Ash had been with Team Galactic for at least a month. She was...bored. Mostly lonely and homesick. But all the same, the thought of being alone and out there -and getting caught by Miranda -it terrified her. So she dealt with how she felt on her own, and obediently worked along with the Team. She only wished that she had at least Pikachu or Maximus with her. Being separated from them hurt, especially since they'd been together for so long and were so close.

Now she was just by herself.

Sighing, she moved the box she had on top of another crate. Currently, she was working in this storeroom of the warehouse (she was kind of amazed that the Team had this warehouse, and also of the large building that housed all the members -she was kind of wondering how no one noticed that too). There were a few other people with her, all of them working quietly and ignoring each other, and Ash had the urge to just jump up and down and scream. Everyone was so boring or lifeless, and the few that weren't were kind of crazy. And all of them were fanatical about this cause (she didn't even know what Team Galactic's cause was), or just plain fanatical about the boss. Who she still hadn't seen yet, or heard again.

In frustration, she snatched off her turquoise wig and tossed it onto a crate. It was making her scalp itch and she was hot working in the Galactic uniform while being in the underground of the warehouse. All in all, she was having a bad time.

"You look frustrated," a familiar voice said behind her, and she turned slightly to glare at Saturn, who only smiled widely.

"I'm hot and the wig itches," Ash grumbled. "This uniform sucks."

Saturn laughed and grabbed the wig, fixing it onto her head again. She glowered at him, but her glares and glowers never really have an effect on anyone (though she had no idea why not).

"Here," he gave her a water bottle he'd had in his bag.

She gratefully accepted it and gulped down a few swallows of water. He reached into his bag and rummaged around, tossing a sandwich at her. She smiled blindingly at him, before tucking into the sandwich. Patting her head absentmindedly, Saturn saw Jupiter watching from the entrance and he left Ash to head over to the woman.

"She's doesn't fit in," Jupiter frowned, watching as Ash happily ate her sandwich. Saturn raised an eyebrow at her, though Jupiter simply frowned more. "You know she doesn't. I don't even think she's 18 and old enough to be in the Team."

"Probably not," Saturn answered back unconcerned. "She slipped up once. Said she was really looking forward to going on a pokémon journey, even after everything. But she also said she had like three more years to go, so she's at least 15."

"'Even after everything?'" Jupiter caught, giving him a look.

Saturn shrugged.

"She doesn't fit," Jupiter repeated, watching the cheery girl. "She's...so positive and outgoing. Hell, I don't think she'd fit into any Team. She's not made for this, or to be part of a Team, Saturn. What is she doing here?" she turned to him.

He took a deep breath, rubbing the back of his head. Leaning against the wall, he watched the young girl too.

"I don't know," he said honestly. "You're right. She's not made to be in a Team, much less ours. I don't even think she knows what Team Galactic's cause is. She's just following orders obediently and being nice to everyone."

"So question is: what drove her to join Team Galactic?" Jupiter pressed.

He shrugged again, watching the girl shrewdly. Still, he really was fond of her. "I don't know. And you know? I don't care. If she wants to be part of us, then let her. I'm not going to ask about it or push her out."

"I didn't say you should," Jupiter scoffed. Her eyes also lightened though. "Stupid girl's sickeningly sweet. She baked her unit members scones the other day. Had a lot of leftovers and gave some to me when I walked in to check on them..."

Saturn snickered, pushing himself off the wall. "I know. I got to have some too!"

He laughed lightly and left her behind, heading back to Ash, who had shucked off her wig again. Jupiter shook her head, though she watched the girl for a few seconds more. She really did like the girl, ever since she ended up running into her the first week Ash had joined up.

It was kind of hard to dislike a girl who bumps into you and excitedly mentions seeing you around and that she really liked and thought Jupiter's hair was pretty.

~*~*~

Ash stretched her legs, wiggling her toes when she bent and looked at them. Humming to herself, she ran her hands through her hair, glad to not have the wig on for once. Currently, she'd found a somewhat large room that was empty of anything and no one seemed to come by.

Standing on her bare feet, she bent her legs and then moved into a twirl. Humming again, she then started to sing her favorite folk ballad as she danced around the room.

"Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme; remember me to the one who lives there, for once she was a true love of mine. Tell her to make me a cambric shirt, sober and grave grows merry in time; sewn without seams or fine needlework, if she would be a true love of mine. Tell her to wash it in yonder well, every rose grows merry with time; where never spring water or rain ever fell, and she shall be a true love of mine~"

She remembered singing it to Giovanni all those years ago. She wondered if he remembered, or if he even remembered her...

