Chapter Text
The gravel crunches under his shoe with each step he takes along this new path. As he continues, the prickling in his eyes starts up again, so he tries to force it away by focusing on something else. There are a few Butterfree flying off into the distance, so he watches until they’re no longer visible. Then wipes off his eyes and keeps going.
He had been so close to running back to Ash. Just moments after they said goodbye his feet stopped moving and he started to think this was all a huge mistake.
The only thing that stopped him from going back right then was Ash’s encouragement to keep going. Somehow, he knew the exact moment Goh needed him and what he needed to keep going. Ash has always been amazing and intuitive like that.
Now, Goh is trying his best to be strong, but it’s still so hard. It almost feels as if there’s something trying to pull him back to Ash. Like there’s a rubber band connecting them, and the further it’s stretched the more likely it is to break.
“Groo key key?” the little Pokémon chirps from his shoulder, and Goh realizes he’s slowed his pace again.
“Oh, sorry Grookey. You’re right, we have to keep going. We never know what’s ahead!” He smiles reassuringly, then breaks into a sprint again trying to leave his doubts behind.
It’s just so hard to leave his friends. Ash and Chloe have been constants in his life for a long time now, and he feels kind of lost without them. Chloe’s teasing remarks and reality checks always kept him from going too far into his own world. And Ash’s empathy and drive to achieve anything opened the world to him.
And he’s leaving all of his Pokémon in the lab behind too. It’s been fascinating for him to study the kind of ecosystem that such a diverse population of Pokémon creates. And the bond he’s formed with all of them has been priceless. It’s been nice to have a huge family of Pokémon waiting for him, after he used to spend all his time alone.
But, Goh thinks, that’s also why he needs to travel alone now. He’s become too reliant on everyone. The only way he can be stronger is if he’s more independent and learns to do things without his friends around to save him.
Holding his hand out, he remembers the brief moment when his dream of catching Mew felt like it really was in the palm of his hand.
At the same time, Project Mew was a huge reality check. Goh can so clearly remember the feeling of helplessness when he couldn’t release his Pokémon. He was so useless on his own when they were under attack. And the only reason he was able to reach out to Mew at all is because of what he’s learned from Ash.
But what now? It feels like he’s learned everything he can from Ash at this point. And he has to reach his dreams with his own power and hard work. He can’t do that if he’s just relying on his Pokémon and Ash for everything. The training wheels are off, so now he needs to learn to do things on his own.
There was a time when he didn’t rely on anyone besides himself. But being with Ash changed him so much. He used to wake up to an empty house, and now he’s accustomed to waking up with Ash in the bunk under him. He used to eat breakfast alone and then sit at his computer all day researching Mew, but now he’s used to eating breakfast with Ash and sometimes Chloe too. And then they go out to research Pokémon together.
But he can’t do that anymore. He needs to be someone that can stand out to Mew and gain its respect, that’s the kind of person it would want to be friends with. He’s gotten its attention once, and he’s certain that the only way to do it again is if he has adventures of his own and becomes more independent.
The breeze picks up for a moment, stirring Goh out of his thoughts. He slows down his pace and tries to focus on the world around him instead. The grass gently sways, and the path ahead seems to be more forested. Maybe there’ll be a good spot under a tree for him to rest his legs for a bit.
Grookey seems tired, so he lifts it off his shoulder and holds it in his arms so it can rest more comfortably. “Sleep well, Grookey.”
He continues for a while, still getting the compulsion to turn around and run back to Ash, but he’s resisting it. Ash already inspired him to keep going when their paths were still running parallel, and he doesn’t want to make him do it again. Maybe that’s just how it’s meant to be. They’ll travel parallel to each other, close but not quite meeting.
Wiping his eyes off again, Goh tries to distract himself by focusing on the future. For now, he wants to travel to places in Kanto he’s never been to before. He’s not sure where exactly yet, since he and Ash are taking the approach of going whatever path feels right in the moment, but he has a few places in mind.
