Their thoughts are similar. It is clear that he had mused through the same process as her, though it likely had not been as immediately rational. Instead, it had occurred over several nights as he toiled with the revelation of murder.

In another world, he would've been raised to the rank of Head Scientist. It was the rank that Howard had originally wanted, before being shunted off to a position of bureaucracy and administration. Yet there is no 'other world'. There is no other world where Howard Slayte was greedy enough to join Team Rocket.

In all other worlds, he is a dead-end clerk. Here, he is a murderer.

"There was a body. I saw it. She was utterly crushed. There's nothing to bring back." Suddenly, he looks ill. The memory of a mangled body falling from Regirock's fist into a grave causes his stomach to churn. He put a hand over his mouth as he paled. "I killed her."

Underboss Fiorelli had infringed upon Petalburg, and now the city was Elisabeth Fiorelli's tomb. Why had he done that?

"It had to be done. She was going to kill Regirock, Nomi. I worked so hard for it." He wanted to vomit. "But still, fuck..."

He had never seen something so carelessly crushed until it was unrecognizable before. It had never felt so personal.

---

Naomi Sato

"Frost can do what he wants. If his goal is to make my life miserable, he's already succeeded. Let him find something more productive to do with his time."

Of course it had been Mint. That man would never stop stalking him as he carved himself a small alcove within Rocket to pursue his passion for archaeology. He simply wanted to live and be who he was meant to be, but it was becoming harder and harder as this war threatened to spill over the region.

Team Rocket didn't need an archaeologist anymore. They hardly even needed Howard Slayte. That knowledge angered him. It made him bold.

"Frost is not a relevant piece on the board." He didn't know what to do about Mint, but as for the new God General? "I assume he'll want to celebrate. That should give me time."

Anger did make him bold.

"Time to think of a way to put a stake through his heart."

---

Cillian Quinn

"People." The admin shuddered as he answered her first question. "Though you wouldn't be the first Head Scientist to gawk as of late. Run your tests later."

If he could take one thing at face value from Lulu, it was that they could both silently agree that people were, in general, too nosy for their own benefit. Though that didn't change the fact that the admin loved humanity to an almost universal degree. Even as he bled for them.

Even as he died for them.

"A little something that I picked up in Petalburg." The admin snapped his fingers. "⠗⠕⠥⠎⠑ ⠽⠕⠥⠗⠎⠑⠇⠋."

The sound he made was no language uttered in the human tongue.

The nearby cavern wall cracked, and seven orange dots flashed in the stone, before the cave wall exploded. Out of it stepped a colossus built from stone. It turned to the Head Scientist, braille flashing.

---

Lulu Flint

The scholar and the swordswoman meandered into an alley. It almost sounded like a bad joke, which was an apt descriptor for their lives up until this point. Tsubame fought Navy, yet the sheriff still drew breath. The admin fought the Liberator, and yet he had escaped into the mists brought on by the north wind.

They were both failures. It just so happened that the admin's felt a magnitude larger in the current circumstances. Every piece of rubble was a reminder of his failure, of his mortality.

"The funny thing? I don't even blame the populace for fighting us. We took everything from them. All they have left is hatred and vindication. Normally, I'd have Beasts Conrad or Inoue deal with this. Yet they're overworked. We'll lighten their loads. We help each other." The cherry at the end of the cigarette glowed brightly as the admin spoke. "Because we're Rocket."

That sentence rang out through the alley. A rusty door creaked open. Further down, another rang out in harmony. Dirty men and women emerged, carrying pipes and other cumbersome weapons. Their Pokemon, meanwhile, were remarkably tame. Masquerain. Gardevoir. Pokemon native to this town before it had turned into a ruin.

They fought with what they had. Howard respected that. Yet when this city was rebuilt, those who resisted would not look upon it.

"You said bait, right?" Howard's head jerked in Tsubame's direction. He was pale and shaking slightly, but he barreled on. "I offer you the alternative: 'and switch'."

Their assailants lunged forward.

