"Right, here we go," Ash said. "Ready, Zorua?"

"Yeah!" Zorua agreed. "I'm almost sure I've got the moves right this time!"

Pikachu flicked his ears. "Somehow that's not quite as encouraging as you might think."

"Hey, this is a learning experience, right?" Ash asked. "Let's go!"

Zorua set up his Illusion, shifting into a duplicate of Pikachu, and frowned slightly. "Let's see… Thundershock?"

A little spark blipped from his fake cheeks.

"Not really strong enough, but it'll do," Pikachu assessed. "Let's see your Iron Tail?"

Just as instructed, Zorua swiped his tail across. A glow lit up around it, though it appeared late and faded early, and Pikachu wiggled his paw.

"Good enough for now," he judged.

"All right, let's go for it!" Ash said. "Pikachu, you know what to do. Zorua, open with a Thundershock!"

This time Zorua's attack was a bit stronger, and jumped across to Pikachu. It didn't do any actual damage when it hit, but that wasn't the point today, and Ash pointed. "Now, go left!"

"Pi, pi, pi," Zorua chanted, running left.

"That's going to give it away if you're facing an enemy Pokémon," Pikachu pointed out, following his double. "Good thought though."

"Thanks!" Zorua said brightly, running up the side of a tree.

"Now, jump off and use Iron Tail!" Ash called.

Zorua did a spin, his lightning-bolt tail flaring up with Iron Tail as he went, and hit Pikachu's own interposed Iron Tail with a loud clang that sent the two Pokémon bouncing apart.

Pikachu's cheeks sparked next, and Ash frowned for a second.

"Iron Tail to block!" he called.

Zorua intercepted the first attack, sending it flicking off into the distance, but the second one got past his tail and shocked him. His illusion burst with a bright blue flash, and he flopped to the floor.

"My tail aches," he announced. "How do you do that for a whole battle?"

"Because I'm used to it, mostly," Pikachu replied.

"I think we should have a break before trying again," Ash suggested. "But you're getting good, Zorua, you're not mixing things up and using Flamethrower or Night Daze any more."

"Oh, that's a good point!" Zorua said brightly. "Couldn't I pretend to be your Butterfree or Primeape or Dracozolt, though? It's impossible to use a move they couldn't know!"

"You just asked the same question three times," Pikachu pointed out.

Ash turned to look at how the rest of his Pokémon were doing, and cupped his hands over his mouth. "Hey, Entei! You're fireproof, right?"

"As far as I know," Entei replied, skidding to a halt. He sat down and looked attentive, head slightly quirked to the side, and Ash nodded.

"Good, I wanted to check! Charizard, how are you doing with powering up your Flamethrower?"

Charizard swooped down to hover, and gave Ash a thumbs-up.

"And, uh…" Ash glanced at Pikachu. "They're on one of the bits Professor Oak said it was okay to destroy, right?"

"I don't think you're allowed to train Pokémon anywhere else any more," Pikachu said. "Mostly Mew's fault."

Ash grinned. "In that case, Flamethrower!"

Entei became the centre of an explosion.

"Not bad," he said, as bits of scorched earth fell around him. "Bounce!"

Charizard faced the unusual situation of being attacked while in mid-air, and rolled to the side to avoid being caught.

"You realize we're having lunch, right?" Misty asked. "Try not to get shrapnel on the food…"

Then a Dragonite arrived, swooping within six inches of the table, and they were no longer having lunch.

"A promising trainer," Misty repeated, as they headed down to the port. "That's a weird way of putting it."

She frowned. "I guess it could refer to the fact Ash has all eight badges he needs?"

"That could be it!" Ash agreed readily. "But wouldn't that mean they sent out letters to, uh, maybe two hundred and fifty promising trainers? Maybe more?"

"And Gary," Pikachu added.

"Hey, no super effective moves on humans," Ash said.

He looked up. "Uh… that doesn't look like good weather."

"That's an understatement, that looks like a tropical storm!" Brock winced. "And it's coming this way, fast."

"We'd better find shelter," Misty suggested.

"Not until we find somewhere we can head to this New Island place," Ash replied.

