Ooh, here's something nice for you (sorry, ff.net is being stupid so you'll have to type this in.):
(usual http) firebirdie.net (slash) por (slash) por.jpg
It's a title page of sorts using photoshop to mesh different screencaps
together. I think it looks nice. Anyways, yeah, I think this fanfic will get
its own page soon on my domain…if I ever get the time and motivation to
do it.
I still don't own the characters. Stop suing me. Onto the story.
*********
The Prince of Roses
Part Six: Reencounters
By Silver Vaporeon
James was in trouble.
Jessie lifted her fingertips to her temples, realizing the pleas were coming from within her head. She bit her lower lip as she tried to concentrate on the voice which grew fainter by the second.
James, where are you? She thought, wondering simultaneously if she was suffering from head injuries. A small gasp escaped her lips as she felt a small spark of energy within her chest. It had come suddenly and it felt as if it were a separate conciousness had suddenly awoken within her. There was only one other time she had felt anything remotely similar to what was happening. Though what she received were not the disturbing emotions of heightened ecstasy as from before, the ones that entered her mind were just as shocking to the blue-eyed girl.
He was in pain.
All of his raw emotions surged through Jessie's body like a merciless torrent of both ice and fire. The girl cried out and sank to her knees, taken completely off-guard. Forcing herself to focus, she shut her eyes tightly and concentraited on the images and sounds that came into her mind.
There was the rhythmic thundering of drums that she could only categorize as a hammering force that was forgeign to her ears. It echoed the exotic rhyrthems known in the depths of Africa yet there was a subtle difference that told her that the history of the drummings did not have its origins in any culture on Earth. She saw figures dressed in dark crimson robes chanting in an ancient language as forgien as the hypnotic pulsation. They were crowded around a man dressed in a suit of vermillion in a haphazard half-circle. Jessie recognized Giovanni a second later when the dim flame in the torch he was holding suddenly grew and illuminated his face that grinned back at 'her' in an eery way. She felt what she recognized as shackles around phantom wrists that hung above her head. A sense of dulled fatigue joined the rest of the emotions that continued to tear through her body. Jessie grew alarmed. It was if his spirit was….
James! Her mind screamed.
@--}----
James lifted his head weakly and opened his tired eyes to see Giovanni still standing in front of him. Realizing that the voice that he had vaguly heard asking where he was did not match any of the people within the room, he closed them again, tears threatening to escape. Death sounded like a good idea.
James! The voice called again and James' body gave a sudden jolt. The chanting continued on and since James had responded in a similar fashion during certain parts of the chant, the figures paid no attention to the jerking movement.
J-Jessie? His inner voice asked, half-beliving what he had just heard. W-where?
I am still at your old home,
Home? But…h-how…?
I…I know I am connected to you, James…I just… Jessie stopped, trying to structure her jumbled thoughts into something that would make sense. "I just need to figure.."
A small flicker of hope came to life in the young man and his heart raced. He could still be saved! He closed his eyes and concentraited on his friend's voice, feeling new strength flow into him.
How are you connected to me? he asked.
Remember that rose? I have a thorn from it stuck in my palm. …Could that be it?
Perhapes, James said, giving Jessie the impression of a mental shrug. I don't really know much about that thing myself.
Jessie's lifeforce emited a sensation of surprise and annoyance. How the hell could he not know? But it's yours!
James sighed and concentraited, his will to survive increasing but still weak from physical and emotional torment.
They bound my soul with it and I have to keep it safe otherwise I'd die. That's all I know about it.
The drumming continued, trying to edge its way into James' mind. He blocked it as much as he could, focusing on Jessie's presence within himself. The knowledge of that someone was out there who could save him gave him a stronger will to combat the overbearing combination of drumming and chanting that continued to pound at his brain.
You're coming soon to save me right? he asked, hope obvious in his query. Jessie stayed silent and James felt her sense of uneasiness and his hope faltered slightly as her hesitation continued. Jessie-?
