AU 1-Rocket AU-5

Another hop back to something that went down at the equivalent time to After Armageddon.

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Several of the baby Cubone wailed loudly as Archer kicked one of the cages. Even with the fury of the dead roaring in his ears, the sound tugged at Minoru Fuji's heart. He didn't move, though, eyes closed, head bowed, hands clenched in the empty imitation of prayer.

It was Meghan's power protecting this plateau where her children were trapped, not any power of his, but as long as Archer thought Minoru was keeping him alive, Minoru would live. Usually, he was not afraid of the concept of death, but he was afraid of becoming part of the raging horde of souls below, as a few Rockets already had. Whenever he felt any pity for them, the Cubone started crying again, and the feeling vanished.

There was a burst of rage from Meghan's spirit, and then, to Minoru's surprise, he heard a live human voice.

"Archer, what the hell is going on?!"

Minoru risked a glance over his shoulder and saw Archer swaggering over to a pale, slight brunette girl in a black Rocket tank top and trousers that had probably once been white before they got covered in blood and dust. She was scowling, and her scowl only got darker as Archer smiled and put an arm around her shoulder.

"Things got a little out of hand… seems like the stories about Lavender Town aren't just old wives' tales," Archer said with a smirk. "But I knew you'd make it up here alright, and with Chaz we can easily get out of here with our spoils." He gestured to the cages full of captured Cubone. The girl cast an eye over them, raising an eyebrow.

"Cubone? Is that why I nearly got killed by some kind of ghost Marowak?" she asked angrily. "Archer, some of our people have been killed!"

"Hmph… if I knew dead Marowak were this much more trouble, I never would have killed it," Archer snorted, waving a hand dismissively, "but the money we'll make selling these Cubone in Johto will be more than worth it."

"You're the one that killed her, huh?" the girl said thoughtfully, wrapping an arm around Archer's waist and raising her other hand up to hold Archer's hand that was draped over her shoulder. The blue-haired man grinned, leaning closer into her, at which point she ducked, flipped him over her back and down the stairs that she was still standing next to. There were a series of cracks and screams as Archer fell down the steps, following a screech of mixed victory and rage from Meghan's spirit. Archer's screaming cut off abruptly.

Minoru stared openly at the girl, who was scowling down the steps. "Stretched thin enough as it is and he's wasting troops picking fights with fucking ghosts," she muttered, looking up at Minoru. "Hey, is bloody revenge on her murderer gonna get her to calm down?"

"...I suspect her spirit will only truly rest when her children are released," Minoru said softly. Truth be told, he could already feel Meghan's spirit fading with her murderer's soul in hand, but if he could trick this Rocket into releasing the Cubone, so much the better.

"Yeah, I was worried about that," the girl grumbled, peering at the lock on the closest cage, then looking speculatively down the stairs. "...Shit, he had the keys and I am not going back down that way." She straightened up, releasing a huge orange Pokemon with a fiery tail. "Chaz, can you open these cages? Carefully. I'm trying to stop with the angry ghosts, because we really do not need that shit right now."

"Sure," Chaz said, his claws glinting silver as he began to carefully peel back the bars of the cages. The Cubone only shrank back nervously.

"You're really letting them go?" Minoru asked suspiciously.

"I've got other ways of making money that don't involve angry ghosts tearing my people apart," the girl said, narrowing her eyes on him. "Like they unfortunately killed Archer, though he should've known better, stirring up angry ghosts like that. Shame I was too late to save him, wasn't it?"

"What a shame," Chaz said cheerily. "We'll all miss him terribly."

"You're afraid of the ghosts here," Minoru shot at her. "Which means you won't do a thing to me. What reason do I have not to let your people know you killed their leader?"

"Tell them what you want," the girl said, waving a hand airily. "You tell them your story, I'll tell them mine, and they'll believe whatever makes their lives easier. People often do."

"Not everyone," Minoru said coldly. "Some people prefer the truth."

"You really think people like that join Team Rocket?" the girl said, rolling her eyes. "There isn't an ideological conflict or conflict of loyalties in my organization. Just a lot of people who like to keep themselves alive. If believing me over you achieves that, then that's what they'll do. Besides, it's not like anybody's gonna miss Archer."

"That's the last of 'em, Saylee," Chaz said, stepping back from a cage full of huddling Cubone. "Ceez… get outta here, won't you? I'm not gonna burn you." One brave Cubone edged out of the cave, clutching her bone club tightly to her as she edged past Chaz and went for the stairs. Seeing her successful escape, the others followed, tripping over each other in their rush to get downstairs. The last one, however, looked back hesitantly, then turned and ran over to stand between Minoru and Saylee, who just raised an eyebrow at the sight of the little ground-type clutching her bone club and scowling a vicious scowl that reminded Minoru painfully of Meghan.

