"Ting-lu..." The admin snorted and waggled his cigarette. "Heh."

He was wondering what that stench of fear wafting off of Regirock was. The same sensation that had rotted his mind. It tasted similar to the sensation he had felt upon meeting it in a fictional version of Galar, though even now the line between fantasy and reality blurred in the sand. Elisabeth had died there. Elisabeth had died here. If there was one thing that Elisabeth Fiorelli excelled at across the multiverse, it was getting killed.

"An empty vessel. Its contents, if any, are far more terrifying. As is, it's a boogeyman meant to be squashed."

Maybe he'd commission her a trophy. He filed the thought away for later.

"Why are we trusting the word of something that sacked the Ancient Tomb and has done nothing but cause us misery? It says that you all are fated to die, but why? Why would you resign yourself to such a ridiculous fate?" He shook his head. Regirock and Regice did not deem him worthy. He wondered if it was a contingency against scenarios like this. "Deny it, don your masks of mockery, and rewrite the laws of destiny."

Kyurem's prophecy had been witnessed by hundreds. It was as universally prevalent as the cigarette smoke in this room. There was no use in putting Pandora back in her box, so to speak. Unless Pandora was Elisabeth's nickname, and her box was another coffin.

He turned from jayden cross to Elisabeth Fiorelli , perturbed. Hitoshi Inoue 's shout caused his hairs to stand on end.

"You actually believe in this ridiculous prophecy? Arceus above, don't be absurd. It's called ruination!" He almost wanted to point out the misery Chien-pao and Wo-chien had brought down on their avatars. The God General's plan, meanwhile, brings little but derision. "As for Greyson Connors ... if he lets Solgaleo out of his sight, he's a complete fucking mor-"

SMASH!

The wall collapses in on itself like dominoes as a king steps through. There are multiple breeds of kings in this world. There are 'Royals' who labor to preserve Hoenn with hands that do not bleed. There are kings born from buds, blooming beneath trees. There is even Remiel Calcifet's bloodline, so long and inbred that one could describe it as a wreath rather than a line.

What stood before them was a king that could not be.

Howard's first thought is simple. It's gorgeous.

His second thought is also simple. It's hideous and I want to kill it.

Yet he drew himself away from the Paradox Pokemon of yesterday that mocked his entire profession and towards Team Rocket's two Avatars. He steepled his fingers together innocently, like a student preparing to ask a question. He blinked once, serenely, as if attempting to bury his true emotions.

"PENELOPE LIVY will come later. Do not fret, Underboss Fiorelli." If Elisabeth had died easily, so too would the councilwoman. Her HBIC was a bigger threat than her. "But I'd like to second that question."

He smiled with all the control he could muster.

"Where is the vessel?"

---

Fantasizing about killing Elisabeth again as per usual. Thinks she's bold for yapping despite getting folded with remarkable ease. Hates that he's forced to lie for her.
Relates Ting-lu's fear to the version of it that he fought in Garden of Avalon. Ponders if Regirock had come into contact with it prior to Petalburg. Questions the validity of something that has done nothing but cause problems and hide for a whole year. Mocks Ruination and its 'destined fate'.
Calls Greyson an idiot before getting interrupted.
Koraidon is cool
Koraidon sucks actually
Asks where the bowl is and tells Elisabeth that he'll deal with Penny eventually.

"We are heroes." He was unabashed in that proclamation. Eduardo Hisakawa would find the proclamation confusing, and Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki would demean him for his actions in Dewford and Petalburg. "We are brothers. We were born into Galar together, and we journeyed through that world together."

He closed his eye. He did not meet Eris's demanding gaze. Human beings were hypocritical, but he was a hypocritical person. His only purpose was to ensure that Eris Halla grew up in a world where she could spend her life putting herself back together.

She was entitled to that tomorrow.

"You care." He opened his eye. "But consider this, Eris:"

He put a hand on his hip.

"You can't perceive emotion. Does Mesprit exist to you? Does Lenore still exist to you, after digging through the ashes of that fire? You should've wished for rain, little lady."

---

Eris Halla

"They will, Ms. Moreau." He spoke softly, regarding the red lines of Dynergy that crossed his hands like circuitry. "They will, for their problems are numerous than the stars in the sky."

He had given his warning. She had chosen not to heed it. Arrogance had buried stronger women than Giselle, but he wasn't going to drag her back from the brink. There were too many other people to save. There were too many other things to do. What was one woman's greed when compared to the weight of the world?

She could drown in ambition, just like everyone else in Team Rocket.

