The smell of blood from within the lobby was pungent enough to make Fabian gag. Two mangled bodies, a Midnight Lycanroc and a Ghost-Type Marowak, lay bruised and battered on the ground, covered in exactly the same kind of wounds that scarred Nero's underbelly.

Sofia let out a gasp as Nero shook his head. "Their hearts are beating," he declared. "It appears that Toño's address drew Quincy away before he could finish these two off. Lucky them."

The Lycanroc shifted around slightly and Fabian rushed over to him. "Are you okay?!" he frantically asked, shaking him slightly.

Slowly, his eyes fluttered open. "H-Hey…" he weakly murmured. "You're the dickhead who bashed my skull in this morning, aren't ya?"

Fabian grimaced. "Yeah," he admitted. "Sorry about that."

The Lycanroc chuckled. "Well, you can-" he coughed violently, blood escaping his mouth. "Y-You can… make it up to me by bashing Quincy's skull in."

"I was gonna do that anyway," Fabian said. "Quit worrying and rest. I'll take it from here."

"W-Wait," he choked out. "J-Just, you gotta…" His mouth kept moving, but his voice gave out, leaving nothing but hoarse wheezing. "You gotta h-hit 'em…" he managed before passing out once again.

"Yeah, I know how fighting works," Fabian said. "I told you, just rest." He stood up and looked back at his two allies.

Nero's gaze lingered on the Lycanroc's body for a little longer. "He pushed himself to get those last few words out there. I wonder, were they truly as useless as they sounded?"

"What are you thinking?" Sofia asked. "Was it, like, a code or something?"

"No clue. Of course, he's lost a critical amount of blood, so what he said could very well be nothing more than delirious ramblings. I'd say it's best if we keep his words in the back of our minds, just in case they start to make more sense."

Fabian nodded and headed up the stairs, and placed a hand on the doorknob. As he did, his mind was flooded by the memory of climbing up the final flight of stairs in the Vanadis Guild Headquarters. He experienced those feelings of powerlessness and uncertainty just as vividly as he did on that day. Everything could easily go wrong again, and that thought paralyzed him.

He took a deep breath. "No, this is different. This time, we're the ones on the attack. We're gonna win." Fabian nodded towards his allies, and they nodded back.

He swung the door open.

Fabian took a single step forward through the door, only to be immediately struck by a flurry of impossibly-fast swipes from Quincy's talons. Instead of finishing him off then and there, Quincy retreated behind the desk.

"Look out!" Fabian shouted, dodging to the side just barely in the nick of time to get in the office with only a leg scratched up slightly.

Quincy, now perched on top of the desk, looked slightly confused. "Strange…" he muttered.

Without even a chance to blink, the very same attack Fabian foresaw before struck him once again.

On the very fraction of a second that his vision ended, Fabian jumped to the side once again, narrowly avoiding yet another blow. "How are you so fast?" he demanded. Talonflames were well-known for their impressive speed, but this was ridiculous. He was going from rest to maximum speed in no time at all!

"Interesting," Quincy said, flapping his wings forward, sending him backward and creating some distance. "If you're doing what I think you're doing, then why did you…" he trailed off.

Quincy struck at the wall immediately beside Fabian, before retreating back to the spot he was before with just as much speed.

"Huh?" Fabian muttered, confused at Quincy's strange tactic. "Did he… miss?"

Quincy struck at the wall immediately beside Fabian, before retreating back to the spot he was before with just as much speed. After taking a second to note Fabian's bewildered expression, Quincy cracked a grin. "I think I get it now! Your dad overestimated you! You can see the future, but you can't react to it like how Dell could!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Fabian asked, asserting an evasive stance. "Dell had the same power I've got."

"You aren't gonna be alive long enough to care," Quincy said. "Let's see how you handle this!"

Sofia held up her wings in a vain attempt to block Quincy's onslaught. Nero shoved him away, but not fast enough to keep her unscathed.

Fabian's eyes widened. Sofia was on the opposite side of the room, and there was no way he was going to make it over there in time. "Sofia! Look out!" he shouted.

