The citizens of Ferrumark who attempted to assault Sofia and her unlikely allies were sparse on the lower floors, making them even less of a threat than Tec and that crazy broomstick-wielding grandma. Her main issue was that she didn't feel right hurting people who, as far as they knew, were helping apprehend murderers.

Fitz, however, had no qualms with this. "What?" he asked defensively, slamming his electricity-cloaked fist into a Corsola's head. "It's self defense! I'm not even killing anyone!"

Sofia sighed and kept on running. To her surprise, the number of hostile civilians only decreased further as they ascended, to the point where there was nobody at all on the twenty-fifth floor. "Where is everyone?" she asked. "I thought there were tens of thousands of Pokémon living in this city."

"On top," Vark answered, looking upward. It was hard to make out, but from a certain angle, it was possible to catch a glimpse of the highest floor, where there was, indeed, and uncountable number of raucous Pokémon.

Narrowing his eyes, Fitz stopped running. "That's the floor where the Mayor's office is. The hell are they all doing up there?"

"I evacuated them to safety," answered a cold, monotone voice coming from an alley that Sofia didn't recognize. "After all, we're going to be fighting here, and I don't want anything interrupting it." An Empoleon emerged from the alleyway, with sagging shoulders, eye bags so large that they overshadowed his eyes, and an utterly disinterested expression. His red and gray armband was covered in stains and grime, to the point where Sofia had to wonder if it had ever even been in the same room as a washpot before.

"Wh- Huh?" Sofia asked. "Fighting? Wh-Who even are you?"

The Empoleon remained completely stone-faced. "I am Captain Davey Shawcross, leader of the Ash Syndicate's Branch 15. I have no special interest in combat, nor do I especially care about this battle's outcome. Are you ready to fight?"

"The hell are you talking about?" Fitz asked. "There's no way you're a Syndicate Captain! Why would you even be here? I thought this whole charade was a Guild thing! And if you don't wanna fight, then just get out of the way!"

"It is my sole duty to assist Commander Moreno in any way he sees fit. He asked me to come to Ferrumark City and do everything in my power to apprehend his son, so I brought a small army here to do just that."

"Yeah, well Nero's not here!" Fitz spat. "Go bother someone else!"

Shawcross nodded. "I'm aware. He has already been apprehended by Vice Guildmaster Quincy, along with Fabian Vanadis."

Sofia gasped. "They've both been caught?! That's terrible! If this Toño guy gets captured, then the lockdown will end and they'll all be as good as dead! What do we do?"

Unfortunately," Shawcross continued, "by the terms of our deal, he will not hand Nero over to us until he has Toño in his clutches as well. Toño's whereabouts are unknown, but I feel as though it would upset him enough to reveal his location if I murdered you and that Poochyena. Thus, a battle."

Fitz scoffed. "You're crazy!"

"Actually, I'm exceedingly rational. Are you prepared to fight yet?"

Fitz answered that question with a Thunder Punch. He launched himself forward faster than Sofia could see, yet Shawcross effortlessly stepped out of the way. He retaliated by waving a fin in Fitz's direction, manifesting a high-pressure spray of bubbles that he had to block with his arms.

Though Fitz was bleeding from his arms, there was no time to check on him. Turning his attention to Vark, Shawcross raised his flipper and attempted to hit him with a swift chop to the neck, a motion Sofia recognized as Brick Break. The Poochyena narrowly avoided him, but Shawcross relentlessly barraged him with Brick Break after Brick Break, leaving no openings for him to strike.

Sofia swiped her wing upward, sending an Air Cutter at Shawcross. She managed to aim well enough to land the hit, but it barely managed to scratch his skin, and he didn't even notice. "Right, he's part Steel-type! I don't have any way of hurting him!" Being as helpless as she was, she decided it would be best if she kept her distance.

Fitz was back up, and he went for another Thunder Punch. Though he missed again, he was more careful about leaving himself open, and dodged the Bubble Beam counterattack.

His fangs crackling with electricity, Vark took this opportunity and crunched down on Shawcross's flipper. Shawcross convulsed in pain, but his sullen expression still didn't budge. Fitz moved in with yet another Thunder Punch at the ready, but Shawcross pounded his free flipper into the ground, creating an enormous wave of water, tall enough to reach the floor above them, that surrounded him completely. It crashed down and swept Fitz away somewhere.

Vark was still hanging off his flipper, and as soon as the water cleared, Shawcross delivered a chop at his body, shattering bones and instantly knocking the Poochyena out cold.

