Author's Note:

In this chapter, yet another layer is added. However, this is the final one you will be introduced to. In other words, this is as complex as this story gets. If you have read "Hybrid", this chapter will confuse you (if you haven't, disregard this part of the note). That's good - see if you can figure it out! It might take a couple more chapters to understand it, but maybe not. Jessie and James are absent for this chapter, but they will be back next time. Don't worry!

As always, I value your feedback (REVIEWS). Thank you to StarWriterWG and Eric Cartman Forever for reviewing.

Until Friday,

~TheFrogFromHell

06

"Three out of eight isn't enough," Domino heard faintly. "We need five. What about Chuck and Jasmine? How are they coming along?"

Keeping her breathing slow and quiet and pressing her ear right up against the wall, Domino could still just barely overhear her husband's phone conversation. If only he would just tell me these things instead of being so damn secretive all the time, she thought bitterly.

"Well, then send him a gift package. Organize a goddamn seashore cleanup if you have to! I don't care how you do it, but we need Johto support. Otherwise, this project is going to be much more troublesome than it has to be."

By "project", Domino knew her husband was referring to the expansion of Rocket, Inc. into Johto, but she was frustratingly uninformed about the details.

"If we just march in there, there will be resistance," the man said, lowering his voice menacingly. Domino cringed; it was the way he spoke to her when he was very displeased about something she'd done, and those conversations never ended well for her. "We don't want that, Cassidy. Do you remember Cerulean City? Do you want to see that happen again?"

Domino felt a twinge of jealousy. Cassidy? she scoffed, incredulous. You mean, that fake blond bitch that all but ruined our Cerulean City takeover? She's in charge of this?!

"I'm not satisfied with what happened at the Lake of Rage either," the man confessed, his tone of voice sounding just slightly less severe. "Damn kids… they always ruin everything."

Domino heard a loud wailing noise and jumped. "EEP!" she cried out involuntarily, then clamped her hand over her mouth, hoping her husband hadn't heard her. He'd be very upset with her if he discovered she'd been eavesdropping…

Domino cursed to herself when she realized the wailing was the crying of her newborn son; he had awakened from his nap early.

She quietly exited the room, thankful that her husband had his back turned to her and did not notice her tiptoeing by, and scurried down the hall to her son's room.

"Silver," she cooed, lifting the bawling baby boy from his crib and cradling him in her arms, "it's alright, honey, what's wrong?"

Silver, of course, could not answer her in words, but he kept crying, his little face red and wet with tears.

"Are you hungry?" Domino asked. "I'll go make you a bottle."

She carried the baby with her into the kitchen, where she began mixing her son's formula.

As she prepared the baby's meal, she admired the view of Goldenrod City that she saw through the vast kitchen window. She could see rain clouds looming far away, but, for now, the radiant sunshine cast a warm, shimmering glow over the city, making it live up to its namesake. In the distance, she saw the Goldenrod Department Store and the Radio Tower, and, beyond that, the quaint scenery of Route 35.

Technically, the mansion that Domino and her husband were living in now was their "vacation home", but they typically spent about half the year here, and the other half in Viridian City, Domino's husband's hometown.

Domino finished mixing the formula, offering the bottle to her son, who enthusiastically accepted it. I guess I was right, Domino figured. It'd just been too long since he'd had his breakfast.

As the baby suckled the bottle, Domino looked around the enormous, bright kitchen she stood in, trying to be grateful for her privileged life rather than fixated on the things that bothered her.

Like Giovanni.

She supposed she'd been painfully naïve, or perhaps just deluding herself, when she'd married her husband. After all, from attending the missions of Team Rocket and, when the organization had upgraded to Rocket Inc., holding the position of Chief Information Officer for nearly a decade, Domino had been well aware of what Giovanni was capable of. She figured that her infatuation with him had blinded her to the truth.

