Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.

A guy could go slightly insane if kept like this. I had now been living in this world of the past for almost a week. Or at least I think it's been a week, everyday felt either longer or shorter then the last. What was more was that everything seemed a bit…repetitive. The past few days had started out the same way: wake up, get something to eat, went out to help Elizabeth, then go spend some time with Sakura. Although, I rather liked the time spent with her. Even though she couldn't see me, I still felt myself blush every time she walked by.

Even though we spent at least an hour together a day, I still hadn't told her about my past. I almost forgot until she reminded the past me a few days later. She had an almost angry look on her face as she said, "You aren't planning to squirm out of our deal are you?" I told her I'd tell her when I could, but I never seemed to have to time.

Even if it was slightly repetitive, I was could tell that the past me was starting to like living here. For once in my life, he felt like he belonged. A place I could call home. But even though he was happy, I still had that bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Several times, I kept getting the feeling that I was being watched. Especially when I was outside.

It was the middle of the night, on the forth, of fifth day. Even though I was just an invisible fly on the wall, I still felt the need to sleep. As I was just getting comfy, resting inside the cloth filled wardrobe, I thought I heard movement. Poking my head out, I saw that the past me was still awake. What was more, he was wearing his cloak, which he only wore when he was outside.

"What was I doing?" popped into my head as I stepped out into the room. Still watching him, I saw him walk towards the window. Slowly, he climbed onto the ledge, before leaping off. Running to the window, I saw him land safely in the backyard. My strong legs made it a safe landing.

I soon followed him, wondering what he was doing. He walked towards the centre of the garden, before calling out, "Sakura…Sakura! You here?" He called it a few more times, and still getting no answer. He looked like he was ready to go back, when a voice came from behind him.

"You called?"

Both of us nearly leapt out of our skins as she suddenly appeared behind us. She loved doing that and watching the past me freak out. As I calmed down, I noticed that she looked different. Her once pink hair was now a dark purple, covering most of her face. Her red hair ribbons were gone as well, now replaced by a large red ponytail on the back of her head.

"Sakura! You look…different."

"This is the first time you've ever seen me at night isn't it. Speaking of which, what are you doing out here so late?"

"I decided that it was about time I took you up on my half of the deal."

"You mean…"

"Yep. You told me your story, now it's time to for me tell you mine. Come on, let's take a seat on the gazebo."

Happy that I was finally willing to tell her about my self, she followed the past me over to the gazebo. I stayed a safe distance away; far enough that I could still hear what they were saying. As the past me started to tell his story, I once again got the strange feeling that I was being watched.

Ignoring it, I started to walk through the garden. Even though it was the middle of the night, the flowers all seemed to give off a kind of glow. As I continued to stroll around the garden, I found myself thinking back to the subject of karma. Was being stuck in this world of my memories some kind of punishment for something I had done? I started to knock off everything I could remember doing.

I started my list off with saving that little girl awhile back. Good. But I destroyed a car, then stole another one. Bad, bad. Possibly killed those hunters when I sunk their boats. May be bad. That may have accounted for the shot to the shoulder. I then got an Aipom to trick the hunters so I could escape, which led to him getting caught and tortured. Definitely bad. Help John cutting some firewood. Good. Saving Aipom. Good. Almost getting John and Mary killed. Bad. Saving them. Good.

Recounting, I found I had done more bad things around the time I got shot in the shoulder and passed out on John and Mary's floor. Then after I saved John and Mary, I still had five (maybe 4 1/2) bad things to 4 good things. Adding it up, maybe this was some punishment sent on me by Karma. A little harsh though…

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a sound coming from behind the stone wall separating the garden from the forest. It sounded like running, something obviously bigger then most of the Pokemon I had seen around here. Deciding it was time to investigate, I stepped through the stone wall into the forest.

Hearing more footsteps close-by, I followed the sounds of twigs snapping and the piles of crushed leaves and twigs. After a few minutes of following an obvious trail, I found myself in a large clearing. Looking around, I saw that I wasn't the only person here. A man around the age of 20, 25 was standing with his back to me, gasping for breath. As he turned around, I saw a flash of red on the front of his shirt. For a moment, I thought it was blood, but when I realised what it really was, my breath caught in my throat.

It wasn't blood on his shirt, it was a giant red R. This man was a member of Team Rocket! But what was he doing around here when his base was at least an hour and a halves walk from here.

I got my answer soon enough as a walkie-talkie went off in his pocket. I heard someone yell, "Grunt 425, are you there? What do you have to report?" Reaching into his pocket, he pulled the communicator out and placed it against his ear. Even with his against his head, I could still here what the other guy was saying.

"Yes, this is Grunt 425, and I have good news. I've found him." I heard silence on the other end for a few seconds, before the sound of a surprised man say, "Really? You found him?"

