Previously:

Culus, Helios, and Slate were captured and stuck in the bottom of Fylak. Culus was temporarily managing to delay his descent into insanity from Undeath through the use of a strange 'calming power', but Helios could do nothing but wait - until, that is, he learned how to use and resist the calming power himself. Showing mercy, he used this new power to free the three of them, only to come face to face with Shadow Workers. After Helios unveiled yet another strange new ability, he fainted, leaving Culus with an unconscious Slate.

Meanwhile, Kapun and Rowan enacted their plan to save Culus, along with Kapun's father Kair, a Hattena named Thilia, and a Larvitar named Brylle. After infiltrating, the rescue party managed to save Culus in the nick of time. When the Shadow Workers' reinforcements appeared, Culus staged an instant jailbreak, allowing them to fly out of Fylak and return to Key safely.


"Oh, you're finally awake, aren't you?" a feminine voice asked

Culus's eyes snapped open, as a long yellow snout loomed over him. His head felt full of cotton and stones; his throat feelt as though he had swallowed sandpaper.

"What… what happened?" The last thing he remembered was flying on Kair's back after escaping Fylak. "Where am I?"

His gaze slowly sharpened, and he saw the figure who was talking to him - a Drowzee. She held a glass of water.

"Drink this," she said, somewhat dispassionately, before bringing the glass forward. Holding it to Culus's mouth, she let him drink from it.

Immediately, he felt some sense of relief. "M-more," he pled, feeling the water slide down his throat.

The Drowzee was already on it, pouring more water from a nearby pitcher. "So, you're Kite - sorry, Culus - are you?"

Culus slowly nodded, before letting her bring the water to his mouth again. "Yes," he eventually said once it was clear that she was waiting for a verbal response. "My name is Culus. Who are you, and why are you helping me?"

The Drowzee sat on a stool next to him. "My name is Sable," she introduced herself. "I don't typically work in the medic sector of HQ, but since Mom is, and she needed someone to watch over you while you recovered so she could take care of other patients, I had to come and take care of you."

"Oh… sorry."

"Don't be. I have nothing to do most of the time. Mom doesn't let me go on missions, and sentry duty has me sit in the sun and wait. At least there's shade here." Culus got the message that Sable was very, very bored.

Still, there were some things that Culus was curious about. "Headquarters? Key? Can you explain what you're talking about?"

Sable tilted her head. "Didn't Brylle or Thilia explain these things to you? They're usually on point about these things."

Culus shook his head, putting faces to names (Brylle was the Larvitar, if he remembered correctly, and Thilia was the Hattena). "I think the time that I spent speaking to them was a total of five, maybe six, minutes."

Sable shrugged. "That's how things go sometimes." Sable pointed to Culus's collar. "You know what your collar does, right?"

The collar. Culus grimaced. "Yeah. Do you?"

Sable nodded. "I've known since I was little. That collar is the whole reason Key exists." Culus fixed his attention on Sable and what she was saying. "Everyone in Key has some connection to a Collared - a friend, a love interest, a brother, a sister, a mom or dad, their kid, there's always some connection. Everyone - well, besides kids born into the organization like Thilia and I - lost someone close to them to the collar."

"... everyone?" Culus asked faintly.

"Some adults say that we should open the organization to people who haven't been badly affected, but Brylle's Mom said that campaign would let them know who we are and give them a chance to infiltrate us. So, yeah, everyone."

Culus bit his lip, a pang of something beating against his chest. "Is there… is there anyone who lost a Shinx?"

Sable shook her head. "I don't think so. We're still checking, but there was never any news of a Shinx disappearing, and no one from Key is from a Shinx lineage.

The pang disappeared. "I… thanks." He said morosely.

"Relax - with you on the team, things should go by quicker." She leaned forward. "Is it true that you fought Kenki? Alone? And survived for more than a few seconds?"

"Yep." Though, that was more because Kenki had been taking his time with killing him. "It was rough - Kenki stabbed me through my shoulder, and he cut off my paws." He gestured to the little nubs at the end of his legs, and Sable murmured appreciatively.

"I heard that Ekib is making some more metal prosthetics for you," she mentioned. "Give him something to do, you know."

Culus frowned. The old prosthetics he had made had been welded together - he was done with those. He didn't know Ekib, but what were the chances that he could make prosthetics that allowed for the range of movement his old ones did.

Then again, now that he was in a safe place…

Culus slowly pulled his numbs to his mouth, confusing Sable a little bit. Then, in two quick motions, he used one of his fangs to slice the scab that had formed on the end of the nub.

Sable shrieked, eyes widening. "Culus, what are you doing?"

Culus held his now-bleeding nubs over a nearby bowl. "Getting ready to heal myself," he informed, before pulling on the power of creation once more. Without much fanfare, the bleeding stopped - after all, it now had an actual paw to flow into. Quickly, he did it again with the other paw.

He then flexed his new paws, once again glad to be able to more actually organic digits. "See? No harm, no-"

He lost consciousness.

Culus eyes slowly cracked open. "Ugh… why do I feel so awful?"

"You're an idiot, you know that?" Sable hissed, sitting on a nearby stool. "You are a bona fide idiot."

"How… how long was I out?" he asked after a few seconds.

