Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Gonna trigger warning the next three chapters. They're the darkest of this book. Tread with caution.

On a different note, you get artwork this week! I'm super stoked with how this particular character design turned out. It's adorable. Done by MarchingSpace again (he is doing all the character designs in this book :)

Audio Version here -

Resilience. Fortitude. Compassion. Serena D'Amour had these qualities in spades. She took immense pride in her ability to hold her composure with dignity and resolve, no matter the circumstance. No matter how painful or horrific. It is what separated her from the many. So when she walked back into the grand study, she ensured that her clothing was neat, her hair was brushed back into place, and that her posture remained tall and unwavering.

It certainly helped that she had clasped onto the hand of her best friend, Alain Auclair. Alain had always remained a pillar of strength for her during both the best and the worst of times. She knew that she could get through this without him, but to have him by her side meant the burden on her shoulders could be shared, and for that she was grateful.

Upon their return, Serena advised that, despite Ash's decision, she wished to move forward and be present in the conversation. She wanted to be caught up on any context of what had been discussed whilst she was absent. She also wished to try and understand why Ash chose to abandon her and the rest of his loved ones for nearly six years. Luckily for Serena, these discussions had already taken place, so Reece was able to swiftly fill her and Alain in on where things were currently standing.

First of all, Ash had made clear that he never intended to return to their world unless he had worked out the answer of how to reverse The Rift. He had given himself 10 years to find it. He was either coming out alive with an answer so that he could undo all the pain his loved ones had endured, or he was never going to come out at all. And the reason he had now returned was that he had found what he believed could be the answer, but he needed to recruit some other, more academic minds to confirm his discovery and understand the science behind it.

Serena could tell that Ash was utterly gutted at the pain he had caused her. That it had broken him, too. The pieces of her that remained deeply caring for him ached within her body, and she knew that they would have to have a conversation later, no matter how challenging. Not for his sake, but for hers.

Ash had also requested that three individuals join him on a trip into The Rift to confirm his discovery. The first person was Clemont Fontaine, for his immense intellectual prowess and deeply nuanced understanding of technology, and the second was Sawyer Tanaka, for his strategic specialisation to be able to find solutions and look at things from unique perspectives. It was agreed that they were both suitable candidates and that they would be bought into the fold so long as they agreed to sign non-disclosure agreements and be employed by the ESF as their cover.

The third person that Ash had requested threw Serena for a loop, for he had requested that Serena herself join him alongside Clemont and Sawyer for his "emotional and psychological support needs". Alain nearly upended the entire contents of the table upon hearing these words, fuming under his breath at Ash's audacity to make such an egregious request. Serena made it very clear that she would only attend if she was emotional and psychological support for all three men. After all, Clemont and Sawyer had already grieved for Ash as if he were dead, and the moment that they found out that Ash was alive but had remained absent of his own free will, they too would break apart and need someone to support them. Everyone in the room comfortably agreed except for Alain, who only agreed after it was confirmed that he would remain on standby to collect Serena at any moment if she felt uncomfortable.

With these points cleared out of the way, they had completed two-thirds of their meeting. Which was perfect timing, as Ash's stomach had loudly begun to rumble.

Diantha and Steven had organised a range of gourmet sandwiches for them, with everyone scoffing through their lunch over small talk in the main dining room. Neither Serena nor Alain had any interest in participating in this chatter. Instead, they took their lunch out onto the terrace and just sat together, gently eating and enjoying the presence of their hosts, who were lounging about in each other's arms for a quick moment of rest.

No matter how many years had passed, Steven and Diantha remained deeply in love in a way that was unassuming yet contained a quiet confidence. Serena could sense it in the way that Steven lightly stroked Diantha's arms as she rested her head on his shoulder and just looked up at him, still enamoured by all the details of his face. Amongst all of the ugliness of the day, it was such a beautiful change of pace.

Unfortunately, it was short-lived, as Serena found herself back in the grand study that felt stuffy and bleak in comparison, with Reece steering the discussion once more.

"So... We are now at the complicated and, to be frank, uncomfortable section of things. We need to discuss with you both the reasons and factors that led to Ash's abandonment, which in turn will help us understand why Serena chose to cover it up for him. As both of you—I believe—are aware, the law was broken in two directions. Ash for abandonment and Serena for aiding and abetting. It is paramount, I repeat, paramount that we know exactly what happened between you two. There is no way that we can avoid it. So Serena, could you please explain in your own words what happened in the 24-hour lead-up to Ash leaving?"

In a moment of pure grit, Serena found herself biting back.

