A/N: After that unfortunately long break, here's the longest chapter in the story by far. I guess I've got nothing to say this time, except… I hope the wait was worth it for you guys. We're almost done…
––
The interior of Mewtwo's Castle was centered around an enormous tower with a massive fanged mouth for a doorway. It was surrounded by a swirling barrier of energy that would probably vaporize Pikachu on contact.
"I'm guessing he doesn't entertain very much," Togetic decided. "Well Pikachu, that barrier is being powered by those beams coming from those six doors. I'm guessing you have to go in there and destroy them from the inside somehow."
"Any particular reason you think he decided to theme them after the six temples?" Pikachu wondered. "I mean, has he ever actually been in them before?"
"You're being annoyingly logical again," Togetic snapped, shoving him through the first door.
There were several Silver Rupees lying around the room, but there were also a bunch of sliding floor blades that were blocking most of them off. Pikachu tried to grab one of the Rupees with little success.
"All right, I just gotta – OW! Okay, let me try that – OW! Dammit, I just need to – OW!"
"Pikachu, I think there's probably a better way to get at those things than trying to walk through the floor blades."
"Shut up! If I keep doing the same thing over and over something different is bound to happen eventually!"
Finally Togetic lost her patience and grabbed the Rupees for him, and they went into another room that had a bunch of Solrocks sticking out of the walls.
"All right, clearly only one of these Solrocks is the one we want to light up. Be careful not to mess this up Pikachu, you'll probably get punished if you pick the wrong one."
"Oh, it can't be that bad. Just so long as it's not another Cradily."
Pikachu reflected the light from the ceiling onto one of the Solrocks, promptly causing a Cradily to drop on top of him.
"THIS ISN'T FUNNY!" he shrieked as Togetic nonchalantly opened the door for him.
The next room was empty except for two torches and a huge orange orb of energy, surrounded by a swirling orange barrier of light.
"All right, here's where we destroy Mewtwo's barrier. Remember what to do here, Pikachu?"
"Something about penetrating, right?" he asked eagerly. Togetic smacked him and jogged his memory. "Oh, right."
Concentrating with all his might, he unleashed a mighty Thunder attack on the energy orb, completely obliterating it. At that moment, Pikachu and Togetic were surprised to see Espeon appear before him.
"Hey there, Pikachu. I'm just supposed to tell you that the Spirit Barrier is destroyed, although you just saw it for yourself and probably figured that out on your own."
"No he didn't. Trust me," said Togetic.
"Yeah, what just happened?" asked Pikachu, scratching his head.
––
Espeon quickly transported them back to the main room of the castle, where they saw the orange beam of light that had been feeding the barrier dissipate and vanish.
Pikachu freaked out. "Crap! Mewtwo's totally gonna kill us when he sees that! Let's run for it!"
Togetic slugged him in the stomach before he could do just that, and so he reluctantly walked through another door that was guarding one of the barriers. After lighting a bunch of torches and fending off a rabid Mightyena, he found himself in a room full of fans and more Silver Rupees.
"Great…" he sighed. "Well, maybe if I can use Magnet Rise I can get those fans to blow me over to where all the Silver Rupees are. But it's going to be really hard and require exact precision. I'd better sit down and do some calculations so I can predict the trajectory of – "
Togetic had already flown around the room and grabbed all the Silver Rupees. "Seriously, did it not even occur to Mewtwo how easy this dungeon would be for Flying-types? He's not that great at thinking ahead."
So they entered a room holding an orange energy orb similar to the first, this one surrounded by a green barrier. Pikachu quickly zapped it and destroyed it, and this time Flareon appeared before them.
"The Fire Barrier has been destroyed! Hurry up, brother!"
Togetic blinked. "Uh… no it hasn't. We just destroyed the Forest Barrier."
Flareon looked surprised. "Oh, crap. Am I in the wrong room?"
"Yes! Now quit ruining my big moment, numbskull!" Leafeon snapped, shoving him out of the way. "Now then… ahem! The Forest Barrier has been destroyed! Hurry up, Pikachu!"
"That was a big dramatic moment, all right," said Togetic.
