Hi, everyone! I am so sorry for the hiatus! Work has been a pain in the arse lately- apparently I was the only cashier worthy of selling Christmas trees. Seriously, I got put in on all the peak hours for that, and then straight through to New Years when we were having sales... I'm overworked and underpaid, and then I'd come home and stare at Anomaly and decide no, not tonight, because Mewtwo scares me in this chapter... rilly...

Speaking of the chapter, I'm sorry, but there's no legend this time. The fact of the matter is, I'm back to the semi-dark chapters... as I said, Mewtwo scares me in this one... and the legend just didn't fit in. There was no reason for it here, as Ellie spends this chapter fairly absent, and honestly I didn't want to force something that just wouldn't work. I'll make it up to you guys next chapter- I'm planning on hitting Ho-oh and Lugia next. And then, as I've said TWICE, Mewtwo is scary here because... well... there are some things that no one should be able to do...

On the other hand, we get to see some bonding in this chapter that's as disturbing as it is funny. I get the strangest feeling that Flame would be proud...

So let's go!


There simply had to be a better way to learn this technique!

Eve groaned, falling onto her side as her stomach lurched. Of course she hadn't expected to transform on the second night of trying, but the pain in her stomach was hardly welcome either. She lay in the grass, panting lightly. All that time spent waiting for Ellie to fall asleep so she could leave the cave and then this. How unfair...

"You'll never learn anything sulking like that." Eve blinked and sat up as Anti materialized a few feet in front of her. "It hurts, trying to learn transform on your own."

The clone frowned. "You're going to tell me I can't do it, aren't you?"

There was a soft, dry chuckle. "On the contrary," the phantom said, "I already know you can." Eve blinked; that hadn't been what she'd expected him to say. Anti smiled sadly. "It took you two years, where I came from, to figure out what you were doing wrong. Two years of pains and loss of appetite that I always attributed to how you were made. I thought you were sick most of the time, and then..."

The ghost trailed off, wispy glimmers of nostalgia passing over his gaze before he spoke again. "You proved me wrong."

Eve shifted. Was there a chance he could teach her? Oh, now she was starting to hope! "Anti? What am I doing wrong?"

The half-smile turned cryptic. "That all depends. What are you trying to become?"

"I really don't know," the larger psychic admitted. "I've been trying to remember all the Pokémon I've seen..." Eve sat up straighter. "Is that the problem? Is it because I'm only thinking of them, not seeing them?"

Anti shook his head. "Your technique needs work, yeah, but it's not that. Your problem is rooted in what you're trying to become."

Eve blinked. "Will it only work with certain types, then? What if I stuck with psychics, could I do it then?"

The phantom kitten shook his head again. "Eve, you're DNA is too unstable," he said slowly. "You will never be able to turn into another Pokémon. Ever."

"But you just said-" Eve froze, the full force of his words hitting her then. She would never be able to turn into another Pokémon.

But he hadn't said anything about...

"Anti," she asked softly, "can I become... human?"

Still with that twisted-ly sad little smile, the kitten nudged her arm. It felt like a breath of cold air. "You laughed at yourself for not figuring it out sooner, said you wasted two whole years. You had the cockiest grin on your face. 'Don't underestimate me,' that was what you said. You said that so often..."

A shadow seemed to pass over his face. Was this... mourning? Mourning for himself, for the life he left behind. How did he get here, so far from home? How did he even exist? Eve frowned. When was the last time he had even been called by his proper name? She gave it a hesitant try. "Mew?"

The phantom's head snapped up, his eyes wide, and after a moment she saw his smile start to grow warmer. "So, what do you say," he asked, "Do you want some help? We wouldn't see results immediately, but I could probably save you a couple years of trying. Do you want to learn from me?"

Eve closed her eyes. To be human again, if only for a moment... could she finally remember what had really happened to her? No matter how hard she tried, she could never recall those final moments as a human. Could this be the way? "Yes. I... I want to learn."