"The organization consists of gods," he amended, "but what are gods with no humans to worship? Let them keep us around? Do not disturb them and let them play their game of sovereignty. I have seen the ambition that certain people in Team Rocket hold."

He met her gaze and smiled slightly.

"I wish you the best in playing their games. I will take your money and use it to the best of my abilities. Maybe I'll buy myself a suit finally." A deep sigh. "Or perhaps a nice pair of socks."

He did miss having nice clothes. He'd take Giselle's wealth and she could take her seat at the table. If she wasn't eaten alive, then she could come and collect the debt he owed.

---

Giselle Moreau

Instead of crashing into hard stone, he crashes into a soft, fluffy Togekiss. There are worse ways to go. It's better to sink into a Togekiss's feathers rather than be crushed into paste on contact with the uncaring earth. Thus, when the Togekiss flies towards the heavens and their trainer, Howard doesn't complain.

For the most part, Howard was just happy to be alive. Death doesn't suit him. He had climbed Regirock, and falling to his death now would've been the cosmic middle finger that historians would laugh at for another millennia.

"Guh..." He took several, rattling breaths as he waited for his lungs to refill with precious oxygen. Falling hundreds of meters had its downsides, he had to admit. "Good work... Togekiss."

As the duo rose to Nikola, the admin gave them a groggy thumbs up.

"And you too, Nikola." He shuddered and took deep breath. His lungs rattled and his face was pale as he looked up at the scientist scolding him. "Oh, please. It worked, didn't it? I'm your boss! You can't bonk me!"

He swatted their hand away as Regirock and Regice nodded in the distance.

---

NIKOLA SAMSA

Death was common. The living were change on the dollar. Team Rocket cashed in the deceased in order to elevate those still breathing. As they step through rubble, the requiem of those who lay still beneath tons of rock are Howard's and Nina's dirge.

"Touché." He shrugged absentmindedly and let out a small bark of laughter. "Can't blame you if you can't get in. It's my error. If you can rectify my mistake, I'll owe you one big time."

His eye caught hers inspecting his hand. It was rude to stare, but the admin didn't particularly care. There were plenty of reasons to stare at him now, whether it was Team Rocket or survivors of Petalburg's massacre. Every glare was a reminder that he was hated, and that his body wasn't his own.

A humbling experience.

"Don't mess with Dynamax." He flexed the hand. "It messes you up. You don't have a Dynamax Band, I hope?""

---

nina larson

Lulu did as any good scientist did. She offered theories and hypothetical scenarios to justify the madness of the Interdream Mist. There was a chance she was doomed to fail from the start, and that there was no way to justify the shifting, dubious nature of dreams.

ameena abadi was similar, grasping for a transient understanding for a metaphysical concept.

Though perhaps there was a rhythm beneath the rhyme to justify the shifting nature of dreams. The dreams that fueled humans were remarkably ironclad and did not change. Yet time shifted the paradigm. It distorted the perception of wakefulness.

"Why would they do that? Wouldn't those timelines simply destroy themselves if they were to fully merge?" Howard put a hand on his hip, thoughtful. "Human perception seems more likely. Our dreams can shift reality."

That was the might of mankind. That was their will.

---

Lulu Flint

"Then I'll keep the secret, but be careful, Makoto. The longer you keep the secret, the harder it is to keep. Sometimes it's best to let the secret out rather than let it fester. It turns less about the secret and more about why you kept it."

Nobody knew that better than him. His entire life at this point was a lie born on the deception of his colleagues from both Team Rocket and the Pokémon League. One day, every secret he held would be known, and Howard Slayte's life would end and Admin Fox's would truly begin.

Until that day, though, he would lie.

That, he could do with remarkable ease.

"Now go on, you." He gave them a small push and a weary smile. "She should be in Petalburg. I brought her here, after all. Tell Absinthe that I said hi, would you?" He pointed at the giants behind him, shifting rubble in eternal penance for their crimes against Petalburg. "I've got work to do, and I've got a meeting to attend."

A meeting that would likely end with his debt. He turned to face the giants and began wandering off.

"Swing by my office, after. We'll have tea."

---

Makoto Kurumi

He was well-paid too, he just spent his money on funeral urns and gold sarcophagi instead of useful things like rent.

"That so?" He peered at her watch and nodded. He went and checked his own watch. Given that it hadn't moved a minute after entering the mists, time must've been slowing. The scientific process at work. "Hm."

His mind was not as ordered as hers. A silhouette of a man with spiky hair and a cowboy hat flickered in the mist for a moment.

"Time is relative in the mists, then? What does that mean?"

---

Lulu Flint

"Even me."

