exiting the room leads them to a seamless transition to a glade.

an ivory trunk welcomes them, and for both of them who have been in rocket throughout the years of their occupation on hoenn, the tree was too familiar to them.

"funny, y'know, cause sootopolis is, like, full of water, and now it wants us to water it."

it didn't actually speak, or instruct them in any way. priam just feels compelled to do it when he's around it.

he experienced it before too, at littleroot when they blew up the first tree that sprouted on hoenn. he didn't act on it, but he was so close on following his instincts back then.

death is imminent in this scenario. priam knows that their bodies in the real world wouldn't die, but it doesn't stop his heart from beating fast.

fear takes a hold of him. the only thing that keeps him going is the will to take the objective of the rks simulation into action.

"w-w-e j-just need to d-delay it," he forces himself to mention. "i-i'll look around for anything useful."

a trusted weapon comes to block the hand from them. his guzzlord accompanies elisa's pokemon as they face the creature that seemingly wants them gone in a space station.

priam manages to spot notes, being familiar in a similar scene by the labs with all the instruments fixed on the walls of the space station. he never wanted to be in space since it's a simple breach is enough to spell death, but here they are, en route to-

"...ascended hall of origin," he reads from the pages of it.

"ooh, so that's the maldacena."

he's only read the name on reports, and now he knows what he sounds like. the message doesn't seem as eerie anymore since priam had the alternative ending the first time around.

"oh, about that-!"

he wanted to tell jayden that they wouldn't be able to show it to the head scientist regardless since physical objects in the simulation can't be brought to the real world.

the words did not manage to leave his mouth since the shift starts to happen. he would find out sooner or later anyways, given that it's likely the admin was only acting out of habit.

he supposed he can suggest to draw the symbol from memory later instead.

"well, i never thought of it that way."

it's a dangerous idea to put in priam's head. he's consistent and stable, but volatile at the same time. he's a person of ideals, yet someone who follows truths and rules wholeheartedly.

a paradox of his own right, priam is just like every broken individual who grew up in rocket.

"i guess that's why people have been leaving the org."

they may have left the last scenario, but they have not left the simulation itself. from the musky, gloomy sight of a graveyard, they suddenly feel the cool breeze of fresh air in their faces.

he allows himself to be distracted from the thought as they are faced with a xatu this time. like the spiritomb, it wasn't a legendary pokemon like the few scenarios he had seen.

"oi, birdo!" he calls, raising his voice to catch its attention. "what's the deal this time around?"

being noticed was part of the script, though even if it wasn't, priam's actions would have done it regardless.

priam seemed to be the type to have lots of wishes under his belt, but underneath the facade lies a person confused on how to approach life itself.

how does one make a wish when they don't know what they want, he asks himself.

the slip of paper remains on his hand, his pen unable to produce something in writing. he had the same dilemma back when father winter asked him what he wanted, but nothing comes regardless of what's tangible or not.

shaking, he writes the most vague wish he can think of: the will to carry on.

he's displeased with the simple wish, but nonetheless settles with it. with an unsatisfied expression on his face, he ties the tag with the rest of the wishes and promptly moves on from the celebration.

"it got assigned with weird names. i actually only know of their names in writin', so i'm not exactly sure 'bout their pronounciation, but..."

he inexplicably remembers everything from the night skies. it doesn't come unnaturally to him, nor did it surprise him that he knows these. it felt natural, like he'd dedicated most of his life in uncovering and studying these star formations.

"★CMa has to be the most influential out of 'em," he mentions first, reciting the constellation name letter by letter. "depicts zacian and human heroes. it's pretty much like a fairy tail on it's own, right?"

without stopping, priam continues to enumerate every constellation he had discovered in the ballonlea observatory with fernando, each with his own personal commentary following a short, textbook description describing them.



with every word he spews out, priam fuels himself to talk more. perhaps he's impressed with himself on how he can talk like a professional, but he finds it difficult to stop until the last named constellation gets dropped.

"there's even another one that didn't get named because...!" the enthusiasm dies. "...it happened at the tail end of it."

the realization of the timeline causes a pause in priam's pace. like a hint to an unsolvable riddle, it urges him to think despite knowing that it wouldn't result to anything.

priam jolts back to reality with a smile as soon as he dismisses the thought in his head.

"i remember the prophecy and the constellations," he answers as he tilts his head up. "my favorite's definitely the one that happened on mossdeep, mostly since i was there to experience it, hehe."

there's a sense of longing when he finds himself in this position: back propped up against the ground with his head up in the sky, or in this case, the ceiling.

a hand instinctively reaches up, pointing to what should be the stars, but he catches himself, clasping his fingers to a fist and sprinkling droplets all over from the sudden motion. he wasn't teaching someone constellations this time, he'd subconsciously remind himself.

"i remember some, but not all," he confesses as his shoulders give way to a confident shrug. "a genius like me gotta save precious memory space in my head for the actual important stuff, y'know."

he turns to bryan.

"you look jumpy. did anything happen? ooh, maybe i'll remember somethin' once ya tell me stuff! maybe observatory stuff? i remember that part on... ballonlea! see? i'm remember things"

the last time he had been in this scenario, Elisabeth Fiorelli wanted to thrash the place. ultimately, it revealed a secret that felt too silly to comprehend

this time, jayden offers him a solution he had wanted to try before then.

"well, i ain't the most versed in this kinda shit..." his apparent humility is short-lived. "-but i sure as hell am a genius! this is a piece of cake compared to that mecha t-tar i tried to fix!"

the said animatronic was now almost a pile of trash, saved only by the previous head scientist, from which priam learned some of his basic electronic skills from.

he looks around the room and finds the tools to disassemble the device on the same workbench. upon opening it, he finds out it has the most basic layout of commercial devices out there.

"huh? it's like they wanted us to fix this!"

the fix was as simple as replacing a single component hidden in the sea of parts that any untrained eye wouldn't spot. it was clear it was burnt though, and anyone with simple knowledge of electronics would be able to fix it.

priam quickly finishes up, tossing the pokegear back to jayden as soon as he takes the screws back in place.

"hah! i'm so good at this i should be a scientist."

he can't since he doesn't even have a degree, let alone a high school diploma.

together, they approach a pokemon that appears to be a xatu. it doesn't seem to be anything special, but priam is keen on ignoring it in lieu of the conversation between him and hitoshi if it wasn't going to do anything.

"you've come to the right place, cause i'm the best goddamn tutor there is!"

he puffs his chest and strikes it with a closed fist. the pride mellows down quick as he finds a point of convergence with the other grunt of the organization.

"it's funny, y'know, cause i only learned about the basic stuff at rocket too. i think they took me when i was, like, the age before they teach ya how to read at school. told me i gotta learn how to read if i was to be a messenger and stuff back then."

the past has been something he's forgotten, but he'd find himself slowly coming to terms with it after coming out of the cave that formed on route 120. they say time heals all wounds, and it felt like he spent twenty years to recover from his past.

...the past that the xatu forces onto them in his mind.