––
After Leafeon teleported them back to the main room, Pikachu charged through another door and found himself looking at a largely bottomless pit with only a few floating platforms scattered around.
"Okay, now, this doesn't make any sense," said Togetic. "This castle can't possibly contain a bottomless pit when we very clearly saw all of its dimensions from the outside! Do physics seriously not matter at all around here?"
Pikachu arbitrarily used Sacred Fire on a nearby torch, causing a walkway leading across the room to materialize out of thin air. "That probably made even less sense," he remarked.
Halfway across the room, Pikachu found a switch on the floor and hit it, causing a chest to fall from the ceiling. He eagerly scampered over and opened it.
"Duuuuude! Check it out!" he cheered, pulling out the TM for Seismic Toss.
"Awesome. Mewtwo's leaving around random weapons for you to pick up. Guess we know why he didn't get the Triforce of Wisdom either."
After using the Silph Scope to uncover an invisible pathway leading out of the room, Pikachu entered the room containing the next energy orb. After totally frying it, it dissipated in a burst of energy and Umbreon appeared over them.
"The Shadow Barrier has been destroyed. I'd ask you to protect the princess, but you pretty much royally screwed up on that already."
"Hey Umbreon, did you know your princess is a transvestite?" Pikachu said conversationally.
"And that I'm going to kill her for it?" Togetic added.
"Yes, that's lovely. Now get going, both of you," Umbreon said wearily before transporting them away.
––
"Well, we've destroyed half the barriers already. We're making good time, so let's hurry and get to the next one," said Togetic.
Pikachu suddenly looked pained and crossed his legs. "Uh… hang on a second, I have to take a bathroom break."
Togetic looked incredulous. "You WHAT?"
So Pikachu ruined the dramatic tension by running out of the castle to find a rock to whiz behind, when he noticed an enormous stone slab blocking off the entrance to the Great Fairy Fountain.
"Holy crap! The Great Fairy must be trapped inside! If I can move this thing, she'll have to shower me with rewards!" He immediately scampered up to the entrance. "HIYAAAAAAAA!" he bellowed, using his ridiculously haxed Seismic Toss to hurl the stone slab away. It flew through the air and landed several yards away, crushing an innocent Shinx passerby.
"Well, thank you, but you know as a magical being I can just phase in and out of here whenever I want," the Togekiss informed him.
"Shut up and give me a reward, woman."
––
So Pikachu re-entered Mewtwo's Castle with a new spell that doubled his defensive power. As he entered the main room he noticed another large stone slab blocking off the entrance to another door, so he tossed it out of the way and charged inside.
"Well, there's nothing in this room," he reported. Although he was quickly proven wrong when he heard the sound of wingbeats and was instantly swarmed by a gang of invisible Zubats.
"GAAAHHHHHH! CURSE YOU, MY INVISIBLE FOE!" he shrieked, running around the room and crashing into walls as the Zubats gnawed on him. Togetic shook her head and grabbed the key from a nearby chest, opening the door to the next room.
"Just perfect," she muttered. Not only were there several other Silver Rupees, but two huge boulders rolling around and around the small room. "I guess I'd better solve this before Pikachu gets in here and messes up."
"YAAAAAAAAAH!" Pikachu screamed, running past Togetic and into the room as the invisible Zubats continued biting him. He was promptly run over by one of the boulders, and while he managed to survive, the Zubats were all instantly killed.
"Exactly as planned," he said smugly.
The next room looked identical to the ones that had held the previous orbs, but surprisingly, there was no Light Barrier to be seen.
"Uh oh… I have a feeling this room is a trap of some kind," Togetic muttered, looking cautiously around for where the barrier could possibly be hidden.
Pikachu shook his head. "Oh, well. It can't possibly be worse than that Cradily."
The very same Cradily from before promptly landed on top of him.
"GAHHHH! OKAY, SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE HELL!" he screamed as he attempted to fend off the Cradily before it strangled him to death. They ended up rolling around the floor and straight through the illusory wall at the back of the room, leading to the actual room where the Light Barrier was hidden. Pikachu finally pried the Cradily off of him and hurled it right at the barrier, which somehow succeeded in destroying it.
