The first thing Fabian registered since he collapsed was a strange tingling sensation across his entire body, as if he was being wrapped in an impossibly tight blanket. It was a struggle to open his eyes, but he managed to do it, and saw that he was covered in so many bandages that his skin was barely visible. Strangely, the feeling wasn't as agonizing as he was used to it being. He couldn't really feel anything at all, not even the bed he was laying on. He mumbled some nonsense under his breath as he rubbed his eyes.

"You're up," came Melker's muffled voice from beside him. He was under so many layers of blankets that it was nearly impossible to see him, but the voice was unmistakable. "You were looking pretty nasty when they dragged you in. Shocked you survived, to be honest."

"Like you're one to talk!" Fitz said from a bed much further away. "You had us thinking you were dead! Vark's been bawling his eyes out for days!"

"Days?" Fabian asked. "But, it's only been a couple hours."

Fitz stared at him, confused. "Right, yeah, you've been out. Hate to break it to you, but it's been three days."

"Three days?" Fabian shouted. "But then, we only have eight more until the Solstice!"

"Please tell me you aren't still thinking about going for Renegade's Edge," Melker said. "Quincy would've been the weakest person at the whole event if all this didn't happen. Do you really think you'll last a full minute?"

Fabian nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! And I beat Quincy, so that makes me the second-weakest one there, minimum!"

"Well, Quincy's not exactly able to go anymore," Fitz pointed out.

"What do you mean?" Fabian asked. "What kind of injury takes longer than eight days to heal?"

Staring at him quizzically, Fitz cleared his throat. "Do you… not know what happened?"

"That's a weird thing to ask," Fabian thought. "Quincy jumped out the window, I followed, Nero shoved him upward, and I… I…"

It felt like his heart stopped.

The sensation of a skull shattering beneath his tail, of the nauseating adrenaline high, and collapsing into an ankle-deep puddle of blood and feathers overwhelmed him completely, even more vividly than they had in the moment. He wanted to cry or scream or throw up or be anywhere but where he was, surrounded by people staring at him, staring at a murderer, he was a murderer, he murdered someone, he murdered someone, he murdered someone-

His spiraling thoughts were interrupted when he realized that he was in a different place than before. "Wh-Where…?"

"I thought I'd wheel your bed over somewhere private," came Toño's voice from the corner of the storage closet they were in. Fabian was pleasantly surprised to see him in such good condition. "You weren't looking too good, to say the least."

Fabian bowed his head apologetically. "Sorry for being so much trouble. I just-"

"Don't apologize, you didn't do anything wrong," Toño reassured him. "Besides, after all you've done for me, it's the least I could do. Can I ask what was going on? Or, do you not wanna talk about it?"

"I… Honestly, I don't even know, myself," Fabian said. "I guess I just pushed the whole memory of… well, what I did out of my head, somehow. And then it all came rushing back at once, and I thought my heart stopped beating or something! I've never had anything like that happen before!" He stared down at his hands, which were still shaking from the experience. "I just… Arceus, I killed him."

Toño scurried up to the side of Fabian's bed. "Didn't you kill someone else already?" he asked. "I thought that's the whole reason you're on the run now."

"That's a good point," Fabian said. "Why didn't that first time with Dell bother me as much? Maybe…" A truly sobering thought crossed his mind. "Maybe I never really saw criminals as people," he said, his voice hollow.

"What do you mean?" Toño asked.

"Y'know, you're with the Guild or you're against it, and if you're against it, then you never really deserved to live in the first place." He curled a fist. It would've been a perfectly logical statement a week ago, but it couldn't have sounded more wrong to him today. "That's… probably what Quincy used to think, too."

Toño smiled slightly. "Fabian, do me a favor and never compare yourself to Quincy again. Trust me, you couldn't be as rancid as him if you tried."

"Thanks," Fabian said. He had to wonder, though, if it even mattered, whether or not he was a better person than Quincy. Either way, he spent his whole life as a bystander, always complacent and supportive of anything a Guild official did. Looking back, it had to have taken a certain amount of wilful ignorance to miss the obvious signs of corruption. Even if he didn't personally kill a mayor or blackmail an auto tycoon, how could he say he was any better?

Fabian needed to distract himself. "So, what are you gonna do now?" he asked. "You can't exactly fake your death a second time. Are you just gonna live like normal now, or what?"

Toño winced. "I wanted to talk to you about that, actually. Do you… Would you mind if I tagged along to wherever you're going? I swear, I wouldn't be a nuisance, I can carry my weight, and I-"

"Sure," Fabian said, shrugging.

Toño looked at him funny. "R-Really? That easily?"

