Goh stood in stunned silence for a few moments as he gazed upon the metal card Lawrence showed him with the image of Mew engraved upon its surface.
He could hardly believe his eyes.
"Impressed, are you?" Lawrence said, a satisfied gleam flashing in his eyes. "This is the oldest part of my personal collection. It was a gift from my dearly departed mother. She loved stories of Mythical Pokémon like Mew, and to find an ancient treasure like this that depicted a Mythical Pokémon on it must have been a dream come true to her…"
He looked at the stone ceiling as he slipped the card back into his pocket, and Goh thought he must have been thinking of his late mother.
"I suppose it's thanks to her that I developed my own interest into legends and myths, and the Pokémon people wrote about in those days."
"Mr. Lawrence-" Goh said, but the man raised a hand and gave him a friendly smile.
"Just Lawrence is fine, Goh. After all, we're both collectors of a sort, aren't we? Me with my artifacts, and you with your Pokémon?"
Goh chuckled to himself. "Well, I guess so… but my Pokémon are also my friends, you know? Not that your artifacts aren't cool, I mean!"
Grookey cooed gently in the air, and Inteleon stood back, watching carefully.
Lawrence laughed off the faux pas. "Forgive me. I of course meant no offense."
Goh nodded. No harm was done, after all. "...sorry to hear about your mom."
"It's been years now," Lawrence said. "She lived a good life and passed in comfort, surrounded by loved ones. It is the most any of us could ask for, I believe."
There was nothing Goh could think to say to that, so he simply scratched Grookey behind the ears.
"After she passed, her belongings - her collection - fell into my hands. And though I didn't keep all of it, I did keep many things she had owned in life as my own personal collection. And one day, I hope to pass this collection down to others, or perhaps to a museum. Collections of things are how we best share our history, I think. One can read about history in a book simple enough, but to hold the ancient tools once wielded by the craftsmen who created the very tomb we now find ourselves in? What could create a more vivid image of history than the very objects that shaped it?"
"That's why you collect artifacts?" Goh asked. "Because you want to share history?"
Lawrence chuckled to himself. "That's a part of it. But truthfully, from one collector to another, my real dream is to own an artifact no one has ever seen before. A truly rare specimen."
Goh almost felt like he was catapulted back in time to the first time he encountered the Mythical Mew. It was in yet another argument with Chloe, where he had declared that he didn't need friends. All he needed was to catch a Pokémon 'no one's ever seen before'.
The earnest happiness on Lawrence's face helped Goh relax. Even if they were 'collecting' different things, there seemed to be some common ground between the two of them. If there was going to be any route for the two of them to become friends and work together, this was likely the best route.
"That sounds a lot like me," Goh said. "My dream is to catch one of every Pokémon in the world. And once I've done that, I'll finish my Pokédex by catching Mew, who's said to have the DNA of all Pokémon."
"One of every Pokémon?" Lawrence asked, sounding somewhat impressed. "You mean to even capture Legendary Pokémon?"
He nodded. "I've already had the chance to catch one, a Suicune," he said. "Though I don't really keep Suicune around with me… they have an important job to do, after all."
Lawrence returned to the wall they were standing next to, brushing dust off of some of the hieroglyphics. "Suicune has the power to purify tainted water, and is said to rush all around the world, cleaning the world's water supplies. That is quite the important role."
"Yeah," Goh agreed. "But as long as Suicune is out there, I know we'll be connected in our hearts. I don't need to keep the Legendary Pokémon I catch. I just want to catch them. To learn more about them."
"Catching them is enough?" Lawrence asked, looking at him somewhat surprised.
"I want to learn about all kinds of Pokémon. I want to understand them. And the best way to understand a Pokémon is to catch them. That's what I think. But Pokémon also have their own lives to live, you know? We're all living beings in this world, just trying to do our best. So if a Pokémon I caught wanted to be somewhere else, or with someone else, I'd let them go. Because I know we'd always be connected in our heart."
"Bre!" Argent barked out a cheer of agreement, which Inteleon and Grookey agreed with as well. Goh felt a smile growing on his lips, surrounded by his Pokémon friends.
