it will be some time yet before the truth about hideo's ralts comes out. some time before he becomes another vexation, another problem, another headache. another hope, however small, for the future of their region. 

now, he's just another gym leader. her reservations about working with children are still the same, but his station gives him better footing in her stern golden eyes. she stretches her fingers over the armrests of her chair and spares him a glance, considering the woman before her. 

and her eyes widen. 

it's her.

the woman looking for Yuina Higashi. 

two options, digitized, lay before them in the freeze frame. her hand stretches out.

"we join them."

Hideo Kino

join the hexenzirkel
+50 rks points

☉

the tunnel goes down and down and down into the dark. her phone murmurs low, whispered voices and she brings it to her ear, side-eyeing the one accompanying her on this journey. this isn't her first time in the simulation, but she's not as used to it as some others. the name calcifet had jumped out at her, and so she'd volunteered herself to join the simulated expedition. 

her nerve endings scream to reach out, to decipher the nonsensical messages, knowing their chorus will only grow louder if she takes steps further into the tunnel.

but she is a stubborn thing. 

"can you make out what they're saying?" she asks, all business.

Elise Calcifet

fight the pull
+1 curio

☉

as always, ana is right on the money when it comes to alex. 

"that's exactly it." i cannot be the one arming you anymore. he gave her the means to plunge herself into the fire and yet he fails to understand that now, after all this time, she wants to make it out alive. she will go through hell for the right people, the right choices, and she will live because she has to. needs to. wants to.

they leave the half a million dollar home and freya follows ana back into the garage, looking anywhere for a project that doesn't scream home improvement, and confusingly enough, not finding one. 

one brow arches as banana phone opens up a secret basement and freya's dubious gaze shifts from ana, down the stairs. 

her stomach does a couple of flips as she follows, hand on the railing, and she stops just shy of the basement landing, staring at the array of human and robotic limbs and organs. she'd gleaned ana's fascination with replacing her body parts and it had been easier to leave that on the backburner of her worries. too many responsibilities and duties had to be put at the forefront. 

her first thought is, you can take the girl out of rocket, but you can't - except that's not quite right, because ana had quite literally icepicked rocket out of her head. 

"okay," she says, still skeptical at the start of her explanation, and then the worry lines flatten as ana continues talking. 

please don't hate me. 

she sighs. 

"i imagine this is breaking a dozen building and health codes." she takes the last two steps, solidifying her decision, and goes to inspect the metalwork leg. she'd seen blasted apart pieces of the paradox pokemon and the similarities are striking (though she doesn't have a mechanic's eye). "so it's better if no one knows about this, hm?"

there's enough space on a workbench. she sets her quiver down and ghosts her fingers over the side. it's banged up and bruised, but still it sparks to life. she fishes a piece of paper out of her pocket and smooths out its crumpled edges. it lists all of her available arrowheads and their corresponding colors. 

"and i could never hate you, silly. especially if you're doing this to help people."

this is the sort of freedom rocket can afford to its scientists, she thinks sourly. no red tape. no years and years of trials and testing and waiting and agonizing pain. helping real people right now.

she puts it out of her mind. 

"i think the pokemon in there is more advanced than even sima 2.0. it should help you a lot. and, as for the arrows - the quiver puts them together and spits them out when i need them. i can relearn drawing the right ones if i need to, but alex and i thought it safer if the arrowheads were rendered inert until they connected to the shaft." as evidenced by the beating it's taken. 

"think you can replicate it or something similar?"

ana fell

☉

this isn't how she wanted this to go. there are a few ways she didn't want this to go, and this isn't the worst one, but it's up there. (the other, the worst, ended with her lips on eva's, hand over her chest, feeling the beating of her heart.)

the touch is still enough to break her. smarting eyes leak tears, making her cheeks hot and itchy. embarrassment crawls up her neck; eva's smile wards off the spiral, loosens the tightening knot in her chest. 

eva promises her everything and freya's heart beaks. 

"one thing at a time." decidedly, then, not about how she is so beloved. how she loves her, even though she can't love her completely. how there is a timeline where they had every happiness and she was enough. where she texted her ridiculous strings of emojis and laughed freely, always. 

no, it will have to be the next important thing. 

