Kanto Region, Tree of Life.

  The Kanto Region’s skies were nearly pitch black. Though now, they were peaceful compared to what had transpired mere hours ago, one region over. That region, being Johto of course, where an entire town had been laid to ruin and Arceus, the God of all Pokemon, had clashed against the universal conqueror, Necrozma.

  That time had come to pass for now. Meanwhile, the other members of the Hall of Origins were training vigorously while awaiting the inevitable invasion of Necrozma. Amongst these Legends were Rayquaza, the emerald, serpentine Dragon guardian of the ozone layer, and Mewtwo, the genetic clone of the Mother of all life on Earth, Mew.

  The two of them had come to the place with the greatest concentration of Aura, the chemical makeup of all existence, to help Mewtwo unlock the power of Mega Evolution so they could further stack the odds in Earth’s favor. As of now, though, they weren’t having any luck. Despite the staggering amount of Aura in the area, Mewtwo couldn’t seem to get a handle on the transformation. Perhaps it was because they were currently flying above the colossal tree instead of being within, but Mew was keen on not letting a single thing enter the tree due to Necrozma.

  Mewtwo roared, releasing his vibrant amethyst-colored Psychic energy off in all directions, but this only availed to the clone Pokemon draining away at his stamina. “Damn it!” He cursed frustratedly.

  Rayquaza hummed in thought. The two of them were trying to spark enough energy to react with the Aura surrounding the two of them which would, hopefully, cause the Aura to be absorbed by Mewtwo and allow him to obtain his own Mega Evolution like Rayquaza had been able to without use of a Mega Stone, but the only thing it seemed to be doing was disturbing the denizens of the tree. If they continued without luck for long enough, they ran the risk of irritating Mew.

  “All right,” Spoke Rayquaza, “I don’t think this method will work.”

  Mewtwo doubled over, clutching at his chest and panting for air. “You...you think?” He said irritably.

  Rayquaza nodded, ignoring the sarcasm. “Your energy is incredibly potent, Mewtwo. Even when compared to most of the other Legends amongst the Hall, your energy is immense. Though that might be chalked up to being the clone of Mew.” He looked down towards the stone-like branches of the Tree of Life. “I had hoped that simply being near the tree would be enough energy to spark some kind of transformation within you since you are nearly genetically identical to Mew, but it appears that was wishful thinking. Mega Evolution is a rarity, after all, and to my knowledge, only Diancie and I can perform it.”

  Mewtwo grunted, returning back to his full height. “What now, then? Are there any other methods? How did you first perform it?”

  “Well, the way I performed it is…” Rayquaza trailed off, looking towards the night sky. Since the Tree of Life was taller than the clouds, both of them had a perfect view of the glistening night sky. “...A bit niche, to say the least.”

  “I’m all ears.”

  Rayquaza sighed, conceding. “Very well. I’ll tell you the story, but I don’t think it will be of any assistance. You see, thousands of years ago, there was a fairly large meteor on its way to collide with Earth. Given that my job was, and still is to an extent, to protect the Earth from things in space, I naturally went to stop it. However, when I attempted to destroy the meteor, I found myself unable to. But something strange happened…”

  The emerald-green serpentine dragon stared up at a glistening star, almost wistfully. The star glinted brightly, as if responding to his gaze. “...The meteor was carrying some kind of energy within it, and when I had blasted it with my Hyper Beam, it released the energy into me, and I was able to Mega Evolve, destroying the meteor and scattering its pieces into the atmosphere. From that day, I’ve been able to Mega Evolve at will, though it drains upon my stamina unlike those who Mega Evolve with an actual Mega Stone.”

  Mewtwo groaned in annoyance. “Yes, that was indeed unhelpful.”

  “I warned you!”

  “Right,” Mewtwo replied, rolling his shoulders, “So let me be a bit redundant and ask again: what now?”

  “Well, I don’t think we’ll be finding any more magic meteors,” Rayquaza said, “So unless you have any ideas, the only thing I can think of is transforming and hitting you with a Dragon Ascent to mimic the meteor’s properties and see if that works.”

  Mewtwo remembered seeing Rayquaza’s battle with Necrozma, or at least a portion of it. When Rayquaza had Mega Evolved, he ended up crashing into that monster from space with a Dragon Ascent and ended up turning his home and everything around it into a crater. Luckily, Mewtwo had the foresight to transport the other clone Pokemon away to a new location beforehand, else things might have taken a turn for the dark. But that power was not something he was keen on taking to the face.

  “...I’ll pass, thank you.”

  “Well, if you have any better ideas, I would love to hear them,” Said Rayquaza, “Otherwise, we’ll have no other choice than to give up on you Mega Evolving.”

  Mewtwo looked down towards the grey branches of the Tree of Life. “I was not born naturally to this world, but even I, a bastard child of this world, can feel the immense concentration of Aura just beneath us compared to the measly amount surrounding us up here.”

  “Out of the question,” Snapped Rayquaza, “Mew has quarantined the area. Not a thing is being let in or out of the Tree until Necrozma is dealt with. Simply being near this place at all is an honor, given our current situation, so don’t go spitting her kindness back in her face by trying to enter.”

  Mewtwo merely narrowed his eyes down upon the stone-like branches. Not long after Mewtwo had broken free of the confines of his creators, he declared war upon the world and challenged the trainers to battle him to prove his superiority. In a disturbing sense, Mewtwo’s past self reminded his current self of Necrozma. Though during that battle, he clashed to a standstill with Mew, a young boy named Ash gave him a different outlook on life, seeking only peace for his fellow clones.

  “I’ve clashed with Mew before,” Mewtwo told Rayquaza, “...I need to be able to Mega Evolve. If we are to win this war, I will need all the power I can get. If Mew cannot see that, I will force her to.”

  Rayquaza quickly flew down to face Mewtwo, staring him dead in the eyes. “Not a chance. Listen–whatever you think you did in that “fight” with Mew, you didn’t. No one but Arceus, and Necrozma I suppose, can match her power. The only reason you survived was because she let you. Do. Not. Anger her.”

  Rayquaza backed off, allowing Mewtwo some breathing room, but continued his rant. “Honestly, the worst case scenario that might happen if you took on my Dragon Ascent would be nothing compared to the thrashing Mew would give you if you disturbed her during a time like this.”

  “I’ll take my chances,” Mewtwo replied simply, “If she’s so utterly terrifying, then at this point it’s either I die to her or Necrozma.”

  “Well, she wouldn’t kill you,” Admitted Rayquaza, “But she’d probably thrash you within an inch of your life.”

  Mewtwo merely chuckled at the prospect of that. “I wouldn’t be able to recover from something like that in a mere five days, and she knows it. I don’t think she’s quite dull enough in the head to dwindle down our forces like that.”

  Without waiting for Rayquaza to respond, Mewtwo descended into the colossal, grey branches of the Tree of Life. Rayquaza, unsure what to do, bit his lip and followed. He wasn’t the type of Legend to let someone just march to their death. Not alone, at least.

  As the gigantic grey branches passed by Mewtwo, he activated the sensory powers of his Psychic abilities, scanning around to find life forms or at least get Mew’s attention. As he gazed around, he couldn’t help but to notice the beauty of this place. The further down he went, the more flora he saw sprouting somehow from the seemingly-stone tree.

  Rayquaza, meanwhile, was far too apprehensive about this situation to be able to appreciate the beautiful life. He had seen Mew’s wrath a few times before, but luckily, she never ended up actually turning it on anyone. Arceus, however, was a different story. The lord father of the members of the Hall of Origin could be...a bit less than merciful at times. In times of rage, he would not tolerate being questioned, and his wrath would easily end up being immensely destructive. If Mew was on the same scale of power as him…

  Mewtwo noticed something out of the corner of his eye and halted his downward progress. It was a cave entrance into the trunk of the tree, or at least he thought so. He looked around to the other branches surrounding them on all sides, like a spider web, and found there were cave entrances on each one leading into different parts of the tree. Pokemon, curious about the new Pokemon floating down, began poking their heads out of the caves at him, to which he nodded towards a few of them. They quickly retreated back into their hole.

  Mewtwo floated down onto one of the particularly-large branches in comparison to the others. It was breathtakingly beautiful. There was a light-green grass trail from the tip of the branch stretching back to the cave entrance at the trunk. On the side of the trail, there was a larger, deeper green grass patch on either side that followed alongside the trail, with dozens upon dozens of multicolored flowers dotting around the trail, as if the tree itself was beckoning the two of them to come in.

  “This place...it’s…” Mewtwo marveled at the sight before him.

  Rayquaza nodded, equally enthralled by its beauty. “...Incredible…”

  Mewtwo began walking forward, tentatively taking a step. He felt a compulsion to be careful, taking as light of a step as he could with each step forward, like each and every step he took could potentially kill the beautiful flora. It didn’t feel so much as grass as it did a cold blanket. Rayquaza couldn’t help but fly down and touch the grass gently with his clawed hand.

  Finally, the duo came before the opening, and to their dismay, the soft grass trail ended, being replaced with a pinkish-brown stone flooring. Though at least the cave was massive, allowing Rayquaza to enter with ease. “Well,” Mewtwo said, “I suppose this is our ticket in.” Rayquaza nodded. “Yes...I suppose so…” Without fear, Mewtwo took the step forward into the cave while Rayquaza was still apprehensive. He dared a glance back up towards the sky, debating if he should abandon this suicide mission and fly back up to the skies. He quickly dashed the thought from his mind and turned to follow Mewtwo, but stopped when he saw that the clone Pokemon had raised up his arm, signaling for him to halt.

  “Wait,” Mewtwo said, looking about from place to place sporadically, “I can sense the Pokemon retreating into their caves.”

  “Well, that’s to be expected,” Rayquaza replied, “We’re practically aliens here, since these Pokemon have been holed up here for their entire lives.”

  Mewtwo shook his head. “No, that’s not just it. While the others are retreating, there are three doing the opposite. They’re coming our way.”

  “Three?” Mused Rayquaza, “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about them, then. It’s probably just the Three Regis, who are charged with guarding this place. They travel around the tree often, patrolling it every hour of the day. Not to mention, they don’t attack Pokemo-”

  The ground behind them burst, sending dust, stones, and rubble flying down into the abyss. A single figure emerged from the dust cloud and marched toward them. It was a golem-like creature made entirely out of light brown stone with seven yellow dots on its head that formed an “H” shape. The dots flashed wildly, and the creature held out its arms toward the duo.

  “Om. Om. Om. Om. Om.”

  “I don’t think it’s friendly, Rayquaza.”

  An orange ball of energy formed between the hands of the stone golem Pokemon, and it shot out a large laser towards them. In response, Mewtwo swiped his hand to his side, redirecting the laser away into another part of the tree. Rayquaza quickly stepped in between the two.

  “Wait, Regirock!” He ordered, “We are not enemies, nor humans! We are Pokemon of the Hall of Origin, and we mean no harm to come to you or the Tree of Life!”

  The stone golem Pokemon, now identified to Mewtwo as Regirock, began making odd beeping noises as the yellow dots on its face spastically began to glow. Instead of listening to Rayquaza, Regirock merely leaned to the side and fired an array of sharp stones towards Mewtwo. The clone Pokemon prepared to deflect the attack, but Rayquaza flicked it away with his tail on his own.

  “Enough, Regirock!” Roared Rayquaza, “Stand down! We are not here to fight, but if you attack us, we will have no option but to subdue you!”

  The rock golem Pokemon stepped back, beeping out an odd array of noises. It seemed to be mulling over Rayquaza’s words. It turned back up to Rayquaza, and the beeping became more jittery. Holding its hands out, it fired another Hyper Beam at the two of them.

  “Very well then.” Rayquaza fired off a Hyper Beam of his own, completely overpowering Regirock’s Hyper Beam and sending it falling off the edge of the cliff.

  “Are you sure that was alright?” Mewtwo asked him, “If that thing was supposed to be a guardian of this place, then destroying that thing would weaken the Tree’s defenses.”

  “It is of no consequence,” Rayquaza replied, “Regirock and the other two are immensely durable. It would take far more than that to fully get rid of them. Speaking of which, you said all three of them were coming, right? Where are the other two?”

