[FIN] Death and Discovery

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

As much as Izaya enjoyed getting away, this was one of those rare times when he had the opposite in mind. Once he reached the doors, he closed them and turned with his back to them, blocking the only readily available exit.

What might have at first appeared to be an escape attempt quickly turned into something of a lock-down. He laughed at Luke's retort and Yuri's silence. It seemed the news hadn't been shared with the long-haired young man if his behavior was anything to go by.

"And why not? He was a Rocket too," the informant countered. "And from what I know, he was one far longer than I've been, despite our age difference. As I understand it, the time you've known each other was even less than that, so how do you really know he's any more reliable than I am?"

"Aside from making loved ones feel better, there's also the benefit of lying while dying in order to make someone else's life miserable. That, in this case, would be me." Irritation seeped into his voice. "You would think that after all I did for him - the hair cut, tracking him down when he went MIA, rescuing him from you trainers who were certainly going to turn him in, giving him valuable insight into himself and his relations with others - you might have thought that he'd be the least bit grateful."

"But no, instead he goes out of his way just to spite me. What do you call that?" He sighed miserably. "Lukey-chan, how do you know he wasn't just trying to turn you against me in order to give me a hard time? Maybe he was even jealous and didn't want anyone to replace him in that new heart of yours. Er, his."  

[BlackPidgeot]

Luke was holding his own verbally, thus Yuri left it to him. Instead he continued to watch, and was on full alert when Izaya shut the doors. He remained cool and calm but knew full well Izaya was up to something.  

[Suudonym]

Luke's brow furrowed, eyes darkening in suspicion, as Izaya, rather than leaving, effectively barred the exit. The words he said were defensive, transferring distrust from himself to Asch, but Luke wouldn't accept that easily if at all. "I don't intend to die," he replied, resentment rising in his tone like heat from summer pavement, "but if you keep disrespecting my brother, I'll lay down anything and everything to see that you pay for it. There's not one thing in the world you could say that would ever turn me against him, least of all in favor of you."  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

"Define 'lay down everything'," the info broker requested. "Really, what is respect and honor to a dead man? I'm not trying to turn you against him; I'm just trying to point out a few things."

He tapped his chin with a finger. "Alright, so you don't intend to die. For all I know, you could be the liar, but let's say for right now that you're telling the truth. Can you honestly say you can go on with your life without wanting death, even if you don't choose to seek it out? Conciously, anyway." Izaya studied Luke's face. "Do you really value your life?"  

[Suudonym]

"Why does it matter to you?!" he asked again, impatience and frustration lingering in the words alongside the discomfort of knowing that he couldn't predict when his will to live would falter or fail. "Wouldn't it be better for you if I died anyway? One less person knowing you're a Rocket, one less trainer getting in your way."  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

"So you're still not sure." Crossing his arms, Izaya smirked at the two young men. "You have no idea how often I get that question! 'Why do you care'? Ha! Asch-kun asked me that too, once. The answer is simple, if a bit philosophical for most people to understand - I love humans. That's all there is to it. I love to watch them go about their lives from day to day, dealing with their struggles and making the most predictable decisions. Once in a while they'll surprise me, and it's rare, but always interesting. I enjoy seeing how emotions change them and cause them to make stupid decisions. Like killing themselves, for instance."

Looking to the female figure, who had been standing silently off to one side this whole time, he curled a finger at her, indicating to her to come toward him. Hesitating a second, she obeyed. When Izaya turned a hardened gaze on the other Zorua, the little blue fox pokemon growled at him but reluctantly did the same. After looking over his companion's guise a minute, he decided he preferred a human guise too and took on his favorite appearence of a certain perturbed blue-eyed boy dressed in various shades of blue.

"You said I was disrespecting your brother earlier, but I was only speaking the truth. He took the easy way out because he couldn't choose between you and Team Rocket. He wasn't exactly against the organization, but he couldn't quit, either, because that would have meant certain death. Or, at the very least, bringing more trouble to you trainers if the Rockets decided you might have been harboring a traitor of theirs. In that respect, he probably thought that it would all come down to his death in the end anyway, and that if he could use it to benefit you in some manner, he might as well, even if that meant shortening his lifespan prematurely. Still, that justification doesn't make him any less a coward."

