[attr="class","juliaw"]

Julia kept one suspicious eye on Cillian Quinn and Tempest Quinn as all this unfolded. Neither of them was being hostile... yet. She hoped they stayed that way.

[break][break]The Pokémon—Calyrex, it introduced itself—answered many of the questions asked. The people of this world had lost hope after a great calamity and needed heroes to inspire them. Julia stood up straighter. She wanted to be one of those heroes.

[break][break]Her own question was answered not with words but with a Glacial Lance to Snaily's Protect. The barrier shattered under the overwhelming power, and another one struck Snaily directly, knocking her to the ground.

[break][break]"Snaily!" Julia cried. No good; the Hisuian Goodra was out cold. No pun intended. Julia returned her to her Ball for safety.

[break][break]Calyrex gave his final words, and Julia looked away before the first attack struck him. Even if it was an act of mercy to a dying king, she couldn't bear to watch. And from the sounds of all the attacks that hit and the yelps from the dying Calyrex, it wasn't a clean execution. She only dared to look again after the silence of death had prevailed for several long seconds.

[break][break]It was done. The high king was dead.

[break][break]luka chêne prepared a burial mound and worked to restore the fallen king's statue, and Julia ran over to help, picking up the pieces of the destroyed effigy so Luka's Pokémon could Frenzy Plant them back into place. mint frost mocked Luka for doing this, but Julia turned and said, "Memories are precious."

[break][break]When the statue was repaired to the best of Luka's ability, Julia smiled. "It looks great," she said earnestly. It wouldn't be the same as before, but that was okay. Neither was Julia, after all, and look at how she'd turned out.

[break][break]She was surprised to see what looked like Rockets helping, too (unless some members of the League were just really into hiding their faces these days). She tensed up as Tempest Quinn approached, staring him down despite the nasty look she got in return. Yet he didn't attack or do anything to desecrate the dead. Instead, he dipped his head and began to mumble something that Julia couldn't hear from where she stood. Was he...? No. There was no way a monster like him was praying for the departed.

[break][break]Isaac Merlo's familiar voice caught her attention, and she finally realized that he was the one in the Aggron Sygna Suit. She opened her mouth to greet him but then quickly shut it. She couldn't call him "Isaac" here, and she wasn't sure if knowing his Rocket identity would get either of them in hot water. Instead, she just gave him a knowing look and a quick nod.

[break][break]She caught the back half of Josh Devlin's rant to MATIAS SILPH. Then, an earth spike erupted from the ground, and the chill that ran through Julia came from something deeper than the frozen landscape. She looked toward Matias, only to see him disappear into the Hammerlocke light. That... That couldn't have been him, right? There was no way he'd try to kill a fellow League member... right...?

[break][break]"Come on," Julia said to El Sunderland, her voice bordering on frantic. "We're going to Hammerlocke." Without waiting for a response, Julia ran into the light.

[break][break]

[attr="class","juliaw"]

Julia outright scowled as Tempest Quinn pulled El Sunderland close to him, acting like he was actually going to protect her fellow Ranger. He was the one who was a danger here! "Friends, my—!"

[break][break]The summit exploded, blasting apart old stone with new. The sun, once merely a suggestion in this frozen nightmare, shone bright above the remains of the ancient structure. Had that been Groudon, then? Of course, Rocket must have started a fight up there. So much for being "friends."

[break][break]Despite her fear of the Rocket trying to get all buddy-buddy with her and El, she tried to wedge herself between the two under the warmth of Akero's wings. Oh, wow, that was way better. Adrenaline and determination had kept her moving forward, but that could only stave off hypothermia for so long. She wished she had Momo with her... Wherever she ended up in the Togekiss's embrace, she'd keep a suspicious eye on Temp for any funny business.

[break][break]El Sunderland spoke sense, but it was hard to trust someone who'd tried to kill her just two months prior. "Just keep an eye on him," she whispered back. It felt gross to say that when she agreed that they should be working together, but she didn't want El to get hurt. She didn't want herself to get hurt again, either. Despite Akero's warmth, she shivered.

[break][break]She didn't introduce herself to her former attacker, but she did listen as El read the note. "It sounds like a fairytale," she said.

[break][break]As they drew closer to the summit, a familiar voice shouted out for people to stop. Was that Isaac Merlo?

[break][break]Suddenly, Tempest Quinn peeled away, excitedly pointing to the ominous Shadow Lugia. "Safe?!" Julia near-shouted in disbelief. His "husband" had been the one to give the kill order! Something else managed to crawl into her thoughts, too: He seemed so excited to see his husband, even darting away from Akero's warmth to go see him. Julia shook that notion from her head. He probably just wanted to be close to Shadow Lugia's Avatar and away from League "do-gooders."

