She'd learned from her previous mistakes in this city.[break][break]

No Unown followed her as she departed Sootopolis, swirling away to TELEPORT with a beat of her Butterfree's wings. No overeager Elite Four risked scandal and confrontation in his eagerness to meet her openly. No admin of intelligence quietly awaited in his Mauville penthouse for a report that would inform him of her whereabouts, recounting details that cemented her Rocket loyalties.[break][break]

Only a letter indirectly delivered by cassidy betrayed her intent.[break][break]

This time, she wished to control her own narrative.[break][break]

She dressed in a way he might find familiar -- long skirts, loose blouse, and hair tied back in preparation for gardening a plot of flowers she no longer possessed. It wasn't for him, she told herself, but for any prying eyes that might glance her way. People were quick to believe first impressions.[break][break]

An unassuming woman with a Butterfree, at first glance, did not inspire the same dread as a severely dressed woman with Wo-chien shadowing her every step.[break][break]

The coordinates took her inside his home. Enough time had passed that if he wanted to betray her, he would have, she reasoned with herself. Either way, the fear that should have followed her inside this place -- which belonged to one of the most dangerous men in Hoenn -- was absent.[break][break]

Though that, in itself, scared her.[break][break]

"I thought you might want to meet," she opened, sensing she should be the one to speak first. A pause sat heavy between her thoughts until she continued. "Before war begins in earnest."

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Tea again.[break][break]

It unnerved her how nonchalant he remained about all this. How many Rockets was he accustomed to spending time with in such a manner?[break][break]

She knew enough to know she wasn't the first. Part of her quietly suspected she wouldn't be the last either.[break][break]

"I don't want a misunderstanding between us," she attempted to begin again as the tea was procured and set before her. "There's a difference between what happens between us here, and what will happen..."[break][break]

A hand airily waved mid-air, lazily indicating the distasteful implication of violence with a swish of her wrist.[break][break]

"...well, when things begin to happen."[break][break]

Hand lowered, she blew gently on the tea, waiting for his reaction. It didn't occur to her for a moment that he hadn't considered this possibility; FERNANDO SILPH was many things, but he was not careless.[break][break]

"You understand what I'm saying, don't you?"

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"I do," she corrected him, brow furrowing. Because your idiot brother didn't, she stops herself from snapping back.[break][break]

She'd handed MATIAS SILPH an out that he'd refused to take. The Elite Four hadn't blamed Tapu Fini, her Nihilego toxins, or any of the other dozens of excuses he could have to blame for his infatuation with his former florist.[break][break]

Mt. Chimney had been the inevitable conclusion.[break][break]

Nothing could be left to chance this time. Regardless of what this was, or why it had happened, she didn't want a repeat of before. The moment the world knew what she was to him, Rocket had a new weapon to wield at its disposal.[break][break]

And with that knowledge, she'd lose another shred of her own freedom and her own agency. Whatever Tapu Fini had forced between them, its end result would cease to belong to her, but to Walsh.[break][break]

"When war begins, I expect you to view me as what I am."[break][break]

Her eyes turned downcast as she took another sip of tea, before flitting up to gauge his reaction.[break][break]

"An enemy of the state."

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Revenge, at first," she admitted, letting the tea cup return to its place on the table. "But that turns stale in time. Then it became about power and survival."[break][break]

The underboss stared into her cup, neither looking for an answer, nor looking for a judgment. These were meager reasons to be a terrorist when compared to so many others. Hoenn hadn't even been the region that had wronged her in the past; that had been Kalos.[break][break]

She'd just wanted to destroy something, anything, to feel powerful again. As senseless and meaningless as that desire was, it had been the only conduit she could find for that misery inside of her.[break][break]

"Contracts with Team Rocket don't break peacefully, and the League has no use for someone like me," she reminded him, though it seemed obvious enough that it didn't bear mentioning. "So I make do with the lot I'm given."[break][break]

A shrug conveyed her disinterest in this, but a note of hesitance betrayed her. Resentment simmered beneath the surface of her devil's bargain, furious that she'd tied herself to yet another man's whims in complete subservience.[break][break]

"I play my part on the board, and enjoy what latitude it gives me. I can't say it's gone unrewarded. I have more than most could ever dream of attaining in Rocket."[break][break]

And still, a greedy, gnawing voice whispered, still, it is not ENOUGH.

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Do you enjoy lying so much," she interrupted him, an eyebrow raised archly, "that you can't resist peddling false hopes such as these?"[break][break]

He must have thought her idiotic and delusional. Pathetic, timid, and miserable as she was, Elisabeth had long learned there was no point in dreaming. Dreams were elusive, deceptive things, taunting and teasing you into dark alleys of squandered potential.[break][break]

Practicality could be relied upon, however. Cold as it was.[break][break]

"It's not even about fearing Rocket. Not primarily. It's about knowing my options."[break][break]

She covered her face with a hand, an incredulous laugh escaping her lips.[break][break]

"Do you think freya morningstar would ever entertain such a notion? That woman wants me dead for all I've done to her and hers."[break][break]

It didn't take possessing the Tablets of Ruin to enshrine a permanent grudge.[break][break]

"And that's not even considering PENELOPE LIVY, who despised me even before my loyalty to Rocket was revealed. She all but accused me directly of seducing Groudon's Avatar into his own damnation."[break][break]

Even before those accusations had become true.[break][break]

"Your brother would sooner see me die than join his side. The pompous Galarian prince feels likewise. And Rayquaza's former Avatar, Peacekeeper or no, would have relished purging me in wind and flame."[break][break]

The disbelieving laughter subsided for a moment, and she breathed out a soft, resigned exhale.[break][break]

"I know what I am, and I've made peace with it. Wanting doesn't factor into the equation."[break][break]

Wanting was dangerous. Wanting led to dreaming, and dreaming led to disappointment.

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Goode has no reason to extend me such generosity," she deflected, but something in the fidgeting of his thumb made her pause.[break][break]

He wasn't the first to accuse her of having ambitions far too small. His brother had done the same.[break][break]

For someone who hungered as much for power as she did, Elisabeth found herself shockingly uninterested in wielding it. Instead, this was a method of cloaking herself, building security against forces that proved stronger and more terrible than she could ever imagine.[break][break]

It was why, perhaps, she had attracted two patrons that asked such firm demands of her. They understood how little she allowed herself to want. It allowed for their desires to be paramount.[break][break]

His final accusation froze her in place, its sheer audacity causing a fire to kindle within her in turn.[break][break]

"You tell me," she replied, voice level as her eyes searched his. "Was Morningstar right to believe in you?"

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

A long, uncomfortable pause sat heavy between them. Her fingers drummed against her own tea cup, falling into rhythm with his own fidgeting.[break][break]

"She confided in me she regretted it, once," the underboss said at length. "She regretted what she'd done under the influence of your mist. She'd regretted trusting you."[break][break]

Will you regret this, too? Will you regret me?[break][break]

How much of this spoke to his truest desires, and how much was a temporary daydream sighed out in pink mist?[break][break]

She couldn't help but wonder.[break][break]

"Truthfully, you might be the only person in the world who still believes in me," she admitted. "I just..."[break][break]

Her jaw clenched with the effort of her self-restraint. At last, she found an explanation that satisfied her.[break][break]

"I don't want to make this more complicated than it is."

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]