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It was kind of funny, in a sad way. Most would say he won that day in the mountains when he fractured the minds of those who sought to enslave him and ensured his own safety in the world. But in his mind and in his heart he had been the one defeated. Mewtwo had been defeated when the other clones, the ones that he had created, nurtured, and protected, had turned their backs and left him standing alone. He had always considered himself a solitary being, but never had it been truer than in the moment that his companions had decided to seek their own destinies. He had considered them his family, and in that one night his family had abandoned him down to the very last one. He had spent months trying to understand it, trying to see what he had done wrong. Then one day, as he saw a young woman packing her bags to leave her family for a bigger, brighter city somewhere else, it all clicked into place. Everyone left those they cared about, those that cared about them. It was a natural thing, part of the progression of age- you raise someone, nurture them, tend to their every hurt, and just when you care the most for this life you have sustained, they find their own strength and leave. It was supposed to mean that you had done well, and helped them to grow up strong enough to care for themselves. But he studied the young woman’s mother for a few days after her daughter’s departure, watched her struggle to cope with her new loneliness, and came to a conclusion. If this was the pain that came with caring for someone, this stabbing loneliness, then such a small victory simply was not worth it, and it was better not to care at all. If you hardened your heart against the world, letting no one in, then they could never stab you in the back.

He watched the man carry the tiny child to a bus stop. They got on the bus and were out of site, even as a young woman stepped off at their stop, heading for the bright lights of downtown. She was the kind of woman no one gave a second thought to, the sort that played the streets for her meals dressed in her too-high boots and too-short skirts. There was a word for her type, but he had never bothered to learn it. Usually he looked over her kind, passing his gaze on to the next restless wanderer, but tonight his eyes followed her as she strolled casually along the sidewalk. Perhaps it had been seeing the child before the woman that made him think of it, but at some point this woman had been someone’s little girl. How, then, had her family allowed her to fall into this life? Had they turned their backs on her, or had she walked away from them? Then again, some humans did not seem to have families to begin with. Maybe this was one of them, a soul wandering lost and alone, silent tribute to the injustices of the world. Not ten minutes after she had arrived downtown the young woman was accepted into a car with a male driver, and like that she was gone.

With the woman left his interest in the downtown area and, for that matter, the city in general. Mewtwo closed his eyes briefly, choosing to feel the cold moonlight falling on his face instead of seeing it. It was at three-quarters tonight, the great disk in the sky, which was more than bright enough for him to see by as he made his way out of the human city and into the mountains beyond. His home was high up in the cliffs, in an area that was difficult to reach for normal Pokémon and impossible for the humans who inhabited the city below. Hidden below a large outcropping of rock and behind a wall of the same, the entrance to the cave was discreet; it could not be seen from the city or the air. Discretion was important to Mewtwo. So much could be lost with a single mistake- his privacy, his freedom, his life- that he could not afford to take any chances. Mewtwo stood outside the entrance to the small cave system, checking with his mind to be sure that no one was inside before he entered his home. Yes, discretion was important indeed, and one could never be too careful.

It was a small network of rooms, as he himself had carved it from the mountainside to be. The entry snaked along, following along the inside of the mountain’s curve for about a hundred yards or so, before widening into a large chamber. The hallway was lit only from the moonlight filtering in from a few strategically placed niches in the walls, but Mewtwo knew the passage well enough not to stumble in even the blackest of nights, so the niches were all but obsolete. It was a thought that made him pause. To know this place so well meant that he had been here more than long enough. How long had it been since he had come here? Almost a year, to his estimate. That was more than long enough to stay in one place. In fact, he realized with a small, indistinctive frown, it was probably too long. He tried not to stay in one place more than eight months or so. It was time to move on.

Still, there was no need for him to leave tonight. Mewtwo looked around the large chamber, satisfied by the stillness, before stepping towards one of two shadows in the walls. One shadowy doorway led to the room where he slept. The other, closer little room housed his books. Books were Mewtwo’s biggest windows into the world, and so he had made it his habit to read whatever he could find. If a book were ever carelessly left outdoors or in an automobile, it would be gone by morning. Occasionally he even went so far as to check inside the little box outside the public library where people left their after-hours returns. The box typically yielded anywhere between four to twelve tomes, sometimes more. Once he had sat and read for an entire month off of a single night’s visit to the drop box. Mewtwo stepped into the room and examined the piles of paper around him. After months of hunting, the books did tend to add up. He stood among the messy stacks, considering. There was nothing here he would take with him when he went- there never was- and it only took a moments thought to decide that there was nothing worth reading again before he left. Mewtwo turned his back on the books and headed for his own chamber instead.

The second hallway was shorter, the room smaller than the main entryway, but this was the place that looked the most like a home or a dwelling. The furniture was crude stone, nothing more than a table and a small stool that he had hewn from the rock on his own when he made the place. They were not much, but that never really mattered to him. It was just a place to sit and meditate. The table faced a flat panel on the wall, a surveillance system of sorts that he had used to use to watch the outside world. In recent months, however, he had stopped using it. Solitude suited him better in his own home. A low, wide ledge ran along the wall opposite the blackened screen where he could lie down if he needed to sleep, and a small pit in the ground housed a low fire. It was towards the fire that Mewtwo walked. The wood he had been burning had reduced itself to glowing coals, but there was still plenty left for the fire to take life from if he so chose. Instead, he opted to simply watch the embers burn, a warm, soothing glow that offered a different kind of light than the ones in the city...

Someone was approaching the caves.

Mewtwo’s head snapped up at the tug of a familiar presence. Had he been the type who opted to vocalize his emotions, he would have groaned when he realized whom the tingling psychic energy belonged to. It would be him, that bane of the clone’s existence, that constant reminder of his intended inferiority. For a moment he toyed with the idea of ignoring the presence, but deep down he knew it would never work. That one Pokémon would not be ignored. Grudgingly, Mewtwo headed back through the dark hallways and into the world outside once more. It was always better to just get these visits over with so that he could be alone again.

This is a piece I wrote, called Refractions. It takes place about three years after Mewtwo Returns and was originally a prequel to my story Anomaly, although a whole series of one-shots seems to have evolved from it... I hope you guys liked it.

I just felt like posting one thing that I'd written. The forum's here, might as well. You don't have to comment on it if you don't want to.