Chapter 2: Rejects

"I don't think this is a good idea," Hibiki repeated dryly as Ash roamed the cavern for the last time, checking he had packed everything he needed for the journey.

Suma clapped and dry-washed her hands as she entered the cavern, apparently unable and unwilling to keep herself from grinning. "I think it's a great idea."

Hibiki gave her a pointed glare, and she just grinned all the wider. With a roll of his eyes, he turned to Ash again, "I thought we were gonna try to warn the legendary Pokemon," he reasoned. "This isn't... His headquarters is just beyond those mountains, Ash." When Ash continued to ignore him— rummaging through his bag for Arceus knows what— Hibiki pressed his point a little further, "Were your ears stoppered when I told you what he could do? He'll be barely two-hundred miles away."

Ash shrugged, "Means we won't have far to go." Hibiki stifled a groan and let his weight fall against the cavern wall at his back. That answer was a cop out— he knew it, Ash knew it, and Suma probably knew it, too. He hadn't brought it up because he thought Ash needed reminding; he had brought it up— again— because if they were going to do what they were planning to do, then they would need a lot more firepower than whatever Suma could dredge up from the little "resistance" she had been leading. His teacher had always had the frustrating habit of failing to explain himself and it drove Hibiki nuts.

It troubled him more to wonder if Suma had even thought that far, because the gleeful expression would have indicated otherwise. Finally looking up from his pack, Ash slung it over his shoulder and caught the undisguised aggravation in his student's eyes. Apparently unmoved, he gave Suma a once over, "You already done?"

Suma nodded, hands on her hips— what are you, five? "Yes, sensei," she said, hiking a thumb over her shoulder at Al behind her and ignoring the groans of both Ash and Hibiki, "the psychic messages have been sent."

A single raised eyebrow. "Any reply?" Ash returned.

She shook her head. "Al's the most powerful psychic Pokemon we have," she explained, "but it's one thing for him to project his own mind over such vast distances— and another to grasp at others'."

"How many trainers did you say you had?" Hibiki asked, forgetting.

"We have forty-two people, and thirty of them work with a Pokemon," she answered. Hibiki had forgotten she didn't like the word trainer— an aversion she had adopted from their teacher and that had swollen a little beyond even his.

Ash nodded at Hibiki, clearly disinterested in further discussion. "That will be enough."

Hibiki felt his neck crane his head forward, an involuntary gesture of incredulity. "No. No it won't," he crowed, refusing to let Ash eek out of the conversation. "Ash, you haven't been there. On top of the place being patrolled day and night by the psycho squad— armed with guns and crazed Pokemon, by the way— the entire city of Cerulean is like a dystopian nightmare. Businesses have been shut down, entire sections of the city cut off, people forced into hard and potentially fatal labor... Not to mention the maniacal demagogue turned demi-god, who can kill crowds with a thought."

Ash sighed and pinched at his sinuses, but he couldn't be more fed up with hearing it than Hibiki was with saying it. They'd spent the last twenty-four hours holed up in Ash's caverns, planning out their next steps— inciting Hibiki's protest because the plan was hardly effectual. Ash lowered his hand and met his imploring gaze, perhaps at last being worn down by reason. So, Hibiki drove the point home: "They're going to notice sixty-something random people sneaking into the city."

Ash and Suma shared a look, and finally Ash answered, "We aren't going to sneak in."

If Hibiki's head could jut any further, it would fly off his shoulders and pelt Ash in the face. "Well we can't just hop on the magnet train, Ash, so… how are we supposed to get there from the mountains?" Another shared look, and this time Hibiki thought he knew what it meant. Really? "…You don't trust me?"

Suma held up reassuring hands, stepping away from Ash a little to emphasize her innocence. "Hey, he didn't explain it to me, either. I don't know what he's got planned beyond getting there and getting out— and even that's a little fuzzy."

Hibiki pulled a face. "You expect me to believe that? You two have been thick as thieves for the past day— you guys and his other outcasts— hatching this half-baked plan."

Ash raised a finger, "The only person Suma's been thick with is Al— they've spent most of the past day getting in touch with their friends."

He groaned at that. "Ash, that's not the point. Clearly you've got something up your sleeve, and I—"

"You what?" Ash interjected, his patience apparently broken. He stepped closer, close enough to make Hibiki uncomfortable. "You still think you're entitled to know, to know everything? How is it you still haven't outgrown this?"

Hibiki couldn't hold his position and was forced to take a step back, but he refused to look away. Perhaps his frustration from the yesterday hadn't fully subsided… but that didn't excuse…"Don't talk to me like I'm still a kid, Ash. You have no idea what I went through when I was there, what I went through trying to escape… and you want me to just waltz back in— blind-folded?"

