The Queen’s orders were clear. Back to work it was. Weary from a day’s downpour, Gareda pressed on, scowling all the while from the itching on the back of her head. The bandage might be gone, but its mark was anything but.

Her bodyguards were with her, tepid in their steps as they followed her to the outskirts of Mountainshade.

“Lord Gareda! You seem more energetic than usual.”

“Hmpf. Consider it the new normal. There’s no excuse for underestimating the enemy,” Gareda grumbled to the Toucannon. “I- no, we will not falter.” ‘Because faltering is not an option.’

“Err, are you sure this is the right course of action?” Vli asked, flapping his wings uncomfortably close to Gareda’s face. Annoyed, she revealed her teeth. Vli backed off in an eye blink.

“This is the right course of action, and then some! The Crest has approached the Alliance problem with kid gloves for too long, and look for yourselves what is happening. Towns all across Eravate are infested with these fools, to the extent that they’re comfortable showing their allegiance in public! Time to restore order.”

“B-but, if we’re trying to restore order, then why are we taking care of this problem in the middle of the woods? Why not in-”

“Out of sight, out of mind,” Gareda retorted. ”I do not want anyone getting the wrong ideas. We’ll have to step our efforts up a notch if we’re going to prevent any sort of takeover.” ‘And if we’re going to keep our heads attached to our necks.’

“Uh, Gareda?”

Luffy gently grabbed the Garchomp’s left arm. Gareda’s gaze grew nervous, her strides softer and less confident.

“What is it?”

“I’m worried. I don’t know what the reaction to any of this is going to be. What if it backfires? Everyone would hate us for what we’ve done.”

Gareda took a deep breath, calming herself by focusing her sensors at some nearby Paras. “I know. But we don’t have a choice, unless letting these people take over sounds like fun to you,” she said, grimacing. ‘And having to face her wrath. She has to know herself this won’t be effective. She has to… that damned ego of hers!’

“If you say so… I really don’t want any of us getting harmed. Not you, not Vli, not any of our families… not-”

The Garchomp shook her head. “We can fend for ourselves. We’ve done it before… we’ll do it again. They’d have to smash my head in with a glacier if they want to win.”

With all the enthusiasm of a street sweeper, they and the Soldiers travelling with them reached a clearing close to Mountainshade Village. Gareda steeled her gaze walking in. She’d taken risks before. She’s been unrelenting in her actions more often than not. Yet the pressure Queen Patrina had put them under was reaching a boiling point. She demanded results over dinner. Bloody ones. Gareda had kept her predatorial eyes on her assigned territory for years, nipping trouble in the bud before it could bloom. Yet, what ended up satisfying the Queen? Putting down the brutal assault by the Alliance near Agate, little more.

A scowl rested on her face as she and her entourage entered the clearing. There were numerous Soldiers here, most of them of water and grass. A Politoed was directing the Soldiers into position. They turned on their toes, then bowed at Gareda before skirting off to the treeline. An imaginary passing of the baton, as it will. Gareda sighed.

“What do we have here?”

Ten Pokemon rested on their knees or on their bellies in the centre of the clearing, their front limbs tied and their mouths gagged. The Politoed informed they were all locals - the ones too stubborn to drop their banner, as was evident by the black rags wrapped around their necks, backs, or wherever else they preferred. Gareda looked them over. They looked so pathetic with their sunken eyes, foamy mouths, bloodied fur. Worst of all was the Graveller with its broken skin. So battered was he, one extra crack would’ve exposed internal organs.

Gareda spat at her feet. Luffy joined her in doing the same, while Vli pecked at the Graveller. Both had it out for the rocklings in particular, stopping only when a growl came from the Midnight Lycanroc at the front of the pack.

“Grr… enjoy it while it lasts, cowards! You have any idea, how many of you I ripped to pieces?! Look around you, this place is a-“

The Lyranroc suddenly howled as the claws on Gareda’s feet dug into his fur, piercing his skin like it was mere paper. The other prisoners shivered as his cry reached their ears, some even whimpered. The sight, the sound, all to one of their own… or someone they held a great deal of respect for. Gareda didn’t know. Neither did she care. Neither did any of the other Soldiers care for the feelings of a murderer.

“Let’s cut to the chase, shall we?” Gareda raised her foot. A snap echoed all around as she stomped right on his shoulder. “Where is he?”

