The Prince of Roses
by: Silver Vaporeon@-}---
James watched carefully as the water splashed into the small squirtle bottle he owned. It was usually used for watering his Vitreebelle but recently he had lost his old watering can. He watched the measuring scale on the side carefully and let go of the button after the water reached the 9 centimeter line. He looked towards the desolate playground where he and his friends had claimed as their sleeping area for the night. According to the local clock tower near the church, it was midnight when they stumbled in half-starved into the city. What time was it now? He sighed and he noticed his visible breath. He shivered despite of himself.
He saw Jessie huddled on the playground slide hugging Meowth close to her to warm herself.
It is cold, he thought as he left the water fountain and headed for his backpack that lay by the benches with the squirtle bottle in hand. Without warning, an icy pain gripped his chest and his legs crumpled from below him. He was unconscious by the time he hit the ground. The water from the watering container spilled onto the walkway and froze instantly.
Jessie awoke the next morning chilled to the bone. Female Team Rocket uniforms were never designed for comfort. Meowth sneezed and opened his eyes. His jaw dropped. The whole area was covered in frost!
"Man! That was quite a cold night, wasn't it Jess?" Meowth asked. "Jess?"
Jessie was already by the benches brushing the frost off her backpack. She opened it and looked for the heat packs. She found some, broke a few open and jammed them down her boots. Her feet toasty, she sighed contently. Two more were put into her gloves. Her torso felt frozen so she looked into James' open backpack and put on an extra jacket of his. She felt a snag on the jacket as she was pulling it out but managed to get it out and zip the open backpack.
"Hmm?" she said puzzled. "Where's James?"
"Dunno," Meowth replied from the playground slide. Jessie got up and stood on the bench. One could see the whole small town from the bench and she saw the clock. It was seven in the morning and the whole place was covered in frost, looking like a Christmas card. It must have been the weird weather they were having.
"We have to catch that Pikachu!" she said angrily. "And James ran off without telling me!" she jumped from the bench and walked towards the drinking fountain a bit further down the hill, leaving footprints in the frost that covered the sidewalk.
Her boot hit a solid object. She looked down and nudged the object with her toe. It sounded hollow and she bent over to pick it up. "A squirtle bottle…" she said. "James' squirtle bottle…" she added as she saw the deeply engraved "J" on the side. She looked close by and saw James unconscious on the ground, covered in the same frost that took over the town.
She dropped the squirtle bottle and brushed the powdery frost from his body.
"James!" she cried as she checked him for injury or sickness. She was too nervous to feel a pulse no matter how much she tried but his breath was shallow and that was enough confirm he was living. "Can you hear me, James? James?" she asked, her voice getting panicky.
Meowth came over. "Whatcha do? Hit 'im with your mallet?" he asked.
"Get a doctor!" she threw a rock at Meowth and he ran off to get medical help. Jessie turned her attention to her friend again. "Damn it, James. You can't die on me!"
@--}---
Jessie waited by James' bedside until he awoke weak and tired.
"Jessie…?" James asked.
"I am here," Jessie did her best not to sound worried. "What do you want, idiot?"
"I…" James started, not knowing how to phrase his words. Jessie's ears perked up. Was he going to apologize? Or was it something else?
"Yeah, James?"
"I….I must know something right now."
"Dammit, James! Spit it out!"
"I must know where my backpack is!" he said at last. Jessie felt like smacking him on the head but she saw he was already weak as it was.
"I brought it with us. It's by the doorway."
"Is it cold in there?"
"Yeah, it's by the hospital entrance since they wouldn't let us bring them in…so…" Jessie couldn't help but wonder why he was so anxious for his backpack of all things.
"YOU LEFT IT OUT THERE, YOU IDIOT?! BRING IT TO ME!" he screamed. James' reaction was so surprising, it scared her and she had jumped towards the door in fright. It was the icy glare in his eyes that scared her more than his scream.
She managed to compose herself quickly and scowled at him but went outside to get his backpack. He didn't need to be so paranoid, she thought. She got it and brought it to him. He snatched it away.
"Water…." He said. "Clean, pure water for drinking."
Jessie got it for him and put the glass on the nightstand. "Anything else, your highness?" she said sarcastically.
James licked his lips, feeling guilty for being so mean to Jessie. He shook his head. "No…just leave me alone…"
Jessie was halfway out the door when she overheard half of James' whisper of "…my rose…".
Her heart fluttered.
@--}---
Jessie applied her makeup carefully and gave herself one last look in the mirror.
"Meow. Whom ya hooked up with dis time, Jess?" Meowth muttered, eying Jessie's obviously revealing dress and the presence of more makeup on her face.
Jessie blushed but walked out quickly saying, "none of your business."
