“Suffice it to say, my brother was quite brilliant,” Mr. Fuji said as he poured tea in his small kitchen. James and Jen sat at a small square table, while Typhlosion napped in a corner. “He was the top genetics student at the university when we were younger.”

“Genetics?” Jen asked, her brow furrowed. Mr. Fuji smiled.

“The study of how living things pass on their traits from one generation to the next, and what is responsible for those traits.” Mr. Fuji took a sip of tea and his expression fell a little. “My brother was outperforming students with several years' worth of study after just his first semester, and his papers were featured in the most prominent journals in the world. Even the great Professor Samuel Oak's research was overshadowed by my brother's achievements.”

“What kind of genetics did he write about?” James asked him. Mr. Fuji's mouth tightened.

“At the time, cloning was all the rage. The idea of being able to replicate Pokémon without resorting to breeding was a revolutionary idea at the time, especially for critically endangered species. Some scientists even thought that with the correct technological breakthrough, extinct Pokémon could be brought back to life.”

“Fossil Pokémon, right?” James' face had fallen just like Mr. Fuji's had. “Like Aerodactyl or Kabutops?”

“The very same.” Mr. Fuji pointed to the photograph of himself and his companions, which he'd removed from the annex wall. “Now, my story has three lead actors. You can tell which one I am.” He indicated the middle figure, who looked just like the current Mr. Fuji, except with a bit more hair. “This one is my brother,” he said, tapping the picture. The thin man to his right, his brother, wore glasses above his prominent nose. His grey hair was in a pompadour style, and his pointed beard protruded from his chin. He didn't look all that much like Mr. Fuji, but Jen took the old man's word that they were brothers.

“And the third?” she asked. Mr. Fuji followed her hand as she pointed to the third subject. The man to Fuji's left was much taller than the brothers, and out of all three, he looked the least like a scientist. He had broad shoulders and an easy smile, and his shoulder-length hair was straight and dark. Mr. Fuji waited for the two youngsters to look up before he continued.

“Mackenzie Rexel. Another one of the most driven people I've ever known, and one of my best friends for a time.” he said with a sombre nod. Both youngsters' expressions changed in an instant; Jen's eyes widened in shock and fear, while James looked enraged. Mr. Fuji frowned at both of them. “You've heard the name?”

“Yes, we've heard the name,” James said, nearly standing up before Jen grabbed his arm. “His notes were stolen a while back when we were in Pewter City.”

“I heard something of that nature on the news. He was scheduled to give a talk at the Pewter Museum of Science around the same time.” Mr. Fuji cleared his throat. “Er-hem. Anyway. Where my brother was tremendously gifted in theoretical genetics, Rexel was an engineer at heart. Oh, he was well versed in genetic theory too, but he took up the burden of turning theory into action while my brother was buried in his books. Rexel spent half his time on fossil digs, and the other half in the lab, studying and improving the gene sequencing equipment the university had been trying to develop.”

“What was the university doing with that kind of tech?” James asked, taking a long sip of tea.

“Like I said, cloning was a big scientific leap.” Mr. Fuji sipped his own tea, then kept going. “Now, my brother was brilliant, but he was...shall we say, obsessive about his work? He could never be truly satisfied when a project was finished. If he had even the slightest doubt, he would try to fine-tune whatever was troubling him. It caused issues once we graduated and began our research, let me tell you. He was respected by his peers for his attention to detail, but donors often became skittish about funding his projects. He would endlessly revisit projects even after their funding had long been used up. Fortunately, Rexel was able to help. His father had been a high-ranking executive at a—let's call it a fairly prominent company—and he helped to fund a lot of our research. It helped that Rexel managed his cloning breakthrough around the same time as we began to rely on his father's money, and museums and bioengineering companies were willing to pay top credit for the technology. Rexel never felt he owed his father a debt; in fact, he felt he had more than given him a return on his investment.” James and Jen both nodded.

“So, Rexel's dad funded your research.” James said quietly. “And it really is true that Rexel is the reason museums can restore Pokémon fossils? One of the guards at the Pewter Museum mentioned that.”

“Just so.” Mr. Fuji almost smiled as he sipped more tea. “Now, the next part of my story is the main reason why I care for this house, and haven't stepped into a research lab in over thirty years.” He paused, took a breath, and continued. “Science wasn't my brother's whole life, of course. As one does, he married a fellow researcher, and they had a daughter a year later. That little girl was the only thing that could ever distract him from his work. He could be fretting over the minutest detail, be it a gene sequence or a typo in his latest paper, but he always had time for his daughter.”

“He sounds like a good guy,” Jen said quietly. Mr. Fuji looked sombre again.

