The Oblivion Wing cuts through the ground like a hot knife through butter. In its path is the admin's Claydol, teleporting around the battlefield sporadically to avoid the worst of the attacks. Its purpose is to provide utility and to ensure that the admin's Sygna Suit remained active.

With it, Howard could dodge. As long as he could dodge, he could live.

Yet maybe due to luck, or due to the knowledge that death eventually came for all things, the attack was lined up remarkably well to decimate both Howard Slayte and Crumble in one attack. As soon as the dark blast fired, Crumble teleported into the attack. Immediately, the clay doll shut down.

"What the...?" Howard tried to teleport away, but his Sygna Suit turned lifeless without its partner Pokémon to instill it with power. "REGIROCK!"

The stone golem moved to intercept, before being cut in half by the Oblivion Wing. Rather than turn to stone, it simply split down the middle, before beginning to reform with nearby stone.

"Shit. SHIT. SHI-" Howard disappeared as Compass traded places with him. "What was that? A switch?"

Temp had saved him. Why? He had almost killed him in the Ultra Deep Sea. He was a defective Rocket Beast only accepted by his husband. It made no sense.

Maybe it didn't need to.

Slowly but surely, Regirock reassembled itself from the Border's rubble, before marching forward, using Dynergy to propel itself in the face of death. Superpower erupted in artificial limbs, swinging forward at the bird. With Compass turned to stone, it ultimately relied on the three to bring down this bird of destruction.

"Grab your husband! We'll distract it!" He shouted at Cillian. "Go!"

---

Tempest Quinn Cillian Quinn Hitoshi Inoue

Tempest Quinn was suicidal. He wrangled a bird of destruction for no other reason than to prove that he could. Yet Howard couldn't mock the Rocket Beast for it. Had he looked like that, climbing Regirock, while shouldering the curse of fear and annihilation?

He could not deny the Temp's aspirations, now. All he could do was allow Cillian to try to overturn his husband's face with love and affection. However far the Harbinger went for his husband, that was not for Howard to determine.

Temp had buried him in the Ultra Deep Sea with a monster. Perhaps, in some small way, this was what the Rocket Beast deserved. Yet his desires still deserved to be respected. His actions could matter. They deserved to matter. If a man could tame a stallion, than Tempest Quinn could tame a god.

Crack.

A Z-Crystal shattered under the admin's heel, and the various cracks that made up Regirock's body glowed with raw power, distinct from the Dynergy that allowed it to move. The admin closed his eye, thoughtful, as the golem lunged forward with remarkable speed.

"The things we do to defeat death." The admin's eye narrowed. "Here we go!"

ROYAL DECREE: EARTH-CRACKING FIST
BY CHANNELING THE WILL OF ITS CREATOR, REGIROCK IS CAPABLE OF DELIVERING A MIGHTY BLOW THAT PIERCES DEFENSES AND SETS A SANDSTORM.

A fist swung down, and the light's intensity made the Harbinger's aura harsher than before.

"...how bright."

---

Cillian Quinn Hitoshi Inoue Tempest Quinn

YOU CAN'T KILL ME

TEMPEST X CILLIAN X HOWARD X HITOSHI

HITOSHI, HOWARD, AND CILLIAN WITNESS the harrowing, damned consumption of their friend. Their loved one. A crimson ether illumes the seizing wings. Quickly, the plumage hardens obsidian.

The Yveltal curls into itself: a black carapace of death closing over the Beast into a forever tomb.

The party's efforts keep them safe from the entombment—but at the cost of Temp, who is nowhere to be seen.

Within the cocoon, life itself slows down. Any enery that has been siphoned grows cold. Here, Temp is alone, buried alive and dead, and will eventually, definitively be the latter.

Tempest Quinn Cillian Quinn howard slayte Hitoshi Inoue

Tempest Quinn died.

In retrospect, it wasn't much of a surprise. What sort of death god found itself incapable of swinging a scythe and reaping a handful of souls? In a moment of clarity, Yveltal's execution had been too smooth. It had fallen too easily. It had flown too confidently, fought too angrily, and died as expected.

Yet death, like all things, was a cycle.

"TEMP!" The admin shouted his name, wishing he could feel more than an iota of empathy for the man that had once left him to due in the Ultra Deep Sea. This was what Tempest Quinn had offered him, and this was what Tempest Quinn deserved after consigning thousands of lives to the funeral pyre.

This was the end of Team Rocket's final Gym Leader.

"We can't get him out. That cocoon is as hard as rock. If we crack it open, it'll kill us all." The admin chewed his lip in frustration. Shit. What would happen if they broke into Hades? Would they turn into stone? Die? Wander this world forever? "He's dead. FUCK!"

After bryan delarosa, losing another Rocket Beast was a blow.

"We're going back!" The admin snapped his fingers, and Regirock turned from the cocoon. It lumbered off, flashing signals to its sibling as they left the cocoon alone. "Retreat! Cillian, we need to-"

The admin's expression faltered.

"Cillian?"

---

Cillian Quinn Tempest Quinn Hitoshi Inoue