Sofia held up her wings in a vain attempt to block Quincy's onslaught. Nero shoved him away, but not fast enough to keep her unscathed. She screamed in pain, collapsing into a pile of torn bandages and loose feathers. "D-Don't worry about me!" she yelled. "I'm a Rock-type, I'm fine!"

"We can't win like this!" Nero yelled as Fabian rushed over to them. "Even if you can dodge his attacks, you'll never be able to hit him!"

Fabian nodded. "Yeah, I can tell! We gotta figure out how he's going that quick!"

He racked his brain for every drop of knowledge he had that could help. "Some sort of item? No, that can't be right, he wouldn't be getting to his top speed so quickly with just a Quick Seed. Is it the Move he's using? A speed Move like Aqua Jet or Mach Punch would look kinda like this, I guess. Maybe there's some speedy Flying-type Move that I've never heard about?"

That got Fabian thinking. In his mind, he recited every single fast Move the biology world knew of, and sure enough, none of them were Flying-type Moves. And besides, that move looked exactly like Acrobatics, down to the damage devastating enough to harm even a Rock-type like Sofia, despite the typing.

Quincy struck Sofia again, but this time, it was too much for her. He retreated back to safety as soon as Fabian was able to process what just happened, but it was too late by then. Her limp body didn't even react to the attack.

Fabian had never had this many visions this close together, and he was starting to feel a migraine coming on. Ignoring it for now, he scooped up Sofia and yanked her out of the way, taking a deep gash on his already-injured arm in the process. He winced, but Quincy, instead of taking advantage and getting another hit in, retreated to his spot on top of the desk yet again.

That was yet another strange fighting habit of Quincy's, now that Fabian thought about it. Every time it looked like there was even the slightest chance that Quincy could get even a scratch on him, he fled. With that speed, Quincy was more than capable of taking the three of them down before they could get more than a hit or two in, so why was he acting so cautiously?

"You gotta… H-Hit 'em…" that injured Lycanroc had said.

The way that Quincy was acting convinced Fabian that there had to be some significance to those words. "Maybe he's secretly really fragile? Or, maybe some part of his strategy only works if he's uninjured? That just doesn't make any sense, though! He can't learn any Moves that work like that, and the only Ability he can have is Flame Body. Well, that and technically…"

Fabian suddenly felt like a complete idiot. "Guys, we need to hit him!" he shouted.

"Oh, is that what we're trying to do?" Nero asked. "If only I had a fraction of your tactical brilliance."

"Shut up, that's not what I mean! He's got Gale Wings, that's how he's going so fast! We just need to hurt him a little bit, and he'll have to start fighting fair! Even a papercut would be enough!"

Quincy rolled his eyes. "Right, I forgot that you're a freak. Do you really spend all your time memorizing random obscure Abilities? No wonder you don't have any friends."

"Deep breaths," Fabian told himself. "Don't let him get to you."

Attempting to get an easy shot in, Sofia swiped her wing up, sending a Rock Throw in Quincy's direction, though he easily dodged. "Oh, right, I forgot you were supposed to be a ranged fighter. Guess I should deal with you first, then."

Nero leapt forward, aiming to bite down on Quincy's talon. He narrowly missed, and was punished with a lightning-quick, devastating Acrobatics attack that sent him skidding across the blood, coating his fur in even more blood.

This time, Sofia didn't look afraid at all as she watched Quincy, who was surely moments away from launching an attack that could potentially kill her. She held her wings up defensively and stared at him intently.

Fabian tried to yell something, anything, but his body completely locked up against his will. He couldn't deny it, all of these visions were getting to be too much for him.

"B-Bring it on!" Sofia squawked, asserting the stance she held in Fabian's vision. "I'm not s-scared!"

Quincy tilted his head. "Oh, I get it. Your plan is to try and hit me as I'm coming for you." He ruffled his feathers a bit. "I hate to break it to you, but unless your reaction time is better than a hundred milliseconds, you'll die here. Who knows, though! Maybe whatever freak of nature you are has some hidden talent for reacting? Or maybe…"

Fabian blinked, and Sofia fell to the ground, covered head to toe in deep lacerations.

