"Lighter- ow!"
"Maybe if you weren't so hotheaded you wouldn't have to endure this, just saying," Alice quipped back as she helped apply the disinfectant over her husband's wounds on his back, her hands subconsciously trying to apply lesser pressure nonetheless. Her mind wandered back to over twenty years ago when such occurrences were a little more common, when they were merely idealistic youngsters trying to create an underground group for the betterment of Kanto.
How time flies. History sure has a weird way of recreating itself too.
"Sure takes us back, huh?" Her husband's quiet voice interrupted her thoughts in that small quiet room that they were in. Alice cannot help but let a small smile rest on her face despite the mess that turned out from Operation SKIP.
"Sure did. It's just… I don't know what I should say, but…"
"It'll be fine," Her husband's voice has a calming effect on her, just like always. "It'll be fine. Our son will be fine, Mary will take care of him for us. I trust your judgement."
"Still, I'm sorry."
"What's there to be sorry for? If anything, this is all my fault. I dragged everyone into this mess. You, Arawn, Olwen, Henrik, and even now…"
Her husband never continued from there but she knows just who he is referring to.
"You don't blame him. Neither do I, and I am sure none of them will if they knew about it. Like us, he is also a victim of circumstance, arguably a greater victim than us all."
"Seeing him makes me realise just how much of this is my fault. If we had been better, if only…"
"We had done our part. People are now aware of the tumour within Kanto and by extension, Indigo. Things will now start to change for real. No more lies, no more deception, a small step towards progress. We left a permanent mark on the world that will constantly remind people of what could have been if things took a turn for the worse. To me, that is enough."
"Did you find anything?" Giovanni asked after a short period of silence as Alice helped to wrap the bandages around his chest.
"Sadly, no," Alice replied with a soft exasperated sigh. "That child, I swear, he's really too good at his job. I cannot even find a speck of information regarding his roots. He wiped them out too thoroughly with that little porygon army and reprogrammed them so well that I have no choice but to wipe them all out."
"What a waste," Giovanni agreed with a chuckle. "Billions of dollars in the porygon project, destroyed by our very own hands."
"It's either that or they manage to figure out where we are right now and direct the League right on our doorstep in five minutes."
"Still makes me wonder how he managed to do just that, easily turning both our greatest weapons against us," Giovanni huffed in a manner that is uncharacteristically childish of him. "Mewtwo and porygons, gone, just like that. Thu-Fi-Zer, freed, just like that. It's like a miracle the League managed to resolve the entire conflict at all."
"He's always been a strange child. Too aware, too mature, too wise."
"And too kind. How is he?" Giovanni cannot help but ask. Alice merely shook her head.
"Stabilized for now, but we do not have the needed equipment here and seeing that all of our most important bases had been raided, I cannot guarantee that we can keep him alive for long. He needs better equipment and also more experienced medical personnel to tend to him, something which we no longer have. You know that this place's main purpose is to hide and erase all possibilities of being traced, it's not a place for recuperation."
Yes, because this hideout is the only safe place for them right now, a place built to the extent that even a psychic pokemon on the level of Mewtwo can never track their psychic signatures down no matter how hard it tries. It's the safest place for them to bunker down and hide until the entire storm dies down.
However, Jayce does not have the luxury of time on his side, not with the kind of wounds he is suffering from.
"How long more does he have?" Giovanni asked quietly.
"At best, a week." Alice admitted truthfully. "At worst, any time. He did quite a number on himself and you were not helping things with how you had him propped up on spikes. Do you know how much you scared me when alakazam teleported him to me in that state?"
"Uh, oops?"
"Don't oops me," Alice chastised halfheartedly as she finished her job of bandaging up her husband. "So, when do we move on?"
"It's a one-way trip. You-"
"I know. We both knew the risks when we founded SKIP more than two decades ago. It was always going to happen, just a matter of when. We were simply lucky that our deadline got pushed back twenty years later. And besides..."
Her gaze wandered to the direction of the room next door.
"It's the only way to save him, right? It's the least we can do after all the suffering he's been through, sufferings that were wrought upon him for the things we had done or failed to do. Like you said, Project Illusion wouldn't have happened if we had done things right, if we had succeeded."
