Yet every day, another being that challenged the heavens was placed on the board, before threatening to break it under awe-inspiring power.

"Yet we built machines to breach the heavens. We as a species decided that heroes that bled were lesser to constructs that did not."

For a brief moment, Howard wondered if Barnaby Finch was humble. If this man who had tamed a demon thought of himself as a gnostic instrument or a mere Faustian tool, dancing to the whims of something greater in order to satiate his pleasures. Even among the admins, Howard could never deduce what moved the piece that caressed his hair.

Occasionally, he forgot that he hated this man.

Yet this was not the first thing that Howard had forgotten regarding the Infernal. Memories were the thread upon which his loom bred tapestries of misery.

"Passed?" Howard frowned, confused, even as comprehension gnawed at his brain. "I don't understand."

---

BARNABY FINCH

There was a long pause. He could hear his own heartbeat.

A dream was a knife. It could twist in his brain until it left nothing more than gray matter floating in a mindscape formed from the mist of fantasia. He knew much. He knew more than any human could realistically be expected to reveal. His plans for Rocket, his opinions on his colleagues, his utter contempt for the group that he called his own.

His goals for this world could be laid bare.

In his heart, he knew what this study would reveal: his desire for an unchanging world where time did not move. A world where history did not extend into infinity, where humanity could finally stop and enjoy the fruits of several millennia of development.

Such a world was paradise hell.

"When I was younger, there was someone who sat in front of me in a class on ancient architecture." His voice was low as he regarded the Galarian. "It was the first time that I forgot to take notes in class. I asked her for a pen and if I could peek at her notes. She gave me this... stupid pen with an Aerodactyl on it."

Howard chuckled to himself, covering the lower half of a face he didn't recognize with a gloved hand that did not belong to him.

"It was such a stupid pen."

Why had he accepted that pen? It had ruined his life. In a sense, it had brought him to this moment. It had brought him to this organization, to this room, to this person. What was Ameena's Aerodactyl pen, he wondered?

"I rose too high, loved too hard, and dared too much." His eye glimmered with reminiscence. There was a world where he joined june sleigh and annalise henderson on better terms, where he had seized Regieleki and stolen the burden of legacy from June's hand. "I tried to grasp a star, I overreached, and I fell."

That would not happen again. He would grab this star before it broke apart.

"I will arrange the board. Be ready."

---

ameena abadi

"Ameena." He steepled his fingers, refusing to blink as she leaned in. His eye scanned her face, a flickering red orb lined with Eternatus's blood peered back at her. It was intense and vindictive, a paradox that worked against his nature as a keeper in a group of takers.

A start contrast from the man during the Tower. What remained from that age threatened to curdle and die, though the admin forced that aspect of his personality to remain through sheer force of will, just as he had forced her to embrace his memories of Galar.

"I have one question for you. In the name of what you've done, and as my rank demands, you will answer me honestly."

He would dance between waking and dreaming to right past wrongs, if Ameena would light the way.

"Is this the best way to restore her memories?"

---

ameena abadi

Good. Howard intended to keep his that way. Ameena had hurt herself by running this study. It had made her many enemies and few friends, and someone without friends was someone without power. There were few shields in this world that could save her if she enraged the entire upper brass.

And much like an angel with wax wings, she was flying very close to that sun. Eventually, she would spiral down and collapse against the earth.

"I see." He said in a voice that exhibited a remarkable amount of control. His face slowly returned to its normal hue as the potential embarrassment of that dream was buried. That exchange was not hers to study. It belonged to him and the woman who had once delivered fossils to his doorstep. "Very good."

Howard coughed into his fist as he regarded her small smile coolly.

"She'll come. I can arrange a meeting. Where would you run this experiment? It cannot be done at headquarters." He arched an eyebrow. "Non-negotiable."

---

ameena abadi

"That will not be necessary. There is no need to create a choice when we both know that one of those decisions will simply bring us back to this point." Furthermore, it was a cyclical weakness. Forcing June to make that decision again was paramount to torture.

No, she would simply need to bear witness to it. If she had decided to excise those memories from her personal life, than Ameena and Howard would simply have to remind her.

