It was years before Lance saw any of them again.
Perhaps out of stubbornness or some other feeling of wrongness, Lance could not find it in himself to train a new member for his team to fill the expansive gap that Wyvern left. It wasn't too big of a concern; he wouldn't be required to have the full team in rotation unless someone was challenging him for his title, and no one had even gotten close to being able to challenge him in years. The most recent Indigo Conference winner's entire team had been carefully eviscerated by Lorelei's Sweetheart; having fought against the Jynx himself, Lance sympathized for the poor Trainer who had the misfortune to draw challenging her first.
Lance may not have been training a new team member, but he did find himself at the training grounds with an eager young pokémon. Agatha had been visited by the newly minted Ghost Master from Galar (Lance wondered idly why Masters were being crowned so young nowadays) and Allister had brought with him a Dreepy as a thank-you gift for Agatha's advice. The Ghost Master had wanted Lance to start her training to give her a Dragon-type foundation before slowly turning her more spectral than beast.
The Dragon Master was struck by a particularly poignant pang of nostalgia, watching Zweilous snarl at Dreepy, who stared at her attentively, when he noticed a dark speck in the sky that was steadily growing larger.
"Zweilous, if you could please continue training here," Lance said under his breath. His companion shot up, facing towards the shape moving towards them. "I'll take care of this. If it seems to be hostile, please take Dreepy to shelter." He could hear Zweilous begin to snarl in protest with one head while another cut it off with a sharp growl that faded into a diligent croon to let him know that she would obey him. Lance nodded to her before turning back at the shape, which had become much more distinct.
Something ran cold in his veins before pooling in his stomach. He recognized that shape almost immediately, as though it had been drawn on his core, and he knew that something was wrong.
The only thing that Lance could identify on Wyvern's descending form was the chain that he himself had clasped around her arm, her Pokeball still hanging on it. Her expression seemed almost dead, her eyes hooded, and she wore a brown leather messenger bag. She was looking down, away from him; his most wild-seeming Dragonite almost seemed contrite now, as though she was trying to sink into herself. She looked uncomfortable in her form for the first time in years, and Lance's primal flame howled at the sight.
Lance felt two of his Pokeballs at his belt tremble before breaking open on their own, Drakon and Coatl spilling out of them to stand at his side, staring bewilderingly at their former teammate. Coatl ducked down, nudging Lance's palm with the horn on the top of his head, while Drakon took a step forward to croon at Wyvern.
The Dragonite in front of Lance was still avoiding eye contact with them, but she was frozen, as though she didn't know what she was doing.
"Wyvern?" Lance ventured softly; Coatl gave a sad noise from the back of his throat and Drakon stared at Wyvern, taking her entire form in.
Lance's voice seemed to snap her out of whatever daze she was in, and Wyvern immediately dove at the bag around her body. She almost shredded it with her enthusiasm, the leather turning to strips beneath her claws, but she very tenderly removed what looked like a thin black rectangle of plastic and metal. Without looking up, Wyvern held the device out to Lance. He took it from her.
A red grid of light quickly shone onto Lance's face for a second, scanning his features before clicking off. A pale blue light turned on. A light model of a younger teenager appeared projected on the device: she had a porcelain complexion with wavy teal hair that had been arranged in front of her shoulders. Most of her face was shrouded by the grey hooded cloak she wore, and her arms were carefully positioned in front of her, hands clasped together.
"Greetings," a voice said softly; Lance craned to hear. "Champion Lance, you are invited to my dear friend's home on New Island to witness the hand of justice that the Legendaries command in this world. We request your presence, as despite my friend's lofty titles he has no true legal jurisdiction. We are convening in three days' time; perhaps arrive disguised so you may be of most help." The hologram bowed. "Thank you for your time." The device powered down before flickering a set of coordinates onto the screen.
When Lance turned back to Wyvern, she glanced up and made eye contact for the first time since her arrival. Lance saw her eyes dart to Drakon and Coatl with raw, unbridled longing before she extended her wings and forcefully took off, flying first above the clouds and then into the horizon once more.
Drakon howled after her mournfully, though he did not give chase, and Coatl soon joined in, draconic calls of grief (grief for their teammate, who continued to be lost to them) (grief for themselves for having to go without her once more). Lance swore he heard Wyvern join in from the zenith of the sky.
New Island seemed less a home and more a fortress, smoothened walls and angular towers. Lance had foregone riding Drakon for fear that being seen on a Dragonite would be a bit too flashy, but Charizard had been more than willing to fly him in. When Lance noticed an arena with no roof and what appeared to be movement in it, he opted to usher Charizard to land near the entrance, readjusting the hat and scarf he had donned to disguise himself.
"Excuse me, Mr. Champion?" Lance stiffened before turning to the source of the unfamiliar voice.
The girl from the hologram message that Wyvern had delivered him was beaming up at him, sans obscuring cloak; she stood much shorter than Lance anticipated (the top of her head only reached to the center of his chest) but she seemed much more relaxed than whenever the message was recorded. Lance noted that she was looking him in the eyes with an expression that betrayed her caution.
"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about," Lance said, a warbling affectation coloring his tone. His cheek twitched; Diantha would not have been pleased at the mangling of her native accent.
"Of course," the girl said mildly. "May I see your invitation?"
Lance handed over the dormant device, coordinates still blinking on the screen. The girl seemed to fumble with it before catching herself and slipping it into a surprisingly deep pocket in her coat. She turned back to him and bowed stiffly. "Please, go on in," she said, gesturing towards the door.
Lance nodded to her before readjusting his hat one more time and stuffing gloved hands into his pockets.
His first assumption had been correct: Lance found himself in a vast arena, one nearly three times the size of an Indigo-approved regulation stadium. At one side, dwarfed despite its grandeur, was a table of appetizers next to what appeared to be a set of benches and a fountain. Lance recalled the contents of the strange missive he had received; this place didn't look like the home of a self-proclaimed hand of justice.
He noticed a small group of people milling about the benches: maybe five humans and whatever pokémon comprised their teams. As he approached, a chill danced up his spine.
They're all children, he thought in horror.
All of the Trainers had to be at most three years on their journey; he doubted that any had travelled to as many regions. There were a couple he didn't recognize: a boy with purple hair and narrowed eyes, a blonde boy with geometric bangs, a blue-haired boy who stood with an arrogance that Lance saw in amateur Trainers throughout his regions. He also noticed a purple-haired girl and a brunet boy who stood by each other, steadfastly ignoring the other three.
Lance walked over to Anabel and Gary (they had grown so much in the years since Ash's disappearance) and put a hand on each of their shoulders. Anabel seemed startled but Gary immediately turned and glowered.
"Bugger off, Mister," he snarled. "I don't want to deal with any of you losers today."
Lance raised an eyebrow. He didn't think his disguise was that good. "Is that any way to treat an old friend of your grandfather's?" Lance asked, dropping his false accent.
Before Gary could say a word, Anabel's eyes widened and she turned around. "Lance?" she gasped out.
Lance quickly shushed her. "Not so loud," he said, glancing at the other Trainers. The purple-haired boy was staring over at them, though he made no move to abandon the blonde boy and the blue-haired boy, who were now in a heated argument over something that Lance couldn't quite make out.
"Why are you two here?" Lance asked a placated Gary and more relaxed Anabel in a lowered voice.
"We got these invitations via our emails," Gary said, showing Lance the message on his Pokedex. "They said to come to New Island to meet the world's greatest pokémon Trainer. I had some time before the Indigo League and Anabel asked if I got it too so we planned to come here together."
"You made it to the League in your first year?" Lance asked, momentarily distracted. "Excellent work, Gary." The boy's chest puffed up. Anabel rolled her eyes.
"Anyhow," she muttered pointedly, "I came because I wanted to see the kind of connection between a person who believes themself the best Trainer and their pokémon. I wanted to know what I would have to learn."
Lance nodded. "A very astute conclusion," he said. "And a bit worrying, since I received a memo that there would be 'justice served' here today."
Gary and Anabel's faces went white.
