Notes: Guess who's back, back again. Judy's back, tell a friend.
No, you are not hallucinating. The update is real. It's actually happening. This is not a drill, folks!
Anyway, I think I've reached a point where it's become moot for me to apologize. I'm terrible at this. We all know it. Let's just be glad this is finally coming to an end.
As he scurries back into the hallway, Silver is hit by a foreign kind of resolve. Fuck this, he thinks. Fuck all of it. From now on he'll do things his own way.
He runs upstairs, wrenches the nearest window open and releases Honchkrow from his poké ball. Silver tells him to carry him to the sidewalk in front of the bar, as quietly as feasible. A little bemused, Honchkrow does as he's told. They land behind the huge black car Archer and his entourage arrived in. Murmuring a quick, "thanks," Silver calls Honchkrow back and grabs for another poké ball. Beedrill emerges from it, almost even more menacing than he remembers her. He caught her only a few weeks prior to his return to Viridian City, so he's still not entirely familiar with her, but he hopes this is going to work regardless.
"Fly in there and knock the guys in the funny suits out with Stun Spore," he says, gesturing at the open entrance of The Hatcher.
Wasting no time, Beedrill dashes forward and into the bar and shoots a huge salve of Stun Spore over the startled members of Team Rocket. Silver watches them drop nearly instantly. Unfortunately, Gold does as well.
Once the majority of the spores has dissipated, Silver abandons his hiding spot and follows Beedrill inside.
"You little—" Archer is hissing at him from the ground, attempting to fight the attack.
Silver ignores him. "Tie them up with String Shot," he says to Beedrill, who obliges without fuss. Relief washes over him. He makes the mental note to reward her with a bowl of her favorite snacks, as soon as he has the time, and lets her retire to her poké ball.
"Silver?" Crystal calls from beyond the barricade. "What are you doing?"
"The right thing," he answers, slinging Gold's arm over his shoulder. "Come on, let's get out of here."
Brows furrowed with bewilderment, Crystal climbs across the blockade in front of the counter and boggles at the scene before her.
"Silver, I—"
He stands up, straining a little under the dead weight of Gold's body, and heads towards the door. "We can talk later," he says.
Casting the unconscious Team Rocket members spread over the floor a last glance, Crystal follows him outside. "Where to?"
Silver bites his lip. "The three of us are too heavy for Honchkrow."
In that instant Gold stirs in his hold and does his best to speak and overcome the paralysis. "I…have 'n idea."
x
"This is the dumbest idea you've ever had," Crystal declares, steering Archer's van around another corner. "And that's a real feat, considering all the shit you've pulled in the past."
Gold's face splits into a shit-eating grin despite the lingering effects of Beedrill's Stun Spore. "Thanks."
"I don't think it was a compliment," Silver says.
"C'mon," Gold wheezes. "How is blackmail not a solid plan?"
"If we die because of this, I'm going to haunt you," Crystal promises.
The car veers to the right and pulls into the driveway of a large, worn-looking warehouse, the guise of Team Rocket's headquarters.
"Can ghosts haunt each other?"
Crystal's grip around the steering wheel tightens. "I'm definitely willing to try."
Silver gazes out the window at the familiar silhouette of brick and cracked concrete coming into view, looming above them like a foreboding shadow. He's been here just a few days ago, but it feels so much longer than that, so different. (Maybe because he's changed since then. Or is that just wishful thinking?)
He looks over at Gold, who's rubbing his cheeks to get some sensation back. Gold, who's both the best and the worst thing that's ever happened to him.
"Are you ready?"
Gold stills his hands and turns to meet Silver's eyes. "I'm sorry," he says.
Silver knows that. He's sorry, too, for a lot of things. He directs his attention back to the building towering in front of them. They don't have time for this.
"That's not what I asked."
Gold doesn't respond. He's taking that as a yes.
In the driver's seat, Crystal pops another dose of painkillers. "Let's go before I change my mind," she says and jumps out of the car.
x
They open the trunk and haul a bound and gagged Archer out of it, all the while at least one of them is holding a gun to his head. He glares at the three of them with open hatred.
