Trigger Warning: blood, violence, death, etc.

Chapter 37

I never gave much thought to what death would feel like. Since it was not something I saw in my future, it was never something I had to consider.

Though I never saw Lilly in my future, either. The moment that the gun fired, it occurred to me that the two might be one and the same. I remember thinking, perhaps this world is not big enough for two beings that shouldn't exist.

I stopped breathing and waited for all my senses to fade, waited for all the lights to go dark.

But nothing happened.

Did he . . . miss?

Before I drew breath again, a strange burning smell hit my nose, affirming that I was still alive. A moment later, I blinked and saw I was still in the same brightly lit room. I inhaled, feeling the same pain from the earlier gunshot wounds. But I was alive.

What happened? He was standing right over me!

The first thing that came into focus was Giovanni's. His eyes were wide with shock, and his mouth was slightly parted as he looked from the ground in front of him, to the gun in his hands, and back again. The sound of metal clanging on the floor startled me, at which point I realized he had dropped the weapon.

As my vision focused over the next few seconds, I could see that the other members of Team Rocket were wearing expressions of disbelief and horror, their eyes glued to the floor in front of me in a similar manner. I turned my head slightly to look at Lilly again, searching for her thoughts, but instead I only saw the member who took her from me a few minutes earlier.

To my surprise, she was on her knees with her palms toward the ceiling, weeping freely. The white gloves she wore were now singed black and smoking, all of the fabric on her palms and her wrists was missing. Even with my unfocused eyesight, I could see the exposed flesh. Her fingers were blackened, and her hands and arms were bright red.

Still trying to figure out what had just come to pass, I gasped in pain as I propped myself on my elbows to look at the scene in front of me, though I was still not conscious enough to know what I was looking at immediately. After staring for a moment longer, my heart seemed to pause.

Mere inches away from me, Lilly was lying on her side with her eyes closed as if she was fast asleep. As soon as I realized it was her, I knew exactly what had happened.

No . . . what is she . . .

Her long hair and the white Team Rocket t-shirt she wore were beginning to soak up some of the blood that was spilled, though I could not tell if it was mine or hers. I forced myself to sit up and crawl toward the body, the pain I felt slowly melting away as the adrenaline begin to move through my veins. My hands made contact with her skin to roll her onto her back, and I was shocked to feel that she was already as cold as the metal floor that I knelt on. I tried to look for some kind of visible wound, but there was nothing; she was not bleeding from anywhere.

I gritted my teeth together and wrapped my hands around her shoulders. When I pulled the pain in my side was almost unbearable, but after a few moments, I managed to get her limp body onto my legs. I grabbed at her wrist to find some kind of pulse, but nothing moved. "Lilly?" I whispered, still not believing what had happened.

There was no response. I felt my breathing grow faster and shallower. "Lilly, wake . . . wake up," I asked again as I lightly shook her, my voice strained.

She still did not say anything in response.

Dread began to creep up inside of me. I grunted in pain as I lifted her head and held her face very close to mine, trying to feel her breath on my skin.

"Please . . . wake up . . . wake up, now . . ."

The disbelief I was feeling quickly turned into horror, and I could no longer breathe at all.

"No . . . no, no, no!"

The strangled sob that escaped from my throat at that moment was something I had never heard before, but it still haunts me today.

"No, this was not supposed to . . . no . . .""

At those words, hot tears began to roll down my face; I gasped when I realized what they were.

"How . . . did this . . ."

I felt my fingers on the back of her head grip her hair tightly as if it would somehow wake her again. The image of her pale face and blue eyelids and lips was being seared into my brain, making me feel sicker than I had ever felt in my life.

"It was . . . supposed to be me!" I cried out weakly in anguish, "It . . . should have been . . . me . . ."

I lifted Lilly up to myself again and held her as tightly as I could, burying my face in her cold neck as I wept uncontrollably. Several minutes went by like this, and I began to feel numb. Though the bullets were reduced to mere stinging as time went by, I still found myself wishing for death. But another voice emerged from those thoughts:

I will not let them win this time.

