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Jessie threw the phone to the ground and stomped on it with all her might. Whatever. It was only a pay phone. James, who had been organizing his bottle caps, was used to her outbursts and calmly walked over to see what was wrong. Meowth was nowhere to be found, probably trying to hunt. They never had enough food. And Jessie could never control her temper. But this time James knew it was different, because she refused to look at him, speaking through her hands.
"Mew, James, I'm in a lot of trouble." She took her hands away from her face, and James could see that the usually confident girl was pale and trying hard not to cry.
"Well, then make it double. We're not leaving you, no matter what." James took his friend's hand. Jessie stared at their joined hands uncomfortably, but she didn't pull away.
"Why?"
"What?"
"Why?" she repeated, louder. "All I do is hurt you, or Meowth, or both."
"I don't know where I'd go without you. You… and Meowth," he added at some length, "are my family. "
"It was the Boss," she said, choosing to ignore his answer. "He's sick of our failure, and since I'm our leader, he's called me in to the Viridian Gym tomorrow to 'revaluate' my position in Team Rocket. You know what that means." James paled too, thinking of the many people who went for "revaluation" and came back crazed, a test subject, or didn't come back at all.
James thought a moment and set his shoulders. "You're so silly, Jessie!" he said, louder than he needed to. "I'm our leader." He made eye contact with her, and for a moment, he thought she might accept the sacrifice, but she shook her head and picked up the remains of the phone, fiddling with them.
"No. I'm stronger. I can survive this. You have to let me go."
"But, Jess-"
"No. James…" Jessie trailed off, not sure of what she wanted to say. She turned away from James, pulling her hair, then turned back, her eyes soft. She took the teen's face in her hand and leaned in, her eyes closed. Startled, James did the same. When their faces were only an inch away, she hit the unsuspecting boy on the head as hard as she could with the remains of the phone. He let out a soft "oof" and crumpled, unconscious. Jessie dropped the phone to catch James, and laid him down gently.
"See, all I ever do is hurt you," she said with a sad smile. She turned away from her partner, but slowly turned back and crept up next to him. She kissed him on the cheek, took one last lingering look and then ran away, heading for Viridian.
Only a few minutes later, Meowth came back, an unfortunate pidgey hanging from his mouth. He saw James lying on the ground and ran over to him, shaking him.
"Jimmy, what's da matter? Wake up!" The pokemon shook James, and the teen slowly came to. He tried to stand, but was dizzy and quickly sat back down.
"What happened?" he asked Meowth.
"You tell me. I come back and you're lying there all knocked out and Jess ain't anywhere to be found," the cat said.
"Jess…Jessie." James was having a hard time remembering what had happened prior to him passing out, but he remembered… a phone? And Jessie and him… going to kiss? No, must've been a dream, he thought. But where was his partner?
"Youse need rest."
"But… Jessie…"
"She'll come back soon, wherever she went. Go to sleep."
James had a feeling that it wouldn't be quite so easy, but dutifully went to sleep.
Meowth, unskilled as he was in medicine, knew James probably had a concussion, and dutifully woke him up every once in a while to make sure he was okay. And for three days James wandered in and out of sleep, close enough to his lost memories to know he was missing something, but not close enough to grasp them. On the morning of the fourth day, the teen stood unassisted. Jessie was gone. He couldn't remember where. But he knew she would come back as soon as possible, and in the meantime they could try to capture Pikachu. How happy would she be if they caught it for her while she was away?
So James and Meowth moved on, but before they left James laid a bottle cap down on the forest floor.
"That way, she'll know we were here," he declared. And so they went, James leaving a bottle cap on the ground every so often, because no collection was more important than Jessie coming home.
Jessie made it to Viridian ahead of schedule. After all, they had been camping on the tree lined outskirts of Pewter, and it wasn't that far of a walk through the forest. She walked up to the gym and took a breath. She hid her nervousness with faux irritation as she strolled through the gym to Giovanni's secretary's desk.
"I have an appointment," she said, trying to act bored.
