A/N: So I have finally decided to go ahead and kick this collection off. It has haunted me for a month now and I just can't get enough of our favorite Rocketeers. Each chapter will be fashioned with songs from Lady Gaga's Born This Way CD with eighteen chapters in all, but will follow no particular path except the one set out by the CD. For example, after Marry the Night, the night one shot will be titled and fashioned after Born This Way. I have placed this in the M category not because all of them will be rated M, but because some of them will, and I don't want to misled anyone. I'll try and remember to include the ratings with the title and when updating so things won't get too confusing. I'll also be adding up a list of the songs/fics and their prospective ratings so you can get a feel for what each one is about.

Every one shot will have Rocketshipping, but some will have Neoshipping and references to James/Jessiebelle. However, these will also be included with the ratings so you can avoid whichever ones don't suit your tastes. Big note: doubt that I will make any of these song fics. It's all personal…I just don't work well with them and want the story to speak the interpretation rather than sticking the words in mechanically. If this changes, however, it will be noted in the descriptions.

Lastly, the most important bit: I bow to the genius that is Pokemon and Gaga. I own nothing of either and never, ever could. I am simply a smitten fan that wishes to pay tribute to the things that make me feel warm inside.

Title: Marry the Night

Rating: K

Time/Generation: AU

Warnings: Slight spoilers for "The Treasure is All Mine!"

She wiped her slender fingers against her pink skirt and sniffed. The smell of dust and rust assaulted her young nose. She managed out a small cough and a worried expression although her insides seemed to beg to burst out in one loud and lowly scream.

"Mama, I don' like it heeyah!" said Jessiebelle, clutching her arms to her chest.

Her mother glared down at her with piercing blue eyes. "Jessieblle, love. Yah gotta give a little to get a little. Come now. We'll find a little girl round yah age that yah can give this present to. Daddy will be so proud of yah for giving to the less fortunate."

"But I don' like it! These young'uns are filthy and dirty and they'll spoil mah new dress!"

Ignoring her daughter, the woman scanned the room and crinkled her nose. "There must be someone…"

The pair made their way cautiously down the hallway of the orphanage looking into every room at the dingy beds and the mud-faced children staring at them with dull eyes. Jessiebelle longed for her beloved Oddish to be there and shield her eyes from the reality of the poor and the pitiful. She trailed her mother with small, tapping steps and nearly ran into her when the older woman stopped suddenly at the next to last room on the floor.

"Fireflies and steel magnolias…" she whispered, bringing one hand to her mouth and clutching the wooden doll the family had prepared for one lucky child in the other.

"What is it, mama?" Jessiebelle said curiously, eyeing the room and scuffing her feet against the floor. The room was home to a single little red-haired girl who lay on the bed looking at Jessiebelle with eyes that were hauntingly familiar. "Hey! She stole mah face! Mama! She's a thief!"

"Hush!" Her mother glared down at her before entering the room with her skirt swaying softly. "Why hello there, little one. What is yah name, dah?"

The little girl blinked her large blue eyes. "Jessie."

Jessiebelle huffed. "Thief."

Her mother shot her a warning glance before looking back to Jessie, who had curled herself further into a ball on the bed. "Would ya like a dolly, honey? She's brand new. Mah daughter Jessiebelle would just love fah yah to have her."

"No," said the child quickly, daring a glance at the fuming Jessiebelle.

"What if I leave her right heyah on yah bed like this?" Jessiebelle's mother set the doll on its bottom so that its smiling face stared up at her with wide, red lips. "She'll make sure yah have a good night's rest and play with yah all day long. Doesn't that sound nice, Jessie?"

"No," she repeated, looking at the doll as though it would burst into flames.

"There, there…yah poor dear…yah been through a lot, haven't yah, honey?" Jessiebelle's mother let a hand swipe the bed before sitting on it with a soft plop. "Yah're a lucky one, though. Remembah that. Yah got the prettiest little face and that'll always get yah places. Just like mah Jessiebelle. Yah two could pass for twins…gracious…I'm beginning to wonder mahself…"

"Mama! I wanna leave!" screamed Jessiebelle, stamping her foot loudly.