“He was. But when his daughter was six, she fell ill. Both her parents took her to the best doctors in the world, but they never found a cure for her illness. Eventually...she died, just before her seventh birthday.”

“No...” Jen's eyes filled with tears, and James gripped the table hard. “That's...that's awful. To lose a child that young...”

“Indeed. It changed my brother forever.” Mr. Fuji recomposed himself, and took a sip of tea. “Now, before I continue, are you familiar with the idiom 'the definition of insanity'?”

“Never heard it before,” James said, while Jen nodded her agreement. “What does it mean?”

“In common parlance, it is performing the same actions over and over, and expecting to obtain a different result. My brother's actions from this point fit the idiom perfectly. After his daughter died, my brother and his wife were devastated. In his grief, my brother stopped trying to clone Pokémon and started a far more dangerous and ethically suspect project. He intended to clone his daughter and bring her back to life.” Mr. Fuji's expression became its darkest yet. “His wife pleaded with him not to try, but once my brother became obsessed with an idea or a project, he would never let it go. Predictably, it never worked. Every time he thought he had something to work with, it disintegrated before his eyes. The rift between him and his wife grew with every unsuccessful attempt, and finally, after a year of failure, she left him. I tried to counsel him over the affair, tried to convince him that his daughter's spirit was at rest, and replicating her would do no good. She had been so well-loved in life that it would mean nothing but pain if he kept trying to bring her back. He was not to be persuaded, though, and I am ashamed to say that things became heated between us. I said some things I could never take back.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“You had to set him straight,” James said. “He wasn't listening to sense.” Mr. Fuji nodded quietly.

“Right. Unfortunately, Mackenzie Rexel was...less concerned than I was about the risks involved. He offered the use of the technology he had developed himself, and my brother accepted. That was the end for me. I told them both that they were meddling with nature in a way that I would not tolerate, and that they would regret it in the end. My career as a scientist meant less to me than my conscience, and I would not allow even the bond of family to affect that.” Mr. Fuji brushed a tear of his own from his eye. “Well, even though I had left the field, I still kept tabs on my brother and my former colleague. From what I gathered, Rexel had underestimated the kind of financial power they needed to keep the project going, and they were soon forced to go their separate ways. Rexel moved into more practical areas of the bioengineering field, but my brother would not cease his attempts to bring back his daughter. And then...” Mr. Fuji's face became furious. “He approached my brother.”

“Who's he?” Jen asked. Mr. Fuji breathed hard before answering.

“I swore I would never speak his name. Let us simply say that he was a...well, I won't mince words. A common criminal, that's what he was at the end of the day. The leader of an organization dedicated to stealing and reselling rare and dangerous Pokémon.”

“That's terrible,” Jen said. “How could they...?” Mr. Fuji waved an impatient hand to cut her off.

“I never wanted to know. Anyway, his 'scientists'—my heavens, it is such an insult to the profession to refer to them as such—had found a piece of genetic material from one of the rarest Pokémon of all. This man wanted to use that material as a base to create the most powerful creature the planet has ever seen. Well, for the most part, this was unheard of. One company created a Pokémon completely out of programming code, decades ago, but that was probably a one-off event. This project would mean taking the DNA of an existing creature and then re-engineering it to make a totally new one. I knew it would involve dangerous and unethical gene-splicing techniques, combining the material with that of other creatures, but I never thought my brother would accept something like that.”

“But he did.” James closed his eyes and grimaced. Mr. Fuji nodded again.

“Yes, he did. As it happened, Rexel had sold a great deal of his technology to this criminal outfit, and it was like he and my brother had never separated. The man gave my brother five years to complete the project, and wrote him what was essentially a blank check. Money was no object, this man said. It would be worth it when he possessed whatever weapon my brother designed.”

“Weapon,” Jen said under her breath, but her tone sounding like the word was poisonous. “To think someone could abuse a Pokémon like that, natural or created.”

“This man had no conscience, young lady. Monsters like him only care about the kind of power they can obtain.” Mr. Fuji sighed again. “Well, my brother assembled a team of researchers, and set to work. He was, of course, running two experiments at once. One was the project for which he was being paid, the creation of the world's most powerful Pokémon. The other—whether it was unknown or irrelevant to his financier, it matters not—was his continued attempt to recreate his daughter.”

“The guy didn't care whether your brother was using the funds for his own personal project?” James asked. “That doesn't sound like normal behaviour.” Mr. Fuji looked impatient.

