Archive of Our Own ^beta

ZEL stands in front of the PULSE machine set up in Obsidia Park as it destroys the ward.

“Go faster, damn it!” Zero yells at the PULSE Tangrowth, slamming his fist against the machine.

“Hey, don’t do that!” Lumi protests.

“You should know by now that physical abuse of the PULSE machines isn’t a good idea,” Eve says, recalling similar situations.

“This one is actually finished. It’s not going to fall apart from a punch,” Zero counters, Eve’s internal recollection causing him to do the same. “Just say you don’t want me to do it because Lumi doesn’t like it.”

“You wouldn’t have cared,” Eve says.

Zero rolls their eyes. “So? You might as well— wait.”

He heard something from the nearby trees just now. He probably wouldn’t have, years ago, but Eve’s always been more observant, so that means he is by now, too.

He subtly looks over to the trees, and sees someone with long, bright teal hair hiding behind one. Shit, that must be one of the Leaders that was reported to have entered the park— Amaria, he thinks, and Eve having a similar thought confirms it.

“Did the others really let people through?!” Zero mutters, looking back to the PULSE.

Eve sighs. “They wouldn’t have—”

“Be quiet!” Zero hisses, not wanting Amaria to know that they know she’s there.

“They wouldn’t have had a choice, if Amaria could defeat them. She’s a high ranking Leader,” Eve points out, quieter than before.

“What are the grunts even here for, then?” Zero wonders. “Tangrowth, get her with your vines.”

“B-but don’t kill her!” Lumi adds.

…nothing happens.

Zero glares at Tangrowth. “I said—”

“It’s going to take a few moments,” Eve interrupts, feeling Lumi grow distressed.

Zero grunts. “Fine.”

He goes back to yelling at Tangrowth, sometimes being cut off by one of the other two.

Soon enough, Amaria is grabbed by a vine that lifts her high up into the air, above the trees… as is another girl, with short, darkish green hair, that ZEL didn’t even notice. That would be Florinia, the Grass Leader.

“So this thing can do something right,” Zero says, looking between Florinia and Amaria.

“Stop being so mean to Tangrowth! It did what you wanted!” Lumi says.

“Yeah, let’s see if it can keep it up,” Zero says, turning back to the PULSE.

The plants keep growing around them, the dome of leafy vines overhead clustering tighter and tighter together… except…

“Why is it going slower?” Zero asks with a scowl.

“Likely because Tangrowth has to focus on keeping those two restrained,” Eve says.

“That’s stupid, it’s just two people!” Zero says, hitting the machine again. “What if those other girls we heard about show up? Then what are we going to do?!”

“We can battle them directly,” Eve says.

“We won’t have to, if this thing just does its job!” Zero says. “Make it go faster!”

“That’s not possible,” Eve says.

“Then you should’ve built it to go faster!” Zero says, glaring at nothing due to lack of another body to glare at. “I bet you did this on purpose! You’ve never cared about the cause!”

Why would she?

ZEL starts to argue, Zero getting on Eve’s case while she does her best to stay calm, Lumi butting in to defend her sister.

Eventually, though, they hear an unfamiliar voice from behind them. “Hey!”

“I told you they would get here too soon!” Zero says, hitting the machine yet again. “If you had made this machine go faster…”

“No! Tangrowth wouldn’t be able to take anymore!” Lumi protests.

The way Tangrowth has mutated already makes it so unstable. If it faints even once…

“The speed has already been optimized,” Eve says, putting in the effort to wrench Zero’s fist away from the machine and turn his body aside. “Be glad the Pokémon was able to capture the Leaders.”

There was only so much she could do, with no real data to work off of. This is only the first PULSE Tangrowth to be put into use, after all, and it’s different enough from the previous PULSEs that only so much of the data from them was helpful.

And if she managed to make a “mistake” or two, nobody has to know.

“You’re really strong to be able to do everything so well, Tangrowth!” Lumi says, giving the Pokémon a smile.

What Tangrowth is doing is bad, but it’s not its fault. It still deserves kindness.

“Uh…” one of the other girls says.

Right.

Zero turns to face the others, and ZEL realizes it’s actually just one girl with long, dark brown hair and incredibly bright green eyes. That should be… Carly.

Weird. There was supposed to be another girl running around. But maybe she’s just elsewhere.

Lumi waves. “Oh, hello. Um, my name is Lumi—”

“Only four of you entered? We expected more,” Zero interrupts, crossing his arms and smirking. “Four are easily dealt with.”

“Let my friends go!” Carly demands.

“Yeah, right!” Zero says.

Lumi glances away. “Um, it might be more polite if we introduced ourselves. I’m—”

“You’ve already introduced yourself, Lumi. Needlessly, at that!” Zero interrupts. “I, however, am the one in charge here— Zero!”

That’s right, him. Eve’s the engineer, and Lumi is here too, but Zero is the one Solaris trusts.

“I am Eve. Collectively the three of us are referred to as ZEL,” Eve says.

“Uh… you’re all…?” Carly asks, clearly confused.

“It’s a complicated situation,” Eve says.

“One that’s none of your business!” Zero says. “We’re not gonna let you touch the PULSE!”

“But that’s probably what you came here for, right?” Lumi says, turning to Tangrowth. “All of the growth here is a result of this machine. And Eve built it all by herself!”

Eve’s so smart! If only she wasn’t forced to work for Team Meteor…

“What did you do to Tangrowth?!” Carly asks, sounding upset.

Eve turns back to Carly. “It was modified somewhat to be compatible with the Link System, which is a simple hybridization-amplification mechanic.”

“So with that machine behind it, it can manipulate even the smallest root into a massive arbor wrecking ball!” Zero brags.

“But… why? What’s the point of all of this?” Carly asks.

“We don’t have to explain ourselves to you!” Zero says.

Carly’s expression hardens. “Well, I’m going to stop you.”

“Just try!” Zero snaps before moving aside. “Get her, Tangrowth!”

“W-wait!” Lumi protests as Carly sends out a Kricketune. “If Tangrowth faints—”

“It won’t,” Zero says. “Do you really think some random Trainer can beat—”

“Struggle Bug!” Carly rudely interrupts.

“Acid!” Zero commands.

“…Eve made it, not you,” Lumi says, having caught the rest of Zero’s unfinished sentence.

“Whatever,” Zero grumbles, putting his focus into the battle.

Obviously, Tangrowth has no trouble taking down the Kricketune, or the Brionne that Carly sends out to replace it…

…but the Swablu sent out after that somehow manages to win.

Tangrowth lets out a warped cry, and closes its eye. And then, just as ZEL knew it would if it was defeated, it crumbles to dust.

Eve and Lumi frown, and Zero furrows his brow in frustration before speaking. “…this is why you shouldn’t talk so much, Lumi!”

Obviously it’s her fault. Or maybe Eve’s. Not Zero’s.

“…wh-what?” Carly asks, voice shaking. “It… you… what?!”

ZEL turns to Carly. There’s a horrified expression on her face.

Right… she wouldn’t have known that that’s what happens to a defeated PULSE Pokémon. Lumi feels bad for her. That was hard enough to watch with the knowledge it was coming…

“Zero, next time, rather than showing off the mission’s keystone, let’s fight with our own Pokémon,” Eve suggests, even though she’s not exactly torn up about the operation’s failure.

Lumi frowns at the now empty machine. “I’m sorry, Tangrowth… I should have intervened.”

Zero has the most control of his body, but if she tried hard enough… there must’ve been something she could’ve done…

“Stop yelling at me!” Zero yells as the ground begins to shake slightly, plants returning to the earth. “You said this machine was supposed to make it stronger!”

“Your misjudgment was the key factor,” Eve says.

Yes, it’s true that the PULSE made Tangrowth stronger. But there’s a difference between stronger and invincible.

This PULSE was wildly different than the others. It’s the first one that was meant to do so much at once. There was only so much she could do.

Maybe she should have said all that beforehand!

Maybe Zero should have known it.

“Regardless, with Tangrowth incapacitated, the malignant growth will now regress,” Eve continues.

“So it’s all going to go back to normal?” Lumi asks hopefully, and ZEL notices Carly perk up out of the corner of their eye.

“Correct,” Eve responds, turning to the machine as more and more plants disappear. “Thus, it is counterproductive to remain here. Let us recover the unit and abscond amidst the regression.”

Eve reaches out to press the button to fold up the machine, but is interrupted by Zero turning to glare at Carly, who has recalled her Swablu and is looking around at the receding plants.

“Hey, Carly, right?” Zero asks. “Don’t think this is over, or anywhere near it. You might’ve caught us at the germinal stage this time, but you don’t stand a flower’s chance in flame at taking us down for real. Don’t forget it!”

Carly glares back as the ground starts to shake harder than before. “Fucking try me.”

Eve turns back to the machine and presses the button to fold it up. Zero picks it up, running off. Carly doesn’t follow, too distracted by her friends falling to the ground. So he runs out of the park, over and into the fake Devon building, slamming the door closed behind him.

There’s a scientist and a receptionist inside, and they both stare at ZEL in shock, the latter speaking. “Hey, you can’t just—”

“Nobody saw me!” Zero snaps, even though he can’t really be sure.

“Are you guys okay?”

ZEL looks to the voice to see that Taka has approached them.

“Tch, no,” Zero says. “The operation’s over. Some girl took down Tangrowth.”

Taka looks surprised. “Really? Who?”

“Her name’s Carly. I think she was at Mosswater?” Zero says, trying to think back on what Ace said about the incident that ended with the abandonment of a base. “She was in the park with three others. You didn’t see a group of four girls at any point, did you?”

