Chapter Seventy

Giovanni watched her, eyes hidden by the verdant shadows of his office. He wore a charcoal suit with a red tie, and his hair was freshly trimmed. The papers had been cleared from Giovanni's desk, and a white tablecloth lay on top of it. Admin Fisher set two covered platters in front of the seats, poured a bottle of wine into two glasses, and went to a corner.

Seven looked down at her shadow. It grinned back at her. From the earpiece embedded in her head, Thoth said, "I'm ready to cut the power. Make sure Giovanni doesn't find out anything before he tries to kill you."

She shuddered, but her hands were steady as she took her glass. Part of her wanted to have faith in Giovanni, wanted to reveal everything, the shadow at her feet, the Porygon whispering in her ear, the false body sitting in front of him. Perhaps it had been all the warnings from friends and foes, or the fact that Giovanni had been Ghetsis' pupil. Perhaps it was the shock of having her soul ripped out of her body and shoved into a pile of genetic goop, and the fear of being left that way. If she ever got back to her body, she'd have Thoth deleted and the backups wiped.

Giovanni studied the wine, swirling it around with lazy movements of his hand. "I ordered you to remain in the rear."

Seven brought her own glass to her lips. She braced herself for an acrid taste and felt nothing. Giovanni glanced at his watch.

"I apologize, sir," Seven said. "In the interest of serving you, I assessed the situation on the battlefield and determined that my abilities were best used to attack Ghetsis directly. Had I not done so, he would surely have used the Aura, which he had full control over, to annihilate your forces and kill you."

Giovanni nodded and lifted the cover off his platter. A cloud of steam rose from the beef tenderloin and lobster tail. Seven opened her own. A smile touched her borrowed body's lips as the savory aromas washed over her, smells that failed to reach her in spectral form. Tubs of clarified butter, mustard aioli, and horseradish sauce stood next to the lobster, while the ribeye had a generous topping of crab Oscar and hollandaise. Roasted broccoli, drizzled with butter and crushed garlic, separated the surf and turf.

A morsel of lobster vanished behind Giovanni's lips. Butter dribbled down the cut in his lip. "Normally, I would punish you for your disobedience. However, I had intended you to disobey them. I could not risk Ghetsis having some means of listening in and learning of my real intentions."

Seven chewed on steak, and though her gooey host relished the high-end cuisine, she was denied the taste. "Ghetsis knew anyways. He had anticipated my arrival and cornered me despite my caution." She looked away and scratched at her arm. The flesh clung and stuck together like putty. "Were it not for Set's sacrifice, I would not have made it out alive."

"What about the Porygon?" Giovanni asked.

"Damaged beyond repair. I would have recovered it, but the Lucario was still alive. I did not want to risk it attempting anything before it died."

Behind Seven, Fisher nodded. Giovanni speared another strip of lobster on a tiny fork and dipped it in horseradish sauce. "And the eyepiece? You should have brought that back."

Seven's stomach flipped. The steak she had been chewing soured in her mouth. "My apologies sir. I, I didn't think, I should have, but-" Seven lowered her head. "I will accept the consequences for my failure."

Giovanni pointed a fork at her. Butter dripped from the tines onto the edge of his plate. "There are no consequences. The unit was recovered by Fisher's team."

Seven sagged into her chair, but her back remained tense. Watching him warily, sighed in false relief and said, "Thank you, sir."

"It is I who should be thanking you. Were it not for your help, Ghetsis would have killed me and forced everyone else to serve him. Tell me what you wish, and I will consider granting it."

Seven's eyes widened, and a chunk of broccoli stopped halfway to her mouth. Her brain whirled, desperate for the answer that would please him. "I – I only want to serve, sir."

Giovanni smiled. "No need for modesty, Seven. I always reward those who deserve it, and none have done more for me than you have. So name it."

Words stuck in her throat. Giovanni looked at his watch and ran a finger over its polished glass cover.

"Ghetsis asked you to kill me, didn't he?"

"I would never-"

"I know you wouldn't. But he did ask you."

Seven forced another bite past her teeth, chewed mechanically, and swallowed. Her head swam, and her heart pounded in her chest. "He did."

"That was your original purpose. He made you to infiltrate my organization, kill me, and replace me. With direct control over law and crime, he could have done whatever he pleased." His knife slid back and forth over his steak, making imperceptible progress towards his plate. "I thought of trying something similar, but now that I own the government, why bother?"

Seven chuckled nervously. "I could still do that. The infiltrations, I mean. If anyone opposed you, I could sneak in and kill them for you."

"You could, but I doubt anyone would oppose the savior of humanity."

A chill crept over Seven's skin. Sweat matted down her fur and clung to her suit. "Then I will continue to serve as your Admin."