"I want you to trust me," Ash returned, chewing each word through a growl.

"When you won't trust me?" Hibiki countered, purposefully lowering his voice. Ash sighed bitterly, seemingly at a loss for what to say. Hibiki wasn't interested in another shouting match, not after yesterday— and Arceus knows they'd had their fair share over the years, could hardly see eye to eye on anything. But then something seemed to flicker in Ash's eyes, and his gaze returned to Hibiki's. "Do you remember Goldenrod?" Hibiki groaned and was about to protest, but Ash repeated, "Do you remember it?"

"Yes, I remember," Hibiki clipped.

Ash nodded. "We had almost this same argument, outside the city."

Hibiki nodded in turn, "Yeah, we…" he sighed, the second wave of his frustration diverting. "We were getting ready storm the Radio Tower. You were really on edge— more than I had expected, at least."

"Right," Ash confirmed, "and when you asked me about it, I wouldn't tell you."

Hearing Ash say it like that, caught him off-guard. He was surprised as a wave of emotion surged behind his eyes. Something about the way he said it… like Ash actually understood how he felt. And that was how he had felt, like he wouldn't tell him. To his surprise, that was actually how he was feeling now. "You… you were always so, private. I didn't know what to think—"

Ash's hand fell on his shoulder, hushing him. "I know."

Ash let his hand fall after a moment, running it through his graying hair— grown longer now than Hibiki had ever seen it, almost grown past his ears. "Umm…" a small voice intoned to their left. Both heads turned: Suma. Hibiki had almost forgotten about her (she and Al had scuttled off to the side when he and Ash had begun to argue outright). "Look, it sounds like there's some stuff you guys need to sort through, but… you guys, we need to teleport soon…"

Ash nodded. "You're right. I'm sorry, Suma." With a glance at Hibiki, he peered past Suma at Al, "Have you been able to find the place I mentioned to you?"

The pokemon nodded, imitating again one of it's favorite human gestures. "I did. The cave is precisely where you said it would be."

"And… the other thing?" Ash pried.

"I cannot be certain."

Ash nodded, almost to himself it seemed. "Well, the fact that you can't be certain is proof enough for me."

"If it is truly as you expected, I would be inclined to agree," Al affirmed. Hibiki sent Suma a meaningful look, but she just shook her head. The cave was some little known breach in the mountains of Ka (the great landmass shared by the regions Kanto and Kalos). Victory Road, Mt. Moon, and this unknown cave— these were just a few of the known networks of caves the great mountains housed. But whatever else it was he had asked Al to find… it seemed Ash hadn't told either of his former pupils.

With a nod, she prompted Hibiki to join her where she stood, and he reluctantly obliged. Ash studied the two of them carefully, and then he told them, "We aren't just using the cave as a rendezvous point, though it seems you've already made that conclusion for yourselves." Hibiki felt Suma's eyes on him but he kept his focus on Ash. "You're right, Hibiki," Ash admitted, "if we're going to confront Giovanni then we're going to need more help than we can get between the three of us."

Ash crossed the distance between them and put his hands on both their shoulders. With a nod at Al, the pokemon slipped past Suma and Hibiki and came to stand in the center of the triangle they formed. "If I am right, an old acquaintance has taken up residence in this cave. And he's the only one with a chance of turning the tide." He let the words sink in, probably knowing that they wouldn't mean much but hoping they would be enough. "My friends will join us by teleportation as soon as they receive word back from us. But first… we need to find him."

Ash gave another nod to Al, and the pokemon let it's eyelids droop for a moment. Each put a hand on Al's shoulder as he concentrated, and then his eyes went wide and milk-white, and everything around them went black.

It was like being plunged into the depths of the ocean, instantly— heavy and dark and limbs leaden with the immensity of emptiness. It had been years since Ash had been party to teleportation, and after so long it made his breath catch uncomfortably, made his head swim. The black seemed to stretch on for an eternity— both in space and time— until he thought his lungs would explode from lack of air. But then they were thrust panting back into reality amidst a meandering grass-line nestled between the woodlands and the river at the mountains' feet.

He shook his head, trying to clear his swimming senses. Hibiki stumbled a few feet away and lost his lunch at the base of a tree. "Maybe I should have warned him about the disorientation…" Ash wondered, feeling somewhat guilty.

Suma made a pitying sound in her throat. "I'm not sure it would have helped," she muttered. Which was fair, Ash admitted— to teleport to the next town was one thing, but to cross some 4,000 miles of land and ocean… that came with side-effects.

