Into the Unown (Pokemon Fanfiction OC)

Chapter 276

70 years ago…Fuji’s breathing hitched as he approached the gurgling canister. This was it… years of research, all that time spent grovelling for funding and the countless atrocities committed through the work that he had contributed to… All of it led to this one moment.

The man’s fingers shook as he twisted the final knob. Then, with one last check of the assembled hardware, the man typed a string of commands into his console. This was it, the moment of truth. “I CANNOT allow myself to fail now!”

With a forceful tap of his keyboard, the machine came to life, lines of code flitting through the CRT screen. 

Fuji gasped, breath held and fists clenched tight. His unblinking, bloodshot eyes stared expectantly at the pulsating canister.

A beep, followed by more beeps. Electricity flowed, wires crackled and lights flickered. Then, with a hiss, a mixture of concentrated Ghost and Normal Type Energy were released into the mix, melding together with the genetic data contained within the amniotic fluid to form whispers of life.

The lights dimmed and the machine fell silent. And amidst the intense watch of a deranged madman, the glass canister came back to life. Slowly and steadily it pulsed, faintly at first, the barest whisper of a childish murmur emanating within his soul. Until finally, it waned… and reignited in an ethereal amber glow, the familiar presence of a sunny and vibrant girl restoring peace in his mind.

“I did it… I finally did it…” Fuji sobbed, overwhelmed by the torrent of emotions churning within his core. “Amber, my baby… My darling girl… You’ve finally made it back… Papa missed you. Papa has missed you so, so much…”

That emotional reunion did not last, however, as the raucous sound of an open door intruded upon the man’s lament.

“Dear…” The voice was feminine, pleading… Fuji would never mistake his wife’s voice for anyone else.

He smiled and turned to face the grieving woman with celebratory glee. “I did it! I’ve successfully reawakened our daughter’s consciousness here in this canister! Next, I just need to keep it viable long enough to complete the process.”

The woman frowned, disturbed by her husband’s unnatural fervour. “Why are you doing this?! Amber’s gone, Fuji! You can’t bring her back!”

Fuji was taken aback by his wife’s admonishment, not understanding the outrage. “You’re wrong!” He retorted. “Look! Amber lives! She’s still alive within this light! This presence… it’s undeniable!” 

The man rambled, too obsessed to notice the look of horror on his wife’s face. “If my cloning theories are correct, we’ll have Amber back with us one day soon!” His face twisted, from the handsome and charismatic scientist that the woman once knew to that of a monster. A monster who would so callously disregard the sanctity of life — their daughter’s life no less!

“It’s not too late, Fuji! Let her go, cease this madness!” The woman pleaded. “All those years you spent pursuing your science, neglecting me… neglecting Amber! All the way til her dying breath… You can’t bring her back anymore!” She would much rather they moved on — to have a fresh start. It was what Amber would have wanted.

Fuji scowled. “Don’t you understand, woman! That is precisely why I’m doing this! For a second chance… To do it right this time!” He could and would bring his daughter back to life. There was simply no other option.

Silence fell, cold and distant, as an insurmountable gap formed between them. Fuji watched the light fade from his wife’s steely gaze, what little affection she still had towards him snuffed out in an instant.

The woman turned her back and walked away. “I’m leaving, Fuji… Goodbye.”

And that was the last time he would ever hear from her, the final light within his life. But no matter, Fuji turned his gaze back towards his daughter, Amber would return to his side soon enough. And when that time comes, his wife would understand.

He just needed to create a worthy vessel first, one that would be strong enough to sustain his daughter’s splendour…

***

“And thus began my life’s greatest work; one that would go on to revolutionise the field of cloning for years to come…” Present day Fuji sighed and wilted at Nina’s judgemental gaze.

Professor Inoru Fuji, the man who was responsible for the proliferation of Fossil Pokemon in the world and the reason why Cinnabar Island was so renowned for its cabal of fossil research labs. Because that had been his initial focus; the creation of a perfect body to contain his deceased daughter through the research of ancient and primordial Pokemon.

