The Meaning Between the Lines
By Dark Vortex
........It was a bright and cheery summer day, like it nearly always was. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, the background music was playing, and the narrator was blathering, just like always.
........Ash and Co. were strolling up the path, just like always.
........“Do you really think they’ve learned their lesson, Brock?” queried the ten-year-old.
........“Of course they have,” answered the former gym leader. “Even they aren’t stupid enough to come back after that one.”
........“I dunno, they always seem to come back, every time.”
........“Who cares?” interjected the spunky, red-haired, female member of the posse. “We’ll deal with them when they happen.”
........“Good point, Misty.”
........“Yeah, there’s no reason to worry unless they really do show up ag—”
........The ground shifted, seeming to melt away beneath Ash’s feet like chocolate on a hot sidewalk. An eternal moment of resigned chagrin later, the familiar falling sensation took hold.
........“—ain,” finished Ash weakly from the pit. They waited. They probably could have set their watches by the exact length of the pause.
........“Prepare for trouble, pathetic brat!”
........“And make it double, we’re where it’s at!”
........Team Rocket came into view, looking as good (or bad) as ever, their uniforms and special effects flawless. The simple elegance and glamour was lost on Ash and his gang, however, because how could such style succeed in impressing a group with all the collective IQ of strained beets? Despite their lack of appreciation, they didn’t butt in that time, so the poetry was recited.
........“To protect the world from devastation!” Jesse did a spectacular backflip, her immaculately hairsprayed tresses whipping in the wind like the crimson flag of destruction.
........“To unite all peoples within our nation!” James did a series of handsprings, arriving in the perfect position to catch his partner. His jungle-green eyes sparkled.
........“To denounce the evils of truth and love!” She landed on his shoulder with style and grace.
........“To extend our reach to the stars above!”
........“Jesse!”
........“James!”
........The giant red R appeared right on cue, behind the pose-fanatic duo as they glowed, backlit with turquoise. Ash duly noted that this was a new color.
........“Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light!”
........“Surrender now or prepare to fight!”
........“Meeeeeowth, dat’s right!”
........Now that the motto was done, the trio in the hole reacted.
........“You!” said Brock succinctly.
........“I might have known,” muttered Misty, her pinched little face even more sour than usual.
........“Can’t you bother us some other time?” asked Ash peevishly.
........“Silence, twerp. We’re here for your Pikachu, so hand it over and we’ll let you live!”
........The dramatic music cut the air in half. James, looking somehow both concerned and incredibly naive, leaned over to whisper in Jesse’s ear. “Isn’t that a little extreme, even for us?” She rounded on him, and he flinched away, assuming a Don’t-Hurt-Me-I’m-So-Cute puppy face. Ash snickered. “You,” said Jesse, furious, “ruined my big dramatic moment in the spotlight AGAIN! You idiot!” She smacked him over the head, callously ignoring the kicked Chihuahua look, while Meowth covered for her lost equilibrium.
........“Give us da Pikachu or else!”
........“You can never have my Pikachu, you rotten crooks!”
........James looked at Jesse, wordlessly forgiving and forgetting the smack. “What do you think?”
........She stroked her chin thoughtfully before replying. “I think that’s a pretty fair assessment of our characters.” Ash, Misty, and Brock fell over, Anime-style, with a groan.
........“Enough of this!” said Jesse abruptly. “Let’s get what we came for!”
........“Right!” James affirmed, punctuating the word with a short, sharp nod that meant business. They laughed fiendishly and pulled out giant bazookas.
........Ash was already formulating a plan. It was the same plan he always came up with, but it was somehow, thanks to the magic of doofy cartoons, ever and always original. “Pikachu, go!” The little yellow rodent replied, “Pika!” and climbed aboard Ash’s shoulder. The mouse screamed, “Chuuuuu!” and lightning slashed out of the pit to envelope Meowth, who was the closest. While the action got underway, Ash pulled out a pokéball. “Pidgeotto, I choose you!” The bird-like flying-type came out of its ball with a loud, threatening chirp of approximately half its name. It hovered, waiting for instructions.
........“Pidgeotto, fly us up out of the hole,” Ash commanded. The bird complied, making Team Rocket yell with absolute fury as their quarry began to escape again and their bazookas took too long to reload.
........“Arbok, take care of that thing!”
........“Chaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrbokk!”
........“Victreebel, go!”
........“Aaaeaiaeaia!”
........“EEEEEhoohoo! No, flet me go, get fthem!” The Victreebel, predictably, attempted to have James’s head for brunch, giving the little kids the time they needed to escape the pit. Meanwhile, Pidgeotto, through some unknown feat of hero-ness, made hash out of Arbok.
........“Ahhh, we lost again!” wailed James after he extracted his noggin from the avenging flora.
........“You guys will never win against us,” cried Misty.
........Jesse yanked James around by the ear, her rage palpable enough to have been served for lunch if they’d been hungry enough. “We’ll see who loses, brat!” She hefted her bazooka high and dived for the twerps like an avenging angel from you-know-where.
........Then Ash made a quick shock recovery. “Pikachu, thunderbolt now!” The electricity shrieked out to envelope the villains. Miraculously, they actually came through with only minor burns. “Hey,” yelled Brock, “how did you resist Pikachu’s electricity?”
........James looked condescendingly down at the squinty hero-type. “We’ve built up an immunity to thundershocks, little boy.”
........“Huh?” said Ash intelligently.
........“Well, what do you expect after a million shots?” Jesse’s tone suggested that she was speaking to a particularly slow child.
........“Well, then, let’s see how you do against Onix!” Brock cried, tossing the pokéball. The giant rock snake menaced Team Rocket, roaring.
