Chapter Ten

Clay wasn't joking when he said that I had to start acting like a true captive. When I awoke, I found my wrists and ankles bound by shackles. I had no idea where they had come from or why Clay would even have them, but they were effective. If Clay wanted me to feel like a prisoner, then I definitely felt like one now.

It was strange to wake up to see an empty PCC. I had never seen it so vacated before; this place was usually packed beyond capacity with workers. The emptiness made the main machine in the center of the room seemed even bigger and more ominous than before, and knowing its capabilities made me sick to my stomach.

But, I had to wonder, why would Clay leave me alone in here?

I carefully rose to my feet, having a difficult time due to the shackles around my wrists and ankles, trying to move silently over to the machine. The jingle of the chains roared within the quiet setting, and I winced with each step. Though I knew it made no difference, as Clay probably knew what I was doing, anyway, I was so used to using stealth when performing heroic actions. But then again, nothing I had done here thus far seemed heroic in the least.

"Going somewhere?"

I stopped, turning only my head to look back at Silver. He shoved his hands in his pockets, looking particularly melancholy, and I smiled weakly at him. Today was the day, and I knew he realized something bad was going to happen. Even though I knew it involved me, I couldn't do anything now. I would never be able to.

"Nah. I can't, now, can I? You're here." I shrugged, holding my shackled wrists up for him to see. "Clay really went all out, didn't he? Shackles?" I laughed, trying to lighten the mood, but it was stupid for me to try. Silver and I were both going to lose, now, weren't we? We were going down just like Ethan and the rest of the Champions.

"Do you know why you're here yet? Have you figured it out?" he asked, his voice soft and monotonous. I raised an eyebrow, finally turning around to face him. In fact, I hadn't really even thought about it. I was more distracted by the fact that the PCC was empty than the fact that I was in it.

Now, I knew. I knew exactly why I was here.

"The same thing happened to you, didn't it, Silver?" I tore my gaze away from his, looking at the iron around my wrists instead. It was rhetorical; I already knew the answer. "When you, me, and Ethan went in, they caught you and gave you the option of joining them. So, you joined Team Xana with the idea that you could eliminate it from the inside. But Clay gave you Pokémon abilities, and you had to obey him. That's what happened, right? And that's what's going to happen to me. I'm really going to lose this one."

"You know, I've heard that you have never lost a battle in your life." Clay had finally arrived, smiling at me like we were old buddies reunited after years. "Up until that battle, what, five years ago, you had never lost a battle. That's pretty amazing. You started your journey when you were only ten years old, and you didn't lose until you were sixteen. Really, Lyra, it's very impressive. You have a natural gift. And that's why I want you."

"The punishment… the plan… What do I even have to do with it? I understand that changing me will be punishment enough for the both of us, but why do you need me for the plan? You didn't even know I was alive until I showed up here. What would you have done if I really was dead? Just given up on your whole plan?" I demanded, shaking my shackled hands at him. Clay eyed them, trying to hold back a laugh, then raised his gaze to meet my eyes.

"Of course not. Your arrival was simply… convenient. Otherwise the other option was to use…" Clay's eyes traveled away from mine and I gasped at where they landed, "Silver."

I stared at the redhead, wondering if he had even known about this. From the looks of it, he appeared just as shocked as I did. Had Clay never told him all of the plan? Will said the Grunts didn't know anything—but it didn't seem like the Admins knew much more. The one who held the reins… he held everything else, too.

Silver finally sighed, closing his eyes for only a moment, as if trying to figure things out in his head. "I'll do it. Don't use her. If it was going to be me before she showed up, then it should still be me. I'm already changed, so you can just pick up from where you left off—"

I held up my shackled hands, and Silver broke off, staring at me. I had a feeling he knew what I was about to say. "No, Silver. Whatever this plan is, I'll do it." And I meant that. I knew it was probably impossible, but if I could keep my own heart and mind after acquiring an ability, it would maybe be easier to eliminate Clay. But… the chances of me actually being able to resist Clay's control were probably null.

"Besides, she still needs to change, or else it wouldn't be punishment, will it?" Clay winked at Silver, and he turned to me, clapping his hands together. "I'm so glad you came along, Lyra. If I ever sounded ungrateful to you, well… too bad. I'm still happy that you're here. You're making things so much easier for me."

"Oh, I imagine so," I muttered, and Clay laughed. "And you never sounded ungrateful. I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Right. I thought so. Well, off we go! Load the computer, Silver," Clay said, and Silver grimaced. I could tell that Silver was fighting hard, but no matter how much he fought, he had to obey Clay. So, he walked over to the machine in the center of the room and opened a drawer. From my level, I could see that it was filled with Poké Balls to the brim.

"Which one?"

Clay laughed once again, and Silver froze. Why was this comical? "Not one, Silver. Fifteen." Silver's eyes grew wide, and I narrowed mine. What did that mean? "Her Typhlosion, Umbreon, Dewgong, Noctowl, Ampharos, and Tyranitar. Champion Lance's Dragonite. Champion Wallace's Milotic. Champion Steven's Metagross. Champion Adeku's Ulgamoth. Champion Red's Pikachu. Champion Brendan's Swampert. Champion Dawn's Infernape. Champion Blue's Pidgeot. Champion Cynthia's Lucario. All of them. Load them all onto the computer."

All of them? So that was where all of the Champion's Pokémon had gone. Their prized Pokémon, their best friends, were saved for me, with the exception of Champion Cynthia's Garchomp. The rest of them—well, they didn't sound like they were needed anymore. So, had they been tossed aside, just like the rest of the Champions? Eliminated like pests?

And my Pokémon… my beloved partners… this was it. If I wanted to save Silver, this was my sacrifice. At least if they had to go, a part of them would be left with me.

"Are you crazy?" Silver demanded, but he was reaching into the drawer and picking Pokémon out, anyway. It seemed a little late to be asking that now; I had deemed Clay as crazy since the moment I first saw him. "If you try to give her the abilities of all those Pokémon, she's going to die! There's no way that her body will be able to handle that! You're going to kill her, Clay!"

"Well, I'm betting I won't." Clay smiled, walking over to me and patting my shoulder. "You see, she's the last Champion. It would have been you eventually, Silver, as I said. Compared to the other Champions, your heart and mind are far beyond theirs. Your body could, I think, handle the additional fourteen. But Lyra here… well, she's the last Champion, and I realized when she appeared here that her heart and mind even exceed the capacity of yours. The pure fact that she made it this far… well, she's got a lot in her, hasn't she?"

So, all along, I would have died just like every other Champion. But the only reason I was alive now was because I lived. Because I survived when no other Champion did, because I had a stronger heart and a stronger mind than Silver, I received this punishment. Because I was determined to take Team Xana down, this was what I got.

Clay grabbed my arm, pulling me over to a chair beneath some odd shaped contraption. It looked like a shrinking ray of sorts, and I half expected a beam to shoot out of it. Even the chair looked like something you would see at death row, with iron bars to hold down the arms and legs. Clay unlocked me from my shackles just to put me in those, and it wasn't any more comfortable.

"Hit the button," Clay ordered Silver, backing away from me and leaning against the huge machine instead. Silver had loaded all of the Poké Balls onto the conveyor belt, and there was nothing left to do but hit that dreaded button. There was nothing left for me to do. I could fight and struggle, but where would that get me?

Silver hit the button. With a loud whirring noise, the machine roared to life. I sat in the chair, unable to do anything else, and waited for my fate. It took longer than I thought. I could hear Silver typing things into the computer, and I knew Clay was watching and listening to what he was doing. And then… a light.

It was silent. My whole body just felt so empty, contrary to what I would have thought. I couldn't see anything anymore, and all the voices that I knew where speaking clearly around me just sounded like muffled whispers. I let myself relax, slumping over in the chair, so horribly weak, so unbelievably calm.

