Gary had just gotten out of the parlor when Serena came.
"Hey princess," Gary fake smiled. "Care to join us again?"
Serena groaned and went inside the living room, completely ignoring him. Gary shrugged to which Charlus smiled and tilted his head. "Give her some time," he said as he pulled Gary close and half hugged him. "Come on son, your grandma ain't known for patience."
Gary couldn't even explain how much being called 'son' meant to him. Although Samuel raised him with love and care, a boy still needed his father. Even if it was for a short period of time.
Grace stood up as soon as Serena came in, she was pretty impressed with Charlus's power of influencing because once Serena set her mind to something, changing her decision meant to torch the ocean. "Honey," Grace started, unsure of what she wanted to say.
Serena just shrugged, "It is fine." She said, "it's really fine." Grace sighed as she sat back on her ottoman.
Ailsa got up, "Are we fine now, Queen?" she mocked.
Serena cautiously nodded, Ailsa then smugged. "Settle down for the day, everyone. Planning is going to take a while."
"Uh, but why planning?" Joanne asked. "Why can't we use the Orange Island academy and the Johto base?"
Ailsa glared at Diane, "Orange Island academy was destroyed last time around when Raider manor was attacked and we change base every time. You would know this too if you weren't snogging Charlus in the middle of your sessions. I planned to use the Raider manor but apparently, people don't like to corporate."
Joanne and Charlus exchanged a good deal of embarrassment, and Delia smiled.
"Fortunately, The Xaviers of Unova have agreed to be the Academy hosts," she concluded.
Hearing the name Xavier, Delia and Charlus facepalmed themselves. "It wouldn't be Adrian Xavier, would it?" Charlus asked hoping the answer to be no.
"No," she answered. "Adrian died when the academy was attacked, he was in charge of it. His son has taken over the family name and has no objection joining the chamber to avenge his fallen father, unlike the likes of you."
Serena shifted uncomfortably. It wasn't fair, she was thinking. She wasn't being selfish, she was afraid.
Fatally tired and afraid.
Delia breathed a sigh of relief, she had no shame in admitting that she was a little glad that Adrian was dead. If he, by any chance, were alive, he would've made the lives of Ash and Gary miserable because the guy who didn't hesitate to shoot James just because he stole his cookie, won't hesitate to dislocate Ash's shoulder.
"So like what do we have to do? Fight bad guys and stuff? Because we can use our Pokemon." Dawn asked innocently.
"If I wanted pokemon fights, I would've recruited champions," Ailsa said. "I need manpower and clearly I don't have enough because if I did, I wouldn't have called you all. As I said before, Unowns are being hunted down to wake the immortals, and we have to stop them."
"But if they're being hunted down," Ash started. "Why don't you go to Johto, I mean that's where they live don't they?"
Ailsa sighed deeply, "Their ancient site was destroyed twenty years ago, what remains in Johto isn't worth a dime. Unowns were summoned by their ancient relics. There are twenty-six different relics for twenty-six different Unowns, the ritual won't work unless they are complete."
Gary asked, "And where are they?"
Ailsa shook her head, "Unfortunately we don't know, we never did. During the past hundred years, both sides have worked elbow grease to find them. We thought they were in Orre but we were wrong. After Raider Manor fell, the chamber was dissolved along with the Apocalypse. We still have people searching for them, Mark was one of them."
As soon as the name of Mark was mentioned, silence dawned on the room, Everything went quite. "I'm surprised at you, Serena," Ailsa said viciously. "I really am."
"Mother," Charlus warned. "Stop."
Ailsa just laughed, "Thinking about yourself rather than others, you're not a Van Black because even your mother took a bullet for someone else-"
Serena balled her fists in anger, seeing her, Grace stood up, "That's enough, Ailsa."
"It's not, Gralice." She agitated, "You're not a Jorum either because your father sacrificed himself for a greater good, you're a-"
"I'm a coward," Serena said surprisingly as she got up with a smile. "Tell me something I don't already know."
Ailsa was stunned to react, the blonde woman standing in front of her reminded her of something who used to do the same, Owning up to what she really was. At that moment, Serena looked brave and bold, she reminded Ailsa of... herself.
"It's good to hear," she said. "Your rooms will be assigned by Delia, sleep good, you'll have a bumpy day tomorrow."
As Ailsa passed Serena to leave, she grabbed her arm and exchanged one last glare. She looked her in those piercing blue eyes and said, "Be careful princess, your crown will fall if you keep your head too high." Ailsa then left the Raider Manor, leaving everyone to themselves.
"That motherfu-" Grace started but didn't finish after seeing that everyone was looking at her. "What did she say, Serena?" She further asked.
Serena looked at her for a brief moment and bit her lip. "Nothing," She said. "Can I have my room? I'm exhausted."
It took Delia a moment to realize that Serena was talking to her. "Sure," She said as she got up. "Just take the third one on the left stairs."
Serena smiled and quickly left, Delia then got up and straightened her clothes. "Joanne you take the first one on the right and Grace you take the first one on the second floor, Dawn you take the room next to Joanne and Charlus you-"
"Oh!" He shot up suddenly. "Can I have Mrs. Raider's room?"