........“Dat’s it, I’m outta dis joint!” Meowth made a run for it, or tried to, before Jesse tripped him flat in the dust.
........“You try to bail out on us again and I’ll dye you purple and hang you out for the Spearow!”
........“There’s no way you’re dyin’ me poiple!”
........Onix didn’t attack right away, so the trio circled warily, maneuvering so that the sun was in their enemy’s eyes. They neglected to realize, however, that they, consequently, had their backs to their own hole in the path.
........This was what the other trio had been waiting for. “Onix,” ordered Brock, “tackle attack, now!”
........Onix tackled, its several hundred pounds of rock backing the charge. Jesse, James, and Meowth were hurled back into the pit, painfully striking the bottom. Jesse and Meowth came through all right, but James landed on his head with a sickening CRACK.
........A wail of pure terror and rage gave Ash pause. He turned to Brock and said, “I’ve never heard them sound like that before. Do you think it could be a trick?”
........“Hmm. Could be, I guess, but maybe we should check it out.”
........“Yeah, I think you’re right,” said Misty. “They might be really hurt this time.”
........But even as they turned back to the pit from their semi-huddle, a hooked rope caught the edge and Meowth clambered out, dashing off without even sparing the heroes a passing glance.
........“What’s going on with him?” wondered Brock, recalling Onix.
........“Maybe they’re—” Ash broke off as Meowth came back from on high, the air balloon’s backlash stirring up dust and making them hack. The massive hot air contraption lowered slowly over the hole, Meowth visible inside it, feverishly working the controls.
........“Why is it taking so long?” asked Misty aloud as she stared up at the balloon, her hair and clothes whipping in the gale.
........What they saw next froze them in their tracks, questions dying unspoken on lips gone numb with shock.
........The balloon rose with painful slowness as Jesse looked down on them. Her eyes were murderous, all flames and ice and an unutterable fury that knew no words to describe it.
........And cradled in her arms was James.
........His body was slack, arms dangling, and splotches of dark red mixing with the sky-blue in his layered hair.
........Then the air current caught them and bore them swiftly away. As she moved farther and farther into the blue, blue heavens, Jesse’s gaze never left the dusty children on the path, staring up at her with wide and frightened eyes.
........It was a cold white cell, bereft of any feeling of life. Only a faint, antiseptic scent colored the still air, speaking not of life and hope but death and despair, a chill that told countless stories of those who had been here before, their only memory that disinfectant left behind.
........To any other person, it was just another room in a people hospital, but to Jesse, it was a prison. Only she wasn’t the one who was trapped.
........A nurse flounced in with a clipboard, somehow looking busy and brown and dumpy even in the pristine white of her work clothes. “I’m afraid visiting hours are over,” she said neutrally. The redhead nodded blearily and climbed to her feet, shivering in her coat.
........She took another look at James’s pale face, reaching out to brush away the silly strand of hair that always managed to fall down over his nose.
........Then the nurse ushered her out, and she walked through the door into the endless corridors of the hospital.
........As she reached the egress, she halted, slamming her fist into the doorframe.
........Why?
........Why on this mission, their relaxation job, for Chrissakes! James risked his life for far worthier and more dangerous missions every friggin’ day, and now he had to be in a coma after chasing the Pikachu?!
........It wasn’t fair! It just wasn’t fair!
........She gripped the door tightly, as if clutching a lifeline, tears she had sworn she would never shed for another person squeezing out of her eyes.
........She couldn’t lose James. She just couldn’t.
........Slowly, she released the hold she had on the smooth wood, resolutely bringing herself back under the rigid control she always evidenced. I should be getting back now, she thought. Meowth will be worried.
........She tried to go. She tried. But her legs wouldn’t move. She couldn’t force herself to take that first step outside the door. She called Meowth on the vid-phone to let him know she wouldn’t be coming home that night, and then she curled up across two of the cold, uncomfortable waiting room chairs and fell into an exhausted slumber.
........“Well? How is he?”
........The doctor coughed discreetly, hemming and hawing and looking back and forth from his clipboard to Jesse and Meowth, standing there, anxiously waiting. “Well,” he waffled, “he’s been—look, Miss, I’m just going to tell you outright. He’s been getting worse all night. If he wakes up, he’ll be fine. It he doesn’t.....”
........His voice trailed away, and he coughed into his clipboard again. Jesse’s eyes wobbled, but she nodded. I have to be strong, for both of us, now. “Thank you,” she said simply. Meowth patted her sympathetically on the calf. Under normal circumstances she would have clobbered him for touching her legs, but she no longer even noticed.
........“May I see him?” Meowth cleared his throat pointedly. “And the cat, too?”
........“Go ahead.”
........He was so much changed even from last night. He was so pale and fragile, it nearly broke her heart. Even the tiny hospital bed seemed to dwarf him, and it was as if he was a little child again.
........Jesse reached out, but halted her hand a fraction of an inch away from his cheek, somehow afraid that if she touched him he would shatter like crystal. His soft breathing reassured her, in a way, that he still held some tenuous grip on life, but the thought that he might lose that last link to it—to her—
........All at once she stood and rushed from the room, the building, and down the street. Meowth ran after her, protesting, as nurses stared in bewilderment. Jesse didn’t care. The rage was back, rekindled ten thousand-fold, and aimed at the source of her misery--the twerps.
........“I’ll get that Pikachu!” she vowed. “And I’ll get them, too!”
........Ash was thoughtful. An unusual spectacle, it aroused the curiosity of his comrades, who conferred quietly together before deciding to do something about it. After all, it wasn’t kind to let their friend continue pursuing such a dangerous pastime.