"You guys seem fine," Hibiki gurgled over his shoulder, gagging at the last word and turning again to contemplate his just departed meal.

"Well, I've been around the block a few times, son," Ash reminded him. "And Suma," he added, nodding at her, "well, chalk it up to constant exposure." Even so, his belly was doing cartwheels and Suma did seem a little paler, panting like either of them.

"Where are we?" Suma asked, finally surveying her surroundings. Ash couldn't help but smile at the question, at his former pupil's trademark curiosity. He had been careful not to disclose the precise location of the cave they sought, knowing he'd likely have to send them away against their will. But Suma was bright, and she'd never been to this part of Kalos before— the blue-white needles of the conifers in this part of Kalos were a dead give away.

So, to discourage any further questions about their location, he'd answer vaguely and redirect them elsewhere. "We're in southeastern Kalos, in a forest called Everwinter by locals." Suma made a delighted humming sound, apparently agreeing with the nickname for the bright but somber woodland in which they stood. He stifled a grin and continued, "As for our cave, I'd say we're about three miles east of it and…" he trailed off. He had entirely forgotten about…

"And what?" Hibiki pried, returning to join him and Al where they stood (Suma was still entranced by their dusk-washed surroundings). "What else is here?"

Shoot. In hoping to avoid one can of worms he'd gone and stumbled over another… There was no point in not telling them, they were going to have to skirt it's borders to reach the cave. They would have questions, if questions were the least of it. But they weren't going to have time for more than that. So he decided to be direct about this one. "A village," he answered, looking both of them in the face as Suma finally rejoined them. "A pokemon village."

Suma's eyes went wide, "You mean… without humans?"

Ash nodded. "Yes."

Excitement brought all the color back to her face. "Can we visit it?" she practically squealed.

He wanted to laugh, only… he smiled sadly. "No."

She began to deflate, "Why not?"

Ash peered into the east following the rivers flow, almost seeing the village in the distance. "It's empty now."

Alarm sharpened Hibiki's expression, and he shuffled where he stood. "This… friend of yours, in the cave? Is he the reason it's empty?"

Ash nodded, sobered further by the memory. "Yes." He could see that Hibiki wanted to ask him more— who is it?, Why are we looking for help from someone who sends wild pokemon running?, Are we in danger right now? But Hibiki must have decided to bite his tongue, and for that Ash was gratefully relieved. Their reasonable panic was something he would want to avoid, and not just for their sakes… for his, as well.

Suddenly he was aware that Al was watching him closely. In order for the pokemon to locate their target, Ash had had to divulge the unblemished truth. Up to this point, if he had had any opinions about it, the pokemon had kept them to himself. But somehow Ash sensed that he was about to speak his mind. Hoping Al would keep their dialogue private, Ash nodded toward the east. "Ready to go?" he asked them. "We'd best get a move on if we want to reach the cave before dark." His companions simply nodded, and they began to make their way.

Their walk was exceptionally mild, though they did have to move with a little care because of the rocky nature of the terrain. Ash was glad for that, because it kept his companions attention on their feet instead of the troubled silence. But it wasn't five minutes before Al nudged him psychically, kindly asking for discourse. His penchant for human manner really was a gem. Go ahead, Al. I'm listening.

I appreciate you being forthright with me, he began, likely referring to their conversation about the one they sought. While, as a Pokemon, I am uniquely able to appreciate the…, he trailed off for a moment, searching for the word. …trespass your acquaintance represents, I was denied the experience you have, which might give that understanding deeper meaning— being so young.

Ash fought the urge to nod, careful not to draw his other friends attention. I guess I didn't think about that, he confessed. I admit, I was surprised when you didn't object. But I suppose you couldn't really grasp the depth of it then, could you?

Not then, no. But I do now, Al informed him. I could feel it the moment we arrived. Ash, this Pokemon is possessed of a psychic presence unlike anything I have ever felt— and not just in size. It is unnatural. I am… disturbed.

Ash sighed through his teeth. I should have thought about that, he answered. I'm sorry.

You needn't apologize, Al returned, trying at reassurance. In the distance I can also feel something else… and it disturbs me more. A few moments of silence as they navigated a particularly cluttered stretch of rocky grass. Then, I understand why you feel we must do this.

Ash chanced a glance at Suma to his right, who was just clearing a few crags with Hibiki's help. She had been a little peaked by their transition, but Ash had thought she seemed to recover well enough. But now… it looked like she was growing more tense by the minute. Suma wasn't psychic outright, at least not yet. Her unique relationship with Al had activated pathways in her neurology that awakened those parts of her mind, and in time she may well develop those abilities. But she was certainly more sensitive now, able to project and feel in ways others couldn't. If Al was as troubled by what he felt as he claimed, Suma might be as well...