"Sure, you're a cool guy. Nero's gonna complain, but I've never listened to him a day in my life, and there's no way I'm gonna start now. But you know, it's gonna be really dangerous. Wouldn't you rather just stick around here with all your friends?"

"I can't," Toño sighed. "They'll all be in so much danger if I keep living with them. I'm sorry, it's hard to explain why."

"Could you try? Nero's gonna be a stick in the mud no matter what, but if you have an excuse or something, we might convince him."

Toño took a deep breath. "So basically, I'm a human from another world and I got transported here and turned into a Pachirisu somehow, and for some reason, the Head Guildmaster really wants to capture me."

Fabian crossed his arms. "I don't really know what a human is. Are you saying you're an alien?"

After thinking about it, Toño shrugged. "Eh, pretty much."

"Cool," Fabian said. Part of him wished that Toño was still in his original body, since he would really love the chance to study the anatomy of an alien lifeform, but at the end of the day, it wasn't that important. What mattered most was getting back on the road. "Wait, I almost forgot about why we came here in the first place!" Fabian shouted. "We still need an automobile!"

"Let me build you one," Toño said. "On the house, of course. Shouldn't take me longer than 'till tomorrow morning and, who knows, maybe it'll sweeten the deal for Nero."

Fabian flashed back to the design Toño showed off in his basement, and he couldn't help but get excited. "Really? You'll really do this for us?"

"Yeah, sure," Toño said. He produced an adorably small pen and notebook. "Just tell me what you-"

Fabian swatted the notebook out of Toño's hands. "Toño," he said seriously. "Listen to me. I want you to make whatever you want. Don't even think about what I'd want for a second, got it?"

Toño's mouth hung slightly ajar as his eyes practically sparkled. "R-Really?" he squeaked. Fabian nodded confidently. There was no way he was ever going to impede Toño's creative vision. "Y-You won't regret this! I promise, I'll make the greatest car in the world!" On that note, Toño scurried off, almost shaking with glee.

"I should head back out, too," Fabian thought. If his meltdown was as worrisome as Toño made it sound, he probably left everyone else worried, and he felt awful about that.

As he stepped in, wearing a casual smile as to reassure everyone that he was okay, they all looked at him strangely, including two new arrivals: Sofia and Nero.

"Didn't you say that he was undergoing a panic attack or something?" Nero asked. "Oh, nevermind. It's just as well that you're here."

Fabian scowled at him. "What are you doing here?"

"It's nothing too exciting, I was just about to ask Melker here a couple of questions." He hopped on top of the bed Melker was on. "You don't mind, do you?"

Melker growled. "You're Claude's bastard, aren't you! I don't want anything to do with any of you monsters! Piss off!"

"Claude, huh?" Nero asked, his smirk almost doubling in size. "That's a very interesting nickname. For almost my whole life, I've only ever heard people refer to my father as 'Claudius,' but lately, I've been hearing that nickname quite often. Mai Urano, Iris and Dorinel Vanadis, and now you. I wonder, what else do your four have in common?"

"I've got no idea what you're talking about," Melker huffed.

In response, Nero slid a sheet of paper under Melker's blankets and waited expectantly.

"What was that?" Fabian asked.

"Documents taken from our favorite Vice Guildmaster's private abode," Nero explained. "They detail the various members of your father's old team."

Fabian squinted at him. "But, my dad never had a team. He always worked alone."

"Is that what he told you?" Nero slid a sheet of paper along the floor towards Fabian's feet, and he picked it up. Sure enough, it had his father's name on it, and in the Team Affiliation section, instead of reading "Independent," it said "Team Fortune." He gasped. "He wouldn't-" he cut himself off, realizing that he was about to defend his father on impulse. "But, why would he lie about that?"

Nero gave him a curt nod and returned his attention to Melker. "As I was saying, there are some detailed records of every single former member of this team, all except for one. And for the records as well-kept as these, it's very curious that an entire person would be omitted. They'd have to be quite the controversial figure, possibly controversial enough to damage the Guild's credibility, were his identity to become public. And what's more, from what I've gathered, it appears they happen to share a surname with you. Would I be wrong in assuming that you two were brothers?"

The whole room went silent, waiting on Nero's next words. Fabian hated to say it, but nobody knew how to hold an audience like Nero did.

"Now that I think about it, your name was always a little familiar to me. Father mentioned you once or twice, I believe. Regardless, it's nice to meet you in person, Uncle Melker."

