smash_logs | An insidious plot! Be careful what you wish for, girl!

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An insidious plot! Be careful what you wish for, girl!

Who: Lash, Uxie
What: Lash successfully locked away the man she believed to be responsible for the April Fool's Day pranks. Uxie begs to differ.
Where: Uxie's office
When: May 24
Warnings: Uhhh. Sinister pixie?

Uxie really did hate to meddle.

But sometimes, a little intervention could be worth it. He'd been awfully patient these last two months, but now... ah, things were certainly about to get interesting. All that was left was for the wunderkind to come to him.

Uxie's office had changed since Lash had last paid a visit. Uxie was still curled up on a nice, soft cushion on top of his desk, but the barebones interior had been made far more comfortable with the addition of several potted plants. A small zen fountain provided the soothing background noise of trickling water. The dish of Sour Patch Kids remained, though the dish was looking emptier than before -- clearly, Uxie had been snacking.

One other familiar sight remained. A single stone, left over from Uxie's fortune telling. Labradorite. He'd drawn it out specifically for the occasion. This rested conspicuously in front of him.

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All the way walking to his office, Lash has been trying to figure out what the heck Uxie had been talking about. They'd only barely started classes, and she seemed to understand most of what he taught so far, so she didn't feel like she was falling behind. Oh! Maybe he wanted to thank her from saving him from that terrible tape he had gotten stuck on the camping trip. Or perhaps he was interested in demolitions. Simple science talk? No. No! None of those made sense. She was almost pulling her hair at this point.

She felt like something was wrong. Very wrong. It burned in her chest and she was almost afraid to open the door at first. The sound of the water managed to somehow calm her a little...just before she noticed the stone on his desk. Lash didn't even notice the new greenery that was around them, her eyes zooming on the labradorite.

Things are going to change in ways you have not anticipated. In the process, the one thing you desired so deeply will be granted to you. What we believe we want, however... is not always what's best for us.

Had it been a warning?

Her eyes looked back up at him. Lash's hands were still holding the door's frame.

"Hey um...I'm here."

Edited 2010-05-26 05:48 (UTC)

"So you are. Come in, have a seat."

Uxie waited for Lash to make herself comfortable before he continued. He sat up, little hands folded solemnly.

"I shan't waste your time with small talk. I understand you are a busy girl. However... I have given you every warning that I am able to give. Before I proceed, please... let me offer you one more mercy. What I am about to reveal to you may not be what you wish to hear. Therefore... I grant you a choice, wunderkind. You may continue to live happily in ignorance... or you may learn the truth. The decision rests with you."

An altogether cryptic warning, but judging by the finality in Uxie's voice, he had no intention of explaining himself further.

Those words. It was like if something was threatening to be unlocked at any second. Fear. She could feel it. she was afraid of something. She didn't know why.

She clutched her head. It hurt. Not even a merciful headache, but a full on migraine. Something whispering to her, laughing. She was confused. Like a radio station she couldn't shut off.

"I don't...understand." She finally managed to say between clenched teeth. There was sweat on her forehead. If she said yes, would that pain go away?

..Considering how much it hurt, that seemed awfully inviting right now.

"Oh, you will soon enough," Uxie replied airily, as if entirely oblivious to Lash's obvious discomfort.

Goodness... what an unexpected side effect that was. Things seemed to be coming unravelled already. How disappointing; it was rare for him to be so heavy-handed. It truly was tricky to do such precise work.

"Your choice, wunderkind." He would proceed no further until she had made up her mind.

"I...I.."

Like an entire platoon of Neotanks were running into her head, the pain was only increasing. She saw shifting figures, heard laughing, words being spoke...something being cut, but she couldn't quite make out what everything was. Something missing. She was just staring at a snow-filled television.

She held her head in between her hands, feeling like she just wanted to vomit. It didn't want to come out. Lash was a powerful Black Hold Commander, despite her age. She knew how to resist pain. But it seemed like her own brain was fighting itself right now, stuck between fear, and wanting something, anything to be done so that she wouldn't have to endure another second of this.

"I..The pain! Just get rid of it!" Did he really knew how to do that? Did it matter?

