Ran stretched and fixed her gaze skyward. Orange had begun to stain the deep blues that hung overhead. The stars had long retreated; there was work to do. She glanced over at the tent where her friends still slept and considered Stone's shadowed figure for a moment. No, she wouldn't have to involve her. She wouldn't need to involve anyone. They had their orders and responsibilities. She had hers.

The Dregs. She turned on the spot and made her way towards another tent Sava had pointed out to her before they'd gone to sleep - it and the surrounding pokemon were what they had left of the defense and reconnaissance forces. There weren't many. Still, as she weaved between sleeping bodies, her resolve only grew. When she'd made it to the center of the group of sleeping pokemon, she said with an authoritative and firm tone, "Up!"

Several bodies stirred. Those closest to her looked up at her, bleary-eyed and miserable. She scowled and called out once more, "I said: Up!" More pokemon stirred, and some began to sit up, yawning and rubbing their eyes all the while.

"If you were part of the defense forces, I need four of you. Either volunteer, decide among yourselves, or let me pick. I do not care which. You have five minutes," she said, half-shouting. Ran paused and looked around at the pokemon, many of them still laying down and unresponsive. They were trying her patience. "I SAID: WAKE UP!" she screeched.

Several pokemon sat bolt upright, their eyes wide and fearful. Several more were in defensive postures, their heads scanning left and right, up and down. Ran shook her own head and said, her voice still high and cold, "Better. Four minutes now."

Commotion rippled out from around her in a wave as the defense and recon forces scrambled to get up. Arguments broke out almost immediately after, and the din from the myriad voices talking over each other as they tried to decide who would accompany Ran began to wake regular citizens.

The day, it seemed, had begun. Whether they liked it or not mattered little to Ran. She crossed her arms and yelled, "Two minutes!" A hypno marched up to her and inclined their head. Ran looked the tapir up and down. "Alright. You are?"

A feminine voice met Ran's ears. "Mani," replied the hypno, folding her hands behind her back and continuing to look the weavile in the eyes. "Volunteering to help." The fur around her neck, normally a bright white, was a dull gray - clearly heavy with dust. Dried flecks of blood matted several bunches of fur together.

The corner of Ran's mouth twitched up. "Good. What did you specialize in?" she asked.

Mani smiled. "I think you mean 'do.' Telekinetics." She raised a hand and snapped her fingers, lifting several small rocks up at once, and setting them in orbit around her wrist. A soft purple glow emanated from them all the while. "And the obvious, of course." She reached into her a belt pouch at her side and removed a small piece of twine with a crude metal disc affixed to the end. "Put a lot of pokemon to sleep last night." Her smile softened. "Mostly the little ones." She looked at the rubble behind her and the smile slipped into a frown. "Those that made it, anyway."

A purple streak landed beside Mani, kicking up dust and small bits of debris. A gliscor stared back at Ran and snapped one of his pincers twice. "I'm here," he mumbled. The rest of his statement was largely inaudible.

Ran scowled. "If you have something to say, do it now," she snapped.

"I was sleeping," hissed the gliscor. "Kinda difficult to do when your home falls down, you know?"

"Be glad you slept at all."

The gliscor's eyes narrowed. "Sure. Fine. What are we doing?" he said, his tone a mix of irritation and exhaustion.

"Waiting for the other two. Then finding some Dregs. Name?"

"Puncture," he replied, looking around. "How long is this going to take?"

Ran shrugged. "Depends how good you all are at finding Dregs."

The gliscor deflated and groaned. "Right."

A ledian and cinccino approached the three, the former looking nervous and the latter angry. The ledian spoke first, his voice high and uncertain, "We're here."

The cinccino beside him did not share his apprehension when she spoke, her voice higher but infinitely more harsh, "What are we doing?"

"Names," said Ran, looking between them. Her gaze drifted to the gliscor and she added, "And what do you all specialize in?"

Puncture spoke first. "Shock. Strike first, strike fast." His eyes dropped to the chainmail gloves Ran wore. "Word around the defense forces is you're familiar with it."

The weaviles raised her paws up and stared at the gloves. "You could say that, yes." She looked past her paws at the ledian and cinccino. "And you two?"