Even Lawrence seemed to chuckle. "That's quite the curious stance to take," he said, "but I respect your commitment and dedication. I used to collect Pokémon myself, but you're right." He turned to the Porygon2 floating silently in the air that was still lighting the area. "They are living beings. They can't be collected. That's why I only have a few Pokémon myself."
"Is that why you're focused on collecting artifacts tied to Mythical Pokémon instead of the Pokémon themselves?"
Lawrence nodded. "Right. By collecting the artifacts that ancient people had, we can perhaps learn more about these incredibly rare Pokémon that have even been worshiped as gods."
"Gods…"
Goh whispered the word into the darkness. They had just been talking about how the actions of the God of Rota had split the kingdom in twain, though they weren't sure who that God was.
The card Lawrence flashed at him reemerged in his mind.
"You said you were seeking God… but isn't Mew the Pokémon on that card?" he asked. "Are you… are you saying the God that's spoken of in the stories here… is Mew?"
Lawrence's eyes went wide for only a moment before he smiled at Goh. "You seem to know a bit about the ruins here. Are you able to translate the hieroglyphics here?"
He laughed nervously. "I-uh, no… My girlfriend is the one who's been decoding things. But we got separated a little ways back. Right now she's with another friend of mine, and I was looking for a way back to them when I ran into you."
"I see…"
Lawrence stood up and gestured to his Porygon2 to follow him. "Come, Goh. I'll explain what I know about the fall of the Kingdom of Pokélantis."
"The fall of the kingdom…?" Goh repeated.
Again, the words they had uncovered on Mount Tensei returned to him.
"Where kingdoms end…"
"Grooki…?" The chimp looked at him with a worried look on his face, but Argent strode forth.
"Breon," he said, looking back at Goh with a look in his eyes that seemed to say 'We don't want to be left behind, do we?'.
Goh nodded. "Right. But for now, Inteleon, you can take a rest. I don't know when we'll need you again, but I'll want you at full power."
Inteleon nodded as Goh recalled him into his ball. Goh stashed the ball back in his pocket and stepped quickly to catch up with Lawrence.
The man was walking somewhat slowly through the ruins, and he seemed to be reading the messages written on the walls. Goh frowned at the sight, since he couldn't read them. He felt pretty useless at the moment, but if anything strange came up, he still had all his Pokémon partners with him who could help, so for now they just followed along with Lawrence.
"So, what do you know about the kingdom's founding?" Lawrence asked.
Goh quickly tried to summarize what he and his friends had discussed earlier. "It used to be part of a larger kingdom that was also part of the Kingdom of Rota, and they called it Rotatlantis," he said. "But a succession crisis caused by their god choosing the younger prince instead of the older one to succeed the throne caused the kingdom to split in two, with Rota on one side of the mountains and Pokélantis on this side."
"A succinct version of the tale of the founding," Lawrence said as they continued to walk. "The Pokélantians lived on the side of the mountains away from the Tree of Beginning, where the God of Rota sat and blessed its people. The Pokélantians and the Pokémon they brought with them had to forge themselves in this harsher land, and they became stronger for it. But they never forgot their cousins, the Rotans. At times, they even fought alongside each other in wars to protect their borders from external forces seeking to claim their lands for their own. In return, the Rotans would sometimes spare their bounty, blessings, and wealth with the Pokélantians."
Goh frowned at the story he was being told. "It sounds like things went well for a really long time," he said. "But based on the stories I've heard about how Pokélantis ended, these things didn't stay that way."
Lawrence paused. "What have you heard about the destruction of this kingdom?" he asked."
"Apparently one day the king of Pokélantis coveted the power of Ho-Oh, and he tried to create a Poké Ball to catch them in. But then Ho-Oh came and destroyed the kingdom."
Lawrence scratched his chin and nodded. "I understand that is the common sentiment based on what is widely known, however history is rarely so simple that it can be turned into a fairy tale about an evil king who lusted for power."
"Are you saying that what really happened was different?" Goh asked.
Lawrence nodded. "For a long time, peace did reign between these two sister nations. Rota and Pokélantis continued to prosper under their respective leaders, and those thrones passed down each family for generations. However, this peace wouldn't last."
