Just for the sake of clarity, I want to say now that this chapter takes place at the same time as the previous one. I will try to convey that in the text as well as I can, but if I fall short, I'll say it here too.

Additionally, this chapter is going to feature moments of more graphic violence than is typical; the fight between Nekou and the Shadow Triad should be a good comparison for what that'll look like.

-:-

CHAPTER 26: Operation Dreadnought

-:-

That day, the Battle Submarine wasn't the only craft traveling under the waters of Johto's western sea.

While Matt, Anabel, Olivia and Amanda were with Ethan, Nekou and many of the other remaining Team Rocket members crowded aboard their own submarine. Their vessel ran silently deep under the waves on a relentless march toward their targeted destination - the Altru Northstar, or as they knew it to truly be, the Adenosine Base. One of Polaris's chief laboratory facilities. The tremendous importance of their impending infiltration hung like a cloud over the party crammed into the compressed space.

That congestion pushed Nekou's mood over the line from a glum to an irritated state. Even without taking the mission into account, her mind was still laboring under the burden of her exchange with Anabel and Olivia. Having to act responsibly with such weight on her shoulders, and not even being able to have her own space during that time, left her in a sulking mood. All she could do to push it back was bob her head back and forth while clutching her phone, as if she was listening to music that only existed in her head.

"We're going over this one more time," Ariana asserted to the others as she made her way to the front of the group. Proton and Petrel, both seated opposite Nekou, turned their heads to follow her, while Nekou herself was listening even as she seemed lost in her own world. Jessie, James and Meowth were manning the vessel's controls behind Ariana. "When we get to the Adenosine Base, we'll be splitting up, and each team is going to have its own role to play in the mission. Proton, Petrel, I want you two to create distractions and draw the base's personnel away from the other units."

"Normally I'd do the job myself," Proton complained, leaning back and shutting his eyes. "I've got a reputation to keep up."

"C'mon, Proton, you know it's the same for me," Petrel reminded him. "I ain't thrilled that I'm not getting to use my disguises, but we gotta do what we gotta do."

Proton sighed. He usually was able to look past Petrel's casual, folksy demeanor, but the tension in the submarine had him on edge. "Fine. I'm not thrilled about having to share the credit, but I'll swallow my pride this time."

"If Giovanni were here…" Ariana started to speak without thinking, so when her words caught up with her, she hesitated. She'd been trying not to think too much about what had happened to him, only to accidentally remind herself of his fate. Proton saw this, and even in his agitated state, he understood and his expression softened. "If Giovanni were here," she finally managed to repeat, "he would be pleased with you putting the mission first." she said. Pivoting, Ariana rested her hands on the back of James's chair. "Now, you three. Your mission is to reach the warehouse where Polaris is keeping the Pokémon being used in their experiments. Once you get there, you are to use the device created by Dr. Zager to steal the Pokémon, still in their Poké Balls."

"To build up the strongest army of Pokémon the world has ever seen," Jessie said, "and to make our dreams come true…"

"Not only that," James continued for her, squeezing the control handles in front of himself and scowling, "but to get our revenge for everything Polaris has taken from us…"

Meowth peered over at his longtime teammates, and they looked back at him. All three shared the same thoughts, which the Pokémon put into words. "We're gonna get those Pokémon, and then we're gonna punish 'em for takin' our boss away. That's just how we do business."

"Your resolve is impressive," Ariana praised them, flashing a weary smile they could not see. "Keep that up and you'll find success for sure."

"Ariana," Pierce's deep, commanding voice resounded through the confines of the sub, drawing her attention to the bank of monitors in front of the control panels. His image filled the screen at the center of the block, while smaller monitors around him played host to Ada, Rosalie and Zager. "We will arrive at the designated point soon."

"Most excellent," replied the executive, crossing her arms. "Keep your helicopter cloaked and remain at that location until we radio in. Ada, I want you to hack into the Adenosine Base's systems and copy as much of their data as you can, but also, be alert in case anyone needs your help in the field. Your computer skills will be invaluable for this operation."

"I won't disappoint you, Ariana," Ada promised.

"Both Zager and I will be giving you what assistance we can, as well," Rosalie added, pausing to take a puff from her pipe. "Of course, we will need whatever you can recover from that base."

"We'll get plenty for both of you to look at, count on it. But when we're done…" Ariana turned back around, her eyes falling on Nekou. "...there won't be an Adenosine Base left for Polaris to use. Nekou and I will be seeing personally to that."

Nekou had been listening and heard every single one of Ariana's directions, but the crippling tension she felt cowed her into continued uncharacteristic silence. The only acknowledgment she gave to Ariana addressing her was a short nod before going back to fiddling with her phone.

"Nekou…" Frowning, Ariana leaned herself against the back of James's chair. "I know this is hard for you, to think about a job right now. I'm sorry." As much as she wanted to deny it, however, there was a singular reality that dwarfed all else - the mission was a necessity. There was no way around that. At the core of Team Rocket's campaign against the cult was the simple fact that if Polaris won, if they forced their philosophy on the world, there would be no going back from their vision. Between Team Rocket's chaotic wish to secure absolute freedom for themselves while extorting others for that same privilege and Polaris's constraining, oppressive idea of order, only one could survive. Such a world would be unbearable for any of them.

"Oh, yes, Ariana and I already spoke about this but I want to advise the rest of you about my latest creation," Zager spoke up, earning the focus of the submarine's crew. "I've sent each of your phones an artificial intelligence to give you real-time assistance in the field." The doctor could be heard punching keys on his end of the transmission, and his handiwork brought up an image familiar to his audience. It appeared in every way to be Stacia, except her eyes could not be seen through the glow filling her glasses. "Introduce yourself and state your purpose," Zager said to her.

"Artificial Intelligence Matori, version one-point-zero-two," Stacia - or Matori, as the copy of Giovanni's assistant called herself - said, bowing politely. "I was created by Dr. Zager in the image of Mister Giovanni's secretary in order to assist in your fulfillment of the boss's wishes."

"Tch," Jessie scoffed under her breath, "just when I thought we wouldn't hear from the bob-cut glasses gal for a while."

"I am not just some 'bob-cut glasses gal,' as you put it," Matori scolded her. "I am equipped with all the information necessary for your raid on the Adenosine Base, and I am designed to deliver all information and analysis with maximum efficiency. Your dismissal of me is most unwise."

"Great, she's just like the real thing," Meowth muttered to himself.

"Alright, you all heard that," Ariana said, again addressing the entire team. "We put a Matori on every one of your phones. She'll help you in your assignments, and make sure you network using her, too. If we succeed today, we will strike a tremendous blow at the heart of Polaris, and we'll do it for the glory of Team Rocket and Giovanni!"

"Yes, ma'am!" all but Nekou recited in unison.

While the others made more overt displays of their concentration, Nekou just stared at her phone's blank screen as she listened. Her mind wandered off as soon as she no longer heard Ariana's voice, but she snapped back to reality when Ariana sat down next to her.

"Hang in there," she encouraged Nekou, placing a reassuring hand on her adoptive daughter's shoulder. "We'll get through this. You and I will wreck their main laboratory ourselves. Together, there's nothing we can't do."

Those words finally got Nekou to look up from her phone, but they still failed to coax any response out of her. All she could do was stare up at Ariana. Anything she could have said died off in her throat, the victim of a memory that overran everything else on her mind.

~:~

Cold, sterile air flooded into the isolation tank in Zager's laboratory as it opened to release Nekou from its confines. The Team Rocket uniform hanging off her bony frame afforded her no protection from the shift in temperature as she fell to the floor.. Not only that, but the bright lights shining on her overwhelmed her vision, forcing her to cover her sunken eyes with her hand until they could adjust.

"Consider yourself lucky after what you did." Finally acclimating herself to the radiance around her, Nekou lowered her arm. There, standing several feet in front of her and glaring down judgmentally, was Giovanni. His presence so frightened her that she shrank away from him, pushing herself back into the lower edge of the capsule. "Dr. Zager came to bat for you. Never forget that. Because of him, you will be allowed to live."

Too scared to say anything, Nekou instead flicked her eyes to Giovanni's left, where she could see Zager standing at a computer console and watching her. Some flecks of brown still dotted his white hair at that time, and his moustache still had its dark color.

"However," Giovanni continued, turning his right foot in such a way that his leather shoe squeaked against the floor, "you will no longer be allowed to remain in the normal ranks of Team Rocket. I will not have you endangering Team Rocket's goals if you lose control again. For that reason, I am placing you under the personal supervision of Executive Ariana."

"Ari…?" Nekou croaked, finding some tiny fragment of her voice.

"Ariana." The redheaded executive had been lurking off to the side during the conversation. Nekou hadn't seen her, so when Ariana suddenly stepped forward and approached her, Nekou pulled even further back and raised a gaunt arm as a feeble act of protection. Her ineffective display only made Ariana laugh, but it was a warm, friendly laugh that caught Nekou by surprise. "It's alright, kid. You're hardly the only one who's come to Team Rocket after having a rough go of it. I'll set you straight and show you a better life, I promise. Together, we'll find you some friends and a place for you to fit in."

Ariana extended a hand to Nekou, a gesture that so surprised the younger woman that she stared blankly at it for several long seconds with no idea of what to do. When she looked back at Ariana's face, however, the executive smiled broadly at her. Something about that and the warmth in Ariana's eyes made Nekou feel more comfortable and less frightened, so slowly but surely, she reached out to accept Ariana's gesture.

~:~

"Yeah, you're right, I guess…" Nekou listlessly said, once the memory's grip faded. "We always have pulled off anything we work together on, haven't we?"

Ariana's mouth curled into a frown. She could tell Nekou was crying out for a reassurance that neither of them could sincerely give, and speaking falsehoods in an attempt to convince herself things would be okay. She also understood exactly what was on Nekou's mind without having to be told.

It was her illness, Ariana instinctively knew. The only thing she and Nekou had collaborated on in an attempt to solve, only to fail in their endeavor. Ever since the turn it had taken just prior to the battle in Ecruteak, Nekou's mental state had been on pins and needles over it.

In that moment aboard Team Rocket's submarine, Ariana found herself truly unable to figure out what she could do to help.

-:-

"So, Lady Finansielle, allow me to introduce you to what your generous funding is going towards… my proposal to truly draw out the full potential our Pokémon possess!"

Even in his darkened laboratory, Colress couldn't help but gesture wildly as he spoke in grandiose terms about his work. It was just too ingrained in his character. Besides, he figured, his computer and the screens it projected threw enough light for Finansielle, who was present via a remote hologram, to see him.

"You have something to show of it, yes? I do like knowing where my money is going," Finansielle sarcastically said to the scientist, before silently noting to herself, "Like I don't already know?"

Colress could sense Finansielle had more on her mind than she was expressing, but it didn't matter to him. If he could be given attention and praise for his genius, she could keep everything else in the world a secret and he wouldn't care at all.

"Well then, let me bring you into the loop, Lady Finansielle." Bending his arms in such a way that he could pose dramatically while tapping the screen on his left sleeve, Colress prompted a pair of projections to emerge from the computer. One of them displayed a swirling double helix, and the other, a Meteonite. "On your left, you see the enhanced Pokérus I helped you create. On your right, well, the Meteonite we collected from the Ruins of Alph. You know what that is just by looking at it. But here's the trick. If I take a little from column A, and a little from column B, mix it all together and run it through the bio-computer I developed, here's what I can cook up."

With another dramatic flair, Colress swept his fingers across his left sleeve's screen before widely spreading his arms out. At least a dozen new projections popped out of the computer in response to his call.

"This system can create Pokémon whose strength reaches abnormal heights well past their natural limits, but that's not all! We can go even further beyond that!" Behind his visor, Colress's eyes glittered with the spirit of his childlike, almost innocent excitement at his own brilliance. "We can push the envelope to allow these Pokémon to use moves they never could have conceived of using before! That includes the special moves that previously could only be performed by the corrupt Shadow Pokémon that failed so many times in the past! No longer will they have to be Shadow Pokémon that can be purified! We will have all the power with none of the drawbacks!" A sudden wave of fatigue swept over the scientist, and his arms fell to hang at his sides as he caught his breath. Turning to Finansielle's hologram, he added, "Of course, that wouldn't have been possible without you providing me with Cipher's old research. It expedited my work in fine-tuning the basic ideas by leaps and bounds. Thank you."

