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"i'm the one that's going to save hoenn."

[break][break] "save hoenn?" the cursed snarls back at the volatile. "is that what you were doing when you killed kyle lopez?"

[break][break] his ICE CONSTRUCTS slice forward in the form of spinning blades, bolstered by HATE and the blizzard that howls around them, reaching out with metaphorical claws to sink in and control whoever dares to breathe in it's bitterly noxious air. such RUINOUS power can't even be countered by another legendary’s reflective protection, as if the spirit of kyle lopez lingers, still yearning to influence the battle even in death.

[break][break] jayden bares his fangs, his face twisting into the same furious expression he had when he mistook howard slayte for Remiel Calcifet under the influence of poisonous mochi.

[break][break] "when you were busy being compromised by Elisabeth Fiorelli?"

[break][break] the moment he says it, however, as if willed into existence by a GRUDGE-filled god, the earth-spikes conjured by groudon's avatar EXPLODE. they kick off like violent fireworks, causing the world beneath his and fern delaney's feet to rock from the impact. fingers brush against meraxes scales, heart lurching as they are forced to adjust to the sudden movement, and the sudden throat-drying heat that escalates through the air, as a result of their enemies DESOLATE LAND.

[break][break] but it doesn't matter how much the sun tries to end the winter that rages in jayden's chest. the sight of such mangled humanity is enough to bring the stirrings of HATRED to pulse through his veins. the HATRED that undeniably lurks between himself and annalise henderson, just as it had in that prismatic prison, when she tried to suck his very life-force from his veins.

[break][break] "and you —"

[break][break] ice crystallizes around his fists, eyes sharp with loathing emotion, even in the absence of cold. as he glares at annalise henderson, steam sparks from the FROZEN GAUTLETS that begin to manifest around his fists. however, without warning, the air is abruptly knocked out of his lungs as MEW morphs into a god that jayden cross knows all too well —

[break][break] flashes of memory in a torn and sundered world, of illuminating pink hues, and crystallized ruby rivulets that mend together the broken spatial rifts —

[break][break] and while it is nothing like that of illeana reyes (and jayden knows it, he knows it all too well), the fake palkia's SPATIAL REND strikes him and fern delaney.

[break][break] "watch out!" he hisses, attempting to maintain his balance atop the airborne creature.

[break][break] but perhaps it is jayden who should have watched because, suddenly, as if beckoned by the strings of fate, the real alchemist appears. pink fists collide with ICY HATE as both arms are thrown up in protection. but it is too late. catching him off guard, she swings those frenzied rageful fists and sends him spiraling off of meraxes' back — away from fern delaney, away from his chosen, away from all that he holds dear —

[break][break] FOOLISH BOY.

[break][break] YOU'RE POWERLESS WITHOUT ME, AREN'T YOU?

[break][break] torrential downpour pelts his body as he is shoved out of the radius of - groudon's DROUGHT, back towards kyogre's raging seas. luckily, before he befalls the same end as his ill-fated brother Cillian Quinn, he is saved. it is deja-vu, almost, the feeling of such plush fur beneath his bloody body, of such solid warmth rather than plunging ice-cold water.

[break][break] it's CHIEN-PAO. of course it is.

[break][break] with Zev Harcourt gone and freya morningstar's RAYQUAZA dragged from the sky, there is no point in staying by Aurelie Lefevre's side. such weak influence was meaningless in the fact of such mouthwatering HATE — the same hate that no-doubt manifested like blackened flowers in all foolishly weak human hearts. even dahlia goode's so-called GOOD soldiers were not immune.

[break][break] hatred bleeds, even where love resides.

[break][break] in MATIAS SILPH. in annalise henderson. in Josh Devlin. in illeana reyes.

[break][break] it is all felt. Josh Devlin's growing disdain and distrust for the league. annalise henderson's resentment for reality, for the loss that is surely to come. MATIAS SILPH's lingering hostility for rocket, for the idiocy he imagines of jayden cross, and the league as a whole.

[break][break] of the frenzied, uncontrolled, maddened mind that festers within illeana reyes, like a poisoned basin threatening to spill over.

