"We were all born under the same sky, Theo. You, me, and those who aren't avatars? We're the same as them until they decide that they're puppets rather than people."

The chuckle is noted. It's expected, even. The admin raged against the God General for months and still deemed that those comparable to him were human. His eye looked up at the heavens, where umbral swirls betrayed this mirrored world on the other side of the veil.

"And what a perfectly clear sky it is."

The march continued towards the center of the city, where Regirock's massive tunnel emerged from. Howard wondered where this version led. He still hadn't found the bottom of the one in their world. There, a monument of stone stood. A replica of Regirock proper.

"They would be our beloved comrades. They would also be the enemy. If they could not separate themselves from the wishes of their patrons, then they'll be put to the sword." His eye flicked to Theo as the admin began to dig at the base of the stone monument. "Like I did in Petalburg."

He paused.

"Have you spoken to our lovely underboss, recently?"

---

THEO BECKETT

Death had certainly improved her. It would've improved her further if she hadn't woken from it.

Alas, life was full of disappointments.

"Of course." The admin's voice was measured as he and Regirock shifted stone after stone from the makeshift monument. Whoever had built this was long gone, or perhaps the Distortion World was attempting to replicate the golem it had lost a year prior. "We discussed our plan. By now, Elisabeth's death will circulate throughout the Pokémon League. Misinformation goes a long way."

The words tasted like bile on his lips. Still, all he could do was accept that Elisabeth had forced him into this corner. It made him want to punch a wall, but that would come later.

"It was all part of the plan. I'm sorry that I deceived you with doomsaying about filling her seat, but you had to remain in the dark." Yet ultimately what gets the admin to stop is Theo's first comment. "For now, but I fear I'm catching up to you in terms of villainy."

He shifted another stone.

"You burned Kanto. I'm burning Hoenn. We've stacked quite the mountain of corpses, hm?"

---

THEO BECKETT

"You're not a fool, Theo."

He was many things. A murderer, a villain, a warmonger, and a criminal. Yet nobody would ever say that Theo was a fool. There was a reason he had survived for so long and risen so high without falling back down to earth.

"But for your own sake, believe what I tell you. The only other person who can verify or deny what I'm telling you is your fellow underboss." Lie. Lie. Lie. "Ask her."

This story was not going to hold. Elisabeth knew it. He knew it. Why did they dance around such mocking charades, desperately hoping that it would hold up under scrutiny? Howard suspected that she knew it was going to fail, and just wanted to watch her victim squirm.

It was working.

"What'd you find, Regirock?" The admin's eye flicked to the stone giant, which had uncovered a dusty red capsule. "..."

A Pokeball.

⠍⠕⠞⠓⠑⠗

---

THEO BECKETT

Slowly, the golem turned to face Theo. Ancient contours groaned as it regarded the underboss.

It was hard to know if Regirock was going to kill him or not. There was no indicator of its plans. No proof to its actions. It simply acted as its programming decreed, and if that programming required it to protect or raze Theo, it would do so. That made it impossible to predict.

A poor image of life.

⠍⠕⠞⠓⠑⠗. It repeated. ⠇⠕⠎⠞.

Regarding the Pokeball that the admin held, Regirock pawed at it, incapable of grasping at the capsule that Howard had temporarily stored it in. Yet Howard seemed to grasp the construct's meaning.

"Yeah." He smashed the Pokeball beneath his foot, plastic and metal crunching as he did so. "There we go."

The admin picked up the buried Pokeball that had originally housed the golem years ago, when it was owned by another trainer. He tossed it up, thoughtfully.

⠺⠓⠑⠗⠑?

Where?

Where was Katherine Fairburne?

"Can't answer that, sorry." Howard pressed the Pokeball against Regirock's chest, and it was enveloped in a red haze. "But this is a Pokeball that suits you. It's better than any I could have offered to you."

His eye flickered.

"We do what we can to remember those important to us."

Whether they were a fisherman father or a malevolent mother.

---

THEO BECKETT

Katherine's Pokeball for Regirock was clipped to the admin's belt. Only then does he answer Theo's question.

"Before I joined Rocket, I specialized in ancient languages. I keep up with them even now. A smattering of Draconid, a lot of ancient braille, and a lot of Hoyeon. I can even talk to my Claydols fairly well." The various emoticons that each eye could produce was almost a lexicon in its own right. "Visual braille is weird. Hm."

Howard tucked his head against his chest, deep in thought. It had been a while since he had last discussed ancient languages with another.

"If you live amongst Pokémon for long enough, you begin to pick up on things. You learn things through osmosis."

Howard's eye flickered.

"It's like that. It got a lot easier when I turned into..." He gestured down at himself. "...this."

---

THEO BECKETT

"If you're ever interested in learning, swing by at your leisure." The admin shrugged again. "I live to serve my underbosses. I promise not to kill you."

As if promises meant much when talking to a man who forced justice onto his betters, as if his laws overwrote theirs. Yet Hoenn was an ancient region, and its laws were sacrosanct. Humanity stood at the pinnacle, and the laws of ancients written into stone would supersede all.

"It'd be an honor."

Silence. The howling of the Distortion World surrounded them, now that Regirock had defiled a monument to itself in order to return an artifact to itself.

"So what no-"

A portal opened under their feet.

---

THEO BECKETT