Mike flipped through the channels, tiring of watching the dull woman drone
over what was happening in Pokeworld. Kids programming, another newscast,
and a paid advertisement program zipped by, and he sighed as he looked at
the next channel.
A young, battered-looking woman was yelling angrily. “…and I found him with
her under the bed!”
“Great,” Mike thought, switching the channels as the crowd began to yell,
“Jerry! Jerry!”
“The junk they put on,” he shook his head, finally stopping at a made for
television movie.
“What’s on?” Felicity looked over the paper.
“Some movie,” Mike replied with a shrug, and turned his attention back
toward the screen.
“Ah,” Felicity nodded with a grin, than looked back down at the sheets in
front of her. The headlines had been quite expected, she thought.
‘TEAM ROCKET: NEVER TO BLAST OFF AGAIN’
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she rolled her eyes and looked at the next
one.
‘BOSS IN JAIL’
“Straightforward and stupid,” she observed, shaking her head. When did the
reporters actually think?
‘TWO DEAD’
“Was that supposed to catch my attention?” Felicity muttered under her
breath, but looked at the column anyway. Just as she had thought, it was the
article about Jessie and James.
Looking over it, she found that the information was basically the same as
that of the newscast, which proved her point that all media was the same
information in different wording. “Wonder who did it,” she thought. “Good
for them.”
In fact, if the anonymous murderer hadn’t made the move, she would’ve
‘taken care’ of the two herself.
Turning the page, her eyes were met by another wave of dull headlines.
“News is news,” she sighed, and began reading.
Ginger walked silently into the room and practically fell onto the couch by
the television, which she looked toward but basically ignored. Her mind was
in too much turmoil for that.
So Shadow knew she had done.
So what?
The only thing that worried Ginger about that at all was that the girl had
appeared shaken, almost, by the fact. Why? She had seen plenty of deaths,
and she should’ve known damn well that Ginger could kill.
So what was making her so unsettled?
Closing her eyes, Ginger shook her head. “How should I know?” came her
reply to her own question as she attempted to quiet the hurt in her mind as
she heard footsteps walking in.
Dan and Felicity looked up at the same time to see Trae walk in; Mike was
too attached to the screen. Obviously, the movie wasn’t as bad as he had
initially thought.
“Hi, Trae,” Felicity waved slightly, than went back to the paper.
“Morning…” Trae dropped into a chair, yawning.
“Tired?” Dan smiled slightly, in spite of the fact that he himself was
obviously exhausted.
“Yeah,” Trae nodded, looking at him.
“He has such sweet eyes…” she thought to herself, looking into the deep
gray-brown pools and admiring his warm grin.
“Same here,” he sat back, and she noticed the rings under his eyes.
“What’s happening?” Shadow walked in with yet another cup of coffee.
“Haven’t you had enough?” Dan joked, taking a sip from his own mug.
“Never!” Shadow replied in mock drama. She could see that Dan was attempting
to shine some light in the room, and, as much as she felt lost, she knew
enough to help instead of resisting.
“Besides, maybe it’ll occupy my mind,” she reasoned, sitting in the chair
next to Dan.
Trae watched silently, jealous of how well Shadow could get along with the
boy. “Why can’t I do that?” she thought wistfully, than wiped the thoughts
away, replacing them with, “If I just stop thinking about him, I won’t
care.” Then, forcing her eyes in the other direction, she attempted to keep
herself intent on the movie.
Shadow looked into Dan’s eyes and saw that the humor was definitely a mask,
covering the confusion he too felt. “Poor guy…” she thought, wishing there
was something she could do to comfort him.
Dan looked back at Shadow and saw that she had not only a pleading look in
her eyes, but also an air of worry and weariness. He wanted so much to put
his arms around her, to comfort her, to tell her everything was fine…
But no, that would never do.
She was Shadow, and Shadow never let her guard down like that.
“I wish she would…” he thought quietly. “I wish for her sake she would.”
That was when he felt something inside his pocket. Reaching down, he found
that it was a folded-up piece of paper…
The note.
“Of course!” he thought. The night before he had shoved it into the pocket
of his pants so that he would remember it.
Well, now he had it, and everyone was in the room…
“Hey, guys!”
Everyone turned and looked at him.
“Yeah?” Felicity had set the paper on her lap and set a strange look on her
face, raising her right eyebrow.
“Huh?” Mike turned from the television, pressing down on the ‘mute’ button.
Ginger turned and looked at him plainly, not revealing anything about how
she felt at the moment, and not saying anything
“What, Dan?” Trae felt her heart nearly jump out at the sound of his voice,
and had to concentrate on keeping herself quiet. Why did she feel attracted
like this? She never had before…
“Hmmm?” Shadow turned towards him.
