FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The gloomy corridor in front of me seems to extend further and further, getting me deeper into the building. I walk past the row of faceless statues without even looking at them, my eyes always staring forward, forward. There's a broken window somewhere nearby - I can see the glass shards on the cold tiles, shimmering under the sunlight that seeps through the ragged curtains - and my first impulse is to fix it or call someone to fix it.

But I don't.

Huh?

I was...

Hm. I was going to pick berries. Yes, just some fresh, tasty berries from the back garden. That was what I was going to do.

I feel the darkness threatening to take over. I can tell by how my leaves feel. It must be getting late outside - sunrays slowly receding into the sky as it turns dark blue. I'll see the twilight when I get to the garden and do what I'm supposed to do and hopefully, just hopefully I'll take the last sunrays in. I feel the silent emptiness all around me, only the soft rustling of the old carpet under my paws, barely a sound to distract me from my goal. I remember...

Nothing.

These corridors are endless. They seem to go on forever. I could walk for days and never go over the same place again. They're straight, then they're spiraling, then you don't know if you're moving up or down. This is an impossible place. I could get lost a thousand times. I have gotten lost a thousand times. Only dust and darkness and silence keeps me company now. I am...

I am sleepwalking. And I was...

I was with others, right? I wasn't the only one who came to this place. I had a...

I had a goal, which is getting berries from the garden. I must get berries from the garden before the night comes and it's coming. I can feel it in my leaves. That's why I'm useful, right? The others weren't but I have my leaves. I walk past a dirty mirror and glance at my reflection and - yes, there they are. My leaves. The green, long leaves that make up my ears and tail, feeling the sun as it runs away from the sky. As I look deep into the mirror with empty eyes, I remember...

When I was an Eevee. In another life. A blue scarf around my neck, even back then - but it's gone now. Where has it gone? I don't remember...

... hm.

I walk away from the mirror. The lonely sound of my lonely steps is bringing back something. Bringing back something from the most hidden corners in the darkest corridors of this eternal, impossible place. My steps. Yes. I was also useful because of my steps, was I not? For the others, the others who are gone now, the others who weren't useful for him. They were different. They didn't have leaves - no, they didn't. They were...

Fluffier. One of them was. I must have called him... for some reason I can't remember the word but I followed him. I followed him instead of wandering through dark corridors. He was the one who led the way. He was warmer and feistier and better at decision-making. I liked how he laughed sometimes and how he always gave me the better items to cover for my weaknesses. I remember he came up with the name for our team. We were...

There was another one. Quiet. Electricity crackling wherever he went. His tails were always something to look out for if you didn't want to get a shock. He had been slowly learning to control it - he had changed form recently, I remember. He might have been the strongest of us three. Yes, I remember. We were three. But even then, we weren't a match for...

Him.

We were...

Right. Explorers.

He must have...

Defeated us.

They had to leave. They couldn't fight.

But I stayed behind. I stayed behind because I must pick berries from the back garden and that's exactly what I'm doing now. I'm picking berries from the back garden, from the row of healthy trees that I'm tending to, that I'm keeping alive, which makes sense being a Grass-type and stuff, whatever that means - _he_told me so. Because I was the least threatening one and I had my leaves and I was useful. So I didn't run away. Did I try? I t-

I didn't try. I belong here, picking berries at the garden. No. I don't. I was an explorer and I...

The sunlight feels good on my leaves. I stay in the garden for a bit longer, for I am allowed to enjoy the sun for as long as I like, and then I walk back into the dark, empty, endless corridors. It will be soon dark outside. I noticed. But it's always dark inside these cold walls.

He's there. I stop in my tracks, arms full of Orans and Sitrus.

"You're beginning to wake up again," he points out. His long, thick tail draws a slow arc in the air and my eyes inevitably follow.

I have no idea what he means. I bring him berries. Isn't that what I'm supposed to do? The rest - the others, the team, the exploration - was all a dream I had while sleepwalking. I'm here to keep the trees alive and bring him berries. Because I'm useful.

"I bring you berries," I whisper, as if to let him know. There's something...

"Those words felt weird in your mouth," he guesses. "Am I right?"

I hesitate. For the first time in days, I hesitate. My eyes move to the berries I'm holding. I...

"Yeah," I answer.

His face is inscrutable but I think... I think he's sad.

"I'll need some of these." He moves forward and picks a few Sitrus from my arms. "Your friends came again today. They're not giving up. I wonder what that must feel like."

"My friends?" I ask, puzzled. Then, I think I understand. "The others. From my dreams."

He seems to find that funny.

"Yes. From your dreams."

He eats the Sitrus slowly. It's getting darker now and we can barely see each other in the shadows. I have a feeling he doesn't need his eyes to see me. He was made that way. His tail sways again.

Wait.

"Oh. Some recollections are seeping through." He looks distracted, but the accuracy of his words keeps me focused on them. "Memories from the day you walked into this place. Can you remember?"

"I..." Why am I holding all these berries? Does he need so many of them? "I've been here forever... The corridors, they're... They never end."

"You've been standing still the whole day."

I realize he's right. He must be. The building isn't that big anyway and I can only see a long corridor - twisting a few times, yes, but surely leading to the exit.

"We got in," I remember. "We read the journals."

"Yes. The ones I managed to retrieve from my world."

I hold my tongue. There's no need to keep talking. He can see every thought going through my mind right now. I haven't had this many for a long time and the feeling is disorienting.

I remember that day, even if it feels like it happened a lifetime ago. We crashed through the door and began exploring the abandoned manor. As we advanced through the different rooms, we came across these... journals. We found out many things about him. How he had been born. How he had been made.

The things they did to him afterwards.

And how he'd been forced to escape through a crack in the skies.

