Cynthia couldn't help but smile at that.
But the smile faded quickly, and her expression grew more serious.
The presence of Team Rocket stirred sothing complicated in her. Every character in this film seed to have a purpose beyond filling space.
Even the comic-relief villains appeared to carry the weight of a fully realized world behind them, like the story of Team Rocket's Jessie and Jas.
The film pressed on.
---
The Misty Forest.
Dense white fog smothered the entire woodland, visibility no more than three ters. Ancient trees stood thick with moss.
Max held tightly to May's sleeve.
"Sis... the fog is so heavy. I can't see anything ahead..."
"Don't be scared." May ruffled his hair. "I'm right here."
Brock pulled out a flashlight and lit the path ahead.
"Stay close, everyone. It's easy to get separated in fog like this."
Lucario walked at the front, its stride steady and unhurried. It seed to have no need for sight, reading the entire forest through Aura alone. As it moved, it spoke with cool detachnt.
"Humans are always like this. The mont they can't see sothing, they're afraid."
Ash caught the edge in its words and frowned.
"What's that supposed to an?"
Lucario stopped and turned slowly. Its eyes burned with sothing that had no easy na.
"Humans use Aura. And when they're done with it, they don't hesitate to betray. That's what he did. I trusted him. I gave him everything I had. And in return, I got a thousand years of imprisonnt."
Its voice grew colder with each word.
"You carry his Aura. That makes you the sa as him."
The words stung. Ash stepped forward, his gaze sharpening.
"Aura isn't sothing you use! It's feeling! It's a bond!"
"A bond?" Lucario looked as though it had just heard the most absurd thing in the world. A low, bitter laugh escaped it. "That word lost all aning a thousand years ago, when Aaron destroyed it with his own hands."
The blue light around its body surged.
"Since you believe in bonds so much, let see just how firm your Aura really is!"
It brought both hands together, and a sphere of deep, pulsing blue energy coalesced from nothing between them.
"Aura Sphere!"
A bolt of blue light shot straight at Ash.
"Ash, watch out!" May cried.
"Pikachu, go! No wait!" Ash almost called the wrong na in his panic, then quickly threw a Poké Ball. "Krookodile, I'm counting on you!"
The comnt section broke imdiately.
[HAHAHA he almost called Krookodile 'Pikachu.']
[You can really feel how much he misses Pikachu.]
[Lucario: You dare talk to about bonds with that level of skill?]
Cynthia smiled in spite of herself, though she quickly straightened in her seat, her attention sharpening. She could see this fight was nowhere near even. Lucario outclassed Ash's entire team by a considerable margin.
Sure enough, after a brief and brutal exchange, Ash's Pokémon were all defeated with little effort.
Ash stood his ground in front of Lucario, planting himself between it and the fallen Krookodile and Infernape. He didn't step back.
"I already told you. Aura isn't for fighting." He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. "I'm following you because I believe Pikachu is still waiting for . If you want to bla all of this on , fine. Do what you want. But..."
He raised his head, and his eyes held a resolve that seed too deep for his age.
"I won't go down until I've gotten Pikachu back."
The hand Lucario had raised to fire another Aura Sphere went still in mid-air.
For just a mont, sothing shifted in its gaze.
"...That look in your eyes," it murmured. "It's the sa as his."
The tone of the comnts began to shift.
[Ash looks so cool right now, that speech gave chills.]
[There's the protagonist we've been waiting for.]
[Lucario: Strange, why am I a little moved?]
[Strear, did you see Lucario's expression just now? Is it thinking about Aaron?]
Cynthia gave a small nod.
"Lucario must have just seen sothing it's been refusing to acknowledge," she said quietly. "Ash's Aura is unrefined, but its nature is the sa as Aaron's was all those years ago. And no one knows that quality more intimately than Lucario does."
Then, as that confrontation settled into stillness, a strange and delicate fragrance drifted from deep within the forest.
A massive flower pushed up through the earth before them, radiating golden light, and slowly unfurled its petals.
"That's..." May's eyes went wide.
"The Ti Flower." Lucario's voice dropped low. "These flowers record whatever has occurred in the area around them. When they bloom, they project images of the past."
The golden petals opened fully. A pillar of light erupted from the flower's heart and cast a scene into the air above them.
---
A thousand years ago.
In the midst of war, Aaron raised his staff toward Lucario, his face set with terrible resolve.
"Forgive , Lucario..."
A flash of blue. Lucario was sealed inside the staff.
The image held there, looping endlessly: Aaron's expression, absolute and unyielding, and Lucario's eyes, hollow with despair.
---
Lucario stood in the flower's light, every muscle locked. Its hands closed into fists without thinking, the spikes along its wrists trembling faintly.
"Yes... that's how it was." Its voice was barely above a whisper, soaked through with a grief that had nowhere left to go. "He abandoned . He sealed inside that staff. He went to the Tree of Beginning alone. He never once considered a friend..."
The comnts went quiet for a mont.
[Lucario... I feel so sorry for it.]
[It must have replayed this scene in its mind for the entire thousand years. That's what turned it into who it is now.]
[Yeah.]
Then Max reached into his pocket and pulled out a small piece of chocolate. He walked up to Lucario on uncertain legs and held it out, his arm barely steady.
He didn't say anything wise or consoling. He just lifted that small piece of chocolate toward Lucario.
"Here... for you," Max said softly. "My big brother says when you're sad, sothing sweet helps a little."
Lucario looked down at the small human hand, still trembling slightly.
It was quiet for a long ti.
Then it reached out with one paw and took the chocolate with extraordinary gentleness.
"...Thank you."
The comnts flooded in again.
[Max is so sweet, oh my goodness.]
