Chapter Nine

Before Silver could let go of my arm and teleport away again, I grabbed his other arm, forcing him to look at me. "Wait," I began, and Silver winced. I could feel him subtly pulling his arm, slowly trying to extract himself from my grip to escape. "What's being moved to tomorrow? What's happening tomorrow, and why does it involve me? Is anyone going to be hurt?"

"Lyra, let go of me. I need to leave—I can't help you anymore." Silver tugged harder at his arm now, but I just tightened my grip. He glared at me, and I could tell that the other side of him would be coming out soon. I needed to talk fast, but he was making it too hard to think. Why couldn't he realize that he had a choice here?

Then, something in my brain clicked. "Silver, you are human! You have free will; you don't have to listen to anyone but yourself. So, stop being Clay's pawn and fight back! You don't have to listen to him! Follow your own heart! You're human!" He shook his head, and I sighed. If I couldn't get him to respond through words, maybe I could get him to respond through actions.

So, releasing his arm and quickly moving my hands around to the back of his neck, I pushed his head forward towards mine, kissing him to prove how human we both were. Love had to be stronger than any bond Clay had created, and only humans could have something that beautiful and powerful between them. Silver had the choice here to have me or lose me, and he had already had the second one once before. I wasn't planning on losing again.

And, for a moment, he kissed me back. I felt a sort of shift in him, and his hand managed to move around my waist to my back. But another second passed, and he pushed away from me, shoving me against the dirt wall and vanishing without another word. And I was left alone again, rejected. I lost to Clay. Again.

I banged my fist against the dirt wall, screaming in frustration. "Damn it!" I shouted, annoyed that Clay's hold on Silver was stronger than this. Because I really did love Silver. Even though sometimes, particularly here, I was scared to death of him, I never really forgot how I once felt about him. Back in our teenage days, when none of this had happened, I admired him. I prayed that part of him was still there.

A piece of rock fell against my foot, and I jumped, scared if only because I didn't know what it was at first. But I looked at the hole in the wall, my one source of (little) light and air, seeing that the chunk of rock had fallen away from the edge of the hole when I had banged my fist against it. Why hadn't I thought of this before?

But I knew Clay would figure out what I was up to. He knew everything that was going on in the headquarters all the time, and he would find out what I was up to by breaking away the wall around the hole, just enough that I could squeeze through it. It wasn't a big hole, probably only six inches in diameter, so I would need time. And time was something I didn't have when Clay knew exactly what I was doing.

"Wait," I said to myself, pausing and holding up a finger, shaking it at the hole. "Clay took on Mew's abilities, which makes him a Psychic-type. Theoretically. And this means that he knows what is going on around here through thoughts, not actions. My actions would be completely invisible to him if I blocked out my mind."

So, doing the only thing I knew how to do to distract my mind away from chipping at the wall, I started singing any random song and lyrics that popped into my head. Belting it out, I broke away at the wall, grabbing chunks of dirt and rock and throwing it to the ground beside me. The hole was becoming larger and larger, and I could almost fit my head through it now. Which, of course, wasn't good enough. I needed to keep going.

I managed to break the hole larger enough to barely squeeze through, but before I could even hop up into the hole, Clay appeared in front of me, blocking the hole from me. He put a hand on my shoulder, smiling at me, and I squirmed, trying to pull away from him. But he just slid the hand so his whole arm wrapped around my shoulders, holding me like we were best friends.

"I'm going to let you in on something, Lyra." He continued to grin at me, and I eyed the hole as he turned me around to face it. "You can't control thoughts. But therein lies the beauty of having Mew's powers instead of any other legendary. I have the power to organize my own thoughts and read anyone else's in this building. It's wonderful. And Mew came to us; we didn't even need to go searching for it. Even better, yes?"

"No," I hissed, and Clay just laughed lightly.

"Well, of course not to you: the heroine. Anything I am going to do will seem wrong to you, no matter how right I think I am. Not that I really care." He patted my cheek with his free hand, and I wanted to bite him. "Your thoughts are not a secret, Lyra. I knew everything you were doing down here. The fact that you basically told me you were going to break the hole, and added that you would sing to stop me from hearing… well, that didn't stop me at all. You're human. You can't control your thoughts like I can."

