Chapter Text
Meanwhile, In Striaton City
"I hope everything with your meals was to your liking, gentlemen?" Cress wrung his hands with a polite smile and a curt bow after he collected the two empty plates and cups from Table 12. The bespectacled blonde man to the left of the 16-year-old gym leader/acting waiter gave a curt nod, with the distinguishing blue cowlick that jutted from his forehead bobbing as he did so. The man to Cress' right, balding yet impressively mustachioed, grunted in either affirmation or annoyance. He had been a demanding customer to please, but the Striaton Brothers always did their very best to ensure no one who entered their restaurant left feeling unhappy. "Is there any way that I can further serve you?" The key to customer satisfaction was always allowing them to be waited on - people never wanted to feel smothered, but they didn't want to be left alone, either.
"A vanilla caffè latte would be much appreciated after such a heavy salad." The blonde man co*cked his head toward Cress with a curious glint in his topaz-yellow eyes. Cress nodded and turned his attention to the other diner, masking the grimace that tried to worm its way to his face as he saw him comb his red facial hair for crumbs. "And you, Mr. Mamba? Would you like a digestif?" The bespectacled man enquired on his dining companion's behalf.
Cress jolted on his feet as 'Mr. Mamba' banged a fist down on the table. "I've told you at least ten times already, it's Dr. Namba! And yes, I'll have a cup of coffee - lots of milk but no sugar; I'm sweet enough." The mustachioed doctor ordered in a rough, scratchy voice that was the farthest thing from being called 'sweet,' but it wasn't Cress' place to say so. He offered the duo another nod and walked away from Table 12 with their empty dishes in hand. "And if you want me to return to this dump, put some fish sticks on the menu!" The doctor called out from behind, garnering the attention of a few of the surrounding diners and a hidden frown from the retreating Cress as he walked back into the kitchen.
"I thought your Remoraid à la meunière looked positively scrumptious." The blonde man offered Dr. Namba a smile, but when he saw that Cress had left the dining area, it melted off his face as he leaned over the table. "And I also thought we agreed that we wouldn't publicly use our real names. Are all you Johtonians this crass, or is it just you?" He spoke hushedly so that others wouldn't hear what they were discussing.
"Johto? Now, where did you get an idea like that, Colress?" Dr. Namba smirked as his fellow scientist glared at him from across the table. "I'll have you know I come from Orre. Johto was just the place of my first employment within Team…Helicopter." The mustachioed scientist's grin wavered after almost slipping out the word 'rocket.' Colress sighed and leaned back in his chair, twirling his cowlick around with an index finger.
"Orrean. Of course, you're from Orre." Colress rolled his topaz eyes under his glasses and huffed. "That explains so much…"
"Eh? Are you trying to imply there's something bad about being Orrean?" Dr. Namba scowled at Colress with a raised eyebrow.
Colress shook his head. "Oh, no, I'm sorry. That was very unprofessional of me. I'm sure Orre is a wonderful pl—" But Colress' apology was interrupted by Dr. Namba's face splitting into a snigg*ring grin as he laughed.
"Hah! I'm just pulling your leg, Colress. Orre is a cesspool, always has been and always will be. That doesn't mean I'm not proud of my home region, but…well, to put it lightly, my talents would have been wasted if I stayed. No, I'm afraid the world's become far too interconnected for me to ignore the opportunities to be had under…certain organizations." Dr. Namba brought his elbows on the table and tented his fingers, eying Colress behind them. "Hence why I'm in Unova." He narrowed his eyes and widened his grin.
"You suffer from an excess of self-worth, Mr. Mamba - yes, I know what I said." Colress put a hand up to stop the doctor before he could lose his temper again at the misnaming. Dr. Namba smoldered in his chair while Colress went on. "Do not get me wrong; your intellect is undoubtedly a cut above the rest of the commoners. However, I only accepted your proposal for this meeting because of an unexpected snag in my organization's agenda. If everything had gone according to plan, I can assure you we would not be having this conversation."
"Then why am I even here if I'm so unwanted?" Dr. Namba growled, then glanced around the restaurant. "And while I'm asking questions, why did you choose this rinky-dink joint to talk to me anyway?"
"This 'joint' is one of the best restaurants in Unova, also the Striaton City Gym. I wanted to get a decent meal and a seat for a Pokemon match out of this, at the very least." Colress tugged his lips up in a slight smirk as Dr. Namba fluttered his eyes in shock. The mustachioed scientist surveyed the restaurant again, seeing nothing to indicate the eatery as a venue for gym battles, but then Colress pointed a hand down to the floor, and when Dr. Namba followed his gaze, he saw that the tiles were colored and arranged in such a way to make it look like a battlefield. "And, like I said, something's gone wrong yesterday. Suddenly, my little project became my superior's sole focus, and new obligations came with it. My project would have been done by myself and my current staff in about…oh, I say less than a year, but that's not fast enough anymore, so you can imagine how much my mind changed regarding that coded letter saying you wanted to defect from Team Helicopter."
Dr. Namba's face morphed back into a confident smile, though it was much more subdued now that he had the full context of why he was here. "Let me tell you something about Team 'Helicopter,' Colress - they have no real ambition. Sure, money makes the world go round, but It's been getting chafing working for such bean counters. So many of my projects that could have turned the world on its head were shelved simply because there was no profit to be had. I'm not a romanticist; I've got no patience for idle pastimes, especially at work, but a man can only take so much before the lack of appreciation starts to itch." Dr. Namba darkly muttered the last of his speech before chewing a little on his lower lip. Colress gave a neutral arching of an eyebrow as if to encourage the man to go on, though with an ego as big as his, Colress suspected the doctor didn't need the incentive. "So, when the rumor mill started flowing about how operations were soon being expanded into Unova, I thought of something: when you're in war, it's best to be on the winning side, eh?"
"Team Rock- I mean, Team Helicopter's coming to Unova?" Colress widened his eyes under his spectacles. Dr. Namba grinned as he felt the weight of his dining partner's attention settle down on him like a lovingly knitted blanket. "That…is news. And you don't have faith in your organization's capabilities to see this upcoming 'war' to the end."
"No." Dr. Namba was blunt. "Their standards have been slipping for some years now - the kind of agents the boss has been willing to put up with is questioningly competent at the best of times, while the rest of the time they're outright Neanderthals - actually, that might be an insult to Neanderthals. If the rumors are true, and I'd wager my doctorate they are, the boss' scope of what he wants with this region is completely out of pace with the reality of what the grunts can do."
"So, this isn't something we need to worry about?" Colress glanced at the kitchen door before continuing. "Team Plasma isn't going to be affected by Team Rocket's plans?" Colress whispered.
"That's not what I said, don't put words in my mouth." Dr. Namba sneered as he whispered back. "Just because they lost a lot of their intimidation factor, that doesn't mean they can't still do much damage. Team Rocket is still a criminal syndicate, not some trivial annoyance."
"Well, be that as it may…just that one fact alone makes this trip worthwhile." Colress drummed his fingers on the table's surface as he contemplated how to word this information to Ghestis. "But what makes you so valuable to us? We won't let you in just because you want to join the winning side."
"I assume you're joking." Dr. Namba let out an unamused smirk. "I'm sure you've heard about my… credentials. The Rage Crowns and the Dark Balls? The goal of Team Plasma is to awaken the ultimate potential in Pokemon, yes? Team Rocket tabled my brilliant inventions, all in service of the bottom line…but Colress, there's a reason why I reached out to you, and you alone within your little medieval knights cosplaying group. Your research and mine are very, very alike."
"That's a fair point to make - much of the foundations for this project I'm working on owe a lot to your first forays in the science regarding the powers of a Pokemon when affected by extreme emotion." Colress continued to whisper privately as the rest of the restaurant patrons happily chatted and munched away. "But I've branched off in a completely different direction regarding the 'why's and the 'how's - anger is not the way to unlock a Pokemon's true potential. While the fight-or-flight response in Pokemon makes their abilities much more powerful, it's detrimental to their bodies; are you sure your projects were shelved for money, or was it because every minute in a Dark Ball or wearing a Rage Crown shaved a day off a Pokemon's life?"
"Oh, don't give me that nonsense!" Dr. Namba stopped whispering and started yelling, to the surprise of Colress and several surrounding patrons. "You don't care about the well-being of Pokemon, so don't try to lecture me about what I can and can't do with them! That's the difference between you and me - you're happy to conduct science for science's sake, while I'm goal-oriented, and Pokemon are just a means to those goals! A Pokemon's worth is solely determined by their usefulness to humans!"
Dr. Namba would have gone on more with his speech if it had not been for Table 12's waiter suddenly slamming down two cups of coffee loudly and messily. The mustachioed scientist let out a 'Ye-ouch!' as the hot, heavily milk-laden coffee splattered onto his shirt and coat while Colress took off his spectacles to wipe them clean of vanilla latte drops. "Can I get you anything else, gentlemen?" Cress, the middle child of the Striaton brothers, gave Table 12's diners a too-wide smile that didn't even bother to reach his eyes. "Such as the check?" His voice was flat and level, a far cry from the bubbly demeanor he was putting on earlier.
"Yes, yes, of course. Mr. Mamba, could you please handle this one? I'm afraid I've forgotten my wallet." Colress politely smiled at Dr. Namba while he kept cleaning his glasses, and with his 20/200 vision, it was impossible to see the look of apoplectic fury on the mustachioed man's face as he fished out his credit card. Cress snapped the plastic card away from Dr. Namba's fingers and marched to the POS system to ring Table 12 up. "An outburst like that in a Pokemon gym was not your smartest move."
"Feh!" Dr. Namba was unapologetic, pointedly ignoring the judgmental glares he was getting from the other customers. "Well, what exactly is the way to unlock a Pokemon's potential if it isn't through emotions? Don't tell me you believe in that nonsense about friendship and-... wow, this coffee actually isn't too bad." Dr. Namba's temper diminished by degrees as he sipped his milk coffee - even though half of it was on his shirt and coat, he had to admit it was pretty good.
"Too bad you won't be welcome here ever again." Colress put his cleaned spectacles back over his eyes. "Your research was nearly perfect, but you missed something crucial - emotions don't help Pokemon with their power. They are an obstacle, weighing them down. The solution is not to amplify one emotion and block out all the others, but rather to block them all out."
"Sounds like Team Galactic rhetoric, if you ask me." Dr. Namba frowned.
"Call it as you see it; I won't deny that allegation. But be rest assured, my project is much more limited in scope than what that Cyrus fellow was planning in Sinnoh." Colress reached into his coat and fished out a folded piece of paper. Wordlessly, he handed it over to Dr. Namba, who begrudgingly accepted it. He unfolded it, revealing it to be schematics for a device. A very particular sort of device that sent the synapses in his brain aglow with thought. "Emotions and feelings are just chemicals produced by glands in the body, no more and no less. All they do is impede the cognitive abilities of Pokemon when they should be focused on battling. Imagine it, the perfect army - able to follow orders unquestioningly, yet can still strategize on the fly. No anger, sorrow, or fear - just tactics and obedience."
"...hmmm…" Dr. Namba twirled his mustache in thought as he poured over the schematics. A smile came to his face, small at first, but soon widened as much as his facial muscles would allow as everything about Colress' words clicked at once. "You said you planned on this being done just before the year is out, yeah? Would you believe me If I said I can build something like this in less than a week?"
Could Samuel Oak say his parents loved him? His mother did - his father…he got along with his father. The mother doted, and the father provided; that's how he had assumed an average household was supposed to be, a fallacy that swiftly exploded when he went off on his Pokemon journey. Since he was a boy, he styled his manner of training after his father, not cold, but cool, like a P.E. coach with their students. He wasn't the strict boss of his Pokemon, but he wasn't their friend, either - this behavior went on for a week into his attempt through the Johto gym circuit before he caved in. Sammy wasn't having fun treating his journey like it was just business, and he knew that because he knew it was better to be loved than just tolerated.
When Sammy was transported 40 years into the future, one thought plaguing his mind that he tried to keep at bay was that his mom was no longer with him. He didn't want to live in a world without her - he wasn't ready to live without familial affection. Sammy was so jealous of Ash when he saw him with Celebi and Pikachu sleeping in his arms - it was so painfully evident that he and his starter Pokemon were inseparable. He wanted that same relationship with his Charmeleon, so when Celebi teleported him back to his home time, he emulated parts of himself after the mysterious boy he had made a friend with from the future - this drastically altered the course of his life in the best way. When the Pokemon Watcher began acting like Ash Ketchum, who had a heart of pure gold, a zealous passion for Pokemon, and always went the extra mile for people in need when no one even asked him to run a yard, was there any doubt that Sammy quickly became the world's authority on Pokemon-human relationships?
Years later, when his former student Delia introduced him to her new husband, Sunny Ketchum, he almost blurted out everything. Luckily, an invisible Celebi was there to hit him with a newspaper. When Delia and Sunny's son was born, named Ash, he accepted reality and considered it an honor that fate allowed him to get to know the people who would raise his old friend from the future. But soon, Oak considered it less of an honor and more of a curse. Sunny was an exceptionally kind and cheerful young adult with a lot of love to give regarding his wife and infant son.
But, after a trip to the hospital and a doctor telling Ash's dad to get his affairs in order, Samuel found himself giving away a starter Pokemon to a man living on borrowed time.
No one is ever too old to go on a Pokemon journey or become a trainer, and Samuel Oak took some pride in helping someone live their last days alive feeling accomplished, but was it the right call? He could have put his foot down - he could have told him that his new family deserved to spend as much time with him as possible, and maybe Sunny would have listened and caved in. But that's not what happened - Samuel sent an essential fount of love in Ash's life away on a Journey from which he would never return. That alone was bad enough, but then Samuel found out about the story that Delia was spinning at her late husband's request, and, of course, that meant he had to go along with the lie as well. And it worked; Ash got to live a healthy, normal childhood, never suspecting that the loving dad he tried his best to impress every day had been dead and gone for a long time.
Until today, that is, and Ash's reaction was every bit as bad as Professor Oak worried it would be. "Noctowl! Could you slow down just a little bit, please!" The older human pleaded between pants as he struggled to keep up with the pace of the Owl Pokemon after it found him wandering around the forest with Bayleef. The Leaf Pokemon raced ahead of him, able to keep up with the avian Pokemon flapping its wings just overhead. They had been running for the past 12 minutes, and even though Professor Oak could see the urgency in Noctowl's cries when it beckoned him to follow, he was running out of breath. "Please, I just need…a couple of seconds…to get my str- woah Woah WOAH, what are you doing!?" The human yelped as he found his torso wrapped by Bayleef's Vine Whip, followed very shortly by him being lifted into the air.
"There's no time for a break!" Bayleef grunted out as the vines sprouting from underneath the tightly-curled leaves around her neck flexed their 'muscles,' keeping the surprised Professor Oak above her as she raced on the ground. "Ash needs us!"
"We're almost there, just a couple more minutes," The Shiny Noctowl explained as it continued to soar through the air, dodging errant trees that threatened to impede its flight while Bayleef did the same just below. "And when we get there, let the professor do most of the talking." Professor Oak felt the vines around his rib cage coil tighter after the Noctowl was done cawing.
"Like heck I will!" The Leaf Pokemon cried out angrily. "Ash is my best friend; I'm not just gonna sit back and watch my trainer go through-!"
"If you have any ideas on how you can help him," Noctowl cut Bayleef off in a clipped, overly calm voice, "or any understanding of what Ash is going through, please let me know. That way, I can better appreciate how asinine my attempts to lift his spirits truly were."
"Th-that's not…what I meant, and you know that!" Bayleef staggered in her pace a little before rushing back into rhythm with her gallop across the dirt. Noctowl briefly swiveled its head around 180 degrees to face the grass type following it, and it gave her the briefest looks of raw frustration before returning its attention to the forest ahead. "So I don't have a plan for what I'll do when I find him, big whoop! Maybe I can hug all the bad feelings away and walk him back to his party with him in my vines! What can the professor do that's so important, huh?!"
