Though the clinic in Sootopolis was not a proper hospital comparable to the ones in Slateport or Lilycove, it bustled as doctors and nurses attended to members of Team Rocket who had just returned from the three operations across the region. Zev had to wait a few minutes before a nurse called him to the front desk. When he mentioned his purpose for visiting, she directed him to one of many rooms where patients rested after emergency surgery.[break][break]

In a bed situated by a window was none other than the man Zev was looking for: Isaac Merlo.[break][break]

No emotions passed through the older man. No concern, annoyance, fear, or even relief. Inside, he was merely a void, absorbing information and processing it with the coldness of a machine.[break][break]

Zev approached Isaac's bed. Stopping at the foot of it, he gazed down at the younger man's bandaged face, thick gauze covering one eye. "Hey," he said in greeting, his voice neutral, indifferent. "I heard you were here."

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[attr="class","skullbody"]"Word travels quick, huh?"[break][break]

Like, really quick. One minute, he was waking up out of the haze of anesthesia. The next minute, he was undergoing a severe case of sleep paralysis. Wait, no, he could still move. That was just Zev. Even with the indifference in his voice and expressionless demeanor, something about seeing him put a slight smile on Isaac's face.[break][break]

He looked Zev up and down, as if trying to study him. As he did, he realized two things. First, holy shit, trying to roll an eye that didn't exist anymore felt weird. Second, holy shit, trying to look too hard just left his vision blurring and his head pounding. He clutched his head and started regretting his life choices.[break][break]

With Zev watching, he tried to put his smile back on. It was obviously pained, but it was the thought that counted, right? "Glad to see one of us made it out of this mess in one piece, at least. How'd things go over at Littleroot?"[break][break]

At this point, any answer that wasn't "the town was razed to the ground and doused in its people's blood" would be a win in Isaac's book.

[break][break]

[break]

Isaac looked like shit. Zev guessed the blonde man would be out of commission for a little while, at least until Isaac could navigate spaces without bumping into things or tripping on his own feet.[break][break]

"It went well." An oversimplification, but not an outright lie. "You should read the official report later when it comes out, because all of the details will be in there. But I did reach the energy source."[break][break]

The use of 'I' was both deliberate and natural. It had been Zev's victory, after all. Even though priam conrad and bryan delarosa had helped, Zev had caught the crystal and told them what to do. They had proven useful, but that did not mean he had to give them credit. It was not his nature.[break][break]

After all, people were merely tools.[break][break]

"How did Mt. Pyre go?"

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[attr="class","skullbody"]"Shit, so there was a source down there after all?" Isaac was half wondering if that whole mess was a bunch of alien cannibals taking them on a ruse cruise. But, nope! It was the genuine article. "Where'd you find it? What was it like?"[break][break]

Right. Mt. Pyre was a mission, too. Between grievous losses, heavy interpersonal drama, and a mission-ending godbeast from out of nowhere, Isaac had honestly forgotten that part. However, Pyre was basically a distraction. Even if its goal was more nebulous than "get rock" and "get gas", it kept forces peeled off of the other locations. In a sense, while the mission itself was a failure, it had also been a success.[break][break]

"The Primal Point fired off right on schedule. Some of us got real close-" Had Isaac ignored annalise henderson, would he have been able to strike it enough to delay its course? Or would he simply get himself killed in his final, grief-laden charge? "But, no dice on our efforts slowing it down."[break][break]

"Didn't really matter, though. Dark Triad guy showed up, dragging . . . Palkia? Didn't look a thing like all the books said it does, but it sure tore space apart all the same. Anyway, he crashed the party, and he paid the price for it. Turns out pissing both the League and Rocket off is a real, real bad idea." It was proof that the two could make great things happen if they worked together. And murder was involved. Huh, no wonder the multiverse wanted them dead.[break][break]

"So, he's dead, maybe-a-Palkia is trotting around the region somewhere, and there's a giant rift to the realm of the dead hanging above Mt. Pyre now. Call it mission creep, but, somehow I get the feeling everything went as well as it could have."[break][break]

It was an adept summary. Yet beneath the narrative, an undercurrent of pain followed Isaac's voice. It didn't take a master manipulator like Zev to know he was hiding something.

