AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you TheRanger101 for the review. There will be more demonstrations of Fiver's powers soon.

Chapter 50: The Boss.

"If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of existence? or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood."

-Arthur Schopenhauer, Studies in Pessimism

-"I don't know, Hazel. This place looks awfully familiar."

Hazel, Bigwig and Meadow had been continuing their search for Blackberry and Primrose. Progress was slower than before, due to the fog. Hazel had spent a while fuming over Campion; while the Efrafan captain had made a mistake, he would be of little help to correct it. The search for Blackberry and Primrose had to go on, even if there were no traces of the two does anywhere. This had a negative impact on Hazel's morale, and the weather certainly wasn't helping either.

-"Maybe, but does it really change anything?" he said. "Maybe they came back here since the last time we searched here."

-"Probably not, Hazel. There is no scent here. But all the same, this looks familiar."

The two rabbits slowly continued their way, until they came across a tall metal structure, and some soft buzzing could be heard.

-"Now THIS looks familiar," Bigwig said.

-"A pylon," Meadow explained. "Humans build them, but they're perfectly safe. Just don't run head first into them."

-"No," Hazel said. "It couldn't be..."

Hazel took several cautious steps forward, and stood up on his hind legs. Close by, he could the dark shape of a hill.

-"No!"

-"What's wrong?" Meadow asked.

-"We're back home. We failed."

-"We didn't find them so far, but that doesn't mean we won't. Maybe they made it home on their own."

-"Unless Primrose is up there, she's dead. This is our last hope. Let's go check."

Hazel and Bigwig made their way to the top of the Down, with Meadow following from a distance. They could see another rabbit sitting at the edge; as they got closer, they recognized him as Fiver.

-"It's nice to see you two again," he said. "How did it go?"

-"Are they here?" Hazel asked.

-"No..."

At that moment, Kehaar crash-landed further away, sending Hannah flying.

-"Ye not gettin any beta at landin, ar ye Kehaa?"

-"Kehaar nut as bad as som udders."

Hazel lowered his head, struggling to hold back his tears.

-"She surely stopped running," he eventually said.

-"Which one?"

-"Both."

-"I'm really sorry, Hazel. What happened?"

-"I don't know. We searched the entire area, but we didn't find anything. Even Kehaar failed, and looking from above, it should have been much easier to find them."

-"So sorry, meester 'azel," the gull said. "But dis stoopid foog...Kehaar see noddings."

-"It's not your fault if there's nothing to see."

-"Since you didn't find their bodies, maybe they're still alive," Fiver said.

-"Impossible, it's been too long."

-"Hazel, this is unlike you," Bigwig said. "Fiver's right, we didn't find any bodies or anything, so maybe they are still alive."

-"Not necessarily," Hazel said. "If they were killed by elil, or drowned in the river, there wouldn't be any bodies left to find."

-"I'm sure you did your best," Fiver said.

-"Well our best clearly wasn't good enough, was it?"

-"Oof! Why ye all give up?" Hannah said.

-"Look Hannah," Bigwig said, "Hazel isn't feeling very well, it's better to let him rest a while."

-"Rabbits! Dey quitters, whole lot of 'em. Come on, Kehaa. We go search vorslefes."

With that, she climbed onto the gull's back and, with his signature cry, he took off on his quest.

Meanwhile, Hazel hopped over to the warren's main entrance; along the way, another rabbit approached him.

-"Hi! Who are you?"

Hazel did not react, and simply entered the warren, ignoring her. Bigwig, however, stopped and stared at her.

-"Who are YOU?"

-"I'm Flyairth. And you?"

-"Who's that?" Bigwig asked, as he turned to Fiver.

-"This is Flyairth. She was one of several rabbits who joined the warren while you and Hazel were gone."

-"Oh...well say hello to the newcomers for me." With that, he too went underground. Flyairth stared at the hole where the two rabbits had vanished, before turning to Fiver.

-"Do you know who they are?" she asked.

-"The first one is Hazel, the Chief Rabbit, and the second one is Bigwig, the captain of owsla."

-"They are the two rabbits in charge of the warren? If you don't mind me saying so, they don't seem to be doing a very good job."

