Emma was wearing her Essentia suit, which greatly enhanced her physical capabilities. She held onto Morai's wrist with a tight grip. Morai reached into her coat with her free hand and grabbed another red vial. She held it up to the light once again to make sure it wasn't the serum, and removed the top with her teeth. She went to drink it, but Emma took hold of her other hand.
"What is that?" she asked.
"I had to curb my thirst long enough to fight you properly," Morai said. Her eyes turned red and she tried to take control of Emma to get her to let go, but nothing happened.
"I can't believe it really is true," Emma said, ignoring Morai's attempt to hypnotize her.
"I know you've looked me in the eye through that helmet of yours," Morai said.
"Not directly," Emma answered. "Colress altered the screen so that I'm looking at you through cameras that make sure my eyes don't meet yours."
"Well, we'll have to do something about that then, won't we?" Morai said with a smile. She head-butted the screen of Emma's helmet several times, causing her to let go of one her hands. Morai yanked the wrist Emma was still holding toward herself, causing Emma to fall into a knee strike that made her let go lurch forward in pain. The Mask Maker took the opportunity to kick her helmet with her metal rimmed boots, which was the final blow it took to break the screen.
"You've sorely disappointed me," Morai said. "You can do better than that."
"I don't want to injure you," Emma said. Her face had been cut by some of the broken glass, causing blood to dribble down her cheek. Morai licked her teeth at the sight, drinking the contents of the vial that were still in her hand and downing another one. It took a few seconds for her to laugh at what Emma had said.
"Why, because we used to be friends? Such caring gives you a weakness I don't have," she said. "And if you were without your suit, I could crush you. Doesn't that make your skin crawl? Why do you let it give you a false sense of power, when without it you have nothing?"
"Isn't that the case with your serum?" Emma asked. She rose to her feet, clearing all of the broken glass out of her helmet and putting it back on. Morai was taller than her by about 6 inches and had more muscle mass, making her claim true. The only thing stopping her was Emma's suit and her Pokémon.
"No. I'm set free by the willingness to commit acts that everyone else pretends are heinous, and that wouldn't change no matter what I was wearing. Everyone has the same desire deep inside of them, but they are forced to wear masks of false moral integrity. That is what keeps society running, and people unafraid to break those chains provide the necessary balance to such order."
"Does it really set you free? It looks to me like it's weakening your body, even if it changes your wills," Emma argued. She set her gaze at the spot right above the space between Morai's eyes. "And not everyone is as morally corrupted as you."
"Everyone has evil inside them that's dying to show itself. Everyone has the potential to be either much better or worse than they are. Aren't I proof of that?" Morai said.
"You've been taking a substance that's changing your brain. Your morals have been corrupted and your values have been skewed, but I don't believe you're a monster. I think the person I know is still in their somewhere, in your heart."
"Well let's find out, shall we? All of this talking is getting boring."
Emma shook her head.
"I heard about what Olympia said," she said. "I think this is the day. Why not just...rest, finally? Take a better, healthier path and let people show you that there's a better life than this."
Morai grabbed another red vial and downed it. The cloudy skies had finally begun to produce a soft rain, coating everything with a soft, cold mist. "I feel perfectly fine. In fact, I've never felt more alive and aware. That feeling that comes when I'm at someone's throat, about to—"
"Okay, you can stop it there," Emma said. She slowly stepped toward Morai and reached for her hand. Morai narrowed her eyes, but she didn't move, and she let Emma take her hand.
"Don't you remember what it was like to solve mysteries with Looker? After he left the bureau to me I had a lot on my plate, but you'd stop by and help me investigate and battle, and we'd go to cafés and pretend to be International Police agents on a secret mission. One time we spent at least half an hour cracking up over a lady's Furfrou and it's ridiculous haircut," Emma said. She lowered her gaze to meet Morai's, knowingly taking a big risk.
"If you stop now, and let us help you, you might remember what it was like to really be alive. To go on adventures with friends and bring light into the lives of the people around you, instead of lurking around in the cold darkness all alone. Even if you truly don't remember or care, there are always new memories to be made. Just accept the help of old friends and make them."
Morai stood there, a look of conviction and something like desperation written across her face. But then, the corner of her mouth turned up in a smile, and she pulled Emma in again and punched her, then choke slammed her against the brick wall.
"I'm sick of everyone telling me about a past that doesn't matter!" she growled. "That person is dead and gone, and only I remain in her place. If you want a rightful ending to her story, then have her funeral, say your proper goodbyes and let me live my own way."
