He was so tired.

Yet this was what remained. This... resignation. This contempt. This fear. Knowing that when Mossdeep was taken and that Rocket's empire had tripled in size, the admin would likely be executed for killing Elisabeth. It didn't matter if she had attacked him first. She was an avatar twice over.

Irreplaceable.

THEO BECKETT and Cillian Quinn would not take kindly to their colleague's blood, which was now congealed on Regirock's stone fists. It had quickly dried and blackened, reminding the admin of what Elisabeth had been like in her eleventh hour.

She had died with dignity. Kouji was going to die with dignity. They were both commendable.

"I see." Spittle dripped down the admin's face and onto his Sygna Suit. He wiped it with a trembling hand, still suffering from Tsubaki's Nihilego toxins. It was fortunate that Elisabeth Fiorelli had formulated an antidote once. Even in death, she was serving the cause. "I'm proud of what you did. You stuck to your beliefs until the end."

She served it more than when she had lived, curiously enough. Why was he thinking of her now, when Kouji was standing here?

"But this is Rocket. Our dreams don't matter, merely our results." Regirock loomed behind the admin like a sentient mountain, its eyes glowing a vindictive red, the same as its owner's single orb. "Goodbye, Kouji Matsubara."

The fist slammed towards the grunt and smashed against the Stakataka floor, and everything went black.

---

A few hours later...

"Priam." Howard stood over the slouched Rocket Beast in front of the ruins of Petalburg General. "I've been looking for you."

Nearby, blood was being scrubbed off of Regirock's fists by two Kantonian grunts. The admin smoked a cigarette, and the plume swirled up into the sky.

"Here to sulk?"

---

yea fuck summaries actually

Kouji Matsubara stood in steel shackles, flanked by members of Hoenn's Rocket Branch on a platform made of bricks. There were no spectators for what was to come.

It was what he deserved. Isaac Merlo was still alive because of him. The Liberator still lived because everyone under the sun had gotten in Howard's way. That man should have died, and yet the world demanded that Suicune did not follow Raikou into its premature grave. Even now, whispers of Johto's legacy and Rocket's folly echoed into today.

How frustrating.

"Fool's Gold. For the crime of attacking a Rocket Admin and assisting in Elisabeth Fiorelli's attempt to destroy the newly captured Regirock, I brand you a traitor and sentence you to death."

Time had cooled the admin's fervor. This felt wrong. Kouji was loyal. He had been loyal for far longer than Howard had been part of this miserable organization, and far before the name of 'Admin Fox' had been spawned into the unholy ether of Rocket's terminology.

Howard Slayte was just... tired.

This was supposed to be jayden cross 's job, but he was back in Sootopolis waging his war of folly. This was Cillian Quinn 's job, just as it had been his job a year ago to put Isaac Merlo into the dirt. Yet he had failed.

This was not who Howard was, but if he was the only gear that fit the machine, then who was he to deny the calling of Rocket, especially when surrounded by so many foes?

"As the Hoennian branch's highest ranking member in the city, this authority is mine. Only Elisabeth can supersede me in this matter. If she would like to speak up and defend you, she may." The silence was deafening, accompanied only by the shifting of sands and the murmuring of Rocket grunts. "No?"

The admin's eye flickered as he brushed a strand of hair behind his ear.

"Pity."

There was no joy in this. No fervent desire to swing the sword. Yet if he was going to swing the sentence, he would not allow a nameless dog to put Kouji out of his misery. On the platform, a brick opened its eye to stare at the duo. With a glance, the eye disappeared.

"Any final words?"

---

KOUJI STAND UP (done with Joker's permission)
GET SENTENCED
BEFORE SOOTY/MOSSDEEP SHOWS UP
STAKATAKA PLATFORM POG

KEEP SURFING! FOUR MORE DAYS OF SURFING! WE'RE ALMOST THERE! COME ON! SURF! SURF! SURF!

KEEP PRIMARINA SURFING UNTIL THE MONTH IS DONE!

---

PRIMARINA
5TUERN_d

Rattle.

Shackles surrounded the Dynamaxed form of Regice and Regirock, shackling the two together in the throes of divinity. The Red Chain. It was designed to seize gods and chain them to the whims of humanity when they raged against the divine. In myth, the Red Chain would bind the world together.

Instead, it bound two ages into one.

Howard's eye twitched. He wanted to scream. He wanted to stamp his feet. He wanted to throw a tantrum. Yet he couldn't. Not here, not in front of so many members of Rocket, not after dealing with so many absurdities that continued to get in his way.

