We ran. I had never thought that in being dragged to this dance by Jessie I would be endangering my life, Jessie herself, and even the Twerp Team. "You can never escape us! We are the Sunny Town Bridge Bike Gang! And we have hereby vowed to be as bad-guy-ish, yet as opposite of Team Rocket as we can be!" I looked at Jessie in disgust. "That made literally no sense what so ever," I pointed out. She nodded. Suddenly, I heard Ash, the Twerp's leader, cry out,"Pikachu! No!" I looked at where his eyes were fixed. One of the newer Bike Gang members that I didn't recognize stood with a gun aimed straight at Pikachu. The little creature looked petrified and it glanced at its trainer with a look of sheer terror. That was all I could take. I leaped from mine and Jessie's safe perch above the action and planted myself firmly in front of Pikachu. The new member raised his gun to me and fired. The last few things I heard were "Joeseph He was one of us!" "JAMES! NO!" and "Pikaaaaaaaaaa!" Then I blacked out....

I awoke for a short while and I noticed that Jessie was running her fingers through my hair. I heard distantly a siren, and Jessie whispering, "Just hold on" over and over. I cracked open my eyes and saw Jessie sitting beside me. I could just barely see the short, brunette form of Mondo standing above her. I tried to ask why he showed up, but I felt like something was lodged in my throat. Mondo saw me awake first and tried to tell me what happened, but I fell back into unconsciousness soon. I didn't know for sure how long it had been, but I could tell by the worried expression on the nurse's face that it had been a while when I woke up again. As soon as I opened my eyes, she smiled and said, "So many people are waiting to see you! Are you up to it?" I nodded and felt something strange on my neck. I rubbed over it and I felt stitches? Had that brat shot me in the throat? I didn't have much time to think, though, because Ash poked his head around the door and said, "Thanks. You saved Pikachu's life. I owe you one." I smiled, but he had already left and Mondo had entered. He sat down and I figured he'd be there a while. "I'm sorry this happened to you," he started, "but they picked me to tell you more bad news." I wished he'd get to the point; I was feeling weaker. He soon did. "James you've lost a lot of blood too much. And, well, me and Jessie are the only ones with the right kind to donate. So who do you want?" I thought this over. They were both probably really weak from whenever the shooting had occurred the calendar on the wall told me it had only been two nights ago. I shrugged, attempting to say I didn't care. Then Jessie walked in. She hobbled, because it looked like a bullet may have grazed her leg. She smiled and said, "I'll go, Mondo." He stood up. "No! You got hurt, and I wasn't even there! No!" She put a hand on his shoulder and grinned. "Trust me," she told him. He blinked twice and sat down again. Jessie and I had a nice long conversation with her talking and me nodding. I tried my hardest to tell her Mondo was right, she didn't need to be doing this for me, but she wouldn't listen and I still couldn't talk very well. So it was Jessie who gave her blood to keep me alive...

I don't remember much of what happened after that. I fainted again, and when I woke up I noticed Jessie in a bed beside me, then I was gone again. It was a long and painful three days before I woke up again. But this time I could talk and I felt much better, just a little sore. I looked for Jessie, but I didn't see her anywhere. I didn't think anything of it until I heard some doctor tell the nurse that had been taking care of me, "Maybe you better let Mondo tell him." Then Mondo said, "Oh you guys always make me be the bearer of bad news"
When Mondo came in my room, I sat up and looked at him skeptically. "What's wrong with me?" I asked quietly. "Nothing" Mondo cleared his throat. "There's nothing wrong with you" I suddenly figured it out. I cleared my throat and attempted to sound like I wasn't crying. "Mondo...Where's Jessie?" I asked.
Mondo was crying so hard at the mere mention of her name that I thought he was going to flood the room. I looked at him harshly. "What happened?" I asked sternly. He looked up at me and whimpered, "She's dead, James."
Those three words made my entire world fall apart. It was as if my entire brain went numb. I shook my head slowly.
"No," I said quietly. "I don't believe you. She's not" I lost it then. I knew Mondo would never have made this up, yet I so very desperately didn't want to believe it. I buried my head in my hands and cried until I made myself sick. I think I scared Mondo because he had never seen me cry before. He just sat there with a distant look in his eyes. I knew he had a terrible crush on Jessie, but now neither of our Jessie crushes mattered. I had found out only a half-hour ago, but I already missed her.

"James, she would want you there." I stared blankly at Mondo. He didn't understand. I hadn't spoken since the week before, when the worst news I'd ever heard reached my ears. No one really tried to force me into anything except Mondo. I wanted so much to tell him to go away, but I couldn't make myself speak without crying.
"Don't you even want to go?" he asked. I shook my head, to which he answered, "I don't care. You're going to her funeral. You should, James." I knew I should, but I could never make myself.

