Ash took one last look at the gold, metal egg - adorned with multi-colored stoned switches with golden handles and a gold crown-shaped key on the top of the oval-shaped sphere - before he put it back into his messenger bag. The bag also carried a first-aid kit, a canteen, a bento box from his mother (Even at the age of 18, he was still living with his mother.), a can of PokeFood and his Pikachu's food bowl, as well as a Polaroid camera and a journal with a silver ball-point pen.

One of the gold angel wings attached to the sides of the egg got snagged to the side of the bag, causing Ash to let out an exasperated sigh as he tucked the wing off of the blue fabric and back into the bag completely. He closed the top before slinging the bag over his shoulder. He then realized that his childhood Pokemon companion, Pikachu - a yellow electric mouse with pointy ears with black tips and a lightning bolt shaped tale - was hiding behind the bag on Ash's bed, watching his trainer packing for his latest mission as a Pokemon Ranger.

"Come on, Pikachu, stop thinking about that dream already." Ash frowned as he sat on his bed beside the furry little Pokemon.

Pikachu continued to pout and furrow at Ash stubbornly. The night before, Pikachu had woken up in a cold sweat at one in the morning because of a nightmare that he had claimed was a foretelling of the future.

"I don't think even a Pokemon can tell if and how somebody is going to die." Ash had reassured groggily that night before going back to sleep.

"Pika pikachu!" Pikachu protested.

"This mission will be fine!" Ash reassured again as he stood back up and offered his shoulder to his companian with an equally reassuring smile. Reluctantly, Pikachu heaved a sigh and jumped onto Ash's shoulder. He gave him a look that said "Don't say I didn't told you so."

"Mom, I'm heading out!" Ash called from the edge of the rice paddies to where his mother, Delia, was working with the other women of Pallet Town.

Delia looked up from her work and saw her son waving at her from the distance. "Oh, you going already?" she called.

"It's going to take a while to get to Fiore." Ash replied. "I have to take a ferry there from Viridian City."

"Oh, okay, sweetie!" Delia answered as Ash gave one final wave to his mother before walking towards the urban area of Pallet Town. Delia straightened her back and called after Ash, "Eat on the ferry if you can, okay?!"

Ash stopped walking for a moment to turn and face his mother again. "I will!"

As Ash spun around and began walking again, Delia called out one more time, "And don't forget-!"

"To wear clean underwear, I know!" Ash called back, this time, not bother to face Delia to hide his embarrassment.

"Actually listen to me this time!" Delia yelled over the distance between her and her son. "As a boy your age, who knows what might cause you to-!"

"MOM!" Ash cried, his face flushing red.

"Okay! Bye, honey!" Delia waved one last time. "Be careful!"

Ash sighed in embarrassment as the women working in the rice paddies began giggling. "I will, mom! Love you!"

"Love you, too!" Delia called as her son disappeared from her view. She sighed and looked up at the sky. The perfect blue canvas had a sliced tear in its fabric, the loose ends fluttering in the atmosphere. The cut revealed a surreal backdrop of a dark blue watery sky with sparkling stars and cosmos. It seemed like only yesterday that Delia saw the golden light release from the middle of the ocean and leave the fluttering wound in the sky. What worried Delia the most, was that the light had been emitted from the gold egg-like mechanism that her son had recovered from Team Rocket and Team Aqua's co-joined underwater headquarters.

Delia closed her eyes and prayed silently, "Please watch over our son, Harold." - she opened her eyes and looked up wistfully at the fluffy white clouds in the distance - "I can't bear to lose you both."

"Hey, Dinah!" Ash greeted with a grin to the Pokemon Ranger HQ's receptionist. "How you been?"

"I've been doing great!" Dinah responded with a smile. Ash could have sworn that he heard a tinge of uneasiness in the young woman's voice, but he brushed the thought aside.

"You know anything about the new mission?" Ash asked as he signed himself in.