  His question was answered when an Ice Beam shot out at him from somewhere beneath the branch they were standing on, forcing Rayquaza to curl his serpentine body so that the Ice Beam barely glanced by. But though the Ice Beam didn’t succeed in hitting Rayquaza, it forged a path up to Mewtwo and Rayquaza’s location.

  Two more figures bounded up to them using the ice bridge, and though Mewtwo quickly collapsed it with his Psychic powers, they were still able to make it up in time. They were similar to Regirock in composition, sharing their overall body structure along with the yellow dots Mewtwo assumed were eyes. One of them was an incredibly light teal-cyan color with jagged, prismatic-shaped ice making up its’ core body structure. The yellow dots formed a plus-sign shape.

  The next guardian of the Tree of Life was grey-colored and more slick and smooth compared to the other two. Its’ head was more bulbous and round-shaped as well, with black, flappy arms and tiny fingers. It appeared to be the sturdiest among the three. The yellow dots on its’ face made up the shape of a circle with one dot in the center.

  “Those are Regice and Registeel,” Rayquaza told Mewtwo, eyeing them apprehensively, “Regice is a bad matchup for me, and Registeel is a bad matchup for you.”

  “So, what should we do, then?”

  “Easy,” Rayquaza replied, turning to face Registeel, “We take the other one!”

  Mewtwo cracked his neck, shrugging his shoulders to loosen him up for the incoming battle. “Sounds about right.”

  The two of them began to beep loudly, like a computer making calculations. Regice turned to Rayquaza and attempted to blast an Ice Beam at him, to which Mewtwo made the beam swerve off course and into the trunk of the tree. Stepping in front of Regice, he motioned for the ice golem to keep its gaze upon him with his index finger.

  “Your battle is with me,” Mewtwo told it.

  “Reg-Regice Reg-Regice,” The ice golem Pokemon chattered, beeping vigorously and turning to face away from the emerald dragon towards him. The beeping and flashing of the yellow dots upon its’ face became spastic, until they all simultaneously turned red.

  Regice shot another Ice Beam at Mewtwo, who flicked the attack away once more and lurched beneath the ice golem, shooting a Shadow Ball directly into its face. Mewtwo leapt away from the smoke and up into the air to see his handiwork, which came to him in the form of a Zap Cannon attack. Mewtwo swiftly stopped it in its tracks with his Psychic powers, but another Ice Beam shot out from the smoke as well. It was not aimed at Mewtwo. The Ice Beam collided with the Zap Cannon, causing it to explode and send Mewtwo careening backwards.

  “Reeeeegiii-iiiiiiiice” The smoke around Regice was blown away by the ice golem flapping its arms, and it quickly hopped off the branch and onto another one to pursue Mewtwo.

  “And then there were two,” Rayquaza spoke, grinning down to Registeel. The steel golem Pokemon turned its gaze up to Rayquaza, beeping at him furiously. It held out its hands and fired a glowing white Flash Cannon up to Rayquaza, to which he shot back a Flamethrower down at it. The two attacks collided, seemingly equal in power, but their struggle never ended in a victory for either. Rayquaza’s Flamethrower ended up curving around the Flash Cannon and blasting Registeel in the face while the Flash Cannon, now unimpeded, did the same to Rayquaza, sending up a massive wave of smoke.

  Rayquaza emerged from the smoke, brushing himself off. The damage done to himself by that attack was minimal, only moderately annoying him at most. He was curious to see if Registeel’s condition was any different. He got his answer when the steel golem came rocketing out of the smoke and bashed clean into the emerald dragon with an Iron Head, sending Rayquaza careening into the side of another large branch.

  Rayquaza growled in irritation. “A blindside, huh? Well, two can play at that game!” Rayquaza rushed down to Registeel, who had landed upon a different branch. Registeel held up his arms to shield himself, but to its surprise, Rayquaza swerved down just before hitting him. The draconian Legend dived underneath the branch, came back up behind Registeel, and used his tail to wrap around the golem, trapping it in his Bind.

  Before Registeel was given the chance to react, Rayquaza flung it into the wall of the trunk and blasted it with a Hyper Beam that kept the guardian pinned helplessly against it, giving it no chance of escape, nor retaliation.

  ‘Great,” Rayquaza thought, ‘I just have to keep this up until it can no longer fight. Then I’ll go assist Mewtwo and we can-’

  Rayquaza grunted in pain suddenly, making him accidentally halt the Hyper Beam and allowing Registeel to fall back onto the ground to its knees. Multiple jagged stones had dug into Rayquaza’s body, so he shook them off and turned to face whatever did it. Hanging from a wall behind him, Regirock had managed to dig his arm into it to stop his fall from earlier and had shot a Stone Edge at him.

  “You’re annoyingly persistent,” Rayquaza hissed down at it. He charged another Hyper Beam to knock it from the wall, but he was struck from behind once more with another Flash Cannon, and again by another Stone Edge the second he turned back to face Registeel. “You little-! Draco Meteor!” Rayquaza fired an orange ball of crackling energy into the sky that exploded outward, sending down a hail of meteors upon the two Regis. Regirock quickly leapt up onto the surface of the branch it was holding onto to avoid being sent falling down, but was unable to avoid getting hit once it had done so.

  Registeel stood back to its’ full height and used Curse, which heightened its’ defenses against all kinds of attacks in exchange for its’ speed. The steel golem shielded itself just in time and managed to stay on its feet as the numerous Draco Meteors pelted it with explosions. It burst from the ensuing smoke and fired another Flash Cannon at Rayquaza, who curled his body out of the way and fired down another Flamethrower.

  To Rayquaza’s shock, Registeel seemed completely unfazed by the fiery attack. The Curse had worked its magic, and now the steel golem could endure far more than before. Rayquaza scowled and intensified the Flamethrower in an attempt to overpower the Curse’s effect. Registeel, however, was faring quite nicely, charging up another Flash Cannon within its’ hands to blast through the Flamethrower once it deemed the attack strong enough to do so.

  Several more Stone Edges came flying up at Rayquaza from beneath. Seeing this, Rayquaza slapped them aside with his tail, but one of the shards had managed to slip through, nailing the draconian Legend square in the eye. Roaring in agony, Rayquaza dropped the Flamethrower, giving Registeel the perfect opportunity to unleash the Flash Cannon. The glowing white laser blasted into Rayquaza’s chest, making him double over and sending him crashing through one of the walls.

  Mewtwo, meanwhile, was busy himself. Regice, perched still upon one of the branches, was launching a barrage of Zap Cannons Mewtwo’s way, and the cloned Legend was deftly dodging them one after another. There were too many for him to stop, and if he did so, Regice would simply have aimed for the stopped ones and cause them to explode again. He couldn’t approach the ice golem either, as it would give it an even easier time hitting him.

  “Fine then,” Said Mewtwo, summoning a blob of shadowy energy within his hands, “Two can play at this game! Shadow Ball!” He flung the stygian ball at Regice, who simply turned his hand towards it and blasted it with another Zap Cannon. What the golem didn’t expect was for the Shadow Ball to burst into a blinding haze upon detonation.

  Regice beeped confusedly, searching desperately for its’ target, but was unable to do so amidst the dark bog. Mewtwo lurched out at him suddenly and smacked it with a point-blank Shadow Ball right into its face. The ice golem recoiled back and fell off the branch, but was quick on the uptake to save itself. It fired an Ice Beam at the wall of the tree and curved it down towards itself, creating a small platform of ice.

  Mewtwo held out its’ hand and, to Regice’s confusion, the ice platform beneath its’ feet began shaking vigorously until it shattered. At the last second, Regice hopped off the platform and created another, to which Mewtwo shattered it again. This repeated itself many times until Mewtwo realized what Regice was trying to do.

  “It’s trying to climb back up towards Registeel!”

  Mewtwo quickly fired a Shadow Ball at Regice, but in return, it fired an Ice Beam that froze it completely still. It then summoned a Zap Cannon and fired it into the frozen Shadow Ball, creating another dark bog that rendered it invisible from Mewtwo’s sight. It had used his previous tactic against him.

  “These things are smarter than I gave them credit for,” Mewtwo commended, “But…”

  Mewtwo sensed his surroundings and quickly found Regice’s location within the bog. He held his arm out forward and pulled Regice out of the smoke with Psychic, but the ice golem had its own surprise in tow. From the bog, several Zap Cannons flung themselves towards Mewtwo, and when he tried to stop them, he unintentionally let Regice free.

  Now free of Mewtwo’s grasp, Regice blasted Mewtwo with Ice Beam and froze him stuck, held by the wall of the tree. The Zap Cannons, now unimpeded, flew right into Mewtwo and exploded violently, sending bursts of loose electricity streaking across the walls and branches.

  Meanwhile, inside the tree, the Pokemon dwelling there were running to and fro in a mad panic. The invaders and the Regis’ clash was becoming destructive. A few of these Pokemon had run into an opening within the cave systems of the tree and into a large, flowery garden. In that garden was an array of toys. There were stuffed animals, dolls, action figures, and more piled by the hundreds on top of the flowery ground. The Pokemon stormed forward towards an individual and pleaded to it.

  “Oh? Hello, guys. Is there something wrong?”

  Mewtwo grunted in pain as he impacted another branch and collapsed onto the surface of another right below it. “I don’t get it!” The clone Pokemon seethed, getting back to his feet, “I can sense the difference in our powers clear as day, so how is it…?”

  Then it dawned on him. “That must be it...it’s not that its’ power is greater...it knows every aspect of the Tree inside and out, and it’s using that information to formulate strategies...similarly to how a computer would…” Regice crashed down before him, pointing his hand down and preparing to finish Mewtwo off with an Ice Beam. Mewtwo, however, merely grinned up at him. “But...computers aren’t perfect. They can’t think creatively like...like a living being can.”

  Mewtwo grabbed hold of Regice’s hand just as the Ice Beam fired, causing it to cave in on itself and coat Regice in its own ice. A miniature, jagged glaiture formed, pointing out towards the sky from the stone branch. However, Mewtwo knew better than to think he was out of the clear just yet. With his Psychic power, he picked up the glaiture and let it drop from the branch. What Mewtwo didn’t expect, however, was for Rayquaza to come crashing into it, sending the ice shards scattering and freeing Regice.

  “What the?!” Exclaimed Mewtwo.

  Rayquaza, having had his momentum stopped in the collision, shook himself over to brush off the ice. He turned up to scan his surroundings and found Mewtwo. “Hey!” He called up to him, “What’s the big idea?! Was that you?!”

  “Yeah, sorry about that,” Mewtwo replied with a chuckle, “I don’t typically expect dragons to collide with the glaciers I throw off of branches of city-sized trees.”

  Rayquaza muttered under his breath, “Smart ass…”

  Their reunion was cut short when an Ice Beam from below froze Rayquaza completely, coating the serpentine dragon in a thick layer of ice and making him hurtle down towards the bottom. Mewtwo was surprised, but quickly pulled the frozen dragon back up onto the branch. The clone Pokemon sighed, but as he turned and looked up at Rayquaza’s frozen form, he realized there might be a new predicament.

  “...How am I supposed to thaw this?”

  Luckily for him, his problem ended up sorting itself out when, from inside the chunk of ice, Rayquaza used Flamethrower. The process was slow, but it worked. The ice ended up caving outward from the flames and burst open, allowing him to free himself from the ice. Furiously, he turned down to Regice to blast him with a Flamethrower, but it was nowhere to be found.

  “What the?! Where’d it go?”

  “Maybe it fell?” Mewtwo offered, sensing their locations. He traced Regice’s location, and found that it was neither above nor below them. But rather, within the tree to their side. “It’s in the tree!” Mewtwo warned, jumping off the branch just in time to avoid Regice crashing through the side of the tree with an Ice Punch. Luckily for Rayquaza, he had already been airborne, so he wasn’t in danger from the attack.

