Chapter Twelve

I felt better when I awoke. The headache was gone, and I didn't feel as nauseous as before (though my muscles were stiff and my back ached a little). Overall, though, it felt no different than anything else I had ever experienced before, and it was nothing I couldn't handle. A little back ache was nothing. I could deal with this.

The feeling of relief was short lived, however, once I saw Silver sitting in a chair beside my bed with a horrified expression on his face. He was gripping the arm-rests of the chair so tightly that his knuckles were white, his feet tapping against the floor nervously. His bloodshot eyes focused on a single spot on the wall, narrowed angrily.

I sat up, reaching over and grabbing his hand. But as soon as I touched him, he shot out of the chair, staring at me with those same bloodshot angry eyes. There it was: the switch. He had gone from completely calm one moment to freaked out the next. I didn't know what happened while I was sleeping, but whatever happened, it had been bad. Silver had become better at controlling his emotions with me around, but now he lost it.

"Silver, what's wrong?" I asked, not a demand for him to tell me. I wanted him to tell me because he wanted to, not because I told him to. But a sense of urgency in the back of my mind reminded me that I didn't have time for him to come to me. There was no time for anything anymore. Everything needed to be done quickly. "Tell me."

"Did Clay hurt you?" Silver's voice shook dangerously, and I narrowed my eyes. What did he mean by that? Silver knew what Clay was like. Clay had hurt me, sure, but not in the ways that one would think. But there were multiple ways. "He hurt you, didn't he? Not physically, but I could see it, Lyra. I saw what he did."

Oh. I knew. I knew what he was talking about.

"There's something new. Before, I could only see whatever Clay wanted me to find in his head. There were thoughts that were off-limits, thoughts that he restricted for Admins. Stuff like that. But I never got full access." He made fists of his hands, his knuckles turning white again. If I opened his palms, I would expect to see nail marks. "I have it now."

"What?" I asked, a little confused.

"I can see everything in his mind now. Like when I could read your mind, I can do the exact same thing with Clay now. And I saw what he did to you." He practically growled as he smacked a hand against the wall. I jumped, staring at the dent in the wall. Had that been me there… well, I wouldn't be just a dent in the wall. "Why didn't you fight back? Why didn't you tell him off? Are you okay with that? Are you all right with being his pet?"

I narrowed my eyes, trying to keep my cool. One of us had to if Silver couldn't, but I could feel the anger bubbling just like it had before. And in a second, I completely lost it, the fury exploding from me at the accusation. I was not some pet, I was not some toy, and I was definitely not someone to be messed with anymore.

"Shut up! I was never okay with that, but it wasn't like I had a choice, you asshole. Stop accusing me of being okay with it because I never was. You're crazy, Silver!" I screamed at him, and it felt completely all right to yell like that. My knuckles were probably as white as his now, but my hands didn't hurt. I couldn't feel anything. "Stop being so jealous! You never even acted like you cared before, so stop acting like you do now. I'm clearly nothing special to you, so just leave me alone! I don't care!"

Silver walked closer to me, his hands shaking. I punched him in the chest, pounding at him in pure fury, but he didn't even move. It was like hitting a brick wall, but I couldn't feel the damage on myself. So, I just kept hitting and hitting and hitting, going on and on until I felt so completely drained and empty that I just couldn't hit anymore.

Then, I fell to the floor, bawling into my newly red hands. The anger was gone and replaced by so many conflicting emotions that I just couldn't handle it. I didn't want to be angry; it was stupid. In fact, it didn't make much sense to be angry at him. He was just stating something, and it wasn't like he could control his temper either.

"Oh, look here! I guess he found out, didn't he?" Clay asked, popping into the room without an introduction. He was grinning from ear to ear, looking pleased with himself. "I'm sorry, Lyra. It unfortunately had to play out this way. But thank you for your cooperation. I can stop being such a lowlife creep now."

Silver charged forward towards Clay, but Clay pulled me up, pushing me in front of him to separate him from Silver. The redhead stopped immediately, but he pointed a finger, his red irises looking more like pools of blood than anything else. His face was strained, creases forming along his eyebrows and mouth.

"Was this part of the plan?" I asked Clay without turning around. He had back away from me, not touching me like he usually would have. "You wanted this to happen, didn't you? That's why you kept—"

"Correct. But I wasn't expecting to put it into action this early. Either way, it worked out fine." Clay clicked his tongue as Silver started forward again. "But allow me to let you in on a little secret, dearest Champion. I can't hear your thoughts anymore, but I can still hear his. Everything that you've told him is accessible to me. So, the fact that you are the most powerful one here… well, I can work around that."

As Silver ran forward again, I held my arms out, stopping him as he tried to run around me. I probably should have let him maul the heck out of Clay, but I couldn't let him do that. Not yet. There was still too much to do, and I needed Clay to get access to the main computer. Without him, I didn't know anything.

"Not if you have to listen to me! Now—"

"Silver will die, you know, if he stays in this state too long. I neglected to mention this tiny detail to you before, didn't I?" Clay interrupted, and I finally turned around to look at him. He wasn't smiling anymore, but there was still a look of amusement in his eyes. For someone who said he never planned to murder anyone, he sure seemed to be okay with it now.

