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After being presented to the leader of the organization opposing Team Rocket, the true identity of the enemy is finally revealed to Jesse and James. Gambini, the evil young nephew of Giovanni, tries to force Jesse into succumbing to his will after his attempt to persuade her and James to join him fails miserably. His innocent little sister witnesses his violent act, and he orders James and the unconscious Jesse to be shut up in an empty room. James finds the room suspiciously unlocked and unguarded, and drawing upon all his courage, attempts to escape with his unconscious partner...
He spit the three pokéballs out of his mouth in front of the surprised girl and said "Look kid, if we woik tagedda (work together) maybe we can get outta here."
Anari was stunned. "You can TALK?"
"Listen, my friends are in here someplace and if we can find 'em, den maybe we can all escape," he said.
"Your friends?" she asked.
"Yeah, the guy and girl who was with ya brother," said Meowth. "If we can find 'em, maybe we can all get outta here tagedda."
"The lady looked like she was hurt," Anari said. She picked up the pokéballs. "Are these your pokémon?"
"Nah, dey're my friends' pokémon."
"What kind are they?" she asked.
"Arbok, Weezing, and Victreebel," he replied. "Dey had a Lickitung, too, but I don't know what happened to it."
"Here, I'll carry them for you so you won't have to keep them in your mouth. Don't be sad, we'll find your friends."
"Then you'll help me find 'em?" he asked.
"Yeah, just let me get something first." She went to a drawer and pulled a photo out. "Okay, now I'm ready."
"What's dat?" Meowth asked.
"It's a picture of my Momma and Daddy. It's the only one I've got."
Meowth looked at the photo. It had 4 people in it. There were two men, one older and one younger, and a lady holding a baby girl. Meowth noticed that the younger of the two men was Anari's brother.
"Where are dey now?" he asked her.
"I don't know. Big Brother says they went away and didn't come back. I don't remember them."
Meowth looked at the back of the picture as they left Anari's room. It said:
"Maria's first birthday"
Maria? Who was Maria?
"Prepare for trouble!"
"Make that double!"
James turned around. "Oh god, not them!"
"To INFECT the world with devastation!"
"To BLIGHT all peoples in every nation!"
"To denounce the goodness of truth and love!"
"To extend our wrath to the stars above!"
"Cassidy!"
"Butch!"
Then suddenly they threw off their Rocket uniforms to reveal all black clothing underneath. Together, they said; "We'll destroy Team Rocket from the inside out! Surrender to us, or die right now!"
"You! So you're the spies the boss sent us to find!" Jesse shouted.
"You betrayed Team Rocket to it's enemies!" said James. "How much did Gambini bribe you with, huh? How much did your disloyalty cost?"
They both laughed.
"A lot more than the boss ever paid you two idiots!" said Cassidy. "We wondered how long it would take you to realize nobody was guarding the door. We wanted to make an entrance!"
"Sorry we left such a mess for you at the cabin," said Butch. "But according to the leader of the group sent to get you, you sure put on a great show!"
"Yeah, so sorry we missed the show!" said Cassidy.
"What are you talking about?" asked James.
"Giovanni ordered us to use the cabin outside of town, but to be out by the next day," said Butch. "I wondered why he wanted us out so soon, so I sent a group back that evening to see what was going on while Cassidy and I kidnapped a few more Rockets in town."
"He told us what he saw you two doing through the window just before he captured you," Cassidy said with a laugh. "Leave it to Butch and me to miss the show!"
Suddenly James figured it out. These two were the ones who had trashed the cabin, and they had sent the people who had captured them. Their friends had been spying on him and Jesse, and had watched them together last night when they... James and Jesse both turned bright red.
"Doesn't matter," said Cassidy. "You'll be dead in two seconds anyway..."
"Stop it!" a child's voice yelled at them.
James looked to see who it was. It was that girl from before, and she had Meowth with her.
"Leave them alone!" she yelled.
