This is it, guys! See ya at the end.

.: Chapter 14 :.

Champions

No one seemed to know what to make of Mew.

Quite a few trainers – mostly the police – seemed not to recognize her at all, and were baffled when their pokemon ignored their repeated orders to attack. The Rockets looked greedy. Others seemed just as shocked and frozen as their pokemon. Still others wore grim looks of calculation, and Ash got the sense that they knew more about the situation than he did, and were preparing for the worst.

Ash wasn't sure what that worst would be, but judging from their expressions, he thought it might be in his favour.

"Friends!" said a strangely familiar, high-pitched voice, and with a shock Ash realized it was Mew. "Don't fight! Please go home! We are all connected, we are all friends, and friends do not fight each other!"

When no one moved, Mew teleported away from Ash and reappeared behind the opposing army, putting her nearest to the Rockets. Now unnaturally silent, she started making beckoning dives and swirls in the air. As still no one moved, she got closer and closer to the Rockets, until one dive placed her within arm's reach of a plainclothes Rocket.

The man lunged. Mew instantly teleported away, bouncing safely on a bubble meters above the man's head, but the damage had been done. Mewtwo flickered into being beside Ash, and a blue ball of light incinerated the opportunistic Rocket. One of his compatriots was already bringing out a pokemon, and Ash realized suddenly why none of the Rockets had pokemon out before now.

The Magmar that emerged was completely unaware of the situation and just as completely primed for battle. When its trainer ordered it to attack, it obeyed without hesitation. Mew teleported back to Ash instantly, just in time to raise a pink shield to match Mewtwo's blue, but the rest of the Rockets were already joining the assault and Mewtwo's clones were pouring out of the forest to meet them. Someone in the forest gave the signal, and the voltorbs and geodudes buried under the ground exploded. Birds dive-bombed the Rockets from the trees. Abras teleported large groups out of the forest and into strategic locations, and other psychics threw their duplicates into the fray while taking pot-shots from the trees. With so many attacks flying, everyone else was forced to defend themselves or become a victim.

And just like that, peace was averted.

Before Ash could decide what to do, Mew grabbed him and an instant later he was hovering safely above the treetops on a pink bubble while Mew darted anxiously around his head.

"Friends do not fight each other," she repeated, like a mantra. "They are all so young. How can they be so angry?"

Ash found himself at a loss for words. He had never heard Mew sound so distressed, and it tore at his heart. With all the evils this inequality and conflict had created, pushing this innocent, kind-hearted immortal to tears had to be the worst. But Mew seemed to need an answer, so Ash gave her the only one he had.

"I don't know. Maybe they don't know any other way to be."

If anything, this seemed to make Mew sadder, and Ash immediately hated himself for it. She ceased her darting and hovered listlessly beside him, tail dangling.

A shriek pierced the air, followed closely by two more similar cries, and the chaos on the ground momentarily paused. Ash was only able to get a brief impression of colours – blue, yellow, red – and incredible speed before three large shapes bolted past him and descended on the combatants. But he didn't need more than that to identify them.

Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres had joined the fight.

Inexplicably, Mew perked up. "The others are coming. They can stop this!"

"They? What 'others'?" Mew didn't reply, just started twirling again. "Mew!"

"Just wait, Not-Pikachu. They will be here soon!"

The nickname baffled Ash long enough for her vague little prophecy to come true. As he watched the blue, yellow and red blurs wreak havoc on the army below, scorching, burning, freezing, and shrieking in fury all the while, he gradually became aware of a distant rumble, like a far off drumroll. The sky slowly darkened, clouds swelling into being from nothing, and a gale ripped through the treetops. The first raindrops felt tentative, but within seconds the dark sky broke open and let loose a flood, heralded by a massive crack of thunder. Mew went still at his side and then, as an afterthought, flipped a belated pink shield over their heads. Though already soaked through, Ash appreciated the gesture.

The shield did improve his sight a bit, and—yes, there, at the edge of the tree line, Ash could just make out three large, hulking shapes. They seemed to share the birds' colouring, but it was too dark now and they were too far away for Ash to be sure. He was about to ask Mew, cryptic answers or not, when he thought he saw one of them move. He squinted through the rain, and saw a…leg, a head? Yes, they were stepping out – a flash of white, like a streamer – raising their heads, and…

Three roars, distinct but united, shook the ground and rattled the sky, and the battle just…froze. Rain continued to fall, the wind still howled, and the fires still crackled, but all the combatants were silent. Even the great birds paused: Moltres pulled out of a shrieking, fiery dive-bomb to flutter harmlessly a few feet above the ground, Zapdos paused in his sweep attack to somehow hover in midair without flapping, and Articuno veered off to land in a nearby tree. Mewtwo stood still with a half-formed ball of energy buzzing between his hands and a circle of motionless Rocket minions around him. Ash, a bit hysterically, was put in mind of someone tapping a microphone to get an audience's attention.

And then, in the sudden silence—bells.

Something golden was coming, and driving the storm away with it. And Ash understood.

He'd only seen Ho-Oh once before, but the experience had been seared into his heart like few other events from his ten year old self. Most people would assume he'd treasure such an encounter for bragging rights, but even preteen Ash had never felt the urge to share this one – not that anyone he did tell actually believed him. Instead, he treasured the memory for the serenity he'd felt at the time – a calm, steady surety of purpose and potential as if he'd already seen the future laid out before him and had only to follow the steps to get there. It wasn't anything precise – he didn't actually see the future – and it wasn't something he could explain – not that anyone would believe him – but remembering it had gotten him through more than one rough patch in the past.

