[PG] Twisted Mirror

[Homura]

Circa 2005

This is a straight transfer of the old fic that I wrote in 2005. To be honest, I didn't expect much as a growing writer during those times, and most certainly the story was written for WAR V. I've preserved essentially every element, including what was written before the fic, as stated below.

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Heh, first timer at an organized fic. Yeah...I'm a crappy writer, which goes along with the science guy stereotype anyway. XD

Anywho, I've only actually written one chapter of this story, which is to run about 7 chapters. I'm trying a few things to see if things will work or not. First of all, it tends to be "all over the place" in terms of the storyline. I'm not sure whether this is an appealing idea for some, but I'm going to try this out anyway. I don't expect to get points for the WAR either, since it's pretty hard to actually get this story out and get points in the war. Either way, I'll try for it anyway, even with infrequent updates.

Suggestions and stuff like that appreciated...besides, I know I'm a horrible writer anyway. ;)

Twisted Mirror
Afterword by Stephen Yursa

[Homura]

1 Discovery of Revolution

As I march toward this final setting much have I learned since the beginning of this insanity known simply as war. It seems to me that it's strange to reflect upon the seemingly unimportant past, as I know that this manuscript, would probably be buried by the end of this predicament. It matters little now, since it will only be days before the end comes. However, this may someday be dug up, and I hope that whoever does read this manuscript learn from what I have learned in my past and never repeat history again.

Simply said, this began with a revolution that changed the world strangely for the better. I could never piece together why this was the reason for the war itself, but I guess this is another example of how good things only bring the bad.

I remember the first day some time ago when I was still in Viridian City, minding my own business with school, games, and other things that I used to cherish so much. Yes, years ago I was a normal human being obsessed with training Pokemon and dating girls. I remembered how I was the best trainer in my class, how I was undefeated in Pokemon contests, and how it was so likely that I would be successful in life.

Either way, my day began when my mother would wake me up at exactly quarter after eight. I would lazily get ready for about half an hour before going downstairs to get some breakfast, made by my mother. I never really liked my mother's cooking, but I never bothered to make the food myself either. So it was for me a trade-off, one that still ended in my advantage. I would then leave the house with lunch prepared by mother by nine in the morning.

Uneventful as it was, I would enter the doors to the classroom at about the same time as the first bell would ring. However, that day, instead of seeing the girl I had a crush on at that time, I saw several people, Bob (blue short haired kid), Samantha (who's Caitlin's best friend), and Caitlin (whom I had a crush on) chatting away. I naturally eavesdropped on them, just to make sure that it wasn't anything negative about me. “You heard?” Bob chattered.

“It's not anything stupid is it?” Sam retorted.

“Unfortunately no,” Bob glared at Sam. “I just learned that they actually genetically modified a Pokemon to have specific genes for power generation. This would mean that-”

That was pretty much all I heard before I ignored them for no actually talking about me. But it was interesting, how some Pokemon can be bred to have genes that would benefit mankind in such a way. Besides, if a Pokemon can generate that much power compared to cost in power generation, it would mean that getting my hands on such a Pokemon would surely make me the king of this school. Strangely enough, this was the first resolution I have made in a long time. From what I knew back then, there was no need to care about anything. Survival was just another trivial matter, and there was no worry in the world there in Viridian. That night, I went home by the same route that I took for the better part of my life, did my homework, ate, washed up, and went to bed, thinking about the possibilities of genetically enhanced Pokemon.

This marked the beginning of the long years ahead, known to us as the Final War. I woke up after being stirred by my mother that same night. In my drowsiness I saw fear in her eyes like never before. A bead of sweat dripped from the top of her forehead, slid down between her eyes, around the nose and mouth, and landed on her pajamas. Not only that, the radiance that I thrived upon from her vanished from her as if her soul was taken from her.

Before I knew anything, I was already outside my house, with me carrying my pokeball belt. I did not know when I took that belt, nor did I care, because what I saw was the entire city burning with incinerating heat. The sky was coloured red in the darkness of the night, as if dawn had come early for several hours. I looked around, still holding my belt. I was moving, and I was escaping from this city on a vehicle of some sort. Around me were my mother, my father, and several others I did not know of. I looked up and saw the sun yet again, but it was night. Before long the brightness of the burning orb came crashing down toward our vehicle, and that was all I knew of that night.

The attack on Viridian City marked the beginning of the Final War. From what I knew, survivors were few as they took almost no prisoners and destroyed all that opposed them. This war raged on for about five more years after the attack on Viridian city, and during these five years I lived in Fuchsia Swamp. Somehow I survived the attack on Viridian city, and the only thing for me to do was survival within the new world.

Saffron City was still standing tall during these five years, with its north, west, and south covered by Allied Forces. Technically speaking Fuchsia Swamp was allied to these forces, but we tend not to care all that much. On the other hand, the New-gen forces took control of Viridian Ruins, Pewter city, Lavender Tower (formerly known as Pokemon Tower), Cinnabar Volcano, and Seafoam Islands. At that point in time most of the other areas that connected these locations were either at war, or are being controlled by one of the two sides.

Fuchsia Swamp was a special place in this war, mainly because it was a front going up against Lavender Tower and the Seafoam Islands, but it was also an easy route to Celadon Forest, which at that time was known as the “no front land”. Beside that point, Lavender Tower was also the front to Vermilion Harbour and that of Cerulean city, and was probably the weakest location they had. Nonetheless they kept that position quite nicely for the five years.

Not only was Fuchsia a two-fronted land (Cerulean being the other), it was also the place where the alliance was the weakest with the Allied Forces. In order to survive in this dump, we had to raid allies and enemies alike, as this was the way that we could survive in the harsh warring world, within a harsh warring dump. We raid anything from pokeballs to food rations. During that time period, electric, fire, and water Pokemon were at the premium, as the swamp itself lacked all three.

There was also a special area in the swamp itself. The swamp is divided into three uneven areas. The entire northern portion of the swamp was taken by the master raider Kuga. The southern portion is then split into an east and a west end, which generally do not have any alliances with any force, only raiding those who travel through their lands, which includes anyone who dared not to pay the toll fees at Kuga's borders.

I lived in one of the small makeshift houses in the northern part of the swamp. In there, as long as you were a resident of the swamp (even if you just stole the residency card from someone and wouldn't have to pay a cent, like I did) or you paid the toll fees, you were protected against anything regarding the south. Anyone who violated that previous law would be faced with unspeakable punishments prescribed by Kuga himself. It wasn't that bad of a deal, considering that the southern swamp was filled with nasty ghouls (humans) and poisonous Pokemon alike. During that time period, I carried three pokeballs with a smeargle, a magneton, and a lapras, so that only sweetened the deal.

I basically raided the raiders who were near the border of the northern and southern swamp and sold whatever I got for a living. While most of the men in the northern part of the swamp raided places like Lavender Tower and Celadon Forest, I chose not to take the risks of becoming physically impaired if it meant that I had to do double the work (more if I got raided myself while being south of the border). I was one of the few that did this, as generally the alternative rewards were also worst than those in Celadon or Lavender raids.

