"I'm giving it a go!" Ash said. "I'd love to understand Pikachu – and all Pokémon – better!"

"Well, that's what it's here for," Lily replied. "So, go ahead."

"Pika, Pikapi!" Pikachu noted, as Ash carefully took a drink of the magic potion they'd spent so long trying to make.

Then there was an indescribable pulse of golden light, and when it faded there was a weird white-and-gold Pokémon about the size of a Stantler standing next to the cauldron.

With Ash's hat on its head.

"Huh?" the Pokémon said. "What just happened?"

"What kind of Pokémon is that?" Misty said. "I've never heard of a Pokémon with a ring like that. Wait – Ash? Is that you?"

"Of course it's me!" the Pokémon replied, then noticed that he'd waved a hoof around instead of a hand. "Oh, wow, it turned me into a Pokémon instead of making it so I could understand Pokémon? That's weird."

"I guess you do have a better idea of what it's like to be a Pokémon now, Ash," Pikachu said.

"Oh, wow!" Ash enthused. "I did understand that, Pikachu! So it works!"

"This is not in the grimoire," Lily said.

"Hey, I should check what Pokémon I am now, see if my Pokédex can recognize me," Ash said, reached for his bag, and paused. "Oh, uh… I guess I don't have hands at the moment. Pikachu, can you help?"

"Sure thing, Ash," Pikachu agreed. "This is actually kind of funny… I wonder what you are."

He rummaged in Ash's bag, then brought out the red block of the Pokédex and flipped it open. "Uh… how do you get it to scan?"

"It's the big button!" Ash answered. "Professor Oak said that way it was impossible to forget… though, uh, sometimes I still did at first."

"And… there!" Pikachu said, proudly, as the Pokédex went beep.

"Unknown. There are still some Pokémon yet to be discovered," Dexter reported, which made Ash droop slightly.

"Aww," he sighed, then perked up. "That-"

Dexter wasn't done, though. "This Pokémon knows the egg move Recover."

"Hmm," Ash said. "So if Dexter doesn't know what I am, that must mean I'm a rare Pokémon, right?"

"Huh," Pikachu summarized. "I could believe it, Ash."

He blinked. "Wait. Egg move?"

"Egg move?" Brock repeated. "That's a word for a move a Pokémon knows because of who their father was…"

Delia Ketchum picked up the phone.

"Hello?" she said, then brightened. "Ash! It's nice to hear from you!"

"Hi, Mom," Ash's voice replied. "Listen, uh… I kind of need to ask about Dad. Because apparently I inherited a move from him?"

Delia blinked, not really sure what to say.

"There was this potion, you see, and… well, the witch we met has done some magic and apparently the Pokémon it turned me into is my real form and always was, or something?" Ash went on. "And then my Pokédex said that I had an egg move, which is a move inherited from a Pokémon parent…"

Ash's Mom insisted on more details from him about what he meant by magic, and how he'd been turned into a Pokémon, but once that was done there was a silence on the phone for several seconds.

Ash looked down at the phone he was kneeling in front of, then up at his friends.

"Do you think it broke?" he asked.

"Sorry, baby," his mom replied. "I'm trying to make sure I've got everything lined up before I say it, because…"

She paused, again, but this time not for long enough to make Ash wonder if the phone call had ended.

"There's a reason you never knew your father, Ash," she said. "You see… oh, I didn't want to tell you this because I couldn't work out how, but… you were sort of an accident."

"An accident?" Ash repeated.

"I don't mean that I didn't want you, Ash," she explained. "I mean that I never talked about the idea with your father. And when… well, when you were on the way, and I told him, he said that he wasn't ready to be a father."

She sighed. "He didn't run away, or… at least, I don't think I can call it that. He stayed around for a few weeks, and – well, wrapped up his affairs, and he said he'd make it so that I'd be comfortable."

"Comfortable?" Ash repeated. "Uh… what does that mean?"

"Ash, what's my job?" Mom asked.