"You're most welcome, Colress." Finansielle raised her hand to her mouth, stifling a haughty chuckle. "I want my investments to pay off, of course. If that means I have to dive into the archives to pull up some old, failed research for you to play with, that's what I'll do. Take this as an approval of your project. I'll provide you all the funding you need."

"Much appreciated. I'll make you proud, Lady Finansielle. On that you can bet… then again, you're already betting on me, aren't you?"

Finansielle heartily laughed at Colress's observation, sharing the scientist's reaction with him. "You do have a point, Colress. You do have a point. Anyway… I look forward to your next report on your work. These Pokémon you're creating, more powerful and able to use abnormal moves, even Shadow moves without actually being Shadow Pokémon… they will be important weapons for Polaris as we move forward to implement our goals." Again raising her hand to her lips, this time Finansielle left it covering them so the smirk it covered remained her own secret. "Not to mention they'll be perfect for Dark Matter to feed upon when the Day of Reckoning begins… offerings for the Forbidden Beast..."

Finansielle cut the transmission at that point, having nothing more to say. When her hologram vanished, Colress giggled to himself and turned to Jeunes, who had been waiting off in the darkness the entire time.

"And that is how you sell your projects to the top brass," Colress sneered, pushing his visor up. "How's your little laser light show going?"

"You're lucky Finansielle supports you," Jeunes shot back. "If you weren't under her wing, I guarantee you I could gather enough support from the Sacred Helix to send you where Ghetsis went."

"Oh, don't compare me to that old fool." Colress's tone had switched from excited to flustered nearly instantly, laying bare just how he felt about Jeunes's remark. "He lacked the vision to fulfill his ambitions. He is not someone to be taken lightly, but that ambition leads to nothing but destruction when it's not coupled with vision. I have both."

"Someone like you speaking to a Chromosome in such a way is absolutely unaccept-"

Jeunes and Colress's bickering was interrupted by the sudden sound of an alarm blaring from the latter's mainframe. He turned away from Jeunes and entered a command with the console's keyboard, bringing up a new series of windows to replace the previous ones. These new projections all showed variations of the same thing: Team Rocket infiltrating into the hallways of the Adenosine Base.

"Well, it looks like our friends from Team Rocket have gotten in," he observed, a crooked grin taking over his face. "Get ready, Jeunes."

"Now I'm taking orders from you?" Jeunes growled. "I'm just going along with this to pay them back for what they took from me. Nothing else."

Ignoring the Chromosome's words, Colress threw his hands up and yelled, "Let the games begin!"

-:-

Upon their arrival at the Adenosine Base, the members of Team Rocket split into their assigned units. Jessie, James and Meowth walked slowly but steadily down one of the cold, metallic hallways connecting directly to where they had docked their submarine while Nekou, Ariana, Proton and Petrel peeled off in other directions. The trio were cautious of the possibility that they might run into someone, but their wariness was so single-minded that they failed to take into account the possibility of security cameras, including the one Colress had spotted them through, watching them.

"So we gotta get to that warehouse and pinch all of Polaris's prime Pokémon with the good doctor's gadget," Meowth reminded his partners, gesturing to the vacuum-like device branded with Team Rocket's logo that James had strapped to his back. "We'll get everything, and leave 'em with nothing."

"But to do that, we have to reach the warehouse first," James pointed out. "Dr. Zager said Matori was designed to help us in the field, so she should have the mapping we did."

"You do it," Jessie hissed, tossing their phone to James. "I don't want to talk to her."

Before James could even do anything, Matori suddenly appeared on the phone's screen by herself. "Your obstinance regarding me is reducing your mission efficiency by nine percent. That is according to my current statistical analysis. I recommend you amend this behavior right away."

Jessie sighed and rolled her eyes. "Great, now bob-cut glasses gal is a virus too."

"New analysis," Matori immediately said back, maintaining the cool yet biting demeanor of the woman her programming was based on. "Your efficiency has dropped by fourteen percent."

Jessie growled in irritation, but before she could snipe back at the AI, James interrupted, hoping to stifle the argument before it escalated further. "We don't want that number to go up any more, right? Let's focus on what we're here for." That got Jessie to cross her arms and pout but stop talking. James wordlessly thanked his luck that his gambit worked before asking Matori, "You've got the map of this place?"

"That is correct." With a simple gesture of her hand, Matori brought the Adenosine Base's map up, layering it over her own image. One room, notably more spacious than many of the others, was highlighted with red. "I have taken the liberty of denoting the warehouse's location for you."

"Good, it's not that far away," James noticed, tracing the path back from the warehouse to their current location. "We should be able to reach it without much trouble."

"You can say that again." Giving the iron corridor another quick looking-over as they kept walking, Jessie felt a chill run down her spine. "Guess we should consider ourselves lucky there's nobody here."

"Yeah, but somethin' ain't right about all that." Meowth brought a paw to his mouth and glanced upward in thought. "It's kinda creepin' me out how empty this place is. I expected there to be at least some resistance here, y'know?"

"I hear you on that, pal." James retrieved a small container from his pocket, opened it, and plucked out a blue bean that he then flicked into his mouth.

Unbeknownst to the trio, they were in fact being followed, but not by a human. The key ring Pokémon that had escaped during Colress's revival of the Pixie Plate had been in the hallway when they arrived. Upon spotting the jar of Poké Beans in James's possession, he started floating after them from behind.

"Klefki…" the Pokémon hungrily said, his thoughts overrun by his desire to get some of the beans.

-:-

Up in the sky above the Adenosine Base, Team Rocket's cloaked helicopter had reached its prescribed holding pattern. With its optical camouflage engaged to hide it, its owners were confident Polaris wouldn't be finding it any time soon.

That wasn't the chief worry on the mind of one of its occupants, however. While Pierce manned the controls as the chopper's pilot, Ada sat in the back, busy using her laptop to crack into the base's databanks. She had a live feed of the base's security system running while she worked, and what it was showing had her concerned.

"I'm telling you, there's something wrong here," she fretted to no one in particular, even as she continued typing. "There's one room with a few crewmen in it, and a single person in the central laboratory. Other than that, the place is empty. This couldn't smell more of Magikarp if it tried."

"Allow me to give you some helpful information," the Matori installed on Ada's computer chimed in, appearing on the screen alongside several other windows. "According to publicly available data on the Altru Northstar, it was designed to require only a low number of crew aboard at any one time to operate." Gesturing with her hand, Matori brought one news article in particular to the forefront. "As per this press conference by Angel Corporation president Gabriella Bouchard, much of the work necessary to keep the platform running can be done remotely, from Angel Tower in Viridian City."

"In that case, it makes a certain amount of sense that there's only a barebones crew there now." Ada narrowed her eyes and squinted at her laptop. "Still though… I don't trust it. Their experiments have nothing to do with oil production, so where's the Polaris personnel to run them?"

-:-

Back on the base, Proton and Petrel had gone off in the opposite direction from Jessie, James and Meowth. Their Matori led them down another empty corridor until they reached a particular doorway, which she prompted them to enter.

Behind it, the laboratory where Colress consulted with Finansielle before joining Ghetsis in Ecruteak City awaited them. Petrel wandered over to one of the hexagonal tanks in the center of the lab, while Proton went to investigate the papers and equipment on the tables along the wall.

"What do you think they were usin' this place for?" Petrel wondered to his colleague. He tapped one of his fingers against the glass of the tank, and some bubbles floated up the blue fluid within it. "These things give me a really bad feeling."

"You can say that again. To me, it's shades of a New Island retread." Proton picked up a stack of papers and fanned through them, scanning their contents for anything notable. "Genetic manipulation, Pokérus, it looks like they were doing some twisted things here, and I'm saying th-" Seized by something he'd seen in the documents, Proton froze. The interruption was enough to get Petrel's attention, as well. "Petrel, listen to this. These are logs of experiments under an umbrella they called Project Genesis. It looks like… the compilation of complete genomes into a database and then converting them into data able to be read and edited by a special computer? What is this?"

"Can't say I totally grasp what all of that means, either," Petrel replied, sauntering over to Proton's side and peering over his shoulder at the papers, "but it sounds like it's a level above what we did."

"That's not surprising… we have to put a stop to this."

Proton turned around and surveyed the lab, standing with his fists on his hips. As he looked around, he spotted something he hadn't earlier and stopped to focus on it.

"What is it?" Petrel asked him.

"There," Proton answered, pointing toward a corner of the room. There, near the ceiling, was another security camera. "They must know we're here already, which means the relative quiet is probably a sign they're preparing some kind of ambush."

"Oh, just fantastic." Sighing, Petrel questioned, "what do you think we should do?"

"If you ask me, the best thing to do is dictate the terms of the encounter ourselves. We know they're coming, so whatever they do, we'll be ready. Now…" A smirk crept onto Proton's face as he drew a Poké Ball from his belt. "...let's raise some hell."

"Now you're speaking my language." Petrel took up an Ultra Ball of his own and tossed it into the air, saying, "Raticate, Thunderbolt!"

Instead of throwing his sphere, Proton simply popped it open in his hand. "Pangoro, Dragon Claw!"

The two Pokémon materialized alongside each other, each turning their attention to a different part of the lab. Pangoro stomped forward, pulled his right arm back, and shattered one of the hexagonal tanks with a single mighty swipe of his claws. While the glass shards and blue fluid from the tank rained over the floor around it, Raticate scratched at his fur to spark up electricity. Once he had enough of a charge, he loosed it in the form of a bolt of lighting that raked along the wall, shorting out every electronic device it struck and leaving a trail of singed papers strewn everywhere in its wake.

Before the smoke from the destruction even faded, alarms started going off throughout the base. Proton and Petrel shared satisfied grins before they both glared right into the security camera and gave it a thumbs-up.

Seconds later, the duo's phone started ringing in Proton's pocket. When he answered it, Rosalie's face greeted him. "Proton, Petrel, there are Polaris members elsewhere in the base that appear to be heading your way," she informed them. "Don't worry too much about it, Ada will keep them away from you. Be prepared just in case something goes wrong, but for now, stay put and await your next orders."

-:-

Jessie, James and Meowth had just arrived at the warehouse's entrance when the alarms began blaring. The sound of the sirens prompted them to take a moment and pause before crossing the threshold.

"I hope that means Proton and Petrel are giving us our cover," James speculated to the others.

"Correct," Matori suddenly piped up from the phone in his hand. "I can confirm that Executive Proton and Executive Petrel have reached their target location and begun executing their mission. It is time you started on yours."

"We're working on it!" Jessie yelled at the AI before turning to James. "Put her away. Let's just get this over with already."

"Yeah." The door slid open when James approached it, allowing the trio entrance into the warehouse, where numerous wooden crates awaited them. "X marks the spot, and there's the treasure. We just gotta suck 'em up and they'll be sent right to the helicopter?"

"That's right," Meowth said, crossing his arms and nodding sagely. "The doc said all the heavy liftin' is gonna be done for us with this thing. He really delivered for us this time!"

-:-

With the other units busy on their assignments, Nekou and Ariana stalked the halls leading straight to the heart of the Adenosine Base. Their closeness rendered any potential conversation between them unnecessary before it even happened.

Even as they pressed on toward their target, Nekou remained lost in thought, too caught up in her own memories to maintain full focus on her surroundings. She'd done the same thing with Ariana plenty of times, but her mind fixated squarely on the very first mission they'd taken together.

~:~

Nestled in the mountains of Sinnoh's eastern coast, Veilstone City was one of the region's entertainment capitals, despite its relative isolation. Other cities like Jubilife and Hearthome might have had more day-to-day commerce, but Veilstone stood resolute among its peers in the region. Its high-class department store, opportunities for stargazing and Game Corner all drew plenty of activity. The last destination was why Nekou and Ariana were there, but not for any of the prizes it offered to the public.

The duo blended in well with the crowd of players packing the arcade's slot machines, having traded their uniforms for street clothes. Ariana had helped her grow into them, both physically and mentally, but Nekou's floral-print crop top and jeans were entirely of her own choosing.

"Aah!" Nekou huffed after swallowing a huge gulp from her bottle of Soda Pop. As the fizzy drink made its way down her throat, she capped its container, set it on the small tray on the slot machine's side, and rubbed her hands together. "Time to get back into the game. The coins I need for that TV aren't gonna win themselves!"

"Nekou, don't forget why we're here," Ariana reminded her, poking a finger upward. "We have to see if we spot any suspicious activity relating to that so-called energy company running out of that huge building up on the mountain. Remember, Giovanni said the word on the street is they're collecting payments from this Game Corner."

