[attr="class","rubyw"]

【This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual events, is purely coincidental.】

[break][break]Yeah, they fuckin' better be, Ruby thought. She hadn't been on Mt. Pyre, but she knew of Father Winter's presence there and, more importantly, that he was a member of the DRK Triad. So why the hell was he in a dating sim?

[break][break]Morbid curiosity had drawn Ruby to join in this special "co-op" route. Maybe they'd find out something useful about Father Winter. Or maybe there'd be an option to punch his virtual face. (Hey, if the game had been so insistent on her punching Isaac Merlo in the gut, it was possible!) She glanced over the text and frowned at her options. Dang, no punching yet. She'd go with tails for now. It seemed like everyone picked heads.

[attr="class","rubyw"]

Ruby nodded. An hour to set up an ambush should be plenty of time. Already, she was wondering if there'd be enough room to set up Arachne so she could use Spider Web on the door to prevent the target from escaping...

[break][break]The hotel wasn't anything super-fancy, which was good. Ruby would have felt insanely out of place in a five-star establishment. It was still clean and tidy enough to be reputable, though, which was probably perfect for avoiding suspicion. People would be expecting shady dealings to go down in a cheaper hotel. Here, fewer people would be looking out for that sort of thing.

[break][break]The more Ruby thought about it, the more she realized that their target really was a dumbass.

[break][break]She nodded at the hotel's front-desk ladies, not trusting herself to come off as well-mannered as Zev. Inside the elevator, she glanced over to see him checking a pistol from a concealed holster, his movements quick and precise. For good measure, Ruby made sure her knives were still sheathed under her coat.

[break][break]The elevator stopped at the third floor, and Ruby followed Zev to room 312. He listened at the door, then whispered for Ruby to get a Poké Ball ready "just in case." Ruby thought for a moment before deciding on Arachne's Net Ball. She took a deep breath as Zev punched in the key code. Even when the door unlocked with a click, she didn't let herself relax. Zev slowly pushed the door open.

[break][break]"The hell—?"

[break][break]Shit, he'd come back early. He was sitting in an armchair near the window on the other side of the room, reading a magazine. He was already halfway out of his seat when Zev opened the door.

[break][break]With no time to think, Ruby tossed Arachne's Ball past Zev and into the room. "Grab him," she said.

[break][break]"What do you think you're—?!" His words dissolved into helpless gurgles as Arachne enveloped him in her water bubble, magazine and all. Ruby looked up and down the hallway, hoping she'd been fast enough to avoid drawing attention from any of the other guests or staff.

[attr="class","rubyw"]

Isaac was optimistic about the three's differing thoughts and opinions on certain matters. Where some people—including Ruby, admittedly—would have seen that as a road to conflict, Isaac saw it as a chance for everyone to put their heads together and use those differences to come up with a grand plan or something. It was a nice thought, and with the three of them, it might work. With anyone else, especially their fellow Rockets? Ruby had her doubts.

[break][break]Ruby scoffed good-naturedly at Aurelie's hand-holding quip. "Nah, don't expect me to go easy on you. Besides, I've seen what you can do."

[break][break]Once she was back from her phone call, the other two commented on how she was too cool for them. "Psh, definitely too cool for you," Ruby said to Isaac. Then, to Aurelie: "You get a pass, though." She flashed a smirk and a wink.

[break][break]"I'm just glad I'm not taking crazy pills or something. I know there were some protests, but there were way too many people who were totally okay with going along with this plan. Being able to bitch about it felt good."

[break][break]She got an egg cream in a take-out cup courtesy of Aurelie, then raised it as thanks before she left. "Try not to die out there," she said in parting. Now, what was so important yet not bad that Jade wanted her home right away?

[break][break]If only she'd checked the date and remembered her own birthday.

[attr="class","rubyw"]

"'Isaac Merlo, Professional Asshole' just sounds wrong," Ruby agreed. She couldn't quite parse the look beneath Isaac's wry smile, though. Was he disappointed by that? Either way, being able to banter like this without digging up those unpleasant feelings was kinda nice. Isaac was right to think that it brought a bit of normalcy back to her life in a way that keeping house just didn't.

[break][break]Ruby shrugged at Isaac's comment after he'd entered. It was true that Isaac was crafty enough to dig info out of people and loyal enough to commit to it if it meant helping someone he cared about (and that thought almost hurt), but this was a bit different. This was something that'd be hard to hide from anyone who knew that Cerberus was one of Ruby's top Pokémon. Or, at least, he had been.

