Prologue

Ash Ketchum and Pikachu. A trainer and Pokémon with just one goal, to be the best. Ash and Pikachu started their journey together, a long time ago... How long Ash couldn't remember anymore. He could recall that first day as if it were last week. And every adventure since he holds dearly in his mind, beautiful and vivid.

Yet if he were to look back and count the adventures, it would seem like years. All the friends he made, people and Pokémon; and his traveling companions, Misty, Brock, Tracey, May, Max, Dawn, Iris, Cilan, Serena, Eureka, Clemont, just to name a few. It was amazing how much had happened to Ash since starting his Pokémon journey, on the day he turned ten.

Ash and his companions arrive at the PokéCenter, the first one they have seen in weeks, or months even. Time has little meaning on the road, and even less to Ash and Pikachu. The first thing to be done is to give their Pokémon to Nurse Joy, so she can heal all the scratches and bruises they naturally accumulate, in or out of battle. And, most importantly to some of the Pokémon, a good meal.

Ash excused himself from the others while they wait, Pikachu in tow. It's been a while since they were in a PokéCenter, and as a result it's also been a while since Ash has called home. First he checked for messages using his Pokédex. The Pokédex is like a dictionary for Pokémon, containing unbelievable amount of information on every Pokémon Ash has met. But it's more than even that. In addition to scanning Pokémon, it's also Ash's official ID proving he is a trainer, from Pallet Town in Kanto.

Professor Oak, the one who gave Ash the Pokédex and Pikachu, once told him never to lose it or there would be terrible consequences. He said that it's not just an ID, but identifies Ash's Pokémon as his. While the owner data for the Pokémon is stored on the PokeBall, that information is connected directly to the ID in the Pokédex. It keeps track of how many he has, so if Ash catches more than six, the excess will be sent to Professor Oak for safe keeping, through a network built by a man named Bill. Ash actually met Bill once, but that's another is, the Pokédex also used Bill's network so that Ash can access his Pokémon at Professor Oak's lab, items at his home, and kept a video message box that Ash could access from the computers at any PokéCenter around the world. Ash didn't really understand all of it, but he got that the Pokédex was a big deal.

As Ash pulled out the chair to sit down, he slipped his Pokédex into the open slot in the computer. Pikachu jumped up to sit in Ash's lap and watches the computer boot and access Ash's personal account, via Bill's network. The first thing Ash wanted to do was call his Mom to tell her he's okay, but he stopped. In the sidebar of the video phone screen, an envelope was dancing in place and the number 37 sat next to it. Ash had 37 messages? He'd never had so many at once. Not even when he'd been out of contact for twice this long...

His mom used to tell him to check his messages first, in case something important happened and you need to know. Bad situations don't stand still, so if there are multiple messages, something could have changed that you may need to know. She told Ash to check all his messages before calling. Of course this was something she never seemed to practice herself, but that was beside the point.

The messages went back a month and a half. The earliest were from Ash's Mom and a couple from Tracey, who was now an assistant to Professor Oak.

"Hi Ash and Pikachu!"

"Pikachu!" Pikachu gave his standard greeting for Ash's Mom, even though he knew it was a recording. It was the usual kind of message she left for him, asking how Ash was, if he was eating right, was he changing and washing his underwear? Normal as it was, the message did give Ash comfort to know she was thinking of him.

When the message finished, he started the next one. This time, Ash's Mom didn't speak right away. She seemed, worried. Hesitating, she eventually said, "Ash, I need you to call me as soon as you can. Okay? Please Ash." That surprised him. What had happened to make her act that way?

The next one was much the same, asking Ash to call when he could. All of hers were like that until Ash reached a message from Tracey. He looked as if he hadn't slept in days and was in some room Ash had never seen. "Ash, where are you? There's something you need to know, but I can't tell you in a video message. You deserve better. Please, call me the minute you get this. Don't call the lab. Call the hospital, or leave a message on my account and stay where you are until I call you back."

Hospital? What hospital? Was someone sick? Frantic, Ash skipped to a more recent message, this one from Gary. Gary was Ash's oldest rival, or at least he was until they had put aside their differences when Gary decided to study Pokémon like his grandfather Professor Oak. Since then they had sparsely kept in touch, but Ash still considered him a good friend. "What the Muk Ash!? Where are you? I've called a hundred times! A loser like you can't have so much losing to do that you can't find the time to call me back! Think you're too good for us, you idiot!?" Gary slammed the table with both hands, hiding his face he began to shake. In a restrained tone, "Just call back okay?"

Gary hadn't acted like that in ages. Ever since he started his studies, Gary didn't so much as call Ash a stink breath. Ash knew something was wrong and couldn't stand it any longer. Skipping the remaining messages, Ash called his Mom's house directly.

There was no answer.

Ash checked the information on the message from Tracey, and found the number for the hospital. The one who answered was a male nurse. "Viridian Medical, how can I help you?"

"I'm looking for Delia Ketchum?" Ash nearly shouted.

The man on the other end considered for a moment."Ketchum... Oh, you must be Delia's son Ash."

"Yes. Is my mom there?"

Again the man considered, as if choosing his words. "No. She, left a couple days ago."

"A couple days ago? Why was she there? Was she sick? Is Tracey still there? What's going on!?"

"I don't think I'm the one to tell you that. I'm sorry. Try calling Tracey directly." The male nurse hung up. Ash was bewildered. He couldn't think straight. But he needed to know. Opening his contacts, Ash selected the option to call Tracey at his last known location. This feature called the last place that someone logged onto Bill's network.

The tension built in Ash with each ring. He felt he might burst, but finally someone picked up. It wasn't Tracey though. It was Nurse Joy. "Hello, Professor Oak's lab," she greeted, hiccuping in the middle. She was indeed in Professor Oak's lab, Ash knew it from all the times he had visited and called. But why was she there? And who were all the other people behind her?

Ash didn't have time to consider. "Is my mom there?"

Taken aback, Joy responded "Who?"

"Delia Ketchum? Is she there?"

"Oh, you must be Ash Ketchum. Professor Oak spoke so highly of you."

"Pi?" Pikachu said in almost a whisper, and Ash was too anxious to hear. Something was odd about Nurse Joy. All the Joys he knew were, well, joyfull. They were always pleasant and ready to do anything to brighten your day. Unless of course they were lecturing you on how to be kind to other people, or more importantly to your Pokémon. But this Joy was doing neither.

"Is my mom there?"

"Oh, yes," Nurse Joy was startled into remembering Ash's request, "Just a moment." She stood up and walked off away from the camera.

An unbearable number of seconds later, Ash's mom appeared on the screen and sat down. Ash allowed himself to relax, but that small hope was dashed when she didn't speak or even look straight at Ash for more than a second. "Ash, honey, there's something I need to tell you..."

Spoke. Thoughts began to appear in Ash's mind, like bubbles in a pot of boiling water. Each one rose to the surface in quick succession. Ash's mom called weeks ago. Tracey had called from the hospital. His mom was wearing black. Same for Nurse Joy, the odd thing about her wasn't her demeanor, but her clothing was black. Gary had yelled at him to come home. Spoke. Don't call Oak's lab, but the hospital. Call Tracey because Ash's mom wasn't at the hospital. The people in the lab, were wearing black... Spoke. Nurse Joy had said 'spoke'. Passed tense. And through it all, there was one person who had not called, had not been seen.

All the bubbles of thought rose and threatened to boil over Ash's mind, but went horribly silent at his mom's next words, "Professor Oak is dead."

"Pika?" Pikachu uttered a horrible whimper. Ash's mom paused before explaining more, of which Ash heard and responded to every word. But that wasn't really Ash. He was broke in two.

One Ash was his body, sitting in the PokéCenter listening to his mom. The second Ash, the real one, retreated into his mind, into the void. There he floated, holding two separate ideas, one in each hand. The first was like a toy, with a triangular hole in the side. It was the world as Ash had always seen it. How reality was, is, and always would be, a fact. In the other hand was something smaller, a squarish block. It was thing Ash's mom had just told him, 'Professor Oak is dead'. Something Ash couldn't believe.

The second idea was small, small enough that it could fit into the hole in the idea in his other hand. Were it not for the hole being shaped like a triangle and the second idea being a square. They didn't fit. They couldn't. A child could tell you that. Besides, putting those two ideas together would be... wrong, horrible, and abomination. No, they didn't belong.

But even in the void of his mind, Ash could hear the faint sound of his mom talking. Every word she spoke pushed the two ideas closer together. He couldn't let that happen. Ash struggled to keep them separated. But there was something else. Pikachu. He was rubbing against Ash's shirt. His shirt was wet. Somehow, noticing this only made the two ideas pull harder. Ash pulled the idea of the world and the idea of Oak not being in the world apart with such ferocity that he tasted salt.

"Ash, are you okay?" The words pulled Ash out of his mind, merging him back with his body. He stood up immediately, only catching Pikachu by reflex before he fell.

Ash couldn't breath and the phlegm in his throat muffled the sound, but he managed to say "I'm coming home. Right away." His mom's eyes were shining, in the most pitiful way. She nodded in acknowledgement.