Lawrence stopped and gestured to the wall they were now next to. On it was a carving of a mountain. One the right side of the mountain were depictions of happy people and Pokémon, rain, and crops. On the opposite side, there was no rain, fewer Pokémon and unhappy humans.
"Nature was not kind to the people of this land. A tumultuous weather pattern began a long drought, and so food and water became scarce in Pokélantis. There was fighting and chaos breaking out in the kingdom, and the King of Pokélantis, together with his wife, the Queen, both sought solutions to their crisis. But unlike blessed Rota to the east, which suffered no such hardship, Pokélantis was a land without the blessing of a god to keep the rain falling and the land fertile and producing."
"Pokémon can do things like influence weather patterns and sea currents," Goh noted out loud. "There's a sea current maintained by a Lugia that warms places as far away as the Kalos Region. It makes sense that they'd be worshiped as gods, in that case."
He had read many stories about Pokémon ending droughts, raising crops, and saving humans in need. He knew how easy it was to immortalize them in these stories and legends.
Lawrence continued his tale.
"The King of Pokélantis, with his Queen, sought aid from their cousins in Rota," he said. "The King begged for Rota to call upon the God of the Tree of Beginning, to share their blessing with their suffering, starving cousins. But Rotans wouldn't spare even a single thought for the Pokélantians, and sent the king and queen back to the dying kingdom."
"They wouldn't do anything to help them at all..?" Goh asked. "Why wouldn't they?"
Lawrence sighed. "I wish I knew. The reason for their reckless cruelty isn't recorded in anything I've been able to uncover. All that I know for certain is that when the royals returned to Pokélantis, they attempted to hold their country together and solve what issues they could. Only… the struggle was too much for the Queen, and she died."
Goh felt his breath catch in his chest.
"She… died?"
Goh felt his mind's eye become clouded with a vision of Chloe in a blood-red kimono, falling to the ground. He shook the image and turned back to the nodding Lawrence. The collector gestured to resume walking, and Goh followed behind him. Porygon2 continued hovering in the air, with Grookey listening quietly to the story. Argent seemed to be more focused on his surroundings than the story of ages gone by, but Goh trusted the Dark-type to watch for danger and focused on the story.
"With the queen dead, the king had enough. The only way they were going to survive was to fight, and so he declared war on Rota. He would take the blessings of the Rota by force if need be to secure the blessings of the land for the people and Pokémon who lived in Pokélantis."
"But even so, starting a war over something like that is wrong, isn't it?" Goh asked. "The people of Rota would be made to suffer for a decision by their ruler!"
"Grooki!" the chimp added, waving his stick into the air.
Lawrence looked at Goh square in the eyes. There was something unsettling about the man's purple eyes. Goh almost felt like he was being probed for information.
But it was what Lawrence said more than anything else that gave Goh pause.
"Have you ever been so consumed with anger and grief that you have cursed the gods and the fate you had been dealt?"
And with those words, Goh's mind once again dredged up unwelcome images of Ho-Oh's Sacred Fire burning the very soul out of Chloe's body and the light of life vanishing from her eyes. He instantly felt the pain, sadness, and loss of watching her die before his eyes all over again.
And he could remember the red eyes glaring back at him, uncaring.
Goh could remember when he raised his fist to the heavens and tried to subdue the god Ho-Oh and force them to bring Chloe back to life. He felt his hand reach into his pocket and pull out the GS Ball, a tool that could enact just such a feat.
Lawrence's words were true.
He could easily remember himself so lost in his despair that he reacted in violence. Both Ho-Oh and Felix both felt the flames of his rage, though in both cases it was a rage of impotence. Punching Felix didn't make anything better and fighting Ho-Oh could have caused the Sacred Ashes to be lost in the battle, dooming Chloe for good. But Goh was powerless to truly change his fate in those situations. He had fumbled and wrecked things so badly that it required the intervention of others to fix things. Whether that be Ash's constant assistance at his side, Chloe's good sense keeping him from going too far, or the literal intervention of beings like Lugia and Celebi to fix things.
He remembered his failure in the Raid Battle against Articuno, and his defeat at the hands of Horace in the Battle Royal.
