Lost in their Past

Chapter 72:- The Keys

"Wait," said Ash, "I know you."

Delia hadn't left him alone since he stepped foot on Hald Fest, it was nice because the time in her lab talking about her studies and degrees was the most mother-son time they'd spent ever since she called him back to Kanto.

"You went to medical school," he tried to digest the information, "and dropped out, and then tried to become a Geneticist and then a Physicist and then an Archaeologist? All this while you were still fifteen?"

Delia didn't mention the few degrees he'd skipped. "More or less," she was talking notes from the ancient manuscripts that Ailsa had procured for her.

It was then that he'd noticed another researcher in a white lab coat with frizzy blonde hair and dark blue eyes. She was entering the lab and then exiting again and again over the past hour. Ash couldn't help but notice the subtle side glances she was giving him while he was busy reading one of the texts on the unown.

Unown... his mind seemed to wander off, mom.

"Wait, I know you!"

The frizzy researcher stopped in her tracts. An apologetic smile spread on her face as she turned around to face him.

"Oh my God," Ash breathed dramatically, "Molly Hale?! What are you doing here?"

Molly shrugged, "You don't have to sound too surprised, I mean of course I followed in my father's footsteps and got a dual degree just like Auntie Delia."

Ash ransacked his brain as tried to remember the last time he'd seen her. She had been at least five years younger than him and was wreaking havoc on the greenfield with an Entei and had almost killed him.

Not to mention she had kidnapped his mom.

The news that she was working alongside his mother on a unown... it was bringing back memories and not all were good.

"You're working here?" He repeated, "with an unown?"

She nodded, "I'm the best—"

Delia coughed deliberately.

"After Auntie Delia, of course, I was the third but you failed to rescue my father."

Ash laughed nervously, he would never forgive Gary for kicking his legs. "But are you through?" He questioned whimsically, "I mean, are you the best person to be around... like another unown?"

Molly scoffed, "Why? Because the last time I was around one I kidnapped your mother, almost killed you with the help of an Entei, who was also my father and destroyed Greenfield?"

"Yes, every word of what you said."

"Grow up," she sighed, "I'll bring back the hourly updates."

Delia nodded at the blonde as she left the room in a hurry. Ash couldn't help but question her mental state because the situation this time around was a lot similar to the last time... missing father and a daughter with access to unowns.

"She'll be fine," said Delia as if she was able to read his thoughts, "she's grown up a lot."

Ash smiled, somehow his mother's stamp of approval made things better.

"What hourly updates?" He asked.

A sigh escaped Delia's lips as she closed the book, making a little dog ear around the top corner.

"Well, you know that things haven't been easy ever since we found out about the mutated Unown's?"

Ash tried to nod but he had since then acquired a girlfriend, things were pretty good for him.