Hey everyone! Sorry about the month later update... my muse decided to leave me again... dammit.

Anyway, I'm back and here is chapter 13 for you lucky lot. Next time is a super long chapter, why you may ask? Well, we are entering the Bond's world version of the seventeenth Pokemon Movie. That's right, Diancie's up next! Then Korrina's Gym Battle, then the ME specials 2 and 3... man have I got a jam packed few chapters up ahead.

Before I answer the reviews, there's something I'd like to say, and that's... once again... thank you. I am overwhelmed by the support you guys have given me with this project and I swear I will finish it all for each and every one of you who is reading this. IB has become an achieving child with me the proud parent (Weird metaphor, I know but hey, it's true.) so I just want to, yet again, thank you guys for making this happen. (I have to stop saying thank you, Damn being British!)

Finally: Review time!

Satoshi-Greninja: Yeah, I like the idea of Ash and Mairin being like a brother and sister, which is what I'm aiming for. The three of them are like family to each other.

Dragonic Warlord The Ace: I would have added a tophat to Mirror Pikachu as well - what is a gentleman without his tophat - but I chose just the bowtie because it would have been too expensive for Mirror Ash to keep paying for them when Mirror Pikachu destroys them through his attacks.

thor94: He wasn't there since he was in the actual anime, I wanted a different perspective since Mirror Ash and IB Mirror Ash are basically the same just one is and Auditory Sensor and the other isn't.

Luktopius: That was the plan!

MellieCrescent: Yeah, some things never change, right? ;)

InternalFox: Froakie Evolved in Chapter 8. You know what they say, once an Edgelord, always and Edgelord. Plus almost every version of Ash must have a bad sense of direction, it helps with the plot sometimes (And comedic effect).

ElectricalCookie: Aww, thank you! I have always had the idea Pikachu wasn't as sweet and innocent as he seemed in the anime and I'm glad you feel he's making a greater contribution to the story than he did in the anime.

Floreal: Thanks a lot, I liked writing them too.

JirachiAtSundown: It took a month to write, how is that fast?

Guest 1: Thank you, I hope you like this one.

Guest 2: See above and thanks.

raincoloredpetals: He's yours, for the low low payment of your soul. Or just catch a Pikachu, buy a bowtie and viola! We have a Pikachu in a bowtie! Alain is slowly getting used to them, and for the better too! Edgelord's bonding exercise is bringing him out of his shell.

Guest 3: Sorry for the wait, writer's blocks exists.

Sai Og Sus: Oh boy, where to begin. The thing is, the commander-stereotype isn't Mawile's personality. It's her created persona made so she could lead the Glistening Cave group to efficiency. It's inconsistent since Mawile is slowly becoming herself and allowing herself to be who she really is (See the chapter for more.) Also, what do you mean by high school girl? Because Tyrunt bit on her jaw hair? Think about it, the jaw hair is literally a part of Mawile's body so it must have really hurt her, which was why she got so angry. Imaging something chomping down on your mouth and then apply it to her attacking appendage. It is quite painful. Spelling errors? I checked through and no, the cookie was for movie references. Yes, Grant was hiding his true skill and no, Calem has not seen or knows of the Kanji on his handkerchief since he'd only just got it back from Serena so blame her then. He's not the type of guy to do such a thing.

Phantomdream: Thanks, the Sensor idea was a last minute thing to give Ash the ability to understand Pokemon and not go down the Aura/Psychic lines. I made him competent but with emotion, like what I was expecting from XY/XYZ but wasn't shown so much. If he wants to be a Master then he's gonna have to retain his knowledge, am I right or am I left?

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy.

Burning Ambitions

"Run! Get away from here!"

Burning, flashes of light, pain.

"Meema, I'm scared!"

Mangled bodies, children crying, screaming.

"Hurry, it's gaining on us!"

Roaring, a beam of purple, heading straight for her.

"NOOOO!"

Fennekin screamed as she woke up, curled in with her back resting against her trainer's underarm. It was just a dream, a horrible nightmare that haunted her to this day. Carefully, she sat up whilst trying not to stir anyone in the pile of sleep. Leia was snuggling against her meema's chest whilst Pikachu was kicking Ash in the face from sleeping at one side. Mawile had proclaimed the legs for her sleeping department whilst Frogadier was leaning against a tree nearby. She briefly smiled at the sight, grateful that she had found a trainer who would do such a thing – and Pokémon who were comfortable enough to use a human as a giant cushion – to show appreciation towards his team for a hard day's worth of training.

