Chp 27

	Phantom and Mystic hurried down the hall to catch up to Aeon. He was walking quite fast, not even bothering to wait for them. Eventually, they caught up, just in time for all three to arrive at another door. For the short time they had been walking, they hadn't come across any other doors. 

	"This is it." Aeon said.

	"So Hearth is in there?" Mystic asked.

	"No. Something dangerous is." Without another word, he smashed open the door with a powerful lighting fast punch. The doors flew forward and fell to the floor with a loud clanging. The lucario walked in first, quickly followed by the others.

	The room was easily the largest yet. It was a large oval shape, with a dome carved out in the ceiling. The floor was dirt, and the walls were stone. It looked much more natural than any other room they had come across. On the far end, another pokemon was standing. 

	The pokemon was tall, with a lavender body and long purple tail. "Here we are." He said.

	Aeon glared at him and took a defensive stance. "You are well guarded. I can only sense your presence. Who, or what, are you?" 

	"I am Mewtwo. I must stop you." He said, putting his hand to his head. "I cannot let you continue on this path. You do not know what you are doing!" 

	"We have to stop Hearth!" Mystic shouted. "He's a monster! He's torn pokemon from their families, and destroyed their lives!" 

	"But you know nothing of me. Wait... I remember you. You were the one that got away." 

	"What? You recognize me?! Tell me what happened!" She demanded.

	"Yes... You are that vulpix. A while ago, Mew escaped, and teleported a pokemon I had been in the process of programming away. Since then, she has been under ever increasing security." 

	"Programming?" Phantom asked quietly. 

	"Yes." Mewtwo said loudly, somehow hearing him from across the room. "It is my job to erase the minds of pokemon and rewrite them to be willing slaves. With you," He pointed to Mystic. "I only did some of it before your escape. You have likely experienced great confusion. I put in the sexual parts, and erased your memories, but I did not have time to give you new memories. I am sorry for my failure." 

	"Don't fucking apologize! I don't wanna hear your bullshit!" Mystic shouted, charging forward and spitting a few fireballs at him. The fireballs stopped in midair just before reaching him, and Mystic lost momentum as she floated up, her legs still trying to move forward. "Let me go dammit!" 

	"Allow me to explain. You can still hate me, but at least know the whole story. I was... born, around four thousand years ago. I was created by a now extinct race, called humans. Despite them not being remembered, pokemon still use many of their techniques, such as architecture."

	"Humans? How do we not remember any of them? If it's only been that long, how are there no records?" Phantom asked.

	"I will get to that. They created me to be a weapon, a controllable force of nature born from Mew. When I became aware, I destroyed this place, killing all the researchers who were corrupted. The survivors came to me, and helped Mew and I to settle here, in seclusion. They then continued into more ethical research. The now lead scientist desired one thing. For pokemon to be equal to humans. At that time, pokemon were considered as little more than smart animals. Most humans even kept them as pets. They created a device that would spread a serum through the air, changing the world forever. Before their experiment was finished, they passed away. You may have seen the pictures of them in the mansion. As their last wish, they had me activate the device. It worked perfectly. The way you can pick up things, pokemon before could not hold things with their paws. Your brains are far more powerful than your ancestors. It had one unforeseen drawback however. It killed every last human. They didn't even have time to realize what was happening. Pokemon then became the dominant species. Over time, they were simply forgotten."

	"And how does all that excuse the things you've done?!" Mystic screamed, trying to breath more fire, but it again was stopped and floated like her. 

	"Over four thousand years, the only contact I have had is Mew. She is everything to me, and they hold her captive even now. If I disobey, they will kill her. I cannot let that happen, so I will fight."

	"Why not stop them? Surely you could have done something..." Phantom said.

	"No. I will take no risks. Her life is the most precious thing in this world. If I must kill all of you to guarantee her safety, I will!" Mewtwo let out a powerful shockwave of psychic power, sending Mystic, and all her fire, flying back towards Phantom and Aeon. 

	Aeon caught Mystic and nimbly dodged the fireballs, before setting her down. Mewtwo held up his three fingered paw, which began to glow. Several large boulders burst from the ground, before flying at them. Aeon stepped out in front, and smashed them to dust as they flew. "Phantom, Mystic, you both go on ahead. You will only get yourselves killed fighting him." 

	"But-" Mystic started, but Phantom touched her. 

	"You know he's right."

	"I am. This is the strongest pokemon here. Besides me." Aeon said with a smirk. 

	"Hearth is why we're here." Phantom said, leading the way as he dashed to the edge of the room before turning towards the exit. Mystic followed shortly after. 

	"You will not ignore me!" Mewtwo yelled, moving his paws towards them. The wave of rocks followed, but they kept going. Aeon ran forward and flung both fists at Mewtwo, forcing him to catch them and end the psychic onslaught. 

	"It's just me and you." Aeon said menacingly. "I assure you, I'm plenty strong. Perhaps Arceus has finally blessed me with a challenge." He clenched his fists harder, but Mewtwo did not flinch. 

	"I was built, bred if you will, to be the strongest creature, ever. You do not have any chance." Mewtwo explained flatly. 

	"I have spent my entire life training under Lord Arceus himself. Can your genetics beat the power gifted to me by the creator?" Aeon said, a crazed look in his eye. 

	"You think your god will save you? How idiotic."

	"Heresy!" Aeon roared, letting lose a burst of focused energy. Mewtwo countered back with a burst of his own. By now, Mystic and Phantom were out of the room. Aeon leapt back and clasped his paws together, cracking his knuckles. "Lord Arceus, please allow me to have a worthy fight. Your will be done." 

	"Don't waste your time. The humans taught me about 'god'. Merely a theory."