For a moment, Uxie simply watcher her impassively, tails twitching.

The word "disappointing" once again game to mind. It was obvious that taking away too little made the barriers far too thin, too weak -- the smallest reminder of what had been taken away left them crumbling, sent her mind racing to reestablish the shattered pathways.

Better to simply undo the whole mess before it came crashing down. She had given him the word, after all. It was time for Uxie to uphold his end of the bargain.

"You," Uxie sighed pityingly, "are a terribly foolish girl." What a letdown. How miserably short of his expectations. "Please remember that you have brought this onto yourself." Finally, he rose, dangling limply in the air like a marionnette on a string. He glided over to Lash, reaching out both arms to comfort her. Gently, so gently, his hands cupped her face, coaxing her head back so she was looking at him.

"It hurts me to see a soul in such torment. Aiya... what can I do? Lift your head, poor creature. Open your eyes. I'll take your pain away."

It was time to give back what he'd taken. For Lash to remember. Those memories were now hers to do with as she saw fit. Slowly, the being of knowledge opened his eyes.

She couldn't pull herself away. Like her entire body had been waiting for this for two months now, even if she didn't want to look up, her own eyes slowly opened of their own accord. Her pupils dilated to tiny dots. The headache grew even more intensive and she was almost afraid a vein would burst and she'd die from brain hemorrhage. The eyes were the windows of the soul, weren't they? It was the last defense against herself that was trying to chase whatever was happening. But it was too late.

In a violent movement, they grew large again, so much at they covered all the purple of her irises. The windows had been flung open.

"I..."

Those yellow eyes of his. Very few in the world would know their color or have ever seen them...and remember about it. She had seen them once before. Now she knew that. She saw her own reflection staring back. The entire scene around them melted. Trees burst forth from the ground, groaning and cracking. The white scene turned to night and she looked up, seeing the full moon hanging in the sky. Paralyzed and unable to move from her point, she stood, watching, things that had already happen play out before her. Feeding off her own memories.

She remembered the date first.

March 30st.

Edited 2010-05-31 01:09 (UTC)

The night was oddly illuminated, the full moon looming about in the sky. She felt more at ease, hanging in the tree's branches, waiting for someone to arrive. What a perfect time for a small meeting.

Lash had plans, you see. Terrible, terrible plans for tomorrow's night, March 31st. Normally she never would have gone this far, but the last few weeks had twisted her way of thinking, back to the old days, and she saw something here that could be used to make her gateway the most foolproof that Smash Academy had ever seen. If she managed to pull this off...then it would be amazing. Better than amazing. Terrible. Grandiose.

All that was left, then, was taking one little risk. What if the contact didn't want to help her at all? But if she needed to plunge in hell, she'd do it that very night.

It didn't take too long for the other figure to arrive and she greeted him with a small wave.

"Hey."

Cautious is as cautious does; Uxie had arrived early, but didn't make his presence known until Lash had already safely arrived. He'd spent his time doing a quick perimeter check for any possible eavesdroppers; this did, after all, sound like an extremely sensitive matter. It wouldn't do to have any unwelcome guests listening in, would it?

Once he was confident the area was safe, Uxie drifted out from the cover of the trees, responding to her wave with a lazy lift of his own tiny hand.

"Good evening, Lash," he murmured, settling on a branch next to her. "It's quite unusual for someone to call me out at such an unusual time and place, I must say."

An effort they could both appreciate.

"So I assumed," she spoke good-naturedly, answering his query. There was no reason why they couldn't make small talk at first, and Lash, to be honest, was incredibly curious about him. She was called the wunderkind, and here was a creature that could be knowledge itself. "So you're the Pokémon of Knowledge, correct?" She paused and looked up at the moon. It was rather beautiful. "I've been doing a bit of research about you. Is it really true that you gave us the ability to solve complex mathematical problems?"

Math problems...? Ah, how cute. That was rather simplifying it, but if nothing else, it was quite admirable that this girl had done her research. Quite unusual for somebody outside of the Sinnoh region -- or any region with native Pokemon species, for that matter -- to have even heard of Uxie, let alone his role in Sinnoh lore.

