Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon and probably never will unfortunately

A/N: Hey again ^_^ Just a little reminder at the start there about what happened last time. I won't rant on this time. On with the flick...

'Thoughts are like this'

Ages: Jessie: 21, James: 21, Ash: 14, Misty: 15, Brock: 17

--------------------------------------------------------------------- Love not War, Friend not Foe
Part #02
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Last time...

She shut her eyes tight. "I'm sorry James..."

The Onix lifted its tail and was about to drop it upon her when...

"WATER GUN ATTACK!"

The Onix roared in pain as a large jet of water came from nowhere and slammed into it, knocking it out. It fell and hit the ground with a ground shaking thump. Jessie opened her eyes and looked towards where the attack had come from.

"Who's there?" The grunt turned his Rapidash in that direction. His face was red with fury. "Come out of those shadows and face us!"

As the figure stepped out from the shadows, Jessie gasped. "You have got to be kidding!"

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Jessie's mouth lay open, as she watched none other than Ash Ketchum walk out from the shadows and into the moonlight. His Pikachu accompanied him, as usual, and so did a large water pokemon. Jessie recognised this as a Feraligatr, the final evolution of Totodile. Ash had grown much since he'd met Team Rocket for the first time four years ago in the Viridian City Pokémon Centre. The 14 year old now looked more mature, and kinda handsome Jessie had to admit. Jessie shut her mouth only to reopen it seconds later. "What are you doing here?" She blurted out.

Ash gave his cute smile. "Meowth said you were in a bit of trouble, as always" Instead of his old worn blue jeans and jacket, he now wore baggy blue sports pants; black t-shirt and a red jacket. He'd retired his old Pokemon League cap and his black, spiky hair was a little longer than before. He'd become a very accomplished trainer over the years but that didn't deter Jessie, James and Meowth from trying to capture his pokemon.

Meowth walked out and stood next to Ash. "Hey, face it, we need all the help we can get right now"

"Meowth! I can't believe you asked the twerp of all people!" Jessie scowled at him.

Meowth just shrugged and then saw James lying in front of Jessie. "WHAT IN THE NAME OF HO-OH HAPPENED TO HIM?!" He ran over and looked at James' motionless body. His breaths were coming in short ragged gasps and blood ran down his face from a large gash on his left temple. Both Jessie and James' uniforms were now mud and blood covered.

Jessie nodded towards the Onix's unconscious form and sniffed back a tear. She ran her fingers through her hair pushing strands out of her face.

Ash looked at them concerned. Even if they were enemies, his good nature caused him to care for everyone, including Team Rocket. "Is he... alive?" He swallowed hard.

The grunt returned his Onix and stood in front of the other four Team Rocket grunts. "Enough of this! We were given precise orders from Giovanni to expose of these three losers and now I guess that you'll have to die also" He pointed at Ash as he spoke to him.

Ash narrowed his eyes and glared menacingly at them. "Not in this life time pal. Pikachu, Feraligatr, let's show them!" "Pi, Pikapi" Pikachu leapt off Ash's shoulder and landed on all fours, electricity sparking from his cheeks. Feraligatr punched the air and stomped forward to take its place next to Pikachu.

Jessie turned her attention back to James. "Meowth, what will we do?" Looked to the cat type pokemon for guidance.

"Well, foirst of all we need to get Jimmie away from here"

Jessie agreed and pulled out a pokeball. She enlarged it and released the pokemon from within. The form of a large cobra snake appeared. Its purple scales shone and its forked tongue slipped in and out, tasting the air. "Charbok.." It looked at its trainer for its instructions.

"Arbok, we need to get James away from here and we need your help to do it" Arbok nodded and lay itself next to James. It carefully wrapped its end around James' torso and lifted him off the ground, placing him on its back. Jessie held James' hand and kissed it lightly. "Please be ok, please live, I beg you James" She whispered to him, unsure if he'd heard or not.

