Last Time On TMOM:
Lucario and Ash had a heart-to-heart. With that behind them, the crew must renew their quest to find Pikachu, Meowth and Mew.
Quote: "Hold onto that reason, Ash. Hold tight," Lucario said. "Then find others. We can find them together. Reasons to stay."

Chapter Eighteen: Eyes

You're in the darkness all alone
And no one cares, there's no one there
-The Script

"Do you feel him?"

Lucario looked back at Ash, pausing their upward trudge to quiz his human compatriot. The others came to a stumbling halt behind the pokemon, inevitably casting their gaze in Ash's direction as well. More than one look was a tad on the exasperated side. Ash tried not to take it personally.

He blinked away the dryness in his eyes and tried to focus. There was something. He pressed his hand around the crystal necklace, holding it tight enough for the shard to dig into his skin.

"Somewhere above," Ash said after a moment's pause. "I think he's above us."

Lucario nodded. Seemingly pleased, he returned to leading them up the sloped tunnel. They did not make the ramp with humans in mind. Ash's sneakers had worn out treads, leaving the young trainer to stick to the walls as he climbed. And he wasn't alone, as Princess Aileen did not pack footwear appropriate for such a challenging hike. Only Team Rocket and Kidd seemed prepared. Team Rocket boasted a costume change for any occasion, and Kidd frequently adventured where others didn't tread. They ascended the tunnels easily after their pokemon guide (even Kidd with her bum leg) leaving Aileen and Ash to take up the careful rear.

And every so often, Lucario would remind all the others of Ash's existence by quizzing him on Pikachu's aura. Ash didn't know if it was because of their conversation, some way of trying to keep the teenager distracted, or a way of Lucario letting Ash know he was still wanted and needed. Regardless of reason, Ash kept his senses open. And while doing so, an unsettling realization dawned on him. He could sense something beyond just the distant lights of Pikachu, Meowth and the burning haze of what Ash could only surmise had to be Mew.

Lucario noted his hesitation after quizzing Ash again. Ash tilted his head to the side, trying to peer beyond the veil of this odd, viscous like obstruction. Lucario interrupted the attempt with, "So you notice it now too?"

"Notice what?" Aileen asked, taking advantage of the pause to lean against the cavern wall.

She wasn't alone as both Team Rocket members were sagging where they stood. James, who had taken a turn in supporting Kidd, was already exhausted. It was probably the most amount of walking the duo had undertaken since losing their Meowth hot-air balloon.

Lucario looked expectantly at Ash. Another test. Ash frowned as he tried to form what he was sensing into words, "I think the Tree of Beginning is alive."

"Well, duh. It's a tree, dummy. Trees are living things," Jessie snapped, gesturing to herself and James. "Even we knew that."

"A tree made of crystal, though?" James asked.

"A tree's a tree."

"No, I mean, it has wave too. It kind of makes it hard to see through. It's almost like we are walking around inside a living creature."

Lucario nodded along with Ash's explanation, casting his eyes back up the boughs of the tree that were just visible from the tangle of roots they were climbing. They had a long way to go before they'd be anywhere near the top.

"The Tree of Beginning is a living creature. It has a symbiotic relationship with the mew that resides inside it. As far as our people ever understood it, one could not exist without the other."

"So this tree is here because of Mew?"

"And Mew because of the tree."

"Huh," Ash said, not knowing how else to respond. He wanted to believe it didn't matter, learning this bit of trivia about the mountainous tree they were hiking up. But some part of him felt unsettled. He could feel eyes on him, peering out at him from within the crystalline walls. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. "It doesn't want to… harm us, does it?"

Lucario gave Ash a searching look. As if Lucario himself had wanted to ask the same question. The look sent a shiver up Ash's spine. If Lucario was worried, then…

"Oh, come on. Even if it is alive somehow, who's ever heard of a tree attacking people?" said Jessie with a sneer.

The others in their party shrugged and gave various mutters of assent. Noone wanted to believe that they were standing in anything more than a chilly cavern. That it happened to be alive was an unusual revelation, but didn't really merit any action on their part. Of course, they couldn't see what Lucario and Ash could. And though Ash wanted to join the others in their ignorance, he couldn't shake off the eyes.

Ash cast one last paranoid glance around himself before falling back into line with his party.

The nearby stalagmites and stalactites (mew knew how one remembered which was which) that dripped out of the ceiling and floors littered their path forward. On inclines, they helped act as large braces, where one could catch their breath or catch themselves from sliding. In these shiny crystalline stone pillars, Ash could snag a glimpse of his own reflection. There was just enough of a smooth surface to cast back his own face.

There seemed nothing remarkable in the reflection. The disheveled hair and face pink from exertion was to be expected. Then Ash noticed the eyes. His eyes that were looking back out at him from the shiny surface were not familiar. They looked altogether too bright a shade, almost as if they were glowing.

Ash leaned in to get a closer look, pushing back his own bangs to examine these odd eyes. As Ash leaned in, the other Ash's strange eyes darted left. Ash himself wasn't looking left; he had been staring down his disobedient reflection.

Ash's eyes widened, and the reflection kept its stony expression. When the reflection's eyes moved again, they snapped their focus back on Ash. Ash yelped and stumbled back. He fell into Aileen and nearly caused the both of them to topple to the floor.

"What's wrong?" Aileen gasped, only just withstanding Ash's sudden dead weight. With some effort, they both managed to regain their footing.

Ash pointed with a trembling finger at the reflection that was now pointing back at him. Before Ash could wrest the words from his own terror, he realized how ridiculous it would sound. He dropped his hand, never taking his eyes off his reflection.

"Nothing. Just jumpy, I guess."

"That didn't seem like nothing." Her eyes were darting between Ash and the crystal he still kept glowering at. But she didn't see what Ash saw. Her reflection cast upon the pillar acted in all the normal ways it was supposed to.

Ash shrugged off Aileen's concern. "It's nothing. Really. Wave just- just makes everything fuzzy sometimes."

Ash willed himself to believe that. He wanted to. But there was something nagging at the back of his mind, telling him he actually hadn't imagined anything.

He fell into pace in the back of the pack again, ignoring the occasional backward glances from Aileen. With no prompting from Lucario, Ash focused with his new second sense. Taking his time flower shard in hand, Ash squeezed his eyes shut. It wasn't always necessary when using wave, but it helped.

His own natural senses overpowered the more subtle sense of wave, or so Lucario had said. Using wave with your eyes open was like trying to sniff out a batch of fresh cookies in a five-star restaurant's kitchen crowded with grumpy and overworked cooks. That was a metaphor more tailored to Ash's experience, not that he often frequented fancy restaurants. He did have plenty of experience trying to find good food.

Wave illuminated the world around him, making his own eyesight somewhat redundant. Ash could see now how Lucario maneuvered even while blind. It was like Pallet town on Christmas eve, with all the bright lights shimmering and outlining the path forward. Except in this festive light parade, even the people flickered like flames of different shades. Aileen's was the pale yellow of unlit candles. James' was the deep blue only found in deep water and Jessie's, the angry orange of an unbearable summer noon. Kidd fluttered by as a conflicted and stormy gray. Only Lucario's light burned without color, brilliant when next to the other gentler flames.

Is that what my aura looks like? Ash wondered, not letting his sense linger too long on Lucario lest he draw the pokemon's attention. Is that the aura of a wave user?

He wasn't left to his quiet musings long. The feeling of eyes wouldn't leave, even though wave gave no hint of where they might be coming from. He cast his senses wider.

As captivating as his companion's colors were, the colors of the tree were more so. They shimmered and swam about him, humming with an intelligent energy. Beautiful in a cold way, like that of ice. Ash could feel the threat of its bite even while admiring it.

And in the pulsing colors, Ash thought he was seeing patterns. But trying to make them out just made his brain hurt. If there was any logic to them, Ash surely wasn't the kind of person who could figure it out.

"We should take a break."

James' voice cut through Ash's thoughts. He blinked open his eyes as the others turned about. The Team Rocket agent was still holding Kidd's weight, but the young woman was looking considerably worse for wear. Her ashen face had taken on an extra sheen and her lips trembled even as she protested she could keep going.

"Rest is good," said Lucario, gently touching Kidd's shoulder as he breezed his way back amongst them. "Regirock isn't the only guardian of this tree. Even if we might have previously prioritized speed, I suspect we need to take the climb carefully from this point forward."

Everyone looked Ash's way. He knew why. They expected him to protest, but still feeling the edge of the eyes on his back, Ash missed his cue. He was startled by the silence, suddenly connecting what the stares meant.

But rather than address them directly, Ash looked back at Lucario.

