Home Is Where the R Is
Chapter Eleven - Masquerade

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Anari's small hands stroked the pink party dress hanging on the back of her bedroom door.

I can't wait to put it on... she thought, smiling.

She usually didn't care much for dresses, preferring clothes she could run, jump and climb in, but this particular dress was special. She had picked it out yesterday (with Domino's help) and tonight she would wear it to a magnificent party her uncle was hosting. A masquerade ball, he'd told her. Giovanni had even bought her special shoes and a little tiara to go with it. She opened the shoebox on her nightstand for the third time that morning to admire the shoes, then took the tiara sitting on her dresser and placed it on her head.

"I need to thank Uncle Giovanni for this," she told her reflection, not sure if she had remembered to do so yesterday. She probably had, but in the whirlwind of activity she couldn't be sure. Yesterday had been Anari's eighth birthday and she had spent the entire day with her uncle flying from one place to another. They'd gone out for ice cream at the park with Persian, attended a show at the theater starring an all-Pokémon cast (where humans hiding in the background did the actual talking), ate at a five-star restaurant that the child could not pronounce (which she would later describe to Mondo as "delicious but hard to say!") and met with Domino at a high-class children's boutique to select two new dresses for Anari: one to wear at the masquerade Giovanni was hosting the next day and one to wear for the final part of their birthday outing- her uncle had reserved tickets to the opera. It was not, upon retrospect, the most time-appropriate activity for an eight year-old. The late-night performance was three hours long and the content of Don Giovanni was probably not age appropriate either. Still, the little girl sat patiently in her pretty new velvet dress and showed no signs of boredom. She marveled at the powerful vocal acting and enjoyed looking at both the costumes and the lovely clothes the other opera-goers were wearing. Domino's golden evening gown was fantastic. It tightly hugged her form all the way to her thighs before flaring out dramatically. Anari had realized it was the first time she'd ever seen the woman not wearing a hat. Giovanni delighted in being able to share this interest with his niece- until she fell asleep during the second act. He'd carried her home and Domino had helped him put her to bed. She'd awakened briefly to change into her nightclothes and Giovanni had promised her a special surprise in the morning.

Which she was still waiting for.

Abandoning her worship of her new finery, Anari placed the tiara back on her dresser and tiptoed into her uncle's bedroom for the seventh time in the past hour to see if he was up yet. He wasn't.

"Come on, Uncle, get UP!" Anari demanded for the umpteenth time. "You've been in bed FOREVER!"

Giovanni fought the urge to smile as he opened an eye and glanced at the alarm clock on his nightstand. "Forever?" he asked. "It's only an hour and a half later than I usually get up... and it is Sunday, you know."

"Uncle!"

They got up early every day, weekend or not. When he didn't have business to attend to on the weekend (which was rare) Giovanni usually took his niece on an outing. These were day-long excursions due to the fact that extra security measures were necessary. They had to first take the helicopter out to an isolated location where an agent awaited them with a vehicle. At the end of the day the agent drove them to a different isolated location where the helicopter and its pilot would be waiting for them. One could never be too careful when the police were hell bent on bringing down the organization you ran and you had personal enemies to evade as well. Giovanni missed having use of his own car and often longed for the good old days when he'd run Team Rocket from the Vermillion City Gym. Anari, always happy for an excuse to go out, never seemed to mind the excessive precautions.

"You're always up before the sun," Giovanni remarked, which was true. The child was always awake and dressed well before him each day. She claimed she had to get up once she was awake, because laying around in bed was boring. Personally, he'd kill to have a few extra hours of sleep each day. "I pity your children when you grow up," he grumbled. "You'll probably have them up at four in the morning."

Anari crossed her arms. "That's silly!"

"Yes, it is," her uncle agreed. "But I bet I'll get more sleep when you've left home."

"When I'm ten I'm going on a Pokémon journey," she informed him. "And you're going to miss me when I do!"

Giovanni considered this statement and quickly concluded it to be true. He would indeed miss the childish figure flitting around his quarters and running up and down the halls of Team Rocket HQ. It was almost alarming how attached he'd become; he'd even given up smoking because the child had informed him that his cigars smelled "yucky".

"Probably so," he conceded. "But for now... good night." He closed his eyes and pretended to go back to sleep, much to his niece's dismay.

