It was a surprisingly long walk to the embassy, and Fabian's feet were starting to hurt. He didn't want to complain or anything, but with how long it was taking, and with how much the dryness of his surroundings grated on him, he really wasn't enjoying himself, and he was worried that he was going to be so tired by the time they got there that he wouldn't be able to contribute to the battle.

"You feeling alright?" Duff asked Fabian.

With much effort, Fabian was able to muster a nod. "Of course I am," he said, wiping sweat off his brow. "How about you, though? You handling this alright?"

"Well, yeah, but you really aren't looking so hot," Duff said.

"No, I'm incredibly hot, actually."

"That's not… Just, nevermind. You know what's best for you, obviously."

Fabian spotted a sharp incline in the distance and desperately prayed that it wasn't where they were headed. To his dismay, Scrub, who was leading the pack, turned to head straight up, and he had to swallow back a groan.

"The embassy's up this way," Scrub said. "We're around halfway."

"Halfway?!" Fabian was just about ready to collapse, and they hadn't even started the hard part yet. "No, no, it's fine," he told himself. "I'm not gonna let any of these guys down."

Fabian overheard Lara whispering to the Lombre behind him. "Are we sure he's alright?"

"He'll live, probably."

"Look at him, he's just about ready to fall over!"

"C'mon, he's a celebrity. You don't get to the point where you can do that one thing Duff said he did in that one place he was in unless you're, like, super resilient."

At least someone had some confidence in Fabian. Sure, he came frighteningly close to tripping over his own feet because he was too focused on listening in on them, but he managed to hold himself together.

"Fabian, keep yourself together," Scrub said. "This land bridge up ahead isn't too stable, and I'm not jumping for you if you fall off."

Just as Scrub described, there was a natural bridge connecting the opposite sides of the canyon, and the rock looked pretty thin. Thankfully, there was a pretty massive lake underneath it, but Fabian wasn't too sure if it'd be enough to break a fall from their height.

"Dale, remember when we used to go cliff diving here?" Dillon asked.

Dale gave him a look. "Who's 'we?' I was screaming at you to stop the entire time."

"Pfft. They dug out this lake specifically so falls from up here wouldn't be as deadly."

They continued to walk, and though there was plenty of small talk, Fabian didn't have the capacity to engage with it. It was fine, he was just conserving his energy. Nothing was wrong.

"Look out!" Duff shouted, making a feeble attempt to shove Fabian out of the way. He wasn't nearly strong enough, so each and every one of the kids were ensnared by a mass of vines suddenly arising from the ground.

The vision that came halfway across the bridge snapped Fabian out of his funk immediately. "Guys, keep your eyes out," he said. "Something's gonna try and trap us soon."

"What?" Dillon asked. "How do you know that?"

"I can see the future sometimes," Fabian explained. "Basically, I saw Duff try to shove me out of the way of a trap, but since he's so weak, it didn't work, and all of us got caught but Scrub."

Lara elbowed Duff. "Hear that? Fabian here says you're weak."

Fabian rolled his eyes. "Okay, yeah, but that doesn't mean he isn't cool."

Duff blushed. "I… W-Wow, thanks, that's… uh… y'know, I… uh… You're cute- I mean- nice! You're, uh, pretty nice!"

"I'm not really into you at all, but thanks!" Fabian said, smiling at the compliments.

They all started laughing again, and Fabian still didn't get why.

"Fabian, mind repeating yourself?" Scrub said, once again being the only one who didn't laugh at Duff. "You said you can see the future 'sometimes?' The hell does that mean?"

"Sometimes, I get little visions of things that are supposed to happen later," Fabian said. "They're pretty much always right, but we can use what I saw to make something different happen. So just, keep a close eye out for any vines crawling out of the ground."

Scrub stopped walking, but Fabian didn't notice in time, so he walked directly into him. "And you said I wasn't caught, yeah? Did you see why not?"

"Nope," Fabian said. He could've sworn he saw relief wash over Scrub's face, but that had to be his eyes playing tricks on him.

"As Fabian said, keep your eyes up," Scrub ordered. "If all goes according to plan, this plan should still go perfectly alright."

