Fated
Summary: Jessie finds herself in exile, forced into captivity with a mysterious stranger. With nowhere to go and seemingly no hope of escape, they share the stories behind their miserable fates. Hers is filled with questions. His is filled with answers.
Chapter 10: Taking Things Literally
We already know how it ends tonight,
You run in the dark through a firefight.
And I would explode just to save your life,
Yeah I would explode.
Let me light up the sky,
Light it up for you.
Let me tell you why,
I would die for you.
Let me light up the sky.
...Yellowcard - Light Up the Sky
"Gonna start talking?" Jack taunted, smirking over at Jessie. She just smirked back.
"Hold your horses," she chided, "Now I've decided that since you suddenly really want to start doing the cliff-hanger thing, I'm going to show you a real cliff-hanger."
Jack snorted, "You can try."
Jessie just shook her head, "Alright so this next part happened about five or six weeks after James and I got together. Like you and Miya, we decided to keep quiet about our relationship. It was just easier that way. And hotter."
James let out a whine as I rolled off of him and began searching for my bra amongst the pile of clothes that we had unceremoniously dumped near the riverside in our haste for a morning quickie.
"Do we have to follow the twerps today?" he asked, watching as I separated my clothes from his.
"Mmm, I'm afraid so," I told him. I was surprised when he crawled up behind me and wrapped his arms around my stomach.
"But I don't wanna," he whined, "I wanna do this," he pressed his lips to the sensitve spot on my neck, "and this," he moved one of his hands up to cup my breast, "and this," he added, his other hand slowly running over my thigh. I shut my eyes and leaned against him, wanting nothing more than to take the day off and spend it with him near this little brook.
"We just did that," I reminded him.
"I wanna do it again," he murmured against my skin.
"You're such a sex addict," I told him.
"And you're a wily temptress," he whispered back. I snorted.
"Wily?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Please?" he pleaded. I smirked, enjoying the fact that I had him begging me.
"Hmm, I dunno, James. We do have a lot to do…" I trailed off coyly. As I predicted, he started to kiss my neck a little bit more aggressively. I leaned back and tilted my head so he could get better access. Then I felt him begin to bite and suck my skin.
"James!" I scolded, stepping out of his embrace and examining my neck in the reflection of the water.
"What?" he panted. I turned back to him.
"What is this?" I asked, pointing to the hickey already starting to form.
"Uh…a hickey?" he said, shooting me a puppy-dog look.
"And what is it doing on my beautiful skin?" I questioned.
"I think it looks hot," he shrugged. I frowned and pushed him back onto the ground and straddled him.
"I disagree," I said, leaning over him so that I was inches away from his mouth, "You're gonna pay for that," I threatened just before I kissed him. He deepened the kiss, evidently thinking that he had just won the jackpot. Sucker. He rolled us over so that he was on top, but then I forced us back to the original position and got to my feet and picked up my pile of clothes.
"Thanks for the fun morning, Babe," I said as I put on my skirt. He gaped at me.
"Uh…Jess…" he trailed off, still on the ground.
"We have work to do, James," I said sweetly as I put my remaining clothes on and walked back towards our camp. Thankfully, my Team Rocket jacket covered the hickey. When I got there, Meowth was just stretching.
"Where have youse been?" the cat asked.
"Washing up," I replied, "There's a little orchard over a ways," I told him, "We can grab a couple apples on our way to find the twerp."
"Sounds good. Where's Jimmy?" he asked. I tried to hide my smirk, knowing what he was probably doing at that moment.
"Oh, I think he went to change," I shrugged, "So what's the plan, Meowth?"
"I was tinking you an' Jim distract da twerps an' I'll grab dat pikachu," he said.
"Simple, but let's add a pit trap in there," I suggested, another idea forming in my head.
"Sounds good, considering we're kinda on a budget," the cat blushed. I nodded, knowing that it was true.
"Morning," James murmured as he returned to camp and sitting down next to me.
"Don't get too comfortable," I told him, "You need to dig a pit."
His eyebrows shot up to his hairline, but then he sighed. After checking to see that Meowth was occupied, he whispered in my ear, "All this for giving you a hickey?"
"Yep," I chirped, getting to my feet to help Meowth with the balloon.
