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[attr="class","textbox"]For those of able body, it wasn't much of a rough landing. For Isaac, whose leg was broken and insides were bleeding, it was as rough as he looked. He let out a pained hiss as he hit the ground, doing his damned best to brace himself on his hands. Big mistake. As he realized his hand was caressing the face of a deceased prisoner, he pulled it back in horror. So, too, did the prisoner's skull give way, leaving only flaccid skin and bone dust behind.[break][break]

Only the mask strapped atop his face stopped Isaac from vomiting.[break][break]

This man, this human life, was little more than filth to be cleaned away. Isaac's fist clenched at the Megalopian's callous description. Frankly, the only filth here were the ones putting them through untold amounts of cruelty. Yet he knew better to stand and deliver. Judging by the shape Shred Zeppelin was in, he wasn't the only one who made that mistake.[break][break]

He shot his brother in harm a weak, weary nod of understanding.[break][break]

What a time to be weak and weary. A familiar voice, so full of love and understanding, pleaded as a chained monstrosity came charging into the room. Despite her best attempts, her words fell on deaf ears. She was kicked across the room like a piece of garbage, only for her toxic chain to go rigid and her body to go limp.[break][break]

"Andrea Vaneau!" There was agony in Isaac's voice as he sprang off of his good leg, trying his damndest to get to his fallen friend. Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one to receive such punishment. His own toxic chain went rigid, so taut that it practically bound Isaac in place. He tried his damndest to fight against the pull, body trembling as he fought for every last millimeter.[break][break]

It wasn't to be. The second the chain slipped by even the slightest amount, it pulled him right back into place.[break][break]

The beast should have gone after him next. Yet it didn't. Instead, it went on a tear around the room. Isaac was forced to watch as it kicked the anonymous Hoennians around like ragdolls. Were they friends? Were they foes? Were they just ordinary people trying to get by? Were they kings broken into prisoners deserving of mockery? None of it mattered. None of them deserved this.[break][break]

When one turned to look at him, Isaac's heart sank. Mask, prisoner's outfit, he'd recognize her anywhere.[break][break]

"Genevieve Cromwell." This time it wasn't a pleading scream, but instead a heartbroken whisper. She could move, pained and crawling as she was. He was helpless, no matter how badly he wanted to run to her side. Nevertheless, he stretched out his hands, trying to use the only unbroken parts of him to help ease her off of the ground. As her hands trembled around his, he held them softly and firmly. He had to be her rock, even as his foundation was crumbling down to nothing.[break][break]

"C'mon. You know me," he whispered, voice still strained. Behind his mask, he found himself smiling, his head nestled softly against hers. "Since when've I not been in the thick of things for all Hoenn's messes?" It was a glib attempt at humor, a little bit of fun poked at himself even in the darkest of days. Nonetheless, Isaac's arms wrapped gently around Genny, one softly easing its way through her hair.[break][break]

He opened his mouth, trying to warn Genny about the risks her offer posed. However, as she pressed her lips against his forehead, he found the words dying in his throat. "Thank you," he whispered, wishing he could so much as move to properly pay back the favor. By now, the chain was pulling him tautly enough to start tearing at his flesh. He didn't dare fight its pull. "I will."[break][break]

It was a theory that would be quickly put to the test. Eris Halla, oh so painfully close to him, pelted the rampaging ogre right in the head with a piece of wayward mochi. With him so close, he would be right in the ogre's blind spot. Any beatdown reserved for him would instead happen to his beloved little sister.[break][break]

It might as well have been him suffering under the weight of all those blows.[break][break]

She'd be over soon, a flurry of hateful screams and thrashing wooden limbs. And yet, as Isaac watched the seething ogre, he couldn't help but notice what was bound around her crystalline mask; an entire network of toxic chains, dozens more than the single one that had them all bound. Fear, disgust, and a strange sympathy lit up in Isaac's eyes as he watched them writhe, covering every glimpse of her face he could steal.[break][break]

He wanted to hate her. The idea of her laying a single hand on Eris left his guts roiling to the core. Despite that, Andrea's voice echoed through his head, a litany of precious memories shared with at least some variant of the ogre in a past that never happened. The RKS Simulation was many things. A liar was not one of them. If anything, it was a cosmic cheat sheet, glimpses of clues to questions never asked and answers never found.[break][break]

"You're a prisoner, just like us."[break][break]

