It was in the moment that Metagross had slammed into the Aerodactyl, the moment she had dodged death by such a narrow margin, that she had noticed the sounds coming from outside of the warehouse itself. Despite how gloomy the whole situation felt, the sky before she had infiltrated did not have much cloud cover.

Yet, in the few minutes she was in here, she began to hear the rhythmic drumming of raindrops falling on the ceiling. The beats of rolling thunder in the air. She could not see outside in that moment, but she was certain that the situation outside did not look anywhere near the way she had left it.

Moreover, none of it was natural. In all likelihood, the man who had sicced his Pokemon to kill her was likely the source of it all. And that meant only one thing.

The escape route that she had vying for may have been the exit from one precarious situation and the entrance to another. She had been remaining calm up until now, but it was at that moment that panic began to wash over her.

"DAMMIT! Return, Jeanne!" She pulled out her Pokeball and returned Jeanne who was stuck in stalemate. She had to use her trump card. She had to Mega Evolve Gallade or Metagross at this rate. Otherwise, they would lack the firepower to break through at this point.

But as she reached into her pocket to release Gallade and grab her keystone, she had neglected something important. The Aerodactyl that had been focusing its energy entirely into hunting her was mere inches away.

Elaine grit her teeth as she tried to push herself back down with a crouch to the ground to evade the hunter's fatal blow. That was enough to simply evade death, but she could not reach the ground in time to remain completely unscathed. The talons dug deep into her shoulder, slashing at her left arm and piercing into her collar.

But that, too, was only momentary as a strong energy threw them both back, separating the two--the energy of Ginga's Psychic. As the force threw her back, a Pokeball flew from her hand, but not the one she had intended to throw.

As it released the Pokemon that was residing within, Elaine's back slammed into one of the many supports for the mezzainine.

"GAH!"

She could hardly even cry out any commands, let alone scream out in this state as her body landed face first onto the ground. Blood pooled onto her chest and on the ground as it oozed out from the three lacerations on her arm and the puncture wound on her chest.

Aches propogated across her body. From her back in pain from the collision to her arm and chest in pain from being attacked. But from her position flat on the ground, she had realized exactly what happened as she was being thrown back. A lone fairy with a great hammer looked up into the air and saw something that made its eyes sparkle and mouth water.

"É...riu..."

In that next moment, it had tossed its Gigaton Hammer up into the air and jumped to catch it and slam it on its natural prey--the Corviknight in the rafters.

"Not like this."

She couldn't fall. Not this easily. She forced all of her energy into her chest, her abs, and her one remaining good arm as she forced herself to at least get up onto all fours on her knees.

---

Tag:Cillian Quinn
Mission: Make it Double

To Ériu, it was all just a game. The fact that the enemy Corviknight had already escaped meant that the game would go on for a bit longer and were she able to talk, she would blather out in joy at the thrill of the hunt being ongoing.

Though the steel hammer had yet, she landed upon the ground for a moment. Fragments of earth and stone shot up around her before glowing. In the next moment, she used her hammer to shoot those fragments as a set of Stone Edges. For her next tact, she would try to shoot it down regardless of her trainer's orders.

"Funny. It feels like it's been forever since I've heard those words. Elaine let out a wry beat of a chuckle before looking straight at the man. Though she was in pain, she still had the energy to give a wink and a smug grin. "I'm sure a lot of things would have been difference if I chose 'mercy' or to just look away. But I'm not letting the noose tighten right here."

Elaine took a deep breath.

"RIGHT, GINGA?!"

In the next moment, her body was pulled upwards and to the side, towards the Metagross that had remained off in the distant, by pure Psychic energy. If she wasn't strong enough to move around immediately yet, she would gladly have her Pokemon assist her here.

Even as blood dripped down her arm, she would let it all happen.

---

Tag:Cillian Quinn
Mission: Make it Double

Though she was being very smug about it, she had escaped the cold embrace of death three times at this point. The first as she ended up dodging a fatal Hyper Beam (with Ginga's help). The second as she barely evaded getting turned into the Aerodactyl's prey.

But there was something different about facing down the muzzle of someone else's gun. No matter how much she maintained that smug exterior, the cold sweat dripped down her body as she flew towards Metagross. There was something far more disturbing about watching a person take matters into their own hands, look a person dead in the eye, and attempt to kill.

While it would have been hypocritical for her to say anything given how she started this, there was a certain aspect of seeing looking at the muzzle at Cillain that almost took a piece of humanity from him. It was as if she had seen a demon's eyes glowing red in that one moment.

As she landed upon the back of her first partner Pokemon, she saw him calmly turning to face him with his gun pointed straight at her again. There was no hint of disquiet in his actions. It was merely the act of someone trying to stomp out a progressively more annoying insect.

Was this the same coldness he had bisected that one worker with?

How truly callous.