Silver closes the trunk and takes the lead. Gold and Crystal trail behind him, dragging Archer along with them.
At first glance the inside of the warehouse appears to match its bland run-down exterior, but the well-maintained elevators and LED lights tell a different story. There is no one else in sight, on this level at least. He pushes the up button of the elevator and hopes it will stay that way until they've gotten to his father's office.
They ride the elevator all the way up to the highest floor, number ten. When the doors slide open, they're greeted by the three remaining Team Rocket Executives Ariana, Petrel and Proton.
"We have your leader," Silver says before any of them can do or say anything themselves. "I imagine you want him back unharmed, so step back and do exactly as we say."
To his surprise, the three obey without a single word of objection.
"We've been waiting for you," is all Ariana says before all of them move aside to let the intruders through.
Silver eyes them suspiciously as he makes his way down the hallway to the tall door leading to Giovanni's office.
"What's going on here?" Crystal whispers, eyes flitting back and forth between the three and Silver.
Silver punches in the entrance code into the small panel next to the door and waits for it to unlock. He feels Ariana and the others boring holes into him with their impassive stares. We've been waiting for you.
"I have no idea."
x
Silver doesn't have many positive memories left of his father. Most of them have been lost over time, swallowed by tarnishes of days alone in their apartment or distorted by the innumerable arguments that eventually drove Silver as far away from his home as his feet would take him. For some reason Giovanni indulged him, let him. To this day, Silver can't imagine why.
Only one truly good memory has survived, and Silver doesn't quite know what to do with it. It sits in the back of his mind, persistent but useless, because what does one good deed amount to, stacked against years of crime and evil?
x
"You failed me, son."
Silver sucks in a tattered breath, but his lungs don't comply.
From the huge leather armchair behind the mahogany desk, Giovanni is leveling an unrelenting, unfeeling look at his son. His chin is propped on his folded hands. He's clad in dark impeccably tailored suit. His hair has been slicked back like it always has, all strands in line. There isn't a single scratch on him.
"Father," Silver breathes, chest contracting. "You're alive."
Next to him, Crystal and Gold gasp.
Giovanni snorts and leans back, unfolding his hands. With his broad shoulders, he has no problem filling the chair's frame. "Did you really think I would die just like that?"
Silver's legs tremble, though he wills himself to keep standing. "But—I saw you—"
"I expected more of you," Giovanni says over him. "It should have been so easy. Just take out one small rival business. You couldn't even accomplish that much." He spits at the ground. "My own flesh and blood."
Overcome by a torrent of nausea, Silver's throat closes up. His eyes are pricking, fighting against the tears. Why does this always end up happening? What's the point of crying, anyway? It's one of the most superfluous physiological mechanisms of the human body. There is no logical relation between ocular lubrication and—and feeling like this, like the world itself is about to cave in on itself.
Gold takes a step forward and positions himself between Silver and his father. "You mean, you orchestrated all of this just to test him?" he shouts.
"You must be Gold," Giovanni says, scrutinizing him. "You caused my son to betray his family?"
"Family?" Gold echoes incredulously. His shoulders hunch, his back tenses. He looks like he'll strike at the man any moment.
Crystal places a placating hand on his neck, but she looks just as furious as Gold does.
"We came here to exchange Archer for our freedom," Silver says. Wayward tears fog his vision and blur his father into an unrecognizable, swirling mess before his yes. He blinks, spilling the tears down his cheeks. All at once everything becomes clear.
x
The memory is more than a decade old, already nothing more than a sepia-tinted scrap that's fading at the edges.
He's six years old and barely reaches the top drawer of his father's desk. He's snuck inside the office to hide from his teachers. His father isn't there, the room is all his to explore. On one of the shelves he discovers a photo album. There are pictures of his father in it. He looks younger, and he smiles in nearly all of them. Silver has never seen him smile like that before. In every image a woman stands beside Giovanni. She seems familiar even though Silver is sure this is the first time he's seen her.
Then the door opens, and his father enters the room. His gaze immediately finds Silver, crouched in a corner with the album in his lap. Terrified, Silver shrinks into himself. He isn't allowed in here. Giovanni comes closer and slants a glance at the pictures on the open pages.