“…no, nothing like that,” Taka says. “So then, the Tangrowth is…?”

“…gone,” Lumi mutters, frowning and glancing at the floor.

She guesses this was gonna happen no matter what. Tangrowth would’ve eventually died either way— it had three phases it would’ve gone through, and it would’ve died at the end of phase three. But still…

It’s silent for a moment before Taka speaks. “It’s not your fault…”

But Lumi can’t help but feel like it is. None of this would’ve ever happened, it it weren’t for her…

“Yeah, it’s Carly’s fault!” Zero says, because Carly’s the one who killed Tangrowth. Obviously it’s her fault.

“No matter whose fault it is, we’re going to have to report this in to Solaris,” Eve points out.

Nobody’s looking forward to that…

“I should probably check in with him, too,” Taka says. “We can do it together.”

“Thank you!” Lumi says.

Taka is Solaris’ son, so maybe he’ll be a little easier on ZEL if Taka is there, too? Not that Lumi can really remember Solaris ever being very easy on Taka, but… maybe?

“It’s no problem,” Taka says.

The group then heads into the back so that nobody who walks in will see or hear them, everyone hoping that Solaris won’t be too upset.

— — —

That night, as ZEL lays in bed, hugging the Eevee plush that Lumi needs to sleep, she sobs into the pillow.

It’s just… it’s really sad, what happened to Tangrowth. And it’s not like it wasn’t sad while it was happening and right after, but now it’s just kind of… hitting her, she guesses. Really setting in. Tangrowth is dead, and it died in pain, mutated and forced to hurt people.

And… it really is all her fault. The PULSE technology that Team Meteor makes Eve build for them was first made because of her. She was stupid enough to let Zero grab her all those years ago, when he showed up to force Eve to work with the group. She’s the one who Eve cares enough about to work with them for.

Eve feels awful. She’s upset about Tangrowth, too, and that Lumi feels this way. Because it was never, ever her fault. She never asked to be sick. It’s not her fault Zero took her hostage, or that they were merged with him. And she’s not the one who trusted and talked to the wrong person in the first place.

Zero’s annoyed. It’s not even like this was Lumi’s first time seeing a Pokémon die— a lot of experimentation has happened over the years to get to this point, after all, not all of it successful.

And it’s going to keep happening. After all, there’s another PULSE Tangrowth operation planned soon, and while they aren’t supposed to witness the PULSE Camerupt operation, that will end with Camerupt’s death, too. It would be best if Lumi just got over it.

For all of their sakes.

— — —

ZEL spends most of the next week or so working on two more PULSE machines meant to hold Tangrowth, as well as modifying the Tangrowth that will be used.

These things were already almost done, but finishing them was specifically put off until after the operation in Obsidia. The data gathered from that is used to improve the machines and modifications, making the finished product even more destructive.

Eventually, everything’s ready, and an attack on Jasper and Beryl begins. One machine is placed in Malchous Forest Park, and one in Rhodochrine Forest. The Tangrowth are placed in them, mutate, and build up power for a while longer, entering phase two before unleashing their power.

Now, ZEL stands in Rhodochrine Forest, which looks much more like a jungle at this point, with Taka, Ace, and Borealis, guarding the PULSE Tangrowth there. The last one.

Taka was guarding the one in Malchous earlier, but apparently someone showed up and defeated it. That means that it’s important that this one is heavily guarded. It’ll just be a few more hours until it reaches the end of phase three and unleashes its final attack— they can definitely guard it until then!

Yeah, there are some people running around and trying to stop them. But Zero ZEL Zero is an admin.

Pseudo-admin.

Zero is an admin. Sure, maybe he doesn’t technically have all the same responsibilities as Taka and Sirius. And sure, maybe he’s gotten in trouble a few times over trying to throw his weight around. But he’s still an admin. He can defeat anyone who challenges him, especially since he’ll be using Umbreon, Espeon, and Glaceon this time.

“We will be using them,” Eve says under her breath.

“Yeah, whatever,” Zero grumbles.

Espeon and Glaceon belong to Eve and Lumi, respectively, and they command them in battle, not Zero. But same difference.

Suddenly, a voice calls out. “Hey!”

Of course. Carly has shown up again. Though surprisingly, it’s just her, having run into a group of high ranking members of Team Meteor, even though there should be others nearby. Odd.

Taka says that she’s the one who defeated the Jasper PULSE, and Zero lets the others know that she also took down the one in Obsidia, trying not to seem surprised.

Okay, so maybe Carly has taken down two PULSEs. But she won’t be able to defeat everyone here. That’s obviously why Taka tricked her into coming here, as he tells the group. She’ll lose this time.

…except it’s not just her. Amaria is also nearby, and joins once Borealis reveals that the group knows she’s there, Bracelets on her wrists that catch ZEL’s attention. Was she wearing those last time, too?

Why didn’t Eve and Lumi say something?

For the same reason Zero didn’t.

Well, the grunts should’ve noticed!

After Amaria shows up, a boy with crazy looking purple hair runs up to ZEL, looking over to Carly. “I’ll be taking that coupon now~”

Carly grins. “All yours!”

Ah. This must’ve all been some sort of plan.

Another boy— Fern, this one’s name is— jumps down from the nearby rocks, startling Taka before the two of them send out their Pokémon.

There’s some more talk, then Borealis and Amaria send out their own Pokémon… and immediately after that, a young girl with bright pink hair lands in the middle of the area on a Salamence, stating her intentions to help stop the “bad guys.”

…Lumi can’t help but notice that the girl looks around her age…

“Tch, this is getting bad… just how many of them are there?!” Zero asks, realizing the group’s (technically) outnumbered. He turns around. “Hey, private! How long are you gonna stare stupid into the distance for!? Get over here and stall her or something!”

Lin turns around, setting her dead stare on ZEL, and Lumi can’t help but squirm a bit.

“Understood,” Lin says before walking over.

Zero forces his body to stay still as she walks past. She’s literally just some random private, what’s there to be scared of?

Lumi can’t help but feel nervous around Lin, though. She’s just… it’s hard to explain, but there’s something creepy about her.

Eve agrees. She may not be as freaked out by Lin as Lumi is, but the woman is still unsettling. There’s just something about the lack of light in her eyes…

“We starting, or what?” the purple haired boy asks, snapping ZEL out of their thoughts.

Zero sneers, sending out Umbreon, and the boy sends out a Brionne. The fight starts.

“Use Shadow Ball!” Zero commands at one point.

“Dodge it with Aqua Jet!” the boy calls out.

Brionne manages to avoid the Shadow Ball, the move flying past. Zero opens his mouth to give another command, but is cut off by a yell.

“Holy shit, duck!”

Zero’s head whips over to the source of the yell, Carly, and then in the direction she’s looking in just in time to see Umbreon’s Shadow Ball fly over Taka and Fern’s heads, the two of them ducking.

Eve looks around the area, and realizes just how close together everyone is. That’s not ideal— if everyone stays put, someone is bound to get hit by a move at some point.

Thankfully, ZEL’s opponent seems to have the same idea, starting to move away as the battle continues. Zero doesn’t care enough to stop it, and so they all move further and further away from the PULSE. He does start to get frustrated, though, at the way the battle slows down. And he gets especially frustrated when Umbreon goes down.

“Calm down,” Eve mutters as she recalls Umbreon so she can send in Espeon.

“I am calm!” Zero says.

Well, whatever the case, Eve starts to command Espeon, and the battle continues until she faints, too.

As Eve recalls her Pokémon, though, vines start to recede into the earth, just as they had when the Obsidia Tangrowth was defeated.

“Carly has defeated the PULSE, then…” Eve says as she looks around, watching some of the plant life disappear.

Technically, it could’ve been any of Carly’s allies aside from this boy, but she’s the most likely candidate as both the person who took down the other two PULSE Tangrowth, and the one who was fighting Ace, who was commanding this Tangrowth.

“Knew she could do it!” the boy says with a grin.

“Does this mean we can leave?” Lumi asks.

Zero scowls, grabbing Glaceon’s Poké Ball. “No! I’m not leaving until we win!”

“Guess you’re gonna be here for a while, then,” the boy says. “Don’t worry, though, I’m great at going all night long~”

Eve grimaces as Zero sends out Glaceon. “Please don’t say that.”

It’s definitely not the most vulgar joke in the world, and Lumi’s definitely heard worse, all things considered, but still…

The boy switches out Brionne for an Alolan Marowak, and the battle continues… though this round ends much quicker than before.

The rule is supposed to be that Zero commands Umbreon, Eve commands Espeon, and Lumi commands Glaceon. But Zero keeps butting in!

He’s not doing anything wrong, though! He’s just trying to win the battle!

But Glaceon can recognize when it’s Lumi speaking, and soon elects to ignore any orders given by Zero. Obviously, though, Lumi can’t give orders when he is, so the Marowak ends up getting in multiple free hits, and Glaceon soon goes down.

Zero opens his mouth to speak as Lumi recalls Glaceon, but Eve beats him to the punch. “We need to leave.”

“Fine,” Zero says, rolling their eyes and not doing anything to stop her from running off. “We could’ve won, though, if you’d just let me battle!”

“I seriously doubt that, considering we didn’t defeat any of that boy’s Pokémon,” Eve points out.

“Shouldn’t we have just left once Tangrowth was defeated?” Lumi asks. “Solaris says to retreat if an operation fails…”

“I wasn’t gonna forfeit to some random teenager!” Zero argues.

The three of them keep bickering as they traverse the area, trying to find the exit.

