Hello. Forgive me for not giving you the second chapter when I originally planned to, but some computer problems blocked me from doing so. I hope that this second chapter will be satisfactory to you.

The Meaning and the Way
By:
Zenith Magus

Chapter Two- Past Origins


No words could best sum up the misery and torment Si Murawell had felt ever since he was eight years of age. Seven years had passed, in which he'd lived a happy life. He had played with the children of the neighborhood in imaginary games involving Pokemon. They had taken on the roles of Pokemon trainers, battling against each other with imaginary versions of the creatures. In his mind, Si had also envisioned going on a Pokemon journey. Imaginary adventures took place within the confines of his mind, in which he caught legendary Pokemon with the greatest of ease. The road to Pokemon mastery there was quick and simple, every trainer falling to the might of his imagined dream team with little effort. Within his mind, he had achieved the distinction of being Pokemon Master of the leagues of all three lands. The young boy did lead a happy life, which was not at all affected by his mandatory attendance to school. Si hadn't reached the age in which his attitude towards mandatory education would invariably become bitter. The cheerful kid cared little for the easy assignments of school. He just performed them to the best of his ability, pouring heart and soul into them, before he again entered the dream realm of his mind.

Life continued to be like that for Si Murawell in those seven years. It was in the eighth year of his life, however, that the happiness ended and he was plunged into a bitter and horrible existence. On that particular year of his life, Si's schizophrenia chose to manifest itself. He had recieved the mental illness from his mother's side of the family. Her grandfather had suffered from schizophrenia, thinking that he was also a notorious member of Team Rocket in addition to his harmless original personae. After his death, the disease had been passed on to his son through genetics. The old man's son was also her father, who was lucky enough to only be a carrier of the genetic sequence that caused the illness as opposed to a victim. He'd married a woman and produced Si's mother from their union. She too had inherited the disease, but was also lucky enough not to be a victim of it. Thanking the gods that she was so lucky, she'd married a man once she'd come of age. From their marriage, they produced Si. He was a young boy who appeared to be normal for seven years. However, the illness could choose to manifest itself at any time. As such, they constantly watched him almost every second of his life, hoping that the disease would never manifest itself in their progeny.

However, all the hopes of his parents were all for naught. At age eight, Si's schizophrenia chose to begin its deadly work in his mind. Yet the young boy's case would prove to be a lot more different than any other recorded instance of the mental illness. Instead of bringing a completely different personality into existence as most medical texts said it would, it created a dark version of him. Why the schizophrenia chose to work differently in the boy's body was never known, but this case of the disease still defied the atypical description of it found in most medical texts. Si's yami side simply blinked into existence within the infinite darkness of his host's mind. He had all the happy memories of his carefree host, his kind and gentle hikari. Yet there was a difference between him and the effeminate light side that he coexisted with. While the hikari was peaceful and kind to the extreme, the yami was the very embodiment of darkness and vile destruction. All he knew from his birth was the need to control. He only thought of being the dominant personality, of being the cruel and controlling tyrant.

That was not to say, however, that he could not enjoy the finer things in life. The yami could indulge in intelligent pursuits, even be the ardent believer of any religion that advocated peace and happiness. He would simply twist the beliefs to his own vile ways, making them seem just as horrible and twisted as he was. In that way, the boy's yami was truly a manifestation of evil. The yami wished to control the body of his hikari. He wanted to sieze it and use it as his vessel to commit deeds of evil against his hikari and against the world. But first, he would have to take care of the one being that stood in his way. The one being that prevented his evil from circulating throughout Si's soul and turning him into a full servant of sin and vile evil. The yami side of Si Murawell would have to sieze control of this young boy's body from his hikari. Thusly did he plan to take control of Si Murawell. The dark side proceeded to quickly outline a simple plan. It consisted simply of navigating the dark and endless void of his host's soul until he found the hikari. From there, the yami would just overtake the hikari. He would subdue his pacifistic counterpart, turning him aside and allowing him to sieze control of their vessel. The yami could then take control of Si and proceed to commit bad deeds.

The plan was easily executed with little effort. It took the yami but a minute to find the hikari lurking at the centerpoint of Si's soul. There he stood, interacting with the people who existed outside of Si's soul. He was still directing the body to make sufficient responses towards the stimuli in the outside enviroment when the yami struck out at him. The hikari was taken unawares in the brief struggle. He tried to fight against the power of the yami. The resulting scuffle within the depths of his very being left Si in a comatose state. Without a personae to control the mind and body of the young boy, Si became something that was equivalent to an empty car. That comparison rang true because there was no one in control of his mind. The hikari was too busy trying to fend off the yami seeking to sieze control of Si. On the other hand, Si's dark side was still locked in combat with the being that he was the polar opposite off. Yet he was spawned from it. His very state of being was a twisted version of the original, the hikari.

