[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Aurelie had been busily shining her flashlight on the tera crystals embedded in the walls to study how they reflected and refracted the light and plinking her fingernail against them to test their hardness and hear the unique tone of the crystal. At the sound of Nomi's voice, though, she quickly turned around. Her face brightened with a look of surprise and pleasure.

"I'm glad to be working with you again too," she replied honestly. She chuckled, suddenly. "Especially since you were so nice and polite during the tera testing you were conducting, even though I was being cranky at the start."

She raised her eyebrow inquisitively at Nomi's assertion about meaning to ask her something. "Oh? Would you like a custom knife or sword made for you? Or do you have another new material that needs testing? I always do love testing...new...materials..."

The red-haired smith's voice trailed off as she looked over Nomi's shoulder, the smile on her lips fading. She pointed behind the Head Scientist, pressing her lips together anxiously. "Is that...is that more of that weird dream mist that seems to be everywhere?" If Nomi looked behind her, or even at Aurelie's sunglasses, she would see a faint tendril of rosy mist slowly but inexorably questing toward them, like an insistent finger.

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

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[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Aurelie gasped first at the change in Nomi as she did something mysterious but undoubtedly powerful using her newly acquired Unown, especially impressed by the brief change in eye color. Then she gasped again as the interdream mist swirled toward them as if of its own volition, or as if it was blown by an unseen wind. Before she and Nomi could even gather their equipment, let alone get away, the mist had claimed them.

Their surroundings began to shift in a sudden, surreal way that reminded Aurelie of the RKS simulations, oddly enough. Where they had been inside a cave, suddenly the red-haired smith found herself in...

"Galar?" she stammered, her jaw slowly falling open. Nomi identified it as Motostoke even faster than she had—but it certainly wasn't modern, industrial Motostoke.

Aurelie stared in astonishment at the hauntingly familiar row of age-blackened anvils and tool benches; the worktables piled high with iron ore, bronze, mild steel, and black crystal; the wall lined with coal forges, lit with flickering flames; and most tellingly and poignantly, the bellows powered by simple gear-and-wheel linkages that connected to water wheels and windmills outside the workshop. Other smiths and apprentices moved about the workshop, their figures nebulous and indistinct.

But Aurelie knew who they were, just as she knew exactly where she and Nomi were. It had been a few months since the battle at the Ancient Tomb, but she still saw this place in her dreams to this day—and many of them were happy dreams, of a time remembered fondly and nostalgically.

"This is my workshop, my "manufactory" of sorts in Motostoke that I ran, along with an entire group of smiths that I'd trained and worked with," she breathed, with a wry, self-effacing little smile.

"This was in...um, I'm sure this is going to sound crazy, but...it was in a medieval memory of Galar that I dreamed about, and many other people did too." Then Aurelie glanced curiously at Nomi, her brow furrowing in puzzlement. "But you said you have notes of this forge?

"But...wait, your notes are from Circhester? Were you in that dream too? The dream brought on by the Chien-Pao attacking the Zamazenta's shield during the battle at the Ancient Tomb, and then we met that Calyrex, but he got killed..."

Interrupting her own musing, the red-haired smith shook her head confusedly. "I feel like I would've recognized you, though. And remembered seeing you or at least hearing about you in that dream. But...you know of this place too, somehow? And of the things we worked on here?"

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

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[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Nomi was absolutely full of surprises today. Aurelie didn't even know where to start addressing the many startling revelations that the Head Scientist had presented her with in just the last few minutes, ever since they'd been engulfed by the interdream mist. For a moment, the red-haired smith simply stood there, her mouth opening and closing without making a sound.

For some reason, the first thing she ended up blurting out was, "You were able to keep your research notes? From Galar? Quelle chance!"

It was a silly question, she knew, and yet... Her own diary, which she'd updated faithfully every day, had faded away to nothing but reams of empty parchment pages after they all returned from memory-Galar. Considering the valuable information that was sure to be in Nomi's notes, Aurelie couldn't believe their good fortune in not suffering the same fate.