“But nothing worked…” Fuji lamented. “Nothing we tried was stable enough to house a human soul… Not even a direct clone of Amber herself.” 

Because, of course, the true resuscitation of life lay within the domain of divinity. Cloning and reviving Fossil Pokemon were easy enough, but the resulting entities could never last. And they were definitely not strong enough to handle the strain of an ego transplant. Fuji needed something more substantial — something flawless.

“That was until one day… I was approached by a representative of the Pokemon League. A sharply dressed military man by the name of Giovanni…”

Nina sneered, her contempt so vivid that even her Pokemon bristled in anger.

Fuji continued; “At the time, Giovanni was a war hero — the poster boy for Kanto’s struggles against the invading Johtons. He requested only one thing of me; to use my expertise in cloning and genetics to artificially create the ultimate Pokemon. And in return? The coordinates to a faraway, uncharted island, said to contain remnants of an ancient civilization that once worshipped the mythical Mew.”

Naturally, he agreed. With those coordinates in hand, Fuji would finally be able to secure a strong enough genetic blueprint that could form the basis of Amber’s revival, and along the way, the League would also gain their ultimate weapon against Johto.

“Mewtwo…” Nina frowned.

If Fuji was surprised by Nina’s insight, he did not show it. “I was bamboozled, of course. Giovanni had been falsifying his reports to the League, tricking them into thinking that the project had failed and steadily making up for the deficit in our funding from his illicit activities instead.” This ultimately enabled Giovanni to oust Fuji upon Mewtwo’s completion and take over his research. 

“But I digress… The point is, we did find traces of what we believed to be a Mew fossil on the island, which we then used as the template for our new generation of clones.”

***

It was a cube, hermetically sealed and flawless, with not a gap in sight on its coarse, lithic surface. The only signs that the object might contain what they sought were images of a divine feline creature etched all throughout the temple and how secreted the cube was, forming the core of the structure and barely accessible through an excessively convoluted maze of hallways and altars.

However, the ancient temple was no more, meticulously razed to its foundation. A couple of Rhydons from Fuji’s subordinates, that was all it took to decimate millennia of history and an archaeological find that would have scholars all over the world grovelling at his feet. Those priceless murals and cryptic hieroglyphs all wasted in his fervour. 

But Fuji did not care. There was no ancient wisdom greater than modern science and no dusty old ruin more valuable than his daughter’s life.

“What should we do now, sir?” One of his researchers asked. “There’s a good chance that those crystals we took down were key to unsealing the artifact. Shall we run some tests on their composition to figure out the mechanism?”

Fuji scoffed. “No need. There’s no time for such roundabout methods. Convert one of the tents into a cleanroom and bring in the lasers. Ready the diamond drill bits as well, should the lasers fail.”

“Is there not a risk of damaging the artifact’s contents?”

Fuji clamped down on his subordinate’s shoulder, his grip firmer than was necessary. “I trust that the personnel handpicked by Major Giovanni are competent enough to avoid such an unfortunate blunder…”

The researcher gulped under the Professor’s manic gaze. “Yes, sir. Understood sir.” He replied before running off to relay Fuji’s orders.

Once everything was set up, Fuji watched expectantly at the work being conducted, hovering over every single part of the process like a restless spectre. Until finally, they were ready to begin.

“As mentioned before, our initial scans indicate that the artifact is possessed of an unnatural degree of hardness. It is recommended that we carve out as much of the surface material as possible using the drill before engaging the lasers.” The technician turned towards Fuji for his approval. “By your leave, Professor.”

The man nodded, hands trembling in anticipation. “Proceed.”

The grating whine of metal grinding against stone permeated the tent. All the while, Flying Type Pokemon were hard at work circulating the air to maintain the tent’s sterility. And once all of the preparatory work was done, the lasers took center stage.

“Finally…” Fuji gasped when the blinding light of the lasers faded, to unveil within the cube a divine Aura — one so sacred and pure that all the surrounding sapients lowered their heads in reverence, tears streaming down their cheeks as they each reflected upon their life’s regrets.

