A/N: I love university. No parents, no bedtimes…Stupid non-portable technology, lectures at weird times…It's an experience.
Miah Tolensky: The Eevee is on to her and how!
VMorticia: Yes, the pun was awful. I'm assuming that since the clones were created with enhanced powers, assumingly they were created with higher IQs. Take my warped logic any way you want. And don't pick holes in it.
Princess Myuu: Sashara's background is part of her secret, but it's what happened before she was frozen that gets interesting…And glad you like!
Mystic Mewtwo: I try not to reveal secrets in the R&R section. Spoils the fun and the death threats. But a spark has come up and I'm milking it.
Gregory Stephen/nightdragon0: Weird romance is my speciality. That and dry sarcasm.
Crimson Fuchsia: Of course she's enigmatic. I have to create a decent complex! But needless to say, the Eevee and Mew are pretty important players in this fic.
Light Sneasel: Ah, wait and see…Man, I hate being cryptic.
Disclaimer: I own Sashara and the Eevee. Anything else sadly isn't mine. Damn.
Italics denote Pokemon speech
/Italics/ denote telepathy
Forgotten: Part 5
Far from being discouraged from Sashara's lack of emotion and apparent dislike, the little Eevee had become more determined than ever to befriend my predecessor. I could see that she was desperately trying to hold her temper in check around the fox-like Pokemon that had become her shadow for the past few weeks.
The child of two cloned Pokemon...the natural creation of life from two shadows.
A half-shadow.
Penumbra.
It fitted the young one well.
Sashara had disappeared somewhere after our training, presumably trying to find food. Penumbra was curled up in a patch of grass, grooming one of its paws while I hovered a few feet from the ground and telepathically searched out the lifesigns of my fellow clones.
The young one's ancestry intrigued me. Given its ability to perform Charm, I had a fair idea of who its father was.
/Pikachu…/
I felt the small Pokemon's mind reach out tentatively towards my own. /Mewtwo…it's been a while. Has something happened?/
/Do not be alarmed. I merely wished to make a small enquiry./
/How small are we talking?/
/Namely…Vaporeon./
Pikachu's thought processes immediately grew panicky. /Vaporeon? What's happened to her? Is she alright?/
As I thought. /She still lives. As does a Pokemon I did not expect to see./
/…Ah./ If a Pokemon could psychically blush, Pikachu's cheeks would have been turning crimson rather than their normal deep red. /I was going to mention that, I really was…/
/Calm yourself my friend. I merely wished to confirm the parentage./
I repressed the small smile creeping over my face. /The child takes after you, I must say./
/Stubborn and persistent then./ The electric Pokemon was quicker in mind than I had given him credit for.
/Sashara certainly appears to be baring the brunt of your offspring's persistence./
/Who's Sashara? …Wait. That's a…You brought some human to Mount Caina!?/
Evidently I couldn't conveniently drop the subject. /Firstly, she's a clone like us. Part human/part Pokemon. Secondly, I rescued her from Team Rocket's Cerulean base. Thirdly, she's been restrained. She can't leave the mountain, and she can't use her powers./
/What happened to the Mewtwo who refused to have any contact with humans?/
/People and Pokemon change./
Pikachu psychically groaned. /You've got feelings for her./
/Maybe, maybe not. And what makes you so certain that I care about her?/
/'People and Pokemon change?' To me, that screams pheromones./
Enlightening and embarrassing as this little exchange was, I could feel Sashara's power fluctuating slightly. Only food or her temper could ever produce that kind of change. /I must let you return to your life, as I must return to mine./
/Just be careful, old friend./
/I will./
Coming out of my self-induced trance required little effort. Penumbra was already standing, its dark eyes shining with concern. You felt it too?
'Indeed. The instability of her mind means that her lifesigns are capable of fluctuating, but not like this. If anything, this fluctuation feels…unnatural.'
You think she might be…somehow…making her lifesigns change?
I sighed and scooped the little fox into my arms. 'It's a possibility. But as for how…'
"Extreme psychotic tendencies" was perhaps an understatement in describing Sashara's mental condition. Her powers and body might be restrained, but as for her mind and her will…The two made a dangerous combination.
The only sound that could be heard was the rush of water. Otherwise, she seemed to have vanished as she did so often. Humans and Pokemon had very different notions of what constituted privacy. As for hybrids, whichever side was dominant generally influenced their attitudes.
A feeling of vague discomfort made itself apparent in my mind. Why and how did not occur to me, but the discomfort was not my own.
If anything, it felt like a projection. A human or Pokemon's mind connecting with my own.
Only a few beings had the ability to do this. Mew's whereabouts after her visit were currently unknown, and none of the Legendaries were attempting to communicate.
Penumbra, unless it had been hiding some of its abilities, was not capable of projection.
Sashara…
The feeling of unease changed rapidly from mild discomfort to intense pain. Penumbra barely managed to move out of the way before I collapsed, one paw clutching my head in agony. If this was just a projection…
The pain subsided as quickly as it had begun. Blinking back the fluid in my eyes, I straightened up and concentrated.
The projection had come from the mouth of one of the smaller tunnels under Mount Caina.
If Sashara was hurt or even…
No. I had long since grown out of my defeatist attitudes. Sashara was a survivor. A clone such as I was.
She would be unharmed, or else I would make the ones who caused her suffering wish for an early death.
A smell…a scent. One I knew all too well.
A coppery tang…
I could smell blood.
Sashara was slumped across a boulder near the mouth of the cave systems, clutching her arm in a semi-defensive posture. Dark red fluid was pulsing slowly down her gauntlet, dripping onto the dark soil below.
Deciding to risk a blast to the head, I knelt by her and began to psychically clean the wound. Penumbra sat next to her, its paws resting against her leg. Occasionally it would lick her hand as a gesture of comfort, but if my predecessor felt the young one's touch, she didn't acknowledge it.
She stirred, opening one eye long enough to glare at me. '…Don't need…your…help…'
'Why do you insist on rebuffing all of my attempts at friendship? You and I are the same. All we have in this world is each other.'
I tried not to add a comment about any feelings causing the need to care for her.
'We aren't the same. We can never be the same.'
'It never hurts to try.'
She stood up and leant against the cave wall. 'Just…leave me alone.'
Penumbra scooted over to sit beside me. We both care about you. That's why we're not leaving you.
'If you care about me, then you'd know that I want to be alone.'
I looked at her calmly. 'True. But what kind of companion would leave a person with a wound in their arm, clearly self-inflicted and with a hypodermic needle buried halfway under their skin?'
Shock and resignation were written over her darkly beautiful features.
'I believe I am owed an explanation.'
An explanation I later wished I had never heard.
TBC