Epilogue

Everyone returned to Father Joe's house that evening to clean up and try to recover from the day's calamities. No one seemed to know quite what to say, so the time passed largely in awkward silence as they thought on all that had happened and tried to figure out how to express their feelings in words. As the evening faded into night, a glow came from the mountain in the distance, changing one by one to all the colors of the rainbow.

"It really is the core of a Starmie," Misty said softly as she watched from an upstairs window.

Her own Starmie cooed and moved closer to her. She had a long life yet to live.

Misty hugged the Pokemon close. "That Starmie really must have loved this place, for her dying wish to be to leave a way to protect it even after she was gone."

Starmie laid two upper points on Misty's arms.

Misty smiled. "I'm glad we could help protect it too. I just wish poor James hadn't had to sacrifice himself." She shuddered. "It's a miracle he's okay."

Starmie thought so too.

"I never used to think I'd feel bad for him," Misty continued. "But I have when he's done something good and ends up hurt for it. I sure felt bad for him today."

Starmie chirped.

Misty rubbed her cheek on the uppermost point. "I felt bad for Jessie and Meowth too. They love James so much. I know how I'd feel to lose Ash . . . or Brock. . . . Or you or Staryu or Togepi or any of my other Pokemon. . . ." A far-off look came into her eyes. "I have almost lost Ash a couple of times. It was awful."

Starmie remembered. She turned and hugged Misty now.

Misty smiled. "Let's go see how the others are doing now, okay?"

Starmie was in agreement.

xxxx

Everyone else was downstairs in the living room. Ash and Pikachu were staring into the fire, while Brock groomed Vulpix and seemed deep in thought. Jessie and James were sitting on the couch with Meowth between them. They were also silent, but every now and then one of them would pet Meowth, much to his delight.

"This is nice, isn't it?" James said at last.

Meowth sighed with happiness.

". . . We lost you today," Jessie said. "You can't imagine how that made me feel."

James looked at her in all seriousness. "I think I can," he said. "It's how I'd feel if I ever lost you. Or Meowth."

Jessie looked down. "Part of me wanted to yell and scream at you when I realized what you were going to do."

"I'm surprised you didn't," James confessed.

"I felt so helpless I was numb," Jessie said. "And if it was the end . . . I didn't want to always remember that my last words to you were harsh and cruel."

"I would have understood," James said.

"So would I," Jessie said. "But I didn't want to do it."

James hesitated. "Are you angry? Either of you?"

"At the time, I was," Jessie said.

"Me too," said Meowth. "But that didn't last long. We knew why you did it. We even knew you had to do it. There was nobody else. And if the twerp had died, well, we all would've bought it."

"That's right," James nodded. "But I still feel horrible for putting you both through it."

". . . My anger stayed longer than Meowth's," Jessie said then. "I was furious that you took off without telling us what you were going to do. We're a team, but you went to get the balloon and die alone."

"I hoped I wouldn't die," James said. "But in case I would, I didn't want you and Meowth to follow me into that."

"It would have been better to have died with you than to be left behind trying to pick up the pieces," Jessie said with a burst of lingering bitterness.

"I'm sorry," James said softly. ". . . Are you still angry?"

Jessie paused to think about that. "No," she realized. "Just don't do it again," she added gruffly.

"I won't, if I can help it," James said. "It wasn't any picnic for me either." He paused. "But of course I know it was worse for you and Meowth."

"Even the twerps were upset," Jessie said.

"Yes, and that's still incredible to realize," James said. He shuddered. "I'm probably going to have nightmares about that fire coming at me for a long time."

"And I'll have nightmares about it too," Jessie retorted. "But you're back. That's what I want to focus on. You came back."

"And you won't be goin' away again," Meowth chimed in.

"No," James agreed. "I won't." He paused. "Maybe I shouldn't ask, but . . . how do you feel about God now, Jess?"