“I have a letter that Giovanni gave me before he was taken off…” Dan
unfolded the paper. “He told me to read it to all of you.”
The others stared in shock for a second; they obviously hadn’t expected
this. “Giovanni?” Shadow finally managed.
“Yes,” Dan nodded in confirmation.
“Well…” Trae searched, but couldn’t find anything to say.
Mike spoke up. “I don’t think any of us were expecting him to write a
letter in jail!”
Ginger shot him an angry look, than stated what all of them had been
thinking. “Go ahead and read it.”
“Right…” Dan looked down at the flowing handwriting, and began to read
clearly what was written.
“To Ginger, Shadow, Daniel, Michael, Felicity, Trae, and any other faithful
Rocket,” he began, clearing his throat. “What we have feared has happened.
The police have control of the files, the information, and, so it appears,
my life. They have captured a large portion of the other agents, and turned
many against our causes and us. I know what will happen, and I know my fate
will be, eventually, death. I shall be surprise if that is not the penalty,
though I know I will be kept in a filthy cell if it is not. During these two
days of trial, I have had two of my own agents testify against me. I have
also, however, had two individuals lie under oath as witnesses for me, and I
would like to thank them. Yes, I would like to thank my brother, as much as
I hate him. And I would also like to thank the rest of you for being there.”
Dan paused, looking around at the faces, feeling their intent stares and
astonishment that their former Boss wasn’t writing angry accusations.
“I know that you may feel the Rockets are finished, but do not despair, the
Rockets will never die. True, the police broke into the bases. True, they
broke into the files. True, they have captured many agents. However, what
they do not know is that we have an immensely strong power. Willpower. Make
sure you can work together, than begin to gather agents at a location chosen
by you. Decided on a new Boss. Gather any sort of weaponry you can. And make
sure do everything right; you must never make a mistake.”
“Now I must go, I have no more time to right. I hope you read this, and
understand what I mean. Carry out the operations. And one more thing. Long
live Team Rocket! Signed, Giovanni Oak.”
They looked at each other, the impact of the instructions driving into
their minds. For a few seconds, though they seemed like hours, no one spoke.
The silence, however, was interrupted by Felicity. “Holy shit,” she
muttered simply.
Trudging through the dimly lit living room into the bedroom of his motel
complex, Geoffrey ran his shaking fingers through his dark hair. Flicking on
the light switch, he realized that he was going through the motions
unintentionally, and purely by routine. If it hadn't been for that small,
sensible part of his mind, he would've left every light off.
Looking into the mirror that hung over the smooth, oak desk, he sighed and
shook his head, half-watching the hair shake slightly. Staring into the
silver glass, he paused for a moment and stared into the ghostly eyes that
were his, those brown yet bloodshot eyes.
"Damn..." was all he could mutter, and he felt a strange dryness in his
throat as he did so. That was how he had felt all the previous night. Lousy
and sleepless.
In fact, he was currently awake at one in the morning for the same reason.
Everything was too damned rotten. The trial had been bad enough, with his
brother being sent to jail for life. What fun that had been to watch.
Then he had been fired. The silly, arrogant bitch had fired him! And that
Oersted, how he had grinned... "I can't believe this," he sighed, turning
towards the bed again.
He wanted to sleep, he really did. Sleep would have been comforting, and
would have taken him away from the problems for a short period of time. But
of course, sleep was too good for an asshole like him, he told himself over
and over. He knew in his mind he had lied, he knew it was wrong.
He also knew that it had been what was right for him to do.
Still, he was hanging on an edge now. Being fired from the Intelligence
Agency was one of the worst things that could happen, and he knew that the
bitch would be attempting to ruin any chance of a job.
So there was nothing left on the good side. This realization hit him with a
snap, and he heard himself groan softly, a far-away sound of anguish.
There was nothing left on the good side. Only the dark half remained.
"Jesus..." the word barely got past his dry lips, and he felt the little
remaining blood drain from his face.
He had taken the wrong path. He had taken the wrong path, and he knew he
would pay. He would pay dearly.
So what could he do? Where could he go? The thoughts raced through his mind
along with thousands of others, spinning in an incomprehensible circle.
Suddenly, an idea hit him.
There was something he could do. Yes, it would only drag him in
further, but there was no going back as it was…
“I’ll do it,” he confirmed to himself, picking up the suit jacket from the
back of the chair. “Damnit, I’ll do it if it kills me, and I’ll do it for
Mable...” he paused momentarily. “And Ashley.”