He, too, stooped down to the ground to pick up a piece of mochi. However, rather than throwing it as Eris had, he instead wiped it off on his sleeve and held it out towards the ogre. With his other hand, he fanned the stale, fallen candy, trying to waft some of the aroma its way. Once he finished, he held his free hand up, palm flat to show he had nothing in his hand and nothing up his sleeves. "It's okay. It's not a trick," he added, fighting down the hitch in his voice. "We're not here to hurt you"[break][break]

He clenched his jaw and prepared for the worst. To keep the offer going even as the sister he cherished so much was beaten down would be agony. Yet he knew Eris. Such a grudge held on her behalf, towards an imprisoned Pokemon that deserved a better life, was the last thing she'd want. Even this fight was born out of desperation, not out of desire. Even as his hand trembled, even as his breath clutched his chest in an iron grip, even as he risked his own beating, he kept the mochi held out.[break][break]

There was more than one way to be strong.[break][break]

3mXZWV_F[break][break]

TEAL DEER;[break]
Isaac worries a metric fuckton over Andrea, but is helpless to reach her.[break]
He also worries a metric fuckton of Genny, but luckily can reach her! He tries to be strength for her as she is for him.[break]
As Eris gets the ogre's attention, he makes an important observation.[break]
Instead of try to attack or escape the ogre, he offers her sympathy and a mochi.

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[attr="class","textbox"]A councilwoman sat side by side with a traitor, and told him he was worthy of being king.[break][break]

The gods and monsters of the Hoenn region weren't the only ones who took note of him. Its people, too, had seen what he'd been doing for them. The Petalburg Woods hadn't healed themselves. The lost and the injured were given care and guidance. Whenever a battle with Team Rocket seemed about to break out, the rush of the northern winds heralded his arrival.[break][break]

Yet, in spite of this, he averted his eyes oh so shyly. How could he accept such lofty praise when he hadn't even accepted himself?[break][break]

"He doesn't think. He knows." Caleb Harcourt was not somebody Isaac took lightly. If his beloved brother had doubts, Isaac would treat them with all the gravity they deserved. That went all the moreso when it was about Zev Harcourt. "He might be the only person in the world that knows the true Zev. For all the time I spent with him, I don't even come close."[break][break]

Layer after layer after layer of artifice. A part of it hurt. A part of it was almost mercy.[break][break]

At the mention of his victim's shattered jaws, Isaac shuddered. He could only imagine that crystalline armor, crashing through the walls of the Lesser Megalopolis as if they weren't even there. His own efforts at encasing him in ice, reinforced by the power of a legend, were shattered without a shred of effort.[break][break]

"He's not metal. He's something much, much worse," Isaac warned. "Direct force doesn't even make him blink. I escaped with my life, twice. But only barely each time. Arceus, I'm glad your volunteer was able to escape in one piece." And yet, something seemed odd. Zev wasn't the type to fight aimlessly. His distaste for serial killers was well known. His violence, well-documented as it was, came about only when he had a job to do or something to gain.[break][break]

How much disdain did he have for human life now?[break][break]

"This was months ago," Isaac added. He hadn't seen Zev since the Resurfaced Isle. How long had that even been? He'd gotten but a glimpse of Zev since, where he and bryan delarosa had their fateful final encounter. The mere idea of facing him down again left Isaac sick to his stomach. "I've got no clue what he's been up to since then. And that scares me."

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[attr="class","textbox"]"Good thing you're a doer, not a sayer."[break][break]

Some people would, after a taste of this better life, fall into a pool of their own sorrows. It was quite likely Freya had been there. Who wouldn't? But where that would be the end of the line for some, for Freya it was surely just the beginning. She said it herself. Waver all she might, she'd never truly give up.[break][break]

"Memory's a funny thing. Especially when you're not sure which are-" No. Faded outlines as they were, Isaac refused to let go of his time in Galar. His locket, his one memento, still lay thick with dream mist behind the glass courtesy of his Musharna. By now, he could no longer see the picture within, but silhouettes flitted through the dream mist like a fading film reel.[break][break]

"Don't act like they're some separate life." It was a reminder not just for Freya, but also for himself. "It showed me just how much I'm capable of. One of these days, I'll be worthy of being the King of the Aegis again. And you? All of those lives that touched yours did it for a reason. I'm sure of it."[break][break]

And if there wasn't some cosmic reason, there was one Freya would make herself.[break][break]

