Part 1- In Dreams
So here I am, in jail. Cold, ice cold walls surround me; my only comfort is that my partner, Butch is here beside me, asleep. His breathing is rhythmic and familiar to me. It’s almost soothing to listen to.
My “friend” Jessie and her partner left hours ago. Now one would think my once best friend would at least have the decency to leave me a shovel or something, but she didn’t. Of course, I had the decency to put her and her partner in jail for no reason. Eye for an eye, right?
But then again, we don’t owe each other any favors. “She was jealous of me,” that was a good excuse, Jess. Okay, so maybe I wasn’t so great, either.
We were both Team Rocket babies. Our moms used to be best friends, so we hung around each other a lot. And well, it’s hard not to become friends when that happens. Neither of us liked Team Rocket. We wanted to be free. One would think that the beatings her mother gave her would ruin her spirit, but it just made it stronger. So she ran away. Good for her, but didn’t she forget something? She abandoned me, her best friend, her companion, her confidant. And because of that, I got all of her mother’s wrath. That’s why my mother began to hate hers, because she blamed Jessie running away on me. So I got cuts, bruises, and nightmares all because of Jessie. Okay, maybe it wasn’t her fault.
I wasn’t the best friend, either. I continually gypped her. I took advantage of her. I told on her. But in Team Rocket, one must do what they can to survive. Wait, that justifies her running away, too. I guess I’m just jealous in a way. She got a taste of freedom that I can only dream of.
Freedom from Giovanni and all his stupid world domination ideas. Such a wonderful dream, a dream that most Rocket members have. It’s not like most of us like this job. WE were either born or tricked into Team Rocket. Some were so desperate for money that we had to join. We’re not all bad, we still have hearts, or what’s left of them. To actually do what we do, we have to lock our feelings away.
That’s why I’m trying not to cry now.
Ahhh, my partner, so little I know about him. He never liked to talk about his past. That’s why he joined TR, he thought that the world would never accept him as he was. He realized his mistake too late. He was the oldest of three children. At the age of five, his house caught on fire. The poor thing made it out okay, but when one of his little sisters, two year old Lissie, was trapped in the house, he rushed to the rescue. The two barely made it out alive. Lissie was a little burnt, nothing serious. As for Butch, not only was he burnt, but all the smoke did a little bit of permanent damage to his windpipe, so his voice is a little scratchy.
People always think he’s a smoker, or on drugs. It’s so sad, he’s a hero, but the cruel world will never recognize it. At least, he’s a hero in my eyes.
I look at the clock on the prison wall. Midnight and I can’t sleep. Not in this cold, clammy cell. Why can’t anything ever go right for me? I’m always in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
~~~
It isn’t long before Giovanni pays our bail. I think nothing of it; it’s for his benefit, not ours. He couldn’t care less about what we suffered; he only cares about the failed scheme. His voice reminds me so much of how Jessie’s mother, Myamoto, once screamed at me.
*flashback*
“Do you know where Jessie is, I have to show her my first pokemon, ratatta!” Cassidy cried happily. She hated the weak little rat of a pokemon, but it was her first, so it counted for something.
“Do I know where Jessie is?” Myamoto screamed, “I’ll tell you where she is! She’s not here! And think you might know something about her running away!”
“She ran away! Really,” Cassidy said nervously.
“Tell me where she is!”
“I….I don’t know!”
“I think your lying!!!!!!!”
*end flashback*
At our hideout, I flop on my bed, exhausted.
“Cassidy, are you alright?” Butch asks.
“Let me sleep,” I groan, too tired for words.
I dream of freedom from this place, and for once knowing where I was. My life is like a night without stars. Nothing has ever told what direction to go in. It’s all for myself and no one else. If only someone could love me for who I was. But that’s only in dreams.
Part 2- In Reality
I just can’t take this anymore. I really can’t. For once, I’m going to do what’s right: I’ll quit Team Rocket. I don’t care if it means Giovanni will have his little assassins on me before I can say, “I’m free.” A second of freedom is worth it.
“Mr. Giovanni will see you now, Cassidy,” Giovanni’s secretary, Rita, calls.
I take a deep breath and walk in.
“Yes Cassidy,” he says with a cool calm air.
“Sir, I quit!”
“YOU WHAT!” he screams.
“I quit! I hate this place, I hate this organization, I hate being a pokemon thief!”
His eyes grow hot. It looks like he’ll explode. “You either stay, or die,” he says quietly. He picks up a knife. He walks toward me, I back up. There’s murder in his eyes.
I scream. I know he’s about to strike. I’ve lost.
The door bursts open and two pairs of hands pushes me out of the way. The knife sticks in their arm instead.
“Butch?” I ask.
But no. I see a flash of red hair, and a glint of eyes so blue. I nearly choke. It’s my once-best-friend, Jessie, her arm covered in blood. Beside her stands Butch.
Giovanni pulls the knife out of her arm and walks toward me again. I back up and knock in to the heat lamp. In an instant, a wall of flames swirls up around me, so hot. An alarm sounds. The Team Rocket hideout is on fire! There’s screams and yelps. The air is so hot and stinging. Then everything goes black.
~~~
I enter the door of the hospital room and to the patient lying there.
“Are you okay, Jess?” I ask.
“I’m fine, I’ve been hurt worse before.”
“Like when?”
“I’ll get back to you on that,” she laughs a little. I sigh. There’s only a 20% that she’ll live. Right now, I want to take back all the mean things I’ve told my best friend. Without her and Butch, I don’t know what I would have done.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“For what, look it’s not like I’m dying here!”
James is still sitting beside her, despite Jessie’s protests. He wants to show her he loves her before… no I can’t even think of that.
“I took so many lives with that fire,” I sigh. I only suffered a few burns. I was out of the hospital in a couple of months after the accident.
“You also saved them,” Jessie reminds me, “Now we’re all free from Giovanni.” He was killed in the fire.
“Get better Jess,” I tell her. It’s almost hopeless. My life is hopeless. How can Jessie be so brave, when she knows that she’ll probably die?
I slump down in the waiting room. We’ve practically been living here, Butch and I, so we can be with our poor, suffering friends.
Butch wraps his arm around me.
“Don’t be sad, there’s so much worse that could happen,” he tells me.
“Like what?” I groan.
“I could have lost you.”
“But I ended up killing lot’s of people. And now everything I’ve ever done haunts me. Team Rocket was my home, my only life support. Now where will I go?”
“You can always start over. I’ll help you. We’ll be together no matter what, and that’s all that’s important.”
I look into his eyes and I know that I’ve found my guiding star.