"I'm no longer worried about it. My family has bigger issues to think about than how much you humiliated us," Andraste said quietly, reaching up to press her fingers under his chin for a moment. She didn't like that he kept looking to the ground in shame. That wasn't why she had wanted to tell him about the engagement. It just felt like the right moment to do so, truthfully. It was something to think about other than the anger and sadness that simmered beneath her skin.

Talking about Elisa wasn't something she wanted to do right then either. If she was out fighting, regardless of why Andraste knew why she had joined Rocket or not, she was already too far gone. At least she thought that she was. "I think she's too far gone... and for now, I'd like to leave the topic of her at rest. At least until I can find out more," Andy sighed, finally dropping her hand away from Thomas' jaw.

A laugh left her and she shook her head, "I'm pretty good with my good hand," Andraste admitted, "But... at the same time, I think I've done enough shooting for today," she swallowed. "We both need a shower and actual food and rest." Now she was taking on the role of the caring one, starting to get to her feet. With the adrenaline wearing off, she could feel the exhaustion straight down to her bones. "What is the plan for the next few days?" she asked him, reaching her good hand out to help him up.

Thomas Benoit

Lifting a perfect eyebrow, Andraste watched Thomas turn as he spoke. True, the League was generally ineffective in pretty much everything that they did in Hoenn. Especially at keeping people safe and taking care of big problems... like team Rocket. He was right, and she wasn't going to argue those points. What would be the use in doing so?

His warning was expected, but she reached for the gun anyway, starting to pull it out. Andraste started to lift the gun to inspect it, still watching Thomas carefully. "The League is good for few things... but I'm not sure they'd let a singular man go," she noted absently. "Little fish are easy to take care of in the end," she'd done her fair share of jobs like that. "And you are a little fish, Thomas."

Thomas Benoit

Ena went on the defensive as soon as the Zoroark revealed herself, snarling a sharp warning. The gem on her forehead started to glow, the Pokemon's eyes never leaving her would-be opponent. Andraste didn't stop her, glad for the distance between herself and Thomas' shadow. However, it put her closer to Thomas and she wasn't sure that was something she wanted either...

The darkness in his voice was enough to send a bit of a thrill up her spine, but it wasn't fear. It was challenge. The question on her mind was whether he had wanted her to figure it out or not. Was this all purposeful? Had he hoped she would? To what end? Why?

"Why else would your hoard of Audinos be trained in trauma care..." she said slowly, taking a few more steps toward him, still piecing things together. "Why shouldn't I take this to the League?" Andraste asked, being honest in her questioning. Did he want her to? Or was he baiting her? It was hard to tell.

She reached her hand back to the gun tucked into the back of her pants, wrapping her fingers around the grip slowly.

Thomas Benoit

Ena shifted at her side, still using the stealth of the shadows to keep mostly out of sight. Andraste knew that she was being followed. Watched. The Zoroark that was a near constant figure in the corner of her eye was not as unobvious as he was trying to be. Ena's senses also weren't something to scoff at, and Andraste could tell when Ena knew the Pokemon was around. It left one feeling both welcome and unwelcome... and she was not sure how she was supposed to take all of it.

Eyeing Thomas from where she settled into the shadows, she skirted slowly through them, watching his every move. Of course, she was armed. She wouldn't dare corner someone dangerous like this without keeping herself safe. The Phantom was a fan of that shotgun, and with his choice of Pokemon about, Andraste couldn't put it past him to have it within hands reach at any second. All it took was a good teleport... Or a Pokemon that could meld into shadows.

"Locked doors. Parts of these tunnels that are completely blocked off in unnatural ways..." Andraste said, violet gaze assessing her opponent. "You left a few days back in the dead of night and took your more... dangerous Pokemon with you. Like the Zoroark that has been trailing my every move since you brought me here," she continued, pausing and reaching a hand casually back against the gun slipped into the back of her trousers. "Training your Pokemon in fatal tactics that only someone hellbent on causing catastrophe would dare teach, including how to take out whole structures."