Due to the fact Alain had revealed that Shalour City was not too far away from the exit to the reflection cave, Ash had taken the time to train his team members up, with all of them adding support for Leia who was one of the planned roster for the match. It would be her first in what may be many Gym battles, but she seemed to be doing rather well, presumably because she wanted to please her meema. Frogadier had recently learnt Aerial Ace meaning he had also acquired the space on the Gym team, with his stealth skills being rather useful against power heavy fighting types. The last slot, however, was still open.

Fennekin felt a bit left behind compared to the rest of her teammates, still having not evolved yet when Frogadier and, even baby Leia, had already reached their second stages. Pikachu refused to evolve and would start a loud succession of la's when the words 'thunder' and 'stone' were mentioned in the same sentence, whilst Mawile couldn't evolve even if she wanted to however Alain had confirmed that Mawile was on the list of Pokémon that could Mega Evolve so at least she had that ahead for her in the future. She felt guilty for not evolving yet, for letting Ash down by not progressing like the others had. No matter how many times he told her she was fine as she was, Fennekin couldn't think so.

When she had first met Ash, she was weak and not even able to defend herself against a bunch of Beedrill, which were bug types that were supposed to drop like flies with her flames. She had to get human help to heal her wounds, she had to hide behind a human as his Pokémon defeated the hordes that chased them. Even now, she still felt the same no matter how stronger her training had made her. Getting up, she wandered off to a nearby tree stump and slouched on it, looking up to the sky with troubled look cast upon her facial features. She just wasn't strong enough like this, she wasn't good enough to be the best. Right now, she was useless.

"If only I was stronger…"

"What do you mean by that?" Fennekin jumped up at another's voice, turning to see Mawile walking over to stand beside the tree trunk the fire type sat on. "You really don't believe you're weak, do you?"

"Where's the whole private nonsense you normally sprout at us during training?" Fennekin replied by asking a question of her own. "You have been slipping out of it lately but it's still there, albeit being inconsistent."

Mawile didn't answer her but leant against the tree trunk with her arms folded. "I guess I'm starting to realise I don't have to be a strong leader anymore, I have Ash for that now," she scoffed at the thought in her mind. "Those Pokémon in the cave had no one to defend them, to lead them to be stronger. At the time, I tried being myself with them and they just rejected me for it. Now, when I changed my tone and put on this commander persona, they listened and followed my instructions. A part of me still hasn't let go of that persona yet, but slowly… I'm getting there."

"Wait, you're not a female GI. Joe?" Fennekin blinked as Mawile laughed heartily at her serious question.

"What the hell do you think? How could a Tall Grasser like myself learn to be a commander in an army? I was making it up as I was going along!" Mawile shook her head and sighed. "You're one of the two people I've told the truth to and the other is our trainer… anyway, enough about me faking who I am, why are you doubting your strength?"

Fennekin stared up at the moon for a while before lowering her head. "You weren't there, you wouldn't understand."

"Try me."

"I lost my family, everyone in our group just because of some hungry ass Snorlax who thought that we'd make a great snack!" Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes. "My siblings were squished under its weight, meema and papa were eaten alive… and I wasn't strong enough to save them, I wasn't even strong enough to hold back a horde of Beedrill after stealing from then and I'm a fire type, they're bugs for Arceus' sake! I should be one hit knocking them out!"

Mawile said nothing, waiting until Fennekin's tears had slowly resided to sniffles. "I'm sorry for your loss, I really am."

"Thanks…"

"But you shouldn't think like that. A lot has changed since the Beedrill incident, I know you're not that weak anymore. You won a Gym Battle against a part water type, something most fire types never manage to accomplish in their lifetime as trainers switch out with more super effective type matchups." The part steel type sighed as she noted that Fennekin wasn't hearing her words. "Listen, I know you want to evolve into a Braixen and I'm sure Ash has told you he'll be backing whatever you choose to do in the future, whether you evolve or not he won't care. After all, the poor boy has had to put up with Pikachu for four years." The two girls began laughing at that, agreeing they couldn't stand four years of being around Pikachu without a way to shut him up. At least they could use their attacks on him if he got too goby for their liking. "Look, just talk about evolving to him tomorrow during training and he'll give you a special one on one session. Even if you don't evolve by day's end, you will feel stronger because of it."