"I don't think Professor Oak can do much of anything," Noctowl confessed. "But Sammy can talk to his friend."
"Wh-...oh, right." Bayleef fluttered her eyes and frowned as she craned her neck up to see Professor Oak trying to get comfortable in his mid-air vine hold. She didn't want to admit it, but Noctowl was right - humans could carry on conversations with each other, and no matter how close she and Ash were, he was still only working on intuition to figure out what she was saying. Most of the time, Ash hit the nail on the head, but not all the time - if she could speak human, too, she would launch into a mountain of words of how much Ash truly meant to her and how it hurt to see him so upset and how she could be a shoulder for him to cry on. But Bayleef couldn't, and she hated that so much. "So we just let ' Sammy' take the lead while we're stuck on the sidelines?"
"Yes. I don't like it, but ri-right now, what we do and don't like is unimportant." Noctowl let a soft, quivering trill enter its voice for a split second, breaking the facade of composure before he put back up its walls. "We can only do what Ash wants us to do—we'll do something if he asks us to do something, nothing more."
The two Pokemon went on in silence after that, with Professor Oak trying not to wriggle around too much in Bayleef's hold, which she appreciated, as accounting for sudden movements made it hard for her to concentrate on the path ahead until, eventually, voices could be heard from afar. "... those were my grandparents?" The first voice to be identified was Ash, who raised it to whoever he was talking with in a rare expression of ire. "But I thought… you told me those were just a confused old couple looking for directions? How could you… do that to them…?" The birthday boy's bewildered and hurt tone was clear as crystal.
"I didn't know what else to say…they showed up out of nowhere on our doorstep, and you were the one that answered the door, and…" The other voice, Delia's, could be heard as the Pokemon and the Professor approached closer, with anxiety welling in the pit of the latter's stomach. "I panicked. I wasn't ready to deal with them, so I told them never to return. They tried to say something after that, something about ashes, but then I slammed the door shut. I didn't want to know if they were talking about you or…or the urn."
"...urn?" Ash echoed as Noctowl finally led them to where the two humans sat, arriving from the foliage into the small, rock-strewn glade. Sceptile, sitting by its trainer, glanced up as he noticed the return of Noctowl and the arrival of Bayleef with the Professor in her vines. It opened its mouth to say something but shut it in surprise as Ash gripped its left claw hard. The 14-year-old's eyes were wide, and his body spasmed as a dreadful realization hit home. "That p-pot…on the shelf in your room…the one you told m-me never to touch, you said it was just decoration… that's dad?" Ash looked like he had already been through a lot of crying and was about to start up again, and Sceptile finally returned the grip Ash had on its claw by gently wrapping its digits around its trainer's trembling hand.
The sad grimace on Delia's face widened further as she nodded up and down in response to her son's question, a gesture that was interrupted as Professor Oak let out a pained yelp, jolting the mother/son duo. They both turned to the direction of where the older human had landed on his butt after Bayleef's hold on him went slack. The Leaf Pokemon made eye contact with her trainer, and all at once, she realized she was out of her depth. She had seen Ash sad before but never like this; he wasn't merely sad, he was wretched. "...Ash, it's o-okay. I'm here, we're here." Bayleef took a few cautious steps over to Ash. "Everything will b-be alright, just… I'm sorry, you can't even understand me. That's fine; I don't know what to say anyway…"
"O-oh, hi Bayleef…uhm, I'm not really in the mood for Body Slam hugs, okay? Wait, no, I'm sorry, that wasn't nice. I mean, can I just have some quiet-... stupid!" Ash balled the hand that wasn't latched onto Sceptile into a fist and struck his uninjured knee. Bayleef gasped and stopped by Delia's side as she looked into her trainer's angry face - anger directed not at her but at himself. She looked over to the Hoenn grass starter, who wordlessly gestured for her to sit down and shut up, which she did.
"Did Staraptor return yet?" Noctowl asked Sceptile, getting an irritated glare from the Forest Pokemon.
"I don't see her, so obviously she hasn't!" Sceptile snapped before squinting its eyes shut and huffing. "No more stupid questions, okay? Please, I'm not in a good mood."
"Ash, don't hit yourself like that. There's never a good excuse to hurt yourself." Professor Oak recovered from his fall and stood up, dusting off his shirt as he did so. "I know you're upset… and you have a lot of reasons to remain upset, but just as many to stop, as well." He walked over to stand next to Delia, opposite the side where Bayleef had chosen to sit, while his former student looked up at him at a loss for words. His tone of voice was homiletic and pedagogical, the same tone that he used when he taught kids about Pokemon in summer camp, when he taught young adults about Pokemon in university, and when he intervened in the little scuffles that Ash and Gary got into when they were little kids.
"You have a fabulous mother and a great support group of friends, human and Pokemon alike, who want to lift you out of this darkness. I'm not implying that they're a substitute for your…for Sunny, but your bonds with them aren't a lie." Ash hardened his face and scoffed with a roll of his eyes. Maybe those were not the best choice of words. "You're mad with us because we kept a secret from you, but it was a secret to ensure your love for your father never went away."
"...so you're saying you had to do this. You did it for me, or else something bad would happen, is that it?" Ash frowned, wiping away the water pooling at the sides of his eyes. "Just like how you kept it a secret that you knew me from 40 years ago. This is just the same as that, right Sammy?"
"Er…" Professor Oak shifted a little on his shoes. "I suppose, Ash…learning t-to put on a front is a big part of growing up. If I told you I knew you from Arborville, you wouldn't be the same Ash I met all those years ago. And If me or your mother told you the truth about your dad, could you say…" Professor Oak trailed off as he chewed his lip; he didn't like where that sentence ended as he heard it spoken aloud. Sammy was about to ask if Ash thought he would be the same person as he was in Arborville if he knew the truth about his dad, but would knowing alter anything? Professor Oak didn't remember Ash ever talking about his dad back in Arborville, so…well, there was a possibility it would change things, but that was a pretty big 'what if,' too big to justify the decade-long deception.
"I just don't get it, Sammy. Why do adults have to lie all the time?" Ash closed his eyes and lowered his head down. "Do you remember when I was 6, and I was playing around with Gary outside the lab? Gary called me something mean, so I pushed him down the hill, and when you found out, you asked me if I really did that. I said yes, and you got so mad."
"Oh, uhm, yes, I vaguely remember a scene like that." Professor Oak knitted his brow in puzzlement. "But wh-?"
"You got so mad that I started to cry, and I said the next time something like that happens, I would lie so you wouldn't get angry with me." Ash continued his story, staring at the ground as he did so. "Then you said…that even if it hurts, you always have to tell the truth because that's how we learn between what's right and wrong. Telling the truth means knowing the difference between our world and the world we want to live in."
When Ash lifted his head back up, Sammy saw that his friend was crying. "Was that just another lie?" Ash sniffled as tears ran down his raw cheeks again. "Is telling the truth something I'm just gonna have to grow out of?"
"Oh dear…" Noctowl sadly shook its head back and forth as it watched the scene play out in one of the nearby trees. "There are so few ways anyone could answer questions like those."
"No, Ash, n-no…I…we were just trying to keep you s-safe." The former Pokemon Watcher stammered as his confidence slowly diminished. "Your father was an exceptionally kind-hearted man, but you were so young, too young to be exposed to the idea of death. I never enjoyed keeping up the pretense, but it was w-what your father wanted."
"You all keep saying that he was kind, loved me, and was the world's best dad, but how do I know that?!" Ash snapped, then recoiled as he saw the startled faces of the two most important adults in his life. The birthday boy was about to hit himself in the knee again for the outburst before Sceptile reached over and grabbed his fist. Ash struggled initially before looking over at the Forest Pokemon, pleading with its trainer silently to stop with its worried eyes, and eventually, Ash unballed his left hand. "I'm s-sorry…but how can I trust what you say about him? How can I trust him? If he didn't trust me enough to handle the truth… all those stupid letters and cards I wrote him over the years…! I don't care if he thought it was okay because he's been twisting my arm my whole life. I feel so used."
Ash surprised Sceptile by angling his body closer to it, with his back turned away from Delia and Professor Oak. A jolt ran through the Forest Pokémon's body as Ash buried his frowning, slick-with-tears face into the side of its torso. Sceptile was not good with hugs and found the practice too sentimental and handsy, but it pushed past as much of the awkwardness it had. The grass type released its claws on Ash's hands to gingerly encircle the birthday boy's back with its arms. "...there, there?" Sceptile gingerly tried, patting the 14-year-old on the back. "Ash, you'll get through this, alright? I know you don't trust them right now, but you can trust us because we never trick you…c-can I get some help here?"
"Humans lie, Ash…they lie all the time. But we won't." Bayleef took a few cautious steps from Delia's side to rest her head against Ash's neck. His spiky hair tickled her muzzle, but she wasn't in the mood to laugh. "You're so weird, Ash - humans aren't supposed to be as honest as you are. When we first met, you acted so nice, and it took me a while to figure out it wasn't an act. I'm sorry about y-your dad, but you have a great family. They love you… we love you. It's bad they lied, but they weren't doing it to use you. Come home, Ash…" The Leaf Pokemon licked the birthday boy's neck, trying to comfort him in any way she could - there was no discernable reaction.
"I'm losing him…" Delia whispered in a broken voice as she clenched his hands into fists so tight her knuckles turned white. "My baby, please…I never…oh!" Ash's mom brought her fists to her eyes to stop herself from crying again. She couldn't find the words to say that would magically fix everything so they could all return to Oak Corral like nothing ever happened. Professor Oak looked between her and Ash, trying to salvage the situation. Ash blinked an eye open as he kept up his hug with Sceptile and cast its gaze over to the Professor, and that's when the 54-year-old finally saw that this wasn't the same Ash he met in Arborville - this was a teenager going through angst he had a hand in causing, starting to put up walls against the outside world because his friend from the past never considered how much he had changed.
"I'm so sorry, Ash…I guess I haven't been a very good friend, have I?" 'Sammy' bent his knees to sit on the ground with his former student so he could be on the same eye level as her son instead of looming over him. "You've grown up so much… you're not the 10-year-old on his first day as a trainer anymore. You're not the 11-year-old that changed my life 40 years ago. You're 14 today, but I was still treating you like time's been standing still, like you were forever just a kid. I thought that…I suppose it doesn't matter what I thought I was doing; in the end, I just let you down." He no longer could stand making eye contact with the birthday boy, letting out a shaky sigh as he brought his chin to his chest and his gaze to the ground. Even though the incident with the Lake of Life had been resolved, it didn't dawn on Samuel that he was living in an even more far-off future than the one Celebi had brought him so long ago.
It felt like Sammy, the 10-year-old Pokemon trainer, had traveled into a future where Ash was 14—still the same but different in ways that confused him. "I don't know what you're going through, Ash," the 54-year-old confessed. "I know you're hurting, but I don't know how to stop the pain…”
"Hurry back, Staraptor.” Noctowl stopped looking down from its tree branch perch and earnestly appealed to the heavens. Bringing the Professor did not go as it had thought it would, and now the Predator Pokemon and whoever she brought back might be their last chance to get Ash out of his funk. "We need a miracle."
When Sceptile asked Staraptor and Noctowl if they could find their way back to where Ash was if they flew off, the Predator Pokemom wholeheartedly believed in her navigation abilities. As Staraptor soared above the treetops, she had a mental map of the forest with Ash's location at its center, and she knew where she was in relation to that specific area. However, there was, unfortunately, a problem; Staraptor had only been at Oak Corral for a couple of days, so she wasn't as familiar with the skies in this part of Kanto as Swellow and Noctowl were, and getting a feel for landmarks from below wasn't how she spent her time as she settled in and made friends with Ash's other Pokemon. Staraptor knew how to get back to Ash and his mom in that specific spot of the woods, but it only registered in her brain that she had no idea where or how far Oak Corral was from that spot. Consequently, she also had yet to learn if she was flying in the right direction towards help.
"Oh, come ON!" Staraptor screeched as she realized she had been flying west the entire time. Earlier, the sea of treetops under her wings seemed to go on forever, which should have been a hint that she was going the wrong way since the forest wasn't supposed to be that big. It looked that big from above because Staraptor was flying west, mistaking the other woodland on the horizon as part of the one she was flying over. It took Staraptor until she was above Kanto's Route 1 to realize the optical illusion finally. "I mean, seriously?! First, that stupid dodgeball game, and now I can't even double back to the party - I know how to fly, so why am I so bad at it today?!" The Sinnohese avian puffed up in inward-directed annoyance before taking off to the south - then realized she was going north, wailed, and then flew to the south for real this time.
The Predator Pokemon beat her wings as fast as she could against the slight headwind, trying to push her back. She had to make up for lost time going in the wrong direction, but her wings were getting tired, and her stamina had been attenuated. Staraptor screwed her eyes shut to only focus on her movements and tried calling forth a reservoir of energy deep within herself to draw from, a reservoir that she did not have but was hoping she did. "I can't be this out of shape… I've only been spending a few days relaxing at the Corral… I'm supposed to be better at this!" Staraptor complained to herself as she tried to find a different spot in the air that wasn't blowing wind from the south, but no matter where she positioned herself above the forest canopy, she felt the breeze tug at the feathers on her wings and the crest on her head. "Heh…no wonder Ash is going off in Unova without any of us…I can't even fly against a little headwind! Hahaha!" Ash's first catch in the Sinnoh region cawed out mirthless laughter - nothing about this was funny, but laughing was better than crying.
Meanwhile, In Viridian City
"You know that I didn't mean it. You know that, right, Persian?" Giovanni was on the office floor, kneeling before his injured Persian. The office was in a severe state of disarray. Aside from the desk being flipped over, the drapes from the tall windows had been pulled from their rods, a commissioned painting of his mother had been perforated several times with his knee, the computer hooked up to Team Rocket's disconnected network had been shoved to the floor than tossed at the wall, and the desk chair was not were it was supposed to be. The desk chair was lying face down by the locked office door after Giovanni threw it at his Pokemon in response to one too many distressed cries of fear. "I was just a little emotional for a moment. You didn't do anything to upset me; I wasn't thinking straight."
If any of Giovanni's subordinates saw the boss in his current state, he would threaten them with demotion to the lowest possible rank within Team Rocket's echelons if they spoke the scene aloud. His cheeks were flush, his nose was covered in a cobweb of crisscrossing veins, and his eyes, usually always steely, sharp, and focused, now had a glossy sheen. The cheeks and nose came from drinking a whole bottle of bourbon, and the gloss in his eyes came from him being the closest he ever had to crying since he was a petulant teenager. "Get your hands off me." The Persian flatly hissed at Giovanni as he brought a hand to hover over his bruised back, swiping a claw across the underside of his arm in the blink of an eye. "You've done enough."
Giovanni let out a hiss of his own as his Persian tore through his suit to scratch at his arm, but only scratch - the Classy Cat could have dug that claw much deeper than a superficial scratch, and he had ordered him to do so for grievances much more trivial than getting hit by a chair. Giovanni could not help but let out a weak chuckle as he neither advanced nor retreated his arm. "If it were anyone else, I would be livid about my jacket getting damaged. But clothes can be brought and replaced - unlike you." The mafia don abruptly settled his hand down softly against his Pokemon's back, blotchy skin poking out from underneath his fur pelt. Persian growled but didn't attack his trainer a second time. "All of the things in this room are meaningless to me, save for you - only a fool would think for even a second that you were just another bauble. I've been a fool, and I promise you all the hate you have for me right now is but a hundredth of my hate for myself."
"Enough with the dramatics." Persian rolled his eyes and slinked out from underneath Giovanni's touch to deliver him a piercing glare. "Don't do it again." The Classy Cat rarely got so assertive with his trainer, but docility has its limits, and here in this office was one of those limits. Giovanni nodded solemnly - he got the message. The mafia don looked around his office, strewn with detritus made from formerly neatly organized decorations and furniture.