"I also know that blood smells like. Call it a gift." It was hard not to when your military career was covert black ops and your assignments were never one would find on paper or in a computer system.

Thomas Benoit

- Christmas Advent: used the word 'gift'

She hated the word 'stalking'. Truly, she did. But that was what she had been doing to her mysterious savior for the entirety of three weeks. Ever since he had saved her and all but invited her to stay on his ranch with him. There was something about Thomas Benoit that was both enthralling but dangerous, and they all knew that Andraste never ran away from the danger. She put herself at the forefront of it.

That meant figuring out just who Thomas really was... and all of his secrets.

Andraste hadn't trusted the words out of his mouth when he had played off not being the Phantom. Not a single one. She'd accepted it on the surface, but really, all she had done was bide her time until she was properly healed before she started noting all of his movements.

Today, they had brought him down into this cavern with the lake at its depths. She was stealthy; catlike, and he wasn't getting away from her this time. There was no more evasion, only answers.

Ena at her side, the Espeon carefully blocked the pathway that was both exit and entrance. Leaning into the arch of the cave wall, Andraste fixed her gaze on Thomas from the bits of shadow peppered about the cave. Her voice carried, giving the impression that she could have been anywhere around the surface of the lake. "I want some actual answers, Thomas," she said, "Because everything in this place just screams that you're the Phantom... at least to someone with a trained eye and a perception for the hidden."

Thomas Benoit

He looked stunned, which she did expect at this point. Because he hadn't known and his goal hadn't been to humiliate her in the end. That made her feel like... well, a jerk, and like she had been holding some stupid grudge for far too long... She could have been doing better things with her time, like making sure her mother and brother had stayed well out of Rocket's path...

But hindsight was 20/20 and she wasn't going to let herself despair even further.

Listening to Thomas speak, she finally shook her head once he was finished. "There is nothing for you to be sorry for," Andraste said, "You clearly didn't know and this isn't your fault. It was my father and your uncle that made all of the decisions. I think you were right to get out when you did," she admitted and trailed her gaze up toward the ceiling with a heavy sigh.

"I know who we were fighting," Andraste said finally, "The woman. This hurts so much because she's my friend... or was," the woman swallowed hard and rubbed at her jaw with her unbroken hand. "I don't know what to do with this rage," she murmured.

Thomas Benoit

Andraste settled there for a while, her gaze on the wall, her cheek pressed to his shoulder. She supposed it would be concerning... And now she was more sure than ever that no one had told Thomas a single thing about the engagement. Antoine surely hadn't, but maybe that was because so much damage had been done in such a short amount of time. It had been a useless venture, and telling him after the fact that he had brought further humiliation to the Benoit's probably wouldn't have ended the way they had hoped it to.

"I could be witty and sarcastic about what made me angry that night, but it wasn't a joke and it was a real feeling. Antoine stopped me from approaching you because you were already into your cups," she said slowly, not lifting her head, "I had just been told that you and I had been betrothed, and I never even got the chance to say so much as hello until I approached you outside. I had hoped for a chance to tell you then, but I learned more about your temper that night than I likely should have," she sighed, lifting her head and then leaning into the wall at her back.

Violet eyes watched him, "My father broke the engagement before it went public, of course, so then it was all just a moot point. To him, maybe, but not to me. I've been deeply offended by it for over a year, though I was under the impression that you knew and just decided to spurn me..."

Thomas Benoit

The entire time that Thomas worked on her hand, she found herself watching his face, trying to figure out what he was playing at. She didn't need to be taken care of. She could have taken herself to a hospital or done this herself. Battlefield dressing was not something she wasn't familiar with after all. But Andraste refrained from speaking, keeping her gaze firmly planted on Thomas. She had been so angry with him for over a year now.

For the humiliation he, though unknowingly, still put her through with her family and his.