"Yes. He's currently staying near the town of Solculia. What's more, he has no idea that I know he's here. Now is the perfect time to strike."

"Good work Grunt 425. I see a promotion in your future. Now wait for further orders, I'm already sending some men who are stationed near-by. With their help, experiment M-36 will soon be back in our hands."

Wait a second…experiment M-36? But that's…that's…ME!! Experiment M-36 was the name I was given when I was kept at the base. It made it easier to see me as a project then a living breathing being. But if what the man had said was true, then that meant that Elizabeth and Sakura were in danger! Without even a second thought, I hightailed it back towards the house.

Even though this was a memory of the past, I felt that I had to warn them. If they weren't stopped, Sakura could…I pushed that thought from my head as I picked up speed. It only took me a few minutes to reach the garden, still hoping that I had made it in time.

I entered the garden just as the past me had finished telling my story to Sakura. She had a look of sympathy on her face, as I had probably told her about all the pain and suffering I had gone through while I was kept locked up in the base for years. I probably had the same look on my face as she told me her story.

"Wow. I would have never thought that you had been through that much."

"Ya. If I hadn't of escaped, who knows what more they would have put me through."

I hope I won't have to find out. Was the only thing I was thinking of as I tried to figure out a way I could warn them about the impending doom. Racing inside, I started to run through the halls, trying to figure out where Elizabeth's room was. My fear was overriding my common sense, for even if I knew where she was, I could do nothing to warn her.

After what felt like forever of searching, I still had not found Elizabeth's room. As I stopped for a moment to rest, a banging noise suddenly rang through the house. I grew silent as I heard the noise again, realising that it was the sound of someone knocking on the front door.

Moments after the second knock, I heard the sound of footsteps coming from the living room. Looking over, I saw Pringston making his way towards the door. I yelled out for him to stop, but of course, he didn't hear me. Grasping the doorknob, he slowly opened the door.

The moment the door was open, he stepped back, like he was shocked by what lay before him. As he took another step, I saw something long and red shoot from the doorway, hit him in the chest and knock him into the staircase. As his body hit the floor, I saw what looked like a red tentacle reel itself back into the doorway. I heard footsteps against marble as the men stepped into the hallway. I saw five grunts file in each carrying a strange looking weapon, before a sixth man walked in, except this guy wasn't a grunt.

He wore a pair of pitch-black sunglasses, hiding his eyes. His purple hair was gelled back and spiked at the back. His rocket uniform was cleaner and better looking then the grunts, the outer shirt reaching down past his waist. He wore a pair of black leather pants, almost identical to the ones I wore. This guy wasn't a grunt, he was an admin. But that wasn't the only thing he was. He was the one who had forced the most experiments on me and he was also the one I stole the main gate control from before my escape. Among all the rockets, he was the one I feared the most.

As they all stepped in, I heard the sound of a door unlocking. Looking up, I saw Elizabeth step out of the room at the far end of the hall, woken up from the ruckus in the hall. She was wearing a bright red nightgown, with gold dragons near the bottom. As she walked down the hall, I heard her call out the Pringston.

"Pringston, what is it? Is something ther…" she stopped talking the moment she reached the staircase. But it wasn't the fact that there were strange men in the room, or that Pringston was lying almost motionless against the wall. No, the moment she reached the stairway, she stared straight at the admin, a shocked look on her face. A smile spread across his face as he saw her standing there.

"Ah, Liz. It's good to see you after all this time."

"How dare you come back here!" she hissed at him. He just chuckled.

"What, after ten years, that's all you can say to me? I'm crushed."

"You're crushed? How do you think I felt when you left me? And Eric…How dare you just walk out on your own son!" I grew silent as those words left her mouth. His son? The admin that I feared so much was Eric's father!?

He let out another evil laugh. "That's history now. Right now I'm here on business. So why don't you make it easy for me and tell me where he is?"

"Where who is?"

"You know who. We know you're hiding M-36 here and we intend to take him back with us."

"I don't know what you're talking about. Now why don't you just take these men and get as far away from here as possible!"

"I'm afraid we can't do that." He gestured to his men before saying in an unemotional voice, "Tear this place apart. Destroy everything until you find him!" It was that moment, that by sheer bad luck, the past me walked into the hallway. The admin smiled once again.

"Well, I see that he's decided to give himself up. This just made my job much easier." He gestured to his men to advance, when suddenly, a ball of black energy struck the ground a few inches infront of them. They all turned, to see Pringston standing back up, a shadow ball in his hand.

"Run!!" was all Pringston said as he prepared to fire another shadow ball. Still frozen in fear, the past me didn't budge an inch. When the Shadow ball in Pringston's hand had grown to a well enough size, he tossed it like a baseball. As it neared the Team Rocket grunts, it suddenly curved in mid flight, before flying past me and hitting the other me in the gut, knocking him into a nearby table.