"I'm sure it's not either of you two," Lance said hastily. He realized ruefully that he had all but forgotten how to interact with children. "I'd like to see what this Trainer has in store, though, as all of you are far too young to be swept up in this."
Before either of the children could respond, the girl who had greeted Lance at the door clapped to gain their attentions. "Thank you for being patient," she said. "It seems as though you are the six brave Trainers who were able to make it to my dear friend's gathering. We do love to see how determined you were to meet him."
The blue-haired Trainer cut in. "Yadda yadda, lady," he snapped. "Where is this big, strong Trainer, anyhow?"
Lance saw the girl's face twitch at the interruption and her eyes snapped red for a second before fading back to a muted dark brown. "Of course," she said, and Lance could hear the bite in her words now. "He is still preparing himself. However, we don't want to upset the lovely banquet we had prepared for you; if you all could please follow me into the next room, where you can release all of your lovely pokémon for my friend to peruse."
The boys followed her eagerly; Lance, Anabel, and Gary trailed behind, cautiously following the group through the doorway.
The next room was stark, in a word. The previous room had held tables piled with food and fountains for the Trainers to relax by; this one didn't have much more than a large battlefield, much larger than League regulation demanded, painted on the packed dirt. The girl leading them turned around and smiled gently at all of the Trainers, her expression not breaking when the blue-haired boy gave another scornful snort.
"I'm sure my friend is almost ready to come and speak with you," she said, "so if you could please release your teams for his perusal when he does arrive?"
Lance narrowed his eyes at this but chose to comply immediately, though he released only Charizard when prompted, knowing the other members of his team might give him away. He glanced over to see what pokémon Anabel and Gary had acquired on this beginning leg of their journey. Gary had a full team with him: a Nidorina that pawed at the ground with a snort, an Elekid that looked on stoically, a Growlithe that barked up at his Trainer, a Graveler (much smaller than any of the monsters that Brock trained) sitting with his arms curled up around him, a Wartortle that looked over his team members with a watchful eye, and the Eevee that Lance remembered from the boy's childhood. Anabel seemed to be much more selective in choosing her team members: along with her own Eevee gathered a Beldum that seemed to be constantly scanning over its surroundings, a Kadabra who appeared much more interested in polishing his spoons than anything else, and a Sneasel who simply glanced around before sitting on the ground at her Trainer's feet.
"Impressive showing, both of you," Lance said to them quietly. He noticed Gary's chest puff up and Anabel perk up at that.
"Oh, um, sir?" Anabel spoke up. "If you wouldn't mind, d'you know anyone who would know anything about pokémon eggs?" She opened her bag and revealed an egg carefully wrapped up in what looked like spare clothes. "I found it a couple of weeks back and we didn't have time to stop by Professor Oak's lab before coming here."
Lance's eyes widened at the sight of the blue-and-white egg in her backpack, but before he could respond the teal-haired girl had clapped her hands for their attention again. Glancing over, Lance saw a plethora of pokémon join the other Trainers. At first glance, he noticed a Teddiursa, a Magby, a Chimchar, a Charmander, a Machop, and a Gengar in the small crowd; it seemed as though the other boys had amassed full teams of their own. Something about the body language of the pokémon in that crowd bothered Lance. It looked like some of them were glancing nervously at their Trainers, avoiding eye contact while still keeping an eye on them, which was at the very least worrying.
Perhaps there was some room for justice here.
"Thank you all for your cooperation," the girl said, and something in her voice was steelier than ever. "Now, introducing to you all, your hosts and my dear friends: the greatest Trainer that the world has ever seen and his most trusted partner."
She gestured to her right and seemed to melt into the shadows, but Lance didn't care to see where she vanished too, instead staring almost horrified at the figures who had appeared in front of them—had Teleported in front of them.
A boy with spiky black hair and strange angular birthmarks on his cheeks stood in front of them now, accompanied by a purple humanoid pokémon who narrowed his eyes as he glanced across the room, face twitching as he noticed the children Lance hadn't known. The boy was wearing a simple white shirt and light grey linen pants; he had no visible holsters anywhere on him, and he stood with a confidence that Lance hadn't seen before.
It was odd to see Ash again and not recognize him.
Lance felt more than heard Anabel choke on whatever she was saying, felt her quickly shoulder her bag again, felt Gary freeze into a dangerous pause. Something stirred in Lance's chest: he did not want these two children who he had seen grow up in this place, with the looming threat of whatever the invitation he received foretold.
Ash turned and noticed Lance, Anabel, and Gary staring at him and gave them a crooked grin that soon cracked wide. "You made it!" he said, and even his voice was unrecognizable aside from its exuberance.
"Made it to what, exactly?" the purple-haired boy in the other group snapped.
Ash's eyes darted back over to him and his expression visibly darkened.
"To the dawn of a new era," a sonorous tenor sounded in Lance's head—Ash's voice was strange but Mewtwo's was completely unrecognizable.
"Who said that? Who said that?!" the blue-haired boy spluttered, looking wildly about the room.
Mewtwo's chin lifted and Lance could see the snarl on his face. "You need not worry. It won't matter soon."
"Telepathy," Gary muttered. "Right. Ash and his childhood friend. You picking up on anything, Anabel?"
"A little," she responded quietly. "They're pent-up, almost. Angry. Saddened. It's a resolute sort of grief."
Ash hadn't looked away from Gary and Anabel and Lance, even while Mewtwo stared at the other children with poorly concealed hatred. "I'm glad you decided to come," he said as though confiding to them. "It would have been fine if you didn't, but it's so much better now, y'know?"
"Ash, what is all this?!" Gary shouted out to him. The black-haired boy blinked at the vitriol in Gary's voice. "You're calling yourself the… the champion of the Legendaries now? What kinda crap is all of that, and where have you been?!"
Ash's pace stuttered to a stop as he looked over Gary, his head slightly cocked to the side. "Hand of justice, Mewtwo says," he said. "And you don't have to worry. You're not the ones that did anything wrong. You were just invited because I wanted to see you."
"Forgive me for misunderstanding," Gary snipped back.
"Ash," Anabel called out this time, drawing his attention away from the seething boy next to her. "Is this where you've been? Is this why you went missing?"
Ash's gaze clouded at that. "It wasn't by choice," he said. "It doesn't matter now. We have something to take care of first."
"Something to take care of?" the blond boy repeated, and Ash glanced over as if he finally remembered that there were other people with him. Lance watched his eyes narrow and his expression go still.
"Why don't we have a battle?" Ash said, seemingly out of nowhere. "One-on-one. If any of you can beat my partner, you all can leave. No questions asked. If I win against you, well… I get to decide what happens next."
Before Lance could answer, the blue-haired boy snorted. "Fine then, shrimp. I'll punish you for lying to me about meeting the greatest Trainer in the world, then." He unclipped what looked like a whip from his belt. "Machop!" he barked out, snapping the whip in the air. "Get over here!"
The Machop Lance had noticed before hastily pushed through the crowd to stand in front of his Trainer, crouched and tense immediately.
Ash's lip curled. "Fine then." He pointed forward. "Reveal yourself, Kabutops!"
The blue-haired boy's eyes widened slightly but before he could say anything, a familiar fossil pokémon flung himself out of the cavity in the ground he had concealed himself in and slashed outward to clear a space to stand. Kabutops stood with his arms hanging loosely at his side, eyeing the Machop in front of him that had begun to cower away.
Noticing his pokémon's fear, the blue-haired boy snarled openly and cracked his whip again. "Machop! Stay alert!"
Ash scoffed. "I'm guessing you're Damien? You're more disgusting than I initially thought," he spat out. "This entire spectacle is shameful. Kabutops! Wind Slash!"
Kabutops stretched his shoulders, making a screeching sound as the plates on his body rubbed together, before jumping forward fluidly, his body slipping into the greenish-tinge that Lance recognized as an Aerial Ace. Instead of simply racing by Machop at maximum speed, Kabutops finished the move by swinging one of his scythe-like hands forward into a Slash that somehow gave him enough momentum to backflip away before Machop could reflexively hit out at him.
