Chapter Twenty

As Seven walked into Giovanni's office, the short, black-haired man who found her and Seamus during the escape attempt was already seated at Giovanni's right. Celeste stepped past and sat to Giovanni's left, while Fisher slipped in between two ferns and leaned next to the waterfall.

Seven took the chair opposite Giovanni and sank into it. Her eyes were fixed on the ground between her feet, where the blood of Seamus Colson once pooled on top of a plastic tarp.

Giovanni reached into a bowl of pears, picked the largest one, and sliced it into eighths with a knife. He took one and passed the rest to Seven.

"There's no need for illusions here, Subject Seven." His green eyes regarded her coldly as he bit into the pear. A trickle of juice wound its way down his cheek, and he dabbed it away with a handkerchief. "You should have some. They're quite tasty."

As ordered, Seven removed the illusion and bit into a pear slice. The flavor on her tongue reminded her of her hunger, and she wolfed down the pear before she could stop herself.

Once she was done, Giovanni held out a handkerchief – not his own, but one from a large stack in a desk drawer. Seven gratefully took it and scoured every trace of juice from her muzzle.

Giovanni leaned back in her chair and twirled a pear in his left hand, examining the shining green skin with an expression of boredom. "First off, I want you to know I've been aware of your identity from the moment you put on your uniform."

Seven shivered and glanced away from Giovanni's cold green eyes. "How?"

"There were some holes in Fisher's story. How did an employee lock themselves in a cell with the control panel in another room? Why would they leave such an important test subject in a room with a hole in it, and unlocked as well?" Giovanni slid his knife into the pair, slicing into it but not through it. "I was also aware of all your tricks – something I neglected to share with my Admins."

Fisher bristled as Giovanni glanced at him. Then the mafia boss went back to cutting the pear, slicing so far through it that the fruit only held together with the barest bit of peel.

"Then… why?" Seven felt tears forming in the corners of her eyes, but she feigned a cough and wiped them away.

"I was curious." Giovanni spoke those three words with so little emotion his face might as well have been carved from ice. "I wanted to know more about you before I did anything."

Seven shrank back in her chair and asked, "Does anyone else know?"

"No. Even Fisher and Celeste didn't know until… the incident." Giovanni sliced further, cutting away half the peel so the pear slices flapped loosely like a pair of wings. Fisher glowered at Seven, and Celeste shifted her gaze towards the wall of ferns. Colson's arms blinked with a flurry of lights as he hastily typed on his sleeve, and his attention was fixed on a tiny screen in the hood of his uniform.

Seven glanced at the pear in Giovanni's hand and felt her stomach rumble. "So, what are you going to do to me?"

Giovanni looked up from his pear and set the knife on the table. "What do you want me to do with you?"

"W-what?" Seven lowered her head and stared at the carpet. "What… do I want?"

"Yes. Tell me what you want. That's an order."

Seven cringed. Then she tightened her grip on the chair, looked into Giovanni's eyes, and said, "I want to be human."

Giovanni blinked. "Human? Well, there's quite a bit of philosophy we could discuss on the subject." He broke the pear apart with his hands, delicately, keeping his fingertips away from the juicy, exposed flesh. "For example, no two humans are treated equally. Beggars on the street get ignored, shunned, and loathed, while billionaires have people fawning over their every whim if they throw their money around enough. And me," Giovanni dryly chuckled into his hand. "I get treated better than anyone else on the planet. Anything I want, I give the order, and it's mine, no questions asked."

Giovanni pushed his chair closer and leaned over his desk. Seven felt the urge to back away from his chiseled, stony face, but she forced herself to hold his daunting green gaze. His very presence felt like a hot, humid day, weighing down her fur and making her breath come in ragged gasps.

"Let me ask you again. What do you want?"

"W-well I… I want…"

Giovanni leaned back in his chair, and like that, the pressure of his presence vanished. "Maybe I can help. You want respect. Power. Freedom. Does that sound right?"

Seven kept her voice small as she said, "Uh, yeah. Freedom."

"Could you say that louder, please?" Giovanni's face kept its same stony composure. "I don't think I heard you."

Seven stiffened up and took a deep breath. "Yeah. I want freedom. And respect. I'm sick of being stuck in a cage and being told what to do."

"Then how would you like to be an Admin?"

Celeste flinched, but she kept her eyes on the ferns. Fisher scowled and opened his mouth, ready to object, but then he clamped his jaw shut and turned towards the rushing water. Colson didn't look away from his screen, but the typing slowed a touch.

Seven glanced at the other Admins and quietly said, "I'm a Pokémon."

"So?" Giovanni pumped a squirt of sanitizer into his hands and rubbed it between his fingers.

"If anyone finds out-"

"Make sure they don't." Giovanni poured more sanitizer onto his hands and stroked his face, working the alcohol into his jaw and cheeks. "Then it won't be a problem."

"But-"

"Is there any way for them to tell?" He turned towards his Admins. "Fisher, Celeste, did you have any idea?"

"None, sir," Celeste answered immediately. Fisher glowered for a moment and shook his head.

"There," Giovanni said, gesturing at the Admins, "Nothing to worry about."

"But – but why? Why do you want me to be an Admin?"

