"You left one of your own behind, Adrian."

The words are soft, a caress that reminded the defector that he had failed in his defense of Sootopolis, his defense of the Dyna Tree, and the salvation of bryan delarosa. Jayden was right. Adrian had not tried, and for that reason the Rocket Beast now sat in a prison cell, waiting to be saved.

Yet Adrian Malcolm knew that. He needed no reminder.

"We protect our own, because there's no other group in the world that cares about us. We're dregs. Scum. Worthless and rejected by region that doesn't care about us. If we refuse to save our own, then Team Rocket does not matter. We are cogs in a greater machine, meant to be replaced."

He thought of Elisabeth Fiorelli as she disappeared under an uncaring boulder.

"But that doesn't mean we should, if we can help it. We'll save him. If you were stuck in a cell, we'd do the same for you." Being alone in the world was a terrible thing, just like the watchtower that stood at the edge of infinity.

"That's why I caught Regirock, after all."

---

Adrian Malcolm

In downtown Rustboro, one can find a plaza where those who don't own brick and mortar businesses can prop up stalls to peddle wares. It was a cheap, effective way to make a buck. Howard himself had sat here a few times, selling fake Aerodactyl keychains to pay for textbooks in his younger days.

Back when life was easier and he wasn't one of Hoenn's most wanted people. Arceus above, he hated his job.

Still, with Team Rocket's meeting soon approaching, and Howard's life likely being over for killing an underboss, a last trip through Rustboro was needed. A sense of melancholy would allow him to face execution with a smile.

Even he didn't know what expression would be on his face when the blades swung down. What was one Rocket Admin against Wo-chien and Tapu Fini's master?

"Damn, these vases are fake. The glazing is off, and they cracked it poorly. Waste of money." He slid from stall to stall, poking and prodding, before finally ending up on one filled with pieces of art. "Oh?"

He whistled, impressed by their quality.

"Wow."

---

Anastasia Harmon

Despite the dire news, Howard actually laughed in relief. There were far worse people to get captured by than Zaria and Navy .

"Zacian got him? That means Navy did it, and Bryan will be fine. In prison, but fine." Navy was honorable in how he handled himself. Howard would bet money that he had spent much of Sootopolis saving civilians, which was likely how he had come to meet Bryan. "He won't kill an enemy that lost their sword. Especially one as declawed as Beast Delarosa."
Bryan was still a threat, but he held more value alive than as a lesson. If the League was smart, they'd keep him as a prisoner. The issue was that Rocket had nothing to trade.

He'd need to be broken out.

"Admin Cross expects the best from his men, and you are one of them. He'll blame you, express his discontent, and you'll be put on Regirock scrubbing duty for a week. It'll blow over." Possibly. Assuming Jayden hadn't changed as much as everyone else had during the battle. "If it's a problem, send him my way."

He regretted the words as they left his lips. jayden cross was one of the last people he wanted to see in the entire world right now.

"Did you try to save him?"

---

Adrian Malcolm

What...?

Why wasn't ■■■ killing him? Why was he still alive? This was wrong. It wasn't correct. If Howard died, then he wouldn't have to live in a world where this thing was Rocket's God General.

He could let someone else kill the Devourer. It could be somebody else's problem. Howard had stayed out of ■■■'s way for so long in an attempt to avoid being crushed, and now he was being let go? What had the past year of torment been for? Where was the justification for apathy that he had needed to avoid doing nothing?

"Get back here. Do it. Lay down the law and kill me. You know it's what you're supposed to do!"

Necrozma's chosen left the room, leaving the admin to rant as he leaned up, tubes snapping and spraying blood and fluid over the floor. Monitors beeped sporadically.

He did what was expected: he shouted and threatened.

"Theo would've flayed me! Cillian would've fed me to Lugia! Even Elisabeth wouldn't tolerate my behavior!" Howard gurgled as he bracingly got to his feet, before immediately collapsing with a wet smack. "COME BACK HERE AND KILL ME!"

Nurses and doctors rushed into the room as the admin choked on blood and bile.

"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU, ■■■ ■■■■■■■■! THE END WON'T COME! I WON'T LET IT!"

Humanity's will had no end, after all. The door slammed shut, hiding the admin's mangled form from view. Yet the screams did not cease. They followed the God General into the void. Only then were they finally silent.

---

@■■■

Nikola was saved by the fact that Regirock was not Dynamaxed. If it was, Area Zero would not live to see tomorrow. It'd be a crater forged entirely from glass. Regirock had leveled Petalburg with its presence. When in genuine combat, it could do far worse.