Dinah shook her head vigorously. "All I know is that it's top secret. They wouldn't even let me in on it."

"Top secret?" Ash turned to face Pikachu. "Sounds pretty cool, don'tcha think?"

"Piiikaaa... (I don't know...)" Pikachu answered uneasily.

"Lighten up!" Ash frowned. He turned back to face Dinah with a smile. He waved as he walked towards the main headquarters room. "Thanks, Dinah! See ya!"

"No problem!" Dinah called after Ash, returning the wave. Once she saw that Ash was out of view and earshot, Dinah's smile faded into a worried expression. At that moment, a tall blond-haired man with broad shoulders and sea-blue eyes dressed in the Rangers uniform - a black t-shirt with dark grey capris with the signature Ranger red and yellow half-jacket and belt and sneakers - was passing the receptionist desk. Dinah reached over the desk and grabbed his arm, stopping the man in his tracks.

"Jack, I need your help." Dinah whispered desperately.

The man named Jack Walker stopped dead in his tracks. He joined Dinah at the receptionist desk and made it seem like they were having a casual conversation.

"Did you find out who it is?" Jack asked in a low voice.

"Yeah, but you're not going to like it." Dinah replied. She took the sign-in clipboard and pointed at the last name to sign in. Jack's expression turned into alarm and began running towards the direction that Ash had went.

As he nudged past fellow Rangers and researchers, Jack rushed through the tunnel-style hallway to the one place that was only authorized to the new administration.

From the beginning, Jack always thought that the new administration was a little suspicious. Once the new Golden Egg was created, his suspicions began to grow, up to the point where he is running towards the one room where the non-admins were restricted from.

Now, here he was, charging through the industrial-style metal door that held a sign that said "Authorized Personnel Only." The sight of the room surprised Jack, as well as scared him. The walls were a bright white. Everybody wore white lab coats and sunglasses, rushing around confirming all of the final programming. In the center of the room was a floating platform in the shape of a clock's face with roman numerals and two rapidly spinning hands. On top of the suspended, glowing platform was Ash, holding Pikachu tightly in his arms.

Frantically, Jack snatched a white lab coat from the coat hanger by the door as well as a pair of sunglasses. He ran to the platform while he spoke into a hidden microphone that was attached to his shirt. "Code yellow, Jeremie. Did you come into contact with Dialga and Palkia yet?"

"Yeah, we did." the voice of Jeremie replied. "We're ready whenever you are."

"Great." Jack nodded.

"Still, Jack." Jeremie reminded gravely. "Just try to get him off of the platform at all costs. XANA can't get his hands on him, am I clear?"

Jack looked up at the young man and his childhood companion, both focused on their supposed goal with their eyes shut closed, the platform releasing gusts of wind upwards. "Crystal." Jack paused for a moment before he asked, "How are the two getting along?"

"We had to separate them, is that enough of an answer for you?"

Dinah jumped when the red-haired woman slammed her hands down on the receptionist's table, her blue eyes burning with anger.

"What do you mean I can't see him?! I just made an appointment with you guys so that I can see him privately!" the woman snapped.

"I-I'm sorry, Ms. Waterflower, but he's... unavailable at the moment." Dinah stuttered nervously. She wished she could tell her, she really did! But the circumstances at this moment where just too risky... and too dangerous.

"Well, where is he then?" the woman huffed.

Don't do it, don't do it! Dinah's conscious screamed at her.

I can't! I can't take it any longer! Dinah argued with herself.

Dinah sighed. She went around the receptionist's table to the entrance to the hallway that Jack had just ran down moments before. "Please follow me."

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Huh? Didn't you just say that Ash was unavailable?"

Dinah checked her surroundings before she whispered, "If you don't come with me, he will be. You're a Gym Leader, correct?"

The woman nodded slowly in response, still unsure of what was going on.

"Then we need your help."

"Psst! Ash!"