It made him feel weak. Unable to change his fate no matter how much he hated it. Holding the GS Ball, the tool that would give him the power to change his fate, didn't soothe his worries or quiet his fears. Needing something like this, that could render a god powerless, didn't make Goh feel more powerful. It made him feel completely powerless.
And so Goh let his head hang and he looked away from the man. But the ball did catch Lawrence's interest as it glittered in the dim light. "What's that you've got there?" he asked.
"While we've been researching all of this," Goh explained, "we came across a scroll that showed the king of Pokélantis on it, and he was attempting to make a talisman that would let him control a god. Following the instructions he left made this."
Lawrence's eyes glimmered in the light. "So this is a Poké Ball that could contain a god's power and bend a god's will? Force them to obey a mortal man?"
Goh slipped the GS Ball back in his pocket. "When we learned about it, I thought the king was doing this because of his arrogance and pride, but knowing that he only wanted to bring someone he loved back… I guess I'm not that different from the King, on second thought," he said.
Lawrence gave him a pat on the shoulder. "The King of Pokélantis was a complex and noble figure. However, he was the hated enemy of Rota, and in a history written by the winners, that is all he came to be known as; a villain to scare children in a bedtime story. It is only by closely examining history that we can tell the truth from the propaganda spread by the Rotans and their descendants. Clearly the people of Rota didn't want their crimes to be widely known, so they invented this tale about the King being evil."
"But even in that case, you said the people and Pokémon in Pokélantis were tougher than the ones in Rota, right?" he asked. "How did Rota win a war if they were really the weaker side?"
"You tell me, Goh," Lawrence asked. "You said it earlier. How was Pokélantis destroyed?"
Goh felt his eyes go wide.
"It was destroyed by Ho-Oh," he said. "But… if Ho-Oh is the god…?"
"I assure you that Ho-Oh isn't the God of the Tree of Beginning," Lawrence said. "The King only sought Ho-Oh's power to find a way to revive the Queen." He shook his head. "No, you know the name of the God who destroyed this place. You recognized them on the card that was taken from these very ruins." The man turned to him, his face hidden in shadow as he stood between Porygon2 and Goh. "It was a far more fickle and cruel God than Ho-Oh. A capricious being that is called Mew."
Goh couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Mew…?"
Lawrence reached into his pocket and pulled out the sparkling, metal card once more. "It all comes back to this card. This card tells the story of Pokélantis, and the story of Pokélantis is the story of Mew. The four symbols carved around Mew on the card have distinctive meanings.
"The first," he said, pointing to the symbol to Mew's upper left, "is birth. The creation of all things. Even before they understood concepts like DNA and genetic inheritance, the people of Pokélantis understood Mew as the progenitor god who's blessing brought bounty and life."
He moved his finger to the second symbol, the one below 'birth'. "The next means 'Enthronement'. It represents the crowning of the first king of Rotatlantis, the kingdom that worshiped Holy Mew as its god. And here…" he moved his finger to the opposite side, in the upper right, "is Rite of Succession."
Goh gasped. "...like what split Rota and Pokélantis apart."
Lawrence smiled widely. "Precisely! The succession crisis that was decided by Mew's wishes - the Will of God themselves - leads into the fracturing of Rota and Pokélantis. And that leads to the last piece of the story."
Lawrence gestured to the wall in front of them that they had stopped by, and Goh turned his eyes upon it..
And he could hardly believe what he saw.
Etched into the wall was an image of the king Goh was very familiar with. Seated in his chair, he held the Rainbow Wing, the Silver Wing, and the clear crystal in his hands. In the air in front of him was Ho-Oh, raining down sacred fire.
"The last symbol," Lawrence said, "is death."
But the image Goh had first seen in the scroll continued past Ho-Oh in this mural.
In the air behind Ho-Oh was the image of Mew engraved on the card that Lawrence held, though the hieroglyphs around Mew were different. Standing behind Mew on the top of a mountain was a man wearing a large hat and cape wielding a staff.
He recognized that man. He had seen his painting just yesterday. The pieces began to fit together in Goh's mind, and he gasped at the revelation.
"That's… That's the hero they revere in Rota…! Aaron!"
Lawrence nodded. "Indeed. Sir Aaron, the so-called Hero of Rota… Tell me, Goh, what do you know about him?"
