Survival- Part 2
Persian had been working his way down the rocky path that led to the temple at a steady pace until the skies turned gray, thunder sounded, and the sky broke.
His journeying would have to briefly be put on pause, though, as the raindrops pounded the trail and Persian was forced to seek shelter in a tiny niche carved out by time and maybe a previous traveler or Pokemon, away from the cold water and high winds he hated and dreaded so much.
It was good he made it as far as he did before the rains came, he thought. Rain washed away smells and though brief the initial human smells- they were mixed with the smells of the other humans, but it was still enough- pointed Persian in the right direction, at the least. He'd managed to cover decent ground for the day, all things considered. But after the storm passed, he'd have lost one of the senses guiding him on his way, with a fresh trail and only the smell of rain for his nose. This was going to make things slightly more difficult- his long whiskers, huge ears, shiny gem, and soft, leathery paws were all sensitive enough to keep him on track, but without his powerful nose, he'd still face significant impairment.
And that was discounting all the dangers that remained. Persian's only injury was that from the nasty Stone Edge he'd taken in the temple, but there were still likely to be dangerous Pokemon out and about along the way and this time, it was only him and his cat wits.
As he curled up in the cool walls of the shelter, wrapping his tail around him, he laid his head down sadly, remembering what led up to this. Bits of rock hit him on his head, disorienting him, blurring his vision, and he was just so scared and panicked that when one of the humans reached out to him, his flight instincts kicked in and he ran... and didn't realize they were with his human until he saw the human's helicopter flying away...
He wished instinct hadn't taken over back there, and that he'd followed behind the weird human in the white coat... now his human was alone, and probably hurt, and he wasn't there to take care of him and make sure he felt okay.
Dad... I'm sorry I ran away, I'm sorry I didn't go with them, Dad. I'm going to find you...stay okay, Dad, please...
Persian laid his head down, yowling sadly, ready to sleep, when a warm feeling swept over him, in spite of the cold winds and rains just outside of his hiding spot. Not just any warmth- human warmth.
His human was out there somewhere, and he was longing for him. And Persian was going to find him.
~
When Giovanni woke up, he was still clutching the pink fragment and jacket close to him. His hand instinctually reached out for Persian sleeping nearby, but he drew it back upon remembering that the cat wasn't there.
Someone had clearly been in overnight- the teapot and saucer from earlier were gone, replaced by a coffee pot and mug, two slices of toast with a small jar of Berry preserves and a little butter, an apple, and some pills- he was unsure what these were for until noticing the IV from earlier was gone, so probably painkillers. He reasoned it was the secretary leaving him some breakfast and got to work pouring coffee into the mug. Adjusting to being able to use only one hand was going to take him some time. It occurred to him he could just as easily keep someone around to do tasks like pouring drinks for him, but at this point he enjoyed whatever privacy he could get when nurses weren't tending to him and the secretary wasn't checking in. He knew it would only be a matter of time before word spread and people would be lined up outside wanting a chance to try and suck up with their supposed “sympathy” and he wasn't going to have any of it.
Giovanni took the pills, slurping down half the mug of coffee, and got to working at the toast. His mind wandered to the matter of Zager and what was to be done with him.
On the one hand, Zager had technically done no wrong aside from screwing up on the trap count. The incident that led to Persian's disappearance was a freak one- Persian merely acted upon instinct, and had he not been terrified and skittish following trauma like he experienced, would have followed Zager and whoever was carrying Giovanni back to the helicopter.
On the other hand... had Zager bothered to look into the Pokemon that might be within the temple, the Golurk would have never been angered in the first place, and none of this mess would have even happened...
Zager's carelessness was ultimately responsible for this, either way. And he needed to be dealt with.
Giovanni closed his eyes and began thinking of something to do with the white-haired man, when there was another knock on the door.
That must be Matori.
“Come in.”
The secretary walked in, closing the door behind her.
“Is everything alright, sir?” she asked him. She was carrying a folder.
Folders were never a good sign.
“I'm feeling better than I did yesterday,” he said. “Breakfast helped. The coffee was good as always, Stacia.”
The purple haired woman blushed. She never did well with compliments, especially from him. Now was the time for business, though.
The secretary approached the bedside table cautiously and laid down the folder. There was a very nice pen clipped to the front.
Giovanni knew what was coming.
“These are some of the papers you need to catch up on,” she said. “As well as the ones already here. Please sir, take your time, though.”
Even with the polite delivery, his stomach turned. Three broken limbs wasn't worthy of a get-out-of-paperwork free pass?
Paperwork got him here... and it wouldn't let him forget it existed. In the end, paper ruled the world. Some errant part of his mind mused that the next project he should explore was claiming all the trees for Team Rocket and control the world's paper supply- at least there are no Golurk in the forest, he reasoned- but he quickly recognized the utter absurdity of the idea and dismissed it.
And yet, the secretary's polite manner and genuine concern brightened everything, somehow.
“I'll do what I can.”
Something else on the table caught his eye. The stone fragment was glowing softly. Not just from the sunlight filtering through the window, truly illuminated from inside.
..Glowing? But that was ridiculous... there was no way...
He stared at it, and naturally, the secretary's gaze covertly found its way there as well.
“What's that?” she finally asked.
It's not all in my head, he thought. She sees it too.
He quickly snatched the fragment off the table with his hand and hid it from her sight.
“It's... a get well present. From an agent.”
The secretary just blinked. Again, she suspected that he was hiding something from her.
“You can go now,” he said, feeling her uneasiness.
She bowed slightly, turned, and left as quietly as she'd slunk into the room.
Something is not right in there, she thought, stalking the hallway, as agents pretended to be busy as she passed. Normally she'd savor the feeling of power this gave her. Today, though...
The room felt emptier, the last two days. That cat.
That cat was always with him.
And he wasn't this time.
Of all times for Giovanni to have a cat around, wouldn't this be a logical one?
She thought back to passing Zager on his way out in the hall the day before. Despite Zager's eccentricity, he was still held in fairly high regard. Not much could prompt the boss to say something to Zager to get him in the mental state the secretary had seen him in yesterday. And she knew that despite some snags, the mission went over well...
The cat.
Zager must have had to break it to Giovanni that the cat was gone. Dead?
No, if Persian was confirmed dead, Zager wouldn't be walking, period. That much the secretary knew.
He must have been lost on the mission.
No wonder he seemed so distant. All the time there in his office and she'd picked up a definite bond between the two, one that was more than just friendship.
It was symbiosis.
He needed that cat. And Stacia Matori realized that until he had something to fill that space that Persian's absence left, he just wouldn't heal.
~
Feet walked down the mountain path, as the rain continued battering the area, and the cat hiding in the small niche slept through the loud noises, regaining energy for the rest of the journey...
“Do you see it anywhere?”
“No, I haven't seen anything out here, I can't imagine much of any Pokemon that lives in the mountains would be out during a rainstorm, much less a cat.”
“Well, keep your eyes open. It might be under a tree or something for shelter.”
~
Giovanni was sitting up in bed now, folders propped up on his lap, pen held tightly. Funny how of all the things he broke, it was his writing hand that came out unscathed. Almost too convenient.
Once in a while his left arm, hand still encased in the cast on his wrist, would involuntarily drift downward to where it would usually find Persian sitting beside him to scratch his ears. The fact his hand slipped into actions that really only worked while sitting at a desk was strange enough; what was most striking to him was just how reliant upon Persian he was, that not having him at his side had the effect of a phantom limb. It made the monotonous task that much worse.
He laid down the open folder and rolled the stone fragment around in his hand. It had become a comfort item of sorts to him, and he couldn't get past the strange reassurance holding it gave him, not just in a “remember that this happened” way, but that it almost felt as though Persian wasn't miles away, who-knows-where. When he held it tightly, that unbreakable bond the two of them shared together was there, and the emptiness Persian's absence left seemed to dissipate.
And the glow. Lately it seemed to glow the more fondly he thought of Persian. The secretary seeing it too confirmed it wasn't a painkiller-induced hallucination.
He wondered about it. He knew the Heart converted good feelings into energy, but was it possible it also served as a link? Fond memories were onesided; he couldn't imagine it was capable of seemingly generating heat and light unless it truly was linking him with Persian on some level. He took a startling amount of reassurance from this, as ridiculous as it seemed to his skeptical side. Truthfully, he doubted the claims of supernatural traits associated with the Heart, as did Sebastian and Zager, and figured it was merely a chemical reaction of some kind that would be easily synthesized within a lab.
Footsteps. Footsteps that were uncomfortably close to him. The interruption was unwanted, but he supposed it was to be expected. He stashed the fragment under his pillow and looked to the source of the sound.
“Zager.”
“Afternoon.”
Zager had invited himself in, and held a clipboard. His labcoat was a little bit crooked and his shirt open on the top button and rumpled, giving him his typical unkempt look.
“What are you doing in here, Zager?”
“I'm here to update you on the status of the project, sir.”
Giovanni's left fist clenched as well as it could encased in the wrist cast.
“Zager, as the record stands now, in the last 72 hours you have nearly botched an entire mission on account of golems, annoyed the everloving shit out of me, and indirectly been responsible for the loss of my cat. What exactly gave you the idea it would be okay to just waltz into my room like this without so much as knocking?”
My room. No, this wasn't his room at all. It was an impersonal room with things added here and there to make it something like comfortable. His room was in his house in Viridian, a place that seemed only a memory now. His room was his living room, in front of the fireplace, with a mug of hot tea and Persian on his lap. His room was his bedroom, with Persian curled up beside him every night. This, though, this wasn't his room. Maybe it would be more suited to that title with his best friend at his side again, but until then...
“The door was open.”
“That's not an invitation, Zager,” he replied, now clenching his fist so hard his recovering wrist ached. “I suppose you may as well get on with it, then. What's the status?”