Hidden by the foliage, Mewtwo gritted his teeth. Mew had been right, the Rocket base in Viridian City had been busy. Humans and Pokémon ran back and forth, vehicles were loaded, radios blared, and why? Why?

Because something had leveled a base in Pewter City.

By listening, he had been able to piece together what had happened in a surprisingly short amount of time. A base near the city of stone had been nearly complete after some remodeling work when a surprise attack that afternoon had left it in ruins. 'Psychic involvement' was suspected, which Mewtwo immediately translated to mean 'Mew was involved.' Probably the phantom from the sounds of it, which explained the cryptic 'I did it' that the apparition had greeted Mew with that afternoon after the two had mysteriously vanished and re-appeared again.

So where had Mew been?

Sighing, Mewtwo decided he would rather not know. The kitten was not important right now. It was too busy to get too close to the base- he could only imagine how it had been hours earlier- but he could still gather information.

Right now, it seemed that Team Rocket's main forces were scattered. Many of their resources were already split, from the sound of it, between a lab being built in Cerulean and a weapon-based project in Saffron. The lab worried him more than any human weaponry. Also on the minds of several Rockets were rumors of a new project in Fuscia that was being kept tightly under wraps. He finally located an administrator who knew the actual facts- it was a long-scale project involving the Safari zone. All three locations sounded like hives of activity; Giovanni could easily be located at any one of them. Likewise, he could be in Pewter, checking the damage to the demolished base. He certainly was not here, and that was all Mewtwo really cared about at the moment.

The last of the trucks finally pulled out, and Mewtwo sighed to himself. As much as he hated to admit it, this worked in his favor. If Team Rocket was distracted by the attack on Pewter, it gave him more time to be thorough in his investigations here in Viridian. The administrator from whom he had gleaned the information on Fuscia was still present, and so he went back to carefully scanning the man's mind, ever cautious so he would not be detected. What he found was fruitful.

It would seem... and Mewtwo could not help a small surge of excitement... that this man was a target worth pursuing. Ranked higher than anyone else he had scanned so far, the administrator knew more about Team Rocket's current plans then the rest of these hapless grunts combined. If he dove deeper into this man's mind just once, he could learn more than he could from a month of gleaning grunts. It would be easy.

Below him, the administrator made the last orders before going home for the night. Silently, hidden by the shadows, Mewtwo followed.


It was going to be a miracle if she didn't throw up. Eve hadn't even known what nauseating was before now. She lay back on the grass, her stomach churning, and felt a surge of relief when Anti rested the tip of his tail on her cheek to cool her. The ghostly touch actually felt nice for once. "I thought this was supposed to get easier..."

"I said it would take less time," the phantom clarified. "Your body is still resisting right now. You can't let it do that."

Eve scowled. "I'm not letting my body do anything. If I was going to just let it resist, I wouldn't bother trying in the first place."

"You're a mouthy kid," Anti observed with a musing tone. "It must be Mewtwo's fault, you never seemed to pick things like that up from me. Stealing, yeah, but not the sass."

The clone wrinkled her nose. "You sass way more than he does, definitely."

"See, you're doing it again. You did not learn that from me or any variation thereof. Nuh-uh."

That final childish sound made Eve giggle in spite of the pain. "Mewtwo isn't sassy, he's a jerk. There's a difference."

The phantom chuckled. "You know, you may have a point there."

"So the only person left for me to get it from is you. Ha."

"No, I refuse to believe it!" Anti flopped onto his side, staring at her plaintively, before sitting up. "I know, it's Flame's fault! He was a bad influence on you in the Sevii!"

"Oh, sure, put everything off on someone who isn't here to defend himself!" Eve couldn't stop herself from laughing a little as she threatened him. "You'd better be careful, I could start acting like Fervo next."

"Oh, for the love of me, no! Anyone but him!" The ghostly Mew was hunched over as though trying not to laugh. Eve eyed him with a sly grin.

"I could always start talking like Scyther."

That did it. The phantom let out one long howl that ended in a gale of laughter. "Not that! Anything but that! I swear I'll mute you if you try!"

