Jessie woke up about an hour after Kakumei had placed the tracking device on Jessie's medical bracelet. She seemed to have more energy than before, but she still thought that she was five years old. She was just climbing out of bed when James walked in.
"Jessie?" She hadn't noticed him, and gave a little jump when he said her name. He continued, "Where are you going?"
She picked up Meowth, who was still sleeping, and then turned to face him. "I know you're gonna leave soon, so I-I'm going to try and find someone."
"Who? Who are you going to find? And who said I was going anywhere?" James demanded. It was probably the person responsible for her and the others' conditions.
"I-I know it sounds weird," she said sheepishly, "but I had a dream. There was this lady-or was it a guy? Well it sounded like a bunch of people were saying the some thing at once-sorta. Oh I don't know! They-she-he-it-told me that my momma was dead. The voice kept repeating it over and over," James noticed that Jessie's voice was shaky, but she held her composure, "and I said she wasn't, but they just kept saying I was alone, and then I woke up.
I thought it over, and I don't really know, but she might be dead, and that means... I am alone..." her voice shook again and she stopped talking to concentrate on not crying.
"I told you, you aren't alone. I'm not going anywhere." She gave him a weird smile. It was weird because there was something adult and knowledgeable about it--as if she had some greater wisdom and had to explain it to James.
"Do you seriously want to take care of me? I think you just have a bit of guilt. And even if you really do mean it, Team Rocket aint responsible for me now that momma's gone," she lifted her hand and pointed at the red R on his shirt, "You got caught up in this mess, I wouldn't go in any deeper. Just concentrate on your job and ya might be lucky enough to survive. Momma was the best agent. She was paid the most, but even then we were poor. I really feel sorry for you ya know."
James wasn't sure if she had stayed on her original track of mind. It didn't make sense. Jessie's mother, a rocket agent? Maybe that was why she was so serious about her job... he was confused. He needed more information, and HIS Jessie wasn't going to tell him about her past, so this Jessie might as well. "Why do you feel sorry for me?" he asked.
"Because you work for Team Rocket."
With that she left the room.

James tried to process all this. Why did Jessie feel sorry for him about his job? Not to mention it made no sense that Jessie felt sorry for him about a job she took more seriously that he did. It made no sense, but he couldn't worry about that now. He had to go after her. If whoever-it-is even tries to hurt her... he didn't want to think about that, or what he might do.

He had caught up with her just outside the building and, just as expected, she was headed for the mountain. James gritted his teeth; he hated this. Using Jessie as bait wasn't right, wasn't safe. He wished that there was some other way, but Kakumei had been right. Jessie had obviously been affected by the hallucinations than the others. Whoever-it-is wanted her, but James wasn't just going to let her go. That wasn't the plan.
He followed behind her silently, watching as the light caught on the medical bracelet with the tracking device embedded in it. He wanted with all his heart to keep Jessie away from that snow-covered peak in the distance, but if he stopped her, a number of things could happen.
One thing that could happen would be the hallucinations being more persistent. Kakumei had said that a good few of the survivors of this sleep-walking-illness woke up without reason-insane. He shuddered. Seeing Jessie acting like this was bad enough, he didn't want to consider that it might end up being permanent.
Once again, he heard that cracking noise. It wasn't as foggy as before. It sounded closer. He was about to turn to look in the direction he had heard it in, but another glitter of the medical bracelet turned his thoughts back to the troubled woman--or was it child?-that he was pursuing.
There were other things that could happen to her, regardless of whether she went to the mountain or not. She could get in a coma, suffer amnesia, or permanently think she was this five-year old and have to grow up all over again.
He shuddered again. Kakumei had said stuff like that hardly ever happened, but she had admitted on never encountering a more serious case. What if his Jessie was lost forever? How would he live like that? Without her... He felt his heart accelerate and his hands shake, and there it was again-the cracking noise. He froze in place. His first guess had been right. That was the sound of a whip. And James knew who's whip it was...Jessibelle's.
He had heard it right behind him. He took a deep breath, stiffened, and-
"James? Why are you here?" with that sweet but fear-tinged voice he forgot what he had been about to face. But he soon remembered.
"Come on Jessie," James ordered, grabbing her by the arm and running as fast as he could away from that whip he had heard.

