The Eyes of a Persian, The Ears of a Growlithe

By: Frogwoman

Alternate Dimension series #3

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or Team Rocket or any of the show

stuff.

Rating: PG-13 (scary stuff in here, nothing gross though)

Note: In a dimension where Team Rocket does human experiments, James

and Cassidy are taken, Butch and Jessi try to rescue them.

The Eyes of a Persian, The Ears of a Growlithe

James was just sitting innocently by the fire, trying to work up the

courage to say something to Jessi along the lines of 'sorry'. She'd just

had a fit at him about something or other and hit him. He was sitting there

trying to figure out how to make her happy again.

But how could he say, all at once, 'I'm sorry for whatever it was I

did and I'm sorry for anything I ever did and I love you and I'll kill

myself if I can't just grab you and kiss you soon...'?

James shook his head slightly when the band on his wrist started to

vibrate slightly. A shiver ran through him and he yanked his glove off to

look at it.

It was the standard experimentation bracelet every member of Team

Rocket was given, male or female. If it started vibrating and the small

gem embedded in it glowed, it meant it was your time to sacrifice for the

good of the Team.

To sacrifice yourself forcibly so they could conduct experiments on

you.

James's bracelet was vibrating and the gem was glowing.

"No..." he gasped, face going white and ice cold, and Jessi looked up

at him irritably.

"What is it, James?" she asked, then caught sight of him staring at

the bracelet on his wrist. She went dead white too.

"No..." James gasped again, and Jessi grabbed his hand, yanking him

over towards her. She tried to pull it off his hand.

"Get it off, get it off, please Jess, get it off..." James was

moaning. If the bracelet was off, Team Rocket couldn't track them anymore

and James could escape. The skin under the bracelet was getting red from

her pulling.

"Okay, James, we have to go!" she said, yanking him to his feet by

his hand and running off into the bush. They'd lost Meowth the year before

from this, since the Team's Pokémon were subject too, and Jessi wasn't

about to lose her other partner.

At another campfire a very similar thing was happening. The only

difference was that Butch and Cassidy were closer to Team Rocket

Headquarters, and the Rocket Experimentation Force (REF), who tracked down

and dragged away people who were 'sacrificing', came and grabbed Cassidy

before Butch even had a chance to try to pull her bracelet off.

James couldn't breathe. He was ice cold with terror. They could hear

the REF coming to get him, they weren't far away

"This is for the good of the Team. Come out." they called, pushing

through the wet bushes trying to find Jessi and James. She had him down in

the grass, her body close beside his, her hand lightly over his mouth. They

had dropped from exhaustion after running for close to an hour, and now the

only chance they had was that the REF would give up. Of course, that wasn't

likely. They'd only been hiding like this for ten minutes, and Giovanni

would probably just use one of the REF if they came back empty-handed.

There wasn't any way one of the REF would let himself be experimented on as

long as James was still alive to be caught. They were almost as cold as

Giovanni was.

"Boss, I've got them." they heard suddenly, as one of the REF pushed

the bushes back, grinning.

They all stepped around, reaching down, grabbing James from Jessi and

pulling him away.

"Jessi, Jessi, help me!" he wailed in terror. Jessi tried to run to

him but another of the REF had her by the arms. He let her go, dropping her

on her stomach in the wet grass when they were far enough away that she

couldn't hear James screaming for her anymore. The REF officer made a

crooked grin and a short, barking laugh.

"Report to Headquarters for reassignment." he said, walking off into

the bushes.

Jessi buried her head in her arms, face in the grass, and screamed

silently, her heart twisting like a knife in her chest.

Butch sat in the chair facing the desk, silent, eyes downcast to

look at his knees. He was unusually quiet, even for Butch.

The door opened, and he looked up, his brown eyes skewing over to see

who was coming into Giovanni's office. It was Jessi, the brat who'd gotten

him into jail about a year before. He tried to work up hate for her, but he

was too numb from losing Cassidy to even dislike the girl. Especially since

she had swollen eyes and a red face and looked like she'd been crying for

the past two days since the last call for people to go to the Rocket Labs.

James must have been one of the others called.

Besides his Cassidy.