"Look at what they made me do…" Giovanni muttered darkly as a thought shot to the front of his brain, foggy from alcohol. He had been waiting for Jessie, James, and Meowth for over half a day. The boss had gotten a little emotional - he usually didn't ever let feelings get the better of him, but consuming a whole bottle of 93-proof bourbon (a bottle that was meant to be shared in celebration of the cell's promotion) loosened his inhibitions. The mounting irritation with staying cooped up in his office and the frustration from his hour-long call with his mother proved too much, so he let loose his rage onto everything in his sight. "I give those buffoons the opportunity of a lifetime, and this is how they repay me?" Giovanni was a master at shifting blame onto others for his mistakes.
Giovanni looked over to his Persian again, and the moment they locked eye contact, Persian immediately broke it, jolting backward in fear. "What?!" The Classy Cat swatted his tail against his hindquarters and flattened his ears. "What did I do now? Did I breathe too hard? Am I blinking my eyes too much?!" Persian hissed angrily, but everything about his shaking posture indicated fright. Giovanni always intimidated people without batting an eye - it came with the job - but his most precious Pokemon was the one living being on the planet he felt guilty for scaring.
"Never again." Giovanni stood up and rubbed his eyes to ensure they were free of any excess moisture. Fear was a valuable means to keep those under him in line, but Persian didn't need any lessons in obedience - maybe back when it was a bratty Meowth, but he had been his most loyal companion for years. The bruise on Persian's back wasn't a mark of discipline but evidence of an explosive outburst caused by those clowns Giovanni tolerated for so long. "In all my years stomaching that trio's constant flow of failures, I have never been more disgusted with them than I am now. Today's plans have changed." Giovanni took a big breath before unlocking the office door - he had matters to discuss with his consigliere.
"Matori!" Giovanni barked down the hallway, loud enough for his voice to be heard through the walls. Grunts and admins passing through the corridor froze, looked in the boss' direction, and then returned to what they were doing with haste. Giovanni knew how he looked, but now his eyes weren't betraying any weakness, which was all that mattered. He strode down the hall, daring any of those under his employ to comment about how his uncoordinated pace or the woody scent of bourbon stuck to his ripped suit. They did not. "I want an immediate update to Team Rocket's roster to be made!"
Maybe the alcohol in his system was making Giovanni discombobulated. Perhaps this decision was rash. But if Jessie, James, and Meowth had made him angry enough to attack his Persian, he did not doubt such an event could happen again. It's best not to give them the opportunity.
"Any luck?" Jessie raised her voice after an extensive silence between herself, her Wobbuffet, and Arceus. The wind from the south kept brushing the Team Rocket agent's comet of hair from behind, coiling around her stomach as her Seviper would coil around a target, and it kept distracting her from the search for the twerp. The Patient Pokemon leaned up from his bent-over position on the Alpha Pokemopn's back and shook his head sadly at his trainer. The Original One responded silently, indicating it had no good news to share with its riders. "Great, just great. By now, I'm sure he's probably bawling his eyes out like the brat he is and cursing the whole world while we screw around in the sky." Jessie huffed irritably, a huff that turned into a startled yelp as her hair whipped her face.
"On what evidence have you put together this scenario?" Arceus addressed the human on its back without diverting its gaze from the forest below. It had been chasing after the faintest of wispy aura trails for a long while now, little 'gas clouds' left on the world as the people who influence it pass by before the fumes dissolve. Each of these little trails led to a cowering Pokemon that had chosen to hide instead of run in response to Arceus' intense aura of dread - Ash's aural silhouette remained concealed. "Are you implying you are an authority on the character of my hero?" It did not want to hear Jessie's speculations on what kind of torment Ash was going through - it already had plenty of scenarios it had imagined to worry about.
"...I mean, she might be, actually," Wobbuffet spoke before Jessie could respond to the Alpha Pokemon. "S he's been tailing after Ash long before I was her Pokemon, so it's not hard to think she at least knows a little about what makes him tick."
"Your input is appreciated, but my question was directed to your human, Patient Pokemon." Arceus smothered the annoyance in its telepathic tone as best as possible, finally craning its neck to give the duo on its back a sideways glance. "Where are you drawing your conclusions regarding Sir Ash's mental state?" The Alpha Pokemon focused its gaze solely on Jessie, causing the human to flinch back - the lack of progress in finding Ash was causing more and more anxiety in the Alpha Pokemon, and the adrenaline pumping through its ancient body diluted its pupils to the point they were black holes rimmed in thin red irises.
"...personal experience," Jessie explained once she recovered from her initial fright. "I wouldn't be here looking for him if I didin't think he was reacting to all of this the same way I did." The Team Rocket agent affected neutrality, but on the inside, melancholy washed over her in a crashing wave.
"What instance are you referring to?" Arceus slowed its pace to a trot - about the same speed one would drive a car through a suburban neighborhood - and pivoted more of its head backward. Jessie crossed her arms and attempted to ignore the Alpha Pokemon by renewing her search for Ash, but the stare she was getting from Arceus arrested any movements her head might make.
"Maybe you didn't hear me, so I'll repeat it - personal experience," Jessie emphasized with a sneer. Arceus stared at her expectantly, prompting the Team Rocket agent to groan. "'Personal' as in 'private,' you moron! I'm not some open book you can read and pick apart to analyze. Go and play therapist was someone else."
"Jessie, please try to refrain from insulting Arceus." Wobbuffet pleaded with his trainer, clasping his two flippers together in an apparent begging motion. He turned around and gave the Alpha Pokemon an anxious smile with his jagged lips. "I am sure you are quite the intellectual." The blue blob had no idea if Arceus was brilliant, but people got more with wine than with vinegar.
"I am asking because I need to know the extent of the damage I have wrought on Sir Ash." The Alpha Pokemon ignored Wobbuffet and kept its attention solely on Jessie. After ten more seconds of silence, Arceus was the first to break away from eye contact, affixing its vision to some random point in the sky on its right. "I am aware that my curiosity is the reason for this situation. My prying in Sir Ash's affairs caused him much distress - but you also have pried, much more than I, and thus you have context for how horrid my actions truly were. An apology to him is required, but will my hero hear my admission of guilt if I don't know why I feel so guilty?"
Jessie sighed through her nose and rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly as she considered the words that Arceus beamed into her head. Since the secret about what was in the box was no longer a secret for its intended recipient, she supposed there was little harm in letting the Original One know what was inside. It might have been better if the twerp himself told the story, but he wasn't here right now, and Arceus was being insistent. "That letter Ash read was a decade old, written by his dad a few days before he died." Jessie tersely recalled the letter she had read, which was not meant for her eyes and was written by a man who so clearly loved his son. He had so much love for Ash that he roped his wife into a 10-year-long confidence game so that the twerp was spared having to deal with being abandoned. "The twerp thought his dad, Sunny, was still alive up until you shoved the box into his arms earlier. Sunny cared about his son too much to tell him that he'd croaked, so he and his mom told Ash he was on a journey. 'I lied' is what that letter said, in summary."
Arceus fluttered its eyes after Jessie finished talking, falling into what Jessie and Wobbuffet assumed was a contemplative silence. Its trot in the air slowed down a little further, dropping five miles per hour on the imaginary speedometer. After a short while, it finally found some words to say. "That is it?" Arceus co*cked its head back toward the duo on its back. "This is the cause of Sir Ash's anguish? Are you certain the letter's contents did not hold any other revelations?" The Alpha Pokemon made its dumbfoundedness plain as it telepathically asked for more - but there was no more, that was all, besides some childhood reminiscing, Sunny's letter had to say.
"...what do YOU MEAN THAT'S IT?! " Jessie surprised herself with how fast her voice rose from a normal indoor voice to a booming roar, perhaps amplified by the wind blowing all around her that carried her incensed query for miles to the north. Wobbuffet and Arceus flinched back as Jessie's face went pink with boiling blood. "Do you think there's a BETTER reason to want to run away from everything?! Is finding out that your dad is dead not good enough?! Is learning that your mom's been lying to you since you just graduated from wearing diapers not good enough? HUH?!"
Wobbuffet gingerly wiped off some of the foamy saliva that had flown from Jessie's mouth on his forehead with a flipper and wisely backed away until he rested against the base of the Alpha's Pokemon's neck. He instinctively wanted to reach out and hug Jessie, but he forced himself to remember that physical contact did not calm his trainer down; instead, it made whatever she was going through worse. "I w-was not implying that the basis for Ash's departure was foolish." Arceus wasn't afraid of the scowling woman who looked angry enough to try and murder it, but it still was taken aback by how quickly she had gotten to such a state in response to what it said. "I was merely expressing my bafflement for how my hero had become so emotional over-"
"My parents left me, okay!?" Jessie screeched for the whole world to hear - not that there was anyone in the immediate vicinity besides Wobbuffet and Arceus to listen to it. "You wanted to know what I was talking about when I said 'personal experience,' right?! My dad was a bum who left my mom to raise me alone - she could never hold down a job because no one wanted to work with someone who made her husband leave her! She lied and told me he was always just working at night, so I stayed up every night for as long as I could, waiting for him to come home until I passed out!" Her throat burned from how much abuse she was putting it through with the constant yelling, but what she had to say had to be delivered at a screaming pitch.
"J-Jessie…" Wobbuffet tried to say something but was at a genuine loss for words. To his knowledge, he was the only one Jessie had trusted enough to know about her past. But this time, the story was being delivered in a much different context - instead of the halting, hesitant speech between her and him late one night in Sinnoh while James and Meowth were asleep, he was watching his trainer explode at the Pokemon God. The Original One did not earn this story by gaining Jessie's trust but by provoking her to be the most outraged he had ever seen.
"Then, one morning, she was gone, just like that! Poof! She left me a letter on the kitchen table saying how she couldn't afford to take care of me and how she was joining Team Rocket to make more money that would come soon - I didn't get a cent! So I ran! I ran, and I ran, and I ran, wishing that I was dead so that I never had to know what it was like to learn that the person you loved didn't love you back!" Jessie's throat threatened to break out in convulsive spasms as she breathed before talking further. "She never joined Team Rocket! I checked the old rosters, and her name never showed up - she was lying to me because she was too much of a coward to say she was running away from me! Everywhere I went, I ended up being just as much a burden to others as I was to her, so I stole to get by! Is that not…a good enough excuse, huh?! What, are you saying I was stupid…f-for wishing my mom and dad never left? What other r-reason do you want for running away…?"
The angry grimace directed at Arceus was augmented by tears running down her reddened cheeks. The tears flowed despite her eyes having been tightly closed, an action that prevented her from noticing that Arceus had stopped moving altogether in the air. The Architect of All Creation stared at the quietly sobbing human with its maw slightly parted in shock. "…I have not considered that…" The Alpha Pokemon was hatched from an egg gestated by something that does not exist - it had no parents to receive love from, only the knowledge of how to create things to make the universe less empty and cold. It did not know how to care for the things it created and the children it had made. "The withholding of…affection causes anguish in offspring. That is…interesting…to know…”
When Dialga spoke out of line, it was disciplined. When Palkia caused an errant rift in space by accident, it was disciplined. When Giratina shirked its responsibilities over managing the universe's antimatter, it was disciplined. When Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit fought amongst each other, they were disciplined. When all of Arceus' children and grandchildren were obedient, when they performed their assigned duties to the letter without a single flaw, and when Arceus was proud of the family that it made for itself…nothing happened. No discipline, no rewards, no praise, no 'good job's or 'I love you's or anything to that effect. Arceus just returned to its dimension, waiting for the next crisis to be resolved. They didn't need to be reminded of the Architect's fond regard for them - they knew of Arceus' love, did they not?
Jessie's contorted face was eerily similar to the one adorned on the Renegade Pokemon from a time before Giratina was labeled as such, in one of the preceding incidents that led to the avatar of antimatter becoming violent with its creator. Oh. Oh no.
"I s-still do not understand." Arceus was unaware of how the adrenaline in its body had built up to the point its lungs were now stirred to hyperventilation. Its open maw freely sucked up vast swaths of air before exhaling them in humid, rolling puffs that buffeted against the cool wind coming from the south. Why was it acting like this? It knew its children feared it because of how liberal it was with the enactment of punishment. Giratina was the only one of them that rebelled; if the umbrage Arceus garnered with its punishments were indeed a problem, then more than one of its children would have been prompted to hostility. "You described Ash's father as caring. Ash understands the rationale behind the deceit, yes? I am c-certain that this 'Sunny' only had his child's wellbeing in mind when-"
"Architect of All?" Arceus blinked and pivoted its attention from Jessie to her Pokemon, nervously rubbing its flippers together as it saw the Alpha Pokemon make miniature cyclones in the air as it kept hyperventilating. "Uhm…I didn’t think that something like this had to be spelled out, but…just because a parent loves their child, that doesn't automatically make them a good parent. Ash probably doesn't feel very good about being lied to now." Arceus felt dizzy - it had too much oxygen in its blood. Arceus wanted to make its heart stop beating so the blood wouldn't absorb more oxygen. Arceus had no heart.
Why am I not allowed to create things for myself? Why have you cursed me with the burden of caring for antimatter? Have I been made for the sole purpose of being the custodian of your dross? You bestow upon me incredible power, yet I am forbidden from shaping the universe I live in. I beg of you, please let me exercise my talents—I only wish to add to your creation.
An earnest plea for attention was perceived as a threat; the Alpha Pokemon reacted swiftly and decisively. No judgment it cast could be faulty, for it was perfect. That was the thought process it held for so long, with no one able to challenge its rule over the universe it made. It couldn't be a tyrant; its children simply did not possess the same faultless mind it had been imbued with since its hatching. Then Arceus met Ash Ketchum, and-
"Jessie, when we find Sir Ash, you must relate what you have lived through to him as you did to me," Arceus ordered - its telepathic voice was muted and frail, not exactly adjectives associated with the act of making demands of others, but the wording was apparent enough. Jessie finally unlidded her eyes and was about to launch into another screaming fit concerning the audacity of such an order, only to lose her breath as she looked up at the Alpha Pokemon's face - frankly, with its mouth unhinged, its diluted eyes, and the subtle sway of its neck, it looked like it was dying. "You have imparted much knowledge onto me. I have learned much. Perhaps too much at once. You are hurting. Ash is hurting. I seem to keep hurting people. This behavior must stop. Please teach me to stop pushing away the people I care for."
"Wh-wh-wh-what!? Woah, where is all of this coming from? You're making it sound like you're the twerp's dad or something. Look, can you stop rambling for a second?" Jessie rubbed her temples and sighed. "I'm not telling Ash my life story, got it? It's bad enough I lost my cool and told you, but if I give the enemy material like that to work with, Team Rocket will…will…" Jessie fluttered her eyes as she trailed off.
"Are you okay, Jessie?" Wobbuffet walked its four legs over to its trainer in concern, finally feeling comfortable enough to put a flipper on one of her legs now that her temper seemed to have subsided. Jessie regarded the Patient Pokemon blankly before a thin smile wormed to her lips. She patted the blue blob's head affectionately.
"Whatever…" Jessie shook her head. "We're going to have to move on from tailing after the twerp anyways. I can tell him all he wants about me since I won't see him again after today."
"What!?" Wobbuffet shimmied out from underneath his trainer, jolted by the news Jessie was so casually imparting. "Jessica Starr, how could you even…We've always followed around Ash, no matter where he went in the world! Are you seriously considering…that we…leave Team Rocket?" A hopeful cadence entered Wobbuffet's voice as he spoke those last three words, though, to his human, he was just reiterating 'Wob-buf-fet' in a slightly different manner. When he suggested the idea of apologizing in the shed, he got swiped at by Meowth for the trouble, but now…he would follow his trainer's commands, no matter what, but he always secretly hoped that Jessie, James, and Meowth would move on from a life of crime. The family he had been roped into when he was traded for Jessie's Lickitung so long ago would be much happier if they changed course in life.
"It shouldn't be that much of a surprise, Wobbuffet. True, it's a big break from our formula, but you were here when the Pokemon God said it was going to tour Unova with the twerp." Jessie weakly chuckled and brushed away some of the tears that had lingered on her face from her earlier sobbing. "Team Rocket might be an evil, doggedly determined bunch of thieves looking to steal the greatest prize, but that shouldn't mean we're also reckless enough to snag Pikachu out from a kid hanging around with this thing. James and Meowth won't like that we'll have to move onto a different target, but they'll understand."
