By the time my enhanced Bisharp had been able to wrench the door open that Satoshi had disabled he had already made it through the door that led to my office. I had never been so furious in my whole life. My eyes scanned the destruction that Satoshi had caused with MY creation and I sneered balefully at the scientists who were cowering like the sniveling roaches they were.

This is all that girl's fault. The thought filtered through my mind as I recalled following Satoshi through the crowd less than an hour ago. I had wanted to see how he would react when he had found his rodent of a Pikachu, then turned to have me be the thing he saw right afterward.

But even though he had found his Pikachu, he had not gone to it. I had watched as his eyes had moved to a girl with honey blonde hair and eyes the color of the sky and then that hussy had the nerve to actually throw herself into the arms of MY soldier. I had quite nearly taken out my Bisharp to remove her neck from where it rested on her shoulders, but then Satoshi had actually enveloped her in his arms and I had seen the gentleness in his expression that he had never EVER shown me.

Even though he had chosen to come to me, protected me, and saved me from falling from a tree to my death... He still had not shown me that gentleness he had given to his "cousin" as he claimed she was. So I had shown him my life's work. I thought that he would see just how powerful I was and that he would realize that his loyalties should lie with me and only me. But no. Something had triggered him and THIS was the result.

I stalked across the machinery and products that had cost me millions of dollars to develop and install. I had thought the crectin would be impervious to natural disasters, but I obviously had not factored in the strength of a pokemon's concentrated attacks. Part of me felt proud when I saw the claw marks left behind by Tigrice, but at the same time, I could hardly believe that the man who was to become my perfect soldier had released such destructive power against me.

Pressing my hand against the security pad, I frowned when I realized that the light had gone out of it. Realizing that Satoshi must have destroyed the security pad on the opposite side and damaged its connection on this side in the process, I let out a feral growl before turning away. I redirected myself, marching towards the hallway where Madeleine's team was conducting their experiments.

"Neptune!"

I could not even keep myself from rolling my eyes when Proteus suddenly burst from a connecting hallway where he had been overseeing the creation of more evolution stones. His eyes were wide and panicked and he leaped over the destruction without barely a thought before reaching me and wrapping his arms around me.

"What happened? Are you hurt?" he yelled out, obviously in a panic. I pushed against him gently and nodded.

"I'm fine. I need you to find Major Satoshi and bring him to Madeleine's lab. Now." Even I could hear the cold fury in my voice as the words slid from my lips. Proteus' eyes widened before his entire face twisted into a disgusted snarl.

"SATOSHI did this?" he growled with pure hatred in his voice.

Usually, it annoyed me with how much Proteus disliked Satoshi, but at this moment I felt a similar distaste for the man who had betrayed me so abruptly. But I was done with having things taken away from me. Even if I had to keep Satoshi in a coma until Madeleine had perfected the loyalty DNA mutation in a human, I would have my perfect soldier.

"Yes," I responded without offering any details.

Proteus growled and turned around as if he thought Satoshi would appear behind him immediately so he could punch him in the face. My eyes narrowed though for a moment and I grabbed onto Proteus' wrist before he took off on a pointless search. He glanced down at me with a frustrated expression and I slowly nodded in the opposite direction.

"Go find Celeste," I said slowly. "Once you find her then meet me back here in the chamber. I'm going to visit with Madeleine quickly."

Proteus blinked several times before a wicked grin spread across his lips. I had to admit, I actually found him a little attractive when his black eyes were shining diabolically like this.

"Are we finally going to do this?" Proteus asked with obvious excitement and I felt an answering smile make the corners of my lips twitch.

"Yes. Yes, I think it's time."

* * * * * * *

It did not take me long to walk down the hallway to Madeleine's laboratory. However, I was shocked at the scorch marks down the hallway and at dozens of scientists that were moaning and groaning as our limited medical staff moved amongst them. Frowning heavily, I walked into Madeleine's workspace and felt my mouth drop open. Detective Aryan, who had interrupted Satoshi and I earlier today, was laying down on Madeleine's work table strapped in tightly for all that he was completely unconscious. Several red marks along his cheek showed that he had been foolish enough to trigger the trap of walking through a not fully opened doorway and was now under the paralytic serum's effects.

Feeling a strange sense of mirth rush through me at seeing the prodigy of my enemy in front of me, I glanced over to see that Madeleine was already having her assistants position Looker into one of the empty test tubes. I wasn't sure how he had followed us, but I could tell just from the state of the hallway that he had been fool enough to try and save his buffoon of a partner and had gotten himself captured in the process.

What irony, I thought to myself before moving over and making my presence known to Madeleine.

"Neptune! What is going on? We heard some explosions coming from the direction of the production labs," Madeleine said while reaching out and gathering me in a hug. This show of affection surprised me slightly, but I patted her back reassuringly before pulling away from her touch.