Dillon looked uneasy. "I dunno if I agree. If there's a trap set for us, that implies Scotcher knows we're coming somehow. And if that's the case, there's probably way more reinforcements waiting for him at that embassy. Assuming we can take whatever Fabian sees seriously, I think invading the embassy right now would be a terrible idea."

Scrub waved his hand. "But that's assuming we can take his visions seriously. For all we know, he just had a weird heatstroke hallucination. Him randomly being able to see the future is pretty far-fetched, if you ask me."

"It's not random!" Fabian protested. "I got this power by killing an old man in my basement!"

Everyone stared at him blankly.

"See what I'm talking about?" Scrub asked. "The kid's not right."

"He's got a point," Dale added. "Personally, I'm not putting my life in the hands of whatever his messed-up brain can come up with."

"I'm not crazy!" Fabian shouted.

Dillon folded his arms. "Maybe he is, and maybe he isn't. Either way, we have no reason to rush into this today. I know we've been planning to do this today for a while now, but there's no reason we can't reschedule. We have to do everything we can to reduce risk, and if there's even the slightest chance that things can go wrong–"

"Look out!" Duff shouted, just as the ground's orange-ish color shifted into a vibrant green.

Taking his vision into account, Fabian immediately leapt back. However, nobody else was able to react quickly enough, and they were all ensnared by a sudden mass of vines rising up from the ground.

Fabian whipped his head around. "Hey, who did that?"

"Me!"

The voice that cried out from above was almost inaudible, but Fabian managed to catch it. He craned his head upward to see a Meowscarada sitting comfortably, legs dangling off a cliff far too high to reach.

"Who the hell are you?" Fabian demanded. "Get down here!"

"No thank you!" the Meowscarada shouted. "Those vines aren't easy to maintain for me, you know. I'd prefer not to lose focus. We had a real trap prepared, but someone fumbled on the follow-through, so I'm improvising at the moment."

Fabian turned toward Scrub, the only other person who was still free. "C'mon, aren't you gonna help?" Fabian asked. "We gotta knock him down or–"

Scrub slammed his hand onto the ground, creating a fissure in the earth that Fabian only narrowly was able to avoid. He really didn't like the noise the land bridge made in response to that. "H-Hey, what the hell?!"

Scrub refused to meet Fabian's gaze, instead looking at the Meowscarada. "I did the best I could with what you gave me. This Croconaw managing to slip his way into this canyon wasn't something I could've prepared for."

"What's happening?" Fabian demanded.

The Meowscarada leaned forward. "Yes, now that you mention it, you never reported a Croconaw to be among your ranks before. He wouldn't happen to be the Croconaw, would he?"

"The name's Fabian," he said. "Now tell me who you are and why you're trapping all these people."

With a grand flourish, a colorful burst of flowers exploded around the Meowscarada, which probably would've been more impressive if he were closer to Fabian. "You can call me Lord Scotcher, financial superstar of the Tullabarian Royal Court!"

Fabian glared at him. "So, you're the one who I'm gonna beat up."

"He's so cute!" Scotcher squealed. "Servant, bash his skull in for me, would you? But do try not to kill him, his bounty is worth more than you'll ever make in your life."

Scrub swung his fist upward, and a glob of mud went flying at Fabian. He rolled to the side, only barely evading the sudden attack. "What are you doing?" Fabian shouted. "That guy up there is the one we gotta attack!"

All of the rebels, tied up in their chains of grass, were so utterly shocked by what Scrub was doing that they weren't even struggling. "Scrub, you…?" Duff trailed off.

"Are you fucking serious?!" Dale screamed at Scrub.

"Of course he is!" Scotcher said with glee. "He's been in my pocket for as long as I've been in this canyon!"

Scrub turned away, avoiding the silent, heartbroken gazes of the rebels he once led. "...You kids don't know how good you all have it right now."

"The hell are you talking about?!" Dillon shouted. "Good? You think any of this is good? I'm less than a year away from spending the rest of my life at the bottom of a mineshaft! I might never see the sun again, and you're honestly trying to tell me that any of this is good?"

"At least you got to grow up," Scrub shot back. "At least you don't have to live out every day of your childhood wondering if you'll wake up the next day."

