Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Home Is Where the R Is ❯ Mondo's Assistant ( Chapter 5 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Anna Sartin 
Mondo takes Anari with him on his errands, where she meets several interesting new people...
Anime/Manga: Pokemon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 01.17.2013 | Pages: 6 | Words: 6.9K | Visits: 517 | Status: Work In Progress
Mondo takes Anari with him on his errands, where she meets several interesting new people...
Anime/Manga: Pokemon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 01.17.2013 | Pages: 6 | Words: 6.9K | Visits: 517 | Status: Work In Progress
Author's note: This chapter takes place during "Mewtwo Strikes Back". For those who have never seen it, Giovanni and Domino attempt (and fail) to recapture Mewtwo, only to have their memories of the incident erased in the end.
Having finally managed to save her friends imprisoned at Team Rocket Headquarters, Anari finally begins to settle into her new life with her uncle Giovanni. However...
Home Is Where the R Is
Chapter Five - Mondo's Assistant
.
"I can't believe he just LEFT me here!" Anari complained to Mondo, sitting on a crate of supplies he was due to deliver. "He barely said a word to me the whole day yesterday, and then he just LEFT!"
"So where'd the boss go?" Mondo inquired.
"I don't know," Anari said. "Yesterday he sent Domino on some top secret mission, then last night he and Persian left in his helicopter." Anari recalled the obsessive determination in her uncle's eyes as he brushed past her with barely a glance to take off for parts unknown.
"The Team Rocket Combat Squad left, too," Mondo said. "Then later orders came for the rest of the air squad to follow, and bring a construction crew. Something big must be going down."
"I wonder what's going on?"
"Beats me," Mondo shrugged. "I'll be covering for my superiors today, since they've all gone." It irked him that he wasn't senior enough to go with them, but he was somehow senior enough to be stuck running the entire delivery division by himself. He had 17 requests to fill before the day was out, all of which were off-base. His Ditto had transformed into a Primape to help him load boxes, which he was stuffing into a large black bag.
"How does that all FIT in there?" Anari wanted to know.
"It's a storage system that works kind of like a pokéball," he explained. "It's the only way all this stuff will fix into the jeep."
"I'll come with you," Anari offered. She often kept him company while he filled orders, and she had no desire to wander around Team Rocket Headquarters when the place was practically empty. It had the air of a ghost town, and it gave the seven year-old the creeps. Mondo had no objection to her company- in fact, he welcomed it. Having someone to talk to always made his day go by faster, plus he could use the extra pair of hands.
"Thanks," he replied gratefully as she jumped down. He handed her a small box to carry out to the jeep. "Hold this." He grabbed the crate she'd been sitting on and Ditto helped him stuff it into the bag. "Thanks, Ditto," he told his Pokémon appreciatively, before recalling it to its pokéball. He then picked up the sack (which appeared to be completely empty) and motioned for Anari to follow him outside. "Come on. I'm sure everyone will be back before long."
.
Mondo's first stop was to purchase a random newspaper from a vending machine.
"Hold that," he told Anari, handing it to her. "We'll need it in a moment."
Anari was more interested in the box on her lap. It contained several small square devices. She held one up to examine it more closely. "What are these things?" she asked.
"Messages," Mondo explained. "Each has a recording on it for a specific agent or team of agents working off-base. I deliver them to an undercover operative and she hands them out to Rockets who come in for their assignments. Be careful with them; they self-destruct after one use."
"They don't blow up, do they?" Anari asked, returning the one she was holding to the box gingerly.
"No, they dissolve."
"How can you tell them apart?" she inquired. "They all look the same."
"Beats me. I just deliver them. There!" He pointed to the building they were approaching.
"A hamburger restaurant?" the child asked, confused. "We just ate a little while ago."
"You'll see." Mondo pulled into the parking lot and Anari watched nervously as he rolled the devices up into the newspaper and secured it with a rubber band. "Come on!"
Anari got out of the vehicle and followed him inside.
"Welcome to the Hamburger!" the young woman behind the counter greeted them cheerfully when they walked in the door. "How may I help you?"
Mondo held up the newspaper containing the devices. "I'm delivering newspapers in the neighborhood. Here you go."
Anari watched as the woman took it from him, flashing him a secret smile. "Thank you very much, sir. Please send my regards to your employer." She handed Mondo something that might have been a coin, but he shoved it in his pocket before the Anari could get a good look at it.
"You can expect your next issue around the same time next week," Mondo told her. "Remember, I deliver at rocket speed!"
"Have a Happy Burger day!" she told them, before moving on to serve a paying customer. Mondo and Anari left.
"I've seen her before, " Anari remarked as they got back in the jeep. "She was at Domino's birthday party the other day. What did she give you?"
"A message for the boss," Mondo replied, fishing the object out of his pocket and handing it to her. Anari recognised it as one of the same message recording devices she'd watched Mondo roll into the newspaper.
"Will it explode?" Anari asked nervously.
"They don't explode, they dissolve," Mondo explained again. "Put it in the glove compartment."
Anari did so. "How many more deliveries do we have?"
"Too many," he sighed. "In Kanto and Johto. Apparently a number of agents from the Johto base were called away as well. Where's that map?" He took his eyes off the road to look for it, and nearly ran over a group of Oddish crossing the road.
"Watch out!" Anari exclaimed.
Mondo redirected his attention to the road, making a sharp turn to avoid hitting a lone Gloom. Anari's stomach lurched. He finally located his map (he'd been sitting on it the entire time) and made yet another sharp turn, this time to avoid missing the street they needed to turn onto.
"Slow down!" Anari pleaded, fighting a sudden bout of nausea. "Are you old enough to drive?" she asked doubtfully.
"Been doing it since I was thirteen," her companion replied proudly.
"But do you have a license?"
"I've got something that will pass for one if we get stopped by Officer Jenny. Got it from the same department that makes everyone's Team Rocket membership cards."
She gave him a doubtful look, and her stomach lurched again when he made a very sudden stop at a red light and she was very nearly thrown into the windshield.
"I'm getting carsick," the child whined pitifully.
"Don't worry," Mondo assured her. "We're almost there."
Anari quickly buckled her seat belt before the car started moving again, silently promising herself not to forget to do so again as long as Mondo was behind the wheel. "Don't get us killed!" she ordered, with as much sternness as a seven year-old could muster. She liked being alive, and she wanted to stay that way!
.
Over the next few hours Anari learned that Mondo wasn't always a bad driver. Despite his tender age of fifteen years he could drive just as well as any adult so long as he kept his eyes on the road and his hands on the wheel. The problem was that he had a tendency to get distracted- a lot. When that occurred, Anari genuinely feared for the safety of every living thing on the road, especially herself. He'd barely missed hitting three trees, a street sign and a fire hydrant when his (and Anari's) attention wandered to the various Pokémon they passed by. Anari had at one point offered to try driving the jeep herself, but Mondo laughed and pointed out that the seven year-old's feet wouldn't reach the pedals. He'd made a greater effort to pay attention since then, at least.