  He was, however, in danger of another Ice Beam that came his way. In return, Rayquaza let out a roar with such force that the Ice Beam was completely destroyed, and Regice recoiled. Taking the opportunity laid out before him, Rayquaza fired another Flamethrower that hit Regice dead on. The ice golem shrieked out in pain, eliciting a shrill, high-pitched noise that forced Mewtwo to cover his ears. Rayquaza winced in pain, but was able to keep the attack going.

  Mewtwo’s attention snapped over to his right suddenly. “The other two are coming our way!”

  Surely enough, Regirock and Registeel were leaping from branch to branch towards their location. Mewtwo tried to halt them with a Psychic attack, but the shrill shrieking of Regice made it so that he couldn’t focus. The two Regis leapt onto their branch and body slammed Rayquaza, sending him flying backward.

  Regice halted its’ screeching, allowing Mewtwo some relief at last. Though a piercing headache still remained. The clone Pokemon’s respite was short-lived due to the trio of guardians turning to face him, and Mewtwo could only think to himself, ‘Oh shi-’

  Registeel charged at Mewtwo with an Iron Head, and the clone Pokemon deftly sidestepped out of the way only to be blasted by a barrage of Stone Edges and then frozen by an Ice Beam. The ice encasing Mewtwo shattered nigh-instantly, and he burst out into the sky. Lifting his hands over his head, he created a massive Shadow Ball over his head. Registeel, who had slipped by him after missing the Iron Head, fired a Flash Cannon into the ball, and Mewtwo could only look up at it in horror.

  The Shadow Ball began crackling with loose, violent energy, and its shape malformed. It expanded suddenly, even when Mewtwo tried to force it to condense. “Dammit!” He exclaimed, “It’s gonna blow! Those damn things are way too good as a team...but then…” A mischievous idea struck him. “I can use this to my advantage!” He threw the unstable Shadow Ball down towards the Regis, but to Mewtwo’s dismay, it stopped suddenly. From beneath him, the Regis were firing Hyper Beams up at the ball to push it back.

  Mewtwo quickly began using his Psychic prowess to push the Shadow Ball as well, but he was fighting an uphill battle. The Hyper Beams of all three Regis were out-powering his own power. He grunted and tried to force the ball down, pouring even more of his might down, but it had little effect. It only slowed the ball down, but it was still in the Regis’ favor, and they hardly appeared to be exhausted. Not to mention, the ball was becoming more unstable by the second.

  Rayquaza righted himself in the air and saw the situation unfolding before him. Rocketing up to Mewtwo, he asked, “Need a hand?”

  “That...would be appreciated...” Mewtwo replied between breaths.

  Rayquaza nodded to him in affirmation and, reeling back his head, he fired a Hyper Beam of his own that dwarfed the size of the Regis’ Hyper Beams, pushing the Shadow Ball down in their favor at last. The Regis, however, would not take that lightly, and they increased the power of their own Hyper Beams. With all five Pokemon’s powers colliding, they held the colossal Shadow Ball at a standstill. With all the attacks being pumped into it, the Shadow Ball’s stability continuously wavered more and more.

  Then, under the sheer pressure from both sides, it exploded.

  Time seemed to stand still to Mewtwo for a moment. The Shadow Ball had consumed him, Rayquaza, and the Regis all at once. He was blown back, but he didn’t feel it. Surrounding him on all sides, the world had seemed to turn purple. Countless bolts of white plasma were scattered about from within the Shadow Ball, and Mewtwo felt every inch of his body burning. He couldn’t move his head, but he could at least move his eyes.

  He turned his gaze towards Rayquaza, who was also in a position that suggested he was in the midst of being blown backwards with tremendous force. His mouth was wide open, and his expression suggested shock and surprise. Traces of his Hyper Beam were scattered about above his head. Then, time resumed once more. Mewtwo cried out in pain as his back impacted the stone-hard bark of the tree. Rayquaza ended up in a similar position. Remnants of the purple energy, even as the ball itself faded, remained sparking on their skin.

  Rayquaza hacked out a puff of smoke. “Are the Regis...still there?”

  Mewtwo shook his head. “I...don’t know…” The clone Pokemon attempted to sense the trio of Regis and, to his utter shock, they appeared to be relatively unharmed. “Impossible!”

  “What, what is it?!” Rayquaza asked.

  Mewtwo’s eyes narrowed in frustration. “...I believe they took shelter in the tree...and avoided taking damage…”

  Rayquaza’s eyes shot open in disbelief, and he turned to look down at where the three Regis were. The smoke surrounding the area faded and, surely enough, the trio emerged from a hole they’d punched in the side of the tree to avoid the brunt of the attack. Registeel looked up to the two invaders embedded in the walls and began chattering beeps, excitedly.

  “WOMPWOMPWOMPWOMPWOMPWOMPWOMP.”

  Regirock and Regice followed the steel golem’s gaze and began beeping as well. Mewtwo and Rayquaza growled down at them in annoyance. Alone, the Regis weren’t particularly strong as far as Legends went. They were, however, incredibly intelligent, acting like supercomputers with bodies. What’s more, their teamwork and coordination when they acted together was seemingly impossible to deal with.

  “What’s their deal?!” Mewtwo demanded, “They shouldn’t be this strong!”

  Rayquaza hummed in thought. “...I haven’t the foggiest clue...they’re not normally this aggressive either. Perhaps it is because this place is on lockdown due to Necrozma…”

  “Tch,” Mewtwo spat, “Of course...we simply happened to show up at a bad time, that’s all.”

  The Regi trio held their hands up towards the two of them, charging up their signature elemental attacks. In Regice’s hand, plasmatic ice crackled to form an Ice Beam. In Regirock’s hands, dozens of small jagged stones spun around to gain momentum, becoming Stone Edge. In Registeel’s hands, a glowing, burning light materialized, readying itself to be launched as a Flash Cannon.

  Mewtwo growled in frustration and burst from the stone branch in a fiery purple glow. Rayquaza followed suit, minus the purple glow obviously. They stared down at the trio who were charging their attacks, and Mewtwo looked up to Rayquaza.

  “So, what now?” He asked.

  Rayquaza showed a toothy grin. “I’ll tell you what happens now. Now, we stop holding back! Mega Evolution time!”

  Rayquaza stared up into the starry night sky and took off like a rocket as a green blur. The Regis fired their attacks, forcing Mewtwo to turn back and try to force them back with his powers to no avail. He managed to stop them from hitting him, but was unable to deflect them and could only keep them at bay. To make matters worse, the attacks fused into one another, creating a flashing, vibrant spiral of ice, steel, and stone.

  “Come on, Rayquaza…!” Mewtwo urged, “What the heck are you doing?!”

  Rayquaza, meanwhile, breached into the upper atmosphere. Grinning, the Dragon of the Skies raised his head with pride. Here he was, home at last. The Ozone Layer. It was here where his power was at its greatest, and he began absorbing the energy surrounding the area. An emerald green light began emanating from his core.

  Mewtwo hissed, faltering for but a moment, which ended up getting him pinned into the tree wall. He roared and tried to force the combined attack of the Regis back with all his might, but still, he only succeeded in stopping for the time being. Baring his fangs, the clone Pokemon pressed on.

  Rayquaza, meanwhile, was still in the midst of collecting energy. By now, his entire body was glowing a brilliant shade of green as the particles of space were drawn towards him. He closed his eyes and bathed in the extraterrestrial energy. Slowly but surely, the energy was coming together.

  Mewtwo felt his stamina begin to fade away. With his back quite literally against the wall, and every last bit of energy being used to stave off the combined attacks of the Regis, the only hope for him was for Rayquaza to arrive. His arms were starting to get pushed back, and he was forced to close his eyes as he exerted his power.

  “Rayquaza!”

  Rayquaza’s eyes shot open, and the green light surrounding him exploded outward. The golden markings on the sides of his body became glowing whiskers upon his chin, and new jagged fang-like structures had appeared on either side of his mouth. What’s more, he had grown in size as well. He was now Mega Rayquaza. Turning back down towards the Earth, Rayquaza summoned his energy around him in an emerald green cone and rocketed down towards the Earth.

  Mewtwo felt the last of his stamina coming upon him. The barrier was beginning to weaken, and the combined attack of the guardians of the Tree of Life was but mere inches away from colliding into his face. Then, before anyone could blink, a green streak of light tore down from the heavens above and crashed straight through the branch the Regi trio were standing on.

  Immediately, the trio was swept off their feet by the crashing winds that ensued from the collision, and they were sent flying down into the abyss, chattering and beeping furiously. Rayquaza soared up to Mewtwo, who collapsed onto another branch nearby, and gave him a toothy grin.

  “So, how’d I do?” He asked.

  Mewtwo wanted to be angry at him for taking so long, but found himself too exhausted for anger. Instead, he merely laughed, relieved out of his mind. “Took you long enough,” He rasped, mirroring Rayquaza’s grin.

  Their little bonding moment was cut short by a sudden tremor. As they looked down to identify where it came from, they saw the gigantic stone branch that Rayquaza had barreled through to get rid of the Regis was now collapsing. The last tendons holding it together snapped, and, to Rayquaza’s horror, the branch began plummeting and destroying the walls of the tree as it fell.

  “Oh...no...no, no no no, NO!”

  Mewtwo gave Rayquaza an odd stare. “What? What’s wrong?”

  “I was only fighting the Regis out of self-defense,” Rayquaza told him, “I never meant to...destroy part of the tree!”

  “Trees grow back,” Mewtwo replied snidely.

  Rayquaza grabbed hold of Mewtwo’s shoulder, shaking him vigorously. “Do you not comprehend what we’ve just done?! The Tree of Life is the most important place on the planet! Destroying even a small piece of it is a sin! The only greater offense on Earth is defying Arceus and Mew, and by coming here and desecrating this place, WE’VE DONE TWO OF THOSE THINGS!”

  Mewtwo was on the verge of losing his lunch. “Okay, I get it! Just let go, we’ll figure something out!”

  Rayquaza obeyed, letting go of Mewtwo’s shoulders, but the panic hadn’t left him, and the draconian legend began flying back and forth, ranting to himself. “Figure something out, yeah we’ll figure something out, we’ll figure out where we wanna get buried, that’s what we’ll figure out, “figure something out”, he says, we’re going to die, Mew’s gonna kill us, what, are we gonna figure out how to die before Mew kills us, yeah that’ll…”

  Mewtwo rolled his eyes and stood back onto his feet. Toning out Rayquaza’s panicked ranting, he made his way to the edge of the branch and peered over to see what was left of the other branch Rayquaza had destroyed. It looked as if veins were protruding from where it had been cut off, making Mewtwo raise an eyebrow in confusion. Something even more odd caught his attention. He only saw it for a split second, but in that brief moment, he thought he saw something red dripping from the veins.

  Mewtwo’s thought was confirmed when he saw a red, liquid-like substance drip from one of the veins again. Then, another vein began leaking the odd substance, which fell into the abyss. More and more of them began leaking until it formed a bubble of some kind, like a clot. A few blobs fell off the main clot, but to Mewtwo’s surprise, they ended up sticking to the side of the wall...and began crawling up.

  “Say, Rayquaza,” Mewtwo started, backing away from the edge, “Does this tree...bleed, by chance?”

  Rayquaza’s ranting stopped as he acknowledged the question. “Bleed? No, why?”

  Mewtwo pointed down to the red blobs crawling toward them. “Then what the actual hell are those?”

  Rayquaza raised his brow questioningly, but turned to see what Mewtwo was referring to...and his blood ran cold.

  “Wait, what?! What are those things doing?! They’re not supposed to go after Pokemon!”

  “So you know after all. Mind filling me in?”

  “Those are the Cells,” Rayquaza answered, “They usually only go after invading humans, but when they come in contact with one, they dissolve it instantaneously...but that’s not the worst part…”

  “Well, go on then,” Mewtwo urged, “Something tells me these ones aren’t exactly after humans this time.”

  Nodding solemnly, Rayquaza continued. “When they absorb something, it gets dematerialized and used as energy for the tree, but the person isn’t killed...they’re kept alive with their memories and consciousness...but they’re helpless at this point. There’s nothing they can do but cycle through the veins of the tree endlessly.”

