Pokémon 1. Charade

Giovanni began the shutdown procedures for his computer, locked his office, and left into the hallway of his underground base hidden beneath a profitable casino. The patent he had finagled from Silph when he was prospecting new financial territory to take had proven to be very profitable, the Porygon design sold at the Rocket Gaming Corner could be enough to bring his organization above-ground, with fully legitimate enterprises. The law was even backing off on his men, hoping that he would cut his criminal activities in search of profit.

How little they understood him.

Everyone thought his operations were that of an ordinary gangster, cutthroat and purely for the sake of profit. Even his underlings thought they were working only towards wealth. Only he and a few of his scientists, quarantined from the rest of society for security purposes, knew what was truly at stake. Power, unimaginable power was what Team Rocket was grasping for. Blaine, the lead scientist of his project and Cinnabar Gym Leader, had nearly completed his magnum opus. A Pokemon, master of combat and lord of psyonics. Billions of dollars and a combined three decades of research had brought Mewtwo into existence. With him not even the Elite Four could stand against him, and he would be able to directly or indirectly rule the entire region.

But bringing his new force into the world would require precise timing, and now was not the time. A man needs his rest. He walked to his private chambers, which were not too distant from his office for convenience, as they were the two places he spent time at most often. He was surprised when he found himself sharing the narrow hallway with one of his three administrators, Sabrina, who seemed slightly flustered at his appearance.

"Good evening," he said with more cheer than he felt, but it was still a more gruff greeting than most people give.

Sabrina apparently noticed the effort Giovanni had put into his salutation, even if he hadn't, and almost lingered, but remembered the urgency of her task and brushed it off. "I have duties to attend to," she said, dismissing him, but not without concern.

"Really?" Giovanni questioned. "You've already pulled a double shift today."

"I attend to myself perfectly fine, my condition is fine," Sabrina countered coolly, barriers up. She didn't need Giovanni to suspect her. These dealings with her commander had always been... delicate.

"It is my liberty to decide that, not yours," Giovanni ordered. Sabrina stiffened at his words, when he continued. "It is in my best interest to ensure that my administrators are functioning at their highest capacity. Your abilities won't protect you from burnout; I suspect they are more liable to cause it. Refresh yourself." His voice boomed with authority, but after a year under him,

Sabrina felt his speech betray a hint of concern. She noted it, and decided to play submissive. "By your orders," she walked along the hallway, past Giovanni without looking back. Giovanni paused for a moment, then continued to his quarters. Sabrina also began to pause, replaying the conversation and attempting to analyze the hidden intents they both had when she realized she only had moments left, and instantly vanished.

Giovanni's office was completely secure, hundreds of feet underground, surrounded by reinforced walls, and sealed with an armored door, impregnable even to a Dragonite. None of these precautions meant anything to a being endowed with the power of teleportation. Sabrina apparated in the room, gently floated down from a low levitation, and sat in her boss' chair. Even with teleportation, access to his sanctum had been difficult to attain. In order to teleport to any location, a psychic must establish a connection to her destination. When moving underground or inside buildings this is especially important, as it is all to easy to enter a place that is already occupied by steel girders, glass windows, or solid concrete, which is much less willing to displace itself than air. Indeed, Giovanni had made a precaution against anyone attempting to intrude in such a manner, by placing a small flight of stairs and a hallway that curved left from the entrance before his office proper, making any attempt to blindly enter a quick and painless death by atoms instantaneously dispersing themselves into other dimensions. Convincing Giovanni to allow her into his office once hadn't been as difficult as she had feared however. She had insisted on borrowing it to meditate so that she could locate Moltres, as her own chambers did not offer her the sanctuary she required. Giovanni did not leave her alone in his office, he was much to intelligent for that, but he did oblige, and seemed content with her presence in his office, simply breathing in and out.

Sabrina found that the system was still backing up data and activated an override code she had obtained through meditation enhanced hearing second sight and a small orchestrated scenario involving a bull Nidoking attacking the building during a regular system calibration. No alarms were tripped, and the psychic was able to pull up some of her boss' secret files. It had been obvious for some time that Giovanni had some unstated goals in his operations; funds bounced a few times through different financial institutions weren't adding up, and Giovanni was taking actions a shrewd businessman like he wasn't liable to do. Sabrina insisted on clear expectations after all, and she pulled up the Rocket Leader's accurate budget. A lot more money was going into Cinnabar's reanimation research than the official budget depicted. 80 Billion more in fact.