At that, the boy shook his head. "Practically nothing, other than he had a Lucario and there's a huge painting of him in Cameron Palace."
"I see…" Lawrence said. "Aaron was a very rare breed of human being. He had a title long before he became known as a 'Hero'. They called him an Aura Guardian."
Goh raised an eyebrow. "An… Aura Guardian…?"
Lawrence nodded. "A human with the power to feel and shape and use Aura."
"They didn't say anything about Aura…" Goh said, frowning. "I know that it's supposed to be the life force that all living things have, and there are Pokémon like Riolu and Lucario who can use it for attacking and communication."
"The Aura Guardians were an ancient sect of chosen humans who could wield powers that we only recognize nowadays as the power of Pokémon."
Goh felt his stomach drop at the words. His analytical mind was already connecting this information to other things he already knew.
Only in this case, he wanted it to stop.
"My… My friend, Ash… he has a Lucario. And it seems like he can communicate with him using his Aura sometimes."
Lawrence furrowed his eyebrows as he turned to Goh, standing in the dark. Argent stepped between them defensively, but didn't take any rash actions.
Lawrence frowned. "It sounds like your friend may have a rare gift, then. The makings of an Aura Guardian."
Goh tried not to laugh, though it was bitter laughter that bubbled up within him. Ash being a mystical Aura warrior of legend felt like a cheap joke.
"So these Aura Guardians used to be a big deal back then?" he asked.
"That's right. Though their numbers are very few these days, they used to be a major power in the world. An individual Aura Guardian was said to be worth a thousand of a kingdom's best soldiers because they could use that Aura to manipulate and influence Pokémon and make them do truly awful things."
Goh looked back at the mural.
"So this Aaron," Goh said, looking at the mural. "He destroyed the Kingdom of Pokélantis?"
"He might not have performed the deed himself," Lawrence explained, "but he did entreat Mew to save Rota from destruction at the hands of its neighbor. And the God of Rota became the very symbol of resurrection that the King of Pokélantis was searching for, to draw near to the kingdom. And then, Mew destroyed the kingdom, bathing humans and Pokémon alike in Sacred Fire."
Goh could picture it in his mind's eye, if only because he had already witnessed the power of Ho-Oh turned against the young woman he loved. He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the image once more.
"But… but the God of Rota is Mew? They live at the Tree of Beginning…?"
He didn't want to believe Mew was capable of something like this. He had been seeking Mew for longer than he'd been a Pokémon Trainer - for almost as long as he'd known Chloe, even.
"In the guise of Ho-Oh, Mew obliterated the capital before returning to the tree to continue to bless the people of Rota," Lawrence said. "And Mew continues to live there, to this day."
It felt impossible. It felt like a nightmare, the thought that Mew would be capable of such widespread destruction as to obliterate a kingdom. The Mew that was worshiped as a god back in ancient times, and aided the kingdom of Rota with their blessing, destroying the lives of so many people and Pokémon.
He didn't want it to be true. Goh couldn't accept that the god he had apparently been pursuing was a god of evil.
Goh shook his head. "No, there's no way that's true."
"And why not?" Lawrence asked as he and his Porygon2 turned back towards him.
Goh latched on to anything he could think of.
"Because of Project Mew."
Lawrence raised an eyebrow. "Project Mew? What's that?"
"It's a research project created by Professor Amaranth," he said. "They're looking for applicants right now to find Mew, but it's apparently somewhere really far away that you can only really explore during one week through the whole year. But if it were just on that mountain, there wouldn't be any problem exploring it, would there? They could go find Mew at any time! So there's no way Mew's there!"
Lawrence scratched his chin. "Regardless of what Professor Amaranth believes, the Tree of Beginning is home to Mew. Whether that be the only Mew in existence or if there's multiple, I can't really say. But there is at least a Mew there, treated as a god with their own territory."
"But how do you know Mew lives there?!" Goh shouted, his emotions getting the better of him.
"Umbre…" Argent warned. Goh glanced down into his Pokémon's yellow eyes and took a deep breath.
He stopped himself from getting even more emotional over this.
