Chapter 43

All of the anger and despair I felt in the wake of Lilly's death came rushing back as I stood there, blackly glowering at the boy with crimson hair. His eyes were also red, staring back at me as if I was a ghost. Those two attributes were the only things I knew about Giovanni's son, and I knew he must have come to either recapture me or worse, recapture Lilly. In those few moments, a whirlwind of questions went through my mind (How long was he standing there? Why is he standing there? How did he get inside? How did he know where we were?), but I pushed all of them aside knowing I had to act before he had the chance to.

"You have come to fight me on your father's behalf, I presume?" My eyes turned blue. "Did he fail to warn you about the threats I so directly made?"

The boy's eyes went to Lilly at the word "threats", then flicked back to me. His breath was shallow and quick, but he was still able to shout out, "G . . . get away from her—!"

My rage boiled over. "I asked you a question!" I slammed him against the wall next to the door with my power, knocking the breath out of him. I snarled as I came close to his face and added, "That's right, I know exactly who you—"

"Mewtwo!" Her call made me choke on the rest of my sentence, but I did not turn away from the boy. Lilly, I said to her, I'm going to send you—

"No, Mewtwo, put him down!"

To my utter astonishment, she had wedged her way between the boy and me. I froze in horror at the sight of her standing there. "Have you lost your mind?" I gasped, "Get back to the—"

"You're making a mistake!" she exclaimed, "Just let me—"

"Mistake?" I repeated, backing away slightly, "what are you . . . what do you mean? This is Giovanni's son, he's come to—"

"He's just here to check on me!" Lilly said quickly, looking from the boy to me again, "This is my friend, he's not going to hurt us!"

The word "friend" felt like a slap to the face, and then her reaction to the messages from earlier finally made sense. I suddenly felt weak as I released him, sitting on the arm of the couch behind me. He was looking at her with wide eyes as she led him to a kitchen chair and sat him down, asking if he was alright all the while. "Lilly, this is . . . Silver?" I was finally able to ask.

"Yes," she said, looking back at me. Silver glared at me when I spoke, and had the nerve to ask Lilly, "I don't understand, are you his . . . hostage or something?"

Something inside me snapped at that question. I saw Lilly try to correct him, but the damage was already done. "Hostage?"

My eyes involuntarily started glowing again as I stood up, ready to pin him back against the wall, but Lilly begged, "Mewtwo, wait, calm down for a—"

"Calm down?!" I roared, though I forced my eyes back to normal, "How can you tell me to calm down when you let Team Rocket walk right into this house, and has the audacity to ask if you're my hostage?"

"Please, just give me a second to explain," Lilly said, coming over to me, "I don't think he knows about—"

"You're going to trust Giovanni's son? Lilly, listen to yourself!" I practically pleaded with her, "He was probably in the hideout when—"

"No, you listen to yourself," she replied defensively, and I knew that she was referring to our conversation from earlier. Though I was seething at the comparison she was implying, I stopped talking and waited for her to speak. "Yes, it's true that Silver is Giovanni's son, but he's not a member of Team Rocket. We met while I was in Johto and we're rivals, but . . . we're also friends. Silver," she said, looking back at the boy, "Mewtwo is not a threat. I helped him recover from a bad fight with Team Rocket for the last few months, he was hiding here. But recently we had a . . . a bad incident with them, and seeing you scared him."

The boy tore his gaze away from me and looked at Lilly, his expression dramatically shifting at her statement. "Wait . . . you said . . . living here?" Lilly nodded, sitting down next to him, "You hid him from Team Rocket?"

"That's right," she affirmed.

"Are you crazy?!" he exclaimed suddenly, "Lilly, that's the stupidest thing you've ever—"

"I don't remember asking for your opinion, and I don't want it either," she said heatedly, "I did what I knew was right, and I don't regret it for a moment." Silver fell silent as he looked toward the floor. Lilly perhaps could not tell, but I could see he was holding back tears. "So . . . why did you want me to leave earlier?" Lilly pressed.

He resumed glaring at me when he responded, "Why don't you ask him?"

Lilly gasped in surprise, looking between the two of us. "Wait . . . what?"

At the time I also did not know what he was talking about, so I began to read his mind. "Silver," I said, though the name burned my tongue, "can you show us exactly what happened between you and . . . your father?"

"Show?" Silver asked.

Suddenly, we were in Giovanni's office. The two children looked around for a second, then Lilly yelped and ran over to me when she spotted Giovanni behind his desk. "It's just an illusion," I said. Though I was still upset with her dishonesty, I still put my arm around her. But even as I watched him sitting there in Silver's memories, he did not appear very threatening. His face was lined, and there were dark circles under his eyes. He seemed much older as he sat there with his chin on his fists, seemingly contemplating something. Suddenly, the door to his office slid open.

"Son," Giovanni lifted his head, his face reflecting the surprise he felt, "what a—"

Without giving any sort of greeting Silver calmly asked, "Where is she?"

