He really should have still been in the infirmary.

After getting a hole tore from your chest that should have killed him? Yeah, for sure.

Instead, Chu-e had made his way down the halls and to see Miles Sharp. His Gardevoir, Prince, guides him into the room with a flourish and ensures he takes a seat. The psychic type had been extra pissy ever since the attack in the alleyway. Chu-e, while listening, was more focused on the colorful flora that lined the area around the tree.

"It does?" He hummed, plucking a small daisy from the ground. The stem was quickly looped around his fingers, making a small ring that he placed on his finger. The tree was beautiful- he wondered, briefly, why he had picked the two missions that would prevent him from seeing one till now.

"It does."

Miles moves closer to the tree now inspecting it first hand.

"Hardy, full of life. - It's small, but brings the best out of everything surrounding it." He continues circling the three before slowly deciding to place a hand against the bark wondering about the sensation's the tree may deliver. "I'd say that sounds like a certain friend of mine, no?" He teases first, "After all I would never have made it this far without him." There's a gracefulness about his words masking slight hesitation.

"Chu-e why did you join Rocket?" He chooses blatancy. It's clear that the underboss is a foreigner to Hoenn, and like all the others who'd come from Kanto he figures the topic isn't one he cares to broach. Their time in the indigo had broken all of them in different ways. One needn't look further than Cillian Quinn or THEO BECKETT to prove that point. Chu-e, he knows, is no exception. Even so he wishes to learn, to understand not only Chu-e's goals but those of the organization as a whole. Miles was searching for something clear, something concrete He was a scientist after all.

Regardless, he'd wave his superior forward to feel the base as well if he cared to before revealing a scalpal from his pocket and excising a small piece of bark from its trunk inspecting it.

For Shiv (Looking to see:)
If the tree responds to being peeled,
What the inner bark reveals if anything
What the tree feels like to touch.

"Kind of sounds like you're trying to butter me up, Miles." More flowers plucked, looped, as he listens to what Miles Sharp says. Tries to think about how to answer. The question is one to think on, how to word it, and the silence would stretch just on the start of 'uncomfortable' before Chu-e would get up, make his way to the other.

He steps on his tip toes to drop the daisy-chained flower crown on top of Miles' head.

"I was molested when I was a kid." Because that's how this story always started, wasn't it? You couldn't have one start without the other. "The person got away with it, because of Ranger connections. I had evidence, but... well, that doesn't matter when you know people, right? And my family were just immigrants. We didn't have anything." Chu-e doesn't touch the tree, he just observes as Miles works.

"The first time I joined Rocket, I was an angry kid who ran away from home. I wanted to make everyone else hurt just like I was hurting on the inside. So I did. And I was good at it."

Now, with some hesitance, he reaches out and presses his hand to the bark. Gentle, almost.

"The second time I joined Rocket, it was because I was angry. No one in Rocket was ever born wanting to be the 'bad guy', you know? And the League, the League lets people like me or like you fall through the cracks and become bad because we don't have a choice. We're all people who have been left behind."

A small pause. Chu-e glances over at Miles, almost timid. It doesn't reflect the steel in his voice when he speaks.

"Even if the League takes down Rocket, another 'Rocket' will just pop up in a few years. It'll keep happening over and over because the League won't address the problems for why things like Rocket not just form, but thrive."

"So, I guess I joined Rocket to make them look at what they've done. To make them fix it."

"I'll be the bad guy if it makes the cycle end."

LIFE

EXAMINING THE ROUTE 113 TREE

STUDIES CONTINUE ON THE TREE. When the bark is peeled, the tree does not react visibly to the naked eye; however, a bright blue sap begins to ooze from its core.

PRIAM'S REPORT

AN EXCERPT

radiates a weird aura.

prolonged exposure affects mental.

can heal. can create what we call blue mulch.

sudden severe damage caused it to heal lots.

roots were big, go deep into earth.

Touching the tree is an odd experience. It's as if the tree is continually pulsing with life. Nevertheless, this phenomena seems to becoming less strong over time. Perhaps, with priam conrad's notes, Miles Sharp and Chu-e Choi can deduce that the tree needs to be connected to the earth itself.

Miles Sharp Chu-e Choi

His hand falters for a moment as Chu-e crowns him, the smile it gives however is temporary as Chu-e's story consumes any warmth shared in the room. He remains silent, heart heavy as he pulls a test tube allowing the sap-like blue substance to flow freely into its new ovular container before sealing it. He follows suit with the removed bark placing it in a sealed baggy for future study, never once missing Chu-e's words.

