Loyalty

Loyalty 3

Loyalty

Chapter 03: Secrets

It had been completely unexpected, out of the blue and yet deep down she felt she had it coming. For many years, Delia pretended to be a normal person, she was seen as cheerful and sweet, which she truly was, but the wife of a mafia lord could hardly be called normal by society and its standards. The residents of Pallet Town had taken a liking to her little cafe and were sad to see it close when she felt the need to retire despite her eyes still holding the sparkle of youth just as strongly as ten years ago.

Ash's journey was over and so was her place in the outside world, her role of assisting him in his rise to power. After Ash's victory at the Indigo League she stayed in Pallet only for a few months until Giovanni urged her to return, emphasizing that there was no reason for her to come and go between her two roles and could put that secondary role that had become so primary to rest. She could return to his side completely. It was over.

Delia expected to see anger when the person who kidnapped her from the peaceful little villa lifted off her blindfold. She expected to see the enraged face of a criminal out for vengeance. A part of her also expected the hurt eyes of one of Team Rocket's unjust victims, but she kept telling herself that she could do nothing about it, while the more sincere and less mercifully hypocritical part of her brain told her that she simply didn't want to do anything. Her family was everything and they would just have to be enough.

Instead of all her expectations, which were not too cheerful to begin with, but were at least logical, Delia found a familiar face. Her eyes widened as she stared into the confused expression of a young woman she had met long ago. Delia had only seen Misty a few times during the past decade, on less than half as many occasions as Ash had seen her, not that the two had spent too much time together.

Ash and Misty were always happy to see each other, and always conscious of their respective secrets while remaining unaware of the other's. From Misty's perspective, though still his optimistic self, Ash had become more focused, just a little more serious and that gave him an air of distance. He was training, he was busy, he had no time to travel slowly from one location to another, instead rushing from one public challenge to the next in a select few formal events, then disappearing into a secret training routine that the next generation of young trainers could only theorize about dreamily, or at least that's what it looked like.

Misty felt that he wasn't out for adventuring anymore as much as he was out for improvement. Ash was well known, he had a reputation to maintain and Misty had a well camouflaged criminal record with her name on it that would surely be brought to light if she was seen with Ash. A  gym leader charged with the crime of being a vigilante taking justice into her own hands and overstepping the authorities along with several other offenses, some being true and others false, was one thing.

Yet to have the same gym leader associated with the new champion who shocked the world by defeating Lance only to be apparently, too humble to take the title of champion formally was too much. His record had to remain without blemish, or else the kids wouldn't want to collect all those little Pokemon League cards, figurines and what not, which Ash was pushed to advertise, even the classic poke-Os cereals would suffer if its spokesperson was seen with a criminal, righteous or not. He was a little avoidant; she noticed it, accepted it and added to it, not truly bothered by it as she thought it was his natural response to her own avoidance which in reality flew over his head.

"Misty?" The name weighed heavily in Delia's voice as if the very sound waves that carried it would shatter. A million questions ran through her mind, but she could hardly voice them incoherent and incomplete. "Why are you? Where? Is this?"

"Who are you?" Misty cut in; her expression absolutely sour and almost fearful of the truth. "Please tell me the truth, who are you, please!" She was near the point of tears. The danger of being a vigilante didn't faze her like this, even the thought of crossing the line and performing an abduction, though it bothered her at first, was reconciled with her conscience when she excused it convincing herself that it was for the greater good. Yet this memory of times gone by, the precious memory of the traveling boy and his kind mother, Misty didn't want it to be tainted.