"I'll do that, thanks Mawile, you really helped me feel better there." Fennekin looked down at Mawile, who gave her a toothy grin back.

"No prob," she replied. "Anything to help a teammate."

~0~o~0~

Fennekin waited behind as the others were given their specific instructions, running of to find a good place to train. As Mawile passed her, she received a nod with a reassuring grin to boot, telling the fire type that everything would be okay. She continued staring until a light touch to her back brought her back into reality.

"Is everything okay Fennekin?" The fire type looked up at her trainer, who was staring at her with worry. "You seem a bit out of it today."

"I… urm…" She took a deep breath, remembering Mawile's words from the night before. "I want to evolve into a Braixen as soon as possible and… well, I was wondering if you could help me with it!" A blush settled on her face due to the fact she had spoken that last part very quickly.

"Are you sure you want this?" Ash asked in a way that didn't make her question her decision. "Once you evolve there is no way to turn back."

"Positive! I've been a Fennekin for years and I've learnt every move I can in this form," she smiled with a familiar fire burning in her eyes. "I want to evolve into a Braixen!"

"In that case, I'll do everything I can to help you achieve your goal, okay?" The fourteen-year-old couldn't help but chuckle at his fire type's enthusiasm which included bouncing all over the place. "But first, you'll have to learn Psybeam. It's the move that a Fennekin needs to perfect before they can evolve into Braixen. It prepares your line for the psychic type inheritance further along the line."

"I already know Hypnosis," Fennekin added. "Does that make learning Psybeam easier?"

"It should do," Digging into his extensive Pokémon knowledge, Ash began thinking about ways to use Hypnosis to help with the teaching of Psybeam. "You already have a grasp on your psychic energy, which few Fennekin have unless they have psychic type egg moves. Hypnosis is sending waves of energy to send an opponent to sleep, Psybeam is concentrating it into a higher density attack that can send an opponent flying. All we need to work on is your concentration and then, you'll probably evolve."

"I'm ready!"

"I'm warning you now, you may not like it."

"BRING IT ON!"

Across the clearing, Mawile watched as Fennekin tried to form her psychic waves into a beam of power that could knock over a rock set upon the same tree stump she had sat on the night before. No matter how far the fire type was pushing herself, Ash would always force her to take breaks, warning her about overstepping her limits. Much like Fennekin must have during their conversation, she felt as if a weight had been lifted off her chest that night and, as such, her forced persona had finally decided to leave her alone. Leia didn't care too much about it, but Pikachu and Frogadier noticed that her language and sentence structure had changed. They would have asked her about it if it wasn't for the face they were afraid of her. Steel types weren't badly affected by electric types and dark types would always tremble to the power of fairies.

She grinned as the waves faltered into a more beam like shape, before falling out of line once more. The determination and hard work was paying off and, by evening, Mawile was sure she'd be sharing her dinner with a newly evolved Braixen. It had been Fennekin's dream to become a Delphox, a majestic fire beast that could decimate opponents with a combination of fire and psychic type moves, including some ghost and dark type moves as well. Ever since Froakie had evolved to protect Ash, Fennekin had been training harder to catch up with him. Sure, unlike Frogadier, she had never been in the hands of a trainer but she would try as hard as she could to succeed.

"Okay, something's wrong with you," Pikachu decided to be the one who confronted the unusually acting Mawile. "So admit what's eating your brain and I won't have to fight dirty."

"You already do so with that mouth of yours," she rolled her eyes at him, not at all frightened by the electric type's empty threats. "I'm just glad I actually give a shit about someone other than myself."

"That's not true and you fucking know it!" Pikachu snarled, crossing his arms and pouting like a toddler.

"Oh yeah, after I tell Ash you swore around Leia then he won't be happy." She laughed as she waved at the grass type, who had managed to learn Magical Leaf by herself and went to go and tell her meema about her progress.

"You did too!" He yelled.

