Silver's thoughts were completely clouded and unfocused. He barely remembered that he used to be human, and he really didn't care about that right now. The only thing that mattered was that that man was here, and Silver finally had the power to overcome him. He'd been waiting for years for this very opportunity, and he wasn't about to pass it up.
Silver flew so swiftly that he was sure that nobody would see him coming or be able to stop him, but he kept on forgetting how much Lt. Surge behaved in an unexpected way. Silver didn't know what exactly the nature of their relationship was at the moment. He knew that Lt. Surge didn't exactly understand him the way that Ash did, but he always seemed to know just how Silver was feeling. Silver wasn't surprised that Lt. Surge could somehow sense him coming, but he didn't expect for the man to have a fast enough reaction to tack him and hold him back.
"Kid, no!" Lt. Surge grunted. Silver squirmed and tried to roar, but the sound he made resembled more of a strangled scream. He was so close to getting that man. He was right there, looking at Silver with a greedy look in his eyes. He couldn't have known that Silver had been there, but his expression suggested otherwise. He had always been really good at acting like he was in control even when he had no idea what was going on.
"Is that my young Lugia?" Giovanni smirked and took a step towards him. Silver's squirming increased and got more desperate. Lt. Surge had to struggle to hold him down. Silver would probably be able to get away if he focused enough, but he couldn't concentrate on anything. Silver was completely blinded by his rage, and Lt. Surge was taking advantage of that.
Lugia growled threateningly at Giovanni. He didn't want that man anywhere near him. How dare he say such a thing. Silver wasn't Giovanni's anything. He wasn't his son, at least not in the way that it truly mattered, and he certainly wasn't his property or pokémon.
Even though Lt. Surge couldn't literally understand him, he seemed to sense just enough. "He doesn't belong to you."
Giovanni was unimpressed. "Please don't tell me you've adopted the mindset that pokémon shouldn't be 'enslaved' by humans."
"Of course not," Lt. Surge couldn't seem to help but scoff at the suggestion, and despite his fury Lugia couldn't help but roll his eyes. He hated that mindset, that humans were enslaving pokémon and forcing them to do their bidding. Even Silver, who didn't become really close friends with his pokémon, saw them as partners. Pokémon had abilities that humans didn't have, but humans were able to think creatively and strategically in ways that pokémon couldn't. They worked together, with humans taking the natural lead. That was the way that things were.
"Then why have you stolen my little Lugia from me?" Giovanni asked.
"Because it's what he wanted." Lt. Surge said. Silver knew that when they'd first saved him from Team Rocket that Lt. Surge hadn't been of the right mindset to have any say in what they did with Silver, but he didn't think that was what he was talking about. Silver relaxed ever so slightly as he remembered the dozens of times when Lt. Surge would help him sneak out of the house or get away from his father. No matter how many times Giovanni told Lt. Surge to stop involving himself with Silver more than he was directly told to, he just kept on doing it. Whenever Silver needed to rant about what his father did, Lt. Surge would be right there to listen to him, even if he was in the middle of a mission.
"Who cares what a pokémon wants?" Giovanni asked. Normally, Silver would agree, except he was the pokémon in question right now. What he wanted definitely mattered.
"When it comes to this guy, I do," Lt. Surge flinched as Silver whipped his head back and tried to hit him. The man held onto Silver's wings and pulled them back in a way that was just shy of painful. "Except when what this guy wants is something he'll come to regret, in which case it's my job to keep him from doing something stupid."
Silver was furious. This wasn't just a brash decision that he was making out of anger. He'd wanted to get back at that man for years, and Lt. Surge knew it. How dare he try to hold Silver back just because of some senseless familial obligation that he thought he should have.
Silver tried to pull himself out of Lt. Surge's grip, but his hold was like iron. He wasn't letting up on this. That was fine. It took a long moment, but Silver eventually remembered that his attacks were more ranged than physical. There was nothing stopping him from getting his revenge on Giovanni even from a distance.
Silver became tense as he prepared a water attack, with just a bit of psychic energy behind it to add some additional force. Giovanni was right in his line of fire. Blaine was a little in the way, standing nearby to keep Giovanni from moving any closer, but Silver couldn't care less at that moment. If Blaine got hit by his attack, that was his own fault. He shouldn't be in his way.
