Hey Nuggies! Well I really shouldn't be doing this, but here I am writing another fanfiction since I have writers block on a few of my other ones, and because this won't leave me alone. Here is your warning this will be SLASH! I have decided though that this will not have M!Preg.
Main Pairing: AshxPaul
Rating: M (to be safe)
Chapter Warning(s): None for this chapter but please be aware the next chapter (number 62) will be the very last chapter of ADS. If you haven't joined the discord, then please feel free to join to be updated about when the sequel gets' posted!
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only!
Please don't forget to head over to A03 for the discord link! You don't need an A03 account to do it.
Enjoy!
Ash took a deep breath as he nervously tapped a finger against his knee. It was early the next morning, dark as the sun hadn't come up yet, and Sada had packed him and Oak in the car with thermoses of coffee and a few breakfast bars. Larvesta laid in his lap, out of his carrier, while Pikachu laid on the rear dashboard as the seat next to him had a few boxes with what looked like papers so there was no room for his starter there. Oak seemed to be asleep in the front passenger seat, head resting on the window and his breath caused the window to fog. Sada had the radio playing low as if it would help calm the tension radiating off Ash, but it didn't help.
He was so close to learning what was plaguing his baby.
From what Sada told him the drive would take a couple of hours, and so far only one and a half of them has passed. The closer they got to the Crater the harsher the tugging became and as much as Ash wanted to ignore it for more pressing matters, he didn't think it would matter. Something was going to happen, and it was going to be soon.
"We're about thirty minutes out," Sada said, catching Ashs' attention and when he turned from the window to look at her he saw that she had shaken Oak awake, "I want to give you two a heads up about what's going to happen when we get to Medali."
"Okay," Ash said and adjusted himself to be able to hear her better.
"We have to leave the car in Medali, for one, and make the rest of the journey on foot. No cars are allowed in the Crater. We don't want to risk polluting the area as we don't know how it'll affect those within it. Secondly, Geeta will be meeting us there to give you both temporary NDAs," Sada started to explain.
"Why temporary?" Oak asked as he took a sip of cooled off coffee.
"We're going to announce our findings during the Sinnoh Annual Conference," Sada answered, "So it'll only be in effect for a few months between now and then."
"What about what's going on with Larvesta?" Ash asked, "What am I supposed to say about whatever is going on with him?"
"As long as you don't use Larvesta in any official or trainer battles, or tell anyone about him or the research, before the announcement you will be fine," Sada replied, "Now, back to what we are going to do. You two, after signing the NDAs, will be given a one day pass into the rest of the area. We have electricity powered vehicles for use inside of the area, so we'll take one of them to get to one of the research buildings. There I can tell you all about the research Turo and I have been conducting, and if it's okay with you, Ash, I would like to get a few samples from Larvesta."
Ash nodded and sat back further into his seat as the two Professors spoke in a jargon that Ash couldn't comprehend from either being too tired or it being out of his range of knowledge. The next half hour both took too long and went by really fast as the next thing Ash knew, Sada was parking the car. Ash waited to get out until he felt Pikachu on his shoulder and with a sure hold on Larvesta made his escape from the car. His ball belt clacked against the side of the car as he used his hip to shut the door before catching up to the two Professors. They didn't stop in the town for anything and really just skirted past the boundary of it before walking up a bit of an incline.
The gates before them were shut tight, but Sada swiped her wrist against one of the poles and Ash could just barely hear it but there was a small beep before the gates unlocked. Ash didn't see anything for card readers, but he cast it from his mind as he stepped through. There was a large metal doorway with a ramp leading up to it. Standing in front of the door was a woman wearing a business suit. Her hair looked a bit gravity defying despite how thick it looked and there were gold and blue stripes throughout it. Her blue eyes were locked onto them as they made their way up the ramp.
"Oak, Ash, this is our Champion, Geeta. Geeta, these two are Ash Ketchum and Samuel Oak," Sada said, introducing the three to each other.
"A pleasure," Geeta replied with a slight nod to her head, "Though I wish we could have met under different circumstances. I hear you have a sick little one?"