"Lonesome," replied the ledian. At the look on Ran's face, he added, "My kind usually sleep at this hour. My superior was unhappy to find out the ledian he had assigned to him was a freak that slept at night and did things in the day. Powders worked just as well anyway."

"Bad for him, lucky for us. Powders will be useful," said Ran, nodding in approval.

"Was bad for him, anyway." Lonesome glanced over his shoulder. "Yeah."

"I'm Grace," said the cinccino, her voice still harsh, "I did paperwork for the defense forces before my office tried to kill me."

Ran crossed her arms. "And you're here-"

"I'm going to fucking strangle every last Dreg we find, Ran!" shouted Grace, miming the act in the air all the while. Ran wasn't sure how to feel - it would be comical if her expression wasn't so murderous. "As for my skills, I can file paperwork in my sleep."

The weavile raised an eyebrow. "I don't think-"

"And I'm an annoying cunt. They're going to pay attention to me. Only way I was able to get anything done in that den of sluts," muttered Grace, scowling all the while. "I may be filthy but the oil's still as slick as ever."

Mani stepped over to Grace and picked her up, then gave a start as the chinchilla slipped like water out of the hypno's grasp. A purple aura enveloped Grace a moment later as Mani's eyes flashed, but the cinccino launched herself at the tapir's midsection and sent her doubling over from the impact. Grace landed on her feet and looked at Ran. "Convinced?"

"I should ask if Mani's convinced more than anything," mumbled Ran, looking at the wheezing hypno. She offered the weavile a thumbs up and a nod wracked with coughs and gasps for air. "Alright, that settles it. Once you catch your breath Mani, we're going."

"What's the plan?" asked Lonesome.

"Patrol," said Ran. "But we're moving beyond the edges of the farm. There's a lot of ruined city to pick through."

"You think some of the Dregs are hiding in the rubble?" asked Puncture.

"Not a bad idea, really," said Mani, her breathing finally returning to normal. "Gods above, Grace, that really hurt."

"Yeah, well, I had to convince you all, didn't I?" shot back the cinccino. "If that's the plan, then that's the plan. Let's go."

"We need them alive, right?" asked Lonesome, looking around at the rest of his team.

Ran scowled and looked away. She let out a sharp breath through her nose and mumbled, her tone hateful, "I guess we need at least one of them alive."

"But preferably more," said Mani, chiming in. "It won't do us any good with finding more of the Dregs if we just kill the ones we find."

"Feh, like anyone will mourn them," spat Grace. "But fine, I'll aim for their stomachs and legs instead."

"As opposed to?" asked the ledian, looking concerned.

"The head, where else?" said Grace, looking at Lonesome, her arms crossed. "Easiest way to crack skulls or break necks. Duh. We can't all be lucky enough to carry daggers for fingers." Her eyes flicked to Ran briefly.

The weavile looked down at her claws. Her legs felt weak, like someone had pulled her up and out of her own head and then dropped her back into her body upside down. She felt her heart rate rise at the feeling of a hot breath in her ear. There was no one near enough to be the source. A crushing, desperate fear filled her stomach and she looked up, her eyes wide and gasped, then doubled over and retched.

"Ran?" said Mani, alarmed and rushing to the weavile's side. "Ran, what's wrong?"

The leader of Crag waved her away. "Nothing. It's nothing," she said in a breathless whisper. "I've just had a very hard couple of days."

"Never seen tragedy do that to someone," mumbled Puncture. "You sure you're up to doing this shit? Maybe you should stick back and send Sava or someone with us instead."

Ran snapped her focus to the gliscor, her eyes flashing. "I can do this just fine," she whispered, her tone now venomous. Mani's enormous hands turned Ran towards the hypno and brought her face to face with the concerned psychic.

When the tapir spoke, her tone was gentle and reassuring. "Ran, listen. A lot has happened. I don't know you very well. I don't know your friends very well. I didn't know Outrider very well. But what happened just now concerns me."

The weavile tore her eyes away from the hypno. "I'm fine," she said, her voice cold.

"You aren't. I know it and so do you. It was my job when I was with my old squad."

"Then you should know when to leave well enough alone," snapped Ran, facing Mani again and jabbing her in the chest with a claw. "I'm fine."