“We've not yet found just how to trigger the stone's properties,” Zager said. “We've hooked it up to all manner of machines, we've exposed it to various types, we've tried taking samples to analyze the chemical makeup. Perhaps once the results come in we'll have a better grasp on just what makes the stone tick.”
“Have you tried exposing it to various Pokemon? It's possible that those Golurk served a greater purpose than guarding things.”
“What are you saying?”
“I'm no man of science beyond senior year chemistry, Zager, but with all this talk of chemical reactions and radiation, I wouldn't doubt that however this thing ended up being a generator, Pokemon might have had something to do with it. Either their composition or some attack.”
“We did retrieve a few of those Golurk,” Zager said. “I'll begin running tests immediately.”
“Get a few other Pokemon native to the area while you're at it. You're bound to hit on something sooner or later.”
“Yes sir,” Zager replied.
“One more thing, Zager. How is the search for Persian progressing?”
Zager began to sweat a little. “I sent some of them out to find him, but they came back empty handed.. they did bring this, though.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small leather collar with a silver tag and a single diamond stud. Persian's collar.
Giovanni snatched it out of his hand. Here was the smallest bit of hope that things would turn out alright...
“He's clearly looking to come back, if he made it this far before losing the collar.”
Zager waited for a response, but Giovanni just stared at the collar in his hands. “Thank you, Gabriel... now just finish the job and you may find your way back into my good graces.”
Gabriel? It was highly unusual for Giovanni to address others by their first name... Zager was frankly surprised he even remembered he had a first name.
And was he shaking? The scientist wondered if he'd just done something wrong by taking out the collar.
“Zager, you can go now. I need some time alone.”
Zager nodded and left. I didn't know he'd take it THIS hard, he thought. He'd been wracked with guilt over this the past few days and this encounter certainly didn't help much.
Giovanni ran his hand over the collar, and under his pillow, the stone began to glow more intensely. He pulled the stone out, and it was almost hot to the touch.
This isn't normal.
He put it down on the table, then went back to stroking the collar, the closest he'd come for now to stroking Persian.
The stone's glow became even more intense and the lights flickered off and then back on in his room, as well as throughout the infirmary wing.
Nurses scurried back and forth in a panic while he tried to process just what happened. It was just coincidence, yes...
The tranquilizing effect of the painkillers was kicking in again, and Giovanni found himself unable to stay awake... His head full of fond memories with Persian, he drifted back to sleep, the collar still grasped tightly in his hand.
~
Persian took a sniff at his surroundings. He'd been spending much of the day continuing to follow his instinct back home.
When he awoke, he'd smelled something familiar, very faint from the rains earlier washing it away, but enough to keep him on path. Now, however, the smell had finally worn down, and Persian was on his own.
He'd made the mistake earlier of bothering a nest of Rattata. Chasing the errant Rattata that had escaped from the laboratory was a favorite pastime of Persian during those boring late hours at headquarters.
The Rattata at headquarters didn't have vicious Raticate guarding the nests. He'd failed to take this into account.
Three had attacked, all at once. The first one was easy enough to take out with a well-aimed Slash, but its defeat only served to anger the other two. Those Raticate attacked together, giving Persian quite the challenge. Wild Pokemon, without the direction of a trainer during battle, had a certain viciousness to them that took a moment or two for Persian to re-adjust to. He still had much of the instinct in him from his days as a wild Persian in Viridian Forest years ago before the human befriended him, but since his human's time running the Gym, he'd grown accustomed to the controlled nature of trainer battles.
The two Raticate, in this case, aimed surprisingly strong Tackles at him, one from behind and without warning. The first one, attacking from the front, Persian thought he had in the bag, until the second bit his tail, causing him cry out in pain. Persian shook this Raticate off and pounced on it, hitting it with a super-powered Slash from his left claw, growling at the other Raticate in warning. The Raticate ignored it, aiming to hit Persian with what looked like a Hyper Fang, but Persian, now on his game, dodged it, causing Raticate's massive front teeth to get stuck in the soft ground below. Persian's coup de grace was a final Slash, leaving the Raticate easily knocked out.
The battle distracted Persian for a moment from his troubles and left him feeling powerful and confident enough to press on for a few hours. He'd managed to find Berry bushes along the way with delicious Leppa Berries- his favorite- to keep him fed, but he couldn't live on Berries. He longed for his gourmet cat food and bowls of cream like back home. The good life had spoiled Persian, and having to wander his way back home awakened him to just how nice he had it.
At the same time, he was pleased to still have his wild instincts fully intact. It made him wish his human was there to see.
And for a moment, it felt like he was. A feeling washed over Persian, a feeling like he was with the human again... Persian purred, for the first time in a long time. There was no question the human was with him... just far away, but they were still as together as if Persian was right there on his lap.
He knew which way to go now. It was just a matter of making it there.
And nothing would hold Persian back from doing so. He'd fight a hundred more Raticate, or worse, if it meant being with his human.
~
The secretary was in a gift shop now, a small one in a town nearby headquarters. It was a bit of a drive and it'd be a miracle if she made it back in time to head off a possible catastrophe with the typical problem agents. Word had been spreading around HQ of Giovanni's predicament and already her office was flooded with various presents from those hoping to score a promotion or pay raise.
A display of handmade Pokemon dolls was set up near the back of the store. She collected these; very few people realized that the seemingly coldhearted, impassive woman had shelves covered in the soft, adorable toys. They were made of finest Mareep wool felt, hand-sewn, with painstakingly embroidered detail and button eyes. Each one was one of a kind.
She dug through the shelf, until she found the familiar long, yellow form of Persian and picked it out of the stack. The forehead charm was made of smooth, polished red glass and gleamed in the light.
This was the one. She hoped this would work to at least heal a little of the loneliness. She knew a plush was nothing like the real thing, but having something to hold and touch as a reminder...
The secretary went to the checkout and paid for the doll, then returned to the car and sat it in the front seat.
This is so silly, though... she thought. Will someone like him really want a stuffed doll to make him feel better?
But there was something she couldn't explain about the two of them and their extraordinary closeness as friends. They shared the kind of bond she'd rarely seen, especially among the rogues she dealt with on a day to day basis. A kind of deep trust where they didn't even need words.
She remembered a legend she'd learned in college about the stone of a Persian giving them enhanced senses. A sort of sixth sense. That Persian could even see ghosts in a room, in some cases. That they could feel their owner's presence before they even entered a room. The gem served as an overall amplifier for Persian's already sensitive whiskers, ears, and nose.
Maybe it worked both ways. Maybe the gem wasn't just a receiver, but a transmitter as well.
And maybe, just maybe, giving Giovanni the plush would make that bond even stronger before they were physically reunited. Her job was to bring him anything he needed while his injuries healed, and since she couldn't bring him the actual Persian, the best she could do was give him the next best thing.
~
Zager sat at his desk, his head aching from everything he was dealing with at the moment so badly he wished he could have some of the super-strong painkillers Giovanni had been taking. It was late at night, and the project was turning up no results. He'd brought the Golurk in, tried everything. Sent out grunts to do a complete inventory of Pokemon in the area, tried all of them, no use.
Those Golurk had more meaning than he thought, he suspected... He remembered an important detail, one he'd neglected to tell Giovanni earlier.
Shortly after the helicopter flew away, the temple collapsed upon itself. A little more research later and Zager learned that the Golurk, aside from being a security system, were the temple's support... holding their place as the beams of the temple, assuring that anyone in the future who dared disturb their creators' sacred place would be taken with it, protecting the treasures within permanently from being disturbed.
In retrospect, they were all lucky Giovanni only disturbed the two, and likely that those served a sentry role. Giovanni captured them, preventing them from telling their comrades. Had they done so, Zager realized, the whole group of them would have died there in the collapse.
So the Golurk came after us in an attempt to take us out, he thought.
Zager opened a window on his computer and got to hacking the files of the Nacrene Museum's research wing, hoping to pick up a lead there. If he could find one anywhere, it'd be there...
~
Giovanni opened his eyes the next morning to find a stack of gifts sitting near his bed, on the table. They had found out.
He pulled a small package, off the top, and unwrapped it. It was a horribly garish silk tie. He wondered if he should be flattered by the gesture or insulted that whoever gave it to him- he frankly didn't care- thought his fashion sense was really that bad. Throwing the tie aside, he picked up another box. A solar-powered radio.
This was all useless junk, ultimately.
He'd just call the secretary in here to take it away and sell it all off. Except...
There was one box off to the side, one that was wrapped too nicely to be a present from the other suckups.
The worst that could happen was more soul-crushing disappointment. Not that his life hadn't been a constant parade of that the last few days, anyway.
He pulled one end of the ribbon wrapped around the box and then lifted the lid.
There was a Persian inside.
Not his, but a toy, and yet it still brought back fond feelings, even more deeply than the found collar had. The felty fabric lacked the soft, luxurious feel of Persian's fur, but to have his hands touching something that was so... organic... so living... in feel, and different from the sterile cotton and steel around him...
He put the found collar around the plush and petted it. It was silly, but it felt right, for some reason.
A part of him that had felt dead for so long reawakened, as he was convinced that there was not a plush Persian there underneath his hand, but flesh, blood, muscle, and fur, maybe not visible but there, somehow. And at the same time, the stone once again lit, brighter than before, this time completely taking out the infirmary wing's power. Fascinated, Giovanni snatched the stone up in his hand, dropping it just as quickly when the heat let off from it burned him.
The secretary came rushing into the room, forcing him to stash it under the pillow again.
“Are you okay, sir?” she asked, sounding panicked. “All the security systems have been checked, it doesn't look like this was any kind of enemy action.”
