Any references to Jessie's past [including like ages and exactly how long Miyamoto was gone] are in reference to my story 'That's Life' where I take apart Jessie's backstory piece-by-piece. Most of it should be pretty self-explanatory either way, so you don't really need to read that to understand this.

Expect Rocketshipping in the chapters to come! I can't avoid it - I'm obsessed.

Just a note: this doesn't follow the anime's story. It's after they've met the twerps [ie Ash, Misty, and Brock], but before they've left the Kanto region, I guess. There's still Weezing and Arbok :D ALSO I am [normally] a slight supporter of Giovanni being Jessie's dad after, like, a one-night-stand with Miyamoto or something. It'd be interesting, anyway (cuz Giovanni could also be Ash's dad and them WHOA half-siblings xD). But not in this fic, although there may be references to a romance/unrequited love situation in here, I'm not 100% sure yet.

Enjoy!

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Alive

Chapter One: Return

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Her return was as silent as the night itself.

The woman's dark purple hair had grown impressively over the years, luckily she managed to cut it at some point and rid herself of the nuisance. Her bones, now twenty years older than before, were tired and unable to handle the stress of her profession any longer. There was a potential for so much change within the last twenty years that she was terrified: what had become of her organization?

More importantly, what had become of her daughter?

Her daughter: that precious, adorable, beautiful girl she claimed to have no choice but to give away. It's true, she couldn't have given the girl a very bright future. However...did the orphanage? Did her lovely little girl find her way into happiness? Did she find her Prince Charming?

Luckily for her, it was the middle of the day. Miraculously, she had enough energy to quickly buy some clothes that fit (unfortunately she'd thinned tremendously over so many years of scavenging for food) and grab a bite to eat. It was a good thing she'd brought money with her into the mountains, not that she needed it up there, anyways. A quick white top and black pants and a hotdog from an outdoor stand were a first grab for the woman as she made her way to the Viridian City gym.

"God, please let the gym still be the headquarters...I can't walk anymore..." She stared up at the large building. It didn't look much different than it did so many years ago, the only noticeable difference being a small pool in the front with a smaller fountain in the middle. She walked to the right and went up the short stairs, stopping suddenly at the door.

"What if it's not?"

She'd never been a particularly intelligent woman, but she wasn't dumb in the least. There was a decent chance that her organization had become disbanded or destroyed sometime in the last fifteen years or so, ever since she lost contact with her boss and teammates. However, risks need to be taken. She swung open the large door to reveal a huge gym floor, with pillars lining up the sides. She stepped inside, happily noting that there wasn't any sort of battle going on. She also noted that the man sitting in the large chair across the room, having what seemed like a serious conversation on his cellular phone, was not her old boss. However, he did seem familiar.

"Oh-it seems I have a challenger," Giovanni mumbled into his phone. "We'll have to continue this conversation another time. Goodbye." He snapped the phone shut with such finesse that the purple-haired woman knew he spoke on that thing way too much. He must've been very important, having people call him all the time. That could mean more than just a gym leader's position... "Well, Miss, are you going to challenge me to a battle?"

She looked off to the side and saw a man in all-black walk by. A quick glance at his chest showed a red letter, and she was absolutely sure it was an 'R'. "No, no I am not."

Giovanni raised an eyebrow at the woman's strange behavior. Did she even realize she was in a gym? Specifically designed for gym battles to take place in? "Then why are you-"

"What's your name?"

He growled. "If you're from anywhere around here, you'd know that my name is Giovanni, leader of the Viridian City Gym and holder of the Earth Badges that trainers often seek."

Her eyes widened and she smirked. "Giovanni? You took over the organization?"

He looked startled for a second. "Excuse me?" He got out of his chair and walked closer to the woman, glaring at her. "Am I supposed to know who you are?"

She paused. "Well, I suppose we've only met a few times, but I was one of your mother's favorite agents." She smirked again while poking him in the chest. He didn't look much different from when they were both around twenty years old, but he was obviously much healthier than she.

"..." He glared at her curiously before giving up. "What is your name, woman?"

"Miyamoto." She spoke without any sort of hesitation, as if she was so confident the sound of her name would scare the slightly younger man shitless. And that it did.

"...Miyamoto?!" He stared incredulously. "That's impossible! You were announced dead more than fifteen years ago!"

Her spirits immediately fell. "...dead?" So that meant her daughter thought she'd gone and died. "...Giovanni, obviously I'm not dead. Is your mother still...around? I need to ask a favor."