Sabrina allowed herself a small smile of her success. Any project this big and this secret was certain to be lucrative. She only had one more task before she left. She slowly levitated up towards the high ceiling that Giovanni enjoyed. While he had ensured there were no blinds spots in his security cameras, he neglected that he was completely blind to the ceiling. A flaw seemingly of no consequence, but Sabrina simply waved her hand and and recorded the empty room the cameras currently saw over the time she spent in the office, and vanished once more, a puff of air rushing into the vacuum she no longer occupied.


	2. Introspection

Giovanni considered the events of his encounter with Sabrina. What may have seemed to an observer as a mere dispute that he had eventually won was in fact a careful verbal battle, one in which the victor was much less clear. To be a criminal lord, one must analyze every battle. Replaying the conversation in his head, he noted subtle jabs, feints and parries made. It was refreshing, if also, worrisome, to have an opponent as well versed in the arts of diplomacy and manipulation as he. Everyone, after all, is an opponent in diplomacy, regardless of alliances. Sabrina was an interesting case. The fact that she was empathetic made disguising any intent more difficult than ever, and she had rigorous self-discipline, which generated seemingly impenetrable barriers to her psyche.

The barriers were penetrable though. Sabrina was solid as a rock under most circumstances, but minerals have cleavage planes, allowing a properly applied force to tear them apart. In truth, she was almost… delicate. There were points in her emotions that when properly probed caused her to lose control. Seductions of power, wounds to her pride, visions of grandeur she could sometimes be prone to, they could reduce her to a point where Giovanni could win those verbal battles.

There was risk involved though. A powerful psychic without self-discipline is more dangerous than one with it. He had heard stories of her fits of rage as a child, throwing men like rag dolls and crushing minds out of spite, making her bed-ridden afterwards from the energy she used. Underneath that cold and calculating exterior was a neurotic and aggressive girl who could get her way no matter what Giovanni did. Finding the weak, malleable being in between the two was difficult and potentially dangerous.

It was what Giovanni had over her though. Sabrina was vulnerable to her pride, her emotions, her hormones. Giovanni was always the man he displayed, a calculating and powerful man, one who rarely knew defeat, and when he did, was always a better man for it.

This was why he analyzed his chance meeting with Sabrina now, that he could ensure that this subtle balance of power stayed in his favor. He noticed an undercurrent in the conversation, a force that, instead of motivating their careful game, seemed to detract from it. Giovanni knew that Sabrina had something to hide, but her something else had been distracting her. He seemed to have been distracted as well, and they were both more accommodating than they usually were.

"The game has changed," he noted. "But why?"

0o0o0o0o0o0o

Sabrina landed on the beach of Cinnabar Island. It was surprisingly cold, until she realized that it was night. She had lost track of the days while she was underneath Celadon City. She felt a minor urge to take off her shoes and feel the sand between her toes, and revel in being aboveground again for a moment, but she suppressed it as she usually did. Sabrina had to suppress these desires more often lately. It seemed to have something to do with Giovanni.

Her master had been pushing her buttons lately. He was experimenting to see just how much control he had over her, and what territory he had yet to conquer. Something inside told her that 

although his mind games had become more frustrating lately, that they were not the cause of her inner child breaking out again. Something deeper within her said that Giovanni was still related to these fragments of her id resurfacing past the superego she had to construct for her protection. Giovanni would have to learn that it was in his best interest to preserve the disciplines she had created to control herself. Her primal wants and desires were more potent than that of an ordinary human being, and she had them locked up in her psyche, where she no longer recognized them but neither had to deal with them.

These Freudian self-evaluations would have to wait for another time however. Perhaps between finding this secret project of Giovanni's and confronting him with whatever information she had attained she could digress so. Sabrina was not certain what she would do with leverage over him, but it would certainly be worthwhile.

She was distracting herself again. A moment's meditation should be all that she would need to regain her composure. She deftly assumed a lotus position and rose from the sand beneath her, when she was struck by a sudden pang of telepathic energy. All thoughts of Giovanni leaving her, she immediately moved to locating it. There was some being, of considerable psychic power, on the island. She began to pinpoint it when the source quieted. A small frown escaped her face as she began another technique, finding trails of psyonic energy left from this being. The source appeared to be the Pokémon Lab, which suggested that whatever this being was also was the project Giovanni had.

"Were Giovanni's plans to create some sort of psychic soldier?" she wondered. "Was I not enough to satisfy whatever he needed? Why wouldn't he consult me with something like this?" Sabrina gritted her teeth and felt a sharp pain in her heart, as if she was not needed, or had been replaced for someone her master thought was better. It suddenly became even more important that she find this being, her job, her work, and most importantly her pride was at stake.