"I find the fact that you are coming to me first in this discussion to be unfair. It places a burden on me that I should not have to carry. I would not have been put in the position to be charged with aiding and abetting if Ash had not abandoned me in the first place. I believe that it's only fair that he is the one that uses his words to explain exactly what happened between us and how it influenced him into his decision to abandon me. I would then be more than happy to corroborate his version of events and clarify any differences if they do not match my own."

Reece politely nodded. "That is completely valid and fair, Serena. My apologies. I am more than happy to take your feedback on board in this instance."

He then turned his attention to Ash. "With that in mind, Ash, in your own words, could you please tell us what happened on the day in the lead-up to your abandonment?"

Of all of the moments of sadness, of breaking, and of hurt, Serena had never seen Ash in so much emotional distress. He had completely lost the soul out of his eyes. It was surreal. Still, words began to softly flow out of his mouth in the quietest whimper.

"We had 11 days to go. On this particular day, we found—we—we found a boy in the snow, and—uhhh—he had a rotting Pikachu, and I—I lost it. Serena supported me through the breakdown and held me whilst I cried. I wanted to die. I wished that I had died instead of everyone who I had lost. Serena told me that I was loved by so many people, that she was still—uhhh—God—that—she was still in love with me and that it would be devastating for her if I were to die. She made me feel so much better."

"I see," Reece observed, taking notes and nodding to encourage Ash to continue.

"Umm... So after a really nice dinner, I went back to my tent, and I—I couldn't sleep. I felt so many things at once. Every day, I just felt so many things that I didn't understand—uhhh—like—it was—it was so many feelings. I was in so much pain. I was sad. I grieved for Pikachu. But I was also feeling grateful to have Serena with me. I was—I—Fuck."

Serena violently gripped Alain's hand under the table as a means to prevent her face from visibly showing how difficult it had become to see and hear Ash breaking in this moment. Kukui had his arm around his shoulder, nestling him into his chest as he soothed.

"It's OK, Ash... Take a deep breath. I've got you."

After a little while, Ash took control of his breathing and gained a tiny piece of composure, his eyes darting between Reece and Serena.

"Um... I was feeling taken care of by Serena. I—I adored her. And I—uhhh—I'm sorry. This is really hard for me to admit, but I—fuck—I had—uhhh—deep, intense feelings of... lust and—ummm—sexual desire towards her. You see, Serena and I, we met when we were 5. We travelled together when we were 10. And we emailed each other until we were 19. The last time I saw her in person, she kissed me. And in our emails... we were—uhhh—fuck—we were really sexual. Like... we would play with each other in our heads every day, and then we—we touched ourselves whilst we pretended to—uhhh—have sex, and—my god—see—I—I started falling for her, and—umm—we were meant to get together, and we were going to hopefully—uhhh—you know—have sex, but we—we—we couldn't because the day I was supposed to meet her was—it was—the day after The Rift."

Kukui and Leon were quietly crying at this point. Serena didn't even attempt to hold it in. Hearing him have to talk about his sex life in a room with his father figures, his rival, the girl he abandoned, and a lawyer... that was one hell of a tough gig. Even Alain was crying, hearing all these elements he already knew but from an entirely new perspective.

"That must have been really tough for you." Reece said consolingly with a gentle nod.

"It was," admitted Ash as he gazed deeply into the core of Serena. "I spent that whole year just... craving her. Dreaming about being with her sexually. Wanting her so badly I felt like I—like I was going to explode. But we—fuck—I'm sorry—uhh—we missed it, and instead Pikachu died, and Cynthia and Professor Sycamore died, and I—I couldn't talk or move properly for weeks... And then suddenly she—she was at my door. I was so weak... I—I failed to save so many... And there she was. Strong, powerful, and so unbelievably beautiful, and I—I fell in love with her the second that I saw her."

It was Alain's turn to rapidly grip Serena's hand under the table, as he utilised the other as a pillar to lean his head into and cover his face. Serena had to simply allow him to grip her as tightly as needed, for that was all she had left to give.

"And then I felt ashamed." Ash admitted with a sob. Kukui placed his arm yet again over Ash's shoulder and took hold of his hand with the other in a sign of support as he continued to whimper.

"The guilt. Everything was horrible, but I—I wanted to just lose myself in her. I was being selfish. Children had died. Love could wait. I could wait. The entire time we were on our allocation, I fought myself over this. Wanting to touch her. Wanting to—oh god—fuck—wanting to—to be inside of her. Hating myself for being selfish. Depressed at how my Pokémon and friends had died. Overwhelmed by all the dead bodies. Numb and sad. But the day I saw that Pikachu, and the way she cared for me, I—I couldn't fight it any longer, and—and—fuck—uhhh..."

