"Ash still asleep?" Misty asked Brock early the next morning as she sipped a glass of juice at one of the tables in the Viridian City Pokémon Center.
"Yeah," Brock answered as Misty handed him an orange. "I think that's really what he needs right now."
The two watched as a picture of the Oak lab appeared on the morning news show. With the sensational events of the past couple of days, the news had been talking nonstop of nothing but the tragic deaths of the grief-stricken Pokémon researcher and his pretty young fiancee. Even at the funeral yesterday, Misty had overheard one of the mourners whisper about how Professor Oak and Mrs. Ketchum had been "just like Romeo and Juliet".
"Oh no. Turn it off, Brock," Misty said. "I can't take seeing this again."
As Brock reached up to change the channel, a picture of Tracey appeared on the television screen. "Why are they talking about Tracey?" he wondered as he turned up the volume.
"…Tracey Sketchit had been Professor Oak's lab assistant for over a year. He remains in a coma in critical condition at the Vermillion City Regional Trauma Center, where he was airlifted early this morning following the assault."
"WHAT?!" a shocked Misty and Brock said in unison.
As footage of paramedics rushing a blood-soaked Tracey to the waiting air ambulance appeared on the screen, the reporter continued: "Police are still investigating to see if anything has been stolen from the laboratory."
Officer Jenny then appeared on the screen. "We believe that Tracey surprised the intruders as they were breaking into the lab. All of us in Pallet Town are praying for his speedy recovery."
"Oh no. Not Tracey too," Misty said as she buried her head in her hands and started to cry.
"This is the third tragedy is less than a week for the little town of Pallet," the television reporter continued. "Homemaker Delia Ketchum was found murdered in her home on..."
Brock turned off the television and jumped when he saw that Ash had come into the dining area and was standing beside him.
"Tracey?" a disbelieving Ash said in a shaky voice. "Why would anyone want to hurt him?"
"I…I don't know what to think anymore, Ash," Brock told his friend as he tried to console Misty.
"I'm gonna go see Giovanni right now," Ash said as he straightened the baseball cap on his head. "And I'm gonna get to the bottom of all of this."
---
"YOU INCOMPETENT FOOLS!" raged Giovanni. "I send you to perform a small errand and you can't even accomplish that!"
"We looked everywhere, Boss," Cassidy told the man glaring at her from behind his desk. "The ring wasn't in Professor Oak's house!"
"We turned the whole place inside-out looking for it," Butch insisted as he and his Team Rocket partner stood trembling before Giovanni in his office.
"Yes, and you also nearly killed the young man inside the house, didn't you?" Giovanni continued angrily. "Didn't the two of you learn anything after what happened to your friends Gabe and Angelina?"
At the mention of the names of their fellow Team Rocket grunts who had mysteriously "disappeared", both Butch and Cassidy went pale.
"We didn't kill him, Boss," Butch continued. "We just roughed him up a little."
"A little? The news report said that the boy is in a coma and not expected to live!"
"It wasn't our fault, Boss," Cassidy said as she began to panic. "He was trying to stop us and Butch shoved him. He fell and hit his head on one of the tables! It wasn't our fault, honest!"
"We even checked to make sure he was still alive before we left," Butch added.
"Well, wasn't that nice of you," Giovanni sneered sarcastically. "You two have to be…"
"Sorry to interrupt, Boss," crackled the secretary's voice on the intercom, "But there's a boy here to see you."
"Tell him that Earth Badge battles are held only on Tuesdays and Thursdays," Giovanni barked. "Then send him away."
After a moment, the secretary's voice returned. "Um, sir, the boy says he's not leaving. He says he has to speak with you personally."
Giovanni swore. "Speak to me about what? I'm busy right now."
"The boy says…well, he says that he's your son."
