After many adventures, young Anari has experienced much and met many new people. Now, at last her story is drawing to a close as she learns of the grand deception behind everything she ever thought she knew about her family, leading her to realize...
Home Is Where the R Is
Chapter Fourteen - Daughter of the Wind
.
"This is going to be fun!" Anari declared enthusiastically. Giovanni grunted in response. He had decided to take his niece on a holiday and the travel agent had recommended a small chain of islands when Giovanni requested someplace low-key and out of the way. They were now several days into their holiday, going from island to island and enjoying whatever entertainment each had to offer. The ferry they were currently riding had just reached its destination and Anari- having grown bored of listening to a group of vacationing retirees sitting in the row ahead of them chatter about their various children and grandchildren- wasted no time grabbing her suitcase and rushing to get off the boat. Poochyena followed at her heels. "Let's go," Giovanni nudged Persian, who was sprawled out across three seats in the row behind them. The Pokémon begrudgingly complied, yawning lazily.
As they debarked at the island's sole port with the other tourists, the crowd was immediately approached by a group of local boys offering to carry luggage, give directions or offer their services as tour guides. This seemed to be a common practice at every port. Some looked no older than Anari. Giovanni selected a tall boy of perhaps eleven or twelve to attend to their luggage (not a difficult task, since both suitcases had wheels) and direct them to the nearest hotel.
"The only hotel, you mean!" the pert youngster answered, taking hold of the luggage as instructed. "This way!"
The cell phone in Giovanni's pocket rang and Anari groaned, wanting to snatch the device from him and throw it into the sea. Couldn't they have ONE day of their vacation go by without someone from Team Rocket calling him?
"The primary objective is to appropriate the articles we previously discussed at our last meeting," he told whoever was on the other end. "Your secondary operation will be in conjunction with the agent waiting for you at the meeting site and she will provide details on a tertiary assignment that will follow upon your successful completion of the first two."
Anari listened as her uncle droned on. Giovanni used a lot of big words and his niece sometimes made a game out of guessing what they mean. She had heard the word "primary" before; it was some kind of school that Midori had tried (and thankfully failed) to convince her boss that his niece should be attending. Was the mission going to be at a school somewhere? "Articles" had something to do with newspapers (she had no idea what) and "secondary" had the word "second" in it, so she supposed the assignment would only take a few seconds to complete. "Conjunction" and "tertiary" both had her at a loss. She'd never heard those words before.
"Isn't Domino supposed to be taking care of everything while we're gone?" Anari asked in a whining tone. "Let's go play!"
"In a few minutes," he told her. "Why don't you go look around?"
"Uncle!" Anari stamped her foot in frustration as her uncle resumed his phone conversation while continuing to follow the local boy dragging their luggage.
Sighing, the child turned and headed to where a number of people had gathered to watch a woman throw torches and batons in the air as she danced with her Pokémon. Her aim was exemplary. Anari clapped with delight as the middle-aged dancer leaped through the air with her Pokémon wearing a long grass skirt with a belt that looked like two interwoven snakes. Her long light-colored hair hung past her waist and on her head was wreath of green leaves and purple flowers. Although she appeared to be in her early forties she moved with the speed and grace of a much younger woman as she spun around, throwing her flaming torches in the air and catching them. The dance was one of the most beautiful things Anari had ever seen. The two snake-types, a Seviper and an Arbok, writhed about as their master danced, intertwining with one another in a way that made them look like a single creature surrounding her. Anari was fascinated by the purple Arbok-colored paint on the woman's face and yellow hexagons painted on her cheeks that looked like Seviper markings.
"Your job looks like fun!" Anari said to her when the show was over.
"When I was younger, I always said I wanted to be the wind," the dancer laughed. "When I'm dancing with Arbok and Seviper that's how I feel; like we're all soaring through the air!"
"People and snake-types weren't meant to fly," Anari replied solemnly.
"I think everything should be able to fly," the woman said, gazing at the clouds dreamily. "Then we could all fly away whenever we wanted to. I'd soar far above the clouds and see the world." She spread out her arms as the idea thoroughly gripped her imagination.
"But if all the people and Pokémon flew away, who would take care of the world?" Anari genuinely wanted to know. She envisioned all the lands and seas of the world deserted, empty of all life. Such a world would be a lonely and desolate place, waiting for someone to come back and care that it existed.
"You sound like an old woman," the dancer told her.
"I'm eight," Anari told her.
"That's an unusual name," the woman smiled, watching the mouth of the little girl in front of her drop open in surprise. "I've never heard of anyone called Eight before."
"That's my AGE, not my NAME!" Anari informed her indignantly, before realizing that she was pulling her leg.
"So what brings you to this island?" the dancer asked.
"I'm on vacation with my uncle," Anari told her. "He's gone to the hotel." Knowing Giovanni, he would probably be holed up in the hotel room for several hours making sure Team Rocket wasn't falling apart in his absence. Once he was fully satisfied that everything and everyone were perfectly fine without him, she hoped he would finally agree to relax and have some fun.
"Mother!" a little blonde child called, running up to the stage. She was extremely pretty and had the longest hair Anari had ever seen. "Willy took my pokéballs!"
"Whatever for?" the dancer asked.