Butch almost wished he was a girl so he could cry like that. As it

was, he was the mighty unemotional Butch and had to bottle it up until he

was numb.

"You two will be reassigned as partners." Giovanni said coldly, his

face shadowed in darkness still. Butch wondered if he felt anything at all

about sentencing basically innocent people to death in the Team Rocket

Laboratories. Probably not.

"Sure." Butch said tossing his blue-green hair, trying to be

nonchalant. Jessi was silent.

"You will continue Jessi and James's previous assignment, to capture

the Pikachu of Ash Ketchum." Giovanni ordered. Jessi flinched at the

mention of her partner. Butch stared at his knees again.

"You're dismissed. Here are your new uniforms." Giovanni finished,

swiveling his chair to look at a wall of screens behind him, patting his

Persian's head. Butch picked up the box with the uniforms in it and

followed Jessi out the door.

They changed into the grey uniforms, which fit perfectly and looked

exactly like Jessi's previous uniform, except grey. They headed out of

Headquarters to find Ash and Pikachu. Jessi started crying again softly.

Butch, a little unsure of what to do, put a hand out on her shoulder to try

and offer some comfort. She shook it off almost angrily.

"I know how you feel." he said, his voice more hoarse than

usual, "I miss my Cass as much as you miss James."

"James..." Jessi moaned so softly Butch almost couldn't hear it.

"I'm sorry." Butch said softly. Suddenly Jessi got angry.

"Sorry?! Why are we sorry? This is so stupid! Why are we sorry?! Why

are we only sorry?! Why don't we go back there and *do* something? Why

don't we go back there and get them *out* of there?!" she shouted,

stopping, facing him and screaming with tears running down her face,

shaking a fist like she was going to belt him.

Butch backed up. He wasn't used to a girl who would actually hit him.

Cassidy had always said she 'wasn't a little pushover' but she'd never

actually hit Butch, just like he would never have hit her. Butch struggled

with his face, trying to keep it straight. He couldn't let it show how much

it hurt to think about Cass.

"Why?" Jessi whispered, her tears gone.

"There is no reason." Butch said softly, "So why *don't* we go back

there and get them?" he asked, looking up from the ground into Jessi's blue

eyes. She stared back at him, and he pushed his blue-green hair out of his

face.

"Right." they said at the same time, and interlocked their arms in a

unified determination to rescue their partners.

"Kay, Butch, you wait there. I'll head in and tell Giovanni that we

caught Pikachu and we have to take him down to Team Rocket Laboratories.

He'll give me a pass and then we can get in and get Cass and James."

"Sounds like a plan. I'll meet you by the Labs." he said, walking as

nonchalantly as possible down to the Labs. She watched as he settled into a

bench by the door.

Jessi walked into the Headquarters and requested an audience with

Giovanni. His secretary let Jessi in and she stepped up to the desk.

"Sir." she said nervously. He turned on the chair, face still

shadowed.

"What is it, Jessi?" he asked.

"Sir...we caught the Pikachu and we need a pass to get into Team

Rocket Laboratories so we can drop it off there." she said, trying not to

allow her nerves to show through her voice.

"You want to rescue your friend James, don't you?" Giovanni asked,

moving forward, light shining on his face. Jessi gasped, because she could

now see that both his eyes were covered by a pale blue layer

of...something...his eyes looked dead. Giovanni was completely blind.

"N-no...sir..." she stuttered.

"Don't lie to me, Jessi. I can tell when people are lying. I can hear

it in their voices!" Giovanni replied, stepping forward and taking hold of

her arm, "I suggest you drop this line of reasoning and just go out on your

assignment."

"No. I can't." she said

"I suddenly feel the need to bring one more in for experimentation.

Poor Butch, losing two partners in four days..."

"No..." Jessi gasped, "It's not right! You can't just do that to

people!"

"It's for the good of the Team, Jessi. When our experiments finally

go through, we'll know how to make our agents perfect, to have the eyes of

a Persian, or the ears of a Growlithe...no one will ever beat us again!

Don't you see Jessi? Even I, the leader of the Team, have allowed myself

to be experimented on. Even I have sacrificed for the good of all."