-"They just returned from an exhausting mission and failed to find the rabbits they were looking for."

-"The Chief simply ignored me. All I'm asking for is a short greeting; am I being unreasonable?"

-"He thinks his mate is dead. I'm sure that, if you had lost a loved one, you wouldn't be your normal self either."

Flyairth fell silent. She and Prake had been very close for almost their entire lives. But Prake had been killed a few days before; Fiver's words brought back painful memories.

-"I guess you're right," she said simply, before hopping away to a place where she could have a mental breakdown without anyone else noticing.

Fiver, meanwhile, hopped over to the edge of the Down and stared in the distance. The fog stretched out as far as he could see, and he could barely make out the familiar shape of Nuthanger Farm. There was no way Hazel and Bigwig could have found Blackberry and Primrose in such nasty weather. He had a vague feeling that they were not dead. After all, Hazel had admitted that no bodies were found. He had not had any vision, it was just a feeling like he sometimes had. He would have to talk to his brother once the fog had cleared, making it possible to efficiently search again. His thoughts were interrupted by another rabbit coming out of the fog.

-"Are you Fiver?"

Fiver looked over the rabbit; he was unable to remember meeting her before. The fact that she knew his name slightly worried him.

-"Who are you?"

-"I'm Meadow, I'm the captain of owsla of the hedge maze warren that you visited last Frith's Eve. If the description my Chief gave me is accurate, you would be Fiver."

This reassured Fiver; while he couldn't remember meeting Meadow herself, the warren she lived in was a nice place, and the Chief was a positive rabbit.

-"Yes, I'm Fiver."

-"You're the one who has visions of the future, right?"

-"Yes."

-"As you probably heard, your Chief and owsla captain failed to find the rabbits they were searching for. I have been searching with them, and I think there's still hope."

-"I agree with you, but I'm not sure what that has to do with my visions."

-"I was wondering if you could use your visions to find any clues as to their whereabouts."

-"My visions don't work that way, I'm afraid." Fiver briefly wondered whether Hyzenthlay or Vilthuril might be able to help, but instead he found his mind drifting towards Silverweed. Silverweed was more powerful than he was; he would be the best hope. "I know someone who might be able to help, though. He might not be easy to reach."

-"What do you mean by that?"

-"I need to use my powers to contact him. Could I bring you along for the ride?"

Meadow thought for a few moments. She wasn't sure exactly what Fiver was suggesting, but she remained determined to find the two missing does.

-"Go ahead."

-"Touch my paw, and we'll begin."

Meadow did as Fiver instructed, and Fiver started to search for Silverweed's mind. As he scanned the area, Fiver noticed something unusual: thoughts of revenge and destruction. These thoughts were clearly not coming from Silverweed, but he let himself stray away from his original goal to investigate.

Soon afterwards, he started to recognize a worryingly familiar pattern in the thoughts: revenge, outsiders, Efrafa, wide patrols. He waited a few more moments to make sure, before finally reaching a terrible conclusion: this was General Woundwort.

How could it be? Campion had clearly said that the General was dead; what could have happened? Fiver's mind was filled with questions. Had Campion lied to them? Was he preparing a surprise attack, while the Watershippers thought the war was over? Or had Campion simply made an honest mistake? What was Woundwort doing in Darkhaven anyway? Why had he left Efrafa?

Fiver would have to tell Hazel about this shocking discovery soon. Until then, he left Woundwort alone. He did not have a lot of experience with mind control, and he was afraid of accidentally revealing sensitive information, such as the warren's location.

As he continued probing across Darkhaven, Fiver recognized another familiar mind pattern. Upon closer inspection, he realized that this was Blueberry. Fiver became even more confused: why was Blueberry in the same warren as Woundwort? Could the General have sent him as a spy? That would explain why he had only stayed at the warren very briefly. But if that was the case, why did Woundwort need Silverweed to invade Fiver's mind? It didn't make any sense.

Finally, Fiver came across Silverweed. Fiver easily sneaked up on him and detached his mind; Silverweed, being asleep, had been unable to fight back.

-"One thing you should know, Meadow," Fiver said, "we're in another warren now, and I'm going to bring him to my warren."

-"I'm not sure I fully understand, but I'll probably figure it all out as it happens."