Serena wakes with a shuddering gasp, the world rushing into her vision as she breaks through the ocean of her unconsciousness. Her instinct is to thrash and she hisses at the pull in her shoulder and the bite in her wrists against the metal cuffs that snakebind her in a chair. She looks around the unfamiliar space where the walls are gray and there's a single door that indicates the only way out. It's then that the memories start filtering in and the guilt in her stomach pools at her feet.
There's dried blood spattered on her blazer sleeve and caked on the pale of her cheek near her eyes, unable to erase the images panning like a nightmare. Serena, feeling useless as the day she arrived in the arms of the Demons, her own futile goal of never having someone die because of her ever again.
The sight of Sawyer's fear plain in his crinkled eyes, his pleas completely muffled to the gods that might've saved him — the demon that took his life in the silence of crimson. The guilt quickly sparks to anger, pulling against her cuffs even harder, ignoring the way they break her skin and draw blood. Ash may never forgive her for the mistake she made that cost Sawyer his life, but Serena swears whoever responsible wouldn't get the chance to beg for it.
If she were to survive after all that, she'd let Ash decide her rightful fate. Serena wonders in that same breath if that's always what she was meant to find. Not a stronger version of herself, not a brand new world that she gets to breathe the stratosphere deep into her lungs, but Ash Ketchum as her beginning and the very end.
The door handle clicks through the silence and Serena's head snaps up. A single individual walks through the door, a smug grin on his face that's coated in a twisted satisfaction. He's dressed in a dark suit and a pair of black dress shoes, his face is so to say middle aged. Serena holds down a scoff in her throat at the blatantly obvious effort of this man to play like he was some overlord. She glares as he closes the distance between them, the glint in his eye echoing a wolf narrowing on its prey.
As the door closes behind him, she catches the reflection of his suit on the metal surface, and her eyes widen minutely at the embroidery weaved into the fabric.
Ketchum.
"Now, I have to say, as tasteless and weak Lumiose City's boss is, he picked well, indeed," he says approvingly, his deep voice made know and his grin growing wider as his eyes rove up and down her bound body, and Serena's brows slant angrily.
"Giovanni," she spits, anger and disgust coiling around her words.
His head tilts, amused as he moves his arms behind his back. "Ah, so I assume Ash has spoken to you about me? Fantastic."
Serena's stomach churns and her jaw grinds at the sound of Ash's name in the tone of his voice, her fists tightening behind her back as she gives another harsh tug. "I know that you're a piece of shit. I'm surprised you even showed your face. One that's always cowering behind the henchmen who do your damn dirty work."
The strike comes quickly and Serena's mind spins with the aching pain in her jaw, Giovanni's solid fist colliding with her face as he looks down on her. Her face is turned away, her dirty blonde hair splayed across her cheeks as she huffs. She rolls her jaw and spits blood onto the floor, the pain ebbing away as she looks up at him with unimpressed eyes.
"Is this the part where I'm supposed to say ouch," she mocks boredly, chin raised defiantly. "If anything, I'm positive the guy I killed hit me harder than that."
Giovanni doesn't take the bait and instead laughs in a low tone, the sound shaking through his shoulders. His hand reaches out and grips her face, fingers squeezing roughly around her cheekbones as she tries to move out of his grasp to no avail. He leans in close, a snarl now on his lips as his grip tightens and Serena can't hold back a hiss.
"Quite a mouth you have, I'd say. If I didn't have another use for you, I'd put it to better work," he says suggestively, eyes locked. "My men would have no problem at all to show you your place."
He pushes her back roughly and the chair wobbles off its legs, her body crashing onto the cemented floor in a heap. She curses roughly as her shoulder and knee absorb the blow. His shadow looms over her as he crouches down beside her. "Beneath those above you. Those who have power."
"For gods sake, get to the point already," Serena demands. "What the hell do you want from me?"
The single light above paints over the murderous glow in Giovanni's eyes, swirling around a game of his creation for a bloodstained victory. He tells her the answer menacingly, crazed by a dream within reach. "Impatient, are we? I'll be taking my revenge and my disappointment of a step son's head along with it, and I'll be using you to bring him here."
