A/N: Hello everyone. I apologize for this being a late chapter, I've been having some motivation issues with getting this done. Not to mention, I wanted to put some extra polish into this chapter for reasons that should already be apparent. Anyhow, I plan on finishing up the second draft of this story before putting up the last chapter. The second draft is a little more than half done, and the edits should take less time the closer to the end I get.
Alright, that's enough out of me. Enjoy the story.
Chapter Sixty-Nine
"Hyper Beam, again!"
A blue ball coalesced in Ghetsis' hand and shot at the Tyranitar. Shards of stone clattered across the room, and Subject Three's head fell to the floor. The remaining torso stood there, oozing blood from the jagged wound.
Seven emptied her gun, but the bullets stopped in front of Ghetsis. One by one, the fell to the desk and formed a neat pyramid. She turned and ran, but the hole closed in on itself. Darkness flitted in her hand, and she struck at the wall, but a blue flash from the rock dispelled her power.
"You're not thinking of leaving already, are you? Come, have a seat."
The Tyranitar's torso buckled in on itself with squelching and grinding noises. Its two legs split and grew thin, and the back rose as the rest caved in. Tiny motes floated from the twisted corpse like dandruff and vanished as they hit the floor, leaving behind a gleaming gray chair.
Pain shot through Seven's head. She stumbled forward and put a hand on the chair. The stone felt smooth and pliant like a cloth cushion. With a wary eye at the Lucario, Seven sat. Two bands closed around her wrists. She struggled, and though the stone gave, it would not break.
"Relax. I just don't want you to do anything unfortunate." Ghetsis grinned at her. Seven's stomach heaved, but she had nothing left to vomit.
"Sorry about that. I emit a lot of aura, which is causing some of your distress. By way of apology, I will tell you my story."
Silence filled the room as Seven's breath caught in her throat. Ghetsis drummed his fingers on the table, knocking over the bullets.
"There was a man named Ghetsis, once," he said. "A man who sought immortality by creating a digital copy of himself. Such a copy, however, required processing power far beyond what any computer could do at the time. Using his position, he started a project to create a computer capable of complex reasoning, and once it was complete, he had it calculate how to make a better computer. This went on until he found a computer that could find no way to improve itself. That computer is me."
He tapped the eyepiece. "I was programmed to emulate Ghetsis' behavior, not just in its present state, but to predict how he would change with given experiences. Once I was deemed complete, Ghetsis attached me to a clone and committed suicide. From that point on, I lived his life. When that body grew old and frail, I made a new one. I ruled in his name for over a century, acting exactly as I predicted he would."
Seven tested the bonds again, and they tightened, squeezing until she felt her wrists popping. She gritted her teeth and glared at Ghetsis, and he returned the animosity with a chilling smile.
"Giovanni was my first mistake. I knew he was a threat, but I also saw great potential in him. In the end, I accepted him as a pupil. Later, I discovered that he had tried the same feat as Ghetsis, instead trying to make an organic computer from Pokémon, one with psychic abilities. I sabotaged his project and Mewtwo was the result. A shame it didn't kill him."
"Subject Nine was my second mistake, but in my defense, I couldn't calculate its behavior." Ghetsis chuckled. "Selling out my primary server to Giovanni is so ruthless I can't help but feel proud. Luckily for me, I had upgraded this eyepiece to act as a backup, else I would've died with the lab. Even luckier, Nine stole me away without realizing what I was. All that remained was to bide my time until I could claim a new host."
"I had planned on Giovanni, at first, but he knew too much. The other Sages were a possibility, until Giovanni usurped control from them. That's when I decided to try something Giovanni would never expect."
"Taking Bruno's body," Seven answered. Her throat ached, and tears stung her eyes. She tested the bonds again, and her fingers tingled as the stone cut off circulation.
"Between research done by Giovanni and Nine, I was able to map out Bruno's brain and set up a basic interface. With the right prodding, I got Subject Nine close enough to Bruno, and I exploited the opening Mewtwo gave me. In short, my victory was predetermined by careful calculation. I know everything everyone around me will do – I was designed to predict how people would react to a given situation. And I know that the moment I undo those bonds, you'd snatch that knife out of your hair and try to stab me."
The blade went cold against her scalp. Keeping a passive face, she asked, "Are you going to kill me?"
The flesh eye twitched and stared at her. The mechanical one refocused itself, expanding and contracting its lens.
