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"Hey Claire," he greeted, still grinning at the Jirachi's reactions. "Just doing some card tricks. Showing Azdeif a little magic." He squared the cards back together and shuffled them idly. "What's up? Any news back on that mission?" Through some blind miracle, Lucas had avoided overhearing any of the rumors that had been circulating since the team's return. He wasn't even distinctly sure of who had gone. It'd been a long day.

"Oh s**t!" His brows raised in surprise when Claire explained the aim and success of the mission. He'd known about the legendaries and that they were being used as fuel for some grand scheme, but he'd never heard what that scheme actually was. The scary part was that he didn't even doubt Deimos's ability to carry it out. Thank Arceus that had been put to a stop before it got too far. No man should ever have power to reshape the world in his own image.

All pride in his team and their success was quenched at Claire's finishing statement, and he realized soon that he'd stopped breathing momentarily. "Oh... s**t..." he repeated, though the words carried quite a different tone this time. "That's... damn. Sorry..." He didn't know the agent in question, but it was never fun to hear about anyone who had died, be they a friend, a teammate, or even an enemy. "Did you... you know, know her?" He couldn't even put a face to the name. Damn did he ever feel like an a**.

The Jirachi received a pat on the head and a smile that was more subdued than the one he wore previously, "Maybe later, Azdeif." It didn't seem quite right to play magician at the moment.

Nngh. Why did Jirachi have to be such little vocabulary sponges? "Those are words that make people sad, Azdief," he said carefully, "so don't say them, okay?" Hopefully that was all that needed to be said on the matter.

"Huh... That's really awful. Sorry..." And here he'd been enjoying a life away from death. There was just no escaping it, no matter where he went. Blue eyes settled on the cards in his lap as he fumbled with them absently. Re-making the world didn't sound so bad if it meant they could create a place where no one had to lose anyone. But that would have been Deimos's call, and leaving the foundations of a new world to his ideals was nothing but foolhardy. Mention of the Galactic death brought his attention back to Claire, and he narrowed his eyes in suppressed regret. Maybe if he had been on that mission he could have done something about the casualties...

"I knew of him," he replied with a sigh. "From what I heard, he spent most of his time on missions, so I never really spoke with him properly. Even so... Allies, enemies, even complete strangers - it's nothing but a shame that those lives had to go to waste..." Maybe that was disrespectful; an agent and a commander surely lived undeniably productive lives for the benefit of their respective teams, but how many more productive years had been destroyed as a result of their deaths?

There was something sort of darkly humorous about discussing the death of their teammate with a pokemon sitting there begging them not to be sad over a bad word. It wasn't so humorous that he could laugh, though. The Jirachi seemed to be getting a bit out of control, perhaps picking up on the dismal mood the atmosphere had taken as a result of the subject or something, and Lucas couldn't help but wonder how he could have phrased that better. Clumsy as ever.

"Ah, yeah... See you around," he said, responding to the smile with one of his own and raising a hand in farewell. "And sorry about that..." What a mess... and he didn't necessarily mean the upset legendary. Death never welcomed anything positive, and he wasn't looking forward to whatever was to come.