[attr="class","juliaw"]

Blackjack's words weren't for Julia, but she took in every last one of them. Again, she remembered what he'd said about the people who fell through the cracks and ended up in Rocket because the League had failed them. He'd tried to stop that from happening to these protesters, even when things had turned fatally violent, because he knew where that path led.

[break][break]Time and time again, Blackjack had proven that he wasn't just another evil Rocket lackey. Maybe that was why Josh's confirmation that Blackjack and Isaac Merlo were one and the same, while still weighing heavy on her heart, didn't hurt as much as she thought it would. Blackjack hadn't tried to kill Mauville's Gym Leader. Instead, Isaac Merlo had tried to prepare his friend Josh Devlin for the worst that Rocket could bring. It had nearly ended in disaster, and Julia still wasn't happy about Josh ending up in the hospital, but Isaac's tears and the bitter laugh that escaped him spoke a million words about how much he regretted it.

[break][break]Josh didn't need to tell her the risks of keeping this secret. "I don't care about any of that," she said. "I'll do it for my friend. For our friend." For someone who'd been put into a bad situation that he didn't deserve.

[break][break]Yet when Josh said that Julia would help Isaac escape Rocket, Julia hesitated. She'd once told Isaac, in his Blackjack persona, that he didn't seem like he belonged in Rocket. That he'd make a good Ranger, even. And he'd gotten upset at that. But... no, this wasn't just about the League and Rocket. This was about doing the right thing. This was about putting aside faction loyalties for the sake of the people of Hoenn. But before she could put a voice to those feelings, Josh's consciousness faded.

[break][break]"Josh!" Julia gasped. She set Sparkie down, and the two knelt over the fallen Gym Leader. Fortunately, he was just unconscious—no, it was more like he was in a deep slumber. The events of the day must have really gotten to him. Julia didn't blame him one bit. There was still a heaviness in her heart that made her want to lie down right beside him, but she wasn't done just yet. She rose to her feet and looked straight at Isaac.

[break][break]"You're wrong about one thing," she said, dragging the words past the weight within her. "It does matter. Everything we do, everything we want... it all matters. Even if someone tries to make it feel like it doesn't. Even if the League or Rocket or whoever else tries to overpower us. Even if maybe we can't stop them from doing something really, really stupid." Like condemning another world, even a "hostile" one, to die just to save their own. "We can still do something. We can still fight. We can still do good for the world. Just like you did for these people today."

[break][break]She didn't dare draw attention to the tears welling in her eyes by trying to wipe them away. There was part of her that still struggled to accept Isaac as a member of Team Rocket. She'd spent so long seeing Team Rocket as this monolithic evil that if she hadn't seen Isaac and Blackjack's goodness, she would have dismissed him as a liar and a traitor. But she had seen it. She'd seen firsthand that even people with good intentions could fall into Rocket's grasp. She'd never forgive them for taking advantage of people like that. She didn't think she could forgive the League for driving people to that, either, especially after what she'd seen today. But she could forgive people like Isaac, who'd been driven into a corner and just wanted to make the best of it.

[break][break]She looked at the officers being roused from their slumber. They prooooobably weren't going to just stand around and let Julia and Isaac chat like this. Actually, if they overheard any of what they were saying, that could be really bad. She knelt back down and whispered something to Sparkie. The Raichu looked skeptical at first, but when she saw Julia's smiling face, she nodded, determined. Julia swiped the back of her hand across her eyes and stood back up.

[break][break]"All right, Blackjack!" Julia raised her voice and pointed dramatically at her friend. "I'm not gonna let you get away this time! Sparkie, get him!" And then she smiled and winked at him, mouthing the word "Go." Sparkie took a moment to squeak out something like a challenge, then pulled herself back on her tail like she was revving up. Isaac would have plenty of time to get on the move before she actually launched after him.