The combination move was so potent that it sent Machop flying past the battlefield in a cloud of dust, scraping and tumbling against the ground until he rolled to a halt, already unconscious.
"Pathetic," Ash said. "Not that poor pokémon, but his dumbass of a Trainer who thinks he can just throw a pokémon with raw potential out into battle without refining it. Why even call yourself a Trainer?"
Damien ground his teeth, moving to return Machop to his Pokeball.
"I don't think so," Mewtwo said, holding a hand out that effortlessly crumpled the Pokeball Damien held. "You've lost all right to that pokémon, but we will suspend your sentence to after Ash finishes with the rest of you."
"Is that Fossil?!" Gary spluttered out loud, wide-eyed at the Kabutops in front of him.
"It must be," Anabel muttered back. "Has Ash just been training for these past few years? Has he even seen a single other person?"
"What a disgraceful showing," the blond boy scoffed. "That creature of yours is nothing for me. Gengar, show us what you can do."
Even before he finished saying his final sentence, Gengar had materialized in front of him, looking excited to battle. Lance caught a slightly disgruntled look from the blond Trainer at his pokémon's visible exuberance.
"I know of you too," Ash said. "Cedric, right? Heir of some company or another? Fascinating that you can spend enough time to have a final-stage pokémon as it is."
Cedric scoffed. "Hardly. I merely had to ask my tutor for a suitable pokémon to serve me. He came fully trained and ready for me to make a name for myself with. Enough talk. Gengar, Lick, please."
"You don't even know your pokémon's potential, do you? Somehow, you're even worse than the other guy. At least he knows his pokémon- Kabutops, intercept and Storm Surge!"
Gengar gave his Trainer a thumbs-up, prompting a slight grimace, and ran forward, tongue already dangling. Kabutops leaned back on one foot before dashing forward, gaining a watery aura that sent him flying across the battlefield. Lance watched as Kabutops flew past Gengar, hovering close to the ground, and the ground around Gengar turned swampy and saturated. It was less of a problem for Gengar himself—the ghost simply turned his feet incorporeal—but Kabutops then leapt forward and slammed his scythes into the ground, forcing a wave of sludgy mud to rear up, and shot a ray of white-cold energy that turned the mud into icy shards. Gengar forced his whole body to go incorporeal, losing his hold on the Lick he was building up, and was soon trapped in a state of in-between.
Cedric's lip curled. "Don't be so useless, Gengar!" he spat out. "Attack it!"
Gengar made a high-pitched whining sound as he tried to duck around Kabutops, who simply twisted quickly around to match him.
"This is actually sad to watch. Kabutops, complete the Surge, I want to be done with this," Ash said, sounding infinitely more tired in the span of those few seconds.
Kabutops snorted out what Lance thought was an agreement before whirling in a dervish of sharp edges, dicing the frozen mud into splinters that flew everywhere, including through Gengar. The ghost pokémon started visibly coming back into his corporeal state, having spent too much energy on trying to stay safe.
"End it. Giga Drain."
Kabutops simply took another step forward, his scythes gleaming as he swept them through Gengar again, siphoning away what remaining energy he had to cling to consciousness with.
"Gengar, you useless spirit," Cedric muttered.
"You speak of your own partner that way?" Mewtwo asked scornfully. "How you can call yourself a Trainer is beyond me."
Ash turned to the final trainer, already forgetting Cedric stood there. "Well? Send out your chosen pokémon," he said.
The purple-haired boy glanced at the unconscious Gengar. "Absolutely not."
Ash's eyes lit up in fury. "What?!"
"None of my team members can compete with that monster of a Kabutops," the purple-haired boy retorted. "I'm not an idiot. I concede, I surrender, whatever words you want to hear. I spent too much time on my pokémon to get them messed up by that thing."
"Huh. Maybe some of you do have a survival instinct. No matter, you all failed. That means I get to do whatever it is I want, which is…" Ash glanced to Mewtwo; suddenly both looked bloodthirsty in a way that Lance had never seen before. "Your pokémon. Give them to me."
"What?!" the purple-haired boy spat out. "I'm not releasing my pokémon so a madman like you can claim them."
"Who said anything about releasing them?" Ash asked, a smirk twisting across his face. "Mewtwo, save those poor things, please?"
"It would be my pleasure," Mewtwo snarled, and he held his hand out, palm towards the other Trainers.
A wave of energy rippled through the air; it simply gave Lance a ringing headache that made him wince, but Anabel collapsed on the ground next to him, her hands on her ears, her vision blurry. Lance looked up in time to see a dozen or so strange black Pokeballs fly through the air.
"What are those?!" the purple-haired boy asked.
"These, Paul of Veilstone, are a new invention," Mewtwo said, the Pokeballs floating around him. "You could call them Mewtwo Balls, if you truly need a name for them. We prefer to call them useful devices that help us help pokémon that need it."
The Mewtwo Balls paused for a second in the air before they flung themselves through the air directly at the crowd of pokémon with the three boys that Ash had challenged.
"Return your pokémon!" Lance barked out. "You two as well; I don't know what those are and I don't want to find out."
"You would help them?" Mewtwo's voice echoed quietly, disbelievingly. "So be it. You will find that your advice is useless in this scenario."
Only Paul had quick enough reflexes to return his pokémon as soon as Lance ordered him to; Damien and Cedric had paused before taking their own capsules out, and by then the Mewtwo Balls had already hit their target. Lance watched wide-eyed as the pokémon entered them as though they were wild and just caught; the Mewtwo Balls were even able to capture Paul's pokeballs, snatching them out of his hand as he shouted out curses profusely. Mewtwo casually flicked his wrist back and the Mewtwo Balls obediently flew back to him.
"What have you done, Ash?!" Gary shouted, clutching his own Pokeballs to himself, ready to ward off any stray Mewtwo Balls that flew towards him.
"I'm doing what someone should have done already," Ash said. "None of them deserve to know their pokémon. Whips for training, emotional neglect, withholding love—pokémon have died for less. If we want the world to be better in some way, we have to get rid of the bad parts of it. Without any bad, it's only good."
"People grow, they change, they repent," Lance said. "If you don't give them that second chance, can you truly say that you are a good person?"
"That's a fair point," Ash admitted before turning to Mewtwo. "Do they repent?"
"Good question," Mewtwo said, and he extended a hand again. Rather than more Mewtwo Balls flying over, the three other Trainers began floating in the air, Damien and Cedric shouting and scrambling to get back to the ground to run away while Paul stared vindictively at the Mewtwo Balls that hovered around Mewtwo still.
"You heard my partner," he snarled when the Trainers had been pulled to his face. "Do you repent for what you've done?"
"What is it that you think I've done wrong?!" Damien spluttered. "All I see here is that you stole my pokémon—you're the criminal here! Why should I answer to you?!"
"I don't know what you saw from me," Paul said, "but whatever it was, I don't care. I just want my team back. Do you want me to listen to them more from now on? I can do that, sure, but just give them back, please." His voice cracked at his final word and he briefly looked furious at himself for displaying such emotion.
Cedric was inconsolably screaming and trying to get away from Mewtwo; Lance wasn't sure if he could even hear what Mewtwo had said.
Mewtwo huffed. "Surprisingly satisfactory from you," he said begrudgingly, throwing Paul to the ground with a second thought. Lance pushed out of his frozen state, startling Anabel and Gary, and ran over to where the boy had fallen.
"Are you alright?" he asked, looking over the boy as neutrally as he could. He was holding his head but there wasn't any blood—perhaps just a nasty bruise that would give him a headache as it healed.
Paul simply grunted, waving Lance off. He was already looking back towards Mewtwo anxiously; most likely looking out for which Mewtwo Balls might contain his team members.
Mewtwo had turned his attention to the other two Trainers already. "What could possess someone to treat a pokémon as unkindly as you two seem to?" he mused. "The way those pokémon you claim as yours are so desperate for your attention. The way they seem to desire something from you that you have never shown. Why? How could one look at that and choose hurt instead?" Something ugly flickered across his face. "Perhaps you never conceived of what that hurt feels like. Maybe that will force you to see what you've done."
