Chapter 44: Seeing Double

"You were the one in the suit?" I asked. "But... you tried to kill me."

"As a scientist and businessman, it's a standard to continue until achievement is accomplished. So don't think that failure is going to prevent me from trying again. Otherwise I wouldn't have made so much progress," he said, going over to a metal table that held his red armor, or what seemed left of it.

"Why do you want me dead?"

He strove over to Metagross, stroking one of his arms. "I want you out of the picture. And death seems to be the best option."

His tone sounded more like he was deciding what show to watch on TV. My heart hammered. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing," he said simply. "I'm a man who wants to make an empire. And I can't make an empire without an heir."

"Is that all Daniel is to you?" I asked in horror. "Someone to take over?"

"Someone to continue my legacy. Someone to ensure that our name will be stretched over the entire world until the end, yes. That was always his purpose."

"You run Silph Co, not a tyrannical country," I spat. "How dare you treat your son that way!"

"Your values of child bearing and mine aren't all that different. It's just how we define success that is."

"Love," my voice shook. "Love is the only thing that matters. Not power. Not money. Not fame. All that really matters is love. Of our Pokemon and friends."

"That's nice and sentimental, but not how the world works." He shook his head.

"Why do you blame me for Daniel not wanting to take over the company?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"If it weren't for his mother taking him to see that infernal water freak show, he would never have met you. And he would have never gotten interested in Pokemon. He would have never sided with you with what is most important in life," he seethed.

I remembered the day Daniel and I met easily. My mother had been performing in one of her water shows at the Cerulean Gym. I'd found out then that he wasn't allowed contact with Pokemon and couldn't believe anyone could have such a low opinion about the best friends a human could have. "Then why did you try to kill me in the past if the catalyst was just meeting him?"

"I wanted him to see that I was right all this time. Pain really does help a person bury themselves in their work," he mused.

"You're a monster. He was always right about you," I whispered. "You're so much worse than I imagined."

"And you don't even get it," I continued. "You're the one who pushed him away. If you would have made the company fun and not all about money, he would have loved coming up with ideas to help Trainers. It wasn't me. And if I died, you wouldn't change Daniel. He'd still be the same person. Because he doesn't give up on people. And he doesn't give up on what he believes in."

"I'm still willing to try it my way." Zachary snapped his fingers.

Metagross aimed a Hammer Arm at me.

"No!" someone roared, knocking me over.

"Stop interfering!" I heard Zachary scream.

My body had tumbled to the right, onto the floor. I felt arms gripped by hands and looked up to see Daniel.

"How did you get here?" I asked, dazed.

He pulled me up and didn't answer as he glared at his father. "I'm so done with this. You know what's going to happen now, dad?"

"Oh, so you're not surprised to see me?"

"I figured it out before you left." Daniel's grip tightened on my arm. I'd never seen him so upset before. "If you were even somewhat normal you would at least try to reason with me to take over the company."

"You ran away from home. That was pretty nonnegotiable."

"I wouldn't have run away all those years ago if you'd just listen to what I wanted!" Daniel yelled. "I left because my entire life, you never asked about what I wanted. It was only the best. The newest. The brightest. And you wouldn't even let me be around Pokemon. Well, I found ways around your stupid system. And of course you never noticed because you were so busy being at work that I might as well never existed."

"Why do you think I was at work, Daniel?" he argued. "To make sure you had a great life!"

"A great life?" Daniel repeated. "My parents never spent any time with me. I was all alone. I was completely alone until I met Emma. And Misty. And you just went and ruined everything."

"I was perfecting the business for you," Zachary said, less certain.

"I never wanted the business. The only thing I wanted was people who loved me. Who spent time with me because they cared."

"Why didn't you ever tell me that?" Zachary asked in exasperation.

"I thought it was obvious," Daniel said.

"Didn't your parents ever love you?" I asked his dad.

Zachary straightened and turned back to Metagross, who looked worried. "I never had parents."

"You didn't? But what about all those stories about how successful they were?" Daniel asked.

"History is easier to fabricate than science."

"Dad. There's no way this is ok for you to have done this..." Daniel said. He kept going, but I noticed Metagross eyeing something on the table, then looking at me. Eyeing the table, then me. I crept over to it, finding a lot of really wordy documents. But next to them was a journal. I opened it up and began reading.

"May 2030. Suit in progress. Faulty cranial commands. I'm the only test subject. No side effects.... September 2030 Suit advancing. Headaches developing after use. Time travel study beginning.... December 2030 Celebi found for time and dimensional travel research. Constant headaches. These suits are too important to him to not develop. I'm beginning to understand the bond he feels for his Pokemon."

I skipped a few pages to find handwriting in a furious scrawl. "August 2034. It's her fault he went away. He told me about the time they time traveled. I have the date. Anything can happen in a different time. He could have been CEO. He could have taken over. I did it all for him. My head..."

