Chapter Fifteen

I knelt down beside Clay's unmoving body, shaking him and praying that he'd start up again. For someone who had been so evil and sadistic, he wasn't the bad guy at all. He'd been a puppet just like I had, and though he could have died instead of allowing Lindsey to take over, I understood his actions. Maybe he wanted to take Lindsey down as much as the rest of us wanted to take him down. But I'd never know.

"Clay!"

No response. The lacerations across his throat had killed him, the Venusaur's vines crushing his air paths until he couldn't breathe ever again. And now he wouldn't. Lindsey had killed her own puppet, cutting the strings off and letting him fall without anything to break it. Clay was gone, never to be a problem or a solution again.

Lindsey didn't wait for me to rise back to my feet before she spoke again, her voice hissing like a serpent searching for its next meal. "Who's next?" She put her hands on her hips, glancing between Silver and me before finally resting her eyes on mine. "I tried to have you eliminated during that ridiculous battle, but Clay got in the way. Now that he's not here, I can continue."

"Why?" I demanded, hoping that she wasn't as intelligent as Clay. Clay never spoke anything of any plans, dropping only hints and secrets when he felt it most convenient for him. But Lindsey… somehow, I didn't see her as being quite so tricky. "I thought you needed me. Why would you go through the trouble of giving me Pokémon abilities and keeping me around if you're just going to dispose of me now?"

Lindsey smiled—that same, terrifying smile that I remembered so vividly from earlier. There was something much more frightening about Lindsey than there had ever been with Clay. While Clay was clean-cut and handsome, with a smile that most girls would trust, Lindsey was wild and ugly, her crooked yellow teeth similar to those of a witch.

"I needed you when you cooperated. But you are completely out of control now, and I just can't have that." She looked down at Clay, retaining her smile as her eyes narrowed. "You are replaceable. I can always find someone else to send out into the other galaxies. Sure, it may bump the project back a little bit, but that's no problem. I know the problem, and I can fix it. You're not needed anymore."

She held her hands up, pointing a finger at me, and the Venusaur cried out. I dodged, throwing myself towards Lindsey to try to take her out. I only caught her arm, swinging her around into the crowd of people. No one reacted, returning to their work after staring for only a moment. There was nothing.

"You just killed your fake boss!" I shouted, pointing at Clay. People walked between Lindsey and I, and she steadied herself, glancing at me between people. "How do you expect to run Team Xana now? Your safety net is gone! If you used him for your protection, you have no one else now! You killed him, and everyone here knows it!"

"No one knows! Look at these people!" Lindsey yelled back, cackling like a witch. I looked around as people continued to do their jobs, walking like zombies towards their destinations. "We have all of these people programmed to do their jobs. They are very obedient. Even with Clay gone, they still have to do their jobs. And since the only witnesses will be eliminated, I have no problem. I think it's time Will got a promotion."

I gasped, running towards Lindsey again, bumping all of the people in my path out of my way. I knocked her to the ground this time, falling down on top of her and yanking at her hair. "Leave Will alone! Leave everyone alone! I won't let you hurt anyone else. You've killed too many people, you psycho! It's time you get what's coming to you!"

Lindsey just smiled, holding her hands above her head as I pulled her hair. Before I knew what was happening, I was scooped up by two thick vines around my waist. Out of surprise, I let go of Lindsey's hair, grabbing the vines and trying to pull them off of me instead. But as I tugged at them, the vines flipped, holding me upside down.

"Clay had to give you the hint, didn't he? Things would be so much easier if he just let the arena collapse on the two of you," Lindsey said, sounding innately bitter. "But you're asking for it. You couldn't have just obeyed orders. Your dear mother had to suffer because she wouldn't give you up. And I hate when people don't obey my orders. You'll go the same way she did. Painfully."

All of the blood was rushing to my head, but that didn't stop me from feeling my face heat up in pure anger. "You murderer! You're disgusting! You think it's right to just kill people like that! You killed my mother! You killed her! Do you even feel remorse? Do you even feel for all the people and Pokémon you killed? You're a murderer!"

