Deception
Part 7
By Jame's Rose

Chapter 15: The Nightingale’s Victory

He knew what he had to do now, to save Jessie; he had to try a sneak attack. He crept into the foliage at the edge of the beach and crept along, gun in hand, until he got behind the man holding Jessie.

Just as he was about to strike him down, an ear-piercing cry could be heard above. He looked up and saw a black crow ferociously fighting with a Nightingale. He paused there for a moment watching as the two birds fought the life or death battle. Every time the crow got the upper hand and dived towards the Nightingale, the Nightingale dodged its attack. They pecked, they ripped, they slashed at each other, and every time the Nightingale fought with more strength than the attack before.

He looked back at the man holding Jessie and could see the lavender blue strands of hair under the ridge of the hood. The man was still himself; nothing had changed since this had first happened. He raised his gun one more time and aimed it at the back of the man.

Just as he pulled the trigger, the man spun around holding Jessie in front of him. The gun penetrated her chest, straight through her heart.

She was dead before she dropped to the ground.

James stood there looking at Jessie’s lifeless body. He was terrified. What had he done? The man once holding Jessie stood back and took of his black coat. Now it was off, James could see the man was wearing the same white Team Rocket uniform he was. He was looking back at and exact mirror image of himself. The man stood there and snickered at James. Although the man looked just like himself, there was something different in the mans eyes. His eyes were full of hate and evil, power and lacking emotion, but James, James knew that that was himself all those years ago…but now, now he had changed. Those emotionless eyes were now filled with tears of sadness for his lost friend, and fear of the man he used to be, that was standing right in front of him. The man spread his arms out wide and stood there staring at James. Above the battle of the Crow and Nightingale continued. James looked up at them, then back to his mirror image of himself all those years ago

"Go on" the man said in the most evil voice James had ever heard, "Take your best shot."

As James stood there, his fear suddenly became anger. Not moving from his spot, he aimed his gun at his former self.

"You won’t shoot." The man said.

James looked at him in bewilderment.

"You miss the old you. You want people to be terrified of you. You want to control them. Remember those times when you would kill people just to get one thing? You want to go back to that don’t you? You miss the power, the control. If you shoot me, you will lose all that, but if you don’t, you can always go back to the old you, and when you wake up, you can kill that Jessie……just like you did here." He snickered, pointing down at the still body on the floor in front of him and James.

The Nightingale screamed above as the Crow caught it by its throat. James looked up, and only then, realised what their purpose was.

"You know you don’t want to kill me. The temptation is too much to go back to the evil heart. Inside, you are just like me."

"That’s where you’re wrong." He said calmly, still pointing the gun at the man, "I’m nothing like you, not any more. If there’s one thing Jessie has shown me, it’s that no matter what happens in your life, no matter how down things get, blaming it on someone by hurting their feelings or at worst, killing them, is wrong."

"Ha! But Jessie is always hitting you and abusing you, haven’t you just once wished to cause her pain because of that?"

"No." James said sternly, "Because I know that inside she is just hiding her emotions. She had a tough life when she was a child; she had to be in control otherwise she wouldn’t have survived. That’s just her nature."

"But your nature was like mine. Evil and un-caring. You won’t shoot, because you don’t want to become that caring person."

James looked back down at Jessie lying still on the wet sand. The rain poured down on her lifeless body, soaking her clothes. The small river of blood flowing from her chest mixed with the sand. He looked back to the man.

"Guess again."

He fired.

As the man fell to the ground next to Jessie, a screech came from above…and the crow fell down dead.

@~>~>~~

James woke with a start. He calmed his breathing and sat up. Dark clouds were beginning to form in the distance and the wind was beginning to pick up. He looked across the Jessie’s sleeping bag…but no one was in it. He frowned at looked at his clock.

11.45pm!!

He had missed Jessie leaving. Suddenly, he heard a muffled sound coming from a bag next to Meowth’s empty sleeping bag. He got up and opened the bag.

Inside the bag was Meowth, his paws tied together and a cloth covering his mouth. James lifted him out of the bag and untied him.

"Meowth what’s going on? Where’s Jessie?" he panicked.

"Dey got her." Meowth shouted, "Dose double crossing Rocket’s took her away, and believe me James it ain’t for training…der gonna kill her!"

James panicked face turned into one of pure terror. Hearing this, he now knew this whole training fiasco was a trap. They were gonna kill her if he didn’t do something.

He knew now for sure…he did love her. With the help of her song, the Nightingale’s song had drowned the crow. It burst through the evil walls of his heart and sang it’s beautiful song throughout his whole body and soul, and it felt like nothing James had ever experienced before. His heart had never felt so loved, and he was gonna keep it that way.

But now the life of that heart-fulfilling friend was in danger. She was the only person who had cared for him, and she was the only person he had ever loved. He wasn’t going to let her slip away so easily. He stood up and looked at the mass of footprints leading down the beach. There were a lot of people that had come.