"You're welcome to believe anything you wish to," Uxie replied with a vague smile. "I'll simply say that the human mind has never ceased to fascinate me and leave it at that."

Ahh, she had had similar comments from Lugia and Ho-oh before, so Lash wasn't too surprised. The real important part, was, anyway, to see if other parts of her research rang true. Curiosity got the better of her, however, and she couldn't help but ask something first, knowing it would set up the mood for what was to come next.

"Alright then. What do you think of my mind?"

"It is for good reason that you are called wunderkind. You are a girl of startling intelligence. However, even the sharpest of minds is easily clouded if you permit it to be."

Uxie paused to stretch out his limbs sleepily. Goodness, it really was awfully late. "I wonder... is it really alright for a girl to be told she's unique so much? You think yourself exceptional to the point that you feel you cannot live as normal people do. Heartache, confusion, rebellion, mischief... please remember that these sorts of things are quite normal for every teenage girl."

It was like receiving both compliments and insults at the same time, and for some odd reason, Lash couldn't help but think back to Sonja. Their beautiful chess games with people's lives...terrible thoughts. Terrible dark thoughts. She couldn't see herself being normal, unfortunately.

"I'm eighteen," she told him, not sure where she was going with it. Maybe to prove she wasn't a teenager anymore. It was rare for Lash to be this confused. "Besides, being raised like I was, created for war...it's hard to think otherwise. Tell me, if Arceus did create you to be the root of all knowledge, do you see yourself thrust in a similar position too without a choice of what you wanted to be, or did you only become it's herald only after you accepted it as such?"

The question if fate was predetermined or if you made it your own. She remembered having long discussion with Xatu about it, and maybe she was just hoping that the being of knowledge might have a suitable answer.

"I suppose it must be a little of both. I did not choose my function; it was something I was born with, just the same as my siblings. And perhaps it was the Original One's will that I should love what I do: I am perfectly content to devote my small existence to learning. The world is such an infinitely fascinating place; I don't imagine I should ever tire of it."

That vague, subtle smile edged its way back onto Uxie's face. "However... Arceus is just another Pokemon. I am not bound to the Original One's will any more than she is bound to mine. I make no secret of my intentions: the path I choose is the pursuit of truth, wherever that should lead me. If I should end up in a shadowy place, then so be it; one cannot achieve great things without dirtying one's hands in the process. History has made it quite clear that the clean and pleasant truth that is easily handed to you... is not necessarily a truth at all."

Uxie paused for a moment, humming quietly, then turned his face towards Lash. "But I don't suppose that helps you out very much, does it?"

"Sorta," she admitted, nodding slowly. Tired of dangling her arms, she leaned on the nearby tree trunk, her arms behind her neck. "I can get you on the shady part. I once told a good friend that science advances more when the 'bad guys' do it because they are a lot more fearless and ready to take risks. It's amazing what you can do when you lack certain emotions."

Lash's smile was much less subtle than Uxie's however, and she grinned before continuing. "I'm pretty sure you know what I'm going to ask you. You wouldn't be the being of knowledge otherwise. I don't know your powers, but I'm going to guess you have a lot of the known and classified Pokemon psychic ones. Heck, at this point after meeting Arceus at school, I'm almost wondering if you didn't teach it to them. Anyway, I'm rambling again, teeheehee..." She coughed, and looked in his direction.

"Someone once told me that our decisions are not truly our own; fate carves our paths out in stone before we are even conceived. I...want to find out if that's really true. I suppose you could call it an experiment in the human psyche, with myself as the subject. I want to give myself tools, and see when faced in the end with the knowledge of what happened if I should just ignore it, or full embrace it. I want to see how well I can judge myself and how I'll act. Will I be smart enough to see what will happen? Am I going to fail horribly and have everyone on my back?" There was a pause. "Of course, I'm taking a risk talking to you in the first place, but I figure either are going to turn me in, or you'll help me out and I'll owe you a favor."

The implications were pretty heavy. The risks were great. But hell, if this was going to be the most interesting thing she would do in her entire life. The greatest experiment of all.