But now that they had been married six years, that truth was all too obvious: Giovanni cared nothing for Domino, other than whether or not she could be useful and compliant. He seemed to have little interest in their son also; Domino sometimes wondered if her husband had only wanted to have a child in order to ensure that he'd have an heir to continue Rocket Inc.'s legacy after he was dead.

She looked down at her infant son and thought about how callous one would have to be to only pretend to care for him. He's perfect, she thought in a conventional motherly fashion, admiring his tiny, smooth hands that grasped his bottle and the fine wisps of red hair that had only recently appeared on his head. I wonder where he gets that from, Domino speculated. It must be a recessive gene.

Domino's pulse sped up as a shadow darkened the room. She turned around to see her husband standing in the doorway, looming over her dauntingly. Giovanni was over six feet tall and sturdily built, and it was no mystery to Domino why even Rocket Inc.'s top executives were intimidated by him.

"I was just feeding the baby," she remarked casually, avoiding her husband's dark, predatory gaze.

"I noticed that," he replied, keeping his voice low and even. "I also noticed somebody sneaking around, listening in on my private conversation."

Domino had been almost certain she'd managed to sneak by him without being noticed, but evidently she'd been wrong. Her heart pounded and she thought anxiously, I hope this doesn't go like I think it's going to go.

"I was tidying up," she justified, "and I couldn't help but overhear…"

"Shut your mouth," the man commanded, seething with anger. He took a few steps toward her and she instinctively backed away.

"What?" he inquired with a biting, mock-playfulness injected in his tone. "You're afraid of your own husband now?"

When you're like this, yes, Domino thought, though she knew better than to say it aloud. She curled her arms around Silver, who still suckled his bottle, as if to protect him.

She flinched as she felt her husband's hand touch her face, but, surprisingly, he only reached for a lock of her blond hair, twirling it between two of his thick fingers possessively.

"Remember," he breathed, leaning in close to her. Domino could feel his hot breath on her neck, and she shivered. "I made you everything that you are," he threatened, "and don't think that I can't take it away."

Domino, knowing that it was unwise, but unable to stop herself, questioned heatedly, "If that's true, and you made me what I am, then what was the point? Why waste your time training me? It's not like I have any place in Rocket Inc. anymore. I used to be your top executive, but now I guess you'd rather have Cassidy doing all the dirty work!"

"It is none of your concern who I choose to run my company," he retorted icily.

Your company? Domino thought incredulously. I was as much a part of Rocket Inc.'s creation as you!

"I worked for you for twenty years," Domino retaliated. "I used to have a say in everything Rocket Inc. did. Why has that changed?"

Giovanni smirked, tucking her hair behind her ear and taking a step back from her.

"My dear spouse," he said, speaking to her almost as if she was a child, "I believe these last few years of staying at home, performing mundane, domestic tasks, have softened you. It appears the Black Tulip has lost her thorns."

"And whose fault is that?" Domino exclaimed furiously. "I'm a hundred times the Rocket executive that Cassidy is, and you know it!"

Silver was done with his bottle, releasing his grip on it and allowing it to clatter to the floor.

Giovanni's smirk faded, and, once again, he became a predator, now finished toying with his prey and ready to strike.

"Learn your place," he growled, pinning her up against the kitchen counter. Silver, who seemed very uneasy, squirming in his mother's arms, began to whimper. "It has never been your job to question my decisions; not when I hired you, and not now."

"Giovanni, please…" Domino attempted to calm Silver, but her efforts were ineffective; the baby was beginning to cry again.

"Learn to respect your leader!" Giovanni shouted, grabbing Domino's shoulder and digging his strong fingers into her flesh.

"Stop!" she cried, squeezing her eyes shut and clutching the wailing baby close to her.

Shockingly, the man obeyed her request, and she slowly opened her eyes, which now shone with tears. Despite being distraught and worried for her child, a thought in the back of her mind dug into her: he's right. I have lost my thorns.

"The baby," she whispered, and Giovanni just stared at her wordlessly. After a few moments, Silver settled down, and the room was filled with an uncomfortable silence.

