The blue curtain was lowered to the stage in Cherryton Academy's auditorium. In front of it stood a handful of administrators all in a line, accompanied by a rhinoceros in a police uniform. Gold trim traced the Shielded Paw above their heads. Incessant whispering, muttering, and worry filled the auditorium.

Finally a red panda stepped forward with the microphone. "Okay, is everyone in here? Can everyone hear me? In the back, can you hear me?" One of the teachers stood at the rear of the auditorium and gave a thumbs up. "Fantastic. Well, everyone, my name is June, and I'm sure you're wondering why we called you all here?"

Haru sat with the medium-sized herbivores, her feet just dangling above the ground. She'd seen her phone, she'd seen the headlines already...

The red panda read off note cards in her hand. "As you might have heard, the local police partnered with the Beastar to finally confront Sage X last night. This is good news. But, it has been confirmed that... he was someone who, until recently, had been working here: our custodian, Ward."

Haru could hear a collective gasp around the auditorium. She couldn't help but swallow a bit herself. It was instinctive; small animals were raised from birth to be hyper-aware of danger after all.

"I know that this is distressing to hear," the red panda gestured with the hand full of cards. "But I assure you, your safety is always our top priority. And it is in the interest of safety that Gon has agreed to step away from his role while we take measures to ensure the security of the academy. We will be re-conducting background checks on every member of the staff and faculty. We will have extra security guards in the hallways. And if need be, we will have extra counselors for the next week for you to speak with. Your well-being comes first, and we want you to know that."

With that she handed off the microphone to the rhinoceros, who cleared his throat. "Can you hear me?" Haru didn't see any sign, but she assumed there was a thumbs-up from the back again. "Very good. Now, I'm Officer Daisuke, and I'm with the Cherryton Police Department. I wanted to give you more details so you know what happened straight from us." He gripped the microphone with his other hand as he stood there, taking a pause. "You know that Ward had been wanted in regards to the predation incident that happened here a couple weeks ago. We had an anonymous tip last night to his location…"

Haru barely listened. Something terrible had occurred to her. What if… no, no that wouldn't make sense. But, it did give her another idea… she waited to hear what they said.

"...one of our officers reacted, and Sage X was fatally wounded," the officer finished. "We've since searched his apartment, and while we uncovered information relating to other operations, we found no immediate threats to you or your safety. We're already working on cracking down on restorationist cells with what we found. The threat posed by Sage X's followers, if anything, has been dramatically reduced." He nodded at June.

"Thank you officer," she replied. "And I just want to take a moment to thank you for your bravery, you and your entire department. Now, before we continue," the red panda faced the students again, "we'd like to collect some questions from you to understand what you might be more anxious about. So if you have any questions or concerns, please stand up and raise your hand, and we'll get someone over to you with a microphone. Yes! You there!"

Haru let her hand fall. She watched Phoenix, the girls' PE coach, come sprinting up the aisle with a microphone. The flamingo held it out, and the rabbit stepped forward. "Hi, uh… can you tell us if this had anything to do with Vigil?"

The red panda onstage faltered. "Hold on…" she glanced at the rhinoceros, who motioned with his head, before shuffling through her cards and holding one up. "Ah, according to the Beastar's office, yes, it is unfortunately believed that the human student was involved with Sage X and the restorationists." More muttering. "Which is why he is still in custody, and not here! Which is why we will be rescinding his admission, already effective. Next question?"

Haru watched with careful eyes. She sat down again, but her face was stony.

"They were lying," she muttered hours later. She stood on her chair across from Legosi, leaning over the table but looking away in thought. Jack sat beside him; both glanced up from their shared book at her comment.

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

"At the assembly. I asked if Vigil had been involved with Ward, and they said yes. I wanted to see what they'd say. They were lying when they said he was."

Legosi blinked. "How could you tell that?"

"I was with him."

They both stared back.

"When Ward was attacked, or… when whatever happened happened, Vigil had no idea what was going on. He didn't know about it. And he was terrified about it. I could sense it off of him."

Jack blinked. "I mean, I know that he had been upset by it. But… what are you getting at, exactly?"

Haru raised her brows. "What do you mean?"

"I… I just was asking what you meant."

Legosi glanced between the pair of them, his brow furrowing. "What? What's going on?"

"Jack, what that officer said wasn't true. You can't believe what he said, not after all that time you spent with Vigil!"

The labrador flushed, looking away, rubbing his neck. "I mean, heheh… yeah, Vigil is a good guy, we all knew that, but the police must have their reasons…"

"So what if they have reasons? I don't see—"

"Hey Legosi, when did you have to leave again?"