Just before Silver let his attack go Lt. Surge realized what he was doing. "Wait, kid, don't!" Silver ignored the man's protests. He unleashed his attack just as another plea reached his ears.
"Stop!" Ash jumped in front of Silver, putting himself between him and Giovanni, and right in the way of the attack. Ash held his arms out, as though hoping to stop the attack from getting past him, and closed his eyes tight, bracing himself for impact. The attack never hit him. Gary's Umbreon ran in front of Ash and used shadow ball to push back the psychic energy and break apart the jet stream of water. Silver knew that he was strong enough to overpower this Umbreon, even if it did have the type advantage, but he didn't try to attack again. Silver just stared in shock at Ash, who still stood almost protectively in front of Giovanni, who was just standing there watching them, studying them.
Why would Ash put himself at risk to protect this man? Why would Lt. Surge try to hold Silver back when he'd only ever encouraged him? Silver knew that neither of them had any love for Giovanni. They knew that he was a manipulative liar who only cared about himself and blamed others for his own inadequacies, and yet they were defending him? Why?
Silver projected this part without meaning to. Ash's gaze was sad and sympathetic, but still firm and determined. He wasn't going to back down.
"I'm not doing this for Giovanni," Ash said. "I'm doing this for you."
"You might think that you want this, kid," Lt. Surge took advantage of Silver's confusion and pulled him down to the ground. He pinned him there in a firm but gentle hold. "But trust me, you don't. Doing something like this, hurting people, I'm not going to deny that it can feel great at the time, but once you start doing it it just gets easier and easier to justify. This kind of thing gets under your skin, and it's hard to shake off."
"Giovanni does horrible things without regret," Ash said. "And I really don't think that you want to end up like him."
Silver fumed. Ash was just a cheerful, oblivious kid who didn't know anything. Lt. Surge had been a soldier, gym leader, and member of Team Rocket, which were jobs that were all about hurting people, beating them, and showing off your strength. Who were they to tell him what he should or shouldn't do?
The worst part was, Silver knew that they were right. He couldn't care less about using people to achieve his goals, and he didn't see any issue with taking things a step further, but Ash had a point. That was exactly the type of thing that Giovanni did, and if there was one thing that Silver wanted most in the world it was to not be like his father. He wanted to be better than him, but he wasn't foolish enough to think that he'd be able to accomplish that by doing the exact same things that he did. If Silver wanted to be better than his father, he had to be different than him, which meant that he couldn't just attack anybody who angered him, no matter how much they may deserve it.
It took every bit of control that Silver had to hold back his attacks. He growled furiously. 'I hate him.'
"I know," Ash gave him a sad smile. "I get it. I don't really like him very much either. But just because you don't like somebody doesn't mean you have to attack them. You're better than that. You're better than him."
Silver finally allowed himself to relax, even if it was only just a little bit. Lt. Surge kept his grip firm for another minute before he finally let up a little bit. He was still restraining Silver, he just wasn't holding his wings back anymore.
As touching as this is, it is a waste of my time." Giovanni said as he put his hands in his pockets. Silver and Lt. Surge both tensed. If there was one thing that Giovanni didn't stand for, it was somebody or something wasting his time. He was also not the kind of person to casually put his hands in his pockets. He had to be reaching for something, and it couldn't be anything good.
Lt. Surge let go of Silver and ran towards Giovanni to stop him, but he had barely made it halfway there before Giovanni pulled a metal sphere about the size of a pokéball out. He tossed it over Lt. Surge and Ash, sending it straight towards Silver. It would have hit him, but it was knocked to the side with an ice attack. Silver didn't know exactly what the sphere did, but when he saw the way that it sparked when it hit the ground he was relieved that it hadn't hit him.
'Good work,' Silver looked gratefully at his Sneasel, who had put itself protectively, almost possessively, in front of Silver. Normally Giovanni wouldn't be put off from just a single pokémon, and certainly not a small Sneasel, but the man didn't move in to attack again. He stared in frozen fury at Sneasel. It was clear that Giovanni recognized this particular Sneasel.
"What do you think you're doing?" Giovanni glared at Sneasel in a way that would make most people or pokémon tremble and hurry to obey. Silver's pokémon was far too loyal to its proper trainer to even consider returning to Giovanni's side. Silver smirked proudly. Giovanni was a fool if he thought that Silver's pokémon would betray him.