The church was huge. Thanks to my occupation, I was trained at sneaking into places. I had never snuck into a church, though, much less one that was hosting my best friend's funeral.
I clambered to the very top and right in through a window. I made my way silently to the winding staircase above the beautifully decorated sanctuary. I flattened myself out and looked calmly over the edge of the stairs. But then I saw her. Jessie, dressed in her Team Rocket uniform (and in a church), her hair down, her gorgeous eyes forever closed. I coughed and cried; knowing Mondo had seen me. (Everyone else probably had, too, but I really didn't care.)
By the time the service had ended, I had cried myself to sleep above the church on the staircase. I very distantly felt someone wake me up enough to help me back to head quarters...

"Don't let him out of your sight. He's too depressed, he may do something drastic."
This was the first thing I heard. I looked at my watch and noticed that it was only the next day. Butch walked in and started to say something, but I cut him off. "I don't want you guys following me around like I'm some crazed lunatic who's gonna hurt themselves or worse just because their true lo-I mean, their best friend is gone."
Mondo was the only one who caught my slip-up. He grinned at me, then as though he remembered something important, his face fell again.
I sunk back under the torn and tattered sheets of my bed. Waiting until everyone had gone, I pulled my notebook from under my pillow and flipped through its many pages. I muttered to no one, "Love letters, journal entrieshomework?drawings, poems" My voice trailed as I came across one specific journal entry:
February Eighteenth Dear Journal,
I discovered something I never thought possible today. I found out why I let Jessie boss me around, why I joined Team Rocket just because she told me to. I think I love her. But I don't knowuh-oh, Mondo. Better go. -James

I stared at the page for a long time before falling face-first on my pillow and sobbing again. Jessie would have said I cried too much. She always told me I was a wimp, a coward. I wondered how she felt for me. I also wondered why she lost her own life just to save me. And I hoped her death wasn't as painful to her as it had been to me. I missed her, and I regretted ever trying to help that brat's Pikachu, no matter how cute it was. It was nothing compared to who I'd lost.
"James?"
"What, Mondo?" Getting no reply to my exasperated answer, I let myself cry again. I knew he was still there, but it didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered anymore. With every sob, my whole body shook as though if I cried once more I'd just pass out. But I didn't. I felt Mondo's hand on my shoulder. Then Butch and Cassidy. Meowth and evenThe Boss?! Oh, manI suddenly realized, though, losing Jessie was just as hard for my friends as it was for me. Even The Boss missed her. Even Meowth. They were trying to comfort me. I rolled over and looked at them. Their eyes were just as red and their faces were just as tear-stained as mine. Even The Boss.
Nothing could have made me cry more than what happened next. Ash's Pikachu ran in and hopped on my bed. It gave me a grateful, "Pika! Ka-Chu!" and hugged me. "It says it's sorry and wishes you hadn't done what you did, even though it's grateful for it," Meowth translated. That was all I could take. I cried harder and hugged it back, thanking it and telling it I wasn't mad, just sad. That had to be the sweetest thing any good guy had ever done to me...

I sat beside her grave, crying and literally losing my mind because she wasn't there to whack me over the head and tell me to stop crying. I felt just like I should be living in the "I Drive Myself Crazy" music video. I somehow felt better, though, pouring my heart out to Jessie even though I knew she couldn't hear me. And thanks to some of the things I told her, or at least implied, I halfway hoped she couldn't hear me. I kept beating around the bush, trying to say how much I really loved her, never quite making myself.
For days I would sit by her grave every evening at sunset, rain or shine, snow or sleet. Every day I would lie a fresh, red rose beside her gravestone. I wasn't the only one who roamed the graveyard, either. But one day proved to introduce me to someone I will not easily forget

It was drizzling rain as I approached the place where Jessie lay. I was used to the rainy days where I was the only one there, and I expected this day to be the same. But after I had sat there a few minutes, I distinctively heard someone else crying besides me. I followed the sound.
"Jamie why did you leave me?" I heard someone moan. The 'someone' sounded young. As I got closer, I saw the sobbing kid. She had on a torn dress and her face was scarred. She looked up at me with frightened eyes. "I won't hurt you," I assured her. She started backing up a tree as I got closer. "Look," I started, "if I stand over here, will you talk to me?" She nodded. "I'm Amber," she told me. "I'm eight years old and I used to live in Saffron City with my big brother Jamie. Until...until...this disease got spread and my brother caught it" She pointed to the grave beside her and concluded with tears, "I don't have anywhere to go now."
I slowly walked over to her so as not to scare her. "Why are you here?" she asked me.
I had to catch my breath before answering her, "My friend, Jessie."
Amber nodded as if she understood me perfectly. Which, I reminded myself, she might. She was from Saffron City, after all.
"I miss Jamie," she cried suddenly. I somehow had a strong urge to hug the little girl, and tell her it would be alright. But I knew she would run away. Or I thought she would. But she ran over to me and flung her arms around my waist and cried, "I want my brother back!"
I held her out at arm's length and said, "I want my Jessie back. But we will both have to get over this. I think the hurt on the inside will go away. Not completely, not ever. But as long as you keep your brother in your heart, he will be with you. Why, I bet he's standing beside you right now, you just can't see him."
She sniffed and answered, "And I bet Jessie is standing beside you. I bet she follows you everywhere." I smiled and hugged Amber. I never saw that little girl again. She made me realize, though, that I couldn't spend my life sobbing over Jessie, though I would never forget her. I wanted so terribly to see Amber again, to thank her, but I could never find her...