"Let's see," Anari said to herself sometime later, glad to be out of the jeep for awhile as she sat outside next to it with a pencil and a piece of paper. It was a list of people Mondo had to make deliveries to. "We did her- check, and a him- check, and Bonnie and Clyde- check, and him, and them, and them, and them, too... and we just did her. We're over half-way done!" she informed Mondo cheerfully.
Mondo was currently in the process of trying to fix a battered motorcycle. They had just finished their eighth delivery when he received orders to answer an emergency call of an agent in distress. All the repair crews who usually attended to such matters had disappeared along with practically everyone else on Giovanni's mysterious mission. The person in distress, however, was anything but grateful for the assistance.
"It's USELESS!" he roared at Mondo, as if it were Mondo's fault the motorcycle had crashed into a tree.
"Of course it is," Mondo agreed cheerfully, ignore the man's foul temper. "You wrecked it!"
The man glared at him. "Just fix it, boy. I've got an assignment to finish."
"What kind of assignment?" Anari asked, coming over to them.
"Mind your own damned business!"
Anari blinked, surprised. Her uncle's employees were generally not in the habit of swearing at her. She took a seat near Mondo and, for the moment, minded her own damned business.
"Hurry up, kid," the agent told Mondo impatiently, after a few more minutes had passed.
"I'm not sure I can," Mondo responded.
"Why the hell not?"
"The boss ordered all of Team Rocket's repair crews stationed at Headquarters to join him on a mission off base," Mondo explained. "I'm from the delivery division. I'm not sure I know how to repair it."
"I've got to get to the next city before my target, or he'll get to the cops before I can take him out!"
"Take him out where?" Anari asked.
"Hey, come help me," Mondo interrupted, before the man could answer the little girl's question. He really didn't think the boss would appreciate his niece hearing about the missions of assassins, especially considering how she'd reacted the last time he'd tried to kill someone. Niko had told several people on base the story of how the hysterical child's pleading managed to save Butch and Cassidy from emanate demise, and the story had evolved as it passed from person to person until it became known as "a legendary battle of wills" between the child and her uncle, with the seven year-old coming out on top. Mondo had a feeling the boss would not be pleased if he heard the story told that way.
"Fix it yourself, boy," the agent responded. "That's why you're here. The boss didn't hire me as a mechanic."
"I meant her," Mondo said, pointing to Anari as he attempted to do as he was told. The faster they got this man on his way the better. "Hold these," he instructed the little girl, handing her several tools. They were surprisingly heavy.
"What is this organization coming to," the aggravated assassin bemoaned, "when the most a man in my position can expect for aid is a pair of half-witted children?"
Mondo ignored the insult. He was used to being the target of verbal abuse by higher ranking agents. Anari, whose attention was still absorbed by the weight of the tools in her hands, didn't hear him. They were just so heavy. She was greatly relieved when Mondo finally took them back.
"What's your name?" Anari asked the assassin, going over to him.
"Sicarious," he responded.
"I'm Anari," she introduced herself. "Anari Gambini."
"Ah, you're Giovanni's niece."
Anari nodded. "Where are you going to take that guy when you finally catch him?"
"Generally I dump the bodies in a nearby river, but occasionally the boss orders me to bring the corpse back to prove they're really dead."
Mondo groaned, wondering how in the world he was going to repair the emotional damage done to the little girl once they sent this lunatic on his way. He also didn't want to be the one to explain to Giovanni if she went into hysterics and ran off into the blue. Fortunately for him, the child showed no signs of doing either.
"You kill people for a living?" she asked. "Like Marco and Niko?"
"Those two couldn't eliminate a cardboard box," Sicarious replied scornfully. "Unless someone put a stone in it first to weigh it down."
"Why do you say that?" Anari asked. Her uncle seemed to have full confidence in the two men's skills, and most of the agents on base were terrified of them. Niko had a few friends (Marco deemed socializing a waste of time) but in general people gave them both a wide berth, as if getting too close to the pair might prove hazardous to one's health.
"It's easy to kill people who are tied up or held at gun point," Sicarious told her. "Anyone can do that. YOU could do it. But tracking your target, ascertaining the right time and place, and disposing of the mess afterwards- that takes REAL skill. Two-bit hit men can never hold a candle to a professional assassin, girl."
"I wouldn't want a job like that," Anari remarked. Mondo agreed with her.
"Not many would," Sicarious said. "It's a grim enterprise to be sure, but profitable none the less. Nothing alters the course of mankind's future moreso than death, and men will pay a fortune to be masters of it."
"I'd say nothing destroys people's future quicker than death," Mondo responded dryly.
"Which is why they seek to master it."
"Everyone dies," Anari said, trying not to think of the people she had lost forever to the unyielding, unforgiving scythe of the Reaper. "People can't control that."
"Can't they?" Sicarious asked. "The business of death might seem like a dark and doubtful undertaking, but those with money and power have ways of overcoming the limitations of normal men. People like your uncle."
"That's enough," Mondo told him sternly. He held up a burned-out piece of machinery that Anari didn't recognize. "Several parts need replacing and I don't have them on hand. You'll have to accompany us back to HQ and wait until one of the repair crews get back."
"The hell I will! My mark will be long gone and I'm not going to take the blame for the mission failing!"
"YOU'RE the one who crashed your vehicle into a tree!" Mondo shot back, his patience thinning.
"Couldn't we just buy new motorcycle parts at the store?" Anari asked.
"Of course not!" Sicarious snapped at her. "If you were hungry, would you go into a hardware store to buy a sandwich?"
"Hardware stores don't sell sandwiches," Anari responded, confused.
"Exactly!"
Anari turned to Mondo for clarification. "All of Team Rocket's vehicles are custom made," he told her. "You can't always buy the necessary parts at a local store."
"If my target leads the feds to the secret base he discovered everyone there will be arrested!" Sicarious shouted. "I'm not taking responsibly for this!"
"I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do," Mondo said. "We'll have to contact the base and tell them to evacuate the building. If we act fast enough they might be able to get everyone out."
"And what about my money?" Sicarious demanded, furious that he'd wasted so much time and effort on a mission that he obviously wasn't going to profit from.
"There's nothing I can do," Mondo said again.
Sicarious stalked over to the motorcycle and kicked it, knocking it over. Mondo, who was on the other side, got knocked over with it.
"Ow!"
Sicarious began ranting in frustration, while Anari stared up at the sky, lost in thought. She knew her uncle committed crimes, and had even killed people. It was something she tried not to think about because when she did it always reminded her of...
Big Brother.
Were the two really so different? She wanted to say yes, but she wasn't sure if that conclusion wasn't just wishful thinking on her part. Did she have a place in such a family? She wondered if all of her relatives had been the same, or if there had ever been people on her family tree who had been more interested in making friends and having fun than accumulating wealth and power.
Will I someday turn into somebody like my uncle? she wondered. Just... evolve, like a Pokémon?
A cloud resembling an Eevee floated by peacefully and she smiled at it. The future might be uncertain, but one thing she knew for sure: Today someone somewhere had escaped being murdered and dumped in a river like all the rest of Sicarious's unfortunate victims, and whether it meant a lot of people were going to be inconvenienced by a last-minute evacuation or not, she was glad of it. Bases might expensive to rebuild, but lives were priceless.
Maybe someday I can make Uncle Giovanni understand it, too.
