"I was careful." he states firmly.

Killian nods. He was aware of Gavin's presence in Mauville. Nothing in those reports had captured his attention quite like on the Falls. A chance to discover an unknown Pokemon? To gain access to knowledge before anyone else could?

It whetted his appetite in a way few things could.

"Casually, I told her my name was Dominick. She was difficult but eventually agreed to talk with me." he's leaving out details, keeping things vague on purpose.

"After I told her about my lover. How I needed to save her from you." his tone is bitter.

Cillian Quinn

Gavin accepts his insistence. If he wasn't, they'd find out soon enough.

His calm demeanour shifts to something terse, almost cold. His lips press together.

"From me," Gavin repeats. "And why, Killian, do you think you need to protect her from me?"

Why did he think it would be a better idea to trust a member of the Elite Four over his own organization's underboss?

Killian's attitude shifts, matching the rigidness of the underboss. Words with an edge as sharp as an Aegislash are ready to cut. He sheathes them inside the scabbard that is his throat, however.

The admin's edge dulls, his shoulders relax, and he chuckles.

"When I say you, I mean Rocket. Aren't the two one and the same?"

He shakes his head, "Regardless, it was a lie. Stormy seemed like the type to play hero to people in need. So I gave her the chance to do so."

A wolf in disguise, Killian smiles.

"I know you wouldn't do anything to hurt, Lex. Rocket takes care of their own, right?"

Cillian Quinn

Having heard the note of bitterness in Killian's tone, Gavin's guard remains up even as Killian relaxes. He thinks of what Choi had told him about those who'd come to him in confidence, those who feared Gavin more than they respected him.

He leans forward — not threatening, but intense.

"I belong to Rocket. Rocket's will is my command. Not always the other way around. You understand?"

He was not Declan Walsh. His power was not absolute.

"We take care of our own," he repeats. "Is there something we need to talk about?"

He is not a stupid man. She's told him, hasn't she?

The underbosses intensity is felt from across the desk. Though it's not present to exert it. Killian swears it feels like Lugia's in the room, exerting pressure down on him. A trick of the mind - paranoid thoughts getting the best of him.

"Yeah, I understand. You're not Walsh."

Declan Walsh. The mastermind behind Rocket's current iteration. From the shadows, he pulled on strings like a master puppeteer.

Gavin was one of his puppets.

Killian was now too, he supposed.

"Other than what I'm trying to tell you now?" he glances to Kingsly, who has just finished making their tea.

"No."

He wasn't supposed to know, and so he wouldn't.

"You're being paranoid."

Cillian Quinn

"I'm not Walsh."

He's glad Killian understands the inference. Not every decision conveyed would be his own. Yet still, Gavin held a degree of power within Rocket that justified the fear.

Gavin's eyes narrow at the mention of paranoia.

"Don't play games with me, Killian."

Rocket has broken Gavin, body and mind. He knows psychological manipulation.

"Do you know why Rocket looks out for its own? Because I've worked to make it so." It was not his efforts alone; it had also been Cadis, and Chu-e, and even Walsh. They'd turned their backs on blind bloodthirst. "You might not always understand the things I do, but know that I do them to protect our own. That includes you. That includes Alexandra."

"I'm not the one playing games."

His tongue unsheathes with a quick slash.

Gavin can preach whatever platitude he wants. They mean very little to the man sitting in front of him. All that mattered were his actions, and his actions told Killian that his sense of protection was flawed.

Then he says her name. Let's it slip out from his poisoned lips with a genuine belief that what he'd done had been right. It burns coal in Killian's stomach just to hear him say it.

"Ah, I understand now." his fury is calm, sharp, and pointed like the end of a needle.

"We have two different definitions of the word protect. I assume it means to do no harm to the ones you love, to the ones you call family, your friends, but you must not."

His eyes narrow.

"That has to be it. Because, if we both believed it meant the same thing. Then Lex wouldn't have come home to me bloodied and bruised."

Cillian Quinn

Sure enough, Killian's anger sees him rise to Gavin's words.

This, Gavin thinks, is the reason he'd thought it best to keep things between himself and Alexandra Briarwood. Yet in a way, he understood.

"Yes, we do define things differently."

Tension crackles, but Gavin's telltale miasma does not seep from his skin. He is terse, but he is not furious.

"See, I'd rather see my loved ones alive. If it takes a little pain to ensure their survival, so be it." It's why he still trusted Theo, after all the man had done to him. He'd done it to help him survive. "To run won't always be an option, and you won't always be around to keep her safe. Rocket won't always be able to keep her safe. I'm teaching her self-defense so that she can do all of that on her own, without help."

His eyes narrow to match Killian's.

"She was never in danger of death. I'd have killed him if she hadn't."

"A little pain?" he scoffs, "There's a difference between pain and abuse. Locking her in a room, forcing her to kill while you sat back and watched? That's the definition of abusive."

And now Killian had the picture he needed of Gavin. Not an ounce of remorse, regret, just shitty justification for the things he'd done.

"You're not teaching her anything. All you're doing is showing her that she traded one cruel boss for another."

The scowl on Killian's face is intense.

"If that's how you're treating people that are loyal to you, they're not going to follow you for long."

Killian calms himself with a deep breath. His anger cools down into a warm frustration.

Cillian Quinn

"Cruel?" Gavin shakes his head. "I don't do this out of cruelty."

He thinks of Kanto. He thinks of when he'd been caught by MATIAS SILPH and his biggest fear hadn't been the League's prisons, but Rocket's punishment. He'd been certain they would find him not to break him out, but to cut his throat.

"I needed to know that she had survival instinct. That if it was life or death, she'd make it out. Better to test that in a controlled environment where the danger is entirely manufactured, rather than find out when it's too late."

He meets Killian's scowl with calm.

"Wouldn't you rather she was never caught by the League again? Her old boss?"

"You're delusional." Killian laughs.

"So convinced pain is the right way to do things." a sigh, and he looks away.

"It doesn't matter what I say to you. You'll think you've done the right thing." fingers tap at the arms of his chair.

"You've lost my respect, Gavin. I thought you were smarter than that. Better than that. Miles Sharp certainly seems to think you are."

Killian motions towards the door.

"I don't think we have anything more to discuss. I'm busy and you've got a world to conquer don't you?"

Gavin doesn't move to get up.

"Try me."

It's not a threat. His expression reads conflicted, stiff.

"I've been in Rocket for thirteen years, Killian. Pain's how I've been taught. Pain's what I know works. Pain's the only reason I've survived."

You've lost my respect.

That's what had gotten through to him, in the end.

I don't want to be like Blackwell.

"How would you have done it?"

Killian's eyes narrow suspiciously but soon relax.

"Don't be a fool - you're smarter than that. Pain doesn't work; it didn't save you. What it did was turn you into someone that's hurting people trying to help you."

There's something about love, how it makes the pain inconsequential and gives people the strength pain can't begging to be said. But Killian doesn't waste his breath. He doesn't bother with the platitudes.

"I would have talked with her. Because Lex is smart and she knows what she's doing. I feel I have to remind you that the reason she got caught was teleporting people to safety. Protecting Rocket. How do you reward her? By interrogating and beating her."

Killian has to stop himself.

"I don't want to have this conversation with you. If I do, I'm going to say something you won't like to hear."