"She's on the move." Kakumei reported, stepping into the dim lit room. Ash looked up as she entered.
"Misty woke up. So did Meowth, and I think Brock is coming to," he told her. She seemed satisfied, and held up a small gray box. On the box was an antenna, and a black screen. On the screen was what looked like a basic map of the island in orange lines. There was also a flashing dot on the screen.
"That's good. Jessie's moved off to the mountain, we'd better get going." She said. "See? She's the flashing dot on this screen. I bet James is with her, but anyway, how are Meowth and Misty?" Kakumei asked earnestly.
"Meowth can't seem to remember how to talk, so I don't know how he's doing. Misty thinks there are bugs in her bed, and every so often..." he trailed off, remembering Misty. She hadn't been the outspoken tom boy he'd come to 'like like' she was shy, and afraid of everything. She cried often, and he hated to see her cry. "And every so often," he continued, "She starts off on this rant that her parents don't love her, they only love her sisters or something like that. But anyway," Kakumei had given him a look that made him desperately want to change the subject, "What's up with James. He was always the more civil one, but he's acting like some cranky Nidoking."
Ash had been thinking back to when they were organizing their plans for the safest way to get to the source of the problem, without surrendering Jessie. With every plan, James would yell something like "Well what if this happen to Jessie...?" and when they had finally settled on a strategy that he couldn't find fault with, (besides the fact that it was overly dangerous) he had been rude and cantankerous for the remainder of the day.
Kakumei had turned to go down to the patient's room. She looked over her shoulder, and gave him a solemn, understanding look. "How would you feel," she asked him, "If it were Misty? Or Pikachu? If they were bait." Ash raised an eyebrow.
"They're not the bait, that's Jessie." He said, having one of his stupid moments.
Her look grew more stern, "if, Ash. If." She said, and walked out of the room.
Ash was alone with his thoughts. Alone. Where was pikachu? "Pikachu?" Ash called to the empty room. No answer. "Hey Pikachu! Come on buddy, where are you?" he walked through the halls.
Rounding a corner, he found the hallway in front of him sopping wet. "What happened here?" he asked to no one in particular. Ash looked around the hall until his gaze met a fire extinguisher (one of those sprinkler extinguishers) on the ceiling. Droplets of water were coming from it and splashing on the floor with little pat-pat sounds. The cables that ran along the ceiling were charred. What had happened? An electrical fire? What could have caused that? He came to the answer immediately. Pikachu.
He broke into a blind run down the dark hallway, yelling "Pikachu! PIKACHU!!!" all the way as he ran. Finally he reached the end of the corridor. And there, crouched in the corner, was pikachu.
"Pikachu! There you are!" Ash happily exclaimed, rushing to his pokemon. Just about four feet from it, he was stopped short as a thunder shock attack missed him by bare inches. "Pikachu?" In the light of the electrical glow, it was easy to see that the pokemon wasn't himself.
The rodent's fur stood on end, and his eyes were cloudy and dark. Ash recognized that look. It had been in Meowth's eyes, in Jessie's eyes too. It had been the sight of those scared eyes that had made James so sad, and when Misty had awoken, she had those eyes too. It had hurt him to see Misty's eyes like that, but he had taken comfort in pikachu. But now... but now, Pikachu was gone, and in his best friend's place was a fear-driven power pack.
Ash lifted his hand to his belt to retrieve bulbasour, but at the slightest movement, Pikachu charged up its cheeks with voltage and Ash froze in place.
He couldn't call out bulbasour. Even if he managed to get the pokeball, Pikachu would shock Bulbasour before it could use sleep powder. He gave a long heavy sigh, and began to inch his hand to his belt. He hated to do this.
He located the item he had been searching for, and slowly pulled it out. "Pikachu," he whispered so as not the frighten this shadow of his friend, "I'm sorry, but you have to return now." The red beam from the pokeball hit pikachu before it could react, and it disappeared into the light and into the ball.
Ash sunk to his knees on the floor, cradling the pokeball. Kakumei's words ran through his head. "If, Ash. If."
How would he feel if his best friend, and the girl he cared for were bait? He would feel useless and angry. How would he act? Rudely and cantankerous to those who had set the most important people in his life as mere bait.
Poor James. Ash knew what the Rocket agent was feeling like. He kicked himself for not understanding earlier.
James was lonely and scared for his friends. And Ash was too. He walked through the dark hallway, only now noticing how scary it was. He was glad when he had reached a lit room again.
"I'd better check up on Misty," he said. But as he remembered those eyes-those clouded, fearful eyes-he suddenly felt worse than ever.
Ash was alone.