"Samuel will at least see to it that Jayce will receive the best treatment available, that I believe," Giovanni stated confidently. "He will be able to help him where we cannot. I trust him to do the right thing."
"Then I suppose we better start making preparations?" Alice inquired with a smile on her face. It will be a lie to say that she's entirely unbothered at the twist of events that happened which led to the failure of Operation SKIP, at the hands of one they wholeheartedly trusted no less, but she had learnt to let it go.
It's all gone now. Their efforts, their hard work, Team Rocket and of SKIP's ideals, but it's far from over. Kanto is now aware, steps will now be taken for the greater good. She will count that as a win, she will accept the outcome for what it is.
However, for that win to happen, Team Rocket can no longer be allowed to exist. That includes its leaders. They cannot allow anybody to see them as martyrs, to continue their work in a sick twisted version of their original ideals. The core of Team Rocket may have consisted of individuals with the right goals but the same cannot be said for the other branches of the large organisation they founded. Team Rocket is still an organisation largely made up of criminals no matter how they try to sugarcoat it. These villains cannot be allowed to exist anymore, not after today, if Kanto wants to protect its peace. Team Rocket had jeopardised it enough with their actions and right now, it is time to set things back on the right track.
"Nosy," Alice called out as Jayce's porygon-z appeared right before them through a terminal, the only Team-Rocket-created porygon-z which she had spared because they had reached a mutual understanding when it came to trying to preserve Jayce's already fragile life. Anything else left from the porygon project was eradicated the moment she had confirmation of Jayce's betrayal and she had seen to it personally. Loyal to Jayce or not, having too many porygons running around will never be a good thing for anyone and no matter how smart they are, artificial intelligence can always be outsmarted eventually.
But she still has a soft spot for Jayce, the youngest among them which she sees as her own child herself. For someone so expressionless his eyes are unexpectedly expressive in a subtle way that only people who have seen both the best and worst of humanity can recognise. This may be a reason why she still kept Nosy around, even if she is not entirely sure herself.
"It's time. Slowly let out small tidbits of clues for the League to track us down here. Do not make it too obvious that it is of our own doing, but make sure that they don't take too much time to trace our location either. Jayce may not be able to hold on for that long."
Nosy let out a garbled noise of confirmation before disappearing back into the terminal. Giovanni held her firmly, yet gently all this time.
"Guess we have to play the role of the bad guys for one last time, huh?"
"Maybe we should be actors instead of trainers, I'm confident that we acted the part of a villain splendidly."
"So this is the end," Giovanni mused with a chuckle. "Got to admit, I had imagined countless scenarios of how we might lose, if we ever lose, but this ain't it."
"Oh? And what was in your opinion, the most likely scenario?"
Giovanni scratched his chin in thought.
"Something like… Some nosy reporter wanting to get a good scoop tailed me and accidentally saw me entering a known Rocket hideout, accidentally unearthing some conspiracy that somehow leads to him or her piecing out the truth that I am the leader?"
"You watch too much TV, my dear," Alice said with a laugh at her husband's imagination.
"Actually, why don't we do just that right now? Since we have nothing better to do other than waiting for the League to come knocking on our doors. I will go get some wine in the meantime."
"You know what? I like that idea."
He doesn't know how long he had been staring at the object in his hands.
The battle, or war, if he wants to be more accurate, is technically over for now. He had done his job and duty as an Elite Four to help out with the entire Indigo mess on orders of his Champion. He has his own personal objectives, of course, which was why he was so eager to take part in this operation, Operation Unity.
He still couldn't find him, his son.
He knows that his son has to be out there, somewhere, somehow. Doesn't matter if he is a Rocket or Kain's personal agent or under whatever identity he may be using, he just wants to see and meet him, to tell him that they are family and that they are not alone. To apologise for not being there for the past twenty two years of his life, to apologise that he couldn't have found him sooner and saved him, to apologise for… pretty much everything that happened thus far.
His eldest son was alive all along, and nobody in their family knew about it. He had needed help, and he wasn't there to offer it.
Grimsley took some comfort in the fact that he played a large role in repelling the Rockets in the battle at Mahogany and rescuing a comrade from Executive Ariana, even if that crafty woman managed to give him the slip at the end through some unknown means, but what he really wish for right now is to see his son.