[break][break] illeana reyes's fists strike — but at what cost? the HATRED that lingers beneath her touch cures and soothes whatever pain that has cut apart his skin, stitching himself back together, as the cold returns to him. it gathers around him in pale flurries as he glares sharply back up at the earth pillar for where he has left his lover.

[break][break] icy blue eyes meet that of an impassioned Hitoshi Inoue, begging - no, demanding for his return.

[break][break] and what kind of senpai would he be to Hitoshi Inoue to deny him?

[break][break] the samurai's voice rings through the air with purpose, following that of declan walsh's.

[break][break] FOR ROCKET.

[break][break] ice gathers beneath the ruinous beast's massive paws as they are propelled upwards towards the sky, the icy pillar shooting them skyward. back towards fern delaney.
[break][break] FOR HOENN.

[break][break] heat steams off the ice that gathers around his body, his HATEFUL BLIZZARD fighting ruthlessly against the DROUGHT.
[break][break] FOR ME.
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but MATIAS SILPH isn't looking at him. he's looking elsewhere.

[break][break] he wasn't even paying attention.

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[break][break]

nearly a year ago, in the cave of origin, before those fangs had sewn into his flesh. as nightmares had manifested around those that he had loved, his own had appeared before him. his father. MATIAS SILPH.

[break][break] cuts of glimmering violent amber.

[break][break] 'you're nothing.'

[break][break] 'i don't even remember your name.'

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[break][break]

across sootopolis' raging seas, against the unbearable howling winds, CHIEN PAO'S guttural roar reverberated behind its avatar. together they landed with a thunderous crash, the ground quaking from the impact, as RUINATION surged outward like a relentless storm.

[break][break] "REMEMBER MY NAME, MATIAS SILPH!"

[break][break] without hesitation, he lunged forward, drawing his arm back. the avatar's icy knuckles transformed into a glacial spear, which he drove straight into MATIAS SILPH' spine.



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The moment that he has them in his arms, it feels as if all is right with the world.

[break][break] As if the weeks of coldness, of bittersweet disdain and unbelievable rejection, no longer mattered. Nothing mattered anymore, now that they were alive and safe.

[break][break] His throat is thick with emotion.

[break][break] "I couldn't - I couldn't speak until I knew you were safe," he murmured, a kiss pressed to their brow, even their mere touch had the natural effect of pain seeping off his body, of the wounds that embraced his flesh to be healed as if though by magic. Later, he might wonder what that was — if it was merely a result of the love that had been rewarded to him as a result of Chien Pao's absence, or if it was something new. Something different.

[break][break] His eyes meet theirs, and in them, he does not see the icy coldness of weeks past that he has come to know. Come to expect even. The self-hatred reflected back at him, the rejection.

[break][break] He sees the love that he knows is there, deep-down, that they have been denying all this time.

[break][break] He shudders at the touch of their fingers on his brow, and he feels the desire to close his eyes, to get lost in their touch forevermore.

[break][break] The irony of being able to embrace in a wartorn cityscape is not lost on him, however.

[break][break] "We should."

[break][break] Much to his regret, he untangles them. After all, duty calls. The very thing that tied them together in the first place — the shared memory of their home — is threatening being ripped apart at the seams. It reminded Jayden of all those months ago when they had laid siege to Sootopolis in the first place, as PALKIA laid waste to the city in favor of Rocket's triumph.

[break][break] His eyes rise to the sky, where gunshots and fire streak across the summer air like the once blood-red seas of Cinnabar.

[break][break] "I’ll come to the tree shortly, if you go ahead. I promise."

[break][break] Something in him wills him to respond in kind. Of course, he should go to the tree. It is where CHIEN PAO is after all. But once again, jayden cross defies his fate. The very nature that had called him to this house to begin with.

[break][break] Within his mind, the TRUMPETS of ruination echoed, heralding the relentless hoofbeats of inevitable change.

[break][break] "NO," he says, and his voice rings with unbridled hatred for the situation, for this place, for the days and weeks and months like it feels like they've been apart — his hand reaches for their wrist, inexplicably. He stared at them for a heartbeat, before ice beneath his boots propelled him upwards to his beloved, and to allow him to climb across Meraxes back. Softer, he said, "I have been without you long enough. I'm not leaving you again."

