He understands.

Not with the thought of having to kill a loved one, but with the gut-wrenching agony of betrayal. Gavin understands, but he cannot allow himself to give in. Not here. Not over this.

Rocket comes first. It always had. It always would.

"You get up, for starters." His tone isn't cruel, but it is firm. "You are a Beast, now, Serena. You accepted that title and all the expectations along with it. You knew what that might mean."

Serena Malcolm

Serena growls at him, and Gavin narrows his eyes. "Careful, Sera."

He was her mentor, perhaps even a friend, but he was still her boss at the end of the day. Rocket hierarchy was still important to him. He won't strike her, wouldn't abuse her as he'd been abused, merely gives her a sharp look of warning.

"If you accepted the role only for vengeance, then you accepted it for the wrong reason. Being a Beast is about more than bringing Fairburne down. It's about enforcing our law."

Even when it was difficult. Even when it meant hurting the ones you loved.

His calm, stoic demenaour cracks beneath her accusation, and this time it's Gavin who snaps.

"You think I don't care?" His knuckles whiten with a curled fist. "You think it's easy for me, when we've got to turn on one of our own?" He's not thinking of Danny, now, but of Katherine Fairburne and Raziel Beckett and Archon, of those whom he'd once considered friend or even family. "Fuck that. It's never easy. But I do what I have to, for Rocket."

Serena Malcolm

It's hard for her; he can see it in the slump of her shoulders, hear it in the softness of her tone. He thinks of his nightmares, faceless superiors versus the pleading eyes of his loved ones as he loads the gun. A spreading pool of blood. It would have been hard for him, too.

So when she apologizes, he relents, and pulls her into a tight hug. That's not what he'd do as her superior, but it's how he reacts as her friend. Her mentor. Someone she's supposed to be able to trust.

"I know you will."

Serena Malcolm