An iron door slammed into a stone wall. The reverberations rang through the air with the force to rupture an eardrum. Chains rattled as the splash of footsteps came past. Gareda eyed the watery ground at her feet and spat at it. It reeked here. Reeked of mother nature trying to reclaim what was hers. No one had bothered to inform her that she was anything but welcome in Agate Township. No one was, all things considered. Not that anyone would want to be here. So Gareda hoped. That’s how she felt. Anywhere except this hole underground that reeked of mushroom pollen and muddy water.

But a job’s a job. Someone has to do it in the end. And the only one the Vined Crown trusted with the job was Gareda. Of all the Pokemon in the world, her. In a way it was flattering. In a way it was insulting. Most of all though, it was regrettable to take on. Gareda shook her head as she paced up the waterlogged hallways.

‘Says a lot that not even the guards come down here, doesn’t it. No one here but me and whoever’s behind these doors . I’ve sunken to a new low, haven’t I? She grimaced; a talon was pressing into her chest. ‘ Stop thinking this to yourself. You’re doing this for them, remember .’

She kept herself steady as she ventured deeper inside. The hallway was narrow. Far too narrow. Evidently, whoever had been put in charge of digging it out hadn’t considered the possibility of a dragon having to use it. Least of all a mountain dragon, like Gareda was. Annoyed as she may be at the cramped conditions, she couldn’t blame the builder. Her kin generally stuck to their mountainous turf, and in a more just world, she’d be there with her kin. She wouldn’t have to be here in the first place, and the only Pokemon this prison needed to store were the local thuggery, who’d fit here like a glove.

Row seven, at the far end of the tunnel. This was the spot; Gareda took the right hand path and walked the short distance to the back of that tunnel as well. There, by a candle stood an iron door, blocked by a group of Pawniard, who were submerged up to their lower rib.. Gareda’s tongue slipped out of her lips for a second; all she could think of was the one time she’d eaten a feral Pawniard. She learned a valuable lesson that day. She hated Pawniard.

“It’s the missus.”

“Missus?”

“Yes, the missus, right there. From the crown.”

“Ah.”

Gareda put her foot down, sending water flying. “Out of the way. I need to speak with the prisoner.”

“A thank you would be nice, missus.” One Pawniard scraped his blade arms over one another. The Garchomp rolled her eyes.

‘For a half metal, he’s sure brave when talking to someone who could split the earth under his feet open. Blegh. Pawniards…’

Keeping her talons on her sensors until the squeaky voices of all the Pawniards had quietened down, Gareda stretched her neck before hanging her cloak up on a small hook by the door. It felt liberating to toss that rag aside. Always got in the way, always made her look ridiculous in her eyes. Too bad there was no ridding herself of the ridiculous pink scarf wrapped around her neck. Of all colours in the world, Pecha had to be pink. She stretched her arms, then bonked on the iron door several times, each blow of her arm sending a hollow echo into the cell beyond. When it was showtime, she put full strength into her arm. The door was blasted open into the cell, sending a wave-like ripple through the ground water.

“Wake up. Now.”

Inside the cell sat a Toxicroak on a raised platform. It was the lone spot in the cell that wasn’t flooded. The air was cold, and damp. Mushrooms had grown at the base of the walls; were it not for the candle outside shining through the bars in the doors, it would’ve been dark as well. Unsurprisingly, the Toxicroak wasn’t in the mood to look his guest in the eye. Any doubts he might have had were confirmed by Gareda’s overwhelming presence. The sound of her footsteps trudging in the water. The scent of her scales. In this corner of the world, they were second to none.

“Why are you here..,” the Toxicroak huffed, puffing up the red sac under his chin as it took on an almost meditative position. He was turned away from the door. Each breath extended the sac under his chin to its fullest extent, and each heavy exhale shrank it down. His claws were tied together by a large chain. Gareda hissed between her teeth, assuming a scowl.

“You know what I am here for. Playing stupid gets you nowhere with me.”

The Toxicroak spat at the wall; the saliva sizzled as it scaled down onto the platform. “As if I would say a word about it to you. You ruined my business. Killed my bros. All you’ve left for me is a sewer.”

“Blame whichever clown runs this circus. If they cared, we wouldn’t be having a flood here,” Gareda growled; a cold pulse up her tail made her bare teeth. ‘Some kingdom this is. Can’t even provide for itself.’

The Toxicroak stretched his neck. “You Vined bastards have been in control for Arceus knows how long. This is the result,” he croaked out.

Gareda stomped her feet. “Answer me. What do you know?”

