Chapter 2

Sabrina couldn't get the image out of her head. For weeks she foresaw it. A grim event was to happen at Goldenrod. She didn't know what it meant, until she got a call from Bruno, telling her to head to the city immediately.

"Mirrow is here."

The moment she saw the crowd of trainers, and spotted the entire Gym Leader coalition and the Elite Four, she knew something was wrong. She felt danger and immediately, wordlessly, rushed to Lance's aid. Oh how the tables turned quickly; Not three seconds since her arrival, she was the one that needed help.

Before things got worse, Alakazam teleported her out of the tunnel. And now, she could feel Lance's spirit fading.

"Lance!" Sabrina screamed, still coughing water out of her lungs. She could sense the Dragon Master's heartbeat slowing. "Alakazam… we have to go back! Telep-"

Koga tightly squeezed her shoulder. "No."

"But, he-… He's… dying!" Sabrina spluttered. "We have to help…"

She saw the Gym Leaders shake their heads. That's it? They were just going to let him die? They weren't going to do anything? How incredibly stupid could her colleagues be? Lance is dying for Arceus's sake, someone needs to act before his-…

Lance's heart came to a stop.

Sabrina felt her eyes water as she pleaded to teleport back in the tunnel. "We can still save-"

"He was well aware of the risks." Koga cut in. "It's too dangerous. As acting regional Champion and as your superior, I'm ordering you to stay put."

Koga was going to leave Lance for dead. Before she could argue, Falkner and Green pulled her away from the scene. She called to her Alakazam and discovered it entranced by Morty.

She couldn't do a damn thing.

They dragged her to the Poke Center and kept her under watch so she couldn't run away. By then it was too late… even resuscitating him would be impossible. They had done nothing to help him.

Lance was gone.

A day had passed. The Pokemon Center politely evacuated all trainers from the building, leaving a lobby full of Leaders and the Elite Four. The door slid open and in walked Koga.

For a moment, everyone was still.

"You son of a bitch!" Sabrina angrily rose from her seat. A green aura encircled her hands as she used her psychic abilities to repeatedly slam Koga into the wall. "YOU LET HIM DIE! YOU ALL LET HIM DIE!"

Sabrina released him and spun around to face a very fearful crowd. She used telekinetics to lift everything in the lobby – chairs, lamps, phones, it didn't matter. She was going to make everyone pay for dishonoring everything they stood for. For letting a comrade die.

"Sabrina!" Morty said, glowing with a blue spiritual energy. He cancelled out Sabrina's psychic grip. "It was Lance's idea. He went into the tunnel after Mirrow, knowing he might have to sacrifice his own life."

Sabrina's anger suddenly died down as Morty rested his glowing hands on her shoulders. She felt her eyes close as Morty soothingly reassured her. "It's okay. Taking down Mirrow this way… it was meant to be." Morty said quietly. "It was part of his plan."

"What plan?" Sabrina eyes snapped open. Her anger flared up once more, though not nearly as bad as before. She stared Morty down, who refused to say anything more. The Leaders around them remained suspiciously silent. "What plan?" Sabrina repeated, this time with more authority.

Ordinarily, Sabrina didn't subject herself to reading the minds of others. Especially when she was angry, as learning what others were thinking only added fuel to her rage. But everyone was keeping secrets from her.

Additionally, everyone was casting sideways glances at Koga. Sabrina turned to the disheveled man leaning with his back against the wall. She lifted a hand menacingly – not that he was scared. He simply sighed and nodded.

Almost instantly, they started spilling the details. "Lance was waiting for Mirrow to enter the underground path in Goldenrod." "He was going to flood the tunnels." "It was a gamble. Mirrow could have teleported out a long time ago."

Amidst all the noise, Morty stared at her intently, as if inviting her to read his mind. "He was just distracting Mirrow until you arrived."

"Until I arrived?" Sabrina blinked. "What?"

The crowd quieted. Apparently they forgot she could do that.