[break][break] Because promises, he'd learned, meant nothing in a life time of war and attrition.

[break][break] Ashley Shepard had taught him that.

[break][break] A rumble of disagreement echoes from the Roaring Moon, but either it's because of hours spent alongside Vodnik, or perhaps fern delaney is also atop their back that they do not throw jayden cross to the seas.

[break][break] But this is something that Jayden bets on. That he knows will happen.

[break][break] And so they go — together — towards the call for war.

[break][break] Towards annalise henderson.

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CHIEN PAO growls with approval as hatred laps at the ground beneath their feet like the rising sea of SOOTOPOLIS CITY. Perhaps Aurelie Lefevre does not have as much potential as jayden cross, but it is just enough, for this moment at least. It knows, inherantly, that it will not find anything when it's captor is in the hands of their foolish lover. So it bides it's time, for now, until the moment comes.

[break][break] It is used to doing so, after all, after all this time.

[break][break] It bares it's teeth, allows the unrelenting HATRED to wash over it and Aurelie Lefevre both, even as the sky tears open and Zev Harcourt comes with it. It's eyes gleam a bright wintry wrath, enthralled, adoring even as those unfamiliar fingers tangle into it's fur. More slender, gentler than the rough, calloused hands of a child assassin, but dutiful all the same.

[break][break] It takes but a moment for the hatred to wash over this new child — for it to show Aurelie Lefevre visions of the things that she undoubtedly abhors. To take advantage of the strings that all humans have, because all humans are weak. And it takes only but a minute for it to drag Aurelie Lefevre towards their new victims with the POWER of scorn and dislike, providing them a weapon to wield in the form of an icy blade.

[break][break] And as they barrel towards Aurelie Lefevre's chosen victims, whoever they may be, it's tail lashes out — a caterwaul echoes through the air, just as a RUINATION descends.

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They barrel towards their destiny, he and fern delaney. HATRED froths his blood, baked into his very make, as they approach the sight of bubbled pink energy and the sight of a roaring Kyogre in the distance.

[break][break] 'Stop the rat,' Admin fern delaney says, but jayden cross's gaze is focused on one demon-rat that has been in his nightmares from that day in the Cave of Origin. Of the jeweled amber-lit arrogance of MATIAS SILPH eyes, as he smugly remarks to annalise henderson:

[break][break] 'They hate you more than me.'

[break][break] "WRONG," the Cursed suddenly snarls, hatred rippling out from him like waves, even from where he sits behind fern delaney, like the good partner he is. Perhaps it is the result of their touch, their presence, or the months of training aside self-made demons like THEO BECKETT and Elisabeth Fiorelli — the HATRED ripples like ice across the space before them, but not enough to make him fly into a rage of fury, even upon seeing MATIAS SILPH.

[break][break] DESOLATE LAND crackles beneath them, the furious heat intensifying amidst the gunfire and barrage of attacks. Immediately, a HATEFUL BLIZZARD surges around him and everyone nearby, for better or worse. Ice blasts from his palms in perfect sync, aiming to shatter the spikes threatening his family.

[break][break] "WE HATE YOU BOTH. YOU ARE A CANCER TO THIS REGION MATIAS SILPH, AND ANYONE THAT YOU ASSOCIATE WITH. A CANCER THAT MUST BE CUT."

[break][break] He thinks of his conversation with ameena abadi, not so long atop the burnt embers of Mt. Pyre. Over the remains of the kyle lopez's grave.

[break][break] "YOU ALREADY KILLED kyle lopez, AND TRIED TO DESTROY HOENN ONCE BEFORE."

[break][break] "YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF THE REGION. AN ENEMY OF US."

[break][break] His eyes briefly flicker to Hitoshi Inoue and Alba Evovae. His voice resonates through the comms with authority.

[break][break] "DESTROY THEM."

[break][break] From where he sits calmly on Meraxes' back, his hands gently placed on fern delaney's waist, several Ice Glaives materialize in the air. After a brief pause, they slice toward their target—not annalise henderson, but her Mew.