“You’ve never even told me what I’m supposed to know,” the Toxicroak replied. “I’m just a businessman running my business along with my partners, when a little electric runt and two stupid kids show up to rob me of my wares.”

“You were nothing but a thief. One of many scum infesting the Agate Province.” Gareda stepped out of the water and onto the platform. A fiery tuft shot out of her maw, onto a candle which was haphazardly lodged into the wall. An orange light cast her attention on the streaks of torn scales and dried blood all over the Toxicroak’s back. Her handiwork from yesterday. “Not a damn chance in the Distortion that you haven’t got a clue about what goes on around these parts.”

The prisoner croaked a weak, defiant scoff. “What, you mean the rebel organisations? The ones you and your ilk wiped out?”

Gareda’s face didn’t budge. “So you do know.”

“Hard to forget. Gghhh.” Another spat of saliva sizzled its way down the wall. “I’ve seen the fields myself. After you were done with them. That’ll never leave me, ever…”

The prisoner’s voice was grating on the ears. It was almost a snarl. As if a creature from the darkness was using the Pokemon’s body as a vessel. Gareda found herself assuming a battle stance. Didn’t matter how tight those chains were. Better to be safe than sorry.

“I don’t care about what you saw. Tell me what you did. You’ve got contacts with the insurgents, haven’t you?”

The Toxicroak turned his head over his shoulder. “Hah! You wiped all the insurgents out…hagh!” his gaze fell away as quick as it had turned. Without grace, he coughed and coughed, spatters of poison from the red sac falling over the ground and sticking onto the wall. He winced and fell forward, leaning against the cracked stone floor with both talons, which had awkwardly squirmed around in the chains to manage. It was almost too pathetic to look at. Almost. Gareda’s eyes had been witness to far worse displays of Krookodile tears. Always the ones with the biggest pendants for lawlessness that cried the hardest when the strong arm of the law caught up with them.

“Sure that’s what happened… that’s why the thieves who stole the Azure Flute from the Crest trafficked it through here,” Gareda said, careful to not mention that it was only a single piece. May Arceus have mercy on her soul if she lets that detail slip. “So then, thief. Spit it out. Where are your rebel contacts?”

“I don’t have any damn rebel contacts!” the Toxicroak groaned out. A growl came out of Gareda’s throat. She had no time for games or liars. Like thunder, she raised her foot and kicked the Toxicroak in the back.

“Aaaaaagh!!”

“Stop lying to me, wart neck. You had an Alliance badge in your possession! Your still living partners spilled the beans on that already! Where are your CONTACTS?”

Shivering, the Toxicroak rolled onto his back, croaking in pain from his flaring wounds. Gareda’s kick had hit him square at the crossroads where two cuts from her arms had met a day earlier. The skin was ripped; drips of foul, toxic liquid poured out of the tears.

“You’ve… you’ve killed them all already! I have given up the cause long ago, demon!... Gnghr!”

Gareda tilted her head backwards. ‘ Look who’s talking .’ “So you are part of the cause! How very honest of you, wart neck.”

“I gave it up!! I don’t care what happens to ‘em anymore, they’re fools!” A weak croak came out of the Toxicroak’s throat. He wasn’t holding out for long. Everyone cracks eventually, no matter how hard the shell. Gareda let a growl slip out of her throat, continuing to put cracks in the egg before the truth would finally burst out. It wouldn’t be long anymore, her sensors told her.

“That’s what they all say. They all lie.”

“It’s not a lie, damn you! Listen to- gaacck!”

The prisoner whimpered as he felt the foot of the Garchomp press against his neck. “I’m not an idiot. Unfortunate for you, isn’t it?” she said, cracking a smile from a pulse of the sensory organs on the side of her head, which made her work all the easier. “I know the truth. You left because you felt no hope. You saw the uprising be put down, and bolted before it caught up with you. But you cannot run forever. Deep down, you knew full well that you had to face the music someday. And that day is today.”

She rolled the prisoner onto his side using her foot. The room was aghast by the hyperventilating coming from under Gareda’s feet. The Garchomp stretched her arms, and kept her tail perfectly still as she built up pressure in her right arm. Strength fueled by a primal energy deep inside her; the blood in her right arm sang a tune of joy as the energy coursed through her veins. A deep sense of pride stirred up within her. The kind of self pride only a dragon could hoist. Her talon took on a bright green glow. A smile formed on her mouth.

“Either you’re going to spit it all out right now, or you’ll be spitting it out later. You don’t have a choice here.”

