After receiving his diagnosis, Giovanni decided to use what remaining time he had left to focus his efforts on preparing his eldest daughter Tessa for her imminent ascension to the leadership of Team Rocket. Since the cancer treatments had left him too weak to travel, Giovanni had surrendered the overseas operations of the Rocket organization to Jiraldan, which meant that Jiraldan now spent much of his time away from Viridian City and his dying lover. Jiraldan clung to the faint hope that the treatments would work and Giovanni would recover, but every time he returned from one of his now-frequent trips, it always seemed as if Giovanni's condition had worsened in his absence. It wasn't until he had returned from a month-long trip to South America to help capture the Celebi colony and discovered that his partner was now bedridden that Jiraldan began to accept the inevitable certainty that Giovanni was going to die. It was then that Giovanni had surprised him by announcing that he was leaving him one-quarter of his estate. And it was then that Giovanni had made another surprising request.
"Jiri, I want you to go to Italy for me."
"Italy? Why?"
"Jiri, I want you to buy me a bust made of the finest Italian marble for my tomb. I have a cousin in Napoli who owns a quarry…he can help you. I'll give you the inscription that I want carved on it."
Jiri's heart leapt into his throat at Giovanni's mentioning his imminent mortality. "Your tomb? Gio, you mustn't talk about…"
"Dying? How come I can accept it and you can't, Jiri?"
Jiraldan reached for his lover's hand and was shocked at how prominent the bones were in it. "Gio, I don't want you to die."
"Well, I'm going to die…and fairly soon, so the sooner you get used to the idea, the better. Anyway, when you're in Italy, I also want you to pick out my casket. I know that you have excellent taste and won't disappoint me."
Jiraldan opened his mouth to protest, but quickly shut it once Giovanni gave him a "don't argue with me, just do it" look.
"And while you're over there, see if you can find a decent suit to bury me in. Since I've lost so much weight recently, none of my suits fit now."
"Anything else, Gio?"
Giovanni didn't answer. The effort of staying awake long enough to communicate his final wishes to Jiraldan had exhausted him so much that he had fallen asleep sitting up.
Choking back tears, Jiraldan lifted his lover's hand to his lips and kissed it softly. Slowly, he rose from his chair, turned out the light, and let Giovanni sleep.
---
It was while he was in Italy that Jiraldan received an urgent summons to return to Viridian City immediately.
"How is he, Tessa?" Jiraldan gasped as he got off the hospital elevator.
"Not good, Jiri," replied Giovanni's eldest daughter, a beautiful dark-haired woman in her mid-twenties who bore an uncanny resemblance to her father. "Madeline and Rhiannon are at Papa's side now." (Madeline and Rhiannon were Tessa's younger half-sisters, each one the daughter of a different mistress.)
"How are you doing, Tessa?" asked Jiraldan as he followed her down the hallway to Giovanni's room.
"All right. I promised Papa that I would be a strong leader, and I am going to stay strong for him. He took care of me after my mother died, so I owe it to him." Tessa opened the door and the two young women, both dark-haired and in their early twenties, sitting at Giovanni's bedside looked up.
"Maddie, Rhi…Jiri's here. Let's give him some time alone with Papa." Tessa knew of her father's special relationship with Jiraldan. "Besides, I need to call Cassie and let her know what's going on."
As the three young women left the room, Jiraldan approached Giovanni's bedside and was shocked at how frail the older man looked. Giovanni was only sixty-four, but he looked at least twenty years older in his condition.
"Gio? Caro mio, I'm here."
Giovanni slowly opened his eyes. Even though the haze of pain medicine, he was still lucid enough to know that only one person in the world who called him caro mio. "Jiri?" he whispered.
"Yes, Gio. I'm here." Jiraldan gently took Giovanni's hand, which now was nothing but skin and bones.
"Did you get what I asked for in Italy?" Giovanni whispered hoarsely.
"Yes. I brought the suit back with me. It's black – your favorite color. The bust is still being carved, though. Your cousin said that it would be a couple of weeks."
Giovanni smiled regretfully. "Ah well, I wished I could've seen it. What about the casket?"
Jiri choked back tears. Purchasing the casket for the man he loved had been the hardest thing he had ever done in his life, and he had broken down crying in the shop where he had ordered it. "I brought it back with me, too. You should see it, Gio. It's a work of art in itself. Rich mahogany with deep claret velvet."
"I knew you wouldn't disappoint me, Jiri. But then again, you never have. You have always served me well…both as a business partner and as a friend."
"I'm honored to have been your partner, Giovanni." Jiraldan said in a choked voice.
"Non ti scordar di me, caro mio," Giovanni whispered faintly as he closed his eyes.
"I'll never forget you, Gio," Jiraldan whispered back as he kissed the man he loved for the last time.
---
"No, Cass, I don't know how long…oh, wait. Jiraldan's coming this way." Tessa put down her cell phone and looked up at her friend's tear-stained face. "Jiri?"
Jiraldan was surprised to see that the waiting room was rapidly filling up with Team Rocket executives, grunts, and scientists. News of Giovanni's deteriorating condition had spread quickly throughout the organization and everyone was waiting for the latest news.
Everyone in the waiting room watched intently as Jiraldan slowly approached Giovanni's eldest daughter, lifted her palm, and placed the object clutched inside in his fist in it. Tessa's lip began to tremble when she saw that it was the solid gold Earth Badge that had been her father's.
"I promised your father that I would give my support to the new leader of Team Rocket upon his death," Jiraldan said in a trembling voice as his red-rimmed eyes met hers. "So may I be the first to pledge my loyalty to you…Madam Boss."