Yet the cost of that was dangerous. If he let June bear witness to that dream, then she'd see his confession of love. He had loved her. Maybe he still did. Yet reliving through that experience was almost too heavy a burden to bear.

But...

"If you can use my dream, then I accept." He would suffer the consequences of that decision. Running from it was unacceptable. "Wait."

He frowned, then flushed slightly.

"Have you seen the results of your study? Have you seen each individual dream?"

---

ameena abadi

Occasionally, Howard remembered that Genesect Prime had racing stripes. It was the closest he ever came to throttling the engineer and throwing him off a cliff. If Howard had been blasted apart by something with racing stripes, he would've been laughed into Elysium

What caused the admin's anger to build was his next sentence.

"It gained sentience." He spoke slowly and with deliberation. "And left?"

Could Regice or Regirock do that? He had them both laboring in the city in anticipation for Team Rocket's arrival. Sootopolis was compromised, and Petalburg was shaping up to be the centerpiece for the group's campaign in Hoenn's western theater.

Maybe Howard needed to go and check on them. With his anger cooling, he stared at the mauled Genesects, whispers of fear echoing in his mind and engraving his soul.

"Fine." He said slowly, before shaking his head. "In a body that isn't mine, in a city with no resources, waiting for my execution, but fine."

He didn't even believe it himself.

---

oscar clayton

"It's because of those experiences that I understand the restraint that is expected from people like us. You destroyed a mountain. I destroyed a town." He paused, contemplative. For a disturbing moment, it was like he had seen through the events that led to the destruction of Mt. Chimney. "Which one weighs heavier on our conscious, I wonder?"

kyle lopez and MATIAS SILPH versus nineteen lives and three months spent in paradise hell.

Yet the moment of acute awareness that seemed to emanate from the admin vanished in the wind. Another memory that disappeared with the salt-scented wind. It was several moments before he spoke again.

"But you're right, of course. I am a poor example. Regardless, learning from mistakes is a virtue and not a sin. I will not repeat that error again." He regarded her for a moment. "I swear it."

---

Elisabeth Fiorelli

Navy had just signed his own death warrant, but the rage does not come. There was no anger or contempt in Howard's soul for the foolishness that the sheriff had just displayed. The Warrior was meant to be an honest one.

Instead, there was a stillness. A coldness that formed in his limbs and worked its way towards his heart as the implications sank in. This meant a lot for Nomi, and it meant a lot for Howard. All three of them were compromised, and there was no way to put a lid on that bottle.

"He always did have a flare for the dramatic. What a theater kid." There was a twinge of pride in his voice, a latent memory of the man who had squired for the Pale Rider in Galar. "We'll see where it goes."

It was the best reassurance he could offer to Nomi. It likely wasn't enough.

Her next words proved it. How could Team Rocket's eyes, locked squarely on the future, be so blind?

"Idiot." He squeezed her hand in reassurance. "You are the only person here that I would follow if I wasn't a Rocket. You have the power of divinity at your fingertips, and you want to help the world. You are not Nisa Holo, and you are not the DRK Triad. Your dream is pure."

His lips twitched upward into a smile.

"And that, Nomi, makes you worth a thousand of our peers."

---

Naomi Sato

There is a drive to her. Something has broken that cannot be repaired. Not by him, and not by any living person who exists in their world. Her injuries are muted, but even as she closes the gap, worry is clear in his gaze. Eyes are the window to the soul, and they have both closed one.

It makes the one eye they have much more important.

He cannot call her stable, but Naomi Sato is committed. Perhaps that was what they needed as the eleventh hour chimed closer.

"The Coveted is wily. We will simply try harder next time, and that is when we'll put her and the Ruinous Beast in their graves." Her failure stings, but having fought Penelope before, Howard understands the struggle. Some roaches refuse to die when stamped. "We will succeed."

'We.' Petalburg has made Howard bold. Sootopolis has stripped Nomi of the cataracts that blinded her. There is purpose behind their actions, and they only needed an olive branch as kindling.

"I have news as well." The admin jerked his head towards Regirock. It is clear that the golem feels out of place in the stars, with no earth to root it in place. It shares an exchange with the Unown meant solely for them. "Regirock is ours. Walsh's orders have been fulfilled. Furthermore..."

