The blue-green sea below froths itself into a white frenzy, as if sensing the upcoming storm and desiring against every other desire to whip itself into a boil for the sake of the thunderclouds.
    Although the grandiose ferry sailing for Fuschia Bay is rocking violently from the chaotic waters, its passengers are too busy with other things to be concerned too much about such things.
    “Well,” Jessie states sharply. James flinches slightly; if Faris is affected by her tone, she doesn’t show it. “I suppose you fancy yourself having already won.”
    “A~ra, do you think this is a contest?” Faris rejoinders lightly but just as bitingly.
    “Damn straight! You and I are competing for James’ love!” she snaps. “But even though you don’t know a damn thing about him, you’re winning!!”
    “Jessie—” James starts to intercede, but Faris cuts him off.
    “Let me handle this, okay?” she says. He gives her a helpless look, but nods anyway.
    She turns to Jessie. “It shouldn’t matter if he’s done anything wrong in his life. There’s nothing he could have done that’s worse than anything you’ve done; I’m sure of that. And we all work for the same Team, so *that* little scandal is hardly anything to me.”
    Jessie grits her teeth. “YOU don’t know anything about him!!”
    “And what do YOU know about him that’s so horrible, you’re sure I’ll fall out of love with him?” Faris snaps back.
    The redheaded girl resists the urge to slap her rival, because she knows if she does, Faris will likely hit her back ten times harder. Instead, she’s forced to resort to words. “It doesn’t matter how bad it is! Any inkling of something that might hurt you and you shove him away!” she snaps, rather truthfully if one depended entirely on past events. Seeing Faris’ frown in response to her last comment, Jessie manages the courage to press on. “One day,” she swears, “you’re gonna run out of luck and fall flat on your face. And when you do, I’m gonna be there, laughing at you!!”
    “You’re in for quite a wait, Jessie,” Faris smirks in reply, “because I don’t rely on luck. So how can I run out of something I don’t depend on?”
    Jessie snarls, having nothing to say to that, and stalks away, shoving past James as she does.
    Faris shakes her head. “Just how long have you had to put up with her?” she queries, not turning to the person she’s directing her question to.
    James sighs, a long, drawn-out sigh. “I don’t ‘put up with her’, she’s my friend,” he replies, although his tone lacks conviction. Then, under his breath, he continues, “Even though she doesn’t act like it sometimes.”
    She smiles over at him, having caught the additional comment. “Loyal as ever, I see.” She turns to face him. “James. What was that thing she was talking about?”
    He looks away. “…..”
    “C’mon. You can tell me,” Faris tells him gently. “Or don’t you think I’m as trustworthy as Jessie?”
    “No, that’s not it!!” James protests, lifting his head. “I just…” He looks away again. “It’s not something I’m proud of…”
    “If it was something you were proud of, then it wouldn’t be a deep dark secret, now would it?” she points out. “If you’re worried someone might overhear, we could always go to my room.”
    Now James looks up. “Your room?”
    Faris smirks and nods. “The captain of the boat was gracious enough to fix up the passenger’s room as my personal temporary living space. Personally, I think he’s just trying to suck up, now that I’m in charge of Sephiroth. But hey; even if I don’t comply to their wishes, I’ll take the gifts society offers me.” She winks. “And don’t worry; the door can be locked, so nobody will get in without knocking first.”
    James looks considerably relieved by that, but the entire concept still unnerves him. “Well…okay.”
    The trip to Faris’ makeshift ‘room’ is an uneventful one, and once she closes and locks the door, she turns to James, who’s sitting on the bed.
    “Did this room always have a bed?” he wonders. “It’s kind of weird that it’s here…”
    Faris shrugs. “How should I know? My guess is the captain set it up.” She walks to his side and sits down next to him. “Now, what was it that you were going to tell me?”
    James bites his lip slightly, hunching over. “Well…”
    “Well?” she prompts.
    He pauses, then sighs again. “Well, like I said before, most of my past isn’t something I’m proud of. Yeah, there are a lot of good memories too, but…” James pauses again. “Well… you see… you remember how I got the lowest score at Pokémon Tech?”
    Faris doesn’t bother to answer. She doesn’t need to.
    “When I was sent home with that on my record, my parents were really disappointed in me. They decided since I, as they said, ‘wasn’t good enough to train Pokémon like I’d wanted to’, I’d have to get some other profession. Needless to say, I held little passion for anything they offered, so they decided that the reason I didn’t want to do what they wanted me to do was because I was a ‘delinquent’. And, since I was a delinquent, I needed a proper lady to turn me into a gentleman.” He makes a face at the memory.
    Faris smiles a little. “And that’s where Jezebel enters?”
    He nods, sighing a little. “I tried to be nice to her at first, but she drove me crazy. Everything I did or said wasn’t the proper way to do things, and she’d always try to show me the ‘right’ way to do it. Forced is a better word for it, I think, no matter WHAT my parents might say. Before the day was over, I knew I’d had enough—if I stayed at home any longer, their lifestyle would suffocate me. I didn’t want to be like them…so I ran away from home.”
    There’s a brief pause. Faris, understanding where this is all going, says nothing; when James doesn’t continue, she says softly, “Go ahead.”
    James nods. “Now, don’t get me wrong; I loved my parents, and I still love them. But I couldn’t stand the life they wanted me to lead, and even more so the girl they wanted me to marry. I like this lifestyle better.” He smiles over at Faris and squeezes her hand a little; she smiles back reassuringly. “When I was young, I guess I was kind of a wimp. I’d just go along with what other people said since it was easier than speaking up for myself. But after five hours with Jezebel, I knew I’d never be able to live life the way I wanted if I stayed with her. So, with Growly, my pet Growlithe and my only friend back home, I ran away.
    “I don’t know if it was a smart idea or not, ‘cause I had nowhere to go to and no skills to help me get a job or anything. Then again, if I hadn’t run away, I’d probably be….” He shudders a little. “I don’t even wanna think about what might have happened. Anyway, my life on the streets was not a happy one; eventually, I sent Growly back home. Why? Because I couldn’t support the both of it, and it pained me to see him suffer because he was loyal to me. So I sent him home. He wouldn’t go at first, but eventually he did after I kept insisting…” He sighs a little at the memory, hands folded on his lap. “It was on the streets that I finally learned a skill: theft. If I hadn’t learned it, I would have died a long time ago. I guess you could say my pride as a little rich boy kept me from begging. I lead that sort of life for about a year or so, I guess… until…”
 