If anyone could still stop this, Ash could believe it was Ho-Oh.

But he could feel something else coming too…something familiar…there!

– Pikachu! –

The jumbled mess of images he got in reply was too fast and chaotic to make sense of, but the overriding emotion came through strong and clear, and Ash knew he was projecting his own relief and joy right back. Somehow, Ash found he wasn't even surprised that Ho-Oh was bringing Pikachu, along with their best chance at peace. Peace, hope and Pikachu: all those words seemed pretty synonymous to Ash.

The unnatural hush lasted all through Ho-Oh's approach, and when the great golden bird made to land, a space cleared for her immediately. The other two shapes, which Ash now recognized as Bulbasaur and Raichu, tumbled off her back and edged into the crowd, though Pikachu remained. Even if Ash still didn't know quite what to make of Raichu, he was glad everyone had made it out of Vermillion in one piece.

Majestically, as if she had all the time in the world and hadn't just landed in the middle of a battlefield, Ho-Oh raised her head as high as her long, thin neck would allow. One by one, she looked all the leaders in the eye, starting with Ash and Mew. Ash's breath caught when those golden eyes met his, but he could sense nothing from them but calm.

When she seemed certain the she had everyone's complete attention, Ho-Oh raised her eyes to the sky and uttered a string of musical sounds that shivered through the air like the reverberations of a great bell. Though he knew they were words, and felt in his bones that they were important, Ash didn't understand them. He seemed to be the only one, however; startled noises and movements swept across the crowd like a wave, and some pokemon seemed to shrink in on themselves as if guilty or ashamed.

Ash needed to know what the phoenix had said. Mew, though unreliable and cryptic, was the only source at hand. She fairly glowed with happiness, and bounced in midair when he asked.

"It's the old tongue! My tongue!" Apparently to prove her point, Mew lapsed into a similarly musical speech style, though one that reminded Ash more of triangles than church bells, and didn't seem to resonate with the very earth.

"Mew," he tried when she showed no signs of switching back. "Mew! Stop, I can't understand you!"

She deflated slightly. "Oh. Well, you're a not-pikachu, so I guess that's okay. No one really speaks it anymore, anyway."

Ash hated to be rude, but he needed to know what was going on, now. "Mew, focus. What did Ho-Oh say?"

"It's like…an oath? Or a promise? I don't know how you say it. All of us…old ones can do it. She's ordering them to stop fighting, with the old ways."

It suddenly occurred to Ash that, if this old language was hers, it meant that Mew was effectively translating from her native tongue for his benefit. This cast an entirely new light on her simple, cryptic speech. Mew wasn't young, or simple-minded; she was ancient, and her playful pacifism was born of something far more complicated than innocence.

The dogs were coming forward now, Suicune and Raikou and Entei, surrounding Ho-Oh and forming a wall at her sides. The three great birds seemed to hesitate, but a warbling call from Ho-Oh brought them gliding over to hover in a line above the others like avenging angels. The sun shone bright and clear through the dispersing clouds, and the combatants began to separate. Ash's relief crashed over him like a wave.

And then—something glittered, in the crowd. Ash squinted at it, but as fast as he'd noticed it, it was gone. But if Ash was known for anything, it was trusting his instincts, and in that fraction of a second something had pinged his alarms, something wrong. He opened to speak—and Mew grabbed him again. The next he knew he was on the ground by Ho-Oh's feet, while Mew chittered excitedly at the great phoenix. And he was very, very short.

"Ash?"

Bulbasaur. Ash spared him a glance, still desperately scanning the crowd. "I thought…I saw something, but I don't know—"

"Pikapi!"

Ash responded instinctively to the panic in Pikachu's voice. Not knowing where the threat was coming from or going to, he threw up the largest Light Screen he could, expanding it to cover himself, Mew, and Ho-Oh. Time seemed to slow, and Ash knew his brain and body were operating at the speed of electricity, something he'd seen Pikachu do countless times but had never really understood. In slow motion he saw the thunderbolt from his partner arc over Ho-Oh's head to add power to his shield. Almost lazily, he used the extra energy to widen it further, until it completely covered Ho-Oh, and even half shielded Suicune and Raikou. He had one more moment to steady it, one endless second to anchor it through his power and Pikachu's to the natural static in the air, and then time resumed and the attack hit.

Ash wasn't sure what it was, just that it was extremely bright and hit incredibly hard. His screen buckled and warped under the assault, deflecting some of the power in a web of tiny beams that left pockmarks in the earth or fizzled into nothing in the sky. But it held. His screen held, and Ash had just enough time to think Rocket before angry screams erupted at his back. He whirled, his shield slipping away with his focus.

"Don't attack!" he yelled, but his tiny mouse-voice was swallowed by the crowd. Pikachu was suddenly at his side, and he shared a panicked look with her. They both knew this was out of their control now, if it had ever been in the first place.

And suddenly, Ho-Oh was gone. The displaced air hit Ash first, before he even realized what had happened, and the sound of giant wing beats followed an instant later. He turned, but he knew in his gut that he was already far too late to stop whatever was about to happen. He turned, just in time to see Ho-Oh, standing in front of Lance with her golden wings raised in defiance and shining bright enough to forever burn the image into his mind. He turned, just a second before Mewtwo's psychic orb hit, and—

Ho-Oh burned.