"James please stop, I'm so tired." Jessie begged him. He looked back past her, and saw no sign of anyone following them.
"All right...let's...stop here," he breathed heavily. He hadn't realized he had been running so fast. And he had dragged Jessie along with him. He could have hit himself for that, how could he have forgotten that she was so weak? It was hard to process; the words "Jessie" and "weak" didn't belong in the same sentence. But there she was, trembling on the forest floor, panting hard.
He hated to see her like this, and he knew HIS Jessie would hate to see herself like this. He felt so alone without her... what he would have given if Jessie would just smack him with her fan right now. So alone... was that the whip cracking again? He didn't want to stick around and find out.
Gently, carefully, he lifted the trembling shell of a woman in his arms and ran deeper into the forest. James knew that they should find a place to camp out. Jessie could rest, and Kakumei would have time to get here.
He had a feeling they were in for a battle. If someone wanted Jessie, that person wasn't letting something like her condition get in the way.
From James's arms she would often tell him to head in a certain direction. Always toward the mountain. James was thinking constantly about three things as he ran. The pressing threat of Jessibelle, the adversary with the power of mind control, and the girl he held.
Finally he couldn't run any more, and Jessie still had no strength. The person urging her towards the mount knew that no more could be done until she was rested.
They found a cave at the foot of the mountain, and decided to camp out there. James laid Jessie next to the campfire, and decided that he could risk a few hours sleep, for it appeared that Jessie needed an exceptional amount of rest before she would be fit to scale the peak. He assumed that was her aim anyway. Walk to a mountain-might as well climb it. But that was all right, because Kakumei would get here by morning.
He actually glad that the twerp had insisted on helping fight this mind controller, he always seemed to come out on top when it was right verses wrong. And they HAD to come out on top, or else Jessie... was that the whip again? No. He had run so far and so fast, Jessibelle couldn't have found them, right?
He turned his thoughts to other things. Who was making Jessie hallucinate? Why? Why was she/he/it doing that?
He looked at Jessie again. At least when she slept he couldn't see those foggy, unreal eyes. Those eyes were fearful and dull. They lacked the wondrous passion that was the real Jessie's sapphire eyes.
Her missed her. Jessica. Sure he wondered if Meowth was ok. He loved the cat like you would love a sibling. He loved Jessie as something more.
It wasn't a describable feeling. What he had was this drive to do anything for her, no matter what the cost. She was his best friend after all, but there was something more than friendship that he saw in her. A voice, not from his mind, but his heart had said it was love.
He had wanted to tell her, and yet couldn't. If she didn't feel the same way, their friendship would be lost, and he could never take that. Was it too late now? No! His heart screamed back, and logic couldn't fight such a scream. With fewer doubts in his mind, he fell asleep.