Quincy stood over Sofia's body with a wicked grin. "...You're all in over your head. Let's see, did I finish you off?" He shrugged. "Eh, better safe than-" He was interrupted by the weak thud of something hitting the wall, coming from Nero's direction. "The hell was…?"

It was a small dagger. The very same one Nero had been playing around with ever since they left that prison. Without Quincy's voice, the room was utterly silent. In fact, it was quiet enough to hear the sound of a liquid dripping.

That liquid was Quincy's blood. "Y-You!" he screamed, turning towards Nero, whose paws were shaking so much that it was a miracle that he was standing. "I don't-"

"I had a feeling you'd forget about me," Nero said. "Especially when Sofia's skillset was so threatening to you. So, I decided to pitch a little idea to her while you were busy lamenting Fabian's social ineptitude."

Quincy charged toward Nero, but this time, the Zigzagoon had more than enough time to dodge, even in spite of his injuries.

Fabian inhaled sharply, and water began to materialize and coalesce around his tail. He leapt up and tried to slam it down smack in the middle of Quincy's face, but one flap of the wings was all it took for him to escape Fabian's range. "Hey, Nero," Fabian said after landing. "I don't like you using Sofia as bait. That's not cool."

"Relax, she's not even dead," Nero retorted. "She certainly would've gotten murdered at some point in this fight if I did nothing, along with you and I. You're welcome."

"I never thanked you," Fabian muttered. "By the way, don't count on me having any visions right now," he whispered, quietly enough to prevent Quincy from hearing. "They're being kinda weird right now."

Nero nodded, and scampered away. After seeing that, Fabian did the same on instinct, and he was glad he did. A huge fireball grazed his nose, reminding him that, even without his Ability, Quincy was still a force to be reckoned with.

Fabian crawled up the mayor's desk, trying to gain the height to reach Quincy, but even after jumping off the desk, he was still just out of reach. As he was landing, Quincy quickly struck at his injured arm with his beak, and Fabian heard something snap. The raw adrenaline coursing through his veins didn't allow him to feel a single thing, but sure enough, when he tried to bend his arm, nothing happened.

"Can't you just use Water Gun or something?" Nero asked, annoyed.

"I don't know how!" Fabian yelled, slowly pushing himself up to his feet with only one arm. "Any time I use water for a ranged attack, it fizzles out!"

"Useless," Nero murmured. "Alright, different idea. Throw me over him and get ready to hit him with everything you've got!"

"What?" Fabian asked. "Why would-"

"Do it!"

Not wanting to throw away a precious opportunity to injure Nero, Fabian grabbed him by the tail and tossed him underhand with enough force to send him flying over Quincy. He charged up an Aqua Tail in advance, as per Nero's instructions.

"What are you…" Quincy muttered, cocking an eyebrow.

Nero winked at Quincy, then telekinetically shoved him downward with all his might. Though Nero clenched his teeth and winced in pain, the effort was only enough to move Quincy down a couple meters.

Thankfully, that was enough. Quincy tried to fly out of the way, but not fast enough to avoid a direct hit from Fabian's Aqua Tail. He roared in pain as Fabian's water-cloaked tail crashed into his left wing, knocking him back. With that injury, there was no way he'd be able to ascend anymore.

"Damnit!" Quincy yelled. He exhaled sharply, and a pitch black mist emanated from his open beak. "You know what? I'm not in a hurry! You three can win this round! Let's see how you do against my reinforcements!"

"Fabian, block the window, he's trying to get away!" Nero shouted.

The smoke already completely obscured Fabian's vision. "I don't know where the window is!"

"Follow my voice!" Nero yelled. "Now, damnit!"

Fabian stumbled his way over to Nero, tripping over various office supplies that were strewn across the floor. He could see outside the window, as the smoke was mostly contained within the room, but to his disdain, Quincy was already out there. Though he couldn't ascend with his broken wing, he managed to gently glide downward. He was getting away. "No, he's gonna call for reinforcements! We can't handle more Guild members! Lead me to the stairs, we have to go after him!"

"The stairs are too slow!" Nero said. "He'll be halfway there by the time we're out of the building!"