"Yes... yes, I am quite aware of what you intend to ask of me. Allow me to make one thing clear first, Lash... my purpose is to observe. I claim no moral ground; you don't need to worry about me turning you in at all." Uxie rose to his feet, tiny frame easily balanced on the broad branch, and took a few childlike, toddling steps towards Lash.

"At the same time, though... please understand. I don't like to meddle. I feel for you, dear girl, I truly do, but please consider what you are asking before you commit to it. If you would cause hurt and distress to your comrades for the sake of self-enlightenment, I shan't stop you." Truly... Uxie may well have done the same thing, if he were in her shoes. "However, by involving me in this, you ask me to act contrary to my nature. You ask me to muddy my hands with tiresome affairs, to aid in the obstruction of justice, to stand by while others are wronged."

Uxie stopped his waddling advance, drifting up into the air so that he was eye-level with Lash. "I can give you what you need, wunderkind. However... my intervention," he purred, "will not come cheap."

He was a lot more interesting than Lash would have first thought of him. So he knew. She had a feeling he knew. Her grin grew wider, as her heartbeat increased she might have flushed slightly. Bargaining with the being of ultimate knowledge! What a rush. Suddenly, her years under the tutelage of Seth as a child seemed like mere child's play compared to this. Literally and figuratively.

Despite herself, she was already liking Uxie. A lot.

"Of course. I wouldn't ask you to help me if I was not prepared to face the consequences...what is your price?"

"You are a tremendously useful girl, as I'm sure you're aware. You not only have skill, but you have connections. The time may come when I have need of those, and when that time comes... I ask that you lend your assistance."

If everything panned out as Uxie anticipated it would, then Lash would prove to be quite a valuable ally. Even if things didn't go quite as serendipitously... it was terribly difficult to establish a reliable network of contacts when one was still new to a place. Perhaps having this girl in his debt could prove a useful shortcut. "Ah... I do hate to impose on you, but perhaps there is one more condition I could request? It's nothing too troublesome, I assure you. I simply like to keep abreast of news, and it would be quite useful if I had a friend to help be my eyes and ears. I hope you find my terms reasonable...?"

The terms were vague, and easy to manipulate as Uxie saw fit. Lash knew that. In a way, it simply made her even more admiring of him.

"I never thought of myself as knowing that much about the school's information," okay that might have been a tiny bit of a lie. "But if you think I can do that, then I don't mind." She just hoped that didn't include having him possess her in that deal. Then again, that could be pretty interesting...

"Call it idly curiosity, but what would a being of knowledge need from a girl like me? Connections aside, I don't mind admitting you've got a lot more years of experience than I do."

The simple answer? The truth: Uxie was not actually omniscient. He knew more than most, certainly, and he may have been a swifter learner than the average Pokemon, but he was still just one creature. His abilities as being of knowledge were useful, yet there were things that could elude even his watchful eyes. And relying on those powers... it was useful, but it was terribly tiring. Delegating to others may have opened up an opportunity for misinformation and betrayal, but it was far less taxing to watch his dear "friends" than it was to try and observe everyone and everything.

But, of course, information is power; to divulge a fact like that so easily would be foolishness itself. If people believe that it is impossible to keep secrets from a being, after all, they crack so much more easily.

"You're right, dear girl. However... I must consider my image, don't you think? If I appear to be listening, then those who don't wish to be overheard will grow wary. If I shut my eyes and turn away, then they grow careless and fancy themselves safe. I'm not so vain as to think a girl like you beneath me, Lash -- I may be the being of knowledge, but that doesn't mean I'm above asking for help from others."

Uxie adopted a sweet smile and extended a flipperlike hand. "There's no need to question it so much, Lash. You have quite a lot to gain from this, don't you think? All I ask for is your friendship."

Lash wasn't a person who cracked easily. She knew Uxie was buttering her up and there was something hidden under there. After all, she'd been working with Black Hole all of her life, trickery was part of who she was. But she still did stupid things. Uxie was her only choice and just the fact he had accepted was already tilting the balance in his favor.

She extended two fingers, just large enough for her to shake his hand. Like shaking hands with the devil, if the devil was tiny and fairy-like.

"We'll see," she told him earnestly. She'd never made a friend this dangerous, and it came with a really large thrill involved. "Teehee, I'm sure the experience will be entertaining for the both of us anyway." Actually... "Hey. How long do you think I'll withstand without hair?"

Far too easy.

Never trust a creature that won't look you in the eye. One would think that would be common sense. It was lucky for Uxie that this wasn't the case -- that humans thought themselves cleverer than Pokemon, that the young ones naively believed they could make a deal with the devil and come out untouched, that people got an inexplicable rush from making spectacularly foolhardy decisions.

Uxie simply let out a soft laugh. Now that they were friends, he was apparently comfortable enough to drop himself into Lash's lap, apparently oblivious to the audacity of the move. "Goodness... I don't imagine you'll last long. Just enough for the shock to set in, I imagine."

Goodness? He almost sounded like Blacky, in an odd way. There was a lingering thought in the back of her mind that she had some something very foolish, but another voice, just as loud, told her that even if she was doing something foolish, she'd learn a lot of things from it. And if there was something she was addicted to as much as Uxie, it was knowledge. Lash just didn't have the luxury if time and near immortality to study it like he did. He was obviously smarter than her, and if she could just get a bit of what he knew, the more enlightened she could stand to be. She was used to serving others, after all.

The girl had to resist patting him on the head like a cat when he did jump on her lap; it would have been somewhat disrespectful. It wasn't like manners were her forte either, so she wasn't insulted at his move, merely surprised before putting her hands behind her back. It fact, she might have found the whole thing somewhat adorable. "I'll last a minute. Maximum." She paused and looked up at the stars, thinking.

"Does it...hurt? When you remove memories?"

A minute... a reasonable guess; she would know better than anyone else just how much her hair mattered. Still... she was lucky she wasn't wagering anything on that guess. Bets with Uxie tended to be... a little less than fair.

"Hurt? Heavens, no," Uxie giggled. What a precious creature this girl was. He had a feeling he was going to like her. "Does it hurt when you forget what you had for supper last week? I don't imagine you'll feel a single thing." Uxie turned his face toward the stars, pausing thoughtfully before adding, "Of course... I've never experienced it for myself. Perhaps it is terribly painful. Even if it is, though... it's not as though you'll remember how much it hurt, will you?" He chuckled, as if amused by the idea.

A good thing indeed. Lash would have easily lost that bet.

"Hmmmmm...." she put a finger on her lips, thinking before speaking again. "...True. But I would remember it later, no? Regardless, you never advance research if you don't take a few risks." And there were a few things that pain was worth for. Such as this. "This is going to be incredibly interesting. If all my calculations are correct, we'll even manage to get Capcom High to owe us a debt of gratitude." Using her powers of evil for the somewhat greater good? Call it her good act of the week, or something. Especially compared to everything else she was going to do along with that...

"I suppose you would remember it. ...If I allowed you to," Uxie purred. It was probably detrimental to make their little arrangement seem any more dubious than it already was, but he had a feeling that Lash wasn't the sort to be easily deterred by danger -- anyone who had been acting in the military since childhood wasn't likely to be the sort to back out of things.

Doing a favour for Capcom High, was it...? It sounded to Uxie like Lash was simply trying to justify her actions. This wasn't being done out of altruism, or even to try and get a rival school in their debt. She was simply interested in doing this for herself, that much was clear to Uxie. As sympathetic as he liked to appear, he had very little interest in encouraging her to kid herself. He simply faked a yawn, curling up on Lash's lap like a cat. "There's no use speculating. It's getting awfully late," he stated, utterly dismissing the topic of Capcom High.

"Hey I'm not going to back down just because it might hurt a little. I was just..." Fearful? "Curious."

Justifications or not, to Lash it really felt like she was being helpful. Her mind was clouded with self-justifications - it was how she coped with her personality lately. The mind of a child at times, and like a child, she was once again resisting the urge to just pet him. Lash could never consider Pokemon as pets, not with the relationships she had had with Ho-Oh, Lugia and Xatu. And the one she had now with Scyther and Zapdos. And now with Uxie. Uxie was a whole different ballgame, however.