Fabian couldn't believe what was happening. Nero was right. Scrub really was trying to hurt them, and Nero had that figured out from the start. "What is wrong with you?" Fabian yelled, as loud as his voice would go. "These people trusted you, you asshole!"

Scrub clasped his hands together and a rapid beam of bubbles shot out from them, square into Fabian's chest. He tried to block with his arms, but he was too slow. It took all he had to stay standing, but he managed. "You think I'm proud of what I've done here?" Scrub asked. "Because I'm not. It was either lie to them until I could get 'em into Lord Scotcher's custody, or I kill 'em. And I'm not killing any more kids than I have to."

"Then you have to?!" Lara asked, her voice wavering into tears despite the righteously angry front she was putting on. "Are you implying there were kids you had to murder?"

Scrub fired off another Bubblebeam in Fabian's direction, but this time, he was prepared for it and he ducked under it. "I'm not answering that–"

"Ooh, ooh, I know this one!" Scotcher chanted, raising his hand. "You were always so annoying about not letting the kids die, so it really stuck out at me the one time you snapped that Shinx's neck!"

Just about everyone gasped, but Lara and that Lombre were especially taken aback. "Chase…" the Roserade murmured, almost inaudibly. "You… You're the one who murdered Chase."

"Chase?" Duff asked. "Isn't that what our old leader was called? I thought he fell off a cliff, though?"

"Yeah, well Scrub was lying about everything else, wasn't he?" Dale said, his voice dripping with spite. "The whole reason Chase died was so Scrub could put himself in power, wasn't it? And lemme guess, that will was forged, too?"

Fabian charged at Scrub in an attempt to headbutt him, but all it took was a single slap from the Seismitoad to send him flying back, crashing into the ground. "I'm sorry. For what it's worth, the real thing's somewhere hidden in my room. If you give up peacefully, I'm sure Lord Scotcher's men will let you head in there one last time to read it yourself."

"Wh-What do we do?" Duff asked, gawking at Fabian's limp body.

Dillon hung his head. "I… I don't know. I think we lost."

"We have to give up?" Lara asked. "But, what about Chase's dream–"

"Chase would want us alive!" Dale snapped. "If we don't surrender, we just die anyways!"

The Lombre slowly nodded. "...Yeah. It's over no matter what. Hey, Croconaw. don't get yourself hurt for nothing."

Fabian managed to crawl up to his feet, and he wiped blood off his lip.

Tears started to steam down Duff's face. "F-Fabian… You can run away, y'know? You're faster than Scrub, and Scotcher can't run after you while keeping us tied up! D-Don't even worry about us!"

"Shut up, all of you!" Fabian shouted. "Nobody's surrendering here! We walked all this way to set the canyon free, so we're gonna set the canyon free! I didn't need your permission before, and I don't need it now!"

The whole area went silent, save for some small, polite claps from Scotcher.

"Wow, that felt good to say!" As if a weight had been lifted off his chest, Fabian felt ready to fight now. He held his fists up and glared at Scrub once again. Sure, he was half a meter shorter than Scrub, but he wasn't scared in the slightest. "I've got a plan now," Fabian said with a confident smile. "I'm gonna beat you up, and then I'm gonna beat Scotcher up."

Scrub let out a humorless chuckle. "I haven't started trying yet and you still can't even hit me once. You're just throwing your life away."

"Yeah, of course you wouldn't get it," Fabian said, rushing in towards Scrub yet again.

Scrub slapped Fabian out of the way again, and as Fabian flew backwards, he could've sworn he heard a few bones breaking.

Just as Scrub winded up his slap, Fabian leapt into the air, vaulting straight over it. At the same time, he focused energy into his tail, allowing water to manifest and cloak around it. He flipped his body around in the air, slamming an Aqua Tail directly into Scrub's jaw.

Scrub slid back, but kept his balance. He brushed off his face and slammed one of his fists onto the cyan bump on the other. It began to vibrate intensely. As if to show off, he slammed his vibrating fist into a nearby boulder, shattering through it as if it were glass. Afterwards, he hit his fist again to restart the vibrating.