"Uncle Giovanni, you can't sleep all day!" Anari insisted.

"Whyever not?" he asked, opening an eye.

"Because the party is today! And besides, you forgot to do something IMPORTANT!"

"Have I?"

She nodded "Yes, you did!"

"You mean like... give a certain person her final birthday present?" Giovanni grinned, deciding to put the girl out of her misery. Anari smiled back.

"You DIDN'T forget!"

"How could I forget?" Giovanni responded. "You've only been coming in and out of this room every ten minutes or so for the past hour. And you reminded me about your birthday every day for the past two weeks!"

Anari laughed shamelessly. "Big Brother always said the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Although... why would you put grease on a wheel, anyway? Isn't grease what you cook french fries in?"

"Nevermind," Giovanni responded, his mood instantly soured by the mentioning of his nephew. "Here."

"What is it?" Anari asked, as her uncle handed her a pokéball.

"Your birthday present," Giovanni told her.

"But I'm only eight. I thought trainers got their first pokéballs when they turned ten."

"We don't exactly play by the rules here," he responded. "As you already know. With your uncanny talent for finding trouble I want you to have the proper protection. This should do nicely. Plus you'll gain experience training your first Pokémon."

"You mean there's already one in here?" the child asked, her eyes widening. "I don't have to catch one myself?"

"Beginning trainers are always given their first Pokémon," he explained. "Open it."

She did, and a Poochyena appeared. "It's so CUTE!" she squealed.

"I daresay it is, but there's more to Pokémon than their physical appearance, child. A well trained Pokémon can be a powerful weapon when properly utilized."

"Uti-what?" Anari asked, as the puppy licked her face.

"Utilized," Giovanni repeated. "Used in a productive fashion. If you train it well it will be good protection for you, and it will teach you the responsibility needed to be an exceptional trainer."

"Where did you find him?" Anari asked. "Or is it a her?"

"Him," Giovanni confirmed. "And you can thank Domino. She picked it out for you." He'd originally intended to start the child out with a poison-type as he did with Team Rocket's new recruits, but Domino had changed his mind.

"She's not an agent," the blonde had pointed out. "And a child with a puppy or kitten will blend in considerably more than a child with a Grimer or a Koffing."

"I was thinking more along the lines of an Ekans," Giovanni had responded. "Her mother started out with an Ekans."

"She's not her mother, either," Domino had pointed out logically. "And after what happened to your nephew do you really think that girl would want a snake-type?"

The memory of his nephew's strangled corpse in Arbok's coils came to him at that moment and he knew his subordinate was correct on all four points, and he told her so. Domino suggested getting a puppy and he told her to go secure one. She did.

Anari loved it.

"Can I take him with me when I go to the party tonight?"

"Starting today, you're a Pokémon trainer," her uncle said. "Your Pokémon goes where you go. Tomorrow I'll begin teaching you some basic battle techniques."

Anari cheered excitedly, hugging her new Pokémon.

"Oh, and one more thing," he said, opening the drawer of his nightstand. "Here." He handed the child a cat-shaped Venetian mask decorated with feathers. He explained she would need it for the party. "Everyone will be wearing masks, but I had this one especially made for you."

"Thank you!" was his niece's enthusiastic response, holding it up to cover the upper half of her face. "I love it!"

Giovanni dismissed her with a wave of the hand and Anari flitted out of the room with Poochyena at her heels. Her uncle dragged himself out of bed and gently nudged Persian awake.

They had a big day ahead of them.

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The masquerade ball was being held in an enormous mansion Giovanni had recently purchased for him and Anari to live in. It sat on the very edge of a busy city that was reputed to have one of the finest schools in the region. He'd told Anari that if things went as planned the two of them would move into the house next week and she would begin attending formal classes by the end of the month. Anari wasn't too pleased at the prospect. She had no desire to go to school, and while the house was lovely, she didn't want to live away from Mondo and the rest of the people at Team Rocket Headquarters.