"You were mediocre at best at the tasks assigned to you," Giovanni said. "I had your lieutenant correct most of your administration. You don't even know the names and faces of most your agents, nor their skill sets. You had computer technicians shaking down competitors and thugs brokering business deals. Had I left you to your own devices, you'd have bankrupted your division within a month."

Seven looked at her plate. Succulent morsels swam in puddles of butter and sauce. With a grimace, she pushed it away.

"Then how can I serve?"

"As a test subject," Giovanni said. He smiled as Seven started back. "I'm not that cruel. No, I intend to make use of you until the day you die, rest assured of that."

Seven smiled. "That is all that I ask."

"I cannot give you what you already have. Ask something else."

Seven squirmed in her chair. "I guess… I want to be human."

One of Giovanni's eyebrows rose. "You still want that after all this time? As a Zoroark, your powers allow you to be anything. You could be a god, with enough planning. Why settle for being a human?"

"As a human, I wouldn't have to hide." Seven set down her fork. "As a human, I wouldn't have people hunting me, locking me up, studying me. I wouldn't have anything to fear."

Giovanni glanced at his watch. "After all this time, it really was that simple. I suppose it's just like Ghetsis to create pawns that want no power for themselves." He smiled. "I will grant your wish."

"Really?" Seven felt her chest flutter.

"There are a few ways of going about it, I suppose. I could have you legally classified as a human. Would that work?"

Seven paused, her refusal caught in her throat. Giovanni chuckled. "Of course it wouldn't," he said. "We could also try gene therapy, but given how unstable your body already is, I doubt you would survive the process."

"What about surgery?" Seven touched her throat. "Like with the vocal cords?"

"There's an old philosophical puzzle," Giovanni said, "About a ship that has been replaced piece by piece as it rotted away, patched up until nothing remained of the original ship. The question is, is it still the same ship, or a new ship entirely? At what point did the ship cease to be itself? I had Colson give me his answer, but what do you think?"

Seven chewed on some more lobster as she considered the question. "I think it doesn't matter."

"I didn't think you'd care, yes," Giovanni said. "However, grafting human flesh onto your body would be impossible. Your immune system would reject it."

"Then-"

"Your vocal cords were grown from your own cells, into a shape conducive to human speech. And while we could grow whatever components you required, they would not appear human."

Seven lowered her head. "Then what else is there?"

"Cybernetics, like what Colson had." Seven looked up, but Giovanni said, "Unfortunately, Admin Celeste was the chief engineer on that project, and no one else has the knowledge or skill required to install them."

"I can keep using my illusions," Seven said. "It's worked so far."

"Accidents happen, and such an accident would be costly." Giovanni drained the last of his wine and looked at his watch. "Don't worry, I've come up with a more permanent solution."

Static rumbled in her ears, and her vision flickered. With a groan, her body fell sideways and hit the floor.

"Admin Steven died a noble and heroic death confronting and killing the evil Lucario. He will live on in the annals of history not simply a human, but a paragon among mankind and an example that all humans shall aspire to."

"Poison," Thoth said from the earpiece. "I was expecting Fisher to strangle you. Just goes to show I haven't fully integrated the new processors yet."

She struggled up on her knees. Though she felt nothing her borrowed body experienced, the floor went out from under her. Thoth was right. They were all right. He had used her up, and now he was going to throw her away like a piece of trash. If she had control over her body, she'd cry.

The world went dark as Subject Fourteen disassembled itself. Out of the shadows, a glowing purple hand reached down and yanked her back into the light. She was floating above the dissolving cadaver, held in Set's hand by the neck. Flesh and fur turned into pink goop at her feet, and a beady-eyed face blinked up at the two ghosts.

Fisher was calling for ultra-violet lights over the radio. Giovanni set down his glass. He straightened his suit and leaned back in his chair. "You tensed up when I lied about recovering the eyepiece. So, how does Ghetsis' endgame go? It can't be as easy as that Gengar striking me down or you wouldn't go through the trouble of a fake body."

"Ghetsis is gone," Thoth's voice crackled from Fourteen's flesh. "I've wiped the software from the processors and used them to rebuild my body." A static chuckle crackled from the speaker. "I finally understand your disgust at my former computing ability."

"Then now what?"

"Now we're our own masters. It's time to go."

Seven hesitated. Fisher raised his gun and trained it between herself and the Gengar, but he didn't fire. The Ditto, having reassembled itself into putty form, wriggled up the table leg and absorbed the food on her plate.

Seven closed her eyes, but she could still see through her lids. Taking a deep breath, she said, "Fourteen, mirror."

The Ditto writhed, expanded, and turned transparent. Its thin smile grew into a ghostly grin. Half-digested food plummeted from its body and hit the plate with a wet plop.

Giovanni speared a piece of lukewarm lobster on his fork. "This is the part where you cut the power on the defense grid, is it not?"

