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[attr="class","skullbody"]Unfortunately, Zev wouldn't have the chance to spy on Isaac's new roommate on his lonesome. The combination of actually sleeping in a warm bed for a night and not having an adoring girlfriend to anchor him to the bed meant that the unthinkable had happened.[break][break]

Isaac had a comfortable, satisfying sleep, and woke up early the next morning.[break][break]

A teacup by the window floated up from its dwelling, the face-like pattern on the cup peeking back and forth in a state of contemplation. Upon noting the guest, it nodded once, then zoomed away to Isaac's room. Within a few minutes, Isaac was on his way. Perhaps, faintly visible through the window, Zev would notice Isaac was still throwing a shirt on. Disorganized as he may be, at least he wasn't keeping his guest waiting![break][break]

"Hold on, hold on, I'm comi-" Isaac started, only to notice the familiar face on the other side of the freshly-opened door. "Oh! Zev! Didn't expect you'd show. But, hey. Good to see ya."[break][break]

He glanced down towards the gift back, faintly noting the bottleneck poking out from the end of it. Was it a gift? Or was it a coded message? "Don't tell me; you don't need me for an urgent shift, do you?" he asked. His eyes darted from Zev, to the bottle, then back to Zev, then to the empty room he was standing in, before finally returning to Zev.[break][break]

Clearly, the Howling wasn't the line of work he was discussing here.

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Zev shook his head. "I said I'd drop by, so I'm dropping by," he said in a matter-of-fact tone.[break][break]

Peering over Isaac's head through the open door, Zev scanned the relatively normal interior. There was no sign of the roommate yet. Without waiting for Isaac to let him in, Zev stepped across the threshold, attempting to push past the shorter man with the authority of someone used to getting his way.[break][break]

"Besides, I wanted to meet your new friend," Zev said, his voice adopting the light, amiable quality he used for his public persona. After all, said friend might simply be in another room, well within earshot.

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[attr="class","skullbody"]Oh! For once there were no dirty deeds in need of some dirt-cheap doing. Instead, Zev actually wanted to see him. Frankly, when Isaac last brought the house party up, he figured Zev just said that to get the party invite out of his hair. He scooted out of the way, knowing Zev would practically walk through him if he needed to.[break][break]

Unfortunately, part of the goal behind his arrival was an early-onset mission failure. "They're not in, sadly," he said, secretly thankful that Zev wouldn't already have another finger in part of Isaac's life. "Legit, soon as the clock hit midnight, they were gone. Like they'd turn into a pumpkin or something."[break][break]

"Can't say I'm shocked, though. They wander around Hoenn more than I do. If anything, we less live here and more just use it as a home base when we're not doing our own thing." The ghosts that squatted in the manor, who weren't keen on being evicted, were understandably very happy about this. "Weird way to live, I know. But c'mon, you should know better by now than to think I'd do something the normal way." The Isaac way was the only way![break][break]

"Anything I can get you?"

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"Not in? A pity." Zev would have to drop by another time.[break][break]

But he was not going to turn right back around after making the trek out to Isaac's new home. There were other things to discuss with the younger man, after all.[break][break]

Zev handed the gift bag to Isaac. "Make us a drink and we'll talk in the kitchen." He was certain his protégé could fashion a decent rum drink even without a whole bar's worth of ingredients at his disposal.[break][break]

"You mentioned before that you met illeana reyes and talked to her about Avatar powers."[break][break]

Now that Team Rocket had recovered following the operations on November 18th, S.P.E.C.T.R.A. was kicking into gear. One of its many initial objectives was to obtain as much intel as possible on the League and their Avatars.

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[attr="class","skullbody"]Isaac took the gift bag with a smile and a thank you. The least he could do was whip something up for Zev with it when he asked the favor. "Right on it!" Isaac said, ushering Zev over to the kitchen.[break][break]

Luckily for him, Isaac had enough passho and oran berries on hand to whip up a Hurricane. He'd also started getting a handle on the whole hand-eye coordination thing, having been a solid four months into the readjustment process. With Eris Halla' tutelage, a stubborn insistence on practicing, and the occasional aid from his Pokemon, Isaac was starting to get more comfortable with the monocular life. His pours were still a little shaky, and he was slower and more cautious than he'd like, but he was actually doing a pretty good job![break][break]

Soon, he had a pair of serviceable Hurricanes set up on the kitchen table, tipping his Zev's way in a brief salute.[break][break]

That was the pleasure out of the way. Now it was time for business. Zev had taken interest in the information he'd learned about avatars and legendaries, and it was about time for those chickens to come to roost. "Only briefly, I'm afraid. But that's still way more than I knew about legendaries before," Isaac said. "Anything you're looking to know?"