As they rode to the place in the back of a limo Giovanni told her about his family mansion that he had lived in years ago. Multiple threats on his life had forced him to leave and take refuge at Team Rocket Headquarters and the police had seized the property before he could return and reclaim it. Domino, who was riding with them, added that the gardens surrounding the place had been spectacular. She had visited often as a little girl in the company of her father. Anari liked the idea of having a garden but as she stared out the window listening to the two adults share their favorite memories, she wondered if her uncle's reason for buying a new home was a futile attempt to try and recreate what he had lost. It wouldn't work, she knew that already. She had learned from first-hand experience after the death of her brother that things (and people) lost in the flow of time could not be retrieved again. The past was the past.

Their talk of gardens reminded Anari of a conversation she'd had with her grandmother Maria a few months ago. Maria had been moving daffodil bulbs from one area of the yard to another. She'd ordered the bulbs from a catalog and the flowers were supposed to be bright pink, but they'd turned out to be dull and very nearly orange. The old lady decided it must have been the poor soil responsible for the outcome, so with Anari and Mondo's help she'd dug them up, prepared a new place for them and replanted them; optimistic that next year would be better.

"I used to have yellow ones," she'd told her granddaughter. "Your mother loved them. Then one spring it rained so much that the yard kept flooding and all the bulbs rotted. I was devastated, but when I thought about it I realized that looking at them had stopped making me happy years ago. They made me dwell on the past. So I looked at my catalog I decided to take the opportunity to try growing something different."

"These didn't make you happy, either," Anari observed.

"They're a learning experience," the old lady said, smiling. "All flowers are. Every plant I grow teaches me something new. These particular daffodils taught me that they weren't happy where I planted them and needed to be moved. Next spring I'll learn whether or not they're happy here where we've planted them."

"What did the yellow daffodils teach you?" Anari wanted to know.

"That you can't live your life going backward. A person can only go forward. If you spend your days trying to get back to where you used to be instead of looking ahead, you'll end up going nowhere at all!"

It was the truth, and Anari knew it. When she had first come to live with her uncle all she'd wanted was to go back to her old life; but wishing for it hadn't made it happen. She'd had to look forward and make Team Rocket Headquarters her home. She knew her uncle still wished for his old home even after all these years. He often spoke of his youth and his deceased mother but those things, like his family mansion, were lost to him forever. Maybe the sense of loss was something that never completely went away.

Back in the present, Giovanni and Domino were discussing the tulips his mother used to grow while Anari stared out the window of the limousine, wondering if in a few weeks she too would be weighed down with feelings of longing for yet another home she could never reclaim.

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The party was a hit.

Anari had never been in such a lavish environment before and found the experience exhilarating. The room was beautifully decorated, the musicians were fantastic and the caterer had done a fabulous job with the party food. The men sauntered around in costumes and tuxedos, while the women rustled about in silks and satins, chiffon and charmeuse, velvet and lace. Everyone wore masks. Anari was enthralled by the elegance and beauty of the people around her. Her own dress was a combination of taffeta and tulle, and when she twirled around the dress's poofy pink skirt twirled beautifully with her. She felt like a princess. Her hair had been pulled into a bun and the jewels in her tiara matched the pink sash around her waist. The only thing that didn't match was the mask her uncle had given her, but that didn't bother her in the least. She decided next time he had a party like this she'd wear a dress the same color as the mask, and maybe get some accessories to match.

Giovanni had chosen to invite the best and brightest Team Rocket had to offer to this social function. All the Elite agents were present, as were the executive members and his most talented field agents. The doctors and scientists had also received invitations and those that had chosen to come brought some of the people under their command with them. Butch and Cassidy were two of these, arriving in the company of Dr. Namba. Namba's motley costume made him look like a court jester. Cassidy wore a dark purple gown with an asymmetrical hemline that Anari found fascinating. The waist was embroidered to make it look like she was wearing a belt of stars and the short sleeves of the dress flared out like the tips of her pigtails. Her usual triangle earrings had been replaced with large stars. Butch, like the majority of the men present, wore a simple tuxedo. He'd spent the afternoon helping Cassidy and Namba with their clothes and makeup and hadn't had the time or desire to find himself anything more elaborate. Professor Sebastian was dressed as a mime, and Dr. Zegar was wearing a wig and theatrical mask that made him look like a sort of fancy clown. Anari wished that Mondo had been invited, along with Jessie, James and Meowth, but Mondo was a mere trainee and Jessie, James and Meowth were not her uncle's favorite people. The trio were now in the far off Hoenn region, and it was rumored that they had been sent there to keep them out of Giovanni's hair.