When Nomi shared that she had been in Circhester, Aurelie's brow wrinkled briefly in confusion. But her lingering uncertainty about whether Nomi had experienced the same dream she had was swept away by excitement at Nomi's next question and request. Her single eye brightened with astonished wonder at the memories of the past and the possibilities of the future.

"Infinity Energy..." Aurelie breathed, her gaze growing misty with distant recollection. "Yes. Yes! I think you're right, Dr. Sato. Do you remember, about ten years after we arrived, every city was attacked...?"

Even as she spoke, the peaceful, industrious quiet of the workshop was suddenly, shockingly shattered by the sound of rupturing glass, followed by shrill, terrified screams. The shadowy, nebulous smiths all ran outside. Something whistled overhead and smashed into the shop, and Aurelie instinctively ducked as the ceiling caved in and collapsed, leaving a crumbling hole crushed by huge chunks of flying debris.

Through the hole in the ceiling, she and Nomi could see the dark, malevolent form of Necrozma writhing and lashing out furiously. Someone's spear struck one of its jagged, angular black hands, and fragments of the crystalline carapace flaked off in shadowy, glittering shards. Aurelie's eye went wide.

"Yes! This is how it happened," the red-haired smith exclaimed, moving unthinkingly in front of Nomi as another piece of rubble hurtled their way. "We were attacked by Necrozma, and...hundreds of people...half the city..." She shook her head, the words caught in her throat.

"But afterward, there were pieces of that black crystal, those black metals, all over the city! And I remember I...she...that other woman I grew up into and became in Galar...and if you were here too, then you too—we made weapons and shields from that crystal!" Aurelie burst out.

"And those weapons and shields were beautiful. I remember that, for sure. I would love to see if we could recreate those now."

She turned toward Nomi, her expression full of hoper and hunger alike. "If your notes say how you did it, even in broad strokes... We can replicate the process! Like you said, we did it once, and we can manage it again! Please, let me work with you on this! Please."

Aurelie didn't even question whether they should try it, in her utter certainty that they could. The sheer power and majesty of those weapons in her memory was reason enough. The ravening presence of the Necrozma lent some further urgency to the matter too.

"Can we be hurt by the interdream mist's visions like this?" she asked, raising her voice to be heard above the clamor of the city being smashed and people screaming in fear. "Maybe we should take shelter somewhere with more cover..."

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

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[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Aurelie whistled appreciatively on hearing the things that Nomi had created while living and working in what she was increasingly convinced had been another version of memory-Galar that somehow had existed in parallel with the one she'd inhabited. There had been no one like Nomi in the Galar she remembered, making circlets and gauntlets as well as weapons and armor. She was sure of it.

In fact, the only other smith she'd known of was some fellow in Circhester, who adorably started calling himself a Master Smith after only 10 years. As if Aurelie wouldn't have gotten laughed out of the house if she'd called herself that when she was 19 years old and had 10 years of experience under her belt! Still, he'd done some nice work by the end of their Galarian sojourn: mostly weapons and armor, like her.

When Nomi mentioned her girlfriend in passing, Aurelie did raise her eyebrow briefly in curiosity but didn't press. Lucky lady, she thought fleetingly. But the discussion at hand quickly recaptured her attention.

The redhead's face lit up with excitement and delight when Nomi told her she'd wanted Aurelie to help her work on this. "Great! Yes! I'm totally in. I'd love to see if we can recreate that process of imbuing Infinity Energy into a knife, sword, or shield. Or a circlet or gauntlets," she added, bowing her head briefly.

"I've often wondered if it is something we can accomplish in our world. Or if it was something special about the environment and materials in Galar. I don't have any notes to go on, only memory, but I'm sure if we combine all those things, we can—" She broke off, realizing she was babbling, and let out an embarrassed laugh.

"Once we get out of here, that is," Aurelie concluded, flushing. "I guess I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here."

Then Aurelie caught her breath in astonishment when Nomi used her powers and her connection with her Unown to...somehow alter the reality they were in. "Holy crap," she breathed, wide-eyed with wonder. "That was amazing! And definitely a relief.