If Ash had room for the emotion, he would have been surprised at how well he spoke over the next few minutes. He explained why he needed to leave for his hometown right away. Showing their support, they figured out the best way for Ash to do just that. There was an airport two towns over. The town they were heading for anyway, because it had the next gym. But that didn't seem important anymore. Walking wasn't an option. Walking was normally their prefered method of travel, like most trainers, and even more so for Ash. His dad used to say that 'adventures don't just happen at the destination, but in the journey to get there.'

Besides, it would take a couple days to get there. Ash had to get home now. He would take a bus into town, another to the airport. Then he'd take two planes to Saffron City. From there, get on buses to Cerulean, to Pewter, and finally to Pallet. Five rides in all, more than a day's travel, and more money than he would normally spend. But here was where Ash's companions proved their worth and devotion. Without hesitation, they gathered the money to fund his trip, and he didn't even try to turn them down. They knew each other better than that.

Within two hours he was on the bus, leaving behind his friends to meet again in the town he was heading to. Someday. Maybe. At this point Ash couldn't say for sure. Or speak much at all for that matter.

The entire trip was surreal, vivid and sharp in his mind. He could recall every detail, from buying his tickets to every second he sat in his seat waiting to arrive. He could remember nearly crying six separate times. And actually crying three. He could still feel Pikachu nuzzle him as hard as he could without hurting Ash as he cried. He could hear the thoughts of the other passengers as they watched him try to contain his sobs. He unwillingly memorized smell of the airplane cabin, crisp yet devoid of any real scent. And every shrub, rock, building, car, and person he passed both on the bus and the plain.

All the while, Ash held onto the two ideas in his mind. He kept them as far apart as he could, his willpower splitting at the seams. Walking home, stretch. Not curling up into a ball, tear. But not letting the two ideas in his head meet, that took his will down to the last strand. Unfortunately, with every mile he got closer to home, the two ideas managed to get closer together. Dangerously close to destroying what was left of Ash's resolve, his only true comfort came from Pikachu.

A ghost of a thought appeared in Cerulean City and again in Pewter City. Ash thought of going to see his old friends Misty and Brock, if not for support, then at least to delay the inevitable. Like most non-Pokémon ghosts, these thoughts vanished before Ash could even fully recognize them. He had to get home. He had to get home. He had to...

Getting off the bus in Pallet town, Ash and Pikachu started toward their destination. Without a word in exchange, they turned away from the direction of Ash's childhood home. No, even though he had constantly told himself he was going home, there was another place he went.

Ash stood in front of a stone pillar, rectangular in shape and less than five feet tall. All around him were other pillars, just the same as this one. But this is what he came to see. What he needed to see. At the base were fresh flowers and burned incense, both of whose scent lingered in the air still. Pikachu held onto Ash's ankle, looking at the stone. He couldn't read, aside from a few words here and there that Ash had repeatedly pointed out. But Pikachu didn't need to read in order to know what the stone was saying to him. And he wanted to hate the stone for it.

'Samuel Oak'.

There it was, written in stone. Undeniable proof. Ash held up his hands to look at the nothing in his palms. He could see the two ideas again in his mind's eye. They no longer pulled at each other, because Ash accepted what he had to do, the impossible. The square idea of Oak's absence and death. The triangular slot in his concept of the world, an unshakable constant. He placed one into the other and against all reason, they fit. Without resistance the square slid into place, becoming flush with the surface of rest of the idea. Oak's death became part of reality.

The idea dissolved, turning into the ash that Professor Oak now was.

Along with it broke Ash's last ray of strength. He fell and cried without resistance. Pikachu joining him again.

As if to fix an imbalance, correcting for the hyper aware nature of Ash's trip, after beginning to cry Ash could remember almost nothing. What followed could be best described as a dream state. Ash remembered people, locations, talking, but all of it was hollow as a lie. People had identities, but were like poor imitations of who they were supposed to be. The words were nonexistent, yet spoken. And the places were well known to Ash, but were off, like someone had shifted everything around in his room but he couldn't tell what had actually changed, just that it was wrong.

Only a few things stood out. In what order they had happened and how he came upon any of them he would never be able to tell. There was Brock, Misty, and Tracey all looking at him and speaking phantom words. There was Gary, sitting on a step around a corner and refusing to look at Ash, while a girl told Ash that he should leave. And he could recall sitting with his mom as they held each other and Pikachu, crying.

Time passed. Or at least Ash had to assume it had passed, not that he cared to think about it. Ash came down from his room, finding his mom and Pikachu in the kitchen. They hadn't been talking, but somehow they still became quiet when the noticed he had entered the room. They unintentionally stared at him.

"How are you Ash?" His mom asked. Ash didn't respond, only sat down at the table and began to absently pet Pikachu. She paused before asking, "Do you think you're ready to see Tracey today?" Ash looked up at her, a faint question in his eyes. "You don't remember, do you?" Ash gently shook his head no. "Tracey was here yesterday. He said there was something he had to show you. He asked if you could visit him as the lab."

The lab. His lab. A small pit opened in Ash's chest. His mom had continued on to say that it might be good for Ash to go. And so he was on his way, not that he wanted to be. Ash was a quick walker, but he deliberately took the better part of an hour getting there.

Walking up the path to the main entrance, Ash remembered the first day of his journey. It was his tenth birthday, which just happened to fall on the same day as the annual tradition where new trainers would set out on their own adventures. Had Ash been born one day later, he would have had to wait a whole other year to get his first Pokémon, since you could only start once you were ten and the specific date had been set aside like a holiday for the beginning of Pokémon journeys.

Ash's dad had set out on the same journey, from this same place when he was ten. According to Ash's mom, his dad had taken three days just to get to the next town, Viridian. Ash grew up wanting to be a Pokémon master, just like his dad had wanted to be.

Grew up? That struck Ash as almost funny. He was ten when he left, still a child. Now he was... What? He couldn't remember his own age. How long had it been since he met Pikachu? Looking back on all that had happened, and what had recently happened, it seemed like so long ago. Like two decades at least. But, that was impossible. Ash couldn't even be a teenager, let alone an adult.

He looked at Pikachu, waiting for Ash by the door. He didn't look that much older than when they met. Lost some weight and adopted a completely different attitude toward Ash, but not aged. He was still the same stubborn Pikachu who refused to get his own Pokeball. Ash still had that ball. Pikachu was almost never in it, but it still held the data that identified Pikachu as Ash's. He kept it for legal purposes of course. In order to travel between countries or have a Pokémon participate in official battles, that Pokémon had to be registered to you. But Pikachu would never leave, even without the PokeBall.

Pikachu would never leave him at all, right..? He was Ash's best friend. His truest companion. A part of Ash's very identity. His soul. Pikachu would never be not there. But Professor Oak had. Oak had been a constant Ash's entire life and now he was gone. And if he could go, you could argue that-

No. Ash refused to go down that road. Ever.

He stood in front of the entrance to the lab, not sure what to do. Back when he lived in town, Ash would just barge in all the time without an invitation. On the occasions that Ash returned home from his journey, he couldn't remember knocking even once. But now it seemed different. A foreign building erected in the same place and style as a beloved landmark. On top of that, Ash just didn't want to go in. Being in Pallet Town and remember Professor Oak all over the place was hard enough, but to actually be in his lab? In the man's home?

A moment later, the door opened. Behind it was Tracey, a former traveling companion of Ash's, who had specialized in sketching Pokémon. His normally cheery attitude about everything, even danger, had been replaced with one of sorrow that mirrored Ash's.

"Hi Ash. Thanks for coming." Tracey greeted. Ash nodded in response. Tracey seemed to have expected that, so he held open the door for Ash as he entered. "Take a seat on the couch. Would you like some tea?" Not waiting for a response, Tracey went to grab a tea tray from the kitchen while Ash worked his way to the familiar couch in the guest area of the lab.

It wasn't much, just a couple of couches facing each other with a coffee table between them. The room was large, but mostly empty save for the aforementioned furniture and Oak's natural clutter around the walls. Professor Oak had cared for the copious amounts of Pokémon of the trainers that worked with him, including Ash. This room was set aside mostly for when those trainers visited and wanted to spend time with their Pokémon, some of whom could be quite large.

Ash remembered the room fondly. He and Gary and the other kids from town often played in this very room before they could become trainers. The would talk about what Pokémon they would catch and where they would go. They would interact with all the Pokémon they could find, which usually involved trying to ride the larger ones. And they would barrage the Professor with questions while he worked until he sent them away, which didn't always work.

Once Ash sat down, Pikachu joined him on the couch and curled up on Ash's lap. Just before Tracey returned with the tea, Ash noticed a loose collection of boxes next to the coffee table. They appeared to to contain stacks of old books, labeled as journals and each with a number. That is, except for the one on top, which had no label and was the oldest one by far.