Not only did I raid opponents south of the border, I also took in odd jobs here and there. The prices varied, but generally were better than what I did for a living. So I became acquainted with men in other businesses, such as smuggling jobs generally going into Lavender Tower.

On the day of revolution, I left the stench-filled room as I headed to meet with one of the businessmen, named Jerry. I took one last look at the house to make sure I didn't leave anything that I normally wouldn't take. I noted the small size of the room, with a carrying capacity of four, a broken three-seated couch to the north, half of a table with a small computer used for hacking (magneton electricity and wireless connection extra) near the couch, a refrigerator that essentially acted like an ice box to the south, with a pot stand on top of it, and a twin sized bed to the east, with a torn blanket and an overused pillow that went gray with age. Checking once more that I left my Pokemon where they were, I left through the back entrance on the northern side of the house, which consisted of navigating through a tunnel of boulders lodged with the house somehow.

I went back out to the southern (front) end of the house when outside, mainly because the streets safer for a lone man, even if he was under Kuga's protection. I noticed that the front “door's” security system (which involved more lodged boulders that made entrance into the house impossible) required a little extra flare; I should get some more security devices after, since one can never be too careful even in small one-room houses that contained no items for hygiene.

As I walked to the east, I noticed neighbours and such running about, usually holding some sort of loot from that day's work. The area was fairly peaceful for a stench ridden swamp residential site that has a population density of eighteen people per square meter of land, thus it was a perfect hiding place for a con, a thief, or both, since nobody knew you nor cared.

It was only a short ten minute walk to Jerry's place. The first thing I noticed as I inched to his place was that only his men were waiting, and that I recognized one of the men. That man was the leader of the raiding parties, known to the men as the Treasure-Stormer, Mackenzie. With a lightning-fast pounce, I knocked out three of Mack's men with a single forearm swing. Mack looked at me as if he saw a ghost... or a person whom he had cheated on. “Wh... What the heck is your butt doing here?” he clamoured, obviously not appreciating my existence.

“Whatever you're doing, I want in,” I explained to him.

“You do not understand the circumstances that we have right now. Leave while you have a chance.”

“Hm? I'd like to understand these circumstances then.”

“Look here, I'm not joking this time. Get out of here while you have the chance, boy.”

And the chance slipped away, as soon as Mack stuttered out that last message, for a few new-gens appeared in front of the entire group almost instantaneously. I naturally disappeared from the camouflage of the swamp using my dark wardrobe. The entire group bowed to these two new-gen blastoise. It seemed that Jerry was dealing with the dangerous enemies within the borders that Kuga had set up, which would explain why the circumstances being dangerous.

The new-gens were essentially enhanced Pokemon, with abilities that were far greater than that of a regular Pokemon, not to mention the fact that they were able to speak our language. Also, the new-gens had a distinctive star-shaped marking on their foreheads, which signaled the inability to be contained in pokeballs. In essence, the new-gens were faster, stronger, and better in every possible aspect in comparison to a normal Pokemon. It would also be downright foolish to attack them with conventional weapons such as guns and explosives, as the new-gens had an extensive ability to avoid these dangers along with their ability to withstand such power. What they were missing were numbers.

As I eavesdropped on their conversation, it was evident that this job was more dangerous and much more enduring than any other mission that Jerry had accepted, unlike the usual pokeball or Pokemon smuggling. I slipped away unnoticed by the ones making the deal, thinking about what they said. It marked the beginning of the revolution, where Mack would be forced to escort an army of new-gens through to Lavender Tower. The plan was not to aid whoever was at the tower, but to crush them.

[Homura]

2 Battle of Mount. Moon

As I travel the Kanto region again through my gift at stealth tactics, no place was more important strategically as Mount. Moon itself. The fact that it was a warring front between the new-gens and the allied forces made it that much more important. The very reason why anyone would wish to occupy Mount. Moon was that it looked over both Cerulean and Pewter. Strategically it would mean that Mount Moon was the perfect vantage point as well as it being close to the supplies, for easy defending purposes. Of course, this meant that both sides would love the mountain, and would war to get there.

I was given power after my journey to Lavender Tower. I would in return serve the Gengar if needed be. The trade-off wasn't too bad, but then again a stealth power, the ability to hide in shadows, wasn't very useful overall, especially when my first mission as the messenger of shadows was to cripple the human forces enough for the new-gens to take control of the battle and secure Mount. Moon. The fact that I did not care who would win this war, pushed me to do so. As long as profit was abound, no uliginous and greedy person would ever dare to defy such a simple task.

I used my residency card in Kuga's territory to gain access through Cerulean quickly, and with fair grace too. The forces leave town every evening at seven as either enforcements or as shifts, from what I gathered during my short journey through Cerulean, and that my perfect chance would be to attack before the enforcements arrive at the foot of Mount. Moon. That spot would be near within the route beside it, and just perfectly the shadow of the mountain would cover that side during the evening. The job's description was simple: decimate or annihilate the forces and run. The execution would be another.

I arrived at the hiding spot at about noon, perfect timing to get food, which today happened to be roasted pidgey (with the aid of smeargle's slow-burning flame), much better tasting than the “mystery meat” I kept getting back at the swamp. Apparently the only guarantee there was that the meat wasn't poisonous, and even that I doubted. The resident vegetables were... well grass, which tasted horrible and lacked nutrition, not that swamp plants tasted any better and had more nutrition.

It was almost pleasant, me waiting for my job to begin and enjoying the view from here, looking down on the route. I would have to, since it would become a blood bath from today on, and maybe turn into another swamp here if things were to continue. Rarely did I get to eat exquisite food such as this pidgey. Certainly I would get less and less, since wild Pokemon has become a strong source of food lately; rationing of the Pokemon would likely take place, making catching food Pokemon even more profitable than before; that is, I would likely get two meals out of one pidgey corpse instead of one.

At seven o'clock sharp, I readied myself into action. The mystery of this was the number of people in the enforcement camp, and how many actually return from Mount. Moon. Since I did not bother to check either sizes, I could have been surprised. Instead I was bored, as the army was less than a thousand in people. Smeargle could plow through half of them with a fissure at this rate, assuming no initial resistance.

If chance had it, I would decimate and not annihilate. Staying back and waiting for the bulk of the army to enter my field of vision. I noticed something else. On the other side of the route seemed to be a pack of new-gens. Oh crap, that would mean that the attack was planned in the beginning, and that I was only to be a supplementary force, a “side dish”.

Even so, a job was a job. I had to change plans and actually go charging into the battlefield, which was not my style at all. For the allied force, “to arms” was basically arming them of modified weapons to mimic Pokemon attacks. Sometimes it was a sheer mock mimicry, others much better. This time, they carried water guns backed by them crappy lightning chargers that never seemed to work when you needed them to. I assumed that they were expecting either water Pokemon or rock Pokemon in Mount. Moon, but then again they would know better.

