The summit of Mount Steel was supposed to be a moment of relief. Instead, Team ScarfShield stood at the edge of something far worse than they had anticipated, three of their own affected by the Rageblight in the same instant that the machine fired its beam toward the frontier outpost below.

What followed was immediate and ugly. Scytti, Petal, and Yunara turned on the others with crimson eyes and no recognition left in them. Petal opened with a spreading curse that pulled allies into its radius, forcing Sir Toto and Meloetta to fight defensively while trying not to hurt anyone badly enough to make things worse.

Sir Toto managed to drop Yunara early — a well-placed Cacnea spike finding the exact right spot — and spent the rest of the fight trying to restrain rather than hurt, vines pulling Scytti to the stone while he worked. Meloetta fought harder than she meant to, light blazing out of her in radiant bursts at a Petal who kept absorbing hits and coming back. The beam from the machine slowly dimming as they fought. Eventually the red faded from all three, and the group stood battered and confused in the thin mountain air, unsure of who had hit whom and why.

...
...

The machine above them began to foam at the seams, suppressing its own fires. And then something, or someone stepped out of the hatch.

It was humanoid — tall, metallic, covered in the same script as the machine. It moved with deliberate precision, spoke in instructions to itself, and called itself Unit Arc-AIS. Meloetta was the only one who could communicate with it directly, trading messages on a frequency the others couldn't hear, while quietly signing fragments of the exchange to her companions behind her back. The Operative spoke in a language of objectives and adjustments — calm, cold, and impossible to fully read. It had been using the machine to amplify Rageblight for research.

It possessed the Steel Tablet. And it wanted the Water and Grass Tablets in exchange for ending the Rageblight affliction it had sent toward the frontier outpost. Meloetta senses an odd presence that seemed to instruct the operative to a degree… She attempted to taunt it, but to no avail.

The negotiation was deeply uncomfortable. The Operative confirmed it had no interest in stopping Rageblight entirely — only in completing what it referred to as an objective at Mount Faraway, a place even Yunara knew only as a legend. When Sir Toto stepped forward and told it plainly that if it was anything like the real Arceus, it wouldn't be hurting other Pokemon.

The Operative kept insisting on the proposed trade, at some point becoming 'annoyed' as the negotiation wasn't going anywhere. The odd humanoid took out another odd Arceus-shaped tablet and pressed on it, eventually placing it back on its hip.

Yunara argued that the decision is with Meloetta, as she holding the tablets. Totodile gets impatient and wants the Operative to stop hurting the Pokémon and not give up the tablets. The Operative points out the irony in his statement, as when they give up the tablets, the Rageblight can be ended in the active area immediately, but Totodile doesn't budge.

Meloetta unleashes an attack on the Operative, as it dropped the Arceus-shaped tablet. Scytti yoinks it without the Operative noticing yet despite taking the hit throws out three odd-shaped balls that release a raging Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur, while The Operative also turns blue-ish transparent.

The group fought the Operative's three summoned Pokémon while trying to find a way out that didn't involve simply handing over what the odd humanoid wanted.

As Totodile, Chansey, Scyther and Meloetta struggle to fend off from the three raging third-stage Pokemon, The Operative warned them of Mega Evolution. Things deteriorated quickly.

Petal was knocked unconscious. Sir Toto had stepped forward yet accomplished nothing except making himself a target. Scytti faced a dangerous looking Charizard, forcing Meloetta to reach out on the Operative's frequency one last time and asked, plainly, what surrendering would actually require.

The Operative paused its calculations. The original terms, it said, still stood. The tablets, for an end to the Rageblight it had sent toward the frontier outpost. A trade. Nothing more.

Fine. She signed it to the others first. "We cannot win this." and then she said it on the frequency where the Operative could hear. "We have a deal."

The summoned Pokémon stilled. The Operative stepped forward and extended its hand.

