"So this is the plan you have?"
"Yes sir." I said as I stood at attention across Giovanni, who was sitting behind his office desk and perusing the proposal that I had drafted to take Kain down once and for all.
I had thought long and hard about it. Kain definitely has to be removed permanently for all the shit he had done in the name of the greater good, but it is impossible to do so through legal means. In that case, then I will use Team Rocket to do so. I will eliminate that bastard as a member of Team Rocket. I'm the perfect candidate as the Rocket's Exterminator. Furthermore, Kain would never suspect me of betraying him because he is under the assumption that the mental suggestion implanted in my mind is still there. He still thinks that I am under his complete control.
Of course, that last tidbit of information is only known to me and my pokemon. I truly sympathise with Giovanni, but I still did not manage to bring myself to agree with him in starting a war against Johto and subsequently the entire world.
I just don't want innocents to die. All I want is to not have people like me to appear anymore. To protect the innocents, that should be the greater good. So, this became my new goal to strive and work for in order to not let Jane's sacrifice be in vain, to not let the sacrifices of all 358 operatives be in vain.
Hence, I will have to take Giovanni down as well no matter how nice he had been to me. However, that can only be done once the meddling bastard known as Kain Briggs has been eliminated. Not only that, Giovanni and every single Executive of Team Rocket must be taken down or locked behind bars for good. To start on a fresh slate, everything must be wiped clean. I don't have any other choice if I do not want history to repeat itself.
If my plan to doublecross Kain and Team Rocket works, the only innocent implicated in this entire mess will be baby Silver, who will grow up without ever knowing what it's like to live under the loving care of his parents.
"It's… so ridiculously daring and risky that it's brilliant." Giovanni commented after reading through my proposal. "But with this, the whole world will be against Kain in just one single move. Like you said, it is a crazy plan, but a workable one because Team Rocket does have the necessary tools to pull this off. The only thing we would need to prepare is an army of porygons, which we already have."
Giovanni stood up from his seat and paced about agitatedly in thought.
"I'll be discussing your plan with Ariana and the other Executives, but I don't think they will disagree. We can make this work and dethrone Kain for good. If this is successful, Indigo will be thrown into chaos. Kantonians will definitely start to push for Kanto's separation from Indigo with immediate effect. Indigo will be caught totally unaware and it won't be a surprise to anyone if Kain was suddenly found dead from a successful assassination attempt, because everybody will be hating him once his entire dirty linen is exposed for the world to see."
"If it's possible, I would like to be the one to assassinate Kain, Sir."
"If Ariana and the three of them agree to your plan, then you will have the honour of doing it, Plague." Giovanni nodded in agreement, obviously still a little distracted from mentally weighing the pros and cons of my proposed plan to not only eliminate Kain and his lackeys, but also push Team Rocket's agenda forward in a very aggressive manner that will bear immediate results.
To Team Rocket, it will be a win-win situation. I have confidence that Giovanni and the other Executives will agree to it.
Secretly, this plan will also help me to stop Team Rocket. With Kain and his followers gone, so will his meddling with the League. Lance will then have greater freedom and authority over Indigo to do what is right. If all goes according to plan, the full might of the Indigo League will swiftly eliminate Team Rocket for good without Giovanni even realising how he got found out. This is also a win-win situation to me as well.
That is, if the League is willing to cooperate and trust a mysterious informant which they had never met before and will never see. It will be on my part to gain Lance's complete trust without ever showing myself.
I am too weak to do anything about Kain or Giovanni on my own. So, I will use Team Rocket to remove the blight known as Kain Briggs, then I will use the Indigo League to remove the cancer known as Team Rocket.
After that, I can finally be free.
They are here again.
Houndoom tried his best to provide his trainer some comfort as they visited Jane's grave again. About a week ago, the new pokemon called Mewtwo had managed to persuade Jayce to seek external help to stop the mess that is about to explode in everyone's faces.
Giovanni is not easy to fool. The only reason why they are out of the Fuschia hideout right now is because Jayce is sent on a mission once more, a mission that only he can complete. They have to find someone by the name of Fuji, whoever that is.
The first thing Jayce did after he got out of Fuchsia was to come here to visit Jane.
After they are done visiting Jane here, they would go and do what they need to do to finally bring everything to an end. With Mewtwo by their side, their firepower had drastically increased. It doesn't matter if Mewtwo is part of their team or not or if it is a "completed" pokemon. At least Mewtwo is certain that it doesn't want to side with Giovanni. That alone is enough in their books.
Jayce said that they had almost everything they needed to see their hard work finally coming to fruition. Once their plan is complete, then they would be finally free.
"-you didn't see what we did, right? It's going to be the best concert ever, I tell you. The star of the show will obviously be that bastard himself. He still doesn't know it. No one knows. The entire cabinet of ministers and whatever stupid politicians, the whole lot of them, are already under our thumb. I made sure to visit every single one of them. You should really see how gengar enjoyed herself with all those Hypnosis."