    Though his clothes are in rags and if he took them off one could count the ribs up both sides of his chest, the young boy’s eyes are bright with hope and anticipation. Even if he hadn’t eaten in the last three days, surely today he’d feast—he’d have to. He couldn’t afford to mess things up today.
    “Come out, Koffing,” he calls softly through a fit of his own coughing. He tosses a red and white ball into the air, the customary Pokémon storage unit known as a Pokéball, and it cracks open in a burst of white light. From within its depths arises a purplish-gray Pokémon with an inane smile pasted on its face. This same Pokémon says jovially, “Kofffinnnng….”
    James, a youth of about sixteen years, smiles upon seeing his old friend again. Even if he doesn’t have much to smile about in his current situation, seeing Koffing and its carefree smile always cheers him up in desperate situations. He’d received the Pokémon from his parents on his tenth birthday, after telling them he was interested in training Pokémon. Even though James had come very close to death by starvation several times, he’s never considered selling Koffing; even if he’d run away from home, he still loved his parents, and now that Growly’s gone, Koffing is the only thing he has left from his past.
    And besides, today, it’s going to help him get some food.
    “Koffing,” James starts, growing serious. He couldn’t afford to joke around; if he messed this up, it’d be all over for him. He coughs again, a body-wracking cough, and continues. “There’s a fruit stand not too far from here. I’ve been watching it for a while, and one of the legs is rotten. If I kicked it down, all the food would spill over and I’d be able to take whatever I wanted! But, I need a cover. When I kick it over, you use your Smog attack to cover our tracks, all right? Then, when we’re in the clear, we feast!”
    “Koffiiiing!” Koffing assents, bobbing up and down cheerfully.
    “Yeah, right!” James nods enthusiastically, even though he has no clue what it just said. “Remember, the signal to use Smog is when I kick the stand!”
    “Koff, kofffinnng!” the poison gas Pokémon agrees, smiling vapidly.
    James smiles, then winces as his chest suddenly throbs in pain. He doubles over, sweating a little, waiting it out—there’s really nothing else he can do. A moment later, the sharp pains subside to a dull ache. It still hurts, but he can deal with it.
    “Koffing?” Koffing worries, bobbing close.
    “I’m okay,” he mutters, hair covering his face. James lifts his head with a smile and winks. “I’m okay! It’s just my stomach complaining. But we’ll take care of that!”
    He turns to walk out of the barren alley, but after a single step, he stumbles. A faint lightheadedness overtakes him, threatening to consume him, but thinking it to be merely hunger pangs, James shakes it off. With some difficulty, he rises to his feet. After a moment of pause, he opens his eyes. “All right,” he whispers, and starts again.
    The fruit stand is only a block away, but the persistent pain in his chest refuses to die down completely; as such, the walk isn’t entirely pleasant. However, James and Koffing get to the fruit stand regardless. Taking a deep breath, he readies himself; there’s no way he can fail!
    James straightens out his clothes and tries to look like an honest customer. Plastering a cheerful smile on his face despite the pain and the slight chills, he turns to the owner of the fruit stand.
    And coughs violently.
    “Hey, kid, are you all right?” the man behind the stand asks, honestly concerned when James doubles over.
    A moment later, the coughs subside along with the chest pains, which had flared up as soon as the unexpected coughing fit had started. “Ugh,” James says weakly.
    “Kid, maybe you should see a doctor, that cough didn’t sound too good,” the man says. He leans over the stand and holds a hand out. “Here, lemme help you up.”
    James takes the man’s hand with a mumble of thanks and manages to let himself be pulled onto his feet. He leans over onto the end of the fruit rack, holding a plentiful supply of fresh oranges, and grips the end tightly. James breathes heavily, sweating despite his chills, and leans back a little.
    “Kid, you’d better get to a hospital or something,” the man warns him. “I don’t want any germs on my merchandise. Hurts the business, ya know. Hurry on up, or you’ll get worse!”
    James leans back a little more…and to his immense surprise, the board holding back the oranges comes with him. Koffing, thinking this to be simply a change in ploy, spouts out a sheet of black smog.
    James is a little disoriented from the fall, but when he realizes that his plan worked (even if it hadn’t gone the way he’d planned it), he decides not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Grabbing all the oranges he can carry, James turns tail and sprints down the marketplace.
    The man, figuring the coughing and such to be a clever ploy, yells after him, “THIIIEEF!!! STOP, THIEF!!!!”
    Of course, James doesn’t stop. Well, not willingly; he stops when he crashes into someone, sending both of them to the ground and spilling all the oranges he’d collected into the dust.
    “You should be more careful!” the lady’s voice admonishes him. James opens his eyes, and his heart sinks; the woman he’d crashed into is none other than the only non-crooked cop in the city, Officer Jenny.
    “Hmm?” she blinks, staring at him. When she hears the cries of “STOP, THIEF!!” and sees the oranges scattered around them, she rises to her feet and picks him up by the collar. “You’re under arrest, young man!!” she says sharply.
    James, out of options and having no clue how he’s going to get himself out of this mess, kicks her in the shin. The result is better than he could have hoped; Jenny cries out in pain and lets go. Calling Koffing back into its Pokéball, James runs for it, weaving through the apathetic crowd. This sort of thing happens on an almost daily basis; in the virtually lawless Rouge City, nobody cares about anything or anyone beyond Number One. He’s used to that system; Officer Jenny isn’t, and her attempts to politely weave through the crowd as opposed to James’ shoving people past isn’t nearly as effective.
    However, James had forgotten about his chest pains; now that he’s running, they’ve come back in full. Not only that, he’s starting to feel a little faint. There’s no way he’ll be able to get away from Jenny…
    He crashes into someone, but that someone doesn’t give way. Thinking his situation hopeless, James gives up and goes limp in the arms of whoever-it-is.
    He might be wavering on a blurry line between consciousness and darkness, but James is firmly pulled into the land of the living, at least for the moment, when that person wraps a coat around his shoulders and shoves him into a decidedly female chest. That woman pulls the top of the coat over his head, and a slightly limping Officer Jenny runs past, not noticing them.
    Once Jenny’s cries of “Stop, thief!!” fade into the distance, the woman pulls him out. “Are you okay?” she asks, and for some reason James finds the voice to be somewhat familiar.
    “I’m…” he mumbles, still limp.
    “Don’t bother answering, I get it. Just keep quiet and follow me.”
    “This isn’t going to cut into my time, is it?” an annoyed male voice demands.
    “Who are you..?” James murmurs.
    “Don’t ask stupid questions!” the woman snaps. No, it’s more of a girl’s voice, he thinks… Whispering down to him, she continues, “Let’s just say I’m a friend, for now.”
    As James is pulled away from the marketplace crowd, he manages to get a glance up at his savior.
    He can only see her back, but that’s enough to see wildly styled, dark magenta hair.
    “Jessica…” he groans before falling into darkness.
 