........“Are you feeling all right, Ash?” asked Brock.
........“Huh?” he responded. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine, Brock.” He went back to being pensive, but with an effort, as though it were giving him a headache. Misty decided to try her hand. It was substantially more effective.
........“All right, Ash, spill it!”
........“WAAAAAH!” said Ash, mildly surprised.
........“There’s something bothering you and you’re gonna tell me what it is!”
........He cringed before her wrath, then said, “All right, Misty.” They waited. “It’s Team Rocket. I don’t think they were faking when they left last time. They haven’t been back since then.”
........“Well, good riddance, I’d say,” Misty told him. “We should be glad they haven’t bothered us.”
........“But I didn’t mean for them to get hurt. I just wanted them to keep away from Pikachu. I feel really bad.”
........“Don’t, Ash. It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t even your pokémon.”
........Brock winced.
........“But shouldn’t we--”
........There was an explosion of titanic proportions, knocking them to the ground in undignified heaps. Ash coughed, and managed to open one eye. “What was that?”
........“That,” said a voice of steel above their heads, “was me.”
........They all looked up. Jesse stood in the hideous Meowth balloon, a rocket launcher in her hand. “That mouse,” she said, her tone icier than the deepest pits of hell, “is mine.”
........And with that, she blasted a crater the size of a small house in the forest floor where the three kids had been a split second before.
........“What the—? They never acted like this before!” Brock yelled. “She’s acting like she really wants to kill us!”
........Jesse tossed two pokéballs from the balloon, her face never changing its deadly expression. “Arbok. Lickitung. Code 4-3-0-2. Get them.”
........And the two pokémon attacked with a ferocity Ash had never before seen. They were impossibly fast, impossibly strong, and angrier than he had ever seen a pokémon get. Nevertheless, he ordered, “Pikachu, thundershock now!”
........Pikachu obeyed, but before the electricity had even begun to build, Arbok slammed into it, pumping poison into its veins and incapacitating it with unbelievable speed and power. The twerps gaped.
........“Do you see now, little boy?” asked the Team Rocket female. The note of amusement that Ash had never noticed until then was gone from her rich, contralto voice. “We could have taken Pikachu whenever we wanted. We were toying with you, playing cat-and-mouse, never using our real strength. But now—now you deserve to feel my pain!”
........Another massive explosion rocked their world again. Ash tried pokémon after pokémon, to no avail. Each were taken out almost as soon as they left their pokéballs. And each one was left gasping on the ground, too weak to move, much less battle anybody.
........Soon, all three of the amateur trainers had run out of pokémon and been forced to recall every single one. The figure in the balloon dropped the unconscious Pikachu behind her and lifted her launcher, taking aim. A slender, gloved forefinger trembled on the trigger.
........I’ll make them pay for what they did to James!
........But as she thought again of her sweet, naive partner, she stalled. Would James have wanted her to do this?
........Would he have wanted her to become a murderer, to sacrifice her ideals for a pointless revenge?
........Ash was shocked. She was putting away her gun! Even more astounding, his Pikachu came tumbling down from the balloon into his arms. “Pikachu!” He hugged it joyfully as it smiled weakly up at him, but he had to spare one last glance skyward, to the retreating aircraft.
........Was Jesse of Team Rocket—crying?
........Jesse had come to the realization that she wasn’t that kind of a cold-blooded killer. And who was she angry at? The brats?
........No, she was angry at herself, for always hitting James and yelling at him and abusing him, making his life a living hell, allowing him to comfort her when she was down and never returning the favor. She was angry at herself for not telling him how she felt.
........For not telling him that she loved him.
........She fell to her knees in the balloon basket, trembling as she made herself face it. She loved him, though it went against everything she stood for and the person she thought she was, and she couldn’t live without him. And what was worse, she had been pushing him away, because she was afraid that if she got close to him, he would leave her like everyone else had.
........How can I deal with that? And what if he doesn’t—love me back?
........How could he? I treat him like he’s lower than the scum on my boots! But now he could leave me forever, and I didn’t tell him.
........I didn’t tell him.....
........She forced her body to go through routine motions, robotically steering the balloon in the direction of the cabin where Meowth was probably waiting to commit her to an asylum after reading the note she had left. Then she made a conscious decision not to go back there just yet. She set a course for the hospital.
........Upon arrival, walking the last half-mile to avoid being arrested or held up, she strode in and placed her palms firmly on the counter-top, a shadow of her old, arrogant self showing through. “I want to see Dr. Coeli, and I want to see him now.”
........The receptionist blinked, but puttered at the computer for a moment. “He’s free now. Shall I page him?
........“Do it.”
........The harried woman did as Jesse had requested, and soon the person the redhead wanted to see appeared at the desk “This had better be good, I was on my coffee break—oh, it’s you, Miss. Can I help you?”
........She closed her eyes and swallowed. “I need to see James. I have to. I—” The words jumbled together into a lump that blocked air passage and prevented her from speaking further. The doctor looked into her eyes, read the empty despair and total lack of hope, and nodded thoughtfully.
........“These aren’t the normal hours, but I can make an exception.”
........She was already past him, hurrying down the hall and nearly bowling over an old woman in a wheelchair. A sense that she was running out of time weighed heavily on her heart, and she was running flat out down the corridor to that tiny, white room that held her beloved. When she arrived, skidding to a breathless halt, she was confronted with a nurse just bustling out. Seizing the opportunity and the nurse’s collar, she demanded, “How is he? Tell me now!”
