Nothing changed however, not for a while anyways.
It took a little more coaxing, but Alyssa had managed to get Ash right back on board with her becoming his partner once more.
But no training had taken place since they last spoke about it, four days ago, but instead were held up in his room at his computer station.
Beside her, Ash skimmed through reports here and there mouthing what he read on screen like he used to. While behind her Misty sorted documents and files into individual piles by date, alphabetical order, and size.
Overall the last few days had been trouble free.
She shifted her gaze to the man -he was twenty after all and no longer a boy- beside her as he sat back in his chair and looked skywards, "I can't figure it out," He muttered running a hand through his hair.
"What?" the now single brunette according to Misty asked tilting her head to the side.
Ash spun in his chair so that he faced the two of them and she saw the familiar frustration in his posture. It was minor, his right hand running up and down the length of his left arm, but she knew he had something on his mind.
"Shadow," He said slowly, "Giovanni, Team Rocket, League takeover, world domination," a pause, "What do all of these have in common besides me?"
What did it have in common? "Giovanni plans to use Shadow Pokemon for a hostile takeover of the Pokemon League," Alyssa said carefully drawing out her words, "he wanted you to become the Pokemon Master so that you could lead the Rockets to the top."
Ash knew all of this, and she and Misty both knew this, "We're missing a piece of the puzzle," He said letting out a sigh, "but I have no damn clue as to where to start looking,"
And neither did they, Team Rockets history was long and ugly. They didn't have time to start looking from the roots of the organizations timeline.
"Is there anything you don't know from the last few years?" Misty asked setting three files into a stack of a couple dozen.
Alyssa saw his eyes shift to the large stack of notebooks alongside his bed and her curiosity piqued but kept her face clear, "I remember everything from the day I was captured in Sinnoh, to the day of Indigo... I remember more or less when my mind was wiped and reset up until now..."
"Is there anything that I'd be missing? Anything you can think of that I would have missed out on during my capture?" He looked to the two of them with a raised eyebrow, and an intrigued gleam in his eyes, "Something from your point of view?"
Alyssa saw Mistys small start and had no doubt that Ash had spotted it as well, but he said nothing. "From how long ago?" Misty asked, "We weren't involved until we found Cynthia, Steven, and Lance at your grave,"
Ash nodded in understanding, lips pursed, "Mmm, how about during-" His eyes snapped wide awake, "Wait what!? My grave!?"He asked sitting up right.
Alyssa's eyebrows came together at his reaction, hadn't he been told this at some point? "Cynthia, Lance and Steven were digging up your- or that things remains and Pikachu led us to-"
"Woah woah woah!" Ash held a hand up and stopped her, "Thing?"
She and Misty shared a grimace, "Some clone or something with your DNA, it was deformed and was impossible to... To... What?"
Ash had a look come across his face, one she wasn't sure to mark it as. He mouthed a word, lips barely moving until he said slowly, "Shadow," paused, thinking it over, "Team Rocket accomplishes world domination by taking control of the Pokemon Leagues with Shadow Pokemon,"
And then he said, "Cloned Shadow Pokemon."
It will reveal itself to you
It was true he had some sort of connection with legendary's, with all of the connections he had made with them in the past.
But there was one legendary that connected multiple dots.
"Giovanni wants me to find Mewtwo,"
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
God it all, or most of it made sense now that he looked at it. What did Giovanni want more then him, and do anything to get his hands on it, but Mewtwo? Which meant Giovanni must have some recollection of the events of Mt. Quena and their first meeting; after Mewtwo wiped all of the Rockets memory.
But how would he remember? That was something he couldn't answer.
Yet.
That would possibly be the reason he had been taken by Team Rocket in the first place, it made sense after all. The kid who foiled your plans and took what was within your reach away from you.
That was a solid reason, but... There had to be more then just that, there had to be.
Kidnapping and training the kid who set Giovanni's prize free is a little extreme. There was another reason despite his interactions with Mewtwo that Giovanni-
Ash blinked once-more, another thought entering his mind as he turned in his chair to face the monitor.