    That’s all I remember until I woke up in a hospital, about a week later,” James finishes glumly. “It turned out I had pneumonia, and Jessie got me to a hospital. I could have died! I almost did, but the doctors saved me, and Jessie paid for it out of her own pocket!” He hangs his head. “All because I was a piece of slum trash…”
    Faris is silent for a moment, and James is sure she hates him now. Just like she used to, he thinks despondently…
    Once that moment is over, though, Faris sounds confused. “I don’t get it,” are her exact words. “What exactly was it that you weren’t proud of? Living on the streets, or getting saved by Jessie? Those aren’t that bad, I think…”
    James stiffens, then lifts his head, staring at her in amazement. “Wh—what?”
    Faris returns his puzzled look. “Well? Was it because Jessie saved your life, and now you’ve abandoned her for me? That would make sense, actually; it’s not really like Jessie to pay for someone else with no gain in return, so it would make sense that she’s in love with you… especially after investing so much into making sure you survived…” she muses.
    James blinks... then wraps Faris up in a huge hug, smiling and crying with relief. More than a little confused, she returns the hug.
    “Thank you,” he murmurs through his tears. “That’s exactly what I needed to hear. God, I love you…”
    Completely confused now, Faris just says, “Uhh…okay. …What was it you were so worried about?”
    He’s silent for a few seconds, wanting only to hold her, wanting only this blissful moment. Then he lifts his head, letting her go, and wipes his tears away with his sleeve. “I was afraid,” he confesses. “I was afraid you’d hate me because I lived on the streets.”
    She awards this comment with a shocked laugh. “Hate you? Come on, James, I’m not my mother! I’m not concerned with trifling details like that! I love *you*, James, and whatever might have happened to you in the past are your trials alone. You accepted that about me, and it's more than enough that I do the same.” She smiles and embraces him, burying her face in his hair. Not expecting her to do such a thing, James falls down on the bed, hugging her back. The two roll onto their side, holding each other tightly as if afraid to let go.
    “You smell of roses, not slum trash, James,” she whispers into his ear before pulling her face up.
    “Faris?” he whispers, his widened jade eyes locked onto her ruby. His heart is racing; with her this close, he can’t help but feel his love for her overflow…
    She smiles and leans forward slightly, her lips just brushing against his. “James… Jessie said that whenever something bad happens, I push you away. If this is something bad, then I don’t think that’s true. Because… right now, I want to pull you closer.”
    He blinks, his arms wrapped around her back. “Pull me closer? What do you—”
    James never gets to finish his sentence. It’s cut off when Faris fills his mouth with her kiss.

    As Jessie storms away from Faris and James, she (almost literally) runs into Starr.
    “You know, Jess, you shouldn’t be too upset about this whole thing,” she comments when Jessie looks to see who she almost turned into roadkill. “After all, love isn’t a contest. It just happens.”
    “Oh, shut up, Starr,” Jessie snaps crabbily. “I’m _not_ in the mood.”
    “C’mon, Jess,” Starr returns in a warning tone. “I was listening to the entire thing. I would have intervened if you hadn’t cut it off.” She smiles and holds up her iced cappuccino cup. “I would have said James’ horrible secret was, he’s a half-vampire who travels the world at night attacking café mocha stands.”
    This elicits a giggle from Jessie, but she quickly tries to cover it up. “Mocha stands? Starr, how much sugar have you had today?”
    “Caffeine, actually,” she smiles, glad that Jessie’s starting to lighten up. “See my pretty cappuccino cup.  Hence the comment about attacking Café Mocha stands. I had coffee beans on my mind”—she looks into her cup—“and I am running dangerously low on liquid refreshment. Dammit. All that’s left is like one INCH of ice and the whip cream they put on top of it that never melts no matter what you do to it. I don’t think it’s whip cream. I think it’s some artificial product. either way, it sucks. And I am babbling, so I close by saying that maybe I should send this over to Ends of the World. Orion can have it.”
    “Orion,” Jessie murmurs. “Now *he* was one hell of a kisser.”
    Starr makes a face. “Jessie, if you’re so desperate to steal James from Faris, why do you care about Orion?”
    Jessie makes a face back. “That was to make James jealous, for your information. And Faris generally pisses me off, so when she said Let’s go, you’re leaving, I wasn’t too thrilled to be ordered around by her.” She snifs and adds, “But he was still a great lover. So excuse me for reminiscing on that.”
    Starr considers this for a moment, then nods. “Okay, makes a certain amount of sense.” She looks back up at Jessie. “You’re really weird, you know that? I mean, not weird in a psycho way—well, maybe you are—but weird in that you seem to want a million different things at once. Why on EARTH did you start mooning over James when Faris finally started to like him?”
    “It wasn’t when she started to like him, it was during the time she was still rejecting him,” Jessie replies in a clipped tone. “And, if you really MUST know, I’ve been in love with him for the past three years.”
    Starr starts at this. “Three YEARS?!?!”
    “But James was never interested in me,” she adds glumly. “He just thought of me as his best friend. Neither of us had any other real friends, and that’s why we were always together. When we were at Pokémon Tech together, I just thought of him as a friend too. But when we went home after the whole lowest-score incident—” here she makes a face at the memory— “my father, who was always a weak fool surrounded by money he had no use for, claimed that my horrible grades were because I associated myself with such uncultured people. So, he forbade me from seeing James, or any of my other friends at Pokémon Tech for that matter, again. Ever. My father was the dictator type, and ever since my mom died when I was a little girl, he’s blamed me for her death—he never actually *said* so, but I could tell. He never really liked me that much, and he was always making sure I was a perfect little girl.” Her sentence ends more than a little bitterly.
    “…..” Starr isn’t quite sure to say to this.
    Jessie doesn’t seem to want an answer, though, as she continues, “I hated it, of course. I hated playing a diminutive little girl for him, hated being something I wasn’t because that’s what HE wanted me to be. So I started deliberately doing things I knew he wouldn’t like behind his back to get even. I managed to do that for a few of months; a few wild parties here while he was out of town, a pack of cigarettes and a six-pack there when he thought I was studying; before he caught me playing twister with an ‘unknown boy’ on the couch.
    “He disowned me and kicked me out of the house for that.” Jessie scowls down at the dark waters. “I hated him before, but I hated him with all my heart after that. He gave me barely enough time to pack a single suitcase before locking me out of the house with no money. I had no money, no skills, and no family or friends to go to. So I had no other choice…”
    The dramatic moment dissolves quickly when lightning CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAACKs into the water too few miles away from the ferry for comfort.
    “AAAAAAAAGH!” Starr exclaims, jumping back. From the lower decks, where Ash, Brock and Misty are playing in the arcade, comes a similar yell from Pikachu. “CHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”
    “Pikachu!” Ash yells.
    “Uh-oh,” Jessie comments, attention momentarily diverted from the recollection of her past.
    Pikachu comes running up the stairs and launches herself into Starr’s arms, burrowing into the cherry-haired Rocket’s shirt and shivering.
    “Hey, you, cling to Ash! He’s your owner!” Starr protests, but still hugging her comfortingly.
 Ash and Misty emerge at the top, rather out of breath. “Pikachu!” Ash says, relieved. “I was worried she was *really* scared and fell off the boat or something.”
    Starr hands the very freaked Pikachu to Ash. Pikachu promptly latches onto him.
    “That’s a heck of a storm,” Brock remarks from the stairs. “You guys should come to the lower decks right away.... it’s not safe to be on the open deck of a boat in a storm like this.”
    Another flicker of lightning across the clouds seems to agree with his statement.
    Starr flinches and Jessie pats her shoulder.
    “Okay. I wouldn’t want to get caught out here when it starts to rain anyway,” the latter says, being remarkably agreeable for the mood she had been.
    He nods, deciding to let it pass. “Where are Faris and James, by the way?”
    “Don’t know, don’t care,” is Jessie’s frosted reply as she shoves past him in her descent to the safety of the lower decks.
 