"I whispered, she doesn't have twenty/twenty hearing like you and Ash do. That's against the point, your swearing is more consistent than mine is, meaning I really don't have to listen to you, do I?" Mawile continued watching as Leia jumped into their trainer's arms for a hug, blabbering away like crazy which lead to the other two laughing and applauding her for her achievements. "If either of you two need me to kick your butts, I'll be helping Mairin's Pokémon. They need it more than you two lazybones." With that, she walked off laughing at their faces, not caring a bit she kinda just dissed two members of the team that had been around longer than she had.

As she made her way over to where Mairin was practising with Alain, she grinned at Espie, who was sitting on the side-lines.

"Hello there," The psychic cat greeted politely. "Bébé and Mura are having a mock battle. So far, they are both doing considerably well. What are your fellow comrades doing?"

"Ash is helping Fennekin to evolve, Leia's improving by leaps and bounds, Frogadier's lagging behind a bit after his evolution and Pikachu's the same prick as ever…" Mawile couldn't help but laugh at the sly, understanding grin on Espie's face. "So basically the norm then. I'm just relaxing after that Gym Battle from earlier. I know I won't be used in the next one, I'm sure Leia and Fennekin will be in there, along with Frogadier."

"Do not think you will not be acquitted from the next fray for such a reason," Espie replied knowledgably, turning her eyes back to the mini training battle in front of them. "Your trainer is quite… unpredictable."

"Yeah, I know…" The fairy and steel type smiled, looking up into the sky at the fluffy clouds that were floating lazily by. "And I think I can say on the behalf of everyone that we all love him for it."

~0~o~0~

"Alright, try once more, Psybeam!" Fennekin followed the order, putting her full concentration in producing a beam of psychic power. This attempt had brought forwards a wonky beam, which had knocked the rock target off of the stump, causing the fire type to cheer in celebration. She had just learnt the move Psybeam, she could evolve into Braixen now! "Way to go, you've really tried hard today Fennekin." The sky was turning a blueish orange and the wafting scent of cooking food told them that dinner was being prepared. Fennekin jumped into her trainer's arms, enjoying the hug whilst at the same time frowning due to the fact she hadn't evolved yet. Maybe a battle would help her perfect the move, just one little tiny one before the food was prepared.

"Umm, Ash?" She asked, continuing when he hummed to let her know he was listening. "Is it okay if we test out the move in a battle?"

"You really want to battle now?"

"Yeah, just a friendly spar to make sure it's perfect!" Fennekin knew just who to ask to help her with this and, with her trainer's consent, called Mawile over. "Is it okay if we battle? I've learnt Psybeam but I want to perfect it before dinner."

"No problem, I'd be happy to help." Mawile replied, smiling at the excited look on Fennekin's face. A smile she secretly shared with Ash for a moment. "Alright then, let's begin. You get the first move."

"Thanks!" Fennekin turned to her trainer. "If it's okay, could you referee? I want to achieve this by myself."

"Go ahead, if this is what you want then I'm happy to help." The fourteen-year-old found a place to stand, far enough away from the chaos that may result from the two duelling. "When you are ready, you two, start!"

Fennekin started off by sending a stream of burning embers in Mawile's direction, who jumped up to dodge due to a weakness against fire attacks. Using the momentum, she flew forwards with a Feint Attack one of which Fennekin met with a well-timed Flame Charge that managed to blow her opponent back. As thought, one hit hadn't ranked Mawile out of the fight just yet. Mawile decided now was a good time to try and give Fennekin a chance to use her new move and went in for an Astonish, only to easily dodge the weak beam that was supposed to stop her and get a direct hit.

Fennekin flew backwards into a tree, yelping as she hit the trunk and the ground in quick succession of each other. She managed to slowly get back onto her four legs, realising that Mawile wasn't going on the offensive. Of course, she was right, as Mawile used Taunt, both figuratively and literally.

"I thought you wanted to get stronger, didn't you?!"

"Yes, I do!" Fennekin yelled back, trying to show her will to grow and strengthen her abilities through her tone of voice.

"Then why aren't you trying hard enough? Didn't our talk mean anything to you?!" It was getting Fennekin riled up, of course their talk last night meant a lot, it really did. With that, the fire type surrounded herself with a Flame Charge, rushing towards Mawile who surrounded herself with a Protect. "I thought you were better than that, Fennekin! Where's the passion you had when learning the move? Where's the spark I saw when you pushed yourself to your limits? Tell me, where is it?!" The force of the moves colliding pushed both Pokémon back a bit, leaving ample chance for one to attack but that is not what Mawile wanted. She wanted to see Fennekin achieve her goal, she wanted to see the determination to learn the move transferred to actually mastering it and evolving.