"What are you doing?"

She stumbled on a step, but hurried to straighten herself up and looked at who had interrupted her. To her surprise, she recognized the blue-haired man by the doors. Serious-faced and dressed sharply as always, even if it was surprisingly in a Galactic uniform (that was unlike the normal ones -but to be fair, neither Saturn, Jupiter, or Mars wore the normal uniforms either), was Cyrus Akagi.

Unsure what the businessman was doing there and trying to reel in the fact that it actually looked like Cyrus was part of Team Galactic, Ash hesitated.

"Well?" he asked harshly, and she flinched back.

"Um, I was -I was just..." What was she going to say? She didn't really have any excuses, and saying what she was doing wouldn't be okay (she admitted she was taking an unauthorized break, and just fooling around).

"Get out and get back to work," he ordered harshly, and Ash bowed several times in apology as she scooped up her shoes.

"M'sorry," she muttered as she raced passed him.

She hoped she hadn't gotten herself in trouble.

However, that night, when she told Saturn about it, he turned to her with raised eyebrows. He scrutinized her face closely.

"You don't know who that was, do you." He stated more than asked, and she blinked at him.

"Of course I do!" she said loudly. "That was Cyrus Akagi. You know -Cyrus Industries?"

Saturn couldn't help laughing a little. "And the leader of our Team."

She stopped short, staring at him. "Wait, what? Really?"

He nodded. "Really."

Ash groaned. "Oh man, I am in so much trouble! I got bored and wasn't working and he caught me dancing around an empty room!" she rambled.

Saturn patted her shoulder. "Don't worry about it. I don't think it bothered him that much. He's not the type to get...worked up."

She gave him a look.

He laughed again. "I mean it. Cyrus is...not a 'spirited' kind of mind. He sort of abhors it actually. Emotions and being all strong-willed and forceful...he really won't bring up enough energy to put it against you. He'd almost hate lively things, but hate is pretty much an emotion, so at most Cyrus will 'disapprove.'"

"I must be a nightmare for him then," Ash scrunched up her nose.

Saturn smirked. "Well, you're high-spirited, really animated with your gestures, and pretty feisty. You're probably the most liveliest person all of us have ever met, much less the liveliest person in this Team. You're practically the epitome and very definition of spirit."

"Man, he so hates me!"

He could only continue to just laugh at her.

~*~*~

"No, no! Like this!"

Ash gave an exasperated look towards Mars. The red head had been trying to get her to model around the Galactic uniform, maybe be pictured in an advertisement to join the Team.

"Why'd you get me?" Ash was tempted to pout. "Why not Jupiter?"

Mars gave her a look. "'Cause you're way cuter, duh."

"Mars."

Both females froze up and turned to the very distinct voice, and sure enough Cyrus had caught them and had been standing by the door. Mars fiddled with the camera nervously.

"Y-yes, Cyrus? Something I can do for you?"

Cyrus gestured sharply towards Ash. "I require her help on something."

Mars blinked in confusion, while Ash tensed up even further. Cyrus looked at her impatiently, and though Ash traded unsure looks with Mars, she hurried over to his side. He then turned on his heel and began walking away, and she did her best to keep up.

When she realized that he had led her all the way to his office, she was tempted to turn and bolt. But by the time she realized that, she was already in his office and the doors had closed shut ominously behind her.

"While you are here, you will be arranging those papers in chronological order. Stack them neatly in piles," he ordered, before quietly striding over to his desk and going to work on his stuff.

Ash was slightly taken aback, but after seeing him at work and ignoring her, she tentatively went over to her place on the floor, where there were numerous piles of papers. While cringing at the amount of papers and work at hand, she figured it wasn't too bad and that this probably punishment for that time. Well, if it was, she probably got off lightly and should get on with it.

And it was like this for the next few weeks, to which Ash had steadily become used to and even comfortable in Cyrus' presence. He didn't usually acknowledge her either, but the times he did -in that stiff way of his -he didn't seem to dislike her as much as she thought he would. But then again, he always did his best to hide how he felt. Which she felt was impossible -emotions were a part of a human being, of all living creatures. To not feel would go against nature.