"Three hours - and that was after I fed you a cocktail of Sitrus Berries and Energy Roots." Sable crossed her arms. "How could you be so utterly stupid?"

"I knew that it would take a lot out of me," Culus said in rebuttal. "I just want to heal myself so I wouldn't need any more prosthetics. They're more trouble than they're worth."

"Well, you did a good job on that. Meanwhile, if I hadn't been here, you wouldn't have lived past the last hour!"

Culus winced.

"You should be glad I haven't told Mom yet," she continued. "I cleaned up after you too!"

Culus nodded. "Thank you... so much." Sable's eyes widened a little. "I know what I did was a little dumb and risky, so it means a lot to me that you did that for me."

A tiny blush crept up on Sable's face. "You're welcome," she muttered. "But it wasn't a little dumb and risky - it was moronic, and it's a miracle that you're as okay as you are, considering how badly you were when you first came here last week."

Culus's mouth opened. "Last week? I was unconscious for an entire week?"

Sable looked at him like he was stupid. "Yes? Do you know how much you messed your body up? By Mom's estimates, you were running on fumes three weeks ago!"

"But I had rested, then - that was right after I left the castle, and I got several days straight of sleep!"

Sable looked at him like he was stupid. "Yes - now, don't you think that immediately pushing yourself back to death when you just got up from a literal coma wouldn't make things worse?" Culus paled. "According to Kapun and Rowan, things got better for the week after that in Pinnaleis, but then you escaped, and everything after that…"

Culus paled - the stabbing, the amputation, the creation after creation, the battle aboard the ship, the Nightmare, the kidnapping, the three days of continuous application of the calming power…

"You were a dead man walking, Culus," Sable explained acidly. "No berry or herb in the world will fix what hot mess you made of yourself - nothing but time."

"... oh."

"That why you're on a month's vacation and recovery, by the way."

Culus's eyes bugged. "A month?!"

"A month," Sable repeated. "I'm not the one who said this, by the way. Mom took one look at you and said that no number of Sitrus Berries can make up for the fact that you push your body way too hard."

"But - but that's a month!" Culus repeated. "I only have memories going back a month, give or take a few days!"

"And half of those days, you were unconscious," Sable rebutted. "The body isn't meant to be unconscious most of the time."

Culus grumbled and tried getting up, but then Sable fired circular waves of psychic energy at him, draining him of his strength.

"See, if you were at peak condition, you could easily fight back against me," Sable continued. "But you can't, because you keep on destroying yourself."

"... fine," Culus mumbled, feeling rather petulant. "I can wait a month." Healing was an important process, so this was probably for the best.

Sable rubbed her hands together. "Great!"

"Anyway, Sable," Culus redirected. "Can you tell me more about Key?"

"What do you want to know?"

Culus ran through several questions in his mind, before selecting the most pertinent to him. "The purpose of Key is to help the Collared? I guess that means you want to free us?"

She nodded. "Right."

"But you can't do that yet?"

Sable gestured to the collar that laid snugly on Culus's neck. "If we could, we would."

So they couldn't. "Is it possible to take them off?"

Sable shrugged. "I don't know. If anyone else knows, they haven't told me."

This was getting nowhere. "Okay… what does Key do?"

"We mainly use spies - we can't recruit openly, and finding people interested in the cause is very, very slow. We only get a couple of recruits per year - you and your friends already filled the quota - and keeping our existence secret is necessary. Once Phosophor and the Temptress find out about us, we're essentially done as an organization."

"Who is Phosophor?" Culus asked. "Why is anonymity so important?"

Sable idly tapped her finger on the stool she was sitting on. "Phosophor… nobody but Kair has ever seen him. Well, at least for the next few days, since he's visiting Queen Arya, and Genevieve will get to see him." Queen Arya? "As far as I know, he's the inventor of the collar and the head of the Shadow Workers."

A spark of electricity ran through his fur. "Inventor of the collar?" Culus echoed, voice hollow.

Sable nodded. "That's what I think, anyway. We don't know too much about him - Kair wasn't able to pinpoint where he was in the process of looking for thirty years, and we haven't been faring any better without him."

"How do you know he exists, then?" Culus pressed.

"Other than the fact that he's finally revealed himself to Queen Arya?" Oh, right, that. "Not much. He leaves no traces - nowadays, his brainwashed Shadow Workers are the ones who kidnap for him."

"Huh? I thought he used the Collared."

Sable hummed. "He does - at least, we think." He was beginning to hate that phrase. "Most of the people he kidnaps get brainwashed into Shadow Workers and are thrust back into society to do his and the Temptress's bidding. Only a few of them are collared."

Culus's head started to hurt. "I… I don't get any of this at all. I thought the Temptress is the leader and creator of the collared?" Helios had gone on at length about the Temptress and Shadow Workers in the Undeath chamber, and so had been caught up as to who she was. But it was Helios, so he might have made a mistake.

"She distributes and sells them," Sable corrected. "But I don't think she makes them. I don't know, my Mom knows more about this stuff than I do, she does psychic therapy for all of our spies when they come to rest and report. You can ask her if you want to know."

Culus sat back and thought about all of this. "And this Phosophor guy is going to Ascendance Palace to meet with… Queen Arya?"