The hypno stared at Ran, her eyes shifting gently left and right, up and down, but never breaking focus on the weavile. "You have me at a disadvantage here, in more ways than one. But if you didn't, I'd send you home for rest. Maybe more." Mani seized one of Ran's paws and raised it up, her eyes now tracing the weavile's extremely long claws. "What's wrong with you?" she whispered.

"I don't have a home, Mani. And if you look to your right, past my claws, you'll see that neither do you." Ran yanked her paw out of Mani's hands and wheeled around on the spot. "We're going. That includes you, Mani."

"Right. Of course."


Valor dragged the eevee's corpse out from under a slat of stone and then stepped away the second they were free. The scent of death had yet to fill the air, but Stone had told him earlier it was only a matter of days before it became almost intolerable. He wasn't sure what would be worse: that, or the smell of bodies burning. The smell of death never quite became tolerable in the Hole, but it did fade into the background at the very least. He sat himself down on a small piece of rubble and uncorked his waterskin to take a sip.

Sava said they simply couldn't go through the processes that custom dictated for many different tribes - fire was fast, easy and effective and it was what they'd use for everyone. Stone had agreed. And so, Valor watched as Thea trudged up to the eevee's still body and set it alight. Thick black smoke joined the countless trails snaking up into the sky, filling the air with the scent of charring flesh and hide, along with burning hair and fur. It was noxious.

The braixen sat herself beside Valor and dropped her chin onto a paw and stared at the burning eevee. "I'm exhausted. Did we have to start so early?" she whined.

"Lot of rubble to turn over and pick through," said Valor. He grimaced. "Especially if we want to find Outrider before he starts to rot."

"Only Ran wants to find him before that happens, and she's not even here helping," muttered Thea, looking resentful.

"Sava said she's on a patrol."

"For what?"

"Dregs, what else?"

"With who?"

"No idea. Stone doesn't either. She figured Ran just needs some space after what happened last night."

"Some space?" repeated Thea, looking thoroughly confused and a tiny bit appalled. "Really?"

"I didn't agree, but I can't go and look for Ran right now." He gestured at the burning eevee. "Kinda busy."

"This isn't going to be over and done with for… for…" said Thea, coming to a gradual stop as her expression became thoughtful. "I don't know. Days? Weeks? An entire month?" The braixen looked around, her brow furrowed and added, "Where are they going?"

A toxicroak and a rhydon, both carrying bodies, carefully made their way down the ruins of Crag and disappeared off in the direction of the farm where the citizens were quartered, off behind a large pile of sorted rubble that sat slightly apart from the rest of Crag. Valor frowned. "I don't know. But that's odd, to say the least."

"They're not Dregs, are they?"

"What would Dregs want with corpses?"

"Stuff them full of black powder so when they're lit on fire they explode?" asked Thea, pulling on the hair from one of her ears over and over. All the while, one of her paws tapped on the ground at a feverish pace. "Might be effective."

"Might be a bit stupid, really," said Valor, shaking his head. "No offense. It's just too complicated. How do they get someone to light the corpse on fire there in camp? The citizens would never want to have that happen, smoke would get everywhere."

Another set of excavators began to climb down from the higher parts of the ruins, also clutching bodies. This time it was a poliwrath and exploud. They too set off in the direction of the farm and disappeared from view behind another pile of rubble.

"Okay, maybe they aren't Dregs, but it's still weird. You wanna find out what's going on?" asked Thea, getting up all the while.

"I guess. Maybe after we can try and find Ran and see what she's doing," said Valor, nodding.

As they made their way back to the farm, they were joined by several more pokemon, many of them clutching corpses, looking somber. As a lopunny passed him holding a buneary and openly crying, he stopped and grabbed hold of Thea's paw. "Wait. Thea."

The braixen looked back at him, confused and said, "Yeah?"

"It's their family," said Valor, looking around as more pokemon walked past. "They're finding family. Friends. Pokemon important to them."

"They're supposed to burn them…" said Thea, joining Valor now in looking around. "Not take them back to camp."

"Why wouldn't they? It's easy to burn someone when they're not your own, but would you have burned Vanguard?" asked Valor.

The braixen's brow furrowed. "Yes? That's what we do."

"Oh. Wait. You burn your-"

"Augmented fire, or something. Glass didn't go into a lot of detail because it was supposed to be for later. I was just curious."

"Glass?" asked Valor, looking confused.

"Her full name was, um… Fourth-Dance-Upon-Ten-Thousand-Shards-Of-Glass." At the look on Valor's face, she smiled for a brief moment, then sighed and shook her head. "Wish I'd learned more from her."

"Not your fault."

"Doesn't matter either way." She gestured to Valor's left. "But I know that leavanny don't burn their kind, and she doesn't have anyone or anything that can set fires with her," said Thea, pointing the leaf bug out. She sighed. "I can't say I blame anyone that's doing this but…" She groaned in frustration and furiously scratched her head. "We're never going to finish at this rate. Whoever's left in the rubble will be soup by the time we get to them."

"Maybe we'll get lucky and snow will roll in," said Valor, looking grim.

"That'll just kill us. I don't think we grow many crops that can hold up to frost," said Thea, pulling a simple wood wand from her belt and biting the end of it. "So don't go asking for something…"

"Yeah, yeah. But if it rains we're going to be knee deep in bone soup in half the time," said the quilladin, resuming his walk towards the farm.

Thea shuddered.


Ran pulled herself free of the debris and dusted herself off, scowling. The orange glow that had begun to wash over the remains of Crag and the walls that surrounded her made the coming night clear to her. The air was getting chillier by the minute, but it hardly bothered her. Temperatures would need to plunge to a deep freeze to begin to really bite at her limbs. A nip in the air was nothing more than a cool caress across her cheeks. She took a deep breath and let it out as a long and steady exhale.

The long day of searching had been fruitless. She'd found no signs of the Dregs in the rubble, only the odd body that Mani or Lonesome went and put into a pile away from the ruins. She didn't even have the satisfaction of knowing the bodies they'd pulled were Dregs. They were more than likely just dead citizens. None of them were too terribly mangled beyond a houndoom with a ruptured stomach they'd found all of an hour into their patrol. It was the smell that had led them to him.

She'd been hopeful it might have led them closer to the edges of some kind of settlement hidden within the rubble. A thorough sweep of the many natural overhangs, nooks and crannies that the ruins created revealed nothing of that sort to them. In the end, it didn't matter too much - there was still more city to comb. So much more city to comb. She looked over at her comrades and called out, "Anything?"

Puncture swooped down in front of her from a nearby section of wall jutting several feet into the air and shook his head. "Fuckin' nothing. You know how long this pile is gonna take to pick apart?" he complained. "We'll be looking for Dregs until next winter."

"The city will be less and less in the way over time," offered Mani, carefully making her way towards the weavile and gliscor. Her wobbly gait froze as a piece of stone beneath her feet shifted and rumbled ominously, but then fell silent once more. "And hopefully easier to pick through by then too."

"Hard to say if that will make finding the Dregs easier or harder," muttered Ran, looking out at the ruins and scowling. "In the end, doesn't matter. We keep looking."

"Not all of us have the gift of night sight, Ran," squeaked Grace, climbing over a chunk of wall into view. Behind her, Lonesome hopped from chunk of stone to splintered wood and eventually simply fluttered over Grace's head and landed beside Ran. He watched the cinccino approach and nodded once at her before looking back at the weavile.

"Nothing?" asked Ran, looking at the ledian and then Grace.

"Not a gods damned thing," mumbled the cinccino, her tone hateful. "Not even one clue."

"Hm. Back to ca-" began Ran, but was cut off by a distant shout. The weavile's head snapped in the direction of the sound and tore off after it a moment later. Perhaps the coming night had made a Dreg cocky. Their search today might not have been fruitless after all. As the sounds of the shouting drew closer, however, Ran began to notice the distress in the voice. If it was a Dreg, they were in danger - but it was probably a citizen.

She scowled, and her displeasure only deepened when the voice could be heard somewhere below her. Their voice was shot, that much was clear. A hard rasp had taken hold of it, and it was several pitches lower than it should have been. She moved aside rubble and gestured for the others to help as she tossed aside chunks of stone, beams of splintered wood and carefully threw chunks of glass away from their makeshift excavation.

