Quinn amber glints at the promise. "Do fill me in with whatever you find."

Though he had dove deep in hopes of discovering more about the Light Devourer, Lulu Flint had access to skills that her brother lacked. She could hack into databases that were locked to him, and while there was no promise they would contain the information the siblings sought, it was intriguing nevertheless.

She asks, then, after his most prized Pokémon.

Gavin inclines his head. "Of course."

He retrieves the beast ball from beneath his jacket, its weight bowing his wrist. He takes a breath as if bracing himself, then tosses it high in the air. It bursts not into light but into shadow, the dark wings of the legendary casting a long shadow that blocks the sun.

Miltank and Roserade, not yet recalled, seem almost normal in the red-eyed beast's presence.

Gavin lifts a hand, a signal that seems to silence whatever cry Lugia had been about to make. It turns its malevolent gaze on the sibling duo with its maw still open, shadows gathering behind sharpened teeth. Ruby eyes follow the path of Gavin's hand.

As Lugia beats its powerful wings, wind picks up and begins to coalesce into spinning cyclones that draw in sand and remnants of black crystal from Tyranitar's sandstream. Shadows pour forth from its mouth and join with the whirling winds, a storm of shadow that tears across the beach. Lugia's spiked tail lashes in anticipation of foes not present, and it turns its rage upon the Roserade — rain douses the brilliant fires before a hurricane forms overhead.

Void and sand swirl around their lonely island, and Gavin shields his eyes with an arm as he turns to answer his sister's question. Voice raised over the whistle of wind, he replies, "Sootopolis, according to Walsh."

And Gavin believed him, doubt and concern washed away by Declan's competence in whipping their scattered organization into shape.

"Abiatti — former councilwoman, Celeste's sister if you've met her — was poking around down there, supposedly, and I guess she stumbled across where it had holed up after the Nihilego did their work."

He lifts a bracing hand, a request for calm, and Lugia grumbles deep in its throat before the storm subsides. Dusting sand from his blond hair, he meets the red eyes of the legend with his own, steady amber, and wonders if it understood what the Ultra Beasts had done.

"Rocket nursed it back to — well, as healthy as a shadow Pokémon can be." He places a hand on Lugia's neck, and manages not to flinch as he feels its muscles tense beneath his fingertips. Since Necrozma, he had made a conscious effort to treat it with every kindness he afforded the rest of his Pokémon. Touch, verbal acknowledgement, and most importantly, not fear. "Legends say it sleeps beneath the sea because it's too powerful, but I'm guessing that's just where it feels safest."

He wonders if it had been scared, as the corruption took hold.
Did legends fear death, as mortals did?

Gavin is confident — some might even say arrogant, but Lulu Flint's remark puts a sobering look on the expression of the underboss.

"Me too," he admits. "I've actually got shit to live for, now."

Such an off-hand comment could be considered offensive; where he would normally take no notice of his own words, he hesitates immediately after they leave him. "I — don't mean anything by that," he promises, rather uncomfortably. "It was rough, for a while, when Silas was in charge. Couldn't have gotten out if I'd wanted to. Not safely."

There's an unspoken meaning: I couldn't have come back home.

He'd never told his sister about the Rocket of before, save for the occasional off-hand comment about how much better the organization was, there days.

Predictably, the mood shifts. A better man than Gavin may have been able to salvage it, but he can only meet the cool gaze of his sister with something like regret in his eyes.

He does not stop her from leaving; he never does.