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A decade of stalking prey had taught Zev how to move silently. Approaching Jayden's office, he disregarded those lessons, having no need for them. Heavy footfalls heralded his arrival before he threw the door open.[break][break]

Ashley Shepard sat in the chair for visitors, waiting for him.[break][break]

Zev paused in the doorway. Disdain rolled through him at the sight of the younger man, who less than a year ago had requested the Beast's assistance in learning how to kill without becoming sick.[break][break]

What a waste all that had been.[break][break]

Zev closed the door. "You must know why you're here, Shepard."

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It crashes down, when Zev Harcourt appears. He was in Jayden's office now. Heavy footfalls sound for the arrival, and Ashley could feel the sweat trickle down his neck. Agonizingly enough, his silver eyes keep focused forward, but panic starts to well up.[break][break]

He tries not to tremble.[break][break]

Zev closes the door. His words come out, and Ashley has to control his breathing.[break][break]

"I imagine... this is in regards to my failure to kill Isaac Merlo." His voice hides the tremble well, but experienced ears could hear the crumbling his voice had, like a house facing its own collapse inwards. A fragile little house of cards.[break][break]

"Was my report not satisfactory, Zev?"[break][break]

His left hand balls into a fist. He wonders... could he beat Zev in a fist-fight? Could he beat all of Rocket in a fist-fight? He had a full six on hand. He was no Champion, no Gym Leader. Hell, he lost most of the fights he took part in, even as a kid. Could he get out of the sub in one piece?[break][break]

Ana. Juliette. Maple. Magneto. Reinhardt. Cocoa. He doesn't know Zev's ace, not that well. Most of their work was human-to-human.[break][break]

Cold sweat trickles down his face. He was no good at mental chess.

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Zev walked through the room like a Sharpedo through water: with a sharp, relentless stride that brought him to Ashley's chair in mere moments. The Rocket Beast did not bother with the false pretense of a professional meeting. Instead, he loomed over Ashley, allowing his physical proximity to deepen the younger man's discomfort.[break][break]

"Yes and no," Zev said, his voice as cold and distant as the uncaring stars. "It's true you failed your mission to kill Isaac. Not only that, but the grunts under your command all died, too."[break][break]

A waste. Such a waste.[break][break]

"But those are not the reasons you've been summoned here."[break][break]

Reaching out, Zev seized Ashley by the hair, forcing his head back so the executive looked him in the eye. The skin on Zev's face split and parted as black crystals emerged to line his jaw, cheeks, and temples. Crystals sprouted along his free hand, covering his fingers in wicked claws.[break][break]

"Do you really think anyone would believe that it was Isaac who killed those grunts? Isaac fucking Merlo?" Zev said, his voice a low and dangerous rumble.

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Blood in the water. His breathing is sporadic, he can feel the panic rising in himself, and with Zev looming over him like a Sharpedo, it left Ashley shaken. Zev's chilling tone leaves frost and decay in its wake, and Ash feels he's being pulled under. A layer of ice frozen above into a coffin lid.[break][break]

Another step.[break][break]

Zev's words ring in his ears. "But those are not the reasons you've been summoned here." Though Ash is treading water fast, sinking to the depths, there's an unbelievable calm that comes with that split second between those words. All Ash can hear is his heartbeat.[break][break]

Guess that's it then. Sorry Isaac Merlo... jayden cross... kepler brueshaber...[break][break]

Hair seized, Ashley cries out as he is forced to face the nightmare beast, silver eyes forced to look over every inch. Black crystals emerging, crystals upon his fingers like claws to rip and tear the skin. Cornered animals bite back, but how can they ensnared within the jaws of a bear trap? All he can do is look Zev right in the eye.[break][break]

Ashley smirks when Zev's voice reaches that low rumble. He's going to suffer for it, but the words come out coated in poison, a dying snarl back to the beast who holds him. "Guess you didn't know him as well as you thought you did." Ash knew the guy too. The elite knows he's not finding a lifeboat now, but he is going to try to get out of this alive.[break][break]

The jig is up.[break][break]

How long can he last?

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Zev didn't know Isaac? Didn't know that softhearted Isaac Merlo would never, in a million years, harm the hair on another's head if he could help it?[break][break]

Nonsense.[break][break]

Ashley Shepard only knew how to spew nonsense.[break][break]

Zev drew his hand back, but instead of using the talons that had been his fingers, he summoned a thin, straight blade of pure crystal from the back of his wrist. He thrust his hand toward Ashley's knee.[break][break]

The elegant, sharp edge sank into flesh, missing the kneecap by a centimeter. Still, the pain would be excruciating.[break][break]

"Where is Isaac now?" Zev demanded.