Butch and Cassidy turned to the Anari.
"Go away, kid, before we have to hurt you," said Cassidy.
Suddenly the door that James had been trying to get out of was kicked down from the other side, revealing Giovanni and about 20 or so members of Team Rocket. The look on Giovanni's face could have frightened a Charizard away. He stared hard at Butch and Cassidy with ice cold eyes.
They both looked like they were going to be sick.
Giovanni thought of all the trust he had put into the two of them, even coming and personally bailing them out of jail! Nobody got away with doing this to him. NOBODY.
He turned to James. "Get your partner and that child out of here, NOW!"
James didn't need to be told twice. He carried Jesse quickly through the broken-down door. Meowth and Anari quickly followed suite. The last look they saw on Butch and Cassidy's faces was sheer terror.
"Jess, are you okay?" James asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just give me a minute." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and got to her feet.
She saw the worried look on her partner's face. She felt like she was going to pass out, but she didn't want to worry him anymore so she smiled and said "I'll be fine, as long as you're here with me."
When the boss finally emerged, he had only two men with him.
"Where is everyone?" James asked.
"Six of them are disposing of some trash, the rest of them I sent to free the Rockets imprisoned in the cells."
"How did you know about the people in the cells?" James asked.
"The two former Rockets were very obliging," he replied. He went to Anari. "What's your name?" he asked.
She stared at him, obviously afraid.
"Speak, child! Tell me your name!"
"I...I'm A-Anari," she said.
"You're the sister of Antonio Gambini?"
She nodded.
"Where are your parents?" he asked.
She started to cry.
"If you know, you had better tell me!" he told her.
"I-I don't know! Please just stay away!" she stepped back, crying loudly.
He stared hard at her. She obviously wasn't lying.
"I'm sorry," he told her. "I just had to be sure..."
Jesse, James, Meowth, and the other two Rockets were all very confused.
"What's going on, Sir?" asked Jesse. "Is Gambini really your nephew?"
Giovanni turned his back.
"He's my brother's son. Five years ago both of his parents disappeared. We believe he murdered them both. Shortly after their disappearance Antonio also disappeared along with their two-year-old daughter. We were never able to find him. It was only a matter of time before he came after Team Rocket. He's obsessed with power. He killed his father to take his place in the family. When my mother learned of this, she came after him with a vengeance, so he disappeared underground, taking his sister with him."
Anari, who had just stopped crying, began all over again.
"No! Your lying! I know you are!"
Giovanni knelt down in front of her. "Your given name is Maria."
"No, I'm Anari!"
"Your brother changed your name to keep us from finding you. You're my niece, I'll take you away from here. You'll come home with me."
Anari backed away from him.
"No! Your lying! Big Brother wouldn't do that, he wouldn't!"
She ran away from them, and was quickly out of sight.
"WAIT!"
But she was gone.
"We've got to find that child and her brother," he answered.
"He told us that Team Rocket killed his parents," said Jesse.
"No ... but Team Rocket will kill him." Giovanni replied. "My brother and his wife are dead, I see that now. I had hoped that somewhere they might still be alive..."
"How do you know that, sir?" asked James. "Maybe they still are..."
"No!" said Giovanni. "If he's trying to frame Team Rocket for their deaths, then they must be dead. I was afraid the child was in league with him... I shouldn't have frightened her..."
He turned and faced the group.
"We are going to find Antonio. Be under no misapprehension. That man will kill any one of you as soon as look at you." He handed Jesse her pokéball containing Lickitung.
"Your Lickitung. It was found outside on the path leading here. It lead us to you."
"I wish I knew where the rest of our pokémon are," said James.
"OH NO!"
It was Meowth.
"Dat kid's got ya pokéballs! I let her carry 'em cuz I was tired a keepin 'em in my mouth!"