"Oh, yeah, King Midos 'committed suicide'", she brought her paws up for air quotes. "Everyone at Key knows that it was the work of a Shadow Worker - and a couple of days ago, Genevieve learned which one it was."

"If he's going there, why don't you guys just jump him?"

Sable shrugged. "Something about being cautious. Culus, I just get all this through the grapevine, I don't know too much."

"... so, you guys are just spies?"

Sable nodded. "There's not much else we can do. If they find out about us, they can stage kidnappings to send in moles, and Shadow Workers like Parasel show they can hide their true affiliations well."

Oh - Parasel was a Shadow Worker. Culus… honestly didn't know what to feel about that. "Can't you just read minds and figure out who it is?"

"If that worked, they would have been found out by your average mind reader a long time ago. Their minds look exactly how they're 'supposed' to."

Culus's eyes darkened - the collar worked the same way.

The collar - Culus's original goal was to find the Zoroark and get him to clear his name. That was probably impossible, though - the collar would make him immediately obedient, so he wouldn't be able to get a single word out before the Zoroark said a magic word, and his mind was wiped of all of its free will.

He had been going at this the wrong way - he had to remove the collar before he could do anything to help himself. And since Key hadn't figured out a way yet, he'd have to go figure it out.

Culus slowly pushed himself out of bed again.

"Oh, are you serious?" Sable half-shrieked. "Are you trying to kill yourself?"

"I… know that I should be resting," Culus explained, a little haltingly at first. "But I don't want to be sitting around doing nothing. I can move - I can stand." He said, slowly taking a few steps forward.

"Of course you can do it!" Sable shouted, half-hysterical. "But you shouldn't!"

"Sable - I just want to take a tour of the base." By then, he'd get the rest of his energy, and Sable wouldn't have anything to complain about anymore. "Just let me see everything, okay? I want to see what this place is all about."

Sable just stared at him.

"You want to do this too," Culus said, and Sable stiffened a fraction. "You say this is better than sentry duty, and you're right, sentry duty sucks." What a waste of time that was, guarding the gate to Pinnaleis. "So here's your out - you take me on a little tour of headquarters. If I collapse at any point, you get to drag me back here and chain me to the bed, and I won't complain at all."

"Your will is ridiculously strong," Sable countered. "You won't collapse until you're dying."

"Was my will strong enough to stop me from collapsing after making my new paws?"

Sable looked at Culus, searching for any sort of weakness. When she found none, she sighed. "I haven't told Mom, or anyone else, about your stunt earlier. If nothing goes wrong, you'll keep shut about it, got it?"

Why was she afraid about them finding out. It was his choice, not… "Other than standing over me did they give you any duties?" Sable said nothing. "Such as staying with me until she comes back, not letting me use my power, letting her know immediately when I got up - that sort of thing?"

Sable sighed. "You're a pain in the neck, you know." Culus grinned. "I'll take that as an agreement. We leave now."

Sable, holding onto Culus's ruff, led him out of the infirmary door like he was part of cattle. As they walked, Culus's head swam a little, but he persevered and soon things cleared up.

"There's the cafeteria and the kitchens" Sable pointed out a pair of doors. "If you're not a squad leader or senior member, you're on the rotation for cooking and serving duty."

"Duties?" Culus asked.

"We're an organization. These utilities are basic stuff," Sable griped. "We have a couple of maintenance closets, they have the Unown 'M' on them. Oh, and pray that you don't get on the moss shift anytime soon."

"The moss shift?"

Sable refused to answer and continued leading Culus through the base.

"How big is Key?" Culus asked.

"Around one hundred strong," Sable answered. "Accounting for dead and retired members, one-fifty."

"That's not that big," he observed.

"As I said, we can't actively recruit unaffected members. Only those that have been hurt by Chain - Phosophor and the Temptress's organization - can join." She then sighed. "A lot of our members are on the lookout, trying to keep an eye peeled for missing Pokemon reports."

Key was sounding less and less strong the more he heard about it. The fact that they sent other kids to come to rescue him didn't bode well.

"A lot of members are highly specialized for one task," Sable continued. "Like Ekib, who's been making cracks at the collar for over fifteen years now. I heard that he's the one who disabled the traps on your master ring."

A Pokemon to thank, then.

"Those are living quarters for those who sleep on base, like miss Angira, who's Key's big boss, and her family." Some twenty closed doors surrounded the hallway. "You and everyone that came with you are in those quarters too, since you have big targets painted on your backs. We're on top of a groundwater spring, so you can go downstairs for that."

"Do you guys keep weaponry or anything like that?"

"We don't have funding beyond the money our spies make, so our weaponry is ourselves. That being said, we do have several rooms for training and education. Thilia's mom does most of the teaching around here." She then clapped her hands. "And that concludes the tour!"

Culus stared at her. "That's it? That was barely anything!"

"That because Key is barely anything," she snarked. "We do our best with what we have. This is the best base we have."

"But - but what about an auditorium, so that your boss can give speeches or whatever?" Culus pressed. "Or a debriefing room, or-"

"We're not big or centralized enough for that," Sable interrupted. "Anonymity is an absolute necessity, and more members in more places means more chances for that anonymity to break."

Culus growled. "But why is anonymity important? I asked this back in the infirmary, and you still haven't told me!"