"Your pokemon rested Ash?" Kakumei asked the boy in the seat next to her.
"Yeah..." he answered.
"Don't use them until you need to, you'll only have a bit of time after they leave their balls before they start to hallucinate, k?"
"Yeah..." he gently rocked the red-head's togapi in his lap. In the back seat, Brock, Misty, Pikachu, and Meowth lay asleep. Butterfree perched on a headrest to keep its large red eyes on them, should they wake.
"I know how hard it is...Ash." She said softly, keeping her eyes on the trail as she drove the SUV into the woods.
He slowly turned to her, and a mixture of anger and paid was on his face.
"How could you know? You're immune." his voice was like ice.
"I'll tell you...sometime...just get some sleep." She said. Her quiet voice was soothing, but it pressed as an order and Ash settled back into the chair to rest. "Big Battle tomorrow. The biggest..." her voice hardly reached the boy as he drifted off to sleep. His breathing grew even and he snored a little.
He never heard her say, "Too many broken hearts are at stake."
Kakumei took a long, unsteady breath. She was only fifteen, but she felt so old. She had been chasing shadows for too long, she had given up.
What had made her decide to fight again? She knew. It had been those two. One a boy, the other, almost a man. She remembered all to well the pain that showed in their eyes. Those eyes...they begged for her help.
Just like............No. Kakumei scolded herself for letting her emotions get out of hand. "Too many hearts..." she repeated. The boy-Ash, and the young man-James. She would do her best to make sure they didn't have to suffer like everyone else she had failed. Those eyes they had-full of pain...
"I know you're out there..." she said to the chilly air. "I'm making sure you don't hurt another soul, and that's a promise..."

"Misty, why do you want to go that way?" Ash asked her. They had driven until the forest was too thick and they had to walk. Misty and Brock were awake now, and pikachu remained in the pokeball, for it was too dangerous outside of it. Ash knew this whole thing wouldn't stop until they defeated what was on that peak. Misty wanted to go there. Brock wanted to go there. And deep in the back of his mind, Ash could feel himself being drawn to it as well. They had to go there, but he needed to know why. Any information about who was up there could help them win.
"There're no bugs along this path." Misty answered, protectively clinging to togapi. Her fogged eyes darted around this way and that, as though she expected an ambush.
"What about you Brock?" Ash turned to Brock, wondering what his reason for pushing the group in the direction of the mount.
"Didn't you hear it?" Brock asked surprised, "There was a scream. A poor damsel is in distress and she needs my help!" he got that look in his almost non- existent eyes, "Then after I rescue her we can get married, and live happily ever after, and I wont be alone in my old age!"
Ash sweat dropped. That was Brock all right; even hallucinating he was girl crazy.
Kakumei had added nothing to the conversation. She seemed to have gone into a bubble of deep concentration. Her eyes locked on the targeting scanner, and would tell them that Jessie was off in this direction every so often. There was a look in her eyes that Ash couldn't capture; one of anger, determination, and the hope that luck existed.
Suddenly Ash heard a noise. It sounded far off, but it had been a scream. The scream of a familiar person, but he couldn't place who it was.
Looking over he saw that Misty and Brock had stopped short, and covered their ears as if the scream had been from right next to them. At the same time, Misty and Brock called out to the screamer, "Mother!!" and immediately ran into the underbrush towards the mountain at top speed.
Ash stood there frozen in place. What had just happened? "Kakumei!" he called to the girl. She was standing still, very stiff, staring straight ahead wide eyed. She gave no answer. "Kakumei we have to go after them!" Ash yelled.
"Papa...?" she whispered. Ash had hardly heard it.
"Kakumei?" He put a hand on her shoulder and she jumped in surprise. She shook her head violently.
"I'm OK, let's go." She ran off in the direction that Ash had disappeared into, and Ash ran behind her, hardly meeting her speed. Something told him that helping him and his friends out wasn't the girl's only motivation, but he had Misty and Brock to worry about now.

"MOMMA!!!" Jessie was running at top speed, and James could barely keep up. They had been sitting in the cave, when all of a sudden, James had thought he heard Jessie scream. But he had been staring at her the whole time and her lips hadn't moved.
She had jumped up. Her eyes were wild, and she had run out of the cave at once and up the mountain trail. James had run after her, and he had asked her what was the matter. She had answered him, "It's Momma! I heard her! She's alive, but she's in trouble. I gotta help her! I heard her scream!" Jessie had managed to pant out, before gaining a boost of adrenaline and speeding up.
Now she was running up the trail at an amazing speed. She hardly seemed to notice when she fell, and it looked to James as if her ankle was displaced, but she didn't seem to care.
She ran on at a steady pace, until all of a sudden she collapsed without warning on the ground. She had made it half way up the mountain.
James ran to her side. He was panting heavily. All the time his thoughts had been on her. However, he could hear the voices of others. He wasn't sure who they were, but they seemed like familiar shadows. It was as if his love was screaming in one ear, and his fears in the other.
The voices. They had been of his parents, Jessibelle, Giovanni, among the voices of many others he didn't care to remember. Were they here?
"James...?" Jessie's voice was a weak, hoarse whisper. But though if was full of fear, that tinge of childhood innocence was not there.
"Jessie? Jess are you alright?" he asked loudly. She seemed to be unable to keep focused. After a minute she weakly opened her eyes.
He stared at her. They were not those fogged, sleepy eyes she had had when he last looked at her face. Her eyes were sapphire in color, and sparkled in that fashion he had gotten lost in more time than he could count. "Jessie...?"
She tried to sit up, but fell back down in exhaustion. Breathing heavily, she managed to get out, "Where am I?"
"You don't know?" maybe she was back! With that thought in mind the voices in his head seemed to quiet. "What's the last thing you remember?"
"...Camp... Madame Boss..." she murmured, fighting unconsciousness.
"Who?" He was just happy she was back.
Her eyes darted open again. It appeared that he hadn't been meant to hear that. "Never...never mind." She looked around. "Who else is here?"
James was beginning to wander about that himself. "Just me." he said. He was at least moderately sure they were the only people within a thirty foot radius.
"You hear that?" She managed to get into a sitting position but fell back again. James caught her and propped her up against a rock in front of him so her could see her better.
"Hear what?"
"A voice. It's yelling at me...I...I...heard it all night in my dreams...and it's still here..."
James froze. Was this it? It seemed that the return of his Jessie was only a mistake on the part of her mystery attacker. The person who had been calling her, had pushed her too hard. Jessie was too tired to carry on the delusion. She couldn't support the hallucinations in her mind until she had more energy to burn. "Who! Who is it?"
"I don't know...it's getting too loud. It wants me to get up," She stared up at him, and then looked around her once more.
"My dream...did I sleepwalk?"
"In a manner of speaking. It was real to me, and a few others who didn't fall asleep."
"Dreaming..." she whispered. She looked up at him dimly, "It can read...my thoughts. It knows what I'm scared of, and what I want. It's using that...to...get me to..." she trailed off. "Momma..." she whispered, and this time that innocence was in her voice.
Afraid, James firmly took her face in his hand and forced her to look him in the eye. Her eyes were growing cloudy.
"James, don't...don't...fall asleep..." she said, fighting off her own drowsiness. "It knows...you. Don't...listen to your mind..." she was panting hard and her had to lean in close to hear her faint voice. "It...knows your mind...it doesn't understand the heart...don't think. It'll get you. Don't..." her eyes were closed.
"Jessie!" he said loudly and forcefully, "Focus on my voice. Fight it. Don't what?" Her eyes opened slightly, so they were fogged-blue slits.
"Don't get scared. It's your turn to be...the strong one. I can't do it anymore."
She fainted, and James knew the person who woke up would be that frightened child.


To Be Continued...

Well I hope that was ok. I don't think it was as good as part one.
PART THREE IS ON THE WAY!!!!!! Thanks for reading, now please review!
~Jadesfire2