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ollie had a lot to thank Isaac Merlo for.

[break][break] rocket traitor or not, without isaac, there would be no Caleb Harcourt. guilt spurned like dandelions in his chest whenever he thought about the fact that it had been isaac - not him - to save his best friend. to save caleb.

[break][break] but no matter what he felt about the matter, ollie was grateful to him too. he had to be. just like he had to be grateful to MATIAS SILPH for saving anna, for being the key piece that had let them break into that god-awful bunker in the first place.

[break][break] "owe me one?" ollie let out a laugh. "you mean your hair? geeze, isaac, it's just a box of hair-dye."

[break][break] his emerald green gaze sparkled.

[break][break] "no need to get all dramatic."

[break][break] even though ollie knew well what he was talking about. and it wasn't hair-dye.

[break][break] "we gotta feed misinformation so our guys can stop your - " oops. "can stop the other guys from getting through the next obstacle."

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"they are?"

[break][break] ollie paused, gaze turning away from the cliff's edge where he'd been surveilling, to look at the other.

[break][break] "what d'ya mean by that?"

[break][break] his words were casual, broking no room for anything other than curiosity. even if the truth was exactly the opposite. ollie didn't want to know what isaac thought about his rocket friends, any more than he wanted to know what MATIAS SILPH really thought about PENELOPE LIVY. but this was his due diligence, his duty, thanks to dahlia goode's decision to promote him.

[break][break] he didn't want to know.

[break][break] but he had to.

[break][break] reality sucked.

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there were plenty of people in the league that would have disagreed with every bit of what Isaac Merlo said. even his sister, the golden angel of the league, he was pretty sure held animosity towards rocket.

[break][break] people who had broke those chains, like isaac, were still part of that.

[break][break] but ollie wasn't like them. ollie was ollie.

[break][break] "you don't need to tell me all that," the head ranger said swiftly, the easy smile never leaving his face. he thought about the person he'd seen in the ultra deep sea, sleeping as soundly as a teddiursa onto the floor. that boy hardly seemed like disaster, hardly seemed like a threat.

[break][break] "i already know."

[break][break] he seemed a bit contemplative as he considered how to say what he wanted to next.

[break][break] he wanted to say, you're right. he wanted it to be that simple. he wanted to side with isaac, because to side with someone like him, in a moment like this, was easy. it was what he would've done a year ago, what he would've done even months ago. but now? now, he had obligation.

[break][break] "innocent or not, stuck or not, those people are still part of that machine."

[break][break] "and as long as they are part of that machine, we can't help 'em. you can't consider them your guys." they weren't people like CIAN MAHER or boruta maher. people like Rowan Wrynn or Johanna Joy. not yet, anyway. they had to make that choice first.

[break][break] "but i get it. it's hard to forget habit - sometimes i still call Eva Morales 'little sis'."

[break][break] thank god he hadn't done so at the meeting.

[break][break] "the program's not mine, but i'm glad it's helped." he blusters a sigh. "not everyone thinks that way. there are plenty who would rather the program not exist at all."

[break][break] people like paxton concordas, annalise henderson, or even MATIAS SILPH.

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ollie can't say he understands it. ollie, who was the type of person to always go off on his own, when the moment allowed. it was why he left kanto, why he left hoenn, and why - eventually - he left kalos.

[break][break] but he can sympathize. how can he not, when Isaac Merlo speaks so passionately of it?

[break][break] "well," he says, with a sparkle in his eye. "as long as you use that superpower with us too."

[break][break] it's coincidental, but there is a bit of a glimmer of surprise when the league's newest avatar rolled off waves of compassion — not just figuratively, but literally too. ollie looked at isaac, having forgotten for a moment who he was dealing with. anxiety crawled up his spine, but he pressed it down.

[break][break] "you know," ollie said, head turning towards him. "i'm from kanto."

[break][break] though he wasn't from kanto, not in the way Eva Morales or MATIAS SILPH or even John Sullivan was. it was different, but it still mattered.

[break][break] "i'm fighting for my friends," the head ranger said, beaming. "same as you."

[break][break] "people that i love."

[break][break] his gaze flickered, reminded of that fierce, unending blue. or that crackling tarnished amber.

[break][break] "aren't we all?"

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he heard the regret in the other boy's voice clear as day. it was something ollie could sympathize with. hadn't he spent days wondering if there were things that he could've kept back to Eva Morales, before she left? to PENELOPE LIVY, before she did?

[break][break] "it's okay," ollie said, sharing a sympathetic look with him. "you're here with us now, and that's what matters."

[break][break] the head ranger thought about all the people that he'd fought in the ultra deep sea. the people who were too far gone, and the people who were still on the edge of it.

[break][break] he thought about Ashley Shepard, and the easy way that he'd fallen asleep. the easy way that he'd been able to solve that situation. if only every situation was as easily solved as helping a boy fall to the sleep in the middle of a granite cave.

[break][break] "hoenn is my home," ollie said, finally deciding to leap off the cliff and walk towards their destination. his league communication device beeped, signaling that the rocket entourage was headed their way. they ought to get into position.

[break][break] "and we'll free it together. right?"

[break][break] he grinned, offering a fist out for Isaac Merlo to bump.

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"exactly."

[break][break] no point in mourning the past. how many times had he told himself the same thing, whenever he thought back to his own past? whenever he thought about how he'd run from pa, from kanto, from rocket.

[break][break] his actions, whatever they may be, were still his.

[break][break] bumping fists with the other, ollie shifted gears to their task at hand. they had to give their colleagues time to break the barrier in the cave. who knew what kinds of things they were facing. eternatus, or whatever.

[break][break] "anything we can do to confuse them, i guess."

[break][break] ollie was new to all of this. subterfuge wasn't exactly his specialty.

[break][break] "do you know anyone on the other side that would freak em out? to hear they were down?"

[break][break] "maybe provide a distraction?"

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Cillian Quinn? Isaac knew him?

[break][break] At the end of Isaac Merlo's speech, the Head Ranger gave a laugh. It was breathless, both simultaneously surprised and impressed at the same time.

[break][break] "Now they've got it coming for them." No wonder Isaac had been able to get away, when so many other Rockets were still shackled by the evil organization's chains. Isaac was a special one, after all.

[break][break] He opened his mouth to say more when there was a rustle at the bottom of the hill they were standing from. The INTERDREAM MIST fogged — it was hard to see if the incoming barrage of people were real people or just mist-people.

[break][break] "Well, looks like you did it. They're coming for us now!"

[break][break] He released his Stufful, who let out a cry upon it's release.

[break][break] "Mochi, Tofu, let's go!"

[break][break] The Pikachu darted forward first with AGILITY before SLAMMING into the first of the grunts. His Stufful followed suit, maw opening into little hearts as a CHARM aimed to lower their defenses.

[attr="class","bottom"]Isaac Merlo [break]
SECRET (2/2) [break]