Author's Notes: Oh yeah! I told you I had this chapter all planned out! So, here it is for all you Reaper fans, but be forewarned: this chapter is highly disturbing. It's not violent in any way, but Reaper starts acting really, really weird. Some of the stuff that I get into here with Reaper will be elaborated on when I post his vignette.
Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon (and I'm getting sick of writing it). I only own Varia and Reaper. All the other characters belong to their specific creators.
Chapter 8—Grim Games
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
--Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken
"Turn left here," Slater instructed from the back seat of the jeep. Lani nodded and directed the car onto the new street. The four Rockets were tracking down the missing research specimens. As per Slater's instructions, they were heading towards Saffron. The psychic had told them earlier that Sarena would have gone to one of two places, either Saffron or Vermilion, since they would offer the most protection for her and her friends. Though the former rocket's personnel file had said nothing about it, Slater had gone through her memories before and found that her parents were the gym leaders in those two cities. The Rocket group was just leaving Vermilion after finding no trace of their quarry.
"This is what I love about Team Rocket!" Lani said cheerfully. "They let me drive even though I'm only fifteen!"
"Just don't let a cop pull you over," Reaper commented absently. He was sitting in the passenger seat, his paw-like feet resting on top of the dashboard. He was also still looking over the files their boss had given to them.
She glanced at Reaper and asked, "Hey, you're sixteen, so why didn't you volunteer to drive?"
"Still studying," he answered, waving the files slightly. "I want to know all I can about these five before I get around to torturing them. It's much more entertaining if I know their weaknesses ahead of time."
"The boss said he wanted them alive," Slater reminded Reaper, who just growled in response and went back to looking at the files.
"Torture doesn't mean death. Ask Angel back there. He'll back me up on that point, won't you?" Reaper said with a smug look at Angel. "Go ahead, Jason, tell him about all the tortures you lived through." When the other boy didn't respond, Reaper goaded him further. "Oh, don't be shy. Tell him about the nine circles…" Angel cringed visibly, but still refused to talk. He kept his head lowered, knowing full well the look of satisfaction that The Reaper must have been wearing.
"Hey, we've got an intersection coming up. Which way should I go?" Lani asked. Though she knew the way, she thought it would be a good idea to stop Reaper from taunting Angel.
"Just keep going straight," Slater said. "This road should take us straight into Saffron City. Then we can search the gym the moment we get there."
"I don't know. It's getting kind of late," Lani commented. "We might have to wait until tomorrow if we want to search the gym and keep a low profile…"
The conversation faded in Reaper's ears as he turned to the next file. On the first page was a picture of a girl who looked as though she had been beaten down her entire life. It was the same girl he had tortured a few days ago. He remembered that her name was Emery and that she had claimed to be a slave from the Orange Islands.
"Emery…" Reaper whispered to himself, wanting to hear the word for some reason. He half-smiled as he looked at her picture. While he usually forgot about the people he had tortured, he remembered this girl quite well. He recalled the brave façade she had put up when they first met, the façade he had so quickly destroyed. Slowly he traced one finger down the girl's face in the picture. That girl, Emery, was most intriguing to him. How delightful that he would see her again during this hunt! Reaper had to grit his pointed teeth to keep from laughing out loud. At this date and time, he felt no need to let the others in on his thoughts.
The group continued to drive down to the road. Unfortunately, they hit some heavy traffic and were not able to make it into Saffron before night fell. They were forced to pull off to the side of the road and set up camp, as they could not stay at a motel without being noticed. Slater was chosen to start the campfire and set about doing so as the others began to unpack their meager dinners for that night. As soon as the fire was lit, they gathered around it. Lani had gotten the files from Reaper and was going through them when she stopped on Varia's.
"Hey, look at this," she said. "This is really weird."
"What is it?" Slater asked.
"This file for that Varia girl is missing a bunch of information," Lani stated. "It has nothing on her background or family or anything."
Reaper stood up and walked over to her, peering at the file over the girl's shoulder. "I remember that one. The information's not missing, Lani. It's just classified."
"Classified? Why would there be classified information on a girl who just takes care of the gym's pokemon?"
"Because someone doesn't want us to know," he answered simply. Lani was about to ask him what he meant, but he walked off into the night.
"Hey! Reaper, where are you going?" she called after him. He didn't respond and Lani turned to Slater and Angel. "Well, one of you guys go bring him back!"
Slater laughed scornfully. "If you want that freak back, you go get him. I'd be delighted to see him wander off and never return."
Lani frowned. "Hey, I'm the boss and I say—" She was abruptly cut off as she suddenly felt pain shoot through her brain. It stopped almost as quickly as it had come. Lani rubbed her temples and looked at Slater, noticing the fading red gleam in his eyes from behind the darkened glasses.
"Like I said, you want him, you get him," he told her with a smirk.
"How dare you use your psychic powers on me!" Lani exclaimed. She lashed her tail and extended her feline claws and was about to knock some sense into that cocky psychic when she thought better of it. She had to go find The Reaper before he did anything high-profile that could ruin their mission. With one last glare at Slater, she stalked off in the direction Reaper had gone.
It didn't take the girl long to find him. She now had the night vision of a cat, so she could see perfectly in the dark night. After a brief hike, she found the lost Rocket—standing in the middle of a cemetery. It was the eeriest image, Lani thought to herself. The tall boy with horns and a barbed tail stood perfectly still, staring at two gravestones in front of him. Though his back was to her, Lani thought she could see a faint red glow emanating from his eyes.
"Uh, Reaper?" she said quietly as she approached him. He turned his head to look at her and Lani could see that his eyes were indeed glowing brighter than normal.
"Why, Lani," Reaper greeted her, "I didn't hear your approach."
"Yeah, it's a cat thing," she explained. "But what are you doing out here? It's creepy."
"I heard them singing," Reaper answered quietly. Then he grinned insanely and said, "I can hear them and I can see them! Do you think it's the Houndoom DNA, Lani dear?"
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
Reaper gestured across the cemetery expansively. "The dead, of course. I can hear them talking and see their faint images. They're all over this place, tormented souls not allowed to ascend to heaven but not vile enough to be sucked into hell."
He's talking crazy, Lani thought to herself. Dark pokemon don't see spirits…do they?
"Over here," Reaper said, leaping over to a plain gravestone. "This one died in a car accident. And that one over there," he continued, running over to another marker, "was poisoned by a jealous mistress. All they can do is stay in this cemetery and wail about their misfortunes of life. They are being tortured for all eternity, either because of what they did or because they were not able to do. Spirits with unfinished business, you know?"
"Look, Reaper, I think we should be heading back to our camp…" Lani commented nervously. All this talk about the dead was starting to scare her. Everyone knew The Reaper was crazy, sure, but this was really over the edge, even for him.
"Give me time to pay my respects, Lani dear," he said with a sick laugh. Reaper walked back to the two gravestones he had been standing at before and knelt before them. For a moment he was silent, his head bowed as if in prayer. Then he began to laugh, quietly at first but gaining volume and madness as it continued. Finally, to end the macabre ceremony, he plunged one of his knives into one of the graves. Lani couldn't help but gasp at the sight.
"Are you insane?!" she finally blurted out. "You can't go sticking knives into graves like that!"
Reaper stood up and walked over to Lani. She involuntarily took a step back. He smiled down at her, baring his fangs ever so slightly.
"Not just any graves, sweetheart, but very special graves. Go ahead, read the names."
Lani shook her head in disgust. "Forget it. Let's just get out of this place. It's creeping me out." She started to leave, but Reaper caught her arm.
"Do you know why Varia's information is classified?" he asked out of nowhere.
Lani blinked in surprise at the question. "What? What got you thinking about that again?"
"Do you always answer a question with a question?" Reaper returned with a smirk. Lani was about to say something nasty, but she stopped when Reaper looked back over his shoulder at the cemetery. Then he looked back at Lani and said, "I'll tell you what I know, but not here. There are too many listening. You never know when someone might channel one of those ghosts and get our secrets."
"Yeah, if you say so," Lani replied with blatant sarcasm. Whether Reaper noticed it or chose to ignore it, she wasn't sure. He led her away from the cemetery anyway, stopping in a small field near the road. Lani glanced around and noticed that she could not see the campfire, but made no comment. Reaper might act crazy, but he wasn't stupid. He could get them back easily.
"So, you ready to be enlightened?" Reaper asked with a grin.
"Of course! Stop being so damn suspenseful about everything!" Lani snapped.
"As you wish, Lani dear. Now listen carefully because I hate to repeat myself. As you and I both know, Varia was just an employee at the Viridian gym. All she did was care for the pokemon the boss liked to keep. She was never part of Team Rocket. You follow me?"
"Yes, but what's the point of that?"