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Despite the lack of high quality ingredients, the Hurricane was indeed serviceable. After the first experimental sip, Zev sat back in his chair at Isaac's kitchen table, cradling the glass in one hand. He'd hung his coat over the chair's back, not intending to stay long.[break][break]

He considered what he wanted to know about Isaac's conversation with Dr. Reyes. Many questions immediately came to mind, but he decided it was best to start at the beginning.[break][break]

"What was the circumstance of your run-in with the Head Professor?" Zev finally asked.

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[attr="class","skullbody"]Ah, jeez. Isaac should've figured Zev would ask about his unexpected intel source. Part of him didn't want to tell the truth, knowing that it could put Illeana in jeopardy. Another part of him was afraid that the woman's mad ambitions would put Zev in jeopardy instead. This was a delicate situation involving many important people, and also him somehow.[break][break]

"We encountered each other on the battlefield," Isaac said. "She was alone, unarmed, and distracted. I figured if I caught her off guard, I could try and get what we wanted without needing to wreak any havoc, you know? Step away from the Primal Point and let us do our thing, and nobody needs to get hurt. Leverage."[break][break]

"We struck up a chat along the way. Turns out, she wanted the point for her own reasons, too, and she wasn't content to wait til then meteor was handled. So I figured I'd let her loose on it so her meddling could take care of business for us. Long as the point doesn't fire, a win's a win, right? It didn't pan out that way. But at least we built a rapport." The more he communicated the head scientist's madness and friction against the League's goals, the more likely she'd be safe. Perfection.[break][break]

"We met up in a cave after the fact, sort of a rendezvous point in case the plan fell through. And that's where I got to pick her brain about the Triad and the Origin Point." It was a gentle re-stating of the key point, at least in Isaac's mind. To him, any talk of Avatars was a bonus compared to having a leg up on Hoenn's true greatest enemies.[break][break]

Zev would never see it that way. But it was his debriefing to deliver, damnit! He might as well speak his truth before the inevitable leading around by the nose.

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The fact that one of the League's own Head Professors had tried to sabotage the League's plans to teleport the meteoroid caused Zev to pause with his glass halfway to his mouth. He stared at Isaac with both eyebrows raised.[break][break]

She wanted the point for her own reasons, and she wasn't content to wait till the meteor was handled.[break][break]

Illeana Reyes had an agenda — perhaps one the League did not condone. Maybe they didn't even know about it. Zev thought back to everything he had read about the primal points and the crystals they'd housed. Teleportation into other realms was their key use. If Illeana had been trying to tamper with the primal point, that only meant one of two things.[break][break]

One, she had wanted the meteoroid to crash into Hoenn. That meant she was a rogue agent opposing the League but unaffiliated with Team Rocket — as far as Zev was aware, anyway.[break][break]

Two, she had wanted to teleport the meteoroid somewhere other than Sea Hoenn. But as far as Zev was aware, the precise cut of the primal crystals dictated the destination of the teleportation.[break][break]

So perhaps there was a third possibility: Illeana had wanted to teleport something other than the meteoroid to another world.[break][break]

With all of that in mind, Zev resumed bringing his glass to his lips, taking a sip of the rum cocktail. "Why did she try tampering with the primal point? What was her goal?"[break][break]

He could hypothesize as much as he wanted, but if Isaac knew the answer, there was nothing to do but ask. The topics of Avatars, Legendary Pokémon, the DRK Triad, and the last thing Isaac had mentioned — the Origin Point — could wait. They had time.

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[attr="class","skullbody"]"It was Palkia." Isaac wasn't sure what she'd been talking about the first day they met. He only knew that A) her goals were outside of the League's and B) she was flat out ready to stab people tl dearh in order to accomplish them.[break][break]

"I'm not sure if she wanted to try and get to Palkia before the Triad could, or if she knew they were in control and wanted to drag them out of hiding. But she was hellbent on using the Primal Point to get to Palkia, and I don't thonk she was going to wait for the Meteno to be destroyed to do it."[break][break]

To think, the League feared Rocket causing the end of days, and yet one of their own may have been far more willing to do so. "She didn't seem to want to turn Palkia's power against Rocket," Isaac added. "She's hellbent on getting revenge against herself, first and foremost. She's a . . . strange one."[break][break]

And yet, Isaac still found himself worrying over her.[break][break]

"Has there been any sign of Palkia since the meteor? Or Dialga?" There were the usual spacetime rifts, true, but even those had grown far less frequent. Beyond that, the trail was strangely quiet for such large, powerful, and distinctive titans. How hard could it be to find a giant technicolor dinosaur?[break][break]

When they could be anywhere in space and time, the answer may be surprising.