Ash had to close his eyes against the light, but even through his eyelids he could see the fire, golden and white like no fire he had ever seen before. It flared high enough to lick the sun, it seemed, and roared loud enough to split the earth, until Ash would have believed it had actually swallowed the world and all of them with it. A great bell tolled from the heart of the flames, and Ash felt the ground tilt beneath his paws. Once, twice, three times, and each strike shuddered through his bones and turned his muscles to jelly, until he had no idea how he was still standing, or even if he was. He felt deaf and dumb to anything less than the rumble of the earth or the roaring of gods.

And then, finally, silence. The starbursts faded behind his eyelids, and gradually Ash realized he was still standing, he still existed. He blinked his way back to reality, and found Pikachu at his side. She looked dazed and confused, but she was standing, and when he pressed his shoulder to hers, she pressed back just as hard.

All around them other pokemon were waking up. Bulbasaur grumbled himself as he got to his feet, and Suicune's white streamers boiled around her as she shook herself free. Mew was the only one who seemed unaffected, still floating in the same place Ash had last seen her. Except…she wasn't bouncing, and her tail was limp. Ash couldn't see her face, but he could tell something was wrong.

He looked for Ho-Oh, and couldn't find her. She had disappeared completely from the field, and where the flames had erupted there was only Lance, rubbing his eyes and struggling to get to his feet. Ash couldn't imagine what it must have been like for him, that close to the flames. He didn't want to imagine.

"She burned," Pikachu breathed. Ash glanced at her, but she didn't seem to be talking to him. She was staring at Lance with a weird, feverish intensity.

Ash took a second look at Lance, who was now focused on something on the ground. Ash couldn't make it out – he was too far away, and too small – but in a sudden burst of insight he knew what it must be. Panic clawed at his throat and sunk ice-cold fangs of terror into his heart, and he started to run. He dodged through the crowd, distantly aware of Pikachu at his back, until he was nearly on top of Lance and could see.

It was an egg.

Ho-Oh had burned, and left behind an egg.

And Ash…didn't understand. He felt tiny and powerless and lost, and he didn't understand.

"She sacrificed herself," Pikachu whispered, and Ash turned to her, eyes wide. "She didn't have to; none of us could have killed her. But she chose to burn." She paused, staring at the egg, but Ash didn't think she was seeing it. "No pokemon will fight another now, not on a trainer's orders. Everyone heard her, clear through to other side of the world."

Ash didn't have trouble believing that. "But…the egg?"

"She's a phoenix, Pikapi," Pikachu said with a tremulous smile. "She's the phoenix. She burned, and was reborn."

"So that's…"

"Ho-Oh, yes. Or, I guess, the next Ho-Oh."

Ash paused to take that in. "But how…how do you know? How do you know they'll stop?"

Pikachu seemed to struggle with something. "They're…what you call legendaries, they're like gods to us, Ash. For one of them to sacrifice themselves like this…it's big. It's really big. We'll listen."

Ash swallowed, pushing down the unease he felt at Pikachu's repeated use of us and we and, most damningly, you. There had been a line in the sand between pokemon and humans for a long time now, and it wasn't like Pikachu's side was a surprise. It was obvious, and it had always been obvious. Ash, though…he'd been straddling the line for just as long. And despite that, he now realized it was just as obvious which side he was on. And it wasn't the same as Pikachu's.

With that in mind, Ash scanned the crowd to get an idea of how the trainers were taking all of this. Confusion and shock seemed to cover most of the reactions. Lance still seemed dazed, and Ash didn't blame him. Many of the League members looked profoundly disturbed, though Karen seemed almost happy. Maybe out of spite, who knew; Ash had never understood dark types. And the Rockets…

The Rockets were slipping away.

Ash opened his mouth to warn someone – anyone, everyone – but even as he watched, a grinning Gengar with clone stripes appeared in the path of one of the fleeing Rockets, holding a handful of pokeballs mockingly out of reach. The Rocket lunged for the balls, but the Gengar just vanished, taking the pokeballs (and, presumably, the pokemon inside) with it. Ash smiled grimly and didn't say a word.

There was, however, one thing he could do better than anyone else.

-Lance? It's me, Ash.-

The Dragon Tamer's head jerked up, but he left a protective hand on the golden egg all the same. Ash was almost sorry; he hadn't realized a person could look that confused.

-No, don't look for me. I'm here, but you wouldn't recognize me. Just listen, please.—

Lance took a deep breath and looked down at the egg. At Ash's side, Pikachu perked up and stared at him. Ash wondered if she could hear him.

-You need to tell the others what's happened here, so listen closely. That egg is Ho-Oh. Or the next Ho-Oh, I'm not really sure how it works. She sacrificed herself to stop the fighting. Pokemon won't fight each other anymore just because we tell them to. The pokeball system isn't going to work. We're going to have to find another way to live together.-

Lance looked…Ash could no longer describe how Lance looked. He felt Pikachu lean against his side, solid and warm and reassuring. Electricity sparked through their fur where they touched, but it wasn't unpleasant.

"We already have," she told him, an odd light in her eyes. "It's the rest of the world that has to catch up."

Ash wasn't sure what to say to that. The gulf between person and pokemon still yawned wide in his mind, and he wondered if it was only going to get wider.