"This is him," Ash said softly with a small nod as he gestured to Larvesta in his arms, "Thank you. For giving Sada permission to give me the powered crystals, I mean. Larvesta devoured his breakfast after putting it in it. It's a relief seeing him eat enthusiastically after having not been eating so well."
"You're very welcome," Geeta replied with a small smile on her lips, "How about we head on in so you two can sign your NDAs?" Ash trailed after the two Professors as they followed Geeta through the metal door. The room was large on the other side and filled with a few people running around taking notes and such. Sitting on the table Geeta had led them to had several stacks of papers, but the Champion only picked up two single sheets.
"As these are only temporary NDAs I didn't feel the need to make them any longer than they already are," Geeta said as she handed the two the papers, "Feel free to read through it."
Ash looked down at the paper and while most of what was written was written in a lot of governmental jargon that he only had half a clue what it was about, he did pay close attention to what would break the NDA and the consequences. He was sure he would be able to follow the guidelines set out and so he picked up a pen that laid on the table to sign. He would have signed it without reading it if Oak and his mother didn't beat the notion to read everything before signing it into his head. After all, Ash wouldn't have even cared if he signed his soul away to Giratina if it meant his pokémon would be healthy, alive, and whole.
After everything was signed away they were led to what looked like a platform with railings that led into a deep tunnel. Making sure he was sure footed and holding Larvesta tightly he embraced for movement, and he was glad he did as the platform did a little jolt before moving at a decent speed down into the dimly lit depths.
"Sorry about the jolt," Sada said with a bit of a sheepish smile, "We haven't had the time to get it smoothed out."
"Quite alright, dear," Oak said as he straightened up, "it'll take more than a little jolt to take us down."
"Now, a couple of things to know about the area we're about to enter," Geeta spoke up getting all of their attention, "The air there is pure. No pollution. No toxicity. If you feel light headed, short of breath, vertigo, or anything concerning, please let Sada or I know so we can get our medical team to you quickly. I do ask that you do not litter in any sort of form, it's fined heavily and you could be jailed. Fighting the pokémon within is fine, and if you do so happen to catch one of the rare pokémon then it falls within the NDA guidelines you both signed just a moment ago. If you have any questions please ask away."
The elevator platform slowed just as Geeta finished her speech and when the doors opened it took Ashs' breath away. The area was quite large, perfectly green grass, copious amounts of trees, waterfalls everywhere he turned to look, and the crystals were everywhere. They shimmered in a multitude of colors as they grew on rocks, on trees, in the water. If he looked close enough Ash could swear that even the air shimmered with powdered crystal. Even with all of that the thing that shook Ash was how pure the Aura in the area was. It was the purest he had ever felt Aura. His own Aura sang and writhed in joy just under his skin. He wanted to stay here and bathe in the purity of the Aura.
On a fleeting thought Ash hoped that the Corrupted would never find this place.
Ash absentmindedly walked after the three adults as he mentally revelled in the Aura and tried to come down from the high he was experiencing because of it. He saw a few of the pokémon look over at them, and there were a couple he had never seen before. One looked like an Amoonguss while the other looked like a Jigglypuff, but the two were also vastly different than the other.
"What are those two?" Ash asked as he pointed over to the two.
"Those two? They're part of our research," Sada with a wide grin on her face, "The one that looks like Amoonguss, we've taken to calling it Brute Bonnet while the other one we call Scream Tail. BB is a Dark/Grass type while Scream Tail is Fairy/Psychic."
"How did those two come to be? As far as I know there's never been anything in any history books about them," Oak asked as he climbed into the back seat of the vehicle, which looked much like a dune buggy, that Ash only noticed that they had been led to.
"Turo and I had a dream. Very similar, but vastly different dream. I wanted to study the pokémon of the past to see how much has changed from then to now while he, the future. I went on to study under several fossil experts and scientists, but nothing itched the scratch of wanting to know more. Then Turo came up with an idea," Sada said just loud enough for them to hear over the roaring wind as a wistful look came upon her face, "The two of us worked on it together. Day, night, during mealtimes, and soon enough it came to be. We made a time machine."
