Chapter Text
One moment, Pikachu had been on the floor in the cave he'd hatched in. An instant later, in a flash of light, he'd found himself suddenly out in the sunlight again, and immediately proceeded to fall several feet to land in a heap in the grass.
He slowly got to his feet, taking stock of his surroundings. There were plants, and a fence, and… a white house with a red roof.
Home. He was home.
Maybe whatever had just happened was a bad dream...
"Oh my!"
Pikachu immediately turned towards the direction of the voice.
Mom.
She was wearing some gardening gear, she must've been working out here. Pikachu tried to take a couple of steps forward to meet her, but he quickly tripped and tumbled.
Someone was there to catch him, though, and Pikachu felt a lot better at the feeling of the hands of one of the very few humans who were allowed to pick him up wrapping around his body. He tried his best to wrap his arms around her arm in a hug, but they still felt off. Too short.
He didn't think he'd been dreaming.
"You seem awfully frightened… Are you okay?" Mom asked.
Pikachu didn't know how he was supposed to answer that. "(Not really…)" His voice still sounded wrong.
… He definitely hadn't been dreaming.
"Do you want to come inside?" Mom asked. "My son should be home soon, you can join us for dinner."
She didn't recognize him. On some level, Pikachu knew that would happen, but he'd still hoped that she'd somehow know it was him.
He just nodded glumly in response to her question. He was hungry, and some of Mom's cooking would at least help take his mind off of things a little.
Mom carried him inside, introducing him to the interior of his own home. Admittedly, he'd only spent a few months here in total, but it was still his home. She'd set him down on the bathroom counter and asked him to try and wash up (without bothering to ask if he knew how to use the sink) while she cooked.
Once he was alone, and after he'd built up the nerves (and actually washed up for dinner), Pikachu finally took a moment to actually look at the mirror and inspect his own reflection.
Looking back at him from the mirror was a Mew. A bit of a darker pink than the Mew he'd met at the tree, but with the same blue eyes. As much as he tried, he couldn't see the Pokémon in the mirror as himself. Nothing of the Pikachu he'd spent his whole life as remained. Should he even still call himself Pikachu?
That thought got dashed immediately, 'Pikachu' was the only name he'd ever known and he couldn't imagine calling himself anything else. And he had to hold on to something, if there wasn't anything else left of him… Actually, looking closer, there was one more thing. His tail was bent in a way that mimicked the lightning-bolt shape he was used to. He was pretty sure he was just holding it in that shape out of habit, but he was just glad to have something he could recognize when he looked at himself.
Pikachu's inspection of his own reflection was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening. Quickly, he jumped to the ground, making sure to land on two feet, and pulled the door of the bathroom open to see that Ash had returned home.
"Welcome home, Ash!" Mom called out. "Dinner's almost ready!"
"Thanks," Ash said. "Is Pikachu home yet?"
Pikachu walked out of the bathroom slowly. Partly out of nerves and partly because if he went any faster he was pretty sure he'd trip and fall on his face.
"No, I haven't seen him," Mom said. "Pikachu's a big boy, though! He can take care of himself, and he knows the way home."
"(I'm right here,)" Pikachu said, instantly drawing the humans' attention to him.
Ash's eyes widened when he laid eyes on Pikachu.
"Oh, that's right!" Mom said, as she clapped her hands. "We have a guest joining us for dinner!"
"(I'm not a guest, I live here…)" Pikachu grumbled and crossed his arms. Thankfully, Ash was here now to set that straight. Pikachu knew he could always count on his best buddy to be there when he needed him.
"Do you know who this Pokémon is?" Mom asked.
"Oh, yeah!" Ash said.
Of course! Ash would always know.
"That's Mew!" Ash said. "I wonder what it's doing here?"
"(Ash, it's me!)" Pikachu said, running closer to him. "(I'm Pikachu! I found the place I was born, and then a blue Mew showed up and made me look like this!)"
Ash had to know who he really was, right? He'd always know Pikachu.
"Sorry, Mew," Ash said. "I don't know what you're saying."
And Pikachu's tiny heart broke.
The rest of the night passed in a blur for Pikachu. He barely ate any of the food, and after dinner was done just tried staying next to Ash, hoping that he'd somehow get the message, that he'd realize who Pikachu really was. Ash and Mom had tried asking him questions, but he'd only been able to answer so much. They at least knew that he didn't want to leave, which was a start, though he'd prefer if Mom hadn't immediately decided to start calling him 'Mewie'.
