[FIN] The Final Straw

[BlackPidgeot]

At Faleen's question, Seth stepped over to stand beside her, looking down at the still corpse of the Pokemon before them. His hands clasped behind his back.

"The Mewtwo," he told her. "He had died trying to protect me." There was a pause and a grimace from Seth after he said that before continuing. "He saved my life." ... And given his in exchange for it. Something that the elite would clearly not forget.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

So Seth hadn't told her how he'd died, either. Still, surly Faleen must have had some idea. The grunt looked at the ceiling, feeling somewhat awkward. Being saved by a fellow human was one thing...but a pokemon? It just seemed...strange.

Then again, Umbreon had been no ordinary pokemon, either; he'd been Faleen's dearest confidant and friend. Perhaps in that sense he had human qualities about him. The nobility and loyalty he'd shown in rescuing another Rocket was almost unbelievable to Izaya, but he had been there and could not deny it.  

[Blood_Goddess]

She could not have thought of a situation where Umbreon could have been caught off guard, her hands clenched when she heard the word 'mewtwo' a psychic type, There was NO consolable way Umbreon could have fallen to a Psychic type, not this badly. not to where his body was left in pieces and broken almost beyond recognition.
It was what Seth said as he continued that caused the Agent to look up at him, to the ranked man standing next to her.

He had died... To ensure that Elite Seth could live.

"... He died carrying out his duty then." The engineer said.
It was what any Rocket might do, or how she believed any Rocket... the team, looking out for each other, the organization, to better it... Umbreon would be Agent rank, the survival of an Elite was beyond important, and the fact that had known that, made this pokemon not just an excellent pokemon, but an excellent Rocket.

This fact was acknowledged with logic, with understanding of how this was how the organization worked. She accepted that with a nod and looked back to Umbreon.
"Good boy."

The moment those words were uttered, Faleen's professional demeanor suddenly faltered, The moment she said those words, Faleen was faced with an unbearable weight of memories, all at once, of all the times she had told Umbreon that. The memories she had, spent with Umbreon, training, working just... being there. The way his ears used to perk, the feel of his ribs when she wrapped her arm around his strong body, the large blood red eyes as he stared up at her in completely attention.

The affect was more crippling then she anticipated, causing the agent to have to reach her hands forward, one hand pressed into the table next to Umbreon, and the other gently reached up to stroke her fingers down the side of her face.
"Oh- Good boy" She said, in a voice that was uncharacteristically weak for the usually strong women.  

[BlackPidgeot]

Seth said nothing, for there was nothing to say. He watched her struggle with her emotions, lifting a hand to place it on Faleen's shoulder for just a moment. He'd seen plenty of death in Team Rocket, and this was just the most recent.

However, the elite knew that she would probably need to be alone to mourn properly. Thus, he soon withdrew his hand and looked towards Izaya, jerking his head towards the exit before he went that way himself.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

At the repeat of her praise for her lost friend, Izaya glanced up, startled by the quality of the tone in Faleen's cracked voice. His brows furrowed slightly and he considered a number of indirect ways to inquire into his partner's mental state, but in the end he shut his mouth again without saying a word. Her reaction was rattling, like seeing a grown man openly weep. He didn't know what to say.

Without touching the young woman, the informant continued to observe her, catching Seth's meaningful gesture out the corner of his eye. With a slight affirmative nod and a final glimpse of both Rocket and pokemon together, Izaya followed in the elite agent's stead. Something told him he would have to keep careful watch over Faleen from then on.