"Lyra. Lyra. Lyra? She's not responding."

The voices were beginning to come in clearer now, but I couldn't lift my eyelids enough to see anything. If anything, I felt more like a zombie than a mutant. But… well, I was still alive, wasn't I? Just like Clay said…

"Her system is rebooting," I heard Silver say, his voice shaking angrily. "She's stable. That's a lot of energy to take in at one time, and each body reacts to it in a different way. Her senses are still active except for vision right now, but that always takes the longest to come back. Hearing, touch, smell, and taste are working."

"So, she can hear us right now?" There was a silence, and I really wished I could just open up my eyes and look at them. I wanted to curse them out for doing this to me. "I can't hear what she's thinking, though."

This had to come as a surprise to Silver, since he stayed quiet for a moment. "I can't, either. Well, as I said before, each body reacts differently to it. Maybe giving her the abilities of fifteen Pokémon negates the Psychic effects for a little while until each ability settles. Or maybe it negates them completely. She is a prototype, after all."

"Right. Well, we'll come back to that later." Clay paused again, and I could picture the smile on his face as he watched me slumped over in the chair. "Lyra, I think it's time I told you the plan. The equation to narrow the space-time continuum has been completed, so with your help, we're going to get things moving.

"You're our superhuman; with all the abilities given to you, you should be able to protect your body in any situation. We will be sending you in the space shuttle to the rest of the universe as our weapon and negotiator. You said once that I could never control infinity, but… I will control infinity. You are the only person whose body will not be able to handle the space-time continuum in a narrowed state.

"Once we get you out there in the universe, you will conquer everything else. And once we conquer everything else… well… we build an utopia of sorts. You do know how everything in the world relies on money? We have been living here in the headquarters without any money, completely fine. We will completely rid the universe of monetary value, making everything that exists only necessary. Team Xana is really a benevolent group, you know."

Benevolent? Sure, it sounded like a good idea—ridding the world of money. It theoretically eliminated greed, but making everything free didn't make sense. Resources here on Earth were not unlimited, and even the necessary things couldn't be free. Money or no money, there would always be someone who was unhappy…

"Controlling the rest of the universe gives us access to other resources. And we need to eliminate all other forms of life out there to ensure that the human race reigns supreme. Also, by giving Pokémon powers to everyone, I have full control over everybody. Nothing bad will ever happen while I'm in charge. It really is a foolproof plan. There is no reason why you should have ever wanted to stop us."

"You… killed my… friends… and family," I muttered, and Clay laughed giddily.

"Ah, she's communicating! Well, dear Lyra, we only keep the best of the best here with Team Xana. Weed out the pests, right, as Lindsey said? And we will continue to do so. That will be your job. But, hey, I wasn't too thrilled about it to start, either. But it's what we have to do." Clay laughed again, and I sighed angrily. I couldn't do anything else, though I was beginning to feel more and more energy fill into my body. It was like a coffee start in the morning; I just hoped there was no low in the afternoon.

Clay believed there was no reason I should have ever wanted to stop them—but right there was why I needed to. Everyone and everything deserved a chance at life. How could I not be negative when he was "weeding" people out?

Wait. How could I not be negative? I was thinking negatively… I wasn't obeying him. Well, I would have to use that to my advantage.

"Yes, Boss," I just said instead. It wasn't like he needed to know. Yet.

Author's Note: Did you get that reference? I'm not going to discuss it if you didn't because it's generally a sore subject, but the last part of his plan—Lindsey's part—is a common reference in literature. A lot of bad guys in literature allude to this in their plans and stuff. Not directly, but… even Grindelwald and Voldemort in Harry Potter do.

I originally meant for the transference of abilities to be very painful. Unfortunately, I couldn't stop picturing Twilight in my head and thinking about the transformation into a vampire. Curse you, Twilight! But oh well. I think the more… peaceful, weakening way is all right, too. I hope.

I literally have no idea when I can update next… but let's go with Thursday, January 13th. I know it's a long ways away, sorry.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.