She could always hope.
.
"Bye! It was nice to meet you!" Anari waved cheerfully to the elderly Team Rocket recruitment scout as they drove away. "And bye to you too, Delibird!"
The petite old woman had a brand new pocket calculator in her hand and a shiny new laptop tucked under her arm. "Thanks, kids!" she called back.
"That was the final name on the list," Mondo said, crumbling up the piece of paper and tossing it over his shoulder. "Thank goodness! Supplying agents in both Kanto AND Johto is way too much work. I'll never complain about being assigned to the Kanto region ever again!"
"She sure was nice, wasn't she?" Anari remarked. "I've never seen a grown-up that short!"
"I can't believe she tried to recruit us into Team Rocket!" Mondo said. "I know I'm not her usual delivery agent, but you'd think my uniform would be a dead giveaway!"
"I like her Delibird," Anari said. "But I don't like its presents!" Her clothes were now singed from the Pokémon's exploding "gifts".
"Me neither," Mondo agreed. His uniform was in a similar condition. "It's no wonder her electronic equipment needed replaced." He tossed a blackened lump of metal that had once been a pocket calculator into the back of the jeep. "I feel sorry for the guy normally assigned to supply her. Delibird must keep him busy."
"I bet!"
"I'm just glad we're almost done," Mondo said with a relieved sigh.
"Almost done? I thought that was the last person on the list."
"That was a list of agents. My last delivery isn't connected to Team Rocket."
"Who is he?" Anari asked, puzzled.
"She," Mondo corrected her. "Every three months I deliver a pension check to a nice old lady. I've got a letter for her this time, too."
"Who is she?" Anari asked.
"Mrs. Maria Russo. She's an old friend of the boss's. I don't know how the two are connected, but he's been sending her money for years. She always gives me cookies when I bring her check to her."
"Do you think she'll let me have one?" Anari asked. She was starting to get hungry.
"I don't see why not. The boss said I was to take you with me next time I went, but he never explained why."
"I wish we knew where he'd gone," Anari said sadly. "Then we could ask him.
"Hey, cheer up," Mondo told her. "He's gotta come back eventually, right?"
Anari smiled. "Right."
.
Maria Russo lived on the border of Kanto and Johto, and Anari was absolutely charmed by her house. It was surrounded by at least half a dozen different flowers Anari had never seen before, and in the golden evening the place had an air of magic about it. It looked like a cottage out of a fairy tale.
"It's so pretty," the child remarked to no one in particular as she stared, spell-bound.
"Why thank you!" a cheery voice remarked. "Keeping a nice garden takes a lot of effort, so it's always nice to gets compliments!" The voice belonged to an old woman with a Furret on her shoulder, who'd been in the process of trimming a bush. "You're late today, Mondo," she chided gently. "I've been expecting you for hours. And your clothes are in terrible shape!"
"I had a lot of work today," he explained. "The boss has almost everybody called away on some assignment and I got left to do all the deliveries by myself."
"It took all day!" Anari agreed.
"And who are you, dear?" the old lady inquired.
"I'm Mondo's friend," Anari chirped cheerfully.
"This is Anari," Mondo explained. "The boss insisted on me bringing her next time I came, but he didn't say why. He told me to give you this."
He handed her the envelope containing her check and letter, and was invited to come inside and have a seat. So was Anari.
"Have some cookies, sweethearts, while I read my letter. I'm afraid they aren't as warm as they would have been if you've come earlier, but I daresay they're still tasty enough. Furret's been trying to steal them for hours."
Anari quickly took a cookie in each hand, and Mondo took one as well.
"This is one of my favorite assignments," he confided as Anari took a bite out of each cookie. "The boss ordered me to assist Mrs. Russo with any heavy errands or household chores she required whenever I visit, so I can stay as long as I want. I got out of having to do the monthly inventory last time I was here because she needed help fixing the roof!" Taking inventory was Mondo's least favorite chore and he took every opportunity possible to get out of it.
Maria's hands began to tremble as she read the contents of the letter she was holding. Her eyes blurred and she wiped the tears away, stealing several unnoticed glances at Anari while the child conversed with Mondo.
"We should have come here first then," Anari told him. "Then we could have gotten out of making all those deliveries!"
"But then I would have had to do them all tomorrow, on top of all tomorrow's deliveries," Mondo pointed out. "At least we got everything done."
"Mondo, look at that," Anari said, pointing to a picture hanging on the wall. It was a family portrait.
"What about it?" Mondo asked. He'd seen it many times. In fact, he was the one who'd hung it there on a previous visit when he'd helped to rearrange the furniture.
"The little girl in the picture..." Anari began, and Mondo suddenly realized why it had caught her attention. Despite a slight in difference in age and hair color, the girl in the picture could have been Anari herself.
"It's... me."
"No dear," the old woman told her as she laid down the letter. "That's me when I was a girl."
"Her hair is darker, but... she looks like me."
"Yes, she does," Maria agreed. "You look just like your grandmother."
Anari blinked. "Huh?"
"Your mother was my daughter."
"You're... Momma's momma?"
Maria nodded. "Yes, that's right."
"But Uncle Giovanni said my grandma was dead."
"He was probably talking about his own mother," Mondo told her. "Madame Boss died a few years ago."
"Come here, let me get a closer look at you," Maria said. "I haven't seen you since you were THIS small!" She pointed to a framed baby picture, which Anari (rightfully) guessed was herself as an infant. "I wasn't certain that you or your brother were still alive."
Anari looked away. "Big Brother's not. Not anymore."
"That's what your uncle says in his letter. How did he die?"
Anari clutched the cookie in her left hand so hard that it crumbled onto the carpet. "I... I don't want to talk about it." I don't want to think about it. I'm tired of thinking about it. It hurts too much.
"I understand," Maria nodded. "There came a point in my life when I took all of my photographs and packed them away. Pictures of my parents, my husband, my daughter... I couldn't bear to keep looking at them knowing I would never see the people I love again. It was too painful."
"Your pictures are out now," Anari said, pointing to a collection of framed photographs on both her in-tables. There were three baby photos, two wedding pictures (one was of her mother and father in their wedding clothes), one of a little girl holding an Ekans that she strongly suspected was her mother as a child, and some old black and white pictures of people Anari didn't know.
"Yes," Maria agreed. "I knew I was ready to take them out when the thought of seeing everyone's faces made me want to smile instead of cry."
"That's Momma and Daddy when they got married, isn't it?" Anari asked, pointing to the wedding picture.
Maria nodded, picking up it up. "Yes... I still wonder where they are sometimes," she confessed to her granddaughter, handing her the picture so she could examine it more closely. "Especially late at night. If they were ever found... given a decent burial... Maybe it's better not to know."
Anari nodded, debating whether or not she should tell the kindly old lady in front of her how her grandson had forced her daughter and son-in-law out of a moving plane to plummet goodness only knew how many hundreds of feet into the waiting sea. She decided not to. Part of her wished she had never learned the truth about what had happened, and she didn't want to make anyone else as sad as she felt. Perhaps her grandmother was right: Maybe it was better not to know.
"I don't have many pictures of my family," Anari said, handing the photo back to her. Maria placed it back on the in-table. "But looking at them makes me sad."