But all of that paled in comparison to what happened next. The roof above them, losing that which kept it support lost multiple pieces and began to sag under the weight.

The weight of what? Was it the mere weight of itself? Was it the hurricane force winds that tore apart pieces of the roofing?

Or was it...

Her heart plummeted. As water poured, letting a faint chill waft through, she saw it.

The source of the world around her collapsing in that moment.

Eyes met pitch red and pitch black eyes. Its vast blacks and purples reminded her of a pure void from which nothing could escape it.

And from it, a relentless pressure ventured forth, crashing down upon all of its enemies. Elaine. Ginga. Ériu. Not a single one of them was immune to it all. With each passing instant it all bore down on them, her eyes widened.

From two angles, she had death staring her in the face. Ériu was preoccupied. She herself was powerless.

But one jaw was closer to her jugular. She quickly pulled out the pen and book holding her keystone. The Metagross she stood upon glowed and transformed, letting out its futile roar.

"STOP HIM!"

The Metragross once again let out a burst of Psychic energy that was sent hurtling at Cillian. Worst case scenario, this would at least disarm him and knock the gun out of play. Best case scenario, it knocked him out.

She was clearly outmatched here. Fear was no longer creeping into her chest for it no longer had need to merely encroach. It could grasp her heart, her lungs, her brain, and her soul without a hint of abandon.

She could grit her teeth and clench her fists as much as she wanted, but reality was clear. She could not escape that primal feeling.

And perhaps, because of it, Elaine Highland may have significantly miscalculated.

---

Tag:Cillian Quinn
Mission: Make it Double

SPOILER: Click to show

It didn't stop. Not in the slightest. The rain had kept on pouring with each passing second with not even a hint that it would let up anytime soon. Thunder sounded as lights flashed in the clouds that remained restrained in the heavens, blotting out the night sky and the stars above them.

"Elaine. You doing alright?"

The young woman turned her head to face the man who had walked in. In his hand were two cups of steaming liquid. His face clearly trying to keep firm as his eyes were hidden under his cap.

In stark contrast, the young woman he had called out to had her hair down. Her head, face, and body were covered in bandages and gauze. Her eyes were still a fresh red as tears streamed down her face.

"I guess that wasn't the best question to ask."

The window out of the office showed an almost pitch black, occasionally flashing light from fulminant streams above to show the the port of Canalave City and bloodied warehouses just beyond it.

"It was all my fault."

"Elaine..." The young man placed the tray with the hot cocoa cups upon the coffee table as she looked the crying girl in the eyes, unsure of what he could even say beyond her name.

She had watched her world tumble around her in instant. The criminal mastermind who she had chased down was dead by his own hand. In doing so, he had taken multiple lives with him.

Elaine, sink deeper...Come deeper, sink into the abyss. Until you, too, have drowned in the same kind of mire. Only then will you understand the truth of the world. At its very depths.

Those were some of his last words to her. They had only been uttered to her a few hours ago, so she had not been able to place a meaning on them in the slightest. Not after everything that happened.

She had fought, put her mind to its utter limit and she had been utterly defeated with nothing beyond a mountain of bodies and the life she had barely clung to after her own body was battered to show for it.

"I was too weak..." She clenched her face with her hand as she continued to cry. "Why was I so powerless to..."

The girl was not lamenting for any lack of fairness. To do so would have been meaningless. No matter how much she screamed and cursed, she could not change the outcome nor could she change any semblance of fairness. She had gone into the operation expecting an unfair advantage.

No, instead she crused not at the heavens, but at herself.

At her own powerlessness.

Yes, Elaine was weak. The mountain of corpses behind her was proof of that. Nothing would change that truth which had been etched into history.

---

Light seared into her eyes as streaks and branches of lightning shone through the ever widening gaps in the roof. Flashes of light and the pitter-patter of rain brought to mind memories that were her own, and yet not her own.

Elaine had evaded yet another fatal blow, but the situation was steadily turning for the worse.

"Haah...Haaaah..." She took deep breaths as she watched ths situation unfold from atop Ginga's back. Though the attack had knocked the gun out of Cillian's hand and incapacitated him for a moment, that was only temporary. It was beyong what a human should have been capable, but the man had exhibited such monstrous resistance.

Was it due to a connection with the winged beast flying above the warehouse? That was the best Elaine could surmise in that moment as things continued to move from bad to worse.

The storm would not abate. She could weather winds and rain as much as she wanted, but she had long since crossed the Rubicon. So, she needed to act here.

"We're going for broke."

There was no point in retreating. There was no way to retreat at this stage. She had angered both Lugia and Cillian to the point where she was barely staving off death. Her arm hurt. Her body hurt. Her blood dripped.

The pressure pulled her heart down to the ground. It threatened to make her drop.

And yet, she stayed riding atop her first partner's back. Elaine grit her teeth as she issued her command. She would not let go yet.

