A/N - Alright, finally got done with this one. I'll say right here - this chapter introduces a Pokemon of my own creation; well, an evolution anyway. Sorry if that's a problem, or seems to have no explanation yet - that last one will change, I try not to leave anything unexplained... usually. Also this chapter focuses a bit more on Keith, Mewtwo and the Eevee, so that's something I thought I'd mention. Beyond the normal 'tell me what you think', I guess I have nothin' else to say here, so... read on.

It had been a long, long time since I last entered the Tree of Beginning. The occasion was rare that anyone save Mew ever needed to come to the Tree of course, so that only made sense. However, I do know that it had certainly changed. The crystals that had always filled the nearly organic 'hallways' with a soft light were dull and dark, giving it a far gloomier feel than I had expected. Although, as I listened to Mew explaining the world's... predicament, I suppose that it certainly fit.

As expected, Dave had a difficult time adjusting to the news - ultimately, I tuned out his insistence that there was surely some way to 'stop the oncoming apocalypse' as he put it. After all, I had heard it all before; it was a pointless waste of breath, ultimately. However, watching from the shadows, I couldn't help but notice the Lucario - Aurora, if I recalled correctly - seemed intent on never letting me out of her sight. 'To be expected. She will come to understand the necessity of my deceit soon enough, with any luck.'

"DARKRAI!"

Mew's telepathic shout admittedly startled me, and I had to stop myself from glaring at her. "What is it, Lady Mew?" I replied calmly instead, looking over at her. I quickly realized I had missed something as Mew sighed, and Dave snickered.

"I said you're gonna train Dave's friend!" For an instant I thought I'd misheard her, then quickly discarded that as nigh impossible, considering the way telepathy functioned. Nonetheless, it took me a moment to register what she said - and knowing how Mew was, if she was telling me this now then...

"Which one are you referring to-" The nearly successful slash at my side both interrupted me and answered my question as I dashed backwards, only to see the Scyther's blade-like arm embedded in the ground where I had just been 'standing'. "Oh - of course. Demoted to guardian, then further to combat trainer for another Trainer's Pokémon." I shot Dave a blank look, and received a more-than-irritated glare in return.

Now, make no mistake - I didn't dislike the human, not particularly. But he was far from taking his world the extra mile needed to survive what was coming, and I was not going to change that by being kind. Nor would his Pokémon - current and future - benefit from an ill-prepared Trainer, which he most definitely was. I needed to force him to change that. 'I despise such vaguely defined 'missions'…' I thought idly, drifting past the Scyther's incredibly predictable follow-up attack.

"Very well. If I must train you... Ghost, is it?" I received no response more substantial than something between a glare and a smirk - the Scyther was clearly eager to fight, and I doubted it was purely to improve himself. I had clearly made a few enemies among this group. "If I must train you, then first you should learn to hit something smaller than an overfed Snorlax." That had the desired effect - however it was Dave who took action.

"Alright, Ghost - you heard the phantom. Can't miss with the wind - Razor Wind!" I will admit, the ordered attack took me entirely by surprise. Countless blades of manipulated wind tore through me, and it actually stung - impressive. But if Ghost was going to 'play rough' as the term went, then I was going to play by the same rules. 'Perhaps I should take this seriously...'

"If it is a fight you want, Scyther... it is a fight you will get!" I rushed up to the mantis-like Pokémon and slashed at him with claws formed out of the shadows around me, knocking him back and doing possibly more than I intended - I saw a trio of cuts on Ghost's chest, blood slowly dripping to the ground. 'This is why I attempt to stay out of conflict with the common Pokémon...'

The Scyther didn't cringe - on the contrary, he simply stood there for a moment before smirking and saying, "Oh, now ya've done it..." Whatever damage I may have done, it certainly did nothing to slow him down. In the blink of an eye he was right in front of me, scythes drawn back with a crimson aura before they blurred forward in a slash I could barely track. As fast as I may have been, I escaped the attack with two faint scratches on my arms. 'No, this is not right. No Scyther, however fast and however powerful, should be able to harm me so easily.' I didn't get a chance to think on it further - Ghost took no time in continuing the battle.

As the fight continued, I kept some part of my mind focused on figuring this out. I noticed several interesting things - first, Dave seemed like a natural when it came to commanding his Pokémon. He knew when to leave things up to the one fighting, and knew when his input could turn the tides of battle. At one point, a cursory glance while looking for the Scyther revealed that even David, who I knew from the beginning to be an exceptional Trainer, appeared surprised. 'But where does his knowledge come from...'

Finally I called the battle to an end, saying "As surprising as it may be, I have nothing to teach you." It was true - this was a Scyther obviously used to battle, from how he managed to push past everything I did to him. I had taken some amount of damage myself, primarily shallow cuts from barely-dodged attacks. "What little flaws you show in combat are natural, and expected. No Trainer, human or otherwise, can bypass those. You have fought a Legend and avoided defeat; take pride in that."