⠙⠑⠎⠞⠗⠕⠽ ⠏⠁⠗⠁⠙⠕⠭. The pattern flashed with the intensity of seven cruel suns, threatening to blind the scientist. ⠗⠑⠍⠕⠧⠑ ⠁⠝⠕⠍⠁⠇⠽.

"I've got it. We're good! It won't disobey my commands."

The Walking Wake disappeared in a Dynamax Cannon that turned the Paradox into a glimmering mist. The golem had been waging war on anomalies since the dawn of time, where it had first fought Eternatus as it flew over Hoenn after razing Galar to the ground. Mechanical forms were eternal, and flesh decayed, even flesh formed by Tera Crystals.

The blast continued, and a distant swath of the crater was engulfed in a distant explosion. Yet the laser did not stop.

To destroy an anomaly, Area Zero had to disappear. The Dynamax Cannon slowly swerved, before Nikola and their Shiinotic ended up in its path.

"Hm. Wait, Regirock! Waitwaitwaitwaitwait...!"

The attack intensified.

---

NIKOLA SAMSA

Much like the line between living and death, the bridges here were fraying at best and at their end at worst. Nothing here could exist in its current form forever. That included the living. Whether they wanted to or not, Howard and Adrian would leave this world a changed man.

For better or worse.

"You good?" Howard clapped Adrian on the shoulder and peered into the abyss. "Fuck, man. I wonder what happens if you fall? Where's the bottom?"

Likely better to not find out. Instead of choking on that revelation, the admin narrowed his eye in response to Adrian's claims. If Bryan had survived, it was likely buried under a mountain of reports regarding Petalburg. jayden cross had likely slipped something there or reported it immediately, but the admin was trying to avoid him.

Not until he figured out what to do regarding Chien-pao.

"That's good. I'm glad he's alive." bryan delarosa was a murderous brute, but losing immortality had humbled him. He didn't deserve death, even if he craved it. He was needed alive. Bryan Delarosa mattered.

Another piece on Howard's chessboard.

"Know who took him?"

---

Adrian Malcolm

A bark of laughter, then a halfhearted shrug.

"Yeah, but I didn't make it stronger to fight normal trainers. In order to kill a god, I implanted it with a shard of divinity. It did pretty well against Regirock, even after you and the other two girls kicked its ass. Wouldn't have done that without the upgrade, I assure you."

After fighting Regirock and Regieleki, Regice simply had not matched up with its fellow machines. They had outpaced it. They had not been incomplete, like Regice was when Team Rocket pulled it from its ruins without taking its heart.

The tin soldier had needed a reason to function, and they had forfeited that heart to the League in exchange for a mechanical body.

"Killing Eternatus was the reason. Using its newfound power to seize its siblings was the reason. Two down, three to go."

Eddie could scurry back to the sheriff with that knowledge, but it wouldn't stop him. Navy already knew what his goal was, if the news of Regirock's capture had not reached his ears. Still, he wanted to know how Eddie would react to this tale of folly, of ambition.

Ambition. Howard almost laughed. He had none.

"But the reason I burned your town to the ground was because of your new Gym Leader." Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki . "She cannot be trusted."

---

Eduardo Hisakawa

He smiled at her without mirth.

"How do you think I'm still standing?" The words sink in with ominous implications. A transfusion in the morning, several injections at night, and constant observance from medics like Shion Murasaki or chemists like Absinthe Blackwood took up swaths of his time. "It's not from sheer will, I assure you."

He frowned at her question.

"No. I'd like to install one in Petalburg, though."

It'd make reconstruction far easier if Regirock or Regice could sweep away destroyed buildings twigs and leaves in a breeze.

"I'm sorry for your loss, by the way."

---

Lulu Flint

His name? Irrelevant. It'd end up being a lie. What sort of historian spread nothing but deception instead of elucidation?

A poor one.

Yet he didn't necessarily need to be a historian right now. As is, he was just a civilian. Someone wandering Dewford in an attempt to find some semblance of meaning after a struggle to take a city. He should've been there, rebuilding it. It had been destroyed because he had been slow in seizing Regirock.

It was tiring, being reminded of failure. Yet if that was the case, why had he come back here?

"Small town, big island. There's a lot to explore, and a lot to protect." For a moment, his eye flicked to the forested hills where he suspected Terrakion sat hidden. Eddie had not confirmed it, but a flicker of his gaze had. "Arceus knows it needs that."

He wondered if the Sword of Justice was watching and waiting.

Eventually, they get coffee and sit at an open table. The admin frowned at his drink, before looking out at Dewford's horizon, where Granite Cave once stood.

"Have you been to the cave? What remains of it, anyway?"