[break][break]Shutting and locking the door behind her suddenly made her own apartment seem like more of a prison. Dammit. She'd agreed to this, but that didn't make it any easier. She wandered into the kitchen, suddenly needing water, and almost stepped into the pile of dust she'd made earlier. Right, shit, she'd been sweeping. She pushed that mess into an unobtrusive corner to deal with later, then grabbed a glass to fill from the tap.

[break][break]While she did all that, Isaac had free reign of the living room. It was sparsely decorated outside of a few photos of Ruby and Jade, some from all the way back in Orre. The furniture was mismatched, and some of it looked like it'd been fixed up a couple of times. On one of the side tables was a Dusk Ball sitting in a small metal holder. The framed photo next to it looked to be a few years old and depicted Ruby standing in some fenced-in field. She was partially turned toward the camera with one hand on her hip, like she'd been trying to pose for the picture, but she was doubled over laughing at the sight of a young Cerberus shaking something made of cloth in his jaws.

[break][break]Suddenly, a glass of water was being shoved into Isaac's hands. "Here," Ruby said, holding a glass of her own.

[attr="class","rubyw"]

It seemed that Rocket Beast Zev Harcourt was all business here, making him hard to read. That was fine, Ruby decided. She'd just focus on the job instead of worrying about what a higher-up thought of her and let her work speak for itself. Hell, she liked the sound of that over trying to make a good first impression or whatever.

[break][break]Naturally, she followed him toward the hotel. He slipped so easily into code speak that it was clear how well-versed he was with this kind of work. It gave Ruby something to springboard off, too, instead of leaving her to flounder for the right words. So their "client" was out for the time being. That'd make this way easier; they could waltz right into his room like they owned the place and set up an ambush from there. She wondered if Zev had any plans up his sleeve already, but that wasn't something she knew how to ask about in public.

[break][break]"What time's he coming back?" she asked instead. In other words, how long would they have to set this ambush up?

[attr="class","rubyw"]

"Oh," Ruby echoed back. "No, you're just... you." How else was she supposed to describe Isaac's Isaacness? "But you're fucked if you ever actually need to be an asshole to someone."

[break][break]Ruby smirked sardonically at Isaac's comeback. That was more like it. If he was gonna be concerned, he could at least pretend to be a dick about it. ... Arceus, what the hell was their relationship?

[break][break]"No," she said automatically, but the word tasted bitter on her tongue. The only person she'd told about Cerberus—aside from those who'd been there to witness his fate, of course—was Jade, and she hadn't even gotten the full story. It wasn't like Ruby could just tell her that she'd joined the world's stupidest Rocket operation and gotten one of her best friends frozen to death in the process. She'd been forced to bury the truth in her heart, and it ached for that.

[break][break]"But you're gonna find out, anyway, so fuck it." She finally opened the door fully and stepped out of the way so Isaac could come in.

[attr="class","rubyw"]

Okay, Ruby knew she wasn't firing on all cylinders (to put it nicely), but what the hell was Isaac going on about? "What, are you trying to be an asshole or something?" she asked, genuinely confused.

[break][break]And then, as if to prove that he very much wasn't, he called Ruby dependable. Said she was fun to spend time with. Said she was capable. And apologized if he'd ever made her feel any other way.

[break][break]"Stop," she bit out, punctuated by her fist hitting the door frame. "Stop fucking... complimenting me. Arceus, what the hell are you going on about? You're not making any sense." The fight was coming back to her voice, but it sounded pained. It was almost as if the fight wasn't against Isaac, but against herself. "What the hell do you mean, what I think of you? I just said you're shit at being an asshole, didn't I?"

[break][break]Even Ruby could see that Isaac's smile was hollow. "You look like shit," was all she knew to say about it.

[attr="class","rubyw"]

For the second time since joining Rocket, Ruby had been called in to assist a Beast. To her surprise, it wasn't bryan delarosa, whom she'd worked with last summer to drive some dumbass cultists out of Sootopolis. Instead, it was the recently promoted Zev Harcourt, whom she knew basically nothing about. She vaguely remembered him being at the Rocket summit, but she couldn't remember anything specific about what he'd said or done. There had been way too much going on for her to keep up with everything. Then again, the fact that nothing about him had immediately pissed her off and stuck in her memory was a good sign. The same couldn't be said for certain others in attendance.

[break][break]The mission was to eliminate some vigilante trying to stop Rocket's smuggling operations in Lilycove. There was apparently a pair of them, but they only had a bead on one of them, who'd checked into a hotel near the city's center for the night. They probably thought they were being smart by staying separate so they'd be harder to find or something, but they'd only made it easier for Zev and Ruby to ambush them. Who cared if Ruby still wasn't sure how she felt about Rocket after METENO? She was here, and she had a dumbass to teach a lesson to.

[break][break]They were meeting outside a Sawsbucks coffee shop, which actually made Ruby a bit nervous. She wasn't well-versed in talking about Rocket business in a way that wouldn't arouse public suspicion. Her outfit was a lot more casual than Zev's, something worn for comfort and maneuverability: cargo pants, combat boots, and a military-green coat over a gray shirt. Tucked away out of sight was the pair of knives she'd had made for her a few months back. It felt good to have weapons on her, even in public like this. They made her feel safe.

[break][break]She approached Zev, hands warm in her pockets, when he flagged her down with his cup. "'Course," she said with a small yet confident smile. "Not gonna be late for something like this." That'd be a bad look on her, and she didn't know if Zev, despite his cold tone, was the type to get pissed about punctuality or something.

[attr="class","rubyw"]

Ruby rolled her eyes with a smirk at Deimos's graceless exit. So much for all that showing off.

[break][break]From the looks of it, Kepler had hit his head on the floor when he'd gone down. Hopefully he didn't have a concussion or anything. At least he was conscious and nothing was bleeding; those were probably good signs.

[break][break]She snickered at Kepler's first sentence. She couldn't help it! She felt so vindicated, especially since it was coming from Mr. Logical and Rational Explanations himself! "Whatever happened to 'I can't believe they brought me out here for some stupid ghosts'?" Ruby asked. "We found the Dusknoir causing all the trouble. Cerb's got it pinned down in the cafeteria; I figured you'd wanna do something with it, but now that something is probably 'kick its ass and make it leave.'" Which was what Ruby had been wanting to do the whole time, so that worked out.

[break][break]"Yeah, let's take care of it and get ou—what the fuck?!" Ruby's bravado was Sucker Punched right out of her when she turned around and a shadow rose in front of her. She'd set her bat on the floor when she'd been rousing Kepler, so she couldn't immediately take a swing at the apparition. Arachne hissed. The shadow reached out, forming a familiar gray hand. Ruby scrambled down to pick up her weapon, and Arachne gathered Dark-type energy in her fangs, but then the hand... reached into Ruby's bag? There was a click, and the half-formed Dusknoir was sucked into a red light.

[break][break]Ruby yanked open her bag and fished through it until she felt a shaking Poké Ball. She pulled it out—it was a Dusk Ball, specifically—just in time for it to click shut and the light on the front to turn green. She stared, mouth agape, for several seconds.

[break][break]The sound of claws on tile snapped her out of it. She snapped her head up to see Cerberus padding in like nothing was wrong. Ruby looked between him and her newly acquired "catch." "Cerb, what the fuck?" she asked.

[break][break]Cerberus woofed, as if to say that everything was okay. And, okay, it was, but still.

[break][break]Ruby sighed and stuffed the Dusk Ball back into her bag. She'd figure out what to do with it later. "Come on, let's get out of—"

[break][break]The lights above flickered, then blew out with a crack. Something cackled with static as it rushed through the ceiling. Cerberus was immediately on alert again, growling and barking after it.

[break][break]"Oh, come the fuck on!"

[attr="class","rubyw"]

"What, your deal of not actually being able to commit to being an asshole?" Okay, wow, that may have been Ruby's worst attempt at an insult ever. Even if it was true.

[break][break]She was about to point out that, yes, she'd heard what Isaac had said but had asked why he was really here, but then he asked something else. He asked if he needed a deeper reason for checking on someone he cared about. Fuck. Ruby and Isaac hadn't spoken since their ice cream outing with Aurelie Lefevre. Since then, the three-pronged METENO operation had happened. Despite him saying he wanted to be part of the meteoroid mining, the absolute mad lad, Isaac hadn't been there. And now he was at Ruby's front door with an eyepatch.

[break][break]Fuck, Ruby hadn't even thought to ask after him, had she? If Isaac was incapable of committing to being an asshole, Ruby was a master of being one by complete accident. And that should have been fine! Ruby wasn't exactly known for being the friendliest grunt this side of Rocket. Hell, that kind of thing could mean weakness in an organization like this. So why did it feel so gross right now?

[break][break]"For all I know, you're here to make me get back to work." There wasn't an ounce of an actual accusation in that sentence. "If you are, just tell me instead of giving me the run-around."