"Nevermind," said Giovanni. "We'll find her. Now we've got to find Antonio, or Antonio Gambini as he calls himself now. We'll split up. You three; James, Jesse, and Meowth follow that child and try to find her. Here." He handed Jesse and James each a gun. "Don't hesitate to use them if you see her brother. You don't know what kind of man you're dealing with," he said. "Shoot first and ask questions later."
"But Jesse needs a doctor!" James protested. "We've got to get her to a hospital!"
"I'm FINE, James," she said.
She couldn't believe he had taken that tone with the boss. Didn't he know that was a dangerous thing to do?
"But Jesse...!" he protested.
"Don't worry, sir. We'll get the job done," Jesse told Giovanni.
"Good," he said. He turned to the other two Rockets and said "You two come with me." He went in the opposite direction and gone in a minute.
"Jesse, why did you..."
She hit him upside the head. "YOU IDIOT! Are you trying to get yourself into even more trouble than we're in already! Do you want the boss mad at us, too?!!"
He looked at her with a hurt expression.
Her anger dissipated in an instant and suddenly she felt very guilty.
"James, I'm sorry," she said, her voice breaking. "I love you more than anything. I just couldn't bear it if anything happened to take you away from me. I know the boss is on our side, but he's so..."
"Unpredictable," James finished. "Kind of like his nephew. You never know how he's going to react."
Jesse nodded. "Yeah."
He hugged her. She returned his embrace and said, "Don't worry, I'll be okay. We'll find that little girl and get out of here and everything will be all right."
"Yeah," said Meowth. "And the sooner we get started, the sooner we can get outta here. So let's go!"
Anari just couldn't believe it. How could her brother, HER brother, do such a thing? It just couldn't be true! It couldn't! She pulled the photo out of her pocket.
"Momma... Daddy... Why did you leave me alone? I hate being alone..." Her brother had always told her how much their parents had loved her, but that one day they had left and never came back. She did not remember them, but she could not remember a time when she had not been angry at them for leaving her. She had always been secretly afraid that one day her brother might leave her, too. She stared at the face of her brother in the picture. Could he really have killed them? Of course not!
But then ... what about what she had seen him do to the lady with the long red hair? She sat down and started to cry, facing a terrible dilemma for child of such tender years.
"Are you really okay, Jess?" James asked.
"Yeah..." she said. "I'll be fine..."
"Look!" said Meowth. "Over there!"
It was Gambini. They realized they had found their way back to his office, and he had just entered it.
"James, put me down," Jesse whispered.
He gently set her on her feet. "Jesse, are you sure?.."
"Listen, all we've got to do is hold him at gun point until the boss finds us," she said. She knew the boss had said 'Shoot first and ask questions later', but neither she nor James was keen on the idea. They just weren't cold-blooded killers. If they held him at gun point until the boss got there, then he could decide what to do with him.
"Okay, on da count a three," said Meowth.
They stood just outside his door.
"One...two...three!"
They both burst in and shouted "Freeze!"
Gambini didn't look at all surprised to see them.
"Well, I see Giovanni found you," he said.
"You know he's here?" asked James.
"Well of course I know he's here," said Gambini. "He's already killed three of my men. You should have taken me up on my offer, though."
"We would never join you!" shouted Jesse. "You're a murderer! You killed your own parents! You deprived your sister of their love and affection for the rest of her life! Do you know what I wouldn't give to have my mother back?! Do you?!!"
Gambini smiled maliciously. "You think I'M a murderer? Team Rocket is responsible for your mother's death, and you work for them! You serve the same people who killed her! So it's just the same as if you murdered her!" His words stabbed through Jesse's heart like a knife. Any self control she had was gone. The tears in her eyes blurred her vision as she pulled the trigger... and missed. The bullet hit the wall.
"No, stop!"
It was Anari.
She ran passed Jesse and James and stood in front of Gambini, spreading out her arms. "Don't shoot my brother!"
