Chapter 1 – A horde of Zangoose

Silver ran for his life as the horde of Zangoose gained on him. Sneasel lay fainted in his arms and he had already recalled all his other Pokémon, weak and badly wounded, some even fainted. He cursed under his breath as he continued to run. Accidentally angering a horde of aggressive Pokémon directly after a fierce battle with another wandering trainer was certainly not the best way to start the day.

His own strength failing him, Silver tripped on a fallen tree branch and fell, taking the whole impact with his shoulder. Clenching every last muscle in his body, he managed to get up on his feet, but was immediately pulled down again by the horde of furious Zangoose. Protecting Sneasel with his body, he felt the razor sharp claws rip through his clothes and skin, trails of blood sipping down on the grass. Desperate to come up with a plan, he tried ignoring the immense pain as the horde continued to slash, completely out of control.

Suddenly, just when the whole situation had started to seem completely hopeless, Silver felt a wave of energy in the air. The Zangooses stopped abruptly before running away all together. With relief washing over him, Silver lay down on his side to look up at his savior.

The first thing he saw was an Absol, looking sharply at him only a few feet away. Beside it stood a woman about his age, with silver hair down to her shoulders and grey eyes, hard and cold like stone. Judging by her red clothes and the emblem on her beret she was a ranger, and her turtleneck jacket covered some of her face. The little he could see of her legs between her boots and shorts were covered in tattoos.

But those eyes…

Silver suddenly gasped at the pain. His body had tried to sit up as a result of him recognizing the woman, the feeling of relief gone and replaced with anger and hatred.

"You!" he managed to spit out, still unsuccessful in his attempts to sit. The young woman huffed.

"As pathetic as ever." She stated coldly.

"I could say the same about you." Silver retorted, his words dripping with venom. She ignored the comment.

"Cait." She said instead. A female Meowstic appeared by her side from its PokéBall, waiting for further instructions from its trainer. "Carry them." Silver felt himself lift up from the ground, Sneasel still embraced in his arms.

"Wait, what are you doing? Let me down this instant!" He demanded, rage building up inside him. She sighed impatiently, turned on her heel sharply and started to walk away with Absol by her side. Silver and Sneasel were floating through the air behind them, held there by Mewostics psychic abilities.

"I said, let me down!"

"As a ranger it's my duty to take you to the nearest Pokémon Center. Now, shut up." She snapped.

Silver wanted to yell at her, but his strength was failing due to his wounds. He noticed the Meowstic's psychic powers not only were holding him in mid-air, but also keeping his wounds from bleeding more, which was good… not that he could care about that now.

"What are you doing here?" He hissed instead. She was silent, ignoring him. "Answer me!" Still no response. He gritted his teeth, changing tactics. "You are talking to me whether you like it or not, Rowena!"

He heard her huff again, not amused.

"I'm a Johto ranger. That's all."

"Don't try and get smart with me. When did you leave Team Rocket?"

She didn't answer him. Rowena had been a high-rank admin of Team Rocket once, and had even been the right hand woman of Silver's father, Giovanni. She had worked passionately and tirelessly for an organization Silver hated and despised from the bottom of his heart, and here she was now, a stab in the back from the past. They had battled before, and Silver would never forgive his father for putting Rowena in the way whenever he was about to confront the man who left him on the doorstep of a Pokémon Daycare in Johto. The worst part was that she had been good at standing in the way, so good in fact that Silver only with Ethan's help had finally managed to take her down and confront his father.

"I said 'when?' Rowena!" Silver raged on, taking out as much anger and frustration on her as he could in his state. Rowena took her time to answer, but finally spoke up:

"When project Mewtwo went horribly wrong."

That was all he was going to get, he knew that. No matter how he'd push on she wouldn't speak another word.

Silver felt his head spin as they finally exited the forest, headed for Azalea Town. With the pain now on the edge of being unbearable and the overwhelmingly strong negative feelings towards the woman in front of him, he blacked out.

~Rowena's POV~

Silver finally fell silent behind her and she slowly let out a sigh of relief. She really didn't want to speak with him further. He had all the reason in the world to hate her and her past as a Team Rocket admin, but she didn't like him that much either. He had always been an annoying brat, standing in the way of their plans and sabotaging their work.

After leaving the organization, Rowena had settled down as a ranger in the Johto region. The Mewtwo-project had gone wrong in so many ways, and after that, she had begun questioning their actions for the first time. Cloning a Pokémon was simply unnatural, especially an ancient legendary, supposedly the ancestor of all Pokémon in existence. Moving away from Viridian City in Kanto over to the Johto region, she had decided to start anew. She hadn't even considered the fact that the young man who despised her so much actually lived here, and she certainly hadn't expected to find him defeated by a horde of Zangoose in Ilex Forest.

Rowena shook her head silently. She could have just left him there, but that would mean breaking her vows as a ranger. Instead, she headed for the Pokémon Center with Khali the Absol by her side, followed by Cait the Meowstic who was levitating Silver behind them. Hopefully, she could leave him there and never have to see him again.