IMPORTANT! Ok here's the thing: I know I said this would be the last chapter but it's gonna be the second to last and here's why. I hoped to be finished with this story by now, but then finals came up at school and I had to stop working for a bit. Then school lets out and I get a bit done, but I got sick and that stopped the writing again. so long story short, I only got this far done and since people were getting impatient I decided not to wait till it's finished and post what I have. The conclusion will be up as soon as humanly possible. I'm sorry, but please enjoy what I've got and sorry for the delay -- Giovanni tapped his foot impatiently, sending glares at Domino at five minute intervals. "He's late," he growled at her after he'd forced her to squirm a sufficient amount. "If he doesn't show-WITH the android-you'll be the one to pay for it." Domino crossed and uncrossed her arms, not really sure what to do but trying to appear like she did. "Sir he said he'd hand her over-I promise I'll get that machine for you," she burbled out just a little too quickly. "Maybe he got lost, since we did pick the meeting place and all. He's probably just late, Sir-do you want me to look for him?" But there was no need, for when she looked down, there was James coming up the road with the android right behind. James felt more than a little nervous as he approached the designated meeting place. His plan might not work-in fact it was doomed to fail-but that would be all right as long as he stalled Team Rocket long enough. If the Boss had the real Jessie, then he would have her back within the hour. But if what that Collin had said was true, that Jessie was in a cell at Vicious's base, then he wouldn't have much time before the Rockets put two and two together, and he'd have to be in the Viridian Forest by then. "Ready?" he asked the red haired woman behind him, she nodded. "Remember-wait until you're a decent distance away so he'll have no distractions and no choice but to listen to you." "I know, I know that already and I certainly don't need ~you~ to tell me!" James rolled his eyes but tried to keep her from seeing. "And watch that voice of yours-don't talk if you can avoid it or they'll recognize you," he reminded her, but she was still ranting on and on and on and ON AND ON about how she knew *cough cough* exactly what she was doing. "Okaaay," Morada sighed, leaning back in her chair in self-congratulatory relaxation. "I do believe I've got it," she smiled. "The old Rocket Base in Viridian Forest should be where Vicious is-and the android is most likely in the basement dungeon on the other side of the old obstacle course in the training area. I just hacked into the system, but all I could get was a small map of half the building." Misty narrowed her eyes, it seemed like everything's in Viridian. She'd been checking the news...gangs on the move and all that. "Ash should be there, then-okay Jessie what's wrong now?" she glared the woman who was glaring at the computer console they'd crowded around. "The old Team Rocket headquarters exploded-James, Meowth and I saw it," she said seriously, then muttered more to herself, "some cat thing did it I think..." and Misty decided not to comment. Morada shrugged and logged off the computer. "Well it's our best and only lead so..." "Yeah, I know," Jessie sighed, fixing the hat from her stolen grunt uniform. "Let's get moving-do you think that Cassa-ditz, Botch and the rest will want to help?" Morada narrowed her eyes. "Well if you ask them nicely like that I'm sure-" "Be serious." "Well I don't know for sure, I don't know much about this whole resistance thing," Morada pointed out. "The only people that I know who are involved are you two, and of course Mondo. Jessie gave an exasperated sigh and turned to Misty. "What do you think? I don't know if we can take Vicious's army on our own." Misty opened her mouth part way but wasn't sure how to answer. "Well...I don't know them too well either. I may be wrong but YOU should have an idea of how these people think..." she saw Jessie's face contort angrily and hastily continued. "Besides, you and James have sneaked into hundreds of places without anyone noticing, so I'm sure we can get into the Team Vicious base without a problem even if it is just us-in fact it would be easier to get inside with less people than if we brought a small platoon with us," she pointed out, her own optimistic tone convincing her to feel hopeful. Jessie looked less than satisfied with the response. Arms crossed and frowning, she waited a moment before answering. "I'd like to point out that sneaking in is the easy part. Getting around the halls is one thing on its own-James and I were pretty good at disguising ourselves, but you kids are easily fooled. Everyone in that base has their eyes open for me instead of walking around without a damn care like you brats do. I happen to be a fugitive-kind of." "YOU don't have to sneak in," Misty pointed out, "me and Morada can do it and besides your pokemon battling would drag us down, right?" she turned to Morada who gave a peace sign. Jessie almost laughed out loud. "YOU? Take on VICIOUS?!" and then she did laugh out loud. A lot. "That's hilarious! Just the thought-you trying to take down a crime lord without the twerp to help you, you'd be creamed in two seconds!" "I could too do it alone!" Misty growled. "Besides, who says I'm going to battle Vicious? I'll just get Ash and Galatea out and leave, no battling involved!" Jessie sighed and shook her head. "Twerp I'm going to tell you something about you and your friends," she said. "You all have the uncanny ability to be at the right place at the right time. More than half the time you've stopped James and I from getting away with a crime is because you just so HAPPENED to be right there. It's uncanny-and it's all up to chance." Morada swiveled her chair around and finally seemed to be paying attention as Misty got quiet again as she recalled all those times... everyone they met on the road, all those contests, saving those gyms and those buildings...would everything have turned out all right if Ash had shown up just a half hour later? How would the world be different if he'd just woken up on time the day he left Pallet? "So let's just say," Jessie continued, "that this time, your luck runs out. Say you get caught-do you really think you can handle yourself then? What if they throw you two in the dungeon with the avatar and what-it's up to ME to rescue everyone? Let's say Vicious finds you a threat. Let's say he tries to kill you-what then?" Misty fell silent. This wasn't any kind of petty crime like she'd dealt with before-sure Jessie and James would hurt someone without guilt, but killing? Not even THEY would go that far, would they? Maybe Ash would be able to get them out of it-Jessie was right, he did have an unnatural amount of luck-but Ash was Ash and she was Misty, and what could Misty do? AGGHH, what had happened to her? She used to be so confident, and now? Now Jessie of all people was intimidating her! But then again, Jessie was only slapping reality in her face. Sure she had been confident, but she'd had backup and now she was the only good guy-er, girl-in the area. She'd