  “So what you’re telling me is that we need to kill these things?” Mewtwo asked with a dry chuckle.

  Rayquaza shook his head. “These things are formless and mindless. They’ll regenerate indefinitely so long as the Tree of Life is still alive, which will hopefully be forever.”

  “Then if we can’t beat them, let’s just go around.”

  Again, Rayquaza shook his head. “These things come from the tree itself. If these things think of us as a threat, the entire tree does, and if we go inside, there will be no way to escape.”

  Mewtwo’s lip curled into a frown, and he crossed his arms. “Well, then what?! It’s not like we have much of an option but to go in if I want to get my Mega Evolution.”

  “I know, but if we fight those things, then the last thing you’ll ever get is power!”

  Mewtwo rolled his neck, and he flared his Psychic energy. “We’ll just have to see then.”

  Without waiting for Rayquaza’s rebuttal, Mewtwo leapt from the branch and rocketed down toward the red blobs. Summoning a psychic barrier around himself, he tore into the largest of them, the clot that formed around the torn veins of the branch Rayquaza destroyed, and sent his power blasting outward. The result was the vast majority of the blobs sailing down into the dark abyss.

  However, many of them clung to Mewtwo’s barrier and began clumping together to cover his shield completely. The clone Pokemon was unfazed, however. “So these things are the grand defense system? With how Rayquaza described them, I expected to face a nightmare...but I’m not complaining. I need to get within the tree by any means necessary, so get out of my way.”

  Mewtwo sent out another Psychic blast that sent most of the Cells scattering off the side of the cliff. Faster than before, more of them piled onto the barrier once again. Mewtwo raised an eyebrow and fired another. Hardly any were sent off this time, and any untaken spot on his barrier was quickly swarmed once again. Mewtwo became annoyed and fired another pulse, with this one carrying far more power than the last.

  The surrounding parts of the thick, stone tree bark nearby collapsed into rubble and fell, sending any of the Cells attached to it careening down after it. Yet, any and all cells that fell in the attack were replaced doubly within seconds, and they, too, swarmed around Mewtwo’s barrier. The cloned Legend attempted to fire yet another one with increased strength, but stopped when he heard a sparking, hissing noise. He turned his head and, to his shock, a part of his barrier was beginning to melt before his very eyes.

  “What the?!” He quickly teleported outside the barrier, and when he looked down at it, he found that the Cells had pulled it towards the wall of the tree, and they began to do what he could only describe as devouring it before his very eyes. They broke it, tore it apart, and absorbed it into themselves.

  “What the hell are they doing?!”

  “Imbecile!” Roared Rayquaza, flying down to meet him, “Do you have any idea how lucky you are to be alive?! If you hadn’t teleported out of there, you would have been subjected to a fate worse than death!”

  “I didn’t exactly see you helping out,” Mewtwo pointed out.

  Rayquaza growled in frustration. “If I did that, you’d just end up getting hit in the crossfire and absorbed! Not to mention, these things adapt to your attacks! If I kept blasting at them, it would eventually stop working altogether.”

  “That would have been helpful to know before I rushed directly into the middle of them.”

  “You did that on your own accord, moron!”

  “Right, right,” Conceded Mewtwo, “So what’s our next course of action, o’ wise one?”

  Ignoring the sarcasm, Rayquaza turned toward the sky, “Our next course of action is leaving. We never should have come here in the first place, and we’ve achieved nothing besides useless destruction of our own forces against Necrozma!”

  “We will be doing no such thing,” Mewtwo said intently, “Without the power of Mega Evolution, I’ll be nothing more than a ragdoll against Necrozma.”

  “Then we’ll try my method,” Rayquaza spoke with obvious ire, “We’ll achieve nothing by remaining here, and there’s no way we’ll get past the Cells.”

  Mewtwo scoffed in annoyance, but conceded nonetheless. “Very well. I suppose Dragon Ascent might at least be survivable, as opposed to those things.”

  “At last, you see reason,” Rayquaza said with a grin returning to his face, “Now, let’s get out of-”

  “Going so soon?”

  The two of them whipped around. They could have sworn another voice spoke out to them from behind, but when they turned to identify who or what it was, they found nothing.

  “You heard that too, right?” Mewtwo asked.

  Rayquaza nodded. “Yeah...but what could it have-ack!”

  Their bodies were constricted against their wills all of a sudden. A light pink glow had surrounded them in the form of three glowing rings that held them fast in place. Mewtwo pushed against the force with his Psychic powers, but to his shock, they did nothing. He then tried to summon a barrier, but it was shattered immediately under the pressure. Now irritated, the clone Pokemon teleported out of the binding rings, only for them to fly to his location, trap him again, and bring him back over to his initial position.

  “What is this?!” Mewtwo demanded, squirming uselessly within the binding.

  Then, a figure appeared before them, and Rayquaza paled as if he was staring death in the face. The figure was as pink as the rings binding the two of them, and it was feline-looking in its’ structure. A tail with a bulbous end swished back and forth hypnotically as its shimmering blue eyes pierced into theirs. This figure was Mew, the Queen of all Pokemon and the genetic ancestor to all who live on Earth, and she looked far from happy.

  “Hello boys,” She spoke, “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “L-lady Mew!” Exclaimed Rayquaza. He made an attempt to bow, but the bindings held him in place. Nevertheless, he continued, “W-we were just leaving!”

  “I beg to differ, actually,” Mewtwo said arrogantly, causing Rayquaza to inwardly shriek in terror, “Now that you’re here, we can actually speak.”

  Mew raised an eyebrow at her genetic double. “Speak? Unless it’s regarding why the two of you are currently invading the Tree of Life, battling my guardians, and then attempting to flee without explaining yourself, the only thing we’ll be discussing is why I shouldn’t simply feed you to the tree to make up for the damage you’ve caused.”

  Without a hint of fear, Mewtwo merely smirked at her arrogantly and replied, “Because frankly, you cannot afford to lose us. Our world needs as much firepower as it can get if we are to destroy, or at least repel, Necrozma.”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Mew laughed. “Oh, truly? From what I heard, you two battled against Necrozma one after another and availed nothing for it.”

  “Which is exactly why we are here,” Said Mewtwo, “Our power alone is insufficient. I have come here seeking the ability to Mega Evolve.”

  “You’re making a lot of assumptions,” Mew scoffed, “I explicitly gave you two permission to practice Mega Evolution above the tree. Alone, coming down here was an offense I could have overlooked, seeing our current situation.” Her glare intensified, paralyzing Rayquaza with fear. Mewtwo, despite being trapped in his counterpart’s bindings, met her glare with one of his own.

  “What you have done is far more than an offense,” She hissed, “You speak of increasing our firepower against Necrozma, yet you battle against the guardian Regis and attempt to do the same with the Cells. Not to mention all the damage you have caused.”

  “It was them who attacked us,” Mewtwo hissed back, “Before they did so, we came with no intent of destruction. We fought purely in self-defense.”

  “I told you when you and Rayquaza initially asked to train inside the tree,” Started Mew, “The Tree of Life is under strict security! Nothing is to be allowed inside or out, which is why I told you to stay above it! It was because the defense system was set to be as strict as possible!”

  “If we managed to defeat it, then it would have meant nothing to Necrozma!”

  “Oh, really?” Asked Mew, “You defeated it? I admit, you managed to strike down the Regis, but from what I overheard, you were about to leave specifically because you couldn’t do anything to the Cells.”

  Without waiting for a riposte, Mew turned away from her clone and focused her gaze down into the abyss below. Mewtwo was about to ask what she was doing when, suddenly, the colossal branch Rayquaza had severed with his Dragon Ascent began floating up out from the darkness amidst a pink glow and re-attached itself to the broken veins. The pink glow intensified, and the damage done to it seemed to be reverting on its own. Soon enough, the giant branch had returned to its original position, and the Cells retreated back through the skin of the tree.

  “Look,” Mew said, turning to fix the other damage Mewtwo and Rayquaza had caused in their battles, “You can’t stay here. The Pokemon are already panicked enough as it is, and your arrival here has only set them into further chaos. Not to mention that I doubt you’ll find the ability to Mega Evolve here.”

  “What do you mean?” Mewtwo asked her, “This is the highest concentration of Aura on the planet! If the ability to Mega Evolve existed for me, it would be here!”

  “Exactly,” Replied Mew, “Aura is the spiritual makeup of every living thing.” Her eyes narrowed at him. “Every natural living thing, which is a category you don’t exactly fit into.”

  Mewtwo felt a rage he’d suppressed ever since the day of his creation and, later, betrayal by the man who ordered his creation bubbling back up. “I beg your pardon?”

  “Oh, don’t give me that look,” Said Mew, “You know full well what I’m talking about. The Mega Stones are fit to evolve specific Pokemon that are born here. They’re not for everyone, including most living things. Not even I can perform Mega Evolution. Heck, not even Arceus can! You weren’t born naturally. You were created to mirror me, who again, cannot Mega Evolve. The Aura won’t react the same to you as it would to another living being, so there’s no use trying.”

  “You don’t know that!” Mewtwo seethed, “I am a living being too! I see, think, and feel as any other! I breathe as any other! When we parted ways on that day...back at the island when that human, Ash, sacrificed himself to halt our battling, I thought you believed the same.” He glared furiously into her gaze. “I. Am not. You.”

  The damage to the tree had been fully undone now, and Mew sighed now that her work was complete, and also at Mewtwo. In truth, she didn’t truly know what to think of him. At first, she was curious as to how his life essence felt so similar to her own, which drew her to that island. When she’d learned of his origin and goals at that island, she considered his existence an affront to her own, but when she first saw the inner turmoil he was going through after the incident with Arceus’s chosen one, she didn’t quite know what to think of him and left him be. Yet still, every instance she met with him, an irritation similar to an itch she could never rid herself of coursed throughout her. She begrudgingly let him near the tree in the hopes he would be satisfied with that alone, but now she saw that wasn’t the case.

  “...In truth, I never considered you to be a living creature,” She admitted. Immediately, she could feel Mewtwo’s rage without him even saying anything. “...As the progenitor to all life on this planet, alongside Arceus of course, I considered your existence an insult. You, who were created by a fragmented shell of my eyelash, felt to me like something that simply...didn’t belong.”

  “You...have no right to say that,” Seethed Mewtwo, “For that exact reason! You created all life except for me! You have no right to dictate my destiny!”

  “If your so-called destiny conflicts with my own, then I do,” Mew countered, “And besides, I don’t feel like that anymore. For the most part, at least.”

  Mewtwo’s temper cooled down a tad. “...Is that so?”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Mew added quickly, “That isn’t exactly to say I feel...comfortable with you yet. I simply concede that you are a living being, but that’s all.” She shook her head. “Anyways, I’ve gotten off track. My point is that, while you indeed are living, you are not naturally born of this world. Therefore, you cannot Mega Evolve, and there is no reason for me to let you into the Tree of Life to try.”

  “But I was born from your genetics,” Mewtwo pointed out, “And your genetics carry the DNA of every Pokemon, including all the ones that can Mega Evolve.”

  Mew shook her head. “True as that may be, you were born from my direct genetics, and from ancient petrified ones, no less. The Pokemon of today that can Mega Evolve likely never existed at the time I dropped that eyelash. Not to mention…” She leaned in towards Mewtwo. “I can’t Mega Evolve! If I can’t do it, there’s no way you can.”

  “You don’t know that,” Insisted Mewtwo, “Like I said, I am not you. We are different, so there’s no way either of us will ever know until I try. But to do that, I need access into the tree.”

  “Not happening.”

  Mewtwo’s eyes narrowed at her. “Then I will force my way in.”

  Mew chuckled. “Oh, really? Do we really need to go over how well your attempts at defeating the Cells went? Not to mention who’s grasp you’re currently trapped in.”

  “She’s got a point,” Rayquaza piped up.

  Mew smiled appreciatively up at him. “Thank you, Rayquaza. Finally, someone with sense around here.”

  Mewtwo turned up to him angrily. “Who’s side are you on?!” He hissed.