"That was incredibly humiliating to watch," said Jolteon as he appeared before them. "But the Light Barrier has been destroyed. Now please start acting more intelligent, Pikachu. You're making the Sages look bad."
"I take offense to that," Pikachu pouted.
"And I think he does too," said Togetic, pointing at the injured Cradily that was now sneaking up on Jolteon.
"What the – ARRGHHH!" Jolteon bellowed as the Cradily threw itself at him, causing both of them to fly into a violent scuffle to the death. Pikachu and Togetic ended up having to walk back by themselves.
––
The next room they entered was the one that led to the Fire Barrier. It consisted of an enormous pit of magma, a winding metal pathway, and, you guessed it, more Silver Rupees.
"Okay, seriously! This is like, the third time we've had to collect Silver Rupees! This is getting boring!"
"Yes, how dare Mewtwo design such a repetitive dungeon. He should know how to pander to your tastes better."
"Damn straight!" Pikachu agreed, marching onto the metal pathway only for it to immediately sink into the magma. "AAAAAAARGHHH!"
With Togetic's help he ended up getting four of the five Silver Rupees, and he quickly found out that the final one was hidden underneath another giant stone slab.
"All right Pikachu, I'm sure you know what you're supposed to do with this," said Togetic as Pikachu was pondering the enormous slab.
"I sure do!" he agreed. He used his mighty strength to lift it off the ground, and with a roar he Seismic Tossed it right at the exit door, smashing it completely in.
"Hmm. Not bad," Togetic decided.
The next room was the one that contained the Fire Barrier. Pikachu destroyed it with one good Thunder blast, and Flareon appeared before them yet again.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he muttered as he saw them. "The Fire Barrier has been destroyed. Unless I'm in the wrong room again. Don't tell me, you actually just destroyed the Light Barrier, didn't you?"
"Nope, we already did that," Pikachu replied. "Ask Jolteon, he'll tell you."
"I'M A LITTLE BUSY!" Jolteon screamed as he suddenly burst through the wall, still wrestling with the Cradily.
––
The final door that Pikachu entered led to a room that was covered in ice. There was a burning blue flame in the middle of the floor and several icicles hanging from the ceiling.
"Well, guess I'd better get that blue fire and – hey! A chest!" said Pikachu. He ran over and kicked the chest open and was promptly frozen solid.
Togetic glanced at a watch that had apparently been on her wrist the whole time. "He died three seconds after entering the room. I think that's actually a new record."
After finally getting the blue fire and using it to melt the red ice leading out of the room, they walked into an unpleasantly familiar room that contained a bunch of sliding ice blocks.
"Oh, come on!" Pikachu complained, grabbing his head. "I don't want to do this again!"
"Y'know, I just had a thought," said Togetic. "Couldn't you just use Seismic Toss on those things instead of pushing them around like before?"
Pikachu pondered this for a long moment before a delighted look crossed his face.
"Dude! That's a great idea!" he cheered. He raced over to one of the ice blocks, and with a deafening shriek, he hurled it straight at the wall and smashed right through it. This caused a chain reaction that resulted in half of Mewtwo's Castle collapsing and falling into the lava pit outside.
"That was a terrible idea!" Pikachu snapped at Togetic.
Finally, the duo entered the room that contained the last barrier to be destroyed. As Pikachu zapped it into oblivion, Vaporeon appeared in front of them.
"Hey Vaporeon. I know you're probably totally heartbroken and stuff, but I can't stay here with you or anything. I gotta go save the world," Pikachu greeted her.
Vaporeon glared at him. "I haven't forgotten that you tried to get Starmie to kill me, you know."
Pikachu looked disappointed. "You haven't? You stupid women and your grudges."
––
"So basically, this final dungeon was just a completely unoriginal ripoff of all the other dungeons. What a gyp," Pikachu remarked as he and Togetic were teleported to the main room for the last time.
Togetic stared at him. "Seriously? Why are you complaining about a stupid thing like that?"
"I'm good at complaining."
With that, Pikachu had successfully destroyed all six barriers blocking off the way to Mewtwo's Tower. He and Togetic whipped around in shock as the swirling barrier around the tower suddenly began to spin much more rapidly, writhing and flashing before it finally expanded out and dissipated with a deafening boom that shook the entire castle.