Almost as if to signal me, one of the Rockets accidentally coughed and broke the otherwise solid wall of silence that emanated from them. I slowly raised my head, brought back to the present. Each one of the members surrounding us was still speechless, horrified at the act that their leader committed. Unfortunately for them no amount of remorse, real or not, would be enough to make me feel any kind of shame for what I wanted to do to them. I shifted my gaze to Giovanni again, my tears subsiding enough to finally address him.

"Do you . . . see . . . what your greed has done?" I croaked, still clutching Lilly's lifeless body to my own.

I did not take my eyes off of his black ones for even a second. He stammered for a moment before responding.

"Mewtwo, I—"

"Do NOT—!"

I quickly turned my head away so the blood I vomited would not land on her, then stared him down again. My entire upper body hurt from the bullet wound in my side, but a new warmth began to radiate from my chest. Had I been shot there as well? How did I not notice earlier?

I gasped out the words, "You . . . killed—"

"I . . . I did not," he said, his voice bordering on urgent, "You saw me yourself. I was aiming straight at you, but she must have . . ."

He looked back to the woman for a split second before continuing, " I-I really don't know how—"

"No . . . YOU killed her!" I said before spitting out another mouthful of blood.

As I said those words, I felt my heart begin to pick up speed, racing against my ribs. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand again, focusing on putting one foot on the ground in front of me without slipping on the blood. Giovanni stood there with his mouth still agape, taking half a step back when he saw me get to one knee.

"How could you . . . ?! She's . . . she's only a child!" I choked out between sobs.

"Mewtwo, I tried to ensure that she was well out of harm's way. It was never my intention to kill her, you must have known that from the start," he said as he continued to slowly back away from me.

I stared at him harder in hopes that it would burn a hole right through his forehead, tears still streaming down my face as I tried to regain control over my breathing. Then I looked down at her and pushed the hair out of her eyes and mouth, gently cradling her head in my other hand.

". . . Fix this," I whispered, wiping some of my blood off her cheek with my thumb.

Giovanni stammered for a moment.

"I . . . fix what, exactly?"

"Bring her back, now!" I looked back toward him again, my rage boiling over. "While there's still time!" I roared.

"For Arceus' sake, she's dead Mewtwo!" he cried out, seemingly horrified by my suggestion.

"And?!"

"Can't you bring her back yourself? I will allow you to do that much before we reclaim you," he said, putting his hands out.

"No . . . I c-can not," I cried out helplessly, my voice breaking, "not when you drain me of my power and put four bullets in me!"

"There isn't anything we can do for her now, she's—"

"Stop lying to me! You were going to resuscitate me, why is it different for her?! Do whatever it takes, I know you have the resources!"

"Fine, then I will also make myself perfectly clear," he responded, almost too quietly for me to hear:

"The gun halts all activity in the organism, it is essentially a much faster weapon than the one that is slowly draining you of your power. As such, the odds of her being fully sentient are . . . very small if we do this. Considering all of that, is this what she would want?"

I stared at him incredulously as I processed what he was telling me.

"We had this plan perfected for you, a clone we created with our same technology," he continued, "but not . . . a human being."

I looked back down at her, but my vision was too blurred to see anything clearly.

"Why?!" I cried out hoarsely.

He gave no response but continued to stare at me as if he also could not believe what was happening.

Still embracing Lilly, I struggled to get to my feet as my vision turned blue. I was still not feeling merciful toward any of the people standing before me; all of them allowed for this atrocity to happen.

The men who shot me earlier quickly got back into position and took aim with their guns again, their faces reflecting the shock they felt seeing me lift myself off the ground. Two members released their Pokémon, an Arcanine and a Gengar.

I cried out in anger, manifesting a forcefield around the both of us.

"I will not spare a single one of you if you force my hand, do you hear me?!" I growled, infuriated.

Giovanni gasped, his eyes widening in horror at the sight of me using powers. There was only a handful of Rockets in that room that had experienced the full extent of my power firsthand, perhaps even less. "Stand down!" he shouted immediately, knowing better than to let them fire at the reflective protection I surrounded myself with, "Do not shoot at him unless you want to die!"

Reluctantly, they lowered their weapons. I released the force field for a brief moment to cough up more blood, then activated it again. The members of Team Rocket were staring at me with fear, speaking in hushed tones to each other. The two Pokémon were quickly called back to their Pokéballs.

