Chapter Text
This… This isn’t what I wanted.
Those words marqueed in his mind.
This isn’t what I meant.
A shiver shot up his spine not caused by the cold concrete wall behind him but instead by the fierce blue eyes that met his. Sharp, piercing, dangerous, familiar.
These aren’t the same eyes, though.
“Hey, punk, did you hear me? Or are you deaf too?” A bare hand struck the wall next to him, causing him to jump with its offensive thump. Patterned scars, bruises, and burns led up the woman’s pale skin to the stylized ripped shoulder of the black crop top she wore. Pikachu’s cheeks began to spark, and Ash could feel his pokémon’s emotions. Pikachu was scared, yes, but too knew this was very wrong. “Tsk, tsk, do your friends matter that little to you?”
Out of the corner of his eyes he could see Brock shoved against the same wall, a gun in his attacker’s hand and a sick grin on the villain’s face. Brock was pinned. May and Max had been restrained by two large men, one arm around their bodies, one around their necks. It was supposed to be a mugging, but the atmosphere in the small, dirty alley told him it could easily become a murder. The man with the gun seemed to be ready for that outcome, his finger already on the trigger.
Pikachu’s cheeks quieted. The woman facing him pressed on, “Your money and valuables. Now.”
“Jessie,” the name escaped Ash’s lips in a desperate breath, “this isn’t you,” his voice held a disturbed wonder. The silence that followed was deafening.
Her eyes flashed. The ferocity of the blue fire that had been there moments before burned bright with a different emotion, “how….”
“How does the little shit know your name? How does he know who you are?” The interrogating bombardment came from the man with the silver weapon. Ash’s stomach turned. The fear Jessie held wasn’t directed towards his mysterious knowledge. He could see her tremble as though the man’s words triggered a quake beneath her feet.
That man terrified her.
“Are you ignoring me?”
She jumped, her arm going lax for a moment before stiffening again.
Swallowing hard, she put on a thin face of bravery to meet his eyes over her shoulder, “I’m not! I don’t know how he knows,” it wasn’t an answer. It was a plead.
The turmoil in Ash’s stomach only grew in violence. I didn’t want Team Rocket to bother me anymore. It had been such a mundane action. Sending that coin into that well him and his friends had stumbled upon. Wishing that Team Rocket would stop following him. Stop trying to capture Pikachu. Leave me alone.
It wasn’t supposed to actually happen. Let alone like this.
“Lying to me again, are you?” he spat and her body stiffened. She turned her head back towards Ash and Ash was sure from behind it would look like she was staring him down. But her eyes were shut tight. She didn’t stop trembling. The gun was removed from Brock’s presence, the man moving away from him with calculated steps. Brock looked far less than relieved. The gun hadn’t been put away. It hadn’t been forgotten. It was now pointing it at her. Jessie’s eyes snapped open and her hand left the wall, her full attention going to the man. He snarled, “I told you what would happen if you did, didn’t I?”
“I’ve never seen him before in my life! I wouldn’t lie to you!”
The man knew exactly what he was doing, how to move, how to position himself, in a matter of seconds, Ash realized Jessie’s back was against the opposite wall.
The gun was ready.
“Wait, it was a lucky guess,” Ash tried to lie. He wasn’t near as good at it as he knew she was, “I don’t know her!”
“Sounds like something a lover would say, eh? I know you like ‘em young but c’mon, this is freaky even for you, Sweetheart,” He took a step closer to her. His finger on the trigger, aiming it between her eyes, “Careful, it might get you in trouble one day.”
Ash could only hold his breath. Pikachu was tense on his shoulder, May and Max had been released by their captors in favor of the show, the two men watching with arms crossed, lips twisted up in entertained smirks. This isn’t what I meant.
“No,” the breath came from Brock who had come up beside him, body positioned in a shared desire to rescue her. There had to be some way, she couldn’t die like this. He wanted her to leave him alone, not end up dead!
“Pikachu,” he whispered, “we can’t just stand here,” but before he could speak another word, the man’s finger on the trigger tightened.
But no shot came. Jessie’s eyes had been shut in the moments leading up to the pull and Ash tried not to let the serenity that he saw on her face disturb him. When she realized she was still alive, he struggled to miss the devastating disappointment that replaced it, “Heh, stupid bitch,” he put it away on his person, “you should know I’d never shoot one of my best girls,” he approached her, his eyes moving towards Ash and his friends.
“You little punks lucked out. I dunno how you know her, but any friend of hers is a friend of mine. So do what all good friends do and leave us alone. We gotta have a little chat, couple’s stuff,” he had closed the distance between him and her, a mockingly gentle hand caressing her cheek.
The fear returned, relief never washing over her. She was more scared now than she had been before. Still as a statue, frozen in her spot, and the man… he was enjoying the terror she held. The hand went from her cheek to her hair, running through her long, loose red waves, holding a strand between his fingers. She was watching him more carefully now than she had been when he had the gun pointed.
The other two gang members stood in front of Ash and his friends, making themselves look bigger with crossed arms, starting to pressure them out of the alley, “Get lost, losers,” the words came sharp from the taller member with bright pink hair cut short.
“What’s going to happen to her?” Ash shifted his position. A battle stance. Pikachu followed his trainer’s lead. Jessie might have caused them more than enough trouble for one lifetime. She might have had a hand in horrible things. But this… this was too much. It was too far. She didn’t deserve this.
“Ain’t none of your business,” the slightly balder one of the two men replied but the sick grins on their faces told them enough. Ash hadn’t realized just how far they’d already manipulated the four’s backwards steps. They were already on the street. The two men were soon gone back into the nighttime shade of the alley.
A moment passed as each member of the small group was struggling to process what the hell just happened? May had tears starting in her eyes. She wasn’t alone.
“What’s going on?” she managed, “What happened to Jessie? Where’s James? And Meowth?” her voice twisting into a panicked frenzy, “We can’t leave her; they’re going to hurt her!”
The echo of a hit and a woman’s cry and a body hitting a concrete wall hard could be heard from the mouth of the alley.
“Jessie…” May’s voice quivered. Ash couldn’t trust his own voice.
But he wasn’t going to just listen any longer.
“Pikachu?” He could feel Pikachu wanted to save her too. His question was more a formality.
“Pi-ka,” the static from Pikachu’s cheeks tingled the air beside his ear.
First, help Jessie. Second, figure out how this all happened. Third, fix it.