"All will be rectified. I am moving up my timetable though because of these unforeseen circumstances," I said while glaring over at Looker, feeling all the usual feelings of rage and disgust while looking at his unconscious form. "Mount Coronet will remain unaffected during the transformation of the planet, so do not stop your work. And I will be sending you the target for this experiment as soon as he can be located, so I would move this test subject to a tube to make room."

Madeleine's eyes widened and her mouth fell open briefly for a moment before she shook her head swiftly.

"But... I haven't even started my first human test!" she protested and I waved my hand.

"Don't worry. Use the old man first for your human test and if he survives feel free to make him loyal to you. If it doesn't work though, move on to this one," I said as I reached out and tapped the unconscious detective on his forehead. "If he survives, wait until I am available to see if it was successful. I could use him as a bodyguard of sorts. But until you are successful, keep my target in an induced coma. There must be no room for error when you complete the procedure on him."

Madeleine frowned and I was surprised when she came over and patted my shoulder soothingly.

"Did your attempts to create a bond of loyalty fail with the target?" she asked with a sympathetic frown. I blinked up at her and then let out a chagrined scoff.

"Yes, it appears it did," I said with a small sneer before straightening up. "But no matter. If he insists on defying me then I will just incapacitate him until your procedure is functional. I can be patient."

Madeleine gave me one more sympathetic frown before nodding her understanding. "Well, as long as that is your decision I will support you, Neptune. Who is the target, anyway?"

"Satoshi Killian," I responded, surprised at the strange tug that I felt in my chest as I said his name out loud.

A strange gurgling sound came from behind me and I blinked and looked over my shoulder. The detective's eyes fluttered, showing the dark brown irises beneath his lids. Madeleine's eyes widened and she opened her mouth to call for help, but I waved her away.

"Go prep your test subject. I'd like to speak to this one if he's waking up," I said firmly.

Madeleine shrugged and immediately left to follow my directions. I turned to face Detective Aryan and waved my hand in front of his eyes, feeling much better now that I was once again in control of my surroundings.

"Gehhh," Aryan grunted in a somewhat strangled groan.

I was sure that he was only barely hanging onto consciousness as it was, but I had always wanted to speak to this man. It had been fun, in a way, to lead him on a goose chase with a ridiculous clue to his parents' murder so that Looker would finally be vulnerable enough for me to take and imprison him without witnesses. I knew he had been doggedly trying to find news about his kidnapped partner and I was glad that this thorn in my side had caused his own demise by treading too close to the fire.

"Now Detective, shouldn't you know better than to stage a rescue all on your lonesome?" I asked with false pity in my tone. Aryan's eyes fluttered and he let out another guttural sound. I let out a small tsk and touched his slightly swollen lips.

"Painful isn't it? The paralytic serum was derived from dozens of Garvantula's venom. Their poison affects the muscles and organs, nearly stopping your heart and lungs, and then their charged ions from their electricity shoot zaps of electric current through your whole body so that when the poison begins to wear off you are in constant pain for hours."

Aryan narrowed his eyes angrily at me, but I knew his tongue and lips were still under the effects of the paralytic poison and he wouldn't be able to speak for quite some time. Giving him a smile, I patted his cheek sardonically.

"I'm not sure how you followed us, but I am very glad you did. If you're lucky you are going to become a very important tool for me to use in my new world. You should be grateful," I said.

Aryan's lips twitched and I laughed when it was obvious he was trying to either sneer or even spit at me, but his body was not under his control.

"Things could have been so different if your parents had simply recognized true power," I said with a small sigh. To my delight, Aryan's eyes widened in shock and then narrowed in obvious suspicion and I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Had you not connected those dots yet?"

"Ha hi hoo hu?" Aryan attempted to force words through his numbed lips but it did not work very well.

"I'm afraid I can't understand whimper," I said with a scoff, sinking down to sit on the table next to his motionless body so I could look into his eyes better. "But since you are soon going to either become a vegetable or my loyal lapdog then I suppose you might as well know the truth."

I could see the anger broiling in Aryan's brown eyes and I found his pathetic attempts to move even a fingertip weirdly gratifying. I had only ever felt this powerful when I was tormenting Looker for all of the pain he had put myself and my Grandpa through. But I was sure I could quickly become addicted to this feeling of power.

"Your parents were truly exceptional," I said, thinking back on how I had met Mr. and Mrs. Patel.

It had been at a gala that SunCorp had hosted for all of the shareholders and important employees of the company to mingle and show off SunCorp's achievements for the year. My eyes had been drawn almost magnetically to the beautiful couple that seemed to exude professionalism but also was surrounded with an open and easy-to-approach aura. It hadn't taken long for me to figure out who they were. Both of them held high positions, Mr. Patel being the COO and his wife being the secretary of one of the main financial officers of the company. Just looking at their work ethic I could tell how organized and ambitious they were.

