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[attr="class","textbox"]It was surprisingly rare for someone to seek Isaac out in his own "home."[break][break]

Outside of those initial check-ins from the HBIC, much of the region was content to let him be. Maybe it was because Suicune had chosen him. Maybe it was because he'd proven himself in Petalburg Woods and on the resurfaced isle. Maybe it was because, cooped up in Dewford gym, he was technically always under League surveillance.[break][break]

The thoroughness of said surveillance was another story. Arceus, Isaac was thankful for Michael Navidson.[break][break]

Such peace and quiet made it a surprise when someone had actually come to see Isaac. Nevertheless, he emerged from the toom he'd been cooped up in, curious to see just who had been waiting for him.[break][break]

Huh. It was the guy from the Ultra Deep Sea. Isaac shot him an easygoing smile as he made himself at home on one of the gym's lobby chairs. "Surprised you're looking for me," he admitted. For all the League seemed to handle him lightly, they sure as shit weren't lining up to come visit him, either. "What's up?"

The easy going smile he'd been shot only filled the former Elite Four with more guilt. Whatever good mood the man had been in, Thomas was going to ruin it.

"Isaac, it's good to see you again.", Thomas told the former Rocket. "I - I'm glad you chose to come to the light. Arceus knows that must've been a hard choice to make.", he'd continue.

Not only any internal struggles over turning one's back on the friends made in the organization, but the consequences of betrayal. It was no secret that Rocket was particularly unforgiving with deserters and defectors.

"How have you been adjusting?"

---

tags: Isaac Merlo
notes: tl;dr

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[attr="class","textbox"]"It's the only choice I could make, really." It was funny. Thomas wasn't wrong that it was a hard choice, but the alternative was the hardest thing Isaac could have imagined. "Been wrestling with it since Meteno. If anything, I'm pissed at myself for not giving it a shot sooner."[break][break]

The rough treatment he'd gotten at the hands of the HBIC, and the many attempts on his life by his former employers, were clear pictures as to why he had dragged his feet. Even then, he knew compared to several defectors he was lucky. He had gym leaders, head scientists, and even a legend in his corner. The average grunt, who may well have been more complicit in Rocket's crimes than he had ever been, would have far more of a struggle.[break][break]

"It's easier than I thought it'd be, I think." It felt weird to say, when the road had been so challenging. But compared to the instant death and crushing solitude he'd expected? "Already ripped off the bandaid on the hardest part. Now that it's out of the way, I can look forward to what really matters."[break][break]

It was time to make this region a better place.

The fact that Meteno was the point where he started having his 'crisis of faith' made sense. In the Region's darkest hour, where one would think Rocket would set aside differences for the sake of the Region, they acted as they always did. Exploiting the situation for their own financial gain. Stalling the attempt to take care of Meteno, in order to mine it for resources.

Whatever rhetoric they spewed about making Hoenn a better place, giving the people anything better, was thrown out the window. They exposed their true colors with that act.

Such an act made it easy for Thomas to justify going out with Andraste Breathnach to attack them in Littleroot. At the time, it only added onto his hatred for the organization, and its bosses.

"I'm glad to hear that, man.", he told Isaac with a smile, before it turned into a guilt-ridden frown.

"Isaac, there's something I need to tell you.", he began. "That day in the Ultra Sea, in Granite Cave. That wasn't the first time we had met."

---

tags: Isaac Merlo
notes: tl;dr

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[attr="class","textbox"]A guilt ridden frown. Words spoken with a heavy heart. In but moments, the mood of this little check-in had changed.[break][break]

Did it really, though? It may have been a surprise, considering his reputation as the man who rages against the storm, but Isaac was first and foremost a cynic. He knew people didn't just show up on his doorstep to see if he was feeling okay. Not with how high profile of a defection he had. Not months after that defection, when all the initial well-wishes had become a thing of the past.[break][break]

Not in a region like Hoenn, where everyone had an agenda.[break][break]

That wasn't to say Thomas was a bad person for having an agenda. Arceus, no. Everyone did. A person without goals, without ambitions, without so much as a hope to guide them onwards was little more than a dead man walking. He knew that better than anyone else. He'd wasted a big chunk of his life in that fugue state.[break][break]

The defection was the second time Isaac had been reborn. This time, he was going to make it count.[break][break]

"Huh. Really?" he asked. He knew himself. He knew, if he started picking at the strings of this conversation, he'd start speculating about whens and wheres and hows and whys. With the pained look on Thomas' face, Isaac knew it wasn't his place to try and unravel it. "Weird. Pretty sure I would've remembered if I did."[break][break]

Oh, if only he knew.

"Our first meeting was actually on the Jagged Pass. You were among a team of Rockets sent to harvest Spoink pearls. A masked man attacked your group, subjecting them to Hydreigon fire, before making an attempt on the man leading the team. Among those who tried to stop the masked man, one of them got thrown down the Jagged Pass, breaking his neck during the fall.", Thomas recapped to Isaac.

"The masked man - the Wraith, was me.", Thomas finally told him. His tone was guilty. His face was that of resignation to his fate. He was ready to accept whatever retribution Isaac had in store for him.

