The Chesnaught disappeared pretty fast, having run off not even a second after shoving a pickaxe into Fabian's hands. Fabian was still a little too shaken to do much of anything, so he just stared at it in his hands for a while. It was pretty sharp, and from the brief demonstration he saw, it was pretty good at breaking through rock. Maybe it'd perform just as well on Nero's skull.

Having no idea where to go and nothing better to be doing, he started swinging his pickaxe at a rock wall. Naturally, some rocks fell to the ground, revealing yet more rock. The released dust made him sneeze. He hit the wall again, and more rocks crumbled down, revealing more rock. The released dust made him sneeze. "This is torture, I think."

Already bored beyond words, Fabian tossed his pickaxe aside and decided to start socializing. He approached a random Roserade and waved. "Hi, what's your name?" he asked. "I'm Fabi- I mean, Fabulous."

"Mind your own business!" the Roserade hissed, fleeing into some crevice.

Fabian shrugged. "What's her problem? I just wanted to say hi."

He moved on to the next person he saw, a Golett. This time, he didn't have to introduce himself to make his presence known, as the Golett reacted immediately. "I don't know you," they said. "What are you doing here? You know you can just work a service job, right?"

"A weird Chesnaught guy kidnapped me," Fabian explained. "Why are you here? This job kinda sucks, and like you said, you could just be doing a service job."

"You aren't from Ottalon Canyon, are you?" the Golett asked, rudely ignoring Fabian's question. "How are you roaming free right now?"

"I'm friends with an archaeologist," Fabian explained.

The Golett scoffed. "That's not a real word."

"It is!" Fabian insisted. "He's lying about being one, but it's a real thing!"

"Sure, if you say so," the Golett said, aimlessly swinging their pickaxe in what was only vaguely in the direction of a rock. "You sure Dillon's the one who recommended you here?"

Fabian nodded. "Yeah, and I'm still really mad about it! I'm supposed to be trying to beat up Scot-"

The Golett swiveled their body around while swinging their pickaxe, pointing it at Fabian's neck. They stared into each other's eyes for a while, until eventually, the Golett went back to their pretend-mining, as if nothing had happened. "Careful with your words," they advised. "You should try and meet Scrub sometime, though. You might like what he's got to say."

"Can you guys just tell me what's going on here?" Fabian shouted, throwing his arms up. There was hardly any shade at all, and the heat was starting to get to him. "Why are all of you people so weird?"

"What's all the noise for?" complained a scratchy voice. A Nidorino stepped in, sweating to a worrying degree. "Dale, since when do you ever socialize–"

"Who's he?" Fabian asked, pointing at the Nidorino.

As soon as the Nidorino's eyes landed on Fabian, his jaw hung open. "Y-Y-Y… You… You! It's you! It's you?"

"What's he talking about?" Fabian, not sure what else to do, silently gave the Nidorino a thumbs-up. It was him, after all.

The Golett, who Fabian assumed must've been called Dale, shook their head. "Lemme guess, one of those guys from all those sheets of yours?"

Fabian squinted his eyes. "Sheets? Whuzzat?"

"Come with me, come with me!" shouted the Nidorino, pushing Fabian deeper into the mines. "I'm Duff, by the way!"

"Cool, I'm Fabulous Vabulous."

Duff stopped in his tracks for a brief moment. "Ohhh, I get it!" he whispered, being so quiet that Fabian had to strain himself to hear. "Clever! Anyone watching would think, 'wow, there's no way the Fabian Vanadis is that stupid, this must be a coincidence, and this guy actually isn't Fabian at all!' I never would've thought of that!"

"Wait, how do you know my real name?" Fabian asked.

"Wait and see!" With renewed vigor, Duff continued to shove Fabian down the increasingly underdeveloped path through the mines. It was nearly impossible to see, but somehow, Duff was leading the way just fine. "Just a bit longer!"

"Hey, I really don't like being kept in the dark," Fabian said. "Figuratively, I mean. And literally, I guess, but especially figuratively. I really don't wanna get mad or anything, so can you please just tell me what's going on?"

In the distance, there were some lights that blurred together. "Just a few more seconds, c'mon!"

Fabian rolled his eyes. "Fine." At least it was nice and chilly in the caves. He preferred warm humid weather whenever possible, but cool dampness was fine, too. It was just dryness in general that really made him want to peel his skin off.