She found him incredibly interesting, the more they talked.

"I've worked all nights the last few days, that I forgot how late it really is," she replied, getting the clue and Capcom High was not mentioned again. "I should stop holding up your time."

For a moment, Uxie was quiet. The occasional flicker of one of his tails was the only indication that he hadn't nodded off entirely.

"Aiya..." Uxie finally sighed, shifting his head slightly. "I've been asleep for so long. It really is awfully difficult to stay awake. You may continue to hold me up longer, if you wish... provided you don't mind carrying me back to the school." It may be problematic if they were spotted returning together, but Uxie wasn't just feigning sleepiness. Besides, the closer he was to her, the easier it was to peer into that fascinating head of hers.

If he hadn't known better, he would have called Lash a foolish girl. Her selfish experiment was going to cause a terrible lot of hurt and unnecessary trouble. It wasn't just others being placed at risk, either; Lash was treading on thin ice by coming to Uxie. His defense mechanism was not something people were usually exposed to willingly. For a being who prized knowledge above all else, stripping a person of the truth -- aiding them in blinding themselves -- was a task that didn't sit right with him. If it weren't for his curiosity and the advantages that he stood to gain, he would have refused outright. The deal was simply too sweet to ignore, however: he wanted a high price for such a troublesome task, and she agreed all too willingly.

He knew that Lash had a head for war tactics -- she was a CO, after all. And politics and war went hand in hand. There was simply no way that she could be oblivious to how vulnerable she was making herself. There was no guarantee that Uxie would ever restore her memories. Or that the ones that he gave to her were the untouched truth. Even ignoring the conditions that he laid out for their bargain, he was in a position to be downright exploitative, if he so wished. This was a situation that required unconditional trust from Lash, whether she was willing to admit it or not.

So Uxie just smiled his warmest smile and rubbed one sleepy eye. "We're friends now, you know. I don't mind if you pet me."

Lash made stupid decisions sometimes. Dropping her remote during a war that allowed Orange Star to use the Black Bombs, misjudging her enemy's weaknesses by her own vanity, and now making a deal that could possibility backfire in the most spectacular of ways.

You'd think she'd have learned from those experiences but...sometimes common sense really was above her. The excitement from the experience was worth the risk in her eyes, and she didn't completely realize what she was pulling herself in. It didn't help that Lash trusted Pokemon. A lot. Especially Legendaries. Ho-Oh and Lugia had been nothing but kind to her. Surely the being of knowledge would understand. He was one of the great Pokemon. He didn't seem to be brash like Zapdos. Perhaps if she had read more about him and his trickster figure she would have hesitated but the school library had not provided such information. In an odd way, Uxie also reminded her of Xatu and that just made the situation even worse. Combined with her self-justification and self-worth she was pretty much stepping into a pit of vipers without realizing it. Or maybe she was, and just didn't want to admit it.

So he read her thoughts, or assumed he had. She wasn't surprised and didn't question it. Trying to push them away, she spoke again. "If you..don't mind." She moved her hand over his back and scratched it gently before looking at the school. "Well it's not like you weigh a lot," she added. "I don't think carrying you to school will be a problem."

Perhaps, if Lash had known what was to come, she wouldn't have been this brash.

Perhaps, if she had known what would happen in the next few weeks she wouldn't have done this at all..

But it was too late now. The wheel of destiny was set, and she was about to embark on a new journey...

Uxie closed his eyes.

There. For better or for worse... that ought to sort things out. Uxie gave Lash's cheek one last, reassuring pat, then broke away, settling back down on his desk.

He stayed silent for a long time; it was very disorienting, he imagined, for a person to suddenly gain memories like that. Poor little Lash probably just needed some time to sort it all out. Figure out which of her thoughts were real and which weren't. Not only that, but the nature of this discovery... aiya, there were some heavy ramifications. All her anger at the person who had stolen away her hair, the underhanded struggle to bring an innocent -- or not-so-innocent, perhaps -- man to justice for the pranks she herself had committed... goodness. What an earth-shattering self-revelation that must be. He wondered... was she considering just what this meant? What it all said about the kind of person she was? Was she shocked? Or did this perhaps just confirm something she already knew? Humans... humans were such endlessly unpredictable creatures.

