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Don't Give Me Diamonds

Diamond 26: Give me Dreams

Was it morning? No, it was still dark. Delia found it odd; she never woke up in the middle of the night. Her dream had been amusing though, but it was more a memory than a dream. Her good mood must have been reminding her of happy times even in her sleep.

It was a long time ago, when Team Rocket had only recently taken over the Viridian Gym. Giovanni was looking over some documents. Delia quietly snuck up behind him, but he turned his head slightly, noticing her presence and she turned away.

Meowth was comfortable on top of the TV; the little pokemon had insisted to climb up there and would not be moved, meowing loudly in protest if anyone tried to get him down. Neither Giovanni nor Delia could understand the pokemon's sudden desire to nap on the TV, but they let him be, it seemed he wanted to try out every surface he saw for a nap, appliances included.

Giovanni focused on the documents once more, he was done reading, but wanted to see what Delia would do. She snuck up behind him again, like a feline stalking her pray, ready to pounce any second. Giovanni made sure not to look, curious to know what childish yet somewhat amusing thing Delia came up with. Surely she didn't mean to cover his eyes and have him guess who she was, that was too silly, even for a curious naive country girl.

Then he regretted his choice, she was on the attack, mercilessly messing up his hair, "Delia, stop that!" She did not, "stop it!"

Finally satisfied, Delia grinned at Giovanni, her smile growing into a fit of laughter. Meowth woke up, curiously looking at his mother, wondering what was so funny, while seeing that his father's hair looked different, but humans seemed to have a slightly different appearance every day anyway. Laughing uncontrollably, Delia sat down on the bed, finally letting herself fall back, her amusement still ringing out.

Giovanni reached for a mirror, the first mirror he spotted, Delia's pink hand mirror. This was Delia's room too and she kept everything neat for both of them. Even so, sometimes he wished she would hide her pink items as he did not like the color.

None the less, the mirror served its purpose, revealing that his hair partly fell down in front of his face and flew out to the sides left and right. She made a fine mess and she dared to laugh. He stopped her amused rolling around, catching her wrists and holding her in place, lying on top of her.

"No fair, I wasn't ready, you snuck up on me!" Delia pouted, after the last few giggles passed.

"Didn't you sneak up on me?" Giovanni reminded, leaning close.

"You knew I was there," she justified, still making a pouty face.

"How would you like it if I messed up your hair?" He was so close, she could feel him breathing.

"I'll just brush it again, no big deal, now let me go!"

"Don't do that again," predictably, reaching for his hair was the first thing she did when he released her hands. "Really Delia, you're so childish sometimes," at least he found some amusement in her childish and naive ways sometimes and this was one of those times despite the messy state his hair was left in.

"Relax, I'm not going to mess up your perfect image in front of your minions, oh supreme ruler of the world," Delia was only being sarcastic, but Giovanni would have liked to make it come true, taking over the world was a good long term goal to have. "You looked stressed so I had to do something, I know it's because Team Rocket is growing so fast and is constantly being restructured, but you need to take a break sometimes and clear your head." She continued playing with his hair, "it looks shorter than it actually is, when it's-"

"Not a mess?" He supplied.

"Oh come on, it's not that bad."

"No one will take me seriously like this..."

"Fine then, fix it tomorrow, right now, you need a break, besides, no one will see you, and by the way, get off Charmander." She paused and waited, but he didn't move, "why are you grinning at me like that? What's so funny?"

"That I know you're perfectly comfortable as you are," he continued to grin victoriously, he knew he was right.

xoxox xox xoxox

The images of the dream, of the memory, faded into the back of her mind as Delia cuddled close to the sleeping Giovanni and fell asleep again. She felt more energized than she had in a long time because things had taken such a great turn for the better.

Again her mind refused to remain inactive, replaying another memory in the shape of a vivid dream. It was from the time when Team Rocket faced the smaller gangs in the east of Kanto. There was one that had retreated to Lavender Town, into a strange abandoned tower rumored to be haunted.

"Dude Giovanni, these guys like totally gave up and want to join us," Luke had met up with Delia and Giovanni at the foot of the tower, Leah following quietly.

