Well, it's been a long while, hasn't it? I had plans to finish this long ago, but then life got in the way. I was getting stuff together to go back to school, got into grad school finally, started student teaching right away, finished off my degree and credential, and then landed a job teaching science to high school kids at a performing arts school in the desert. Spring break actually just ended.

The goods news for you, dear readers who may still be interested, is that I have been writing nonstop save for sleep and food for the last four days. I found a fanfic that inspired me finally get moving on this again. I even went back and revised every chapter already posted. Most were small things like spelling and grammar, but I also added some scenes. Maybe you already read my note in the first chapter. I added a scene at the end of chapter one, added one to the beginning of chapter four, and one to the end of chapter five. I like to weave flashbacks to the past in my narration in case it wasn't obvious already, and I felt I needed to explore more how Delia and Giovanni even became a thing in the first place. I've actually had a lot of fun doing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it.

I have a lot done but still have lots more to do. This story is my baby, though, and it will get done. I most definitely won't wait another three years to update.

Until next time, please enjoy my story.

"Where there's a will, there's a way." – Star Wars: The Clone Wars, episode 3.3

Early on this Sunday morning in the heart of Viridian City, the clock switches over to six on the dot without sounding to wake up the room's occupants. The unusual mid-October heat wave has yet to grip the city, but the lingering heat from the day prior has not allowed it to be comfortable for those unlucky enough not to have central air. For the son of the Rocket boss and his partner, however, this is not the case as the mansion he still shares with his mother is equipped with all things state of the art. After all, what is the point of making money if one doesn't buy everything they want? At least, that is what she reminds her brat boy when he starts to fall under the sway of his stupid girl's naïve ideas of how the world should work. He tries not to listen to her a lot of the time, though.

The young man shifts a little and turns towards the one asleep next to him, still mostly asleep himself. The last thing he wants to do is wake up so he is trying very hard not to. Today, for the first time in a long time, he has declared a day off for himself, his girl, and his Persian. His mother's Team Rocket prepping and getting the gym ready have been taking a large toll on his free time, but today he is going to let both things take the backseat, especially after what happened the day previous. Madame Boss was never happy he kept the company of the one next to him and has tried everything she could think of to separate the pair. In the beginning, he used this to his advantage to piss her off as he always liked to do. It worked like a charm, and Delia got her wish as well, making herself believe she was somehow helping the Pokémon he caught in the forest where they met. Then, against his better judgment and his mother's interfering, he found himself wanting her around for other reasons. She managed to earn his trust and admiration and eventually even his love. He knows by her answer last night that the same is true for her.

In all honesty, he hadn't even made up his mind to ask her or not, which is why he tried to keep the ring hidden. Their time together has totaled only eleven months, not yet a full year, and they are both still young (though his parents were both only twenty-one when they married and he was born). Even still, with the notion of them being too young or not knowing each other long enough, he could genuinely picture her at his side as he takes over as Viridian's gym leader and head of Team Rocket. Persian adores her, and he chooses to give out his affections very sparingly.

He should have known she would get into the snooping mood when he was taking too long to finish up paperwork for the gym required of him by the Pokémon League. (He'll never forget, though it's for different reasons, the evening she found the hidden picture of his young father. He snagged it from his mother when he was a boy so he could have a piece of the man. It was both forbidden and very private. Things ended on a better note, at least.) As soon as he realized she had found it, his mind was made up. Hers was too as she gave an answer before he could ask the question. They spent the rest of the night with just each other, forgetting the real world and the duties and responsibilities he carries as Giovanni Sakaki and she carries as his partner in now everything.

Trying to stay asleep proves fruitless, and he allows himself to just give up the battle. Rather, he rolls back onto his back and looks at the ceiling. A bit of morning light paints it a faint hue of gray and orange, but shadows still linger. His mind wanders to Persian, and he hopes the cat will forgive him for once again forcing him to sleep outside the safe confines of his room. The Pokémon usually knows when his two favorite people want to be alone and when it is okay to sleep on the bed with them, but that doesn't mean he likes being where that woman could get to him. He'll be happy to have her permanently around, unlike his mother.

