There was a moment of shock. A moment where the admin was in his early twenties, broke and afraid of the world and the fact that he was getting left behind. Yet what surprised Howard was that the deputy had recognized him despite his helmet and armor. Had Navy blabbed?

It was possible, but the sheriff knew that their fates were intertwined, and that risking the admin's capture by anyone other than himself was a foolish venture, lest he end up like bryan delarosa , rotting in a cell somewhere.

"Montgomery." Of course the teacher would recognize their student, even if they were a failure. That was the connection between a teacher and the student whose path they shaped. "I thought you were dead."

It would've been easier if he had been. 

Thousands of men like Montgomery James had found themselves deep in their cups only to end up with a few extra holes in the back of their skull by an envious colleague or old threat. Howard hadn't thought about him for years, but now that he was here, in front of the admin...

His heart sparked with rage.

"You haven't moved."

---

Montgomery James

From beneath the helmet, a magenta eye fell upon the Illumina Skarmory. It was similar to the one that Howard had found by his hospital window after Navy had retreated into his fae garden to consult with spirits and tales of yesterday.

A reminder of what could have been if the admin hadn't turned Dewford into a frozen crater.

"I'm listening."

He sat on the golem's shoulder, hardly flinching from the cold. A mechanical form couldn't feel warmth or heat, anymore. All Howard had to experience was a crippling freeze, and even that bit gently upon stone flesh.

"Go. Elucidate me."

---

Montgomery James

"You're sorry?"

His expression was a mystery behind the expressionless helmet. Howard processed the information for several moments, before inclining his head. This was who his journey had started with? This man? The one who had influenced everything? Without Montgomery, there would be no Admin Fox.

And he was sorry?

"Fuck you, Montgomery. Fuck you. You get to disappear for years and then come back and take responsibility for your actions now that they actually matter? I looked for you in the records when I joined Rocket, and I couldn't find shit. I thought you died. I was fine with that, because it seemed like a realistic end for someone like you."

He clenched a fist.

"And yet..." He stared at the Skarmory and remembered his three months in Galar, training under the strongest heroes of a generation. "...you get to stand on that side. You left. You left and you washed your hands of everything, just like everyone else. Not me, though! I get promoted and have to shoulder the moral weight of annihilation while you get to live a new life. But it doesn't matter anymore. This war has grown beyond Team Rocket and the Pokémon League."

Yes, there was a war. Howard would fight in that war because if he didn't, he would die. If he followed Montgomery, he would die. He couldn't disappear into the night like many Rocket defectors. He simply had to shoulder that weight alone while people left Rocket and left him behind.

He missed when Eris Halla considered him a part of her family.

"The salvation of the world. That's all I'm here for. I'm just a cog with no future." Dynergy began to coalesse in Regice's divine heart, and glowed bright with flashes of the skeletal dragon reflecting in icy facets. "And you're a remnant of an era that has long since vanished—a time where Team Rocket's struggle had no meaning."

ameena abadi could bury another person next to her mother.

"You chose to be the worst version of yourself." A flash of red. "And you can't help me. Nobody can."

A Max Wyrmwind blotted out the sky as it descended downward.

---

Montgomery James

"I am human."

Steel wings rushed towards the frozen colossus's building-sized legs, though it was akin to spitting on it. Thick layers of Dynergy padded the golem's defenses, turning wings as sharp as swords into nothing more than padded sticks. In response to the attack, Regice raised a skyscraper-sized hand, and a finger that glowed with the intensity of a star created a red orb of Dynergy.

It was a Max Wyrmwind in the same way that a tsunami was a Surf.

"Everything I do, I do for the sake of our species. There is no freedom for me. not anymore. I destroyed Dewford. I failed to save Petalburg. Those are my sins, and I'll have to shoulder them for the rest of my life." The admin's eye glowed red as circuitry in his neck sparked. "Because I am human."

He clenched a hand carved from stone. He never looked more like a machine, divinely created for the sole purpose of salvation. Yet he was human. Even if his brain was placed in a jar, even if he was nothing more than a limbless cripple, his will would exist.

Thus, he was something more than the golem he commanded.

"When this war is over, the peace this region will know will be glorious. Even if I die, I will kill the enemy that matters."

He pointed up at the malignant star.

"ETERNATUS!" The admin roared. "MANKIND"S ENEMY!"

He looked down at the deputy, his eye narrowed with hate for the man who had started him down this path of destruction, preservation, and self-loathing.

"And if I die in the end, good riddance."

The star of Dynergy fell towards the deputy, a Max Wyrmwind unlike any other.

---

Montgomery James

There was a brief stint of satisfaction as Montgomery and his Illumina Skarmory were blown away. For all of his bragging in the deserts of Unova, that wasn't a trick that the gangster had taught him. How did you teach someone to fight against an explosion the size of a building?

How was a deputy supposed to dodge the weight of a star?

"MONTGOMERY!" The admin roared as Regice slid backwards, forcing the deputy and Pipsqueak to chase the titan down Route 104. Every step spread the gap further and further, before Howard was comfortable with the distance. "This is beyond you, now! The nineteen people that died in Dewford? That was me! The thousands of people who died in Petalburg? THAT WAS ME!"

A Max Hailstorm descended from the heavens. A great white orb of glacial ice descended towards the earth.

"Don't you understand, Montgomery? I'm a bigger villain than you ever were!" The admin disappeared in a flash of white as the orb cracked, releasing a snowstorm on the battlefield. "There's nothing left to save, so let's fight for my future! Just know that you can't match me, deputy!"

The storm expanded, engulfing the golem, admin, and deputy.

"Die."

---

Montgomery James
BLIZZARD/AVALANCE = MAX HAILSTORM

Barriers shattered. The amount was lost in the storm, but Dynergy that had crystallized into barriers rained down from the heavens onto Montgomery. Dynergy distorted the senses and gnawed at the mind, bringing demons from the past to life in the present.

Montgomery James had a lot of demons.

The words flickered on the screen as the deputy's perception was assaulted and his mind was besieged by poison extracted from divinity and preserved in eternal ice.

I LOVE YOU.

I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU.

The words finally ended on the intended sentence as one emotion won out.

I LOVE YOU.

"Goodbye."

The Max Hailstorm struck the Crafty Shield, and there was a precise moment where it held. Then the full weight of Dewford's destroyer crashed down on the Runegrius and the shield began to fail. It wasn't a shield formed from Necrozma's metal, wielded by a Galarian hero.

It just belonged to a normal Pokemon.

So it broke.

And everything froze.

---

Montgomery James