Part Three
Three years later...
I wouldn't let them catch me. Not that I had to worry. The words racing through my mind seemed to power up my legs, forcing them to quickly carry me through the building. I hastily ducked my head this way and that, dodging walls, doorframes, and tall glass tables. I muttered some curses under my breath as I slowed down to brush away the tangled hair of mine that kept flying in front of my face in my mad attempt to escape on time. If I didn't succeed, punishment would be the only thing wafting through the air. Giovanni wouldn't be very happy with me if that happened.
"You there! Stop!" A male shouted, standing firmly in front of me. But scanning his appearance, I could see that his legs were trembling. Maybe the emotion of fear spreading throughout his eyes was because of the blood slowly dripping from both my bare shoulders and forehead. Whatever it was, fear of me would overpower him for sure. He stood no chance against me.
I smirked. "Sorry, but I'm in kind of a hurry." I hissed, tossing a pokeball up into the air to reveal my Houndoom in a blinding flash of red light. At the sight of the trembling man blocking our path, the dog pokemon issued a deep snarl from low in its throat.
Just a quick small flick of the wrist. That's all it took. For in the time of a split second of a heartbeat that I did that, my Houndoom bent its hind legs slightly and then soared through the air, tackling the man to the ground a furry of sharp piercing teeth and claws. The man was now pinned to the ground. My smirk grew even bigger.
I slowly walked over to the scene and stroked the Houndoom's jet-black fur for a moment. "Hm... for the finishing touch, let's give him..." I paused for a moment, thinking. "...a Shadow Ball attack." And with this my Houndoom opened up its mouth wide, revealing a small sphere of glowing and misty dark energy. As the man's frightened eyes got larger, so did the sphere. And then with one mighty roar, the Houndoom unleashed the now large sphere in one mad wave of black and gray shadows. The last whispered words I heard before I saw the sight of the man just lying there unconscious were "Team Rocket!". I patted my pokemon on the head and then once again tossed the pokeball up into the air, my Houndoom dissolving into tiny specks of particles in a flash of light. I could now continue on.
And so I did. I continued at the pace I had been running and ducking before I had encountered the man. And in just a matter of minutes, I was standing outside on top of a hill overlooking the building, breathing in the fresh brisk air. Once I had caught my breath, I carefully slid a small flat gray object out of my uniform's single pocket. It was no larger than the palm of my hand.
"You might be tiny, but you sure do pack a punch." I whispered, grinning. And with this I summoned all the strength I could and tossed the object into the air towards the middle of the building.
I just stood there with that grin on my face, watching as the building exploded in a burst of flames and smoke, its large roar-sounding waves seeming to burst through my ears.
I tossed the cap with the blood-red R I had worn on my aching head up into the air with a shout of joy. My job here was done. Giovanni will be very happy with I come back to the Team Rocket headquarters.
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"This is Kira Markus." I said into the small jet-black speaker attached to the wall near the door. "I've succeeded. I have the pokemon with me."
There was silence on the other end for a moment, as always. Then Giovanni spoke. "Ah... very good, Kira. Come in." And with a soft hiss the door slid open. I quickly walked into the large open room, standing up firmly, pride swelling in my chest. Giovanni sat at his rosewood desk before me, slowly stroking his purring Persian as usual. Lots of papers and blueprints were stacked in one messy pile in front of him, a few here and there scattered about.
"Give it to me." He ordered sharply.
"Yes, boss." I replied, grabbing what I had stolen from my uniform's pocket. It was just as single ultraball, seeming to sparkle in the light. But the pokemon inside it made up for the lack of specialty the ball had itself.
A wide grin formed on Giovanni's face as he reached over to snatch the ultraball from my sweaty hand. "Yes... very good, very good indeed." He murmured. Then he carefully set the ultraball on his desk. "This was a very difficult mission, and I'm sure you have realized that by now, Kira."
"Yes, boss." I replied proudly.
"In the three years that you have been a part of Team Rocket, I have never seen you do so well on such a hard mission. Not that you did badly before. You are probably the best member we have." Giovanni complimented. "So now I think it's time to give you the final mission that I've been waiting to give you ever since I first saw you when you were twelve."
