Hey Nuggies! Well I really shouldn't be doing this, but here I am writing another fanfiction since I have writers block on a few of my other ones, and because this won't leave me alone. Here is your warning this will be SLASH! I have decided though that this will not have M!Preg.

Main Pairing: AshxPaul

Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)

Rating: M (to be safe)

Chapter Warning(s): None

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only!

Griffin Blackwood, the plot thickens like a fine New Year everyone!

A/N: For those who have read my 'Beaten But Not Broken' fanfic know from the authors note that I have been sick. I got tested and it turns out I had covid. But! I'm better now!

Also! As we near the release date for Pokémon Legends: Arceus, I would like to kindly ask all y'all to keep any spoilers out of this fanfic. I myself will have to wait until later in the day on the release day to grab my copy (I prefer physical copies to digital so I won't get it at midnight). I have been trying to keep myself from looking at all the leaks and such so I can go in blind. I am sure I am not the only one. So please be respectful to others before you post anything about PLA in the reviews. Thank you~

Release countdown: 8 days!

(Also sorry for taking so long to update. I've been focused on playing Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. I got to make my (M) Eivor fall in love with Tarben! So excited about that!)

Enjoy!

Time passed as Ash studied the pictures Professor Oak had sent him. The figure on the screen was very similar to his own Mewtwo, but also vastly different. This Mewtwo seemed to be a bit bulkier on the hips, arms, and shoulders while its tail was shorter. The nubs that Mewtwo had on their head came to a sharp point on this other Mewtwo, but there was also something else in the pictures that wasn't mentioned.

In the very bottom corner near the tops of the trees, since this Mewtwo was floating in the air above the treeline, Ash could make out yet another Mewtwo like figure. He was only able to make out part of its head, but with the coloration he could only assume that it was indeed another Mewtwo. These pictures just caused him more and more questions.

When he met his own Mewtwo for the first time it was after the creature had escaped the humans They said had created Them, but did those humans also make these Mewtwo? Were they made at the same time? Could these two Mewtwo and his own siblings? Was his Mewtwo taken away from them? Ash had so many questions.

He had thought about taking out Mewtwo from their ball to ask them about it, but Mewtwo was still recovering from whatever the Corrupted had done to them. He would take Mewtwo out if he met these other two. The location that Oak had given him was thankfully along the way to his other destination just past Route 14 and into Route 13.

So Ash gathered his pokémon and hightailed it out of there and onto the destination ahead. The details of the file Oak had sent him occupied him as they walked. This creature hit fast and hit hard and didn't seem to stay in the area for long after taking care of the building it came to destroy. So far this Mewtwo like creature had destroyed twenty-two buildings between Unova, Johto, and was now destroying them in Kanto.

Ash was excited to meet them, but also scared out of his mind. He didn't know their temperament and if they would just attack him on sight. He hoped it didn't come to that.

As he neared the area he was given Ash saw an old, dilapidated building with several shiny and new black SUVs sitting right outside of it along with a large black cargo truck. Just as Ash ducked down behind a bush to hide himself and Pikachu as several people marched out of the building, making him bring up his watch to start video taping. Most of the people that came out of the building wore the same thing. Black pants, black shirt, black hat, gray boots, gray gloves and belt and had a large red 'R' in the middle of their shirts.

There were two others there that didn't look like the others. He felt a deep shiver as he zoomed in on the two men that stood out. Ash remembered those dark wild eyes and short purple hair from months ago when the man held him at gunpoint. The other person was a tall thin man, balding, and wore a laboratory coat over his dark clothing. Ash moved the camera from the two and ran it over the entrance to the building where a few more people were pushing something large out.

He was so focused on watching the grunts load whatever it was into their car that he almost missed the figure floating in the sky. Ash brought his wrist up to focus on the figure and zoomed in to get a better look. It was the same creature from the picture Oak had sent him. Tall, broad and thick, built for fighting. Seeing the creature Ash was more set on assuming that this creature was from the same fold as his own Mewtwo.

Ash watched as the creature raised its arm while it was coated in dark pink, almost red, energy. The small teen let out a yelp as he was flung back into a tree as the Mewtwo in the sky sent down an attack of pure psychic energy. Ash struggled to get in a breath as the knock into the tree forced out all the air he had in his lungs out of them.

He blinked his eyes furiously as black spots danced across his vision and he wheezed in a breath of air that his lungs were burning for. He felt his body struggling, his head feeling heavy but floaty, as a loud thud sounded beside him and he could hear his Pikachu let out a fury of hisses and squeaks. Ash turned his head to the side to see what was beside him, but before he could make out the form the black spots took over his vision.

