iCakeify: Death metal, that explains it. I'm not a fan of the screaming or whatever they're doing.
Well Happy Valentine's Day! Expecting something happy today? Sorry.
WARNING: This chapter contains disturbing content and imagery.
Well, enjoy! Though your mileage may vary... I would have something nearby just in case.
A/N: '
Italics' is Mewtwo speaking “out-loud”. Maybe that'll help clear up some confusion.
*~*~*~*
Chapter Eleven: Through Her Eyes
"Show me the shadow where true meaning lies
So much more dismay in empty eyes"
-- "Exodus", Evanescence, "Evanescence EP"
*~*~*
Mewtwo grew aware of the cold floor he was laying upon before the pain stung through his head. He groaned as he sat up, squinting into the dim chamber at the pulsating lights. He questioned his current location, knowing he had been elsewhere just minutes ago. Placing a hand to his temple, he winced again, and felt on his cheeks faint trails of dried tears. It took a moment for everything to come back to him, recalling how uncharacteristic he and the other Legendaries had been, then how Mew's arrival led to a fit of passion—no, that was all him, she was just following along. Once they had recollected themselves, that was when she had announced it was all an illusion used by Legion that everything started to fall apart.
Speaking of...
"So, you woke up as well," came a sinister growl, and he whipped his head around to meet an enraged Mew in the eye. He almost stumbled back out of an impulse until he remembered it wasn't entirely her. "I bet she told you everything after snapping you back to normal, did she not?"
"You!" he snarled. "What have you done to Mew?"
"Me? I never touched her the entire time. Wish I could say the same about you." The slitted eyes flashed tauntingly as she licked her upper lip. "How did it feel to know you had her in your grasp? Exhilarating, am I right?"
"Stop it, Legion!" he barked, trying to shake off the memory. "What did you do to Mew?!"
Shrugging, Legion nonchalantly responded, "The same thing I do to all souls taken into possession. She currently awaits eternal damnation in Spirit Prison. She put up quite a fight, I had expected no less from her."
"...she is
where?"
"It is where all unclean spirits go to dwell until they are 'bailed out' in a way." The phrase was hissed out maliciously. "I will be perfectly honest with you, I do not know what goes on there most of the time, I refuse to stay in there. All I know is good spirits can go in and preach to the bad or the uninformed because that is just what they do. If she is lucky, someone will visit her and convert her over to Paradise. But... she will have to pay the consequences."
Mewtwo shivered, half in fright and the other in anger. "You promised to let her go," he harshly reminded the demon. "Why are you still in her body?"
Legion laughed. "You only asked me to 'release her', if memory serves me well—and it
always does—but you were not specific. I would have done what you might have been thinking of until you broke your end of the bargain before we could make the deal."
The clone fought to restrain himself, gritting his teeth and glancing away. He tried not to think about his previous actions to no avail; they were still fresh from minutes ago. Despite everything being a trick, and as much as he'd like to deny it, his contact with Mew (her spirit anyway) was real. From the touches to her hard kisses, the hot breaths and heartbeats... the tears... the discovery of her body...
everything. It had happened. His reasons for it, however, were unclear. As his eyes scrunched shut in frustration, of all the past memories he could see, the vision of her pleading for him to stop as he forced himself upon her came to mind. He couldn't think of another time she was so helpless against him.
Afraid to delve further into the memory, he threw an accusation down the demon's way. "You tempted me to break that promise. I would never dare handle her in such a way."
"Surprise, surprise, I had nothing to do with the temptation!" she exclaimed in a strangely excited tone. "Well, the vision was all my doing, but your actions were of your own! Had the real Mew not weaseled herself in, then I suppose I would have been a part of your temptation—how she got rid of it is beyond me. It does not matter, point is, it was all you." A crooked smile lit up in the dim lighting. "After all, Mewtwo, your immortal spirit carries with it all the memories and personalities you have developed in your mortal life. You are currently warring within yourself about whether-or-not you truly love her, or are just wanting her body. And so far... lust is winning the war."
"You lie, I hold high regards to her!" Mewtwo moved to stand only for his knees to give out. He maintained eye-contact with her to continue, "She has been my enemy, a true friend, an equal! I do not want her body, I want her heart, her soul! They hold the Mew I know and respect, and I almost got her back! If there should be any warring going on, it should be you and I fighting for the future of her welfare!"
"Bah, you have not a clue what you are talking about," Legion interjected, waving a hand. "You cannot challenge a demon and win. Mortality and sin go hand-in-hand because of how you are unable to escape it. That is how fickle bodies are, and spirits
do get restless after a while. For all I know, you were extremely curious about how spiritual bodies can still be intimate with each other. It still does not matter, you cannot get Mew back." Floating closer, her hips swung suggestively. "You
can, however, still have the body. At least you will not return home empty-handed."
She reached out to cup his face, only for him to jerk away. "Never!" he spat.
With a huff, she backed off. "Fine, be that way. You will be confined back to the wall, then."
When "back" left her lips, Mewtwo's wrists were immediately seized upon, and he was wrenched up from behind to the stone wall. He struggled, noticing whenever he strained his arm away, a thick, shadowed tendril tightened as it forcefully pulled back. "Unhand me, demon!" he seethed out.
"You had your chance, but you gave it up for 'her virginity'," she mocked, using air quotes as emphasis. "For something as pathetic as that excuse, you are undeserving to be released at this present time. I will let you go, briefly, when you are needed."
"I will not do what you demand of me. You will only be wasting your time."
"I have all eternity. Time does not exist to me." The smirk grew into a maddening grin. "I plan to keep you alive against God's wishes and yours. You will live to see completion of my work." Mew closed the space between them to place a teasing kiss onto his mouth, sending tremors through his body. "Of
our work." She nipped at his jawline.
Mewtwo bent away from her the best he could, only evoking her to latch on further. Any repelling abilities he had on hand were disabled, rendering him helpless under her control. He bit back gasps when she traced her hand along his throat, claws scraping lightly against his jugular. He caught at the corner of his eye a warning glare before the harsh kisses resumed along his neck.
At once, his recollection of Mew's own reaction to his advances returned. She was like him, being subject to another's will. But unlike him, he realized, she had trusted him enough when she willingly and possibly foolishly submitted herself to the passion. If what Legion said was true about a soul carrying the same personality into eternity, and having
met her soul...
...she was of love, he was of lust. Because she loves him, she gave herself to him. But also
because she loves him, she had wanted it to end for their sakes. Now, being in her position, he understood what she had felt during those minutes of passion... of weakness.
Glancing back at his counterpart, he noticed dark spots on her neck that he identified as bruises, similar to what Mew had obtained from him.
Very similar. When she shifted down to kiss his chest, he craned for a look to see bloodied dots and streaks on his fur, no doubt from the gash. A sorrowful thought came to him, and he dared to speak to Legion.
"Why have you not healed her wound?"
"Why does it matter to you?" she grumbled into his pectoral, digging her claws into him.
He cringed a little. "Mew has lost too much blood from it. She is going to die if she does not get treatment."
"She is already dead."
Within that second, his heart stung in protest when it skipped a beat, his lungs clenched when he lost his breath, his blood ran cold... So much was running through him, he felt like his body had suddenly shut down. He stared in bewilderment down at her, hardly noticing she still pressed coarse kisses across his torso without another care as his thoughts focused on Mew. He did not want to believe it, there was no way she could be dead, not when he had talked to her. She may have been a spirit, but he could vividly remember she was as alive as him, if not more. He had experienced her warmth, her heart beating against his chest. It had to be no more than a few minutes ago, he was sure of it.
Yet... there had been something in her eyes before they separated. He had seen her sad enough times to know what it looked like inside her pure soul. But there in his arms was more than sadness—that sorrow of hers had pierced him in such a way that he knew he couldn't do anything for her. He would not have been able to comfort her, to make her laugh to chase away the tears. There was something personal about her grief he had no right in knowing, and nothing he could have done would have made her better. Any happiness she may have felt with him was temporary, unimportant.
What if, right then and there... she
had died? Had he been unable to revive her in time?
Mewtwo tensed in his heartbreak, trying and failing to hold it back. Pausing in her travel, the imposter tilted her head back, scowling deeply at him. "Enough, crying never solved anything," she snapped impatiently. "Mew is dead, there is nothing you can do."
"HOW CAN YOU
SAY THAT?!" he screamed at her, wanting to reach out and strangle her. He struggled to toss her off, though she calmly removed herself. "Mew did not die, I saw her! I
touched her, I was intimate with her!"
"I hate repeating myself," the demon grumbled before speaking louder, getting in the clone's face. "Do you not get the definition of 'dead'? She is gone, ceases to exist, extinct! Get over it and move on."
"I cannot!" Mewtwo cried out on the verge of tears. "How
can I when you are in her body to torment me?! But I know she is not dead! She is just lost and too weak right now to do anything! She needs help, or she
will die! Surely not all demons are cruel!"
"Well, as much as the bursting of bubbles are so cliché, I love doing it. So there!" Legion cackled upon pretending to "pop" the feline's outer "bubble".
Shaking his head, he weakly struggled against his hold, too overcome with grief to steady himself. His knees nearly gave out from quaking so much, the demon's words slowly sinking in. "..I-It does not make sense... It may have just been her spirit, but... spirits cannot die..."
"Not in the way you are thinking of." He could barely bring himself to look at her, preferring to stare at the floor. "There are two types of death: the physical death, and the spiritual death. When I say that Mew is dead, what I mean is that she is about half of both. This body is only alive because I will it to, and also because a spirit still inhabits it—namely me, again. The other is much more devastating, you can say. The spiritual death is basically being damned, the opposite of eternal life. Mew is on her way to spiritual death because she has committed a grievous sin."
"No, not Mew!" he quickly gasped out, forcing himself to look directly into the slitted irises. "Not her, she is pure, she is all things good! It is
I who has committed sins, not her!"
A jagged-looking grin split her face. "Everyone who has lived on this earth has committed a sin," she declared in a deathly whisper, "
especially your precious Mew. How else was I able to possess her?"
"Legion, tell me the truth! Mew is innocent, she has to be!"
"Say all you want, you know what I say is the truth. She is not as perfect as you think she is."
"W-Well I know she is not perfect, no one is. But—"
"No one except God," Legion corrected him. "But she is not God, and thus she is imperfect. And imperfect people are destined to make mistakes."
"Then that is all it is—a mistake!" Mewtwo hysterically exclaimed. "Mew has done stupid things before, but she always made up for it!"
She slapped him with her tail and hissed, "Shut up and listen, or I will leave you here to rot in your insanity!" When he bit his lip, she straightened with a smirk. "You have much to learn about your sweetheart. There are things about her past she has not revealed to you because she fears you will judge her. She has not lived an easy life. She lost her mother to poachers as a young kitten, and had to fend for herself. The more she had fought to live, the more she learned the world was cruel to its inhabitants. She was hunted down, nearly eaten, often deathly ill, almost drowned twice, was trapped by a fallen tree until she taught herself Teleport, then took
longer to learn Recover..."
Legion trailed off for a moment. "I could go on, but it is a tiring list of disasters and near-death experiences she had, all as a child. Though she
was once captured by a poacher and lived in a cage for a few months because she was still too small to even be the cuffs of a coat. Thanks to her ability to learn every attack, she 'accidentally' caught the camp on fire and escaped. Then she was stupid enough to get captured
again, this time to be put up for auction as a rare, exotic pet. Once she remembered she could teleport, she fled deep into the Amazon. It took her another several grueling years before she knew all the dangers."
Mewtwo squirmed in discomfort, feeling unworthy to hear Mew's life story. His movements went unnoticed. "A few years into her adulthood, Arceus granted her permission to be an immortal Legendary, and to be the Tree of Beginning's guardian. She accepted, and you should already know what happened during the next thousand years," she droned, waving her hand around. "She has seen many things in her lifetime, more horrific than your encounters, and considering the time-line when it came to wars and all, your days
were terrible, but not like hers. Name anything, she has seen it."
"Why are you telling me this?" he moaned. "Mew would have told me when she was ready."
"So you can learn for yourself how hellish her life was. And how she is no different from you."
He slowly shook his head. "No... she is nothing like me. I have done things... terrible things. Mew is too pure to be near my range of status."
"You would be surprised," Legion smirked. "She would be able to relate to you oh-so very much."
"How can she? She is my opposite, there is no way she can."
Her smirk spread from ear to ear. "I think I will have Mew take over from here," she slowly whispered, letting out a breathy chuckle.
"What are you talking about?"
Without another word, she floated up to eye-level and pressed her forehead against his. He stared in confusion into her demonic eyes, attempting to shrink away. His wrists were given a painful squeeze in prohibition, forcing him to freeze in place. The grin eased up to a wicked beam as the narrowed oculars flashed a light blue.
Then Mewtwo's vision blacked out.
*~*~*
…
...he didn't know how long he was out for, how long the silence had been going. Somewhere in his subconscious, Mewtwo knew he should be dreaming at that moment. He didn't care what it was about just as long as he was dreaming. He was going to force himself to wake up if he didn't—since when was light so bright? He blinked a few times to get used to it, then sat up and stretched. This was feeling familiar...
With a yawn, he levitated away from the branch he had been sleeping on—
Wait, why am I in a tree? he questioned himself, then waved it off like it was nothing. He was probably dead tired right now. Once he got himself ready, he'll be up like normal and look out at how green everything was. Odd, did spring come early? That would've been one thing. But why was the thought "Today is a new day!" running through his head? That was a bit out of character... maybe he really
is dreaming, just in a slightly different way. Which was about time he got something pleasant.
After a few minutes of air-travel (which was feeling so natural in this dreamworld, it made him smile), he reached water, and knelt down. Leaning forward, he cupped a handful into his paws and washed his face, shaking the droplets from his fur. Once the surface calmed, he stared down at his reflection, blinking a few times and wiping the sleep from his eyes. Then, slowly, he looked around at the healthy foliage, taking in the morning songs of the many Bird Pokémon, the chirps of Butterfree on their daily duties, the scurrying of little feet upon bark and vines as other inhabitants foraged for breakfast. The jungle sounds were very relaxing, so very normal, but beautiful—
...wait a second...
Mewtwo looked back at the water, getting lost in his scrutiny of the tiny rosy body contrasting against the greens and blues, aqua irises developing a rather far-away look to them.
And suddenly, thoughts were made clear, like a remembrance. "Oh, tomorrow is Latias' birthday.
Eee, I can hardly wait to see her face when I give her her present!"
'
Wha... what is going on?' the clone gasped, inwardly. '
What kind of dream is this?'
Then he—or in actuality, Mew—sneezed. "Oh, gosh, that was strange," she muttered to herself, wiping her nose. "Guess some Butterfree scales were on the wind."
'
What is this?!' he continued in distress like it never happened. '
Am I having an out-of-body experience?! This cannot be real!'
It was apparent he was speaking out loud to himself, but Mew did not react in acknowledgment. She instead fell back to sprawl and stretch out on the grass, gazing up at the clouds. While Mewtwo had the beginnings of a mental breakdown, his counterpart mentally traced out shapes. She would occasionally comment to herself, which quieted him down so he could hear before it started up again in a seemingly never-ending cycle (though the outbursts did simmer down to mumbles after a while). He began to wonder if he had been drugged when Legion knocked him out, thus causing this strange hallucination of him being manifested inside Mew's head.
Though what made it more confusing was if he
was inside the head of Mew... if that was even possible. The thought itself made his own head hurt.
A rather low, weary sigh escaped from the lips of the small Legendary, catching his attention. "I bet this is what Mewtwo does when he's bored," she murmured, shrugging her shoulders. She flipped herself over, then scooted herself to the water's edge, running her fingers in a circular motion through its surface. "I don't know how he can stand being alone in a large city like that. He really doesn't have too many visitors... not since Pikatwo died..." (Mewtwo felt his heart ache at the mention of his dear friend.) She sighed again. "If I could... if he would let me, and if the Tree wasn't so demanding... I could travel around with him. Maybe then he wouldn't be so lonely. I don't know why no one's bothered to stay more than a few hours. 'S not like a hundred years ago where he would have ripped off their heads for showing up."
When she giggled, a wave of nostalgia rose up inside him. The giggle he had hated, yet missed so very much... "Oh, Mewtwo... he's changed so much since then. Maybe it's about time I do, too."