Fitz was the first one to break the silence that followed. "U-Uncle…? But, th-that would make the Boss…"

Melker ripped his blankets off his head and shot a truly horrifying glare at Nero. Of course, he didn't flinch. "He's not my brother, and you aren't my nephew! We aren't blood related, so we were never family in the first place! Call me 'uncle' again and I'll tear your throat out, brat!"

"Noted," Nero said, refusing to wipe the grin off his face. "To be honest, I can't really say I care all that much about whether our relationship is truly familial. I just wanted to establish that you and my father were connected. I've got a few questions regarding him, and I can't exactly ask them to his face at the moment."

Melker's glare, though still certainly present, wasn't as focused on Nero. "Whatever, go ahead. Not like you're gonna stop if I ask you to."

"Wonderful," Nero said. "I've always been curious, why does my father covet the power of Palkia's Successor so much? I'm aware that he plots to annihilate the world with it, but I have yet to understand how. As far as I understand it, this power is certainly useful, but far from galaxy-shattering."

"I'll try to explain, but it's complicated," Melker said, wrapping his body back up in blankets. "Y'know how you can only ever Succeed one Legend, yeah?" Nero nodded. "Well, there's a weird exception. Dialga and Palkia technically aren't unique species of Pokémon, technically speaking. There's more to it, but basically, Arceus originally made them by cloning Himself. Which means it's possible to be a Successor to both Arceus and Dialga, or to both Arceus and Palkia."

For the first time, Vark piped up, apparently having recovered from the shock of seeing his Boss in that dire condition. "Boss? How know that?"

Melker moved his lips in a way that was probably meant to indicate a smile, but his expression was so weary that it barely came across. "It's a long story, and it's one that'll get us all killed if I tell you. Bottom line is, that's the only way it's possible to be a Successor of two Legends at once."

"That's quite interesting," Nero said. "Though, I can't imagine my father would care all that much if that was all there was to it. Do those two powers have any kind of synergy?"

Melker's gaze suddenly became distant, like he heard someone calling his name.

"Are you alright?" Nero asked, nudging him slightly.

"Huh?" Melker asked, snapping back to reality. "Oh, yeah, 'course I am. And yeah, you were spot on with that last bit. Remember when you first got your power? How it was way stronger than how it usually is?"

Fabian thought back to the flood of visions he received when he first plunged that piece of rubble into Dell's neck. He had no idea when most of those were going to pan out, but the one of his mom's execution had to have been at least two weeks away, which was way further ahead than he could usually predict. "Yeah, Dell said it had something to do with how we could combine our powers or something."

Melker chuckled lightly at the mention of Dell's name. "What a guy. Yeah, that's basically it. Now, when Arceus was making the world, He didn't really intend on dying, so he didn't put much thought into the way these powers interacted. So what happens is, if you're getting Palkia's power and you already have Arceus's power, that power of that initial burst goes up a thousandfold. Supposedly works the other way around, too."

"And the power of that 'Successor Burst' could potentially be enough to, let's say, eliminate every single existing particle in the universe?" Nero suggested. Melker nodded grimly. "Fascinating stuff. Of course, I don't intend to die in the first place, but it would be quite a shame for you all if I did."

"Wait, but he'd also have to kill Arceus, right?" Fabian asked. "There's no way that's even possible!"

Melker shook his head. "It's already done."

"WHAT?!" Fabian shouted, so loudly that it hurt his throat. "Arceus is dead? B-But- How- Who?"

"Who else?" Nero asked. "The only man capable would be the Head Guildmaster, correct?" Melker nodded, confirming the most horrifying thing Fabian had heard yet. "I imagine he'd want to come for me first, since I'm a significantly easier target by comparison. Can't exactly destroy the world if you die in battle, can you?"

"H-How could anyone want that?" Fabian asked. It was terrifying enough that anyone could ever hope to destroy the world, and doubly so when that person was as powerful as Claudius Moreno. And with the one man responsible for preventing it also happening to be the worst person Fabian knew, he wasn't sure if he was going to sleep tonight.

Nero shook his head. "It's quite simple. My father is an overwhelmingly miserable person. Even I find his nihilism excessive at times."

Fabian crossed his arms. "He looked pretty happy to me when he was trying to kill us all."

"Believe it or not, miserable and happy aren't mutually exclusive states of being," Nero said. He hopped off Melker's bed, but failed to land on his feet, and collapsed. He tried hobbling back up to his paws, but was unable to. "G-Give me a moment," he said through gritted teeth. "Just a little tired."

Kate rushed over to his side and placed a gooey hand on his forehead, earning a scowl. "I- Arceus! You're colder than a corpse! How much blood have you lost?"

"Less than Quincy," Nero said. "Therefore, enough to be alive. I got on just fine for three days, and nothing's changed. Get away from me."

