Chapter Text
When Ash was able to focus again after a blinding flash of light spilled from the well, the first thing he noticed was that they were no longer in that outcropping. Second was that they were no longer on the edge of a cemetery. In fact, it seemed they were back to where they had started- in the woods near Cerulean.
Then he noticed that Jessie, James, and Meowth were gone. Jessie wasn’t lying there, dead. James wasn’t a broken, shaking human, and Meowth wasn’t frozen, watching the death of his family.
With hesitancy in his movements, his eyes went to Pikachu on his shoulder, and then to Brock and Max and May, “Guys…”
“What happened?” May verbalized the question they all held. With caution she followed the distant sound of city, moving through the last of the trees. Her words confirmed his thoughts, “We’re… we’re back in Cerulean.”
Their breaths were held as they began to walk towards the city where they had hoped to meet Misty over a week ago. There was a suspense in their breaths, not wanting to get excited to only find that things had been made worse again.
“You may have bested us last time!” It was haughty, familiar, and determined. Alive.
“But we’ve found you again and this time we came extra prepared!” Full of confidence, flare, and pride.
“It was a good try at hide-n-seek but youse twerps ain’t gonna get away with Pikachu today!” The human language was as impeccable as it had been before.
It was a scene Ash had witnessed dozens of times before. The three of them standing in a unified strength, typical Team Rocket uniforms on their bodies, Meowth healthy and whole.
James wore not a hint of that beaten down passiveness that came as a result of his fiancée.
Most importantly, Jessie was full of life. No trace of death on her preened skin.
“Don’t even try- Ah- James?” Jessie took a step back, “Did we do anything to make the twerp cry yet? I didn’t think we did… maybe later but….”
“Um, I don’t think so- unless we’ve started to scare them even more than before!”
“And things just got more awkward, twoip, what are you doin? Ya hit your head or something?”
Before they could react, Ash had his arms around both of their waists, clinging onto them tight. Pikachu seemed less enthused than his trainer- staying behind near their travel companions- but still relieved enough to see Meowth back to normal.
“We’re just glad to see you, that’s all,” Brock offered, though he was well aware the words would do little to explain the situation, only creating new questions.
“We were really worried,” Max aided the confusion with a smile, also knowing very well what he was doing. Or, not doing.
Jessie, James, and Meowth all exchanged a look, Jessie and James’ arms up and away from Ash’s body, both quite unsure of the proper response to this situation, “I feel we’re missing something,” Jessie’s words came slow towards his companions who could only nod in agreement.
“You’re alive, James isn’t married, and Meowth is well… Meowth,” May was breathing easier than she had in awhile, fighting the urge herself to latch onto the two of them. She was able to catch James’ eyes. They were so bright. So alive. Confused as heck, but sparkling.
The explanation offered to the Trio before them, reluctantly released by the boy they had attempted theft from too many times to be an accident, seemed to ring a bell in their minds.
“Jessie,” James began, “those nightmares we all had this past week… the weird ones?”
“Sound an awful lot like dis.”
“So does that mean it wasn’t the 3am pizza?”
“No, Jess, I think part of it still was. And the issue with that wasn’t the pizza at 3am; it was the fact that it was abandoned pizza at 3am that you found. ”
“Still tasted good,” she shrugged, failing to see the argument, “Beggars can’t be choosers and all.”
“I mean, we still have standards, Jess.”
“Give it time.”
A twerpish laugh caught their attention, pulling them from their inner-group discussion to the boy in front of them. The twerp had yet to dry his eyes completely, still just way too excited to see any of them, “I’m so glad you’re back….” He was saying, his words breaking, “I was so… scared I’d- I’d-” his eyes went to Jessie, and she could feel something strange inside her gut. He was trying to hold himself together. She was stuck with what to do. A side-glance told her James and Meowth had little idea either as they seemed to be merely watching the display.
The twerp wasn’t done with his attempt at speech, “Jessie, I- when you- when you were- I really thought I’d- it was my fault you- you were-”
The sentence couldn’t be finished. For Brock and May and Max and Pikachu, it didn’t need to be. Brock’s hand went to his friend’s shoulder, hoping to provide forgiving comfort.
As for the trio of pokémon thieves with bruised hearts, the words and actions from the young boy triggered a rare moment they could only describe as being touched.
“Hey, twerp, don’t sweat it,” Jessie surprised herself with her attempts at easing the wild emotions of an adolescent, “It’s over and done with. Crying won’t change what happened and it’s not going to change anything from here on out, so c’mon, blast us off and get on with your little twerpish journey.”
Ash turned towards Pikachu, trying to open his mouth to issue a command but no voice came out. Instead, he returned to the three enemies and words spilled, fueled by stress-caused exhaustion, “I don’t… I don’t want to,” he was struggling, “I don’t want to.”
Jessie’s normal harsh glare softened further, “Go on your twerpish journey or blast us off?”
Ash could tell the look on his face answered for him.
“Then do you wanna call a truce for today?” James followed Jessie’s lead as per usual, his own face softening. Perhaps it was the touching, tender moment getting to the so-called cold-hearts of the criminals. But… they had never seen the boy this… well, this emotional. And over them? Well, care wasn’t something any of them were used to. In response to the truce, Ash allowed a nod.
“Fine by me,” Jessie’s shrug was an attempt at disguising how much the twerp’s emotions were actually getting to her, “James, Meowth, let’s go get pizza. Talking about it made me crave it.”
“Really Jess? You still want pizza?” James wasn’t really surprised despite the rise in pitch.
“Hey, don’t let the nightmares win, y’know? It’ll be fresh this time and likely not laced with whatever nightmare inducing things the last one was.”
“You mean it won’t be old pizza left outside.”
“If I wanted judgment I would have asked the Boss. Now, I have no problems using our salary to buy myself a pizza and I will have no trouble eating all of it. Do you want some pizza too or not?”
“Jessie,” she turned to the bigger of the twerps who spoke her name. And the more sensitive out of them, as she had come to know over the years. Not sensitive as in James sensitive, but hey, for his size- Brock could easily pull off being a giant asshole.
“Hm?”
“We’ll buy,” the words sparked a narrow of her brows. Even across universes, there were some things that called for suspicion, “We can even tell you what we saw. But… you may have trouble believing us.”
Her suspicion faded, she knew him too well- she doubted he’d do something sneaky or nasty, “Hey, free food is free food.”
And with that the small groups began to make their way to the smaller city, far from the city where the opposite world had thrown them into the perfect representation of Hell. There was pure relief from the younger four, as they watched the banter and ease of their usual enemies.
May noticed how easily James laughed, how tall he walked, how light he was with each step. Their lives were far from perfect here. And May would be lying if she said she was completely satisfied with how they lived. But they were together. And they had been together. And they fought but they built each other up and there was no better companion for any of them than each other.
It was right.
“I’d take this over getting that wish any day,” the words came from her own companion. The trainer had finally dried his tears, Pikachu on his shoulder once more. She tilted her head before nodding.
“Yeah. Me too.”