"Create an opening!"

Psychic energies pooled around Metagross's head as it entered a state of pure calm, charging up towards Lugia with a Zen Headbutt.

On the other hand, danger had approached from behind. The Corviknight that had been trying to dodge and weave around Ériu's attacks took its chances to go in for a killshot at its trainer's command.

But Elaine did not worry about that in the slightest.

Ériu was a crazy Pokemon. She would often go her own way and act completely lackadaisically. But there was one thing, Elaine could trust. Ériu was a hunter through and through. So, there was no way she was going to let her prey get away while leaving its back wide open.

Elaine didn't flinch by even an iota as the Corviknight careened ever closer. Because Ériu brought its Gigaton Hammer down from above upon the bird to aim for a decisive blow.

---

Tag:Cillian Quinn
Mission: Make it Double

SPOILER: Click to show

She was not doing alright. There was no way she could be.

And yet, the world had refused to stop turning. Lives passed en masse and yet time's march was inexorable.

"Are you sure about this?" A voice reached out to her as she rested her hand on the door.

"Yeah." She took a deep sigh as she tried her best to look away from the man who had asked for her final confirmation. She took a few more deep breaths, before looking towards the wall instead of back at him. "This is for the best."

"You don't have to do this. Nobody blames you!"

"That's what makes it impossible for me to stay here like this."

"Elaine..."

She took one final look at him as he muttered her name.

"I'm sure you'll make a fine successor. The Chief always looked fondly on you. So don't chase after me. You're needed here."

As she opened the door, she spoke up once more.

"Jubilife's Juvenile Ace died in that warehouse. The weak Elaine won't return anytime soon. Not until she's strong enough to protect everything with absolute certainty."

---

Despite Cillian's concerns, Ériu was done. The moment that she had dealt the decisive blow to Bran, she had lost all interest in it. Corviknights were great prey. For Ériu, they were the most fun to hunt. But her hammer needed no repairs. So, she had no reason to finish the blow.

She had fun with this one. There was no way she would finish him off. After all, doing that meant she would never have fun with such fun prey again.

Instead, she turned to look up to her trainer who was clearly more focused on the avian titan above them. Pumping her free hand into a fist for a moment, she decided to jump off once again. Not paying any heed to the trainer who was now exposed, she aimed to jump up across different poles and railings until she was within striking range.

Her hammer grew covered in a chilly air and a thin layer of frost as she aimed to lay an Ice Hammer into Lugia.

On the other hand, Elaine shook her head. Intense blows rang out as she tried her best to stifle the memories that were flooding back into her head. Why they were doing so at that time was something she could not figure out, especially since she had something far more pressing to deal with.

"Let loose and force through."

There was no point in holding anything back. They were right before Lugia. So the only thing left to do was charge through and not let up.

A pair of the Metagross's fists glowed a brilliant blue as they charged in.

The Meteor Mash and the Ice Hammer closed in. In that moment, a flash of hope had broken through Elaine. A hope that there was a chance they could win this.

---

Tag:Cillian Quinn
Mission: Make it Double

"So, that was all we could amount to."

Elaine's eyes opened in the next minute. Her body was arched back. Her head felt like it was facing the ground. Though the world around her was a pitch black, she could say she felt like she was falling back, even if she was floating in place.

"We lost..."

"Yeah..."

Across from her was another version of herself that seemed to be floating in the ether. Her arms were crossed and her face had taken the shape of a scowl.

"Do you find it frustrating?"

"Of course I do."

The terse words and harsh attitude could only come from the past self of hers. The memory that had been erased and flooded back into her as she climbed up the cusp of presumed victory.

"The fact that I'm like this is frustrating. I thought I could at least subdue him for the sake of the guy he killed."

"Oh shut up with your sophistry and hypocrisy. If you really cared that deeply about allowing his body to be returned safely or anything noble like that, you wouldn't have inched ever closer to that Avatar with each move."

The biting words from her past self shut her up. She did not know what to say at this point. What could she say to the one thing that knew her heart best?

"Just be honest. There's nobody else here. Not even Violet Fairbanks is here, so feel free to be as pathetic, selfish, and whiny as you want to be. You've earned that right after all of the effort you've put in."

"My ideals aren't the same as yours."

"I know they aren't."

"And I didn't fight for those ideals."

"I know you didn't."

"But I wanted to prove it to myself. After all the hell I've been through, I wanted to finally prove to myself that I was strong enough to enact them. That I still wasn't the weak, pathetic girl I was that day. I know those memories are no longer mine, but I still know how you and I felt that day."

At the end of it all, what did all of that boil down to? What was the center of those patehtic words? As tears spilled, she uttered the words.

"I wanted to win! For once, I wanted to win by my own strength! I wanted to prove that it was meaningful! That it wasn't simply a cog in an endless grind!

