The cart's wheels had been a familiar sound, crunching over grass and dirt through the night-cloaked Petalburg Woods. Elisabeth's heart had stopped at this memory brought back to life, skulking in the undergrowth in preparation for the war to come.[break][break]

In another life, this road would have stretched out from her home.[break][break]

Pokemon had a sense for incoming calamity that people lacked. The advent of war thrummed through a tense silence that stretched through the forest; once, Dazzling Ledyba and Ledian would engage in their mating dance, lighting up the heart of the forest with their revelry.[break][break]

A distant memory of laughter murmured through the woods, leaving her aching for a past that felt further and further away with each passing day.[break][break]

"You weren't meant to return," Elisabeth whispered, stepping out into the light.[break][break]

The moon illuminated the paleness of her features, wan with lack of sleep and hard with severity. The gentleness of her gaze had long vanished; there was no trace of the vulnerability that had let her surrender herself into Georgette's arms, sobbing for a mother that remained dead and buried for years now.[break][break]

So many unfathomable sins piled in the silence between them, more than she could bear acknowledging. This woman had only ever shown her kindness, but like an invasive kudzu flower, she'd demanded more than she deserved.[break][break]

"You're supposed to be in Kalos," the blonde said. Though she'd been the one who'd wronged the other, her voice came out strangled with woundedness. "You can't be here."[break][break]

In the darkness behind her, two ochre eyes glittered, watching the proceedings unfold with muted interest.

[attr="class","ooc"] Georgette Bluebottle[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"You need to leave. Now."[break][break]

Her voice was thick with grief and anger. Why had she come back now? Why had Georgette chosen this single moment to come back, like some angelic promise of salvation, only to taunt Elisabeth with the reminder of who she could have been?[break][break]

The promise of war hummed in the stillness, filled only with the incessant buzzing of insects.[break][break]

"You don't understand," she started to say, then stopped. "This place... it's not safe for you. It may never be safe for you again."[break][break]

She stumbled backwards, building as much distance as she could from that outstretched hand. She attempted to shut out memories of being wrapped in the other woman's embrace, devoid of judgment, as a Kalosian lullaby soothed her darkest fears.[break][break]

"Go home, Gigi. Go home, and don't come back."

[attr="class","ooc"] Georgette Bluebottle[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Elisabeth recoiled as Georgette's soft Kalosian dialect assaulted her with its lulling, sweet tones. Their mother tongue beseeched her to lower her invisible defenses, coaxing her to kneel and confess to all her sins.[break][break]

"You're safe here," that voice lied.[break][break]

"You're still loved," it falsely promised.[break][break]

How could Georgette do this? How could she taunt Elisabeth with all these possibilities that could never be reality?[break][break]

"Did you come here to torment me?" she cried out. Her hoarse accusation cut like a knife between them, severing whatever ties bound the two of them now. "Is this your way of punishing me for what I've done -- by pretending none of it matters?"[break][break]

When she stepped back, this time a thicket of thorns surged forth from the earth, coiling about her defensively in a snarl of briars.[break][break]

There would be no embrace between them. She'd reject this smothering gentleness, and its false promise of forgiveness.[break][break]

"I am not a good person, Georgette. I have not been a good person since... I can't recall."

[break]

She'd already told Georgette the truth of herself, once. Believing the lie again would destroy her in ways she couldn't explain.[break][break]

"The woman you wrote that letter to is dead, Georgette. Cease looking for her, or you'll leave me with no other choice but to hurt you."

[attr="class","ooc"] Georgette Bluebottle[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]