The wolf seemed shaken from his focus on Haru. "Huh? Oh, I got fifteen minutes."

Haru tilted her head. "...Didn't you say that fifteen minutes ago?"

"Wait, what time is it?!"

She checked her phone. "It's 11:01—"

In a flurry of long limbs and terror Legosi bolted from his seat and sprinted out of the common room. The pair stared after him, along with other students passing by.

"Heheh, good thing we asked," Jack smiled, his eyes closing, "Hate for him to miss the test after studying so hard!"

"Jack," Haru leaned forward across the table, her hands keeping her up, right on the tip of her toes at the edge of the chair. "I know that's not why you reminded him."

She was face-to-snout with the labrador. His face seemed mortified that his charade had been found. "Look, I'm sorry, I don't know if I should really be talking about this," he got up to leave.

"Vigil trusted you." She could see him flinch at that. He paused where he was. "He trusted you enough to take you to his home. You know better than I do that he had nothing to do with that. Couldn't you smell it on him, that's a thing canines can do, right?!"

Jack's face filled with fear. That was the thing with the "domesticateds," with their generations of natural selection accelerated by geneticists after the War. They'd been bred to be compliant, soft-tempered, fangless in spirit if not physically. "I… I…"

Haru could see his eyes filled with panic. She straightened up, and felt her own gaze softening. "Sorry, didn't mean to bring up the smelling thing…" Something nagged at her that he might be self-conscious about it. "But still, you're really going to turn your back on him like that?"

"No! No no, it's… it's not that… it's... " he winced as he peeked around. Then with a sigh Jack sat again to lean closer. "Look, I believe you. I do. I don't think Vigil did anything wrong."

"...But?" Haru could tell there was more.

Jack sighed again. Double-checked around him. "But if the police and the Beastar are saying something is wrong I have to believe them too. At least… it's, it's hard to explain…"

"Jack, they lie to us every day, you know that. Everyone knows that, it's just a bunch of bullshit."

"Yeah but this is different. It... " he rubbed a hand over one eye. The dog still had a weak smile on, and yet at the same time it looked like he wanted to vomit, "I'm fast-tracked on my career. I have been since I was in grade school. And you know how it is with dogs, we're, we're people-pleasers. I can't… I never could have a 'rebellious' phase, you know? I have to take them at face value. They have their reasons, and even if I don't like those reasons, I… I can't… heheh…"

His eyes cast down as he nervously laughed it off. But even as he chuckled, Haru could see tears in his eyes. She'd picked a fight with someone who literally couldn't be mad back at her.

"...It's okay Jack. I didn't realize it was like that, I shouldn't have gone after you. I'm just…" she bit her lip, looking around, struggling for words herself. "I'm sick and tired of being told to be afraid. Of humans, of carnivores, of larger herbivores? It's all I ever hear, and now they're telling me to be afraid of people that… honestly, I did think of him as a friend."

Jack nodded. "He was… my friend too," he croaked.

Haru thought for a moment. "You said you saw him last week?"

"Yeah?"

"Why don't we wait a bit so that you don't rouse suspicion… and we can go see him together. I missed tagging along last time."

"Yeah, heheh… let's do it. Got tests, but how about Saturday?"

"Saturday would be great."

Mason held the letter in his fingers. As he spoke his voice wavered, and yet it lifted over the heads of everyone gathered around in the garage. "The moment creeps upon us, but we must be vigilant when it arrives. The march of progress is relentless. The hands of history are steady. And I will be happy when…"

He faltered, swallowing thickly, and his fingers trembled.

"And I will be happy when my eyes see that day arrive. With great care, yours..." he looked up. "Sage X."

Silence reigned. The group was three-dozen humans, with a handful of carnivores and herbivores in their midst. Grace and Clement flanked him. The overhead lights were off, letting the nighttime loom overhead, with only a few industrial lamps illuminating the inner circle. People bowed their heads to relish Sage's last words. Then they looked about, unsure. No one wanted to ask the question that everyone was thinking.

"Wha…" A young woman with dark skin just across from Mason started. All eyes turned to her. "...What do we do now?"

Mason took a deep shuddering breath. "First I think we should stay calm, we can't let our anger get the best of us. We… we need to think, what Sage would want."

"You know what Sage would want?"

A hawk piped up to the side. His rich plumage seemed to puff out slightly as he spoke, and they could all hear the edge of nervousness in his voice.

"He always said that violence was a last resort. It was only to be done if we were against the wall with no way out." He gulped, looking around. "I think that's where we are now. We need to fight back! Now!"

