LEON'S POV

I had returned to the basement with the worst news possible. A high shriek filled with despair was the only thing I heard before rushing down the stairs and finding that the furnace was finally off.

The group spent a good hour trying to breach through the door—even trying to shatter the walls. All of those attempts seemed to be in vain as I stopped in my tracks to see Grace in a fountain of tears.

Inside were piles of ash and dust everywhere, along with the corpse of Hydra.

There were no signs of Loki, either...so it seems like she perished in the fire.

This was all very hard to digest. It felt as if just a few minutes ago we were all together discussing an escape. Loki finding this basement seemed to get us somewhere, and now it set us back for what will be a long time.

Her death is going to be very hard to accept. She was definitely among the smartest...not to mention the most emotionally invested out of us all.

Even Zantai wasn't looking too good, either. The Blaziken was sitting with his back to the wall, the look in his eyes filled with a mixture of shock and anger, almost like he would have rather it be him dead.

This was also the first time I'd seen Vanta visibly distraught—Arceus, the Umbreon was even tearing up a bit.

Grace (as I mentioned before) was a mess, and it took all of Vince's attention to try and calm her down.

In the meantime, I walked in—cautiously, of course—to the furnace. Hydra was slumped up against the wall, his eyes wide open and devoid of life. To the right of his abdomen was a bleeding wound, noticeably smaller than the size of my paw.

Why would he have such a wound? Did Loki cause this?

Nonetheless, I can't gauge how important it is, as it's so minor compared to his body that it wouldn't have killed him. My theory is that he suffocated in the smoke, as there isn't enough blood loss here.

But the thought returns; why in the world would Loki stab him? I don't remember them fighting in there, at least from what I last saw.

However, if they did fight, I'm not surprised we couldn't find Loki's body. Hydra's around twice the size of her, if she wanted to pick a fight then it would have been the worst time to do so. Unless I have things reversed—Arceus, this is getting confusing.

Before I could think further, a familiar (and delayed) chime was heard.

"..."

Strangely enough, there was no one on the intercom. The sound was played after I walked in, so it seemed to be automated—even if it was delayed.

After a few seconds of silence, we could hear someone scrambling to pick up the microphone.

"Uhh, a body has been discovered? You all are in big trouble." Sam's voice was heard from the speakers before a loud click announced her leave.

I knew exactly what everyone in the room was thinking.

"So she's back now." Rayne muttered with an annoyed look. I don't want to jinx it, but the Manectric herself seemed a little shaken up as well.

The energy in the room was horrid, I almost regretted the fact that I could sense emotions. I had to walk away for a bit, realizing that staying too close would result in headaches.

However, walking away only made me realize someone had already left.

Sammy was in the living room, her face burrowed in the pillows. Now that I realize it, this place was a mess. Did she do this?

As if I was the most dense jackal on Earth, I realize something detrimental.

She had just lost her brother.

Not knowing how else to approach, I chose to not hide my presence and sit next to the vixen. She didn't acknowledge me at first, preferring to sniffle away inside the pillows—I would do the same, in all honesty.

It took a few minutes for her to finally calm down and sit up to face me. The fur on her cheeks had matted from the tears, and it didn't help that she was pressing her face in the comforts.

Sammy didn't say a word, and it seemed like we would both be okay just staring at each other for a bit. It's not like I had anything of value to say—especially for a topic this heavy in nature.

It was just the arguing and wailing of everyone else in the distant rooms as we stared into each other's deeply saddened eyes...

Then, she finally turned away.

"You've lost your brother too." Sammy muttered under her breath.

Shockingly, she was right. I was wondering why she was so intently staring.

"I did, but I do not recall the event." I heaved a pained sigh and slipped out the first motive card from the fur on my neck.

Reading this motive still haunts me with the same dread when I first laid my eyes upon it.

"Leon is best known for murdering his own brother due to the two not having enough rations to survive in the wilderness."

That does not get any easier to look at.

Sammy seemed to have noticed what I was doing and her already frowning face worsened.

"I was not...a good brother, however." I whined.

The Braixen huffed, which caught me by surprise. She quickly stood up to snatch the paper out of my hands and flashed a disappointed grimace.

"It may not seem like it, but those papers don't define you, Leon." Sammy stated before the rest of her words were cut off by a sniffle. "I-I don't...understand how y-you all deal with it! I could barely watch you all die when you were strangers, a-and now..."