Ash began to choke on his words, heaving and unable to breathe. Finally, after a sip of water and a very, very deep breath, he choked out the last of his sentence.

"My desire to show her how much I loved her finally overtook my shame."

The room fell into complete silence. Kukui and Leon just looked at each other.

"What do you mean by that, Ash?" Reece queried.

Ash placed both his elbows on the table and rested his head in his hands as he meekly sobbed and stuttered his way through the hardest admission of his life.

"Ummm... It means that... Fuck. It means that I—I got out of my bed, and I went over to her tent, and—and I—I went up to her in the dark, and I kissed her, and she—she kissed me back. As soon as she kissed me back, I—I knew I wanted her to know that—that I loved her the same way that she loved me. So I told her that I loved her over and over and over again as I—as I took off her clothes..."

Serena felt her body flood with a sense of confusion. Ash didn't speak to her at all. And yet he was telling her that he loved her over and over again? Why would he say that? She had to know.

"As I felt—uhhh—her body... And as I—god, sorry—ummm—as I—I had sex with her until—fuck—I—I came inside of her... But then—god, this is so hard, sorry—uhhh—whilst I was lying on top of her after—uhhh—after I came... I realised that... I was only telling her that I loved her inside my head when I did those things to her."

Ash completely collapsed into the table, heaving and loudly bawling. Kukui ran his hands along his head and back to try and soothe him. Suddenly, everything about their encounter in the woods made perfect sense to Serena. That feeling, like he was a ticking time bomb. Like she was the only oxygen in the room. The urgency and the hunger. It all made sense.

Alain had shifted his arm around her back, gazing towards her to silently check how she was doing. She lightly nodded, surprisingly finding herself feeling deeply sorry for Ash in this moment as he tucked into Kukui's chest and muffled out the last of his confession.

"I—I knew that she had an ex-boyfriend who didn't talk to her or—or ask her what she wanted when she had sex with him and that it—it made her feel really worthless. And then—god, I just—fuck—I—I felt how sticky I was and realised that I had gotten so caught up in my—in my desires that I—fuck—I—I didn't ask her if she had a condom, so I—I wasn't wearing one... Even though she had told me that she—she wasn't comfortable having sex without it. And... My whole body flooded with—uhhh—the most intense shame and guilt that I have ever felt. So I—uhhh—removed myself from inside of her, and—and I—I went back to my tent, and I cried a bunch because I—I knew—I—I knew I had not had sex with her properly. Not in the way that I wanted to, and not in the way that she deserved. I was so—so ashamed of what I had done. So I wrote her a note telling her that I'd—that I'd always love her but that I wasn't worthy of her, and I—I asked her not to look for me, and I told her I was sorry. I left it on my bed, and—I—I—I abandoned her."

Serena found herself flooded with a new kind of sadness that she had never experienced. She had always had a gut feeling that this might be the root of Ash's abandonment. A sense that, in that moment, with the information he knew, Ash felt like he had become another version of Josh and hurt her. So it wasn't surprising to hear him fall apart with a genuine and intense guilt around their first time together. Of what he felt went horribly wrong and the shame that he carried. But of all of these pieces, what truly cut her the most was that this all felt so avoidable. If he had heard her when she was speaking outside of his tent, this would have been avoided. If he had just waited...

She sighed. There was nothing that they could do now. The only solace that she took was that she finally had the opportunity to alleviate him of this grief and shame entirely. To wipe the slate clean and give her a chance to voice what she would have said to him. That way, they could move forward with their lives. It was just bad sex. He needed to know that. She wasn't hurt. He could finally let it go.

Serena looked around and noticed the immense tension from the head of the table as Leon and Reece sternly muttered amongst themselves.

"Reece..."

"I know, Leon. I know."

"This changes everything."

Then she noted that the colour had drained from Kukui's face.

Something was off. The room felt... suffocating within a great realisation that she couldn't quite place. Ash found himself all cried out, now in the realm of numbness. The mutters at the head of the table slowed, and Reece turned to Ash once again.

"Ash. I understand that that was immensely difficult to speak about, particularly with Serena here in the room with us. Thank you for your honesty."

Ash sniffled as Reece shifted his attention to the other side of the table.

"Serena, I have a few questions for you relating to this new information that Ash has shared with us. These questions aren't going to be easy. If you don't wish to answer anything, you can refuse and say 'no comment'. Do you understand?"