Mani telekinetically lifted aside a rough chunk of stone roofing and dropped it somewhere behind Ran, revealing the battered figure of a blaziken. His voice rose weakly into the darkening sky above, gravelly and low, "Thank the gods… you found me." Both of his legs were bent at unnatural angles, and the fingers on his right hand were bent too steep to right.

"Getting him back is going to hurt," said Lonesome, looking up from the broken bird and over at Ran. "So much of him is broken. In fact - did any of your ribs break?" The ledian looked back at the blaziken.

"I'm not sure. Everything hurts," rasped the bird.

"What's your name?" asked Ran.

"Axe." A low gasp of pain fell from his mouth in time with a twitch from his right leg. "Can't show you why anymore."

"Mani, can you pick him up and carry him back to the camp?" asked Ran, looking to the hypno.

"Hrm. Probably, but we'll have to move slowly." Mani's eyes widened as she looked down at Axe and she whispered, "Oh gods above, no."

Ran looked down as well and saw blood beginning to pour from Axe's right leg. The feathers grew wet, shining a deep scarlet as blood seeped from a wound unseen. She made a low tsk noise, and said sharply, "We don't have time. He's going to die if we don't hurry back to camp. Now. Pick him up, Mani. Even if it hurts him."

"Ran, the pain is going to be excruci-"

"Then leave him here to die," spat Ran, her eyes narrowing.

The hypno looked helplessly at her leader and then looked down at Axe. "I'm sorry," she called to the blaziken, "Please try not to pass out."

The ear-splitting screech that issued from the blaziken lit his wrists on fire and cast a plume of flame into the sky from his mouth. "GODS ABOVE, PLEASE PUT ME DOWN-"

"Move!" shouted Ran, pointing in the direction of the farm. "Every second we waste he loses more blood."

"Don't we have some leather or something we can use to tie it closed?" shouted Puncture, staring on in horror.

"And break the bone even more? You want his leg full of splinters? Or perhaps you want to completely tear apart an artery? If that's it I could do the job myself!" snarled Ran. She pointed towards the camp again. "NOW!"

They set off as quickly as they could, blood dripping from Axe's leg down onto the ruins of Crag as his shouts and cries grew quieter. His already damaged vocal cords were going to tear themselves apart at this rate. Ran stayed beside him as best as she could, her eyes scanning his leg for any sign of bone poking through the feathers. Now and again she'd look back at Mani - every time she did, the hypno looked the same: completely mortified, even as her eyes shone purple and surrounded Axe in a similar glow.

"Can't we go any faster?" said Lonesome, his tone drenched in worry as he looked at Axe.

"If Mani drops him it could kill him," muttered Ran, her tone still sharp. "So we go as fast as she can."

"I can go faster but…"

"Saying 'but' means you can't," said Ran.

"Alright."

It was slow going, and Axe appeared to have effectively shouted himself silent halfway there, but they made it to the camp before it had gotten too dark for those of them not gifted with night vision. Ran waved her underlings off and made for the makeshift tent-turned-office without another word. Her thoughts drifted away from a day of fruitless searching to Outrider's body. Had they found it? She felt a pang of guilt and sorrow flare up from her stomach.

She threw open the flap into her tent and stepped inside with a low sigh. The entire day felt like it had pressed itself upon her shoulders at once. Mani and the others weren't distracting her anymore, which was only half-welcome. Mani asked too many questions, and the answers could never be known to anyone but her.

Stone's voice shook her out of her contemplation and put her immediately on edge, but a moment later she realized who it was that had called her and she lowered her claws.

"You alright? Never seen you jump like that," said the lycanroc, throwing her a grin. She was laid out on a thin mat, one leg thrown over the other.

"Long day."

"I'll say. What've you been doing anyway?" asked Stone.

"Looking for Dregs."

Stone nodded and looked towards the flap in the tent. She frowned. "Ran, do you think-"

"Can I please get a moment of peace before the questions start again?" said the weavile, her voice bitter.

"Ran, for fuck's sake, do you know how weird you've been acting?" said Stone, standing up and striding over to the weavile. "You don't act like this."

"Like what?" spat Ran, looking up at her friend. "What don't I act like?"

"Like.. like this," said Stone, clearly struggling for words. She gestured at the weavile from headdress to clawed toe. "I don't know Ran, you were always really agreeable and kinda meek. Unless you were giving someone new holes, but still. Outrider died and you go from inconsolable to a bitch hellbent on revenge. I don't know if this is how you mourn or deal with shit but…"

"I want justice, Stone. If you don't-"

"You know it ain't fuckin' like that, Ran. Don't go putting that shit on me. You know I've got no love for the fuckers that killed him, destroyed Crag and trapped us in this shithole. You know that," said Stone, lowering her gait to look the weavile in the eyes. "But I don't need to see every single one of them burn for it. They've gone and built a real nice pile to dig into and die in and I say, 'fuck 'em.' Don't give a shit."

Ran stared back at Stone. "Is that so?"

"Let the dragons sort 'em out, I don't give a shit," huffed Stone, standing up again and crossing her arms. A snarl crossed her face and a low growl filled the air. "This place is worse than the Abyss. Worse than any damnation in any fucking religion where we came from. This is a worthless pile of fucked garbage and-" Stone stopped her rigid stance collapsed into a defeated slump. "And I'm still here. I'm still trying to make things right. I'm still here for you guys." She looked up at Ran, her eyes pleading.

"Ran," she whispered, "What the fuck is wrong?"

The weavile stared back at Stone, her mind spinning in place. Her head felt like it was filling with water and a horrible pressure was forming in the center of her forehead. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears. Her chest began to hurt. Something was swelling in it. More than something. Many things. Anger. Sorrow. Fear. Hopelessness. Bloodlust. It mixed together and came apart, like oil and water. Again and again. And slowly, each time, she could feel it. She could feel the lines between her anger and her sorrow begin to blur. The bloodlust that begged for another warm body to tear apart no longer ended where her fear began. She could see the differences still, but it was getting harder.

She thought of the endless blue that hung over a sea of white tiles in her head. The blue was swirling above her, broken up with long and thin cracks of red that spread out and bled into the sky. They weren't cracks. The tiles beneath her feet were cracked. Their pristine white began to dull. And yet, she was nowhere to be seen. She could only be heard. Felt. She was a stare at her back, a hiss in the ear.

Ran seized her friend's shoulders and brought her an inch away from her face. She stood on her toes and leaned into Stone's ear and whispered, her tone like that of a frightened child, "My name is Ran. But I don't know who that is anymore."

The flap to the tent flew open, and Ran was four paces away from Stone before Sava's figure cut her shape in the light of the torches behind her.

The mienshao stepped into the tent and looked between the two, then sniffed and said, "We found him."

Ran felt the ground beneath her shift, but no one around her stumbled. "You… you did?"

"He's outside. Do what you need to." Sava stepped aside and gestured out of the tent. "He'll be burned afterwards, same as the others."

"Did you really need to say that?" said Stone, her quavering tone poorly concealing a great deal of worry.

"Yes. No special treatment. Not even for our former leader. There are more pressing problems than ceremony," said Sava, her voice curt. She paused and then inclined her head, "It is regrettable, but it is what must be done."

Ran stepped out of the tent and up to Outrider's body. Valor stood on the other side of his dead mentor, looking down at him with a furrowed brow, wet eyes and an ugly frown. It hurt to look at his corpse. The collapse had broken him, though it was clear someone had tried to make him look more presentable. His chest was slightly sunken in. Something had crushed it.

Cuts here and there, loose patches of skin where she knew bone had punched through. He was stained with blood; the earliest scents of death had begun to rise up from his body. Ran put a paw on Outrider's chest and gently traced a claw up his neck to his cheek to cup it. She brought her other paw up to one of his ears and traced the edge of it again and again.

There weren't many tears left to cry at this point. She wanted to. She could feel it. But somehow, his body only made her think back to what had just happened in the tent with Stone. Who she was. She couldn't lose that. Wouldn't lose that. She pulled the shinguards from Outrider and looked them over. They were dented and bent, but otherwise still perfectly usable.

Too large for her own shins, but… Ran strapped one to her left forearm and the other to her right shoulder. She bent down and kissed her late lover on the forehead.

One way or another, she would have justice. And so would the king.