She hadn’t been here in a long time. In fact, she barely remembered The Borders. Was it just a dream, after all?

Was this all a dream?

Would she wake up in Lavaridge with Killian by her side in a structure she called a home? Could she just brush this all off and consider it a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from?

This place toyed with the mind, gently tugging it further and further away from reality. Even now, it whispered sweet nothings into her ear, things she wanted to hear.

This is the end.

Just beyond the veil, where souls walked freely and flirted with the idea of returning to reality. Could she find him there amongst the dead? All she had to do was jump.

Lex leaned closer, a blank stare lost in some sort of trance.

A boot rose, slowly inching towards the final border.

All she had to do was jump.

30 feel a throbbing temptation to pass through the border to the afterlife.

---

Victoria Beckett

For how much time she spent around casinos, she was never a good poker player. She was never able to keep a mask on her emotions. Triggers rushed through her like a heat wave and she burned from inside out. A little flame in her eyes, a tension in her set jaws to bite her tongue, a subtle shift in the seat to turn her gaze off Yumi and anywhere else that bothered to catch her attention.

She had almost forgotten about the casino.

Almost.

“I wouldn’t call it employment,” she squeezed out between her clenched teeth, “It’s just a past time,” That paid a bit.

It’s not hard to deduce where this conversation is going at the mention of employment and the casino. She assumed, perhaps wrongly, and spoke accordingly, “I’m not going anywhere near the casino, Yumi.”

---

Yumi Hasegawa

The sound of a motor eventually hums above the splash of the waves against the hull of her humble vessel. The thief’s ember gaze lifts to see lykaios athanasia’s boat bounce against the sapphire sea. Her jaw tenses, guess she isn’t the only crazy one after all.

Lex’s fingers curl around the HEART SCALE, ripping it out of the Luvdisc before tossing it over the rim of the boat. A loud thunk echoes through the water as she taps the hull thrice, putting the Sharpedo beneath it on alert. The net holding the catch hangs idly beneath the water, a flash of pink can be seen every now and then.

Unfortunately for lykaios athanasia, it was too easy to draw aggression from the red head grinning at him across the waves.

The rhythmic roll of the sea is broken by the sharp V of the Sharpedo’s LIQUIDATION that comes on quickly to slam into Lukas’s vessel in an attempt to breach the hull.

---

lykaios athanasia

Who hadn’t heard of the Kyurem event? The details remain elusive to her, but she can reason it out well enough. All these ‘events’ were the same in Hoenn. Maybe she should have stayed in Johto.

She’s cautious, but curious. The Great Chasm isn’t like anything she’s ever seen before. It’s an ugly scar in the ground, deep and dangerous. Yet, it sparkles with mesmerizing beauty, like being trapped inside a diamond.

“Area Zero?” Dumb name, “The League name it?” Probably.

Lex let her gaze wander while keeping her footing on the uneven terrain, “Some crystals, huh?” Sounds easy enough. Lex wasn’t too familiar with the terasal phenomenon. She has been preoccupied for quite some time, “What’s the catch?” There is always a catch in Hoenn.

---

THEO BECKETT

In the end, she sells her soul again. She's not a leader, she never will be. Lex reaches for the phone, accepting it by dragging it across the counter to her side. She briefly glances up as Theo rises to leave, then at the run down apartment she calls home . . . for now.

"I'll think about it."

---

THEO BECKETT

She studies him in silence, amber eyes narrowed and dark under the shadow of her creased brow. She’s still as a shadow in the night, contemplating, weighing her options.

Lex had no leads on the whereabouts of Deoxys, but Theo obviously did. The fact it was ‘complicated’ meant the pokemon was in Rocket’s custody - that wasn’t hard to deduce. Without an in it would be nearly impossible for her to get close enough for any sort of study. Nearly. She was skilled, but she probably wouldn’t make it out alive.

The debate now really wasn’t a debate at all: She could continue on her own, running in place before she died of exhaustion or liver failure or sell her soul again for a chance at the one thing that kept her going. Maybe in time, she’d find something, or someone, else to tether what remained of her soul to this world.

“Ugh,” she grunted in frustration, tossing her head to clear the red hair from obscuring her vision. She already knew the answer, “I work for you you,” she emphasized, pointing a finger at the man sitting across the room, “Not Cillian Quinn, not Elisabeth Fiorelli - you,” for as long as he remained useful, that is.