The tip of the scythe pressed against the prisoner’s neck. “P-please, no…” His breathing sped up even further. Eyes wide as a Carnivine’s mouth, breaths like hollow winter winds, skin vibrating under the duress of death. Even thieves did not go this far. Gareda’s scowl loomed overhead, her eyes full of hatred. Hatred ill suited for a mere thief.

“One last time. Spit it out.”

* * *

The hearth crackled. A group of Pawniard were putting kindling inside of it. The same group of Pawniard guarding the cell earlier, by the smell of it. Gareda huffed at them as she emerged from the cell blocks, cloak and all.

“There’s the missus!”

“Yes, I’m done. You can go back now.” Gareda rolled her eyes.

“Missus, what happened to your arm?” One Pawniard pointed the others towards the tip of the scythe on her right arm as she walked past, tail swinging back and forth. She didn’t bother to answer their question, instead preferring to scowl out ahead of her.

“Missus?”

Gareda tilted her head so, that the Pawniard could catch a glimpse of an eye and several teeth. “Get back to your posts, ingrates.”

“Yes, missus!” the Pawniard one and all shouted, forming up a line before running down the stairs into the cell blocks. Gareda’s scowl deepened at the sight of the crackling hearth they had left behind. There might be little kindling around, yet fires were wild. Raging. Uncontrollable. Blink an eye and you’re surrounded. Anyone who has visited the Ruby Province as much as Gareda had would know.

Why she thought of the Ruby Province on the other hand, she didn’t know. Her sensors came up with the idea. In hindsight, that should’ve been the first sign she wasn’t alone here. She had no clue, until a smoky smell streamed into her nostrils. The source was sitting by a low table only a few steps away, smirking.

“Took you long enough.”

“Blegh. I haven’t slept for too long,” Gareda huffed. “Damn inspections take forever.”

Luffy leaned forward over the steel table, her tail playfully flicking up behind. “Why now, are you sure you’re not losing your edge?”

Gareda rolled her eyes. “Calm down, duck face. I still wouldn’t try my luck on me if I were anyone else,” she said, tugging on the pink scarf wrapped around her neck. ‘This thing is bloody hideous.’

“Nice scarf, by the way.”

“This ugly thing?”

“Ugly?” Luffy began drumming her claws onto the sheet of steel. “Not going to lie to you, I think you look cute with it.”

Gareda scoffed her way into a laugh. Part of her felt insulted. As if she was being labelled weak for the whole world to see. The rest of her struggled to comprehend it. Those words. Luffy saying the words with a straight face. Her eyes were drawn to the pink rag and its thin white stripes. The light of the hearth and the flame on Luffy’s tail made the sharp contrast between the scarf and her ink blue scales even more sinful. She looked Luffy in the eye. She couldn’t get a scowl on her face, even when actively trying to form one.

“Pfft! You ought to get better taste.”

“My taste is fine enough,” Luffy replied, much to Gareda’s amusement.

“You say it like you actually believe in it.”

The Magmar shrugged. “Believe it? Well, I certainly do. I can’t help it. And no, I’m not ashamed of it either,” she said with a proud smile. Gareda turned and walked a step away, grinning and stretching.

‘What a joy to be surrounded by idiots. Confident idiots, at that. It’s kind of charming, actually.’

“Oh my, what is that?”

“Hm?” Gareda flicked herself back around with a wild swing of her tail. In the blink of an eye, Luffy’s mood had soured, and not by a scant amount, either. One could practically draw a line between her face and what she’d caught wind of. Gareda hadn’t paid much attention to the striking fin on her right arm herself, despite the toxic fluids slathered onto it.

“What happened to your arm?”

The Garchomp sighed. “This is why I’m wearing this ugly rag around my neck to begin with, Luffy. I’m no stranger to being poisoned. Plenty of experiences from my childhood and later that I’d love to have wiped from my memory.” She paused to smooth the cloak on her back. Anything to distract herself from having to remember the taste of poisoned vomit in her mouth. “When the time came to interrogate the ringleader today, I wasn’t going to take any chances.”

Luffy’s eyes shifted all over the place. Tufts of fire the size of a pinky finger escaped her mouth whenever she exhaled.. “But how did the interrogation get to that point? Did he… did he manage to attack you?”

Gareda kept her mouth shut for a while. Her tongue pressed against her teeth. An old lecture from a relative came rushing back. ‘Don’t accept nonsense, and don’t give nonsense’ was the gist of it. She was about to fly straight into the face of that. In truth, it was better not to be straightforward sometimes. Luffy wasn’t ready to see or hear this side of her just yet. Gareda didn’t like it. Not one bit. But there was no accomplishing the mission without staying in Luffy’s good graces.