"You can't do that, you said you've lost most of your power."

"I still had enough to turn Flame navy blue, shutting you up would be a snap," Anti retorted between gasps.

The idea of a blue Flame was too much, and Eve found herself falling to a fit of giggles. Anti was laughing so hard he actually rolled through a rock, which only made things worse, and it was some time before either of them could compose themselves enough to breathe. Eve lay back, staring up at the starry sky, and heard a confused mewl from near the trees. "What are you two doing out here?"

And Mew's perplexed expression was enough to start them both laughing all over again.


Diving into the human mind was a tricky thing.

Mewtwo took a few deep breaths as the Rocket administrator shifted in his sleep in the apartment below. It had been careful work getting here, and then he had been required to wait as the criminal sat talking with the young man he shared the apartment with. Finally, the man had gone to bed- something Mewtwo desperately needed. He could glean the thoughts of others with little or no effort on his part and complete obliviousness on theirs, but to delve into someone's subconscious took patience and precision. To do so when a target was awake meant detection in all but the most oblivious of souls, and so Mewtwo had needed to take very deliberate care not to wake the man up. The knowledge he had gained made the effort fully worthwhile.

First of all, Saffron. Team Rocket was planning a large-scale siege of the city. Preparations were already underway, and the prospective countdown stood at about three weeks with the current rate of progress. The risk of exposure if he stepped in was just as great as the potential to deal a critical blow if he interfered with the plans; Saffron was home to some powerful psychics, and it was said that the gym leader, while only a young woman, was on par with many of the more respectable psychic Pokémon species. Firing shadow balls in the city, as he had when he had encountered Evetwo, was one thing; launching a full psychic assault was another. If he did interfere at Saffron, it would take careful planning. Fortunately, he had time.

The next target of interest, if he could even call it that at this time, was a plan to infiltrate the Safari zone and corresponding Pokémon reserve near Fuscia. Operatives would gain access to the grounds, either by posing as tourists, becoming employees, or sneaking in late at night, and learn the layout of the parks. The plan was to carefully document the inhabiting Pokémon to learn where they lived and what their habits were, and then to launch a single attack and ensnare them all in one fell swoop. Integration and planning was estimated as requiring two to three months, minimum. As of yet, the project was of absolutely no threat to the clones.

The final project, however, may have a more direct impact on them. The laboratory going up in Cerulean was designed for the study of Pokémon growth with the goal of isolating the chemical compounds that were released when a Pokémon reached a new level of power, such as through evolution of rigorous training. The hope was that they could then synthesize these compounds and use them to strengthen their Pokémon without ever having to train them. Mewtwo wondered how many of the helpless experiments would die before the process ever worked.

All morbid thoughts aside, this lab definitely posed the greatest threat to himself and to Evetwo, who had difficulties enough fighting against normally trained Pokémon. From the sounds of it, most of the equipment had already been shipped and the rest would soon follow. Destroying the expensive machinery was every bit as vital as destroying the location; if he waited a few more days in Viridian, he could destroy the laboratory in Cerulean as well as the equipment itself before any experiments were run and still have time to choose a course of action for Saffron. The psychic nodded slightly to himself. That would be the plan, then. Bide his time in Viridian- which would enable him to teach Evetwo to shield herself better- before hitting the base and gym, and then move on to Cerulean. If he took a night to rest and then another night or two to assess the situation with the laboratory, then he could strike the laboratory while Team Rocket was still reeling from the loss of it's main center...

So now all that was left was the matter of what to do with the Rocket sleeping in the apartment below.

Mewtwo lifted his gaze to the moon. It would be simple and fairly clean to end the man's life while he slept. A quick psychic clutch at the human's heart would send him into cardiac arrest, a rather merciful way to die if he numbed the man's mind and ensured that he remained asleep during his death. And yet...

You're not going to kill anyone, are you?

Mewtwo blinked. Why was he thinking of that now? The memory of the female's tone, the pleading, plaintive look way she had looked up at him when she had voiced the question, was like a weight on his chest. He had told Evetwo no, even knowing that it was a lie, he had told her that he would not kill even as he had planned how it could be done. She had known he deceived her, he had seen it in her eyes, and yet she had still managed to fall asleep under his gaze...