"Oh… we're still in Team Rocket, I take it?" The blue blob of a Pokemon deflated slightly before quickly recovering his composure. "I mean, uhm, yes, that sounds like a wise idea. Arceus would appreciate us not stalking it and its friend Ash in Unova. It is also, in a way, a birthday gift to Ash—the whole 'not always trying to steal your Pikachu' notion."
"You are assuming too much from my stated intentions." Arceus shook its head slightly hysterically, quickly turning left to right too many times. "Sir Ash has not assented to my proposition. I am not certain if he will."
"You mean because of what you did earlier?" Jessie narrowed her eyes. "What's the big deal? You said you were going to make it up to him. After that, who would turn down the offer to have the most powerful Pokemon by their side?"
"Countless examples come to my mind." Arceus shut its eyes and let out a muffled bleat that made the brains of Jessie and Wobbuffet itch. How could it guide its hero from danger when all it did was cause danger? Its children hated it, wild Pokemon feared it, and the ancient civilization of Michina conspired to kill it.
"Well, get those examples out!" Jessie dug her boot heel into the white-furred equine's flesh as hard as she could - which was not very much, but it got Arceus' attention. The Alpha Pokemon tilted its head in the human's direction. "I already told you that the kid is a freak - he is way too forgiving. If it were anyone else, I'd say you're in trouble, but we're talking about the twerp, and maybe it's because he has a heart of pure gold or he's just an idiot, but it is not hard at all to win him over. You know, half of me thinks I shouldn't be saying this, in the off chance you'll psych yourself out of asking if you can tag along with him, But then that runs the chance of you getting so mad you'll want to destroy all humans like-"
"May you please stop bringing up the events that transpired in Michina?" Arceus telepathically requested while its physical throat released a sad, bassy neigh. "Today was supposed to mark my progress in finally moving past that event. But I continue to…Lady Star, forgive me for provoking you to divulge your secrets; I should not have been so discourteous to you or my hero…It is laughable to consider it took me this long to understand how essential affection is."
"...how did you learn my last name?" Jessie asked with widened eyes. Wobbuffet chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his head, and the Patient Pokémon's trainer remembered Arceus understood Pokemon speak. She gave an irritated pout and glared at her Wobbuffet before sighing with a shake of the head. "Haven't you ever heard the saying 'loose lips sink ships'? I'll let it slide just this once, but information like that is just the kind of gold that the goody-two-shoes police would love to know. That being said…sure, I forgive you or whatever, but…why do you want me to tell the twerp? And what do you mean by me teaching you? I have a vast array of talents to call from, but I'm no schoolmarm."
"You know what it is like to experience love and for that love to leave - that is something that Sir Ash should learn, for he is surrounded by many friends and family who care for his well-being and must be reminded of this if the situation is as dire as you say." The Architect of All explained itself. "As well, at a later date, if you would please, I would like to know what you would like your father to do in the hypothetical event he suddenly reappeared into your life after all this time."
Jessie and Wobbuffet stared blankly at the troubled Alpha Pokemon. The first part of what Arceus had said made sense, but the second part was so unexpected that it took some time to respond. "...huh?" Jessie was the first to voice her confusion.
"...you remember, of course, the reaction that Celebi had upon noticing my presence. It was an intensely negative reaction. Consider how Celebi's parent, my direct offspring Dialga, reacts to my presence. I can assure you it is worse. My family fears me, but I love them…yet I have learned that my affection does not absolve me in their eyes." Arceus dropped its eyes down in shame. Wobbuffet, remembering what he said earlier, paled, transitioning from cyan to a very light shade of blue as beads of nervous sweat collected at his brow. Wobbuffet did not intend to insult Arceus when offering the opinion that love did not equate to competency in child rearing; he was just paraphrasing what he had read in a self-help book for single mothers he had found at a library that one time. Jessie bit her lip at the sight of her Pokemon flailing its arms around, trying to mumble out what she was sure were words of an apology, but the poor thing couldn't even get a single syllable out - he just kept making a 'w' sound. " There are aspects of your parents that I see in myself… I wish to correct this, as I do not care for these aspe-"
Thwack
Arceus was interrupted by something suddenly striking its chest. The white-furred equine snapped to attention and craned its head around and down to see what was attacking it, only to find Ash's Staraptor flapping her wings against its metallic skin in a frenzy, clearly just as shocked as the Alpha Pokemon. "Oh, what the heck?! How do I fly into a tree when I'm tens of feet above the trees!" The Predator Pokemon complained to herself before finally opening her eyes after closing them for her flight's entire duration against the headwind from the south. She looked up and saw Arceus staring at her in equal parts bewilderment and annoyance. "...yo. Uh, sorry about flying into you. Question: what are you doing here?"
"I am looking for Sir Ash Ketchum," Arceus explained, even if it had been taking an extended break from the search to have a minor emotional meltdown with Jessie about how awful it was at being a parent. For as much turmoil as the pause had put Arceus through, Arceus did not regret it, for now it knew what Ash was going through. Ash felt unloved, uncared for, and alone - feelings it had fostered in its children, especially Giratina. If Arceus could stop the dark seed in Ash's mind from germinating, if Arceus could rectify the consequences of its rash judgment, then perhaps…perhaps its family might… "How do you fare in your search for him?"
"Who are you talking to?" Jessie and Wobbuffet poked their heads out from behind either side of Arceus's neck, entering Staraptor's field of vision. "Oh, look, another one of Ash's birds - will this one peck me like the last one?" Jessie grimaced in a deadpan tone.
"...we've already found Ash," Staraptor confessed reluctantly without meeting the eyes of the human, the Pokemon, and the Pokemon God. Wobbuffet opened his mouth in shock while a tremor rocked Arceus' body. "Now I'm trying to get back to Oak Corral. None of us can get through to him, so we need some humans who can hold a conversation with him. He's in a rough spot right now."
"Oh, well then, this must be incredibly lucky for you, bumping into us! We want to help Ash rise out of the doldrums Arceus inadvertently put him in, so instead of flying all the way back to-... Mirror Coat." A bored calling of a move capped Wobbuffet's initially cheery speech as he protected himself from the Predator Pokemon's Quick Attack. Staraptor bounced backward from Wobbuffet after flying straight into his face beak-first, and a scowl crossed her face as she realized no damage had been done. "Was that necessary? I know you don't care for us, but we're in a truce. We're only offering our assistance in-"
"Yeah, that's the thing; when I went to go and get help, the last people on my list to choose from were the woman with more hair than brains, her pet punching bag, and the Pokemon responsible for this whole disaster in the first place." Staraptor listed off Jessie, Wobbuffet, and Arceus. "You three are the worst people that Ash should see right now, so if you'll all stop blocking my way, I'm heading back to Oak C-" Staraptor froze in the air before she could finish talking. Her wings were pressed hard against the sides of her body, yet she was still flying in the air - no, floating was the word. Wobbuffet looked over to Arceus' ring and saw that it was no longer gold but rather cinnabar - Arceus was now a psychic type. The struggling and scowling avian was levitated back to Arceus' front, a spot that allowed her to remember that she was in the presence of God.
"I am aware that the blame for this situation lies solely in me - I am here to correct my mistake. I am prone to imprudent actions and have minimal knowledge of what it means to have friends. Warmth and affection are alien to me, but I am attempting to be more familiar with them by righting the wrong I have done to my hero." Arceus tried to keep its tone level and composed as it stared down Staraptor with its glowing red and green eyes. The Predator Pokemon's struggles in the Architect's psychic hold withered to a stop as it stared into the face of her creator. The sun was shining on Arceus' face, yet the pupils in its eyes reflected no light. "You know of the whereabouts of your human, yet you refuse to relate to its spot with me. You impede the process of my betterment. Are you prepared to suffer the consequences of such actions?"
"You think y-you can get your way with some v-vague threats and a scary leer?!" Staraptor, despite her fear, stubbornly returned the glare she was getting from Arceus with one of her own. "What are you going to do If I say no, huh? You've already done enough damage, but let's see how much more you'll do - will you beat it out of me? Are you going to hypnotize me? Please, tell me about the consequences of protecting my trainer from monsters!"
Arceus closed its eyes, and inwardly, Staraptor let temporary relief wash over her mind. Looking into the eyes of God was a seriously draining effort. Then Arceus parted the grooves of its metallic facial skin, and all of that relief the Predator Pokemon felt evaporated as it began sucking in the surrounding air. It was easy for Staraptor to imagine that the Alpha Pokemon was attempting to eat her, with the force of the air funneling into its maw tugging on her feathers hard, yet the psychic hold it had on her had yet to budge. Once the vacuum that was Arceus' mouth had stopped drawing in air, it opened its eyes again - they were glossing over with tears. " PLEASE - p l e a s e!" Arceus screamed through telepathy and a low-pitched roar that thundered in Staraptor's ears as the white-furred equine's lungs expelled all that they took in.
Arceus had a voice. It was everything and nothing at once. It was the kind of voice that was only supposed to be spoken in the vacuum of space. The patch of forest beneath the Architect of all Creation oscillated briefly before returning to normal. "I implore you, please take me to Ash! I swear I only desire to be of aid! Trust me! This failure cannot stand!" Arceus sobbed in an ear-splitting neigh that made Jessie and Wobbuffet double over in pain from the sudden migraine. "I am not a monster! I am his friend! Let me help my friend!" Staraptor could hear Arceus' telepathic words perfectly fine despite her ears ringing from having to endure the Alpha Pokemon's shout.
It could be how Arceus' visage had morphed from the stoic profile of a statue to the sullen approximation of a frown. Perhaps it was how its eyes no longer inspired so much dread now that tears threatened to spill over its lids. Maybe it was how Staraptor's body was still tingling from Arceus' verbal shout, every atom in her body abuzz with new instructions from their Architect. Or maybe Staraptor believed what Arceus said about being Ash's friend. In any case, she relented. "...follow me."
"I know this probably isn't the best time to say this, but…" Pikachu trailed off as he peered over the left side of Pidgeot's broad wing to the forest below while the avian focused on the right. The crisp spring air blowing through Pidgeot's feathers and Pikachu's fur felt lovely, and it helped that it was at their backs. The electric mouse could not help but imagine how much Ash would love what he was experiencing, riding on the back of his old buddy, letting the sun warm his neck as he breathed in the green scent of trees on the wind as he soared. But Pikachu couldn't enjoy it as his trainer might have - he was too busy looking for him somewhere in the woods. "... It's really good to see you again, Pidgeot."
"Likewise." Pidgeot curtly responded with a subtle nod of its head. Now that the initial shock of seeing the Bird Pokemon after so long had worn off, Pikachu was surprised each time it spoke. It sounded so different from how the electric rodent had remembered it in his memories of his first year as Ash's Pokemon. After three years, Pidgeot's tone was rich and heavy, like an adult - which was slightly embarrassing because Pikachu was Pidgoet's senior by a year. "I'm sure you're just as eager to catch up as I am, but let's wait until after…actually, do you mind telling me exactly why Ash ran off into the woods without any Pokemon? Out of all my questions, that one's at least relevant to what's happening."
"Well…Ash is 14 years old today, and we were having a celebration down at Oak Corral." Pikachu squinted his eyes at what he thought might have been Ash's shadow being cast on the ground, but a few seconds later, it was revealed to be coming from a small tree (in)conveniently shaped like a human child. "Everything was going great, but…he got a present from his dad, and whatever was there made him freak out. Team Rocket found the box before anyone else, and they felt awful for going through it. If it's a big enough deal to make those guys feel like they went too far, it's probably even bigger for Ash."
Pidgeot's crest started flapping against Pikachu's right cheek as it craned its head at the news. "Oh, Ash has a dad? I thought only one human was raising him…her name was Delia, right?" The Bird Pokemon recalled the brief time it spent around its former trainer's home in Pallet Town, training for the Indigo Conference…actually, 'training' was too generous a term. It mainly was Ash procrastinating by throwing himself and his friends into adventures, like with that surfer who wanted to ride Humungadunga or helping a hack director with his next film, Pokemon In Love. Besides that, Ash's Pokemon took it easy in Pallet Town, getting spoiled by their trainer's mom. "Wait, you don't know exactly what set Ash off?"
"I have the gist of it; that should be enough." Pikachu clamped down on Pidgeot's yellow and red crest so that it would stop intruding on his peripheral vision. "I'm his best friend, and he's mine - whatever he's going through, it's nothing that we can't overcome when we're side by side."
"...Pikachu, if you don't know what Ash is going through, and I don't either, then how will we help him when we find him?" A harshness crept up into Pidgeot's tone. Pikachu gritted his teeth and scoffed, not wanting to entertain that line of thought. After some seconds of silence, Pidgeot realized it wouldn't get an answer, so it spoke up again. "So, to summarize, Ash is in the woods after getting something from his dad… let's think about why someone would do that. What would you do if you got a present from your dad?"
"I'd electrocute it until it was atomized," Pikachu responded without hesitation. Pidgeot stopped flapping its wings briefly before resuming its flight as it considered Pikachu's words. "I never met my birth family - I hatched out of an egg and found myself alone in a forest filled with Pokemon, but none of those other Pokemon looked a bit like me - whoever my dad was, he abandoned me, so I want nothing to do with him. I didn't need them anyway. I had Mama Kangaskhan, and now I have Ash."
"So, you would respond with anger…" Pidgeot mused. "Can we not assume Ash is angry as well?"
"Well…well, no. Ash loves his dad, and this isn't the first time he's gotten a present from him. Whenever he gets one of his letters, Ash just lights up, and later at night, I'll hear him talking to himself, getting excited about what kind of adventures his dad's been up to on...his…journey…" Pikachu slowly tapered the flow of his words to a halt as a metaphorical lightbulb went off over his head. However, it was not an epiphany he was eager to share because of its macabre nature. "You don't think…he died, do you? Ash's dad?"
"It's a genuine possibility, and from what limited information I could gather, I suspect that Ash is going through the grieving process," Pidgeot spoke in a slightly dispassionate manner that got under Pikachu's skin from how bold such an accusation was. Of course, Pikachu was the one who brought the suggestion up, so it wasn't like he had a ground to stand on if he wanted to complain. "I've had to deal with situations like this before. Sometimes, I'm not fast enough to save everyone in my flock from getting attacked - sometimes, migrating Pokemon who the fledglings make friends with end up having to leave. In any case, they all do what you said Ash did: run away."
Pikachu mentally chewed on Pidgeot's words. "We don't n-need to assume that's what's going on with Ash right now…I mean, he's dealt with death before…" Celebi, Latios, Lucario, and Jirachi sprung to Pikachu’s mind. The Wish Pokemon from Forina was more of Max's friend than Ash's, but that didn't mean that he wasn't sad when it had to go back to sleep for a thousand years, which was essentially like death, since no one would be around to see it wake up. Max took it the hardest, of course, and while Ash recovered after a few days of low energy, it took the bespectacled boy a month after Ash's 12th birthday to finally…Pikachu didn't want to say 'move on' but rather be at peace with his loss. Celebi didn't stay dead for too long, but in the brief time that it was, Pikachu saw Ash's facade of cheer gradually wither down to a sobbing mess as he realized the Voice of the Forest wouldn't eat any of the berries he was offering it. But, thankfully, Celebi's death was a temporary thing, so Ash never really had to grapple with having a friend of his die - until, of course, Alto Mare.
It did not matter that Latios tried to kill him when Ash first found the Secret Garden; Ash made friends with him just as quickly as he made friends with his sister, Latias. So when Latios sacrificed himself…well, Ash didn't react by running through the streets of Alto Mare to hide. Sure, whenever someone mentioned what happened with Latios in Alto Mare or Lucario in the Tree of Beginnings, Ash would clam up and go quiet until someone would talk about something else, but that's not the same as running away. "Everyone grieves differently, and each loss calls for a different reaction. Some pretend nothing is wrong only to sob at random intervals; some become angry at the whole world and push people away; some just shut down and refuse to interact with the world. Everyone runs away differently; in Ash's case, it's a physical act rather than just metaphorical." Pidgeot picked up the conversation long after Pikachu had let it grow cold, having lapsed into thinking back on all the times his trainer had people die on him.