Ash slowly opened his eyes, fighting against the strong gusts of the platform below him. His vision was blurred at first, but then focused to reveal a researcher with blonde hair.

"Huh?" Ash blinked away the murkiness in his brain before he managed to recognize who was hiding behind the sunglasses and white lab coat.

"Jack?!" Ash hissed.

"Yup, it's me, kiddo!" Jack replied with small grin. Then his grin faded and his expression turned serious. Even behind the sunglasses, Ash could tell that his eyes had followed suit to his face. "Listen, you know what's going on?"

"Yeah, I'm being transported to another dimension for the mission." Ash replied with a proud smile. Then his smile faded. "Why, is something wrong?"

"When you're about to have your soul destroyed by a viral shadow, I'd say that's something wrong." Jack answered.

"Hey, get out of the way!" the head researcher called from the control panel, where the researchers have all gathered. "Transportation commencing now!"

At that moment, the door burst open to reveal Dinah and a young woman roughly around Ash's age with short, red hair and aquamarine blue eyes, wearing a blue button-up revealed mid-rif tank top and a matching mini skirt and yellow Converse sneakers. Their eyes widened with shock.

"No!" the red-haired woman cried, rushing towards the glowing platform. "Ash!"

Ash's eyes widened as Pikachu's eyes flew open when he realized what was happening. The moment froze for an instant when Ash saw the woman running towards him. Years had passed, but he knew those eyes anywhere.

Then, everything came rushing back into reality.

"Ash, get off, you fucking idiot!" Misty screamed as she ran towards the whirring and glowing platform.

Ash shot to his feet with Pikachu still in his arms and struggled against the wind to jump off the platform but failed to.

"Code green, code green! Begin Dimensional Time Stream Reversal, now!" Jack cried into his microphone as the researchers began charging towards the group of rebels.

The platform glowed brightly, blinding Ash and Pikachu. The air was pushed out of Ash's lungs and he began to feel light-headed. Through the hazy lights, Ash saw Misty's hands fight through the forceful lights and wind. Ash reached his hand out to skim his fingers against hers, before he was thrown into the air. Beyond the roof of the headquarters, the tear in the sky began illuminating the world.

The room was filled with a riot of scrambling researchers to remove the glitch in the system and contain the rebels.

As Misty struggled to escape from the grasp of two security guards that had apparently barged through the metal doors when nobody was looking, a pillar of white light shot through the roof of the labratory, debris falling rapidly to the ground, staining the white room and destroying the systems, causing the little hold the lab had on the transportation mechanism to be completely destroyed. The platform spat blue sparks as the mechanism became completely spiritual, causing the white light to turn into a marbling pink and beige. As the light faded, all eyes followed the pillar of light to where the tear in the sky was, the seams threatening to be torn even further as the tear spilled the light onto the surface of the Earth.

"Transfer connection successful!" Jeremie's voice called over the earpiece. "Beginning ritual, now!"

Misty bit one security guard's arm, causing him to let her go, screaming in pain. Once she was free, Misty kicked the other security guard in the crotch, causing him to fall to the ground in immense pain. Misty rushed to the shining pillar just as the light was beginning to blind the room again.

"Ash!" Misty called until she felt like her vocal box was bleeding.

The light blinded the room, and the region of Fiore for an instant. When the light faded, Misty lowered the arms that she raised to shade her eyes and saw that the platform, pillar and light were gone... and they took Ash with them.

"No..." Misty whispered.

"Dimensional Time Stream Rversal complete..." Jeremie reported as Jack recovered from the light.

Misty sank to her knees as her eyes began to water. Dinah ran to her side as Misty began crying.

"He should be landing in our dimension pretty soon."

"I was going to tell him today..." Misty sobbed.

Dinah frowned. "Tell him what?"

Misty wiped her eyes as she looked up at the sky with a determined look. Somewhere in the time stream, Ash and Pikachu floated, unconscious as calmness washed over them...

"...That I love him."