done a few things on her own every so often-saving that Clefairy, winning that fishing tournament-but for most of the time for most of the days she was just there. At the side. The cheering section. "See what I mean?" Jessie interrupted her thoughts. "I know these people that we're up against. I know how they work and as much as you may hate it, you're in my domain and just face it-you're lost." Morada grinned slightly and murmured, "Stranger in a strange land." "Fine." Misty bit out, more angry with herself than with Jessie. What happened to the gym leader in her? The girl who left home to become a pokemon master came back following one. Maybe she needed this fight, if not for the world than to at least prove she hadn't been tamed. "Let's go-let's ALL go-and rescue them." "Wait a sec," Morada chimed in, turning off the computer and standing up. "When you said 'all' did you mean the three of us or the entire resistance?" "I don't know if they'll help us..." Jessie pointed out. Misty was shocked. "But if Vicious gets the firewall technology-" "Then yes, we'll be in trouble," Jessie interrupted, "but remember that Vicious still has to BUILD his android army-he only just got the template, he can't have built many yet if any at all. We have more time to deal with Vicious." "True," Morada agreed. "It would be worse if Team Rocket got the specks for the firewall because Gio-I mean the Boss-has his army just ready and waiting for 'em." Misty had caught that the doctor had almost said the name of the Boss, but Jessie started talking again before she could comment. "That's right, and Botch and company know that. And don't forget, the most influential members of the resistance have other agendas," Jessie pointed out. "We've got a bunch of men and women who are in control of the manpower in the resistance, but they're more concerned with getting their partners back. They want to rescue everyone that was kidnapped before they deal with the Boss-even though they know the danger of it, they aren't going to deal with androids right away." "SHUT THEM OFF! SHUT THEM OFF! SHUT THEM ALL OFF!" Elise screamed from somewhere in the hectic mess of gunshots. Butch couldn't see her, but she wasn't the one he was looking for anyway. He hadn't heard a thing, for the bomb shelter was soundproof, so when he opened the hatch there was considerable surprise on his part upon seeing a strange and violent battle between the agents and five figures who were obviously androids. They stood in a small circle, backs to the center. All were molded after the missing partners of resistance members, except for one who he recognized as a replica of the Misty twerp. They appeared to have just woken up-still soaking and green tinted from the shock absorbing fluid, wires still dangling from their open connector nodes that covered their bare skin. But the fact that they were just activated didn't hinder their programming. In the eyes of the machines, each agent in the area was a traitor to Team Rocket for joining the resistance. Butch could see that a few members of the group were not being shot at, so that must mean the Boss still hadn't found out everyone in the opposition, but he had most of the names. Team Rocket equipped the androids with a normal gun built into one arm, and a plasma rifle on the other-the reloadable shotgun seemed to be an addition for it wasn't on the schematics for the prototype-which allowed them to shoot with the latter while the former and more deadly took a minute to charge. How they'd gotten there and how they'd been activated were questions Butch didn't have time to think about as he ducked out of the clearing and behind a clump of trees where some of his comrades lay on their bellies, shooting with the artillery the resistance had gathered. "What happened?" Butch snapped at Deija, who was hovering protectively over Lyn while shooting at the androids with his free hand. "Cassidy and Mondo accidentally activated them," Lyn answered him. "They were in the package from Seafoam port. As soon as they opened their eyes they accused nearly everyone they saw as traitors to Team Rocket-I guess that means the Boss knows about the Resistance, huh?" she asked, but before Butch could answer Deija's gun ran out of bullets and she turned away to shoot with her own revolver while her boyfriend reloaded. Butch looked out at the battlefield again and started to feel worried. He couldn't see Cassidy and Mondo anywhere, and if they were the ones who activated those things that meant they'd been right up close when the shooting started... "Deija!" he shouted suddenly, and the other man jerked up in slight panic. "Where's Cassidy-she wasn't too close to those things was she?" "I don't know if I can tell you to relax," Deija muttered, snapping the clip into place on his gun, "but she got out of the way real fast when those things woke up-dragged Mondo off with her and screamed at everyone to get down. I didn't see where she went, but last I saw she and the kid were alive." Feeling a rush of relief, Butch relaxed just a little but his eyes scanned the clearing for any sign of bright blonde hair. He wasn't sure if he should fight here with Deija and Lyn, trusting Cassidy to take care of herself--for she clearly knew what she was doing-or go out into the mess of bullets and plasma to look for her. "And what about Jessie and that kid that looks like one of the androids?" Lyn looked back up at him. "I heard a rumor over the Rocket Network that the Boss was meeting with James, so maybe Jessie went to HQ to check that out. All I know is she's been gone for a long time, left hours before the attack even started." She paused, grunted, and picked up another clip. "As for Misty," Lyn continued, "If there was an android who looked like me in the immediate area that people were shooting at, well, it'd be smart to get away real fast just incase there was a mix up." Butch nodded and looked around. Lyn, Deija, and a few others had dug a shallow ditch and everyone was laying on their stomachs to shoot from behind the scrappy shield of thin trees. Grabbing a gun from a small pile, Butch moved into a half crouch and started to walk to the right. "What are you doing?" Lyn snapped. "Stay down you moron!" "I'm gonna look for Cassidy and Mondo," Butch shouted back at her. "They could be somewhere around the perimeter." "But-" Lyn began to protest but Deija interrupted her. "Let him go, Lyn," he said sternly, knowing how Butch was feeling at the moment. "He'll be fine, just let him find his partner." She glared at the man she loved, made a growling noise and hunched her shoulders. "Fine." Butch only got around ten yards before he heard the warning shouts that the androids had separated. No longer in the easy to target group (although the bullets had little effect anyway) the five synthoids were advancing in different directions, shooting and implementing their programmed karate on the agents who had no choice but to run. He walked faster. "Glad you could make it, James," Domino smiled in a bittersweet way. James glared up at her and wondered when he'd gotten brave enough to try and trick the Boss like this. "Wouldn't miss it." The Boss had arranged the meeting in a field with