Sabrina brought herself back into focus, but struggled. Anger clouded her vision of where this psychic energy was coming from. She gritted her teeth and willed the image back into focus, and was surprised to find it was a mansion of some sort where the trail ended. The building was lone and large, built into the bedrock of the mountain, which made it a surprise when she got another telepathic jolt from beneath the building. Someone had gone to great lengths to hide something there. Sabrina snuck inside, and found no access to the lower levels. Tired, she sent out her Alakazam, which quickly used its psychic attack to blow the hinges off a stubborn door to a staircase.

An alarm activated, and Sabrina raced down the stairs only to find herself face to face with one of a select few Pokémon trainers as accomplished as she in both intelligence and battling skill.

"Hello Blaine," Sabrina feigned.

Blaine did not reply. Sabrina continued to speak.

"I don't suppose you know why I'm here? We both know you work for Giovanni, but I work for him too now. I need to see the weapon you've been developing." Sabrina said coyly, attempting to distract him. "He said it would be a surprise. What is it?"

Blaine was disturbed by Sabrina's lapse in judgment, failing to lead him as he expected her too. Unfortunately for him, Sabrina did not intend to fool Blaine, but to distract him, and his momentary confusion was enough for Sabrina to draw a Pokeball and hopefully disable him quickly.

Hopefully being the key word. Blaine had managed to draw a Pokeball just as quickly, and soon an Alakazam and Ninetales were spaced between them, both ready to destroy the other.

"Wrong answer," the Quizmaster said, and the battle began.

**A/N:** A Cliffhanger! I'm so evil. Anyways, please review my story, because no one reviewed the last chapter and it made me sad. Plenty of hits, but no one clicked the review button. Its right down there. Move the mouse down, to the left, now click it. CLICK IT!


	3. Anticipation

Sabrina and Alakazam quickly teleported backwards so that they could have more room for battle, but Blaine would have none of it, quickly closing the distance to allow his Ninetales' flames to cause more residual damage.

"Fire Blast!" Blaine attacked, and his majestic fox shot forward a star of flames as he ran towards the two psychics.

"Light Screen!" Sabrina countered as Alakazam threw up a reflective shield for himself and his master.

The two Pokémon began to stare each other down, when Blaine ordered again, "Fire Blast, Ninetales!"

The Pokémon once again threw a massive molten fireball at the Psi Pokémon, who shrugged off the blast with his screen.

"Recover," Sabrina replied, and Alakazam regained his strength.

"Defensive fighting will get you nowhere fast Sabrina. I thought a fellow gym leader might be better. Fire Blast!"

"Hmph," Sabrina scoffed as the inferno only barely grazed her Pokémon. "You're only weakening your Pokémon from useless attacks. You're gaining no ground, and Ninetales won't be able to use that attack much longer."

"Useless?" Blaine smiled. "Pop Quiz. What side effects can Fire Blast have?" Sabrina's eyes widened in realization. "I don't suppose you remembered to bring burn heal, now did you, you hot shot trainer you," he taunted.

Alakazam indeed was burned, and his stamina was going to be severely hindered by this. Worse, Ninetales was a fire Pokémon and Alakazam could not synchronize their burns. If she let Blaine keep the momentum Alakazam would certainly not last.

"Psychic!" She shouted, and Alakazam sent a huge telekinetic wave towards the mystical fox, throwing it back into Blaine. Blaine started to attack, but Sabrina did not let up. "Follow with Shadow Ball!" she commanded, and a dark sphere of ectoplasmic energy ripped from the monster's hands into the prostrate Pokémon, knocking it unconscious.

Blaine quickly reached for a second Pokeball, but Sabrina knocked it out of his hands with a telekinetic shove. "This does not continue," she said, her eyes and voice filled with power. "This ends here."

With that, Sabrina waved her hand, and Blaine was suddenly wracked with paralysis.

"Your central nervous system should sort out its commands again eventually," Sabrina explained. "But I'll be long gone by then." Her eyes had a sudden fierceness, her voice low and threatening and seductive all at the same time.

"Bitch." Blaine gritted through his teeth as he struggled to move.

Sabrina made a simple turn of the head, brought her Pokeball from the ground to her hand, and returned her Pokémon. She then let her combat tunnel vision disintegrate, and then she saw, sitting in a chemical vat, the being she had been looking for, the 80 billion dollar project of her master. It looked remarkably human, but with definite Pokémon features. It was catatonic, and something inside Sabrina said it had been this way for a long time now. She tentatively reached out telepathically to it.

"What are you?" she gently probed through images and ideas, attempting to make contact where language fell short. Her answer was short, immediate, and, surprisingly, in English.

