Gunned | SatoSere

Chapter 26 - Beauty and Destruction

Ash and Serena ascend from the depths of the Ketchums manor, clothes in tatters with their wounds soaking into the fabric. His weight is heavy on her shoulders, but she grits through the burn of her muscles and the sting of her injuries to get him to safety.

They finally breathe fresh air as they exit through the front door, and though it's tinged with the smell of cinder and iron, it feels akin to freedom.

There's fallen bodies everywhere, the night stained red with a cloying smell of death. Serena pays it no mind and only looks forward to the exit. It doesn't take long for the earpiece in her ear to crackle to life once they fully reach the surface, ringing with Miette's irritated voice as their warm welcome.

"Serena? Serena! Hey, Serena! Pick up your god damn-"

"I'm here, Miette, relax! I was quite literally busy trying not to die," Serena bites back, irate as she presses a finger against the mic of her earpiece. "It's over, so get your asses down here." Ash huffs with a chuckle mixed with a cough that distracts the woman worriedly. She adds a quick, emphasized "hurry" before lowering her and Ash to a crouch as a few more violent coughs wrench themselves from the leader's chest.

There's a few fresh droplets of blood that stain Ash's fist as he tries to catch his breath, burying the groan in his throat and Serena holds him more securely.

"Ash?" She whispers gently.

He waves the same bloodied hand nonchalantly, betrayed by the way he leans further into Serena's embrace.

"I'm good. This is nothing," Ash reassures, but his words crack and wheeze in the places his breath doesn't reach past his battered ribs and bruised lungs.

Serena doesn't comment on the way he tries to hold it together, but the shattered images of the basement they just escaped from drives an icy blade through her heart. Serena holds him a little closer, if only to reassure that Ash is still warm, and very much alive.

She kisses his stained cheek. "Hold on a little longer, okay? The others will be here soon."

Unsurprisingly, Miette is the first through the gate with the others close behind and Serena watches the palette of emotions that swirl on her — from shock, to anger, to grief, and finally settling on relief as she sinks to the ground knees before Ash, brushing the leader's hair back.

"Cuzzo!" Miette says and Ash lifts his head slowly and tries to smile, contrasting her forlorn gaze.

"Happy to see that you're safe," Ash comments and if he weren't injured, Serena's sure Miette would've shoved his head away. Instead, the woman, and in a rare show of affection, pulls Ash in a light embrace. Serena sees a muted apology on Ash's lips and doesn't comment on the way tears fall from Miette's cheeks and the way her jaw clenches to keep her sobs at bay.

Serena leaves the duo to their family reunion moment, happy to note that no one is outwardly injured. Soot patches broken up by streaks of sweat paint their cheeks, combat gear ruffled and hanging askew, and blood that isn't their own splattered on their skin. She catches Cilan's gaze first and finds tension leaving his form. She knew that even though he trusted her to her own devices, he was inexplicably worried about leaving her behind. For that, she spares him a thankful smile.

"The perimeter is secure and all threats are detained," Cilan reports. "I take it everything is the same inside."

Serena doesn't disclose the details of the ruthlessness of her kills nor her emotional break while she shot Giovanni's dead body over and over. It feels like a fever dream, but blood seeps into her clothes, into her skin, as a reminder of the lives she took.

"There's not even a head to bring back," Serena says, plain and simple, and her current state is enough proof for the Demons to know that she has truly become one of them — a demon and a sinner through and through. It's not quite the rite of initiation anyone wished for her, but widely accepted nonetheless as they stand at attention around her.

"May's got the med bay all set up, so we can get Ash stabilized before we leave the city. But we should get moving before any of Shalour City's PD can snoop around here. Cilan can get invited as the lead of the investigation later once we're far away from here," Brock suggests.

Serena wholeheartedly agrees, if not more fueled by the way Ash's breaths become shallower. She carefully lifts him back to his feet with Miette on the opposite side supporting him. The men start calling out orders to the other operatives to clear the place and leave the dead behind.

It's a slow walk back to the forest perimeter and most of the vans they came in are already packed up and loaded. Cilan waits by the van they came in and Miette departs to her own vehicle with a soft whisper. "Take care of him."

Serena nods after her before helping Ash into the backseat of the van. He hisses in protest of his wounded limbs, but nothing louder than that escapes his lips. Ash catches the remorseful look on Serena's face as he takes his seat beside her and tries to reassure the blonde haired woman.

"I'm okay, Serena," Ash says lightly and her heart clenches.

"I'll feel better once we have you home," she replies.

There's a puff of satisfied laughter and Ash's split-lipped smile grows. "Home," he repeats.

Their van pulls away from the forest first, the others following in a formation. Cilan wordlessly hands a remote to Serena, and supplies it with a simple explanation. "Iris' gift."

In the backseat of the van, under the cover of scattered stars, Serena is reminded of the day she met Ash. The promises he made of protecting her and bringing her to a new home, and all these promises he kept to the lengths she could never imagine anyone would sacrifice. Serena is eons away from her meandering life. She crashed down like a star shower on Ash's world — destruction and beauty twisted, a deadly combination Ash himself loved despite his own hauntings.

Now, they're together once again, and there isn't an emotion or words to describe the way it feels. Relief isn't enough, nor is peace. It's a feeling of finality and the world stopping long enough for the constellations to paint their skin in a pattern inseparable.

Ash's hand comes to skim over the back of Serena's, smoothing over blemished knuckles, holding the remote together. Their eyes lock and he leans over slowly and presses a kiss to the crown of her hair. Together, the button is pressed and explosions encircle the manor and rupture the skies, igniting the clouds as they leave the forest in a backdrop flame.

Sins are abandoned in cinders and they emerge from the dying embers, renewed.