Part Four

      "Well, did you get it?"

      Giovanni's slow and careful voice seemed to echo through my eardrums, alerting my senses, waking me up from my own little daydream. I slowly raised my head to glare into his eyes.

      "Yes, boss." I answered firmly through gritted teeth. Boss. I had gotten bored of called him that for three years now, and never particularly liked it. But now I despised it completely. But there was nothing more I despised than Giovanni himself and this whole criminal organization. He wasn't my boss anymore. I didn't have to listen to him or answer his questions. Yet I continued on, waiting.

      "What was in it?" Giovanni asked calmly. But I could tell from staring into his eyes that he was trying to hide the eagerness, to shove it back down his throat, to not let it slither out of his mouth.

      I paused a moment, the image of my mother, Eevee, and I, all laughing happily racing through my mind.

      "A photo." I answered simply. I had forgotten to call him 'boss'. Not that I really cared.

      "A photo." Giovanni repeated, smirking. "A photo of whom?"

      Feeling the answer at the tip of my tongue, I hastily bit my lip and thought for a moment. No, he can't know.

      "Me." I lied. "Just me, when I was four years old." I continued giving Giovanni a firm dark glare in hope that he wouldn't see through me, revealing the lie I had just spoke. As long as he didn't ask to see the photo, I was okay.

      "Fine." Giovanni said simply. "I better tell you about the ship."

      I blinked in surprise. "A ship?"

      "Yes." Giovanni said, a smirk once again arising on his face. "A cruise ship, to be specific. For the past month we have worked on taking over the S.S. Aqua, our only hopes on reaching a certain island."

      "A certain island." I repeated in disbelief, blinking. What was this, a treasure hunt? These plans of Giovanni weren't like him. First dig up a grave to retrieve the key to my locket, then take over a cruise ship and go to some island in the middle of the ocean? It all sounded so idiotic. Idiotic, just like how I had been acting for the past three years.

      Giovanni must have seen the mixed emotions I was feeling through the look sparking in my eyes. "I didn't have you help because this whole plan is connected to what's inside your locket. I had to give you other missions in order to prepare you." Giovanni said softly. Impatience swarmed through his eyes.

      So we were going to an island in the middle of the ocean because of a photo in my locket. Right. Okay. And odd emotion pricked at my heart.

      "When are we leaving?" I asked, sighing.

      "Tomorrow. Eight in the morning." Giovanni answered. "So you better get some rest."

      "Yes, boss." I replied firmly. I whirled around and walked out of the large room, the door closing shut behind me with a soft hiss. Gazing out the windows at the night sky, I couldn't help smirking.

      That would be the last time I ever call Giovanni 'boss'. Tomorrow would be the last day I was part of Team Rocket. I'd finally be able to escape from the deadly mistake I made three years ago. I'll go on the S.S. Aqua with them, alright. But only to see what the island had to do with the photo in my locket.

      Tomorrow will be the first time I'll actually be happy about betraying someone.

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      I placed my elbows on the rail of the ship and rested my head on my damp hands, gazing out into the sea beyond. The sun cast its bright sparkling reflection upon the water's choppy surface, and Wingulls cried out from above. I breathed in the fresh salty air, light ocean mist stinging my cheeks. It was the first time I had been on a ship, let alone near the ocean. The S.S Aqua was still in the harbor, but I could already feel the light rocking of the ship. We would begin to trip any moment now. My time of being a Team Rocket member was slowly ticking down to its last minutes.

      "So are you ready for this?"

      The sudden sound of Clare's voice startled me out of my thoughts. I whirled around to face her, only to realize that I forgotten to hide my locket away. It was still clutched in my hand, its surface now cold and wet from the salty ocean mist. I just stood there for a moment, staring into her eyes. Was I ready for this? Was I ready to betray someone yet again, even if I hated them?

      "Yea, I guess." I muttered. I opened my mouth to say more, but then closed it again at the emotion wafting through Clare's eyes. For the past three years I had never seen anything like it. A soft emotion, a different emotion. But ten years ago was a different story. Funny, how you can sometimes remember the simplest things, but not the important ones that your heart aches to know.