There was a loud crash as two of the grunts were slammed into a tree by Feraligatr's mighty mega punch. Ash spun to them. "Get him out of here. There's a small cave not far from here. I'll meet you there. Now GO!" Ash pointed in the direction of the cave he spoke about and turned his attention back to the battle. The grunts were recovering quickly and starting to pull out pokéballs. "We will teach you what happens to nosey little brats who interfere with Team Rocket business," croaked one, now slightly hoarse from yelling. Ash gave Jessie and Meowth another glance before being pulled into a fierce battle.

Jessie instructed Arbok on where to go and ran along side it while holding onto James. Meowth followed closely behind. It wasn't long before the cave came into sight. "I'm not sure Meowth. Are you sure we can trust the Twerp?"

Meowth pondered on this before answering. "Jess, I know we ain't best of buddies with the Twerp, but he'd never do anything real bad to us, it's not his style"

"I suppose you're right"

"That's right" Did his little pose like he did at the end of their motto.

Jessie ignored this action and entered the cave with Arbok and James. A light drizzle started to fall outside and it soon turned into a downpour. Meowth ran in and grumbled. "I hate wet rain" Shook himself off.

Arbok coiled itself around the trio to keep them warm and Jessie held James close. 'Hurry up Twerp, James is getting worse,' James' condition was indeed worse and Jessie was getting anxious. An explosion was heard outside and soon a slight ping from the sky. The words 'blasting off' faded into the night and the sound of thundering rain once again took over. Meowth's ears pricked and he looked towards the entrance. "I hear something coming" Soon a figure entered the cave, soaked from the rain.

"That's them taken care of" There was the sound of a pokeball opening and the cave lit up as a Quilava materialised. Pikachu shook itself and wandered over to Quilava's flame to warm up. Ash went over and crouched next to James. After a moment he stood up. "I've got to get Misty and Brock. I'll be back in a flash" He darted out of the cave, leaving Quilava and Pikachu behind.

Jessie, under other circumstances, would have gone for the pokemon but her concern was more on James. The two 21 year olds had met years ago and had never been apart. Yet, no matter how much time they spent together, Jessie could never gather up the courage to tell him how she felt. She was sure that James didn't feel the same. After all, she was rude, obnoxious and very violent. 'He'd never feel the same way so I'd be better off keeping my feelings from him, to save us against hurt' She was more afraid of loosing him than being hurt.

Ash soon returned with Misty and Brock in tow. They had been worried sick about Ash after he was missing for almost an hour. He explained that he'd been getting firewood when Meowth came out of nowhere. He was frantic and unable to calm down. Ash finally made sense of the pokemon's ramblings and went to the rescue. Brock, after consulting his 'trusty, never failed' map, found that there was a city not too far away with a hospital. Using their pokemon, it wasn't long before they arrived at the hospital. James was immediately taken to the intensive care unit and the gang were told to wait in the waiting room. They tried to get Jessie to tell them why they were being attacked but she remained silent. Meowth was curled up snoozing next to a heater.

Two nerve racking hours later a doctor came out from the intensive care wing and headed towards them. Jessie stood up and ran over to him. "Is James alright?"

"Well, he received a very bad blow indeed and..."

"JUST IS HE ALRIGHT!?" Jessie burst out, grasping the doctor’s collar tightly and pulling at him.

Meowth woke suddenly from the outburst and ran to Jessie. "Whoa, take it easy Jess. The doc here is trying to tell you!"

"Ohh alright..." She let him go and stepped back, looking at the ground.

The doctor gave a little cough and straightened himself up before continuing. "As I was saying, he's after receiving a lot of damage, particularly to his head and I'm afraid that..."

--------------------------------------------------------------------- To Be Continued...
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Heehee, cliffhanger ehh? Please review, all good and bad comments welcome. Please, just one review! If I don’t get reviews, means there’s no one reading it so there wouldn’t be much need to continue. That or the story isn’t very good. So it's up to you peeps. Thanks for taking time to read my story ^_^

~Ashla~

Finished: 12:00am, Thursday 17th October 2002