Sable looked at him oddly. "You do realize what Shadow Workers are, right?"

"... maybe?" Honestly, Culus didn't know - Helios had just ranted about them ruining his life and how he wasn't going to become one. "I get that they're people that 'Chain' have turned evil and all, but what does that have to do with anything?"

Sable sighed. "So you know nothing, then?"

"Do you?"

"More than you," Sable waved. "Shadow Workers are the perfect spies, as far as we can tell. Their memories can edit themselves, just like what happened to the Collared. All they have to do is let people in their mind, and their memories speak for themselves."

The Zoroark had erased his memory and the Collar could force him to not remember anything or think thoughts that weren't his, but… "Are you serious?"

"The only way we had to identify them was a hat marking most of them share - except, with Parasel, we have an exception. He doesn't have a marking." Sable tilted her head. "And Slate, I suppose."

Him? "Slate?"

"He can identify Shadow Workers on sight, with or without the Hat marking. We've teleported him to some places where we know there are Shadow Workers and have asked him to identify them compared to their non-Shadow Worker counterparts. He can find the Workers every time, without fail."

Culus just stared.

"Yeah, he's become pretty popular," she smiled. "Especially after he confirmed that we have no spies in our midst. He's already gone through all of the bases and checked everyone three times."

Wow, that was… "Huh."

"He's already become one of the most valuable members of Key - gets all of the perks, too. The first pick of the meals, the first to spar if he wants to - everything."

'The world wasn't fair,' Culus eventually decided. Objectively, Culus knew Slate wasn't a terrible person and that from a normal person's perspective, Slate had done the right thing by turning in a wanted criminal, but Culus didn't care about that, because Slate put him to Undeath.

And if what Sable was telling him was true, then Slate's ability to find Shadow Workers was the most valuable skill in an organization terrified of moles and infiltrators - in that sense, treating Slate well was the right thing to do.

"Ugh…" Culus groaned. "Are you sure you're not overreacting?"

"Culus, Slate already found twelve moles that we had missed in other organizations. We have mind readers, and we couldn't find them. Mind readers, Culus - mind readers!"

Right, because the Collar and whatever happened to Shadow Workers automatically edited their memory and personality whenever under scrutiny.

"We've already started research on how Slate identifies Shadow Workers so that we can make detectors. That's what Ekib is working on now, instead of the collar. If we can, then we can finally start expanding into an organization that can do something instead of waiting around for good opportunities. And with you, we have a willing subject for Operation 'Triple-R'."

"What?"

"I don't know. Mom knows about it but she doesn't tell me what it is. It sounds cool, though, and it's definitely important."

Every single time Sable spoke, Culus got information - and around three more questions that he needed answered.

"Is… is there anything else I can… do…" Culus's ears perked up. He heard footsteps. "Hide!"

Immediately, Culus ran - well, he hobbled - into the nearest open door, which was one of the maintenance closets. Sable was close behind him, looking more than a little worried.

"What are you doing?!" she hissed. "Why did we come in-" She too heard the footsteps. "Never mind," she whispered, before closing the maintenance door behind them.

They waited with bated breath for the footsteps to start getting softer and softer - and yet, they only grew louder. A paralyzing fear went through Culus - what if they opened the door and found him out. They were supposedly his allies, but…

"... three points of failure." A stern woman's voice came out. "One - you had decided to stay back and fight a stronger foe instead of retreating. Two - you didn't pay enough attention to keeping yourself concealed, which is crucial. Three - your decisions were made either too slowly, making you unable to react, or too quickly, in which case there wasn't enough thought put into it."

"Mom…" Was that Brylle? "I got those documents like I was supposed to."

"You took care of the mission parameter that I explicitly told you to take care of, Brylle. There are other parameters, like keeping yourself safe and anonymous, that apply to every mission." Nearly every other word was stressed. "If you had no choice, I would prefer the explicit mission parameter failed than those important ones."

"Mom, it was just a dream! There was no need to worry!"

"Dream it may be, but it is your training, Brylle. You are now a squad leader, and you need to act like it. Right now, things are in action, and failure at this point isn't an option."

"... right." There was a short pause. "... Mom… can I ask you for some advice?"

"Of course."

"Kapun and Rowan don't listen to me - no, they do listen to me, but they don't respect me as a leader. Whenever I tell them to do something, they usually push back. They treat me like I'm on their level, even though I'm supposed to lead them. They're supposed to be followers, but… they don't follow. Can you - can you tell them to listen to me?"

"Of course not."

"W-what?"

"You asked for advice, Brylle, not assistance. I can tell you what to do, but I won't fix this for you."

"Well - well, what am I supposed to do?"

There was another short pause.

"Tell me, Brylle. Why do you think they don't listen to you?"

"I… I don't know. They don't complain, so I don't know what they want. They don't say stuff like 'Brylle, you're too weak' or 'Brylle, stop being such a bitch' - I don't even think they dislike me. But they… they just don't care about what I think or want or tell them to do."

"So is that the issue, then? 'They don't care'?"

"Yeah. They don't respect me or care about me at all."

"Do you think they should be demoted, then?"

"W-What?" Brylle stuttered. "N-No, when they do what they're supposed to do, when Mister Kair tells them to do something, they do it. They don't mind doing the things, they just don't care when I tell them to do it."

