Chapter One
The Origin of Jace Daarken



"Jace." Xavier murmured, "You have been chosen."

Jace stared deep into the cold, icy eyes of his father, Xavier, as he spoke to him. Xavier was always wore a jet black suit over a crisp white shirt and a tie, reflecting his past as a wealthy businessman. Now, he was the CEO of the most infamous criminal organization in modern history- Team Rocket.

After Giovanni mysteriously disappeared to discover the true meaning of power and leaving Team Rocket in the hands of the Executive Conference, Archer seized power in a coup upon his return from the Sevii Isles that deposed of many executives loyal to the old regime. Because of this, Archer wasn't either supported or respected by his peers or his underlings. When he abdicated the seat of CEO, no one was bold enough to fill the power gap left behind in fear of hurling the remnants of a nearly disbanded Team Rocket into oblivion. Enter Xavier.

Xavier was a staunch supporter and benefactor of Team Rocket even during the days of "Madame Boss", Giovanni's tyrannical but frugal mother who preceded him. He funneled large sums toward Team Rocket's treasury, enabling them to fund vast projects and far-reaching expeditions. He cut his aid during the leadership of Archer, having hated the executive even before his seizure of Team Rocket, and succeeded him in a swift coup after his abdication. Xavier changed everything. He turned Team Rocket from the street gang it had receded to and back into an interregional criminal superpower within a matter of three years. Xavier bribed prominent government officials into thwarting attempts to stop Team Rocket.

Jace, then eight-years-old, replied, "Yes, father."

Giovanni had personally chosen Jace and forty-nine other children of high-ranking Team Rocket members to be part of the WARHEAD Program, or WP. WP's goal was to turn the young children into machines of war. They were to learn various martial arts, how to utilize state-of-the-art technologies from firearms to Poke Balls, and, of course, how to win Pokemon battles. That was always the goal, to win Pokemon battles. Both Giovanni and Archer were defeated by young, charismatic, and energetic Pokemon trainers, not to mention Archie of Team Aqua, Maxie of Team Magma, and Cyrus of Team Galactic from distant regions, in addition to similar rumors of Unova's Team Plasma. Xavier would not stand to see it happen again.

"Jace, your training starts tomorrow." Xavier grunted coldly, "Do not embarrass me."

"No, father."

Little did anyone know that in three years time, Giovanni would abdicate his exalted position in favor of training like a hermit in the bowels of Tohjo Falls. Little did anyone know that three years time after that, Archer would attempt to call back Giovanni through the Goldenrod Radio Tower. Xavier knew it would not work. Giovanni was gone forever.

So seven years came and went. Jace and the other children trained rigorously, day in and day out. They took place at the Saffron Hideout. It was hidden in Saffron Underground, an abandoned and almost forgotten subterranean system of artificial tunnels, laboratories, fallout shelters, and military installations hundreds of times larger than Goldenrod Underground. The underground tunnels that connected cities on either side of Saffron City were only the tips of the iceberg. The trainees simulated daring raids and fought each other with both fists and Pokemon. Jace himself and been given three Pokemon over the years- Scyther, Gligar , and Spinarak. All three had evolved into Scizor, Gliscor, and Ariados, respectively, by the time Jace was fourteen years of age. They had grown strong in their years of rigorous training. Jace and his Pokemon, however, never graduated the decade-long program due to an unsettling warp on his perspective of Team Rocket.

Xavier knocked on the steel hatch of a door that enclosed Jace's modest, two-room dwelling. "Open."

Jace shuffled to the door and worked the rusty handle down so he could swing the door wide open. "Yes, father?"

"I have something to show you. Come with me."

Xavier and Jace wordlessly marched down the hallway. The floor was smooth, dull concrete, riddled with paper thin cracks that snaked across the width of the corridor and up the walls, which were infested with holes and loose wires poking from them. Father and son rode a cold, metallic elevator that had the feeling of a cage down several floors. After disembarking, they found themselves in a long hallway. At the end were four guards. Xavier nodded to them in turn as they swung open two double doors into Laboratory Q5.

Laboratory Q5 was a vault for horrible, unspeakable experiments, most of which are too gruesome to remember in full detail. The thing that struck Jace the most, however, was the cloning chamber.

"Father... what are they?" Jace gasped.

"Mewtwo." Xavier smiled sadistically.

More than two dozen cloning pods housed the generating biomasses of two dozen Mewtwo. Some had formed arms and legs, while others hadn't. Some had developed certain organs, while others hadn't. They were a hodgepodge of flesh and bone and sinew floating in chemical fluids. Jace approached one and stared into its unfeeling, expressionless face and wondered how Team Rocket could not be ashamed of this. A twenty-third cloning pod at the end of the chamber aroused Jace's interest. It was surrounded by mechanical pieces of equipment and tangles of wires marked with masking tape and Sharpies. Two scientists were scribbling notes and blocking Jace's line of sight while an engineer was adjusting screws and wiring. Eerie light emanated from alien circuits and bulbs.

"That," Xavier began, "is Team Rocket's glorious future... but it is not for your ears to hear or for your eyes to see. Yet.w Come, Jace. In time you will grow to understand and lead Team Rocket with an iron fist, like me." Xavier turned Jace around with a rough hand and escorted him from the cloning chamber. He never had the chance to see what lay inside the twenty-third cloning pod of Laboratory Q5.

That night, Jace and his loyal Pokemon escaped from Saffron Hideout through his own secret ways, never to return.