"It's the perfect place for them," Cassidy told her unfeelingly, when the little girl voiced her longing. "Far away away from the boss and far away from me." She and Jessie did not get along.

Wendy was also present, Anari was less than pleased to note. She was accompanied by one of the executive members and wore a dark green dress that Anari decided was the ugliest she'd ever seen. Giovanni, still upstairs with Domino putting the finishing touches on his costume, had yet to make his appearance. He'd left Marco and Niko downstairs to keep an eye on things and Anari had volunteered to greet the guests as they arrived. She stood near the door to welcome each person prettily as they entered.

"Where's the boss?" a latecomer wearing a top hat and cape asked as he entered. It was Pierce, one of Giovanni's most capable field agents.

"He'll be here soon," Anari told him. "I like your hat!"

He grinned.

"I like your mask." A burst of applause interrupted their exchange of pleasantries and they turned to see what was going on.

The host was making his entrance.

Slowly Giovanni descended down the wide staircase in the middle of the room with Domino on his arm and Persian following close behind. His costume, ordered weeks ago from a theatrical shop, was that of a king. The crown on his head sparkled in the light and the mask he wore matched his robes perfectly. Domino's black and white ball gown was even more elaborate than the one she'd worn to the opera. The cut was less dramatic, falling in a simple A-line, but it had beaded sequins on the front of the dress in a swirling pattern that reminded Anari of a distant galaxy seen through a telescope. The child adored it, and wondered if she could convince her uncle to get her a dress just like it.

The party progressed smoothly for the next hour or so. Anari took the opportunity to enjoy the delicious food and chat with some of the people she rarely got to see. Butch and Cassidy shared stories of some of their recent undercover assignments and Professor Sebastian told her (and half the other people present) about a new invention he was working on. He was quite enthusiastic. Dr. Namba had forgotten who Anari was until she reminded him, but he certainly hadn't forgotten his love of fishsticks. He complained loudly when he learned that there weren't any, but he brightened immediately when Anari led him to the lavish spread of catered food on a nearby table. They both fell in love with the prosciutto-wrapped scallops.

After a while the room began to feel stuffy. The air was filled with the scents of the various perfumes worn by the ladies, as well as the cologne and aftershave of the men. The smells all seemed to mix together, and in Anari's opinion the effect was not a pleasant one. Eventually the eight year-old removed herself from the crowd and retreated upstairs for some fresher air.

"I hope he doesn't eat all the scallops while I'm gone," Anari told Poochyena as she untied the mask from her face.

The Pokémon followed her like a shadow as she wandered through the empty rooms. For awhile she pretended she was a princess exploring an abandoned castle. The place was so big! What would it be like to live here? She tried to imagine the new life that her uncle was planning for the both of them. How different would it be to wake up in one of these huge suites instead of her bedroom in Team Rocket HQ, or to eat breakfast in the gigantic dining room downstairs instead of their quarters or the HQ cafeteria? Giovanni was already talking about hiring a housekeeper and a kitchen staff. Wendy had suggested hiring a nanny as well, but Anari was gratified to learn that her uncle wasn't keen on the idea. Moving house and going to school for the first time in her life would be a big enough adjustment. She didn't want to do either, but how could she tell her uncle that she'd rather live in a criminal hideout instead of a beautiful mansion he provided for her? How could she tell him that she would prefer to go on learning from Team Rocket's various staff members instead going to a fine educational institution that he would no doubt be paying a costly amount of money for her to attend? It sounded so completely ungrateful that she was embarrassed to even think it, let alone speak it. She felt frustrated and helpless, and part of her wanted to throw herself onto the floor and throw a tantrum, something she had not done since she was four years old. She was too old for tantrums now, and she didn't dare open her mouth and voice her feelings for fear of seeming ungrateful.

"What am I going to do, Poochyena?" she asked her Pokémon, kneeling down to hug him.

Poochyena squirmed out of her arms and began to growl in the direction of the window.

"What is it?" Anari asked. The heavy blinds of the window were closed and the cord used to open them were out of the eight year-old's reach, so she decided to go outside to investigate. "Let's go, Poochyena," she told him, and headed for the stairs. Poochyena followed reluctantly, still growling nervously.