"Well, let's get this done quick," James said after we set up the balloon and were preparing to disembark, "Catch Pikachu and then relax," he said, his emerald eyes on me. I smirked, looked at Meowth, who was stumbling under the weight of a pile of dishes, and then took the opportunity to kiss the back of James's neck.
"You will not be relaxing for a long time," I warned him in a low whisper. I heard him groan as Meowth deposited the dishes in their spot on the basket. Then we hopped into the balloon and took off, purposely flying low so that we could grab a couple apples from the trees and to lookout for the twerps. When we spotted them, they were walking through a large Pokemon Reservation. We flew a couple miles from their position to build our trap. As usual, Meowth and James did the digging and I got the leaves to cover it up. When we finished, we rigged up a pulley harness thing on a branch so Meowth could swing down and grab Pikachu. Then we hid. As usual, the twerps fell into the trap.
"Ow!" Ash Ketchum moaned.
"Who put a hole here?" Dawn, one of his female companions, moaned. Amateur.
"I'll give you three guesses," an equally familiar voice growled. Huh. That was a surprise. Wasn't that Misty twerp supposed to be in Cerulean City? Whatever.
"Prepare for trouble!" I exclaimed, deciding that since the original twerp-ette was there, we'd use the original motto.
"Make it double!" James echoed me automatically, appearing at my side at the edge of the pit.
"To protect the world from devastation!"
"To unite all people within our nation!" James cried, suddenly pulling me flush against his body. I smirked.
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!" I said my line, sliding my hands down his chest and then I pushed him away.
"To extend our reach to the stars above!" he replied, pulling me back to him and dipping me.
"Jessie."
"James." We were inches apart.
"Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light!" I called as he spun me tightly so that I was leaning back against his chest.
"Surrender now or prepare to fight!" James rhymed, holding me tighter so that I could feel exactly how much of an effect my proximity had on him. Screw Pikachu. Right now, I just wanted James.
"Dat's right!" Meowth chimed in, swinging up from the hole, Pikachu clutched in a rubber hand.
"What the hell was that?" Jack asked, bursting out laughing over the pot of noodles that had just come to a boil.
"A motto," Jessie defended haughtily, "Though doing it by myself is a real drag."
"Motto? Oh, that is sad!" he was nearly crying with laughter.
"Shut up."
For a moment, the twerps simply gaped at us. Then Ash reacted.
"Pikachu, Iron Tail!"
The rodent obeyed and suddenly it was free. Shit. James, Meowth, and I ran for the waiting balloon, but it was too late. We were hit by a thundershock and were blasted through the air.
"AHH!" we screamed, seconds before our meowth-shaped balloon hit the forest floor. All things considered, today's blast off hadn't been that bad. Just a thunderbolt from the twerp's pikachu and then we were hurtling through the air. I had been through worse.
"Dat twerp didn't even give us a chance!" Meowth fumed as he crawled out of the wreckage.
"Even the old motto didn't give us any luck," James mused as he helped me to my feet. Always the gentleman, that James, but I'm afraid that his gesture was lost on me as I was thinking about another botched mission. Another failure. It had been almost two months since that encounter with the boss. Surely by now he'd know that we were nowhere nearer to sending him anything worthwhile?
"Stupid Pikachu! Why haven't we caught dat rat by now?" Meowth continued to rant, sourly kicking at a stone. He missed and ended up falling back on his tail. I would have found it hilarious, but I barely noticed as worry ate away at my brain.
"Yeow!" he growled as he massaged his tail and glared at the rock.
With a resigned sigh, I began rummaging in the balloon basket for a patching kit, while I lightly rubbed my temple. I could feel a migraine coming on. James started stretching out the canopy, but I was very aware that his eyes were planted solely on me.
I didn't noticed that Meowth had vanished into the forest until James set the balloon on the grass and walked up to me. He knelt at my side as I fumbled with the patching kit, refusing to look him in the eye. With one hand he covered my trembling ones. He placed the other on the small of my back and closed the distance to give me a gentle kiss.
"We'll redeem ourselves tomorrow, Jess. Then we won't have to worry about the boss," he tried to reassure me. Somehow he always knew when I was in one of these moods and he always tried his best to help, even when he didn't even know the half of my true worries. He never knew how scared I was that one day I would wake up and find him gone or that we'd be taken by the boss and be…used. I shuddered at the thought, but willed myself to stay strong.