A twinge of sadness tugged at him, realizing this was a memory from not too long ago—maybe. He recalled that as the years went by, in between bouts of depression, Mew had slowly toned down her playfulness ever since she felt the world take a turn for the worse. Was this one of those very days?
She lightly closed her eyes as she let out a long breath (though it took Mewtwo a couple of seconds to figure it out), head resting against her arms. "Maybe then... things will get better..."
Mew trailed off, succumbing herself to her inner thoughts he caught snippets of when he least suspected them. They were of her typical thinking, he wasn't really surprised about it all. She had always been the one who loved all her friends, who believed everything would get worse before getting better, who saw the world's beauty amidst its ugliness. In a way, it grieved him.
'
Always the hopeless optimist,' he muttered. '
If only you had known what was coming...'
Then her eyes snapped open as she sat up, turning to scan the jungle background. There was a noticeable eerie silence that Mewtwo could have sworn was just filled with Pokémon cries not a moment ago. Mew might have as well, but she was too engrossed in her alertness to mind it. Her ears swiveled as she stared intently into the trees, the constant flickering of her vision giving the clone a little motion sickness. She cautiously levitated a few feet above the ground.
Click.
Faint as it was, they both heard it, and she whipped her head towards its direction. It was just enough for a smooth cold surface to skim by her neck. A splash behind her caused her to spin around and peer at the ripples, bending over for a better curious look. There was a catch of glint shimmering beneath the surface before there was a sharp jab on the back of Mewtwo's neck. Hissing from the sudden pain, he went to reach for the source when Mew did as well. Tugging whatever it was from her skin (sending another vibe through the neck), she brought it to her line of vision, staring in disbelief at it.
"It's still standing?!" came a gruff gasp from behind, startling her into dropping the tranquilizer.
"S
hit, it must have been from when it moved!" a second voice growled. "Reload, and don't miss this time!"
"I got it, sir!" a third blurted out before another click was heard.
Almost immediately, a second harsh prick on the shoulder was felt. Her vision started to blur, and a headache ensued, but she remained afloat, if clumsily. Breaths began to become ragged, as did her hearing. Mewtwo could pick out rough uses of language whenever it briefly refocused to normal, for whoever was shouting (possibly the leader) was angry about the other's actions. Then he observed something odd about Mew's behavior. Despite all her wavering, she made not one motion to fly off, choosing only to gaze down where the three disembodied voices were arguing from.
'
Why is she not running?'
The three must have noticed as well for the bickering quieted down. "Sir... not doing any..." was picked up from the faltering hearing before it blanked out. Then from the bushes appeared three, no four humans clad in what was hinted to be hunting gear. The sunlight was either glaring or she was losing her eyesight for their faces were barely visible. From what could be seen, they stood there in bafflement, one scratching his (maybe her) head as they gawked down at the small Legendary. Mew's thoughts manifested themselves in vain attempts to come out as words.
What's going on? Why are there humans here? How did I... oh Arceus, it hurts so much... hurts to think. Feeling sleep coming... I don't feel good.
She dropped from the air, barely catching herself from collapsing onto her face. Her breathing shallowed out, her arms quaking beneath her. One of the nearest humans flipped her over with a boot, leaving her sprawled out before them. They stood around her, and she could feel their stares boring into her. The one that didn't have a noticeable beard grinned and the lips mouthed. The throbbing worsened, causing Mew to scrunch her eyes shut in pain.
Why... does it hurt... why...?
Then there was another pinch to the neck, her thoughts faded, and Mewtwo was left in blackness. All outside feeling dissipated a moment later, and then the pain was gone. He steadily grew nervous, unsure what was going on in this helpless, immovable state. The long silence was suffocating, it made his anxiety more mind-consuming. For how long was she unconscious? What were those humans doing there? Were they planning something? Why her?
Amongst the uneasiness, he felt anger rising in him. Was this what Legion wanted him to see? She got ambushed, that was it? As unlikely as it was, he knew Mew would easily escape from them once she got up. There was no way they could lay another hand on her—
Blurp.
...as faint as it was, the echo caught his attention. Wherever he looked, it was still black. Great, was he starting to go insane from it now? Unless... could Mew be dreaming?
Blurp.
It was louder this time. If she was, she might be dreaming about swimming. Mewtwo couldn't help but grin awkwardly at the idea. He was getting worked up over a stupid dream.
"...waves spiked. It's gaining consciousness."
"
What! It's only been a few mon... Why... waking up?!"
"Well, it
is a Mew. Guess we calculated wrong."
He felt his heart tense. She wouldn't be dreaming something like
that... would she?
"Should we give it more sedatives then, sir?"
"No, the drug we used must be interfering with the experiments. Can't have it—" The voice continued to speak, but it was now suddenly muffled.
He couldn't care less at the moment what the unfinished dialogue was. His mind was being thrown into shock at what he had heard. '
It... it cannot be...'
A disturbance was evident enough Mew was stirring, the eerie gurgling increasing in volume. Her arms slowly rose until her knuckles bumped up against a smooth plane that was chilling to the bone. Her chest ached every time she took a breath like it was being compressed. A small thought of worry blipped by, though it went unheeded by Mewtwo. He feared the worst, hoping it wasn't the case. And as she slowly opened her eyes, everything came crashing down on him, revisiting a world he never wanted to see again.
It stung the moment her eyelids lifted, vision blurring for the first minute. A golden orange was what awaited them, a slight glare somewhere in the depths. Fuzzy shapes drifted upward before she (and her clone) identified them as bubbles, or rather congealed bubbles. They stared at the curiously haunting substances until she decided to look past the glaze. For a while it was distorted, all one shade of color with no other distinguishing shapes or lighting. The more she grew aware, the clearer the world beyond was. And Mewtwo wished she had stayed asleep.