"Revenge?" Serena repeats incredulously. "Revenge for what? For the people you lost because you murdered innocents? Or the fact that Ash is just simply better than you in every aspect?"
His head tilts curiously. "Is that what you think? That he's more innocent than I am? So Ash wouldn't tell you about how he murdered his real father and my own. He killed the rest of my family in cold blood as well, so I provoked his real father about his mother on us and basically got him to kill her. Although, that's not enough. I think what he has done warrants a little revenge or are you really so naive?"
Serena's shocked expression to process it all isn't lost on Giovanni and he chuckles. "I see. Isn't that splendid. He didn't tell you. How convenient."
"You're lying," Serena retorts, though the words are shaky.
She tries to cling to what Miette told her, letting her conclusions dawn in the midst of silence. Instead of fighting with her, Miette came to warn her of things beyond Ash. The sight of Misty's solemn green eyes underneath the rain, the teardrops of the skies skimming down her face carrying a memory of something she lost, and something Ash had saved her from. The way Ash's warm fingertips traced promises on Serena's palm in the middle of the night and his arms wrapping around her so gently, like he had never fought or suffered a day in his entire life.
"Nobody in this world is innocent. Ignorance can be one's worst enemy. Ash is a murderer and a criminal, through and through. The devil himself," Giovanni says wickedly, almost proudly for the one similarity they shared. "Don't tell me you believed you were special to him?"
Serena feels the sting in her heart. but doesn't grace the statement with an answer. Her hair drifts over her eyes and in the moment of weakness, she stares at the floor.
"Truly pitiful," Giovanni scoffs as he slips a phone from his pocket. "Once he's done playing with you, he'll toss you aside like a toy without its screws."
"If that's the case, then you should know that using me won't bring him here," Serena says, wincing.
He swipes the screen. "I'm willing to take my chances. I have a reliable source."
Serena's eyes narrow at that statement and Giovanni answers her question. "The woman you ran into on the cruise ship. She was so desperate for power and money after being rejected that she came to us, and we cut her a deal. Intel on Lumiose City's most wanted and feared, and I have to say, the money we spent was worth it — Ash's weakness, of all things."
"I honestly don't know you're talking about," Serena's vehemently denies though her hands are clenched in a white knuckled grip behind her back.
The images of that woman's smile invades her mind as she tries to shake the thought, a bitter taste coating her tongue on playing right into Giovanni's hands. His gamble played out in spades, and Serena fears to know if he had expected this all along — driving a wedge between her and Ash from the moment she stepped onto that ship.
But if Serena wasn't Ash's weakness, she would've died a long time ago, and she swallows it deep into her soul, tucking it away. She denies it for as long as she can, because Ash can't put himself in danger. Not for her.
"Ash isn't weak."
Giovanni grins knowingly and it makes her nauseous. "We'll see how long that mask holds. Worst case, we get to have fun before we get rid of you." A sleek blade slips into his palm from his sleeve. "I know Ash values his pride and seeing him helpless to aid one of his own is enough for me."
"He won't come," Serena repeats in an attempt to convince him and herself. Fear tugs her in all directions, to show her what she had always known or to show her what she could only hope for.
A ringing fills the air and Giovanni holds the phone against his ear, twirling the knife between his fingers. The blade smiles with the light dancing on the sharpened edge, gleaming with a warning that it fulfills as he stabs her through the shoulder. Serena cries out in pain, the shout reverberating off the walls as the metal mercilessly slips out from the wound, blood immediately blooming on the fabric of her white blazer. She writhes as sweat gathers on her forehead from the quick breaths she takes to steady herself through the anguish.
She wants to protect Ash, but for a moment, her mind calls out for her savior. It yearns and yearns because he has always been bright, even with his own ghosts swirling around him. She thinks for a bitter moment that she would've danced with him and those phantoms. Serena thinks that if things were different, if time were a little more merciful, she would've told Ash the truth if only not to leave their world without regrets.
But Ash wouldn't come for her. He shouldn't.
Giovanni grins at the way the blade has turned red. "Then perhaps, I'll have to break you."