Alexander's eyes shot open with a gasp. Reality blurred together in a half-conscious spell of nausea and pain, but it became clear that the scene he tried to wake up with a start to was no longer the one that surrounded him. His blurry eyes saw rock and moss and sky, but before he could blink clarity into them, the pain flared thricefold and drew a choked sob from his throat.

"Alex…" Reinhardt sounded like his throat had been sliced up from the inside out. The Chesnaught stumbled up a slope, which is the point when Alexander realized he was being carried. "You're awake. That's good. Listen, I need to rest."

"What-" An unholy stake of burning stabbed into the Serperior's upper body and silenced him outright, what remained of the breath slowly leaking out his throat from the squeeze. It took him what seemed like ten seconds to loosen his tensed diaphragm so he could finally start to cough.

Reinhardt found some flat spot somewhere in the brush and tried to set the Serperior down. He was shaking badly as he unraveled Alex from around his body, at which point he saw the state of the Chesnaught. Blackened and burned on a majority of his body. His fur was singed right off for the most part, with patches of dried blood joining the dark colors. Most of his shell had been shattered, and a vast majority of it was missing outright.

"You're hurt."

The Chesnaught struggled out a chuckle. "I'm hurt? Remind me not to show you any mirrors. I wasn't even sure you were going to wake up again at all."

It was night. The stars were out overhead, along with a waning crescent moon. Dark clouds blotched out whole sections of the sky, stars and all. Alexander couldn't remember how he'd gotten here. He didn't know what time it was when he-

Gritting his teeth, the Serperior tried to crane his head to see over the Chesnaught's shoulder. They were on the side of a mountain overlooking the valley. The sky was filled with smoke, and the forest was burning.

He could see the flames from here, carving hellish swathes into the silhouette of the treeline. From the black stretch of land that scarred the landscape, the wildfire had been raging for hours already. The sight was as captivating as it was horrifying. The smell of the smoke and heat in the air. The extent of the destruction.

"...That was us."

"That was not us," Reinhardt wheezed in response, gripping at his knees to stop them from quivering. "That was the Volcarona. We did not cause that fire. We were trying to prevent it."

Finally, Alexander looked down at himself. Even just the movement brought a horrible stabbing feeling to his spine. He saw a coat of coagulated blood and ash. Entire patches of scales ripped away. He looked like he should've been dead. A wall of nausea crashed into him and forced his eyes to squeeze shut.

"I failed," the Serperior whispered in a voice that no longer sounded like his own. "I can't go back to Paradise like this. I can't go back."

"Of course you're coming back. Alex, what else do we do now but go home? We did what we could here, so let's just cut our losses."

Alexander tried to swallow the taste of blood out of his mouth. "How can I, Rein? How can I go back when this is what my leadership brings? I won't let this happen to your dream. I can't."

"You won't," he assured him. "You would never. I know you wouldn't."

"Then leave me here."

"What the hell are you saying?" Reinhardt grunted as he shifted positions, the simple act of moving his legs seemingly taxing. "This isn't you. Look, you lost a lot of blood on the way up-you're not totally here right now. We gotta keep moving. I need to find a stream so that I can clean those wounds out before an infection sets in."

"I was supposed to die down there. I know I was. That was the punishment for my arrogance. For what I did to this valley. For what I did to Vallion."

Reinhardt forced himself into the Serperior's view, grunting with effort as he did so. "Like hell I'm ever going to abandon you. I don't care if you're responsible for destroying the world and everyone that lives on it. I'm with you the whole way down, no questions asked. And you know you can't change my mind about this."

Another wave of pain seized Alexander's every muscle and thought. He barely managed to get a gasp in before it finally passed. "You…"

"Stop talking," the Chesnaught interrupted him. "You're really not in good enough shape to be worrying about this. Let's focus on surviving for now." He saw Alex's eyes catch on the fires in the distance. "Listen. If you're so upset about bringing this back to Paradise, just swear that you'll never let it happen again. Instead of agonizing about it, keep your word. Now grit your teeth-I gotta pick you up again."