"Have you ever been in the Tree of Beginning, Lucario?"

"You know I haven't."

Do you feel the eyes? That's what Ash desperately wanted to ask. He bit down on his lip and held the question in. He didn't know how, but he knew, somehow, that speaking the question aloud would bring something down upon them. The eyes would come out. As if they were just up on the ceiling, waiting to break free and fall down on their heads. He was being held hostage by his paranoia. So Ash hung the question up in his mouth, like an unwanted and heavy winter coat.

"I don't feel safe staying too long in one place."

"Are you okay, Ash? You've been a bit jumpy for a while now," said Aileen. Her concern was evident on her face and bright in her aura.

Ash answered her, but stared at Lucario. "I told you. It's just wave making me feel a bit on edge."

If Lucario read anything in Ash's expression, he didn't let on. "One step at a time, Ash. We will reach Pikachu yet."

Ash had the fortune (and sometimes misfortune) to meet many telepathic people and pokemon during his journey to Pokemon Master. On more than one occasion, he would think back on that ability and wish he could project his thoughts in such a way. Never had Ash wished it more fervently than now. He screamed it in his head as the others all settled down against the cavern walls. He shrieked it through the looks he kept sending Lucario's way. The eyes! What about the eyes! Lucario! The eyes won't stop watching!

But the pokemon ignored him.

Worst, Lucario met every look with indifference. Ash felt the sting of being misunderstood. He'd have felt it even more keenly if his body wasn't trembling with adrenaline.

The others easily found comfortable places to stretch out. But as Ash tried to settle down on the rocky floor, unable to quiet his buzzing bones, a thought hit him like a thunderbolt. His gaze flew back to the pokemon, watching over them in his familiar place as silent sentry. Those blood-red eyes seemed to flash over everything. Almost everything.

Lucario wasn't ignoring him. He couldn't feel them.

Only Ash could.

And that realization sank like a cold, hard stone in Ash's chest.

Either I'm crazy or we're in serious trouble.

Ash didn't remember falling asleep. He came back to himself with the sudden realization that time had passed. And a hint of a song or something, slipping away from the back of his mind.

What was that?

Any focus on it just chased the memory further away. So, knowing the way of passing dreams, Ash decided to let it go.

They had camped out in the open, for lack of any better situation. Their party huddled against the icy walls, hoping to brace against the occasional frigid breeze. Someone had thrown a down coat over him in his sleep, but still he woke up shivering. They had lost daylight. Ash could see the creeping colors of pink and orange staining the crystals at the top of the tree. It wasn't like the sun was reaching this far down into the shade of the tree, but what little warmth it provided was already receding with the coming evening.

The other slept soundly, scattered about him in small lumps of sleeping bags and puffy coats. They had actually taken the time to settle down and purposefully fall asleep. Ash pushed off the wall he had been leaning against, noticing that he wasn't the only one awake.

Kidd's face glowed blue from the shine of a small device in her hands. He thought it might have been a pokedexter; being how she seemed to be a trainer of considerable quality herself. But as he came closer, Ash noted that the shape was all wrong. Its LED screen was considerably larger and seemed to relay video footage, not text. Something a pokedexter had yet to accomplish.

He thought she'd hear his approach. He wasn't exactly being stealthy. But when his shadow dipped over her shoulder, she jumped as if scalded.

"Ash! Mew, you scared me!"

Kidd pressed the display protectively against her chest; an action that only made her look oddly guilty. Ash raised his eyebrows but said nothing. He could see the emotion flaring off her aura even without the crystal in hand. Panic, guilt and worry shot off like sparks around her. Ash could almost feel the heat of them.

Somehow, just having the crystal touching skin was enough to invoke a response from his second sense. He could leave his necklace tucked in his shirt and still summon it with a few blinks. Maybe it was becoming easier because of his practice with Lucario. Although Ash suspected it might have something more to do with the giant crystal they were traipsing around inside.

"Are you watching something?" said Ash at last, pointing at the device in her hands.

"Um… Yes," Kidd sighed. She stretched out her leg with a grimace and then looked back up at him. She must have seen something there, as she reluctantly unfolded her hands so that Ash could share the screen. "Drone footage."

She gave the screen a tap, and the display changed. Another tap and it switched again. Ash realized that the footage was all live, broadcasting different areas of the cavernous tree.

"Drones?"