He ended up spending the night in Ash's room. Not on Ash's bed, he'd tried, but Ash had told him that that was special for his buddy Pikachu, and that he didn't want to have him show up in the night and find that someone else had stolen his spot. That had just reminded Pikachu that his best friend, his family, couldn't recognize him anymore, and he hadn't argued. He'd just… laid down and accepted it.
He didn't sleep very well that night.
The next day, Ash got worried about how he hadn't come home yet, and left to go look for him. Pikachu had tried to let Ash know that he was there again, to just as much success as before. Mom had needed to work at the restaurant that day, which meant that Pikachu was left in the care of Professor Oak.
Now, normally, this would be fine. Professor Oak had raised him since he was less than a week old. But Pikachu was aware of the fact that he was now (had always been) an extremely rare Pokémon that scientists hadn't gotten the chance to study.
At least Oak was polite about it. He just asked if he could check Pikachu's vitals to make sure he was healthy and take a DNA sample – sure, whatever – and observed him as he interacted with the other Pokémon around the lab. Which he didn't do much of, honestly… Bulbasaur and Charizard weren't even there, they'd gone with Ash to help look for him, and it quickly became apparent that none of his teammates recognized him and were just interested in talking to 'Mew'.
Before long, he ended up just going into the lab itself to curl up in his old favorite spot next to the computers… It felt different, with his thinner fur and different body shape, so it wasn't as much of a comfort as it might have been otherwise. He stayed there most of the day, and Mom eventually came to get him after her shift at the restaurant ended. Ash still wasn't back yet… Of course he wasn't. The Pokémon he was searching for was right under his nose, hidden in plain sight.
It was well after dark by the time Ash finally returned and explained what had happened throughout the day: Once he'd gone looking for the Pikachu that unknown to him was the Mew sitting next to him on the couch, Team Rocket had shown up to try and capture Pikachu. After hearing that he was missing, they'd decided they were going to help Ash look for him so they could kidnap him 'fair and square' once the two of them were reunited.
At least Ash knew that Team Rocket hadn't kidnapped him. That was a small comfort.
"We couldn't find him," Ash said. "Meowth said some of the Pokémon around saw him yesterday, but we don't know where Pikachu is." Ash was quiet for a moment. "I really hope he's okay."
"(I'm right here, Ash…)" Pikachu said again, leaning against his best friend.
"Oh, Mewie…" Mom said, as she pet him a few times.
"Mew…" Ash began. "Thanks for trying to cheer me up."
Pikachu took a moment to respond, unsure what to say. He settled for saying "(Any time.)"
He meant it, too.
Of course he did.
He just wished he could tell Ash who he really was.
Eventually, it came time to go to sleep. Once again, Pikachu tried to indicate that he wanted to sleep in Ash's bed as usual, and this time Ash actually relented. With Ash there by his side, sleep came easier than it did the night before.
Pikachu stood tall and proud above the defeated Latios. Somehow, despite the odds, they'd won! It had been an uphill battle, but he and Ash had pulled through. They'd defeated Tobias and were moving on to the Sinnoh League finals!
Ash cheered and lifted him into the air, and Pikachu cheered right back. As he settled into his usual spot on Ash's shoulder, he spotted Tobias walking towards them to congratulate them on a well-fought battle.
"Your Pikachu is very strong," Tobias said. "For it to have beaten Latios… You must have cheated."
"What?" Ash asked incredulously.
"Ya heard me, baby," Lt. Surge said. Suddenly, Pikachu was on the floor of the Vermilion Gym, facing the defeated form of Surge's Raichu while the giant of a man glared down at him. "You cheated. You said you wanted to be strong as a Pikachu, but you ain't no Pikachu."
"What are you talking about?" Ash asked. "Of course he's a Pikachu!"
"You just don't get it," Sho said, Pikachu now facing an entirely different defeated Raichu out in the forests of Sinnoh. "I know all about Pikachu, yo. The way they act, the way they move, the way they think, dig? That thing ain't actin' like any Pikachu I've ever seen."
Pikachu was standing in the forest of Pikachu, surrounded by other Pikachu. All of them were playing games he didn’t know, using greetings he didn't understand, walking on four legs while he stood on two.
He waved and walked forward, asking to join in, wishing to understand others like himself.
