[attr="class","barnaby-main"]

[attr="class","barnaby-pkmn"]

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]In the face of the admin's unshakable competence, Aurelie took a deep breath and wiped all expression from her face as she stared forward into the mist. Unlike her, the man seemed utterly unafraid of the mist, which she supposed made sense given the implication of much personal experience in his terse reply. In her peripheral vision, she even thought she saw a smile flicker across Barnaby Finch's face as he too studied the mist wafting toward them.

She squared her shoulders gamely and nodded. "You're right, of course, sir. So, wits gathered, resolve steeled. Once more into the breach, then?" she quipped. Aurelie was grateful that her voice stayed steady, even if it didn't sound quite as cold and resolute as his.

For a moment, she wondered if it were possible to DIG into the ground and tunnel through the earth itself to avoid the mist. But Aurelie dismissed the thought quickly. Air got everywhere, after all, and surely that meant the interdream mist did too. Still, even the possibility was enough to make her summon her STEELIX forth, if only to provide a potential alternate escape route from the mist.

Even before she could step forward herself, the mist itself began to roll in toward them as if of its own volition, its pinkish-purple color deepening and turning their world into a vaporous violet. And then, with an unsettling shudder that reminded her strangely of the RKS simulations, the environment around them began to change. Aurelie caught her breath in shock.

There were suggestions of lights and blurred shapes of something that rose all around them, defying clear understanding for a moment. The red-haired smith blinked rapidly, clearing her vision. They were standing in the middle of a wide, magnificent boulevard paved with cobblestones and lined with trees in full flower. She could smell the sweet scent of the springtime blossoms and even hear music and voices as lively crowds of people took form around them, chatting and strolling unconcernedly past.

"Excusez-moi, j'ai besoin d'aide..." "As-tu acheté du lait?" "Mais oui, j'aimerais vous revoir, madame..."

"Are we in...Kalos?" Aurelie breathed, the sights and sounds tugging at her heart with a sharp, bittersweet pain. She looked toward one end of the boulevard and gasped when she saw the familiar sundial sparkling and spinning its rings. "This is Anistar City!

"Or..." A glitter of light in the corner of her eye caught her attention and she swiveled her head quizzically toward the other end of the boulevard. The Prism Tower rose in the distance, its unique silhouette unmistakable against the sapphire-blue evening sky. "Is this Lumiose City? At the same time? But...ho- No." Aurelie shook her head vigorously and asked a better question. "Why?"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","barnaby-main"]

[attr="class","barnaby-pkmn"]

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Aurelie pursed her lips thoughtfully at Barnaby's explanation of the odd scene created by the interdream mist, marveling internally at the mist's power to create such vivid and realistic images. When he asked if she herself was Kalosian, she nodded. "Yes, I was born in Anistar City. And I have aunts, uncles, and cousins living in Lumiose City, which I've visited a handful of times."

She almost added, I thought the last name would give it away, but caught herself in time. What was a perfectly reasonable cheeky comment to say to a lovely woman met by chance in a spa wouldn't do at all in front of a stern, unsmiling Rocket admin in the middle of a war zone. Besides, Aurelie had more on her mind about the mist's effects.

"It's strange that it would only pull desires and memories out of my head and not yours as well," she remarked pensively, looking off in the distance toward the sundial.

Surely, Aurelie didn't have such a dominant personality that her mind would be the strongest source for the mist, between the two of them. At the same time, the admin's name was so quintessentially Galarian, though, and yet she saw no signs of any recognizable Galarian landmarks or even people on this busy Kalosian boulevard. Of course, many Rockets changed their names or used aliases, but she had nothing else to go on with Barnaby, whose mask of calm seemed impenetrable and faultless.

"But perhaps," Aurelie went on slowly, "your mind is simply better guarded against the mist than mine is. Especially considering that you've had more prior experience with it." She had no idea if that was truly how the mist worked, but the idea would suffice for now.

"I wonder why the sundial looks so fiery..." she commented, wondering if it was a trick of the sunlight in the vision. She turned toward it and took a single step in that direction, curious but cautious.

At once, the blazing red of the sundial flared up suddenly into a genuine, searing flame rising from its center. People began to run screaming from the area, some of them already showing singes and burns. Aurelie could feel the heat of the flame from here, tightening her skin. She let out a gasp; of all things, it felt like forge heat, fierce and focused and intense.

Then she too let out a scream as a swarm of Sableyes began pouring forth from the flame and filling the boulevard. Their claws were extended, and their gemstone eyes glinted malevolently as they all seemed to look directly at her. Aurelie clapped both hands defensively over her face, shielding her eyes on pure reflex. As if that was a cue, the Sableyes all instantly surged toward her in a teeming dark mass.

"Arceus! No! Get away! Stop it!" she cried out, freeing only her right hand so she could punch and kick blindly into the mass of Pokemon. "Don't come near me! I hate you! I hate you all!"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","barnaby-main"]

[attr="class","barnaby-pkmn"]

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Neither Barnaby's growled orders or stern grasp pierced through the thunderous internal tempest of hatred and fear that raged through her while the sudden Sableye swarm that clawed and scratched at her. What did finally penetrate, though, was the roar of his CHARIZARD as it was released from its Poke Ball and the hiss as it breathed out a shroud of smoke to conceal them.

At the sound of that hiss, Aurelie dared peek through the fingers covering her eyes. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw they were seemingly no longer in Anistar/Lumiose City. Instead, Aurelie was now leaning against a large rock, with Barnaby glaring down at her through his mask, while wisps of smoke still billowed around them.