[break][break]

[break]

The pain in Isaac's voice was obvious. Zev guessed much more had happened on the mountain than the younger man was sharing — something personal, something sensitive. Zev looked again at Isaac's face. Though the medical staff had washed the dirt and blood off his skin, his visible eye was still red, his eyelids puffy as if he'd been crying. Superficial cuts and bruises peppered his skin.[break][break]

And then there was the bandage.[break][break]

As Isaac fell into a troubled silence, Zev wordlessly grabbed a nearby chair and brought it to Isaac's bedside. Zev sat, ankle on knee, and wished he could light up a cigarette. It felt like ages since he'd last smoked.[break][break]

"So you finally earned your first scar," was all the hitman said.[break][break]

They could talk about the energy source later. Isaac was in a vulnerable state. Zev had to make sure he could still use the blonde man as originally intended, that Isaac was still loyal to him. Allowing Isaac the time and space to unburden his troubles would, theoretically, strengthen his feelings of attachment toward Zev.[break][break]

Listening to the boy's rambles was a small price to pay for his continued devotion.

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[attr="class","skullbody"]First scar.[break][break]

Isaac shut his laugh down before it could escape him. If anything, it was practically indistinguishable from a cough. It wasn't that the situation was funny. There was nothing funny about it in the slightest. But the fact that somehow, after everything he had endured, he managed to seem unblemished?[break][break]

The hole torn in his heart with Kiryu's death.[break][break)

The helplessness at seeing Matt Vice throwing away his prospects, Ashley Shepard getting sucked back into the lifestyle, Asher Baran marking himself at such a young age, all to enlist in Hoenn's most wanted at the worst possible time.[break][break]

The crushing guilt over what had happened at Josh Devlin's gym, and the knowledge that happenstance and desperation could balloon into something huge and dangerous and ugly.[break][break]

The first brush with death, in all of its rancid majesty, as heralded by the very man he spook with and repeated every night in his darkest dreaks.[break][break]

The years of keeping to himself while wandering on the road, his spark little more than wisps of smoke and his soul tethered to a home that was no longer his.[break][break]

His upbringing at the hands of a man who considered him worthless for never truly being his.[break][break]

"Yeah," Isaac said. The smile on his face was strangely gleeful as he basked in the private joke that was himself. He'd pulled off the ultimate caper for a decade and a half now, and he didn't even know it! Wasn't that fantastic? "First time for everything, huh?"

[break][break]

[break]

Zev knew Isaac well enough by then to recognize the sarcasm in Isaac's voice. Zev did not react at first, merely choosing to stare at the bedridden man with an apathy that neared boredom. Despite all of Isaac's bravado about becoming stronger, he was still, deep inside, very soft and fragile. He felt too deeply and strongly — about everything.[break][break]

None of that was truly a detriment. Zev knew there existed other members of Team Rocket whose hearts bled just as easily as Isaac's. What mattered, in the end, was whether those people could harden themselves when push came to shove.[break][break]

When things needed doing, and only bloody hands could do them.[break][break]

When next Zev spoke, he purposefully lowered his voice to effect an air of privacy. Of concern.[break][break]

"What happened?"

