Dawn Chaser
Alright! New fic from MV! This should be interesting! Hopefully you read Twilight always Falls, and are here for more of poor James' struggle against fate! ^_~ This will be pretty long, and unfortunately I'm trying to write several fics at once. (A major no no I know, but I wanna get 'em done! ^_^) So stay tuned for, yeah um stuff, whatever this poor AP class homework ridden Vaporeon can squeeze from her tired tired brain! That said, enjoy!
"The past is nothing but a beginning of a beginning, and all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn."
H.G Wells
Light transcends, but it must be won. It is elusive, deeming only those it sees fit deserving of its benevolence, those who know the scared prayer of goodness forged at the dawn of humanity. Darkness too, had a solemn incantation of souls to its wake, and those who would call it forth were corrupted and black as the night itself. The night, however, carried with it a serenity unmatched by any day, and was therefore the residing place of the fates. Made of the black pitch they hailed from they wove their silver webs of life with nimble fingers, cut the glimmering strands in their silent cloaks of ebon, coming without warning and vanishing into the miasma from which they came with nary a presence to be felt. Those who had experienced the darkness knew its fickleness well, and though many found their dawns, few escaped the thirst for their essence it had developed, and even fewer, attained a tangible dawn that would be theirs for eternity.
Dawn broke silently, her tacit and ancient covenant with all slumbering creatures on earth to bring light into their souls, and warmth to life finding a long shadow of a young man; but finding nothing obscure, she moved on, painting the world in the pastels of her wake. The charred earth at the feet of the lone spirit stirred gently in the sweet morning breeze as he bent to sift through the remains, cursing silently under his breath as all he managed to uproot were illegible documents and folders so charred and brittle they crumbled and fell to dust in his hands. His hands stopped at a nearly indecipherable piece of metal, and he picked it up, scowling at the just visible words, "Genetics Facility" before vengefully snapping the frail material in half.
"Come on, something must still be intact!" he whispered to himself, "The police'll show up any minute and I can't be here!"
Standing up with a small snap of vertebrae, he dusted his charcoal coated and gloved hands off against one another and snarled in frustration, knowing every last shred of the past had been cleansed away from the clearing where dawn had been born. Shaking his head at the sound of car tires crunching in the gravel of the dirt forest road and pressing two fingers to his forehead, with an exasperated roll of his eyes, James was gone.
The kitchen of the small beachside flat he shared with Jessie and Meowth spun violently with color for a mere second after he reappeared there, forcing his hand to shoot to the counter to prevent his body from following his stomach to the floor. A sharp stab of pain shot through his abdomen like a white-hot blade and he stifled a cry, the cold beads of sweat never falling after they beaded upon his suddenly pale forehead. He knelt still for a moment, recollecting his senses after the sting had gone and, hoping no one had seen him buckle in pain, slowly looked up to the window. The brilliant white-gold rays of morning sun filtering through the panes of glass of the window calmed him slightly as he was finally able to stand, and realizing Jessie would awaken soon, smiled as he looked to the closed door of their room.
"Sorry I always sneak out Jess, but I always come back, I'll always come back," he whispered to himself, and made his way to awaken his beloved.
She slept peacefully under the thin covers on her side, a thin and wicked yet playful smile vaguely curved on her lips as she shifted gently in slumber, and it became quite obvious to her silent watcher that she was still deep within the pleasant surrealism of dreams. James smiled adoringly at her as he gently eased his slender frame into the room, and deciding to spare her the knowledge of where he had gone that morning and why, slipped quietly back into his favorite boxers and the same worn white shirt he loved. Mirroring her impish grin and pulling the soft white fabric over his head, James dove gregariously into the bed with a battle cry and caught his beloved within his grasp, letting the momentum take them both to the floor. Jessie slept peacefully no longer, awakening with a shriek of surprise to suddenly find herself falling swiftly to land upon her back on the ground, a pair of glittering emerald irises staring lovingly from the familiar warmth perched atop her slim figure.
"James! Jeez! What are you-" her words were replaced by his lips on her mouth, and hardly minding she had been cut off, fully welcomed the passionate early morning kiss as much as she returned it.
"Well, good morning to you too," she whispered once James had broken away, "and to what do I owe this?"
James merely grinned, kissing her forehead lightly, smiling at the fragmented rays of warmth glistening in her braided crimson locks and dancing through her sleep glazed irises.
"Only the fact that I love you, and I felt like it!" was his smug answer, yelping as it was answered by a violently playful upheaval of the body beneath him. He soon found his role reversed, laughing brightly as Jessie pinned him beneath her, pressing her own gentle kiss to his lips and brushing a stray strand of glossy blue away from his face.
"Well, I love you too, so I suppose that favor must be returned!" she whispered amiably, lowering her eyes and head to whisper seductively in his ear, "but right now… I'm hungry."
Meowth's ears pricked up from the living room couch where he had chosen to spend the night rather than the foot of Jessie and James' bed at the sound of raucous laughter and the muted thuds of pillows hitting walls and he rolled his eyes, hoping his amorous friends would decide that they wanted breakfast at some point that morning and not just to play.
They eventually calmed their excitement when Jessie grimly recalled that Samuel Oak had requested James come to his lab that morning, and also realizing she was still famished, hurriedly herded her beloved out into the kitchen. He gladly obliged, and when the cream colored cat was again awoken to the smell of pancakes from a distant utopia; he stretched and made his way to the kitchen as well. Upon arriving in the white tiled and smoke gray accented room he discovered James had already mixed the batter for his favorite pancakes, and the sizzling as the tawny liquid hit the buttered pan was a warm and welcome sound to his ears.
"Mornin' Jess! Jim!" he called brightly as he sauntered into the large and accommodating room.
"Morning buddy!" James called, then turning over his shoulder and winking, "Morning Jess!" She felt a warm sense of nostalgia pass over her, remembering the long time tradition of her early rising friend, exactly how much she had missed it and exactly how grateful she was to have James back, smiling tenderly at him before returning to the morning paper.
"So, youse two gonna be gone at ol' Sammy's all day again? It looks like its gonna be great beach weatha! And I hoid Delia say she was gonna go out dere if it was!" the feline Pokemon added brightly, seating himself at the low dining table as Jessie's eyes brightened with looking up.
"Why not? Sam said he didn't want you long, right James?" she asked hopefully, perking and adding an air of pleading to her voice to which James smirked, never leaving the bubbling mounds of batter on the griddle.
"I dunno Jessie, he has this sick obsession with poking at me you know!" he responded sarcastically, prodding at one of his pancakes experimentally with a spatula, "and frankly I like it! I think I'd rather go sit in his cold laboratory in one of those paper hospital gowns and freeze my ass off on a metal examination table thank you very much!"
Jessie snickered quietly and rolled her eyes, deciding the story he had been reading about the Team Rocket investigation was nothing she had not heard before and refolded the paper haphazardly to give to Meowth.
"Oh come on! Be serious! He really doesn't want you long does he? It's been ages since we had a day to ourselves!" she queried, disappointment lacing her tones.
James sighed and nodded to himself, unable to recall the last day he had not spent at least some fraction of in Professor Oak's Pokemon research facility and flipped the last of the pancakes onto a plate.
"Yeah I know Jess," he muttered dryly, setting the steaming platter down in front of his friends, "But you're right, Sam said he just wanted to get one last blood draw from my vines and he'd be done for today."
He smiled cordially as he sat down at the table, finding his allotted share was all that was left upon the plate, and laughing gently as he served himself.
"Good! Then we can go to the beach today! So let's hurry up and get down there before all the good spots are taken!" Jessie chirped, cramming a forkful of syrup drenched pancake into her mouth vivaciously.
"Yay yay! We should pack a picnic! Meowth will take care a dat!" Meowth chimed in equally enthused to which James smiled softly.
"It's a date then!" he added, Jessie's smiling and adoring eyes filling his heart with a warmth he was eternally grateful to have once again.
"A date, James," she echoed lovingly.
Breakfast passed pleasantly rapidly and it was a prompt nine in the morning when they arrived at the large lab located just down the road leading to the beach, and past the home of their dear friends and same home young Ash Ketchum had begun his journey from, the same white fence now littered with flowers. Meowth noticed with dismay that Delia's bike was absent from the porch, and lamented that perhaps she had taken their favorite secluded spot just outside their small flat beneath an ancient tree. Jessie and James dismissed the complaint with laughter as they pulled into the driveway, and the goaded feline consented to wait in the car, having swiftly passed out the last time he had insisted accompanying his friend into the medical ward of Professor Samuel Oak's laboratory. They entered quietly, knowing their new comrade would not mind if they came down to his quarters unannounced, remembering that he preferred not to have to answer the door as they stepped inside the pleasantly warm dwelling.
