The sharp elbow in his ribs made James groan. "Now I'm not," he told Jessie, the owner of said elbow. She had been shooting him disapproving glances as they walked along every time he so much as sniffled. No doubt still concerned about his state of health. "But except for the bruise, I feel just fine."

"I seriously doubt that I bruised you. I also don't think you can be 'just fine' with only one night's sleep and one dose of medicine."

"Two," he corrected, making a face at the thought.

"Almost forgot... that's right, I could tell you were feeling at least a little better, I had to sit on you to get you to take it that last time."

Meowth snickered up in front of them. "It was quite a show, too."

"Alright, let's just try to forget it now," James grumbled, rubbing his forehead irritably. When that got another look from Jessie, he stopped and just tried to focus on putting one foot in front of another. If he had wanted to tell the truth, he would have had to say that his head hurt terribly and his vision seemed to be getting fuzzy at the edges. He tried to think about what they were about to do instead of the fact that he was lying to Jessie. Or what she would do if she found out.

The plan was so simple, it was nearly ludicrous. Jessie and himself, along with Meowth, were supposed to create a distraction with their Pokémon, including Pearl's, while she somehow managed to destroy whatever machines were running the whole operation. And how she was planning on doing that... she hadn't said. Maybe she didn't even know. He worriedly glanced up to look for her up ahead. It looked like she was sliding to the left of his vision.

Wait a minute. People don't walk sideways. At least not normal people. Shaking his head, he looked again. She was going sideways, at least as it appeared, and that tree he was passing now was floating up.

A floating tree? If his head hadn't hurt so bad, he would have laughed. He realized Jessie was coming toward him. Maybe it was illusion, but he could feel her hand on his arm, so it probably wasn't. Her voice echoed as though across an empty room, saying something frantically. Not being able to understand, he simply let the ground rise up to meet him and the darkness swallow him.

"James! What's the matter... Are you okay? James!"

Pearl turned quickly to see Jessie desperately trying to support a wobbling James, and failing. He dropped to the concrete like a rock, Jessie crying out as he did so. She knelt down, cradling his head in her lap.

Pearl followed Meowth over to join them, eyes wide with surprise. "What happened?" Meowth was asking Jessie.

"I don't know... he was fine, and then he just... started acting dizzy. I don't think it could be because of the cold..." she replied slowly, feeling James' forehead. A nasty-looking bump was forming from where he had struck it on the ground, but it didn't feel hot other than that. In fact, it felt almost normal. "I don't understand... he feels better than he has for the past day. So why..." she continued, trailing off as she turned his head to one side. When she felt through the tangle of bluish hair, it seemed like he had another bump on the back of his head, but it wasn't swelled as much.

"It feels like... he hit his head here too, but... he landed on his forehead, and I haven't hit him that hard... lately," she finished with a frown.

"I suppose we'll just have to take him a little farther and then... Jessie, what's wrong?" Pearl asked, noticing how Jessie was squinting and rubbing her own head.

"It's hurting a little... no big deal. Let's move him." Pearl frowned, but assisted Jessie in picking James up and carrying him. They were almost to the lab really, about another block and then...

Suddenly it felt like she was holding James up by herself, but that was because she was. Jessie had put both hands to her head now and had sunk to her knees, shaking.

"What's wrong... Jess! Not you too!" Meowth wailed, running over to her as she collapsed. There wasn't time to react further before their little group, half of them unconscious now, was surrounded by at least a dozen men dressed in unrelieved black, except for a distinct crimson letter.

"A setup," Pearl whispered as she lowered James gently to the ground. She regarded the men coldly, the way she would have looked at a gang of murderers. They stared back at her, most of them looking bored. One, obviously the leader, gestured briefly at several of the others.

"You, take the girl. And you, take the boy. They go around to the back, like ordered. The Meowth goes... wait. Where's that Meowth? There was a Meowth with them!" The man swore harshly at the remaining Rockets who weren't picking up Jessie and James. "Find that Meowth! Or it'll be on your heads!"

They scattered, looking suitably frightened, as the leader turned to Pearl. He smiled wickedly, holding up a gun which he cocked in her direction.

"And you come with me. There's someone who'd simply love to talk to you."

It wasn't necessary for Pearl to ask who she was about to see. Somehow, she knew it couldn't be anyone else. Her guide pushed her along at gunpoint down many dimly lit halls faintly humming with the sound of machines. The lab was definitely larger than it looked from the outside. Dark staircases spiraled down into levels below ground at least twice before they stopped at a door, large and ornate, but unlabeled. The man pushed her on through and locked it behind them. The smile he turned on her was meant to be chilling, but for some reason it had no effect on Pearl.

