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Ash paid a lot of attention to news out of Ryme City. He'd found a lot of communities that worked more like Ryme City than the rest of the world, but Ryme City made it public, showing the world what Pokemon and humans could be to each other.
He didn't get there much; there was always somewhere else to go, something new to discover. But he paid attention.
So when he walked into a Pokemon Center in western Galar to find the TV replaying footage of Mewtwo hovering over a parade in Ryme City declaring the dawning of a new age, he felt a moment of resignation. Somewhere around his tenth year of doing this, he'd realized that somehow, he'd become responsible for dealing with things like this. If there were a prophecy, it mentioned a kid with a Pikachu. Ancient carvings looked just like him. He turned out to have the same aura as dead heroes.
He was halfway to the computer to see if he could get his Talonflame out of storage when Pikachu tugged at his head.
"Pi kachu!" he declared. Ash stopped, looked up. There was footage of a Pikachu fighting Mewtwo; he felt a strange moment of vertigo, wondering if he'd been there and somehow forgotten it. But that Pikachu was stouter, shorter-limbed, and clearly in worse shape than Ash's. And Ash would have been there, coaching Pikachu along - he would have tried to short out the weird device on Mewtwo's head.
It kept on going after that, although the video got shaky and piecemeal - explained when the reporters finally explained that the crisis was over, that renowned philanthropist Howard Clifford had tried to merge Pokemon and human together to create a more perfect union between the species, only to be defeated by a young trainer (a man ten years Ash's senior).
Ash snorted.
"Pikapi?"
Ash waved at the TV, where there was a shot of a woman merging with her Luxray. "People and Pokemon are different; being different is what makes them work together so well. Can you imagine if I were you and I had to battle?"
Pikachu fell off Ash's shoulder laughing; it took a quick dodge to catch his Pokemon before Pikachu hurt himself. Pikachu, unconcerned, kept laughing long enough that it was starting to get a little insulting. But Pikachu needed to work his way through it; letting him do so was part of how their partnership worked.
"Pi, pipipi," Pikachu agreed, at last, patting Ash's chest.
Ash scratched Pikachu's head and settled against one of the chairs in the corner of the Pokemon Center. Now that there was no immediate threat, Ash could let his mind drift back to...well, he couldn't remember what he'd been up to before he'd caught the news. His mind kept drifting back to - Mewtwo, floating ominously over a crowd, speaking in a voice unlike his own, imperious and domineering.
He sat up straight, nearly dislodging Pikachu, to a furious protest from the Pokemon against his chest.
Because whatever he had been planning (he couldn't remember if he'd tried the Galar League or not), he knew what he was doing now.
It took three weeks to get from Galar to Purity Canyon, three weeks of long days, short nights, and no end of complaints from Pikachu, but.
It was where Ash needed to be.
The roads passing by the canyon were wreathed in fog, grounding everyone but the most determined traveler. Ash laughed off Nurse Joy's expressions of worry as he retrieved his Pokemon.
"I'm good at this," he said, and let her draw her own conclusions by what be meant by 'this'. An hour into his trip, though, he was getting a little tired of the fog, the wet clinging to everything, sight obscured more than a foot from his face, and Pikachu clinging to his head, sadly, murmuring "Pikacchuuuu" every few minutes. If Ash had doubted he needed to be here, the lingering fog was proof enough.
Mewtwo was hiding.
But Ash remembered the way (had been allowed to remember), and when he stepped into the caves leading to the hideaway Mewtwo had crafted to hide him and his charges from human eyes, the Beedrill only roused lightly from their nests before determining Ash wasn't a threat. It had been more than a decade, but the children and grandchildren of the Pokemon he'd helped protect remembered.
The place was mostly like a natural cavern, until Ash found a cave carved like a Pokemon stadium. He paused to take it in - there were seats and doors to what would be locker rooms were it a real stadium (if it were him, he'd draw some water from the springs into the showers there, to soothe and heal the Pokemon after battling).
"You are trespassing." The voice, half-spoken, half-thought, hadn't changed from what Ash remembered.
Well, at the end. When Mewtwo no longer railed and threatened Ash, but had said he might call to Ash across time and space.
...Ash wondered if that's what Mewtwo had done.
His voice was still weary; whatever comfort he'd had in the time since Ash last saw him, it must have been erased by finding another man with too much money wanting to use the most powerful Pokemon in the world for his own ends. Ash had read the follow-up reports - how they'd bled Mewtwo for his DNA to make something that drove Pokemon berserk, kept him in a tank like the one that must have held him in his earliest memories.
He was almost surprised Mewtwo hadn't attacked Ash on sight.
"It's not trespassing if it's one of your friends." He held his breath after saying that, not sure if Mewtwo would deny it, would attack Ash for presuming.
"You don't actually know what 'trespassing' is, do you?" Mewtwo asked, drifting down to settle on the ground near Ash (out of reach, and still standing, but there, not towering over him). Mewtwo was...undamaged, skin smooth and dry, but that was unsurprising; whatever other reasons he'd had for coming here, the healing power of Purity Canyon's water was ideal for a Pokemon who'd been through Hell.
Ash shrugged. "I pretty much end up where I'm supposed to be most of the time, so I don't let it bother me."
There was a moment of quiet after that, but it wasn't tense so much as…
Well, it wasn't a threatening tension. Mewtwo was watching Ash, eyes steady, violet instead of a glowing blue, so Ash knew he wasn't reading his mind.
And then the Pokemon looked away. "Is that why you're here? Because you are meant to be? Another task set on you by the gods of this world?"
"I'm here because I knew my friend needed me," Ash replied.
And at that, a sound escaped Mewtwo's throat, a high, chirping noise. "Mew."
Shocked, Ash turned to him, and Mewtwo had sunk down, crouched, nearly sitting, closer, now, within Ash's reach. Ash reached out his hand, cautious, stopping it when Mewtwo looked back up at him. And then Mewtwo surged forward, rubbing his forehead against Ash's palm, like a Litten. It was good, Ash supposed, he was too shocked to laugh at the sudden feel of warm, smooth skin under his hand, as Mewtwo might have run, and sulked for years rather than let someone in.
And with that touch, a gentle hand that had never brought him pain, Mewtwo finally began to cry. Tiny chirps of "Mew" as tears gathered at his eyes, falling unevenly as Mewtwo's hand fell, bracing himself against the ground. Ash almost held back, trying to gauge Mewtwo's body language, whether the Pokemon would allow the touch, and then remembered Mewtwo could talk (in a manner of speaking).
"Do you want-"
"I want to be done with this!" Mewtwo shouted, a voice untouched by the grief and pain in his audible voice. "I want…"
"Do you want a hug?"
With a quiet, short sniff, Mewtwo jerked his head up at Ash, eyes wide, ears perked up, tail lashing once before it stilled. They stared at each other for a few moments before Mewtwo's voice drifted into Ash's mind, just a murmur. "I don't think...I've ever had a hug before."
Ash tilted his head at Mewtwo, whose eyes narrowed, slightly, at Ash's attention. Ash spread his hands, and Mewtwo, with only a moment of hesitation, shuffled forward. Ash knelt down and grabbed onto the Pokemon, remembering just in time not to grasp too tight, enough pressure to feel, but not to restrain (Mewtwo had had more than enough of that in his life). A "two" escaped Mewtwo, a falling, melodious note, and then Mewtwo hesitantly reached his arms around, encircling Ash, but not quite touching.
It was no more than a minute, Ash guessed, but Mewtwo's eyes were unfocused, dazed, when Ash stepped back.
"Well? How was it?"
"I…" Mewtwo, who usually spoke with the confidence and authority of the most powerful Pokemon alive (there was some debate about that - Mega-evolution confused matters, and if Arceus had all of their plates, they might be unbeatable), stammered, paused, and, Ash realized, was at a loss for words.
"I don't know," he said, at last.
"Well, you're free to get one whenever you want," Ash said.
Mewtwo let out a psychic snort. "Hunt you down in whatever Arceus-forsaken corner of the world you find yourself in, just for a hug?"
"Hm," Ash agreed. It wasn't like Mewtwo couldn't do it, if he wanted.
"That sounds like entirely too much effort," Mewtwo declared, and Ash felt a little twist of disappointment. "I'll just have to stick around."
"What?" Ash swayed a little, hand tightening against the ground to steady himself. Since Mewtwo's voice was entirely in his head, he wondered if he'd just made it up.
But Mewtwo was standing, casting aside that moment of vulnerability like it was - a status effect. He twisted his hand, and an object appeared in it. A sphere, purple, pink, with a stylized 'M' written on it.
"What's that?"
"They hired the world's greatest detective to find me, but do you wonder how they caught me?"
And Ash knew there were Pokeballs that were better or worse than others at catching Pokemon, Dive Balls and Nest Balls and a thousand other types, but one that could catch Mewtwo-
"I tore that lab apart looking for it."
Which Ash understood, but what he didn't was why Mewtwo still had it. Why he hadn't broken it as soon as he'd escaped.
But he looked up at the Pokemon, imperious, strong, handing Ash his greatest vulnerability, and decided it wasn't the time to ask.
Instead he laughed. "I guess it would look really weird, the two of us walking around in towns." He took the Pokeball from Mewtwo, shrinking it down to hang on his belt (he'd taken only five with him when he'd come after Mewtwo, and wondered now if that had been destiny). "But we'll have a bit before we get anywhere we're likely to see people, if you want to-"
Ash broke off when Mewtwo drifted close and hugged him. It was more confident, an arm around his shoulders, one around his waist, a quick squeeze, and touch of mind against mind, and then Mewtwo was floating again, just within reach.
"Yes. That would be...fine."
Mewtwo was quiet on the way out of the caverns, but Ash hadn't really thought of Mewtwo as a particularly talkative Pokemon, so he let his and Pikachu's natural chatter fill the air until they stepped out into the foggy forests beyond.
"Where...will we be going?" Mewtwo asked.
Ash shrugged. "I don't know. I was in Galar, you know...before. Didn't get a chance to look around. Have you ever been there?"
Mewtwo shook his head.
"Well, then that's as good a place as any. And you ever want to battle, just say the word."
"Let you command me?"
Ash laughed, and Pikachu along with him. "Man, you don't know me at all, do you? If you and I are traveling together, we're partners. Like me and Pikachu!"
And there was something in that, a still moment when Mewtwo looked at Ash, at the Pikachu perched on his shoulder, and Ash wasn't certain if Mewtwo was really seeing them (he'd have time to get the full story out of Mewtwo, he was sure, so didn't worry too much about it).
And Mewtwo chuckled. "I suppose I hadn't thought of that. Yes. I might try battling some time. And you can try to stay out of trouble."
"I always try," Ash replied, "but whether I can is out of either of our hands."
"Well, then let us hope destiny has afforded us some peace."
Ash agreed, but privately hoped they didn't have too much peace. He bet Mewtwo could use some time seeing the wonders of the world, of people and Pokemon living together in the ways you only saw out in the world (and Ryme City, he supposed, when it wasn't under assault by one rich man or another).
It'd do them both good.
And at the very least, Ash could make a dent in the criminal lack of hugs that had before plagued Mewtwo's life.