"Ah-!" James cried aloud as the chanting grew louder. The pain created by the uniform voices was unbearable. His conscious mind was being torn two ways at once and pain shot though his entire being. His body jerked around so violently that the chains that held his wrists clanked loudly. The metal dug deeper into his wrists, making him lose consentraion, severing the connection he had with Jessie. The leader of the figures brought his arm across his chest and then held it to his side to command the others to stop chanting. Only James' shuttering and labored breathing and the crackling of the fire were heard in the silent room. Giovanni whirled around and gave the leader a demanding glare. He knew the ritual by heart and the sudden halt in the ceremony needed to be explained.
"What is the meaning of this?" Giovanni demanded. "Why did you stop?"
The leader figure drew back his cowl. The eyes of ancient elder within returned the middle-aged man's glare with a stony gaze.
"The man is stronger than expected. Someone is helping him," he said simply. Giovanni uttered a sound that could be registered as a sign of irritation.
"So does that mean that this whole ceremony was for nothing?" Giovanni said in a dangerously calm way, the torch crackling and burning in his hand. It had taken him years to track James down as the one he was searching for and longer still to perform the expensive surgery-like procedure that bound the rose and his master together. And when his goal was just within his grasp, a technical difficulty suddenly appeared and prevented him from succeeding. It was infuriating.
The ancient man stroked his white grizzly beard with bony fingers, his eyes half-closed as he was lost in thought. He then looked at Giovanni.
"We must break the connection completely. It is not easy.." he began to say before Giovanni opened his mouth. The latter reconsidered his decision to yell at the man but he restrained himself and kept quiet, knowing that there was more to come.
"…But here is another way but we must subjugate him to pain. Severe pain. The body may not be able to take the severity of the process and the spirit is nothing without the body to supply it." The elder waited as he gave time for Giovanni to answer.
"Do it if you must," he finally answered, thrusting the lit torch to the stone floor. "I don't care what needs to be done as long as I get what I want. And if that is the only way to get it…so be it."
James' eyes widened as the ancient one spoke to his followers who suddenly surrounded him. He screamed aloud as their hands fought to keep his body still as they freed him from his chains. They were strong hands and rendered his wriggling useless. The lavender-haired boy opened his mouth to scream again only to be silenced another hand that seemed to belong to the strange mass of limbs and appendages. Giovanni turned around on his heel and marched out the door back up to the ground levels of the headquarters, paying no heed to the cries of the young man whom he had condemned.
@--}---'''
It was as if someone had pulled the electrical plug that powered their connection. Jessie felt the disruption and jerked her head up.
"James?" she asked aloud.
Nothing.
"James?" she asked again, pressing her hands to her temples, as if searching for the right wave-length of thought. Only silence answered back. Jessie bit her lower lip, genuinely worried about her comrade. The disturbing surroundings….his pain that she had felt….the hope in his inner voice….
// You're coming to save me soon, right? //
His hopeful query stung at Jessie's buried conciounce. There was no bitterness or doubt in his voice. Only hope and concern for how long it would take for her to free him. She felt a rare sense of shamed selfishness for holding back her answer. She had nearly killed him once and she was angry at him for sleeping with another woman when she herself had no romantic relationship with him. And yet he held no grudges before or after the former…
Jessie grew frantic, unable to connect with her friend again. It was like being blindfolded and snatching at empty air in search of a darting butterfree. But the insect was not within reach; she couldn't find his chi at all….she couldn't find him….
Come on, Jessica, this is no time to be worrying about not being able to talk with him! You have to find the idiot!
She threw herself back into the water, quickly rinsed off the disguisting and hardening mud that still clung to her body, emerged again and took off running in search of Meowth.
@--}--- '''
James found himself tossed roughly into a cold and empty chamber that was echoed the interior of the solutary cells found deep within the underground passages of the Team Rocket Headquarters. However, the one he was to be occupying was slightly more spacious, being ten feet in length and five feet, six inches in height. They had given him the luxury of having enough room to pace around in or to have a companion join him in the cell.
The landing was rough as he hit and slid across the floor. The rose he carried was tossed into the cell with equal care. James reached to it with a tentative hand, his fingers curling around the fading petals. As he brought it close to him, five petals fell to the cold stone floor. He closed his eyes and wept bitterly in the darkness like a broken tortured soul.
"Stop that crying, James. It's quite unbecoming of you," a voice chastised him. A very familiar voice.
"K-Kat…?" James barely breathed. He lifted his gaze which met with the woman's steady condemning gaze. His eyes grew wide and he scurried into the opposite corner with the half-strength he still had, more than simply terrifed. "W-what are you d-doing here?"
Her irises of amber seemed to give off the eerie iridescent glow of a feline's eyes, reflecting the little light there was in their shared cell. James found his breath hitching within his chest, finding himself more fightened of Kat than he was of Jessibelle or of Jessie during her "time of the month", whatever that was.
"S-Stay away f-from me…I-I am wa-watching you…" he squeaked, maiking himself as small as he could in his pitiful little corner. Kat made no effort to move from her side of the cell. As his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, he recognized the shape of shackles binding the woman's wrists. She lifted a hand to her dishevled hair to brush away her bangs, the soft metailic clinking of chains accompanying her movements.
"Watching me? You talk about me as if I am a murderer," she said, acting surprisingly...well, surprised. James glared at her with narrowed green slits.
" 'As if' you were a murderer? You ARE a murderer! Y-you k-killed G-Growly…! A-and tried to k-kill me… a-almost got Jessie too and…and…you're a Team Rocket assassin for God's sake! I-I don't know how much blood your dirty hands have stained!" James screamed at her, as if bringing all of the acussiations forward would drive the raven-haired killer away from him. Kat blinked and then blinked again.
"A Team Rocket assassin, you say?" she asked, burshing the hair away from her eyes again, the chains clinking as if they were chuckling.
"Y-yeah…" James stuttered, trying to keep himself from showing any more fear than he already was. Fear…or was it doubt?
"James, James, James…how can I have tried to kill you if I was down here since…I don't even remember when they put me down here…" Kat sighed, seemingly unable to put a date on her condemnment. James looked at her, somewhat shocked.
"What are you saying? That there's two of you?" James inquired. Kat shrugged.
"They do have quite a few strange experiments up in the Team Rocket Labs. Perhapes they've mastered human cloning since Dr. Fuji passed away…" she commented rather than pondered aloud, as if the thought was not so outlandish as it would seem. "I am a scientist, James. Not an assassin….or at least I was one…until Giovanni thought me too involved and too untrustworthy enough in Project G…"
"Project G…" James echoed, the words striking a chord within him. "T…that's the project that The Boss…"
"…had thrown you into," Kat interuptied his interruption. "Yes, yes, I know, James. I know a great deal about it."
"You know about it?" James asked with wide eyes. He crawled a bit closer to Kat, every hair on his body bristling. "Then you can tell me a-about it…why me? Why d-did they decide to tear me in two all those years ago? What is the purpose? What is the motive? Why was it possible?" Question after question tumbled out of his mouth like the running water of a faucet. It was only when Kat chukled again when he realized the absurdity of his behavior and he bowed his head, embarrassed. The raven-haired woman smiled at him in the dark like a mother who had witnessed her little boy discover the joys of frolicking in the fields. It was understanding and kind, not at all like the cold sneers that her counterpart had given James.
"Those are a lot of questions and unfortunately, I cannot answer a whole lot that deal with motives and purposes. It was simply a job," Kat turned her head and looked at James out of the corner of her eye. "Now tell me, how is the rose fairing? Any lost petals?"
James hand brushed the thin satin-like petals of his rose and he shuttered as a tremor, not unlike the one a person would experience when a hand brushes against a sensative area of the body, snaked up his chest. He scooped up the flower and regarded it, seeing its dim outline.
"A-a few....ten at most," he answered. With a cautious finger, he traced the stem from top to bottom, running it over the delicate sharp thorns that contrasted so much with the silky frail petals. The digit found an empty spot where a thorn should have stood to protect the plant from harm. Instead, the area was rough and somewhat grainy. Then he remembered that Jessie had said that one of the thorns had been embedded in her palm and that it was a connection of sorts. Perhaps Kat knew how it worked.
"Kat, one of the thorns is missing. I-I know it's in Jessie's hand because she told me that it got in there somehow and we talked when those guys were torturing me and well, I want to know how it works and stuff," James' usually more eloquent tongue failed him yet again and the words just jumped of his mouth without much editing. The raven-haired woman looked at him again and James could have sworn her eyes had flashed at him in the dim lighting. A trick of the light, perhaps.
"…Jessie. You talked to her?" she asked simply.
"Y-yeah, well, maybe not exactly 'talk'-talk but something like telepathy. I don't know, do you know how it works?"
"Well, I have a hypothosis. When your body and soul were split, there was a great deal of energy that was released. We harnessed this energy to fuse the soul with the rose you have there. The human soul is a mysterious thing, dear James. It is like pure energy with a sense of purpose. It fills a body for a short time and when a person dies, it defuses out back into the universe like star dust. Or perhaps it goes to Heaven in the shape of its body. We had a field day with that one but we never finished that argument.
In any case, the soul fills ever crevice, every atom of the body. The rose, you see, is an artificial body but fucnctions in the same manner, housing the soul. When the thorn somehow broke off…well, that means part of you is inside your friend. The soul does not like to be two separate pieces and so it tries to bridge that gap by creating a connection of some sort. Perhaps telepathy is a result of that, a strong sense of oneness between two people," Kat finished and sighed.
"Anyways, that's my thought."
James scrathed his head. "Well, that made some sense."
"Yes, it doesn't make too much sense but then the whole concept of body and soul being separate doesn't make sense. And yet, we made it possible," Kat shrugged. James sighed and leaned against the stone wall.
"Lots of things in this world don't make sense, I guess," James muttered. "Sometimes they confuse me or I end up tumbling into depression. (God, I feel so weak.) But one thing's for sure, I am going to get out of here. Jessie said she's coming to save me."
"She did?" Kat replied, looking at him out of the corner of her eye again. James shook his head.
"Well, she didn't say she was but I know she will. I trust her," he said sleepily and curled up on the ground. Kat leaned back against her own wall and her hand brushed against one of her small pearl-like earrings.
"I see, James. I can see that."
James mumbled a tired response and closed his eyes. You are going to save me, aren't you?
@--}--- ''''''''
Meowth paced the top of the grassy knoll, his stomach knotted with anticipation. It shouldn't have taken her more than an hour, he thought, for Jessie was a master of stealth and speed when she was focused and yet more than three times the number had passed without a sign of the girl. He grew tired of waiting at the gate and found himself the tiny hill that he was currently on to wait for Jessie. He overlooked the west side of the mansion, able to peer through the uncuritained windows of the grand estate. A man with dirty steel-blue hair with a matching mustache walked past the large elegant frame that Meowth was gazing through, his acute eyesight allowing him to see the finest detail, down to the small insignificant stain on the man's ascot from his morning coffee. The man that was James' father possessed a debonair grace that Meowth had never recognized in any other human and he was not a man that many would not want to trifle with. The man suddenly stopped walking, perfectly framed in the middle of the window as Meowth looked on, a shocked expression frozen on his face. He started to cough violently and slowly lost the strength to stand without support and he leaned against the wall. The cat pokèmon grew worried as the man began to sink to the floor.
Meowth couldn't believe what his widening eyes were seeing. The man's hair had transformed into a mass of brilliant gold. Meowth leapt backwards, his fur standing on end. It was an abnormality, something unbelievable, something from the tabloids, nothing like the norm of the Pokèmon reality.
The wife of the man soon arrived on the frightening scene and swooped down to aid her husband, obviously panic-strikken. She called to servents who were clearly far off for the pained expression that was etched into her aging beautiful face had such force behind it. They all dashed to their master's side, huddled around him, abuzz with confusion and concern. Meowth shook his head, trying to make sense of the strange situation. He paced back and forth, needing Jessie more than ever.
"Meowth!" Jessie called out. Meowth whirled around to see his comrade looking rather worried and dripping wet.
"Whatcha do? Decide to go for a swim? Come on! Get out the spy equipment and fast!" Meowth yowled. Jessie sighed iratly. She had been killed nearly two times in the same day and saddled with the fate of the world and of James and all the feline could do was bark orders. Well, yowl. In any case, the feline was more panicky than usual and that usually meant what he wanted had some importance to it. Swollowing her pride, Jessie ran up the hill and opened the clasp on her unattended bag which she had Meowth-proofted with a special lock. After undoing it, she rummaged through her sack. She brought out two headsets and a device that seemed to be a cross between a bullhorn and a satellite dish. Of course, its purpose was not to be strange-looking, but to amplify conversations. She handed these things over to Meowth who quickly switched the device on and brought one of the headsets to his large feline ears. He swept the device at limb's length, back and forth, until he found the right frequency, like tuning a string. Jessie laid herself on her stomach and put on her own headset.
"Meowth, what is going-" she started before Meowth hissed at her to be quiet. Jessie frowned but decided to listen in on the conversation which probably wasn't going to make sense to her. Though certain parts did tug at her memory....
["Darling, don't strain yourself. The doctor is on his way at this very moment!"
"Nngh…Virginia…it's…it's not an ailment…it's a sign. My mother had told me that…this….nngh.."
"Master, you mustn't talk. You're so weak.."
"N-never mind that! This…this is an omen! T-the phonix awakens...two powers…engaged in mortal combat…t-the final round at the ends of the earth…
"He has a fever, madam…completely delirious. That doctor had better come fast."
"Bridge to the stars…" ]
"HEY! What are you doing here?!" a voice made Jessie and Meowth jump and they looked at the owner of the huge looming shadow that had covered them both. A large stocky man placed his hands on his hips. The sunlight bounced off a metallic spot on his beige uniform which read, "SECURITY" in large bold letters. Before the two could scramble or come up with good excuses, the man reached down and with hands the size of tennis rackets, he grabbed them by the collars and lifted them straight off the ground and with a second thought, slung Jessie's bag over his shoulder. Meowth pedaled at empty air, hissing and screaming for a lawyer. Jessie joined in as well, yelling at the guard about being so uncivil towards bird watchers.
"Save yur excuses for the sir an' missus," he snarled and carried them to the giant mansion.
@--}--- '''
"Where did you find the audacity to be spying on us?" James' mother, Virginia asked, fanning herself nervously with an ornate fan, looking off to the side. Jessie and Meowth sat before her in elegant chairs. Though the chairs were nice, there was an uneasy feeling the both had that they were being interrogated to death.
"We's were just tryin' ta find our pal, James, lady! An' then I saws ya looney husband fall ova' with funky hair. Is it a crime ta want ta see what da heck is goin' on?" Meowth spat before Jessie found the sense to clamp a hand over his large mouth. Virginia turned her full attention to the talking feline and then to Jessie who was still very wet and staining the fabric that covered the chair with lake water.
"…you were the two who led my dear son back here to get married to his fiancée, arern't you?" she stated. Jessie looked back at the woman.
"Yes, that is right, madam," she replied. "And we followed him back here today."
"James was here today?"
"He was here to pay last respects to Growly, madam…at least that's what he came here for."
"Growly? But he is still alive and well," James' mother said, puzzled. The servent next to her gave a slight cough and bent his head over to speak softly to her.
"Unfortunate news, madam. Dear Growly's chef had gone to serve his midday meal and had found his body on the front façade. Shot to death, madam," he said, looking towards Jessie. James' mother drew a hand to her mouth in slight shock and then looked at Jessie and Meowth, the former who was scowling at the servent for jumping to conclusions.
"We weren't even here when he was killed," Jessie argued. "I didn't even go near his house; I went down to the gazebo where James nearly killed me!"
"Wha-!?" Jimmy tried ta do ya in?!" Meowth broke free of Jessie's hand and stared at her. Jessie sighed. It was too hard to explain.
"James tried to kill a woman?" James' mother inquired. "Why…?"
"He was being controlled, madam," Jessie said.
"Controlled…" Virginia echoed. "But that can't be right…those scientists had said that they'd protect him from outside intervention when they did that awful Project G. experiment on him."
It was as if the world was on pause. Jessie was the first to speak.
"…you know about the Project…?" Jessie asked. James' mother nodded, looking more and more.
"O-of course. I provided the funding for it when they said that our darling James had volunteered himself for it."
Jessie stood up and looked the woman in the eyes.
"Tell me everything you know about it."
****************
My God, that took forever and a half to do. Going through junior year in high
school and lack of inspiration and intrest for writing fanfiction and other
real life clauses are to blame. I don't like to leave characters hanging
(and people actually asked me if I was to continue this. o_O) so I decided to
continue during my Spring Break. The plot is still shaky and I got rushed near
the end of this part but we're nearly to the point where it gets exciting!
Yay! Now to see how long it takes for me to update again. I'll be faster,
I promise
Until next time,
-SV