Mewtwo closed his hand into a fist.
Damien started screaming.
Lance watched on in horror as Mewtwo held Damien up high in the air, his limbs splayed. The boy's body quivered every few seconds, wincing at something that Lance could not see. Markings began forming on his arms, his legs, parts of his body that were visible: red lashes that were already fading into bruises.
Cedric had gone quiet, still, only able to hear Damien's plight and unable to watch.
Ash looked on impassively, making no move to stop Mewtwo.
"And you." Mewtwo looked to Cedric, who immediately began babbling again. His lip curled at the sound. "Stop that noise. Let's see how you fare with your own punishment."
Immediately Cedric's voice stopped working. Mewtwo set glowing eyes on a terrified Cedric, who tried to duck his head away. Mewtwo simply forced his head back around, staring at the boy. After a moment of silence, Lance heard Cedric begin to whisper, beg, plead, louder and louder until he was hysterically jerking, trying to back away from a Mewtwo who held his psychic grip on the boy.
"Mewtwo!" Lance called out, abandoning all false accent. "What are you doing? What are you trying to accomplish?!"
Mewtwo looked over, Damien's screams and Cedric's sobbing ringing across the arena. His expression was impassive, unfeeling. Lance mourned the well of curiosity that he once remembered in the figure that floated in front of him. "Humans who have mistreated deserve no more than what they have dealt. An eye for an eye. If one cuts off another's arm, their arm will be cut off with the same implement." Mewtwo's voice echoed with the deep-seated hatred that he fought to keep hidden. "Why do you protest, Champion Lance? I would think that you, of all people, would agree."
Lance instinctively reached down to grab one of his team member's Pokeballs when the girl who had introduced them all to Ash and Mewtwo grabbed his arm. He whipped around; she looked concerned, deeply troubled.
"I'm afraid if you do that, I cannot stop him from hurting you," she said. "Please, Lance, don't."
Lance looked at the girl; he hadn't noticed before, but there was a perfection to her skin that felt eerie, her hair floated despite the lack of breeze, and the hand on him didn't feel right, didn't grip the way a hand should on one's arm. "I don't know what you are," he said through gritted teeth, "and I'm sure that those two boys deserve some sort of punishment for mistreating their pokémon, but this isn't the way to do it. This entire vigilante set-up—it will lead to disaster one day, and I can't abide by it as the Champion, something your friends seem to enjoy pointing out."
The girl's face crumpled slightly and Lance thought he saw another flash of red in her eyes, but before she could say anything further, the screams from Damien and Cedric had quieted and Lance turned, afraid to see what happened in his moment of distraction.
To his relief, it seemed that the two boys had simply passed out rather than anything more serious. Ash was looking at them as though admiring some sort of macabre scenery; he too seemed detached from this moment in time.
"Pokémon have names, you know," he said almost conversationally. "In the wild, I mean. Pokémon species names are assigned by humans; they care less about that kind of specification. So mothers will name their children something that they want them to embody. Roar-of-flame. Lightning-through-the-clouds. Water-in-the-desert." Ash let out a series of clicks and churs with an ease that should have been impossible for a human's palate. "I've met a lot of wild pokémon while traveling these past few years. They've all called me one thing; there isn't an exact translation into Universal, but the closest thing is Chosen-One. Oh, chosen one, save the world. World-protector, life-lover, hero-of-us-all. All of those sentiments in one.
"I was a little scared of it to begin with," he admitted. "I'm just a kid with a family and that's it. Who am I to be a chosen one? But then, stories came from the wind. Humans who didn't understand how precious it is to be loved by their team. Humans who would dare raise a hand for something that the pokémon itself could not control. Humans who did not deserve the love a pokémon could give. And I was the chosen one and I was hearing about this."
He turned to look at Lance, and the Dragon Master saw a feral gleam in his eyes. "What would you have me do, Champion-of-humans?" Ash asked, his voice breaking slightly. "Leave them there to rot?"
"What are you trying to do, Ash?" Anabel called out; she had her Eevee and her Sneasel by her side. Gary stood alongside her, his own Eevee circling his feet, his Wartortle staring at Ash with his eyes narrowed. "Do you think any kind of peace can be forced? That's not peace, that could never be peace: you're describing oppression, if anything!"
"The Legendaries called upon me to save the world!" Ash howled, and the gleam in his eye began to color his posture as he slipped into a crouch. "They awaken, you know. They have been waking up for years now, and when they do, they will reclaim the lands that humans have destroyed and they will start anew. And I will help them!"
"You're delusional!" Gary snapped. "Who cares about the Legendaries?! You're calling yourself some sort of savior for torturing people?!"
Ash snarled openly, lips pulled back, baring his teeth. "I thought you of all people would understand," he hissed. "I thought you two—you three!—would understand what it means to love a pokémon and be loved by one. Why are you fighting against me?!"
Lance felt the ground shake and he looked around; pokémon that he never thought he'd see again were slipping from the shadows to surround them. The girl from earlier had vanished somewhere, but a Lucario stood behind where she had been (Amber seemed strangely regretful at first glance). Egg's cheeks sparked as he carefully padded out, Kabutops had retired to the sidelines and was making himself known again, even Bulbasaur was stepping out carefully, vines raised as he glared at the newcomers. Wyvern was the only one there whose gaze remained shadowed, her posture relaxed. She stared out mournfully from where she stood, beloved Trainer standing against her. Lance felt a lump in his throat that he couldn't swallow past.
In that moment, Lance cursed that he had only chosen to bring his two Dragonites and Charizard with him. Foolish error, really.
He heard something thump to the ground. When he turned to see the collapsed forms of Damien and Cedric, he moved forward to check on them.
"Even now, knowing what they've done, you'd help them?" Mewtwo's words turned sickened, disgusted. "Perhaps we were wrong. Perhaps you're just like the rest of them."
"There's nothing shameful about having compassion," Anabel said, surrounded by her own team members. "It sets us apart from those truly depraved souls: to understand and to sympathize is to be human."
"Even to someone who has been proven guilty beyond the shadow of a doubt?" Ash asked. "Why do we need to forgive to be good? Why is that burden on us?"
"It isn't, at the end of the day," Gary said. "But it's a choice that we have. We choose to forgive, we choose to sympathize."
"You lord your arrogance over us," Mewtwo snarled, eyes not leaving Lance. "You would postulate that we are inferior because we do not default to sympathy. You would look upon us as pathetic for seizing our fates. I don't know what else I could have expected from you."
Lance narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"
Mewtwo snorted. "Prodigy of Blackthorn, casting shadows wherever you walked, leaving a path that no one else could take even if they chose," he spat out. "You attribute your success to your own skill but many with it could not succeed as you did without the background that dogs you. Do you truly think yourself worthy of yourself?"
Lance took a step back—he couldn't necessarily say that what Mewtwo said wasn't true, but he had never thought about it and, quite frankly, it wasn't the kind of attack he expected from Mewtwo. A psychic hold around his throat, his limbs twisted into unnatural shapes, a burst of energy that split his form in two, perhaps, but a scathing recital of his life's insecurities? Not something he foresaw.
"What does Lance's hometown have anything to do with what happened to you?" Anabel shouted out, her Sneasel snarling from beside her. "He was born, he got his starter, he became Champion, so what? What bearing does that have on your decisions?"
"He could never understand what we went through," Ash said, regret coloring his voice.
"I could make him understand," Mewtwo spat out, and before Ash could say anything, he raised his hand towards Lance.
Pain, like shockwaves through his body. His ears were already ringing and he felt numb and in agony all in one. He no longer knew where he started and where he ended. His legs gave out but in the way that a log gives out in a campfire: warming, warming, bending until breaking with a snap and a burst of sparks. He could feel his fingers clenching and unclenching but only as ripples within the body of fluid that was his body turned pain. Something felt cool around his wrist; for a brief moment he gained a sense of comfort in those empty, dead shackles until they themselves sparked in the most unexpected of betrayals and he could no longer clench his hands—
"Stop it! Ash, stop this!"
And suddenly, Lance was on his knees, and his throat was raw as if he had been screaming. Even Mewtwo's earliest attempts at communicating with him hadn't been so painful. He could hear a Dragonite's angered screeches to one side; Wyvern wasn't too happy with Mewtwo's treatment of him, it seemed. Gary and Anabel ran over to him, Gary carefully helping him up and wincing sympathetically as Lance's limbs jerked uncontrollably from the aftershocks. Anabel stood next to them, grabbing Lance's arm to serve as a support, but she was staring wide-eyed at Ash and Mewtwo.
"This is what you stand for?!" she asked, and her voice was hoarse as well. Lance remembered her deep-seated, almost psychic empathy, and hoped that she did not experience what he had, no matter how dulled down feeling it secondhand would have been. "Vengeance and retribution, stuck in a vicious cycle until the end of the world comes and we are all left helpless in the face of it?"
"We will be the end of the world as you know it, along with the Legendaries who stir," Mewtwo intoned.
"You would destroy the world for yourselves?!" Anabel bit back.
"We would remake the world for everyone!" Ash yelled.
"Cowards!" Anabel's voice gained a hysterical shriek. "Cowards, the both of you! You'd rather force everyone to deal with your pain than deal with it yourself!"
"The world is in pain!" Ash said.
"You're projecting! You aren't the world, Ash, no matter what anyone has ever told you, and damn you if you won't pop your ego and realize that!"
Ash seemed lost for words, blinking in the wake of Anabel's words.
"Go fuck yourself, Ash," Gary said, the melancholy in his voice dulling the bite of his words. "A man raises you as his own for two years and you'd leave him convulsing on the ground. Fuck that."
"Fine." The air seemed to grow colder with that one word. "It seems as though none of you are reachable. A pity." He snapped his arms forward. "We won't even bother taking your teams away from you—my friends have been dreaming of a challenge ever since we began training so long ago."
The Pokeballs on Lance's belt finally opened, Drakon, Coatl, and Charizard fighting their way out and standing protectively around their Trainer. Drakon and Coatl immediately seemed to recognize Ash and Mewtwo, but after the shock wore off, they merely wore a bitter resignation as they stood protectively in front of their Trainer. Charizard merely glared at Mewtwo, his teeth gnashing in fury at his treatment of Lance. Anabel and Gary's teams clustered around their own Trainers, wildly looking as Ash's team slowly drew closer.
Something shifted, something fell, one of their pokémon glanced in the wrong direction, but suddenly the pokémon that had been creeping forward shot towards the defensive teams at an unnatural speed.
"Drakon, Coatl, defend Anabel and Gary; Charizard, get the other kids out of the way!" Lance barked out, and without hesitation his dragons scattered. Drakon and Coatl scooped up Anabel and Gary onto their backs before leaping into the air, Charizard snagging the boys by their shirt collar (Paul dangled from his mouth) and unceremoniously dropping them off by the wall of the room.
Lance looked around. Egg had gone straight for Gary, howling with anger when Coatl scooped the boy up. The Pikachu immediately surrounded himself with an electric aura (Lance was sure that Matis would have loved to see that mastery of Volt Tackle) and shot into the air.
"Drakon, redirect!" Lance shouted up, ducking as Amber flew towards him, her hand glowing. Drakon gave a cry of understanding before diving in front of Coatl and sending a mild Shock Wave into the air that nullified Egg's Volt Tackle. Having lost his momentum, Egg began to fall with a shocked cry; Amber quickly swerved from her initial target to leap into the air and catch her teammate before he fell onto the ground.
"Drakon, Coatl, you can let Anabel and Gary down now—Coatl, go form a wall in front of the three boys; Drakon, Charizard, aim to subdue. No lethal force." The Dragonites gently set their charges down next to Lance (their teams quickly bustled over to them) before Coatl created a wall of water and sent a pinpoint Ice Beam at it to build a firm ice wall that would protect the boys that had to stay by the sidelines, at least long enough for Lance to be able to help them.
Charizard was already flying back over, and after giving a grunt of acknowledgement, he twisted in the air and sent out a Flamethrower that forced Ash and Mewtwo to back up, Mewtwo throwing up a Protect bubble that surrounded the two of them. Drakon flew over to the opposing team, the air crackling around him as he forced them to stand down by sending out sparks that rendered limbs unusable for a split second.
"You claim to protect us and now you fight us?!" There was an edge to Mewtwo's voice that Lance was suddenly worried by—not worried of the consequences of that edge but of what caused it.
"I would protect you still if I could," Lance said plainly. Mewtwo seemed startled at that revelation. "But I have to protect everyone within my regions. It's my duty, and currently you're ready to harm them all to carry out your mission."
The surprise morphed back to the now familiar fury. "You think us unstable. Dangerous. You would lock us away!" Mewtwo crouched tensely. "I won't have it."
Ash had been calling shots in the Pokespeech that Lance had never been able to translate, sending Kabutops to spar against Anabel's entire team and Egg and Bulbasaur to goad on Gary's. There was an irony to whatever horror Lance was feeling: he had, after all, been the one to teach Ash how to unlock the full potential of his team members. Amber was still trying to reach Lance himself (she had most likely correctly identified him as the lynchpin in the defense against her friends) but Drakon was driving her back, making her dance through curtains of electric sparks that forced her to retreat as much as she advanced. Coatl and Charizard were taking turns diving through the air and spitting down beams of ice and fire that startled the dueling pokémon below into pausing for just enough time for Anabel and Gary to regain control of their teams.
Of course, that proclamation from Mewtwo was what made Ash cut himself off mid-command and turn to stare, wide-eyed, at Mewtwo.
"What are you saying, bud?" he said. "We have stuff to do. A world to save."
"A world to save," Mewtwo repeated. "And we will save it. Even if it means tearing it down and building anew!"
The edge that Lance had noticed hadn't gone away and Ash was staring at Mewtwo with an uncertain look in his eye.
"What's gotten into you, Mewtwo?" he asked, backing away from him slightly. "You're not usually this fanatic over our plans."
"Perhaps I should be!" Mewtwo sneered back at him, and something in his gaze seemed to snap.
Mewtwo began to radiate a dark light from his body that hovered around him in eerie tendrils which fed back into his form. A deep sense of uneasiness rolled in Lance's stomach at the sight of it—in all of his years of training he had never seen anything like it. The snarl on his face didn't fade, even when seeing Ash's bewilderment at the transformation, and when his wild eyes caught on Lance again, the Dragon Master could see that his pupils were completely dilated and emanated a crimson glow.
Anabel gasped as she stared at Mewtwo with undisguised horror. "What is that?" she whispered out.
"What do you see?" Gary demanded, looking at Mewtwo with trepidation.
"There's a purple aura to him," she said, "and there's so much hatred coming from him. I don't think I could reach out to him if I wanted to."
Lance glanced over to Anabel when he heard that final comment; Anabel had never had a problem connecting with a pokémon's heart before. What happened to you, Mewtwo?
"Mewtwo, snap out of it!" Ash called out as Mewtwo floated up, his face twisting into a mask of anger. "This isn't like you! This isn't what we planned!"
The shouts seemed futile: Mewtwo completely ignored Ash as he stared unblinkingly at Lance.
"Champion of all! Master of Dragons! You sit atop your throne and you lounge there, unwilling to lift a finger for anyone," he said, and his words buzzed in Lance's chest and left him feeling choked and cold. "Let's see how you do against an army."
Mewtwo held a hand up and flicked his hand. Evidently, he had said something to Egg, Amber, Kabutops, and Bulbasaur privately as they all paused in doing whatever it was that Ash had commanded from them and turned to face Lance himself. Before Lance could even register that, the sea of Mewtwo Balls from earlier came flying back and opened in unison; all of the captured Trainers' pokémon stared at Lance too, a dull determination in their eyes.
Wyvern outright hissed at Mewtwo, breaking out of her paralysis at seeing Lance again to dart over and stand in front of him, crouched down.