"Jessiebelle! That is not the way a proper young lady like yahself acts around the less fortunate!" Her mother's face was cold and mean and Jessiebelle began to hate the little girl on the bed who was receiving such love from such a hardened woman. Who was this rat to gather all her mother's love when she had done nothing but tried to please her since the day she was born?

Snapping footsteps made Jessiebelle turn to face her beloved nanny, who was panting and clutching her heavy chest.

"Madame Jezebelle! Master Joseph wishes to speak to you. He is awaiting your appearance outside at this very instance!"

Jezebelle narrowed her eyebrows and stood up immediately. "Of course, Lily. Thank yah."

Lily nodded and was off before Jessiebelle could speak and the little girl lowered her head in disappointment. She heard the sound of her mother loudly kissing the top of Jessie's head and turned to see her cupping the girl's stained cheeks with both hands.

"Stay safe here, Jessie. Perhaps…but no…Joseph would never allow it…but I hope yah do find a family that loves yah. Take care o' yahself an' yah new dolly. Goodbye now," she said, smiling a sincere smile before heading out the door and brushing past her daughter as though she were a board in the floor.

Jessiebelle opened her mouth and closed it, frowning and focusing all her rage on the girl staring at her with those same wide, wild eyes.

"Yah just think yah're the bee's knees, doncha? Well, yah aren't anything but a sewer rat. Look at yah. Yah look like yah're wearing a potato sack," she said with a huff.

Jessie responded by throwing a holey blanket over her head and planting her face into the bed.

"Oh no yah don't," said Jessiebelle, rushing into the bedroom and climbing onto the bed with determined hands. "Yah don' get to run away from me! Listen here!"

"No!" Jessie shouted, wriggling about as Jessiebelle struggled to wrench the blanket off of her. "Leave me alone!"

"Gimme back mah face!"

The blanket came off and Jessie's face popped out alarmed and afraid and allowing only the quickest of breathes to leave her mouth. "You already have a face! And it's ugly!"

Jessiebelle let out a shrill laugh. "Yah obviously can't afford a mirror."

"At least I can afford a personality!" Jessie shot back, crinkling her nose up and driving hard frown lines into her face.

Flinging her hair back and smiling sweetly, Jessiebelle leaned so that her weight became even on the bed. "Where I come from, yah wouldn't even have that. Yah don't know a thing about being a propah lady like I do. Yah'll probably grow up to work at tha' house with all the Xs on it. That's where all the bad girls end up."

"I don't care about being a proper lady," said Jessie. "I'm going to be a doctor and an actress and a…"

Again Jessiebelle laughed and again Jessie frowned. The hatred in the little girl's eyes would have stopped most people cold, but the prim and pampered Jessiebelle simply shook her head and watched her with eyes that provided no escape and seemed to stare right through Jessie and into the floor below them. Jessie attempted to look at anything and anywhere except those damning eyes and settled her attention on the two peridot earrings snapped onto either side of Jessiebelle's head. They were the most simple yet sophisticated things she had ever seen and envy clutched at her young heart.

"I see yah've noticed mah mama's earrings," said Jessiebelle with a slight smirk playing on her lips. "Yah wanna try em on?"

Jessie nodded hesitantly and was shocked to see the other girl take off the circular gems with quick and steady fingers. She turned her head to one side and then another to allow the studs to be placed in her ears, which had been rung with holes just months before her mother's disappearance. The earrings felt heavy and thick on her ears and when they were finally on, Jessie clamped her hands over them as if she were afraid they would disappear.

"Oh jump off yah grumpy high horse, missy. It's just me an' you an' no mama around to kiss yah and hug yah anymore so move yah hands! There…they almost look pretty on yah. Not as good as they do on me, though," Jessiebelle sniggered. Jessie blinked and the other girl sighed. "I've been forgotten again I suppose…she wouldn't forget me if I was you…hey…do yah wanna play a little game, Jessie?"

"No," said Jessie.

"Hmph. I figured yah say that. But too bad. We're playing."

Jessiebelle was nothing if not a determined child. Her dress was poofy and frilly and far too large on the girl whose nicest possession just happened to be a black hair bow she had snapped in half just that morning. The hair was a challenge without a maid, but Jessiebelle was determined. If she could make a fool out of this little nobody then her mother would come rushing back for her with open arms and bon bons aplenty. Jessie shrieked as Jessiebelle's fingers pulled tight and mean on her hair. She wouldn't last a day in her world. She'd be eaten alive.