Sofia's wings dropped to her side. From his demeanor alone, it was hard to believe that Shawcross was really a Syndicate Captain, but after that showing, Sofia could've been convinced that he was the Commander himself. She couldn't even begin to come up with anything she could do to survive this. Shawcross had his eyes on her, and neither Fitz nor Vark were capable of stopping him. It was utterly hopeless.

But then, a blast of lightning shot at Shawcross from behind. It was a direct hit, and for a brief moment, he stumbled to the ground.

"Leave them alone," said the Marowak who was with Melker before.

A Pachirisu riding on top of her head nodded in agreement. "You're doing all this to lure me out and take me down, right?" He caught a glance at Vark's unconscious body, and his cheek sacs sparked up. "Well, congrats, here I am. But I'm not the one who's going down."

Fabian awoke in a jail cell for the second time that day to the sounds of pebbles hitting steel. Just as he expected, there was a searing pain coming from the hole in his shoulder, which had leaked enough blood onto the concrete floor to stain his back. He rubbed his aching head and sat up. "Where am I?" he muttered. "What happened?"

Nero, who was lying on his side and telekinetically launching pebbles at a lock on the exit door, turned to look at Fabian. "Oh, is naptime over? A shame, I was beginning to enjoy the peace and quiet."

"Great, it's you," Fabian groaned. "Well, at least you being here means someone beat you up."

Nero scoffed. "Not necessarily. You'll be pleased to hear that I surrendered before the esteemed Vice Guildmaster even had a chance to lay a talon on me."

"Of course he did." Fabian sighed. "Why are you throwing pebbles at the door?" he asked. "It's clearly not doing anything."

"Practice."

"Practicing what?" Fabian asked. He got no reply, so he thought that Nero might not have heard him. "Practicing what?" he repeated. Still no reply. "I said, what are you practic-"

Nero fired a pebble into Fabian's mouth, and he started choking on it. "You're an idiot," Nero explained. "If I tell you the details of my escape plan, there's no doubt in my mind that you'll find a way to ruin it."

After hacking the pebble up, Fabian marched up to Nero and pulled him up by the neck. "Why are you trying to make me mad?" he asked. "Do you want me to kick your ass?"

Nero was entirely unfazed. "I usually only let guys do that to me if they pay-"

Fabian slammed him into the concrete wall. "Shut up!"

Nero scurried back to that exact spot where he lay before, back to chucking pebbles. "Regardless," he began, clearing his throat, "this is a longshot, but do you happen to have any idea of what's going on out there? I'm afraid I'm a bit out of the loop at the moment."

"This guy is ridiculous!" Fabian thought. First he treated Fabian like a useless idiot, and now he was asking him favors? "I'm not helping you with anything," Fabian declared, crossing his arms. "I hate you."

"You can rest assured that the feeling is mutual," Nero said. "Unfortunately for you, I'm the one with the escape plan, and I don't necessarily have to include you in it, so unless you hope to arrive at Renegade's Edge in chains, you'll do as I say."

Sick of letting Nero walk all over him, Fabian decided to take a shot at escaping on his own. Unfortunately, their cell didn't give him much to go off of. Every surface in the room was made of concrete (including a shallow pit in the corner that Fabian desperately hoped wasn't a toilet) except for the cell door, a set of metal bars that gave them a glimpse into a candlelit hallway. He chomped down on the steel as hard as he could, but it didn't even budge, and he broke a few teeth.

Nero shot another pebble at the lock. "Careful, I'm pretty sure I saw rust on those bars."

Ignoring him, Fabian made a feeble attempt at wedging himself through the bars. He got an arm through, but the rusty metal scraped against him in a way that would've been agonizing even if most of his skin wasn't still raw from being frozen. He recoiled in pain.

Nero fired another pebble at the lock, and it made another clanging noise. "I'll give you a hint," he said. "The solution doesn't involve contracting tetanus."

Fabian threw his hands up in the air. "Fine, you win! What do you want from me?"

"Just a concise recap is all," Nero said, not even trying to hide his winning grin.

And so, Fabian reluctantly explained everything that had happened to him, from his first encounter with Melker in that warehouse to the temporary alliance they forged against Quincy. Naturally, Nero only really looked like he was paying attention whenever Fabian was talking about the times he got injured.