"He's trying to juggle with them!"
"Lily, look!" a boy's voice called. "I think I've finally got it!"
"He only does things like that to impress you," the dancer explained to her young daughter. "Boys are like that. Now why don't you run along and play, I've got another show in ten minutes."
Anari followed the other girl, fascinated by how her long straw-colored hair hung down past her knees. She wondered how anyone could endure it living in such a hot climate. She was also curious about what kind of Pokémon Lily had, but a cheerful looking brown-haired boy ran up to her before Anari had the chance to introduce herself. His smile turned upside down at the sight of Anari.
"Who are you?" he inquired in a suspicious tone. If this was the aforementioned Willy, Lily's mother was right about the boy liking her. His voice was thick with jealousy at the idea of losing Lily's attention to a potential new playmate.
"I'm Anari. My uncle and I are visiting the island for a day."
Willy visibly relaxed. "Oh. Well, I'm Willy. Lily and I are best friends."
"I can tell."
"How old are you?" Lily asked.
"I'm eight," Anari replied.
"Me, too! Why don't you come play with me and Willy?"
Anari agreed readily, following them away from the snake dancer's outdoor stage. "So what Pokémon do you have?" she asked. "Can I see?"
"Sure!" Lily replied cheerfully. "Willy, hand them over!"
"Here you go," Willy said, smiling good-naturedly as he returned two Pokeballs to her. "You really need to get another Pokémon. I can't really juggle with only only two balls."
"Or you could get your own," Lily suggested.
"You know Mom won't let me have my first Pokémon 'til I'm ten!"
"You could juggle with empty pokéballs," Anari suggested, as Lily threw both of her pokéballs up in the air and shouted, "Shaymin! Pachirisu! Come out and play!" The Pokémon emerged, and a pink and white shiny Pachirisu began running running circles around the group, happily enjoying its liberation. Anari attempted to coax the little green and white Shaymin over so she could pet it. It peered at her shyly from behind Lily's leg.
"Shaymin is shy," Lily explained, picking it up. "Pachirisu loves to play, though."
"They're so cute!" Anari exclaimed. "I've never seen either of those pokémon before."
"No one on the island has. My uncle is a traveling doctor. He caught Shaymin and Pachirisu in a place called Sinnoh."
"Never heard of it," Anari said.
"My uncle says they're both rare, so he made me promise to take good care of them. When I'm older he's going to take me to Sinnoh for my first Pokémon journey since this island is so remote."
"I'm going, too!" Willy declared, puffing his chest and making himself stand taller. "Her uncle's really nice. He doesn't come to the village often, but when he does he always brings Lily something neat. My dad says he spoils her because he's the only blood relative she has left."
"What about your mother and father?" Anari asked her. "They're your relatives!"
"I'm adopted," Lily explained. "So they aren't my blood relatives."
"I'm adopted, too," Anari said, feeling an instant kinship with the other girl. "My uncle takes care of me. He and my grandma are the only family I have left."
"Does he give you stuff?" Willy asked, as if distributing gifts was the sole purpose of uncles.
"Of course. He gave me my first pokémon for my birthday!" She pointed to Poochyena, who was sniffing a nearby tree, and held up his pokéball proudly.
"Wish I had an uncle," Willy grumbled. "All Dad ever gives me is a hard time!"
"Don't say that," Lily chided. "You're very lucky to have your own real family. I don't even remember my parents!"
"Me neither," Anari said. "I was a baby when they died."
"Mine didn't die," Lily told her, hugging Shaymin to her chest. It nuzzled against her contently. "They just... didn't come back."
"Where did they go?" Anari asked. "Your real parents, I mean."
"My uncle says they left the island when I was three. He wanted me to have a mother and father, so he helped Officer Jenny find a family for me."
Anari felt a twinge of sadness for her. She wondered if the uncle had been sad to give his niece up for adoption. Had he done so because he felt it would be best for her or because he hadn't wanted to be bothered with her? She briefly pictured her own uncle putting her up for adoption and the thought chilled her. Still, Lily's uncle must have genuinely cared for her, otherwise he would have vacated her life after finding someone else to look after her. Maybe his job just kept him too busy to raise children.
"So what do you guys do for fun around here?" Anari asked, changing the subject to something more cheerful.
"Let's go to the sea!" Willy suggested immediately.
Lily whispered in Anari's ear, "He acts like going to the beach is such a big deal, even though he can see it from his house!"
"Hey, I heard that!"
Both girls giggled.
"You're not the one with the four year-old sister who insists on following you everywhere!" Willy told Lily in an aggravated tone. "And the worse part is Mom lets her! Then Dad won't let me go anywhere because he's afraid I'll lose her!"
"You probably would," Lily retorted. "On purpose!" Anari laughed, and so did Willy.
. . .
Lily and Willy turned out to be quite amicable playmates. They gave Anari a tour of the island, first of the village and then the surrounding seashore. Poochyena enjoyed chasing the Wingulls, much to Anari's annoyance.
The village was quaint and old-fashioned, filled with quaint, old-fashioned people. Anari was interested to learn that the village midwife would be celebrating her one hundredth birthday next week. She'd never heard of anyone living to be that old.