Meowth scratched his head. "Ya know, James wouldn't fall for dat. He's too sensitive." Quicker than the speed of light, he found a high-heeled shoe embedded in his face.
Jessie walked into James' bedroom where he was breathing heavily. Sleeping, she thought. He had recovered in the hospital but continued to lie in his bed at the hideout as he was too weak to go Pikachu hunting with Jessie and Meowth. She prodded him awake.
"What is it?" he asked. Jessie sat on his bed and leaned over, nearly sprawling on him. "J-Jessie? W-w-what do you want?"
"Don't you feel…well, turned on?" Jessie asked, starting to feel ridiculous. James looked away, shaking his head. "you don't?"
"Yes! Um…No! Yes! No! I am sorry, Jessie! I didn't mean to insult you!" James blushed. "It's just that I don't want to seem like a human wolf!"
Jessie rolled her eyes. "Dangit, James, you are so naive." With that, she walked out the door. James sunk into the pillow and sighed. That was a close call. He reached into his pajama jacket and pulled out his now blossoming red rose.
That was close…too close, he thought to himself as he returned it to a vase on his nightstand. "But thanks, Jess."
@--}--
James was feeling better the next morning and had made pancakes by the time Jessie and Meowth got up. Jessie ate her food without comment.
"Jessie?" James asked.
"Yeah?" Jessie replied, brushing a loose strand of hair out of her eyes. James looked away and rubbed the back of his head with a hand.
"Um….thanks…for last night," he said. "I owe you a lot."
Jessie tried to make sense of what he was saying since he seemed so flustered the night before when she visited him.
"Well…you're welcome…I guess," she said. "You *did* call me a rose back at the hospital, did you?" she felt foolish for asking but she had to know.
James blushed heavily. How was he supposed to explain this to her? He licked his lips and picked at his pancakes. He shook his head sadly.
"No, Jess…it wasn't you. But-" he never got to finish his statement as Jessie slapped him across the face.
"You made me make a complete fool of myself! I thought you loved me or something!" Jessie shouted at him, red in the face.
"But Jessie, I-" James tried to tell her the truth but she hit him against the wall.
"I don't care if you were near death the other day, I hate you!" she got up and slammed the door behind her. James lay on the floor, his heart nearly torn in two. Meowth swallowed the last bit of his pancakes and bent down near James who was silently crying.
"She doesn't mean it, Jim. Don't let it get to ya."
@--}---
Jessie sat on the bench, trying to compose herself. Why did she think that James loved her? He could have been talking about a secret girlfriend…or boyfriend for that matter. She picked up a branch and snapped in half.
And again….
And again….
And again…until the branch was nothing but many bits of wood strewn on the sidewalk. The Vermillion Harbor was calm and that along with her branch-killing actions helped calm her down. She checked to see if the mail she picked up earlier was still under the bench. Satisfied, she looked towards the sunset before heading back.
@--}---
James woke up when he heard Jessie
come through the door.
"Jessie?" he rubbed his sleepy eyes.
Jessie tossed him several letters. James opened one and read it over three times before looking at her in disbelief.
"Growly's dead…." He finally said. "My best canine friend. I never…" James got up and closed the door behind Jessie. Jessie sighed. Poor Growly, but what was she to do about it? She lay on her half of the bed and dozed off. James lay on his bed as the rose on his nightstand started to wilt.
Jessie awoke the next morning and found the rest of the letters scattered on the floor. She picked up her beauty magazines, leafed through them, placed the bills on the table and went outside. She found James already outside dressed all in black, which was his black undershirt and black pants, sitting on the hill.
"James…" she started. James looked wistfully at her.
"I just can't believe it. One of my only friends," he sighed. "I am going to visit his grave back at the estate someday…bring some flowers."
"Mmm…" Jessie didn't know what to say. She had lost her mother when she was young but not even James knew about that and she wasn't going to sympathize with her friend using her mother as an example. Besides, she was still mad at him. "I am sorry," she said at last. "Let's go inside; you've got another letter from yesterday."
James response to his second letter was worse. He crumpled it up and threw it in the trash.
"I am not going," he said.
"What?"
"He can't make me."
"What?"
"Giovanni. Orders to meet him tomorrow."
"James…you know what are the consequences of-" Jessie started.
"I AM NOT SEEING HIM!"
"James, what was in the letter? Did you read all of it?"
James shook his head. "I don't need to. I am not going."
"Read it."
James bit his lower lip and uncrumpled the letter and scanned the rest of it. His lips curled up in anger and he stormed into the house. Jessie grabbed his undershirt but it tore and James darted into the bedroom.
"James!" Jessie shouted. She opened and entered the room before James could lock the door. She gazed at the man who was breathing hard by the bed.
She had had never seen James so infuriated in his entire life. His body was made of pure, fiery hatred. Jessie could have sworn he looked like he could have murdered someone without a thought at that moment. She looked over his shoulder and noticed something her eyes wouldn't believe.
The rose that was in its tiny vase was aflame.
@--}—
"James, what in the wor-" she began. James seemed to snap out of his blind silent rage and glanced at the flaming rose whose flames immediately were extinguished as if someone flipped the off-switch for a toy. The rose wasn't burnt at all. James was breathing hard and he shut his eyes and mumbled something to himself. Jessie's curiosity got the better of her and she took a petal gently in her un-gloved fingers. They weren't even hot but felt cool and silky but a few seconds later, she felt it become rigid and cold. At the same time, she heard James tense up as if she had touched upon a most terrible, secret part of him.
"That is why I am not going," James said.
"What? A rose?" Jessie asked, going towards him. Was it some exotic rose that Giovanni wanted?
"It's about time I've told you. Even…even though I can get killed for it." James said to her, more serious than he ever was before with her. He got the rose and made Jessie hold onto it with one hand while he held onto the rose with another. Jessie was about to ask him what was going on when James' memories of the past flooded her mind.
@--}—
"What is it?" A younger James asked. He looked about four years younger; about the time they had first met Ash Ketchum.
"The Boss just wants to see you," the Dan'in who was leading him said.
"I trust it isn't about failure, is it?" James asked. The present James chuckled grimly at his younger, more egotistic and proud self.
James was brought in Giovanni's office and the door was slammed behind him. James quickly got up, his heart racing.
"Well, James. Come here," the Boss' voice called. James had no choice but to obey or die. He walked to Giovanni's side and felt a large hand patting him on the head. James shuttered as he was brought close to the orange suit. Jessie shuttered involuntarily as she watched as an outsider.
"James…"
"W-What is it, Boss?"
"Pretend I am Jessie."
"What?!"
"You love her, don't you?"
"It was best not to lie," the current James' voice reached Jessie who had made a mental reaction of disgust.
"Y-yes, sir. She's my friend and all but…I am scared."
"Why? Rejection?"
"I'd never do that to a friend and she'd hit me."
"I pity you, James. You'll never become a man," Giovanni sighed. "Perhaps this will teach you." He pushed a button on the intercom. "He's yours."
James was instantly held down by Dan'in who were hidden in the shadows. James tried his best to struggle but was held fast. He was young and more daring and glared at the man in the shadows.
"He's yours to experiment on, gentlemen," Giovanni said to the scientists in the back. James' eyes widened.
"No! Please! I beg you! Don't hurt me!" James cried. "NO~!" the cry echoed as the doors slammed shut after the Dan'in carried the screaming James out.
There was darkness…times of semi-consciousness as he gazed dazed at what was going on around him and times of pure black. He was helpless to what was being done to him. He did not know whether the things they were doing to him were for good or for bad. Was he going to die?
@-}—
Jessie's eyes were wide with shock as the mind-pictures faded with the echo of James' scream in her mind. James' eyes were filled with tears.
"What….what did they do to you?" she asked, touching his chest and running her hand up and down it as if to feel for any flaws. "I-I mean, you seem normal and everything."
"Giovanni gave me to the experimentation team: Project G. They somehow transferred my life source into an inanimate object. They happened to find a rose, that I had picked up that day, in my pocket and decided to transfer my life source into it for whatever reason. It responds to my emotions; that is why it was aflame when I was furious and wilted when I was sad, for example. The main purpose for the experiment, they told me, was to see what positive things came out of a Rocket who never died. As long as I keep the rose containing my life sourse safe and "living", I can never die."
"But we blast off all the time. How come I don't die? Why doesn't Meowth?" Jessie asked. "I've always thought of it as a fluke."
James smiled sadly. "I also have the power to protect you and Meowth from harm. With the rose, I can stop the people closest in my life from dying; I harness your life sources and protect them every time we blast off or get beaten pretty badly."
"What happened that day in the park?"
"I left the rose in my backpack and I guess someone must have opened it during the night. I was going to water it but unfortunately, it seemed to have frosted over or something because I completely blacked out, feeling completely frozen."
So that was the snag in the jacket, Jessie thought.
"That's why I am not going to see Giovanni tomorrow. He's going to "check up on me", that's what. I hate that man," James clutched his fists.
Jessie shook her head. This had to be a joke. "I don't buy it; nice story but way out of the ballpark. What is the real reason you won't see him?"
"You don't believe me," James said simply. Jessie glared at him.
"You're damn right, I don't believe that crap," she retorted. James grabbed Jessie's hand and made her touch her own chest.
"You feel your heart beating?" he asked. Jessie scowled at him.
"Of course I do, idiot," she said. James sighed and transferred her hand onto his bare own chest.
"Do you feel mine?"
And there was no argument Jessie could come up with. She felt no heartbeat beneath the skin of her best friend.