Mew had caught up with them, and now drifted dreamily past Ash and Lance to curl around the egg. She rested her head against the burnished gold shell and closed her eyes as if listening, while her tail drifted down the side in a gentle caress. Ash didn't doubt for a moment that she was hearing something he could not.

Mewtwo was mere seconds behind, thought his focus was more on Lance than the egg. He stormed straight at the dragon tamer, finally forcing him to let go of the egg and back away. Mewtwo settled in next to Mew and Ho-Oh's egg, not touching either but radiating hostility towards anyone who dared to come too close. And so the lines were drawn; pokemon on this side, humans on the other, and woe to anyone who dares cross.

But maybe not, Ash thought, as he watched Lance's Dragonite step up. Maybe it's just like it's always been. People against people, and friends having disagreements with other friends. And as he watched Mew beckon Lance back to the egg while Dragonite and Mewtwo glared at each other, he thought maybe that wasn't so bad. Maybe they could deal with that.

"Not-Pikachu!"

Ash jolted. Mew was staring at him like she couldn't believe he was actually this dumb. Coming from her, he wasn't even sure how fair that was, but he was almost afraid to ask. "What?"

"You're being rude! Say hello!"

Ash supposed the events of the day/night were finally getting to him, because his mind was completely blank. He couldn't think of a single explanation for what she might mean.

-The EGG, you fool. Come here now.—

And that—that made sense, and that was Mewtwo, and Ash knew better than to anger the cloned psychic when he was looking that murderous. He approached cautiously, Pikachu still at his side, until he was within paw's reach of the shell. Up close it was almost as big as he was, and he could make out flecks of white like stars, or sparks, in the top half of the shell darkening to black ash specks as the overall gold of the egg darkened to red near the base. It seemed to radiate warmth like a campfire on a chill night. Ash felt drawn to it. He better understood Lance's reluctance to leave.

Lance, who was currently watching him with narrowed, suspicious eyes. Ash did his best to ignore him.

"Together?" he asked Pikachu.

"Always," she confirmed with a smile, and as one they touched the egg.

It was warm, Ash thought at first, and then: it was alive. He could feel its heartbeat – her heartbeat. It felt too large, too momentous, like it came from something bigger than could possibly be contained within the egg, and yet that felt right too. It was an egg, after all. It was for growing. One day, when she felt ready, Ho-Oh would break through this shell and re-join the world once more.

"Hello," Ash whispered, and met Pikachu's shining eyes.

"Hello," she echoed, and Ash knew she was greeting more than just the egg.

-Yes, yes, congratulations, you're the luckiest bumbling pacifist I've ever seen. If you don't take proper care of her, I will personally rip both of you into bite-size yellow snacks and feed you to my clones.—

As far as out-of-the-blue threats went, Ash thought that one at least deserved points for sincerity. Ash was thoroughly convinced his demise was now imminent, even if he didn't know why. "What? Take care of who?"

-How is it possible you are this stupid and still alive?—

Ash knew he shouldn't say it, and yet it wasn't like that had ever stopped him before. "Didn't get to kill any Rockets, did you?"

Mewtwo actually snarled at him, his strange three-fingered hands clenching ominously, but Mew interrupted.

"She is yours now," she informed him, tapping the egg with her tail in explanation. "Yours to care for, yours to protect. She was Champion for you, as you are now Champion for her."

That last sentence had the ring of ritual to it, and Ash felt he wasn't quite getting it. "Champion? What does that mean, exactly?"

"The…legendaries, they choose people sometimes," Pikachu said, and Ash turned to her gratefully. Finally someone he could understand. "I didn't know…I think Ho-Oh chose you, Pikapi. It's hard to explain…I guess the simplest way to put it is that she supported you, and all the other legendaries knew it. You were under her protection, but also her…reputation? She made herself responsible for you, in a way."

Ash felt like a chasm was opening under his feet. "Is that why she died? Because of me?"

Pikachu met his eyes, but didn't answer. She didn't know.

"No," Mew told him, and with that look in her eye Ash could only believe her. "Her choice. But now she will live, because of you."

Ash thought about that as he stared down at the egg. All his striving, all of his journeys and battles and victories and defeats, all of it had led him here, to this moment, this responsibility. And he thought, just maybe, he might be ready for it.

"I won't let her down," he promised, looking the homicidal psychic right in the eye. Pikachu sparked at his side, and he corrected himself. "We. We won't let her down."

"We know," Mew said, which Ash felt rather drained the drama of the moment. "You're her Champion." And then she curled tightly around the egg and, in a flash of pink light, disappeared. And took the egg with her.

Ash gaped. "What? Where did—"

-Shut your mouth and go home,- Mewtwo snapped. –She is making preparations. Or did you think you could just stick Ho-Oh in front of your fireplace and be done with it?—

Ash wanted to protest that, but it was pretty clear that Mewtwo wasn't looking for an answer. Ash had already fulfilled his daily quota of poking the angry psychic.

-Humans,- Mewtwo scoffed, and then he, too, disappeared.

There was a long silence, as Ash and Pikachu both stared at the place where the egg had been. Ash felt strangely bereft. He hoped Mew would come back soon.

He was vaguely aware of other trainers and pokemon milling around them as they tried to sort out what to do next, but he still jumped when a tiny nose burrowed underneath his arm and a hot, furry weight pressed against his side. He looked down to meet Cyndaquil's liquid brown eyes. She looked tired but, to Ash's relief, unharmed.

