Last Time On TMOM:
Ash and company come across a bunch of geysers that block their path. They take a brief break in some nearby hot springs and Ash finds a strange flower.
Quote: "You want wave to rescue your pokemon. Like a tool, a weapon. You don't understand it at all."

Chapter Thirteen: Tools

I don't want them to know the secrets
I don't want them to know the way I loved you
I don't think they'd understand it, no
I don't think they would accept me, no
-Fleurie

The crystalline flower really looked lovely poking free from Aileen's braid. It somehow managed to stay even when swaying through the intense headwinds of the motorcycle. Ash watched fretfully at first, not wanting Aileen to lose the present he had gotten her. But he was pleased to find that the flower would not so easily detach as it had for him from the cliff.

Aileen caught him staring once or twice. She always flashed him a beaming smile that Ash quickly ducked away from. This would only make her laugh so Ash didn't feel too embarrassed.

The group had quickly boarded their bikes the moment that the geysers had fallen. They had a lot of ground to cover with what remained of the day. The journey from the castle to the tree was only supposed to take about five to seven days. They were definitely leaning towards the latter number as the days marched on. Delays were frequent with this party.

They needed to get there sooner rather than later. Ash didn't know in what state Pikachu would be in or what Mew might have been doing to it. Who knew the whims of legendary pokemon anyway? Mew might not intentionally be causing harm but it could certainly do plenty by accident.

Ash had seen enough of that in the Shamouti Islands.

The humans of their party were fueled by this urgency. They were all pushing the bikes to go faster and farther, even if some were just trying to keep up. The only one who was slagging in their pace now, surprisingly, was Lucario.

The pokemon who had blazed the trail so fiercely before was now picking his steps with caution. It was easier for Kidd to keep up so she didn't complain. But Ash couldn't help the impatience from bubbling up inside. He sent his glare ahead, surprised when between blinks, he could see things.

It was nothing serious. Nothing like he had witnessed the first time he had used wave. Ash thought that the soft tendrils of blue that emanated occasionally from Lucario's form were not normally there. It must be the wave that Lucario had spoken about.

Lucario seemed to be able to read emotion off the flickering waves. Ash couldn't see how. The rippling wisps held no more information to Ash than the blank pages of a book. He watched them in concern, observed the way they concentrated around certain parts of Lucario's body and floated away from others. He hoped it all meant something. Maybe through observation, he'd learn. It's how he got the hang of pokemon training, after all.

They rode on until the sunlight disappeared behind the tallest tree roots. Everyone had concluded they had made good progress. But to Ash, the tree didn't appear any closer. It still seemed impossibly far, like some distant peak. They hadn't even tried climbing it yet. How long would that take?

Camp tonight was in a grove of trees just off the beaten path. The trees looked surprisingly normal despite spreading root in the shade of a giant crystal. The leaves were an ordinary green. There were no shards erupting from the tree base like thorns. Ash found its normalcy comforting, as surely as did the others. They had spent too many nights already swimming through thick pervasive fog and tucking themselves to bed under the shade of giant crystalline tree roots.

Ash actually tried to eat the stew Kidd whipped up. The open area gave her permission to cook and make something more edible for dinner. As he stared down into his bowl full of broth and bobbing vegetables, Ash's stomach turned. He took a few forced spoonfuls and pushed the rest towards James. Once again, Team Rocket were only too happy to pick up the slack when it came to clearing a meal.

When everyone went to bed, Ash was forced to roll out his sleep roll to keep up appearances. Exhaustion threatened to claim him, but anxiety kept his arms and legs trembling. Rather than sleep, Ash stared up at the stars peeking out from between tree branches.

When he was little, Misty and Brock would try to point out constellations to him. Brock wanted Ash to know to help improve his sense of direction. He was particularly adamant about it being a skill all aspiring pokemon trainers should have. Misty, however, she just liked to tell him stories.

Ash had a terrible time memorizing anything that wasn't related to pokemon. But Misty's stories of the pokemon who had taken shelter up in the patterns of the skies, those helped the memories stick better than anything else.

He wasn't sure he could tell directions by them. But he knew their names. He knew their stories. Tauros, Skorupi, and little Krabby, in patterns that barely resembled their pokemon counterparts, stretched overhead. Kadabra's Spoon was always the easiest to find but Ash often got it confused with Alakazam's.

As Ash was listlessly staring ahead, he heard something. It was the smallest of sounds. The barest brush of something sweeping by a pack or sleeping bag. Ash turned his head and was given a start.

