Ch 34 – Heartbreaker

Blizz slowly wandered back to the camp with Absol’s words fresh on his mind. What did he want to do here?

Obviously, he wanted to help. Sure, legendary Pokémon saw him as completely disposable, and so much of this was bullshit, but that didn’t mean he wanted everyone to suffer.

It was the other fact that stuck with him more. If they succeeded and somehow managed to reverse everything, that just meant there was gonna be another crisis that someone else would have to deal with in ten years.

Why the hell was Varin at risk of a complete collapse every decade?

Under this light, a part of him struggled to understand the suffering around him. All the Pokémon in the encampment… There was no crying or wailing. It was just a melancholy acceptance that this is what their life will be like for the foreseeable future.

A small part of Blizz was disgusted. Sure, there wasn’t much they could do, but this was their home. Why weren’t they trying to do anything?

“Blizz, are you alright?”

The Treecko was pulled from his thoughts by Rune, who stood behind him with a concerned expression.

He quickly turned around, clearing out the thoughts he had just a moment ago to put on a relaxed grin. “Yeah, fine now. Headache is gone, not really sure what that was about.”

“That’s not… Nevermind.” Rune shook her head. “The Prince and Kibo are setting up a tent, could you help out? Since… you know…” She made a vague gesture to Blizz’s hands.

“Oh yeah, for sure.” Following behind Rune, the two approached Apex’s corner of the encampment. Blizz quickly jumped in to help, burying his thoughts with busywork.

---

The first night after the apocalypse did nothing to change how surreal this experience felt. By morning, the noises and occasional flashes of light from Nova Town had completely died off. Everyone left in the city had to have become a husk by this point.

The only silver lining was that Lucario, Chimchar, and Shinx had recovered; the former being much more noticeable.

“Alright fuckers, get over here!”

With Lucario’s shout, the remnants of the guild lined up in front of him, and the attendance was just as pathetic as they all expected: Blizz, the Prince, Rune, Kibo, Chimchar, Shinx, Tyrogue, and Scizor. The other half of the guild was either a husk now or missing in action.

Absol stood by Scizor as well. So while not technically a guild member, it looked like he was willing to help.

Blizz wondered how that factored into their conversation from yesterday.

“Fuck this is bad… Tyrogue, is the rest of Team Blitz still in town?”

Tyrogue gave a solemn nod, punching her fists together.

Lucario stomped a foot on the ground. “Damnit… Apex, any word from Mew or the other humans?”

Team Apex stood in shock for a moment as Lucario casually revealed all of their secrets to anyone who cared enough to listen in.

Lucario just rolled his eyes. “Oh don’t give me that shit, half the guild had you figured out, especially once the husk crap picked up. Now what’s the deal?”

Tyrogue, Chimchar, and Shinx all nodded in confirmation.

“Well, I didn’t know the other Treecko was Mew,” Chimchar whispered.

Blizz tried to not let the reveal bother him too much. “No clue. Haven’t seen any of them since everything happened.”

“Zar was not with us when we woke up yesterday morning,” the Prince explained, saving Blizz. “We did not see Terrae or Vindicate exit. Given that we have a room that overlooks the canyon, we were given an easier escape option. It’s possible they were not able to make it out of the guild.”

“Fucking hell, I knew I should’ve put more emergency exits in there…” Lucario brought a paw to his face, before turning back to his apprentices. “Well, this is what we got to work with. Scizor, what do we have to do?”

Scizor stepped forward, positioning himself next to Lucario. “Our best option is to have the humans locate and deactivate the conduits. Once that is done, we can provide aid and keep the husks alive while we enlist psychic types to help restore the town’s citizens.”

“What about finding the others?” Blizz asked, cutting in on Scizor’s explanation. “Having 11 of us to look will go a lot faster than just 4.”

Scizor let out a sigh as his gaze shifted downwards. “We are operating under a time limit. There are three days before husk Pokémon begin dying of dehydration. Shutting down the conduits is the most pressing concern— locating the other humans is secondary to this.”