Butch and Cassidy's eyes grew wide in amazement as a stunned Giovanni stared in disbelief at the intercom. After recovering from the initial shock, Giovanni regained his composure and signaled to his bodyguard standing in the corner. "Take these two away. I'll deal with them later." As the bodyguard led Butch and Cassidy away, Giovanni tapped the button on the intercom. "Send the boy in."
As the door slowly opened once more, a dark-haired boy in a baseball cap peered inside. On the boy's shoulder was a Pikachu.
"Come inside, boy. I don't have all day," Giovanni ordered impatiently as he waved in Ash's direction. "Sit down."
Ash, who discovered that his legs were suddenly wobbly, made his way across the room and sank down in the leather chair in front of Giovanni's desk.
"So," snapped Giovanni. "You claim to be my son. Do you have any proof?"
Ash reached inside his jacket pocket and handed Giovanni a piece of paper. Giovanni snatched it from the boy's fingers and began to read. Giovanni's expression changed from impatience to shock as he read the name "Ketchum" printed on the birth certificate. Then his hands began to shake as he read the names "Delia Marie Ketchum" and "Giovanni Cambuzzo Peccati".
"Is it true?" asked the dark-haired boy. "Are you really my father?"
"It would appear so," Giovanni said quietly as he handed the piece of paper back to the boy then pressed a hidden button under his desk. Even though he didn't think the boy had come to avenge his mother's death (How could he? There was no evidence linking him to Delia's murder.), he wasn't going to take any chances. "So what do you want from me? Money?"
Ash shook his head. "I don't want any money, Giovanni. I just want to know the truth. The truth about you and my mom."
Giovanni leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. "So what do you want to know?"
"Well…how did you and my mom meet?"
Giovanni stared at the boy sitting in front of him and noticed that he and Ash had the same piercing brown eyes and jet-black hair.
"All right, I'll tell you. Your mother and I met a long time ago. She was just a teenager when she joined Team Rocket."
"My mom was in Team Rocket?!" Ash couldn't believe what Giovanni had just told him. "That…no! You're lying!"
"No, I'm not," Giovanni continued, amused by the boy's reaction. "Your mother was one of my first Team Rocket recruits. She was a pretty, innocent little thing. As I recall…" Then Giovanni realized that he couldn't recall much about Delia except from the images that had been parading around on the television the last few days.
"Did you love her?"
Giovanni was taken aback by the boy's query. "Huh?"
"Did you love my mom?" repeated Ash.
"I slept with your mother," Giovanni admitted with a smile. "But I've also slept with quite a few of my female Team Rocket members." It was one of the benefits of being the leader.
Ash suddenly felt sick. Sick at the thought of this man –even if he was his father-- touching his mother.
"Sorry to disappoint you, boy," Giovanni smirked. "Or should I say, son."
Ash felt ill. All he wanted to do now was get as far away from this disgusting man as possible. But he still had to know one more thing.
"If you didn't love my mom, then was that why you left her when she told you that she was gonna have me?"
Giovanni snorted with laughter. "Is that what Delia told you? Well, my boy, looks like your mother wasn't exactly honest with you."
"You're a liar," hissed Ash.
"Oh, I'm not the liar, boy. Your mother was. You see, I had no idea your mother was pregnant with you when she decided to leave Team Rocket. Apparently she was growing uncomfortable with some of the things we were doing and decided she'd had enough. However, if I had known that she was pregnant with my child, I never would have let her leave."
"Why? I thought you said you didn't love her."
"Don't get me wrong, boy. I liked your mother," Giovanni said with a lecherous smile and Ash suddenly felt an overpowering urge to smash in his face. "But if I had known that she was carrying the heir to the Peccati name, then I would have forced her to stay."
"Then I'm glad she left you!" Ash shouted as he leapt to his feet. "And I'm glad my last name is Ketchum!"
"Ah, but your real last name is Peccati. And like it or not, you are also the only male heir to the family name. You see, since I have only sisters, there is obviously considerable pressure on me to produce an heir to the Peccati name. And I do have other children by other mistresses. However, they are also all girls," Giovanni said with some distaste. "My oldest daughter is only six, so she's still a bit young to start learning about the family business. But you -- you're how old? Thirteen? Fourteen?"
