Snagged You

Author: Rio the FlowerofBlackFire

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: Wes/Ein

Warning: SPOILERS! This takes place after the story mode of Pokemon Colosseum has ended! There are no real details, but it does give away the basic outline a bit. Also, male/male romance. Don't like, don't read.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon and am not making any money off this.

Summery: Wes has a goal: to set free all the captured Shadow Pokemon. But he never expected to fall in love with the man who created them.

The first time I saw him was when Rui and I invaded the Shadow Pokemon Lab in search for the Shadow Pokemon that he had been cultivating. But this was not the first time I had heard of him. No, I knew him, after all I had read his work in files that other administrators had left lying around in their haste to escape me once I'd defeated them. I knew he was brilliant. He had designed everything. The Shadow Pokemon, the Lab, which even I after years of living on the street and in working for SNAGEM had trouble navigating... he had probably even designed the portable SNAGEM machine that I wore so proudly on my left shoulder and arm. Yes, even before I met him, I had respected him. I was more than thrilled to meet him in person after all the thought I had put into analyzing him. But I didn't think he would effect me the way he did. I didn't think that he would touch me in ways no one ever had. Didn't think he would find my heart, buried as it was under years on the streets and often on the run as well.

And he didn't mean to, I'm sure of it. In fact, at our first meeting, the only thing on his mind was getting rid of me, beating me into submission for sabotaging his lab, and his work. He hated me, as I'm sure all the rest of the administration did (and probably still do if they're still out there), and he went all out to destroy me. He would have too, I can admit now, except for the fact that I snagged his Raiku from him. He left, glaring at me as he did so, and back then I wondered why it hurt me as much as it did. I know better now.

The next time I saw him was right before I entered the Realgam Tower. But something was different this time. He knew it, and I knew it, and I think Rui figured it out too. I mean, Ein was a genius, and it didn't take genius to see that I had trained Raiku to a superior level, far above even that of my beloved Espeon and Umbreon. Why? Because Raiku had been Ein's pokemon and in training Raiku I felt closer to him. Call it childish, but that's what happened. And En figured this out almost immediately, if not sooner. I saw him pause ever so slightly when Raiku appeared on the battle field. His head turned and he looked at me, as if searching for an answer to his hypothesis.

He found it. I knew he had. When Ryu and I had entered the room, he had jibed about us being a couple and my anger had flared. It must have been evident on my face, as I can only control my emotions when I need to, and it was the only other data he needed to work out my feelings for him.

But he didn't exploit me. He could have... but he didn't. I defeated him again, fairly I must say. He didn't go easy on me, but as I said, he didn't use my feelings against me either. Then after the battle was over he gave me a different hypothesis to work on. It was almost a complement, the rhetorical statement, "It's too bad you are not on our side". It was as close to a complement that I knew he could give at this time, for both of us knew that we were still on different sides. Almost gently, he handed the yellow card over that was the last key I needed to entering the main area of the Realgam Tower. He didn't shove it at me, like Dekem had. He didn't toss it to me in parting, as Mirror B had. And he didn't leave it on the floor for me to pick up, like Venus had. He handed to me, and for a moment his hand lingered on mine. It is a feeling I don't think I could ever forget.

I battled Nascour, and I won. I battled Nascour's boss, and I won. I defeated the most powerful creation that my secret love had made. And it nearly killed me that, after it all was over, I couldn't find him anywhere. Again, all I had left was Raiku to remind me of him.

I fell back into my secluded ways again. I left all of the pokemon I had snagged, some of which I had taken so late that they were still Shadow Pokemon, with Rui and her grandfather. I knew she would take care of them. The only Pokemon I took with me were the two I had started out with, Espeon and Umbreon... with one addition: Raiku. I couldn't leave him behind.

A few years went by and then suddenly Rui showed up, finding me all the way in The Under where I had been hiding myself for those years. She said hardly anything at first, just looked at me. I hadn't changed. Then she shoved a piece of paper, folded once, into my hand and turned to leave.

"What's this?" I asked.