a few sparsely growing trees, which eventually became the Ilex forest. Four helicopters, the biggest as the Rocket Elite flagship, sat on the grass with pilots in the cockpit ready to move as soon as the exchange had been made. Domino, the Boss, and a few of their guards stood high above James (just to be threatening) on top of a helicopter platform. Domino hopped down, not bothering with the ramp, and grinned. James was here, and the android was right behind him; instead of punishment from the Boss, she'd be rewarded-my my, how good life can be. "Well?" she demanded impatiently. James stepped aside to face his red-haired companion. "Scan the man on the platform, Jessie," he told the android, "you'll see he's your Boss. His orders are to go with him." There was a pause while the woman looked up at the Boss, sitting on the chair. "Confirmed," she said in a voice that was almost forced and a bit uneven. Then she walked slowly up the ramp and stood near the Boss who seemed satisfied. James nodded and looked back at Domino. "Happy?" he asked her, then faced upward at his former employer. "I brought her, now tell me how to get Jessie's personality back." The Boss smirked slyly and stepped forward. "I told you, James, I need to get a program out of her systems first, then I'll give you her personality file to upload yourself-or my scientists can do it for you. You'll have your Jessica back, with all her memories, by this time tomorrow." "Tomorrow!" James shouted angrily, and Domino stepped forward to block his way to the ramp, even though she doubted if he'd actually try and physically attack the Boss. "Why can't you give me the file now?" "Because James," the tone of the answer sounded impatient, "I told you that I need a program from her first. I will take her back to base, get the program out, put the memory files in and bring back this machine right here at the same time same place tomorrow, understand?" James looked skeptical. "How do I know you'll do it? Bring her back that is?" Domino thought she saw the Boss's eye twitch. "What would I want with it?" he growled. "I've updated the schematics and built better models-this thing is obsolete!" he pointed at the android. "I could destroy her, but how would that get you out of my hair? You annoy me to no end, James, and if I give you your partner back I expect never to see either of your faces again so long as I live-you don't realize the favor I'm doing you by not shooting you on the spot." He clenched his fists and continued with gritted teeth and a slightly calmer voice. "I'll disassemble her weapons and scanning abilities. She'll be as good as a human with a metal skeleton-but don't expect to have any children. Be back here tomorrow if you want her that badly, otherwise she'll be melted down to make a desk chair." With that, he turned and left and with a motion the android followed. Domino smiled-her reward would come soon. Everything was going according to plan. She turned back to James and flipped her hair. "Well nice seeing you again, Jimmy," she smiled. "Don't expect me to bother with stupid deliveries like your little robot toy-I won't be here tomorrow but we'll send some people to drop her off." She turned to walk away, but stopped and looked back over her shoulder. James watched her turn back, and this time when she spoke there was less confidence and more icy anger. "I don't ever want to see you again-maybe I even want to see you less than the Boss does you've caused me so much trouble. Don't show your face in Team Rocket again, hear?" He gave a sort of smile. "Don't worry, I don't want anything to do with any of you anymore," he told her, and that was the truth. "So don't give me a reason to come back-no more kidnapping my friends. I'll stay out of your way." She gave him a skeptical glare, trying to decide if he was telling the truth or not. She knew the boy had ambition-wanting to be the boss and everything-but for someone with such high goals he was more of a follower. There was probably nothing to worry about. Probably. She turned and left, walking up the ramp and onto the platform. Five minutes later the helicopters were out of sight, and James turned and ran as fast as he could towards the trees of the Ilex. The Boss hadn't handed over the real Jessie-probably all they were planning to do if they even came the next day was give him an altered...well, what they thought was an android. And that meant that Crazy Collin was right, and Vicious had the real Jessie, but after handing over his only decoy to Team Rocket, she'd be much harder to rescue. "James, what did youz do?" Meowth's voice came from overhead, startling him. The cat was in the balloon, already hovering low enough for James to jump in. "No, Meowth," he called, running up to the basket and grabbing his friend. "We can't use the balloon, they have helicopters. They'll spot us from the air." Deciding not to bother trying to figure out the boy who had never made sense in the first place, Meowth shrugged his tiny shoulders. "Where are wez headin now? Jessie should be in Viridian-" "I know that," James snapped as they reached the border of the Ilex and continued to run through the thicket. "It's where we're going." Meowth didn't realize that James was talking about the android (who he believed was Jessie) but instead thought that his friend knew about Jessie, Misty, and Morada's plan to rescue the android and the twerp. (author's note: I'm sorry if this is confusing) "But wait!" the cat snapped. "Dats too far to run, it would be a day or two's trip at top speed-we needs da balloon!" James smiled confidently. "You're forgetting that Morada's house is in this forest, and I've got the keys to her car." Meowth laughed and pat his friend on the shoulder with one paw. "Youz really did somethin' right dis time, James. I'm shocked." "Why, thank you." "But one thing Meowth wants ta know..." "What's that?" "Who was dat youz gave to da Boss?" "I want the schematics for that firewall right away," Giovanni ordered. They were still in the helicopter, but his agents had enough equipment in the cargo hold to get started with the file defragmentation. "Yes sir!" shouted the scientists in unison as they opened their laptops and untangled the wires in a box of microchips. Domino hovered over them, constantly checking their work and using her black tulip rod to give them incentive to go faster. Finally they were ready to begin, and Domino led the android to a chair between the head computer experts on the Team. One took a small metal stick and prodded places on the avatar's forehead, but nothing happened. "Sir?" he said to the boss, "I can't find the switch for the holographic system, and I can't connect her to the computer if I can't find the access ports." "Well find them," Giovanni growled back. To the best of his memory, the holographic imaging system could only give the appearance of unflawed skin on the android, the scientists should still be able feel the nodes, so why the trouble plugging the thing in? "Can I ask you a question?" the android suddenly spoke up, surprising everyone, including Giovanni. "If you're supposed to be some big crime lord, why didn't you just shoot James back there? It's not as if I