      Clare noticed my thoughtful gaze. "What?" She snapped, the soft emotion in her eyes I has seen before quickly evaporating.

      I took a deep breath. This conversation would probably be one of the last I had with Clare. I had to tell her something, I had to ask her something.

      "You were there, weren't you?" I whispered softly. "When I was five years old... I saw you."

      As a cold deadly silence stung the air around us, I was oblivious to everything except Clare's piercing stare. I couldn't even feel the sudden lurch as the S.S. Aqua began its trip out into the sea.

      "I don't know what you're talking about." Clare said icily. But I knew her lies couldn't defeat the hidden memories now revealing their selves inside my mind. I was about to reply back when she whirled around and then quickly walked in the opposite direction.

      Straight towards where Giovanni was staying.

      Sighing, I once again turned to face the vast ocean. I didn't care anymore about what Clare might tell Giovanni. I didn't care about anything anymore, only that I didn't belong here. I lifted the golden locket up over my head and gazed at the words carefully engraved in its surface. Together Forever. A single promise both my mother and I made to each other. But of course my mother couldn't keep it. How could she, when death was ready to leap through the air at her, when death was ready to shatter all promises? But there had been no death coming for me. Yet I left her. I left my mother and my grandmother. If there was never this promise, there would never be anything shattered. There would never be any betrayal.

      As those thoughts kept prodding at my heart, hatred swarmed through my veins and made me grasp the locket even harder, my other hand firmly clenched into a fist. Why did we have to make this stupid promise anyways? I took a hold of the tiny golden key and quickly opened up the locket in a wave of furry. Carefully slipping my fingernail under the small photo, I took a hold of it and then placed it inside my uniform pocket. Then I closed the locket back shut with a small click and stared out and the sparkling sapphire skies.

      Sometimes you wonder how you did things you never thought you'd do. Wondering why everything went so quickly, like it did as I grasped the locket in my hand even firmer and then drew my whole arm backwards and summoned all the strength I could. Only then did time seem to stand still, seeming to wait for my next move. Even silence seemed to wait, waiting impatiently, seeming to choke me. With just a single breath I shattered it. And with a single quick swift movement of my arm, I threw the golden locket engraved with a deadly promise nobody would ever be able to keep. A small splash and then a flash of gold. That was the last I saw of the locket before it sank down to the watery depths below.

      For both the first and last moment of my life, the whole world seemed to stand still in an eerie wave of silence, waiting to see if I would regret the action I just took.

      But I don't regret it. I don't regret it at all.

      Only at the sound of Giovanni's quick and steady footsteps against the surface of the ship did the world seem to finally let its breath out. But I only let mine out after I quickly whirled around to face his furious glare piercing into mine. The actions that took place before I threw my locket out into the sea seemed to be far off in the distance in my mind, as if they happened years ago. But they happened only a couple minutes ago, and I forced the fog surrounding them to lift. Yes, of course. I told Clare that she was there when I was five years old, when my mother died, but she had brushed away my words and then ran off towards Giovanni. And now here he was, standing firm in front of me. Things weren't going to be good.

      "Where's your locket?" Giovanni snapped.

      "I threw it off the ship into the ocean." I replied calmly without hesitation, continuing to stare into Giovanni's eyes with no sign of weakness.

      "What?!" Giovanni spat. I could see no emotions showing through his eyes, just a blank weary look. And the only thing I heard in his voice was disbelief, maybe even panic.

      "I threw it off the ship into the ocean." I repeated, just as calmly as before. But my muscles were tense, ready to spring into any necessary action. And as I watched Giovanni's eye twitch just once, I knew I'd have to take that action soon.

      Giovanni opened his mouth in reply, but no sound came out. He just continued standing there with that blank look of disbelief in his eyes. I watched as his hands turned into clenched fists and his open mouth closed back up, now gritting his teeth. Only then did the anger start sparking in his eyes, prickling his heart, boiling in his veins. For the first time in the three years that I had known him, he appeared to be anything but calm.