"I…" Ash thought about that. "I don't think you have one?" he realized. "Huh."

"That's why," she replied. "A lot of this is as much of a surprise to me as it is to you. As much of a mystery to me as it is to you. But… whatever was going on, Ash, I can't actually explain it. And I don't know who can."

Ash thought about that.

"Well, I guess I've got a new thing to do on my Pokémon Journey!" he said. "And I've got a to-do list! Step one, work out how to hold Pokéballs now. Step two: Keep going on my Pokémon journey!"

"I think there's a few more steps than that, Ash," Brock protested. "You're a Pokémon now."

"Is it even legal for a Pokémon to be a Pokémon trainer?" Pikachu said.

"Oh, good point, maybe I should call Professor Oak about that," Ash agreed. "He'll know."

"Know what?" Misty said. "Are you going to keep doing this, Ash? We can't understand Pokémon?"

"There is still some of the potion left-" Lily began.

"No way!" Misty replied. "I don't want to end up stuck as a Pokémon, it'd probably be a Bug type anyway!"

"Good luck, baby," Ash's mom said. "Do you want me to let Professor Oak know what's going on?"

"Yeah, I guess," Ash replied. "I was just going to phone him myself, but I don't know if he's in… actually, maybe it should wait until I visit the next Pokémon Centre, I want to let the rest of my Pokémon know."

"You should probably let the rest of them know, full stop," Pikachu said. "I bet it's going to be a surprise for all of them."

"Yeah, I'll do that," Ash agreed. "Thanks for answering my questions, mom!"

"I'm confused," Phanpy said, a few minutes later, and sat back with a thump. "You're wearing Ash's hat, are you really Ash?"

"Yep, that's me!" Ash agreed, then Bayleef thumped into him.

"You've got four legs now!" she said. "It's much better than two legs, you fall over a lot less!"

"I guess I might agree with you once I work out how to carry Pokéballs," Ash replied. "I don't have vines like you do, Bayleef."

"Oh, good point," Bayleef agreed, thinking. "Umm… maybe one of us can throw Pokéballs for you? Pikachu can, I can, Totodile can… Heracross could…"

"Yeah, that's true," Ash agreed. "But I bet Totodile's more interested in dancing."

"Dancing's important, because it's fun!" Totodile said, with impeccable logic. "Plus it lets you practice moving around!"

"If you can understand us now, I've got a few things to say," Noctowl piped up from her branch. "Specifically, Confusion. Do you have any idea why it's called that?"

She waved her wing around. "Because, yes, it can confuse other Pokémon, but less well than Confuse Ray and no more than Psybeam, and it just involves a burst of psychic energy. It just seems badly named."

"I… don't think I'm the one who decided that," Ash replied. "So you'd have to talk to whoever was in charge of Pokémon attack names to decide that."

He frowned. "...huh."

"What is it, Ash?" Cyndaquil asked. "That sounds like you've just worked out how to do something amazing again!"

"I just thought about how I'd handle the problem I've got right now if I were the Pokémon," Ash said, sitting back on his haunches, and glancing back to make sure the ring around his middle wasn't about to touch the ground. "Noctowl, do you think you can teach me Confusion?"

"Ash, this is fascinating," Professor Oak said, through the video phone.

Confusion was still something Ash was working on, despite Noctowl's best efforts and what Misty called 'a natural talent', and so the actual examination going on was being done thanks to Pikachu – moving Dexter around, taking care not to trip over the wires connecting Ash's Pokédex to the computer, and taking Professor Oak's advice on what to look at more closely.

Brock was helping, too.

"Now, ah, materials," Oak said. "What is that ring made of? What does it feel like?"

"Ash, can I?" Brock checked, got a nod from Ash, and tapped gently on the ring with a pair of tweezers. It rang, and Brock listened to it before frowning.

"Definitely metal," he said. "I'm not an expert, but I'd say it's gold, only Ash doesn't weigh enough for that."