A chorus of "Yeah!"s sounded around them, mixed with hesitation from the others. Mason looked about in alarm, raising his hands to motion for calm. "We can't be too quick on this. We need to think this over, talk to the other cells if this is the best way—"

"The docks cell got busted today!" Another human shouted in the darkness. "They got notes and everything from Ward's apartment!"

"We need to act now!" another voice rose.

"Shit, you remember that note, when did I send that?!" Cacophony began to flare up.

"Calm down, calm down!" Mason struggled to be heard. With an exasperated sigh he glanced around, and spied a wrench. "Clement grab that real quick?" The boy darted down and snatched it, handing it over. Mason turned and slammed it against the car lift beside him.

The loud clang reverberated through the air, and finally got everyone's attention.

"We aren't going to get anywhere by panicking!" Mason shouted. "Now I hear you, the other cells have… they've been compromised. We should be okay for now, Sage made sure that we wouldn't know too much about each other. Even if they talk, it'll take them days to trace the trail back to us. But that's still… we can't do nothing. You're right."

He looked to his side, at Clement. The boy stared up; Mason was two years his elder, and had known him for three. He knew that whatever he said, Clement would all too eagerly throw his passion behind. It had been easier when Sage gave him an idea on what to say. Now… well, now it felt like he had to make the choices.

Mason gulped. "Grace? What do you think, you haven't...you haven't said much."

She folded her arms, and bit her lip. "I think we need to change our strategy. Dramatically. We've been so worried about growing and we haven't put enough energy into using anything we have. It's time for us to actually do something."

"I know, and I know you're right. I'm just worried that we'll go too far. Sage didn't want for us to just—"

"Sage is dead, Mason."

"He didn't want blood to be spilled!"

"And he's dead."

She let it hang in the air. Mason turned away, gripping the workbench before him. On it was the letter, and a tristar flag folded into a square. It had been just freshly printed and delivered, tragically, the morning after Sage's death.

"I don't know if this is disrespectful to say," Grace continued, "but maybe he wasn't a hundred percent right about everything. When it comes down to it the Beastar doesn't really give a shit if we're peaceful or not. He's going to come after us either way. So we can try to run and hide, until he ends up hunting us all down and dragging us into his little fortress… or we can do something about it."

"I think we'd be ready to go out there," another human spoke up, this one with bronzed skin and curly hair. He gestured along with his words. "The takeover at Silver Wing, that was a big dramatic move. Sage wouldn't have wanted that unless he thought we were ready. I think we are."

"We should do some kind of demonstration!" a ram piped in. "A march of some kind, or a rally, and then we send a message by—"

"A march…" Mason closed his eyes. He could feel everyone staring at him. Yes, yes that could work… "I think that's it."

Everyone pressed in closer.

"This Saturday, the Mayoral Ball will be held here in town. We'll have party members, politicians, business leaders, all coming in. That's the day we march. In honor of Sage X."

"We need something stronger than a procession!" Another human shouted.

"No I know, they're not going to like it. But if we just go out there and start hurting people then it's bad on us." He set his jaw. "We'll make them hit us first… and then we'll be ready to fight back."

"Yeah!" Clement piped up. "We'll show them, we're not gonna take it any more!"

Mason began to unfold the flag before him as he raised his voice. "On Saturday, we will send them a message. That the wheel of progress will not be stopped, not by bullets or propaganda. We'll let them come at us with shields and clubs, and we will be ready to stand against them."

There were whoops around them. Grace was nodding along now. "Should we tell the others then? And how?"

"They're going to watch us. So, instead of trying to be discreet… tell everyone. Tell everyone," he spoke up, "get everyone talking about it! Then they can't tell us apart from the rest of the town. Tell all animalkind what we plan to do! On Saturday carnivore, herbivore, and human alike will break the chains of ignorance for all species!"

With that he thrust the flag into the air above his head, to cheers and applause.

The week slowly slipped by. Juno meticulously laid out exactly what to wear at the ball, then double-guessed herself and went back to the drawing board. Legosi's fervor at his studies had never been higher.

Throughout Cherryton, the streets were quiet. Pamphleteering from the restorationists had all but vanished. Vandalism had plummeted, with the occasional teenage rascal still scribbling their name on a wall here or there, but there was almost nothing about Sage X or rebellion.

On Freedom Street the sidewalks ran barren before theaters and casinos and restaurants. By Friday the rainy weather had vanished and been replaced by winds coming from inland, even as the clouds still churned overhead. Young men and women, usually all too content to drink their worries away, just weren't coming in. And among their parents, and their parents' friends, and their friends' friends, the whispers started. The fear had been that Sage's death would explode in a fireball of fury. The silence felt even worse.