"You could be a tour guide!" Anari said to the other girl, after Lily had told her various bits of local history. "You know everything about this place."
"I do, too!" Willy said defensively. "Lily just talks more!"
"Don't you know everything about your home?" Lily asked.
"I guess so," Anari responded. More than I wish I did, sometimes.
There was no Pokémon center, Anari was surprised to hear, and she was even more shocked to learn from Willy that very few people owned telephones here. Computers were even more scarce. The police station, library and the local hotel were the only places that had internet access in the entire village.
"You have TVs, don't you?" Anari asked.
"My family does, but Lily's doesn't," Willy said.
"What's the point?" Lily shrugged. "I can just watch it at your house."
Anari couldn't imagine living in a world with such limited technology. Her grandma Maria wasn't very keen on television, either. The only one the old lady owned was an old black and white set that had stopped working years ago. Anari had almost asked what a person her grandmother's age did all day with no TV, but she thought that would be rude. Anari loved machines. Big or small, she was fascinated by the concept of taking what appeared to be nothing more than a collection of metal parts and turning it into something interesting. Whenever one of Team Rocket's inventors came up with something new her uncle would let her accompany him to see it demonstrated in person. Island life was certainly less advanced, and seemed to be considerably less exciting.
"Doesn't it get boring?" Anari asked.
"Only on rainy days," Willy answered her. He spent his days playing, doing his chores and running errands for his parents. The errands gave him an excuse to escape his little sister. Willy came from a family of miners and was expected to follow in his dad's footsteps someday, but at present his father wouldn't allow him to venture into the mines. It was too dangerous, he said, so Willy had an abundant amount of free time to play. Lily also found plenty to do. She ventured outdoors whether it was raining or not, and she spent a great deal of time in the forest training her Pokémon and gathering components to make paints and dyes. The face paint her mother wore was Lily's own handiwork. At the tender age of eight she already knew how to ground her own pigments.
"That sounds like a lot of work," Anari commented, as Lily described the process to her.
"I suppose so," Lily responded. "But I'm going to be apprenticed to the head weaver in the village when I'm done with my Pokémon journey and I want to be ready. I can dye cloth and even work the loom!"
"Will you be going into your family's business?" Willy asked Anari. "Or will you serve an apprenticeship?" It did not occur to the two island children just how bizarre it sounded for three eight year-olds to be discussing their chosen career plans. Anari found the idea of having one's future job already picked out for them disturbing, until Willy's question reminded her that she was in the same boat.
"Uh... Family business," Anari said. "My uncle's company. They make rockets." The lie came easily, effortlessly. It was what her grandmother thought and it seemed as good a story as any.
"Neat!" Willy said. "I've never seen a rocket before!"
"What's a rocket?" Lily asked.
"They go up," Anari said, pointing to the sky. "All the way into space."
"I'd love to do that," Lily said cheerfully. "I like being up high. Let me show you my favorite place. It's really amazing!" The children traveled into the forest and Lily led them to an enormous tree. She'd discovered it two years ago and her father had nailed wooden planks to the tree trunk to make a ladder for her to reach the lowest branches. From there she could climb all the way to the very top.
"Help me up, Willy," Lily requested, holding out her free hand to him. Her other arm clutched Shaymin protectively, limiting her ability to climb. Willy took it, and helped her up.
Anari watched from the ground, slightly envious. I wish I had a best friend...
She thought back on what had happened with Casey in Big Town and knew that was one wish that was unlikely to be fulfilled. She couldn't afford to get attached to "outside' people or she would keep getting hurt. The best she could hope for were fleeting moments like this, spending time with temporary playmates who didn't know anything about her.
I wonder if Poochyena ever wishes he had friends? Anari wondered as she watched her Poochyena and Lily's Pachrisu chase each around in circles. Maybe... I could steal some for him...
The thought came unbidden to her, and she almost wished it hadn't. She eyed Pachrisu, turning the idea over and over in her mind, considering. Jessie, James and Meowth had stopped her from taking the Teddiursa she wanted, and she'd lacked the courage to try and steal the Politoad she'd had her eye on when she'd been with Casey. She'd instinctively known the older girl would not stand idly by and let her do it, and Anari had been in no position to challenge her without a Pokémon on hand to battle with. Who was here to stop her from taking what she wanted now? Nobody.
Nobody except... Anari herself.
I can't. I can't do it.
Why? Because it was wrong? What difference did wrong or right matter to the heir of an organization that existed beyond the rules of ordinary people? She had no reason to fear any kind of chastisement. If anything her uncle would praise her as he did Domino when she returned to base after a successful heist. Hadn't she stolen before, when she and Mondo had gone undercover with Domino and helped her rob the children's Pokémon convention? Why not now? What made Lily any different than the children Team Rocket robbed on a regular basis?
I like Lily. I don't want her to feel like I did when Attila and Hun stole Poochyena from me.
The simple fact was that the thought of stealing from someone who was being kind to her gave her a bad feeling in her stomach. She couldn't hurt this girl or her Pokémon, especially knowing what she did about her. Lily had already lost her real parents, she didn't deserve to lose anyone else. Anari wondered now about the children at the convention she had helped Domino rob. How many of those kids had pasts similar to her own? How many were orphans, whose few (or even sole) companions had been ripped out of their lives?