Even though with my leadership Team Galactic was doing extremely well, I had always wondered what it might be like if I could pass off the more managerial duties of running an organization to someone more experienced.

"I tried to recruit them, you see," I said to Aryan, calling up an image of his mother's bright smile. "First I was subtle. I sent one of my contacts to probe them about their feelings about Team Galactic and found their opinion was poor. Which was only natural under the leadership of that idiot Cyrus."

Aryan grunted uselessly and I smiled soothingly at him.

"Yes, I can see you are not one for long backstories. Let me sum it up for you," I said as I reached out and pinched his cheek, which was unusually flabby thanks to the numbing agent in the serum he was injected with. "After several failed attempts on the part of my subordinates, I finally showed up to their house personally and explained to them exactly my vision and what I wanted them to do for me."

My eyes narrowed as the old memory surfaced and I sniffed in mild annoyance.

"When I finished my explanation, do you know what they did?" I asked Aryan. I could just see his blood boiling and his head flopped around slightly which made me grin on the inside but I kept my face calm. "Your mother laughed. In my face. And then your father joined in and both of them laughed at me."

Aryan's eyes glimmered with a look that seemed similar to pride and I raised one eyebrow up at him challengingly.

"It was a rather unintelligent thing to do seeing what the results were," I said blandly and his eyes immediately narrowed with loathing. "I tried to threaten them by saying that if they didn't go along with my proposition that they would lose their only son. But to my surprise, your mother just laughed in my face again. She said that her son Aryan was the best pokemon trainer she had ever met and that if I sent anyone after you they would be the ones to be sorry instead of him."

To my surprise moisture seemed to be gathering in Aryan's eyes as he glared straight at me. It had been so long since I had given in to useless feelings like pity or sorrow that it seemed strange to see them reflected in his unmoving face. But I couldn't help a thrill of excitement go down my spine as I leaned down closer to tell him the end of my little story.

"Immediately after she bragged about how strong you were, she picked up the phone and started dialing the cops. Your mother was actually stupid enough to call the emergency line with me in front of her," Aryan's eyes widened slightly and I leaned back slowly, giving him a languid smile. "I had to make sure no one suspected me, you see. So I really had no choice but to stop her from completing that call. So first I ordered my pokemon to cut the phone from her hand. He had only recently been modified though and his aim wasn't exactly true, so he ended up cutting more than just her phone. But I couldn't have the neighbors alerted, so... naturally... I had Bisharp slit her throat."

Now the moisture in Aryan's eyes was gathering in earnest and I could see the resentment and hatred burning in his brown eyes. It made them flash brightly and I half hoped that Madeleine was successful when she tampered with his DNA so that I could make use of him. His hand flopped uselessly against the table and I could see the murderous desire in his gaze and I grinned, gently hopping off of the table and signaling for one of Madeleine's assistants to come over.

"Your father had seen too much so he had to be killed as well. So you know, in a strange way their deaths really were your fault," I said, relishing in the glee that I felt when I saw the horror cross Aryan's expressive eyes. Bending down I whispered into his ear, "If only your mother hadn't been so confident in your abilities then she would have followed me like I had asked and you wouldn't have lost them."

"Mur...er."

I grinned widely at Aryan's attempt at calling me a murderer and pulled back so I could pat his cheek one more time.

"It isn't murder," I said with one eyebrow raised. "It's simply a case of actions leading to a consequence."

Aryan gargled something incomprehensible but the assistant had come over to me and I turned away from him.

"Knock him out. And make sure he goes into a tube as soon as possible," instructed the man in a lab coat. Aryan grunted even louder as I turned away and I smirked over my shoulder at him.

"Don't worry. If the procedure works then you won't have to worry about these feelings or making your own decisions anymore. I'll just order you to forget about your family and then you'll be perfectly happy."

Aryan's eyes widened in a slight look of panic before I grinned broadly and left the laboratory behind me. I felt much better now that I had been able to re-establish my control. Satoshi's betrayal would soon be nothing but a brief annoyance. Once he was captured I would make sure he never disobeyed me ever again.

A/N Ohhhh man, Neptune is so twisted!! >.< And I was scouring my fic trying to figure out if I had already given Aryan a last name but I honestly couldn't remember or find one! If any of you happen to remember if I did then I'm sorry, his new last name is Patel :P

Happy Holidays, btw! Not sure if I'll be able to post for a few weeks since I'm visiting my in-laws for the next two weeks, but I didn't want to leave you all hanging when I had this chapter ready.