Lindsey's face contorted into a smile again, and as she rose back to her feet, she laughed. "I don't feel remorse for killing pests… weaklings. Imagine an infestation in your home. The world was just infested with too many pathetic people who deserved to die a pathetic, painful, permanent death. And those strong enough to deserve to live only could if they obeyed my orders, through Clay or otherwise. If they didn't, they get shut down. Just like Clay and just like you and just like Silver. You all do not deserve to live." She laughed again, and I gritted my teeth, trying to pull myself up. "Kill her, Venusaur."

"No!" Silver shouted, and I closed my eyes, feeling the rush of movement around me. There had to be a way to stop this before I—

"Venusaur, listen to me! I'm not the enemy here!" I called to the Pokémon, opening my eyes back up and hoping that it would listen to me. The thing was… Lindsey didn't have a Pokémon ability in her. And Clay had said that the real Pokémon listened to all the Team Xana members because of those abilities. Plus, given that I was Champion, Pokémon were more apt to listen to me.

The legendaries did. So, why couldn't Venusaur? I had the advantage here.

"Kill her, now!" Lindsey screamed, and the people around her just continued to walk. How could they ignore this?

The ground continued to come closer, and I yelled out to it again, begging it to stop—to save me, to save everyone here. The Venusaur obeyed me, and I bounced as it stopped throwing me inches before the ground. I sighed in relief, reaching down towards the ground as the Pokémon loosened its grip on me.

"Try again," Lindsey snapped, walking over to me and stepping on my hands. I cried out in pain as she twisted her foot, digging it into my fingers. I could feel my bones crush beneath her weight, and I let tears fall from my eyes towards them.

In a flash, Silver was there, pushing Lindsey off of me and slugging her in the stomach. I took my hands away from the ground, letting Venusaur's vines just hold me upside down some more. My fingers couldn't bend, and I couldn't feel them anymore. No pain, no feeling, nothing. Just existence. Like always.

"Kill her!" Lindsey shouted as Silver went in to punch her again. Before I could even react, before Silver could even reach out to grab me, Venusaur flung me, sending me flying towards the dirt wall. I heard a definite crack! as I collided with the wall, falling back down towards the ground again. I landed on my stomach, the wind completely knocked out of me. There was nothing I could feel anymore.

Silver abandoned Lindsey, running over to me instead. I moaned, unable to move my body at all, but I was pleased when I could feel Silver grab my hands. And it hurt.

"Lyra!"

I could hear Lindsey growl, stomping over towards me. Opening my eyes, I saw her pull Silver away, staring down at me with a malicious frown. "Why don't you ever die? How do you always survive? That should have killed you," she hissed, and I didn't reply. I couldn't find my voice, and there was no way I could fight anymore. If I survived that, I wouldn't survive much more.

"Leave her alone. Your fight is with us now," a different voice said, but I couldn't turn my neck to see the speaker. The voice was familiar enough to me now, anyway. "You may have all of these workers under your control still, but we aren't. We know what you're doing, and we are done obeying orders."

"And we won't let you hurt Lyra or any of us again," another voice said, this one heavily accented.

"You were sneaky," a third person commented, his voice shaking. "But we're setting everyone free."

You may have all of these workers under your control… But we're setting everyone free. Was that their plan? How did they expect to go about doing that? They weren't the leaders here. If they wanted to set everyone free, the only one who could do that was… me. I had to set them free. Why hadn't I done that sooner?

"Stop working." My voice was barely loud enough to be heard by even Lindsey, squeaky at best. "Stop working… come on, stop working." It got louder and louder, and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to force it to work. "Everybody, stop working. You don't have to work. Do whatever you want now. You're not bound here. Stop working."

The noise of the bustling crowd ceased so suddenly that I was surprised anyone had heard me at all. But all of those people, with their drab outfits and sullen expressions, stopped where they were. I opened my eyes again, sighing with relief, and watched as Lindsey turned around, staring at her workers in awe.

"Perfect," one of the male voices said as someone knelt down beside me. "No, wait, Silver. Don't touch her. She could've broken something. You don't want to accidentally make it worse, okay?"

Using my elbows instead of my hands, I pushed myself up, groaning in pain as I moved. "No, I'm fine," I tried to tell them, watching as Silver snaked a hand to my back to help me. Now I felt it. The pain in my hands, the pain in my leg. No physical pain had ever been as bad as this, but I still needed to stop Lindsey.

