"Hello, Blake?"

"Hey there Shiro, what do you need from me?"

"I need Mewtwo's location"

"Goodluck finding that bastard because I've been tracking it for 4 years now and have only encountered it about once per year"

"When and where was the last time you saw it?"

"Ummm, December 24th of last year and it was at Mt. Coronet"

"Thanks, oh and by the way, I'm done with Genesect so when do you want it back?"

"How about next time we meet unless I need him for an emergency,"

"Sounds great, bye then"

With that, I hung up and realized I had been neglecting my pokemon, so I tracked them into the gym area of the bunker and found a surprise waiting.

Ōkami had evolved into Lucario, Froakie into Frogadier, and both Princess (Kirlia) and Angel (Eevee) looked significantly stronger.

As soon as they noticed me, they all jumped me in what could only be excitement.

"I'm sorry for neglecting you guys for so long, and you even progressed further without me, it makes me pretty proud to have such great pokemon" I complimented while patting their heads.

"We are just happy that you are finally back Master," Ōkami bowed

"What will I have to do to stop getting you to call me Master! Why couldn't evolution have fixed that" I sighed sarcastically which earned some giggles from Angel and Princess

"Oh don't mind Lucario, he's just so stuck up all the time, you should've seen him speed training with Froakie when you weren't here" Angel resounded slightly exposing Lucario and Froakie who both looked away indigently 

"Well, I'm sure they had reasons, and I can see you two have gotten stronger as well, good to see you weren't slacking, especially you Angel" I called out and Angel blushed with embarrassment  

"Now, now, everyone should calm down and just enjoy Ash's company" Princess interjected and everyone looked over to her who was sitting on my lap and receiving headpats

"Unfair!!! I want to get petted by Ash too!" Angel yelled before jumping at me and starting a little fight with Princess

"Both of you calm down, I'll be with you guys for a while so let's do all the things you've missed"

A few hours passed and I slowly closed the door to my room where all the pokemon lay sleeping, I had sparred with everyone, then groomed them, and then played with them so they were exhausted and I had to make dinner anyway. I prepped the ingredients before deciding to go out and look for Mewtwo, who would make a very valuable ally.

So after prepping everything needed for dinner, I flew out and went straight for Mt. Coronet.

I was on high alert when I arrived since the Spear Pillar was here and that was what lead to the Hall of Origin, where Arceus resided. I landed at the base and started scanning as I moved around the surrounding forest and up the mountain, after a few minutes I confirmed Mewtwo wasn't here and went off to where Mewtwo first appeared, New Island.

New Island was half-submerged now after years of negligence however I still scanned the entire structure before confirming it wasn't here either. So I went to another one of it's latest sightings, Mt Quena. I scanned it the same way and found a rather interesting thing inside it, the mountain housed a spring with great healing properties. So I investigated further and found it was only accessible through a narrow tunnel that only some pokemon could fit through.

I lay flat on the ground before propelling myself forward through the tunnel and reaching the spring in seconds and observing it. There was nothing quite like it that I had encountered, and after observing it, I found large amounts of aura had mixed with the spring, giving it the healing property. 

Then I felt a presence behind me and instantly jumped back before reading my pistol.

"Who's there?! I shouted

"Leave this place human, and never speak of this encounter, lest I have to resort to less than pleasant measures." A voice echoed in my head and I speculated that it was Mewtwo.

"Am I speaking to Mewtwo? If so, then I need your help, you've no doubt seen it, the darkness that plagues the legendary pokemon. You should be able to look into my intentions, so go ahead"

After a few minutes, Mewtwo came back with a reply. 

"I've seen your circumstances, though I do not like the fact that you an impostor of the one person I trust, I will help if it means helping the pokemon of this world,"

"The circumstances that lead to my 'birth' are less than pleasant but we cannot dwell on that, I look forward to working with you"

The communication ended there and Mewtwo appeared before me while I held out an ultra ball and it caught itself with no resistance. I headed back to the bunker where I introduced Mewtwo to my other pokemon and then gave it free roam before going to finish making dinner. 

I poured out some pokemon food and gave each one a berry and a poke block before setting it aside to prepare my food which was going to be curry and rice with some steamed vegetables.

I finished soon enough and called the pokemon over to eat before going to check on Altair.

I entered the room and took a look at her vitals and adjusted the I.V that gave her nutrients a bit before going to leave and being stopped by a groan coming from her. I immediately spun around and walked her, my defenses raised in case of any surprises.

"How are you feeling?" I asked while handing some water to her

She accepted gratefully and drank some before clearing her throat and speaking

"I feel really sore all over and my chest hurts a bit but where am I?"

"You are in the infirmary, what's the last thing you remember?"