"And I did feel that," Ash volunteered. "It didn't hurt or anything, though."

Brock was moving on to the gems, one at each point where the spokes crossed the two crescents making up the half-complete wheel, and looked closely with a magnifying glass.

"They don't match any gemstone I can think of," he said. "At least not from looking closely. Someone who was actually a jeweller might be able to tell better, but… that's not me."

"That's fine, Brock, this much help is very useful," Professor Oak replied, typing furiously. "Are the hooves the same?"

"They feel the same when I touch something with them," Ash said. "If that helps?"

"It helps a lot," Professor Oak agreed. "Let's see… smooth leg form, narrowing to a point… you don't have trouble balancing, do you?"

"A bit!" Ash agreed. "But not much. It feels like standing on my human feet except for how I've got my weight more forward, I think."

"And – what about that white surface, in general?" Oak asked. "Is that smooth skin, or hide?"

"It's fur," Pikachu said.

"It's fur," Ash agreed, repeating Pikachu. "Really fine fur, is what Brock said."

Oak tapped on something else on his end, and Dexter's camera whirred.

"Let me see," Oak said. "Zooming in… and again… yes, that's extraordinarily fine. Do you even get wet?"

"Water usually sort of rolls off, mostly, but not completely," Ash answered. "Then it dries out really quickly."

"It's about five millimetres thick," Brock supplied. "But it feels solid unless you get really close. I haven't tried to cut it yet and I sort of hope it's not necessary…"

Professor Oak kept thinking up new questions, but eventually he'd run out of things to check on.

"Well, then, Ash," he said. "Remember to let me know anything that happens to you. You're a completely new Pokémon that we have no record of, so try and pay attention to even something that seems minor, because it could be very important."

"Got it, Professor!" Ash agreed. "Now, can you send some of my Pokémon through?"

"I can indeed," Oak confirmed. "Let's see… there's Bulbasaur, Muk, Heracross, and Kingler all waiting to see you, though I think Snorlax is asleep and I don't think Tracey has managed to catch up to the Tauros yet to tell them…"

He paused. "Oh! And that reminds me, Ash, I've already checked, and it seems that there's some rules about all this because of the existence of Zorua and Zoroark, Pokémon which pretend to be humans, and some of them pretend to be trainers."

Oak smiled. "That's good news, of course. All you're going to need is a second Trainer Card reflecting your natural form if you want to lead your team in official battles in your natural form – it's a proof that you're the same trainer. I'm going to use the photos from this examination to finalize that, so I should be able to send it to you in a day or two."

"That's great, Professor!" Ash said brightly. "And thanks for taking the pictures, Pikachu!"

"Todd Snap has nothing on me," Pikachu announced.

"I had to use Dexter to confirm I was me when I got into the Pokémon Centre, so it's good to know that's going to be sorted out… and, uh, let me know if you find out what I am?"

"Of course," Professor Oak said, then a vine snaked into view and hit a key. "Oh! It seems Bulbasaur's eager to visit you!"

"What did he do?" Brock asked.

Then Bulbasaur put his Pokéball on Pokémon Transfer System and returned himself. A moment later it activated, materializing a Pokéball next to Ash and Brock, and the most senior non-Pikachu member of Ash's team came out to have a look at him up close.

"What has he gotten into this time?" Bulbasaur asked.

"Hi, Bulbasaur!" Ash said, waving a hoof. "That was really clever of you… and I don't know, but I guess we'll find out!"

"Umm…" Ash frowned, concentrating hard. "I really should be able to do this…"

The Pokéball refused to move.

"You're… actually, I can't tell if you're trying too hard or not hard enough," Noctowl admitted. "I'd have a better chance of telling for sure if I was actually psychic. And you might have a better chance of doing it yourself if you were psychic."

She flapped her wings. "But, well, neither of us is psychic."

"Thanks for the help anyway, Noctowl," Ash said, looking back at his Flying-type perched neatly on one of his spokes. "How's that as a place to sit, anyway?"