Nevertheless, this was what she had asked for, and Uxie had held his end of the bargain. After a lengthy pause, he neatly folded his hands and spoke up in a soft voice.

"...Did you find what you were looking for?"

All the tricks. All the pain. All of the searching. Thinking it was someone else in the school at first. Then going to Wily's base. Putting him in jail.

More memories came flooding back. How that night she set up clues that she would inevitably find. How she tracked Wily's notes so that she knew he had been planning to attack the school that night anyway, using the date to produce chaos with no one second guessing that a principal from another school could have done it.

He wasn't pure. Wily was evil, that was for certain. But what she'd done...it was worse than that.

It was monstrous.

She could have done the right thing and caught Wily, saving the school. Instead, she piggy-backed on the opportunity to do things on her own. As an experiment. To collect samples of everyone's hairs so she could clone them...eventually. To make a deal with a legendary Pokemon just so she could see it to the end.

How incredibly selfish.

Things had picked up, since then. She'd danced with Maxwell and they had been talking more. Her friends had seen her in terrible moods and stuck by her. It was amazing how much just a few things to change everything. The Lash of April 1st was desperate, selfish. Was she still that? Knowing all she did?

Childish actions, powered by creatures and spells and too much thinking that any normal human would never have access too. It was like playing with knives and wondering if you'd ever get hurt.

The wound was deep.

"I...." She lowered her head, looked at her hands as if there was blood there, and sighed. "No. The only thing I really learned out of this is that I'm selfish and stupid."

Some might argue it was a lesson worth learning, but then those people hadn't been near Uxie.

"Yes, I suppose you are."

There would be no sympathy from Uxie, of course. Emotion was not his domain, after all, and to deceive others for personal gain was a rather selfish, callous thing to do. At the very least, there was no disapproval in his voice, either; he was the last creature on the planet to have any interest in moral judgments. Maybe this girl really was an evil, manipulative backstabber at her core... but Uxie could admire that. She was stupid, but the kind of stupid that didn't stay stupid.

Or if it did, then it at least made itself useful.

Uxie nodded to the labradorite, still laying unclaimed on the desk. "What we believe we want... is not always what's best for us," he recited. "You have your truth, wunderkind. Against my better judgment, I have performed all that you have asked of me. Your eyes have been opened: do not expect me to close them again. These memories are yours to bear. Please do try to learn from them; not all beings are quite so softhearted as I am."

Slowly, he rose once again, wrapping his arms around the cool stone and holding it out to Lash. "A gift," he announced, "to caution against hubris. A reminder of our promise. Ah... you haven't forgotten, have you?" He tilted his head slightly, his face the very picture of childlike curiosity. Even so, there may have been an ever-so-subtly ominous ring to his words. "My part in this foolish endeavour did not come cheaply. Perhaps the outcome was not the one you hoped for, but I certainly hope I can count on you to stand by your word."

It took everything in her power not just to punch him and watch the tiny thing splatter on a wall. Despite his size, it was Lash who felt minuscule that moment. With a swift moment, she grasped the labrodorite, and pocketed it, in silence.

"Eh. I'm many things, but I'll stand by my word." Who knew, maybe he'd ask her something interesting one day. "As long as it doesn't involve me killing anyone. I think I've done a lot of that in my life already and I'm...tired of it."

Uxie did't care one jot about Lash's regrets, unfortunately. He simply yawned dismissively.

"If that's the case, then our meeting is over. Kindly see yourself out."

Silently she did, giving Uxie one last look as she bit her lip. The last thing she wanted him to see was troubled she was. There wasn't a wave, as she closed the room off.

Instead he might have heard the smashing fist into the nearby wall. That was sufficient enough to make her calm down.

...one day....one day I'll come clean.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

An insidious plot! Be careful what you wish for, girl!

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awww yeah short tags %(

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