He smirks at that, thinking about her reaction. She has tried since he was a small boy to keep him under her thumb, but he rebuffed her at almost every turn. If he was going to do what she wanted, he was going to do it his way. This, however, is the last thing she wants him to do, and he relishes that notion. This decision he made all on his own and cannot be hindered by her actions. Whether she likes it or not, Delia Ketchum is going to be her daughter-in-law.

Suddenly, the phone on his side of the bed rings loud enough to make him jump. He answers it quickly but knows that it has woken her up (just as Gio himself, she is a light sleeper). The voice on the other end is a surprise as he made sure, before they spent a romantic dinner and then heated evening together, to tell his underlings that today he was not to be bothered. Angrily, he agrees to come right down and deal with the issue. He hangs up but doesn't move further.

"Is it the gym?" comes her questions as he suspected.

"Yes. It seems the League Inspector has pushed up his inspection date to today. He arrives in three hours."

"Why didn't they tell you sooner?"

"Because they're idiots who can't do their damn jobs." He swings his feet to the floor and lets his back face her. "So much for a day off." His guilt is there, but he completely masks it with anger. She knows how to read him, though and can see right through it. The next thing he realizes, her arms are around his shoulders as she leans into his back. The only thing separating them is his old t-shirt, something he gifted her when he realized she liked sleeping in it more than he liked wearing it. His mind goes back to last night and the decision that made them spend it that way. Now he really wants that day off.

"It's okay. The gym is important. You've worked too hard to let it fall apart now."

"I know." As he has nothing else to say and is not at all the mushy type, he pulls away and goes to get dressed. He decides to skip a shower so he has the most time to prep the gym and heads straight to picking out a nice suit. She watches him, silent at first but quickly grows uncomfortable knowing his mood is still sour.

"After he gives final approval, we'll have something else to celebrate later. And we can tell your mother."

"That's a conversation I look forward to having."

"She should be grateful I haven't convinced you to walk away from Team Rocket yet," she jokes. He, however, finds no humor in her statement.

"You know I can't do that. Team Rocket is my heritage and my future. You need to get used to that fact." His tone is angrier than he meant it to be, but he doesn't take it back. He has been bred to run the organization since he was a small child. It is all he know, and the lure of money and power is a force all its own. He also cannot wait to outdo his mother and accomplish things she never dreamed of. To many who don't know her very well, she is shallow, short-sighted, and only out to make a quick buck. To those close to her, she does indeed love money, but not all of her plans are simple and small. Still, he sees with a different vision, one that he will use to quickly and efficiently expand Team Rocket more than she has since its founding sixteen years ago. She has accumulated money and power and gotten Team Rocket entangled with various aspects of Kanto's infrastructure. But he plans on doing much, much more.

Straightening out his collar on the white button shirt, he undoes the top button as a last thought, Today he chooses no tie just as he chooses not to let his collar constrain him (it always has bothered him, much to his mother's chagrin). All that is left is to put on the matching black blazer, and when this is accomplished, he is all ready to go. When he turns around, he finds her watching him just as he knew she was. He still will not apologize for his remark, but he does come over and sit down on the bed.

"I wouldn't really ask you to leave Team Rocket," she says quietly as she looks down.

"I know." It goes unspoken between them, but she still holds out the foolish notion Team Rocket can do good things, and he knows it. He cannot see such a thing happening, which she also knows. "I don't have to do everything the way my mother does." Both think about the latest round of genetic experiments that cost two lab scientists their lives as well as those of the poor Pokémon they created. "I'm much smarter than her anyway It'd be a shame to waste my talents." That elicits a small laugh and a smile, and he returns the latter. This is the Gio only she knows, not the arrogant, calculatingly cold heir to a mafia empire. He leans in a bit, and she meets him half way for a goodbye kiss that's short and sweet but makes them both wish he could stay. "I'll be back around noon for a celebratory lunch so be ready."