"You think they are competent, then, but need discipline?"

"No, they just… they respect Kair, and they do what he tells them to do. They don't respect me, and when I tell them to do something, they usually don't do anything… even though I'm supposed to lead them."

"So you think the problem is with yourself, then?"

"... yeah. What should I do?"

Brylle's mother didn't say anything for a second. Then…

"Besides Kair, who else do they listen to? Who else do you think they care about?"

"Um… I know they get along with Thilia, she and Kapun have loads of fun together. Sable and Kapun get along, though Rowan insults Sable when she isn't listening." Sable gripped Culus's ruff tightly, her anger palpable. "I know that Kapun is polite to Genevieve and that Rowan listens to what Genevieve says…"

"Anyone else?"

"... um… no?"

"What about Kite?"

A hot flash went through his blood.

"Oh, they don't stop talking about him. After training, they always go to his bedside and ask Sable if he's woken up, and she just tells them the usual - honestly, I think that's why Rowan backbites her - and they just get upset about it." Brylle's voice trailed off a little toward the end. "I… they really care about him. And the way they talk about him… he sounds kind of cool."

The hot flash simmered to a warm, fuzzy feeling. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Culus couldn't help but let a goofy grin creep up his face. It was embarrassing, but…

"Do you think that if he was in your position, he would command them better - to act as a true leader?"

"I… well, duh. He led the jailbreak, he thought of that cool trick with the bands, he maintained his sanity through everything Chain put him through. He is cool." Brylle sounded kind of embarrassed to say that at the end.

"I see. Then, do you think he would perform your role better than you do?"

"... yeah." There was a note of disappointment in Brylle's voice. "I… yeah. He's important and cool, and… well, he's just better than me."

"I see. So, to be absolutely clear, do you think I should replace you?"

"... please don't…" Sable's voice sounded pathetically weak near the end. "I… I'll do better…"

"I should hope so." There was no mistaking her mother's disappointment. "Though, let me be clear, Brylle; even if you said that Kite would be a better leader without hesitation, I wouldn't have let him take charge of your squad. You never had to fear that."

"R-Really? You have that much faith in me?" Brylle's voice cracked with a need for approval.

"Of course I have faith in you - though, that's not the reason why I said that. Rather, it was more that I would never give Kite anything remotely resembling responsibility for other members of Key."

The warm fuzzy feeling disappeared without a trace.

"Huh? Why?" Brylle echoed Kite's dissatisfaction with what her mother just said. "Didn't you say that he was better at everything than I was?"

"I never said anything like that, Brylle. Those are your opinions, not mine - to me, Kite is not 'cool'. To me, Kite is an incredibly poor leader - one of the worst I could imagine. Far worse than anyone of his age."

Culus's claws curled in his paws, and his hackles rose. Under his breath, he began to hiss.

"But how?" Brylle asked, amazed. "He broke out of Ascendance Palace when everyone was looking for him. He broke us out of Fylak - he killed Kenki! What's wrong with him?!"

"Brylle, the reason why you can't see what's wrong with him is what led you to fail the simulations and what gives you your inability to understand what you need to improve in being a leader."

"I - huh?"

"I would never give Kite responsibility, Brylle, not because he is a fool, or because he is incompetent. He is neither of those things. No, I would never Kite responsibility because he is dangerous."

"I - but he's on our side, right?"

"Absolutely - and that's only the slightest of consolations."

The white-hot rage he was feeling was slowly being replaced with confusion and hesitation. What on Earth was she talking about?

"I… I don't understand."

"Tell me, Brylle - if you were back on Fylak, Shadow Workers about to capture you and discover Key, would you do anything differently?"

"I… if I was back there, I would have thought of the jailbreak idea first. If I had, maybe Kapun and Rowan would have respected me more-

There was a slam, and dust shook from the walls of the maintenance closet. Sable eeped.

"Brylle, could you please think properly?!"

"I - Mom?!"

"Brylle, do you know what a jailbreak is?"

"I - what?"

"What. Is. A. Jailbreak?"

"It's... uh… I mean, you just break everyone out of prison. You let them all go free."

"Who are you letting free?"

"... criminals…"

"Say that again, Brylle. I didn't catch that."

A pause. "Criminals. We released criminals."

"Yes, you released criminals. Perhaps a few of them are like the Mincinno girls' parents - it's far more likely that they were all let loose to do irreparable economic damage. Perhaps, even allow Chain to kidnap and convert people with a convenient excuse at play."

Culus's blood chilled.

"I - we had no other option!"

"Oh, is that true?" The contempt in her mother's voice was real. "Tell me this - why didn't you have Genevieve teleport you out?"

"We - we couldn't turn off the anti-teleportation field!"

"Why didn't you escape the field?"

"The Shadow Workers were blocking the exits!"

"Why not make your own exit, one that isn't blocked?"

"... I…" Brylle's argument crumbled. "We…"

"Considering the complexity of Fylak and the numerous tunnels, there were many unguarded and several near the surface. You could have dug through the dirt and have Kair fly all of you out - the Shadow Workers would have known that Kite had been broken out, rather than simply escaping on his own as we had hoped, but they had already known that! There was no need for a jailbreak."