Ten minutes later, they were all huddled underneath Starmie by the side of the road.

"Thanks for the Reflect," Misty said.

Starmie spun in place. "Magical water deflection shield go!"

"I guess that means this Strongest Pokémon Trainer isn't going to get many visitors," Brock added. "This is terrible weather!"

"It's the worst I've ever seen," Misty agreed, holding her hand out just beyond the shield. "It feels like… it's not rain, it's water with slots cut in it."

"Huh," Ash mused. "Maybe that means Kyogre did it. Silver says his dad sometimes moans about her."

He snapped his fingers. "Wait, I know! Uh… Entei?"

Entei came out of his Pokéball, immediately filling most of the remaining space under Starmie's umbrella.

"Watch it!" Misty complained.

"Sorry," Ash said. "Any idea where Ho-Oh is today, Entei? I just realized, he could help with this."

"I'll go get him," Entei said, and ran out into the rain before accelerating off.

"...wait, hold on," Brock realized. "Couldn't you get help from…"

He paused, and rubbed his temples. "...from Giratina. I can't believe this, Ash, you've done this to me."

"I could, yeah!" Ash agreed. "But it'd be kind of rude to get Giratina's help now and leave Ho-Oh to come back here with Entei and not find us."

Later, after a short discussion (and after Entei had shaken himself dry and soaked everyone else) the three friends flew out into the ocean in a bubble of clear air conveniently provided by Ho-Oh.

"Remember, Zorua, just fly along," Ash advised. "We're not in a hurry."

"Yeah, but that's kind of boring," the duplicate Zapdos cawed.

"Bored or not, better listen to Ash," Pikachu said.

"Yeah, yeah…"

Zorua slid sideways a little, and glanced at Ho-Oh. "Can you believe this?"

"What I can't believe is the strength of this hurricane," Ho-Oh said, half to himself. "It's not Kyogre doing this, I'd know, but I don't think it's Lugia either. And we're too far from Shamouti for it to be the Bird Trio from there…"

"Couldn't it be a natural hurricane?" Ash asked.

"If it was a natural hurricane it wouldn't be here any more," Ho-Oh replied. "I'm the Storm's End, not a Pidgeotto taught Sunny Day with a Technical Machine."

He brought his wings down a little more firmly than usual. "Once you get to this New Island place, I'm going to see if I can work out what's going on…"

New Island, when it came into sight, was… strange.

And beautiful.

And, as it transpired, had three other Pokémon trainers on it in addition to whoever the mysterious Strongest Trainer was. Along with a Nurse Joy, who Brock described as "amazing" and "stop hitting me Bulbasaur I'm trying to score".

Once the pleasantries were over, though, the Joy stepped up and cleared her throat.

"Please welcome my master," she began. "The strongest Pokémon trainer."

A strange Pokémon came up out of a flight of stairs.

"Hey, what gives?" one of the other trainers asked. "That's a Pokémon!"

"So?" Ash asked.

"Mewtwo," the Joy finished her introduction.

"Oh, right!" Ash added, brightening, and raised his voice. "Didn't you work at Viridian Gym? My friend Gary said he battled you. Are you a Ground type?"

What? Mewtwo asked.

"It's great that you've become a Pokémon trainer now!" Ash went on. "Oh, are you related to Mew? If you've met him, then great, but if you haven't then I bet he'd love to meet you! The only problem is I don't know where he is at the moment."

Silence, Mewtwo commanded. Cease your nonsense. I am here to demonstrate the superiority of Pokémon over humans.

That did make Ash go quiet.

For a few seconds.

"Mew says that humans work great with Pokémon, though," he resumed. "And so do the others – Latias thinks we're the best because we invented video games. I guess that an individual Pokémon can often do things an individual human couldn't, but some Pokémon can't do things other Pokémon can do too – you wouldn't say Silver is superior to Zapdos just because Silver can do Aeroblast, because they're both individuals!"

Mewtwo put a paw on his forehead. I sent out messages for promising trainers. Exactly how did you beat the hurricane?