As the Scyther smirked and walked over to his Trainer, I glanced at my own injuries. 'I simply do not understand... how did he manage that?' Idly, I noticed Dave spraying Ghost down with one of those 'potions' that seemed to instantaneously heal nearly any injury... but I noticed something else, as well. His features had shifted - it was minor, nearly imperceptible even, but one could say it was my job to notice such things. More specifically he had a more hardened, experienced look to him, much like...

The realization hit me then, and it worried me. 'Oh... oh, this could end less than ideally. How could I have not realized this by now; they are the same person!' When I paid attention, it made perfect sense: nearly identical to begin with, incredibly similar names... they were one in the same, from worlds apart. And if there was one thing I knew from my time with Palkia and Dialga...

As soon as the grim thought crossed my mind, Mew fixed me with a sad stare - she knew. And for the first time in quite a while, I was angry. I was angry, because I had a very good idea who would fall - and it simply was not fair. 'Of course not... reality is never fair. And the reality is... there can only be one.'

"Oh, come on!" I barely got away from another blazing streak of orange, tearing the stone 'balcony' apart behind me. "Am I going to be dealing with this a lot!?" I snapped, glaring at Mewtwo who was trying and failing to keep Registeel's attention.

"Very likely, yes." was his simple response, using his psychic abilities to throw the steel golem into the rocky wall. "With any luck, the next time you will be able to handle yourself." Surprisingly, the thing didn't move - it simply stayed there, embedded in the stone. I was so relieved that I forgot to be irritated at Mewtwo's little jab at me.

"T-that's it? The thing's down, then?" I asked hesitantly, taking a step towards both it and the Psychic. Luckily for me, Registeel seemed content to not prove me wrong. Mewtwo, however, was not convinced.

"… Apparently so. Still... it should have been more resistant." After a moment of thinking, he turned away and started down the 'ramp' carved down the side of the crater-like valley. "Perhaps whatever has made the Golems lose their reason has also inhibited their combat ability..." After waiting a moment myself, I made to follow him - but apparently, Registeel wasn't done, and had other plans.

I heard a rapid beeping behind me, followed by what sounded like a sparking transformer- that was my only warning before I literally was caught in the center of a bolt of lightning. Actually, scratch that - it took a few seconds of me still being alive to realize that I wasn't the one hit. Mewtwo took the attack full in the back, the force of it dropping him to his knees. When he didn't move to retaliate, only staying there twitching, I knew I was on my own.

"Ah, crap..." I muttered, turning to look back at the steel golem. It was right about then, seeing Registeel pull itself out of the wall and stomp towards me, that I was really hoping for some kind of miracle. But nothing stopped the golem from halting only a few feet away, or from raising its arms and bringing them down at me like a hammer. 'Come on, is this really how it's ending?'

Instead of getting crushed I got thrown to the side, rolling across the rocky ground. Surprised that I'd escaped another attack somehow, I looked around for whatever just saved my life - and... I'm still not sure what I saw.

Standing right where I had been was a four legged... creature with sleek, dark purple fur and a tail that ended in two pointed tips. There were dull red, 'sharp'-looking markings on its back, legs and forehead, and two oddly pointed bits of... fur, I suppose, stuck out to the sides of its face just under its eyes. It stood maybe three, three and a half feet tall, and its pointed ears were a lot like an Espeon's - with the obvious color difference. But the thing I noticed most of all were its eyes - a shiny black all the way through, giving it a... just unnatural feeling.

"What... the hell... is that?" I whispered to nobody in particular, slowly crawling away from both Registeel and the... thing. One thing was for sure - whatever it was, from how it was growling at the golem, it was pissed; and as far as I was concerned, that made it... friendly? 'Enemy of my enemy is my friend, I guess... and it's no friend of Registeel's, that's for sure.'

The golem seemed just as surprised as I was as it took a few moments to process the new arrival. That hesitation gave the creature time to do... something - its eyes flashed blue for a moment, and the air around it rippled, but nothing else happened. The next thing it did, though, certainly did something; the purple-furred Pokémon - I assumed it was a Pokémon, anyway - jumped forward and slashed at Registeel while it was still 'thinking', leaving a long but thin black scratch in the material that made up its face.

Finally the golem managed to react, its body taking on a gleaming shine before said shine somehow launched at the smaller Pokémon in the form of a white beam, effectively swatting it out of its leap and sending it crashing to the ground. The metallic Legendary started charging another attack, one of those blazing orange beams - Hyper Beam, maybe? - but a multi-colored bolt of energy seemed to strike out of nowhere, knocking it off balance and stopping the attack just in time.