........The lady gasped, her eyes bulging like a fat frogs’, her face registering first shock, then anger. “Young woman, put me down now or I’ll tell you nothing!” She placed the nurse back on her feet, shocked that she had turned on an innocent woman. The lady took her time, brushing herself off and straightening her dress, but she finally assumed an almost pitying look and said, “We don’t know that there’s anything more we can do. There’s not much chance he’ll live through the night.”
........The pupils of the villain’s eyes became pinpricks, and she had the look of the deer who sees the bullet coming, knows what it means, but cannot move away in time. “No!” She shoved the nurse away and bolted to the bedside.
........Jesse grabbed James’s hand and held it in a crushing grip, willing him to live, not to die, not to leave her alone. She visualized her own energy, her life and love, pouring into him through her hand on his.
........“Miss, you’re not supposed to be here. I’m going to have to remove you—”
........Dr. Coeli placed a hand on her arm. “Let her be. She needs this.”
........Jesse tried to force her own life into her beloved, knowing she didn’t have a chance to save him, knowing it was futile, knowing—
........Knowing......
........She didn’t feel it when the nurse rushed to support her, sliding to the tiles in a dead faint.
........“She’s burnt out to a degree I wouldn’t have thought possible if I weren’t seeing it myself. But then, I haven’t been a nurse for very long. What do you think, Gerrick?”
........“She’s pushed herself to the limit. I think,” said Dr. Coeli slowly, “that she’s in love with that young man, Carol.”
........Nurse Carol looked down at the face in her lap, grey with exhaustion. “The poor girl. It must be terrible for her. I’ll find her a spare couch in the lounge.”
........“Carol, look at this!”
........Carol stood, Jesse’s limp body in her arms. “What?”
........Dr. Coeli waved his hand at the display with great excitement and enthusiasm. “This!”
........“I don’t see what—Jesus H. Christ!” She looked down in awe at the pitiful bundle she held. “Maybe she’s stronger than we thought, Gerrick. A lot stronger.”
........The touch of a cool hand on her forehead brought her awake. She opened one eye, felt the bright sunlight kick her in the face, and closed it again for a moment. Prying both of them open, she asked, “What happened?”
........The nurse from before bent over her, laying a damp cloth on her brow, while at the same time a familiar, uppity voice said, “It’s about time ya woke up. You were out all night.”
........“When did you get here, Meowth?” she asked wearily. He snorted, entering her field of vision right about then.
........“Well don’t sound so happy ta see me!”
........She grimaced, all the apology she was going to manage, and examined her surroundings. Couches, tables, vending machine, smiling nurse, cranky cat, sunlit window—
........She sat bolt upright, dropping the cloth in her lap and nearly knocking heads with the matronly woman. “What time is it?” He pupils contracted and her nostrils flared; she looked like one cornered by a rabid grizzly bear.
........“Nine in da mornin’,” answered Meowth, fascinated. He and the nurse watched in puzzlement as the headstrong woman sagged, burying her face in her hands. “It’s morning....that means....” Stalling, she caused them both to leap back with a yip as a dainty-looking fist slammed into the wall, leaving a visible dent in the plaster.
........“My dear, what’s the matter?”
........“Are ya all right, Jess?”
........“Yes, I’m all right,” she said with a quiet tone surprising after her violent outburst, “but what about....” She couldn’t finish. She didn’t need to.
........“Your young man? He hasn’t woken up yet, but you can go see him if you want.”
........She jerked her head up so fast that she must have gotten whiplash. “You mean he’s not—”
........“No, he isn’t,” the woman informed her.
........“Is dere a reason you’re even less articulate dan usual?”
........She was already gone, the nurse with her, as the feline maverick finished his snide inquiry.
........“You,” Jesse accused, “lied to me. You said he wasn’t going to—you made me worry and—”
........“I didn’t lie to anyone,” the nurse broke in. “The situation changed. He’s improving now instead of deteriorating, but we don’t have any idea why, or how long it will last.” A lilting note that somehow left the sentence incomplete drew a highly suspicious glance from Jesse, but neither of them really cared at that point.
........“When did that start happening? Him getting better, I mean.”
........“Last night. At about the same time you fainted from exhaustion.”
........“I did?” She flushed a unique shade of mauve at having shown such weakness. But then again, she’d been acting like a vulnerable child for all of the past few days. Way to go being strong, Jess.
........She became wrapped up in her thoughts, unthinkingly slowing and relaxing her pace. She was monumentally startled, as a result, when the nurse stopped her and turned so that they faced one another.
........“I want to talk to you, young woman, and we should be on a first-name basis first. My name is Carol. Your name I already know. Would you be open-minded about what I am going to tell you?” Jesse nodded. “I have my own hypothesis about why it happened. I think—” Carol paused. “I think that you are the reason that young man is getting better. I saw what you were doing, holding his hand and concentrating, and right after you collapsed, the monitors showed his condition on a dramatic rise.” She paused again to allow her new-found acquaintance to assimilate this. “I can’t prove it, but I think you saved his life, at least for the time being, through sheer force of will.”
........“I....you must be joking,” Jesse protested when she found her voice.
........“I’m deadly serious.”
........Jesse looked at her hands, so pale and fragile in appearance, like the finest china. Could I have....no, that isn’t possible.
........And yet.....
........She was just entering James’s room, thoughtful of what she had been told, when Meowth darted in with the team’s cell phone in paw.
........“Da Boss is on da phone!”
........Jesse’s heart leaped into her throat like a dehydrating animal into the Rivers of Paradise, but for a far less enjoyable reason. The Boss! What could he want? She had a strong gut feeling that she didn’t want to take this call, but she took the phone from the antsy cat and raised it to her face.