"Right, right." Settling in her chair, Nekou peeked around the side of her slot machine. Coincidentally enough, right as she looked, two individuals clad in Team Galactic's distinctive spacesuits approached the front desk. "Well speak of the devil, Maman, would you look at that. We got two bowl-cuts right out in the open."

"The people of Veilstone must not even pay attention to them," Ariana surmised. "They know Team Galactic as a legitimate business, so why pay their spacemen any mind? Their members can just walk around openly and nobody notices…"

"I agree with you on th-" Nekou cut herself off when one of the Game Corner's desk staff, who had gone into a back room when the Team Galactic members spoke to him, returned with a second man. This second staffer, who was wearing a suit and tie, carried a large suitcase that he promptly handed over to one of the Galactic agents. "That looks like the actual payment if you ask me."

"Yeah, that's it," Ariana concurred, taking out her phone to surreptitiously snap a picture of the exchange. "Now we've got proof that Team Galactic's taking root in mainstream Sinnohan society."

~:~

"I can't get too caught up in remembering…" To help herself concentrate on what was happening in the moment, Nekou slapped her own face twice. Her action came at exactly the right time, for when she sharpened her focus, she spotted something that neither of them had noticed yet. "Fuck! Maman, wait!"

Ariana's leather boots squeaked against the metal floor as she screeched to a halt, the horrible sound making Nekou cringe. "Wh…" She had to gasp for air before she could speak clearly. "What is it?"

"That." Jabbing her finger forward, Nekou guided Ariana's attention across the corridor. There, at the other end of her accusatory pointing, was an object they both knew all too well - a purple, prismatic dome on the floor. "That's one of Yung's…"

"Well, we already knew he was a Polaris member," Ariana sighed. "Of course he's here too." Taking out her phone, Ariana tapped on the screen to bring up her Matori. "Matori, send a message to all the others. The Adenosine Base is equipped with the Mirage System. Beware of possible ambushes at any time."

-:-

"Blast, we were discovered!" Colress fumed, slamming his fist down on his computer. A mere moment later, however, he turned to Jeunes with a mischievous grin on his face. "Just kidding!"

Behind his mask, Jeunes grit his teeth. "Stop playing games, Colress. You know they're taking their mission seriously, so you have to take yours even more seriously!"

"Oh, but I am. The difference between us and them is… I know our victory is inevitable." Even though he was still carrying himself in his humorous manner, a venomous undercurrent had crept into Colress's speech. Jeunes couldn't be sure if it was directed at him or at Team Rocket, but also was unsure if he even wanted to know. "But since you insist, it is true that the presence of your Mirage System has been noticed. I'd say it's time you got to work and played your role, as we planned."

"I don't need you telling me what to do." Jeunes reached into his cloak, producing a Mirage System controller. "This is all for my revenge."

With that, Jeunes brought his gloved finger down and punched a key on the device, followed by another, and still more after that.

-:-

The dome Nekou spotted emanated a bright light as it powered up, but it wasn't alone. Numerous hatches slid open all along the corridor's walls, allowing still more of the glassy prisms to reveal themselves. They all lit up in near unison, creating a sparkling universe of stars that radiated menace to the pair viewing them, who were all too aware of what their dazzling display meant.

Nekou and Ariana tensed up and reached for their respective Pokémon, anticipating whatever would emerge from the Mirage System. Yet, that expectation went unrealized.

"Nothing's happening…" Nekou said, cocking her head to the side. "The fuck is going on?"

"Nothing's happening here," Ariana guessed, "but this Mirage Field is probably covering the entire base, so the threat could be anywhere…"

-:-

'Anywhere' turned out to be another corridor entirely. The Mirage System generators in its walls put on a magnificent light show, even with nobody around to view it. But it wasn't there solely to look impressive. Bolts of energy burst from the crystalline domes and joined together, and from this union, multiple Mirage Pokémon were given form.

A Magmar and a Kingler were the first to take shape from the light. They were soon joined by a Venomoth and a blue sea turtle whose body was protected by a rugged, nearly-black shell, but it was the fifth and last Mirage Pokémon to appear that stood out the most. A red-eyed, humanoid badger with black-and-white fur, sharp teeth and a long tongue that dangled from its mouth, it stepped forth on muscular legs, spread its arms and roared to assert dominance over the others. The other four, deferring to its powerful will, dutifully followed as it led them away.

-:-

"Ada!" Pierce boomed, looking over his shoulder from the pilot's seat of the helicopter. "Status report."

Ada grimaced at her laptop. Over time, the number of windows filling its screen had only kept on growing, pushing the ones she had been monitoring before to the bottom. "I've pulled a lot of the data off the base's servers. That's the good news… the bad, I'm not liking all the encryption I'm seeing on it. We might get away with all of this data but without an encryption key the real work will be actually looking at it."

"That's fine," Pierce replied. "As long as we get it, we can reverse engineer access to it later. What about the progress on raiding the warehouse?"

"Let me check…" By tapping her keyboard, Ada shuffled the order of the windows, bringing a feed from the helicopter's cargo bay to the forefront. Poké Balls of all different types were appearing there at a brisk pace, dropping into a huge container they'd prepared earlier. "Looks like that's going according to plan, at least… wait, what's that?"

In the course of reordering the windows, Ada had brought the security feeds back up near the surface. She caught movement within one of them from the corner of her eye, spurring her into bringing that window to the forefront. When she saw what it depicted - the Mirage Pokémon running down the hallways of the base - she bit her lip.

"They're sending Mirage Pokémon after us!" she hissed.

Unsurprised by this after learning the Mirage System was present aboard the base, Pierce asked, "Which ones, and where are they going?"

"Magmar, Venomoth, Carracosta, Kingler, and it looks like there's an Obstagoon leading them," Ada rattled off. "As for your second question, they're heading straight for the warehouse, it looks like. Don't worry, I've got this… I've got this."

Ada focused, entering a zen-like state that shut her off from everything else around her. In her zone, she didn't worry about anything that she normally would have fretted over. There was only the job to be done and her determination to complete it. Her fingers flew over the laptop's keyboard with all the grace of a well-trained ballet dancer, and if anyone had looked over her shoulder they would have been blown away by the utter tsunami of information crossing the screen.

At some point, she connected to Jessie, James and Meowth's phone. Meowth was the one who ended up answering, but the instant he appeared on her screen, Ada informed him, "A group of five Mirage Pokémon - Obstagoon, Magmar, Venomoth, Carracosta and Kingler - is heading for your position in the warehouse. Use all Pokémon available to you to repel them until help arrives."

She waited not even a split second for any sort of response from the cat Pokémon, disconnecting from her transmission with him before he could say anything. There was still another call to be made, and she'd have to multitask during it, she knew.

Proton soon appeared on Ada's laptop. While she kept typing away, he questioned, "What is it, Ada? Has something happened?"

"Five Mirage Pokémon were sent after the unit clearing out the Pokémon warehouse," she told him, "so aid from you and Petrel is required."

"We'd be more than happy to head on over there," Petrel chimed in from off-screen, "but what about those guys you said were coming our way?"

"Oh, those people…" Ada finished her work with a final dramatic click on her keyboard, and on the screen, a section of the corridors criss-crossing the Adenosine Base turned red. Within that space, several yellow dots that had been moving down the hall stopped their advance. "You don't have to worry about them. I manipulated the base's security system to lock them down elsewhere. They won't be escaping any time soon, so get over to the warehouse. Your Matori can give you a map to reach it."

"Roger that," Proton affirmed.

-:-

James had been busy vacuuming up Poké Balls from the crates as Jessie and Meowth cracked them open, but after receiving Ada's call, they were the ones releasing Pokémon into the warehouse instead. Goomy, Vivillon, Swoobat, Cofagrigus and Inkay all appeared from the spheres Jessie and James threw out, and were soon joined after their materializing by Wobbuffet and Meowth. Klefki, meanwhile, had followed them all the way back to the warehouse and watched their forces assemble from the shadows in a corner of the room.

"You heard what's coming," Jessie told the group of Pokémon, holding one fist on her hip, "and you know what you gotta do."

"That's right!" Meowth added, turning to the others around him. "There's help coming, so we haf'ta hold 'em off 'til that help gets here!"

Most of the other Pokémon responded with cries of agreement, but not Goomy. The Dragon-type slithered right over to Meowth and bit down on his head from behind, infuriating him.

"C'mon, you, stop it!" Meowth fumed as he flailed about, trying in vain to remove Goomy from his perch. "Wobbuffet, help me!"

Meowth couldn't see him, but Wobbuffet had actually already made his way over to try and help out. Every time he tried to grasp Goomy, though, his arms just sank into the soft tissue of Goomy's body. "Wob!" he exclaimed in frustration.

"Come on, you guys, get it together!" James urged them. "Those Mirage Pokémon are going to get here any minute, and we need to finish collecting all these Poké Balls. It's up to you guys to buy us time."

James's words proved to be prescient, for just then, the door to the warehouse slid open. There, standing just beyond the threshold and panting with its tongue lolling from its mouth, was the Mirage Obstagoon. The Mirage Venomoth could be glimpsed flitting around behind it.

"That's it!" Jessie shouted, pointing at the artificial creatures. "Go after them!"

The sight of his foes was all the motivation Goomy needed to release Meowth. He leaped off and slid across the metal floor at surprising speed, squealing in an attempted display of toughness that only came off to the others as cute.

"Wait for us, you!" Meowth cried after him, running to catch up alongside Wobbuffet and their other allies.

Many Pokémon would have at least harbored some concern about facing seven opponents coming at them all at once, but not the Mirage Obstagoon. It not only had no intention of retreating, but welcomed their mass offensive. Luring adversaries into attacking first was part of its species' nature, after all, and the Mirage System was absolute in recreating the data it contained.

The Obstagoon crossed its arms and unleashed a terrible, ear-splitting scream that echoed inside the enclosed space of the warehouse. Jessie and James fell to their knees and covered their ears, but as much as the noise hurt Meowth and the other Pokémon, they managed to weather it.

"Don't any of you give up just 'cause of a little racket!" Meowth shouted over Obstagoon to rally the others. "Take 'em down!"

Energized by their ringleader's words, the Pokémon all yelled back at their chief antagonist as they piled into the doorway and up against the Obstagoon's obstruction. Their combined strength overwhelmed even the Dark-and-Normal-type's defensive stance, sending them all spilling back out into the hallway.

When the door slid shut again, Jessie turned to James and asked him, "You think they're gonna be okay out there?"

"Yeah. You saw how they just pushed down that Obstagoon's Obstruct… not an easy feat, for sure. All they have to do is hang on until our backup gets here. They'll be fine."

"Makes sense." Shrugging, Jessie then said, "Now, back to work on taking those Poké Balls!"

-:-

Out in the corridor, the situation between Team Rocket's Pokémon and the battalion of Mirage Pokémon devolved into an all-out brawl. The Mirage Magmar and Mirage Kingler were there as soon as the attackers piled on top of the Mirage Obstagoon pushed it down, using Fire Punch and Crabhammer to swat Vivillon and Inkay away. A Shadow Ball from the Mirage Venomoth promptly followed, knocking Cofagrigus back. At that point, enough of the resistant pressure on the Mirage Obstagoon had been alleviated for it to snarl and spring back up, scattering the others.

"Ah…" Meowth panted as he recovered from being thrown. He had little time to rest, however, as he spotted the Mirage Carracosta shooting in his and Swoobat's direction. "Wobbuffet, c'mere and help us!"

Meowth didn't have to demand Wobbuffet's aid more than once, as the Psychic-type Pokémon leapt to action upon being called for. He jumped between his allies and the Mirage Carracosta, raised his tail up, and gave off a faint orange aura. When Carracosta collided with him, he initially began to crumple at his middle, but while he did feel the impact of its Waterfall, his actions were a trap. He bolted back upright, using Counter to turn Carracosta's strength against it. In an instant, what had seemed like a solid blow on Wobbuffet instead flung Carracosta down the hallway, splashing the water that had been surrounding it everywhere. Venomoth swooped behind him merely two short seconds later, however, and ambushed him with a Bullet Seed to the back.

"Go knock that moth outta the sky, Swoobat!" Meowth commanded his ally. As he did, Magmar popped up next to him with tongues of fire already licking at its lips. "Aah!"

Luckily for him, Jessie's Vivillon saw what was about to happen. Twisting past Swoobat and Venomoth as they struggled, the Bug-and-Flying-type fluttered his blue-and-white wings to scatter a glistening red dust across Magmar's body. Vivillon's Powder reacted with the flames that left Magmar's mouth, the combination triggering an explosion that threw Magmar into the wall before he ever had a chance to attack Meowth.

