I have a busy day tomorrow, so I'm uploading this now. Enjoy!


Chapter 31

I dropped all their Pokéballs and the bag to the ground in surprise.

"Hm? Where did the clouds go?" Togekiss asked innocently, blinking in the light as he looked up at the sky.

The Pokémon seemed shocked to see that it was nearly twilight outside, and they looked even more bewildered when they finally noticed the four of us standing nearby. We all stared at each other in shock for a moment.

Just as I was about to ask where Lilly was, Gyarados locked eyes with me. By then, I had already used to her temper; when she reared her head and growled fiercely at me, I was not frightened. But I was surprised by the speed at which she encircled her body around mine. Mrs. Ketchum gasped and took a few steps away in fear, but I did not even feel the need to teleport to safety.

"You have the nerve to come back here? After what you did to Lilly?"

I glared back at her defiantly but said nothing in response.

"We heard everything you did, you monster," Ninetails added, spitting blue flames out in her anger.

"I should rip your face off right now!" Gyarados roared, bringing her massive jaws close and baring her knife-sharp teeth.

I was too preoccupied to even flinch at her threat.

"You can both take turns ripping my heart out later, for all I care," I said dismissively, "but right now there are more important matters to attend to; if you can restrain your temper for long enough, that is."

"You're one to talk," Arbok hissed, coming to Gyarados' side.

I closed my eyes for a moment, channeling every ounce of my patience to not throw Arbok into the side of the house. Gyarados sensed that I was exercising self-control and backed away. I addressed her the rest of the team by looking around silently for a moment before I spoke again.

"One of you needs to tell me where she fled to, this instant," I demanded, my voice quiet.

From the looks of shock that reflected on their faces, this was clearly not what they were expecting me to say at all.

Togekiss was the one who finally piped up nervously, "Fled? Lilly didn't—"

Even as he was responding, I was quickly growing frustrated because all of their thoughts were too confused for me to read clearly for answers.

"This is not a time for games!" I growled through the din, "Tell me the truth, now."

For a moment Togekiss looked hurt about me growling at him, and I almost felt bad enough to apologize. But he shook it off and immediately went back to looking confused.

"Wait . . . do you mean . . . she's really not here?" Ampharos' eyes widened, looking toward Ash and his mother behind me.

I was equally not prepared for that response.

"No. She has been gone for several hours, at the very least," I replied quietly.

They all simultaneously shouted "What?!" before exchanging anxious glances with each other.

"The humans shouting earlier. . . "

Ampharos looked wide-eyed toward Togekiss, "You don't think that couldn't been—"

"The Rockets must have arrived early and taken her by force!" Togekiss cried out abruptly, stunning them all into silence, "It's the only explanation!"

"Imposssssible! This wasssn't part of the plan at all," Arbok hissed after a moment.

"How could she have left us here?" Gyarados roared, beside herself, "We should be fighting by her side right now, not sitting at the house!"

"Oh Togekiss, you were right," Ninetails wailed, lowering her head as she began to cry, "This was far too risky, we should have stopped her!"

I listened to their shrieks and gasps, utterly bewildered by what they were saying.

"Too risky? Just what do you mean by that?"

Ninetails looked in my direction, her face contorted with emotion.

"Lilly lied to you . . . sh-she knew—"

"Yes, I already know that she lied," I said impatiently, "She was going to— "

"No, listen to me," she snarled viciously, glaring at me through the tears in her eyes.

To my surprise, Ninetails pushed herself up onto her hind legs and put her paws on my chest so that she was at eye level with me. Her tails whipped about furtively as she began to explain what had come to pass.

"Yesterday, Lilly had a vision that showed the Rockets taking you both by surprise—"

"Wait, did you say a vision?" I interrupted.

"That part isn't important, just listen! In her vision, you were unable to fight them off, and she wanted to protect you from that fate. She was supposed to write a letter that would convince you to leave for good, after which she was to flee with us. She had hoped that the house would be empty when the Rockets arrived, or at the very least you would be able to hear them coming if you arrived late. But . . . she was delayed a little too long."

Her last words made my stomach drop. It was a few moments before I could respond.

"She . . . do you mean that she . . . only lied then?" I barely whispered.

Ninetails pushed herself off of me, anger still blazing in her gaze; clearly, she blamed me for what happened.

