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AUTHOR'S NOTE: For those of you who don't know who Mondo is, he is a Team Rocket member who appears in the Japanese CD drama "It's a White Tomorrow." He's Jessie and James' assistant, but he does not appear on the TV show.

The Dark Side of Innocence
-PART TWO-

by: Anna Sartin
.

When Jessie had composed herself enough to calm down some, she went inside and found that James was still asleep. The first thing she did was uncap the bottle of accursed pills and flush them down the toilet. She then got to the video phone and called Mondo.

"Is Meowth with you?" Jessie asked, when she got the young rocket on the line.

"Yeah, he's here," Mondo said. "What's going on, Miss Jessie? He says James tried to kill him!"

"It's a long story," Jessie replied, sighing. "Please see if he'll come and talk to me. Tell him I said that what's going with James is NOT his fault."

"Whadda ya mean "not his fault?" Meowth shouted, popping up on the screen in front of Mondo. "Dat lunatic tried ta kill me!"

"Meowth, NONE of this is James fault!" Jessie told him. "It's those pills the boss gave him. They're making him violent. He's not in control of what he's doing."

"Did you say pills?" Mondo asked suddenly, pushing Meowth out of the way.

"That's right, Giovanni tried to use James for a damned test-subject! He could have killed him!"

Mondo suddenly looked like he was going to be sick. He left the screen for a moment and came back holding a familiar-looking bottle of pills.

"The boss gave me these this morning," he said, holding the bottle up to the screen.

Jessie turned white.

"Mondo, did you take any of those?"

"No, the boss said to take the first one before I went to bed tonight."

"Don't! Get rid of them!" Jessie shouted, and then quickly lowered her voice, remembering that she didn't want to wake James.

Meowth took the bottle from Mondo and read the label. "What is dis stuff?" he asked.

Jessie recounted her conversation with Lana to them.

"Miss Jessie, what should we do?" Mondo asked when she had finished, close to tears himself.

"We'll come ova 'dare, okay Jess?" Meowth said.

"All right," Jessie agreed. "But not for a while, okay? James needs to rest and it'd probably be better if you two weren't here in case he becomes violent again."

"Jessie, ya shouldn't be alone 'dare if he does!" Meowth said.

"I'll be fine," Jessie said. "Why don't you come later tonight? Then we can figure out what to do."

"All right, Miss Jessie," Mondo agreed reluctantly. He stared at the floor, not wanting Jessie to see the worried expression on his face. He had always liked her, calling her "Miss Jessie" from the first day they met. While he knew she and James would probably get together eventually, that certainly didn't stop him from developing a huge crush on her. His mind wandered as he remembered a not-so-long ago time...

"Take care, Mondo!" Jessie had said, blowing him a kiss and she turned to leave with James.

"WOW!" Mondo sighed, holding his hand to his cheek. "Miss Jessie blew me a kiss, and I've received it!"

He knew Jessie only thought of him in a little brother sort of way, but the truth was he cared about her; and if James did something to hurt her Mondo knew he would never forgive him.

"And could you bring some food?" Jessie was saying, causing Mondo to snap back into reality.

"Huh?"

"I could sure use one of your "Rocket-Lunches" right about now," she said, smiling faintly. "James needs to eat, and the last time I tried to cook something we had to put out a fire!"

"I'll cook enough for all of us before we come over, okay, Miss Jessie?"

"Sure," Jessie said tiredly, and hung up. She expected James to still be asleep when she turned around, but he was not. He was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling as he cried softly.

"I'm going crazy," he told her, when she came to his side. "I have to be... I think I'm going to die."

That was too much for Jessie. She sat down on his bed and took his face in her hands, forcing him to look at her. "No, James! I want you to look at me! You're NOT crazy and you are NOT dying! What's happening to you is not your fault!"

"It's like there's someone else inside of me," he said, miserably. "Someone inside me that I can't control... Someone that tries to make me do bad things..." He looked away from her as tears streamed down his eyes.

"James, LISTEN to me! The pills that Giovanni gave you are doing this to you! Nothing that you've done is your fault, do you hear me? None of it!"