"Oh?" Ash said. "Well, Ho-Oh mostly helped, but if I'd tried to come here on my own I could have just had Zapdos give me a lift…"

While the conversation was going on, one of the other trainers shifted over towards Brock.

"You're the Pewter gym leader, aren't you?" she asked.

"I'm on sabbatical," Brock replied. "My dad's taking care of the gym for now, because it's actually his job."

"And you arrived here with that kid," she went on. "Is he… usually like this?"

Misty got out a notebook.

"Is he… usually like this," she repeated, writing it down. "That'll go nicely with 'cease your nonsense'."

Enough! Mewtwo insisted, as three strangely patterned Pokémon rose up on lifts – a Venusaur, a Charizard and a Blastoise. As a trainer, of course, I began with the three Pokémon that most trainers in Kanto start with. Squirtle, Bulbasaur, and Charmander.

He folded his arms. Among you number are evolved forms of those Pokémon. We will find out whether humans truly do give their Pokémon superior strength.

Ash raised his hand.

No, Mewtwo replied. Venusaur. You first.

"Ash, I'm kind of worried," Pikachu said. "This is kind of suspicious, isn't it? Where did this place come from, if there's only a few Pokémon here?"

"I was wondering about that," Ash admitted. "Hey, um, Mewtwo? Did you mean this place is called Mew island? Because that would kind of make sense!"

It is New Island, Mewtwo insisted. Not Mew. New. With an N.

"But why?" Ash added, as Mewtwo's Venusaur defeated the other one and the Blastoise stepped up to have a go instead. "Oh, did you get Groudon to make it? That would make it New, I guess."

"...Ash, I meant the castle, not the island," Pikachu sighed.

"That's a good point too!" Ash added. "Who built the castle?"

I built the castle! Mewtwo snapped. I destroyed the lab where I was built, and made a new and better one like I will build a new and better world, inhabited by new and better Pokémon free of the taint of humanity!

Charizard exploded out of his Pokéball.

"Okay, there's no way I'm letting you get away with that!" he roared. "Sure, some humans suck! I know it! My first trainer was a real jerk, he abandoned me on a rock and laughed about it! But Ash is nothing like that, and I've become a better Pokémon than I ever would have been otherwise just by being around him!"

Mewtwo snorted. Charizard, he ordered, and his Charizard came swooping in to attack.

Ash's Charizard took off with a flare of wings, and shot out a blast of flame that Mewtwo's Charizard matched.

"Ash taught me a lot of things!" Ash's Pokémon added. "But the most important one is this… never do what they expect!"

He lunged in to close combat range, and the other Charizard caught his clawed forearms with their own. Both Fire-types roared at one another, and then Charizard twisted slightly and caught their wings.

With his.

"Hey, want to guess what I know and you don't?" he asked, as they reached the peak of their trajectory and began to fall.

"What are you doing?" the other Charizard demanded. "If you don't let me go we're both going to crash!"

Ash's Charizard grinned. "I know!"

They got closer and closer to the ground, then he wrenched them into a spin. "Time's up! The answer's Drill Run!"

After going through three stone floors in succession, they finally stopped moving.

"That was fun," Charizard declared, shaking his wings to get the rubble off. "Don't you think that was fun?"

The other Charizard made a noise like mimblewimble and passed out.

Up in the room where everyone else was, Ash held out his hand to Mewtwo.

"Pretty good job!" he said. "Two out of three is really good, especially for your first battle as a trainer going up against experienced ones!"

Mewtwo stared at him.

His eye twitched slightly.

I've had enough, he said, with a glassy calm. I'm taking all your Pokémon and making better ones with them.

Dozens of strange eye-patterned Pokéballs flowed out of vents around the room, and everything dissolved into pandemonium. Pikachu immediately began throwing massive Thunderbolts that hit and smashed the balls, but could only manage one at a time, and the outbreak was so sudden that half the Pokémon got caught before they could begin to react.

"Hey!" Zorua protested, shifting in a flash into the shape of Mewtwo. "Don't catch me! I'm your master!"

One of the Eye Balls caught him anyway.