  “The side that doesn’t get us both killed!” Rayquaza hissed back, “I shouldn’t have to remind you that our streak of luck here hasn’t exactly been in our favor, so it’s in our best interests to, you know, not act like arrogant fools and die here as traitors for a useless fool’s errand!”

  “It’s not useless,” Mewtwo persisted, “I need to obtain that power by any means necessary!”

  “Why,” Mew cut in abruptly, “Do you even feel the need to chase after Mega Evolution so stubbornly, anyways?” Her gaze narrowed. “Let me guess. It’s your pride, isn’t it? It’s been scathed and broken by Necrozma in your little spat, and now you want an easy source of extra power to take vengeance against him with. Is that it?”

  Mewtwo’s face darkened. “...No.”

  Mew scowled. “So it is that! You came to violate my home and destroy its defenses during a crucial period of preparation, all so you could have a petty chance of vengeance! Did you not stop to think for a second as to what that would do to the Pokemon and other life forms living here?!” Her gaze darkened with rage, causing Rayquaza to flinch. “That’s pathetic and selfish! What kind of-”

  “Silence!” Boomed Mewtwo. He roared in rage, blasting his power out in all directions. Violent sparks of violet, crackling Psychic energy, exploded out from his body in all directions and pushed against his bindings. “Don’t think you know me! You know nothing of me!” To Mew’s surprise and Rayquaza’s utter shock, Mewtwo began successfully pushing the pink bindings outward away from himself.

  Mewtwo’s eyes went white, and his pupils disappeared. His bellowing only furthered, and the bright cherry-colored rings keeping him held in place wavered as the rate of his energy dispersal heightened by the second.

  “That’s...impossible!” Mew exclaimed in shock, “How is he breaking through that?! The only one with enough power to do something like that is Arceus!”

  “You think I am doing this for a pathetic reason like vengeance?!” A raging orb of plasmatic purple energy formed around the artificial clone of Mew, which successfully pushed the rings out further and caused them to start sparking erratically. “You call me selfish?! You would dare talk to me about disregarding life?!” The orb expanded suddenly as his rage influenced its growth, making the rings begin to lose their shape around him. “Why don’t you try staring into a mirror?! You, who would willingly cast living beings into those Cells and let them act as fuel for all of eternity while their soul and consciousness are trapped within?! You, who would set your guardians upon anything that dared to cross your lands, whether they be Pokemon or human alike?!”

  Mewtwo held his arms out to his sides and pushed with all his might against his bindings. The rings began crackling violently and losing their form. “You’re a hypocrite! You have no place to lecture me about a disregard for life, when preserving it was my very basis for coming here!”

  Mew’s eyes widened. “W-what?”

  “I cherish life more than anything,” He bellowed, “And I would never willingly harm an innocent life!” He hissed in pain suddenly as his power output slipped for a moment, allowing the rings to close back in on him slightly. Nevertheless, he held fast and, even though his muscles were trembling, kept pushing outward against the rings. “I told you this once, didn’t I?! That your station of birth doesn’t matter, and it was what one did with the gift of life that measured their worth!” The rings closed back in on him again, leaving only a shrunken shield between him and them. “I...have a family…! Clones such as I…! I wish to protect them…! Not only them, but others! All living things!” The rings beset upon him once more, and the shield shattered, but still, he pushed against the rings with his own Psychic powers to keep them at bay.

  His eyes shot open, and he glared into Mew’s widened eyes. “I want to protect them because...I, too am a living being...but…!” He cried out as he felt a snap, and the rings closed in on him to the point that there was but a few inches between himself and them. “I cannot do it as I am! Necrozma taught me that..!”

  He recalled Necrozma’s dark words he imparted unto him. “Very well. Then, before you die, your last thoughts will be of those you failed to protect.”

  “As long as I am weak, I will never be able to protect what I love from Necrozma! So I-ack!” Mewtwo began collapsing under the pressure, and Mew found herself, for some reason, longing to reach out to help him. It was a fleeting urge in the back of her mind, and she quickly caught herself, but the oddity of it made her stare down at herself in confusion and disbelief.

  “But I…” Mewtwo pushed outward once more. “Will never…” The pink psychic rings blasted outward as a sudden, tremendous force from Mewtwo pushed them. To Mew’s further shock, deep blue specks of light came floating out from the various tunnels of the tree and were absorbed into Mewtwo’s body.

  ‘What?!’ She exclaimed inwardly, ‘He’s absorbing the Aura! How?! He’s not a natural living being, so he shouldn’t be able to…”

  “I...will never...yield!” Mewtwo roared valiantly, “So long as a breath still remains in my body, I will never give up! I will never give in! I will protect all that is dear to me, even if it means getting through you!”

  As the blue specks coated Mewtwo’s body, he was enveloped in a sudden white glow. With a deafening roar, he released all of his energy, and the rings binding both him and Rayquaza were blasted apart to smithereens. Rayquaza flinched, expecting the sudden blinding blast to impact him, but to his shock, it merely erased the rings trapping him and sailed harmlessly past him. Mew was not so lucky. The white and purple explosion of Mewtwo’s will to protect all he loved crashed into Mew with a level of power she didn’t expect, causing her to crash into the wall of the tree behind her.

  In utter disbelief, all Mew, the Goddess of all Pokemon, could say was, “What?!”

  She was pinned against the wall, and her eyes were forced shut as Mewtwo’s sudden burst of power nearly flattened her. She forced her eyes open and saw a white figure in the midst of it all. It looked similar to Mewtwo, yet different. While having the same body, it lacked a tail and instead had some kind of extension dropping down the back of its head. Though, that was the only difference she could make out. Mewtwo’s body was entirely coated in a blinding light.

  Mewtwo roared again, and the force of his power increased. The walls surrounding her were shattered and disintegrated, reduced to nothing more than ash as she became more and more embedded in the thick walls of the tree. She hissed in annoyance and blasted outward with her own energy.

  “Enough!” She shouted.

  Mewtwo’s sudden burst of energy was overwhelmed completely by Mew’s, and the Goddess Pokemon’s vivid pink Psychic energy overtook Mewtwo’s radiant white one. What was left was Mewtwo, reverted back to his original form, hanging loosely in her grip and staring up into the sky with wide, shocked eyes. Rayquaza quickly floated down to his side, and Mew was tempted to regain her hold over him as well, but decided to leave him be for now.

  “Mewtwo!” Shouted Rayquaza, “Are you alright?!”

  “He’s fine,” Mew told him as the damage to the wall behind her was undone by a pink glow, “Just left in a state of shock.”

  “But what happened to him?! Where did that sudden burst of power come from?!”

  Mew pursed her lip and looked away. She knew, deep within her mind, exactly what had happened, but was unwilling to admit it even to herself. Mewtwo blinked suddenly, and his consciousness returned to him. He looked around in a bewildered state, first up to the fleeting specks of blue light decorating their surroundings, then up to Rayquaza, and finally, to Mew. He tried to move, but found himself bound in Mew’s grip and frowned. Mew couldn’t help but gain a small tinge of satisfaction from his defeated expression.

  “What...what happened?” He uttered breathlessly.

  Rayquaza looked down at him, up to Mew, and back down to him once more. “I think...I think you Mega Evolved!”

  “It was nothing more than a fluke,” Insisted Mew, “ You gained a brief power due to your resolve, but that’s all. Nothing akin to Mega Evolution happened.” She looked away from Mewtwo and down towards the abyss below. Her eyes glowed pink, and three familiar figures appeared. The Regis were brought back up from their fall and placed upon a nearby branch.

  To say the guardians of the Tree of Life looked worse for wear was an understatement. Regice’s body was shattered in some places and completely missing in others. Regirock’s body was cracked and broken down into rubble, and its limbs were missing. Though Registeel had no apparent damage done to it, the steel golem was beeping and twitching sporadically, making glitched, warped versions of the noises it did before. Mew’s eyes flashed white, and a pink glow surrounded the three Regis, reverting the damage done to them. The three of them looked around in confusion until they saw Mew. They began beeping once more up at her, then retreated into the tunnels to fulfill their duties once more.

  “...But,” Mew said at last, “To say that you haven’t peaked my curiosity would be a lie. Come, follow me. I’ll allow you to test yourself within the tree, if only to prove myself right.”

  Rayquaza’s mouth went agape. “W-wait, are you serious, Lady Mew?”

  “Are you complaining? Or would you rather I go with my original plan of feeding you to the Cells?”

  “O-of course not, milady,” Rayquaza stammered, bowing to her, “Come, Mewtwo, let us move!”

  Rayquaza went to allow the clone Pokemon to ride upon his back, and Mew released her grip on him. Mewtwo, however, pushed himself off of Rayquaza and began floating on his own. “I am more than capable of moving,” He insisted.

  Rayquaza simply replied with, “Suit yourself,” and went to follow Mew. Mewtwo felt the urge to glare at Mew for her earlier statement about casting them into the Cells, but merely gave her an arrogant grin. She responded with one of her own and ushered him to follow her. Chuckling to himself, Mewtwo followed the two of them inside the tree.

  As the trio entered the large tunnel, Mewtwo and Rayquaza gaped up at their surroundings. The inside was not as grey as the outside, and the walls were comprised of a reddish-brown color. More interestingly to the duo was the seemingly-endless strain of what appeared to be blue vines stretched across those walls. They radiated a faint, cyan glow, and appeared to be somewhat transparent. There were also large crystals that sometimes dwarfed Mewtwo in size, strewn about the path.

  “So, this is the tree?” Asked Mewtwo.

  Mew turned around to face him, floating backwards as the trio traveled within. “I trust it is to your expectations?”

  Mewtwo chuckled. “I suppose so.”

  Mew chuckled back.

  Rayquaza asked Mew, “So, why did you change the Tree’s defenses to attack Pokemon? I know it does not endanger the ones living here, but eventually, some Pokemon will be coming here to take refuge.”

  “Simple.” Answered Mew, “Necrozma could attack at any time, and we don’t even know what his “Ultra Beasts” look like. For all we know, they could have the ability to transform, enter the tree, and wreak havoc. I cannot allow that.” She looked up towards the roof of the tunnel. “Not to mention, most of the Pokemon are heading towards Goldenrod City as we speak. Disguising as a weaker Pokemon looking to take refuge within the tree would be the perfect cover, so unfortunately, I have to be a bit dispassionate at the moment.”

  “...Tell me,” Said Mewtwo, “These traps originally were set up for humans. I don’t particularly welcome their presence either, but what made you deem them a threat that must be kept out at all times?”

  Mew looked down towards him. “Well, over the course of their existence, there have been a few nutcases who, for some reason or another, have tried to infiltrate, take over, or even destroy the Tree of Life on occasion.”

  “I assume at least some of them had to have had some success,” Mewtwo said, “If the defense system is so rigid.”

  Mew laughed. “Hardly. Pokemon have always lived here, so when the first group of people came in, they were taken care of rather quickly. The Cells were the tree’s doing, not mine, but I did bring in the Regis to help out as well.” She turned around to face forward once more, waving him off nonchalantly. “Trust me,” She said, “There’s no way for a human to get far within this place, much less destroy it.”

  “I see,” Conceded Mewtwo, “How far, then, did the farthest human go?”

  Mew stopped in her tracks and closed her eyes. She remembered a time when a group of people, alongside a very special Lucario, had infiltrated the Tree of Life to rescue a Pikachu that she had taken as a playmate. Mew expected them to be slain, but grew interested in them as they persisted. As she expected, the humans of the group eventually came face to face with the Cells and were absorbed, but when the Pokemon cried over their apparent demise, she reversed the effect at the cost of her, and the Tree’s, life. She was utterly shocked when one of the humans offered their own life to save hers, as another human had done thousands of years before. Though the Lucario ended up doing it for him.

  She noticed a familiar flower on the ground by her feet. It was a Time Flower, a flower that grew within the Tree of Life. It was called the Time Flower because their reflective surfaces could trap images within them, allowing those who saw into the flower to see what happened in the past. She picked it up, created a pink glow around it, and handed it off to Mewtwo, who tentatively took it with a confused look.

  “What is this?” He asked.