"You're dying!" Kate exclaimed, exasperated. She lifted Nero up and placed him on a vacant bed. "You woulda ended dead if I didn't catch you! Just sit still, I'll get you a blood transfusion going."

Nero tried to crawl off the bed, but falling down the way he did must've screwed him up so badly that he wasn't even capable of that. "You will do no such thing-"

Kate held his mouth open and grabbed a Sleep Seed from her kit. "Look, if you struggle, you're just gonna get more hurt. I'll just put you under real quick, got it?"

When the seed came into Nero's view, his eyes widened. The look on his face was one Fabian thought he'd never see from him. It was fear.

Actual, genuine fear overtook Nero as he struggled in vain to keep that seed out of his mouth. In the end, he was far too weak to stop Kate, and his eyelids quickly drooped down. He drifted off into sleep.

After staring at him in a strange, uncomfortable silence for far too long, Fabian and Sofia both decided to take a step outside. There was a nice little garden in the back of Kate's infirmary, and after seeing whatever that was, they needed some fresh air.

"D-Did you see his face?" Sofia asked, her voice hushed. "I knew he was always weird about sleeping around other people, but he freaked out more now than when we saw Melker parading your limp body around!"

Fabian frowned. "I don't like it," he declared. "Kate should've just left him alone. I don't care if Nero's the worst, he gets to decide what happens to his body. No one else."

Sofia sighed. "I… yeah, I guess. But Nero really was probably going to die if she didn't do something. And like it or not, he's too important to let that happen, especially with what Melker just told us. I just wish I knew why he's like that."

Fabian thought back to when Nero goaded Quincy into attacking him in order to create an opening to escape, and how he did it with a smile on his face. 'Fear' and 'Nero' were two words that just didn't mix. He shrugged, and as he did, he realized that he was starting to regain feeling in his arm, and the bandages were starting to bother him again. So of course, he tore them off. "Wow, I can't believe how much better I feel!" Fabian said, flexing his arm like it was brand new. "You can barely even see the hole!"

"You…" Sofia trailed off. "N-Nevermind. Sorry."

"I what?" Fabian asked. "C'mon, what were you gonna say?"

She winced. "It's just- You… You really get hurt a lot, don't you?"

"...What do you mean?"

"I- Well, even back when we first met at that tavern, you were bleeding all over the place. And then you got hurt in the Guild, and then Melker beat you up, and then Lydia almost killed you, and now-"

"I'm fine," Fabian asserted. "I'm fine now. It didn't even hurt that bad, you really don't gotta worry about-"

"You threw yourself off a building!" Sofia blurted out. She glanced away from Fabian after seeing his bewildered expression. "S-Sorry."

Fabian didn't see why it mattered that he got injured every once in a while, nor did he get why she was worried that he could die. His job wasn't to protect himself, it was to protect everyone around him. However, he'd had this conversation with his mom a few times, and every time he explained his thought process, it only worried her more, and in all likelihood, Sofia was no different. "C'mon, you know how tough I am! There's no way that fall would've killed me!"

"Really?" Sofia asked. "There's no way you actually thought you'd survive."

"Sure I did," Fabian said, deciding to play dumb.

Burying her face in her wings, Sofia sighed. "Arceus, give me strength," she muttered. "For future reference, falling down that far will kill you. Got it?"

A small part of Fabian was bothered by the fact that Sofia was so willing to believe that he was really that stupid, but he definitely wasn't surprised, and he wasn't going to complain. "That does make sense, actually, I guess I wasn't really thinking," he said. "Anyways, how are you feeling? You want me to go out and grab you something to eat?"

"N-No, that's alright!" Sofia insisted. "Let's just stay here for a bit and get a bit more rest, okay?"

Fabian nodded. The two continued to chat about considerably more lighthearted topics, passing time and trying not to think about anything related to the past week.

The moon hung right in the middle of the night sky, signaling to Nero that he had allowed himself to waste far too much time in this miserable city. The sprawling wasteland of mesas and mountains seen from outside the city's perimeter was majestic and beautiful, even as seen from Nero's jaded eyes. He was glad to get some fresh air after that horrid interaction with the loathsome quack doctor.

"Mornin'!" she had cheerily said to him after the procedure, as if she didn't commit an unforgivable invasion of his privacy. "By the way, you really oughta get that back paw of yours checked up. You've gotta've noticed it, right? I couldn't imagine trying to walk on that every day! What'd you do to it?" When she said that, Nero thought about ripping his stitches out and bleeding all over her floor out of spite.