"Wait here while I go tell him I got you," he said, jerking his thumb toward a second door behind them. At her lack of response, he shrugged and left her there.

Worry was growing stronger, but she felt little fear for herself. She was more concerned about Jessie and James. And Meowth, wherever he had gotten to. For his sake, she hoped he was far, far away by now. They all should have run from the moment they had laid eyes on her. Then they wouldn't be involved in this mess.

When the man came back out, he grinned at her crookedly. "You can go in now. And... thanks for being captured so easily. It's gonna look great on my record." With a harsh laugh, he exited the room and she could hear him lean up against it when it closed. Not wasting any time on thinking, lest she lose her nerve, she walked through the inner door and let it fall shut behind her.

It was very dark in the room; that was the first thing she noticed. Then second was the air, which felt ten degrees cooler than the outer room did. And the man sitting at the heavy wooden desk in front of her radiated darkness and coldness just as much as the room did.

"So..." Giovanni began, his deep voice calm and even. "It's come to this. I knew some day you wouldn't be happy just knowing the little you did. I trust you've found the answers to your satisfaction. But... there is the little matter of the betrayal of my trust in you. Breaking and entering into your own place of employment, theft of top secret documents, abandoning your assigned task... these things are hardly what I would expect from a member of the Team. So I'll ask you... why? Why not just ask me straight out, rather than finding out in a way that puts your very life in jeopardy?"

Pearl studied him for a time, putting her thoughts in order. He hadn't offered her a seat, although there was a chair opposite the desk, so she remained standing, unsure if she would sit even if asked. The man she was staring at now was not the serious, yet seemingly caring, man she had always thought of him as before. Now he seemed deadly, conniving, ruthless... an endless list of terrible things.

"Would you have told me straight out?" she simply asked in return. Calm was the right card to play now. He would just feed off her anger or fear if she displayed it.

"I might have... if I felt that you were ready."

"And when would you feel that? Ten years from now? Fifty?"

"You obviously weren't ready when you did find out, were you?" he said in a soft voice tinged slightly with irritation. "You should have learned to put more faith in me. The benefit of the Team should be of your utmost concern, not idle fancies of revenge."

This seemed calculated to set her off, but she kept her expression calm. "How did you know we were coming here anyway?" she said next, changing the subject completely. It seemed the only way she could keep from screaming at him. His smile indicated that he realized that too, but he answered anyway.

"I knew you were smart enough to figure out where this operation was being kept eventually. And as much as I trusted you with, I had to have some way of keeping track of you. Your Pokémon... an Eevee, I believe? It's always with you, correct? I know you care deeply for it, as a memento of sorts."

Pearl didn't respond, choosing silence as her only reply. Giovanni continued as though she had affirmed his statements. "It's Pokéball was quite easily outfitted with a homing beacon, and knowing that it was with you often gave us a good idea as to your whereabouts at significant times. We've followed your every move, even before you left the Lair. I decided the best thing would be to wait until you came to us, and here you are." He sat back then and steepled his fingers, a satisfied smile rising on his face.

Pearl realized that his Persian wasn't with him this time, which was unusual, but hardly worth noting at a time like this. "Where... what have you done with Jessie and James?"

His smile slipped into a scowl. "Those empty-headed fools? How you could have fallen in with such simpletons as those two is beyond me. But they're alright. I assume, for now. In fact, I was just about to take you to see them," he added, rising from his chair. "Shall we?"

Jessie had never forgotten her dearest friend and partner. In fact, his memory was more precious now than ever before. She sat down again on the edge of her bed with it's faded green comforter and worn pillows and picked up the framed photograph from the nightstand for what must have been the millionth time in the past five years.

Had it really been five years? It seemed so much longer.

The frame was definitely showing it's age, the edges worn and the glass covering the picture spattered with dried liquid which she had never had the heart to wipe off. Her tears, shed over all these years, shed over the one she had loved. Still loved.

The faces in the picture were smiling, happy faces, herself and James. That had been the day he had finally asked her to marry him. She smiled, remembering how he had been so nervous that he could hardly get the words out. She had wanted the picture taken as a reminder of that day.

But three days later, James had been involved in a horrible car accident, and he died.