Maria nodded understandingly. "Well then, I have an idea."
"What is it?" Anari asked.
Maria opened the drawer of the in-table and pulled out a camera. "Why don't we take some pictures that will make us smile instead?"
The next hour or two proved to be the happiest Anari had experienced in a long time. The three each took turns using Maria's old-fashioned Polaroid, and Anari soon had a pile of photos to take home. She had photos of herself with her grandmother, and with Mondo and even one (that she'd taken herself and was quite proud of) of Maria with Furret posing on her shoulder. Maria also had a collection of new photographs, and there was one of herself with Anari and Furret that Mondo had taken of them now sitting framed on an in-table with all the rest of her treasured memories.
The plate of cookies was soon empty, so Maria took the youngsters out back to help her milk her Miltank. Anari had never seen that particular Pokémon before, and was amazed when like magic there were soon three tall glasses of fresh milk for them to drink. They went back in the house and Maria produced a tin of scones for them to polish off next. It wasn't quite as filling as a proper supper, but Anari hadn't enjoyed a meal so much in a long time. She'd also developed a new appreciation for milk, which up until that point she had thought of as a bland excuse for a drink.
They talked about a variety of things- Anari's favorite colors, what Pokémon she'd like to train one day, and which subjects she liked and disliked now that her uncle had her taking lessons. Maria in turn told her all about her interest in flowers (something Anari also loved, although she could name very few), different Pokémon she had trained throughout the years, and how she and Furret met one day when the Pokémon crawled in her open window taking shelter from the rain.
"And ate an entire basket of muffins I'd just baked for my new neighbor!" she added, with feigned annoyance. Anari and Mondo laughed.
After a while, the subject drifted to Lilas, Anari's mother. Apparently, as a girl of seventeen, she had randomly come home one night with Anari's father Giuseppe, declaring that they were going to get married.
"SHE proposed to HIM, apparently," Maria laughed. "She always was a headstrong girl. We had some misgivings at first, her father and I, due to the strange rumors floating around about the boy's family being involved in criminal activity. The fact that the two brothers were in some sort of gang didn't help."
Anari and Mondo exchanged glances. Maria was obviously not aware of the inner workings of Team Rocket.
"Their mother owned a big corporation that made rockets or something, and after your parents vanished she sent one of her employees here with a letter telling me that I would be receiving a pension four times a year in compensation for the loss of my daughter and grandchildren. My husband had died not long before then, and she knew I had no other relatives to support me. I suppose she felt sorry for me, being a mother and grandmother herself. When her eldest son inherited the business he continued to honor her arrangement, and I'm forever grateful for his thoughtfulness and generosity."
Mondo asked Maria to pass the tin of scones his way and she complied, before continuing her praise of Giovanni.
"Not everyone would remember an old widow," Maria told the children. "Particularly when they have no blood ties or legal obligation. I've only seen Giovanni a few times, but like his mother he's seen to it that I don't want for anything. One of his employees shows up every three months like clockwork to see that all my needs are being met, and when I wrote him telling him how helpful Mondo was and how much I enjoyed his company, he's sent Mondo to me ever since. What a good man he is!"
Anari raised an eyebrow. A good man? Was her grandmother talking about the same man who ordered Sicarious to kill people and dump their bodies in a river? The same man who'd employed Marco and Niko to make people who displeased him "disappear"?
Mondo remarked that the boss had been very good to him as well, particularly after the death of his father.
Anari considered this. There was far more to her uncle then his faults, she knew that, but his faults were just so... extreme. Nevertheless, he was also the man who tucked her into bed at night, wishing her pleasant dreams. He was the same man who'd taken her in and given her a home, and given a home and jobs to her brother's former employees upon her request. He was the trainer Persian loved dearly, and the boss everyone at Team Rocket admired and respected. And now she'd learned he was her grandmother's benefactor.
Is he good or bad? Anari wondered. Good men didn't have people killed. Bad men didn't care for elderly widows and orphaned children. Yet her uncle did both. Can he be good AND bad? she thought, wondering if such a thing were even possible. She just didn't know.
.
On the way back home, clutching the thank-you letter her grandmother had written for her uncle, Anari discussed her thoughts with Mondo.
"I guess it depends on your perspective," Mondo told her. She had no idea what perspective was, and she didn't ask. Mondo continued. "He's good to those he feels deserve his loyalty, but he makes a bad enemy to anyone who threatens him or anything he values. Dad once told me the boss was fiercely protective, and that it never paid to get on his bad side."
"Protecting the people you love is good," Anari said. "But hurting people is bad."
"Sometimes you can't protect people without hurting someone else," Mondo responded. "When I was little I nearly got trampled by a herd of Tauros. My father sent out his Charizard to force the herd away, but the Tauros panicked and didn't go in the direction Charizard intended them to. They ran straight over a cliff and died. All except one."
"What happened to that one?" Anari asked, sad to think of an entire herd of Pokémon jumping to their deaths. The sole survivor must have been lonely.
Mondo pointed to one of the pokéballs clipped to his belt. "I've still got it."
They were both silent for a moment, and Anari considered how that poor Tauros must have felt after the loss of its family. Like I did, she suspected. After Big brother died.
Finally Mondo spoke again. "If those Tauros hadn't been scared away from me, I would have been trampled to death. I was horrified when they died and it still makes me sad, but I'm glad to be alive. I don't blame Charizard for what happened... or Dad. And I don't blame the boss for doing whatever he has to do to protect Team Rocket. If our enemies or the people on the outside were able to, they'd trample us."
.
It was well after dark when they returned, and Giovanni still had not come back. Mondo offered to let Anari sleep in his room for the night (he'd found her asleep in the supply room that morning) but she declined his offer. They parted ways and she made her way to her uncle's empty office. Clicking on the lights, she felt a strange uneasiness staring at the empty room. She'd never been here alone before. She climbed up onto the desk and sat staring at Giovanni's empty chair.
Everything he does is for Team Rocket. But does that really make it RIGHT? she wondered.
"Where are you?" she asked the empty chair. "Please come home."
As if in response to her request, the sound of helicopters could be heard overhead. She dashed out of the room, not bothering to turn off the lights or shut the door. With so few people left at HQ, Anari had no trouble making her way to the roof where Giovanni, Persian and Domino were disembarking from their aircraft. Team Rocket's air squad had also returned.
"Where WERE you, Uncle?" Anari asked. "Why were you gone so long?"
He stared at her in confusion. "That's the strangest thing... I don't remember. I can't even remember why I left..."
"Domino?" Anari asked. Domino shook her head.
"I don't remember either."
"You left with the entire air squad and neither one of you can remember anything?"
"No one can," Giovanni responded. "I just have this feeling... that I've been utterly defeated."
She watched them wander away, both looking as confused as she felt. It was the first time she'd seen either of them look so disoriented. The helicopter pilot didn't look any better, and neither did the rest of the returning agents. She shook her head and went back inside. All this time she'd been debating with herself over whether or not her uncle was bad. Now she was wondering if she ought not be more concerned with whether or not he was going mad. Only a crazy person, she reasoned, would run off to some unknown place for no apparent reason and come back with no explanation of where he'd been or what he had been doing. She sighed tiredly and decided she was done thinking about it for the day. At that moment she no longer cared if he was good or bad or completely mad. She just wanted to go to bed and hope that the adults in her life would be saner in the morning. Her grandmother's words came to mind:
Maybe it's better not to know.