Whatever the case, Fabian absolutely couldn't let Quincy get away. It wasn't just his and Nero's lives riding on the result of this battle; he probably wouldn't care as much if that was all that was on the line. No, there was an entire city of innocent Pokémon counting on him to take this guy down.

And if he had to die to do it, he was more than willing to. He was a dead man walking anyway.

After taking one last deep breath, Fabian vaulted over the windowsill and dove straight downwards, readying one last Aqua Tail.

Quincy caught a glance at him and horror filled his face as he dove downward as well. "I-Idiot!" he shouted. "You won't be able to make it to me in time! You just killed yourself for no reason!"

As the ground became visible, Fabian realized that Quincy was right. The gap between them was close, but just barely not close enough. "I… Nero was right, I really am stupid! What was I thinking? Why did I ever do any of this? I was never going to make a difference! What am I going to do?! Arceus, why didn't I just surrender back at the Guild?"

"Isn't it ironic, how we only panic in the situations that demand us to focus most?"

Fabian's eyes shot open, and he whipped his head in the direction of that voice. "Wha- How- When did you-"

"Though, irrationality may not necessarily be a bad thing, in this case at least." Nero cracked a grin. He was falling just behind Fabian, close enough to be within reach. "Your hairbrained decision to jump to your death gave me a perfect idea, believe it or not. What do you say we end this, once and for all?"

"How?" Fabian demanded.

"Simple: hit me as hard as you can," Nero said. "And keep that tail of yours ready to strike. We're doing exactly what we did before."

Fabian yanked Nero down below him, winded up a punch, and let loose.

Nero screeched in pain as blood erupted from his bandaged wounds. He hurtled downward, fast enough to fall below Quincy. The two of them locked eyes, and just like before, Nero winked at him.

Just like that, Quincy's body shot upward, perfectly on course to collide with Fabian. The Talonflame's eyes bulged out of his skull. "Stop it! I am Vice Guildma-"

There was only one thing Fabian had to say to Quincy. Something that this monster should've been told a thousand times over the course of his life, yet nobody ever had the courage to.

"Shut up!"

Fabian slammed his tail directly into Quincy's skull. It shattered.

In that moment, Fabian experienced the most potent adrenaline rush that he'd ever had in his life, bar none. His whole body, no, the whole world was shaking uncontrollably.

"I killed him. I just killed someone."

Though it wasn't the first time he had taken someone's life, it couldn't have felt more different from when he killed Dell.

"Grab my paw!" Nero shouted, temporarily snapping him out of his daze. Fabian barely had the wherewithal to consider the order, so he just complied with it.

Their descent suddenly slowed, and Fabian felt like his arm was going to be torn off. The noise of Nero's screams agitated him, but he could hardly understand why. His mind and body were unanimously screaming at him to get some rest immediately.

They crashed into the ground, not at a speed comfortable enough to leave them uninjured, but not enough to kill them, either.

Barely conscious, Fabian hobbled over to the spot Quincy had landed. He was barely recognizable as a Talonflame. He was reduced to a red puddle and a pile of feathers. A casual observer might've assumed it was an arts and crafts project gone awry.

Fabian raised a fist into the air. He vaguely registered the growing sound of cheers surrounding him.

He collapsed.

Three days had passed, and Fabian still had yet to regain consciousness. If Nero were smarter, he'd have fled the city long ago, but it felt like a waste to discard Fabian at this point. It was a grueling effort to make him as cooperative as he was by now, and he didn't want to see that effort wasted. Fabian was, in essence, Nero's sunk cost.

"Hey, where are we going?" Sofia asked, trailing right behind him as usual.

"I don't know where you got this notion of a 'we' from, but I'm headed to Quincy's former base of operations. I discovered some interesting documents there, and I'd like to examine them in more detail."

"R-Right."

Nero picked up the pace slightly. Ever since that final crash landing with Fabian, his bad paw had been bothering him even more. He had no interest in letting that Goodra doctor mess with him, and suffering in silence was far from new to him, so he didn't mind. "Why are you here?" he asked in return. "I assume you didn't elect to tag along with me on account of my delightful personality."

She cleared her throat. "W-Well, I just had a quick question for you, that's all. Do you… uh, do you know who Captain Shawcross is?"

