[Canon: Birth of Mewtwo; in honour of the anniversary, have Mewtwo's playmate]

[starinheaven]

Dear Mun,

Please don't feel guilty. It's alright, you were busy. I understand.

It was like a long nap, I didn't feel lonely at all.

Well... maybe just a little bit. [A soft laugh.]

But I'm glad too, you know. That I got such a long rest means Papa's moved on, doesn't it? I'm glad... I was really worried about him.

[...]

I wonder if he found someone else. Is she taking care of him? Did he have another child? I hope he or she treats him well.

Mine, also... is Mewtwo doing well? Has he made friends? Has he walked in the sun, felt the wind blow?

-Aitwo (who is still really just Ai)

Comments

[150th]

You are... so familiar.

[Mewtwo is frustrated. She was not once of the trainers invited to New Island, not a member of Team Rocket - but what other humans would it have known?]

[starinheaven]

... Mewtwo! Is that really you? You grew up! [Her eyes go wide, glittering and bright. She drifts (doesn't walk, not until she's beside it) closer. Then, she breaks into a peal of laughter.]

What a funny thing to say, I haven't changed one bit in sixteen... or was it twenty years!

[Each of her copies only lasted four years, but that never stopped Dr. Fuji in his lifetime, and she has the memories of them all... and of her original self too.]

It must be because you were too little to remember me... [She's still smiling, but there's just the tiniest bit of sadness behind her eyes. Mostly, though, she really is just happy to see it alive and talk to it again!] My name is Aitwo. We met in Papa's lab, remember?

[150th]

[Its confusion looks the same as it did so many years ago; the same tone, the same frown.]

A lab...?

[The unknown, especially the parts of Mewtwo's own self that are unknown, is more often than not a source of terrible consequences. It could have planned for Mew's arrival on the island. It could have refused to trust Giovanni. And now, this is a situation it has just as little of an idea of how to approach.]

No. Who... are you?

[starinheaven]

[So, he really did forget... oh well, that's better than obsessing over her like her father did. One eventually forgets people who died, after some time. That's the way of the world, isn't it?]

Fuji Ai... before I died, the first time.

You were Mewtwo! Dr. Fuji, my Papa, made you just like made me— Aitwo!

You were the youngest, but you could talk like a person, so I thought you could be my child. You were a very cute baby, you know. So, that makes me your mama! Sort of. You could say I adopted you. [Remember the questions you posed to the scientist when you broke out into the world, Mewtwo?]

But I couldn't leave my tank. You're lucky, you know. Out of the five of us, you were the only one who was viable, the only clone that could live and enter the world.

I remember you...

[As in the tank, she'll convey it telepathically. She will recreate around them, perfectly, the lab as it was in her lifetime, in Mewtwo's youth. Look, there, the tank with your younger self, still softly rounded with youth! The opposite tank, Dr. Fuji hovers over it, stroking the glass, transfixed by the glowing light. Within that light, Ai is suspended in stasis. She looks as if she might be sleeping, but then she smiles, moves, and so does Mewtwo's younger form.
The scientists mapping their brain waves make a big fuss over them communicating telepathically.]

[150th]

Aitwo...

[A human clone? Made for what purpose? Surely a human girl was not meant to be a weapon, but -

Then she goes on, and shows the illusion. Mewtwo spends nearly a minute walking around in the image, examining the snapshot in time. They are so small. They look so happy. It is transfixed. Can it have ever been so innocent? Was there a time when it knew the answers to the questions it has always sought - and if so, why were those answers taken away?

The Pokémon with Ai and with the younger image of Mewtwo look just like the clones that it first produced when it rebuilt New Island. Others like itself, Mewtwo had thought. There was no way for a creature that is a copy to have anyone understand - except other copies. Was making those three clones really Mewtwo's idea? Did Mewtwo itself create three souls? Or had Charmeleontwo, Squirtletwo and Bulbasaurtwo simply been sleeping here in the twilight, waiting to be made real?]

If I was the only one... what became of you and the others?

[starinheaven]

[She watches it examine the memories, wordlessly, and smiles at their play.

The three Pokemon join in the game as well, playing and moving, mimicking the attacks they're imagining.

The memory stops abruptly, as soon as Mewtwo asks its question, everything freezes in place, silent and still, like a photograph.

She doesn't say anything, she only drifts there, hands clasped behind her back, a small, sad smile on her face. Her gaze takes on the heaviness of unshed tears, but her calm is broken.

She won't answer unless Mewtwo makes it clear those answers are something it really wants to know. It's welcome to search this frozen snapshot for a clue, because she left a part of it still moving, the screens with the readings of their brainwaves: Charmandertwo's activity level and consciousness is dropping fast, as if falling into a very deep sleep. Everything else remains still, because she does not want to put Mewtwo through that loss again, until it's ready to accept that memory.]

honestly i do it all the time it's no big

[150th]

[Mewtwo has never, as far as it remembers, cried. The memories struggling to surface bring along a burn in the back of its eyes that it finds entirely foreign, and dismisses.]

Are you real, here now, Ai? Or only a ghost?

thank you! -- and I'm sorry

[starinheaven]

[She shakes her head slowly, then looks back at it.]

... I'm sorry, Mewtwo. But I was supposed to die years ago.

I'm glad I met you and the others, though.

[Now certain that he wants to know the rest, she lets the rest of the memory play out. Panicking scientists, loudly trying to figure out how to keep the clones stable.

A switch to the world as they imagined it, Ai's projected "Remember Place," the world of her memories. The night sky, a city spread out underneath them, lit-up like twinkling stars... sparkling in the night, like the fading Charmandertwo's vanishing presence, helplessly watching its body fail.

The other Pokemon all go through the same, very rapidly.

... and when its Aitwo's turn, with enough reprieve to console and explain to the young Mewtwo, the mystery of that stinging sensation is solved for the first time.]

<3

[150th]

No -

[It wants to turn its back, but doesn't. It watches the whole thing, as each vanish, until only the image of young Mewtwo is left. Then its resolve wavers, it turns its head away.

Its control over its power is better, now, than it had been all those years ago. Giovanni had seen to that, regardless of his other faults. The ground under Mewtwo's feet splinters a hairline fracture anyway.]

Stop this.

[starinheaven]

I'm sorry, Mewtwo.

[That was all she remembered, all she could have known, so it would have ended there regardless of what he said.]I felt like you wanted to know the whole story. I know it hurts, but they're still yours too, these memories.

These feelings are proof you lived— are living. [She hesitates for a moment, wondering what she could possibly do for it now... then, she draws nearer, rises to be just above level with it and tries to give Mewtwo a motherly kiss on the forehead in what she hoped would be a comforting gesture.]

[150th]

How did I forget? What did they do to me?

[She kisses Mewtwo, and if offers her its hand, very carefully, like she's a glass figure that will shatter if Mewtwo moves too quickly.]

You lived as well. And you are here now - you are living, in your way.

[starinheaven]

I don't... know. Maybe they thought it was better you forget. Remembering sad things can be hard.

[It's almost like touching air or maybe a very light, billowing curtain. There's a sense of making contact with something, faintly, but it offers no real resistance. A very fragile existence indeed. but she'll accept its hand all the same, even if her hands can hardly be felt around it.]

Maybe you're right. I haven't felt this alive in years! I've gotten to meet so many new people here... and to see you grown-up too.

I feel very lucky!
[After a short laugh, she adds softly:] Thank you.
I hope you made good friends out there too. How do you like the world?