........“Hello, Boss?”
........A gravelly voice on the other end of the line demanded, “What’s taking you three so long to report in? I have a schedule to keep.”
........She flinched away from the concealed menace in his tone. “We had a small mishap.” She gritted her teeth to have to refer to it like that, but if she said ‘major catastrophe,’ he’d get even more pissed off than he probably already was. “James was injured on the job. He’s at a local hospital. That’s where Meowth and I are now.”
........“You babbling buffoons screwed things up again? I should kick you off the team! You’re useless!”
........“But Boss, that’s only with the Pikachu mission. If you really want us to catch it, we will.”
........“You fool!” Giovanni roared at the top of his ample bass range, spittle staining her shell-shaped ear all the way through the phone lines. “Your so called ‘relaxation mission’ has been giving Team Rocket a bad name! Your failures are setting us back, and our reputation as well!”
........“But Boss—”
........“Now listen, you incompetent imbecile, I’m changing your assignment. I want you to make a raid on the pokémon center in whatever city you’re in, and bring me back some real results!”
........“But what about James, Boss?”
........She could hear him sneer. “I have no use for him if he is unfit for duty. Go without him. You’re my right-hand team, and perfectly capable of working alone if I so choose.”
........“But—yes, Boss. Right away, Boss.” He hung up.
........Carol was watching her as if seeing an entirely new person. “You’re with the notorious Team Rocket?”
........“You—heard?”
........“Honey, that man was shouting loud enough to be heard in Lavender Town. So, should I turn you in?”
........Jesse was shocked out of her wits. “You—you would turn us in? Now? Even though—”
........The nurse sighed heavily. “No, I suppose I won’t, but only because you haven’t pulled anything funny. And because of him.” She gestured. “And maybe a little because I like you, girl. I’ll bet you have spirit when you aren’t moping around so much.”
........“How much did you hear?” She was fearful that if she had let information leak, the would really be fired, and that meant death.
........“Just that your team was giving them a bad reputation. Nothing more.”
........Jesse was relieved. “Good. I—have to go.” She bent over and smoothed James’s crinkled hair. “I have something I have to do.”
........It was difficult to concentrate on her job without James to do his part, but she had managed before. Besides, the third member of the group was there to fill in James’s half of the motto, so at least that was something.
........This was to be done in a straightforward manner: no fake failures, no wasting time on anything that wasn’t important to the mission, no goofing around or making puns. Just a plain and simple pokémon heist. Jesse knew she could do it; it wasn’t a hard assignment. It was merely that she had grown so accustomed to the close camaraderie of Team Rocket that working alone was almost unthinkable.
........But the Boss was the Boss, and for a good reason.
........She set the balloon down about a half-mile from the pokémon center and disembarked. She took no tools, nor did she wear a disguise or costume. Those were for show.
........“So, Jess, da Boss says no fun dis time?”
........“No. Just work.”
........They headed down the main street of the town, ignoring the whispering women commenting on her immodest style of dress and the men who gave her appreciative whistles. In due course, they came to the entrance to the center. The recited the poem without enthusiasm, and were collecting their prize from a terrified but cooperative Joy when a squad of Jennies with shrieking sirens arrived on the scene.
........“Stop, in the name of the law,” they chorused. Jesse was about to tell them to bug off when she noticed something that shocked her.
........They all had drawn handguns, pointed at the robbers.
........At her.
........So this is what it feels like to be on the other end of the gun. A dispassionate corner of her brain noted this and filed it away as the foremost of the Jennies stepped forward with cuffs in hand and said, “We were warned about you two, so don’t try any funny moves!”
........But how—
........The brats. Who else could have known they weren’t the idiots they’d always pretended to be? Jesse growled low in her throat and snapped, “Code 7-22!”
........“Right!”
........All at once the area filled with a dense black smoke, designed to fool the police and make a getaway smooth. But the Jennies were not stupid, and were in prearranged positions so as not to accidentally shoot one another. “Where are you, Nurse Joy?”
........“Behind the desk,” came the muffled reply.
........“All right, Jennies, fire at will!” And they did, shooting their pistols in random directions, seeking out the villains.
........And one bullet found a mark in the back of Jesse’s leg, just below the knee.
........She bit back a cry of pain as she toppled, not wanting to give away her location even though exquisite agony was ripping through her being. Meowth continued on through to the exit, oblivious to her injury. She forgave him, reasoning that she doubted he could hear anything but the pounding of his pulse in his pointed ears.
........Setting her jaw and biting her lip, she dragged herself in the direction of the door, her pack of stolen goods on her back. She knew she wasn’t going to make it out of there before the smoke cleared and she was captured, but she had to try anyway. When she found a reasonably supportive corner, she stopped to examine her leg. It was bleeding like nothing else, and she couldn’t make the joint move at all.
........Even as she made these dismaying observations, the smog began to blow away as a familiar voice was heard to yell, “Pidgeotto, gust attack! Blow the smoke away!” The police and the twerps saw her at the same time she saw them, looking outraged and triumphant simultaneously.
........“She’s down!” yelled a Jenny. “Move in slowly; she might be armed!”
........Terrified, the woman instinctively placed her hands over her wounded appendage, eyes wide and lip trickling red where she had broken skin with her sharp teeth. Yes, she decided, she was terrified, but not for her life. She had been reconciled to the fact that she would die young ever since she had joined the team. She was afraid that she might never see James again, that she might die without ever knowing if he lived or not.
........She threw back her head in anguish.
........“Nooooooo!”