He had hoped to enjoy some silent contemplation to himself tonight. However, the noise of a familiar Croconaw's lumbering footsteps thwarted him, as always. "What are you doing out here?" Fabian asked. "Folks have been looking everywhere."

"Just getting some fresh air," Nero said. "May be good for my… sprain."

Fabian grimaced. "I… uh, I know this isn't a sprain," he admitted, pointing to his shoulder. "Even I know that much."

"I had a feeling." Nero scooted to the side, allowing Fabian some space to sit beside him against the mountain.

After hesitating for a moment, Fabian did. "You did? How come you were playing along, then? I thought you were just trying to make fun of me."

To an extent, Nero was, but there was a little bit more to it. "I felt it was necessary to downplay our wounds. I simply wouldn't be able to bear it if someone was under the impression that I was weak."

"Exactly! Arceus, I can't believe you're the only one who gets it!" Fabian threw his hands in the air. "All I want is for people to feel safe around me, y'know? How can anyone do that if one little shard of ice in the shoulder is all it takes to knock me down?"

"Funny, I feel exactly the opposite. The name 'Nero Moreno' alone should strike fear in people's hearts, and if it doesn't, I've done something wrong. You wouldn't exactly be fearing for your life if you met a feeble Zigzagoon who can't even walk normally, would you?"

Fabian went dead silent for a while. "Have you… ever killed someone before? Not counting Mai, I mean."

"Naturally."

Fabian recoiled like Nero had just tried to bite him. "How are you so calm about that?"

Nero rolled his eyes. "Have you forgotten who my father is? It would be more shameful for the both of us if I wasn't capable of the deed." A small part of Nero felt some pity towards Fabian. He remembered how he felt the first few times he killed someone. "It gets easier the more you do it, if that's what you're trying to ask."

"There's no way that's true!" Fabian spat. "Stop assuming that everyone's as much of a psychopath as you."

It just wasn't possible for Nero to understand Fabian's thought process. Did he want to get this upset over murdering people for the rest of his life? "Of course they aren't. I'm an expert in the field."

"Are you saying you used to get bothered by… this kind of stuff?" Fabian asked, childishly dancing around the word murder. "Why would you even want to kill someone in the first place?"

"You'd like to know about my first murder?" Nero asked. Fabian hesitantly nodded. "Hm, well, it would've been around a year after my father got custody of me, so I would've been… around eight or nine, if I'm not mistaken."

"EIGHT?!" Fabian screeched, probably waking the whole city up. "How- I don't- I didn't even know people could die when I was eight!"

"That says far more about your upbringing than it does mine. As I was saying, my father locked me and some other kid from school up in a room together, told us he wouldn't be bringing in any food, and said he'd be leaving the door locked for two weeks."

Fabian furrowed his brow. "But, there's no way a Zigzagoon could survive without a food source for that long."

Nero smiled mirthlessly. "Ah, but there was a food source. I did say there was another kid in there, didn't I?"

"I don't…" Slowly, a look of horrified realization spread across Fabian's face, a look that Nero lived for. "Arceus…"

"Your pity is wasted," Nero said. "Frankly, I'm glad it happened. Of course, I was well aware that people are inherently selfish by that point, but on that day I learned that I am no exception. It was a valuable lesson."

"I'm leaving," Fabian said, sounding like he was going to throw up. "Are you sure you're gonna sleep out here? I promise you, it's really not any safer."

"I won't be right at this spot, since you know where it is, but yes, I'll take my chances out here."

"Whatever," Fabian said, marching off into the distance. The optimist within Nero, malnourished as it was, was grateful to have had such an exhausting conversation. He was more than ready to fall asleep now. And after expanding his perception as far as he comfortably could to ensure that nobody was watching him, he did.

Even just seeing Toño buzzing with excitement was enough to lift Fabian's spirits. That chat with Nero kept him up at night, but he managed to shake off the grogginess by fetching Sofia and Nero, so they could all witness Toño's reveal as a group. They quickly arrived at the warehouse where Toño was waiting, standing beside a massive curtain.

"He's gonna be our new teammate, so we gotta see whatever he wants to show us!" Fabian told them.

"Sorry, he's going to be our what?" Nero asked.

"Our new teammate," Fabian repeated. "Y'know, like when we let Sofia join. I didn't wanna tell you because I thought you'd say no." Toño chuckled and waved nervously.

Nero sighed. "Look at you, catching on so quickly. You know the rules, he has to tell us why in the world he'd ever want to join us on our suicide mission."

That was an easy question. "That's 'cause he's an alien," Fabian explained, earning an indecipherable look from Toño.