He could never understand the pain Chu-e went through, not truly as it was so different from his own, but the person Chu-e became in overcoming those hardships and in understanding the nature of the league, there were clear parallels. The primary being they both were betrayed and let down by the powers that be, and they were both giving their lives to change them albeit in different ways.

He places his materials on a table, a soft smile gracing his features, and perhaps it's uncalled for but he pulls the man into an embrace, and he doesn't let go. Arms only loosen after tens of seconds pass.

"I'm sorry, but you're as strong as you are kind Chu-e, and I don't know if enough people tell you that." He offers a smile not out of pity, but out of pride. It confirms what he's already known about the underboss, he was a man worth working for.

"You and I aren't so different." He decides to speak on it. "My mother was a gym leader for 15 years, and despite all the work she put in, she was made to struggle for the rest of her life. As far as the league was concerned she had outlived her usefulness." he feels bile rise in the back of his throat as he recounts the life of Gloria Sharp. "When Blacephelon attacked Slateport a year ago we were caught in the blast. It took hours to get any kind of civilian aid. I can't tell you the number of rangers, gym trainers, and league officials that denied us help in favor of fighting. My mother never recovered and I lost the person I cared about the most." He moves from the underboss and back to the tree placing his hand on its trunk to stabilize himself.

"I swore to myself I'd change the league, I'd give my life to help people like us because they deserve better than what the league gives. No one should end up like us."

He feels the pulse of the tree, it's something akin to a heartbeat, much slower though almost as if it was fading.

" I worry though." He begins again slowly. "Having been in the war chambers as of late, listening to Cillian Quinn and the others speak. I feel as if we're waging war simply to wage it, waring solely to conquer." He pauses for a moment turning to meet his ally's eyes once again.

"It scares me."

He's surprised by hug; Chu-e always is. He's pretty sure that in the last few months he's gotten more hugs from people than in the last ten years combined. His lips quirk up and raises a hand to gently pat Miles Sharp on the back but doesn't try to force the other away until he's good and ready to let go on his own.

He listens when Miles speaks and thinks over the words. Things the other man is saying so easy- if he had dared uttered a peep of it, especially to an Underboss, in Kanto... Miles wouldn't have made it long there, he thinks.

But that's why this Rocket can be better.

"I don't like it either." Is admitted. A quick cross of the arms, a small frown as he more idly observes Miles' work with the tree. "Kanto shouldn't have happened like it did." That was just the facts. "We don't need to do anything like Kanto, even the less savory shit. Plus, logistically, we can't." He sighed, a small bit of agitation prickling under his skin.

"I don't think anyone with sense would think that one submarine, no matter how large, full of people would be able to force a takeover of an entire country. And...." A sigh, then, very quiet, just for Miles to hear and Miles alone.

"I don't know what's gotten into Gavin, especially. We've always had our different methods and ideologies. It's just never been... like this. We don't need to be like we were in Kanto to get through to people."

Chu-e hasn't an answer, but to know Miles isn't alone in these worries brings some measure of calm to the man. Miles focuses on the tree for a moment. It's perfectly still unchanging to the lone eye, but internally much like the organization, it was shifting with its own secrets. "After Sootopolis something is going to give." He says it offhandedly it's not as much treasonous as it is an observation.

Miles' plans are few and far between if only because the researcher doesn't know entirely what he's capable of, but he knows what's to go down in Sootopolis and a measure of him agrees with the move at least strategically. It was why he approved the plan on his side. It came with certain addendums of course. Every precaution had to be taken not to disrupt or harm the lives already in Sootopolis. As long as its people were kept safe and allowed free passage after their plans Miles could warrant the move. It would serve as a place to cool down and realign themselves away from league eyes and truly deal with the unrest in the organization. It gave them space to work everything out, and hopefully in that space things would begin to calm down.

"In the time I've been in the organization, Team Rocket has been a family for me. You all picked me up when I was at my lowest and gave me a home, gave me the means to begin working through my pain. You all are like brothers and sisters more than coworkers, and I know mamy who roam these halls feel similarly." He thinks back on the number of comrades and friends who he's supported and have supported him in turn. How tightly knit those bonds had become in so short a time. He needn't look any further than Chu-e himself as proof of that.

"But something has to change, after Sootopolis. and I don't believe that change will come if we allow Gavin to continue as he does. I'll confront Gavin and his sector alone if need be when that time comes." He'd offer his friend a small smile.

"I'm sorry Chu-e I know I must've put you in an inconvenient spot. After all, you've done for me."

And he truly is sorry. Because he wouldn't have survived in Kanto. Years ago Miles would have been shot where he stood for vocalizing even a quarter of the thoughts they shared, but in the here and now he stands willing not only to fight but to talk for what he believes in.

"It's not problem, Miles. I was planning on talking to him, anyway." Which would come, in time, after Chu-e gathered a bit more information of his own. Irons in his proverbial fire that he needed to hurry and shape before he got in over his head.

"But, I also know Gavin really well, too. He's my friend. Told me he feels the same, about Rocket being his family. I think the incident with @aoi is what kick-started this. Then with how Kanto was...." A small pause. To peel back the layers or not... it would help Miles Sharp understand but it wouldn't be pretty.

"Only one person in the twelve years I've been in Rocket knows one of my family member's names. I message my brother once every... three years? Or so? On a burner phone I destroy right after, just to let him know I'm alive. In Kanto, it didn't end when you died. Everyone you loved, everyone close to you, no matter how young or old, even if you hadn't spoken to them in years... they died with you. That feeling of 'family' wasn't there. It was eat or be eaten and it was fucking terrible, you know?"

A sigh. He thinks of a niece, never met, whose name he doesn't even know. Because it was safer for her that way.

"If you fucked up, it was taken out of your skin- literally. Hoenn is different, I'm always thankful for that, but Gav and I... we're products of that, in the end. In a really fucked up way, as someone who was there, I know why he's doing what he's doing. He's trying to keep his family safe the only way he knows how."

Chu-e glanced back over at Miles, to see if he could decipher how the other was taking his words.

"I'm not excusing what's happening, keep in mind. I can just see why things are happening like they are."

Gavin wanted power. Craved it. Chu-e wasn't blind to the ambition in the blond man's eyes. But Gavin also loved Rocket. In talking to him, it was so clear. Gavin loved Rocket more than he would probably every love another person. Chu-e wondered if Gavin even realized it.

He keeps silent as Chu-e speaks his stories and rationales leaving a needed mark on Miles' heart. He pauses his tests because he needs to meet the man's eyes his undivided attention was rarely given but the underboss deserved all that and more. He speaks of the nature of Rocket and the life both he and Merlino lived prior to coming to Hoenn, he speaks of an incident that marred Hoenn's future one of the many events he couldn't abide, but finally he sees a silver lining in it, that in some small way those two men for all their power were able to achieve some modicum of peace in their lives in comparison to the hell they'd lived through prior. It's a sad thought, but the two and the many others from Kanto were refugees as much as anyone outside the organization.

"This is what war does, to everyone involved." Something that he'd dissect later silently in the comfort of his own home while he lies in bed with the love of his life, one of Rocket's greatest enemies and targets.

"I can't pretend to know what that's like. I've lost much in recent years, but you both have lived from battlefield to battlefield for well over a decade, with that comes wounds it'd be far too presumptuous of me to assume I can even begin to help heal." The two were indeed products of their environment and Miles can better parse that now, to know where Gavin is coming from to an extent, and to the man's credit when they'd had their dinner months ago Miles knew the man cared for his people. Even so, all of this cannot excuse the man's methods.

"That said, I do understand your stance, and I believe that somewhere in him is a man that will do the right thing. I just pray that the scientist, the man of reason hasn't been completely consumed by those battlefields. After all, you haven't. "

"I used to be. I was a Beast in Kanto. That means I was a finely crafted killing machine for Rocket. You heard of the slaughter of Cinnabar? That was my doing, Miles." It's not said with pride. There was a bitter, raw edge as the incident was mentioned. He had also toppled Pewter- but Cinnabar took the cake between the two.

"I wasn't... happy with it, I don't know anyone could be, but there was a point in time I was proud of that. But... this Rocket is different. When we first came to Hoenn, it was more of the same. You left cities in heaps of rubble and dust. You killed indiscriminately. And if you opposed either in any way, you and your whole family died. The things we do now, all we've accomplished, we couldn't have done that then."

The conversation was serious but he lifted his lips slightly, gave some approximation of a smile to Miles Sharp in spite of the hard subject matter.

"Gavin is a more rational man that I was then. He's not like Silas or even the Underbosses we had. If anyone can realize something is fucked up and shouldn't be repeated, it's him. It won't erase or changed what's happened but it can be made better."

That small, sad twinge came back into his eyes.

"I hate killing. I hate death. In a perfect world, no one would have to die by someone else's hand.... but I would kill for you, Miles. For anyone else in Rocket. My hands are already so covered in blood they'll never wash clean. I'd kill till I drowned in it if kept you safe and made sure your hands never had to be stained like mine."

"I'm a monster, Miles. But by the Flames, I'll do whatever it takes so no one else ever ends up like me."