Maybe there had been a Devon Corp mission after all. He wasn't involved, but what if it had- "Alyssa," She startled as he used a commanding voice, "Whatever you're looking up drop it, look up as much as you can about Devon Corps, a little over a year ago and see what the hell Team Rocket stole,"
"A-Aye!" She turned in her chair and started working.
He then without looking back to the brunette behind him said, "Misty toss everything that isn't related to Shadow Pokemon, shipping details, and..." He paused skimming over for the right location in his mind, "Farwinds, the mountains. Everything else trash it,"
"G-Gotcha!"
Beside him, he caught Alyssa's inquisitive look at the grin that came on to his lips. The grin was going to be stuck on his face for some time as he wanted to do much more then just that.
He wanted to run around screaming his head off, telling everybody he could that they were getting closer.
That Giovanni was going to be in for a-
"Uh-" He turned to Alyssa who was typing rapidly, numbers and letters scrolling across her monitor in rapid fire, "I-I umm Ash," Her voice strained as she worked.
He rolled over and looked at her screen, "Someones, fuck off- Someones fighting back-" She grumbled beneath her breath as two pages opened without her consent, "Theeey don't want me- They don't want me in here,"
"Can you beat them?" He asked seeing her eyes narrow as she entered command after command, her fingers a blur over the keyboard.
"Mmm..." She bit her lip, "May-" The monitor flashed white, and then went dark, "Wha- no no no no!"
The three of them stared at the dark screen, waiting for something to happen. "Is it dead?"
Ash glanced to the blond at Misty's words, "is it?"
Her head came down on the keyboard and she groaned loudly, "They spiked me," She growled irritably, "whatever was in there was- Oh?" her head rose to look at the screen as it blinked back to life, a message on the screen.
"Are you curious Shayne?" Ash muttered reading the bold text on the screen, "have this instead,"
Fuck.
Fuck fucking fuckity fuck.
He tilted his head to the side and Alyssa rolled back to allow him to take her spot, "Come on Dom," He said under his breath typing into the lone editable text box on the screen, "What are you playing at..."
He typed in a message and became aware that Alyssa was tinkering with his computer, he sent it and waited.
A window appeared in response on the screen, which simply said Download, and he hesitated.
"Aly?" He asked and she glanced from his monitor where she was hooking it up to hers and saw the button, "click?"
She was working anxiously, "I don't like it... Give me a second send em a message to keep em on the network,"
He did, sending one word.
Why?
The one which came back wasn't informative in the least, "Keep out of trouble,"
He grunted and went to respond, but when he typed his keyboard no longer responded. Turning to Alyssa, he saw her eyebrows knotted together as she typed into his computer, which now controlled her own, "I've separated our network, no G-Men data bases can be accessed,"
And then his eyes grew wide as he saw the message Alyssa sent to Domino, "Oh Aly," he muttered, running a hand through his hair, "bad idea..."
I'll see you in hell bitch
Alyssa harrumphed and said, "Wanted to say that to her for a long time," She muttered, "when I kill that bitch, I'll do it gladly,"
Ash said nothing, feeling a bit of unease enter his gut. There were three, and Domino was one of them.
What responded wasn't even a word, but chilled Ash, goosebumps rippling across his arms and raising the hairs on the back of his neck.
:)
He saw in his minds eye Domino sitting at a computer, that small playful smile on her lips that made her look adorable to him. Like they were playing some sort of game and she knew that she had him on the ropes...
What the hell did she send them?
The text box vanished from their screens and all that was left was the words 'Curious Shayne? Have this instead.' and the 'Download' button.
Alyssa went to click the download but he placed a hand on her arm and stopped her, "I don't like this," He said seriously, he didn't know what Domino would send, but... God dammit why did she return?
"She obviously want's us to see it, or for you to anyways. And we won't know why until we open it,"
He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "Calm down," and her face reddened, "I know you don't like her but,"
"Hate her," She grumbled.
"I second that," Misty piped in from over his shoulder.
He sighed, "whatever, but... Look you don't know her like I do," Their eyes narrowed on him and he ignored them, "she has a reason for sending this, it'll fuck with us, I know that for sure. She want's me to see whatever it is,"
"So what are you going to do?"