"So, the Melker Motors crew is allied with us?" By this point, Nero's accuracy when hitting the lock was dead-on, to the point where his pebbles were getting lodged in the keyhole. "Interesting news. Though, it's a shame that your shared tactical ineptitude lost us the advantage of having Melker active to fight our battles for us."

Fabian gritted his teeth. "She was attacking us! We were panicking! You expect us to stay calm and come up with a reasonable plan in that situation?"

"I absolutely do," Nero said. "But alas, the only practice as useless as fear or panic is hindsight, and I refuse to engage with either."

"Whatever," Fabian said, rolling his eyes at Nero's pretentious nonsense. "Just get on with your side of the story."

"It's been nothing too exciting. Sofia dragged me on an ill-fated rescue mission for you, and while she probably died, you can rest easy, because I made a daring escape-"

Fabian gasped. "Sofia's dead?!" he shouted.

Covering his ears, Nero gave Fabian an unamused look. "Well, I didn't see a body, per se, but I definitely heard her meet Melker face-to-face, and let's face it, she isn't exactly in his weight class."

"There's no way she's dead," Fabian declared. "I'm not believing that until I see it."

"Suit yourself, I suppose. Regardless, I landed safely at the bottom of Ferrumark City, where I used a bomb to eviscerate a few members of the Ash Syndicate who attempted to accost me."

"You saw some Syndicate goons, too?" Fabian asked. It was a weird coincidence that so many of them would happen to be hanging around in Ferrumark at the time of the lockdown. "What are they all doing here?"

"I'm getting there," Nero said. "As I was saying, I ended up getting cornered by the Vice Guildmaster, and knowing that I stood no chance of victory, I surrendered immediately. Furthermore, I learned that he and Captain Davey Shawcross of Branch 15 forged an alliance, so we can expect a continued Syndicate presence in the area."

Fabian was in utter disbelief. If this was true, it went against everything he knew to be true about the world. "A Vice Guildmaster, allying with a Syndicate Captain? But the Guilds are supposed to stand for justice!"

"You don't honestly still believe that, do you?" Nero asked, irritation clear in his voice. "Even after they framed us for a murder that, in all likelihood, they were responsible for?"

"W-Well…" Fabian started, racking his brain for a counterargument. He had never had a full conversation with someone who didn't like the Guilds before, and it didn't make any sense to him that it was even possible to hold such an opinion. "None of this is the Guild's fault, though! Quincy did this, not them! I've met hundreds of Guild members, and most of them aren't like that!"

"Do you think Quincy became a Vice Guildmaster in a vacuum?"

"I- Well-"

"Right, thinking is hard for you. The answer to that question is 'no, he didn't.' He was handpicked by the Head Guildmaster, interviewed by a council of nearly a dozen other Vice Guildmasters, subjected to a scrutinous background check, and and personally trained by Guildmaster Dorinel himself, all in a process that spanned multiple years. Do you really think that such a blatantly horrible person was able to conceal his miserable personality for that entire time?"

His words were like hammers against Fabian's skull. "Shut up."

"The very fact that Quincy was allowed to become a Vice Guildmaster is proof enough that the whole institution is beyond saving, if you ask me."

"Like you care!" Fabian shot back. "At least some of us are trying to help! The only thing you people are trying to do is destroy the world! That's way worse!"

Nero thought about that for a moment. "Is it? As far as my father's organization is concerned, the world was destroyed from the moment the Head Guildmaster came into power. The goal isn't to 'destroy' the world, it's more to put it out of its misery. A misery gleefully perpetuated by naive idiots such as yourself-"

"I never asked to be Guildmaster's son!" Fabian shouted, raising his voice higher than he meant to. The words flew out of his mouth before he thought them through. "Did I… Did I really just say that?" As far as he could remember, he had never felt like that before. Sure, the Guild work was a tedious obligation, and it often got in the way of his actual interests, but openly expressing a desire to cast it aside was an entirely foreign experience to him.

Unflinching at Fabian's outburst, Nero returned to firing pebbles at the lock. The two remained in utter silence together for several agonizing minutes, the only sound interrupting it being the clinking noise of Nero's inexplicable "practicing."

The lit candlesticks in the hall outside had shrunk considerably since Fabian awoke, yet if Nero had made any progress in escaping, he wasn't showing it. Fabian had nothing to think about except for what Nero said about the Guilds, and if he didn't get out of that cell soon, he was going to drive himself crazy.

"Out of curiosity," Nero suddenly began, startling Fabian, "do you ever regret showing up at the Guild's basement on that day?"

