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[attr="class","aurelie_body"]I can't believe, Aurelie thought wryly, that not that long after realizing our lives were nothing more than a dream within a dream, we're voluntarily choosing to enter another dream within a dream.

Yet, this time, at least she, and everyone else involved, had a slightly better idea of what they were entering. At least, Naomi Sato seemed to have a lot more understanding of what was going on with these simulated worlds they were entering. It was strange to think of the young grad student as a Head Scientist of Rocket now, but considering Nomi had been a major part of the breakthrough with studying the Seal Stone, Aurelie was glad enough to accompany someone with her level of experience and confidence.

"Have you been here before?" she asked curiously, as the world around them resolved into a desert scene filled with people busily working and rushing about. Eyeing their tools and clothing, Aurelie frowned in consternation. "Don't tell me we've traveled back in time aga...well..."

She stopped herself and shook her head, before gesturing to one of the workers. "I mean, just look at him using a copper chisel on that boulder. That's much too soft to cut through solid rock! There's no way this would happen with modern-day tools and equipment."

On seeing the two women approaching, one of the workers urged them to head inside to behold the energy source around which they were building their tomb or temple. The thing inside the circle of boulders gave Aurelie a shiver. As much as Aurelie usually loved to encounter and learn about new materials, there was something decidedly unsettling about the way the reddish veins pulsed along the surface of the unknown purple substance, as if alive and flowing with blood. She hung back near the boulders in front, looking wary and uneasy.

"I vote for not getting anywhere near that thing," she remarked with a shake of her head, "let alone touching it. Not sure what the proper scientific term is, but that purple rock's giving me the creeps."

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[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Aurelie shook her head in response to Nomi's question, frowning nervously as the Head Scientist moved closer to the disturbing purple-and-red rock. "No, I've never seen anything like it. Although..."

The red-haired smith pursed her lips in thought, her brow furrowing in a struggle to remember. In her memory, she heard the ringing of hammers and the roar of huge furnaces around her, far more than occupied her modest workshop in Lilycove City. There was a chunk of ore on a worktable before her and an excited voice with a strange accent, talking rapidly about the trials and travails they'd undergone to mine the ore.

But the memory was distant and faint, as if she'd watched this scene unfold in a movie or TV show—or possibly in a dream.

"I feel like I've heard stories about it somewhere, a long time ago," she said uncertainly. "Someone...I don't remember who it was, but I think someone from Galar..." Which was odd, because she didn't really know too many Galarians. "They were telling me about how they were mining in caverns and found a purple heart-like thing beating and pulsing down there, like it was alive. Maybe whatever that thing was, was something like this."

She pointed at the purple chunk before them, the object of veneration for the workers building the temple around them. "But...I don't really remember where I heard that. It feels like it was years ago, maybe even decades. So, I know it's not much to go on."

Then Aurelie looked over at Nomi and sighed, her expression softening into a resigned smile. "But I also know you're a scientist, and you like learning about new things. And this thing is definitely new, if nothing else. If you're interested in it and want to take a sample or something, I can't blame you."

She reached into her pocket and fished out a folding high-carbon steel utility knife she always carried, which thankfully had come with her into this simulation. "Here," she offered. "You can use this to chisel off a piece of the rock, if you want. Maybe we can somehow bring it back and study it later?"

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[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Aurelie nodded in confirmation when Nomi asked if the knife was one of her creations and chuckled along ruefully at the scientist's fond reminiscence about her grandmother's warning about curiosity. I wonder if Nomi's a cat person, she idly thought, watching intently as the woman reached toward the strange purple rock.

Whatever she expected when Nomi's fingers came into contact with the rock, though, it wasn't...this.

Suddenly, instead of being inside a desert temple, she found herself hanging in mid-air above the planet, with scudding clouds at her feet showing glimpses of the regions and oceans far below. All around and above her were stars and comets glimmering against the velvet blackness of outer space. Then, with a shock, Aurelie saw a skeletal dragon launch itself over the planet, only to be attacked by an alien leaping from a passing meteoroid.

The emotional part of her mind just wanted to flee from the battle. The analytical part wondered how it was even possible to experience a vision within a digital simulation—truly a dream within a dream. Her memory struggled to place both Pokemon, especially as there was something hauntingly, horribly familiar about the skeletal dragon as it twisted and clawed at the bipedal alien figure.

"Argh! Ughhh," the red-haired smith groaned, clutching her head. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a faint streak of purplish light as a chunk of the dragon's skeleton was torn loose in battle and fell below to the earth.

Aurelie came out of the terrifying vision bent over and gasping for breath, with a powerful headache stabbing at her temples. But then the wave of paranoia and terror set in, and Aurelie's gaze took in the knife still in Nomi's hand, as well as the pulsing purple rock. Panic shone in her single eye as she backed away from both, clapping a hand over her mouth as her stomach clenched and roiled.

"I...I'm sorry, I'm not used to things like this," she mumbled. As the purple stone's powers continued to warp the world around them in mind-bending pulses, she wrapped her arms around herself as if to assure herself of her own solidity. "Arceus, I feel like I'm going to throw up. Do you ever get used to things like this?"