He looked skyward, "Open it, I don't... God I don't know what it's going to be, but I want you to get the system back up and running and get those files,"
She clicked the button and the green download bar came up and the three watched as it made it's way up to 100%.
When it finished, a single folder remained on the screen titled, Shayne, "Open it," He muttered waiting for the worst.
She did, and the folder expanded into multiple documents, "No... No definite file names... They're all just a bunch of random words for titles- what's..." Alyssa paused and came to the last item in the folder, "Is there a reason why she would include a photo-album?"
"Huh?" He came right up next to her, shoulder pressed to hers as he stared at the album labeled 'Cat and Dog'.
He wanted to open it, but... Then again why would Domino send him pictures? Why send him a bunch of randomly named files? Why risk communicating with him.
"I don't know what's going to be on them," He said, "might be gruesome, don't look if you want to," He then looked at Alyssa and tilted his head to the screen, "Open it,"
Her blue eyes regarded him with hesitance until she double-clicked the album and it enlarged on the screen.
It was him, nothing crazy or spectacular.
Just him, holding Espeon -or at that time Eevee in his arms with a smile on his face- "What are you doing Liz?" He muttered seeing the girls look at him in confusion, "A few months after my mind was wiped," he answered offhandedly.
Alyssa went to the next photo, and it was another of him. Standing behind Eevee as she took off down the battlefield.
"Training,"
The next photo was different, "What is this?" Misty asked seeing what looked to be a camera feed of an empty hallway.
It was a video clip instead of a picture it turned out as Ash saw himself walk around a corner, Espeon at his heel. He moved into a nook in the wall out of sight and seconds later Domino appeared turning the corner after him where she was then pulled into the nook he had gone into.
"Fuck," the crisp word came out before he had the thought to pull the plug, and the wide-eyed open mouths of the girls turned to him in some sort of twisted horror.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
He kicked them out of his room after that and went through the rest of the photos and files alone, shutting out their questions no matter how much they pressed him about it.
Domino played well, he'd give her that.
It was a damn lucky thing that he kicked out the girls while he had, or else they would have seen things no one but him and Domino should be allowed to see.
How she took pictures of certain things without his knowledge baffled him, and weird-ed him out completely. On her own will, for future blackmail such as this, or just for... Her, where she then decided to use the photos of herself in... Inappropriate clothing to create unrest between him and the other two girls.
Brilliant idea, he commended her.
But it was a dirty trick, by the gods it was.
So after skimming through their photos and video clips, there were many, Ash searched through the files that had been sent along with them.
She gave him the 'proof' he had asked for on the day he released her with false information on the break in at Devon, and his back story, which me may add was quite convincing.
But she was a few days to late.
There were some odd files here and there, about search progress for him. They had begun to narrow down on the areas surrounding Fennel Valley.
But he'd later think that Domino was trying to get him to hi-tail it out of the HQ because they already had his location and would just pick him up as he put distance between himself and the building.
And then there was a single file which he read through multiple times before he cast it aside.
Although the seed had been planted in the back of his mind.
A file which told him there was another double-o who was keeping tabs on him, someone with the name
Melissa Cloud.
A full back story and all on how the blond-blue eyed Melissa had been drafted to the Ecruteak Academy by Giovanni to keep tabs on him.
And of course, this Melissa had gone under a false identity.
Removing the first four letters of her name and replacing it with Aly which came to Alyssa Cloud.
He didn't believe it.
He couldn't believe it.
Although Domino or whoever had written up the files had changed very little of what he already knew, which made it far more convincing that Alyssa was playing an undercover roll for Team Rocket.
He wouldn't believe, although the seed had been planted and would sit there until Giovanni was dead and fifty feet under, but despite what he wanted, he'd be careful.
He'd look into this matter after there next operation ended, he knew after all which target he wanted to go after next.
Something which would set Giovanni back a few years in his progress of conquering the remaining Pokemon Leagues.
He was going to destroy the Shadow Pokemon Development Center, the multi-billion dollar facility Giovanni was funding with the income from the Pokemon Leagues.