"Pills?" he asked inattentively, as though he weren't fully comprehending her. "The boss' pills?"

"That's right," Jessie explained patiently. "They're making you act violent. He used you for some kind of experiment, and he tried to use Mondo, too."

Despite how hard he tried to focus on what Jessie was saying, James couldn't seem to understand her. Jessie's voice swirled through his head, but he could only pick up a few words here and there. The harder he tried to concentrate, the more difficult it became. His drugged mind was becoming increasingly muddled and confused, and he sobbed in frustration. "I don't understand," he said, wretchedly.

Jessie finally realized that there was no use trying to explain things in James' current state. He simply wasn't able to focus enough to understand her. "Just go to sleep for now," she said softly, running her fingers through his hair.

Frustrated and confused, James began to cry harder. Although Lana had advised Jessie to use the tranquilizers to keep James sedated until the drug was out of his system, Jessie was bound determined not to use them unless she had no other choice. She was going to try to calm and soothe him herself first.

She helped him to sit up and removed his jacket. James stopped crying and looked at her questioningly with his big, tear-filled green eyes.

"Shhh... it's all right," Jessie whispered soothingly, as she pulled his black shirt over his head. She then helped him to lay face-down on the pillow and started to massage his back. "Relax," she said softly. "Just go to sleep now."

Jessie's hands knew their work. James' entire body melted to her touch, and he murmured her name thickly as sleep began to overtake him.

"Jessie..."

The name was a sighed caress. At that moment every fiber of his being wanted to declare his love for her, to tell her that she completed him, made his life worth living. But sleep took hold of him first. For the first time in what seemed like forever, his dreams were pleasant...

.

He was lying in a field, and it seemed like he was surrounded by Jessie's voice. She was singing a soothing melody, but if her song had any words James could not make them out.

Had he been awake, James would have realized that Jessie was singing to him softly as she rubbed his back and shoulders. But lost in his dream, it seemed as though her voice was surrounding him, protecting him from drug-induced nightmares and providing him with a much-needed sense of inner peace. The events of the past three days were completely forgotten as he lay in the serene comfort of his dream. Only this moment existed for him now, as if the oceans of time had swept the past and everything else into nonexistence.

"I love you so much, Jessie," his dream-self said. "I wish you were here..."

"I'm right here, James," Jessie's voice said, from behind him.

James sat up and turned around. He realized that he had been lying with his head in her lap the whole time and not known it. Jessie opened her arms to him and he gladly fell into her embrace.

"I love you so much, Jessie," he said again. "Forever..."

.

There was a knock at the door. Jessie stopped singing and got up to answer it. She didn't hear James whimper slightly in his sleep as she left.

.

Jessie's singing had stopped. The meadow James had been laying in had changed into a barren landscape, gray and desolate. The wind howled in the distance and an ominous feeling chilled his heart, as though the shadow of Death loomed overhead. Jessie had disappeared, and James was laying alone on the cold ground. He got to his feet and began to franticly call for her.

"Jessie, where are you?" he cried.

A moment ago, he had felt completely bathed in her presence, nurtured like a flower in the sunlight as she shielded and protected him in her loving embrace. But now she was simply gone, and he felt exposed and vulnerable.

He called out again.

"Jessie!"

His voice echoed in the distance, but there was no answer to it. James fell to his knees and began to cry.

"Jessie, please..."

Suddenly he heard the crack of a whip.

"Did you miss me, James dear?" a woman's voice with a thick, southern accent said from behind him.

James spun around, his heart racing with fear.

"Jessiebelle!"

. . .

"You're early," Jessie said, letting Meowth and Mondo in the door. They were each carrying a tray of food.

"We know, but we were worried about you, Miss Jessie," said Mondo. "How's James?"

"He's been asleep for a while," Jessie said, taking the tray Meowth was holding and going into the kitchen. "I don't want to wake him up, but I guess maybe I should so he can eat."

Mondo set the tray he was holding down on the table, and Jessie did the same. Each serving tray had two smaller square trays of food on it, what Mondo called "Rocket-lunches." Jessie took them off one by one and set them down on the table.