What kind of monster am I?
She watched the other girl climb higher, wishing her life were different. If only she hadn't been born into the family she had. If only her uncle had a different job. If only her brother hadn't betrayed their parents. She gazed up at the bits of sky she could see hiding behind the canopy of leaves above her, pondering the "what ifs" and coveting a world that didn't exist.
"Come up with us!" Lily called down to her.
"All right!" Anari called back, snapping out of her gloomy thoughts. Sighing, she climbed the ladder and left the Pokémon on the ground to their game. When she reached the first branch she held her hand out for assistance as Lily had done, before realizing Willy was now too high up to reach her. I don't need some boy to hold my hand!" she chided herself. I can get up there myself!
And she did.
"Isn't the view amazing?" Lily asked, when they'd reached the top. "This is my favorite place on the whole island!"
Anari wasn't impressed. For one thing, she could get a much better aerial view from her uncle's helicopter. The main element keeping her from enjoying herself, however, was the fear of falling. She was no stranger to climbing trees, but this one was bigger than any Anari had ever seen and from where she and the other children were perched on the upper branches the ground looked terrifyingly far away. Parachuting out of a failing helicopter with Butch and Cassidy and getting "blasted off" with Jessie, James and Meowth had made her (understandably) wary of heights. The fact that Lily was actually standing on the branch without holding onto anything only made Anari more nervous.
"Aren't you afraid of falling?" she asked, both impressed and somewhat alarmed by the other girl's confidence.
"Afraid?" Lily asked, as if such a thing had never occurred to her before. "Why would I be?"
"Lily's not afraid of anything!" Willy declared proudly, as if the pretty blonde's spunk reflected well of himself. "She can even jump from branch to branch!" Anari noted that Willy himself kept a tight hold on the branch he was perched on, which she thought was quite sensible. Shaymin, having been deposited by Lily on a branch near her own, also seemed to be more than content to hold fast to her perch and remain still.
"Mother tells me stories about spirits who ride the wind," Lily said, spreading her arms out like wings. "I'd love to be able to do that!"
Like mother, like daughter... Anari thought. She watched the laughing, bright-eyed child with a feeling that might have been envy, might have been disdain as she suddenly realized one of the major differences between herself and the other girl. While they both had suffered great loss and had learned to find happiness in the lives they were given, Anari knew her life would be nothing like the island girl's. She highly doubted that her future would be filled with cheerful adventures where she made new friends at every turn. She was no storybook heroine, and as Domino, Mondo and her uncle all reminded her on a regular basis, people on the outside were her enemies.
I'm not like her anymore... Anari thought sadly. I used to be. Before Big Brother died I was like her. I was happy and all I cared about was having fun and playing with Pokémon. I didn't know that Big Brother had taken Momma and Daddy away, and I didn't know my whole life was going to change. I didn't know anything. If I had run away and come to a place like this, would I still be like her now? She's an orphan like me- even if her parents aren't really dead- but she's going to have a life with friends and a mother and father. I'll never have those things.
"Look at that bird!" Lily pointed, "It has babies!"
Anari couldn't identify what kind of Pokémon the flying-type was, but watching the parent feed its young reminded her of exactly what she'd come on vacation to do in the first place: spend time with the person who took care of her. I'm going to get him out of that hotel if I have to stuff him in the suitcase and WHEEL him out! she decided. How she was going accomplish this bizarre feat she didn't know, but she knew she wasn't going to get anywhere sitting in a tree. Fueled by her newfound determination, she bid her companions farewell and climbed down. She recalled Poochyena to its pokéball, before dashing back to the village.
. . .
Getting Giovanni out of the hotel room proved to be easier than she assumed. Anari found him and Persian standing out front looking for her. "Where have you been?!" he demanded to know. "I've called you several times!" Anari reached into her pocket, which was empty.
"I must have dropped my phone. I was walking all over the place."
"Well, let's see if we can find it then," he responded. Anari silently cheered in her mind, delighted to have an excuse to take her uncle sight-seeing. She could impart the random bits of local history she'd recently learned on him as they walked. She began by telling him about the snake dancer and her daughter, although she neglected to mention the rare Pokémon she'd chosen not to steal.
"Lily's real parents abandoned her," she said, as they stopped at a booth selling candy and lemonade. Giovanni handed the vendor some cash and ordered a drink, while Anari reached over the counter and seized a bag of cherry chews.
"And these!" she requested.
"And those," he affirmed to the vendor, grinning.
"I don't understand it, Uncle," Anari continued, as they resumed their search.
"Understand what?"
"About Lily. Why would her parents just leave their child?"
"I suppose they had their reasons," Giovanni responded, taking a long sip of lemonade as images of his own son flooded his mind. There were times when his memories of Silver haunted his dreams, but they were almost always forgotten by the time he got out of bed. Almost. What is it that drives us to do things that we know in our hearts we'll one day regret?
Distracted by that thought, he nearly bumped into someone. His niece's warning called him to attention, and the man in front of them turned around to see what was going on. Both men froze in surprise.
"G... Giovanni?"