I narrowed my eyes as he spun me again to face him, moving his arm from around my shoulder to just a hand holding my elbow. "Clay, what's so wrong with being human? We have so many talents already. Why do we need the powers of Pokémon to make us better? Why can't we just… live together like we did? There was so much more peace then."

Clay shook his head, and I felt his fingers move up my arm a little, brushing softly against my skin to make me shiver. "The only one breaking the peace is you. There was so much peace here before you came along. But we still need you, so I am glad you showed up, nonetheless." He took his other hand and placed it under his chin, trying to look thoughtful. "Humans were created as flawed beings. Taking the powers from Pokémon prevents us from being so anymore."

"But you're still flawed!" I exclaimed, and Clay looked bothered by my statement. "It doesn't matter what you do to yourself; humans are always going to be flawed individuals because we have the ability to think. You're taking that away from everyone, making yourself the ruler—the only one who has choice. And if the ruler is flawed, then so are they. That's all there is to it. You'll never be perfect. You might have the world, and someday the universe, but you will never be perfect."

"Wrong, Lyra, you're so wrong. I don't—hey!"

I tore away from his grip, jumping through the hole in the wall as fast as I could. I knew he could just teleport in front of me, but a part of me knew that he wasn't going to. He was going to let me run for now because he knew I would never get any more information. But it was only when I attempted to escape the headquarters that he would appear for me again. He would send his lackeys to do the rest now.

He grabbed my ankle, though, as I jumped through the wall. I kicked violently, thrashing to get him away from me, and I finally fell through the wall. He now held one of my shoes, but I didn't really care. I could deal without it. In fact, I didn't need either. So, reaching down and pulling off my other shoe as fast as I could, I chucked it through the hole at him.

"That's for thinking it's okay to touch me; it's not. And secondly, this is what you get from a human who had the ability to think for herself! I have impromptu thought on my part, and that will always be stronger than any psychic abilities that you have!" I shouted, holding my arms out. I winked at him, laughing in spite of him.

"Silver is going to really enjoy tomorrow, then, won't he?" Clay snapped sarcastically, and I dropped my arms. "If you thought killing those Pokémon were bad, just wait."

Just wait? Oh, Arceus, was he going to kill my Pokémon next? But then why would Silver be upset about it? Just because I would be upset? Well, it didn't matter, anyway. I wasn't going to let that happen. I just needed to find the power source for the PCC and cut it off. Without power, they wouldn't be able to hurt any more Pokémon.

"Thanks for the tip," I said, saluting him before running down the dimly lit hallway that my cell connected to. I had no idea where I was, but I would be able to find my way out of here. I just had to.

Of course, it wasn't as though I could go to any of the Admins for help. They were all forbidden to help me at all now, which would include giving directions to the power source for the PCC. But… well, perhaps the Grunts didn't follow the same rules that the Admins followed. It was worth a shot to talk to someone lower than the Admins.

Like Will.

So, I started sprinting, my ankle socks slowly slipping off my feet. I didn't bend down to pull them back up, and if they fell off, they fell off. I didn't care at the moment, and I doubted I would miss them too much, anyhow.

Finding a door at the end of the earthy hallway, I opened it, finding the main hallway that led to the rest of the rooms in the headquarters. I sighed, thankful that I had picked the correct way to run when I jumped out of my cell. Running back would be a tad embarrassing, and it would deplete a lot of time. Tomorrow was coming quickly.

I hurried into the Science Labs, looking around at the Scientists to find any purple-haired. It didn't take me long to spot him, a large group of Scientists gathered around one tiny area with Will right in the back. So, I ran over to him, pulling him aside into a little room. He fidgeted, trying to escape, but I closed the door and stood against it, praying that he couldn't teleport, too.

"Will, please," I begged, staring at him. I had to admit that it was strange seeing him without his mask, and it almost made me doubt that I had taken the right guy. But how many men were there here with purple hair?

He gasped when he finally looked at me, his eyes, usually somewhat shielded behind his mask, growing wider. Maybe he wasn't the only one who looked different—or maybe he was just shocked to see me here. "Lyra, is that you?" I nodded, and he charged at me, hugging me. I laughed, finding this entirely uncharacteristic of him. But I supposed when your Champion—the girl who had defeated you—popped up from the grave, it made people do strange things.