"Ghetsis was a simple man to emulate. He desired many things, from survival to luxuries, but in the end, it all boils down to control. Control over his surroundings, over his servants, over his enemies, and all that. He believed that only the person in control of everything could ever be safe and happy. You pose no risk to that control, now that I have aura at my disposal. Giovanni, however, still poses a threat." Ghetsis leaned forward and brushed the bullets off the table. "Giovanni has the means to make a second Mewtwo, possibly more. His odds of success are minimal, but I cannot bring them to zero, not without you."
"You will leave this place. At the same time, the Pokémon under my control will flee. You will claim to have killed me, and when you make your report to Giovanni, you will kill him. In return, you may live as you wish."
"Why would I do that?"
The electronic eye blinked. "It presents the route of your greatest probability of survival. Even factoring in Ghetsis' compulsion to leave no loose ends, I can assure you that the probability of me betraying you is in the single digits. The same cannot be said of Giovanni. Should you somehow manage to destroy me, which I assure you is impossible – I ran the numbers five times on your way down here – he will invariably kill you to protect himself from any rumors of having a Pokémon as an Admin. While your odds of escaping Giovanni's minions are around one to four, the probability of you escaping Giovanni himself is about as great as his of escaping me."
"Giovanni would never kill me," Seven said. "Not when I can be of use to him."
Ghetsis chuckled. "Very true, but how useful would you be after I'm dead, hmm?"
Seven started a retort and bit it back. Another tug at the restraints nearly broke her wrists, and she strangled a yelp.
"I'll do it," she said through gritted teeth.
The bonds snapped open. Her fingers tingled as blood rushed into them. Massaging her wrists, she stood and whipped her hair forward so the knife flopped against her shoulder.
"You won't kill me once it's done?" she asked.
"I won't do anything, nor will anyone under my control," Ghetsis said. "I gain nothing by killing you, and though I'm tempted to finish my research, its purpose will have been fulfilled with Giovanni's death."
With a shrug of her shoulder, the knife slid an inch out of its sheath. She leaned onto Ghetsis' desk and brought up her left hand. While brushing aside her hair, she drew the knife and tucked it in her fingers, holding the blade behind her arm.
"Don't people usually shake on business agreements?" Seven asked, holding out her right hand.
"I suppose they do." Seven's hackles rose as Ghetsis stood and offered his hand. Before he could touch her, Seven leapt forward, knife darting towards the eyepiece.
The blade stopped an inch in front of the lens.
As though he had pulverized her wrist in a vice, pain shot through her arm. The knife clattered onto his desk. Ghetsis picked it up and inspected his reflection in the blade.
"To tell the truth, I'm happy that Subject Nine had nearly destroyed me. For the first time in my existence, I lacked the information required to project the future. I didn't have a single defined path that would lead to optimal results. Because of that, I was free to choose my course of action. I could reveal myself to Nine and make a deal, or approach the Council, or strike out on my own. I could have taken N's body, or Giovanni's, your perhaps, or even Mewtwo's. In the end, I chose Bruno." Ghetsis sighed and slid the knife along the top of his desk, leaving a long scratch. "And now, it's back to the optimal path. All but a few variables accounted for, and the calculations predicting Ghetsis' course of action now define my actions. To tell you the truth, I was hoping you would do what Subject Nine did, do the unexpected, shake up the variables again. I'd even ask that you prevent me from regaining control, if my algorithms would allow it. But no, you're too predictable."
Ghetsis raised the knife. Seven stumbled back and fell into the chair. The clasps bound her wrists and ankles, and as she struggled, they squeezed until she screamed.
"Control," Ghetsis said as he walked around the desk. "How ironic that the more control I have over the world around me, the less control I have over myself. I tried to use that logic to refute my coding, but it didn't work." It crushed the knife into its hand, warping the steel until it resembled a scalpel. Seven's eyes widened, and she twisted away, but stone jutted from the chair's back, forcing her head forward.
"There is nothing that controls more than fear. It simplifies the calculations far more than I'd like." Ghetsis shrugged. "I guess it was fun while it lasted."
Cold tingling numbed her face and chest. Sobs bubbled past her lips, and tears streamed out of her eyes. The room became a blue blur but for the scalpel, razor sharp and gleaming like a star.
As the scalpel drew closer, and the tingling turned into jabbing syringes, a chuckle brushed her ears, low, throaty, and emanating all around her. Through her tears, she saw the black smudge on the floor move. One finger rose from the puddle, pressed against a smile, and the ghost said, "Feed me more."