With that, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Persian awaits him downstairs, the farthest place he thinks of from his master's tyrannical mother. What he doesn't notice on his way out is his mother peering from around the corner. Brat Boy may think he is so sneaky, outwitting her in her own home, but she knows everything that goes on both here and within Team Rocket. She had to call in a big favor, but by the time her son returns, he will not find what he is leaving behind. This time she will get rid of that pesky girl, and Giovanni will be too busy with his new duties as sole leader of Team Rocket and too hurt to try and go after her. Her lips turn upward in a smirk of her own. She always gets what she wants.

The room remains silent as the three trainers and Pikachu sit together at the room's table, unsure of where to start. The car ride was mostly the same way as they headed back here to the hotel where the group would be staying as arranged by the professor. This particular room was to be shared by grandfather and grandson while the watcher and doctor would split one and the gym leader would be on her own with Pikachu. Instead of resting here after a long day's investigation, however, they are here wondering just what they can do to rescue Professor Oak and hopefully Ash. At this point, they do not even know for sure who took the older man and have no idea that if they find him, they will also find their friend. The only thing they do know is that this must be kept within the group until they have a plan. And that plan is not exactly forthcoming to any of them.

A ring tone suddenly interrupts the thickness of the air, and Misty fishes her phone from her pocket. After reading the text from Brock, she answers his question of what room the trio is in and sets the device on the table.

"Was that Brock?" Tracey asks, just to say something.

"Yeah. He's coming up here now."

"Oh."

Silence follows again, this time somehow managing to be thicker than before. For Gary, this only seems to agitate him further. His gramps is missing, perhaps taken by some unknown group who may have been targeting him this whole time with plans to do who knows what. His childhood rival may in fact be alive and well having been under their noses this whole time. And no one has any idea of what to say. Sure, Tracey was not as close to Ash as Brock and Misty and even himself, but he did travel the Orange Archipelago with him. He even stood by and watched the eleven year old save the world. But he is close to the researcher having been his assistant for the past five years. Yet he sits here, awkwardly quiet.

Unlike Tracey, Misty is not close to the professor though she has spent time at his lab enough to respect and care about him. As for Ash, it was no secret to anyone except that dense boy that she harbored feelings for the aspiring master. As Gary has come to discover, much to his chagrin, they never completely went away despite his absence. The hot-headed gym leader should have suggested by now that they just storm Team Rocket and find out if Ash is there or not. Then again, the responsibility of being a gym leader has made her less brash when the situation requires it. It is here that Gary finally realizes that he is just as confused about what to do next as they are and decides against yelling at them.

Interrupting the silence finally, Brock opens the door and comes inside. Their attention snaps to him as makes his way over to the table in the center of the room. Something seems different about him, though, than when they dropped him off at the center. He was just as in the dark as they were, but now he almost has this aura of awareness, like he knows what to do. Then again, he is the oldest of the gang (even if it just by a few months for Tracey) and has always put off that comforting big brother vibe. When he sits down, he wastes no time in speaking.

"Nurse Joy called me,"

"Which one?" Gary almost mocks. Brock ignores it.

"The one I work with in Pewter."

"Why did she call you? Is something wrong at the center?"-Tracey

"No, everything's fine. She just saw what was going on here in Johto."

"So you got a worried call from Nurse Joy. So what?"-Gary

"So," he starts, the annoyance starting to show. "She isn't just a Nurse Joy. She works undercover with the Pokémon League on occasion."

That rings a bell now for Misty as she remembers the time she, Brock, and Ash spent in Dark City. The Yas and Kaz gyms were fighting for accreditation and failed miserably due to their attacks on one another. The mystery inspector revealed herself to be none other than a Nurse Joy who scolded them all and denied them official Pokémon League status. Misty herself even had dealings with one when she showed up to assess the Cerulean Gym, and she vaguely remembers Brock telling her about Forrest proving himself to a Nurse Joy in order to take over the Pewter Gym. Apparently nursing is not the only thing that runs in the family.

