Eva’s home was burned by betrayal. The ashes are still tucked away neatly in a delicate urn. As the days slowly drag by, she mourns less and less. Whether it is exhaustion or the promise of something else to stave off her loneliness remains to be recognized.

Fernando catches her in the midst of a waiting game. She’s leaning back in her chair, her gaze fixed on the ceiling. Beside her, a digital timer counts down the seconds until her next task. A long 3 minutes remains.

At this hour, there’s only one person she’s come to expect to show up sooner or later, “Silph,” her voice smiles expectantly. She shifts her attention slowly to him and sits up straight. She doesn’t bother to answer his question, there is a clock on the wall that chains them to that concept, “The time is irrelevant,” she brushes it off with a soft snort, “I took a nap earlier,” a half truth. She tried, but it wasn’t restful.

---

FERNANDO SILPH

His displeasure solicits an unwanted, amused smile. In the otherwise lonely and sterile world she confines herself to, defying him has become a form of entertainment.

“I won’t,” she says softly, but makes no promises.

Eva leans forward, her gaze following him towards the archives. The game’s no fun when he doesn’t play along and it tugs her lips into a frown.

She isn’t a complicated person to figure out and if Fernando paid any attention to what made her tick, curiosity was up there in the top three. So, when he ventures towards the archives without another word, the allure of his search piques her interest.

The desire to know pulls her forward. The chair rolls back across the tile as she stands to close to distance, “What’re you looking for?”

---

FERNANDO SILPH

Eva’s hands find their way into the comfort of her pockets. She peers down at the ELECTRIZER, seeing it clearly now, ”Ahh,” she’s no stranger to what it does, being an expert in pokemon biology. Sometimes there were some strange uses for common things and she wonders if this was for an Electabuzz or some other off label endeavor.

A light laugh accompanies her wandering thoughts, “Hm, you seem to always be trying to talk people out of things, you know that?” for how influential Fernando Silph is, she’s starting to notice not many listen to him, herself included. Must be an exhausting battle to constantly fight. She knows he means well. After all, they are not very different. Everything they do they do for a better Hoenn.

The talk of Regis, naturally, intrigues her further, “I don’t know DEREK HOFFMAN well,” not at all, really, “Admittedly, I don’t know much about the Regis either,” but she can assume what it is Derek is after, “Could be a good thing for Hoenn. Like how I found Rayquaza.”

---

FERNANDO SILPH

The world is all about balance. Without evil there would be no concept of what is good. Without darkness there would be perpetual light. Without tasting bitterness, he’d never know what it is like to taste something truly sweet, like her saccharine smile, or the rich sincerity behind her verdant eyes.

Even now as he speaks of death, a gravitas subject that haunts her dreams alongside loneliness, she counters the morbid with something effervescent, “Hmm, don’t give up hope, you’ll get through to them,” she offers one more likely unwelcome observation, “Maybe you need to . . . change your strategy. When you tell someone not to do something, they typically just do it anyway.”

Eva briefly looks away, feeling a little guilt rise into her chest for her blatant non-compliance over the last few weeks. Her gaze does find him again when he mentions Rayqauza. She nods, “Good point,” agreeing to concede to that logic.

As his eye wanders, so do hers: to his shoulder and the lack of a sling, “Healing well?”

---

FERNANDO SILPH

Fernando truly used all the tools at his disposal, “That's nice of them,” she probably should have used her resources too but she kept to herself, letting her many healing pokemon cater to her wounds.

“Slowly but surely,” her tone is both reassuring but skeptical. Her right leg tenses under the duress of focus, “Bullet wounds take a while,” especially when it had to be dug out, “I’ll be back to training soon en-”

A rhythmic alarm interrupts her thoughts, and she spins around quickly to silence it, “I gotta get back to work so . . . Have fun with all that,” she vaguely motions to the ELECTRIZER. She seems hesitant to spin on her heels and head back to her work, lingering for an extra breath.

---

FERNANDO SILPH

His question forces her to pause briefly, casting a look over her shoulder, “A few hours,” there’s no use lying, he no doubt has rats in the walls that report to him. He seems particularly interested in her work habits, “Time sensitive stuff, but mostly waiting.”

---

FERNANDO SILPH

“Yes,” she turns back around with a tentative smile, “If you’re bored, you can stick around,” though she doubts Fernando Silph has an empty plate, “Definitely won’t be any more exciting.”

---

FERNANDO SILPH