With a confident huff and a less than hesitant pat down of her formless, stained smock, Jessiebelle smiled. "Lookie here, Jessie Jess. It's ah mirror. Take a gander at yahself."

"I know what a mirror is," Jessie said with a frown. Yanking the glass from the less than fashionable hands of her look-alike, she gazed into the face of a stranger and gasped at the sight. "I…I'm…"

"Bearable," offered Jessiebelle. There were wisps of hair jutting out from the top of Jessie's head and her cheeks were far too hollow, but on the whole, Jessiebelle was satisfied. "Now run outside…let's see how long yah can fool mama and papa. It'll be like you have a family. Almost."

Unsure and unsettled by Jessiebelle's words, Jessie took a few steps forward and reveled in the quiet comfort of shoes cushioning her swollen feet. She turned back only once to face those crackling eyes before taking off down the hallway on wobbly legs. Eyes surrounded her like flies and she had barely made it to the door when the voice of her headmistress cried out to her.

"Miss Jessiebelle! I was not aware you were still on the premises!" she cried, clamping her talon-like fingers around her upper arm. "We must return you to your parents at once!"

And with that, Jessie was carried out the door and into the streets where two limos sat and a couple stood deep in conversation. The little girl barely had time to register the chilling breeze or the racing of her heart before the couple turned and the once kind mother pulled her toward her by the neck of her jacket hard and fast. Something had changed in Jezebelle's eyes. Something had happened that tore all the kindness away and left a cold, dull look behind with only the faintest flicker of familiarity.

"A ball, Jessiebelle! A ball down the street and we've just been invited. Your daddy is so smart…so smart, dahling. Don't you evah forget that. We gotta act fast if we're gonna get there in time. Yah'll need a dress and shoes and perfume…oh we must hurry, Joseph!"

"Indeed. Nigel! Take Jezebelle and Jessiebelle where ever their hearts desire," said Joseph, clutching his hand to his blazing red vest.

A short, elderly man with beady eyes held the door opened and held his hand out to help Jezebelle inside. Tottering after the older woman, Jessie felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up into Joseph's piercing eyes. He looked her over and Jessie's heart filled with fear. The man sniffed.

"And clean up Jessiebelle. She's obviously forgotten her manners in that pig sty…nasty leeches…yah gonna have to shine like a pearl to catch yah a fine gentleman, Jessiebelle. And daddy has a good feeling about tonight."

It was a world she could not have made up in her wildest of dreams. Women floated along the ballroom floor like swans on a lake only in the most brilliant of blues and greens and yellows. She herself wore a loose dress the color of deep red wine that billowed out at every angle and left her feeling like a butterfly. Her hair was squeezed into locks and curls so tightly that the slightest turn of her head made her scared that her face would rip in half. Luckily for her, the shoes on her feet felt much better than Jessiebelle's black ones and she was able to shift into solitude on the furthest wall she could find from the humming crowds in comfort. Jezebelle had unwittingly assisted Jessie in her mission by purchasing the softest hand fan in the world. The small fan was adorned with Swanna feathers that were dyed a lavender only a few shades softer than the fan itself. When Jessie held the fan in front of her round face, she felt invisible and allowed herself a small sigh.

Truth be told, she was enthralled by the statues and the drapes and the lights, but her stomach ached for the lavish banquet set out on the other side of the room. But she was loathe to leave her safe haven and merely watched the ladies peck at their treats from small platters and the men sip champagne with twittering whiskers. One of the whiskered man smiled at her kindly and she blushed and pressed her back flat against the tall wall behind her. This fine and fragile world was not her own…this could not last…this could not be.

"Jessiebelle!" a voice cried. Jessie nearly forgot to turn her head. Jessiebelle's mother was staring and glaring her down mere inches away. "The balcony…go there now. No questions."