And well, she'd also seen him get irritated or even frustrated, mostly at the Team Galactic grunts, or sometimes even Saturn, Jupiter, or Mars (who she finally learned were part of the top tier of the Team) earned his ire. She'd even seen him exasperated and even bored. Bottom line was that Cyrus wasn't incapable of emotions.

Disliked and refused to show them, yes. But not incapable of them.

Humming her favorite folk ballad again, Ash focused on the work in front of her, with the never-ending piles of paper. She could swear more and more seem to be added everyday -

"That song," she was surprised by Cyrus' voice. "It is an old English ballad. Why do you sing it often?"

She blushed slightly, having not noticed that she did or that he would notice. She shrugged towards him.

"I don't know. I just like it," she said honestly.

"It is...nonsensical," Cyrus surprisingly told her. "Why would two people give each other such impossible tasks? What is the purpose of them? Do they truly not want to get together? Or if they do, then why go to such lengths?"

Kind of in disbelief that he was actually asking that at all, much less that he was asking her, Ash struggled to find an answer for him.

"Well...isn't anything worth fighting for worth it?" she blurted out. She fully blushed then, under his direct stare. "It's just...if you're willing to go that far, then doesn't that mean you really want it and that all the struggles you go through mean the end result will be more gratifying? If the two of them really completed each other's 'impossible tasks,' then that's as close to true love as it can be, can't it? And if they couldn't, if they just give up...then maybe that means they weren't meant to be."

She grew anxious as he did nothing but stare at her after that, but then he turned back to his laptop.

"Continue as you were."

Ash let out a breath, and wondered what he was thinking of right then.

~*~*~

Cyrus wasn't sure what to make of the girl. He knew she was new to his organization, but it was obvious she didn't fit in. She didn't even know what the Team's goal was, and merely worked day to day, and kindly acted to all. Her extensive spirited self made him want to recoil, and yet a part of him remained...fascinated by this ardent girl.

The first time he ran across her, she'd been blissfully in her own world, dancing around freely in an empty room and singing that folk ballad. Instead of stopping her immediately, he'd watched for a moment, strangely possessed to do so without any thought. When he'd caught himself, he had interrupted her and ordered her back to work.

He'd caught sight of her whenever she was there, even if in his peripherals, seemingly a constant presence he couldn't get rid of. And then, on a whim, he'd had her set up in his office and doing work there, even if it was as simple as organizing papers. He'd watched her then, without her noticing, and she remained -to his reluctance -a fascinating creature that had somehow took up his attention.

She was everything he couldn't stand, embodied all that he hated -someone with so much spirit, a thing he hates the most. And yet he was continually fascinated by her.

Despite abhorring her innate nature, he found himself not wanting to change her at all.

And watching her now, she seemed distracted. Her eyes looked faraway, gazing at the windows behind him, and into the starry night. Before he could think on it (like seemed usual when he was with her), he opened his mouth and spoke up.

"Do you like stars?"

She blinked and gave him a blinding smile that he wanted to be and would have usually been disgusted by. Instead, he could only just stare at it, as if her smile held all the answers to the universe.

"I do! They're just there, even when you can't see them. Even in the daytime, they're there. It's like...you know they're always shining down on you," she told him in a content tone, looking oddly as content being with him.

It was not...the usual with others and him.

"Would you like to see them more clearly?" he offered before he could censure himself.

She looked surprised by his offer, but he kept his face blank of anything and continued to look at her. When she nodded, he got up and went to his door, glancing at her to let her know to follow him. Once she scrambled up and went to his side, he went out of his office and to the nearest elevator. There, he had it go a level up, to where they would be on the building's roof. He led her to the telescope he'd set up there, on the occasions he wished to be on the roof and quietly look up at the stars.

"This roof is not accessible to anyone outside myself. If you wish to see the stars, you may use my floor elevator to come here," he continued blithely, ignoring how her face both lit up and looked at him wonderingly.

Right at the telescope, he had her look into it and he positioned it towards a cluster of stars. Quietly, he began to speak of the different constellations in the sky, and she listened to him eagerly. When she straightened up, she gave him one of those blinding smiles and his eyebrows furrowed together. His hand rose without his permission, touching her chin gently. And, without further thinking on his part, he leaned in and, ignoring her eyes widening and the quiet gasp she let out, his lips landed firmly and uncertainly against hers.

It was quick but firm, and he pulled away just as quickly as it happened.