Delia raised her eyebrow.
"It's not weird," Charlus later added.
Delia nodded and Charlus sprinted away. Joanne sighed as she offered Dawn her hand and left, with her arm around Dawn's shoulder. Grace left gloomily, her sadness was so tremendous that Delia could sense it standing a mile away. Once everyone had left, Delia got up.
"Come on, Gary as Ash." She said, "I have to show you something."
They exchanged a quick glance before getting up and following her. Delia escalated her way upsides very quickly, she led them towards the left side of the stairs where they saw Serena getting in, who exchanged an emotionless glare with Ash before going in. Ash was a little hurt but didn't react.
"So how are you two holding up?" Delia asked.
"Spiffing," Gary mocked. "I just found out that my father was a spy who killed people. But that happens every day right?"
Delia smiled as she led them inside a corridor. "And you Ash?"
Ash was too aghast to react, stunned by the Manor's beautiful interior and spaciousness. He always wanted a country home, far away from the city light and traffic. And this was it, Raider Manor was his everything he ever wanted and had dreamt off. Also stunned by the fact that he was supposed to fight bad dudes like he always did, the only difference, this time it was official.
Big news.
"Stunned," he replied. "Very stunned."
The walls were adorned with caricatures and paintings all draped in curtains. They passed a few rooms which looked the same, Ash wasn't sure how Delia could navigate her way inside without getting lost.
"Aunt Delia," Gary said. "Can I ask you a question?"
Delia looked stunned but she nodded.
"If you used to live here, why would you leave?"
Both Ash, Gary, and even Pikachu who was sitting on Ash's shoulder looked at her with amazement in their eyes. Delia didn't want to answer because there was no easy way to answer that question, what could she say?
Your father died on its doorsteps when you were born. Not a great way to start a conversation.
"Ah, here we are!" Delia exclaimed, trying to change the topic, as she found herself standing in front of another door, which looked the same except had a little nameplate that read 'memories'.
She opened the door and all of them were blinded by the shining light that came in. Once their eyesight was restored, the room became a lot clearer. It was the size of Ash's home in pallet town. The floor had been carpeted, and the wallpaper was hardly seen because of all the photo frames that adorned them.
"What the hell this?" Ash mesmerized.
Delia smiled as she said, "This room was prepared by your grandmother. She loved taking pictures of us, this is what happened when she printed them out."
There was not a single space left vacant on the walls, except for space which was taken by the giant brown cupboard which had loads of little drawers. In the middle of the room were two red chairs with cushions and a small furry ottoman.
"It was also a reading room," Delia added. "And in the cupboards are the photo albums and frames that couldn't fit."
Just when Delia was about to take a stroll around the room, a shrill voice echoed the halls. "Delia!" It yelled. "Come at this instant!"
She sighed, "It's probably Joanne." She said. "You guys wait for a moment, I'll come back."
Delia left before anyone could say anything. Gary strolled around the place before saying, "Why did she want to show this again?"
"Dunno," Ash answered. "Hey look, there's a picture of our dads!"
Gary groaned as he followed Ash towards the middlemost wall. The picture was the same one as downstairs, it was in the middle of the wall with a silver frame. "Saw it downstairs," Gary said as he turned away.
No one ever told Ash how much he resembled his father until Grace, who did it later today. Seeing James or Red or whatever he was called, was like looking into a mirror. Ash had the exact same features. By the looks, Charlus and James looked real close, as if they were brothers. Ash scoffed at it, though Gary and he were close too, their closeness didn't develop until after the Johto League. They did play together in early childhood but he couldn't say that they were 'Brothers'. Gary changed after his mother passed, he became more competitive, as if he was trying to prove he was better than others.
Unlike now, according to Gary, they are as thick as rocks.
Ash was looking at another picture when Gary said, "Hey, isn't this Serena?"
Ash turned back towards the first wall and saw what Gary was pointing at. It was an old picture, which had four people, two girls and two boys standing in a pair as if they were couples. The last girl had dark honey blonde hair and looked exactly like Serena.
"Impossible," Ash said. "who the hell is she?"
Gary thought for a moment, "She is Serena!" She exclaimed. "It couldn't be anyone else."
"It's not possible," Ash said. "This picture was taken decades ago and besides isn't the man-"
"Doesn't matter," he said. "Leave it be."
Ash nodded and turned back, he looked at other pictures which hung on the wall, most of them featured Charlus and James, a few had Delia and Grace. But there was one picture that grabbed Ash's attention. He smiled as he said, "Gary, here."
Gary turned back and pouted, "Where?" he said.
Ash pointed at a picture that was around the corner. "This one, it looks like a wedding."
Gary glared at it for a moment, he later took the frame out and smiled. "It is my mom!" he exclaimed, "with dad, it's their wedding." Gary then tore off the frame much to Ash's dismay and held the picture in his hand as they trembled.
His mom was beautiful, she was just like how he used to remember. Dark hair, small lips, and the kindest pair of eyes ever seen. At one moment, he even found himself shedding a tear but then remembered how insane he would look.
He wiped it off and looked at Ash, "Mind if I keep this one?" he asked.
Ash smirked and trapped him in a hug, "Sure, asshole." he said.