The glimmer of hope appeared when Professor Oak approached him after the battle was over. Grimsley personally doesn't want to have anything to do with the Oaks if at all possible, or just about anyone relating to SKIP or Kain in general, but like they had speculated, it was very probable that his son and their granddaughter had known each other. Probably partners, even, the kind that would go through life-and-death situations together and would not hesitate for a second to give up their lives for each other.
So, Grimsley tried his best to endure their presence the entire time, from preparing for the war to participating in it to dealing with the aftermath. Doesn't mean that he had to like it though.
But after things were starting to settle down, the aged professor presented to him something, told him information that he wouldn't be able to find out otherwise. Professor Oak had encountered Giovanni in this war, fought Giovanni until that man made his escape, and most importantly came across the person who is very likely his son that Giovanni had whisked away with him.
Grimsley held onto the bloodied breton cap a little tighter at the thought, the blood coated on it already dried and caked by this point but the sight of it only served to fuel his grief. This is an object that the professor said belonged to his son, something that he once wore and which the professor picked up at the site of battle after his battle with Giovanni was over. The professor believes that Giovanni means his son no harm if Giovanni's words and actions were anything to go by so that was a relief, if only slightly. The professor also managed to get ahold of some blood samples left behind at the scene of the battle right outside Violet City where it took place, blood that he believes to have been spilled by his son. A simple DNA test will then allow them to know if this young man is truly of his blood and if so, every single piece of the puzzle will fall into place.
His son, their eldest son which he and his wife had never managed to muster the courage to name.
He felt his liepard nudging his leg in concern and he forced a small smile on his face to try and reassure his feline companion that he is alright, the keyword being tried. At the very least, his eldest son is still alive.
"We will find him."
Liepard let out a soft purr of agreement, raising its head a little to sniff at the breton cap in his hands in an effort to familiarise with his son's scent. They will track him down, one way or another, and he will go to the ends of the earth if it means getting his son back.
'Count me in.'
Grimsley turned towards the direction in which he sensed a new presence that had only just made itself known. He didn't even bat an eye at the sight of Team Rocket's newest biological weapon walking towards him. He's too tired and has been through too much shit to care right now.
"What are you here for?"
The artificial pokemon cocked its head curiously to a side at the question as it continues to blatantly observe him without a care for privacy.
'Hmm, now that I meet you in person, I can really see the resemblance.'
"Resemblance?"
'Your son, the League's secret informant that kickstarted Operation Unity, Executive Plague, Operative 2046, whatever you know him as. I know him by the name of Jayce but they are all one and the same person.'
Grimsley stood up in agitation upon hearing the news dropped on him, fists clenched tightly around his son's breton cap as his entire body shook uncontrollably.
"J-Jayce…? That is his name? You… You know…"
'Yes, I do, he was my only friend. Do you know that a part of him was what made me whole? Spiritually and physically? I would burn the world down for him if he ever asked, that was how highly I regarded him,' Mewtwo spoke through their telepathic link before its eyes locked onto the breton cap Grimsley was holding. 'You might want to loosen your grip around the cap though, it is Jayce's favourite. After he discarded the guitar, that cap is one of the few things that he has left to remind him of Jane, I believe.'
Grimsley's legs cannot help but give way upon hearing about the truth Mewtwo revealed as he let himself fall back onto the bench he was originally sitting on. It's no secret that Mewtwo knows much of Team Rocket and their core members and that it was in cahoots with the League's secret informant, whoever that was. All they had before were speculations but now that Mewtwo had personally confirmed it, it really is another bitter pill to swallow.
"So it's the truth, he really is… Oh God, and all along…"
'He knows, by the way, but he never wanted to meet you, believing it to be the best course of action to take. Said something like not wanting to give you another heartbreak after all you had been through, losing your wife and youngest son in such a short span of time.'
"He should have just come forward to me. I would have done anything-"
'And that was precisely what that fool was afraid of,' Mewtwo interrupted smoothly. 'He never wanted me to tell you anything, or even meet you at all, but since he's not around to scold me now because he is no longer around to do so I guess everything is moot at this point. Do you want to know more about him? Well, what I know about him, at least.'
