Darkness Falls

L.R.T.

The first time he saw her something went through him like a bolt of lightning. It was a feeling he'd never had before - not that he was very accustomed to having a lot of those in the first place. It was as though he had found a true kindred spirit in a complete stranger, someone he had never spoken to or seen before and could barely make eye contact with as it was. She was too preoccupied with Team Plasma's grandstanding: "give up your Pokemon!" He could see she had a Pokemon with her, outside of its Pokeball, and it seemed to be in a heated discussion with the person crouched down next to her behind the park bench in the center of town. He hadn't seen that particular Pokemon in the region before but knew from the arduous studies his father put him through that it was a Meowth, usually found in the region of Kanto. Had they come all this way?

Leaning against a nearby building, tugging his hat down over his eyes and looking down, he laughed quietly to himself - another rare occurrence in his life, it seemed. Here he had found someone that seemed to share - or at the very least understand - the inner struggle of darkness versus the light inside the human body and they were going to destroy everything. It was a bitter irony that it would inevitably come down to a Pokemon battle of darkness versus light, destroying most - if not all - the region; who would care about who had a Pokemon in their Pokeball then? It was something he wasn't supposed to understand and acted as though he didn't; but his father taught him well - too well. The gym leaders wouldn't stand for it. The Elite Four wouldn't stand for it. His father was severely deluded if he thought they could call Zekrom without someone attempting to call its other half - and then all hell would break loose.

He looked up through hooded eyes where the girl had once been but he knew before he saw it that she had gone with her friends, the electric energy he'd been feeling now gone; the light replaced with the darkness. N couldn't help but wonder who she was and what would bring her to Unova. Perhaps the rumors of Zekrom sightings. Maybe nothing related to Team Plasma's plans at all. Unfortunately, he found himself unable to get her out of his head as the team packed up their flags, turned into formation and marched off after a speech that he'd grown up hearing and was sure he could recite in his sleep. Sometimes he wondered if he did. Regardless of her true intent, the girl was now part of something bigger than she could imagine: she had stolen the king of Team Plasma's heart.

Standing outside a cave where they had found shelter for the night, Jessie waited for Meowth to link up the computer to the boss. She let a sudden wind whip through her hair and give her a chill, arms wrapping around her barely covered body to try to warm herself. Looking up at the sky, twilight began to fade into night and another chill rattled up her spine, even though the trees and tall grass around her were still.

Sensing him behind her, she spoke before he could, keeping her voice and demeanor much the same as it had been ever since they had arrived in Unova, "I hate it here."

James frowned, taking another step toward her and draping his jacket over her shoulders which she begrudgingly pulled around herself as acceptance. "What? Why?"

Jessie turned to face him, her own face dark as the fading twilight gave way to the darkness inside the cave. "Don't you feel it?"

He shook his head. "Am I supposed to feel something?"

She made a face and turned back around, looking up at the early stars in the sky. "It's so dark here. I feel like something's constantly pressing on my chest, making it hard to breathe."

"Maybe you're allergic to something."

"I'm allergic to whatever the fuck that legendary Pokemon is and what it's doing to this place," she retorted.

James stepped out of the cave and looked up at the sky with her. "You think it's doing something? Like how that one Pokemon made all of those people in that town have nightmares?"

Jessie shrugged. "Something like that, I guess."

"We could leave."

She shot him a look. "And give up this chance the boss has given us to actually not fail at something?"

"It's not worth it if it's upsetting you, Jess..."

"Of course it's worth it. I'll live. It's just...strange."

"Maybe we should tell the boss about it."

"You do and I'll have Meowth shave your head with his claws in the middle of the night while you're sleeping," she said, turning around and thrusting his jacket back into his arms in one fluid movement, walking back into the cave.

James sighed heavily, looking up at the sky again and tilting his head to the side, squinting his eyes. "All I see is darkness."

It was rare that anyone in Team Rocket showed mercy - even for one of their own; so when she boarded Pierce's helicopter with James and Meowth, met with Dr. Zager and heard the...well, less-than-startling news that the Meteonite was "not from this world", Jessie was shocked when Pierce pulled her aside and told her to find somewhere comfortable on the plane and rest.