Meanwhile, Goomy, Cofagrigus and Inkay aligned themselves together to face Kingler and Obstagoon. James's gold-bodied casket, floating several feet off the floor, conjured a number of blue fireballs he then cast down on the pair of Mirage Pokémon. Kingler and Obstagoon split from each other to avoid the flares, but Inkay and Goomy had already anticipated such a move and readied themselves to counter it. The latter coughed up a thick wad of purple sludge that washed over Kingler, leaving the Mirage Pokémon's luminous form dripping with the viscous toxins, while Inkay simply shot forward and headbutted Obstagoon in the chest. As the Dark-and-Psychic-type floated back in the aftermath, the red aura emanating from her body merged back into her, building up her physical strength.

Crossing its arms, Obstagoon barked an order at Kingler, overriding the crab's preoccupation with ridding itself of the remnants of Goomy's Sludge Bomb. Still dripping with slime, Kingler skittered straight into Goomy's space and raised its large left pincer, which in turn began radiating a freezing cold energy like an open refrigerator. Recognizing the danger Ice Punch posed, Goomy tried to escape by flattening himself against the floor and slithering beneath Kingler, only to find his route blocked by Obstagoon using Obstruct. He stopped dead in his tracks, still well within Kingler's reach but unable to figure out where to go. Inkay tried desperately to rescue him by shooting a Thunderbolt at Kingler, only for the crab to expend little effort in weathering the attack despite its ostensible weakness to the electricity. Once the bolt waned, Kingler finished what it started, swatting Goomy away with a single swipe that made him hit the warehouse door before slinking to the ground.

Obstagoon tried to pursue Goomy and finish him off, only for Cofagrigus to cut its advance off with a Will-O-Wisp. This bought Goomy time to restore himself to his usual shape, but even then, the injury Kingler inflicted on him was significant. With shaky, slightly blurring vision, he glared daggers at all of his team's antagonists, but the bulk of his hatred was trained squarely on the crustacean that had caused him so much pain.

All of a sudden, Goomy felt an unexpected energy surge through every cell of his being. He wanted to run, to leap, to push his miniscule, slimy body to limits inconceivable for a slug of such slight stature to even entertain. It drove him to cry out at those who so angered him, trying desperately to perform the sort of intimidating display he'd seen so many other Pokémon do effortlessly.

That was the point where bright light burst from his body, flooding the corridor with its glow. Meowth and the other Pokémon fighting on Team Rocket's behalf turned around to regard the event in surprise, but the soulless Mirage Pokémon saw this pause as nothing more than an opening to be exploited. Obstagoon crossed its arms and extended its claws in preparation for an X-Scissor, and ordered Magmar and a recovering Carracosta to his side with a vicious snarl. Together, the three Mirage Pokémon barreled directly toward their nemeses, ready to charge straight through the throng and finish Goomy off, Magmar and Carracosta with their arms pulled back and ready to supplement Obstagoon's X-Scissor with Dragon Claw and Ice Hammer, respectively.

Obstagoon's call to its partners, however, also alerted their targets to their approach. Jabbing his finger forward, Meowth shouted, "Give us a shield! It don't matter which of you does it!"

Ultimately, it was Cofagrigus, Vivillon and Swoobat that rose to the moment. Swoobat acted first, sweeping the ground in front of the advancing trio with a Charge Beam before squeaking to signal the others. Cofagrigus and Vivillon, after quickly voicing their acknowledgement to Swoobat, worked to hold the three Mirage Pokémon back via Cofagrigus's flicking Shadow Balls down on them from his four ethereal hands while Vivillon assaulted their ears with the racket her Bug Buzz generated.

Their resistance bought enough time for the light to fade, but it wasn't Goomy that emerged from the glow. No longer the tiny, nearly shapeless slug he once was, evolution brought him the form of a purple snail with green eyes, four antennae on his head, and a spiral shell made of the same slime as the rest of his body on his back. Reborn as a Sliggoo, he raised his nubby arms up as far as they would go and cried out, but what started as an attempted show of power almost instantly became a wail of fear and despair as a single realization dawned on him.

His new, featureless green eyes didn't actually work. His evolution had completely robbed him of his sight.

Sliggoo could still sense the other Pokémon around him, but without the ability to see them, he was in such a panic that he couldn't even try to discern friend from foe. All he could do was helplessly flail his arms as the sounds of the clash around him assaulted his hearing. He had no idea that Cofagrigus, Vivillon and Swoobat were still holding Obstagoon, Magmar and Carracosta back, so for all he knew, he was still wide open to a devastating beating.

Right when he was ready to give up hope, he felt a familiar paw touch him on the back.

"What's buggin' you now?" Sliggoo answered Meowth's question with frantic chattering, and Meowth nodded along as he listened. Meanwhile, Kingler and Venomoth added to Obstagoon's offense with Aqua Jet and Strength, respectively, forcing Inkay and Wobbuffet to jump in and augment the resistance against them. "You're sayin' you can't see no more? You wanna fight but you're afraid? Don't worry, pal, I'll give you a helpin' hand." More chattering, this time accompanied by Sliggoo tilting his head inquisitively. "C'mon, all that head bitin' is in the past. Pokémon like you and me, we gotta stick together. I ain't gonna hold it against ya unless you start chompin' on me again, ya hear?"

Sliggoo smirked and voiced his acceptance of Meowth's help, feeling calmer and more upbeat once again. Returning the Dragon-type's expression, Meowth took hold of his head from both sides and pointed it toward the chaotic scene unfolding nearby.

"Back off, all of you! Let 'em through!" he shrieked to the others. That demand caught them off guard, but most of them knew Meowth well enough to trust that he wouldn't have made it without a plan. They peeled off from the cluster one-by-one, Inkay and Vivillon initially hesitating thanks to having less experience with Meowth than the others.

The Mirage Pokémon not only had no idea that they were being led into a trap as they charged through the opening, but they couldn't have even begun to fathom the concept. Yung had developed the Mirage System as a weapon designed to create artificial Pokémon as battling machines, and while it could simulate strategic decisions in battle, there was a certain something missing from the creatures it generated, a level of real intelligence the Mirage Pokémon just couldn't mimic. That flaw in the system left them completely oblivious to the danger they were walking right into.

"Alright, Sliggoo, give 'em everything you got!" Meowth exclaimed. "Draco Meteor, straight ahead!"

With Meowth's assistance in aiming, Sliggoo felt no reluctance in lashing out at their foes. A sphere of orange light formed inside his open mouth, and over the next few seconds, its radiance steadily intensified. The Mirage Pokémon, by that point, had gotten so close to him that they no longer had any chance of escaping what was to come. Once Sliggoo had gathered enough energy, the ball of light cracked apart, and he launched a swarm of glowing meteors into the faces of the Mirage Pokémon. His projectiles exploded on contact with their targets, pushing himself and Meowth back against the warehouse door but also hurled the group of Mirage Pokémon down the hall and into a heap.

Obstagoon, Magmar, Kingler and Carracosta all jumped back up before long, but Venomoth met a different fate. Unable to take any more damage even with the stronger constitution granted to it by the Mirage System, Venomoth dissolved into a cloud of shimmering hexagons that returned to the crystalline generators in the walls.

As far as the four remaining Mirage Pokémon cared, their destroyed teammate never existed. They fanned out to form a complete blockade of the corridor, then advanced on their cornered enemies with fangs and claws bared.

"Raticate, Flame Wheel!"

Right when Meowth and his other Team Rocket allies started to fear the worst, Petrel's Raticate came crashing through the Mirage Pokémon and their offensive line, curled into a ball and cloaked in fire. At first, Obstagoon stumbled, but it recovered and screamed in rage before lunging at Raticate with a Cross Chop attack at the ready. Before it could strike, though, its arms were seized and restrained from behind by a bevy of bandages. Turning back to see the source of its binding, it discovered Proton and Petrel standing behind it. Proton's Dusclops stood at their side, having cast the bandages from her hand.

"You guys got here just in time!" Meowth shouted to them after sighing in relief. "Help us finish 'em off!"

"With pleasure." As he drew another Poké Ball from his belt, Proton licked his lips, relishing his imagination of what he planned to do. He wound up and threw his Poké Ball over the heads of the Mirage Pokémon. Pangoro burst out of the sphere in midair and crashed down to the ground, shaking the floor with his great weight.

Once Pangoro got a look at the restrained Obstagoon in front of him, he swiftly came to share his trainer's enthusiasm for what he would get to do. It mattered not that Obstagoon was a Mirage Pokémon, a mere projection of data with no actual soul. The longing for battle with any and every Obstagoon was written into his DNA as a Pangoro, and he barely needed Proton's order to act.

"Pangoro, Circle Throw!"

Growling in a way that echoed the sentiment his trainer expressed to Meowth - 'with pleasure' - Pangoro seized Obstagoon in his powerful paws and rolled over backward, flinging Obstagoon over his head. The Dark-and-Normal-type Pokémon smashed into the wall with such force that the metal buckled, leaving an Obstagoon-shaped indentation punched into the steel.

For all its swagger and the vicious way it battled, once Pangoro got a hold of it Obstagoon stood no chance. Much like Venomoth before it, Obstagoon disintegrated back into the crystals that had given it life.

If the remaining Mirage Pokémon had souls they might have panicked and fled once their leader was gone. Their lack of such instead led the surviving trio to lash out at Proton and Petrel instead of their original targets. Magmar spit a torrent of fire, Kingler a swarm of bubbles, and Carracosta a highly pressurized jet of water. Yet for all the power the Mirage Pokémon and their Flamethrower, Bubble Beam and Hydro Pump held, the two Team Rocket executives remained unfazed by them.

Shrugging his shoulders and slouching, Proton nonchalantly asked Petrel, "Wanna give me a hand with this?"

"You betcha," Petrel replied, cracking a wry smile. Popping an Ultra Ball open in his hand to call forth his Girafarig, he said, "Girafarig, Raticate, give 'em a taste of your twin Thunderbolt!"

"Dusclops, Rock Tomb!" Proton bellowed, punching the air with his right fist. "Pangoro, Sludge Bomb!"

Girafarig struck the floor with her foot to build up electricity, and Raticate pursued the same goal via rubbing his fur. While they did that, Dusclops tottered forth and opened her hands with her palms facing the three Mirage Pokémon. A bevy of stones materialized around her, and when her eye flashed, they launched through the air and landed around the trio in such a way that the stones impeded their movement and cut off their attacks.

Once the Mirage Pokémon got blocked in, Raticate and Girafarig sent bolts of electricity arcing from their bodies into their enemies. Pangoro added to their offense by coughing up Sludge Bombs one after another, splattering poison across the Mirage Pokémon even as they kept getting shocked.

On the other end of the hallway, Meowth rallied his teammates, saying, "C'mon, all of you! You give it to 'em from this side too!"

The other Pokémon fighting for Team Rocket's cause promptly jumped to action, readying their attacks en masse. Cofagrigus's Shadow Ball, Inkay's Thunderbolt, Swoobat's Air Slash, Vivillon's Bug Buzz, Sliggoo's Draco Meteor - all barraged the already-pinned Mirage Pokémon from the back while they continued to take punishment from the front as well. The turmoil in the corridor kept growing and growing, a chaotic show of light and noise, until all the conflicting energies finally detonated and flooded the hall with thick, acrid smoke.

Those in the corridor could do little else but choke on the fumes. Luckily, a long line of vents lining the ceiling above them gave the smoke a way out, allowing the air to clear just as fast as it had become tainted. The last traces of the final Mirage Pokémon faded away along with the clouds, leaving Team Rocket's forces alone as the decisive victors in the fight.

Just then, the warehouse door slid open, and Jessie and James stepped out. Adjusting the vacuum strapped to his back, James asked Meowth, "You got rid of them all, old friend?"

"Just like you guys asked," Meowth proudly replied, placing a paw on his chin. "We tore up every single one of 'em!"

"C'mon, you couldn't have done it without our help," Petrel sarcastically joked as he and Proton joined the trio. "Give us credit where it's due."

"You executives already get everything you could ever want," Jessie countered, "let us have this one."

Proton irritably sighed and ran his hand across his forehead. "I don't have the patience for this squabbling right now. Did you complete your mission?"

"Just who do you think we are?" Jessie shut her eyes and shrugged. "Every single one of those Pokémon is aboard the chopper now. You haven't got a thing to worry about."