"i've been following some leads. i...eva, i think i'm a draconid." it's the first time she's said it out loud. she withdraws the hand not under eva's and clumsily wipes her cheeks. her brows knit. "no, i know. i - i have a family. a living family - a cousin. Roy Aker. we went to the border together and saw - 

"i saw my mother. and my other self again. the one that saved me from kyurem." a year ago, she'd sat in this very office, still manic from months'-long harrowing journey, blood yearning for the god that had yet to make its pact to the woman so tenderly holding her hand.

Eva Morales

☉

and when did they meet? when she was a child? no. filmy lenses flicker, a flash of light, and his silhouette shifts from child to adult, a portal to the realm of the dead behind him. she scratches her cheek, takes her coffee with her other hand. 

"good. we can both be terrible at it together." a wan smile. 

he is not the same. he can't be the same, just as she isn't, and can't. his family was stripped from him in this life, just like she. maybe, after all of this, they'll be closer than they ever were in the past that never happened. 

her head hurts. 

"how about this - i ask a question and then you get one? it can be anything. and i'll promise to answer honestly."

Roy Aker

☉

with her station, she supposes, comes this sort of respect. if a trainer is more than willing to walk through her doors and offer volunteer hours to the sanctuary, she'd be a fool to say no. so she kindly smiles at his words and watches him go. 

one of her administrators will touch base with him and get him all set up. she'll tell them, after their shift, to put him to work with the salamence and she'll watch from above, on dragonback, as her draciary grows. 

and she will be reminded, with nostalgia, of what she's lost and what she's worked so hard to regain.

Morgan Drake

☉

her teeth feel gummy. that nervous fight or flight response kicks in at the question and she curses herself for opening the can of worms in the first place. walls drop from illeana's face and her thoughts race, but they crash into inevitably just as quickly. 

she can answer honestly, but not wholly. 

"no." her voice sounds small. "i'm not okay...and i think that's the first time i've ever said that."

she looks away. 

"i protected someone he knew hurt me," she says carefully. even that's too much. they're a small circle. could she put the pieces together? and if she does, would she scorn her too, for her choices?

"just look after him, okay? and i'll give you whatever support you need."

illeana reyes

☉

that's a no then. she worries her lower lip. the pikachu in the freeze frame leers down at its opponent, towering stories high. and she feels so indescribably small. 

"i think my father might still be alive, but i don't know the first thing about getting in touch with him." would he be the same man? or is that father winter's cruelest joke - sending her on a wild goose chase for a man of no relation. 

silence lapses. she drums her fingertips against her leg, scoots the tablet onto the table and darkens the screen. gives him her full attention. 

"i'm not going to be very good at this. the getting to know you. the letting you get to know me. but i want to."

Roy Aker

☉

it's still unfamiliar ground, not that she'd ever admit it. how does one admit they're not used to having friends and making plans without sounding like a stick in the mud? she's thankful, at the very least, that he seems just as awkward as she is. 

her nose scrunches. while she appreciates hearing her title, restored after all these years, now that she's finally earned it, it feels wrong following the context of this discussion. 

so she waves a hand and with a quirking smile says, "freya's fine," and as she takes her leave, she adds, "top champion lopez."

kyle lopez

☉

it slides cleanly from the stone and as memories of the past drift over remiel's skin, so too do they drift over freya's. the weight of her shortsword on her hip is a decades-old comfort, though its sheen is silver and not the obsidian black from necrozma's body. 

"no, i don't think so," she says as she lifts her gaze. the sight is achingly familiar. her heart races. she is reminded, again, of her failings - all the ways she'd ruined KING WAYLAND's life by dragging him along with her. all the ways she'd hurt him again, when it was over. 

and above, in the heavens, is the world-ender. 

zacian charges forward in a blur of blue and gold. the edges of the dreamscape are turning gray. their time in the book is nearly up, but her heart is pounding. they have to see the fight through. they have to know what happens when it's beaten. 

"because it always comes back to war. one day, when we're done fighting, maybe we'll better remember the rest."

Remiel Calcifet

☉