((Turns out I have a lot more things to do before I cut the connection now that I think of it, but soon.))
It's a while before the voice was aware again, the two halves rejoined. The first thought they were capable of having was remembering what they felt from the machine, and the sinking realization that they've once again screwed everything up. Thousands of lives lost forever again, because they were not fast enough.
The energy dissipated into Paradox Bill's energy trap. With any luck when the alarms went off about the energy surge, he probably assumed that their Rotom self had randomized into a Zoroark. They really hope so, the next stage of this won't work at all if they sent themselves from Bill's computer system and Bill thought they came back as a mutilated animal.
Previously the plan had been to send back Napoleon and Roselio. Sending them back to this world would be cruel though, even if it was to look for Roselio's wife. Then there was Flower Girl - she would never forgive them if they put her father in danger again after rescuing him. It was clear, they could not, and would not, separate that family again.
So many more people to find, and save - and they'd never been good at that. That was becoming more and more apparent. Just how much could they lose anyway? Every time they thought they were scraping the bottom of the barrel there was an even deeper layer of failure. How many times could they wear out their welcome, how many times could they ask for forgiveness? Why would they forgive? Just a vicious beast, who lived longer than they should already after all the attempts at getting butchered. No-one could even look at them anymore.
There was just not really a whole lot left, the whole dying soon thing would really just be a relief. Just a whole lot of nothingness. Worst case scenario, some angry revenants out for vengeance. Sure, whatever. Had to be better than this.
Just a bit longer though. Just a few more efforts to help which would blow up in their face. Had to try, and might as well. After that, then they finally wouldn't be around anymore to do more harm than good.
They shifted between boxes, thankful for Alice allowing them that loophole, into the item storage, into one of the containers. They set the receiver and gave the computer the signal to send. Once there, they immediately broke out of the ball and escaped from the other terminal. A few moments later, they returned a recorded message as proof of their safe passage, as well as the contact and routing information.
This was all quick and furtive. They could hear the group arriving from Gensokyo into the hall of mirrors, the greetings and relief. They were not part of any of that, they were not part of this family. There were too many debts. They would try to pay them back, and it would never be enough. There was a notice in the emails - more gloating from team rocket, with pictures of a seriously injured M4 - and forwarded it the elemental four, following in the wake of the message. After a few more moments of looking they quickly found and alerted some secret admirers that they would all soon be back in Unova.
From there, a quick message to the Major, telling him everyone was all right, stopping in to talk to Flower Girl. After that, a check up on Fennel and Bill, for more information about M4. That would hopefully be a simple rescue. Then Giratina, wherever she was - much, much harder. A quick trip home for Marion to see her family for a short while. Finally, back to the distortion world to find Sunbrella and evacuate her before helping this Bill find his Rea. Maybe then, once everyone left alive had escaped this hell, they could release Amber and Dome to try to restore this world.
First, there were some gifts to give and favors to ask.