"They call me Mewtwo." There was no pride, or sorrow, or emotion behind it. It was a statement alone. Sabrina considered its name. This was a second Mew, a psychic being created from science, presumably to be a super soldier.

"I am Sabrina," she thought. "We have something in common. We can both see the world from a view few others can."

"What does that mean to me?" It was not a challenge; it was a sincere question.

"Tell me, what do you want?"

"I want the pain to stop."

"The pain?"

She saw now that Mewtwo was flinching, clenched inside its fluid filled glass prison.

"Let me help you. I can find the source."

"Do it."

Sabrina calmed herself, and let the world around her come into view. There was a strong psychic field between Mewtwo and…

Blaine was not gritting his teeth from paralysis, Sabrina noted. Blaine was in pain because Mewtwo was using his telepathy. The source of the pain was… his arm? Sabrina stepped towards the scientist sprawled on the ground, who suddenly realized what she was planning.

"Don't you dare take another step towards me!" he warned.

Sabrina disregarded his advice and ripped his lab coat's sleeve. There were some tightly wound bandages around his forearm. Sabrina slowly began to unravel them. Blaine began to protest but was 

silenced by the pain. When Sabrina had nearly removed their dressings she noticed something strange about his skin. It was bubbling. His flesh, once smooth and normal, began to deform, throwing itself at the vat in which Mewtwo waited in absolute torment. Blaine cried out in pain as his mutated arm lashed against him.

Sabrina began to compose an explanation. Mewtwo's inexplicably human features were a direct result of his genetic heritage, Blaine! Blaine must have used his own DNA from his arm to construct Mewtwo, and the psychic resonance between Mewtwo's fused genes and Blaine's was causing a deterioration in both of them.

Sabrina realized that she was at an impasse. She had found what she intended to find, but was that enough. Perhaps she could win the trust of this being. She could feel the raw power of the monster resonating throughout the laboratory. Her loyalty however lay with Team Rocket and her master, Giovanni.

"Master?" she scolded herself. "You have no master but yourself. You've had to create mastery over yourself time and time again to reach where you are today, and this is only one more example of that. Show mastery of yourself, and you could become the most powerful person in the world with that living weapon. Allow Giovanni to master you, and you will be a servant to his interests.

There was something stopping her however. She had invested much in Team Rocket. It wasn't only nostalgia though, there was some other emotion involved, something similar, but stronger.

It did not matter however. Her investment in Team Rocket was surely not worth sacrificing ultimate power. Sabrina took a deep breath, and touched Mewtwo with her mind again.

"The pain remains," he stated.

"I found the cause, she replied, still nervous over what she was about to do. It is this human, Blaine. He created you out of his own body, and both your bodies pay the price for it now. If you destroy him the pain shall subside.

"Very well."

Sabrina found the drainage system and release mechanism for the genetic Pokémon, and activated them in order. The clear liquid Mewtwo was suspended in drained from beneath him, and the glass began to open.

"No!" Blaine shouted as best he could through his frozen teeth. "That thing is dangerous! You have unleashed a great threat upon us all."

"I know," Sabrina said lifelessly, and Mewtwo tumbled out of the chamber he was locked in, still in incredible pain as his entire genetic sequence burned from the unholy matrimony of his two genetic fathers. Wincing, the creature held out his hand, and shot a telekinetic blast towards the paralyzed old man beneath him.

Blaine was instantly killed, and the psychic shockwaves began to tear the building apart. The lab equipment burst, computers began to explode, and the ceiling began to shake.

Sabrina had never seen such power before this. An unfocused, raw hit from this monster tore apart everything around him. She winced at Blaine's mangled corpse, plastered to the stone wall he was carelessly thrown at. "It was necessary," she rationalized, but even Sabrina doubted she believed it. The building was beginning to collapse though, and they were beneath it.

"The pain has subsided. Thank you." Mewtwo thought to her.

"We have to escape!" was Sabrina's reply. Instantly she was whisked away from the building, not even aware what had happened, to the shore of Cinnabar.

"We are safe."

"You are not though," Sabrina started. "The organization that made you will want you back soon. They will bring the pain back. I can help you destroy them as well." It wasn't a complete lie, and it could create enough of a bond between the two that Sabrina could utilize the Pokémon.

"Where are we going?"

"A place called Celadon…" Sabrina began, but she found they were already on a rooftop of the city, sitting upon the department store to be precise. It was still nightfall, and the skyline was beautiful.

"If I can work with this Pokémon to achieve my goals, I could rule the world. What army can stand up to this being that in horrendous pain can destroy a reinforced underground laboratory from the aftershocks of his attack, or can teleport multiple beings instantaneously?" Sabrina mused to herself.

"What must we do?"

