SLACKERS
EPISODE XXIII
SINS OF THE FATHER
CHAPTER THIRTEEN - THE LEGACY OF TEAM ROCKET
33 years ago
"Goddammit, Simmons, I asked for a STRONG Alakazam!"
"Geez, what crawled up your butt?" the Team Rocket recruit known as Simmons asked his boss.
"The one you brought looked like you just went to Route 24, caught the first Abra you found, barely evolved it, and immediately traded it! Its moveset sucks, it's level is low, and it has the accuracy of a stormtrooper!"
Sakaki slammed the Poke Ball on his desk, and Simmons grumpily picked it up. The boss pointed to the door.
"Go out and catch something worthwhile this time!"
Right before Simmons could open the door, it was opened from the other side by a girl in a black shirt, a black beret, and a black miniskirt she'd made herself. She had designed this as a new team uniform after her boss, and boyfriend going on two years now, had requested her to do so. She noted the annoyed expression on Simmons' face, he looked exactly like a guy who'd just been chewed out. He grumbled as he walked past Amanda, and she quietly closed the door behind her.
"I thought you said you were going to work on your temper, Gio," she said with a hint of disapproval.
Sakaki sighed and slowly sat down on the edge of his desk.
"I swear, you're the only one I can count on these days," he said with defeat in his voice.
"Don't you think you're being a little too hard on everyone? I know you're a perfectionist, and there's nothing wrong with that, but everyone here is human. We're going to make mistakes sometimes."
"There's being human and making mistakes, and there's providing consistently negative results. I'm not running an organization of amateurs!"
"Not anymore, at least."
"What do you mean?"
"Well... when you started this whole thing, it was a bunch of people getting started. I mean, I was an amateur two years ago."
"That's different, love. You have always worked to improve, and it's what's kept you here for so long."
She felt a little sting in her chest. Did he really mean that her abilities as a trainer were the only things keeping her around?
It made her feel sick, and much more hesitant to deliver the news she'd come to provide. Gio could see it on her face.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
"Well... I... I guess I thought I was more to you than just a successful recruit..."
He stood up and approached her, placing his hands on her shoulders. This was the most affectionate he'd been in days. Her heart skipped a beat, but she found herself wanting more.
"Of course you are. You will always be so much more than just another recruit, my little Amanda," said Giovanni Sakaki as he kissed her forehead.
That small kiss was enough to send her confidence high enough to finally bring up the important matter at hand.
She said, "Gio..."
He answered, "Yes?"
She looked down, and placed her hands on her belly.
He looked to see what she was doing.
And now it was his heart's turn to skip a beat.
He threw his arms around her and hugged her tightly.
"So... you're... you're happy?" she asked.
"Are you kidding?" he said, as he smiled for the first time in days, his hand covering his forehead. "You're serious?"
"Mhm," she nodded.
Giovanni gripped her tightly, floored at the idea of becoming a father.
"This is the most wonderful news I ever could have received, darling," he said.
He then got on his left knee, and she gasped.
"Amanda... let's be a family. A real family."
She heard ringing in her ears, the voice of Giovanni barely enough to pierce it.
"Marry me," Giovanni said.
She nodded more swiftly then she'd thought her head was capable of nodding, and he stood up. She burrowed her face into his chest, smiling blissfully. She told herself that all the unease of the last several days could finally be over. There was nothing that could ruin this moment. She was pregnant, and it was his. Not only was she in that life of a trainer, albeit not always an easy one, but she was about to experience being the parent to her child she never had.
And then everything changed when he spoke.
"Just think, Amanda. Soon, you will bring forth the heir who will continue the legacy of Team Rocket."
Her expression completely flipped.
"You and I will become the founding family of tomorrow's world. We'll raise our child as our own, and they will continue what we have started. We will lead with love and compassion, and set a new model for excellence that everybody can look up to."
She opened her eyes, blindly staring at the part of the window that wasn't obscured by Giovanni's arm.
"And you will be the mother of all of it. Together, as man and wife, as leaders, you and I will be unstoppable."
She began to have a daydream.
She thought she heard him say "I love you," but the words bounced off of her, like her mind couldn't accept them. In her mind, the words were tangible, they were rare, and they were precious. She could physically see them in front of her. She reached out with her arm to grab them and pull them in, but with each attempt, they flew further away. She became more desperate, and the words faded farther from her view as they trailed away.
"Come back," she heard her imagination cry out.
The words wouldn't listen. The only thing she was able to reach out and grab was a new phrase that appeared mere inches from her face: "Team Rocket."
She thought she saw a name flying out there, too, and she reached for it as well. She so badly wanted to grab anything that wasn't "Team Rocket," but the phrase kept multiplying, clouding out any other meaningful collection of words she needed to hear. "I love you" eluded her grasp, as did "real family" and "loving mom, dad, and child." All she was able to see was an ever growing collection of "Team Rockets."
The unease from the last few days returned. The creeping thoughts that constantly reminded her that Team Rocket was more important to Gio than Amanda herself as a partner. The phrases all banded together to form a giant "R" that wouldn't leave her sight.
"Nothing will ever come before me," said Team Rocket.
She squeezed her mental eyes shut, trying to block out the horrible red "R." It manifested as an afterimage within her closed eyes.
"No," she responded. "Gio proposed. I'm expecting his child. We're going to be a family, a family that loves each other."
"You are a means to an end," Team Rocket shot back. "You are the vessel that produces the heir that will insist I never die. The child dwelling in you is mine. I will watch it, I will nurture it, I will make it grow. I will make it grow into my spokesman, my leader, my face."
"But... Gio... Gio loves me..."
"No. He loves me. He has always loved me first, even before you entered his life. I have always been his life, and I will be his child's life as well."
I am Team Rocket, it kept repeating.
And you...
You are nothing.
And when she woke up, she discovered she had shed at least three tears.
She was in the loving arms of her fiance.
And she felt worthless.
Only when she felt Gio's hug tighten was she able to think that maybe she wasn't going to give birth for the sole reason of providing the heir to Gio's legacy. Maybe she didn't need to be concerned about the fate of their relationship for the first time. Maybe Team Rocket wouldn't outweigh her family.
She'd figure all that out later, she decided. If it came to it, she would talk to him about it. Right now, all she wanted was to keep her hands on her belly, and feel her future husband's arms shielding her from all of her destructive thoughts.
Okay look, I know this chapter was short, but it didn't really fit in with the last or next ones. Hang in there!
