Did you always feel different, after? Gavin's not sure. He's not talked to many avatars about the intimate experience of their being chosen. It's Chu-e Choi who comes to mind, perhaps not even an Avatar.

It wants to eat.

What did Suicune want, with Rowan Wrynn?

Gavin, not feeling the breeze, frowns when Rowan looks over his shoulder to something that wasn't there. But though he feels nothing, he sees his brother's hair shift in the stillness of the room. Gavin cants his head. Intrigued, concerned, perhaps a little proud.

At the word, evaluating, his lip twitches.

"Well, you've already made an impression. Guess you're doing something right."

Nowhere lower to go?

Gavin doubts that. Though Cobra would be mourned by noah faber and others who might've known the Pokemon well, to kill a fellow human was surely lower on the scale of morality, no? But Gavin doesn't give life to these thoughts; Rowan Wrynn is feeling guilty enough.

His own expression shifts darker at the mention of Serena Malcolm. He shakes his head.

"Hands have been full since we took the city, haven't got a chance. It's on the list." A list that felt as if it would do nothing but expand. "I'm worried for her," he confesses, after a breath. "She lived, sure, but..."

A near-death experience could provide a lifetime's worth of trauma.

"She's your friend, right?"

Gavin grimaces at the shattered remains of Rowan Wrynn's phone screen.

"Doesn't look like they'll be able to fix that. We can cover the price of a replacement, though."

After all, it had been smashed during an official Rocket operation.

"I've still got mine, but I don't know if I'm the person she'll want to hear from right now."

Gavin's brow furrows with the admission. Melody Miro had been a valuable hostage whose release he couldn't promise on the spot without risk to his own well-being, but he was Serena Malcolm's mentor and he'd felt helpless to save her from Giratina's jaws.

"If you're sure."

He doesn't press the issue, assuming it to be one of pride; Gavin understands that.

"Do you have any idea where she might've gone?"

He has to find out as an underboss, as her mentor, but there's a note of genuine concern in the furrow of his brow. He wants to know if she's all right, if Katherine Fairburne had done anything to her in the span of time between her disappearance and return.

"That's confidential," is quick enough to be an unmistakably knee-jerk response.

"You're friends," Gavin remembers, frowning.

There's a beat of hesitation before he looks carefully at Rowan Wrynn.

"You should know that I was bluffing when I threatened her life. Trying to buy Serena as much time as I could. She's worth more to us alive, and unharmed. She's a political prisoner. A bargaining chip."

"There's always going to be rats." His lip curls with the word. He hates them all, hates the danger they pose to his friends, his family. He can't sympathize the way Chu-e Choi does. "Doesn't mean we should take a bad deal in the panic."

They'd taken her prisoner as part of the ongoing efforts in Sootopolis, with no particular goal in mind, but she was a valuable asset.

"Soon as we know they've caught wind, we'll figure something out."

Until then, they'd continue as planned.

Rowan Wrynn