On screen, Jessie lowered her binoculars and clicked her tongue.
"The Aura Guardian? Sounds like a pretty big deal."
James's eyes darted around.
"If we become Guardians ourselves, we might be able to sneak into the castle and grab some valuable treasure."
Meowth slapped James on the head with one paw.
"Hey, you two, don't forget what we're here for. Our target is that little brat's Pikachu!"
The comment section erupted in laughter.
[Classic. Those three never change.]
[There can't be another talking Meowth in the whole world — haha, this is too funny.]
The scene shifted back to the center of the festival grounds.
The fierce battle had reached its final stage.
Ash's Pikachu was squaring off against a red-haired woman named Kidd and her Weavile.
The Weavile was blindingly fast.
"Weavile, use Slash!" Kidd shouted.
Weavile became a dark blur, its claws flashing white as it struck at Pikachu with full force.
Ash threw his hand forward, eyes burning with resolve.
"Pikachu, dodge it, then use Thunderbolt!"
Pikachu flipped backward in a clean somersault, and with the momentum still carrying it through the air, the pouches on its cheeks erupted in a blaze of bright golden electricity.
"Pika, CHUUU!"
The thick bolt of lightning connected squarely with Weavile. Weavile let out a cry and crumpled, unable to battle.
The referee raised his flag. Pikachu had won.
The town elder walked up to Ash and clapped him warmly on the shoulder.
"What a magnificent battle. The one who possesses the same Aura as Sir Aaron all those years ago... it's you, Ash!"
Queen Ilene rose from her seat as well, smiling as she made her announcement.
"A new generation's Aura Guardian is born, on this most sacred of days."
Ash himself still looked completely lost. He pointed at his own nose.
"Huh? I'm the Aura Guardian?"
The comment section watched his dumbfounded expression.
[That's it? He wins a fight and suddenly he's the Guardian? Nobody's going to explain what that even means??]
And so Ash was dressed in the same magnificent blue cape that Sir Aaron had once worn, fitted with the Guardian's hat, and handed the scepter enshrining Lucario.
He was ushered to the throne at the top of the great castle hall, where a grand banquet had already begun. The hall was lined with dishes of every variety, filling the air with irresistible aromas.
Pikachu sat at a small table beside the throne, cradling a strawberry cake larger than its own face, eating with cream smeared all over its cheeks, the picture of pure contentment.
Ash sat on the throne, his stomach growling loudly. He swallowed, started to rise to grab something to eat.
Two guards in heavy armor immediately crossed their spears in front of him, faces blank.
"Forgive us, Lord Guardian. Until the banquet concludes, you may not leave the throne under any circumstances."
Ash sank back into the chair and stared at the crowd feasting below him, on the verge of tears.
The comment section was still roaring.
[Hahaha, being the Guardian really is a rough deal.]
[All he can do is watch. This is practically torture.]
The banquet scenes were breathtaking.
Outside the castle, an enormous fireworks display was underway, splashes of color lighting up the entire night sky.
Misty stood on a balcony in a beautiful pink evening gown, watching the fireworks.
"What an amazing banquet!"
Brock, dressed in a sharply pressed suit, adjusted his tie with an expression of deep satisfaction, his eyes turning into little stars.
"What a wonderfully elegant evening. I wonder if there's a lovely young lady somewhere who might like to share this romantic moment with me..."
He was already drifting toward a pretty girl passing by when May grabbed him by the ear and dragged him away.
The comment section was delighted by Brock's subplot.
[That Brock, honestly, just as you'd expect from looking at him.]
[Hey, don't judge a book by its cover. Though in this case, judging by the cover was completely correct, hahaha.]
Then the camera began a slow pull-back to a secluded balcony on the far side of the castle.
Against a sky full of fireworks.
The air on the balcony rippled almost imperceptibly.
A tiny Pokemon materialized out of thin air, pink all over, with a long, slender tail trailing behind it. It drifted above the crowd, its large clear eyes drinking in the lively world below with open curiosity, letting out the occasional faint sound, like a child's soft giggling.
Not a single person in the banquet below seemed to notice it at all.
The comment section was instantly won over by the little creature.
[What Pokemon is that? It's adorable!]
[Is it invisible or something? Nobody can see it? Is it Ghost-type or Psychic-type?]
But Cynthia's reaction was unlike anyone else's.
Her whole body went rigid.
She stared intently at the small pink creature flitting happily across the screen, her expression filled with disbelief.
The thing was tiny and cute, and she would have sworn she had never seen it in any Pokedex entry before.
And yet it felt strangely, deeply familiar.
Wait.
She suddenly thought back to the Ghost World arc from earlier in the game, and the terrifying existence that had unleashed world-ending power and clashed cataclysm-against-cataclysm with the ruler of that inverted world.
That long tail. The streamlined shape of the body. And that aura of mysterious psychic energy it radiated with every movement.
Mewtwo.
This tiny pink thing... how could it look so much like Mewtwo?
But she didn't let the thought pass her lips. Without solid evidence, saying that name aloud would send the comments into chaos. She pressed the question quietly down inside herself, her gaze sharpening like she hadn't let it all evening.
The comment section kept drifting past, cheerful and oblivious.
[This little thing is way too cute!]
[Is it heading toward Pikachu? It keeps floating in that direction.]
On screen, the pink creature wove between the castle's spires, its long tail leaving trail after trail of pink afterimages. It seemed drawn to the fireworks, though perhaps even more drawn to the Pikachu sitting beside the throne, cake in hand, cream all over its face. It drifted lower, and lower, and closer.
Finally it stopped beside the crystal chandelier above the throne, peeking silently downward, its round eyes fixed unblinking on Pikachu.
Pikachu's chewing slowed slightly. It seemed to sense something. It lifted its head, and its small black-bead eyes met the gaze of the half-transparent little creature hovering above.
"Pika?" Pikachu tilted its head.
The pink Pokemon let out the softest sound, the sound of a child caught in the middle of mischief. The next instant, its entire body blazed with light, and it swept Pikachu up in a flash of pink.
"Pika!"
Pikachu didn't even manage a full cry before it and Mew both vanished from the air entirely.
And in that same instant, Meowth, who had quietly slipped into the hall and was hiding behind one of the marble columns, poised to snatch Pikachu the moment everyone was too busy drinking to notice, was swept up in the pink light along with them.
"Hey! Don't grab ME! I'm just passing THROUGH!"
Meowth's wretched shriek dissolved into the empty air.
The space beside the throne was suddenly, completely bare.
"Pikachu!" Ash shot to his feet across the hall, watching his partner disappear into nothing, the color draining from his face. He threw every bit of protocol aside and leapt down from the throne, moving too fast for the guards' spears to stop him.
The comment section tore loose all at once.
[Oh no! That pink thing just kidnapped Pikachu!]
[Meowth got swept up too hahahaha, what are the odds.]
[Ash, slow down, don't fall.]
[What even IS that pink Pokemon? Looks totally harmless, and then its first move is abducting the main character's partner!]
Cynthia's frown deepened.
It wasn't just Mew's identity that concerned her. It was the way it moved. Judging by how effortlessly, how casually it had pulled off that teleportation, the list of known Pokemon capable of doing something like that without breaking a sweat was a very short one.
And this little creature had done it the way most things breathe.
It had to be a Legendary Pokemon.
Some viewers in the comment section had started to catch on as well.
[Cynthia, why do you look so serious?]
[Did you notice something we didn't again?]
[Tell us, tell us!]
Cynthia shook her head without answering right away. She couldn't say aloud that it looked remarkably similar to Mewtwo, not yet. That would only throw the comments into a frenzy. She decided to watch the rest of the film first.
On screen, Ash reached the empty throne and grabbed at nothing, his expression frantic.
"Pikachu... where did you go?"
Just then, the Guardian's scepter, which he had casually left leaning against the throne — the one set with a great blue crystal — began to glow without warning. A blazing, brilliant blue light, the exact same light as in the opening scene when Sir Aaron sealed Lucario inside.
"Huh...?" Ash stared at the scepter.
The blue light swelled brighter and brighter, and then, with a heavy, resonant crack, it exploded outward from the center of the scepter. A figure of deep blue and black was flung from the brilliance, landing hard on the red carpet before the throne.
Lucario.