  “It’s a Time Flower,” Answered Mew, “And it will answer your question. All you have to do is look into its petals.”

  Mewtwo raised a questioning eyebrow, but did as she told him. Rayquaza leaned in to see what she meant as well. Mewtwo let out a shocked gasp as visions of the past began replaying themselves upon the flower’s petals. A group of humans and Pokemon ran throughout the tree, fending off the Regis and traversing through the vast array of tunnels. That part, however, was not what shocked him. One of the humans was a person he could never forget. It was Ash Ketchum, the boy who had momentarily sacrificed himself to halt his battle with Mew and taught him greater meaning to life than superiority over another. Ash was also, as he had just found out via Arceus’s announcement, Arceus’s chosen human.

  “He was here too?!”

  Mew chuckled at her clone’s reaction. “Indeed, he was. I suppose you could call him and those other humans who accompanied him the farthest-reaching humans to ever come here, though unlike the others, their intent wasn’t malicious.”

  Mewtwo shook his head in mild disbelief. “Of course it would be him,” He said with a chuckle, “It seems that boy...no...it seems that Ash has a tendency to stick his nose into the Legends’ affairs.”

  “Well, he is Arceus’s chosen one,” Said Mew, “I suppose those two facts are interconnected.”

  Rayquaza hummed in thought as he stared down into the reflective petals. “That kid seems familiar…” He mused.

  Unable to quite pinpoint the source of his deja-vu, Rayquaza merely shrugged and continued forward with Mew. Mewtwo placed the flower back down and did the same. Eventually, they came upon a large room. Crystal growths stretched up and down from the roof towards the center, where yet even more of the shimmering gems were piled on top of one another in slim, sharp spires. Two crystals formed a circle, on the center of the floor and ceiling, respectively. Between the two large crystal formations, a large flow of Aura was constantly raining down from the ceiling and into the floor like a shimmering waterfall. Mewtwo and Rayquaza were rendered utterly mesmerized by the sight.

  “What...is this?” Uttered Mewtwo.

  “This,” Spoke Mew, flying up towards the large Aura flow, “Is the greatest source of Aura on the planet.” She held her hands out gallantly. “We are currently within the center of the Tree of Life! This very spot was where Arceus and I first formed this planet billions of years ago.”

  “Wait, here?” Exclaimed Mewtwo, looking up and down, about the crystal formations lining the walls. “This...is where our planet began…?”

  Rayquaza could only bring himself to utter, “This is...this place, it’s…” The draconian guardian Legend’s eyes sparkled in wonderment. “...Incredible…”

  Mew nodded, hanging her arms back to her sides once more. “Indeed. You know, this place has another name besides the Tree of Life.” She stared up towards the roof. A smile came to her face as she recalled the days long since passed, when she and Arceus united their powers of creation in this very spot. “...It is also called the Tree of Beginning. It is named that because, as I have said before, this very place was where not only all life on this planet, but this planet itself came to be.”

  She turned back down towards them and quickly followed up with, “But enough history lessons! Come, step before the Aura! If you can possibly learn Mega Evolution, this is the only place on the planet where it would be possible.”

  Mewtwo nodded in affirmation and levitated himself up so that he was face to face with the Aura flow. It was much more savage than he expected, shooting downward like an intensified Flamethrower. He gulped and accumulated all the remaining willpower left in his exhausted body, then leaned forward with his hand outstretched. His eyes shot open and became bloodshot as the feeling of burning surged through his hand the moment he made contact.

  The clone Pokemon quickly tore his hand away from the Aura surge and hissed in pain, gripping at his burning hand. The intense blue flames of Aura crackled furiously about on his hand, and he tried to use his Psychic powers to suppress it, to no avail. From behind Mewtwo, Mew laughed at his attempt.

  “See?” She exclaimed, “It’s just as I said! There’s no possible way you can Mega Evolve when I, the progenitor of all life, cannot!”

  Mewtwo growled at her in frustration and forced his burning hand back into the scorching Aura. Immediately, pain ripped throughout his body, and he could no longer force back the agonized scream he held in the back of his throat. Still, he persisted. He tried with all his might to will the Aura to him, but still, nothing happened but the continuous scorching of his hand.

  “Mewtwo!” Rayquaza cried out. Changing into his Mega Form, Rayquaza went to Mewtwo’s aid and tried to pull him from the raging falling Aura, to no avail.

  “It’s no use,” Mew told the two of them, “There’s no way Mewtwo will be able to control that sheer concentration of Aura, and you, Rayquaza, cannot pull him out. Only he can do that now, but with that pride of his, he won’t allow it.”

  “You’re right,” Mewtwo rasped between pained breaths, “I won’t allow it!” He turned his head to Rayquaza and gave him an appreciative smile. “Thank you for your assistance, Rayquaza, but I assure you.” His eyes glinted blue for but a moment, but it was enough for Rayquaza. Grinning back down at Mewtwo, Rayquaza patted him on the shoulder and let him go. “Very well,” Said the draconian Legend, “You’ve got this.”

  Nodding, Mewtwo focused back onto the Aura flow and placed his other hand within it. He winced in agony, but kept holding on despite it. “Hear me, Aura!” He bellowed, “I beseech you! Please, help me in my time of need!”

  Mew rolled her eyes and took a seat upon one of the flat-topped crystals. “It’s futile. One such as you could never bend the Aura to your will.”

  “You’re...right,” Mewtwo conceded. His eyes were forced shut from the strain. “But...my objective was never to bend it to my will…”

  Mew tilted her head in confusion. “What? Then how do you expect the Aura to obey?”

  “In my time on this planet,” Mewtwo started, “I’ve come to realize many things about life…it is not malleable! As someone who once tried to bend all life to my will, I have realized that it cannot be bent! So long as living beings have will, they will not falter!” He winced again, nearly falling to his knees. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself back to his full height. “Aura...if it is what makes up all living things, then...it must be the same!”

  Mew nodded. “You’re right. The Aura will bend to no one’s will. So, hotshot, if you know that, how do you plan on using it to Mega Evolve?”

  “Force of will...will to overpower the will of another...will never work! Only by coexisting with one another can a living being attain true power!” Mewtwo flared his amethyst-colored Psychic energy. “So I...do not command you, Aura, to empower me...I plead with you...please, give me the power to protect what I love!”

  Mew looked away from the scene, quickly losing interest. That was, until a blue speck flew past her face. Then another. Then yet another. Countless more specks of blue Aura flowed out from the tunnels and onto Mewtwo’s body, coating him in a brilliant white light once more.

  “Again?!” Exclaimed a surprised Mew. She shook her head rapidly in denial. “No, this can’t…”

  Rayquaza’s grin only grew with his rising excitement. “Come on, Mewtwo,” He urged, “You’ve got this!”

  Though the specks littered Mewtwo’s body, the coursing flow of Aura before him remained truant before his plight. It remained unwavering. Nevertheless, Mewtwo kept going. The specks of Aura surrounding him fueled him. They pushed his power, as if telling him to keep going. Mewtwo closed his eyes as more of the specks surrounded him, coating him in the brilliant light completely. Then, Mewtwo stepped forward.

  Mew jumped up from her seat and cried out, “Don’t go in there! You won’t be able to withstand it!”

  Whether Mewtwo simply could no longer hear her or was ignoring her orders completely, she didn’t know. Mewtwo placed one foot into the Aura surge. Neither Rayquaza or Mew could tell if he was in pain because of it. Soon after, he placed his other foot into the Aura and was completely overtaken. His form began to warp, and parts of his body were being dragged down into the void beneath. His legs were stretched down and began to lose shape. Parts of the light surrounding him were beginning to be dragged off with the rest of the Aura, like dust in the wind.

  Mewtwo’s body warped drastically, and he lost his shape completely. After being stretched beyond recognition by the sheer force of the Aura, he was reduced to nothing more than white dust. Mew and Rayquaza could only look on in horror.

  The dust was beginning to get dragged down towards the bottom crystal. More and more of it disappeared into the void until finally, there was only a singular speck left. A tiny one, hardly the size of a grain of sand, was all that was left of Mewtwo.

  Then, to Mew’s shock, a white speck began to float back up against the raging blue Aura flow. Many more followed suit, rekindling themselves as they reached the last speck once more. They flowed around him like stars, swirling about. Then, to the utter shock of Mew and Rayquaza, a voice spoke out from the glowing dust.

  “...Please, Aura...I wish with all my heart to protect life...to protect you...but to do that, I need your strength...I need the power to repel Necrozma and save this world I love so much…”

  A high-pitched, shrill noise rang out from somewhere, and then Rayquaza and Mew were blinded by light.

  When the light faded, the two of them dared to open their eyes, and what they found made them gape in utter disbelief. Mewtwo appeared once more, crouching on his knees with his face down toward the ground. However, his form was far from what it used to be. His tail had disappeared, and in its’ place was an elongated growth of some kind from the back of his head. Half of a halo-shaped growth also appeared on his head. On Mewtwo’s arms and legs was some kind of thick, plated armor, and he had two deep-purple rings on his shoulders.

  Mewtwo’s eyes opened at last, and he stood back to his full height. He stared out towards Rayquaza and Mew, whose shocked expressions hadn’t changed. In confusion, Mewtwo stared down towards himself, and then realized why they stared at him that way. He marveled over his new appearance, looking himself up and down. A grin came to his face finally.

  “...I did it…”

  Rayquaza, still in his own Mega Form, rushed down to meet him with an ecstatic grin upon his face. “By Arceus, you actually did it!” He cheered, grabbing Mewtwo by his shoulders and spinning him around. “I knew you had it in you!”

  Mewtwo mirrored the scope of Rayquaza’s grin and nodded. “Indeed. Were it not for you, I would have never been able to obtain this power...but…” He turned back up to the raging flow of Aura and knelt, bowing his head. “Thank you,” He spoke to the tree and the Aura, “I will put this power to good use…that, I promise…”

  He got back up to his feet and turned towards Mew. “Of course, I must thank you too. Had you not allowed us inside, I would have never-”

  He stopped in his tracks suddenly due to Mew’s expression. It was some warped mixture of disbelief, denial, and rage.

  “Th-there’s no way! Not even I can Mega Evolve! I, the progenitor of all life, cannot obtain this power! There’s no way you could...yes, that’s it…” She eyed him with a maniacal grin. “Yes, that’s it! It’s just a fluke! It’s false, it’s not real, it cannot be!”

  “It is very real,” Mewtwo told her, stepping forward. Without willing it, Mew backed up away from him.

  Her face darkened suddenly. “...is that so…?”

  Before either Mewtwo or Rayquaza could blink, they were warped above the tree. The reddish-brown caves disappeared from sight and were replaced with the pitch black night sky. Mew appeared before them with her own power raging outward in a series of Psychic waves.

  “I’LL NEED TO TEST THAT POWER FOR MYSELF!”

  Rayquaza was barely holding on, and Mew’s power threatened to blow him away with every passing second. Mewtwo flinched and brought up a barrier to brace himself for impact, and to his surprise, found none.

  Mewtwo let the barrier go and found that his counterpart’s power barely affected him at all. In fact, to his excitement and Mew’s horror, it didn’t even faze him. Mew roared with rage and flew down at him. Mewtwo grinned up at her and rocketed towards her as well. They clashed, sending out a massive blast of energy in all directions that sent Rayquaza flying away.

  “W-what?!” Demanded Mew. To her utter horror, the clash hadn’t blown Mewtwo away completely. In fact, he was matching her power with a confident grin plastered on his face. The cloned Pokemon swiped his arm out at her, sending the Goddess of all Pokemon flying away. She righted herself in the air quickly and glared down at him with fury.

  Her eyes glowed white as she blasted him with her Psychic energy, to which he dispelled it with a mere backhand. Before Mew could hope to dodge, Mewtwo blitzed up to her and delivered a punch straight into her abdomen that made her double over. Then, he summoned a Shadow Ball in that hand, which sent her flying farther into the air. With the snap of Mewtwo’s finger, the Shadow Ball exploded in a mass of black plasmatic energy that blew apart the clouds themselves, exposing the bright white moon behind them.