To be continued in Chapter 6: "A Day In the Life"
Having finally managed to save her friends imprisoned at Team Rocket Headquarters, Anari finally begins to settle into her new life with her uncle Giovanni. However...
Home Is Where the R Is
Chapter Five - Mondo's Assistant
.
"I can't believe he just LEFT me here!" Anari complained to Mondo, sitting on a crate of supplies he was due to deliver. "He barely said a word to me the whole day yesterday, and then he just LEFT!"
"So where'd the boss go?" Mondo inquired.
"I don't know," Anari said. "Yesterday he sent Domino on some top secret mission, then last night he and Persian left in his helicopter." Anari recalled the obsessive determination in her uncle's eyes as he brushed past her with barely a glance to take off for parts unknown.
"The Team Rocket Combat Squad left, too," Mondo said. "Then later orders came for the rest of the air squad to follow, and bring a construction crew. Something big must be going down."
"I wonder what's going on?"
"Beats me," Mondo shrugged. "I'll be covering for my superiors today, since they've all gone." It irked him that he wasn't senior enough to go with them, but he was somehow senior enough to be stuck running the entire delivery division by himself. He had 17 requests to fill before the day was out, all of which were off-base. His Ditto had transformed into a Primape to help him load boxes, which he was stuffing into a large black bag.
"How does that all FIT in there?" Anari wanted to know.
"It's a storage system that works kind of like a pokéball," he explained. "It's the only way all this stuff will fix into the jeep."
"I'll come with you," Anari offered. She often kept him company while he filled orders, and she had no desire to wander around Team Rocket Headquarters when the place was practically empty. It had the air of a ghost town, and it gave the seven year-old the creeps. Mondo had no objection to her company- in fact, he welcomed it. Having someone to talk to always made his day go by faster, plus he could use the extra pair of hands.
"Thanks," he replied gratefully as she jumped down. He handed her a small box to carry out to the jeep. "Hold this." He grabbed the crate she'd been sitting on and Ditto helped him stuff it into the bag. "Thanks, Ditto," he told his Pokémon appreciatively, before recalling it to its pokéball. He then picked up the sack (which appeared to be completely empty) and motioned for Anari to follow him outside. "Come on. I'm sure everyone will be back before long."
.
Mondo's first stop was to purchase a random newspaper from a vending machine.
"Hold that," he told Anari, handing it to her. "We'll need it in a moment."
Anari was more interested in the box on her lap. It contained several small square devices. She held one up to examine it more closely. "What are these things?" she asked.
"Messages," Mondo explained. "Each has a recording on it for a specific agent or team of agents working off-base. I deliver them to an undercover operative and she hands them out to Rockets who come in for their assignments. Be careful with them; they self-destruct after one use."
"They don't blow up, do they?" Anari asked, returning the one she was holding to the box gingerly.
"No, they dissolve."
"How can you tell them apart?" she inquired. "They all look the same."
"Beats me. I just deliver them. There!" He pointed to the building they were approaching.
"A hamburger restaurant?" the child asked, confused. "We just ate a little while ago."
"You'll see." Mondo pulled into the parking lot and Anari watched nervously as he rolled the devices up into the newspaper and secured it with a rubber band. "Come on!"
Anari got out of the vehicle and followed him inside.
"Welcome to the Hamburger!" the young woman behind the counter greeted them cheerfully when they walked in the door. "How may I help you?"
Mondo held up the newspaper containing the devices. "I'm delivering newspapers in the neighborhood. Here you go."
Anari watched as the woman took it from him, flashing him a secret smile. "Thank you very much, sir. Please send my regards to your employer." She handed Mondo something that might have been a coin, but he shoved it in his pocket before the Anari could get a good look at it.
"You can expect your next issue around the same time next week," Mondo told her. "Remember, I deliver at rocket speed!"
"Have a Happy Burger day!" she told them, before moving on to serve a paying customer. Mondo and Anari left.
"I've seen her before, " Anari remarked as they got back in the jeep. "She was at Domino's birthday party the other day. What did she give you?"
"A message for the boss," Mondo replied, fishing the object out of his pocket and handing it to her. Anari recognised it as one of the same message recording devices she'd watched Mondo roll into the newspaper.
"Will it explode?" Anari asked nervously.
"They don't explode, they dissolve," Mondo explained again. "Put it in the glove compartment."
Anari did so. "How many more deliveries do we have?"
"Too many," he sighed. "In Kanto and Johto. Apparently a number of agents from the Johto base were called away as well. Where's that map?" He took his eyes off the road to look for it, and nearly ran over a group of Oddish crossing the road.
"Watch out!" Anari exclaimed.
Mondo redirected his attention to the road, making a sharp turn to avoid hitting a lone Gloom. Anari's stomach lurched. He finally located his map (he'd been sitting on it the entire time) and made yet another sharp turn, this time to avoid missing the street they needed to turn onto.
"Slow down!" Anari pleaded, fighting a sudden bout of nausea. "Are you old enough to drive?" she asked doubtfully.
"Been doing it since I was thirteen," her companion replied proudly.
"But do you have a license?"
"I've got something that will pass for one if we get stopped by Officer Jenny. Got it from the same department that makes everyone's Team Rocket membership cards."
She gave him a doubtful look, and her stomach lurched again when he made a very sudden stop at a red light and she was very nearly thrown into the windshield.
"I'm getting carsick," the child whined pitifully.
"Don't worry," Mondo assured her. "We're almost there."
Anari quickly buckled her seat belt before the car started moving again, silently promising herself not to forget to do so again as long as Mondo was behind the wheel. "Don't get us killed!" she ordered, with as much sternness as a seven year-old could muster. She liked being alive, and she wanted to stay that way!
.
Over the next few hours Anari learned that Mondo wasn't always a bad driver. Despite his tender age of fifteen years he could drive just as well as any adult so long as he kept his eyes on the road and his hands on the wheel. The problem was that he had a tendency to get distracted- a lot. When that occurred, Anari genuinely feared for the safety of every living thing on the road, especially herself. He'd barely missed hitting three trees, a street sign and a fire hydrant when his (and Anari's) attention wandered to the various Pokémon they passed by. Anari had at one point offered to try driving the jeep herself, but Mondo laughed and pointed out that the seven year-old's feet wouldn't reach the pedals. He'd made a greater effort to pay attention since then, at least.
"Let's see," Anari said to herself sometime later, glad to be out of the jeep for awhile as she sat outside next to it with a pencil and a piece of paper. It was a list of people Mondo had to make deliveries to. "We did her- check, and a him- check, and Bonnie and Clyde- check, and him, and them, and them, and them, too... and we just did her. We're over half-way done!" she informed Mondo cheerfully.
Mondo was currently in the process of trying to fix a battered motorcycle. They had just finished their eighth delivery when he received orders to answer an emergency call of an agent in distress. All the repair crews who usually attended to such matters had disappeared along with practically everyone else on Giovanni's mysterious mission. The person in distress, however, was anything but grateful for the assistance.