“Grr.. grrr…!” Lycanroc panted. “He? I don’t know who you’re talking abou-”

Another yowl, as Gareda’s toe claws dug in deep.

“Don’t play these idiotic games with me, mutt. If you value your family or your own worthless life, you will spit out answers to every last one of my questions. You will not play dumb. And you will not badger me. Is that clear?”

“Grr-grr! GRR!”

Suddenly the Lycanroc burst out of his restraints, fangs bared as he leapt for Gareda’s throat. Gareda jumped aside, then smacked the Lycanroc on the side of the head with a fin, her eyes narrow and sharp as the Lycanroc yowled back upon the ground.

Commotion spread across the clearing. Two other prisoners had broken loose as well, one a Cranidos and the other a Gliscor. Three Soldiers had jumped in to restrain the former, and Vli and Luffy had gone for the latter. All other Soldiers were now on high alert; no other prisoner dared to pull anything funny now.

With a snarl, Gareda turned her attention back to the Lycanroc at her feet.

“You can’t… do this…”

“Oh, but I can,” Gareda growled back, encouraged by the fear rising within the prisoners. “I can think of a million different ways to decorate that town over there with your head. I wouldn’t risk it if I were you.”

The Lycanroc didn’t reply. Gareda spat at the ground right in front of him. ‘He’s not even worth the spit.’ “You know who I’m referring to. The Oshawott. He was in town.”

“Nothing special about some Oshawott… what in the Distortion does it matter, huh?”

Fast as a shark, Gareda pressed her talon against Lycanroc’s neck. One of the other prisoners screamed; they received a kick to the head courtesy of a Hitmonlee.

“Nothing special? Nothing special? An entire training course built into your town filled to the brim with traitors, specifically built and cordoned off for special use? Don’t take me for a fool, mutt. I haven’t even begun playing with you yet.”

“L-Look!! I don’t know, okay?!” Lycanroc shouted in desperation. “All I did was run things, they didn’t even tell me they’d bring him here! They were trying to keep me from getting caught in this crap!”

Gareda sneered at her prey. “Your friends should’ve tried harder.”

Sometime later, the forests would be aghast with agonised howling, which could be heard for miles around…

* * *

That evening, at a Crest encampment some distance away from Mountainshade, the Soldiers were resting. A few patrols were out, but no reports of anything suspicious had come thus far.

“Errm… Lord Gareda. Could I speak with you for a moment?”

After a long period of silent pondering, Vli approached Gareda and Luffy in their tent. At least, he spoke up for the first time since they’d left the clearing with the prisoners in tow. The Garchomp raised her head, pensively eyeing the Toucannon perched on the table.

“What is it?”

Vli patted his chest down with a wing. “Well, my lord, I know you’ve said what you’ve said about this… new approach we’ve been taking to intelligence gathering and… counter insurgency operations, but.” he paused and ruffled his feathers. “Don’t you think that was going too far?”

A soft growl came out of Gareda’s throat, and not out of her own volition. ‘Here we go again.’ “It is what it is. I won’t lie to you. Between the three of us, this wasn’t my preference, either. But we’re in a difficult situation, and we need results. Urgently. She is not going to accept failure from us forever.”

She tapped her head with a talon as she spoke, seemingly in rhythm to the rain ticking against the tent. Luffy blew hot air from her mouth all the while.

“Gareda, I- I don’t know about this either. That wasn’t right what we did, and we all know it. I can feel it. I-I don’t know about you, but…”

With another grumble, Gareda’s head sank. Luffy took it as her cue to stop talking.

‘You do.’ “There’s no denying we may have crossed a line or two. But there’s no denying the success, either. You heard him spit it out yourself, he called the shots around these parts. Given how many of the scum are around here, we’ve done everyone a favour by disposing of him. Second, everyone else is… far more cooperative now. They’ll think twice about stepping out of line. For now.”

“But was it worth it?” Luffy asked, her voice soft. “We can’t come back from this. We can’t turn back time. Unless we ever met Celebi and-”

Gareda raised her other arm. “Calm down.”

Luffy shivered, and the flame on her tail shivered with her. “O-Okay.”

The rain outside intensified. Gareda stood up and paced around the tent, her tail swaying nervously with every step. Luffy and Vli kept their eyes trained on her, but said nothing. Gareda wanted to growl out a sigh, but held off.