  The figure of Mew was shadowed out by the light of the moon, but Mewtwo could guess the expression she had on right about now. Mew rushed down and attempted to deliver an Iron Tail attack to Mewtwo’s head, which he blocked with the plated armor upon his arm. He grabbed onto Mew’s tail, making her cry out, and swung it around himself. He threw her down towards the ground beneath with such force that surprised even himself.

  As Mew sailed down helplessly, Mewtwo stared at his own arm in disbelief, flexing his fingers. “This...this power is unreal…” An ecstatic grin crept up the side of his face. “So, this is Mega Evolution!”

  A pillar of flame rocketed at him from below, which he dodged rather easily by simply leaning backwards. Mew appeared above her double and impacted him with a Volt Tackle, sending up waves of savage, crackling energy darting across the night sky. Mewtwo, however, managed to block the attack with a barrier, but was sent flying backwards by the sheer force behind Mew’s attack.

  Despite this, Mewtwo couldn’t help but chuckle. “Of course. Even with this new power of mine, you are still on the same scale of power as Arceus himself.”

  “Thanks for the flattery,” Mew hissed down at him with a dark glare, “But it will get you nowhere!” She rushed at him again, surrounded by a swirling cone of white and yellow crackling energy. “Giga Impact!”

  Mewtwo held out his arms and, to even his own surprise, managed to catch the attack.

  “W-what?! That’s impossible!” Exclaimed Mew. Mewtwo managed to push her upwards, leaning his head back so that his chin, which was mere inches from the swirling cone of vibrant energy, wasn’t hit. He unleashed a savage knee attack into Mew’s abdomen, making her double over, and then threw her into the air. He smirked and hurled a one-handed Shadow Ball at her, which ended up carrying her far into the sky out of view.

  An odd sense of deja vu came over the cloned Pokemon suddenly. “Wait a moment...something about this seems familiar…” His eyes widened as the memory came back to him, and he quickly sidestepped just in time for his own Shadow Ball to sail down past him like a rocket, with Mew in tow.

  “Wait, wait, wait,” She cried out, shaking her head, “That hit you last time!”

  Mewtwo chuckled. “Times have changed, Mew.”

  Growling in frustration, Mew bolted towards him with an Extreme Speed attack. To Mewtwo, the world around him seemed to stop except for his opponent and himself. A series of afterimages appeared one after another behind Mew, indicating to Mewtwo that she was moving at incredible speeds. To him, however, she appeared to be slower than a snail. He summoned a Shadow Ball and let it hang in midair in front of him, then floated over to Mew’s side. Then, time seemed to resume as normal.

  Immediately, Mew crashed into the shadowy attack and was sent careening across the deep, dark sky. She managed to stop her momentum and turned back to her clone with fury in her eyes. Between her hands, blue lightning began crackling violently, scattering its bolts across the night sky as she charged the attack. Mewtwo put up a barrier to stop the stray bolts.

  The Electric attack of Mew was interrupted suddenly by a Hyper Beam from somewhere underneath her, forcing her to stop the attack to dodge out of the way. From the black abyss below, Rayquaza appeared.

  A mischievous glint appeared in Mew’s eyes. ‘Perfect.’

  “Stop this!” Roared Rayquaza, “Now is not the time for petty battling amongst one another! Mewtwo has achieved what we sought, so please, Lady Mew, let us- w-WHA-”

  Mew suddenly teleported to Rayquaza and grabbed him by the muzzle before either he or Mewtwo could react. Scowling, Mewtwo attempted to teleport to them as well to knock her away, but before he could, Mew looked back at him with a mocking grin, and then the world went white, forcing Mewtwo to shield his eyes with his arm. Mew used Flash to blind both of them.

  ‘Just as planned!’ She congratulated herself, ‘Now, then. Onto the next phase of my plan.”

  Once the light had died down, Mewtwo was able to lay his arm back down to his side, but what he saw made him gasp out in shock. Before him, two Rayquaza’s, both in their Mega Forms, were staring at one another with just as much, if not more so, shock as him. They first gaped at one another, copying one another’s movements like a mirror. They then held out an arm at their side in perfect sync. Narrowing their eyes, the two of them began flying about, coiling around themselves. Yet even with one Rayquaza’s precise, complex movements, the other followed without issue. They both stopped their mirrored flight displays and butted heads, growling and glaring into the other’s eyes. Finally, they gave up on attempting to desync their movements and turned to Mewtwo.

  “Mewtwo,” One of them called out, “Take out this faker!”

  “Faker?!” The other screeched, “I think you’re the fake Rayquaza around he-”

  “I’ll make you eat those words!”

  They butted heads once more and continued their furious growling and pushing against one another to try and prove their dominance. Yet, their power seemed to be completely equalized, resulting in no headway being made between them. Mewtwo, meanwhile, scanned both of them with his Psychic powers to try and find a difference between them. To his surprise, he found none. He scanned every aspect of them down to their very cells, but there was no distinguishable difference between them whatsoever.

  “I must admit,” Mewtwo said to himself aloud, “Mew certainly doesn’t sweat the details when using Transform...so…”

  The duo of Rayquazas clashed their heads together once more, gripping at the other’s neck with their claws.

  “I’m the real one!” One shouted.

  “No, I am!” The other followed.

  They growled furiously at each other, baring their teeth as they continued to push against each other. Their anger quickly turned to shock when both of them were blasted suddenly by a Psychic pulse. They turned in its direction and found Mewtwo looking their way with his arm outstretched.

  “H-hey!” They cried unanimously, pointing at each other, “They’re the fake one! Why are you attacking me?!”

  “To whichever one of you is real, sorry about this,” Apologized Mewtwo, flaring up his purple energy around himself, “But I cannot distinguish any differences between the two of you…” He stretched his arms down at his sides and summoned two colossal Shadow Balls. “...And so, if I am to win this battle, I must declare both of you an enemy.”

  “W-what?!” One Rayquaza stammered, reeling his head back, “N-no! Please, Mewtwo! You have to trust me!”

  “No, trust me!” Shouted the other, “That one’s the fake, not me!”

  Ignoring them, Mewtwo flung the two colossal orbs of shadow at both of them, forcing them to fire Hyper Beams to block the incoming attacks. Mewtwo snapped his fingers, causing the two Shadow Balls to detonate. They were sent careening backward through the sky, and Mewtwo burst through the ensuing smoke cloud of his attacks, grabbing both Rayquazas with Psychic and slamming them together, then blasting them away with a one-handed Hyper Beam.

  The two Rayquazas crashed into the ground loudly, kicking up a large cloud of dust. Shaking off the debris, they took to the skies once more and glared at one another. “Stop pretending to be me! Mewtwo blasted us because of you!” The other one shouted back, “Me?! If it wasn’t for you, Mewtwo wouldn’t have attacked us! Please, Lady Mew, stop this nonsense! We have more important matters!” “What are you talking about?!” Demanded the other one, “Please, Lady Mew, Necrozma is on his way as we speak! If we keep this up, we’ll just be weakening ourselves!”

  “Then transform back to normal!”

  “I am normal! You’re the one who transformed to look like me!”

  One of them growled furiously. “Fine, then! I know I’m no match for Lady Mew, but talking will get us nowhere!”

  “Very well then,” Said the other, “We shouldn’t be battling against one another at a time like this, but it seems I have no choice!”

  Leaping back into the sky, the two Rayquaza’s coiled around one another and blasted into the other’s face with two identical Hyper Beams. A loud crash and a smokescreen ensued from the colliding lasers, and the two identical dragons flew out from either side, righting themselves in the air and glaring at the other.

  Seeing the two of them fighting, Mewtwo took it upon himself to muse to himself. “So,” He said, “They’ve decided to clash against one another instead of teaming up against me. That’s a relief...but then, what should I do?” Without even thinking, Mewtwo leaned his head to the side to avoid a glancing Draco Meteor from above. “Should I step in and fight them both anyways? Or should I let them continue fighting each other?” A Hyper Beam came his way, and so Mewtwo nonchalantly summoned a barrier to weather the attack. “The smartest option would be to let them fight it out and then battle the winner, as they would naturally be Mew…” He floated away to the side to dodge a glancing Fire Blast. “...But then again, Mew could also pretend to be defeated to distract me and make me fight the real Rayquaza, then attack from behind…” The two Rayquazas, caught in one another’s grasp, swerved towards Mewtwo, who stopped both of them and froze them in place. Looking back up towards the two of them, Mewtwo said, “So...the most logical option would be...to defeat both.”

  The twin dragons’ eyes widened. “No, wait! Mewtwo, can’t you see?! They’re the clone, not me! Come, let us work together and make Mew see reason!!”

  “No, I am,” The other insisted, “Lady Mew is trying to fool you! Together, we can stop her rampage!”

  In response to the duo’s plights, Mewtwo gathered Psychic energy in the palms of his hands and concentrated them. “Sorry, but no. To the real Rayquaza, sorry, but…” He held the glowing palms of his hands up to the two Rayquaza’s foreheads, making the pupils of their eyes shrink in fright. “I cannot risk teaming up with the fake.” He intensified the attacks in his hands, and one of the Rayquaza’s closed their eyes tightly. The other one grinned.

  Mewtwo quickly shifted the attacks towards the grinning Rayquaza and blasted it into the ground beneath, sending them careening down, screaming. Their scream was cut off when the Psychic ball exploded violently in a purple light. “That should give us some time,” Said Mewtwo, turning back to the real Rayquaza, “Sorry about that, by the way. I couldn’t have been sure which one was real, so I had to attack you both. If I didn’t the real one would have-”

  Mewtwo was cut off when, suddenly, Rayquaza lurched forward towards him and trapped him in his coil. The emerald green dragon grinned down at him with a cruel grin upon his face, then began to summon a Hyper Beam pointed right at Mewtwo’s face. “What are you doing?!” Cried Mewtwo.

  The disembodied voice of Mew spoke out to him, “You fell for it! I used Psychic to make the real Rayquaza look like he was grinning evilly at you and plotting something, all while I pretended to look terrified!”

  Mewtwo scowled angrily, and blasted outward at the fake Rayquaza to free him from the Bind attack that had trapped him. He then flung a Shadow Ball at it to try and get her to return to normal, only for it to begin to glow a bright light. Mewtwo’s eyes widened, and he quickly formed a barrier around himself just as the Rayquaza used Explode. The sheer force of the attack lit up the sky for a moment and blasted out into Mewtwo’s barrier, nearly shattering it.

  Once the Explosion attack died down, Mewtwo erupted from the smoke amidst his violet purple flaring energy, looking none too pleased. He swerved his head around in all directions to search for Mew, who eventually appeared before him. She laughed down at him, giggling to herself, which only served to increase Mewtwo’s annoyance.

  “You fell for it again,” She exclaimed amidst her giddy laughter, “I used Substitute and transformed it into another Rayquaza!” She erupted into laughter once more. “I guess that new Mega form of yours doesn’t make you any smarter!”

  Her laughter was cut off when, in the blink of an eye, Mewtwo blitzed up to her, grabbed her by the throat, and hurled her further into the sky. Rapidly, he created small pinkish-purple balls of Psychic energy and began hurling them at Mew one after another. Mew stopped her momentum by summoning a large bubble in her flight path and whipped back around towards her clone with a Fire Blast in her mouth, but was forced to quickly duck her head as Mewtwo’s attacks sailed over it and destroyed her bubble.

  Mewtwo kept up the hail of attacks, continuously throwing the small balls despite Mew dodging them. The small pink catlike Pokemon leapt out of the way, swerving, dodging, and leaping around every one of the small attacks hurled at her. She giggled at him mockingly for his failed efforts as she began to realize the ease of evading them. “Hah! You really shouldn’t let your frustration cloud your judgement, Mewtwo,” She taunted, “It’s really unbecoming! While you’re at it, you should work on your aim too!”

  The goddess Pokemon continued laughing as she dodged the incoming attacks. Eventually, they stopped coming. “What, giving up already?” To her confusion, Mewtwo smirked up at her.

  “Take a look around,” He told her.

