dr. fuji. the scientist funded by giovanni to clone an enhanced variant of mew, a beast said to harbour the genetic code of every pokémon within its dna. as giovanni funded this project, it was natural that, while he accommodated dr. fuji's requests for most of his staff to be of his own choosing, that he left some of team rocket's own scientists to keep close eye on the task at hand. it was thinly veiled knowledge that dr. fuji's real desires was not to clone mew, but rather, bring back his daughter from the dead—they had to ensure that he was actually doing what giovanni wanted, not simply absconding with the money in tow.
yves augustin was one of the rocket member's tasked with such surveillance.
during the explosion of new island, killing all of the scientists held within, much of the late dr. fuji's research on cloning and genetic mutation was lost to the wind ... two of the surveilling rocket members managed to survive. not by some miracle, after the mutated mewtwo sought to bring the fortress to its foundations, but by sheer luck of not being on new island at the time of its destruction.
yves was one of those individuals.
while giovanni cared little about the blood, sweat, and tears that went into the progress, rather the end project, he tasked yves with salvaging what information he could from the fortress' remains. yves abided; he plucked free snippets, some thin and some chunky, but there were gaps. gaps that, with some proper dedication, could be bridged. yves was again tasked with ensuring the research was patched up, in case the resulting project fell deceased, similarly to the initial cloned kanto starters: bulbasaur, squirtle, and charmander. they needed to be able to replicate it.
yves' initial dedication to the mission was haphazard at best. he'd recently become a single parent of one jean-baptiste augustin, so, while he was struggling to juggle the newfound commitments of being a single parent and giovanni's demands ... he became split by both. able to commit wholly to neither.
years passed. baptiste had become a congratulated, high-ranking member of team rocket. yves was proud. baptiste was a vicious man and even more vicious fighter. he was often tasked with jobs that others couldn't handle nor be trusted with. yves, while initially jittery at the notion of his son being handed such dangerous missions, had since calmed. he would not have a repeat situation with his wife, he thought; he can handle himself.
until one mission: baptiste didn't return on cue. he were to eventually return to headquarters, but in a bag. yves was beyond distraught. grief interrupted whatever research he were to head.
a few months after, yves plunged himself deep into dr. fuji's work. while he'd bridged most gaps, there were still some bits and bobs missing that he'd been to piece. he were to forfeit healthy sleep, healthy food, healthy water to bring his son (as well as his pokémon team) back from the dead.
history does like to repeat itself, doesn't it?
three years later—baptiste, while cloned, awoke. as did his pokémon partners. they were to come back unusual, his team, with blotches of discoloured skin or fur. but they were back. he was back. yves had succeeded where dr. fuji had failed.
yves was thrilled. exhausted, yes, but thrilled. so thrilled, in fact, that he dismissed whatever oddities that baptiste were to exude. it was only two weeks in that he began to slowly come to the realisation that baptiste wasn't how he was in his previous life. he'd come back, yes, he'd survived the initial throes of relife, yes ... but he came back wrong.
where the first baptiste was vicious, mean, this baptiste was softer. he were to treat his pokémon team members with love and affection, as he would other individuals. he were to humourous where the first baptiste was cutthroat and serious.
yves and baptiste grew more distant by the month. yves cast the man into the bowels of team rocket, hoping it would toughen him up. make him more like the original.
he just wanted his son back.