In the pink haze, Tapu Lele danced. Howard released a guttural growl.

"So you found your conviction." He said, regarding Eris with a baleful, weary gaze. "Good. I'm proud of you. This is exactly how Lenore would have acted, isn't it? I admired her."

A groan. He spat out a globule of blood.

"I'm honored that I get to see her again, if only for a moment. It's a shame that at the rate you're going, you'll follow her ending too. History is a cycle, no?"

Another weary sigh. Elisabeth Fiorelli was right in this fact. There were too many cycles, and too many were unbreakable. Howard did not call them fate. They were simply the byproduct of human fallibility. It was why Regirock and Regice would continue this ceaseless march of theirs. He would find Registeel too, one day. That titan that had abandoned him in the desert would belong to him.

Eternatus would die. Its cycle of tyranny would shatter, and mankind's cycle of triumph would persist. No matter how fragile their flesh was, the monuments they built would persist.

"You-" His voice was cut off by an explosion rocking Regirock. A Mystical Power detonated in the golem's face, causing its pattern to flicker from yellow to red to white to pink, before eventually shutting down for several moments.

It flickered back to live, shifting strangely as mechanisms within the golem reacted oddly to the divine power.

"I don't need to win, Isaac. I want to." He muttered as the Liberator disappeared into the sand. "Do you understand? I want it more than anything in the world, but you still can't see what I want to see."

He roared at the shifting sands.

"AS LONG AS ONE OF US IS THE VICTOR, HUMANITY WINS! I DON'T CARE IF IT'S THE LEAGUE OR ROCKET OR THE PEOPLE BETWEEN. WE WILL BEAT THE ENEMY THAT MATTERS!"

He pointed a bloodstained fist at the sky.

"ETERNATUS! NECROZMA! THE RUINOUS BEASTS! WE WILL PROSPER WHEN THEIR BONES TURN TO DUST! I WILL NOT LET OUR CIVILIZATION DECAY!"

The chains rattled and groaned as Eris and Isaac left. He saw the distant Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki as the sands swallowed her whole. A poisoned hand dripped purple blood onto the debris below. A proof of the incestuous match of a human who never belonged in this world and an alien who desired what it would never have.

"Navy supported my dream, you little Kantonian rat! I know him better than you ever will! I betrayed Navy because you were the Gym Leader instead of him! Navy would lead a village of ashes better than you could ever lead a city on a hill!"

The chains snapped and shattered as the two golems laid siege to Petalburg.

"YOU WILL NEVER SUCCEED AS A GYM LEADER, AND YOU WILL NEVER LEAVE HIS SHADOW!"

---

REGI SQUAD GETS RED CHAINED
Howard flips his shit at Eris and Isaac as they retreat
Malds and whatnot
When they flee, the chain shatters due to proximity and the combined Regi strength
Regirock mindfucked by Mystical Power
Petalburg seizure GO

The toy soldier finally stopped, its makeshift heart collapsing under the weight of divine judgement from the power of Regice.

This was Dynamax. Kouji could not stop it alone, but he had done well. Humanity could triumph over this power. Eternatus would fall to the ensuing march of mankind's eternal tenacity. An individual life was short, but as individual stones rolled over one another to rebuild the Rock Peak Pokémon, a dull groan erupted over the battlefield.

Slowly, surely, Regirock reassembled itself. Pieces of fallen buildings reincorporated into the golem's frame, parts of bodies were crushed between individual boulders as it rose to its feet.

"There are many men like you, Kouji. Loyal men subservient to bad causes. Sit. Rest. Stay out of my way. If you interfere with my dream again, I'll kill you." The admin heaved a heavy sigh and turned to face Isaac Merlo and Eris Halla . "You haven't run."

A smile flickered through the shattered visor.

This is why I respect you, Isaac. But you're in the way. The north wind doesn't blow in this sandy hellscape." His eye flicked to the aurora that shined in the sky above, a beacon of possibility. "Though you never cease to impress me."

Step. Step. Step.

He walked over Kouji's body. Over Hanu's. He breathed heavily, his voice slurring.

I want our goals to intersect, more than anything in the world. Until then..." Regirock swung a half-built fist, formed from a concrete mural of the destroyed Petalburg General depicting a happy family. "...begone."

Something red flashed in the sandstorm.

---

Regirock rebuilds cuz it's built different. using parts of Petalburg as material
Howard gets off Kouji, badly injured
Very clearly losing it
Goes to kick Isaac's ass with a REGI PUNCH

"You're right." The admin groaned from under the grunt, breathing heavily. "We should embrace our nature as gears in this clockwork monstrosity. I've done that. Everything I've done today was in line with that philosophy. It's why Petalburg burns around us."

