The person she pulls through the gash in reality is not Howard Slayte.

'His' form is more pristine, its features carved from porcelain. It's more akin to a doll constructed for the amusement of a child or a statue to be displayed in a museum. His hair is longer, his gaze more focused, with the occasional flicker of red light as latent Dynergy rushes through his body akin to blood.

The only proof that it's him is the hat, the eyepatch, and the streak of white hair that reflects the heavens back into the Visionary's eye. A streak irritatingly similar to Nisa Holo's white hair, alongside the rest of the otherworldly invaders that threaten this world.

"Nomi." He sighed, dropping the title of Head Scientist as his eye flickered with concern over her mauled form. A red eye lingered on her covered pupil, clearly concerned on its permanence. "You could've knocked to say hello. My door is always open for you."

Behind him, two titans are dragged into this pocket between worlds. Ice and stone float in the background, their patterns flashing sporadically. Several Unown surround them in ovation for those that will preserve this dying world.

"Is it?" He closed the folder he had been holding when Nomi had dragged him here. He's remarkably calm, in spite of this proclamation of the end. "Has the olive branch withered away and died?"

A rhetorical question that they both know the answer to.

---

Naomi Sato

There is a drive to her. Something has broken that cannot be repaired. Not by him, and not by any living person who exists in their world. Her injuries are muted, but even as she closes the gap, worry is clear in his gaze. Eyes are the window to the soul, and they have both closed one.

It makes the one eye they have much more important.

He cannot call her stable, but Naomi Sato is committed. Perhaps that was what they needed as the eleventh hour chimed closer.

"The Coveted is wily. We will simply try harder next time, and that is when we'll put her and the Ruinous Beast in their graves." Her failure stings, but having fought Penelope before, Howard understands the struggle. Some roaches refuse to die when stamped. "We will succeed."

'We.' Petalburg has made Howard bold. Sootopolis has stripped Nomi of the cataracts that blinded her. There is purpose behind their actions, and they only needed an olive branch as kindling.

"I have news as well." The admin jerked his head towards Regirock. It is clear that the golem feels out of place in the stars, with no earth to root it in place. It shares an exchange with the Unown meant solely for them. "Regirock is ours. Walsh's orders have been fulfilled. Furthermore..."

He pursed his lips, momentary pride replaced with weariness. Like her, the words he utters lack regret.

"Elisabeth Fiorelli is dead. Ruination has been delayed."

---

Naomi Sato

Their thoughts are similar. It is clear that he had mused through the same process as her, though it likely had not been as immediately rational. Instead, it had occurred over several nights as he toiled with the revelation of murder.

In another world, he would've been raised to the rank of Head Scientist. It was the rank that Howard had originally wanted, before being shunted off to a position of bureaucracy and administration. Yet there is no 'other world'. There is no other world where Howard Slayte was greedy enough to join Team Rocket.

In all other worlds, he is a dead-end clerk. Here, he is a murderer.

"There was a body. I saw it. She was utterly crushed. There's nothing to bring back." Suddenly, he looks ill. The memory of a mangled body falling from Regirock's fist into a grave causes his stomach to churn. He put a hand over his mouth as he paled. "I killed her."

Underboss Fiorelli had infringed upon Petalburg, and now the city was Elisabeth Fiorelli's tomb. Why had he done that?

"It had to be done. She was going to kill Regirock, Nomi. I worked so hard for it." He wanted to vomit. "But still, fuck..."

He had never seen something so carelessly crushed until it was unrecognizable before. It had never felt so personal.

---

Naomi Sato

They protected things they cared about. Their Pokémon. This world. Each other. Their universe was allegedly dooming all others to a multiversal trash heap. Howard had made a vow to Nomi to live, but he had also vowed to help her realize her vision of a Hoenn that would last into eternity.

When had her dream become his? Had they ever believed in anything different? If Yuri and Karin looked upon their daughter now, would they weep at what she wanted to achieve, or would they blossom with pride?

She speaks three names. Fourteen dots turn to face her as Naomi Sato becomes deemed worthy of notice by giants that had shaped the world in its dawn age.

⠥⠝⠙⠑⠗⠛⠗⠕⠥⠝⠙

⠇⠕⠎⠞ ⠊⠝ ⠁⠝⠕⠞⠓⠑⠗ ⠺⠕⠗⠇⠙

"Regieleki is caught." Howard begrudgingly admitted. It was a secret he shared with both Boundless, though Shred's actions would not reveal themselves for some time. "I will get it back. I will seize it, but don't utter a word of its capture. Its position is... perilous."

An understatement, but an appropriate one.

"Registeel is underground. Regidrago is still in Land Hoenn, to my knowledge. We cannot track the former, and reaching the latter..." It was one of the few times annoyance flickered onto the admin's face. "...difficult."

---

Naomi Sato

"Registeel will rouse itself in time. It cannot stay away, now that its three siblings are seized by humans."

He doesn't tell her about the temple that Registeel unearthed. He doesn't express the fear that the giants sculpted by humans may have been sculpted by a greater craftsman. The three-fingered hand, despite the brevity of its presence in the murals depicting the sculpting of the world, haunts his mind.

The notion terrified him. Nomi had enough to shoulder without his fear of humanity being marred by divinity. She was divine, after all. An intersection point between the heavens and the earth. A woman adorned by both, yet accepted by neither.

"Someone who delivers my fossils. Pink hair. You should see them through your Uno-" He cut off to stare at her for a spell. His mouth opened, but no words came out. "Is that really possible?"

He grabbed her hand as it waved in the ether. Howard stared at Nomi intently, his eye shining bright.

"Can you do it?"

---

Naomi Sato

They played with chemicals mixed under duress. They danced with elements that should not be.

Hoenn's greatest enemy was itself. There was a time when the war between Team Rocket and the Pokémon League had been decided with ordinary Pokémon and the engines of war were Mega Evolution. That time had passed. Now they waltzed with giants and alternate realities and thought themselves kings.

This chalice was poisoned, and yet it was prudent to sup upon it in order to preserve the foundational principles of the world.

"You always see too much." There would come a day where the Visionary would see too far, and forget to look around at the world she was supposed to be seeing for. "Though now, we need that sight more than ever."

He needed it more than ever. If Nomi could see beyond the veil and return Hoenn's legacy to its rightful place, then he would not scorn her.

"Yet Ultra Space is only the first step. A dozen more must be taken. With Sootopolis submerged, we have lost much." Kyogre being used as a weapon of war caused his eye to twitch. "It'll be rebuilt, Nomi. You'll have a home again."

He assumed her house was drenched and ruined, given that the city had been drowned in seawater.

"And as for the Pokémon League...?" Howard inclined his head. "What do you see in their future?"

---

Naomi Sato