"I wanna go home," she whispered.

Ash found himself blinking back sudden tears. He crouched down and hugged her as best he could when they were nearly the same size, pressing his cheek to the top of her head and hoping she didn't notice the slight wetness there. She was hot from her recent battle, but it wasn't uncomfortable; like hugging a heated stone through a thick blanket. She smelled like smoke and charcoal and musky animal life.

"Okay," Ash sighed into her fur. "Let's go home."

xXx

Of course, that wasn't as easy as it sounded. Despite how much he might want to, Ash couldn't just leave everyone else in the middle of Viridian Forest. Telling them to go home was all well and good when they lived a few miles down the road, but a journey halfway across the country was another matter. He was kept busy for hours arranging transportation for everyone who needed it without exhausting the psychic and flying types who were willing to help. The legendaries were unexpectedly helpful in this, and both the dogs and birds made multiple trips to get everyone where they needed to go.

To make things more complicated, not everyone wanted to leave. Bloodlust and rage aren't feelings that just disappear, no matter what Pikachu and Mew said about Ho-Oh's sacrifice. There were plenty of pokemon who didn't believe the humans would stand down, and while Ash wanted to believe they were wrong, he couldn't manage to convince them. He figured it was better to have them where he could keep an eye on them and let them stay, for now. And in the back of his mind a voice that sounded far too much like Mewtwo whispered that he might need them, one day.

He managed to get Lance to leave without much effort, with the promise that he would be in touch with the League soon. He could tell the dragon tamer was still horribly confused and conflicted, but he put on a good front, and dragged the other Elites and League trainers with him. The police dispersed once they were sure the fighting was over, and the Rockets had vanished like they'd never been. Mewtwo's clones saw to it that no one left with their pokeballs intact, but it didn't make much difference. The League trainers and the police were competent and treated their pokemon well. With very few exceptions, their teams followed them even without the balls to force them.

The sun was high in the sky before Ash felt he could safely leave. The humans were gone, and the pokemon who were left were either waiting on rides or weren't going anywhere. The latter group was small enough that Ash wasn't too concerned, and besides, Meowth and Sienne were staying behind. Oddly enough, Ash found he trusted them to keep the peace. For a while, anyway.

Once safely out of sight of the forest group he switched out of his pikachu form for the long walk home. Pikachu immediately vaulted to his shoulder, and from his new height Cyndaquil looked so sleepy and tiny that despite his own exhaustion, Ash scooped her up too. She was asleep in his arms within minutes, and her glowing warmth against his chest made Ash desperate to curl up and sleep himself. But first, they needed to get home.

They made a strange picture on the road, Ash supposed, but also one that would only get more common. Pidgeot, Charizard and Noctowl took to the sky and provided a loose aerial escort. Occasionally Noctowl would break off to scout ahead or investigate something his keen eyes had spotted, but the detours were short and lackluster. There were no games of tag today. Each wing beat seemed to drag with exhaustion. Charizard especially kept falling behind the others, but a sharp cry from Pidgeot would break him out of whatever daze he'd sunk into and he'd fall back in with the other two.

On the ground, Bulbasaur, Bayleef and Tek plodded along beside Ash. Squirtle had mutinied and retreated inside his shell rather than walk, but Bulbasaur had hooked his vines into the holes of the shell and was dragging him along behind the group. Either Squirtle lacked the energy to do anything about it, or didn't mind; judging by the way the shell kept bouncing off rocks in the path, Ash was betting on the former.

Ash was surprised but relieved when no one came out to meet them in Pallet Town. He supposed they had better things to do than check up on the Champion who, by all accounts, had not been involved in the night's events at all. He imagined the Oaks were going out of their minds right now, and he didn't envy him. They'd get along without him for a few hours.

He'd intended to just go home and go to bed, but for some reason that didn't seem so appealing anymore. Instead he headed past his house and into the backyard. To call it a backyard was a bit of an exaggeration; mostly it was just the part of the foresty countryside that happened to lie behind the house. His mother had a small, carefully fenced garden hugging the house's back wall, and otherwise the yard was left mostly to itself. But there were trees and shrubbery and it was semi-secluded, so there was at least a chance they wouldn't be bothered here.

Charizard settled in first, swooping down so low he nearly clipped Ash's head, and landing so heavily that no one in the house could have failed to hear. No one emerged, though, and the orange dragon ambled over to the largest open space, curled up nose to tail tip like a Persian, and with a great rumbling sigh, fell unconscious.

This seemed to be the cue for everyone else to pick their spots. Pidgeot landed more gracefully, settling down on the grass a safe distance away from the dragon with a quiet cheep. Noctowl chose a nearby tree to roost in, buried his head in his back, and went silent. Bulbasaur dragged Squirtle forward a few more feet and then retracted his vines and shuffled off with Bayleef to huddle between Pidgeot and a leafy bush. After a moment Squirtle poked his head out and managed to toddle forward a few steps to Pidgeot's side, where he collapsed but at least didn't withdraw back inside his shell.

Pikachu jumped down and tugged on Ash's trouser leg. She didn't say anything, but she didn't need to. Too tired to think about it, Ash put down Cyndaquil – carefully hooking her claws out of his sleeve as she squeaked her protests – and changed.