She turned. "It's an address, Wes. His address. Go find him."

"You know then." it was more of a statement than a question. Of course she knew.

"Of course I know. You did spend twenty minutes demolishing the wall just to get that yellow card that he gave you after we left the Tower." she pointed out.

Oh yeah, I remember that. In fact, I still have it.

She left and I turned to Raiku, Espeon, and Umbreon. They said nothing, but Umbreon and Espeon ran off towards the back door that would lead to my bike and Raiku got up and nudged my belt where I kept his pokeball. I guess they agreed with Rui.

And so here I stand now. Outside a different laboratory that apparently belongs to him. I had heard that this lab was opening a while ago, but the newscaster had failed to say that a former administrator for CYPHER was running it. My hand brushes over the "call" button on the door and a second later a female voice says pleasantly:

"Welcome. May I have your name?"

"Wes."

A pause. "Do you have an appointment with someone?"

"No, but I can tell you who I want to see if you want."

~*~*~

The first time I saw him was when he and the girl, Rui, came into my first lab and sabotaged it. I was furious, but at Venus more than them. The woman wasn't good for anything, she couldn't even stall them long enough to allow me to dispose of the list of Shadow Pokemon. At least I had been given enough time to ship out all of the recent Shadow Pokemon and erase the data from my disk. But I was more upset at Venus then those two, I had known they were coming.

He was different. That I could tell. Nascour had warned me about him, and I could see why the moment I first saw him in person. He was flawless, and I felt only regret that we could not be working on the same side. He would have been able to overthrow Nascour, I was sure of it, and I would have been more than happy to create the ultimate Pokemon for him. For that was what I was good for, at least in Nascour's eyes. Once I was done creating his greatest weapon, I was disposable for all he cared. I knew this, and yet still I did nothing to change it. But when I saw him standing casually behind me, wearing the contraption which my two hands had fationed... I began to second guess myself for the first time.

He took Raiku, but that was to be expected. I assumed he would after he had taken the two Legendaries from my colieges. But it didn't matter really. I had gauged his strength, for I knew I would fight him again in Nascour's plan, and I would be ready for him the next time. I brushed past him with a warning about the creature I had given Nascour and I saw hurt in his eyes, that I presumed was for the Pokemon. It was not until later that I found I was wrong in this presumption.

This I found out when I saw Raiku in the second battle with Wes. Raiku's power far surpassed the power of any of Wes's other Pokemon and it caused me to look at Wes again, more carefully this time, searching for why. He stared me down, glance for glance across the ground, and I saw the reason. Deep down, I had already known the reason, and everything clicked. I regretted the words I had spoken earlier about the girl and him, but it was far to late to take back anything, and I had to appear loyal to Nascour still. Only after Nascour was defeated could I begin to reconcile myself for what I had done.

Never the less, I tried to get my emotions through to him as he had done through Raiku. He understood, I know he did. And then I choked. I couldn't face him once he had destroyed CYPHER, and I fled.

I was allowed to continue my work after a few years struggle with governmental procedures, with the same staff I had employed for my last work under Nascour. But there was the small catch that nothing I did could be harmful to Pokemon in any way. They needn't have worried, I don't think I could hurt another Pokemon as long as I live. Not after Wes.

And Wes still haunts my every waking moment. From the very beginning of my day when I wake up and move out of my bed on which have slept my two companions, Jolteon and Vaporeon. They are exactly identical in genetic makeup as Wes's Umbreon and Espeon from DNA samples I got while Wes was mowing down my security, but no one knows this. Then Wes's shadow follows me to work, in the form of my two Eevee evolutions and in the few daydreams that I partake of during the day. And at night Wes's form haunts even my worst nightmares of the days when I still worked under Nascour's rule in which I see not Nascour giving orders, but Wes in a shadowed form of what might have been had he stayed with his former comrades. It also haunts my sweetest dream in which I see what could have been if I had waited for Wes to come out of the Tower after defeating Nascour. But then morning comes and I know that both of those dreams are dead to me and to him.

