I woke up sputtering and coughing. Mew was floating right above me, her lips parted. When she saw that I was awake, she put her lips back together and sighed in relief. I smiled a deep smile back at her. Who would have thought that a mew would know how to perform CPR?

I got up, gently rubbing my neck. It hurt like hell, but I didn't think it was life threatening. I looked over to the wall and saw the professor's body in an enormous crater formed from mew's last attack. I looked back at mew, impressed. She really was a powerful pokemon.

I went closer to the hole in the wall. I gazed at the monster that I had helped to create. He held nothing but anger and animosity towards me, but I didn't wish for him to be dead. All of the knowledge he had obtained over the years had done nothing to save him? How could a man as ambitious as Vandiros have been stopped here? It stung for me to realize his worst nightmare came true... he died a meaningless death.

Slowly, I kneeled down and began to pray for him. He hadn't found any comfort on this earth, and I hoped he would find guidance in death. I finishing praying and went back to mew.

"We have to tell Nick what happened!", I told her. She replied by turning her head to the side. I understood her point. "I mean, I'll tell Nick what happened. You can come along with me. I'm taking you back home and out of this lab."

I stopped talking and looked at her. "If that's okay with you."

She nodded and I smiled.

"There is no future for either of you outside of this garden!", a voice rasped.

My eyes widened and my heart began to beat wildly. It couldn't be! I turned around to see the professor facing the ground. He moved one arm from within the crater in the wall and stretched it outwards. I watch as he brought that hand and pushed it on the outside of the wall. He pushed on that arm with a great deal of strength and managed to free the rest of his body. His body fell down to the light patch of grass with a dull thud.

I watched transfixed as he hoisted himself up slowly. He swayed to both sides momentarily before coming to a complete stand. He stood there with his face completely concealed by his black hair as he gazed at the ground below his feet. He stood there for a while, never facing me. He reached down slowly and reached his hand out into the grass. He grabbed something and lifted it up. It was his whip made of seviper skin.

I didn't want to do this. I couldn't face this man again. I looked at mew, and then I looked over at the door leading out of the garden. Could I make it in time? I had to try! I took mew in my arms and proceeded to run towards the door leading out of the garden.

"YE-SHU-AA!!!", his voice cried out in absolute fury. I froze immediately, betraying my desire to escape. I looked at the professor. He was shaking horribly, and I knew it was not from pain. He lifted his head up to look at me. I gasped upon seeing his face.

I was staring at the professor's entire face. The hair that had been covering the right side of his face had been singed completely off, allowing me to see both of the professor's eyes. I saw the left eye that I always saw, green and piercing as ever. His right eye took me by surprise, however. Instead of being green in color, this eye glowed at me with the intensity and brightness of the color of honey. I couldn't help but stare at this strange eye, transfixed at this peculiarity. The professor's face contorted into a snarl of fury.

"You bastard!! How dare you let a pokemon fight your fight!!"

I couldn't move...why couldn't I move? The professor was walking towards me, his right eye ablaze in a sea of amber. I couldn't fight him... I needed to run. "Mew! Use psychic!", I cried desperately.

Mew's eyes glowed an intense blue as she unleashed a powerful psychic attack towards the professor. The professor didn't seem to care as the intense energy flew closer towards him. The psychic attack connected with the professor, but the professor just kept walking towards me, unfazed. I was shocked to see that absolutely no damage had been dealt to the professor with that attack. He got within five yards of me before stopping to look at me with both of his eyes. He looked absolutely pissed.

"Are you satisfied yet, Yeshua!?", he shouted. "Does it bring you pleasure that you've unraveled my existence to this point!?"

I could do nothing but stare back at him, unable to respond to the question he had given me. I could do nothing but state the obvious. "Your eye... is glowing."

He ran forward and grabbed me by my neck, completely forgetting the whip that he had in his other hand. That spur of the moment action was all it took for me to realize just how furious the professor was at that moment. He shook me back and forth.

"Years ago, a man named Giovanni set forth a top-secret project: Project Mewtwo. It was deemed to be the most powerful lifeform ever created... the perfect fusion of both human and pokemon genetic material." He paused to scoff. "Our future!"

I was desperately trying to take in as much air as he possibly could. The professor hadn't been squeezing hard enough to completely crush my windpipe, but he wasn't far off from crushing it, either. All he could do was breathe... and listen.

"But things weren't meant to be. That creature was the biggest abomination ever to walk this planet! Nobody in that lab could have foreseen the devastation that was to come... except myself. I was the only scientist in that room that had a mind enough to know that humanity could not achieve greatness with the burden of pokemon DNA in them. Pokemon could not be trusted!"

I couldn't believe it: The professor had been a scientist working for Team Rocket? But the more I did think about it, the more he realized that such a path was only the most sensible for this man. Having lost all respect for pokemon, he became part of an organization that basically controlled pokemon for their own purposes. Such a sadistic form of authority... it resonated perfectly with the professor.

"But those idiots didn't listen to me, and they all died because of their willingness to give up even a piece of their humanity! When mewtwo broke free, the lab was in chaos! We all watched helplessly as the mewtwo unleashed hell inside of that lab, destroying everything around it! Among the lab's casualties were the first batches of the earliest form of the pokerus virus."

My eyes widened. The pokerus virus had originated in that lab?

