"Back again, Lance?" Princess asked softly.
Lance nodded, panting.
"What happened?" Princess raised her eyebrows, noticing his state.
"The paparazzi happened, that's what." Lance muttered.
"Why didn't you run to the Battle Tower? They aren't allowed at the Tower, you know." Princess enquired calmly.
"First instinct was to run here because there's protective power here." Lance shrugged. "Besides, I was nearer to the forest than the Tower."
"Sneaky. I like it." Princess smiled. "Send your Pokémon out. I'll see if the food is ready. Don't expect a gourmet meal." She left to another part of the cave.
Lance threw all his Pokeballs, and out came all his Pokémon. His Pokémon looked around, wondering where they are.
"If you are wondering where you are, you are at the Dragon Princess' cave." Lance answered. "It isn't an easy place to find, since only true Dragon users can see the cave, and even so, there is psychic power to compel them to ignore it."
"Wait, Dragon Princess?" Dragonite gaped. "As in the strongest female Dragon user in the whole Pokémon World?"
"That's right." said a voice. All of them turned to see the Princess setting down some food for herself and Lance, and set some bowls in front of the Pokémon. She then poured some Pokémon food in the bowls.
"Oh My God, it's the Dragon Princess in the flesh!" Charizard gasped. "She has a powerful aura about her."
"She's beautiful!" Altaria gushed, despite not being able to see Princess' eyes due to them being covered by her bangs.
"Thank you." Princess smiled at Altaria. Altaria blushed at her smile.
"You can understand what Pokémon is saying?" Lance asked, surprised.
"It isn't unusual." Princess admitted. "All PAL Elite members understand Pokespeech." Instead of going to eat, she gleefully examined every single one of Lance's Pokémon. She could almost taste the strong bond between Trainer and Pokémon, and she could hear the Pokémon's thoughts on how much they liked their current Trainer, and can sense their positive emotions directed at Lance.
She was so caught up with examining the Dragon Pokémon she didn't notice Lance inadvertently ate all the food on the table, until Haxorus exclaimed, "Lance! You just ate all her food!"
Princess turned to see the empty dishes. Lance gasped, realizing what he's done.
"I'm so sorry Princess. I was so engrossed in watching you check my Pokémon I ate all the food!" Why does he always seem to trouble the Princess?
"Nah, that's ok. I'm not very hungry anyway." Princess waved the apology off, as she poured some tea into a cup and drank.
Lance decided to ask the one question that is on his mind.
"So, Princess, what happened to the Prince?"
The reaction was instantaneous.
CRASH!
The porcelain cup she had been holding dropped to the hard floor, and it crashed into millions of pieces. The Princess had an utterly shocked and frightened look on her face (judging by the way her lips are positioned).
"Princess?" Lance tried to shake her out of her shock, but she seemed to be too absorbed in her own mind.
"I-I'll tell you tomorrow." The Princess sounded like she was near tears. "I need to be alone for now."
Lance gave her a sad look. He shouldn't have asked such a sensitive question. "I'm sorry, Princess."
"No, it's fine." Princess replied. "It's fine."
But Lance knew she was lying to make him feel better.
"Come back tomorrow?" Princess asked slightly hopefully, as he returned his Pokémon and turned to leave.
Lance nodded. "I will."
"C-Cynthia, I can explain, I…" Ash tried to stutter at Cynthia who is staring at him, shellshock. A minute later, she ran at him, and threw her arms around him, and started to cry, mumbling something around the lines of 'don't leave me again', and 'I can't believe I found you.'
To say Ash was surprised might be an understatement, since he wasn't expecting this; he was actually expecting a slap to the face, but this is definitely better than a slap. He wrapped his arms around her to comfort her anyway. His Pokémon looked at each other, wondering what they are going to do with this situation. Manaphy, however, was more eager to listen in and find out if Cynthia would be her new Mama.
Ash finally manage to get Cynthia to finally stop crying, but he couldn't get her to let him go, so they had a conversation where they are now.
"Where were you all this time?" Cynthia whispered.
Ash sighed, and told her everything. How after he heard the conversation between his former friends, Trip and his mother, he decided to train by himself by getting all his Pokémon, and received a CommuniDex from Professor Oak, how his aura accumulated due to his emotions at his peak chose that timing to teleport him to an unknown region, how Pakura found him, took him in and told him more about PAL, how he caught new Pokémon, trained them along with his newly discovered abilities in the PAL Plateau by himself and fed his Pokémon healthy food and vitamins, and how they evolved, and finally, him taking the PAL Elite challenge two years ago, winning against Pakura, and becoming the first Champion.
He left out that part where he was selected as Chosen One and the Legendaries joining him on his quest, preferring to keep that a secret for now.
Cynthia finally let go of him. "That's…an overwhelming story…" she said in awe.
"It is. The thing is, Mewtwo" He nodded to the Genetic Pokémon, "told me the night of the opening ceremonies that the five leaders escaped from jail. They are coming for all five of us, so we agreed not to drag anyone else in." Ash sighed. "I thought by not telling you about my true identity, and as long as I act my part as Champion and stayed away you'd be safe. However, Pikachu wasn't very subtle." He smiled ruefully at the yellow mouse, who looked embarrassed.
"I'm glad he wasn't. Because if he was, I'll never find you." Cynthia said determinedly. "You know I'll never abandon you when there's danger. On the contrary, I'll stay with you. I say you grew up to be one fine man." She winked at him, making him blush.
"Why aren't you asking her out to dinner?" Pikachu hinted. "She likes you, and you like her; I say go for it!"
"Yeah, I mean she went so far just to find you, she's a keeper, Ash." Lucario encouraged. "And she's been pining for you for so long."
"Er…" Ash looked at the two of them nervously.
Cynthia was smiling at him expectantly. She was definitely going to enjoy this.
"Cynthia, would you….have dinner with me tonight? It'll be the two of us." Ash said this in a rush.
He expected Cynthia to reject him or something, but Cynthia kissed him on the cheek, and said, "I never thought you'd ask."
Ash smiled in both happiness and relief.
Things could only get better…..right?
"I'm so happy for you, Ash!" Meloetta was singing a happy tune.
"This is the first time I've seen you truly happy, Ash." Shaymin remarked. "I'm so glad!"
But Manaphy had another idea. He jumped into Cynthia's arms. Cynthia caught him, surprised, as he rubbed his head against her right shoulder in affection. "Mama!"Manaphy cried.
"So, Manaphy, you chose her as your new Mama?" Ash asked, smiling. He turned to a stunned Cynthia. "You see, May used to be Manaphy's motherly figure until she betrayed me, so Manaphy declared that May is not his Mama anymore. It looks to me he chose you as his new Mama!"
Cynthia smiled, and petted Manaphy. "Hello, Manaphy." She cooed at the Seafaring Pokémon, petting it softly. Manaphy seemed to be content in Cynthia's arms.
"Cynthia is my new Mama! Papa, are we going to be one big happy family?"Manaphy asked sweetly.
Cynthia and Ash looked at each other, before Ash turned back to Manaphy and said, "We'll see, Manpahy."
Manaphy clapped his hands in joy in Cynthia's arms.