---

Aoki Hana

The flower is found in the admin's replica of the Violet Book, one that he painstakingly had created after meeting june sleigh and her Iron Serpent. Until he could find a way to get her into a room with the Violet Book, this replica was the best thing he had to offer.

Yet he can smell the rot. It threatens to gnaw at the pages and destroy what he sought to preserve.

"Son of a bitch!" His curse is explosive as he removes the rotting rose from its perch between thin slabs of paper and ink. He looks closely, before shuddering. The page it is pressed between displays a fairy tale of a witch in her tower.

It is unnerving. Howard lit a cigarette to calm his nerves.

"Who was in my room?" He demands an answer from a grunt. There is no meaningful reply. Some truths are simply lost to history.

---

Elisabeth Fiorelli

"Munki-whazzat? Does everything look hunkey-dory to you?" The ape stamped his foot against the branch in annoyance as the bear and ogre raged up at him. "Your yappage is at an end! Give me the Max Honey and nobody gets hu-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Pon's Ivy Cudgel shattered the branch the ape was on. With remarkable dexterity, the ape leapt over to the next tree, before clucking his tongue.

"Manners, you audacious ogre! This is between me and the bear!" When Ogerpon grew close once again, she was met with a mighty Branch Poke right in the eye. "You should've bought some goggles!"

The monkey let out a cackle as he hopped away to another branch.

---

Andrea Vaneau

They would not act out against Walsh's decree, even if it was wrong. Cogs did not work against the mechanism they were a part of, lest they get replaced with more functional gears.

Such exchanges were undesirable at this point, with war on the horizon. There were many accidents on the battlefield, and Cillian Quinn and Howard Slayte could suffer any number of terrible fates after speaking out against the machine they represented. So they simply waited.

They were both cowards.

"Fine." The admin growled, clearly discontent. But I will warn you, Cillian, that the longer you let him sit, the deeper his infestation grows. If you won't crush him now, you will struggle later."

The perspective of a historian is a helpful one, but often one that equates to a mountain of frustration.

"Am I in trouble for the meeting?"

---

Cillian Quinn

Everyone had failed in Petalburg. It was a victory, but it had burned much material for a husk. That had included Oscar's dignity and his beloved Genesect Prime. Instead of giving into the engineer's despair, Howard simply bottled his up for the sake of reliability.

"Oscar." He clapped the man on the shoulder. "Look at me. I am your immediate superior. Look at me."

He waited for Oscar to fulfill his request. Howard wasn't sure why his order had made Oscar upset, but he had never come to grips with the fact that giants could hold emotions. That was slowly changing, but much too slowly. Far too slowly to matter in this precise moment, at least.

"We succeeded. We won. When I was climbing Regirock, you were behind me. You, Priam, and Wright were the ones that made that victory possible. The city is fucked, but we will rebuild. We are creators, Oscar. We raise things." Even if they had leveled Petalburg with Regirock's help, they would rebuild it anew. "You did not fail."

Dead husks of Genesects surrounded them.

"And you will find Genesect Prime again. That is an order."

---

oscar clayton

There existed a human concept known as 'empathy'. Another term for that was weakness. The human capacity to care for another was mankind's greatest accomplishment. It constructed a sense of community and kinship that had given birth to empires that had echoed from dawn into dusk.

"You..."

But it also led to critical mistakes. The admin suspected that this was one of them. Words worked around in his mind. There were a dozen things that he could tell Roze Falkner after he had almost gotten her killed on a battlefield neither of them had wanted to see. He could tell her his name. He could bid her farewell. He could simply walk away.

Or he could be a fool, and he could accept an offer that he had given her months ago.

"You're strange. Who asks a random person for coffee? There's still nothing to do in Dewford, huh?" He turned to face it. "Such a small town, and yet so important. I was simply paying my respect to Dewford's heroes."

He chuckled and shook his head. She should know him. She had to know him. They had watched Registeel destroy a desert together. She had fought him. She had escaped Petalburg.

Yet...