"I will take your word for it… loath as I am to say so." While Jessie and James scowled at his scorn of them, Proton retrieved his phone from his back pocket and activated its Matori. "Contact Pierce and Ada."

"Right away, Executive Proton."

Matori disappeared, with a splash of Team Rocket's logo punctuating the transition to Pierce's image replacing her.

"Proton, give me your status report," he requested.

"I've confirmed that all the Pokémon contained at the warehouse have been transported to you." Proton glanced over at Jessie, James and Meowth, who were paying no attention to him, and narrowed his eyes. Instead of remaining focused on the mission they and the other Pokémon were snacking on the Poké Beans James brought with him. "Somehow, it all worked out."

"Very good. Your business in that facility is at an end, then." Pierce's gloves made a crunching sound as he tightened his grip on the controls in front of him. "Yet, Team Rocket's business here as a whole is not complete. Proton, I want you and Petrel to get outside and join us here aboard the helicopter, while Jessie, James and Meowth go back to the submarine. Have them return to Olivine City now, and we'll wait to pick up Ariana and Nekou."

"Got it." Lowering his phone, Proton asked the others, "You all heard that, right?"

"We've got ears," Jessie mumbled under her breath. Proton could just barely hear her, and he shot her an irritated glance but said nothing. "Let's just get out of here. This place is miserable."

"Not to mention we should leave before Polaris decides to attack us again," James reasoned. "We beat back that first wave of Mirage Pokémon, but who knows what they'll send ne-"

As he was talking to his teammates, James had moved to put away the container of Poké Beans. He was interrupted mid-sentence by a tugging on his arm, and when he looked down, he discovered Klefki pulling on his sleeve.

"Oh, who might you be?"

"That's a Klefki…" Petrel pointed out.

Leaping to attention, Meowth flashed his claws and shrieked, "A Mirage Pokémon?!"

"No, I don't think so…" Taking note of Klefki's increasingly pleading vocalizations, James concluded, "This one's real, I can tell. So what's your story?"

Releasing his grip on James's sleeve, Klefki started chattering. He punctuated his communication by waving his thin arms around while carefully avoiding dropping any of the keys he held.

Meowth, having calmed down from his initial suspicions of the Steel-and-Fairy-type, translated his speech for the others. "This guy here is sayin' he was bein' kept prisoner by Polaris here, but he managed to get loose and escape. Since then he's been wanderin' around looking for a way to get outta this base, and when he saw us he decided to try followin' us."

"I see… does that mean you want to come with us, Klefki?" James held out an empty Poké Ball with his free hand, but instead of going toward it, Klefki went for the Poké Beans again. "That's why you followed us? Because you saw my Poké Beans?"

Finally losing his patience and abandoning all pretext, Klefki snatched the container from James and helped himself to its contents. Jessie, Meowth and Petrel couldn't help but laugh at the situation, but Proton saw something else unusual. After a careful examination of Klefki's keys, he approached the Pokémon and pointed to one particular object on the ring.

"What is this?" he asked the others. Unlike the other keys Klefki carried, which were all easily recognizable as keys, it was a small stick-like device with a Polaris emblem on it. "Because I know what I think it is. A data drive from this facility."

"Wanna call it in?" Petrel suggested.

"Yeah, we should." Fetching his phone again, Proton bypassed its Matori and instead contacted the helicopter directly. Ada appeared on its screen and Proton said to her, "Ada, get a look at what we just came across."

Proton angled the device in such a way that its rear-facing camera gave Ada a clear view of Klefki. She didn't see the drive on his ring at first, but when she squinted and spotted it, she jumped up so suddenly that she nearly dropped her laptop. "Proton, do you realize what that is?!" she exclaimed, losing her usual composure. "Do you?"

"I just got done telling them what it probably is…"

"Well, I don't know what you said to them, but there's no doubt in my mind what it is." In her excitement, Ada was talking so fast that her audience had to put in extra effort just to understand her. "It's definitely a Polaris data drive, but it's who's carrying that's got me interested. Klefki only steals keys, you know? But there's more than that… there are reports that Klefki prefers master keys when it can get them. Do you know where that one got that drive?"

"Lemme ask," Meowth piped up. "Hey, Ringo, where'd you grab that weird computer key from, huh?"

When Klefki realized Meowth was talking to him, he tossed the container of Poké Beans back to James and launched into a lengthy, animated explanation. Meowth nodded along with it as he listened, but all the humans around him could do was watch and wait for his translation.

Finally, he turned back around to face Proton and Ada, and the others leaned in to hear what he had to say. "Klefki says he grabbed that drive after he broke outta Polaris's clutches. He was tryin' to find a way outta this base, but he couldn't, so he followed that Colress guy around hoping to find an exit. The drive belongs to Colress, and when he left it behind at one point, Klefki snatched it for himself."

"Then I'm certain about what that drive probably contains," Ada concluded, sitting back down. "More likely than not, that has the encryption key for the facility's databases on it… it's the key that will allow us to crack open all the data I downloaded. You must bring it back, there is no other choice. If I can get it to Dr. Zager, we'll be able to blow this whole thing wide open."

"Well, there you have it, then." Offering Klefki the Poké Ball again, James said to him, "Come with us and you can have all the Poké Beans you ever want, on top of revenge on Polaris. What do you say?"

There was no hesitation on Klefki's part, not once he heard the clear promises James offered him. He touched the Poké Ball's button with the key-shaped horn on his head, allowing the sphere to open and pull him inside.

-:-

Meanwhile, as the other units made their way out, Nekou and Ariana pressed onward toward the heart of the Adenosine Base. Their path remained unobstructed the entire time, unlike those of their associates, and that fact had not escaped their notice.

"Maman, don't you think this whole situation smells?" Nekou questioned, scrunching her face. "Like, where is everyone? Did they really send their entire crew after Proton and Petrel?"

"Something's definitely up, but as Ada said, there's only one person in the main lab. Who do you think that is?"

Nekou covered her mouth with her hand as she pondered the question. "In the main lab of their biggest facility… obviously a scientist, and probably one with some real weight to throw around in their hierarchy. It's not gonna be Father, that's for fucking sure. They'd never make it that easy. Could be Getriebe, but I'm not really leaning towards that either… I think the best odds are that it's either Jeunes or Colress."

"That's exactly what I was thinking," Ariana agreed, "but think about who those two are. Just… think. I know you'll get it."

"Jeunes, a.k.a. Dr. Yung, and Dr. Colress Antimony…" Suddenly realizing the point Ariana was trying to make, Nekou struck her left palm with her right fist and exclaimed, "No matter which one it is, it's a real salaud out for revenge on Team Rocket!"

"That's right," the redheaded executive said. "Whichever one of them it is, they're someone spoiling for a fight with us. They want a fight and they don't want anyone else interfering… so they used Mirage Pokémon and other crewmen aboard this rig to hold back the others and ensure a face-to-face with the highest ranked member on this mission. Me."

"You'll fuck them up, Maman. You always do." Nekou's outward confidence masked a swelling feeling of dread she hid in her heart, however. The worries over Ariana's illness, the fears she'd harbored ever since Ecruteak, wouldn't leave her. They made everything feel empty, as if what they were living then and there in the Adenosine Base was a fantasy. Like a fairy tale one could lose themselves in while reading only to be snapped back to the ugliness of reality once it was over. Nekou's eyes shimmered with a thin layer of water as she thought about this, and for once, she was glad Ariana had her back to her.

"And even if I can't," Ariana unwittingly interrupted Nekou's thoughts, "I've got you with me, and we always have pulled off anything we work together on, haven't we?"

"Yeah… yeah, we have." It wasn't lost on Nekou that Ariana had chosen to repeat her own words back to her. Yet, she couldn't help but think back to that first mission, to spy on Team Galactic in Veilstone City, again.

~:~

Having documented Team Galactic's exchange at the Game Corner, Ariana and Nekou retreated to their base of operations in a motel on the city's southern outskirts. They clustered around a laptop on a small table in their room, connected via video call to Giovanni at Team Rocket's headquarters.

"I see the rumors were true," he said to the pair, reviewing the photographs they'd sent him. "This secret organization, posing as an energy corporation, is conducting business with what would appear to be legitimate operations. Whether those businesses are unrelated to this Team Galactic or just more corrupt fronts must be determined." Leaning forward on his desk, he ordered, "Continue observing their actions and report back to me what you find."

"As you wish, Giovanni," Ariana acceded. "We will move to the Veilstone Department Store tomorrow."

"Very well. I expect promising results from you two. Transmission out."

As soon as Giovanni disappeared from the screen, Ariana stood and turned on a nearby lamp, casting some light into the otherwise dim confines of the room. Nekou, meanwhile, sighed and closed the laptop before sprawling herself across the table.

"Thanks for giving me a night off, Maman…"

"You're welcome," Ariana said with a smile, "but it's not just a night off, it's a celebration."

"A celebration?" Nekou sat up and tilted her head. "Of what?"

"We had an easy job today, but you still handled yourself well. I see a bright future ahead of you and I think that deserves a little celebration."

Frowning, Nekou protested, "All we did was take pictures…"

"That may be so, but consider everything you've been through. You worked hard to get here, to be able to come out and help me do something in the field." Ariana took hold of Nekou's shoulders and urged her, "Let yourself feel good about something you did for a change and worry about the details later. That's all you can really do in life."

Nekou's eyes widened behind her oval-frame glasses as Ariana's words sank into her mind. It was certainly true that she'd been through a lot, but someone praising her, especially someone she trusted and thought highly of? Such an idea was, at that time, completely foreign to her. Praise from someone important was something other people got. What about her? All she knew was that when she worried about herself, it only led to a chain reaction of disasters that ultimately ended with her isolated in the tank for what felt like ages. And that was what she felt she deserved. Not the sort of kindness Ariana was showing her.

Just as she worked through her shock to voice her gratitude, however, there was a knock on the entrance of their room. "Ah, it's here just in time," Ariana said, gesturing for Nekou to stay at the table while she made her way to the door and opened it.

"Delivery for Clefairy Motel, room 41?" Nekou could hear a male voice asking from outside.

"Right, that's us," Ariana replied, handing a fistful of bills to the individual and taking something else from him in exchange. Just like how she couldn't see the deliveryman, Nekou couldn't see what Ariana had in her hands until she pivoted and shut the door with her foot.

Not one, not two, but three boxes of pizza. Nekou's face brightened at the sight, but she checked her enthusiasm before it could grow too much.

"Isn't that too much just for the two of us?" she asked, shrinking back into the chair.

"I got this much because I want you to enjoy as much as you feel like," Ariana explained as she put the boxes down on the table. "A girl's gotta take care of herself. Have as much as you want."

Nekou opened one of the boxes, but remained hesitant to let herself indulge on the food within. The vivid smells of the Moomoo Cheese and Tamato Berries baked into it teased and tempted her senses. "A-are you sure about this?" she stammered.

"Of course I am." Ariana smiled even more broadly. "Listen, Nekou. Let yourself enjoy things. There's so much ugliness in the world that dealing with it all can take a toll. When you find something you get pleasure from, hold on to it. Don't let anyone or anything take that from you."

Unable to find anything more she could say, Nekou finally allowed herself to fetch a piece of pizza from the box. She hesitatingly brought it to her mouth and bit it, and the last remnants of her reluctance were demolished by how it tasted. The spiciness of the Tamato Berry sauce was laced with the subtle sweet-and-sour flavor of shaved Grepa Berries, delighting her enough that she put her free hand on her cheek and grinned as she chewed.

"There you go!" Ariana beamed. "This is how you gotta get through this world. Find the good and don't ever let it go. Just enjoy yoursel-"

Ariana couldn't finish her sentence. A sudden coughing fit that overcame her saw to that, and the mood in the room changed immediately.

Nekou gulped down the bite of pizza in her mouth before she had even finished chewing it and desperately asked, "Maman, what's wrong?"

"Don't worry yourself about it…" When Ariana moved her hand away from her mouth, there was a small amount of blood on it. "I just need to excuse myself for a second. Don't worry."

"But you aren't okay…" Nekou objected.

"Hush. I'll be fine. You just worry about yourself tonight. It's for you, after all."

With that, Ariana walked away and entered the adjacent bathroom, leaving Nekou on her own.

~:~

"Maman…?"

"What is it?" Even as she acknowledged Nekou, Ariana didn't stop leading her down the Adenosine Base's hallway. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I think so…" Nekou was lying and she knew it. The one thing she wasn't sure of was if Ariana could tell. "I just wanted to ask, when we're done here, can we cut loose and celebrate a little?"