Eve makes sure to keep an eye out as they go. It’s hard to tell which plants might be more permanent fixtures— aside from the fact that a lot of them were already here before the operation, the increased power and time of use of this PULSE means that a lot of the plants it created were able to take root more permanently than the ones in Obsidia. So it’s difficult to tell if any tree they pass might come crashing down as they do.

Eventually, though, they manage to get out of Rhodochrine… though Zero can’t help but feel like they’re forgetting something…

With practiced skill, Eve pushes down a thought of going back to make sure one of the others got the PULSE machine.

Well, whatever. It’s probably not important. What is is that next time, Zero will win.

— — —

A couple days later, ZEL finishes up a routine check of the PULSE Magnezone.

Magnezone is different than the other PULSEs in multiple ways. For one thing, its function isn’t destructive in any way; it’s simply what merged Eve and Lumi into Zero’s body, and retains a connection to them. Because of that, Team Meteor considers keeping it in good shape a priority.

“Everything looks good!” Lumi tells Magnezone with a smile, bringing a hand up to pet it.

“Can it even feel this? It’s a Magnezone,” Zero mutters.

“It has always seemed to,” Eve says.

Magnezone lets out a happy sound as if to confirm the idea, and Zero rolls ZEL’s eyes. “Sure, gang up on me.”

Just then, the door opens, and they turn around to see Ace walk in. “Hello, everyone! I brought you all some things.”

They take something from their bag, then bring their hands up to show off a bag of chips and a can of soda. ZEL’s eyes light up, recognizing both as their favorites.

It’s hard to say who liked both things first— Eve, Lumi, and Zero’s tastes have melded over the years. Oddly enough, it seems to have to do with more than just tastebuds, as there are definitely things that one or two of them enjoy more. But their liked and disliked foods and drinks more or less line up, and are a mixture of the things they each liked and disliked before the merge.

“Thank you!” Lumi says, walking over to Ace and taking the chips and soda.

“It’s no problem at all,” Ace says, taking something else out from their bag: a berry pouch. “And I brought some treats for the Pokémon, as well!”

Umbreon, Espeon, and Glaceon perk up from near the wall, where they’re all laying together. When Ace walks over and bends down to hand them each a berry, they eagerly accept.

“And one for Magnezone, too, of course,” Ace says as they straighten up, taking a Pecha Berry from the pouch and walking over to Magnezone, who, like the Eeveelutions, happily accepts.

Once that’s done, ZEL and Ace sit down on the floor together, the latter removing their bag and taking some chips and soda out of it for themselves, and the group begins to chat.

“I know it’s no longer my job, what with the reassignment, but I’ve been doing some research into the little heroine— that is, Carly— in my free time,” Ace says at one point.

“‘Little heroine?’ Why would you call her that?” Zero asks, confused. “She’s fighting against us.”

Ace thinks for a moment, taking a sip of their drink, before answering. “Well, she is one from her point of view, as well of that of most. And the whole point of the family’s recent operations is that playing the villains gets results, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Zero says before grabbing some chips and shoving them in his mouth.

“That aside, has anything suddenly come up for tomorrow? Or are the three of you still free for the session?” Ace asks.

“Our schedule is all clear,” Eve says.

“I can’t wait!” Lumi says, excited.

“I’m hopeful that it will still be enjoyable, despite the more limited time we’ll have,” Ace says.

“I’m sure it will! You’re a really good DM, Ace!” Lumi says.

Ace chuckles. “Thank you. I do have a talent for dramatics~”

DnD is something that ZEL, Ace, and Taka started playing together months ago. It’s lots of fun, so Lumi’s really glad they’re all doing it! Or, maybe it would be more accurate to say that she’s glad for the friend group in general…

Ace often checks up on ZEL and brings them snacks, like right now. Taka gave Lumi advice on talking to Solaris in the early days. And Luna would comfort her a lot in those days, when she was weirded out about being in a boy’s body.

Luna’s not around anymore, since she ran away. Lumi misses her, but hopes that she’s happy. And that Elias doesn’t bring her back, even though he’s trying really hard to.

Eve is grateful that the others have been so nice to her and Lumi, especially with how distrustful she was of them at first. They had been the first people in Team Meteor that she had really talked to aside from the person who had told them about her PULSE experiments, Zero, and Solaris.

She had not been particularly keen on befriending anyone in the organization, but hadn’t had much choice, given that Zero was already friends with them. She had eventually realized that they’re nice people despite their affiliations, and is glad for their friendship.

She misses Luna as well, but can’t really blame her for running away, and hopes she’s happy.

…Zero guesses he’s also pretty glad for the group. Ace befriended him even before Eve and Lumi were around, back when he was just a grunt. Taka and Luna were nice to him, too.

Of course, he doesn’t approve of Luna having run away. Doesn’t understand why she would, when she had both a high rank in Team Meteor and a father who wants her around. But… he hears she evolved her Eevee into an Umbreon, so that’s pretty cool.

All that aside, though, ZEL continues talking with Ace, glad for both the company and the break from their work.

— — —

In the week or so after the DnD session, ZEL once again spends most of their time focused on work, whether that means working on PULSE machines or occasionally being called on to assist with other machines.

Sometimes, it gets kind of… lonely? Maybe that’s not the right word, given that their situation means they’re never alone. But Lumi often wishes they could see their friends more than they do… especially since the DnD session didn’t really go well, due to the new systems manager, Terra, crashing it.

There’s nothing Lumi or the others can really do about it, though. Taka and Ace are both pretty busy with other things, and…

…Luna is gone. That’s it. Eve and Lumi were never friends with anyone else in Team Meteor. There are people they know and know of, but clearly, there was never a friend.

Anyway… today, ZEL is at Blacksteam, Eve checking over the PULSE machine here. As she does, the PULSE Muk lets out gurgling cries, and Lumi frowns.

In the process of becoming a PULSE Pokémon and polluting the lake, Muk’s entire body has been reduced more or less to… well, the best way to put it is probably “slop.” Eve’s technology has kept it alive for years, but… she said it probably won’t last much longer…

That’s not what Zero is focused on, though. His mind— or at least his part of it— is on the fact that Carly and Amaria are here. It’s supposed to be a trap that Ace lured them into, but he wouldn’t be surprised if the grunts aren’t competent enough to stop the two from running through the building.

It wouldn’t matter, though. Carly’s not going to defeat this PULSE, and Amaria won’t be doing anything, either. If they try, Zero will stop them.

Actually, it’s more likely that Solaris will stop them. He’s standing nearby, after all, and Eve wouldn’t be surprised if he was here in the first place specifically because of the trap. He probably has some kind of plan.

Lumi hopes that Carly and Amaria don’t show up. Solaris can be really scary… she’s afraid he might hurt them…

But eventually, ZEL hears a familiar voice. “Hey!”

They turn around to see Carly staring down a grunt.

“Uh… what should I do, boss?” the grunt asks.

“Stand aside,” Solaris says. “I will deal with her myself.”

The grunt obeys the order, and Carly strides forward with all the confidence of someone who doesn’t know what she’s walking into.

“Um, I know you didn’t ask, but—” Lumi says, glancing around nervously. “If you want my opinion, ah, you really probably shouldn’t have come here…”

But Carly doesn’t focus on ZEL. Instead, she stares straight at Solaris. “It’s you again. You’re Team Meteor’s leader, aren’t you?”

She’s… she’s already met Solaris? That makes Lumi squirm a bit before Zero forces her to stop, especially with how calm Solaris seems as he talks to Carly. His identity is supposed to be a secret, so if he’s not worried, that means…

Well, that’s what she gets.

It only becomes more clear what’s about to happen as Solaris invites Carly to get a closer look at Muk, and starts to explain it to her.

“I am told you are already intimately acquainted with our most recent PULSE line,” Solaris says. “PULSE Muk was our prior invention. The work of the one beside me, in fact.”

Zero feels pride, but Eve frowns, glancing away.

“Traditional pollutants would never have contaminated Azurine Lake as such,” Solaris continues. “A more forceful solution was required. A toxin strong enough to chase humans away from an increasingly tainted land… yet, it is designed to fall away the moment they have left. Nature always wins. Sometimes it just needs a little help.”

“…why?” Carly asks, not turning around.

“‘Why?’” Solaris repeats.

“What’s the point?” Carly asks, sounding angry. “You called this city a junkyard, but… how much of it is the way it is because of you?”

A lot of it. Maybe all of it.

“This city was a junkyard long before Team Meteor was formed. We only seek to reclaim it,” Solaris claims. “As for this Muk… it does not take a medical expert to understand, even at a glance, the extent to which it suffers. Who knew that even a creature whose body was already little more than a pile of filth could deteriorate further still. Even the drool it secretes begins to mix, melting and melding further and further in form with its own toxins.”

He takes a Poké Ball from his belt and walks to stand multiple paces behind Carly as she trembles. “I suspect soon we will need to keep it in a bucket.”

“That’s enough,” Eve says, trying to be firm. She would usually never interrupt him like this, but she can’t stand this. She knows she can’t stop what’s about to happen, but… “The system was incomplete to begin with. If you were to permit me more time to refine the physical restraints, we might—”

Solaris sends out his Garchomp and speaks sternly. “Consider carefully if you wish to continue speaking out of line as you are.”

“…yes, Commander Solaris,” Eve says quietly. “My apologies.”

It was stupid of her to talk like that, but Zero’s body trembles with Lumi’s fear, despite his efforts to keep still. She knows just as well as Eve and him that Solaris plans to kill Carly where she stands. If they’re going to have to witness it, he should at least get it over with instead of going on about how Muk is dying because of Eve.

“In due time, this machine will surely kill this Muk,” Solaris says.