want you to do it, I don't, but I am rather curious." Curious? An android couldn't be curious. Giovanni didn't like this at all-something was wrong. "It's because of the real Jessica Miyamoto," Giovanni responded carefully. "She's a real monster, and as submissive as she is to authority she certainly doesn't care much about personal safety, which is a bad type of person to make an enemy of." The android tilted her head back and slanted her eyes. "I see," she said. Perhaps with the firewall down she could have curiosity, but there was something else... maybe it was the androids voice. It was too cool...too confident...too human... to...southern? "But..." she continued, "There are even more dangerous people to be on the bad side of. Such as..." from behind her back she produced a whip and, with a slightly cruel but mostly insane smile cracked it near the Boss's foot. "Me!" she finished, cracking the whip again, and this time with aim. Giovanni had to jump back to avoid it. "Who are you?" he demanded. Primly, she pointed to herself. "Little ol me?" she asked in mock innocence. "Why my name's Jessibelle," she said, and snapped her whip with a dominating smile, "and I'm going to punish you for the improper treatment of a lady!" Meanwhile, in the Ilex... Meowth was laughing his tail off. "Youz is cruel, James. Youz is just plain cruel." Officer Jennys were checking luggage near the platform exit when Morada, Jessie, and Misty stepped off the train into Viridian City Station. With the crime activity in the area the bag raids didn't surprise either Jessie or Misty, but both did receive a shock as they saw Mrs. Ketchum and Prof. Oak standing with the head Jenny. "Hey! It's Ash's mom!" Misty cried, pointing to the woman with the professor. "OVER HERE-" Jessie silenced her with a hand over the girl's mouth. "What do you think you're doing? Low profile, remember?" Morada nodded and dragged them over to the Saffron City platform, out of police earshot but within visibility range. "Look," she said to the disgruntled Misty, who was having a hushed argument that appeared silly with vibrant arm motions. "Even if you know those people over there, Jessie and I happen to be wanted Criminals. I might be able to get through-nobody knows me after all-but every bounty hunter, police officer, and anyone who's been following the Rocket Network is on the lookout for Jessie!" "Then maybe we shouldn't have taken public transportation!" Misty snapped back. "Hey, I have a disguise," Jessie pointed out. She was wearing a wig with long black hair and a pink dress that didn't suit her at all. Misty felt grateful that at the very least she'd toned the wardrobe down a little, but even then Jessie was tall enough to stand out. "AAAAAAND," Morada continued, "YOU, kid, are on a list of missing persons! The second Jenny sees you, she'll haul your butt down to the station and start asking you question after question-won't let you out of her sight." Misty saw her point. She couldn't very well just waltz out of a police station to raid a criminal base. "Well..." she tried, "what if the police helped us rescue everyone?" "Oh, great idea," Jessie muttered sarcastically. "Then they'll arrest everyone in the resistance and you'll be making yourself some real friends then, won't ya?" Morada put a hand on Misty's shoulder and looked her in the eye. "Look," she said, "I know this is probably hard for you to understand, but the right thing to do won't always be the thing that gets the right results. It's in your nature to expect the police to solve things, but you don't understand that in this case, they can't do anything and getting the Jennys involved will just make things worse." "What do you mean?" "It's like this," Jessie answered, taking over. "Team Rocket is a highly sophisticated criminal organization. We aren't tied up with protocol and restrictions-we can experiment with anything we want without guilt over the consequences." "That's horrible." "That may be, but because of that we have incredibly advanced technology. We can chemically enhance the strength of a pokemon, or use mind control on them to get what we want done. We even have cloning technology." Morada nodded. "And then there's the weapons," she added, "Team Rocket is a society. People are born into it, and they die within it, and from the moment they join they are groomed in the best interests of the Team." Misty was starting to feel uncomfortable with this conversation, but was strangely drawn in. "What do you mean?" "Well, for example," Jessie started, "I was born into Team Rocket, and they tried to put me in training to be a professional assassin." "A-a WHAT!?" Misty yelled, and Morada yanked her behind a pillar as people sitting nearby looked up. "You were a what?" Misty repeated in disbelieving whisper. Jessie waved the comment away like it meant nothing. "That was what I was supposed to do, but I never even started training-before you train they test you. They shoved a pidgey in my face, gave me a gun, and told me to shoot it-long story short I didn't have a problem with punching it to the next county but I couldn't kill the thing. But that doesn't mean I don't know how-and I will if I ever need to. Killing to defend your own life is one thing, killing in cold blood is another. You have to have the right stomach to be an assassin, and when Madame Boss saw I couldn't handle it she reassigned me to take over my mothers old job." "What was your mo-" Misty started to ask about Jessie's family, but then caught sight of Morada over Jessie's shoulder, who was making big arm motions to warn her against the subject. "SOOOOOO, what were saying about the weapons, Morada?" "YEAH! That's right I was gonna talk about weapons, huh?" the doctor smiled, realizing she'd gone off track again. "Well what I was trying to say is that even though Jessie here couldn't handle killing, there sure are plenty in Team Rocket who wouldn't give it a second thought-even some sickos who enjoy it but I think most of them moved to Team Vicious. And there's hardly any member of Team Rocket who'd care about hurting someone." Jessie picked up from there. "Combine that kind of mind with our advanced technology, and you have incredibly powerful weapons owned by people who aren't afraid to use them. Police officers who try to protect life wouldn't stand a chance against them." Misty was starting to see their point. Team Rocket, Team Vicious, and the Resistance were the only people who could handle battling each other. This was an inner conflict. If the police arrested the Rocket rebellion, then there would be nobody to battle Team Rocket and Team Vicious. Criminals battling to protect people from criminals-what a world. "Get it?" Morada asked. "If the police find you now they might find the resistance and then we'd all be screwed." Misty was starting to panic. "But when can I go back to my normal life?" Jessie sighed. "I knew it and I told you. Didn't I warn you that you were in deep? Didn't I tell you this would happen? You just don't listen at all..." it was strange, but Misty had a feeling that Jessie felt sorry for her, after all the woman was born into this kind of life and was obviously in deeper than she'd ever be. "You