    As the moments pass, Jessie’s mood grows fouler, though she tries to cover it up with a smile, or whatever expression it is that’s plastered on her face that’s telling the ‘little brats’ to stay as far away as possible. If James or Faris were around so that she could keep an eye on them, she wouldn’t have been so agitated. The fact that Ash and his friends are having fun on the other side with the arcade games that were installed in the lower decks of the ferry isn’t helping her mood much either. The fact that none of them seemed to think it strange that Faris and James hadn’t shown up for such a long time, that it didn’t seem to bother them at all, irritates her.
    She may not know where they are, but Jessie most definitely cares. She mightn’t be the brightest girl in the world, but Jessie is well experienced in the world of teenage hormones—Faris and James aren’t usually like that, but they are engaged, and wherever they are, they’re probably alone together, and… and….
    And the thought of them doing that just makes her boil in rage.
    She wanted to be his first…
    Jessie shakes her head, trying to force those thoughts out, but they won’t go away. Ever since she found him again in the streets of Rouge City when he was running from Officer Jenny, she’d felt for him. His situation had actually seemed worse than hers—and he was so innocent about it. He was sixteen years old, for god’s sake, and he STILL didn’t know all of the facts of life! She would have been more than happy to tell him, show him, but she was afraid—afraid that if she tried anything, he’d leave her. She was thrilled to find him after their separation at Pokémon Tech, and she was equally grateful to Kitty, her boss, for not only driving them to the hospital when she saw how bad off he was but for helping to pay the bill too. He could have died…
    Batts cocks a curious eye towards Jessie. He does not intentionally read people’s thoughts without their permission, but she transmits her feelings so strongly on the alpha level it’s like trying to ignore somebody screaming in one’s ear. This information would be useful anyway; he wants to remain neutral despite his loyalties to Faris, and knowing Jessie’s side of the story will only aid in that.
    ‘So I made it my personal quest to keep him close, no matter what,’ Jessie continues in her thoughts. ‘I didn’t want to lose him. But I couldn’t tell him how I felt. Even with Kitty helping me, I just couldn’t bring myself to say it…’
 

    “Hey, James?”
    Brushing his bangs out of his eyes, the green-eyed bishounen looks up at his best friend. “What’s up, Jess?”
    “I…” Jessie hesitates. She traces a light circle on the bar counter with her finger, blushing slightly. She’s sure she can do it! She’ll tell him how she really feels, once and for all. Gathering her courage, she continues, “James, I want to talk to you about something.”
    “Okay.” He turns to her expectantly, drying a glass as he looks at her.
    “I…” ‘Shit,’ were Jessie’s exactly thoughts when her throat dried up and she couldn’t say what she’d planned. “Um… well…”
    “Jessie!” came a shout from across the room. “Service in room 217! Can’t keep the customers waiting, eh?”
    DAMN. In a single breath, Jessie blurts out, “James I was just wondering how you feel about me?”
    He looks a little startled by the question. “Weelll…” he says, “we’re best friends, right?”
 Jessie knows the disappointment on her face shows from the look of puzzlement on James’ face. “Just friends?”
 He stares at her, clearly not understanding. “What do you mean, ‘just friends’? Isn’t that enough?”
    “JESSIE!”
    “I’m comi~ng!” Jessie hollers back. “Look, James…”
    He looks at her expectantly.
    “…I’ll talk to you later, okay?” she finishes, feeling awful but knowing her paycheck depends on the quality and speed of her service. A customer kept waiting doesn’t give tips.
    He smiles brightly and nods. “See ya, Jessie!”
    “Yeah…see ya,” she replies half-heartedly, slipping off the barstool and hurrying to the second floor.
    On her way up, she passes a woman with long blonde hair curled loosely around her shoulders, deep green eyes and a low-cut black dress with a flowing skirt that sported a long slit up the side. “You couldn’t say it,” she states.
    Jessie stops. She was hoping Kitty would just let her pass… “No,” she replies reluctantly.
    Kitty’s eyes soften. “I know it’s hard,” she says gently. “But if you don’t tell him how you feel now, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”
    Jessie lifts her chin slightly. She had born indignities far worse than this before and she’d bear a thousand more like them to keep James close. “Don’t worry about me, Kitty!” she replies without annoyance or malice in her voice. “I’ll…I’ll tell him. Someday…”
    “Someday…” the beautiful honey-haired woman, Jessie’s heroine and role model, echoes sadly. “You’d better go.”
    The redheaded girl scurries off without replying.
 

    Jessie’s smile is bitter. “You were right, Kitty,” she mutters. “I let him slip away…” She kicks the table in front of her, bringing concerned looks from Starr and the others. “I gave up and pretended I only thought of him as a friend too. It was easier to pretend than to face it up. Pretending came naturally after a while… but I never thought that our lifestyle would change this bad…” She kicks the table again, this time a lot harder. “Damn you, Faris!!” she snarls. “Why did you have to interfere with our life!?”
    “Couldn’t be helped,” a familiar voice sounds smoothly. Faris, with James just behind, stands at the stairwell, a soaked umbrella in hand. “Boss’ orders.”
    Jessie scowls at them, pointedly noticing their mussed hair and clothes. “And just what were YOU two doing for the past hour?”
    James blushes and drops his gaze to the floor. Faris replies evenly, “What James and I do when we’re alone isn’t your business.”
    Brock, Meowth and Starr all clue in at the same time. Their jaws are a millimeter from slamming into the floor and shattering into a billion pieces.
    Jessie crosses her arms, by no means contented by that answer. “You slept together,” she states flatly, staring straight at them.
    James’ blush grows deeper, and for the first time since she’s met her, Faris can’t seem to hold her gaze.
    “I KNEW IT!!!” Jessie screeches, leaping to her feet in a second. “I just KNEW IT!!!!”
    Ash turns to Misty, completely lost. “Do you know what’s going on?”
    Misty shrugs as Starr and Brock bound over to break up the fight.
    “Now, calm down, Jessie—” Brock starts.
    “They ARE engaged, and they’re in love—” Starr continues.
    “So it’s all right, right?” they finish in unison.
    A big, big, biiiiiiiig image of a demonic version of Jessie’s face outlined by the fires of hell appears behind them. “NO IT’S NOT ‘ALL RIGHT’!!!!!!!!!!!!!” she roars.
    Starr and Brock cower before her.
    “And YOU!” she snaps, turning on Faris. “Don’t you have any shame at *all*!?!”
    “You aren’t the one to talk of shame!” the girl with the flashing crimson eyes rejoinders, glaring back at her.
    Jessie growls at her for a tense moment.
    Then she shoves Brock and Starr aside and reaches for Faris.
    Faris is more than ready for an attack.
    But Jessie doesn’t attack. She shoves Faris aside as well and grabs James by the collar. “You and I are going to talk!!” she states before dragging him down the stairs.
    “H-h-hey!!” James stutters, more than a little terrified. He’s known her long enough to know that Jessie mad = lots of pain. And he’s NEVER seen her this mad before. Ever.
    Jessie doesn’t care about his predicament right now. Dragging and almost choking him across the room, she flings open the door to the bathroom, shoves him inside, and slams the door behind her.
    Faris glares after the two.
    “A… aren’t you going to stop her…?” Ash pipes up after a few seconds.
    “Let her have her ‘talk’,” she replies in her familiar mild tone, but the frigidity in her voice is unmistakable. “She’s hardly a match for me.”
    “She’s really mad,” Brock reminds her.
    Faris awards the unnecessary statement with a withering look.
    In the corner, Meowth claws the couch he’s on as the boat makes a sudden, violent bob and turns an almost unnoticeable hue of green.
 