It was another world of agony. Alexander nearly passed out a second time as Reinhardt tried his best not to mangle his partner. Stars danced in his vision brighter than even the wildfire, then all turned to black for a few frightening moments. The Serperior seemed to wake up, already wrapped around Rein's torso and on the move as that chunk of time ceased to exist.

"...Then I swear to you…"

Rein hissed through his teeth, trying not to stumble up the mountainside. "And I'll hold you to it, alright? Now save your energy. First we have to get through the night."

Alexander's heavy eyes slowly opened to a snow-covered ground. The pain had been so present in the foreground for so long that it was almost easy to ignore. The grievous wounds that covered his body weren't anything new. The open slashes were simply tallies added to the list. If only they were his only source of pain. There was one wound that gouged into him much, much worse than any of the ones that covered his body.

The dawn had come. The cracks in the clouds forewarned of the coming light by showing a gradual blue. There was a dark haze in the air that dulled that color and stung in the back of his throat. His eyes trailed down to plumes of smoke that still rose from the eastern half of the city. To the quenched flames that still smoldered in the ruins. To the ashes that were swept up into the atmosphere and flitted down in place of the snow. To the souls that left this world too early.

Reinhardt's city. His city. Pokemon Paradise.

He wished the snow would bury him where no one would ever find him again.

...

"Heave!"

A song of grunts and effort filled the air. Accompanied by a team pulling at a rope, Vallion wrapped his own vines around a pillar of rubble, pulling it loose from the collapsed pile it was lodged in. His injuries screamed the whole duration of the task, but he pulled nevertheless, moving the massive object inch by inch. It wasn't until Panne put in the extra mile with her telekinesis that the pillar really started to budge, eventually sliding out of place over piles of ash and rolling halfway onto the road. A collective sigh rang out in the morning gloom.

Trapped beneath the rubble was an Ursaring, still postured defensively above their two Teddiursa cubs. After hours of imprisonment, they were finally met with an overcast sky, covered from head to toe in a thick layer of ash and dust.

The kids seemed fine at first glance. Traumatized, certainly, but unharmed for the most part. Their parent was quite a bit worse for wear. Panne steadied the Ursaring beneath their arm from atop her staff and helped them descend the burnt remains of their home. A few of the volunteers prepared to lead the family down the street to where one of the infirmary camps were set up. Right as another team of volunteers seemed to be on their way back to the forefront.

Panne came up to the Serperior with a groan and a yawn mixed into one. "That's another block down. That's gotta be most of them, right?"

"That's barely a sixth of the district," Vallion said, his speech slightly slurred from the swelling on the right side of his face.

She ran her hands over her ears and exhaled. "Son of a bitch, Val. This is why you shouldn't build cities so fucking big. Aaah fuck."

"Your migraine doing any better?" he asked out of courtesy, already knowing the answer.

"No, absolutely not! I feel like there's a goddamn explosion going on inside my head! I must've huffed a fucking chimney's worth of smoke, I've been using my powers non-stop for the last fifteen hours, and I haven't drank or slept or ate or anything!"

"You haven't drank anything? Panne-"

"Fuck water!" she interrupted him, clutching at her temples. "I drank water! Whatever! You know they won't even let me take anything for this headache, right? They're saving all the good stuff AND the bad stuff for the victims! Share with your savior, come on! I already smoked all the willow bark I brought before last night!"

Vallion shook his head. "Why don't we take a break, then? Maybe they'll let you have some now."

He slithered around and waited for her to jump onto his back. Panne hesitated with a whine. "You know I'm not going to get on when you're wearing so many bandages that you look like a mummy."

"Yeah, and I gotta go get them changed, so I'm heading that way anyways. Come on, you're really not that heavy. Unless you've been taking too much from Reinhardt's buffet while I was gone. You do look a little more portly."

"Hey! Well now I don't feel so bad about it anymore!" Or so the Delphox said, but she still was especially careful about climbing onto him. Arms around his neck, she grumbled as she finally released the psychic hold on her staff, letting Vallion catch it to hold his hands just in front of where her legs came to rest. She pressed her forehead into the back of his neck and huffed down his back. In truth, he was barely able to keep himself upright as it was, but the pain was a good motivator to keep his pace. He was much less thrilled about the throbbing, pulsing aspect of the pain.

The winds carried rolling clouds of blackened ash through the destroyed neighborhood. What few buildings survived the fires were damaged beyond repair, and the ones that fell served to reveal the destruction that took place on other streets further into the district. Vallion caught a glimpse of the cart they were using to load the dead onto and averted his eyes, suddenly much more interested in the mixture of fresh snow and soot on the road.

Just beyond where the furthest flames licked at the bricks of the neighboring buildings before being contained, a courtyard had been hastily configured into a hospital. The arched roofs of white tents poked out from above a separating wall. There was a good deal of muttering that came from the other side, and a disconcerting amount of moaning and muted sobbing to go along with it.

Vallion made his way past the more desperate cases near the front of the temporary infirmary, traveling several tents down to where things were a bit less depressing. He saw that Ursaring again, clutching a brush they were given like it was a lifeline while their children sat on a mat off in the corner beneath the open-walled roof. Anyone medically trained was essentially permanently stationed in the first few tents, so only a handful of guards and volunteers moved between these less serious cases.

Panne made a noise of complaint and hopped off his back, telekinetically taking the staff from his hands in the same motion. "Hold on. I'll meet back up with you. I've got someone in this shitty place to go check on."

The Serperior tilted his head and hummed. "Alright, I suppose. You'll know where to find me. I've got a lot of disinfectant to go through."

...

Sniveling and despair. The smell of death and blood and ethanol. Panne wasn't very fond of this place already. She had wanted to take a rest so badly not more than a few minutes ago, but now that she was actually here, those charred streets didn't seem so bad.

She waved to Vallion and went her own way towards the edge of the grim courtyard. And to think that most of these pokemon were the lucky ones. At least now that everything's already boiled over and done with, the worst was behind them all. Probably. Panne wasn't the most optimistic person to ask, but winter had to have been on its way out by now. And hey, no food shortage if a tenth of your population was gone, right? Ah, that's maybe not so much a blessing.

Nibby was off on his own among the pokemon that weren't bawling their eyes out. It seems he'd given up that little cot they assigned him to a Skiploom and decided to perch up on the wall that went around the perimeter of the courtyard. He was just staring off into the smoking remains of the city when she showed up.

"There's no way that's an interesting view."

The Noibat jumped at first, but seemed to mellow back out quicker than he usually did. His voice sounded a bit off. "Mm. I don't think so. It's an interesting view in the worst of ways. The kind of sight you're supposed to etch into the back of your mind. I could've been one of the ones that died last night."

"Good to see you're super chipper about it," she mused, dropping down with a wince and leaning her weight against the wall. "Must be feeling better if you managed to fly up here. No bad injuries or breaks or anything? I'd feel bad cuz I...kinda was the one that blew you out of the air."

He lowered his eyes. "You saved my life, Panne. The doc said I probably hurt my lungs from being up in the smoke for too long. Might be some lasting damage there, but nothing particularly life-threatening. They even said it could heal when I evolve."

"Hmm. So not too bad, then. Sure beats having your face slashed open, doesn't it?"

"It does. Thank you, Panne, for blowing me up."

The Delphox clutched at the space behind her ears, applying enough pressure to distract her from the pounding pain. "Oh, you don't have to thank me for pyrotechnics. I do those for free. And as a bonus, you won't have to worry about you-know-who forcing you to do anything anymore. Val already took care of the top end of Shardurr."

"He what?!" Nibby struggled not to raise his voice, falling into a coughing fit as a result.

"Mhm. Chenza and the Druddigon both bit the dust in the fighting last night. Didn't hear anything about the Swellow, but Val said that guy shouldn't be a problem. But I mean, if he still is, all you gotta do is write us about it and we'll 'writ of permission' him into the ground, right?"

"I…"

"Better yet, you could probably just tell Reinhardt about it. He did say he wanted to talk to you when you woke up, but you know, he's a little busy these days."

The Noibat looked off into the distance for an extended period of time. He kept his face hidden from her, but started to sniffle and cough as a silence fell over the camp.

"Oh don't you start, too!" she said. "There's already enough sniveling to go around, dude! Save some for the guys that have actual reasons to cry. I bet the fire didn't even spread far enough to eat your office. Just suck it up like us heroes are supposed to."

"I can't help it…"

Panne shook her head. "Sheesh. You're gonna make me cry if you keep doing that. I got an image to uphold!" She swallowed at the pain in the back of her throat and blinked. Definitely don't start. The headache would make it impossible to stop. "Hey. While we're at it, I'm sorry I snapped at you near the Order's headquarters that one time. Although to be fair, if you were anyone else, I would've completely fucked this whole thing for Val by telling you the things I did."

Nibby cleared his throat. "You weren't in the wrong. I've been lying to a lot of people for a long time. There's a lot of things I can't take back. Maybe I deserve worse than what ended up happening to me."

"My advice? Just take it and run. I mean, maybe you did get off better than you shoulda. You could be in jail, or totally crippled. Or dead, I guess. But you're none of those things, and you ended up saving a lot of lives after all. Sometimes it's just better to forget about the person you were and run with the person everyone thinks you are. "

"Hmm?..."

"Panne!" Vallion called out over the distance, slithering in a stilted sort of way over to where she was. Fresh bandages must've been on too tight. "Have you asked around for any meds yet? The more you put it off, the longer you're gonna feel like that. Did you at least drink something like I said you should?"

"I know, I know! I was busy! It's not like we're in a rush or anything!"

The Serperior hummed. "Well, I did want to get back to work sooner rather than later. There's still more pokemon trapped out there. It kind of is a rush." Vallion and Nibby met eyes for a few seconds. She wasn't exactly sure what either of their looks meant, but the Noibat ended up turning away first and staring at the burnt cityscape.

Panne scoffed all the while. "Fine, whatever! Just give me like, five actual minutes this time! Ugh. Well, Nibby, I guess I'll see you around. Or I might not, I guess. We definitely should be heading back to Lively City pretty soon after...all this kinda mellows out, I suppose. So if I don't end up seeing you again, just remember what I said and try not to get caught up in that kind of shit anymore."

It was as simple of a goodbye as that. The last time the Noibat would ever see the legendary Delphox who changed his life. She rode off beside the human Serperior with molten eyes who she made her husband, the both of them wearing that pair of monumental green scarves. The words she parted with felt so casual, like she just had these sorts of interactions with pokemon on a regular basis.

At this point, he could do nothing but return to his thoughts and reflect.

...

Several long minutes passed while Alexander waited on the docks of that lake. Numbed from his outermost injuries by the cold, he stared down into the square hole that had been dug out of the ice, watching the wind cut waves into the open water with hardly an ounce of patience left in his body. Still, it wasn't as if he had much of a choice.

The lakeside wasn't empty. Alexander's subordinates were scattered among the quiet shores-those not involved with the rescue attempts, anyway. They scoured the area for clues and evidence, as they have been for most of the district, hoping to uncover the tracks left by the armies that marched through. There was so much left to clean up. So much justice left to deliver. Many of the pokemon that waged war against Paradise could still freely walk the streets.

But there was one enemy to find above all.

The Dewgong breached the surface of the water. "Master Alexander."

"Yes?!" The Serperior surged up to the side of the docks. "Tell me, Dewgong. Did you find her?"

The water type slowly shook their head. "Master, there were no corpses anywhere in the lake. It's completely empty."

"...No, it's not," he said. "It can't be. I watched her fall in. I was there. Go back down and make a second pass immediately."