"If anyone has a right to ask, it's you," Jessie shrugged. She fell silent, thinking. "I'm still upset about my mother. I probably always will be and I won't understand. But I meant what I said earlier today. God did bring you back . . . or He allowed Pikachu to bring you back. One or the other. And I will always be thankful for that . . . although to just say 'thankful' sounds so trite. My feelings are far deeper than that." She looked down at Meowth. "And while I could dismiss it as a coincidence that Pikachu's Thundershock finally worked after everyone prayed, it feels like that would be a lie."

James nodded. "The only thing I wonder is, why was I spared? A longtime sinner like me?"

"Maybe because you still have a lot of good in you," Jessie said, "and God felt you deserved a second chance to use it."

"Maybe," James agreed noncommittally. "But where do we go from here?"

Jessie sighed. "Let's sleep on it and decide in the morning."

"Are you really thinking we might leave Team Rocket?" James asked.

A scowl. "I don't want to make any rash decisions because of still being shaken up about today. But let's just say I'm considering it."

"Hey, the important thing is, we'd all still be together if we left," Meowth said.

"That's right, Meowth," James said. "Although it is a daunting prospect for the future. . . ."

"So we'll decide in the morning," Jessie said firmly. "There's a lot to think about."

"That's true," James said. "But maybe by morning we'll have a lot of doubts."

"It's better than running into something without thinking it out," Jessie said.

"I suppose," James said slowly.

Misty turned away. This conversation was really private and she shouldn't have been eavesdropping. She would go sit with her friends.

"Hi, guys," she said as she sat near them. "Are you okay?"

Ash nodded. "Just thinking." He absently petted Pikachu, who was stretched across his lap.

Brock nodded too and continued brushing Vulpix.

Misty frowned. "You're both acting like things turned out awful!" she scolded.

"They could have," Ash said. "I guess we're still kind of shaken up. I didn't want anyone to die, even a member of Team Rocket. I know we've had a lot of close calls, but we've never had anything like what happened today. I've never seen someone laying dead before. It was awful. And even though James is okay, I don't think I'll be able to forget what that was like for a while."

Misty sobered. "It seemed almost unreal," she admitted. "If I'm honest, I won't be able to forget it very easy either. But at the same time, I don't want my memory of it erased, like our first encounter with Mewtwo was until we met him again. It happened, and I want to remember every part of it. I want to remember the day we mourned a member of Team Rocket and why. And I want to remember that God let him come back."

"Pikachu," Pikachu quietly agreed.

"I keep wondering if there was anything else we could have done to prevent things from getting to that point," Brock said. "We can't let anything like it happen again; there might not be a rescue next time."

"Honestly, I think we were pretty much boxed in a corner," Misty said. "We didn't know anything about fighting Pyros."

"Yeah, but I thought it would be like fighting any other Fire type," Ash sighed.

"Pi-Pikachu," said Pikachu.

"Father Joe said it wouldn't be," Brock said.

"I wonder if someday the whole world will know about Pyros and there'll be more about them in the Pokedex than a picture and the basic information we already know," Ash said.

"That might mean more people trying to steal them," Brock said.

"Yeah," Ash relented.

"It's probably better if most people don't know about them," Brock said.

Misty nodded. "I agree." She paused. "Are you going to tell Professor Oak about them, Ash?"

"Probably," Ash said. "I don't know if I want to tell him everything that happened, though. At least not on the phone."

Brock gave a nod of encouragement. "We'll see how it goes. You might not want to tell him on the phone, but it might all just spill out."

"Yeah." Ash straightened. "Well, I really am glad it turned out as good as it has. James is okay, and that's the most important thing."

"But it'll take a while for the emotional scars to heal," Misty was coming to understand.

"Exactly," Brock said.

They looked to where the other trio had started to slump and doze against each other on the couch.

"I wonder if those three will ever leave Team Rocket," Misty mused.

"I don't know, but maybe we can encourage them to," Ash said. "Who knows, maybe someday it'll help."

"I guess stranger things have happened," Misty said.

Starmie chirped in agreement.

Observing them all from the doorway, Father Joe smiled. They were all learning.