Disclaimers: I do not own Pokemon or any of its characters. I am making no money from this.
Notes: Jessie, Ash, Brock, and Misty head to the island of Dr. Della Greene, where they find a sight that Jessie finds unexpected, although not displeasing to her.
Experiments
Part Five
Della's island wasn't quite as Jessie remembered it. After renting a boat, since Misty, Brock, and Ash wouldn't let her steal one, they had immediately gone to the island.
Once they had pulled the boat up on shore, Jessie had gone to the house, the others trailing behind her. But when she got there, she found that the house was a mess. The door had been broken into and all the windows were smashed, several pieces of furniture were lying outside. It was just a total wreck.
Then she saw Della. The woman's arm was in a cast, and by the way she moved, Jessie could tell that her ribs had been broken, although not very recently. She and her Machoke were rummaging through what remained of her home, picking up the few things that hadn't been broken.
"What happened here?" Jessie asked, stepping closer to the scientist.
"Some men from Team Rocket came, demanding my research. When I wouldn't give it to them, they did this." She replied, gesturing around at her home. "I only just got out of the hospital. Because of what they did to me, I had to have physical therapy sessions."
Jessie didn't care what this woman had gone through. After what she had done to James, she should have been treated worse than this. "What did you do to James?" She demanded.
Della stared at Jessie, looking her over. "Who are you?" She asked. "I see by your uniform that you're a member of Team Rocket. Have you come to finish the job your coworkers started?"
"I just came to find out what you did to James." Jessie stated.
Della shrugged and began talking as if what she had done to James had meant nothing to her at all. "I was trying to make a better soldier, someone to help me accomplish my mission."
"Mission?" Brock asked from behind Jessie.
"To put an end to Team Rocket and Giovanni. To destroy the man that killed my father and destroyed my life. Over my father's corpse, I vowed to rid the world of Giovanni's evil." Della replied, her eyes blazing with anger.
"So you just used James for your own purposes? What gave you the right?" Jessie spat, despising the woman that stood in front of her.
"I have been waiting years for my revenge. If a few die so that I can destroy Team Rocket, so be it. If they happen to be members of Team Rocket, that's even better. I don't regret my actions in the least." She turned away from Jessie and the others, walking into her house. From the door, she spoke to them. "It's getting dark, and I don't recommend traveling at night. If you want to stay the night, you are more than welcome to. And don't worry, I won't use any of you for my experiments."
Jessie and the others set up their sleeping bags outside Della's house. Jessie didn't really want to spend the night in her house, not after what she had done to James. And it didn't look as if Ash or the others would leave her alone for a minute. Even Meowth was staying outside with her.
She laid down on her sleeping bag and closed her eyes. But she wasn't going to sleep. She just had to let the others believe that she was. She had something to do tonight.
Hours later, Jessie opened her eyes and sat up. She looked around at the others. Good, they're all asleep, she noted. Then she stood, and walked to the beach.
Two boats were up on the shore. One was Jessie's, the other must have been the scientist's. Jessie walked over to Della's boat and disabled it. She couldn't let the others follow her. They would only get in her way. Besides, she didn't want anyone else to get hurt.
She ran over to her boat and pushed it into the water. Quickly, she started the engine, not caring if they heard her now or not. They couldn't stop her now. She sped back to the mainland as fast as she could.
*****
Jessie stood inside one of many Team Rocket bases. This was the closest one to the field where she had seen James a few days ago. Hopefully, this was where they were keeping him.
A guard turned the corner ahead of her, and Jessie ducked behind a large plant. She had sneaked in and couldn't let herself be seen by anyone. The punishment would be severe if she was found here. She held her breath as the guard passed by her hiding place. Once he was gone, Jessie continued on her way. She found the lab and silently crept inside. She hid in the shadows.
From her hiding place, Jessie could see Giovanni talking with a scientist about James, who was right behind them. James was standing in what looked like a large tube. Metal bars restricted his movement. There was one across his chest and upper arms, one over his thighs, another over his ankles, one over his throat, and the last over his stomach and lower arms. His eyes were closed and he looked like he was sleeping. His shirt was gone and he was hooked up to various machines that recorded information from his body.
"Is the device in place?" Giovanni asked the scientist.
"Yes, sir. Here is the control unit." The scientist handed Giovanni something that looked like a wristwatch. "Just put it on and press the button on the side and it will be activated."
Giovanni followed his instructions. "This better work." He said through clenched teeth.
James's eyes snapped open, startling Jessie. "So, you do not trust me, after all." He stated.
"Just a precautionary measure, I assure you. Now, you should really be resting. I have many plans for you." Giovanni replied.
"Is that all I am to you? Am I just a tool to be used to gain your objective?"
"Of course not. Your welfare is of the utmost importance to me." Giovanni reassured him.
"I must admit that I have doubts of your intentions." James said.
"And why is that?" Giovanni asked.
"That girl I saw at the field, she seemed familiar. But I could not remember ever meeting her before. And I have been having dreams of places I have never been to." James said.
"They are just dreams, meaningless."
"Was I not created in this lab? Have you been lying to me?" James asked, his eyes studying Giovanni carefully.
Giovanni replied immediately, not even taking a moment to think. "Of course you were created here. How else do you explain the powers you possess that no other human has?" Giovanni paused a moment. "Now rest. We have much work to do."
James closed his eyes, as Giovanni and the scientist turned and walked over to the door. They closely passed by Jessie's hiding place. Jessie overheard every word Giovanni said to the scientist, and what he said scared her. "I thought you said his memories were permanently erased."
"I guess a few remnants still remain in his subconscious."
"I want them erased!" He ordered.
"Yes, sir." The scientist said, following Giovanni out of the room.
Jessie waited a few seconds after the door shut behind the scientist. Then, she emerged from her hiding place and walked over to James. His eyes snapped open as she stepped up to him. Jessie jumped, startled. She hadn't expected him to wake up so suddenly.
"Why were you hiding over there?" James asked.
"You saw me?"
"I felt your presence." He paused for a moment. "Why are you here?"
"I came to rescue you." She replied.
"I do not need rescuing." James said.
Jessie ignored him and began pulling the metal bars away from him. "Yes, you do. You may not remember me, but I remember you, James."
"Why do you persist in calling me that? I told you, I have no name." He said, glaring at her indignantly.
"Yes, you do. Your name is James. And you are my friend. We're partners. We've gone almost everywhere together." She replied, getting annoyed with the fact that he had amnesia and denied it.
James's brow furrowed in concentration. "Have I been to a place with a very large house, with people that really didn't care about me, and an annoying girl that always told me that I was doing stuff wrong?"
Jessie felt a smile spread across her face as she replied. "Yes. That's where you grew up."
"Then he did lie to me." He said.
Jessie stepped back away from him, as his eyes glowed red. The bars that remained around his body, broke apart as if they had been made of delicate glass and someone had smashed them with a rock. Jessie couldn't help but gasp in shock.
He grabbed her arm, gently. "I want to see the outside again. Will you show me?" His eyes were soft now, back to their usual green.
Jessie nodded, too shocked to do anything else.
James lifted his hand, facing his palm at one of the walls. Jessie watched in amazement, as his eyes once again glowed red. A beam of red energy shot out of his palm, instantly disintegrating the wall it hit.
He pulled Jessie outside, but stopped only a few yards away from the building. They both turned, hearing the angry shouts of Giovanni. For a moment, Jessie thought that James would kill Giovanni as easily as he had destroyed that wall. But James just closed his eyes.
Jessie suddenly felt dizzy. She closed her eyes as the world began spinning. When she opened her eyes, Giovanni was gone. So was the Team Rocket base. In fact, they were in a completely different place. Birds sang in trees near the crystal clear lake. A small cabin stood only yards away. It looked like a very peaceful place.
"What happened?" Jessie asked, looking around at the pretty scenery.
"I teleported us to safety." He stated calmly.
Jessie turned to him, remembering that he had wasted a perfectly good opportunity to get revenge. "Why didn't you kill Giovanni back there?"
"I couldn't." He replied, looking to the ground.
"But I saw you shoot a beam at that wall, destroying it. You could have done the same to him."
"No, I couldn't. Here, look." He turned his back to her and lifted his hair, exposing the back of his neck.
Jessie looked, and saw something that shocked her. Imbedded in his neck, was a metal chip of some kind, with a tiny, blinking green light.
"If I use my powers against Giovanni, or if he thinks I will, he can activate this chip, which will send intense pain directly into my brain stem and spinal cord." He sighed, dropping his hair and turning back to her.
"Can he activate it now?" Jessie asked, worried.
"No. Luckily, it does not have a great deal of range. He would have to be within a few feet of me to use it."
Suddenly, James fell to the ground, panting in ragged breaths. Sweat was soaking his skin.
Jessie was terrified, fearing that he was hurt or sick. "Are you okay?"
"I need to rest." He said, then promptly passed out.
Jessie put her hand to his head, checking for a fever. He wasn't hot. Maybe he was just tired. She stood, grabbing his wrists as she got up. Then she began dragging him to that cabin she had seen earlier.
When she got to the cabin, she found to her relief that no one was there. Then she took James into the bedroom and lifted him onto a bed.
*****
Jessie sat by his side, not knowing exactly how long she had been there. She watched as he had a nightmare. His arms flailed at unseen enemies. His skin was covered in a sheen of sweat, and his face held a pained expression.
She wanted to reach out, to wake him gently. But she was afraid. She had seen what he had done to that wall. What if he did the same to her, unintentionally? So she just sat there, and waited.
Eventually, his eyes snapped open as he sat up straight. After a few seconds, he turned to look at her. His eyes showed pain and sadness for only a moment. Then he wiped his hand over his face as he swung his legs over the side of the bed.
"You're still here?" He asked, his face showing a hint of confusion.
"I would never leave you, James. Not after all we've been through together." A tear fell from her eye, and she brushed it away quickly.
He stood and walked away from her, not responding to what she had said. She followed him silently as he walked out of the cabin. He approached the edge of the lake, and just looked out over the water.
"Are you okay?" Jessie asked, stepping beside him.
"I'm fine." He replied.
"What happened to you? Why did you pass out?"
He sighed, then spoke. "I get exhausted after using too much of my powers. Before you had arrived at the base, my abilities had been tested to discover my limits. I hadn't had a chance to replenish the energy when we escaped. I used up the last of my energy getting away from the base."
"Oh, okay." She said, not knowing exactly what to say to what he had just told her.
For a few minutes there was nothing but an awkward silence between them. Then, James spoke, his words quiet. "Tell me something." He said, still looking out at the water.
"What?" Jessie asked, slightly confused.
James turned to her. In his eyes, she saw fear and pain. She wanted nothing more than to help him, to take away that pain. But wasn't sure how she could. "Tell me something about myself, anything."
Jessie thought for a moment, trying to think of something that might spark a memory in him, anything that might do the trick. "You were raised by a wealthy family, but you ran away from home because they cared nothing for you and treated you like nothing more than an object. You collect bottle caps. You're sweet and kind, the greatest guy I have ever had the pleasure of knowing." Her tears fell from her face. But she couldn't stop them this time.
She felt a hand on her cheek and looked up to see James smiling at her. "Was there something between us?" He asked quietly, his smile disappearing as he took his hand away.
"Neither of us told each other how we felt, until it was too late." She replied, turning away from him.
"What do you mean?"
"You were kidnapped by a scientist, and experimented on for months. When I rescued you, I was too afraid to tell you how I felt, because I knew I might still lose you. You were so badly injured, it didn't look as if you were going to live." She paused a moment taking in a deep breath and exhaling slowly.
Then, she continued. "Then, when you got better, I just chickened out. I wasn't sure if you loved me back. We didn't tell each other how we felt until you were lying in agony in a hospital bed. And then I called Giovanni."
"You called Giovanni?" He asked, his voice full of shock and anger.
Jessie turned back to him. She lifted her head and looked up at him. In his eyes, she saw his anger, his shock. Jessie had to make him understand. "It was the only thing I could think of to save you. If I had known what he'd do to you, I still would have done it, because at least you're alive. If I have to sacrifice my heart so that you will live, so be it."
Jessie turned and ran, knowing that she couldn't face him again after what she had done. It was all her fault. If she hadn't called Giovanni, this never would have happened. But she had told the truth earlier. If she had it to do over again, she wouldn't do anything differently.
She didn't stop running until she ran out of breath. By then, she was far enough away from the lake that she couldn't see it anymore. She collapsed to her knees, panting in ragged breaths. Her tears streamed down her face, but she didn't care anymore. James probably hated her now that he knew she had been the one that had turned him over to Giovanni.
To Be Continued . . .
Notes: Jessie, Ash, Brock, and Misty head to the island of Dr. Della Greene, where they find a sight that Jessie finds unexpected, although not displeasing to her.
Experiments
Part Five
Della's island wasn't quite as Jessie remembered it. After renting a boat, since Misty, Brock, and Ash wouldn't let her steal one, they had immediately gone to the island.
Once they had pulled the boat up on shore, Jessie had gone to the house, the others trailing behind her. But when she got there, she found that the house was a mess. The door had been broken into and all the windows were smashed, several pieces of furniture were lying outside. It was just a total wreck.
Then she saw Della. The woman's arm was in a cast, and by the way she moved, Jessie could tell that her ribs had been broken, although not very recently. She and her Machoke were rummaging through what remained of her home, picking up the few things that hadn't been broken.
"What happened here?" Jessie asked, stepping closer to the scientist.
"Some men from Team Rocket came, demanding my research. When I wouldn't give it to them, they did this." She replied, gesturing around at her home. "I only just got out of the hospital. Because of what they did to me, I had to have physical therapy sessions."
Jessie didn't care what this woman had gone through. After what she had done to James, she should have been treated worse than this. "What did you do to James?" She demanded.
Della stared at Jessie, looking her over. "Who are you?" She asked. "I see by your uniform that you're a member of Team Rocket. Have you come to finish the job your coworkers started?"
"I just came to find out what you did to James." Jessie stated.
Della shrugged and began talking as if what she had done to James had meant nothing to her at all. "I was trying to make a better soldier, someone to help me accomplish my mission."
"Mission?" Brock asked from behind Jessie.
"To put an end to Team Rocket and Giovanni. To destroy the man that killed my father and destroyed my life. Over my father's corpse, I vowed to rid the world of Giovanni's evil." Della replied, her eyes blazing with anger.
"So you just used James for your own purposes? What gave you the right?" Jessie spat, despising the woman that stood in front of her.
"I have been waiting years for my revenge. If a few die so that I can destroy Team Rocket, so be it. If they happen to be members of Team Rocket, that's even better. I don't regret my actions in the least." She turned away from Jessie and the others, walking into her house. From the door, she spoke to them. "It's getting dark, and I don't recommend traveling at night. If you want to stay the night, you are more than welcome to. And don't worry, I won't use any of you for my experiments."
Jessie and the others set up their sleeping bags outside Della's house. Jessie didn't really want to spend the night in her house, not after what she had done to James. And it didn't look as if Ash or the others would leave her alone for a minute. Even Meowth was staying outside with her.
She laid down on her sleeping bag and closed her eyes. But she wasn't going to sleep. She just had to let the others believe that she was. She had something to do tonight.
Hours later, Jessie opened her eyes and sat up. She looked around at the others. Good, they're all asleep, she noted. Then she stood, and walked to the beach.
Two boats were up on the shore. One was Jessie's, the other must have been the scientist's. Jessie walked over to Della's boat and disabled it. She couldn't let the others follow her. They would only get in her way. Besides, she didn't want anyone else to get hurt.
She ran over to her boat and pushed it into the water. Quickly, she started the engine, not caring if they heard her now or not. They couldn't stop her now. She sped back to the mainland as fast as she could.
*****
Jessie stood inside one of many Team Rocket bases. This was the closest one to the field where she had seen James a few days ago. Hopefully, this was where they were keeping him.
A guard turned the corner ahead of her, and Jessie ducked behind a large plant. She had sneaked in and couldn't let herself be seen by anyone. The punishment would be severe if she was found here. She held her breath as the guard passed by her hiding place. Once he was gone, Jessie continued on her way. She found the lab and silently crept inside. She hid in the shadows.
From her hiding place, Jessie could see Giovanni talking with a scientist about James, who was right behind them. James was standing in what looked like a large tube. Metal bars restricted his movement. There was one across his chest and upper arms, one over his thighs, another over his ankles, one over his throat, and the last over his stomach and lower arms. His eyes were closed and he looked like he was sleeping. His shirt was gone and he was hooked up to various machines that recorded information from his body.
"Is the device in place?" Giovanni asked the scientist.
"Yes, sir. Here is the control unit." The scientist handed Giovanni something that looked like a wristwatch. "Just put it on and press the button on the side and it will be activated."
Giovanni followed his instructions. "This better work." He said through clenched teeth.
James's eyes snapped open, startling Jessie. "So, you do not trust me, after all." He stated.
"Just a precautionary measure, I assure you. Now, you should really be resting. I have many plans for you." Giovanni replied.
"Is that all I am to you? Am I just a tool to be used to gain your objective?"
"Of course not. Your welfare is of the utmost importance to me." Giovanni reassured him.
"I must admit that I have doubts of your intentions." James said.
"And why is that?" Giovanni asked.
"That girl I saw at the field, she seemed familiar. But I could not remember ever meeting her before. And I have been having dreams of places I have never been to." James said.
"They are just dreams, meaningless."
"Was I not created in this lab? Have you been lying to me?" James asked, his eyes studying Giovanni carefully.
Giovanni replied immediately, not even taking a moment to think. "Of course you were created here. How else do you explain the powers you possess that no other human has?" Giovanni paused a moment. "Now rest. We have much work to do."
James closed his eyes, as Giovanni and the scientist turned and walked over to the door. They closely passed by Jessie's hiding place. Jessie overheard every word Giovanni said to the scientist, and what he said scared her. "I thought you said his memories were permanently erased."
"I guess a few remnants still remain in his subconscious."
"I want them erased!" He ordered.
"Yes, sir." The scientist said, following Giovanni out of the room.
Jessie waited a few seconds after the door shut behind the scientist. Then, she emerged from her hiding place and walked over to James. His eyes snapped open as she stepped up to him. Jessie jumped, startled. She hadn't expected him to wake up so suddenly.
"Why were you hiding over there?" James asked.
"You saw me?"
"I felt your presence." He paused for a moment. "Why are you here?"
"I came to rescue you." She replied.
"I do not need rescuing." James said.
Jessie ignored him and began pulling the metal bars away from him. "Yes, you do. You may not remember me, but I remember you, James."
"Why do you persist in calling me that? I told you, I have no name." He said, glaring at her indignantly.
"Yes, you do. Your name is James. And you are my friend. We're partners. We've gone almost everywhere together." She replied, getting annoyed with the fact that he had amnesia and denied it.
James's brow furrowed in concentration. "Have I been to a place with a very large house, with people that really didn't care about me, and an annoying girl that always told me that I was doing stuff wrong?"
Jessie felt a smile spread across her face as she replied. "Yes. That's where you grew up."
"Then he did lie to me." He said.
Jessie stepped back away from him, as his eyes glowed red. The bars that remained around his body, broke apart as if they had been made of delicate glass and someone had smashed them with a rock. Jessie couldn't help but gasp in shock.
He grabbed her arm, gently. "I want to see the outside again. Will you show me?" His eyes were soft now, back to their usual green.
Jessie nodded, too shocked to do anything else.
James lifted his hand, facing his palm at one of the walls. Jessie watched in amazement, as his eyes once again glowed red. A beam of red energy shot out of his palm, instantly disintegrating the wall it hit.
He pulled Jessie outside, but stopped only a few yards away from the building. They both turned, hearing the angry shouts of Giovanni. For a moment, Jessie thought that James would kill Giovanni as easily as he had destroyed that wall. But James just closed his eyes.
Jessie suddenly felt dizzy. She closed her eyes as the world began spinning. When she opened her eyes, Giovanni was gone. So was the Team Rocket base. In fact, they were in a completely different place. Birds sang in trees near the crystal clear lake. A small cabin stood only yards away. It looked like a very peaceful place.
"What happened?" Jessie asked, looking around at the pretty scenery.
"I teleported us to safety." He stated calmly.
Jessie turned to him, remembering that he had wasted a perfectly good opportunity to get revenge. "Why didn't you kill Giovanni back there?"
"I couldn't." He replied, looking to the ground.
"But I saw you shoot a beam at that wall, destroying it. You could have done the same to him."
"No, I couldn't. Here, look." He turned his back to her and lifted his hair, exposing the back of his neck.
Jessie looked, and saw something that shocked her. Imbedded in his neck, was a metal chip of some kind, with a tiny, blinking green light.
"If I use my powers against Giovanni, or if he thinks I will, he can activate this chip, which will send intense pain directly into my brain stem and spinal cord." He sighed, dropping his hair and turning back to her.
"Can he activate it now?" Jessie asked, worried.
"No. Luckily, it does not have a great deal of range. He would have to be within a few feet of me to use it."
Suddenly, James fell to the ground, panting in ragged breaths. Sweat was soaking his skin.
Jessie was terrified, fearing that he was hurt or sick. "Are you okay?"
"I need to rest." He said, then promptly passed out.
Jessie put her hand to his head, checking for a fever. He wasn't hot. Maybe he was just tired. She stood, grabbing his wrists as she got up. Then she began dragging him to that cabin she had seen earlier.
When she got to the cabin, she found to her relief that no one was there. Then she took James into the bedroom and lifted him onto a bed.
*****
Jessie sat by his side, not knowing exactly how long she had been there. She watched as he had a nightmare. His arms flailed at unseen enemies. His skin was covered in a sheen of sweat, and his face held a pained expression.
She wanted to reach out, to wake him gently. But she was afraid. She had seen what he had done to that wall. What if he did the same to her, unintentionally? So she just sat there, and waited.
Eventually, his eyes snapped open as he sat up straight. After a few seconds, he turned to look at her. His eyes showed pain and sadness for only a moment. Then he wiped his hand over his face as he swung his legs over the side of the bed.
"You're still here?" He asked, his face showing a hint of confusion.
"I would never leave you, James. Not after all we've been through together." A tear fell from her eye, and she brushed it away quickly.
He stood and walked away from her, not responding to what she had said. She followed him silently as he walked out of the cabin. He approached the edge of the lake, and just looked out over the water.
"Are you okay?" Jessie asked, stepping beside him.
"I'm fine." He replied.
"What happened to you? Why did you pass out?"
He sighed, then spoke. "I get exhausted after using too much of my powers. Before you had arrived at the base, my abilities had been tested to discover my limits. I hadn't had a chance to replenish the energy when we escaped. I used up the last of my energy getting away from the base."
"Oh, okay." She said, not knowing exactly what to say to what he had just told her.
For a few minutes there was nothing but an awkward silence between them. Then, James spoke, his words quiet. "Tell me something." He said, still looking out at the water.
"What?" Jessie asked, slightly confused.
James turned to her. In his eyes, she saw fear and pain. She wanted nothing more than to help him, to take away that pain. But wasn't sure how she could. "Tell me something about myself, anything."
Jessie thought for a moment, trying to think of something that might spark a memory in him, anything that might do the trick. "You were raised by a wealthy family, but you ran away from home because they cared nothing for you and treated you like nothing more than an object. You collect bottle caps. You're sweet and kind, the greatest guy I have ever had the pleasure of knowing." Her tears fell from her face. But she couldn't stop them this time.
She felt a hand on her cheek and looked up to see James smiling at her. "Was there something between us?" He asked quietly, his smile disappearing as he took his hand away.
"Neither of us told each other how we felt, until it was too late." She replied, turning away from him.
"What do you mean?"
"You were kidnapped by a scientist, and experimented on for months. When I rescued you, I was too afraid to tell you how I felt, because I knew I might still lose you. You were so badly injured, it didn't look as if you were going to live." She paused a moment taking in a deep breath and exhaling slowly.
Then, she continued. "Then, when you got better, I just chickened out. I wasn't sure if you loved me back. We didn't tell each other how we felt until you were lying in agony in a hospital bed. And then I called Giovanni."
"You called Giovanni?" He asked, his voice full of shock and anger.
Jessie turned back to him. She lifted her head and looked up at him. In his eyes, she saw his anger, his shock. Jessie had to make him understand. "It was the only thing I could think of to save you. If I had known what he'd do to you, I still would have done it, because at least you're alive. If I have to sacrifice my heart so that you will live, so be it."
Jessie turned and ran, knowing that she couldn't face him again after what she had done. It was all her fault. If she hadn't called Giovanni, this never would have happened. But she had told the truth earlier. If she had it to do over again, she wouldn't do anything differently.
She didn't stop running until she ran out of breath. By then, she was far enough away from the lake that she couldn't see it anymore. She collapsed to her knees, panting in ragged breaths. Her tears streamed down her face, but she didn't care anymore. James probably hated her now that he knew she had been the one that had turned him over to Giovanni.
To Be Continued . . .