Shooting him a quick salute, the Dewgong disappeared into the black murk once more, a mirror image of the sky shimmering where their head once was. The Serperior stared at that overcast reflection until it settled back down. He didn't register what the Dewgong had said for longer than even that. The wind whistled past his ears like a cruel snickering. It had to be a mistake. He would get more search crews beneath the water if he had to.

Staring so intently at that spot, Alexander hardly noticed the footsteps of someone coming up onto the dock with him.

"Any luck?" Reinhardt spoke up, breaking him out of his daze.

The Chesnaught was still blackened from the burns on his shell and outer plating, and anywhere his fur was burned was already obscured by white bandaging.

"Shouldn't you be commanding the rescue efforts?"

"Shouldn't you be in a hospital bed?" Reinhardt smiled. "I sent word of the disaster out to neighboring towns in addition to Moony's caravan before an officer finally relieved me to get some rest. The medics were starting to worry about me. I figured on my way back that I'd have to stop by and convince you of the same thing, as well."

Alexander huffed and returned his gaze to the frozen lake. The cracked plates of ice in the center were still visible, even from here. "They're not finding anything. I told myself I wouldn't stop until her body was in my possession, but there's apparently nothing here."

"You're not implying she's alive, are yo-?"

"I saw her die!" the Serperior cut him off. "She was fatally wounded and fell through the ice and drowned! I was there, Rein! She can't be alive! If she's alive then- then this isn't over yet!"

A cautious hand extended and touched Alexander just below the collar. Reinhardt glanced out over the ice, then back at his partner. "It's over, Alex. It doesn't get much more over than this. Maybe something happened to her body, or someone came by to reclaim it from the water before us."

"Or she became a golden light in the sky while I was unconscious. The smoke may have been too dense for it to be noticeable, or the aurora could have interfered with the phenomenon."

He shrugged. "If that's what her end looked like, then that's what it looked like. It doesn't matter now. Even if she was still alive, her condition wouldn't have gotten much better, and her forces are all but demolished. Come back to the palace, Alex. You need to rest."

Even now, deflating with a breath, the Serperior couldn't shake this electric feeling in his chest that something was wrong. It wasn't going to go away until he saw the rotting corpse of that Weavile with his very eyes. But if there was no corpse after all, when would it ever leave? When would normal ever return?

"...I should at least wait until Dewgong has resurfaced from their second pass so that I can dismiss them."

With a grunt, Reinhardt shuffled his feet and sat down on the dock right beside him. "Then I'll wait with you. Who knows? Perhaps you were right all along and she really is still down there. It just took a more diligent look to find."

"I don't believe she is at this point," Alexander said.

"Mm. Or not. It's hardly our concern now. We just don't have time to dwell anymore, do we? Now, we should focus on the future. On healing what's been damaged. If trouble comes back around, we'll be ready for it, but we'll just be running in place if that's all we end up thinking about. Let's move on from this together. Paradise will grow stronger from it, one step at a time."

A throbbing pain that radiated through him. A biting breeze from across the expanse of ice. Sensations that should've been the foreground, always shoved off to the side. Alexander almost didn't want this to be over. He wanted it to go on and on, taking his sleep and his health, gouging into him until there was nothing left but duty and justice. Then nobody could possibly tell him he was wrong. Nobody could tell him that he didn't give his all for Reinhardt's Paradise.

What was he doing it all for? What was he without a Chenza at his doorstep? Without a Vallion in his past? Without a city to be crushed by the weight of? He was almost frightened by what the answer may be-if there even was a human in this broken shell of a body anymore.

"That sounds good," Alexander finally said after a long pause.

"I know it does. If there was ever a time to try out being optimistic, it's now." Reinhardt's smile was almost infectious. After what happened last night, how could he wear that face so easily? "First thing's first, as always. Once we dismiss Dewgong, we'll have to head back and warm up. I'm sure Lilli's been waiting for us. Have you had anything to eat?"

"You know I haven't."

The Chesnaught chuckled. "Then at least we know where to start."