0o0o0o0o0o0o

It suddenly came to Giovanni. He wasn't actively thinking about it at the time, but revelation rarely comes when expected to. He knew what the underlying motivation he and Sabrina had when conversing was. He wanted to dismiss it at first, for Sabrina was less than half of his age, but it fulfilled everything. It explained almost all of the circumstances, was supported by the evidence, and conformed to Ockham's Razor. The Saffron City Gym Leader… had infatuated him. No one could blame him though. She was attractive, cold, calculating, ruthless even. All were qualities he admired. She was efficient, a match for him in combat and in wit. As rivals, they would be merely wasting resources. As lovers though, Giovanni suppressed the thoughts that began to make his blood rush. They could become a powerful duumvirate, similar to Julius Caesar and Cleopatra.

"Cleopatra was the undoing of Caesar though." He thought. "Her presence brought on a fear of a monarchy in the senate, and Caesar was stabbed. Cleopatra shed no tears for him. She moved on to the next man she found that could further her cause. Then she committed suicide."

Giovanni mused on the fate of his racial ancestor. He was certain that the feelings were reciprocated, but he would have to be even more delicate in this situation than usual. There were not only emotions at stake here.

"One step at a time," Giovanni thought to himself. "Tomorrow I will be able to test his. Tomorrow I will begin a… courtship."

Giovanni knew that his next encounter with Sabrina was certain to be exceedingly awkward.

**A/N: Suspense! Foreshadowing! Historical References! The next and final chapter will be longer and more exciting than ever. So read and review. Seriously review. One review ain't doing it for me.**


	4. Climax

**A/N: First of all, to answer your question, I found out that GiovannixSabrina is called Socioshipping. Which makes perfect sense, them being sociopaths and all? Regardless, I wanted to apologize for the lateness of this update, but you get sick. What do you do? Just a cold though. I wanted to say as well that I am considering writing an Epilogue after this final chapter, **_**but only if I get some more reviews**_**. Seriously, two Favorites, three Alerts, and only one person reviews. It's frustrating as an author to deal with that.**

Sabrina did have to admit something about Mewtwo. This creature was frontal about everything it did. It was a being of action, which might make it harder to form a sufficient bond between them for her to gain anything from him. Perhaps a conversation would be in order.

"Do you know why I rescued you?" she asked.

"You are a psychic like me."

"True, but I do not rescue any psychic Pokémon I encounter, or offer to help one to destroy his enemies."

"Elaborate."

"You and I are one of a kind. Psychics among my kind are few, and I am the most powerful of them all. You also are unique, more than any other Pokémon. You are the only of your species, and the most powerful Pokémon I ever encountered."

"You expect to gain something."

Sabrina nearly flinched, her physiological self-control preventing her, but with this Pokémon's powers, it seemed likely that he wasn't reading her emotions from her body language, but her thoughts. The best place to hide; however, is in the open. No one looks for you there.

"I would like to know you, as a friend, or companion. You… intrigue me." She maneuvered.

"Perhaps, we should move to action."

Was she making progress? With Mewtwo she could not tell. He was harder to decipher than Giovanni.

Giovanni. She'll have to kill him. There was no problem of course, was there? He was her boss only, her master. Again with that word. No, she had no master. She had proven from her mastery of the psychic powers that she was master of herself. It still pained her somehow. The weight of what she was doing crashed on her. She had kidnapped, stolen, maimed and committed arson in the name of Team Rocket before, but this was betrayal. She had already killed Blaine, and now she was going to commit treason against the organization she had sweated to bring to its current glory.

"Look at yourself," she thought. "You've become weak. You're allowing, pity, self-pity of all things to gnaw at you? You are poised at the point of ultimate power, and there is no turning back here. No one can turn back the sands of time. Would you want to? Would you throw away the power you've found? The most powerful Pokémon, in the hands of the one trainer that could truly tap its potential, do you not want that? A psychic bond between you two could make you together powerful enough to split mountains, control cities, conquer nations! That isn't what you want though. You're content to sit on the sidelines of a criminal organization, toiling all day for another's chance in the limelight. That isn't something I'll accept though."

Sabrina clenched her hands and jaw. She was right. She was strong. She was going to master the universe now, and no nostalgic hesitations would stop her.

"We head there, for the Rocket Game Corner," she pointed towards the casino, and they were there.

A couple heads turned to see the woman with a strange Pokémon that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, but someone hit the jackpot, and between the excitement of the building and the alcohol in their systems, Sabrina was forgotten. It didn't hurt that she had suggested to them that she was never really there. A sly reach for the secret panel, and a hidden flight of stairs revealed themselves to the odd duo. Sabrina began to walk down, Mewtwo close behind.