By chance her eyes found his, and what he saw there forced his eyes away. Suma was more free-spirited, but… she was, perhaps, brighter than Hibiki. Was it merely discomfort he saw there, or suspicion? Hibiki was a practical man, concerned with how things would work and whether or not they would work at all. But Suma… Well, Suma could see through him a little more, knew the kinks in the cogs that made him tick. She'd be more worried about what it was he might do, would be ready to try and step in the way if she thought him out of bounds. And she would have been kind for it, but… she would also have been naïve.

They were coming. At long last, both dreaded and eagerly anticipated. A shimmer in the unseen forces that caressed and cajoled all substance into cohesive matter warned of the interruption of stillness and silent space… yes, three miles that way. Their presence snubbed at his meditation, and his senses recoiled as they fled back to the shell that housed them. He fumbled at the sudden jolt, awareness and mind colliding with physical sensation, and felt his breath hiss out sharply in a silent sob of pain. The shock that accompanied that transition may well never leave him…

He was decades old now, almost thirty-five years. He had taught himself to meditate out of sheer necessity, in those first few years of his disconsolate solitude. Allowing his nebulous consciousness to drift from the flesh serving as it's prison, he could have some measure of peace in the serenity of nature. Trees, grass, towering mountains and trickling waters— they were living companions of a sort, though the solace he found in them wasn't company but rightness. They had come to be what they were naturally and coexisted harmoniously, forming a living patchwork that was… was pure.

He did not need to eat, did not need to sleep— imperatives of his organism that could not have been anticipated by either himself or those who had brought him into being. And by the graces of that mercy, he could allow his mind to sprawl out over the face of the land around him in uninterrupted embrace of the unobtrusiveness of it's existence. It was rare now that the fabric of his mind was disturbed by other living beings— all of the others who had once dwelled beyond the crevasse having long since fled the presence of his obtrusive existence (and he would not fault them for it).

But these… one was an old acquaintance, another possessed of a mind intriguingly adjusted in patterns similar to his own, and the others he did not know. Even so, he had expected them. In those first few years, his exercises in meditation had also awakened his Sight. If one could step back properly they would see that time and reality were in a relationship, much the way that… yes, like a river and it's bed. Others possessed a sense like his, something more of a quaint foresight. But they could only grasp at what twists and turns the river might take… they could not foresee what might become of the river, or of the land, in it's course.

And though they didn't know it, it was the ebb and flow of that river— the marriage of time and reality— that brought them to him. He came, his old acquaintance, with a clandestine plan to challenge that flow and avert the next terrible bend in its course. And it was paramount that he did. His Sight was both a gift and a curse, much like his life on the whole. He was born of the very wrongness they came to divert, that spread across their world like a plague. His Sight told him that the very presence of his kind in this world would always have led to this, and it consoled him (if only a little) to understand that he, that his creation, was not the cause but only a part of it— however stark.

And then they were there, standing before him— well, all but one of them. The one like him… Al, he had chosen for a name… could not bring himself to enter (the presence within so very disturbing). His friend, the human woman, was similarly troubled. He had been too startled by their arrival to note it at first, but now he could see her more properly. Had he the ability, he might have smiled to see her. He had known psychic Pokemon who had adopted human-like pathologies— her friend Al, case in point. But hers was a human mind, stretched and adjusted in ways that reminded him of Pokemon. A hand extended from the rivers opposite bank.

And oh, she blushed to hear it. He could have smiled all the more deeply. As estranged as he felt from his own kind, he had known only one other person to care so deeply for relationship with Pokemon. The texture of her mind, it's subtleties and complexities… she was so different, so…so beautiful. But… why was she weeping? Had he offended her? It did not appear that he had… no. There was gratitude, he could see it in her, gratitude for seeing her heart as she had desired to be seen. Her words and perceptions were so human, but… yes, he could see. But he saw also…

Oh!…

He recoiled for a moment, fearful of her— of their— shame and disgust. But…No, it wasn't either of those. Then what? Why… Oh. In ways no human could, this woman… she understood how he saw himself. He was a violation of everything right, an experiment that breached the purity of natural law in two worlds. It had sickened him, he had sickened himself, for decades. But this woman… she was not sick with disgust the way others of his kind had been. She… she pitied him. Had sympathy for him. And, could he have wept, he would have. This… this was the kindest thing anyone had ever offered him. She understood, she could see. And it pained her… she was pained for him!