"Joining Team Rocket is not that simple, you'll have to prove yourselves," Giovanni addressed the small gang, there were only seven of them in total and they always acted together. They called themselves the Ghost Group, though ironically none of them actually had any ghost pokemon and they weren't quite sneaky enough to be compared to ghosts.

Each gang member wore a badge, brooch or pendant shaped like a purple ball with a wavy tail that became thinner at the end and angry red eyes. It was their symbol, though not all gangs had symbols. The Tempest Gang claimed not to need such a thing, but perhaps they would have adopted a symbol if they had known that it would be the only thing left behind as their memory after Team Rocket took over everything, marking Tempest's past territory with their red R.

"I understand," the leader replied, "we'll be sure to fulfill your expectations." It was clear they weren't too thrilled about joining Team Rocket, but they knew that if they did not, their gang would be forced to be disbanded and their pokemon would be taken away. Eventually, like so many others, they would get used to being part of a larger organization and enjoy its benefits.

"You better," Giovanni warned them seriously, then addressed Luke, "give them the standard test and let me know how it goes."

"You got it boss dude, I'm like totally on it!" Luke cheered excitedly, "follow me new dudes and dudettes!" Luke and Leah left with the seven new applicants.

Giovanni and Delia looked at the tower; it was their last stop for the night. The location was rumored to have become the Phantom Patrol's hiding place, however, most of the Phantom Patrol had disbanded and only two members stubbornly refused to give in, having retreated to the tower in hopes of hiding from Team Rocket until they were ready to gather more allies and strike back. Everything pointed to those two still being there. Giovanni and Delia entered the tower in search of the pair that had slipped away.

The tower was dark and surprisingly cold, despite there being no logical explanation to the change in temperature. They were aided by flashlights to light their way, but it seemed that the darkness consumed most of the light, though the flashlights had been working just fine outside a few seconds ago.

"Giovanni, do you think this tower is really haunted?" Delia asked softly, careful not to raise her voice too much.

"That's just a rumor," Giovanni didn't believe in ghosts, other than ghost pokemon, but that was different.

"Aw, that's too bad," Delia sounded sincerely disappointed, "I thought it would be cool to see a spirit or something."

"You want it to be haunted? You really are full of surprises." The long ragged curtains were abruptly blown violently, as if reaching out to them. The sudden gust disappeared as quickly as it came and the flashlight's dim light pointed towards the window revealed that the dusty glass was closed. Upon inspection it was clear that the window had been closed for a long time, the surrounding area was covered with more dust then it could have if it was open a moment ago.

"Maybe this place really is haunted," Delia became more excited.

"A normal person would worry about that," Giovanni reminded, he still didn't believe the tower was haunted, but he too was enjoying the excitement of uncertainty.

"You should talk, I can tell you want to see something supernatural as much as I do, if not more," Delia teased.

"Okay, I'll admit it," behind most legends there was some truth and seemingly supernatural events were sometimes in reality super powerful pokemon.

Eerie wails were heard, as if lamenting something terrible, as they made their way up the tower. Turning the corner of the spiraling stairs, a red light was seen as the wails became louder. Delia curiously approached, turning the round corner until a lava lamp came into view, "it's pretty; who would leave this laying around in a place like this?"

"Someone who would make a really bad horror movie director," Giovanni laughed more at horror movies then at comedies, though he still liked spy and gangster movies best, especially with a lot of action and explosions.

In the second to last floor, they were received by a black cloaked being with a seemingly bloody knife, suspiciously carrying the scent of tomatoes. "ohh.... wooo, boooo, hoooo!"

"Is this yours?" Delia tossed the lava lamp at him.

The mysterious boy caught it with his free hand, stopping his poor acting. "Are you people insane? Why aren't you running for your lives?"

"From what?" Giovanni nonchalantly inquired.

"From me!" The boy in the cloak threw the lava lamp at Giovanni, who effortlessly dodged it, then went on the attack with the knife. However, Giovanni easily caught his wrist making him drop the knife in pain. "Ah, let go!"

Annoyed with the pathetic boy, Giovanni let him go and pushed him away, to see what he would do. He began to cry in pain, muttering something along the lines of "big sis will avenge me."

"That's quite enough, brother," a woman came from the shadows. "Let the nightmare begin! Ninetails, fill this tower with fire, flame thrower!" The majestic fire pokemon came out of its pokeball, throwing fire balls all around.