The baby Pikachu just turned and glared at him. "(You don't belong here,)" it said. "(You're just some thing wearing a Pikachu's face as a mask.)"
He tried to walk forward, tried to protest, but he tripped and fell. He pushed himself to his feet on arms that had gone from yellow to pink, and looked up to see…
Ash, and all of his other Pokémon, stood in front of Pikachu, glaring down at him.
"I want my best friend back," Ash said angrily. "Where is he?"
Pikachu tried to tell Ash who he was, but Ash stopped him before the first word left his mouth.
"I don't want a Mew pretending to be my best friend," Ash said. "I want the real Pikachu."
The real Pikachu?
He was the real Pikachu!
Right?
… But he wasn't even a Pikachu, was he?
He never had been, he'd just been lying to everybody, even himself.
The Pikachu Ash had known had never existed in the first place.
He'd just been playing pretend at being an ordinary Pokémon, and it had finally caught up to him…
Ash actually didn't end up going out to look for Pikachu the next day, instead staying the day at Professor Oak's lab.
This was mostly due to the fact that there was a thunderstorm and absolutely no one was willing to let Ash go looking for Pikachu in that. After being physically held back from running off by Bulbasaur's Vine Whip, Ash had (reluctantly) agreed.
That left Pikachu cooped up in Oak's lab with Bulbasaur, Ash, and the professor himself. He ended up just curling up in his old spot while the Professor started telling Ash about a way of using the storm to track Pikachu down.
According to Oak, Electric-type Pokémon like Pikachu tended to attract lightning. Since there likely weren't very many around Pallet Town, if they noticed the lightning was always striking in the same place, that would give them a direction to search for Pikachu.
… It would've been a pretty decent plan if the Pikachu they were looking for was out there. As Ash went along with it and joined Oak, Pikachu just sighed and tried to sleep.
Unsurprisingly, he didn't really have any more luck with resting than he had the past two nights. After some time of half-listening to Ash and the professor failing to notice anything strange happening with the storm, a voice cut through to Pikachu.
"(Hey, Mew.)" Bulbasaur said. Pikachu opened his eyes and sat up to look at his oldest remaining teammate… Another good friend who no longer knew him. "(I have some questions for you.)"
"(What is it?)" Pikachu asked dully. He wasn't in the mood for this, or much of anything, but he could take the time to humor Bulbasaur.
"(Sceptile told me a story about how a Mew once kidnapped our friend Pikachu,)" Bulbasaur said. "(Was that you?)"
"(I'm not the Mew from the Tree,)" Pikachu said, and made a face. "(I don't like them much.)"
They had kidnapped him and that led to Ash dying again, so forgive him for not being terribly fond of them.
"(So you don't have anything to do with Pikachu disappearing, then?)"
"(… It's complicated.)" Pikachu answered.
Bulbasaur moved closer, eyes narrowing. "(I didn't think it was fair of Sceptile to assume you were up to something. But you do know something, don't you?)" He asked. "(So, what's your angle? Trying to replace him? Is that why you're trying to cozy up to Ash?)"
"(No!)" Pikachu shook his head. Okay, well, he guessed he could see that it looked like that, but it was still ridiculous! "(I'd never want that, I just…)" How to explain this in a way that didn't sound completely insane?
Bulbasaur sighed. "(Look. Can you tell me where to find Pikachu?)"
Pikachu slumped. "(You can't.)"
"(You won't tell me?)"
Pikachu shook his head. "(There's no point. You wouldn't believe me if I did, and Ash wouldn't understand if you told him.)"
"(What does that mean?)" Bulbasaur asked.
Pikachu didn't answer immediately.
"(Where's Pikachu?)" Bulbasaur pressed, as he moved closer.
"(It means the Pikachu you're looking for isn't real, Bulbasaur!)" Pikachu snapped. "(I was just too much of an idiot to realize the truth!)"
Bulbasaur froze, staring at Pikachu with an expression the former mouse couldn't read. Before either Pokémon could say anything, Ash was there between them.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Ash asked Pikachu. "Mew, why did you yell at Bulbasaur?"
"(… It doesn't matter.)" Pikachu said, looking away with tears in his eyes.
Ash frowned, and looked towards Bulbasaur. "Bulbasaur? Did you say something that upset it?"
Bulbasaur was still staring at Pikachu, but took a moment to glance to Ash. Bulbasaur seemed to consider the question for a moment before shaking his head.
