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From Barnaby’s purview, THEO BECKETT wasn’t too far off the mark. [break][break]

After all, Elisabeth Fiorelli was a woman controlled by her fears. They saturated every facet of her life, made her the contentious leader and avatar that so many struggled to interface with. [break][break]

And he knew she felt some attachment to him, in spite of those fears or because of them. She dreaded the loss of his presence in her life – but did that sentiment extend to ROCKET as well? [break][break]

“Perhaps.” Was all the response he would give.[break][break]

In truth, BARNABY FINCH was less interested in THEO BECKETT’s estimation of her fears and more concerned about how he factored into that conclusion.[break][break]

“Theo, tell me...” His voice was soft and inflected with genuine curiosity.[break][break]

“Did you only sleep with me to gauge Elisabeth’s reaction?”

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THEO BECKETT talked as if it was easy to earn the trust of criminals. Some, perhaps, but just like him many had deep-seated grudges and insecurities that tempered their ability to trust others. [break][break]

"Afraid of losing what?"[break][break]

BARNABY FINCH asked, looking down into Theo's face from where he sat in his lap.[break][break]

"Me?"

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The fires that composed this manifestation of PENELOPE LIVY made for a fitting puppet, personified as she was into the flames that her sentient counterpart had chosen to drown herself within. She talked of lost power, of tools growing beyond their scope, of all the ways he could fall in the face of those that considered themselves better.[break][break]

She represented everything BARNABY FINCH abhorred.[break][break]

Outside this shadowed place, the councilwoman was a driving force within the LEAGUE that needed to be subdued if ROCKET was to claim Hoenn as its own, as they'd done to Kanto. Her influence — and by extension the LEAGUE's — had grown over the years, in no small part due to CHI-YU's attachment to her.[break][break]

How to tip the scales, then, in ROCKET's favor - in his favor?[break][break]

Though a fiery hand clutched his neck, Barnaby reached for the COLLAR suspended beside him: the last of the three shadowed tools provided by MOLTRES.[break][break]

Her grip tightened as he did so, fingers curling maliciously around his throat, threatening a bleak demise here in this purgatorial plane. [break][break]

Persistent even as his chest burned and begged for reprieve, Barnaby unlatched the COLLAR — but just as he was about to bind the shade and all she represented to his will, a moment of hesitation made him pause. After all, the flagrant flame before him was simply an instrument controlled by a larger puppeteer.[break][break]

The magenta inferno that ensnared them burned brighter all around, casting the MOLTRES above in an eerie light. [break][break]

For a moment, he considered the tool in his hands. [break][break]

BARNABY FINCH had been born into a cage. Shackled from birth by the binding chains of TEAM ROCKET and contingent familial obligation. There was neither choice nor free will where his upbringing was concerned. His entire life had been dedicated to working within the confines of an organization that demanded obedience, to pivot and ploy and pander just to survive and garner the small influence he did have.[break][break]

He had never been allowed to choose his own master. Never had enough power or autonomy to do the sorts of things he truly wanted to do.[break][break]

His gaze broke from the COLLAR to look up toward the withered DYNA TREE looming above. From there, the weight of MOLTRES' ravenous stare pressed down upon him. Inherently, Barnaby knew his next decision would decide his fate.[break][break]

When he finally replied, it was not to the shade of PENELOPE LIVY. Now, he spoke only to MOLTRES.[break][break]

"We can give one another what we most desire."[break][break]

He raised the COLLAR to his throat—[break][break]

"Together."[break][break]

—and bound himself to the shadows.[break][break]

Immediately, he felt himself suffocating against the bite of hot metal pressed against his trachea. It was an escalating constriction, tighter and tighter and tighter, until it caused his surroundings to blur at the edges of his vision and his body to weaken. He could practically feel his lifeforce fading away.[break][break]

Just as he had in the Cave of Origin — where he and MOLTRES had first locked eyes — BARNABY FINCH fell to one knee in the presence of the LEGENDARY BIRD.[break][break]

Suddenly, an otherworldly roar pierced through the umbral realm.[break][break]

[player]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1205934982258753546/1222009258741338132/gmoltres_roars.mp3?ex=6614a7cf&is=660232cf&hm=f9d932f7c0172b3eecda84d62b7f0f2357d464756290e3f4d20ecc91bbdd4f55&[/player][break]

With a great movement of its shadowed wings, the malevolent spirit swooped down from on high. Within seconds it landed with a fiery flare of magenta flames, its massive talons slamming into the shade of PENELOPE LIVY, causing it to dissipate in a plume of fire and ash.[break][break]

Staring down its hooked beak, MOLTRES regarded BARNABY FINCH with a pleased eye.