"I was at a pokemon contest and then there was an explosion and then..." Her voice trailed as I saw memories rush through her, no doubt from her time under control and she began hyperventilating 

"Hey, calm down, I'll explain" I announced coldly and she looked up in fear, eyes puffy and read to cry while she was slightly letting out cries of sadness, well at least she calmed down.

"Do you want me to call anybody first?" 

"Y-yes, the n-number i-is 01 40 25 08 08" 

"Alright" I started dialing and noticed something while doing so that made me jump back just in time.

Her eyes had turned black for a split second she had just managed to penetrate the aura on my forearm and scratch me.

The cut wasn't the bad thing though, it was what happened next. The wound went from a small scratch to a bigger cut and an ice crystal grew out of it, indescribable pain shot throughout my body and I fell to the ground, groaning and hissing.

Voltanuc had materialized and the look on its face told me this wasn't good.

"Give me the news, I can handle it" I ordered and Voltanuc relucted for a second before doing so

"This is an ability the Empress possesses, any small scratch can turn into a colossal wound and kill. The ice will keep going until it encases you and you will shatter into ice after."

"Well, how do I stop this?" I coughed out

"Amputate that forearm, what the ice does is based on the intention of the user at the moment the cut is made. So you need to cut in off now before it spreads more." Voltanuc answered as my pokemon entered and looked horrified.

"Get back, all of you," I whispered and they all backed out and covered their ears.

"Voltanuc, use Velocity Blade," I ordered with a low growl and Voltanuc rose it's sword arm and swung down severing my left forearm. I instantly poured aura to close the wound and the forearm that was on the ground collapsed into ice crystals.

"Tch, that damn Darkness had a trick up its sleeve after all," I mumbled as I stood up shakily and went to the cabinets to take out a morphine shot and an alcohol pad. After injecting myself and waiting a few minutes for it to kick in, I stood up again and approached Altair who was shaking.

I reached into the drawer and pulled out a minor sedative shot and injected her to calm her down temporarily. 

"Now, listen carefully, because I'm not going to repeat this," I said before explaining her circumstances to her slowly and observing her reaction. She went through various faces of shock, disbelief, and sadness before breaking down and sobbing. After explaining I left the room without a word to leave her to process, with the way I was built, I couldn't give her any condolences that she needed, she didn't deserve any fake emotion so I decided leaving was the best decision.

I had her operated on without her permission and considerably shortened her lifespan in the process, all for the sake of this crusade. I wouldn't blame her if she hated me for the rest of her life, all I needed her for was to fight, and if she couldn't do that, then I would put her out of her misery, simple as that.

After I left the room, I sat down and continued dinner right where I left off, finishing in 10 minutes, I made some dinner for Altair and left it on the stand next to the bed, she had cried herself to sleep and Angel was actually cuddled up to her with Princess so I turned off the lights and let them be before heading to my room.

"What do we do about my arm Voltanuc?" 

"Well, since regrowing it is out of the option without one of the other Emperesses, you should get a cybernetic limb instead,"

"That's what I was thinking, it seems I'll have to go on another hunt, how troublesome," 

"Hey, Ash, may I converse with you privately?" Mewtwo spoke and I mentally nodded and Voltanuc left the conversation

"So what did you want to talk about?"

"Well, I just wanted to give some personal advice, you should learn to experience more emotion, it'll serve you better in the future, I know it has for me"

"Emotions huh? I have deemed them unnecessary and troublesome to deal with, I don't see a point in experiencing them."

"You already show plenty of love and affection towards pokemon as I did once before, I also had no emotions for humans much like you, and then I was taught by a certain person and it had changed me for the better"

"Your point is? Emotion clouds judgment and my pokemon know that I may abandon them at a moment's notice for the sake of this world, I show love and affection to them because...I don't know actually." 

I realized that I showed emotion to my pokemon for no apparent reason, it was like a sense that I could do so, like a program that ran if certain conditions were met.

"I guess I am programmed to show emotion to my pokemon, however, my stance still remains on most emotions being useless. Anger leads to bad judgment, jealousy is completely unnecessary, grief eclipses an entire persons mind and leads them down dangerous paths, etc."

"You are missing the point of good emotions, like happiness, pleasure, love, etc." 

"Happiness is unnecessary, it brings nothing of practical use, Pleasure can lead to lust and be a great temptation that leads to very bad judgment skills, while love is the same as happiness" 

"You think just how I did, and that is because you have never experienced such emotions, surely just experiencing them wouldn't hinder you too much,"

"I agree" Voltanuc chimed in and I mentally sighed 

"I will, just this once, defer to your wise judgments and try to gain some emotion, now let me get some rest," With that, I ended the conversation and went to bed.

Hey there! Hope you guys are well and enjoyed reading this chapter, I'm very exhausted right now, I've had two 8 hour meetings over the past 4 days along with other general life stuff like tests for school so forgive me if I don't upload for the next week, I promise the net chapter will be better than the past few which are kinda crap in my opinion. Ja ne!