"Shawcross… Is he that cute Empoleon guy? The one who's in charge of Branch 15?"

"C-Cute?" Sofia questioned. "He's super old, though. Aren't you, like, eighteen?"

"Any man with muscles large enough to snap my spine like a pencil is attractive in my book," Nero said, deadly serious.

"O-Oh, okay," Sofia said. "Can we… get back to Shawcross?"

"Right, my apologies. I was overwhelmed by the thought of attractive men. You were asking about Shawcross, yes?" Sofia nodded. "Well, I don't say this lightly, but I have some respect for that man. He's levelheaded, powerful, and overwhelmingly attractive. Truly, nobody puts the 'might' in 'lobotomite' quite like him."

Sofia stared at him. "...Please, never say that again."

Nero thought his wordplay was rather humorous, but he didn't care enough about Sofia's opinion of him to debate her. "Why are you asking me about him, anyway?"

"I was just wondering if you know why he… Well, y'know."

"Not a clue," Nero answered. "That's wilful ignorance on my part, unfortunately. I have limited respect for that procedure, so I tend to avoid news about it whenever possible. And judging by that branding under your wing feathers, I presume you feel the same?"

"How- How did you-" Sofia clasped her right wing. "When- Please, don't tell-"

"Quincy tore half of your feathers off, it was quite obvious. Relax, I have no desire at the present moment to reveal your place of origin." To be frank, the only reason Nero didn't plan on blackmailing her was that he didn't think this piece of information was as damning as Sofia seemed to believe it was. That, and there wasn't exactly much he wanted from her in the first place.

Sofia sighed. "That's the best I'm gonna get from you, isn't it?"

Nero nodded absentmindedly. He had almost arrived at the secret base, so he had more important things on his mind than Sofia. Just like before, he pushed down on a brick, and the wall swung open. Sofia was noticeably hesitant to march down the tunnel, but Nero didn't slow his pace for her.

Now in the hidden chamber proper, Nero tugged the fascinating file on Team Fortune out from under the rack. Finally, he'd have time to examine them more clearly. Knowing that Sofia was probably going to ask to be filled in anyway, Nero decided he'd debrief her on his terms. "This," he started, swinging the manilla folder open. "Is a record on a disbanded Guild team called Team Fortune. And as it were, you may recognize some of these profiles."

As Nero spread all fifteen-or-so profiles, Sofia gasped. "I-Is that Melker? I knew he used to work for the Guild, but-"

This was old news to Nero. What startled him just as much as Sofia was startled, however, was the page just below Melker's. It was a Haxorus. A Haxorus called Dorinel Vanadis. Right next to a Feraligatr named Iris. Even Nero couldn't contain his gasp.

"Wha- Guildmaster Vanadis?!" Sofia yelled. "Melker used to work with the Guildmaster? A-And-" She stumbled over to the page in the upper right corner. Davey Shawcross, a Piplup at the time. "He used to- How?! When?!"

Mai, Melker, and now Iris and Dorinel. Though there wasn't a single goal or ideal that the four of them shared, there was exactly one common link between those four. It was incredibly obscure, but Nero had a long memory.

"Hey, why is this one all blacked out?" Sofia asked, pointing to the blacked-out profile that caught Nero's attention in the first place. "Do Guild records usually have a lot of omissions?"

"Ordinarily, yes," Nero said, grabbing the anonymous Pokémon's profile and lining it up with Melker's. "Though, if these were private records that only Quincy had access to, then it's quite strange for any omissions to be made at all. For a Vice Guildmaster's database to contain any omissions, especially in the quantity on this profile, then it stands to reason that this man's identity, if leaked to the public, could potentially destroy the Guild."

Sofia nodded. "Wow. It's too bad we can't figure out who this guy was."

"Hm." Nero compared the only black box on Melker's page, his surname, to the box over the mystery Pokémon's surname. "Perhaps not," Nero said.

The two boxes were exactly the same length.

"Th-That has to be a coincidence," Sofia stammered.

"Perhaps. But what if it isn't?"

She didn't answer the question, but she didn't have to. The answer was as clear as day. In all likelihood, Melker didn't just happen to be on a team with this man. They were family.