[attr="class","katherine"]
"I can work with that."

She smiles in victory. This is victory, she tells herself. It's an opening and if there's anything that she'd learned by working alongside the Silph, is that one opening is all one needs. "You want to put me on a tighter leash? Go ahead. You want to bark orders? Fine. I can work with that. I won't like it, but I'll figure it out." Self-preservation came second to none— well, none except... Maybe sating Giratina's need for a particular artifact.

But other than that? It was second to none.

"You've managed worse deals than this, I am sure. We can work something out. And I know that you'll only accept a deal that you'll benefit from as well."

And by benefit from, she means... Benefit more. After all, he was a businessman.


notes:

[attr="class","katherine"]
“Why?”

He is fully convinced that she’s hiding something, and of course, she is, but why is it still troubling him? Katherine believed that she’d shown her loyalty to the League - and Fernando in particular - enough times by now.

“Why does it matter so much?”

She heaves a sigh, unable to stop herself from feeling like they’ve reached a dead-end. He’s stubborn, she’s stubborn…

“You’re privy to your secrets just as much as I am privy to my own, Fernando.”


notes:

[attr="class","katherine"]
Fernando is able to find Katherine’s gaze easily, for she hadn’t allowed her eyes to drift away from him, not yet.

He manages to make this situation sound a lot more simple than it is. She hates that. She hates all of it. She even hates being a part of Rocket, now, mostly because lying to him was - and still is - her only option. No matter the fact that the confession dances on the tip of her tongues and threatens to spill through whatever dam she had built to defend herself from making such mistakes.

She wrestles with the thought for a few more silent moments, allowing his judgment to mallow in the deafening silence.

Until, eventually, she breaks it.

“I believe you. I believe you need to know, but I also know that you don’t want to, Fernando. You don’t trust me, fine, but you can have Tapu Fini tell you that this isn’t a lie: you won’t like it.”

And after a life of living by herself and depending solely on herself… Katherine is simply unwilling to place all her eggs in one basket, even if it belonged to no other than FERNANDO SILPH.

“I can’t.”

“I won’t.”


notes:

[attr="class","katherine"]
Fernando should know that Katherine wouldn’t want him to do that. Hell, she wouldn’t even ask him to. She’s too stubborn to ask for someone’s help, especially if it’s to deal with a personal mess.

“You know I wouldn’t ask you to clean up after me.”

He has to know that.

“Well… What I want you to do is trust me, but you can’t. And I can’t trust you either, Fernando, can I?” It doesn’t feel like she can. And much like him, simple words won’t convince her.

“I’ll tell you.”

A change of heart? Not quite.

“I’ll tell you if you can tell me something just as damning. If something like that even exists, that is.” In other words: mutually assured destruction. She’ll tell him of her crimes and sins at the cost of revealing his.


notes:

[attr="class","katherine"]
It’s not enough.

Katherine wants it to be, so it’s simpler for her and allows her to be sincere with Fernando - not just partly, but fully - but it’s not enough. A man like him may hold a skeleton or two in his cupboard, but she was a fool to think that they’d be equal. And on the off chance that they were? She was naive to believe he’d simply entrust her with a secret of that magnitude.

Optimism simply didn’t suit her.

But trust is a two-way straight, and if she was to incriminate herself: then there was no other way. She had to give in, let go, and even go against herself.

… She had to trust him.

“Rocket. I see.”

Sadly, she doesn’t have a scar to show him in turn. She can only offer her words now, words that come only after she turns to look away from Fernando. She couldn’t bear watching his expression now, especially due to the approaching judgment. Giratina, despite not offering any vocal approval or disapproval, assures her of one thing: it’d be there after everything.

Not for her— but it’d be there.

Even now, Katherine has her hand on the trigger. If they have to leave, disappear or even vanish into the distortion world - she accepts it.

“I was sixteen when I ran away from home,” when she packed a bag and stole a bunch of her mom's jewelry to cover a few months’ rent. ”Rocket wasn’t as prevalent in Hoenn back then. Not yet, at least, but there were… Agents. The type you keep in a region you’re going to invade one day.”

Recruiters. Spies. People who laid the groundwork for the eventual invasion in Slateport and everything that came along with it.

Criminals.

“I had nothing.”

“I had no one.”

“... I needed something.”

And now, it feels like she has everything she could ever want— and the thought of losing it is frightening.

“Rocket fixed all of it. They gave me a home, a job, a purpose…” But it changed. She grew up and matured, and if the organization she was once proud of calling a home taught her anything was that caring for yourself first comes before everything else.

It always will.

Katherine turns, slowly, with her eyes remaining closed until she musters enough courage to peel them open. “... Do you still need Tapu Fini to tell you I am saying the truth? Or do you believe me?” And most importantly, how mad is he?


notes:

[attr="class","katherine"]
He’s a lot calmer than Katherine expected him to be.

A part of her was hoping that he’d lash out at her because it’ll make leaving all the more easier - but the opposite occurs. And with that, she has to embrace whatever… This was. The outcome, the remaining debris that comes with the collapse of her carefully-built persona.

”... And?”

What else did he want?

”Do you really want me to confess to you about each and every crime I was involved with?” The idea, despite being proposed by her, is aggravating to hear. She doesn’t need any reminders. Deep down... A part of her, as small as it may have been, did feel remorse. There were rare nights where she still suffered from pangs of conscience.

”You know about most of those times, Fernando, if not all. The tree. People who went missing conveniently at the worst times.”

And unlike previous Rockets he may have worked with, Katherine doesn’t intend to make it easier for him by swearing up and down that she was coerced into committing crimes or simply wasn’t involved with the big things.

She did it out of her own volition. She acted against the League not just through petty thievery.

“I can be specific if that’s what you need, but you have your own story to finish.” Her eyes avert to where his injury laid, waiting in anticipation to hear more.


notes: