maki enters silently and without expression. she only glances once at the fainted gardevoir, the slightest bit of curiosity registering in her eyes before she moves to take a seat. her malamar follows behind her, on guard, as they have all been since the war began in earnest. even if they think they're safe, they can never truly know.

maki looks closer at ameena. blinks. "you..." her brow furrows. "you were on that megalopolan ship, weren't you?" she recognizes the woman from their jailbreak. she had tried to pull a child away, hadn't she? maki had kept her own mask on, having to hide her identity due to her name being a fairly high-profile one, but she'd paid attention to the who'd been spirited away. "i remember you."

her malamar floats lazily over to the gardevoir. it reaches a tentacle out to the other pokemon's shoulder. whether it's out of concern or something else is impossible to say; the squid's face remains the same, regardless.

[ ameena abadi ]
[ outfit ref ]

she shakes her head. "that's not why i'm here." her malamar seems to be gently trying to rouse ameena's gardevoir now, and maki glances out of the corner of her eye. "...do you need to deal with your pokemon first? i can certainly wait." there's a subtle rebuke in there, so small ameena may not even notice. maki's been taught to treat her pokemon like tools, but you still have to take care of your tools properly. "i'm only here to discuss something... related to our imprisonment."

watching her malamar, though, it's interesting to see how a creature that could be so cruel in the battlefield still managed concern for its fellow pokemon. it's clueless as to how to help, but still it continues anyway. "malamar, that's enough," maki calls. "you're not going to wake it like that."

[ ameena abadi ]

maki blinks. "i see." her malamar ceases its attempts to rouse the other pokemon, but remains stationed by it just in case it awakens on its own. it's unlikely, but maki doubts the squid cares. it seems a bit more curious than anything, though the concern is definitely there, too.

finally, maki takes a seat. she sits upright, her hands clasped together in front of her. "since returning home, i've... had the same recurring dream, almost every night." even now the music is faint in the back of her head, no matter how she tries to drown it out. "it's the same as the vision i had in what they called the chamber of desires. exactly the same, every time." she shakes her head. "but it's meaningless. i can't make any sense of it. i was hoping... to make it go away."

she's sick and tired of it. the same dream, over and over again, as if it's desperately trying to tell her something. she wants it to cease, so she can enjoy dreamless nights once more.

[ ameena abadi ]

upon being asked to describe the dream, maki hesitates. she's not one to divulge personal information, but this... problem... irritates her enough to make her act out of character. "it's... nothing. the dream is... nothing," she explains. "i wander, and there's nothing. then it starts to snow... but other than that... nothing." how is it that this nothingness bothers her so? she doesn't normally dream, or at least she doesn't remember the dreams she has. she tells herself it's only because it's out of the ordinary that she wants it gone so badly.

she sits back in her chair. she wrestles with herself, conflicting emotions on her usually placid face. "...alright," she finally concedes. "as long as it's... mostly non-invasive, we can use your musharna."

her malamar sits in the corner, forgotten for now. it waits patiently to be of use again.

[ ameena abadi ]

maki slumps back in her chair. the vision that fills the room is exactly as she stated; dark and cold, flecks of snow falling from an unseen sky above. in her mind, maki follows the same path she always follows, unaware that she's being tracked this time. there's the tinkling of ballet music playing in the background, distant and haunting.

then it starts again... the shaking. she's bounced around the inside of something spherical, hearing a voice call her name. her own, much more child-like, voice responds, and maki opens her eyes to see her own face from when she was seven trained on her. she looks more closely this time and realizes this was, with all likelihood, the day her training began. this was the very day her fate was sealed, and she was given a whole world to bear upon her tiny shoulders.

in her half-waking state, she reaches up as high as she can, willing herself to make contact... her hands find the seven-year-old, and move as if to embrace her... anyone might look upon this figure with pity, wishing to save her, to carry her away from all this for good.

but instead, she wraps those same hands around the child's tiny throat and squeezes. she can feel the pulse there as she presses. she meets no resistance as she crumples the child's windpipe within her grip.

the usual cool expression on maki's face has changed to one of hot fury. her eyes narrow, her burning gaze kept solely on the child within her grasp, and she's completely forgotten ameena is there at all. she's never wanted anything dead more than she wants those innocent blue eyes snuffed of life, so they might never look upon her again.

the child's breath stops. maki pauses, and finally releases her... and wakes up.

[ ameena abadi ]

when maki awakens, she takes a moment to settle back into reality. the rage seen earlier is gone, replaced with her usual cool, collected attitude. she can remember the dream far more vividly now, and the feeling of destroying the vision she had of her childhood is still thick on her hands like blood. she doesn't regret it, though. it had to be done. she can't afford any distractions, especially not now that things are heating up between team rocket and the league.

she nods in response to ameena's question. "...yes. i believe i will no longer have a problem with it." she can't say why she's so certain the dream will not return. at the very least, it will not be nearly as frequent. she should be able to sleep undisturbed again. "thank you for your assistance. i'll be sure to return the favor some day soon." a yukimura does not forget their debts.

maki stands. "i should go now. come, malamar." her malamar reluctantly follows after her with only a backward glance.

[ ameena abadi ]