"I'd say 'how do I get to do stuff like that too'," the redhead added with a rueful smile, "but I figure it's the kind of thing you can only do after you sacrifice your best friend or the memory of your first love or something." Sadly, she was only half-joking as she said it.

While Nomi gazed toward the now-peaceful, constellation-filled night sky, Aurelie knelt to study and ogle the starry black crystals scattered across the ground. She remembered these: the Wishing Stars. They brought to mind not only a memory of smelting and processing them into Dynite Ore but also the simulation she'd entered with Nomi, with the purplish rock that had given them visions.

When the Head Scientist asked if the stars looked familiar, Aurelie's head shot up in chagrin. "Huh? Oh…I, uh, I don't know." She looked up too and shook her head slowly, her cheeks turning an even deeper red.

"I have to admit, I never really paid attention to the constellations," the red-haired smith said frankly, shrugging and looking back toward the earth-fallen wishing stars. "I know a lot of people in Motostoke and elsewhere catalogued the changes in them and had theories about what they portended, but...well..."

She trailed off, then, and smiled crookedly. "I just paid attention to my work, I think. To the metals we had, and to the black crystals and the Wishing Stars we used to make special things. I can't remember exactly what or how, though. Not even with the interdream mist jogging my memory a little."

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

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[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Aurelie perked up when Nomi offered to tell her the story of how she had acquired the...patronage? Partnership? Well, the help of her Unown. It had always seemed like such a secretive topic to her, the sort of things that Avatars seemed to want to keep private.

Yet, as a scientist, it made sense that Nomi would be freer with sharing knowledge and less interested in keeping secrets just for the sake of having them. Aurelie smiled with genuine appreciation, and her face softened further at Nomi's show of affection for her Unown. It reminded her of how she saw her own Pokemon as tools—and yet, as a smith, she loved her tools, both the living and non-living ones.

"I'd love to hear that story whenever you have a chance," she replied sincerely, "and to see more of what you can do with your Unown." She eyed the Unown drifting next to Nomi with respect and bemusement for its power and alien form.

As the interdream mist responded once more to Nomi's thoughts and words, the landscape shifted into a bleak, ruined cityscape of black, crystalline skyscrapers towering over empty, dark streets. Aurelie tilted her head back to stare at everything around her, wide-eyed. The material the buildings were made of really did look like the black crystals...

"If this is Lesser Megalopolis, then I've certainly never been," the red-haired smith remarked frankly, shaking her head in wonder. "This is fascinating! I think you're right, though; this place certainly looks full of black crystals ready for harvesting.

"Unless..." Aurelie hesitated as she remembered the clash between the Zamazenta and Chien-Pao—as well as an unsettling meeting closer to home. "I feel like I have seen these crystals elsewhere too.

"I have some—just a small handful—knocked off the Zamazenta's shield during the battle at the Ancient Tomb. And I've seen these crystals on Zev Harcourt's body too." She frowned pensively and rolled her eye. "He told me—well, sneered at me, really—that they were impossible to break off or remove. That you'd tried. And it makes me worried that..."

She broke off and sighed, shaking her head again. "Well, first things first. We need to get out of this mist and finish what we're doing here. And then..."

In response to Aurelie's words and resolve this time, the cityscape wavered and shimmered like a heat mirage on a summer day, before slowly turning transparent and dissipating from view. Before them, the island stretched forward in all its rocky, mountainous monotony. The red-haired smith put her hands on her hips and nodded decisively.

"Then, let's do as you suggested. We gather up as much Infinity Energy as we can. And then..." She grinned in anticipation. "We visit Lesser Megalopolis together and try to harvest these crystals. We'll find a way to cut them off the buildings even if we have to bring a laser saw into the rift. Or a tank or bazooka, if we have to!"

And then we'd be one step closer to bringing those weapons and armor I remember back to life, Aurelie thought, her face shining with excitement at the possibility. I can't wait.

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