Meowth panicked. He liked this kid and didn't want her to get hurt. Jesse was normally a very good shot, but the emotional state she was in had caused her to miss once, and if she missed again...
"Get away, kid!" he yelled.
"No!"
"Anari, he's evil!" said James. "He murdered your parents!"
"No, he couldn't, he wouldn't!" she yelled. "You don't know the loneliness that Big Brother and I felt! How could you? Do you know what it's like to have no parents or friends, to be by yourself all the time?"
Meowth stepped back.
He did know. His first memories of his life were of being abandoned. He didn't remember his mother or father, he had no family.
"Big brother is not evil!" Anari continued. "Do you know what it's like for nobody to understand who you really are? For nobody to CARE who you really are? Do you?!"
This line got to James.
He knew what it was like. He thought of his parents, always trying to change him. They didn't care about who he was on the inside, only about what they wanted him to be. They didn't understand him, and they didn't want to.
James lowered his gun.
Tears were streaming down Anari's eyes. "Big Brother is all I have! How would you feel if you lost somebody you love? You don't know what it's like to truly be alone! Please..."
Jesse's hand faltered.
She stared into the tear filled eyes of the seven-year-old girl. She knew what it was like to lose a loved one. She had been just about Anari's age when she had lost her own mother.
The child's words echoed in her mind...
Big Brother is all I have ... all I have ... all I have...
She understood. James was all SHE had, and she couldn't imagine losing him. She stared into the face of her enemy, and despite her hatred, she couldn't do it. She lowered her gun.
As she lowered her gun, two men dressed in black, who had been hiding behind the door, attacked Jesse and James from behind. One grabbed the gun out of James' hand and held it to his head. The other tried to grab Jesse's, but she was too quick for him. She aimed her gun at him.
"Let him go!"
They both laughed. The man who had James at gunpoint stood behind him, using him a shield.
Gambini laughed at this turn of events. He found it very amusing.
"You see?" he said. "I always win. I'll destroy Team Rocket and everyone in it! My parents didn't live to cross me, and neither will you!"
In the spur of the moment, he had forgotten that his sister was in the room.
She stared at him in disbelief. He realized his mistake.
"How could you?" Her voice was almost a whisper. She ran out of the room, dropping two pokéballs. Meowth scooped them up. Gambini stared after her, cursing himself for being so stupid.
Finally, he went to the door, shut it, and locked it.
None of them were getting out. He was going to make them pay for this.
He pulled a knife out of his pocket and held it to James' throat.
"You will drop the gun NOW, or he dies. He's got a gun to his head and a knife to his throat. No matter which one of us you shoot, he still dies. You will drop the gun, and do EXACTLY what I want, do you understand?"
James suddenly realized what is was that Gambini wanted. He had tried before...
"JESSE, NO!"
"Well?" Gambini asked.
"I give up."
"JESSE NO! DON'T DO IT! PLEASE!" James screamed. "I DON'T CARE WHAT HAPPENS TO ME! SAVE YOURSELF!!"
She looked at him with tears in her eyes and said "I'm sorry, James. But I love you too much, I would rather suffer this fate a thousand times than let you die. Than to live without you..."
She dropped the gun.
"JESSE DON'T!!"
Gambini picked the gun up. He turned to his men who were both holding James. "Chain him up."
After James had been chained up, Gambini unlocked the door and handed one his men Jesse's gun and said, "Find Giovanni and take care of him."
He closed the door back and locked it.
"You're a fool if you think one man can stop Giovanni," Jesse told him.
Gambini struck her hard, knocking her to the floor. Before she could get up again, he was on top of her, holding her down.
"NO, DON'T YOU TOUCH HER!" James was screaming. "I'LL KILL YOU, DO YOU HEAR ME! I'LL KILL YOU!!!"
"Why are you doing this to us?" Jesse asked him. "We showed you mercy..."
"And you were a fool for doing so," he told her.