She watched as the woman sway off into the madness that was the dance floor and Jessie began to move mechanically across the room. Eyes lowered to the floor, she made very little effort to hide her shaky movements and several guests harrumphed and huffed at her sudden, small presence pushing past them. She bit her lower lip behind her fan. It was only when she reached the opposite side of the ballroom and noted the many openings that fear entered her heart. She whipped her head about in a confused daze before shrugging slightly and heading straight through the nearest archway.

The night was beautiful and pure and so different from the balcony than it was through the broken windows of the orphanage. A beaming moon brimmed against the buildings in the distance and she wondered if somewhere – somewhere very, very far away – her mother was looking at the same moon. She wished more than anything that her mother could be with her now in such luxury, but not with such people. If only she could bring the people below up high and the people up high down low. If only she could bring the old days back. If only she could reconnect to life as a child and not as a woman trapped in the form of a faithless and filthy youth with dirt in her fingernails and fresh tears forming in her eyes.

Though Mozart wafted through the ballroom, it barely registered in Jessie's mind so that when a squeak came out of the night, she whirled about to face a wide-eyed and blue-haired boy dressed in the silliest outfit she had ever seen. He wore a tiny green handkerchief at his neck and the sight of it caused Jessie's hand to press the fan to her lips to stifle a giggle.

The boy was not amused, however. In fact, his face was rather blank except for a slight color in his cheeks and his shimmering green eyes. They reminded her of the earrings still dragging down the fatty skin of her ears.

"What's your name?" The boy's voice cracked and his tiny fingers curled into small fists at his side. He was cute in a funny sort of way and he made Jessie feel strangely confident to be posing as a member of high society.

"Jessie," she whispered. She would not remember until much, much later that night that she was still supposed to be Jessiebelle. Besides, she felt her skin prickling and her heart racing. She wanted to play. "Who are you?"

The boy lowered his head a little and shuffled further out onto the balcony. "I'm James."

"Hi, James," she said innocently.

"Hi, Jessie," he croaked, throwing a stray piece of hair out of his face with a shift of his head.

"What are you doing out here?" She was enjoying this…the blush on his cheeks and the shake in his knees and the whisper of the wind on her neck egging her on.

James swallowed hard before answering. "I…I just wanted to get away. This is the fifth ball I've been to in a week."

"Really?" Her fan dropped without her notice but the look in James's eyes descended to her lips and he smiled slightly.

"Yeah. What about you? Were you getting tired of the dancing too?"

She nodded mutely and he smiled at her. It was a broad and lopsided grin that made his face look a little off-center, but Jessie felt her stomach churn at the sight of it.

"Jessie…would you…uhh…" James brought a hand to the back of his head and closed his eyes tight. "Would you like to take a walk or something?"

"A walk? Where?" Her heart thumped in her chest so that she was sure he could see it.

James thought for a moment before his eyes brightened. "There's a fountain nearby that's gorgeous this time of night! So…will you walk with me?"

Blinking and bringing her hand fan to her back, Jessie nodded. "I'd like that."

James's smile was brighter than the moon and he came close enough to grab her hand with sweaty palms and pull her behind him. "Come on! Maybe Growlie will be waiting on me…you'll love him!"

The hand fan fell onto the tile on the balcony with a sharp ping that neither youth noticed. James's parents watched the two sprint through the crowd and down the stairs toward the lobby with gleeful grins and small nods to Jessiebelle's mother. Jezebelle pursed her lips and gave a sideways look to her husband.

"Dear?" she said, placing a porcelain-looking hand on his shoulder.

"Yes, love?"

"The propah way of runnin' fah ah lady…she holds her skirts up ever so slightly, does she not?"

"Indeed she…" Joseph's head whipped around. "Do you mean to say that our daughter..."

Jezebelle shook her head slowly. The light had returned to her eyes and her lips upturned in a delicate smirk. "No. Not our daughter. But someone else's pahaps. But Joseph, dear, I do bahlieve that we gotta make a quick stop bahfore we head home for the evening."

In the softest wind under the moonlight on a street bathed with the reflection of the rushing water of a rusted fountain, a little boy and a little girl stood hand-in-hand with nearly identical smiles plastered on their faces. It was in that middle ground that the night found solace and allowed itself to quiet its cries and cold winds. The children laughed in their self-made world on a road called the Middle Way. It was long and wide, both low and high, and it carried their hearts away.