Meloetta placed the Grass tablet into it. Then the second. As the Water Tablet left her hands she held on a half-second longer than necessary — not out of hesitation, but because something was happening. Text appeared along its surface, visible only to her in the moment of contact:

The rightful bearer of a plate draws from the plate it holds.

And then it was gone, resting in the Operative's palm, and what remained was something cold and quiet that hadn't left with it. A glow, barely visible, settling around her like it had decided to stay. She didn't mention it. She wasn't entirely sure what it was.

The Operative withdrew the summoned Pokémon. The discs on the machine's hull rotated downward and went dark one by one. The Rageblight over the area was lifted. It turned and walked back into the machine.

The hatch closed. The odd discs on the hull continued their slow shutdown, rotating downward one by one. The group stood on the plateau catching their breath, and Meloetta quietly tested what had stayed with her. She raised a hand and let the intent move through it the way it had when she'd held the tablet — and water answered. She tried it again. It answered again!

Has she absorbed the tablet's power?

On the machine's hull, one of the dormant discs flickered. The hatch opened again. The Operative stepped back out, speaking on the frequency in clipped, urgent fragments.

Conflict detected. Conflict detected.

It moved closer, scanning, recalculating — and then, with the flat bewilderment of something that had never encountered a variable it couldn't account for: Currently in possession of "Splash Plate" - Inconsistency detected! Error. Creature is not a tablet. Error.

It looked at her. It looked at the tablets on its back. It looked at her again. Something shifted in its calculations. It reached slowly for an odd green sphere.

"It wants to capture me." Meloetta signed it behind her back and moved toward the cover of the rocks. When she connected to the frequency one more time to ask why, the Operative didn't answer in words. It simply raised the ball.

Petal wanted to run, Yunara mentally prepared for whatever was coming next, yet Scytti and Toto were in doubt. When Meoletta asked why the Operative wants to capture her, it noted in its flat and unnerving way, that ninety-nine other Meloetta had already been eliminated and she was the last.

Something cracked. An audible sound came from her. A no, clear and sharp, the first real sound she had made in anyone's memory. Even the Operative paused. Even Meloetta seemed surprised by herself.

Meloetta signs "Run" to the others and rushes towards the Operative, sneaking up to it and touching the other tablets on its back. Petal disguises herself as Meloetta in a flash rushing next to her. Scytti and Toto, ignore Meoletta's warning and attack the Operative at the same time, slashing into it. Yunara takes a stance and to the group it seems as if she prepares some king of psychic power.

But the operative manages to fend off their attacks, and the ball makes contact with Meoletta Disguised Petal, who took the capture instead, the Poké Ball closing around her as she vanished. It goes from bad to worse, Yunara starts to sprint off.

And the Operative throws out the other spheres releasing the Charizard, Venusaur and Blastoise once more. It instructed the Venusaur, and the great flower on its back shook loose a cascade of glittering powder that drifted down over the plateau. Meloetta dropped where she stood.

Scytti didn't hesitate. She swept her up and ran. Sir Toto watched his friends scatter. He watched the machine still standing. And he made a decision.

Instead of rushing away he rushes towards the machine, tucked himself behind a support beam beneath the machine's hull and taunted the three Pokémon to attack the structure. The Charizard struck it with rays of flame, as The Operative loses control over the situation. The machine is engulfed in flames once more. The raging Blastoise, whose cannons were already looking for a target, fell for it. The water came. It hit the beams.

What happened next was either very brave or very stupid, and Sir Toto would have been the first to admit he wasn't always sure there was a difference. The water hit the beam with the full force of something that had nothing left to prove. The beam cracked. Then it gave.

The machine groaned — and began to tip. Slowly at first, then all at once, the way that things which have stood for a very long time tend to fall. It went over the edge of Mount Steel in a cascade of metal and fire, the sound it made on the way down was long and left a silence behind it that felt like something had genuinely ended.

Sir Toto went with it.

