That was how things were, but her mentality had begun to change.
Max had more of an effect on her than she may have ever thought possible, and it let her want to try again.
She regretted not trying harder with the time she had with him while she could, and she could not get that time back to try to correct things.
The only thing that she could do was to try to take more of a chance on others to see if there would be some hope for her besides having the constant darkness of her situation weighing down on her as she tried desperately to push forward alone.
Even Ash knew how difficult the road ahead of her was, especially if she walked it completely alone and had the entire country against her if things turned out in the worst way imaginable.
Even as Ash would be taking such a journey that she had chosen, it was a very difficult one that seemed almost impossible.