"Alright," Ash said. "Come and get me if you need anything, okay?"
Bulbasaur nodded. Ash left to go back to Professor Oak, and Bulbasaur walked over and plopped down next to Pikachu. For a moment, it felt nice, but then Pikachu remembered that Bulbasaur didn't recognize him.
"(You're Pikachu, right?)" Bulbasaur asked, instantly proving that thought wrong, though Pikachu didn't immediately process that as he nodded in response.
Once he did, his eyes widened and he shouted out loud in shock. "(Wait! You recognize me?)" Ash glanced over at the sound, but didn't approach.
"(Not exactly, but I figured it out once you said my name properly,)" Bulbasaur explained.
"(And you just… believe it?)" Pikachu asked, dumbfounded.
"(Would you be surprised if someone close to Ash turned out to secretly be Mew in disguise?)" Bulbasaur asked. "(What if it was, say, his dad, instead of you?)"
Pikachu didn't really have an argument to that, because something like that would happen to Ash. Had happened, actually, but Pikachu just wished that he didn't have to be the one at the center of it…
"(Weird things happen to you two,)" Bulbasaur pointed out. "(So, you haven't told him?)"
Pikachu shook his head. "(He doesn't understand me anymore…)" he said sadly, and sighed. "(Besides… how's he gonna feel when he finds out that Pikachu was a lie?)"
Bulbasaur frowned. "(For a long time, I thought that friendship was a lie. An empty promise that was easy to break. Sooner or later, I was always going to be left behind and forgotten. Right now, that's what you sound like.)"
Pikachu didn't deny it.
"(But then something changed. I met some people who gave me hope, and proved that I was wrong,)" Bulbasaur said. "(A little mouse that zapped me silly and the boy who listened to his heart.)"
"(Not really a mouse…)" Pikachu pointed out faintly.
"(You're still my friend,)" Bulbasaur countered. "(And I know you're hurting, but this can't break you and Ash.)"
"(How can you be sure?)" Pikachu challenged.
"(I can't,)" Bulbasaur admitted as he got to his feet. "(But since when has that ever stopped any of us?)"
Bulbasaur crouched down as best he could, and jumped straight onto the adjacent computer desk.
"Bulbasaur?" Ash asked curiously, breaking away from his concentration on Professor Oak's work.
"(Besides… You're kinda stupid when you're upset, Pikachu,)" Bulbasaur said, as he extended his vines towards the keyboard.
Wait...
"Perhaps he wants to share some insight Mew had?" Professor Oak suggested as he stepped closer to the computer.
… Bulbasaur was right, he was stupid when he was upset.
Pikachu got up and stepped out to a position where he could see the screen.
Bulbasaur wasn't a fast typist, needing to rely on hunting each key and carefully pressing them with his vines since he had no hands.
… Unlike Pikachu, who probably could've just written out the problem even if he didn't have thumbs anymore.
The first word Bulbasaur managed to type was 'PIKACHU'.
"Bulbasaur, does Mew know what happened to Pikachu?" The sound of hope crept into Ash's voice.
Bulbasaur gave a small nod.
"Perhaps that's why it showed up just after Pikachu vanished," Professor Oak hypothesized. "It wanted to tell us where to find Pikachu."
Professor Oak and Ash both turned their gaze on Pikachu. Pikachu stood still for a moment under their scrutiny, before realizing they wanted him to give some sort of response. He settled on a nod and moving his hand in a so-so motion.
Before either human could question what he meant by that, Bulbasaur spoke up again. "(Done!)" He hopped back off the desk to show the simple sentence 'PIKACHU IS MEW' right on the screen, in big bold letters. Professor Oak moved to take the computer and began typing.
Ash, however, wasn't paying attention to that. Instead, he was staring at Pikachu.
Ash looked back at him. "… Buddy? Is that really you?"
Pikachu nodded, tears in his eyes.
Ash immediately swept him up in a hug. "I'm so sorry I didn't recognize you!"
Pikachu didn't say anything, he just returned the hug.
"That's why you were so sad, wasn't it?" Ash asked.
Pikachu nodded. He'd thought that his friendship with Ash was over.
"But… why didn't you just turn back into a Pikachu?" Ash asked. He paused a moment.
"(I don't know how,)" Pikachu said, shaking his head, hoping Ash would get the message.
"You can't?" Ash guessed.