The two personalities fought long and hard, the yami pouring on the offensive and the hikari just playing it defensive. Meanwhile, Si lay in a coma within the hospital of Pallet Town. The yami's attack upon the hikari had come while he was within a classroom
in the Pallet Town Education Academy. That had left Si to lie out cold in the school's hallways. He had been heading back to his homeroom in the school when the battle had started. With no personae in control, he had simply collapsed in the hallways. By a stroke of bad luck, no student was allowed out of their class for the next twenty minutes due to a school-wide silent reading period. As a result of this schoolwide effort to promote the enjoyment of literature, Si would lie undiscovered on the floor of the school hallways for those twenty minutes. After those increments of time had passed, the eighth grade classes were let out to go to their next classes. Doors that locked the students of the eighth grade within their classrooms for forty five minutes swung open to admit the pouring scores of eighth graders into the hallway.

The mass of adolescents swarmed into the hallway of the school, absorbed in the matters of their own lives. As the teeming horde of middle-schoolers navigated the halls in a large crowd, they failed to notice the comatose boy lying by the wayside. However, it wasn't before long that an eighth-grader exiting the bathrooms happened to trod over the unmoving boy. Curious as to what it was he felt under his feet, the teen gazed down. When he saw Si lying out cold on the floor, he was surprised. Initially thinking that some stupid 2nd grader had actually thought to take a nap, he rudely slammed a foot into the boy's ribs to awaken. He did not come awake at that sudden blow, however. His yami and hikari were still locked in their battle for control over Si's body. In this state, he was like a discarded puppet. The strings were left unattended, leaving Si to lie in a heap on the floor. When the young vessel was still lying on the floor despite his best efforts, the upperclassman's mind deduced that this kid needed medical attention. It was then that he suddenly pushed through the crowds, dashing towards the office of the school nurse. His speed to reach the school medical official was born of desperation. For if he left the boy unattended and prone on the floor, he could die. And he did not want to be responsible in any way for contributing to a person's death.

Within a few minutes, the boy was able to reach the nurse's office. After all, it lay just a few minutes away from the bathrooms where Si had collapsed. Out of breath due to his frantic running and little exercise, the boy panted as he stumbled into the nurse's office. Being a panting and heaving mess, he soon caught the eye of the nurse. The boy managed to explain Si's plight to the school nurse, who soon followed him back to the young Si's comatose form. By then, a crowd had ringed the boy. They were curious as to why this prone male lay helpless on the floor. Little did they know of the boy's plight as he lay out cold. The yami's battle with the hikari for control was a mystery to them. Within moments, the school nurse pushed her way through the crowd. Using her arms to brush the curious onlookers aside, she worked her way towards the center of the ring. The nurse entered the center, bending over to check the young boy's pulse. She did have some work experience as a nurse before joining the school staff. That explained her instincts towards checking Si's pulse. However, her instincts were not needed. At that moment, the boy awoke. The battle between the yami and hikari had finally ended, with the yami having driven the hikari to submission. Si's dark side was now in control after simply being an observer in the boy's life.

The young boy awoke from the comatose state he'd been in, now throughly changed. His one gentle eyes had now become sharper, more intense. Si's face was now seemingly creased with eyebrows downward for almost every moment he would walk. The face itself had a sharper tone, having lost its rounded look. As it was, the mouth seemed to forever be frozen in a half-smirk. He was no longer what he had been for his happy life as a child. No, he had now become the snide and cruelly tormented being that he would always be until the discovery of the Purpose. Si's eyes opened to see the nurse's face hovering over him, concern etched upon it. He rudely arose to his feet, brushing off her concern with a snideness much expected of the high-schoolers.
Smirking, he strutted off throughout the crowd. He was now and seemingly forever changed, a being of darkness and evil. Gone were the good deeds of his life, replaced by practical jokes that caused harm to people. He soon began to violently strike against
his hikari, cutting his vessel's flesh. Acts of despair and villiany would shape him for these few years. He would soon be exiled to the land of Cinnabar, for his family to avoid social shame. From there, he'd find solace in a religion. A religion that would soothe him, ultimately driving him to drop his academic studies and set out on a journey to fulfill a prophecy of a group that had given so much to him. For a cult that had given him strength in an eternal penance and helped his hikari, fulfilling its goals would further solve his problem. It would give him a happy existence in which he could fulfill his goals..

END Chapter Two

Forgive me for the short length. This chapter was meant as a background chapter, to explain everything that'd led up to the story's start. I had planned to make it have a greater length, but I have already missed my promised delivery deadlines on this fic.

I will be graduating in a few days. However, my updates this summer shall decrease in volume over the summer. This is because I have to participate in a Distance Education program this summer. Here is hoping that you will recieve my fic well.