The dark storm clouds were now rolling in overhead, as the once beautiful starry night sky was covered by a mattress of evil. Sparks of yellow could be seen scatter through the clouds as low rumbles of thunder echoed around the stormy air. The storm breeze came and blew his hair gently ruffling his uniform as he stood looking down the beach.

The waves were getting bigger and raging more forcefully as the wind became stronger and more menacing.

This was just like his dream.

Just like his dream where Jessie had been killed. But although Jessie had been killed in all of those dreams, and although he had tried to save her in all of them, he still hadn’t tried one thing.

He slid his White Team Rocket Jacket off and let it fall to the ground,

"James, what’cha doing?" Meowth asked

James ignored him. He took off his black gloves one by one and let them join his jacket on the sand.

Now his jacket was off, Meowth could see one thing hooked on his belt that he’d had never seen James handle before……

A gun.

"J, J , James? What’cha doin’ carrying a gun around?!" Meowth gasped

James didn’t turn to look at him when he answered.

"I’m not who you think I am Meowth."

His voice was low and dark. The whininess in his voice was gone. He was being serious.

"What’cha talking about?"

"I guess it’s time the truth came out." James said softly.

Before Meowth could ask again what he was on about, James sprinted across the sands in the direction Jessie was taken.

Chapter 16: The Truth Of Deception

He ran like he’d never run before. The dark mattress above split, pouring its heavy load down to the Earth. It splattered on the sand making it stick to James’s boots. The rain fell hard and fast on his hair, making it too stick to his face as he ran.

The wind had grown into a gale and was whipping around his wet body. The storm grew worse as it got nearer, making the shoreline trees sway and creak. The waves crashed against the shore, then re-treated, only to be replaced by another gigantic wave. A loud clap of thunder shook the Earth, frightening a large flock of Spearow as they rose out of the trees and flew away.

This was exactly like his dream. The storm, the trees, even the sea. In all of those dreams Jessie had died, but he wasn’t going to let that happen this time.

In his first dream he just stood and watched. The second he had tried to kill the man hurting Jessie, but failed. The third time he had tried a sneak attack, but ended up killing Jessie himself.

Out of all of those three, he still had one attempt at rescue he hadn’t tried yet. If he wanted Jessie back, he had to physically fight for her.

He rounded a fairly sharp corner on the beach to see Jessie and the Team walking back to the now visible helicopter waiting patiently.

This was it. He wasn’t going to get another chance at this, but he had a plan.

Everything from that point on seemed almost in slow motion, and as if on que, the man holding a struggling Jessie turned around to see him running towards them. The man signalled for the other 6 men to stop and turn around to face James.

As James got closer, he realised that the man holding Jessie wore the same dark coat and hood as the one in his dream. James suddenly felt a huge adrenaline rush seeing the distress that Jessie was in and decided to put his plan into action. He reached for his belt and pulled out his gun. The man holding Jessie saw what was happening. He held Jessie tighter, her back to his front, and put a knife to her throat. James saw the knife and his heart raced even more. He had to do this right. The Rocket’s also saw what was going on and pulled their guns out, but James was one step ahead of them. While they all pulled back the hammer on the gun setting it to fire, James threw his in the air in front of him. The Rocket that was in front of the others stopped fiddling with his gun and watched James’s gun fly towards him. The man in the hood watched, as James’s got nearer, and then saw how distracted the Rocket was. Then he realised.

"No! It’s a trick!!" he shouted

Before the Rocket could see what was happening, James jumped into the air and smashed him in the face with his boot. The gun was a distraction. The Rocket fell back un-conscious. As James fell back to the ground, he leapt back up and punched two others in the face. As they too fell back, James saw the last two coming towards him from either side, so he leapt back up in the air, spread his legs apart, and kicked them both in the face.

Although Jessie was frightened out of her life, she watched in complete shock on how James could fight, and not only could be fight, he was winning.

James rolled on the sand, grabbed his gun, and smashed it around another one’s head as they tried to get up from the ground.

Suddenly, the once mass of writhing bodies lay still on the ground, and the only ones that were standing were James, Jessie, and the man in the black hood. The only sound that could be heard was that of the rustling trees, the beating of rain, and deep breathing of James as he stood and looked at Jessie and the man. James was out of breath, but he still had one more person to finish off.

"It’s over," he said to the man, "Let her go."

The man in the hood laughed.

"Do you really think it’s over James?"

James flinched, he recognised that voice from somewhere. He thought for a moment, then realised.

"G, G, Giovanni?" he stuttered.

The man in the hood flicked it back, proving that James was correct. Yes, it was Giovanni.

Jessie was totally confused, "James, James what’s going on?" she panicked.

Giovanni pressed the knife harder against her throat making her yelp. James instantly aimed his gun at Giovanni.

