The Trial of Dreams and Memories (TMM 2)

Maria's Lullaby

Morai trudged up the stairs to find the area completely deserted. The taste of flesh and blood lingered on her tongue, and blood dripped down her chin onto the broken stone pathway. The trainer looked up at the disaster she had caused, a waterfall of white cascading down the mountain, leaving an eerie silence in its wake. 

"Where is everyone?" she whispered under her breath. She didn't bother to consider the question too long, as the possibility of escape had given her a small burst of energy. The captain was still unconscious in the boat, and she had no way to control it or him. She bowed her head, trying to clear her foggy memories of the area. She took the path leading east out of the village, past the Tapu's shrine. 

"Where is it now that all of this has happened?" she grumbled, albeit stepping carefully and quietly past the entrance. "It let me live, and I did this. I guess everyone has made that mistake with me recently. If Interpol finds me after all of this...what will Sheridan do to me, or have done to me?"

Morai shook the question out of her head again, determined to find the next step in the plan still forming in her head. She trod along into the dirt, passing a few motels that had been abandoned. Her body was tired, but they were still too out in the open for her liking. That is, until she heard a voice. 

"Hello, Champion," Giovanni said. Morai backtracked to find him standing in the doorway of the last hotel before the dessert. She squinted her eyes, questioning whether it was really the boss of Team Rocket or some hallucination created by her serum and exhaustion-addled brain. 

But then she remembered Fearow. And Maria. And how Maria was taken by Fearow. And how everyone this side of the island had seemingly disappeared. 

"What have you done with everyone?" she asked, almost drowsily. Her concern didn't really shine through in her voice. 

"Do you mean her?" Giovanni answered with a bigger smile, stepping to the side to reveal Maria. His arm was wrapped around her shoulder, a knife to her throat. At this, Morai seemed to find a new burst of energy. 

"Let her go!" she growled. "Or I'll rip you to shreds. Again."

"Come inside," Giovanni calmly answered. Morai sighed and did as requested, realizing that she didn't exactly have the upper hand. 

"I see you've already ripped someone to shreds," he continued, lowering his eyes to the lower half of her face. Once Morai was inside, he blocked the door, Maria at his side. He had pocketed his blade. Decidueye's Pokéball was on the opposite side of his belt, away from his own Pokémon. 

"Let me unlock those cuffs," he said. "Arceus knows I've learned how to pick those locks after years of being in my line of work."

Morai looked at him with apprehension. 

"Oh, come on. Unlike you, I don't bite."

Morai reluctantly turned around, eyeing him as he took the blade back out and began to maneuver it around the lock mechanisms.  

"I say, you put up quite the fight out there, like a true Team Rocket member would!" he laughed. "I guess they haven't been able to stamp out your fighting spirit in prison. That's good."

The serum's effects are at least semi-permanent, then, if she still looks like this after all this time. 

"I'm not a member of Team Rocket," Morai answered, quickly turning around and backing away once she was free. She tried to keep a strong structure, but she was struggling to stand up straight. "I thought I made that clear when I beat up your executives and drank your blood. I see your scars, by the way. How have you explained those away?"

"I haven't," Giovanni answered. "It would take away from Team Rocket's hard work in your creation. You did what you were supposed to do. You can rejoin Team Rocket, Morai, and put your life back on track to becoming the most feared and powerful trainer in the world. You can still crush your past under your own foot, leaving no memory but the terrifying bloodstained face of the true you."