The Pantheon

The Party

The banquet after the Hoenn Grand Festival was kind of a blur for Ashley. There was too much happening all at once for her to really hold onto any of it properly. She remembered the lights, the noise, people coming up to her one after the other, journalists asking questions she answered on autopilot, flashes going off every few seconds while everyone kept saying her name.

She knew she had been smiling the whole time, her face actually starting to hurt at some point, but if she tried to pick out one clear moment from it, she couldn't. It all just blended together.

By the time it was over and she teleported back home with her parents, the exhaustion hit properly, the kind that didn't even give her time to think, and she went straight to her room, dropped onto her bed without even changing, and was out in seconds.

When she woke up later, it took her a moment to remember where she was, her brain still catching up while she pushed herself up and rubbed at her face, the silence in the house settling around her in a way that felt almost strange after everything. She stretched a bit, still feeling the leftover heaviness in her limbs, and then headed downstairs, not really thinking about anything in particular, just moving through the motions.

And then she reached the living room and froze, her eyes landing on the trophy case and then immediately narrowed a little.

"...What the fuck?"

She stepped closer before she even realized she was moving, staring at the whole thing because why was it all in there? Who even set this up?

The eight Kanto badges were lined up across one side, polished way more than she ever kept them herself, the Indigo Conference trophy sitting right beside them. Next to that were her Kanto ribbons, five of them, and the Grand Festival runner-up plate she hadn't looked at properly in a while. That one still brought back the same weird mix of feelings every time she saw it, being upset she lost while also being genuinely happy Damian won.

Then her eyes shifted further across the case and she stopped again.

Five Hoenn ribbons.

And right in the middle of them—

The Top Coordinator trophy.

Ashley's hand came up to the glass without thinking, her fingers resting lightly against it as she looked at everything all over again, not just the objects, but what came with them. The battles, the mistakes, the adjustments, the times things worked and the times they really didn't, the moments where she had to stop and rethink everything because what she was doing just wasn't enough yet.

"...That's a lot," she murmured, almost to herself, a small, breathy laugh following right after.

Because it really was.

Two years didn't feel like enough time for all of that to happen, and yet there it was, right in front of her, physical proof instead of just remembering pieces of it.

Her chest felt a little tight, not in a bad way, just full, like everything was settling into place all at once, and she leaned in just slightly, her reflection faint in the glass between all those small reminders of how far she had come.

She didn't even notice her parents at first.

Her mom was the one who wrapped her arms around her from behind, gentle but firm enough to pull her out of her thoughts, and Ashley let out a soft sigh as she leaned back into it, her shoulders dropping without her really thinking about it.

"Hey," her mom said quietly.

Ashley smiled a little, her hand still resting against the glass. "Hey."