Blizz blinked a few times. “…Are you saying we need to ignore them?”

“If you manage to find them then that is fortunate, but saving an entire city of Pokémon takes precedence. In addition, you also need to identify and stop the true culprit before they can be allowed to repeat their actions. This leaves little time for a search and rescue-”

Blizz clenched his fist shut, feelings of irritation quickly arising. “How the fuck are we supposed to find a radio antennae in four cities, plus whoever organized all of this, in three days, with just four of us?”

“You will have to prioritize,” Scizor explained. “Given that Cascia is primarily water types-”

“How does this take less time than just going to find the others first?” Blizz asked.

The question caused Scizor to take a nervous glance back to Lucario and Absol, before turning back to Apex.

“…Spending precious time to find individuals who are likely dead-”

That statement alone got a reaction out of everyone on Apex, though Kibo’s shout was the loudest.

“HEY! There’s no way they’re dead! Do you even know Fanita?”

“To suggest such a thing is absurd,” the Prince commented the moment Kibo’s protest was done. “Their median intelligence is far greater than our own, and they possess the same resistance to the Resonance that we do.”

“Are you certain of that?” Scizor centered his gaze on Blizz. “Is it a coincidence Treecko experienced a debilitating headache the night that the Resonance began, and it went away once you left the city?”

All of his teammates began shifting their gaze to Blizz, who didn’t know how to react.

“…Did you remember something else?” Rune asked.

Blizz gave a slow nod, recalling his most recent flashback. “…In Cascia. I was in a ski resort town, and complaining about tourists. But that memory was from me, the one at Breach Mountain looked like it was from someone else watching me.”

Scizor raised an eyebrow, but quickly shook his head. “If there is the possibility of you being affected by the Resonance, then I cannot send you back into Nova Town.”

“But I didn’t come close to turning into a husk!” Blizz protested. “It was just a stupid headache.”

“And how do we know it will not get worse?” Scizor asked. “We cannot risk the lives of any more Pokémon.”

“So now you’re asking three humans to solve the entire fucking continent’s problems?”

“I am working with what I have,” Scizor shot back, glaring at Blizz. The other guild members instinctively backed off, sensing the tension between the two.

“That’s bullshit,” Blizz said, after seconds of an intense stare down. “Terrae and Vindicate are still alive, and Zar’s one of the most powerful psychic types in the world. If we find them we can actually do everything else.”

The mention of Zar caused Scizor’s expression to darken even more. “Treecko, Mew is the one behind this.”

Blizz wasted no time in blasting Scizor over the head with an Energy Ball. Scizor didn’t flinch, expecting this kind of reaction. “Take that fucking back.”

The assistant guildmaster rubbed out the few marks the attack left. “As a legendary Pokémon, she has access to the domains of Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit. She can travel anywhere in the continent quickly, which would have been necessary to set up and activate all four conduits in crowded cities without being noticed. And she evacuated Nova Town without informing or even so much as waking the four of you up.”

“And what the fuck did you do?” Blizz shot back. “Why weren’t you in the guild this morning either?”

“I was conferring with Guildmaster Lycanroc midway between here and Tenea City to discuss the news you shared with me the previous evening. Both Lucario and Lycanroc can attest to this.”

Lucario gave a slow nod of confirmation, causing Blizz to shrink back into himself.

“Of course, if you have any alternative theories, please feel free to state them.”

Blizz looked up at Scizor, trying to think of anything he could say. Zar mentioned that she was still keeping a secret, but she said it was to help them. And despite everything, Blizz trusted that.

“I don’t know, maybe literally anyone fucking else who hasn’t lived with us for the last 3 months?”

“There are no other Pokémon that meet that criteria,” Scizor stated calmly, before pausing. “…I apologize, I should have been more sensitive in broaching this topic.”

“There’s no way Zar did all of this,” Blizz pleaded. “You’ve talked to her, you know what she’s like!”

“She is a centuries old legendary Pokémon who has the demeanor of a five year old child. I should not need to explain why this is concerning.”