"I'm getting to it. Now, you and I both know about those genetic experiments Team Rocket is doing. Hell, we're both parts of those experiments! Now, I ask you, do you ever recall Varia being used as a research specimen? And, more importantly, do you ever recall the boss having access to Mew DNA to use on her?"
Lani's eyes widened in realization. She found herself at a loss for words.
"My point exactly," Reaper answered her silence smugly. "Obviously, that girl's got some secret past that the boss probably knows about, but he doesn't want anyone else to know. I doubt if Varia even knows about what's been done to her. If you ask me, she is completely artificial."
"What do you mean by that?"
"She's a manufactured product, copyright Team Rocket, Lani dear. The boss must have gotten Mew DNA from somewhere, stuck it in a test tube, and made a homemade Mew girl. He probably had to use human DNA to fill in missing sequences in the helix strands. That's why she looks like a normal person…well, at least she did look normal."
"How…How did you figure that out?" Lani questioned in disbelief.
"The movie Jurassic Park!" Reaper gave a curt laugh. "Well, at least that's where a few of my ideas came from. I'm smarter than everyone thinks, but you already figured that out, didn't you?" He stared at Lani, his red eyes locking dangerously with her own green ones. "You know I'm not as dumb as that psychic bastard back at camp thinks I am. And you've probably already guessed that I had ulterior motives for joining this foolish mission, haven't you?"
Lani gulped nervously and took a step back. "I knew you were smart, but I…I didn't think you were so perceptive," she admitted. "So what else to do you know?"
"Ah, ah, ah," Reaper chided, waving one clawed finger in front of her face. "You don't get answers that easily. You'll know what I want when, and only when, I choose to let you in on the secret. But for now, if you still strive to understand me, I highly suggest that you go read those gravestones. Learn the names of the dead well, dear Lani. And, should you figure out that clue, I'll give you another one to solve. Soon enough, you shall know all the answers to your questions. Now, let the game begin!" he shouted with a maniacal laugh. He slowly raised one arm and pointed off in the direction they had come from. "Cemetery's that way. You can find your way back to camp from there. I will meet up with you tomorrow morning." With that, Reaper dropped to all fours and ran off.
Lani found that she couldn't even watch him go. She was too upset by what had just happened. Reaper was acting more and more insane the closer they approached Saffron. She just had to know what was going on with him, so she walked in the direction Reaper had pointed before he disappeared into the night. As soon as she reached the cemetery and began to search for the two graves. She found them due to the knife that now marked them. Lani knelt to read the stone markers but noticed something odd about the knife first. Not completely comfortable with the idea of having to touch the weapon that was buried nearly up to its hilt in the ground, she scrutinized it using her night vision. The knife, she quickly realized, was not actually a knife at all, but an ornate letter opener. The sides of the blade had been filed to a sharp point, making it more deadly than it was supposed to be. There was a symbol on the side of the handle that appeared to be an Alakazam doing some sort of psychic attack with its two spoons. The letters 'G' and 'M' had been engraved on either spoon, while a larger 'R' had been carved above the Alakazam's head.
Not completely sure of what it meant, Lani turned to the gravestones. They did not appear to be very old, maybe just a few years. She read the names off of both stones aloud.
"George Richards and Molly Richards," she said softly. Lani then looked at the dates that they had died and was surprised to see that it had been on September first, and both had died in the same year. Well, that was either a coincidence, or an accident involving them both…or a double murder.
Lani swung around and looked at the knife again. 'G', 'M', and 'R'—George and Molly Richards! Reaper had had that letter opener with him when he was kneeling in front of the graves. It must have belonged to the two that now occupied these graves.
"Reaper, why would you have that letter opener?" she wondered aloud. Reaper—saying the name out loud made her recall something else: Reaper was a nickname. His real name was Grim Richards.
That was it! That was the link he wanted her to figure out! Lani just knew that had to be it. Reaper was related to these two, she was sure of it. Now there was only one question left.
Was he kneeling at their graves to avenge their deaths…or to gloat over them?
Author's End Notes: Er…Sorry for the cliffhanger. I'm trying to cut back, I really am! I guess I'm just too evil to end a chapter normally. Bwahahahahaha!!! Anyway, Lani's gonna have her hands full trying to keep the peace and solve the mystery that is Grim "The Reaper" Richards. Just what are The Reaper's personal objectives? Is he right about Varia's origins? And what, if anything, can the other Rockets do to keep his madness in check? I'll get the next part up as soon as possible, along with Indigo's vignette. Feel free to R/R!