“I know it wasn't, Matori,” he replied. “I'm fine.” He continued stroking the doll absentmindedly. The secretary noticed this right away.
So he likes it, she thought.
“Did you give me this?” he asked her abruptly, as the backup power generators hummed on.
She blushed. She didn't want him to get the wrong idea or anything, of course that would be improper, whatever might be implied by it...
“Er,” she said. “I thought it would make you feel better.”
“Thank you, Matori,” he said. He could feel the heat radiating from his pillow towards him now, a sensation not unlike an electric blanket. The stone was really going now... He hoped it wasn't enough to lead the pillow to catch on fire- he couldn't explain THAT one away.
“It was nothing, sir.. is something wrong?”
“No, nothing's wrong... I'm just...” he dug about in his head for a good excuse- “tired. Take all that trash from the others out,” he said to her, pointing to the stack of unopened and unwanted gifts. “Throw it away, sell it, I don't care, just get rid of it all.”
The secretary nodded to him. She briefly disappeared to a nearby supply closet then returned with a garbage bag then got to gathering up the presents and putting them inside.
“I'll burn them at once, sir,” she said.
Well, that's excessive, Giovanni thought. Then again, it was to be expected from someone as terrifyingly calculating as her... Even for him, burning stuff she could probably turn a few dollars off of seemed overkill.
“That will be sufficient too,” he replied.
“Is there anything else?” she asked.
“I'll be fine for now.” He waved her away and she got the message, hauling the bag out with her.
From through the open window, Giovanni heard a loud fwoosh followed by the crackling of a fire and what sounded vaguely like schoolgirlish giggling.
She wasn't kidding.
~
Persian was running for his life now. A flock of Unfezant and Tranquill were behind him, in pursuit. It was a bad idea in retrospect to raid that nest for eggs, but Persian was hungry and in cats, hunger often won out over logic.
He was too tired out to battle. And home- what passed for it at the moment- was close. He could feel the human petting him, cuddling him, giving him love.
Calling for him. He needed his help now, and Persian needed the human's too.
He didn't remember flocks ever being this big before.
Maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was nearly three days making his way home, three days following the sensations of need from his human he felt so plainly in his whiskers and gem, three days that the one thing keeping him going, more than the scarce catnaps and food, was the knowledge that his human was without him in a time of need.
That survival mechanism that humans and Pokemon both had in common. The one called love.
The lead Unfezant bore down on him and Persian panicked a little. He was weak enough that if Unfezant got in a hit, he'd be out for a while, his human without him even longer, himself open up to poachers- Persian were oh so rare in Unova and valuable too, fetching high prices on the black market- and whatever other threats might be there.
More importantly, his human needed him.
He remembered the day decades ago, the day he defended his human from the Beedrill. The day he willingly threw himself to them all to keep his companion safe. The stings and the sores they left, and how painful and long his recovery was...
But his human stayed at his side through it all. And was there when he woke up and finally saw the world normally again, there was the human.
And he knew that the human had returned that favor to him back there at the temple. Even if they were separated, it was merely physical...
He couldn't waste another moment. To be lying on the ground helplessly while his human needed him was not an option.
He would summon the strength that was love and trust and land a blow on the Unfezant. For him. For the human.
Persian stopped dead in his tracks, then turned to face the lead Unfezant, who was startled by this show of assertion and flapped in the air for a moment, as he hissed and snarled in warning.
Unfezant turned its head and nodded to the other birds, who surrounded Persian on all sides as the leader raised his wings in preparation for a powerful Razor Wind.
For a fleeting second, Persian's mind drifted off to that day in Viridian Forest. The day he'd been cornered in the same way by the Beedrill.
The day he could have fought back, but didn't. The day he simply protected his human- because that's all he could do then.
Now was different. The human had grown and so had Persian. And this was his chance to prove himself, to right what he could have done back there in Viridian Forest so long ago. Persian bared his claws and teeth, his fur standing on end.
He was unafraid of what was to come now.
As the Razor Wind sped toward Persian, he leapt just before it connected. The blow left a huge crater in the ground as Persian's strong legs propelled him towards Unfezant, his claws and teeth ready to act. Something savage had reawakened inside of Persian, and it had taken control of him. Unfezant took to the ground, in an attempt to escape Persian's counterattack, but one of the cat's huge claws grazed him, sending him to the ground.
Unfezant raised its good wing, directing his flock to attack Persian in tandem. Persian managed to dodge the group hit- why didn't they scatter, he wondered- by rolling out of the way, then taking them on one by one. The flock was fairly weak, compared to its leader, and Persian was able to tire them out fairly promptly.
It was soon down to Persian against Unfezant. The Unfezant that seemed to clearly be the mother of the egg Persian had attempted to make a snack of. He was unsure how this battle would end... fighting off the rest of the flock was tiring..
Persian raised a single claw in preparation for whatever Unfezant had coming, as Unfezant prepared her next attack...
“Persian, you've come along enough now that I think I can teach you this move. It's a risky attack to teach Persian, though, so you must never use it unless it's to protect you or myself. Can you promise me that?”
“Mrow.”
“Then it's time I used this present from Mother.” The boy pulled out a box containing a new kind of technology very few had ever used- a Technical Machine. A way to teach Pokemon attacks they couldn't learn naturally. Inside the box was a shiny plastic disc.
“Set the machine on the head, and... Persian are you ready?”
Persian meowed back an affirmation.
“Then it's time to learn Thunderbolt.” He set the disc on Persian's head and a for a brief moment, Persian's eyes brightened and the disc glowed as his mind absorbed the information on the disc. The device went dim and fell off Persian's head, and the cat sat disoriented for a brief moment before finally coming to.
“Did it work, Persian?” he asked. “Try hitting that stick with a Thunderbolt now!”
Persian didn't quite understand what a Thunderbolt was, but he managed to summon a weak one from himself anyway. The bolt of lightning hit the twig, setting it ablaze until it quickly extinguished itself in a pile of ashes.
“It works! You know Thunderbolt now, I'm so proud of you,” he said, hugging the cat. “Remember, you can get easily exhausted using it, so only use it when I said, understand?”
He nodded back. He understood. This was a move, a thing too special to use in ordinary battles. This was more than an attack. It was a mark of the friendship between the two he'd always have now.
Persian watched as the Unfezant advanced. Yes, he was tired. Running on empty. But he had to do something, anything. This wasn't how he was going to go down when he was so close.
As his avian adversary dive-bombed with a Sky Attack, Persian reared off the ground, a ball of static from his fur gathering in his paws and his eyes glowing yellow. Unfezant continued her descent.
Seconds mattered now.
Three yards away...
Two yards away...
One yard...
Persian finally unleashed the massive ball from his paws, sending it flying at the Unfezant, making a direct hit, causing the Flying-type Pokemon to hit the ground, scorched feathers still crackling.
It was over.
Nothing could stop Persian from getting home now. Just a short walk more... Persian felt his paws growing heavier...
The Thunderbolt had taken a lot of it out of him. Still, he couldn't have fired off his most powerful attack, his secret weapon, for nothing.
He could make it up the cliff Unova headquarters sat atop. He knew he could. He'd be back there, back home, before he knew it.
Before he knew it...
~
Zager finally hit on it. A file of translated records from the people who'd built the temple. The very advanced for their time people.
The Golurk weren't just a support and security system for the Heart of Keldeo. They were part of an entire generator system that powered the whole area.
When created, the Golurk had been filled with the warm wishes and intent of all the townspeople in gratitude for helping power their civilization. The Heart was more powerful than thought- not only could it create power from well-wishes, but it also served as a sensitive absorber and amplifier of these feelings, turning them into needed energy, light, and heat via small fragments of the stone found in every home. The Golurk ultimately served as a means of feeding the necessary feelings to keep the main unit housed in the temple running. In short, these people had used the rare gem, unearthed by pure chance not far from where the village was founded, to create a supremely sophisticated power generation system without need of motors or lines of any type- a feat that impressed even Zager. If they could just figure out how to harness or even synthesize power on that level...
For five centuries this village dwelled peacefully off the power provided to them by the great rose-colored gemstone, safely tucked away out of reach of others in the mountains.
Until a century before Team Rocket even approached the hallowed ground, Zager had learned during his research prior to the mission, in an article from an old journal of Unovan anthropology. A group of explorers had discovered this small village, and spent a few days living there, when they learned of the strange pink stones that every family kept in their house, stones that gave them the essentials for civilization. Unfortunately for the village, the explorers were greedy and realized the potential for money to be made from the technology.
A day after their visitors left, the village was invaded by a small army the explorers had gathered, with the instructions to take the stones and raze everything to the ground. Forced out of their home and robbed of their civilization's lifeblood, the villagers were forced to find homes among the rest of civilization, driving their culture to extinction.
The one thing that the explorers weren't aware of was what they'd left- the temple and the treasure essential to powering everything. To the people of the village, the temple was far too sacred a resource to let outsiders in on, so they neglected to tell the explorers. And so, until a small group of anthropologists discovered it, the temple and culture as a whole was unknown, the temple being the only remnant of a society that was brought down by human greed, left undisturbed out of respect for the dead culture...
Not anymore, Zager thought. And to think he was responsible for all the culture had vanishing from reach forever. Normally a man would feel guilt for something like this... but for Zager, it was almost as though he, of all people, was singlehandedly responsible for closing the book completely on one of the great civilizations of Unova. In a way, he found it almost romantic.
All of this explained why despite their best efforts, Zager's team was unable to activate the stone's powers. It was dependent upon the Golurk team itself, to amplify the good wishes and intent of those around, if results were wanted. And without the people of the society there to produce the goodwill needed for the main device...