"...that I could break through pressure from depthless malice."

And yet, despite those tears, the former self smiled. There was no condescension, nor intensity. All that she had in that moment was something far simpler. Understanding.

"See? Was that so hard?"

Elaine sniffled as she tried to wipe away the tears.

"Those memories...I know they're not mine anymore, but I felt something similar from you."

"It feels disgusting knowing that those memories of all things were the ones flowing back into you. Those feelings weren't the same. But they were equally as pathetic. And equally us. That's why..."

Her past self floated down until the two of them were eye to eye.

"Let this failure become something meaningful. Become so strong that you'll never have to feel this pathetic again. That's the one thing you owe to both me and yourself."

"Heh. You know. I like this side of you a lot better. You should drop by and give me talks like this more often."

"Hey hey. Don't ruin things like that." They had lost. They were in pain. But the two girls so identical and yet so different laughed and laughed. Until the moment that space all consumed them.

And then...

---

The first thing she could sense was the pitter-patter of rain against the ground and against her. The next thing was the searing, dull, and throbbing pains that wracked her body from head to toe.

How long had she been out? The fact that she was still alive meant that it hadn't been long. Otherwise, Cillian would have picked up his weapon and killed her in time.

Whatever the case, one fact was paramount here. She lost. She was utterly overwhelmed.

In the moment where she had thought she had gained some momentum, she had been brought low in one fell swoop.

She couldn't tell what was more pathetic: how soundly she was defeated, how unable she was to keep her Pokemon safe, or how vulnerable she was right now.

She tried to move her legs, but it felt like they had turned to lead. Her body had suffered many blows. She had been bitten by the Aerodactyl. She had taken the blast chest first, clearly leaving her with rib fractures as she struggled to keep proper breaths. She probably had some internal damage given the congealing thick liquid at her lips. She probably had some sort of injury on the back of her head as she felt that same thick liquid falling off of it onto the ground beneath her.

But she could still move her head, neck and arms. It was painful, but she could still do it. Reaching at her Pokeballs, she pulled two empty ones out. Metagross was laying unconscious on one side and Tinkaton was in the same state on the other, still holding onto the hammer for dear life. The fact that they survived that attack was a blessing, but she couldn't risk their lives any further.

"Return." She muttered as she recalled the two Pokemon back to the comfort of their Pokeballs.

As she placed those balls back where they belonged, she looked up to the sky and to the winged beast who did all of this. The roof had been utterly destroyed. Only its corners remained as the rain poured onto the entirety of the warehouse.

"I guess...I couldn't beat...pure violence, after all..."

---

Tag:Cillian Quinn
Mission: Make it Double

Not even a single word in response? How cold.

It was hardly like Elaine had expected the man to speak with her at this point. She had gotten under his skin, so she was merely an irritant to be struck out of existence. In a way, that level of professionalism was admirable. But the idea of being looked down on like that irritated her to no end.

The man would walk to his gun, pick it up, and shoot her dead. That was the inevitable course of events.

The fact that things had come to this point felt like a thorny vine wrapping itself around her heart. There was nothing left to do about it. Even though nobody would look down on her for accepting her fate, she still could not accept it.

But there was nothing she could do.

No matter how much she waved her arms around, she could not run away. The reaper's sickle would inch ever closer to her neck and all her struggles would be futile.

There was nothing she could do.

There was nothing she could do.

It was unintentional, but the sound of a Pokeball resounding rang out through the remnants of the warehouse.

Though it was silent, Siegfried the Gallade had jumped to the girl's rescue in the moment the man had picked up the gun. Though he was in distance to attack the man, he had seen just how the battle played out.

Revenge was not the answer here. The correct choice was survival. And so, he had moved towards that option.

He forgone all offense and defense for the sake of that speedy escape. He crouched around Elaine, held his arms around her, and gave one last glare at the eyes of the man pulling the trigger.

A deafening bang echoed out. The bullet flew out. Yet, there was not a single body or even newly drawn blood left behind.

The two had vanished without a trace. The Reaper's scythe silenced not even a single breath in that one moment.

---

Time flows and the whims of fate toys with people. You're no stranger to that reality, Elaine. Both you and I have been tossed by the waves time and time again.

Even now, we've come so close to the Grim Reaper that we could see into the ghastly void of his eyes.

But it's not over, is it?

We're still here after all. We're still alive.

Defeated, but not dead. Weak, but not incpable. Fallen, but not helpless.

Maybe we won't ever truly come to reconciliation. After all, I'm the one in control of our destiny now.

But that's fine. We'll sharpen our fangs.

And then, some day, we'll bite down on his neck too. We'll walk down that road together. And we'll show the world that our road is not a dead end.

You'd like that too.

Right?

Elaine?

---

Tag:Cillian Quinn
Mission: Make it Double