"A time machine?!" Oak exclaimed and Ash couldn't help but look at Sada with wide eyes. Time travel. He had heard many things in his short life, but time travel? He had only heard of Celebi travelling through time.
"Yes! However, even with all the work and research we had done we couldn't send a person through. It was too dangerous to send organic matter through the machine," Sada replied, "Instead we sent pokéballs through. It would go to either the past, or the future, catch whatever pokémon was close to it, and come back. Brute Bonnet and Scream Tail are just two of the pokémon that have come back."
"Can we ask who else was brought back?" Ash asked, his heart pounded, as questions swarmed his head.
"Of course! From the past we have Brute Bonnet, Scream Tail Sandy Shocks, Great Tusk, Fluttermane, Slither Wing, Roaring Moon, and Koraidon" Sada replied, "They're the past forms of Amoonguss, Jigglypuff, Magnemite, Donphan, Misdreavus, Volcarona, Salamence, and a pokémon you both haven't met called Cyclizar."
"Slither Wing," Ash whispered under his breath as Sada continued.
"The future forms are Iron Tusk, Iron Bundle, Iron Hands, Iron Jugulis, Iron Moth, Iron Thorns, Iron Valiant, and Miraidon," she continued on, "They're the future forms of Donphan, Delibird, Hariyama, Hydreigon, Volcarona, Tyranitar, and Iron Valiant seems to be a mix between Gardevoir and Gallade as if they had been fused together to become a new pokémon, while Miraidon is the future form of Cyclizar."
"Iron Moth," Ash whispered to himself feeling shocked and incredulous. There were two forms for Volcarona. What did that mean for Larvesta? Was he going to evolve into one of them?
"We're here," Geeta said as she slowed the electric vehicle to a stop and turned it off. The building wasn't memorable at all, but it did stick out against the rest of the natural environment around it. As they neared the building the door opened up revealing a few scientists and a man wearing a suit. Geeta broke off from the three to speak with the man as Sada led them to a free table.
"If you will Ash, I would like to get a sample from Larvesta to see if we can't isolate the exact DNA pattern he has," Sada asked as she gestured to the table, "To see if he'll evolve into the past or future form."
Ash nodded as he placed Larvesta on the cold metal table, but Larvesta didn't seem to mind the cold. Ash stepped back and watched as Sada began to get the samples. A clip of fur, a blood sample, shavings from one of his horns, a dried piece of his abdomen. Sada said that it wouldn't take long for the samples to be processed, but if he wanted he could take Larvesta outside and explore a bit.
Once Larvesta was back in his arms, and told Oak where he was going, he headed back outside. Ash wondered briefly if he would see any of Larvestas' evolved forms while he was out there, but cast it away as he placed Larvesta on the ground. The baby moth wiggled in the grass before he started walking around sniffing at things, eating bits a grass here and there, and Larvesta even found a berry to munch on.
Ash sat down under a tree and kept an eye on Larvesta and Pikachu, who had joined the moth, as he let his Aura explore. Everything here seemed happy, excited to see him, and peaceful there. The sounds of something large moving caught his attention, and once he turned his head, he was shocked to say the least. There were several pokémon that were large, moth-like and walking around on four legs. They appear to have compound eyes that are two shades of red, and there's a red spiny horn-like structure on each side of their faces. The fuzz on their bodies and legs were smoky white and tangled much like it is on Larvesta. Their abdomen was black in the center and light blue with black dots on the outside. All of them have six leaf-like wings that are orange in color with yellow-orange tips and have small yellow diamond-shaped marks, but they do not seem to be strong enough to allow the pokémon to fly.
Beside it, floating in the air were several moths that looked a lot more like Volcarona, but were metallic, robotic. They have four small "feet", red compound eyes, red horns on the sides of their heads, and white armor plating covering the thorax. Their abdomen is black and light blue with two black diamond spots on the outside. They have six diamond-shaped wings that are mostly orange with white speckles and a single black triangle marking, which levitate a short distance away from their body.