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"Not yet, the thought only just occur—"[break][break]

Suddenly, a loud bellowing sound cut off BARNABY FINCH mid-sentence. From the gloom a rumbling came — a myriad of clamoring footfalls, all making their way up, up, up.[break][break]

Towards them. [break][break]

"Going left." The admin instantly informed jayden cross before pivoting to a more tactical position.[break][break]

Within moments a swarm of IRON HANDS had crested a hill and were charging forward, unusually irate. Something had agitated them, apparently, and they weren't about to stop their rampage anytime soon.[break][break]

BARNABY FINCH's NINETALES sprung into action, her DROUGHT ability allowing her to instantaneously arc a SOLAR BEAM through a row of IRON HANDS.
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BARNABY FINCH stopped sprinting once he saw Greyson Connors tackled to the ground. There was no point in continuing.[break][break]

Instead, in an instant his ALAKAZAM rushed forward to TELEPORT Lulu Flint out of harm's way, leaving Caleb Harcourt to deal with the ramifications of his partner's actions. The pair rematerialized next to him, only for them all to disappear the next moment, away to somewhere safer than the crumbling cavern.[break][break]

Before everything went black, however, BARNABY FINCH laid eyes on a newly-emerged REGIROCK. He'd have to relay this information to the main base once things had calmed down.[break][break]

Reappearing higher in the cave, close to where light from the Giant Chasm streamed through slits in the rock, the admin treated Lulu's already-flowering bruises with a cold compress and a few encouraging words.
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BARNABY FINCH hated to see that rare smile fade from Felix Gallagher’s lips. [break][break]

“It hasn’t been that long.” The admin reassured, accenting the gesture with a comforting pat to the forearm he was currently (somewhat) clinging onto. “Give him time.”[break][break]

And that was all that was said. There was no use dwelling on August Gallagher when there was nothing to be done. It would only needlessly worry the elder Gallagher brother even further.[break][break]

“In the meantime...” Barnaby coaxed, smiling up into Felix’s crestfallen face. [break][break]

“Why don’t you give me some pointers? My ice skating could use a little work.”

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Sympathy was not the goal. [break][break]

It was comparison. To highlight the differences in the way she needed to be handled against the average ROCKET member. If THEO BECKETT wanted trust from the likes of Elisabeth Fiorelli, he’d have to stop trying to fit her into his preconceived mold. His approach thus far obviously wasn’t working.[break][break]

But none of this was verbalized. After all, BARNABY FINCH didn’t necessarily want Elisabeth to hold the same level of trust in others as she had in him.[break][break]

“It was just a passing thought. I don’t know you that well, after all.” Barnaby replied, enjoying the feeling of Theo’s fingers tracing lines along his forearm.[break][break]

“But I do know that much of her trauma stems from that man.”

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“You might be comfortable, but if I had done something like this when I first met Elisabeth...” BARNABY FINCH brought a hand up to THEO BECKETT’s cheek and brushed it softly with the back of his knuckles, echoing a time long past in a meadow filled with red roses. “...she probably would have gouged my eyes out.”[break][break]

The thought brought a small, nostalgic smile to the admin’s lips.[break][break]

“Once, she had a panic attack so severe that she blindly tore at my arms.” Here, Barnaby flexed his forearm for Theo to see; in the lamplight, a network of tiny, almost imperceivable scars glistened faintly on his skin. “And that was when I was trying to save her life. Can you imagine otherwise?”[break][break]

BARNABY FINCH paused, letting both his arm and his smile fall. [break][break]

“The men in her life have broken her. She does not trust easily and she does not yield under certain pressures.”[break][break]

A thought suddenly crossed his mind.[break][break]

“I wonder...” He looked into Theo's face, recognizing the severity of a hardened man.[break][break]

“How much you might remind her of her late husband.”

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Unbidden, a soft chuckle escaped from BARNABY FINCH's lips.[break][break]

"Be nice." He chided THEO BECKETT lightly, shaking his head.[break][break]

More and more Barnaby felt he was beginning to understand the underboss' perspective. It was one ruled by rigid hierarchy within the framework of an organization that valued blind subservience.[break][break]

But not all fit within that mold. [break][break]

"Here..." Let me show you. [break][break]

Sliding closer to where THEO BECKETT sat on the couch, Barnaby deftly positioned himself until he was straddled comfortably within the man's lap.[break][break]

"How does this make you feel?"

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"Mm, I see." [break][break]

THEO BECKETT's mindset was surprisingly cookie-cutter for being the head of human resources within the organization.[break][break]

"And what would that look like for her, I wonder?"[break][break]

BARNABY FINCH took a final sip of his tea, finishing off the dregs at the bottom of the cup. He then set it down on the coffee table.[break][break]

"She's quite emotionally intense, as I'm sure you know. Why would she respond to anyone who's detached and separated from her?"

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Elisabeth Fiorelli was unstable. There was no use in refuting that fact.[break][break]

But it was this instability, Barnaby presumed, that made her so appealing to the likes of WO-CHIEN and TAPU FINI. That allowed her to have ties to power most could only dream of.[break][break]

"Would you prefer she not have an anchor in Rocket?"[break][break]

While THEO BECKETT was cold and critical in his delivery, BARNABY FINCH's tone conveyed only restrained concern.

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