"You wanna see where that spark and passion is?!" Fennekin snarled, digging her paws into the ground as she began to build up the psychic energy for a last-ditch attempt Psybeam. "You really wanna see it? Then here it is!" Pooling the energy to her mouth, she concentrated not on forming the beam, but what would happen afterwards. She saw her evolution, she saw herself getting stronger, she saw a powerful Pokémon and she knew she could be that Pokémon if she could just get this move right. With a loud yell, she fired the beam towards Mawile, shocked that it was fully formed, not weak in the slightest.

The steel and fairy type braced herself, grinning as the sheer power from the beam skidded her feet backwards against the ground. Now that was the spark and passion from earlier, that was what she was looking for. Fennekin was panting heavily across from her, but still standing none the less. Mawile let out a sigh of relief and smiled at the Pokémon facing her.

"Now that, that was what I was looking for!" Her smile grew with each passing second, pride welled in her chest for the first type. "You were amazing Fennekin!"

"She's right you know," By then, both Pokémon had forgotten that Ash was there as well, his own prideful smile just as big – if not bigger – than Mawile's. "That was a proper Psybeam. You've done it Fennekin! You've mastered Psybeam!"

"I did…" Overwhelming joy took over as Fennekin jumped up into the air. "I DID IT! I DID… whoa..." As soon as she touched the ground, she was covered in a glowing blue light and her form shifted in shape, becoming bipedal with a larger tail, bigger ears and longer arms with a dress like appearance to the mixture of cream and black fur. A stick formed and make its pride and place sticking out of the tail as the glow died down, revealing that Fennekin had indeed achieved her goal. She was now a Braixen.

Braixen's eyes filled up with tears, if it wasn't for Ash and Mawile, she wouldn't be here right now. With renewed energy, she jumped at the two with the goal of pulling them into a group hug. Something that she successfully achieved.

"Well done Braixen."

"Way to go, girl. I knew you had it in you." The positive compliments brought forth more tears.

"Thank you so much! I couldn't have done it without you!"

~0~o~0~

Alain and Mairin watched the scene with grins of their own. They had kept away from Ash and Fennekin – now Braixen – all day to make sure there were no interferences in the training. Time and time again they had been told their Pokémon's goals in life thanks to Ash's Sensor ability and both trainer and Pokémon alike wanted to work together to achieve their goals. It was also nice to see Mawile be herself instead of the stiff commander like person she had to be for the group back in the Glistening Cave. Being a trained Pokémon was allowing her to cast that persona aside to return to who she really was over some made up character from some kind of novel or something.

As such, Alain had offered to help Mairin train her two weakest Pokémon – Bébé and Mura – for an opportunity to waste the time away and because, like it or not, Alain had grown feelings over Mairin – brotherly feelings that would not vanish no matter how hard he could have tried. He didn't want them to vanish anyway, he liked being with Ash and Mairin. The three of them made an… interesting group together.

"Do you think I'd be able to do that one day?" Mairin asked out of the blue, watching as Braixen showed off her Psybeam attack to an easily impressed Leia – who had come from nowhere to see what was going on. "To be able to train my Pokémon like that?"

"Who knows?" Alain responded, trying not to tempt the hands of fate. "But what I do know is you'd be a good trainer even without one on one sessions."

The ten-year-old blinked at what she had heard. "Wait, did you say I'm a good trainer?"

"No, you just misheard me."

"No I didn't Alain," Mairin smirked, realising Alain had actually complemented her. "You just said I'd be a 'good trainer'… blah, blah, blah. I heard you!"

"You didn't and I need to take care of dinner." With that, he heel turned and headed back towards the main camping site the group had set up in, leaving a furious Mairin to huff at his retreating figure.

"Alain! You come back here and tell the truth!" She chased off after him, gaining the attention of one, once sleeping, Pokémon.

"Edgelord… the same as fucking always…" And with that, Pikachu went back to his dream world of ketchup and people praising his name.

Next Time: A princess, a legend and a kingdom at stake.