Even better, the Sableyes were gone. Pulling her hands away from her face, the red-haired smith drew a shuddering breath. Her heart was still hammering from the visceral panic and painful memories that the Sableyes had evoked.

"Yes, sir," she managed, raising a hand to beckon to her STEELIX.

She heard the menace in Barnaby's voice as he warned her about not making it out of the mist alive if she didn't toughen up. But oddly, it didn't faze her. At the moment, Aurelie feared dying by his hand less than dying at the multitudinous tiny, grasping talons of the gem-eyed Pokemon that he'd dragged her away from.

"Thank you for getting me—for getting us—out of there," she added with surprising sincerity. "They're...a phobia of mine, as you might have guessed. Seeing so many of them coming for me all at once..."

Aurelie shook her head then and averted her gaze, looking instead at their smoke-veiled surroundings. Clearing her throat, she changed the subject. "I wonder where we are now. Is that something...moving in the mist?"

She pointed skyward as the smoke and mist around them slowly parted, as if blown by a sudden wind. A rhythmic flapping sound like mighty wingbeats echoed through the air. Her head tilted upward, Aurelie suddenly caught her breath as two huge avian forms soared into view, letting out harsh, ear-splitting cries as they passed overhead.

The one she didn't recognize had spiky orange plumage and bright yellow-and-black feet, though it looked a little like some photos of Zapdos she'd seen in history books. The other bird, however, was a majestic creature with purple, white, and black feathers that Aurelie recognized instantly from a battle twenty years ago in her memory. "...Galarian Articuno?" she whispered in awe.

The two Legendary birds flew past without seeming to notice them. The mist before them opened into a new vista under an ominous, overcast sky. In the distance, Aurelie glimpsed tall smokestacks, steam-powered machines, and industrial factories, as well as winding train tracks spilling with all-too-familiar purple sludge.

"Motostoke!" she gasped, her fear forgotten in wonder and confusion. "But it's the Motostoke from those memories..." She looked sidelong at Barnaby, remembering he had been there too back then. "Our Motostoke, I think."

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","barnaby-main"]

[attr="class","barnaby-pkmn"]

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Almost as soon as she'd said it, Aurelie regretted saying aloud to the already-disapproving Rocket admin that her visceral reaction to the Sableyes was a phobia. She was sure that the brief flicker of his eyelids at her admission was yet another sign of his contempt. After all, he'd already made it clear that honesty and weakness alike had no place in his Rocket.

Making her expression neutral again, she tilted her head questioningly when no third avian Pokemon appeared to complete the trio of Legendary birds. "No Moltres?" she mused aloud, echoing Barnaby's unspoken thought. "I wonder why."

Then Aurelie shook her head, dismissing the thought. "But you're right, we should keep moving." To her surprise, she thought she saw a look of—annoyance? Frustration?—on the admin's face as he gazed toward Motostoke, making her wonder what unpleasant memories were associated with their past travails in Galar.

They walked through the city, surveying their surroundings warily. At first, Aurelie didn't see anything unusual. She even smiled nostalgically when she recognized some of the civic improvements that she, Isaac Merlo, and Caleb Harcourt had planned and implemented around the city.

But then, she looked closer at the faces of the citizens, and her single eye widened. Unlike in Lumiose City/Anistar City, the people here took notice of them, turning around to watch Aurelie and Barnaby in eerie silence as they passed. And here, for some reason, every man looked exactly like Caleb—tall, dark-haired, and blue-eyed—and every woman like Elisabeth Fiorelli: some blond, some black-haired.

Dare I...say anything? Aurelie wondered. Arceus, I know he'll probably bite my head off if I do. But...I want to know!

"Have you noticed the people around here?" she ventured to ask, at last. "What do you make of their looks?"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","barnaby-main"]

[attr="class","barnaby-pkmn"]

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Aurelie watched with undisguised interest, one corner of her mouth curling upward in a faint smirk, as two beautiful, amorous figures approached the Rocket admin to offer their affections. She remembered seeing Caleb Harcourt coming back to the castle in the morning with violet shadows under his eyes and a tender smile on his lips. And who hadn't heard about the Spectrier-riding courier frequently haunting the Witch of Motostoke's tower?

"Lucky you," she remarked in a low murmur as they walked on, leaving the two figures behind.

From Aurelie's perspective, the mist had brought forth a specter from her most painful memories. Yet for Barnaby, it had produced the forms of his lovers. With her fond nostalgia for the life that she'd led in Galar, so similar yet so different from her life in Hoenn, she had no inkling of the despite with which Barnaby viewed his time in medieval memory-Galar.

As she wryly shook her head, the two of them walked on through the city, which was becoming further pervaded by the swirling pink mist. Ahead of them, though, Aurelie could see a gap in the mist and a hint of daylight peeking through. Unconsciously, she sped up, hoping for an escape.

The mist thickened around them as they proceeded forward, obscuring vision and even sound. It clung to them, almost like nebulous fingers of fog trying to hold them back. Aurelie breathed in a strand of the mist and began to cough, raspily.

Holding her breath, she ran toward the gap in the mist. And there, when they reached the gap, there was a light breeze, and the mist receded before it like ordinary vapor. The world around them became clear again, and she could see the rising slope of a mountain before them, littered with rocks and gravel.

Aurelie drew in a long breath at last. "Well, I guess we finally made it out. Thank Arceus. Now, we can finally carry out the mission we came here to do."

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT