A wave of guilt washed over her as she approached the designated spot for their catch-up chat in Lilycove City. The location itself might’ve helped the guilt along as she looked upon the building. Her mind reminded her that It had been far too long since she had spoken to Lars. Though one could claim communication worked both ways, and so the guilt mixed with a bit of worry. Lars was a busy man, sometimes maybe a bit too busy. In the end, she gave up on the feeling of guilt and resigned herself to hoping that Lars was doing alright and not buckling under the stress.

As she walked to the spot, she allowed a quick hand to run down the well-fitted black and white suit with the accompanying tie that she wore. Long pink hair tied into a tight-fitting knot bun that rested against her neck. Given her still rather new position, she did have a public image to uphold, surely Lars would understand that. Though one might get the idea that she was going to a funeral with how solemn she looked.

She halted for a brief moment just as she was about to reach Lars. She took a deep breath and composed herself. Reminded herself that this wasn’t something too official. This was just two cousins talking. And with that, she allowed herself to walk the last bit of distance before she reached him.

Lips arching into a genuine smile as her eyes befell the man. “Hey.” Was the only word that escaped her for now, for at the moment she opened her mouth to speak she felt how she wanted to pour her soul out and bare her emotions to Lars. But she knew just vomiting what had happened like that would be unbecoming of her.

He’d just gotten out of another damned appointment, so there was a hint of the tiniest little scowl on his face—however, the moment he’d caught sight of Eli, the scowl all but disappeared—

Before he let out a bark of laughter.

“What are you wearing?” was his greeting to her, this grin on his face. “You heading down to some power meeting or something?”

Because once upon a time, Lars also had an affinity for dressing up in power suits, as well. He still had some of them in the flat, just in case really important high-collar shit came up.

For now, though, he was content to be wearing the (ugly Hoennian) Ranger uniform. He… would really have to do something about being allowed to wear his old Alto Marean one when on-duty.

(He did have the clout, after all, but then again only ollie morales would understand his thought process behind this particular preference.)

“So I heard a couple of things went down,” he began as he made a gesture to come along with him, head out for a walk so they could talk more privately.

“Over there, at the City in the Crater. Did… did you see the ol’ man or anything?”

---

oh look time to chat about things that happened lately

She had noticed the brief moment of scowling. She would’ve commented on it where it was not for the fact that a barking laugh quickly escaped from Lars the moment he laid eyes upon her.

Cheeks reddened in slight embarrassment, lips forming a light pout of annoyance, though nothing severe. “No, you’re the only meeting I am having today. I just figured, with my new position and all, I would adjust my wardrobe accordingly.” Elinor stated. The pout slowly faded, making way for a familiar friendly smile.

The emotional vomit that she had been inclined to do, slowly faded as Lars spoke further. Continuing his walk, she followed along. “I… I didn’t see him.” Just the mere hint of memory from back then threatened to make her stutter. But she knew she couldn’t just go silent. With a sigh, she continued. “With everything that happened there…” She paused, her expression growing grim, smile forcibly staying upon her lips though her eyes would betray the facade she tried to keep up. “I was too busy saving myself to look out for anyone else.” Perhaps her greatest failure as a Ranger.

He wondered where the ol’ man had hidden himself off to.

Him, previously-elected to serve on the Hoennian Council, the point of contact between the League and Sootopolis?

Who knew that the ol’ man was the same as always—runnin’ away from whenever the truth was out to get his ass. Especially at a time like this.

“Typical of him,” he began, sighing as he ran a hand through his hair. Leaving the citizens in the lurch. To be… to be honest, he had no idea if the other was even still around or he’d turned tail and fled.

(What a disgrace.)

“Is… was it your first time… in such a situation?” he continued quietly, deciding to approach the topic with caution and tact.

He had a feeling, but he wanted to hear it from her directly rather than making assumptions.

---

oh look time to chat about things that happened lately

Lars didn’t seem surprised when she informed her of the lack of a certain someone. She figured she wouldn’t prod too much further on the matter.

“Is… is it that obvious?” Elinor asked. The façade she had tried to keep up slowly dissolved into lugubriousness. “But yes… I mean, I’ve been on assignments where death and danger were present.” Her arms moved to hug herself. Disappointment mixed with the sorrow she was experiencing.

“But that… that was nothing like them at all.” Her hands began to tighten, the painful memories wanted, no, demanded to resurface. But she did not let them force tears out of her, she had shed her tears already. “I… I couldn’t do anything but watch…" or at least so it had begun, but she know it wasn't entirely the truth for she had sprung into action later. "If only I’d been able to do more.”