  To Mew’s horror, she was surrounded by a countless myriad of the Psychic orbs Mewtwo had fired at her. The gap between each one of them from another was so small that even she couldn’t fit through it. “W-what is this?!”

  Mewtwo chuckled. “You fell for it. PSYSTRIKE!”

  Mewtwo reached his hand up towards her and closed it. Immediately, the countless array of Psychic orbs shot forward, closing in on Mew. She tried to teleport, but something beneath her began to glow the moment she did. She stared down in horror as she realized one of the Psychic orbs had been directly beneath her feet the entire time. It detonated, interrupting her Teleport and sent her careening into the field of the others of its kind.

  Without hope for resistance, Mewtwo’s Psystrike closed in on Mew, crashing into her all at once. However, every time a Psystrike crashed into her, another appeared in its place and followed suit over and over again. Within the attack, Mew winced in pain. She couldn’t summon any attacks, because they were destroyed immediately by one of Mewtwo’s attacks colliding into it and causing both moves to blow up in her face. The Psytrike seemed endless too. Without mercy nor coda, the countless purple orbs barreled into her, one after another, and exploded violently.

  To Mewtwo, it looked like a firework show. He couldn’t help but allow a smile to return to his face. “Mew!” He called up to her, “This is the end! If I can defeat you, then I might stand a chance against Necrozma!” In his hands, he formed yet another ball of Psychic energy. This one, however, he didn’t throw at her. From Mewtwo’s body, a deep lilac stream of energy flowed out into the orb. With it, the orb grew in size continuously. It eventually reached the point Mewtwo could no longer hold it within his arms’ length, so he held it above his head. It grew larger still, eventually blotting out the moon itself. With a roar of determination, Mewtwo shot the gargantuan attack at Mew. The detonation was immense, and Mewtwo was quickly forced to summon a barrier around himself. Outside of the shield, the world turned a blinding white. Trees were completely uprooted and obliterated. The landscape itself bent beneath the sheer force of power behind the attack, and even its creator quickly found himself unable to withstand it. The barrier cracked around him, despite his desperate struggle to keep it intact. More and more fractures appeared until finally, it shattered, and Mewtwo himself disappeared into the blinding light.

  It took minutes for the Psystrike to end, and when it finally did, a colossal crater was left in its wake. The Tree of Life had barely managed to escape the destruction by mere meters, but the rest of the land wasn’t so lucky. Remnants of trees, rocks, and other types of debris rained down upon the scarred lands. Mewtwo awoke, still in his Mega form, to a large stone nearly crashing down upon him. His eyes shot open, and he immediately went to try and stop it from happening, but a Hyper Beam tore through the chunk of debris suddenly, scouring it to ashes.

  “Hey, Mewtwo,” The familiar face of Rayquaza said to him, “There are better places to take a nap than on the ground, you know.”

  Chuckling, Mewtwo pushed himself back onto his feet and gave the draconian Legend a thankful thumbs-up. He was taken aback when Rayquaza’s tail suddenly impacted him and sent him sprawling across the ground, facedown. When he came to a stop from his slide, Mewtwo pushed himself up off the ground and onto his back, slamming the rocky floor with his fist.

  “...Three times in a row,” Mewtwo said aloud, “I don’t know whether to feel ashamed or just laugh at this point.”

  Rayquaza flew into his line of sight once more, charging a Hyper Beam within his jaw. Mewtwo merely groaned, and leaned back his head. “Forget it,” He said, “You win, Mew.”

  Rayquaza, however, had a different idea. He lurched his head up towards the sky suddenly, using the Hyper Beam to slice through another large chunk of falling debris and making the two halves of it fall further to their sides and leaving them unharmed. Turning back towards Mewtwo, he pulled him back to his feet and said, “That was for earlier.”

  Mewtwo put a hand to his gut where the tail hit him and laughed. “Fair enough.”

  Looking back over towards the center of the crater, Rayquaza told him, “You really outdid yourself. Even for our Goddess, she’ll be feeling that one in the morning.”

  “...I suppose so,” Replied Mewtwo, “But what now?”

  “Well…” Rayquaza trailed off, looking behind them towards the Tree of Life, “The tree appears to be unharmed, so we don’t have to worry about that. When Mew appears next, she likely won’t show mercy, even with our dire situation.” He turned back towards Mewtwo. “So it would be wise to-”

  He was blasted by a pink laser from behind, sending him sprawling away. “Trying to leave again? You’re starting to sound like a broken record.”

  The ground beneath Mewtwo’s feet was completely obliterated, and he soon found himself being blasted by a wall of pink energy. He put up a barrier, but it was torn to shreds instantaneously as if it were sandpaper. He cried out in agony and was forced to his knees by the sheer overwhelming power. Mew appeared before him once more, and she looked akin to a demon. Her teeth were bared, her eyes were glowing bright white, and her fur was spiking up on end.

  She screeched, and the overwhelming power of the Goddess of all Pokemon, Mew, intensified. It felt like he was standing within the center of the Tree of Life once more. Desperately, he gripped onto the floor to try and hold him in place, but kept on sliding backwards despite that. Mew floated up to her clone’s face, allowing him to behold the absolute might of her power as close as possible.

  It was then, Mewtwo realized. ‘I can’t beat her! I can’t hold on!’

  Her power shifted, instead blasting directly down upon him and crushing him helplessly into the floor. Mewtwo’s eyes began to dull. His consciousness was wavering. Even with the power the Tree of Life had gifted him, he was nothing in comparison to Mew herself.

  ‘She’s...too powerful…’

  Mew spoke. Her voice boomed to the point it seemed to come from every direction. It sounded completely unlike her normal voice. Instead of the high-pitched, cute voice she normally adorned, this voice was raspy, deep, and it echoed through Mewtwo’s very being. “Do you see now? The error of challenging me?” The overwhelming force of her power increased further, pushing Mewtwo down into the stone beneath his feet. “Now, you will pay with your life!” Mewtwo heard some kind of ringing sound, and the stone he was embedded in crumbled away and left the clone Pokemon dangling within the air. Pink, crackling energy crushed him at every point, and he no longer even had the freedom to scream out in pain. His Mega Evolution faded, leaving him in his normal state, and then the world faded to black.

  …

  Mewtwo next awoke to the feeling of a cold breeze. He dared to open his eyes and found himself staring up towards the night sky, lit brightly by the ever-glowing moon. Thousands of stars littered the black void above, shining brightly as they ever did. He brought his arm up to his face and found it to have returned to normal. The armored plating was gone, and his three bulbous fingers returned in their place.

  He sat back up and looked around. It was the landscape he had destroyed with Psystrike, but...it wasn’t destroyed at all. There was no crater to be found. No debris, no rubble, all seemed to be well, as if he’d never engaged Mew at all. He stared back down at his hand and flexed his fingers. It didn’t seem real, yet it felt so. “Was that all...a dream…?”

  He stood back onto his feet and looked behind him. The Tree of Life was standing proudly in the far distance, seemingly untouched by their battle, like everything else. He floated into the air and tried to identify Rayquaza’s location, yet found nothing. Staring back down into his hand, he clenched it tightly.

  “...There is only one way to be sure…”

  He tried to remember the sensation...the power given to him...no, entrusted to him by the Tree of Life. He refused to believe that his Mega Evolution was false. It was his very proof that he belonged in this world! His union with the Aura, the makeup of all living and nonliving things, proved he was worthy to live here. It meant that the world accepted him as a living being within it...and if he could do so, the other clones could as well. It meant they all truly belonged.

  A bright white glow enveloped Mewtwo amidst a swirl of blue specks of light, and when the light faded, Mewtwo remained. His tail was removed, and a growth resembling it ran down the back of his head. His horns disappeared, merging into some half-halo shaped thing protruding from his head, and he had grown armor upon his skin, as well as his body and limbs widening and thickening. His bulbous fingers were replaced with smaller, dark purple ones, and identically-colored ring-shaped objects grew from his shoulders. As he opened his eyes, he quickly rushed to the nearest source of water, a lake, and stared down into it. His eyes widened with shock, and his expression quickly turned into a satisfied and relieved smile. Breathing out a sigh now that his worries were alleviated, he looked back up towards the moon and happily uttered, “...It’s real...it’s real after all…”

  “Of course it’s real!”

  Mewtwo jumped back in shock. Behind him, Mew floated in place, tilting her head at him as if she didn’t know what was going on.

  “Y-you…” Mewtwo narrowed his eyes, “What happened?”

  Mew put a hand to her chin and tilted her head back in thought. “Weeeeellll...let’s seeeeeee…” She ended up tilting so far backwards that she flipped upside down. “After you passed out, I kinda realized I went too far. Rayquaza came back and tried to fight me again, probably to defend you, so I beat him up and told him to fly back into space.” Mewtwo couldn’t help but feel somewhat warm to hear that Rayquaza tried to come back for him. Mew flipped back right-side up. “Yeah, he tried to pick a fight with me so I did the same thing to him as I did to you, and he ended up begging for his life, so I told him to beat it and he left.” The warm feeling Mewtwo felt ceased. “But anyways,” She continued, “After I beat you, I ended up fixing the land and felt kinda bad so I healed you up too!”

  “...I see…” Mewtwo replied simply, “Well, thank you for healing me then.” He bowed his head to her. “I concede defeat. You are greater than me, Mew.”

  “Oh, we aren’t done yet.”

  He sharply raised his head towards her. “Excuse me?”

  An eerie grin crept up the side of Mew’s face, and Mewtwo felt the overwhelming pressure of her power begin to crush him once more. “We’re not going anywhere for a loooong time. No, we still have much more playtime in store! Won’t that be fun?!” Maniacal, screeching laughter began erupting from the Goddess Pokemon as Mewtwo’s body began to crumble. Fear quickly overcame him as the implications of her playtime filled his mind with twisted imagery. His heart nearly stopped as she appeared directly in front of him, suddenly. She outstretched her hand towards him, and he shut his eyes tightly.

  “Boop!”

  Mew tapped his nose and flew backwards, giggling. The pressure crushing him stopped as well, and her counterpart tentatively opened his eyes again. “...What?”

  “Gotcha!” She continued giggling, floating, and flipping throughout the air, “You’re really easy to prank, you know.”

  Mewtwo could only stare at her with a blank, dumbfounded expression. “So...what’s...happening?”

  “Oh, you can go if you want,” She told him, “I just wanted to scare ya one last time.”

  “Scare? So, wait, was all of that-”

  “Just a prank, bro.”

  “Even that whole thing where you were furious with me for obtaining my Mega Evolution?”

  “Well, kinda,” Answered Mew, “At first, yeah, I was kinda ticked off. But it didn’t last long. Everything after that was just playing!” She looked at him oddly. “Right?”

  “R-right…” He stammered, “So, then, was that whole ‘testing my power’ playtime as well?”

  “Well, yes and no,” She flipped around in the air, eventually stopping near Mewtwo’s head, “I did want to test out how strong you were in a fight,” All of a sudden, Mew went up far too close for Mewtwo’s comfort, forcing him to lean his head back away from her, “But that was playtime!”

  Mewtwo would hardly call nearly being crushed to death ‘playtime,’ but he feared that voicing his opinion would only sink him further into her games. “So, then...you were faking everything in our battle? You were holding back, up until the end?”

  “No, I was holding back there too.”

  Mewtwo deadpanned. “You cannot be serious…”

  “Why’s that?” Her visage darkened menacingly. “Need another reminder of my power to freshen your memory?”

  Mewtwo quickly held up a hand to dissuade her. “I-I’m fine, thank you.”

  Mew glared at him for a few seconds until her expression radically shifted once more, turning back into her bright, cheery self. “Okay! So long as you get it.”

  Mewtwo nodded, inwardly sighing in relief. “Well...I suppose that’ll be it, then?”

  Mew shrugged. “Sure.”

  Without needing any further persuasion, Mewtwo nodded and took off into the sky. Mew stared up at him as he went, and an odd feeling she couldn’t describe panged through her. In all actuality, a feeling of envy at her clone’s ability to perform Mega Evolution plagued her, but on the other…

  A smile came to the Goddess Pokemon’s face. “You know what? I’m happy for him.”