"Anything I can do to help jog your memory?" It was a simple question with no simple answers. It was also one of the most important ones anyone could possibly ask. Knowledge was power, and with Rocket's strength growing they'd need all the power they could get to tip the scales. There were times when Isaac would let the past lie. The names Freya brought up made Isaac remember those times were over.[break][break]

jayden cross. Maddened. Suffering. Creating howling blizzards with nothing but his directionless, all-consuming hatred. Isaac pitied him. He feared him. He hated what he had to do to him. He was proud of what he had been able to do for him. If AQUA or SAPPHIRE could figure out a way to save him, to free him for the ruination, Isaac would jump at the chance to make it so. He didn't even care if Jayden left Rocket or not. He knew it'd never happen. But he couldn't stand to see him suffer in a prison of his own mind.[break][break]

Zev Harcourt. A very different kind of madness. Where Jayden had lost control, Zev had more of it than ever. Isaac had seen it twice for himself, hunted down by him like a crystalline Terminator. Worse still, Isaac feared he'd seen his handiwork. A strange, musclebound man he willed back from the brink of death warned him of being hunted down by an unearthly being. howard slayte rambled about him as if he was less a man, more a god. Maybe that was the truth. jack wainwright had all but confirmed how readily Zev had thrown the last shreds of his humanity away.[break][break]

There could be no saving Zev from himself. Rather, the region - maybe even the multiverse - were the ones in peril.[break][break]

"He's got you nervous too, huh?"

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[attr="class","textbox"]"It's funny. Ask me three years ago, and I'd tell you I'd kill to stop being such a nobody. Careful what ya wish for, huh?" Hoenn was a tempest of gods and monsters, and now they knew all too who well who he was. He could never go back to being anonymous. Maybe that was okay. At this point, he was in too deep to walk away and leave it all behind.[break][break]

If he tried, he'd never forgive himself.[break][break]

Freya's experience had differed slightly from Isaac's. She didn't need to face what she could have been. Instead, she had to walk a mile in her shoes. Isaac winced slightly, offering her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "Can't imagine how that must've felt," he admitted, not even realizing the tip of the iceberg that Freya was about to unveil.[break][break]

It hadn't been the first out of body experience for her. It was one of many, and they were all starting to bleed together. They threatened to overwhelm her, simmering beneath the surface just as the lavas of Mt. Chimney did. How long would it take for them to bubble over and erupt?[break][break]

"Well, let's see. There's the me from Maldacena's digital world that tried to take my place. Hell, I'm half convinced he did." There was a touch of unease to Isaac's voice as he broached the subject. The worry gnawed at his head often, but he almost never admitted it to others. "For all I know, the real Isaac's rotting at the bottom of the sea, and I'm the poor shit tasked with piecing his life back together."[break][break]

"And that's just first things first." With a sigh, Isaac tried to recount just how many encounters with the strange he'd had by now. "There's the King of the Aegis over in Galar. Terry Jr., from Father Winter's fucked-up games. My fears of Rocket, haunting me in the Border like some kind of chained puppet. My friends' fear of what being in Rocket could mean for me, stalking them through the dream mist. And that's not even getting into the times I've had to face all the mes I could be over in my dreams."[break][break]

"It's the damndest thing. I've seen myself through a thousand lenses. And if anything, it just makes me even more sure of myself." The good, the bad, the ugly. The aspirational, the feared. They were all just facets through which Isaac's infinite potential shone. "Doesn't matter if I'm some digital duplicate. Or if I'm a dead man whose soul picked up right where it left off. Or if I'm only alive 'cause Suicune bailed me out, and the second they're done with me I just kinda unravel."[break][break]

For all the fear in his eyes, he faced Freya with a smile. "I'm Isaac Merlo. And for all the mes I could be, this is who I am."

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[attr="class","textbox"]"Oh, don't even get me started on that asshole!"[break][break]

When most people thought about elemental stereotypes, fire's was self explanatory. It even crept into day to day language; fiery, inflammatory, hot-headed. Fire was the aggressor, and water was its steady and soothing counterpoint. Those people tended to forget that for every settled spring, there was a raging flood just waiting to burst forth.[break][break]

The Triad were Isaac's first and oldest enemies. Faced with them, Suicune's tranquility gave way to their tempest.[break][break]

"He chucked Eris Halla into a portal, and thought it'd be a great time to talk about fucking Christmas gifts. Christmas gifts! Can you believe that? Anyway, I told him to go fuck himself, but he tricked me into playing his game anyway. And with that, I got sent . . . well, here, actually."[break][break]

Right. How could he forget near-death experience #5, where his own cross-dimensional self pitched him right into Mt. Chimney? "Had me face off with a me that had it way easier growing up. And not gonna lie? Not impressed." It boiled down to a contest of wills in the end. Without everything he'd endured, "Terry Jr." couldn't even compete. "I'll take being thrown to the curb a thousand times over if it means not turning into some sniveling little daddy's boy."[break][break]

"Take it he showed up at your place, too?"