"Did you know that suicide is considered a sin in some religions, no matter the reason?" he went on to ask Yuri and Luke brightly. However, it must have been rhetoric because he didn't wait for a reply. "Not that it matters much in the end. Look around you!" He gestured grandly to the overgrown walls surrounding them, arms spread out. "There's no one here; not ghosts nor worshipers. That's because, as I said before, there is no afterlife. There is only nothing. Not blackness, no, because you would have to have some sort of conciousness or awareness to feel that."

"When you die, you simply cease to exist. Knowing that, I can't imagine why anyone would willingly want to kill themselves, would you?" He paused, looking to the black-haired, pink-eyed girl beside him. "I wonder if he thought he might get to see Aila..." he pondered aloud, reaching out to stroke the illusion's cheek with the back of his hand. Of course there was nothing there; his hand fell through the image. He stepped away from the door, leaving his two illusion pokemon to guard it.

"Ouch, you make it seem like I'm evil just because I'm a Rocket!" the grunt complained, clutching his chest dramatically as he pretended to sound hurt. "As my favorite writer, Oscar Wilde, said, 'it is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious'. You know the first pokemon I stole, a fellow Rocket had me give it back because he knew the person I stole it from? Not that I didn't, but I don't usually let something trivial like that get in the way of my job. It hadn't, by any means, been an easy pokemon to steal, either."

Fiddling with his flickblade, Izaya began to flip it open and closed, open and closed repeatedly. "Didn't Asch do the same thing? I would have thought your time with him would have shown you that we're not all 'black and white'. Team Rocket is still human, and that means we can still do good deeds from time to time; even unintentionally. In fact, we've actually saved the world before and I'll bet you never even knew." Raising his free hand, he pointed a few paces behind him toward the pink-eyed young woman.

"This is the girl who died for that cause. She also died saving my life in particular." He looked down to inspect his nails. "Did you ever stop to wonder why you got so upset when you realized that my Asch was an illusion? Was it only because you missed him, or because you felt guilty for having indirectly taken his life? I'm guessing it's the latter," Izaya looked up. "because I went through the same situation."

"If you're ever going to live with yourself without carrying the burden of that guilt all the time, you have to start by accepting that the choice, no matter how foolish, was theirs to make. You couldn't have done a single thing, and even if you could have, it's in the past. All you need to know now is that Asch sacrificed himself for you and to even consider death after all that would be disrespecting him far more than anything I could ever do or say."  

[BlackPidgeot]

Yuri was starting to get pretty annoyed, and it showed on his face. As Izaya went on.. and on to his literal captive audience... Yuri straightened up, his face that of one who was not amused. His arm lowering his sword and he stood there to just listen to the guy, until he finally took a breath.

"Are you just going to stand there and talk all day?" Cause really, this was the biggest load of bull he'd ever heard, with just a smattering of truth in between the lines.

"How about you cut the crap and let us leave." He was done with this. He was SO done. His voice lowering a threatening octave.

"Or we can just force our way out," he said eyes flicking between Izaya and the illusion Pokemon. "It's your choice."  

[Suudonym]

The guy could practically talk forever, and by the time he had finished, Luke had no idea how to begin to respond. He stood stiffly, silently, embittered green eyes locked downward, jaw set, and hands clenched so tightly his nails bit into his palms.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

The man giggled maniacally. "Ah, Yuri-puu...so impatient. This is why you can't get the hang of chop sticks. I'll bet you still haven't learned how to use them yet, have you?" His flicked his blade a final time, keeping it open. "Unfortunately, I'm not quite finished yet, so you'll just have to wait a little longer."

With a crisp pivot, the info broker turned and began to walk toward Luke. As he did so, he used his free hand to pull out an Ultra ball from his parka pocket and toss it over his shoulder. "Kid," he said without taking his sights off the green-eyed boy, "Yuri-puu has a sword. It's making him asymmetrical. Would you fix that, please?"

A black and white Absol erupted from the ball. Izaya immediately caught the empty Ultra ball and replaced it in his parka pocket, never missing a step as he continued to approach the silent red-head. Another pokeball - this one a Love ball - was tossed to reveal a white and pink Chingling. "...Ching?" Delic asked, puzzled.