"Hey Jessie, hey James," Gary welcomed softly from his spot on the couch, his eyes never leaving the text of the book in his hands as the couple walked in, startling only Jessie who had not been able to sense his presence.
"Hey Gary," James responded kindly, closing the door behind him, "How've you been?"
"Okay I guess, I really miss him," the auburn-haired teen answered, laying the text across his lap as he sat up.
"Yeah, we all do, and I bet his Pokemon do too, how's Bulbasaur doing?" Jessie added as kindly as she could, smiling knowingly at Ash's old rival.
"Good good, it's as stubborn as ever, wouldn't even let me touch it the first month or so, but I think we're gaining trust. Figures Misty and Brock would stick me with the bratty one eh?" he answered brightly, his affable tone letting the two older people know he was in actuality eternally grateful to have the Pokemon of his old friend, silent reflection the only communication until he spoke again gently, his voice almost undetectably laced with tears, "Grandpa's, uh, waiting downstairs for you."
The adolescent trainer returned to his book after speaking to hide his sorrowful eyes, turning over on his side and placing an arm lazily over his head as he fingered the pendant hanging from his neck absent-mindedly, not watching the two others turn to the hall.
"Thanks, see ya," James said softly, wrapping an arm gently about Jessie's waist as they proceeded somberly down the corridor to the laboratory.
They descended the brightly lit stairs in silence, a sinking feeling weighting the pit of James' stomach as he watched the walls flicker with images of Team Rocket headquarters, and directing his panicked eyes to the ground, he swore he saw his carpet nail protruding near the base of the wall. He was forced to close his eyes the rest of the small trek as the colors once again swirled before his vision, a razor slit through his abdomen, and was accompanied by a new light-headedness that whitened the young man's perception as he entered the quiet facility. The ailments all dissipated as James spotted the familiar sight of Samuel hunched over his microscope and shook his head lightly, dismissing his pains of that day to fatigue after having to teleport a long distance with a smile.
"Hey Sam! Let's make this quick, we wanna go meet Delia down at the beach!" Jessie piped the instant they had closed the door behind them, and James sniggered softly as the professor jumped, twisting the knob of the instrument and cracking the glass slide beneath it.
He looked up bewildered, but upon seeing Jessie and James standing patiently in the doorway as he gathered his wits, leaned exasperatedly back into his chair while placing a hand over his heart.
"Jeez Jessie! Don't do that to an old man! You'll give me a heart attack one of these days!" Samuel joked good-naturedly as the duo joined him.
"Heh, sorry, but we're in a hurry today! James said you don't want him long, and I'm holding you to it!" Jessie proclaimed fervently, crossing her arms across her chest and shoving the person in question forward.
"I promised we'd go, " he explained, rolling his eyes and ruffling Jessie's hair affectionately, to which her formerly closed eyes opened a mere presumptuous slit to emphasize her point. The old scientist laughed amusedly, standing with a loud groan, a snapping of old joints, and gesturing to the chair he had once occupied.
"Alrighty, we'll just do it right here then, sit down, and let's see that vinewhip!" he chortled as James obeyed with a grin, the whirring of one of the slick green stalks as he released it sounding behind the older man as he turned to retrieve a delicate needle.
"Better not look Jess, Meowth fainted dead away last time I had blood drawn from my vines!" James commented with a wink as Samuel sifted gently through his drawer to find the box of cotton balls he swore he remembered putting there.
"I'm a big girl James! But do you need me to hold your hand?" she replied deviously, her voice dripping in friendly sarcastic honey.
"I wouldn't mind that, but I would really prefer you'd ho-"
"Okay James, we know where you're going with this one," Samuel's voice interrupted suddenly, the blue-haired young man's face flushing brightly at being caught, Jessie's raucous laughter deepening the slight shade of pink.
"Pervert," he heard her mutter with a grin, rolling her sapphire eyes as a convenient excuse to look away as the old professor took the vine dangling in space gently into his palm.
"Okay, you know the drill, just relax and it'll be over in just a second," he said, his voice softened with concentration.
James looked away while Professor Oak dabbed the area he selected with an alcohol soaked cotton ball, finding he himself experienced a touch of nausea each time he watched the sickly green tinted blood from his vines creep slowly into the clear syringe and winced as he felt the cold prick of metal enter his body. Whether it was the fact that his life fluid had been so tainted by the twilight project, or that it was simply the fact that he had the blood of many beings flowing through his veins that made him ill, he did not know, but the fact that Jessie too could not bear to watch the draw, caused a small smile to coil his lips as he felt the needle exit the slick plant material.
