Chapter Four

I awoke to find myself in a damp room carved cleanly out of the earth; unlike the rest of the rooms in the headquarters, Team Xana hadn't built their white walls around this room, instead keeping it all-natural. But the dirt from the ground was all over my clothes and body now, and it was so cold in the room that I shivered.

"Hello?" I called out to the darkness, unable to see more than ten feet in front of me. I couldn't tell how long or wide the room was, and I still felt too dizzy to get up and look around. This had to be the dungeon that Clay kept mentioning, but somehow, I imagined it to be more like a castle dungeon, with concrete floors and metal bars.

What had happened back there? What had Silver done to me to make me become overwhelmed by vertigo? He just clapped his hands in front of me, and I immediately became dizzy and disoriented. And earlier Silver had literally teleported. What did that mean? What had Team Xana done to him? I couldn't even wrap my head around it. It seemed so completely ridiculous that Silver could have joined them, yet he did.

It was a funny thing. "Who in their right mind would actually join them?" Silver had told me after he, Ethan, and I had escaped that first time. "They're asking for volunteers based on who can beat them, but no one would ever join them. Not after the Team Rocket fiasco. I mean, I could probably whoop their asses. But I would never join them." Now, look where he was. I didn't know why it was so funny to me, but I couldn't help but laugh aloud about it.

Then, feeling so angry, I kicked my legs against the ground in a tantrum, screaming out in fury. Why did everything bad in the world have to involve me? Was it selfish of me to wish that, for once, I could just stop caring and live the life I didn't get to lead? Screw Silver, screw my championship, screw my Pokémon! I just wanted to be a normal girl!

Oh no. No, I didn't mean that. No, I loved my Pokémon, and I loved Silver. I just—

Wait. Where were my Pokémon?

I reached up my shirt, feeling for my belt, only to find it missing. I rubbed my hands against the dirt floor, searching everywhere for my Poké Balls. My breath became uneven, and my vision started to blur as tears welled in my eyes. But I just picked up rocks, no Poké Balls, and I realized Clay had been completely serious. Silver had taken my Pokémon from me. All of them—gone, like they had never been there at all.

No, I was wrong about revenge. Even knowing Silver was alive, I would get my revenge on Team Xana for killing my friends and family, for destroying Silver's heart, for taking my Pokémon, for capturing me. I didn't know how I would do it, but I would completely annihilate all of them. Including Silver if he got in the way. Because he had been part of this. I didn't know what they did to him, but if he was permanently like this, he was going down with them.

"Really, Lyra? You would do that to me?" Silver's voice asked from somewhere, and I glanced around my cell. Silver held a flashlight, putting it to his face and lighting it ominously. Then, smirking, he dropped the flashlight from his face and walked closer to me, setting something down in front of me and pulling something else out from his pockets.

How did he know what I was thinking? What was going on with him?

He lit a match, putting it into the object he had placed in front of me. The lantern lit up the whole cell, and I could now see how tiny it really was. Plus, other than the tiniest hole in the wall (which I surely could not fit through), there was no exit. There was plenty of room for Silver and me, but I was used to having a pretty big room at my house in New Bark Town. Not to mention carpeting and plastered walls in the place of earth.

"Sorry. I know it's not exactly a palace, but it's what we have." Silver blew out the match, waving it in the air to dissipate the smoke. "Actually, all of the members of Team Xana get their own rooms. This place pretty much expands beneath all of what used to be New Bark Town. Then, the Admins and I get our own suites. Clay, of course, gets a whole wing to himself, but that's because he's the boss."

I shook my head, completely bemused. I understood everything he was talking about, but I didn't understand why. Nor did I understand how the hell he knew everything I was thinking before I actually said anything. "What?" My voice was a little hostile, and I bit my lip. It was weird speaking to my old friend like a new enemy.

Silver crossed his arms, moving the lantern and sitting down across from me. I scooted away. "I'm not an enemy, Lyra. I know this is all very weird, but can you just trust me?"

"Trust you?" I demanded, pushing Silver away with my hands and rising to my feet. Another wave of disorientation passed through me, and I wobbled. Silver stood and steadied me, but I just pushed him away again, slapping him on the arm. Then, unable to stop myself, I began to cry, feeling like a little girl instead of a twenty-one-year-old woman far more mature than this. "Are you kidding me? Are you serious?"

Silver backed away as I went in for another swing towards his head. If I had to, I would knock his head off his shoulders like a snowman. "I thought you were dead! I thought you and Ethan had both died here, and I come back five years later to find out that you are an Admin for them! And you're asking me to trust you? I don't think so. You might have been my friend, but I am not letting you trick me that way."

He narrowed his eyes, something strange flashing through them, and before I knew what was happening, he pinned me against the wall. His face inches from mine, I held my breath as he put an arm against my throat. This definitely wasn't the Silver I remembered. He might have been violent before, but he had never intentionally wanted to hurt me.

"Don't talk to me like that, bitch."

I gasped at his language, surprised that he would speak to me like that even if we weren't friends anymore. The disorientation swept through me again, but I couldn't fall. Instead, I let my head bob, hitting Silver's face. For a moment I must have passed out because I awoke on the ground, though it seemed like no time had passed.

"I'm sorry," Silver said in a softer voice when I sat up—slowly, since sitting up too quickly hurt my head. His eyes were completely different now, and I knew the apology was sincere. "I just… Oh, man, there are so many things I want to tell you, and I can't. If I tell you, they'll just… Lyra, just please try to trust me. I know it will be hard, but I'm just asking you to try."