"Watch my back, Delic," Still he advanced until he was standing before Luke yet again. There Izaya smiled mirthlessly at the teenager. "You're right, Lukey-chan," he said softly. "Aside from my love of the whole human race, one or two individuals don't make a difference to me. I could kill you. And it probably would be on the safer side if I did. In fact, now that I know that Asch-kun compromised me, I likely have some sort of obligation as a member to tie up loose ends."

The edge of his blade flashed as he held it up, inspecting it closely. "If I carve out Asch's heart and bring it back as the murdered heart of a traitor, perhaps I can yet protect our organization's security." He chuckled. "Maybe it's a little medieval, sure, but it's enough to do the trick. Not to mention settle the score with that oh-so-naughty brother of yours, since there's really nothing else I can do to get back at him." Crimson eyes flickered up from the blade to Luke's face.  

[BlackPidgeot]

When the Absol was released, Yuri's sword was at the ready again, eyeing the Pokemon and waiting for it to make the first move. All the while he kept tabs on Izaya and Luke by listening to what was going on.

A dark look appearing in Yuri's eyes at the Rocket's threats against his friend.  

[Suudonym]

"What's a score settled with a dead man?" Luke said, borrowing Izaya's earlier words. A bitter contempt remained in his features, his posture adjusting from discomfort to preparedness. He couldn't fight, and damned if it didn't piss him off. No sword in his hand, no ability to use it well if there was. The proximity of the blade was answered with a sudden motion of his hand from his side, a pokeball leaving that hand targeted at Izaya's face, and an Aggron emerging from that pokeball during its path. Tartarus stood tall between the two, glaring down at the human threatening his own.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Izaya blinked as the ball was thrown at him and took a step back, surprised by the appearance of the pokemon. "Ow!" he cried, rubbing the spot where the ball had struck his face. "Heh...a steel-type. Why did it have to be a steel-type?" he mumbled to himself with bitter amusement. "Delic! I need you here."

The Chingling hopped to attention, blowing its trainer an affectionate kiss before turning to face its opponent. With a determined smile, it took a stance and - used Attract.

It was a full minute of staring at his pokemon's curious flirtatious behaviors before Izaya realized what was going on. "What are you doing?!" he hissed at it. "That move doesn't even work on other guys, Delic!"

Delic seem perplexed and rubbed his round head in befuddlement, staring at the pretty porcelain-like pokemon. "Ching ching ling," he said, shrugging at the Rocket.

Izaya slapped a palm to his face. "Try Uproar, then! Anything, just distract it. Damn, do I hate steel-types..." Staring at the heavily-armored monstrosity before him, the traceur took a few more steps back...judged the distance, ran at full speed, and aimed to leap onto the metal dinosaurs arms, giving him a boost to push off from and launch him over the thing's dangerous head.

From there he could try to slide down the flat-plated back, watching out for that powerful tail at the end. That was the plan, anyway. There was always the likely chance that he could get stuck on the way, intercepted, or even skewered on one of the creature's sharp spikes.

Delic took a deep breath, stared up at the huge Aggron, and just as Izaya broke into a run, began to shriek at the top of his bell-type mouth. The ball inside rattled around violently in his Uproar.

Meanwhile, Kid had been alert and attentive as soon as he'd emerged. While he wouldn't have been able to touch the perfection of Tartarus' symmetry, this Yuri fellow was another matter entirely. The human himself didn't seem too bad...in fact, he was excellently mirrored on both sides in every way. Every way except that sword, of course. That was corrected easily enough.

With a snarl and a snap, the yellow-eyed Absol jumped up to grasp the weapon between his teeth, attempting to wrench the thing from Yuri's grip as he pushed against the arm holding it.  

[BlackPidgeot]

While Yuri couldn't hope to outrun this Pokemon, he still was quick. As the Absol lunged, the sword was swiftly tossed, and the arm that had held it being held up to shield him from the fangs of the Pokemon. Even if it had to be sacrificed to a nasty bite.

The sword was instead caught in the other hand, and swung viciously at the attacking dark type. The blade aiming to cut or even stab into the flesh of the Absol. Unlike many of the trainers that he was in the company with, Yuri had no qualms with hurting or even killing a Pokemon that attacked him.