It did, though the fires were snuffed out by poisoned sand. Metric tons of debris from Regirock's emergence had turned the city into a wasteland, and it was for that reason that the city was theirs.

"This is our sin, Kouji. We will bear this until we are hanged as traitors on the steps of Ever Grande."

A weary, heavy sigh. Regirock could not crush Kouji with Howard so close. Instead, it turned to face the Urshifu, which shattered the stone construct into a million pieces of rubble. The golem would reform, but it would take time.

Time that Urshifu and Kouji did not have.

"I killed Elisabeth Fiorelli. She attacked me. She deserved to die by marring a Rocket victory with her own hubris." His eye found Kouji's and narrowed. "But you do not have to die. You will not. My victory is Rocket's."

His eye gleamed.

"But it is not yours."

A Max Lightning struck down on Kouji like a hammer of god.

---

Kouji on top of Howard
Regirock explodes
Regice uses Max Lightning on Kouji

Thud. The punch smashed the admin's visor, embedding shards of clear material and metal into the grunt's knuckle as he knocked the admin backwards. It was a desperate, ugly punch. In another world, with his old body, the admin would have been punched through the socket.

But it was different now. It was a different form, made of a different material. Striking Howard Slayte was like beating on stone.

Still, he fell anyway. He sat there for a moment, tasting Kouji's purpose. It was a good one, but misguided. It described much of Rocket, the admin thought.

"I will not yield. I did choose. I chose Rocket to chase what I wanted from life." The admin rose steadily, his hand grasping onto the Dynergy-infused stone as he turned to face the grunt. "That is what Rocket offered you. A chance to choose your own destiny. To choose the form your soul would take."

A heavy breath. Regirock thrummed with power as it blasted Urshifu with a Dynamax Cannon. Red energy engulfed the martial artist.

"But it doesn't matter. We're here. You and me. We did this." Howard breathed raggedly as he smashed Kouji again, stone shattering bones and flesh. "We chose."

A deep breath.

"We chose to be cogs in a greater machine."

---

Kouji breaks Howard's visor, ouch!
Regirock uses Dynamax Cannon on Urshifu
Howard continues to bash Kouji with ROCKA

Kouji rushed forward, faster than the admin could blink. Even on the verge of death, even as his body hung limp. Kouji was limp to his left, but the right was full of enough vigor to thrash Howard within an inch of his life.

Everyone was betraying him. The one time that he displayed loyalty to Rocket, and everyone was turning on him. Victory was in their grasp. They were going to win, and Kouji was allying with Isaac? Here? Now? WHY? The Liberator's long shadow had finally found a Rocket willing to heed his call.

Treason.

Yet he did not want to kill Kouji.

He was loyal.

"A bullied kid..." Howard whispered as Fool's Gold punched him in the side of the head, the admin's skull rattling around in his Sygna Suit's helmet. Oscar was a good engineer, but there was nothing that he could do when faced with a standard beatdown.

He felt a knife. Warm blood through his belly. Dynergy leaked alongside the latent remains of Ting-lu's corpse. Even now, fear dictated his actions. Yet he was Howard Slayte. When did that not?

Regirock's arm shattered when faced with the Urshifu's Z-Move, stones spraying the battlefield and knocking several grunts on their backs. The titan would rebuild, but the force of the blow reminded Howard of Elisabeth's Ruination or one of Jayden's many blades. When had Kouji gotten this strong?

When he had forsaken his weakness?

No.

"Fucker. I earned this. I EARNED THIS!" He roared as he staggered to his feet. His body didn't function. His legs hardly worked. His arms barely moved. That was fine. "I am stronger! All of these tribulations to reach this moment were forced against me."

A shaking hand picked up a piece of rubble from the ground, red lines of Dynergy flowing through the stone.

"I will continue to struggle because I am human." A deep breath. "My dream is just. AND I WILL NOT WAKE UP!"

SMASH!

He slid to Kouji's left and bashed the grunt on the side of the head with a piece of Regirock's corpse.

---

Kouji Matsubara

'FUCK YOUR DREAM!'

The words rang through the air as Tangaroa Emzar struck the floor, unconscious. He had been stuck between two titans and an avatar. The mercenary had done well, all things considered. Still, his defeat was unfortunate. He had spunk.

Still, he deserved his fate for interrupting the admin's countdown. He had defied Hoenn's will to partake in Monroe's incessant browbeating, and he deserved to be humbled. It was a lesson that the muscle-brained Alolan would have to carry with him, and it would shape his future from this moment on.