No. Metaphysical claptrap. All of it. Some comparable force could be surely found to power the stone, and the stone itself had a chemical makeup that could be synthesized... short of that, mind control or hypnosis technology to induce the state necessary for mass energy generation could work, Zager reasoned. So the project would take some more research. That was a variable to be expected in the scientific discipline, and one any man of science would take for granted. The pursuit of knowledge was never an easy one.
How was he going to explain this to Giovanni... first he had to break the news that the cat went missing, and now he was tasked with explaining that that project a fairly good amount of funding had been dumped into was going to take longer than expected to produce results, if at all...
Tactfully. That was how. Honesty was the best policy, even when you were up shit creek without a paddle and there was a waterfall ahead. And to be fair, there wasn't much lower he could be right now. Short of making “Lost Persian” posters, Zager had done everything he could think of to find Persian.
Zager took a swig from the flask on his desk. It was full of the cheapest booze he could find, because when dealing in the mental stress science brought about, taste didn't matter so much as bringing your brain some needed peace. A little courage before he went to be the bearer of bad news was always a nice thing...
~
The secretary was making her way back into the HQ building, garbage bag of ashes in hand from the bonfire that had gone out just a few moments ago.
Something made her head turn. A mewling noise. A noise that, upon further inspection, seemed to be coming from a yellow fuzzy lump on the ground a few yards away.
She approached the source of the mewling cautiously, only to find it had ears, whiskers, and a tail.
Persian.
These things, the secretary knew. One, Persian were rare in Unova, to the point that ever since she started watching Unova evening news on her arrival in the region with Team Rocket, not a week went by without hearing a story about police breaking up a Persian trafficking or poaching ring.
Two, the boss had lost his Persian in the mountains, and,
Three, this Persian seemed well-fed, despite having collapsed from fatigue, and she doubted any other Persian would have a reason to be at this remote location. The conditions around were absolutely not the favored lush forest settings of the species. Based on items one and two, there was little doubt this was a very special Persian...
Persian was big and the secretary was a bit on the short side. Still, she couldn't just leave this Persian here, Giovanni's or not. It was little-known that she had a weakness for cute things, one she tried her hardest to hide- it didn't do her terrifying persona she was known for any favors- and she'd jump at the chance to rescue any Persian.
The secretary carefully scooped up the cat in her arms- nearly as long as she was- and carried him up to the doorway. She'd retrieve her bag of ashes later, she reasoned.
The trip to her office was long but the feeling of the warm, furry cat in her arms did a good job masking the discomfort Persian's size gave her. Once in her office, she laid the cat on her desk.
“Don't wake up or get any ideas while I'm gone,” she said to the unconcious feline, leaving for a moment and returning with a bottle of Super Potion. She sprayed Persian with it and the cat opened his eyes to look around the room.
“Mrrrow?” he asked, big red eyes staring into the secretary's. A few hairs on his tail stood up straight. This place was familiar... this office... he'd been in here with the human so many times before...
Home. He was home. But this wasn't Giovanni... this was that other human who always hung around him. He liked her. She brought him dishes of cream.
“Is everything okay?” she asked. “It's just me, Persian. You know, me?” She extended a hand to him, and he sniffed at it. “I bring your owner coffee and things... I'm a friend,” she said, unsure if Persian even understood a word she was saying. “He was injured protecting you back there.”
Persian's ears went back slightly with sadness. He always assumed such a fate, but knowing it actually happened... for him...
The human did it to repay him for what he'd done in the forest so long ago...
“Mrow?”
“He's in recovery now, and he misses you,” she said. “Follow me, I'll take you to him.” She scratched Persian behind the ears reassuringly.
Persian stood up, then leapt from the desk to the floor, walking just behind her, tail wagging happily.
~
It was a rare day that Giovanni dreamt while sleeping, and it had been that way for years. Reality had made life strange enough that his mind didn't have to work overtime while he slept.
But in his latest medication-induced slumber, visions replayed of that moment in Viridian Forest- visions with the Beedrill there.
Only this time, Persian fought the Beedrill. And they never had to spend anxious nights in the Pokemon Center, never had to fear that they'd be separated for good... and then he realized that the boy he watched hiding behind Persian wore casts on his arm and feet. And wasn't a boy at all.
He was watching himself. In the present.
Giovanni subconsciously embraced the Persian doll beside him tightly, then woke up with a start.
The doll had moved.
For a moment he wondered if this was a dream within his current one, or if his mind had switched gears entirely- until he felt a familiar warm, rough, wet tongue along his arm.
“Persian?”
Persian had crawled into the bed and laid down next to him sometime when he was sleeping.
“It's been four days. You can do better than that,” he said. Persian looked at him confused, then noticed his smile.
“Don't ever scare me like that again, understood?”
The cat replied with a nuzzle as he snuggled down in his lap and purred.
“Good.”
EPILOGUE
Zager knocked on the door nervously.
“Zager, I know it's you. Just get in here.”
The doctor slunk in.
“Close the door, Zager.”
That was almost never a good sign. Zager obeyed, taking care to see it was latched. Might as well go all the way, he figured.
“Sir, I'm sorry we still haven't found Persian yet....” he said, knowing the question was basically inevitable anyway.
“Whatever are you talking about, Zager? He's right here.” Giovanni pointed to the fuzzball curled up happily alongside him.
Zager did a double take. “Oh,” he said. “Good to know.”
“Now, what do you want this time,” he asked.
“It's about the Heart of Keldeo project,” Zager said. “I'm afraid it'll take longer than I initially expected. There's still a great deal of research to be done on the stone.”
“Call it off, Gabriel,” Giovanni quickly cut him off.
Zager was dumbfounded. After all the money he poured into it? And time? And nearly being killed and losing his best friend in the process?
“Excuse me, sir?”
“I think I made myself fairly clear. I said, call it off. I've decided the time you're currently spending on the project can be spent better on other ones. Ones that aren't so heavily based in ridiculous superstition and legend as this one, Zager.”
So he was, then. And Zager didn't really have much say in the matter, and he knew that.
“I'll cease all work on this immediately,” he said. “I'm... really sorry. What happened with Persian,” he sputtered out. “And happy to see him back,” he added.
“You're forgiven,” Giovanni replied. “Barely. I won't let you off so easy if you ever make a mistake that stupid again, though, Zager. Consider this your warning.”
Zager nodded.
“Now, if you would kindly get out. I don't want to see you again until I'm out of this infernal bed. And if you see the secretary on your way back to the laboratory, tell her I could use some lunch and a bowl of milk for Persian please.”
“Yes, sir,” Zager replied. Things went better than expected...
Zager left, and Giovanni had the vague suspicion despite his best efforts, he'd probably see the mad doctor sooner than he specified.
The truth was, Giovanni had lied to Zager. He truly did believe the Heart of Keldeo was fed by human kindness. And that was precisely why he called off work on the project.
His fragment glowed brightest when he recalled the fondest memories of his days with Persian. The lights flickering upon receiving the collar removed any doubt he had of the stone's properties. He had little doubt it was the stone's properties that led Persian back to him as well.
The Heart would never work in a setting like the one he oversaw. There were some genuinely trustworthy people within Team Rocket, of course, but the majority were the last kind who provided any kind of concern for others. Backstabbing, distrust, lies, every deadly sin, he'd been treated in his lifetime to a parade of the worst of humanity. And he knew that all of that was something that extended outside the walls of any secret lair in a remote location. The Heart was an artifact that would only ever truly work in a utopian setting, and with the state of things, those were few and far between.
Humanity, when it came down to it, was for the most part disgusting, vile, and not to be trusted. Even he was complicit in much of the disgusting and vile. It was an inalienable truth that humanity was an imperfect species, incompetent at best, dangerous at worst, and one he had lived his life and operated Team Rocket around.
And yet, in spite of all this, he still had Persian. That one he could always confide in. The friend he always knew he could turn to. Even if he wasn't human.
In the end, true friendship was a rare and powerful thing. One that could bridge gaps in distance, time, even species.
He reached down and petted Persian, relieved he could finally do so and actually have a cat there to do it to.
“It's good to have you back around,” he said.
~
A few days passed, and Giovanni's injuries had recovered to the point he could move about in a wheelchair, enabling him to return to his office and in general, business as usual. Along with that came a return to the mountains of paperwork that he had previously sought to escape, but paperwork itself had never landed him in an infirmary room for several days, and in hindsight, he was grateful for this fact.
Zager had moved on to a new project, one that didn't involve any temples or artifacts. Following a brief and tense meeting with both his bosses- Sebastian and Giovanni- it had been agreed upon by a two-thirds majority that any business that came with the potential risk of traps was strictly verboten as far as the doctor was concerned. Gabriel Zager was not in the two-thirds.
The secretary continued about her business as she had before the incident stuck her in the role of impromptu caretaker. Although she still took rather sadistic pleasure in her job of dealing with the group of incompetents assigned to the Unova branch, she missed having someone to look after.
She returned to her office one day, shortly after lunch, to find what looked like a small knit Ratatta toy lying on the floor in the doorway. There was only one possible source.
Stacia felt a cold, wet nose running up and down her leg. She looked down and saw a familiar whiskered face.
“Mrow?” he said, big eyes looking into hers.
“You wanted me to have this, didn't you?” she asked, scratching him behind the ears.
“Mrow,” he replied plainly, nodding at her. She noticed something new around his neck. A small, smooth, polished pink gem dangled from his new collar, bought to replace the one damaged during the aftermath of the mission.
Stacia admired it for a moment, then picked up the toy Rattata, still smelling of old Pokenip, and unlocked the door to her office.
His work done, Persian turned and strutted away, returning to the office that he called his home. Giovanni was absorbed in a large folder of paperwork, looking fatigued. Persian slunk up to his side and licked the fingers of his left hand, still in its cast, and a hand scratched him behind his ears in repayment.
A glint caught Persian's eye, and he noticed that Giovanni had a necklace with the same crystal as his collar.
His journeying would have to briefly be put on pause, though, as the raindrops pounded the trail and Persian was forced to seek shelter in a tiny niche carved out by time and maybe a previous traveler or Pokemon, away from the cold water and high winds he hated and dreaded so much.
It was good he made it as far as he did before the rains came, he thought. Rain washed away smells and though brief the initial human smells- they were mixed with the smells of the other humans, but it was still enough- pointed Persian in the right direction, at the least. He'd managed to cover decent ground for the day, all things considered. But after the storm passed, he'd have lost one of the senses guiding him on his way, with a fresh trail and only the smell of rain for his nose. This was going to make things slightly more difficult- his long whiskers, huge ears, shiny gem, and soft, leathery paws were all sensitive enough to keep him on track, but without his powerful nose, he'd still face significant impairment.
And that was discounting all the dangers that remained. Persian's only injury was that from the nasty Stone Edge he'd taken in the temple, but there were still likely to be dangerous Pokemon out and about along the way and this time, it was only him and his cat wits.
As he curled up in the cool walls of the shelter, wrapping his tail around him, he laid his head down sadly, remembering what led up to this. Bits of rock hit him on his head, disorienting him, blurring his vision, and he was just so scared and panicked that when one of the humans reached out to him, his flight instincts kicked in and he ran... and didn't realize they were with his human until he saw the human's helicopter flying away...
He wished instinct hadn't taken over back there, and that he'd followed behind the weird human in the white coat... now his human was alone, and probably hurt, and he wasn't there to take care of him and make sure he felt okay.
Dad... I'm sorry I ran away, I'm sorry I didn't go with them, Dad. I'm going to find you...stay okay, Dad, please...
Persian laid his head down, yowling sadly, ready to sleep, when a warm feeling swept over him, in spite of the cold winds and rains just outside of his hiding spot. Not just any warmth- human warmth.
His human was out there somewhere, and he was longing for him. And Persian was going to find him.
~
When Giovanni woke up, he was still clutching the pink fragment and jacket close to him. His hand instinctually reached out for Persian sleeping nearby, but he drew it back upon remembering that the cat wasn't there.
Someone had clearly been in overnight- the teapot and saucer from earlier were gone, replaced by a coffee pot and mug, two slices of toast with a small jar of Berry preserves and a little butter, an apple, and some pills- he was unsure what these were for until noticing the IV from earlier was gone, so probably painkillers. He reasoned it was the secretary leaving him some breakfast and got to work pouring coffee into the mug. Adjusting to being able to use only one hand was going to take him some time. It occurred to him he could just as easily keep someone around to do tasks like pouring drinks for him, but at this point he enjoyed whatever privacy he could get when nurses weren't tending to him and the secretary wasn't checking in. He knew it would only be a matter of time before word spread and people would be lined up outside wanting a chance to try and suck up with their supposed “sympathy” and he wasn't going to have any of it.
Giovanni took the pills, slurping down half the mug of coffee, and got to working at the toast. His mind wandered to the matter of Zager and what was to be done with him.
On the one hand, Zager had technically done no wrong aside from screwing up on the trap count. The incident that led to Persian's disappearance was a freak one- Persian merely acted upon instinct, and had he not been terrified and skittish following trauma like he experienced, would have followed Zager and whoever was carrying Giovanni back to the helicopter.
On the other hand... had Zager bothered to look into the Pokemon that might be within the temple, the Golurk would have never been angered in the first place, and none of this mess would have even happened...
Zager's carelessness was ultimately responsible for this, either way. And he needed to be dealt with.
Giovanni closed his eyes and began thinking of something to do with the white-haired man, when there was another knock on the door.
That must be Matori.
“Come in.”
The secretary walked in, closing the door behind her.
“Is everything alright, sir?” she asked him. She was carrying a folder.
Folders were never a good sign.
“I'm feeling better than I did yesterday,” he said. “Breakfast helped. The coffee was good as always, Stacia.”
The purple haired woman blushed. She never did well with compliments, especially from him. Now was the time for business, though.
The secretary approached the bedside table cautiously and laid down the folder. There was a very nice pen clipped to the front.
Giovanni knew what was coming.
“These are some of the papers you need to catch up on,” she said. “As well as the ones already here. Please sir, take your time, though.”
Even with the polite delivery, his stomach turned. Three broken limbs wasn't worthy of a get-out-of-paperwork free pass?
Paperwork got him here... and it wouldn't let him forget it existed. In the end, paper ruled the world. Some errant part of his mind mused that the next project he should explore was claiming all the trees for Team Rocket and control the world's paper supply- at least there are no Golurk in the forest, he reasoned- but he quickly recognized the utter absurdity of the idea and dismissed it.
And yet, the secretary's polite manner and genuine concern brightened everything, somehow.
“I'll do what I can.”
Something else on the table caught his eye. The stone fragment was glowing softly. Not just from the sunlight filtering through the window, truly illuminated from inside.
..Glowing? But that was ridiculous... there was no way...
He stared at it, and naturally, the secretary's gaze covertly found its way there as well.
“What's that?” she finally asked.
It's not all in my head, he thought. She sees it too.
He quickly snatched the fragment off the table with his hand and hid it from her sight.
“It's... a get well present. From an agent.”
The secretary just blinked. Again, she suspected that he was hiding something from her.
“You can go now,” he said, feeling her uneasiness.
She bowed slightly, turned, and left as quietly as she'd slunk into the room.
Something is not right in there, she thought, stalking the hallway, as agents pretended to be busy as she passed. Normally she'd savor the feeling of power this gave her. Today, though...
The room felt emptier, the last two days. That cat.
That cat was always with him.
And he wasn't this time.
Of all times for Giovanni to have a cat around, wouldn't this be a logical one?
She thought back to passing Zager on his way out in the hall the day before. Despite Zager's eccentricity, he was still held in fairly high regard. Not much could prompt the boss to say something to Zager to get him in the mental state the secretary had seen him in yesterday. And she knew that despite some snags, the mission went over well...
The cat.
Zager must have had to break it to Giovanni that the cat was gone. Dead?
No, if Persian was confirmed dead, Zager wouldn't be walking, period. That much the secretary knew.
He must have been lost on the mission.
No wonder he seemed so distant. All the time there in his office and she'd picked up a definite bond between the two, one that was more than just friendship.
It was symbiosis.
He needed that cat. And Stacia Matori realized that until he had something to fill that space that Persian's absence left, he just wouldn't heal.
~
Feet walked down the mountain path, as the rain continued battering the area, and the cat hiding in the small niche slept through the loud noises, regaining energy for the rest of the journey...
“Do you see it anywhere?”
“No, I haven't seen anything out here, I can't imagine much of any Pokemon that lives in the mountains would be out during a rainstorm, much less a cat.”
“Well, keep your eyes open. It might be under a tree or something for shelter.”
~
Giovanni was sitting up in bed now, folders propped up on his lap, pen held tightly. Funny how of all the things he broke, it was his writing hand that came out unscathed. Almost too convenient.
Once in a while his left arm, hand still encased in the cast on his wrist, would involuntarily drift downward to where it would usually find Persian sitting beside him to scratch his ears. The fact his hand slipped into actions that really only worked while sitting at a desk was strange enough; what was most striking to him was just how reliant upon Persian he was, that not having him at his side had the effect of a phantom limb. It made the monotonous task that much worse.
He laid down the open folder and rolled the stone fragment around in his hand. It had become a comfort item of sorts to him, and he couldn't get past the strange reassurance holding it gave him, not just in a “remember that this happened” way, but that it almost felt as though Persian wasn't miles away, who-knows-where. When he held it tightly, that unbreakable bond the two of them shared together was there, and the emptiness Persian's absence left seemed to dissipate.
And the glow. Lately it seemed to glow the more fondly he thought of Persian. The secretary seeing it too confirmed it wasn't a painkiller-induced hallucination.
He wondered about it. He knew the Heart converted good feelings into energy, but was it possible it also served as a link? Fond memories were onesided; he couldn't imagine it was capable of seemingly generating heat and light unless it truly was linking him with Persian on some level. He took a startling amount of reassurance from this, as ridiculous as it seemed to his skeptical side. Truthfully, he doubted the claims of supernatural traits associated with the Heart, as did Sebastian and Zager, and figured it was merely a chemical reaction of some kind that would be easily synthesized within a lab.
Footsteps. Footsteps that were uncomfortably close to him. The interruption was unwanted, but he supposed it was to be expected. He stashed the fragment under his pillow and looked to the source of the sound.
“Zager.”
“Afternoon.”
Zager had invited himself in, and held a clipboard. His labcoat was a little bit crooked and his shirt open on the top button and rumpled, giving him his typical unkempt look.
“What are you doing in here, Zager?”
“I'm here to update you on the status of the project, sir.”
Giovanni's left fist clenched as well as it could encased in the wrist cast.
“Zager, as the record stands now, in the last 72 hours you have nearly botched an entire mission on account of golems, annoyed the everloving shit out of me, and indirectly been responsible for the loss of my cat. What exactly gave you the idea it would be okay to just waltz into my room like this without so much as knocking?”
My room. No, this wasn't his room at all. It was an impersonal room with things added here and there to make it something like comfortable. His room was in his house in Viridian, a place that seemed only a memory now. His room was his living room, in front of the fireplace, with a mug of hot tea and Persian on his lap. His room was his bedroom, with Persian curled up beside him every night. This, though, this wasn't his room. Maybe it would be more suited to that title with his best friend at his side again, but until then...
“The door was open.”
“That's not an invitation, Zager,” he replied, now clenching his fist so hard his recovering wrist ached. “I suppose you may as well get on with it, then. What's the status?”
