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As the first dance of their second wedding concludes, Cillian parts from his husband with a breathless laugh.[break][break]

"Can I cut in?"[break][break]

His mother's voice is warm with amusement, and Tempest Quinn readily surrenders his husband to Sienna's company. Her cheeks are flushed with drink, eyes bright with mirth, and she beams proudly at her son as she fixes his suit where the dance had skewed it.[break][break]

His half-hearted protest of, "I'm fine, Mum," goes ignored.[break][break]

"You can't let your brother see you like that."[break][break]

"Rowan's here?"[break][break]

His voice lifts with delight; Rowan Wrynn was busy with his studies abroad, and they'd been unsure if he'd be able to make the wedding.[break][break]

"Course I am." His brother's gone and dyed his hair again; no wonder Cil hadn't spotted Rowan Wrynn in the crowd. "You think I'd miss your wedding? Come and have a drink, Saoirse was just telling me about her new job."[break][break]

He's tugged toward the bar, where Thomas and Tulio pause in conversation to smile at him in greeting and Lulu Flint passes him a shot.[break][break]

"Temp told me the adoption process finally went through." Saoirse grins at him. "Can't wait to meet her. What's her name?"[break][break]

Their daughter, of course. "Diot."[break][break]

They were the very picture of what a family should look like. Happy. Healthy. Whole.

[break][break]

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Even in a world of dreams, a perfect world, duty prevails.[break][break]

Upon his return from Galar, Cillian reports like clockwork to Rocket HQ. The Rocket Boss had been gracious enough to grant leave for the wedding, and Cillian respects that grace with punctuality.[break][break]

He falters, however, upon opening the door.[break][break]

Stripped of its effects, the office is little more than a large room. A desk remains; behind it, the imposing figure of Declan Walsh. His gaze catches on Cillian's imperfections — the stutter in his step, the way his attention drifts around the room before snapping back — but the man says nothing, only waits in silence for him to sit.[break][break]

Even in a perfect world, Cillian is conscious, cautious, of power.[break][break]

He sits.[break][break]

"How was the wedding?"[break][break]

Perhaps as intended, the opener throws him off. Gears grind to a halt in his brain, then start anew.[break][break]

"It was — good, sir." His cheeks flush. "Perfect. Thank you."[break][break]

"Good." Without the ticking of the clock to count the irregular rhythm of his heartbeat, Cillian feels even more ill at ease in the silence that follows. Though brief, it feels like an age. "I'm returning to Kanto."[break][break]

It takes several seconds to settle. "Oh?" Why?[break][break]

"There has been an uprising. Monroe is dead."[break][break]

Cillian scowls. Eva Morales's work, no doubt. He inclines his head.[break][break]

"We'll hold the fort until your return."[break][break]

Dutiful, as always.[break][break]

"I won't be returning."[break][break]

(Even in the RKS Simulation, presented with a vision of such a future, Cillian had feared the implications. Whether from Temp's thoughts or his own, one thing was clear: he had rejected the narrative brought forth. He would never betray Rocket.[break][break]

He hadn't for a second considered this.)[break][break]

"Hoenn is in your hands," the Rocket Boss continues, as if Cillian's world weren't shifting around him. His heart is in his throat, fluttering there as Walsh says, with what sounds like amusement, "Don't disappoint me."[break][break]

With solemnity, with pride, Cillian affirms: "I won't."

[break][break]

[attr="class","main"]

On every news station, in every region, the message is the same.[break][break]

HOENN HAS FALLEN.[break][break]

It had ended in Ever Grande, with the final-and-permanent death of kyle lopez following Ho-oh's own. Though the Rainbow Pokémon would doubtless rise again, as legends often did, its chosen one would not rise with it.[break][break]

"Hoenn is only the beginning."[break][break]

Cillian tents his fingers beneath his chin as he assesses his generals.[break][break]

"I will not do as Silas once did, and leave Hoenn behind. But for those of you whose bloodlust is not yet sated: go, with my blessing, and bring the other regions to their knees." His gaze falls upon Zev. "Necrozma would thrive in Galar, I think."[break][break]

He leaves them to discuss and bicker amongst themselves, retiring to his office.[break][break]

In Galar, they'd given him a crown. In Hoenn, he sits his office chair like a throne and doesn't lament the absence of a weight upon his brow. Word from Kanto assures him that Walsh has squashed the uprising, and Rockets across both region are afforded a breath to celebrate.[break][break]

His ambition was a ravenous thing. Never satisfied, no matter how hard Cillian worked, no matter what the accomplishment. Yet in the conquest of Hoenn, that great beast falls to slumber. For a while, even if a short one, he would know the peace of satisfaction.