I could see them all now. Henry, Allison, Will… they were all here to help me. And they weren't alone. All of the people from the Science Labs, still wearing their white lab coats, surrounded them, and all of the people from the PCC were staring now. Lindsey was the only one standing alone in the crowd now.

She glared at me as I sat up, backing away with her lips pursed. "This is not over. I still have the control of the team. I still have the Pokémon. I am not done yet." She laughed now, shaking her head angrily. "Venusaur! Destroy all of them!"

"No. We're done. We're done!" My voice was calm, but I closed my eyes in fear of what might happen anyway. When nothing did happen, I opened them back up, looking at the people staring. "I don't… Lindsey, you're finished. No one will listen to you anymore. You've destroyed these people's homes… their families… their lives. You have no idea. You walk around, and you don't even care. No one will listen."

She looked so frightening, but I couldn't look away. "They will listen when I recalibrate their abilities!"

"They won't! You're not hurting anyone else anymore. Got that? I may have never been good at revenge, but I sure as hell am not going to let you get away." I narrowed my eyes, unable to really do anything else, and everyone around me closed in on Lindsey. Silver stayed beside me, his hand still on my back.

"You may not be good at revenge, but I am," Allison said, her accented voice cold. Henry and Will grabbed Lindsey, and Allison glanced back at me with a smile. "I'm sorry for accusing you, Lyra. But I had a feeling if I accused you, you would find the real boss a whole lot faster. Good for you, Champion. You did it. Now… allow us to do the rest of the work. We'll fix those hands—and that leg—in a minute."

They all walked away, carrying a thrashing Lindsey into the crowd of people surrounding us. I watched, turning my head carefully, making sure nothing there was broken.

It was a horrible thing, but I wouldn't feel all that bad if Lindsey died. But Clay… he was still laying there… he hadn't been all bad, had he?

"Hey," Silver started, and I looked at him now. He snaked his arm around my waist now, his face so close to mine that our noses were almost touching. "You didn't give up on me, after all. You said there was no point in trying, but… you did. And you won. Lyra…" His eyes searched mine for a moment, and I sighed. "We're free."

So, he kissed me, keeping that hand around my waist to hold me steady, making sure not to move me in any uncomfortable manner. Because, the fact of the matter was, everything was still killing me. I enjoyed kissing him, of course, but… when your leg was practically on fire and you couldn't run your broken fingers through your man's hair… it just wasn't the same.

"Except…" Silver pulled away from me, his eyebrows furrowed. "There is still one problem. We have to get all of these people back outside, and we haven't been out there in quite some time. We don't even know what's left. And… we still have Pokémon abilities in us. We can't act like we don't. All of those Pokémon are dead. We barely have any left."

Getting people back outside and settling them would be no problem. I knew what was up there now, and while things looked pretty terrible, it was manageable. But dealing with the Pokémon abilities… that was an entirely different thing. At least I wasn't like Lindsey or Clay. If I had control, I could let them run free. As for the dead Pokémon… that was a lost cause.

Although…

"What if I said I could bring those Pokémon back?" I asked, and Silver shook his head at me, his eyes full of disbelief.

"I'd say you're crazy."

I inhaled sharply, trying to fight the pain coursing through my body. He reacted, looking as pained as I felt, and I forced a smile. There was nothing like pure physical pain, but sometimes, emotional pain just beat that. Everything I had felt while I was here could never be matched. Watching my Pokémon die, seeing Silver as a member of Team Xana. But I could fix that.

"And I'd tell you that I am crazy. But I'm still right."

Author's Note: Early update again! I'm all good to go with the ABNA contest, and I finished my homework! Whoo-hoo!

One more chapter. Phew. I am actually really sad about that, but I'm still excited to be moving onto "Play Mates and Dream Dates". It's time I write something a little bit… happier, don't you think?

This chapter actually didn't play out like I planned. I mean… I feel like it's a crappy chapter. And I'm not going to say I'm okay with that. But… I mean, after working on my ABNA novel for so long, maybe my writing got worse, haha.

Okay, Saturday for real this time. Last chapter: Saturday, February 5th.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.