Pikachu felt his head started spinning. He...he doesn't know what to believe now. Nor how to react to this.
Ash, his Ash, is Cade.
Should he be sad? Yes. Should he be upset? Yes. Should he be screaming at the heavens above? Maybe. And yet, he didn't feel like doing them.
The scene shifted to Pikachu and the boy's meeting. He watched it as he soon made sense of why their interaction isn't the same as it was suppose to. It made sense of why their first meeting was different.
'But if Cade is the one here,' Pikachu dreadfully thought as a big lump formed in his throat 'Then...where is Ash?'
Pikachu felt so lost of this revelation. He felt his surroundings shifts. He blinked as he was back in Ash's room, Ash looking at Cade on the mirror-or Cade looking at Ash on the mirror? Cade inside Ash looking at the-
Pikachu dragged his paws on his face with a head-aching groan, 'This is hurting me so much,' he thought.
Deciding to go "the boy looking at his reflection" for sanity's sake, he watched as his eyes caught a glimpse of the all too familiar hat through the mirror and turned around.
Pikachu watched with anticipating eyes as the boy picked it up and analyzed it. He watched in confusion when the boy just put the hat in the bag, slinging it over his shoulder and walked out of the room.
'He...didn't wear the hat,' Pikachu thought, 'Now that I think about it, he hasn't been wearing it at all. Why? It's not like he's trying to be...Ash...'
It was then it hit him. Cade wasn't trying to be Ash, because he doesn't want to be Ash. He didn't want to be Ash. He couldn't be Ash.
Cade isn't Ash.
Pikachu can't help but feel oddly relieved about that.
Another shift occurred and Pikachu recognizes it as the scene where Cade spoke to him about his troubles. He watched as the words replayed itself, watching his change of mood in every line. It began to made sense for him as he listens more to it again. But what caused it? Was it a wish? Cade's wish?....Or is it because of Pikachu's own wish?
"Spea-row!"
Every strand of fur on Pikachu went straight up the moment he heard that. The Electric -Type watched with furious eyes when the Spearow made itself known, then smiles with satisfaction when the attacker hit the tree instead when Cade moved out of the way, then fear on how it was going to target his trainer which changes to relief as he watched his other him shocked the vermin...
Then came the sadist, single-minded, all hatefully familiar Fearow.
Pikachu being angry the moment he saw him is an understatement. The mouse is downright furious. He had heard many rumors and gossips about this filthy monster, some stories being worst than the previous. He didn't recognized the monster at first due to being a victim of it...But now...
"Pika!!!"
Seeing himself under the malicious beak of this thing just made him more enrage. He was helpless, and the Fearow pleasures in his cries of pain.
He then saw that monster's eyes gazed to his trainer, glistening with mockery and joy of seeing the human being as helpless as him.
Pikachu gritted his teeth . He hated feeling the sense of helplessness, and now Cade is-wait...
How did Cade rescued him?
Pikachu had taken one look at his friend's eyes, and in a glimpse he saw something snapped.
The next three seconds were too fast for his eyes to follow, but he caught some things which were enough to explain what had happened:
Cade got in close to the Fearow in a blink,
And gave the monster a punch that could even make either a Primeape's or a Machamp's look like rookies. Maybe even both combined.
Needless to say, Pikachu is shocked, amazed, and a little shaken with a hint of worry as soon as it was over with other him in the boy's arms.
With that done, everything shifted along. From the chase, to the cliff fall, to meeting Misty, and then....
Darkness.
"W-what?"
He waited...and waited...and waited...
Nothing happened.
Pikachu found himself getting more worried. What is happening? Why isn't it showing anymore scenes of what was going on out there?
His thoughts were caught off when a voice behind him spoke.
"Pikachu,"
The Electric-Type turned around and felt his body went stiff, breath hitched, and mind went to a halt.
Behind him distance away stood a boy wearing all white clothing from his shirt down to his shoes and glowing like a lone lightbulb in the never-ending dark void that cannot be missed. While the boy's brightly glowing, it wasn't blinding enough to not see his messy black hair, brown eyes, the two zigzag marks above his cheeks, and all familiar smile he had only known in T.V screens and pictures.
There was a stray silence between them before Pikachu finally uttered one word.
"Ash?"
The boy remained smiling and kneeled down on one knee with wide open arms. Pikachu didn't hesitate and made a beeline to him with no points of stopping. With a leap, he lunged himself to the boy's solid chest, hearing a soft "oof!" from the boy, and clung on the smooth fabric like his life depends on it.
"You're...real," Pikachu slowly said, burying his face in the shirt and letting out a small sob, "You're not some imagination, not some image, not some trick. You're actually real,"
Then a thought came to his mind and looked up at the boy smiling upon him, "Wait, which one are you?" Another came that made him pause before slapping his forehead, "Right, language barrier. You may not-"
"Actually...I can understand you,"
The Pokémon looked back up in surprise, the boy remaining smiling to this.
"And to answer your question, I am Ash Ketchum," the boy's expression, much to Pikachu's shock, became serious, yet eyes gleamed with sadness, "And I can't go back, not now at least,"