"No."

"Ly—"

"You just tried to choke me, you asshole! And you're still expecting me to trust you? I think not. Plus, you've taken everything from me. My best friend is gone, and my Pokémon are gone." I stopped, unable to continue. Silver looked away from me, staring at the lantern instead. If he couldn't even face what he had done, this was completely wrong.

Then, sighing, he rubbed his red eyes. "There are a few things I can tell you." He finally turned back to me, his eyes flashing with something else again. "No, I can't tell you a thing! You're disgusting, trying to get me to tell you things. Are you some kind of witch? Leave me alone!" I narrowed my eyes, but his eyes flashed again. "Wait, no, I can tell you."

This wasn't right. These seemed like more than just simple "mood swings". I honestly had no idea what to make of this. "What's going on?"

"Damn it, Lyra, don't talk to me like that," Silver continued, and I scooted away from him. He sighed, putting his hands against his forehead as if he was in pain. "Shit, I better spit this out quickly. I lost when I battled them that day five years ago, but I had battled Henry, who is one of the two Admins in the Science Labs. He told me that I could be useful to the organization, and if I didn't join them, I would die just like Ethan."

Crossing my arms, I shook my head. It was such a stupid thing. How could I have trusted him before if he could be so easily swayed? Wasn't it better to die trying than give yourself over to the enemy? After watching so many people die, how could he possibly join Team Xana? Was he crazy? I didn't entirely understand anymore.

"So, you betrayed us."

"No, of course not—how dare you—crap." Silver smacked his fists against the ground, and several pebbles from the ceiling fell. "I thought it would be a good idea to join them as a means of destroying them from the inside. I never wanted to join them, Lyra. It was always my intention to make this defeat quick. In fact, I have a feeling that a lot of people joined them initially because they wanted to destroy them. Like some of the Elite Four members that are here. Agatha from the old Indigo Plateau league, Will from the Indigo Plateau league, Drake and Sidney from the Hoenn league, Aaron from the Sinnoh league, and Caitlin from the Unova league are all here. Everyone else is gone."

Everyone? How could so many Elite Four members just perish like that? And those that remained, were they truly working for Team Xana now with the idea that they were going to get rid of them? If they were, it seemed as if that amount of power could easily overthrow Clay and the other Admins. Even Silver. If they all ganged up on them at once…

"So, why has it taken you five years? And why do you keep freaking out every two seconds? It seems like there's a lot more going on than you're letting on, and I think I have a right to know. So, if you think for one minute that I am going to let you stop there, you're so wrong! I want to know everything, or else I won't trust you."

"I can't," he hissed through gritted teeth.

"Why?" I yelled at him, picking up one of the pebbles from the ground and throwing it at him. He winced, chucking it back at me. "Why not? Do they have you freaking brainwashed or something? Do they have you wired? What's happened?"

"No, I just… can't. Listen, when I agreed to join them, they listed me as an Admin. Why would they have done that if they feared losing control of me? Clearly I'm not the type of guy who would just join willingly. They knew that." Then, in a softer voice, he added, "Obviously you don't, but that's a different story."

I narrowed my eyes, and he put his fingers to his temples, rubbing them. "I'm not betraying anyone, Lyra. Team Xana is stronger than you think, and there is no way that you can take them on alone—or maybe even at all. It's not brainwashing, and it's not wiring. It's me. Everything that Team Xana has done… I just can't say. Especially not to you. The last Champion cannot be allowed to know any inside information."

"What? The last what?" Did I just hear him correctly, or was my brain fooling me. I could have sworn he had said last Champion, but that didn't make much sense. How could Team Xana gotten to Hoenn and Sinnoh and Unova? How could they have taken over everything? But, then again, Silver had mentioned that the Elite Fours of every region had vanished.

Silver darted his eyes away from mine, staring at the wall with the hole in it. "You heard me correctly," he assured me, and I covered my mouth with my hands. "Champion Lance of Johto, Champion Blue of Kanto, Champion Red of Kanto, Champion Steven Stone of Hoenn, Champion Wallace of Hoenn, Champion Brendan of Hoenn, Champion Cynthia of Sinnoh, Champion Dawn of Sinnoh, and Champion Adeku—all dead. Team Xana has eliminated them all and taken hold of their Pokémon and remaining assets."

He finally looked up at me, his eyes cold. "You're the only remaining Champion in the entire world. But that won't last too long."

Author's Note: Poor Lyra. And poor Lance and Steven Stone (and the other Champions…)! I have recently taken a new liking to Steven after replaying Sapphire while I was home over Thanksgiving break. I think Steven and May make a cute couple! Why am I into pairing with huge age gaps (Lance/Lyra being my obvious favorite)? I try to just ignore them and pretend like ten-year-old children do not go out on adventures.

Speaking of that, ten years old is, like, fourth or fifth grade in the United States (which is still elementary school). Would you let your fourth grader go off alone where they could potentially fall in love with handsome older men like Lance and Steven? I think not. I have this conversation a lot. Sorry.

Okay, I have some very important information: I will now have a stagnant update schedule. I will update every SATURDAY. This is to ensure that you get an update every single week from me. I've been updating quickly lately, but with finals coming up, I won't have very much time to write. And I'll probably work during my vacation, so updates would have been slow without this schedule. I will NOT be updating on Christmas, however (expect an extra update that Tuesday or something), but I will update on New Year's Day.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.