"What is this madness? When has this man ever cared for you as you care for him?" Mewtwo roared. "Abandon you to finish a task for him! Command you to fight to the end! Not even think about what you might want to do! He does all this and still you stand for him?!"
Wyvern snarled out a reply that ended with a howl and a stream of white-hot fire bursting from her mouth.
If anything, Mewtwo got even more furious, a red glow entering his form. "Fine!" he shrieked, losing all composure. "Stand with your Master and die alongside him!"
The pokémon standing before Lance charged.
"Charizard, get the kids out of here! Coatl, Drakon, their pokémon!" he snapped out, and before Anabel and Gary could protest too much the three dragons had scooped them up and dumped them behind the ice wall that Coatl had erected earlier.
"Lance, what the hell! We can help you!" Gary called out, banging on the ice to no avail.
"Please, let us assist you!" Anabel begged.
"You've been training for barely a year!" Lance yelled back, taking a second to assure the young Trainers. "I've been doing this for more than a decade! Believe you me, you'll help me the most by staying behind that wall and staying safe!" He quickly climbed onto Wyvern's back, ushering her to ascend just in time for the wall of pokémon beneath him to reach where he had been standing.
"Charizard, hit them with a Heat Wave to throw them back!" he commanded. "Drakon, incapacitate the captured pokémon! Coatl, watch their backs! Wyvern, keep us safe."
His dragons howled a harmony of war cries before flashing forward, Drakon and Coatl entering Extremespeed at will while Charizard did his best to keep up. A flash of dry heat surrounding a fiery meteor that Charizard conjured around him slammed into the charging wave, taking out most of the Trainers' pokémon before Drakon followed up with a widespread Thunder Wave to keep them down—truth be told, he didn't need to worry too much about them, knowing that they were still so far from reaching his own pokémon's skill levels. Coatl sang out warnings as Ash's team leapt towards them, weaving between Charizard and Drakon in a graceful dance that forced Kabutops off of his intended path and flicking a tail glistening with water and frost almost lazily to throw Amber to the ground with a harsh slam.
Lance himself jumped off of Wyvern, barking out an order for her to swap out with Charizard right before he was caught by Drakon and placed on the orange dragon's back. Wyvern's answering shriek echoed victory, grief, and elation in equal measure as she flung herself back into the formation she had spent so many years away from. Coatl and Drakon howled back, and Lance momentarily basked in the harmony of the three reunited Dragonites.
In that moment of distraction, Egg managed to leap onto Coatl.
Coatl's musical cry cut off sharply as he immediately flung himself into a series of aerial maneuvers to fling the Pikachu off of him. Somehow, miraculously, Egg clung on, and despite his yelps of panic he managed to focus just long enough to release a burst of electricity that made Coatl scream. Drakon immediately flickered over to punch Egg off of his teammate, but Lance could see that the sustained battling had left Coatl more susceptible to the surprise attack than he would normally be.
Before Coatl could fully recover, a burst of dark purple energy that Lance couldn't recognize speared him in the stomach. Coatl's eyes widened as he began to descend, thrown out of the air by the energy. Lance quickly returned Coatl and rereleased him closer to the ground so that he could recover himself, whipping his head around to figure out the source of the energy.
Mewtwo was slowly lowering his hand, a strange grin twisted across his face.
"Mewtwo, what was that?" Ash asked, awe mingling with fear in his voice.
Fear distaste pain a tree falling on a Sentret a wave devouring a Charmander washed over Lance, the sensation filling him and swirling deep in his gut. Lance looked to Mewtwo in alarm—if the loss of speech wasn't shocking enough, the emotions that Mewtwo was exuding were far more visceral than he remembered those first attempts at speech being.
Mewtwo extended an arm again— Lance saw the same pulsing mass that had speared Coatl begin to drip off of the arm. Mewtwo threw the strange substance around him, splattering it onto the pokémon that Drakon and Charizard had subdued and on Ash's team, who remained tense, staring at Lance's dragons.
Lance heard Anabel shout out "They're all turning!" before all of the other pokémon's eyes began to shimmer the same deep red that Mewtwo's had taken on. Gone was all semblance of exhaustion, though Lance could still see their limbs trembling.
Man bad go tear rip shred rippled through the air.
Uh oh.
"Charizard, dodge!" Lance barked out, flattening himself against the pokémon as he bellowed and rolled sideways to veer away from where Bulbasaur had thrown Egg towards them. Lance's Dragonites all screeched in horror as they watched the veritable army of pokémon surging towards their Trainer, disregarding them altogether. Wyvern was the first to crack, tearing through the air towards the pokémon and hurling them away from Lance without a command to do so; she was rapidly followed by Drakon and Coatl. The pokémon didn't flinch, some summoning that strange dark purple miasma that clung to their bodies and hurling it at whichever Dragonite darted too close.
Lance looked across the sea of glazed, glaring eyes and felt Charizard's muscles strain with each complex aerial maneuver he had to perform to stay airborne and ensure that Lance wasn't harmed, saw how each Dragonite flinched at every successful hit on them. He noticed Ash being held back by Amber; no matter how much Pokespeech he knew or Aura he harnessed, his body wasn't anywhere near strong enough to escape the Lucario's grip.
"Keep the fighting away from the children!" Lance called out, his voice crackling. "You've served me well, all of you."
The finality in his statement caught the attention of all of his pokémon, who snarled at the words and began to fight, renewed despite the battering they received. There was something bittersweet at looking upon the pokémon he had spent so long sharpening into allies throw themselves into his words, both following his orders and attempting to prove his sentiments wrong.
A burst of light flooded the area where the other Trainers had been standing, shattering Coatl's ice wall with a splintering crash and throwing shards into the battle. Lance whipped around: Anabel's entire form was glowing with a pinkish-white light and her clothes seemed to smoke from it. Lance could see her wincing, fighting down a scream, as the light washed over her completely.
Before Lance could say anything, the light left Anabel's body, flashing across the room (Gary quickly steadying her as much as he could). Rather than fading, the strange aura seemed to coalesce in the center of the room in an unbearably bright bubble, hovering in the air. All of the pokémon stopped attacking Lance, turning to stare wide-eyed at the presence that had suddenly made itself known.
When thinking back to that moment, Lance realized that he never could find the words to describe what had come. It was a feeling of warmth on a spring day, of noticing the first few tree buds on a branch in winter, of watching an Egg crack open with a burst of light, of burying your first friend after one too many battles and a flower growing on their grave, of forests burning down and being reseeded. It was the feeling of death and birth and the endless cycle of life that everyone on the planet was bound to, and it was awe-inspiring and humble all in one.
The brightest pinpoint of light shuddered into a semblance of a shape that Lance recognized—all Kantonians would have recognized that silhouette. There had been cave drawings of it simplified, scientific research conducted into its traces, and while Lance could see what those academics were trying to paint, the pokémon that stood in front of him now was far more than researchers could have conceived of. It was less of a being and more of a presence, once whose shape was simply what he expected it would and should be. It was curled in on itself at first, arms small and undeveloped, tucked against its chest, head comically large, eyes closed, legs tucked against its midsection, a long tail looping around it all. It was something to be protected and a protector all in one.
And then it opened its eyes.
Lance was hit with a wave of calm and stillness and slowly bubbling fury all in one. The presence unfurled itself from the fetal position and suddenly it changed again, the stubs of its arms growing fingers and its spine straightening into a prideful stance, tail still hovering around itself protectively. Its eyes were the most distinctive part of it now: green, blazing, narrowed.
"Poor child." The statement echoed throughout the room and in Lance's mind all at once as the presence enforced itself on the world, its tail flicking distastefully at the sight in front of it. "To allow yourself to be corrupted so thoroughly, to corrupt others in your stead. I do not have the power to stop the calamity, but I'm afraid I'll have to stop you."
Will not won't stop who who why hate hate anger charged the air around Lance, and suddenly all of the pokémon around him turned as one to glare at this newcomer.
