The Exile Special Edition

Chapter Seven

***Author's note:
Shout out to reviewers Akewataru_Akehanaeru, ChaosLacky and
Fogu-s_tofu! Thanks for the great reviews, folks!***

“Pokémon
Gym Leader tournament?” The man on the other end of the phone
looked confused. “No, the League hasn't scheduled anything like
that. And they certainly aren't required for Gym Leaders.”
“Thanks,”
Jessie said, hanging up the phone. She glanced around the Pokémon
Center. Professor Oak was chatting amicably with Ash.
Pallet Town
had changed rather drastically since Ash had left it. There was a new
Pokémon Center up, as well as rumors that the Elite Four
planned to build a new League centered around the Seafoam Islands.
The rumor held that the first gym would be before the islands, which
meant that Pallet would get the gym.
Jessie looked at Furret
seriously. “We're going to have some hard battles ahead of us,
partner,” she whispered. Furret nodded, then slapped a paw to
its chest.
“I know I'll have your help. But I hope that
we're enough.” Furret pointed a paw at Ash, chittering
softly.
“But I want to show him I can be a good trainer,”
Jessie objected.
“That's easy,” an older voice said
from behind her. Jessie looked over her shoulder to see a tall
maroon-haired woman smiling at her.
“So, you're Jessie?”
the woman asked. Jessie nodded.
“What were you saying about
that's easy'?” she demanded.
“Ash is a good hearted
boy, who sees the best in everyone,” the woman replied. “I
should know. I'm his mother.”
***
Delia Ketchum was a
woman with a past. Granted, it was a past that few knew about and
almost none spoke of in public, it was still a past. Technically, it
was a present as well, and quite probably a future, which was why she
listened without judgement to Jessie's tale.
Jessie, for her part,
was explaining everything about her stint with Team Rocket and her
first meetings with the young Ketchum boy. When she finished, Delia
stared thoughtfully out the window for a while.
They were in Ash's
house, a fact that Jessie found of immense personal interest. There
were small pictures littering the walls, pictures of Ash, pictures of
Delia, and, very rarely, pictures of a mature man with graying brown
mousy hair that looked very familiar. Glancing at all the pictures,
Jessie very rapidly came to a conclusion. By now, I'm sure the reader
has gathered that our Jessie is a very bright lass indeed, so we may
properly assume that her conclusion was correct. Her conclusion was
this; this man must be Ash's father.
“Well,” Delia
said, sipping her tea slowly, “I must admit, your story is
certainly not the most valiant I've heard.” She paused as
Jessie glanced shamefully at the floor.
“It's not the worst
I've heard, either,” she said finally. Jessie's voice, when it
came, was muffled.
“But I want to change!”
“Let
me tell you a story,” Ash's mother said, her voice very
serious. “I once met a man who told me that he'd robbed a
thousand people.”
“A thousand?!” Jessie said,
incredulously. Her face came up and her eyes were wide. “The
top agents in Team Rocket barely managed a hundred!”
“A
thousand,” confirmed Delia. “You know what he'd
done?”
“No, what?” Jessie pressed eagerly, in
spite of herself.
“He'd sold them what turned out to be the
most useful device we use today. I was one of the people he robbed,”
Delia said, setting her tea down and heading for the bookshelf. “I
still have it somewhere around here... Ah, there it is!” She
pulled down a small box, brown with age. A few buttons were here and
there, and a small hole in the top.
“What is it?”
Jessie asked when Delia handed it to her.
“This was what
became the PokéDex.” Jessie
stared at her, mouth agape.
“Yes,” Delia answered
Jessie's unasked question. “That man was our very own Professor
Oak. Oh, he was fairly deep in his cups by this time, and was
certainly in no condition to be regarded as an authority in anything,
but he later became the Pokémon Professor.” She eyed
Jessie keenly. “You do know what the moral of the story is,
don't you?” Jessie shook her head slowly. Delia, being the
merciful being that she was, took pity on her.
“The moral,”
she said sternly, “Is that what you've done is never as good or
bad as it seems. The only way to tell whether something is good or
bad is by looking back o fro from a ripe old age.” She smiled
at Jessie, all carefree innocence again. “Until then, it's kind
of pointless.”
“I just hope Ash doesn't think I'm
totally evil,” Jessie whispered.
“He doesn't.”
Delia's face was bright and cheerful. “He's done nothing but
talk about how well you train your pokémon. He's only
mentioned you being with Team Rocket once, after all.”
“Really?”
Jessie perked up a bit. “When'd he do that?”
“Well,
he told Professor Oak about how you... er... chose an alternate path
for your life than Team Rocket,” Delia said, phrasing her words
carefully.
“Oh.” Jessie's face fell again.
“I
don't approve of Team Rocket,” Delia said, her voice bearing
only a hint of scolding, “But I do note that you have certainly
changed from the last time I saw you.” At Jessie's confused
look, Delia explained, “At the party after Ash got back from
the Indigo League, remember? You crashed the party.”
“Oh.
Sorry about that...” Jessie stammered. Delia waved a hand
dismissively.
“It's like I always tell Ash; if you run
around with bad people, it's not your fault if you act bad. It's your
fault if you stick with it, though.” She eyed Jessie
thoughtfully again. “Why DID you join Team Rocket?”
“Not
much other choice,” Jessie sighed. She then began to relate the
story of her life.
Which will be printed up as a different fanfic
as publicity for this particular fanfic. Look for it sometime in a
different year.
Some time later, Jessie finished. Delia hadn't
moved from her seat by the window more than once, and that just to
turn on the interior lights as it got darker outside. Aside from
that, she watched Jessie without expression until the younger woman
finished her tale.
“Like I said before,” Delia said,
“It's not your fault that you did bad things. You just thought
that there was only one option for you.” Jessie nodded.
“But
also,” the older woman continued as if she hadn't noticed.
“You're a bit confused, I think. You're confused because you
find yourself enjoying an option that you didn't realize you had
until you didn't have a choice anymore. Do I have it about right?”
Jessie nodded again.
“Well, don't be surprised. Ash has been
doing that to people for years, giving them options they didn't think
they had.” Delia smiled. “Half the time he doesn't even
realize why he's doing something.” She glanced at Jessie, her
eyes traveling up and down her form carefully.
“How old are
you, anyway? Eighteen, nineteen?”
“Seventeen,”
Jessie admitted.
“That young. Hmm...” Delia clapped
her hands together. “You'll do.” And with that
extraordinary statement, the topic turned to other, more mundane
things.