"Yes, that was her only lie to you," Togekiss confirmed, on the verge of tears himself, "Lilly thought it was necessary, to keep you from trying to fight the Rockets,"

"But why . . . why would she go that far? What would possibly make her think—"

"Are you deaf? How many times do you want us to repeat ourselves?" Gyarados roared and slammed her tail into the ground, making Mrs. Ketchum jump.

"She didn't want them to take you! Lilly didn't want to tell you the truth because she knew you would try to fight them off!"

"What are you talking about, Mewtwo? What are they saying?" Ash asked me, wide-eyed by the raucous exchange that was occurring in front of him.

"Exactly how many lies will you fabricate?" I growled back at Gyarados, "Lilly cannot see the future— "

"You claim to have all this intelligence, and yet you're still really still this dense?"

I looked for the speaker, and Ampharos was bristling as she approached me and continued, "Weren't you the one who tried to force Lilly to use her powers? What reason would we have to lie to you about this?"

I turned my glare at her, saying, "How can you expect me to trust— "

"You met Arceus yourself! Isn't that proof enough of Lilly's intentions?" Ninetails barked in frustration.

"Do you really believe that she would put Arceus in danger like this for some of Team Rocket's filthy money? Do you think WE as Pokémon would sacrifice our dignity to allow her to do something like this?!"

"Ninetailssssss, ssssave your breath," Arbok hissed quietly.

She looked toward the rest of the team, composing herself enough to address them.

"Right, we don't have any time to waste trying to convince him. She could be in great danger already."

"We have to find her," Togekiss agreed, "Where should we start looking?"

"Hey, Mewtwo, what are they— "

I ignored Ash once again and went into the house to look for evidence myself, teleporting through the "caution" tape blocking the doorway. I heard Mr. Mime and Pikachu talking eagerly behind me.

"Hey, wait a minute! It could be dangerous in there!" Ash called after me.

As I reappeared in the living room, I could not believe the scene that was waiting for me. The house was somehow more destroyed than when I left it several hours ago; draws were pulled out of their places, the kitchen table was overturned, and there were muddy boot prints and scratch marks covering the hardwood floor. The couch and countertops likewise had scratch marks on them. When I looked behind myself, I saw the TV had been knocked over, its glass screen shattered on the corner of the coffee table. I began to tremble as I took in the destruction around me, enraged by what I was seeing.

I looked up and my stomach seemed to bottom out even further; there was a bullet hole in the ceiling.

Beep beep beep!

I jumped and looked around, startled by the noise.

The beeping was heard again a few moments later, and I could tell that it was coming from upstairs. I teleported into her room and looked around for the source, but there was nothing that I could see.

Beep beep beep!

When I heard it that time, I knew it had to be coming from her Aunt's room.

Alighting on the floor, I walked in and looked around, but something else caught my eye first. I inhaled quickly when I realized there was blood on the wall by the other side of the bed, quickly flying over the bed to take a closer look. When I looked down at the floor, I noticed a few long black strands of her hair resting there.

"What did this?" I whispered aloud.

I alighted on the hardwood and knelt down to take a closer look. There were scratch marks present underneath the hair.

"A Pokémon?"

Beep beep beep!

The beeping came yet again, and I finally noticed the Pokénav lying on the pillow. A light on it was rapidly blinking red.

My heart racing, I levitated it and held the device in front of my face, reading the error message on the screen:

Battery Low

I tapped the "OK" button, and there was a new message that read:

Memory full, cannot record

I quickly cleared the second message, and the screen changed to a picture of Lilly's panicked face with a small triangle in a circle in the center and the text "Play Video".

I tapped the screen with my finger once more, and the video began.

"My name is Lilly, and there is a member of Team Rocket in my house."

I stood there and watched the video from the beginning, growing angrier as time went on. My stomach churned when the grunt threatened Lilly with the strange weapon. When I heard him slap her, I had to stop myself from teleporting to Azalea town immediately. I stared at the screen until the last of the helicopter engine faded away.

By the time the Pokénav died, I was sitting on the bed and clutching it so tightly in my hands that they went numb from the pressure. My breath was shallow as the sound of her screams continued to ring in my ears.

But somehow, echoing even louder was the last sentence she uttered before the Sneasle came:

"I love him so much."

Deeply shaken by what I had seen, I forced myself to my feet and levitated the Pokénav next to me before teleporting back out of the house.