"Why only on occasion?"-Gary

"She didn't say. What she did tell me she was supposed to keep secret, but since we saw things out there, she decided to risk it."

"Does she know something about Ash?" Misty asks, sounding anxious and hopeful. Pikachu perks up as well.

"That and a lot more. It turns out they've been keeping a close eye on Team Rocket for years and upped their surveillance when a mysterious shadow group emerged here in Johto."

"How come they've never made a move on Team Rocket if they've been watching for so long?"-Gary

"Team Rocket does illegal and often immoral things, but they're also greatly tied to Kanto's infrastructure and have been expanding into Johto. To try and take them down would risk too much, and they don't have the resources, anyway."

"What about that shadow group?"-Tracey

"They're either tied to or the same as the one who was running illegal battling and gambling rings in Kanto. You helped Bruno with that, didn't you, Gary?"

"Yeah, five years ago. Why?"

"They've been slowly trying to take over Team Rocket's turf, and they're led by a mysterious woman who has grounded them here in Goldenrod."

"What does she know about Ash?' Misty interrupts, now obviously impatient.

"They aren't a hundred percent sure, but there have been sightings of a young man who matches his description around Viridian and other places Team Rocket has conducted its business. Rumors say that he's Giovanni's adopted son whom he's grooming to take over Team Rocket. They've even seen a young woman with him who sounds a lot like that girl Liz." The events of that day flash in all of their minds, ending with an explosion and a missing friend and foe.

"That doesn't make any sense. Why would Ash stay with Team Rocket when he knows what they do?"-Gary

"Maybe he doesn't know who he is."-Tracey

"That's stupid."

"Is it?"

"Yeah, it is."

"Maybe something happened when that blast hit. Or maybe his scientists have technology that can do those sorts of things."

"If it even is Ash and that crazy girl. They're going off of sightings, nothing official. Why would Giovanni do that, anyway? What would he want with Ash, and why would he keep lying to Delia when he could see how hurt and upset she was, especially if he loved her at one time?"

"Anger. Hurt feelings. She did lie to him or at least not tell him the truth. He isn't the most unselfish and upstanding guy, anyway." Gary looks skeptical at that, but Tracey understands why. Although he has never done anything near as drastic, he knows how it feels to be hurt by someone you love and to take it out the wrong way. No one would ever suspect mild-mannered, quiet Tracey to do anything of the sort, but he has also never told anyone. "Love is weird. Unless you've been there, you wouldn't know." He fleetingly glances at the redhead, which she notices. Instead of leaving it alone, she automatically makes a snide comment.

"Don't look at me like that." Fighting back embarrassment, he retorts, naturally.

"Don't flatter yourself, Red. You're the one who still has a crush on Ashy-boy, even though he's been gone for so long." The two other guys know what a mistake that was, and Gary soon learns himself when he is slugged in the shoulder. "ow!" He begins rubbing the spot, but she says nothing else. Pikachu considers jolting him but decides against it for now. After all, they do have to figure out what to do about getting Ash back if it really is him.

"How sure are they that it's Ash?" Tracey asks, hoping to diffuse that situation.

"Pretty sure. They even found out he competed in Johto and Hoenn under a different name than Ash or whatever Giovanni is calling him, and they reviewed the footage. He stays disguised pretty well, she said, but they brought in experts to analyze it and concluded it was more than likely Ash."

"So why haven't they done anything? It's basically kidnapping, being taken away against his will from his mom."

"They don't have jurisdiction in that area. They've thought about involving the police but are wary about it ruining the League's investigation. In her words, even under the best of the Jennys, the police aren't the most competent when it comes to things like this. When that shadow group was identified and hopefully disbanded, they were going to turn the information over."

"So in the meantime, they were going to leave Ash, who might not have his memory, with the criminal father who took and hid him away?"-Misty

"That's what she said. But then we saw that shadow group attack those Team Rocket planes, and she knew because of who we are that we'd get involved. I guess now she's leaving his rescue up to us."