      No words were heard. Only a shout full of all the furry he could hold at once. And along with this furious shout, Giovanni lunged at me with his arms stretched out in front of him, his hands grasping madly for my neck. Ready, I bent my legs slightly and then leaped up to the railing of the ship in one swift movement, Giovanni's hands missing me by inches.

      "I won't let you mess with the memories I've lost any longer." I whispered softly.

      After all, we aren't that far away from the harbor, right?

      And with that I jumped off the railing of the ship into the vast waters below, still facing Giovanni as I did so.

      It all happened so fast. A gust of salty air pushing against my face and running through my wild hair, and an empty feeling in my stomach as my heart seemed to leap to my throat. Then as my feet hit the surface of the waves rocking through the ocean and a splash was heard, only then did I feel the immense coldness. Coldness that was everywhere, a wet coldness that tickled my stale lungs, daring them to take a gasp of breath. I had never swam in anything but a bathing suit before, and my uniform felt like heavy chains against my waist, slowly pulling me down to the watery darkness below. And not only had I only swam in a bathing suit, but I always had goggles with me. I couldn't remember the last time I opened my bare eyes underwater, let alone in a salty ocean. My only plan was to swim to the harbor, but my plan put me at a major disadvantage.

      In my sudden panic of drowning right then and there, I no longer knew which way was up and down, therefore did not know how to get to the nearest source of air. Open your eyes, Kira. All you have to do is open your eyes. If I did open my eyes, surely I would be able to find the surface. So I opened them. The burning pain that surged throughout my eyes at that moment seemed to whisper to me to close my eyes back up, that it would stop all the pain. And I knew that if I did close them, yes, the pain would stop. But I had to get to the surface. I just had to search for the sunlight shining down on the ocean's surface. Then I could make the pain stop. Then I could swim to the surface. All I had to do was find light...

      And I found it.

      There it was. The surface. I positioned my body and then made a wild attempt to swim towards it, my arms and legs flailing madly. I could feel my strength draining from my body, my heart pumping even faster with a sudden feeling of panic as the air in my hungry lungs seemed to be swept away. A sudden possibility skipped through my mind that I had been trying to block out before. I might actually drown. I had to get the surface. I just had to.

      With a huge gasp of air, my face finally met sunlight and air. I was alive and at the surface. I was alive. I wasn't sure what I was amazed at more - the fact that I could've drowned, or the fact that I was alive.

      That's when the relieved thoughts of what just happened were pushed away from the thoughts of what happened on the ship. I turned myself around to look out into the distance at the ship. The only detail I could make out was the speck that was Giovanni standing near the railing, calmly gazing out at me. It was this calmness that sent chills down my spine. I knew it was possible for him to get mad - I saw this anger after I told him that I had thrown my locket out into the ocean. So if he was calm right now, something must be okay. Something.

      He's going to come back for me. All of them are, sooner or later. They're just giving me a head start.

      Sighing, I started sloppily swimming my way towards the harbor. After fifteen minutes of this, I took a final gasp of breath and pulled myself onto dry land. I then collapsed into a sudden fit of coughing as I clutched myself, bent over, eyes squinting from the stinging salt of the ocean. When the fit was finally over, I just laid there on my back, staring at the Wingulls crying out from the skies above. I was no longer a part of Team Rocket. I was free.

      I heaved myself up into a sitting position and then suddenly remember what I had kept of the golden locket. The photo. Of course. I carefully slipped my hand into my soaking uniform pocket, only to feel one thing. Emptiness.

      The photo had fallen out of my pocket and was somewhere underwater in the ocean.

      I waited for the tears, but they didn't come. I felt no dampness slowly roll down my cheeks. But the emotion I felt in my chest was much stronger than tears, much stronger than the feeling of being free.

      The unbearable emotion of a sadness of tears you can never cry.

     Note From Author: Wow... I haven't updated for like, almost two months, I believe? I'm very sorry about that. I've been really busy with homework, playing in band concerts, drawing for the Golden Pokeball Awards contest, being sick, and just being plain busy. I may not be able to update every week like I used to, but don't worry, I'll still be writing, even after I'm done with this fic, when I'll be starting others. So, at least for now, see ya... and feel free to send a review or two.

~Kitten >^.^<