She allowed herself a dispassionate glance at the finger he pointed towards her, before she brushed it aside. Her fingers coiled around his wrist like a shackle, its GRUDGES seeping into his skin like oil.[break][break]

"And what is your life worth, Beckett? What are our lives worth, in the end, to these monsters?"[break][break]

"You are not special," a hateful voice from another place and time hissed in the back of her mind. "You are no different than anyone else who suffers. The first mistake you made was thinking the world would treat you any different than the rest of us."[break][break]

That resentment burned through her like kerosene, igniting his own with her touch.[break][break]

"You could give declan walsh your firstborn child, and it wouldn't be enough. All we are is a means to an end to him."[break][break]

Her hold on him tightened.[break][break]

"We were never promised compassion. Don't be foolish enough to ask for it now."

[attr="class","ooc"] THEO BECKETT[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"And how will you change anything, if you relinquish what power you possess?"[break][break]

His sympathies vaguely reminded her of others in their organization. Cillian Quinn. Tempest Quinn. Perhaps, even, Felix Gallagher. Hadn't they all, to some degree, succumbed to the sweet lie the illusion of freedom had given them in that false memory of Galar? Although Elisabeth could not recall the specifics of that world, she remembered how much she'd failed to understand them all.[break][break]

She'd felt that only BARNABY FINCH, of all those who had vanished with her, had comprehended the truth of their reality and the deal with the devil they had made.[break][break]

"It doesn't matter, in the end, what Rocket thinks of anyone or anything else. Concern yourself with what it thinks of you. All else comes after."[break][break]

She turned on her heel as he broke free of her grasp, agitation coursing through her as his grudges fed her own.[break][break]

"Martyrs may inspire change, but they don't enjoy the fruits of it, Beckett. I'd hate to see you buried so that the undeserving could build success on your grave."

[attr="class","ooc"] THEO BECKETT[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"I don't care," she snapped reflexively, whirling about to face him with thinly veiled contempt. Whether it was for him or for the sentiment he voiced aloud remained to be seen.[break][break]

The normalcy of Theo's home, though, offended her. She found herself aggravated at how ordinary he looked standing within it, and at how out-of-place she felt here standing next to him.[break][break]

A hand irritably ran its way through her mane of long, black hair as she scoffed.[break][break]

"I'm simply uninterested in cleaning up your mess."

[attr="class","ooc"] THEO BECKETT[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

She rolled her eyes, pacing about the room as if she was looking for something in particular. What it was didn't matter, so long as it wasn't the underboss across the room.[break][break]

"Think I've gone soft then, Beckett? Good to know you still underestimate me."[break][break]

He'd been softer than she expected, she privately thought to herself. Wasn't Kanto's Rocket supposed to purge the humanity from its recruits? What did it say about that conditioning, then, that their efforts still resulted in moments like this one?[break][break]

"If you care about something or someone, you open yourself up to betrayal or exploitation. That's something we both know well enough, don't we? It's a classic tactic, wielding people's hearts against them."[break][break]

Her eyes settled on a knick-knack on his desk, pretending to find it fascinating as she turned it over in her hand.[break][break]

"The most successful people in our enterprise are those that smother their humanity. It's why we both rose to power, isn't it?"

[attr="class","ooc"] THEO BECKETT[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

She'd never stepped foot in Kanto, or in Johto for that matter; the Magikarp's significance, in that sense, was lost to her. Still, its aesthetic reminded her of another place she'd visited once before, with a man she didn't care to dwell on.[break][break]

Delicately, the wooden carving returned to its place.[break][break]

"People act in their own self interest, always," she said, evading a direct answer. How naïve it was, to think anyone would ever put another's needs before themselves. She'd made that fatal mistake one too many times to allow herself to ever make it again. "It's simply how we're wired."[break][break]

Something nagged at the back of her mind as he spoke, some detail that didn't add up to the conclusion she'd so neatly provided him. It pulled the corners of her mouth into a frown, brow furrowing in thought.[break][break]

"It's in my self-interest for you to stay in Rocket, working alongside me. You're competent," she added, as if an explanation was needed. "Precious few people are."

[attr="class","ooc"] THEO BECKETT[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

She watched him reorganize the trinket on his desk to his liking, surprised by his attention to detail. His question lingered longer than she'd have liked it to, causing her to reassess her own position.[break][break]

What would make her break ranks? Many things, if she were to be honest with herself. Though they all boiled down to the same conclusion.[break][break]

"...If I desired to leave Rocket," she said finally, "it'd be, I think, because it betrayed me first."[break][break]

Her eyes flitted up to meet his, calculating something unseen.[break][break]

"So I'd say let's hope it doesn't come to that."

[attr="class","ooc"] THEO BECKETT[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

A tired conviction settled in her bones as she shrugged again, stalking across the room as she sought to build distance between them.[break][break]

Outside the window, a nearby tree's leaves could be seen starting to brown, as if prematurely entering the advent of autumn.[break][break]

Her answer held a resigned certainty, unwavering and sure as much as it possessed an unmistakable bitterness.[break][break]

"It wouldn't be the first time someone did. That's all."

[attr="class","ooc"] THEO BECKETT[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]