The secretary looked at her with pity. "You know the way," she said. Jessie started walking down the hall.
"Good luck!" the woman called softly. Jessie didn't even acknowledge her.
The girl walked up to Giovanni's door, taking her time. She hesitantly knocked. The door opened automatically. Giovanni was at his desk, an expectant smile on his face.
"Come in, come in," he said. Jessie slowly sat down. "Oh, Jessie. You've failed me so many times. When are you going to learn?" He shook his head as if punishing a naughty child. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
Jessie looked at her shoes. Her voice was bitter when she responded. "We try. At least we try."
"Oh, you try. Now, Jessie, tell me, is this a preschool? No? Is this a children's game? Answer me!"
"No, sir, it isn't," she said, still bitter.
"Then tell me why trying is an acceptable response." Jessie was silent. "Now how can we make you learn this, hmm? Some fun with my friends?" He gestured to his henchmen waiting in a corner. "A few scientific tests?" He watched Jessie for a reaction, but her face was down and she didn't make a sound.
"Or maybe we could play with that cat of yours. Meowth, right?" Her head shot up and she eyed the man, but still made no noise. Pleased with her response, he continued, smiling. "Oh, look!" He brought up a picture of Meowth on a projector behind him. Seeing the cat brought a wave of emotions over Jessie, but she fought them down. No! You have to stay in control, she thought. "That's your pokemon, right? What a good cat. The thing can even talk! I bet my scientists would just love to look at his vocal cords." Jessie kept her head down but started to shake with anger and fear for her friend.
"Oh, or there's your partner, do we have a picture of him?" Jessie's eyes widened as a picture of James popped onscreen. "I could have some fun with him," he said as Jessie started to shake violently. "I wonder how loud he'd scream? You, you're not a screamer, only a whiner. But he," he said thoughtfully. "He would scream."
Jessie burst. "No!" She stood up and looked Giovanni in the eye. "No, you can do anything you want to me, but do. Not. Touch him. If you do, I swear, I will kill you. Do you hear me? I will kill you," the girl screamed, lunging over the desk to try to scratch the man.
The Boss just smiled and snapped. "Gentlemen, take her away." The men grabbed Jessie, who was shaking almost too hard to stand. "I think we've found her weakness. The boy."
Jessie was put in a small, bare cell with no windows and only one door. All she could think about was her conversation with the Boss. She cursed herself. If only she had been able to stay stoic while he talked about James like she did with Meowth, the boy wouldn't be in danger. Why did she react so strongly? How stupid! Stupid stupid stupid! She knew Giovanni was right, and that was the worst of all. When they catch him, he will scream. If only I wasn't so stupid! She pulled at her hair. If only if only if only! She laid face down on her cot and screamed until, exhausted, she fell asleep.
James was blissfully unaware of these happenings, talking strategy with Meowth. "So if we dig a hole here," he said, pointing to the map, "then the twerps will fall in and we can take Pikachu out with rubber gloves, and then we can…" James thought hard. "We can … do something else! And take him to the Boss!"
Meowth was unimpressed. "It ain't the same without Jess, is it?"
James sighed. "No. But we still have to try, without her!" The pair went back to the drawing board.
Later that afternoon, Ash, May, Max, and Brock emerged from the tree lined path through Viridian Forest.
"Finally!" Ash exclaimed.
"Well, we wouldn't have taken so long if you hadn't gotten us lost," Max pointed out.
"Whatever," Ash muttered. "I'm just glad we're near Pewter."
The four got only a little further on the path before falling into a hole. After stretching, they stood up, dazed, to see two figures standing over them.
"Prepare for trouble!" Meowth howled.
"And make it double!"
"To protect-"
"Where's Jessie?" May asked.
"You can't just interrupt our motto like that!" James said.
"Yeah, where is she?" Brock asked. "Is she okay?"
"Man, we have a weird relationship with these people," Max said, scratching the back of his head.
"She's just- just gone for a little while. She'll be back soon."
"You don't know where she is, do you?" May said.