"Right, he's a Seismitoad. C'mon, what do I know about Seismitoads? Top bumps shoot venom, hand bumps punch harder, shoulder bumps do… earthquakes, I think? Lucky for me that we're on this land bridge. He's probably not gonna go for another Earthquake, after how dicey that first one was."

Scrub took off towards Fabian. Fabian, knowing that one hit would be enough to do him in, dodged forward, slipping behind Scrub before the Seismitoad could wind up the punch at all. From behind, he bit down on Scrub's neck as hard as he could.

Instantly, Fabian could tell that something was wrong.

The taste was completely vile, and his entire body began to tingle painfully. He was so caught off-guard that he failed to sink his teeth deep enough before Scrub shook him off. "What…?" Fabian mumbled, suddenly finding it hard to draw breath.

"What an idiot!" Scotcher jeered. "He bit into your skin, servant! He's a goner!"

"What is he… Wait. Seismitoad's ability." He racked his increasingly-foggy brain, trying to remember what that ability was. "It's Swift Swim and the other is… Oh no."

Scrub sighed. "Alright, I admit I underestimated you a bit, but now you definitely aren't winning."

"Poison Touch."

The two abilities a Seismitoad could have were Swift Swim and Poison Touch, and which of the two Scrub had was now all too obvious. Fabian was way too careless, and now he was paying the price for it. Seismitoad venom wasn't supposed to be too lethal if treated properly, but it was certainly painful, and he was gonna be in rough shape.

Fabian slapped himself in the face and focused on the sharp pain. "Like hell I'm not!" he said, in between gags. "I'm not done with you!"

"Fabian, please!" Duff cried out. "There's no reason to get yourself hurt!"

"What are you worried about?" Fabian asked, managing a confident smile. "This is great! It means I don't have to worry about his venom at all! What's he gonna do, poison me twice?"

Scrub vibrated his fist once more. "I said this before, and I'll say it again. You're just throwing your life away for something that's never gonna work out anyway."

"Yeah, well I'm gonna say the same thing back," Fabian snarled. He sprinted forward, somehow not doubling over from the pain. "You don't get it!" He couldn't quite jump up this time, but he squatted down slightly to make it look like he was about to. Scrub took the bait, preemptively swinging a fist upward. Meanwhile, Fabian slid between Scrub's legs, getting behind him once again.

He didn't have the jaw strength to cut flesh at the moment, but he had a better idea. He tore an incisor out of his mouth and slashed it across Scrub's right hand, slicing through the bump. It spurted out a viscous blue liquid, which Fabian knew to be poisonous. Luckily, he didn't really have to worry about that anymore.

"Don't get what?" Scrub asked, clutching his hand briefly. He winded up for another punch with his still-vibrating fist.

On the ground and without the time to get up, Fabian rolled to the side as far as his body would allow. The crater Scrub left in the ground just centimeters from Fabian's skull was bigger than a manhole cover, and the lake below was visible through a few cracks.

In the moment it took for Scrub to pull his fist from the ground, Fabian was able to get back up. However, he was no longer able to feel or move his arms. "Damn, the poison's working that quick? My tolerance is way too low! I have to wrap this up, now!"

"You gonna answer me?" Scrub demanded, slamming his working fist into his opposite shoulder. The ground beneath them began to quake violently, and a few fissures sporadically opened up. If Fabian were to fall into one of them, he was as good as dead.

"Servant, what are you doing?" Scotcher shouted, clutching his head. "You need to keep the ground level, dammit!"

Both of them ignored Scotcher. Fabian took a deep breath. In only a couple more minutes, his respiratory system was going to be severely impacted by the poison, and he wasn't going to be able to take in enough oxygen to fight.

Fabian had to go all-out now, and he had an idea. Scrub wasn't the only one who had an ability. Arguably, Fabian's was far more deadly, for everyone involved. "I want everyone in the world to be safe, and I'd kill myself to make it happen. "That's what you'd never get."

With one more deep breath, Fabian craned his neck down to his arm and chomped down as hard as he physically could. Thanks to the poison, he hardly felt the pain, nor did the blood rushing into his mouth taste any different from saliva.

Scrub squinted at him. "You're insane," he said flatly.