"Why a-are you so dead-set on this? I was just sh-sharing the possibility that Ash's dad might be dead." Pikachu shook his head and lifted it from his gaze at the forest. Pikachu didn't want Pidgeot to be correct because if it was, then Ash's best friend would be useless. Pikachu couldn't relate to Ash's dad dying because he only ever had a bitter hatred for his birth dad - he knew what it was like to lose a loved one, but Mama Kangaskhan was different, as he left her other than the other way around. Pikachu helped Ash get through everything that came his way, and Ash did the same for him, but…Pikachu never had to deal with Ash through something as heavy as grief. "What if the box Ash got was…was…maybe if his dad wrote a letter saying…" But Pikachu couldn't think of any other scenario that would have prompted such a strong emotional response from his trainer other than finding out his dad was dead.
"Everyone grieves differently…but only a little, in my opinion. Each grieving process is unique, but they rhyme a lot." Pidgeot let out a short, curt chuckle. "I hope I'm wrong, but it sounds like my old trainer is in mourning, and if that's the case, then the best I can do is offer hope that he'll get better."
"...how did you get so mature?" Pikachu felt the need to ask.
"When I took it upon myself to protect that flock three years ago, I didn't realize I would end up doing more than just guarding them against other Pokemon. Everyone looked up to me, and I became the go-to guy when people were feeling down or when a fight broke out between some fledglings. I had to grow up fast to be the leader they all needed me to be." Pidgeot sounded a little wistful, and Pikachu wondered what kind of memories Pidgeot had tucked away in its head about all that it had been up to since Ash released it into the woods north of Pallet Town. The electric rodent was content to end the conversation there, mulling over everything the avian had said about grief and what to do when he found Ash. "I found him." Pidgeot jarred Pikachu out of his thoughtful reverie.
"Huh, what?!" Pikachu jerked his head back and forth and saw the Bird Pokemon circling in the air, descending in height. The electric mouse peered around one of Pidgeot's wings and struggled to make out coherent shapes as the avian corkscrewed down. Finally, he picked out Ash amidst the spinning forest below, along with Sceptile, Bayleef, Delia, and Professor Oak. "Hang on, Ash, we're coming!" He projected his voice out as far as it would carry.
Ash Ketchum is a sensitive kid. He was more in touch with his emotions than most - he felt things more than most. The sensitivity often leads to a heightened appreciation for life, drawing in everyone around him, whether human or Pokemon, with his intense passion for new opportunities. When things were going good, his positivity was like a torch of warmth that inspired others to be a little more like him, but things can't stay good forever, and when negative emotions inevitably creep in, they hit Ash like a ton of bricks. For Delia and Professor Oak, it was proving challenging to re-ignite the torch Ash usually held.
The 14-year-old did not feel he was being helped; he felt he had been backed into a corner. He came out here to be alone, but then his Pokemon found him, and then his mom, and then Sammy. Ash would have loved to be with them at any other time, but not now. All Ash wanted to do was be with his dad, but he didn't have the energy or the heart to make the rest of his family leave him alone, so he let the hat Sunny left him get squished against his chest as he hugged Sceptile. "It's k-kinda funny…I guess I don't have much reason to cry so much. My dad was a screw-up, right? He wasn't a trainer; he was just some insurance agent. Pretty silly to spend all my life trying to be l-like him, huh?" Ash let out a few hollow laughs, trying to rationalize his way out of the melancholy he found himself in. He was tired, and he was tired of feeling tired, yet he kept his grip on Sunny's hat tight. "So why am I crying? What does it matter if he's dead or not? I've gotten along fine without him…but I still miss him…"
Nobody knew what to say in response to Ash's meager attempt at finding levity in the situation. Professor Oak looked over to Delia and wordlessly gestured for her to speak up with a desperate expression etched into his features. Still, Delia just shook her head - she had run out of ideas to persuade her son to come home. Sceptile dutifully kept up the hug for as long as Ash wanted, cautiously tracing its claws around his back in what it hoped was a soothing motion, and Bayleef refused to leave her trainer's side. Noctowl anxiously tilted its head back and forth, waiting for Staraptor to come back with help. Suddenly, a shadow briefly crossed the ground, and Noctowl looked up to the sky, hoping it was coming from the Predator Pokemon.
However, to its disappointment, it was just a Pidgeot. But then Pidgeot began fluttering down from above, and everyone heard a familiar voice ring out. "Hang on, Ash, we're coming!" Ash abruptly jerked his head up and heard his best friend's voice carry through the air, sounding like 'Pikachu, pika pi pichu!' He and everyone else in the little rock-strewn grove turned their heads up as the Pidgeot descended, eventually gliding down to the ground with a muted flourish. Before anyone could ask why the avian Pokemon was here, they got their answer as Pikachu scampered onto the Bird Pokemon's crest before hopping to the ground. "Ash, I-" The electric mouse tried talking but was startled by how bad his trainer looked - face slick with tears, eyes red, scratched clothes, and no hat.
"Pika…Pikachu!" Ash managed to smile as he hoarsely croaked out the name of his starter Pokemon. He turned away from Sceptile and tried to stand up on his legs to run over to his best buddy, but then a sharp pain jolted through his entire body, coming from his right knee. His joyous face quickly morphed to a pained grimace as he cried out indecipherable mutterings, and he felt Bayleef catch his fall with her back. "Hey Pikachu… it's g-great to see ya' buddy…" Now that the adrenaline had left his body, Ash could appreciate just how badly he hurt his leg from that fall, but still, he tried to affect chipperness, weakly waving at his surprised starter Pokemon.
"Ash, my baby, you're hurt." Delia pleaded as she rose from the ground, maternal instincts kicking in automatically. But then Ash let the smile slip, and he gave his mom a look. She backed away, though very reluctantly. She glanced at Pikachu and then at the Pidgeot who had carried him over here. "Th-thank you very much for letting my son's Pikachu ride on you." She bowed gratefully, trying her best to suppress her inclination to carry her wounded boy into her arms and take him back home on foot.
"Huh? Oh, uhm, yeah - thank you, Pidgeot." Ash mustered a weak grin back to his face as he echoed some thanks of his own to the kind Bird Pokemon. Pidgeot said nothing, only gazing with a steely look in its eyes, before walking over to where Ash was resting on Bayleef. Noctowl, Sceptile, and Bayleef tensed up, readying for a fight, but Pikachu ran ahead and shook his head in a decisive 'stand-down' motion. Ash co*cked his head in confusion as Pidgeot got close enough to him that they were only a foot apart while Bayleef hesitantly deployed her vines out, just in case. The birthday boy stared silently into the Bird Pokemon's muddy brown eyes - without warning, everything clicked in his head. "Oh my God. Oh my God."
Sunny’s hat dropped from Ash’s grasp.
"A-Ash! What's going on?" Professor Oak asked in no small state of alarm as Ash slapped the lower half of his rapidly paling face. Ash could not believe it; his whole body shuddered as he muffled a sob that escaped his throat. Tentatively, he reached out with his other hand and offered to pet the 'wild' Pidgeot, which the avian graciously accepted. While Ash's Pokemon from Johto and Hoenn looked at each other in puzzlement, Professor Oak gasped as he connected the dots. "No… don't tell me. Could that be…?"
"It's Pidgeot." Ash finished Professor Oak's sentence, taking his hand from his mouth to pet the other side of Pidgeot's head. "My Pidgeot."
"Wait, excuse me?" Noctowl ruffled its feathers and finally got down from its perch in the trees to join everyone else at the ground level. "Pikachu, do you know this Pidgeot? I've never seen this Pokemon at Oak Corral." The Owl Pokemon looked to Pikachu for clarification.
"Yep. Ash released him about three years ago, but this Pidgeot traveled around with us as a Pidgeotto way back when Ash started as a trainer." Pikachu nodded with a small smile. "I was lucky I saw it flying around when I was up in the sky, but I'm glad it's here. So…how bad a state is Ash in?" Pikachu stopped recalling memories of when it was with Pidgeotto and crossed his paws over his chest worriedly. Noctowl shook his head sadly, making Pikachu hum in distress.
"It's like talking to a brick wall or something. The kid's always been a little stubborn, but never like this. Anything those two say either does nothing or makes things worse." Sceptile jerked a claw over to Delia and Professor Oak. Then the Forest Pokemon fluttered his eyes as he traced over what Pikachu had said. "...wait, you found this guy while you were in the air, too? How did you manage that?"
Pikachu took in a short breath before expelling it sharply. "Long story short? Arceus." The Mouse Pokemon answered. Ash's Pokemon from Johto and Hoenn stared silently, waiting for the rest of the explanation because saying 'Arceus' did not clarify the confusion.
The silence lasted for ten seconds, and Bayleef was the first to realize that Pikachu wasn't planning on saying anything else. "...okay, you told us the short version, now tell us-" However, the Leaf Pokemon was interrupted by her trainer suddenly adding his voice to the conversation very loudly.
"Pidgeot, I'm sorry! I'm so… I'm so sorry I forgot!" Ash cried out, shaking his head and shutting his eyes, unable to look at the Pokemon he abandoned. The Kantonian Bird Pokemon co*cked its head to one side in confusion and worry as its former trainer broke down. "I didn't…the promise, I… oh, Pidgeot, I never came back for you!" Ash lost his balance on Bayleef's back and found himself slipping down, making him cry in pain as he put pressure on his right knee. Everyone moved in to help him regain his feet, but Pidgeot was the fastest, thrusting forward its wings to hoist its old trainer back up quickly. With a practiced, delicate touch, it flecked away some of the tears falling down his face, making Ash blearily open his eyes.
"You're talking nonsense, Ash. Don't you remember our promise?" Pidgeot shuffled a little closer, careful not to step on the hat Ash dropped, and Bayleef, even though she didn't appreciate being a third wheel, let herself be corralled between Ash and the Pokemon she'd never met before. Ash's hitching breath halted, and his teary eyes widened. "You let me go because I had to look after the flock until it was strong enough to protect itself. The deal was that I would return when all the other Pidgey and Pidgeotto were strong enough without me, which hasn't happened yet. You know I'll always be your Pokemon."
Ash swallowed some of the mucus that had escaped from the back of his nasal cavity and quivered his lower lip. He was having one of those moments, even though all he heard was a Pokemon just vocalizing its cries in different ways…he understood. In words before words, Ash heard Pidgeot's message - they were on the same wavelength, even after three years apart. " But…but I forgot, I…" Ash protested. "I've been home for a couple of…and it didn't even cross my mind to look for you! I was just…g-goofing off, and now you're here, and… I'm not having a good birthday, am I?" Ash mirthlessly laughed with a smile that very quickly morphed into a pained baring of teeth,
"Shhhhh, Ash, Shhh…" Pidgeot crooned and slowly brought its wings around Ash in a hug, ensuring he had plenty of time to wiggle out of it if the birthday boy desired. He did not; instead, Ash allowed the brown and cream feathers to swaddle him before he weakly tried to return the embrace. "I don't believe for a second that you forgot about me - you were busy with your journey, that's all. Just let it all out, Ash…" Ash's gloved hands lightly clutched at the sides of Pidgeot's torso and closed his eyes - meanwhile, Bayleef silently picked up the hat Ash dropped with her vines and passed it over to Pikachu, who took the cap with some hesitation as he did not know the importance of it yet.
“So, uh, what’s the story with-?” Pikachu posed a question to Sceptile, only for the Hoennese grass starter to growl slowly with a cutting motion in front of its neck, indicating silence. Noctowl put one of the tips of its wing’s feathers to its beak to approximate a ‘shushing’ gesture. Pikachu co*cked his head to the right, confused as to why they were calling for secrecy when Ash couldn't understand what they were saying, but he complied anyway. “Uh…come on, guys, what’s with the hat?” Pikachu whispered, shaking Sunny’s hat as he held it.
"Evidently, it is from Ash's dead father." Noctowl quietly brought Pikachu up to speed; there was no time to dance around the issue. "He's been dead for a decade; Delia and Professor Oak led Ash to believe otherwise."
Pikachu fluttered his eyes, then looked at the two human adults, searching their faces to confirm what Noctowl said. They looked tired, worried, and guilty - guilt was the last thing Pikachu wanted to notice, but he did, and a pit opened up at the bottom of his stomach. Pdigeot was right. Pikachu didn't want Pidgeot to be right. Why did something always have to happen on his trainer's birthday?! "How can I help?" The electric mouse grunted to his fellow Pokemon.
"I think…you should get that thing out of here." Sceptile offered, though not with conviction. "I know it's important to him, but Ash… he's been clinging to that hat like it was a part of his body. Maybe if it's out of sight, he can…I don't know, move on a little?" The Forest Pokemon could not hide its uncertainty as it spoke; it was, in its opinion, hilariously out of its depth concerning a situation like this. If Sceptile was ever feeling bad or down, it wouldn't dare let those feelings show, focusing on training or venting things on the battlefield - it had a very rudimentary grasp on how to help anyone else with their emotions. However, it acted on the hunch that the relationship between its trainer and that hat was toxic, and thus, the problem element had to be removed - but it was only a hunch.
"I was thinking the same thing." Pikachu nodded his head in a low tone. At first, Sceptile smiled a little, glad to know someone else had the same idea. But then Pikachu deployed a few violent arcs of electricity from his cheek sacs and furrowed his brow. Sceptile saw how he was staring at Sunny's cap, and the smile melted into a dumbstruck jaw drop. Pikachu closed his eyes and let electricity flow outward from his body. "THUNDER-!"
"Pikachu, NO!" Delia instantly knelt on the rocky ground and wrestled the hat from Pikachu's paws to fling into the air. By the time Professor Oak caught it mid-flight, Pikachu's attack was ready.
"-BOLT!" When Pikachu opened his eyes, he saw that instead of electrifying the hat to charred remnants of fabric, 100,000 volts were coursing through Ash's mother's body. The electric mouse immediately halted the current in surprise, leaving Delia, with her hair frayed and her skin lightly toasted, to twitch and spasm on the rocky floor of the forest. The Mouse Pokemon gaped at the sight, along with everyone else. "N-no, wait, that wasn't supposed to…I didn't mean-"
"Delia, are you okay?!" Professor Oak clamored as he bent down to grab his former student by the shoulder, pushing through the light shock he felt as he made contact with her paralyzed frame. Sceptile helped her back up onto her feet, but not without directing an incredulous, scornful glance at Pikachu, reciprocated by the Pokemon Professor by its side. "I…I can't believe you just did that!" Samuel grimaced as he shouted.
"When I said 'get it out of here,' I didn't mean destroy it!" Sceptile barked out. Pikachu took a few steps forward, but Noctowl hopped over in front of him, stopping the electric mouse from going any further as it shook its head with a scowl. Delia coughed out smoke as Professor Oak patted her back. "What were you thinking?!"
"I w-was just…I thought that…" Pikachu stammered with a frown. He was doing to Ash's gift from his dad what he would have done if he had gotten a present from his dad. Ash's dad was dead - his trainer was abandoned just like he was; he thought getting rid of the present forever was the best thing to do. It was the best thing to do because Pikachu wanted nothing to do with his birth parents, who left him alone in this world, and he assumed Ash wanted the same. He glanced over at Delia, still twitching lightly, who had always only ever been kind to him, and remembered, too late, his past and Ash's were not the same at all. "I was j-just trying to help… Ash needs to move on as fast as possible to get back to the p-party. The dad left his family behind, right?"
"You make it sound like he died on purpose…" Bayleef muttered, still stupefied by Pikachu's bold decision regarding the fate of Sunny's hat. Pikachu turned to meet her face, then looked up at Ash, reclining his front over her back. Pikachu could see half of his face peeking out over the top of Pidgeot's wings, wrapping around him in a hug. His eyes were wide with disbelief and terror. Pidgeot sighed and let its wings drape off from its former trainer's back, revealing the sullen, gaping frown the birthday sported.