Serena nodded as she found herself under the microscope.

"OK. Serena," Reece began. "First of all, is Ash's depiction of this sexual incident in your tent accurate from your perspective?"

"Yes."

Reece nodded. "OK. At any point, did Ash verbally speak to you during this encounter?"

"No."

"Are you absolutely certain that he said nothing? Nothing at all?" Reece queried, ready to jot down her answer.

"It's as he mentioned," she comfortably confirmed. "Anything he was saying was inside his own head. He didn't say anything to me whatsoever."

Reece sharply scribbled as he advanced the questioning forward.

"So is it correct to say that Ash did not specifically ask you if you wanted to have sexual intercourse with him?"

Serena felt her shoulders tense, a discomfort brewing.

"I guess that is correct. I mean, I had told him many times that I wanted to have sex with him. He knew that I wanted to. We were upfront about wanting each other like that in our emails. But I mean—uhhh—I guess technically we didn't discuss it that night. I tried to discuss it later that morning so that we could try and have sex again in a way that was slower and using protection, but—uhhh—he had already left by that point."

"Thank you for sharing that." Reece noted as he kept things moving.

"Did you at any point talk to Ash or verbalise in any way that informed him that you wanted to have sexual intercourse with him?"

Serena was baffled by Reece's line of questioning. Still, she kept herself poised and made sure to answer him accurately.

"When he came into my tent, I went to ask him if he was OK. That was all I said in the moment. The only other verbal noise I made was... when I was moaning when he was fucking me. Which is pretty normal, given I was expecting to be fucked at some point, and I do happen to quite enjoy sex."

Serena finally noticed a tiny speckle of light re-emerging in Ash's irises. She caught his gaze and gave him the softest and slightest of smiles, which he returned with a little beam of his own. Ash was her favourite person once. They were the best of friends. If they could move past all of this, then maybe they could be friends again, and Serena could move on and live her life of peace and quiet with Alain. Resenting Ash wouldn't make her life better. In the long run, forgiveness and a new dynamic would be the best outcome for them all.

This conversation and moment with Ash felt optimistic for Serena, so she couldn't grasp why the room felt so on edge. Stuffy. She turned to Reece as he put down his notebook and clasped his hands.

"Thank you, Serena. That gives me a clearer picture of things. This one is going to be very vulnerable for you, but it would be extremely helpful for me to grasp your full, detailed perspective on this. So with that in mind, would you feel comfortable telling us in your own words what Ash did to you in that tent, in the exact order it happened, and if any clothing was removed in the process?"

Serena turned to Alain to quickly check that he was doing OK. He nodded, squeezing her hand.

"So you want a play-by-play from my perspective, correct?"

"Yes."

So that's what she did. She explained it from her point of view. Once she was done, she found herself completely bamboozled by the state of the room. The men were in a dire way. Alain could at least keep himself together, but Ash's father figures completely fell apart.

"Fucking hell." Leon muttered, with an elbow on the table to rest his hand that was now holding up his head in disbelief. Kukui was hysterically crying, his head face down on the table.

Reece, being the lawyer, remained as stiff and emotionless as cardboard.

"Leon, you do know what this means..."

"Yes, I do, Reece. Fuck! I was not expecting this at all."

The men just stared at each other.

"It's Kalosian law, Leon."

"I know, I know."

Ash, completely clueless about what was going on, sought answers in Serena's demeanour. She simply darted her eyes and shook her head ever so slightly, not fully understanding what was going on herself. Suddenly, Reece placed his clasped hands together on the table and cleared his throat.

"Ash. Serena. We are heading into uncharted territory here. I'm very sorry to say that what we are about to discuss is going to be really uncomfortable, and it is not at all what Leon and I were expecting. But legally, I am obliged and bound by Kalosian law to address this, provide context, and explain to Serena what her options are."

Serena did not like this. She did not like this at all.

"What is it?" Ash asked.

"Serena. Ash. We are no longer just dealing with working out how to stop the pair of you from being arrested for your respective abandonment and aiding and abetting cases. We have to discuss the legal framework of a third criminal offence. A much worse, significantly more damaging one. Given the information that I have just received from the both of you..."

Reece took a long, deep breath and dropped yet another bombshell on the room.

"Ash, from a legal standpoint, you have committed the crime of violation against Serena."

"No." Serena firmly interjected.

This cannot be happening.

Ash was lost. "What do you mean?" Reece turned towards Ash to provide context.