"Thanks for coming. It must be hard for you to be here," Tracey said, setting the tray of tea on the table between them. He poured a cup for Ash and handed it to him. That scent brought back even more memories. This was Professor Oak's favorite tea. Ash didn't even know the name of the kind of tea, just that it was his tea. It may have been cruel to give that to Ash, but Ash knew it was probably the only tea Tracey could find in the whole lab. Ash took a sip and listened to what Tracey had to say.

"I know... I know how painful this must be for you, but... Well I have something for you. Back when the Professor found out he wouldn't, well... He had me make arrangements, he wanted to be sure that the lab and all his work would go on. He needed to know Gary and his sister would be taken care of. That all his old friends knew how much he loved them." Tracey paused for a deep breath. Ash took another solum sip of the nostalgic tea. "He asked me to go through all his old documents and gather up all of his journals. It wasn't easy, but he insisted they be found and arranged in order, for you." Ash scrunched his eyebrows as if to ask why. "I'm not sure why. But it was really important to him. That's them there." Tracey reached over to the boxes of journals, picking up the oldest looking one and handed it to Ash. "He said to start with this one."

Ash accepted the book, putting down his tea so both hands would be free to examine the book. Pikachu jumped up to the back of the couch to get a better view. Inside were sketches of Pokémon, excellent ones, more lifelike than even Tracey's sketches. Or at least they had been, all of them were faded from the book's profound age. Not just from the normal weathering of paper, but from having been opened, shut, and the shifting of pages. It had worn out the drawings so only the darkest lines remained, the fine details lost. Ash had never seen a book so old that wasn't some first edition by some famous writer.

Turning the pages, Ash saw Pokémon after Pokémon. They were good, like a hand drawn Pokédex. As he flipped, Tracey continued, "He also wanted to apologize. He said he should have shared these sooner. He knew when it was the right time, but got scared and put it off. He was scared of how you would see, or look at him... Something like that. But that now you had to know, or never. He seemed so sad, but all he would say was that it was the best thing that happened to him."

Ash continued onto another faded drawing. All of them so far were vaguely familiar, but this one stood out. There were two Pokémon, seeming to lean against one another as they slept. One was clearly a Pikachu, Ash would know that anywhere. The other was about the same size but with different proportions. It had round feet and wide arms. From what Ash could tell, the head was a sideways teardrop with antennae, maybe, and what might have been black eyelids. He knew that Pokémon...

"PIika!" Pikachu shouted in surprise. Ash realized he was right! That was a Celebi. Next to it wasn't just a Pikachu, it was his Pikachu! A torrent of memories slammed into Ash. Back when he was traveling through Johto, Ash had met another trainer named Sammy. Sam had been dislocated through time when he was trying to save a Celebi, this Celebi, from being attacked by a hunter. He and Ash became quick friends when they had taken care of Celebi and taken it to a magical healing lake deep in the forest to return it to good health.

They saw some amazing things together in that forest. But it was almost ruined when a former member of team Rocket attacked, catching Celebi in a Dark Ball. Somehow that had made Celebi evil and he was commanded to begin destroying the forest. Only through their combined determination and the help of Suicune, a Pokémon personification of the northwind, did they manage to return Celebi to himself. But Celebi had lost all of it's life force in the struggle. Even the magic lake, purified by Suicune, wouldn't restore it. But Celebi was saved by a swarm of other Celebi, who had traveled through time and gathered there to save him. Afterwards, Celebi took Sam back to his own time, and Ash felt as though he lost a friend.

This, this was Sam's sketchbook. The one he dropped before coming to the future, was given back to him, and taken with him back into the past. No wonder the book was so old, it had made the trip from Sam's time to the present twice, and the long way!

But, why did Professor Oak have Sammy's sketchbook? Did he know Sam somehow? Even if he did, how would Sam have known that the Professor would know Ash? Ash flipped through the book in a frenzy, if his emotions since learning about Oak's death hadn't drained him so completely, he may have ripped the book. Page after page of Pokémon sketches. But nothing to indicate where Professor Oak had gotten it from Sam.

There was a shock, as powerful as a thunderbolt from Pikachu. What was Professor Oak's name? Not just Oak, but his full name. Ash couldn't remember, after all he had always been Professor Oak, or just the Professor. It had been that way since before Ash could remember. What did it say on his grave? No time to feel hurt about that now, Ash told himself. What was the name? Samuel Oak. Sam Oak. Sam!

Ash was in a daze. He couldn't believe his own thoughts.

"Pika! Pikachu!" Without Ash noticing, Pikachu had climbed down from the back of the couch and was trying his best to pick up the first of the other notebooks. Ash finally snapped to and grabbed it from him. Ignoring Tracey's stunned expression and nearly tore open the journal.

Ash began to read through blurred eyes:

"Dear Ash,"...