"It's USELESS!" he roared at Mondo, as if it were Mondo's fault the motorcycle had crashed into a tree.
"Of course it is," Mondo agreed cheerfully, ignore the man's foul temper. "You wrecked it!"
The man glared at him. "Just fix it, boy. I've got an assignment to finish."
"What kind of assignment?" Anari asked, coming over to them.
"Mind your own damned business!"
Anari blinked, surprised. Her uncle's employees were generally not in the habit of swearing at her. She took a seat near Mondo and, for the moment, minded her own damned business.
"Hurry up, kid," the agent told Mondo impatiently, after a few more minutes had passed.
"I'm not sure I can," Mondo responded.
"Why the hell not?"
"The boss ordered all of Team Rocket's repair crews stationed at Headquarters to join him on a mission off base," Mondo explained. "I'm from the delivery division. I'm not sure I know how to repair it."
"I've got to get to the next city before my target, or he'll get to the cops before I can take him out!"
"Take him out where?" Anari asked.
"Hey, come help me," Mondo interrupted, before the man could answer the little girl's question. He really didn't think the boss would appreciate his niece hearing about the missions of assassins, especially considering how she'd reacted the last time he'd tried to kill someone. Niko had told several people on base the story of how the hysterical child's pleading managed to save Butch and Cassidy from emanate demise, and the story had evolved as it passed from person to person until it became known as "a legendary battle of wills" between the child and her uncle, with the seven year-old coming out on top. Mondo had a feeling the boss would not be pleased if he heard the story told that way.
"Fix it yourself, boy," the agent responded. "That's why you're here. The boss didn't hire me as a mechanic."
"I meant her," Mondo said, pointing to Anari as he attempted to do as he was told. The faster they got this man on his way the better. "Hold these," he instructed the little girl, handing her several tools. They were surprisingly heavy.
"What is this organization coming to," the aggravated assassin bemoaned, "when the most a man in my position can expect for aid is a pair of half-witted children?"
Mondo ignored the insult. He was used to being the target of verbal abuse by higher ranking agents. Anari, whose attention was still absorbed by the weight of the tools in her hands, didn't hear him. They were just so heavy. She was greatly relieved when Mondo finally took them back.
"What's your name?" Anari asked the assassin, going over to him.
"Sicarious," he responded.
"I'm Anari," she introduced herself. "Anari Gambini."
"Ah, you're Giovanni's niece."
Anari nodded. "Where are you going to take that guy when you finally catch him?"
"Generally I dump the bodies in a nearby river, but occasionally the boss orders me to bring the corpse back to prove they're really dead."
Mondo groaned, wondering how in the world he was going to repair the emotional damage done to the little girl once they sent this lunatic on his way. He also didn't want to be the one to explain to Giovanni if she went into hysterics and ran off into the blue. Fortunately for him, the child showed no signs of doing either.
"You kill people for a living?" she asked. "Like Marco and Niko?"
"Those two couldn't eliminate a cardboard box," Sicarious replied scornfully. "Unless someone put a stone in it first to weigh it down."
"Why do you say that?" Anari asked. Her uncle seemed to have full confidence in the two men's skills, and most of the agents on base were terrified of them. Niko had a few friends (Marco deemed socializing a waste of time) but in general people gave them both a wide berth, as if getting too close to the pair might prove hazardous to one's health.
"It's easy to kill people who are tied up or held at gun point," Sicarious told her. "Anyone can do that. YOU could do it. But tracking your target, ascertaining the right time and place, and disposing of the mess afterwards- that takes REAL skill. Two-bit hit men can never hold a candle to a professional assassin, girl."
"I wouldn't want a job like that," Anari remarked. Mondo agreed with her.
"Not many would," Sicarious said. "It's a grim enterprise to be sure, but profitable none the less. Nothing alters the course of mankind's future moreso than death, and men will pay a fortune to be masters of it."
"I'd say nothing destroys people's future quicker than death," Mondo responded dryly.
"Which is why they seek to master it."
"Everyone dies," Anari said, trying not to think of the people she had lost forever to the unyielding, unforgiving scythe of the Reaper. "People can't control that."
"Can't they?" Sicarious asked. "The business of death might seem like a dark and doubtful undertaking, but those with money and power have ways of overcoming the limitations of normal men. People like your uncle."
"That's enough," Mondo told him sternly. He held up a burned-out piece of machinery that Anari didn't recognize. "Several parts need replacing and I don't have them on hand. You'll have to accompany us back to HQ and wait until one of the repair crews get back."
"The hell I will! My mark will be long gone and I'm not going to take the blame for the mission failing!"
"YOU'RE the one who crashed your vehicle into a tree!" Mondo shot back, his patience thinning.
"Couldn't we just buy new motorcycle parts at the store?" Anari asked.
"Of course not!" Sicarious snapped at her. "If you were hungry, would you go into a hardware store to buy a sandwich?"
"Hardware stores don't sell sandwiches," Anari responded, confused.
"Exactly!"
Anari turned to Mondo for clarification. "All of Team Rocket's vehicles are custom made," he told her. "You can't always buy the necessary parts at a local store."
"If my target leads the feds to the secret base he discovered everyone there will be arrested!" Sicarious shouted. "I'm not taking responsibly for this!"
"I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do," Mondo said. "We'll have to contact the base and tell them to evacuate the building. If we act fast enough they might be able to get everyone out."
"And what about my money?" Sicarious demanded, furious that he'd wasted so much time and effort on a mission that he obviously wasn't going to profit from.
"There's nothing I can do," Mondo said again.
Sicarious stalked over to the motorcycle and kicked it, knocking it over. Mondo, who was on the other side, got knocked over with it.
"Ow!"
Sicarious began ranting in frustration, while Anari stared up at the sky, lost in thought. She knew her uncle committed crimes, and had even killed people. It was something she tried not to think about because when she did it always reminded her of...
Big Brother.
Were the two really so different? She wanted to say yes, but she wasn't sure if that conclusion wasn't just wishful thinking on her part. Did she have a place in such a family? She wondered if all of her relatives had been the same, or if there had ever been people on her family tree who had been more interested in making friends and having fun than accumulating wealth and power.
Will I someday turn into somebody like my uncle? she wondered. Just... evolve, like a Pokémon?
A cloud resembling an Eevee floated by peacefully and she smiled at it. The future might be uncertain, but one thing she knew for sure: Today someone somewhere had escaped being murdered and dumped in a river like all the rest of Sicarious's unfortunate victims, and whether it meant a lot of people were going to be inconvenienced by a last-minute evacuation or not, she was glad of it. Bases might expensive to rebuild, but lives were priceless.
Maybe someday I can make Uncle Giovanni understand it, too.
She could always hope.
.
"Bye! It was nice to meet you!" Anari waved cheerfully to the elderly Team Rocket recruitment scout as they drove away. "And bye to you too, Delibird!"
The petite old woman had a brand new pocket calculator in her hand and a shiny new laptop tucked under her arm. "Thanks, kids!" she called back.