Blizz opened his mouth to keep protesting, but was stopped by the feeling of a paw on his shoulder. He turned back to see the Prince giving him a calm look.

“Please consider his words.”

Blizz looked to the rest of his team, searching for any support he could find. Instead, they all gave slow nods of agreement.

Even Absol lowered his head. “…I see no other possibilities.”

No one believed him or Zar. Blizz took a moment, surveying everyone trying to convince him to let go and accept it. He stood completely alone here.

“…No.”

Blizz smacked the Prince’s paw off his shoulder and immediately took off, sprinting out of the encampment with a Quick Attack.

If no one was going to back up Zar with him, then he’d find her himself.

Scizor and the Prince were too stunned by the sudden charge to do anything to stop him. Lucario crouched down, getting ready to use Extreme Speed to catch up with Blizz, but Absol stepped in front of him.

“If you follow him too far, you will get afflicted by the Resonance. Again.”

Lucario considered Absol’s words, then sat back down with a grumble.

Meanwhile, Team Apex looked between each other, not wasting any time to decide what to do. Unlike Lucario, they could very easily follow Blizz. But before the Prince could fire up a Quick Attack to chase after, he felt a piece of cold metal fly into his side.

“If you fuckers are heading back into the city, use that,” Lucario explained, gesturing to the key now lying on the ground. “Shove my desk out of the way, there’s a safe underneath. If you do find the fucker behind this, you’ll need all the shit hidden away in there.”

The Prince nodded, attaching the key to his necklace. By this point, Blizz was too far away to chase, so they settled on walking down the road back to Nova Town.

---

Blizz had done this route several times before. Coming into Nova Town from the east— it’s the path anyone would have to take when coming in from Tenea City, and was also the road he walked when he first woke up as a Pokémon and had Chimchar and Shinx lead him to town. Even now, the sun was just as bright as that first day he became a Treecko.

In the current moment, it was all a blur as he rushed down the road. He needed to find Zar and everyone else. Scizor had to be completely wrong about everything. He didn’t know Zar like Blizz did.

As he started running past tents and buildings, his headache began to return. Still, it wasn’t as bad as the other morning, so he pressed onward.

It didn’t take him long to reach the town center. Pokémon were thrown around, not capable of doing much else but breathe. What made the experience that much more surreal were the craters and raging fires that surrounded them. There was obviously a battle here, and now the only sound was the occasional crackling of flames.

Blizz didn’t particularly care for that though. He had only one thing on his mind.

“Zar! Where are you?!”

Despite the seeming impossibility of finding Zar among the wreckage of Nova Town of all places, he had no idea where else to start.

So he desperately walked up and down the streets, calling out his teammate’s name.

“Where the fuck are you?! Zar!”

Something about this was familiar yet again. Calling the name of someone he’s lost, the absolute hellscape around him, the snow falling way too heavily-

—

“SIERRA! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!”

Cold snow whizzed by his face, in what was almost certainly the worst blizzard he’s ever seen up here., but However, the near-zero visibility did nothing to stop him from strapping his board on and taking off down the mountain. The moment he heard Sierra was missing, he was out the door and went up the slopes.

Blizz had earned his nickname by braving through the worst snow storms this mountain had to offer. Sierra, on the other hand, did not. And while he had no idea why she felt the need to go out right now, it fell onto him to find her and bring her back.

“Come on! Yell if you can hear me!”

But the only thing that returned his call was the sound of howling wind. The howling was so intense, in fact, that it concealed the noise of rumbling coming from further up the slope.

And it wasn’t until the surge of white had reached Blizz did he finally realize what was going on.

The avalanche tumbled him around, completely disorienting the human as snow found its way through his jackets. He couldn’t see anything, he had no idea which way was up or down, he was freezing cold, and hundreds of pounds of snow pressed down onto him.

He desperately tried to claw in the direction that he thought was up, but all it did was cover him in more snow. And it didn’t take long for this clawing to slow down, the small amount of air surrounding him being rapidly running ouy.

“Sierra…”

It wasn’t quite clear whether Blizz’s final word was a plea for help or a last ditch effort at finding her.

—

The flashback caused Blizz to fall over. The cold ice and snow tumbling over him was way too real…

He had all of five seconds to ponder the effect of the flashback before his headache suddenly spiked, now just as severe as yesterday morning. He pressed a hand against his forehead, trying to do anything he could to alleviate the now-crippling migraine.

He laid there for a few minutes, before a sweet liquid was poured into his mouth. He coughed for a moment, not expecting the drink. But he quickly realized that it tasted like Persim juice, and forced himself to swallow.

Immediately the headache subsided, allowing him to make out his surroundings once again. Standing over him was the Prince, Rune, and Kibo, with varying levels of concern on their faces.

Seeing the Treecko remove his hand from his forehead, Kibo suddenly looked very relieved. “Blizz, can you hear us now?”

“Ugh… yeah.” He sat himself up, prompting his teammates to back off. “…Had another flashback.”

The Prince let out a deep sigh. “Of course you did. What did you recall?”

“I was snowboarding down a mountain in the middle of a deep blizzard. I was trying to find someone.”

“Do you know who?” Rune asked, leaning in.

“…Sierra.”

“Do you know where it came from then?” Kibo asked.

“No, just… ugh, it’s like the goggles. I’ve heard it before, but have no idea where.”

The Prince looked at Blizz, before shaking his head. “Was there anything else?”

“I…” A part of Blizz could still feel the weight of the snow pressing into him. “I was caught in an avalanche. The memory ended when I was buried.”

The Prince looked at his teammate with a serious expression. “…Blizz, I believe you may have recalled the moment of your death.”

“You think?” Kibo asked.

“It seems the most likely,” the Prince explained. “You would have been completely isolated in the center of a blizzard, then enveloped by an avalanche. Do you believe it would be possible for a human to survive such an event?”

Kibo looked to the ground, slowly shaking his head.

“Needless to say though, this is a point of concern.” The Prince shifted his gaze back to Blizz. “If you can recall such a crucial moment of your human life, then we can no longer take your resistance to the Resonance for granted.”

“But I’m fine-”

“We found you rolling around on the ground,” Rune interrupted. “You are definitely not fine.”

Blizz was forced to agree with them there. “Okay, maybe I’m not. But we can’t leave yet.”

As his senses returned to him, Blizz began to remember the reason he ran off on his own in the first place.

“Unless you think Team Terrae is behind all this too, and that Fanita personally-”

“I find it difficult to believe Scizor’s accusation,” the Prince interrupted. “However, as it stands, we know of no one aside from Zar who could do such a thing.”

“But that’s bullshi-”

The Prince held up a paw. “Hence, I have decided to search for more information. I have made incorrect assumptions about Zar before, and I learn from mistakes.”

Blizz looked at the Prince, wrapping his head around the Umbreon’s words. Rune and Kibo were equally surprised by this declaration, not having been warned he would say this.

“…So what are you saying?” Blizz asked.

“We do not have any reason to suspect it could be anyone aside from Zar. Information is scarce, and all signs point to her. However, your word should not be discounted, and if you believe there is a possibility she is not, we should entertain that thought.”

Kibo nodded vigorously. “That’s exactly what I was thinking! Well, not that fancy, but it can’t be Zar. There has to be another explanation.”

“But how do we figure anything else out?” Rune asked. “We only have three days before Pokémon start dying.”

“To begin, we should reconvene with Teams Terrae and Vindicate,” the Prince explained. He stood up, and began walking towards the guild. “I am certain that Scizor was incorrect in his judgment there.”

The rest of Apex followed behind, not completely certain as to what the Prince was planning.

When they reached the entrance, they could see the battle scars of the previous day. The tent in the shape of Lucario’s head was completely burned down, with only metal poles remaining. The hatch and ladder were still there though, allowing the four to climb into the main hall.