Pikachu nodded.
"… Should I still call you Pikachu?"
Pikachu nodded again, much more emphatically. He was not giving up his name!
"I never would've imagined that Pikachu was really a Mew, this whole time…" Professor Oak said, as he stepped back from the computer. "I'm sorry, as well. I should've found this out much sooner, I was waiting until we found Pikachu to analyze the Mew DNA sample."
Pikachu tilted his head curiously.
"What do you mean, Professor?"
"Well, I've just confirmed it's a match," Professor Oak said, gesturing to the computer. "The Mew you're holding really is your Pikachu, and I would've known that days ago if I hadn't put off analyzing the sample."
Professor Oak addressed Pikachu, then. "Now, Pikachu… were you aware of this, before a few days ago?"
Pikachu shook his head. "(No, I found the place I hatched, and then this blue Mew turned me into this!)"
"I expected as much," Professor Oak said, though Pikachu knew he couldn't have gotten the full story from that. "I imagine that you don't know how to turn into a Pikachu again, and that you'd like to learn?"
Pikachu immediately nodded to that as well. Yes, he would like to go back to normal! He couldn't really just… walk around as a Mythical Pokémon, right? People didn't have Mew as first partners.
Plus, he just… liked being a Pikachu, that's how he'd been pretty much his whole life.
Even if he kinda… wasn't really all that great at being one.
Professor Oak nodded. "There are a few Ditto here who may be able to help."
Pikachu nodded, and Ash pet his head.
"(Thank you,)" Pikachu said, to everyone.
Sure, it'd be different, but he always wanted to be with Ash, so… It looked like this was actually going to work out.
"(You're welcome!)" Bulbasaur said, and Pikachu looked to see that he had a rather smug look on his face.
… Pikachu was a little annoyed, but he had to admit Bulbasaur kind of earned it.
Three Regions Later...
"What do you think of Goh, buddy?" Ash asked Pikachu.
Earlier in the day, Ash had agreed to be a research fellow at Cerise Laboratory. Now, he and Pikachu were back in their room in Pallet Town, packing up the things they'd need while staying there.
Pikachu paused his search through one of Ash's drawers to think about that for a moment. "(He's kinda strange, like you said.)"
Ash nodded. "And… you're okay with us staying here with him, right?" He asked. "Even if he wants Mew to be his first Pokémon? He might get kinda weird about it if he finds out that you're Mew…"
"(Not my name,)" Pikachu reminded him.
Ash rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean."
Pikachu did know, though it wasn't something he had really thought of since Goh announced his goal. The fact that he wasn't technically a Pikachu wasn't really something Pikachu thought of very often, it really just didn't matter very much after he'd learned to transform into a Pikachu again.
But now Goh wanted Mew as his first Pokémon, a situation that had happened to Ash without either of them knowing.
Pikachu wasn't looking for a new trainer, though, and he wasn't planning on 'being Mew' for anyone. He was quite content to be Pikachu the Pikachu.
"(I don't think he's gonna find out,)" Pikachu said. "(But if he does, I'll make sure he knows how I feel about it.)"
"Buddy…"
"(I'll only zap him a little!)" Pikachu claimed. "(Less than I do to you, honest!)" He rapped his chest with a fist.
Ash seemed to get that Pikachu was (mostly) joking, and just chuckled and shook his head. "Alright…" He paused for a moment. "And… what do you wanna do if he actually does it? If his first Pokémon is actually a Mew?"
Pikachu had to think about it for a minute. "(I don't know. If that happens, I guess we just roll with it?)" Pikachu raised a paw to his chin. "(But if they're like me and they don't know… then we help them work through it, we show them us, and we make sure Goh understands.)"
"Sounds good to me," Ash said. "Do you think it's gonna happen?"
"(I dunno,)" Pikachu shrugged. "(It happened to you. We'll never know unless it happens.)"
"I guess so…" Ash laughed. "Well… How would you feel about it if it did happen? Would it change anything?"
Pikachu didn't have to think about that one. "(Not a chance,)" Pikachu said. "(Maybe it'd be kind of cool to know someone else like me, but I like where I am. Being your friend is the best thing that ever happened to me.)"
Ash grinned, and Pikachu jumped up to his shoulder to nuzzle him.
The world's most powerful Pikachu, the legendary thunder creature, a living myth in disguise…
What was any of that, compared to being Ash Ketchum's friend?