Giovanni cleared his throat and, looking away from Domino awkwardly, he said quietly, "I will be in my study. Please do not disturb me unless it's absolutely necessary."

He turned away from her and exited the kitchen, his polished shoes click-clacking on the tile floor.

Domino waited until he was gone, then broke down, allowing her tears to stream down her cheeks. She stroked Silver's face softly; her son was her only source of comfort right now. Will you be like your father, I wonder? she pondered. Will your face one day become the new face of Rocket Inc.? A few years ago, that thought would have excited her, but today, it only terrified and saddened her.

"You're all I have to live for, Silver," Domino confessed to her son. "I have no place anymore; not with your father, and not in Rocket, Inc."

Silver whimpered, gazing up at her with his baby-blue eyes. She wondered if they'd stay blue like her own forever, or if they'd soon change to the dark brown shade that Giovanni's were. Brown eyes are always dominant, she remembered learning a long time ago, and she felt a little sad knowing that the blue in her son's eyes would soon fade away.

After passing through the snowy ruins of Mahogany Town for the second time, a journey Lance would be content to never repeat for a third, he and Clair had a decision to make. There were two possible routes to Ecruteak City from here— the shorter, more direct path that would take them across two warm, shallow bodies of water (perfect for swimming) and past some lovely scenery, and the dark, treacherous, grueling path through Mt. Mortar.

Outside, the air was brisk, and the clouds had cleared enough for the sunshine to come through (for a period, anyway), beating down on the blades of the lush, green tall grass to Lance's left, and making the surface of the small lake he could see in the distance shimmer.

To Lance's right was the entrance to Mt. Mortar, which resembled the mouth of a cave. Even from here, he could see that inside, it was ominously dark. He looked from the base of the mountain all the way to the top, whistling at its imposing size.

"If I was a legendary pokemon," Lance commented dryly, "or a murderer on the run, Mt. Mortar would probably seem like a reasonable place to go."

"Mortar it is, then," Clair affirmed.

"Great," Lance said, taking one last wistful look at the beautiful scenery and bright sunshine around him.

"Do any of your pokemon know Flash?" Clair inquired, and Lance nodded, surprised she hadn't thought of that before now.

"I stored one of my dragonites at the Pokemon Center so that I could bring Espeon with me. Usually, I use it when I go train inside Mount Silver."

"I didn't know you had an espeon," Clair remarked.

"Yeah, well, even a dragon master's got to branch out sometimes," Lance replied, winking at her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Clair asked irritably, frowning and crossing her arms.

"Nothing, cous," he dismissed lightly. He knew better than to outwardly critique his cousin's training techniques (she could have quite the temper when provoked), but three dragonairs and a kingdra weren't exactly what Lance called "variety".

"Well, let's hurry up and get through this mountain," Clair said pressingly. "After all, we are on a time constraint."

"Agreed," Lance said, and the two made their way over to the entrance of the cave.

Three hours later, Clair and Lance, even being the strong trainers they were, were sorely regretting their decision to pass through Mt. Mortar. The wild pokemon were not as strong as the ones that resided in Mount Silver, so they mostly left the two cousins alone (with the exceptions of a couple of tenacious Golbat, which had been easily subdued with Clair's Dragonair's Thunderbolt), but the biggest challenge was navigating the place.

Inside, it seemed even larger than it had looked on the outside, which was pretty impressive. Or, at least, it would have seemed impressive to Lance if he hadn't been so worried that he and Clair were lost. Every path they took seemed to only lead them deeper into Mt. Mortar. It was so dark in the heart of the cave that Espeon was beginning to tire of using Flash so often.

Several times, Clair and Lance had needed to surf over large, cold pools of water. Each time, Lance had thought that once they reached the other side, they'd be able to see the exit, but in each instance this hypothesis had, unfortunately, been proven incorrect.

Finally, Lance, Clair, and their pokemon paused, deciding to take a rest.

"This is exhausting," Clair conceded, sighing, "and we've seen no signs of anything besides rocks, water, more rocks, and some low-leveled wild pokemon."