[break][break] Childhood memories of illeana reyes briefly surface, only to be buried beneath the unrelenting blizzard of hatred that engulfs them.

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defy your nature.

[break][break] as annalise henderson silently calls out for MATIAS SILPH, pleading with the league's most volatile, to fight against the beast that cries from within, rocket's own charges into the fray. the whiteout that resurrects from the rage lingering across jayden cross's own form, a replication of the failures that he and BARNABY FINCH had faced on the shore, both proves as the perfect cover and yet also an additional hurdle.

[break][break] the moment that jayden breaches the walls of the city that he calls home, his eyes are locked on the raging storm that crashes into the city's crater walls, combined with the sound of bullets and gunfire echoing over the city's walls.

[break][break] he hears several rocket's voices echoing through the comms, including Cillian Quinn and Rowan Wrynn.

[break][break] but none echo as deeply as fern delaney's voice.

[break][break] where is your position?

[break][break] he should answer. he knows he should answer. but the sudden concern he feels upon hearing his lover's voice, after seeing the strike of lightning from the sky that was certifiably not theirs —

[break][break] it's as if thorns tighten around his throat, making him unable to properly speak.

[break][break] before BARNABY FINCH's commands to defend the tree can be heard, jayden cross disappears in the blight of ice that signifies his patron's presence. the sudden heat from the screeching bird dissolves the ice into fire, into nothing, because jayden is gone.

[break][break] in that moment, jayden cross defies his nature. he flees. he returns home.

[break][break] nothing can stop the admin from returning. cascades of ICE ripple from his palm as he rides his dragapult into the fray, freezing any ill-placed leaguers or even the projectiles that ram it's way through the city's defenses, thanks to the volleys by annalise henderson's MEW.

[break][break] with the city's waters flooding nigh high, the rocket admin arrives on their garden front.

[break][break] the frosted glow of Mihr's PHANTOM FORCE fades as it drifts behind him, peering over his shoulder in search of its fellow dragapult.

[break][break] tortured agony pierces Jayden's expression, sharp and intense, as he searches for the other, blood still soaking his face and body from the battle he fought not long ago with freya morningstar and ana fell.

[break][break] "you're alive."

[break][break] frosted blue meets crushed teal, relief so sharp in his chest that it hurts.

[break][break] and it doesn't matter — the rejection, the hatred, the pain that he felt in all the recent weeks — none of it matters.

[break][break] because they are alive.

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he runs towards them.

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and while one reunion happens, another also occurs.

[break][break] outside the two admins' home, nearer to the heart of the city, those defending the tree might sense something far colder, far more hateful manifesting beside Aurelie Lefevre, summoned by the fury burning in her heart.

[break][break] as she snarls at the leaguers that attempt to attack the tree, chien pao appears stoically at her side, like a trusted steed, as if all those hours spent perfecting her sword and shield were enough for them to tie a fateful bond.

[break][break] and should she turn to look at it, she might find that the deadly ice once in the ruinous beast's gaze now stoked with pride — with determination — for the vengeance that she called for now.

[break][break] KILL THEM.

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MILKY

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MILKY

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A kick.

[break][break] It was easy enough to dodge — hand-to-hand combat was the bread and butter of a grunt's foundation, and he knew that Kouji Matsubara held such skill easily. It burned though his veins, the strength of power that he'd inherited from his father's legacy.

[break][break] But rather than merely dodge, he leaped into the air. A wide kick, aimed soley at the other's face.

[break][break] "Concentrate, Kouji."

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It was nice seeing her back in her office, he thought.

[break][break] It had been too long.

[break][break] "I'm glad you're back."

[break][break] A smile warmed his face — well, enough of one for jayden cross, which was to say none at all. There was slight shift of his expression, a slight warmness to the room as he moved forward to greet her properly, head tilted as he observed her surroundings.

[break][break] As he turned, the faint, fading imprints of her hands of whispered across his neck.

[break][break] It was then that he procured the item that he had been carrying the whole time from his possession — a gold tinfoil-wrapped bottle of imported Galarian wine.

[break][break] It glanced gently as it was placed on the corner of her table.

[break][break] "Would you like to have a drink? I would like to commiserate the occasion."

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