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[attr="class","textbox"]"What're you talking about?" Isaac shot Freya a quizzical look, as if he didn't have the slightest clue what she meant. "Awful childhood memories. Everything being on fire. The foreboding feeling that something could go horribly wrong at any given moment."[break][break]

A teasing smirk spread across his face. "Sure feels like Hoenn to me."[break][break]

Mt. Chimney wasn't a place Isaac viewed the most fondly, if he was being honest. It sucked. Most people would kill to live next to a questionably active volcano. However, for all he'd found his footing in his maturity, there was still a good bit of baggage that Isaac had to sort out involving his youth.[break][break]

"These days, tranquility's less something we're given and more something we take, anyway." He was one of the lucky ones. Suicune's gift left him as calm as a hidden spring. He still felt his emotions strongly, but there was a level of detachment between them that stopped his big heart and quick mind from suffocating him to death. "No reason we can't find it in a place like this, right?"[break][break]

Yet his favorite councilwoman hadn't just called him here for the hell of it. This was a meeting for business, not for pleasure. Or maybe it was for pleasure? "Gonna have to be a bit more specific than that," Isaac said, having made a new promise or offer to Freya every time they met. "This a Suicune offer? The whole sygna suit thing? Or did I forget we were up for a lunch?"[break][break]

Lunch over the fires of Mt. Chimney. Now that'd be something.

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[attr="class","textbox"]Before his blood had even run dry, Isaac was yanked away from his companions and towards his fate.[break][break]

The punishment for his recklessness and hubris had yet to come to an end. For his transgressions against his captor, he had been included in the den of thieves that had taken form within the Dummy Ward. He shot them all an apologetic smile, both for making their position all the more precarious and for not aiding them in their silent struggle.[break][break]

Not that it mattered. Apparently, the monkey saw all.[break][break]

The system had already been rigged to punish them. Pokeballs rolled along an assembly line, Megalopians waiting with hammers to reduce them to rubble. With each smash came the snap of flesh and the wail of its trainer. In the sound of the struggle, all too familiar voices came up.[break][break]

Andrea Vaneau. Her tender heart deserved better than to watch those she loved reduced to a bloody mess.[break][break]

Johanna Joy. She'd finally found herself, and now the bastards threatened to leave her questioning it all again.[break][break]

illeana reyes. She was just like him; for all their power in the world below, helpless in this imprisonment.[break][break]

They joined Eris Halla on his list of names to fight for. Even as his body flushed warm with internal bleeding, and his creaking ribs strained from the weight of the toxic chain holding him aloft, he knew he would find his chance to support them. He'd just need to go about it a different way. At this point, he couldn't fight harder if he tried. Fighting smarter would be his game.[break][break]

The shattering of his own Pokeball should have been but another piece of kindling thrown onto the fire of his outrage. However, as Isaac saw a strand of purple hair among the wreckage, his heart dropped to his chest. There was no way. It wasn't possible. Suicune would never take to a Pokeball, no matter what the Megalopians did to subdue it. And yet Isaac couldn't tear his eyes away from the screen, the question of "what if" gnawing at the back of his brain.[break][break]

He hadn't realized the deliberations had started until most of the Dummy Ward had cast their votes.[break][break]

So be it. Isaac didn't need anyone else's input to know the only real choice he had in the matter. "If we play their fucked up games, they're the only ones that win," he rasped, coughing up a little blood from the strain of making his voice heard. "I'm gonna Trust. And if I know how stubborn the people of Hoenn are, I bet the Weaklings are gonna do the same."[break][break]

He didn't care if he was wrong. He wasn't here to win anymore. He was here to make the Megalopians' regret the day they ever dared hurt the people he loved.[break][break]

TEAL DEER;[break]
Isaac is in awful shape; crushed ribs, a broken leg, and coughing up blood. Despite this, he's smiling.[break]
Isaac recognizes some dear friends, and silently vows to stand by their side.[break]
Walking Wake is smashed. Isaac fears it's something far worse.[break]
It doesn't endear Isaac to the Megalopians' games. He sticks to his truth and vows to trust.

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[attr="class","textbox"]They were living proof that the world could be better. Yet the world would have to choose to be better. Be it for fear, or for selfishness, or for genuine loyalty, not every Rocket would see things their way. No matter how hard they tried, when this war came to its end dozens would be in chains.[break][break]

Until then, he could only hope they'd face their common enemy. He'd trust in Naomi Sato.[break][break]

"You got the slightest idea how little you've narrowed it down?" he asked, a teasing grin on his face. "Pretty sure there's half a dozen gathering storms on our doorstep. And that's just the stuff we know's gonna be trouble." What if the League doubters were right about Dynamax? What if Tempest Quinn was about Avatarship?[break][break]

What if every desperate move Hoenn made towards survival only damned them more?[break][break]

"But, hey. You've got a good head on your shoulders. Bet once they see what you've been cooking, they'll have the sense to hear you out." He took her outstretched hand, equal parts a help to his feet and a handshake's seal. "And if you need a helping hand, I got you. I'm good at holding smarter people's stuff while they figure out how to save the universe"[break][break]

A teasing grin spread across his face. "Just spare me the ambush next time, eh?"

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[attr="class","textbox"]That definitely wasn't something you saw every day.[break][break]

It looked like a Raikou, that was for sure. But unless Isaac was mistaken, Raikou tended to be a lot more yellow than that. In fact, this Raikou was painted entirely in shades of grey. Its body was ephemeral, almost ashlike, albeit more than sturdy enough to carry a rider on top.[break][break]

To think, the mad lad actually did it.[break][break]

Josh looked around like a man haunted. Isaac couldn't blame him. Between the invisible sensation of being watched and the sudden temperature drop, Isaac may as well have been a ghost. A fitting power, he ruefully thought, for a man who had died at least three times.[break][break]

"Easy, easy. It's just me." Josh would hear Isaac before he saw him, voice carried along the same breeze that brought him here. Then, in one last swirl, they dissipated to let Isaac take form. He shot his friend a grin and a wave, as if this was the most normal meeting in the world. "Good to see ya, man."[break][break]

"Looks like you've had a hell of a week, huh?"

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[attr="class","textbox"]That was all he needed to hear.[break][break]

"Trying's all I could ask for." The last thing Isaac wanted was for Eris to feel like a failure because of her own mind and heart. It was okay to be scared. It was okay to be worried. It was okay to lose hope. As long as she did her best, as long as she tried to keep that spark alive, that was all he could ever want. "You're a good kid."[break][break]

He wished he could stay, but the burning at the back of his neck disagreed. Compared to Eris' voice, whatever the Megalopians had been saying fell on deaf ears. Maybe that was a mistake. Maybe that was the point. Frankly, he couldn't give two figs about what the monsters who captured them had to say.[break][break]

His hand tightened around Eris' ever so slightly, as if she were his anchor. He looked her in the eyes, and for the first time since his brutal beating the light came back to them. Even as the chained pulled against his windpipe with enough force to crush it, he forced himself to find his words.[break][break]

"Love you, sis."[break][break]

Isaac's fingers slipped through hers as he was pulled to the heavens.

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[attr="class","textbox"]"What luck've I got left to test?"[break][break]

The smile on Isaac's face was one of utter defeat. He fucked around. He found out. Now he barely had a life to fuck around with. The thing about his other incidents was that there was always an out. The Unown ending Maldacena's simulation. His soul returning to his body. Suicune's intervention.[break][break]

For the first time since Mt. Pyre, he was gonna have to deal with it.[break][break]

Yet he knew he had to. The girl whose hand he just clasped depended on it. "I'm gonna be okay," he promised her, his sincerity flowing from his hand to hers. "I promise. But if I'm gonna be okay, I'm gonna need you to be okay, too. So I'll keep being as strong for you as you're being for me, okay?"[break][break]

He knew she could do it. There was nobody in the world he trusted more.

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[attr="class","textbox"]"C'mon. Even I'm not that stupid."[break][break]

He was. He'd love to say that this was all according to plan, that he was trying to martyr himself for the good people of Hoenn or sneak some invaluable intel out of an evil monkey. Maybe he could justify that retroactively. However, he hadn't been thinking of any of that. All he knew was that the people he cared for were under lock and key, and the sister he adored above all was being bullied by some peanut-shaped asshole.[break][break]

The Megalopians may have sealed away his legendary powers, but they couldn't stop the heart of the Liberator from beating inside Isaac.[break][break]

" 'Sides, look on the bright side. They didn't kill me." It was a hell of a silver lining to cling to, but leave it to Isaac to find it where it persisted. "Left all my worky bits intact, too. Looks like they need us, one way or another." They didn't need the poor, unfortunate soul who they pushed through the bars like a sieve. But one was an exception. Two? That was a pattern.[break][break]

It seemed the Megalopians wouldn't let suicide be an option.

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[attr="class","textbox"]"'Cause I've got the strongest, bravest kid in the world to pick me up after I fall."