They were halfway down the staircase when two of the downstairs windows shattered, causing the people standing near them to be showered in glass. They heard someone outside order his Pokémon to use Hyper Beam again and the rest of the ballroom windows were destroyed one by one. Several more people were injured by the glass and everyone except Anari threw themselves on the floor. Anari remained where she was, wide-eyed and pale, her right hand tightly gripping the banister and the other clutching her cat-shaped mask. Poochyena fled back to the second floor.

An eerie silence followed as the partygoers tried to judge whether or not it was safe to get up from the floor. Anari remained where she was, afraid to move. Finally Giovanni rose, helping Domino to her feet. A few others followed his example and rose and everyone began talking at once.

That's when the shooting began.

The shower of gunfire began on the right side of the room through the far-most window, then moved to each of the other destroyed windows. Everyone who had risen to their feet hit the floor a second time; some on their own, others cut down by the flying bullets. Cassidy shouted for Anari to go back upstairs, but the sound of the gunfire threw the child off-balance and sent her tumbling down the stairs. She whimpered in pain as she lay there covering her ears. Many people on the floor did the same, while others tried to roll away from the windows. Finally the gunfire ceased and the sound of car doors indicated that the attackers were making their escape. This time Marco and Niko were the first ones to rise, guns in hand. They ran out the front door and Domino followed suite, wielding her black tulip-shaped weapon. Anari heard more gunfire.

"Are you okay?" Cassidy asked her, as Butch helped the little girl to her feet. Anari nodded. Her tiara had fallen off her head, her tights had runs in them and were bloody from scrapping her knee and she was certain to be covered in bruises in the morning, but she was (for the most part) undamaged, which was more than could be said for most of the people in the room. Butch and Cassidy were unhurt, and Domino, Marco and Niko had had no problem running out the front door, but the majority of the people present were still on the floor moaning in agony. Some weren't moving at all. Pierce also seemed to have made it through the ordeal intact and began ordering those who were only mildly injured to assist in helping the badly wounded. Anari was now immensely glad that Jessie, James and Meowth were all the way in the Hoenn region and that Mondo was safely back at HQ. She wished she was there herself. She didn't realize her hands were shaking until she bent down to pick up her mask and her now-damaged tiara.

I won't cry... she told herself. I WON'T cry!

Still shaking, she scanned the room and took note of the people who were now on their feet. Cassidy and Butch had begun the grim task of sorting the dead from the living, and Peirce was trying to get everyone capable of standing mobilized to start evacuating everyone else. Anari realized to her horror that her uncle was not among those who were back on their feet. Panicked, she ran through the room trying not trip over the people sprawled on the floor as she frantically sought the person that she now realized she loved more than anybody else in the world.

Please don't be dead! she silently begged, no longer bothering to try and control her tears. Don't be dead, DON'T BE DEAD!

A few seconds later she spotted him. Giovanni's ruined costume was covered in blood. He had been shot twice: once in his torso and once in his left arm. Two of the three medical doctors present had also been shot- one lay either dead or unconscious on the floor and the other was on her knees coughing up blood. The third physician had a face full of shattered glass. Namba, Sebastian and Zegar were crowded around Giovanni tending to his wounds. In their tattered, bloody costumes they looked like three macabre circus clowns performing a grim stage show. Namba had ripped the majority of his costume to pieces, and Sebastian was using the scraps of cloth to stop the bleeding. Anari tried to rip her own dress but her small hands lacked the strength, so she untied the sash of her dress and handed it to him instead.

"Here, use this."

Sebastian wrapped the sash around his employer's arm and tied it, then Zegar and Namba helped him to his feet. Giovanni grimaced in pain. It was at this point Domino and the two bodyguards returned, reporting that all three people in the car had been killed.

"The fools ran out of ammunition," Marco reported. "They tried to run after we shot their tires."

"We seized their Pokémon," Domino added, holding up a large bag. Niko held up another.

"And their weapons. What do you want us to do with the bodies?"

"Leave them," was Giovanni's answer, before addressing the rest of the people in the room. "Everyone out now, before the police arrive!" he ordered loudly, "Make sure no one alive is left behind. Leave the dead."

