[attr="class","skullimg"]

[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]"I've spent four years stopped and I've regretted every moment of it," Isaac practically hissed under his breath. "So, not a fucking chance."[break][break]

There was harshness in Isaac's tone. Not a shred of it was aimed at Ash, though. How would Ash be able to tell? Why, it was the exact same venom the voice inside Ash's head currently possessed. The self-loathing. The helplessness. The regret upon regret. But how could he not feel that way? The magnitude to which he cared now, the amount of accomplishments he'd attained in such a short amount of time . . . it only made it more clear to Isaac how much of the last four years was wasted on not caring.[break][break]

What was he supposed to do? Just go back to that? While one of the people that snapped him out of it suffered?[break][break]

At the mention of not his fault, Isaac laughed ruefully. "I sure as hell could've been more help," he admitted. "But, you're right. If it's anyone's fault, it's that asshole fish's. How they get more mellow as they evolve, I'll never know."[break][break]

Isaac wondered what Ash was seeing right now. He looked like he was staring down the entrance to the pearly gates. Sometimes it was old regrets torn open that he saw written on the other trainer's face. At other times it was the bliss you only see on the face of one who knew they were dying. Fuck. No. Too soon, goddamnit. Too soon![break][break]

"No thanking me yet," Isaac insisted. "Not til you're at the infirmary. Not til you're feeling better. Until then? Not a word of it. You gotta have something to hold onto on the way back, after all. What else are you gonna beat the reaper's face in with if he tries anything?"[break][break]

The infirmary was close, so close now. If Ash had anything else left to say, now would be the time. Otherwise? Well, it'd probably take until the anesthesia wore off for these two to see each other again.

[break][break]

[break]

[attr="class","skullimg"]

[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]Wait. A Theo with a stick up his ass? Isaac knew one of those! Hell, he'd fought one of those! But that didn't make any sense. Theo did not seem like the kind of guy that'd be easy to approach so familiarly if you weren't a Rocket. Hell, he seemed hard to approach even if you were. And with how he spoke, Ash seemed to know that. Come to think of it, wasn't Jayden, too, the name of a fairly senior member?[break][break]

Ash knew these people. And he hadn't seen them in years. And here he was now, seemingly listlessly trying to find a path for himself in life. A gentler path. A path that pointedly had no room for cruelty in it.[break][break]

Isaac thought back to the water. He hadn't seen much of the violent struggle with the Carvanha, admittedly. He had his own team to worry about. They needed his support just as much as Ash did. But from what glimpses he saw, the man was handling the Carvanha far, far less gently than he handled all of Isaac's Pokemon. With his life on the line, he snapped into an easy, almost practiced brutality. It hadn't been enough. But it was there.[break][break]

Isaac's train of thought was starting to pull into its destination. And he didn't know if he wanted to get off at this stop.[break][break]

When Isaac waited in the clinic with bated breath, making sure his friend was okay was now just one of two big priorities. Every beain cell not occupied by fretting was now thinking on question after question, wondering what to ask, how to ask it, if he should even put stock in the visions of a delirious man.[break][break]

Something told Isaac things were about to get a lot more complicated.

[break][break]

[break]