Falling. Air rushed past Howard's face. Regice retreated into its Pokeball.

Dying.

A blast of hot air. Rayquaza's attack taking form in the dragon's maw. Unnecessary. He was already falling. When he hit the ground, he would shatter like porcelain.

Dying.

An arc of lightning. Thunder. The rev of industry roaring in his ears. An engine powered by subatomic particles became the only sound he knew. An impossibility. An anomaly.

Dying.

Maybe this was for the best. He certainly deserved this. There were people in Team Rocket who had done far worse things for better reasons than him. Abuse. Neglect. Groomed from birth to shoulder the weight of Team Rocket's glory. Ultimately, Howard's reasons were superficial. He had killed people for nothing. He had committed atrocities for nothing.

It had all been for a dream and a promise carved in sand. When it had been swept away in shifting dunes, it no longer mattered. The world had annulled it. Yet he remembered. Thus it still mattered. As long as he could remember, these struggles would continue to have some twisted form of meaning.

Perhaps forgetting was a mercy, but it was also a sin.

So he grabbed June's hand as she reached for him. She could've let him fall. After the Island Cave, she should've let him fall. Yet she reached, and he grabbed.

Living.

____.

"Please don't let go, please don't let go...!" The admin stammered as Violet shot away at an impossible speed. "Why did you do that? Why did you choose?"

He didn't understand, but he was glad that she did. He raised his voice towards the distant Ascendant.

"NEXT TIME, FREYA!"

---

june sleigh freya morningstar