Lucario stood amongst the sea of sleeping humans, standing as still as a pillar. His back was to Ash so perhaps he hadn't yet noticed that one human was awake.

Ash opened his mouth to say something. Maybe just to ask why Lucario had decided to go off patrol so early. But all those thoughts flew free, as Lucario suddenly ducked. He knelt down next to the purple sleeping bag that Ash recognized as the one Alieen was in.

Without shoes, Ash found he could be surprisingly quiet. Imitating the low and slow movements that he had just seen Lucario make, Ash crept closer.

Normally, Ash would have thrown caution to the wind and leaped forward to protect his friends. But Ash foresaw the potential fallout from such action. On his head would fall the blame. He had picked too many fights with the pokemon already. If Lucario really were up to something nefarious, Ash would need to catch the pokemon in the act.

So instead he kept low to the ground and watched. He watched as Lucario gently teased Aileen's braid from the folds of the sleeping bag. She was still wearing the flower and it glowed unnaturally in the low evening light. Perhaps she had forgotten or maybe she sensed it would be safe from being crushed. Whatever the case, there it lay, its light illuminating Lucario as he sneakily reached for it.

Ash couldn't hold it anymore. "Hey," Ash muttered at a volume just above a whisper. "What are you doing?"

Lucario paused and slowly turned his face to the interruption.

'None of your business.'

"Yeah, like hell it isn't. That isn't yours."

'It isn't yours either.'

"I gave it to Aileen."

'It's a flower.'

"That I gave her."

'So ripping it out of the ground grants you ownership? Typical human.'

Their heated conversation, while only one-sided vocally, was starting to wake the others. Aileen sleepily rubbed her face. James rolled over in his sleeping bag. And Kidd gave out a loud snort. These stirrings effectively silenced their argument leaving the two with just stormy glares for one another.

'I'm taking the flower, Ashton.'

"Why?"

Lucario couldn't look at him. Instead, he stared at the flower. 'It doesn't matter.'

When reached down again, Ash moved first. His fingertips mistakenly brushed the petals and the already glowing blossom erupted with light. Ash might have gasped out but it was quickly swallowed in his throat. Ash fell backward onto James' sleeping back, landing heavily onto the sleeping man. Both sat up simultaneously, staring in shock at the hallucination that painted itself in the air between them and Aileen.

It was Ash, as he had been only hours before. He reached out for the flower but fell back, startled once more by a sudden flash of light. They watched as he fell again, just as he had before, into the waters of the hot spring. As soon as he had gone under, the smokey vision faded; as if the connection had been lost. And with the vision gone, Ash could see a wide-eyed Aileen, very much awake, staring back at the two of them.

Lucario was gone.

"Lucario!" Ash cried out, scrambling to his feet.

"Ash, wait-" Aileen kicked off her sleeping bag. If it had been anyone else, Ash wouldn't have paused. He glared furiously into the night, where he assumed the thieving pokemon must have gone. But Ash was startled when Aileen carried the now softly glowing blossom cupped in her hands.

"It's a time flower," Kidd said, having extracted herself from sleep no easier than the others. Her hair was particularly disheveled but unlike Alieen, she hadn't bothered with pajamas. She wore the same jumpsuit she had worn throughout the day. Save for her hair, she was ready for action. Which must have been the point.

"What's a time flower?" Ash asked, trying not to stare at the part of her hair that was standing on end.

Kidd didn't let on that she noticed Ash's stare, but she did flatten down her hair as she replied, "Legends said that wave users could use them to look back into the past. I knew they grew near the tree but since practiced human wave users no longer exist, it was impossible to know for sure." She looked at Ash now, who shied from the sudden spotlight. "It must have reacted to you. Since you have an affinity for wave."

"It did seem to glow more around Ash," Aileen added thoughtfully.

"While learning how the twerp can activate a plant nightlight now is swell and all, the real question is," Jessie unhelpfully interrupted, pushing her way over to the flower. "How much is it worth?"

"Thousands, probably," said Kidd.

"Thousands!"

"Possibly more. It's hard to calculate the price of something so rare."

"More? More than thousands?!"

"You'd have to prove it was a time flower though. And for that, you'd need a wave user." Kidd pointed to Ash and Jessie frowned. She stalked off, probably trying to calculate the pros and cons of stealing an ancient flower and kidnapping. In one hand, thousands of dollars. In the other, a wrathful league of legendary pokemon that might come after them for kidnapping the Chosen One. But thousands of dollars, though!

Ash ignored them. When he touched the flower a second time, he braced but nothing happened. Its memory seemed spent.