"I don't see why not. Got something in mind?"

Much to Nekou's frustration, Ariana's speech still gave no signs of whether or not she recognized her adoptive daughter's dishonesty. "Yeah, I do actually." Forcing her fears back down, Nekou tried to instead think about the things she wanted to enjoy. "When we get back to Olivine, let's order from Olivine Café. I could use a fucking huge bowl of noodles right about now."

"That does sound good," Ariana wistfully said. "Tell you what, when this is done you'll get as many bowls as you want..."

Focusing only on Ariana's words and not how they sounded, Nekou thought, "Fuck yeah, you bet that sounds good…"

"...but we have one thing left to do first," the executive finished, stopping at a doorway placed at the intersection of the hallway they'd traversed and two others. Nekou had been walking so closely behind her that she bumped into Ariana's back before snapping out of her daze.

"Is this it, Maman?"

"Absolutely." Ariana readied a Poké Ball in her hand, but before opening it, she asked, "Nekou, are you ready for whatever's on the other side of this door?"

If she was going to be honest, Nekou would have answered 'no' without hesitation. The feeling of dread whose seed had taken root back on the submarine and grown all throughout their time navigating the Adenosine Base told her something terrible was about to happen. "But we always rip up everything in our way. That's how it's always been," she told herself. The fear in her heart was having none of that, though, and refused to yield no matter how much she tried to fight it back. For all her strength, that fear was one obstacle she couldn't just overwhelm with will and force.

Finally, she decided to simply lie and said with a shrug, "Yeah, let's do it."

Ariana still gave no indication of whether or not she realized Nekou's falsehoods. She instead popped open the sphere in her hand to summon her Arbok and commanded, "Arbok, smash that door with Poison Tail!"

Arbok complied with a hiss, pulling his tail back and coating it with purple venom before stabbing it into the doors. Despite being made of a sturdy material, they were too thin to endure the strike and crumpled under its force.

With the way forward now open, Ariana recalled Arbok and led Nekou past the pulverized, sparking panels and into the suffocating darkness of the laboratory beyond. Nekou was running on autopilot at that point, following Ariana without thinking about her actions at all. By the time she actually took stock of her surroundings again, they were already deep into the oppressive atmosphere of the central facility. She briefly glanced back over her shoulder only to see that the exit already appeared to be a mile away.

"Well, well, well, what kind of host would I be if I didn't welcome my guests?" Colress greeted them, turning away from his computer console. His mainframe was the only thing in the lab giving off light, and it cast a sinister, almost demonic glow around the scientist. Turning his palms up, Colress added, "I'll extend that sentiment to the rest of Team Rocket, too, but you pair are the guests of honor today. I've been waiting for a chance to get even for what you did to me in Unova, Miss Hammond… or should I say Nekou Lalume? That's right, I know who you are. I know a lot of things now."

"So you were watching us all along, and let the others go so you could get face-to-face with us…" Nekou clenched her teeth and hissed, "We were fucking right. You were toying with us all along."

"Now, now," Colress scolded her with a wave of his finger, "didn't your mother teach you not to be a hypocrite?"

"Oh now you crossed a fucking line!"

"What are you going to do, pull out that little knife of yours and try to slice me up like how you went after the Shadow Triad?" he sneered.

While Colress mocked Nekou, his Klinklang emerged from behind him. "You aren't dealing with someone like Ghetsis anymore, and I'm not afraid of you. Come here and take your best shot, if you dare."

"With pleasure."

Nekou reached into her coat to retrieve her switchblade, but before she could reach it, Ariana intervened by sending out a Magcargo opposite Klinklang.

"Don't let him get into your head," she whispered to Nekou, making sure to cover her mouth so Colress couldn't read her lips. "Remember why we're here. One of us has to get to that computer and install the beacon to throw the kill switch on this entire base."

"Right…" Nekou took several deep breaths to try and push back her anger.

"So you're going to try your luck first? How amusing!" Running his left hand across the screen on his right sleeve, Colress taunted Ariana, "The data from this ought to be quite useful. Let's see what you've got. Wild Charge!"

"Weather it, Magcargo," Ariana countered, "then use Shell Smash!"

Colress's Klinklang bore down on Magcargo with electricity shooting all over from its body, but the Fire-and-Rock-type snail held firm against its blitz. While they clashed, Nekou carefully scoped out the laboratory, searching for any sort of opening that she could exploit to get closer to the computer. The circular shape of the laboratory offered multiple potential paths that would lead right to it, but aside from the console itself there was little else in the room she could use as cover.

"Fuck… no matter what I do, he'll see me coming…" she thought. "They must bring the equipment necessary in here as needed. Maman, you'll have to draw him away from there…"

By that point, Magcargo had managed to repel Klinklang. Waves of light surged through her shell, and she deliberately shattered it so her strength and agility could spike.

"Hee… excellent work, Magcargo." Ariana held her hip and smirked. "Now follow things up with Heat Wave!"

Magcargo stretched her body out and blew a blistering wind from every inch of the magma that gave her form. The gale washed over Klinklang and seared its steel gears, but even Ariana didn't expect Heat Wave to be potent enough to knock Klinklang out in a single blow.

"Huh?" she said out loud, confused. "That was the mighty Klinklang that won the Battle Hall tournament?"

Colress took out a Poké Ball, recalled Klinklang, and returned the sphere to his pocket before saying a thing. When he did, though, it was a crazed laugh that reverberated throughout the lab and deep into Nekou's bones. "It's adorable you think you're winning! You know why? Everything that's happened here today has played out perfectly how we planned it! Perfectly! Sure, we could have gone harder to try and stop you, but it was all to get you to let down your guard… and come here."

In that moment aboard the Adenosine Base, Nekou felt as if all her fears were finally about to come true, and she found herself truly unable to figure out what she could do to help.

A sudden glimpse of light from the darkness of the lab's perimeter alerted both Ariana and Nekou to the reality that things weren't as seemed, but neither could react to it in time. A blast of water shot from the murk and consumed Magcargo, rendering her unconscious as easily as Klinklang had been.

"That's just the beginning of your lesson," Jeunes warned the horrified pair of Team Rocket agents as he stepped out of the shadows. A new Mirage Mewtwo stood at his side, its left arm morphed into the shape of a Blastoise's cannon. "Many more are about to come."

"Both of them are here?!" Nekou screeched. "But Ada's analysis only showed one!"

"I don't understand it either…" Ariana muttered, having recalled her fainted Magcargo. She moved toward another of her Poké Balls, but froze when Mewtwo pointed its cannon arm directly at her.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the Chromosome admonished her. "You're not going anywhere. Yet."

"What's that supposed to mean, Yung?"

"So you clearly do remember me." Ignoring Ariana's question aside from her mention of his name, Jeunes reached up and removed his mask, revealing his scarred face. "Unfortunately for you, you have no grounds to ask me questions right now."

"Oh dear," Colress interjected, clapping his hands. "You exposed your identity again? You'll be suspended from the Sacred Helix again for this!"

"Stay out of this!" Yung sniped back. "You were adamant about following the plan, so don't get involved. This is my turn."

"Of course, of course!" Colress's biting, sarcastic cheerfulness angered Yung further, but the creator of the Mirage Pokémon knew the time wasn't right to act on it. That awareness only emboldened Colress to mock him even more. "I won't tell Finansielle or anyone else you did it!"

"That would be a wise decision on your part." Directing his attention back to Ariana and Nekou, he demanded, "Ariana, do you remember the day we first met? Do you remember what you took from me?!"

Ariana flinched, an involuntary act that rattled Nekou's nerves when she saw it. "Mewtwo was the one who killed your parents, not-"

"And who were the ones that funded Fuji's project? Who doomed my parents and all those other scientists?!" Growing even more furious, Yung couldn't help himself from throwing his mask to the ground. "Giovanni and the rest of you are the ones responsible, but now that Ghetsis took care of him, it's your turn to pay the price! I'll never forget that day you came to our mansion to tell us what happened… that was the day I hid away all the records of my parents' work and dedicated myself to finishing it so I could take revenge on you for them. The Pokémon Institute and Team Rocket held me back from reaching that goal before, but now, here you stand before me… I'm pay you back exactly as you did to me. You're going to know what it feels to suffer the same loss I did, all for the ambitions of another."

A Mirage System controller suddenly appeared in Yung's hand, seemingly out of thin air. Neither Nekou nor Ariana saw him retrieve it, so they could only assume he'd fetched it so quickly that they'd both missed it. He punched in a command, making Mewtwo move forth and morph its arms into long sword blades.

"Prepare to say goodbye to someone you love, Ariana. Just like I did."

Yung ordered Mewtwo to strike with one more press of a key. Fixing its glare on Nekou, it lunged straight at her like a predator moving in on its prey. It pulled its right arm back, readying its Sacred Sword for a stabbing blow.

What happened next made Nekou feel as if time had stopped and the world fell apart, all at once.

She suddenly wasn't in the path of Mewtwo's thrust anymore, instead, she was heading for the floor to her right. How was that possible, she wondered? She hadn't tried to move. She couldn't. Yung's shift to targeting her had come so abruptly that she'd just frozen in place. So how was she falling over? Then she looked up, and it all made sense. A terrible sort of sense that she wished she never had to face.

Next to her was Ariana, impaled through the abdomen on Mewtwo's arm. That was it, Ariana had done it. Ariana had pushed her out of the way and sacrificed herself to take the blow instead. Ariana had saved her. But at what cost? Nekou didn't have to answer that question. She already knew. The blood spread across Mewtwo's arm spoke volumes, its red color standing out against the Mirage Pokémon's white skin like the most vivid ink on the page of a comic book.

Nekou tried to say 'Maman,' but no words were willing to leave her throat and she merely mouthed the word, watching with wide, glassy eyes as Mewtwo hoisted Ariana into the air.

"So even now you'll deny me the vengeance I wanted…" Yung growled. "Fine! I'll just cut right to the chase! Mewtwo, get rid of them!"

In response to Yung's order, Mewtwo flung Ariana off its arm and across the lab, ultimately leaving her in a heap a few feet away from Colress. With its first target incapacitated, Mewtwo shifted its focus to Nekou and slashed at the air with its arms, scattering the blood befouling their pure appearance.

"Y-you didn't… you didn't have… to…" Nekou's thoughts were as broken as the rest of her mind. "I could have survived that… I could have!"

"But now we're the only ones who can do something about it."

For what felt like the first time she could remember, Nekou actually welcomed the presence of her other self and its alluring words in her head.

"I don't f[ucking care what you do! Just do SOMETHING!"

"Good girl," her other self cooed, every syllable like a drop of wicked honey to her agonized mind. By then, Mewtwo was rushing her again, bladed arms at the ready. "Sit back and enjoy the ride. You're going to like this."

Once Nekou was within its reach, Mewtwo stabbed toward her with its right arm. Yung was certain that this time his creation would hit its target. He never entertained the possibility of a second disruption, and that arrogance proved to be his undoing when Nekou bent her spine back at an inhuman angle, leaving the blade to harmlessly pass just above her face.

"You continue to make a mockery of my work…" Yung's anger had reached such heights that his hands were shaking, hindering but not thwarting his efforts to key commands into the Mirage System's controller. "Mewtwo, Secret Sword!"

Mewtwo raised its left arm toward the ceiling, giving it the space it needed to lengthen and curve before erupting in golden light. A truly living being with a soul might have stopped to savor the moment before finishing off their enemy with such a weapon, but Mewtwo simply waited until it was ready before swinging it down toward Nekou with immense force.

What neither Yung, Mewtwo nor Colress could have anticipated, however, was the way in which Nekou would react. The blade was mere inches from her body when her arms suddenly snapped up with animalistic reflex and caught it. Blood dripped down her arms from her palms as she grasped it, but she didn't flinch or relent in the slightest. In fact, she was able to match Mewtwo's strength and even force its arm back up, making the holographic Pokémon flicker from the unexpected stress. When she had the space, her head shot upward, giving the two scientists a clear glimpse of her frenzied, glowing golden eyes.

"What in the world are you?!" Yung yelled at her. His anger had become fouled by something else, an emotion he'd never expected - fear. It was still slight, but he couldn't help himself from entertaining the possibility that Mewtwo, in its current state, wouldn't be enough to stop her.

"What strength! Oh, what beautiful, beautiful strength!" Colress cried out, overjoyed at the sight before him. "This is truly a clash of titans! Biology versus technology, man versus machine! Even a specialist in Pokémon strength like myself can appreciate this magnificent show!"