Unfortunately, the new-gens send out psychic Pokemon, contrary to belief that Pewter city carried rock Pokemon and that Mount. Moon would probably fall to such water guns. “To arms,” the men screamed as they were distracted from the attacks the new-gens were mounting, and I was human also. I sent out smeargle, called the magic word, and got a good number of the men into chasm smeargle created. It seemed to me that those men didn't count me in as a threat, as they continued to ignore me and went on to attack the new-gens with increasing vigor. The sight was magnificent, and I just had to stop to take in the view from behind my chasm. It was “bloodshed” on both sides, with the psychic Pokemon mounting attacks that slammed the men together, or pound them with invisible psychic fists. The men just blasted their water guns and electric chargers away at the new-gens, attempting to pick off several new-gens at a time with one blast or two.

If a bystander would stand here and watch this battle, it would seem that the men were winning this battle, as the men continuously got up from psychic damage over and over again, while the psychic new-gens continued to drop. What they didn't was the single human behind the chasm. Certainly a human such as I would be of no threat to the overwhelming numbers such as the psychic new-gens! The thought of me actually not being a threat was amusing, as back at the Swamp I was known as the threat to profit, as anyone who crossed me would know. I did not wish to kill, as it was not profitable, so the easiest way was to seal them all in chasms, let the new-gens take the mountain, then release the starving men back to Cerulean, with a mountain lost. Of course, I could just leave the men to die.

That was my planned movement, and that made what I had come to make. I called once again, with increasing vigor. Smeargle handled the next fissure with higher precision, as it hit the remaining standing men and sent them down through the chasm. Now came the hard part, the new-gens.

They were also very tired from their consistent attacking and receiving, and it was more than a relief to see those men just drop into a chasm such as that. They approached their target carefully and with suspicion. It was not everyday when the enemy would betray his own kind, let alone do that and stand in their way.

I spoke first, “Gentlemen, I present to you, the messenger of shadows, me.”

“You? Who do you work for? Why have you aided us in this battle?” the lead psychic Pokemon said. That monster clearly was an Alakazam, and he barely had any scratches.

“I work for Gengar of the Lavender Tower. I am also the messenger of shadows.”

“Ah, so you are his new pet that we have been informed of.”

“Yes, and this is just a gesture of good will from my master. He wishes you... good luck with your ventures at the battlefield.”

“Yes, we have his thanks.”

I recalled smeargle and disappeared. The new-gens seemed unsurprised by my little trick, and continued on to Mount. Moon. Of course, that battle I would not miss. I followed those new-gens through to the mountain that would shine and glitter under the moon, and it did not disappoint, as it was as beautiful as they said it would be during the night. It was a shame that under a full moon that a war was to continue.

The scaling of the mountain wasn't too bad, as in my current invisible state, I noticed that I was also lighter than I was in my materialistic form. The top of the mountain was the war, and I was determined to see it for myself. I never made it to the top of the mountain.

About midway through the psychic new-gens were ambushed by several rock Pokemon, presumably trained by the human army, but it also seemed that the psychic new-gens defeated the ambush fairly easily, with psychic attacks coming in left and right, and then confuse rays slapping the rock Pokemon around, or rather the rock Pokemon started slapping themselves with confusion flying about.

Amidst that chaos, the men jumped the psychic new-gens with the remaining strength they had, from all around the north and south. The psychic new-gens were caught by surprise, but it wasn't long until the west end's battle began to resolve and Pewter's new-gens began to push the men back toward the east. Essentially the men were sandwiched between two new-gen forces, and another group of men surrounded the psychic new-gens' group.

Of course, that would mean that the psychic new-gens were in trouble, and I was obliged to aid the successful taking of Mount. Moon. I wasn't really feeling it this time, and certainly the number of men there did not surpass the large force that were to substitute for this force, so I wished them luck with their extra men from Pewter.

The rock new-gens from Pewter smashed their way through the first wave of men running to the east, taking at least five or six men with each earthquake attack, or each rock slide assault. Bloodshed continued as the men fought back with water guns and ice throwers. It would seem that the men would have a chance at winning this battle at such a disadvantage, as a caged animal would violently attempt to break free of its cage, even at its own cost. I saw that in those men's eyes as they stopped with their retreat and started to attack west once again.

It seemed that the other men harassing the psychic new-gens with guerrilla warfare were paying off, as several psychic new-gens were dropping down without a single casualty from the men's side. I must congratulate their general for such a tactic in the underworld when I get there, for this strategy was brilliant at such a difficult time. However, the psychics were catching on, as new men were stopped on their tracks with increasingly powerful psychic blasts as they appeared. The men jumped the psychic new-gens at the same time after, seeing their tactics fail. It was all but too late, as the psychics' sheer numbers outnumbered the men at least two to one, and many of the men were crushed from psychic attacks, others were simply mutilated or mangled. It appeared that the psychic new-gens were not even close to full power when facing their enemies earlier that evening, or that they didn't have the ability to be at full power.

On the western front, it was better for the humans, as they kept pushing the rock beasts back, but it was also too late for their lives, as a second group appeared as reinforcements, and literally crushed whatever was left of that force. The battle of Mount. Moon was a screaming victory for the new-gens, and with that I left the mountain, as my mission was complete.

As I walked down to Cerulean through mountains of trees and lush green forage under the moonlight, I had smeargle open the chasm again to let the reinforcements out. It was a shame that these men would not see daylight again if they were to head to Mount. Moon, but it was just that.

I ventured away from Cerulean at least at the current time frame, as certainly the men would be after a “man among the new-gens”. Of course, I wasn't that man either. It was still safer to head north until the dust settled and the humans begin attempting to take Mount. Moon over again. It was north then.
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End of chapter 2

Confused people please stand on the left side. Not confused people please step to the right. *sees everyone step to the left*

I figured as much. So wtf is going on here? I'll tell you, chapter 2 isn't directly after chapter 1. :O *gets shot from stating the obvious*

Seriously, have fun with figuring out the puzzle and stuff, because generally speaking puzzles are fun and fan fic puzzles never seem to ever happen due to the confusion it brings. Cheers, I'm one to make puzzles. ;)

Now people...CRITICIZE! O_O

[Homura]

3 Fated Meeting

Of course, the only time when I headed into northern Kanto was that time, and generally speaking as I'm walking through these fields, I feel that my past flood over me. My journey through Kanto is moving quite smoothly, and I have my thanks to Gengar himself to give me such powers. Of course, every gift came with its own burden. I would have preferred if I never met them, as they became my downfall and the reason why I am making this journey. But I don't know.

I made my journey north of Cerulean in order to hide from the press for a while. The northern portions of Kanto was different and was a less rugged terrain, untouched by the scars of warfare. The north held fields of green, with small bushes littering the land. The bushes themselves coloured themselves yellow, pink, and red with flowers and other decorations. It was the only place in Kanto that was truly at peace. I stood out like a sore thumb, a disgusting, dirty man among the fields of purity and brightness.

I came from a society that did not appreciate beauty, but rather practicality. If it wasn't useful, but just pretty, it was generally tarnished or molded into something practical, yet not necessarily beautiful. If it could not help us survive, we will make it help us survive, or rather we could not do anything else. I had never stopped to appreciate the flowers, and I generally did not feel that it was a good idea to do so in the first place, as it would waste both time and effort, two most precious commodities in life. I could not bare to understand the “high society” with their “high standards” for beauty and material things. They called us barbaric, eating Pokemon out in the wilds for survival, but we called them arrogant, eating Pokemon without knowing they were eating them.