The fox fell to her weak knees, a fresh stream of tears dampening the carpet below her.

"Nothing I say can help...but..." In my best efforts, I took a deep inhale. "Would you...like a hug?"

A fire type's best comfort should be their warmth, and it's a tell-tale sign of their health. The worst case scenario should be if one was cold, however...

At least Sammy was still very warm.

GALANT'S POV

"You IDIOTS!" Sam had marched down the stairs and came to a very aggressive start, seeing as her brother was now dead. "You're not even supposed to be in this room!"

"What the hell do you think we were going to do? Sit idle and wait for you to come back?" Rayne scoffed at the manic Braixen in disgust.

Luckily, we could rely on Rayne to hold this conversation, as the rest of us were too distraught to even process it.

"No, no, no!" Sam hissed as she held her head. "You fucks are going to figure out what the hell happened here! Right now!"

"Or what? You'll kill us?" Luster rolled his eyes. "Great, that seems lovely right about now."

"It's all burned in there anyway." Vanta was unmoving and continued to stare blankly at the furnace. "There's no evidence aside from the body. I don't know what you want us to find."

For the first time ever, the manic look on Sam's face was gone.

"Hah, right." The Braixen giggled to herself. "I nearly forgot what this game was for!"

Everybody appeared to listen after that statement; which is obvious, seeing as how we would definitely want to know. However, Sam didn't say anything after that. All the Braixen would do is walk further into the room and halt in the center, directly in front of the furnace.

"Sam!" I heard a voice call out from the entrance of the room.

It was Sammy, and it looked like she too had been crying.

"What do you want?" The older sister frowned as she shuffled to pull something out from her fur.

"Don't do it." Sammy hissed, which caused her older sister to freeze.

"Ahh...so you found out about the experiment." Sam flashed her a devilish grin before shaking her head. "No wonder he was already dead."

It all came to me in a matter of seconds; they were talking about Talus, and it looked like Sam was planning to revive Hydra. So she can do it on command...it's a morbid thought, but I almost want to let her try.

"You moron! Don't you realize how much pain he was in!? Do you want Hydra to feel that as well?" Sammy cried out in the loudest voice I had ever heard her in.

"Shut up!" The older fox ruthlessly objected. "You don't understand anything yet, and if you did, it would make you cry harder!"

"...what the hell are you talking about?" The younger Braixen's voice softened.

"I didn't need your emotional yapping back then, and I sure as hell don't need it now." Sam scoffed as a Gengar dragged Hydra's corpse out of the machine.

Sammy didn't say a word and watched in horror as their brother's lifeless body was dropped on the furnace entrance.

"Now watch, as I bring my brother back to life, just as he should be!" The older Braixen shouted in pride as she jabbed the memory gem directly into the large jackal's arm.

I don't know what I was expecting, but it definitely was not for the entire room to burst into a bright light. Whatever energy was kept inside that crystal had erupted and presumably immersed itself into the Lucario's corpse.

The light was blinding for a while, and for a minute I was wondering if I went blind...until it finally faded.

???'S POV

I can feel my bloodstream starting.

Each individual cell trying to make its way into my consciousness as the warm feeling of life was suddenly soaked into my body.

One single beat. Turned into two, turned into three, four, five...

I can feel the breaths rising up my chest.

The oxygen returned to my lungs as my brain gathered enough blood to process my surroundings.

It was dark, but a faint light was gradually making its way towards me. I wasn't moving, but it was as if I was running towards the end of a tunnel.

Attempting to shut my eyes did nothing, if anything, it pulled me closer to the light. The bright energy enveloped me in its warmth, and almost instantly, I was able to see again.

The noises muddling around me were incoherent, nothing but white noise to me at the moment. What was once a bright light turned into a gentle hue of blurry orange.

My senses were coming back to normal, and so was my vision. It seemed as if I was able to see more clearly than I could hear, so the first choice was to look at myself.

Who am I?

Claws, I have claws. As of now, I'm completely immobile. I tried tapping them against the hard ground below me, but I could barely even move an inch.

A dark tone of fur...almost black. It was like I was made for the night.

Along my side was a bundle of very long red hair...very pretty, if I do say so myself. This only helped me realize.

Right, how could I ever forget?

I am Loki.

Above me was a blurry and terrified face. In any case, I would be worried, afraid. However, I knew exactly who it was, and it only brought me joy to see something I had never seen before.

It was Sam's horrified expression.

I had succeeded.