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”Matias.” [break][break]

As he approaches, her fingertips fall from the rough stone. Her hand settles beside the other in her lap. Like Mt. Chimney, he looms above her, his shadow draping her in darkness. Eva’s neck cranes up to look at him with a soft smile that lacks the typical Eva brightness. Regardless, she’s happy to see him alive. [break][break]

When prompted, her focus turns back to the carving. She reaches forward, but this time to brace herself. She leans hard against the wall to help herself up, favoring one leg, “I didn’t,” she admits, a little ashamed, “But I do now.”[break][break]

“What about you? Do you ever think about Bailee?”

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Normally, Eva would frown. He knew who Bailee was, what she was and how she died. But Eva’s composure doesn’t change. She seems aloof, perhaps too tired to feel anything but numb.

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“You asked, so I did too,” her shoulder shrugs, “Does it ever bother you how . . . insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things? How replaceable?” The gods lived forever. A mortal life was just a blink of an eye in their timeline. [break][break]

“But at the same time, a necessity,” They can’t do it without them, can’t face the threats that hide in the veil of shadows that is Hoenn’s future. She limps past him, beckoning him to follow her deeper into the dragon’s shrine.

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His outburst doesn’t phase her. She’s so tired, too tired. She was already forced to accept the fact she was replaceable. He taught her that. [break][break]

Eva’s chest falls with a long, deep exhale that purges her of the unbecoming satisfaction of Matias Silph so clearly irked by only the threat of what she’s been forced to recognize.[break][break]

“Well, if only it was so easy to have such confidence,” but the truth was, they were replaceable. When one falls, another rises to take their place. He was living proof. Bailee perished, Groudon chose another. If Eva dies, Rayquaza would move on unphased by the loss. [break][break]

“You are right about one thing,” she holds up a slender finger, “Without us, Hoenn will fall,” but the ‘us’ didn’t include them. It didn’t matter who was by their side, without the three ancient pokemon Hoenn would never survive what has been, and what is to come.

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And chastise he does. His claws tear against the hastily constructed stone wall erected around her. He spouts accolades tattooed on her against her will. She doesn’t bask in the pride of her work like she rightfully should. Everything she does, she does for others. To feel confidence in such tasks feels selfish. She does it to build a better world, not for herself but for those that live with her, and will ultimately outlive her. [break][break]

“I guess I’m still learning then,” she admits, speaking truths softly as if the sieve that should be present when dealing with her greatest weakness has been rotted away. [break][break]

To feel his shoulder brush against hers stirs her as if awoken from a dream. She blinks, slowly shifting her gaze over towards him. Her emerald eyes glisten with what might be mistaken as tears, but it’s fear.[break][break]

“Something’s coming, Matias,” her voice shakes under the duress of fear, exhaustion, and relief. To speak it out loud, to share a weight with someone who might understand, “Something . . . different,” she eyes squeeze shut as if trying to remember a distant memory.

“They’re restless and anxious,” she speaks now of Rayquaza, peeling her lids open again. The shadows accentuate the dark circles under her eyes, “They keep me up,” she wasn’t blessed with the stamina of a god, “I’m tired . . . so tired,” without realizing it she leans into him, seeking a pillar of stability, a lost kinship.

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A small smile flickers across her lips. Relief, in a new sense, blossoms in her core. To hear her fears and strife validated out loud is the refreshing sip of water her barren heart needed. A long breath releases the lingering tension he may feel as his arm wraps around her. She basks in understanding for a quiet moment, relishing the heat radiating off his skin. [break][break]

“I always knew it did,” better than most. That’s what scared her the most when Matias was chosen. Would they still be together and happy if the gods had just left them alone? Perhaps.[break][break]

But their duty is bigger than their mortal dilemmas. They were each chosen for a purpose: Matias, the Volatile, a man she still knows believes in the greater good, but can do what truly needs to be done without remorse. It set him on a path of isolation and turmoil but the endgame is what’s important. His sins are a lesser evil Eva can forgive. She still struggles to believe she can uphold the balance. She’s just a farmgirl from Kanto, a scientist, mediocre in battle at best, but her unshakable faith burns like a beacon of hope. [break][break]

She shifts to look up at him, but doesn’t pull away. She sees him now as more than just Matias Silph, a man that was once her best friend, her love, her future. He’s bigger than that, and to shackle him to such selfish titles is to ignore the shifting nature of their relationship. They are family whether bound by marriage or not. They share the same purpose: Hoenn’s survival. [break][break]

Well, Eva thinks they do. Matias’s selfish tendencies may prove otherwise, “This is bigger than us. Bigger than ancient feuds,” her gaze shifts briefly towards the temple’s fading mural of Mega Rayquaza calming Primal Groudon and Kyogre, “We won’t be able to protect Hoenn alone.” emerald eyes slowly find their way back up to him, asking without words if she could count on them to fight alongside her and Rayquaza when it mattered most, when ruination threatened to swallow this region whole.

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Eva has known Matias for a long time, and in a way more intimately than many have been privy to. She knows he likes to be in control. In a way, it is a testament to his power that he has so carefully cultivated since they settled in Hoenn. To admit that he lacks control with Groudon comes easier than she expects, but perhaps that’s because it’s something he recognized a while ago and has been bottling up for quite some time. Eva gives no hint of judgment. She accepts the truth with a small smile, grateful that he’s willing to share it.[break][break]

“I don’t have control over Rayquaza,” her shoulders shrug subtly, “And I don’t think we’re supposed to,” her gaze remains fixed on the mural, “They’re gods, after all. They chose us to be partners, not masters.” [break][break]

”It doesn’t have to be that way,” she says after a moment of silence. She shifts slightly to look up at him now, “Being alone is the easy way out,” it doesn’t involve sacrifice, compromise, or communication. It is simply selfishness, “And you’re better than that,” Eva sees so much potential in Matias. She always has. It's one of the many reasons she loves him, but it's blocked by the blinders of his narrowed gaze. So single minded and focused, he fails to see the big picture, “Take the time and effort to listen to them, learn from them, and understand them. When you do, together you will move mountains.” Quite literally.

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