IN TWENTY YEARS

THE YEARS FINALLY CAUGHT UP WITH SELENA like an aging wine. The Queen recognizes that in the twinkling of twenty years that has gone by, her memory eventually betrays her: almost half of her living life has been spent here in Galar, hoping one day they will still get out. But her resolve remains unfaltering, especially now that all they have known in Hammerlocke is progress.

Her recon troops has made a stunning discovery that the "organs" from below the Power Spots are indeed the blight of earth from excessive intoxication. They are not the creature itself as prophecied by Calrex for they are traces of the cancer that continues to kill Galar. All efforts from her troops are made to treat these "toxic tumors", to free the earth from its tethers.

As poison recedes back into the ocean, traveling makes it possible for Selena's network of spies to expand towards other cities. Accepting Queen Summer Atreides of Circhester's assistance and offer to work together, her "little pidgeys" have been implanted to benefit from their discovers. This will also be her way to coordinate with other Rockets in there.

Eventually, she will come to realize that even TEAM ROCKET itself are just vestiges of the life that once were. In other cities, even the League and the organization's cooperation is crucial in the fulfillment of the High King's prophecy. Selena will eventually come to a realization that her fixation in this faction war may have been the outcome of her desire to fit in, to be relevant in her organization. An organization that ceases to exist in this memory.

So, if she will not be doing this for Team Rocket, then she will be doing this for herself.

In the next twenty years, Selena's iron hands will be what she will be known for. She leads her people with the power to use TELEKINESIS and eventually, the ability to DYNAMAX. Her reconnaissance troops, which has grown into a battle army, together with kepler brueshaber 's kingsguard for her and Ashley Shepard , will have been the Hammerlocke's intrepid sword against any threat that will come tearing down his walls. Her ears and eyes on the poison-covered city walls will be her crucial line of defense and her trump card.

She touches the boulder that has now becoming more and more like Zacian. Her lips curl into a sly smile as Selena relishes in her plan: in the dead of the night, when everyone but those who submit to her are the only ones aware, the boulder will have found a new home in the secret dungeons with the help of her troops and kepler brueshaber 's local kingsguard, hoping to be the first to make contact with the legendary hero of many battles.

The boulder is to be replaced by another one, scraped off from earth intended to replicate the canine.

"No one will know," she's been assured by her little pidgeys.

---

VB8iwgve

TL;DR
- SELENA ages physically (appears as SUYIN BEIFONG from AVATAR: THE LEGEND OF KORRA)
- SELENA learns from her RECON that the organ is a blight of earth
- RECON TROOP grows to become a BATTLE ARMY
- SELENA accepts QUEEN Summer Atreides of CIRCHESTER's assistance and the offer to work together
- SELENA's "little pidgeys" thrive in the shadows, takes advantage of traveling in-between cities to expand her network of influence
- SELENA realizes Team Rocket may have been a vestige of the past, realizing the reason and logic of her fixation is because of her BIGGEST FEAR of not being able to fit in, of not being relevant in the organization which has been a "vestige" of the past. Selena continues with her plan anyway.
- HAMMERLOCKE is thriving!
- SELENA orders her troops and kepler brueshaber 's kingsguard loyal to her to move the boulder into a secret dungeon her recon troops might have discovered in one of their missions, hoping to be the first to make contact. The boulder in the plaza is replaced by another one that acts as its replica.

RAID: GOODBYE GALAR, RUSTED SWORD

Vanilla had spent the remainder of the first ten years enjoying time to herself. The life of a bakery owner was peaceful enough, although she would finds ways to distract herself every now and again. Some days were easier than others. She'd stay the course and go back into the bakery as time permitted...

TEN YEARS LATER...



Now the CEO of Kingsley Confections, taking owner ship of the King's Rest Café in Hammerlocke, Vanilla had her days filled to the brim with attending meetings, taking stock of their supplies or flying between the regions of Galar that had opened communication with one another. Cauli was getting up there in age, alongside most of her Pokémon, but still had some fight left inside of her. She was around thirdty, and after a period of becoming a more "heavy" after snacking on her fair share of treats while expanding to her confectionary empire, Vanilla had taken fairly good care of herself for her age. Although still single, unlike Biscotti Kingsley and paxton concordas who both had spouses, or even Elise Calcifet who now had a child of her own to train, Vanilla enjoyed a relatively busy (yet lonely) life of a business owner.

Sometime during the expansion, she had managed to secure a prosthetic for her missing arm. While not perfectly a substitute, the girl did enjoy some amount of hand usage returning to her, even if the ghost pains were a tad much at times. The pinkette roamed all around as she kept up to date on the usual going ons with Galar. Thomas had met the woman he had been looking for back in Hoenn, although it wasn't the same person. Still, it was nice to meet the woman, even if she was fairly distant. Biscotti even would manage to get with a girl that she had met. It was always a bit awkward to really get to know spouses with her not having dated before.