It knelt on one knee, breathing in ragged bursts, chest heaving violently. The bone spikes on the backs of its hands still pulsed with a faint blue glow. Slowly it raised its head, and the red eyes were full of wariness and cold fury. Its gaze locked onto the boy wearing the blue cape who stood before it.
"You... you are not Aaron." Lucario's voice came directly into everyone's mind through telepathy, its tone sharp as a blade. "But your Aura... carries his."
The entire hall fell silent. The music stopped. Everyone stood frozen, staring at the Legendary Pokemon that had just emerged from the scepter.
Queen Ilene gripped the railing beside her, her whole body trembling.
"That's... that's Lucario! Sir Aaron's Lucario!"
The elder beside her was equally speechless, murmuring to himself.
"The seal... has been broken... after a thousand years... a thousand years..."
In Cynthia's stream, the comment section came apart at the seams.
[No way! That's the Lucario from the opening!]
[It was sealed inside the scepter this whole time? Is a thousand years actually serious?!]
[What was Aaron thinking, sealing his own partner away for a thousand years? That's insane!]
[Ash is in trouble. He just accidentally freed someone who was betrayed by his trainer for a thousand years...]
Cynthia's eyes narrowed slightly as well.
She suddenly realized this film's story was a little more layered than she had expected. A thousand years of imprisonment, a thousand years of resentment, broken open by a clueless boy who hadn't the faintest idea what he was doing.
On screen, Ash took a step back under the crushing weight of Lucario's presence. Then he thought of Pikachu, bit down, and planted his feet.
"My name is Ash, not Aaron." He took a slow breath, holding Lucario's gaze directly. "My Pikachu just got taken by a pink Pokemon. Do you know where it went?"
Lucario's eyes narrowed. The blue light around its body pulsed softly. It seemed to be sensing something through its Aura.
After a long moment, it gave a slow nod.
"Mew. I can feel its resonance. It has taken your partner home with it."
"Home?" Ash blinked.
"The Tree of Beginning." Lucario rose to its feet, its eyes going somewhere distant. "It is where all life in this world first began. It is also... the last place Sir Aaron and I departed from together."
It turned toward the dark night beyond the hall's entrance.
"If you want to save your partner, come with me. This road, I am the only one in the world who still remembers it."
The comment section began filling the screen.
[Mew? The subtitles just showed it, so that pink one is called Mew?]
[The Tree of Beginning... even the name sounds sacred.]
[Lucario comes across cold, but it's actually decent. It's willing to take Ash there.]
[Lucario: I hate Aaron. Nothing personal though.]
Cynthia watched the boy on screen, standing at Lucario's side, anxiety written plainly across his face, and gave a quiet nod.
"This boy, Ash," she said into the mic, "his eyes are so clear. He hasn't given a single thought to being named Guardian. All he's thinking about is his Pikachu."
[Right, exactly.]
[That's what a real trainer looks like.]
[I'm already attached to this lovable disaster of a main character.]
The scene changed.
Late at night, outside the gates of Cameran Palace.
Ash led Misty, Brock, and May onto a group of Furret lent by the castle, well suited for long journeys. Kidd appeared from somewhere and fell in beside them on a larger Pokemon of her own.
"I'm a guard employed by the castle," Kidd said flatly. "Since you've been named Aura Guardian and you've broken Lucario's seal, it falls to me to accompany you to make sure nothing happens to you."
Ash had no time to argue. All he wanted was to find Pikachu.
The group raced through the moonlight toward the distant forest swallowed in white mist.
And on the mountain trail roughly a kilometer behind them, three furtive figures on a single Mareep, which looked like it might collapse at any moment, came wheezing after them.
"Keep up with them!" Jessie said through her teeth. "Our targets are Mew and that Pikachu! Get either one, and we can finally get back in the Boss's good graces!"
"But... this Mareep is running so slowly..." James looked ready to cry.
"No complaining!" Jessie kicked the Mareep in the hindquarters. "Move it!"
"Baaaa!"
The comment section couldn't stop laughing.
[Team Rocket being Team Rocket. Even their ride is this pathetic.]
[Hahaha that poor Mareep looks like it's about to burst into tears from that kick.]