault anymore! Xurkitree feed of Electric Pokémon, as in they suck them dry like batteries! The entire landscape is negatively charged which effects Electrical Pokémon's positive charge, and signals all the Xurkitree to make a beeline to whatever poor creature caught in its path! And you just unknowingly brought out an electrical Pokémon out!" She yelled as she pointed to the Pikachu in Lillie's arms.

"I-I didn't know! I'm sorry!" The emerald eyed girl admitted.

There was a distant cry coming from behind them all, as they turned to see a large swarm of Xukitree of varying sizes (The insanely giant ones were thankfully still dormant) headed towards them.

"Whatever! Just hold on!" Delia slammed on the accelerator and the bike roared to life and instantly sped off like a high speed rollercoaster.

Even though they were off to a fast start, the Xukitree swarms were right behind them. The kids screamed when one of them got to close and tried to use its tendrils to grab them. Rojo hopped on to Ash's shoulder and fired a Focus Blast on the creature to knock it back. Crashed into the ground but it's other companions avoided the falling body and continued to go after them.

However, one of the creatures fired an electrical bolt right in the ground in front of the fast moving hover cycle. Delia wasn't expecting that as the bike went through the crater, causing her to buckle forward and hit her head on the steering wheel.

"Mom!" Ash quickly panicked as he grabbed the unconscious young woman but then noticed the bike starting to swerve. The aura user wasted no time and with a whip of his scarf infused with aura, wrapped around the handle bars and made the other end reach the accelerator and breaks.

While Lillie did notice the Freudian slip coming from her travel companion, another voice caught her immediate attention.

"Ahh! They're gaining on us!" Joey cried out as he saw the swarm inching closer towards them.

"Joey, I am in the middle of being a literal back seat driver right now! Rojo, can you get them!?" Ash cried out to his best friend.

'I'm trying! But every one of those things I hit, four more replace it!' The red Pokémon cried out before throwing Focus Blasts at whatever got close to them.

Ash looked back at Delia's unconscious body and his eyes widened with realization. "Ah! Lillie, grab Delia's musket on her back! It has a bomb that will hold these guys long enough to escape!"

"W-What!? But I've never seen a real gun before let alone used one until now!" Lillie cried out.

"Well I never want to be eaten alive by alien, killer Christmas Trees! I think we know which is the lesser evil!" Ash cried out as he made them swerve to the left to avoid another electric blast.

Lillie nervously reached for Delia's musket. It was somewhat awkward since Ash was the closest to the driver but the girl from Alola got the item.

She pointed it nervously at the swarm. "W-What if I miss?!"

Joey seemed hopeful in this situation. "Don't worry, Lilie! Just use The Aura, just like Suke Lkywalker did in the original Galaxy Wars Trilogy!"

'That is not how aura works!' Rojo snapped back angrily before continuing firing Focus Blasts.

However, after several more Xurkitrees were knocked down, around a dozen or so sped past their fallen members and rushed right for the group. Lillie steeled herself and pointed the musket before firing the weapon right at the creatures.

There was a bang before a large pool of silicon flew out and caught all the Xurkitree. With all of them caught in it, Ash pushed the accelerator and they all sped off.

"Whoo! Good job, Lillie!" Joey cried out and Ash basically agreed with him.

"T-That," Lillie gasped. "That was a rush, I admit. … Do not make me do it again."

However, despite how dead serious she said that last part, she ended up breaking to laughter which everyone else joined in to.

'Ash!? Hit the breaks!' Rojo yelled as he pointed ahead.

"Huh, what? Why—oh." The boy quickly asked before looking in the direction he was supposed to be watching.

The reason for this was because there was a cliff right in front of them. Ash hit the Breaks as he did so, but unfortunately it was not fast enough as everyone fell off the area.

"Rojo, forcefield! The best one you could muster!" As soon as Ash said this, he and his Pokémon covered the entire hover cycle into a sphere of red and purple energy. When the sphere crashed into the ground, the sphere ended up bouncing and moving forward, much to the dismay of nearly everyone inside.

Eventually, the large bouncing did cease, and Ash and Rojo dropped the force field. No sooner than they did, Joey got up and barfed on to a nearby blue tree.

'Uuhhh, not fair, I just had the world stop spinning when I woke up…' The red Riolu dizzily stated.

"That… can we all agree not to do that again?" Lillie managed to ask before she left the hover cycle as well.

Ash slowly got out and helped ease Delia into the passenger seat after everyone else got out. "At least we have a story to tell people when we get back home huh?" Ash tried to be optimistic but as he turned towards Lillie, his eyes widened with surprise.

"Ash?" The emerald eyed girl looked at her companion as he slowly pointed to something behind her.

The girl from Alola hesitantly did so. When she did, she could not believe her eyes.

Joey, now cleaning his mouth, went up to his two older friends. "Okay, so what do we do now? And where are we?"

However, to the youngster's confusion, Ash and Lilie never looked at him. Instead, Ash just started to say out loud. "When I was with Delia earlier, I found out that we were in a different version of the Viridian Forest. If I remember the map in our old world still stands, and considering how fast we were going? I think we ran right into the range of the Indigo Plateau or Mt. Silver."

"That's Mt. Silver. The Indigo Plateau wasn't that big." Lillie causally answered while still staring in awe at what was before her.