Of course, out of every human in Cherryton, there was only one that Father Reed worried about.

"Tomorrow's going to be two weeks," he muttered absent-mindedly as he held the bowl of liquid for the rector. Flickering candlelight illuminated them both from the ceiling.

The man looked up from his work. Both of them stood in the rectory, around the skeleton of a woman from the Floresien community. They didn't have the substances necessary to treat their dead, so Reed offered to have her remains treated here and transported back. "Two weeks, since…" he thought for a moment, then sighed. "Father I'm sorry. I know it's been hard for you." He lifted a jar of powder, and began to spoon it into the bowl.

Reed shook his head. "I just… I have to do what's best for the community." The windows flashed as lightning danced across the sky, casting the skull into sharp relief. "I know that. But it doesn't make it any easier." Thunder rumbled over them.

"Have they budged at all in their demands?" The rector took a small cube and slipped it into the bowl, before taking a brush and carefully stirring the solution together. He took great pains to not slosh it over the edge.

"Not an inch. Officers inside our walls, cameras in our homes… they want us to open our books and see how much we're bringing in from the market. And you know only one reason why they'd want to do that."

He nodded, his brows raised. "Figure out how much they could potentially tax from us?"

"We can barely make ends meet as it is. Actually we can't, the pump's going to have to wait a month or so. Stuff's breaking down faster than we can fix it…" He swallowed, his hands dropping slightly. "...Jasper?"

The rector paused, his brush still in the bowl. "...Yes?"

"What if…" he sighed, "we can't keep living like this. We've been stuck in our world so long, but it's falling apart. The… Rudolfen community, I remember when they folded. They got to keep their homes and everything. It wasn't so bad for them."

Jasper's face hardened. "Father. I remember it too. And things went badly very quickly. The moment they let the animals' police on their streets, there was violence." He gestured for Reed to move closer as he stepped beside the body. Lightning again split the sky. He took the brush, and started to carefully apply the glaze over the bones. "Our dignity is more important than any material comfort."

Thunder rattled the rectory. Reed watched as the brushstrokes left behind their clear sheen. It was a treatment that not only helped the bones shine better on display, but also helped as a literal layer of protection. Inside the glaze, a cocktail of deadly toxins mingled. Any carnivore that tasted it would have their heart stop within seconds. It was a recipe taken all the way from the war, where desperate soldiers and families would rather swallow poison than face the oncoming carnivore troops alive.

It was one of their many illusions, the tricks they had to pull in order to keep themselves free this long. The truth of their situation had been painfully apparent for decades - it'd take only a couple SWAT vans to subjugate any given village. But as long as some part of the population — the gullible and vociferous part — believed that it would bring down a terrible curse, the communities had leverage. As long as the underground was terrified by rumors and well-placed intimidation, their bodies would be unspoiled.

And yet…

"Dignity?"

The rector looked up. "Hm?"

"You think this is dignity? To sit in our crumbling houses, unable to drink from our taps?"

Jasper straightened to his full height. He wasn't angry, but his face still read stern. "Father," he paused, "the peace your grandfather signed left us independent. We are the last vestiges of the proud Hominid Union, and I cannot let you sign over—"

"We don't have a doctor Jasper." Reed snapped. "Okay, we already have to call an ambulance to cart our sick off to a hospital in the city. We can't manufacture anything, except for what Willow can carve from wood — wood that we need to buy, mind you, from the animals!" He could sense the bowl slightly sloshing in his hands, so he set it down between the skeleton's feet as he continued. "We have to let their police in here if there's a warrant, hell we can't even generate our own power. If we're keeping the Union alive then we're only giving it a slow and agonizing demise. What is so dignified about that?"

The rector stared across at him. His face turned, giving him a side-eye. Another lightning crack, this time with thunder crashing at once.

"We can't keep deluding ourselves that this is a long-term solution. We need to start reconciling, am I the only one that can see that? The tit for tat will never end unless one of us budges, and if they won't then I have to."

"You know the other communities explicitly forbade it."

"That's why I need to convince them. It's… it's why I need you to believe me. Please. For the good of everyone in Ardi, tell me you can see my point of view!"

Jasper looked away. Then his eyes went down, as he laid his brush on the table. "You can't let your love for Vigil affect your decision making."

"Tell me, once, where I mentioned Vigil in all of what I just said?! Everything I've done has been for the good of this community, and that has never changed. Hell that's why I reached out to the Cherryton Academy in the first place! This was only ever to bring our peoples together!"

"And look what's happened."