"Did he honestly expect that to work?" Eevee said, baffled, before she vanished into an Eye Ball as well.

Meanwhile, and more effectively, Entei broke into a blistering run. Doing high-speed laps, first of the room and then of the largest clear area he could find on the island, the Eye Balls simply couldn't keep up and were having no luck trying.

Overhead, Ho-Oh tilted his head.

"Maybe it's a Tornadus?" he asked himself.

Something came whizzing up from below, and Ho-Oh looked at it for a moment before incinerating it with a blaze of gold-and-orange fire.

"Or a Thundurus," he added, contemplating the eye wall. "Could even be both."

Ash looked back and forth, trying to keep track of which Pokémon were still around.

Most of them had vanished, though there were some Eye Balls still trailing Entei, and a lot of them all focusing in on Pikachu.

Then one of them went off just behind Ash's head, and his bag suddenly got lighter.

"Huh?" he asked, confused, then kept running over to help Pikachu – Entei could take care of himself, and most of the others were gone, but Misty was hunched over Togepi to protect her and Pikachu was small enough that Ash could do the same with him.

"Hold on!" he added. "Pikachu, I'm coming to help – just keep it up!"

"This place is spooky," James fretted, down in the rooms under New Island. "Are you sure we have to be here?"

"Look, da boss said we needed ta report on where da Twerps went," Meowth replied. "So he can make sure ta never be where dey might end up. An' this is where they went."

"Observation: this building is on the site of an old Team Rocket research base," Porygon said. "Ominous addition: none of the scientists who worked here are still part of Team Rocket. Or alive."

"That is really not helpin'!" Meowth snapped.

"Amused reply: would you rather be surprised by the deadly peril?" Porygon asked.

"Ssh," Jessie said. "There's something in the room up ahead, look!"

They looked – two humans, one Meowth and the sensor head of one Porygon peering around the corner – and saw a machine flashing up images of one Pokémon after another.

Alakazam.

Vileplume.

Scyther.

Zorua.

Eevee.

And, one by one, oddly-patterned versions of those same Pokémon emerged from the front of the machine.

"...it's makin' clones," Meowth realized. "Dat must be what this place is, a clonin' lab!"

"Snide remark: would a clone of you be useful?" Porygon asked.

Meowth batted irritably at the digital Pokémon. "Shut it, you!"

"Wow!" Zorua said, shaking himself out, then running back to the machine. "Do me again!"

The cloned Eevee gave him a strange look. "We're meant to head up to master."

"No, I'm not one of you guys," Zorua explained. "I just escaped. I'm a Dark type. We're sneaky! But this thing's a machine that makes siblings, I'm going around again… maybe I can make it do batches!"

He jumped into the input side with a yip.

The screen showed an Onix, then a Zorua, then a Zorua again, then a Zapdos. Then it showed a Shaymin, and the next five after that were Zorua.

Ash came sliding down a chute, trying to get hold of the Eye Ball that had finally captured Pikachu, but it went through a slot too small for him. He tumbled out the other side instead, nearly landing on top of Zorua, and picked himself up.

"We need to get the Pokémon out of that machine!" he said.

"Umm…" Zorua began. "I can use Night Daze on it? Would that help?"

There was a kerrash, and Charizard came through the nearest wall.

"Oh, Ash, there you are!" he said. "Sorry, I kind of brought a ceiling down and couldn't find the way back up to the room where the others were."

"Charizard, am I glad to see you!" Ash said. "How do we break this thing?"

Mewtwo had just finished explaining how the plan would work, his ranks of new cloned Pokémon lining up around him… except for Goldeentwo and Horseatwo, who'd needed a bit of discreet assistance from Starmietwo… when there was an explosion from the direction of the stairs.

Ash came out of the smoke, accompanied by all of the original Pokémon. Zorua, Pikachu, Dratini… Charizard and Zapdos hovering protectively overhead… everyone else's Pokémon on either side… and a Shaymin at his heels.

He stopped, and folded his arms.

"Why don't you just get a trainer card and catch Pokémon like a normal trainer?" he asked.

Mewtwo blinked.

What?

