Death had certainly improved her. It would've improved her further if she hadn't woken from it.

Alas, life was full of disappointments.

"Of course." The admin's voice was measured as he and Regirock shifted stone after stone from the makeshift monument. Whoever had built this was long gone, or perhaps the Distortion World was attempting to replicate the golem it had lost a year prior. "We discussed our plan. By now, Elisabeth's death will circulate throughout the Pokémon League. Misinformation goes a long way."

The words tasted like bile on his lips. Still, all he could do was accept that Elisabeth had forced him into this corner. It made him want to punch a wall, but that would come later.

"It was all part of the plan. I'm sorry that I deceived you with doomsaying about filling her seat, but you had to remain in the dark." Yet ultimately what gets the admin to stop is Theo's first comment. "For now, but I fear I'm catching up to you in terms of villainy."

He shifted another stone.

"You burned Kanto. I'm burning Hoenn. We've stacked quite the mountain of corpses, hm?"

---

THEO BECKETT

She protested defeat. He wouldn't blame her. This was the courage expected from people attempting to defend their home. It was commendable, and yet her attempt had earned her nothing but tears of despair.

"They'll be swept away, naturally. Petalburg doesn't need rangers, anymore. Maybe when Hoenn is conquered, we'll reorganize them while keeping the name. The fall of government has always been a silent affair." Howard put a hand in his pocket and shook his head. "I have a city to rebuild."

His punishment for killing Elisabeth. His reward when the city revived itself as a domain of splendor.

"Any other questions?" Howard crossed his arms and tucked his chin against his chest. "Any other blames to place at my feet? You can accuse me of anything you want, and I'm probably guilty of it. Not that it matters, though."

He let out a laugh.

"The victor will decide who is guilty."

---

Shalin Nariya

He squinted at Ameena.

"Hm." He put a finger on his chin thoughtfully for a moment, before staring off into the distance. "When I met with the building board for Petalburg to discuss allocating resources, I was sober! That was..."

The admin flipped through his notebook. "Hm."

A month ago. Whoops.

"Listen, my job is hard, okay! Petalburg is a wreck and drinking gets me through the day. I can quit whenever I want." Howard huffed and drained the second water bottle. His hat obscured him from much of the shade, but he still felt like garbage. Arceus above, he hated sand. "Fine, I'll be productive."

Even though he had built a farm that defied science, everyone was a critic. He had been sober enough to beat Ameena's boyfriend into the dirt, but he didn't tell her that. Ultimately, what snapped him from his stupor was the urn that Makoto had found.

"Sweet! Looks like the urns Megalopolans use to store light!" The admin dusted it off and beamed at Makoto. "Good find."

His beam quickly turned into a peer of confusion. The pre-gaming session had left his head slightly stuffy.

"Did you do something with your hair?"

---

Makoto Kurumi ameena abadi
USING BOMB FOR 600 BP POGGERS

Mine. Mine. Mine.

His.

"I have questioned many things in my life. My loyalty to Rocket. The price of Pinap berries. Whether or not the land we live on is truly our own..." His breath frosted again, white frost mixing with the red haze that caused his joints to move. "...but I have always believed that. I have always believed in her."

Even if june sleigh didn't believe in him. He turned away, a Bagon brownie placed between his fingers. It disappeared into the helmet, and was swallowed up without a second thought.

"And if you love anyone in this world, I hope that you'll eventually believe the same. Maybe you'll even understand the nuance of the human heart. Somehow, I doubt that'll come to pass. Love is a remarkably complicated thing, see."

He stepped away, passing Freya and Eva and all the rest of them. They could mock and deride his actions all they wanted, but when Eternatus was dead and buried, and the dream of Galar was avenged, the admin's purpose would be complete.

"It's the reason Kyle's dead, after all. Matias never did learn to understand the human heart. Though I suppose that's Melody's story to tell, isn't it?" He gave Melody Miro a nod as he left the venue behind with a few grunts by his side. "I'd like to take your gym challenge while I'm in town, Melody. I shall meet you where your gym once stood."

And like that, Admin Fox was gone.

---

annalise henderson

Friend? Enemy? Weird skinchanger? It was hard to tell, given how different everything was. The facial expressions were the same. The mannerisms were the same. Yet everything seemed a world apart. War had a tendency to erode the soul. Every person in Team Rocket was seemingly lesser compared to when they had first started on this march towards supremacy six years ago.

Yet wounds on the soul were easy to ignore. When the physical form changed, it was easy to turn around and recognize how much had been lost between the first step in the journey and the last.