“H-how could you…?” Carly asks, distressed and enraged. “All of this, how could you?”

It’s a question Eve asks herself often.

“It is a necessary sacrifice for the good of the region,” Solaris claims. “One can accomplish nothing if they are not willing to make sacrifices.”

It’s similar to the answer Eve usually lands on.

“So, Carly,” Solaris continues. “What will you sacrifice? Your time? Your spirit?”

Eve and Lumi both close their eyes.

“Or perhaps, much like this Muk which so desperately calls for your help, your life?” Solaris finishes.

“Huh?” Carly asks.

There’s a Pokémon cry that rings out over Muk’s gurgling… but it’s not Garchomp. Zero opens ZEL’s eyes just in time to see Amaria jump down from above and command her Kingdra, which has intercepted Garchomp, to use Ice Beam.

The attack freezes Garchomp, and Solaris recalls it, displeased, before focusing on Amaria and her Sapphire Bracelets, walking over to her. Expectedly, she’s not too keen on handing them over. Her Kingdra ends up moving past ZEL to join its Trainer, and Solaris sends out his Gyarados.

“Carly, try to deactivate the PULSE while I keep him busy!” Amaria says.

“Right!” Carly says.

“I don’t think so!” Zero snaps, grabbing a Poké Ball from his belt at random.

“It would seem your presence here is an impediment,” Eve says as Zero sends out Glaceon.

“So get the hell out already!” Zero adds.

“I could say the same thing to you!” Carly says, sending out an Arcanine.

That’s fair.

No it’s not!

The battle starts, and Glaceon, Espeon, and Umbreon fall one by one, to Zero’s frustration.

“Tch, no choice then!” he eventually says, looking over to Muk as he recalls Umbreon.

After all, Carly’s going to attack the PULSE anyway, so what else is he supposed to do? Ask the grunts in the room for help? Absolutely not! He can do this by himself!

But in the end, while Muk takes down half of Carly’s team, her Arcanine takes it down in turn. Muk lets out a strained cry, and starts to crumble.

“Ah-ah… I’m sorry, we were too weak…” Lumi mutters, looking down at the ground and tearing up a bit.

Zero scowls, wiping their eyes. She’s really still doing this?

“…fuck,” Carly says, sounding upset.

Lumi looks back up. “Solaris, I— I’m sorry, we couldn’t…”

“Useless,” Solaris says, causing Zero to flinch.

Solaris is clearly frustrated, but ends up deciding that he won’t take the Bracelets like this, and has his Tyranitar attack Amaria head on before ordering a retreat. Like in Obsidia, Carly is more focused on her friend, and so leaving isn’t difficult.

“I’m sorry about this, Commander,” Zero says as everyone walks through the hall. “I’ll defeat Carly next time.”

“I should hope so,” Solaris says, expression impossible to read.

Of course Zero will! He owes everything to Solaris and Team Meteor. They took him in when he had nobody. So if Carly is a threat to them, he’ll stop her.

Next time, definitely.

— — —

A little over a week later, ZEL stands in a base hidden in Tanzan Mountain with a recent recruit, some old doctor named Sigmund, as well as the PULSE Abra. Zero glares at the latter, thinking some very rude things that he knows it hears with its telepathy.

This stupid thing keeps disobeying orders, which should be literally impossible, but Eve must have done something wrong.

In reality, it’s more of an inherent flaw of the premise. Abra is supposed to be able to bypass anything that would stop it from teleporting somewhere, which means it needs to be able to ignore any sort of machine input. And PULSE Pokémon are controlled using the machines, so…

Well, maybe Eve should have accounted for that!

She has no idea how she was supposed to account for that.

The point is that ZEL has been holed up in this base almost constantly since leaving Blacksteam, and they’ve spent most of that time trying to get this stupid Abra to behave while it causes random things and even people in the Chrysolia area to teleport around.

Zero doesn’t think he’s ever been this frustrated before, except for maybe in the early days of this whole ZEL thing.

Probably more often than that.

He’s so frustrated that he barely even stops glaring as Carly enters the room with two others, only glancing in their direction long enough to register what her two friends look like— one’s a woman with dark pink, purple, and dark blue, shoulder length hair, the other a girl with pink hair and a teal hair decoration of some kind. Saphira and Laura, from what he knows.

After that, he only vaguely pays attention to what’s said, internally screaming at Abra to obey. That is, until Sirius enters the room and, after failing to get any of the intruders to move, says something that definitely catches his attention. “ZEL, I’ve just received a communication. Lin will be coming here shortly to observe our progress.”

ZEL’s eyes widen.

“Lin…” Sigmund mutters.

“Why does that sound familiar?” Saphira wonders.

“Probably because nobody in this godforsaken team can find it in their heart to shut up about her,” Sirius says bitterly. “Lin this— Lin that. How many promotions in a row has she gotten now? I swear, even Solaris answers to her by now.”

“She’s coming n-now though?” Lumi asks, not squirming only because Zero forces it. “Abra still won’t listen to us…”

ZEL has only had a few encounters with Lin since Rhodochrine, but their opinions on her haven’t improved. She’s still scary… unsettling… and she’s rude.

But like Sirius mentioned, she’s been promoted very quickly, rising up from grunt to admin quicker than anyone else in Team Meteor has. Definitely much quicker than Zero did.

The PULSE Abra was also her idea, so if she sees how badly it’s going, she might get upset. It’s hard to imagine, given how blank she always seems, but… well, obviously Zero’s not scared of her, or anything, but he’d rather not upset her.

…still, though, what’s so great about her? Sure, she apparently defeated both an Elite Four member and a high ranking Gym Leader back to back, but Zero could do that, too, if he had more time to train.

Whether or not that’s true— and it definitely is!— it’s beside the point.

Laura takes a step further into the room, looking concerned. “Why are you using Abra to teleport things around?”

“Um, we’re not… it’s just doing that on its own,” Lumi explains. “We just want to get into a certain place, but it’s sealed tight, so… Lin thought, maybe if we amplify Abra’s power, and ask it nicely… that maybe it could teleport us into there.”

Carly scowls. “‘Ask it nicely?’”

Lumi frowns, glancing away, because… Carly’s right. PULSE Pokémon don’t get a choice. They get modified, mutated, and used. Transformed into something so unstable that they die if they faint, and the ones who have been stopped so far would’ve had horrible deaths even if they hadn’t been defeated.

“That’s enough,” Sirius says. “Focus on getting that thing tamed, otherwise Lin is going to have all of our heads.”

“Hey, we’re still busting up this party,” Saphira says, sounding annoyed. “Don’t think you can just ignore us.”

Sirius sneers. “In that case, you can be our test subject. Go ahead, ZEL.”

Teleport Saphira away immediately! Zero demands in his thoughts.

…please? Lumi tries adding.

“Allow me to finish what I started on the lake!” Saphira says, taking a step towards Sirius… only to disappear with a flash of light and a sharp sound.

About. Damn. Time.

“S-Saphira……..? Where did she……..” Laura says, worried, as Carly looks over her shoulder to stare at Abra with wide eyes.

“Goodbye, Saphira. I’ll enjoy not meeting you again,” Sirius says, smug, as he stares at the empty space where Saphira was. “And the others, ZEL?”

Laura and Carly next! Zero thinks.

Please! Lumi adds again.

Laura then disappears with the same light and sound.

“Bring—” Carly starts before disappearing as well.

“Very good,” Sirius says, pleased. “Where did you send them?”

“Um, I— I don’t think they actually know…” Lumi says.

“It could be anywhere,” Eve adds.

It could be far. Or near. Hopefully near.

“Work on it. We need to have that Abra focused to perfection. Our time is running thin,” Sirius says before leaving.

Zero glares at his back as he goes. Who does he think he is, making demands of Zero? They’re both admins. Sure, Zero has been told to listen to Sirius… and Taka… and as of recently, Lin. But he’s an admin.

Whatever. He turns back around to face Abra. So you’re finally ready to behave?

ZEL is then teleported to the middle of Chrysolia Forest.

Zero blinks. Once. Twice. Three times. And then he seethes, screaming up to the sky loudly enough to make several nearby bird Pokémon fly away, his hands both in a claw formation as if he could grab Abra from here. “GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!”

ZEL stands there for several moments as Zero stews in his frustration, then he starts the trek back to the base. He’s going to do something about this Abra. It’s not better than him.

“You need—” Eve starts, only to get interrupted by a tree teleporting right in front of them. Zero steps around it. “You need to keep calm. Getting angry won’t help.”

“How am I supposed to stay calm after that?!” Zero demands. “Just when it finally seems like that thing is listening, it teleports us into the middle of the damn woods! Aren’t you frustrated?!”

“Of course I am, but… let’s stop for a second.” Eve says.

“No.” Zero spits.

Eve sighs, and stops him from walking any further. Controlling his body against his wishes is difficult, but she focuses and digs his heels into the ground.

“Hey, cut it out!” Zero demands.

Instead, Eve takes a few deep breaths. In… and out… in… and out… in… and out… “…feel better?”

“…maybe a little bit,” Zero grumbles reluctantly. “But that’s enough time wasted. Let’s go.”

Eve relents, and Zero continues on the way back to base.

Once they get to the room in the back, he walks over to Abra. Now, you—

ZEL is then teleported to a cell in the jail room.

“…I’m gonna kill that thing!” Zero yells, hurrying out of the room and heading to the back once again.

“N-not really, right?” Lumi asks, honestly unsure with how angry he feels.

Zero doesn’t answer, though, instead entering the back room and stomping over to Abra, glaring harshly. “Behave, you stupid vermin!”