Pierce was low on a list of people in the world that Jessie thought gave a damn about her and the fact that he never could quite look her in the eye unnerved her. She tried to chalk it up to his higher rank and experience; what a grand undertaking this was for Team Rocket and that he was surely under a lot of pressure. Hadn't they succeeded, though? The Meteonite was in their possession. What did he have to be so twitchy about now?

And how awful did she look that he took notice and thought she needed beauty rest?

"I don't understand," she said, warily watching as Pierce darted his eyes back to James and Meowth, noting their enthrallment in the dissection of the Meteonite. "Did I do something wrong, sir?"

He grabbed her by the wrist and used the distraction to slip away, letting go of her once he felt she had her own bearings and - more importantly - she wasn't about to be dragged around anymore. Ignoring her question and subsequent worry, he guided her to the small cargo bay and began to rub his chin, trying to think of a way to make it comfortable. The rest would surely be short but that was all the more reason to make sure it wasn't simply against cold metal. "There must be something here to make a suitable bed."

"Why do I need a bed?" Jessie asked, following him about the cargo bay, becoming panicked now that he knew something that she didn't.

"To rest. You need to rest for what's ahead," he replied, pulling out an old tarp and shaking it out, making the two of them cough and Jessie sneeze.

"I don't understand. Are you doing this for James, too?"

He shook his head, folding the tarp and attempting to produce a makeshift sleeping bag out of it. "You look like hell. I understand why." For the first time since she'd met him, he made eye contact with her, kneeling down on the ground to spread the tarp out. "You wanted to look good and you did. You kids worked your asses off." Pierce stood, dusting off his pants and darting his gaze from her. "You get much sleep since you got here?"

Jessie crossed her arms over her chest - her immediate defense mechanism when she couldn't insult someone or simply storm away. "Thank you for saying that, sir. We have been working hard, all three of us. We're a team. We're a damn good team. We were once and we will be again. That's our goal."

Pierce crossed his arms as well, nodding slightly. "Good. Good attitude to have. And the sleep?"

"James and Meowth can sleep through the end of the world."

"I didn't ask about them."

"What does it matter?"

"I told you already - you look like hell and you need to be on, Jessie. We aren't the only ones that wanted that Meteonite and our competition will be coming at us - soon. Fast and furious. We'll need all hands on deck and everyone sharp and at the ready."

"What makes you think -"

"Do you understand the pecking order, here? I'm here to help you but you're very much aware that I'm a higher ranked agent, is that not true?"

Jessie swallowed hard, looking away from him. "Yes, sir."

"I'll review anyway: it goes Giovanni. Me. You. I'm giving you an order and if the boss were here and saw you like this, he would give the exact same one."

"So you're ordering me to sleep?"

Pierce shrugged, gesturing to the tarp on the floor and brushing past her on his way out, to join the others in inspecting the Meteonite. "There are worse orders to receive, aren't there?"

Her sleep was deep but not restful - the way it had been since they'd landed in Unova. She slept so hard and so heavily that it only made her more exhausted. If she had dreams, she didn't remember them and she always woke on her own with a jump, heart pounding in her chest and hair stuck to her neck in a sweat, looking around her as though she would find something out of the ordinary. She never did, of course; it was always James and Meowth and their stuff and the occasional dripping of water if they had taken shelter in a cave.

The nap on the helicopter was no different. Jessie awoke with a start, alarmed at first at her surroundings and then slowly remembering where she was and what was happening. She heard a commotion outside the helicopter - which now had landed - and frowned, throwing the tarp off of herself and putting her jacket, gloves, then boots on. Running a hand through her hair quickly, she stomped her way out of the cargo bay and ran right into James, knocking them both to the floor.

"Will you watch it?" she spat, glaring at him.

"I was coming to get you! You missed it," James said, a glimmer of excitement in his eye as he stood up and extended his hand to her.

"Missed what?" she asked, ignoring his offer and standing on her own.

"This guy in his own helicopter and his Liepard...that Liepard was crazy. The boss is here and he's ready for war. I don't know who that guy was but it really made the boss mad. You should see all the agents out here, Jess."

