Adventure's Past

Chapter 60 - Once Again

"Ugh..."

Ash opened his eyes, being immediately blinded by the bright overhead lights above him. They shined directly onto his face, making his already throbbing headache quickly worsen. He shut his eyes once again, not caring about where he was at.

"Glad to see you're doing well."

Barely opening one eye to see who spoke, Ash peered around, trying to scan his environment. The last thing he remembered was walking into Sycamore's lab to try to find Pikachu, but anything after that was simply a blur, meaning he didn't know about Goh's death at that moment.

"You managed to stop Mewtwo, although I guess the way you did so was pretty unorthodox," the voice spoke again to Ash's right. Rotating his head, Ash saw that the voice belonged to Clemont, who was wearing a full lab coat and staring at a monitor with what seemed to be Ash's vitals. "I guess that's the best news we're gonna get all day, though," he added, sighing and shutting off the monitor.

He walked over to Ash and crossed his arms. "Don't worry, you didn't fall into another coma like last," he explained, seeing Ash's confused and worried face. "Just out for a couple of hours. Of course, it could've been longer, seeing as it took us a while to even track you three down." Ash raised an eyebrow and tilted his head.

"Track us down?" He asked, not knowing that he had been transported miles away to the middle of the Desert Resort in Unova. "Who are you talking about?" Clemont looked up and stared across the room at another person, who Ash had not managed to see. "I guess he doesn't remember," he whispered, nodding ever so slightly.

Turning his head left to see who Clemont was speaking to, he felt a sharp pain in his neck. Ignoring it fully, he slowly managed to bring his head around and see the person sitting in a chair against the wall.

Serena.

She looked at him with a faint smile that said hello in a very innocent manner. "What don't I remember?" Ash asked, staring deep into her eyes to try to understand what Clemont was talking about. Serena sighed before looking over at Clemont with pleading eyes. "Can we just have the room to ourselves?" She asked, earning a slight nod from Clemont as he left the room in search of Professor Sycamore that Ash had woken up.

As the door closed behind him, Serena scooted the chair closer to Ash and placed her hand upon his, slowly massaging it with her thumb.

"Let's talk."

{—}

"So me still existing within this little sandbox is making it so that Mewtwo is somehow still alive?" Goh asked, still conversing with Uxie amidst everything happening in the real world. "Even after my sacrifice, Mewtwo still didn't go down?"

"This is partially correct. Mewtwo, the Psychic-type that it is, can survive off of different levels of consciousness. Since you managed to destroy the shared mental one, you've taken away a part of Mewtwo, leaving behind only the spiritual portion."

"And this does what exactly?" Goh asked, wanting an elaboration. "Also, what do you mean by spiritual? If both of our spiritual consciousness it still alive, does that not mean I could return to the real world through that?"

There was a slight pause in Uxie's voice before an answer was provided.

"Spiritual consciousness is something not entirely understood by humans. In essence, it's a mixture of Aura and other pure essences that make up the balance of this universe. In short, it's a morally driven energy. This being the only consciousness left for Mewtwo entails that most of its psychic and physical powers were stripped away, leaving very little for it to use against the humans, especially Ash."