    There are a number of things that James would rather be facing right now, he thinks as his head collides with the toilet and the sound of a slamming sound fills the air. Like maybe a herd of stampeding elephants. Or a room filled with angry Voltorbs.
    At least it’d be over quick that way.
    “Get up,” Jessie orders icily. James is quick, perhaps a bit too quick, to comply.
    Kneeling, James keeps his eyes glued on the blue tile floor. The girl whom he’d considered his friend for over five years stays silent, although he can hear her pace in front of him.
    Finally, Jessie breaks the silence. “What the hell did you think you were doing.”
    James isn’t quite sure how to answer, but luckily (?) she continues before he could even begin to think of a response. “You KNEW what you were doing!! How could you!? Don’t you have any respect for me at all!?!”
    “No, just fear,” James mumbles, not meaning to be heard, but she catches the comment anyway.
    “What do you mean by that!?” she demands, standing in front of him.
    He gulps, but knows that he’ll get pounded whether or not he lies, tells the truth, or says nothing at all. “You scare me…” he squeaks.
    “Explain!!”
    “You hit me, you scream at me—”
    “THAT’S BECAUSE YOU’RE AN IDIOT!!!!!” she roars. “If you weren’t so clueless, you would have KNOWN how I felt in the first place and we wouldn’t be in this position!!!”
    Before, the idiot comment would have crushed him. However, Kerry’s words are not forgotten, and James actually gets angry. “Idiot!? Who’s an idiot!?!” he snaps, glaring up at her. “You’re no dumber than I am!!”
    Jessie grabs his collar and heaves him to his feet. “What!?!” she snarls.
    Getting tired of this entire business and his anger fueling his courage, James shoves her away. “You say I’m stupid for not figuring out your feelings, but who was the one who could never actually say them!! You can’t expect people to just KNOW what you want!! Of all people, you should know better than anyone that you have to tell someone what you want if you’re going to get it from them!!!”
    Jessie backhands him across his left cheek, leaving a bright red handprint behind. “You couldn’t possibly understand how hard it was!!” she snarls, wanting to strangle him but managing to restrain herself.
    However, James’ pent-up frustration won’t stop just because she says “stop”. “YOU’RE the one who doesn’t understand!!” he snarls back, emerald flames burning in his usually placid jade eyes. “Why do you always have to force your way onto everybody else!?! Hasn’t it ever occurred to you that maybe YOUR way of thinking isn’t the RIGHT way of thinking!?!!”
    Jessie responds to this barb with another slap.
    Pent-up frustration doesn’t go away because of violence. Usually it just gets stronger. And James has never, ever hit a girl before, not even Jessie, who sorely deserves it after everything she’s put him through.
    And fury has a way of making one react without thinking first.
    CRAAAAACK.
    Time seems to slow into eternity as James’ palm connects with Jessie’s right cheek. Although the blow isn’t a particularly hard one, to Jessie, who’s used to James never retaliating with anything stronger than words, it’s like he had slammed a sledgehammer into her face.
    At least, that’s what it feels like, emotionally speaking.
    She stumbles, holding her cheek. After a few long seconds, she stares up at him, tears welling up into her midnight blue eyes.
    His chest heaving, James moves out of slapping position. Had he been any less enraged, he would have immediately apologized and moved to look at her wound, leaving him open for a thorough beating. But he hasn’t forgotten her callousness or the splendid way she’s hidden her feelings from him during the past few years. “That’s how it ALWAYS is!! I say something you like and you beat the daylights out of me!!! How could I ever love you when you’re always trying to kill me!?! I don’t love you and I CAN’T love you!! You treat me too badly, always putting me down and hitting me! Sure, Faris teases me sometimes, but that’s different! She apologizes! You don’t!! You treat me like a servant, and I can’t stand being so totally domineered like that!!! I always put up with it before because we were friends and I could deal with it, but I can’t let you come between me and the woman I love!”
    She stares at him, bottom lip trembling and her expression one of betrayal.
    James seethes at her obvious inability to understand. His frustration already mounted well beyond the boiling point, something in him snaps. “Get out of my life, Jessie!!” he roars. “I’m sick of having to deal with you. Just disappear already, and leave me alone!!!”
    With that, he shoves her aside and storms out of the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.
    Jessie collapses to the cold metal floor. Left in the dark and completely disillusioned, she sobs.
 

    Everyone already knew from the yelling that bad stuff was going down, but when it was JAMES who stormed out of the bathroom, everybody began to fear the worst. All eyes were trained on him as he stalked over to the table, roughly pulled out a chair, and plopped down onto it, an aura of ‘I’m-pissed-so-don’t-f***-with-me’ radiating brilliantly from his entire demeanor.
    Ash clears his throat hesitantly. “So, how’d it go…?” he asks falteringly. Pikachu peeks at James from over Ash’s cap.
    James just glares at them.
    There’s a moment of silence, broken only by the sound of crying emanating from the bathroom.
    Brock looks to Starr, who looks to Faris, who nods. The lavender-haired girl places her hands on James’ shoulders.
    “Why is Jessie crying, James?” she queries levelly.
    James’ temper has been quelled by the sound of the crying and the deep gnawing feeling of guilt. “Well…” he falters. “I lost my temper.”
    “You lost your temper?” she repeats. “A rare occurrence indeed, deshou? Tell us what happened.”
    James bites his lip a little. “Well, Jessie hit me, so I lost my temper and I hit her back.”
    Everyone, including Faris, either slams onto the floor or almost does.
    “YOU hit HER??” Meowth repeats, astonished, as he climbs back to his feet. “__YOU___ hit ___HER___????”
    He blushes deeply. “I didn’t mean to,” James says helplessly. “It just… happened.”
    “THEN what happened??” Misty demands, placing her hands on her hips. “No way she’s in there crying ‘cause you hit her!! That’s just SO not her!”
    James’ blush grows redder as he recalls the barbs he’d inflicted on Jessie. “.....”
    The sounds of crying continue.
    Starr starts for the bathroom. “I should go to her, she sounds really bad.”
    James flinches. That action does not go unnoticed. Starr enters the bathroom and quietly shuts the door behind her.
    “James, what did you say to her?” Brock asks, crossing his arms. “I admit I don’t like Jessie very much, but nobody deserves to be in that much pain!”
    James mumbles something, keeping his eyes trained on his lap.
    “<LOUDER...>” Raichu threatens him, sparks flying from his cheeks.
    <The reason why Jessie is crying is because James showed her reality,> Batts states to everyone in the room. <He explained to her his feelings to her. When she didn’t understand, he told her to get out of his life. I know this because when humans get emotional, their words and intentions are quite clear to any psychic Pokémon.> He cocks an eye at Faris. <That goes for…other sorts…of extreme human emotions.>
    She blushes a little, catching his drift, and looks away.
    “James, why’d you have to be so mean!?” Misty demands, taking a step forward. “Just when I thought you were a nice guy after all!!”
    James defends himself with, “...........”
    “Don’t tease him, Misty,” Faris scolds the younger girl. “Think about it. Jessie’s been an equal amount of trouble to you and your friends. Can you really blame him for getting angry?”
    “That’s different!” she argues. “Jessie is his friend!”
    “Jessie is his very domineering friend who wants his fiancée dead,” Faris corrects her. “She doesn’t love James; she just wants to control him.”
    <Well said,> Batts comments to no one in particular.
    The screen pans across Ash and Pikachu to Misty to Brock and Raichu. Behind Brock, the bathroom door opens; the others turn around to see Jessie and Starr step out.