I walked about a day's worth of walking north through this grassland and tundra hybrid. It was interesting to see that the Pokemon here did not suffer as much, and they were generally more tasty than the usual run-of-the-mill Pokemon in these areas also. Starting a fire there was a nightmare, though. I couldn't get a very good fire going without it going out quickly, so I decided without and just sleep on the grass.

The sky was clear with many stars in the dark moonless sky. I noticed a frost in the air, as my breath continued to pour out an icy white haze, even if I could not see it. The darkness fell around me as a slowly stopped being aware of my surroundings. I was essentially one with nature, and nothing in nature would wish to harm me. That was one of the only nights when I was truly at peace outside of my happy days.

In the morning, I decided that a bath was at hand, and a nearby abandoned barrel was perfect for this occasion. I called out lapras to fill the barrel up with water, and smeargle to heat such a barrel full of water for me. In the swamp, I would do this every week or so if able to, but sometimes that wasn't possible either. Still, a hot bath in the chilly morning air was refreshing and definitely a very good decision in my part, aside from my luck of finding a barrel in the first place.

Feeling refreshed, I traveled east to the most northern point in Kanto. I might as well do some sightseeing while being on this escaping trip. This tundra atmosphere was definitely a nice scenery to live in, abide the fact that catching enough food may be on the tough side around here during winter times, but it was definitely a good place outside of winter, like now during the spring season. Ah how the plants bud their flowers!

As I walked to the edge of the world in two days, I have wondered about why I accepted Gengar's plans in the first place. I guess it would give me long term profit, but this right now was bad for business. Just when I was thinking about business, I saw some serious business in the distance.

In the middle of nowhere, there were two girls who were being harassed by some ugly thugs who were more ugly than I was, and that was a compliment. The girls, upon closer inspection, were cute twins. One has long curvy blond hair and the other had shoulder-length brown hair. What gave them away as twins were their similar curvy builds, and their cute faces being the same. Generally speaking, the twins had large brown eyes with a typical cute facial feature, with about average sizes on the facial parts, except for the below average mouth size. How they huddle and tremble among the three thugs were, in a way, sexy, typical of eye candy. In short, they were knockouts, and twins to boot.

So it was to business, at least the satisfaction of helping lovely maidens in distress and taking whatever from them later as payment was a warm feeling. I threw out all three of my pokeballs as I launched myself to the trio of thugs. Without any message, my Pokemon smashed out their signature attacks: lapras with her ice beam, smeargle with his fissure, and magneton with their thunderbolt. All three attacks landed directly on the thugs while leaving the twins safe from the enemies covering the bulk of the surface area. In short, there was no contest with me ambushing them.

I took the two girls from deep in the enemies' territory and ran as fast as I could. It was not long until I stopped from being at a safe distance from the thugs. I also let go of their hands and returned my Pokemon. “I'd assume correctly that you two were being harassed?” I asked with my back to them.

“Well yes. Thank you,” The blond one answered.

“Actually, I don't receive 'thank you' for an answer,” I bluntly grouched out as I turned my head. I saw them in their little trembles as they huddled together. How typical for girls to be like this, and they looked maybe two years younger than I was. Did this generation really have so little courage? I patched things up, “In fact, I'd prefer to invite you for dinner.” The two girls gave their sighs of relief. It seemed to them that I was not a threat to them if I were to say that. However were I to just let them go for my services, that would just not be my style, nor profitable. I continued on, “Well I do expect something for my services, if you understand what I mean.”

“What do you mean?” The young brunette spoke. She had a more flowery voice to the stronger voice that the blond had, and much less booming.

“Simple. I am a mercenary. You know, money,” I explained clearly. “I personally am not rich enough to do anything nowadays, and I had to resort to hunting in the past couple of weeks. It would be appreciated that you would... aid me.”

“You expect payment, eh?” the blond one hummed. “I agree to that. We can hammer out the details later, but right now I am officially hiring you to help us get back to Saffron City. From what I'm seeing, you're the only person even remotely close to trustworthy here.”

“Very well,” I replied, “but I do require a down payment if possible. Insurance, you know.”

“And insurance you will have,” the blond said.

She handed me a small bag of money. It was a fairly small lump sum, but I did not expect such a turn of events to allow me to profit anyway, so I was fine with whatever amount of cash I was able to get. However, the job was more difficult, as Saffron city would not be a walk in the park. “Well my loyalty goes to the highest bidder. Name's Arthas,” I reached for the blond's hand.

“Rebecca. And the girl with me is my sister, Heather,” she shook my hand.

“Very well Rebecca. What I do require from you are some information about yourselves, so I know at least what I may be dealing with aside from the regular thugs,” I continued. Although there was no need to ask for any of such information, as mercenaries generally wouldn't need to do so for their job, I was intrigued by the girls. Besides, it was worth a shot at getting to know them better, starting with whether they were gullible enough.

“I suppose there's no escaping that,” Rebecca, the blond sighed. “We're from Saffron City and are the daughters of the famous Fedric Foundation. We came here for some business with the northern point, but we got lost from our bodyguards, along with our tracking devices. We did think for a moment that we were able to handle the situation, but I guess we needed help after all.”

So those two were the famous Fedric twins that those men from the swamp were swooning over. For that, I knew they would sell for high prices if I were to betray them, after I get my share of loving. Then again, I would be the envy and the target of nearly every neighbour in m area, and that wouldn't be a pretty sight. I guess that wouldn't work too well either for the whole idol business if I didn't share the twins, which I would intend to. Personal salvation aside, I was paid, so they would get my loyalty for now.

“Okay, so I would be dealing with swarms of swooning young male suitors trying their hand on your marriage along the way also? That... would be difficult,” I explained.

“No need. We can deal with those,” Heather exclaimed.

So with that short conversation, I would head back to the place that I was set to avoid in the first place. However, as the bodyguard of the twins, it was a simple task in getting around any sort of suspicion from anyone in Cerulean. It was perfect for me anyway, since I would probably need to speak with Gengar about the mission that I had finished a while ago, if he hadn't been informed of this already.

The journey back was as uneventful as ever. I would swear those thugs would be scared of the insane bodyguard by now anyway, and I caught a couple of glimpses of the twins in their most vulnerable times. They, however, did travel very slowly, and I often had to slow down just to keep them in my sights. Aside from that, as I described, uneventful.

The biggest event of the trip was the gate to Cerulean. Apparently ever since their defeat on Mount. Moon, they had to step up security just in case of any raiders such as I would be running around rampant on a city that just lost one of the most important battles in the history of the Final War due to negligence. The men would actually look at citizenship cards or other forms of identification. I, of course, had the resident card from Fuchsia Swamp, which would at least take me off the suspicion list.

The line to enter was fairly long due to the checking process, but when it was our turn, one of the soldiers gave me an eerily nasty look. I leered at him good measure before proudly displaying my resident card. The man let me through, but not without suspicion, as to why an umbrageous man such as I would travel this way, not to mention be escorting the famous twins of the Fedric Foundation. Either way, they did what they must without giving me too much trouble.