"It's still not right." Jessi whispered. Giovanni called the REF.

"This girl's time has come." Giovanni said cruelly.

"You can't just sentence an innocent person to death like this!"

Jessi screamed at him. Giovanni smiled.

"Yes, I can."

Butch saw them dragging Jessi down the hill to the Team Rocket

Laboratories, and quickly ducked into the bushes to avoid being caught.

It was all up to him, now.

They threw her on a cold cement floor and she squeezed her eyes shut

for a moment.

"Jessi? Jessi, is that you?" asked a familiar voice. She opened her

eyes and looked up to see Cassidy staring at her from her purple eyes, her

bright hair messy and a large black bruise on her cheekbone. She was

chained to the wall and she'd been beaten on a bit.

"Yeah." Jessi said, sweeping her eyes around the room. At first she

didn't see James and she was scared. Had they already killed him?

"He's over there. In the corner." Cassidy said sadly. Jessi saw him

then, huddled in a dark corner, hugging his knees against his chest, his

wide green eyes even bigger than usual and glazed. He was staring at the

wall behind Jessi, not really seeing her. His face was covered in bruises

and various little bleeding cuts.

"James?" Jessi said, moving towards him, still calling him. He didn't

look up or respond at all. Cassidy sighed.

"He won't answer, they messed with his ears, Jess. He's deaf, he

can't hear you. He hasn't spoken or moved for over a day." Cassidy said

sadly, using her usual run-on sentences.

"What?" Jessi said softly. James was staring at the floor. He still

hadn't seen her. She stared at him with tears in her eyes. He looked so

vulnerable that way.

She walked over to him and knelt in front of him, running a hand in

front of his eyes. He started, jumped and looked up at her for a moment.

She watched the tears fill his eyes and he buried his face into her chest

and cried. She gently stroked his hair and back, comforting him without

words. He couldn't hear them anyway.

'The eyes of a Persian and the ears of a Growlithe.' she remembered

Giovanni saying. Yeah right. Even if they *did* find perfection, it wasn't

worth it.

Butch crouched by the door, waiting for the next scientist to leave

the building for a coffee break. There was one who looked kind of

unobservant, yep. This was his chance.

Butch ran in the door behind the scientist, who was digging in his

lab coat pocket and holding the door open with his foot.

He was in.

Now he just had to find Jessi, James and his Cassidy.

He stalked down the halls peeking into various rooms and finally saw

Cassidy's bright orange hair. She looked okay. But Jessi was crouched in

front of James, who had his head buried in her chest. Butch raised his

eyebrows, kind of surprised Jessi wasn't belting him for having his face

there.

He tried the door and it was, of course, locked. Butch resisted the

urge to swear. Cass had been trying to get him to quit his swearing for

quite a while.

Butch prowled around, trying to find keys, and finally found a set

hanging on a post on the wall. He pulled them down, trying not to make any

noise, and crept back to the door. He stuck key after key in the lock and

none worked. He tried not to swear again when the very last key he tried

worked. He casually swung the heavy door open.

"Have no fear, Butch is here." he said quietly.

"Butch!" Cass said happily. He grinned at her and then tried every

key on the ring on her chains. Again, the last one he tried worked.

She brought her arms forward, wincing as the blood rushed back into

her muscles. Butch hugged her.

Then it occurred to him that he could hear muffled sobs from where

Jessi and James were sitting.

"What happened?" Butch asked.

"James...well, he's deaf." Cass said, lowering her beautiful eyes.

"Are *you* all right?" Butch asked her, running the edge of his bare

thumb down her jawbone. She smiled up at him.

"I'm just fine. They did stuff to him first, because he wouldn't quit

trying to get away. I told him to calm down because I was sure you two

wouldn't just let us get experimented on...but he wouldn't quit. He wanted

Jessi so bad..." Cass explained, her smile disappearing.

Butch looked over at the other two members of Team Rocket again.

Jessi had her cheek on James's hair and was rocking gently. James's sobs

were calming.

"Jess, we've gotta go." Butch said softly. Jessi nodded and tapped

James's shoulder softly.