........Her terror and pain and horror channeled through her veins, displacing any bodily fluid, and she unconsciously brought to mind what the nurse had told her and focused it on her injury. A soft blue glow gathered around her, building in intensity until it was a glittering beacon too bright to look at. The Jennies flinched back, and Jesse found her feet and ran.
........She ran as fast as she could, not thinking, not feeling, not even seeing.
........And only when she stopped did her vision clear, and did she realize that there was not so much as a mark on the back of her leg.
........The familiarly shrouded form of Giovanni sat back on the dark throne, stroking his Persian and presumably wearing a satisfied smile. You always had to take it on faith, something Jesse had never had much of. The successful theft had yielded over two hundred pokémon, all in reasonably fair condition. The Boss was pleased.
........“You did well on this assignment. I see no reason not to promote the both of you.”
........“But what about James, sir?” She had to ask him. Everything she went through her partner went through with her, and if one of them were to be promoted above the other, it would mean separation.
........Giovanni quashed her hopes violently. “He was not even on this mission. Instead, he was lolling about in bed nursing cuts and bruises. Why, praytell, would I even consider promoting him?”
........That was the last straw, the cap to a truly terrible day.
........Jesse did something she had never done before, never been willing to risk: She blew up at her Boss.
........“He was not just nursing cuts and bruises! He still could die, and here I am doing petty pokémon theft for a pompous—”
........“Fury swipes!”
........She screeched as the cat pokémon cut her off with his attack. He leapt out of striking range, yelling, “Tink about what you’re saying’!”
........She did. It appalled her, and she flung her body in a prostrate heap at Giovanni’s feet. “I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t mean to say that—”
........“So, this was your ‘small mishap,’ was it?” His voice dripped venom. “Well, I see I was mistaken. I will promote no one who does not exhibit enough self-control to hold her tongue and refrain from referring to me as—” his lip curled “—pompous. Get out of my sight before I fire you both! I don’t want to see either of you again until you show me that you’re worthy of my attention!”
........They fled, hearts in their mouths. As soon as they were far enough to be safe, Meowth turned on her furiously.
........“Why did ya have ta do a ting like dat? We was gonna get promoted! Now we’ll be lucky if we don’t get da boot!”
........“Quiet, you little bigmouth!” she snarled. She was still angry, and Meowth was about to catch the brunt of it. “Don’t complain at me! You know that if we get promoted and James doesn’t—”
........“Oh, so dat’s it. Worried about leavin’ James behind, so ya risk both our necks!”
........“I wasn’t speaking for you, you ungrateful hairball! If you want to get back in the Boss’s good graces, be my guest!”
........“Fine, den I will!”
........Jesse instantly regretted her harsh words as the outraged feline turned on his heel and stomped back the way they had come. “Meowth, wait, I didn’t mean it—”
........“Ya don’t mean a lotta what ya say, do ya?” He didn’t even pause, except to throw the cell phone at her as it began to ring quietly. “Take dat piece of junk. You’re gonna need it.”
........She stared at him as he went, his tail lashing, letting the phone continue to beep, but finally answered the call.
........“Hello?” she said listlessly.
........“I’ve changed my mind,” said the Boss’s voice. A glimmer of hope stirred in her breast.
........“You mean you’re not angry with me?
........“No. I mean you’re fired.”
........It went dead.
........“...so you see, I have no other place to go now. That cabin is Meowth’s; he paid for it. He booted me out as soon as I had my things.”
........“That’s an awful thing to do to a former teammate. Do you think he’ll cool off and let you back in?”
........Jesse regretfully shook her head. “The Boss would never allow it.” Her nurse friend nodded with some sympathy and changed the subject slightly.
........“So why did he fire you?”
........Unthinking, she replied, “I mouthed off. He was going to promote Meowth and me after our raid was so successful, but he wouldn’t promote James along with us, so I—” Her mouth snapped shut like a steel trap, but it was too late to redeem her.
........“So,” said Carol flatly, “you were the ones who sacked the pokémon center yesterday.” Her expression was no longer one of pity. Jesse found it indecipherable.
........She opened her mouth in protest of this sudden change in attitude, but could find no words to express the stabbing pain she felt, seeing her new and already beloved friend stare at her in such a way. She hung her head in shame instead before the nurse.
........“You know, I hated my job. Well, I enjoyed the thrill, the rush of it, but I hated the real dirty deeds. I loved my team, and it was for them I worked at all. I took joy in them and only them. After all, if not in my team, then in whom? But I didn’t like risking my life to benefit someone I hated.
........“And now that I’m free of that, I should be happy, but both of my team members are separated from me, maybe for good. And nobody, whether they get fired, quit, or are killed on the job, nobody leaves Team Rocket alive.”
........Carol’s eyes widened. “You mean—”
........She nodded despondently. “Now that I’ve been fired, he’ll send assassins after me. And there’s never been anyone who’s managed to escape.” She covered her face with her black gloves. “Don’t you see? My life is over. Soon, literally.”
........A lone tear fell through her fingers and onto her lap, part of a torrent she was desperately trying to stave off. “I had to stay, to keep the team together, and if I failed, we all did, because I kept us on track and going the direction the Boss wanted us to go. But now, even if James does get better, he won’t survive a day on his own. He doesn’t know how. I was there to tell him, and now I can’t be.”
........She was waging a losing war against the salty flood that poured forth. Carol placed a hand on her shoulder, all trace of coldness gone. “I had no idea things were so bad for you. I apologize. We should both be worried about your young man, not your former occupation. It’s my job and it’s your life, so let’s concentrate on that, hmm?”
........Jesse smiled up at Carol through her tears. “Thank you.”