Walking in Cerulean, I noticed the casualties of war, as women and children laid weeping for their fallen husband and father. As a mercenary, I should not have had a care for such sentiments, yet I could relate to how they felt, as I was the only survivor. Apparently seeing my agonizing facial expressions, Rebecca asked me, “It's horrifying huh, this war. I guess I wish to see this war end as much as you do.”

I nodded, not out of attempting to deceive the girls, as I would profit more from war, but because I truly wished for pain and suffering to end. However, I did not have the power to do anything. As we walked past the city, I noticed the twins in similar distress. I took this job, so I guess this would be a good time to help them out by being there. As that, I let them grab hold of my arms as they were stuck in my pseudo pockets. Hey, that felt pretty good!

They also took a slight shopping tour to get me some normal clothing. Apparently if were to enter their world, I should at least dress like was from their world. I had reluctance, but the twins' overwhelming and overpowering altruism was too much even for me to bare, so I just got whatever was most comfortable. They paid the bills.

It was not long until we arrived in the greatest city in Kanto, the one city that would remain untouched in the whole of the Final War, Saffron City, city of gold. At the gates to the city (which was common, since wars tend to be on land rather than air), I was about to stop until the girls began to drag me through the customs. It was fine with the customs for a hazy, shady man dressed in the finest, being dragged around by the Fedric twins to enter the city, so there I was, at the beginning of the good times.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
End of Chapter 3

And wtf is going on? This chapter is directly after the previous chapter! :O *gets shot for stating the obvious again, renamed as Captain Obvious*

Well have fun with this one. I certainly did have some fun messing with my mind. ;)

[Homura]

4 Death Angel

Celadon Forest, the final resting place of happiness so long ago. Yet it seems just as yesterday which this world turned its back on me. I have questioned why lady luck would just pass me by many times, like my survival at Viridian or my fated meeting with the twins, and never actually follow me through. Why would I even bother to live on I had not a single idea. In this journey through Kanto, I found that purpose, if only because I was shown the path.

The years of darkness after that event I could never remember very well, if only because I could not have taken my time to register anything into my memory banks due to a loss of working memory, or because the event burned such a hole within my memory that I could not encode anything to my permanent memory. I recalled facing some of the most dangerous men in this world during this time, as I wished to die. I also recalled my inability to do anything after the helplessness that I felt.

Within the years of darkness following, I recalled several key events that gave me at least some indication on what I actually did back then. I recalled the time when I was in the deepest of depression, when my saviour came to me. She was the same person whom I've liked in the past, yet after that, I could not bring myself to love again.

Her name was Caitlyn, abbreviated to Kate. She came to me some time after the capture, literally knowing I was in the same forest I could never escape without her. At first I had a vision of the twins when she came, but the light of hope vanished as my obstructed vision saw not two, but a single blond woman. She reached out to me, and in my tunnel vision, I tried to focus on the hand. It was to no avail. I recalled hearing a muffled voice that was familiar, yet estranged at the same time.

As my vision and my hearing cleared, it was clear to me that Kate came back to me, for reasons I did not know. I tried to reach her, but it was impossible in my curled up state. Gathering my strength, I uncurled to no avail. She grabbed hold of my right arm and dragged me a few feet before stopping. By that time, I had recovered enough to uncurl. “I see that you're still alive,” she whispered to my ear.

I tried to speak, against my subconsciousness, against my state, against all that I have gained to get such a large fall, and all I was able to say in my condition was, “Out.”

It was not for another few days before I was able to stand again. Out in the distance was an Ursaring. I considered just running headlong into the bear to end right there, but something stopped me from doing such foolishness. It was a tug after my first step, and behind me was a half dead Kate holding my leg. If it was not for me, at least it would be more suitable for her to destroy me, if anything, so I abandoned the idea of running and embracing death to carry her to some source of energy or some form of liquid. It was not after three or four steps before I ran out of all energy and shut down completely.

I had awakened in a hospital room. With a booming headache and seeing tubes pumping salt water into my bloodstream, I had thought that this was just another form of punishment for me until I noticed the person next to me, still asleep. It was Kate yet again. I decided to take a stroll around the hospital, and got down from the bed. I pushed my small IV stand while walking aimlessly through the halls. A jumble of visuals presented themselves to me: a nurse scrambling for something at her desk, a child looking at me with fear, and the vision of a death in the far corner of the hospital were among the visuals. I wondered what it meant, and without such purpose, I just returned to my room.

As I entered that room, I saw Kate panicking. It seemed that she did not find me after waking up, and feared for the worst. “Hello, Kate,” I forcefully murmured.

Seeing me at the door, she sighed out of relief and replied, “Hello, Arthas.”

“It's been a while hasn't it?”

“Yes.”

“...”

“Arthas, what happened to you? I've observed you ever since you were in Saffron City, and...”

“So you know too. I can't imagine what the people would say about trash such as I. I have nothing, no power, no love, only a life remaining.”

“Arthas, this isn't you.”

“And I have not been myself for a long time.”

“Sometimes I do wish to turn back time, if only to not see you like this.”

“What happened there happened. Nobody can change history.”

“Nobody but you.”

Intriguing. My brain began to function again. I had the power to change history? Maybe it was possible considering my powers. No, I would take revenge, that would be my new purpose in life, even if it took my own soul to do it. “I now know why I had a crush on you back then,” I groaned.

“Well then, you should see what you can do for your former crush,” she chirped.

It was that same day when she left the hospital. I had to stay longer due to my depression draining so much life out of me. I tried to gather my thoughts. First, the visions began to make sense to me. A man died in the corner of the hospital that day, and the child was his grandson. The nurse, obviously, was rushing around due to such emergency. Although it was something so simple, why did it enter my mind? I did not ponder the question very long, and continued to rest in the hospital until discharge.

When I returned from the hospital, I needed a place to stay, although I was sure that my house back at the swamp should be impervious to rats and other scum from planting themselves there. Either way, I needed to find Kate to personally thank her, and to begin my domination of the darkness, and to destroy the one who caused my misery. Searching through the records at the Celadon Pokemon centre via hacking, I noticed that Kate was never actually registered in any centre, nor did she ever use one. This would mean that she never owned a Pokemon in her life, which I knew wasn't true. Even the hospital records showed up a blank. The most likely situation was that she was under a fake name, or she had some affiliation with Celadon, and thus an records of her would have been deleted. That still left out the question of why she would even wish to do that. Without a clue I could not do anything but to just leave it at that, and to begin my reign in the darkness. Hopefully that would at least give me a clue on her whereabouts.

I treaded to Lavender Tower, going around Saffron. I wished not to meet with unnecessary difficulty, and this method was the most simple. It took several long and excruciating days to make it into the tower, where I just walked into it as if I was an official of some sort. The feeling of being the only human, or human-like organism in the entire tower was still a novel experience to me, yet it was a bold maneuver regardless.

The top of the tower sat Gengar, as usual on his throne of darkness. He gave me a sharp leer before standing up from his throne. Calling off his guards, he began, “I have been expecting you, my apprentice.”

I walked in front of him, on the red carpet. I noticed that the lack of decorations was the ordeal in this throne room once again. I guess practicality was the more pressing issue. I replied to Gengar, “I'd assume you know what I'm here for, then.”