"What are we going to do, Miss Jessie?" Mondo asked, taking the now empty serving trays and setting them over on the kitchen counter.

"I... I don't know," Jessie said, trying to hold back her tears as she stared into the next room, where her drugged partner was sleeping fitfully in his bed. "I don't know anything right now, Mondo... except that I want him to get better."

Mondo came over to her, and noticed that she was crying softly.

"Please don't cry, Miss Jessie..." he pleaded, hugging her from behind. It scared him when she cried, maybe because she didn't do it in front of him often. Jessie crying openly was obviously serious, and was enough to make Mondo start crying himself.

Meowth stared at both of them from the kitchen table. Something was going to have to be done about the whole situation, and neither of his two sobbing human companions seemed to be in a state to do much of anything. He stared at his food. Something had to be done about Giovanni... but what? From what he understood, James was going to be very sick, so he wouldn't be any help. Jessie certainly wasn't going to leave him, which left Meowth with just Mondo to work with. None of them were going to be able to stay here much longer, but where could they go?

"I'm sure James will be all right," Mondo was saying, desperately trying to reassure Jessie.

Meowth watched the scene without comment.

Mondo was a good kid; he was sensitive, innocent, and fiercely loyal to his companions. Mondo's pleading finally reached Jessie, and he convinced her to awaken James to eat lunch with them. Jessie dried her tears and entered the bedroom, with Meowth and Mondo following silently behind. Neither the two humans nor their Pokémon companion knew the terrible mistake they were making...

.

"Jessiebelle, what are you doing here?" James asked, backing away from her.

"Why, my dear James, haven't you missed me?" she asked, mockingly.

"Where's Jessie?" James asked fearfully, beginning to cry. "I want Jessie!"

"Now don't whine like that, James dear. It isn't proper," Jessiebelle said reproachfully.

"Where is she?" he asked again, trying to back further away.

"It'll be just you and me from now on," Jessiebelle said, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling his face closer to hers.

"What did you do to her?" James shouted, trying to push Jessiebelle away from him. "What did you do to Jessie?"

"Oh, she won't be bothering us anymore, James dear," Jessiebelle said, playfully putting her whip around James' shoulders. "We'll have each other all to ourselves."

"No, leave me alone!" James shouted, trying to pull away. Jessiebelle tightened her grip and pulled him closer.

"Now James, what could you possibly see in that little tramp? She's aggressive... controlling... I could give you that!"

"Don't call Jessie a tramp!"

"Well, it's the truth now, isn't it?" Jessiebelle said, pulling away slightly. "She's completely unrefined, not to mention as poor as a church mouse. How could you possibly prefer her over me? She's nothing but worthless street trash!"

The words "street trash" hit James hard, causing a surge of anger to burst forth and overtake his system.

"Bring her back!" he shouted, grabbing her neck with both hands.

"You'll never see her again, James dear," Jessiebelle said snidely. "You're all mine now..."

"I'll kill you, Jessiebelle!" he screamed, beginning to throttle her...

.

"I'LL KILL YOU, JESSIEBELLE!"

"James, please..." Jessie gagged, trying to loosen James' hands from her throat, "I'm not Jessiebelle!"

James opened his eyes and glared at Jessie with pure hatred. In his half-sleep and drugged frenzy he was not seeing the face of his loved one, but the face of his enemy. He tightened his grip.

"James, let go..." Jessie pleaded, choking and gasping for breath.

When neither Jessie nor Mondo could make James release her, Meowth sprang into action. James suddenly felt something sharp scratch his face. He released "Jessiebelle" and grabbed at the thing that had scratched him. Poor Meowth wasn't fast enough. James' hands shot out and grabbed him, shaking him like a rag doll.

"Let him go!" Mondo cried, grabbing Meowth and pulling him in the opposite direction.

"Stop pullin' Meooooowth!" the cat-Pokémon screamed, feeling quite certain that he was going to be ripped in half if their game of tug-o-war didn't stop.