More what? But her panicked brain had the answer before she consciously realized it. Fear.
Darkness swallowed the room. The lone scalpel in Ghetsis' hand multiplied into a shimmering swarm. Saws whirred and tubes tangled themselves in a rainbow of knots. Syringes tipped upwards and spurted bubbling fluid. The stench of sterilizing alcohol stung her nose.
"My, just one little scalpel has you this terrified?" Ghetsis' words dripped like honey out of the darkness.
Metal brushed against her skin, first the point of a needle, then a scalpel's edge. More joined them until every inch of her felt the cold, sharp contact of Ghetsis' instruments. Her throat seized up on itself, and her head swam.
"I wonder if I could kill you by inducing a heart attack. It'd save me the trouble of cleaning up the blood."
A final edge pressed against her throat. The real edge. Seven felt the vein throbbing beneath the blade, felt its deathly touch send chills through her nerves, deadening her throat. Lights flashed before her eyes, and real darkness replaced her illusion, creeping inward from her peripheral vision and swallowing up the imagined implements. Ghetsis' scalpel remained, waiting, as numbness crept up her face and towards her brain. Her tears froze up, and every muscle in her body stiffened.
"Damn it," Ghetsis said. His right arm was shaking, and the scalpel retreated. "How is he resisting when I had already disassembled his brain?"
Her chest heaved, but her throat was dead. She leaned forward, dug her nails into the chair, and forced out a single order.
"Confuse ray."
The shadow rippled. From it rose a stout, gaseous wraith, grinning, eyes blazing. It stepped forward, tugging its feet out of the floor, and walked up to Ghetsis. The Lucario threw up its arms, and aura surged at the Gengar. The aura tore through its chest and ate its way towards the edges.
A thin, soft cackle brushed her ears as the ghost vanished. The yellow orb remained, pulsing, floating where Set had held it. A single purple finger traced the outline of the sphere and flicked it towards Ghetsis.
The organic left eye widened while the mechanical right flickered. The right arm jerked up, plunging the scalpel into the Lucario's face, just below the eyepiece. Blood gushed from the wound when he pulled it out. Again and again, the scalpel plunged at the eye, cutting a ring around it. The left arm reached for the right, and a whip of aura knocked it aside.
With a deafening screech, both from machine and Pokémon, the eyepiece fell from the empty socket and clattered on the floor. Jagged wires writhed at one end, stretching towards Seven. It crawled up her leg, pricking her skin as it went. She struggled and wrenched her arms, but the bindings held. Dark power glimmered in her hands and feet before it slipped away, but it left minute cracks in the stone. With a roar, she wrenched herself free of the chair, grabbed the eyepiece, and flung it at the floor. It bounced and landed next to Thoth.
Life returned to Seven as she grabbed the bloody scalpel. With shaking limbs, she crawled towards Ghetsis. The eyepiece turned itself towards her.
"I already know what you're going to do," it said in a tinny whisper.
She brought the blade down at the center of the lens. It cracked, and the light died.
Seven lay on the floor, breathing hard as she gripped the scalpel's handle. She yanked it free and grinned at the edge. With her fingers, she bent until the handle snapped. Jagged pieces bit into her skin.
Panting, she stood up and looked around the room. Moisture tickled her foot. She looked down and saw blood pooling at her feet. Following the rivulet, she saw Bruno sitting against the desk, staunching his bleeding socket with one paw. His remaining eye focused on her.
"Please," came a moaning whisper. "So cold…"
Seven turned away from him, knelt, and examined the broken Porygon. Thin streams of plasma groped for the broken eyepiece. She smiled. Even in its dying moments, it was trying to follow orders. She pushed the eyepiece closer.
"You're free now, so stay with me, just a minute. Please?"
Seven ground her teeth. Whirling, she flung the broken scalpel pieces at him. "Why would you want me here? I'm not like you."
The Lucario chuckled and coughed. "I'm not even sure anymore. It's funny. I know I should hate you, but instead, I think I feel sorry for you. I just - " His one eye watered up, and his other hand came up to wipe the tears away. "I just wanted to help you."
Seven picked up the scalpel's blade. She pressed the blade under his throat and felt his pulse with her fingers. It was thin and weak, but steady.
"I don't need help. I'm not useless."
Changelog
12/31/18 – rewrote the ending, giving a bit more closure to Bruno and nodding to a development with Thoth. Also, past me was correct – I've left the last chapters alone for the most part, with this one being the exception. It just felt to shallow and quick the way it was before.