Color leeched away from every aspect of this mountain, the corridor nothing but an endless stretch of grey. It made the man in the distance difficult to make out at first, and by the time she recognized the champion for who he was, the enormous figure of the Solgaleo had interrupted her escape.[break][break]

No, she thought, despairing as she attempted to find a way to maneuver around them both, only to fail to find safe passage. Exhausted in defeat, she leaned against the cavern wall, panting as the entirety of Mt. Chimney shuddered. The earth tremored underfoot with a disorienting, groaning sound.[break][break]

"Let me go," she pleaded, too tired to engage in his goading. Fear radiated from her in waves, the fear of having done an evil that couldn't be undone. Somewhere ahead of her, BARNABY FINCH was waiting, and he'd be able to take her away from all this ruination she'd caused. "If you don't act soon, you'll lose him. I'm a waste of your time."[break][break]

If she'd wanted MATIAS SILPH dead though, she'd engage kyle lopez here and now. That would be the correct choice, whether or not she acknowledged it.

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"A trade?" she repeated, wary as she searched his expression for any trace of deception. Her breathing had turned ragged; her mind wasn't as sharp as she'd have liked it to be, not after all she'd witnessed in the heart of the volcano.[break][break]

Relationships had always been transactional for her, however. This kind of deal made a sort of sense to her.[break][break]

She swallowed, her throat dry, as her fingers gently touched the bruises that had begun to ring around her neck. The flesh stung, still tender from Matias's grip, and she grimaced. Yes, that relationship had been transactional too, and she'd paid that price in more ways than one.[break][break]

"What could I have that you want?" she challenged the champion, unsure what she had to offer him other than her life. It was the one thing she didn't intend to bargain.

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez

[attr="class","pkmn"]

An alarm bell rang in the back of her mind, warning that as friendly as kyle lopez appeared in this moment, giving too much information to him would damn her in other ways. The last thing she wanted was to earn the anger of declan walsh as well as that of MATIAS SILPH.[break][break]

It would defeat the purpose of burning that bridge in its entirety.[break][break]

She'd told Matias the Red Shard had come from Rocket. She'd said she'd gotten approval from Walsh to procure it for him. In a sense, neither of those things had been a lie.[break][break]

"Walsh," she said finally, looking at him openly. "He knew about... well, he knew what the League knew about us. I think some part of him realized this would happen, if he gave it to me."[break][break]

It seemed most natural to continue that half-truth now.

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"What?" The whiplash of this new line of questioning struck her speechless, and she stared at him with open bewilderment. "Matias isn't himself anymore. The man back there is Groudon's Avatar, not the man you or I knew."[break][break]

It terrified her still, the vacant look in his eyes as he ordered her to run. She'd been afraid to look behind her, somehow already knowing that his eyes had become empty of that fleeting humanity. It had all burned like ash in the wake of Groudon's fulfilled greed.[break][break]

"He will die, if you don't intervene," she said, as if this explained everything. "And we both know it will be my action that killed him."[break][break]

Of course it was over. Matias now understood that what she'd tried to tell him since the beginning had been the truth: that she'd never been the person he'd believed her to be.[break][break]

It didn't matter now. The Matias she'd known, for all intents and purposes, had already died in the flames of Mt. Chimney.

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"If you don't want it to happen, then why are you still here?" she shouted at him. Exhaustion, both physical and emotional, weighed down on her as what remained of her restraint frayed into delirium. "Go revive him then, go be the hero you're supposed to be, and leave me alone."[break][break]

She felt tired beyond the limits of the word, the fatigue heightening her sense of guilt and shame, and combined with the constant fear it became all too much to bear. It was like being a child again, throwing a tantrum because the world was too overwhelming for her to understand. It confused her. It distressed her.[break][break]

It frightened her most of all.[break][break]

"I don't know," she said uselessly, shaking her head, "I don't know! What do you want me to say? I'll leave him alone, if that's what you're asking me."[break][break]

Deep down in her heart, Elisabeth wanted to pretend that all of this had never happened. She wanted to run from it the way she ran from everything.[break][break]

She ruined people, and then she abandoned them.

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"I'm not going back there," she said, panic rising in her throat. Again she shook her head, the curls of her blonde hair wildly tossing with the motion, and she took a step back. "I won't talk to him like this. You can't make me."[break][break]

Maybe he could, though, with her weakened in this state and no Avatarship to defend her. It was an empty, powerless threat, no more than a shout at an unfeeling void.[break][break]

The idea of an 'after' all this didn't feel possible to her. The present was too loud, too terrifying, too real to imagine an aftermath that resembled what had ever been 'normal.' The time for normal had ended.[break][break]

When men learned the truth of who she was, there was never any going back. She'd tried to warn him, but MATIAS SILPH had never listened.[break][break]

kyle lopez dismissed his Solgaleo, and with it her last obstacle to escape cleared. Elisabeth shakily held herself upright, glancing nervously at the champion for any hint that this was a trap of some kind -- some proof that he'd been lying to her about his side of the deal.[break][break]

She'd never been much good at that, knowing who were the liars. It was easier to assume the worst of everyone around you, until proven otherwise.[break][break]

"He's your responsibility now, not mine," Elisabeth said, laying the burden of her guilt on Kyle's shoulders. That was the role of a champion anyway, to carry the weight of everyone else's burdens, whether or not it was fair. "My part in this is over. It's better this way, believe me."[break][break]

This time when she ran, she half-expected Kyle to follow her. A fearful anxiety seized her that he wouldn't let her escape this easily, that she'd be dragged back and forced to face the enormity of what she'd done.[break][break]

She ran anyway, desperate to meet BARNABY FINCH where he waited for her. She yearned to escape all this turmoil, hide in his arms, and close her eyes to the consequences of her actions. All this would end soon, one way or another, and then she could wash her hands of MATIAS SILPH. There would be nothing left to be done.[break][break]

Peace of mind had always eluded her before, and it would elude her now, too.

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez

[attr="class","pkmn"]