"No. Chu-e's voice is flat and almost sullen as he takes one of the cigarettes. His hands do not shake as he holds it between his fingers, still pink; turns out the plumbing wasn't too great when it wasn't important it was. "Light?

He waits for Cillian Quinn to light the cigarette, to take a deep drag and let the smoke curl out of his nose. Only then does he finally answer, tender lungs coughing out the last of the acrid taste.

"The guy that taught me to do that liked it. Pretty sure it got him hard, the fucking freak." He growls it out, irritation prickling under his skin. "I don't like it."

It felt like enough of an answer. Chu-e had always been willing and capable to do great violence. That didn't mean he relished in it like most of his ilk. He took another drag, sighed, then put out the half finished stick and shoved in his pocket, ashes and all. Some things could be washed. Only some.

Gavin lights Chu-e Choi's cigarette before his own; he needs it more.

"Good." Relief settles slow, imperceptible in his expression. Cigarette smoke curls around him as he exhales, pocketing his lighter. "We're not meant to like it."

Gavin was ruthless because he had to be. Peace came only in the knowledge that their foes might fear their methods enough to stay away. Rocket had changed much since Silas but the League remained their enemy. He loathed them more than he loathed Rocket's methods.

In the distance, lights from emergency vehicles flash. They're too far to hear the sirens, and the League have arrived too late.

"You knew him, then?" Raziel Beckett leaves a bitter taste in his mouth.

"He's the kid who helped me when I had the seizure the other day." It was briefly mentioned when Cillian Quinn had helped with those Waillord on the beach. Chu-e had laughed it off at the time, not entirely comfortable with talking about the ailment in detail, but it had been one of the worse kinds of episodes. He had gotten confused. If what Razz had said was true, he gabbed something and couldn't even remember it. He hated it. It made him a liability.

Chu-e was angry and it was mostly at himself at the moment. The violence he had committed only exacerbated the emotion and made it stew into an ugly mess in his chest.

"Damnit. Hissing, Chu-e slipped a knife from his pocket. He didn't do more than flip the blade in and out with his thumb, a nervous habit. "That fucking... do you remember that.. mistletoe thing in Fortree? He recognized me. Slipped my damned mind the last two times I saw you. Fuck."

Gavin nods, remembering.

He has not discussed Chu-e Choi's condition in detail with the former Beast; trust was a process and it was under Rocket influence that he endured the life-altering experimentation. He knew that the seizure had been bad enough to require the aid of another, and that Chu-e had said some embarrassing things. It had, apparently, been worse than that.

"'Mistletoe Matchup'," Gavin quotes. "I was there. Public image, and all. He's old Rocket, then? Fuck." The curse comes out half-growled. "He'll forget us, but not you. Think he'll rat?"

Chu-e mulls over what Cillian Quinn asks; he's calmed down, somewhat, still high strung enough to let the now-folded knife dance between his knuckles instead of the mindless flicking. What had he learned about Raziel Beckett that day of the day? And what about when he took him to the infirmary?

".... I don't think so. He thinks Rocket is broken up in Hoenn. It was also before I talked to you. He thinks I'm out of the 'club', too." For now, anyway. Chu-e had meant his threats as truth at the time- it was only in retrospect that they were lies. "He's also... straight lace. Never the kind meant for us. Think he's hiding something, though." When they had spoken about his past, he had been too eager to skip over bits and be vague. It hadn't escaped his notice.

"... speaking of." The knife vanished somewhere up Chu-e's sleeve where it belonged before he turned to fully face Gavin. "Was that a bizzaro version of The Deepsea's Light you had in there?" Gavin may or may not recognize one of the religious names for Lugia. Even if he didn't. Well. It was easy enough to put two and two together.

"Think it's true, what he said about his mother?" Gavin isn't sure. It wouldn't be the first time someone was raised a Rocket — jayden cross comes to mind — but it wouldn't be the first time an ex-Rocket spun a sob story to slip the noose of their treachery, either. "Wouldn't even have a problem with the kid if he'd stayed out of the way."

