On a path lit by moonlight, Elisabeth rode her Glastrier at a steady gallop as she assessed the perimeter of Mauville.[break][break]

She didn't expect any resistance this late at night, for two reasons. Attention would likely be diverted to cities more likely to be targeted by Rocket in the upcoming months, such as Ever Grande; furthermore, the Gym Leader Josh Devlin was purportedly gravely injured by recent events in the region.[break][break]

Against all that her reputation suggested, Elisabeth was not one who enjoyed fighting. She was a Seviper that only struck when provoked by circumstances and survival, but otherwise preferred to leave others be should they offer her the same courtesy.[break][break]

The figure blurring in the distance, though, caused her to arrest in place. With any luck, this would be like her encounter with Elise Calcifet, and the stranger would presume her to be something other than what she was.[break][break]

Otherwise, however... The shadows nearby stirred, two ochre eyes glowing with warning in the darkness as Wo-chien bided its time. Should battle commence, it would be ready to enact its mistress's GRUDGES.

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

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Ah." The Glastrier halted, expelling an icy puff of air as it stomped the ground. Cold eyes narrowed in on the Gym Leader and Rapidash. "You recognize me."[break][break]

It was a statement of fact, nothing more. She recognized his trademark look of disapproval towards her, too.[break][break]

Her gaze swept over him, assessing his injuries. He was in no condition to fight. Perhaps she'd be able to leave unbothered.[break][break]

"I'm merely on my way. You'd do well to travel your own way, too."

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

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Surely there are higher names on that list than mine," she replied, reigning back her Glastrier. THEO BECKETT or Cillian Quinn came to mind, though her recent crimes had undoubtedly fed her infamy. "Would it comfort you to know others outrank yours on mine as well?"[break][break]

The TABLETS OF RUIN pulsed on Wo-chien's back, burning bright in the darkness. Familiar names had etched themselves there, though Josh Devlin would not find his among them.[break][break]

She regarded his disgust with a nonchalance that suggested it was to be expected. It neither offended her nor surprised her.[break][break]

"Mauville is not my target." The presence of BARNABY FINCH there ensured it. "Were I to have my way, we'd burn Ever Grande City and its leadership to the ground."[break][break]

She had no doubt that PENELOPE LIVY and freya morningstar would wish the same upon her in Sootopolis.

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

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Do I?" Her reply came out even and level, albeit ringing with the faintest hint of amusement. "Far be it from me to think MATIAS SILPH is comparable to anyone, myself included."[break][break]

She shut out the memory of him tenderly cradling her face in his hands, forehead pressed to hers as each was spared a glimpse into one another's inner torment. Neither Groudon's Avatarship nor that of Wo-chien had been kind to their psyche.[break][break]

"As for what happened at Mt. Chimney? That's quite simple. Matias's own pride let him be fooled by a pretty face, and kyle lopez paid the martyr's price to spare him. They were both weak."[break][break]

A tightness in her chest whispered at the more complicated theater that had played out in that betrayal, but she pushed it down, unwilling to acknowledge it beyond this simplified version of events. They had allowed themselves to be exploited, and Rocket had done so--it required no more explanation than that.[break][break]

She refused to let herself regret it, or so she told herself.[break][break]

"Is that why you're here?" she asked him pointedly. "Do you seek to avenge Kyle's death, and accuse his blood of being on my hands?"

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

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Matias Silph, 'reprehensible,'" she said, tilting her head as she weighed the thought. "What an ugly word to describe your Elite Four and the professed 'Hero of Kanto.'"[break][break]

Of course it hadn't been without merit. He'd threatened her enough times for her to understand the ugliness that man possessed, wrapped up in his arrogance, his greed, and his selfishness. There had been other moments, though, too. Moments of boyish excitement in the field of battle, glimpses of unexpected vulnerability hidden beneath his endless bravado.[break][break]

He'd been more than she'd given him credit for being. More than the League had given him credit for being, too.[break][break]

Whatever change they'd witnessed in MATIAS SILPH now had, in some way, existed before what she'd done to him. She knew that much, though she'd never say so.[break][break]

"Well," she said at length. "He never killed me, and he certainly had plenty of chances to do so. Perhaps he would have benefited from being as reprehensible as you say."[break][break]

Wo-chien slithered near, watching the HEAL PULSE fail to soothe the Gym Leader in front of them. The sinister energy exuding from the Ruinous Beast seeped into the night air, coating it with GRUDGES and resentment in a silent bid to overwhelm the man. It stirred something in her too, a strangely possessive instinct she couldn't explain.[break][break]

"I struck no fatal blow, but if you are looking for the person who caused Mt. Chimney to erupt--" She held herself higher in her seat, staring down at him like an indifferent queen before a starving peasant. "--then blame me, for the Red Shard that cursed MATIAS SILPH and killed kyle lopez was mine to give."

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

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Each embittered insult, each enraged cry, all affected her no more than a howling mind moved a mountain. She weathered it with stoic indifference, a small and stifled laugh building inside of her at his proclamations.[break][break]

So he wanted to punish her, did he? Wanted to make her suffer the way MATIAS SILPH and kyle lopez had suffered? How comical. He didn't understand.[break][break]

To be Wo-chien's Avatar was to be the embodiment of suffering.[break][break]

"Purge me, then," she taunted him, watching as the Type:Null brought its claws down towards her Ruinous patron. "Take the price in blood, if you're so bold."[break][break]

Aleph's slash met empty air as its SHADOW SNEAK moved to evade, though its ghostly attack did nothing to the Normal-type in retaliation. Neither successfully struck the other, resulting in a stand still.[break][break]

Her emerald eyes shifted towards the cityscape beyond them, then back to the enraged man before her.[break][break]

"It'd be a shame, for your civilians to awaken and find their loyal Gym Leader buried alive."[break][break]

Her Glastrier raised two front hooves, summoning an AVALANCHE towards the man and his Pokemon that intended to do just that.

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

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"How little you think you know."[break][break]

'The Great One.' 'The fires of hell.' He spoke of it all with such confidence, as if he truly believed in the religious ideals he spouted.[break][break]

How absurd.[break][break]

"You speak of gods as if they care for you. But they damn us and bless us as arbitrarily as any mortal might."[break][break]

Living, dying, all of it was hellish in some way. The difference was living had choices. Living had freedoms. Death was a perpetual loop of nonexistence, taunting the possible of resurrection with the liminal space of the Border.[break][break]

The dead didn't always remain dead.[break][break]

Wo-chien hissed and snarled as the TRI-ATTACK found purchase, withdrawing into a SPIKY SHIELD while the normal-Type remained on the offensive.[break][break]

Her Glastrier mirrored the Type: Null's strategy, redoubling its advances on the Galarian Rapidash with HIGH HORSEPOWER that sent shockwaves through the ground towards the trainer as the BOUNCE landed.[break][break]

"Each and every one of us has to seize our own fate. Else gods and men will decide it for us, whether we are Rocket, League, or something in between."[break][break]

If that fate made them enemies, so be it. She had gained power this way, and she had no intention of relinquishing it.

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

[attr="class","pkmn"]