I stood on a high cliff side, watching the waves crash into the rock below. I closed my eyes and felt the wind blow through my hair. I imagined all my friends standing next to me. It had been four years since Jessie died, and Team Rocket had soon been ultimately defeated afterwards. We had then gone our separate ways. I felt like a curse, some unloved, always-despised curse that caused pain to anyone I ever cared for.

I was doing fine after we split up, until a knock on my apartment door one morning left me with a devastated Butch in my living room.
"Aah! What is wrong?" I yelled when he walked in and started bawling.
"Cass, she's all mad at me nowbut it isn't my fault" He took a deep breath and said, "I've got some incurable disease. I'm not gonna make it much longer. But that's not why I'm upset. I'm upset because Cass thinks it's my fault. She's mad at me now" And with that, he burst into tears again.
"Look, I'll go talk to her, okay? You go back home. Make the best of what's left, Butch." I shooed him out the door. I picked up the phone and called Cassidy.
"H'lo, Cassidy speaking."
"It's James. You know, from Team Rocket."
"Hi! Did Butch make you call me?"
"In a way. Don't hang up! I just thought I'd better tell you, Cass. When he's gone, you'll wish you'd spent this time with him, loving him. Trust me, I learned the hard way. Just thought I'd give you that little hint."
And I hung up to sobs coming from the other line. Butch died two weeks later.
Cassidy was never the same. She was killed in a car accident not long after Butch left us. But that wasn't the worst part

The worst part was Mondo. I'd somehow gotten used to my hyper colleague. And I never intended to get him killed, too. Butit wasn't my fault.
We were just enjoying a picnic. Ditto and Wheezing were having a good time, and I for once had my mind off Jessie. I still think about her, you know. My advice to Amber holds true. Anyway, it was a no big deal type thing. Just a picnic. Yeah, and the death of my last human friend.
We were on our way back to town after that picnic, when for no apparent reason, I got the bright idea to take a shortcut.
"Come on, Mondo! We'll get back faster this way!"
"It looks dangerous, James"
"Oh, come on!"
So I led Mondo to his doom. But I didn't know that then. We hadn't gotten very far into the forest shortcut when I heard a crackling behind us that soon got much louder.
"James, it's a fire! RUN!"
So we ran, trying in vain to escape the forest fire. But the fire had soon spread all around us, like a vast wall of flames. I turned to look at our burning surroundings, not noticing the tree behind me slowly toppling over. I didn't see it, but Mondo did.
"James! Look out!" he cried loudly. He ran over and pushed me out of the way, just as the huge, flaming tree crashed to the ground.
"Mondo! Oh, Mondo" I sunk to my knees and tried so hard to get the massive tree off him, but I was just one person, not nearly strong enough. Though his head hadn't been crushed by the weight of the tree, the rest of him had, and I could tell he was so close to death.
I walked to the other side of the tree, not caring that the forest around me was ablaze. Mondo had fallen on his back, and he was twisted in a painful-looking position. I could still see his face, though. HE opened his big brown eyes and whispered so quietly I could barely hear him,
"I hope you're okay, James"
"I'm fine, Mondo, I've gotta find a way to get you out of this mess," I answered him.
"Y-you can'tI'm hurt, James, I can't feel my legs. Go get help. Please?"
I kneeled on the ground. "I can't get out, Mondo. I'm trapped in here. I can't go get help. That's why I have to get you out from under there myself."
Mondo smiled weakly. "It's no use, James. You couldn't save me now." He groaned in pain.
"Mondo," I asked quietly, "do me a favor. Say hello to Jessie for me. And Butch and Cass. But mostly Jessie. Goodbye, Mondo."
And with that, I left my last friend's still form crushed under a tree in the middle of nowhere...

...So now, as I stood on the cliff's edge, I missed them all. I clenched my eyes tighter and imagined a glorious scene. Butch stood with his arm around Cassidy's waist, to my right and behind me a little. Mondo stood to my left, doing a 'peace' sign with his fingers. And Jessieshe stood right beside me to my right, with her arms around my neck. And they all had wings. And before I realized it, I was with them, and I had wings, too.
I never knew. Did I fall from the cliff? Did I jump purposely? I never knew. But I was there, my perfect scene and everything, standing with my friends, my Jessie, and my life. Er, um, in a manner of speaking, that is. And I turned to Jessie, who looked more beautiful than ever with her wings, and I told her what I longed to. "I love you, Jessie." We kissed, and with a jealous look from Mondo, she replied, "I love you too, James. Forever and always." I said, "In life and in death. Together forever." And I lived (?) happily ever after with my friends and my true love.