Ash stood up as the large group neared Larvesta and forced Pikachu away from the moth. Pikachu let out a few sparks but Ash told him to stop as he didn't want Larvesta to accidentally get hit. The teen heard the sounds of the door on the building open, but he didn't turn to look who had entered or left the building. His attention was solely on the group of pokémon and Larvesta.
One of the robotic moths flew closer to Larvesta and seemed to study him for a moment before flying off with the other robotic moths following after it. One of the larger moths stepped forward and seemed to sniff at Larvesta before letting out a deep rumbling sound. The sound echoed as the other larger moths joined in on the rumbling, but what they did next made Ashs' heart skip a beat. The largest moth, a Slither Wing Ash could only assume, started to nudge Larvesta towards the edge of the cliff. Ash hadn't realized how close they had been to the edge of the cliff, but he did know that it wasn't a short drop to the next level of land.
It was as if time had slowed down as the Slither Wing did one last large push enough for Larvesta to go tumbling over himself and ultimately the edge of the cliff.
"LARVESTA!" Ash screamed louder than he ever had before and it was as if his body moved on its own. One moment he had ground underneath him and the next he had jumped from the cliff with Sada, Oak, and Geeta screaming his name from the cliff. The wind and his rushing blood roared in his ears as he fought the wind to get closer to Larvesta. He ignored his hat blowing away and finally he managed to catch up to Larvesta thanks to his heavier weight letting him fall faster than his moth baby.
He wrapped his arms around the small body and held tightly as he curled his body around Larvesta before doing his best to turn so his back was to the quickly approaching ground. At least when they hit the ground, he would hit first and maybe Larvesta could still live on and have a full life. Ash tried to use his Aura to form a shield around him, an ability he had read about but never tried, but as much as he tried the shield never formed. The ground quickly started to get closer and Ash closed his eyes.
"I love you Larvesta," Ash whispered softly to the moth, "so much. Tell the others of the pack I love them too."
The two were only twenty feet from the ground when suddenly the two were engulfed in flames. The flames weren't burning him, and it wasn't hot at all. The flames felt like a motherly hug, warm, soft, like coming home. Ash opened his eyes slowly to see Larvesta in his arms, glowing softly in evolutionary light as the bright orange flames encased them. Ash gasped as he felt the small form in his arms start to grow and had to close his eyes once more as the lights were beginning to blind him.
After what felt like forever Ash felt the gentle touch of plush grass against his back and opened his eyes to see a large Slither Moth by his side letting out a deep croon. The Slither Wing flexed his wings a bit, to get used to them Ash assumed, but to his surprise the Slither Wing moved closer and used his two front legs to hold onto him before launching into the air. His scream got stuck in his throat as the world swirled around as he once more went through the air.
Ash turned so his face was buried in white fur and wrapped his arms around the strong neck while making sure to avoid the horns on the side of Slither Wings face. The flight seemed to go much faster than the falling and thankfully they landed without much fan fair other than the three adults stoppinp from getting into the dune buggy and rush over to them. The other Slither Wing(s) seemed to have left to where they came from and there were no other pokémon besides Pikachu.
"Ash!" the three exclaimed as the teen released the hold he had on Slither Wing once his feet were on solid ground once more. Ash stepped back as Slither Wing fell down onto all fours and knelt beside the tired moth.
"Are you both okay?" Oak asked as he came to a stop beside the two.
"Perfectly fine," Ash said as he looked up to the old man, a grin on his lips, and relief in his eyes.
"Good!" Oak replied, "Delia and Silver would have had my hide if you weren't."
Ash couldn't help the laughter that escaped him and he was sure that the adrenaline that was starting to leave his body didn't help with containing it. He had been so scared. Terrified really, but at least Larvesta, no Slither Wing, was here and as healthy as he could be.