Nero nodded. "Right, naturally. Could you elaborate?"

Fabian was about to explain in greater detail, but for some reason, Toño cut him off. "I'm a human," he quickly explained. "From Madrid. Not that Madrid means anything to you, I don't know why I even said that. Basically, the Head Guildmaster really wants me for some reason, so I don't wanna put my friends in danger by hanging out with them."

"Understandable. Your honesty is appreciated, if unwise. Why would we take you on board if you'll just make us even more of a target?"

"Can you really be more of a target at this point?" Toño asked. "You two have kinda been front page news every day."

"Touche," Nero said.

"W-Wait, how are you okay with any of this?" Sofia asked. "He's a human? How is that even possible? We can't just believe that he's really a fairy tale character come to life, can we?"

"Eh," Nero grunted, lying down on his side comfortably. "Whether he's really a human or he's just crazy, it isn't relevant to me. All I want is to understand his motivations. And besides, it would explain how he was able to invent a machine so far beyond what our world is currently technologically capable of."

Toño pressed his paws together. "So… Does that mean I'm in?"

"That depends on what you can bring to the table."

"Hey, that's never been a thing before!" Fabian protested.

"Well, think about it," Nero said. "We all have our roles in this team. You know, like how I'm the leader, you're the muscle, and Sofia's the comic relief."

"You are not the leader!" Fabian shouted.

"C-Comic relief?" Sofia squeaked.

"Sure, what else do you do?" Nero faced back towards Toño. "If we're going to bring on an extra mouth to feed, they'd better be able to pull their weight as much as the rest of us. We can't just adopt every freak we happen to pass by."

Toño flashed a grin. "Then how about I prove to you that I'm one freak you wouldn't dream of passing up? Believe it or not, I've been busy while you guys were laying around!"

He pulled down on a rope and the curtain went flying up, revealing a monstrous, twenty-seat steel bus constructed out of a material that could only possibly have been the purest essence of hope and joy. At its front was a sharp drill with eye-shaped headlights and a grill that practically smiled at Fabian. But above it was the feature that stole Fabian's heart and took his breath away in one swoop. A row of cannons aiming in every direction, with a small deck in the center, a perfect spot to fire away without any fear of injury.

"I… I can't believe it…" Fabian muttered.

Nero stared at it without blinking for entire minutes. "It's the coolest thing in the entire world," he added, eyes welling up.

Even Toño was getting misty-eyed at the sight of his magnum opus. "Her name? The Ripper. And she's my dream." Both Fabian and Nero shed innumerable manly tears, and not a shred of shame was felt between them.

"A-Are you all… okay?" Sofia asked.

Nero took a deep breath and brushed his tears aside. "If you and The Ripper are a package deal, then I believe I speak for all of us when I say this: Welcome to the team, Toño."

Toño saluted him. "It's an honor, sir. Are you all ready to get out of here or what?"

Practically shaking with excitement, Fabian nodded vigorously. "Sure, let's go say our goodbyes to the Melker Motors guys!"

Toño grimaced. "...Nah. I'm good."

"What do you mean?" Fabian asked.

"I… dunno if I could," Toño said. "If I tell them I'm leaving, I'm worried they'll all try to convince me to stay, and I'm even more worried because they'd probably be able to do it. It's best for everyone if I just head out quietly."

"That's-" Fabian began to speak.

"Don't waste your breath," Nero said. "His mind is clearly made up, and we've stood around here long enough. We're on a schedule, remember?"

Fabian frowned, but unfortunately, Nero had a point. He didn't like the idea of letting Toño leave things like this, but with only a week left until the execution date, they had to pick up the pace. "Are you really sure?" he asked, one last time. Toño hesitated for a moment, but eventually nodded.

"That settles that," Nero declared. "You three can spend some time getting acquainted with our new vessel whilst I finish transferring all of Fabian's funds into my personal account."

"Wait, I thought you said we needed to leave now!" Fabian complained to no avail. Nero zigzagged away at a casual pace, and Fabian didn't want to dedicate any energy to stopping him.

Toño patted Fabian on the back. "Hey, at least he's letting me come with."

Nodding halfheartedly, Fabian took a step inside The Ripper. It was overwhelmingly warm and stuffy inside, a side effect of it being made of metal, but the atmosphere improved considerably once Toño pushed a button that opened all the windows.

"Wow, there are really a lot of seats," Sofia commented, sitting down on one. Fabian sat beside her, shocked at how comfortable the leather seat was. It was way too big for him, but that just allowed him to sink into it further. He wasn't sure if he was ever going to leave.