I shut the book quickly. "Daniel."

"Kind of busy, Em," Daniel said tiredly.

"It's not his fault he's like this."

"Just stay behind me." Daniel looked over his shoulder to see I'd left him. "Or... over there. Listen, be careful. He's dangerous."

"I know," I said calmly, looking at Zachary. "But it's not his fault. It's that suit."

Zachary's eyes widened.

"It's been messing up your brain, hasn't it?" I said sympathetically. "You wouldn't be so aggressive like this normally. You've changed because of that suit."

"I just wanted to make him happy," his father murmured.

Daniel tensed.

"He needs help," I whispered.

"I don't know how to help him. I don't even know where we are." Daniel looked around. "Silph?"

Metagross nodded.

"That's ok, Daniel," I heard from the back of the room. "You've got some back up."

I turned. My mouth fell open. I felt Daniel slacked next to me, at a loss of words for once in his life.

The confident smile I knew so well on a bit older face grinned at me. "Hey, Emma."

"Daniel?" I said.

"In the future flesh." He winked.

Arceus, he gets even better looking, I thought, wishing it wasn't the first thing to come to mind.

"Hi?" my present Daniel said.

"What's up?" Future Daniel gave a small salute.

Same old, new, yet older Daniel. Wow that was confusing.

"What are you doing here?" Zachary asked.

"Well, I knew I'd be here. And Emma would be here. And that they would figure out that something is wrong. Which means that present me has to do something about it so that everything works out the way it was supposed to the entire time."

"Right. I followed that. Did you follow that?" I asked the Daniel beside me. He nodded weakly.

"Don't worry, guys. I remember exactly what I said from when I was you." Future Daniel pointed to the Daniel next to me, then paused. "Or at least I think I do. Did I ramble? I'm rambling now, so I must have."

"Just go ahead and get to the parts that matter," I said weakly.

"Right. Well, Metagross, seems like you've had a change of heart when it comes to what's best for your Trainer. We can fix him up if you help. The lab has been working on a lot of neuroscience developments. I made sure of that," Future Daniel said.

"Metagross, don't listen to him. I'm the CEO of this company, I make the rules, and the way we're going about this is by making sure he never meets her." Zachary pointed to me. Daniel immediately shielded me with his body.

"Metagross, I promise we'll get him fixed up," the future Daniel said soothingly.

"Liar!"

I could feel Daniel shaking.

"Hey. It'll be fine," I whispered, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I had that suit on too," he said back in a whisper. "I might end up like my dad."

Future Daniel seemed to hear him. "Don't worry about it. You'll be fine. It's only if you wear it multiple times that anything happens. He was trying it on for weeks before the headaches."

Daniel shook his head, still trembling.

"You're going to want to catch him," Future Daniel said casually to me.

"What?" I asked. But right then, Daniel started falling forward. "Daniel!"

I caught him with a lot of effort. He wasn't exactly light.

"Son!" Zachary exclaimed, rushing to my side to help lift him.

"Come on, over to the couch in your office," Future Daniel said. I was not liking his know-it-all tone. Or the way he was going about all this like we were playing mini golf and we'd lost a golf ball and that was it. Just like him to take serious things like time travel and brain defects like a walk in the park.

We lowered Daniel onto the couch.

"Come on, dad. He'll be ok. I'll take care of you."

"Why would you? After all I've done." Zachary's voice wavered in what sounded like crying. I was startled to look and find his eyes tearing up. "You haven't talked to me in years. Not since you left home."

"Because a lot happens to me that I didn't understand when I was passed out that makes me forgive you. Come on. Let's go."

Zachary touched the past Daniel's hair, smoothing it out. "Alright. For you."

"Thanks. Metagross, can you lead him to the neuroscience labs? I have something to tell Emma really fast."

Metagross and Zachary left slowly, giving the older Daniel plenty of time to study me. His face went through various degrees of warmth, seriousness, concern, humor, and smugness. Even if he was older, I felt like I could read his expressions pretty well. But I still didn't like that he was so mysterious and not giving me any answers. It felt like something Daniel would do. Just to get under my skin and have a laugh.

"What do you want?" I asked, leaning closer to the passed out Daniel.

"You kissed me, right?" Daniel gestured to the asleep version of himself.

He was very deep under my skin. "Why would I tell you that? Wouldn't you know if it was true?"

"Well you haven't admitted it yet, so I wanted to hear all about it with older ears." His smile was half polite and half stepping over the line. "Besides, research says that every time you remember something, it changes slightly. Over the years it's changed a lot, so you better tell me the truth."

"You're still immature." I crossed my arms, not wanting to tell him anything about the kiss that I was still refusing to think about for myself.

He chuckled. "I've gotten better."

"I guess you know what happens in the next couple years," I said slyly.

