There's some dark bits in this chapter as well as death and traumatic experiences
8.1
Sasha wandered around the depths of Lostlorn forest, searching for berries.
Everywhere she looked, the bushes seemed to be picked clean and she wondered if Zoroark was playing a trick on her. She nudged a bush and scowled as it remained bare.
She heard a rustle in the undergrowth and felt a chill crawl down her spine. Swallowing her fear, she glanced around, senses straining to pick up anything. When nothing revealed itself, she let out an irritated snort before turning back-
The bush was covered in berries.
Sasha stared at the drooping bush in disbelief before poking it gently, causing several berries to fall off and bump against her paws.
"They're not going to bite you."
Sasha jumped in surprise as a voice spoke from out of nowhere. She inadvertently sat on some berries and winced before lifting her dripping haunches off the squashed fruit.
"Good job undoing all my hard work. Although blue suits you nicely."
"Show yourself," Sasha snapped, drying herself off.
With a muted pop, Arceus came into view, sitting comfortably amidst the grass.
"Hello, Sasha," it said evenly. "I trust you are well?"
Sasha glanced at her legs, now stained blue and shrugged. "I've been better."
Arceus' eyes flashed and Sasha knew she was no longer discolored.
"What brings you here?" asked the eevee.
"Just checking in. I always do that from time to time with both my Chosen and Blessed."
"What's the difference?" Sasha asked, sitting down and choosing a berry to nibble on. "Between Chosen and Blessed, I mean."
Arceus blinked slowly. "I thought it was obvious. A Chosen is picked to defend the world I created. A Blessed is one who I merely give some of my power."
"Sounds like the Blessed got the better end of the deal," Sasha remarked.
Arceus chuckled lowly. "You've certainly mastered your alternate Forme. I saw your match against Ash. Not bad for one against six."
Sasha blushed and sank her teeth into the berry. "I got lucky," she muttered, ears warming.
"Luck doesn't beat four pokémon, two of which regularly deal with apocalyptic scenarios, such as helping to prevent the erasure of time and space," Arceus pointed out.
"Metronome was pure luck. I spun the roulette and was handed the means to make a name for myself," Sasha said, finishing off the berry.
Arceus shook its head. "I'm still not sure if that's you being humble or self-deprecating. Knowing your stubbornness and reluctance to rely on eviolite's power to control Metronome, the latter."
"Mewtwo said the same," Sasha said, smiling slightly before tilting her head. "How's he been?"
"Buried in his research," Arceus replied. "Last I heard, he's in Orre, making sure the wild pokémon are settling down."
Sasha's face softened and she smiled. "That's good. I-"
She was interrupted by a small pink head poking itself through the bushes before letting out an exasperated groan.
"Finally! I've been looking all over for you, Lord Arceus. Mt. Silver just exploded. Again. Red and Yellow are there, but we kinda need your help."
Arceus stood, nodded to Sasha and vanished in a flash of light.
Sasha chuckled, shaking her head as she gathered some berries together to take back to her den. "Some things never change."
8.2
"Absolutely not."
"Oh come on, it's not like you're doing anything important lately," Mew said, hovering around the large pokémon.
"Keeping tabs on the world is very important!" Arceus protested.
"How many Chosen Ones do you have running around per region? Red, Yellow, Gold, Kris, May, Lucas, Wes, Touko, Kyouhei, Calem...and that's not bringing your Blessed Pokémon into play. You need to learn to relax," Mew replied patiently.
"How is giving massages relaxing to me?" Arceus grumbled.
"Because instead of focusing on ten thousand things, you only need to focus on one or two," Mew said cheerfully.
"You're not going to stop until I at least try, are you?" Arceus said with a sigh.
A few hours later saw the return of Celebi.
"Lord Arceus, I-what are you doing?"
Arceus tilted its head as Celebi stared at it in disbelief.
"I'm relaxing, as my creations keep telling me to."
Celebi glared at the Mew curled up on Arceus' back that was being petted by phantasmal hands.
"Must be nice not having responsibilities," Celebi grumbled bitterly. Mew opened an eye.
"You're a time traveler. You don't have to work every second of every day."
"I'm aware, but-"
Celabi broke off in surprise as a time portal opened up and a tired Celebi popped out. Looking around, it let out a grunt before flopping beside Mew and soon dozed off as Arceus petted it.
"Since I don't remember doing that, I'm guessing that's me from the future."
"Correct, now shut up and get over here. We've got a few hours before I come back and do this again."
"You realize I'm only going to do this every once in a while and only for a few hours, right?"
The room shook and suddenly Dialga and Groudon appeared.
"FATHER, I HAVE HEARD YOU ARE GIVING MASSAGES!"
"Mother of me, have mercy."
8.3
"Alright, you've mentioned Ash Ketchum before. What's the story with him?" Sasha asked.
Mewtwo let out a long breath and chuckled. "Not gonna lie, even the cliff notes of his journey is ridiculously long, but I'll see if I can't hit the important parts."
Mewtwo stroked over Sasha's fur as he spoke. "Some whackjob named Cyrus succeeded in his plan to remake the world. Arceus said "Screw that." and tossed Ash into a pocket dimension to train his aura before sending him back to the start of his journey. Armed with foreknowledge and some frankly ludicrously overpowered pokémon who laughed at reality, he set out on a journey to prevent Cyrus from unleashing his plan."
"And the reason Arceus didn't do it itself?" Sasha asked.