The admin gave a cheery, albeit weary, salute, before his eye fell upon the Calyrex floating next to Aurelie.

"So the rumors were true." This Calyrex felt different than the specter that had stalked the smith for the better half of a year. It was more grounded and physical, yet it was still a shard of the true king. There were no memories bouncing around in that empty head it held. "Congratulations."

Yet rather than elation, all he felt was an exhausted trepidation. Now that Aurelie had a shard, she would be targeted. That revelation made him sad.

"I'm teaching him about economic policy. I've been tied up in Petalburg, but the king's studies are sacrosanct. He needs to be ready to lead." Even if Calyrex wouldn't set financial policies, it was best for him to learn. "Being a guardian gets lonely, see."

As the shard floated forward, tentatively, the archaeologist merely smiled.

"I can leave if they're afraid. I'm about to wrap up, actually, and I'd rather not make your shard feel uncomfortable." The admin had the decency to look embarrassed as he spoke again. "I was going to read Calyrex a story, if you're fine with me staying."

---

Aurelie Lefevre

"It's not a threat."

The words come quickly, their intention perfectly plain. The admin could weave a web of lies, but the woman who sat at the pinnacle of the HBIC was not some errant grunt that Howard could humble with a wave of a hand, nor could he outplay her on a chessboard where they were both equal opponents.

No. When dealing with schemers, it was best to crush them without much care. Elisabeth had taught him that, before she had crawled her way out of hell.

"I never had the fortune to be born into nepotism like many people in this world." He smiled without humor, thinking of Fernando and Jayden and Remiel. "To me, business is a transaction and money is worthless. That's why we barter with cities instead of credit and lives instead of gold. There is only so much value in this world, Penelope. Otherwise we would mint an infinite amount of coinage."

He tapped his hand against the table. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. It was a mechanical motion, done by a clockwork doll instead of a human. How fake it would sound on an audio recording. Yet that falsehood was what made it genuine.

"Blood? That, we will never run out of." He paused to consider her request. It surprised him. It disgusted him. It impressed him. She went for something truly irreplaceable: proof of Kanto's commitment to Team Rocket's cause. "And you've chosen expensive blood indeed."

He cocked his head, musing on her words.

"Give me Rustboro as well, then. I'm sure that Cian can find a nice warehouse in Fallarbor to call his gym in the meantime. Even if gears are replaceable, Monroe is... special. He's a symbol of the Pokémon League's failure."

---

PENELOPE LIVY
Continued from HERE

If Howard Slayte had a nickel for every time he'd been sent a dubious text that would likely ruin his life, he'd have two nickels. It wasn't a lot, but it meant that Chu-e was going into an incinerator for drinking his booze and sabotaging his text messages.

Realistically, if the admin had been thinking at all, he would've wondered why Cillian—a high ranking member of Team Rocket—would enjoy shitty Johto buffets in Oldale. It wasn't like the city would remain standing forever, especially with Oldale having nobody to lead it beyond Hideo Kino in the nearby Littleroot.

Poor kid, that.

"Nineteen PD? It went up again." The admin grumbled as he paid at the front and meandered into the buffet proper. Perhaps Arceus was testing how much He could ruin Howard's life, because the admin didn't notice Tempest wandering around in search of yummy food.

Maybe it helped that Howard's sight wasn't that good.

Regardless, Howard sat at a random booth and began texting Cillian Quinn.

I'm here. Letting you know that I'm writing this off as a business expense. Nineteen PD is fucking absurd. Where you at?

---

Tempest Quinn

"Ah, let her dig, Roy." Secretly, the archaeologist was glad to be rid of the obligation to pick up his shovel to go digging for cells. "Flygon are good with the earth. Sand is preferable, but better Pescis than me.

Of the two, the admin actually loathed digging through sand more than stone. Sand excavations required large pits, which meant more work. Besides, the grains occasionally got under his eyepatch and between his Key Stone and the socket around it. A frustrating experience that made the admin almost swear off deserts entirely.

Unfortunately, deserts often called to him. Unova's Desert Resort. Hoenn's desert. The ruins that sat beneath...

"Guess we'll have to catch the damn thing, hm?" From his bag's pocket, Howard produced a thermos with coffee spiked with liquor. He quickly drained it. "I've never seen one caught in a Pokeball, so..."

He tossed the thermos to Roy.

"You have those crazy Rustboro reflexes. You do it." Shirley disappeared into a Pokeball while Howard's Probopass emerged. Three noses created a small field around the trio, Blocking any potential escapes. "There."