"Pikach-ch-chu…why?" Ash spoke quietly, the opposite of every other time Pikachu heard him talk when the going got rough. Even in the darkest times, he was a shining torch of optimism and determination, always striving to save the day - but now Ash sounded defeated, drained, empty. All Ash had left at this point was fear, anger, anxiety, and aching discomfort - all of which were being directed at his best friend in the world in halting speech. "That was…from my d-dad, he gave t-that to me for my birthday. It's…the only part I have left of him! How c-could…?" Every word Ash managed to get across was like a knife that cut deeper and deeper into Pikachu's heart, and the electric rodent whined as his face mirrored Ash's. Then, suddenly, Ash leaped from Bayleef and Pidgeot over to his mom, concerned for her wellbeing, only to stumble due to his right leg refusing to work with him.
"Stop trying to walk so much, please!" Bayleef begged as she cast her vines out to wrap around Ash's torso, bringing him back up to his feet; then he was lifted off his feet, with the Leaf Pokemon not trusting her trainer to stop hurting himself. Ash flailed a little in the air, but he soon let out a hiss through his teeth as he shifted his right knee around too much. "I'm doing this because I love you! Just stay still, stay off that leg, and-"
Bayleef did not get to finish what she was saying. She was interrupted by the ground lurching up from a considerable shockwave traveling unseen through the dirt. She found herself in the same position Ash was in, along with everyone else; that is, in the air. It was only for a second, of course, but it was a second spent 3 feet off the ground, a ground that was still wobbling after they returned from their unexpected jump. Noctowl and Pidgeot elected to remain in flight, flapping their wings above the shaking Earth, while Sceptile, Delia, and Samuel supported each other upright as they wobbled.
Once the quake had subsided, they could focus on what had caused it, conveniently indicated by the wall of aerated dirt and dust 10 feet away. Staraptor emerged from it, cutting a hole through the pale brown column as she flew down. "So, do you just like doing these entrances? You did it before with the shed." Staraptor spoke to the dissipating dust cloud. "Or did you not mean to spray everyone with dirt?"
"...I'm sorry." The wall of dust dissolved, revealing Arceus, the Alpha Pokemon, in the middle of a considerable impact crater it had made when it suddenly dropped from the sky with force. Inexplicably, none of the dirt that went flying landed on the Architect's pristine white fur, though the same could not be said for Jessie and Wobbuffet, who limped off the sides of Arceus' back like spring toys bobbing down a staircase. As evidenced by the spirals in their eyes, they were just as taken aback by Arceus' sudden fall as the others. Its mane did not flow like usual; it hung limp against the back of its neck as it stared at its gold-tipped hooves. "Sir Ash Ketchum, I am so sorry." Arceus raised its head, water in its red & green eyes.
The world had been plunged into darkness. One moment, the sun shone brilliantly in the sky, and the next, it was as if someone had flicked a switch on the big ball of light that the planet orbited around. There was nothing, only a vast, black void where no sound, sight, scent, or touch could be experienced. But then, from the heavens, this inky desolation was perforated by the 'thud' sound of an electrical arc's changing pressure and a floodlight's beam of radiance. James was under the spotlight's shine, striking a pose with a spring in his step and a confident smile on his face - somewhere, an orchestra was playing. "Prepare for trouble; we arrive with a crash!"
To the blue-haired man's immediate left, another ray of light from the indiscernible heavens was cast, illuminating Meowth's nimble body as he bounced into the light. He ignored his feline instincts to reorient himself in the air, choosing to land on his right hand-paw instead of the ones he usually walked on, an action that soon transitioned into a pirouette as he balanced himself on one claw. "An' make it double for dis b-day bash!" By the time the Scratch Cat was finished with his spin, the spotlight, the surrounding darkness, and James had vanished, replaced with the smoking remains of a gray, ruined city. Meowth smugly crossed his arms as he stood on the one seemingly stable part of the otherwise postmarked street, flanked by piles of brick and concrete that used to be in the shape of buildings. "To protect da world from devastation!"
The smoke clouds in the sky suddenly parted, revealing a sky liberally adorned with coruscating pinpricks of light, obscured/enhanced (delete as appropriate) by the massive floating head of James slowly gyrating, akin to a planet turning on its axis. "To unite all peoples within our nation!"
The rapid assembly of a roof then infringed upon the night sky, with wood planks materializing out of nowhere and sticking together as if their sides were dipped in power glue. Underneath that roof was a high-backed swivel chair bound in sumptuous leather (do not ask what Pokemon it came from) and festooned with gleaming brass buttons. The chair spun of its own volition so that its occupant, Meowth, could direct his grinning mug to the audience. "To denounce da evils of truth an' love!"
The walls of Meowth's office fell away to reveal a rocky cliff facing toward an orange sea by the sunrise as the unseen orchestra swelled. James stood with a gold rose in his gloved hand atop the highest outcropping as the buffeting waves sprayed their foam into the pink and blue sky. "To extend our reach to the stars above!" The blue-haired man then extended his reach by throwing the gold rose into the air; the only way he knew how was with panache.
The rose flew high past the rising sun and into the wild blue yonder, straight into Meowth's outstretched paw, to which he twirled its thorny stem around in his grasp. "Meowth," The Scratch Cat tossed the flower away in exaggerated boredom, eyes lidded and posture relaxed - what could the Top Cat want with gold when he already had the whole world under his rule? This would be a good time to mention that Meowth was currently 500 miles tall, straddling the Earth with his foot-paw resting on either hemisphere.
James, nearby, was standing one leg on absolute nothing as he rested his other leg's boot down on Venus, with its north pole crumbling under the blue-haired man's heel. "And James." The Team Rocket agent then kicked the celestial body away into the sun like a football while Meowth jumped up from neighboring Earth to pose against his human associate. Behind them, the letter 'R' was burnt onto the sun's surface.
"Team Rocket steals da show at da speed of light, dat's right!" Meowth declared as his and James' shadows lengthened across the solar system - none of the planets (all conveniently in front of them, even Mercury) were left untouched by their dark influence. Not to be left out, Yanmega, Mime Jr., Carnivine, and Seviper emerged from the left and right of the sun.
"Surrender now or face our supreme might!" James concurred as his Mime Jr. & Carnivine stepped into position by his right side. Meowth had the honor of sharing the spotlight with Seviper and Yanmega.
"You'll surely lose the fight!" The four late additions to the motto cried out simultaneously, vainly composed in their assured victory as much as James & Meowth were. The orchestra tapered down from its climax, settling into an ominous drone of fading sousaphones as the sun behind them spent all its nuclear fuel, declining in radiance until the black void from before had returned in full force. The darkness lingered around for a few seconds before, abruptly, everything went back to normal. The sun in the sky above Oak Corral was switched back on, and it was revealed that Team Rocket had been dancing around in place in front of the lakeshore all this time. "Soooo…did ya like it?" Mime Jr. was the first to break character, rubbing its pink hands together as it anxiously awaited the review.
Celebi stared slack-jawed at Team Rocket, eyes widened in astonishment. This stupefaction on the Voice of the Forest's part lasted for some time. “I…that…you…how…?” The mythical Pokemon weakly telepathed, its mind still a morass from what it had just witnessed. Finally, the fog lifted enough for a fraction of clarity to return. Celebi exploited that little clarity by launching into a veritable mountain of 'bi! 's, grinning as wide as its face would allow. "That was AWESOME! Everything about it was perfect - the music, the poses, the backgrounds. I've never seen anything like it in my whole life! And I'm really old compared to you guys! Bravo, bravo!" The Voice of the Forest chirped excitedly while briskly clapping its hands together. However, Swellow, to Celebi's right, had a much more muted response, rolling its eyes and lazily flapping its wings in an approximation of a slow handclap.
"Wait, are we getting congratulated right now? You're not just saying you liked it to be nice?" Yanmega leered at Celebi suspiciously, not used to people giving Team Rocket positive feedback regarding their motto. Celebi shook its head rapidly in the negative, genuine esteem in its black-ringed eyes, shocking the Ogre Darner Pokemon. "O-oh! Uh…wow, thanks." The dark green dragonfly bobbed up and down like a thespian bowing, an action that Seviper snigg*red at but copied the motion by dipping its head down and up.
"Alright, I'll admit you guys stepped up the stage productions with this one. Good job." The Hoennese avian conceded with a small smile gracing its beak. "I'm still bitter that we lost that race, though."
"Lighten up, Swallow; it was just for fun!" Celebi prodded the Swallow Pokemon in its ribs to make it lighten up. The Voice of the Forest then affixed Swellow with a curious glare as it finally registered how unamazed the avian was. "...were we…not watching the same thing? Why do you look so bored? I mean…that was so much…everything!" Celebi flailed its arms to gesture at the 'everything.'
Swellow opened its beak to speak, but someone cut it off before it could answer. "Meh. It's kinda cool when it's the first couple of times, but after the fiftieth time or so, you grow used to it." Celebi blinked, turning from Swellow to face whoever spoke up on the avian's behalf. The Voice of the Forest gasped in slight shock, backing away from the bipedal primate with a head crowned in fire that had been watching Team Rocket's motto just a foot behind the mythical Pokemon. "Ooops! Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you or anything." Infernape blushed in embarrassment as he took several steps out of Celebi's and Swellow's personal space.
"Oy vey, youse guys didn't even notice him? The fire monkey's been around from the start!" Meowth chuckled, though he quickly remembered to be insulted by the remark that the motto was something that got old. "An' for da record, da more ya hear da motto, da more you're supposed ta appreciate it! It ages like wine, not milk."
"I came to watch, didn't I?" Infernape crossed his arms over his chest, perhaps less wowed than Celebi but at least more dazzled than Swellow by Team Rocket's performance. "But, uh, I gotta ask…why were you doing it? You usually give that whole spiel when you're about to try and steal us, and…"
"Can I come out now?" Tracey's voice rang out by the lakeshore, though no one could physically see him.
"Ah! Sorry about that, sketching twerp! Yes, you can come out; what you did back there was a big help." James got slightly flustered and fixed his gaze on a seemingly barren spot on the grassy shore. That's the spot where Tracey Sketchit emerged from the giant mirror he was hiding behind, boombox in hand and a panoply of different background screens rolled up into his armpit. "You were a wiz with those sound effects. Now, let's get this big mirror behind us down." James walked away from Tracey to a different spot on the lakeshore, followed by Carnivine and Mime Jr., as he lifted one end of the big reflecting glass assisted by his Pokemon. Meowth got around to the other side and lifted his side along with Seviper and Yanmega, and soon, they were walking the giant prop away to rest against a nearby tree.
"Celebi and I challenged James and Tracey to a flying contest. We lost… somehow." Swellow sighed, filling in Infernape on the context of the situation. "Not my proudest moment. It was supposed to be just a friendly diversion, but James got it in his head that Team Human deserved a reward for winning, and he had the 'perfect' idea, forcing us to listen to their motto."
"I might have to ask for an encore later; I'm still replaying bits of it in my head! My favorite part was when they were all the size of planets toward the end." Celebi chirped as it spun around in the air, trying to mimic Meowth's handstand, though this only made the mythical Pokemon dizzy. It giggled as it recovered from disorientation, lending an eye to Team Rocket as they marched the big mirror out of the way. "I still don't know they got that mirror, though. And they didn't have that boombox before, either."
"That's Team Rocket for you; it's best not to think too hard about some things they do. You just have to roll with it and…ugh, I can't believe I'm saying this…prepare for trouble." Swellow groaned loudly yet could not suppress the amused grin that wormed to its face. "Heh… I'm glad that I stuck around, though. I won't have the chance to listen to that stupid motto again for a long time…maybe it'll be the last." Infernape talked himself out of his good cheer, a thoughtful frown darkening his face.
"Oh? What do you mean?" Celebi noticed the dour expression spreading over the Flame Pokemon's muzzle. "Why would it be the last? They follow you guys around everywhere, right?"
"...kind of. Team Rocket is mostly interested in Pikachu, and he hangs out of his Pokeball around Ash. So that means wherever Ash and Pikachu go, Team Rocket follows." Swellow let out a soft huff, ruffling its feathers in discomfort. "So since we're all staying here at Oak Corral, we'll be spared from listening to the obnoxious stage productions they always put on."
"...huh? N-no, you got it wrong. I thought you all said…you guys said you weren't getting abandoned, remember?" Celebi was confused and suddenly nervous as it began to fidget. "Team Rocket was just telling me a fib when they said Ash was going to leave you, and you all told me that was wrong! I'm sorry, it's just…uhm!" The Voice of the Forest fluttered its wings faster as it tried to work off some of the nerves from Swellow's explanation.
"Maybe the best lies are the ones that have a bit of truth in them." Infernape shook his head. "I know I'll always be Ash's Pokemon, but…yeah, he's going to Unova with only Pikachu. I don't want to say goodbye, and it's not, it's just 'see you later,' because maybe he'll transfer me over, or… I'm sorry for rambling; I didn't mean to spoil your mood." The primate apologized as he grew concerned with how twitchy Celebi was getting. The Voice of the Forest hovered like a buoy in a stormy sea, going from side to side, up and down.
"I was pretty gloomy for a few weeks, too. Your feelings are totally natural." Swellow nodded its head over to Infernape. "You just have to get into the rhythm of not always moving around all the time. The worst thing you can do is think this is like retirement; we're just…on hold." Infernape gratefully nodded but could not fully appreciate the advice since his attention was on Celebi. The mythical Pokemon furrowed its brow and put its hands on the sides of its onion-bulb-shaped head.
"I can't believe this!" Celebi let out a 'biii' in the lowest possible pitch its squeaky voice could muster as it screamed through telepathy, catching Swellow and Infernape off guard. "I don't want to be 'on hold,' I've been 'on hold' for 44 years! I didn't come all the way over here so that Ash could toss me aside! UGH!" A pale blue pulse emanated off Celebi's body as its emotions got worked up, quickly passing through the Flame and Swallow Pokemon. They were overcome with a sense of déjà vu as if they had seen this scene of Celebi fussing around in the air angrily in the past - which was odd since this was the first either of them to meet this particular Time-Travel Pokemon.
“Celebi, c-calm down! Why do you care so…?" Swellow shook off its displaced sense of time and focused on what the mythical Pokemon had said. "... do you want to be Ash's Pokemon?" The suggestion was ludicrous to the Swallow Pokemon; it hardly seemed justifiable to put it into words. And yet…
"DUH!" Celebi flew into Swellow's beak to deliver an irritated glare, making the Hoennese avian slightly cringe. "Did you not see me try and give the GS Ball to Ash when I first got here?!"
"To use?!" Infernape gaped at the Voice of the Forest. "I thought that was supposed to be a souvenir or something—get rid of the Pokeball you spent decades in! But you want…you want Ash to…" Infernape could not get his words out. Beingaround Ash had given him a tolerance for the absurd, but the idea of Ash having a mythical Pokemon to battle with was still too much.
"Yes, I want to travel with Ash! That was why I entered the ball in the first place. I might have stayed in that thing three years too long, but that changed nothing. He's kind and determined, saved me from the marauder with Sammy, he's… he's my friend! And I am NOT gifting him myself so he can put me in Sammy's playground! Don't get me wrong, this place is nice, but I've been itching to have fun with Ash for some time now." Celebi floated away from Swellow's beak and pulled in frustration at the black rings around its eyes. "And just to confirm - nothing BAD happened in the past that made Ash this way, right? Do I need to go back in time to bonk him on the head or something?"
"Uh… I'm pretty sure Ash is still the same guy you met back when he was in Arborville Lake or whatever that place is called. Please don't travel back in time to hit my trainer on the head." Infernape requested, making Celebi huff and turn away, which made the Flame Pokemon worry, like the option was still on the Voice of the Forest's table. "I still don't get it, though - mythical and legendary Pokemon have jobs, right? Don't you need to go back to your forest soon?"