Jessie had always suspected Team Rocket of being behind the accident, but with no proof, there was nothing she could do. She had thrown herself even more wholeheartedly into the Team as a way to escape from her despair. Pushing everyone aside, even Meowth, she had quickly risen up the ranks as an independent agent, Team Rocket's most infamous femme fatale. And it appeared to everyone that she was doing just wonderfully, that she had gotten over her loss.

But when she was alone, like now, it was something else. A terrible hole existed, as though something had been ripped out of her by force, beyond her control. She liked to imagine James as still being with her, to fill that empty space. She would tell herself that he had just gone away on a trip, he would be back someday and she had to wait for him. Except it didn't always work.

Slowly, she covered his face on the picture with her thumb. It didn't look right that way. Her own smile seemed haunting and lonely, when it had really been the happiest day of her life.

She felt the picture slipping from her hand, but seemed powerless to stop it as it bounced on the floor, the glass shattering into a hundred glittering fragments.

Her heart had been broken into more pieces than that five years ago.

Sinking to her knees on the floor, she cried amidst not only the broken glass, but also her shattered hopes and dreams.

It was another stifling summer day, the heat seeming to rise from the ground in waves. Inside it wasn't much cooler, especially when you happened to be wearing a close-fitting suit that buttoned all the way up the neck and was expected to stay that way.

James tore at the collar anyway, several of the buttons popping off, frustrated at being so hot and not caring what she would have to say about it. And she would have something to say about it.

It had been several years since he had moved back home, not having anyplace to go since... It wasn't something he wanted to remember anymore, but the memory kept creeping up whether he wanted it to or not. He sprawled out on his back on the ridiculously large bed in his room, fighting to keep the memory at bay, but failing again.

The day that Jessie had left him had been the day he had left Team Rocket. Why she had left him... that was something he couldn't quite understand. They had been failing at their duty, as usual, and he guessed that she had finally just gotten fed up with it. Or maybe it was something he had done. If only he had paid more attention, he might have noticed something out of the ordinary.

But he hadn't realized until she was staring him in the eyes coldly, telling him she no longer wanted him around. When he falteringly asked why, her stony gaze hadn't lessened as she merely said, "You should know." He had been crushed, naturally, and in desperation for something to cling to, he had gone home. Where he was promptly married to her.

The bitterness covering his tongue when he even thought of saying her name kept it from his lips completely. He shared this room with her, putting up with her inane chattering without saying a word. And at night... Touching her was something vile to him, so when he passively disregarded her advances, she would often grow angry, slapping him or amusing herself with her other sadistic games before taking what she wanted from him anyway. But he let her do whatever she wanted, thinking it was only fair payment for what he had done to make Jessie hate him. Whatever that was.

He sat up from the bed slowly, eyes landing on the small wooden chest at the end of it. He knelt down to open the chest, which contained some of the few things he had kept from his days on the Team. His fingers hesitated over a rose that lay on top, withered and dry, but still beautiful to him. As he clutched it tightly in onehand, wondered again what he had done... what he could have done, what he could have said differently to change this future into a happier one.

Looking down, he noticed that the thorns on the rose were pricking into his fingers, small trickles of blood running down. At least the pain helped him to know he was still alive.

He clamped down harder, the trickles becoming a steady gush, silently flowing crimson as he screamed.

"They're not that stupid."

Giovanni glanced at Pearl sideways as they walked down yet another dark corridor, seeming to measure her with his eyes. "Oh they aren't, are they?" he questioned, sounding amused. Or at least as amused as a man who had no particular use for that emotion could sound.

"Have you ever got to know them?" she asked softly.

"No. What use would that be? They're bumbling, ignorant peons who have a penchant for failing me."

Pearl just shook her head. They continued down the hall and came to a stop before a large room with glass windows along the length of it, allowing the entire inside to be seen. The walls looked made of marble, and there were so many strange-looking machines that Pearl didn't even want to count them. There were four people in the room; two were obviously scientists from their white lab coats - one a short male with a frizzy shock of green hair, the other a tall female with long brown hair gathered into a bun at the base of her neck. It looked like they were taking readings from a machine in the center of the room, the man frantically babbling as he did so and the woman just nodding calmly. The other two in the room were Jessie and James.

They were each laying on some kind of platform, separate from each other, but physically unrestrained. Yet attached to their foreheads was some kind of wire, which fed into the machine the scientists were looking at. "What... what are they doing?" Pearl whispered, fear overcoming her initial relief upon seeing them.