His mouth twitches. "You look just like her," he says and ruffles Silver's hair.
Here the memory shears off, fraying into fragments that don't fit together anymore. Years pass until Silver has grasped who the woman is. By the time he's figured it out, it's too late to ask his father about it. Giovanni no longer shares any resemblance with the man in the photos.
x
Giovanni laughs, a terrible piercing sound that cuts through the air like a knife. "That's your plan?"
Silver approaches the desk and carefully places his gun on top of it. Behind him, Crystal and Gold break out into movement.
"What the hell are you doing?" Gold demands.
"It was," Silver says to his father and forces himself to look straight ahead, wiping away the last of his tears away. "I'm surrendering myself to you. Let them go."
For a minute Giovanni's waning laughter is the only sound in the room. Finally, he says, "Do you think you're important enough for that?"
"What is bred in the bone will not go out of the flesh. You taught me that."
"Sometimes the flesh is rotten." His father cocks his head. "Sometimes it needs to be cut off."
Silver refuses to back down. "What happens to the bone without it?"
Again Giovanni doesn't reply right away. "So you'd give yourself up in order to save these two?"
Gold grabs Silver's shoulder and whips him around, face twisted by worry and regret. "Don't do it! This isn't what we came for!" he yells and shakes him a little.
But Silver won't budge, neither for his father nor for Gold. He'll do things his own way. "I dragged you and Crystal into this," he says, "so I'll pull you out, too."
"I haven't agreed yet," Giovanni interjects. Gold and Silver jerk around to look at him. There's an ominous glint in his eyes. "This is the first time you're not running away."
"This isn't something I can run away from," Silver says, concentrating on the grounding warmth of Gold's hand that's still lying on his shoulder.
Giovanni sighs. There are lines etched into his forehead that Silver doesn't remember seeing before. It occurs to him that he's forgotten how old his father actually is.
"Your mother," Giovanni says and halts, pursing his lips. Something in Silver's chest shatters. "She told me this would happen. Before you were even born, she said she knew you were destined for something else. I didn't want to believe her, but it looks like she was right."
"What—what do you mean?"
"I think it's time you met your grandparents. They run a pokémon daycare on Route 5 near Cerulean City."
Before Silver has a chance to process that, a sudden outburst of movement breaks out behind him. He swivels around just in time too see Archer, who's freed himself somehow, removing the duct tape from his mouth.
"Sir," he implores, staggering forward, "but the plan! Y-you cannot be serious!"
Giovanni rises from seat, leisurely rounding the table to glare down at his subordinate, and says, "I am quite serious."
Archer, looking aghast, turns to fix Silver with a venomous glare. "This is all your fault!" he snarls. "Just because you were too much of a coward to fulfill your duty!"
Then several things happen at once. In one fluid motion, Archer lunges forward, swinging at Silver with a knife he must have kept hidden from view until now. That way he probably got rid of his bonds, Silver notes absentmindedly, too shocked to move. At the same time, Gold throws himself between Silver and his assailant, but before Archer's blow can connect, he's shoved out of the way, crashing into Silver. Both topple to the ground in a tangled heap of limbs.
Somewhere above them someone chokes out a pained cry, followed by the dull thud of something hitting the floor. Then deafening silence.
Unraveling his body from Gold's, Silver sits up to see what happened. The sight before him knocks the air from his chest.
Giovanni is lying there, mere inches away from him, lifeless. Blood is seeping into his expensive suit around the knife stuck in his heart.
x
These are the facts: Giovanni is dead. Team Rocket needs a new boss. Silver is Giovanni's offspring, and as such, his future offers no other prospects than to follow his father's footsteps as the leader of one of the largest syndicates in the pokémon mafia. Or so he used to believe.
x
Silver inhales sharply and watches the casket disappear in the earth. He doesn't know what to make of his father's second death or his abrupt swerve in attitude just beforehand. Had he really meant what he'd said about his mother, about him? Or had it been another subterfuge? Where is the moral of the story?
There is no way of knowing now. It's aggravating. Doesn't he deserve answers? Doesn't he deserve closure? How typical of his father to deny him the easy way to the solution.