"It was a one way ticket." Morty said softspokenly. "Once the tunnels started to flood, no one would be able to get in. He ordered us to watch all the exits and let you in to assist him. "

"He… knew I was going to go down there and try to help him escape?" Sabrina asked.

"Not to help him escape." Koga muttered. "To prevent Mirrow from escaping."

"Prevent him…" She repeated. It all clicked. "He wanted me to use Disable on Mirrow to prevent him from teleporting away."

"Mirrow would end up being trapped down there. With all of us guarding the exits, he wouldn't be able to escape." Morty continued, closing his eyes. "The water was meant to be a deterrent, and if anything went wrong, we would have had Jasmine coax Amphy to light up the flood." He shook his head, before quickly adding, "Not the most ideal fallback plan, but this is Mirrow, we're talking about here. Lance wanted to make sure he was neutralized." It made perfect sense. Of course Lance would plan all of this out in advance. He just needed that one opportunity to trap him so that he would die. Except…

"But-… It didn't work!" Sabrina exclaimed frantically. "Mirrow is still alive… I can feel his presence, he's still here!"

"He's supposed to be alive." Koga said, finally picking himself up. "But he won't be able to escape. Lance had to keep him distracted…"

"Distracted for what? Alakazam already Disabled his Teleport."

"Distracted for this." The poison ninja pulled a purple ball from his sleeve. "Poke balls are rather fragile. Even one that guarantees instant capture can be broken before it's used."

Sabrina recalled seeing a ball slip from Lance's fingertips from her visions. She stared at the Master Ball in disbelief.

"Is that… ?" Sabrina started to ask. Her voice trailed off.

"Lance had a hunch." Koga said quietly. "That Mirrow's shapeshifting ability wasn't some freaky superpower or genetic experiment gone wrong like everyone thought. He bet his life on it. Thank Arceus he was right."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Mirrow is… a Pokemon?"

"If you recall, the last recorded entry of Lyra's Pokedex-" Everyone stiffened at the mention of her name. "-was that of a Ditto. We originally thought that the Pokedex malfunctioned and recorded Mirrow's transforming power. However…" Koga set the ball down on a nearby table. "Green has confirmed the Pokedex wasn't malfunctioning. He's volunteered to take Mirrow to Silph for examination."

All of this came as a shock for Sabrina. The mass murderer they were hunting down for the last couple months was a Pokemon? And wait a second, did he just say Silph?

"Absolutely not!" Sabrina shrieked. "I will not have an abomination in my city where he could endanger innocent people. He's a monster, he should be dead right now!"

Koga silenced her with a raised hand. "The Master Ball used on Mirrow is Silph property. Allow me to remind you that regardless of what sort of crimes he committed, he is a Pokemon and an extremely resilient one at that. No amount of Thundershocks from Raichu in the electric chair is going to kill him, and as League officials, we have no right to inhumanely kill a Pokemon."

"But-"

"There's nothing to stop us, however, from donating a dangerous Pokemon to equally dangerous experimentation. The higher-ups themselves proposed that notion..."

Sabrina held her tongue.

Will cleared his throat, stepping beside Koga. "This cannot go public. Mirrow is in the public's eye, a terrible genetic accident. If they knew he was a Pokemon?" He didn't have to say anything more. Pokemon have always been dangerous, but this discovery would send the public into frenzy. The media would tear the League down. Countless of people, even those that weren't trainers, would be forced to give up their Pokemon. Their friends. Their life partners.

It would be the end of the peaceful Pokemon world as they knew it and the start of Pokemon genocide.

"We have to keep with appearances. We will say we are doing everything in our power to undo the damages of the supposed experimentation, by running more procedures on him. If he dies, well… we tried."

"And Sabrina?" Koga called the girl to attention. "If Mirrow somehow manages to survive the experimentation, you will be given the responsibility of personally tearing apart his memory until he is left with nothing. Do you understand?"

Sabrina nodded.

"You must ensure he is no longer a threat. Then he'll like all the other Dittos in the world." Koga said.

"Mere tools for breeding."