"Don't, Carrie," he pleaded, trying to pull the little Cubone out of the way. "There's no need to fight. If Team Rocket are leaving, never to return, then we have no reason to interfere in what they do."

"Glad to hear it," Saylee said, rubbing her eyes. "I'll send some people to collect our corpses soon-unless you want to handle them."

"This tower's for Pokemon, not blasphemous humans!" Carrie said sharply. "Get them out of here and never come back!"

"Never coming back sounds like a good idea," Chaz said with a shudder, looming over his trainer's shoulder. "Can we get outta here now? I keep hearing… things…"

"Me too," Saylee said, rubbing her eyes again with a frown.

Minoru looked over her shoulder. Meghan's spirit was gone, and with her most of the spirits of the Tower and their rage, but a few shades still hovered by her side. "Perhaps you should go," he said coldly, "before the shades that reach for you find their mark…"

Saylee shuddered sharply, climbing onto Chaz' back and flying away without a word.

Minoru looked back at the human shades still hovering on top of the tower, most of them beginning to fade as the rage of the ghosts inside the tower settled. "You weren't chasing her, were you?" he asked one of them, a dark-haired young man with a purple-dripping hole in his chest. "Why not? Why would you protect a Rocket like her?"

The young man scowled, and there was an image for a moment. The same girl, but smaller than Minoru's granddaughter, smiling sweetly up at him.

"...We were all children once," Minoru said softly. "That absolves none of us of our crimes. Just because she is your… what, daughter?" The spirit bristled. "Sister?" The spirit settled again, nodding. "That means something only to you. It means nothing to Rocket's victims."

"Like my mum," Carrie said softly, hugging her bone club tighter to herself. "They killed her, y'know?"

The shade hesitated, then crouched in front of Carrie.

You and I have that in common, his voice whispered softly as he faded away.

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"Chaz?" Saylee asked quietly as they flew away from Lavender. "What… did you hear?"

Chaz was quiet for a long time, long enough that Saylee was starting to think he was ignoring the question, before he said, "my parents… I think. I did hear other Charizard. I haven't since before I went to the lab. With the mountain destroyed…" Saylee could feel a sigh rumble through her Charizard's huge frame. "Part of me had kept hoping that some of them had… I don't know, flown away, escaped somewhere, somehow, but…"

"I'm sorry, Chaz," Saylee said, stroking his head between his horns. "I wish I could have seen them. When they were alive, I mean. They must have been magnificent."

"In my memories they're just… big. And warm." They flew in quiet for a while longer before Chaz asked, "you saw… Red, right?"

"Looking just as he did when Da… when Giovanni killed him," Saylee said around the lump in her throat. "Him too, I think…" She shivered, looking over her shoulder, half-expecting the ghosts to still be following.

"Well, he won't be getting any revenge on you now," Chaz assured her. "Or Ariana and Archer. And anybody living who wants to have a go…" He spat a brief gout of flame into the air.

"I know I have a team that could take down all of Team Rocket put together if I needed to," Saylee said, smiling at him. "That's why I'm in charge. But I'd rather not fight Fuchsia alone if I don't have to." She frowned thoughtfully. "Need to make sure there really wasn't anybody properly loyal to Archer," she murmured. "I don't think there was anyone who was that fond of him personally, but I still don't want to risk anybody retaliating. I could handle anybody attacking me, but if they decided to go after Roark... Proton would, he's a psychopath. It makes him useful, but…"

"But he's got Sabrina and her Alakazam to protect him now, right?" Chaz pointed out. "Isn't that why you brought her from Saffron?"

"Well, that and growing up in a windowless box has to suck," Saylee said, leaning down against Chaz' back as he began his descent to Viridian. Seeing her home coming into sight settled her nerves somewhat; there were no ghosts down there, just her home, her base, her brother, her team-hers alone, now. Proton and Petrel were still admins, but they'd never been on the level of Ariana and Archer, and they knew it. They needed a boss to give them orders. They certainly weren't taking Fuchsia without her.