---

Roze Falkner

Nikola does well. Better than Howard would've anyway. He was not enlisted for combat, but for academia. Yet when it became clear that he had a mind for business, they locked him in an office to manage ledgers and spreadsheets.

There was not a moment where battling had become an imperative part of his resume. Petalburg had fallen to his hand, but even that had been supported by Ulysses Monroe, Kanto, and a swarm of talented Rockets from Hoenn that had pushed the League back to Oldale. The League was on the backfoot. They could not hold it forever.

Area Zero would be theirs, soon.

"Gimme a bit. It should-" The ground began to shake and rumble as a braille pattern appeared under the Walking Wake's stunned form. Even when paralyzed, it knew what was coming.

⠗⠕⠥⠎⠊⠝⠛

The ground erupted as a golem the size of a mountain sent the Walking Wake flying into the heavens. Large stone fists the size of vehicles scraped together as Regirock emerged in Area Zero.

It had hunted here before. It had finally returned home.

---

NIKOLA SAMSA

It is an intimacy that brushes a heart incapable of love. In the hands of someone less vindictive, it is a romantic gesture that causes maidens to swoon and suitors to turn red with envy. To the uninitiated, it is a scene out of a fairy tale.

The air is cloy and choking. Even when the window opens as far as it can go, it does not purge the thick scent of flora and perfume. Disgusting. He breathes it in.

Howard Slayte breaks his window, causing his covers to turn shades of red and magenta.

Observers are not entitled to this. He knows it. She knows it. The scent enters his lungs and rots the mind, accelerating what overwork and self-loathing already do. He visits the empty grave after, and finds the remains of a cocoon that should have remained as a coffin.

Regirock crushes it under its fist.

From that moment on, no more flowers adorn Elisabeth Fiorelli 's grave.

Yet more roses appear.

---

Elisabeth Fiorelli

"Registeel will rouse itself in time. It cannot stay away, now that its three siblings are seized by humans."

He doesn't tell her about the temple that Registeel unearthed. He doesn't express the fear that the giants sculpted by humans may have been sculpted by a greater craftsman. The three-fingered hand, despite the brevity of its presence in the murals depicting the sculpting of the world, haunts his mind.

The notion terrified him. Nomi had enough to shoulder without his fear of humanity being marred by divinity. She was divine, after all. An intersection point between the heavens and the earth. A woman adorned by both, yet accepted by neither.

"Someone who delivers my fossils. Pink hair. You should see them through your Uno-" He cut off to stare at her for a spell. His mouth opened, but no words came out. "Is that really possible?"

He grabbed her hand as it waved in the ether. Howard stared at Nomi intently, his eye shining bright.

"Can you do it?"

---

Naomi Sato

declan walsh entered. Conflict ceased. Howard rose.

To face her.

Elisabeth Fiorelli .

The rose in his hand no longer existed, crushed between his grip until nothing but scraps of debris remained. Blood finally welled up, bright with the tinge of divine poison. It threatened to drip down his hand, cold and hot simultaneously. Roses. It always came back to the fucking roses.

That was the ticket.

She was playing with him again, just like she had with Matias and all the others. She played with people like dolls and he was being strung up to be mocked again in front of the entirety of upper command. He could not pull rank on this woman like he could with Shred, nor could she be cowed.

This was her moment. This fucking bitch. She was going to steal his victory from him and parade it as her own. For a second, he wondered if this was how she had managed to orchestrate the death of kyle lopez . For a horrible moment, he felt fear.

She got me. I'm fucked.

So he took the olive branch and prayed it did not shatter until this meeting was over. Even so, he would not give her the victory she craved. Not here. Not in front of everyone.

He was done with fear.

"Of course." He met her gaze with a remarkable amount of serenity. She wanted fear. This body had lost the capacity for that emotion. He had killed her twice, now. One in a dream and once in reality. He had rejected fear twice. He could do it again. "Think of how the League will report your death and claim us divided. Now, you have the opportunity to strike at their heart and pump poison through their veins."

Instead, he supped on hatred. Fear was for the Craven, after all. Hate? That was something he could partake in. He would kill this woman.

"Does the claim that me and Underboss Fiorelli 'did pretty good' in Petalburg now hold weight, or are there people who detract from us and Beast Conrad's work?"

He, Elisabeth Fiorelli , and priam conrad had done well, after all. There was nobody left alive to deter this truth.

---

Howard stands up at attention, shits himself in fear that the snail lady is back, but quickly pivots to anger instead as she establishes their victory. No fear, only sheer rage. Reaffirms that the Petalburg squad did well, since they lost no Avatars.
WHY ISN'T SHE GREEN NAMED WTFFFFFFFFFFF