Fated Chapter 49: Catherine's Story, a pokémon fanfic

Chapter 49: Catherine's Story

Never thought
This day would come so soon
We had no time to say goodbye
How can the world just carry on?
I feel so lost when you are not at my side
But there's nothing but silence now
Around the one I loved
Is this our farewell?

Sweet darling you worry too much, my child
See the sadness in your eyes
You are not alone in life
Although you might think that you are

So sorry your world is tumbling down
I will watch you through these nights
Rest your head and go to sleep
Because my child, this not our farewell.
This is not our farewell

...Within Temptation - Our Farewell

"As I said, a bunch of us didn't believe Giovanni's story. We knew that there was more too it. We knew that Giovanni being in charge meant trouble for all. We didn't like what Giovanni was doing to the organization. Teams were split, horrible experiments were carried out, and anyone who supported Madam Boss was persecuted. We wanted to do something and we had found out that the best way to do that was to break into Giovanni's office. We figured that we could find something that would help us," Catherine explained, "We had planned our little heist to be on the one year anniversary of Miya's death..."

It had been a year. A year since Miya. A year since Madam Boss and Joseph Sakaki. A year since Amy.

I sat at my vanity, flipping through an old scrapbook, staring at pictures of a happier time. There were pictures of me and Miya when we first met and started training together. We hit it off right from the start. We were practically like sisters. I smiled sadly down at the page. It felt like a part of me had been buried in the snow with her that day.

"Mommy?" a little voice questioned from the doorway. I looked over and saw my daughter, clad in her pink pajamas.

"Come here, Cassidy," I called to her. She padded into the room almost soundlessly and crawled onto my lap, her little head resting on my shoulder. I kissed the top of her head and flipped the page. We were met with a picture of Miya's beautiful daughter. Cassidy whimpered and put her hand on the picture of the two of them at the park. I shut my eyes as that familiar feeling of guilt took hold. Jessie was gone, somewhere out in the world all alone. The second Daphne told me about Miya, I should have hopped in the car and drove up to Viridian Peak and brought her home. I had waited too long.

Reluctantly, I flipped the page, knowing that I would see the face of another fallen friend. On the next page, there was a picture of Amy with her son. Cassidy let out another whimper when she saw her other best friend. She missed Jessie and Butch terribly. Every day, she talked about at least one of them. Hopefully once she started kindergarten, the pain and loneliness would lessen. I sighed and remembered the day she was forced to say goodbye to the little green-haired boy. It had been at his mother's funeral. His father had roughly led him away from us at the funeral. Even though Robert Carson was a deplorable, abusive alcoholic, he was still Butch's father and with Amy gone, he had custody.

I hugged my daughter close and shut the scrapbook, desperately wishing that all of that was a horrible dream, but it was real and it all ached like a phantom limb that had been amputated. They were all really gone and the rest of us were left to pick up the pieces.

"Cassidy, Honey, it's time for bed," I whispered, carrying her to her room.

"Momma, where are you going?" she asked me.

"I have to go meet with some people," I answered, tucking her in, "I'll be back before you wake up."

"Promise?"

"I will come back to you," I vowed, kissing her head.

"That got broken, didn't it?" Jessie asked with a frown. She wondered if Cassidy remembered that broken promise. Not that she really cared, of course.

"It did," Catherine replied.

I kissed her one last time and then I left her to sleep. I went downstairs to find Fredrick sitting there.

"Think about what you're doing," he said, swirling a glass of alcohol. I glanced at it in distaste. It seemed money had only made things worse for him. He had managed to strike oil in Mt. Moon and had gotten a huge payout. We were living in newfound wealth. It made Fred resent what I did for a living.

"I'll be back, Fred," I said, collecting my purse. He got to his feet.

"That's bullshit and you know it!" he accused, "You're leaving to go fight with your little resistance group and you don't give a damn about me or your daughter!"

"This is for her!" I spat, "For her future!"

"As a criminal?" he scoffed, "Like her mother?"

"If I don't find a way out of Team Rocket, then it will be her fate and I don't want that any more than you," I reminded him.

"Just leave. You don't have to fucking fight "the man". It's stupid!" Fred exclaimed.

"No one just leaves Team Rocket," I told him, "And I have to do something. My friends are suffering, Fred. My best friend died because of…of him."

"Get over it."

My eyebrows shot to my forehead, "What did you just say?"

"This whole fucking year has been about her. Miya. Miya this, Miya that..." Fred paced, "She's dead! Let it go and focus on the living for Christ sake!"