[Lucario's claws are so sharp and it was still that careful.]
[It was never cold-blooded, was it? It's just a child who was abandoned for a thousand years.]
[I've decided. This Lucario is my favorite character of the year.]
Cynthia watched the screen and let out a soft breath.
"Gentleness has a way of showing through in everything."
Comnts:
[Strear said it perfectly.]
[I'm completely inside Lucario's head right now, I can't get out.]
[The Ti Flower is such a cruel detail. It just keeps replaying its worst mory right in front of it.]
The film moved forward.
---
At the edge of the forest, the mist finally dissolved.
A tree of staggering height stood before them, its crown disappearing into the clouds above.
The entire tree gave off a soft, steady green light. Its trunk was as massive as a mountain. Enormous roots plunged deep into the earth, and countless branches spread their canopy across half the sky.
Around it, a field of quiet energy enveloped everything that drew near, filling every living creature with a sense of peace too profound to put into words. The Tree of Beginning.
"That's... the Tree of Beginning." Kidd rode in on Furret and craned her neck upward, awe written plainly across her face.
The comnts exploded at once.
"Oh my god. That tree."
"The visuals are absolutely overwhelming."
"I can feel the sacred energy through the screen..."
"That tree looks bigger than an entire mountain."
Cynthia herself was completely stilled by the sight.
As Champion of the Sinnoh region, she had seen her share of mountains and valleys. But the presence radiating from that tree on screen was unlike anything she had ever encountered.
A strange feeling settled over her. This tree was not simply a landmark. It felt like the true center of everything this film had been building toward.
"This tree... isn't an ordinary tree," she said. "It gives the feeling that the entire world is sohow tied to it."
As if to confirm her instinct, the ground heaved in the very next mont.
Three colossal figures rose slowly from the rock, the glaciers, and the rushing water surrounding the tree.
Regirock. Regice. Registeel.
Stone. Ice. Steel. The legendary titans.
"Those are the Tree of Beginning's guardians," Lucario said, its tone grave. "Lord Aaron once told that only those recognized by the tree may enter. Anyone else will be driven away by the titans."
Cynthia blinked when she saw the three of them, then let out a quiet, wry smile.
Old acquaintances, of all places.
She thought back to her ti exploring the Hoenn region in the gas, never imagining she would see them again like this.
The comnt section erupted.
[WAIT. That's Regirock, Regice, and Registeel from Hoenn!]
[That lineup is insane! The legendary titans are working security here?]
[Cynthia: Oh, I know this puzzle, I've done this before!]
[Lmao, didn't expect to see these ancient giants here. The production budget is on fire!]
The three titans slowly raised their arms, and the energy patterns across their chests lit up one by one.
"The pressure coming off them..." Brock broke into a cold sweat. "They're so strong!"
"Boom!"
Regirock unleashed a single burst of force and the ground cracked open in a dozen directions. The shockwave sent the group stumbling backward. Then, from the very top of the tree, an even more terrifying presence began its slow descent.
Regigigas.
"Even that lord has appeared..." The fear in Lucario's voice was sothing entirely new. "Run! We can't hold them here!"
The comnt section was nearly overloaded.
[All four are Legendary-class, right?!]
[The production team went all out!]
[Ash and the others are about to get absolutely flattened.]
[Are Team Rocket going to catch a stray blast? Hahaha.]
---
Right on cue, the scene cut to the mountain path.
Jessie, Jas, and owth watched the commotion from a distance, all three of them white as sheets.
"What are those things?!" Jessie shrieked.
"Run!" Jas grabbed Jessie and bolted.
But their Mareep had already collapsed from exhaustion and refused to budge. The three of them left it behind and tumbled in a heap through an inconspicuous opening at the base of the tree.
On the other side, Ash's group fought through the titans' assault with Lucario in the lead and sohow found a separate entrance into the tree.
They threw themselves inside.
The entrance sealed behind them. The titans' attacks ceased.
But no one noticed that the way they had entered the tree was no different from how Team Rocket had slipped in. Neither group had been recognized. They had all forced their way through.
---
The film's pace quickened.
Inside the Tree of Beginning.
It was a space entirely unlike anything in the world outside.
Enormous crystal pillars filled the interior, each one glowing with a gentle light. Drifting through the air were countless particles of pink and green and blue, the tree's own energy made visible. And between the crystals — Weedle, Pidgey, Pichu, Magmar — Pokémon of every kind floated and wandered freely, living together in the tree's interior as if it were a paradise untouched by the outside world.
"This is... inside the tree?" May looked around, barely able to take it in.
"So this is what the Tree of Beginning looks like from within," Brock murmured.
At the center of the chamber, two figures were waiting.
w held Pikachu cradled in its arms, stroking Pikachu's head with quiet affection. Pikachu was awake, chattering back at w without a trace of fear.
Beside them, owth lay blissfully on a soft crystal cushion, ringed by a crowd of small Pokémon.
"Pikachu!" Ash crossed the space in an instant.
"Pika!" Pikachu spotted him and leapt from w's arms, throwing itself into Ash's chest.
"Hey hey hey!" owth caught sight of the familiar faces and sprang off the crystal cushion, running toward them. "You finally showed up, owth! Lady w has been treating us like royalty! This place is paradise, owth!"
But just as everyone thought they could finally breathe.
The entire space shook violently.
Crystal shards fell from the walls. From the ground below, translucent creatures rose into view, their forms glassy and shifting, shaped loosely like jellyfish or octopuses.
"What are those?" Ash cried.
"The tree's immune response!" Brock went pale as the realization hit him. "We forced our way in through the entrance. The tree never accepted us. It's treating us as..."
He couldn't finish. The word was too strange, too cold, for what they were.
Foreign bodies.
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