May's Justice

Elegy For Alain

"ASH KETCHUM IS DOING FINE!"

"Hey!" May said, clutching onto her ears. For somebody who had been arrested, Ash seemed to be extremely content. May was astonished to see Ash standing behind the cold glass with his hands in the air and big grin on his face. "How did you learn to shout like that?"

"Your friend, Apollo taught me." Ash smirked with Pikachu on his shoulder. He sat back down on his seat. "Sorry May, I didn't mean to scare you."

"Oh you didn't scare me at all." May lied as she dragged the chair out from the desk and pounced down on the plastic seat. "I just didn't expect it. So... you shared a cell with Simon Blackquill?"

Ash nodded. "I taught him all about Pokémon. All the regions I went to, and all my achievements."

"How did he react to it all?" May wondered. She couldn't see Blackquill as a man who would be interested in Pokémon. But now that Athena has a Pokémon, May wondered if Blackquill was going to go and catch some at some point. Contrary to popular myth, Pokémon was for all ages: not just for kids.

"He seemed quite interested actually," Ash responded. "He quickly picked up on things like stats and types. He also used some sort of psychological manipulation to get his own way."

"He mentioned that you had a battle with another trainer in prison," May said. Ash stopped smiling the moment the battle was mentioned. May took a deep breath before she continued talking. "He didn't give a lot of details about the match, only that the other trainer got killed."

"Alain..." Ash muttered. His shoulders tensed up as his head rolled over to his left shoulder. "He was arrested for murdering Professor Sycamore."

"Alain was the name of the person you battled?" May asked as she leaned over the bulletproof grass.

Ash nodded. "I battled him more than once. I faced him in the Lumiose Conference. I gave it everything I had, but in the end... he won."

"I've never heard of him before until now," May admitted. "Sounds like he was a really powerful trainer."

Ash nodded. "And I knew he was innocent!" Ash slammed both of his fists against the glass, and then reached out his hands where May's fingers were resting. "When he told me why he'd been imprisoned, I just knew that Team Flare were responsible for Professor Sycamore's death."

May gasped. "Do you know if Alain's innocence was every proven?"

"It was," Ash sighed. His body slid back onto his chair as he buried his head in his hands. "The day after he died."

"How did he die in the battle?" May asked. She refused to believe that Ash was a killer, even after all this time. She recalled the time when May was in hospital, Ash had told her that he had done something terrible in prison. She was ready to defend Ash again, if he had to go on trial for Alain's death.

"Prison had always been pretty tough," Ash admitted. "But, it was a great place to train. I was considered one of the best trainers in the clink. When I met Alain again, we decided to have a battle. It was a really great battle, it was so intense, but the battle was quickly put to an end."

"What do you mean by that?"

"The ceiling collapsed. We never got to finish the battle," Ash sobbed. "He was killed instantly. It's all my fault!" Ash stomped both his feet and he screamed, "I'M NOTHING MORE THAN A KILLER!"

"Hold on a second," May cried out. "How did the ceiling collapse?"

Ash shrugged his shoulders. Seeing Ash so sad and vulnerable just made May want to smash the glass and hug him like a girl had never hugged before. "Maybe the sensation of the battle was too much for the building to handle. It's a fragile building. It's always cold and has cracks all over the walls."