That kind of talk usually upset Fabian beyond words, but he wasn't really thinking at all in that moment. Nothing about the world felt real. He readied another Aqua Tail, but this one was different from before. The usually-calm water that cloaked his tail swirled and thrashed violently like it was a rabid, bloodthirsty, feral monster.

The world around Fabian wasn't really there at all, as far as he could tell. There was Scrub and himself and nothing else, and the only thought in his mind was to make sure that, by the time he passed out, it was just him.

Scrub squinted at him and took a step back. "What's going on with you now?" he asked.

Fabian had no response. Instead, he lunged at Scrub once again. Scrub retaliated by going for a vibration-boosting punch towards Fabian's chest, and Fabian made no effort to dodge.

He vaguely understood the sensation of his ribs cracking to be painful, but that wasn't on his mind at the moment. He skidded back, but stayed on his feet. Scrub wasn't going to have the time to re-vibrate his fist again.

Although his legs were starting to waver just as much as his arms were, he managed one last jump into the air. It wasn't high enough to vault over Scrub, but he was within striking range of his face, and that was all he needed. He flipped over in the air, using the full weight of his body to slam his Torrent-enhanced Aqua Tail directly into Scrub's skull.

Scrub staggered back, and before he could regain his composure, Fabian followed up with another Aqua Tail.

And another.

And another.

And another.

And another.

He wasn't sure how many hits he had landed in total, but he knew that Scrub had stopped struggling well before Fabian's body stopped responding completely.

"I always forget how exciting abilities like ours can be!"

Fabian was in no condition to register that the noises he was hearing were words, but shortly after they were spoken, he felt something slide down his throat. It was nearly as strange of a feeling as the unusual pressure on his back which pinned him to the ground.

Slowly, the world began to regain its clarity. The rebel kids, still tied down under the writhing mass of vines, stared at him with pure, unadulterated horror, and though Fabian's head was still a bit too foggy to fully grasp the extent of what he did, he got the general idea by taking a look at the red puddle he was lying in.

"Now, personally speaking, I do loathe to rely on Overgrow, but it really can make for a heart-wrenching last stand!" Scotcher said, his voice coming from directly above Fabian. "Bravo, that was exhilarating!"

Fabian craned his neck around to see that Scotcher was sitting right on top of him, his legs crossed and his arms folded. "H-Hey…!" he mumbled. "G-Get off of me! A-And, what did you put in my mouth!"

"Relax, I know better than to kill you," Scotcher said. "Only a few Oran berries, and a Pecha, just enough to stave off all that nasty Torrent business until you've been locked away."

Fabian squirmed helplessly under Scotcher. "How about you stop being a coward and let me fight you?"

"Hmm…" Scotcher stroked his chin. "No thanks! I'd kick your ass any day of the week, but I think I'll just avoid taking the chance entirely." Scotcher pressed another seed against the back of Fabian's neck, and his whole body immediately locked up. "To be frank, I'm not really too sure what I'm gonna do with you, but I'm liking the sound of every option I have!" Scotcher stood up and took Fabian with him, carrying him by the back spike like a handbag.

"Dammit!" Fabian shouted. "You can have me if you want, but let all those people go!"

Scotcher ignored him completely, instead applying some Stun Seeds to each and every one of the kids who Fabian failed. "We're gonna go on a little field trip. Madame Liskey's made it very clear to me that murdering children is bad for PR, so you're all going to rot in a prison for the rest of your sorry lives! Because apparently, that's not as cruel, somehow!"

Though Fabian's entire body was limp, he still tried flailing his limbs around. "This- This isn't fair!"

Scotcher's lips curled up. "Of course it's not fair. You're a little boy who's decided to start playing terrorist. What about this conflict was ever going to be–"

He was cut off by a massive boom.

The Meowscarada dropped Fabian to cover his head. "Where did–"

"I'd argue it wasn't unfair at all, actually."

Fabian sighed in relief. Standing just before the land bridge were a Zigzagoon and a Turtwig, just in the nick of time.

"Fabian made a severe blunder in assuming that this was a battle of brawns and not wit, and he paid the price. All's fair in love and war, as they say. Wouldn't you agree, my lord?"

Scotcher scowled at him. "Don't say 'my lord' like it's a joke!"