'Is it time to destroy him yet?' Sneasel asked eagerly. It knew all too well about Silver's feelings about his father, and it was completely supportive of it.
'Unfortunately, no.' Silver said reluctantly. 'We'll get back at him, we'll just have to figure out a more creative way to do it.'
Lt. Surge knocked Giovanni back. "Trust me, boss, you don't want to try to capture him."
"Or you'll do what?" Giovanni didn't look the least bit amused.
"I won't have to do anything." Lt. Surge said. "The kid's always been able to take care of himself." Silver nodded. He didn't need somebody to fight his battles for him.
"Being with Ash has made you soft," Giovanni said. "You're talking about the young one like he's a human."
"That's 'cause he is." Ash said. Lt. Surge and Silver both gave him a sharp look. They didn't exactly want to reveal to Giovanni the exact nature of Silver's fate. Their warning was too late. Giovanni had heard him, and the damage had been done.
"A human?" Giovanni eyed Silver with even more dark fascination than before. The look made Silver feel sick. Most people would wave off Ash's claim that Silver was human as just a child's imagination, but Giovanni looked far too intrigued. Silver knew that, while it really didn't happen very often, he wasn't exactly the first person to be transformed into a pokémon. It wasn't something that was well understood.
Giovanni normally loved to explore concepts that others waved off as being mere fabrications and exaggerations, but he'd never seriously looked into turning people into pokémon. Giovanni had no interest in being a pokémon himself, and he didn't want to hand power to somebody else. Still, he wasn't about to let an opportunity like this pass him by.
"I was wondering why we had found a Lugia so young but not accompanied by a parent," The look in Giovanni's eyes almost made Silver shudder. He didn't want anybody to look at him like that, but especially not his father. "You're clearly young. What is a child doing walking around as a pokémon?" Giovanni's gaze wandered to Sneasel, who stood right at Silver's side. He then glanced at Lt. Surge. "These two don't give respect to just anybody."
Silver growled to himself. Giovanni knew who he was, or if he didn't, then it wouldn't be long before he figured it out.
Fortunately, before Giovanni could put the pieces together, storm clouds suddenly appeared above them. One seconds the skies were clear, the next it was so dark and gloomy it looked like it hadn't been sunny for several days. Silver felt a few drops of rain fall on him. Moments later a bolt of lightning came down and struck the ground. A small wall of flames came up from where the lightning had struck. The fire surrounded Silver. His Sneasel whined and leaned close to him.
Silver was just about to use his water to get free from the fire, but then he heard a roar that made him pause. Somehow, he recognized it to be Entei. The roar was angry and powerful, but he somehow found some comfort in it. He felt like the roar chased away any concern he was feeling about Giovanni.
All three of the legendary beasts came running to join them. Silver didn't know where they had been, why they had left, or why they had come back, but he didn't really care. He watched as Suicune dashed to Ash and stepped protectively in front of him. Raikou grabbed at Lt. Surge's shirt and pulled him away from Giovanni. Silver expected Entei to go to Blaine's side, so he was surprised when the fire beast calmly approached Silver instead. It walked right through the wall of fire and just looked at him for a long moment.
'What do you want?' Silver didn't like this kind of attention. Did Entei want or expect something from him? Whatever it was waiting for, it wasn't going to get it.
'This isn't your form.' Entei looked incredibly displeased. 'I don't have the power to fix it on my own.'
'I never asked you to.' Silver scowled. It took him a long moment to realize just what Entei had said. 'Wait, do you mean that you can fix it with help?'
Entei made a sound almost like a purr. It looked up to the sky, so did Suicune and Raikou. The clouds remained dark, but Silver saw a rainbow appear. It was pale and small, but it contrasted so much with the clouds that it was hard to miss. Something high up sparkled, and then seemed to disappear. A long moment later Silver saw the sparkle again, larger and closer this time. Something was up there, so small and falling so slowly that Silver could only see it when the light caught it just right.
Silver watched in quiet awe as the object fell. Eventually it was low enough that he could identify it as a feather. It fell slowly until it passed through Entei's fire. Somehow the rainbow feather didn't burn up. It lit on fire, but the fire was more of a golden glow than the red of Entei's fire.