"What I mean is, nothing I saw in Rota or in Cameran Palace said that these were people who worshiped Mew like a god. Nothing said that Mew was seen there from what I could see."
Lawrence nodded. "Of course. Publicly, they would never admit to Mew being seen there. It would expose their shame. However…"
Goh raised an eyebrow. "...you know something they tried to keep hidden…?"
"It was about three years ago at this point," he said, taking out a smartphone. "The famous adventurer Kidd Summers came to Rota to participate in the festival they had there because of reports of Mew being sighted in the area."
The mention of the name Kidd Summers felt like a key unlocking a long buried memory in Goh's mind. He remembered being on an internet forum discussing Mew that had gone abuzz with Kidd going to explore an area where Mew was said to be seen, only for all discussion of the topic to become forbidden a few days later, with posts deleted and moderators banning discussion of it.
He had never heard anything about Kidd's supposed trip after that. But the mention of the festival did remind him of Ash's boasting that he won that year.
"Unfortunately for Miss Summers, her connection wasn't as secure as she thought it was, and images and audio were recovered after she tried to hide the truth. Here, look for yourself."
Lawrence turned his phone to Goh, and he found himself taking the phone out of the man's hands.
Flying around in some strange, crystal filled chamber was Mew. It was almost close enough for Goh to touch it.
"M-Mew…"
His dream… his wish to meet Mew again. He had been wondering if he should have been searching all over the world for them. When he met with Project Mew, he felt like they were on the trail of the elusive Psychic-type. That's why he subjected himself to these Trial Missions and struggles and failures. It was why he was working so hard to uncover the mystery of the Clear Wing and learn all its secrets.
And it turned out that Mew had been in the Kanto Region all this time. The irony would have been funny if it didn't make him want to bite his lip until it bled.
And his analytical brain continued putting the pieces together in his mind. "...three years ago…"
The time when Ash was here for the tournament and somehow became a personal friend of the Kingdom of Rota. When the adventurer Kidd Summers supposedly had an encounter with Mew at the same festival.
Suddenly all the dread he had been feeling in his stomach about Ash hiding something from him was rushing back up. In fact, he almost felt like he was going to vomit up the lunch he had just shared with them.
"No… it… it can't be true. It's impossible."
Had Ash been lying to him this entire time? Did Ash know where he could find Mew since the day they met?
He felt sick. Grookey patted his face, and the feel of the chimp's paw against his cheek helped him retain enough presence of mind not to fall over.
Lawrence grabbed Goh by the shoulders and steadied him. "Are you feeling alright…? You look like you're about to collapse where you stand…"
Goh pushed Lawrence's hands off of him. "I'm alright. But… I'm not feeling very good about my friend now."
Lawrence frowned. "Your friend with the Lucario…?"
He nodded.
"He said he came here around the time that Kidd Summers was supposed to be here… and for some reason he personally knows the Queen of Rota… and if I know Ash, there's no way he wasn't involved in some way with a situation involving Pokémon…"
Lawrence put his hand to his chin in thought. "...so you believe this Ash has hidden Mew's location from you."
It felt like a punch in the stomach. It felt like unnecessary cruelty. It felt unfair.
"The day we met, I told him that my dream was to catch Mew. If he knew where Mew lived all this time and didn't tell me…?"
Was their entire friendship built upon a lie? If Ash had been hiding this for all this time, were they even really friends?
The thought was like poison. He had only just reconciled with Horace, and now the friendship that had helped him do that was unraveling before him.
"The people of Rota wouldn't want Mew to be known, and if your friend Ash has ties to the royal family, then perhaps they swore him to secrecy. Or maybe he didn't want to bring it up for some other reason. I can't say…"
Lawrence patted Goh on the head, treating him like the child he seemed to be acting like.
"All I can say is that I'm sorry. Friendship can be such a fragile thing. At least you still have your friends here."
He looked at Grookey and Argent, who were each staring back at him. He wiped the tears building up in his eyes with his arm.
He still had them, no matter what. And he knew that Chloe would be there, as soon as he found her.
But for now, he needed answers.
He pressed ahead into the darkness of the tunnel, with Argent's ambient light trying to catch up to him.
He needed to find Ash. He needed to know the truth.