can't go back," Morada finished. "Not until this is over." Still in shock, and now a bit afraid, Misty nodded numbly. "Okay...then let's finish this." "What are you doing?" Ash asked. Galatea had been sitting quietly in the cell for hours, hardly moving at all. She'd been mouthing words, but he'd heard nothing, and she appeared to be completely focused on the blinking lights within her own eyes. Ash figured she must be doing something important so he'd stayed quiet until now, but finally his minimal patience had worn too thin. "HEY! Are we gonna do anything about trying to escape?" "My orders..." she said quietly, still not looking anywhere in particularly. "What?" "My orders are to destroy the traitors," Galatea answered. Her voice was low and Ash didn't like it. "You mean kill them, don't you?" he snapped. "Well no way. I won't let you kill anyone-let the police handle this, we'll go to officer Jenny as soon as we escape but to do that I need you to break down this door so COME ON!" "My orders..." she repeated. And then, in a whisper and an altered tone, "My choice..." Ash hardly heard it. "Huh?" For the first time in a long time she moved, and turned to face him. Also for the first time, Ash felt her eyes completely on him instead of partly off somewhere else, scanning this or analyzing that. "I don't HAVE to do anything anymore," she said slowly. "the humanity program was activated... doesn't being human mean you have a choice? Can't you humans do what you want to?" "Well..." Ash started off, not quite knowing what to tell her. "Being human is hard to explain. Sure we can do what we want, but you also have a responsibility to choose if you're going to do what's right or what's wrong." "But that's still a choice-out of the things you want?" "Yeah, I guess," he agreed after considering it. "Why are you asking, anyway?" She was silent for a moment, and once more her vision seemed diverted to somewhere else. "I don't know what I want," she finally said. "Therefore I don't know what to do. I have always relied on my programming because that's what I was built to do. It is my purpose." There was another pause and she looked back at him again. "What is a human's purpose?" Ash laughed. "Well I don't know the answer to THAT! Nobody does!" he assured her. "So don't worry about not having the answers, you can't get everything from your programming." "There is nothing besides programming," Galatea reminded him. "You, boy, I have observed that you follow your dreams, your ultimate goal. I have neither. I do know that most religions believe that it is the soul of a human that makes the person-I don't have one of those, either." Ash crossed his arms, not understanding this one bit. Teachers had tried to explain philosophy to him before, but all had failed miserably for it was obvious pokemon was the only thing of interest to Ash. For him, life was a straightforward and simple thing. He had to become a pokemon master. How? Easy. Catch lots of pokemon, make friends with them, learn as much as he could, win his battles, collect all the badges and somewhere along the line he would get it done. Maybe after that he could even settle down and start his own gym or school for training. Whatever Galatea was getting at just wasn't registering in his mind, but he knew the cure. "You know what you need, Galatea?" "What is that?" "A goal," Ash stated matter-o-factly. "Something to work towards. Something to feel accomplished over." Galatea narrowed her eyes. "Like your goal, the mastering of pocket monsters?" Ash nodded. "And why is that?" He opened his mouth, and let it hand there for it just hit him he had absolutely no idea. He'd always wanted to become a pokemon master, like his father had been. But he really didn't even know why his father had wanted such a thing. It was his dream simply because it was his dream, and it always had been. He couldn't imagine life any other way. "Just because I want to I suppose." "And that's where I started from," she said. "There's nothing I want, therefore I can never achieve a purpose in 'life'. Without that, even with the humanity program, it seems I should follow my original programming. At least that way I will not become superfluous." "Ser-what?" "Superfluous. Unnecessary. A machine is built to function in a certain way," she explained. "When it can no longer do that, or when it is not needed, then the machine has exceeded its purpose and becomes superfluous. If I become that way, it would be the human equivalent of dying." Ash considered what parts he could understand. What he did know was that if Galatea followed her original programming, she would not stop until everyone in the Team Vicious base was dead. He'd have to convince her to use her humanity program to avoid a killing spree, but how could he convince an android that for her, becoming something more than a machine was something she could really do and not super-something. But Galatea didn't think she could do it! She believed that because she wanted nothing, she'd have no purpose to work towards. So, what Galatea needed was something to want... "Well..." Ash tried as he remembered something important. "I thought there was something that you wanted." "What is that?" "Back at the cabin..." he reminded her. "Didn't you yell 'I want to understand'?" She was silent, but did not disagree with him so Ash continued. "Look, I don't know what it was you wanted to understand, but why don't you make finding an answer the goal you need to become human?" Galatea, it seemed, was skeptical. "How would that be beneficial?" "Well, your humanity program is active, right?" Ash pointed out. "You should use it! If you don't, it'll be superman." "Superfluous." "That's what I meant." By the time James and Meowth reached Morada's car, the cat had filled him in on what was happening at Vicious's base. "So the one Collin was ranting about isn't really Jessie?" James pouted. "Dat's right," Meowth nodded. "Dat was de android doing a pretty good impression if I do say so myself-she even fooled Meowth." James grumbled something and put the key in the ignition. "Great. So once again I have no idea where the real Jessie is, and now I suppose I've got some personal responsibility to rescue Galatea and that Twerp-and rescuing people just happens to be one of my specialties," he added sarcastically. "Don't worry, James," the pokemon assured him. "I talked to da real Jessie and I talked to da Doc and last I heard dey was gonna head out ta Viridian and dey said something about bringin da resistance but I dunno if dat'll woirk." "You talked to the real Jessie?" James asked in disbelief. "Why didn't you tell me? Is she okay? And wait, are you SURE she's the real one because I'm starting to loose track of who has what Jessie." "Meowth can't be positive till I sees her," the cat said, crossing his arms, then giving a sort of grin. "You'd probably be able to tell, wouldn't ya Jimmy?" James frowned, starting the car and pulling out of the tiny garage and into the forest. Would he really be able to tell the difference? He'd let the Boss trick him before, would he fall for another fake on his own? What if he saw the real one and didn't even know? Some friend he would be... "I Can't