Loyalty

Loyalty 6

Loyalty

Chapter 06: Hope

To say Giovanni was displeased was quite an understatement. He was angry and when the leader of Team Rocket was angry, the dangers that could break loose at any given moment were unpredictable at best. Delia and Ash had just finished explaining the recent happenings involving Misty and her sisters, with Delia elaborating on most of the narrative, given that she was far better informed about the past. Her speech also seemed more objective than the way Ash would add in his surprise or disbelief about Misty's actions and his optimistic theories about her intentions.

Needless to say, when someone else's speech seemed optimistic making Delia's appear slightly pessimistic by comparison; one could conclude that the other person was being way too optimistic. Delia was a hopeful by nature, though she had her moments of coming to terms with reality, she tended to look on the bright side more often than not. "After all that, they're still out there plotting to cause more trouble. Delia, I don't want you wandering off outside the guarded properties. If you insist on vacationing away from the busy atmosphere of the city, which I would prefer you wouldn't do, but you're stubborn enough to try, it will be done with a team of competent guards to tend to your security." A few years ago he might have simply told her to stay where he left her, but he knew that would just make her run off faster if only to prove that her kind disposition didn't mean she could be bossed around.

"Was it true?" Ash blurted out pacing a little across the Viridian gym office. Giovanni still sat behind his desk where he had been found yelling into the phone something along the lines of mobilizing the troops when Ash and Delia entered via the large window. Naturally, he would have preferred to be informed immediately upon Delia's rescue, rather than waiting for his son and wife to make the trip back before knowing that Delia was indeed alive and Ash was not doing something stupidly reckless and counterproductive in an attempt to save her.

Giovanni glared and got up from his desk, making his way at a luxurious pace to the liquor cabinet that sat forgotten in a corner of the office. He barely had time to breathe lately, let alone have a nice refreshing drink. He proceeded to serve himself a beverage, completely ignoring the other two inhabitants of the office, certainly not in the mood to deal with another bout of denial from Ash. Wasn't he past that stage already? Shouldn't he be combusting with anger and challenging every living creature he laid eyes upon to a battle in an attempt to solve everything with power, a concept for which Giovanni blamed himself with little regret?

"Ash, honey," Delia patted the empty space on the fancy little couch in the corner of the office, elegant and formal. "Sit down, sweetheart."

Huffing in annoyance, Ash did as he was told, crossing his arms in vexation. When his mother took that sweet tone with him as if speaking to a child, it was her sugar coated way to say, 'these are the facts, like it or not, you have to deal with them.' Perhaps he would have preferred the dry and direct version of the statement if only because he was old enough to understand that it would all lead to the exact same conclusion, only faster.

"Tidus did betray Team Rocket, he did some bad things, selling out his comrades to the police and interfering with important business deals." Delia patiently explained, trying to put on a mask of reassurance past her own disturbing worries about things that happened so long ago she had, feeling guilty upon the realization, forgotten about. "That's why your father did what he did, although I was certainly not happy about it, I accepted it. As for Coral, perhaps she is the key to making peace with Misty."

"I doubt it," Ash mumbled bitterly. "Even if her actions against you," he paused and corrected himself, "against us, were terrible and deserved a punishment, telling someone that they're mother's a killer who deserved to die doesn't seem like a way to make peace with them."