"Well, it was a long shot that Lugia, or the scum who attacked the Dragon's Den, for that matter, would be in here," Lance admitted, "but I thought that, if we were lucky, we might end up capturing two pidgey with one pokeball."

"More like two trainers with one cave," Clair moaned, plopping down on the cave floor and tugging on her hair. "I don't want to be stuck here."

"I don't either," Lance agreed, a little annoyed at his cousin's whining, "and we won't. We just need to rest and think about things for a moment."

Suddenly, an idea came to him, and he retrieved one of his pokeballs from his belt.

"Aerodactyl, go!" he called out, hurling the red and white ball into the air. Out came the rare, powerful beast, who flew around in a circle and screeched excitedly before making a beeline for Lance, greeting him happily by licking his face with its reptilian tongue. Lance chuckled and scratched the pokemon's hard, grey head. Despite its intimidating appearance, Aerodactyl was probably Lance's most sociable pokemon.

"Aerodactyl," Lance instructed his pokemon, "we need you to help us. Can you fly around and find an exit to this cave?"

The pokemon screeched in confirmation, beating its bat-like wings and rising up from Lance. It sniffed the air before choosing a direction to pursue, whirling around, and swiftly soaring away from the two trainers into the darkness of the cavern.

"Aero should find it in no time," Lance remarked confidently.

"I hope so," Clair said.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes. Lance removed his water bottle from his pack, taking a sip and then offering some to Clair, who declined.

"I've brought my own," she explained, taking it out of her pack along with a sandwich she'd made and some chocolate chip cookies.

Lance's mouth watered. Wish I would have thought to bring something. He'd assumed that their journey to Ecruteak would take far less time than it had, so he hadn't packed any snacks.

Clair raised an eyebrow, holding up the bag of cookies. "Want some?" she offered. Lance happily accepted, taking a few and munching away. "You looked a bit like a rabid arcanine for a second there," she teased.

Clair took a bite of her sandwich, then put it down as if remembering something. Removing her pokeballs from her belt, she called, "Hey team, come on out!"

Clair's three dragonair and kingdra materialized, appearing excited to be out of their pokeballs.

Lance followed suit, releasing his dragons from their balls as well. For the moment, Lance was thankful for Mt. Mortar's size; it was spacious enough for all of their pokemon to move around freely. Lance retrieved a carton of dragon pokemon food from his backpack and offered it to his team, who hungrily accepted it. Espeon came to Lance's side and whined, flicking its long, thin, purple tail.

"Don't worry, I've got something for you too," Lance assured it, taking out a smaller container that contained Espeon's lunch. Well, my backpack's sure gonna be lighter for the rest of the journey, Lance thought. He just hoped that the rest of the journey wouldn't take too much longer, since he'd just given his pokemon all the food he'd brought.

He was about to take another bite of cookie when he heard something and froze. Clair was crunching on a cookie herself and crinkling up the empty bag she'd brought them in, and Lance held up his hand, shushing her.

Someone, or something, was approaching.

As the noises got closer, Lance was somewhat relieved to discover that they were human voices.

"Hey, man, take it easy! I just wanted a look at your rare pokemon…" someone defended in a somewhat high, nasally male voice.

"It looked to me like you were trying to steal my rare pokemon," replied another person, this one in a deeper voice that seemed to echo off the cave's walls.

"Nope. My nidoking and nidoqueen are enough for me. I don't want any trouble; just let me go!"

"Espeon, Flash," Lance whispered, and his pokemon once again illuminated the cavern with a bright light.

"What was that?" exclaimed the deeper voice, sounding alarmed. Now that the room was brighter, Lance could see the two figures standing atop a rocky mound about a hundred feet away. As he had thought, they were two men. One of them was only a kid, maybe seventeen or eighteen years old. He was unattractively thin, with long, greasy hair and glasses. The other man was large and muscular looking, and he wore what looked like a martial arts uniform.