She stopped herself, painfully so as her fingers were turning white from the force used to digging into her own arms. There was more she wanted to say, but how? And would Lars even want to hear it? She knew he had his own struggles, his own losses to deal with no matter how long ago those had happened.

Her answer confirmed it—his suspicions, at least.

He looked at her with an incredibly sobering glance.

“This region has literally gone to hell in a handbasket, wouldn’t you think so?” he mused quietly. The last time he’d been at Sootopolis was when it fell—and he’d been busy protecting Kaida Adachi who had been with him at the time when shit went down.

“Did… did you notice anything strange happening? Like… like the immediate space shifting around?” he followed up a few moments afterward. “Like… segments of the city shuffling around similar to a gigantic deck of playing cards.”

Because where the fuck was he going to even begin about how to explain the city moving seemingly on its own? It was like the place had been trapped in a temporal anomaly when they’d ended up fighting against Team Rocket who’d decided to reveal themselves so brazenly.

He knew that there was a certain feel of helplessness, something that she couldn’t fully comprehend, and he sighed deeply.

“Sometimes…” he added quietly, scratching the back of his head, “…sometimes things can get out of our hands. It’s… it’s alright to admit weakness, you know,” he went on.

“…not everything, we can control.”

---

oh look time to chat about things that happened lately

While Elinor tried to find her center again, to compose herself and keep the emotions at bay. She listened to Lars’s words. She gave him a simple nod first, then a puzzled expression as he asked about strange happenings in Sootopolis City. She shook her head. “If there were any such strange happenings, then I did not see it. My focus was on the tree and THAT thing…” vividly the image of Necrozma sprang through her view as an invisible ghost.

And then Lars tried to reassure her that some things simply couldn’t be controlled by human hands. “I know that…” Frustration laced her voice, though it was clear she hadn’t meant to aim it at Lars. “But knowing that doesn’t make it feel any better when it was MY choice to go there…” If it was even possible, her hands found further strength to dig into her arms, bruising each corresponding arm in the process.

Her voice was breaking as she spoke. “HE didn’t want to go there.” The vivid memory of their last interaction as they flew towards Sootopolis, was clear to her mind’s eye. How the Salamence had wanted to turn around, and she had proclaimed that they had to go and help.

If Lars hadn’t already figured out what had happened by now. Surely the pained expression on her face told him what she was about to say. The words fought valiantly for their place in her throat, tearing it up as she dragged them out. “Gon died because of me… And he wasn’t the only one…” Her voice pained as she forced the admittance out.

She suddenly felt cold, oh so very cold.

The moment she mentioned that—

“Wait… the same… the Bagon I met from before?”

He blinked, unable to believe what had happened. All this, just because he’d gotten shot right before whatever happened at Sootopolis went down, and a lot… just so much.

“You—what else…” he could only stammer out.

If he hadn’t gotten caught in the crossfire before whatever happened in Sootopolis—he may have been able to head over there and helped out at the situation.

“What… can you still talk about what else happened during that time?” he ventured quietly, hoping that she would. If she couldn’t, he’d understand that too.

---

oh look time to chat about things that happened lately

Lars seemed a bit lost for a moment. But he was catching up. She gave him a painful nod when he confirmed that he remembered Gon the then Bagon but at the time of death Salamence.

It seemed Lars was floored by the new information. He stammered, trying to form a sentence that Elinor would barely hear from the burden of her words. And yet the words wanted for release.

Finally the sentence Lars wanted to say was formed and delivered. And she understood where he was coming from. He wanted information about the event in its entirety not simply on her losses.

She took a deep breath, she still felt the cold, she still felt the pain. Conceal, Don’t feel, don’t let it show. She had to remind herself. And with those reminders, she pushed the pain away from her face, and though in the end her eyes still looked glossy from being held in sorrow, her face, while not pained as before still very tense and neutral. Yeah, the dam of her sorrow is literarily being held together by duct tape at this point.

“Yes, yes I can.” Her words were strained, forced to stay on track through sheer force of will.

What with all the supernaturally inclined shit that was going down around this region as of late, it would be no surprise that strange things were afoot.

“I… I know it’s going to be hard for you to talk about… about what happened,” he went on quietly, taking another deep breath. “Especially since this involves Gon.”

How was he going to handle this? Ugh, why did he have to be such an emotionally-constipated land mine?