“Er, that is… um…” Lumi says. “Would you please listen to us, Abra?”

Asking nicely seemed to work before, so maybe it’ll work again…?

That hope is dashed by Abra teleporting ZEL once again, though at least this time, it’s only a few feet away.

“I believe that was Abra’s way of politely declining,” Sigmund says.

“Hey!”

Zero whips around to see Carly standing in the doorway. “…you made it back? This thing really is useless.”

That’s so mean!

It’s deserved. The one time Abra obeyed, and Carly was able to get back almost as quickly as ZEL got back from the woods?! Sure, that took a while because of the trees teleporting, but still!

“Perhaps it would be best to just terminate the project before this ‘Lin’ arrives,” Sigmund suggests. “It sounds like she has a rather critical nature.”

“This level of uncontrolled power would indeed be unacceptable,” Eve says.

As far as she knows, none of this teleportation has caused any serious harm to anyone, with, against, or completely uninvolved with Team Meteor. But it’s feared that that could change at any moment. All Abra would need to do is teleport someone high up enough in the air, and…

Lumi frowns, looking at the PULSE. “But can we really hurt the poor Abra after all we’ve put it through?”

After all, it’s only doing all of this because of what they’ve done to it…

Zero looks away, scowling. “We can’t do anything at all if we can’t even get close enough to deactivate the machine without the stupid thing jumping us away!”

ZEL is then teleported closer to Carly.

“I don’t need your sass, Abra!” Zero snaps.

Carly looks highly amused. “Pffft—!”

“Don’t laugh at me!” Zero demands.

“Regardless, you wish to spare the people of Spinel Town the chaos caused by this untamed teleportational energy, correct?” Eve asks.

Carly looks surprised. “Wait, you’re actually gonna let me…?”

“Sure. We’ll just let you deal with it!” Zero says with a smirk. “Go ahead, take the little bugger out! It’ll work out for all of us with how annoying it is—”

ZEL is then teleported outside of the room. Zero immediately heads back inside, teeth clenched. “OKAY, that’s enough! Carly, deal with this.”

Carly nods, then turns around and sends out her Ampharos. She speaks in a sad tone. “Sorry about this…”

So are Lumi and Eve.

It takes some time, with the way Carly’s Pokémon have to dodge around Abra’s Hyper Beam spamming. But eventually it, like all of the PULSE Pokémon that Carly has faced so far, crumbles.

As she recalls her Pangoro, Lumi walks closer to the now empty PULSE machine with a frown, tearing up. “I’m so sorry it had to come to this, Abra…”

Zero wipes their eyes, scowling, as Carly speaks, sounding sad. “…me, too…”

As if she actually cares.

Regardless, things should go back to normal now— as Eve says when Sigmund asks, some things in the area may still teleport for a time, but only because they’ve already been imbued with psychic energy. No more instances of such things will be created, and the energy that’s there will run out eventually. Slowly, Chrysolia will calm itself.

“Lin has just arrived,” Sirius says as he walks into the room. His expression sours at the sight of Carly. “…Carly is back already?”

Why’d he say that like he expected it?

“Sure am,” Carly says.

“She helped us subdue Abra, so…” Lumi says.

“‘Subdue—’” Sirius repeats, eye widening as he looks over to the empty PULSE machine. “You terminated her project?”

“It was unresponsive to all methods of control,” Eve says.

Sirius glares at ZEL before he suddenly seems calm. “Right. Then Carly will simply have to take the fall. You did not authorize this, or it will be your head. Understood?”

Zero nods, forcing his body not to tremble. Lumi really should be used to this kind of thing by now.

“Hey, I’m not—!” Carly starts, only to cut herself off with a yelp as Sirius steps forward, grabbing her arm.

“Nobody asked you,” he says before turning around, dragging her with him. She thrashes for a moment, only to freeze up when Lin enters the room.

“Report,” Lin says.

“We experimented with using the PULSE to amplify Abra’s powers to teleport a party into the heart of the ruin,” Sirius says. “However, Carly interfered and forcibly terminated the project before it could be controlled. We were just about to dispose of her.”

ZEL’s eyes widen. Does he actually mean it…?

About time.

Carly doesn’t say anything, staying frozen. Lin, on the other hand, seems more interested in Sigmund, who steps forward and introduces himself.

“Dr. Connal has been a great asset to us,” Sirius says. “With his help, we have now obtained two of the four Keys— Ruby and Amethyst.”

That seems to snap Carly out of whatever’s caused her to freeze, as she looks to him— not that he seems to notice, focusing on Lin.

“Forgive me for asking, but have we, somehow, met before?” Sigmund asks.

Oh? That’s interesting; nobody seems to know where Lin came from. She just kind of… showed up, one day. Her only preexisting connection to anyone, it seems, is with Terra, and both of them are pretty tight lipped about how they know each other.

“Impossible,” Lin says.

“Y-yes,” Sigmund says, seeming unsure.

Well, there goes that lead. Even if she’s lying, she’s clearly not going to say much more.

Sirius goes back to talking about the Keys, but soon gets into some kind of one-sided spat with Lin. It’s hard to tell exactly what’s going on, with how cryptic she is, but he lets go of Carly, stepping forward to grab Lin by the collar and accuse her of setting up a fake Emerald Brooch, and… rigging it to explode? What?

“Can you not create a more professional outlet to vent your frustration at your own failures?” Lin asks, eerily unfazed for someone who has been grabbed and is being yelled at. “To turn on your fellow commander… I fear it will call into question your loyalty.”

She’s calling herself that, too? Technically, commander is Solaris’ title, but sometimes it’s used for the admins. Usually Sirius— Taka doesn’t really like it.

Nobody ever calls Zero commander, for some reason.

“My loyalty?!” Sirius asks, incredulous.

“Your competence as well,” Lin says. “An astute leader like yourself should have the common sense to know when to fight, when to stay quiet, and when to bend the knee.”

Eve notices Carly tilting her head just slightly… and then the room shakes violently, causing Lumi to gasp.

A grunt enters the room. “Commander! A giant Steelix has just breached the side of the base! It’s tearing it apart!”

“A what?” Sirius asks before the room shakes again.

“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about this, would you, Carly?” Lin asks.

After a short moment of silence, Carly stands a bit straighter and speaks, way too confident. “Yeah. Nature’s winning.”

Lin stares at her with those dead eyes for a moment before turning to face the grunt. “Size does not equate to strength. I’ll deal with it.”

That’s kinda a weird thing to say, since Lin’s actually pretty tall, but Lumi’s not about to point that out.

Lin leaves, and the grunt glances around, clearly unsure of what to do.

“Leave,” Sirius orders.

The grunt nods and obeys.

It’s silent for a few long moments, still except for when the room shakes, and then Sirius steps to the side. “Carly. Leave us. Now. This will be your only chance.”

He’s really just letting her go?

“Good luck, Carly…” Lumi says, causing Carly to look back in surprise.

“Lumi, Carly is the enemy, don’t wish her luck!” Zero snaps.

“O-oh… right,” Lumi mutters, glancing away.

“…bye, Lumi,” Carly says before running off.

Lumi just stares after Carly, surprised.

“Don’t do that again,” Zero demands.

After all, Carly is, like he said, the enemy, and she's eventually going to be dealt with. Maybe he didn’t beat her this time, but it doesn’t count, since they didn’t really battle.

Next time, he’ll beat her for sure. No matter what.

— — —

That night, ZEL tosses and turns in bed, Eevee plush in Zero’s arms.

There’s so much to do lately. So much that’s happened. So much to think about.

Lumi is thinking about Ametrine City. It may not have been where she was born, but when she thinks of home, that’s where her mind goes.

Does anyone up there miss her? Maybe not; she wasn’t really able to make any super close friends there. At first it was because she was more focused on her mom, and then it was because she herself got sick. There was one friend that Eve made, but… Lumi guesses they were never really friends, considering…

Well, the point is that there’s probably nobody up there who misses her and Eve.

Eve is thinking about work. Since Team Meteor is losing locations, and thus, storage space, she needs to come up with a location to discard an old PULSE machine, from back when Team Meteor tried to get her to build them to be compatible with any Pokémon.

…Ametrine Mountain, maybe? Somebody on the other side could find it and study it, and maybe that could help them somehow. There’s a lot of empty space, there, so that could work…

Aside from that, the PULSEs that she has to work on are so much more complicated than any of the previous ones, and it’s always possible that she could be called on to assist with other machines. She’s probably going to get even less time off than she has before…

Well, she’s the one giving herself extra work. She doesn’t have to—

She’s not discarding her plans for a device that will let people check the vitals of those being controlled by the PULSE Hypno, should the plans to add that function go through.

Well, Zero’s frustrated. It’s like Lumi and Eve think it’s soooo easy to be him. But it’s not! He’s made sacrifices and changes for those two, and they’ve never even thanked him!

Why would they ever thank him?

He sleeps with this stupid Eevee plush—

Her name is Veevee!

—broke his nail biting habit—

That was a necessity. Biting his nails while working with machines would’ve been bad for their health.

—let them keep their Pokémon and train them—

That’s barely anything, comparatively, and benefits him, too.

“Shut up!” Zero screams.

ZEL ends up having a late night argument for far from the first time.

— — —

A week and a half later, ZEL arrives at a room in the Devon building, a bit cluttered with boxes and a few stray items, but far from unusable. Ace sits at a table in the middle of the room, having set up the DnD game.

“Hello, friends!” Ace says with a grin as Zero walks over and sits down. “Sorry about the change in location; if you haven’t heard, Carly and her own friends discovered the sanctum not too long ago, so it had to be abandoned.”

“Of course she did,” Zero says, rolling ZEL’s eyes.

“So… is Taka not here yet?” Lumi asks.

“No, he’s been stationed in Agate City since that all started, so it may take him some time to get here,” Ace says.

“I’m just glad that we all got some time off simultaneously,” Eve says. “Everyone’s so busy these days…”

“…yes, I suppose that’s true,” Ace says. “That aside, you may all rest assured that Terra is currently busy, and has no way of knowing of this session besides.”

Oh—

—thank—

—god.

“So, how does your work find you?” Ace asks.

Eve shrugs. “It’s all going well.”

For Team Meteor.

“Hypno is—”

Literally lobotomized.

“—doing its job. Clawitzer will—”

Have its brain rendered vestigial, and kill so many people.

“—be ready on time, it looks like, as will Mr. Mime. Though…”

“Is something wrong?” Ace asks.

So much is.

“Lin has some odd requests about what the PULSE Mime should look like,” Eve says.

Ace quirks a brow. “How so?”

“I’m mostly confused about her wants regarding the growths on its head,” Eve says. “She wants them to be dark blue at the top, purple in the middle, and dark pink at the bottom.”

Ace looks confused. “What purpose could that serve?”

“I have no idea. Most of her notes on the subject make sense, but we just can’t figure out why she’d care about this,” Eve admits. “Aside from that, when I was given the Mr. Mime, I was told that a female one was caught specifically on Lin’s request.”

“Why would that matter?” Ace asks.

“Again, we can’t figure that out,” Eve says.

“It’s stupid,” Zero huffs. “It’s just going to be shoved into a dark corner underneath Labradorra, anyway. Barely anyone is going to see it!”

Carly might—

She won’t!

“I guess we likely won’t be figuring it out, since that would mean asking Lin,” Eve says.

Ace grimaces. “Yes, I would not want to do that, either.”

Lin seems harder and harder to approach by the day.

Apparently, her idea of dealing with Saphira was knocking her off of a Steelix the size of a mountain. She lived, somehow, but all things considered, that couldn’t have been Lin’s intention.

Aside from that… well, Sirius said it best, when he said it seems like even Solaris answers to Lin at this point. Most of the things that Team Meteor is currently doing are either things she came up with or things she endorsed.

Zero doesn’t get why Solaris listens to her so much. She hasn’t even been around for that long! Not compared to Zero, at least. Sure, she’s come up with some good ideas, but most, if not all, of them have been reliant on his PULSE technology.

They’re Eve’s inventions!

His PULSE technology. It was made with his body, and he’s the one that sought Eve out years ago. So much of what Team Meteor has done has only been possible thanks to him. So why is it Lin who gets all the praise?

ZEL’s thoughts and conversation with Ace are cut off by Taka arriving, meaning the game can start.

…except maybe their thoughts don’t stop entirely, especially Zero’s frustrated ones. He’s got a lot to be frustrated with after all. Multiple people. Not just Lin, but also Carly.

So can he really be blamed when his frustration ends up boiling over at one point, and he does some completely justified complaining?

“I just don’t get what her problem is!” he says. “Why does she have to be… well, such a headache?”

That’s what people in Team Meteor have been calling Carly, and it fits.

Her constant meddling doesn’t even make sense! Yeah, sure, Zero knows that the whole point of the PULSEs and the other operations is to cause unrest and chaos in Reborn. But why does she give a damn? She’s not even from here!

Apparently she’s from Sinnoh, on the other side of the world. And she only got to Reborn about a week before the Obsidia incident. Sure, it was on the train that Team Meteor bombed, but she walked away from it just fine! Why does she have to get in their way?!

“I dunno, she seems nice…” Lumi says.

Sure, Carly isn’t usually nice to ZEL, but… they kinda deserve it. And she did say bye to Lumi last time!

But aside from that, she apparently has a lot of friends. So she’s probably really nice.

“Please. She’s killing the PULSE Pokémon, remember?” Zero asks.

Since when does he care?

He doesn’t, obviously, but Lumi and Eve do, so they should dislike Carly.

“Only because that is the natural consequence of defeating them,” Eve points out.

The deaths of the PULSE Pokémon are sad, but it’s better for them to be defeated. Maybe even for the Pokémon themselves.

“Yeah, well… she also killed Borealis, remember?” Zero asks. “You guys heard about that too, right?”

Everyone in Team Meteor knows the story by now. After Carly defeated the Beryl PULSE Tangrowth, Lin and Borealis had some kind of confrontation that ended with him and Carly running off. Then she threw him off of Beryl Bridge.

“Yeah, but… it’s just a rumor, right?” Taka asks. “There’s no solid proof she actually did it.”

“But it makes sense!” Zero insists, confused. “Ace, didn’t you say she and him ran off together, and then she turned up dead?”

“That is what I saw, yes,” Ace confirms. “But I will remind you that there was some time between the escape and the confirmation of death, so any number of things could’ve happened in between!”

“But who else could it have been, and why wouldn’t she have?” Zero asks. “Doesn’t it just make the most sense?”

“Um… she seemed really upset about killing Tangrowth, Muk, and Abra,” Lumi points out. “So no, it kinda doesn’t really make sense…”

She still remembers how horrified Carly had seemed after the Obsidia Tangrowth crumbled. It reminds Lumi of how she felt, the first time she saw a Pokémon die. And Carly seemed sad about Muk and Abra, too…

“The evidence for it is all circumstantial at best, so I agree with Lumi,” Eve says.

Carly’s actions that they’ve witnessed have been just— while the deaths of the PULSE Pokémon are unfortunate, there’s no real reason to believe she’d actually kill someone if she didn’t have to.

A bunch of people died at the Tanzan base though!

And those deaths were all caused by Saphira, not Carly.

Zero groans. “Well, what do you two think?”

Sure, Taka and Ace were saying things against the idea before, but Zero wants to know what they actually think.

Taka glances away. “…I don’t think she did it.”

“As your companions said, the evidence isn’t really all that strong, and the act in question doesn’t seem to be in her nature to do! And so I don’t believe that she did it either,” Ace says. “Sorry, but it seems you’re outvoted!”

Zero doesn’t understand. Why wouldn't they agree with him here?

“Are you sure there’s nothing in her past that lines up with it? Didn’t you say you were looking into her?” he asks.

It’s quiet for a short moment, Taka looking over to Ace as well, before they answer. “…nope! I didn’t find anything.”

Damn it.

Well, that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing, just that Ace didn’t find anything.

Possibly because there’s nothing to find.

But even if Carly hasn’t murdered anyone yet, it doesn’t mean she won’t.

They’ll see.

— — —

A few weeks pass, during which ZEL mostly just does the same things as usual.

It can get pretty monotonous, and the work can even put a physical strain on them. It would probably be easier with some help… but not letting anyone else work on the PULSE machines whenever possible is one of the few things that they all agree on. If not all for the same reasons.

Still, though. There are several times where Lumi tries to suppress her discomfort after hours spent working on machines, and Eve feels a pang of guilt for putting Lumi through that, which leads to Lumi feeling guilty for worrying Eve, which leads to Zero telling them both to get over themselves, which typically leads to some sort of bickering.

The first big thing of note to happen is that an unplanned operation starts in Ametrine City… because of a Pokémon wandering into the PULSE machine that Eve had dumped in the mountain.

Yet another thing she has to feel guilty for, she supposes.

The second big thing is the Labradorra City takeover. As of now, that was pulled off a few days ago, and the PULSE Clawitzer will be put to use starting tomorrow. So from this point forward, most of their work should be smaller things.

In fact, the only big things for them to work on in the foreseeable future should be the PULSE2 and the Arc-PULSE, and the latter will eventually reach a point where it’s impossible to work further on it until the Relic Stone is acquired.

It’s not looking like that will happen any time soon, though. There’s apparently no sign of the Relic Stone in Agate City, no matter where anyone looks. That could obviously change any day, but… well, Eve and Lumi can at least hope it doesn’t.

So all things considered, there’s a lot less for them to do. Most, if not all, of their duties are PULSE related. It seems they’re even called upon less often for help with other machines as time passes.

Usually, they would seek out Ace or Taka. But they’re stationed at the Devon building, and while he’s nearby at the moment, he’s really busy, having been put in charge of the prisoners that were taken during the takeover. So it’s just ZEL.

Currently, they sit outside in Labradorra, against the wall of a building. Just… relaxing. Their Eeveelutions are nearby, Glaceon snuggled up to their side while Espeon and Umbreon lay on the ground a bit further away, the latter’s head resting on top of the former. Lumi brings a hand to scratch behind Glaceon’s ear, and smiles when she lets out a happy yip.

This whole city takeover thing is… odd. Partly because it means that ZEL can just… walk around outside. Aside from operations and going from place to place, they haven’t really spent much, if any, time outside since before sharing a body.

Part of it is due to how busy they are, but there’s also the matter of keeping a low profile. While most members of Team Meteor are allowed to go out and about as long as they’re not busy, they obviously have to do it in a way that avoids letting anyone know they’re with the organization, or attracting any sort of suspicion.

That’s… not exactly feasible for ZEL. The way they talk to themselves tends to catch the eye of even their coworkers who know the situation. And while they’re much better at sharing a body then they were in the early days, there are definitely times when their movements make it very obvious that they’re multiple people in one body, erratic and contradictory.

Eve also thinks it’s likely due to distrust. That Solaris believes that, if they were allowed to go out during their downtime, she and Lumi would overpower Zero’s control and run off. Which, to be fair, she probably would’ve tried a long time ago if it were just her on the line, and not Lumi.