Perhaps he could keep his word to her a little longer.

Slowly, carefully, Mewtwo began to peel back the layers of the human's conscious memory. Painstakingly thorough, he dissolved the memories as he went, a day, a week, one month, two. Beyond that point he left little fragments here and there, gradually increasing the amount of residual memory until he stopped the erasure after seven months. That should be far enough to be convincing. It would take deep hypnosis to ever uncover those memories again. Now came the tricky part- making sure no one tried. Mewtwo closed his eyes.

Locating the point at which to induce a seizure in a human was demanding work. He had discovered the mental point rather by accident in dealing with some thugs a couple of years back and had filed the information away for later use. Granted, no one seemed to pin the fact that the man had gone stark-raving mad on the seizure, but that was understandable under the extenuating circumstances. And then there was the issue of memory loss not being entirely common with seizure victims, but he was sure it would slide... there. Mewtwo smiled grimly. A single psychic spike was enough to send the man into convulsions. He could actually hear the crash as the spasms sent the human plummeting over the side of his bed. Discreetly, he 'prodded' the sleeping roommate with the impulse that something was wrong, and then waited as the youth woke up and called the proper medical authorities. And that was it, Mewtwo decided with a small nod. The man would live, the memory loss would be attributed to the stroke, and Mewtwo's own next course of action had been plotted. Now he had two options- he could either go back to the den and work on Evetwo's mental training, or he could take some time to wander. The training, he knew, should come first. And yet...

It only took Mewtwo a moment to slip away from the commotion and find a less frantic area of town to settle into. Silent observation, a hobby of sorts that he had not had time to indulge in since Evetwo was dumped into his life. The human species, as much as it repulsed him, seemed to have this near-magnetic power that consistently drew him nearer in spite of his misgivings. It was a dangerous obsession, one that he chided himself for again and again. The species was brutally inconsistent, sometimes kind, more often cruel, both to Pokémon and to itself, and yet he had always felt this yearning to understand them... now more so than ever. Because, as that tiny nagging feeling in his gut always reminded him, at some time in her life, the female that was undoubtedly curled up sleeping back at the cave had been human, too.

Why could he never forget that?

Mewtwo tipped his head back, letting his face be caressed by the cold waves of the slivered moon. First of all, he needed to stop thinking about her. That was becoming an annoying habit lately when he let his mind drift, he could never seem to focus on a single situation without worrying over just how she would play into it. Granted, the fact that he was learning to take her into account now was a good thing; it meant that his plans would be more stable down the line. But the fact that he was considering her when his plans did not affect her one way or another, such as in the fate of that Rocket...

Below him, an ambulance went screaming by, the siren harsh and cruel to his ears. An appropriate sound, the bitter wailing a herald to ill fortune. He could hazard a guess as to its destination. Bitter work, but necessary in the end; there was nothing to regret. No one would have mourned for long had he killed the man, scum that he was. More than likely, no one would have even cared. So why hadn't he done it? Because she would have cared? She would never have even known. It was an insignificant point.

This was why he had not wanted her.

The flashing lights of the emergency vehicle faded out of sight, but the bitterness remained. This was not what he wanted, this feeling like he was obliged to guard her emotions as well as her body and mind. This was what he wanted to avoid all along. He could not afford any sort of bond with this childish little female because someday she would be gone. Had he not given the other clones the chance to choose their own destinies, and then not one of them had included him... not one had thought to stay...

Damn her for always making him think of such things!

Suddenly, watching the lights and lives of the city no longer appealed to him in any way. Frowning, Mewtwo stood up and headed towards the forest again, a silent shadow against the nigh sky. It would be wise if he got some semblance of rest this night, so he really did need to get around to Evetwo's training. His scedule was loose, but it was a schedule nonetheless, and he planned to keep to it. Otherwise, nothing would get done.

He would definately need to sleep tonight.