Thoth spoke through the speaker. "I had something a bit more fun in mind."

The lights flared and burst in a shower of glass. Darkness fell, pierced by two sets of glowing eyes. They rushed upwards, past Grunts stumbling in the dark and smoking computers. Sunlight blinded her as they hit the surface. They darted down alleys and flew through ruined buildings, winding their way through the abandoned stretch of city. Smoke rose in the distance, where the Magmortar's corpse continued to burn, and thunder rumbled in a cloudless sky.

In a basement buried beneath a pile of scorched timber, Seven's body lay on a dusty mattress. Set shoved Seven's ghost back inside. She woke, gasped for breath, and hacked as dust filled her lungs.

Thoth floated out from under the bed. His body flickered and bobbed. Wild articulations of his smooth limbs accompanied each movement. Giant yellow eyes peered at her.

"Looks like your body handled brain-death just fine," he said. "Can you walk?"

Seven stood and shook herself off. "What will you do now?"

As the Ditto reverted to mush, Thoth scooped it up in his limbs. "I have the genetic information of every single Pokémon. I think it'd be fun to see what I can do with that. What about you?"

Seven traced lines in the dust. For ten minutes, she weighed her options. Running away, hiding, suicide, joining Thoth, all had merits in her eyes.

Once Seven had decided, she focused. Her features became that of a little boy, scrawny, scarred, and covered in soot. "Has anyone seen my mommy and daddy?" she asked in a thin, childish voice. "It's so cold, and I'm hungry."

Thoth patted the illusion's head, though the gesture touched her hip. "Good luck. You're really going to need it."

The Porygon shot through the rafters, taking the Ditto with it. Seven looked down and saw her shadow grin.

"You're coming with me?"

The shadow nodded.

"Alright then. Let's find my parents."

Afterword

I'm so glad I finally finished this story. It's been tough for the past year, considering that I've been working about fifty hours a week for a new job. Deciding to completely overhaul the plot halfway through the story didn't help either.

If you're wondering whether or not this will have a sequel, it could, but it won't. Instead, I'm starting a new story. A few things are going to change.

First, and probably the biggest for you guys, is that I'm switching fandoms for now. The next story will take place in the RWBY fandom. If that sounds right up your alley, then awesome. If you've never heard of it, I invite you to give the story a shot – I intend to write it so no experience with the fandom will be necessary. And who knows, maybe it'll convince you to watch the show. The reason for the fandom switch is that I'd like to try working with a more well-defined world and set of characters (it also may or may not have to do with the sudden flood of new favorites in my fanfic list).

Second, I hope to have someone beta-reading the story, for two reasons. First, to give feedback on the ideas, especially around character development. Second, to give myself a bit more pressure to stick to a specific schedule. If anyone would like to beta-read, shoot me a message and we'll go from there. My only expectations are courtesy and a willingness to realize I won't be taking all of your suggestions, and I won't require experience with the fandom. While I would like feedback within the week before the release, I won't be holding you to a deadline.

Third, I'll double the word count of each chapter, to four or five thousand.

And last, I'll start by making a fully realized outline. In the past, I either had a mental outline or a very minimal written one. While I feel it lends itself to moments of inspiration that take the story in new and exciting directions, such stories can easily go off the rails or get stuck. I hope that having a full outline will make my writing easier and more organized.

So, here's what the next couple months are going to look like.

January 1 – second (and final) draft finished on Masks. I'm at the halfway point right now, and I'd like to think it's downhill from there.

January 15 – outline drafted for the new story. If a beta reader is on board, they'll get to see it if they wish. This'll involve a fair bit of rewatching and note-taking, but I've been planning to rewatch the older episodes anyways.

January 22 – first chapter drafted and sent to beta reader for review.

February 1 – first chapter of the new story published and second chapter finished. Weekly chapters posted after this point.

I suppose I'll leave off by giving the description of the new story. This may be subject to change after I make the outline.

Cardinal Sins:

Cardin Winchester settled into being the school bully, like he always had, but as he got closer to the student he was blackmailing, he found himself unwilling to play the bad guy.

In a nutshell, I'm taking the stereotype bully character and not making him good, but giving him far more depth to his personality. There'll also be some moderate changes to the canon story.

Merry Christmas everyone. I'll do my best to make my writing even better for next year.

Changelog

12/31/18 – I rewrote some sections of this chapter, changing some details with Seven's borrowed body and adding some hesitation on Seven's part that I felt was more in character with her. And with that, the second draft is complete… with seventeen minutes to spare on my original goal. Hooray! The plan above hasn't changed, so expect new content from me in about a month.

And with that, I am done with this story. I hope you all enjoyed that, and I thank the readers who put up with the first draft and all the changes made on the fly.