The room was similar to what he once knew well: advanced computers up against the wall alongside cylindrical and cubical tanks, polished tile floors plugged with wires, garish fluorescents, observant humans in bland white coats calculating formulas. Shuffling and electronic beeps were the ambient sounds next to the gushing of liquid. Unbearable noise... he felt his mind keeping in time to the steady beats, disturbing his thoughts. He tried to focus on the reflection of Mew in the hopes it would all fade to background hums, but as she wasn't looking at it directly, it was shapeless.
Where am I? her thoughts gasped, and he mentally locked on—anything to get rid of that blasted beeping.
What's going on? What is all this? Why can't I move? I'm so cold...
She tried to take in a deep breath only to start gagging. Her lips closed over a plastic lining, and when she glanced down, she panicked further. A thin tube was lodged inside her mouth—no, it was her throat—and extended down into the bottom of her tank. Attached to various parts of her body were wires, holding her in place.
Outside her glass container, a monitor was rapidly pulsing. "I thought you subdued it already!" a voice snapped.
"I just typed in the coordinates, give it time!" came the immediate defense.
Coming in the line of vision was a thin, furious man, brows pinching his glasses as his teeth gnashed. He pounded the surface once, emitting a thunderous sound to vibrate throughout the liquid, startling Mew and causing her to choke again. "Knock it off, you stupid creature!" he shouted. "You're going to kill yourself in there!"
"Sir, don't yell at it! You're frightening it further!" Another one much like the first but taller and hairier rushed forward to hold him back. "It'll calm down soon."
"Is that tracheal tube working? It's not floating in liquid oxygen, you know!"
"Yes, sir, but if you just let it be, it'll calm down and the procedure will proceed smoothly."
"You bet your ass it will, or guess who kicks it out on the curb?!" He turned to huff in her direction before storming off, shouting for a drink. The second man left without a glance, returning to his seat by one of the monitors. The beeping began to slow down after a few moments, and Mew was now able to breathe without gagging.
Fighting to hold back tears, she brought herself to scan the room. Both she and Mewtwo agreed it was a sterile, uninviting place. Despite the human activity, they were all cold towards one another, avoiding eye contact, working individually far apart and rarely speaking to each other except for arguing over notes. The most common trait they seemed to share were being physically languished, otherwise they were like complete strangers. Some, upon closer inspection, looked and acted like they hadn't slept in days.
Why would people do this to themselves? her thoughts meekly wondered as she tore her eyes away from the humans.
Has this gone on for a while? Maybe... when I was put in here?
Mewtwo questioned this himself as well. It reminded him of the scientists who aided in creating him. While the years had blurred their faces, he could still remember the tired, but relieved tones when they congratulated each other on succeeding. They had spent grueling long hours, long months on making sure he survived. For all he knew, they must have eaten and slept very little the entire time. It was likely the same situation here. The one raging human only known as "Sir" must be in charge of whatever was going on. He must know that Mew was valuable, that one mistake could kill her. They couldn't afford mistakes—scientists rarely did. However long she was in the tank for was probably as long as they had undoubtedly gone without rest.
Mew gagged again when she swallowed (tried to), and leaned up against the glass barrier. When she took another glance beyond, her jaw dropped as her eyes widened in horror.
Not even a yard away was another tank, occupied by a creature suspended in identical fluid, bent backward nearly in half. It was of unknown species, one she nor Mewtwo had ever seen before, but closer inspection revealed to them it was supposed to be a common Rattata. It still had its rodent shape to it, but with a feline touch. The ears were rounded like a normal Rattata's except for the notable pointedness. The buck fangs were replaced with canine teeth, the whiskers nearly absent. From the paws were extended claws, the forelimbs and hind legs strikingly similar to that of a feline's. Its tail caught their attention the most, being extended to twice, possibly three times the length of its body, but still curled at the tip. Whether it was from the vermilion coloring or not, it was a sickly yellow, though the clone was sure it was gray.
But Mew hardly noticed that. She was too transfixed on its eyes. Its cold, blank eyes unblinkingly staring into emptiness.
...dead...
"...aw, damn it, Tyson, why didn't you catch this?" a voice snarled out. One of the scientists walked up to the tank and glared at the body, teeth gritting.
"Whaaat, I went on lunch break—oh..." Another one had stepped to his side, grimacing at the sight. He sucked in breath through his teeth. "...you know, the wires could never stick—"
"That's not the point, you dumbbell, it was
your post!"
"How the hell was I supposed to know it'd die just when I'd go on my frigging lunch break? Did anyone else hear the droning over the yelling earlier when the wires came off?"
"Doesn't matter, it's another failed experiment." Ignoring the rise of exclamations in the room, the human walked over to a computer, typed away, and watched impatiently as the tank drained. The corpse sank down through the hole, and the other scientist pulled open a hidden compartment to drag it out. "That's the third failed clone since we got the Mew. We're beginning to run out of options here."
The human, Tyson, dangled it by its skinny tail, frowning deeply. "It's strange. The fetus would grow normally, so why give out now?"
"Because
someone decided to go on lunch break. Science doesn't wait on anyone."
"You sure it's because the cells stop mutating and it poisons the body... or something?"
Throwing his hands up, the disgruntled human yelled, "I don't know, and I don't give a damn! Just dispose of it while I collect more of the Mew's hair! We used the last of the batch on this one." He pinched his brows when the man left, grumbling under his breath as he once more typed along. "How many more embryos do we have in storage?" he asked out loud.