---

tags: Isaac Merlo
notes: tl;dr

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[attr="class","textbox"]The Jagged Pass.[break][break]

It was the day he'd gotten his first taste of Rocket's brutality. Poaching rubbed him the wrong way, but by keeping himself busy with theft and roughing up scoundrels he'd managed to keep his nose clean of it. On that day, it came to an end. Maybe it was to try and round out his Rocket portfolio. Maybe it was because he hadn't impressed enough on a prior mission. Maybe he just drew the short straw.[break][break]

That short straw was nothing compared to the descent of the Phantom.[break][break]

Twisted, nightmarish illusions. Merciless attacks, sparing no thought to who were monsters eager to kick around Spoink and who were stupid young men in over their heads. A fear for his life that Isaac wouldn't know again until the day he left Rocket. A budding resentment, both aimed at the man who terrified him so and the organization who put him in that position in the first place.[break][break]

On that day, in the eyes of a broken grunt, Isaac learned the League's wrath could be just as terrifying as Rocket's.[break][break]

Isaac paled as he remembered what happened. His stomach lurched. His brow furrowed. His fists clenched. "You . . ." he hissed, a million and one words fighting for the right to follow that sentence. A part of him wanted to cry. A part of him wanted to scream. A part of him just wanted to lash out at the second oldest of his inner demons.[break][break]

Yet for all that day had been a nightmare, he found himself wondering where he'd be without it. When he started out in Rocket, he'd thought himself invincible. He'd experienced too many thrills, too few ills. He'd kept himself out of mortal peril. Hew grew confident - no, downright cocky - from how far he'd come.[break][break]

If he kept riding that high, win after win, would Rocket be able to massage him into a more pliable shape?[break][break]

With a sigh, the tension left Isaac's shoulders. He met Thomas' eye, the wrath in his eyes giving way to a look of close-guarded suspicion. "That was one of the worst days of my life," he admitted, voice quiet and heavy. "I always told myself I'd never forgive the bastard who did it."[break][break]

A smile, strained and weary, spread across his face. "Funny how things change, huh?"

Thomas looked into the eyes of the survivor of his attack. A young man who never should've been caught in the crossfire, brought there by unfortunate decisions, and unfortunate circumstances. He had no doubts that his actions that day entrenched the man deeper into the Rocket machine. That avenging his teammate allowed them the chance to further corrupt him.

The fact that he escaped was a miracle.

Thomas' look was of acceptance for the consequences. Of whatever resentment and wrath Isaac held for him.

"Isaac, you have every right to despise me.", Thomas told Isaac. "I know it doesn't even begin to make up for what I've done, but-"

Thomas opened himself up. "I won't resist.", he offered to Isaac.

His punishment for the suffering he caused Isaac.

---

tags: Isaac Merlo
notes: tl;dr

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[attr="class","textbox"]Isaac looked Thomas up and down. He paced back and forth, as if trying to find the perfect angle. Finally, as he stopped in front of the Wraith, he dropped into a fighting stance. He rolled his neck. He rolled his shoulder. He balled his hand into a tight fist. Finally, with nothing else to lose, he reared back and slung at Thomas with all his might.[break][break]

Then, moments before making impact, he stopped. Instead of going through with it, he gave him a firm pat on the shoulder.[break][break]

"Look, man. I get it. Half the damn region's got reason to despise me." There was a weariness to Isaac's voice, a regret that he knew would take him the rest of his life to finish reckoning with. His grip, a little too firm and a little too hard at first, melted at the admission. "But they're not gonna gain anything out of chasing that. And, hell, I'm not gonna get anything out of chasing you."[break][break]

"I'm fucking sick of the past, man." The Rocket days, escalating more and more until Isaac barely recognized what he'd once signed on for. The wandering days, where all he knew was how to sling one leg in front of the other until he could finally know peace. His life at home, the unfavorite of a broken marriage whose only role was to be the scapegoat. "Only thing I care about now is what comes next."[break][break]

Ever so slightly, a smile spread onto Isaac's face. Despite his fatigue, it was brilliant. "What'll that be for you?"

As Isaac readied himself to land the hit, Thomas didn't flinch, or blink. Even as the man made his move, his eyes showed no fear, only resignation. When he pulled back at the last moment, instead patting him on the shoulder, Thomas' eyes showed shock at the gesture of mercy.

Was he saving it for a different occasion?

Thomas silently reflected on Isaac's words. Though he'd argue that Isaac might get closure out of the attack, he ultimately respected the man's decision. All they could do was fight for the future. Prevent it from falling to a dark fate under Rocket, or an end brought about by the Drk Triad, or other forces that sought to end them.

"Fighting for a better tomorrow. For a better life for Hoenn, and its people. For the world.", Thomas uttered.

---

tags: Isaac Merlo
notes: tl;dr

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[attr="class","textbox"]"Then don't you dare give that fight up. Not for someone like me."[break][break]

An eye for an eye made the world blind. Isaac knew that better than anyone. Ashley Shepard had taken his, after all, and Isaac had chosen love over vengeance. A part of him always wondered where he'd be if he'd walked the other path instead. It was as constant as his missing eye had been, and lingered even after it had been replaced.[break][break]

The fear of what he could have been would follow Isaac to the grave.[break][break]

"We've both done shit we can't forgive ourselves for." For all Isaac defended himself to the League's interrogations, he didn't do so out of a lack of remorse. If anything, he loathed himself more than they ever could. "But that's all the more reason why we're gonna do better. We know what the other option is."[break][break]

"So c'mon. Let's make that better tomorrow happen."