To be humbled was to experience growth. That was something that Kouji Matsubara would experience now.

"Pardon?" Howard's voice was soft, barely carrying over the whisper of the sand. His eye flickered with Dynergy as he regarded the toy soldier denouncing him. "You have no right. I am your superior officer, and Underboss Fiorelli was assaulting me."

Stones rumbled, clacking over one another as they towered upwards. Howard's dream would not be denied. He had forged it in blood and stone and ice. Rocket had promised it to him, and Kanto would not deny him what Howard had denied himself for twenty-eight years.

"But if you denounce my dream, then it's up to you to shred it." The admin's eye gleamed with rage as Dynergy roared around the duo. "Fool's Gold, you become your name."

Regirock swung a fist towards Urshifu, its Hammer Arm slamming down. Kouji's face was reflected in Elisabeth's blood.

"Buried."

---

HALT: THE RED CHAIN AND ISAAC'S DENOUNCMENT IS INCOMING. Howard is interfacing with Kouji
Howard turns to face Kouji, enraged at his denouncement
Regirock uses HAMMER ARM on Urshifu
Dynergy pressure increases

He leaned forward and kissed her cheek, an echo of boldness that she had once displayed in an office a million miles from this hall.

"Don't say that. As your admin, I forbid it. You are just as important as me. No matter what happens, so matter how much we struggle against greater threats, we're just us. I'm me. You're you." Any embarrassment curled up and died as tears flooded her eye. "Our struggles are equal."

She had been so carefree in her forge. So uncertain in his office. Yet no matter what happened, no matter what occurred, she had always been lighthearted.

Was that an illusion? Another dream and misdirection, like the dozens that Howard had seen in the garden?

No. That was her. This moment of vulnerability was also her. She could be both, just as Howard could cower in fear at the notion of the organization that hung over his back while also shouldering the weight of the world with nothing but ancient machines at his back. There were five, but he only had one.

There was only one Aurelie.

"I told Calyrex that I wanted to be a hero when I sat under his tree. It was a rambling. I did not understand the intriacies of it. Galar... Galar needed it. There was no hope there. They needed a hero, and I wasn't one." He said softly. "I was just a squire to a greater man. But I spoke to him. I was there for him. In the end, he said I was just as heroic as him."

He wrung his hands together nervously, fingers clenched tight. One hand failed to function. Its muscles did not function. They merely trembled weakly.

"You're here for me now." His eye bore into hers. "You're a hero, whether you pick up a sword or forge one. You are a wonderful creator." He held up a finger. "Do not deny it."

Her callused fingers, forged from years of labor.

"It's for that reason that I'm not alone, and it's for that reason that you are not a nobody." A deep breath followed. A distant dream of Galar that they had both experienced rang in his mind. "So say it right now."

"Say you're someone. Tell me you're a hero."

---

Aurelie Lefevre

Isaac Merlo put up far more of a fight than Elisabeth Fiorelli.

Good.

That was his purpose. Better that he fought for Petalburg rather than the League. If he had done that in Dewford, the city would still be standing and Howard would be dead. Isaac's resolve had wavered then, and it was up to the admin to capitalize on that now. At least, until the fight was over and this could all return to normal.

Right. When it was normal, this would all return to normal.

"Where was this before, when it mattered? You could have ended this months ago! You're fighting me now, when the city is ours? Go! Get out!" Regirock fired a blast, its Lock On firing towards Tangaroa Emzar as it flew towards the Alolan, resulting in a nearby explosion. "JUST LET ME WIN!"

Regice, meanwhile, was knocked back slightly by the Aura Sphere, the frozen golem's attack detonating in its face. The titan stilled for several moments, unblinking, as Petalburg citizens and members of the Pokémon League fled the battlefield.

Stalling brought life. If Elisabeth had simply delayed, she would still be kicking. But she was a traitor to Team Rocket. She had attacked him first. She threatened to bring Ruination into this world. Such an apocalypse could not come to pass.

It would interfere with his and Naomi Sato's dream.

"Isaac."

His voice was soft.

"Isaac."

Slowly, Regice leaned forward, its face cracked heavily as it grabbed at the Lucario and began to squeeze on Isaac's Pokémon. Its pattern flashed red as the pressure increased, a Superpower squeezing every ounce of life from the Liberator's stalwart ally. Howard frowned.