She closed her eye to avoid looking at how the scene around them dissolved and melted away like ice cream dripping out of a cone on a hot summer day. "Let me know when things get sane again, will you, please? I...I guess this rock must be that piece of Eternatus that fell off its body, right? Not sure if this is the kind of power those people were hoping to get out of it."

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[attr="class","aurelie_body"]As the waves of nausea and paranoia gradually passed, Aurelie patted Nomi's comforting hand gratefully as she slowly regained her composure. The other woman's touch, light though it was, had helped anchor Aurelie to something that felt real and solid. In this maddeningly unpredictable digital world, that wasn't something Aurelie was about to take for granted.

Nomi's advice to remember and record everything they'd experienced so far also sounded solid and sensible, especially given her far greater experience with these simulations. At least, she hadn't judged Aurelie too harshly for her strong reaction to the events so far. Listening to Nomi, the red-haired smith took a deep breath and nodded solemnly.

"You're right, of course," Aurelie agreed, feeling calmness slowly flow back into her mind. "Yeah... Yeah, I think you're probably right that there's some real-world analogue to all these things too—or at least there's a possibility of one.

"So, it's even more important to stay objective and observant," she concluded. Then, flashing a wry smile, she added, "Of course, that's easier to say when we're not being flung into outer space to watch—did you say that was Eternatus and Deoxys we saw fighting just now? Dear Arceus." A shudder rippled through her, betraying her trepidation. She hastily shook her head, as if to attempting to shake off her fear, and looked around herself quickly.

Her single eye widened at the sight of the chaos and destruction around them, as well as the colorfully dressed man standing before them. Instead of the darkness of outer space or the sinister cavern with the purple stone, they found themselves this time on the side of a mountain, surrounded this time by smoke and fire issuing from both the warfare below and the top of the volcano above them. The man himself seemed to be wearing the distinctive robes of a Kindler, which she remembered from seeing them in the Lilycove Cultural Festival, and Aurelie recalled that their leader had been named Farhan.

"Well, this looks a little closer to home," the red-haired smith quipped. She couldn't keep from wincing as she added, "Unfortunately."

Wars between League and Rocket members, cities being torn apart, and fields and forests burning in the melee—what else was new? Apparently, she and Nomi had even hauled a bomb up to the volcano. She wrinkled her brow with effort as she fished through what little she knew about Farhan and the Kindlers.

"You're part of the League, aren't you?" she asked the man. Aurelie's eye wandered toward the Head Scientist next to her, weighing the possibilities.

In an undertone, she said out of the corner of her mouth to Nomi, "On one hand, it'd make sense we're here to hinder him. In real life, we absolutely would be, right? But this isn't real, so... Maybe we can learn something new from this digital simulation of Farhan if we help him?

"Especially if your hypothesis about things in here having a corresponding tangible analogue in our world is true," she added, her tongue tripping slightly over the string of long words. "Maybe we'll get to hear something that we'd never get a chance to find out otherwise."

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[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Aurelie breathed a sigh of relief when Nomi agreed to her suggestion and even praised it as "clever", grateful that the Head Scientist didn't immediately think her plan was foolish. She could think of a few holes in her own logic, like We could learn just as much from fighting him, such as learning his tactics and weaknesses or We're not likely to learn very much from a digital simulation of him, or what we learn could be wrong or misleading. And it hadn't even occurred to Aurelie, as it had to Nomi, that Rocket or something else entirely might be monitoring them and judging their actions accordingly.

But it was done now, and Aurelie watched the simulated Kindlers haul away the bomb that she and Nomi had apparently brought up the mountain. At least, the little tidbit that Farhan offered in the midst of offering his gratitude came as unexpected news to Aurelie. The red-haired smith wasn't terribly well-informed about all the Legendaries, but as a Fire-type aficionado, she was well aware of Moltres, the legendary bird of fire.

"Your Moltres' cousin defected to Rocket?" she echoed, her single eye widening. Choosing her words carefully, she added, "So, does that mean there's another Moltres out there and it's on Rocket's side now? That would be a big boost to Rocket, if it were true. I could see why that would cause trouble..."

As Farhan moved away to set up defenses, Aurelie lingered for a moment to catch Nomi's eye, tilting her head questioningly. "I hadn't heard this bit about Moltres and its cousin before," she confided candidly. "To be honest, I thought Moltres was still missing, so this is new to me, anyway. Had you heard about any of this, Dr. Sato?"

She wasn't quite sure if Nomi had achieved her doctorate degree yet, but it seemed wise to address her respectfully as such, given her high status in Rocket.

Just as she finished talking, they heard a loud boom coming from the direction where Farhan had gone, followed by a brilliant flare of crimson flames. They could feel the ground beneath their feet trembling with the force of the explosion. Aurelie's head swung toward the source of the boom, eyebrows rising in consternation.

"I wonder if they just set off that bomb that we brought up here," she exclaimed. "Did something set off their defenses already? What new crazy thing is going on this time?"

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