“I can do this,” Goh says to himself, and Grookey wakes up to look at him curiously. Goh smiles and pushes forward, eager to see where he’ll end up next.
As he approaches a crossroads, he slows down to think. Looking at Grookey, he asks, “Where do you think this path leads?”
“Groo key key!” it says, wiggling in his arms and waving its stick around, and Goh laughs at its eager, but unhelpful, answer.
“Well, it looks like that path goes in almost the same direction we just came from, so let’s go this way!” Goh says, pointing at the path that continues straight ahead.
“I wonder how far away Ash is right now,” he says to himself, and Grookey chirps sadly. Goh shakes his head. “No, I shouldn’t be thinking like that.”
Instead, he runs as fast as he can, eager to start his new journey and push away the thoughts that are holding him back.
Goh swings around where the path wraps around a tree and looks at Grookey, for just a second, to make sure it doesn’t jump onto a branch. And then they crash into something.
From the ground, Goh’s surroundings look completely different. But before he can process anything, he sees a glimpse of yellow and jumps up, feeling a tiny bit of disoriented hope.
“Ash!” Goh calls, but the only response is his own voice echoing through the trees.
He stops calling for Ash, a bit frustrated with himself for it, and instead tries to calm down and observe the completely new surroundings. Yellow catches his eye again and he sees a frightened Abra, and that’s when he understands. He must have run into Abra and it teleported them all by accident.
Alright, he thinks, the first thing to do is make sure everyone is unharmed. So, he starts by asking Grookey if it’s okay.
“Groo!” it responds from his shoulder, waving its stick around for good measure.
“Good,” he smiles, then he turns his attention to the Abra and gently asks, “And how are you doing?” It’s still looking all around like it’s confused, but it looks toward him when it hears his voice. “Are you lost?”
“Ab?” It responds, tilting its head.
“I guess you don’t remember where we came from, huh?” Abra doesn’t reply, it just keeps watching him carefully. “Well don’t worry! I’ll figure out where we are.”
Goh slowly extends his hand toward Abra, trying to gain its trust, but even the careful movement makes it teleport behind a tree. It didn’t teleport far at least, so he thinks he can still get it to trust him.
“It seems lost too,” Goh thinks, concerned. And then he remembers what he’s read in the Pokedex. “Oh, sometimes Abra can teleport by accident when they’re scared!”
“Ab? Abra bra!”
“It seems to be getting more distressed. I think it might really be lost,” he says to Grookey, who looks up at him sadly.
Goh slowly approaches Abra. He knows how skittish they can be, so he doesn’t want to scare it and cause it to teleport again, potentially sending it even further away and more confused and lost.
“Abra? I’m really sorry I scared you.” He says to the Abra looking at him cautiously from behind the tree. “It’s okay, I want to help you. You’re lost right? I’ll try to help you find the way home.”
“Ab?” It hesitantly moves away from the tree and closer to him, and Goh stays still so he doesn’t frighten it more. For a moment he’s worried Grookey might do something sudden, but he’s proud when it also stays still. Grookey has grown a lot, he realizes; his mischievous little partner is learning when to hold back.
“It’s alright,” he says, reaching his hand out to Abra. “I can help you.”
Abra looks around like it’s searching for an escape route, so Goh stops again and lets the Pokémon carefully observe him for a minute before it seemingly decides to trust him. It takes a place floating at his side, looking up at him expectantly.
“Right. I guess the first step is to figure out where we are and how far we teleported.”
“Ab?”
“Let’s see…” Goh observes the area and thinks more of what he knows about Abra and teleport. “I think we can’t have gone too far; this must be the same area. So… all we need to do is figure out which direction we came from and then backtrack.”
They look back and forth between the stretches of the path. In one direction, it seems to open up into a large field, where he can see the sun hovering over the horizon. And the other direction seems to lead into the forest, so that must be where they need to go.
“This way!”
They walk as far as they can before the sun starts to set, and they’ve apparently teleported farther than expected, because they still haven’t gotten back to where they started.
Goh worries that they could be going the wrong way, but he tries to be reassuring for Abra. “I’m sure we’ll find your home! But it’s getting dark, so I think we should rest here until morning. Is that okay?”
“Ab abra,” it agrees.
After setting up camp and eating dinner, Goh sits by the fire with Grookey, who is curled up next to him completely exhausted. Abra seems a bit restless, bouncing all over the place and looking at everything, so he gives it a Pecha berry he’d found in the forest. Watching it nibble on the berry makes him smile. Being with an Abra brings back pleasant memories from a long time ago.
“You know, I was friends with an Abra once when I was really young.”
“Ab?” It looks at him curiously as it nibbles on the berry.
“It used to visit me at my apartment, and we would play together. When it would teleport away, I’d try to follow it wherever it went. And the last time I saw it, it took me all the way to a forest full of Pokémon to play with. I think maybe it knew that it had to leave and didn’t want me to be lonely, so it made sure I had more friends to play with.”
Abra, finished eating now, tilts its head and observes Goh as he talks.
“It kind of reminds me of…”
Ash. He was completely alone until Ash came to him by chance, and now he’s gone. But Ash has left him more friends than he could have ever imagined before. He has friends with him right now, and there’s a park full of Pokémon that he can always count on. He’s gotten better at befriending humans, too.
But even though that Abra had left him with good memories, he still misses it sometimes. He’s not sure that he’ll ever see it again.
“Ra?” The present Abra pokes at his shoulder.
“Oh. Sorry Abra, I guess I got lost in my thoughts.” He smiles at it. “I’m glad I can be friends with you now too.”
When Goh gets into his sleeping bag, Abra curls up next to him and Grookey. But Goh finds that even though he’s completely exhausted, both emotionally and physically, he just can’t fall asleep. He finds himself looking up to the stars, just like he always does when he feels alone.
It’s ridiculous to think that he’s alone now though. He has his Pokémon with him to keep him company. Yet, the only thing that’s bringing him comfort is the thought that Ash could be looking up at the stars too.
If Ash were here, they would probably be talking about the constellations or counting shooting stars together. And maybe Goh would promise to make his grandma’s stew with star shaped carrots for them tomorrow.
But that imagined scenario brings back bad memories of his misunderstanding with Horace, even though he’s been working on reframing what happened. This isn’t anything like that day, anyway. He and Ash talked about it. They both made the decision to split up. It’s what Goh wants, so he shouldn’t be feeling like it’s a betrayal. They’ve sorted this out already.
He turns to his side and focuses on the embers slowly burning out. Eventually he falls asleep.
They try to get an early start, but Goh’s extra sluggish after not being able to fall asleep. And then he wakes up disoriented and forgets that Ash isn’t with him anymore. So, it’s a little later when they get moving, but they didn’t lose too much time. Abra doesn’t seem to be upset about it at least, it seems to enjoy their company.
“Ready to go?” In response Grookey jumps on his arm and Abra teleports next to him. “Okay, let’s get you home Abra.”
They walk all morning, and it still doesn’t feel like they’re getting any closer. Yesterday Goh didn’t think Abra could have teleported them to a completely different forest, but now he’s starting to wonder if he was wrong.
Goh starts to wonder what Ash would do in this situation. But no, he can’t be thinking like that. Instead, he checks his Rotom phone again to see if he has service now, but it still has no signal. He doesn’t know what to do anymore...
He’s about to suggest they take a break when something shimmering in the sky dives down toward them. It’s extremely fast, whatever it is. He holds onto Grookey and shields his face as the wind rushes by, and thankfully it doesn’t collide with them. But Abra gets scared and teleports out of control again.
He immediately forgets the shimmering object and starts scanning the area, trying to figure out where Abra is. When he spots it, it’s way up in the sky and falling to the ground. Looking too disoriented to teleport again.
“Abra!” He sprints, but he’s too far away. So, he changes strategy. “Pokeball go!”
The pokeball is about to make it, Goh’s aim is great after all, but the shimmering wind returns at that moment, knocking Abra off course and blowing it even further away.