A Rocket Grunt noticed them. "Sabrina, good to see you, I didn't see you exit."

"I teleported," she responded.

The grunt turned to face the purple being beside her. "What's this?" he snorted. "Some strange Pokémon you found there. I've never seen anything like it.

"I'm certain you haven't," she stately replied, walking down to corridor.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Giovanni was meditating and reviewing the events of the day before he retired. He had found it an effective way to prevent burnout and find insight, it was, in fact, the way he had recently discovered his interest in Sabrina. He was finally beginning to relax when a grunt found it a good idea to interrupt him over the intercom. It was a good thing for him, because this particular grunt discovered something interesting on the entrance monitor.

"Sabrina is entering the base, boss. She has a weird Pokémon with her, big, purple and grey, looks almost human. I thought it looked suspicious."

Giovanni growled, knowing that at best his few moments of relaxation had been wasted and at worst he was going to face a big problem. "Bring it up on my computer."

The tech stumbled for a moment and then a still, followed by a video of the two played on his screen. There was no doubt in his mind, the Pokémon that Sabrina had brought with her was indeed Mewtwo, his ultimate weapon.

A master of combat and ultimate psychic warrior, there was no one who could stand up to this beast. Initial testing reported that not even the undefeated Elite Four would stand a chance against his might; he outclassed them completely.

He needed to buy time. "Where are Surge and Koga?" he barked.

The tech brought the two gym leaders onto his screen. They were in the practice room, sparring.

"Surge, Koga. I need you now." Giovanni commanded through the intercom. "A colleague of yours has forgotten her place. I suggest you put her back in it. Head Sabrina off at the second level atrium. She has some explaining to do."

He could see the smiles on their faces, even distorted from the security system, as they relished the chance to step out of Sabrina's shadow. Little did they know they were probably heading into a death trap. He didn't know just how extensive Mewtwo's capabilities were, but if they were anything like he paid for them to be, then his two administrators better pray that their third member wasn't coming here to pick a fight.

The obvious question, however, is what was Sabrina doing? How did she discover Mewtwo's existence, find him, and convince him to come to his hideout? Why did she bring Mewtwo here? She must be planning some sort of takeover of the organization. It was the only logical explanation of why she would bring his Pokémon. She must have somehow convinced him to side with her, perhaps with some promise of freedom, or power. Giovanni didn't know though. Mewtwo could have any personality, one of bloodlust most likely.

0o0o0o0o0o0o

"They are undisturbed by our presence,"

Sabrina didn't respond. She simply moved forward along the hallway, past the attentive poses of the rocket grunts and their surprised faces at Mewtwo.

"They recognize you. This organization we are going to destroy, this is your home."

Sabrina was caught again, but she would have an easier time weaving herself out of this question.

"How else would I have discovered you? How else could I know where this hideout was, or know who planned to enslave you?" It wasn't a lie.

Mewtwo was silent for a few moments as they proceeded to the next flight of stairs. The area was empty of any onlookers, and was eerily quiet.

"I suppose your explanation is the most likely one," Mewtwo concluded.

"It is because it is true," Sabrina began, but was caught by a blinding flash of light followed by an explosion at her feet. Mewtwo quickly propped up a barrier that caught the brunt of the burst but Sabrina was still bruised from the impact. A sudden, wailing noise grinded against their ears as they attempted to recover, and a smokescreen began to cover them as another explosive charge hit. As Mewtwo's focus began to collapse a third explosive hit. His barrier finally disintegrated as he attempted to recover, but he became very groggy and both Sabrina and Mewtwo were finally rendered completely helpless, bruised, blinded, deafened, and too distracted from pain and sleepiness to draw power from the psychic portion of their brains.

Lt. Surge turned to Koga and smiled. Their plan went off perfectly. The former Vietnam veteran hefted his modified grenade launcher, fitted to fire Voltorbs rather than bombs, which he found to be much more effective. Sometimes standard ambush techniques work, when properly applied. Overwhelming force, combined with removing the enemy's ability to counterattack always results in victory when effectively applied.

What had actually happened occurred in the space of less than 3 seconds. Just before Mewtwo or Sabrina could see the duo Surge fired off 3 Voltorbs in succession at the landing damaging and blinding the traitor with a Flash followed by an Explosion, while his Magnetons used a Screech attack to further disorient them. Koga meanwhile used a Smokescreen attack from his Weezing and a Sleep Powder attack from his Venomoth. A combination of Surge's raw power and Koga's subtlety, they found it a much more effective variation of the smoke and sonic strategy.