Nero drew a Blast Seed from his satchel. "That's quite the precarious arch you're standing over, my lord. I'm impressed it survived the force of a single Blast Seed. Though, that makes me rather curious. Just how many can it endure?"

Scotcher attempted to sprint towards Nero, but he was immediately shoved back to where he was by the Zigzagoon's invisible force. Nero genuinely had him cornered. Hesitation flickered in Scotcher's eyes for a moment, but it was swiftly replaced with a cool sneer. "If you blow up this archway, all your friends are going to fall, too. How does that help you save them?"

"Who said the goal was to save them?" Nero asked innocently. "I'm merely hoping to pass through, that's all."

"Nero!" Fabian shouted. "Don't you dare!"

Scotcher folded his arms. "Are you saying you aren't loyal to these freaks?"

"I'm a Moreno," Nero said simply. "I'm not loyal to anyone. I'd prefer to keep Fabian by my side, as he can be quite useful, but he isn't entirely irreplaceable."

"N-Nero, what are you doing?" Zach demanded. "You can't leave them behind! I… I w-won't let you!"

"Zacharias?" Scotcher asked, his eyes widening. "Since when are you alive? Were the Syndicate goons so inept that they couldn't kill one fifteen-year-old boy?"

Fabian squinted. "Zacharias? Is that your full name? Wow, you never told us about how funny it is!"

Scotcher's jaw hung ajar. "You… Hold on, how much do you all know about him?"

Zach flinched. "St-Stop talking! I- I–"

"No no, go on," Nero said. "To answer his question, he's told us nothing about himself at all."

Scotcher smirked. "Really? That so?" He stepped slightly closer, and Nero didn't shove him back. "You think you're real slick, don't you? Lemme guess, you were scared that you'd scare these fine gentlemen off if you gave them your true identity." He paused for a reply, but got none. "Isn't that right, Your Highness?"

"Y-Your… Your Highness?" Fabian squeaked. "Is- W-Wait, is he–?!"

"Leave it to you to manipulate a gang of random terrorists to your advantage, Prince Zacharias Tullabar," Scotcher said. "Wait, no, excuse me, that would be King Zacharias Tullabar now! It's a shame, what those horrible insurrectionists did. The entire Tullabar family, wiped off the face of the earth at once! It's a good thing us Royal Guardsmen stepped up to the plate to govern in their stead!"

Zach's lip trembled and his eyes were bulging out of his head. "Y-You… How could you?"

Meanwhile, Nero was utterly silent. His expression remained completely and utterly neutral, not betraying a single thought. "King Zacharias Tullabar," he said, his voice dripping with venom. "You were wise to keep your royal status a secret from me. You see, I'm of the opinion that all monarchs should be killed. Painfully, if possible."

"Nero, stop it!" Fabian yelled. He didn't get what was going on, exactly, but whatever it was, now wasn't the time to worry about it. "He's our friend now!"

Nero shook his head, his expression still as serene as before, still betrayed only by his voice. "King Zacharias. I'm assuming you wanted to return to Lumeral so that you could claim your… rightful place as ruler, no? I respect a good liar, but I'm afraid I just can't excuse this. I came so awfully close to aiding and abetting a tyrant."

"I- I'm sorry, but…" Zach trailed off.

Nero casually strolled behind Zach and launched him towards the bridge. "Consider this a gift, my lord. I wasn't aware that we had something in common."

Scotcher stared down at Zach, and after a brief moment of silence, he began to laugh. He strolled down the land bridge, all the way to Nero's position, without any interference. "Thank you very much, Sir Moreno! You know, I've always heard such great things about you! How would you feel about acting as an adviser to me?"

"Assuming the pay is decent, that sounds delightful," Nero said.

Fabian was about to shout at Nero louder than he had ever shouted anything in his life, but before he could, something landed in his throat. Without thinking, Fabian swallowed.

Seconds passed, and nothing happened. "Was that a bug or something? Or–"

Something hot was rising up his throat rapidly. It was like feeling vomit rise up, but instead of puke, it was molten lava, and he couldn't even scream because of all the pain.

Scotcher pointed at Fabian, noting his distress. "What going on with–"

Fabian burped, and everything around him exploded. The land bridge collapsed, and he plummeted downward.