Frontier Town Nina's Place

[Chibi Pika]

Jade’s ears pricked forward. “Right, yeah, Nova was the first one to bring up the Mewtwo he knew, and that was what made me think about, like, different versions of the same person coming up in different worlds.” Same as what Gladion had said…

She scratched at her whiskers. “So like, Mewtwo… there’s one back where you’re from, but he hasn’t gone public yet?” Jade wasn’t sure if it made sense to put it like that—who’s to say he ever would, plus Laura had just said that it wasn’t a sure thing.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Yet. The idea that he would both thrilled and unnerved Laura.

"Well, I... I already believed he existed in the first place. Now I know he exists in other worlds, I'd say it was a sure thing. But who knows, right? Like, it's possible that the project was real but unsuccessful, or that he did exist but, uh, died at some point..."

Laura's whiskers twinged, and she rasped her tongue over her lip.

No. On her world... Mewtwo lived. She felt it.

"But no, not public at all. Just rumours and pop scifi. I'm starting to take the idea more seriously because it might, y'know, connect to the Perihelion stuff."

She'd already filled Jade in a little on that, here and there. They hung out often enough that eventually it just... seeped through.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Right, she should've realized that it'd be possible for there to be worlds where the project just failed. Laura didn't seem to think that was the answer, though.

"It... would make a lot of sense for there to be a connection, what with the secret Pokemon hybrids and all," Jade said thoughtfully, reaching for a berry. "That's actually sort of how it went for me--I was trying to help the hybrids first, before I ever got involved with the Mewtwo project." It felt a bit to weird to say it so casually, especially to someone who only had rumors to go off back home.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Jade got involved? She hadn't expected that... Howling hell.

Laura grinned, some inhibition in her breaking. She wasn't even using Radiance, it was just... Why be cautious and serious and painstaking when everything was as crazy as it was?

"Right then, five quid says I meet Mewtwo back home by the end of the League season. It happened to you, it'll happen to me. It'd be unfair otherwise."

She stuck her tongue in her cheek, and gave a small, nasal chuckle.

"Okay Jade, go on. Spill. I wanna hear what Mewtwo is like." The fur on the back of her neck rose in a shiver. "What it was like for you. To be there."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade found herself laughing a bit as well; the energy was... strange, but good. "Honestly, at this point, I'd believe it." After all the parallels, it just felt right.

But then, Laura asked what it was like. And how could Jade sum that up, really? There was too much weird, layered drama, too many conflicting emotions... Maybe it was easiest to go back to the beginning.

"We met in the lab where he was created. I, that is--I never would've gotten that far if I hadn't help on the inside. I was just there to snag some data on the project, and, well..." She found her paws gripping the table unconsciously. "The psychic pressure was intense. Kind of got a headache just from being there. He wasn't in control of his power yet. He hadn't even woken up yet."

Hadn't opened his eyes yet. Hadn't been able to move under his own power yet. Was it any wonder he turned out like he did?

"I wanted to help him."

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura's tail fluffed up despite herself. Envy and awe competed in her gut, each overshadowed by sheer curiosity. Her reporter's impulses pressed her to Ask Questions. Find out everything.

"Wait, he was born while you were there?" she breathed, ears quivering. "And... Did you? Help him?"

She wanted the answer to be yes.

She wanted the answer to have been yes if it were her in Jade's place.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade rubbed her arm. "Yeah, I mean, I wasn't there when he woke up or anything, I just had a small talk with him while he was still asleep, and..." And she'd promised to help him, a promise she had no way of following up on, but that felt true at the time, while still on the high of making a difference from being on the Rebellion.

"My friend Ajia was the one who came up with the plan, but... it worked. We freed him."

She still wasn't sure if it was the right thing.

"Sometimes I think the rebel team was specifically made to free him, but I never did find out for sure." And the last time she'd asked Stalker, she'd gotten the most infuriating non-answer of them all. He didn't know? What on earth...

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura's brain sparked with assumptions and imagined background info. A rebel team with many objectives, only one of which was their true purpose. Uncertainty – distrust of the leadership? The plan was Jade's friend's idea. (Not her own – reflexively downplaying her own involvement?)

She shook her head clear of all the noise.

"You talked to him. Which – wow. I bet that was wild. And you freed him. And... Well, I guess that must have been pretty important if there's any chance it was your 'real mission' or whatever."

Laura bit her lip. The obvious question. Just go for it.

"What did he do, afterwards...?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

What did he do. A lot of things. Viridian. Indigo. It felt... wrong, somehow, to shatter the wide-eyed curiosity that Laura held.

But the oldest parts were easiest to think about.

Jade reflexively went to put her hands in her pockets, remembered for the eighty-seventh time that she didn't have any pockets, and settled for tearing bits off of a tortilla. "He... destroyed the facility where he was made, and then he left. That was last year."

 

[Jackie Cat]

There was absolutely no way that was the whole story. But Laura knew another sensitive spot when she saw one. She imagined what 'destroying the facility' might look like from inside it. She remembered the dread feeling in her gut when the skies darkened over Galar. People generally didn't feel too great about vast, unpredictable power...

"I'm guessing that was a... You know— It must have been a pretty big deal. His creators losing him and the facility and everything in it must have been a hell of a blow."

But Jade and her allies had lost anyway.

"Uh – you said something about the rebel team being made specifically for that, didn't you? How come it's not a sure thing?"

Yeah. Ask about something tangential. Good move. Hopefully.