He turned back to the telescope and ignored her, adjusting the knobs. He didn't understand the strange feelings coursing through him, nor did he know why he did that.

It was more probably a poorly thought out action deriving from her confusing and mystifying presence.

~*~*~

"Cyrus has been acting strange lately," Jupiter commented to her fellow commanders.

"Has he?" Saturn raised up his eyebrows.

"He has," Mars agreed. "I swore I saw a smile on him the other day. A small, brief one -but a smile!"

That had Saturn coughing, as he choked on his drink by accident.

"Surely you're mistaken?" he asked in bewilderment. "Cyrus doesn't smile. Not unless it's one of those overly cheery fake ones for the public."

"It was a smile," Mars said seriously. "I swear it on my life."

"Don't be so dramatic," Jupiter rolled her eyes. "So what if it was?" though she was skeptical and it really would be strange if he had. "Cyrus is entitled to smile if he wants. He just doesn't do it often."

"Make that never," Saturn muttered.

"Whatever," Jupiter huffed. "Have you seen that girl?"

"Ash has been working under Cyrus," Mars told them, directly emphasizing Ash's name to Jupiter, who only rolled her eyes again. Although, that news had been a shock to the other two.

"Since when?" Saturn asked nervously.

"And for how long?" Jupiter asked, getting nervous as well.

Mars shrugged. "She's been here a few months now, and most of those months she's ended up in his care. Why? What's the big deal?"

"You don't think he hated her attitude so much, he ended up throwing her off the building or something. Do you?" Saturn turned towards Jupiter worriedly.

"Ugh, why does she have to be so lively?" Jupiter tried not to fret.

Just then, Ash herself walked into the room, interrupting their talk.

"Ash!"

She blinked at them and offered a smile, slightly confused but genuine nonetheless.

"Hi, guys," she waved a bit.

"Where have you been?" Mars asked immediately, scanning her over obviously.

Ash was taken aback by their concern. "Working with Cyrus upstairs. I just have to sort out some papers and stuff, but it's actually turned out to be a lot of work. You know, he's kind of nice," she added as an afterthought, though it made the other three look at her in disbelief. She smiled at them. "I was just going to get him some coffee, 'cause I think he needs it. You think he'll be happy I got him some?"

Saturn almost blurted out that Cyrus didn't do happy, but stopped himself at last minute. He gave her a strained smile.

"I think he'll appreciate it."

That made Ash cheerful, and she went to work on getting a mug and filling it with coffee, additionally adding some sugar and creamer. Saturn was tempted to tell her to leave those out, and that Cyrus probably liked his coffee bland -like his preference for everything else.

But no one else said anything, and Ash left them to stew in their thoughts. The three of them traded looks, all of them completely bewildered.

~*~*~

When she'd given the coffee, his lips involuntarily twitched up and he was smiling slightly. Which he quickly wiped off his face once he'd realized that, stoically accepting the coffee and taking a sip. It was...sweet. He didn't really add anything to his coffee, but looking at her expectant face, he found himself unable to voice anything. So he gave her a nod, which made her unnaturally pleased just by that gesture.

"Ah, you know, Cyrus," she started out shyly. Giving her his attention, he waited for her to continue. "You kind of have a nice smile. It makes you look really handsome. So you should smile more!"

Smiling herself, she then turned and headed back to her area, leaving Cyrus to stare dumbfounded at her. Deciding to just focus on his work, he went to do so. Only he became distracted and glanced over at her, to which she was busy at work herself.

"How old are you?" he found himself asking.

She looked up hesitantly, and he realized he'd stumbled onto a topic that had significance. The truth was that he didn't believe she was 18 anymore than Saturn or Jupiter did, though he had yet to say anything like they.

"I'm 18," she said, but she was clearly a bad liar. She'd averted her eyes away from him and was biting her lip, and her hands were fidgeting with themselves.

"Are you really?" he asked dryly, and she flinched.

"I'm 15," she mumbled, but he could still hear her. "My birthday's on May 22."

He straightened up at that. "That is only a week away."

She seemed to be surprised by this, and he didn't understand why.

"Is it?" she asked in amazement. "It's really been that long since Siebold and them..."

She closed her mouth and glanced at him furtively, but though curious, Cyrus didn't pry. Instead, he'd finally gone back to his work. Tensed for a moment, she'd watched him. But after nothing was said or done further, she also went back to work.