“It is as you say. While prying answers out of him, he saw an opening and attacked. Well, he thought he saw an opening. I’m not so easily fooled.” A glob of saliva audibly slid down Gareda’s throat. “Unfortunate, yes, but it is what it is. I’ve already inspected the wound. The prisoner will be fine.”

“Are you sure?” Luffy tapped the tips of her claws against one another.

“Believe me. That group of Pawniard know what they are doing.” ‘ I wish. ’

Luffy hummed a dull note and turned to face away. Her concerns weren’t escaping Gareda’s notice. She didn’t believe in her own story, and some of that had to have shone through. There was no fixing it now, though. In the end, the prisoner had given her what she needed, and that was what counted. Staying in the Vined Crown’s favour wasn’t easy. Keeping a clear conscience all the while? Impossible.

“So… did you get anything out of the interrogation?” Luffy whispered.

Gareda paced up beside the Magmar, patting her on the back of the neck with a talon, much to Luffy’s surprise. “No need to get all concerned. Of course we got what we needed. It’s as I suspected, that entire crew had ties to the Alliance. They’ve severed them now to profit off petty crime, but they existed. Turns out that they had robbed an old contact of theirs.”

Luffy raised her head out of her slouch. “Huh? Really now?” Her tail flickered up and down out of curiosity. “That’s terrible.”

Gareda shrugged. “They’re former Alliance. What do you expect?” she said, while stretching her neck. It felt as if it had been slathered with cobwebs.

“Well, even they should have some sort of moral compass, right?” Luffy said, looking down at her feet. Gareda held none of her optimism. She didn’t share a word of it. Ignorance is bliss in a bleak reality.

“In any case, we have a lead now. Remember that Raichu and those two children he had with him?. Gareda asked. Luffy nodded. “That’s the old contact. He was there to take his badge back.”

“Wait, Vli said the same thing, right? After he followed them for a while.”

“Indeed. We’ve got our lead alright. That Raichu.” Gareda sneered off into the hearth crackling away in the corner.

“Nice!” Luffy exclaimed, clasping her hands together. “So, are you planning on arresting that Pokemon? And what about the kids?”

“That’s what I was about to get to. We need to know more about what goes on in that little town of theirs. Greenfield. You remember it, don’t you?”

Luffy nodded. “That hostile town, you mean.”

“Exactly,” Gareda grunted. “They’re from there. It wouldn’t surprise me if there’s more Alliance activity in that town. Explains a lot. But we can’t go in there and take prisoners. We’ve got enough to arrest the Raichu. Whether he knows about the flute, though… I want to know more. A lot more.” The Garchomp shut her eyes. She pictured a dream world in which a freckled otter and a jumpy lizard were standing side by side, facing her much like an enemy would. “Especially about those kids.”

“What about them?” Luffy asked. “They’re just kids. Brave kids, though, they’ve got the courage of Ruby folks, haha!”

Gareda growled a huff. “I don’t think they’re just kids, Luffy. Something about them doesn’t seem right to me. That little otter boy in particular. He has a very peculiar aura hanging around him. I can’t let it slide.“

“Aura? What?” Luffy asked, much to Gareda’s chagrin. ‘ She always has another stupid question to ask whenever I say something. Ugh. Duck faced, sometimes duck brained.’

“We all have an aura about us. You might not realize it, but you have one as well. Think of it as a thumbprint of your soul… a soulprint, so to speak,” Gareda explained. “If you were to gleam into mine, you’d be able to determine that I’m a dragon, and an earthling. But that’s just the surface level. And it doesn’t matter. That boy, however…”

“He doesn’t seem any different to me.”

“Trust me, he is. There’s something profoundly… Unpokemonlike about him.” Gareda stared into the hearth. A ghastly pop cracked inside. “Not just in the aura, in his mannerisms too. The way he walks. He’s not as bouncy as an should be Oshawott. Too reserved. Too collected and thinking. But that’s besides the point. I want a set of eyes on him. Multiple, actually. Do you think you and Vli could handle that?”

Luffy got off her rocky seat. “Without a doubt! I’ve gotten plenty of dirty looks in my life. Livin’ in the Ruby Hills strengthens you against it. I can handle some more from village grassies, no problem.”

Gareda cracked a light smirk. “Good. I want you and him to go there tomorrow. I’ll see you out then. Until then, you get to enjoy Agate Township.” ‘As if there’s anything enjoyable here. ’

Luffy saluted with a beaming smile. “Will do!” she said. Gareda nodded in approval. She felt a little happier now.