Yung shot a bitter glare at Colress, but had no time to argue for some sort of assistance. He hit two keys on the controller, prompting Mewtwo to swing its right arm - still in Sacred Sword form - at Nekou. The swipe sliced a thin cut into her coat, but her superhuman reflexes gave her enough of a drop to leap away and avoid any real injury. Some distance opened up between her and Mewtwo, and while the wounds on her hands healed within seconds, Mewtwo's arms reverted to their original form.

"Mewtwo, Metal Claw!"

Black claws rose from Mewtwo's knobby fingers and joined together, turning its hands into daggers. They had barely finished transforming before Nekou attacked the Mirage Pokémon with her fingers hooked into makeshift claws of her own, all the while raising her voice in a feral screech. She and Mewtwo met every swipe from the other with slashes of their own, and the fight soon ground into a stalemate. Nekou wasn't landing enough damage to actually stop Mewtwo, while every wound Mewtwo inflicted on her hands and arms regenerated almost instantly.

"Hmm, she can match the claws of a Perrserker," Colress noted, tapping busily on his screens as he observed the brawl. "How curious."

Yung, meanwhile, grunted to himself in frustration. "Evidently I need to teach you a lesson in a different way." Manipulating the controller once more, he commanded, "Mewtwo, push her away! Mega Kick!"

Mewtwo abruptly leaped up and spun around. In the process, its right leg morphed into that of a Hitmonlee, granting its limb the elasticity the Fighting-type Pokémon's legs were known for. Exploiting its newfound reach, it walloped Nekou in the stomach with a powerful kick. She managed to stay on her feet, but the blow knocked the air out of her and shoved her back.

After bringing herself to a stop by bracing herself with her hand, she turned her still-glowing eyes back to Yung and Mewtwo. Her breaths came out ragged, but that was of little concern to her. The wild, unchecked rage she felt had aligned her own thoughts with the ones of her other self, and she wasn't even sure which of the two was really speaking when she snarled back with venomous enmity at Yung.

"I'm going to destroy you! I hate you!"

"Is that so?" Yung replied, entering another command into the Mirage System. "Come and take your best shot. Mewtwo, Wild Charge!"

Turning back into its original form, Mewtwo stretched its arms out, allowing electricity to surge across the surface of its artificial body. It rose into the air and dove at Nekou, who braced herself to catch its sparking frame. She underestimated the Wild Charge's potency, however. Mewtwo hit her with the force of a battering ram and slammed her into the wall behind her.

"There we go," Yung said to Colress, closing his eyes and smirking smugly. "I'll admit that had me nervous for a while, but in the end, my Mirage System can't be beaten."

"I'm impressed with your work, and even more with your efforts to make a comeback," Colress replied, waving his finger dismissively at Yung, "but maybe you shouldn't count your Torchic before they hatch."

"Huh?"

Colress's mockery moved Yung to take another look at Mewtwo. The Mirage Pokémon was still pressing Nekou into the wall, but much to its creator's shock, she was moving around underneath it.

Yung. The Mirage Mewtwo. Together the two of them had taken Ariana away, and that was the only coherent thought rising from the maelstrom in her head. She didn't even really feel the pain from Mewtwo's electricity. Her other self saw to that.

"I'll fucking destroy this thing!"

The presence in her head, if it had a physical form, would have embraced her and stroked her hair. She certainly felt the sensation as if it were real.

"Don't worry," the voice whispered to her, "we can do anything if we're together. Anything is possible."

In the course of her convulsions, Nekou felt her arms spring free. She was able to rip an iron bar off the wall, which she then smashed across Mewtwo's face with a loud smack, making Mewtwo stumble away. Giving chase, she kept hitting Mewtwo with the metal rod despite the Mirage Pokémon already being dizzy from the first blow. Every strike forced Mewtwo to cede a few more feet until Nekou shifted to hitting it over the head instead. At that point, it wasn't long before she viciously beat Mewtwo to the ground, keeping up her onslaught against it even after it lay stunned.

"Disappear! Disappear!"

Yung couldn't help but be totally stunned at what he was watching. "The Mirage System is the perfect invention…" he uttered, dumbfounded. "Mewtwo is supposed to be the world's strongest Pokémon… and the Mirage System removes even its flaws… how can this be?!"

"Maybe your confidence in your little creation is your undoing?" Colress suggested. Even though he'd said this in a completely innocent voice, he was anything but well-intentioned. It was all an act, just to mock Yung more than ever. "That living hologram of yours? It's a flawed specimen born of flawed theories. My methods are the only real way to draw out a Pokémon's true strength!"

"Flawed specimen?" Those two words made something in Yung snap. He'd certainly been angry before, between Colress's constant disrespect and having to face Ariana. But when he heard his colleague call the product of his life's work a flawed specimen, he completely erupted. "Just watch! Prepare to witness the ultimate Mirage Pokémon, you corrupt fool!" Punching keys on his controller anew, Yung shouted, "Mewtwo, get rid of her!"

At its creator's command, Mewtwo flipped over, driving its fist into Nekou's throat. The hit threw her several feet into the air, but she still managed to land on her feet. She dropped the iron pole in the process, however, and clutched at her neck instead of trying to recover it. Mewtwo, seizing the opportunity presented by Nekou stunned and coughing, formed three Water Shurikens around its hands and threw them at her. The watery stars slashed into her face and hands, but like all the others, the wounds vanished in seconds. Not only did they heal, but the sensation of their regeneration snapped Nekou out of the daze Throat Chop inflicted on her.

"I'll rip that fucking thing to shreds!" her voice, combined with that of her other self, rang out in her head. Pure instinct drove her to charge at Mewtwo again, entirely prepared to fight with her fists once more.

"Not this time!" Yung defiantly said. "Mewtwo, Iron Defense!"

Mewtwo spread its arms instead of taking direct action against Nekou. Its body retextured itself, taking on a much more sturdy constitution of solid, reflective steel. Nekou's punch bounced off Mewtwo's armor with a loud clang, shattering the bones in her hand and wrist for no gain against the creature.

"That's about right," Mewtwo's creator concluded. "Now, Mewtwo, finish her off! Focus Punch!"

Colress couldn't stop himself from laughing out loud when Yung issued that call. He bitingly accused his colleague, "You really don't want to win this at all, do you? Giving her an opening now of all times? Surely you must see what's happening right in front of you!"

He would never admit it, but Yung actually hadn't noticed what Colress was referring to. Not until the visor-wearing scientist called his attention to it, anyway. While Mewtwo stood still and focused its power, Nekou's broken bones were regenerating unhindered, restoring her hand to normal. Her bones cracking and popping as they shifted would have turned his stomach by itself, to say nothing of the compounding factor his shame over his mistake provided. No, what truly terrified him was how nonchalant she was about it. In fact, judging from the sigh that slipped from her lips as she shook off the last of the injury, he came to believe she was enjoying it.

Once her hand and wrist fully healed, Nekou sprang at Mewtwo with such speed that Yung couldn't react. She seized Mewtwo around its torso and, the muscles in her limbs straining and swelling to exert their full strength, lifted it up.

"Impossible!" His confidence shattered, Yung frantically and incoherently entered commands into his controller. He wasn't thinking anymore. "With the added weight of that metal body, there's no way… fine, if that's the way you want this to go down, Mewtwo, use Self-Destruct!"

At first, Mewtwo didn't react to its new directive. The state of near-perfect mental acuity it had reached while preparing to use Focus Punch took a few seconds to fade away, but when it did,the Mirage Pokémon released its stance and tucked in its arms and legs.

"You know, I don't know how much more of my power you can handle right now."

Nekou had no choice but to acknowledge that her other self was correct. As she lifted Mewtwo, she was starting to gasp for air. "I… y-you're right… come on, let's fucking end this."

"I've got enough left in me… in you… for that."

With one last surge of strength, Nekou bet her spine back to heft Mewtwo above her. The artificial creature was, by then, radiating a bright light, but before it could detonate, she flung it straight at its creator.

"Fucking… take… that!" she roared at Yung between huffs for air. If anyone was going to be caught in Mewtwo's Self-Destruct, it was going to be the one who took Ariana away from her. That was the one inevitable truth she held in that moment.

Or it was the one inevitable truth until Mewtwo actually reached Yung.

When Mewtwo should have struck its creator, it simply flew straight through him and crashed into the darkness beyond. Yung's image flickered and distorted, but he wasn't alone in suffering such an effect. Mewtwo's piercing the shadows lining the lab's perimeter glitched them as well, and within the cloud of static, a drone carrying a Mirage System generator became visible near where Mewtwo landed.

Normally, seeing the device giving her nemesis life would have directly led to Nekou attacking the drone itself. She had no need to in this instance, however. Mewtwo's Self-Destruct, which went off moments later, saw to that. The explosion totaled the drone and kicked up a shockwave that knocked Nekou onto her back. With the drone disabled, both Mewtwo and the veil of darkness around the lab faded, reverting into the Mirage System's lines of code before disappearing entirely.

"That's it, I'm spent and so are you," the presence in her mind said to her. "Besides, you don't need me anymore, that monster's gone. There was room for only one monster here, after all."

Understanding what the voice was implying, Nekou spitefully answered, "Fuck you. I'm not what you say I am…"

Nekou could easily imagine the sort of sneering grin her other self was shooting her, even without a face to look at. "Aha. You'll see… you'll see."

And then, just as suddenly as it arrived, Nekou felt her other self slip from her mind completely. She felt herself regain control of her body, and along with it, finally felt like she could breathe freely again.

"Aaah!" she gasped, inhaling more than she was certain she ever had before. That feeling of relief derailed into a groan, however, when all the pain her other self had been shielding her from caught up with her at once. It nearly paralyzed her, but she forced herself to sit up anyway.

Somehow, even with the Mirage System in the lab offline, Colress and Yung were still there, standing just as they were when she went down. It wasn't until then that it began to sink into Nekou's mind that they actually weren't there at all. The way Yung had hidden from detection until he wanted to appear. How he seemingly made the Mirage System controller appear out of thin air. Why Mewtwo passed through Yung when she threw it at him. All of it had only one explanation that made sense, and that explanation left her to stare wide-eyed at the two scientists.

"Yes, my dear Nekou, you're beginning to understand, aren't you?" Colress taunted her, stepping away from his console. "Jeunes and I have been one, two… no, three steps ahead street crooks like you from the start. We knew you were going to attack the Adenosine Base today, so we had plenty of time to get all our valuable research material off the platform! I know you must be thinking, 'what about the Pokémon we were able to steal?' right now. Well, those were just our failed research subjects! All the good ones are long gone! Everything that happened here today has unfolded exactly the way Polaris planned it!"

"Y-you're saying… it was all for nothing…"

"I wouldn't say it was for nothing, my dear. Hopefully you and your family will have learned a valuable lesson in humility and won't cross our paths again. That said…" Colress jabbed a finger up in thought. "In case we somehow don't run into each other again, I'd like to explain to you how we pulled this off. This base has been unmanned the entire time. It was thanks to a combination Jeunes and I cooked up that we tricked you so well… his Mirage System created the Mirage Pokémon and made you think there were crewmen aboard for you to worry about, but the two of us have been using a VR system I recently developed. That's how we're still here. Quite impressive, don't you agree? Even the Mirage System has some use, in the end!"

Colress started laughing hysterically, amused by a joke only he thought was funny. Bitter at being made the punchline, Yung glared at him, only to spot something else he hadn't expected to.

Ariana, still alive, had pulled herself up on Colress's mainframe and was about to connect a cylindrical device to it. Between their preoccupation with fighting Nekou and Colress's stepping away from the console, she had been able to drag herself behind Colress without notice.

"Colress, behind you!" Yung shouted.

Colress turned, but it was already too late. Even though she was struggling to hold herself up on the computer, she managed to click the cylinder into a port on the console, then glared spitefully at the hologram of the blond-haired researcher and pulled her phone from her uniform.

"Mission complete," she uttered into her communicator. "Contact Pierce for extraction."

"Maman! You're… you're…" Nekou still struggled to speak, her body badly impaired by the pain she felt. Even though every inch of her being hurt in ways she could hardly comprehend, the sight of Ariana gave her the strength to fight it. She hoped against all odds that things might turn out alright.

"That appears to be quite the curious gadget you've got there," Colress said to Ariana, scratching his chin with his finger as he spoke. Much to the surprise of those around him, his interest seemed to be genuine. "Might you be willing to tell me what it does?"