"All right." He finally said, surprised at the answer. "Let's go get some coffee. I know a place."

This was a foolish decision.

---

Roze Falkner

There was no ceremony to ascension. Howard knew from experience. He had been raised to admin due to his contributions in seizing Regice, but it had not been done with decorum. One day, he had simply become one of Rocket's most influential members. Now, he sat in a ruined city and pretended he was a conqueror.

The only thing Rocket had conquered was cooked meat and bones buried in the rubble.

"I'm not asking you to kneel. I'm asking you to serve and protect. A sword is an instrument meant exclusively for slaughter." He had heard stories and accounts of swordsmen who chased perfection as a form of enlightenment. That did not apply to Hitoshi. "But a sword can be used to block and parry as well."

The blade squirmed in the admin's hand. He weighed it, thoughtful. He cut his palm on the cursed sword and allowed it to drink.

"Do you think yourself strong, Hitoshi Inoue?"

---

Hitoshi Inoue

Our sworn duty.

Who were they sworn to? Rocket? Themselves? Humanity? They were simply words uttered in an unending march towards infinity. He wondered who Shion had heard that phrase from. Where had that person heard it from? It was a mantra, but even a meaningless phrase that originally meant nothing could be turned into a prayer capable of saving a thousand lives.

Our sworn duty. The admin's lips flicked upwards in a smile.

It was such a pointless utterance. He didn't hate it.

"I've been waiting." Instead of struggling with hidden wounds and self-righteous pride, the admin simply told the truth. He hated lies. He hated deceit. From experience, he knew that medics hated secrets. Howard lied to the cops. Health workers? No way. "The city is fucked to hell and Sootopolis is a region away. Haven't had a chance to actually sit down."

An injection to stave off Nihilego toxins and a cannister of painkillers was his treatment.

"It's weird, actually." He sounded perplexed as he looked at Shion. "It feels wrong to sit down and stop. It's like a betrayal to those who've died."

---

Shion Murasaki

The fate of the bread recipe brought a smile to the admin's face.

"Now that would be a very appreciated gift." Howard gazed off into infinity, dreaming of the infinite possibilities of having bread whenever he desired. Maybe he could get Aurelie Lefevre to make it for him, or another trustworthy Rocket that was skilled in the kitchen. "Thank you, Maki Yukimura."

Behind the admin, an Unown belonging to the Visionary flickered into existence. A portal quickly flickered into being, and the admin turned to face it.

These portals were remarkably handy, Howard was beginning to realize. Hopefully it wasn't too big of a shock for the young detective.

"Give Seiichi my regards." He stepped into the portal, his masquerade's attire fluttering into the wind. "You're a detective, correct? Perhaps you can solve this mystery for me:"

The portal snapped shut, leaving the admin's voice echoing into infinity.

"Why are we in Team Rocket?"

---

MAKI YUKIMURA

He ground his teeth. This was unfathomably frustrating.

"Fuck off. I'm trying, okay? You try explaining all this to an amnesiac with electric powers and try not getting fried. And as for saying sorry? Guess what? I'm going to keep apologizing." The admin put a hand on his hip and gave June an annoyed glare. "Deal with it."

Maybe it was Violet's smirking, maybe it was June kicking him around, but this conversation was simply infuriating. It was like a puzzle that he only had half of the pieces too, and the other half were in an entirely different language on another planet.

Ultimately, it's her insistence that he's still him that causes Howard to look her in the eye.

"Keep my secret and I'll keep yours."

Hopefully that's something she could respect. June always struck Howard as someone willing to throw hands before thinking about if the person she was fighting deserved it or not. In Howard's case, it was deserved. Hopefully she'd appreciate him throwing it back.

"Dynite Ore. Wishing Stars. We need them for send to certain agents in Slateport for research. Deliver them and avoid getting arrested. Easy-peasy, but I'm out of good help right now." Howard coughed into a fist. "You'll get paid on completion."

This felt familiar to when he had first started in Rocket. The deja vu annoyed him.

---

june sleigh