believe this," he complained later on. "I was in Viridian-she was in Mahogany with that resistance Botch was talking about. That idiot, I told him to let me know if anything happened." Frustrated, he pressed down on the pedal harder. The Ilex wasn't that far at all from Viridian, it was merely a simple drive past the Indigo Plateau. A day's walk, it wasn't more than an hour or so by car and he would have been there by now if it hadn't taken so long to navigate through the Ilex's large trees. "Then, when I leave Viridian to find her, she heads right for where I was-what, is there some sort of higher power trying to keep us separated!?" Meowth opened his eyes and groggily rolled over. "Yeah sure, whatever," he mumbled in a sleepy voice, and closed his eyes again. James slammed his foot on the break, and the car lurched forward with a screech before stopping short as it left a long trail of tire marks. He had to catch Meowth before he collided with the windshield. The cat shook his head to clear it, looking insulted and disheveled. "What did yous do dat for, ya moron!?" James glared at the pokemon. "Are you saying you actually believe there's something trying to separate us?" Meowth narrowed his large eyes. "I hardly remember the question-Meowth wasn't paying much attention to youz. But really, I thought you were a drama student-a flunking one, but you like to call yourself an actor. You should know that most good plotlines involve a test of loyalty, or friendship, or love, or some kind of crap like that." Seeing that James wasn't following, Meowth decided to shorten it into terms the human could understand. "Basically...coincidental wise, your luck sucks." "Oh..." They drove in silence for a while. Not complete silence of course, for Morada's ugly little sky-blue convertible, supposedly a "classic", kept making strange noises from behind the duct-taped-on bumper. "Some reunion this is," James muttered as they passed the Indigo Plateau. The Pokemon League tournament wouldn't start for another two months, so James turned right to cut through the trainer's village-it would be empty this time of year. Meowth's ear twitched. "What was dat?" "I said that this is some reunion," James repeated louder. "I know what goes on at reunions, I was dragged to my parents' high school one once. Everybody's hugging and telling stories, catching up and reminiscing-we haven't done any of that. It was all basically a 'hello again, lets go bag an android' as if nothing happened but everything changed." The cat sighed. "You're mad at me for leaving, aren't yous?" James looked up. "What? No-I mean yes, a bit, but that wasn't my point," he stammered. After a long silence he spoke again, "So what happened to you after you left?" "Eh..." Meowth waved a paw, "Dis 'n dat." "Meowth..." "Oh fine," he growled. "To be honest wid yous, yous were da reason I left in da first place." "Me?" James asked, quite taken aback and a little insulted. "Yeah," nodded the pokemon. "When Jessie vanished, I didn't believe for a second dat she'd gotten dat promotion da Boss talked about-remember, I may not be da Top Cat anymore but dere was a time when Meowth knew all da Boss's little secrets." They drove out of Trainer's Village, Viridian forest was only a mile or so away, but James had to cut the headlights and slow down almost to a crawl for the car was too noisy. Already dark outside. "I figured da Boss killed her." "What?" James was obviously shocked at his friend's assumption. "Why would the Boss do that? I mean we weren't the best team in the Team, but he didn't even bother with me or you-why would you think something like that for just Jessie?" Meowth looked too serious for James's taste. "Jessie goes a lot farther back into Team Rocket den she's probably told yous, so you can ask her dat question when we find her," he said sternly. "But at any rate, dat's what I thought, and Meowth didn't have da heart to tell yous, since when Jessie was gone ya basically shut down. I didn't wanna make it woirse when I didn't have any proof or nuttin." James could understand that. He'd never had the best self-esteem, nobody could with his parents. He and Jessie had both been told from young ages they were worthless, useless, and would ultimately fail in life. James had believed those people, and his sense of self worth had all but diminished, but not Jessie. Jessie had taken those comments and fed on them. She'd developed such a sense of confidence that it often bordered on megalomania, and the harder she fell-and she always fell-the stronger she became. As far as James was concerned, there were only two things he did that bothered her: stupid mistakes, which were merely mistakes or some lack of understanding, and his negative attitude (which usually came in the form of whining). Sure she would be mean or violent, but it was usually punishment for pessimism-a punch in the nose for calling himself a looser, or a kick in the side for saying they'd never win. Basically it was never give up hope, or suffer the painful repercussions. She'd always been a hopeful girl, and only when she'd lost that would they ever give up. What Meowth had said was true; when she disappeared he really had shut down. All optimism was gone, and confidence shattered. Those negative thoughts had returned and overwhelmed him, and the cat wasn't strong enough to keep him in check. Meowth was continuing. "I couldn't do a thing about yous," he said. "I tried to help ya, but I doubt if yous ever noticed it. So I got mad, mad at da Boss." Meowth extended his claws for a moment, then retracted them with a jerking paw. "From da way I saw it, he killed one of my humans and pretty much stole the soul of da other and Meowth wanted revenge-but there wasn't much I could really do by myself, and yous were in no condition to help and neither was Mondo, so I found Vicious." James hid an inward smile from the 'my humans' part and focused on the last portion of what his friend said. "You tracked him down on purpose? So it wasn't something you just got involved in?" The cat nodded in almost shame. "I helped him set up Team Vicious," Meowth confessed. "I told him which members of da Team wanted revenge on one thing or another, I pointed out dose scary ones dat wanted more violence in protocol, and I tolds him all da Boss's secrets dat weren't too dangerous to let out." James brought the car to a halt. He had always known that Meowth harbored a taste for revenge, but he'd never thought the cat would ever go this far... "Did you tell him about the android project?" "No, he found about dat one on his own," Meowth replied, somehow looking old. "Jess was psycho, but I loved her anyway-I know you did. Dere was dis one, great day when Meowth found out about da androids and Vicious got his plan to get some and start da war-Meowth thought, dis is finally it, da Boss'll finally pay for it all... but den Vicious's spies brought bad a picture of da prototype and I saw it was Jessie, or at least something dat looked like her. And den da spies said she'd been used as a template, and was still alive...everything went to hell." "H-how do you mean?" James inquired carefully, for his friend seemed a bit unstable at the moment. "If da Boss had