"Gladly," Ariana spat, coughing before she could continue. "It'll… it'll let us send an energy pulse through all your machines in this base… they'll overload, and then they'll explode, and they'll take the whole Adenosine Base down with them. Tough luck."

"Remove it!" Yung angrily demanded.

"There's no need, Jeunes," Colress contradicted him. "Polaris has no more use the Adenosine Base anyway, so it's hardly a loss. Besides, I'm sure she wouldn't actually remove it, no matter how nicely we asked. In addition…" Tilting his head so he could shoot Nekou a dirty look over his shoulder, he added, "...I no longer have any need for these two. They have no value left for my research."

That snide comment turned out to be Colress's last. His hologram flickered and vanished, soon followed by Yung's doing the same.

Nekou had no concern whatsoever about where they had gone. As far as she cared, their leaving the laboratory was as good as them leaving her mind altogether. They didn't matter. Who did matter was Ariana, who finally lost her strength and slumped down with her back against the computer.

"Maman!"

-:-

Meanwhile, in another dark chamber far from the Adenosine Base, Colress and Yung removed the virtual reality helmets that projected their presence across the ocean.

"Lights up," Colress said out loud.

"Roger," a female voice replied over a loudspeaker. "Bringing up the holodeck lights."

A moment later, the spacious room was illuminated by the spotlights mounted on its ceiling. Aside from a prop mimicking Colress's computer, there was nothing else contained within its black walls.

"So how did you like my VR system, Jeunes?" Colress didn't actually care what Yung thought, so he kept talking without giving his colleague a chance to answer. "Tell me, is your lust for revenge sated?"

"No, not yet." Yung's reply was met with a dismissive shrug from Colress, but Yung elected to ignore it for the time being. "There's still much work to be done… only when my Mirage Mewtwo is perfected and I destroy all of Team Rocket with it, will I be satisfied."

"That doesn't surprise me at all." Colress grinned. "Go work on that, if that's what you wish. I'm going to give a report to Finansielle."

"I'm a Chromosome too, so it should be me," Yung argued.

"Nah. I'm telling Finansielle." Practically dancing on air with cheer over his accomplishments, Colress bound toward the holodeck's exit and only stopped to turn back and taunt Yung, "My operation went fantastically! Exactly how she said it would! So… you work on that little toy of yours, and I'll see you around! Ta ta!"

If he had the Mirage System handy in the room, Yung would have used a Mirage Pokémon to pulverize the door after Colress left through it. "One day, you'll get yours… you wait and see."

-:-

"Maman… why…" Even in the face of the great physical pain she felt, Nekou had forced herself to move, one step after another, until she could kneel at Ariana's side. "Why did you push me away…? I easily could have survived that… you know that…"

"I couldn't… just let you go through that again. Not after Ecruteak…" Ariana coughed again, and when she lifted her hand to her mouth, Nekou gasped in horror at the crimson stain spreading across Ariana's abdomen. "Just because you could survive it doesn't mean you should have to."

"But at what cost?!" Nekou grabbed Ariana's shoulders, but consciously had to refrain from shaking her by them. "You can't just throw your life away like that! I need you!"

"And I'll always be there with you, even if you can't see me." Ariana reached up and gently placed her hand on Nekou's cheek, an act that made the water welling up in Nekou's eyes flow freely.

"But… but…" In the midst of her tears, Nekou struggled to speak clearly. As if the loss she faced wasn't bad enough, "There's not… how can you be here if you're not there? How can you be there if you're nowhere?"

Ariana understood perfectly what Nekou was alluding to. She'd expressed her feelings regarding death plenty of times before, and sadness wasn't the only thing Ariana saw in the twisted, crying face looking down on her. There was also fear, the kind of crippling fear that begged for some sort of reassurance, which Ariana tried to give her by stroking her face. "I'm not scared of what's going to happen to me… you shouldn't be, either. As long as I'm in your memory… I'll still be here."

"There has to be another way," Nekou frantically insisted. "There has to be."

Right as Nekou said that, an explosion from above destroyed a portion of the ceiling over the the left side of the room, creating a hole through which sunlight flowed freely in. When the blast initially shook the laboratory, Nekou's first instinct was to cover Ariana's body with her own, but the next voice she heard brought her some relief.

"Hey, you two!" Petrel called out from the other side of the newly-opened crater, where he and Proton were hovering with jetpacks. "Your ride's here, it's time to go!"

"That's… that's right, our escape…" In all the confusion, some of the specifics of Team Rocket's plan for the operation had slipped her mind. Still, even though Nekou was able to remember, it felt like divine providence when Petrel dropped two more jetpacks down for her and Ariana to use. She scampered over to the machines and strapped one onto her back, then hurried the other one to Ariana. "Maman, let's go," she pleaded, trying to force the jetpack onto the executive. A broken smile had wormed its way onto her face, a reflection of what she wanted to believe even while her tears told the truth she refused to accept. Her racing thoughts came out in the form of rambling, saying, "Come on, let's go. We'll get out of here and get on the helicopter and head back to Olivine and then you can get fixed up and…"

"No." Ariana pushed the jetpack back into Nekou's arms, only for Nekou to drop it when her arms went limp. "Even if I make it to Olivine… I'm not coming back from this." To emphasize her point, Ariana gingerly touched the blood on her uniform. The stain had grown significantly in just the short time since they last looked at it. "Even if I got out of here… besides, my illness… even if the one in a million chance where I survive this came to pass, I haven't got enough time left to make what I'd put you through worth it. Like I told you in Ecruteak, all we were doing was delaying the inevitable… you and Rosalie weren't curing me, we all know that. There was always going to be a day when it couldn't stop everything from catching up to me again. Nekou, listen to me. If you leave me behind now, you can move forward… I can't bear to force you to watch me falling apart and keep wearing yourself out hoping some miracle will happen."

Nekou froze, her previously spiraling, irrational thinking coming to an abrupt halt. How could she have forgotten Ariana summoning her the morning she was supposed to be at Ecruteak's Dance Hall with Matt, Olivia and the others? No, the truth was she hadn't forgotten at all. She wanted to, oh, had she wanted to. But no matter how hard she ran away from it, there was no escaping the truth. With Rosalie's help, she had been concocting various homemade medications to sustain Ariana's life and comfort for as long as possible. That morning, Nekou had received the news she long dreaded - their creations wouldn't help anymore. As Ariana had just said, her time was running out.

"But...but…" Nekou stuttered, growing increasingly hysterical. The pointlessness of it all wasn't lost on her. If Ariana wasn't already facing death, she wouldn't have been so impulsive in sacrificing herself to Mewtwo's attack. Even if she did still take the same actions, without her illness, Nekou believed she'd go back to Olivine and let Rosalie save her. It was all pointless. All Yung had done was rob them of the last bit of time they had.

In her panic and grief, Nekou failed to notice Proton and Petrel descend until they had already landed.

"What's wr-" Proton cut himself off when he got a look at Ariana's condition. The sight of his superior in such a dire state broke right through his carefully constructed self-image. He lost control over his voice and yelled, "What the hell happened here?!"

"It's too fucking long to explain!" Nekou choked out. "Help me get her up!"

"No!" Ariana immediately overruled, the strain causing her to wheeze painfully. "I'm going to detonate the Adenosine Base… leave me behind and get Nekou out of here! Go!"

Nekou, too deep in denial of what was happening, protested, "I won't go without her!"

"It's an order!"

Petrel shook his head sadly at Nekou and Ariana one-upping each other. "It hurts my heart to see the two of you like this… Ariana, what happened to you..."

"You can say that again," Proton agreed. "But Ariana did say it was an order…"

"No, please, don't!" Nekou begged him. "We'll both go!"

"I don't have a choice. I'm sorry." Proton's uncharacteristic apology caught Nekou by surprise, buying him enough time to whip his phone out of his pocket. "Pierce, send your Braviary down! We need help!"

Nekou's face sank further at the sight of the eagle as he descended from the hole in the ceiling. Any other time, she would have had the strength to fend him off, but in her crashed, weakened state, she didn't stand a chance.

"Come, Miss Nekou," Petrel gently urged her. "I do understand why you feel the way you do, but there's so much still ahead of us. I'm sure Ariana wants you to see it all."

"I can't…"

"Nekou, listen," Ariana spoke up. "He's completely right. You're stronger than you think. Go forward, stand on your own two feet, and live. Just like I've always told you to."

"I…" Nekou suddenly found herself losing all will to keep fighting to change Ariana's mind. Despair had taken hold in her mind and she couldn't shake it. "Maman, I don't know what I can do…"

"You can do anything," Ariana replied, "and everything, if you want. You've got it in you."

"Maman…"

Petrel set a reassuring hand on Nekou's shoulder. "We should go. There's nothing good here for any of us."

"Y-you're right…" Nekou finally conceded. She took one last glance at Ariana before averting her eyes, unable to look at her beloved mother figure any longer. "Maman, I'm sorry… I couldn't save you like you saved me…"

"You never had to. That wasn't your responsibility. What is your responsibility is how you choose to embrace your life going forward."

Unable to take any more, Nekou's body and mind gave out. She fell to her knees, and hung like a ragdoll in Braviary's talons as he held her by the shoulders and flew her out of the base.

"Sayonara, kid," Ariana muttered. The last vestiges of her strength were starting to fail, so she settled in against the console.

Proton and Petrel, meanwhile, stood side-by-side in front of her. It was something they'd done plenty of times before, when they couldn't get assignments from Giovanni or Stacia instead. Obviously, this time was vastly different, and although neither of them said so, they were both well aware it would be the last time they stood like that before her. It was the end of an era.

"Are you really sure about this?" Proton asked. Although he wasn't completely breaking like Nekou had, the quivering in his voice and tremble in his hands made plain how rattled he was.

"I am," Ariana answered with as much authority as either executive had ever heard from her. She beckoned Proton to her, and as he approached, slipped off the belt that her three Poké Balls were attached to. Handing them over to him, she asked, "Can you keep Arbok, Victreebel and Magcargo safe?"

"I will," he promised. "It was an honor to serve alongside you."

"Indeed," Petrel added. "Your name will be legendary in the history of Team Rocket."

"Thank you… make sure everyone is taken care of."

"We will." Proton affirmed.

Nothing more needed to be said. Proton nodded at Petrel, and the two of them activated their jetpacks, carrying them up and out of the laboratory.

Once she was alone, Ariana reached into her uniform and withdraw two objects. One was her Team Rocket phone, and she activated its Matori by tapping on its screen.

"At your service, Executive Ariana," the artificial intelligence greeted her.

"Matori…" Ariana coughed again. "Start the countdown to the pulse detonation."

"Right away." Matori bowed, and a timer appeared over her image.

With the appearance of the rapidly declining digits, Ariana concluded her work was done. It was then that she turned her attention to the second object that had been tucked in her uniform - a photograph of herself with a younger Nekou and Silver. She was the only one of the three smiling, while Nekou looked away nervously and Silver pouted in anger, but the photograph still meant much to her. Whereas Giovanni was never close to their son thanks to his strained relationship with his own mother, Ariana always felt close to both Silver and her adopted daughter.

"I wish I could have been able to patch things up with him…" she wistfully said. As the clock counted down, she tapped the phone's screen to bring Matori back. "Matori, I want to ask you… do you think I lived the right way?"

"Executive Ariana…" Matori paused, as if she was considering her next words carefully. "As an artificial intelligence, I am afraid I cannot make such a judgment. However, based on my analysis of the subject in available data, I see that people generally consider a life lived without regrets to be one that was well lived."

Ariana already knew this, but hearing it again gave her a feeling of peace. She shut her eyes as she felt her strength ebb away, whispering to herself, "I won't say I have no regrets. I really do wish I could have made peace with Silver. But in the end… I think I lived a good life. I just hope everyone will be able to live like that, too…"

-:-

Aboard the helicopter en route back to Olivine City, Nekou, Proton and Petrel all stood near the open cargo hatch at the back of the craft, watching as the Adenosine Base faded into the distance.

Nekou silently prayed that somehow, what she knew was coming would never happen. It was an irrational hope but all she had to hold on to. Yet, the inevitable came, heralded by a bright light from the facility. Seconds later, the one event she begged the fates to prevent came.

The Altru Northstar, otherwise known as the Adenosine Base, exploded into a massive fireball. Nekou, all her hopes burning with the flames, fell to her knees and let out an inhuman wail that carried her anguish across the sea.

END of CHAPTER 26