"You lot were very timely. Breaking into my hideout right on my birthday." He raised his eyes from the floor and looked straight into mine. I felt a shiver run through my spine in anticipation. "It's been a few weeks since then. But your friends are still out there, trying. Eat a berry."

I feel compelled to do as he says. Besides, there's a feeling of hunger I don't think I knew was there just a few minutes ago. It must have been hiding behind something else. Or he must have called it forward. I bite into the fresh fruit. The sudden explosion of flavor seems to clear my mind a bit further.

I am...

"You let a lot of thoughts start that don't go anywhere," he mentions. "Interesting. I'd never been able to see how it works."

"How what works?" I ask. I'm suddenly feeling a bit on the defensive.

"You. After you break."

I shiver again. He seems to analyze that reaction just as much as he's been analyzing everything I've done, thought and felt since our conversation started.

"Where am I?" I ask, taking another bite from the berry.

His lip slightly curves upward. Now he seems amused.

"With me."

"That isn't a place."

"It is for as long as I want it to be."

I can tell he's not trying to make me feel threatened. But even now, the sheer power coming from his body is so obvious that I can't believe I didn't feel it before. I must have been...

"... asleep," I whisper.

"They keep on trying," Mewtwo insists. Yes. That's his name. It comes to my mind as if I'd been suddenly hit by lightning. "They know it's pointless, but they keep trying to rescue you. Why?"

"We're friends," I answer simply.

"Friends? The others from your dreams and you. Friends," he repeats, as if to make sure we're talking about the same people.

He looks thoughtful. Unusually thoughtful, even for him. When did I get to know him so well? Has he allowed me to?

"They're stupid," Mewtwo says. "They're stupid for trying. I will defeat them over and over again. They can't fight me and they should know it. They're lucky I haven't killed them already. They're lucky I allowed them to remember you."

He grows gradually quieter as he progresses through the last sentence.

I see it now. I can walk outside, into the garden, to pick the berries. But he can't. He must remain hidden. That's why I was needed. That's why he needs me. And why he hasn't made them forget.

Am I in full control of my mind again? I have no idea. I can't be because, well, somehow, I pity him.

"You're stupid, too." He gets closer to me and I realize he's frowning. I think something I've thought has made him angry. "You should run away."

"You'd put me back here, wouldn't you?"

Mewtwo holds my gaze for a few endless seconds. Then, very slowly, he grins.

"Yes," he admits. "Yes, I would."

I don't feel like I'm in any immediate danger. Somehow, I don't believe it's his doing. He hasn't done anything yet, I think. But he's about to.

"Any last words?" he asks, a bit coldly. I see him raise one of his three-fingered paws slowly. A part of me knows what comes right after that, it's just usually not in a position to be aware when it happens.

But I woke up this time. That must mean he might allow me to do so again in the future.

This is enough reason for me to make the best of my new-found memories. I need to say something useful. It has to be something that will help him realize.

"Last time, before you did this to me, I saw your left hand twitch," I recall. We're both standing in the darkness, now. Aside from his breathing, there's nothing I feel that suggests he's actually standing there, right in front of me.

"Hm?" There's a bit of interest in his voice. Somewhere, deep within. "And what about that?"

"Well. I think you wanted to pet my ears."

Mewtwo scoffs.

He breaks through the shadows with that powerful paw of his and...

The blue glow.

It burns in his eyes and his hand, which he places right in front of my face, his three digits spreading apart in a second. I gulp, getting ready for what's to come, while enjoying the beauty of his sheer, uncontrollable power. The kind of power legends are made from.

I hope I've helped him realize.

And then, very slowly, his hand begins to move. The blue glow fills my eyes and my body and my mind and I feel the remaining berries dropping to the floor, my arms relaxing under their weight as if they'd never been able to even hold a simple feather. His hand waves back and forth and my head bobs along trying to follow the movement, my gaze completely stuck to the irresistible motion.

When the first wave of psychic power hits my brain I tremble and let out a soft moan. It feels like a tidal wave crashing against me, washing away everything he wants to get rid of. My thoughts, my memories, my will - everything becomes a distant echo as his power disintegrates everything it finds on its way, molding my existence into whatever he pleases. His fingers begin to close, so very slowly that it seems like I'm seeing it in a dream, and I feel like he's squeezing everything I am between those glowing fingers. Like I'm so, so very small and insignificant.

I feel the natural instinct to hold onto the last remnants of my mind, but then a stronger wave of psychic power obliterates my weak attempt at resistance. I can't resist. He can't be fought against. His power is overwhelming. His fingers are almost touching now, his grip on me is tightening and tightening and tightening and I...

And I...

I.

I disappear. My shoulders drop. My jaw unclenches. My gaze is vacant.

I am awaiting my Master's commands.

"You will remain here." His voice echoes in the bare walls of my empty mind. "Agree."

"Yes, Master," my words come, monotonous and devoid of emotion.

"You are to take care of the trees and pick fresh berries for me."

"Yes, Master."

"You will forget your friends."

"Yes, Master."

"You had no life before this."

"Yes, Master."

"You belong to me."

"Yes, Master."

A silence.

The glow from his fingers and eyes fades like a summer storm. Then we're silent in the dark.

I remain on my knees. I must have fallen on them at some point. I can't remember. I can't remember anything. I'm barely aware of anything. I can't think of anything. Just...

I'm floating in the darkness, an empty husk with no power left to do anything but float and listen.

Listen.

"Stay here for now," I hear him say. I don't feel the usual pull that's followed by a command. He doesn't mean it as an order. I don't answer, for that means he doesn't want me to.

We both drown in the silence, in the dark. This is my life now.

It takes me a long time to realize but...

... but someone is petting my ears.