Chapter Seventy-One: Lost Souls



Gladion's POV



Ilima is in Mew form, curled in a fetal position. His fur is standing all on end, and he's visibly shaking. The scariest part, though, is his eyes. His deep gray orbs have turned into slits, like the eyes of something that just crawled out of the Black Lagoon.



"I feel nothing," he whispers. "I can't feel anything."



"So, you're numb?" I ask.



He shakes his head no. "Not physically. Emotionally. I'm not scared, I'm not angry, I'm not upset. I'm just... I want to fight people. I want to hurt people."



Welcome to my world, I think to myself. I don't say it because even I know that's rude, but Ilima probably hears it anyway. "What happened?"



Ilima stares off at the cave wall, which is something cat Pokemon like to do, but not an usual behavior for Ilima. "I got sucked inside Koga's Dark Ball. Some vile fluid sprayed at me, I heard these terrible voices in my head... I feel like my heart doesn't work anymore. Like I have no emotions at all."



He pauses. "Do you think... I've been poisoned?"



"Considering your ability is Synchronize, wouldn't that also poison the guy who caught you in the Dark Ball?"



"I think he may have been a sociopath already, but dear lord, that's terrifying. Especially if it influenced his decision to..."



Neither of us say it, but we both know. Shu.



"It wasn't your fault, Cap," I say. "You were captured, and there was nothing you could have done to prevent it."



Ilima shakes his head no. "Before I was captured, I sent Koga plummeting. If I hadn't caught him telekinetically, he would have fallen to his death and Shu would still be alive."



This is true. No one wants to talk about it, but it's true. "I'm sorry," is all I can bring myself to say. "I lost someone, too. That kid named Cress. He was falling, and I... failed to catch him."



I don't mention the details. Ilima can read my mind anyway.



Ilima stares at me blankly. "I should be sad about that. I wish I could say I was sad. But I feel... nothing."



"Then you're damn lucky, because I feel terrible," I snap.



Ilima stares back at me, with those strange eyes, and I wonder if maybe I just frekked up big time. "I should probably mention, I have a barely suppressible urge to attack you right now."



I back away slowly. "Should... I warn everyone else?"



"Hau's doing that right now. Just... stay away from me. I'm not well."



"I don't want to leave you alone," I say.



"I said STAY AWAY FROM ME!"



I jump back, feeling as if Ilima's about to sprout fangs (which he's done before) and go for my throat (which he hasn't). "All right, sheesh! I'll... be somewhere... else. Over there."



I then excuse myself, because nobody wants to be in the same room with a crazy Mew.



What have you done to my friend, Team Rocket?



---



Sabrina's POV



A group of thirty Mewtwo have surrounded my gym, and they don't look friendly. I don't need to be a psychic to tell that Koga has told Giovanni about my interference at Pokemon Tower.



"This is a bit of overkill, don't you think?" I say. "You'd think I'd staged an outright psychic rebellion."



"That's a very real possibility," the head Mewtwo says. "It's not our place to question our orders. Only to carry them out."



The Mewtwo have put up a veil around their thoughts, so I can't gauge their intentions. "So what do you intend to do with me? Kill me? You can't afford to leave Saffron leaderless, not with the Dark World Thorns on the loose."



"The Thorns have already escaped Saffron and brought down Pokemon Tower," the Mewtwo says. "Which you failed miserably to predict. And no, we're not going to kill you. Our orders are to take you to reprogramming to get rid of all those nasty human emotions such as 'pity' or 'compassion.' They're clearly affecting your ability to lead."



Reprogramming. A necessity originally created to keep the Mewtwo loyal, after Experiment One infamously went rogue and burned down the lab on New Island. "So you're just going to make me like you. Pardon my Kalosian, but I can't see that as a desirable possibility."



I think over my options. I could attempt to rally my psychics to fight the Mewtwo, but that would fail miserably. Mewtwo can be exhausted, but not killed; they regenerate from any fatal injuries they sustain. Even worse, the dark energies from a psychic battle in Saffron City could strengthen the Dark World Thorns and bring an even greater disaster upon my precious city.



At the same time, I like being human, and would prefer to stay that way.