The feather fell gently onto Silver's head, tingling and burning slightly at once. It felt weird. Not exactly bad or uncomfortable, just odd, like this was something that wasn't supposed to happen. Silver was blinded by a glowing light. When the light faded Silver felt drained, and yet full of so much energy he didn't really know what to do with it.
"Snea, Sneasel." Silver flinched ever so slightly as he felt Sneasel's claws on his arm, not because it hurt, but because it was his arm. Not a wing, not a talon, but an arm.
Silver held his breath for a tense moment as he looked at his hands. He was back to normal. The feather fell away from his hair. He bent down and picked up the rainbow colored feather. He looked at it in awe before looking up into the sky. The rainbow was gone, but he knew what had caused it, where the feather had come from, what had turned him back to normal.
"Ho-Oh." Silver smirked. He clutched at the feather tightly. "What power."
"...Silver?" The fire surrounding him died down to no more than embers. Silver groaned and glanced towards Giovanni. The way that the man was looking at him hadn't changed. It was like he only cared about just what use Silver could be to him.
"Father," Silver said with as much animosity as he could. That was as much acknowledgement as he was going to give the man. It was more than he deserved. Silver turned his attention back to the feather and twirled it slightly in his hand. He wondered just what else Ho-Oh was capable of. He couldn't wait to figure it out.
"Snea," Silver's partner looked up at him. After so many years, it was weird to not be able to understand pokémon. Still, Silver didn't miss it too much. He'd done just fine before this whole Lugia mess without understanding his pokémon, he had no doubt that he could manage it again.
"Silver?" Ash looked at him in confusion and slight caution. Silver didn't know what was bothering him.
"Nice to meet you properly." Silver gave him a small smile. Ash returned it shyly. "I suppose I should thank you for helping me." It had been nice to have an actual person around who understood him. He thought that Ash was incredibly immature and too soft, but he was kind, and still young. Sooner or later, life would teach him.
"I wasn't about to just leave you alone." Ash said. He looked at the feather almost nervously. He looked like he had a pretty good idea of what was on Silver's mind. "What are you going to do now?"
"Find a different way to get back at my father." Silver looked towards the trees where his other pokémon were. He could see them quickly coming towards him. All of them, even Magneton, were visibly excited. Gary and Ash's Totodile was skipping just behind them. It probably didn't know just what had happened, but everything seemed to excite that pokémon.
"You're going to go after Ho-Oh." Ash frowned in disapproval.
"I'm definitely going to try." Silver said. He'd spent the past few years as a Lugia, and for a large amount of that time he hadn't even known who he was. He needed to figure out who he was and what he wanted, and if he could manage that by taking something that his father wanted, that would be even better.
"You know how it feels to be captured for your power, and you want to do that to somebody else?" Ash asked.
"Pokémon are meant to be under human control." Silver said. "Why should legendary pokémon be an exception?"
Ash looked like he still disagreed, but he didn't know how to word a decent argument. Silver wasn't going to give him the time to figure it out. Silver's pokémon joined him and started nuzzling close to him. He would normally discourage such blatant affection, but it would make things easier.
Totodile cheerfully clung to his leg. Silver looked at Ash and raised an eyebrow. "Do you want your pokémon back?"
Ash rubbed the back of his neck. "Actually, I think Totodile would be happier with you. It really likes you."
"You think Gary would be fine with it? Silver asked.
"I'll deal with it." Ash said.
"If you insist." Silver looked at Totodile, who looked far too cheerful. He would have to work with Totodile, make sure it knew that he wouldn't tolerate any foolish behavior from his pokémon. "Tell Gary I look forward to seeing him again. We need to finish that battle of ours."
"Yeah, I'll do that." Ash chuckled. "I'll see you around.
Silver nodded and picked up Abra. "Let's get outta here." Abra opened its eyes. Silver felt some familiar psychic energy surround him and the pokémon around him. A moment later Abra's teleportation powers made them flicker and they were gone.
A/N: This chapter was hard to convince myself to write. I felt like it was way too deus ex machina-y, and yet I didn't know what else I was supposed to do. I had to get Silver back to normal, and it kinda makes sense for Silver to go back to normal thanks to Ho-Oh when he was turned into a Lugia by a Lugia in the first place.
I just had to make myself to not think about how stupid this stuff feels. It's just one of those chapters that I had to write without thinking too deeply about it. I'm sure when I go back and read it, it'll feel just fine and natural...maybe.