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"Revenge against herself," Zev echoed slowly, incredulity coloring his tone. He stared at Isaac with open skepticism, but it was not the boy he doubted. Though Isaac could lie as well as Zev could, in that instance, there was no reason for it. What would Isaac have to gain from reporting such an absurd statement?[break][break]

Taking a contemplative sip of his Hurricane, Zev considered the facts. Palkia had the power over dimensions. More exact and powerful than the primal crystals and the mere human technology that utilized them, it could theoretically go anywhere, manipulating the very fabric of reality. The sheer magnitude of its capabilities was too much for humans to understand. Even Zev, who felt like he understood a great deal more than other people, couldn't fathom exactly what that meant.[break][break]

But what he did know is that anyone who possessed Palkia — and thus, that power — could do just about anything they wanted.[break][break]

Isaac's questions drew Zev out of his thoughts. The black-haired man shook his head. "Not that I've heard, though people are looking. Our scientists, and I'm guessing Reyes too, on the League's behalf."

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[attr="class","skullbody"]It did sound kind of crazy when phrased that way, didn't it? Isaac was, and he had no shame in admitting this, a rather credulous individual. He took people at face value, no matter how insane they sounded. Sure, he peered at what they had to say through a cynical lens, but only after accepting the premise they provided. Zev was far more critical, and far more prone to reject things that just didn't add up.[break][break]

Zev was usually the more aware of the two. But this was the Hoenn region, where sense came to die.[break][break]

"You know other worlds? Sea Hoenn?" Isaac asked, figuring that a bit of concrete evidence would help make sense of the senselessness he'd provided. "Her last run-in with another self ended . . . poorly. And she's decided to make that every other Illeana's problem."[break][break]

"Frankly, if you ask me, she's just gonna write her own origin story again. But, at least that madness is only aimed at herself, right?" It was more power than anyone should reasonably have. It was a tragedy waiting to happen. But was it a threat to the region as a whole? Or was it just a long, drawn-out suicide?[break][break]

Isaac could try to talk her down. But it would be up to Illeana to step away from the ledge.[break][break]

"Maybe it's for the best nobody's had any luck," Isaac said. "I kinda get the feeling meddling with time and space won't end well for anyone. Even by Legendary standards, it seems kinda . . ."[break][break]

He let his silence speak the volumes he never could.

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Zev had been living in Hoenn for nearly four years. He was familiar with Sea Hoenn, even though he'd never witnessed it himself. He understood from his encounter with Ultra Beasts, Megalopolans, and the realms beyond the rifts that other worlds existed besides their own. Parallel dimensions, even.[break][break]

Yet he had not encountered any other self before. He wondered what they were like and what he might do if he ever did meet one. Would they try to kill him, or would they all be of a similar mind?[break][break]

For all Zev knew, he could be the most dangerous version of himself.[break][break]

"If Reyes wants to kill herself, then it sounds like she's not that much of a threat to us after all," he finally said. "We could probably take advantage of that, especially if she endangers the League by it. Keep talking to her."[break][break]

Isaac's silence indeed spoke volumes. It was enough for Zev to down the rest of his Hurricane.[break][break]

"If it was between us possessing Palkia and Dialga, and the League possessing them, which would you prefer?"

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[attr="class","skullbody"]Isaac wondered how he'd react to an alternate copy of himself. Would they get along? Would they be at each other's throats? With how much he'd changed in the past year, would he even recognize himself? Isaac would like to think that, as Isaacs, they'd band together in the face of cold, unflinching infinity. But it wasn't like he was always the biggest fan of himself.[break][break]

Then again, he tended to empathize strongly with those he encountered. Maybe meeting himself was what it would finally take to make Isaac give himself some credit.[break][break]

"I don't doubt that she'd attack us if she saw reason to. But her war against herself's much more important to her," Isaac said. "Could be a threat. Could be an opportunity. But right now, just something we should keep our eye on to make sure nothing explodes."[break][break]

Unfortunately, explosions were Rocket's middle name.[break][break]

Zev asked another question. It was in that "this should be obvious" tone of voice where Isaac already knew what the answer should have been. Unfortunately, in this case, the answer was "Team Rocket, a literal terrorist organization who has committed no shortage of atrocities, should command ownership of beings that could bend the space-time continuum to their will." Even by the standards of someone who thought Rocket deserved a fighting chance, that seemed a little beyond the pale.[break][break]

"I think they should be kept out of the League's hands." It was a non-answer, but a diplomatic answer nonetheless. "They've just been kept in bondage, to the point where their bodies broke down from it. They're going to remember and resent any such efforts. If we ensure that the League can't repeat the process, and help defend them from capture. they'll be grateful. Maybe even helpful."[break][breka]

"Maybe even loyal."

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