"Well, obviously you can train powerful Pokémon," Ash said. "And all those Pokémon there listen to you, so you're good at that bit too. But, and I don't know if you know this bit, it's not allowed to take the Pokémon of other trainers!"

What do I care with human rules? Mewtwo demanded, as their audience shifted uneasily. Humans imprison Pokémon and force them to fight!

"But you're imprisoning Pokémon as well!" Ash replied. "That's what you just did – you took Pokémon away from people who loved them, and your plan means they'd never have seen one another again! And it's what you're going to do to everyone!"

You think I don't understand loss, human child? Mewtwo snarled. Do you have any idea what it means?

"Of course I know!" Ash said. "My dad's been missing my whole life! But that doesn't mean I want anyone else to face that!"

Angry beyond description for a reason he couldn't fully explain, Mewtwo lashed out with his paw. A blaze of psychic energy punched out at Pikachu, trying to force Ash to feel the pain he was blithely claiming to already know.

Ash whirled, clasping Pikachu to his chest, and the attack hit him instead.

Mewtwo stared at his paw, then at the human boy as he collapsed in silence.

"Ash?" Pikachu asked, softly.

Then the Rainbow Phoenix came flying down through the roof.

"What's been going on in here – oh bugger," he said, and flared his wings. "That's not good."

"Father!" Entei barked. "Ash just got-"

"I can see that, Entei," Ho-Oh replied, landing next to Ash – something that made most of the nearby Pokémon shift away. "Don't worry. I think I can fix this."

He reached up to the inside of his wing, and plucked a feather from the inner layers. It came free with a slight snap of gold flame, and Entei blinked.

"Father," Suicune began. "Why are you taking a feather out of your wing?"

"Is it not immediately obvious that Ash needs a resurrection?" Ho-Oh asked. "That's why I'm getting some phoenix down."

"You need Sacred Ash for that," Suicune pointed out.

"Of course we need him," Ho-Oh countered. "That's why I'm using a feather."

"She means your burning ash, Father," Entei said.

"...oh," Ho-Oh realized. "...in my defence, it's been a while since I had to do this."

"And that worked out perfectly, didn't it?" Suicune sighed. "In case you'd forgotten, father, Ash is male. That's the one that's not female."

"Why are you even here, anyway?" Entei asked.

"It's nearly my turn in the Safari Ball," Suicune answered.

"Look, I can't really concentrate under these conditions," Ho-Oh complained.

"That's why you need to leave it to the expert, Ho-Oh."

Xerneas trotted up, and bent her head low to inspect the situation.

"Yes, he definitely needs to be resurrected," the Fairy-type said. "Not reincarnated."

"What are you implying?" Ho-Oh asked.

"Well, it'd do us a fat lot of good if he came out as something else entirely, wouldn't it?" Xerneas sniffed.

As the two Pokémon kept arguing, Charizard exchanged an incredulous glance with Zapdos.

"Are they like this a lot?" he checked.

"You're asking me?" Zapdos replied. "Contrary to popular opinion, we don't all know each other."

A clawed hand tapped her on the wing shoulder.

"Excuse me, young lady," Rayquaza said, his body stretching up and out a hole in the roof. "Do you know who's responsible for this hurricane? I need them to kindly stop it."

"I… think it's that Pokémon over there?" Zapdos told him, a little hesitantly, and indicated Mewtwo. "He seems a bit out of it at the moment, though."

"Well, I can wait," Rayquaza decided. "It's just that if I don't get this sorted out before long…"

Thunder cracked outside.

"Hey, Rayquaza!" a loud voice called.

"Excuse me, please, I need to take this," Rayquaza told her. "It's the Forces of Nature, they tend to be territorial about these things."

Then a wall fell over.

"Someone here's hiding Kyogre!" Groudon shouted. "And she'd better come out here so I can sort her out!"

I'm not sure if this one's because of the Beast of the Sea, another telepathic voice said. But if it is then it's my responsibility.

On the other side of the nearest reflective surface, Giratina sighed.

"Do you think I could just… go back?" asked the boy next to him. "They're all really sad."