When I reappeared outside again, Ash's mother was standing nearby talking to a police officer on her cellphone, and Mr. Mime was miming his interpretation of what he thought happened to Lilly based on what he gathered from her team. Ash was talking with his Pikachu, who was also talking to Lilly's team, trying to make sense of what was happening.

"Here," I said blankly, levitating the Pokénav to Pikachu, "charge this quickly and give it to your trainer."

Pikachu did not waste any time; he pressed the Pokénav to one of his cheeks and it immediately woke up.

"Pika pii!" he called to Ash.

Ash took it from him as he asked, "Is this her— "

"Just . . . watch the video."

I walked toward Lilly's Pokémon again, unable to look any of them in the eye as I waited for Ash to see what I had seen. My body tensed violently, and Ninetails and Ampharos gasped when we heard Lilly's scream in protest. I heard Ash's mother talking fervently on the phone, watching over her son's shoulder in horror. I briefly manipulated her mind to not hear the location he demanded that I be brought to.

"Mewtwo," Ash finally said when he finished, his voice weak.

"Lilly knew that the Rockets were coming." I whispered, finally accepting the story that her Pokémon had told me, "However, I do not understand . . . how she could have been so foolish as to think this was the only way."

After a moment of stunned silence, I looked at Ash and said, "And I could have . . . if I had stayed here just a little longer, perhaps I could have stopped it."

Ash did not respond to me. He was still looking at the Pokénav, trying to fight back tears himself. It was one of the few times I had ever seen him cry.

I walked back toward him and said, "Ash, I will fix this."

Ash's mother, having hung with the police up moments before, averted her eyes as she nodded silently in agreement.

Ashton's eyes widened.

"No, Mewtwo, just leave it to the police! They'll be back any minute to help search for her! Right, Mom? They said to bring you to—"

I grabbed him by the shoulders and looked him dead in the eye.

"Do not, under any circumstances, tell the police about this video. In fact . . ."

I deleted the video before I even finished that thought. When Ash looked at the screen and saw what I had done, his eyes bugged out of his head.

"What'd you do that for?!" he yelled at me angrily, "We might have needed that later!"

"We will not. I have it in my head, I can share it at any time."

"The police already know that she's missing, why can't I tell them about the video? Don't we want them to find her?"

"After seeing this, no, we do not want them to find her," I said sternly.

I turned, half talking to myself when I continued, "Though I have never ventured there myself, I have an idea of where they might be keeping her based on the location they wanted me brought to. It is perhaps their most secret operation in the Kanto Region; if the authorities somehow found this hideout, she will almost certainly be killed in retaliation."

"Then . . . then let me do it! I can get her with my Pokémon! Please don't go after her yourself Mewtwo, that's just what they want!" he cried desperately.

"No, he's right," his mother said firmly, "You're staying right here, young man."

"Then we're coming with you! We want to help!" Togekiss called from the sky.

Lilly's other Pokémon all grunted in agreement. I, however, was beginning to panic. The last thing I wanted was for anybody else to get involved; this was my fault in the first place.

"You all listen! This is what will happen," I growled as fiercely as I was able.

"I will leave Pallet town, alone, while the rest of you stay here and wait for us to come back. I will return here with Lilly within the next twelve hours. If for some reason I am not back by then . . ."

I turned to leave as I said, "then you may attempt to rescue her yourselves."

With those words hanging in the air, I turned and began to walk through Pallet Town, deciding which direction would be best to set off in. I could not teleport directly there, as I only knew the general location of the hideout.

Before I could get very far, I was abruptly stopped in my tracks when Ash yanked my tail back with all the force he had in his little body. I nearly turned around and growled at him, but instead took a deep breath and slowly levitated toward the sky in an attempt to get him to release me.

"Ash let go of him!" his mother called frantically.

"Mewtwo, stop! You don't know what you're doing!" Ash cried as I dragged him along.

I understood his anger, but I did not have time for it at that moment.

"I know exactly what I am doing. Let go of my tail, now," I said calmly.

"Then what is it?!" he shouted.

I stopped and swung my tail out of his grasp to face him, levitating him to my eye level. Tears were finally beginning to roll down his cheeks.

"I am saving the human who loved me, despite the monster that I am," I said firmly.

I placed him back on the ground, then teleported to Azalea before he could protest further.

To my imminent demise.

To Lilly.