He looked around the room inconspicuously. He grabbed Miyamoto's arm and pulled her through a door in the back of the room before he continued the conversation. "...my mother is dead."

Miyamoto released the breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "Dead?!" The news was a bit more than shocking. Madame Boss had given the woman a job, a place to live (albeit a small one), and even a small army to command. The woman seemed immortal. But, she shrugged, no one was immortal. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Giovanni nodded to his secretary and waited in front of a door for the small girl to open it. The door revealed a long hallway, and as soon as the duo stepped inside, the door shut behind Miyamoto. "I'm sure you've noticed many differences in this building since the...last time you were here."

She only nodded meekly.

"I've taken over, and Team Rocket has been thriving since." His persian got up and stretched after an obvious nap, before stalking over to Giovanni. "You'd been sent out on a mission before disappearing, correct?"

"Yes, Giovanni," she answered. "I was sent to find the mysterious pokemon Mew...and I did, but not for long..."

The name of the small pokemon sent shivers down his spine. "Oh, yes. That's right. After you were announced dead, we did eventually find and catch him. We went through a cloning experience that led to-well, you don't need to know all the details. Just know it ended in complete...failure."

Miyamoto stared up at the man in front of her. "Giovanni...I know you don't care about me like your mother did...but I still have a favor to ask."

He turned around. "Are you sure it's something I can help with?"

"I...I just want to know what my daughter is doing right now. I want to know what she's done with her life after I...left her..." The purple-haired woman held back tears at the thought of her daughter doing any less than complete success. "Please tell me she's a happily married actress or doctor or something..."

Giovanni kept a straight, blank face while listening to the woman's request. "...I can try to find her. What's her name?"

"Jessie. Er, Jessica."

His eyes widened momentarily as he recalled the one agent in his system who shared the same name. He couldn't remember her face very well, and quickly typed it into his system. Once her picture appeared on screen, he looked over at Miyamoto's curious face.

"That's the computer Madame Boss used to search through her employees, Giovanni. There's no way Jessie would be..." Her voice went from confident to worrisome in less than a second. "No...! She couldn't have joined Team Rocket...no! No, no, no!"

Giovanni glared at the picture. She was, undoubtedly, Miyamoto's daughter. But it wasn't in her information file. Did she even know who her mother was? "I'm afraid, if this is your daughter..." He turned the computer screen around to face Miyamoto, whose skin paled immediately.

"No...no, Jessie..." She let go of the tears she'd been holding back. Her daughter was supposed to do something fabulous with her life! Become a famous actress! Become a successful nurse! Maybe even be a ninja! Anything but...Team Rocket...

Giovanni let a small amount of empathy slip. "Would you like to talk to her?"

Miyamoto slumped to the ground on her knees. The tears had partially subsided, considering they were mostly from shock. "..." Rather than answering verbally, the woman timidly nodded.

Giovanni grabbed the nearest videophone and dialed the number of the phone that Jessie and her idiotic partner, James, were supposed to carry around. The most likely case was that they gave it to their meowth to carry, actually.

One ring went by.

A second ring, and Miyamoto looked up hopefully.

Giovanni growled impatiently, almost ready to hang up before a small cream-colored cat appeared on the screen.

Meowth stood straight and tall as soon as he saw his boss. "H-hello, Boss!" In the background, Giovanni could see James running quickly across the hallway with a red face, followed by an obviously angry and embarrassed Jessie in only a towel. Neither stopped to see what their feline partner was doing, he noted.

"Meowth, get Jessica." He waited for a second before continuing. "And make sure she's dressed, please."

"Yes, sir!" Meowth scurried off quickly, yelling her name.

Miyamoto's eyes were wide. "Was that...was that meowth talking?" Her mouth was agape. She'd never seen a talking pokemon before, and certainly not one with a Brooklyn accent.

"Hm? Oh, yes. He does that." Giovanni scowled. "If he weren't such a weak pokemon, it might come in handy. Unfortunately, when we try to use him for translation purposes, all we get from the captured pokemon is that they hate it, want us dead, and so on. So there isn't much use for a translator when we already know what they're saying."

Miyamoto nodded and quickly looked up to see a red-haired woman walk up to the screen. Her eyes started to water when she realized how cruel the truth was.

Jessie picked up the phone. "Did you need me, Boss?" Jessie didn't notice the woman standing behind her boss.

James and Meowth were staring from around the door frame. "Meowth, why would the boss ask for just Jessie?"