"I'll be fourteen in a couple of months," Ash growled.
"I had already stolen a hundred Pokémon by the time I was your age," Giovanni said with pride. "But it's not too late for you."
"Forget it, Giovanni!" Ash yelled as the bodyguard entered the room. "I'll never be your son!"
"But that's what you are, my dear boy. You are my son," Giovanni said triumphantly. "And since your mother is now unfortunately deceased, then that makes me your legal guardian, does it not?"
"I'd rather be an orphan than call you my dad! Professor Oak was more of a father to me than you ever were!" Ash shouted.
"But Professor Oak is dead too, isn't he? It's a shame really," Giovanni said in a voice that indicated that he wasn't sorry at all. "He was such a brilliant man, yet still a fool to kill himself over a woman."
Something inside Ash snapped and he lunged towards the desk where Giovanni sat. As the Team Rocket bodyguard seized Ash's arm, Pikachu leapt off of his trainer's shoulder and began to growl menacingly.
"Call off your Pikachu," Giovanni ordered as leapt up from his desk and snapped his fingers. His Persian, who had been dozing at his feet, leapt onto the surface of the desk and began hissing at the mouse Pokémon.
"Let go of me! Let go of me!" Ash yelled as he swung furiously at the bodyguard. As the two struggled, a small box tumbled out of Ash's jacket pocket and rolled under the chair where Ash had been sitting a minute earlier. With an expert move, the bodyguard grabbed Ash's arm and pulled it savagely behind him. As Ash cried out in pain, the burly man wrapped his massive arm around Ash's throat and began to slowly strangle the struggling boy.
"Foolish child," Giovanni smirked as he bent over to pick up the velvet box. Pikachu, sparks flying from its cheeks, made an attempt to leap onto Giovanni's back, but was smacked aside by the much larger Persian. As Pikachu scrambled to its feet, Giovanni opened the box and gasped in amazement at the sight of the ring with the Kadabra's head.
Ash, who was starting to get woozy from his air supply being slowly cut off, tried to signal to Pikachu. The Pokemon, seeing that his trainer was in danger, dashed under the bodyguard's legs and nipped him savagely on the ankle. Swearing viciously, the bodyguard made an attempt to kick off the attacking Pokemon, whose cheeks were hissing with sparks in preparation for a powerful Thundershock attack.
"Unless you want to watch your trainer die, I suggest you let go of Vittorio right now," Giovanni threatened the furious Pikachu. Pikachu, seeing that Ash's face was now almost purple and his eyes were about to pop out of his skull, let go of the bodyguard's ankle and squealed in pain as Persian leapt off of the desk and batted it across the room with a series of Fury Swipes.
"Let him go, Vittorio," Giovanni ordered his bodyguard, who complied and let Ash's limp body crumple to the ground.
Pikachu, bleeding from the marks on its face made by Persian's claws, dragged himself to his trainer's body and began to sniff his face. "Pika?"
Giovanni knelt down next to the unconscious boy.
"Pikachu!" the loyal Pokémon growled as it attempted to protect its trainer.
"I'm not going to hurt him," Giovanni told the Pokémon as he moved it aside and felt Ash's wrist. Detecting a faint pulse, Giovanni looked up. "Vittorio, take him to the bedroom in the south wing and have someone stay with him until he recovers. Meanwhile, I'm going to examine my prize."
As the burly man lifted Ash's limp body and slung it over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, then grabbed the squealing Pikachu by the tail, Giovanni stood up and returned to his desk. As Persian leapt into his lap, Giovanni opened the box and took out the ring. As he held it in the sunlight, the crystal in the Kadabra's forehead began to glow.
"Beautiful, isn't it, Persian?" The Pokémon purred contentedly in response as Giovanni started stroking its sleek fur. "The ring of Maldiavolo Peccati."