“Of course. And I will cut to the chase. I want you in one final mission, and this mission just happens to coincide with your needs.”

“You want me to take out Mewtwo?”

“Precisely. I want you to take half of my legion of darkness into battle, at Mount Silver where Mewtwo currently resides. I can wait on this mission, and you can have a little fun with your reign of darkness if you want. I do not care as long as you finish this by the end of the year.”

“Very well, master. And should I succeed or fail?”

“Should you fail, you would likely be killed along with that half of my legion. And likely I'll be hunted after, not that Mewtwo can do anything against me or my legion.

“However, should you succeed, you will leave this world. I will send you to another dimension where you can restart your life with all the power you received. I will erase your existence from this world, but your legacy will live on in this world.”

“I understand, master. I will attempt to completely destroy Mewtwo for your cause.”

“Very well then. It is settled. And what will you name that half of my legion?”

“The 'Death Angels'.”

“Very well. Arthas. You and the Death Angels will storm Mewtwo on Mount Silver by the end of this year. I expect good results from you. And with that, I will also grant you your final power.”

“Yes master.”

The darkness surrounded me once again. It was a familiar surrounding that I got used to since my depression. The dark powers surged through me as I looked on into the blankness of the dark. Tho I could not see, I felt the darkest of powers surging. A countering ability was this power's game, the ability to nullify anything and everything at the cost of life itself.

I couldn't help but think that my existence had more meaning than my revenge, now that Gengar had told me such words. However, if that was the case, what would be my true purpose? I had not time to think of these petty consequences, as the time at hand called for my full attention, to destroy the one who caused my misery.

The time had come. I commanded my legion to stay with the darkness until I give them their command to attack. With all this time in my hands, I decided to take a small trip around Kanto before going to attack. Besides, it would be nice to get some news on the situation before destroying Mewtwo once and for all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yeah this chapter is shorter just because I'm too lazy....or that this was meant to be shorter....or whatev. XD

Next chapter: Hatred Runs
Clue to what next chapter is about: Saffron

[Homura]

5 Hatred Runs

The time it took for me to adjust to the times at Saffron City was longer than that of the horrific times at the swamp. I guess the problem at the swamp was that I did have to survive in order to even try to adjust to the life at the swamp, or rather I would actually have to adjust faster in order to survive. Then again, I had to get used to interacting with people, which wasn't part of the deal in the swamp. Sure I had to deal with people in the swamp, but it generally consisted of people laying down dead or unconscious afterwards. I guess either way it mattered not. There was one thing that struck me as strange while inside the city. It had seemed that the entire city had little in terms of rationing or even dropping unnecessary services that could then be converted in for the war effort. It had seemed that they wanted people to think that they were not in a war, and that the safest place was within the city at the heart of Kanto.

As I entered the City of Gold, the childish characteristics I had slowly lost long ago within the swamp arose. The first word I had spoken was, “Is there ice cream?”

Apparently that struck a strange chord within Heather. The thing was that miss Fedric there was an avid fan of ice cream, much more so than Rebecca. Within seconds, she dragged me to her favourite ice cream spot in the entire city and ordered three mint chocolate ice creams on a cone, one for me, and two for the twins. However, instead of eating the ice cream, Rebecca was merely holding the cone so Heather could finish both. I couldn't help but laugh, and Rebecca pouted in mild rage, while winking at me anyway. To a certain extent, I thought that their trust in me as a person grew. That would be a very good thing, as I knew the Fedrics have much to offer in terms of money, and their production of munitions had been in an all-time high, not to mention the profits associated with that.

From the corner of my eye, however, I noticed that the ice cream parlour saw the twins as idols of their city, and saw me as a threat with their shifty and furious eyes. I was sure that none of the two twins noticed such things. Of course, this hatred towards me gave me an idea to monopolize all of Saffron under my control, even if I had to use puppets such as the twins to get there. The profits I would make there would be endless. There would seem to be the problem of prolonging this war for me to have continual grasp on the city, and that would be a problem that I would have to deal with sooner or later.

I had decided to stay. Nights were spent at a small house I had gotten for my services just outside of Saffron, as it was literally impossible to find a place to live in the City of Gold, due to the slight inconvenience of my being a peasant, and a hated peasant who would defile their idols. The fact that it would have been inconvenient if I were to stay in Saffron - as I would need to report to Gengar every now and then – made this deal more attractive. Mornings I would usually have to get into the city, which generally consisted of psychologically attacking the gate guard into letting me into the city, and report for my duty to be the twins' bodyguard. I must admit, the pay for this job was much higher than I expected. It was always pleasant to have icing on the cake.

Reporting to Gengar was only a matter of finding the correct channel he was in, and report all movements in Saffron. It sounded much easier than it was done. Most of the time I had to physically head to Lavender Town under the dark of night to find the correct psychic channel for my report. It was a good thing that I thought about that early on and just stayed outside Saffron city, as reporting to Gengar would have been a nightmare otherwise. The information never did anything other than make Lavender Town impermeable to their enemy due west. Gengar seemed to have an idea of prolonging this war for as long as possible. At times I wondered why he wanted to prolong this war, but judging from our perspectives, it didn't really matter. Neither one of us cared for this war, and both of us wanted to reap the benefits of these long wars, him for whatever his reasoning was, and mine to gain money.

At times I wandered the Fedric tower, the enterprise where all the action was going on. Military equipment of all sorts, and the like built by millions of workers day-in and day-out. They all feared me. It was given that was the reason why I was “purchased” to be the twins' bodyguard. They could not stand that. Their idols, under the hands of a monster. Skirmishes occurred at times, where they would attempt to drive me off, and I would, in turn, destroy them without causing any bodily harm, a psychological attack of sorts, as I slowly root and probe for their weaknesses, and made them suffer for dealing with me. It was subtle almost to the point that they didn't believe it was me. I needed that if I wanted to become a hero.

There was, however, one event that made hatred run. It was a surprise attack from the Alakazams from the east. Apparently they were not satisfied with the work of Gengar, and demanded that this batch must enter and crush Saffron. This also begged the question of why they didn't just go in to crush Gengar with an Alakazam army, but I was guessing that Gangar had worked his way out of everything.

The army itself was 30,000 strong, which outnumbered the defenders 3 to 1. Not only that, the main forces were fighting at Mount. Moon, which was at that time under the control of the New Gens. This meant that there would be no reinforcements coming to the aid of the defenders. If the defenders couldn't hold off the enemy, that would be the end of Saffron, and it would be a large blow to the allied forces. That would be a real problem in prolonging this war.

It was then that I stepped in with preemptive information from Gengar. This information, I kindly relayed back up to the top. Of course, they did not believe me. It didn't matter, however, I was going to become a hero for the twins. I'm not actually sure what was the motivation for this was, though. I guess by that time the twins grew on me enough that things would just work.

The planned night came; the army was on time. I alone stood just outside of allied sight range. And there, I began the massacre. After all, they couldn't kill what they couldn't see, even if they were psychic. Several well placed fissures from Smeargle thrice decimated the opposing army, as cracks of the earth sealed them from above, and curshed them, essentially buried alive. It was the perfect combination, invisibility from the blessings of Gengar and a powerful finisher from my Smeargle.