"Of course I know! She's one of my best friends, and why would she leave on her own without telling me where she was going?" James felt a hazy memory coming back to him. What was it? He could hear Jessie telling him to… let her go, alone. Where did she go?
"Well I hope you find her!" May said cheerily.
"But we know where- oh, never mind. Come on Meowth." The scratch-cat followed the dejected rocket out of the clearing.
"That was weird," Ash said. Everyone else agreed.
Jessie slept badly that night, tossing and turning in the uncomfortable cot. It was cold in the small concrete room. She remembered a time when no matter how cold it got, James and Meowth were there to keep her warm. Jessie wondered how the pair was doing without her. Did they have Rocket agents on their trail, ready to torture? Although her brain told her that Giovanni's words were only threats, she didn't doubt his ability to carry out the deeds if she got too out of line.
But soon, it was morning.
"Rocket #4528, for reeducation."
Jessie sat up. That was her number. Reeducation… what did that mean? Whatever it was, it couldn't be good. She walked to the door, where a guard in a Rocket uniform handcuffed her and took her down the hall, sneering. Jessie pulled away sharply when they let her go. The room was empty. Looks like I'll be learning solo, she thought. She stood in the room for a minute before a tall blonde came bursting in.
"Sorry I'm late," she sneered.
"Cassidy?" Jessie was shocked.
"Yeah, Butch and I got a promotion," she said. "Now we're in charge of the- what are they calling it? - oh, the reeducation branch."
"So why am I here?" Jessie asked, blunt.
"Well, just like the Boss told you, you need to learn your lesson. Today's lesson is on personal hygiene." Jessie raised an eyebrow. "One of the first things to learn is that short hair is clean hair. Bald is even better!" Cassidy laughed.
"You are not touching my hair."
"Oh, we're not touching it, we're cutting it." Two henchmen came in when Cassidy snapped. They held the clawing Jessie down as Cassidy chopped off her hair with a knife. "Stay still or I might just cut your neck too," she sang. Jessie hid her anger, then. But how dare they take her hair! The last thing left of her pride, her beauty, herself worth! By the time Cassidy was finished, Jessie was crying bitter tears. Never before had she been in a situation where she didn't have control. Now she was a prisoner, and to her rival, no less.
"See you tomorrow!" Cassidy waved at the girl, who was roughly taken back to her cell.
James and Meowth got back to their camp site. James sat down, leaning against a tree.
"Meowth, I don't know if I can do this anymore. Not without Jessie."
"Youse don't know she ain't coming back. We could look for 'er!"
"But we have no idea where she went or why." James put a hand to his forehead.
"Youse was the last one to see her, right? What do you remember?"
"I don't know!" the teen cried. "I remember her saying that I had to let her go somewhere alone, but that's all. Then I woke up to you shaking me."
"Maybe somethin' from our old camp site will trigga your memory."
"Okay. Let's go. But, Meowth?"
"Yeah?" The cat turned back to face his friend.
"We…we can't do this alone. If we don't find Jessie, then…" James swallowed. "Then I think we should desert from Team Rocket."
"James." The cat's voice had dropped, uncharacteristically serious. "Youse knows that's a death wish unless you stay on the move."
"Then I will," he said, equally serious. "If Jessie's not here, I don't want to be. We can go together."
"If we can't find her," the cat repeated.
"Yes." The cat and his friend shook on the deal before going farther into the forest, back towards their old campsite.
The pair searched for months throughout Kanto. Jessie wasn't in Cerulean, or Pallet, or Pewter, or even Cinnabar Island. It wasn't like they could file a missing persons report; they were wanted criminals. So on they searched. But Meowth was beginning to think it was hopeless.
"James, this ain't working. We ain't gonna find her." The cat sighed.
"We've only been searching three months!" James stared into their small campfire.
"But we've been all over Kanto. Youse know as well as I do that's where she'd be if she had a choice." James was silent. "Remember that promise we made?" The boy nodded almost imperceptibly. "I think it's time, Jimmy." James put his head in his hands.
"Okay. We'll go back to being respectable citizens," he said through his hands. "But only on one condition- we never'll stop looking for her completely."
The cat looked shocked. "Why would we ever do that?" He smiled a sad smile. "We'll see her again."
So the next morning the two went into Pewter, the closest city, and bought new clothes. They burned their uniforms and rented a tiny apartment. James started looking for work. But when he got a job, he still would come home and go out and search for the girl for hours. Because it wasn't ever really home without Jessie.
Time marched on for Jessie, too. Every day, the girl was called down to be tortured by her former rival. She stopped resisting. Maybe if she didn't react, they would leave her alone. But she never broke. She never cried once after her hair was shorn off, never screamed and clawed. Cassidy got more and more frustrated with her lack of visible pain.
"Why aren't you screaming?" she asked. "Say something," she nearly begged.
Jessie stayed silent through it all- the emotional abuse, the attacks, the experimental drugs. She got extremely ill twice, but they were able to save her both times. To prolong her agony, she suspected.
So she wasn't surprised when she entered the room one day to find Cassidy's tentacruel staring her down. Jessie expected for it to give her a poison sting, and when she wanted most to die, Cassidy would give her the antidote. This time, however, was different. Cassidy's mouth was set in a hard line.
"You're no fun anymore. You just take it. You won't break and you won't die. There's no more purpose to having you here. You just won't learn." The blond shook her head in mock sadness. "So I've got Tentacruel here to teach you a final lesson! Tentacruel, Toxic!"
Jessie's eyes widened- a Toxic attack was almost always a death sentence. She tried to dodge the attack or escape the room, but the sludge hit her leg. Immediately stabbing pain shot through her body. Cassidy grinned as Jessie winced. She roughly took hold of the girl and walked her out of the room and down the hall. She swiped a card and opened a door to the outside. Jessie looked at the sun, incredulous.
Cassidy motioned towards the forest. "There isn't any antidote this time. Have fun living the last hours of your life here. Crawl," she said, eyes flashing. "Die alone."
Startled, Jessie stumbled out into the light and ran for the trees before the crazed girl could change her mind. As soon as she was far enough into the trees, Jessie doubled over in pain. She estimated she only had a few hours of life- and that was if she was lucky. She quickly tore part of her uniform to form a tourniquet on the affected leg. Maybe it will slow the spread of poison, she thought, desperate. But where should she go now? What should she do? Pewter, she decided. Maybe James and Meowth are still around there, and I have no other place to go, anyway. The girl started through the forest, grimacing at her pain.
Jessie sprinted through the woods. She knew the faster she moved, the more poison would course through her body, but she figured it was only a matter of time anyway. She made it three quarters of the way to Pewter before dropping to her knees. I can't go on, she thought. The pain had gotten steadily worse, until she could barely walk, let alone run. But she forced herself up. Jessie walked only a little ways before the pain forced her down again. In agony, she started to crawl, Cassidy's wish come true. I can't just die here, she thought. I have to try! So she crawled ad crawled as the sky darkened. Finally she could move no more. She lay on the ground, gasping for air, when something shiny caught her eye. With a gargantuan effort, Jessie reached her hand out and plucked the object off the ground.
"James," she whispered her first time speaking in months. She closed her eyes then, fighting to breathe, and a colorful bottle cap fell out of her hand and onto the cold ground.
About an hour later, it was getting close to twilight. James came to the last place he'd seen Jessie yet again as part of his nightly search. He sat down on the forest floor, defeated.
"Jess, I know you can't hear me, but I miss you. We need you. Why did you leave? I'm-I'm beginning to think we won't ever find you." James wiped a tear threatening to fall off on his jacket. He stood up and started to turn around to go back to his apartment, but something colorful caught his eye. He walked over, curious, but what he found was much more surprising than his old bottle cap. A woman lay in the dirt.
"Mew!" James exclaimed. He reluctantly reached for the body; she could be dead, which was too much for him to handle, but he had to help her if she wasn't. He delicately turned the woman over so she was face up. James blinked. She looked so familiar… oh Mew. Oh Mew. That woman was Jessie, gaunt, covered in dirt, and her hair drastically cut. James took her in his arms.