"It was taking a nap, I believe," Mewtwo replied dryly. "During their climactic battle, Cyrus shattered time and space, throwing a large chunk of the multiverse into chaos. It took the combined efforts of several dimensions' worth of legendary pokémon to stop Cyrus and stabilize the fractures. Some dimensions were lost, unfortunately."
Sasha winced. "But...numerous dimensions?"
"Things like gender swaps, species swaps. Worlds where one type didn't exist or a new type was discovered. Just about anything you could imagine managed to exist simultaneously alongside everything else. It was...quite spectacular. Unfortunately, as a result of the stabilization process, every universe had to merge some bits and pieces together, whether it was events that happened or pokémon that existed...believe me, words can't properly explain exactly what happened during that time."
"Pokémon that existed? I know you said some didn't, but..."
"I woke up one day with memories that weren't mine. Experiences and feelings that my mind remembered, but my body did not."
Sasha blinked in surprise before she glanced over at the dresser on the far wall. Mewtwo watched her as she got to her paws and made her way over to it.
"So is that what you have this necklace with a picture of this woman in it?" she asked, pawing at it. It flew from the dresser to Mewtwo's paw and he stroked it gently.
"Correct. We were friends in one life. I've also got memories of spending time with Amber Fuji as a little girl, despite the fact she passed away nearly three decades ago shortly after my creation. Anything before a decade ago, I don't fully trust. That's another reason I went back into seclusion and we know how that turned out."
"Do you regret meeting me?" Sasha asked, making her way back over to the clone.
"...If you had asked me that a few months ago, I would've said yes. Now...no, I don't regret getting to know you."
He stroked her cheek and kissed her forehead softly.
"Thanks. It's nice knowing more about what you've been through. Doesn't it feel better to share your stories with others?" Sasha asked.
Mewtwo rolled his eyes and booped her nose.
8.4
Mewtwo liked to think he had long ago mastered his emotions and was able to keep a clear and level head no matter the circumstances.
Meeting Archer face to face reminded him he still had a long way to go.
Sasha had spent enough time around the clone to be able to at least guess his current mood and she'd never seen him this angry.
He didn't show it on the surface, but the way his entire body was tensed, tail lashing, mental voice like nails on a chalkboard...
She found herself unconsciously edging away from the enraged psychic.
"You disgust me," Mewtwo said quietly. "Giovanni at least understood the importance of pokémon. You...say that what you're doing is carrying on his legacy when in reality you are spitting on everything Team Rocket stands for."
Mewtwo shook his head slowly before extending a paw towards the Rocket Executive. With a click, Archer's pokéballs opened up, releasing their occupants in a shower of blue light, signaling their complete release from the pokéball's control.
With absolutely no hesitation, the houndour, wheezing, golbat and houndoom bolted out of the room. Archer merely narrowed his eyes.
"You think I'm scared of you? Giovanni's failed experiment? It doesn't matter what you do to me, Giovanni's vision will come true some day! You'll see that I was right! Team Rocket wil-!"
Mewtwo clenched his digits together and Archer collapsed in a heap.
Mewtwo stared at the corpse for a moment before he turned and strode from the room.
Sasha watched him go, legs trembling. She edged away from the cooling body and staggered out of the room before she collapsed. She drew in ragged breaths and fought back the urge to throw up.
"I'm sorry you had to see that."
Sasha jerked at the sound of Mewtwo's voice and she slammed into the wall. Taking a step back, she shook her head, trying to reorient herself. She turned to stare up at him and she took a step away from him. Catching herself, she scowled at her weakness and took a shaky breath.
"It's over, r-right?" she asked. "You're y-yourself again?"
Mewtwo blinked in surprise before he took in her frightened appearance and his face softened.
"Come on," he said gently. "Let's go somewhere familiar."
He held out a paw and Sasha stared at it for a moment before resting hers on it.
With a brief moment of disorientation, they appeared in a dappled sunlit clearing. Sasha took a breath and pricked her ears.
"Lostlorn...you..."
She let out a sigh and sat down, head and ears low.
"I lost control, and for that, I apologize."
Sasha shook her head. "It's not your fault," she said tiredly. "We had a chance to take out one of Team Rocket's poisonous branches and we took it. What's done is done."
"I shouldn't have brought you along."
"I had just as much right to be there as you did," Sasha said sharply, glaring at him. Just as quickly as it had come, the anger drained out of her.
"It's over, that's all that matters," Mewtwo replied wearily. He sat down beside her and stroked her ears soothingly. Sasha leaned into him and sighed.
"So that's Team Rocket finally out of the picture," she said. Mewtwo nodded slowly.
"I'm sure Giovanni will be happy to have a scapegoat to pin the less-than-legal operations on. Knowing him, he'll turn it into a business opportunity."
Despite everything, Sasha giggled.
8.5
"Pay up," Arceus said with a mental smirk.
Celebi sighed and handed over several rare berries. "Not fair. Of course you'd know what Sasha would do in the future because you can look into all possible futures simultaneously whereas I can only see one at a time."
Arceus managed to inject some hurt into its mental voice. "Nonsense; just because I know every future of my Chosen and Blessed, it doesn't mean I know which is set in stone."
Celebi scowled at the creator and shook its head. "Unbelievable. You predicted her loss to the raichu, tailored her ability to be controlled by the eviolite back when you first gave it to her and now you're fleecing berries off me over the fact she set a gym on fire."
"You're the one who takes the bets," Arceus replied innocently.
"So now what? Double or nothing on which gym she gets other badges from?"
"You're on."