As the battle raged on, many of the enemy made it past, and fought with the Saffron defenders. Of course, by then, I had to join the defenders and lead them through the battle. However, it was a completely unfair fight, and the information that they were psychic made it incredibly easy for Saffron. It was similar to that of knowing the mechanism of a mouse trap; break the trap's inner workings, and the trap would be rendered useless against the rat. The psychics were completely crushed by the defenders even if they had 70% of their forces still alive for their assault.

I had become the hero of town when the sun rose.

Attitudes of humans can change rather quickly, as the dark one had beome to hero. I wasn't sure if Gengar had planned this from the beginning, since I was a powerful figure after that attack. Not only that, I was one who can find Gengar the most information. Most importantly, however, were the twins. They found a man that they could finally be with. I was glad that the man was me.

Yes, I sly learned more about the two twins. It became a pleasure to probe more and more about them, and dive deeper and deeper into their lives. I wanted to learn as much about them as possible, more so than learning about myself. I was intoxicated by their charm, their characteristics, their looks, their every move, breath, and their existence. It first started as a profit-based interest, but it grew to something bigger. There was no longer just “I”, but “us”. They had become the reason for me to continue on, and I knew from then on that I needed to protect them for the rest of their lives.

It was not long until our relationships grew, and the darkness that surrounded me had all but shattered itself. It was a blissful time, more so than that of the beginning. My engagment with the twins soon became the news and the talk in town. “Hero takes idol brides!”, “Deserving man carries pride of Saffron!”, and other similar headings flew around with every single newspaper in town. That news had gotten to Gengar, of course, but it wasn't of any concern to him.

A wedding there was, but it was relatively quiet after the initial craze. We never really want to deal with all those people with our own business anyway. I preferred it this way, as I would not have to deal with those former enemies anyway.

It wasn't long until the days of bliss changed itself. It was still a time of war. I still had obligations to whomever I was entitled to. There was still one thing that I didn't understand at that time. Why did Gengar act so passively? It would seem strange to not want to crush the humans. He was hiding something from me, and everyone else. It was something that I cared not about either.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1 year after the initial relese, another chapter. -.-

[Homura]

6 Revelation

Lavender Tower was probably what started and ended my story here. I guess this is ironic in a way, since I never intended on having to count on the influence of another powerful figure for my means. I mean, to have to put trust on someone who can potentially stab you in the back at a whim seems to mean that I'm on the short end of the stick. However, that was exactly what I had to do. Becoming the acolyte of likely one of the most influential figures in the history of this war probably was a good idea, though. I mean, in a way, I became a historic figure because of this all.

I have no idea how my role as the acolyte of Gengar would shape up in the end here, though. I don't think that this would be all that important now that everything is set into motion, and this manuscript, I still hope to get it out somewhere. If ever there is a truth that was distorted by the passage of time, I know that this is here to preserve my, Rebecca, and Heather's names. Probably a selfish reason, but I could care less. Besides, I'm sure historians would love to see a first hand account with regards to the war that took place, when the world was torn asunder by the blunders of man.

I guess one of the most surprising things that happened during this war was that Gengar actually told me his reasonings at one point in my story. I'm still not sure why he did this though. For one, this message sent to me makes things very difficult for me. I don't think if there ever was a time in my life in the swamp where I actually had to make a decision that would completely change my life as it had this one. What I had done was make a deal, and Gengar probably thought that it wasn't a good idea to keep this deal going on, and thus, told me some things that would make things difficult for his own acolyte.

What happened was that it was about 4 weeks after the deal happened, and about 2 weeks after the events of Rivers' Light. Gengar called me out to visit him. Now if i recalled correctly, that was a very terrible method to do anything. Considering that my information being sent to him was fairly easy from Saffron, any information that needed to be transferred could theoretically be sent back and forth through the link anyway. I guess it's something that's so important that even this was not a feasible method either. So what could it be?

I had to slip out of the city in the dead of the night. It's actually relatively easy to get around at night due to my ability to meld into the shadows, thus becoming invisible in the dark. Of course, that was just the beginning of it all. After getting out of the city walls, I had the difficult task of traveling to Lavender Tower before halfway through the night is over. Of course, that in itself was difficult, considering that Gengar never gave me “speed upgrades”. Shadowmeld does help out quite a bit by itself, though. I don't have to deal with something called “air resistance” and “friction” as much as people who had to do things normally. Essentially shadowmeld itself allowed me to be invisible in the dark to pretty much anything physical, that included physical elements themselves. Scaling walls? Simple task of skating up.

So while the journey was relatively short going into Lavender, the scaling of the tower itself was not. It was also not bound to the physical realm to a certain extent, I had to play with their rules, and scale the tower normally. It wasn't such a pain as it was back in the siege, though. I mean, at least we weren't being attacked from top, bottom, left, right, front, back, and every other direction one could think of. That was I guess a positive. Then again, really that was the only positive, and it wasn't one that was all that attractive anyway.

Funny I was actually being reminded of the siege. This definitely would be a time in which I would definitely not want to deal with anything close to the intense pressure that I sensed in the siege, that's for sure. Oh but what did that matter? I was just his acolyte and he would aid me in my conquest for power. A simple fair trade amongst ourselves, I would say. Shadowmeld didn't work in the tower. Each staircase up, however, was more like adding the weight of that staircase on my shoulders as I moved. I became tired and weak. I feared weakness. It was probably the only thing I've learned and stuck to for a long time. In the swamps, you either were strong and lived, or you were weak and died. There was no middle ground. Saffron had their lives well simply because they had the ability to lie normally without a care of what happened outside their world. The war? The soldiers would take care of things. The economic problems? No problems as long as it wasn't them outside of prosperity. That was a good plan by higher ups, the people would be easy to control that way.

Gengar stood there atop the dark throne he had when I first entered the room. His guards still littered the floor like cockroaches to a butterfree corpse. The stench of that room was always unbearable. And he would always speak before I was able to recalibrate myself. “Acolyte. It would seem that my leader has begun to sniff our purposes out. What do you have to say about that?” he roared ghastly, like a monster within one's closet.

“I don't care,” my reply was.

“Of course you do not. However, would it be of interest to you that our leader also have looked into the Fedric Twins? Oh how fun it is to see both your women thrashed and killed before your eyes.”

“Get to the point.”

“Mewtwo is heading out. I want to prolong this war for as long as possible, because I have seen many things that I normally wouldn't see under Mewtwo's provision. You were there to serve my purpose in that category. However, it was because of that interference that Mewtwo has started looking at the patterns of destruction. He knows. He knows there is someone pulling strings behind the operations. And he suspects me to be one. You, on the other hand, was pretty much confirmed to be an enemy by a survivor of an assault. The Fedric Twins would be his target very soon.”