"That's not for you to know," Daniel said, humor gone.

"Then why are you talking to me?"

"I can't ever resist, now can I?" And the humor was back.

My eyes widened in shock. "What makes you so daring in the future?"

"Daniel!" I heard from the doorway. "What did we say about this?"

"That you remembered the past happening exactly like this so it's ok," he called back, not taking his eyes from me as he smirked.

This was too flipping weird.

"Can I go back to the past now?" I asked, done.

"I don't blame you," the female voice said again. I looked up to see long brown hair. Hazel eyes. Arms crossed.

Impossible.

"Me?"

"You," she said.

"You get better looking, don't you?" Daniel mused.

"Daniel," future me said testily, as always. "Why don't you not spoil anything for me?"

"But that's no fun."

"I thought you gave up on fortune telling?"

"Well, I seem to have a talent for it." He traced a fake mustache.

"Still not able to grow one?" I asked, wanting to get back at him for being annoying.

He frowned. "Wow, that was a low blow. And yes I can."

The future me shook her head. "Either way, you're nothing but trouble."

"Emma, it's not my fault my dad went psychotic and tried to kill you. Besides, I fixed it. I've been working on getting the research and development team on it without my dad knowing."

"Yes, but what about other future things?"

Daniel looked back at me with that pursed lips whine, which he still apparently did. "Fine. I'll leave."

"Good."

"It was a pleasure to see you again, Em," Future Daniel said, smiling. "Just don't be too stubborn."

"Oh I'll stay stubborn," future me said as Daniel left, grinning. She scoffed. "He's a handful."

I looked back at the Daniel I was in charge of, feeling his forehead. He wasn't warm, but he was breathing.

"I need to talk to you," future me said.

"This is worse than talking to my mom." I groaned.

"Well, we're stubborn. Daniel is right." Future me sat on the other side of Daniel, staring at him oddly before smiling softly in a way I didn't know I ever smiled.

"I thought you weren't supposed to tell me future things," I said warily.

"I'm not going to. I'm going to give you some present advice," she said, letting her hand reach towards Daniel. She grabbed his hand. My face contorted and I fought off a possessive wave that I'd never really felt before. She noticed. "Oh, sorry. It's... I couldn't help myself."

"Something happens in the future between us," I said. It was too obvious to ignore.

"You've known that pretty much your whole life. Don't act like you didn't."

"I thought you weren't going to tell me?"

"I didn't. You did." She smiled. "It's kind of a loophole."

"That doesn't make sense." I wasn't really liking talking to me.

"No, but Daniel makes it make sense when he wants things to happen, so I've just decided to do the same thing."

"So what do you want me to know that's so important?"

She leaned forward seriously. "Don't mess this up. He's been putting up with us for years, you know? And if there is a way I could go back and been more open... I'd take it."

"You can't rush me growing up," I said defensively.

"I know. Just be open. Oh," she leaned backward and practically snorted, "and don't ever go by that phrase 'follow your heart'. That's stupid."

"Um, ok."

"That'll make sense one day."

It made sense now, but whatever. "Sure."

She gave me a look, then sighed. "I guess you need to head back."

"Back? How?"

Future me reached around Daniel, under his back.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, wanting to push her off.

"Calm down, I'm just getting this." She held up the gun from before. "He shot himself so get to you, you know. Without hesitation."

I pressed the gun to me and looked at Daniel, whose face twitched. "Is his dad going to be ok?"

"I'm sure he will. Don't worry, if things were really bad, we would have gone back in time to try to set things up as best as they could. But everything has worked out."

I took a deep breath. "Ok."

"Em?" Daniel mumbled.

Future me moved from her place, pulling on me. Before I could retort, she'd forced me in her spot, pulling the gun from my hand and laying it beside me, pushing my hand to rest on Daniel's head, right in his hair.

"What the heck?" I mouthed at her. She grinned and bolted out of the room.

Before I could start fuming about being manipulated into being this close to him, I heard Daniel sigh tiredly, as if he was about to fall back asleep.

"Hey. You need to wake up," I said, wanting to scoot away to avoid the awkwardness of invading his personal bubble. 

His hand came to his head, finding mine. "No."

"Why not?" I asked, feeling like he was being as stubborn as I was with waking up.

"This is too nice. I can't wake up." He sighed, his hand falling limp against mine. I ran my hand through his hair a few times, knowing he really was going back to sleep. He hopefully wouldn't remember the gesture. Otherwise, I wouldn't hear the end of it. 

I saw future me at the glass door. I frowned. She pointed to her wrist and indicated five hours.

Fine. We could sleep a little. Then show up right where we left off. I leaned back against the couch, closing my eyes instantly and drifting off to sleep.

Wooow. A lot happened, right? You go ahead and comment. :P

Pokemon Question of the Day: If you met your future self, what do you think they'd have to say to you?

-Flips