Emma grabbed Morai's face. She had lost all reservations. "She's not dead, you idiot! She's you! People change, and that's okay! You just happened to change a lot, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends. Don't you want companionship? People to love?"
"No!" Morai yelled back. "I'm incapable of love," she said in a softer voice. Tears had formed in Emma's eyes.
"That doesn't mean that people can't love you! That doesn't mean that you can never experience human connection again! That doesn't mean that—"
Morai knocked her helmet off and clawed her across the jaw.
"This is all there is," she said through gritted teeth, backing away and gesturing to herself. "There's nothing to love. There is no warmth or light, and I don't even remember what that feels like. Darkness is all that remains, and that's all that will ever be until I die."
Morai took control of Emma. She grabbed another red vial, but this time she looked at it to make sure it was the serum. She put it in a syringe from her coat and injected it into her neck, letting it take effect. Emma awoke with her kneeling on the floor as the last several searing seconds of pain fade away.
"It doesn't have to be like that," Emma said softly. Her Espurr had come to rest on her shoulder. Morai stood up and turned to her with a devilish look in her eye.
"Maybe," she said in soft, low voice, a concerning smile on her face,"if everyone I knew faded away along with my past, I would finally have peace from your endless insistence upon my salvation. I could finally forget it all, and live life as it was truly meant for me."
Morai stalked toward Emma with a terrible look on her face. The trainer took a stance to defend herself, but she knew that if she was hypnotized, there would be no fight unless Morai wanted one for the fun of it. Morai grabbed her neck and pressed her against the wall. She grabbed a Pokéball and was about to throw it out, but was interrupted by a flash of white and a crackle of electricity that left Morai on the ground. The Subway Bosses had appeared.
"Weren't you given the authority of the law for this occasion?" Ingo asked.
"As in, don't you have handcuffs?" Emmet added.
"O-oh, right!" Emma coughed. She pulled out a pair of handcuffs, but when she went to step forward, she stumbled to the ground.
"Here, I'll do it. Your injuries are pretty severe, it looks like," Ingo said. "We don't have much time before—"
Morai jumped up, and the movement made her stumble, but not from any outward injury. She quickly grabbed a Pokéball, and soon Malamar appeared by her side.
"You were about to...kill her," Ingo said with a surprised look on his face. His hat and coat were sleek with rain. "Morai, I knew you had fallen far, but—"
"Shut up!" Morai yelled. "All of you! Can't you get it in your silly heads that she's gone? How many times do I have to explain it?"
Ingo stepped forward and grabbed Morai by the arms with such intensity that she had to admit it hurt even her. Emmet's Eelektross stepped into battle her Malamar when it tried to help her.
"Can't you see, Morai? You're dying, and you're becoming worse and worse by the minute! You can't understand because of that serum, but if you continue down this path, you'll end up in a place far worse than the people you've maimed. Can't you see, with those psychic eyes of yours, that there are better paths that lead to much better places than this?"
Morai stared at him with wild eyes. Her face was streaked with blood, and her hair was disheveled from the rain and the fighting she had done. Her nails dug into the sleeves of his coat as she gripped his arms, but the fabric was too thick to tear.
"She's...almost inhuman," Emmet whispered, adjusting his hat.
Ingo, like Emma, had looked Morai in the eye to give his words more sincerity, but she hadn't yet taken advantage of his risky choice. She had almost forgotten what it was like to look at someone who's eyes weren't wide with sheer terror or glazed over in a stupor. Her gaze softened.
"...If I die, I would rather it be like this," she said calmly. "This is all I can see, you see, but I like it all the same. Whoever I was before evidently had people like you to share in the pleasures of life with, but she was being ripped in half by two sides fighting over her soul, and she writhed alone in secret agony. I was born when she was set free of the chains of such duality, ironically through an act of good that saved your Battle Subway. If I must go, then let me walk strongly down that fading dark path alone, with my face free to feel the rain upon my skin, and no mask to hide who I truly am."
Ingo said nothing. He simply stared into her eyes, which had faded from red to their usual stormy color. His grip relaxed a little, and as the brim of his hat shielded his face from the rain, an unmistakable tear ran down his otherwise stoic face.
"But until then," she added, "Until death comes to take me down below, I'll fight as hard as I can, as is my nature."
Ingo let go, and Morai pulled the photo album he had given her out of her coat. She flipped to the picture of her old self, Ingo, and Emmet, and handed it to him. The stationmaster looked it at for a moment, then violently shook his head.
"No," he said. "I choose to honor the wishes of my friend. You are not her."