Turning the lights off, he stood for only a split second, lost in thought,
before walking out.
-
Giovanni sat quietly in the darkness of the musty, dirt-covered jail cell,
staring out at the night sky. The free night sky. Damn, he wished he was
still free, wished that none of this had happened, wished he wasn’t stuck in
that dump…
“Why me?” he sighed, though he knew perfectly well why. What else would
happen? He had chose to lead the group, and now he was paying his dues…
“But it could’ve been avoided,” he repeated for what seemed like the
hundredth time.
Truthfully, it probably could have, and he knew it. If more agents had
stood up for him, if he had had a stroke of luck…
But of course, neither of those things happened. After all, they didn’t
care if he died. Hell, they didn’t even care that they had lost their jobs.
They had just wanted out of it…
“The cowards,” he felt a shiver pass through his spine and ignored it.
It seemed that the only good occurrence had been what he had heard from the
guard. Jessie and James had been murdered in their rental house. He had
laughed when he’d been informed, and the guard had walked away shakily.
They had deserved it, and Giovanni wished that he could congratulate the
murderer. Those two had never done their job, and once they had testified
against him… Well, his anger became almost incomprehensible.
Still that was those two. There were so many more. So many more unfaithful
agents…
Though there were the faithful ones, those were few, he remembered, casting
his black eyes into the darker night. In fact, he had seen only six. Six who
still were there.
And the larger part of his family. Where had they been? His father, his
wife, his son? Not even his niece, his nephew, or sister-in-law had shown
up, yet they knew. They had to have heard. But they hadn’t been there, of
course not.
“They hate you,” his mind pointed out, and he knew this was true. Of course
they did. Couldn’t stand having someone against the law in their family, no
matter if they had cared about him before or not.
Yet… HE had been there. His brother who was, in fact, the last person on
earth that Giovanni had expected to see, much less testify for him. What had
caused that?
A sudden grunt from the next cell interrupted him, and for a moment he
jumped up, looking around. Shaking his head, he sat back down, almost
embarrassed.
“Why shouldn’t you be embarrassed?” the voice sneered. “After all, you’re
the BOSS. Or, you were. You shouldn’t be scared of anything.”
“Shut up,” Giovanni cut his hand through the air as if to ward away
the voice of his own mind, and wondered if he was going insane..
God, he hated this.
He hated it, and he wished to God that he were somewhere else.
Hell, he wished he were dead.
-
“Number 11,” the burly guard pointed down the hall, leaning back in his
chair and not even bothering to follow the man.
“Anyone who comes here this late can’t be up to anything,” he thought.
“I certainly ain’t.”
That was his policy, after all. If it was late, nothing would happen.
Everything happened in the daylight. The officers and his fellow guards had
told him it was the other way, but he wouldn’t believe. Instead, he was
picking up a magazine, keeping a slight eye on the tall man who was walking
down the hall.
-
Geoffrey clenched his teeth together, attempting to sort out the emotions
that were soaring around his head from what he was about to do, and find
sense in what being where he was.
Why had he even come to this rotten place? Because Ashley needed it, he
knew. And May would’ve wanted it. No one else was going to do this, so it
was up to him… He walked up to cell number eleven.
“Giovanni?” he looked into the darkness, his eyes slowly adjusting somewhat
to the change of lighting. For a brief moment he wondered if the man was
asleep, than decided he probably wasn’t.
“Yes?” the voice that answered was strong, as if nothing had happened.
Though he had no clue who or what was out there, Giovanni felt that he had
to keep the strength of his voice if he couldn’t do anything else.
“Good, you’re not asleep…” Geoffrey trailed off, pushing a few strands of
the chocolate-colored hair out of his eyes, unsure of what to say.
Luckily for him, Giovanni spoke next. “Geoffrey?” he paused momentarily,
confused, and looked into the dark brown eyes of his brother. “What the
hell are you doing here?”
“Truthfully, I don’t know,” both were surprised with the ease the reply was
spoken with, and Geoffrey realized with a start that he did know. “All I can
really say is that I’m here.”
“So I see…” Giovanni’s voice was unwavering, hiding any emotion.
However, the black eyes showed the confusion and turmoil his mind felt,
though he tried hard to keep it inside.
“I’m sorry about what happened, but…”
“What?” the younger man’s voice was suddenly a bit more anxious, though he
couldn’t figure out why.
“Time’s up!” the guard called suddenly over the pages of rifles and
camouflage.
“What?” Giovanni asked again, looking up into his brother’s face.
“I’m going to get you out of here,” Geoffrey lowered his voice when he said
this, than left, leaving them both amazed.