In a matter of seconds, Giovanni and Delia were surrounded by the flames but didn't look worried just yet. "Cloyster!" The pokeball Delia threw did not open, "what?" Delia examined it in puzzlement, trying to pry the two halves apart. "It's stuck!" She handed it to Giovanni who tried to pull it open to no avail. Seeing as Cloyster wasn't coming out, Delia tried to call out Krabby instead, this time it worked, but Krabby was so exhausted he fainted immediately. "Krabby, what's wrong? I don't understand; he was fine before, return!"

Giovanni handed Delia back the sealed pokeball containing Cloyster, "try to open it to put the fire out, I'll take care of the battle," he sent out Golem. "Don't think you have the advantage, you have less of a chance to get out of here than we do if this fire continues."

"You cannot defeat me, Ninetails, fire blast!" The blast went straight for Golem, knocking him out in one hit.

"This is impossible!" Giovanni recalled Golem in disbelief.

"It really is a nightmare," Delia couldn't believe it, how could so many things go wrong? It didn't make any sense, then something clicked, "the Phantom Patrol, unlike the Ghost Group actually has ghost pokemon, don't they?"

"Yes, but what are you getting at?" Giovanni wondered why she suddenly sounded so calm.

Delia remembered Haunter hypnotizing Leah in the past, "this really is a nightmare, an illusion, their pokemon put us in a trance, we just need to wake up. We're the vigilantes, the heroes and they're the bad gangs so we will win!" Her realization and strong belief caused Delia to wake up from the trance. Gastly and Gengar were floating in front of them, the boy's antics had only been a distraction while his sister's pokemon casted their hypnotic spells.

Delia and Giovanni had been standing perfectly still, they could still speak, but all movements were nothing but a dream. The Phantom Patrol duo knew that if they got too close to try to take their pokeballs so soon, they would wake up. They had to be put into a deep sleep, but for that their minds had to fall victim to the nightmare.

Giovanni woke up as well, finding that there was no fire, or Ninetails, but there were the two ghost pokemon. He wondered how Delia saw through the illusions with such certainty. Was it because she truly believed so strongly that they were a force of good destined to win? He would have to ask her about it later, for the time being, he focused on finishing the battle. "You'll regret challenging Team Rocket!"

"So this is it," the woman, who was also in a black cloak spoke with her face shrouded in shadows, "I know we can't defeat you."

"Big sis, you're not giving up, are you?" The boy complained.

"It's pointless, I've seen them battle before and I've seen all those who resisted the rule of Team Rocket fall. However," she dropped two empty pokeballs on the floor and stomped hard on each one, smashing them to pieces under her black boot. "You will not take my pokemon, Gastly, Gengar, as my last command I order you to flee from this place, and after that I set you free!" The pair of ghost pokemon flew away and disappeared into the night.

The last two members of the Phantom Patrol were captured that night, taken prisoner by Team Rocket and abandoned unconscious with sleep powder, tied up in front of the police station. By the time they woke up, they were already surrounded by officers. That was how Team Rocket cleaned their territory of other gangs, one after another.

xoxox xox xoxox

Delia woke again, though she found that this time it was morning. She had quite a night full of dreams, remembering good times. She couldn't believe that she had worried that those good times would end. It was a peaceful morning and though she knew that day she and Giovanni would return to Viridian City and get back to work, her holiday in Cinnabar Island was something Delia would forever treasure.

She got ready for a day that promised to be good, finding that the room's closet was well equipped despite the fact that she didn't have time to pack anything, as the Cinnabar Island holiday came as a surprise. The day started well, the weather was ideal, breakfast was delicious and Delia was happily enjoying her last few moments in Cinnabar Island, they would depart for Viridian City in an hour.

Delia had been telling Giovanni about how much she enjoyed their holiday, cheerfully describing the feeling of excitement being surrounded by fire on the stage. They had been caught up in the celebrations the previous night and didn't really have time to talk. Then suddenly, the peace of the early day was interrupted by a loud explosion.

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Pokemon. A flashback inside a flashback, in the form of a dream, I hope that wasn't confusing, the story will continue normally now and as you might have guessed, there will be some action in the next chapter.