Relief fully set in at the sight of Roark and Sabrina waiting on the roof for her, Pedro at Roark's side, Aziz the Alakazam waiting next to Sabrina. Saylee knew she was more than a little paranoid, but Team Rocket was not staffed by trustworthy people, and she preferred to have her brother with her, where she could be certain of being able to protect him herself. Sabrina had latched onto Saylee like a Remoraid to a Mantine when Saylee had first taken the tiny psychic out of the manor where she'd been confined, frightened by the size of the world but grateful for being able to see it. Saylee knew that the little girl's attachment and gratitude made it unlikely that she'd ever try to hurt Saylee or Roark, which was why Saylee was willing to leave her only remaining brother under the young psychic's protection, but the feeling was ever-present that Roark was her responsibility, and she could only trust herself to truly protect him.

"You're back!" Roark called, running up to latch onto Saylee's arm as she dismounted, pulling her towards the door into the compound. "You missed it! It was so badass!"

"Missed what?" Saylee asked, looking from Roark to Sabrina, who was shuffling her feet, looking more nervous than usual. "What happened?"

"There were ninjas!" Roark said excitedly.

Saylee froze. "What?!" she demanded. "From Fuchsia?! Where? What happened?!"

"Calm down, doll, the kids ain't hurt," Pedro said, looking unruffled. "Fact is, they weren't expectin' the lil' Glowball here!" Sabrina blushed at the sound of the pet name that Pedro had given her the first time he'd seen her psychic powers at work.

"Sabrina, you caught them?" Saylee asked.

"I heard them," Sabrina said hesitantly. "Their minds. They poisoned the guards, and they were thinking about kidnapping Roark…"

"And then her eyes glowed and she slammed them into walls!" Roark burst out, grinning. "They had some Venomoth and stuff, but Abdul and Aziz wasted them! It was so cool!"

"They didn't hurt either of you, did they?" Saylee asked, looking over Roark, nervously seeking potentially poisoned injuries.

"There is not a scratch on them, I assure you," Aziz said calmly. "The infiltrators are imprisoned below with Abdul watching over them, should you wish to question them. There are two, a young man and a girl about your age."

Saylee reached out, wrapping Sabrina into a hug. The girl tensed nervously for a moment before tentatively hugging back.

"Thank you, Sabrina," Saylee breathed, relief melting into her very bones as she realized what they'd avoided. "You're incredible."

"You beat up ninjas," Roark said.

"Pretty badass," Chaz agreed. "Better than you've ever done against those poisonous bugs, Pedro."

"Bite me, Pal."

"I'm going to go question them just now," Saylee said, letting Sabrina go but keeping one arm around her shoulders, the other wrapping around Roark's as they headed for the staircase inside. "Any intel we can get on Fuchsia might help us finally take that bugs' nest…" Then once we're out of organized enemies in Kanto, I can worry about the West… "And if we go to Fuchsia," she added, "how about you two come with me?"

"We get to travel with you?" Silver said, eyes widening. "Awesome!"

"Ya sure about this, Doll?" Pedro asked, flapping over to catch Saylee before she headed inside. "I mean, if yer hittin' Fuchsia, Archer'll be there too, right?"

"The ghosts in Lavender killed him," Chaz explained. "Archer isn't a problem anymore."

Roark gaped at Saylee. "He's dead?!" he exclaimed. "Really?!"

"You're lying," Sabrina said softly, staring intently at Saylee. "You killed him."

"I did," Saylee agreed. She didn't really know what the true extent of Sabrina's powers were, but if she could sense lies, then there wasn't much purpose in doing it-the last thing she wanted was to lose the girl's trust. "He was just going to keep getting people killed unnecessarily just to get more power for himself. So I stopped him."

"...I mean… it's not a bad thing that he's gone, is it?" Roark said hesitantly, looking at Sabrina. "He was an asshole."

"You want power too," Sabrina said, pointing at Saylee.

Out of the corner of her eye, Saylee saw Chaz and Pedro tense. She focused on Sabrina. "I want power because I want to protect my brother," she said, "and I want to protect you too, Sabrina. I don't want to control you, and I don't think I could even if I did, because you've lived an awful life because of people trying to control your power. A lot of people in Kanto have been living awful lives for a very long time, and I just want to make things safe." She tilted her head, looking Sabrina in the eye. "Am I lying?"

Sabrina stared back for a long moment, before shaking her head. She reached a hand out and took Saylee's. "I want you to be safe too," she said softly. "Are we safe?"

"We will be soon," Saylee promised, reaching out with her other hand to take Roark's. "You don't have to be afraid of anything."

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The next chapter of Dimensional Destruction is about two-thirds done, but then I suddenly figured out how Archer dies in this timeline so I had to write it out. With how much I'm generally struggling to write just now, I've got to write whatever demands to be written at any given moment. (Did anybody in this 'verse die naturally? I feel like everybody got backstabbed and murdered at some point…)