“If… if you don’t want to talk about it now, we… we can put it off for another time,” he tried again. Okay, that was backpedaling, but…

It had been some time since he lost a Pokémon; a very long time at least… the loss still gnawed away at him from time to time whenever he saw his own Swampert.

---

oh look time to chat about things that happened lately

Elinor noticed the backpedaling. She understood why he did so, perhaps it affected Lars more than he let on. But the rational part of Elinor knew she couldn’t NOT tell Lars.

“Pushing it to another time will make it no easier,” Elinor commented. “But I appreciate the offer.” She tried to at least acknowledge Lars’s kindness.

“Here goes…” She took a deep breath. “I will try to tell it in chronological order of how I experienced it.” She informed him and herself. She felt how the jumbled mess of memories began to try and categorize themselves on her mental train tracks.

“Well, when I arrived at the tree together with Gon people were already busy evacuating civilians and such. At that time the tree had yet to begin acting…” She halted for a moment, flashes of her experience aligned themselves. “But that didn’t last long. It began to lash out at those whom it deemed a threat, luckily neither me nor Gon was a target at that point.” Another short pause.

“The first thing that befell us was spores of some sort. Gon covered me so that few if any hit me. I suppose he must’ve known they were dangerous. They killed him by leeching his life away, but not before he could protect me from a giant explosion.” Little did she know the explosion was caused by the Elite Four’s very own @kathrine and her Blacephalon.

Elinor took a moment to compose herself, this was definitely the most painful of the deaths she experienced that day. “What happened after that is a bit hazy. But I believe that’s when Necrozma appeared from the Tree and started attacking, where it succeeded in killing my Cofagrigus and Drifbloom.” The visage of despair that Necrozma caused was vivid, but she pressed on.

“Then what I can best describe as some weird magical tomfoolery happened before one of the Lake Guardians appeared. I can’t remember which one appeared at my location. Either way, they did something that empowered our Pokémon. But Necrozma kept attacking of course, and my Steelix was fatally wounded.” She kindly spared Lars the details of how the Steelix got vaporized. While it hurt to speak about the departed, it got easier with each word.

“Luckily my Aggron was present and such got empowered and somehow managed to pull off a move I have never seen before… Like Molten blades spawning from the ground.” She tried to describe Precipice Blade with simple words. “And while that was happening I think The Lake Trio was trying to bind the Necrozma with these Red Chain things…”

“They didn’t succeed. Things got messed up. There was a Giant Buzzwole which I tried to deal with, a lot of random very aggressive Pokémon suddenly appeared, and then… and then a second Necrozma tried to drag its way into our world through a Wormhole. It did not succeed, luckily”

With a deep breath, she finalized her tale. Looking at Lars to see how he was responding. “I think that was all, at least everything I remember.” She suddenly felt very exhausted.

The moment she’d started sharing her experiences, the look on his face changed from curious, to concerned, to outright—

Silent shock.

“Wait… wait, hold up, one moment,” he began, once she was done recounting the entire tale. “This… this ‘Necrozma’, I don’t want to be too presumptive, but… this ‘Necrozma’, did it… did it like, suck the light out of the area where it appeared?”

He hoped against hope that his suspicions were wrong. But… knowing how fucked-up the region was as a whole, it… that suspicion of his would almost always be 100% right.

At the mention of the Buzzwole, he scowled for a few moments.

“Did… did you see anyone else familiar there? Like, asides from Callan Young, I think there were other higher-ups also present when shit went down…”

---

oh look time to chat about things that happened lately

Her tale reached its conclusions. She took a moment to breathe, to calm her mind as it hid away the memories of that day once more. Of course, Lars had questions to ask. And one such was quickly given to her. “Yes, it did.” She replied shortly and precisely.

Only to moments later be granted another question. “I will admit, I did not pay the identities of the other people any attention.” Elinor looked disappointedly down at the ground. Another fault of hers. She was sure that had Lars been there he would’ve been able to recount the identities of each and every person there.

“But, I did spot several legendary Pokémon there besides the Trio. I believe it’s a safe assumption to make that if they have avatars they’d be there too.” She took a moment to think. “There might’ve been more, but the ones I am certain of are Kyogre, Yveltal, Lunala, Lugia, and I am pretty sure I saw at least a Pokémon fitting Xerneas description” While there were some of those that she wasn’t intimately familiar with, she had done enough reading up on Legendary Pokémon to discern their appearances somewhat.

She looked at Lars, hoping that she had lessened the disappointment a little bit.