"Alright, all done James, and I happen to know Delia likes your favorite spot very much, so you'd best go kick her off before she gets too comfortable!" Before James even knew the procedure had begun he heard Samuel's seemingly distant but cheerful voice ring in his ears, finally looking up as a mildly pallid Jessie hopped off the counter she had decided to perch herself upon to join him, and stood, slightly unsteady. A flash of fire from somewhere deep inside of him felt foreign, but not unseen, as a dream suddenly come to life that he could not remember but only feel, and he realized with horror, that it was the same pain he had felt earlier.
Jessie noticed as James put a hand to his slightly pale forehead weakly, squeezing the alarm framed emerald eyes shut only momentarily as if light were painful, then shaking his head to clear it before turning to her and motioning to the door.
"You okay James?" she asked uneasily.
"Huh? Oh, oh yeah, I'm fine. This always makes me a bit woozy," he answered, looking up, smiling and holding up his hands defensively, "Don't worry about it Jess, you're just as pale as I am, I think we'll be fine as soon as we get out into the fresh air. Fresh beach air!"
Professor Oak watched Jessie smiled wryly and nodded, leaping for the stairs with a just barely audible cry of, "Race ya!" James taking off on her heels with a piteous retaliation of, "No fair! You got a head start!" the old scientist shaking his head in mock disapproval with a chuckle, re-capping the syringe.
His expression fell as he noted the sickly green and brown tint in the otherwise red blood, his stomach twisting as prayed that small glass vial he held would not in turn hold a key for destruction.
"Oh Jessie, James, your fight is only beginning, hang on James, this is only the beginning," he whispered as he gently placed the syringe into a rack in the freezer next to its brothers, all filled with samples of the same source, and quickly skimming over the story they told. Unable to read further, he closed the small metal door with a satisfying click and turned away, only then remembering he had broken the slide of James' blood earlier and made no move to remove the shards of glass from his instrument, merely switching off its light and walking solemnly toward the door. He listened to his shoes' clacking against the bare-walled laboratory and sighed, remorseful at having to continuously recall James to a place that he knew poignantly reminded him of his ordeal in the Team Rocket genetics facility, a particularly gruesome description of the holding cell area he had lived in for over a year suddenly coming to mind as he ascended the stairs. He wondered what divine force had allowed the gentle young man to survive against the darkness that threatened to swallow his being completely, the strange notion that perhaps it really had been love as he so often answered when asked percolating into his thoughts and he smiled. Willing James' spirit to stay alit, his love to never die and carry his body onward, Samuel Oak darkened his work area and shoved his hands brightly into his back pockets, chortling and thumbing his chin as he thought he should like to join the group at the beach.
Jessie and James were already heavily engrossed in shrieking loudly and chasing each other through the waves when he arrived, chuckling as the red haired young woman took a dramatic leap forward, catching her beloved's waist in her grasp and causing both of them to plunge with a spectacular splash into the surf. He heard Delia's and Meowth's amused chortling as well, and followed the sound of it over a small sandy hill to where they were both perched upon a plaid blanket, the remnants of an obviously cat prepared picnic lunch still scattered about.
"Ah, to be young and in love again," he whispered wistfully, shaking his head as he noticed the older auburn-haired woman turn around as she sensed his presence.
"Oh Sam! I didn't know you were coming down! Jess and James said you looked pretty busy when they left!" she called cheerfully.
"Yeah well I decided to take a bit of a break!" he called back, jogging slightly until he reached the blanket, crossing his legs and sitting down carefully, "They looked like they were going to have fun, so I figured 'what did I do to deserve being locked up in that lab all day?'"
Delia laughed heartily, patting her old friend's shoulder affectionately as he took the bottle of water she offered him.
"I thought you were supposed to be studying the 'transformation', or whatever it was. I hear it killed someone as well as Pikachu," she added, suddenly serious.
"Indeed, Delia, quite the tragedy indeed," he commented softly, careful as not to awaken the soundly sleeping feline Pokemon next to him and deciding to spare the forlorn looking woman the grisly details.
"They love each other so much, they don't deserve to be torn apart like that again. I still remember when Ash's father died, I was so devastated, Jessie shouldn't have to feel that again, she already knows that pain, and after what poor James went through, he deserves to live, be happy, and be with Jessie," Delia whispered reverently, and Samuel thought she never looked more beautiful in the crimson-bronze light of sundown, her strong smile cast at Jessie and James, snuggled close to one another on a blanket of their own.