Fear? Powerlessness? I couldn't really tell what I was feeling during that time. If there was one thing that was certain, those staircases meant more and more pain and suffering as I would lose precious time in getting back to Mewtwo if he were to go in and capture the two girls. It would be bad. Very bad. I didn't even think I would be able to take that monster on. No, I was certain that I would be powerless to do anything against this evil. Evil? What makes him evil and me not? I let out a laugh. What a stupid idea! I am no hero. I am evil myself, am I not? Evil seeks to destroy evil, while the good helplessly dangle in the midst of this war between two evils. Oh how ironic it is! I was reminded of my former self, the selfish and self righteous child I was. At least there I had a sense of what justice was. Back in the swamp? I knew myself as aiding evil just to live. Here with the devil's contract? I am but a twisted mirror of my former selves, stuck in between both sides, never to come out as either.

Certainly it wouldn't take long until the Mewtwo's scum would reach Gengar. Cerulean fell to the Newgens several hours ago, since Gengar called me in rather than going there to aid the humans. I had to go, and quickly. I took the express ride out. Going down was a matter of jumping off the tower, and activating my shadow powers to glide down. I did just that, while looking out into the north. It was true after all, a large group of Newgens were heading toward Lavender Tower alright.

I took the most direct route back to Saffron. To me, the twins were in my mind. I had to move. I had to move. It didn't really take long before I saw who I didn't want to see, the big man himself. What was more devastating was not his appearance, but who he was with. To this end, I think that this was the lowest low in my life. Who knows? I might have done better in some other life or something. But there I was, standing in front of the leader of the enemy, him holding the two most precious people I know and held dear. Good thing they were unconscious.

Fear kicked me in the face yet again. What was he going to do to them? Is he that much of a monster that he would kill innocents? What of me? Am I so powerless that I cannot fight out of this predicament? He was Mewtwo, I was an acolyte. The difference in power was too great even if I tried. Should I just not try? No, this was no the time to do that. It was time for me to take action. He spoke first, “Arthas Yursa, is it not?”

“What of it?” I questioned back.

“I can see why they have so much trouble with such a man. It doesn't matter. Your little fun and games end here.” He dropped the twins onto the ground, making a soft thud each. He took a single step towards me.

“Don't...come near me.” I loosely held a fighting stance, but it was noted that I was trembling in fear. No, it was not fear. I was looking into his deep eyes, and saw something outside of this. He wanted to do something else. I don't exactly know what. As well, his dark purple figure blended into the shadows of this night, the moonless night it was. It was just an outline of dark purple with the two large eyes.

“Oh? What can you do about it?”

Just then, a large search team of humans began shouting and casting light into the darkness. It pierced itself through the unforgiving forest, and casted considerable doubt into the haunting of tonight. He sighed once, and proceeded to leave, but not without showing me what he had intended to do. He slashed both twins in front of my eyes, and disappeared with them after that single stroke.

The search team eventually found me, laying near some blood stains. They also never found the twins. I retreated back to Saffron myself as well It was never quite the same without the twins. The past discrimination returned. Not that it mattered at that point, I wasn't exactly alive myself either. No, I had to retreat from this world. The only place to go from there was Celadon forest, the only other possible place that I could go without touching any other part of the world that would remind me of it all.

~~~~~

In hindsight, probably Gengar knew it all. No, this was pretty obvious. Gengar was the only one to be able to deal with Mewtwo's surveillance, just simply due to typing differences and what not. It was the only reason why Mewtwo couldn't actually do anything to Gengar. I'm sure that things began to make sense with Mewtwo through time, and that was why Gengar ended up having to use me too do things for him, or at least draw heat away from him. This skirmish between Mewtwo and I probably clued him in on Gengar's less-than-helpful presence.

Ah well, that was that. It is no longer of any consequence. Gengar is basically going all out against Mewtwo. Either way, I'm a dead man. That is life. I did remember to release my three pokemon though. They were merely tools, and I think deep down inside they knew that too. It was short, and it was fun. Hope they would do what they would want to do in the first place. It would seem that I'm already here. Short and sweet, right? That's how things work.

Arthas Yurza

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As I sit here in the porch of my home in Saffron city, it's hard to believe that this was the final battleground in the great war. But strangely enough, it was the case. The city was rebuilt from the ground up for nearly a millennium ago, after all. This coalition between the two species has gone on for this long, partly because of the activities that Mew developed near the end of the war. But was this the case at all? was it that Mew was the one to tame Mewtwo? I want to, of course, attempt to answer this question.

I, of course, have my own motivation. I looked at my past, and found a strange break in my lineage. I can trace it all the way back to the war era, where the break happened. I could not exactly find out about anything time wise before that. This question boggled the mind of me as a historian. So I took it upon myself to do my research in Mt. Silver.

I should probably start this by talking about the actual history of the end of the great war. The last battle was in Saffron city, the final wall the humans had left. Historically, there was no record to what had happened during this time, but it was presumed that something caused a dramatic decrease in army morale that allowed the newgens to finish the war in their hands. Why was it that the war had ended before this battle finished?

Historians have pretty much been baffled by this question. Most have pointed out that likely Mewtwo gave the orders to retreat, but it was presumed somebody have convinced Mewtwo to stop, and end everything before it was too late. If that was true, then who convinced him?

There were deeper parts of Mt. Silver that never have had excavation attempts, so I took a crack team of archaeologists to help with this duty. It took several months of digging, but eventually we found a small chamber that was very well hidden from the rest of the mountain. In there we found this manuscript, and several artifacts. The artifacts included a knife, and several pokeballs, which were outlawed after the war. What was more interesting was that some of our Alakazam researchers did sense psychic remnants from the air within this chamber. I believe that this would mean we have found the chamber where Mewtwo was dwelling.

Of course, nobody would be dwelling here after all of these years, and it was presumed that Mewtwo simply left the world after the war had ended. Without any sort of convictions, the two species simply just tried to get along and prevent this tragedy from happening again. i must say that this did sustain itself for at least a thousand years, so we must be doing something right from that aspect.

What the manuscript brought was a firsthand account on the war. Any historian can tell you that this is perhaps the most precious thing about these manuscripts. What I find more interesting was this man's name. Arthas Yurza. Intuition told me that this was no coincidence, and it, to a certain point, did tell me at least why this may be the case where my heritage could not be traced further back, and why my lineage had some wealth. Though taken with a grain of salt, this may fit, but unlikely to be. From this man's perspective, it would seem that his children were never born. Thus it was an impossibility in which anything else could happen after that point. Even if they were born, things just couldn't be worked out.

Ah well, at least I tried.

Another important factor in this manuscript is simply the fact that it mentioned River's Light. Historically River's Light was a tragic event, where many people died, presumably due to swamp gas within the Fuchsia Swamps. It was called River's Light because people often have hallucinations of looking into a river before death, as shown in several medical notes of that time. It would seem that this event was nothing more than a natural occurrence, but it did kill many.

Another rather strange theme in this manuscript was the mention of Gengar. Historically this figure was a very talented general that helped Mewtwo take over Cerulean City with force. If what was said here was true, then something is wrong with history itself. What is right and what is wrong can no longer be determined under these circumstances. Strange that this account would directly contradict other historical evidence. Likely, however, that both accounts are slightly off, and that the real account would be buried in between somewhere, as we really don't know what happened there even in this first hand account. It was simply something that probably should not be told anyway. This will be my next assignment. I must say that this trip was fun, and now it's time to get back to work.

Stephen Yursa, historian.