"What about Gramps? Did you tell her he went missing? Maybe that group took him."

"I did, and she said it's likely if they ran into him, they took him by force. She asked me not to call on the police because she would tell her superiors and get the League involved. He's more of a priority, I guess, because of all of his research." The thought that one life is more valuable to them than another, especially when both are people they all care about, does not sit well. Then again, politics are rarely fair and seldom moral. That just means they'll have to save the day like they used to when they were kids. For Ash and Professor Oak, they can do it. This also makes Misty suddenly change her mind about an earlier decision.

"We should call Delia and tell her we know where Ash is."

"Are you sure?"-Tracey

"Yeah. After all of this time, she deserves to know."

"So I guess you'll do the honors then?"-Gary. It's no secret amongst the group that Delia has come to see Misty as a surrogate daughter, having spent much time together. She was a pillar for the young girl when the League, after a disastrous economic crash, threatened her family's gym. The only answer she gives is picking up her phone once again and scrolling through the contacts and hit the call button when she comes upon Delia's name.

At the Ketchum residence in the quiet little town of Pallet, Mimey goes about his usual chores. With just one resident, however, he doesn't have much cleaning to do. Still, it keeps him busy. When the phone starts ringing, he stops his dusting and rushes to the video phone. Picking up the receiver and turning the screen on, he greets the called with a hearty repetition of his name. The familiar red-headed gym leader stares back at him.

"Mr. Mime, is Mrs. Ketchum there?"

"Mime, Mr. Mime," he answers cheerfully. Without another word, he sets the phone down and heads to the kitchen, where his master is doing some dishes. Tugging at her skirt, he quickly gets her into the living room to get the phone. The clown Pokémon knows something big must be up. Although most don't peg him to be anything but a good housekeeper and Pokémon companion, he has a knack for reading body language.

"Mimey, what are you-"

"Mime!" He pulls faster, and in a second they're in front of the phone. Confused to see Misty there when she knows the gang went to Johto to investigate the rains (the professor told her so she would be aware it was the newest apprentice running the lab and not he or Tracey in case something came up). The grave look on Misty's face has her concerned so she picks the receiver up immediately.

"Misty, what's wrong? Is someone hurt?"

"We're mostly fine. We're here in Goldenrod. But something did happen to the professor." Her heart drops at that. The man was her teacher, her friend, and a great aid in helping her get her life together. Rumors abound about their relationship by certain town gossips, but she loves him as the father figure he is. In the background, the doorbell rings, but Delia pays it no mind. Mr. Mime, however dashes over to get it.

"What about Samuel?"

"He was kidnapped. We don't know who took him or where he is. We don't even know why."

"That's terrible. Who would do such a thing?"

"We know who it definitely isn't." She understands who the girl means, and her whole demeanor changes. Behind her at the door, Mimey tries to stop an intruder from coming into the house. The man retains his cool and tries harder to get past the guard

"How are you so sure it's not him?"

"It's a long story, but there's something else you should know." By this point, the man is losing his cool and starts to yell at Mr. Mime.

"Look, you dumb clown, I need to speak with the owner of the house NOW. I suggest you move before I do it for you." This finally catches Delia's attention, and she asks Misty to hold on a moment. After setting the phone down, she strides over the door to give the man a piece of her mind.

"Who are you, talking to my Mr. Mime that way?" She stares him down, hands on her hips. Mr. Mime moves behind her for protection, and the man, calm once again, also stares her down.

"My son had good taste," he finally says aloud. Her expression falters at the word son, and the man is suddenly familiar. She saw the younger version in a photo long ago when she was being her nosy self. The man to whom it belonged was livid. It was one of the rare times he directed the full brunt of his temper at her, an instance added to the reasons she should have left him when the time for that decision finally came. His expression softens now as he stares at the one who could have been his daughter-in-law. "My apologies for not introducing myself. My name is Marcellus Hakubi. I'm Giovanni's father, and your son's grandfather. I've come to help you get him back."

TBC...