“We've not yet found just how to trigger the stone's properties,” Zager said. “We've hooked it up to all manner of machines, we've exposed it to various types, we've tried taking samples to analyze the chemical makeup. Perhaps once the results come in we'll have a better grasp on just what makes the stone tick.”
“Have you tried exposing it to various Pokemon? It's possible that those Golurk served a greater purpose than guarding things.”
“What are you saying?”
“I'm no man of science beyond senior year chemistry, Zager, but with all this talk of chemical reactions and radiation, I wouldn't doubt that however this thing ended up being a generator, Pokemon might have had something to do with it. Either their composition or some attack.”
“We did retrieve a few of those Golurk,” Zager said. “I'll begin running tests immediately.”
“Get a few other Pokemon native to the area while you're at it. You're bound to hit on something sooner or later.”
“Yes sir,” Zager replied.
“One more thing, Zager. How is the search for Persian progressing?”
Zager began to sweat a little. “I sent some of them out to find him, but they came back empty handed.. they did bring this, though.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small leather collar with a silver tag and a single diamond stud. Persian's collar.
Giovanni snatched it out of his hand. Here was the smallest bit of hope that things would turn out alright...
“He's clearly looking to come back, if he made it this far before losing the collar.”
Zager waited for a response, but Giovanni just stared at the collar in his hands. “Thank you, Gabriel... now just finish the job and you may find your way back into my good graces.”
Gabriel? It was highly unusual for Giovanni to address others by their first name... Zager was frankly surprised he even remembered he had a first name.
And was he shaking? The scientist wondered if he'd just done something wrong by taking out the collar.
“Zager, you can go now. I need some time alone.”
Zager nodded and left. I didn't know he'd take it THIS hard, he thought. He'd been wracked with guilt over this the past few days and this encounter certainly didn't help much.
Giovanni ran his hand over the collar, and under his pillow, the stone began to glow more intensely. He pulled the stone out, and it was almost hot to the touch.
This isn't normal.
He put it down on the table, then went back to stroking the collar, the closest he'd come for now to stroking Persian.
The stone's glow became even more intense and the lights flickered off and then back on in his room, as well as throughout the infirmary wing.
Nurses scurried back and forth in a panic while he tried to process just what happened. It was just coincidence, yes...
The tranquilizing effect of the painkillers was kicking in again, and Giovanni found himself unable to stay awake... His head full of fond memories with Persian, he drifted back to sleep, the collar still grasped tightly in his hand.
~
Persian took a sniff at his surroundings. He'd been spending much of the day continuing to follow his instinct back home.
When he awoke, he'd smelled something familiar, very faint from the rains earlier washing it away, but enough to keep him on path. Now, however, the smell had finally worn down, and Persian was on his own.
He'd made the mistake earlier of bothering a nest of Rattata. Chasing the errant Rattata that had escaped from the laboratory was a favorite pastime of Persian during those boring late hours at headquarters.
The Rattata at headquarters didn't have vicious Raticate guarding the nests. He'd failed to take this into account.
Three had attacked, all at once. The first one was easy enough to take out with a well-aimed Slash, but its defeat only served to anger the other two. Those Raticate attacked together, giving Persian quite the challenge. Wild Pokemon, without the direction of a trainer during battle, had a certain viciousness to them that took a moment or two for Persian to re-adjust to. He still had much of the instinct in him from his days as a wild Persian in Viridian Forest years ago before the human befriended him, but since his human's time running the Gym, he'd grown accustomed to the controlled nature of trainer battles.
The two Raticate, in this case, aimed surprisingly strong Tackles at him, one from behind and without warning. The first one, attacking from the front, Persian thought he had in the bag, until the second bit his tail, causing him cry out in pain. Persian shook this Raticate off and pounced on it, hitting it with a super-powered Slash from his left claw, growling at the other Raticate in warning. The Raticate ignored it, aiming to hit Persian with what looked like a Hyper Fang, but Persian, now on his game, dodged it, causing Raticate's massive front teeth to get stuck in the soft ground below. Persian's coup de grace was a final Slash, leaving the Raticate easily knocked out.
The battle distracted Persian for a moment from his troubles and left him feeling powerful and confident enough to press on for a few hours. He'd managed to find Berry bushes along the way with delicious Leppa Berries- his favorite- to keep him fed, but he couldn't live on Berries. He longed for his gourmet cat food and bowls of cream like back home. The good life had spoiled Persian, and having to wander his way back home awakened him to just how nice he had it.
At the same time, he was pleased to still have his wild instincts fully intact. It made him wish his human was there to see.
And for a moment, it felt like he was. A feeling washed over Persian, a feeling like he was with the human again... Persian purred, for the first time in a long time. There was no question the human was with him... just far away, but they were still as together as if Persian was right there on his lap.
He knew which way to go now. It was just a matter of making it there.
And nothing would hold Persian back from doing so. He'd fight a hundred more Raticate, or worse, if it meant being with his human.
~
The secretary was in a gift shop now, a small one in a town nearby headquarters. It was a bit of a drive and it'd be a miracle if she made it back in time to head off a possible catastrophe with the typical problem agents. Word had been spreading around HQ of Giovanni's predicament and already her office was flooded with various presents from those hoping to score a promotion or pay raise.
A display of handmade Pokemon dolls was set up near the back of the store. She collected these; very few people realized that the seemingly coldhearted, impassive woman had shelves covered in the soft, adorable toys. They were made of finest Mareep wool felt, hand-sewn, with painstakingly embroidered detail and button eyes. Each one was one of a kind.
She dug through the shelf, until she found the familiar long, yellow form of Persian and picked it out of the stack. The forehead charm was made of smooth, polished red glass and gleamed in the light.
This was the one. She hoped this would work to at least heal a little of the loneliness. She knew a plush was nothing like the real thing, but having something to hold and touch as a reminder...
The secretary went to the checkout and paid for the doll, then returned to the car and sat it in the front seat.
This is so silly, though... she thought. Will someone like him really want a stuffed doll to make him feel better?
But there was something she couldn't explain about the two of them and their extraordinary closeness as friends. They shared the kind of bond she'd rarely seen, especially among the rogues she dealt with on a day to day basis. A kind of deep trust where they didn't even need words.
She remembered a legend she'd learned in college about the stone of a Persian giving them enhanced senses. A sort of sixth sense. That Persian could even see ghosts in a room, in some cases. That they could feel their owner's presence before they even entered a room. The gem served as an overall amplifier for Persian's already sensitive whiskers, ears, and nose.
Maybe it worked both ways. Maybe the gem wasn't just a receiver, but a transmitter as well.
And maybe, just maybe, giving Giovanni the plush would make that bond even stronger before they were physically reunited. Her job was to bring him anything he needed while his injuries healed, and since she couldn't bring him the actual Persian, the best she could do was give him the next best thing.
~
Zager sat at his desk, his head aching from everything he was dealing with at the moment so badly he wished he could have some of the super-strong painkillers Giovanni had been taking. It was late at night, and the project was turning up no results. He'd brought the Golurk in, tried everything. Sent out grunts to do a complete inventory of Pokemon in the area, tried all of them, no use.
Those Golurk had more meaning than he thought, he suspected... He remembered an important detail, one he'd neglected to tell Giovanni earlier.
Shortly after the helicopter flew away, the temple collapsed upon itself. A little more research later and Zager learned that the Golurk, aside from being a security system, were the temple's support... holding their place as the beams of the temple, assuring that anyone in the future who dared disturb their creators' sacred place would be taken with it, protecting the treasures within permanently from being disturbed.
In retrospect, they were all lucky Giovanni only disturbed the two, and likely that those served a sentry role. Giovanni captured them, preventing them from telling their comrades. Had they done so, Zager realized, the whole group of them would have died there in the collapse.
So the Golurk came after us in an attempt to take us out, he thought.
Zager opened a window on his computer and got to hacking the files of the Nacrene Museum's research wing, hoping to pick up a lead there. If he could find one anywhere, it'd be there...
~
Giovanni opened his eyes the next morning to find a stack of gifts sitting near his bed, on the table. They had found out.
He pulled a small package, off the top, and unwrapped it. It was a horribly garish silk tie. He wondered if he should be flattered by the gesture or insulted that whoever gave it to him- he frankly didn't care- thought his fashion sense was really that bad. Throwing the tie aside, he picked up another box. A solar-powered radio.
This was all useless junk, ultimately.
He'd just call the secretary in here to take it away and sell it all off. Except...
There was one box off to the side, one that was wrapped too nicely to be a present from the other suckups.
The worst that could happen was more soul-crushing disappointment. Not that his life hadn't been a constant parade of that the last few days, anyway.
He pulled one end of the ribbon wrapped around the box and then lifted the lid.
There was a Persian inside.
Not his, but a toy, and yet it still brought back fond feelings, even more deeply than the found collar had. The felty fabric lacked the soft, luxurious feel of Persian's fur, but to have his hands touching something that was so... organic... so living... in feel, and different from the sterile cotton and steel around him...
He put the found collar around the plush and petted it. It was silly, but it felt right, for some reason.
A part of him that had felt dead for so long reawakened, as he was convinced that there was not a plush Persian there underneath his hand, but flesh, blood, muscle, and fur, maybe not visible but there, somehow. And at the same time, the stone once again lit, brighter than before, this time completely taking out the infirmary wing's power. Fascinated, Giovanni snatched the stone up in his hand, dropping it just as quickly when the heat let off from it burned him.
The secretary came rushing into the room, forcing him to stash it under the pillow again.
“Are you okay, sir?” she asked, sounding panicked. “All the security systems have been checked, it doesn't look like this was any kind of enemy action.”
“I know it wasn't, Matori,” he replied. “I'm fine.” He continued stroking the doll absentmindedly. The secretary noticed this right away.