Ingo called out his Haxorus, and his brother prepared for battle by his side while Emma leaned against the wall and called her Crobat out. Morai stood alone against the three of them, but she didn't seem bothered. She smiled, lowered her mask to her face, and ordered Malamar to join her.
"Morai!" another voice called. It was Looker, standing with Anabel and Colress amidst an army of International Police agents that blocked both exits of the alleyway. A helicopter had appeared above, and Morai cursed herself for not noticing any of it.
"You were right!" he called. "Today is the day. Isn't it foolish to fight fate?"
"No!" Morai called back, "because it's written in fate that I fight!"
"Very well then!" he called. His eyes shifted to Emma, who was holding her abdomen and barely standing against the wall.
Morai called the rest of her Pokémon out, which included a Hydregion, Bisharp, and Lucario. She knew it wasn't the best team competitively, but she had gotten used to using her own power to defeat most opponents. She called out one more Pokémon—Mewtwo, which she immediately Mega Evolved into the Psychic and Fighting-type Mega Mewtwo X. It looked out at the battlefield, and turned to its apparent new trainer.
What are you fighting for, exactly, if it is all futile? it asked telepathically.
"...I don't know," Morai said. "But I know I have to fight. It's in my nature."
The alleyways erupted into loud and violent chaos. Every Pokémon of Morai's except for Mewtwo stayed with her to fight Ingo, Emmet, and Emma. Mewtwo flew off to fight the International Police in her stead, and it managed to damage the helicopter enough to force it into an emergency landing.
"How did she...?" Looker asked as he watched the Pokémon level entire teams of agents and trainers. He turned to Anabel and Colress. "I'm going to head in after her. Cover me, and I'll let you know when to take the shot if I can't."
The agent loaded a specialized gun with the black serum and ran into the alley, dodging random attacks and the array of creatures firing them.
He made it within a couple of yards of Morai when she noticed him, and she immediately took control of Emma. She hooked her arm around the trainers neck and pinned one of her legs to she couldn't escape easily. Looker stopped in his tracks.
"I wonder," Morai said, lifting up her mask again to reveal a devious smile, "what would happen if Emma here were to be freed from the same chains of duality."
She grabbed a syringe full of red serum, and held it precariously close to Emma's neck. She also took control of Ingo, and before Emmet could advance, she reminded everyone that she could see their future movements.
"Don't worry. I'll only use half," Morai said. She stuck the needle into Emma's neck and pushed the plunger until the vial was indeed half empty. She let go, and Emma fell to the ground with a bloodcurdling scream of agony. The trainer writhed on the ground and begged for relief, and Looker finally dashed toward her.
"Oh, it's not that bad," Morai joked. "Hurry it up, now. Everyone wants to see what happens."
Morai took control of Emma right as Looker reached her. She made her fight him, and Looker refused to fight back, taking several painful strikes in the process. Emma was mid-punch when she faltered and fell into Looker's arms. Morai's hold on her was involuntarily broken, and she was rendered barely conscious.
"Well, that was disappointing," Morai said, taking her coat off and placing it aside.
"M-Mr. Looker," Emma muttered. "It's been a while. I-I've been taking care of the..."
"Emma!" Looker cried. "Emmet! Get her to Colress and have him take care of her!"
Emmet nodded and carefully carried her off, using his Pokémon to shield them from the chaos. Looker stood up to face Morai with rage in his eyes, and he went after her with a viciousness that even surprised her. He didn't speak. He just attacked, and Morai fought back with even greater spirit, intending to inflict the most damage in the quickest time. The pair was separated by a random steam of fire and electricity, and some of it hit Morai. She stumbled, and Looker took the opportunity to swing behind her and press his gun to her neck in between her scars.
"Don't move!" he sharply commanded. "Don't move unless you want to be the first and only test subject for whatever this is."
The agent kicked the back of Morai's knees and positioned her on the ground.
"Call them back," he said, nodding to her Pokémon and pressing the cold barrel of the gun harder against her skin.
"Mewtwo!" Morai called. The Pokémon sprinted across the alleyway in impressive time, making everything in its path clear the way.
This is it, child, it whispered in her mind. Even I can't twist fate.
"No," Morai said. She looked around, but her own Pokémon had set up a barricade of sorts around her, using debris and their own attacks to keep everyone else at bay. There was no one to look her in the eye.
"Do it!" Looker yelled. Morai slowly reached down and grabbed her Pokéballs, calling all but Mewtwo back and letting Looker take them from her hand. The rest of the International Police force made their way through and formed a line on either side of her several yards down the alleyway. The trainer looked around and realized that regular citizens were also watching from not too far away, and a news helicopter had appeared in the dark sky.