But Fuji was not so easily cowed. For his will was greater than the lingering echoes of some long deceased primordial. “I WILL bring her back! No matter the cost!”

He stepped forth and reached into the cube, then extracted from it a single piece of flawless amber, within which was encased a single strand of perfectly preserved fossil of unknown origins…

***

“Mew, the progenitor of all Pokemon, said to be the origin of life itself if some religions were to be believed. One could not ask for a better template for the perfect clone. So naturally, the younger me was ecstatic.” 

It was even theorised that contained within Mew’s genetics was every combination of chromosomal material that could possibly exist, miraculously synchronized in perfectly stable flux and thus, enabling Mew to achieve flawless mimicry of every Pokemon to have ever been brought to life, Legendary or otherwise.

“That makes no sense. How could there be a fossil of Mew?” Nina chimed. “Mew has and always been just a single eternal entity. Unless you’re saying they might have had a mate at some point? Also, I once heard speculation that Dittos may be failed clones of Mew… You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

It was actually a fairly easy theory to validate. All Nina had to do was cross reference the timeline between when Fuji started work on his new gen clones to the period where Ditto sightings first appeared. 

The problem being, due to how good Dittos were at mimicry, it was actually fairly hard to encounter them in the wild. Most Dittos that were captured were purely accidental — the trainer had been aiming to catch a different Pokemon only to find a Ditto sitting in their Pokeball instead.

And besides, the man was right there. Better to just get her answer straight from the Rapidash’s mouth.

Fuji chuckled. “We were able to create Ditto-like clones by accident quite a few times, so I suppose there is merit in such speculation. However, I’m sorry to say that Dittos have existed even before our endeavours. In fact, Dittos played an instrumental role in my research due to how malleable their genetic materials were, as any respectable fossil researcher would attest. As for your first question…

“Yes, you are correct. There has only ever been just one Mew in existence, a fact that I was only made privy to later on. And yet, the nature of the fossil we found is indisputable, and what is even more indisputable is the fact that Mew sent you here. Which implies a tacit acknowledgement of their progeny and their care towards him.”

Nina tilted her head in consideration. “All living beings will leave behind some trace of their existence, lest of all an unaging immortal like Mew.” 

Dandruff, tufts of fur, flecks of skin and even excretions. It was doubtful that Mew was meticulous enough to remove all traces of themself on a day to day basis. 

“So I guess it would make sense that a Mew-worshipping civilization had somehow managed to preserve traces of Mew DNA that they accidentally stumbled upon.”

“Quite.” Fuji nodded in agreement.

“So?” Nina asked. “I can guess that you failed in Amber’s revival and I can pretty much guess what happens next as well with Giovanni and Team Rocket. How did that culminate in you guys’ spirits being stuck here in Lavender Mansion?”

Agatha scoffed and Fuji responded with a wry smile. “Well, you see… Mewtwo’s genetics is actually flawed. After all, we never sought to recreate the exact form of Mew but a weaponised version of it. Thereby disturbing the delicate balance that allowed the original Mew’s genetics to remain in stable flux…”

“The Ditto Paradox…” Nina gasped in realisation.

“Indeed. Had Giovanni not ousted me prematurely, I might have noticed the problem sooner and endeavoured to fix it. But alas… Not that I was particularly productive at the time, mind you. I had just lost the final motes of Amber’s light and was quite resentful of the surviving Mewtwo.” Fuji’s grief allowed Giovanni the perfect opening to swoop in and take over — the broken-hearted professor had barely even protested.

“So, imagine my surprise one day when Mewtwo hunted me down — his original creator — and demanded that I fix him, his ailing body practically melting at the seams.” By that point, Mr Fuji had already hidden himself away in Lavender Town and resolved to dedicate the remainder of his life towards charity…

***

Author's note:

The flashback sequences were adapted from Mewtwo's Origin. Those who know will know.

Honestly you guys have no idea how many times this chapter was rewritten. The original version was all flashback but it ended up being too close to a one to one recreation of Fuji's story in the movie for my liking.