I bit my lip, waiting. "I think I'm ready too, boss." I replied firmly. My head spun with the possibilities.
Giovanni chuckled. But the amused look etched on his face was instantly swept away from by a serious one, his cloud-gray eyes becoming colder, trying to stare me down. Only when I blinked weakly did his eyes wander down to my neck, were just a slight flash of gold could be seen sparkling in the light.
"Where's your locket?" He asked sharply.
I was a bit shocked at Giovanni's sudden question. The last time he had spoken of my locket was three years ago, when he had explained to me about my father's death and how my mother betrayed me. But then again he still had that emotion of a greedy desire whenever his eyes flashed towards the locket's direction.
"Its right here, boss." I answered, slipping the golden locket out from under the shirt of my uniform, letting it dangle from my neck. I kept it with me wherever I went, no matter how dangerous the mission was.
There it was, that look. Greed. Desire. "Good. Do you know what's inside that locket of yours?" He asked slowly.
I stepped backwards and gazed at the ground. And image of three years ago, a girl with brown hair swishing by her waist, frantically running towards me in unsteady steps flashed through my mind.
"No, boss." I replied softly. "I figure there's some sort of photo inside it, though."
"Where's the key?"
"I don't know, boss. I lost it ten years ago, when I was five."
Silence. Giovanni was thinking about what to say next, thinking about the words that were about to come slithering out of his mouth. I could tell by the focused look in his eyes.
"What if I told you I know where the key is?" Giovanni finally said, a small smile forming on his face.
I gawked at him. Suddenly, I didn't care anymore about calling him 'boss'. I didn't care about anything except for that key, the key to not only my locket but also my past.
"Where is it?" I whispered darkly. "Tell me."
Giovanni's smile grew into a wide grin, like I predicted it would. But it something was different about it. It was a twisted-looking grin.
"Somebody has it... but they're dead." He answered. His eyes burned into mine, trying to figure out what I was feeling at that moment. But I wouldn't let them.
"They're dead." I repeated in disbelief, blinking stupidly.
"Then if you want it back, looks like you'll have to go grave digging, huh?" Giovanni said with a smirk.
"Fine." I snapped. "Just tell me where the grave is."
"It's in the graveyard just fifty miles away from here... I'm sure you know of it. It's the grave in the sixth row, third column. The one with all the daisies around it." Giovanni answered calmly.
Daisies, huh? For some reason the name of those flowers sparked something in my mind. But it quickly faded away.
"Okay then. I'll leave as soon as I can." I said firmly, whirling around to walk out the door.
"Oh, and Kira?"
"Yes, boss?"
"Don't you dare fail me during this mission." He said in a sharp dark whisper.
"Yes, boss." I replied.
As I walked out of the room the door slid shut with a hiss behind me. I walked towards the bathrooms in a quick pace, an image of the key to my locket swarming through my mind.
I smirked. If I was going to be digging up a grave, I should at least wash off the stained blood all over me from my last mission.
***************************************************
"Nothing beats brisk night air." I murmured, breathing in the freshness surrounding me. Grass crunched underneath my feet as I trudged through the large graveyard, pausing a moment to brush back my tangled hair behind my ears. The barely-noticeable weight dangling around my neck usually would've made me go faster. Yet nothing was forcing my legs to move in my mad attempt to find the key to my past. Perhaps it was the fact that I was in a graveyard, and eerie feeling wafting throughout the air, drowning out my heart.
Of course not.
I came to a sudden halt at one particular grave. It wasn't the one Giovanni had told me to look for, but it was... different. The tombstone was black, a crescent moon carefully engraved into its polished rock surface. I slowly ran my fingers over the outline, coldness racing through them. As my fingertips wandered down to the name on the grave, I knew why I had been drawn to it. Mary Coalmire. This was my grandmother's grave.
At first I just felt blank inside. But then that's when I felt the anger start prickling my heart. "Why did you have to have a daughter?!" I whispered, gritting my teeth. The grandmother I had stayed with after my mother died, the grandmother who had died of a heart attack three years ago, was my mother's mother. I knew it was stupid wishing my grandmother never had my mother - if she didn't, I wouldn't exist.
I sighed and closed my eyes. Maybe it would be better if I didn't exist, though.