"…Well, if Mewtwo didn't know we were here before, he does now," Togetic remarked.
"Yup. That running away idea is starting to sound good again," Pikachu decided. He turned around and tried to make a mad dash for the exit, not seeming to notice as Togetic grabbed him by the tail and dragged him into the tower.
––
The interior of Mewtwo's Tower consisted mainly of a long, winding staircase leading up and up, occasionally interrupted with rooms guarded by enemies. Pikachu plowed his way up to the top of the tower, along the way defeating two Sceptiles, two Marowaks, two Goruugus, two insurance salesmen and two Hungarian trapeze artists. As he got closer to the top, though, an eerie light began to fill the tower and he became aware of the strains of evil-sounding organ music getting louder and louder.
Finally he and Togetic arrived at the door at the very top, leading to what they were sure was the final confrontation.
"Well… here we are," said Pikachu. "Our entire adventure has led us up to this very moment. Our final battle lies somewhere beyond this door. We should take a moment and reflect on how very far we've come in our epic quest before we walk on through and go to meet our destinies."
Togetic looked at him in shock. "Pikachu… that's surprisingly noble of you to say. I think you may have actually grown up during this adventure." She smiled. "And if that's the case, then that means this entire ordeal, no matter how painful it was for me at times, was actually worth it. I can actually say I'm proud to be your partner."
"Okay, enough reflecting. I gotta pee. Let's hurry and get this over with," Pikachu decided, hurling a completely unnecessary Egg Bomb at the door and blasting his way through.
"I hate everything," Togetic griped, following after him.
––
As the duo arrived on the other side, they gasped.
The room they had just entered was enormous. The walls were covered in stained glass windows, and a red carpet on the floor led up to a huge pipe organ. Suspended high above the organ was the pink crystal, and Eevee was still trapped inside, looking frightened.
"Pikachu? Is that you? Up here!" she called.
Togetic looked up. "YES! She's still alive! That means I can kill her!" she cheered. "PREPARE TO DIE, YOU FLUFFY WENCH!"
Pikachu grabbed her by the wing before she could go flying off. "Uh, T-money…" he said nervously, gesturing directly ahead.
Mewtwo was facing away from the two of them, pounding an appropriately dramatic tune on the organ. Oh, and I should mention that he was wearing a huge badass red cape too.
"Why in Entei's name is he just sitting there playing music?" Togetic wondered.
"For the narrative drama?" Pikachu guessed dumbly. Suddenly he noticed a bright glow and realized that the Triforce of Courage had appeared on his left hand.
"AAAACK! MY HAND IS GLOWING! KILL IT!" he shrieked in panic, repeatedly stabbing his hand with a Razor Leaf. "OW! Okay, bad idea…"
Inside her crystal prison, Eevee gasped as the Triforce of Wisdom suddenly appeared on her hand. It was then that Mewtwo finally stopped playing the organ.
"The Triforce parts are reacting to each other," he mused. "The two Triforce parts that I could not capture on that day seven years ago… I didn't expect that they would be hidden within you two! I thought the Legendary Pokémon would at least be smart enough to hide them within someone competent! No matter though, this will just make my task all the easier!"
Pikachu stood blinking for a long moment before he realized something. "Heeeeey! He just insulted the princess! That fiend!"
Eevee facepalmed. "We're gonna die," she sighed.
Mewtwo suddenly whipped around in a broad sweeping motion, revealing the glowing Triforce of Power on the back of his hand.
"These toys are too much for you!" he roared in a thunderous voice. "I command you to return them to me!"
Suddenly, a sickly wave of purple energy started emanating off of Mewtwo. Pikachu cried out as it engulfed him, and he looked up and saw Togetic was suddenly floating high up in the air, far away from him.
"Oh no, T-money!" he cried. "Are Mewtwo's evil psychic powers preventing you from getting close and helping me?"
Togetic gave him a look. "No. Are you joking? I'm staying up here where it's safe!"
Pikachu sweatdropped. "I hate my life."
Mewtwo let out a deep wicked laugh. Eevee and the organ inexplicably and illogically vanished, the room transformed into an arena, and the fated showdown began…