"He's alive," Grimsley croaked. "He is alive, that damn Oak confirmed it too, that he is very likely still alive and that the bastard Giovanni is definitely trying to help save him too."
'Alive? That cannot be, my powers are absolute and I am sure that our psychic connection had snapped-'
"What psychic connection?" Grimsley asks in shock, still trying to understand the meaning behind Mewtwo's words but the psychic is still too busy muttering to itself, lost in its own thoughts.
'No, wait. Could it be? Then again, it's Team Rocket and they have some weird science shit going on all the time… That stupid M2 Bind was proof that blocking my senses could be done- Oh why didn't I think of that possibility?'
"You mean you can sense whether-"
'Yes, I could, although from your words, I am now of the opinion that maybe my powers may not be as absolute as I believed them to be. Maybe, just maybe, he's really not dead yet. In that case, then I cannot dally here any longer. I need to be out there searching for him.'
"And you know where to start?" Grimsley questioned. "The whole of Indigo is still searching for Giovanni and failing spectacularly in doing so."
'But I am Mewtwo,' The psychic states like that explained everything.
"And so?"
'You know, Mewtwo, as in the magnificent pokemon standing right here which single handedly defended Olivine from the oversized ugly dodrio until birds and dogs arrived to chase them off.'
Well, that weird description aside, Grimsley couldn't argue against Mewtwo's point.
'But you also have a point, I have no idea where to start and it may be wise for someone more experienced in tracking to help us narrow down the search before I assist in the endeavour,' Mewtwo conceded as it floated in the air while crossing its legs, probably to make itself comfortable in a sitting position. 'Well, since we have lots of time to kill until the start of our self-imposed rescue mission, why don't I tell you more about Jayce while we are at it? You wouldn't believe how great a person he became, and honestly, I have nobody else other than you who I trust enough to share it with.'
And for the first time in many days since he learnt of Jayce's existence, Grimsley allowed himself to smile from the bottom of his heart.
"I would like that."
The conversation started with a loud bang followed by the crash of a vase.
Samuel Oak looked at the broken vase on the floor where Blue had accidentally toppled in his angry march towards him, then back at his grandson. Blue had never been known for his patience and is obviously fuming, with good reasons too.
"You and grandma have a fuck load of explaining to do."
"B-Blue!" Daisy held Blue back with wetness in her puffy red eyes. She had been crying then.
"They knew," Blue hissed at his sister while pointing at Samuel. "They have to know. Twenty-two years, sis, and none of us know anything about it. None of us knew that we had another sister, your twin sister. Now everything makes sense, like why they divorced at that point in time and why there were no pictures of you before you were two. We kept thinking it was because Dad and Mum died but apparently there was more to the story."
"B-But it must have been hard for grandpa and grandma too. I mean-"
"Gary's right. It was hard on us, yes, and it was one big factor that led to our divorce, but we should have told you."
Gary spun around to see his grandma making her appearance through the shadows. For the first time in his life, he finally sees his grandparents in the same room as them. When he was still a little boy he had secretly wished upon it many times, of course, where their family finally reconciled and the reason for it being happy ones. He just never thought that his family would come together like this for such a reason.
If Team Rocket hadn't revealed everything through the internet, if people from all over the world scouring through the humongous dump of data never start pointing out that their family, the Oaks, were also a victim of Kain's mess, he would have never known that he had another sister.
"And she's dead," Gary gritted out, trying his best to control himself and not break something in the meantime. He will never have a chance to see her, to speak to her, to get to know her better. He would never know if she would mother him like Daisy tends to do or maybe be the deviant in their family like him or maybe be the balance between the three of them. He knows nothing about her and it will forever stay that way.
Goddamn Kain. Where the fuck is he now anyway? That bastard better pray that he never gets a sniff of him because when he does, Gary Blue Oak will fucking hunt him down and have his head on a bloody pike and nobody, and he means nobody, will fucking stop him.
"She's dead," His grandpa croaked out, the wrinkles on his face seemed to have suddenly deepened with that admission and he really looked like the weary old man that he is now. "It's my fault, both of you have every right to blame me for it."
"Grandpa!" Daisy cried out as she held onto their grandfather's hands. "Please, don't. This is not your fault or grandma's or- Blue! Say something!"