Something strange and unpleasant turned in Culus's stomach.

Brylle gulped. "But, other than the criminal thing, nothing bad happened, right?" Despite the declaration, Brylle sounded even more unsure of herself. "They still haven't found out Key exists, formally, or if they have, they don't know where we are. Plus, we're all safe, so… it's not that bad?"

"No, Brylle, because there is one last thing - the method you used to break the criminals out."

"H-huh?"

"If I remember correctly, your squad used the slavery bands to send an emotional-pain message to all of the prisoners, telling them that they were free, correct?"

"Yeah?"

"Isn't that just a clever way of using the bands? Isn't that just wonderful?" The sarcasm was thick in her voice. Brylle refused to respond. "Brylle, what did you learn from the use of the bands then?"

"That… you can use them to send messages with emotional pain?"

"Yes - now, what do you think the Shadow Workers learned?"

"..."

"The exact same thing, Brylle. The means the method with which the message was spread was obvious - and while we can't use it, due to the pain the message undoubtedly causes, the Shadow Workers can just forget about the pain."

"... oh."

"Not only that, but since Chain isn't an idiotic organization, you know they will set up relay devices and transmitters to near-instantly quintuple communication speeds. One of the advantages we had over them - the speed at which we can mobilize - is likely gone forever. All because of a single stupid experiment on a jailbreak."

The words cut into Culus. Any rage he could muster against Brylle's mother was instantly sliced by the knowledge that she was right.

He fucked up. He had fucked. Up. He hadn't needed the jailbreak - he thought it was fun, even - and in the process, gave Chain even more options with which to hurt him.

"So, Brylle, the jailbreak was indeed a bad idea. That wasn't an isolated incident, however. What was the second 'achievement' you said?"

"The - the killing of Kenki…"

"Right, that. In case you don't remember, they said - by their own admission and memories- they nearly died multiple times during that fight. The only reason they were able to kill him, mind you, was that Kite nearly blew the two of them up with a water-activated bomb, which miraculously sent Kenki flying into a nearby steel crate, incapacitating him. During this situation, mind you, Culus was bleeding to death from a stab wound and multiple amputations. The only reason they even got to the water-bomb, mind you, was because Kapun drugged himself and devolved Kenki to even give them a chance."

The rant continued, and Culus felt every piece of self-esteem he had built up for himself drift away and disappear into nothingness.

"Mind you, do you even know why they were fighting Kenki?"

"Um… no?"

"Because Kenki learned about their plan. Pandora has looked into Kite's memories and has revealed that Kite was the reason the plan failed - because he was so arrogant as to believe that Kenki couldn't look up." She then took a deep breath. "The plan, by the way, was just as the dumb as the jailbreak one."

Culus dreaded what was to come.

"Let's see, what was it again? Go hide in ventilation shafts for several hours, have your friends set off a series of bombs that have to be perfectly timed, forge a signature in a minute and then hope that he doesn't just check it before handing it off to his agent?"

… well, when she put it like that…

"Where to start… first off, hiding in the ventilation shaft for several hours, without having anyone hear you moving around or smelling your scent - which, mind you, Kenki managed to do. Next, have your friends set off a series of bombs that have to be perfectly timed. Ignoring the sheer difficulty of managing that undetected, let alone the precision needed to set them off consecutively, and that he had children like himself do it, the fact that the property damage and the bomb itself didn't kill anyone is a damn miracle."

Culus felt his heart shrivel up and turn to stone from shame.

"Next, to forge a signature in five minutes… is honestly damn impressive, I will give him that. Still, to do so and the hope that Kenki doesn't take a single look at the papers is arrogance beyond belief - and then, to hope that he doesn't put two-and-two together. Now, would you like to know a simple solution, Brylle?"

"... yes?" she squeaked.

"Kite has the power to create anything - including a copy of the papers. There was no need to forge anything when he could just create an edited version of the trading papers. Then, Kapun could intercept the messenger on the way there, make him drop the papers, and have Rowan switch the copies with illusions so that the messenger took the different one instead. And that's if you want to keep the paper copy at the end - else, Rowan could just put an illusion over the papers to have the messenger read it wrong, then let the papers have an 'accident' afterward."

… wow. She just kept going, huh?

"Now, Brylle, do you want to know something else? Kite knew that his plan wasn't perfect, that it could be compressed, and admitted as much to Rowan - and then they went with it anyway." Sable turned to him in surprise, clearly not expecting it. "Do you need me to go over how he utterly messed up the escape from Ascendance Palace, Brylle?"

Please, don't…

"Um… no." Brylle just sounded uncomfortable at this point. "I… I think I know what you mean now, Mom. I just… what did you mean when you said he was dangerous? You said that he wasn't incompetent or a fool but…"

"If he was incompetent or a fool, Brylle, he would have never gotten this far. The bombs in and of themselves - especially the water bomb - needed craftiness and cunning to build, to say nothing of building his prosthetics or thinking of a method to use the slavery bands for communication. He has no lack of intelligence - rather, what he lacks is common sense, or a mind for consequences."

He then heard Brylle's mother tap a desk impatiently. "But that's not entirely important - you don't think about consequences either, and I didn't either when I was a kid like you. These things come with age, and Kite, for all of his prodigious intelligence, is immature."