"Jessie? Jessie? Can you hear me?" He took her pulse, which was erratic but there. He breathed a quick sigh of relief. "Meowth!" he screamed. James knew Meowth would be on patrol somewhere around here. Luckily, the scratch cat came over quickly. When he saw who James had in his arms, he was rendered speechless.
"Snap out of it!" James commanded. "We need her to get medicine, now! What happened to her, do you think?"
Meowth shook himself and came closer to examine Jessie. "Look, she's got a tourniquet and her leg's all purple. Poison. Strong poison."
"I'm going to go get an antidote. You stay with her, keep her warm." With that, James was gone, sprinting into the night.
James ran into the Pewter Pokemon Center. His eyes darted around; he couldn't wait for a Nurse Joy to help him. He needed an antidote, now!
"Excuse me, sir, may I help you?"
"No, just get out of my way." James sprinted past a bemused Nurse Joy into the back room of the center. There was a wall with labeled syringes, but which poison antidote? The Nurse Joy came angrily bursting in.
"Young man, I demand an explanation, this is no place-"
"'tdie!" James tore at his hair. Seeing the desperation in his eyes, the nurse decided to help him.
"What's wrong with her?"
"Poison, her leg's all purple and she's unconscious."
The nurse sucked in a breath. "Sounds like Toxic. Bad, very bad." She quickly pulled a syringe from the wall and gave it to James. "Run, you hear me? Run as fast as you can."
And James did just that, flying out of the center, leaving bemused trainers in his wake.
"I've got the antidote," the man cried as he raced back into the clearing.
Meowth looked scared. "Jimmy, her pulse and breathing are getting worse."
James wasted no time, then, he plunged the syringe into her arm.
"How fast does this work?" he asked, anxious.
"I don't know," the cat answered.
So they sat in silence, hoping for a miracle.
James was supposed to be keeping watch, but he fell asleep. So when Jessie opened her eyes, there was no fanfare, just two sleeping forms. The girl couldn't move, and her brain was sluggish, but she saw the pair and her eyes immediately welled up with tears. She laid there and cried until she fell back asleep, knowing she was safe now.
She slept and slept and slept, her body purging itself of the deadly poison. James and Meowth kept watch by her side, moving her to their apartment when they thought her breathing was stable enough. James went back to the center and thanked the Joy over and over again, paying her generously. When she blushed and refused such a gift, he made her take it.
"Think of the pokemon that could be helped. Give it to the center if you won't take it."
And she did.
The second time Jessie woke James and Meowth were both there. They looked at each other for a long time, the unanswered questions lying between them. This time, Jessie was able to sit up.
"Thank you," she said. "Thank you."
"We're your family, Jessie." James took her hand. "We looked everywhere for you because without you we're incomplete. Where did you go, and why didn't you tell us?"
Jessie lightly scoffed. "I did tell you. I got called in for reevaluation and it ended with Cassidy trying to kill me."
James looked at her, horrified. "Mew, Jessie, you were at reevaluation? And you were right there the whole time, suffering…" James' throat was thick. "But I don't remember anything about you telling us."
"Oh," she said. "You wouldn't let me go alone, so I hit you on the head…Sorry about that," she sheepishly added.
Everything came rushing back to James. The call, the phone, the …kiss. His eyes widened. He finally, finally remembered. Jessie, tired out, squeezed his hand and went back to sleep.
So, finally, there it was. Everything laid out on the table. There would be time for Jessie's wounds, heart and body, to heal, and there would be time for more explanations and even confessions. But where did they go from there? They just went, because going together was more important than the destination. Because living was more important than wasting time. Because home wasn't a place, but all of them. Together.
Hey guys! I've got some exciting news! I'm working on a multichapter fic right now- it'll take a while to write but I'm reall happy with it so far.
This is my longest fic yet. :D
And yes, before you ask, this AU is set in the Battle Frontier era and I implied that Jessie and James will eventually get together.
Please read and review!
Love,
Sofia :)