Although Fabian was hesitant to answer anything Nero asked, he didn't sense any obvious malice in the question, and he was sick of being stuck in his head. "I'm… not sure," he admitted. "On one hand, there's no way I could ever be able to save Mom without this power, and I never would've seen how awful Quincy could be if I still worked at the Guild. But, the past week has just been so… Well, I don't really know how to describe it. Hard? Confusing, I guess? I dunno, it's just, everything used to make a lot more sense."

"Life was easier before, certainly," Nero said. "It's hard to worry about making mistakes when every detail of your future was neatly outlined for you before you even hatched. My only duty was to accumulate money for the Syndicate and be prepared to take over in the event of my father's passing. Tedious, but comfortable."

"Yeah, 'comfortable' sounds right." As much as Fabian despised drawing comparisons between himself and Nero, even he couldn't help but notice how undeniably similar their pasts were. "How about you, then? Do you think it'd have been better if you just slept in that day or something?"

"That remains to be seen," Nero answered. "I suppose it depends on how far I make it. If, let's say, I failed to escape this cell and I was promptly executed by my father, then yes, I'd describe the past week as a waste of time. But then again, I'd be lying to myself if I said that I've never desired to be anything other than an agent of the Syndicate. A private investigator, or perhaps a-"

"I wanna be a biologist," Fabian blurted, getting a quizzical look from Nero. "Sorry, it's just, you were talking about wanting to be something other than a Syndicate agent, so I started thinking of what I'd want to be if I wasn't on track to be the Guildmaster for my whole life, and it's that. It's always been that. And I know that stuff isn't as important as being a Guildmaster, but-"

Nero smirked slightly. "I can confidently assure you that your interest in biology is the least offensive thing about you. But, if you're set on apologizing for every one of your faults, I'd start with your baffling inability to make even a single intelligent decision."

"Shut up!"

The two continued their insult-laden conversation for some time, until they heard a door creak open. A Talonflame strode in, none other than Quincy, with that same old arrogant grin. "Looks like the traitor's finally awake!"

Fabian's mood soured instantly. "You're the traitor!" he yelled grabbing the bars and getting as close to Quincy as he could. "You killed the mayor, and now you're working with terrorists! What's wrong with you? You're supposed to uphold justice!"

"First off, I didn't personally murder anyone, I just told someone else to. And secondly, I think you've got a poor understanding of the Guild's philosophy." Quincy said this as if he wasn't talking to the guy who was supposed to be in charge of it one day. "We don't just 'uphold' justice, we are justice! We're the ones who decide what 'justice' means!"

"But that's stupid!" Fabian shot back. "If you don't care about helping people, then why are you even doing this? What's the point?"

Nero rolled his eyes. "Isn't it obvious? He wants money and attention, both of which he'd obtain a nearly infinite amount of by cashing in on your bounty."

"Why is that any of that 'obvious?'" Quincy asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Well, you're remarkably shallow, for one thing."

Fabian nudged Nero. "Stop, you're gonna make him mad!" he whispered.

Ignoring him, Nero went on. "You aren't especially smart or interesting, so I can't imagine there's anything else that would motivate you."

Although Quincy was still smiling, his eye twitched. "I'm not shallow, I'm a hero in the making! They will be putting my face on the front cover of every history textbook for the rest of time! And if I'm the idiot here, then how was I able to capture you so easily? What, are you just sitting in there because it's comfortable?"

"Not especially," Nero said. "It's actually quite unpleasant, now that you mention it. I think I'll be taking my leave soon, if you don't mind."

"Stop talking!" Fabian hissed. "Why is he telling Quincy about the escape plan? Can he really not keep his mouth shut for five seconds?"

"And what makes you think you'll be able to do that?" Quincy asked, his smile fading into a glare.

"Why, of course I do," Nero said. "You're just a Vice Guildmaster, after all."

Quincy's eyes bulged out of his skull. "'Just?' Did you say 'just' a Vice Guildmaster?" Veins popped out of his forehead. "I am the most important member of the Guild to ever join it!" he screeched. "Everyone in the world will know my name! I'll never be forgotten, not even in a thousand years!"

Nero's smirk doubled in size. Apparently, he was dead set on provoking Quincy as much as possible, and frankly, Fabian was terrified of what he was going to say next. He plugged his ears, but even so, Nero's next words rang clearly.

"Sorry, what was your name again?"