Then from outside, a familiar howl reached the man's ears, and in the next instant there was a loud crash as an Arcanine lept through one of the stained glass windows. The chain on its leg clanking against the wooden boards of the floor as he charged, leaping over pews, at the Absol in an Extremespeed. Repede was on the heels of the larger dog, but instead was heading towards the pair of illusions at the door. Sparks flying from the blue Growlithe's body in a Wild Charge.  

[Suudonym]

Silently Luke noted that it might not be a bad idea to acquire more steel-types. He called attention to the enemy's activity - "Tartarus!" - but the Aggron was already responding, whipping around suddenly in effort to undo Izaya's balance with a distracted roar that responded to the Uproar. He retaliated in frustration with a Metal Claw, hoping to stop the awful din.

Luke removed himself a few paces from the onset of battle, a premier ball opening in his hand to release the green and white Pidgeot that occupied it. He gestured to Izaya to indicate her target, "Leste, gimme a Whirlwind." The flying-type was startled by her trainer's cold tone, but it wasn't the first time she had been set upon a human foe for purposes of defense. She reared back and beat her large wings, producing a flurry of wind at her mark.

Attention fell only briefly to the canine pair as they suddenly crashed through the window. Luke recognized the Arcanine from the incident with the coalition of thieves and knew it to be a friend, and of course Repede's familiarity was a given. He certainly was far from arguing against the presence of more allies; he had no qualms about outnumbering someone like Izaya.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

The seconds between the time the sword changed hands, Kid was confused and regret sank in with his teeth when he realized he'd bit down on Yuri's arm for nothing. He managed not to bite as hard as he'd intended, but it was still enough to leave a mark. Now he had a wound in one arm and not the other. It ruined the guy's symmetry! What had he done?!

But that sword still remained. Kid growled and let go of the swordsman's arm almost as soon as he'd attacked it, yet still wasn't quick enough to avoid the swipe from the blade. He turned his head as he skidded back on the ground, his own headblade clashing with the sword's.

He hardly had time to react as the Arcanine hit him sidelong. The dark-colored Absol yelped and, knocked off his feet, slid across the floor to collide with a wall.

The two Zorua by the door watched the battle, their anxiety clearly evident on the faces of the human illusions they wore. The girl made a step in the direction Kid had been thrown, only to be cut off by another fire-dog pokemon. This one was smaller, but so were the Zorua.

Swiftly taking action, the boy in blue put a hand on the other illusion's arm to get its attention. Then with a couple of quick, whirling changes, he had become a replica of Yuri, Absol bite and all, but with the addition of a fluffy blue tail. While Aoba knew that Repede could pick up on their scents and wouldn't be that easily fooled. he hoped to act fast enough as to at least throw the canine off temporarily. Beginning to run backwards in Yuri's direction, the imposter stuck out his tongue and held up his hands on the side of his face in a Taunt.

Riviere, quickly picking up on his fellow Zorua's plan, also made a quick succession of changes so that he had taken on the green-ish Arcanine's form. He bounded toward his double with the intent of using a Faint Attack against him.

Distracted by the combination of Tartarus' roar, his change in direction, and the blur of activity going on in the peripherals of his vision, Izaya landed not on the pokemon's back, but rather on the ground beside him. He might have landed on his own back had he not had so much practice with parkour, but the height from which he'd fallen still caused pain to shoot up his legs when he landed on his feet.

The man grimaced and narrowed his eyes as he waited for it to pass, but there was no time. Luke was already calling another pokemon on him and somehow there had ended up being a lot more dogs in the room than to begin with.

His hand reached for Mairu and Kururi's pokeballs, but hesitated, thinking. In that moment of hesitation, he was blown back by the Whirlwind, throwing up his arms to block it but in vain as he fell on his butt. "Unh!" He managed to move his arms in time to support himself from falling on his back, but he did not get up on his feet again. Izaya sat there instead and, with an arm raised to shield his eyes from the dying Whirlwind attack, took a look around. He knew there was no winning this battle. But then, he had never intended to in the first place.

"So this is how you did it!" he called over the sounds of the battle taking place. "All those gang members dead - how gruesome. I hadn't thought a few trainers like you would have had the strength to kill anyone! And I'm not talking about the physical type, either." He smiled grimly at Luke from his seat on the floor. "I know I'm not someone with that kind of strength." Holding up the blade still in hand, he flicked it closed for the red-head to see.