“This was not a normal man, haven't I stressed that enough?” He coughed, and continued. “Well, after the end of five years, success was nearly in my brother's hands. The artificial Pokémon project was nearly complete...and he'd managed to create a facsimile of his daughter as well. According to the information I obtained, it was nearly an exact reproduction of her form, almost perfectly copied from the original. You'd have thought that he'd actually managed to bring his daughter back from the grave. That brief moment of success was the high point before the fall.” Mr. Fuji shuddered, looking like he might break down any moment. “From what I gathered, the clone of his daughter wasn't stable enough to survive. The artificial Pokémon did live, through sheer force of will or otherwise. I have no doubt that they'd infused its genetic makeup with something that would keep it alive no matter what. There was too much at stake to risk losing that one. That was the last anybody ever heard from that research team.”

“Why? What happened to them?” Jen looked stunned again.

“The creature turned out to be too powerful. With nothing restraining its strength, it broke free from containment and destroyed the laboratory in which it was made. None of the lab's human residents survived the destruction.” Mr. Fuji really did have tears in his eyes now. “Learning of my brother's demise was probably the worst I've ever felt in my life. Sometimes I wonder...whether, in his last moments, my brother ever considered how foolish he'd been...” Mr. Fuji brushed his eyes clear. “Well, I can only hope that his spirit is at rest now. That he found peace where he'd lost it in life.” James and Jen stared for a moment, then Jen spoke.

“What about the Pokémon they created? What happened to it?” Mr. Fuji shrugged a little.

“I don't know. The most popular rumour is that it took up residence in a cave outside Cerulean City, using its psychic powers to control the other Pokémon living there and defend the area. The other major rumour is that it fled to a remote mountain range in Johto, content to live on its own. Regardless of what is true, I would certainly advise any trainer against going after it. I don't even want to imagine the use that creature would have been put to, had my brother's financier secured ownership.”

“And what about Rexel?” James put in. “Did you ever find out what he did after he separated from your brother?” Mr. Fuji shrugged.

“Again, I couldn't tell you. He founded a bioengineering company, that I do know. They have found several breakthroughs in health and medicine, I believe. Perhaps he saw the error of fiddling with nature for gain, and instead put his skills to improving the lives of others.” Mr. Fuji drained the last of his tea and sighed again. “As for me, I have been caretaker of Lavender's Pokémon Tower and the House of Memories for over thirty years now. I do not regret leaving the scientific profession, even if my own gifts could have helped to benefit others. I am content to calm and care for the spirits of the departed, Pokémon or human.” The old man smiled, then looked at the clock. “Goodness gracious, it's nearly six o'clock already? I did say that my story was not brief, didn't I?” He looked across at the two youngsters. “You'd better get moving, I've kept you far too long.”

“It's no trouble, Mr. Fuji,” Jen said as she finished her tea. “Thanks for the tea, and for telling us about your brother. I hope he did find some peace after all.” Mr. Fuji smiled.

“I appreciate that, young lady. And I thank you and your friend for listening to an old man's ramblings. A cup of tea with willing listeners is worth more than you think.” James and Jen both waved, and James roused Typhlosion before they left the House of Memories.

----------------------------------------

Neither youngster spoke much as they walked to the Pokémon Centre. Jen's green eyes were full of fright all the way from the House of Memories, and James stared into space, thinking about Mr. Fuji's story, particularly Dr. Rexel's part in it. The name had roused suspicion in his mind, but he didn't want to frighten Jen further. They checked into the Centre as usual, and only when Jen looked calm did he voice his thought.

“Hey, Jen?” he asked, and Jen looked over at him. “Mr. Fuji told us how Dr. Rexel worked with fossil technology, and how he helped his brother?”

“Uh-huh,” Jen responded, her eyes narrowing. “What about him?”

“Well, the Triassic Admin stole Dr. Rexel's notes from the museum, and I remember him saying that he couldn't let the public read them. What if...”—James paused, taking one last moment to think—“what if Dr. Rexel is working with Triassic? Or did in the past?” Jen rolled her eyes.

“Not this again, James. I know you don't like Triassic, but can you just let the police handle them? This isn't a movie, and that Admin is dangerous. I'm still shocked you didn't get hurt in Pewter City.”

“C'mon, Jen. It makes sense. The guy's name sounds like somebody who'd mess around with dinosaurs, right? If...”

“It makes no sense at all!” Jen cut him off, an edge to her voice, and Typhlosion snapped awake from his nap. “Just because somebody's name sounds odd, that doesn't make them part of some criminal outfit. You're too worked up about Triassic, and now you're connecting dots that have nothing to do with each other. Just let it go for once. We've got two gyms nearby, and we need to plan for them.” James considered responding, but then slumped in his chair.

“You know what, you're right. We do have bigger plans right now. I'll try to keep the Triassic stuff down for a while.” Jen nodded in triumph, and the two youngsters set about preparing for the next leg of their journey.