Celebi heaved out a hefty 'bi' of a sigh. "I had it all planned perfectly - once the shrine north of here was finished, I'd use it to teleport back home for a month. There are plenty of shrines in Unova dedicated to my siblings, even if they're hidden really well. Once everything with my forest is hunky-dory, I'd teleport to an Unovan shrine, preferably closest to where he would be. I'd pal around for a month with Ash, then head back to the Lake of Life and repeat everything." The mythical Pokemon glanced back at Infernape, bitterness frank on its face - a bitterness the primate could relate to. However, as if it was reading its mind, Celebi's petulant expression melted, replaced with an 'I've got an idea' look. Celebi let out a scheming smile at the Flame Pokemon. "You don't want to be 'on hold' either, right, Infernape?"
Infernape did not care for the conspiratorial tone that had entered Celebi's telepathic voice, yet he still gave it an honest reply. "...no, I don't. Ideally, I would go with Ash as he tried for another region's league. But I know he wants to experience new things, make more friends, catch new Pokemon, and I don't want to be a burden. Ash has done so much for me, and the last thing I want to do is get in the way of him doing the same for another." This was not the first time that Infernape had vented all of this, as he had done so many times to several Pokemon around Oak Corral. "In a perfect world, humans could carry more than just 6 Pokeballs around, but…hey, hey, hey! Celebi, what are you-?!" Infernape whirled his limbs around as Celebi enacted a psychic hold on him.
"Just to be clear, you want to go with Ash, right?" Celebi smirked as it brought the Flame Pokemon into the air. Infernape, with his body enveloped in pale blue shimmer, stared at the mythical Pokemon in silence for some time before eventually nodding his head in agreement. No matter how he tried to explain it away, he wanted to be with Ash for just a little longer. "So, that makes one so far. How about you, Swellow?" Celebi then pivoted sharply to the Swallow Pokemon, who blanched at the eager glint in the mythical Pokemon's eyes.
"Uh…I guess it would be nice, but I'm…pretty content here, all things considered." Swellow raised its wings in an avian equivalent of a shrug. Celebi nodded, then wordlessly zipped off from the lakeshore; Infernape, not of his own accord, followed after it, dragged along in its psychic grip, accompanied by a yelp. "Hey, where are you going!?" Swellow cried out.
"Sorry, gotta find more of Ash's Pokemon to talk to!" Celebi cried out in telepathy before the range of its psychic voice was too far away for Swellow to hear it. Infernape attempted, to no avail, to halt his sudden flight by reaching out for the ground to grab on. This only left little ravines of dirt in the grass as Celebi's telekinesis pulled the poor primate. This was witnessed by Tracey, James, Meowth, and the rest of Team Rocket's Pokemon (sans Wobbuffet) once they were done putting the equipment out of the way of others.
"...Celebi, wha-?" Tracey got four syllables out before the mythical Pokemon cut him off.
"Can't talk! Staging an intervention for Ash!" Celebi announced as it kept up its pace, either oblivious to or not interested in how much Infernape did not appreciate being dragged across the meadow. The two humans and five Pokemon stared at the Voice of the Forest as it sped toward Snorlax in the distance.
“Oh…kaaay…” Meowth muttered. His ears swiveled to the sound of a sound of a high-pitched, pulsing chime; it was coming from James' Pokétch. "Jimmy? Ain't you gonna get dat?" Meowth pointed a claw at the beeping device strapped onto the blue-haired man's wrist.
"Hmm? Gah, my Pokémon Watch!" James was motivated to a state of excitement as he looked down at the dot matrix touch screen of his Sinnohese electronic. The carnation pink and platinum gray thing captured the attention of Tracey, who had never seen such a piece of technology. James leveled his hand to his chest and began furiously touching it with the other hand's index finger. "Is it a call? Wait…no, it's a text from… 'missing # '? Uh oh…"
"Wow! I can't believe you have a Pokétch, James! That must have cost a fortune - I'm still stuck using my clunky Silph Pokégear…" Tracey marveled at the bit of Sinnohese engineering as he mentally compared it to the glorified radio receiver in his pocket. However, a shadow crossed his face as a thought entered his mind. "...you stole it, didn't you?"
"Jessie stole hers. I'll have you know I found this gadget at the bottom of a rubbish bin…" James muttered as he read the coded sequence of numbers sent to him from the unknown messenger. The text came in the form of a big wall of digits that had to be scrolled through on a tiny screen - it was mostly garbage, but when James only paid attention to the right-hand side and read from bottom to top…" I'm terribly sorry, but do you know where a landline might be found?"
"Eh? What about the phone you have on your wrist?" Tracey gestured to James' Pokétch, but the blue-haired man shook his head.
"It's a…very private phone call I have to make right now. It's policy by order of the b-... I meant to say that Jessie and I take our security very seriously. Landline calls are hard to crack." Tracey co*cked an eyebrow in open suspicion. "Look, I promise I won't renege on our little truce right now, but… I must make this call." James sighed - when either he or Jessie got messages from 'missing #,' HQ wanted a word. Now.
Arceus observed the scene before it with an analytic eye. The two human Ketchums looked terrible; Ash was aloft in the air by his Bayleef's vines, his clothing scratched, and his mother slightly singed. They both looked like they had been through a great deal of crying, eyes drained of vitality yet widened in surprise at the Alpha Pokemon's arrival. Everyone looked tired, confused, and upset - Arceus had the distinct impression of having stumbled upon the aftermath of a battlefield. It was time for the Alpha Pokemon to start acting like the creator of the world it was supposed to be by resolving the crisis before it, as its hero had done so many times before. "...will you please listen to what I wish to say?" But it would not perform the task with conviction - recklessness on the Alpha Pokemon's part started all of this, so, to prevent any further misguided judgments, it acted with an abundance of caution.
“Arc-c-ceus…” Ash spoke in a husky voice, his throat sore from all his sobbing. "Why are…you here?" Once again, Arceus was meeting with Ash in the woods. The first time, yesterday, it was a thing of serendipity, with Ash accidentally finding it without any real effort. Arceus had found Ash after much laborious searching, and the Original One noted how less enthusiastic the boy was when greeting it.
"At Jessie's suggestion, I have come to act on my guilt rather than do nothing," Arceus explained; at the mention of her name, Jessie arose from the dirt, still dizzy from the fall, pushing her hands on her lower back to relieve the pain in her spine. Instead of joining the conversation, she began shaking Wobbuffet back to consciousness as the blue blob muttered gibberish in his shocked state. "Ash Ketchum, I apologize for my brazen behavior. In wanting my curiosity satiated, I brought your merriment to an abrupt end. I requested Jessie impart on me the contents of the gift…though I intended no malice, I imposed a hard truth onto you. For my disrespect, I am deeply regretful, and-"
"But you didn't do anything." Ash's raspy voice stopped Arceus' telepathic voice in its tracks. The white-furred equine fluttered its eyes in bewilderment; an action echoed in many of the others present as everyone gave their full attention to the birthday boy in vines. "Arceus, all you did was give me the box. I was going to find out sooner or later, and… I'm kinda glad it was sooner. I'm not mad, but…I n-needed some time away from everything. And actually, I am mad, but not with you, with…uhm, Dad, I guess. And mom, and Professor Oak…and Pikachu." The three mentioned people that Ash was mad at dropped their faces.
"Ash… I'm your best buddy…" Pikachu whined with a miserable frown.
"But I don't w-want to be mad! I just…just wish I hadn't been such an idiot! It frustrates me that I was tricked that easily! I ran away because I don't want you, or anyone else, to see me like this. I h-hit mom, and I feel awful - but you shouldn't feel awful, Arceus. I don't think opening it later would've made things easier." Arceus gazed at Ash, who was smiling at the Alpha Pokemon, and it could only imagine how many emotions he was putting at bay just to deliver that encouraging grin. Seeing it made Arceus feel sick. The water that had been polling in its eyes breached out and fell to the ground in tears. "Hey… what's wrong?"
"...how could you say that? Why are you like this, Ash Ketchum? You are so very clearly in pain, yet you prioritize my well-being over yours. You aren't…even allowing me to apologize…!" The Original One fell on its back haunches, overcome with regret. "Why do you help everyone else before you let others help you? I do not…this is indefensible! Please do not tell me not to feel ashamed!" The Alpha Pokemon tried very hard to keep the bleats escaping its throat as quiet as possible - it was here to help its hero, not burden him with its own emotions - but Ash was turning it away, and it hurt.
Ash grimaced, skirting his eyes back and forth as he struggled to come up with something to say. "But…but we're friends, Arceus. I'm sorry I stressed you out so much, b-but you don't owe me anything. No one can help me right now because when they try, I just…I don't know, I snap, and I say stuff I regret, and I don't want to load that on you. Or anyone!" Ash put his hands to the sides of his head in exasperation with the whole world. "So if…everyone could just leave me alone for…however long I need to be alone for, that would be great, okay?! I just want to be with Dad and focus on not thinking. Because when I think, I get upset, and you all shouldn't see me upset, so-"
"You DIED for me." Arceus interrupted. "Ash Ketchum…you went back in time to save me from the silver water in Michina. Your existence was briefly erased because the timeline you hailed from ceased to be, all in the efforts of teaching me the error of my ways! You say we are friends, but how can that be…if I am forbidden from doing a fraction of what you've done for me?"
Ash looked into the face of the Pokemon God, metallic facial skin slick with tears, and gulped a wad of saliva that was building in his mouth. “Friends don’t…keep score…” He offered weakly.
"I am not here out of obligation - I have come because I care for you!" The Architect of All gave a bellowing bleat that wiggled into the ears of the humans and Pokemon in the forest grove, like how a tree root punctures an underground water pipe. "And though I am no longer confident in my judgments, I still will assess that everyone else who has come for you before me agrees. They…we are fond of you, Ash Ketchum."
"...you know, Ash, Arceus isn't wrong." Professor Oak spoke up, his fingers trembling as he clutched the bill of Sunny's cap. Ash looked over at him, his face unable to decide on an expression. He was caught between a hopeful smile and an angry scowl, indicative of his psyche, locked in a janusian mode. "We're not going to leave and let you bottle up your emotions. I know you're mad at me for lying, but I didn't come so you could stop being mad at me. Ash…you changed my whole life! If it wasn't for you, I have no idea where I would be in life right now. After Celebi took me back in time, I dedicated each day toward trying to be like you; the way you put so much on the line to save Celebi and how you and your Pokemon acted like you shared the same mind and heart…you were my hero, too. I've forgotten that along the way, and I've done wrong by you, but I want to make up for that. Even if it takes me another 40 years, I'll work so we can be friends again."
"I always thought you were the world's craziest human." Sceptile picked up where Samuel Oak left off, using the momentum of the older human's words to get something off its chest. "I wanted to do with you when we first met. You were just another snot-nosed brat trying to catch me. I never asked you to try and save my tribe's tree, but you helped water it anyway, even though it wasn't your business. I thought you were just tricking me so you could catch me when I least suspected it…and you did, but not in the way I thought. I got chummy with you, too chummy - I had to be your Pokemon after that. Just like I'm stuck with you, you're stuck with me - the sky will fall before I even think about leaving you alone. You didn't leave me alone, so this is your punishment."
"... I'm not good with the mushy stuff…I wish I could just knock some sense into you, but…" Staraptor attempted to join in on the conversation, but her embarrassment and lack of confidence in such an attempt hindered her. An encouraging look from Sceptile, however, pushed her forward. "Ash, seeing you like this is weird because you always worked so hard to train me. I wouldn't be anywhere near as strong as I am now if you didn't catch me. It…sucks that your dad's dead, but why are you giving up on us now of all times? This isn't like you - scream, cry, get scared, but don't just sit there and mope! I'm probably not as cool as a dad, but… we're family, right? You can have a freak-out, Ash; we won't stop being friends if you let it all out." The Predator Pokemon walked its talons closer to Ash, awkwardly frank on her beak. She was as uncomfortable as Sceptile was with the maudlin rhetoric, but what she had to say was the truth.
"You got mad at me once before. You told me to get away and stay away. But you made it up to me; you worked hard to prove that you didn't mean it." Bayleef sniffled and lowered her vines a little so she could press her head against the back of his left leg. "You don't mean it now, either; you're just going through a lot. That's okay…I understand. I'll stay no matter how much you tell me to leave."
"G-guys…are you all saying…you don't care if I b-blow a fuse? You just want to help?" Ash muttered in a quiet voice as he looked at all his Pokemon. Just like Pidgeot had earlier, he felt in sync with them all despite not understanding a word they said. Sceptile, Bayleef, Noctowl, and Staraptor nodded their heads - the Owl Pokemon didn't have a flowery speech prepared, but it felt it did not need one. Ash might be a little dense, but even he had to know how far the Johtonian avian would go for its trainer. Ash's face trembled, threatening to break out into a warm smile, only for him to turn his head away with a frown. "I guess I made everyone pretty worried…but I d-don't…I don't like myself when I'm like this! I hate talking about b-bad stuff, like all the times I thought I was gonna die, and the times I did die…when I wasn't good enough to save everyone, and n-now today I find out about…!" The birthday boy trailed off into a sob.
"Ash, listen to me, please!" Delia begged. She grabbed at her son's hand while his arms were bound by Bayleef's vines and fought to keep her hold on it firm as he tried to wrestle away from her touch. "My baby boy…bottling up your emotions is the worst thing a person can do in life. It eats away at your soul. I never gave myself a chance to mourn Sunny - I was devastated when he left for his journey, but I never cried. I was upset when he asked me to lie to you for so long, but I never wanted to deal with those feelings. I deluded myself into thinking I was putting on a happy face for you, but I was just running away from him! Ash, you can scream at me all you want how horrible a mother I've been, but please don't be like me! It's not worth it, Ash…if you never let your feelings out, you'll start feeling empty inside…"
"Maybe I want to feel empty!" Ash barked out with a scowl as he finally wiggled his fingers out of his mother's grip and balled his hand into a fist before she could try holding it again. "Maybe I don't want to feel sad, angry, disappointed, or afraid! I'm feeling all of those things right now, and they hurt! I don't want to shout at anyone. And I don't want to cry for a man I barely know! I want to feel numb right now until the bad feelings go away on their own. It's worked before, so why won't it work now?" Ash screwed his eyes shut with a wretched expression.
"...what can I do? Pidgeot, tell me what to do." Pikachu looked up at the Bird Pokemon, who had lapsed into silence. The electric mouse looked as unhappy as his trainer did. "I can't stand to see him like this…but I don't know what to say. I tried to help earlier, but I made things worse! Help me do something, please!"
"Standing here and being quiet is doing something," Pidgeot spoke in an authoritative tone, not necessarily malicious, but stern. Pikachu opened his mouth to speak with a furrowed brow, but no words came out. He sighed and dropped his ears glumly, allowing Pidgeot to start talking again once Pikachu proved he wouldn't interrupt. "Ash doesn't want to shut down on the outside world, but he's convinced himself that's what he has to do to get through this. Being present with Ash is a tempting lifeline to open up to; when he does, just listen and be sympathetic." The flock-leader of this forest's Pidgey and Pidgeotto elaborated. There was no magic fix-all option when people were grieving; all that the friends of the bereaved could do was be the rock of support they needed while those in mourning weathered their storm of grief.
Jessie did not consider Ash a friend or hear a word of Pidgeot's advice to Pikachu. "Ugh… okay, I think now I'm able to get up without immediately falling," Wobbuffet muttered as he dusted off dirt from his cyan body and shakily stood up. While it had become deft at recovering from the blast-offs that Team Rocket had been put through time after time, the sudden drop Arceus from the sky as he rode on its back made was a different thing to deal with in that Arceus fell faster than gravity's regular pull downward. Wobbuffet sighed and finally got himself on four legs, just in time to see Jessie, who had left the Patient Pokemon to his own devices after a while, bonk Ash Ketchum on the head. "Jessie, I love you, but not everything in life can be solved with you hitting people," Wobbuffet remarked flatly.