"Such a high concentration of the unleashed virus marked everyone in that lab for death. The changes were immediate. Scientists had fallen to the ground, writhing in pain at the hazardous amount of pokerus exposure. Scientist after scientist screamed in agony as the virus ripped through them, tearing their humanity to shreds!! They all died, every one of them!"

I looked at him, still struggling with his grip on my throat. I decided to try speaking. "But you didn't..."

He tightened his grip on my neck slightly. "You're damn right I didn't! I wasn't about to let that virus take away my humanity! I survived...", he squeezed even tighter, "Because of my greatness!"

"Y...Your... eye", I squeaked out.

"A permanent reminder to never let my humanity fade away... a deadly curse that lingers to claim my life if I don't firmly establish myself on this Earth as a man! The pokerus judges me every day, Yeshua!"

The professor was suddenly hit by a massive psychic attack. I saw mew right behind him, poised for another attack. The professor loosened his grip slightly, but didn't let go of me. He looked unharmed, confusing both mew and myself.

"Why...?", I inquired. "Why isn't this working!?"

The professor reached inside of my backpack with one of his hands and fumbled around until he grabbed something. Slowly, he pulled his hand out of my backpack and pulled out the payapa berry that mew had given me. My eyes widened at the sight of it. He slowly brought the fruit to his lips and took a large bite out of it. Mew looked angrily at the professor while I looked on in realization.

The garden was filled with payapa berries. The professor's room had always smelled strongly of payapa berries, and the first time I entered, I saw a broken bottle of payapa berry wine on the wall. I looked up at the professor in disbelief. How could things have worked out so conveniently for him? He had been drinking this wine for God knows how long, and it actually saved his life! He probably had enough payapa berry concentration over his lifetime to render him immune to psychic attacks.

But why did mew's first attack work so well? It caused that gigantic crater in the wall over there. I remembered that it was a psychic attack combined with a tackle attack. It was the physical nature of the attack that had done the most damage. I turned to mew. "Mew! Combine a psychic attack with your tackle attack, like the first time!"

"Mew", the Mew replied. She started to glow and charge towards the professor again. The professor turned towards the mew and threw the payapa berry straight up into the air. The mew suddenly skidded and watched as her gift to me was discarded. That split second was all that the professor needed to react. He used his free hand to use the whip he was holding. I screamed as the whip wrapped itself around her, constricting her from any movements. He looked back at me and threw me to the side. I landed on the ground, clutching my throat.

However, I knew I had to act. I moved up and saw the professor standing over the mew with something in his other hand. I recognized it as the strange pokeball that I had seen on the shelf in the professor's room. The professor threw the pokeball at the mew, and I watched as disappeared in a red flash of light into the pokeball. I gasped before running straight for the pokeball. I had to hit the release button on the pokeball before mew was his. I saw the ball shaking around, not technically having caught the mew.

The professor intercepted me and hit me in the stomach, hard. I recoiled from the impact and collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily.

"Don't waste your time trying to free her", the professor spoke. "This pokeball was one of the special pokeballs that mewtwo had conjured up all those years ago. It can catch any pokemon, whether the pokemon is wild, free, or in a pokeball."

I tried to get back up, but a sharp, rippling pain shot through my entire body, making me scream. I looked at where the professor punched me, and I gasped. There was an open wound from where the professor had punched me. Around the wound were pieces of glass and a honey-colored liquid. My eyes widened in absolute terror.

"Professor...no... No!... You didn't!! You didn't!!!!"

I crawled over to his feet and looked up to see his face staring back down at me. I was frantic. "Professor! Please tell me you didn't!!!!"

He looked down at me and lifted one of his hands up so that I could see it. I wanted to cry. In his hand was the glass remains of the vial he had kept on his desk. I screamed as my body started to spasm from the virus that was pulsating through my entire body. The professor walked over and picked up the pokeball containing mew. He walked over to me again.

"All of the relics of my past have been assembled...", he began. He then shook his head. "No... rather,my entire past has been assembled here."

He lifted me up so that I was facing him. I couldn't focus... I was in too much pain to focus on him.
"I can no longer take the precaution of leaving my past to be unearthed by someone else", he stated calmly. "On this momentous day, I will completely erase my past and have my humanity flourish brightly."

I was losing consciousness... for what I was sure to be my last time. I felt like my entire body was going to be ripped apart.

"The seeker of truth... Yeshua... your existence was but a small one... destined to be lost in the waves of my past."

Without any warning, he tossed the pokeball with mew in it into the water, and I watched it sink like a stone. I didn't have the energy to speak or to move. The professor grabbed me, now with both of his hands, and jerked me so that I was facing him. I looked at him, his right eye glowed fiercely.

"Even truth cannot unravel the existence that I have fortified with every ounce of my being," The professor spoke to me, his voice seemed farther and farther away.

"You want to know the truth, Yeshua? The ultimate truth of your existence?", he asked me.

I looked at him with the last ounces of my strength. He leaned in closer to my face and spoke directly into my ear.

"You're going to die."

The world disappeared from my vision as the professor cast my body into the water, leaving me to sink into the deepest crevices of the past.Chapter End Notes:Just one final chapter before this story is complete. Rate and review. I will be submitting the final chapter early Sunday afternoon. I hope it will still be eligible by then.

Final chapter: The Second Comin