Into The Unown

The Realisation

When Serena woke up, she was bombarded by an eerie sense of quietness.

From the moment she opened her eyes to when she stretched her limbs, quite a lot of time had passed. Something foreign was creeping up her body, something she couldn't quite name, all she knew was that she felt at peace.

"Hey,"

She looked up. "Ash," she said. The moment she said his name, relief crept up on his face. "What happened?"

He settled down next to her, pursing his lips. "You don't remember?"

"I remember the—"

It hit Serena like an iceberg. Everything came hurling back—the boat side, the cruise, the assassin and Aria's phone call.

Serena lifted her tshirt. The wound on her belly was properly dressed and stitched up. There was no bad smell, no blood or pus oozing out.

It didn't make any sense.

"What happened to the poison?"

Ash didn't answer, he lifted his hand, showing her the dressing. I have to clean the site," he said, "do you—"

"Of course,"

She leaned. The splinters from the strawy walls of the hut dug into her back. She shrugged her shoulders, resisting the urge to scratch herself bloodied.

It didn't make sense. Serena remembered rushing onto the shore, dragging her feet onto the shore as the vision blurred and her belly ached. She remembered being poisoned, stuck on an island with no one but the three of them. She remembered hearing the whispered conversation between Ash and Gary—the tension was electric.

They thought she would die without a cure. But now, she was alive. Her wound was healing as good as it could and she was refreshed even.

There was something Ash wasn't telling her, but Serena didn't pry.

"Where is Gary?"

"He went to the shore, we intercepted a signal from mom."

"Okay,"

When he was finished, Ash didn't leave. He sat beside her in silence, fiddling with the unown bracelet in his hand. He played with the beads, lifting and rolling them off his hands.

That's when she noticed it—the red marks.

She took his hand in hers. "What this?" She ran her fingers across his wrist where the bracelet had left burned marks. "Ash is this burning you?"

"Oh, it's nothing," he was quick to retreat it, "don't worry—"

"I am going to worry!" She cried, snatching the first aid kit from his hands. She rummaged through the continents and took out a cream, "How do you expect to win this war if you don't even take care of yourself."

Ash didn't answer, but he also did not take his eyes off from her. He watched her as she carefully put the ointment on his wrist. The touch of her fingers on his hands felt feathery—like she was afraid to hurt him.

He was amused. She was afraid to hurt him.

Even though he did not want to, Ash's mind slipped back in time—hours and then months. He remembered all those instances with Serena where Eiran—he had hurt her. He remembered what Eiran had told him.

She's a Van Black, he had said, there will come a day when she will betray you.

Ash couldn't say that he sympathised with Eiran, but he knew where he was coming from. Earlier when he thought of him, all he saw was an arrogant demon who posed himself as a God, doing his best to sabotage Serena's chances at survival. But after the visions he'd had—he saw him for what he really was.

A scared man who had lost his love to an unfathomable force.

Ash looked at Serena, trying to put himself in Eiran's shoes. If Arceus forbid what happened to Xenos happened to her, Ash would scorch the Earth of the entity responsible for it. Perhaps in his own twisted ways, that's what Eiran was trying to do.

Ash may not have understood him, but he sympathised with him.

"I won't let anything happen to you," he took her hands in his, "I promise."

Serena stared at him, "Did something happen?"

He shook his head. "I love you, Serena. I will protect you. I... I won't let the powers take you away."

"What powers?"

"The powers of the Van Black," he said, "I won't let them take you."

Serena withdrew her hands and gently stroked his cheeks. "Did something happen, Ash?"

The answer hung from the tip of his tongue. He wanted to tell her about the past—what went down with Eiran and Xenos. He wanted to tell her the reason they were at each others throats, but his voice was nowhere to be found.

"No," he lied. "Nothing happened."

Serena looked at him. She looked at him. Beyond the words of grandeur and power, she saw him—a scared little boy dealing with forces beyond his wildest dreams, making promises he didn't know how to keep.

The words of Xenos rang in her ears: He won't accept you for who you are. When the time comes, he will betray you.

She remembered laughing. Ash is not Eiran, she had said. Our love isn't as shallow as yours was.

At that moment, Xenos hadn't said anything. She had just smiled. Serena couldn't understood why she hadn't bothered to reply. Perhaps it was because she already knew what the future held for them. Perhaps she knew that Ash would turn out like Eiran—someone who feared her more than he loved her.

Serena didn't want to believe it, but she looked at him again. She saw his ears—dark brown, carved with trenches deep with courage and bravery. His eyes were heavy with determination and the urge to protect her. Serena couldn't help but wonder: What if... what if Xenos was wrong?

Ash was afraid, but what if he wasn't?

Serena smiled, caressing his cheeks. She traced her fingers across his scars—his scars—and the color drained from her face.

Ash had scars on his cheeks. But the Ash she had seen in her dreams did not.