Everyone can see my face, she thought.
"Call it back," Looker commanded. "And let go of Ingo."
Morai looked up at Mewtwo, her face blank. She waited a few moments, then released her hold on the Subway Boss without breaking her gaze.
There is nothing I can do in time, it said again. Morai furrowed her eyebrows. Suddenly, an Excadrill appeared from the ground and jabbed Looker with a poison-tipped claw. Morai used the split-second window before he reacted by pulling the trigger to duck and slide out of its range. Looker still pulled the trigger, shooting the dart into the ground and shattering it. Morai watched as the curious black liquid mixed with the rain.
A few heavily-geared agents and their Pokémon pursued her, but Morai managed to fight them all off. Looker had been weakened by the poison, but he still held his footing. The entire alleyway and the streets surrounding it were painted with streams of ice, charred buildings, and smoke that rose from smoldering fires spread across the city-turned-battlefield. Unconscious people and Pokémon lay across the ground, and an equal number of people were working to transport them to safety. Morai looked around at the aftermath and the laypeople watching among it, and she smiled. Despite her injuries, she stood tall. Her face was streaked with ash and blood, and she was covered in cuts and bruises, but the serum had taken the edge off.
My only friend, in all of this, is you, she thought, holding a small vial of it in her hand. It was too risky to drink it now, but she still considered it.
"Give up already, you monster!" someone yelled, breaking the eerie silence. Everyone joined in and formed a cacophony of curses, but it died out just as quickly as it had started. Many of the people watching had mistakenly looked her in the eye, and she took control of them and let go. When she did, no one dared to make another sound.
"You fools," she scoffed. "You act as if you wouldn't do the same given the chance. Instead, you wear your silly masks and pretend that evil doesn't exist, and that you aren't capable of it. Evil can be found in the best of mankind."
Morai looked at the various cameras.
"Do you know how I'm so certain?" she asked.
"Morai," Looker warned.
"Because I was your Champion!" she yelled with a crazed smile. "The one who saved you all! She traveled from region to region, saving each from their demise out of the heroic goodness of her heart. Her walls were adorned with your medals and trophies. You've all been wondering where she went, and I can provide the final answer."
She let her words hang in the air as murmurs and gasps rippled through the crowd. Mewtwo did her the favor of keeping the police agents at bay, allowing her to finally utter the truth she had kept inside for so long. Once silence had returned, she spoke again.
"I killed her," she said, her voice echoing through the broken walls. "Your Champion and savior is no more. All that remains of her are the distant memories in your heads. Light your candles and prepare your flowers, because you will never see—"
Looker had managed to sneak up on Morai and grab her from behind. She used her limited grappling knowledge to position herself and throw him to the ground. She knew that Interpol agents were more skilled with ground fighting, so she elbowed him in the throat and stood up, creating distance to make him transition to a standing fight.
They went at it again, and Morai held nothing back. Her elbows and claws sliced his skin, and she felt the crack of his ribs under some of her kicks.
"Come on, Looker," she said with gritted teeth, breaking away and circling him like a predator. "Don't let your convictions keep you from going all out. I want a real fight! If that means death for me, than so be it. Don't dishonor me with something less than your best."
She lunged at him, nearly slipping on the wet ground. The rain had turned into a steady drizzle. He evaded and landed a combo of punches, and Morai laughed.
"Yes, that's it! Come on!" she yelled. She could feel the mixture of serum and adrenaline running through her veins like searing fire and cutting ice.
As time went on and the poison progressed through Looker's veins he slowed down, and Morai landed several devastating strikes. She frowned and stopped.
"Who here has an antidote?" she loudly asked. When no one answered, grew angry. "Come on! Either let him die from poison or give him a fighting chance against me!"
A hand appeared amidst the crowd. A young medic stepped forward, one of many who had come to help the injured.
"Let him through," she commanded Mewtwo. It allowed the man through, and he hesitantly stepped forward, inching toward Morai's outstretched hand. She grew frustrated with his pace and took control of him, making him run to hand her the serum and return to the crowd. She gave the antidote to Looker against his will and waited for it to take affect as she surveyed the crowd for any threats.
"Now, let's continue," she said. "It all depends on you."
They resumed their fight, but even with the antidote, Looker struggled to defend and counter against Morai's skill and pure viciousness in attacks. She was a pressure fighter, barraging him with attacks and forcing him to back out of the center of their invisible ring. This made it easy for Morai to move and cut him off, and it made him put more effort into evading and moving around her to attack.