I hit him, slapped him across the face. He looked at me, stunned, but I was too angry to care. I turned on my heel and left. I'd deal with the consequences in the morning.

We were all meeting at The Rolling Golem. It was a small pub and a good place for meetings. We thought it was a prudent location considering the last time we had all met there, we had been planning to thwart a takeover. In addition to myself, there was Heath Ketchum, Motorcycle Oak, and Lana Parker. There were three young men who had travelled to Hoenn with Joseph Sakaki, Kyle and Cory Lowrey, and Sean Marchand.

"I remember them," Jack piped up, "They spent a lot of time with my brother. Kyle always seemed to be around."

"Apparently it was a romantic thing," Catherine said, "which was why he, his brother, and his friend sided with us. Kyle wanted to know the truth about Joseph's death."

Jack was a little surprised by the news, but kept it to himself. It was true that Joe had been different after returning from Hoenn all those years ago, but Jack had never noticed that his brother had started to prefer the company of men. Maybe Jack was just too self-absorbed in his own problems to notice.

"Were they the ones that betrayed you?" Jessie asked. She knew that that was what had happened. Giovanni had got wise to Catherine's plan and imprisoned her for it.

"No," Catherine said simply.

I was the second last one to arrive, so I ordered myself a drink. Just a beer. The only one that was drinking hard alcohol was Motorcycle. He drank every weekend now, to numb the pain of losing Amy. They had been at the beginning of a relationship when she had died. He swore he would never love again and drank often to cope with the loss. Heath and Lana worried about him, but he would distance himself from them if they tried to say anything.

The door chimed as the last member of our little group arrived.

Daphne was all business, dressed in black.

Jessie suddenly knew exactly how Catherine had ended up in Seafoam.

The year had been at a standstill for me, but not so much for my remaining partner. Daphne had fallen pregnant shortly after Miya's death. She didn't know who the father was. Apparently, she had been drunk, mourning Miya, and ended up sleeping with some guy. It wasn't much of a stretch. She was notorious for one-night-stands around Viridian. Her daughter was born in September. Laurel Domenica.

"I've heard that name before," Jack ejected.

Catherine smiled bitterly, "I'm surprised. From what I hear, she prefers to go by her nickname."

"What nickname is that?" Brock asked.

"Daphne often said that Laurel made all Daphne's past mistakes fall away...like dominos," Catherine replied.

"Domino was Daphne's daughter?" Jessie demanded, her eyes wide with realization.

"Yes," Catherine stated simply.

Jessie shook her head in pure disgust. The woman who had tried to destroy her life was the daughter of the very woman who had murdered Jessie's mother. It was with a sick sort of thrill that Jessie realized that Domino was now buried under the snow on the same mountain that Miya died on. Perhaps it was the universe's way of doling out justice.

"Wait," Jack said slowly, "That doesn't make any sense. This Laurel...she's my...oh. Oh."

It looked like Jack had been hit by a ton of bricks by the realization that Laurel Domenica, Giovanni's mysterious other child, was also the daughter of Miya's old teammate. Jessie knew that it would only be a matter of time before he would realize exactly how Miya was killed.

Daphne sat down beside me and ordered a martini before she said, "I'm sorry I'm late. My little Domino just refused to go down for the night."

"You really need to choose between Laurel and Domino," I teased, "You're going to confuse the poor girl."

Daphne just shrugged her shoulders and wondered, "Who says?"

I shook my head as the waiter brought Daphne her drink. At that point, Heath Ketchum raised his glass and toasted, "To our loved ones."

"To our loved ones," we all murmured back. I thought of Cassidy and Jessie, wherever she was. Heath, no doubt, was thinking about his new wife, Delia.

After a moment, Motorcycle raised his own glass and said, "To the lost."

Amy. Miya. Madam Boss. Joseph. Jade. Jack. Jessie. Butch.

"To victory," Daphne announced, raising her own glass.

No one had time to join her in her toast. At that moment, the door of the bar burst open and Rocket agents rushed inside, shouting, "REBELS SIGHTED!"

I grabbed for those nearest to me, Daphne and Heath, and pulled them with me towards the back door. Motorcycle got there first with Lana and slammed it opened, right into a pair of unsuspecting Rocket grunts. We spilled out into the alley as the Lowrey brothers and Sean Marchand were overtaken by the grunts inside.

We knew we couldn't go down the alley. More Rockets would be waiting at the mouth of it.

"Up the fence!" Heath hissed, pointing to the fence blocking off the opposite end of the alley. We ran for it, Motorcycle getting there first. He scurried to the other side.

"Lana!" he called. Heath helped her over it and then turned to us.

"Catherine, Daphne-"

He stopped cold and stared past me. I turned slowly.

Daphne was pointing a gun at my head. My mouth ran dry as my brain struggled to process what was happening. My partner was pointing a gun at me.

"Daphne-"

"Shut up, Catherine," she commanded.

"Daphne, please," Heath said, his hands up in the air, "Don't do this."

"Quiet, Ketchum," Daphne snapped coldly, "I'll get to you in a minute."

She stepped towards me and pressed the barrel of the gun against my forehead.

"Why?" I asked, my voice hoarse and hollow.

"Because it's my turn to run the show," Daphne said arrogantly.

My mouth was dry, but I somehow managed to ask, "Can you really do this to me? To your friend?"

A triumphant sort of smile overtook her features and she smugly explained, "I had no trouble doing this to Miya, so I don't expect any trouble doing-"

I dropped down to the ground and kicked out her legs from under her. I could barely hear the sound of the gunshot over the blood pounding in my ears. I felt white hot rage as I leapt onto her, fighting her for the gun. We rolled on the concrete, vying for control.

"MURDERER!" I screamed out as we fought. She shouted some expletives at me, none that I could really make sense of. Behind me, I heard screaming. None of that registered. Daphne was ontop of me and I was fighting for my life. With one hand, I gripped her chin and pushed up. With the other, I struggled to keep the gun at bay.

More shouts.

And then my hand closed around the butt of the gun overtop Daphne's. My finger pressed on hers.

BANG!

The shot echoed in my ears and blood spattered onto my face. My eyes were locked on the pain-filled grimace on my former friend's face. She slumped forward onto me. She wasn't breathing anymore. I could feel her blood trickle onto me.

I felt numb. Sick.

I weakly attempted to push her corpse off of me, but suddenly my muscles felt like jell-o. Then, suddenly, her body was pulled off of me and a hand was offering me help up.

"Come on!" Heath cried, "They're coming!"

Blood was staining the sleeve of his shirt red. I took his hand and let him pull me to my feet. He pulled me towards the fence where Motorcycle had climbed up the other side, waiting to pull one of us over. I looked over my shoulder and saw about five grunts running towards us. They were maybe thirty feet away and closing fast. We'd never make it.

Heath realized it too.

"RUN!" he screamed at his teammates. Then he let go of my hand and charged the Rockets, fighting with them. I understood. We had to buy Lana and Motorcycle time to run.

I joined the charge.

It wasn't long before I was slammed to the ground and my hands were cuffed around my back. I laid there, face down in the dirt. I could see Heath in a similar position, blood dripping from his injured arm into a pool on the ground. They held us there until a pair of shiny black shoes moved towards us, clicking loudly on the cement.

Giovanni stood stiffly and silently before us, calmly surveying the scene in the alley. For a long time, his dead grey eyes rested on Daphne's dead body.

Then, without warning, his expensive shoe connected with my face. I cried out, but before I could even register anything, I was hauled up to my feet and my back slammed against the brick wall. He was in my face, far too close.

"You did it," he correctly guessed.

I said nothing. He slammed me against the wall again.

"I will make you regret this moment for the rest of your miserable life!" he spat.

It was a promise he would keep.

"I spent two weeks in the dungeons at Headquarters before, Heath, Sean, the Lowrey's, and I were transported to the Seafoam Islands," Catherine finished, "I spent the next twenty-one years in a cold, dirt cell alternating between isolation and beatings. Every year, he would personally come to my cell and inflict his own brand of torture. He'd show me pictures of my daughter, Butch, and you, Jessie, as you all grew up. It was his way of letting me know that he always had you all within his sight and that he had the power to harm you whenever he chose. I cried when he showed me that you three had joined Team Rocket. I rejoiced when I discovered that you had successfully fled him. This last time...he showed me a photograph of you, bound and gagged and in a cage. I thought I'd never see you again. Then, Meowth and his friends managed to break us all out of Seafoam and it's been my mission to do right by you."

Jessie was gobsmacked. Never before had she had so many people fighting for her. Catherine, Jack, Meowth, Brock, Silver, and, she suspected, a whole bunch of others.

She said the only thing that she could:

"Thank you."

TBC

Next: A final goodbye on the mountainside.