Giovanni choked on his beverage, shooting part of the liquid out his nose. Anari laughed at her uncle's less-than dignified moment, until he dropped the paper cup, grabbed the stranger and hugged him. "Giuseppe! You're ALIVE!"
"Can't... breathe..." the other man gasped. "Loosen up, Giovanni!"
In all the time they'd been together, Anari had never seen her uncle act so rashly, or look so utterly stunned. The snake-dancer she had seen earlier appeared from behind the man Giovanni was still embracing.
"Hey, it's Lily's mom!" Anari said.
"Giovanni?" she asked, amazed. "What on Earth are you doing here?"
"Do you know these people?" Anari asked, as Giovanni finally released the man he'd called Giuseppe.
"Yes," he told her. "And so do you. They're your mother and father!"
The child spun around to face the man and woman in front of her, dropping the bag of candy she was holding. The woman's eyes widened.
"This is...?"
"Our child?" Giuseppe finished for her. "I thought Antonio had her in his keeping?""
Anari just stared, stunned. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. The child was frozen in place, unable to fully process the idea that her parents, supposedly dead for half a decade, were currently standing in front of her. It couldn't be true. It couldn't.
"Look how tall she's gotten," Lilas smiled. "But then, she was only two when we saw her last." She sounded more like a distant relative at a family reunion than a presumed-dead mother reuniting with her long-lost child. Anari stared hard at the woman, then at the man standing next to her. These people looked nothing like the photographs of her parents she had at home. Neither the teenage pictures her uncle had given her of them in their leather gang outfits nor the adult photo her brother had given her matched the couple smiling at her. The most recent photo the eight year-old possessed had been taken on her first birthday, and in it her clean shaven father wore a business suit while her pristine, dark-haired mother sported a sleek designer skirt and blouse. The man Uncle Giovanni had just claimed to be her father was extremely tanned and in desperate need of a shave. His longish and slightly graying hair was pulled back in a sloppy ponytail. His equally tanned wife had light, wavy hair that went to her waist. It was obviously dyed, Anari could see dark roots growing back at her scalp. Giuseppe wore the same general attire as the rest of the male islanders and Anari's supposed mother was still wearing her snake-dancing costume, although the paint had been washed off her face.
"Where have you been?" Giovanni demanded of them. "It's been SIX years! Where the hell have you been?!"
"Our son tried to kill us," Lilas responded. "He had us forced out of a plane and opened fire on our parachutes."
"In the middle of the sea," Giuseppe added. "Expected us to drown, no doubt, but we washed up on this island instead."
"But... the ferry," Anari said, finally finding her voice as she pointed to the port where the boat she and her uncle had arrived on that morning was docked. "There's a BOAT that takes you off the island! Why didn't you come HOME?"
"After Antonio betrayed us we decided to start over," Giuseppe told them. "We made new friends, adopted Lily and built a new life. We just... never had the desire to leave."
"I thought you were DEAD!" Giovanni roared. "Your child thought you were dead! Our mother DIED searching for you!"
"Dead?" Giuseppe asked, disbelieving. "Mother's dead?"
"DEAD!" Giovanni repeated. He turned to Lilas. "And YOUR mother still grieves for you while you dance with snakes and play nursemaid to island orphans!"
"Uncle?" Anari whimpered, taking his hand. His outburst was scaring her, but not nearly as much as the pair standing in front of them. Could these negligent, irresponsible people really be her mother and father?
"I'm... sorry," Giuseppe said softly.
"Big Brother said you went away and never came back," Anari said to them. "Then later everyone said you'd been killed. I thought it was true... I thought he killed you!"
"He might have if he'd known we survived," Lilas responded. "He was beyond reaching and we were both tired of the "family business". We wanted out. We have a good life here and Lily's grown up happy and safe."
"But what about me?"
"Maria, we're sorry," her mother began, but Giovanni cut her off.
"You abandoned your family and now you have the audacity after six years to tell her you're sorry?"
"And my name isn't Maria," her daughter informed her coldly. "It's Anari."
"What?"
"I'm not Maria, I'm Anari."
"You were named Maria, after my mother," her mother replied indignantly.
"She stopped being Maria six years ago," Giovanni told them. "Your son renamed her after you allowed him to take charge of her. She's not your child anymore."
"Of course she's our child!" his brother shouted.
"She doesn't know who you are!" Giovanni shouted back. "How could she? You abandoned her! You left her in the hands of a lunatic and replaced her with a child someone else abandoned just as easily as the two of you abandoned yours! She's better off without you!"
"That's not fair!" Giuseppe shouted back. "Where the hell do you get off? You gave up your own son!"
"How in the hell did you-"
"Know about it?" Giuseppe finished for him. "I've seen him. He passed this way more than a year ago on a journey. You might have known about us sooner if you hadn't walked away from your own child!"
"At least I didn't leave Silver in the care of a psychopath!" Giovanni retorted.
Anari stared at Lilas as the brothers continued to argue, spellbound. They looked nothing alike, but in her heart she knew that her uncle spoke the truth. This was her own true mother. This person gave birth to me... She's the reason I'm alive. She hadn't drowned, or been eaten by wild water Pokemon, or died by bullet wound. All the terrible things that Anari had imagined happening to her parents since learning of her brother's betrayal had been just that: her imagination.
"You disgust me, and I'm finished with you!" Giovanni was yelling at his brother. "I don't want to see or look at you ever again! You are both dead to me!"
""No!" Anari cried, bursting into tears as she ran into the arms of her mother. "No! No! No!"
"Maria?"
"I'm not Maria, I'm Anari!" the child yelled at her mother. She turned to face her uncle. "And I won't let you do this!"
"Do what?" he asked.
"I won't let you break up our family!"
"THEY are the ones who destroyed our family! They abandoned you and their selfishness killed your grandmother! I have no use for either of them!"
"Then I'm going, too!" she told him, causing her uncle to turn white with rage.
"You ungrateful brat!"
"You would really stay with us?" her mother asked.
"No!" Anari snapped, causing her parents both to flinch. "I won't live with any of you!"
She let go of her mother's hands and sat on the ground, bawling loudly. Neither of her parents seemed to know what to do. Lilas reached down to touch her daughter, but hesitated. Her biological daughter was nothing like the one she'd adopted and she instinctively knew that the tried and true methods she'd learned over the years to comfort Lily would not work on this child who had no memory of her. Their bond had been broken years ago. She didn't know how to ease the pain of the little girl in front of her and to Giovanni's everlasting disgust, he realized she wasn't going to try. She backed away from the crying child into the arms of her husband. She wasn't willing to risk the pain of failure or rejection, just as she and Giuseppe had been unwilling to risk going back into the world to reclaim their daughter or get their mentally unstable son the help he desperately needed. They'd given up, abandoning their old lives in favor of an existence that was more comfortable. They'd even found another child to lavish their affections on to alleviate their own guilt for leaving their real daughter behind.
"Is that what I've done?" Giovanni wondered, as the image of his own son's face came unbidden to his mind. "Did I replace Silver with..."
He shook his head, forcing himself to put that thought out of his mind and focus on the situation at hand. He briefly considered informing his brother and sister-in-law that their son was now deceased, but he realized that he no longer cared what they did or didn't know. The only one who still mattered to him was the child. He knelt down in front of her, glaring at Lilas to show his disgust at her cowardice.
"Stop, child," he ordered softly.
The little girl's sobbing slowly calmed, until finally it ceased completely. She looked up at her uncle. He opened his arms to her and she latched onto him.
"You love them," Anari whispered into his ear. "That's why you're so angry. I'm angry too, but we'd never forgive ourselves if we lost them again just because we're mad." She wiped her eyes. "We thought we'd never see them again and now they're here. Don't you see?"
"They don't want us, Anari," he said, his own heart breaking at the innocent faith he knew was about to be completely shattered. But he couldn't shield her from the truth. "If they had, they would have come home."
Anari released herself from his hold and wiped her eyes. "You'll come back with us, won't you?" she asked, approaching her mother. "You, and Daddy and Lily? You'll come home, and we'll be a family again."
"I don't want to leave this place," her mother replied. Anari's chest constricted in pain, as if she'd been kicked in the gut. She turned to her father desperately.
"Daddy?"
Her father shook his head. "This is our home, child."
Anari began to weep again, silently. Her voice no longer seemed capable of working,
"I grew up in a world of crime and violence," Giuseppe continued. "And we would never want to expose our daughter to that life. She's grown up happy and healthy here."
They think of Lily as their daughter, not me.
"This is where we belong now," Lilas added. "We were lucky to get away from Team Rocket."
Anari looked up at Giovanni. She could tell by his expression he was restraining his anger.
"Stay here with us, brother," Giuseppe offered. "It's a good life here. After a week of relaxing at the beach and few rounds of golf I guarantee you won't want to go back, either."
"I would never betray the trust of my followers," Giovanni responded bluntly. "Some of us take our duty seriously." He turned to Lilas. "Your mother lives off the very generous pension Team Rocket provides her to compensate for the "death" of her daughter, but I don't suppose you consider that old woman's grief a matter of any importance, either. Someone has to attend to the duties you've both chosen to neglect!" Lilas looked away from him.
"Even so, our daughter doesn't have to be a part of that world," Giuseppe said. "She doesn't have to grow up like you. You'll come to a bad end one day and so will she if she follows in your footsteps. Your fate doesn't have to be hers." Giovanni and Anari both remembered the dreadful night of Giovanni's disastrous masquerade, but neither of them said anything. Lilas turned to Anari. "
"Stay with us," she pleaded. "You're our child, not his. You belong here. You don't have to go back to... this." She held up the red R hanging around Anari's neck, before letting it drop back to her chest.
Anari tried to imagine living in this place, spending her days wandering around the island with Lily, Willy and the other local children. She imagined spending her nights eating dinner and spending time with the two people she thought she'd never meet, who she'd longed for for as long as she could remember. No more hiding out from the authorities. A sister her own age to play with. Her own real mother and father.
A normal life.
But at such a terrible cost. She would never see anyone from Team Rocket again. No more shopping or undercover missions with Domino. No more surprises sent via Delibird from Jessie, James and Meowth. She would no longer have Mondo's day-to-day companionship, or the security of knowing she could count on Butch and Cassidy to find her when she got lost or protect her when they found themselves in another exciting life-or-death situation. No more visits to Team Rocket's training school to hear old Henry's stories while she ate Lou's homemade cookies. She didn't know where Dan and Tony had finally been assigned after they'd completed their training, and if she left now she would never know. All twelve of her brother's men had abandoned their former lives and joined Team Rocket out of loyalty to her. How could she possibly leave them?
But worst of all, she imagined letting her uncle make the lonely journey home to his empty quarters at Team Rocket HQ, where her abandoned belongings would remind him of the person who had deserted him in favor of two people who had deserted her so long ago she didn't even remember them. People who didn't even love her enough to come home.
I really WOULD be an ungrateful brat.
"I can't stay with you," she told her parents, before realizing that her words were untrue. She quickly amended her language. "I won't stay with you."
"Maria!"
She didn't bother trying to correct her mother again.
"Tell Lily I had fun," she said, clenching her fist as she struggled to maintain her composure. Doing so was proving to be the most difficult challenge of her young life. She reached down to retrieve the bag of candy she'd dropped, then took her uncle's hand and pulled him in the direction of the ferry they'd arrived on. She fought the urge to break down and cry again. It didn't matter if these people were truly her parents. She wouldn't forsake the people who had made her new existence a happy one; who'd given her everything her parents should have- should have, but had chosen not to.
Did they think of me at all? she wondered. Where were they when I was lonely, or hurt, or scared? But she already knew the answer. With Lily. With someone else's child.
Anger and jealousy burned in her and, rational or not, at that moment she felt her brother, her parents and even Lily were all equally to blame for the pain she felt. Antonio had destroyed their family by forcing their parents out of that plane, Lilas and Giuseppe had abandoned her by not coming back and Lily had reaped all the love and affection that their real daughter had rightfully been entitled to. Anari wanted to hate the other girl and the fact that she couldn't only made her more angry. She liked Lily, and she knew Lily hadn't asked to be abandoned by her true parents anymore than she had. Still, while Anari had grieved and yearned for her mother and father, her parents had spent the last six years on this island without a care in the world as they loved, played with and cared for somebody else's daughter... and it just wasn't fair.
I'll never be like them, she silently vowed. I'll never abandon the people I love. She felt guilty for threatening to leave her uncle mere moments ago.
"Anari?" Giovanni asked, when the child stopped in her tracks.
"I'm sorry," she said softly, leaning against him as she repressed a sob. "I'm sorry for yelling at you. I'm sorry for saying I would leave." She felt his strong arms lift her up and she latched onto him, letting him carry her away from this place containing the two people who she had longed for for as long as she could remember. It was at this time Lily came running up to her parents with Willy in tow, seeking permission to invite him to supper. Anari never heard her mother's reply to the request. She buried her face in Giovanni's shoulder and began sobbing again. She'd had so many dreams... and every single one of them had been lies. Her brother had spoken the truth when he told her she'd been abandoned, he just hadn't known it. Her parents had given her life, but they couldn't- wouldn't- give her what she needed, what she deserved, anymore than her brother had been able to. He hadn't loved her enough to keep their family together, and neither did her mother and father. They didn't even care for her enough to leave a damned island. The man who carried her in his arms had given her everything, including a new circle of people to love and care for her. Team Rocket is like a family, he'd told her, and he was right. Team Rocket was her family, and she would never abandon it as her parents had abandoned her.
"Let's go home," she whispered in his ear as he carried her away. "Let's go back to our family."
. . .
"We left all our stuff at the hotel," Anari remarked during their helicopter ride home. "And we never found my phone." She sat curled up at her uncle's side with her head leaning on his arm and one of her small hands held protectively in his.
"It doesn't matter," Giovanni replied. "I can send someone back to collect our things."
Anari didn't particularly care. If getting her clothes and the random trinkets she'd purchased during their vacation had required her going back to that island, it could all stay in the hotel room forever as far as she was concerned. She never wanted to see the place again.
"Why didn't you stay?" Giovanni asked her.
"I couldn't be Maria for them," she explained solemnly. "And when I thought of leaving everybody, leaving you, I... I couldn't do it. I can never be like them."
"When she was young, Lilas always told us she wanted to be the wind," Giovanni said. "In our old gang that's exactly what she was; a force of destruction flying around leaving chaos in her wake. I can't believe how much she's changed- how much they've both changed."
"She's still the wind," Anari told him bitterly. "She goes wherever she wants and doesn't care who she blows over." Everyone except Lily. Beautiful, innocent, golden-haired Lily. Anari briefly envisioned herself dragging the other girl down a flight of stairs by her ridiculously long hair.
"It's not fair!" she screamed, kicking the seat across from her as she thought of the many nights she'd spent talking to the photo her brother had given her of their parents, telling them how much she wished they could be with her. She remembered the envy she'd felt listening to her uncle talk about his brother, sad that she would never have the opportunity to know him and make memories of her own. She had even found herself jealous of baby Pokémon at times, because they had mothers and she did not.
"IT'S NOT FAIR!" She kicked the seat again. "I was their daughter first! Why did she get my family? I didn't do anything wrong! I didn't ask for any of this!"
"No," Giovanni agreed. "You didn't. I didn't ask for it either, child. We didn't ask for it from Antonio and we didn't ask for it from them, but that doesn't change the fact that we've got to deal with the consequences of their selfishness and irresponsibility."