"The crime of violation is a sexual crime in which a person penetrates another person without their explicit and/or uncoerced consent. The description from both of you in the tent fits the legal definition of violation, and violation comes with a sentence of life imprisonment if found guilty under a court of law."

Ash fell into an absolute heap at this information. Alain grimaced, shifting his entire attention towards Serena, who found a defiant fire burning deep within her core.

This will not be happening.

"Serena," Reece began to empathise. "As the victim of a crime of violation, you have the right to press charges against Ash if you choose to. So with that in mind, how would you like to proceed?"

Serena remained firm in her resolve as she clenched her hands on the table.

"There's nothing to press charges over. He didn't violate me."

Reece matched Serena's demeanour as he began to elaborate.

"Unfortunately, in the eyes of the law in Kalos, he did violate you. He made no effort in any way to ask for your consent before penetration, and you did not grant uncoerced consent to him. That makes Ash legally the perpetrator and you legally the victim."

Serena pursed her lips. She happened to be extremely versed in this subject. It was required in order to build the consent education at KERA. She knew the law inside out.

Reece was about to meet his match.

"Reece," she commenced, making sure that she rose to his level of neutral professionalism.

"I appreciate you taking this seriously and bringing this up. However, your interpretation of the law is misplaced in this specific circumstance. I would absolutely see your point if Ash and I were strangers and he came into my tent like that, but that's not the case. I was personally selected to support Ash on this allocation because we had 9 years of sexual and romantic history between us. Consent around sexual partners and relationships falls under a completely different umbrella than consent around strangers or platonic relationships. For example, Alain and I are in a sexual relationship. Sorry if this is too much information, but it's required to provide context. We normally have sex multiple times a day. Sometimes, all I have to do is give him a look, and I will be getting bent over without a word within minutes. Our consent boundaries are very clear; they do not require explicit verbal consent every time because we express consent through our behaviour and actions and our own framework that we have worked out. On the rare occasion that I have said no to sex, he has not pressured me, and on the somewhat frequent occasion that he hits my cervix and I've experienced pain, he stops immediately. That is how consent works in these kinds of dynamics, and he would not be getting charged by the government of Kalos for violation based on any of this behaviour. This incident in my tent with Ash was 100% consensual on my end. No, it was not verbalised, because I consented with my actions. With my participation. Sex was expected at some point in my eyes. We had had many discussions via email around how we would be having sex the second that we met each other in person. If anything, it's an absolute feat that we didn't have sex on night one. It was going to happen. We've had cybersex. We had confessed romantic feelings to each other. The sexual relationship already existed. Therefore, we fall under the relationship umbrella definition of uncoerced consent, which means that Ash did not commit violation in any way."

Serena crossed her arms, fully content with her explanation. Reece sat on it for a moment before coming back with a response that further inflamed her frustrations.

"I respect where you are coming from, Serena, but under Kalosian law, given it was the first time that you and Ash had actually had a sexual encounter with each other in person, it would still be perceived as coerced consent rather than uncoerced consent in that circumstance. Your behaviour would be classified as a defence mechanism to reduce potential life-threatening injuries of violation."

"That consent law you're referring to didn't come into play until 2022." Serena snapped, her fingers tapping with annoyance along the table as she came in hot off the press.

"I would know, Reece, because I was instrumental in shaping consent and sex education. I'm a global leader on this subject. KERA was the first academy of any kind in the world to enforce consent and sex education as a compulsory learning unit to get a diploma. I quite literally wrote the programme, so I fully understand the law and the difference between coerced and uncoerced consent. Regardless of that, Ash cannot be charged for committing a crime around a law that didn't exist when he 'allegedly' broke it, and the law before that would put him within the realm of uncoerced consent."

Reece began to bluster, his face slightly reddening as he formally pushed his perspective forward.

"I understand your point of view, Serena, but I'm just stating the law and how it would be interpreted if the specifics of your sexual encounter together were in print exactly as you've both just described it. Plus, the legalities are one thing... the print media storm that you would both be facing is another."

Serena simply shook her head in utter frustration. Alain gave her a light nudge to check if she was OK. She looked around the room, realising that this battle between her and Reece was woefully ungrasped based on the blank looks around the table. Suddenly, it dawned on her that this would be the perfect opportunity to finally get some answers and some accountability from the men in this room who were partially responsible for this giant turd of a situation.

"Well," she huffed, "given I'm apparently the victim in all of this, I think that there are other elements at play in what happened between me and Ash that you need to understand, Reece, if we are going to even remotely entertain the idea that Ash committed the crime of violation against me. Which, to be frank, is fucking ridiculous when the woman telling you that she enthusiastically consented is telling you that she enthusiastically consented. That should just drop the charge entirely."

