[attr="class","littleollie"] kyle lopez was dead.

[break][break] The Champion's death had rocked the nation in more ways than one and although it was a fresh grief that Ollie himself was still learning to deal with, he also knew that there were many others who struggled with it more. To Ollie, Kyle had been a friend. But to others, he had been more than just that.

[break][break] He had been a champion, an idol, a beacon of light in a dying world.

[break][break] Ollie glanced sideways at Josh Devlin when he spoke, expression bordering on somewhere between pity and sympathy.

[break][break] "How are you doing, Josh?"

[break][break] For a minute, his eyes grazed the sight of the intimidating form of the Ash Raikou and it's alternate form. But there would be time to marvel at such legendary feats later.

[break][break] Right now, his friend needed him.

[attr="class","ooc"] Josh Devlin

☉

[attr="class","littleollie"] Did Kyle know he was going to die?

[break][break] Or had he just been so devoted to saving MATIAS SILPH, to his cause, to let his life waste away?

[break][break] Ollie didn't know.

[break][break] In fact, Ollie didn't know what he would've done if he'd been put in that position. Sure, he'd been part of the group to rush after MATIAS SILPH — to save him — but would he have been willing to do that at the cost of his life?

[break][break] 'Would you have been willing to do it if it were PENELOPE LIVY instead?'

[break][break] "No," he said instead, with a shake of his head. "I get it."

[break][break] There was a lot going on. There was too much going on. Ollie hadn't even had the chance to digest it himself. But he still pushed all of it away, deciding in that moment to put the other first. Because it was what Josh needed.

[break][break] His head tilted.

[break][break] "No - I don't think you did. I'm not surprised though. Kyle led the Minor League for a while."

[break][break] He'd been the one to open with it, before dahlia goode had taken over.

[break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Josh Devlin

☉

[attr="class","littleollie"] "I... guess you could say that. But honestly, I didn't see much."

[break][break] Technically, Ollie had been part of the AQUA party that had trampled up the mountain in a feeble attempt to save one of Kanto's heroes, but it has been so chaotic back then that even when kyle lopez had risen from the sky like a phoenix meant to save MATIAS SILPH, it had barely been a glimpse.

[break][break] Like a shooting star that they weren't meant to save.

[break][break] "MATIAS SILPH lost control of Groudon. He - " Almost died, and took the region down with it. "Groudon became Primal Groudon, and we almost lost him as a result of it."

[break][break] For once, Ollie's expression was unreadable, making it difficult to tell if he was embittered by such a ending or relieved by it.

[break][break] On the joke that Josh Devlin breached, Ollie found himself letting out an equally empathetic chuckle. He smiled, embracing the other man on the shoulder with a heavy hand.

[break][break] "And we have you to thank for that. You, as well as all the other civilians who helped me mitigate the disasters made to Fallarbor and Lavaridge."

[break][break] Where Melody Miro, paxton concordas and lam logan had been left to deal with the eruption up high, it had only been fitting that region's head ranger would rush to the needs of it's people.

[break][break] As Josh Devlin speaks of his theory, though, Ollie draws pause. Normally, he's the first to believe in optimism and hope — even as illogical as it can sometimes be. It's his plight as a Morales, the same plight that his sister once faced prior to receiving Rayquaza's blessing.

[break][break] "I don't know Josh," he said after a long pause. "I want to believe that as much as you. But you didn't see it - you didn't see him." The sight of MATIAS SILPH rising out of the black magma rushes through him, making him shudder with the memory of it. It had been terrifying.

[break][break] He shook his head.

[break][break] "But we can go look. I'll take 'Stache," he said, smirking at the end of it. "He'll get jealous if I give some other pokemon attention."

[break][break] The Dragonite harrumped in reply, either in disbelief at Ollie's words or Josh Devlin's audacious offer.

[break][break] "Let's go."

[break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Josh Devlin

☉

[attr="class","littleollie"] So Josh Devlin thought so too? Ollie pursed his lips. He didn't know whether he'd been naive or foolish in pushing away his feelings towards Matias, or if the changes in the Elite Four had been imperceptible to begin with.

[break][break] "What kind of issues?"

[break][break] More than anyone, Ollie knew about his best friend's difficulty with Articuno, but Laurence Anderson had never done anything as unpredictable as MATIAS SILPH. At least, not as far as Ollie knew about.

[break][break] The Head Ranger glanced at his friend as he pondered Avatarship, not in the first time that they'd known each other. "Can I ask you a question, Josh? Why do you care about Avatarship so much?"

[break][break] It was not something he'd ever thought about. In fact, the mere idea of it had him wanting to push away such responsibility.

[break][break] The mood lightened some when he heard Josh laugh, compelling Ollie to join him in a chuckle.

[break][break] "Well, I dunno," he said, voice slightly teasing. "I've seen Andrea Vaneau's Cyclizar." His eyes gleamed with mirth. "You sure you could keep up?"