"I know they're sad," Giratina replied. "But it's why they're sad that's sort of the problem. I'm under the impression that you're quite dead."

He turned his gaze towards Ash. "Not that I'm not glad to see you, but how are you here?"

Ash glanced towards his own lifeless body, still visible in the mirror, then scratched the back of his neck. "Uh… well, I met this giant bird Pokémon? He said that how I'd move on kind of depended on what I believed, and…"

He shrugged. "You said you're a Ghost type, and everyone says you're a Legendary Pokémon, and you've got your own world or dimension or whatever this is, so it… kind of made sense?"

Giratina was taken aback, which was quite hard.

"...you were under the impression that this is Hell?" he asked.

"Well, not hell, not really," Ash replied. "More, like, an afterlife… that other one, not hell. Conga, I think?"

Giratina stared at Ash.

Ash smiled the smile of someone who knew exactly what he meant.

"...you mean Limbo?" Giratina tried eventually.

"Right, that one," Ash agreed. "Anyway, that bird Pokémon mumbled something about cheating before dropping me off here. Apparently it didn't have time to sort this out right now?"

He pointed. "Oh, hey, there it is!"

"Enough, both of you," Yveltal said, sweeping into the room on night-black and blood-red wings. "Get on with it."

"Fine, fine," Ho-Oh decided. "I'll just sort myself out."

He spread his wings, and golden fire began to flicker over them as all the points of Xerneas' horns lit up at once.

There was a long moment of singing tension, and then Ash stirred.

"It is done," Xerneas said.

Yveltal, however, didn't seem pleased.

"Right," he decided. "I'll go sort that mess out."

He collapsed in on himself.

"Pikachu?" Ash asked, looking up, and grinned – then Pikachu jumped on him, nearly bowling him over. "Hey, I'm okay, Pikachu!"

With a sudden pop of outrushing air and a flash of golden flame, there was very abruptly a Mewtwo lying next to where Ash had been.

Xerneas and Ho-Oh contemplated it.

"...to the best of my memory, usually when I do that they end up as dogs," Ho-Oh contributed.

"Cats are not the halfway point between dogs and humans," Xerneas said.

Mewtwo? The newcomer asked. I can… I think I can feel you.

Mewtwo's jaw fell open.

Ambertwo? He asked, incredulous. But… how?

It took a truly staggering amount of time to sort everything out after that.

Ambertwo turned out to have been a clone who'd been made at the same time as Mewtwo, and who'd sort of known him, but she'd died earlier – her loss devastating Mewtwo, enough that he'd tried to forget it and the kindness she'd shown entirely.

Ash wasn't at all clear how she'd still been around, except that Yveltal had probably been involved somehow and then Ho-Oh's reincarnation had needed to discharge on someone.

Mewtwo had dismissed the storm with almost indecent speed as soon as he'd remembered it was still a problem, and that had sent many of the Legendary Pokémon home, but what to do with Mewtwo – and his friend, and all the clones – had presented a larger problem. Eventually Shaymin had suggested somewhere they could all go – somewhere that the Grass-type insisted had to be a surprise – but at that clone Shaymin had promptly declared that they weren't going anywhere their original was showing the way to and refused to take anything else for an answer.

After that there was a bit where Mewtwo wanted to take away the memories of the humans and caught Pokémon involved, but that suggestion had just led to the appearance of a very angry Pokémon with eyes a lot like Brock's. It said that taking away memories had to be something the person involved asked for, or it just wasn't right.

Which resulted in, predictably, more delay.

"...actually," Corey said, after thinking about it for a good three minutes. "The idea of being able to put this complete shipwreck of a day out of my mind is… kind of appealing."

"You sure?" Neesha asked. "It feels weird."

"Which is weirder?" Corey asked. "Having a few hours of your life you can't remember, or trying to make sense of what just happened?"

He waved his hands. "That kid over there died, and within a minute this room was so full of Legendary Pokémon some of them were waiting outside. And even before that he tried to recruit that Pokémon as a trainer. And he got brought back to life, and I guess so did a clone of a little girl who's now a Pokémon?"