---

THEO BECKETT

Recalling the past wasn’t her favorite thing to do. Even the pleasant memories were laced with darker hauntings. Her gaze briefly rose to glance over the menu at Yumi when she mentioned Hitoshi Inoue. The extent of Lex’s relationship with him was seeing him in passing when she saw Yumi.

“That little guy, right? He’s still hanging around?” Surprising, but at the same time it wasn’t. Yumi had that effect on people, a gravitational pull, “Kinda,” was what she settled on. A blurry face in her memories, if anything.

“Hmph,” was her way of saying thank you, for now. A brief scroll over the menu items was more for show, “I’ll have the same,” she answered swiftly after Yumi ordered. She flipped the menu over to the wait staff to take. Another quickly returned with their plum wine which she was quick to take a sip of, “I haven’t had authentic plum wine in . . . well, I can’t remember,” of course she could. It was with Killian when they visited Johto after their engagement, “Hats off to Hitoshi for finding this place.”

---

Yumi Hasegawa

Thinking long term is a luxury she couldn’t afford. Theo was living proof of that. If she could even live to extract her revenge that would have already exceeded her expectations.

What goes unsaid is what traps her attention. Her whole body seems to perk up at the implication, leaning forward even with an eager curiosity, “But you know where it is, then? Deoxys.”

---

THEO BECKETT

Who knew Luvdisc could be so valuable? It wasn’t the most glamorous job, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Perhaps it was the rampaging Kyogre that patrolled the seas that made this such a well-paying job. No one in their right mind would want to be this far out in the open ocean and run into the titan. Any sane person, that is.

Good thing Lex isn’t sane.

She lost that when she lost the only thing that mattered. Now, her will to live was tied to more nefarious bonds like revenge. That made her considerably more reckless.

The woman grunted, hauling up a net full of a dozen or so Luvdisc. The little pink pokemon flopped around helpless in their tight confines. Below the small skiff a Sharpedo patrolled the water, ready to snatch up any of them that managed to escape the net.

“What an incredibly unpleasant job,” she growled to herself, reaching for the first Luvdisc to rip off the precious HEART SCALES her buyer demanded. It wasn’t the act of harvesting the scales she viewed as unpleasant, it was having to dive and remain uncomfortably wet that did it. She brushed aside her wet red hair and tossed the damaged goods overboard. She held up the shimmering HEART SCALE, her features turned dark as she caught a glimpse of the meaning of them within the dancing prismic lights. She crushed it in her hand, letting the shard fall to the deck. It was somewhat satisfying, so she smiled and continued to harvest her catch.

---

@open
MISSION

Yumi’s misplaced gratitude was met with a half smile, bordering sarcastic if studied closely enough in the shadows of the underground fight ring. Her amber gaze shot down to the patrolling pokemon as its master swiftly moved towards the exit. Lex allowed, in silence, keeping her head down and attention from meeting the wandering eyes that followed them out.

When they met the chill of the night air, the ex-beast threw her hood up to stave off the cold. She shoved her hands in her jacket pocket and a few longer steps brought her to Yumi’s side, “Hrmph,” was all she offered as a way to show her indifference for the chosen restaurant. Though deep down, authentic tastes of home would be greatly appreciated.

They walked in silence, though Lex’s eyes wandered attentively. The bustle of more people brought more opportunity for deceit. She felt like a girl on the run again, hiding from both demons that haunted her and the organization that once gave her shelter when she first came to Hoenn.

The hood remained up, even as they slid into the seat of the table the host led them to. It really was a hole-in-the-wall, a small unassuming place with a humble number of tables cramped into the small dining room.

“How’d you find this place?” a little small talk said a lot about her mood. Perhaps the result of finding some comfort in the familiar as she scanned the menu and breathed in the rich aromas of their native region.

---

Yumi Hasegawa

The blood red lips painting on a pale canvas smirk, a small chuckle oozes through, “I don’t think our career goals really line up. Doesn't make you a good mentor, now does it?” There were some advantages to it though . . . Theo was strong, an excellent fighter. Those are qualities that would only help her in the long run if she wasn’t so stubborn and bitter.

A silence fell after his assumption. Her rather sharp features softened into a contemplative look. Was it revenge? Really? Or was it justice? Did it really matter in the end if the outcome was the same?

“You would help me kill Deoxys?” in a surprising turn of events, she laid her intentions bare. Perhaps it wasn’t as important to keep it a secret, “Me and my problems mean nothing to you. Why would you help me?”

---

THEO BECKETT