Three days after his bizarre and unexplained hangover, Vli found himself getting daggers glared through him once more. It may not have been a dusty cliffside, yet the fierceness of the confrontation was undeniable.

“So, you say there’s hundreds of the scum there, yet no sign of the Othersider. How?”

Gareda kept her eyes trained on the Toucannon as she paced up and down, one fin hovering dangerously over the giant map in the room’s center. On the far end of the table, Cerben let out a soft growl. Gareda ignored it as usual.

“Lord Gareda,” the Toucannon whimpered, struggling to stand on his two feet. “I swear on my life, what I am telling you is the truth and nothing but the truth. No one in the world’s a better scout than me! Trust me, it’s a state of the art job I did, inspected all the nooks and crannies I could, but the Othersider turned up nowhere. But the entire Source Hills are infested with Alliance, and I swear they’re some of their strongest. Most of my time was spent fighting off would be assassins!”

“Impossible!” the Garchomp snarled. “You gave me the intelligence yourself! He is there!” She leaned over the table, ready to leap over it if needed be. All Vli could do was brace for impact.

“I-I tried my damndest, my lord! It’s just… they’re too strong!” Vli blurted out, his neck jittery from shaky breaths. “One night I was even left for dead! I was captured, and I managed to escape… barely, I don’t know how it happened anymore, I woke up and-”

Gareda spat a loogie out over the table, hitting Vli in the wing. The disgust got him to stop talking in the blink of an eye.

“That’s enough of you.” ‘Useless…’ She shook her head and glanced towards Cerben. The contempt in his eyes was matched only by her own. “Is this a known problem?”

The Arcanine gave a slow nod. “Wasn’t this precisely why I asked for help? The Alliance’s been tying up many of my resources, the Source Hills especially. The more remote areas have effectively been lost, spare the odd patrol. And what I do know only leaves me more confused. The reports coming from there are incredibly spotty.” He sighed. “So yes, it is a known problem.”

Gareda raised an eye. “Does Patrina know the full extent of this?”

Cerben sent a deadpan stare her way. “No.”

A soft grumble stirred in her throat. “Good.” ‘Still have time to fix this before heads start rolling…’ “We need a new plan.”

“Pray do tell, what would that plan be?” Cerben asked, tilting his head in an arrogant manner. “You’re not filling me with confidence here.”

“Neither are you,” Gareda said. “We’ll catch the Othersider some other way… the temple. The flute piece is there, isn’t it? That has to be their target. We will have to watch that area in specific. And all the main roads leading there. If he’s seen, we can prepare an ambush-”

“Stop right there.”

With a deep breath, the Arcanine got up, and wandered from his side of the table. Despite his size, his footfalls were soft enough to hear a pin drop. Gareda took on a defensive stature.

“What are you doing?”

Cerben sat down in front of her. Even though he had a head on the Garchomp, there was a noticeable shiver in his fur. Tall without any of the confidence.

“Let’s… have a serious heart to heart here, yes?” He turned his head. “Major Vli?”

“Y-yes?” Vli replied, still struggling with keeping one foot on the floor while he saluted.

“Could you leave us here? You seem exhausted.”

“I-I assure you that-”

Gareda put her foot down. “No. He stays here. He is under my command, and not yours.” ‘And you’re not cheating your way out of this.’

Cerben gradually lowered his head to get on eye level with Gareda. “Actually, since you brought him here, I have as much authority over what he does as you do. Correction, I have more. Especially in my own office, of all places. So please, Vli. Get some rest, will you?”

The Toucannon bowed. “Yes sir,” he said, before flapping his wings. Then, he flew his way through a door being held open a guard. Gareda raised her claw to stop him, but it was useless. Gone without so much as a feather left in his wake. After he had left, she turned back to Cerben to growl at him.

“You just dismissed my companion. Someone I invited to be here. May I ask why?”

“Because you need to listen to me, and not tie your escorts into matters that shouldn’t be their problem,” Cerben responded in a baritone voice. “I swear, you have become utterly obsessed with chasing this Othersider to the ends of Eravate, when the reason I asked for your help was to get the situation under control! You have been rampaging amok, throwing people into the dustbin, unable to see the forest for the trees! This cannot go on any longer, Gareda.”

He got a snide look in return. Gareda felt offended, as if every word he’d said was a finely honed arrow going straight through her heart.

“No, you’re the one that doesn’t understand here! You know fulwell what the ex-humans of this world have done to this world! Any Pokemon past school age knows this! Are you seriously going to let him run amok with the Alliance?” ‘Do you want disaster to strike here?! The fool!’

“Of course not,” Cerben answered, baring his teeth. “But this is preposterous. We have an Alliance problem here. We have a Dungeon problem. You call them one and the same, fine! But now you demand we ignore the problem entirely!”

“I never said that,” Gareda retorted with a flash of her own teeth. “What I said was that the Othersider has priority. He is intrinsically tied to everything the Alliance wants. Don’t-”

Cerben shook his head. “There you go again. Enough with the ramblings about the little boy. We have bigger fish to fry here.” The Arcanine sniffed the air, then took a deep breath. “Have you heard of Lon’s escape from prison the other night?”

Gareda shifted her feet on the carpet to try and make herself look as wide as possible from where Cerben sat. If words didn’t yield results, intimidation was the next step.

“Of course I have. These are the things I keep a close eye on… but that proved my point when I first came here, doesn’t it? Not only are there Alliance infiltrators and sympathisers all over these damned hills slipping right under your nose, they’re in your staff, too. How else did that fool of a cat escape, mad dog?”

“YES!” Cerben exclaimed, leaning up to Gareda, who shirked back out of reflex. “That is precisely what I have been trying to tell you! I need help to root all of this out, but you have been up to your fins trying to catch a little boy instead! I beg of you, stop this already. We can catch him in an ambush at the temple, just help me out here! If the festival goes on to be a disaster, the entire Ruby Hills will be nothing but chaos!”

Gareda grumbled under her breath, wondering why she’d agreed to get herself into this mess. No wonder Cerben struggled. All that muscle and fur hid nothing but a coward.

“...Fine. But you only have yourself to blame if your plans go wrong, do you understand?”

“...Understood,” Cerben said.

“Blegh.” Gareda tilted her head up. “Go on then. What is your plan, oh wise one?”

Cerben raised a paw and placed it on the map, making circular motions around Rustborough and the main roads nearby. “The Festival. That is our main goal at this point. We need to be vigilant… If there’s anything the Alliance wants, it’s everyone’s hearts and minds. And there’s no better way to win them over than to take over the festival celebrations here in Rustborough.”

Gareda let her arms slip beside her, shaking her head at the map. “Right… and how do you propose we solve that problem?”

“By bolstering our security in and around Rustborough,” Cerben said. He looked to Gareda for approval. “What do you think?”

Clicking her tongue, Gareda dragged her eyes back onto Cerben’s face, much to both’s discomfort. “Half measure.”

“Half measure? Why?”

“Because all you’re proposing is that we wait for something,” Gareda grumbled. “We aren’t acting in your plan. We’re reacting. Pray, what if your security measures here get dodged by, and I am only thinking out loud here, the scum deciding to make trouble elsewhere?”

Cerben shook his head. “The time around the festival is-”

“Exactly the time to be aggressive!” Gareda shouted. “No, it doesn’t matter how people perceive that! If you want a peaceful festival, you’ll have to work for it. We know where the Alliance is hiding here. We’ve got plenty of them in prison. Why don’t we go and shut them down before they even get started?” ‘Just like I shut you down as well. Not that you ever get started. Dog. Idiot dog. Mad, stupid, disgusting dog. No wonder you have trouble.’

The Arcanine sighed. “I suppose you are right. But do be careful. We can’t afford to upset the people here. Never.”

Gareda took a sharp breath while squeezing her eyes shut. ‘Can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs.’ “This won’t upset anyone with a soul. In fact, they’ll appreciate it.”

Cerben’s eyes intensified. “Watch your tone. It wouldn’t be the first time someone’s words didn’t come true.”

Gareda lowered her head in defiance. “I’m a woman of my word. You better not worry, either, mad dog…” she whispered while stroking him on the side of his head with a talon. ”I know just how to get you the exact results you want, with all the little rules you think we should abide by… Who am I to pretend otherwise?” ‘And who are you to call me a liar?’

Cerben sighed. “Then we better get started…” he said, his voice having a touch of sweetness to it. “There’s been a lot of activity you’ve noticed already. We have a lot of work ahead of us, don’t we?”

With a sigh, Gareda pulled up a chair. “Oh yes. Most certainly.” ‘Only got yourself to blame for that one.’

It was then that she condemned the rest of the day to the trash, for Cerben was bound to have many other objections to her proposals. It didn’t matter what, so it seemed, for he was bound to reject it anyway. Gareda could’ve sworn he was doing it on purpose, like it was some big prank he was playing.

But she knew better than to accuse without evidence. The truth was often more muddled than that.

* * *

Moonlight shone through the small window in Lon’s cell. The Incineroar gave it a brief glance, before his head sank back down. It wasn’t helpful to ponder over things you didn’t have. Even when it’s something as basic as your freedom.

He’d been caught. And he wasn’t getting out here. Not alone. No one was going to come to help him. No one friendly even knew where he was being held, let alone how to get him out. Aside from the occasional guard sliding some food through the door, his only company was a concrete bed, a drain in the floor, and the moonlight. What other company did he have, hope? Hope had been gone for years by this point.

Thus he was left unsurprised when the door of his cell opened, and an Arcanine stepped in.

“Come with me. I’m letting you go.”

Lon raised his head a little. “Lord Cerben… gimme a break. Yer just here to spit in my face, don’t even need to ask.”

“I am being serious here,” the Arcanine growled. “Come, fast.”

Lon clicked his tongue, his tail whipping against the wall he was leaning against. “If ye want to spit in my face, do it now. No need to bring your friends into this.”

Cerben growled louder. “It’ll be even worse if I left you in here.”

With a grunt, the Incineroar’s head turned. “Right… thought higher of ye than petty threats. Spit it out, what are ye doing?”

“I had a vision in my sleep,” Cerben said. “Someone came to visit. It was incredibly vivid… he said to set you free, the world would turn out better that way.”

All of a sudden, Lon jumped to his feet, then cracked his knuckles.

“That so? Right… You want to get me out of here?”

Cerben nodded. “Yes. Come with me.”