Time seems to stand still, the fate of their entire operation hanging by a delicate thread.[break][break]
And then,
finally, the door opens.[break][break]
As it does, the Shaymin releases a super-powered
SOLAR BEAM, inadvertently boosted by Pyro's ancient sunlight. Green energy rockets through the copies of the Gouging Fire, shattering shards of blue crystal in all directions. Nomi winces, sweat beading along her hairline as she concentrates on dissipating the deadly fragments before they can pierce her or Nenet.[break][break]
Pyro roars, opening its maw to blast a
FLARE BLITZ at the League trainer and his Shaymin; these flames are also enhanced by the light flooding the room, powerfully bright. Whether her adversaries are able to dodge out of the way in time, Nomi does not get a chance to see, for she takes advantage of the attack to immediately teleport into the laboratory after Nenet.[break][break]
Before she can do anything else, however, her vision goes dark.[break][break]
"Hmm, it's your lucky day."
[break]
Nomi freezes. Her eyes widen in shock, unseeing even as the world flickers back into view. That
voice. She knows that voice. She would know it
anywhere; hears it in her dreams.[break][break]
A coin flips, spins in the air, and Nomi recalls with a heart-stopping dread
the last time she'd seen him. Her own face, cold and calculating - no mere false persona, adopted for a mission, but the real thing - stares at her across timelines, the word
EXALTED resonating through her soul as she whispers,
"Father Winter."[break][break]
A starry beam of energy, a body thumping to the floor: the sights and sounds that drag her back to the current moment.[break][break]
Black-clad figures - faces masked, bodies outlined with the faintest hint of pixelation - have manifested around her. Kallistatus is there, hovering in front of her, sparkling with extraterrestrial potential. Somewhere behind her, she senses Pyro's fallen, crumpled form - defeated in the moment of her distraction by her would-be assassins.[break][break]
Everything else fades away. Their objective. The war. Rocket. The Visionary faces the DRK Triad, her
true enemy, and a part of her knows - has
always known - that they'd been watching for the exact right moment to strike.[break][break]
"Run!" She calls out to Nenet.
"They're here for me."