Reed felt his blood boil. Jasper seemed to realize he'd crossed a line. For a brief second both men were parsing out how to react.

Then light shattered the room.

With a mighty crash of thunder the back of the rectory splintered. Sparks raced like a firework. The smell of smoke and steam poisoned the air.

Reed found himself blown back by the shockwave and stumbled to the ground. "Jasper! Jasper are you okay?!"

"I'm okay!" he coughed. "What was that?! Father, are you hurt?"

"FIRE!" Reed's eyes went wide. Lightning had shredded the top of the rectory, and now the live embers were beginning to lick at the wood around them. Already small flames began to sneak around the timber, crawling up the banner that hung over the altar.

"Go get some water!" Jasper shouted, struggling to his feet and unbuttoning his shirt. "Get everyone up!"

Without hesitating Reed sprinted out into the yard. A few folks had been lingering, and they started up at the commotion. "Fire!" he shouted. "Get the—" The hoses wouldn't work without the pump, "the buckets! Go, the well! Hurry!"

"Dad!" He could hear Flint's voice from the manor. The boy leaned out the second-story window, "What's going on?"

"Get on the phone! Call for the fire department! The rectory got hit by lightning! Call the firefighters! Hey, hey, Ruby!" Reed caught her running past. "Help me, we gotta get the Living Dead out of there!"

She gasped when she realized the danger. "Sure sure, come on!"

Back inside the rectory, the fire was climbing up the wall. Jasper desperately tried to beat out its seeking tendrils where he could reach, but it was starting to spread up and over the ceiling. He coughed, covering his mouth with his hand.

"Come on, this one!" Reed turned his back to the flames, gripping one side of the chair. Ruby took the other, and together they heaved it up. The robes over the bones lightly swung as they shuffled it out of the building. Reed could feel his arms straining, crying out, his gut clenching from the effort. When they finally set it down he gripped the back of the seat, desperately catching his breath.

"Father, are you alright?"

"I...I'll be fine…" he gasped, "We…. we need to get the rest out…"

The second one felt even worse, but he could feel the fire already getting too close.

"Hold on hold on!" he screamed, practically dropping his side to pat out an ember that had alighted on the body's robes. "Sorry, here, keep going now!"

They brought the second body out, and Rector Jasper followed them coughing and wheezing. He hugged a massive tome to his chest. "I'm sorry, I can't do any more…"

"It's okay, it's alright," Reed patted his back. "We're gonna get this under control." They had to. The dry winds the past few days threatened to send sparks and embers across the entire village.

By now people were showing up with buckets, and hurling it wherever they could see the flames. The altar received a soaking, dousing the licks of fire that had been eating into it. One bucket wet a corner of their banner — even as the opposite corner still smoldered and curled.

Ruby called over someone else, and together they gripped the table that the bare skeleton laid on. Around them people rushed, popping in to douse the flames before running out, coughing as smoke began to fill the roof above their heads.

"Dad! Dad!" Flint called as he dashed out of the house. "I called them, they should be sending someone soon!"

"Good! Here, help me get more of the Living out of here!"

They scurried, scrawny black bodies silhouetted against the blossoming firelight. A wicked wind picked up sucking the air through the only doorway as the inferno ate through the roof and spiraled into the sky.

"Is that the last of them?" Reed set down the chair he carried, and counted. "There's one, are we missing one?! We gotta get back inside and—"

Suddenly a sickening crack came from inside, and screams as the main supporting beam began to cave. With a mighty crash it slammed into the middle of the aisle, rending the wood and sending sparks spiraling into the air. Reed watched with terror.

"No, no no," he waved off the buckets coming. "Take it to the houses! Watch for fire, douse your roofs, anything you see! We can't let it spread! Go! Dammit, where's the fucking fire department!?"

Miles away, Yafya stepped out onto his balcony. . His eyes narrowed as he zeroed in over suburbs and strip malls, focusing on the community normally nestled in nighttime shadow. The radio in his hand crackled, "Yafya, are you sure I shouldn't dispatch anyone?"

"I already told you: cancel the alarm. That's an order," he answered, not looking away. "If they won't play by our rules then they don't get to play."

"Yeah but what if it gets into their crops? Or their—"

"It's their own crops. Their problem."

"Hold on... " muttering on the other end. "Shit they just called again. They're begging, we gotta send someone."

"Let them beg. That is an order," he repeated.

He could hear the long sigh on the other end. Then the radio went dead.

Yafya kept watching the flame go higher. Never in his life had he been the one to blink first. He wasn't going to blink tonight, not when he had an advantage as lucky as this...