Chapter 8
"Roles on United Flight 23"
"What were your roles in the hijacking of Flight 23?"
Those were the questions that echoed through all of our minds as we tried to process the reality that our secrets were to be revealed. Everything that we confessed on the stand at the trial apparently wasn't enough.
"Well, obviously one of us had to be the one flying the plane," James answered nervously. "Butch had some level of training in his spare time as a flight student. Giovanni wanted me and him to enroll at a flight school in Florida."
"Florida?"
"Yeah, where the other pilots were training at. Amongst our training was learning to identify landmarks. Giovanni and Bin Laden wanted us to be able to identify small buildings from high above. We were told to keep it a secret from the instructors."
It was more and more apparent to the agents that there was more to this story than met the eye. The only ones who knew of our assigned target that dark day was us…but not for long.
"Did you have a target in mind? A target to strike?"
"Yes, Giovanni had us assigned a target," I answered, lowering my head in thought for a moment. "It was in Washington, DC."
Now, things were starting to become interesting to the FBI agents. There was an attack on the Pentagon in Washington, but what else was targeted?
"What target were you assigned?" asked Agent Green. "Was it the US Capitol? The Supreme Court? What?"
Taking a deep breath, I rose to my feet and walked back to the window of our cell, knowing that the cat was out of the bag.
"It was the White House," I whispered under my breath.
"Speak up please, Ms. Musashi."
Turning around, I answered a little louder.
"The White House."
Revealing our target wasn't easy, but it needed to be done. For 20 years, we held the guilt that we would be the ones assigned to destroy the home of the American President.
"What about on the planes?"
"I was to fly with Butch in the cockpit," confessed James, his voice filled with remorse. "I was to be armed with a Machoke to break open the door and kill the pilots. Then, I would use my Weezing to force passengers and crew to the back of the plane."
"You had a Weezing?"
"Yes, since it was a Koffing I got for Christmas."
"And what about you, Miss Musashi?" asked Agent Cassady, once again turning her attention onto me. "What was your role?"
"Cassidy and I were to herd passengers to the back of the plane," I answered. "We would threaten to use the Pokemon we had to kill anyone who resisted. James and Bob would have flown the plane towards Washington and then dive it into the White House at a full rate of speed."
But there was still doubt of our honesty by the two FBI agents.
"It's…you gotta believe me, I am not a killer like other Team Rocket agents you have captured and imprisoned who kill anyone in their way to obtain their goal. To us, it was a way to make a living. I joined Team Rocket because my mother was a member, but she had standards. She didn't kill Pokemon, she didn't kill their trainers. She stole Pokemon from trainers, yes, but she didn't kill them!"
As I spoke, I could feel the tears forming in the corners of my eyes.
"And was that part of your panic attack on September 11th? Because you had standards? Because you didn't want to kill?"
"Yes!" I cried. "I joined Team Rocket to steal and profit from Pokemon, not to kill innocent people!"
All I could do at that point was break down crying, burying my hands onto my face. With James consoling me, Meowth took over the interview process.
"You know, we didn't want to partake in the hijacking, but Giovanni threatened us," he said. "He threatened to kill all of us if we didn't comply."
"And why didn't you say something then?" asked Agent Green, who didn't sound mad, but he did sound disappointed. "Clearly you are better than what Team Rocket was. If you had spoken up, then maybe we could have stopped the attacks before they happened. I hate to say this, but you are still partly responsible for the deaths of 3,000 people."
"And everything else as well," sighed Meowth, tears forming in the corners of his own eyes. "But at least we are trying to repent!"
But the two agents felt like they shouldn't forgive us fully, despite our intentions to atone. What was done was done and there was nothing we could do to stop it.
"Repent all you can," sighed Agent Green as he opened the door to our cell. "But it doesn't erase what you helped carry out."
As we were left alone, he was right. There was indeed nothing we could to go back and erase what happened that day. The Pokemon World, along with the rest of the world, was changed forever and nowadays, humans and Pokemon traveled collecting badges and competing in Pokemon Leagues with a strong sense of security and we were partly to blame for it.
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