........“All right!” the nurse said cheerfully, clapping her hands. “New subject!”
........They conversed far into the evening, talking of little nothings of everyday life, exclaiming over the similarities and pondering the differences. Though Carol was twice her age and then some, Jesse found in her a strong affinity, a sort of sameness that intrigued her and made them fast friends. The talk went from cooking escapades (Carol couldn’t cook either) to men problems to career disasters (she had originally wanted to become a graphic artist) to just day-to-day routines.
........It was interrupted by a page from Dr. Coeli, and Carol left with regret to answer to her duty. Jesse was left sitting in the waiting room by herself, a warm glow suffusing her inside and out. Beyond her team, she had never had many friends. Chansey/Blissey had been wonderful, but they had been unable to keep in touch. Jesse hoped that she and Carol could do so for the short time she had left before the Boss ‘disposed’ of her sorry carcass.
........Carol’s shift lasted for hour upon hour, and gradually Jesse’s head drooped and she dozed fitfully. Little snatches of dream surfaced, but were always gone before she had a chance to lock onto them and learn what they meant. One stayed, a long, involved dream that seemed to make some sort of sense while it happened, but puzzled her when she awoke.
........It is very—blue.
........All around her.
........A blue light that is soft to her right and blinding to her left.
........And James is there, right ahead, lying on the ground? floor? in a sprawled heap on the boundary of the two lights.
........She tries to run to him, but the dimmer light swells and surrounds her, blanketing her partner and holding her back from him. She struggles and struggles, without success, so she reaches out to the center of the brightest light, taking its strength and making it her own.
........She breaks through. The thick, pulsing veil that smothers her parts like a curtain, and she sends the bright light into James with all the strength she can muster.
........It suffuses him, and he stands up, looking like a shining beacon, and smiles, and says her name.
........She attempts to reach for his outstretched hand, but cannot move at all.
........Then, as suddenly as if a switch has been thrown, both the lights were snuffed out, plunging her into darkness.......
........“Dear, wake up! You need to wake up now!”
........Jesse’s eyelids snapped up. “Mommy?” As she took in her surroundings in the next nanosecond, she blushed a bright scarlet. “Oh, it’s you, Carol. What is it?”
........“My shift is over for the night, so I thought you might want to stay over at my house tonight.” She smiled. “From what you told me earlier, I have the feeling you can’t afford a good hotel.”
........It was twelve o’clock midnight, or thereabouts in the night. A slight scuffling noise brought the former Rocket out of a dreamless sleep. Automatically, she reached for the sleeping bag next to hers, without even opening her eyes, but her questing fingers encountered empty air. Reaching farther out, she took a tumble off the twin-sized bed, landing painfully on her face. Screeching like a barn owl and yelling things no sailor would dare utter in polite company, she set about with her fists, but only succeeded in damaging herself further by punching the hardwood floor.
........Then she looked around. Sighing and wondering what Carol would say, she began to crawl back into the tangled bedsheets.
........And all hell broke loose.
........Carol, in a funny nightgown, threw open the door at exactly the same instant that the window shattered into a glittering rain of shards. Jesse yelled and dived beneath the bed like a frightened child, fragments falling from her hair. As soon as her mind made that self-same comparison, she came back out the other side, pulling some smoke bombs from her nightcap.
........A dark outline loomed in the broken window. She tackled it, knocking them both out and down three stories to the grass. She landed on top of the shape, and delivered a quick chop with her hand to its temple.
........Springing to her feet, she dashed fleetly through the town streets with one thought in her mind:
........Team Rocket assassins never went alone.
........She was drawing them away from the house; she cursed whatever insanity had possessed her to stay the night with her friend when she knew they would be coming.
........Listening, she decided there were at least three of them left. One she could handle, as she had proved, two maybe, but three at one time was too many even for her considerable skill.
........She knew that had been their plan. Take just enough and one extra. It was standard.
........A ping to her left alerted her to their first method: darts, quite probably lethal. She began to duck and weave, hoping to throw their aim off, and heard a soft curse behind her. She sneered. Her instructor would have had her on extra duties for a month for making such an elementary slip-up. Rule # 6: Never give your position away to your enemies.
........Jesse pulled a gas pearl out of her nightdress and tossed it expertly in the direction of the epithet without slowing her pace even a little. No sound of coughing was heard, telling her that she had missed, but she also might have gained a fraction of the time she needed.
........No such luck. She halted when she realized they were ahead of her as well as behind. Running any more was a useless waste of energy she didn’t have to spare.
........Three lean, black shapes solidified, surrounding her. She didn’t recognize them, although they wore masks that concealed little, but then, she hadn’t expected to. The Boss’s assassins were a select group far separated from the rest. No one from the team proper even knew the name of the division. Not that it would help any person earmarked to be a target.
........They didn’t talk as they advanced on her, an unnecessary precaution against voice recognition. Jesse snarled, aware of how pitifully incapable she looked in her frilly pink gown, and stared the foremost man right in the eyes. He said nothing. She said nothing.
........He made a lightning move, without even disrupting his calm stance, and shot. She had been ready, but was at too close quarters to get completely out of the path of the bullet. It went all the way through her right shoulder, cutting through the big blood vessel near her underarm. She didn’t scream, though she had no position to give away. She did not want to show weakness in her last moments on earth.
........The gunman nodded as if in approval, and lunged at her with a knife shining in his glove. The two behind her did the same.
........She saw their mistake in tactics and folded in on herself, her shoulder screaming, falling sharply. As she had hoped, the foremost assassin only succeeded in disemboweling his comrade.
........She had not expected it to be so easy. It was too easy for her taste.
........She snatched up the knife from the fallen and made a left-handed attack of her own. It did little good. She received a long, deep gash in her chest that spurted blood, but kept going.
........It was luck. She would have liked to attribute it to her own prowess in knife fighting, but it was pure chance that saved her life.
........The two made a rush at her from opposite sides, a move intended to decapitate her and leave her no avenue of escape. She did what they least expected: she threw the knife down on the road and sat.
........She hadn’t meant to do it. It had just happened. But it worked well enough.
........The two killers ended up on each other’s blades, sliding to the damp, slick pavement with strangled gurgles.
........Jesse picked herself up with an effort, and set off with a purpose.
........Carol tried for the umpteenth time to reach Jesse’s cell phone. Still no answer. She refused to even think of why not.
........She had gone straight to the only place she knew she could find reliable aid for an ex-criminal: the hospital. Dr. Coeli had listened to her explanation and condoned her judgment, but was regretful in informing her that they could do nothing for her if she wasn’t there. Carol concurred. So, for the past hour or so, she had tried to find her friend and bring her there.
........Fed up and angry at the world, the nurse swept the phone off the desk and onto the floor, breaking the expensive equipment. The receptionist gasped like a drowning fish, floundering for something to protest this destruction but at the same time not arouse any more of Carol’s obviously considerable temper.
........The nurse ignored the distressed woman, sat down amidst the ruins of the machine and rested her forehead on her propped-up knees. What more could she do?
........She flashed back to Jesse’s last impassioned outpouring of her tribulations and sorrows.
........“Nobody, whether they get fired, quit or are killed on the job, nobody leaves Team Rocket alive.”
........“You mean—”
........“Now that I’ve been fired, he’ll send assassins after me. And there’s never been anyone who’s managed to escape.”
........A hand descended on her arm, and she looked up to find Dr. Coeli smiling sadly down at her.
........“You really care about that young woman, don’t you?”
........Carol nodded numbly, accepting his hand and climbing to her feet. “She’s like the daughter I always wished I had.” She leaned on his shoulder. “She’s so vulnerable, Gerrick. She tries to be strong, but it’s only because she doesn’t want to lose more than she has already. I think that young man of hers means more that she would ever say. It broke her, I think, to almost lose him like this.” She squinched her eyes shut. “She doesn’t deserve any more pain!”
........The doctor let her cry. “I know, but if she’s gone this far, I think she’ll pull through.”
........“You don’t understand! She’ll die!”
........“Then she’ll die. But from what you’ve told me, if she does, it will be on her own terms, and she won’t die without honor.” He sighed, and told her, “Her young man isn’t going to make it. Let’s hope she will, at least.”
........The door came open, and there she stood.
........She was battered and bedraggled, blood pooling at her feet as she laboriously pulled herself in. Her breath came in short, harsh pants, and more red liquid leaked out of the corner of her mouth.
........“Jesse!”
........Everyone in sight rushed to help her, even the clerk. Carol caught her as she fell, bearing her up. Dr. Coeli gasped in horror at the amount of blood the teenager was losing.
........“Get her to the ER!”
........“NO!”
........Carol said firmly, “Yes! You are going to the ER right now, or you’ll die!”
........“I’m going....to die anyway....poisoned knife....” She gasped, staggering. “Stop the bleeding....and take me....to James....”
........“But—”
........“Just....DO IT!”
........There was no arguing with her. A tourniquet was placed on her arm to halt the flow of blood, and Dr. Coeli and Nurse Carol together carried her to James’s room. “Do what you have to quickly,” Carol begged, “so we can help you.”
........Jesse halted briefly, placing a trembling hand over Carol’s. “Thank you....for everything.”
........And, refusing all support, she staggered over to James’s bedside. The meaning of her dream was painfully clear to her now. It should always have been obvious, but she had never made the connection. I can heal him. I can do it. I have to.
........Placing her slender hands on his chest, she reached, for the glittering radiance she knew was inside her, which she had tapped into twice before without ever knowing it.
........It rose to her call, stirring up her blood and making it sing in her ears like the finest music. All pain fled, leaving only purpose. She poured her soul into her beloved, her essence, her being. She was doing more than healing him.
........She was telling him she loved him, because she had never had the courage to tell him in words.
........What the nurse and the doctor saw was a bright glow whose only description was a word nearly forgotten by many, but well-loved by poets of old: azure. It filled the tiny room, until they had to turn away from the brilliance that emanated from the lithe, beautiful girl, not yet eighteen.
........And James stirred.
........As the light faded, leaving behind it only a faint, poignant memory of bittersweet song, he sat up, looked down, and saw her. The mark on the base of his skull, that nearly fatal wound, was gone forever.
........“Jesse!”
........He caught her, jumping off the bed to kneel beside her shivering body, the pool of life on the tiles staining his hospital gown a deep red. “Oh, Jesse, what happened to you?”
........She looked at him, her tear-stained, smudged face breaking into the most beautiful smile he had ever seen in his life.
........And she struggled to tell him one last thing, something long overdue and sorely needed. “James, I always—loved you.”
........“Jesse....I always knew.”
........She shuddered, focusing on something far, far away. “Everything’s dancing....” And the light and life went out of her eyes, and there was only the empty husk he held.
........James lifted his head slowly. The doctor and nurse were weeping in silent awe of the bravery of the woman that lay lifeless in the arms of her love. He fixed his gaze on them with a grief in his eyes that had never before been felt in the depths of a human soul. “Doctor,” he whispered, his eyes brimming over and his voice husky. “Why was she smiling?”
........Carol wiped her eyes, took his hand, and told him.
Epilogue