    “Well, since we’re all here and being relatively quiet, I suppose I should explain my actions back at the Cinnabar Port like I promised,” Faris says, sitting between James and Ash. The others, except Jessie, are sitting around the table; Jessie is lying on the couch, her back to the others.
    “Why did you set Sephiroth free, anyway?” Ash queries, looking over at her. “Don’t you think it’s kind of dangerous to let a Pokémon as powerful as him just roam the world without a trainer?”
    “Sephiroth was volatile because he was being oppressed,” she replies. “Now that he’s free to live for himself, he’s not likely to bother anyone unless he has to.”
    Ash looks rather confused by this explanation, but he doesn’t get a chance to question her further.
    “I set Sephiroth free because my journey is coming to a close,” Faris explains. “However, his is just beginning. His life is his own, and just because I’m supposed to ‘train’ him doesn’t mean I have a right to keep him tied to my side. Besides, the purpose of the mission was to ‘capture Mewtwo for the sake of Team Rocket’. I’m not doing anything for Team Rocket anymore.”
    Misty blinks. “You mean....?”
    Faris nods. “That’s right. I’ve decided to quit Team Rocket.”
    “That’s great!” Ash cheers, rising to his feet.
    “Pika pika!!” Pikachu agrees wholeheartedly.
    Meowth and James are not as thrilled. “When’d you decide on that?” the latter queries, not very happy that his lover never told him about this.
    “A while ago,” she replies, being purposely vague. “I figured all of us should be together and alone when I announced it, which is why I only mentioned it now.”
    “Well, that’s great!” Starr smiles. “I wanted to quit too. It just isn’t my sort of thing, but I didn’t want to leave you guys behind. You’re all such great friends, and it’d be awful if I had to fight against you. But why’d you decide to quit, Faris?”
    The voice that arises next is an unexpected one. “I know why,” Meowth offers, sitting on the table. “It’s ‘cause you think the Boss killed yer aunt, isn’t it?”
    Faris starts at his guess. “You’re awfully perceptive for a cat obsessed with money,” she comments.
    “Is it true!?” Brock demands, appalled at the thought that it was Faris’ own employer who killed Lenna.
    She shakes her head. “I have no idea,” she replies. “I think so, but I have no proof.”
    “Then why do you think he did it?” James wonders.
    “It’s ‘cause of the photo,” Meowth puts in again.
    Pikachu blinks. “Pika?”
    “Rai?” Raichu follows up.
    “When we went to Faris’ pad, I found a pic of the Boss and Lenna t’gether outside the Viridian Gym,” he explains. “All cozy, like boyfriend an’ girlfriend. They’re so different, you’d figure they’d never have anything t’ do with each other! But if they had a thing going, and Lenna didn’t know about Team Rocket, and then one day she found out about it...” He lets that thought hang in the air for a moment.
    Faris is the first to speak. “You really are more perceptive than you seem, Meowth.” There’s a touch of dryness in her voice, but obvious respect. “I never would have thought you’d figure something like that.”
    He beams at her. “Thanks!”
    “There’s just one thing I don’t get,” Misty cuts in. “Why outside the Viridian Gym?”
    James, Faris and Starr all exchange glances. “Well, you see, Misty...” James starts.
    “...Giovanni, the Viridian Gym leader...” Faris continues.
    “...is also the leader of Team Rocket,” Starr finishes.
    Misty-tachi gasp audibly. “No way!!” Ash protests. “That can’t be true! He’s a gym leader, he couldn’t...”
    “Why are you defending someone you don’t even know?” Faris cuts him off.
    James nods. “Trust us on this,” he adds. “Even gym leaders can be evil.”
    Brock shakes his head in disgust. “That’s despicable,” he mutters. “But still, if Giovanni’s the leader of Team Rocket, why would he kill Lenna? He and Lenna were a couple long before Team Rocket made its first appearance. In fact, Team Rocket only made their first movements after she died.”
    “Maybe it was because someone else killed Lenna that he’s leading a life of crime,” Starr suggests.
    Faris shrugs. “I don’t know. That could be the case, or it could be something completely different. As I said before, I have no proof so I can’t be sure of anything.” She shakes her head. “But in any case, I’m quitting Team Rocket.”
    “Then I’m quitting too,” Starr smiles. “You’ll be quitting too, right, James?”
    “Of course!” he says, nodding.
    Pikachu smiles big. “<That’s great!>” she pika’s, jumping onto Starr’s head. “<Now Starry doesn’t have to bother with those dumb jerks in Team Rocket!>” She looks up at James. “<No offense.>”
    James holds up a hand. “That’s okay, I understand perfectly.”
    “What about you, Jessie?” Starr queries, turning around to face her friend’s back. “Are you going to quit too?”
    “.....” She’s silent for a moment. “I....”
    Ash, Misty and Brock exchange worried glances. That “I...” didn’t sound very enthused. If she refuses to quit....
    “...I don’t know what to do anymore,” Jessie finally says, her tone one of defeat. “I guess if I don’t quit, I’ll be all alone...”
    James bites his lip so hard he draws blood. Despite his harsh words earlier, it pains him to see her so upset...
    Any comment anyone could have made right then is interrupted by a very violent LURCH, which pitches Meowth clear off the table. He lands with a THWUNK and then a “Meowwwww....”
    “Poor kitty.” Starr giggles sympathetically, picking up Meowth, who’s turning shades of green never before seen, not even by Crayola. Meowth groans.
    “I really hate water...”
    “You aren’t in the water.”
    “Even being near the water,” Meowth adds as the cherry-haired Rocket starts rubbing his stomach. He purrs a bit as his stomach stops doing acrobatics, then suddenly looks up. “Hey, that envelope that guy at Ends of the World gave ya’s still in yer pocket! How come ya never opened it?”
    “Yeah!” Misty pipes up. “I forgot about it until now! Come on, Starr! Open it now! I want to see what Michael gave to you!”
    Truth be told, Starr forgot about it until now, too. She blushes and pulls it out. “Eeeeehhh...I was going to open it once we got to the port...so I don’t lose it while the boat’s lurching around or something...”
    “<You’re stallllllllllllllingggggggggg....>” Raichu sings.
    “<Please? Please please please????>” Pikachu says, leaning down from Starr’s head and giving her the Big Cute Eyes.
    “Welll...” Starr squirms. Not even the toughest of the Rockets could resist Pikachu’s Big Cute Eyes look, and Starr happens to have a soft spot for fuzzy little electric mice...
    Faris has begun to enjoy the spectacle presented by the sudden Starr-badgering spree. She looks at James. A bit of his old evil grin is coming back.
    Jessie lies inert on the couch, but if anyone had been watching her, they might have noticed that she’d turned her head slightly towards the table.
    “Open it! Open it!” Ash chants.
    “Quit it!!!” Starr says plaintively.
    Faris steps in. “Stop stalling.” Faris crosses her arms and sits next to Starr. “Open the envelope. We all want to see what Mikey gave you, and it’s seven against one.”
    Starr’s cheeks turn approximately the colour of her hair.
    She withdraws the envelope from the inside pocket of her jacket next to her heart (and blushes more at Faris’ knowing look), then starts to fumble around with the opening part. It’s sealed with deep blue wax, and a rose seal is pressed into this. It takes her a few tries to actually break it, since she wants to keep it whole.
    “She’s going to open it!” Misty squeals in excitement, running over to crash-land on the couch on the other side of Starr.
    Now caught between two friends eager to see what exactly Michael has given her, Starr has no choice but to quit stalling as Misty cajoles her and open the envelope.
    The wax seal gives way, coming up in one piece. Starr gives a little triumphant grin and puts this in her pocket, then opens the envelope.
    “Dun-dun-dun...” she says under her breath.
    However, what’s inside appears to be merely a sheet of light-blue stationery with a tiny rose pattern embossed in one corner.
    Upon it are written just six words:

        A shining thing for you, Starr.

    Michael’s neat signature graces the bottom.
    “S...Shining thing?” Starr blinks, blushing even redder as Faris starts to grin, having seen the contents of the envelope as Starr tipped it sideways.
    Now the cherry-haired rocket looks into the envelope and gasps.
    “Oh, no way....”
    “What is it????” Misty squeals. “The suspense is killing me!!!!”
    Starr wordlessly reaches into the envelope and withdraws something that shines in the light...
    It’s a silver star pendant on a fine chain.
    A huge smile overtakes Starr’s face and she fastens the pendant around her neck. “When I first met Michael we talked about the stars....” she explains, then trails off, still blushing obviously.
    Faris shakes her head. “Seeing you high on Skittles is a lot less scary than this.”
    “Hey!” Starr protests. “You’re allowed to moon over James!”
    “I never do!”
    “You do so!!!”
    Now James is blushing.
    Before the Starr-badgering spree disintegrates into a James-badgering spree, as is often the case, the boat shudders violently as a wave slams the hull.
    Meowth jolts awake with a start and with another psycho yowl and leaps off Starr’s lap and across the cabin. He clings to the wall, sliding down and leaving four sets of claw marks as he goes.
    Raichu holds up a ‘10.0’ sigh. He’s been banished to one of the benches outside the arcade when he started making the screens of the video games flicker. Pikachu, having a likewise effect on the electronic amusements, sits on his head and waves two little fans. “Pika pi!”
    Suddenly a deep groaning or booming noise echoes throughout the room and the entire ferry shudders violently.
    “Oh, that did NOT sound good...” Faris mutters.
    *****WHAM*****
    “What the flying f—” Starr exclaims before she, Faris, Brock, Ash, Misty, and everyone else are hurled violently across the cabin. Another boom shakes the boat, and they’re all tossed the other way.
    “NOT AGAAAAAAAAAAAIN!!!” Ash yowls.
    “We’re gonna sink!!!!!!” Meowth panics, running in tiny circles on the wall, as the boat is now lying at ninety degrees to its original position.
    Slowly, the boat rights itself, but an ominous rushing sound is echoing through everything.
    “Are we sinking?????” Brock yells more than wonders.
    His question is answered as the intercom pings cheerily.
    *This is your captain speaking. I shall now conduct a test of the lifeboat. There’s no cause for concern...*
    The group doesn’t even bother to listen to the rest. With James pausing long enough to grab his waterproof travel bag containing a couple extra sets of clothes and THE TRUE HUMAN MAGIC, they merely leap up and dash for the stairs.
    All but Jessie, who just climbs back up onto the couch and lies down.
    ‘Somebody’s gotta go down with the ship if the captain won’t,’ she thinks sadly, a watery smile playing about her lips.
    On the deck, the noise of the surf is deafening. Lightning is cracking all around now. Raichu clings to Starr’s back as Brock yells, “We gotta do what we did on the St. Anne! Get a water Pokémon! They’ll get you to safety!!!”
    James looks at his Pokéball. “I hope Weezing knows how to float...” he eeps.
    “Don’t worry!” Faris reassures him, holding up a Pokéball of her own. “Utena can carry both of us.”
    Suddenly Starr realizes something’s amiss. In fact, it’s her fellow red-haired Rocket who’s a-missing. “WHERE’S JESSIE??”
    “What?” Misty looks around wildly. “She isn’t here!!!”
    Faris bites off a muttered curse, presses Utena’s Pokéball into James’s hand, and dashes back below-deck, pulling out another Pokéball as she does.

    The lounge is sloshing with five inches of water when Faris arrives at the bottom of the stairs. She sees Jessie still relaxing on the couch, her formerly crazy red hair now hanging limp and wet.
    “What are you still doing down here????” Faris demands.
    “Disappearing,” is the morose reply.
    Faris’ eyebrows go up before she says, “Jessie, now is not the time for self-pity. Whatever happened between you and James, if he was mad, he did NOT mean what he said. Get up to the decks NOW.”
    “Don’t order me around!!!” Jessie yells back, tears mixed with seawater running down her cheeks. “If you have a problem with me staying, TOO BAD. Just TURN AROUND, GO back up to the decks, LEAVE, and pretend I never existed.”
    She stands and turns her back on Faris, intending fully to stomp to the other couch.
    However, something hard ricochets off the back of her head. Without the protection of her hair gel, Jessie slumps to the floor.
    Faris picks up the unconscious Rocket by her arms and drags her back up the stairs to the upper decks.