He hadn't forgotten that conversation, especially as a week later, when she reported to his office for work, he had nothing for her to do. Instead, he took her shoulders and gently moved her out of his office and down the hall, where he had (in probably some fit of madness, he was sure) had a table set for them to eat dinner and celebrate her birthday.

"Happy Birthday," he stated tonelessly, but she didn't mind his tone and caught him off guard with her sudden embrace.

"Thank you," she muttered into his chest.

Uncomfortably, his hands were stuck by his sides until he slowly moved them up to embrace her in turn.

"You are...welcome," he struggled to say.

She let go and gave a bashful smile, which he ignored in favor of leading her to the table and helping her sit. Pushing her chair in, he went to his side and sat down himself.

"I didn't know what you liked," he said stiffly.

"I'll be fine with anything," she reassured him.

And in which they began their awkward, but not that bad of a dinner. Honestly, he wasn't deluded into thinking he was the best company, but she apparently didn't mind him. In fact, she acted like she enjoyed his presence, like always, which had always been a strange concept to him. Not even his closest subordinates, like Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, or even Charon, were all that comfortable around him.

"Is everything fine so far?" he asked quietly.

"I'm very happy," she told him sincerely. "Thank you so much."

Secretly pleased, Cyrus got up and left a moment with their previous dishes, returning with a plate of blueberry cake that he had embarrassingly stuck candles on and had lit up.

"I did hear from Saturn that you enjoyed blueberry, and I was advised that a birthday should have cake," he muttered, placing the cake carefully in front of her.

Her eyes lit up and she smiled one of those bright smiles he'd come to associate with her. But then it faltered, causing a strange sort of anxiety to rise up in him. He had never felt that way, and it further made him wish to squash down any emotion. Only she seemed to make him incapable of that, and he found himself undeniably at her mercy. He wanted to dislike it and push it away, but felt an odd calm about it.

"What exactly does Team Galactic want to do?" she asked in tentative curiosity.

Though he had felt like she probably didn't know about the Team's cause, it somehow still gave him pause to realize that after all this time she didn't know. Or the fact she joined his Team without having any knowledge about it in the first. He wanted to ask, but thought it was probably more prudent to answer her now.

"I wish to remake the world," he started, thinking on how much he should reveal to her. "I want to create it anew and remake it in my image, where I will be God and I will make sure the world is without spirit and emotion."

She stared at him, looking visibly conflicted and confused. Then she bit her lip and looked up at him, wearing a miserable expression that made something inside him twist.

"Would you be able to make everything and...and be in charge of how everything worked and all?"

He didn't let it show, how much the question had been unexpected to him. But he frowned and nodded.

"Yes. In this new world, I am God and I will make sure that all I see come to pass," he said firmly, though lately he admitted his convictions had been...waning. He told himself to put a stop to that.

He was brought back to the present when he felt her tug at his sleeve, still biting her lip. She looked less conflicted and more solemn, which put him on guard.

"When you make the new world, can you make sure the world is safe and no one gets scared? And that...can you make sure I go on a pokémon journey and I can forget all of this and everything that happened, and I have nothing to be scared or worried about?"

Her request put the thought in his head, as he stared at her, that there was a lot more he didn't know of this girl than he'd thought.

"I promise," he found himself saying to her. "And...I promise in that new world, you would still get to be happy."

Somehow, he could not picture her as anything less than how she was -beautiful and full of life.

So when she gave him a watery smile, he remembered a quote from the only fiction book he'd ever read.

"He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God."

So he stood over her, gazing at her trusting face, and thoughts of the universe, his world, and the reality as it was came crashing down on him.

And maybe he made a choice he never thought he would, but he leaned down to kiss her softly.

Her lips yielded under shock, but she didn't pull away. If anything, once she'd realized his intentions and became certain of herself, she had leant up into him and kissed him back gently. Her hands, small he'd noticed, had found and gripped onto the edges of his Galactic jacket. He embraced her a little tighter and her lithe body lined up against him.

The curves of her body pressed against his front and he found himself wanting her almost more than he'd wanted to take the world for himself. Maybe even more...

She actually took over the kiss, her lips pressing forth urgently and coaxing him to her. Her tongue swept against his lips, an action he hadn't anticipated, and he suddenly thought that she might be more experienced than she looked. In an uncomfortable additional thought, she was probably more used to this than he was.

The last time he'd kissed a female, he'd been in his youngest years. And he'd never gone further than that.