My eyes flashed open as I continued on. Sixth row, third column. Daisies. As the seconds ticked by and my feet carried me closer to my destination, I started wondering why Giovanni even wanted me to do such an idiotic mission.
As the grave I had been searching for came into sight, daisies being brushed to the side by a soft wind, I squinted my eyes to read the name. Only then did I find out why Giovanni sent me on the 'idiotic' mission. Or so I thought.
Katrina Markus
1955 - 1995
A loving caring friend, wife, mother, protector, and lover, she shall always be remembered in those whose hearts are true.
My breath was taken away. This was my mother's grave. Giovanni was testing me.
Immense anger surged through my veins I continued to stand there glaring at the name engraved in the tombstone, my fists clenched. I had never felt anger this strong before. I felt like shouting my lungs out in one mad wave of furry. A couple years ago I would have been feeling a mixture of sadness and fear. But I was different now. I was tougher. Digging up my mother's grave would be easy.
I tossed my pokeball up into the air, once again revealing my Houndoom in a blinding flash of red light, seeming to glow brighter in the night air. "Houndoom, dig up this grave and tell me once you've found the coffin." I ordered sharply. My Houndoom barked in reply and started frantically tearing at the ground's surface with its sharp piercing claws.
I sighed at sat down on a small bench, resting my weary legs. I propped up my tired face with my hand, my elbow resting on the cold surface of the armrest, and gazed out at the full glowing moon. Here I was I was in a graveyard in the middle of the night, digging up a grave. I had actually watched a movie like this when I was five, my eyes growing wide with fear and panic as the seconds ticked by. Eventually my mother had to turn the movie off, to the relief of my Eevee, whom I had been nearly choking to death in my wild attempt to not scream.
A loud frantic bark from my Houndoom interrupted my thoughts. I stood up from the bench, taking a moment to stretch, and then trudged over to a large hole surrounded by piles of dirt. I bit my lip as I looked down, revealing the sight of my mother's coffin. It was white with flowers carefully carved into its surface, just how it had been that one rainy day I had visited the graveyard with my grandmother.
"Good job, Houndoom." I told the dog pokemon, swiftly jumping down into the wide hole. I ran my fingers over the polished wood carved flowers, just as I had done with the engraved crescent moon on my grandmother's tombstone. Then with one deep shuddering breath, I lifted up the cover of the coffin, quickly turning away. No matter how much I hated my mother, I didn't want to look inside her coffin.
"Ugh!" I choked out, coughing. The stench was horrible. A few weary whimpers were heard coming from my Houndoom. "Houndoom, get the key and give it to me. It's tiny and made of the same type of gold my locket is." I ordered firmly. I heard frantic sniffing coming from my Houndoom as it searched frantically through the coffin, and then barked. At the touch of something small and cold being dropped into my hand, my face grew into a grin.
"Come on, Houndoom. Our job here is done." I said, climbing up over the hole. I didn't care that my hands, elbows, and shoulders were now covered in dirt, scrapes, and bruises. I quickly ran over to the bench after returning my Houndoom to its pokeball, and sat down, breathing heavily with excitement. Finally, after all these years, I would find out what was inside my locket.
With one trembling hand I grasped the tiny key in my hand in slid it into the hole in my locket. With one twist to the left, the locket opened with a small click.
There it was. The photo. The photo of my mother, Eevee, and I, laughing happily. My short blond curly hair seemed to shimmer in the sunlight, and my sapphire-blue eyes sparkling with a care-free emotion. How different I looked at the time compared to now.
With a small click I closed the locket back up and sank to my knees in the damp grass, tossing my Team Rocket cap to the ground. Mixed emotions seemed to explode inside my heart as I started doing something I hadn't done for years, something I thought I'd never do.
I cried. And cried, and cried, and cried. I cried my heart out, tears bursting from my eyes.
In that one quick moment, everything seemed to hit me all at once like a bolt of lightning. In that one quick moment, I realized all the mistakes I had made in the past couple of years. My heart seemed to sink below the ground and leap to my throat at the same time. And the fact that I had to quit being a part of Team Rocket wasn't the only thing I had realized.
My mother didn't betray me.
I betrayed my mother.
Betrayal.