"How is this possible?" I heard someone ask.

"The device is still functioning, right?"

"He was completely powerless before, where is this coming from?" another whispered.

"Stop this now Mewtwo, you're dying," Giovanni said, though his voice struggled to maintain its calm. "Put the body down and come quietly, it's over."

I laughed, then spat some more blood on the floor.

"Her name," I said quietly, "is Lilly."

"Put Lilly down. You're going to fall with her any second now," he said gently, actually believing that he was convincing me.

"Quite the contrary, Giovanni. . ."

To prove my point, I lifted him several feet off the ground and constricted his airflow with my psychic power. "I am very much alive."

The other Rockets began to panic, but there was nothing they could do to help their leader. "Killing her was your biggest mistake. I would never do what I am about to do if she was still alive to see it," I said menacingly. "Now let us consider your options for a moment."

I thought of the time that I promised Lilly I would stop Giovanni from doing anything like this ever again and grew even angrier. I let him kick in the air for a moment before continuing.

"Shall I rip out your heart?" I asked quietly, easily adopting Giovanni's condescending tone. "A heart for a heart. That is the human adage, is it not?

I paused for a long moment, relishing the sound of Giovanni gasping for air. I wanted to draw this out for as long as I could, just as he did earlier. "No, you do not deserve such an easy escape. I think a more appropriate punishment would be . . . your son. He is about Lilly's age, correct?"

Giovanni's eyes widened at the word "son."

"Perhaps it was 'a life for a life'? My memory is failing, it must be the blood loss," I chuckled, my voice bordering on madness.

"No . . . ! Please!" he wheezed.

"Then, make me a better offer. You do not have much time left."

"There is . . . a low chance of success, but . . . we can attempt to use the technology on her. I'm . . . sorry," Giovanni begged, grabbing at the invisible bonds on his throat.

"Is that . . . your best apology?"

I squeezed a little tighter, laughing when his mouth opened wider.

"Boss! We have to shoot him!" one of the gunmen shouted.

At that moment, I let Giovanni drop to the ground like a ragdoll. He gasped and coughed as air rushed to his lungs. I saw him slowly push himself off of the floor, but he was unable to get to his knees. After they finally saw what I was capable of, some of the grunts began to flee the room.

"If you think . . . I would willingly hand myself over after what you did to her . . ."

I levitated off the ground, preparing a psychic attack.

"You are not SORRY yet!"

Just as I was about to release it, a high-pitched noise sounded. It startled me, and my attack instead went into the heavily reinforced windows across the room, shattering them easily.

What the . . . ?

When I looked back to Giovanni, he was sitting upright and staring straight ahead at something. I followed his gaze and nearly dropped Lilly in surprise. The girl with green hair was standing directly below me, staring in his direction. Though I could not see her face from this angle, I recognized her hair and dress.

Her again? Here?

She looked frailer in the light, but the way she stood in the blood with her bare feet even sent a shiver down my spine. The admin members next to him also tried to follow his gaze, but from the way they looked back at him, I could tell that nobody else in the room could see the girl aside from the two of us.

Go, her voice sounded suddenly, her eyes still fixed on Giovanni, he won't follow you.

I continued to stare, not sure if I believed her. After a moment, she slowly picked up her foot and began to walk toward Giovanni.

"S-Stop!" he cried out, backing away on his hands, "don't come any closer!"

But she continued to advance, her feet leaving bloody tracks on the metal floor as she walked. I heard some of the members that were left in the room scream when they appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

"Why did you kill my father?" she asked, her words slow and her voice flat.

Giovanni stammered, but he was too frightened to say anything coherent.

I finally decided to heed her advice, darting out the window and taking off into the night before anybody could stop me.

Hi everybody!

Sorry about that extra week, that was kind of a cruel place to leave you all hanging. But this week might also be the same situation while I really refine this ending, as I still have to go to work and make lessons, etc. Also, apologies in advance, these two chapters (36 and 37) are kind of dark and I still get emotional when I think about them tbh. They get lighter after this! For those of you who remember the original version of this chapter, I hope you liked the new ending / dialogue / etc!