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[attr="class","skullbody"]It was funny. In some regards, Isaac's inability to disconnect and de-emphasize was a weakness. In other cases, it became a startling source of strength. Nowhere was that divide more clear in Isaac's brief skirmish with Anna. His love for his Aggron and rage at her death allowed his opening strike to nearly decimate her Volcarona in a single blow. His empathy and past dealings with the Head Ranger left him unable to commit, showing mercy and even assistance to a theoretical enemy.[break][break]

Were Isaac to lose that tether, his lack of weaknesses could make him a terror. But would he not lose his strength as well?[break][break]

It was funny. This wasn't even for a lack of trying. He'd gone as far as to craft a new name and a new face, trying to make the lightning that was Blackjack strike twice. Yet when his face collided with the mask that was Solitaire, it wasn't his face lying shattered and useless at Mt. Pyre's cliffside. He was completely, utterly, and unapologetically himself. And he didn't see that changing anytime soon.[break][break]

The idea of what it might take to change that terrified him.[break][break]

How could he tell Zev all of that? How could he admit that the mask of a killer felt completely and utterly wrong for him? How could he say that after Rocket had marked themselves as kill-on-sight targets? To say he couldn't end a life, by this point, would effectively to say that he had no place in Rocket.[break][break]

He'd spare all the philosophy and junk. Even when sharing those crumbs of sympathy, Isaac knew Zev had no patience for it. Instead, he'd just say the facts. "Tried to take a hostage. Get some leverage. At worst, buy us a little time, peel some League attention away from the rest. At best, maybe even force them to stand down." It was poetry in a way. Both his lowest and his most merciful actions on that mountain bore the most severe consequences. No matter what road Isaac took, each step would be paid in blood, sweat, and tears.[break][break]

"League sniper didn't take kindly to that. Didn't feel up to negotiating, either. Gave us hell. It's a miracle he didn't just kill me and end it there." But it wasn't a miracle. It was an act of sacrifice and desperation. It was the same tightly-tethered love that gave Isaac his pain and power alike. And he had to acknowledge it. For a while he fell quiet, and when he spoke again his voice was small.[break][break]

"Kiryu didn't make it."

[break][break]

[break]

Who was Kiryu, again?[break][break]

One of Isaac's Pokémon, obviously. But the man had a habit of giving every single one of his Pokémon a nickname, which frustrated Zev only because he often had no idea which one Isaac meant when speaking.[break][break]

Ultimately, Kiryu's species didn't matter. The tremulous agony in Isaac's voice suggested a particular fondness for the creature. It had to be one of the first Isaac had obtained.[break][break]

Zev knew it was natural for a person to express their condolences to someone grieving, but he never understood why 'I'm sorry' was the most common phrase. It made no sense to apologize for a situation one didn't cause. Then again, apology in general was a foreign concept to the hitman. He could not recall a single moment in his past when he'd said he was sorry. He wouldn't do it now.[break][break]

Still, he chose his words carefully. He had to strike a balance between the person Isaac knew him to be and the person Isaac hoped he could be. "Kiryu saved your life. You can't take that back, Isaac; it's not yours to take. Instead, you have another chance to live and fight now thanks to your Pokémon."

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[attr="class","skullbody"]The truly ironic part was that, if Isaac really wanted to, he could have.[break][break]

But what would that have accomplished? What would dragging an old Pokemon out of her grave and away from eternal rest accomplish? It wasn't like Isaac's life was getting any easier. He wouldn't be liberating her from death so they could settle down in peace. He'd only be delaying the inevitable, either to put her back on the frontlines of this fight or hide her away from the world.[break][break]

She deserved better than either of those. She deserved better than the fate that she had suffered, too. But the pain had already passed, and Isaac wasn't going to stomp all over that sacrifice for nothing. "She did. And I'm never going to forget that," he said. "It's . . . not gonna be easy. I got closure. A lot more than I expected. But that's not gonna stop it from hurting. Not for a while."[break][break]

He sighed, looking towards the fluorescent lights above as if he were stargazing. "Best way I can thank her is to do what she always wanted me to in the first place. Lead a life well lived. Kinda hard to do that while cooped up in a hospital bed, but. All the more reason to spring out of here once I'm up for it."[break][break]

Come to think of it, Isaac wasn't the only person that had been living for another. Zev's entire battle plan seemed, in part, a gambit to reach his brother. If Isaac had been distracted from his mission by side goals, it sounded like Zev had been distracted from his true ambitions by the actual objective.[break][break]

"Did you find him?"