"Muk, retrieve." Koga ordered to his slimy Pokémon, who happily slid along the metal floor into the clearing smoke to restrain his master's enemies.

When the smoke cleared, they did not find two humanoids trapped in Muk's smelly embrace, but Koga's trusted Pokémon, splattered along the walls, with no trace of the two. Their guerilla warfare had failed, and a retaliatory ambush seemed imminent. Their faces portrayed immense surprise and fear. The two pressed their backs against the other, expecting the worst. They could not imagine what happened though, and the capacity to imagine it would not have saved them.

Sabrina and the strange Pokémon had somehow teleported between their backs and shoved them both into the cold metal walls of the hallway with a telekinetic repulse. Their brains were only able to register a sudden shift in momentum however before they stopped from a case of head in wall.

Sabrina tilted her head at the two bodies beside her, and turned to her partner.

"Did you kill them?" she asked, not certain which way she would prefer.

"No. We have nothing to gain from their deaths, and they pose no threat."

Indeed, the two were breathing, severely labored but breathing. They would need medical attention to recover though, and they likely suffered concussions and several bone breakages, fractures, and shatters.

"Must we linger?" Mewtwo asked.

"No," Sabrin replied. "We have nothing to gain."

The two merely continued on towards the next floor.

0o0o0o0o0o0o

Giovanni couldn't believe his eyes, glued to a monitor in his secure office. Surge and Koga operated perfectly. They must have been perfecting that technique for a while now, because he had never seen it before, and it was impressive. The show they put on was the gaudiest display of tactics that he had ever seen. Sun Tzu would be proud to know these men as generals. Yet they had failed. In a period of 3 seconds between Lt. Surge ceasing his volleys and the smoke clearing, the two psychics had recovered, defeated Koga's Muk and teleported away. The camera then went out, but the final frame showed what looked to be a haze between the two men as they flew to the walls beside them, presumably to their deaths.

The situation frustrated Giovanni, but not by the ordeal that was occurring as he sat there. He was frustrated by the fact that ability had triumphed over skill. Giovanni had no special powers, had no innate strength over any other man but became who he was, cunning, powerful in body and mind, brilliant, successful, through practice and dedication. To see such a beautiful strategy foiled by an opponent who was simply strong enough to overcome it rather than cunning or prepared enough was disheartening.

"Ironic that you are disappointed by the aspects you chose of a being you created," he thought.

"I'd think it more ironic that I spent 80 billion dollars to create a monster that will be the end of me," he responded to himself.

"True, although I suppose it is moot, considering that these are your final moments,"

Yes, life is so delicate. One last game he would have to play though, and the stakes were as high as they came. One more battle of diplomacy would separate him from his life. He mentally followed conversation paths, carefully deciding which ones he would have to take.

Time slowed. Anticipation began to grind against his focus, distracting him from the dialogue trees he was forming. He could not be distracted though, he had to carry this out perfectly, and he had to.

The reinforced door to his office crashed into the wall behind it, and psychokinetic waves shocked through his office, shaking his desks and bookshelves and sending anything not rooted to the ground into the air.

Sabrina stepped before his desk facing Giovanni.

Their final duel was about to begin.

"I see you've met Mewtwo." Giovanni politely noted. A safe move, retaining his options and drastically increasing the chances that there would be a conversation instead of his head simply being blown off.

Sabrina became furious, throwing his desk to the side in a feat of psychic prowess. Something about seeing him again was tearing her strong emotional barriers apart. She was devolving. It seemed that nothing was going to save Giovanni for a moment, but Sabrina recollected herself.

"I have. I noticed a discrepancy in your budget, and investigated. I couldn't believe what I had found. You, creating a Pokémon to use as a weapon? I'm here to rescue him from you."

Sabrina had never shown a tendency towards anthropomorphism towards Pokémon. Granted, Mewtwo was a special case, anthropomorphic in the very literal sense of the word. Her concern was fooling neither of them though, and she knew it. Which meant that she wasn't doing it for the sake of either of them. This ploy was directed at Mewtwo.

Sabrina hadn't yet convinced Mewtwo that Sabrina was on his side. This was an alliance of convenience, and Sabrina needed it to be more. Giovanni weighed his new options. Potentially he could convince Mewtwo that he was being deceived, and he would not be killed. If he wasn't careful though he might force Sabrina's hand and she could kill him before he could weaken Mewtwo's resolve. He'd play lower risk cards for now, and work his way up.

"That doesn't seem like you." A statement that guaranteed a response, to kill him now would be far too suspicious.

"You don't know me." It was an effective counter, putting control back in Sabrina's hand, but it also offered him another prong to attack with.

"I believe I do know you, Sabrina. I may know you better than you know yourself. I in fact know what specifically is making this so hard for you right now, why you haven't killed me yet." A riskier gambit, a less stable persona could take the last bit as a challenge, but Sabrina was curious enough to wait.

He hoped.

"What is it that you think you know, Giovanni?" she challenged.

"I'm standing between you and your ultimate goal, but you haven't killed me yet because you are suffering from hormones. Your physiological signs are much more subtle, but they are there. Your casual frustration, shortness of breath, near blushes occasionally, they all show it. You find me attractive, and I assure you it is reciprocated."

Sabrina didn't expect this at all. In a single motion Giovanni had turned the tables. What he said shouldn't have turned the tables though, it should have been just a desperate shot in the dark, but inside she knew it wasn't. She wanted him in fact. She had all this time been suffering from lovesickness. It was almost disgusting, that someone as strong as her was still vulnerable to this. Her emotions began to pour out, infatuation towards Giovanni, lust for power, guilt for Blaine's death. She was, for the first time since her childhood, an emotional wreck. She collapsed to her knees and began to shake. She didn't cry, she never had. She struggled to regain composure but couldn't. She had lost.

Giovanni began to comfort her, saying, "It doesn't have to be like this, Sabrina. There is no need for it to end now. "

Sabrina finally began to regain self-control, and she realized that it did have to be like this. She had, in fact, gone too far. Mewtwo was still standing by her, puzzled, and worried. She had to pull through. Blaine was dead, and if she didn't act now, Mewtwo would no he had been lied to. They could both be at risk. She had to salvage the situation, the only way she could.

She wanted it to be like this in fact. This was infatuation, nothing more. Giovanni could not play with her emotions to get what he wanted. Imagine what sort of relationship might occur if she allowed that! Here she was at the verge of power. No simple hormones were going to stop her now.

She grabbed Giovanni and pulled him close, leaned over and whispered into his ear. "You were right, Giovanni. I am infatuated. If you had acted sooner this might never had happened. It's too late to think about what could have happened now."

Giovanni's eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen.

"Mewtwo, kill him." Sabrina commanded.

Mewtwo was merciful though. His death was instantaneous; his lifeless body fell backwards out of Sabrina's grip.

"Now?" Mewtwo asked.

"We destroy this place," Sabrina said, quieting the emotions screaming inside her. She was the master of herself, not these emotions. "Leave no trace of what happened."

Suddenly she was outside the Game Corner, the building erupting in flames, Mewtwo beside her.

"What do we do next?"

She had done it. She had truly done it. The final result was in fact better than she had imagined. She had created a master-servant relationship with Mewtwo. She was truly omnipotent now. Everything she had done so far was worth it, Giovanni's death included. Sabrina was going to rule the world.

"Stop!" A young woman's voice shouted. "By the power vested in me by Celadon City, as gym leader of the city, I herby place you under arrest for several instances of kidnapping, theft, arson, and suspected murder.

Erika, the gym leader of the city was here to oppose her. Erika was no match for Sabrina regardless, but with Mewtwo at her side, she was absolutely pitiful. No narcoleptic tree-hugger was going to stand between her and the universe.

"Mewtwo, destroy her." Sabrina commanded.

"No." came back instantaneously.

"What?" Sabrina asked, puzzled and afraid.

"I see why you saved me. I see why you had me destroy the fortress. You came to me for power. You shall have none of mine. I am master of myself, servant of no one else. I will not kill for your benefit."

No. Everything was crashing down. All she had worked for was collapsing at her feet.

"I gave up everything for you!" she fiercely replied.

"That is not my concern."

Mewtwo began to fly away north, towards Cerulean. It was over. Everything she had fought for was dead. She had nothing now, but a warrant for her arrest. And she had killed the one man she ever cared for. A tear, singular, began to fall down Sabrina's cheek. She never realized just how delicate the world was, how foolish her plan had been, how blinded she had been by a greed for power.

Erika was slightly moved by this sight, the first person to see Sabrina cry. She had a duty though. She pulled out a pair of handcuffs, preparing to bring Sabrina to justice.

She never got that chance though. Sabrina waved her hand sorrowfully, as though someone was about to go away on a long voyage, then vanished into the mist of the late night air.

**A/N:** I really hope you liked it, I put a lot of effort into this chapter seeing as its almost as long as the rest of the story, which is why I'd really like a review. Remember, unless I get some more reviews, there will be _**NO EPILOGUE. YOU WANT THE EPILOGUE. IT'S GOOD. WRITE A REVIEW. YOUR GOD COMMANDS IT.**_

Goodbye, and have a pleasant day.


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Pokémon, Angst