Today I was distracted momentarily from my newest project (trying to find a way for Pokemon to thrive in barren wastelands like the one we inhabit) by the sound of an engine. Vaporeon lifts her nose from its restful position on the chair cushion and looks disdainfully at the wall, as if seeing the noise's source and looking in annoyance at it, before resettling her elegant tail around her and curling back up to nap. Jolteon barely twitches from his spot at attention on my work table, from where he watches my every move with careful examination. Briefly I am reminded of Wes's bike that would have made a similar, if not identical sound. That was pure genius, creating a bike like that from what looked like spare parts. I always wanted to go over that piece of machinery, but was regrettably never able to do so.

In a few minutes I have forgotten all about the bike and whoever it's rider might be, as I concentrate on extracting a protein from the DNA that Jolteon kindly donated to my work. (He often does that, sitting in front of me as if asking, "Why do you look for a different subject? I am your Pokemon you know.")

When the secretary rings and says someone wants to see me, I think nothing of it. It's probably one of my aids anyway, bringing in the latest results of one of their tests.

Footsteps approach my door and I hear it slid open, but I don't look up, as I have reached a very difficult stage in the extraction.

"Ein?"

My eyes dart up, experiment forgotten, to lock on blue eyes that I have not really seen in years, but it seems as if only yesterday I beheld them.

"Wes."

~*~*~

The secretary is actually I very nice young lady, I found out as she allowed me in without much hesitation.

"I told Ein that someone was coming to see him." she adds as she finishes giving me directions to Ein's personal lab. It's not very far from the entrance, and it's unlocked.

Opening the door I see a room that looks very similar to the one I first saw him in, except for two additions. One, a Vaporeon is snoozing in a comfy chair, but her ears prick up when she hears the door open. The other, a Jolteon, is perched on a lab table eagerly watching some experiment that is being performed. And the one performing that experiment is the one I have been longing to see since... I can't remember when. Ein.

"Ein?"

He hasn't changed. He still wears the same style of lab coat and his hair is still purple, all brushed back except for one strand that hangs down in front of his face. His purple eyes dart upward when he hears my voice and he freezes, the Jolteon also turning around to inspect me.

"Wes." He speaks calmly, his voice sending shivers up my spine. "What can I do for you?" he asks softly.

What can he do for me? Oh, there are so many answers to that question, none of them appropriate. But I have an answer for him, an answer that I seem to have known for years.

~*~*~

He walks towards me, looking like he always had, and walking with the swing in his hips that I think he must have been unaware of. Or maybe he was all to aware of what he was doing, by now I can't tell.

"I need you to fix something." he speaks, and I see him start to take off the portable snagging device which I created. "I think I broke it."

"Really?" Somehow I don't believe him.

"Yes, you see, I can't seem to snag this one..." he searches for the right word, "specimen that I have been trying to snag for years."

"Is it Shadow?" I ask, genuinely surprised that my contraption didn't work. As he hands it to me and I begin to check it over, his hand lingers on mine for a moment. I could see nothing wrong with the device but he continues.

"Oh yes, very Shadow. In fact." he begins to move around me, even closer than before, "I think his heart is so closed, that I doubt if I could open it."

"He?" I ask, the device momentarily forgotten, Wes is so close to me now. I can feel his breath on the back of my neck.

"Yes, he." Arms begin to encircle me and for some reason, I'm not alarmed.

"Do you mind telling me the name of this... specimen of yours?" I ask, trying not to hope to hard on what the answer will be.

"It's you." came the answer, and Wes pulls me against him placing Beautifly kisses on my neck.

"Are you sure it's not working, Wes? " I ask, leaning back against him. "I would so hate to have made a mistake in it's design." I twist slightly in his lap and bring my lips against his softly for a moment.

He smiles, not a cocky grin that one sees before a battle, but a genuine smile. "No, I think you just fixed it. As I said, I broke it. Your design is perfect."

And I know there are two meanings to this sentence as he brings his mouth to my ear and whispers, "Snagged you."