"I dunno, Jim. Maybe she's bein' fired..."

"Meowth, you know the boss prefers her over us-er, me, there's no way he'd fire her first."

"Yeah, well, it's not like she's bein' promoted or anythin' like that."

They shut up and watched Jessie curiously.

"Yes, Jessica. I have some news for you that you might find a bit...shocking." He glanced over at Miyamoto, only to swiftly turn back to Jessie. This announcement would need more than just a simple introduction. "You may want to sit down."

Jessie looked confused. "Um..I'm sure I'll be fine." The Boss was acting uncharacteristically calm and nice for something that was supposed to be shocking. "What is it?"

"It's your-" he was cut off by Miyamoto.

"Please, Giovanni, let me tell her." He noticed that the woman had calmed down considerably, probably at seeing how healthy Jessie looked (at least the girl had something to be happy about, she was undeniably quite the looker). Giovanni nodded and handed the phone to Miyamoto.

"Um...hi?" Jessie stared at the woman in confusion. She knew that face...where did she know it from?

"Jessie, it's me...your mother." Miyamoto knew subtlety had never been a strong point, but usually it was just a diversion tactic anyway. It wasn't necessary outside the field.

Jessie's eyebrows shot above her head in surprise. "My...m..." As soon as the phone dropped from her hand to the floor, James and Meowth had started to run over. James got there just in time to catch the fainting woman before she fell flat on her face.

"J-Jessie!" James shouted. "Ah...Gio, er...B-Boss! What...who are you?" James' sentences mixed together in a jumble of uncoordinated words.

Miyamoto cocked an eyebrow an how the blue-haired man on the screen was holding her daughter. She held in a comment for later. "I'm Jessie's mother, Miyamoto."

James' eyes widened. Jessie never talked about her mother! Or father, actually. He frowned, realizing that he'd shared a lot more about his past (albeit unintentionally) than the girl in his arms.

Meowth stuttered. "J-Jessie's mom...?" He looked down at Jessie and up at the woman on screen. "Youse two really do look alike, wow..." The two boys stopped for a second until a realization slapped them in the face. "Wh-what are you doing at Team Rocket headquarters?!"

Miyamoto sighed. Jessie didn't have very smart friends. "I, um-" she turned to Giovanni. "Am I still a member?" He shook his head 'no', and she smiled sadly. It's true she'd been announced dead more than fifteen years ago, so any sort of occupational status would've been removed from her records. "I was one of the first Rocket agents."

James and Meowth stared at each other in shock. If Jessie knew that, wouldn't she have bragged about it? This was all much too confusing for either of their admittedly small minds. "Well, um...Miss Miyamoto...I think this would be an easier conversation in person...especially for Jessie..."

Miyamoto nodded. "I'll go to where you are. It's not too far, is it?"

James shook his head. "We're just in a cabin in the Viridian Forest. Um...I'll have my Weezing outside so you can look for him."

Meowth nodded. "I'll, um...I'll be out there, too."

Miyamoto raised an eyebrow again. That left an unconscious Jessie alone with a boy who couldn't possibly not consider doing something. C'mon, Jessie looked beautiful! Even better than Miyamoto did at that age, she admitted happily. "Hm, alright. And what's your name, kid?"

James looked up. "M-me? Uh, I'm James."

"Watch where you put your hands, Jimmy," she said while pointing towards Jessie. James had one hand on the back of her neck to steady her head and the other one was out of view of the videophone's camera. It was, realistically, a somewhat compromising position. Miyamoto chuckled when James' face turned a little red and he laid Jessie gently on the floor.

"Yes, uh, ma'am..."

Miyamoto hung up the phone and looked at Giovanni. "...do you know much about her team?"

Giovanni smirked. "I think I'll let Jessica tell you about it, herself. I'm sure my side of the story would just depress you." He chuckled at Miyamoto's shocked glare. "So would you like to borrow a balloon? Jetpack?"

"...a car would be nice."

Giovanni smirked. "How old-fashioned." "A car it is, then."

Miyamoto grabbed the keys from his hand. "Same spot as always?" He nodded and she stepped out of the office. She stopped at the doorway for a second before turning around.

"Thank you, Gio."

Giovanni smirked and turned around in his chair, letting his back face the woman in front of him. He heard the door close, and ran a hand through what was left of his hair. "Miyamoto..."


Ah, another multichap xD I've actually been wanting to write a multichap...so I guess...yeah. This one I have basically planned out, so no problems there.