The Team Rocket Assassination Squad (TRAS) is a fast, hard-working, deadly and grimly efficient division of Team Rocket. A Rocket Assassin never fails, never misses. Also, most assassins are born into the job unwillingly. This is not a profession that most would go into voluntarily, willingly. Unless they were some sort of demented psycho.

I was born into the job.

Thank God, because I don't think I'd be able to stand the label, "Crazy" plastered all over me.

I am Xiana. Just Xiana. No last name. None that I can tell you, anyway. If the police were reading this, if they were to find out who I am, where I am, I would be arrested, tried, and probably put on the death sentence.

Better than the fate I would suffer if I were to fail Giovanni even once.

The Assassins are the most feared, most hated, and most respected members of the crime syndicate called Team Rocket. We take care of any member of the Team (or not) who double-cross us or even Giovanni himself. We terminate any member brave enough to quit his or her job, mutilate anyone who is fired.

But the TRAS has a downfall: If the police find us, we are screwed. Quite literally. Most likely on the death sentence. If not that, we'll be in jail for life.

That's why Giovanni gives us the hardest time. No second chances. If you mess up once, you're gone.

I've witnessed it. Personally, I hate this job. I could've become a nurse at the Pokemon Center, or even a Pokemon watcher.

But my father had to join.

He's the reason I'm stuck here. The reason I'm stuck here, trying to kill someone I don't even know.

"Please," a girl, no older than me (14), sobbed, down on her knees and pleading. "I didn't want to ... they made me do it!"

"They made you do it," I repeated in a mocking tone. My dark brown hair fell into my face, covering some of my violet eyes. "They made you give our secrets, made you reveal three of us to the police."

"Please," the girl, whose name is Taliá, said again. "They tortured me, made me confess! I can name names!"

"The Articunos tortured you?" I said, but more of a statement than a question. I was referring to our rival gang. "Start naming. You have twenty seconds."

"Trace McNamara... Bonnie Houghton... Conall Ryan..."

"All three have been hunted down and killed by the TRAS," I said menacingly, cutting her off. "You're merely repeating names you heard in the dormitory halls afterwards!" I swung my arm to give this more effect, but scratched it on a branch and immediately drew back. We were in the middle of a dense forest, I think it was the Amazon Forest, but I wasn't sure.

"Please..." Now her voice was barely a whisper. She realized the situation: She was facing the inevitable, the unavoidable. "Please..."

"'Please'," I repeated. This is one of the manipulation plans for the Assassins: Repeat the prey's words, make them feel so weak, so powerless, they couldn't battle us. "Such a easy word to avoid the easy work that must be done. I expected better of you, Taliá Altagracia Alvarez. I thought you would be better than the rest of the beginning Rockets, maybe even join the ranks of the Assassins. But no. You're just as bad as the rest of them. And now you will pay."

I pulled a Pokeball from the belt on my waist and maximized it. "Venomoth, go!"

Taliá apprehended what danger she was in and started running, although she apparently didn't have a clue where she was going. But I showed no hesitation.

"Venomoth, Stun Spore, now!" I yelled, pointing my finger in the direction she was running. Venomoth chased after her and released the poisonous powder. Taliá stopped running, faltered as though confused and then fell to the ground. I walked calmly up beside her and pulled a hypodermic syringe out of my pocket.

"Good job, Venomoth," I congratulated my Pokemon. "Return!"

After that was safely done, I sank to my knees next to Taliá. Her eyes were half-opened, half-closed. She was in a state between consciousness and death.

"No one reveals Team Rocket to anyone," I said, injecting the syringe into her arm. "No one."

I left the needle next to Taliá before I got up to leave. Made it look like suicide. I turned around to see Marcus, a fellow assassin, although he's only been one for about three years, unlike me- I've been in the force for almost eight years.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, hiding an indescribable loathing for him- he killed my best friend when I was eleven only to find out that Giovanni was wrong: another member had framed her for giving away secrets to the police.

"Watching," Marcus said simply, walking up to me. "That's was a great kill. Not better than mine, but..." He shrugged, not finishing the sentence.

"I try not to get too cocky." I walked past him, walking back toward where I thought civilization was. Marcus followed me, a trait he knew annoyed me.

"What do you want?" I asked irritably, giving him the hint to get the h--- out of my face. "There's no use for you here."

"I wanted to take you back to headquarters," he said. He found this the opportunity to put both of his hands on my shoulders. I stopped walking but didn't do a thing.

"Marcus," I said slowly, so his slow mind would understand. "Get. Your. Hands. Off. Of. Me."

Guess he understood, because he immediately removed his tentacles.

"But we still have to go back," he said.

"I can walk by myself."

Marcus asked in an annoyed voice, "Fine, you want the truth?"

"Yes, that would be nice for a change."

"The Boss wants to see you. He told me to come and get you. You better hope you haven't done anything wrong."

I hated to admit this, but he was right. If I had done anything, which I was pretty sure I hadn't, I was spending my last moments on Earth.

"Of course," Marcus continued, just to piss me off, "Some people would be happy if you had and got fired... kinda like you're mother, huh?"

He had struck a nerve. No one spoke about my mother if they wanted to live. "You know, Marcus," I said calmly, mostly to scare him, "I still have some of that poison left. Some people would be glad if you died, too."

"Fine," he said, signaling he had took a hint. "See you later."

"Much later," I muttered under my breath as he left. I turned to where I thought was the direction of Viridian City and took a deep breath.

I trudged forward, hating what I had left behind and dreading what was to come.