"Quite comfortable, actually," Noctowl reported.

"Then, uh… well, we are getting close to Blackthorn, right?" Ash asked.

"Yes," Brock agreed. "And also, what are you thinking of, Ash?"

"Well, I can throw my Pokéballs myself," Ash explained, waving a hoof. "Because the gold bits sort of stick to things if I try. So if Noctowl can help me by giving me the right Pokéball to use, then I can be the one to throw it! It'll mean I can't catch a new Pokémon as easily until I get Confusion working properly, sure, but it means I won't have to delay my Pokémon League journey!"

"Ash, it's months until the Silver Conference," Misty retorted. "You could wait until you've got this sorted out? If you want to actually do the Silver Conference at all, while you still don't know what species you are."

She looked at Pikachu. "You get what I mean, right? Ash is acting like all he needs to do is to work out how to move Pokéballs with his mind and then he's going to the Pokémon League."

"It's still Ash," Pikachu replied. "Haven't we known him for long enough that we wouldn't expect anything else? This is still Ash, he hasn't changed one bit, and he's not letting this get him down. Would you prefer him to be upset?"

Misty looked troubled.

"I just realized I can't speak Pokémon, and that was a lot longer than a yes," she said. "So… Pikachu doesn't agree with me?"

"He doesn't, yeah," Ash confirmed. "I guess you've got a point, Misty, I should find out what I am at some point, but I'm not going to do that just sitting around. If it's Professor Oak who's going to find it out, he'll find it out anyway, and if it's me who finds it out by running into someone who knows, I should just keep going on my journey!"

"Is that you finding an excuse to do what you were going to do anyway?" Noctowl asked, curious.

"Don't know!" Ash admitted, then reached down with his hoof and touched the gold part to the Pokéball. It picked it up as if the two were magnetized, and Ash held it out. "Come on out, Snorlax!"

Snorlax made a sort of snoozing noise.

"Do you want to work on Ice Punch now, or before dinner?" Ash asked. "We can do either, I want to make sure you have a choice!"

Snorlax appeared to be either asleep or deep in thought, then rose to his feet.

"I would not want to delay dinner," he decided.

"Great," Ash said. "Let's get to work!"

"That was… unexpectedly troubling," Clair said, the next day. "Does this happen around you a lot?"

"You mean Team Rocket?" Ash checked. "Yeah, it happens all the time… they show up and try to steal something, about half the time it's Pikachu, and we drive them off. It's happened more than a hundred times in Johto."

Clair blinked. "I… already had questions about why you're a Pokémon, but now I have more of them."

"Oh, the Pokémon thing is magic," Ash said. "Or, I think the reason why I was born human was probably magic, and then the potion that broke the probably-magic spell was definitely magic, it was meant to turn me into a Pokémon, we think?"

He shook his head. "But it turns out I was already one and this is how I'm supposed to be. Anyway, I've got both trainer cards, so, can we do a gym challenge match?"

"Well," Clair began.

Then there was a roar.

"What's going on?"

Pikachu jumped from Ash's back to the tip of one side of his ring. "Charizard, hold on a moment!"

"Charizard?" Ash asked, turning, and waved. "Hi!"

Charizard's wings slammed out, and he hammered the air to slow down. Then he landed, in front of Ash, and sniffed him dubiously.

"Where did you get that hat?" he asked.

"I sent in postcards for it!" Ash replied. "It's great to see you, Charizard!"

"Ash," Noctowl hinted. "You were literally just talking about this."

"Oh, yeah," Ash realized. "I forgot Charizard didn't know about it… so, I'm now a Pokémon, because of magic! Hey, want to help in my gym battle?"

Charizard considered him suspiciously for a few more seconds, as behind him Charla and her trainer landed, then he scratched his chin.

"How are you with being set on fire?" he asked.

"I've got fur now, I don't think we checked if it can catch fire, though," Ash said.