Ah, yes. Ever since his enlightening conversation with Mewtwo, Jayce had stopped hesitating and decided to go through with what he thinks is right. Houndoom could still remember how Jayce vindictively controlled the entire group of evil humans with just a single helper. Gengar was thrilled at being assigned the job of being a key player that is vital to enact Jayce's plan for revenge.
All for Jane.
"Right, I was too ahead of myself. My bad. I forgot how you wouldn't know what I did when I haven't explained it to you. Let me explain my grand masterplan from the top, okay? It's going to be epic, I promise. All we need to do is to just watch. It will be the best concert ever. No one will ever forget it. You should watch it from wherever you are, I won't accept any objections."
There was the faint sound of leaves rustling.
"I hate the Government and I hate the Rockets, you already know that. Since they are both too big to be taken down by myself, so I thought: Why not let them take each other down? Sounds like a good plan, right?"
Best plan ever, in houndoom's opinion.
"Now that I am an Executive, I am allowed to meet with Giovanni, and he seems to really like me from how often we had been meeting. I always give him the best ideas. I'm easily his favourite right now after I presented him my grand plan to eliminate Kain. You know what? I just managed to convince Giovanni to let me single handedly take down the entire ruling body of the Government, Kain and his useless lackeys. Giovanni even gave me permission to use his cyber army of porygons if I need to because my plan is just that good and vindictive. Kain will be served with a cold plate of karma. Giovanni wants to use me to free Kanto. He just doesn't know that I am also using him."
There was the brief sound of laughter that came from Jayce. One that is mixed with sadness, insanity, and joy.
"Kain will be the first to go. I really cannot stand seeing that bastard breathing the same air as we did for even a second longer. I'll make sure that everything he loved and cherished will be destroyed by his own two hands. I want to see him witness everything crumble into nothing while the only thing he can do is to just watch. I want to make him realise that why everything is crumbling down in the first place is because of his actions. That will be the only thing in his mind when I finally end him, at the very moment when he is at his lowest. That will be the best punishment for him since he thinks he can control everything. So I will take away all sense of control from him."
Jayce's right. The only one who can play God is Arceus itself.
"I want to see him suffer, to see him squirm. And then houndoom and gengar can play with him. Mewtwo is also willing to help me. Everything will be broadcast on TV during National Day, which is coming soon in about two months time. If all goes well, maybe the former members of SKIP will be involved too. All the key players will be involved. The stage has been set. It's time to settle everything once and for all, this endless cycle of grudges from the past to the present. It's time to put everything to a stop."
Behind them, the rest of the team are lazing about peacefully, also listening in. Zoroark is obviously very interested in their trainer's grand plan because of his own personal interests, but opted to listen silently. Ninetales lay by Jayce's side, using her own body heat to remind him that she is always with him and that he is not alone.
"Team Rocket will strike, of course. Even Giovanni will finally throw caution to the wind once the current Government and Kain is gone. No doubt he will finally let Team Rocket climb out of the cracks, swarming out faster than beedrills coming out from their hives. That will just be a little intermission for a short while. With the entire Government gone, the League will have to step in. It will be then that I step in to ensure that the second half of the concert starts on time."
Houndoom vaguely remembers Jayce saying that starting the second part will be the tricky one.
"Giovanni isn't evil, not truly. He's a good man in his own way but he needs to disappear if we don't want the innocents to be implicated. I even feel sorry for him because in many ways, we are actually alike. We both have lives weighing on our shoulders and that is what is pushing us on. This is Kain's fault. Everything is always somehow his fault. What's new?"
Houndoom gave a soft snort. Yeah, what's new?
"I have to eliminate Kain and I have to stop Giovanni. So, just like I had used Team Rocket to take down the Government, I will use the League to take down Team Rocket. Giovanni won't know what hit him. I checked on every single Thirteen Pillar of the Indigo League, both regions. All of them came out clean except for Giovanni, so I can trust them to do their job properly. Isn't it reassuring, that there are still righteous people in Indigo? Hopefully, they can right the wrongs that Kain and Giovanni started. Although I wished that they had stopped this entire fiasco even before it started. We wouldn't have needed to lead this kind of life if they had done their jobs properly."
The Thirteen Pillars are supposed to be the strongest trainers a region has to offer. Houndoom cannot help but think where his team, his family, however broken it is, stands among the people and pokemon who represent the pinnacle. Maybe after their quest for revenge is over Jayce can bring them around the world, finally experiencing what it is like to be a normal pokemon under the care of a normal trainer. Going on adventures, winning badges. No more senseless killings and violence.
Sounds like a nice life to live if they do survive everything Jayce had planned.
"The moment Giovanni thought that he had it all, I will send him crashing back down. Think about it, the full might of the League against the full might of Team Rocket. Classic Good vs Evil. Wouldn't that be a very interesting story to read? Just imagine the finale. Lance vs Giovanni. Now that is a fight that I will pay to watch. Pity I wouldn't be there but eh, Nosy can help me record everything. I can watch it with you here after everything is said and done."
That is a nice sentiment. Jane should be here to watch it with them.
"I don't know how much longer I have it in me to live after everything is over, if I can even come out alive after everything is said and done." Houndoom heard Jayce give a sigh, prompting him to look at his trainer in concern. "Maybe a year or two. Maybe more, maybe less. I don't know. I don't even know if I want to find a cure or to even use it if there is actually a cure to be found. I don't think I deserve such a thing as forgiveness. I had killed too many. I'm an anomaly. Someone like me shouldn't have existed in the first place anyway."
Houndoom's gaze shifted to where gengar is partially hidden in the shadows.
'You hear that?'
'You think I'm deaf?' Gengar scoffed. 'Idiot wants to seek death again. What's new?'
'So our plan is still the same, right?'
'Of course.' Gengar replied as she began to float around them aimlessly as Jayce continued to speak to Jane. 'Once Jayce and us bring down those evil humans, we search through our own broken memories and try our best to contact… whatever their names were. Damn Hypnosis was being used on us too. Pretty sure Jane wasn't from Azalea like she thought she was but for Arceus' sake I really cannot remember just where she and us originally came from. Hell, which human thought it was a good idea to give a ghost like me to a human child? Jane's lucky that I liked her when she was still young.'
'I just remember that Jane's family definitely had some influence among humans.' Houndoom agreed. 'Might be why she was taken away from her home to be a spy in the first place. Stupid human power play at work, everyone trying to be alpha.'
Jayce wasn't the only one to have Hypnosis used on him to alter his memories prior to him being a spy, houndoom and gengar knew that Hypnosis has also been used on them too because their memories from before they got involved in this whole spy gig were extremely muddled, and they were with Jane even before she got sucked into this mess as a child. However, their own memories from before are so botched up and muddled that gengar is starting to suspect that it is beyond repair. They just haven't got around to tell Jayce about it because it would affect their own plans.
No, it is better if Jayce doesn't know about their own circumstances for now. He would get sidetracked and worry too much about them. Jayce cannot afford to be distracted right now, not when everything is finally coming to an end. It's better this way.
No way the two of them are going to let Jayce die like that. Firstly, Jane would be mad. None of them wants Jane to be mad at them because she's scary when she's mad. Even dragons cower at her glare. Jane had given them an absolute order, a plea, begging them to protect him with everything they have. Begging the two of them to keep him happy and making sure that he never found out about the truth, the truth that they can never tell Jayce so that he can remain sane.
It sucks to lie to Jayce, but they want to honour Jane's last wish.
Secondly, Jayce deserves at least a chance to be happy for once. To be truly happy. Even the weirdo psychic pokemon that is Mewtwo agrees with them as well. Mewtwo is still too inexperienced with its powers to help them with their endeavour to recover their memories, but maybe it could do so after it has more knowledge on how to handle its own powers.
The only thing houndoom and gengar are sure of is that Jane came from a family with some influence among humans. Houndoom's own memory is really kind of spotty now, but he is sure that said influence is not anything trivial. He is sure that Jane's family, if they are still around, has a lot of power. At the very least, he is sure that there are one or two humans in her family who are powerful. Alphas among alphas. That is the one thing that he definitely remembers.
If anyone can save Jayce from his mysterious illness, it will be them. Hopefully they are still around. Hopefully they will agree to help them save Jayce. Hopefully Jayce will listen to them because they are Jane's family. Hopefully a cure can be found.
Everything is a big what-if at this point.
How he and gengar actually came to be by Jane's side even before she became a spy is still a work of progress for them. They are still searching through their own memories, looking for the answers with exeggutor's help or sometimes help that came even from Mewtwo itself. Keeping their own plans from Jayce is harder than it seems because he always seems to understand them, but they made it work somehow.
Everyone on the team is in on the plan. Nosy will be another important player because of his ability to simply know everything. If searching through their memories fails, then they can only rely on Nosy to find Jane's family somehow. Even the crazy dragon on their team is in on it, and that's saying something because no one understands a single word hydreigon says whenever it opens any of its three mouths. They are not even sure that hydreigon is capable of coherent speech or if it even understands them.
How in Giratina's name Jayce and hydreigon can understand each other is the world's biggest mystery.
'You think Jayce will allow me to eat the head of that Kain human when we finally get to that point?'
'Don't be stupid.' Houndoom let out a snort at gengar's words as he laid his head down on his paws to continue his rest, always making sure that he is by Jayce's side like Jane had asked him to. It is a request that he and gengar will see to the very end.
'There definitely won't be any objections.' Houndoom murmured as he let the sound of Jayce's conversation with Jane lull him to sleep. 'Just leave me some of his bones to munch on when you are done with him.'
Name: Jayce
Official Identity: Jacob Myers
Indigo Government Identity: Operative 2046, Code Name: Gengar
Indigo Government Rank: Special Agent
Team Rocket Identity: Executive Plague
Team Rocket Rank: Executive
Pokemon Team:
1. Ninetales, female
2. Exeggutor, male
3. Weavile, male
4. Honchkrow, female
5. Gengar, female
6. Houndoom, male
7. Umbreon, male
8. Hydreigon, male
9. Drapion, female
10. Zoroark, male
11. Bisharp, male
12. Shiftry, male
13. Porygon-Z, (Nosy), genderless