Anari looked at all the people lying on the floor and her heart ached at the thought of leaving anyone behind, but there weren't enough able-bodied people left to take the corpses away. Anyone strong enough to lift a body would be needed to carry the unconscious and the seriously injured. Butch was carrying an unconscious Wendy in his arms, while Cassidy assisted the doctor with the face full of glass. Pierce had an injured person hoisted over his shoulder as he continued to give orders to the rest of the able-bodied agents. Anari ran to the staircase and called Poochyena to her, then recalled the Pokémon to its pokéball. There was no way she was leaving HIM behind!

"Anari, let's go!" Domino called. Anari ran to her, dropping the broken tiara to take the blonde's hand. Together they followed Marco and Niko as the pair helped Giovanni out of the room. Anari gratefully allowed herself to be led away from the carnage.

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"We aren't going to move out of HQ now, are we?" Anari asked, as she sat by her uncle's bedside in Team Rocket's medical center. His arm was now in a sling and his naked torso was wrapped in bandages. Both bullets had been removed and Doctor Zegar reported that no vital organs had been hit.

"No, it looks like we won't be moving after all," Giovanni told his niece, as he gently rubbed Persian's head with his free hand. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not sorry," the eight year-old confessed. "I didn't even want to move. Everything we need is here."

"Perhaps, but I relished the chance to give you a real home- a real life."

Anari realized now that she hadn't completely understood her uncle's motivations for wanting to move. He hadn't purchased that giant mansion just to relieve his sadness of losing his boyhood home; he'd also bought it because he'd wanted to give her all the things he had enjoyed in his youth.

"I have a real life," the girl answered. "Here, with you."

One of the patients on the other side of the room began to scream as he regained consciousness.

"I can't see! I CAN'T SEE!"

Anari gripped the cat mask in her hands, frightened by the horror and desperation in the man's voice. It was the doctor Cassidy had helped get out of the mansion. Sebastian and Zegar, now dressed in their regular clothes, both rushed to his side. Namba had gone to the roof to await the helicopter they were expecting from Team Rocket's training school. Viper was sending the doctor usually stationed at the academy over to assist them.

"I was too lax with the security," Giovanni said, more to himself than anyone else as he and Anari watched the two scientists try to calm the terrified man. "I should have had armed guards posted outside. Persian tried to warn me just before it happened and I ignored him. I'm a fool."

"Poochyena tried to warn me, too," Anari said.

"Oh?"

"I was upstairs and he started growling at the window. I think he could hear them outside."

"You should have stayed up there where it was safer."

"I know, but... I didn't understand." She hadn't understood a lot of things. "Now I know why you're always telling me to be careful."

"We must learn to listen to our Pokémon," Giovanni told her. "We might live longer."

Anari stretched out her sore legs and sighed sadly. "I'm not going to be able to go on a Pokémon journey, am I?"

"What makes you think that?"

"It won't be safe."

"Not in Kanto it won't, but we can fly you to some other far-off region where nobody there knows who you are. When the time comes, you'll get your journey."

"What about you?" the child asked. "Will YOU be safe?"

"This isn't my first time being shot, and I guarantee you it won't be my last. It comes with the line of work."

The same line of work Anari herself would be expected to follow one day. She shivered involuntarily. "I don't want people shooting at me. I don't want your job if it means everybody wants me to die!"

"If I'm any good at my business, by the time you're grown up all my enemies will be gone," Giovanni assured her. "A man should outlive his enemies. You'll have to decide for yourself how to deal with your own."

"I don't want any enemies!" was her passionate response. "I won't make enemies. I'll only make friends!"

Giovanni smiled at her youthful determination. "Then you'd be the first person in the world to do it. It just doesn't work that way."

"Why?"

"Because other people will want the things that you have, or try to control what you can and can't do. It's all about power."

"I don't want power," his niece told him. "I just want to be safe."

"Power will keep you safe. That's why you've got to seize it at every opportunity and hold on to it with everything you've got."

Anari wanted to point out that being powerful hadn't stopped him from getting shot, but she decided not to argue. Instead, the exhausted child set the mask down and pulled her chair closer to her uncle's bed. She laid her head on his thigh and closed her eyes. She didn't really care who was right or wrong, she was just glad he was going to be okay. Giovanni closed his own eyes, and soon they were both fast asleep.

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To be continued in Chapter 12: Raiding Drill