James would never, ever find any of that out.
"Tomorrow," I agreed, closing my eyes for a moment and willing myself to at least try to hope that we wouldn't be killed or worse for this latest failure. I had to keep thinking positive. I had to be strong. James closed the gap again and despite the fact that Meowth could come back at anytime, I deepened the kiss and melted into James.
"I hope we aren't interrupting," a gruff voice from the left if us said. I started, recognizing the scratchy voice. My eyes popped open and so did James'. I saw frustration on his face and I knew that it was mirrored on mine. Not now. Not today. Why couldn't they just go fuck themselves? We snapped our heads towards the sound and we saw the familiar green-haired man with mirth dancing in his brown eyes.
"Even I didn't think you would stoop this low, Jessie," a snide, equally familiar voice chuckled. We stumbled to our feet and turned in the direction of the voice. Seriously, why today? I had absolutely no patience to deal with that egotistical, blond bimbo that was sneering at us from our right.
"Cassidy!" I growled at the woman who had been the bane of my existence since my school days.
"And Botch!" James exclaimed. A vein throbbed on Cassidy's partner's forehead.
"The name is Butch!" he yelled. I smirked, silently praising James. Where Cassidy was my archrival, Butch was his.
"What's that look for?" Jessie suddenly asked, catching the look of surprise on Jack's face. He shrugged.
"I actually think I know who you're talking about," he said. Jessie snorted bitterly.
"Then I feel sorry for you," she scoffed.
"Enough!" a third voice suddenly chastised, breaking us out of our glaring contest with our rivals. Directly in front of us, another blond Rocket agent was posed, twirling a black tulip.
"Domino?" we yelped together, staring at their boss's favourite agent. What the Hell was she doing here? She usually had more important things to do than hang around with Assidy and Bitch.
"You two weren't that hard to track down," Domino sneered at us, "All we had to do was follow the thunder bolts."
"And what do you want with us?" I growled, but I could feel the blood drain from my face. If the boss was sending his favourite agent to search for us, then we were in big trouble.
"Oh, believe me, we don't want ANYTHING to do with you losers," Cassidy sneered.
"Why I outta-
"Your ineptitudes won't screw anything else up for Team Rocket!" Domino cut across me. She pulled out a bazooka from behind her back and pointed it at me and James. Fuck.
"Pity we can't kill you both, but Boss's orders," she said, taking aim at me. I froze and James hovered protectively. I wanted to tell him to run and not be an idiot. It was me that they wanted…not him. This was exactly like my dream, only Giovanni's puppet was holding the gun this time.
"Don't take it personally, Jess," Cassidy shrugged, "Boss's orders."
Domino pulled a trigger. James grabbed my hand and dragged me out of harm's way. We took off through the trees, running at full speed. I could hear Domino, Butch, and Cassidy in hot pursuit. We could also hear the blasts of Domino's misses.
Fuck my life.
Suddenly the forest gave way and we skidded to a halt at the edge of a cliff. We looked down at the river below. We were gonna die.
"James?" I looked over at my partner, not even caring that he could see just how scared I was. There was so much I wanted to say in that moment, but then there was a blast behind us and then, we were falling. The rocks crumbled around us as we fell. I felt James grab my arm and then a sharp pain in the side of my head. I blacked out.
"I don't remember much of the next part," Jessie explained, frowning.
"But you woke up in front of my brother and he sent you here?" Jack guessed. She smirked at him.
"You'll find that out after you tell me your story," she mimicked him. His eyebrows shot up as he handed her a bowl of soup.
"Really?" he asked, "Isn't that a little immature?"
"Hey, I said that I was going to give you a real cliff-hanger," she shrugged, smirking. He made an exasperated face.
"I didn't expect a literal one," he commented.
TBC
AN: I did say things were about to get interesting. I couldn't resist the cliff-hanger in this case. It was just too good. I think Jessie got her revenge on both Jack and James in this chapter ;)
Songs the inspired this chapter:
- Reason to Believe by Dashboard Confessional.
- Light Up the Sky by Yellowcard. Because James would do anything to save her life.