The crater steamed.
Ash lay on its edge, eyes half-closed, breath ragged.
Lucario groaned beside him.
Charizard stood protectively over them both, wings trembling.
Across the field, the Shadow Leader stood untouched—his cloak now torn, revealing glimpses of a body not entirely organic. Veins pulsed with energy that flickered between black and deep violet.
And just as he turned to finish Ash—
The air folded.
And Mewtwo appeared.
He hovered above the crater, silent, psychic power pulsing in waves.
His eyes locked on the creature.
The Shadow Leader paused, head tilting slightly.
Mewtwo spoke telepathically—not aloud.
"You are not from this world."
The Shadow Leader smiled faintly, the skin near his cheek glitching.
"Neither are you. Not truly."
Mewtwo's eyes narrowed.
"I chose this world. You're trying to consume it."
With no warning, the creature launched a black tendril, streaking like a spear.
Mewtwo didn't move.
A psychic wall shimmered into existence—the tendril disintegrated.
Then Mewtwo raised one hand.
"Psychic Break."
The air shattered like glass.
The leader was thrown through stone, slammed into the base of the crater, sending rocks and darkness flying.
Ash blinked as light flared behind him.
And then—Mewtwo's voice entered his mind.
"Ash. Listen closely."
"I cannot destroy him. Not now. He is only half-born. And even at this stage… I must burn through lifetimes of power just to hold him."
Ash coughed blood. "Then what do we do?"
"We deceive him."
The Shadow Leader rose from the wreckage.
One eye no longer blinked—it simply glowed.
"You fight well, anomaly. But it is futile."
He opened his palm.
Dark matter coiled outward, forming an orb the size of a boulder—the full core of corruption.
"He thinks this is the final blow," Mewtwo told Ash.
"Let him believe it is."
Mewtwo's body glowed brilliant white, even as cracks appeared in his shoulders and hands.
"Ash. For this to work, I must make him believe we are obliterated. But you will feel what it's like to die."
Ash looked up weakly.
"…I trust you."
Mewtwo nodded.
Then floated down beside Ash and Lucario.
Together, they raised one hand toward the rising dark sphere.
The Shadow Leader laughed.
"You resist extinction with a trickle of light? Watch it vanish."
He hurled the orb.
Black.
Endless.
Unstoppable.
Mewtwo closed his eyes.
Illusion activated.
"This is not just light," Mewtwo said aloud, for the first time."This is hope."
And the two powers collided—
Darkness versus constructed light.
A false final stand.
The crater disappeared in a dome of white and black, expanding miles outward—so massive that for a moment, satellites lost all contact with the area.
When the dust finally settled—
Nothing remained.
Only charred stone.
Broken sky.
A silence so heavy it hurt.
And in the center stood the Shadow Leader.
Alone.
His cloak in tatters. His breathing calm.
He looked around.
He saw no trace of Ash.
No Mewtwo.
No Lucario.
Not even fragments.
"...So ends resistance."
He smiled.
"Excellent."
And with a flick of his hand, he vanished into the void.
But just beneath the stone.
In a sphere of suspended psychic space—
Ash opened his eyes.
Mewtwo floated beside him, energy flickering.
Lucario still breathed.
"We have seconds," Mewtwo said. "He's convinced. But next time… he won't fall for this again."
Ash slowly sat up.
"…Then we'd better be ready."
Mewtwo looked at the skies above.
"We bought you time, Ash. Use it wisely."
Then he vanished.
Leaving Ash alone—
Alive.
But with the knowledge that Shadow believed him dead.