"Yeah, I mostly just wanted to make sure we had enough space for storage," Toño said. "I doubt we'll ever actually need to seat twenty different Pokémon."

Fabian found a lever beside his seat, and naturally, his first instinct was to pull it. The back of his seat fell down as soon as he did, allowing him to lie down. "Man, I could fall asleep on this thing!"

"I felt like we'd probably have to, so I wanted the seats to be as comfy as possible." He pressed some more buttons, though Fabian couldn't tell what they did. "By the way, this beaut runs on electricity, and she's a bit of a guzzler. So, just bear with me if I can't charge her up fully without a full night's rest."

"No problem," Fabian mumbled, only half-listening. He was just so cozy, and it had only just hit him how tired he still was, even after entire days of sleeping. The way the seat wrapped around him made it feel like it was hugging him, and in its embrace, he couldn't help but want to rest his eyes a bit.

He realized that The Ripper was moving and shot forward. "H-Huh? What? What's going on?" he asked.

"Sleep well?" Nero asked, sitting right next to him with a smirk on his face.

Fabian rubbed his eyes and looked around. Toño sat in the driver's seat, his misty eyes firmly locked on the path ahead, as Sofia read a newspaper. "Why didn't anyone wake me up?"

"Things are a lot quieter without you in the picture, and who would want to ruin that?" Nero asked. "And besides, you were just too cute, curled up in a little ball and snoring away as you were."

"I'm not cute! Don't call me that!" Desperately wanting to prevent Nero from seeing his reddening cheeks, Fabian turned away from him, towards the back of the bus. Ferrumark Mountain was still close, but it was slowly shrinking into the horizon. This was immediately way faster than they ever were on foot, and Fabian was eternally grateful that they got such a glorious vehicle for free.

As Fabian tried to steer his thoughts away from the embarrassment of conking out like a baby in front of everyone, he noticed a strange speck in the distance. As it grew, Fabian could barely make out that it was mostly green, with the slightest amount of purple and red on top of it. "Hey, what's that?" he asked, pointing towards it.

Nero didn't bother turning. "Toño, would you mind if I took over driving for a moment? I'd like to get some practice in, so that I may keep us moving in the event that you happen to die violently."

Toño shrugged, and Nero took the wheel. The ride became noticeably bumpier, with Nero's quadrupedal body not exactly being suited to pilot The Ripper, but he managed. "What are you looking at?" he asked Fabian. The two squinted at the rear window for a while, until the green dot gradually became a silhouette. "I-Is that…?"

A Flygon, barrelling towards them with a Poochyena, Marowak, and Lycanroc in tow. "Melker?" Fabian asked. "What is he doing here? Should he really be flying like that?"

The Ripper slowed its pace, and Melker caught up quickly. "B-Boss?!" Toño shouted. "What- I- I mean- The hell's going on? How did you-"

Melker scoffed. "You really thought we were gonna let you ditch us without a proper goodbye?" Nero pushed a button, and the rear of the car slid open, allowing them all entry. As soon as Melker entered, he grabbed Toño and hugged him as tight as he could. "The hell were you thinking, scaring me like that?"

"S-Sorry," Toño mumbled.

Hunter crossed her arms and nodded. "We all really wish that you would've chosen to stay, but we understand why you won't, so we're going to respect that. Right, Boss?" she asked, shooting a glare at Melker, who rolled his eyes.

Toño's eyes started to well up. "R-Really?"

"Trust me, the last thing any of us want is to hold you back," Fitz said. "And let's face it, that's all we've been doing for five years. We're good at the car-building stuff now, so you just focus on making whatever you want. Oh, and don't let these dumbasses push you around, got it? I don't care how many teams you join, our Boss is the only one who gets to tell you what to do!"

"Y-Yeah!" Toño said, grinning ear to ear as tears started to fall. "You know it!"

Vark leapt up at Toño, and Melker let him in on the hug. He didn't have anything to say, but his mere presence was all it took for Toño to break into ugly tears, sobbing into Melker's chest. Fabian felt like he was going to cry as well, watching this last goodbye.

Toño eventually regained his composure, and Melker released him. "Th-Thanks for seeing me off. I'm so sorry I tried to leave without a word. How'd you know where I was, though?"

"That freaky Zigzagoon guy let us know," Fitz said.

Nero scoffed. "This was a tactical decision. It only took me a few seconds to get annoyed by all your obnoxious moaning about ditching them, and if I had to listen to that for a full week, there's no doubt in my mind that I would've clawed my ears out."

Melker walked up to Fabian. "Anything happens to Toño, and I'm tearing your throat out. Got that?"

