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Dreaming was her only solace.[break][break]
Each day was more insufferable than the last, but Nomi lived for the moment her head touched down upon the mildew-ridden prison cot, gifted to her by
Greyson Connors's chivalry. For as soon as she closed her eyes - the toils of hard work and constant humiliation putting her instantly to sleep - she was transported back into the vibrant cityscape of Ultra Megalopolis, where she
actually felt alive.[break][break]
Her mind was clearer in the dream, and it allowed her time to do what she normally did best:
think.[break][break]
On the first night - the night
after she'd found
Lulu Flint, who'd helped her better understand the nature of the dream - she sat outside a quiet little cafe and contemplated every detail of the prison, from the Tera crystals embedded in the ceiling to the masks hanging in the hallway outside of the Chamber of Desires. Slowly but surely, she began to piece together the puzzle of their predicament.[break][break]
On the second night, she looked for Lulu again, but could not find her. What she did find, however, was Kallistatus. She'd started to
feel her beloved Unown, sense it within the dream...following that thread of connection eventually lead her to a Pokemon daycare on the outskirts of the city. It was there that Kallistatus floated, suspended within a strange clear fluid, behind a thick pane of glass. The entire thing was akin to a test tube, especially to her scientific mind. She tried everything she could to break it, but it would not budge, not even a single hairline fracture.[break][break]
She wept in frustration.
Are they right about me? Am I really so weak?[break][break]
On the third night, she tried asking questions of the Megalopolian guards - free of their chains and seemingly happier within the dream.
How did you arrive at the prison? She asked them.
What is the Never-Rot? And who is that Pokemon trapped in the prison with us? Their answers were vague and wholly insufficient. She
did learn that they had been captured for far longer than she and the other Hoenn citizens had, which did not bode well...[break][break]
This won't be our fate, she vowed, her defiance a flickering candle flame.[break][break]
On the fourth night, she tested her powers. She practiced teleporting from one end of the city to the other in an instant. She altered the cityscape in subtle ways, bending reality and willing it to change. Excited, she returned to Kallistatus, tried to see through its singular eye. Looking out from inside of the glass test tube where they were keeping the shiny Unown-K, she was startled to see her own haggard face staring back.
Is that really me?[break][break]
Though she could feel the resonance of her power, its presence within the dream as real as she could hope for, nothing she did could free Kallistatus.[break][break]
Anti-Avatar material? She wondered, of the glass prison within the larger prison.[break][break]
On the fifth night, she wandered the streets of Ultra Megalopolis, until her feet carried her to the central tower in the middle of the great city. Here, a small Pokemon - encased in the same thick glass as Kallistatus - floated within the liquid, seemingly asleep. Nomi recognized the Pokemon from the RKS Machine.[break][break]
"Azelf?" she invoked, as if the name were a softly spoken magic spell. The incantation did nothing, for Azelf did not stir.
"How did you get here?" she found herself asking the same question over and over until it grew meaningless in her futility.[break][break]
On the sixth night, Nomi almost gave up completely. She forced herself to continue traversing the city, searching every nook and cranny for
anything that could help her escape the prison. The despair threatened to overcome her, until she finally cracked.[break][break]
"Holo!" She screamed up at the skyscrapers in desperation.
"How CONVENIENT for a sizable chunk of Hoenn's Avatars to be indisposed! Was that your plan all along?"[break][break]
No answer came.[break][break]
And then, on the seventh night, to her utter astonishment, hope returned. Immediately upon entering the dream, Nomi spotted someone familiar, someone she would recognize just about anywhere.[break][break]
"Isaac?"[break][break]
There was no doubt about it, it
was Isaac Merlo - standing right in front of her. Without thinking twice, she threw herself at him in a tight embrace.[break][break]
"Oh Isaac," she realized with genuine sorrow.
"They got you too?"[break][break]
But...if there was anyone capable of breaking out of a prison, it was the Liberator. If there was anyone capable of breaking out
all those captured within a prison, it was
Isaac Merlo.[break][break]
Which gave Nomi an idea. An idea she couldn't believe she hadn't considered yet.[break][break]
"Isaac," she held on tight to him.
"I'm going to try something. This is a dream, right? But so was Galar. And that was real - it changed us, even if all of the details are still hazy. Which means this could be an alternate dimension, just like that was. So - "[break][break]
She shut her eyes tight, and focused on the transfer.[break][break]
"Please," the Visionary whispered.[break][break]
And then she attempted to take them both into the Unown Dimension, and away from hell.[break][break][break][break]
8hdyGuHn[break][break]
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