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The level of pain is extraordinary, as the blade digs into his knee, sinking into flesh, as Ashley's eyes bulge outwards. His face forward, as he roars with a bloodcurdling scream, the agony from his leg, as he turns his gaze downwards. He was trembling now. His leg... his leg...[break][break]

High as his pain tolerance may have been, as he bites into his lip, he tries to focus on something else, he turns his gaze back to Zev to his question. His mouth bleeding, he is tempted to spit on Zev's face.[break][break]

Just tempted. He doesn't want to lose his leg.[break][break]

"Unless you forgot from the report... he knocked me out too. Why the FUCK would I know that?!" He still stuck to the story, but the pain was making it hard to cover the panic and the anger; adrenaline the only means to continue hiding it, as weakened venomous words weave from his lips. But he can feel it. Oh, he can feel it.[break][break]

Ash had to keep talking. He had to keep a cool head. He had to keep the truth in. They were just accusations until Ashley made them truth.[break][break]

His hand quietly reaches for a Pokeball. Just in case.

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Ashley chose to stick to his lie. Keeping his blade embedded in the younger man's leg, Zev released Ashley's hair, only to backhand him hard across the mouth.[break][break]

Ashley was lucky Zev's hand was unarmored. Crystal would have shattered bone and shredded flesh.[break][break]

"I'm not here to entertain your insolence, Shepard," Zev rumbled, his blue eyes flashing with impatience. "Tell the truth, and you might be able to salvage what's left of your reputation."[break][break]

Of course, reputation meant nothing to Zev. All he cared about was someone's usefulness, and Ashley's continued insubordination meant he was next to useless.[break][break]

Zev had no need to spell out what would happen should Ashley continue to lie. Every Rocket grunt understood the consequences soon after their recruitment.

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It makes it worse when his hair is let go, only to meet the back of Zev's hand, Ashley's face flinching to the side. The only solace was that it didn't hurt even half as bad as the wound in his leg right now. He can take a lot of punishment, but this was beyond everything.[break][break]

Disheveled strands of hair over his face, he takes a moment to catch his breath. Zev's words were an offering. The bad cop's little plea bargain that would lead to the hanging.[break][break]

Instead of panic, a bout of fury paints his gaze, a glare beyond, as his eyes squint. If he takes the deal, there's no telling what Zev will do to him. If he doesn't, the end goal is clear. But he leans forward. Insolence? Perhaps. Each word painted in Ashley's poor attempt to get oxygen into his lungs, each wheeze coming out pained. "How about you tell me what I did wrong so I can get a better picture. You. Fucking. Psychopath." There's poison in his wheezing tone, biting back, becoming more and more the cornered animal.[break][break]

His hand sleights to a Pokeball.[break][break]

The moment Zev moves, so will Ashley. For better...[break][break]

... or for worse.

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The insult did not faze Zev. All his life, people called him psychopathic, and crueler things besides. The look he gave Ashley was, therefore, not full of offense or loathing. Instead, Zev's eyes narrowed in disappointment.[break][break]

"You've lied multiple times to aid a defector. That's an offense punishable by death."[break][break]

Zev had no evidence, but he didn't need any. In his mind, he was right. He could only be right.[break][break]

With a jerk of his wrist, he wrenched free the crystalline blade from Ashley's leg. In one smooth motion, he leveled it at Ashley's heart and thrust it forward.

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This was it then. The last step before the gallows. Just enough rope, and Ashley could see where it led now. Over the edge. Zev's fatal words, and a blade about to pierce and puncture the heart. With one motion, Zev pulls the blade out of Ashley's leg, and levels it towards the heart. And thrusts forward.[break][break]

Was this really it then? The end of the road? To let the floor drop, and struggle for oxygen to fill his lungs? He could see it. He won't make it to the floor.[break][break]

Closer.[break][break]

His life plays like a record. The first moment he met jayden cross, burnt into his mind. The moments they had. Their friendship together. Their missions. Supportive to one another. A bad family, a lack of one. Friends forever... a slash through the shoulder to sever the bond.[break][break]

Closer.[break][break]

He thinks of Isaac Merlo, the moment they met on the beach. He still remembers that goofy fossil, dancing on the beach. How they spoke of the past, and promised to be there for each other... the knife that drove its way upwards. The conscience that stayed with him, even as the barrel of a gun aimed towards his birthright, trained in poison by poison.[break][break]

Closer...[break][break]