"That was your plan, Clay?" Silver shouted, and I turned back to him, rubbing his arms in attempt to calm him down. But I could feel the rage bubbling once again, and I was so horribly disgusted by what Clay was saying. He could mess with me all he wanted. He could be a creep. But once he endangered my friend—the one boy I had left, the one boy I loved more than anything—that was pushing it a little too far.

"I wanted to wait until we sent you up into space, Lyra. Once you are up there, we really don't need Silver anymore. He was more of a babysitter than an Admin. Lindsey could handle the PCC on her own. Since we don't need Silver up in space anymore—because you're here—we really don't need him." Clay sounded bitter now, his voice growing dark. I was really starting to lose it now.

"I made a careless error. I thought Mew was strongest and would be able to rule over the Pokémon inside you. Clearly not. You're the authority now; you need not go prove it. And now that you have taken away my Trainer class, I am technically on the same level as everyone else. I have to obey you, other Psychics can read my mind… you have belittled me. But you have given me an advantage, still. The thoughts will continue, and Silver will be able to read them—unless you continue to follow through with our plan. If you don't, he'll most likely remain in the state he's in now, and… well, like I said, he'll die." Clay smirked as I turned back around, my eyes narrowed at him.

I shook my head. "You have to listen to me. I'm not going to let you hurt Silver. Leave him alone. I'm taking this organization down," I retorted, making the threat sound more intimidating than it probably was. Considering I had just replaced Clay as the Master Trainer, he seemed all too calm about it.

Clay clicked his tongue again, and Silver groaned angrily. The two boys were getting rowdy, but I was about to lose it. "You may have noticed that it's very difficult to control thoughts. Earlier when you were discussing your ability to think negative thoughts when I told you specifically not to—you can really think anything you want. Thoughts are very random; you can't tell one person to think one thing. My control here was based on actions, not thoughts, and that will be the same for you. And no one will be able to read yours because of the power you hold. Having two Dark-types in you doesn't help… another error on my part. Oh, and I wouldn't be the one hurting Silver. He'd be hurting himself."

Right. Thoughts were very sporadic things. And since Clay had such a powerful Psychic-type in him, he could organize his thoughts better than any of us. Even if Silver had access to all of Clay's thoughts now, Clay could still control what was visible because of his organization; sporadic was not an option for him. And if I couldn't control what he thought, if I didn't do what he said, I would effectively kill Silver.

There had to be a loophole somewhere. There was always a loophole. I just needed to find it. I was the one with the power here.

"Fine. You want to do this, then let's do it," I said, crossing my arms. Whatever happened to Champion Lyra? Well, I was her, wasn't I? Wasn't I the one who was supposed to save everyone now. Didn't I battle my way to the top? "We're going to have a battle. I am going to randomly divide your reserved battling Pokémon. If I win, you step down and give me complete access to the main computer so I can shut Team Xana down. If you win, I'll go to space."

"Are you stupid, Lyra?" Silver demanded, punching my arm. I doubted he truly meant to do it that forcefully, but his anger prevented him from being any nicer about it. "You're in control here! Just tell him to give you access to the computers, and he has to give it to you. You're making a huge mistake! You're not going to win!"

Well, Silver was right. I could do it that way. It was the smart way, the faster way, and wasn't I the one who said we didn't have any more time? But I needed to battle him. In a strange sense, it was always the way that I found victory. And you could learn a lot about a person through a battle—you could evoke a lot.

So… I could evoke Mew. The loophole.

It was more than just a battle. I couldn't just tell Clay to change, to get rid of his evilness, to get Mew to wake up. It didn't work that way. The smart way was to just tell Clay to give me access to the computers. But my way was to wake Mew up and change Clay. He might have been evil, but Mew certainly wasn't. It came to save the rest of the Pokémon. How could that be evil?

"Right. You won't win," Clay agreed. "But I like your style. You have an interesting way of doing things, Lyra. I guess that's the way of the Champion, isn't it?"

"No." I shook my head, holding my arms out. "It's my way. Revenge was never my thing."

Silver sighed exasperatedly, and Clay just chuckled. Either way, I was clearly doing something wrong. And maybe I really was. Maybe I needed to do it the easy way, just tell him to give me the access. But even if I lost, I could still get that information. I was in control, right? It was just an extra step along the way to victory.

"Well, then, Lyra…" Clay laughed again, this time louder. "You'll love this."

Author's Note: If I could point out one thing about this chapter, it's the line where Lyra says, "Revenge was never my thing." It is SUCH a contrast to the first chapter, and I really think that's one of the main motifs of this story. You saw along the way how Lyra kept failing miserably whenever she tried to get "revenge".

And I think Lyra is stupid, too. If I were her, I would just tell Clay to give me all the information I need. What the heck is she doing? XD And a new twist with the whole "multiple personalities" thing with Silver! How nice! It will be explained more in the next chapter why staying in the angry state is damaging. Clay didn't really get a chance to explain it in this chapter.

This story is coming to a close soon. There are still a few chapters left, of course, and I have a lovely ending planned that will blow your minds (happy, sad—well, I won't say). Next update is Saturday, January 22nd.

But I already have another multi-chapter fanfiction planned that I am super excited for. It's not angsty, either! It's a romance/humor! I have to say, it's COMPLETELY different from anything else I've ever written, and a little more intense. I have a feeling a lot of you will be surprised considering it's me… haha.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.