"You want me to say something? Yeah, I want bloody murder," Gary growled and his arcanine that was standing beside him, bearing witness to the entire scene gave its own growl of approval, responding to his emotions. "Put me on the team hunting Kain down, old man, I know you have enough power to do so."
"Blue!"
"That fucker kidnapped our sister and now she's dead!" Gary roared and immediately regretted when he saw how Daisy had flinched in fear at how he raised his voice at her. "S-Sorry, sis, for yelling but- I'm not going to change my mind. I am going to hunt that fucker down and he's gonna wish he had never been born."
"You will not do such a thing," Samuel spoke sternly. "Kain will be found and arrested and he will face justice for his crimes, but not at your hands, Blue. The law will mete out the appropriate punishment for him."
"The law will- Are you kidding me? To hell with laws," Gary sneered. "Those are bullshit. Kain had a hand in creating at least half of the modern ones in today's Kanto judiciary system. We should just- ow! Grandma! Stop- ow! Stop it! Stop!"
"Not until you correct that vulgar language of yours! Come over here you little twat! Is this how you talk to your elders, huh?! Your grandpa might have been useless at raising children but I raised you to be better! Had I ever taught you to speak that way, huh?!" His grandma huffed angrily as she waved her cane about and Gary could only run around the couch to try and avoid that oh so familiar beating. Daisy is trying to hold their grandmother back to no avail.
"Blue! Apologise! Hurry! Don't let grandma's blood pressure rise any higher than it is!"
"Alright, alright! I'm sorry, okay? Ow! Ow!"
"Now that's more like it," Agatha huffed as Daisy rubbed soothing circles on her back, trying to calm the Ghost Master down. "You want to fight so badly, fine. I will let you fight."
"Agatha," Samuel warned, his brows furrowing.
"The brat will go out there no matter what we do or say anyway," Agatha grumbled as she sat herself down on a nearby chair before her glare fixed itself onto her grandson once more. "So, you want in?"
"As long as it means getting my hands on that bastard, yeah," Gary replied while trying to nurse the pain inflicted by his grandmother's cane. "What will you have me do anyway?"
"Forget Kain," Agatha scoffed. "If that slimy wretch truly wants to hide, nobody can ever find him. No, let's not waste our time on that. If he is still alive he will return one day, sooner or later, and we just have to be there to catch his tail when it happens."
"So you just want me to be your free labour to clean up the Rocket mess," Gary deadpanned, already knowing where the conversation is heading to.
"Who knows, maybe the Rockets have captured him before us and that is why we cannot find a single trace of Kain's whereabouts," Agatha shrugged. "Either that or you are grounded, your choice."
"Grounded? I'm freaking twenty-two."
In response, Agatha merely stared at him as her ghosts manipulated the shadows in the living room in a threatening manner that he had been so familiar with ever since he was a little boy. Gary surrendered immediately.
"Alright, alright, fine, I'll help. Just tell your ghosts to cool it, okay?" Gary immediately answered with a slight shudder running up and down his spine. He always had a slight irrational fear of ghosts and how his grandmother uses them is definitely one reason why he never has a fond opinion of those creatures.
Agatha sighed at the answer before taking a sip from the glass of water her granddaughter passed over to her. To be fair, she cannot really find fault with her grandson's reaction to the news. Her own response wasn't too far off from his when she first found out about it from Samuel. Gary had not inherited her love and talent for ghost types, but he had definitely inherited her temper.
"Well, about Jane, I guess now is probably the best time your grandfather and I could tell you two about what really happened back then. If both of you still want to listen, that is. There really isn't much to go on because her files released on the internet pretty much summarised everything there is to know."
From the way her grandchildren are looking at her, they still want to know more about the incident, spoken from their own mouths.
And so, she started speaking about the tragedy that befell their family that very day on 22nd of February, Year 509.
Name: Jayce
Pokemon Team:
1. Ninetales, female
2. Exeggutor, male
3. Weavile, male
4. Honchkrow, female
5. Gengar, female
6. Houndoom, male
7. Umbreon, male
8. Hydreigon, male
9. Drapion, female
10. Zoroark, male
11. Bisharp, male
12. Shiftry, male
13. Porygon-Z, (Nosy), genderless
