"So, how goes the search?"
I sneered down at her triumphantly as I asked the question, already well aware of the answer. I'd known it all my life, short as it has been so far. Even though she'd tried to resist it, tried to prove me wrong, I knew all the time that it was the other way around. She was the one who was wrong, and I was right. But still she wouldn't relent, no matter how often or how hard I tried to explain it to her.
Well, things were about to change now, I could tell that by the look on her face. It pleased me to see her so, since it was much more mature and realistic, which was the way she should have been. As she ascended slowly from the gargantuan, shadowed sphere, I savored the moment, knowing this would be the time that she would finally realize and understand the truth.
She raised her head to gaze up at me ruefully with large, brilliant cobalt eyes, glistening in the darkness as she drifted towards me. Her sluggish actions surprised me however, for normally her atmosphere was perky and upbeat, just like a small child. I knew of nothing that could possibly dampen her spirits. Well, perhaps there were a few things, but it was not often that she allowed it to show, for the sakes of others. Not that it really mattered now, I reminded myself.
"You were right, Mewtwo," she spoke softly to me in a voice so hushed that I was forced to lean closer to her, despite our usual routine. She was not afraid to admit that she was wrong, I could tell. It was the idea of what she was yielding to that grieved her. However, I'd trained myself to feel no remorse, and through stony silence, urged her to repeat the whole statement, having anticipated this event for quite some time now.
"There's no more Light," she whispered at last with difficulty.
"No more Love."
She stared at me expectantly, moistened eyes blinking rapidly as she awaited the response. I knew she was also anticipating the sentence, "I told you so." but I did not utter a word, retaining a cold, undaunted silence.
And so, after an awkward moment, she turned slowly and drifted off a short distance into space. She paused and hovered above the face of the dark, grim world below her, watching as the clouds of shadow swirled above the surface. After a minute or so, it appeared she could no longer stand the agony of witnessing such a scene, and bolted off, leaving me behind along with the slowly dying world.
My gaze followed her movement against my will, and watched, as she immediately froze in mid-air for no apparent reason. But, from all my experiences with her, I understood. She couldn't leave the world she had fought so hard to protect, even though there was nothing left to fight for. There never had been, I was convinced of that, but she had truly believed that there was something in that cruel, dark world that had been worth saving.
Well, just leave it then! I yelled in my mind, although I had a sinking feeling that the order had been directed more at myself then at her.
But what will happen if you do?
There's not point in trying to save it, I reminded myself. There is nothing to save.
She thinks there is something.
She thought there was, I retorted. But now she knows, just like I do. She knows the truth. It's all for the better.
Tell that to her.
I immediately cut off any further words of the opposition, fiercely refusing to listen to my other half.
But, the more I watched her, the more I realized that it too grieved me to see her this way. I sighed and shifted my posture for no particular reason, perhaps out of embarrassment. I truly did care for her. I had never admitted to it, but we both knew it. I just had more difficulty in confessing such feelings than she did, and we both knew that too.
I watched as her tiny shoulders heaved upwards, and her muffled sobs echoed mercilessly in my mind. Shutting my eyes tight and shaking my head in refusal, I forced myself to look away from her pitiful form. Instead, I found myself now gazing once again at the dark sphere below me, listening to the even more deafening cries of those that were suffering. I'd never really looked nor listened to their pleas very closely before, but now that I did, I felt my own heart saddening. I'd chosen to lock myself away in this endless void of emptiness, where I'd never have to face the true terror of the world. Yet somehow, she managed to endure their heartbreak every day, trying to help them, trying to rescue them from the inevitable.
I turned my gaze back to her. She'd grown completely silent and her form was still now, though her back was still turned towards me. Perhaps I had been too harsh on her. But it was my nature, and nothing could ever change it, even if it was only because I wouldn't let it. Still, I could no longer stand to see her this way...
"Mew."
She stiffened slightly, unprepared for a conversation in her current emotional state.
"What?" she choked, her voice hoarse.
I inhaled deeply, bracing myself for what I was about to do next. Pushing off the invisible floor on which I stood, I reluctantly drifted towards her. As she turned to face me, I tentatively reached out for her paw, unsure about what sort of customs went along with this procedure.
"Come with me."
She raised an arm to wipe away the opal teardrops forming at the corners of her shimmering blue eyes.
"Why?" she whined in a rising tone, like a small child.
I closed my eyes, reassuring myself of what I was doing, then opened them again with renewed confidence. "I want to show you something," I insisted, my three fingers wrapping loosely around her furry paw. She offered no further objection, so, with some uncertainty, I began my descent down towards the earth.
She followed obediently with no resistance, almost like some sort of tamed creature with no will of its own at all. In fact, when I looked back a few minutes later, I saw that her eyes were closed, her form limp, blindly being led by my hand. Had it not been for the warmth that I felt in the tiny paw that I grasped, I would've presumed that she was dead. I realized that she did not want to glimpse at all the woe and misery all around her. It would cause her too much heartache to see any more. Swallowing, I nervously strengthened my grip and hastened our speed.
Together, we sped past numerous layers of thick, bleak clouds of sorrowful gray, the source of the spreading darkness that consumed this savage world. My pace was quickening with every second, for I had not wanted to expose her to the despair any more. But beneath it all, I remembered there was something that she would hopefully find comfort in.
I halted our flight abruptly, and corrected my stance so that I was in a standing position.
"Open your eyes," I commanded, "And look."
She obeyed, slowly, unwillingly, as the lids raised to reveal her glistening blue eyes. This time I felt her grasp my hands tighter, for encouragement, I believe.
There, through the hazy clouds of shadow, there was a tiny pinprick of light, flickering beneath the swirling darkness. It cast a warm, cheerful aura from its center, illuminating a single point in its blissful glow.
She blinked a number of times, hesitant to believe that such a thing was real, that it could exist among such darkness. Perhaps it was just an illusion, a concoction of her wishful mind.
But gradually, as she realized that it was indeed real and not a mirage, a faint smile crept onto her face. She was elated to know that it was still there. That there was still light.
Turning back to me, she grasped my hands and gazed up at me with such a joyous expression that I couldn't help but give her a distorted smile in return. I had little practice with such expressions, for I rarely had any use for them.
"Thank you Mewtwo," she whispered, "For reminding me."
With that, she released my hand and began speeding down towards the point of light, eager to reach it. However, at the length of only a few yards away, she paused and her head swerved about, gazing back at me quizzically.
"Aren't you coming?" she inquired, cocking her head.
I hesitated, deeply considering. No, I decided firmly. It was simply against my nature. I'd completed the current task in assisting her, now it was up to her to finish the job of restoring the world back to the way it was. Me, I was to return to the darkness, where I belonged.
Still, I felt a yearning moment, but I knew that I simply could not. We both had our place, and mine simply was not with her.
Slowly, sadly, I grasped her paws again and gazed at her longingly. With another wry smile, I spoke to her some last words of reassurance before I knew I would have to leave her, so she could fulfill her destiny.
"Just help it grow, Mew."
Help it grow.