Giovanni's eyes sparkled as he leaned forward. "You have potential," he said. "You infiltrated a White Knight stronghold, killed eleven guards with just a knife, and wounded the enemy commander."

"That has nothing to do with one's ability to lead," Celeste said. She glanced warily at Giovanni before returning her gaze to the ferns.

"Correct," Giovanni said, nodding towards the Admin. "However, you are too much of an asset not to promote. That's why it's unfortunate I can't promote you, not after what you did."

"What I did?" Seven glanced at Giovanni, meeting his hard green eyes for half a second before lowering to his suit. It was so thoroughly cleaned and pressed that it dimly reflected the green light, taking on the color of sage. She could smell the alcohol wafting from his skin, so strong it burned her nose. "What did I do?"

"You killed Dekkard." His voice remained impassive, as if he were commenting on the weather. "There's a death penalty for killing a fellow Rocket of any rank or station."

Seven swallowed hard and glanced around. After some thought, she realized they wouldn't treat her wounds just to kill her, but she couldn't dismiss the fear crawling on her skin like a swarm of spiders.

Giovanni took a pear half, picked up his knife, and made two cuts into the flesh, gouging out the core. He took the sliver of tough fruit by a thin strand of stem and dropped it in a garbage can.

"However," he said, "I bear some responsibility for his death. I was well aware of your potential reaction to being discovered, but I did nothing to stop it." He raised the knife to eye level, inspected the edge, and then brought it down in a fast swipe, slicing through the fruit but stopping short of the desk. "So, instead of killing you, I'll offer you a trade. Colson, the presentation."

Though the Admin's fingers never changed pace, he made a white screen unfurl from a slot in the ceiling. A projector popped out of a wall next to the door, flickered to life, and put a picture of a squat, gloomy stone building on the screen. On the ramparts, emblazoned in big blue letters, were these words: Stonebough Prison.

"Six months ago, around a hundred Rockets were arrested in a police raid." The projector clicked, and a new image popped up on the screen. Faces passed left to right, each holding a sign with their name and rank. Some gazed dejectedly at the camera, while others gave defiant stares and obscene gestures.

Seven brought a hand up to her chest. She could feel her heart pounding through her fingertips. "You want me to break them out."

"I understand you have quite a bit of experience in that department." He took a manila folder sitting on his desk, opened it up, and leafed through pages of reports. "Tricking cameras, slipping through vents, improvising with silverware and plates, impersonating staff, digging hidden tunnels, you know all the tricks."

"I never got out until you showed up."

"But they won't know what they're up against." The barest hint of a smile curled Giovanni's mouth. The scar at the corner of his lip glistened from a coating of saliva. "Here's the deal. Get every Rocket out of that prison and bring them safely back here. Make sure no one, police or Rocket, discovers your real identity. And lastly, there is one person I want you to make sure never leaves that prison alive."

The screen changed again, showing only one face. It was a man's face, completely bald, with vacant brown eyes, thin eyebrows, and smooth, sunken cheeks.

"That is a former Admin, known as Mad Hax. He got his whole unit ambushed and arrested because he never updated the security in his base like I ordered him to." Giovanni's knife plunged into the other half of the pear, spurting juices up the blade as the knife sank into its flesh. No drop reached Giovanni's hand or his desk. "Kill him and leave his body in the prison, and get everyone else out safely. How you get it done, I leave up to you. Is that understood?"

Seven quickly nodded and said, "Yes sir. I'll leave right away."

She got up from the chair, but her head started spinning. With a grunt, she sat back down and brought her hand up to her head. Beneath her fur, her skin burned to the touch.

"Not now," Giovanni said. "You need to recover, to prepare, and to plan." He got another squirt of disinfectant and rubbed his hands again. "You have three months to finish the mission. In the meantime, I'll grant you access to whatever resources you need. Any Pokémon, any personnel, if they're at my disposal, they're at yours."

"I – I understand." Lights danced before Seven's eyes, and she tasted vomit at the back of her throat. "I think I need to lie down."

Giovanni nodded and turned towards Celeste. "Get the sub- Steven back to bed, and make sure he isn't seen." He reached into a drawer and took out Seven's knife. It glittered in the green light. "Take this," he said as he slid it across his desk. "I had it cleaned." His eyes drilled holes through Seven's skull as he asked, "You stabbed their commander with this blade, right?"

Seven nodded, and nodded again when he asked if the commander was the last one stabbed. A soft smile curled Giovanni's lips. "Very interesting," he said.

Celeste walked over to Seven, grabbed her by the shoulders, and hoisted her to her feet. Seven slumped over Celeste, and she nearly fell over from the weight. Fisher rushed over and tucked his shoulder under Seven's right arm. Colson, still typing, said, "The direct route to the medical ward will be clear for the next ten minutes. Get going."

Seven tried to keep her eyes open and keep her feet beneath her, but the harder she tried to stay awake, the heavier her eyelids grew, until she couldn't keep them open anymore. For another minute, she focused on the gentle scrape of floor on her claws, until that too faded to nothing, and Seven was left floating in darkness.

Changelog

9/27/2018 - minor edits. I hardly changed a thing, just a few sentences I didn't like. Also, somehow spelled Giovanni wrong and missed it. Whoops.