[break][break]

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Cillian had worried, in the event of an ending, that she would leave.[break][break]

Yet as Hoenn settles beneath Rocket's rule, the Guardian of the Sea remains in the bay she'd claimed as her own.[break][break]

His powers have not fled him. He is not left empty and cold as he'd experienced in the Border, when the sudden void of loss had overtaken him. MIASMA still flows from him, surrounds him, and even sinks beneath the waves that once it could not penetrate.[break][break]

Eventually, as he sits by the water's edge and watches her surface, she breaks the silence.[break][break]

There is something on your mind. She never pries against his will, though he is sure she could if she wished. Instead, the legend has always respected his wariness of psychic power.[break][break]

"What happens now?"[break][break]

Now?[break][break]

He swallows, anxious. Worried that, in putting his thoughts into words, he might make them reality. But under her penetrating stare, he relents.[break][break]

"Now that it's over," he says, at last. "Now that we've won. What will you do?"[break][break]

It was widely stated and understood that legends offered their blessings for a stake in the future of the chaotic region. Though he has never voiced them, Cillian has always been concerned about his own standing. Was he nothing more than a pawn, to be sacrificed in the name of whatever stakes she wished to hold? He doesn't speak these words, even now, but a rumble of amusement in the Guardian's throat suggests an understanding. Confirmed, no doubt, when he breaks eye contact to look out over the waves.[break][break]

I was more to you than a tool.[break][break]

In dream, she is less cryptic than in life. Her telepathic timbre draws his gaze back.[break][break]

You are more to me, also.[break][break]

All his life, he has been a tool. To his parents, to Rocket, and, he had thought, to Lugia. Validation brings tears to his eyes, and he does not dry them in shame.[break][break]

He accepts, instead, his worth.[break][break]

I will stay.

[break][break]

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Having played Blades & Bulwarks, Cillian finds himself immediately unsettled by his new surroundings as he 'wakes' near the Sylvis Castle. For a bizarre moment, he thinks that he's gone back in time... but things are different. The HUD he'd once been familiar with is gone. His video-game powers are absent. He can't log out.
[break][break]
You could wake up.
[break][break]
He rejects that thought, for now. He will get to the bottom of this.
[break][break]
Warily, he approaches the throne sat by the Snubbull, thronged by so many others. He listens to the king's speech, and closes the screen after reading the description of the DREAM BALL.
[break][break]
He does not linger once his objective is clear. If there are SHADOW POKEMON rampaging, then his corrupted Lycanroc will be among them. It's unclear what might happen to the canine, or to him, if he doesn't bring it to heel.
[break][break]
A quick glance about the crowd reveals no one he recognizes, and so Cillian proceeds into the forest ALONE.
[break][break]
It's not long before a Pokémon bursts from the dark, lunging for him with claws extended. This is how he learns of the absence of his AVATAR POWER — he tries to dodge out of the way with the aid of his MIASMA, but the fog does not rise, and he is too slow. Pain blooms across his chest as claws sink deep. He squeezes his eyes shut, reflexive.
[break][break]
When he opens them, he can't fucking see.
[break][break]