What draconian organization promoted a superior's killer? There was no logic to it. Elisabeth's death had been brutal, ugly, and messy. There had been no decorum to it. No grand plan. There was nothing to it that made Howard commendable. He simply sat in his office and made Team Rocket wealthy.

Yet all Cillian did was kill. All Theo did was hold it together.

"It won't go to me. It'll go to Jayden or Barnaby, as it should. They are more fit." He straightened his hat. "But if the hand is offered, or if I forcefully grasp for it...

"...you must deny it. For the good of Team Rocket, Theo, you have to."

---

THEO BECKETT

"They weren't here one moment, and then they were here the next. Whether that was one crystal or a million is irrelevant. It's something not native to this world, and it clearly shows. To argue otherwise is foolhardy." He checked his broken watch, before meeting her stare. "And you are not a fool, Lulu Flint."

He nodded in approval at what she had to say. He did not mention Zacian nor her human form, nor the world of Tera Crystals he had visited to replicate the journey to Galar. That was a journey meant for a knight and his squire, and not for this woman.

"This entire world is ours. It was our birthright from the moment we lit the first flame and brought light into the night. We still exist despite millennia of catastrophe. We are entitled to this world, and we will win this war against the gods."

Arceus above, it was cold.

"We will survive, Lulu." For a moment, he looked remarkably brave, before shuddering. "Your nightmares could probably scare the devil, respectfully."

---

Lulu Flint

"Perhaps. It's best you don't find out, though. Consider yourself lucky. The further you delve into Team Rocket, the more you realize that there are those capable of actually acting on their ambitions. When dealing with gods, it's best to simply stay out of the way and avoid getting squashed."

It was his way of operating. He desired a version of the world that did not exist. It was one that this woman would likely despise, and thus he didn't utter it. His was an impossibility, anyways. As he was, it was unreachable.

He was weak. The weakest of the Rocket Admins, and the weakest member of Team Rocket. Yet that weakness came with humility, regardless of his desire for what he called 'the world'.

"Dreams are meant to end, Ms. Moreau. I've simply chosen to never wake up." He had killed more people in taking Petalburg than most people would in a thousand lifetimes. "I offer this warning once."

He stood from his chair and walked to the window to stare at Regirock. He murmured something in an ancient language, and its pattern flickered.

"This is not a human organization anymore. It's something else. Are you really willing to defy the world for the sake of mortal gain? You can still walk away." He turned his head towards her. "Once you're in, you can't get out. Is this what you want?"

---

Giselle Moreau

Solgaleo. Fuck. He refused to meet the God General's eyes. Instead, he reached into his pocket for a lighter and another cigarette.

Click. Click. Click. He fiddled with the lighter for a moment as he waited for the flame to ignite, before lightning the stick of nicotine and sin. He wasn't addicted. This was just a remarkably stressful meeting, and THEO BECKETT had done little to settle his nerves. What was his game?

He takes a drag, letting the smoke pool in the air above.

"Touché." He finally said. "Though unless kyle lopez was buried with it, I don't see how we can seize it other than to wait for its deployment and overwhelm its trainer. What, do you want me to meander into Ever Grande and waltz out with it?"

Howard had friends in the Pokémon League, like ollie morales and freya morningstar and even Navy , but his credentials weren't so impeccable that he could ask to borrow the Top Champion's Pokémon. The real Top Champion, not the benchwarmer that sat at his place. How Melody Miro could sit there proudly and claim herself Kyle's heir confounded the admin.

"Disabling their powers is a good start, but we're still outnumbered. Solgaleo does not erase their Legendary Pokemon from existence. It merely... slants the playing field. Furthermore, we cannot deploy it everywhere. Avatars cannot hold ground." He shrugged, waving his cigarette around. He nodded to Lulu Flint before turning back to Theo. "Don't count me when discussing fights. I'm hardly gifted."

Academia and administration were his positions. His strength was transient, and connected to the giants he controlled.

"Beast Quinn is right. Avatars are not gods. They're just humans who partake in divinity who think themselves ascended. Legendary Pokémon can die. Speaking of..."

He frowned, his eye flicking to Walsh.

"Why is Xerneas dead? Where was the value in that?" Its death had saved the Dyna Tree, and for what? The Obfuscator was wasted on declan walsh . The Butcher would've been a more apt title. "It was an asset that we could've revived."

---

Howard has a breakdown over Solgaleo, before agreeing with Theo. He notes that Solgaleo does not stop the numbers advantage, and merely creates a different type of problem. Agrees with Temp, before yapping about the Dyna Tree and Xerneas.