Overhead, the night sky darkens. Stars wink out under the cover of clouds. In the dark, with mist rolling off the water and caressing the coastline, it would be easy to miss the creep of miasma. Perhaps that's what Cobalion can sense.

Corruption.

They are not invisible behind the veil of Lugia's blessing — only camouflaged, eerie shapes silhouetted in the fog like cryptids. Until they draw close, and break the clouds, and wide wings cast their shadow over the arena itself.

Gavin drops lightly from her back and shakes out windswept blond hair. Undisguised; there's no need. Not here.

"Good evening, Miss Miro."

He offers a smile that doesn't reach his eyes, lifts his hands with fingers splayed. Moonlight illuminates the hideous scarring across his left palm; a souvenir of Kanto. He inclines his head to the Cobalion in silent greeting, then flicks an amber gaze back to the gym leader.

"How's your gym?"

As if he hadn't just showed up unannounced in the middle of the fucking night.

Melody Miro

Seemingly unperturbed by the venom in her tone, Gavin actually laughs at the suggestion of kidnap.

"Please. If I were here to kidnap you, do you really think I'd be alone?" His gaze flicks upward. "Well. Almost alone. Granted, I'm sure we could handle you, but I don't like to take chances."

Does she remember, he wonders, how they'd taken her the first time?

"Honestly, I don't see why you're complaining." Wind from the rhythmic flap of Lugia's dark wings ruffles his hair, snags at his clothing. "We let you go, didn't we? You even got to keep your gym."

He doesn't miss the way that Cobalion curls around Melody, nor the Pokémon that flee their presence. Neither Gavin nor Lugia make to stop them.

Melody Miro

His laughter is cutting.

"Is that a challenge?"

Gavin, too, has a large ego. Pot, kettle.

"Nice try," he scoffs, when she ponders the whereabouts of Balder Schwartz. "We won that battle without bloodshed by taking a hostage. We'd have subdued you eventually, but you'd have come out a lot worse."

Gavin's gaze slides toward Cobalion as its sword shines in the gloom.

"Surrender?" He sounds surprised. "This city belongs to Rocket. Who am I surrendering to?" He had not come here to offer threat or even battle, but the tides turn the moment Melody's charge turns hostile. "You won't let them hurt me?" He nods to his shadowed partner, as if to say neither will she. "Her name is Lugia."

He rolls his shoulders back.

"Well, if it's a fight you want..."

A low rumble summons RAIN (DANCE) from stormclouds above. Miasma swirls around him and Lugia both, and the corrupt leviathan lands with an impact that shakes the ground beneath their feet. Her red eyes glow like dark rubies in the moonlight.

Melody Miro

I AM NO THING.

Her telepathic voice is deep, roughened by corruption, and it thunders for both Gavin and Melody to hear. Gavin feels her fury flood him; a sudden ferocity blazes in his eyes.

Cobalion leaps at Melody's command but, having announced their intent, Lugia is prepared. She folds her wings in front of her, barely seeming to notice the impact of the blow. With the RAIN coming down in lashing sheets and the wind howling, she spreads her wings with the force of a HURRICANE behind the movement, looking to throw her opponent back across the field.

Gavin gives no commands. He only watches, smiling, as the legends spar.

Melody Miro

"Helped her," Gavin snaps in reply, though Melody had not been speaking to him. "Nursed her back to health from the toxins that would have killed her otherwise? Set her free, when she could have stayed captive?"

Captive. Shadow Lugia seems to dislike the word, spiked tail slamming into the gym floor with such force that Gavin has to plant his feet to keep from stumbling.

"Your Abiatti was the one mucking about Sootopolis when Lugia was found; maybe you should ask her. Maybe she was planning to kill Lugia like she did that Phione."

Neither Gavin nor Lugia are sure what Melody's new command entails, and so this one strikes with all the speed and intellect that Cobalion intends. The shadowed leviathan shrieks, a blood so dark as to be almost black spattering against the floor. Gavin's miasma seems to retract toward her, some protective instinct not entirely under conscious control.

But she is not so easily deterred. In answer to her cry, the skies boom with THUNDER and a bright streak of lightning slams down toward her foe.

Melody Miro

"She did." Gavin's voice is cold. "Your precious councilwoman murdered it."

It was deeper than that, Gavin was sure. It hadn't been intentional, from what he understood, but what difference did that make in the end? It could be used to rile Melody up and that was all that mattered.

Lugia does not fear the Cobalion. Corruption has bred arrogance, but the harsh glare of the Sword does incite a more cautious approach, slowing the shadow's movements as she sizes up her foe.

SHADOWS in the room pull together and coalesce into a violent STORM that howls toward Cobalion, though curving before they can strike out at Melody in turn. Though the gym leader wouldn't know it, that was Gavin's doing. Don't harm her, he'd requested, through the link they shared. If you can help it.

Melody Miro

"I don't pretend at innocence."

Do you think we could ever be good people? A question he's been asked more than once, and for years the answer has been the same. No. Only better than we were.

Melody's fury is surprising, but not so much as her partner's reaction. When it vanishes, Lugia cranes her neck to look behind her, but out of the water the shadowed leviathan is not so quick to turn. The attack lands square across her back, and a haunting cry of pain fills the arena. Gavin winces, stepping toward her on instinct as if there's something he might do to ease her suffering.

The effect on them both is immediate.

For months, for almost a year now the buzzing drone of her insatiable anger has lived in the back of Gavin's thoughts. He has become so accustomed that it rarely registers at all unless it becomes overwhelming for the both of them.

Now, along with her other shadow-borne blessings, it vanishes.

Lugia's tail nudges Gavin back from the battle, and her red eyes stare down Cobalion with profound clarity.

'What have you done?'

It's the first time Gavin has heard her voice in truth, the way it had been before the corruption. Deep, soothing, yet terrifying still when paired with the way her wide black wings spread wide in anger. Anger, not uncontrolled fury.

"Lugia! Are you—?"

It will take more than this one's tricks to conquer me.

Winds whip around the four of them, but they do not intensify into a second coming of the hurricane. Her wings shimmer, instead, and the Guardian of the Seas takes an opportunity to RECOVER from her injuries while clarity allows.

'Are you not the ones who brought upon this conflict with your words?'

She looks at Melody, disdain in bright red eyes.

Gavin, meanwhile, distracts himself with the swirl of miasma around his feet. It still works. Relief makes him dizzy, but it doesn't show in the way he glowers at Melody and Cobalion both.

Melody Miro