"Run!!" Pringston repeated, only more urgent this time. Now freed of my fear based paralysis, the other me quickly got up, before running back to the back yard, his only escape route as the Grunts had the front door blocked. As the Grunts prepared to chase after me, another Shadow ball came flying through the air, sending two of the Grunts flying back. One of remaining Grunts readied his weapon, aiming it towards Pringston. Pulling the trigger, a long red energy tentacle shot from the barrel of the weapon, heading straight for Pringston.

With great reflexes, Pringston dodged the energy tentacle before grabbing it in his right hand and pulling with great force. As he pulled, the Grunt pressed a button on the weapon, causing the tentacle to break off at the source. With the connection cut, the energy tentacle completely disappeared. He prepared to fire another shadow ball as the rest of the Grunts readied their weapons.

As Pringston prepared another attack, the Admin reached into his pocket and pulled something out of his pocket. What he held in his hand closely resembled a grenade, even though it was missing a pin. As he held it up, an evil grin appeared on his face.

"Try and dodge this!" was all he said before he flung the device towards Pringston. As it came towards him, a snapping noise could be heard as the device opened up in mid-air. It now looked like four sharp claws attached to a base. Before Pringston could react, the strange device latched itself onto Pringston's right arm. Seconds later, Pringston let out a scream of pain, as volts of electricity started to flow from the device into Pringston's body, surrounding him in a bright yellow aura. Seconds later, Pringston's unconscious and smoking body hit the ground.

"Pringston!" yelled Elizabeth as she raced down the stairs towards his unconscious body. As she knelt down to see if he was still alive, she looked up and looked right into the Admin's eyes.

"How could you do this Aaron!" She screamed at him. He just scoffed at her remark.

"Aaron…what a weak name. I gave up that name long ago when I joined Team Rocket."

"But you were always so kind and considerate. What happened to you?"

"What happened to me? I saw the truth. The moment Eric was diagnosed I realised that there was no justice in this world. Only power, the power to make what ever you wished a reality. In finding this power, I threw away my old shell of a self, to become the person you see before you. The Aaron you once knew is dead, now there is only Admin Venom!" He let out another evil laugh as he revealed his true name. As he finished laughing, he snapped his fingers and gestured to his men. Bringing up their weapons, they all fired off tentacles of energy, surrounding Pringston until a cocoon of energy had covered him completely. With one flick of a switch, Pringston's body was brought up, suspended by the tentacles of energy.

"This one will make a lovely test subject for our experiments." Chuckled Admin Venom.

"No!!" screamed Elizabeth, not wanting her friend to become a specimen in some experiment. Grabbing a pole broken off from a coat rack Pringston had crashed into, she charged towards the Admin. With one full swing, she brought it down towards his head.

What happened next, was something no one expected. As the pole came towards him, Admin Venom moved with almost in-human agility. Before the pole even came close to hitting him, he grabbed it in his left hand. Tightening his grip, iron pole split in half, like it was made of wood. With the same speed, he thrust his right hand out and grabbed Elizabeth by the neck, lifting her off the ground.

She gasped for breathe, trying to loosen the grip on her throat by scratching his hands, but his grip only seemed to get tighter.

"What…what are you…doing?" She choked out as she tried to breathe with his hands on her throat.

"I'm afraid you've been a thorn in our side for too long. Rescuing experiments that come through here, I'm surprised it took this long to catch you!"

"They were humans too!"

"Humans? Don't make me laugh. They were just tools for us to use in battle. There was nothing human about them. And you sought to save them, how very noble of you. But also foolish, and now is the time for you to be dealt with…" He trailed off as he reached into his pocket. Seconds later, he pulled out a loaded gun.

"…for good."

I turned away as the next events took place. All I heard was a gasp, before the sound of a trigger being pulled, followed by a loud bang. I heard the sound of blood spatter, striking the walls all around me. The sound of something heavy being dropped could soon be heard, before the entire hallway was filled…with the sound of maniacal laughter.

I turned back around, and shut my eyes almost immediately. As the sound of maniacal laughter stopped, I heard Venom speak to his men.

"You two take the subject to the car, while the rest of you follow me. Also, once you're finished loading the "cargo"…torch this place." They all responded with a "Yes sir!" Before I heard footsteps running off in different directions.

"Soon, " I heard Venom speak up, "Soon project M-36 will be back were he belongs. With us, the great Team Rocket!" I could no longer listen, as I raced from the room towards the backyard. As I entered into the backyard, I saw that it was completely vacant. I knew the past me had run, but what about Sakura? What had happened to her? Was she okay? Oh…how I hoped she was alright…

End Chapter