Giovanni was startled by his frankness. "Where is . . . who?" he asked, folding his hands together.

"Don't play dumb!" Silver's voice rose, "The girl that Mewtwo took! The Champion of Kanto! What was she even doing here?"

From my years of understanding how he manipulates the truth, I could see something click behind Giovanni's eyes at his son's reaction to this news. He opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted with again. "Why are the grunts saying—" his voice broke on 'saying', but he finished his question, "Why are the grunts saying she's dead?"

Giovanni's next words were gentle as he said, "Are you by chance . . . referring to the tragic accident from yesterday?" Silver gasped at this question before Giovanni continued in a voice that sounded deeply affected, a voice I also knew from our most recent encounter. "It was a nightmare, Silver. I'm still shaken over it, as are the admins who witnessed it."

I recall feeling surprised as I listened to him describe what happened. He's really going to tell him. "She had only come to ask for a favor, for protection, but . . ."

As he said that I suddenly knew where his story was going, and it almost made me wish I had finished him off after all. I could not suppress the growl of disgust right before he said the words, "Mewtwo . . . he was ruthless. He came in and . . ."

He looked up at his son, his face pained. "Well, you heard the grunts. He . . . killed her instantly."

I felt Lilly gasp when she heard him say that. I hate him, she thought, her grip on me tightening. I hate him, I hate him!

"Why didn't you stop him?!" Silver yelled. He was crying by that point. "I don't . . . what could she . . . what was their connection?!" he asked finally.

"We wanted to help," Giovanni reassured him, "but he was too fast, even with the protection in the hideout. He knew exactly what he was doing."

I began shaking in rage as I listened to this. I looked over at the real Silver standing a few feet away, who was angrily staring at the ground. The shoulders of vision-Silver were also shaking with his head slightly bent, he seemed at a loss for words. "Did you know her personally, Silver?" Giovanni asked gently.

After a moment, Silver straightened up and tensed his shoulders in an effort to stop shaking. "When did you start caring?" he asked, wiping his eyes and turning to leave.

"Wait," Giovanni called after him. Silver stopped walking but did not turn around. His next words were carefully chosen. "You might find answers if you go to her Aunt's house in Pallet Town, that's where she was last seen before arriving here. Her Aunt may know something about this." Silver's fist tightened, and he walked deliberately as he left the room before Giovanni could offer any further consolation.

Silver was still looking at the floor when the vision ended. I knew he was ashamed that Lilly had seen him cry. "Lilly," I said quietly before either of them could speak, "this has to be a—"

I know, she spoke silently to me and released her grip on my arm, just give me a minute with him, and then I'll let you send him back to Johto.

"Silver," I heard her say, her voice hoarse, "I'm so sorry, I didn't know—"

"If Mewtwo didn't kill you," he asked through her apology, "why were the grunts saying he did? Why were they saying that you were dead?"

Lilly stopped walking. "So," I began when she didn't respond, my voice dark, "that's really how they're spinning this?"

Silver looked past Lilly when I spoke, his eyes burning. "Spinning what?"

"Mewtwo, please," Lilly said as she shot me a warning look, "let me tell him."

"Tell me what?" Silver asked as he looked back at her.

Do you really want to be the one to say it? I asked as she hesitated.

Lilly took a deep breath. "I . . . I'm so sorry," she apologized again before saying, "It's true that I was dead, but not because . . . Mewtwo would never have—"

"Who did it?" Silver asked quietly.

As I predicted, Lilly could not say his name. "Silver, he didn't . . ." she began to get choked up, "He was aiming for Mewtwo, but I . . . r-ran in the way . . ."

Lilly trailed off as she watched Silver's eyes widen in realization. "No," he said quietly, "don't . . . don't finish that sentence."

"I'm sorry," she wiped her face, "I'm so sorry—"

Silver interrupted Lilly again, but this time by pulling her into an embrace. She hugged him back, and I fought against the gut reaction to teleport him away at that moment. "Stop apologizing," he said quietly, "I'm just glad that you're—"

Shouts sounded from outside, and the three of us froze immediately. I listened intently and heard them; several members of Team Rocket were outside.

I muttered a few choice words under my breath before wrenching Lilly away from Silver with my power, teleporting the moment she was no longer touching him.

It was the middle of the night when we reappeared. The moon was waning, but still gave off abundant light that bathed the flowers in this field. Pink and blue blossoms swayed in the warm breeze; their perfume combined with the scent of the ocean nearby would have been intoxicating, but there was too much adrenaline in my blood. The back of Lilly's shirt was in my grasp, I did not realize that I had actually grabbed her. The first words out of her mouth were, "Where's Silver?"

I let go of her shirt and straightened up without answering, teleporting a few feet away when she turned around to look at me. Her eyes were still wet. "Did you really leave him at the house?"

Of all the things I was worried about at that moment, Silver was the least of them. "My mistake," I retorted, a little more venom finding its way into my voice than I had intended, "did you want to be found by Team Rocket here instead? They were clearly following him!" I added under my breath.