Jessie den she'd be killed when Vicious attacked," Meowth pointed out. "I tried to tell Vicious ta call off da attack, but da whole ting was out of Meowth's control. I'd told him all he needed ta know and da guy could do his war widdout me easy if he got da prototype, so I tried to figure out a way to keep him from getting it." "What did you do?" (author's note: this is where I get mean and make you remember things from chapter 1, heheheh ) "When I found out dat da transport for da android was running through Le Cerebii, I called da manager and asked him, as an official representative for Vicious, to send a list of possible curriers for da transport. When I saw your name on da list it all fell into place-I knew dat when yous saw the Jessie android you wouldn't turn it into Vicious. Meowth knew yous would keep her safe, and you finally came through for once." James tried to say something, but found his jaw immobile. What could he say to this? Oh, he knew just the thing, "We're here, Meowth." And in front of them loomed the trees of the Viridian Forest, with a deadly prison, the only way to meet everyone again. "I am really not going to get used to this," Jessie complained in a whisper. "Whenever I look down, all I can think is I'm wearing the wrong letter, like a factory rejected shirt of something." She was referring to the bright red 'V' on her disguise. She, Misty, and Morada managed to find a trash pile with some old uniforms, usually with rips and tears people were too lazy to sew up. Jessie's shirt had only one and a half sleeves. Misty's pants had holes all over the knees (which would have looked cool if they weren't a size too big, and if her knees weren't so bony). And then there was Morada, who had to wear a shirt under her knew 'uniform', for there was a giant tear right across the V. "I know what you mean," Misty agreed. "You look weird without an R." Morada arched her eyebrows and looked Jessie up and down. "I'm starting to wonder if you've ever worn normal clothing before." "Har har," the woman countered, and slammed the lid on the garbage can shut. She then climbed up on top of it, and tried to pry open the nearest window. After a short wait, Misty tapped her foot and yelled up, "I thought you and James did this all the time! What's taking so long?" "James," Jessie grunted, giving the frame another hard tug, "picked the locks. Every so often I'd kick down a door but this certainly isn't the time for that." "Well, why don't you use your pokemon?" Jessie stopped pulling for a moment and glared down at the girl. "Why don't YOU use one of YOUR pokemon?" Crossing her arms, Misty took it as a personal insult. "My pokemon were taken by your stupid organization and as soon as we get Ash out of here I'm going to go find them!" "I know that," Jessie replied, taking off a glove and trying to unscrew the frame with her nails. "So if you were in a Rocket prison for three days and your pokemon were taken, what makes you think that after five years I'll still have MY pokemon?" Misty opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again in sort of pity. She'd been without her pokemon for days, and was worried sick, but still clinging to the hope she'd see them again. That their loyalty wouldn't change after a mere week or so. But five years? Without her pokemon for five years? How horrible... "I got it!" Jessie exclaimed with a laugh and a flash of her old rocket attitude. Morada watched her as she took out the window frame and paused back the screen with ease. "Huh, you did get it," she murmured in calm surprise. "Go figure, I just lost a bet to myself." "Ha ha," Jessie retorted, "hold this." She handed the doctor the frame and hopped inside the window. "You next, twerp, the coast is clear," she called down to them. Reluctantly, and with one last, longing glance and the trees that barred her freedom, Misty climbed the garbage can with minimal difficulty and hauled herself through the window. Morada came up a moment later, and that was that. "So where to?" Misty asked, elbowing Jessie who'd been looking around the closed they'd climbed into. Jessie shrugged. "Like I said before, this place blew up. I don't know the lay of all this anymore." "Well..." Morada started, moving to the door and putting an ear to it. "all I got from the map I saw is that the dungeon is on the other side of the old obstacle course." Hearing nothing from the side of the door, she opened it to reveal a darkened hall. "So if the obstacle course is still in tact then it survived the explosion." "How?" asked Misty. "It was underground," Jessie informed her. "And that means we're on the lookout for a door to the basement." The two women walked into the hallway and vanished into the shadows. Misty stood in the doorway for a moment, hands on her hips. "Basements, obstacle courses, greeaaaaat," she muttered before following the criminals into the darkness. "Cassidy?" Butch tried to shout over the gunshots. Of course there was no answer. She'd have to be nearby to hear him, and if she was nearby he'd have seen her. Grumbling, he took out his gun and aimed it at the nearest android, who seemed to be giving another guy some trouble. It was the one shaped like that Misty girl-and if the real kid could fight like the machine did she'd work forever. He almost took a shot, but then thought about how it would do little good. It took repeated shots to do even a little damage to the machines. They were covered in false blood, but underneath the imitation skin lay almost bulletproof panels that would need to break to reveal the circuitry. Besides, shooting would only draw attention to himself. But then again, that android would kill that other guy if he didn't do something... But what did he care? Butch sighed, knowing he was the leader of this dammed operation, and that title forced at least a little responsibility on his shoulders. He didn't plan on deserting his teammates like the Boss did. He would NOT turn into that man... Holding up the gun once more, he tried to aim for one of the already open holes. He shot twice, and missed once, but android-Misty turned to look in his direction. Butch figured she'd go for where the shot came from, so he dropped the gun and ran, hoping to buy himself some more time and loose her in the trees. He ran for a long time, not sure where he was going or if she was following or not. Finally, hearing nothing, he stopped to rest. He tried to think, what should he do? He had no gun now, and that was just peachy, and he was even more off course than ever. Butch sat down on a log and tried to sort things out in his mind. He liked to think he knew Cassidy pretty well, what would she do in this kind of situation? First of all, she always had a backup plan-of course that was when SHE was the person doing the assaulting, so in this case... Oh come on, he could think of this! She would... she would... Well, if she couldn't fight, she'd run, wouldn't she? She'd run until she could collect herself and fight again, and better than before. Cassidy always wanted to do things better, so why run if you could drive? That's it! She'd go straight to where the resistance kept the cars they stole! Rising, he started to run again. It took