…Yes, he knew why they had come. Why he had come. It had been years, decades, since last they met, and then only the once. He had been a boy, then. This Ash, this man of the mountains. But still he knew him. He had been there in his infancy, when his mind had been clouded with the arrogance and bloodthirst of his father. It had been that boy's defiance of hatred which had unclouded his eyes. It had awoken him to what he was, and to the rage that had been driving him. And it was thanks to that boy that he had been able to turn from it, rather be swept up in the wrongness that had birthed him in the first place.

But as much as anyone, Ash should have understood, should have known, that there was likely no way he could have stood against his father… or the thing his father had become. For he was but a perversion, a decadent and corrupted descendant of the ancient one his father had consumed. And, however he had done it, the act of their bonding had altered the warp and weft of it's power. His own power was considerable, but… it was a true scion of that other world, now enhanced by it's unholy marriage with his mad father. The ancient one's powers did not dwarf his per se, but… it would have been quite unlikely that he would have been able to overwhelm it.

And already he had tried! Ash had been there, when he had done combat with another of his ancestors. Their powers had been close, but he had been at the disadvantage. …Try? No, it seemed he did not understand. This wasn't just a question of being outmatched. This was his father. Their psyches were inextricably linked, and he did not know if he possessed the ability to defy him, should his father attempt to seize control.

…Sentimental? He did not know this third… Hibiki, he was called. But he understood less than any. His connection with his father was not one of sentiment, but biology. …Now they were being almost foolish. Of course he was not fathered by a human being. He was made by the man Giovanni with an express purpose to—… no, if they would let him finish he would explain that. Giovanni had not simply hoped to wield him as a weapon. Giovanni had not made a weapon, but a suit. …Yes, he would have worn him like clothes. His very psyche was marked by Giovanni because his body had been intended to house the man's mind.

…No, it would not have been possible. Regardless of the… changes made, he had a being of his own. Giovanni had not made a suit, but had grown a living thing. One cannot wear a living thing like clothes, not without forcing it's being out of the body (and his own psyche was much too large for that). Which did not seem to have hindered the success of his father's plans in the river's course. Perhaps if he had succeeded, he would not have discovered a way to draw an ancient one down from above, to usurp it's powers for his own. But he had found a way, and that made their psychological link all the more dangerous.

…Her suggestion was not unreasonable but was, unfortunately, not helpful. Though it warmed him to understand her relationship with the one called Al, to see the possibilities they explored, strategically, all his father or any of his subordinates would have had to do render their advantage moot was bring harm to Ash. The shock of a psychic bond's involuntary breaking could injure him and possibly kill Ash— so, such a ploy would indirectly favor his father rather than neutralize him. …So, he had already thought of that. And it seemed that Ash had not shared his dilemma over this with his companions.

…Yes, there was yet a possibility— one that would exact a terrible price on both Ash and himself. She seemed to grasp his meaning quickly and at once objected. But despite the severity of her objection, he could see that she knew it was their only chance at success. It was likely her understanding of their position that truly escalated the fervor of her protest— though, her compassion for both himself and her mentor deepened his affection for her. Were that all he knew of those who came to ask this of him, he would already have been inclined to agree.

But there was too much at stake, two worlds and more beyond them on the back of the current's mad stampede. Yes, this was the only way. And the time had finally come for him to play his part in the flow of it all. …And he agreed that it was unproductive to argue it further. So, at Ash's suggestion he reached into the mind of the one called Al and struck the memory of their exact location from his mind. Then, taking him, the one called Hibiki and the beautiful Maki Suma in his grasp, he transported them not far from where he saw their companions waiting for them on the outskirts of the desiccated Cerulean City.

And so he was left alone with that man, the only living being with whom he shared a bond he could have called friendship. He wished he had had the chance to know the woman Suma, because she captivated him the way no other being had ever done. She, too, would likely have been one he could have called friend. Ash smiled at that, and agreed that she was one of a kind. But their dialogue had run it's course, and now it was time for them to begin the painful process of joining their beings into one.

What would emerge would be a marriage of both of them, something human and Pokemon. In order for it to succeed, one of their psyches would need to be all but obliterated by the other. And it seemed Ash already knew that he would not be the best choice for the new being's foundation. It was likely the reason that Giovanni emerged with an inhuman madness following his fusion— because no human being could truly contain something so vast in psychic scope, not without being shattered in the process. It was wise, then, that he had suggested sending his friends away. For now, he must drain Giovanni from his being and in turn take Ash into himself. Ash's very soul would have to run through him like the blood in the human's veins.

There would be nothing of the man left, afterwards. Memories, mannerisms, dispositions imprinted upon a new being. Yet the man himself would die this day. But then, so would he. This was the end of both, Ash Ketchum and Mewtwo.