A single second passed while the sentence registered in Quincy's mind. The very next, he swung the door open and, his whole body cloaked in fire, he crashed into Nero so hard that his impact formed a crater in the ground. His wings shimmered briefly and he furiously slashed at Nero with them. "MY NAME IS VICE GUILDMASTER QUINCY!" he screeched repeatedly with every slash. In the time it took to blink, Nero's body was covered in razor wounds. The Zigzagoon went limp long before Quincy's frenzied Steel Wing beatdown ended.

Quincy cackled maniacally. "Anything else you wanna say?" He kicked Nero's body, as if expecting a response. "No? Nothing? Damn, I'm almost upset that you're gonna have to die! That was the most fun I've had in years!"

All Fabian could do was sit in the corner with his hands covering his mouth. He wasn't even thinking about fighting at the moment; the scene in front of him was so sudden and so gruesome that he could hardly think of anything at all.

Silently, Quincy left the room, shut the door, and turned the lock. "Play nice or you're next," he said with complete tranquility, before walking away until he was out of view. Minutes passed before Fabian felt capable of moving or speaking.

In an effort to look for a heartbeat to see if Nero was still alive, Fabian crept up to his limp body, wincing and jumping back when he accidentally stepped in the puddle of blood and cut fur. Fabian knelt down and softly pressed his hand against the left side of Nero's chest, and sighed in relief once he heard his heart beating rapidly.

"Please get your hand off my chest."

The sound of Nero's voice made Fabian realize how close their faces were to each other. He screamed and ripped his hand away. "Wh- You! You're awake! I mean- I wasn't- I was just checking if you were-"

"Stop talking, it looks so much worse when you try to defend yourself."

Fabian decided that it would be best if he changed the subject. "I- But- How are you even conscious right now?" he asked. "That's gotta be at least a pint of blood on the ground!"

Nero hobbled up to his paws, slipping on his own blood and collapsing multiple times before he found his balance. "I don't allow myself to pass out," he said plainly. "But that's beside the point. There's a cabinet down the hall containing a trove of contraband items, among them being an Energy Seed. Would you mind grabbing it for me?"

"What are you talking about?" Fabian asked. "We can't get outside! That's the whole problem!"

His whole body shaking, Nero limped over to the cell door and lightly bumped his head against it. To Fabian's shock, it swung open easily.

"I- How did…" Before Fabian could finish his question, a single pebble rolled out of the strike plate's hole. "Wait, how did… Did you do that when Quincy opened the door?"

"Did you think I was pushing his buttons for fun?" Nero asked.

"Kinda!"

Nero smirked weakly. "Go grab the Energy Seed already. And try to be quick about it. We're on the ground floor of Ferrumark at the moment, and I'm hoping to scale my way back to the top as soon as possible."

Although Fabian wasn't big on taking orders from Nero, desperate times called for desperate measures, and even if Nero was probably ruthless enough to let Fabian die if necessary, Fabian was a better person than him, so he wasn't going to stoop that low. He fished the Energy Seed out of the cabinet no problem and rushed back to Nero's side.

Nero swallowed the seed and his breathing quickly returned to normal. "Thanks for that." He shuddered. "I must say, I'm not very used to giving you genuine praise." He casually walked out of the cell, blood still flowing out of his underside.

"Wait, where are you going?" Fabian asked. "You're way too injured!" It wasn't like Energy Seeds could actually heal injuries; all they could do was dull the pain and provide a shot of adrenaline.

"Am I currently dead?" Nero asked.

"No," Fabian said after hesitating.

"Are any of my limbs damaged to the point where my ability to move is impaired?"

"Well, not really, but you're bleeding like crazy!"

"Are you not?"

Fabian glanced over at his shoulder which, as Nero implied, was still bleeding profusely. He rolled his eyes. "Okay, but you're in way worse shape than me!"

"I'm dead set on getting revenge on Quincy, I'm afraid," Nero said. "This has been an incredibly annoying day, and as far as I can tell, it's entirely his fault. You wouldn't object if I murdered him, would you?"

By this point, it was hard for Fabian to say that he'd be upset. "I… I'll help you get there." He could hardly believe the words coming out of his mouth, but at the same time, it was an objective fact that the world would be better off without Quincy. "But I'm not making any more promises. Don't expect me to help any more than that."

Nero's serene smile made Fabian sick. "I'm glad to hear that," he said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be sifting through the rest of the confiscated materials."