"This is what it feels like to be alive," she said, chest heaving. Looker realized that she hadn't used her Foresight at all since they had begun their fight. "This is why I train."
Though Looker put up a good fight, Morai caught him with a few more hard strikes that opened the door for her to continue until Looker fell to the ground. Morai went with him and continued to punch him full force.
"Are you a piece of my past that must go, too?" she asked, pausing with a fist ready beside her.
"You can never kill your past," Looker coughed. "...And I think your future is gone as well. I'm sorry," he said, adding her former name at the end of his apology. Morai snarled and went to deliver a finishing blow, but she suddenly found herself in so much pain that she couldn't help but let out a terrifying, chilling scream of utter shock and agony that seemed to echo through the entire city. She rolled over onto the ground and got to her knees, reaching up to find something in her neck.
Bewildered, the trainer looked around her until her gaze found the one who had fired the shot. Ingo stood solemnly with his hand still holding the gun in the air. Anabel stood beside him. She had, at some point, delivered it to him. Morai let out another scream of agony, and Looker stumbled to his feet and grabbed her arm before she could give herself another wound like the one already scarred on her neck. She barely felt the cold steel of handcuffs closing on her wrists behind her, but she tried to violently object anyway.
"No!" she yelled, trying and failing to stand up. Mewtwo let down its psychic wall and came to rest on the ground in front of her, turning back into its original form.
Know that I have borne witness to the sealing of your fate. You have set me free, and I will never forget you. I hope that you do not forget me.
With that, it disappeared into the cloudy horizon. Morai tried to stand up again, but Looker put a hand on her shoulder. It felt like she was being burned alive from the inside out as the new serum clawed through her system, and all she could do was shake her head in protest of her arrest.
"All of this time," Looker said. "I think you fought so much because you really were blind to the future. The past is a blur, and the future isn't an idea you can grasp in your mind anymore. You just...exist as time passes you by. This day, to you, might as well have been a dream."
Morai didn't understand what Looker was saying, as she was hit with a second wave of pain in her head. Ingo had come to stand before her, and he watched as the red color faded from her eyes, curiously leaving them with almost no color at all. Her veins, many of which were visible under her pale skin, appeared black.
"No!" she screamed again, trying to fight. Her mouth hung open with silent screams of agony. The world around her seemed to flash, and before she knew it, everything except her and the ground seemed to fade away. A figure walked into her view, and she looked up to see a young woman with long, braided hair and stormy blue eyes.
"You," she mouthed. She was looking up into the face of her former self.
"You never read it," Morai said with soft smile. "Let me help you."
Morai of the past knelt down and grabbed a folded piece of paper from Morai's vest. She sat down in front of her and began to read it just as she had written it a few months prior.
"Morai," she read.
"I have this strange feeling. This feeling that, after I do what I'm about to do, I will never exist as I am now again. In a way, today is the day I die. It's strange to think that fate has shown its face to me so suddenly, but I feel calm.
I will be passing the torch to you, and you'll unfortunately find yourself in a position worse than mine. For that, I'm sorry, but I know that it's necessary. I can't possibly predict what it will be like, but I can predict that your struggle will be much like mine. Our identity is a shattered one, and our psyche is split. All I can do now is urge you to succeed in what I failed to do, which is to find peace in both the light and the shadows of your soul. I reveled in the good nature and the warmth light brought, but ignored the shadow it inevitably cast. If Team Rocket was successful, I have a feeling that you'll become that shadow incarnate, choking out the light I didn't have the heart to leave. I've implored our friends to help you, but it is ultimately up to you to venture out of the darkness. Although, Light Morai won't try to kill you every time you enter the Realm of Dreams, so I hope you'll find it easier to embrace her nature than it was for me to embrace her other half's. Either way, you can't survive very long without one or the other, so please make peace with them both for your own sake.
Lastly, it's likely that wherever you are, you've found yourself alone. There is no one in the real world to understand this constant battle and the psychic burden you bear both in this world and the World of Dreams. You are completely alone, so I want to tell you that I love you. I love you like a lost sister I may never meet. When you see Light and Shadow Morai again, please tell them that I love them, too. Especially Shadow Morai, for she was the shadow I left alone.
You have this piece of me, a token of a memory passed by. Add it to the mural you create with the broken pieces of our identity."
Morai looked up at her past counterpart. Somehow, she didn't feel the pain as much anymore. Past Morai took a knee and brushed Morai's hair aside, wiping away the blood, dirt, and ash from her face. She straightened Morai's tie and held her face in her hands.
"You fought well in this world. Sleep now," Past Morai whispered, "And fight to save the Realm of Dreams."