"James, we gotta go." she said, smiling at him comfortingly, and he

stared at her in utter confusion. Her face softened from its usual hard

smile and she jerked her head at the door. James ran his glove under his

nose and stood. Jessi took his hand and led him to the door.

They sneaked out without much trouble, Jessi commenting on how easy

it was.

It wasn't.

Just as they were leaving the compound they sprung an alarm.

Instantly REF started pouring out of Headquarters and Team Rocket Labs.

They started running headlong towards the forest, but James kept falling

behind because he couldn't tell exactly what was going on. He couldn't hear

the REF coming up behind him. Cassidy kept falling behind too, because her

legs and arms were asleep, not fully recovered, and she hadn't eaten

recently.

"Jessi! Up there!" Butch yelled suddenly and Jessi looked up to see a

low-hanging tree branch. She nodded at Cassidy, the branch then at Butch,

who swung around, understanding her perfectly, grabbing Cassidy around the

waist and hoisting her up into the branch. They were just over the crest of

a hill and the REF couldn't see them.

Jessi grabbed James's hand and dragged him to the branch and Butch

helped her get him up into the tree. Like a gentleman, Butch helped her up

and then Butch dragged himself into the branches, tired.

Jessi and Butch helped the other two up the tree into the very top,

and they sat there waiting, wondering if their camoflage of thick, leafy,

green branches would be enough to shelter them. Butch took off his black

jacket so Jess could pull it over her conspicuous red hair.

They waited...

This time the hiding worked and they escaped the REF who were sent

after them. The last thing they heard was Giovanni, who had followed his

goons after them, screaming into the forest.

"You're fired if you can't sacrifice for the good of the Team!"

Well, everyone but James heard it.

When they got out of the tree and out of their Team Rocket uniforms

and into normal clothes, they walked to the nearest town. They rented a

hotel room with some money James had cached away somewhere from his

parents, washed up, and took James to the doctor.

His deafness was permanent, but he was almost beyond feeling.

He only cried for a little while.

Two weeks later they were on their way to the next city. They'd

talked it over and decided never to go back to Team Rocket. They were on

the way to the next Pokémon gym so they could start getting badges for

themselves, legitimately.

They sat around the fire together, talking, still a little quiet and

sad from what had happened, although more contented than they had been two

weeks earlier. Jessi and Cassidy were doing each other's makeup, Butch was

cooking and James was lying on his stomach on one of the sleeping bags

studying a book on Sign Language they'd stolen from a library, his bare

feet in the air. He was still sick inside from what had happened to him,

and he still hadn't told anyone the details, but he was getting a little

closer to complete recovery.

It had helped when he'd taken a pad of paper about a week after

the...Team Rocket Labs situation...and written with a shaking hand that he

loved Jessi, and it had helped even more when she told him that she felt

the same way.

"So, do you want to travel together?" Cassidy asked Jessi as she

applied some mascara to Jessi's eyelashes.

"I definitely think so. We actually make a better team than I thought

we did last time we met." Cassidy replied.

"I think so too." Butch said, looking at Jessi, "You and me managed

to actually accomplish something, and I know me and Cass make a good

team." he finished, looking over at Cassidy with a feral smile. She grinned

back. They'd admitted their feelings toward each other a long time before

they'd met with Jessi and James the first time.

James was watching them like a hawk, reading lips as much as

possible.

"Travel together?" he asked in a halting voice. Jessi was forcing him

to use his voice, hoping that since he hadn't been born deaf would remember

how to use his mouth even though he couldn't hear what he was saying. She

had explained all this by simply stating that she 'loved James's voice'.

Jessi nodded at him and caught his eye. She smiled and he smiled back

at her. He pointed to his eye, crossed his arms over his chest and pointed

at her. 'I love you.'

She pointed to James and held up two fingers. 'You too.' An

affirmation of how she felt.

It didn't matter if he was deaf. They could communicate on a deeper

level.

"You know, I feel kind of bad leaving that place behind the way it

was. You know, Giovanni's just gonna keep doing that to people." Butch

said, sounding a little sad.

"Well," Jessi replied, her eyes haunted, "What else can we do?"

Author's Note: Feedback, I live on it! (frogwoman_66@hotmail.com)