No Way Out
by Euterpe


Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Pokemon.
*Pauses for a moment* Although I really wish I did. *The author imagines herself sitting on a throne, scepter in hand, surrounded by a pile of money* Oh yeah, that'd be real sweet…. mwahahahaha……

...- denotes flashback

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Jessie was crying. It was a very rare thing for her to do, but then, the circumstances that had caused her tears had been quite extreme. She sitting alone in her room at Rocket Headquarters, mourning the loss of one of her partners, and a close friend, Meowth. She recalled the events of the previous days. Just a few weeks ago, this all would have seemed so unlikely. It was only ten days ago when she, James, and Meowth had gotten orders to report back to HQ in Viridian City. The boss was recalling all available Team Rocket members for a special mission:


Giovanni had called them into his office. "I've got a new job for you. As of this moment, you're off of the Pikachu assignment until further notice. You are needed in Saffron City as soon as possible. According to our spies, Silph Company has been working on the ultimate pokeball, a ball that guarantees the capture of any pokemon. It is called the Master Ball. It is for this reason that we are preparing to launch an attack on the Silph Co. main building. I need you to steal the prototype of the device. Use any means necessary: hostages, threats, violence…" He stopped. They knew what he meant- get the Master Ball at any cost.

Jessie had always thought she'd be happy to get away from trying to capture the twerp's Pikachu, but this mission sounded much more difficult and dangerous. And it had proved to be so. They knew that their lives were in danger at any time- without warning, the police might make it inside and raid the place, and then it would be over. In that case, the best they could hope for was to be arrested. She also wondered about what would happen to them when and if they did get the Master Ball- how would they be able to get out and avoid the police?

Luckily, things seemed to be going easily at first. Her team was assigned to keeping watch over the hostages- nothing too difficult or complicated, and hopefully,a task that wouldn't involve bloodshed. She really didn't want to have to kill someone. She may be a thief, but she could never be a killer.

But then two days ago, the takeover of Silph Co. had abruptly ended in violence. It was getting late, and Jessie, James, and Meowth were trying to stay awake while waiting to be relieved of guard duty, when a frantic voice began shouting over their walkie-talkie. The police had entered the building. All ideas of loyalty to Giovanni were abandoned. Their only goal was to make it out of the building alive.

The Rockets quickly abandoned their hostages, and ran toward the stairwell. It was a long way down-- 11 flights-- but it was the only out, aside from the elevator, which was out of the question. The three of them ran down the stairs, exhausted and terrified, but their instincts of survival pushing them on. The had made it down to the exit at the base of the stairwell on the ground floor, and it seemed that they were going to bet lucky and escape unharmed, when the door leading out to the main lobby flung open and a squad of Jennies appeared with their Growlithes. The exit was still unblocked, and only a few feet away. If only they could reach it…

Then, in his last, courageous, act, Meowth had looked at his teammates and made a decision. 'Just look at them,' he thought. 'Two kids, with their whole lives ahead of them. They don't deserve to die or wind up in jail. Maybe if I could provide a distraction, it might buy them enough time to escape.' Before he could allow himself to change his mind, or let Jessie and James stop him, he had flung himself at the Growlithes, fury swiping them left and right. James stood there, stunned, but Jessie realized what Meowth was doing. "Come on, we have to go. Now". She grabbed James' hand and pulled him out the door to safety in the back alley behind the building, not even stopping to take one last look at their comrade.

Meowth kept on fighting until he could no longer feel the pain. As the pack of Growlithes overwhelmed them, he thought bitterly to himself, 'Well, at least I have another 8 lives left…'



James tentatively approached Jessie's door. He could hear sobbing coming from the other side, but after he knocked, it stopped abruptly. "Who is it?" she asked. "It's me. I thought maybe you might want to talk," he answered. After a few seconds, the door opened. Jessie looked terrible. She hadn't slept since the disaster, and despite her best attempts to hide it, James could tell that she had been crying.

"Come in," she said, then turned around and returned to her seat on her bed. James crossed the small room, and sat down next to her. She looked as miserable as he was. "What do you want?" she questioned him, irritated.

"Calm down," he said, "the past few weeks, especially the last two days, have been an emotional hell for me, and I'm sure that you feel the same way. If we could talk about what happened, maybe it would make us feel better."

Jessie glared at him angrily. She was still in denial, and had convinced herself that by not mentioning Meowth's death, she could pretend that it hadn't happened. She especially didn't want James to see her crying like a weak little girl. Right then, she wasn't even sure why she had let him in to her room. After a few minutes of silence, she eventually couldn't take it anymore, and felt the tears coming back.

"It's okay to cry, Jess. What do you think I've been doing for the past couple of hours? Go ahead, let it out," he encouraged her. Finally, she gave up, and threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly and crying into his shoulder. They held on tightly to each other, sobbing silently.

After a while, they ran out of tears. They pulled away and looked at each other. Jessie spoke first.

"You know, Meowth saved our lives. He still cared about us enough to give up his life for us, even after all the abuse he had to put up with, all the mean things we said and did to him," she admitted guiltily.

"Well he still knew that even though we acted that way on the outside, we loved him, and we were his friends." James knew what this felt like. He knew that despite the way that Jessie treated him, even with her arsenal of mallets and paper fans and her host of demeaning names, she still cared for him. And he knew that he loved her enough to put up with all of the abuse, and even enough to do for her what Meowth had done for them…

"What really kills me is how Giovanni's handled the whole situation. To him, we're all expendable and completely worthless. All of us who were in that building put our lives on the line for his stupid plans. He turned his back on the agents who got arrested, and denies any connection with them. Everyone who died, he just left there. Poor Meowth. He's probably still laying there in that building . And what does he get? No recognition for what he did for the team…" Jessie cut herself off abruptly, remembering something that Butch had told her earlier that day. "Rumor has it that the Boss has got our rooms bugged. After what happened to our partners, he doesn't want us trying anything funny. I'd be careful what I said if I were you." Normally, she would be suspicious of anything that one of her rivals said, but she realized that he was in the same situation as she was- his partner Cassidy was among the Rockets who had perished at Silph Co.

"Jess, have you ever thought about leaving the team? I really don't-" This was as far as James got before Jessie, eyes wide in horror, clamped her hand over his mouth. She got up, rushed over to her desk, found a pencil and paper, scrawled out a quick note, and handed it to her partner. It said; "Don't talk- the room is bugged." James nodded in understanding. He stood up.

"You look like you need some rest," he said, changing the subject, "I'll leave now."

"How are you feeling?" Her question came as somewhat of a shock to him- he couldn't think of a time when she had shown any concern for him.

"Better. And you?"

"Much better. Thank you for coming here, James. It really helped to have someone to talk to." She wanted to beg him to stay. That night she needed him there more than anything. They hugged again.

"Anytime, Jess. See you tomorrow." James leaned toward her and for a brief second, thought about kissing her on the lips, but subdued the urge and instead he gently kissed her forehead.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow they were supposed to meet with the Boss. Jessie went to bed and tried not to think about it. She had too much stress to deal with already...

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TBC...

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So how was it? This is actually the first fic I ever wrote-- I've had it lying around for a long time now. It's my first Pokemon fic as well-- I have other parts to it already, but it's not complete yet. Let me know what you think-- if you like it, I'll post some more soon!