Chapter Two

Team Xana (thankfully) hadn't moved their headquarters. It was hard to forget where it was, even after five years, after being the only one of your friends who had made it out alive. Memories of that day still haunted me in my dreams, and I hadn't gotten a good night's sleep in quite some time. But that just made it easier for me to find the fortress now.

I spent most of my childhood in New Bark Town, but, as a teenager, I was always on the road. I forgot the smell of my room and the walls and the floors and the food my mom used to make for dinner. Sometimes I couldn't even remember what my house looked like, and for that, I was embarrassed and regretful. Even though I loved my journey, which eventually led me to becoming Champion and stopping Team Rocket, I wished I had spent more time at home. I wished I had spent more time at New Bark Town.

So, it was funny coming back. I felt like a child again with my hair cut in a poorly trimmed bob (since I had to do it myself, it hadn't turned out too well) that my mom used to love before I begged her to let me grow it out and got pigtails. And walking into the town feeling so lost in my surroundings, it was like coming to New Bark Town for the first time, this time without my mom to help me settle in.

I found it subtly ironic that Team Xana built their major headquarters in my hometown. That was how Ethan, Silver, and I had accidentally stumbled upon it in the first place. Ethan and I wanted to return home to see if anyone had survived and gone back to New Bark Town, but we found it abandoned—except for the underground entrance to their headquarters within Professor Elm's lab, found by moving the loose tile on the floor beside his computer.

To anyone passing by the town, Professor Elm's lab was an abandoned wreck on the verge of collapsing to the ground. But to those who knew better, like me, it was the beginning of the end for Team Xana. They left themselves vulnerable by keeping such an obvious location as their headquarters (though, since no one was left to oppose them other than me, they weren't really all that vulnerable).

I couldn't waste time looking around the remains of New Bark Town, despite how much I wanted to. I didn't have time to go find the pathetic remnants of my house, though I wouldn't recognize it even if it still existed. So, I snuck into Professor Elm's lab instead, the door creaking as I opened it and shut it behind me.

The humming of electricity flowed somewhere beneath the floors, and I tiptoed over to the computer to find the loose tile. It didn't take long to find. As soon as I stepped near the computer, a tile broke beneath me, and I fell into the floor, tripping down the long flight of wooden makeshift stairs that led to their headquarters.

"Ouch," I murmured when I reached the bottom of the stairs. The hole in the ground transformed into a beautiful room with clean white walls and marble floors. It looked like a castle, which was not what I had remembered. Back when we had first entered this base, the walls were held up with wooden panels, the floors just earth. Now it looked ornate and classy.

I stood up, rubbing my butt and making sure none of my Poké Balls had fallen off my belt. Then, stepping forward, I glanced around, making sure no intruder alarms would go off. But as I walked through the room, nothing happened. I began to feel more and more uncomfortable as I made it over to a large wooden door and opened it to reveal a long hallway. There had to be booby traps there.

Yet, again, nothing happened as I walked down the hallway, one hand on my first Poké Ball just in case. Dropping my hand from my Poké Ball, I walked all the way down the hallway, trying to find something familiar. This was all so different from when we had been there, and I felt lost in this unfamiliar territory.

I opened another door at the end of the hallway, walking into a much larger space filled with people in lab coats. Before I could shut the door and escape, someone stepped in front of me, arms crossed over her chest. Her long blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and young face made her appear innocent, but I was already scared for my life.

"You," she said to me, and even with that one word, I could tell she had a thick accent. I held my breath, hiding my Poké Balls beneath my long shirt. "What are you doing here? You should be at the Pokémon Conversion Center. What do you think you're doing coming over to the labs?" She smiled then, flipping her blonde hair. "Oh, you are interested in the progress we are making, yes? Ah, I don't blame you. The PCC seems so dreadfully boring."

"Right," I responded, smiling back at the woman. If I didn't want to die, I would just have to play along for now. I didn't know what the Pokémon Conversion Center was, but this lady obviously thought it was lame compared to the science labs. "I've always wanted to work in the labs, so I just wanted to see what was happening."

The lady laughed, flipping her hair again. "Yes, yes. Everyone wants to work in the labs. But only the best of the best work here." She stepped away from the door, allowing me into the lab space. It truly looked amazing. There were little sectors spread out around the room, and a giant spaceship in the center of the room pointed up to a hole in the ceiling.

"Over there," she said in her accent, pointing to a group of people working over test tubes, "are some of the members of previous Elite Fours throughout the world. They are quite talented. So, of course they work in the science labs! If you want to be one of us, you have to be able to hold your own against people like them. Which, well… I'm not sure you could. But I try not to judge people by their appearances, yes?" She giggled, but I continued to stare off at the group she had pointed to. I didn't recognize most of them, but I could see Will—who I had fought—among them. How could he have betrayed everyone else?

"We are finalizing the coordinates in space for our launch to Andromeda. It has taken many years, but the time has finally come for the trip out of the galaxy. In fact, we had the ability to go for quite some time, but there was one little detail stopping us from launching." She waited for my response before she continued, and I raised an eyebrow to humor her. "Time. We have to narrow the space-time continuum in order to make this trip possible. So, we're still putting the finishing touches on the equation. We'll send a simulated test run through the computers, and then we will be good to go!"

"You're not sending an actual test flight? What if it works on the computer but the actual flight doesn't work?" I asked, continuing to stare at Will. But as he glanced over at the lady and me, I dropped my gaze, hoping he wouldn't recognize me.

The lady shrugged her shoulders. "Oh well."

All the lives that could be lost through this mission… it was very possible that human bodies could not handle the change in time, and everyone aboard the flight could perish. But… well, that wouldn't be such a bad thing. It would make my revenge that much easier, especially if Clay was aboard that flight.

But what about Will? He never seemed bad to me.

"Madam Allison, you're needed," a man said, walking over to the lady and bowing. I furrowed my eyebrows, looking at the woman, Allison. Well, she was clearly an important person to Team Xana if people were bowing to her. "They found an error in the equation, and they want to see if you can find the problem."

Allison frowned, shaking her head sadly. "Can't you boys do anything right? Why must I solve all of your problems for you?" She turned back to me, giving me a small smile. "I'm sorry. It seems I must be returning to work. I advise you to do the same before one of the PCC Admins find you. They won't be happy to hear about you snooping around in the science labs. Good luck to you!" She waved at me before following the man who had summoned her, yelling at him in her thick accent, barely understandable.

I took one last look at Will before scurrying out of the room. I still didn't understand why he would want to join Team Xana. He was always so nice to me whenever I visited Lance and the others at the Indigo Plateau, and Team Xana's ideologies didn't seem particularly nice at all. In fact, they had killed thousands of people—they had even killed Lance. How could Will be all right with that? It didn't make sense.

And it didn't make sense that Allison was so friendly. She was clearly an Administrator of the Science Labs, considering the man had bowed to her. All of the Team Rocket Admins had been cold and violent. But Allison… she seemed like a normal girl who probably had a lot going for her without Team Xana.

I just didn't get it.

I couldn't think about it now. I needed to find Clay without getting caught. So, opening another door, I glanced into the room. It was filled with Pokémon and more Pokémon, with a few humans scattered here and there in between the Pokémon and machines. Was this the Pokémon Conversion Center? This definitely wasn't there when I first came here.

Well, if Allison had thought that I came from the PCC, then perhaps I could pull it off. I was dressed just as normally as the rest of the people in the room, so maybe I could blend in and just ask someone if they knew where Clay's office was. Unless Clay was an Administrator, too… but I would be screwed if he was. I needed him alone.

"Hey, get back to work!" someone shouted at me, and I gasped, hurrying into the room. Someone pushed me towards one of the machines, but when I turned around, the person who had pushed me just blended in with the rest of the people walking around. Clearly, my disguise—which hadn't really been planned as a disguise at all—was working.

I faced the machine again, looking at the person beside me. "Excuse me," I whispered, noting that the PCC was dead quiet other than the occasional cry from a Pokémon. The man beside me stared at me with frightened eyes, and I grimaced. "Could you just tell me where I might find Clay? I need to speak to him about… er, something."

The man's eyes widened, and he shook his head violently, turning back to his machine and continuing his work in silence. I put my hands on my hips; well, that was rude. People were quite strange here in Team Xana, but with a name like that, I wasn't particularly surprised. Still, they were making my infiltration difficult.

Someone cleared his throat behind me, and I winced, pressing a button on the machine in front of me. "Nice try. I'm going to need you to come with me. We need to have a discussion with Clay about your behavior. Talking during work, loitering around, and disobeying an Admin's orders… you're causing quite a bit of trouble."

I furrowed my eyebrows as I turned around to face the Admin. That voice sounded… familiar… but I didn't know why I would know it. The only Team Xana member I knew was Clay (and now Allison, but seeing as this was a guy, it definitely wasn't her).

Looking at the man, I gasped, putting my hands over my mouth to stop myself from vomiting. Because I really just wanted to lie down and get sick. I couldn't believe who was standing in front of me, and I closed my eyes to try to erase the image now burning in front of my eyes. It couldn't be him! It couldn't! He died! But when I opened my eyes back up, he was alive. He was definitely the man standing in front of me.

"Silver?" I muttered, and he looked just as shocked as I felt.

"Champion Lyra?" he asked, and I whimpered, feeling tears begin to burn in my eyes. He was alive! He was alive! I wanted to wrap my arms around him and run away with him. Because Silver was alive! Screw revenge. Silver's life was more important and more precious to me then my plan to get even.

But when he just smirked, reaching out and grabbing my wrist with painful force, I changed my mind. Like Will, he was completely different. "How interesting," Silver said, dragging me away from the machine. I resisted, trying to pull myself away from him, but he didn't even budge. Pulling me into an empty area, he closed his eyes, and within moments, like teleportation, we were in a completely different room.

What the hell was that?

Author's Note: Yup, you guessed it! Silver is a member of Team Xana now! What is going on with all of these good guys going bad? Will, Silver… Don't worry! All your questions will be answered eventually! (Like, why the heck did Silver just teleport like an Abra? Or, more importantly, HOW?)

Chapter three coming soon!

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon!