The duo stand on the edge of the abyss. The trip to the desert where this Power Spot was situated had been a wonderful adventure, especially with Absinthe staring daggers at him for half of the journey.

"I'm not gonna lie, this is gonna suck." Howard crossed his arms as he looked around. Drills and shovels and mining picks surrounded this small beachhead before the Power Spot proper. As the admin in charge of extracting ore from the ground, he made sure that Rocket's goals were not marred by the League's constant surveillance. "Seriously, this stuff isn't fun."

His eye sparkled with unease as he shifted from foot to foot. His Sygna Suit moving with him. Nearby, the admin's Claydol floated innocently.

"It fucks with your mind and your body. You're gonna see things. If it gets too vivid, let me know." Howard coughed into his fist. "Keep a sharp eye out."

His eye lingered on the chemist as he extended a gauntleted hand.

"I'll teleport us in." The admin gestured again. "Hand, please."

---

Absinthe Blackwood

However faint, he feels the shiver. Maybe it's a tremble, maybe a natural reaction to the toxic amounts of Dynergy in the air. He elected to interpret it as fear. It meant that she wasn't a fool.

Better to delude himself that this person recognized the threat for what it was than to interpret it for the genuine emotion.

"I'm not complaining. This is serious." His eye bore into her as he squeezed her hand, his Sygna Suit activating. Lines of light shined through the metal as Infinity Energy flowed through the suit. "This is the leaving of mankind's greatest enemy."

How much time had he spent preparing Team Rocket to bring this thing to its knees? How long had he collaborated with Navy to bring down Eternatus before it could turn this region to ash?

"Here we go." The duo teleported into the Power Spot, with Crumble following behind. He let go of the chemist's hand quickly, as if she were a snake that risked biting him. "Be cautious."

Within the Power Spot, reality folded in on itself. Ore twisted in spires that thrummed like veins, and a red haze filled their gaze. A few of Team Rocket's drills lie unused within, their operators hiding in safer havens. This was a cave, but it twitched like a live beast.

Poison leaked from open orifices, oozing like blood.

"Not a lovely place. Eternatus eats at the world and spreads like a plague. If you want anything for research, grab it."

---

Absinthe Blackwood

"And history will repeat itself."

He echoed her words like a mantra, for the chemist was correct. History was a cycle and time was a flat circle, and mankind simply did the best they could with each turn of the wheel. Unfortunately, their best was not always consistent in its quality. Some eras gave rise to heroes who wielded swords, some eras gave rise to villains.

This era gave rise to both. All Howard could do was accumulate as much of it as possible and ensure that wisdom was not lost.

"You're not incorrect about what we need to destroy Eternatus. We've beaten it with its own tools before." Noticably, a hand went to a Pokeball at the admin's belt. It trembled with an urge to be released, to fulfill its protocol, yet Howard stayed its mighty hand. "We'll kill it, some day."

He was silent for a spell.

"Dynite Ore, Wishing Stars, and a lot of fucked up Pokémon lie within. Think of this as an inoculation. I try to prepare people for what'll come." Howard smiled wryly as Crumble appeared, its alien pattern flashing in front of two caves. "Follow me, I've been here a dozen times."

As he led, Howard was silent for a spell.

"You're an odd woman."

---

Absinthe Blackwood
LEFT

He gave her a weary look.

"That you don't find this place as revolting as I do. This..." He gestured vaguely at the Power Spot that thrummed around them, full of malignant life, the haze thickening as they descended further into the breach. "...farce. Time doesn't flow and space doesn't expand. It's just wrong. Any reasonable person should hate this place, or at least be wary of it."

His Sygna Suit thrummed, protecting him from the worst of the poisonous air. Still, he heard the distant thudding of a colossal golem stepping forward, causing the land to shake. It wasn't real. He squeezed his eye shut, and the thuds only grew louder.

When his eye opened, the noise was gone. A hallucination, but one that hit too close to home. Karmic chains tore into his mind and soul, and they made it difficult to keep marching forward.

Yet he trudged on, with Absinthe alongside him.

"But you don't." It's an interest that all who wage war against the Skeleton Gigantic have, but like many things, it is noxious and toxic in large amounts. Dangerous. "It makes you odd. Broken, at worst.

The ground trembled, Crumble floated forward, wary.

"You find me odd?" The admin was amused. "How so?"

---

Absinthe Blackwood

She was broken in the same way that each member of Rocket was. They elevated themselves at the cost of others. The need to reach whatever dream or ambition that drove them was a powerful itch.

"Yeah, my conscious is rotten." It's a rare bit of honesty. He doesn't know why he tells this vindictive chemist, but his lips are loose and his tongue wags. It feels good to tell the truth after lying to friends and allies for so long. "But constraints are required. To strain against them is how we improve as a species."

He was silent for a spell. His voice turned contemplative as the red haze thickened into people.

"The tools I use are the greatest things that humanity has ever designed. The pinnacle of wisdom, used to fell gods. I'll use them because someone has to. May as well be me. If it burns like wildfire, I'll put it out too."

Mankind had triumphed over fire, a gift from the gods. Eternatus was the same, even if Howard loathed crawling over its leavings.

"I'll take you to the real body, at some point. It's-" The red haze completed its coalesence, and the admin found himself face to face with an older man with a far more elaborate hat. He held a halberd forged from the metal of another god, and he glared at him. "You're not real."

His future self could not harm him. He had been through this a thousand times. He could conquer his own heart. Whether she could conquer hers was up in the air.

"Absinthe. Absinthe." Howard snapped his fingers. If he was hallucinating, then so was she. For the uninitiated, it was quite the scare. "Whatever you're seeing, it's not real. Come on."

The blood laps at his feet. The Dynergy makes it real. The opposite is also true.

"Look at me." He stares at her. His eye is tinged with red. "It's not real. Conquer it. Rationality beats delusion every time."

He urges her to meet his gaze.

---

Absinthe Blackwood

The greatest curse of Dynergy is its ability to make fiction into reality. It is a power shared with Tera Crystals, though Eternatus's residue was rarely benevolent. Gods did not care about mortals. Not ones such as these, which were born when the world was new and the sky was littered with shattered bits of egg shell.

This woman was not ready for it. None of them were.

Had he taken her too deep, or were were the scars on her psyche too deep to heal? This region had too many broken people. Had he gotten this woman involved in something she wasn't yet ready for?

"Absinthe. You need to listen to me, it's not real. Belief makes it so. If you believe in the lie, then the lie becomes the truth!" Thus the baby's wails only increased in volume. The music only reached its crescendo. The dirge did not fall silent. "Who're you talking to?

Her past did not leave her alone. Nobody's did. The past was meant to be remembered, not forgotten. Yesterday dictated today's actions, and today would determine tomorrow.

In the distance, alternate versions of him flicker. Barely paid clerks and wealthy businessmen envelop the background, each an alternate future that the admin had not chosen. He flinched slightly, but he focused on his colleague.

"Absinthe!" The name did not register. His eye flicked to the woman's Shiinotic, its blank stare reaching infinity. "She's your trainer. Help her!"

What can he do against the ghosts of another's past? She wasn't even registering her name properly. A mask for today, a glimpse into yesterday.

He grabbed her head and turned it towards him. Away from the phantom and away from yesterday.

"Abby!" The name was a coincidence. Absinthe was hard to say, and time was short. Howard's voice was low. "Look at me. It's not real."

The Claydol barred the specter's advance, even if the automaton couldn't see it.

---

Absinthe Blackwood