Ash captured Dragonair.
Within the inner island, her talent ranked at the top. Double S potential, four A's. On par with Lance's ace. And yet, like Chimchar under Paul, that talent had refused to surface.
As if she'd been waiting for the right person to unlock it.
The fact that Dragonair had grasped the wind element within hours of Ash's arrival, after failing for her entire post-evolution life, was strange. Ash didn't dwell on it. His reasons for choosing her went beyond the numbers.
The way she'd watched her peers fly without giving up. The way she'd kept training even when nothing worked. That quiet refusal to accept her own limitations.
That was what Ash saw in a Pokémon. That was what he chose.
Business on Dragon Island was done. All that remained was to follow Lance's markers to the exit and wait for pickup.
Then a voice entered his mind.
Human. Come to the centre of Dragon Island.
Ash's head snapped up. He scanned the clearing. The Dragonite nearby wore their usual gentle expressions. The Dragonair who'd just landed looked confused. None of them had spoken.
The voice hadn't come from beside him. It had come from inside his head. Telepathy.
I am at the island's centre. Come.
Five kilometres east of his current position. To use Telepathy with that kind of precision across that distance, to pinpoint Ash's location without error, there was only one candidate.
The God level Dragonite.
Ash had sensed its presence from the moment he'd arrived on the inner island. Mewtwo had detected it too, and the reverse was almost certainly true. Two God -level signatures appearing on Dragon Island at the same time were impossible to miss. Ash and Mewtwo were beacons lit in the dark.
He'd expected the ancient Dragonite to take notice. He'd hoped that staying polite, keeping his head down, and avoiding provocation would be enough to avoid a confrontation. That hope had lasted until exactly now.
Go. Mewtwo's voice, cool and sure, resonated alongside the Dragonite's fading Telepathy. Whatever it wants, we can handle it. Between the two of us, there's nothing on this island we need to fear.
Ash nodded and broke into a run. Pikachu, jolted by the sudden acceleration, gripped his shoulder with both paws.
Five minutes. That was all it took at Ash's full sprint. His physical conditioning alone placed him beyond ninety-nine percent of living humans. Among non-augmented people, maybe only Bruno could match him in raw bodily power.
The island's centre was a cave. The entrance was modest, half-hidden by roots and stone, but the pressure radiating from it was immense. A wall of invisible force that said turn back without words.
Ash stepped through. The pressure vanished, as if it had never existed.
Inside, the cave opened. What had looked small from the exterior revealed itself as a cavern three times the size of Oak's Laboratory and Ash's house combined. Gems embedded in the walls emitted a soft, warm glow that illuminated every corner. The floor was carpeted in living grass, pale green blades swaying in a breeze that had no logical source. The air was cleaner than the forest outside.
A figure emerged from the shadows at the far end.
Pikachu tensed, every hair standing on end. The pressure returning in full, concentrated, purposeful. Then the figure stepped into the light, and Pikachu's guard dropped a fraction.
A Dragonite. Golden-scaled, round-faced, wearing the same honest, open expression as every other member of its species. It looked kind. Harmless. Like a Pokémon you'd trust to babysit your children.
The aura pouring off it said otherwise.
"You came." The voice filled the cave without echo. Pikachu flinched and whipped its head toward the Dragonite, eyes wide. It talks?
"What do you want with us?" Ash skipped the pleasantries.
"Nothing complicated." The Dragonite studied him with eyes that held the weight of ages. "I wanted to see for myself. In all the years I have lived, I have never encountered a human who elevated their own power to the God level. That is a realm where even Legendary Pokémon struggle. Most never reach it. And yet here stands a human child who has."
Something between wonder and disbelief moved across the ancient creature's face.
"I had to see it with my own eyes."
Ash's shoulders relaxed. He laced his fingers behind his head. "That's it? You just wanted to meet me? You could have come by when I was walking around the island. Would've saved me the jog."
"I was observing you first. I needed to understand what manner of person you were before making contact." The Dragonite inclined its head. "You may call me Deepwyrm."
A name. Wild Pokémon almost never carried names.
"Deepwyrm." Ash extended his hand and grinned. "Nice to meet you. I'm Ash."
Deepwyrm studied the outstretched hand. Surprise flickered behind ancient eyes.
A normal human, meeting a God Pokémon that communicated through Telepathy, would have needed time to process. Reverence, fear, disbelief, some combination of the three.
This boy had skipped all of it and gone straight to a handshake, as if the being in front of him were a neighbour rather than a creature older than most civilisations.
Deepwyrm extended a plump golden hand and shook.
"The pleasure is mine, Ash." A beat. "Beyond wanting to see you in person, I called you here for another reason. I want to know why you chose that Dragonair."
"Because she's like me." Ash said it without hesitation, as if the answer had been sitting in his mouth waiting to be released. "She can't fly. Her strength barely grows. Every other Dragonair on this island left her behind a long time ago. And she never stopped trying.
Never stopped pushing forward, even when nothing worked. That's not talent. That's character. And I'll take character over numbers every time."
Deepwyrm's eyes narrowed. Not in suspicion. In recognition.
The boy wasn't lying. Ash had chosen Dragonair because he saw himself in her struggle, and that resonance mattered more to him than any stat sheet.
Whether Ash had also noticed the depth of Dragonair's hidden potential was secondary. If his reason for choosing her was genuine, then Dragonair would thrive under his care. Deepwyrm had watched over this island for longer than he cared to count. He'd seen talented Pokémon wither under poor trainers and average Pokémon flourish under great ones. The trainer made the difference. Always.
And this trainer, with his God power and his instinct for finding the broken and making them whole, might do something Deepwyrm had never seen. He might guide that Dragonair past the ceiling of the Dragonite line entirely. To the realm Deepwyrm himself occupied.
Dragonair couldn't reach it alone. With Ash, it became possible.
"You are a very interesting young man." Deepwyrm's voice carried warmth for the first time. "In all the years humans have come to this island, only one other caught my attention. A young man from the Dragon Tamer Clan."
Lance. Ash didn't need to guess.
"Even he was not as singular as you."
Deepwyrm raised one hand. A gentle current of air stirred through the cavern, and from somewhere above, a round gemstone descended. It floated between them, catching the glow of the cave's embedded crystals. The light that played across its surface was unmistakable.
Ash's eyes went wide. "That's a Mega Stone."
"Mega Stone." Deepwyrm turned the word over. "So humans have given it a name."
"You know what it does?"
"I know it activates latent power within our bloodline. A force that sleeps in every member of the Dragonite line, waiting for a catalyst." Deepwyrm paused. "I can use it. At my level, I possess enough raw energy to force the stone's activation without an external medium. The transformation is temporary. Less than five minutes before the effect collapses."
"You can activate a Mega Stone on your own?" Ash couldn't keep the amazement off his face. Mega Evolution required a Key Stone, a Mega Stone, and the bond between trainer and Pokémon acting as the bridge. A Pokémon bypassing all of that through sheer power was unheard of.
"The God Domain has its privileges." Deepwyrm said it the way someone might comment on the weather. "But five minutes is insufficient for a battle at my level. Stamina at this tier is vast. If an opponent chooses to stall, five minutes passes before a single decisive exchange occurs. The stone helps, but not enough to matter."
"Under normal activation, with a trainer and the proper medium, the duration should be far longer. Which is why..." Deepwyrm looked at the floating Mega Stone, then at Ash. "I am giving this to you."
"Take it. Use it with Dragonair. If your bond is what I believe it to be, this stone will serve you both far better than it ever served me."