When he opened his eyes, he was level with Pikachu. Her warm brown eyes looked a lot more expressive up close, he thought.

Cyndaquil swayed into him, and he barely kept them both upright.

"C'mon, just a little farther and you can sleep as long as you want," he promised her. She emitted a strange rumbling squeak that sounded quite put out, but Ash pushed at her until she started moving. They followed Pikachu and Tek to Pidgeot's side, and sank down into the warm feathers gratefully.

Safe, warm, and among friends, Ash slept.

xXx

He couldn't see his feet.

In fact, he couldn't see his body at all, but this didn't bother him. The world around him was misty but featureless, with no ground that he could see. This made sense to him; if he had no body, then it was probably for the best that there was no ground to stand on. He was part of this place, whatever it was.

"Ah. I see I was right to be concerned."

He wasn't sure where the voice was coming from, but this also didn't bother him. The voice was familiar, and if not trusted, at least neutral. It wouldn't harm him, if it even could. He felt strangely invulnerable here, as part of the mist.

"Say something. Do you know who you are?"

"I'm Ash," he said automatically. Only after did he realize he should have had trouble speaking, not having a body. But he wasn't surprised.

"Indeed. Do you know what you are?"

A green glow was starting to separate itself out from the swirling mist in front of him. It seemed mostly shapeless, just a blurry point of light growing slowly brighter. Ash didn't think he'd ever seen it before, but he felt it matched the voice in some fundamental way.

This was a harder question. Ash considered. "I'm Ash," he decided finally. "Just Ash. Me."

The green glow seemed to flicker before brightening almost painfully. Ash felt a strong impression of anxiousness. Concern.

He looked away from the glow for a moment to give it some privacy, and noticed that the green didn't end there. He was green, too; a lighter apple green that clung to the fringes of what he thought of as himself.

"This isn't me," he commented. "There's something else here."

There was a gusty noise, like wind through leaves in the fall. "Yes. Do you want me to take it away?"

He did, but something stopped him from saying so. The green being jumped on his hesitation.

"Ash. Listen carefully, it's very important that you remember this, even if you don't understand it right now. You need to decide. Your identity is already blurring, if I leave you like this much longer your sense of self could completely degrade. I can see you're useless like this, so I'll give you a bit more time. Choose a form to settle in before you sleep again, and I'll take the green away."

"That's a lot to remember," Ash observed.

The green flared, and Ash had the distinct sense that he'd made it angry.

"Just remember this, then," it hissed. "Time's up. Choose. And ask Mew about your aura."

"Mew's not here," Ash objected, but it was already too late. The green glow was gone, and he was waking up.

xXx

Ash woke warm, comfortable, and completely exhausted. He felt this was deeply unfair, especially since he knew he couldn't just go back to sleep after that dream. Couldn't Celebi have given him a couple of hours to rest, first?

Still, she had seemed genuinely concerned. Coming from someone who hadn't seemed to like Ash much at all, that was enough to give the trainer pause. He didn't feel like he was in danger of losing himself, but something had definitely felt off in that dream. Ash was a very simple dreamer, generally, and his dreams tended to follow very simple, predictable plots: happy dreams usually involved him winning a battle, and nightmares consisted of vague scenarios about being lost or late. He'd certainly always had a body before.

Ash scrubbed his paws over his eyes, frustrated, but didn't make a sound – no reason to deprive everyone else of their sleep. Very, very carefully he pried himself out of the warm nest they'd all made in Pidgeot's downy chest, and slipped away through the bushes.

The front door was unlocked, which Ash thought was strange since he was fairly certain his mother wasn't home. He supposed she'd left in a hurry, which made sense; she'd always hated watching important news or live broadcasts alone. The door gave way with a firm push, allowing Ash to slip inside without having to switch forms, which he was wary of doing after Celebi's words.

He was always a little shocked by how much this house didn't change. Sometimes he felt like he didn't even know the person he'd been the last time he stepped through this door, but his childhood home was always able to ground him. The person he'd been and the person he was still had this place in common, and always would; they couldn't be that different, for all that everything else might change. He wondered sometimes if his mother did it on purpose, keeping things so constant so that he'd always have a home to come back to. He'd never managed to ask.

Now he entered on paws instead of shoes, and it did look different, and yet…not. Everything seemed larger than he was used to, but he'd been this size before too, many years ago. There was a nick on the underside of the coffee table – there – and a footstool he could use to reach the kitchen counter – there. Even this perspective was familiar, just a little a dusty.

He'd told Celebi the truth. No matter what he looked like, no matter whether he had fur or skin or nothing at all, he was still Ash. Still the same person he'd always been.

-Ash?-

Ash was too exhausted to be properly startled. He looked over his shoulder and spotted Tek standing in the doorway, blinking at him sleepily. His tail hung limply, too tired to buzz.

"Go back to sleep," Ash tried.

Tek just stared at him, eyes glowing eerily in the relative dimness of the house. –No. Something's wrong.—

Ash sighed. "Nothing's wrong. Go back to sleep, Tek."

But the little espeon was determined. He padded fully inside and walked right up to Ash. –You were talking to someone, but I couldn't hear you. Who was it?—

Ash decided truth was probably his best bet to get Tek to leave him alone. "Celebi. She's another of the…old ones, I guess, like Mew said. She's the one who gave me this form."