She looked over to Ash, who looked as utterly confused as ever. Suddenly, a very dark thought occurred to her. A thought that sat in her gut and made her realise that she was missing a very important piece of context that she had to understand.

"Ash," she called out, catching his attention. "Do you even understand what Reece and I are talking about here? Like, do you know what the difference between coerced and uncoerced consent actually is, or what enthusiastic consent is?"

Ash visibly gulped and went blood-red beet.

"I—uhhh—I'm sorry, but..." He whispered, a sense of embarrassment permeating through the air.

"I actually don't know what the word 'consent' means at all."

You've gotta be FUCKING KIDDING ME.

The pit in Serena's gut rapidly grew.

"Are you saying, Ash, that not a single guardian or trusted adult spoke to you about consent as a child or a teenager as part of your sex education?"

"No."

Serena let out a sharp inhale of disgust as the pit continued to fester.

"Hang on... Ash. If you've never discussed consent, have you discussed safe sex? Did a trusted adult or guardian ever speak to you as a child or teenager about the importance of having safe sex? About using a condom? Or even what a condom actually is?"

Ash shook his head, his embarrassment shifting him even redder.

"No, they didnt," he quietly admitted. "I've—uhhh—never used a condom. I only really grasped what they were—ummm—after you—uhhh—emailed me about Josh when I was eighteen and a half, and I looked up what they were in detail. I had already come off of my boys' trip by then, and condoms weren't ever mentioned, so I—just—didn't even know that I was meant to use them. Even on our video call—uhh—when we did the whole 'raw' roleplay, I had just looked up sexy things to say to a girl over a video call, and the article I read said that turned girls on, so I said it. So—uhhh—yeah."

Suddenly, Serena had the missing puzzle piece in her hands. Suddenly, everything that happened to her made complete sense. She knew now. Why Ash didn't speak. Why he froze up on top of her. Why he abandoned her and believed he had really hurt her. And why he stayed away for years to try and find a way to reverse it.

Ash was never taught the language of sex. He was sexually illiterate when it came to being able to participate in safe, consensual sex.

Which is why it came across as a physical hunger when he fucked her. It is why he didn't wait to hear her out. He could not speak the language because he did not receive any education outside of what she had told him as a teenager, which, on this topic, was absolutely nothing.

This revelation sent Serena into an intense, unbridled rage. She slammed her hands on the table and stood up as she began to flame.

"Kukui! What the actual fuck?! You were supposed to give him the birds and the beedrills talk. In full!"

Kukui was completely taken aback by Serena's sudden outburst as he sank into his chair.

"Serena..." he whispered, "I just told him about what sex itself was... like he asked."

"FOR FUCK'S SAKE!" Serena roared into the space, her hands beginning to slash and point towards Ash as she unleashed on Kukui.

"Do I have to teach this man fucking everything?! Why do you think he asked you in the first place?! Because I told him to! Because he saw Alain having sex on vacation and asked me about it, and so I, a 15-year-old CHILD, gave him the basics on sex, expecting that the ADULTS would teach him about the consent and safety elements! Fucking Christ!"

Kukui began to weep. Ash still had no idea what she was talking about. Leon simply shook his head.

"I have to say, Kukui, I'm surprised by this—"

"NUH-UH, LEON!"

Serena leant over the table to square Leon in the eyes as she vocally tore right through him, her hands continuing to slice.

"You're not off the hook, Leon. AT ALL! He was under your care as the monarch for YEARS. Way more than Kukui's care. Ash might have been dense as fuck, and he might have been battle-obsessed, but he was still very much a teenage boy with a fully working dick. Trust me, I would know, as I also had to teach him how to masturbate because he didn't even know what an erection was at nearly 15 FUCKING YEARS OLD!!!"

Serena was absolutely exasperated at this point as she crossed her arms and bellowed.

"HOW THE FUCK DID NEITHER OF YOU PICK THIS UP?"

Silence engulfed the space until Leon quietly noted, his tail between his legs.

"You make a valid point..."

Serena's anger suddenly shifted into the realm of grief. Grief for who she and Ash could have been if he had been properly taken care of as a child. If he had been sexually educated. If his denseness was not used as the punchline of a joke but was instead seen as a red flag that he needed to be urgently brought up to speed. That way, he wouldn't do anything as stupid as fucking a woman raw and in silence in a tent and then abandoning her five hours later for nearly six fucking years. Her words began to wobble as this reality kicked her in the teeth.