As Andraste passes away from the poison, Vanilla is there to try her best to comfort Thomas Benoit . Knowing that he had been close enough to their version of her, it must have been hard enough to really think about losing them for a second time. Some amount of time is spent trying to get their mind off of it, but the damage is done. Still, Vanilla tries to help with small talk, invitations to nights out, even more. Anything to improve his mood.

The same concern is then shown to Biscotti Kingsley as his own partner passes on. While she was happy that some woman had talked some sense into her brother's fat head, it was so strange to see him acting so melancholic. Maybe that's what scares her the most. Getting close that much to another person just to lose them. Vanilla furrowed her brow but continued to keep herself from growing intimate in the future. As the reports and information from the front lines has made her wonder all the more. Would they have enough to weather whatever storm would come next?

Biscotti Kingsley | Elise Calcifet

---

TL;DR:
- Becomes CEO of baking and catering company across Galar.
- Gets a cool prosthetic arm to replace her missing one.
- Supports THOMAS and BISCOTTI through the losses of their wives.
- Becomes afraid of intimacy, doesn't want to lose people after becoming close.

Pf1W1bxk + 15

[attr="class","illeana"]

[attr="class","illeana b"]

[attr="class","illeana i"]

goodbye galar: sword

a celestial queen & the descending madness.

the stars have always offered a solace she has never found in another. no person, place, or thing quite captures her attention in the same way the night sky does.

well, that's not exactly true... but he is gone and she is here, left to rot from the inside out beneath twinkling constellations and the fate they hold. their bodies have long since perished, becoming nothing more than shimmering carcasses in an otherwise bleak sky, but their sacrifice was not in vain.

she maps the stars the only way she knows how: with help.

from FERNANDO SILPH and francie myrtle to priam conrad and her tentative husband aaron faust... each one becomes a soundboard for her own theories and ideas. it keeps the mind sharp, this incessant prattling about constellations. without it, she would simply wither away, a wasted mind inside an aging body.

and as years pass...

passages between towns begin to open up again as the observatory falls. with it, her dreams become ashes.

no matter how many times she tries, she cannot salvage a phoenix from the wreckage.

ollie morales visits on occasion, bringing with him little sunspots he calls his children. they have become familiar, friends of her own kin, and she finds some light coming back into her eyes at the sight of them.

the real spark comes from ollie morales's willingness to sit with her, to soak up lofty concepts like a sponge as if nothing has truly changed at all... as if they're still a ranger and a head scientist who attempt to run in their spare time.

they aren't, not anymore, but the memory feels so real and tangible she can't let it go.

she looks at him one night, eyes ignited with a rare interest not seen in what feels like a decade.

"i think the constellations are fated events."

has she told him all of this before? she can't remember.

the days have all blurred together by now, a long stretch fading into distant memory.

"this one right here..."

a finger points up toward the sky, toward the constellation they labeled ★DrcN.

"it's the meteor event. do you remember that? it feels like a millennia ago now."

and her hand moves in the way her thoughts do, shaky and too fast to keep up with.

"and this one!"

★VStr, ★JnVr. she traces it faintly with her finger.

"that was what caused hoenn to gain the ability to access mega evolution. my old colleague had a hand in that, you know."

is he still alive? with the thought, however, it shifts and morphs into something she doesn't want to entertain... for she does not want to wonder what has become of Felix Gallagher either and if she starts questioning the mortality of it all, she will always end up circling the drain back to him. always him.

she sits in silence, then, and simply continues to point out constellations until it's time for ollie morales to return home with his kids and once again, she is left alone with her thoughts.

eventually, as the years drag on, she allows priam conrad to get closer. aaron faust, too, is allowed back within her personal space. she keeps herself closed off, mumbling with fidgety eyes drifting back up toward the sky, but she's trying.

she's trying and trying and trying.

the final year

the final year, the tenth year that marks twenty finds illeana reyes working with her spear.

she has become the celestial queen by then, a monarch with her head in the galaxy... it makes those around her question if she's fit to do this, to rule and protect an entire kingdom.

and she's not, but the spear in her hand helps in grounding her to this reality.

aaron faust helps, too, for he and Greyson Connors (bless his heart) help her with training until she's comfortable enough to approach Gwyar Wledig for a dynamax band. with his assistance, the band sits comfortably on her wrist and she feels a small semblance of normalcy creep back into her bones like ivy.

it is not enough, not for her, but it has to be for the night is dark and full of terrors as it approaches all too quickly.

_QMRGiyi

tl;dr |
- studies the stars for a few years...
- until the observatory is damaged.
- meets with ollie morales occasionally
- trains with her spear in the final year with aaron faust & Greyson Connors :peepobigsmile:
- asks Gwyar Wledig to make her a dynamax band