One of the few female scientists, when she pulled herself together, announced, "Due to a tight budget and the shorting out of the freezer, we're down to our last."
"What tight budget?"
"Our funding is being threatened to get cut by next month. Weren't you there for the meeting when the contract was being signed?"
"I'm not as high of a class as you are," he sneered. "Why did no one tell us?"
She scoffed, taking off her glasses to prevent smearing when she face-palmed. "We were quite sure we'd get living specimens because we now have a live Mew. Okay, yes, they'd live to the juvenile stage half-way through gestation, but then they would suddenly shut down. This is the third time it's happened, and no one can figure out why."
"Look on the bright side, we've progressed quicker than the first cloning attempt in history," Tyson blurted out when he returned empty-handed, attempting to bring out the positive. "It took them a year to figure out how to fill in the gaps in DNA. Dr. Fuji followed it as well, even though it did take him longer to
alter DNA."
"We get it, Tyson, what's your point?" she huffed, crossing her arms.
"Well, all he had was a thousand-plus-year-old fossil to work with. We have a living, breathing Mew."
"What does this have to do with our failed experiments?"
"...Crap, I had it..."
"You're wasting our time and patience!" the man at the computer snapped, swerving back around to continue punching in numbers. "Go make yourself useful and fetch the last embryo, and pray to your personal god or whatever it
survives this time!"
"Wait, wait, I remember! It had to do with the lifespan!"
"So?"
Other scientists had by now given up on listening to him and returned to their own work. The woman and the angry man remained rooted in place. Pointing to Mew, Tyson noted, "There are legends that say it has a special life-force that enables it to live forever. Fuji was familiar with it, and he had tried to copy it. And he succeeded—at the cost of many other experiments, yes, I'm aware of it, but they successfully cloned it!"
Mewtwo felt his counterpart stir in discomfort, though he was sure his stomach had tightened into a knot. How did they get that information? This Dr. Fuji... he never got the scientist's name, but whoever he was... did he somehow survive? A colleague of his? Some of the machinery
had managed to remain in working order after the destruction. Did the records still exist? It had to be the only other reason. The project was a well-kept secret, but he knew they had to jot down notes. So how did they get off the island?
"What are you getting at? You better have a reasonable explanation for this," the woman sighed exasperatedly, glancing at her watch.
Tyson boyishly grinned. "What if the clone is still alive?"
Mew flinched, her heart clenching in fear. The impatient man was quick to reply, turning away from the monitor for the occasion. "That was a few centuries ago, and there have been no reports of any sightings or its existence for that matter. It's dead, end of story. Now shut up and go back to your lunch break."
"No, I'm serious! It may still be out there!"
"Tyson, we're not sending men out there to hunt it down just because Fuji's last words declared it lived," the female interjected. "For all we know, it killed itself destroying the lab, and even if it didn't, it went into hiding."
"You sure natural instincts didn't kick in, and thus it found a way to survive in the wild? Maybe it even produced offspring?"
"Tyson, it was a
clone, it
had no natural instincts!" Jamming down on a key, the furious scientist quickly stood up to tower over him. "Your arguments are invalid because of lack of proof, how many times do we have to tell you this?! We have a goddamn Mew in our possession, that should be satisfying enough!"
"What is this nonsense prattling I'm hearing instead of fingers clacking away and monitors beeping?!" came the sudden outcry when the bespectacled man from before barged into the room. The scientists, startled at his appearance, hurriedly stood before him and bowed apologetically. He leered at them. "What the hell is going on? And you better give me a damn good explanation."
"You see sir, I was trying to explain to them about the possibilities of—"
"I wasn't talking to you!" he barked at Tyson, who shrank back, hanging his head. "Bridget, what's with this idiocy? Why aren't you at your posts?"
Fumbling with her glasses to put them on, she responded, "We were just about to fetch the last embryo once we discovered MXP-303 was a failure."
A vein pulsed in his temple, his face darkening. "A
failure?" he seethed through his teeth. "I thought you said you had learned your lesson after the failure of MXP-101."
"We have, sir, but we have also been experiencing problems lately, and—"
"I don't want to hear excuses, I want to hear success!" He pounded on the nearest tabletop, knocking over cups and spilling the beverages. "We are on a tight schedule! If we don't have a living specimen in the works when they come to see our progress, we'll lose our funding, and we'll have to pay out of pocket! And guess what we last manually
paid for?" His eyes glinted over at Mew, and she shrank far back as she could, only to flinch when a mechanical arm swooped into sight and tweezers yanked some hair from her cheek. She choked on the tube when she whimpered, but no one noticed.
"S-Sorry sir... we'll do our hardest with this one," the woman sputtered out.
"There's no time for that, we're going with plan B."
A scientist huddling over his notes meekly raised a hand for attention. "Sir... the Mew has been unconscious for so long... Err, all we know is that it's a female... but we don't know its ovu—"
"There's no
time," he stressed. "Now I want cooperation this one time. Let's get it out of there, bring out the sonogram, and thaw out the semen. When they come, we'll have an embryo in the process, and
hopefully liable enough be labeled as acceptable. Since we can't grow it in a test tube, we'll just have to grow it in a surrogate mother."
"Why didn't we do this in the first place?" one of the humans muttered to himself.