"Both of you need to take a long, hard look in the fucking mirror. You two are personally responsible for setting that man up to not only fail, but you've also set him up to be sexually illiterate and unsafe for any and all of his sexual partners. This is what happens when you prioritise your own comfort and sexual values over having an awkward conversation and providing essential sex education to your children. You have both fucking failed him as his guardians, and I was the one that suffered. I was the one that was fucked and abandoned in the snow. I was the one who had to carry the guilt of failing to bring him home. I paid the price for your parental negligence. You should feel so ashamed of yourselves. We are all here today because of the pair of you. Are you grasping what I'm getting at, Reece?"

She sat back down as Alain wrapped her in his arms. Surely, this would be enough to can this entire violation business. Surely.

"I am." Reece noted, as neutral and non-impacted as ever.

"It explains his behaviour. It's incredibly disappointing to hear. But unfortunately, Serena, it still doesn't change anything."

Serena was exhausted. This was why she did not want to focus on the sex. It was inevitable under the circumstances she and Ash were in that they were going to have sex. And now, knowing he had no consent or safe sex education, it was even more obvious that they were set up to fail. They gave her a protection kit, for fuck's sake! They cannot argue that they did not know.

Hang on... Holy shit.

The penny had dropped. Serena had the argumentative angle she needed to shut this shit down, once and for all.

"Fine, Reece. If we are going to play hardball, then riddle me this..." She began, wiping her tearlets behind her ears as she plastered on a grin and spat at the insufferable lawyer with the most condescending level of saccharine she could muster.

"When I was briefed on being selected for this allocation, I was specifically told that I was selected because Ash had romantic and sexual feelings for me. That my support was to be 'psychological and emotional'. I was also specifically told that it was my 'responsibility' to do anything that he needed support-wise to ensure that he made it out of that allocation alive. ANYTHING. I was given a protection kit and told to take contraception DAILY because it was expected that he would potentially be fucking me every single day for his 'emotional support'. The RCGB made this all very abundantly clear in my briefing. They used euphemisms, but if you look through their paperwork, it's all there. Nurse Joy even warned me profusely that this was why I was chosen. She begged me to take the contraception kit because I was chosen for a reason and had to always expect the unexpected. They all knew. EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO SENT ME INTO THAT ALLOCATION FUCKING KNEW. That I was sent in there to be FUCKED. WHENEVER he wanted because his life was on the line."

Serena took a moment to let her words sink in before shifting back into a hungry, potent aggression.

"These GROWN-ASS MEN sitting right here, THEY put me in that position. They could have chosen any of his male companions. They could have stepped the fuck up and gone with him themselves. But no, they sent the one woman that they all knew that he wanted desperately to fuck, and the RCGB supported this decision IN FULL. So, Reece, with all that in mind, did I ever even have a choice on the matter? Did I even have the ability to consent? To say no to sex with Ash if his support needs required it? When going against an allocation's parameters was classified as illegal, hmmm...? And I wonder, Ash. Did you also have this conversation before our allocation? Did the RCGB give you, as the man in this pairing, condoms as part of a protection kit?"

"No," said Ash. "Now that I think about it, I didn't get a protection kit at all. Nothing about us having sex was mentioned."

"Oh, would you look at that," sniped Serena, glowering back over towards Reece. "Looks like the RCGB only gave protection kits to the women. Which is ironic given that, last time I checked, condoms go on dicks. Given my deep knowledge of the statistics of women who got 'actually violated' on search and rescue allocations, I'd say that the RCGB giving all the women protection kits had nothing to do with protecting the women and everything to do with the HR department at the RCGB being able to wipe their hands clean of us if anything went wrong. How interesting, hmmm? What do you think, Reece? Are you finally ready to fucking drop it and come up with a tangible, working media strategy for us?"

Reece let out an audible sigh, clearly frustrated at the circling around on this subject.

"Look, Serena..." he said bluntly and out of fucks to give.

"I completely understand your point of view. It's clear that you are extremely versed in this subject. I'm not saying your points are wrong. They are all incredibly valid, and if I were Ash's defence lawyer, these would be the arguments I would use to get the charge dropped. The problem with this discussion is that, regardless of whether you are correct in your arguments, it doesn't erase the fact that, when this hits the media, none of that nuance will matter. It wouldn't matter whether you felt violated or not, or what circumstances or extenuating factors you were sent under or expected to perform during your allocation. The media would use this situation as a focus piece to bring these topics into the spotlight for discussion. You'd both be sacrificial lambs to the slaughter, and there is a high likelihood that the RCGB unit based in Kalos would charge Ash with violation regardless, simply to make an example of him and push their own narrative. So I'm sorry, Serena, but your opinion on this doesn't actually matter. Not when the law clearly states that you are a victim of violation and the media latches onto that, which they 100% will."