"I sent a few off. Thought it might help us track down Me- Meowth and Pikachu."

Ash noticed her slip. Her aura did too, glinting candidly.

"You're hunting Mew," said Ash, the realization washing over him like ice water. Kidd saw the panicked look that stole across Ash's face. She nearly dropped her display pad in her haste to protest, fumbling with it for a moment before abandoning it on the floor. Kidd tried to reach for him, but Ash stepped out of her grasp.

"I'm- I'm not-"

"Don't lie. I can tell you're lying."

His stern expression spoke volumes. Kidd didn't bother with keeping up pretense. She dropped back down into herself, slumping back against the crystalline stalagmite behind her.

"Alright, alright. You caught me, little mouse," said Kidd, pushing some of her crimped hair out of her face with shaky hands. "I am hunting Mew."

"I knew it. You're a Mew hunter."

"You say it like that isn't what all of us are doing here."

"It's not. We're here for our pokemon. For Pikachu and Meowth."

"Where is this self-righteous attitude coming from?" Kidd stretched over to pick up her discarded display pad and then wagged it as she scolded him. "Didn't you join a Mew hunter before? Aileen said you had."

Ash bristled. "That was different. Red was chasing a myth."

"Oh, so it's only okay when the hunter doesn't actually have a chance of catching one. I see how it is." Kidd settled back down, glaring back down at her glowing display as if she didn't actually see at all.

"You heard, Lucario. It's attached to the Tree of Beginning. If you tried to capture it, you'd risk destroying an entire ecosystem."

Kidd let out a low whistle. "Those are some mighty ten-cent words there, Ash."

"It's the truth."

Kidd slid the electronic pad into the side pocket of her coat. Even angry as she was, Kidd's eyes were still sliding off him like ice.

"Look. Our objectives align. You get Pikachu back. I get my Mew. You don't have to approve. Just don't get in the way. I'll worry about the whole ecosystem thing."

Ash gave her injured leg a light tap with the toe of his boot. Kidd winced. He knew it hurt because even now, his own arms twinged with a small but sharp ache. Lucario could only heal so much. And her injury had been near-fatal.

"I won't have to stop you," Ash said flatly.

Kidd couldn't help herself from gripping her injury. The pain radiated with heat underneath her fingertips. She could feel Ash's hard gaze on her. "I know," she smirked at herself. "Pathetic. World-famous hunter and I'm reduced to this. A pidgey could do me in."

If she was hoping for sympathy, Ash wasn't in the mood to give it. He glared her down.

"Leave Mew alone, Kidd. You don't have any idea what you're messing with."

Kidd snorted and roughly pushed more of her wayward hair from her face. "What? And you do?"

Ash had been about to answer. As a matter of fact, Ash had a lifetime's worth of experience in messing with things he shouldn't have. Legendary pokemon often being at the top of that list. But a sudden shout chased the thought straight from his head.

The couple whirled on the spot. Sometime in the midst of their argument, James had woken and crawled free of his sleeping bag. But his interruption had nothing to do with their loud disagreement. He wasn't even looking their way. James was kneeling next to an empty sleeping bag. The dying light made his colorless face seem luminous.

"Jessie's missing!" He gasped.

To Be Continued…
Please Read and Review!

Sorry for the short chapter. It just made sense for the chapter break to happen here. Hopefully, the next update won't be so long in coming now that I'm trying to make my writing every day a habit. I may not always be writing fanfiction but I'm hoping that it will improve my productivity when it comes to my writing goals. Especially since my attempt to write in my original novel this July didn't really go according to plan.

As a reviewer pointed out to me, we are on the home stretch guys! If you guys enjoy this story, feel free to check out the others in my series (The Blind Alley and Here I Am). They carry on where this one leaves off. You can find them on my profile page or on Archive of Our Own- where I tend to update first.

Not going to lie, I never expected to finish this particular tale. I got some negative backlash when I first started it that I ultimately abandoned it for several years. It's been a journey and I'm really glad I decided to continue it. I look forward to the day that I can add it to my completed projects.

All that said, thanks to those who reviewed last time: YumeTakato, juaniu1994, Shaveza, thor94 and newcomers Yami Nova and Moss Stories! Always happy to see some new faces in the comment section! Welcome!

Next time, Ash and company investigate Jessie's disappearance as more of their party starts to disappear. You can expect the next update sometime this October. Just in time for Halloween! See you all then. Love you!