[break][break] Without answer him, Ollie nods and leads Josh towards the area where they last saw kyle lopez steal MATIAS SILPH away. Given the fact that there had been so much going on, it would be difficult to pinpoint an exact location but at least it'd be a starting point.

[break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Josh Devlin

☉

[attr="class","littleollie"] 'So Josh knew?'

[break][break] "If you sensed something was wrong, did you tell anyone?"

[break][break] Ollie already knew the answer to that. Of course he did, but even so, he needed to ask it.

[break][break] Having already nearly met death thanks to the nightmare that was Cillian Quinn, he knew that there were things far worse than MATIAS SILPH petty grudges. And yet, at the same time, the man that his sister had once almost vowed to spend the rest of their life with... he was a far cry from the loyal man that was before him now.

[break][break] The conversation shifts, to something that Ollie has always wanted to ask but somehow never did.

[break][break] "Avatarship isn't the only path to gaining a Legendary's favor," he confirmed, and then he frowned. "I'm surprised you even think that, Josh. You know that the League has several Legendary pokemon under custody too, under AQUA and Project Sapphire right?"

[break][break] He thought about the time that he had visited Jirachi with his sister, or Tapu Koko with lam logan.

[break][break] Ollie sighed. Beneath him, his Dragonite rumbled back at the Ash Raikou, avoiding an air current. Still, along the crater's edge, there were no sights of the real legendary that they were looking for. kyle lopez.

[break][break] "You know," he said, staring at the bubbling liquid. "Lars' avatarship wasn't always like that."

[break][break] "It changed. Overtime."

[break][break] "Josh," Ollie said, suddenly turning to him. "Do you know how Shadow Pokemon are made?"

[break][break] Ollie hadn't known, not for the longest time, but then the report had fallen onto his desk courtesy of Rowan Wrynn.

[break][break] And a small part of him wished that he still didn't know.

[break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Josh Devlin

☉

[attr="class","littleollie"] No one had thought that it was going to get that bad, or they wouldn't have abandoned MATIAS SILPH for so long in the first place. But were things so simple? Ollie struggled with the memory of it. A part of him had once wanted to see MATIAS SILPH destroyed, just as much as probably Rocket did. He'd hurt both his sister and Penny beyond repair.

[break][break] But seeing Matias in that hospital bed... seeing him so malformed atop that mountain, bubbling beneath that black sun, Ollie regretted it. He could never hate another person that way, not even MATIAS SILPH.

[break][break] "If you realize it, then why are you still talking about avatarship like that, Josh? Like it's something to choose?"

[break][break] Ollie's words are neutral. If anything, they are painfully genuine. Because Josh is right — as someone who is deeply involved in Sapphire, he should know more than anyone that avatarship was just as much a boon as it was a sacrifice.

[break][break] And it shouldn't have taken just kyle lopez's death to figure that out.

[break][break] Maybe he was just bitter.

[break][break] Ollie shook his head.

[break][break] "I can't answer that. That's something - you need to ask Lars that."

[break][break] Because it could've been at Meteno, when Kyurem had attacked, or it could've ran even deeper than that. The bonds between legendary pokemon and their avatars... it wasn't something that break was interested on figuring out.

[break][break] Riding swiftly on their pokemon, who's footsteps and wingbeats beat in tandem, they turned a corner and once again, kyle lopez was nowhere to be found. Not a single trace of him.

[break][break] "I don't know the specifics."

[break][break] "But I woke up one day, and one of my pokemon had turned into one."

[break][break] "I took it to the labs and - " He frowned. "It was apparently the effect of interdream mist that had poisoned them."

[break][break] "I think avatarship can be like that. It can poison you, just like it poisoned Lars and Matias."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Josh Devlin

☉

[attr="class","littleollie"] How would you know what kind of Patron you're getting until you sign the contract with them?"

[break][break] Ollie pressed his lips together.

[break][break] 'It isn't that,' he wanted to say. It didn't matter what patron it was. It could've even been SUICUNE, the most pure of them all. It didn't matter.

[break][break] They didn't know enough about the bond between Avatars and Legendary pokemon to say for real. To say what exactly made such a bond so poisonous.

[break][break] He would've never thought, after all, that PENELOPE LIVY of all people would —

[break][break] "It's okay; I can do more legwork on my own."

[break][break] But Ollie looked away. Maybe it wasn't his words to say. After all, it wasn't like he was a Legendary, or someone smart, like illeana reyes.

[break][break] "I heard about that," he ended up saying instead. "It seemed like something a lot of other people experienced too. Maybe because of the Interdream Mist."

[break][break] He sighed.

[break][break] "All I'm saying is - be careful, Josh."

[break][break] "Be careful what you wish for."

[break][break] "You never know. You could get it."

[break][break] Ollie glanced back at his friend again, and for an instant, there was a lifetime of regrets in the Head Ranger's gaze before they flit away into the general cheer and easiness that he was so well-known for.

[break][break] "Well. C'mon, we should go! It's not getting any earlier. We'll have to hurry if we want to make it through this whole area in one piece."

[break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Josh Devlin

☉