Jessie frowned. "So I guess Pierce was right, then."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

She shook her head. "Nothing. Are we doing this or not?"

Nodding, a grin on his face, he took Jessie's hand and guided her out of the helicopter and right into the gathering of Rockets outside. The helicopter had landed seemingly in the middle of nowhere, desert terrain all around them and she wondered how far away they'd even gotten from where they picked up the Meteonite.

"It's like a Rocket army..." she murmured.

"I told you, it's war."

Jessie looked up at him, the grip on his hand tightening and making him look back at her abruptly. "What the hell is that thing?"

James shook his head helplessly, having no better answers than she did but giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Maybe we shouldn't have done this."

"What? But Jess -"

"What if something happens? Like this place isn't enough of a fucking nightmare! It'll be on our heads, James. We did this."

James frowned at her, opening his mouth but being interrupted by Giovanni, stepping in front of his troops on a small platform to roaring applause and whistles.

"You have all been chosen to come here today because you have unbridled strength! Determination! And a fire that burns for the glory of Team Rocket that cannot be quelled!" The applause broke out once again, Jessie and James exchanging wary looks. "Today is the day to let that fire burn brighter than ever before! Let it consume you if you must, for the glory of Team Rocket will not be denied!"

Amongst more applause, Jessie leaned over to James. "I don't like this. I'm all for the glory of Team Rocket but -"

"- But he's telling us to die for this cause." James paused, shifting against the sand beneath him. "What is that Meteonite?"

Suddenly a battle cry was heard from across the sand, over a dune. The Rockets gave a cry back, throwing their Pokeballs into the air and calling out their various Pokemon as Giovanni himself slipped away into the helicopter, no one but Jessie and James noticing as it took flight once again.

From over the dune a flag gradually came into sight, followed by what looked like knights in armor, glistening in moonlight as they marched in unison, led by a short, older man in a robe who marched alongside the flag-bearer. As they came closer, Jessie and James squinted to see who they were dealing with and came to the same realization at the same time, looking at each other with wide eyes.

"Isn't that -"

"Team Plasma," Jessie finished.

James gulped. "They, um. They know we're not...having an actual medieval battle, right? It's a Pokemon battle! Isn't it?"

"These freaks are freakier than Team Galactic and with even worse fashion sense."

"Yeah, it's really dated."

"Who knows what the hell they think?"

"Or what they want with the Meteonite..."

Team Plasma stopped abruptly a few feet in front of the Rockets and their Pokemon, the man in the robe stepping out in front of his group. "How barbaric. Using Pokemon to fight this way, as though they were weapons. Do you think that we enjoy stooping to your level? Do you think that we enjoy these games? All we want is the freedom of Pokemon!"

"Freedom!" the grunts behind him shouted.

"There's no way he'll get his weird message across to Team Rocket," Jessie said.

"Yeah, everyone's been taught to use Pokemon as tools," James agreed.

As the man in the robe continued, Meowth came running up, out of breath. "Jessie...James..." he panted, "we got...trouble..."

"No shit," she retorted, gesturing to the increasingly tense battlefield.

Meowth shook his head. "Not dat! Twerps!"

"What?" Jessie and James said in unison.

"Dey're comin'! Dey want dat Meteonite, too!"

Glancing back at the two teams, Jessie sighed and turned her attention back to Meowth. "Where are they?"

"Up ova dat hill."

"Jessie, we can't -"

"James, I don't know about you but I'd much rather battle a twerp than them," she said, pointing to the Plasmas. "How about you?"

"Well...I - I guess we would still be helping Team Rocket..."

"Let's go, then!"

The trio took one final look as the battle began and then Meowth led the way to the ever-interfering twerps, unaware that perched on a small mesa not far away, the same man whose Liepard started the war watched them, cloaked and petting his Pokemon gently. He didn't even notice as it purred softly, his eyes locked on the magenta-haired girl who jumped over and climbed rocks as though it were nothing.

"What takes you away from the battle..." he murmured to himself, speech slow but distinct. "Surely you are not one that runs from a fight." He continued to watch her in silence until she and her friends were over the hill and out of sight. He then turned his attention to his Liepard. "I believe we will have to find out more. I don't care very much for guessing games."