When Ash came to the first sound he registered in his mind was the sounds of an annoying beep. When he opened his eyes he was greeted to a bare hospital room. There was nothing, but a whiteboard on the wall where he could make out his name, age, and a few other blurry words. There was of course the bed he was in, a medical tree beside him where there was a bag of something hanging from it, a cabinet beside him, and of course a door leading out of the room.

What he couldn't see was his belongings. The annoying beep got louder and faster as that thought registered in his head. He had very important things in his bag. He had his egg, his id, his pokémon, and the journal from his ancestor. He couldn't lose any of them.

Ash struggled to sit up and a flash of pain from his back almost had him fall back down, but he needed to get up. He needed to get his things back. He at least still had his watch on and the clothes he wore from before. It didn't seem like he was too injured to end up needing his clothes cut off so he at least still had Mewtwos' ball around his neck. The teen was so focused on getting out of the bed that he didn't notice someone walking into the room.

"Sir, please! You can't get up right now!"

Ash looked up and saw a nurse standing in front of him. Her uniform had a distinct logo on the right shoulder and he could just barely make out what was on it. He didn't care about that right now. He just needed to get up and out of the room. He couldn't help but to flinch as her cold hands touched his shoulders.

"Where am I?" Ash asked as he was forced back down into a lying position by the nurse.

"You are in the Indigo League's Infirmary wing," she answered as she walked over to check the machine that gave off the annoying noise. He now recognized it as the machine that kept track of his vitals.

"How did I get here?" Ash asked as it seemed this nurse would answer his questions.

"I do not know," she said, "I wasn't here when you were brought in, but there are some people that will come to see you in a bit. They should be able to answer your questions. Is there anything I can get you until then?"

"Where are my pokémon?" Ash questioned as he forced himself to sit up on the bed despite the nurse giving him a look for moving, "and my belongings."

"I believe your pokémon were taken to the main building to be looked after," she answered as she took quick notes on a clipboard that had been hanging from the edge of his bed, "as for your belongings I would have to look into your records from when you were admitted to see where they were put."

Ash, not liking that he had been separated from the pack, nodded before she left him alone with his thoughts. He hoped everyone was okay, especially Pikachu since the mouse was out of his ball when they got hit and he didn't know what landed beside him before he lost consciousness. It hurt his head to try and remember what happened then, but he hoped that his watch, which would have still been recording, caught what it was.

He managed to doze off and on again for a while before the door to his room opened again and several people walked in startling him from his thoughts. Of the five people that walked in only four were in a uniform of dark clothing and dark glasses while the fifth person, easily the most recognizable person there, sat down in a chair that a nurse had brought in.

Ash kept silent as he stared at Champion Lance, who stared back at him. The dark eyes bore into his own with an emotion Ash couldn't name, but his eyes seemed searching as if Lance were looking for something in him that would answer all his questions.

Just as he was about to burst from the silence in the room, if they ignored the beeping from the monitor, the man ordered the other four people to leave. Without any fanfare the four left and the sound of the door clicking closed sounded like an explosion of sound.

"Ash Ketchum, 16 years old from Pallet Town and currently works for Professor Samuel Oak as an OFRT," the man said, his voice deep and commanding, "is that correct?"

Ash nodded as he moved to sit up. It was a bit unnerving to stay laying down when in the presence of a man of Lances' reputation.

"And you're the one he called to check out the next potential sight of an attack from that mysterious creature?"

"Yes, sir," Ash answered truthfully.

Lance nodded and reached into his pocket only to pull out a small recording device. "Normally I wouldn't be the person to interrogate you about what went on there," Lance said as he placed the device on the bed beside Ashs' leg, "but I have to admit I'm curious as to what you saw."

Ash watched as Lance clicked the recorder on and spoke aloud his name as well as Ashs' name, the time and date, and what he was there for. Ash stayed silent as the man did this as he didn't want to make a man this powerful mad. If this were any other time Ash would have been a mess, gushing really, over the fact that he got to meet his Regions' Champion. However, Ash knew how to be professional.

"Describe what happened that day. What you had seen and what not."

"I got a call that morning from Professor Oak, it was about 9 am, a few hours after I had set out from the Center in Fuchsia. He called and asked if I could go look into an area further along the route I was taking as the League asked if he had any workers in the area to scout it out. He told me about this creature that had been seen destroying buildings across the Regions and sent me a picture that someone managed to get of it."

Ash spoke calmly as he began to tell the tale to Lance and the recorder. As he spoke he felt Mewtwo, through their aura, stir in awareness before feeling Mewtwo give him a hesitant confirmation of a sort to reveal them to the man if it would help in any way. Ash sent assurances to Mewtwo that everything was going to be okay and sent him a sense of thankfulness.

"I told him I would look into it," the teen said and shot a look up at Lance and held his gaze for a moment as he spoke, "I recognized the creature. I'd seen it before, but in a different form."