-The green lady,- Tek agreed, which Ash supposed was accurate enough. –You sound like her, sometimes. When you're like this.—

Ash frowned. Tek had made similar comments before, but it seemed important now. "And when I'm not like this? What do I sound like then?"

Tek screwed up his face a little, wrinkling his pointy nose in thought. –Old,- he decided. –Not like…not like the other humans who can speak, or like Teach. Old and solid. Different.—

Ash could tell he wasn't going to get anywhere with that. "Thanks Tek, that helps."

-I'm not explaining it very well,- the little espeon admitted sadly. Ash winced; apparently he hadn't been able to hide his thoughts as well as he'd hoped.

"That's okay, I'm not very good at understanding," he tried. "I think I'm supposed to ask Mew about it, but I don't know where she went."

-Oh! Do you want me to call her?-

Ash blinked. "You can do that?"

Tek didn't respond; his eyes were already closed tight in concentration. Ash hoped he would remember to be polite.

-She says the egg's not ready yet,- Tek reported after a minute.

"Tell her it's not about that. I have a question about auras."

There was a long silence as Tek presumably related this. –She says—

A bright pink flash illuminated the house, and Tek fell silent. Mew appeared in the air in front of Ash, bouncing on a pink bubble and looking more energetic than Ash thought was fair.

"I'm busy, you know," she scolded, but didn't sound annoyed at all. In the next moment she seemed to realize where she was, and began flitting around the living room in apparent fascination. "This is such a nice house! Many memories here."

Once again, Ash got the sense that Mew experienced the world much differently than he did. "Mew, Celebi told me to ask you about auras. Do you know what she meant?"

Mew paused in her inspection of the ceiling fan, and considered this. "Mm. Old knowledge. Rare." She twisted to look at him, and the eye contact was startling. There was something there that he'd never seen before, something unknowable and old, something that measured time in the rise and fall of civilizations, in the shifting of continents and the melting of glaciers.

-This is Aura, Ash.—

Ash jumped. The voice – no, that was the wrong word for it entirely, more like a feeling, or a wave of energy that shivered up through the earth and deposited meaning in his mind. It was unlike any telepathy he'd ever encountered.

"Is—is that what I sound like?"

-Sometimes,- Tek confirmed.

It seemed impossible to Ash that he was capable of anything like what Mew had just done, but he couldn't hear himself 'speak'. He'd have to take their word on it.

-Celebi does not have this ability,- Mew went on, and Ash felt his fur begin to rise at the sound of her 'voice'. All hints of childishness were gone, leaving behind an ageless, almost alien presence. –Not many do. It is present to some degree in all of us, but very few are strong enough to project. I believe Celebi wanted you to know that this ability is yours, and yours alone. She did not give it to you, and she cannot take it away. And you have only started to learn how to use it.—

Ash struggled to mine this for relevance. It was a lot to take in, especially when he already had so much else to think about. "So…so what you're saying, is that I'll still be able to…project? Even after Celebi takes away her power?"

-Yes, and much more, if you're willing to learn. You will always be able to make yourself understood, now that you know how. Whether you can understand in turn, well…that depends on your choice.—

"My choice," Ash echoed, hollowly. Right, that.

Something shifted in those ageless eyes, something…soft. –You have always been of two worlds, Ash Ketchum. That will never change, no matter what you choose.—

Ash suspected that was meant to be comforting, but he just felt more confused. He almost thanked her anyway, like he had Tek, but at the last minute changed his mind. If anyone could help him with this, Mew was a good bet. "But what if I don't know how to choose? What do I do, Mew?"

And just like that, the ageless awe-inspiring being was gone. Mew giggled and flipped, her tail sketching a perfect circle in the air. "Silly Not-Pikachu! You listen to your heart!" And then with a small pop, she was gone.

Despite it all, Ash couldn't help but smile. He didn't think he'd ever understand Mew. He thought it entirely likely that no one understood Mew. But that was all right.

—…Ash?—

Ash sighed. He hated how hesitant the espeon sounded, especially since he knew it was his fault, but he couldn't help but wish Tek would just go away. "What, Tek?"

—You…You're going to stay with us, right? —

Ash kept his eyes fixed on where Mew used to be. "I don't know, Tek. There's a lot to consider."

—But…we're your friends. Aren't we? —

Ash really wished he would go away. "It's not that simple."

The little espeon didn't reply to that, but after a minute Ash's keen ears picked up the sound of tiny feet padding out the door. Ash felt the tension flow out of his body like water escaping a dam. Alone at last.

He wandered through the house silently and aimlessly, noting all the things that hadn't changed. Through no conscious decision he ended up perched on the windowsill in his bedroom, gazing out at his friends in the backyard. The broken pidgey alarm clock twitched on the floor, still valiantly trying to wake him, but all it could manage were a few garbled chirps.

Ash had never been good at thinking things through. The few times he'd tried to make a thoughtful decision or plan ahead, he usually ended up changing his mind at the last minute or having to abandon his plans when the situation exploded in his face. He was used to that. Gut feelings and impulsive decisions worked best for him, always had. But this…this was the rest of his life. This would decide who would be in his life from this point on, would decide how he could live it and who he could help. He couldn't decide this on a whim. He had to think this through.

"Pikapi?"

Ash didn't startle, didn't even feel surprised. He found he'd been expecting Pikachu, almost. "Did Tek wake you?"