The gentle glow of Argent's rings was contrasted with the more intense light that Lawrence's Porygon2 was exuding, but Goh didn't care. He needed to meet back up with Ash and Chloe, and he needed answers for his burning question.
"Why…?"
"Grooki…?"
Grookey cooed sadly, still hanging on Goh's shoulder. The chimp began to feel heavy, as though his worry and sadness were adding to the weight, but Goh was sure such a thing was impossible.
Then, his quick-working mind responded, the weight he must be feeling must be his own doubts.
As he walked through the ruin in silence, with Lawrence not offering a word, his mind began running back through his friendship with Ash. They'd known each other for only a bit over a year now, but what a year it had been up to this point.
He could still feel the rough scale-like feathers of Lugia under his hands from the day they had met.
At first, Goh thought Ash was someone like himself - a real loner who loved Pokémon more than anything who had been shunned by his peers. Someone without strong connections to others. But during their excursion with the Ivysaur, he was quickly proven wrong; Ash was someone who expressed his love for Pokémon much more freely than Goh was capable of at the time, but while Goh wanted to observe the Pokémon in purity, Ash had wanted to step in and help them no matter what.
This led to their first fight.
But as the day continued and they continued observing the Ivysaur, Goh saw Ash's heroic selflessness in how he put the lives and wellbeing of Pokémon even above his own. Watching it made Goh feel like a coward and a jerk. Like he didn't truly appreciate Pokémon. Ash's actions made him feel ashamed of himself, and Goh could do nothing more than wish to be more like Ash himself.
It wasn't a thought he expressed out loud. He never formally asked Ash to help show him the ropes with things. But the more he watched his new friend, the more he could see that Ash had the right of it. He followed Ash's example and put himself on the line for a wild Scorbunny in Wyndon, and in doing so clearly earned the Pokémon's kindness and affection.
By his emulation of Ash's behavior, he had earned his second new friend very quickly. It was no small thing, to say that meeting Ash changed the path his life was on, but the friendship he felt for the Palletonian was deep and felt like it could endure just about anything. It was different from the combative, tense teasing he dealt with from Chloe, and though that relationship had grown and bloomed into a romantic one, that didn't mean that Ash's friendship was somehow less important or less significant to him.
He loved Chloe, this was true. But part of him loved Ash, too. He just wasn't in love with the guy who was like the brother he never had. And like brothers, they both helped each other. He was one of Ash's most consistent sparring partners as well as the one to snap him out of his depression after his defeats at the hands of Bea. Ash had been there to support him more times than he could count, both in catching new Pokémon and when he began to participate in the trial missions for Project Mew. For every time Goh helped Ash when he was possessed or stumped, Ash's never-give-up attitude and reckless bravery helped him out of a jam.
They really were a perfect team.
But though Goh felt like his friendship with Ash Ketchum was solid and stable, the smallest crack of doubt had already begun to form in his mind. And it was thanks to the object of Goh's obsessive focus. He formed the shape of the word with his lips, but he didn't breathe any life into it.
Mew.
Ash had known. He had to know. If what Lawrence had told him was true (and he didn't have any reason to doubt that mural he saw with his own eyes), Ash had not only encountered Mew himself, but he knew where a Mew lived. At any point, Ash could have taken Goh to the Kingdom of Rota and the Tree of Beginning and helped his good friend fulfill a life-long dream. Goh could have caught Mew. He wouldn't need to deal with Gary's sneering, Quillon's dismissiveness, or earning a single solitary Token.
But he didn't. For some reason or another, Ash, whom Goh trusted - the first friend he had made on his own, without being approached - had kept the knowledge of the Mythical Mew to himself, instead allowing him to struggle and fight and suffer and fail.
This was the friend Goh stood alongside against Eternatus with. The one he fought Mewtwo with. The one who taught him about opening himself to a dream and letting himself feel vulnerable, even when it was hard. There was even a part of him that wondered if his accepting of his feelings for Chloe - and her ability to reciprocate them - wasn't itself in part due to the impact he had on their lives.
It was a bitter pill to swallow that Ash had hid this from him. That for all their talk about holding the future in the palm of their hands together, Ash was still keeping himself separated from him.
And the thought only further drove Goh's need for answers.