As they closed the distance, it gradually became more clear, exactly where they were headed. A house of some kind, dug into the wall of the cave with some windows and multiple candles lit inside. Considering how it was pitch black outside the house, he didn't see the point of the windows, but Fabian wasn't an architect or anything, so for all he knew, it was a completely necessary addition to the structural integrity of the house.

"What's in there?" Fabian asked.

Instead of answering, Duff just shoved Fabian through the door. The light burned Fabian's eyes for a good few seconds, but after he adjusted, he was able to take in the surroundings. There were a few teenagers of various species– all Grass-types– except for a burly Seismitoad sitting in the center of the room, who decidedly fit into neither of those categories. He stared blankly at Fabian for a second before nodding at Duff. "Found a new recruit, eh? Did you bother askin' a single thing about him before dragging him down here this time?"

"I didn't have to!" Duff declared, puffing out his chest. "Because this guy's the one and only Fabian Vanadis!"

Not a single person in the room looked impressed with the name. "Lemme guess, another big name from one of your sheets, yeah?" asked a Lombre who was sprawled out on the floor, coloring a page in a paperback book with a box of crayons.

"Hey, what's a sheet?" Fabian asked. "You guys keep saying that."

A Roserade, the same one who was sort of rude to Fabian earlier, grabbed a massive book from a shelf and paged through for a while. "Says here a sheet is defined as a 'rectangular piece of paper, especially one of a standard size produced commercially and used for writing and printing on.' That any help?"

"I know what the word 'sheet' means!" Fabian shouted. "I'm not stupid! You guys are using it differently!"

Duff nudged Fabian. "It's slang for newspapers," he whispered. "Can't really talk about 'em using the normal word down here without getting in trouble, y'know?"

The Roserade scoffed. "You sure we should be bothering with this guy? I think his brains might actually be most useful down in the mines."

"C'mon, guys!" Duff complained. "Don't you all remember when I was telling you all about the Ferrumark stuff?"

Not a single person nodded or raised their hand.

"He's the guy who killed Vice Guildmaster Quincy?"

Still no reaction.

"You know, the guy from Ferrumark! The one who gave that insane speech about how he deserves to oppress people and stuff! Fabian's the guy who killed him!"

That got a couple murmurs. "Right, yeah, you might've mentioned that," the Roserade said, stroking her cheek.

"Yes, that was quite the inspiring story, now that I'm recalling it," the Seismitoad said. "It's always nice to hear about folks fighting the freedom fight from across the globe."

"Hold on, how do you know about that?" Fabian asked, uncomfortable at the mention of his political assassination. "They didn't cover that in the newspapers– or, sorry, sheets– up on the surface."

"You've only ever read from the Morning Sun, haven't you?" Duff asked with a smirk. "Sweet Diancie, I get to teach the Fabian Vanadis about the Moonlight!" He practically dove headfirst into his room. "Don't follow me!" he called out.

Fabian obliged, standing completely still in the middle of the doorway as everyone stared at him. "So, what do you guys do back here?" he asked.

"We're a grassroots rebellion movement," the Seismitoad explained. "I'm Scrub, by the way. Sorry 'bout Duff, he's a weirdo. Greatest info gatherer I've met in my life, but a total weirdo."

"And he hasn't shut up about you for a second in the past couple days," the Lombre added.

"He hasn't?" Fabian asked, feeling a little creeped out. He never was too big of a fan of how there were so many people who he had never met, yet they knew and revered his name regardless. It was unimaginably freaky to even think about. "But didn't you guys all say like you've never heard of me before?"

"Nah, we just like messing with Duff," the Roserade said. "Sorry about making fun of you with the dictionary thing, by the way. It was mostly to piss Duff off."

"I KNEW IT!" Duff shouted from his room. "YOU ALL SUCK!"

"Go back to making out with your Fabian cutout!" the Roserade shouted back.

"Wh-WHAT?!" Fabian screamed, his jaw falling well beyond the floor.

"SHUT UP!" Duff screeched.

Fabian completely accepted that his celebrity anxieties weren't going to be eased by the end of this detour. "R-Right, cool! That's fine! Great, even!"

Duff finally emerged from his room with a neat stack of newspapers. "Behold! The Moonlight! The authors there are all anonymous, and they have this crazy little thing called journalistic integrity, so it's way more reliable! The Guilds have been trying to take 'em down for ages! I think! I wouldn't know for sure, but I have to imagine they aren't fans of these guys!"

For the first time all day, Fabian felt a positive emotion as a result of something Duff said. "Woah, so they're like the opposite of the Morning Sun? How do you get these down here?"

"It's a secret," Duff said, cocking a grin.

"C'mon, you gotta tell me!" Fabian protested.

Scrub sighed "Don't take it personally, he hasn't told a soul about it. Believe me, I wanna know, myself."

Duff shoved a newspaper into Fabian's hands. "We always get 'em a day or two late, but hey, not like it matters too much. Not like things up there really affect things down here. That is, until now!"

Fabian didn't really get what Duff was talking about, but he also didn't really care. He was way more interested in this mysterious "Moonlight" article.

The headline read "CORRUPT VICE GUILDMASTER KILLED BY TURNCOAT VANADIS HEIR," which was a slightly less upsetting headline, though the bar wasn't exactly high. The article proper went on to describe the events that took place within the walls of Ferrumark City in much more accurate detail, including a word-for-word transcript of Quincy's deranged speech, along with explanations of his plot to assassinate the mayor and his extortion of the Melker Motors crew.

Fabian gripped the newspaper tightly, feeling a mix of relief and confusion. "How did this writer know about any of this? A lot of this stuff never became public, I thought."

"No idea, but these sheets are always full of stuff like that!" Duff boasted. "They're maybe the coolest thing ever! Plus, they've got games on the back!"

Fabian flipped the paper around and, true to Duff's word, there was a crossword puzzle. "Oh, cool. Nero loves these things."

"Nero?" Duff asked incredulously. "You mean, that's actually real? You two are actually really teaming up? Even the Moonlight was kinda wishy-washy on whether or not that was really happening!"

Fabian folded his arms. "I'm not happy about it. He's the worst, but he's the only smart person in the world who doesn't want me dead. Actually, did this newspaper- er, I mean, sheet say anything about why I'm on the run?"

Duff shook his head. "There's an opinion column where people were throwing a bunch of theories around, but nobody's got any actual clue. Does that mean you're gonna tell me in person?"

"Nope, definitely not," Fabian said. "I hate talking about it, honestly. Though, it's a real relief those guys at the Moonlight don't know everything about me. I'm kinda getting the creeps just from hearing people are making theories about me."

Before Duff could respond, the door swung open. That Chesnaught called Dillon from before stepped through, wearing a pleased smile on his face as soon as he saw Fabian. The Golett who introduced Fabian to Duff waddled in right behind him, holding his hand and leaning into his body as much as he could.

"So, you finally made it here, Mr. Vabulous!" Dillon said. "Enjoyed your mining? I hear the coal's extra dusty this time of year!"

"Hey, you're that guy who kidnapped me!" Fabian shouted, pointing at him. "Did you know about this rebellion thing too?"

Dillon laughed. "Why do you think I brought you here? Duff can't shut up about you for longer than five seconds, so the name stuck out. I assume 'Fabulous Vabulous' was supposed to be intentionally obvious or something, right? 'Cause, if so, it worked! Not like I'm gonna skip out on a chance to have the liberator of Ferrumark City hear us out. I hope Duff hasn't scared you off yet."

The Duff bullying was getting to Fabian. He was a little annoying, sure, but nobody deserved to get made fun of by everyone in their circle. "Hey, leave him alone," Fabian said. "He's just trying to help!"

Duff's cheeks reddened slightly. "O-Oh, uh… Thanks! Wow, that's… Thanks."

The Golett gave Fabian a disapproving look. "Dillon, I trust your judgment and all, but I'm also a hundred percent confident that this guy only picked 'Fabulous Vabulous' as his fake name because he wasn't smart enough to come up with something better."

"Yeah, I know that," Dillon whispered. "But we're trying to butter him up so he'll help us!"

"I heard that!" Fabian said.

"Great," Dillon said. "That means I can just ask you directly if it's working or not."

"Well, yeah, but only because I was already gonna help you out in the first place!" Fabian said. "What was the name of the guy you need me to beat up, again?"

That got a laugh from just about everyone in the room, save for the Lombre, who Fabian was beginning to fear was dead from the lack of movement. However, once everyone realized that Fabian wasn't joking, it died down.

Scrub cleared his throat, his water sacs jiggling a little in the process. "Lord Scotcher, member of the Tullabarian Royal Court. He's been extorting us all for a couple decades now, and we're sick and tired of it."

"Only a couple of decades?" Fabian wondered. It felt strange to him, that a system that felt so thoroughly embedded into the canyon was so recent. "Hey, you're super old! Do you remember what it was like before?"

After chuckling slightly, Scrub nodded. "Of course. It was a… different time, I'll give it that. Before Scotcher, there wasn't any ruler to speak of. Just a handful of tribes who didn't even know there was a whole other world up there."

"Wow, that's crazy!" Fabian said. "Who knows, maybe we'll be able to bring those days back!"

Scrub shrugged. "I'm gonna warn you, it'd be best not to idealize the old times, even if they might be preferable to now. If you think the current way of life is bad for kids, you've got no idea."

"What do you mean?" Duff asked. "I've heard bits and pieces from Dad, whenever he's conscious, but what was it like, exactly?"

"Oh yeah, almost forgot how green you are," Scrub said. "I've talked about it once or twice, and I'd like to keep it like that. Making a long story short, if you had a family of five kids, you'd be lucky if one of them grew old enough to read."

"Damn," Fabian said, the horrifying implication slowly sinking in. "Well, guess we'll just have to make something new!"

Everyone in the room cheered, save for Scrub. He waited for the room to settle down before commenting. "You're too naive, if you ask me," he said. "But hey, I'm old as all hell. I haven't done shit in my forty years, so might as well give you young'uns a shot. End of the day, I'm just here to make sure you guys don't drink up all our bleach supply."

"Ha, he's old!" the Roserade shouted, pointing at Scrub. Everyone started laughing, including Scrub and excluding Fabian, who didn't really get it.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll just be sure to remember all this when you kids want something from the top shelf," Scrub said. "Anyhow, Fabian. You mentioned some other guy who's coming along, yeah? How about we have Duff here go fetch 'em for us?"

"Sounds great!" Fabian said, giving Duff a thumbs up. He didn't really like how red Duff's cheeks got after that incredibly mild sign of approval, but he didn't comment. "It's a Zigzagoon and a Turtwig, and I think they're hanging around somewhere. There was a road, I'm pretty sure."

Dillon facepalmed. "Start by the east crossroad, that's where I left 'em."

Duff nodded and sprinted out of the room. Meanwhile Fabian continued to peruse the Moonlight, hoping to solve the crossword before Nero got to it.

"Should we… go eat, or something?" Zach asked, following Nero as he absentmindedly wandered through the canyon. Naturally, they hadn't come across anything special. Just more forlorn children, doing labor that no kid should ever feel compelled to do.

"Absolutely not," Nero replied. "No offense to the fine chefs of this settlement, but I'd be shocked if there was a single scrap of edible material in the entire canyon that wouldn't make us violently ill."

Zach grimaced. "Y-Yeah. It's pretty rough, I guess."

"You guess?" Nero asked, slightly taken aback. "You guess it's rough? It's the most vile establishment I've ever had the misfortune to stumble into in my life, if you asked me, or any other sane person."

"Y-Yeah, of course, I didn't mean to downplay it or anything!" Zach stammered. "It's just… Well, I'm a little surprised. I haven't known you for long, admittedly, but you really don't strike me as one to care about humanitarian causes like this. An hour ago, I was half-expecting you to leave us rotting in the jail cell forever, if I'm being perfectly honest."

"I probably would've, if it was just you," Nero said. "Count yourself lucky that Fabian is too inept to operate a seatbelt."

Zach's gaze drifted to the sky, where the sun had just passed its zenith. Nero couldn't believe that they were about to waste their entire day down here. "Did I misjudge you about your character?" he asked. "Or is there something more to this case specifically?"

"No, and no," Nero said. "In most circumstances, I'd be mostly apathetic to these minor causes. The way I see it, oppressed communities such as these are mere symptoms, and I intend only to battle our world's underlying disease."

"...Okay, then what's different this time?"

"Unfortunately, I'm victim to quite the severe Achilles' heel," Nero explained. As soon as he said that, as if the universe hoped to play a practical joke on him, he felt a shooting pain in his bad paw. Not wanting to stop walking, he gritted his teeth. "I'm referring to my metaphorical Achilles' heel, not the physical one."