"If you persist, you and Suicune will follow the fate of your siblings." A heavy sigh followed as Regirock continued its march. "Do you really want to meet Kyle and Raikou so badly?"

kyle lopez and Josh Devlin were both tied to an era that would never come again, back when myth fought against the invasion of their home from another region. Johto's story had ended. Kanto's had ended, and yet this incessant epilogue from Monroe persisted.

"You have people to protect. People that she..." Howard gestured towards the distant tomb of Elisabeth. "...did not. You're going to do this?"

Dynergy flared.

"You're going to lay down your life to prevent me from achieving my dream?"

---

Regirock misses Isaac, is aiming for Tangaroa Emzar (fate is up to Monk)
Regice facetanks the attack like a pro, pauses, allowing people to escape
Eventually repairs itself to grab Lucario and squeeze it with Superpower
Howard loves to yap

Howard Slayte was nothing. A sack of meat and flesh that marched towards a world that would be pure and just.

He was alive.

Elisabeth was not.

His will was stronger. His purpose was clearer. The path forward could not be obfuscated. This was just the beginning. jayden cross would have to die. Chien-pao had ruined him. His easel had been soaked in water before the paint could set, and now hatred moved him. That was sad. He liked Jayden.

I like Jayden?

No. He didn't like anyone in Rocket. He did not.

PENELOPE LIVY would have to die. That was overdue. She deserved it more than most, and their time in prison had done little to soften his heart for the Coveted.

"Ruination will not come to pass. We can save this world without relying on..." He gestured towards the enraged Wo-chien, its tablets glowing with vindication. "...this."

As he gestured, the grudge hit him.

FAILURE. FAILURE. FAILURE.

STONE WILL CRUMBLE. ICE WILL MELT. STEEL WILL RUST.

YOUR MONUMENTS ARE FALSE. YOUR BELIEFS ARE FALSE. YOUR POWER IS NOT YOUR OWN.

TRAITOR.

DEFECTOR.

MURDERER.

Flowers wilted and died. A Tapu Lele in the corner of his vision withered and died and turned into ash. Cillian Quinn and THEO BECKETT hung him from the rafters for the crime of killing their colleague. She had betrayed him. When had that mattered? Rocket did not care for truth. If they did, the Light Stone would have awakened.

Grudges. He couldn't deal with this right now. It was too much. A faint whisper of pink filled his vision, a lasting memory of when Mesprit had guided his hand against Regirock.

It dissipated into mist.

Howard opened his eye. He put his helmet back on and breathed heavily.

"Bury her in flowers." Howard turned from Wo-chien, lazily. Killing a Legendary Pokemon was a hassle, and finishing the job in the Border simply wasn't possible right now. Killing Elisabeth had ruined a seamless victory. "She deserves that."

As if Wo-chien knew or cared. Worthless creature, that.

His radio clicked to a private communicator to Hoenn and Kanto's Rocket Bosses.

"Underboss Fiorelli has died. Regirock killed her after she continued attacking it. It branded her as a traitor." The admin paused for a moment, contemplative. "Petalburg is ours. Glory to Rocket."

Bzzzt.

With Elisabeth dead, who did that leave? Monroe, himself, and Priam. Hoenn's branch only held two members of command while the others waged war across the region.

It was a humbling thought that accompanied him as he crossed the toxic sands, his suit billowing slightly as Regirock marched alongside him, blood staining its long arms. Regice towered overhead, awaiting new orders from its trainer. As the sand parted, revealing the ensuing skirmish between remnants of the League and Rocket, Howard coughed into his fist.

"Apologies." His eye met Oscar from behind the mask. It met priam conrad 's for a long moment, before turning to face Isaac Merlo and Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki . "Where were we?"

"Ah, right."

Red energy swirled around the two giants as they Locked On. Petalburg held its breath, silent in the admin's mind as he tasted the word on his tongue. Nameless Hoennian Rockets that did not indulge in Monroe's cruelty waited. The golems began to shift and move.

"Three."

---

Howard gets tapped by the grudges, gets mindfucked. Lele is still trolling him
Laments Elisabeth
Contacts Walsh/Monroe to declare Elisabeth dead
Returns to finish his countdown
Siege proper begins

Jayden fought for them because he didn't know anything else. That was his future because it was all he could believe in.

"But what does he fight for, Hitoshi? What is his purpose? Beyond Rocket? What does fighting for Rocket get him?"

The Aerodactyl flatters by. Howard's eye follows it for a moment, thinking of Shirley. Yet he would not catch another Aerodactyl. One was enough, and Shirley was a jealous girl.

Instead, another ball flew.

---

CATCHING CORSOLA
Hitoshi Inoue