[break][break]She stayed close to El Sunderland and their Togekiss as they made their way to the summit, where everything somehow got even weirder. A withering king atop a glacial steed used first the voices of others and then its own beheaded statue to speak. The statue had been the only thing holding its affliction back, and with it destroyed, the king was visibly withering away, being consumed by a poison that would render it forever paranoid and forever their enemy.

[break][break]And it wanted them to kill it.

[break][break]It would be an act of mercy for one suffering so, but Julia didn't have it in her to do it. Others were asking the more obvious questions, like how it had gotten poisoned and how they could leave this place. Julia shouted one of her own: "Isn't there some other way we can help you?!"

[break][break]The glacial steed erratically shot out Glacial Lances as it lost control of itself. Julia quickly swapped out Lazuli for Snaily and had the Goodra use Protect.

[break][break]

[attr="class","juliaw"]

Julia didn't seem to notice El's reaction to her lack of response, too absorbed in finishing this mission now. She stopped and turned at El's half-call and let them wrap a hand around her wrist. Her eyes rounded a bit as she realized her mistake. She was so used to just powering through her own disability that she hadn't even considered that El might not be able to do the same!

[break][break]"Sorry, I'll slow down some," she said with an apologetic smile. "I'm not going anywhere, promise." After all, she knew what it felt like to be left behind because of a physical impairment...

[break][break]True to her word, she took it slower through the crowd, occasionally politely calling out for people to move out of the way so they could get through. El could even continue holding onto her wrist, if they wanted. Finally, they made it to the privacy curtains in the back. Julia could hear a woman's voice giving curt orders to other League officials shuffling in and out. It seemed they'd need to wait a moment to get inside.

[break][break]"Oh, right!" Julia suddenly said. "What kinds of adventures does Isaac go on?"

[attr="class","juliaw"]

Lazuli's Confuse Ray kept Nobusuma from Defogging the field, but the replacement that Makoto sent out wasn't one she could deal with easily with Spot and Momo down for the count. She had one last option on her belt, though.

[break][break]"Lazuli, come back. Snaily, go!"

[break][break]The Hisuian Goodra emerged from her Ball with a high roar, arms raised despite her hunched-over position.

[break][break]"Sparkie, use Rising Voltage on the Ninetales!"

[break][break]With a determined, crackling squeak, Sparkie summoned electric voltage from the terrain below Tsukiko.

[attr="class","juliaw"]

The feeling of safety cracked along with the Wide Guard protecting Julia and the others. Before she could react, the barrier shattered. A sharp gasp forced itself into her lungs as several large shards of ice narrowly missed her. Not everyone else was so lucky.

[break][break]John Sullivan called for the people around him to form a perimeter around Zamazenta, and Julia was all too willing to let herself be drafted. "Roger!" she answered. As she advanced, she kept her eyes on Cillian Quinn and Tempest Quinn, but they were too late. The Galarian canine's shield was torn from its body, and a strange snail-like creature attacked it with a terrible malice, tearing a pained howl from the dog before it collapsed.

[break][break]That chilling feeling of hate burned like a cold fire in Julia's chest. Every time... Every time Hoenn was faced with disaster, Rocket took advantage of it and made it worse. Why?! Didn't they realize this was their home, too? If it was destroyed, what would they have left? Nothing! They were willing to let the region burn and rot for... Arceus, Julia didn't even know anymore. Power? Money? Some sick sense of satisfaction at watching people suffer?

[break][break]Evil. That's all Rocket was: pure evil. And it had to be stopped before it hurt more innocent people.

[break][break]"Lazuli," Julia began, "use—"

[break][break]A dreadful pulse, answered by the beating of her own heart, stopped her words cold. Vertigo made her instinctively cling to Lazuli's neck as the rusted shield, imbued with Chien-Pao's ancient magic, began to draw everyone into it.[break][break]

---

[break]This time, it wasn't the cold of a ruinous power that enveloped Julia. It was a more mundane chill, yet it still seeped under her skin and sent her shaking. The only comfort was a familiar feeling wrapped around her: Lazuli's neck, curled protectively around the Lapras's trainer. Without even thinking, Julia reached out to stroke it as awareness returned to her.

[break][break]"Where are we...?"

[break][break]Lazuli whined in response, just as unsure as Julia was. Slowly, the girl pulled herself to her feet, snow falling from her uniform, and looked around. It was some sort of frozen hilly landscape dotted with ancient ruins and laden with some unpleasant feeling that it took Julia a moment to identify: decay. Nobody else seemed to be nearby.