Jessie wasted no time. Still coughing, she reached for the paper bag on the nightstand and prepared a tranquilizer. She didn't want to use them at all, but it looked like she didn't have much of a choice.

"I'm so sorry, James," she said, as she injected him with the fluid.

James felt a cold sting in him arm and sleep began to overtake him, and he knew nothing more.

. . . . . .

The rest of the afternoon was spent in silence. Meowth and Mondo picked miserably at their food, and Jessie didn't touch hers at all. She finally got up and put both her plate and the one for James in the refrigerator, leaving the other two to pick at their food.

She entered the bedroom and picked up her hand mirror, inspecting her sore neck. Her fingers trailed the red finger prints on her neck and shoulders. Not as bad as she thought it would be, but the front of her neck had two large bruises, where James' thumbs had dug into her. She set the mirror down and turned to James. He was laying so still in his drugged sleep that he seemed almost dead. The idea made Jessie's heart leap to her throat and she ran to his side, sighing with relief when she saw that he was still breathing. She pulled a footstool over to the side of James' bed and sat there awhile, watching him sleep. She barely noticed that she had taken his hand in her own, and was kissing it tenderly.

"Please don't die, James," she heard herself tearfully begging her unconscious partner. "I need you so much... We've been through so much together. I don't know where I would be if you hadn't come into my life... or if I lost you..."

Meowth watched silently from the doorway, as Jessie laid her head down on the side of James' bed and began to cry miserably.

"I'm so sorry, James..." she said, choking on her tears. "I'm so sorry for not being able to protect you..."

Meowth closed the door all but a crack, and went to confer with Mondo.

"What can we do?" Mondo asked a few minutes later, when they had cleaned up the kitchen and sat down to talk. "We can't leave them here!"

"We gotta find a safe place for them," Meowth argued, "An' dat means dey gotta stay here 'til we do!"

"What about taking them to one of their cabins in the woods?" asked Mondo.

"No, da boss knows where all or most of 'em are," Meowth replied.

Mondo though for a moment, then asked, "What about the Orange Islands?"

Meowth thought about that.

"Dat's a good idea..." he responded. "But where?"

"We can go look for a deserted island or something, then come back for them, but what can we do with them in the meantime?" asked Mondo.

Meowth smiled, wondering why his oh-so-simple solution didn't seem to appeal to Mondo. Or maybe the simple brilliance of his plan was beyond the mental scope of mere humans. He laughed at that thought, while Mondo looked on confused.

"Like I said, leave 'em here," Meowth said again.

"But..."

"If we take the Meowth balloon, the boss'll t'ink dat Jessie an' James are workin'..." Meowth explained, waiting for Mondo to catch on.

"And nobody will bother them because everyone will think they're gone!" finished Mondo excitedly.

"Dat's right!" said Meowth, quite pleased with himself.

"But after we get them to somewhere safe, then what? What'll we do then?"

The expression on Meowth's face darkened, but changed when he noticed Mondo looking innocently at him. He turned away, avoiding Mondo's gaze. He knew what the next step was, but could he trust Mondo to do what needed to be done? He glanced back at Mondo. The kid adored him, and he was rather fond of Mondo himself. Besides giving the greatest massages, Mondo was respectful, loyal, and had an air of innocence about him that even his Team Rocket costume could not diminish. He smiled, remembering how the young Rocket often said,

'Remember, I'm YOUR Mondo!'

He didn't want to destroy the boy's innocence; he hated Giovanni for trying to take that very thing from James. He wondered if he could carry out his plan himself, and not bring Mondo into it at all.

"What are you planning?" Mondo asked, worriedly.

Meowth stared at the bottle of pills Mondo had set on the table.

"Revenge..."

. . . . . .

It was several hours before James awakened. Jessie had cried herself to exhaustion. She was laying with her head against her sleeping partner tiredly when she felt him finally begin to stir.

"Jessie?"

"I'm right here, James."

James opened his eyes.

"Where... what's happened?" he asked.

"Shhh... nevermind that now," Jessie said, hoping to avoid the question. "Are you hungry?"

James stared at her. Or to be more precise, he stared at the bruises on her throat.