"You selfish, ungrateful, spoiled, obnoxious twerp!" Jessie admonished in the aftermath of her gloved fist's impact on the top of Ash's head, leaving behind a bulbous swelling of a hematoma under his spiky black hair. The audacity of the action took Ash's Pokemon by surprise, so much so that they forgot to eviscerate her where she stood. Ash hissed out in pain as his scalp throbbed, but before he could deliver any retort, Jessie opened her mouth once more. "When I saw what was inside that box, I knew your reaction would be bad, but this?! This isn't bad; this is you being myopic. Life throws you one problem that you can't deal with in a Pokemon battle, and all at once, you turn into some depression addict! 'Leave me alone! I want to curl up in the forest and not think about stuff!' You're such a brat!" She spat.
"...Is this supposed to be your concept of 'help,' Lady Starr?" Arceus spoke up in a bewildered telepathic tone. "This is not what I requested you do when we found Sir Ash." The Alpha Pokemon would have reacted much more than mere bewilderment at Jessie's words if she had not delivered it from its own self-loathing spiral back at the corral. Though the smack to the face left no damage, what she had to say to it earlier was ultimately bitter but necessary medicine. With the memory of her screaming at it to be better still fresh in its mind, it watched a similar scene play out, hopeful of a similar conclusion.
"Listen, kid, I get it - life can be a drag. It can chew you up and spit you out on the concrete for no good reason other than simple luck. But you don't get to say you don't want to cry about it - because you got off easy." Jessie sneered, poking Ash in the nose to emphasize her point while he just stared down at her in shock. "All it takes is one bad thing to happen to you, and you toss everything so great about your life to the curb. Your friends and family threw you a birthday party; do you think I ever get to celebrate my birthday?! My only human friend is James, and he's as broke as I am! You… you're living the childhood I always wanted, but instead of appreciating it, you find one little snag in your perfect home life and run off!"
"WHAT DO YOU KNOW?!" Ash screamed in a voice that was not his. "What makes you the expert on how good I have it, huh?!' The birthday boy gritted his teeth and flared his nostrils, his mind finally settling on an emotion: rage.
"At least your dad bothered to give you something of his; mine didn't!" Jessie screamed right back in his face. The Team Rocket agent gestured sharply to Delia, making her flinch. "At least your mom never gave up on you to fend for yourself; mine didn't! I had no Pokemon friends to look for me when I ran away! I didn't have the God of Pokemon invested enough in my problems to get me out of my funk! You have four regions worth of random twerp friends and arguably the biggest support network for when you're feeling down, and you choose to act like you have no one. Grow. Up. Everyone goes through what you're going through, so stop pretending no one can help, deal with this, and get back to your party!"
"Oh no." Pidgoet widened its eyes in realization. "I think I just figured out Jessie's plan here."
"...what, being a jerk?" Sceptile asked, baffled. "How is this supposed to be helpful?"
"She's trying to get Ash to focus on her. She wants Ash to stop bottling things up by making him angry with her." Pidgeot took a few steps back as if Ash was suddenly a ticking time bomb, and once the rest of Ash's Pokemon got the same idea and did the same, Delia and Professor Oak retreated a few steps as well. "This will fail spectacularly or get Ash to open up to us. I really do hope that it's the latter, but this is Team Rocket, so-"
"You want me to deal with it?! FINE! " Ash exploded, interrupting Pidgeot and making poor Bayleef, still keeping him aloft in the air, cower. "I'm mad, okay?! I'm mad at my dad for not telling me that he was dying! I… I'm angry that Mom didn't think I could handle the truth, that she never let me see my grandparents, and that she let me base my whole life on wanting to try and be like someone who doesn't even exist! My entire life, I've been trying to follow in his footsteps and make him proud, and now I find out the stuff I thought he did was… just my mom's stories! I wanted to b-become a Pokemon Master…for him! So he would come home! I'm such a moron !" The 14-year-old was red in the face, and flecks of spittle flew from his lips and landed on Jessie's face. She calmly wiped them away with her glove.
"Keep going," Jessie ordered.
"I just wanted to s-see him again, and we could be a family, a real family! I would never have gotten into Pokemon if it wasn't for him, but what does it matter now?! So what If I made him proud - big whoop, he's nothing but dust in a vase in mom's bedroom! Oh, he cared about me, did he? He didn't think I could handle such sad news until I was 14?! Do you know how much I've been through in the last four years?! Did you know I almost died on my first day as a Pokemon trainer before I met you?!" Ash bellowed hysterically. "I'm a hundred times the trainer he was! You know that, yeah?! I was chosen to save the world in the Orange Islands; I saved Celebi, Molly, Mewtwo, Jirachi, and Manaphy, but I never thought I was doing a good enough job - I always thought there was someone even better than me who could have done things better if he was around…and he's dead. My dad's dead, and he lied to me, and my mom lied, and Professor Oak lied, and…and…"
"Hey," Jessie sounded much less hostile than earlier. "Just focus on me, okay? Don't think about not wanting to hurt their feelings - they're not here right now." The Team Rocket agent could see in Ash's eyes that the next thing he wanted to say was what Ash had really been bottling up. The 14-year-old scrunched up his face and tried turning his head away from Jessie's gaze, only for her to grab his skull and wrestle his gaze back to her.
"...and I don't feel like a Pokemon trainer anymore." Ash's voice had dropped to something barely more audible than a whisper. "I don't want to see my Pokemon right now. I made friends with them while trying to be like my dad. They only know the side of me that pretends to be someone else…I don't know who I am…!" The 14-year-old whined, his facial muscles relaxing to a blank expression of exhaustion. The forest had surrendered to an oppressive, tense silence for five seconds. Then Pikachu reacted.
"Ash Ketchum, you are the most —!" The electric mouse launched into a veritable mountain of curmudgeonly expletives that do not translate well into any human language. The abruptly apoplectic Pikachu kept finding material to work with so that the string of adjectives could continue; Sceptile covered Staraptor's ears while looking at Ash's starter in complete dumbfoundedness. Once Pikachu had bothered to end his sentence with a noun, he panted, while all the humans present looked tense; they had no idea what Pikachu just said, but through various context clues, they collectively reasoned it was derogative. The Mouse Pokemon then sprinted around Bayleef and Jessie so that he could glare up at the Alpha Pokemon with an impatient scowl. "You! Translate for me!"
"I don't even know what half of what you said means. I suspect many of those words were invented in the last hundred years while I was asleep. What does q_______ express?” The Alpha Pokemon innocently enquired. Pikachu's face blushed, blurring the lines between his red electricity pouches and the rest of his cheeks. Wobbuffet tapped Arceus's right hind leg to get its attention, rapidly shaking his head. It took a while, but the Original One got the message. "...oh, that word is not to be used in polite company, I understand. Mouse Pokemon, you will wash your mouth out with soap later."
"No, not that! Don't translate that; translate this !" Pikachu huffed out and turned around to face everyone. "Ash…I love you. I'm so sorry that I tried burning your dad's hat to a crisp; I thought you were the same as me — but I was wrong. I never knew my parents…I thought that they left me to fend for myself. I was scared for a long time. But then I found…Mama Kangaskhan. She took me in and raised me like her son, and I loved her so much. She made me feel accepted within her herd, and even though she was strict sometimes, I knew the rules were just another way for her to say how much I meant to her. But one day…I noticed how much of a burden I was on her, so…so I left." Pikachu had not talked about his Mama in a very long time - the words felt odd and alien in his mouth as he related the story to someone for the first time. Arceus narrowed its eyes at the Mouse but translated Pikachu's speech for the humans to hear.
"D-do you want to know why I hate the idea of evolving so much? When I left Mama's den, I remembered all my time with her. I was so happy…I evolved into a Pikachu. As long as I stay like this, I'm still with her. Mama Kangaskhan m-made me evolve, and ever since I did, I… I've lived trying to act like her." Pikachu shook his head as if that act would help the words flow faster. "I don't always do such a good job at that, but… I try to be open-minded, warm, and empathetic. She taught me to see the wonder in every little thing and how great it is to find someone to open up with. When I first met you…I thought we had nothing in common - you always live in the moment and only cared about having fun; I thought you just saw me as a pet to play and battle with instead of a person…"
The electric mouse sniffled, and behind him, the Architect of All started to feel uncomfortable relaying Pikachu's words to everyone else. It was not used to speaking in such intimate, personal language, but still, it telepathically echoed Pikachu's speech word-for-word. "But I was wrong. Everywhere you go, you make the world a better place without even thinking about it - you never plan, never think, just act on your gut instinct, and your instincts tell you to help. The last four years I've spent with you have been the best time in my life. You're not just my trainer, you're my…" Arceus paused, looking into the wide open mouth of its hero as he alternated between looking at it and his Pikachu. Arceus was getting that weird warm feeling again. "...my brother. The best thing about the world we live in is that we get to choose who our family is - there's no such thing as being bound by blood; the people who are the most important in your life don't need to be related to you, or even be the same species! If the Ash I know has been trying to be like your dad, he must have been the dad I always wanted. If he was half of half the human you are, I'm still sorry I never got to meet him. Don't you ever say you don't know who you are again; you're Ash Ketchum, my best friend, my Pokemon Master."
There were, of course, some nuances lost in the translation - Arceus delivered the speech without replicating the pauses, the hesitation, the inflections Pikachu had as he struggled to carry himself through the recalling of a bittersweet memory or the passion conveyed in how much Ash meant to him. But for the first time in Ash’s life, Pikachu talked to him, and he could get more than a general feeling - not just the gift of what he was saying, but words! Actual words that told a story about a time from before Ash met his starter Pokemon, about how he was the mouse’s brother and...a Pokemon Master.
Just like his dad wanted him to be.
“...Bayleef, can you set me down?” Ash mumbled. The Leaf Pokemon hesitantly but dutifully obeyed, unwrapping her hold around her trainer’s torso after standing him back on his two feet. Ash limped past Jessie, dragging his right leg along the rocky ground, before bending down in front of Pikachu with a wince. He spread his arms out slowly, and just when it looked like he was going to say something, Pikachu leaped into his chest and burrowed his face in the human’s jacket. “Pikachu…I’m sorry…” Those were the only words he managed to get out before his throat opened up to release a keening wail that pierced the air.
The last time Arceus had heard such a raw cry of sorrow was from a time that no longer existed, the old timeline where it was ‘betrayed’ by Damos, and it cried itself to sleep in its home dimension for the betrayal. “I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY I PUSHED YOU AWAY! YOU WERE ALL TRYING TO HELP, BUT…I MISS HIM SO MUCH! I THOUGHT…I thought I was going to see him again one day!” Ash choked out as tears ran down his face. Jessie first helped him express his anger, now Pikachu had helped him express his sorrow. “He…he would have loved you guys! He wanted to be a trainer, and he wanted to see the whole world…and all the Pokemon who lived in it! I’ll never t-take you guys for granted again…I’m so lucky to be your friend…!” He turned around, addressing his Pokemon in between hysterical cries.
“...you big crybaby.” Sceptile smirked, ignoring how it was also crying at this point, and walked over to sit by Ash as he knelt to lay an arm around his shoulder.
“We’re lucky to be your friends, as well.” Noctowl solemnly avered, flying over to brush its head against the front of Ash’s left leg.
“No matter how far away you are…” Staraptor wrapped one of her wings around the kid’s right side.
“...or how long we spend apart…” Pidgeot mirrored Staraptor by putting a wing around Ash’s left, ensuring Ash was doubly hugged from behind.
“We’ll always be thinking of you, just like… your dad thinks of you, even now.” Bayleef trotted around to Ash’s front and pressed her head into his stomach. “We love you, Ash.”
“I love you, too…” Ash sputtered out, smiling very faintly through the tears. He did not need Arceus to translate what Bayleef said. “I love you all…so much!”
Jessie, Professor Oak, and Delia stood apart from the others in the back, content to watch the scene unfold rather than be a part of it. “...he really is his father’s son,” Delia softly commented. "I hope one day he can forgive me. Just having one good cry isn't going to solve everything, is it?”
“It very rarely does.” Jessie, forever the prima donna, noted, recalling all the times she had launched into a thousand tears over severe and trivial matters that she thought deserved the most gut-wrenching reactions. “Luckily for him, he has a pretty decent mom he can turn to when feeling down.” The Team Rocket agent made it a point not to look at Delia as she said that, focused solely on the twerp, surrounded by all his Pokemon. A thought crossed her mind about how great an opportunity this might have been if she had brought along some sort of trap to steal them all with…but then she looked up at Arceus, and it was tossed aside.
“Very wise words, Jessie. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re more intelligent than what your usual behavior indicates.” Professor Oak chuckled. Jessie took a deep breath and sighed sharply, letting the remark slide off her. “Goodness gracious, I feel like I’ve been in these woods for two weeks. I don’t think I have any energy left for that tournament we were preparing back at the corral.”
“Me neither, Professor. With that hurt knee, I don’t want him moving around too much… there are plenty of things we can do with him at the party that doesn't involve legs, right?” Delia closed her eyes and began thinking of sedentary birthday party activities that her baby boy would enjoy, which was hard since he had never been content to be in one place doing one thing for long, ever since he was a toddler. When Delia opened her eyes again, she saw that Arceus had dipped its head down in front of Ash’s face as he cried…and started to lick it. “...oh. Well…I suppose the God of Pokemon is still a Pokemon, at the end of the day…” She chuckled in surprise.
“Arc-Arceus…that…haha, that tickles, oh my gosh!” Ash laughed and cried at the same time, fresh tears running down in the places where Arceus licked them away. His other Pokemon shot the Architect of All Creation odd looks, but dared not speak out against the action. “Thank you, Arceus… hehehahAHA! Please, no more, it…aw, who am I kidding, I need to laugh!” Ash smiled and unhooked an arm off Pilachu’s back so he could reach out and pet Arceus’ fluffy neck. It was good to have a reason to smile again.
“...Ash…you will never know how honored I am that you let me witness…so much of yourself. Your pain, melancholy, anger, love, and joy. I…I do not know how much I have helped you, but thank you for letting me attempt. Thank you for being my hero, my friend, my first & only friend, my…my…” Arceus stopped licking Ash’s face and lightly rested its muzzle against his forehead. When Arceus first saw Ash held aloft in his Bayleef’s vines, his aura had become so dim, as strong as a solitary ember, but now it was back to a healthy blaze. It would take some time before he recovered fully from today, but he was already getting better - the fire of Ash’s aura grew by the minute, burning brighter and adding to the flames of those he touched. For the first time in its very long life, Arceus felt its aura grow as Ash lent some of its intensity through the bond they shared, a bond it didn't know was there until he felt the already ‘perfect’ gold blaze swell. When Ash said he loved them all…was Arceus included in that ‘all’? “...may I travel with you in the Unova region?”
“...what…was that?” Ash fluttered his eyes in confusion. The bluntness of the question caught him off guard in his emotionally exhausted state. He rolled his eyes up in their sockets to look up at Arceus without disturbing its muzzle on his forehead. Brown eyes made contact with red and green ones.
“My gift to you, Sir Ash Ketchum…is myself.” All Ash’s Pokemon tensed and jerked their heads at the Alpha Pokemon. Ash, for his part, only widened his eyes. “Do you…accept? May I please be…someone you can count on? Someone to share in your pain and joy, your sorrow and love? Will you… choose me?” Arceus felt anxious now that it had finally posed the question. Time slowed to a crawl in its head - what if he said no? What if Ash rebuffed it? What if he didn't want it as a friend in that way? What if-?
Meanwhile, in real-time, it took Ash one second to answer once Arceus finished talking. “Yes!” The 14-year-old beamed. Arceus blinked and took its head away from Ash’s - the kid’s broad smile was infectious, the Architect found its facial grooves tugging upward. “That’s… exactly what I needed to hear! I need to become a Pokemon Master…and that means being someone every Pokemon can count on! I choose you, Arceus!” The Alpha Pokemon’s smile broke out into a tooth-filled grin before running its tongue across Ash’s face once more, to his amusem*nt.
Sunny Ketchum thought of his son from somewhere very far away, where the fallen rest, and was very proud.