I reach down to my left arm and finger an odd device strapped onto it. My chronometer. Technically not mine, since we stole them from those time travelers we captured. The three chronometers recovered were distributed among the three Gym Leaders of Team Rocket -- Koga, Surge, and myself. The understanding was that we would be the most qualified to use them to achieve Team Rocket's goals.



Well, right now my goals conflict with Team Rocket's, because my goals involve retaining my conscience.



"I guess I've run out of time," I quip.



And I set my chronometer to take me to the distant past.



---



I find myself in the middle of a forest in what must eventually become Saffron City. I hear birdsong in the trees, and I see strange Bug-types wandering about in the shade of extinct plants. It seems to be either evening or morning; I can't tell which. Hopefully morning; I'd hate to get lost in the strange woods at night.



I check the chronometer to see what time I've brought myself back to. Unfortunately, the readout appears to be broken due to overflow. Am I thousands of years in the past, or millions? That would make an interesting scientific debate that I really don't have time for now.



Because I kind of need to survive.



I hear a voice in the distance. A young boy's voice, from the sound of things. So there are humans here. "Dratini?" he asks. "Where are you, Dratini?"



I pinpoint the location of the voice, then start off towards it. The underbrush is thick and full of thorns, but I manage to avoid most of them. Having heightened mental awareness isn't just good for bending spoons.



Eventually, I find the boy. Ten years old or so. Brown hair, fair skin. To my surprise, he's wearing a hooded jacket, shorts, and sneakers, possibly indicating that I haven't gone nearly as far back in time as I'd believed.



He gives me a nervous look. "...Hello," he says. "Do you know where we are?"



I am increasingly suspicious that I do not, in fact, know where we are. "I'm just as lost as you are," I admit. "Probably even more."



He shakes his head. "Oh, I doubt that. I... I'm not supposed to talk to strangers, usually, but maybe we should help each other. Which way did you go into these woods from?"



"...that is an insanely complicated question."



He looks around. "Yeah, this forest is pretty thick. Have you seen a blue snakelike creature anywhere around here?"



"You mean a Dratini?"



The boy reacts in shock. "How do you... oh, right. You probably heard me shouting from a distance. Dratini is what I call him, because he's like a tiny dragon."



Interesting. So this child is the one who named Dratini. I must be in the past after all, although why and how a child in the past is wearing modern clothes is completely incomprehensible. "How did you even get here?" I ask. It's difficult to place a bead on his thoughts, because this child has no aura to draw from. Yet another mystery. "You're not from around here either, are you?"



The boy shakes his head. "I... I don't think so. Honestly, I have no idea where I am. I just woke up here, with the strange sense that this is where Dratini lives and that I need to find him. But I haven't got a clue as to how."



It's a good thing I've got psychic powers, then. Although maybe I shouldn't reveal that just yet. In some eras, you could get killed for it. "Where do you come from?"



"Tokyo. But that's not a place in this world."



Color me intrigued. "What do you mean?"



He takes a deep breath. "Well, I've actually been in three worlds, and this one is sort of a mix of the first two. The first world, the human world, doesn't have the kinds of creatures you find in this world and the second one -- magical creatures like Dratini and Dragonite. You see, I met this star-shaped pixie thing, and it asked me to make a wish. Dragonite told me that the creature world wasn't made for humans to exist in. So I wished for a world where humans and creatures could live together." He shrugs. "I guess this must be that world."



Dragonite told him. So maybe this kid has psychic powers too, but that doesn't make sense, as he doesn't have any aura at all. Maybe he just can understand the Pokemon language. "So you think Dratini came to this world as well?"



"I certainly hope so!" His face falls. "But I have no idea. My wish was that me and Dratini could stay here together forever, but I can't seem to find him. Maybe something went wrong with the wish?"



I'm about to answer, but suddenly my psychic sense screams out at me -- DANGER. In an instant, I leap towards the feeling, lashing out with a telekinetic blast in the direction of the warning. A tree topples, and several odd Pokemon scatter.



"Well, well, well," a familiar voice taunts behind me. "You shouldn't rely on your extrasensory abilities so often. At least look before you shoot."



It was a decoy! Following my ears instead of my psychic sense, I whirl around, and see... Koga. With a knife. And a smug, evil grin on his face.



He has the child.