"That was the final name on the list," Mondo said, crumbling up the piece of paper and tossing it over his shoulder. "Thank goodness! Supplying agents in both Kanto AND Johto is way too much work. I'll never complain about being assigned to the Kanto region ever again!"
"She sure was nice, wasn't she?" Anari remarked. "I've never seen a grown-up that short!"
"I can't believe she tried to recruit us into Team Rocket!" Mondo said. "I know I'm not her usual delivery agent, but you'd think my uniform would be a dead giveaway!"
"I like her Delibird," Anari said. "But I don't like its presents!" Her clothes were now singed from the Pokémon's exploding "gifts".
"Me neither," Mondo agreed. His uniform was in a similar condition. "It's no wonder her electronic equipment needed replaced." He tossed a blackened lump of metal that had once been a pocket calculator into the back of the jeep. "I feel sorry for the guy normally assigned to supply her. Delibird must keep him busy."
"I bet!"
"I'm just glad we're almost done," Mondo said with a relieved sigh.
"Almost done? I thought that was the last person on the list."
"That was a list of agents. My last delivery isn't connected to Team Rocket."
"Who is he?" Anari asked, puzzled.
"She," Mondo corrected her. "Every three months I deliver a pension check to a nice old lady. I've got a letter for her this time, too."
"Who is she?" Anari asked.
"Mrs. Maria Russo. She's an old friend of the boss's. I don't know how the two are connected, but he's been sending her money for years. She always gives me cookies when I bring her check to her."
"Do you think she'll let me have one?" Anari asked. She was starting to get hungry.
"I don't see why not. The boss said I was to take you with me next time I went, but he never explained why."
"I wish we knew where he'd gone," Anari said sadly. "Then we could ask him.
"Hey, cheer up," Mondo told her. "He's gotta come back eventually, right?"
Anari smiled. "Right."
.
Maria Russo lived on the border of Kanto and Johto, and Anari was absolutely charmed by her house. It was surrounded by at least half a dozen different flowers Anari had never seen before, and in the golden evening the place had an air of magic about it. It looked like a cottage out of a fairy tale.
"It's so pretty," the child remarked to no one in particular as she stared, spell-bound.
"Why thank you!" a cheery voice remarked. "Keeping a nice garden takes a lot of effort, so it's always nice to gets compliments!" The voice belonged to an old woman with a Furret on her shoulder, who'd been in the process of trimming a bush. "You're late today, Mondo," she chided gently. "I've been expecting you for hours. And your clothes are in terrible shape!"
"I had a lot of work today," he explained. "The boss has almost everybody called away on some assignment and I got left to do all the deliveries by myself."
"It took all day!" Anari agreed.
"And who are you, dear?" the old lady inquired.
"I'm Mondo's friend," Anari chirped cheerfully.
"This is Anari," Mondo explained. "The boss insisted on me bringing her next time I came, but he didn't say why. He told me to give you this."
He handed her the envelope containing her check and letter, and was invited to come inside and have a seat. So was Anari.
"Have some cookies, sweethearts, while I read my letter. I'm afraid they aren't as warm as they would have been if you've come earlier, but I daresay they're still tasty enough. Furret's been trying to steal them for hours."
Anari quickly took a cookie in each hand, and Mondo took one as well.
"This is one of my favorite assignments," he confided as Anari took a bite out of each cookie. "The boss ordered me to assist Mrs. Russo with any heavy errands or household chores she required whenever I visit, so I can stay as long as I want. I got out of having to do the monthly inventory last time I was here because she needed help fixing the roof!" Taking inventory was Mondo's least favorite chore and he took every opportunity possible to get out of it.
Maria's hands began to tremble as she read the contents of the letter she was holding. Her eyes blurred and she wiped the tears away, stealing several unnoticed glances at Anari while the child conversed with Mondo.
"We should have come here first then," Anari told him. "Then we could have gotten out of making all those deliveries!"
"But then I would have had to do them all tomorrow, on top of all tomorrow's deliveries," Mondo pointed out. "At least we got everything done."
"Mondo, look at that," Anari said, pointing to a picture hanging on the wall. It was a family portrait.
"What about it?" Mondo asked. He'd seen it many times. In fact, he was the one who'd hung it there on a previous visit when he'd helped to rearrange the furniture.
"The little girl in the picture..." Anari began, and Mondo suddenly realized why it had caught her attention. Despite a slight in difference in age and hair color, the girl in the picture could have been Anari herself.
"It's... me."
"No dear," the old woman told her as she laid down the letter. "That's me when I was a girl."
"Her hair is darker, but... she looks like me."
"Yes, she does," Maria agreed. "You look just like your grandmother."
Anari blinked. "Huh?"
"Your mother was my daughter."
"You're... Momma's momma?"
Maria nodded. "Yes, that's right."
"But Uncle Giovanni said my grandma was dead."
"He was probably talking about his own mother," Mondo told her. "Madame Boss died a few years ago."
"Come here, let me get a closer look at you," Maria said. "I haven't seen you since you were THIS small!" She pointed to a framed baby picture, which Anari (rightfully) guessed was herself as an infant. "I wasn't certain that you or your brother were still alive."
Anari looked away. "Big Brother's not. Not anymore."
"That's what your uncle says in his letter. How did he die?"
Anari clutched the cookie in her left hand so hard that it crumbled onto the carpet. "I... I don't want to talk about it." I don't want to think about it. I'm tired of thinking about it. It hurts too much.
"I understand," Maria nodded. "There came a point in my life when I took all of my photographs and packed them away. Pictures of my parents, my husband, my daughter... I couldn't bear to keep looking at them knowing I would never see the people I love again. It was too painful."
"Your pictures are out now," Anari said, pointing to a collection of framed photographs on both her in-tables. There were three baby photos, two wedding pictures (one was of her mother and father in their wedding clothes), one of a little girl holding an Ekans that she strongly suspected was her mother as a child, and some old black and white pictures of people Anari didn't know.
"Yes," Maria agreed. "I knew I was ready to take them out when the thought of seeing everyone's faces made me want to smile instead of cry."
"That's Momma and Daddy when they got married, isn't it?" Anari asked, pointing to the wedding picture.
Maria nodded, picking up it up. "Yes... I still wonder where they are sometimes," she confessed to her granddaughter, handing her the picture so she could examine it more closely. "Especially late at night. If they were ever found... given a decent burial... Maybe it's better not to know."
Anari nodded, debating whether or not she should tell the kindly old lady in front of her how her grandson had forced her daughter and son-in-law out of a moving plane to plummet goodness only knew how many hundreds of feet into the waiting sea. She decided not to. Part of her wished she had never learned the truth about what had happened, and she didn't want to make anyone else as sad as she felt. Perhaps her grandmother was right: Maybe it was better not to know.
"I don't have many pictures of my family," Anari said, handing the photo back to her. Maria placed it back on the in-table. "But looking at them makes me sad."
Maria nodded understandingly. "Well then, I have an idea."
"What is it?" Anari asked.
Maria opened the drawer of the in-table and pulled out a camera. "Why don't we take some pictures that will make us smile instead?"