So he likes it, she thought.
“Did you give me this?” he asked her abruptly, as the backup power generators hummed on.
She blushed. She didn't want him to get the wrong idea or anything, of course that would be improper, whatever might be implied by it...
“Er,” she said. “I thought it would make you feel better.”
“Thank you, Matori,” he said. He could feel the heat radiating from his pillow towards him now, a sensation not unlike an electric blanket. The stone was really going now... He hoped it wasn't enough to lead the pillow to catch on fire- he couldn't explain THAT one away.
“It was nothing, sir.. is something wrong?”
“No, nothing's wrong... I'm just...” he dug about in his head for a good excuse- “tired. Take all that trash from the others out,” he said to her, pointing to the stack of unopened and unwanted gifts. “Throw it away, sell it, I don't care, just get rid of it all.”
The secretary nodded to him. She briefly disappeared to a nearby supply closet then returned with a garbage bag then got to gathering up the presents and putting them inside.
“I'll burn them at once, sir,” she said.
Well, that's excessive, Giovanni thought. Then again, it was to be expected from someone as terrifyingly calculating as her... Even for him, burning stuff she could probably turn a few dollars off of seemed overkill.
“That will be sufficient too,” he replied.
“Is there anything else?” she asked.
“I'll be fine for now.” He waved her away and she got the message, hauling the bag out with her.
From through the open window, Giovanni heard a loud fwoosh followed by the crackling of a fire and what sounded vaguely like schoolgirlish giggling.
She wasn't kidding.
~
Persian was running for his life now. A flock of Unfezant and Tranquill were behind him, in pursuit. It was a bad idea in retrospect to raid that nest for eggs, but Persian was hungry and in cats, hunger often won out over logic.
He was too tired out to battle. And home- what passed for it at the moment- was close. He could feel the human petting him, cuddling him, giving him love.
Calling for him. He needed his help now, and Persian needed the human's too.
He didn't remember flocks ever being this big before.
Maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was nearly three days making his way home, three days following the sensations of need from his human he felt so plainly in his whiskers and gem, three days that the one thing keeping him going, more than the scarce catnaps and food, was the knowledge that his human was without him in a time of need.
That survival mechanism that humans and Pokemon both had in common. The one called love.
The lead Unfezant bore down on him and Persian panicked a little. He was weak enough that if Unfezant got in a hit, he'd be out for a while, his human without him even longer, himself open up to poachers- Persian were oh so rare in Unova and valuable too, fetching high prices on the black market- and whatever other threats might be there.
More importantly, his human needed him.
He remembered the day decades ago, the day he defended his human from the Beedrill. The day he willingly threw himself to them all to keep his companion safe. The stings and the sores they left, and how painful and long his recovery was...
But his human stayed at his side through it all. And was there when he woke up and finally saw the world normally again, there was the human.
And he knew that the human had returned that favor to him back there at the temple. Even if they were separated, it was merely physical...
He couldn't waste another moment. To be lying on the ground helplessly while his human needed him was not an option.
He would summon the strength that was love and trust and land a blow on the Unfezant. For him. For the human.
Persian stopped dead in his tracks, then turned to face the lead Unfezant, who was startled by this show of assertion and flapped in the air for a moment, as he hissed and snarled in warning.
Unfezant turned its head and nodded to the other birds, who surrounded Persian on all sides as the leader raised his wings in preparation for a powerful Razor Wind.
For a fleeting second, Persian's mind drifted off to that day in Viridian Forest. The day he'd been cornered in the same way by the Beedrill.
The day he could have fought back, but didn't. The day he simply protected his human- because that's all he could do then.
Now was different. The human had grown and so had Persian. And this was his chance to prove himself, to right what he could have done back there in Viridian Forest so long ago. Persian bared his claws and teeth, his fur standing on end.
He was unafraid of what was to come now.
As the Razor Wind sped toward Persian, he leapt just before it connected. The blow left a huge crater in the ground as Persian's strong legs propelled him towards Unfezant, his claws and teeth ready to act. Something savage had reawakened inside of Persian, and it had taken control of him. Unfezant took to the ground, in an attempt to escape Persian's counterattack, but one of the cat's huge claws grazed him, sending him to the ground.
Unfezant raised its good wing, directing his flock to attack Persian in tandem. Persian managed to dodge the group hit- why didn't they scatter, he wondered- by rolling out of the way, then taking them on one by one. The flock was fairly weak, compared to its leader, and Persian was able to tire them out fairly promptly.
It was soon down to Persian against Unfezant. The Unfezant that seemed to clearly be the mother of the egg Persian had attempted to make a snack of. He was unsure how this battle would end... fighting off the rest of the flock was tiring..
Persian raised a single claw in preparation for whatever Unfezant had coming, as Unfezant prepared her next attack...
“Persian, you've come along enough now that I think I can teach you this move. It's a risky attack to teach Persian, though, so you must never use it unless it's to protect you or myself. Can you promise me that?”
“Mrow.”
“Then it's time I used this present from Mother.” The boy pulled out a box containing a new kind of technology very few had ever used- a Technical Machine. A way to teach Pokemon attacks they couldn't learn naturally. Inside the box was a shiny plastic disc.
“Set the machine on the head, and... Persian are you ready?”
Persian meowed back an affirmation.
“Then it's time to learn Thunderbolt.” He set the disc on Persian's head and a for a brief moment, Persian's eyes brightened and the disc glowed as his mind absorbed the information on the disc. The device went dim and fell off Persian's head, and the cat sat disoriented for a brief moment before finally coming to.
“Did it work, Persian?” he asked. “Try hitting that stick with a Thunderbolt now!”
Persian didn't quite understand what a Thunderbolt was, but he managed to summon a weak one from himself anyway. The bolt of lightning hit the twig, setting it ablaze until it quickly extinguished itself in a pile of ashes.
“It works! You know Thunderbolt now, I'm so proud of you,” he said, hugging the cat. “Remember, you can get easily exhausted using it, so only use it when I said, understand?”
He nodded back. He understood. This was a move, a thing too special to use in ordinary battles. This was more than an attack. It was a mark of the friendship between the two he'd always have now.
Persian watched as the Unfezant advanced. Yes, he was tired. Running on empty. But he had to do something, anything. This wasn't how he was going to go down when he was so close.
As his avian adversary dive-bombed with a Sky Attack, Persian reared off the ground, a ball of static from his fur gathering in his paws and his eyes glowing yellow. Unfezant continued her descent.
Seconds mattered now.
Three yards away...
Two yards away...
One yard...
Persian finally unleashed the massive ball from his paws, sending it flying at the Unfezant, making a direct hit, causing the Flying-type Pokemon to hit the ground, scorched feathers still crackling.
It was over.
Nothing could stop Persian from getting home now. Just a short walk more... Persian felt his paws growing heavier...
The Thunderbolt had taken a lot of it out of him. Still, he couldn't have fired off his most powerful attack, his secret weapon, for nothing.
He could make it up the cliff Unova headquarters sat atop. He knew he could. He'd be back there, back home, before he knew it.
Before he knew it...
~
Zager finally hit on it. A file of translated records from the people who'd built the temple. The very advanced for their time people.
The Golurk weren't just a support and security system for the Heart of Keldeo. They were part of an entire generator system that powered the whole area.
When created, the Golurk had been filled with the warm wishes and intent of all the townspeople in gratitude for helping power their civilization. The Heart was more powerful than thought- not only could it create power from well-wishes, but it also served as a sensitive absorber and amplifier of these feelings, turning them into needed energy, light, and heat via small fragments of the stone found in every home. The Golurk ultimately served as a means of feeding the necessary feelings to keep the main unit housed in the temple running. In short, these people had used the rare gem, unearthed by pure chance not far from where the village was founded, to create a supremely sophisticated power generation system without need of motors or lines of any type- a feat that impressed even Zager. If they could just figure out how to harness or even synthesize power on that level...
For five centuries this village dwelled peacefully off the power provided to them by the great rose-colored gemstone, safely tucked away out of reach of others in the mountains.
Until a century before Team Rocket even approached the hallowed ground, Zager had learned during his research prior to the mission, in an article from an old journal of Unovan anthropology. A group of explorers had discovered this small village, and spent a few days living there, when they learned of the strange pink stones that every family kept in their house, stones that gave them the essentials for civilization. Unfortunately for the village, the explorers were greedy and realized the potential for money to be made from the technology.
A day after their visitors left, the village was invaded by a small army the explorers had gathered, with the instructions to take the stones and raze everything to the ground. Forced out of their home and robbed of their civilization's lifeblood, the villagers were forced to find homes among the rest of civilization, driving their culture to extinction.
The one thing that the explorers weren't aware of was what they'd left- the temple and the treasure essential to powering everything. To the people of the village, the temple was far too sacred a resource to let outsiders in on, so they neglected to tell the explorers. And so, until a small group of anthropologists discovered it, the temple and culture as a whole was unknown, the temple being the only remnant of a society that was brought down by human greed, left undisturbed out of respect for the dead culture...
Not anymore, Zager thought. And to think he was responsible for all the culture had vanishing from reach forever. Normally a man would feel guilt for something like this... but for Zager, it was almost as though he, of all people, was singlehandedly responsible for closing the book completely on one of the great civilizations of Unova. In a way, he found it almost romantic.
All of this explained why despite their best efforts, Zager's team was unable to activate the stone's powers. It was dependent upon the Golurk team itself, to amplify the good wishes and intent of those around, if results were wanted. And without the people of the society there to produce the goodwill needed for the main device...
No. Metaphysical claptrap. All of it. Some comparable force could be surely found to power the stone, and the stone itself had a chemical makeup that could be synthesized... short of that, mind control or hypnosis technology to induce the state necessary for mass energy generation could work, Zager reasoned. So the project would take some more research. That was a variable to be expected in the scientific discipline, and one any man of science would take for granted. The pursuit of knowledge was never an easy one.