He pursed his lips, momentary pride replaced with weariness. Like her, the words he utters lack regret.

"Elisabeth Fiorelli is dead. Ruination has been delayed."

---

Naomi Sato

Nineteen people.

That was how many people this monument sat in remembrance to. He had already been here twice, to discuss the meaning of preservation with Roze Falkner and the struggle of childhood with Eris Halla. There were too many teaching moments to be gained from the masses of the slaughtered.

Yet if they had to die, then it was best for the living to learn from their folly in order to ensure the happiness of those who still stood. How could Howard preserve the world if he couldn't preserve nineteen lives? His name should've been carved here, and they should have lived.

Yet the world was not just.

"Have you ever wondered why we fight?" He turned to face the Paldean who had opposed him with Terrakion. There was no need for a mask. His face had changed, and his identity had melted along with it. The man known as Howard Slayte still existed, but his records were now outdated. "Why your sheriff fights so hard against the tide of Eternatus?"

He raised an eyebrow. Behind him, an Unown flickered into existence, a reminder that Naomi Sato was watching this unnecessary march into Dewford that existed for the sole purpose of self-punishment.

"Where's Terrakion?"

---

Eduardo Hisakawa

The man they seek stands on a ridge made of stone, watching giants labor among men.

Stone fists attempt to shift destroyed city blocks and frozen fingers pluck at piles of rubble and move them to trucks to be carted to the edge of the city. Rubble is worthless, but it can be used as filling for the walls that will eventually have to surround the city in order to protect it from Rustboro and Oldale.

Eventually, Howard planned to dump any of it into Area Zero. Let the Paradoxes that gnawed at the earth deal with the follies of mankind, even as titans toiled to right the wrongs they had caused the city.

He looked to the Nebula member, and Makoto would see a stranger. A different face and body from the man they had tended in the hospital room bore into their flesh.

"Makoto." A pause followed as the admin looked over the city. "Welcome. I'm glad that you survived Mossdeep."

---

Makoto Kurumi

Truth be told, he thought she was busy losing Mossdeep and Sootopolis. He was half-right.

"Tapu Lele." His eye twitched. Each word was a proclamation of doom. "Drank your serum and fucked off?"

Surprisingly, that was what seemed to relax him. That sounded exactly like something Tapu Lele would do, and it gave the admin another reason to want to punt John Sullivan into the stratosphere and rip his false guardian apart when he got his hands on it. Behind Ameena, a phantom of Tapu Lele that only he could see danced.

Annoying. His constant companion.

"I'll deal with Tapu Lele when it rears its head again. I almost lost Regirock to it." He grumbled, silently furious at Doug's interjection. Sleepless nights. Nightmares. Phantom Tapu Leles running around in the background. The damn thing had cursed him good. "But that is not important."

He gestured for her to continue.

"Elaborate."

---

ameena abadi

Eventually, the phone rings as Howard dials from an old flip phone, its screen archaic and its resolution terrible. To an experienced detective or criminal, an old phone would've likely earned a resounding nod of approval. They were cheap. Disposable. Hard to trace.

Those words applied to Howard's phone, but it was also just his personal phone. Rotom Phones were just too complicated for him. He didn't even know how to use a desktop well.

Regardless, the window is shattered and the Megalopolan within was knocked out from a delightful bop on the head from Crumble. The Claydol quickly teleported away with its blue-skinned cargo for Maki and Howard to harass later. By the time the admin returns to the room through the front door, Maki was being poked by the cops.

Joy.

Howard put his game face on.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?" He boomed at them, his relaxed voice hardening into a clap of thunder. Howard's expression twisted into a fit of rage. "YOU LET HIM ESCAPE!? IDIOTS!"

An officer attempted to reply, but the admin waved him off.

"How do you think Josh Devlin will feel when he hears that a Megalopolan has escaped into the city! Miss Yukimura, we have to contact him immediately!"

The same officer wilted. Josh was more than willing to let Mauville's mayor run the city so he could enjoy a life of racing and warfare, but that wasn't particularly important.

---

MAKI YUKIMURA