"A-Are you alright?" Zach asked, stopping in his tracks and approaching Nero. "What's going on with–"

Nero's bristly fur spiked up. "As I was saying," he interjected, still through gritted teeth. "I regrettably have somewhat of a soft spot for children. It troubles me to see them in harm's way, and despite all the training to curb that mental reflex, I still experience some irritatingly irrational emotions whenever I see such atrocities committed. I'm working on it, of course."

"Wow," Zach said. I'm… surprised, I guess. I never thought I'd hear something like that from you, of all people. You're just so… er, I mean, you know, you can be–"

"An utterly deplorable monster?" Nero asked, probably saving them both at least a minute or two of Zach trying to find the nicest way to call him an asshole possible.

Zach's leaf shot straight up for a second. "I- No, that's not… uh…" He cleared his throat. "Those are… uh… well, they're your words, not mine."

Nero smiled mirthlessly. "Considering how allegedly horrible I am, people are shockingly unwilling to say mean things to me. Perhaps my adorably charming face has a pacifying effect on people?"

That earned a small laugh from Zach. "Sure, of course. Though, realistically speaking, I'm just not a fan of being rude to others. I'm sure that reasoning would account for a lot of people who don't comment on your… uh…"

"Moral bankruptcy?" Nero asked.

"Yeah, that's it."

They hit a dead end in the canyon, so they had to turn around. That was for the best, as it wouldn't be wise to stray too far from their rendezvous point. "Cowardice, if you ask me," Nero replied. "I have no respect for anyone who takes issue with me and can't bring themselves to voice that."

"...Never said I wasn't a coward," Zach muttered.

"Do you intend to speak about your past in riddles until the very moment you backstab us?" Nero asked.

Zach rolled his eyes. "S-Sorry."

Nero scoffed. "I bet you are."

The two of them walked in silence for a while. On the walk back, Nero spotted a small, well-camouflaged cave opening whose presence was given away by a Smoliv, the very same one who put Fabian on the spot by asking for his name. Judging by the adorable tiny police hat, they were clearly supposed to be standing guard over it. Knowing that anything worth guarding was worth stealing, Nero jotted the cave down in his mental notes. He'd have snuck in right away if he wasn't right next to Zach, but he wasn't nearly cool enough to join in on Nero's expedition.

Irritatingly, there was someone unfamiliar hanging around in their meeting spot, right next to the crossroads sign. A Nidorino who looked to be a couple years younger than Fabian, coated in a layer of ashen dust and the scent of ink. "You two!" he called out. "Over here!"

Praying that this Nidorino was talking to someone else, Nero didn't acknowledge him.

"The Turtwig! And the little furry brown guy! You're a Zigzagoon, right?"

Nero audibly groaned. "That would be correct. Now, me and my associate are quite busy, so whatever business you have with us will have to wait."

"You're friends with Fabian, right?"

"Not even remotely, no."

The Nidorino's smile faltered. "W-Well, you know him, right?"

"I've had the misfortune to learn the name."

"Well, you gotta come with me, then! He's waiting for you!" The Nidorino stepped towards Nero, and in turn, he took a step back.

"And am I just supposed to believe that you aren't attempting to capture us?" Nero asked, more than ready to send the Nidorino flying backwards if necessary.

Thankfully sensing Nero's apprehension, the Nidorino stopped walking forward. "I know Fabian's real name, isn't that proof enough that we're cool?"

"He's an idiot," Nero retorted. "Getting him to reveal his real name to you would be no more difficult than taking candy from a baby."

"What's candy?" the Nidorino asked.

"Arceus above, give me the strength to purge my mind of this ridiculous feeling of sympathy." Nero sighed deeply. "I'm not traveling anywhere with a complete stranger, and that's final. If you're desperate to have me see Fabian, bring him here."

"C'mon, why do you gotta be like that?" asked the Nidorino. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"You stab me to death while I'm defenseless in the dark."

Zach sighed. "I'm really sorry about him, this'll go on forever if you let it. Nero, how about you walk far behind, and I'll stand in between you and… sorry, what was your name?"

"Duff."

"Yes, pleasure to meet you, Duff. Does that sound agreeable, Nero?"

Try as he might, Nero couldn't think of anything immediately wrong with the arrangement. If someone was getting stabbed to death, it'd be Zach, who Nero was far less concerned about. "I suppose I'll tolerate it," he declared.

With that, Duff marched off into the distance, with Zach following close behind. Nero trailed in the distance, fur still standing on end, not dropping his guard for a second the entire time.