around fifteen minutes to get there, for he had to stop and rest once, and turn twice to avoid the androids. Finally he got there, more or less in one piece. Three jeeps-one with a flat-and the confiscated truck were all the resistance had, and the truck was back at android-attack central. One jeep was missing, that was good, it meant survivors-maybe Cassidy and Mondo-had escaped, but then again it could also be an android going to inform Team Rocket. Butch ran to the last Jeep, and was considerably surprised to see Doris of all people, trying to start the engine. "What are you doing here?" he demanded in shock and disappointment that she wasn't who he'd been searching for. She jumped in surprise at hearing his voice, and turned to face him with glassy eyes on the verge of crying. "I gotta get out of here," she whimpered. "Those things are coming after me, but when they're done here, what if they find Collin?" she kept shaking, but her voice only cracked a few times. "He thinks I'm dead, so I have to find the dummy and tell him he's wrong." Doris tried to force a smile, but when she found she could not her tone became serious. "Never mind," she breathed, turning away from him and trying the starter again. "I don't have to explain myself to you. Just get in the car, you won't last long in this kind of gunfire. I'm leaving." Butch understood how she felt. Doris only stuck around to try and find Collin, but now she was taking the initiative and finding him herself. She had no reason to stay with the doomed rebellion. That was something else to consider: Doris only stayed as long as she did to find a link to her partner. Butch had his partner-pretty much-so why had he stuck around? Why hadn't he taken Cassidy and left when he'd gotten the chance? Perhaps it was out of a sense of revenge-he still wanted to settle a score with the Boss. But maybe he was just getting old, a sense of responsibility finally taking over. He'd brought the resistance together, and even though he most certainly wasn't fit to be a leader, they turned to him anyway... "Well come on!" Doris shouted in his ear, growing impatient and slightly panicky. "Get in the damn car, I finally got it started." Butch shook his head. Yeah, it would be easy to run, but for some reason, easy didn't like him. "Actually I came over here to look for Cassidy." "Cassidy?" Doris repeated. "Oh I bet she'd be here-if the gunfire hadn't driven her and Mondo in completely the opposite direction." Butch slapped his forehead and cursed. "Well then I better get going..." Doris nodded, knowing what he was up to. "I'd try looking back at the underground base. Mondo was working on the codes for those robots, he might have gone back to see if there's a way to stop those things." "Right," Butch nodded. "Good luck," he told her, before turning around and heading back into the distant sounds of gunfire. Behind him, he heard the jeep's motor rev and the tires screech as Doris drove off. And that was that. She was off to find the person for her path in life, and he was off to find his-preferably before she got herself killed. His men had successfully taken care of the intruder (after a VERY long fight) and Jessibelle now sat inside one of the helicopter bathrooms, tied with her own whip and quite angry. Giovanni had to admit, that woman, that freakish Jessie lookalike, had done serous damage. Everyone in the cabin was injured, including him and Domino. They were lucky the crazy woman had enough sense not to attack the pilot or else they'd have crashed by now. "Are you all right, sir?" Domino asked, staring at his arm, which was bleeding a bit. Bruises already were showing on his face, and his suit was tattered from when the whip scared Persian and the pokemon clawed him. "I'll be fine," he grumbled. "Who was she and how does James know such a maniac!?" "Weelll..." Domino started, making imaginary circles in the floor with her toe. "I interrogated her and... she's James's fiancé." Giovanni opened his mouth to shout in surprise but instead paused mid breath, and commented, "I was wondering how he'd put up with Jessie for so long. After that woman, Jessie must have been a breath of fresh air, but the similarity is uncanny." After a moment, he remembered why he'd asked about her in the first place. "Why did she attack me?" "Weelll..." there was that well again. "She was under the impression, and suppose this is James's doing, that YOU, sir, said James ordered James not to marry her." Giovanni didn't know what surprised him more: that the woman who had actually breached the Jessie barrier of temper tantrums WANTED to marry some idiot like James, or that James could actually stand to be around Jessie after all that. "Let me get this straight..." he tried. "There's the real Jessie, the android Jessie, and the loud, angry, southern Jessie..." "That's right, sir." "It's ridiculous." "Yes, sir." Shaking his head and recovering his professional demeanor, Giovanni gave the order to turn the helicopter around. "If James tired to cheat us, then someone must have offered him a better deal for the android. If he knows it's not really Jessie he probably won't mind selling it." "Right," Domino nodded, picking up a pokeball and returning a very wounded Persian to it. "And the only one who knows about the android and has enough to pay for it, is Vicious," he noted. "Tell the pilot to head for the Viridian forest, it's time to settle things." Collin slammed the bulled pack into his gun, and snapped the safety shut with just too little force to accidentally shoot the thing. "I'll solve this myself..." he muttered to himself over and over... "she'll be avenged, and no unfinished business..." he repeated it like a mantra, mind all but gone. If that woman in the underground cell was the real Jessie, then he'd use her. Since James hadn't contacted Vicious, he'd take Jessie to James himself and trade her for the android... yes, that would work... and he'd get the android and avenge Doris... and then... and then... But wait! Wait wait wait wait... "No unfinished business... solve this myself..." If James hadn't come for her, then he'd abandoned her! Damn him damn him damn him... abandoning a partner... "unforgivable..." the word became his new chant. "unforgivable unforgivable unforgivable..." Had to punish... had to make the traitor see... Letting true love go just like that "Unforgivable" He had do die. James would die, "Solve this myself..." he'd take the android and kill the Boss "she'll be avenged..." and that would be that, his work would be over, "no unfinished business..." The gun had three bullets. Three bullets to correct the world. One for James, one for the Boss, and one for himself... Smiling, he put the weapon at its place on his belt. Now, first target... "...unforgivable..." tbc. ok people, like I said at the top, due to scheduling errors the NEXT chapter will be the last. Now not that it may take a while to finish because summer school is starting and that will not stop but slow my writing a bit. But after school I go on vacation and I'll be away for around a month. However I will do my best to finish before I leave, so thanks to all of you who've been so patient ^_^ Please review!! NEXT *~*~* BACK