In fact, Andraste was still watching him when he finished with her hand and leaned forward to hug her. All at once, she seemed to tense, but then slowly relaxed. It took her a few long moments before she slowly brought her arms around him in return. They both smelled like blood, dirt, sweat, and fresh air, but that didn't exactly send her running, either.

Swallowing hard, Andy leaned her head on Thomas' shoulder. "Here I've been thinking you're a total asshole for over a year," she muttered quietly, "But you've shown me nothing but kindness I haven't earned."

Thomas Benoit

Already, Andraste was silently kicking herself for losing her composure. She was better than this. Better than punching walls and lashing out at those around her. Her patience was generally infinite, and she owed a lot to Thomas and his Pokemon for all of the help that they had already given her the last few months...

She heard the movements of her partner and Bunni and squeezed her eyes shut for a long moment. Yet again, they were taking care of her. Something she wasn't so sure she deserved. She had let Goron die. She hadn't been able to control him or his rage. Not at all... Not when it had mattered the most and his life was on the line.

'Andraste, please show me your hand.'

Letting out a slow, wavering breath, the woman turned slowly away from the wall so she could rest her back against it. Tears filled her eyes and she kept her gaze on the ceiling above them. Still, she offered Thomas her mangled hand, not saying anything only because she didn't trust herself to speak.

Thomas Benoit

She didn't need to be worried about. She didn't want to be. That wasn't Thomas' job. His job was just to be her partner in all of the crime they had just committed. That was it. That was all.

There was still a bitterness in her that didn't want to really let him in like that. It wasn't all his fault. Thomas didn't know that they were supposed to be betrothed. He had no idea that she was holding a grudge, and now that the adrenaline of the initial few weeks around him was quickly wearing off, she could do nothing but glare at his back as he left the room.

If Andraste had know that he was thinking about gathering fruitcake to use as target practice, she would have rolled her eyes. But she didn't, and there was nothing to quell the growing frustration that was quickly taking over. The only thing she could do was turn sharply and punch the nearest wall, lashing out with a sharp growl. Andraste didn't make a noise of pain, even though it hurt like a bitch. She'd been shot before, stabbed, burned. Broken bones still hurt like a bitch.

Instead of crying out, she let her knees bring her slowly to the floor, leaning her forehead against the wall and trying to catch her breath.

Thomas Benoit

Andraste watched the scene unfold with a sort of unyielding emotionlessness. She didn't really know what she was looking at or what she was feeling. She was still feeling over Goron and the quiet betrayal she felt over Elizabeth's actions. She was a Rocket? Somehow it didn't surprise her... But it made her feel all the more betrayed about it. Hadn't she heard about her mother and brother's deaths?

Thomas' words shook her from her spiraling thoughts and she looked up at him through the holes in her mask. "Let's," was all she could think to say, reaching for his arm so that she wouldn't be left behind when the beyheem teleported them out of Littleroot and to a safehouse she had never seen...

tl;dr:
- Thomas Benoit
- rough visual of her outfit
- Still lamenting Elisabeth Fiorelli
- Leaves via teleport with Thomas Benoit

She was tired. Exhausted even. But she couldn't let her guard down even when they were teleported away from Littleroot and to Oldale. She hadn't seen this safehouse before, but if Thomas was bringing them there, then it must have been safe. At least as far as he was aware. And he always appeared very conscious of his properties and who was on it.

They landed and Andraste looked around without removing her mask at first. Only when Thomas removed his did she slowly pull it from her face, her expression hard and unyielding. "What?" she snapped a little when she noted him seemingly watching her. A little too closely for comfort.

Turning away she took a breath and then started to pull down the face mask that hid her mouth where the blind mask did not. Dark curls fell down her back as she quickly removed the pins in her hair, trying to give herself as much perceived privacy as possible.

She didn't want to talk. She was on edge. Her heart ached for her Goomy and she didn't want to think about anything but getting out of this uniform and maybe into a bath. Or something. Before she exploded.

Thomas Benoit