"He must want the flower to see into the past," Ash said absentmindedly. He didn't see Aileen frowning at him until she had lifted the blossom up for him to take.

"Let him have it."

"But… I gave it to you…" Even as he said it, Ash knew it sounded lame. Aileen shook her head and smiled.

"He needs it more, don't you think?"

Lucario wasn't far from camp. He had taken refuge in a tree a bit further down the trail. While Ash couldn't say exactly how he knew what direction to go in, his feet led the way.

Ash stood underneath where Lucario sulked. The pokemon's eyes were closed but Ash knew he knew he was there.

"Hey."

'You are literally the last human on Earth I would like to converse with right now, Ashton,' came the pokemon's heated reply.

With a deep sigh, Ash pulled the rumpled flower from his jacket pocket and held it up above his head so Lucario could see. It still glowed brightly in his hands, sparkling like moonlight. The sudden glow caused the pokemon to open his eyes.

Without a word, Lucario swung himself down from the tree, landing in front of the teenaged pokemon trainer. Ash lowered his arm and held the flower out for the pokemon to take. Still, Lucario hesitated.

"If you needed this," Ash said, too uncomfortable with the silence. "Why didn't you just ask us to help you? We would have handed it over."

Lucario looked from the flower up to Ash. The pain in the pokemon's eyes was startling.

'I don't trust humans.'

Ash grit his teeth but said nothing. And at long last, Lucario reached out for the blossom. They both braced for a similar light show but no matter how long Lucario pet the soft petals, nothing showed itself.

'Of course,' Lucario muttered bitterly. 'This blossom is too young to hold the memories I seek. I thought that because the tree survived all these years that maybe the blossoms did too. How foolish of me.'

"Isn't it a time flower?"

'Yes. But it's worthless to me.'

He moved to walk away but Ash caught his arm. "Just what are you looking for?"

'The truth.'

"About Sir Aaron?"

Lucario shrugged out of Ash's grip but nodded.

"I thought you already knew the truth."

'I thought so. But my time in this future that worships him has given me reason to doubt. I know what I saw. But… a part of me… hopes… wants him to be worthy of all this.'

The silence between them was hard. It took Ash a while to find the words. He stared down at the light still softly pulsing from his hand; as if keeping time with his own heartbeat.

"You say you saw Sir Aaron fleeing… but I still think that you're wrong. You must have been. All of Cameron knows him to be a hero. How could everyone be wrong?"

'You are constantly defending him. You don't even know him. Why? Are you afraid of being compared to a traitor?'

It was Ash's turn to blanch. His voice and shoulders shook as he shouted back, "Sir Aaron is a good man. A hero! If anything I should be honored to be compared to him!"

'But you're not.'

"Because I'm not Sir Aaron. I'm Ash Ketchum. I'm- I'm nothing." Ash didn't realize he was crying until it was too late. He rubbed at his eyes, unable to do much about the tears. They choked him up as he continued, "I'm a horrible, selfish person. I don't deserve to be here. I don't deserve to be anywhere."

The flower had fallen somewhere at their feet, forgotten. Too busy with his own grief, Ash hadn't noticed Lucario's approach. The pokemon gently touched him on the good shoulder, causing Ash to lift his head.

'Is it so bad to think that it's the other way around?'

Ash stared and Lucario gently pat his arm.

'I've decided. I'm going to teach you how to use wave.'

"What?"

'We'll start tomorrow. Early. I'll wake you.'

"But wh- Why?"

The pokemon was already walking away, clearly not expecting a debate on the subject. He paused and seemed to consider the question for a moment. Then shrugged, 'Call it a feeling. I have a feeling, you're going to need it.'

To Be Continued…
Please Read and Review!

Hey all. Expect updates to slow down again now that school has started back up for me. I had a ton of free time over the holidays and unfortunately, that is quickly becoming no longer the case.

Thanks to those who reviewed last chapter: Shaveza, juaniu1994, Jeannot2978, and YumeTakato. Not discounting the many guest reviews as well. I appreciate every review guys so thank you!

I just wanted to respond to juaniu1994's review this update. They asked why Ash and Aileen couldn't just get together since Misty moved on. Well, it is true that Gary and Misty had a relationship around this time period. And Ash is not currently dating anyone so he is free to have his own life as it were. But you'll just have to wait and see. I don't want to spoil anything. ;) He's got a lot on his plate at the moment.

That being said, expect the next update sometime in the March/April time period. Although since Animal Crossing New Horizons is coming out around then too, I can't promise that I won't be consumed by that game.

Next time on Mystery of Me, Ash begins his training with wave. See you then!