"TAKE THAT FUCKING BACK! RIGHT NOW!"

Alain's eyes had returned to their murderous scarlet with Reece's final comment, his glass shattering on the wall behind Reece in the process. Kukui, Ash and Leon all sat as still as statues, realising that they were about to witness an absolute explosion.

Serena was flooded with the same scarlet and suffering in her eyes. Reece had completely crossed an emotional line that she knew her body would now have to pay for. There was no stopping her as she descended into a chaotic state of freefall.

"You're not getting it! Ash tore out my fucking soul when he chose to abandon me that day. But he did not sexually violate my body! This is fucking ridiculous! I loved him. I wanted him to fuck me. I had to fight the urge to go into his tent every single night because I was plagued by the same sexual desires, lust and guilt that he was. He just caved first! I know what violation feels like, and I can tell you right now that Ash in no way violated me. Please, Reece, you need to drop it!"

Reece remained neutral and unwavering.

"But he did, Serena. I am just—"

"FUCKING LISTEN TO ME!!!"

Serena's voice hurtled through the space, butchered and violent like the shattering of Alain's glass upon the wall. Reece put his hands up to gesture his immediate surrender as every word that flung out of Serena's mouth ripped through her throat.

"I was brutally violated on the day of The Rift, and I have the internal scarring to prove it. Six stitches, Reece. Six. I was torn open that day. I bled for over a month. Don't you fucking dare tell me that I don't understand whether MY OWN BODY has been violated. I KNOW THE TRUE DEPTH OF THE PAIN AND COST OF BEING SEXUALLY VIOLATED IN A WAY YOU COULD NOT EVEN REMOTELY COMPREHEND. Ash Ketchum did not violate me. I will not allow the government of Kalos to press charges against Ash for something he did not do, and I will not allow anyone to classify me as a victim of violation by Ash Ketchum."

Serena had never verbalised the trauma or details of her internal injuries. Not to anyone except for Nurse Joy. That kind of dark admission... it comes at a significant cost. Alain caught her as she began to crumble, her legs no longer having the ability to remain standing.

"Do not push this, Reece!" Alain commanded as he lowered her down into her chair. "Back the fuck down! Now!"

"Ok, ok." Reece gently conceded as he leant over with genuine concern. "I'm sorry that we had to bring this up, and we will not press charges against Ash on behalf of Serena."

"Could we potentially adjust their narrative slightly so that verbal consent is added back in to avoid going down this path?" Leon asked with urgency. Reece nodded.

"The only way that that would work is if both of them agreed to commit perjury and say that they verbally consented."

"Great! Problem solved." Serena began to intensely sob, her body shifting into very dangerous territory.

"Tell them that I begged him to fuck me and he got cold feet. I don't fucking care what you make up, but I'm not having my agency and autonomy dissected in the media over whether I understand whether my own body was violated."

The entire room was falling apart. So much heaviness. Darkness. Weight. Everything was at stake now. She needed the room to know that they had the capacity to kill her if they went down this path.

"Amelia DiLaurentis is still a working journalist. She will tear me apart, and the world will once again have permission to violate me over and over again until I end up committing attemption. I will not survive the second time around if I end up back in that place in the media and in the public eye. It was hard enough to survive it the first time. I don't have it in me to get through a second. I just don't. If any of you remotely want to understand how life and death this has now become for me, if Ash here wants to get any comprehension of how much I suffered in the public eye, read the fucking exposé."

"I actually think that I have that exposé with me."

All eyes in the room turned to Reece, who dug into his bag and pulled out a gossip magazine.

"It's right here—uhhh—let's see. THE LOST MONARCH AND THE KALOS QUEEN: HOW LEAKED DEPLOYMENT RECORDS REVEAL A TALE OF SEX, LIES AND SCANDAL BETWEEN THE GREAT SUPERNOVAE OF OUR WORLD. Written by Amelia DiLaurentis and published on September 27th, 2021."

Serena was on the brink of collapse. In her eyes, they needed to know. What it was like. What had been said. The price. The weight. The shame. It took every ounce of her energy to pull herself upright in her chair. To hold her head up high. And use her voice. It was essential. Her life was at stake.

"Read the exposé, Reece. Read it out loud. Right fucking now."