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[break][break]
Blood seeps through torn clothes as Cillian clutches his chest.
[break][break]
Great. Now he had no fucking clue where he was. Lost, as well as injured! When he tries to manipulate or disperse the miasma, as he could with his own, it doesn't respond.
[break][break]
With no other option, and with the snarling shadow still in pursuit, he turns and runs.
[break][break]
He is not any faster. His reflexes feel dull. But, in some twisted blessing, he is fast enough to lose his pursuer in the fog. Its snarls grow distant as Cillian's lungs begin to burn. He'd almost have been grateful if he didn't run headlong into a tree in the mist.
[break][break]
"Hate it here," he grumbles, feeling faint as he slumps against the trunk to recover.
[break][break]
The fog disappears, as if to mock him.
[break][break]
A low growl makes him look up, and his SHADOW LYCANROC looms over him. Its jaws drip with bloody saliva, twisted into a terrifying grin. Without his avatar powers, it is not tame. It will disembowel him without care for the years he's spent with it.
[break][break]
The DREAM BALL is his intervention, and he throws it hard.
[break][break]
There is no hesitation as to which option he picks, even when the game tries to caution him against it. He laughs, rough, at the implication he'd somehow be sacrificing the Pokémon's potential; in his hands, shadows were a terrible, beautiful thing.
[break][break]

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[break][break]
CONTINUE.
[break][break]
Fur rises along his spine. Teeth sharpen, and fingers become claws. His spine hunches against his will as his features adopt the WEREWOLF's likeness. At least he doesn't feel a need to howl at the moon.
[break][break]

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Cillian prowls the edge of the audience like the predator whose likeness he has adopted, red eyes aglow in the gloom. They narrow at the Snubbull King's words. Put an end to things?[break][break]

I'd rather not.[break][break]

Imagine! An entirely new source of Shadow Pokémon![break][break]

He might not have gone at all, with that in mind, if not for his insatiable curiosity. Perhaps if he could understand the nature of these dreams, he could replicate their power in the waking world. Besides, it would be an inconvenience to Rocket if the League were to receive unfettered access to such powerful Pokémon... though many would doubtless sacrifice their awful potential in favour of purity. Weak.[break][break]

Claws swipe through the air to open his inventory.[break][break]


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He squints, offended, as he parses the connection between the scathing title he'd been afforded and the items that came along with it.[break][break]

Who made this place?[break][break]

His thoughts immediately shift to the Triad; had they not proven themselves to be behind most of Hoenn's mysteries? They certainly knew far more than they should. Perhaps it was dangerous to remain here... but curiosity shackles him.[break][break]

He leaves in search of the aforementioned DUNGEON...[break][break]
[break][break]
... and comes across an anomaly in the wood.[break][break]

Circhester.[break][break]

The walls of the ancient city rise up through the forest as if they had always been there. He reaches for the stone, half expecting an illusion, and his claws scrape against worn stone. He slumps against it, tired from what feels like hours of walking.[break][break]

It's Tempest Quinn who rouses him from that spot, approaching from the tree line.[break][break]

With a groan of frozen iron, a gate nearby swings open, offering them entry. Cillian accepts his husband's hand to help him to his feet, and together they plod through the snow and into the unknown.[break][break]

In a cruel twist, the fangs and claws afforded to his avatar prove useless in a real fight. It is only thanks to his shadow Pokémon's intervention that he isn't torn in two by the denizens of the dark city; the midnight Lycanroc thrives where he suffers.[break][break]

Eventually, they reach the 'end'. The site of a wedding held only in dreams. Old buildings serve as the backdrop to a snow-covered courtyard, and the air shimmers in front of him as if to warn him that if he stepped forward, there was no turning back.[break][break]

A tired laugh bubbles from his lips.[break][break]

"We got married here, in my dream."[break][break]

But when he turns to Temp, his husband doesn't react as he expects. It's then he realizes with a surprising sadness that this was not his husband at all. Not really. The one they'd titled 'water dog' did not recognize Cillian as anything more than a fellow player.[break][break]

He smiles when Cillian speaks, but it feels hollow, now.[break][break]

Resigned, Cillian steps over the shimmering boundary...[break][break]
[break][break]
... and finds himself face-to-face with SHADOW LUGIA.[break][break]

It should've been comforting. A relief, after stumbling his way here. But the DYNAMAXED legend that dwarfs him stares down without recognition, and her PRESSURE is downright suffocating.[break][break]

"Look, if you're behind all this, I'd rather not fight-"[break][break]

She replies with a shriek that summons a heavy RAIN, and one he recognizes as a war cry.[break][break]

Of course it wouldn't be that easy.[break][break]

Lycanroc takes to the field with a fearlessness borne of its shadow powers, clearly not affected by her aura as it would've been in reality. Though her follow-up THUNDER strikes it hard and true, the werewolf retaliates with its SHADOW DOWN, cutting her defenses.[break][break]