"If they were, they wouldn't have followed us all the way to Hoenn," Lilly protested.

"You don't know that." I looked back at her. "Neither of us knows what information they have."

There was a brief moment of silence before Lilly asked, "Couldn't you have just made us—?"

"Stop asking what I could have done," I snapped, "I did the right thing. You're my only priority." Lilly was standing there with her mouth slightly agape. I lowered my voice again, "Perhaps if I had been given adequate warning, I could have done more to protect all of us. But instead, you chose to hide the truth from me, again, for a selfish reason such as seeing your friend again?"

"Is that really what you think?" Lilly's voice was rising too, "I wanted to tell—"

"Then what stopped you?"

"Well I . . . I thought you would react like . . . that!" she said finally. "I really didn't know he was—"

"Wait a minute, you felt that my reaction was too much?" I asked, putting a hand to my chest in indignation.

"Mewtwo, you threw him against the wall!" Lilly exclaimed and gestured in the empty air. "How is that a normal reaction? You could have really hurt him!"

"If that really was someone from Team Rocket, he could have hurt you!" The conversation was making me very uneasy, but it was not just because Lilly was completely disregarding my fears. "Need I remind you that you were dead yesterday because of that boy's father?" I cried out, coming closer to where she stood. "Yes, if you had told me, I might have been upset at first. But I would have at least let you explain! I . . . I thought he was going to . . . !"

I could not finish that sentence, instead choosing to cover my face with my hands in an attempt to calm down. "I'm really sorry," I heard her say quietly, "I didn't . . . he's my age, he's not killing people. I had no idea that was where your head went." I removed my hands from my face and looked at her. I could see that she felt bad as she continued, "I told him that I was alive and that he didn't have to worry about me, I didn't think he had a reason to just . . . show up like that," Lilly said after a moment. "You were so stressed about them coming back, and I didn't want to worry you more than you already were for no reason."

That should have made me feel better, but I finally realized why her words were not actually helping. My own guilt was weighing heavily on me. "I need you to be able to tell me something like that, Lilly," I said finally, looking away again, "because something could have gone . . . I could have done something—"

"What?" she asked. Though I was not looking at her, I could almost hear her brow crease in confusion. "You're not making sense."

I still couldn't meet her green eyes. "Right after you were killed," I started, "I was . . . obviously angry with Giovanni."

"You said that you threatened Giovanni, right?" she repeated.

I nodded. "I . . . Lilly, I was beside myself with grief." My words felt like they were made of lead when I added, "I said some things to scare him, to . . . inflict the pain I felt when I lost you."

I saw her eyes go to the ground as she put my reaction to seeing Silver, and the words I was saying to her together. When they widened and looked back up at me, I knew she figured it out. "You threatened him . . . with Silver's life?"

The way she asked that made my gut twist into more knots. "I did not know he was your friend," I said in response to her horrified expression, "but at that moment . . . that was what Giovanni deserved, but not Silver. I just wanted to hit him where it hurt." When Lilly's expression did not change, I only grew more worried. "Even if you did not know him, I never would have gone through with it. It never occurred to me that I was going to see him so soon after . . . after everything—"

"I believe you," she said quietly, her expression relaxing, "But . . . why are you telling me this?"

"Because after I saw his memories, if he really had sent Silver after what I said, knowing that I could still be alive . . ." My fists clenched in anger, "it means that to Giovanni, he's just as disposable . . . his own son."

My vision suddenly turned blue as I looked around. I needed to destroy something, anything to get rid of this fury I felt toward the despicable man who created me, but that time there was no forest for me to tear up. And with Lilly right there, not only would I risk hurting her, but seeing me like that would have scared her. I almost cried out in anguish, but then I felt Lilly's arms around me and her head press into my abdomen. Her face was wet, and her shoulders trembled. "How can one person," she managed to ask finally, "be so cruel?"

My anger quickly burned into sadness for her and the boy, myself, and fear for our lives, and my vision returned to normal as I wrapped my arms around her and held her to me. We could not go back to Pallet Town then, and she knew it. There would be no time to say goodbye to her Pokémon or her Aunt. Perhaps she would not know what happened to Silver for a long time.

Though we were standing in that ethereal field near the sea everything around me suddenly felt ugly, and I realized even the circumstances that brought us together were harrowing. But she was there, and as imperfect as she was, she was beautiful. I wanted to do everything in my power to make a bright future for her, one where she did not have to be afraid to be herself or to live her life as she chose. I wanted that more than anything, and to be beside her when those days arrived.

You are wrong about him, another voice spoke suddenly, making both of us gasp. There are outside forces at work.

Before I could let go of Lilly, her opal flashed blindingly bright.

I had to add some last touches to this before publishing, and I was debating putting that last part in the next chapter, but I decided to leave it in this one. I'm weirdly proud of how this chapter came out, but I can't explain why. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!