"Indubitably. Their love is one in a million, it will take much more to break it then merely some sick old man's twisted dream," he answered reverently his gaze meeting hers as she leaned gently into his embrace.
"Will he be okay Sam?" Delia asked quietly as the couple in question decided to return from the playful waters of the sea, plopping practically upon their place closer to it.
"I… I don't know," came the sincere and fearful answer, the two souls lighted upon the twilight illuminated hill needing no more communication as they cast their despairing gazes down to the beach.
Meowth looked up at his two friends, watched as they shared a slow and passionate kiss, holding each other as if a violent force threatened to tear them apart again, and they had finally solidified their solemn vows to never again to let go, sighing deeply and inaudibly at realizing the truth behind Samuel's words.
"See? I told you this is exactly what we needed, now acknowledge my rightness," Jessie whispered quietly, closing her eyes as she felt James' lips graze her neck gently, leaning into his warmth even further as he pulled her close.
"Okay okay Princess, you were right! We did need this," James laughed brightly, smiling and brushing Jessie's wet crimson locks behind her ear as she joined the mirth.
"Now there's no need for sarcasm! And you shall address me as 'your highness' peasant," she responded cheerfully, her glittering azure irises illuminated by the sun as it cast a scarlet veil across her face, "I used to see the day I would get to chase you around in the water and then snuggle on the beach and watch the sunset together! The best part was what we did after, but then I'd wake up and we'd have to go chase after some yellow rat and a bunch of twerpy kids…"
She burst into hysterics immediately following, and James laughed loudly with his beloved, pulling her abruptly down next to him as he flopped backward, delighting in her shriek of surprise and her initial reaction of throwing her arms about his neck.
"You're ever so bad Jessica Burkely," he whispered with a smirk as she touched the end of her nose to his, "But I love you so much."
Kissing the spot where her own nose had once been and brushing the wisp of cerulean hair always between her beloved's eyes, Jessie nodded and closed her eyes proudly.
"Oh I do enjoy it so, and it's just so easy to pick on you!" she replied deviously as she felt James' arms enclose her waist, "But I love you too James, I love you too."
"We're Jessie, James, and Meowth, best friends forever right?" James asked gently, leaning forward and caressing Jessie's cheek as the red spark of a rebirth from the vengeful sun was reborn in her eyes.
"Forever," she promised, closing the ruby lined sapphires as she felt James' soft lips upon her own, crushing the ember into a brilliant dust which was scattered to the wind.
One soul joined was present for the sun's reckoning, the setting of one day, a death for renaissance and as it left the world for twilight, it found all were gone from the shores of its watery grave, all safe from its hail of fiery arrows of fate as it gently sunk beneath the velvet cover of the ocean. Ravenous bolts of furious energy resounded from its radius, reaching with its gnarled and nimble fingers for the souls that had blatantly defied its reckoning, desperate for one last stance. It shattered through the glass pane of a window, and through the shades already drawn to keep its blazing fury where it belonged, a single ray of scarlet light pierced through and found its mark. It seared through a heart, a soul, and buried its essence within, a malignancy that would fester and grow until maturity, when it would become the twilight born of its mother the sunset, the same parent as its light sister dawn. Afraid of its sibling, dawn shied away, as James finally felt the beam of hot light upon his chest, finding it alleviated the dull pain within his body.
Samuel sat hunched over the still broken slide in his laboratory, having only swept them away in a panic as he had loaded a new sheet of glass upon the instrument, his wavering eye pressed close into the lens.
"No, this… This can't be, not yet, not yet…" he whispered to himself, cupping a hand gently over his mouth as he leaned back into his chair, "No… This can't be true!"
Black rays of shadow laced with the silver of the moon fell across the old man's tear-filled eyes from the blinds drawn tightly over the windows, crawling across the slide only to be chased away by the brilliance of the light, which illuminated a drop of ailing brown and green tinted blood. They faltered and clamored away in the wake of a far more omnipotent force, lurking nearby and waiting as they witnessed the light flicker, then dim, surging back to their prey as Samuel stood from unplugging his microscope. He stood, silver hair glinting in the light of its own hues, saddened eyes gazing balefully at the white scythe of the moon rising steadily into the ebon strata and clenching his fists at his sides.
"You've conquered the darkness, but you must win your light, fight with all you have, this will not be an easy battle, and win, one soul rests on this."