"I've never seen a Slither Wing fly before," Sada said once everyone was back inside the research station, "I wonder…"
Ash watched as Sada went about gathering samples from Slither Wing as he fed the large moth and Pikachu a few berries. He was happy to see Slither Wing so enthusiastically consuming the berries and hoped that the appetite he was showing was here to stay. He couldn't wait to get home to show the rest of the pack that Slither Wing was okay now. Geeta stood off to the side on the phone while Oak stood by Sada as she started to analyze the samples taken from Slither Wing.
"Aha!" Sada exclaimed, "That is completely fascinating!"
"What is it?" Ash asked as he looked up at the screen that now held the beginnings of the analysis.
"So this is Larvestas' DNA," Sada said as she moved over to the screen with a remote in her hand, the lights in the room dimmed so they could see the screen better, "Compared to other Larvesta DNA we have gathered. Do you see any differences?" Ash looked at the two graphs of DNA, he hadn't seen anything like it, the multitudes of colors, the overlap of DNAs, everything about it looked confusing.
"Here and here correct?" Oak said as he pointed at two different parts of the charts.
"Yes! You see the DNA of a pokémon holds their typing," Sada said as she pressed a button on the remote to change the screens, "Each type has a specific cytosine and guanine structure within the DNA strands to determine whether it's a Fire type, or a Dark Type, or an Electric type, and so on. It's a two fold structure on the helix. One side has the cytosine and the other side has the guanine. The two could hold a homo-typing creating a Pure Type, while others have a hetero-typing, creating those with Dual Types. Now, Slither Wing, when looking at his DNA before he evolved, showed this."
"Is that?!" Oak asked a few moments after the screen changed.
"A tri-split cytosine and guanine strip on a strand," Sada said, excitement showing in her eyes as a grin stretched across her face, "it's in every single connector."
"So what does that mean?" Ash asked as the words were not being comprehended and connected in his head.
"Because of the tri-split of the cytosine and the guanine, your Slither Wing holds three different typings within his DNA," Sada replied, "For example our Slither Wings are Bug/Fighting Types unlike its present Adaptive Evolution Volcarona, which are Bug/Fire Types. We've concluded that upon evolution the past Larvesta loses its Fire typing to become a Fighting Type however somewhere down the line the Fire Type became the dominant typing again so it lost the Fighting type. At the moment we can only assume that whichever DNA from long ago started your Slither Wings' direct DNA line was from a period of time that it was between the Adaptive Evolutions of Slither Wing to Volcarona."
"So you're saying Slither Wing is a Bug/Fire/Fighting type?" Ash asked, his eyes wide, "Has anything like this been seen before?"
"That is exactly what I'm saying," Sada said with a nod, "and we have seen this a couple of times, but it was only present in fossils that were not able to be revived. As far as we know, your Slither Wing is the only living Tri-Typed pokémon."
After the onslaught of information Ash and Oak were taken back to the surface and escorted out of the crater by Geeta and Sada. After getting a scan of Slither Wing it was determined that the reason that Slither Wing was able to fly was because his wings and the muscles controlling them were more developed and more capable to hold his weight in the air. It didn't mean that Slither Wing could fly like a Volcarona, but he could glide and take off from the ground if needed.
Sada had more than happily given him all the information she had on Slither Wing and answered any question he could think of during the ride back to her house. Slowly Ash was able to make a training schedule for Slither Wing and even made a tentative one for Snom as he had been neglecting their training. That was something he would focus on when he got home. He did have a few weeks before he was needed elsewhere after all.
For now, with all of the stress and anxiety he had held on for so long finally gone, Ash felt as though he was ready to crash. He wished he could have cuddled with Paul as he crawled into bed later that night, but he settled with looking at the lock screen of his watch. It was the latest picture he had taken of them together. The two were sitting on his bed, backs to the headboard and the setting sun cascading through the sheer curtains he had on it. He was smiling at the phone while Paul had his head turned, eyes closed, and softly kissing his temple.
Ash was just about to open his watch to send Paul a text when there was a hard tug on his Aura. Shooting up he turned his head to see the female Mewtwo standing in the middle of the room with a bag clutched in her three digit paw.
"Mewtwo," Ash said softly as he moved to get back up.