…Eve’s allowed to care about herself, too…

Well, it’s a stupid idea either way! Obviously Zero would never let that happen. But he’s fine with spending his time doing important things for Team Meteor… though it is nice to take a break like this.

“Hey, Zero…” Lumi starts, curious. “What are you gonna do once we get our bodies back?”

“What?” Zero asks, confused.

“You never really talk or think about what you want to do when, um, Team Meteor wins,” Lumi says. “I’m just curious.”

Zero hums. “Well… just because we win, it doesn’t mean there won’t be more to do. So I’ll keep working with Team Meteor.”

“That’s all you want…?” Lumi asks, a bit sad at the idea.

“Of course. Team Meteor needs me,” Zero says. “…what about you guys?”

“I think it would be fun to travel!” Lumi says, smiling a little at the idea. “Unova… Kalos… maybe even the eastern regions?”

“Obviously I’ll continue to look for a cure for Lumi,” Eve says.

“Um, I kinda meant after that…” Lumi says with a frown.

“Solaris will probably just cure her with Arceus,” Zero adds. “Because we’re going to win.”

It doesn’t really have to be said that Eve and Lumi are hoping for a scenario where they’re returned to their bodies without Team Meteor winning, and are simply going along with the idea for an easier conversation. All three of them know it.

…in truth, though, Eve hasn’t really thought about what she’d like to do after getting her body back. She’s spent a long time thinking of herself primarily as Lumi’s caretaker, has had to focus on it ever since their mom got too sick to fulfill the role. And even if getting their bodies back comes with a cure for Lumi, Eve will have to be her legal guardian until she’s eighteen, so…

“I guess I’ll take Lumi traveling,” Eve says.

“But what do you want to do?” Lumi asks.

Eve thinks for a few moments. “…it might be nice to study Pokémon in a more relaxed manner.”

She actually did enjoy studying Pokémon before this all began, and even before she built the very first PULSE machine, although it was just a casual hobby back then, reading through books full of Pokémon facts.

And… maybe it would be nice to do research for the sake of helping Pokémon, after doing so much of it for the sake of hurting them.

“Maybe you could be a Pokémon professor!” Lumi says.

“…I bet Solaris would help. Give you the means to do that, I mean,” Zero says. “He doesn’t actually hate Pokémon, you know.”

“Maybe,” Eve says.

In reality, it’s hard for her to imagine. But this is a rare occurrence of a peaceful moment and pleasant conversation with Zero, especially lately. So she’s not about to ruin it with her actual thoughts.

Of course, maybe he hears those anyway, and decides to ignore them for the same reason she doesn’t voice them.

Whatever the case, they all just relax and chat.

— — —

Around a week later, ZEL sits at a table across from Taka in the break room of some building. The four of them were having lunch together, but they finished, and now Eve is doing some work on her laptop.

“So, uh… what are you doing?” Taka asks awkwardly.

“Just looking over Magnezone’s data,” Eve says.

While Magnezone is kept in Reborn City, it’s also something between a computer and a Pokémon, for lack of a better way of putting it. That means that she can make sure it’s doing okay with her laptop.

“Is it all good?” Taka asks.

“For the most part,” Eve says. “There are a few anomalies, but nothing that looks serious, or like it would cause Magnezone any trouble or discomfort. We’re scheduled to head to Reborn City to do a more comprehensive routine check over it in a couple weeks, so I’ll just keep an eye out until then.”

“All right,” Taka says. “Is there anything I can help you with, or…?”

Right. He’s supposed to be “assisting” ZEL, but…

“No, it’s fine,” Eve says.

“All right…” Taka says.

Eve continues to type… only to soon stop as Lumi has a thought. Maybe we should tell him…

That ends up sparking an internal debate between them and Zero. They don’t have those very often— not purposely, at least— due to how difficult that can be with three voices that can talk over each other at once, but, well… having this one aloud would defeat the point.

Solaris told us not to, Zero points out.

Taka’s “assistance” isn’t actually meant to lighten their workload. If anything, it’s the other way around— they’re meant to keep an eye on him.

That doesn’t necessarily mean Taka shouldn’t know, Eve thinks.

Yeah, and… I feel bad about it, Lumi thinks. Wouldn’t you want to know, if it were you?

That would require a parent who wants to keep an eye on me, Zero thinks, definitely not bitter.

The three of them go back and forth for a minute or two before Eve tries a different approach. What if it was the other way around, and Solaris asked Taka to keep an eye on you?

I’d be happy, Zero claims.

Even if it was in secret, and possibly due to distrust? Eve asks.

…okay, fine, we can tell him, Zero thinks.

Eve sighs, looks to Taka, and speaks. “We’re not actually supposed to tell you this, but the real reason your father has you assisting us is because he wanted us to keep an eye on you.”

“…oh,” Taka mutters, blushing in obvious embarrassment.

“Can you really blame him, after losing a bunch of people and the Water Treatment Center?” Zero asks. “How’d that even happen?”

ZEL hasn’t heard all of the details, but just about everyone has been whispering about it over the last few days. Taka went to the Water Treatment Center, since it was his turn to manage it, radioed in about the Sapphire Bracelets somehow ending up down there… and then, before they could be retrieved, he and all of the others stationed there were retreating without them, leaving behind at least half a dozen dead bodies and an empty PULSE machine. It was a disaster.

Taka glances away. “Carly—”

“I told you!” Zero says, feeling vindicated as he slams his hands against the table. “She is a murderer!”

“It wasn’t her,” Taka says quickly, to Zero’s surprise. Before he can say anything, though, Taka clears his throat and continues. “I mean… the Steel Leader, Titania, was there too. She’s the one who killed the others, and Carly got upset at her for it. Tried to talk her down at one point, and nobody died after that, so…”

“So she’s not a murderer, then?” Lumi asks.

“She still could be…” Zero grumbles.

Isn’t it kind of hypocritical for him to care about that, though?

That’s different.

Or perhaps Zero just wants to be right.

Maybe Eve should shut up.

“The point is, Lumi and I thought that you should know what’s really happening,” Eve says.

“I agreed!” Zero protests.

“Eventually,” Eve says. “Like I said, though, we weren’t supposed to tell you, so we’ll ask for you not to tell your father that you know, should the subject come up. And if you want to read a book or something, that’s fine, since we don’t actually need assistance.”

“All right. I’ll go grab one from my room,” Taka says, standing up. “…is there anything you need that I can get, though?”

ZEL thinks for a few moments before Eve answers. “Actually, we forgot one of my notebooks in the storage building near the stairs to Calcenon City, to the north, when we were there earlier. Would you mind getting it?”

“I can do that. Be right back,” Taka says before leaving.

After a few moments, once Lumi’s sure he’s gone, she speaks, frowning. “Hey, um… does he seem kinda sad, lately?”

“It’s probably because he screwed up so badly,” Zero says.

“Or maybe he’s upset over what Team Meteor is doing,” Eve suggests.

Zero scoffs. “That’s just as stupid as the last time you suggested it.”

If anything, it would be the opposite— Taka’s probably upset that Team Meteor’s plans aren’t going better, given what their goals are.

Taka and Solaris’ family, the Alcantaras, were in Reborn before anyone else’s family was. They built a huge citadel to hold the meteor that Arceus came to Earth on, but then it was covered up by Reborn City. That’s why Team Meteor’s goal is to get to the citadel and use Arceus’ power to get rid of the city, and return the region to the way it used to be.

A lot of people in Team Meteor don’t know that. In fact, most people are told that the goal is pretty much the exact opposite. But Zero knows, because he’s important.

Eve goes back to her work, not seeing any point in continuing the conversation.

Eventually, Taka comes back, handing over her purple notebook, but…

“Are you okay?” Lumi asks as Taka sits down. He looks upset…

“I just feel kinda… tight, in my chest, I guess?” Taka says, looking down as he brings a hand to said area.

“Do you think you’re sick?” Lumi asks, worried.

Taka thinks for a moment, but then shakes his head. He looks back up with a confused expression, lowering his hand. “No, that’s the only thing off…”

“It could be due to negative emotions,” Eve suggests.

She’s far from a therapist, or anything, but she has spent years experiencing three people’s emotions at once. And she’s certainly no stranger to things that make the heart hurt, even before it was Zero’s heart doing the hurting.

“Like what?” Taka asks.

“Anxiety and grief are both possibilities,” Eve says.

“Or jealousy,” Lumi adds.

Not that she really thinks that’s what Taka’s feeling. It’s just on her mind— metaphorically speaking?— lately… especially after earlier, when ZEL was near the barrier and saw some of the kids who are part of the resistance against Team Meteor in Calcenon…

Taka glances away. “…no, it’s not any of that. But… I have another question. Do you guys know the names of the people in the resistance in Calcenon?”

“At least some of them,” Eve says.

“There was this one boy I saw, around my age with black hair and a green scarf. Do you have any idea who that was?” Taka asks.

“That would most likely be Andrew, or Aster, a former member of Team Meteor,” Eve says.

Taka’s eyes widen. “…huh?”

“Yeah, he just ditched, can you believe that?” Zero asks.

“Apparently it happened a few days ago, and Carly and her friends took him in,” Eve explains. “Due to that, and a few other factors, it’s been decided that he’s to be left alone for now.”

“Really?” Taka asks, surprised.

“Yeah, I mean, he was just a private,” Zero says. “Nobody important, like us.”

Taka looks down at the table, frowning. “…yeah…”

That would explain it.

— — —

It’s all going to shit.