"Jessie, what happened to you?" he asked, horrified.

Jessie looked away, not sure what to tell him.

Her lack of response frightened James. He felt a lump rise in his throat and sick feeling sink to the pit of his stomach.

"Jessie, did... did I do... this?"

His fingers trailed the fingerprints on her neck, just as hers had done a few hours earlier. They stopped at the two large bruises on the front of her neck. He looked into her eyes, and his own eyes began to fill with tears.

"Jessie, please..." he begged. "Tell me I didn't do this to you..."

"It... it wasn't your fault," Jessie said, her voice breaking as James gently wiped the tears from her eyes. "None of this is your fault, James..."

James began to cry. Not remembering the first thing about how Jessie had gotten hurt, he could only speculate what had happened. Had he gotten angry with her, tried to beat her? Kill her?

Suddenly his heart nearly stopped.

Or had he tried to rape her?

The memory of his horrific nightmare flashed through his mind. Had he dreamed of raping her again? Is what had happened? Had he attacked her in his sleep, and tried to...

No! his mind screamed. I'd never do that to Jessie, I wouldn't!

"Jessie, tell me what happened!" he begged her. "Tell me what I did to you!"

Sensing his intense distress, Jessie quickly wrapped her arms around him and held him to her.

"Shhhh, it's all right," she said. "You were just having a bad dream... you weren't really awake and you thought I was Jessiebelle."

"I'm so sorry!" James said, crying hysterically. "I love you so much, Jessie! I'd rather die than hurt you!"

Jessie sat there, frozen in disbelief as James continued to cry in her arms. He had finally said it... He had finally said that he loved her.

She suddenly realized that what should have just been the happiest moment of her life had been ruined by Giovanni. Instead of basking in the joy of James' declaration, she was only brought to tears, realizing that if his system could not fight the drug in his veins she could lose him forever.

"Damn you, Giovanni!" she cursed, holding him tighter and beginning to cry. "Damn you straight to hell!"

It was a long time before James stopped crying, but after a while his tears finally abated. Lying silently in the warm comfort of Jessie's arms, the only solid thought that ran through his mind was the fear that if he broke the peaceful silence between them, she would let go. The last thing he wanted was for her to let go.

He wasn't sure how long he had cried. Jessie had cried with him part of the time, he remembered that. His crying had quieted down after a while until it had stopped completely, leaving a warm, comfortable silence between them that gave him a serene feeling of completeness as she held him to her. And in the midst of his inner turmoil, the last thing he wanted was for her to let go and the feeling to stop.

After a while, it was she who broke the silence, asking him if he wanted something to eat. James sighed and held onto her tighter, glad to find that his serene contentment was in fact not in the least disturbed by Jessie's breaking their silence. In fact, the sound of her voice only intensified the feeling; letting him forget, if only briefly, the grief in his heart and mind. He could not remember why he had been crying, or why Jessie was holding him in her arms. He only knew that he needed her, that he didn't want her to let go. He started to sink back into sleep, subconsciously looking for a way, any way, to forget the pain inside him.

I can't bear it... his subconscious mind seemed to be telling the rest of his body. I just want to forget... forget... forget...

He had also forgotten that Jessie had asked him a question.

"James, did you hear me?" Jessie asked again.

"Hmmm?" he asked, sleepily.

"Are you hungry?"

"A little..." he replied.

"Do you want me to bring you something to eat?"

"No... Please don't let go of me, Jessie... please..."

Jessie kissed his head. "I won't let go," she whispered.

He clung to her tighter, putting his arm up around her neck to pull himself closer. A small gasp of pain escaped her throat, jolting him back into reality and forever breaking the serene, semiconscious forgetfulness that had alleviated his pain.

He looked up and saw that he had grabbed her bruised throat, causing her to react in pain. This completely re-jolted his memory. That's why he had been crying! He was crying because he had hurt her!

As reality re-dawned on him, he began to cry again, this time hysterically; his mind unable to cope with all the horrifying images flashing though his mind at once. Whipping his parents, raping Jessie, choking Meowth, strangling Jessiebelle... or was it Jessie? He could no longer tell which scenes were real, and which were merely nightmares his tormented mind had fabricated. He only knew that they had to stop, they were driving him crazy. He felt himself being pulled closer and closer to what he feared was complete and utter insanity.