"Trainer Ash," The Mewtwo greeted with a dip of her head, "We need your and your pokémon partners' help. Urgently!"
"What's going on?!" Ash asked as he got off the bed and started to tug on his shoes and grab what he needed, "My other pokémon are back in Kanto. I'll have to go back there to get them before I can help."
"I went there first to gather your team," The female Mewtwo replied as she gestured to the bag in her hand, "The three of us went after a new base. The biggest one we've gone after by far. We had started our destruction when we were attacked. My Brother got injured in the initial attack and when I left he was still down while your Mewtwo had started attacking the one who attacked us. Your Mewtwo ordered me to get you and yours."
"What attacked you?" Ash asked as he buckled his ball belt around his waist before taking the bag from the female Mewtwo to place the others on it.
"Another Mewtwo. It was large, much larger than Brother," she replied, "Stronger than him, but it looks much like your Mewtwo."
"Okay. I'm ready!" Ash said, his mind racing from the revelation. He had a few run-ins with other Mewtwo, but they were still babies. Was this new Mewtwo older than his partner? The same age? Did Giovanni and his scientists figure out how to rapidly age the Mewtwos? Ash would never know, nor did he care at the moment. He reached out and let the female Mewtwo grab a hold of him before his surroundings were drastically changed.
The earth burned, the air glimmered with dancing embers, and the resounding sounds of a fight threatened to deafen him. Looking around Ash quickly found the downed Mewtwo and rushed over with the female Mewtwo right behind him. Ash skid to a stop and dropped to his knees as he began to assess the injuries the Mewtwo had. Quickly taking his bag off and going through it, Ash grabbed a few potions to spray on to the multitudes of cuts. He didn't have any way to see if he had a head injury, but he left the female Mewtwo with a few healing berries for when her Brother woke up.
Hearing the fight coming closer Ash looked up to see two forms in the sky. His Mewtwo encircled with blue psychic energy while the enemy Mewtwo was covered in red energy. He could see why the female Mewtwo said that it looked like the enemy Mewtwo looked like his partner. The enemy shared the same body type, same tail, same ears, same three digit paws, but the most drastic difference between the two was the coloring. Where his Mewtwo had gray fur, this Mewtwo had black and where the purple color was on his Mewtwo, was red on the enemy. Since they were so far away from him Ash couldn't see if there was any other difference.
Ash took a deep breath as he ran a bit a ways away from the sibling Mewtwos so that if the fight came to the ground then they would be safe from it. When he was a decent length away Ash released his partners. His larger reptiles let out their battle roars while the others snarled or stood silently. The noise drew the attention of the two Mewtwo in the sky and in a blink of an eye his Mewtwo stood beside him while the other Mewtwo stood opposite of them.
"This is your so-called back up, then?" the deep male voice sounded in Ashs' head, but he did his best to not show how startled he was from it. The voice was much deeper than his partner, and he couldn't help but shiver at the hatred coating the words.
"It would be in your best interest to not anger him and his pack," His partner replied, pain filled Their voice, but They still spoke strongly.
"What more could a human brat do to me than you, who Father created to stand above the masses?" The Black Mewtwo taunted as he spread his arms in the air, "What has this mere human done, to earn your devotion, little brother? Father has done more for us. It would do you well to remember that."
"I am not your brother!" Mewtwo protested with a growl, "That man has done nothing for us!"
"HE GAVE YOU LIFE!"
"HE ONLY GAVE ME PAIN!"
Ash took in a shuddering breath, the tension and hatred in the atmosphere threatened to choke him. He looked between the two Mewtwo during this lull in the fighting. So this other Mewtwo was older than his partner, and seemed more brainwashed than the others. Was it Giovanni this Father? Ash could only assume.
"That man has only ever given me pain, abused me, neglected me, threw me away like yesterdays' trash," His Mewtwo said softly, voice tense but controlled, "I don't owe that man anything. I've overcome him. I've become better than him. And one day I'll make sure no one remembers that mans' name!"
"Then I will gift Father with your corpse!"