Mew flicked her tail. "So be it." Light emanated from her again, once more forming a hazy bubble that burst violently, tendrils of light reaching towards the army of pokémon that began rushing towards her. Something about the searing light sent Mewtwo reeling back with a snarl, forcing his knees to buckle under the magnitude of Mew's power.
There were cries of pain and confusion from the pokémon around Mew as the light touched them, embraced them, washed over and through them and left them trembling from exhaustion on the ground.
"Teddiursa! Magby!" Paul called out, rushing towards his collapsed pokémon. "Chimchar? Electabuzz? Where are you?!" he stood up, looking around wildly until he found the rest of his team crumpled on the ground. He managed to get his team up from the ground and away from the battle with whatever healing items he had on hand, backing away as he frantically looked around for his Pokeballs. Damien and Cedric remained frozen, cowering where the ice wall had once stood still. Anabel and Gary had no such qualms, immediately releasing their pokémon and ordering them to drag the rest of the pokémon that had earlier been captured to the same corner.
All went unnoticed by Mewtwo, who was staring directly at Mew now. The air around him had gone cold with unease that roiled in Lance's stomach.
"Stand down, child," Mew commanded, though when she cocked her head sideways, she lost much of the sternness in her words.
The uninhibited rage that Mewtwo emanated couldn't even form singular sensations, washing over Lance in a rush of flame that seeped into his body. Every gesture, every movement, caused aftershocks of fury to flicker through him, and it took all of his focus to simply push the sensation away from him as hard as he could.
Mew darted in front of Lance, the brilliant light emanating from her enveloping him in a pocket of warmth and care that washed away the anger that Mewtwo had skewered him with. Lance looked back up to see a battle of attrition: red-tinged energy pouring out of Mewtwo, Mew holding it off with a sphere of light that seemed to drink in Mewtwo's emanating power easily.
At least, Mew held it off until Mewtwo abruptly changed tactics: a dark miasma began to gather around Mewtwo, thinner than the influx of energy he willed to attacking Mew. Mewtwo levitated higher and held his arms out. Lance saw the miasma begin to spread around him in a roiling fog that began to coalesce into distinct projectiles. With a flick of his wrist, Mewtwo began to send the cloud of arrows straight towards Mew.
Mew emanated a quick burst of surprise irritation interest wistfulness before darting into action, weaving between the arrows that flew towards her and casting spears of her own that disrupted the projectiles before they hit anyone else. Whatever projectiles she couldn't quite interrupt simply swerved in the air, honing towards her even as she spun around them.
Mew twisted in the air one final time before her form flickered out of its barely-held-together avatar of light and into a more solid-looking pokémon that was able to crash through the remaining missiles with a single punch. She flickered back to herself before Lance could fully register that she'd Transformed at all.
"You may think yourself cleverer and more powerful than I," Mew said, her mental voice growing cold, "but I am the All-Mother. I am the one that planted the seed of life onto this planet. I am the one who nurtured the first few creatures and grew to love all that came after. You will not destroy any more of my children in this pursuit for destiny." Mew's form flickered again into something white and horned and winged for the second she needed to cast a spray of Aura Spheres towards Mewtwo, shimmering back to herself to quickly dodge up—just in time to avoid a Shadow Ball-esque attack from Mewtwo.
"What would you want from us?" Ash called out hoarsely, still caught in Amber's grip. Egg, Kabutops, and Bulbasaur were all standing by him once more. "I thought we were supposed to help the world. What more do you need?"
"Help? Of course, you will help the world." The weight of Mew's sentiment echoed far past the mild way she spoke, sending hope and warmth coursing through the air. "But this. This isn't the path, and you've gone too far."
"You did nothing and you punish us for acting." Mewtwo's words were barely discernable over the wave of hatred disgust setting fire to a forest and watching it burn.
Mew's body shimmered and her presence flashed through the room again. "Watch your language," she hissed, and despite the bell-like twinkling of her voice there was a dangerous edge to her words that immediately made Lance's neck prickle. "I am balance. I am birth and death. I am the continuation of the world. You are an aberration. You are chaos. You are a danger to the world I and my own birthed. You would destroy it all just for yourself. You would destroy yourself for your own sakes. You have destroyed yourself." There was a crackle in the air now. "And you call yourself a hero."
"I do not," Mewtwo sneered, condescension dripping from his words. "This man, however…" He turned to Lance, who had instructed Charizard to land and swiftly returned his exhausted partner. "He turns a blind eye on the world and proclaims it prosperous. He would watch us burn. We cannot burn."
There are three things Lance remembers after that moment.
The first thing: Mewtwo's eyes, glaring, shimmering dark red, his arm outstretched and fingers clenched together, dark power emanating from his hand.
The second thing: Mew's eyes following Mewtwo's gaze, staring wide-eyed at Lance as though she briefly saw what was about to happen and was rapidly calculating what was to be done. The finality of that gaze, the dread that was beginning to pool in Lance's gut from that.
The third thing: Ash somehow breaking out of Amber's grip and racing in front of Mewtwo, in front of Lance, in between them, just as the dark energy burst from Mewtwo's hand.
The air splintered with a wail of horror and grief and regret and despair. Lance didn't realize until afterwards that he had never heard Mewtwo make an audible sound before, let alone one so agonized. He was too busy crumpling to his knees at the fallen form in front of him, clothes still smoking slightly. Lance numbly took in how his hands were suddenly warm and that there was a slight stick to them; he noted the crimson that coated him and the smell of burned hair.
"ASH!" Anabel shrieked out, and Lance could hear her and Gary running over to him but he was too busy searching for a pulse, wracking his mind for anything he could do to prevent this thing in front of him from playing out, trying to figure out how to stop all of the blood from rushing out (oh there's so much blood oh fuck oh shit what the fuck do I do I've been trained right wasn't I trained for this).
The boy in front of him lay on his stomach but his head was flung to the side and Lance could see his face, could see the pain etched in underneath the shock that Mewtwo would attack him. Lance could see the small string of blood beginning to trickle out of his mouth.
"Ash?" Lance asked quietly, and the name caught in the back of his throat as the unblinking eyes in front of him didn't light up in recognition and the slack mouth doesn't grin at him. The mischief of his posture was gone, and all that was left was a crumpled body on the floor. A strange emptiness that Lance hadn't experienced before, not when Clair decided to throw aside their friendship for rivalry, not when his great-grandfather passed, not even when Wyvern had left, began to spread within him, a widening hole deep in his chest that hurt to breathe around and choked him when he tried.
Wyvern flew over in the silence that reigned after Mewtwo's cry, landing gently next to Ash. She reached out a claw and gently, carefully ran it along his arm (claws that Lance has seen Slash into enemies with little to no regard for their flesh), crooning in her chest. When he didn't reply, Lance felt her slump next to him, giving a cry of grief of her own. Drakon and Coatl cried out with her, a cry that spoke of grief for the boy they knew and comfort for their teammate. Lance heard Anabel crumple to the ground behind him with a sob, Gary more poised but equally distraught beside her. Egg darted over, babbling over Ash's body, all hostility towards Lance forgotten as he nudged Ash's hand and tried to get the boy to pet him. Amber had walked over at some point and simply stared down, her gaze empty at the sight; Kabutops held Bulbasaur in his scythes as they looked, wide-eyed. Ash's teammates joined in with the Dragonites' requiem, crying out pain and loss and uncertainty.
Mewtwo hadn't moved at all.
Lance felt something like sunlight above him; when he looked up, he saw Mew hovering in front of him, peering curiously at him.
"You love him as though he were your own," she said almost conversationally, feelings of maternal love and paternal protection emanating from her words.
"He is my own," Lance choked out.
Mew cocked her head sideways before floating next to Lance, looking into Ash's gaze. She hung in the air there for a while, frozen completely, not even radiating more light, as emotions began to wash over Lance: surprise and interest and sympathy and finally a grief of her own.
"The world that I and my own created," Mew said, "is not kind. It was supposed to be, when we built it together and breathed life into it and instilled a pride in its denizens, but it has withered. Pride becomes arrogance, life a game of chance that a select few decide to play with others as their game pieces. It's a cruel world that twists children into weapons for a single man's gain. Perhaps, it is time for it to begin anew."
Mew reached out her arms and they became human arms, carefully holding Ash's head, cleaning the blood off of a cheek with the same sort of nostalgic fondness that a mother might employ when wiping away dirt and sending her child off to play once more.
"And return," she breathed out.
There was a burst of light from Mew: golden and iridescent and shimmering with lilac and warmth, and she put a hand on Ash's chest and it glowed with a light that faintly began to pulse, slowly at first but hastening into a rhythm that Lance heard echoed in his ears.
Ash spluttered awake, coughing the blood that had pooled in his mouth onto the floor with a spray, wiping his mouth with a hand.
Mewtwo had drifted forward during Mew's ritual, and when Lance looked to him, he had lost the dull crimson edge to his gaze. He carefully leaned over and picked Ash up, cradling him to his chest, staring into the eyes that looked back to him.
"You alright, buddy?" Ash asked hoarsely, his throat still raw.
Mewtwo didn't respond, simply looking up at Mew and Lance with wide eyes.
"My children call for you still, Ash of the World. You have yet to fulfill what you have been seen to do. So it has been, so it shall be," Mew hummed, pausing in the air. "Another calls. I depart." She released another burst of light that filled the arena, disappearing as it faded away.
All that broke the silence following Mew's departure was a chorus of ragged breathing, Lance's a testament to how close to panic he had been when he felt Ash bleeding out in his hands, Ash's a testament to his miraculous return to life. Mewtwo curled around Ash further still but was looking around with wide eyes, perhaps disbelieving what he had wrought in his anger.
Lance turned to Ash, still in Mewtwo's arms. "Before I forget, I've got someone that you've probably wanted to see for a little while. Duplica finally patched up the final bit of him last year."
Ash stared confusedly at the Pokeball that Lance handed him before realization seemed to hit and he clutched at the Pokeball like a lifeline.
"Take care of him, and yourselves," Lance said quietly, "and I'll look into the Trainers you were so adamant that I know about, though I'd say that Paul is simply a more disciplinary Trainer rather than a bad one."
Mewtwo nodded stiffly. "I'll ensure his safe passage," Mewtwo turned towards Paul. "We leave the other two in your purview."
Lance watched as Paul found his Pokeballs and quickly returned his pokémon with a relieved slump to his shoulders, moments before Mewtwo flicked his hand and Teleported him away, hopefully to the nearest town with a Pokémon Center.
"Gary and Anabel too," Ash said hoarsely. "They didn't deserve this."
Mewtwo nodded, but before he could do anything, Anabel said, "Really? Is that it? You're going to leave me behind again?!"
Ash and Mewtwo blinked.
"You promised, Ash," Anabel choked out, "that we'd go on our journeys together. Do you think I'm about to let you go off without me this time? I'm going with you. It sounds like you need help, anyhow."
"I don't know, Anabel—" Ash said before Anabel's Eevee began shouting at them as well. The surprise in Ash's face at the Eevee's words made Lance chuckle as though they were all back in a League courtyard, sometime in their childhoods. "Well, I guess if you insist that, Eevee," he mumbled. Eevee gave Anabel a proud nod at her accomplishment.
"If that's all…" Ash trailed off. "Well, we do have to do something. I can feel it, y'know? There was a promise made when Mew did… that. There was a reason behind it all. The world is calling for us."
"I don't quite know what that means," Anabel said, "but that doesn't mean that I won't be there for it. Mew never said you weren't allowed friends when saving the world."
"This is too heavy for me," Gary stated, shaking his head. "I just want to compete in the Indigo League and help Eevee evolve into whatever he wants to be. Saving the world—that's just. It feels like too big a responsibility for me right now. Annie has my phone number if you end up needing me, though—I'll be the first one there to help."
Ash nodded from Mewtwo's arms before his gaze wandered over to the two other boys, still immobilized. "What'll happen to them?" he asked out loud.
Lance frowned to himself. "I have the feeling they'll get their licenses revoked," he said. "I'll have to start looking into sanctuaries for their pokémon, or other possible Trainers."
"We can take them," Ash said immediately. "We'll find homes for their pokémon. It's not fair for them to get stuck somewhere because of your mountain of paperwork."
"It's closer to a mountain range now," Lance said while rubbing an eye. "The regions have been in more upheaval for years now; more incidents are reported every week than we can check up on. Something's happening out there, outside of Tohjo, but none of us have the time to investigate it because of all of the clean-up we're constantly doing."
"We'll take care of it," Ash said.
Lance nodded, wondering briefly if he was going insane for entrusting the safety of his regions to a twelve-year-old child.
"We should leave," Mewtwo said quietly, his internal voice dulled. "If we are to complete this task laid out to us, we cannot linger much longer."
Anabel suddenly looked a bit uncertain, though she nodded resolutely. "I'll try to keep in touch,' she said, her words falling flat with the unspoken understanding that she wouldn't really be able to as much as she wanted.
Gary cleared his throat. "I guess this is good-bye, then. Good luck, Annie, Ashy."
"Stop calling me that," Anabel muttered, a slight flush coming to her face as she returned her pokémon to their Pokeballs. "I'm not a little kid."
The words echoed in Lance's chest with a pang. He wished she was. He wished they were all still little kids, crowing their life goals while leaning on his dragons in his office.
Without any more preamble, Mewtwo's eyes glowed briefly and the group of pokémon and humans was flickered away with a quick flash of light.
Lance and Gary were left blinking afterimages and staring at an empty place on the ground.
"C'mon, I'll take you to the League. You can get in contact with your grandfather there and use his suite there, if you want to," Lance said with a sigh. "I'll ride Drakon. You can take Coatl. Wyvern, if you could take our two delinquents for me, I'd appreciate that."
To Lance,
Is that how you start a letter? Anabel says I should have written "Dear Lance" but that felt too weird. And it's not like this is a formal letter, y'know, one that requires your titles or whatever. I hope this works.
I know you're still probably looking through the system, seeing if I'll ever come back. Maybe checking at your Masters' Gyms to see if I'll attempt an Indigo or Silver challenge. I don't know. I don't think that lifestyle is one for me—Anabel's told me about it, and it seems fun but it feels too cut-and-dry, I guess. Human society is still so weird to me. Also, I think my friends might accidentally destroy some of the Gyms. Maybe you shouldn't have taught us how to train like Masters.
I guess this letter is just to say that I'm still alive and I'm not done with the human world yet. Mew told me that I've got a purpose still, and I have the world to save, but the world isn't just saved by pokémon and war and battles and Legends, it's saved by humans too. Human society. So much of the world is human society now, and I can't keep relying on you to help me save it.
Which I guess means that this letter has two purposes. I just said the first. The second is to say—I'm going to come back. I'm going to come back and I'm going to find out how to get human society to listen to me. Whatever it takes to save the world, I'll do it. It's the least I can do for Mew.
Thank you so much for what you did for me, Lance. I didn't know how much it meant to me until we left. Even if you just took care of me because it was the right thing to do, please know it was worth it, because I got to meet you and the other Masters and learn that the world is wider than the base I was raised in and the friends that I was made for.
I'll see you soon.
- Ash
Thank you so much for your patience while finishing up this final chapter of what is now simply the first arc of Wild Boy. As it stands, this is where the original story was planned to end, but I've caught a little plot bug and it's given me some ideas of where to take this story (which is why this story hasn't been marked as Complete yet). This chapter ended up taking this long because I had to go back through and lay some groundwork for what will be to come; perhaps those well-versed in the Pokémon franchise will be able to guess what's coming up next in this story.
For now, I'll be taking yet another break to fully plan the next arc out; all I've got so far is a loose skeleton of events, and I need a bit more to craft a truly engaging story. For now, all you need to know is that it's loosely based on a couple of my favorite Pokémon games and that Anabel will be the "narrator"/narrative focus for the next arc.
Thank you for all of your support on Wild Boy thus far, and I hope you decide to stick around for the upcoming arcs :)