I quickly realized that whatever this thing was, Registeel was going to be distracted for a bit. That thought in mind, I stood up and moved over to the still-paralyzed Mewtwo - although he'd managed to shift himself enough to have the fight in view, at least. "I imagine that hurt." was all I had to say, sarcastic bastard that I am in a bad situation.

"Somewhat... y-yes." the Psychic replied, even his telepathic voice sounding strained. He never took his eyes off our new 'ally', though - and that told me that the thing either never existed, or was incredibly rare. "The... former is c-correct. In... all my years alive, s-such a creature has never... b-been found."

Expecting as much, I sighed. "Great, so we've got no idea what this is, what it can do, or what it thinks - fantastic." As skeptical as I was of the creature, it was kind of thrilling - I was looking at a completely unique species, one of a kind as far as I knew; any other scientists would be trampling each other to get at this thing. 'Hm... maybe when this is all settled down, I could look into it myself.'

"H-how did..." Mewtwo's comment made me focus back on the fight - or the end of it, as surprising as it was. Registeel seemed to have had enough, because it was actually backing off. I'm not sure how I missed it, but our little 'ally' had positioned itself between us and the golem from the very beginning. The Psychic finally managed to get off his knees, an expression of disbelief replacing his normal blank look. "I have never seen... hm. That thing is dangerous."

I didn't need him to tell me that - the thin scratches and warped patches of metal on the retreating golem made that abundantly clear. The moment Registeel was out of sight, the remaining Pokémon turned to look at us and yipped happily. At the same time, an almost childish voice echoed in my head - one that definitely wasn't Mewtwo's.

"The mean one's gone now!"

I was happy - happy that I won, that I'd changed so much... I felt like I could handle anything right then! But Keith didn't look happy... he didn't feel happy, either. He was actually being really loud - I couldn't see his mouth moving, but I could hear him shouting at... himself? Whatever he was saying, he felt scared; scared, relieved, confused... too many things, I couldn't think straight!

Then I heard someone else talk - the weird Pokémon next to him. "Can you hear me?" Well that was stupid - of course I could hear him! Although I did notice he sounded... echo-y, like my parents voices had... either way, I nodded.

"Yep - who are you?" I asked, focusing on the tall, sort of human-like Pokémon. As soon as I did, everything quieted down - I was glad, too; it was hard to hear with all that shouting. Instead I felt something else, coming from him even as he started to reply... what was it?

"I... you may call me Mewtwo." I didn't know the name, but something about it seemed familiar... part of it, anyway. But his voice made me realize what I was feeling - it was fear! 'Why is he afraid? I made the angry Pokémon go away, didn't I?' Try as I could, I couldn't figure it out - so I asked him.

"… why are you scared?" Immediately his face changed, now I could see he was scared. Keith noticed too, and then he looked scared. 'What's wrong? Wait... am I scaring them?' That didn't make sense... did it? I didn't know what to think right then; who gets scared of the one that saves them?

"He should not be able to do that." That was Mewtwo again, but somehow I knew he wasn't talking to me. He was looking at Keith, who just gave him a confused look.

"Shouldn't be able to... do what?" he asked, echoing my own question - what was I doing?

"Detect my emotions. I cannot sense anything from him either, which further worries me."

So... I was weird? Or was I just better... maybe it was a good thing! I sat down, my tail curled around me, and just watched the two for a minute. After hearing them go back and forth about what I shouldn't be able to do, I spoke up. "Are you mad at me?"

Surprisingly, both of them looked over at me. I don't know how, but I could tell that they'd both understood me that time - how did I do that? They seemed to be thinking the same thing for a moment before Mewtwo said "… no. It is not normal, but perhaps no fault of your own. You have advanced abilities for one so young, and lack the control to safely use them, that is all. Unfortunately, that makes you dangerous."

I noticed Keith glare at Mewtwo, but right now I didn't care. My ears drooped as I realized what he meant. 'So I am weird... even worse, they're scared of me...' It hurt, really... I didn't even do anything to them! I was just a bit stronger than they thought - wasn't that good? It helped me protect them. Faintly, I heard the two arguing, and what they said caught my attention again.

"-just a kid! Give 'im a break!"

"You do not seem to understand. I know from experience that uncontrolled power like that is dangerous to all around it. His obvious youth makes that even more apparent."

"Bloody hell, you're supposed to be smart! Teach him to control it, then."

They both stopped talking for a minute, and I just sat there waiting for what would happen next. Then Mewtwo let out an irritated sigh and started walking away. "Both of you - follow me. I do not intend to make this decision myself."

Keith motioned for me to come along, but shot the Pokémon a confused look. "What're you getting a- wait, are you serious?"

Without turning around, Mewtwo replied "Yes. We are going to Spear Pillar, as planned. Mew, and hopefully a selection of the remaining 'council', as you would call it, will determine that... unique one's fate." With that, he started walking faster down the slanted ground. "For your sake, I would focus on doing nothing... Neureon."