With a silent warning glare, the man nodded in Mew's direction. The woman returned the gesture, and walked over to the computer and clacked away. The fluid gurgled as it emptied, and she was eased down to rest at the bottom of the tank. Once the water was gone from her ears, the wheeze from the tube inside her mouth was clearly heard. The cylinder then was split in half as it withdrew deep into the compartments. Having grown used to the liquid, her vision was watery and her eyes stung, and the cold air of the lab made her shiver. One of the scientists (possibly the woman, Bridget) stepped up before her, and tugged the tracheal tube straight out of her mouth, gagging her and leaving an uncomfortable sensation behind. Then one-by-one, the wires were detached from her. Judging by the winces and dull aches, Mewtwo had a feeling these wires weren't exactly suctioned to her skin.
She was too weak to move about nor fight off the human picking her up, so she lay limply against an arm. The others shuffled about, bringing things together and clearing workspace. "Sir" continued to spout out orders and snapped at Tyson to be careful with the equipment when a loud
bang! was heard. "Put it on the table, Bridget" was the next demand, and she obeyed. The steely surface jolted Mew for a moment, and her sight cleared up. Just above her, the woman quickly pulled on some rubber gloves, briefly meeting her eyes. Shivering, the Legendary forced herself to look ahead in time to see one of the scientists bring forth a stubby, cordless device, placing the flat end on her abdomen. The surface was even colder than the table, and she jerked.
"Hold it still, Bridget!" he barked at her, and she pushed her hands down against the sternum to pin her. "Can you bring that a little closer? I don't think it's reading the image." He lightly pressed it against her again, turning his head away to look at the machine. Because he was in the way, Mewtwo and Mew couldn't determine what it was he was looking at, or even looking
for. The clone had been around a few hospitals to know it emitted ultrasonic waves into the body. Usually, though, he noticed they were used to show a human fetus.
'
But she is not even pregnant,' he duly noted, growing confused. '
What are they looking for?'
Judging by some groans and a displeasing sigh from the woman, they were unable to find their target. "No sign of ovulation," the man announced, removing the device.
"I didn't say put it away!"
"Sir, you saw for yourself—"
"That means nothing. We're going to manually fertilize and alter the genomes of her eggs."
There was a great pause. "You mean... Sir, what about the last embryo?"
"Forget it, that was from a different mother, which might explain the failure of the experiments. If it came from the Mew itself, we may have better success in starting fresh."
"Sir, transvaginal oocyte retrieval is a
human procedure!"
"Who says?" With a snap of his fingers, he asked the nearest scientist, "Is there a vaginal transducer on hand?" to which he was given a positive nod. Pleased with the response, he gestured to the outside direction, and after the human left, he pointed at Mew. "It needs to be in lithotomy position. Bridget, you have it covered, or do you need extra hands?"
"She's weakened enough," she coolly answered. "But extra hands won't hurt."
"I'll elevate the hips."
"You already have the sonogram, Tyson will do it."
He stepped into place without a hint of hesitation and nodded at Bridget. When the feline was forced into a sitting position, he spread out her legs and supported them up. Mew immediately began to squirm in her best attempt of a struggle. "Let go of me," she mumbled, though the man blinked down at her.
"That was a pitiful whimper, wasn't it?" he commented, quirking a brow.
"Indeed..." She skeptically looked at how he held the legs up. "I don't think this is going to work. Looks out of her flexibility range."
"It should take no more than half an hour. She can handle it." The quiet whines convinced Mewtwo otherwise.
The moment they brought the needle into view, her stomach (and his) twisted and she resumed fighting them, albeit weakly. "Sir" glared in her direction, which one of his colleagues noticed. "Think we should sedate her some more?" he inquired concernedly.
"We have the equipment, just get it over with."
Bowing his head, he frowned down at Mew. "I'm not seeing the vulva..." When he reached down to poke his fingers about, she kicked at him, forcing the two scientists to snatch her ankles and twist her around on her stomach. "Raise the pelvis—oh, there it is. Yeah, good call, lithotomy position wasn't going to work well here like this."
"Make sure to hold it down," "Sir" added, adjusting his glasses.
Hardly able to see what was happening, the small Legendary was finding herself out-matched by two humans, limited only to moving certain parts of her body as her face compressed further into the table. While still foggy from the sedatives, she was more alert in her senses, and even Mewtwo was finding himself squirming from it. The sonogram's wireless scanner lingered on her lower abdomen as the scientists talked among themselves on what they needed to do; the two were attempting to block them out (Mew was, anyway), wanting to be spared the details.
And then...
At first, she couldn't feel it, but there eventually came an uncomfortable sensation like she was cramping between her legs, spreading upward. And what felt like a squeeze followed after... and there was movement. Her eyes slowly widened, a tingle running along her spine and her lower region at the same time. There were murmurs of "Careful, careful" going around, and Tyson—or Bridget—tightened the hold on her.
What happened next hit her like a kick to the stomach. It might have been for all she knew, but there was no denying she was now in pain. She let out a sudden cry against the table, alarming the humans. One let out a cuss under his breath, and she could swear something was burning inside her.
"She's feeling it. We're giving her more sedatives."
"Not too much," "Sir" warned, but gave his permission nevertheless.
Until they stuck a needle into her thigh, the pain was growing intense, more than just a cramp or an internal squeeze. Whatever it was, there was something foreign inside her body, and somewhere between her legs she could just feel it rub against a sensitive area. "Get it out!" she begged, tears starting to well up. "Whatever you're doing, stop it! It hurts!"
Mewtwo had caught himself about to shout it out as well, until he wondered how it was the internal agony was affecting him. As provocative as it was, even distracting his thoughts, it made no sense how he could feel the pain as well. This had to be another trick, it had to be...