Fergus looked uncomfortable. "When you put it like that… yeeeah."

Corey folded his arms, point made. "See?"

"...okay, you win," Neesha admitted.

"So… ultimately," Misty said, once they were back at the ranch. "We just had a weird afternoon."

"Pretty much," Ash agreed. "I kind of wonder if Mewtwo and Ambertwo will become trainers eventually."

"I think that depends how old Mewtwo is," Brock mused. "It wasn't really clear, but if he only got cloned a few years ago then it'd take him ages until he could register."

He frowned. "Who were those Pokémon, though? I didn't even recognize some of them."

"Well, Giratina said the big bird one was Yveltal, who's in charge of death, and the deer is Xerneas who's in charge of life," Ash answered. "And, uh, I know who Groudoun and Rayquaza are, but I'm not sure about the others… except the obvious, anyway."

"Hey," a voice said.

Ash looked down. "Huh? Oh, right, you're Shaymintwo, right?"

"Yeah," Shaymintwo agreed. "And I want you to know there's no way I'm going to be anything like the one who I was cloned from. I'm going to be my own Pokémon."

"Great!" Ash told him. "That's the best way to think about it!"

Shaymintwo nodded. "So I'm coming with you! And I'm not taking no for an answer. This is who I am!"

A long way away, in Johto, Raikou was listening to an explanation.

"Okay," she said, eventually. "So… Xerneas brought Ash back, and you brought someone else back."

Ho-Oh snorted. "And if you ask me, mine was the one that was much harder."

Raikou tilted her head. "Oh?"

"Well, what can Xerneas fix?" Ho-Oh replied. "Her powers are about life. She returns life to someone. Very impressive sounding, but how often exactly does someone die and there's nothing else wrong with them?"

He fluffed his feathers. "She's the opposite of Yveltal, and Yveltal is not the Legendary Pokémon associated with injuries, or something like that. Show Xerneas someone who died of… well, being dead… and she's all over it. But an injury? Good luck."

Raikou chuckled. "And I suppose what you do is…?"

"I can cause reincarnation," Ho-Oh replied. "That means the old body doesn't matter, though I'm limited to the recently dead and I'm not sure why it picks the new bodies that it does."

He fixed Raikou with a glare. "And before you ask, no. I have no idea why I brought back someone else, and reportedly someone who'd been gone for years. I'd ask Marshadow if he had a clue, but apparently he's gone missing somewhere…"

And, on top of a mountain, not as far from the Burned Tower as all that, a Pokémon sat cross-legged and contemplated the sky.

It is astonishing, how blind we can be, Mewtwo thought softly. I thought I was doing the right thing, but the right thing was so twisted and I had not so much as realized.

Mewtwo?

Ambertwo came out of the woods behind him. Are you all right?

I wish I was, Mewtwo replied. But I think it will take a long time for that to be true.

He looked at her. I tried to make a better world, but that better world would have rejected you, and I didn't even see it. It would have caused so much sadness… how can it be a better world then?

Hey, the other Psychic-type said, embracing him. You were hurting.

Please, Mewtwo begged. Don't make excuses for me. If you do, I will start making excuses for myself.

Then don't make excuses, Ambertwo told him. Remember what happened. And use it as a reason to be better.

She touched his nose. And besides, you're my brother now. And I'm not an expert on having a brother, but I think hugs is part of it.

Mewtwo smiled slightly.

I think I would like that, he decided. And to not just have a sister, but to have friends… Team Rocket created me as a weapon, and I rejected that. I was not a weapon.

His hand swept across. I should have realized the right word was nobody.

I think you need to change the whole phrase, there, Ambertwo said, tail flicking. Nobody was not a weapon? I was nobody a weapon?

That startled a laugh out of Mewtwo.

"Thank you," he said, speaking out loud this time.

Now, come on, Ambertwo added, standing up. Remember, having friends is important, and it's never going to happen if you spend all your time out here.

Mewtwo couldn't argue with that.

AN:

And here's what the nonsense did to the first movie.

Ambertwo is principally a character from what in the West is expanded universe material, but is canonical. Though this happening to her is… not.