    “FARIS!!!!” Starr yells in relief when her lavender-haired friend returns with Jessie in tow. “What happened to—”
    “She wouldn’t leave. I had to knock her out,” Faris replies over the noise of the wind and the rain. “Some people have a little trouble adjusting when their coffin crumbles around them...”
    “COME ON! WE GOTTA GET OFF THE BOAT!!!” Misty screeches. “STARYU! STARMIE! GOLDEEN!”
    She throws her Pokéballs down, and three water Pokémon appear in a flash.
    Starr withdraws the Pokéball containing her own water Pokémon. “GO WARTORTLE!” she roars.
    “WAR WAR!” Wartortle says upon emerging.
    Ash calls out Squirtle, who looks at his evolved counterpart. “Squirtle squirt?”
    “Wartortle war.”
    <Now is not the time for introductions,> Batts reminds them.
    The ship lurches again, tilting everyone dangerously close to the edge of the deck.
    “Oh, to hell with it!” Starr yells. “BONSAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
    With that, she grabs Wartortle and cannonballs into the heaving sea.
    “Brock, take Staryu!” Misty orders. The former gym leader nods and takes hold of two of the starfish Pokémon’s arms. Misty herself hops on Starmie. Goldeen takes Meowth, Pikachu and Raichu as her passengers. Faris calls out Utena, then Umi, instructing the Vaporeon to take care of Jessie at any cost.
    Misty is tipped off into the sea as the boat lurches once more. Brock falls when he tries to grab her hand. Ash slips off the edge, but thankfully keeps a good grip on Squirtle, so he pops back up to the surface spitting water.
    “Hang ten,” Starr comments.
    Two huge something plunge into the water nearby. One is Utena, carrying Faris and James. The other...?
    “SOMETHING JUST GRABBED MY FOOT!” James yowls, kicking his feet.
    “It’s just seaweed or something, don’t worry!” Misty yells from Starmie’s back.
    “It better not be a Gyarados,” James mutters, glaring at the waves before one swells and hits him right in the face. “YARGLE.”
    As if on cue, sheets of rain start pouring down from the already-pitch-black sky, and the wind picks up even MORE. Lightning cracks into the water, and Starr hears Pikachu yell.
    “PIKACHU???!!!” she and Ash both call.
    “PIKAPI!!!! PICHU!!!!”
    Starr can just make out the form of Pikachu. She and Raichu are both clinging to Goldeen, with Meowth hanging desperately onto Raichu’s tail.
    “Pikachu! Ash yells. He starts kicking like crazy, trying to swim over. “Squirtle! We’ve gotta get to...”
    “Hey, wait!!!” Starr yells, swimming after him.
    “STAY TOGETHER!!!!” Faris orders.
    “I’m TRYING!!!!!” Misty calls back.
    The group is rapidly drifting further and further apart. Any attempts to keep the group close are complete failures thanks to the heaving sea and the rain.
    Lightning strikes the bow of the ferry as it goes stern-first under the waves.
    Starr can’t help it. That was WAY too close. She closes her eyes and yells.
    “STARR!!!” Brock hollers.
    “BROCK, where ARE you????” Starr yells back. “I can’t even SEE...”
    There’s no answer. If there is, it’s drowned out by the pounding rain and the noise of the storm.
    “Looks like it’s just you and me...” she says to Wartortle.
    “Hey!”
    The indignant voice from behind Starr is familiar.
    She turns to see Ash grinning. His Official Pokémon League hat, now totally drenched, hangs over one eye, but his hair still spikes out on either side of it. Starr wonders briefly what kind of glue Ash uses to keep it on his head, even through a torrential downpour.
    He points at Starr’s hair and laughs. “You look like that Cloud guy from that video game!!!”
    Starr instinctively pushes her hair back and says, “Can you see anybody? You might have better vision than me...”
    Ash scans the waves for a few moments before shaking his head and saying, “No... we’ve lost everybody.”
    Starr sighs, then shivers. “Brrrr...we gotta find land someplace, this water’s way too cold for us to last very long in....” She turns to her Pokémon and says, “Wartortle, you know the best way to the nearest land! Take us there!”
    “TOR!” Wartortle says, saluting.
    Starr reaches out her hand and Ash takes it.
    “Follow Wartortle!” he says to Squirtle, who nods.
 

    The last thing Brock hears before completely losing sight of everybody is Starr’s yell when the lightning hit. Now he’s looking around wildly to see if she’s nearby.
    ‘I hope she’s all right...’ he worries. ‘She sounded really scared...’
    “STAAARRR!!!!!” he yells at the top of his lungs, hoping that maybe the waves pushed her closer.
    The rain drowns that out pretty quickly.
    Brock climbs up on top of Staryu to get a better look around.
    He sees a flash of red on top of the waves.
    “HEY!!!!” he yells.
    It doesn’t react.
    Brock and Staryu quickly swim over, and the former gym leader grabs for the patch of red.
    His hand closes around something soft...
    “VAPOREON!!!”
    “AAAAAAAA!” Brock yells, spazzing a bit.
    Then he recognizes the Pokémon, as well as its passenger.
    The Vaporeon is Umi, who belongs to Faris. Sprawled over her back is the still-unconscious Jessie, whom Umi is hell-bent on protecting.
    ‘She must’ve thought I was trying to hurt Jessie...’ Brock thinks. He assures the water hound, “I’m not gonna hurt Jessie. I want to help her. We’ve gotta find some kind of land. We can’t stay in this water forever.”
    Umi seems to understand. Saying, “Por Vaporeon!” she begins swimming quickly off.
    “Follow Umi!” Brock says to Staryu.
    Even if Staryu is Misty’s Pokémon, it knows a decent trainer when it sees one. With a determined “Hya!” it speeds after Umi and Jessie, Brock clinging onto it for dear life.
 

    James has a death-grip around Utena’s neck and refuses to loosen it, even when Faris reassures him it’s all right. Utena doesn’t seem to mind, anyway; she just determinedly keeps swimming.
    “Do you think there’s land ahead??” James yells hopefully.
    “I don’t know!” Faris yells back. She’s sitting on the curve of Utena’s body that’s above the water, and a few feet away from James. “Utena knows where she’s going, though!”
    “Dranair,” Utena says confidently, speeding up.
    “I just want to get out of this storm...I hope everyone’s all right!” James replies.
    “AIR!!!!!” Utena suddenly exclaims as an immense wave breaks over them, submerging them all for a good thirty seconds before they pop back up to the surface.
    “Glaaarggg...” James groans, spitting out water and clinging even more tightly. “Faris, are you all right?”
    There’s no reply, but James assumes he just didn’t hear. He thinks he hears her voice, but the noise of the wind and rain are too much.
    Lightning hits the water nearby.
    Utena wonders if James’ grip could possibly get any tighter. He sure can cling.
 

    Faris did yell something back to James.
    “JAAAAMES! UTENA, WAAAAAAIT!!!”
    When the wave broke over them, it knocked her from the Dragonair’s back and into the stormy water.
    James and Utena don’t turn around and they don’t reply. They must not have noticed; otherwise...
    Faris bites her lip and treads water. She remembers the direction Utena was heading, and if she remembers right, one of the Seafoam Islands should be...
    A large wave derails her train of thought.
    Faris kicks back to the surface and starts to swim after the form of the disappearing Dragonair, but the water is rough, and waves keep slapping her right in the face.
    The second time she goes under, it’s hard to get back to the surface.
    The fourth time, it takes all she has.
    The fifth time a wave breaks over her head, Faris doesn’t have the strength necessary to kick back up.
    Sinking down into the dark and cold ocean, her last thought before those thoughts turn as black as the waters surrounding her is, /James... I’m so sorry..../
 
 
 

    A huge shadowy form glides up beneath the sinking girl. It seems to examine her for a couple seconds...
    Then it glides off, taking Faris with it....