[break][break]

[break]

Of course, Zev did not know yet about the release of dead souls on Mt. Pyre, about how some people and Pokémon killed in battle had been resurrected. He simply sat and listened to Isaac, remembering to nod his head to show he agreed.[break][break]

"I'm not the kind of person to just lie in bed, either, but you're useless until you're fully recovered," the assassin said matter-of-factly. "Both on the field and at work. I'll log it as paid sick leave with a doctor's note on your file. Think about what story you want to tell your coworkers at the bar."[break][break]

The bar. Considering what had just transpired in Cillian Quinn's office, Zev might need to make some drastic changes to Howling at the Moon's staff. It might be too risky to allow non-Rockets to work there.[break][break]

Isaac's question lulled Zev out of his musings — and brought a more difficult topic to the surface of his thoughts. The shift in him was subtle, but someone like Isaac, who had spent plenty of time in Zev's presence, would be able to detect it: the brooding tension, the palpable agitation.[break][break]

"I did," the black-haired man finally said. "It's what I suspected. The Rangers sent him with a squad to stop us. They weren't the only League personnel at Littleroot, but Caleb's squad interfered as we tried to access the theater."

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[attr="class","skullbody"]"I'm not useless!" Isaac protested, leaning up to try and look Zev in the eye. Unfortunately, as he tried to grip the rail to stabilize himself, he ended up overshooting and reaching over the rail instead. Half-flopped over it, and seething as rib met metal, he realized just how succinctly he had made Zev's point for him.[break][break]

"Alright. Okay. Yeah. I get the point," Isaac acknowledged. At least now it only took one backfire to make him see reason. The boy was learning! "Don't expect me to be out of your hair for long, though. I'm gonna be working on hand-eye coordination and coming up with some good excuses. So you'll have me back before I know it, okay?"[break][break]

How ironic. Here Isaac laid, trying to defy Zev. In the process, he wore his loyalty on his sleeve.[break][break]

Truth be told, he was hoping to be back at the bar sooner rather than later. It was a nice escape from all his Rocket business. Which was ironic, considered it was a Rocket business! Still, it was a chance to sit back, do something of value with his hands, and chat up a bunch of strangers. There was no faction war. There was no risk of death. There was no policy and procedure. It was just . . . nice.[break][break]

A shame Zev couldn't escape it. For a man of many masks, underneath them all lied a single focus. Right now, that focus had just been brought back to Caleb. The Rangers sent a squad to fight Zev. That squad included Caleb. They interfered as Zev tried to enter the theater, and that was where he let the story end.[break][break]

Isaac said nothing. He simply looked right at Zev. Come on. They both knew he wouldn't let it drop there.

[break][break]

[break]

Isaac's outburst was enough. Reassured that the younger man was still loyal to him after all, Zev relaxed in the chair. "I look forward to it," was all he said to Isaac's promise.[break][break]

The silence that filled the room when Zev paused his recollection of the events at Littleroot was a marked difference to Isaac's usual chattiness. He was paying attention and giving the situation the gravity it deserved. Zev could appreciate that.[break][break]

"A lot more happened than I feel like telling, but the long and short of it is: Caleb and I fought," the hitman continued. "A Pokémon battle, not a fistfight, if that's what you were wondering. He defied me and killed my Tyranitar, so I killed his Miltank."[break][break]

Nevermind that Zev had tried to kill Caleb's Lapras, his childhood Pokémon — a more appropriate punishment for such betrayal.[break][break]

"Unfortunately, in the chaos of everything going on, we were separated and I lost sight of him. Many of our forces were busy contending with a man named Quanto and, from what I'm hearing, the Legendary Pokémon Dialga. A few of us decided to pursue the energy source."[break][break]

Zev paused so that the weight of everything he'd just said could sink in.

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