Prologue: Good Bye, Jessie

Jessie awoke in a dark room illuminated only by small, strange green and red lights, like the buttons on a stereo. She moved to get up, but found that he arms and legs had been firmly strapped in to whatever flat, cold surface she laid upon. She squirmed and grunted, trying desperately to break free, until she had exhausted herself.

"You're finally awake," came the familiar voice of her partner, James.

"James," she said, panting in fear and fatigue, though she was somewhat relieved to know that he was there-even if he was a wuss, "where are we?"

"I don't know," he moaned.

It was no use struggling, both had learned the hard way, so they laid there, awaiting whatever hideous fate was yet to come. The only sounds in the room came from their heavy, frightened breathing.

It was hours before the rooms overhead light was turned on, revealing a cold laboratory, where Jessie and James were tied down on gray metallic lab tables.

"Well, well," a voice spoke from in back of their heads. They strained to see, but could not, "Jessie and James." The speaker walked in between the two and laid a hand on each's shoulder.

"Th-th-the boss!" James whimpered.

"That's right, James. You two imbeciles have humiliated Team Rocket's name for much too long," Giovanni said, attaching two suction cups to James's temples.

"Wh-what are you going to do to us?" Jessie said, trembling.

Giovanni laughed, "well, Jessica, let's just say that you and James will no longer be members of my illustrious organization."

"We-we're fired?" James asked pathetically.

He stopped laughing and went on in a low, threatening voice, "you could look at it that way. But you see, I have a problem with letting you go: the two of you know much too much about our operations for me to just let you walk away."

Jessie's eyes bulged as she realized what he was alluding to, "n-n-no, boss, we wouldn't tell anyone, we swear! Just don't hurt us, please!"

"I'm not going to hurt you, Jessie, but I'm afraid I can't have you telling the police the location of our hideout, either," he said, stroking the top of Jessie's hair as she tried not to flinch in disgust, "so I've come up with a plan, a way not to kill you."

"What?" James shouted boldly.

Giovanni smiled again and attached a similar device to Jessie's temples, "I'm just going to erase all of your memories of Team Rocket. But the problem with that is that this machine isn't exactly that selective. It's all or nothing." Jessie's lip began to quiver. "So I've decided to erase all of your memories."

James's eyes widened, "Then we'd forget-"

"-each other?" Jessie finished his question.

"Yes, I'm sorry about that," Giovanni dismissed it with a wave of his hand, "but even if I did have a choice, I couldn't allow you to remember each other anyway. You might still associate your old Team Rocket partner with Team Rocket itself, and we can't allow that." He walked over to the other side of the room and stood by two switches, bringing a hand up to one.

James began to cry loudly, and Jessie felt tears beginning to well up in her own eyes. "Jessie," James cried, "oh, Jessie, I'll miss you so much!"

That did it for Jessie, who began to weep openly. "James," she lamented, "you know... you know that I love you, don't you?"

"Say good bye," Giovanni said cruelly, gripping the first switch.

James tried to turn his head to look at her, but found that the device limited his movement so he could not see her. He yelped in pain and began to cry louder as the humming of electricity began behind them. "Good bye, Jessie," he screamed, "I will always love you!"

"Not good bye, James, not for good," she yelled back, "just for now! Believe me James, if we truly love one another, we will meet again!"

He threw the switch. James screamed.

"Nooooooooo!" Jessie moaned. James lay motionless on the table, thin smoke came from the wires.

"It's too bad," Giovanni remarked, "I had such high hopes for you. Maybe not James, but you showed such promise as a young Rocket."

He pulled the other switch.

Jessie's scream of pain and anguish could be heard from miles around.