"If… if I'm so dumb, why have me as a squad leader?"

"Because you improve, Brylle. Because, unlike Kite, you learn from your mistakes. I didn't expect you to command the rescue perfectly, Brylle - I thought Kair would undoubtedly take over, so you could gain both experience in the field and the respect of your peers for leading the mission. I hadn't expected Helios to free Kite prematurely, nor for everything to go Iapapa-shaped or for him to start making the decisions instead of either you or Kair. I hadn't expected Kapun or Rowan to succeed in their mission, either - rather, it was a test to see how long they could hold out before they recognized the futility of the mission."

"But they succeeded…"

"Somehow."

Both rooms went silent.

"Brylle, do you believe the Collared are slaves?"

The question caught Culus off-guard. It sounded like it caught Brylle off-guard as well. "Yeah? What about it?" A pause. "Is this another trick question?"

"In a sense." There was something warm in her mother's voice. "For a long, long time, I believed the same thing. After all, Pokemon that obey your whims without a peep of a complaint or a single objection - the ideal slave. But, as time went on, I realized that wasn't the purpose of the Collared."

"What do you mean?"

"Brylle, if you wanted a perfect slave, there are ways to do that with slavery bands. A shock every time they disobey, a shock every time they complained - any time they did something you didn't like, a new command would near-instantly fix the problem."

"Then…"

"A Collared goes deeper than simple obedience. A perfect slave can have emotions, opinions, and memories that can't be taken away. The collar is overkill if a perfect slave is the goal." Another pause. "To put it a bit bluntly, you use a slavery band if you need the person underneath to not matter. You use a collar if you need the person underneath to not exist."

"..."

"In other words, Brylle, the collars are designed to strip everything away but what the master wants, what the master can use. The Collared don't own their memories, personalities, emotions, or beliefs - the master determines that all for them. The Collared aren't slaves - rather, the collars design them to be objects, tools, weapons."

Culus's vision swam in front of him, and his heart beat wildly. He felt the need to collapse, then remembered that if he did so, Sable would spill everything.

"Why are you telling me this, Mom?" Brylle asked slowly.

"Because I don't want you to idolize Kite, Brylle. He is competent and crafty, but instead of admiration, he deserves pity. In Kite's memories, he was put through torture after torture - and his mind remained intact and strong after it all. But then, a weapon shouldn't be too debilitated by pain, should he? A weapon should do what he's told, and finish no matter the cost."

Culus's legs buckled, and he swayed a little, but through it all, he remained standing.

"I don't hate Kite, not in the slightest. He brought with him Kair, Kapun, and Rowan, a skilled agent and two highly talented ones. He brought Helios and Slate with him, and the security against moles that came with them. He brought new powers, something we can potentially use to turn the tide of the Shadow War on Phosophor. He has stimulated the fight and returned hope, even with the problems he's caused.

"With that in mind, the lack of common sense and awareness of consequences can be excused - those come with experience and age. But a mindset that can drive you to illness, injury, and death, and then do it again, and again? That's infinitely harder to fix, and impossibly dangerous to everyone around him if he takes his friends and subordinates with him. Gifts he may bring, but we can't return it in faith."

He felt Sable's stare on him, piercing through him.

"Then… then what should I do, Mom?" Brylle pled.

"Before I tell you, let me ask one last question - knowing all this about Kite, why did you believe otherwise when I started asking you these questions?"

"Mom, I…"

"Please, Brylle, answer the question."

"I don't know. Everyone likes Kite so much, and I got caught up in all of it. Even with all of what you said, everything he did sounds so amazing, and when I talked to him, he was really… confident? He didn't seem too hurt, and when I gave him the Berries and Mental Herb, he grew even more so. When things got bad, he gave me a solution - and then he showed me how to use the bands to communicate, and I..." Another pause. "I just - he impressed me, and he reminds me a lot of big bro."

The air stood silent for a moment. "You believed all of that," her mother replied. "Because of his charisma. Confidence, self-assuredness, a polite and calm demeanor - but those are only the tip of the iceberg. You need to show that you're reliable, that when they can't do something or don't know what to do, you can help them through it. Earlier, you told me you were worried about looking weak - it's not a weakness of battle that they don't like, though that is bad. No, if you're unsure of yourself at every opportunity, if you can't do what's needed when push comes to shove, then nobody will follow you."

"... oh."

"That's for leadership - but for them, you will need to be close as well. Look at Kite; he has charisma in spades, and uses that well for manipulation, turning Rowan against his only parental figure and Kapun into a warrior, but acts as - maybe even is - their friend as well. Within the ten minutes you spoke with him, he built a rapport with you and showed you his reliability in an unimaginably tough situation."

"But - but he did things wrong."

"But you didn't know that, and charisma is about what you believe and want, not what is true and matters. Kite can get into your head and figure out what pushes you forward, what makes you do the things you want to do. He can use them to get you on his side, obey his command, to make you do things against your normal actions - he can make you his friend if given the chance."

Brylle didn't say anything.

"Do you know what to do now, Brylle?"

"... yeah, Mom. Thanks."

There was the sound of footsteps walking away. Slowly, Sable got up, before pushing the door to the maintenance closet open. Culus stumbled out.