Howard nodded, clearly pleased with himself.

"That'll do it."

---

freya morningstar Roy Aker

Montgomery disappeared into the darkness. Howard was alone.

"Fuck. Fuck." The archaeologist cursed as he picked up the gangster's flashlight and quickly shined it into the murky blackness. When nothing stared back, the admin's blood chilled. If the Sigilyph had taken him, then that meant that Howard was alone.

Damn. He hadn't felt like this since he had lost his eye.

"Ah... Ah..." He could still run, but if he did, the people Montgomery ran with wouldn't be happy. Team Rocket wouldn't be content, and they'd stalk the admin. He couldn't tolerate being chased by both loan sharks and Team Rocket. "Dammit, Montgomery."

He followed the Sigilyph deeper into the cave.

---

Montgomery James

And through the trees, like a shadow, the admin emerged.

His first thought was one of a ferris wheel. That thought was quickly shelved as Howard cocked his head in confusion. He held up a finger, wondering what to say to the Head Ranger standing across from him, before simply shaking his head and shrugging. There had been some note about this, he was sure.

Buried under a metric ton of paperwork, but there.

"Training, Razz?" He gave the Kubfu a look, thinking of an Urshifu that he had traveled with in Galar. "How diligent."

He coughed into a fist.

"Try not to bust any tombstones."

---

Raziel Beckett

Cillian Quinn reeked of death. His was a miasma that extended far beyond the grasp of darkness that oozed from him like oil in water.

Even without that aura, Lugia makes for a fine substitute for Yveltal, now that its cocoon is empty and rattling in the wind. To describe it as anything more than decrepit was to dishonor both Tempest Quinn and the dark beast that haunts the skies of the Border now. The two things combine to make Cillian a remarkably easy man to follow.

"I'd stop, Cillian." Howard sat on the petrified statue of a Snorlax, eternally sleeping in a coffin of stone. "You won't find him. Yveltal, either."

Cillian had gotten his week. Tempest had gotten his funeral. Howard had gotten an iota of closure from Alina Hamako and clover matamata during his journey into Pacifidlog. Cillian looked terrible. Howard felt terrible. It seemed only natural that their mutual misery would congeal in this underworld on the dark side of the moon.

"I was wondering when you'd return here." Cillian was clever, but the admin suspected that his colleague would crush whatever stood in front of him in order to appease the grief in his soul. "Like a fish returning to the place where it was born."

From the forest of stone, a golem emerged.

---

Cillian Quinn

And thus, more stars fill the sky. While Regirock sits under a tree, staring blankly at a patch of flowers, Regice continued to stare at the phone, before its attention is pulled upward. Simultaneously, Regirock looked up at the same patch of stars in the sky.

"New stars! How lucky we are." The Rocket Admin stared through Lulu's stolen telescope, his eye narrowing. Beneath his eyepatch, his eyelids instinctively twitched as if attempting to close. "Hm? That looks like Amor's sketch of Regidrago."

The admin blinked once as he looked up from the telescope.

"THAT LOOKS LIKE AMOR'S SKETCH OF REGIDRAGO!" Howard let out a yelp and peered back into the telescope. "Wait, are they all up there? All five?"

Regidrago. Amor's dream. Nebula's purpose for being. It was up in the stars for now, but it would be his someday. That was the promise that Nebula had made to the world, and to Rocket.

Soon.

---

DrOb

"Correct. They're easier to conquer, now. Cian has stepped down as Rustboro's Gym Leader and the rangers are spread thin, and still the League looks eastward towards Sootopolis and Kyogre." The Rocket Admin made a point to not chuckle at the mention of the bird, now that it was in Rocket's clutches. "You've explained why our conquest has been a resounding success."

There wasn't much of a reason for him to play kind with this woman. No reason to lie, no reason to hide anything. She was Team Rocket's, and as long as he didn't reveal Rocket's secrets he could blab as he wished. Really, who would believe Shalin Nariya?

"Petalburg was given to us. The League valued Sootopolis more than they valued your city. You were forgotten, and the people here will not be remembered as the League cheers of their hollow victory." He smiled wryly at her from beneath his helmet. "They're celebrating their victory, even now. A ceasefire. One that Petalburg did not get to experience.""

He spread his hands graciously, before clenching a fist.

"I tame Regirock, and this is how you thank me? Because I was too slow, it leveled the city. Because I was fast enough, I saved a swath of it. You're welcome, Shalin. Perhaps I should be Petalburg's Ranger Captain now."

---

Shalin Nariya