Fabian nodded and placed a hand on his chest. "I can't say if he'll get hurt or not, but I promise, I'd gladly die if it meant keeping him safe."

"I believe it," Fitz said, shrugging. "He already jumped out of a building for us, how much more proof could we ask for?"

For one last time, Melker scooped Toño into another hug. "We gotta go now. Take care of yourself, okay?"

"I will. I promise."

On that note, Fitz, Hunter, and Vark climbed back up onto Melker's back, and they all waved goodbye as Melker took off. The rear door slid shut, and Toño turned forward. "Thanks, Nero. I had no idea how much I needed that."

Nero was clutching the wheel in his paws so tightly that it looked like it was going to snap. "You know, I think I've decided that I don't like driving," he said. "I feel like I've aged a year."

Toño took the wheel once again. "Good thing I'm on the team then, isn't it?" he asked, with a hint of smug satisfaction.

That gave Fabian an idea. "Hey, we should have a team name!"

"Why?" Sofia asked. "N-Not to shoot you down or anything, but do we really need a name? We're only going to be working together for like, a week."

Nero shook his head. "No, he has a point. If we can give the media a unified label to place the four of us under, we'll give them so many more catchy headline opportunities. 'Nero and Co.' just doesn't roll off the tongue, as much as I hate to say it."

"I- Do we want that?"

"Of course we do," Nero said. "Let's get to brainstorming, then. How about it, Fabian? I'm sure all of your ideas are terrible, but they might be worth a laugh."

Fabian just brushed him off. "I dunno, I guess I wasn't really thinking too hard about the specifics. Maybe something like Team… uh…" his eyes darted around his surroundings as he grasped for ideas. "Team… Mountain… Cactus?" he feebly suggested, those being the only two identifiable structures in the entire Rumas landscape.

"Fascinating," Nero said. "Let's keep 'Team Mountaincactus' in the back of our minds for now as a last resort and pray that a good name comes to us in the meantime. Ideally, our name should say something about us and our goals, not the foliage we happened to be passing by at the time." Fabian pouted a little, even though he wasn't even that attached to the name in the first place.

"I dunno, maybe something like 'Team Freedom?'" Toño suggested. "Y'know, 'cause we're sorta going against the establishment here."

Nero nodded. "You have something with the freedom angle, but it's a tad too on the nose for my tastes. Maybe something more symbolic of freedom, instead of something so direct?"

Honestly, Fabian wasn't sure if "freedom" was exactly the right way to describe what he felt at all. It wasn't exactly wrong– he was "free" from his prior obligations as future Guildmaster, that much was true– but it just didn't encapsulate the life he was going to be living from now on. Government and criminal organizations alike turned their backs on them. It was as if every existing road leading to a happy life in their world was blocked off, and all they could do was try to forge one of their own. Now, if only he could turn that into a name.

As Fabian thought in silence, the other three were throwing suggestions around, each one getting vetoed for one reason or another. He raised his hand and cleared his throat, and Nero looked at him like a punchline was coming any second. "How about the Trailblazers?" he suggested. "Since we're sorta doing our own thing, compared to everyone else."

"That's…" Nero trailed off. "That's not too bad, actually. Symbolic, but obvious enough that people will understand what we're about without warranting further explanation. You didn't steal that name from a band or something, did you?"

"What? No!" Fabian shouted. "I'm not a plagiarizer!"

Sofia nodded along. "I don't mind 'Trailblazers.' How about you, Toño?"

He shrugged. "I dunno, I just got here. No complaints from me."

"Trailblazers it is, then!" Fabian declared.

Now that they had a name, they were officially a team, and Fabian was confident that, as long as they could keep this up, this mission of theirs was going to go well for them. Staring through the front window, the terrain was getting grassier. Soon, they'd be out of Rumas and well on their way to wherever Renegade's Edge was. He couldn't help but smile.

Iris Vanadis wore a calm, peaceful smile in her final moments. Fabian thrashed against his chains like a feral beast until the very moment that the sun arrived on the horizon, but it was for nothing. Atlas raised his arms to the sky, and golden orbs of light began to envelop her.

"I'll save you, Mom. I don't know how, but I'll do it. Even if it kills me."

Trailblazers Part 1 - End

9/7/24 AN - Sorry for being a day late with this one! Realistically this was enough content to fit into two chapters, but by the time I realized that I was at sort of an awkward position where that wouldn't really pan out anymore. I feel like I learned a lot from writing this first "part" of Trailblazers, so I'll hopefully be able to take that knowledge and plan all of the future parts out in better detail. As a little apology for being a day late, I wrote a little bonus epilogue story too, which I'll be posting immediately after this.