Insistently, he let his own tongue reach out to hers, even as inexperienced as he probably was. His hands gripped onto her hips, and he knew that if he had to, he would bring this girl as a goddess into his new world. She was someone who needed to be worshipped.

Which is why he led her to his room, closing the door with a finality that made him realize this was the moment all of his carefully made plans would be laid to rest and put aside for once, and all his focus would be given to this girl and only this girl.

Despite it all, he admitted this was the first time he'd gone through with this, and despite what it seemed (and the lack of a barrier in her), she hadn't done this either.

Whoever had hurt her (as she'd implied then), who had gone as far as they had in violating her, he wanted to make her see this as something more than a violation. To see him as the God to her Goddess, and not another monstrous man in this faulty world.

"I wasn't actually in love, but I felt a sort of tender curiosity."

That is what he wanted to say about her, about how he felt of all this.

But as he entered a state of bliss, there were words (once forbidden in his head) that resonated within him.

~*~*~

His hand was warm around hers. In fact, she was still in shock that he actually was holding her hand in the first place, but that Cyrus had cared to pay the attention he did to her lately, made her so happy that she couldn't stop her near constant smiling. It was something -happiness -that she hadn't truly felt in a long while. Even though she wasn't home, she wanted to hold onto this feeling for as long as she could.

"Do you want ice cream?" he asked her, his voice still as unaffected as ever. Still, when she looked at him, his eyes warmed towards her slightly.

"Mmhm! Please?" She held onto his hand, and ignored Saturn grinning at her and waggling his eyebrows.

Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars were quick to notice the change and deduced things for themselves, without either of them saying anything. Which was fine because Ash was still too embarrassed to say anything in the first place, and Cyrus just wasn't the type to say anything about it either.

"I like ice cream," a voice she had come to hate said cheerily, and her collar was yanked backwards as she was ripped away from Cyrus and into the vice grip of Miranda.

Her arms had wrapped themselves around Ash like snakes around prey, and Miranda had a knife digging into her neck. And as she looked up at the others, she saw first shock and then outrage cover their faces. And for once, Cyrus' usually grim face was morphed into a canvas of fury.

"Who the hell are you?" Mars bared her teeth, taking a threatening step forward. She stopped as Miranda dug the knife in and made Ash bleed.

"Me? I'm an old friend of hers," Miranda giggled. "I wanted to get reacquainted."

"Let her go, before the entirety of Team Galactic is on you," Saturn's face became cold.

Miranda snorted. "I'd have her dead before you can call them in. And besides, we'll be gone before you even know it," she gestured to the truck not too far behind her.

"And you little girl," she hissed at Ash. "You owe some money after that runaway stunt you pulled. And don't think I don't know what you and that Charizard of yours did to Parker," she grabbed a fistful of Ash's hair and yanked at it, causing her to cry out.

That put the four she'd been with in a tense disposition.

Miranda turned back to them. "She's merchandise. Thanks for returning her."

"Merchandise?" Jupiter bit out, eyes flashing.

Miranda idly swiped her knife around the skin of Ash's neck, creating little nicks. "Oh, you didn't tell them, princess? We caught this little one fair and square in Saffron, and she was going to make us a payload in Kalos. But got her dainty little hands dirty when she managed to run away, now did she? Not too worry -when I'm done with you, you're going to be sold to the highest bidder."

"I'll buy her then," Cyrus said suddenly, causing Miranda to look at him contemplatively, before a slow smirk graced her face and she started to laugh. She tapped her knife against Ash's cheek in amusement.

"Oh, you clever, clever girl! Giovanna Akagi, was it? A very nice alias, my little mouse! How many other billionaires, do you know? Or did you just think you were smart coming up with those names, and got lucky when you met one of them, huh?"

"I didn't know," Ash started crying, her arms shooting up and trying to pull Miranda's arms away from her. "I just saw them on TV the day I ran away. I made up the names! I'm sorry."

Why was this happening to her? She'd just became happy with Cyrus and now this was happening. Why did this keep happening to her?

Miranda turned her attention back to Cyrus, grinning as she walked backwards and was still holding onto Ash.

"No, no, no, no! If you buy her, you'll treat her like the princess she is, won't you? No...I'm going to make sure she suffers until her very. Last. Breath."

And then Ash was tossed into the back of the truck, with Miranda jumping in with her, and she did her best to look out and try to see one last glimpse of Cyrus.

All she managed was a blur of blue.