"Hmm, right voice," Charizard said, thinking. "Maybe you are Ash, then."

"Trust me, he is," Pikachu provided. "This is just another of those times like Shamouti, or Greenfield, or the Lake of Life."

"Lake of Life?" Charizard said. "I didn't realize I missed one."

"I think you missed two, there was this other place but I'm not meant to talk about where..."

"Why is Charizard here now?" Misty asked. "Is this more of Ash's luck?"

"Actually, Liza brings the Charizard from the Charcific Valley here to train," Clair supplied. "I didn't realize this one was yours, though, Ash. He's really in great shape now."

She looked curious. "Do you really have two trainer cards? Why?"

Noctowl's eyes glowed faintly, and she lifted Ash's trainer cards out of one of his saddlebags. Pikachu took them, then jumped off Ash's golden ring, and showed the important one to Clair.

"I've never seen a registry for a Pokémon as a trainer, but it fits," she decided. "Well, either I start asking questions and we never get to the battle, or we get to the battle now and I start later…"

Thanks to Noctowl's help, providing Pokéball switching when Ash needed it, and thanks to contributions by Pikachu, Charizard and Snorlax's Fist (all of them equally valuable combatants), Ash battled his way through the Blackthorn Gym's challenge and earned himself his eighth and final Johto badge.

"Well done, Ash Ketchum," Clair said, as she recalled her Dragonair. "I have a question for you."

"Is it about Ash being whatever he is now?" Misty asked.

"No, actually," Clair replied. "I've got lots of questions about that. I've got a question about Ash's training style as well, though."

She nodded at Charizard, still out and trying to work out whether to appeal to Charla for sympathy or declare it wasn't necessary, then in Ash's direction more generally. "I believe the Charizard is a veteran of your Indigo Pokémon League run, but he didn't do well then?"

"No, I really didn't handle Charizard well," Ash admitted freely. "It wasn't until months later that we worked things out. And Pikachu's my starter, so that's obvious… Snorlax is newer, though."

He made a sort of head-tossing motion that was sort of like a shrug. "I've been trying to use a lot of my newer Pokémon, but I don't get to see Charizard much any more so it seemed like a great time to bring him on."

"That was what I was wondering about," Clair replied. "It's all too easy for a trainer to rely on the same Pokémon in their second League, but it sounds like you're growing your team. That's good."

She smiled. "As this is your eighth Johto badge, I thought I'd check."

"I've had to do that, before," Brock reminisced. "Not very often, though."

"I haven't," Misty admitted. "What's it like?"

"You don't have to be all thoughtful about it…"

As Brock started explaining that, Ash trotted forwards and reached out for the Rising Badge.

The moment he took it, though, he changed colour.

"What?" Pikachu asked.

"What just happened?" Clair said. "That's not a coincidence, right?"

"What do you mean?" Ash said, looking around, and caught sight of his ring. "I just heard some voice I didn't recognize say something. Huh… I've gone purple now. Is that on all the gold bits?"

"Is what- oh, what now?" Brock asked. "Ash, can you get your Pokédex out? Professor Oak's going to want photos."

"Noctowl, can you help?" Ash asked, and Noctowl's eyes glowed again.

She lifted Ash's Pokédex out of his saddlebags, and Ash put down the Rising Badge so he could do part of passing Brock the Pokédex. The moment he did, though, his metal regained its golden colour and the exposed hide on his belly and head changed back from green to black.

"Ash!" Pikachu said urgently. "What did that voice you heard say? Repeat it before you forget it!"

"Uh… right, um, three beings were born to bind time and space," Ash recited.

"That sounds familiar," Clair decided. "It's something to do with the dragon gods, Dialga and Palkia, which are the gods of time and space. I don't know what it means by three though."

"I don't know why I heard it at all," Ash said, and poked the Rising Badge again. He changed colour for a third time in less than a minute, cocking his head on its side, then shook his head. "Nope, didn't hear it that time."