Just like in Nova Town proper, quite a few husks were lying around. Unlike Nova Town, these were all Pokémon they’ve spent the vast majority of the last few months living with. Seeing them collapsed and almost dead was much more jarring than they would’ve liked to admit.

They seemed to be all organized on one side of the guild though, lining the eastern wing. It was too orderly to have just fallen over mid-battle like that.

The sound of footsteps walking towards the main hall confirmed the Prince’s suspicions.

Angel wandered in, looking over Team Apex. She stood there for a moment, making sure her eyes were functional and she was really seeing this, before proceeding to scream and run towards Kibo.

“DRAGON DUDE! YOU’RE ALIVE!”

“Angel!”

The two dragon types tried to hug each other, but given the awkwardness of having one quadruped and one biped, it was more of Angel wrapping her arms around Kibo’s head and the Jangmo-o wrapping his tail around her. Close enough at least.

Angel’s shout alerted the remainder of Team Terrae, as they all made their way into the main hall. Mira’s eyes widened, the Duke had a smug grin, and Ride’s beak hung open.

“What’s up guys,” Blizz greeted. “…You uh, know where Fanita and Leaf are?”

“…We thought Lucario got to you guys,” Mira whispered, completely ignoring Blizz’s question.

“Nope! We managed to hold on long enough for Scizor to come and help us out,” Kibo explained. “Then we made it to the campsite where all the survivors went.”

“…There was a campsite?” The Duke asked, hints of irritation in his voice.

Rune looked at the other team, moderately concerned. “Did you guys not get the alert on your badges?”

“…We did, but we thought no one else actually made it out,” Ride explained.

“Well uh, about 50 did,” Blizz responded. “Including Lucario and Scizor.”

“Then perhaps the present circumstances are not as dire as they initially appeared,” the Duke said to himself.

“…Where did Zar go?” Mira asked, noticing that Apex was down a member.

“We don’t know,” Blizz said quickly, before someone else could give a more incriminating answer. “Scizor thinks she caused everything, but we know that’s bullshit. We’re just trying to figure out how we can prove it.”

Mira noticed Blizz’s defensiveness, and softened her voice. “…Do you think there’s anyone else it could be?”

“We do not know, hence our return to the city,” the Prince answered. “But before we delve deeper into this line of thought, it would be preferable to have all of us assembled. Do you know what happened to Fanita and Leaf?”

Mira shook her head. “By the time we removed the barricade from our room’s entrance, they were completely gone. We looked around earlier this morning, but couldn’t find them.”

Blizz looked down the hallway, where Team Vindicate’s room was. He knew Fanita was very skilled at not being noticed when she didn’t want to be. Leaf, slightly less so, but he doubted Fanita would let the Piplup do anything to reveal wherever they were hiding out. Even if they were still in Nova Town, the odds they could find the team just by looking were pretty low.

But that wasn’t their only option. Blizz took out his explorer badge, navigating through the menus. It was entirely possible Fanita got rid of the old badge he gave her all those months ago. It was what allowed Zar to track them down, and was probably a nuisance to keep around. But if she did hold onto it after all, then it could help them figure out where she was hiding.

He stopped on the dungeon map, noticing what the badge was displaying. It was a complete dungeon mapping, showing the layout of Lucario’s guild, in addition to one cyan and four yellow dots. At the top was the label, where the name and floor of the mystery dungeon would usually be.

Nova Town – BF1

“…Why the fuck does the badge think we’re in a mystery dungeon?” Blizz asked, staring straight at the holographic display.

“It’s been like that since yesterday,” Mira explained. “Our guess is that since we’ve only ever seen the Resonance happen in mystery dungeons, whoever’s behind everything made the city into a really basic dungeon. But obviously we have no idea how that could be done…”

Blizz refocused on the collection of dots. Obviously, the cyan one was himself, and the three yellow ones nearby were the Prince, Rune, and Kibo. More interesting was the other yellow dot, showing a location north of the group and much further down.

