He doesn't know she was there.

Katherine Fairburne would come upon an underboss that looks the same as ever. The marks that Necrozma has left upon him are internal, emotional scars that will never heal. His gaze is on Dialga's mural as she speaks.

"You don't strike me as one for empty pleasantries." It's not an insult as much as an observation. He turns away from the shrine to regard her with a sharp stare. "Is something the matter?"

“There’s this report I’ve come across,” Katherine starts, beginning to weave a web of lies built on half-truths and knowledge she’s yet to share with her boss. It’s no different than playing a game of chess versus a blind opponent. What she does, the pieces she moves - the lies she shares.

They are hers and hers alone to toy with.

“I don’t need to beat around the bush with you, I hope. The Blackout of Slateport. You were there, weren’t you?”

She's stepping carefully around her words, he thinks, but he's not certain the nature of the deception. Had she been there? Had someone who was there ratted him out? His expression is impassive.

"No, you don't." He prefers, in fact, when she is direct. "I was there, yes."

The question is in his eyes: How much do you know, Katherine Fairburne?

It had been dark, he recalls, so dark that the light from Moltres' wings had been their only beacon in the crushing black. He had called out to Lugia in desperation, and it had answered.

"If you've read reports, you know what it did to the city. How many went missing." For once, he could hardly sneer at the news for their lackluster reporting; the devastation Necrozma had left in its wake had been complete. "It was life or death; I rank my own survival over the potential risk of Lugia's discovery."

A quiet warmth spreads through his chest as he recalls their partnership, however brief. It spoke of promise for the future.

Gavin's jaw clenches, anger flashing like lightning in his eyes. "If you're concerned for his opinion, you can ask him yourself."

His mood does not improve at mention of FERNANDO SILPH. His gaze is cutting as he stares at her. Katherine Fairburne is selfish, and it's not the first time he's had concerns about her loyalty to Rocket. "I'm sure you get plenty of opportunities to chat, being that you work together." She'd spent enough time around him to know his opinions on the report, after all. "I am not worried. If you are, you're more than welcome to 'keep an eye' on your pet councilman."

He does not regret his decision. It shows in his posture: firm, unyielding. "Lugia was seen. I was not. It existed before Rocket acquired it; that it was under my control would have been impossible to determine in that chaos."

He will not back down.

"You can," he agrees. "I won't stop you."

He had said a similar thing to Dominic and Marcel when they'd accosted him about his decision to assist her during the war. Whether or not they'd approached Walsh about his actions remained a mystery to Gavin, but he did not care. So long as it didn't affect his standing in Rocket, they could do as they liked. Katherine Fairburne included.

"If you weren't worried, why would you bring it up?" His desire for knowledge wins out over his ire. "How much does he know?"

He doesn't entertain the comment on Lugia; it had been Abiatti's meddling that brought Lugia to Rocket's attention, and that had been on Hoennian soil. He's not sure if the former councilwoman had reported the corrupted creature, but her knowledge of it was enough.