The next hour or two proved to be the happiest Anari had experienced in a long time. The three each took turns using Maria's old-fashioned Polaroid, and Anari soon had a pile of photos to take home. She had photos of herself with her grandmother, and with Mondo and even one (that she'd taken herself and was quite proud of) of Maria with Furret posing on her shoulder. Maria also had a collection of new photographs, and there was one of herself with Anari and Furret that Mondo had taken of them now sitting framed on an in-table with all the rest of her treasured memories.
The plate of cookies was soon empty, so Maria took the youngsters out back to help her milk her Miltank. Anari had never seen that particular Pokémon before, and was amazed when like magic there were soon three tall glasses of fresh milk for them to drink. They went back in the house and Maria produced a tin of scones for them to polish off next. It wasn't quite as filling as a proper supper, but Anari hadn't enjoyed a meal so much in a long time. She'd also developed a new appreciation for milk, which up until that point she had thought of as a bland excuse for a drink.
They talked about a variety of things- Anari's favorite colors, what Pokémon she'd like to train one day, and which subjects she liked and disliked now that her uncle had her taking lessons. Maria in turn told her all about her interest in flowers (something Anari also loved, although she could name very few), different Pokémon she had trained throughout the years, and how she and Furret met one day when the Pokémon crawled in her open window taking shelter from the rain.
"And ate an entire basket of muffins I'd just baked for my new neighbor!" she added, with feigned annoyance. Anari and Mondo laughed.
After a while, the subject drifted to Lilas, Anari's mother. Apparently, as a girl of seventeen, she had randomly come home one night with Anari's father Giuseppe, declaring that they were going to get married.
"SHE proposed to HIM, apparently," Maria laughed. "She always was a headstrong girl. We had some misgivings at first, her father and I, due to the strange rumors floating around about the boy's family being involved in criminal activity. The fact that the two brothers were in some sort of gang didn't help."
Anari and Mondo exchanged glances. Maria was obviously not aware of the inner workings of Team Rocket.
"Their mother owned a big corporation that made rockets or something, and after your parents vanished she sent one of her employees here with a letter telling me that I would be receiving a pension four times a year in compensation for the loss of my daughter and grandchildren. My husband had died not long before then, and she knew I had no other relatives to support me. I suppose she felt sorry for me, being a mother and grandmother herself. When her eldest son inherited the business he continued to honor her arrangement, and I'm forever grateful for his thoughtfulness and generosity."
Mondo asked Maria to pass the tin of scones his way and she complied, before continuing her praise of Giovanni.
"Not everyone would remember an old widow," Maria told the children. "Particularly when they have no blood ties or legal obligation. I've only seen Giovanni a few times, but like his mother he's seen to it that I don't want for anything. One of his employees shows up every three months like clockwork to see that all my needs are being met, and when I wrote him telling him how helpful Mondo was and how much I enjoyed his company, he's sent Mondo to me ever since. What a good man he is!"
Anari raised an eyebrow. A good man? Was her grandmother talking about the same man who ordered Sicarious to kill people and dump their bodies in a river? The same man who'd employed Marco and Niko to make people who displeased him "disappear"?
Mondo remarked that the boss had been very good to him as well, particularly after the death of his father.
Anari considered this. There was far more to her uncle then his faults, she knew that, but his faults were just so... extreme. Nevertheless, he was also the man who tucked her into bed at night, wishing her pleasant dreams. He was the same man who'd taken her in and given her a home, and given a home and jobs to her brother's former employees upon her request. He was the trainer Persian loved dearly, and the boss everyone at Team Rocket admired and respected. And now she'd learned he was her grandmother's benefactor.
Is he good or bad? Anari wondered. Good men didn't have people killed. Bad men didn't care for elderly widows and orphaned children. Yet her uncle did both. Can he be good AND bad? she thought, wondering if such a thing were even possible. She just didn't know.
.
On the way back home, clutching the thank-you letter her grandmother had written for her uncle, Anari discussed her thoughts with Mondo.
"I guess it depends on your perspective," Mondo told her. She had no idea what perspective was, and she didn't ask. Mondo continued. "He's good to those he feels deserve his loyalty, but he makes a bad enemy to anyone who threatens him or anything he values. Dad once told me the boss was fiercely protective, and that it never paid to get on his bad side."
"Protecting the people you love is good," Anari said. "But hurting people is bad."
"Sometimes you can't protect people without hurting someone else," Mondo responded. "When I was little I nearly got trampled by a herd of Tauros. My father sent out his Charizard to force the herd away, but the Tauros panicked and didn't go in the direction Charizard intended them to. They ran straight over a cliff and died. All except one."
"What happened to that one?" Anari asked, sad to think of an entire herd of Pokémon jumping to their deaths. The sole survivor must have been lonely.
Mondo pointed to one of the pokéballs clipped to his belt. "I've still got it."
They were both silent for a moment, and Anari considered how that poor Tauros must have felt after the loss of its family. Like I did, she suspected. After Big brother died.
Finally Mondo spoke again. "If those Tauros hadn't been scared away from me, I would have been trampled to death. I was horrified when they died and it still makes me sad, but I'm glad to be alive. I don't blame Charizard for what happened... or Dad. And I don't blame the boss for doing whatever he has to do to protect Team Rocket. If our enemies or the people on the outside were able to, they'd trample us."
.
It was well after dark when they returned, and Giovanni still had not come back. Mondo offered to let Anari sleep in his room for the night (he'd found her asleep in the supply room that morning) but she declined his offer. They parted ways and she made her way to her uncle's empty office. Clicking on the lights, she felt a strange uneasiness staring at the empty room. She'd never been here alone before. She climbed up onto the desk and sat staring at Giovanni's empty chair.
Everything he does is for Team Rocket. But does that really make it RIGHT? she wondered.
"Where are you?" she asked the empty chair. "Please come home."
As if in response to her request, the sound of helicopters could be heard overhead. She dashed out of the room, not bothering to turn off the lights or shut the door. With so few people left at HQ, Anari had no trouble making her way to the roof where Giovanni, Persian and Domino were disembarking from their aircraft. Team Rocket's air squad had also returned.
"Where WERE you, Uncle?" Anari asked. "Why were you gone so long?"
He stared at her in confusion. "That's the strangest thing... I don't remember. I can't even remember why I left..."
"Domino?" Anari asked. Domino shook her head.
"I don't remember either."
"You left with the entire air squad and neither one of you can remember anything?"
"No one can," Giovanni responded. "I just have this feeling... that I've been utterly defeated."
She watched them wander away, both looking as confused as she felt. It was the first time she'd seen either of them look so disoriented. The helicopter pilot didn't look any better, and neither did the rest of the returning agents. She shook her head and went back inside. All this time she'd been debating with herself over whether or not her uncle was bad. Now she was wondering if she ought not be more concerned with whether or not he was going mad. Only a crazy person, she reasoned, would run off to some unknown place for no apparent reason and come back with no explanation of where he'd been or what he had been doing. She sighed tiredly and decided she was done thinking about it for the day. At that moment she no longer cared if he was good or bad or completely mad. She just wanted to go to bed and hope that the adults in her life would be saner in the morning. Her grandmother's words came to mind:
Maybe it's better not to know.
To be continued in Chapter 6: "A Day In the Life"