"James? James!"

Jessie's voice shocked him back into reality, causing the images in his head to disappear like a popped bubble. She pulled him back into her embrace and let him settle back into her arms. James took a deep breath, trying to steady his nerves as she rubbed his back and held him to her. "What's happening to me, Jessie? What's wrong with me?"

"Do you remember those pills Giovanni gave you?" she asked. When James nodded, she continued, "They're what's doing this to you. They make the person who uses them violent. Giovanni used you for some kind of sick experiment."

"Experiment?"

"Yeah, and he tried to use Mondo too. I talked to one of the scientists down in the labs, and she said that the drug you were taking was being tested on Pokémon, not human beings. Giovanni used you for a guinea pig."

"Why would he do this to me?" James whimpered, trembling as he clutched her tightly.

"I don't know, James. I just don't know..."

"What's going to happen to me?" he asked, his voice sick with fear.

"Lana says you're going to be very sick."

"Am I going to... die?"

"No!" Jessie said fiercely, forcing him to look at her. "You are NOT going to die, James! I won't let you!"

"Maybe... I deserve to die..."

"James, what are you talking about?" Jessie cried angrily. "You don't deserve to die! Giovanni deserves to die! I hope he DOES die for doing this to you! I'd kill him myself for what he's done!"

"You really care... so much?" James asked, looking into her eyes.

"Of course I care!" Jessie said, beginning to cry again as she wrapped her arms around him again tightly. "I'll never let anyone hurt you like this again, James, I swear it!"

James burst into tears. She was crying for him. Jessie was crying for him... despite all the pain he had caused her, and unaware of the pain he could have caused her; she was crying as though her heart would break. She held him to her, crying for his misery and suffering, completely unaware of the horrific dream that replayed its self over and over again in his mind. Grabbing the knife... knocking her to the floor... tearing away her clothes... Jessie's sobs pierced his heart. He didn't deserve her tears! "This isn't your fault..." she had told him earlier. Not his fault? Pills or no pills, how could he not feel responsible for wanting to rape his best friend? How could he NOT be blamed for wanting to... No, TRYING to violate the woman he loved?

Jessie forced herself to stop crying. "We're going to get through this," she said, holding his chin in one hand and brushing his hair out of his eyes with the other. "We'll get through this together, all right? You and me..." She got to her feet.

"Where are you going?" James asked.

"To bring you some food," she said, hurrying out of the room. "You really need to eat."

James stared after her, slightly confused by her sudden departure.

. . . . . .

When she got into the next room, Jessie forcefully commanded herself to stop crying.

"Stop it!" she hissed at herself, actually stamping her foot as she wiped away her tears. "You've got to be strong for him, so stop crying!"

"What's wrong, Miss Jessie?" asked Mondo, coming to her side.

"James is awake," Jessie said, swallowing hard and taking a deep breath. "I told him... about the pills."

"Was he able to understand you?" asked Mondo.

"Yes, I think so," said Jessie, going to the refrigerator to retrieve the two plates that she had put in earlier for her and James. "He seems to be able to focus at least. I guess that's because most of the drug would be out of his system by now."

"What about the withdrawal Lana said he was going to go through?" Mondo asked.

"I don't know... Maybe it's too early... I didn't know that you knew Lana..."

Mondo nodded. "I know practically everyone at Team Rocket HQ. I didn't know that you knew her."

"Well, anyway, I want to get James to eat something. He's got to be hungry, he hasn't eaten anything all day."

Mondo watched from the doorway as Jessie took the two plates on one of the serving-trays into the bedroom. Meowth joined him and they watched as Jessie and James ate together.

"We've got to do everything we can to protect them," Mondo said, watching as Jessie took turns feeding both herself and James with the fork she was holding.

"Yeah," Meowth agreed, continuing to watch his two friends thoughtfully, "We do."

.

-CONTINUED IN PART THREE-