Why did they always have to play at hero?

Chu-e Choi's segue catches Gavin's attention even before the divine nickname for Lugia passes his lips. There's a moment before Gavin responds, cigarette poised neatly between his fingers.

"As far as I'm aware, it is your 'Deepsea's Light'. I didn't realise you might be religious." He wonders if this will be a similar discussion to the one he'd had with Celeste Abbiati. Gavin has done research on the myths and legend surrounding Lugia since his acquisition of the legendary, but he was not himself devout. "I'm not responsible for its condition, before you get upset. Rocket found it beneath Sootopolis and nursed it back to... well, I don't know if shadow Pokemon can be considered healthy, but it functions well enough. Walsh entrusted it to me."

"Good lies have a kernal of truth in them. It matches up with what he told me twice before, I just think there's more than he's letting on. He implied his face was messed up because of whatever happened." That much Chu-e did remember. "... ah. One other person outside of Rocket knows who I am. cait alfric." That one was harder to explain. Chu-e would want to have a more private meeting to explain fully the whole deal with 'Ji-Hoon Ki'. This wasn't really the place for it.

But, at the mention of Lugia, Chu-e shrugs. "I'm really not. My parents were, though." He could still remember the stories they told and the weird little things they had done. Him and his siblings had been force fed knowledge of Arceus and the Sinnoh Pantheon, taken to church and even did the ceremonies... but it was all to avoid getting ostracized or bullied by the small community they had lived in. In truth, his family had believed in The Rainbow Flame as their One True Creator. Having one of the old gods he had sung about present was... unnerving but not unexpected. He had been witness to Articuno at the Auroras Winter Ball years ago. Had even let it judge his soul.

"You've lost me again. What's a 'shadow' pokemon?" He could vaguely remember some of the suits in charge of the labs muttering about them when he was in Rocket before but had never paid much attention. His knowledge was in name alone.

Gavin nods in apparent agreement with Chu-e Choi's opinion of Raziel Beckett. Something tugs at his expression when he mentions the boy's face. He was so used to seeing scars in Rocket that he hadn't put much thought into their origin. A burn, he remembers. Could be the real reason he left. If that were the case, Gavin couldn't blame him.

However, his anger persists at the thought of Razz's meddling.

"Alfric?" There's something sharp in his tone — not anger, but tension. "You'll need to fill me in on that later."

Just as he, it seems, would be filling Chu-e in about shadow Pokemon. They were not his design, but he'd taken a fancy to researching them since Rocket's labs had begun to manufacture the corrupted creatures.

"How to best describe them... it's like their compassion has been sacrificed in favour of power." From his belt, Gavin retrieves two pokeballs — from their depths, a snarling Sandslash and looming Aerodactyl emerge. The latter has black spikes of crystal jutting from its body at unnatural angles, while the former's icy spines are darker than normal, as if shadows themselves were housed there. "Not all of them have visible signs of their corruption. These two are more... obvious."

The Sandslash has not stopped growling since its release. Ice slowly spreads from where it stands, permafrost coating the grass.

"Some of them are corrupted by Ultra Beast poison. Lugia encountered some Nihilego, from what I've been told. Sandslash is of artificial make; Rocket's laboratory at its finest. Aerodactyl was... ah, that's a long tale, but it's lucky to have survived."

"Yeah. That's a whole can of worms. Shame, cause she's a nice chick." The times he had spoken to her, Chu-e really had enjoyed Cait's company. However, his attention is instantly shifted with the release of two pokemon. He's never seen an Alolan Sandslash before, just heard about them, and this being his first meeting was... a lot.

However, his eyes more linger on the Aerodactyl.

"I had one like that once." He pointed to the Aerodactyl with a measured distrust. "Was already a literal monster before... whatever the fuck happened to him. I couldn't control him. Ripped the throat out of three of my pokemon before I could take it down." That one.. had been trouble. It hadn't came from a Lab, just somewhere darker, a plot-line long abandoned in his particular life. He could still remember the dying gurgles of his Arcanine as that Aerodactyl sat on his convulsing body, feasting while still alive.

It had been gruesome.

"It died, though. These seem more..." 'Controlled' wasn't the right word. He didn't doubt that if he got to close they would hurt him. But, they also weren't actively lashing out like his old Aerodactyl had. Could still be stored in pokeballs, too. His pokeball hadn't worked after... whatever had happened. It was something he still didn't understand. "You said artificial? I have some pokemon I could donate to a cause."

Chu-e had always been more caring about his pokemon, but just some of them. They had to earn a place in his heart. But some, like the breeding den of Lopunny back at his house, he didn't have an attachment. If one or two of them went missing, would he even notice?

Gavin listens to Chu-e Choi's retelling of an old experience, a frown tugging the corners of his mouth. Had it perhaps been one of the early precursors to the discovery of shadow Pokemon?

"You don't know what happened to it?"

With a screech, his own Aerodactyl flies off in search of prey, and Gavin recalls the creature before it can land itself in trouble. Sandslash remains, its claws clicking together as it glares daggers at Chu-e. Occasionally it looks to Gavin, as if eagerly awaiting a command to attack. Gavin's attention is focused on his fellow Rocket.

"Should you want to contribute, the Pokemon that comes out the other side would be yours to keep. Rocket wants them studied, battled with, understood. They gain certain... unique abilities, we've noticed."

Another pokeball reveals what appears to be an ordinary Corviknight, until a signal from Gavin sees it shed some of its wing feathers and hurl them like projectiles at the grounded shrew. Sandslash snarls in answer, whipping up a vicious blizzard that forces Corviknight to land. When the snowstorm fades, a painful coating of permafrost remains on the bird's feathers. It visibly saps Corviknight's strength until Gavin recalls them both. The air is cold around them, Gavin's breath misty white.

"I've taken it upon myself to acquire as much knowledge on them as I can."

Chu-e shakes his head in answer. He watches the show, brow raised, before pulling out his phone; some type of tracking app is opened up and he starts to prod around in it.

"On the ship, right? I got... Delcatty. Lopunny. Some other stuff. And I get to keep it? Well... the way you said that, not all of them live, I'm guessing." If that was the case, even if Rocket were the underdogs right now, having an unlimited supply would make them pretty damned hard to reckon with.

"Is there a way to reverse it? If I decide I don't want a pokemon 'Shadowed' anymore?" Chu-e shivers a bit, the cold seeping into his clothes. It had been a while since he felt a chill this deep. Hoenn was usually warm, even in the winter months.

With all they had went over, though, Chu-e had a lot to think about. He was already mulling over ideas. Damn, he really needed to get in touch with one of the scientists. It was a shame he had never had a mind of that kind of stuff.

He shakes his head, solemn. His gaze is on the spot that Sandslash had just occupied, a flower of deadly frost blooming from the epicenter. "Most don't survive."

He'd had a bond with the first Sandslash. By the time they'd reached the third, there had been no bond to sever.

"Not that we know of," he says of reversal. "I asked around when Lugia was entrusted to me. Not all of Rocket are... comfortable with the idea of a corrupted deity in their midst. Even our head scientists didn't know of a way."

Admittedly, Gavin had stopped looking.

"What's the process do to them to do that? Maybe just doing the opposite?" Chu-e, again, was not a man of science. For all he knew, it was irreversible. But if it was, how had Cillian Quinn worded it? Taking away their compassion? That kind of stuff didn't just go away. Chu-e, himself, had always thought he was a ruthless monster with no softness or love left inside his body. Then he had therapy, stopped his weird reverse ego trip, and realized stuff wasn't that easy.

He wasn't a psychopath, but even then, psychopaths were still human and had good in them. It was just a matter of finding out how to get it out of them in a productive way.

Gavin probably wasn't interested in the sessions he had been in with Dr. Min. From a scientific standpoint maybe it was impossible, but logically it just didn't click in his mind.

"It's disconcerting, sure, but they're just pokemon at the end of the day. Pokemon with world shattering powers, granted, but I bet even Arceus would fall to a Pokeball given enough time."