"No. I was already up." Ash heard the sound of soft paw-steps on the carpet as Pikachu made her way across the room and then lightly bounded up to the windowsill to join him. Out of the corner of his eye he could see her ducking her head, trying to catch his eye, but he stared steadily out the window.

"Pikapi?" she repeated, softer now. Hushed. "Is something wrong?"

Ash hesitated. He wasn't really sure why; this was Pikachu, his best friend. Even before all of this they'd shared everything, and now…now they were so close he could practically feel her heart beating beside his own. And yet that moment of…of clarity on the battlefield haunted him, when he'd seen where the lines were drawn and how they divided him and Pikachu as naturally and irrevocably as night and day.

"Pikapi?" she said again. Ash could hear the worry in her voice now, and he let out a gusty sigh. He was being silly.

"I talked to Mew," he admitted. "And Celebi, I think. It's time for me to choose."

And just like that, Pikachu's entire demeanour changed. Her eyes narrowed, intense and focused; her fur flattened for speed and avoidance; her claws dug furrows into the windowsill and her ears twitched back, ready. Ash tensed instinctively in response, though it took him a moment longer to identify the familiar body language, so out of place was it.

Pikachu was preparing for battle.

This was sufficiently alarming to snap Ash out of his indecisive fog, but Pikachu didn't give him a chance to talk.

"I know if it was me, you'd let me go," she more or less spat out. "Because that's what you do, you let your friends go. Even when they don't want to leave." She paused, avoiding his eyes now. Ash stared at her, baffled. He felt like he'd just unwittingly stepped on a landmine, and his only chance now was to hold still and try not to set it off.

"I'm selfish," she said, quieter now, almost sad. "I know you don't think so," she continued quickly, as if expecting him to interrupt although Ash was still too startled for that, "but I am. I get jealous, and I want things I can't have. I'm…I can be mean, too. You know I can. You most of all." She paused, and a painful-looking half-smile crept onto her face. "You make me better, usually. I like to think I do the same for you."

Here, Ash finally had something to say. "You do, Pikachu, of course you do, we're a team. But what—"

Pikachu had finally lifted her eyes to meet his, and the look in them froze the words in Ash's throat. The determination there was familiar, as well-known to him as the fit of his favourite jacket, but the fear was not. He couldn't remember ever seeing his best friend this afraid. Her claws dug further into the plaster, holding her in place even as her fur bristled and her shoulders hunched up near her ears. When she finally spoke, Ash could hear her heart in the whispered words, trembling like an autumn leaf in a strong wind.

"Please stay."

Ash didn't need to ask what she meant. It wasn't an epiphany that swept over him, but more a slow acknowledgement of something he'd known for a while but was only now facing head on. And he realized now, as he felt his heart and mind shift into alignment, that he'd known his own answer for almost as long. He thought about all his friends – big and small, four legs or two – and imagined building a bridge to span a bottomless divide, or scuffing his shoe through a line in the sand.

Listen to your heart. It's so simple, after all.

Ash hooked his tail around his partner's, and watched her glow brighter than the sun.

xXx

"Have you chosen?"

He was back in the misty place with the soft green light. The light felt gentler, and it shone with a constant spring-green glow. He got the sense that it was humouring him, that it already knew the answer. This was useful, because Ash couldn't quite remember what the question had been.

He thought he could make out shapes in the mist, now. Trees, maybe. Or mountains? No, that was a city, skyscrapers standing tall and shining. The mist itself seemed oddly solid too, now that he thought of it. He could almost feel it beneath his...

Ash looked down at his yellow paws, and remembered.

"Yes. I've made my choice."

The green light almost seemed to smile.

THE END.

.: Final Author's Notes :.

So that's it. I can't believe this is actually finished. Originally I had intended to do an epilogue too, but at this rate it would probably take another year, and nothing I tried felt quite right. So I think I'll just leave it here.

Looking back on this, I'm not sure what to think. This story has chronicled my development as a writer for the better part of a decade, and it shows. I'm not the same person I was when I started. The plot has changed so much and gone through so many rewrites that it's barely recognizable by my original outlines. A lot about this story (especially the first half) makes me cringe to see it now. And yet, in over 100,000 words there's a lot I'm proud of too, not the least of which is the fact that it's finally COMPLETE.

Different is a classic example of a simple, weird idea growing far more complex than its author had expected or was able to handle at the time, and that caused me a lot of trouble. At the same time it taught me a lot, and I don't doubt that I'm a better writer because of it. I'm still not sure I'm satisfied with how it's turned out - too rushed, probably, and maybe overly simplified - but it is a fic about a kids' cartoon, and that limits how 'real' I was willing to get. I'll let you guys be the judge of how well I've done, because I've certainly lost any objectivity I ever had to begin with. Any ending is better than no ending, or so I kept telling myself. Hopefully you agree.

To everyone who's ever reviewed: THANK YOU. You guys are too awesome for words, and I don't deserve any of you. Those of you who never got a response, know that I did read your words, probably shriveled up a little with guilt and happiness, and then went off to bang out another thousand words or so. So you see, perseverance does pay off! Eventually. Sometimes it just takes a very, very long time.

Anyway. I'm interested in hearing peoples' impressions on the ending and the story as a whole, and I'll try to be better about responding. But if you don't have anything to say, that's fine too. No obligation. This is my gift to my readers, and to anyone interested in the story or ship who comes along after.

Whoever you are, I hope you enjoyed the ride. Thank you so much for sharing it with me.

-Thunderstar