	"I would expect such from an abomination. But I did not come here for religion. I was sent to end this situation." He formed two aura spheres, one in each hand, and flung them in succession at Mewtwo. 

	Mewtwo easily knocked them aside, but behind the large blue orbs found Aeon charging. The lucario slammed his fist into the ground, displacing a large slab of stone, with Mewtwo on the end of it. With Mewtwo on higher ground, he lunged with a fearsome uppercut. Mewtwo was able to cross his arms and absorb most of the impact, but it still knocked him into the air. He caught himself, floating in midair, just short of the ceiling. Aeon was not fair behind, leaping off the ground with his powerful hind legs, spinning in the air, and kicking with a flame wreathed leg. The blaze kick landed hard in Mewtwo's side, but instead of flinching away, he wrapped his arm around the leg, holding Aeon in place. With his other hand, he formed a massive ball of aura and slammed it into Aeon, sending him crashing down with it. 

	The ball exploded, leaving a sizable crater, with Aeon lying in the middle. "Aura... How can you use aura?!" 

	"Lucario are not the only species gifted in life energy." 

	"You really are a monster." 

	"I am not a monster!" Mewtwo said, losing his temper for a moment. "I may be unique, but what legendary is not?" 

	"Again, you mock Lord Arceus. The legendaries are His emissaries, examples of His glory. You are no such thing. But you are strong. I will honor you by showing you my full strength." Aeon held his right paw out to the side. Aura began to form there, before wrapping up and around his arm, before covering the rest of his body in a thin blue cloak. He moved in a blur, leaving a trail of dust in his wake and skid marks in the dirt, before appearing next to Mewtwo, delivering a powerful shoulder blow. 

	Mewtwo was caught by surprise, and knocked to the side, but he used his tail to stop his skid and right himself. "Using aura to empower your raw strength? Impressive, but risky. Too much will cause damage." Mewtwo held out both his paws, flexing his fingers. His eyes began to glow and the entire room began to shake. The ground cracked as waves of immense psychic power radiated out. 

	"STOP IT!" A high pitch voice screamed. 

	"Mew?" Mewtwo asked. His attack stopped, and he turned to find Mew floating there, her face red as she panted loudly. "Mew!" He ran towards her, grabbing her small frame and holding her tight. "Is it really you?" His voice was cracking with emotion.

	"Yep! A white vulpix and an absol let me out." 

	"Absol... Carver? It doesn't matter. They will never take you away again." 

	"So what, are we done?" Aeon asked, his aura dying down.

	"Yes. I have no more reason to fight you. In fact-"

	"NO!" Mew screamed. "There's been enough violence today."

	"I know, but Hearth must pay." Mewtwo said, letting go off her as she floated back and puffed her cheeks. "You can't always persuade me like that. Some things must be done, no matter how nasty. You can wait here if you wish." 

	"Nope." She stuck out her tongue. "You're stuck with me now." 

+++

	"If what Aeon said is right, Hearth should be down this way." Phantom said. "Are you okay?" 

	"What Mewtwo did... I know Hearth is the reason, but I'm still pissed off. But we can sort that out later." She shook her head. 

	The hall they were in was long, but empty. There were doors, but they were barred off with numerous methods, from wood, to tape, to steel beams and welding. At the end of the hall were a pair of unsealed doors. When they arrived, they pushed them open to find a large room with a high ceiling. The room was filled with machinery, seemingly the generator room for the complex, though none of them were running. Standing in the middle of the room, up on one of the catwalks, was a typhlosion. 

	Hearth started to slowly clap. "I never expected our little run away situation would end like this." He said mournfully. "And why have you ruined this whole thing?"

	"Because you're monsters!" Mystic yelled. "You ruined my life!" 

	"No, your life was ruined by a mistake. Had we finished with you, your new life would have been great. For that, I am sorry." 

	"Fuck you." Mystic retorted. 

	"She's right!" Phantom said loudly. "What could possibly justify your actions?!"

	"Ahh, the runt speaks. Fine. I suppose you deserve it. You see, I was raised by real scum, Boss the aggron, leader of the Blade, and my father. He didn't give a damn about life, or anything at all really. All he cared about was money. Even his own son was secondary. All I was to him was a tool to continue his reign. So when Hunter and his gang killed him, I was thankful. But as life went on, and I saw the way the world really was... Society will always desire the illegal, it is merely a fact of life. So I had an idea. What if I could find a way to solve that desire, as humanely as possible, so no one else was hurt as bad? Sure, my methods still hurt, but nothing compared to what happened previously! I solved a problem in a realistic way, and you seek to bring all that to ruin, to bring chaos to innocent lives again."

	"You don't think you brought chaos to her life?" Phantom asked, getting angry. "You should have seen her family. The way she has been trying to get her memories back!" 

	"Phantom..." Mystic said quietly.

	"Would you have rather been chained up in someone's basement? Raped constantly and forced to bear some pervert's children?" 

	"I'd rather have none of it." Mystic said. 

	"An idealistic view. Sacrifices must be made. I am only bringing about the lesser evil. But I guess it doesn't matter anymore. If you made it here, I assume your partners are mopping up the rest of the Shadow. I surrender. Take me in, and I'll leave the world to you. You've proved that I cannot try to make a difference."

	"No." Mystic said.

	"Excuse me?" 

	"You're not going to prison. You're going to die here." She said, baring her fangs.

	"Mystic, are you sure?" Phantom asked.

	"This piece of shit is insane. He doesn't deserve to keep living."

	"Hah! I knew you weren't a real rescue team." Hearth said. "Personal interest before justice. In that case, allow me to play my trump card early." He turned back and took out a golden crystalline orb. He rubbed it and held it into the air. "Giratina! Come for your orb!"