"Well, perhaps they can tell you best," Giovanni replied gesturing toward the two scientists. Pearl followed him through the door and for a moment just stared at her two friends before looking at the room's other two occupants. They saluted Giovanni, then turned to her.

"My name is Mara, and this is Sy," the woman announced dispassionately, obviously not one for wasting any time. She was about to continue when the man cut her off by jumping forward and clasping one of Pearl's hands in his own.

"Oh! You must... you must be her! It's such an honor - such a wonderful honor! - to get to meet you before--"

"Sy, please," Mara reproved, and he backed away, rubbing his hands together anxiously.

"Ahh... yes, so sorry."

"Mara, Sy... this young lady has a question for you. Please do your best to enlighten her," Giovanni said smoothly, never taking his eyes from Pearl's face. If she was supposed to feel intimidated by his gaze, she tried her best to show it wasn't working.

"Yes... what are you doing to them?"

"Ah... of course you would want to know," Mara replied. Pearl offhandedly wondered whether that lady's face ever changed. "They are our lucky first test subjects for our new machine which we call--"

"'The Dream Machine'!" Sy interrupted. "I know the name's a little corny, but--"

"As I was saying," Mara continued as if Sy had never interrupted, "this machine, combined with the powers of our high level Hypno, has the ability to take the subject's worst fear and change it into a dream. A dream so powerful and vivid that the subject believes it is really happening, even though it is only a dream. The only side affect is that whatever happens to them in the dream also happens to them in real life."

"The machine has other uses, of course, but--"

"We'll get to that later," Mara concluded for Sy.

Pearl could only stare. Her heart thudded dully in her chest. Another experiment. This time her friends instead of her parents. She suddenly realized that Mara was still talking.

"...we call these dreams 'Reflections', because they are typically dreams of a future that is the result of some negative event, and hence they are a reflection of an imperfect future... I know it's all very complex, but I don't expect you to understand, even if it's rumored that you are very bright."

Sy continued excitedly. "The only thing necessary to prepare the subjects is a special hypnosis wave from Hypno. Of course, this was must be administered when the subject is asleep and within range... which might have been a problem. Except that the girl was captured, and we exposed her to the waves then, along with trying out our mind-controlling waves, which sadly didn't last as long as we desired... Anyway, we were able to take care of the boy when he was out all alone quite easily. Left quite a bump on his head, but he obviously turned out alright. And I haven't even gotten to the best part yet! The best part is that when the subjects who have been exposed to the waves get within a certain range of our Hypno, they pass out! Making capture quite simple," he laughed. "Surely now you can see how this wonderful machine is going to help Team Rocket control the world! It's amazing! Colossal! Stupen--"

"I think she gets the idea, Sy," Mara said in that too-calm voice. There was barely time for all this new information to filter into place in Pearl's thoughts before something close to chaos broke loose.

Mara and Sy had run to their precious machine to stare at whatever the display screen was telling them. Giovanni seemed to have melted into a dark corner, his satisfied smile gleaming. But Pearl only had eyes for Jessie and James.

Jessie was writhing and twisting on her platform, sobbing in genuine anguish as tears poured down her face in a steady rain. James was silent at first, but it seemed that some invisible source was causing his right hand to bleed. It was only a trickle at first, then it began to flow freely and drip onto the metallic floor with a plinking sound barely heard above the noise of Jessie's crying. And then he screamed, and continued screaming, nearly drowning out all other noise.

Pearl stared, horrified. What could they be dreaming of that was so horrible to them... She unconsciously took a few steps toward them, but as suddenly as the outburst had began, it stopped. Blood was still oozing from James' hand, but otherwise the pair went still.

"Fascinating... They came to the climax of the Reflection at exactly the same time..."

"Just a few more notes..." Pearl heard the two scientists say in hushed tones. She felt a cold hand on her shoulder, and turned to see Giovanni there.

"Quite a show, wouldn't you say? Those morons are finally going to be of some use to me before they die. And you, my dear... I think it is my obligation to tell you myself. I want you to follow in your parent's footsteps... The technology is improved enough that we are certain the next joining of the Pokémon and human mind will be a success. Congratulations. You are going to be the first among a new breed of humankind."

No... I said I didn't want anyone else to suffer... no more sacrifices...

"They're waking up!" Sy shouted eagerly. Sure enough, Jessie and James were sitting up and blinking at their surroundings, James clutching his injured hand close to his chest. Mara actually smiled.

"And now for Phase Two..."

Chapter 10
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