"Ah, ah, ah." Giovanni mocked "To kill me you will have to kill her, but, that shouldn’t be a problem for you should it, after all, she’s only a ‘pretend’ friend, right?"

"James what’s he talking about?"

James looked at Jessie as the rain slid down her terrified face.

"That’s not gonna work Giovanni." He said sternly.

"Really?" he replied, "Well I think it’s about time we let Jessie know the truth about you don’t you think so? I do, I think it’s fair we let he know that from the very first day you knew her you had been working undercover…for me."

Jessie looked at James in shock.

"James?" she asked un-believingly.

James hesitated for a moment; he knew the truth had to come out.

"It’s true."

Giovanni snickered

"Well Jessie, now you know that James has been faking his friendship with you for all these years…"

"…NO!" James interrupted.

Giovanni stopped and smirked.

"Maybe that’s how it used to be," James continued, "But I’ve changed now. All those years I was trying to push aside the thought that Jessie may actual become my friend, all that time I was telling myself that this was only a mission, but now I understand. Now I understand what really lies beneath. I regret everything I ever did for you Giovanni, Jessie has shown me the truth. She’s shown me that friends stick together no matter how degrading the situation, that friends will do anything for each other, and she’s brought out an emotion in me I never knew existed…"

He hesitated for a moment and looked straight at Jessie.

"…love."

The sadness in Jessie’s eyes disappeared, and a flicker of what seemed like love appeared, but was then replaced by something else. She smiled at him, but it wasn’t a loving smile, it was almost, snickering at him. Giovanni also snickered. He put his knife away and let Jessie go, but instead of running away, she stood by him and laughed at James.

Now it was James’s turn to be confused.

"Wha, what’s going on?" he stuttered

"Well James," Jessie said, "That was the exact thing we wanted to hear."

Just then a loud clap of thunder and a bright line of lightning came down. James lowered his gun in disbelief.

"Jessie? What are you doing?"

"I think it’s about time you also knew the truth about me too." She said evilly.

James didn’t know what to say. Giovanni stepped forward slightly.

"I expect your wondering what the whole point of this mission was correct James? Well, to be perfectly honest, this had nothing to do with Jessie in the slightest."

He smiled evilly at James who just stood there bewildered.

"I guess this proves my theory," Giovanni continued, "You were my best Rocket James, and even after six years of loyal service, I just had to make sure you wouldn’t betray me for anything…even love. I had to give you the ultimate loyalty test James. I had to see if your blackened heart could be melted. I guess even a heart like yours can be turned with the aid of love. Well James, it looks to me like you’ve failed the test, otherwise you wouldn’t be standing there with a gun in your hand refusing to fire it because you’d kill your precious loved one."

James stood there trying to take all this information in.

"You mean, this whole mission, the part three years, wasn’t a deception against Jessie, it was a deception against…me?"

"Well done James. Oh, and one more thing, that precious loved one of yours standing next to me knew all along what was going on. I had her join you to try and change you. You could almost say she was like an exam paper. She knew you were the best Rocket agent from the day you met. That lie about you training her was just a cover up; it was Jessie who was training you by the looks of it. And even though you’ve just confessed you love her, I hate to tell you…but she doesn’t."

At that moment, the Nightingale in James’s heart fell to the ground, wounded beyond repair. He’d just confessed to himself that he loved Jessie, and he’d allowed himself to because he thought Jessie was his friend, and that hopefully she loved him back. Little did he know the deception was on his part all along. He had never been so alone in his life then he was at that moment. He looked at Jessie with tear filled eyes, hoping for some hint that Giovanni was lying. But Jessie just stared back at him and smiled evilly. Seeing the look in Jessie’s eyes shattered his heart. He dropped the gun to the wet sand and stood there in shock. His emotions were going haywire. He was terrified, shocked, angry, sad, heartbroken and most of all, alone.

As the tears stung his eyes, he couldn’t take it any more. He fell to his knees and the tears fell freely. He would have done anything for her. He loved her so much, even now when he knew she had betrayed him.

The rain still beat down rhythmically. His tears dripped onto his already soaking wet shirt as he stayed there on the sand. He shock uncontrollably as his emotions racked his whole body.

"Well now," Giovanni began, "I think it’s time we finished this off, don’t you Jessica?"

Jessie nodded slowly and walked towards James, picking up the gun that he had dropped. James slowly looked up through tear stricken eyes to his one love, now standing in front of him pointing his own gun at him.

He looked pleadingly into her eyes. He was to weak to do anything, even to defend himself. He felt so helpless. If Jessie shot him, he didn’t care. After what he had done in his life, being killed was the nicest punishment he could have asked for. Besides, now he knew the truth, he didn’t want to live. Jessie pulled the hammer back on the gun barrel.

"Goodbye James." She said softly

To be continued…