He grabbed my shoulders, holding me far enough away that his arms were fully extended. "You need to get out of here, Lyra. I heard rumors that a Champion had returned, but I never thought you were stupid enough to actually be the one." I sighed, slightly insulted by this. "I'm sorry. But you should really leave. This place is not where you want to be."

"I need you to tell me a few things first," I said, and it was Will's turn to sigh. "Why can you openly admit that this place sucks? None of the Admins have been able to do that. Does Clay have more control over them than he does over you guys? Because that doesn't make any sense to me. They, theoretically, have more power than you."

"He doesn't. He actually has more control over us. But the thing is, I don't think he trusts the Admins very much besides Lindsey. Your friend Silver… Clay always makes sure to have a tight leash on him. He knows that they can't break away, but he knows who willingly joined and who didn't. As for the Grunts, we have a little bit more freedom because we don't know the plan. We're just working and working towards nothing. Not knowing the plan kind of gives us an edge up on the Admins, actually."

Clay didn't trust the Admins, huh?

"So, you can help me, then?" I continued, and Will shook his head. Well, I supposed that made sense, too. He could give me a little information about the plan and the people because he didn't actually know the plan. But he still couldn't "help" me. Clay definitely knew what he was doing here, though I never thought he didn't.

It didn't hurt to try, though. "Well, I just need to know one thing. If you can just give me as much information as you can, that would be super. I need to find out where the power source for the PCC is. I'm going to shut it down." I tried to sound as confident as I could, but I had a feeling one of the Admins was going to come stop me before I could get there.

"I can't tell you that, nor can I give you any hints," Will said, his tone rather morose now. "The PCC is a crucial part of the system for Team Xana, and giving you information on how to destroy it is against the rules. Same thing with the Science Labs. Which, you know, I would actually start with first. You know, if you were planning to take down Team Xana."

I nodded, impressed that Will could actually tell me this much. Unfortunately, I would have to take the PCC out first to save my Pokémon, but if I could take out the Science Labs immediately afterwards… I could delete the data on the computers here, which would hopefully include the coordinates of their launch.

"Okay, I have to put my foot down now."

I hadn't even noticed the door open. Will and I watched wearily as Clay walked into the room, and I had to admit that I was surprised to see him again instead of one of the Admins. But, I guessed, since I was dealing with taking out the organization, maybe he didn't want to send one of the Admins who he didn't trust. And considering Silver was the guy in charge of me, Clay was probably a little concerned.

But he didn't look it.

"You're becoming a tad out of control, Lyra, which is quite unfortunate. I give you quite a bit of freedom here as Team Xana's captive: I let you out of your cell, I let you talk to the other members, I let you talk to me. I let you do a lot of things," Clay continued, and I laughed bitterly. "Freedom" and "captive" probably should not have been used in the same sentence. "But you're abusing this freedom, Lyra. It's time you act like a true captive." He looked at Will with a serious expression, pointing at me. "Knock her out."

"What?" Will demanded, shivering. I noticed his arm twitching, and I gasped.

Clay didn't wait a beat. He kept his eyes firm on Will, the finger pointing at me not even wobbling. "Knock her out, Will. Now."

And just like that, Will reached out and grabbed my neck. I screamed and struggled before my breath was gone, and I felt a sort of lightness in my head. In just a few moments, I let my body relax, and I was greeted by darkness once again.

Author's Note: Happy New Year! I hope 2011 is a great year for all of you!

Unfortunately for Lyra, it might not be. Too bad for her, really. Clay actually got a lot of screen time (and by screen time, I mean… page time… or something) in this chapter. I have a feeling all of you will hate him just a little bit more now. Just a thought.

Will made an appearance, too! Whoo-hoo! I love Will. I think he's adorable. Like, in the game. Maybe he's adorable here, but… whatever. I still like him. XD

As for the next update… I was going to revert to my normal Saturday updating schedule, but I can't update on Saturday. So, I think what I am going to TRY to do is update on Tuesday, January 4th. Hopefully it will work out.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.