"You've seen this creature?" Lance asked, cutting into the narration of the story.

Ash nodded and swallowed the lump in his throat. "I captured one," he whispered softly, but it was loud enough for both machine and man to hear him, "but they didn't do anything! They've been with me for the past couple of months recovering after they were attacked! They hadn't even left their ball during that time!"

Lance leaned back in his chair as Ashs' voice rose in the defense of Mewtwo. "I'm not accusing anything or anyone," Lance said, "I just want answers."

"The creature is called Mewtwo. As far as I knew my Mewtwo was the only one in existence until I got the call." Ash said as he gripped the sheet that covered his legs, "When Professor Oak sent the picture I was shocked. I was even more shocked when I saw at the very bottom of the picture the very top of another Mewtwos' head above the tree line. I wanted to meet them. So I said yes and quickly made my way to the area Oak had sent the location to."

"There was a large dilapidated building with several black vans surrounding it and there was a large black cargo truck. There were perhaps five or six of vans along with several people in the Team Rocket uniform carrying things out of the building to put in the van. Alongside the men and women in uniform there were two others. I remember one of them very well, his name is Petrel and he's an executive for their organization. Months ago, near the beginning of my journey, the man had held me at gunpoint in Mt. Moon. The other man was a scientist. Tall, thin and balding, wore a lab coat."

"Just as the people in uniform drug this large object out of the building the Mewtwo appeared in the sky. It was the same Mewtwo from the picture. After Mewtwo appeared it sent out this blast of just pure psychic energy hitting everything it threw the energy at. I was flung back into a tree, knocked the air right out of me, and as I laid there on the ground trying to get air back in my lungs something dropped down beside me. Last I remember before waking up here was my Pikachu letting out hisses and squeaks."

Lance stayed quiet for most of his re-telling of the event, but as soon as he was finished the man asked him question after question. Ash offered to send him what footage he had gotten as well as point out the other Mewtwo in the corner of the picture Oak had sent him. Once the video had been sent and the Mewtwo pointed out in the picture, the one question he had been waiting for Lance to ask had finally come out of the mans' mouth.

"What exactly is Mewtwo? Do you know where it came from?"

"I don't know the exact place Mewtwo had come from, but they told me that they were created by humans." Ash said as he recalled what Mewtwo had told him during one of their bonding moments, "Mewtwo was kept in a tank filled with liquid as the humans around them worked on their body to make them stronger, faster, to make them a weapon for their cause. Mewtwo told me that they had enough with the treatment so they busted out of the tank, destroyed the building they were kept in by accident, and fled. They've been on the run from those humans since."

"Do you know what organization it is?" Lance asked as he checked how much space was left on the recorder.

"I don't know, but given the fact that these other Mewtwo are targeting Team Rocket bases I can only guess Team Rocket," Ash said as he shook his head, "especially if they were targeting Team Rocket bases because they were made the same way as my Mewtwo was."

"Did your Mewtwo explain how they were made?"

Ash shook his head. "No," he answered verbally, "I didn't want to ask in case it brought up some bad memories."

"Can I meet this Mewtwo?" Lance asked shocking Ash as he wasn't ready for that question.

"I-" Ash hesitantly began to speak before the door to his room was opened and another person walked in. A harried woman with large glasses, wide purple eyes, and curly dark hair hurried into the room clutching a folder of some kind.

"Sir! I am so sorry to bother you, but you said to come get you when another building has been attacked!" she said as she dropped the folder onto the bed and opened it up. She picked up a few pieces of paper, that Ash could just barely tell were pictures, and handed them to Lance. Ash watched Lances' expression turn from the neutral expression he wore as Ash spoke to a darker expression.

"Thank you Magdalene," Lance said as he kept the pictures in his grasp, "where was this?"

"Up in the mountains near the Rota border," she said as her breathing calmed down from the slight panting she had when she entered the room.

"That makes the sixth one in Kanto," Lance said as he shook his head, "who took these?" He waved the photos to indicate what he was asking about.

"League employed Wildlife Photographer Richard Marx," Magdalene said as she pushed her glasses up further.

Lance nodded and licked his lower lip before turning to a silent Ash. "Feel like taking a trip with me?" Lance asked and Ash watched as the mans' stoic face turned to one filled with excitement. Lance handed him the pictures and when he looked down he saw the other Mewtwo he had seen on the very bottom edge of the first picture Oak had sent him. The other picture held what looked like the back side of a toppled truck. Its doors looked to have been ripped off the truck and inside was a large tank, broken, and with evidence of a green liquid spilled around it.

Ash looked up at Lance, who was still staring at him waiting for an answer. "When can I be discharged?" Ash asked and he saw Lances' lips form a smirk before the mans' large form shot off the chair and out of the room leaving an amused Ash and a bewildered Magdalene.