Momentarily, it dulled, and she trembled and moved less, but the sedative was unable to chase away the sensation. Inwardly, she could still feel it slide. Despite it being unwanted pain, her mind was sick enough to think back to it, trying to guess what exactly was going on. She wasn't good at these terms, it was more of Mewtwo's thing (so he managed to catch of her thoughts). Though... the more she thought on it, the less longer it took her to put two and two together.
They said they were going to... impregnate me... weren't they?
"Pull it out carefully, we don't need any vaginal bleeding right now," the one holding the scanning device advised.
"Then stop moving around, the image keeps getting blurred."
"I'm not moving it..."
...oh sweet Arceus...
She lay there in silent shock even when they announced they got what they wanted. The voice of "Sir" demanded it to be fertilized at once, then Bridget spoke up. But she was only half-listening, and she didn't care once her mind blanked out. Mewtwo hardly paid attention himself, wishing he couldn't understand the situation. He mentally went through all that had been happening: capture, sedated into a deep sleep for no more than a few months, altering an embryo so it slowly morphed into another Mew, salvaging for her eggs...
It was of a different procedure, but it was still cloning. He wondered if this was how he came to be, through the manipulations of an embryo tweaked and forced to be the strongest Pokémon in the world. There was no surrogate mother except for the tank he grew in, as far as he knew. He might have been formed in a womb, then was cut out and placed inside to finish growing to his adult form, being kept asleep as a precaution. It was a disturbing thought. He hoped this wasn't the case for Mew.
Even when they released her for the moment, she remained motionless on the table as the scientists went about their own business, deaf to them and staring unblinkingly at the machines. Time became non-existent, the surrounding space frozen into place. It was like Dialga and Palkia decided they wanted to go on break—if only from this very room—and hit the pause button. It could be she was now stuck in sleep paralysis, or that she was experiencing the horror of waking up in the middle of an operation. But nothing mattered to Mew. It was a breaking point, the undeniable outcome she wished she could refuse to acknowledge. This was her way of handling such pressure, emptying everything around her, secretly wishing it was all a nightmare she could wake up from.
Mewtwo could feel her mind crack.
After a long time passed, if it was still existing, she suddenly jerked when they lifted her hips back up, and muffled voices could be heard. The tension sensed by them lasted only for a few seconds before all was quiet again. The internal sensation returned, and she shuddered, closing her eyes tightly. In a repetitive manner, her thoughts echoed through what he was sure were lyrics to a song she knew or stanzas of a poem, or a chant; whatever it was, she was distracting herself to keep from thinking back to whatever was going on below. The more she felt it, the vigorous the recitation. It strangely sounded like a lullaby...
"...transfer is complete."
Their breath caught at those words. It went unnoticed.
"You sure?"
"Positive." A short pause. "We won't know if it'll survive into the following week. It is fairly young, just starting to divide its cells. We're letting the other eggs be fertilized on their own. If this one doesn't live, the others will."
"Mmm, maybe Lady Luck is on our side after all." There was a deep laugh before it abruptly stopped. "Put it in the kennels for now. We'll worry about room later."
There was a blur of movement above her, the faint outline of one of the scientists picking her up. "Sir, I think she's in shock."
"It'll get over it." And the conversation was over.
Everything was deathly quiet as she was carried out of the room as though the subject matter, if any, was too solemn to mention. The walk down the hallway was long, the temperature feeling like it dropped with every step. Any human scientist they passed by was just as cold, hardly if ever stealing a glance (and if they did it wasn't friendly), turning their backs on them when in range, and those were the small ones. Mewtwo was sure they didn't like her, the person holding her, or even both. While fully aware, Mew felt no sense of emotion over it. She just didn't care at the moment.
At last, they reached a poorly-lit room lined with nothing but cages. It was silent as well, though the kennels appeared to be occupied. The person paused at one to jerk the gate open before slipping her inside.
"You'll only be in here until we know if we'll be keeping our funding or not," the human whispered, now identifiable as Bridget. "I'll check up on you daily until then. You're too important a specimen to lose." She snapped the cage shut (with some difficulty), then sighed, pushing her glasses higher up her nose. "I wonder what it's like to know you're the last of your kind. It must be painful." Then she left, hands in her pockets.
Mew remained motionless, leaning against the side and gazing across the room. The kennel across from her held a Furret, starved and unkempt. It was probably a specimen used for experiments, but there was no infliction to be seen. When it came more into the light, however, Mewtwo cringed at seeing it was tailless.
Placing its paws flat against the cage, it peered directly at them. "Hey... you're a Mew, aren't you?" it squeaked, indicating it was a female (unless they all sounded like that). "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be a goddess, impossible to capture?"
Mew's response was a blank stare.
The Furret squirmed, scowling. "Well? Aren't you?"
"Did my ears deceive me, or did you say 'Mew'?" Crawling into view in an adjacent kennel was a Spinda, patches over its eyes.
"There's a Mew across from us," the rodent explained.
Voices started picking up in whispers out of sight. The Spinda tilted its head. "...describe her, please."
"Uh... looks to be the size of a healthy Pikachu. Cat-like... long tail, big blue eyes—they're so gorgeous, I don't think even a poet can describe them. Wait... there's something about her eyes. She looks disturbed." She did a quick scan and quietly gasped. "She's bleeding... Oh heavenly Ho-oh, they did something to her."
"Do you know what it might be?" an unseen Pokémon questioned. "Where's she bleeding from?"
"Down there... you know." Furret turned to Mew's direction in sympathy. "Honey, did they take your baby? Do you remember?"
Her head slowly dropped to spot the small patch of blood on her fur, but took no heed. Resting a hand upon her stomach, she solemnly murmured, "The exact... opposite."