[break][break]Julia's communicator crackled to life with a message from John Sullivan, eliciting a sigh of relief. She squinted over the stark-white terrain and saw the statue he mentioned behind some sort of worn, regal entryway with a grand yet gloomy tree.

[break][break]

[break]And for Rocket, she thought bitterly.

[break][break]A shadow unfurled in the wintery skies above, and Julia looked up to see... Shadow Lugia. She swallowed hard and forced herself to move forward, a worried Lazuli sliding through the snow after her. This wasn't the time to be scared. She had to find the others and figure out how to get out of wherever the heck this was.

[break][break]She almost didn't see the white Pokémon in the snow, but its red-and-blue spots and the saddle on its back made it clear just who it belonged to. "Akero, El!" Julia called, running toward them. Her gait was awkward in the snow, making her stumble a bit on her prosthesis, but she didn't let that stop her. "Are you oka—"

[break][break]Akero's jaunty whistle did nothing to ease the dread that stabbed into Julia's heart upon seeing who else was under the Togekiss's protective wings: Tempest Quinn.

[break][break]"El, get back! This guy's dangerous!"

[break][break]

[attr="class","juliaw"]

Protecting the dogs was something Julia would gladly do. She wouldn't make the same mistake she'd made in that game. But "destroying" the Ruinous Pokémon, even if they were hostile... She wasn't sure if she'd have it in her. She was a Ranger who'd sworn to protect the region, its people, and its Pokémon. Sometimes—a lot of times, lately—that meant fighting, and she was okay with that. But going any further just felt wrong.

[break][break]She immediately recognized the two Galarian legends and the icy feline from Dahlia Goode's RVL route. The fourth combatant, a moose-like creature with a bowl on its head, was completely unknown to her, but it was the least of her concerns right now. The Chien-Pao exuded a chilling, ominous aura that hung over the battlefield. It made Julia's muscles tense and her heart pound in a way that wasn't from her usual eager energy.

[break][break]

[break]Team Rocket. Of course Team Rocket would try to take advantage of this situation and seize the Legendary and Ruinous Pokémon for themselves. Whatever they planned to do with them couldn't be good, and Julia had to stop them at all costs.

[break][break]She recognized several of the people fighting alongside her. The faces of her fellow Rangers—Oliver Shrakes, El Sunderland, and Josh Devlin, to name a few—helped tamp down the hatred boiling in her gut. She thought she heard Isaac Merlo's voice, too, though she didn't recognize him in his Sygna Suit. But then she saw two other people whose very presence made her inner fire explode into an enraged inferno.

[break][break]It was weird; part of her knew she should have been scared of Cillian Quinn and Tempest Quinn after they'd tried to kill her in the Ultra Deep Sea, especially given the former's Shadowy patron. But right now, all she could feel was anger. Hate for the couple whose "love" was obviously a façade over their cruelty. The one known as Cillian was targeting Zamazenta with his Shadow Delphox. That wouldn't do.

[break][break]"Lazuli, Water Pulse!"

[break][break]She threw the Lapras's Dive Ball onto the field with a lot more force than usual, her Mega Anklet already glowing. She only vaguely noticed that the light seemed different, somehow darker, but paid it little mind. That strange light cocooned Lazuli from the Laprasite around her neck, then burst open to reveal her Mega form. Her normally gentle eyes looked at the Delphox with an usual coldness before she fired her Water Pulse at it. It probably wouldn't be able to stop the Magic Room, but hopefully it'd get the fox's attention.

[break][break]A feline yowl blended with the scraping of metal on metal, like a sword being drawn. Julia looked toward it and saw the Chien-Pao summoning an Avalanche. Again, it wasn't fear that overtook her like she'd expected it to. More than anything, she was annoyed that this was happening again. John Sullivan, another familiar face on this battlefield, acted fast to erect a Wide Guard.

[break][break]"Thanks!" Julia called, voice more clipped than usual. She meant it, of course, but it was like her mind was too focused on other things to put her heart into it.

[break][break]

[attr="class","juliaw"]

Julia grinned as she watched Tsukiko collapse into a surprisingly proper sleeping position. Yes!

[break][break]But then her expression faltered when Nobusuma dodged the Will-O-Wisp. Not yes!

[break][break]Momo screeched in dismay as the Cross Poison slammed into him at full strength, sending him flying back. He struggled to stand, but the dark flush on his face showed that he had been poisoned, weakening him even further. Before Julia could call for Lazuli to use Life Dew or Heal Bell, Momo fell limp in a faint.

[break][break]That was half of her team down. Even the ever-optimistic Julia was getting nervous. Still, she put all of her energy into sending out her next Pokémon:

[break][break]"Sparkie, let's get an Electric Terrain going!"