Without explaining anything, Blizz walked into Apex’s room, and looked through the massive hole Lucario blew in it yesterday. He wanted to jump down right now, but just as important was getting his bag back, which he left in the guild after the scramble yesterday.

Once it was back in its spot wrapped around his shoulder, he jumped out the hole and into the canyon.

Unlike yesterday, he was fully conscious, and was able to stick the landing onto the canyon floor. He gave a wave to his teammates, who crowded around the hole wondering what the hell was going on in Blizz’s brain.

He then checked his badge once again, and found he was around the same height as the stray yellow dot. However, it also showed that there was a thick wall of stone between himself and the room that dot was in.

He considered what he should do here, before taking the direct approach. He knocked on the canyon wall with his fist.

“Hey Fanita! Are you in there?”

He waited for a moment to see if his words made it through to anyone. His guess proved to be correct, as the front half of a Misdreavus phased through the stone.

“That would depend on who’s asking,” Fanita said, grinning.

“Is Leaf in there with you?” Blizz asked, not as inclined to humor Fanita as normal. “Things are like, really bad right now, could use the help.”

“Has the fighting stopped?”

“Yeah, everyone up there’s a husk now. Aside from us.”

“…Fine.” Fanita melted back into the canyon wall. A few minutes later, a chunk of stone in the canyon wall moved inwards with a light blue glow, revealing a passageway leading to a small room. From the passageway, Leaf and Fanita emerged.

“Nice to see you again Blizz!” Leaf said, his usual enthusiasm still present.

“Same dude.” Blizz absent-mindedly gave Leaf a fist bump as he looked at Fanita. “Guessing you guys hid down here when everything went to hell?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“And this was like, gonna be your hideout if the guild sent out another arrest warrant for you, right?”

“How observant.”

“Whatever, let’s head back up. We need your guys’ help to figure this out.”

---

It was somewhat morbid to have to step over their guildmates, but tradition dictated that they have their meeting in the dining hall. Plus, this time they didn’t have any concerns of someone overhearing their discussion.

Blizz took a position at the front, sitting on top of a table alongside Mira and Fanita. Their teammates were scattered around the rest of the room in a disorganized group that was vaguely facing in the leaders’ direction.

“Alright, let’s get this out of the way,” Blizz began, trying to project his voice over the dining hall. “Who here still thinks Zar did this?”

No one raised a hand, but the Duke stood up. “Not to pass any judgment, but could you explain why you are so confident in Zar? As I understand, she went through great pains to keep secrets from us, and fled this morning without warning anyone.”

“She’s a teammate,” Blizz responded, simply. “I can’t see her wanting to cause the literal fucking apocalypse.”

“And what if, hypothetically speaking, this was simply a front?” the Duke continued. “It is no secret she wanted to join your team from before the four of you knew she existed. It would be an effective way of keeping track of us and leading us away from the truth.”

“If she was against us, then why did she help with Hydreigon?” Kibo argued. “We were locked up. If she wanted us to not interfere, she could’ve kept us in that jail, or let Hydreigon and Yveltal finish us off. Instead, she went to find Fanita and Leaf to help us out.”

“…What if Hydreigon wasn’t an accomplice?” Ride whispered, her voice barely audible.

Noting that no one else heard her, Angel amplified her voice. “Hey! Ride was wondering if Hydreigon wasn’t an accomplice!”

The Prince turned his head over to the Taillow. “What leads you to believe that?”

“…Well, when we found Hydreigon, he looked… almost confused?”

“Yeah, Hydreigon was an asshole, but I never would have thought he wanted to kill everyone,” Angel commented.

“If Hydreigon were not a willing accomplice, but rather a victim, how would that impact our current deliberations?” the Duke asked. “All that would do is keep Zar a suspect.”

“Ah ah,” Fanita stepped in, smiling. “Remember the records I recovered from Dusknoir’s bank? We know he’s connected to this somehow.”

“Could someone have tried to frame him?” Kibo asked.

“I doubt that,” Fanita answered. “My theft of Tenea Central Bank was unheard of, and I had no assistance. There is no reason anyone could have expected that the information held there would end up in our hands.”

“…I don’t think they were trying to frame him,” Mira explained, conjuring an illusion of a miniature Hydreigon next to her. “More like trying to use him as a shell. The real culprit wouldn’t want anyone to trace the money back, but if they did they would come to the conclusion it was Hydreigon.”

“I don’t think Zar could do all of that,” Rune commented. “Figuring out how to embezzle money from Hydreigon’s Guild…”

“…That is a worthwhile line of questioning,” the Prince pointed out. “Only a few Pokémon could be in a high enough standing to manipulate the finances of Hydreigon’s guild.”

“It would have to be a Federation official,” Mira said. “So that could mean any of the guildmasters or assistant guildmasters.”

“But how many of them made it to the end of the Zero Isles?” Fanita asked.

“No one’s been to all of the Zero Isles,” Angel pointed out. “It’s only been a couple at each.”

The Prince looked thoughtful. “…While we know no one has been through all, we also know that to have created the Resonance they would have had to go to all three. We are left with a paradox.”

Mira turned to look at the Prince. “So either multiple Pokémon are in on it, they made it to the lake without a Lake Guardian noticing, or it was someone beyond the last 50 years…”

A silence passed over the group as they considered what could have happened.

“I don’t think we will be able to figure that out right now,” Fanita said, finally breaking the quiet.

“…We should still use it though,” Leaf argued. “We know they had to have been to at least West to deliver the conduit I found there.”

“No, I agree,” Fanita stated. “Just that we should use a broader definition. Which group of Pokémon is both highly enough positioned to leverage Hydreigon’s Guild, and has the strength to make it through the Zero Isles? Because I can think of only one.”

Blizz looked directly at Fanita, the weight of her accusation settling in. “…Team Breaker.”

“Correct.” Fanita did a flip in the air, before floating to the center of the group. “Lucario, Scizor, Hydreigon, or Absol. Or possibly all of them.”

“We can write off Hydreigon,” Mira said. “Regardless of whether he’s innocent, he obviously couldn’t do anything now.”

“We can count Lucario out too,” Kibo pointed out. “He almost became a husk yesterday morning.”

“But he was saved at the last minute,” the Duke argued. “How do you know that wasn’t planned?”

“Scizor tried to tell us Zar was the culprit and that you guys were dead this morning,” Rune said.

“But wasn’t he also the one who told us everything we know about the husks?” Ride asked.

As the discussion shifted into an argument about who of the four it possibly could have been, something in Blizz’s mind suddenly clicked.

“Everyone shut up!” Blizz called, immediately silencing the room. “I figured it out.”

The Prince looked at him. “You believe you know who is the architect of the husk crisis?”

Blizz nodded as he climbed up to the table, standing above everyone else. He could feel the weight of nine pairs of eyes boring into him, every one of them somewhere between curious and judgemental.

“The guy behind it all didn’t want to kill us. If he did, he could’ve done it when we were fighting Hydreigon, or while we were defenseless and locked up in prison.”

There were a few scattered murmurs of agreement

“And how is this relevant?” The Duke asked over the whispers of the others.

“Because of the motive that I finally managed to put together. He wanted to stop the disasters, to stop humans from being summoned to deal with this bullshit, but quit Team Breaker because it was too much. Everyone else on that team went to go help out other Pokémon in Varin. The only thing he did was help other humans.”

The Prince’s gaze hardened. “Do you mean to imply that-”

Blizz was too impassioned to slow down now. All the pieces were already there, he just needed to connect them. “He only cares about humans. Solving the current disaster means there’s just gonna be another one down the line that requires more humans. That leaves only one permanent solution— to make sure the next disaster ends it all. And there’s only one Pokémon who cares enough about humans to sacrifice the rest of the world for them.”

Blizz took in a deep breath. He could practically feel the tension in the air as everyone waited for his next word, though many of his teammates had already put it together.

“Absol. Absol’s behind everything.”