"They don't care," Anari sobbed. "You and your mother and Grandma Maria all grieved for them, I spend my whole life wanting them and Tony still blames himself thinking he killed them... and they don't care." She kicked the seat yet again, wishing it was her mother's shin. Or her father's. Or her brother's. Persian, who was sitting nearby, decided it would be prudent to move elsewhere. "They could have called!" the girl ranted. "They could have wrote! They could have sent some kind of message letting us know they were okay!"
"They could have thought of someone besides themselves," Giovanni finished for her. "I don't know what I'm going to tell Maria." How do I tell the old woman that her daughter willingly allowed everyone to think she was dead?
"Don't," Anari told him. "It would just make her sad."
"She deserves to know," her uncle replied firmly. "Just like you and I did. She has to be told."
Anari nodded. Poor Grandma Maria... She and Mondo had been to see her many times, and every time they'd gone Anari had enjoyed herself immensely. She had a feeling Giovanni would be taking her himself next time, and that the visit was not going to be a happy one.
"She deserves a better daughter," Anari said. Just like I deserve a better mother... and father. I deserved a better brother, too.
"We don't always get what we deserve in life," was his reply. He too had been thinking that he deserved a better brother.
"No," the child agreed. "We don't." She tightened her hold on his hand. "Did you really give up your son, like my father said?" She had always wanted to ask but somehow had never found the courage to do so. Until now.
"Yes."
Silence hung in the air for a few seconds, until Anari asked softly, "Why?"
"I... wasn't a good father, Anari."
"You're good to me."
"I wasn't good to my son, and he hated the family business. I couldn't give him the life he deserved."
"I'm just like Lily," Anari said. "I took his place. Your son would probably hate me."
Giovanni didn't know how to respond to the assumption. Would Silver despise his cousin for taking his place in the family if he ever decided to rejoin the fold? He was Team Rocket's heir by birthright but he'd abandoned that role, just as his father had abandoned him. His return seemed unlikely but Giovanni cringed at the thought of his son and niece at war with each other years from now, vying for control of the organization.
"If your son ever comes back someday, maybe you can make everything right again," Anari said. "Maybe someday you'll have another chance. Maybe one day you can be a family again. You love him too, don't you?""
"Yes," Giovanni admitted. "I do."
"Uncle Giovanni, will... will you leave me behind one day?"
"Everyone dies, child," he replied bluntly. "And when that happens yes, I'll leave you behind. Team Rocket will be in your hands and one of your duties will be to choose an heir to follow in your footsteps for when the time comes for you to leave this world behind."
"I mean before then," Anari explained. "You won't... leave before you have to, will you? You won't just go away somewhere and never come back?"
The silence that followed was brief, but felt far longer. It could have been a few seconds or it could have been a lifetime. Finally, Giovanni spoke.
"I'm not a good man," he admitted, "and I may one day prove to be a poor guardian for you... but I won't make the same mistake twice. I'll never abandon you. I love you, Anari Gambini."
Anari smiled. It was the first time he'd ever willingly used her surname, and the first time he'd told her openly that he loved her- and she knew he was telling the truth. Only a few hours ago she'd been wishing that she had a normal family where she wouldn't have to bear the guilt of the part she played in her uncle's criminal activities. Having been given the opportunity to do just that, she realized that it wasn't what she wanted at all. She'd learned that there were- oddly enough- worse people out there to be raised by than a crime lord. It was true she didn't agree with all of Team Rocket's practices and when her turn came she hoped to incorporate some of her own values into the organization the way her uncle had the luxury of doing now, but one thing she and Giovanni both believed in was unwavering loyalty. Loyalty to friends, to family, to one's clan. Team Rocket was her clan.
Her parents knew nothing of that kind of loyalty. They cared only for themselves and the things that made them happy. Lily made them happy, but Anari wondered what would happen if Lily's presence stopped making them happy, or if something unpleasant happened on the island that Giuseppe and Lilas had chosen to exile themselves. Anari had no difficulty believing that under the right circumstances Lily might again find herself abandoned by the people she called Mother and Father. She pitied the other girl in a way, almost as much as she envied her. She would often wonder in the coming years how Lily felt about being a replacement daughter, assuming she even knew about the life her adopted parents had left behind.
I hope they are good parents to you... Anari thought, letting compassion overrule the anger in her heart. But if they aren't, at least you have an uncle somewhere who loves you, too. Uncles were good to have around, she decided, squeezing her own uncle's hand.
"I love you, too," she told him. Even if she was inexorably bound to a life of crime, she now fully realized that it didn't matter if it was fate or destiny that was responsible for the family she had been born into, because it wasn't fate that bound her to the life she now led. It was love. She had been given a choice to take a different path in life, and love had made the decision for her. Even if she would never be a normal girl, even if her father's prediction came true and she and Giovanni would both come to a bad end, she'd rather go down that road with all the people who truly cared for her than live a life of safety without them. She knew where her heart was.
"And... I'm not just Anari Gambini anymore," she added.
"Oh?"
"I'm Anari of Team Rocket!"
Giovanni smiled fondly at his young niece. She smiled back.
.
The End