He turned to the man that had James' gun and said "Hold the gun on him. If she resists in any way, shoot him." He started to pull Jesse's jacket off.
She began to cry. She had never felt more helpless in her life.
James had lost all sanity. Screaming like a madman he yanked at the chains trying to get to Jesse. This amused Gambini most of all. He was enjoying James' reaction more than anything, including what he wanted to do to Jesse.
But Gambini had forgotten one key factor: Meowth.
Meowth was hiding under Gambini's desk, holding the pokéballs. He didn't know what to do, but he had to think of something fast...
Even in my dreams, even through my tears, even though I'm being hurt...
Reality is approaching now, franticly...
"Oh god, somebody, anybody please help me!" she screamed in her mind.
Suddenly she felt Gambini's weight shift. She opened her eyes. Something had wrapped around his body and was pulling him away from her. It was Arbok!
She quickly looked to the man who had had James at gunpoint. He was no longer a threat. The upper half of his body was stuck in James' Victreebel. Meowth had swiped his gun away from him and was unchaining James. She got to her feet and ran to James. He had stopped screaming. His face was red and tearstained. For a moment they just stared at each other. Finally, they fell into each other's arms and burst into tears. They were still embracing when Giovanni found them, led by Anari.
Had Gambini survived, James would have killed him himself, but he hadn't. Arbok had squeezed him to death. The rest of the his men had been captured by Giovanni. Nobody knew what the boss would do with them, and nobody really cared. Anari had returned James' last pokéball (his Weezing) to him, but she had not said a word since leading Giovanni to her brother. While everyone else's troubles were over, her healing had just begun. Giovanni led her out by the hand. "Would you rather be called Maria or Anari?" he asked her.
"My name is Anari and nothing else," she replied.
"You'll be all right," he told her. "You'll live with me, be like my own child..."
She looked up at him and said "That's what Big Brother told me," and said nothing more.
Jesse and James had both been to the hospital. They had bandaged heads, but the doctor had said they were both going to be fine.
"Well, you three have finally done something right for a change," he said "I think you all deserve a vacation!"
Jesse and James were ecstatic. Vacation? Had he said vacation?
He handed them a bag full of money.
Jesse and James just stared with their mouths open. There had to be thousands of dollars in there.
"What?" the boss asked them. "You can't have a good vacation without vacation money. I know I can't. Take a few weeks off! For a job well done!"
Jesse and James were jumping for joy, but Meowth just stared at the floor.
Finally, he said "If ya don't mind, Sir, I'd like to stay here. With Anari. Dat kid shouldn't be alone. She's been alone too long already."
All three of them were surprised. They had all found a new respect for Meowth, but this surprised them.
Giovanni smiled. "If you want. She likes Pokemon, she's been making friends with my Persian."
Meowth fell over, Animé-style.
"Hello, beautiful!" he said.
She smiled, fingering the rose locket around her neck. "So you think I'm beautiful, huh?"
"The most beautiful woman in the world!" he replied. "My beautiful rose, my Jesse, forever..."
She kissed him. "Hard to believe that in a few weeks it'll be back to work, trying..."
"Trying to catch that twerp's Pikachu," he finished. "Yeah, and you know, I can't wait!"
"Really?" she asked.
"Yeah. You know, there were times over the past week or two when I thought our lives would never go back to being normal again. And soon, nothing will make me happier than to say our motto together and know that life is good again."
"Good again? Come here and I'll show you good again," she said, pulling him close.
An older couple passed by, and observed the two of them kissing.
"It's so good to see young people in love," the woman said to her husband. "They look so happy."
"Yeah," he replied. "They've got their whole future ahead of them. I hope they live each day to its fullest. If they do, no matter what comes their way, their lives will be full of light and love."
And he was right.
Sincerely, Anna Sartin LilAnna81@aol.com
The older couple at the end of the story is meant to symbolize Jesse and James' lifetime love and partnership. ^_^ Together forever!