Joey noticed Rojo walking up to his trainer and looked up. 'Holy crap.'

Finally, the ten year old boy looked towards the Mt. Silver of this dimension….

Yet, one major difference in this world than that of the group's normal world was that their Mt. Silver did not look like a giant decorated Christmas ornament with Xurkitree of all shapes and sizes planted as far as the eye could see all around it.

Another factor was a rather ominous, giant golden arch that seemed to be constructed above the mountain itself with strange symbols they had never seen before.

However, all these factors seemed to be ignored when the group all looked at the very top of the mountain. Even though they were far away, they all noticed what was on the very top of Mt. Silver:

A giant Ultra Wormhole.

{Author Notes.}

Sorry I'm late. At least this story isn't dead!

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed this Christmas themed chapter here in December. (You know? Lots of Killer Christmas Trees and Xurkitree looks a lot like?)

Thank you all for supporting this fic. Pokémon stories are my favorite to write for some reason. They're just so fun to me to write!

I do hope you enjoy your holidays everyone. I hope this chapter finds you well!

[Non-Cannon Extra: Holiday Hijinks]

Joey was carefully planting mistletoe on a specific doorway with Rattata, Rojo, and Raijin all watching him inside Professor Oak's main lobby.

'Joey, what are you doing?' Joey's partner asked with confusion and a growing sense of unease.

"Okay, so mistletoes are seen as good luck charms for people to kiss under it! I want Lillie to give me one!"

'Why?' All three Pokémon asked at the same time.

"Why? Because she's hot! And since Sensei isn't dating her, I might have a chance!"

'Joey, while I applaud you for reaching for the stars, you might not even reach half way.' Raijin, the Pikachu noted duly which the other two nodded in agreement.

"What come on!? Haven't you guys heard of a Christmas Miracle?"

Rattata spoke up with earnestly. 'Joey, even a Christmas Miracle can't bridge the gap on how out of your league she is.'

"Hey! I'm sure this will work! This is one of the archways that Lillie has to pass through to get to the Christmas Tree!"

Just then, Ash came in with a tray of freshly made cookies. "Hey guys! The first batch of cookies is done. Professor Oak told me it was alright to give it to you guys before he gave to the rest to the other Pokémon and people."

Joey instantly forgot about his plan as he and the others all reached for the plate and started munching down on them.

"Hey, save some for the others guys. There's more to come." Ash chuckled before realizing he hadn't seen Lillie. Perhaps she was still in her room?

The aura user went to check but as he reached the archway, he saw Lillie truning around to face him.

"Ahh, Lillie! I was about to call you that the first batch of cookies were done. You should probably get one before Joey and the others finish it all."

The Alolan girl smiled. "Sure I… huh?" She trailed off when she noticed something above her.

That sound made Joey stop and instantly remember what he was doing before the warm chocolate chip cookies distracted him. He and the other Pokémon turned to see Lillie and Ash looking under the mistletoe.

Both young teens blushed and looked away from each other. "O-Oh! I didn't um see that." Ash began as he rubbed the back of his head.

"I-I didn't see it either!" Lillie reached for her arm and started rubbing it awkwardly because… it needed to be? "Y-You know, I once read that there were over 1300 mistletoe species worldwide?" The girl started to blather out loud.

"Oh really?"

"Y-Yeah! And you see, the berries, or the white version of them, are actually poisonous to humans, but not to Pokémon!"

A new amount of laughter echoed in the room, causing everyone to look over to Professor Oak.

"I find learning new things as interesting as the next person," Professor Oak smiled. "But would you two please move? I think you're blocking the way for others."

The two realized that it wasn't just him, Lusamine, Bill, Daisy, and some Aether Foundation workers were now watching them like a rare, majestic Pokémon.

Ash of all people sighed and removed his cap. "Well I've always been a sucker for Christmas Traditions."

To everyone's surprise, Ash leaned in and kissed Lillie on the cheek before putting his cap back on and briskly walking away.

Lillie was in the process of becoming a tomato with how her face seemed so red.

Lusamine laughed. "My is it hot in here or is it just Lillie?" She said with a teasing smile on her face.

"Mother!"

"What? I have to admit that I've had many gentleman callers back in my day, it's good to see you have 'it' too!"

What was she even referring to!? "Mother!?" Lillie practically fumed, but it was about as threatening as a baby Wooper swimming happily in a kiddie pool.

This caused everyone to laugh as Lillie left the area trying to ignore the laughs and the coos of how adorable that was.

[Meanwhile, in Alola…]

"Hey, Gladion~ Do you wanna…" Luna paused for a second as she noticed something off with the blond boy. "Gladion, why are you doing your battle pose when you're not doing a trainer battle?"

"I…" Gladion's hand trembled with a force he could not explain. Then he threw his hand out dramatically and put it near his face as he usually did before a battle, "I have a need to beat up someone!"

"YEAH!"

Luna looked over to her brother, Sol, and Hau of all people copying Gladion's pose in what she hoped was in an ironic manner.

She sighed and put a hand on her head. "I miss Lillie."

{Author Notes}

And thus ends a small Christmas Special. Gotta Love Fanfiction for all those obscure pairings… (Well some of them anyway, the really obscure ones in this side of Fanfiction are… not to be threaded upon.)

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!