How was he going to explain this to Giovanni... first he had to break the news that the cat went missing, and now he was tasked with explaining that that project a fairly good amount of funding had been dumped into was going to take longer than expected to produce results, if at all...
Tactfully. That was how. Honesty was the best policy, even when you were up shit creek without a paddle and there was a waterfall ahead. And to be fair, there wasn't much lower he could be right now. Short of making “Lost Persian” posters, Zager had done everything he could think of to find Persian.
Zager took a swig from the flask on his desk. It was full of the cheapest booze he could find, because when dealing in the mental stress science brought about, taste didn't matter so much as bringing your brain some needed peace. A little courage before he went to be the bearer of bad news was always a nice thing...
~
The secretary was making her way back into the HQ building, garbage bag of ashes in hand from the bonfire that had gone out just a few moments ago.
Something made her head turn. A mewling noise. A noise that, upon further inspection, seemed to be coming from a yellow fuzzy lump on the ground a few yards away.
She approached the source of the mewling cautiously, only to find it had ears, whiskers, and a tail.
Persian.
These things, the secretary knew. One, Persian were rare in Unova, to the point that ever since she started watching Unova evening news on her arrival in the region with Team Rocket, not a week went by without hearing a story about police breaking up a Persian trafficking or poaching ring.
Two, the boss had lost his Persian in the mountains, and,
Three, this Persian seemed well-fed, despite having collapsed from fatigue, and she doubted any other Persian would have a reason to be at this remote location. The conditions around were absolutely not the favored lush forest settings of the species. Based on items one and two, there was little doubt this was a very special Persian...
Persian was big and the secretary was a bit on the short side. Still, she couldn't just leave this Persian here, Giovanni's or not. It was little-known that she had a weakness for cute things, one she tried her hardest to hide- it didn't do her terrifying persona she was known for any favors- and she'd jump at the chance to rescue any Persian.
The secretary carefully scooped up the cat in her arms- nearly as long as she was- and carried him up to the doorway. She'd retrieve her bag of ashes later, she reasoned.
The trip to her office was long but the feeling of the warm, furry cat in her arms did a good job masking the discomfort Persian's size gave her. Once in her office, she laid the cat on her desk.
“Don't wake up or get any ideas while I'm gone,” she said to the unconcious feline, leaving for a moment and returning with a bottle of Super Potion. She sprayed Persian with it and the cat opened his eyes to look around the room.
“Mrrrow?” he asked, big red eyes staring into the secretary's. A few hairs on his tail stood up straight. This place was familiar... this office... he'd been in here with the human so many times before...
Home. He was home. But this wasn't Giovanni... this was that other human who always hung around him. He liked her. She brought him dishes of cream.
“Is everything okay?” she asked. “It's just me, Persian. You know, me?” She extended a hand to him, and he sniffed at it. “I bring your owner coffee and things... I'm a friend,” she said, unsure if Persian even understood a word she was saying. “He was injured protecting you back there.”
Persian's ears went back slightly with sadness. He always assumed such a fate, but knowing it actually happened... for him...
The human did it to repay him for what he'd done in the forest so long ago...
“Mrow?”
“He's in recovery now, and he misses you,” she said. “Follow me, I'll take you to him.” She scratched Persian behind the ears reassuringly.
Persian stood up, then leapt from the desk to the floor, walking just behind her, tail wagging happily.
~
It was a rare day that Giovanni dreamt while sleeping, and it had been that way for years. Reality had made life strange enough that his mind didn't have to work overtime while he slept.
But in his latest medication-induced slumber, visions replayed of that moment in Viridian Forest- visions with the Beedrill there.
Only this time, Persian fought the Beedrill. And they never had to spend anxious nights in the Pokemon Center, never had to fear that they'd be separated for good... and then he realized that the boy he watched hiding behind Persian wore casts on his arm and feet. And wasn't a boy at all.
He was watching himself. In the present.
Giovanni subconsciously embraced the Persian doll beside him tightly, then woke up with a start.
The doll had moved.
For a moment he wondered if this was a dream within his current one, or if his mind had switched gears entirely- until he felt a familiar warm, rough, wet tongue along his arm.
“Persian?”
Persian had crawled into the bed and laid down next to him sometime when he was sleeping.
“It's been four days. You can do better than that,” he said. Persian looked at him confused, then noticed his smile.
“Don't ever scare me like that again, understood?”
The cat replied with a nuzzle as he snuggled down in his lap and purred.
“Good.”
EPILOGUE
Zager knocked on the door nervously.
“Zager, I know it's you. Just get in here.”
The doctor slunk in.
“Close the door, Zager.”
That was almost never a good sign. Zager obeyed, taking care to see it was latched. Might as well go all the way, he figured.
“Sir, I'm sorry we still haven't found Persian yet....” he said, knowing the question was basically inevitable anyway.
“Whatever are you talking about, Zager? He's right here.” Giovanni pointed to the fuzzball curled up happily alongside him.
Zager did a double take. “Oh,” he said. “Good to know.”
“Now, what do you want this time,” he asked.
“It's about the Heart of Keldeo project,” Zager said. “I'm afraid it'll take longer than I initially expected. There's still a great deal of research to be done on the stone.”
“Call it off, Gabriel,” Giovanni quickly cut him off.
Zager was dumbfounded. After all the money he poured into it? And time? And nearly being killed and losing his best friend in the process?
“Excuse me, sir?”
“I think I made myself fairly clear. I said, call it off. I've decided the time you're currently spending on the project can be spent better on other ones. Ones that aren't so heavily based in ridiculous superstition and legend as this one, Zager.”
So he was, then. And Zager didn't really have much say in the matter, and he knew that.
“I'll cease all work on this immediately,” he said. “I'm... really sorry. What happened with Persian,” he sputtered out. “And happy to see him back,” he added.
“You're forgiven,” Giovanni replied. “Barely. I won't let you off so easy if you ever make a mistake that stupid again, though, Zager. Consider this your warning.”
Zager nodded.
“Now, if you would kindly get out. I don't want to see you again until I'm out of this infernal bed. And if you see the secretary on your way back to the laboratory, tell her I could use some lunch and a bowl of milk for Persian please.”
“Yes, sir,” Zager replied. Things went better than expected...
Zager left, and Giovanni had the vague suspicion despite his best efforts, he'd probably see the mad doctor sooner than he specified.
The truth was, Giovanni had lied to Zager. He truly did believe the Heart of Keldeo was fed by human kindness. And that was precisely why he called off work on the project.
His fragment glowed brightest when he recalled the fondest memories of his days with Persian. The lights flickering upon receiving the collar removed any doubt he had of the stone's properties. He had little doubt it was the stone's properties that led Persian back to him as well.
The Heart would never work in a setting like the one he oversaw. There were some genuinely trustworthy people within Team Rocket, of course, but the majority were the last kind who provided any kind of concern for others. Backstabbing, distrust, lies, every deadly sin, he'd been treated in his lifetime to a parade of the worst of humanity. And he knew that all of that was something that extended outside the walls of any secret lair in a remote location. The Heart was an artifact that would only ever truly work in a utopian setting, and with the state of things, those were few and far between.
Humanity, when it came down to it, was for the most part disgusting, vile, and not to be trusted. Even he was complicit in much of the disgusting and vile. It was an inalienable truth that humanity was an imperfect species, incompetent at best, dangerous at worst, and one he had lived his life and operated Team Rocket around.
And yet, in spite of all this, he still had Persian. That one he could always confide in. The friend he always knew he could turn to. Even if he wasn't human.
In the end, true friendship was a rare and powerful thing. One that could bridge gaps in distance, time, even species.
He reached down and petted Persian, relieved he could finally do so and actually have a cat there to do it to.
“It's good to have you back around,” he said.
~
A few days passed, and Giovanni's injuries had recovered to the point he could move about in a wheelchair, enabling him to return to his office and in general, business as usual. Along with that came a return to the mountains of paperwork that he had previously sought to escape, but paperwork itself had never landed him in an infirmary room for several days, and in hindsight, he was grateful for this fact.
Zager had moved on to a new project, one that didn't involve any temples or artifacts. Following a brief and tense meeting with both his bosses- Sebastian and Giovanni- it had been agreed upon by a two-thirds majority that any business that came with the potential risk of traps was strictly verboten as far as the doctor was concerned. Gabriel Zager was not in the two-thirds.
The secretary continued about her business as she had before the incident stuck her in the role of impromptu caretaker. Although she still took rather sadistic pleasure in her job of dealing with the group of incompetents assigned to the Unova branch, she missed having someone to look after.
She returned to her office one day, shortly after lunch, to find what looked like a small knit Ratatta toy lying on the floor in the doorway. There was only one possible source.
Stacia felt a cold, wet nose running up and down her leg. She looked down and saw a familiar whiskered face.
“Mrow?” he said, big eyes looking into hers.
“You wanted me to have this, didn't you?” she asked, scratching him behind the ears.
“Mrow,” he replied plainly, nodding at her. She noticed something new around his neck. A small, smooth, polished pink gem dangled from his new collar, bought to replace the one damaged during the aftermath of the mission.
Stacia admired it for a moment, then picked up the toy Rattata, still smelling of old Pokenip, and unlocked the door to her office.
His work done, Persian turned and strutted away, returning to the office that he called his home. Giovanni was absorbed in a large folder of paperwork, looking fatigued. Persian slunk up to his side and licked the fingers of his left hand, still in its cast, and a hand scratched him behind his ears in repayment.
A glint caught Persian's eye, and he noticed that Giovanni had a necklace with the same crystal as his collar.