[break][break]The shiny Alolan Raichu emerged from her Ball with a squeak and began to surf in circles on her tail, generating a grounded field of electricity that covered the battlefield and turned her into a Surge Surfer. Meanwhile, Julia glanced up to see the Aurora Veil still covering Makoto's side of the battlefield. How much longer would it be there?

[break][break]"Lazuli, Confuse Ray." After all, her lullaby would no longer work with this electricity invigorating the still-awake combatants.

[break][break]Lazuli sang out a note that somehow sounded like two discordant tones playing at once. Colorful lights appeared around her horn and floated over to Nobusuma, attempting to confuse him.

[attr="class","juliaw"]

There it was again, that tinge of sadness behind El's soft laugh. The way they gripped Akero's reins was a much more obvious sign that maybe Julia had asked the wrong question. But how else was she supposed to word it without directly asking if, say, something bad had happened? The answer that El gave was pretty vague. Julia was pretty sure there was more to it, but before she could figure out a way to ask about it, they'd arrived at the outpost. Again, they were approached by an official standing guard.

[break][break]"What brings you here?" This guy seemed a lot friendlier than the last two, but his eyes were still sharp and alert.

[break][break]"We have a message for the commander," Julia said. "We've got specific instructions to make sure only they see it." She held out the envelope for inspection.

[break][break]Satisfied, the guard nodded. "She's at the makeshift desk in the back, behind the privacy curtains. Make it quick; we've got a lot going on down here."

[break][break]"We will, thanks!"

[break][break]Julia hopped off Chester's back and returned him to his Poké Ball so she could more easily navigate between all the people in this tighter space. She took a deep breath and tried to focus on the people, not the stone walls of the cavern itself. What had she been trying to figure out a minute ago...?

[attr="class","juliaw"]

Julia smiled and nodded. Focusing on the positives was what she did best.

[break][break]"Yeah, everyone's talking about Sygna Suits these days! I hadn't heard about the extreme motion part, though. Sounds like it'd be perfect for you." She looked over at Bass Boost and the position of her saddle. Admittedly, she didn't know a ton about Seismitoad, but she could imagine having those bumps vibrate right under you was one heck of a feeling. No wonder Shalin had saddled her up.

[break][break]Even after seeing Josh Devlin's own Eeveelutions in action, it still astounded Julia just how big they could get. Starr, Rielle, and Caprice, the latter of whom apparently had quite the story behind her! Julia wasn't familiar with the Ageos region, but it apparently had a dysfunctional government. No wonder Shalin hadn't stuck around.

[break][break]"I bet she was real happy to see you again," Julia said. "What ended up being so 'notorious' about her?"

[break][break]Shalin had a question of her own afterwards. "No, what's it like?" Because Julia was willing to bet that Shalin had been on one before.

[attr="class","juliaw"]

In the end, Julia, no matter how serious she tried to be, wasn't good at just sticking to business. Especially when that business landed her on these heavy topics. She wanted her and her friends to be happy, and, yeah, sometimes that meant dealing with the hard stuff. But once that was dealt with, she was more than happy to get back to... well, she couldn't call it "business as usual" without being contradictory.

[break][break]She burst into giggles at Isaac's correction. "You can say 'ass' around me! I'm not a little kid!" Whoops, that was getting a bit too close to serious territory again. Time to divert.

[break][break]"Heck yeah! Wanna do the honors, Momo?"

[break][break]Momo let out an excited hoot, glad to see his trainer in such good spirits again. He scampered over to the fire pit and puffed a Will-O-Wisp at it. The ghostly flame floated to the kindling, and then it all lit up at once, a warm light shining in this unusually cold winter created by something that had caused so many people pain.

[break][break]But Hoenn would recover. It always had. And so would Julia, Isaac, and everyone else. Isaac's way of putting it—un-paining each other's butts—may have been silly, but it was something Julia agreed with. As long as she could, she would keep shining that light to help them.

[attr="class","juliaw"]

"Look out!" Julia shouted, tugging on Drake's reins. They just barely managed to avoid a four-way collision and somehow kept their fifth-place spot despite the chaos. oscar clayton was right on their tail, though. They needed to act fast if they wanted to pull ahead for an awesome last-second victory.

[break][break]Luckily, this part of the track was perfect for "fast."

[break][break]"Now, Drake! Dragon Dance to victory!"

[break][break]Finally, Drake could give it everything he had. He may not have been able to Mega Evolve like Alexei Ivanov's Salamence, but he'd prove that he still had what it took to be a champ! Dragon-type energy enveloped his wings again, and he shot forward like a rocket, weaving across the widening straightaway.

[break][break]