Searching desperately through his items, Cillian rolls his eyes.[break][break]

"She's immune to poison!" he complains of the TOXIC ORB. "What the fuck am I supposed to do with that?"[break][break]

It wouldn't benefit Lycanroc to be poisoned, either![break][break]

He applies the COVERT CLOAK, instead, a shroud of shadows coalescing around the werewolf and making it look like some twisted Red Riding Hood reference. The slowing effects of Lugia's ICY WINDS could no longer take effect, and the Lycanroc snarls in triumph as it lands a particularly devastating ROCK SLIDE.[break][break]

"What does this even do?" The RED CARD must've been the closest thing to a RED FLAG the system could find, hardly subtle about mocking his relationships with his siblings. But it was bound to be more useful than the orb, so... "Fuck it."[break][break]

As her SHADOW STORM rips across the field and impacts the werewolf, Lugia disappears.[break][break]

In her place, an AURORUS, randomly chosen by the system.[break][break]

No longer IMMUNE to the effects of the TOXIC ORB.[break][break]

Holding the object within its paws, the Lycanroc throws a CLOSE COMBAT punch and shatters the orb against the sauropod's side, BADLY POISONING it with the toxins that seep into the cracks left by the devastatingly-effective attack.[break][break]

With a low, keening wail, the prehistoric threat collapses to the ground, and disappears.[break][break]

A crown of cold steel clatters to the frozen earth.

[break][break]

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I don't want to destroy this place.[break][break]

But the deep, gut-wrenching sorrow that Cillian feels upon stepping into the idealistic paradise of his dreams is not shared by the Lycanroc those dreams have corrupted. A rippling snarl is the only warning before it launches itself into the crowd of startled wedding guests, turning his perfect union into a bloodbath.[break][break]

He can't stop the Lycanroc, and the people here can't stop them. A HYPER BEAM passes straight through him, and he doesn't even feel its heat.[break][break]

"Cillian, why?"[break][break]

His sister's voice.[break][break]

He has no answer for her, just as he couldn't answer when the ghost of Lulu Flint's past demanded such of him on the ship.[break][break]

"I can't stop it!"[break][break]

The dreams had LIED to him. They'd promised that the shadowy power could help protect the ones he loved, not destroy them![break][break]

But these aren't the people you care about, an insidious thought insists. This is only a dream. An echo. A regret.[break][break]

His family, whole. His faction, victorious.[break][break]

The Lycanroc's claws cleave through this false reality with fervour.[break][break]

Cillian kneels among the dead, their blood soaking his clothes. He holds Rowan Wrynn's mangled body and knows that some day, this dream will become reality. His shoulders shake, and his Lycanroc howls.

[break][break]

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When Rocket had told him that he'd be getting another Pokémon, he'd hoped for something powerful. Something stronger than the Riolu who, for all his steadfast loyalty, could hardly hold its own in a fight.[break][break]

The battered pokeball flickers with dim light, expelling its occupant.[break][break]

Gavin squints at it, scowling.[break][break]

"The fuck is this?"[break][break]

He's rewarded further with a nasty bruise along his jaw and a split lip, spitting blood onto the floor. Flecks of it spatter the Zubat's wings, but the bat hardly stirs from its crumpled state. It was a tiny, pathetic little thing. Not meant to survive. Sick, perhaps, or else too weak to avoid whatever Rocket had captured or stolen it.[break][break]

Wiping blood from his chin, temper kept in check by the bulge of a gun at his assailants hip, he asks bitterly, "What am I supposed to do with it?"[break][break]

"Whatever you like." Their smile is cruel. "Reckon it's about as likely to survive as you are."[break][break]

Spite.[break][break]

Was there any greater motivation in this world?[break][break]

Left alone to nurse his pride, his injuries, and the malnourished Pokémon at his feet, Gavin gathers the Zubat into bloody hands. She has barely the strength to resist as he pries open her mouth to administer a dose of expired potion - his last.[break][break]

She would survive Rocket, and so would he.[break][break]
[break][break]

She had survived Rocket, after all... but Necrozma had proven too much for her.

[break][break]