POKEMON - THE GALES OF DARKNESS

CHAPTER 3 - DE-CIPHER-ING THE TRUTH

Ash and Serena just stayed there for a while, just hugging, tears gushing down the side of Serena's face. "Ash..." she said in a choked tone from all the tears of joy she was crying. "Thank you..." she continued.

"Don't worry Serena..." Ash replied, trying to hold back his own tears of joy. "Always happy to help..." the two then broke their hug but could not say anything else to each other before Grace grabbed Serena's wrist and yanked her away.

"MOM!" Serena cried. "What are you doing?!" "Keeping you safe!" Grace whisper-yelled before turning to look at Ash. "It's great to see you, Ash..." she lied. "But I'm afraid we can't stay for long, Serena and I have an important assignment to do..."

"No mom!" Serena said before braking free from her mother's hold. "The assignment is important for YOU! I could not care less about it!" Ash cleared his throat. "Um... what's going on...?" He asked, oblivious to the situation.

Serena then ran over and stood next to Ash. "It's a long story, I'll tell you when the time comes..." she told him. "No you won't!" Grace yelled at her. "Young lady! You come with me right now! I told you, it's for your own good!" "No it's not!" Serena yelled back.

To stop the argument from getting too heated, Pikachu decided to intervene. Pikachu's tail glowed a metallic-blue and it slammed its tail on the ground between Serena and Grace, making them stop arguing.

"Well, I don't know how important this assignment is..." Ash said. "But if you could spare a few minutes you two can join me and my mom for tea..." he smiled. "Tea sounds good..." Grace said. "Yeah..." Serena responded.

Meanwhile...

Delia was in the motel room her and Ash were staying at, and appeared to be building a strange machine. Suddenly, she heard the front door knock. "I'll get it..." Rotom said before hovering over to the door. Delia quickly covered the machine with a cloth and laid it down on its side, making it look like a table.

Rotom soon opened the door and saw Ash, Serena and Grace standing behind the door. Serena's eyes widened in shock. "What is that?!" She asked, a bit freaked out. Ash turned to look at her. "Remember when we travelled back in time...?" He asked. "Yeah, so?" Serena answered. "The Pokemon that allowed us to do that was a Rotom, and this is just another Rotom who possessed a Pokedex!"

"Nice to meet you..." Rotom greeted Serena and Grace with a smile before letting them in. "You travelled back in time?" Grace asked Serena. "There are a lot of things you don't know about me, mother..." Serena said. "Just like there are a lot of things I don't know about you..."

Grace sighed before walking in with Serena and Ash. "Hey mom!" Ash said. Delia's eyes widened in shock when she saw Grace and Serena. 'They're okay...' she thought in relief.

Grace saw Delia and immediately looked away, as if ashamed of something. "Hey! Are you okay?" Ash asked Grace. "That's exactly what I was going to ask..." Delia said. "Yes I am!" Grace said in the fakest tone imaginable. She then grabbed Serena's hand. "Unfortunately... Serena and I have somewhere to go and we can't stay!"

Grace started to push Serena out of the door. "Maybe I didn't make myself clear earlier, mom!" Serena growled before yanking her hand away from her mother's grasp. "I AM NOT GOING!" Serena yelled at her mother. "You must!" Grace yelled back.

"Okay okay settle down!" Delia said, breaking the two apart. "Why don't you settle this with a friendly battle? Grace wins, Serena goes with you. Serena wins, she doesn't..." "Fine!" Grace and Serena exclaimed in unison.