They walked on in silence – Jessie, James, and Meowth. None of them dared to say a word, each out of fear of Arceus and fear of each other, until they finally reached the place where Arceus lay slumbering. Then, and only then, did James dare to speak his mind, and only in a whisper.

"I'm sorry, Jessie."

Jessie wasn't surprised; James apologized to her just about every mission, usually for flubbing the whole thing up. "Sorry for what? Be specific."

"I'm sorry I yelled at you like that."

"Oh, so next time you'll yell at me differently?" she shot back sarcastically. "Just hand me back that Master Ball you so kindly gave me. This will be a cinch."

"You broke that Master Ball over my head half an hour ago, remember?"

Jessie swore. "Okay, never mind that. Meowth, did you manage to find any Poke-balls using Pickup?"

"Roight here!" Meowth replied, handing Jessie an Ultra Ball and wisely not mentioning that his actual Ability was Technician.

"Got it," Jessie said, muscles tensing. This was it. This was going to be a little TOO easy. Just throw the ball, catch Arceus, and they all live happily ever after together.

Except that James was hanging off her arm, preventing her from throwing the Ultra Ball.

"Jameson Morgan Kojiro," Jessie said slowly and dangerously, "release my lovely arm this instant, or so help me, you will be wearing your insides on your outsides when I get through with you."

James let go reluctantly. "It's a bad idea, Jess. We could ALL be wearing our insides on our outsides once Arceus gets a hold of us."

"No, WE'LL get a hold of ARCEUS. Stop being such a sissy."

She threw her arm back, but James grabbed it again and insisted, "Seriously, Jess. I have a horrible feeling about this whole thing."

"What DID you put in that instant coffee this morning?" Jessie asked sarcastically. "It's just pre-mission jitters. James, I promise you on my honor that we're not going to die on mission or anything."

"What good is that? You're as bad a liar as I am."

Jessie gritted her teeth – she had no time to waste words with this moron; Arceus could wake up at any moment. Without hesitation, she hit James hard on the head with the elbow of the arm that wasn't holding the Ultra Ball (resulting in his own yelp of pain), then threw the ball itself almost in the same instant, swiftly capturing Arceus.

And as James crumpled in a kneeling position on the floor and bawled his eyes out (sissy, Jessie thought, although her opinion of him was fated to change drastically within the next hour), Arceus broke free from the ball.

And with him, all Hell broke loose as well.


Even when watching the scene as her future self, Jessie still couldn't make head or tail out of the goings-on. This much she knew: James was right in front of her, almost between her and Arceus. He most certainly saw the first Giga Beam coming, but it didn't hit any of them; instead, it punched a hole clear through the cave wall, revealing – strangely enough – open sky and a flock of startled Starly. Arceus, still angry, now had better light to see by; the two humans and their Meowth were not as easily able to adapt to the change of lighting, and all three seemed frozen in place as Arceus readied another Giga Beam to wipe them all off the face of the mountain.

Then James took off like a man on fire – not towards safety, but towards his companions. "Jessie, MOVE!" he yelled as he violently shoved her and Meowth through the hole Arceus had made through the mountain. Time stood still as he crashed to the floor, breaking a few ribs as he watched his not-exactly-grateful friends fall straight down the mountainside yelling, "We're blasting off agaaaaaaain!"

And then the Giga Beam hit him, totally annihilating any hope he'd ever had of making it out of Mt. Sinnoh alive.

Jessie, the future Jessie, was unable to look away. She saw the avalanche resulting from the two Giga Beams as it swept James' body away. She heard bones snap, saw blood gush freely from his broken body, and she couldn't look away from it. Every second of that horrible moment was stamped permanently upon her psyche, a guilt that might never be eased.

James the ghost, hovering next to Future Jessie in whatever corner of space and time they were watching this from, winced at the horrible sight. "Don't take this the wrong way, Jessie, but I am SO glad I didn't have to live through that."

Oh, how Jessie wished he had a living body for her to slap.


As the Jessie and Meowth of ten years ago made their way back up the mountain to search for James (they hadn't seen what happened), Jessie made some very rude remarks as to how once she got her hands on that man, she'd use them to remove his very manhood. (Meowth didn't think she'd find anything to remove.) And once she did that, she was going to snap every bone in his body, saving his sorry neck for last. And when she got done with THAT, she was going to...

...and then she saw the body.

"James, NO! Oh, please be alive! JAMES!"

It was far too late for him to answer.

To Be Continued...