"I don't know," the younger man answered, "maybe a pokemon?"

"Who's there?" bellowed the other man, and Lance boldly stood up, making his position clear.

"We are Lance and Clair, dragon masters," he announced, "and we are only passing through." Lance's two dragonite came to stand at his sides, and he guessed he was making a memorable first impression.

Clair also rose up, joining Lance. "Hello," she called, acknowledging the men.

"Ah… I know you! You are Clair, the leader of Blackthorn City's gym, and Lance, the former Champion! How surprising to find you deep within Mt. Mortar," said the larger man, who seemed unexpectedly friendly.

"Who are we speaking to?" Lance inquired, not unkindly, but a little warily.

Impressively, the man in the martial arts garb leapt off the dirt mound he was standing on, landing lightly and gracefully on the cave floor below. The skinny teenager behind him attempted to silently sneak away, but, even without turning around, the larger man warned him firmly, "Don't even think about going anywhere."

Standing up and nodding to Clair and Lance, the man said proudly, "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kiyo, but most only know me as the Karate King."

Clair and Lance looked at each other and shrugged.

"What? That doesn't ring a bell?" Kiyo exclaimed, sounding both irritated and disappointed.

"Umm… are you related to Chuck, the gym leader in Cianwood who trains fighting pokemon?" Clair inquired.

Kiyo moaned as if he was in extreme agony. "We are most certainly not related," he countered, apparently offended. "That phony was light years behind me when we were in training together. I taught him everything he knows! I was the original Karate King."

"Okay," Lance quickly agreed, not wanting to further affront their new acquaintance.

"I led the fighting dojo in Saffron City for fifteen years," the man boasted, standing up tall and puffing out his chest, "and only once was I defeated! No pokemon's physical strength could match that of the Karate King's pokemon."

Suddenly, the man's confidence appeared to fade a little, and his expression darkened.

"Then, Rocket, Inc. came to Saffron, the city where my gym was, and everything changed."

"Rocket Inc.," Lance repeated. "Those two suits that spoke at the Lake of Rage said they were from Rocket Inc."

"They were at the Lake of Rage?" the man questioned in alarm. "You mean… they're in Johto now?"

Lance and Clair looked at each other. "Well, I don't know if they're here yet," Lance said, "but they seem to want to expand their business here soon."

"That absolutely cannot happen," Kiyo exclaimed, his pride now completely evaporated, replaced with terror. "I was happy in Kanto, but I left because of them. When they take charge of a city - " he looked at Lance gravely, " - things get ugly. They make all kinds of rules and regulations… which kinds of pokemon you can train, what items you can buy. You even have to have a special license to begin your pokemon journey in a city that Rocket Inc. controls."

"That's ridiculous," Lance remarked angrily. He knew he hadn't liked Bo (or whatever his name had been) and Cassidy when he'd seen them, but he hadn't thought Rocket Inc. could have changed things in Kanto that drastically.

"The worst part is," Kiyo continued, "that if you break the rules too many times, they can take your pokemon away."

"What?!" exclaimed Clair. "That's crazy!"

"When I was Champion," Lance recalled, "right before I quit, the League started asking me and the other Indigo Plateau trainers to alter our battling methods in order to comply with some new 'League regulations'. That sounds a whole lot like what you're saying happened in Saffron City."

"It's not just Saffron City," Kiyo added. "Rocket, Inc. is all over Kanto. They control every gym in the League over there. A couple of the original gym leaders sold out and joined Rocket Inc. when they took over, and they still have their gyms, but everyone else was forced to abandon their positions."

"I had no idea things were that bad," Lance said regretfully, shaking his head.

"We can't let them expand into Johto," Clair stated determinedly. "We have to do everything we can to stop them."

"You can try," said Kiyo doubtfully, "but we Kanto gym leaders fought hard, and we still lost the battle."

"Uh, excuse me," the skinny young man standing on top of the dirt mound yelled down to the group, interrupting their intense conversation, "but I don't have all day. My pokemon are all fainted, and I have to get home. Can someone show me the way out of here?"