Sable then led him away, until they were alone in the hallway. Once they were finally out of earshot, Sable spoke.

"We're going back to the infirmary."

"I…"

"Please, Culus," Sable asked, tired. "It was a mistake to bring you out, no matter how much I wanted to. Don't say anything."

Culus said nothing, and Sable led him back to the infirmary. They arrived with no issue, and Sable helped Culus climb into the bed again.

"Sable," Culus asked eventually. "Who is Brylle's mother?"

"You mean, who was the person who said all those things about you?" Sable asked.

"Yes - she seems…"

"Intelligent, wise, resourceful, creative, harsh?"

"All of those."

"Well, she has to be - she's Angira, leader of Key. Every mission and operation is chosen and directed by her."

Angira - Brylle's mother and the leader of Key. "How much experience does she have?"

"She's been against Phosophor since the beginning of Key's fight against him - she founded Key fifty years ago, along with Kair. With Kair's retirement, I think she has more experience than anyone."

Angira had probably made more mistakes than Culus ever had, all before he was even conceived. She had dissected all of his decisions, all of his plans, and delivered him harsh truth after harsh truth - and Culus didn't even know if she knew he was there or not.

Culus slowly dug into the sheets. "Sable, I'm going to sleep," he said after a while. "If anyone asks, we never left the infirmary, and the next time I wake up is the first time since Fylak."

"And the fact that you have your paws back?"

Right, that. "I'll say that I woke up earlier, while you were napping, and noticed I didn't have my paws. Since I'm reckless and all, I decided to make them myself, then fell unconscious again."

"... fine. Have a nice nap."

Culus snuggled deeper and waited for sleep to take him so that he could forget about all he had heard.

Yet, the beating of his heart forbade that respite, and one key thing stuck with him.

The escape from Ascendance Palace - Angira would have said something about how Culus had failed that too, had Brylle not stopped her. Had Angira not thoroughly destroyed his previous plans in minutes, Culus would have thought she was bluffing. But she wasn't the type to bluff, and Culus suspected that she spoke the truth.

So, Culus decided to reminisce on the escape he had made, and figure out he could have improved. He had made no mistakes, and things had mostly gone according to plan, barring the unexpected barrier at the end - but then, everything went to plan at Fylak, so that meant nothing.

If he were to go back to that scenario now, his plan would be drastically different. Actually, there wouldn't be a plan, since Culus would just figure out how to move with the calming power as Helios did, then just leave, since the slavery band had been the only thing keeping him there. No, what could he have done differently, had he been there with the abilities he had at his disposal then.

Culus sat and thought for a while.

Then, maybe half an hour later, a thought occurred to him.

Laxatives.

He could have used laxatives.

Originally, he had considered just taking the master ring in General Caesian's sleep but then realized that General Caesian slept outside the barracks, so the master ring would have to be taken when he was in the building. General Caesian was surrounded by a retinue of guards at all times - except when he was in the bathroom.

So, all Culus would have had to do is slip some fast-acting laxatives into Caesian's meal, along with a slightly slower-acting soporific. Then, using a secret passage, Culus could have followed Caesian into the bathroom, using a contact-soporific if the one he used was too slow, and knock him out there.

Then the master ring would be easy to take, Culus would be able to run out without anyone chasing him, Helios wouldn't have had to 'take revenge' or anything, thus not bringing Slate with him, and Culus could have gone to Illussuria or Hoevete in peace.

Had he escaped more efficiently, he wouldn't have had to undergo the worst experience of his life.

The new knowledge tore at him. With just a little more forethought and common sense, he could have pulled off a perfect escape attempt - he had believed himself so clever, for creating such an elaborate escape plan. He had believed the difficult nature of the problem required a complex solution, when he could have just handled the entire thing quietly in a single afternoon - no, a single hour after the inception of the plan.

Could the event at the farm have been improved? He had known he was going to Pinnaleis and that the river would be frozen - did he need to pack as much, or at all? They had been sent to Fylak because they hadn't stopped him from escaping, not because they had hosted some injured Shinx, which was their duty as honorable citizens. If Culus had just left instead of getting food that he had only eaten a fraction of… would their lives be better?

He was a fool, in the end. He made poor decisions, he manipulated Kapun into following those decisions and risking his life for no goddamn reason (and he had excused it with the statement that 'Kapun needed to prove that he was brave'. Bullshit), and he had destroyed families without even trying. Angira's declaration that he was dangerous, that he couldn't be trusted at high levels of leadership haunted him.

And that part about Collared being a weapon… what had Kapun and Rowan found out during their interrogation of him when he was in Reporting Mode? They had said that they had a lot to talk about, but after the Nightmare and the kidnapping and Fylak and… well, they had never got around to it, in the end.

With the Collar's Berserk button and Logic Mode… somehow, the idea made a terrible sort of sense. And it was 'Reporting Mode', not 'Truth Mode'... soldiers made reports, didn't they?

What could he do about it?

Maybe… maybe…

… he could make things a little easier. If not for himself, then for…


Those alternate solutions described? They only took me a few minutes to think up. Culus is a kid, though, and doesn't always think too reasonably. That's not even getting into the mess the collar makes of him.

If you enjoyed the chapter, feel free to fav, follow, and review. I really, really enjoy them.

See you later!