It’s the day of Magnezone’s routine check, except when ZEL arrived for it, they were ordered to help clear out anything of importance in the Devon building, both the main part and the secret connected one. Apparently Lin has some plan that involves bringing in Carly and some of her friends, so they can’t take any risks.

Obviously, Magnezone is one of the things that needs to be relocated. But when ZEL was finally allowed to go to it, there was clearly something off about it. When Eve started to check through its data on the nearby computer terminal, she found horrible damage, much worse than anything she had seen last time she checked her laptop, the majority of the data either corrupted or missing entirely. Now, she desperately tries to fix it while Lumi frets, Zero freaks out, and Magnezone lets out sounds of distress.

“Please calm down! Please!” Lumi begs both Magnezone and Zero.

“Just what the hell did you mess up so badly?” Zero asks.

“This wasn’t a user error,” Eve says, their eyes sweeping over the screen. “Some kind of corrupted program must have been injected into the system.”

“So then your security was just shit,” Zero accuses.

Well, maybe. Obviously there was security in place for the data on the PULSE Magnezone, the Arc-PULSE, and the PULSE2 specifically, but it admittedly wasn’t the most secure. Eve didn’t see a point to that, as there’s already more advanced security in place to stop anyone outside of Team Meteor from accessing their data. But… if someone managed to bypass that somehow, such as using this computer directly…

“Stop blaming her! I don’t see you helping!” Lumi says.

“Shut up, Lumi. Can the data be repaired or not?” Zero asks, looking over to Magnezone. It looks like it’s getting worse, electricity crackling around it.

“All PULSE2 and Arc-PULSE data has been left unaltered,” Eve says, looking back to the computer. “However, the PULSE Magnezone damage is irreparable. I will need to rewrite it.”

Lumi frowns, scared. “What? But… if Magnezone is damaged—”

“There’s no time to rewrite it! Lin wanted all the PULSEs out of here hours ago,” Zero points out.

“I’m aware. Hence why the other projects have been safely relocated,” Eve says. “However, Magnezone cannot be moved under the current circumstances. The timing could not be worse.”

She doesn’t understand this. It makes perfect sense that someone would want to destroy Team Meteor’s data, but why only Magnezone’s? Taking ZEL out of the picture would be beneficial to the other side, yes, but why wouldn’t whoever did this not destroy the PULSE2 and Arc-PULSE data? Even without ZEL, Team Meteor should at least still be able to finish the PULSE2 as long as they have the data; it’s practically finished already. Probably not the Arc-PULSE, but that couldn’t be finished without the Relic Stone and Arceus, anyway. So at most, getting rid of ZEL is a setback.

It’s not just a setback! Zero’s important!

“H-hey…”

Zero whips around, seeing a very worried looking Carly.

“I-is everything okay? Do you guys need help?” she asks.

Huh?

“Do you think I’m stupid?!” Zero snaps. “I bet you did this!”

“No!” Carly says, holding up her hands, palms towards ZEL in a placating gesture. “I really want to help!”

“Yeah, right. Don’t bother lying! We know all about your little hacking scheme!” Zero says, pointing an accusatory finger at Carly.

Because clearly it had to be her and her friends. Who else would possibly benefit from this?

“No, I…” Carly says. “…when I was in Ametrine City, I found Eve and Lumi’s house, and read Lumi’s diary.”

…oh.

Damn it! Zero knew he shouldn’t have let Lumi write that last entry, should’ve just destroyed the diary entirely. But he’d been outvoted.

“Magnezone’s not hurting anyone, right? It just keeps the three of you together?” Carly asks. “If it’s not hurting anyone, there’s no reason to fight! And… I don’t want to hurt any of you.”

“Liar!” Zero screams. “There’s no way in hell we’re gonna let you get away with this!”

“Control your temper, Zero,” Eve says, turning aside to stop Zero from immediately starting a battle. “Remember, Lin requested that Carly not be harmed.”

Like Zero cares! Whatever Lin’s plan was, it obviously failed if Carly is just running around!

“Besides, I think we should consider it,” Eve adds.

“Are you kidding me?!” Zero asks, baffled.

“No. This is a dire situation, and there’s no reason to believe she’s lying,” Eve says. “Despite what you insist upon, there’s no reason to think she would want to harm Magnezone.”

“She kills all the PULSEs!” Zero points out, turning back to Carly who stares at Magnezone with a— clearly faked!— worried expression. “Besides, letting her help would mean letting her access the computer. I’m not about to sit back and let her do whatever she wants with my projects.”

“Your projects? Eve is the one that does all the hard work!” Lumi points out, frustrated. “You just bully her all the time!”

He’s always doing this! He takes credit over and over and over again, but he only got this far because of Eve!

“Just stop talking and fight already!” Zero says, letting out Aurorus.

Carly seems hesitant. “Please, don’t—”

“Flash Cannon!” Zero commands, pointing straight at Carly.

“No, don’t!” Lumi cries.

Aurorus seems confused, looking back at ZEL instead of using the move.

With wide eyes, Carly lets out her Pangoro. “Bullet Punch, and Sky Uppercut!”

“See?” Zero asks as Pangoro obeys. “She was lying!”

“She’s just defending herself!” Lumi says.

But Zero doesn’t believe it. He knows the truth. And so he ignores Lumi and Eve’s protests, continuing to battle Carly.

Except it doesn’t go well at all. Aurorus and Alakazam both seem confused by the conflicting orders given, and Espeon and Glaceon ignore Zero entirely. Umbreon’s the only one that actually listens without complication, and Carly’s Mega Altaria— because apparently she has a Mega-Z Ring now— takes him down.

But Zero isn’t done. He turns to the computer, typing in the command to release Magnezone from its restraints before Eve or Lumi can even try to stop him.

“Stop!” Lumi demands. “We don’t have to do this!”

“Yes, we do!” Zero says, turning back around as Magnezone floats over, it’s three claws rotating around it, its screws spinning, and electricity still crackling around it.

It’ll be fine. The other PULSE Pokémon crumble after defeat because of how their mutations push them to the limit, but Magnezone isn’t like that. At most, it’s defeat will cause ZEL to black out, but that’s a risk they have to take.

But is it really?

And besides, the damage—

Well, it’s not even really a risk, because Zero is going to win!

Carly’s eyes widen, and she runs over towards the west exit, recalling her Altaria.

“Oh no you don’t!” Zero says, slamming a button on the computer console to lock the doors. She can’t be allowed to get away.

“You’re being irrational,” Eve says. “Lin said—”

“I told you, I don’t care what Lin said!” Zero interrupts. “Magnezone, Mag—”

He’s cut off by his own hand slapping over his mouth. He manages to force it away, but not before Carly lets out her Arcanine.

She seems hesitant, but continues the battle. And despite Zero and Magnezone’s efforts, she and her Pokémon eventually win.

“Lumi, regardless of what happens now— please remember that I will always, always love you,” Eve says, choking up a bit as Magnezone’s claws fall to the ground one by one.

Lumi knows. Of course she knows, but—

Magnezone’s screws stop spinning, falling down into its head, and electricity crackles wildly as it weakly floats back over to the PULSE machine, falling down into it. And just like Eve feared, it begins to heat up, steam rising from it as it shudders and lets out beeps and other noises like a broken machine.

Lumi gasps, running over to the Pokémon. “Magnezone, Magnezone, no! Please be okay! Please—”

And the last thing ZEL sees is Magnezone exploding.

— — —

“—all right?”

Zero groans and pushes himself up to his feet, a hand to his head, discomfort shooting through him as he moves for some reason. Not pain, but… something else. “It’s so quiet…”

The room’s lighting has gone red, and there’s debris and damage everywhere.

“Huh?”

Zero blinks, turning to face Carly. There’s a cut on her cheek. When they lock eyes, hers widen. “…your eye…”

…this doesn’t make any sense. Zero thought for a second that he had lost hearing in the explosion, but… wouldn’t he still be able to hear Eve and Lumi? And obviously he didn’t actually lose hearing, if he can hear Carly and the electricity crackling around the… wrecked… empty… PULSE machine…

“No— Magnezone!” Zero gasps, pushing Carly aside and stepping past her.

But Magnezone is gone. At most, there’s a few scraps of metal that used to be it, and those might just be from something else entirely.

“I… I’m alone,” Zero says, voice barely audible, as he grabs his head and turns away. “I’m alone… I’m alone, I’m alone, I’m alone, I’m alone, I’m alone… and I’m… empty.”

Discomfort shoots through him at the slightest movement. He always had primary control of his body, but suddenly his movements feel a little too… free. Has he suddenly gone insane? He can’t remember ever noticing a delay to his movements before, or anyone pointing something like that out, but suddenly everything feels a microsecond too fast.

And it’s so, so quiet. There’s noise, yes, but not enough. He can pinpoint and focus on every thought in his head. There aren’t two extra voices. Eve and Lumi are… gone…

They’re…

They must be…

Zero tears up.

He feels a hand on his shoulder. “Zero…”

“DON’T TOUCH ME, MURDERER!” Zero screams, whipping around and shoving Carly away.

He knew it! He knew she was a murderer! The others didn’t believe it, but he was right! And she dares to look hurt by the words!

Good.

Zero runs off through the nearby door, which must’ve been forced open through some safety measure. He needs to get to Agate. That’s where they— he, was told to take Magnezone, which… obviously isn’t possible anymore. But Eve and Lumi’s bodies are kept in the workstation nearby, and… he doesn’t know what else to do.

What is he going to do?

— — —

An unknown amount of time later, Eve and Lumi wake up simultaneously, yet separately, for the first time in years, hearing the voice of a young girl.

“Hey! It’s time to get up!”