Kiyo sighed. "I did make your pokemon faint," he conceded, "so I suppose I owe it to you to escort you to safety, you little crook. But don't you try anything." He turned back to Clair and Lance, sighing. "My apologies," he said, "but I have to remove this young trainer from the cave. He was scrounging for items and rare pokemon— not honorably, I might add— and I decided to teach him a lesson, but now his pokemon can't battle, so it's not safe for him to travel alone."

"My pokemon were tired from the journey," the trainer protested. "If they'd been at their full strength, I'd have crushed you!"

Clair turned to Lance, raising an eyebrow. "Do you think he could be…?" she whispered.

"No way," Lance countered, shaking his head, "there's no chance that kid could have been strong enough to get past the wild dragons in the Dragon's Den." It would have certainly made their job easier if the trainer had been the murderer, but somehow Lance just knew that couldn't be the truth.

"Well, dragon masters, I bid you farewell," Kiyo said, bowing to them and beginning to turn around. Then, as if in an afterthought, he stopped. "Wait," he said, reaching for his belt and removing a pokeball.

"This is a young fighting pokemon I've been training," he explained. "I think Mt. Mortar is a bit much for it, though, and this is where I train most of the time. I've been looking for a strong, kind trainer to look after it and give it some real battle experience. Do you think one of you could take it?"

Clair and Lance exchanged surprised looks. "Well, we could," Clair said tentatively, "but are you sure you want to give it to us and not to another fighting-type pokemon trainer?"

"Well, usually I would battle a trainer first before entrusting them with one of my pokemon," Kiyo admitted, "but I knew when I saw your dragons that both of you are talented trainers that keep your pokemon strong and healthy. Also, maybe this pokemon, when it levels up, can help you in your quest to stop Rocket Inc."

"Uh… okay," Clair agreed, still seeming taken aback. "Thanks."

"Clair, why don't you take it," Lance suggested. "My party is full, and yours could use another pokemon."

She accepted the pokemon while shooting Lance a discontented look. Oops, he thought, I didn't mean it like that! Although, he had to stop himself from snickering.

"Thank you," Kiyo said graciously, bowing once again. "Goodbye, and I wish you the best of luck— and strength— on your quest."

The man turned around and raced at top speed up the side of the dirt mound in an impressive display of agility. He scooped up the young, skinny trainer, who protested, "Hey!", in his arms, and sprinted back into the depths of Mt. Mortar.

"Well, that was interesting," Lance remarked.

Clair gasped and punched Lance in the shoulder before exclaiming, "Lance, we are so stupid! We should have asked him to show us the way out!"

"I guess so," Lance replied, though in actuality he'd been too prideful to ask. Also, he knew that Aerodactyl would come back soon, and he hadn't wanted the pokemon to be unable to find them. "But it's too late now, anyway."

Clair didn't look entirely pleased with her cousin, but she didn't protest. The two trainers returned most of their pokemon to their balls (with the exception of Espeon and the two dragons, Kingdra and Gyarados, that Lance and Clair were using to Surf) and prepared to move on. Where is Aero? Lance thought, I thought it would be back by now.

Lance looked around and noticed that he couldn't see Clair next to him anymore. The Flash has faded, he figured. "Espeon, use Flash again!" he instructed it.

"Espe!" the pokemon protested, which confused Lance. He took a breath in and felt a strange tightness in his lungs. He began coughing violently, his eyes watering. I get it, he realized in horror. Espeon is using Flash— it's not darkness I'm seeing, it's smoke! But where's the fire?

"Clair, we have to get out of this!" Lance coughed, walking forward blindly and waving his arms out in front of him. "Aero? Aero, where are you? Can you hear me?" His foot caught on a rock, and he stumbled forward.

He thought he heard his flying dragon pokemon screech in reply, but something else— something much more urgent— distracted him.

Lance screamed as he found himself falling into a cold, damp darkness.