He thinks of his regrets... he thinks of Sunshine's sass. @milo's catty eyes. Naia Kayode's emotionless gaze. Eris Halla's happiness over a big Wooper. Shalin Nariya flying a Yanmega happily. The SPECTRA exams with that psychotic sword guy Hitoshi Inoue, and the brain of the team Selena Desmarais. He thinks of THEO BECKETT's words. Telling him to be free, just a year ago... how he had become enslaved to his own past, the thorns that pulled him under. How Cillian Quinn had told him to tow the line, to find where to draw it in the sand, to keep himself sane. He thinks of his half-sister, who he'll never get to meet now.[break][break]

And then... he thinks of sushi. The Slowpoke that died for him... and how it led to the first time he met kepler brueshaber. The way he smiles... the way he cries... the promise he made to always come back. He has a reason to live. He's always had a reason to live. He didn't want to die, he didn't want to die, he doesn't want to die, he can't die not now not ever never never never-[break][break]

His eyes widen, moments from the end. With every ounce of strength he had in his good leg, he pushes himself to the side, tumbling out of the way from the blade meant for him, taking a nasty cut to the side as he does, and rolls as well as he can, bleeding from the leg wound, and now from the side, adjusting himself as best as he can, before tossing out his Nidoking, who steps forward, readying a roar.[break][break]

"I'll admit this-" He looks almost frenzied, leaning against Jayden's own desk as his pulse goes faster, enough so that he grabs at his chest, breathing in air like he had held his breathe for minutes upon minutes.[break][break]

"-I'll take on every Rocket if I have to in order to stay alive. And once I get out, I'm mounting declan walsh's head on a spike." Reinhardt roars at Zev, putting a wedge between Zev and Ashley.[break][break]

He can hope. But now what?

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When confronted by the specter of death, animals instinctively fight for their lives. Humans are no different. A cornered human acts like any animal: willing to endure further injury or trauma in order to survive an ordeal.[break][break]

Zev had seen it time and time again. And Ashley was no different.[break][break]

The chair clattered on the floor as Ashley stumbled, bleeding from his wounds, behind his roaring Nidoking. Blood dripped from Zev's blade as he turned to face the Pokémon.[break][break]

He did not care about Ashley's declaration. He did not care about declan walsh or Team Rocket or defections.[break][break]

Zev only cared about this foolish waste of time, and burying a broken tool.[break][break]

Before Ashley's Nidoking could attack, the Rocket Beast completely covered himself in his carapace of black crystal. Razor-edged tendrils shot out from his shoulders to skewer the Poison-type, aiming for the vulnerable points in its armor.[break][break]

Slicing through soft flesh and the organs underneath.

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Zev was like an immovable object, barely even reacting at all. Uncaring, and it had been the thing Ashley had feared most. And it was what he had failed to become just like. That was the line in the sand between them. The line Cillian had told him to draw for himself. He refused to be that. He tasted the fruit, and spat it back out.[break][break]

Reinhardt takes a moment to turn his head towards Ashley. He had finally woken up. But far too late for either of them to make notes of it. Ashley, now barely able to move that leg without immense pain, needed a way out. Before Ashley knew it, the beast would grab Ashley and throw him out of the door... as the tendrils moved to skewer every part of him, slicing into every organ they could through the softest parts of flesh.[break][break]

And with it... in his last breath, happy to see Ashley safe... Reinhardt dies. Knowing that Ashley wasn't lost after all. A victory afforded to him far too late. Reinhardt was gone with a smile on the their face being the last thing Ash sees of him.[break][break]

"REINHARDT! REINHAAAAAARDT!!!"[break][break]

His hand throws outwards. He can fight Zev, he can still save him. He can still fight.[break][break]

From her Pokeball, a little white Zorua bursts out by herself, digging her claws into Ashley. And within a moment's notice, they disappear together into a ghastly world. The first time the little one had ever used it.[break][break]

And they disappear together... all while the despairing noises of Reinhardt's trainer can no longer be heard.[break][break]

The price of freedom sure is steep.

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Tendrils of crystal withdrew from the Nidoking's corpse with sick, wet sounds. Blood and viscera dripped to the floor. The great body slumped heavily at Zev's feet, the smile on the dead Pokémon's face its only sign of defiance.[break][break]

Ashley was already gone, spirited away by the ghostly power of his Zorua. But they could not have gone far, he thought. And there were other Ghost-type specialists at Rocket headquarters that day.[break][break]

As Zev stepped toward the door of the office, he took out his phone and called jayden cross.[break][break]

"Shepard's defected," he said, his matter-of-fact tone betraying no thoughts. "He's somewhere on the submarine, using his Zorua to escape."

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