“Listen. This is a rough line of work. You were told of that when you signed up for this in the first place. But mark my words. Nothing we have done, or will ever do, compares to anything they’re planning. We’re only doing what’s necessary to keep society running. That’s why Eravate united to begin with, isn’t it? After Yveltal’s death cult ran wild over half the damn continent, something had to be done to keep order.“ She folded her arms. “So don’t be convinced we’re sinning without reason. Got to cut the rotten trees if the orchard is to survive.”

“But, my Lord,” Vli said as Gareda sat back down. “Won’t this make the situation worse? It’s like we’ve cracked a coconut with a saw!”

Gareda shook her head. “If we let it, sure. But we won’t. And no one will be allowed to.”

“But the peoples of this region will certainly find out, wouldn’t they?” Vli asked. “Back on the Azzurro Islands, everyone from grandmothers to little children would help search for someone missing! At least, we on Windswept Island would have. The other islands would do the same though, I’m sure of it.”

“That’s everywhere!” Luffy said, stroking her upper arms. “Pokemon care for each other! We, we can’t keep this under wraps forever-”

“HEY!”

Gareda slammed a dent into the table. Vli and Luffy were both stunned into silence.

“Stop panicking already! We’ll keep this under control. For Arceus’ sake, we haven’t even gotten to the most important things divulged! We know the Othersider was there. We know how he arrived. They have a teleporter system set up, and we’ll turn that entire village upside down to find it!”

“B-but teleporter systems aren’t even possible,” Luffy whimpered. Gareda leaned over the table towards her.

“And? That doesn’t change the facts. That Oshawott was here. We will find out how.“

“B-but how…”

Luffy’s cluelessness and shaky body language wasn’t lost on Gareda. She pulled herself to the table, walked over to the shivery Magmar, then went onto one of her knees, trying her best to comfort Luffy with a few gentle strokes of her talon.

“Don’t worry. We’ve weathered worse storms, haven’t we,” the Garchomp retorted in a sweet tone, one which strained her vocal chords.

“Y-yes…” Luffy sniffed. “Yes we have.”

“Correct. And we’ll get through this too. It won’t be easy, but we’ll manage.” ‘That’s a bold claim, isn’t it, Gareda.’

“Well… what do we do now?”

“Search the village. We’ll find out about this teleporter. Find out how it works, even use the technology for ourselves if we can find that out. Whatever we discover, it will have been worth it. Stay with it… honey.”

She had to force the last word out of her mouth. Nevertheless, Luffy blushed the second she heard it.

“I-I… thanks. Thank you.”

“It’s no big deal. These things happen.”

All of a sudden, Luffy leaned her head against Gareda’s neck. The Garchomp relaxed a little. The heat of Luffy’s head took a while to get used to, but she managed. Luffy had a good amount of control over her heat, and toned it down to something akin to cuddling up by a cozy hearth. That was the dream, wasn’t it? No more war, no more struggle, just enjoying the warmth of life for what it was. There may be no hearth or campfire nearby thanks to the rain, but Gareda was content to make due with what was on hand.

Luffy was such a great friend. Scaredy and nervous as she might be, she had her back. And that’s what was important.

“Ahem.”

Like a whirlwind, Vli’s voice took away the warmth. Or the source, at the very least. Gareda grumpily turned her eyes towards him as she let go of Luffy, then her eyes widened.

‘Wait… did Luffy just lean her head against me?’

“May I ask what you are doing?”

“I was just trying to cheer her up!” Gareda said. Though Vli had made his mind up already. Just the way he slouched his wings said enough.

“Could’ve fooled me.”

Gareda groaned, knocking her talon on the table. Anything little to try and seem intimidating. A toddler throwing a tantrum would’ve probably done a better job.

“Look, we’re not-” another groan cut her off. ‘Ugh! To the trash with this crap!’ “Just, let’s get to planning the search of the village already, shall we? The sooner we get that organised, the better!”

“As you wish,” Vli said with a smirk. “I’ve got some target practice to get to. Wouldn’t want to keep that waiting, would I?”

Her sensors irritating her with the smugness coming off Vli, Gareda gave him little more than a slow nod, unwilling to look at anything except the patterns in the wooden table. All the while, Luffy was left to herself, looking very saddened.

“Let’s get this over with…”