"...let's get those photos," Brock decided. "And can I check if your ring is still metallic?"

"Sure!" Ash agreed.

"Can you do orange?" Charizard asked. "Orange is a good colour."

An hour or so later, and some way to the west, Lily the witch looked up in surprise at the sight of a Charizard approaching.

"That could be a problem," she said, reaching for a bottle, then frowned and looked closer. "Murkrow, is that…?"

"Misty, Misty!" Murkrow replied.

Sure enough, Misty was riding on the back of the Charizard, and she got off a bit unsteadily once Charizard had landed.

"I really hope you haven't moved your cauldron in the last several days," she said. "Ash was around here when he took that potion, right?"

"Yes, why?" Lily asked.

"Because that idiot didn't even think to check what had happened to his Badges until he earned a new one!" Misty replied. "They were all pinned to his jacket, which, vanished or something… and he didn't realize until he tried to pin the Rising Badge to his jacket which he doesn't have any more. So I really hope the badges just fell off when his jacket disappeared, or we're going to have to work something else out."

"Hmm," Lily said, then turned to Murkrow. "Do you know something about that?"

Murkrow looked shifty.

"If you did collect them, well done," Lily told the Dark-type. "It helped out. We just need them back now so Misty can take them to Ash."

"I guess I can trade you a couple of Cascade Badges?" Misty decided. "Oh, uh, right…"

She turned to Charizard. "Thanks, sorry, I forgot to say that before."

Charizard made a sort of rumbling noise.

"So, none of the rest of them do that colour changing thing," Ash decided, putting the Zephyr Badge back down in his new badge case. "I guess that's going to be a mystery for a while. Thanks for picking them up, Misty!"

"No problem," Misty said, after some consideration. "So, what are we going to do now? Are you going to do the Silver Conference?"

She looked conflicted. "It'd be weird for you to take part as a Pokémon, but I guess I can't come up with a good reason you shouldn't. Unless you just go and hide, and that doesn't seem like you at all, Ash."

"That's right," Ash agreed. "This is who I am now, and, I don't know what that is, but I'm still me inside. And I'm not going to give up on my dream of becoming a Pokémon Master!"

"Whatever that means," Pikachu said.

"It means being the best," Ash replied. "And not just the best at Pokémon battling. That's cool, but… I guess I mean that, I don't want to win because I have strong Pokémon. I want to win because I've made my Pokémon strong."

He waved a hoof. "I know that's a sort of similar but not the same thing, it's only a bit different, but it's important to me. And apart from that… mostly it's just that, there's nothing I can't do. I can work with my Pokémon to do anything I have to, I can know how to solve problems… it's that kind of thing."

"I guess that makes sense," Pikachu nodded. "And I'd be happy to go all the way with you, Ash."

Noctowl decided on her own initiative to put Ash's badge case in his saddlebags.

"But it's still months until the Silver Conference," Ash added, mostly to himself. "I guess… I should spend the time training you guys to make sure you're ready for it, especially because I can now talk to you!"

"First, we're taking a vacation," Misty said, in no uncertain terms. "We'll have to go back to New Bark Town anyway, unless we trek past Mount Silver to get to the Silver Conference, and if we go south to New Bark Town we can visit Alto Mare. That's a city I've always wanted to visit."

She looked at Brock. "What do you think?"

"I think Alto Mare sounds great," Brock replied. "It's supposed to be full of canals… and girls!"

Charizard tripped Brock up with his tail.

AN:

Yeah, another idea seems to have legs. (Four of them, specifically.)

The cover art is largely based on the Arceus Sugimori picture, but modified by me to reflect how Asheus actually looks. It's by... me, because apparently I can art a bit.

And no, nobody has any idea what an Arceus actually looks like. Even in Hisui (which is not-very-far-in-the-past Sinnoh) the Arc Phone goes without comment, which I am using to conclude that what Arceus looks like is very, very rare information.