... Oh, no!
We have to- ...no, Meloetta!
She's knocked down! ... We can't win...
Wait, Scyther?! Don't take her away!
No, don't leave me too... ... ...
Wait! No... You're right! You two are safe!
Yunara... I hope she got out. ...
Chansey, I'm sorry... I hope you will be safe too...
We'll get you! ... ...
Oh. No. Three... Big guys...
I must be brave! I can't win though...
W-what do I do?! ... WAIT!
That stupid thing... The fake Arceus!
It has to go too... But how... Oh, I know!
... ...
AUCH! ... The support is broken... Hopefully...
Oh, it hurts... Wait! The water blasts!
I-I ... I know what I can do. What I have to do! ... ...

Sir Toto, standing below the big, green machine, looks backwards. He sees his friends, running away. "I did it! But I don't know if I have the strength..." Briefly he sees the Isle of Dyle again. His friends, the other Totodiles, playing in the water, the Croconaw splashing everyone, the Feraligatrs laughing! "Wait!" Thinks Toto, there! A nice water beam...
As Sir Toto takes the last energy he has, closes his eyes briefly and sprays water with all his might, pushing the final bit of the machine, toppling it over the side. Sadly the mountain gives way, as Toto closes his eyes, content his final act might've been a good one...

The explosion came a few seconds after the silence, as if the mountain itself needed a moment to understand what had just happened. A bloom of fire erupted from somewhere far below the treeline, massive and immediate, sending a shockwave of heat rolling up the mountainside.

The forest at the base of Mount Steel caught in what seemed like an instant — orange light flickering through the smoke, spreading outward from the impact site in every direction. A great column of black and grey rose slowly into the sky, and then the fog came with it, thick and obscuring, swallowing the base of the mountain whole.

Scytti landed, set Meloetta down. The two of them stood at the edge of the plateau and watched the cloud settle over everything below, the forest burning quietly somewhere inside it, the machine gone, the summit empty. The fog didn't clear. It just thinned, slowly, the way grief does — not resolving into anything clean, just becoming slightly more possible to see through.

Meloetta stood still for a moment. Then, in a voice that surprised everyone including herself — the second sound she had made in anyone's memory, raw and unpolished and completely real — she said:

I told you to fucking run.

Scytti ignored her comment, and tried to fly over the edge hoping to find Sir Toto, only to be met with smoke and witnessing the terrible forest fire below.

Yunara stepped out from behind them, before her shape changed back to Miss Petal. Yunara's clever switch having taken the ball in her place. She looked equal parts grateful and shaken.

The plateau was very quiet, yet the raging forest fire below filled the space.

With the rageblight ended, The Guardian of Mt. Steel, Metagross emerged from below, shaken from her long sleep, taking in the scorched plateau and the absent machine and what remained of Team ScarfShield with steady, ancient eyes. They saved the Pokemon of Mt. Steel, but it came at a price.

She did not soften the truth: if Sir Toto fell from Mount Steel, survival was unlikely. But she gestured toward the Sinister Woods far below, where the fire from the machine's fall was already spreading, and said that if he had landed anywhere, it might have been there. It was thin comfort and everyone knew it.

The Aegis Shield was recovered, and the little Beldum was given the opportunity to travel with the group. Scytti accepted a Metal Coat from the Metagross, If she wanted to evolve and become even stronger, then she needed to travel to "a place of power." and make a choice that could not be undone once made.

As the group prepared to descend Mt. Steel, Scytti quietly activated the strange device recovered from the Operative. It flickered to life like a mirror showing pictures— a map, ancient and vast, with a location marked far beyond any coastline any of them recognized.

Mount Faraway... The Operative's ultimate destination. The Metagross looked at it for a long moment and said simply that reaching it would require crossing the never ending ocean. A task on its own.

The incomplete Team ScarfShield turned toward the Sinister Woods, they had to pass through it to get back to Kaleido Haven anyway, to deliver the Aegis Shield to Kaleido's Haven...

All of them had only one thing on their mind, the scatterbrained, earnest little Totodile who had surfed into Kaleido Haven on a Palafin and never quite stopped trying to do the right thing, even when doing it meant going over the edge alone...