Act 24: Aftermath

"Guildmaster!" Ranii says. "Last time we heard from you, you sounded kind of strained. What, what happened to you?"

"Yeah, is everything okay?" Luca asked.
Stic looks like he can't really keep his eyes open very well, it's like he hasn't slept in a while. "Yes, I am well. Directing so many orders from afar for so long proved to be quite tiresome, I still feel a throbbing pain in my head..." He sighs. "Did you do it...?"
The Lucario knows what he is talking about, a nod is sufficient to convey and answer for that. "Very well." He nods back. "I need to start thinking of a speech now..."

"Yeah." She's glad that Stic is okay. At least, relatively speaking. 
Right now, she's glad this is all over. Well, relatively speaking. In reality, she knows it's just beginning, but for now...
She looks towards Luca. And grins. Once all's said and done here... oooh, she plans on celebrating it. And they are going to celebrate. So. Much celebrating.

Luca smiles back to her. "So what do we do now? I think we are going to be around here for a bit longer, should we check on Ara again?"

"Yeah. We'll check on Ara, the girls, maybe shrewn if he's awake. Then we'll listen to Stic's speech if he's ready. And then..."
She whispers into his ear.
"We celebrate."

"Celebration huh? I haven't been in one myself honesty."
They approached Ara, it seems like her, her girls and Igon are still doing okay.
The Abra is glad to see that they are okay. "Hey you two, I heard the Grove is finally beaten." She sounds calmer now that the fighting is over. She then sighs. "Still, I thought Fluffybuns would have made her way here by now..."
Luca raises a brow. "She hasn't come in here yet?" Maybe that is a good thing, because if she is still acting all crazy...
"No, I will admit I'm starting to worry a little..."

Ranii goes over and gives the Abra a big hug.
"I'm just glad you're alright, Ara." Ranii coos to her. She nuzzles the abra's face against her own.

She patted the Avali's back as they hugged and nuzzled one another. "Yeah, same here."
"So what are you going to do from here? Go back to your business?" Luca asks.
Ara nods to that. "Yup, sure will. I hope the place isn't too thrashed, the worst that can happen is taking a few days to open up again."

"Well... I'll be sure to drop by to check up on you." Ranii tells her cheerfully.
She looks over to Igon.
"You take care of her now, alright?"

Yup on the second floor of the hall, Stic rubs his temple with his paws. Then he takes a deep breath and approaches the railing, looking down at everyone that's gathered here.
Luca looks up at him, it seems like his speech is about to begin.

Ranii likewise looks over and up at him, ready to hear his speech.

The Meowstic places his paws behind his back and begins speaking, first something to get everyone's attention. "Citizens of Sandstone, I require your attention." He says out loud.
All the muttering and whispering down in the crowd stopped, now he has their attention.
"I am afraid to announce that Lord Gar and his son, Gaben, have perished. They were found dead just now in the chambers of young lord Gaben."
Now the crowd begins talking amongst themselves, sounding surprised and fearful by the news of the Sandstone's nobles' untimely demise.
Stic steps to the side a little to allow the Captain of the guard to step forward. "Captain Bishop, can you tell us what you could make out of the scene? How exactly did this come to happen?"
The disguised Ditto begins to explain. "While the fighting raged on in the town, the traitorous Sandstone Guild cooperated with the enemy, they allowed the Grove access into the mansion which they used to send in infiltrators. Lord Gar and his son Gaben were both found dead together in one the bedrooms, it all indicates that a fierce fight took place in there which resulted in the death of both of them and some of their killers."
"Alright, Captain...thank you for enlightening us."

The Guildmaster continues talking to the crowd. "I understand that you might all be scared right now, wondering what's to happen to sandstone after all of these events. Some of you might have thoughts of the worst..." He places his paws on railings, leaning forward a little. "But I ask that you have faith in me for what I am about to do next. Citizens of Sandstone, with the dead of the nobles and the Sandstone Guild no longer being with us...I hereby announce that the Four Eyes guild will be taking leadership of this town from this day forth, with me, Stic, as it's ruler."
The citizens keep on murmuring, taken by surprise by this unexpected turn of events, but then again no one else can consolidate power in sandstone. Some are asking if the Four Eyes can really fill that position well enough.
He continues. "I promise all of you, Sandstone will be rebuilt, better than before. All I ask is that you put faith in us, we protect this town with our lives, we care about all who live within these walls." 
Some of the citizens seem to be agreeing with this, it is a good point, if it weren't for the Four Eyes the town would have been under Grove control by now.
"For now, we shall excess the damage to your homes and...count the fallen, members of the Four Eyes shall assist with that. Tomorrow we shall begin full reparations to the damages this battle caused to our town. If a loved one or acquaintance of yours is missing, be sure to report it to us." He gives a moment of silence. "That...will be all, you are dismissed..."

Ranii listens until the end. 
Once everyone has left, she guesses Stic will have things to say to just the two of them. A debriefing, no doubt.
After that, it'll be time to find the now ex-slaves of gaben. Hell, for all she knows, Stic might be debriefing them as she thinks about this.
And then, once all is said and done, it'll be time to celebrate with Luca. 
Oh yes. Much celebration.

This is not quite his office yet, this room he picked from the mansion, it must have been Gar's...it will need a makeover on top of moving all of his things to make it feel more homey to him.
Stic turns to them. "Mayor? Governor? Are those words used to describe rulers where you come from?" He smiles. "It's something I will still have to decide, I think, for now...but there will be a lot to be done. Once the drone gets moved here I will talk with the councilor more on what is to be done next, I will have my paws full. I will admit... "He closes his eyes and looks down for a moment, then opens them up again. "I had...some doubts that i would ever get to see this day, if it weren't for you Avali, we wouldn't have made it through today..."
"So what happens now, Guildmaster Stic?" Luca asks.
"I know that soon enough you won't need to call me guildmaster anymore, we have grown beyond that today. Like I said, there is a lot that I will be doing and I count on the help of Avali to aid me in making Sandstone get back on it's feet, and stand up tall. We are interrogating the Sandstone's Guild former ace to find out where they are taking their slaves...but i'm still waiting for results on that."
"I see..."
The Meowstic was about to turn around and dismess them but before that. "Oh...there is also those witness Ditto spoke off, specifically, that Sandshrew that was unconscious, he woke up, his friends are talking with him right now."

"The slaves? You mean they captured a few citizens and snuck them out while they were retreating?" Ranii asks sadly.
"And the sandshrew... Shrewn you mean. The ... 'pruned' one. How is he doing?"

"There were a few citizens, yes, the reports of missing pokémon are anything to go by. But Vantu mentioned most of them being members of the Sandstone guild who were not among the betrayers. They could not have gone far having to lead such as large number of people, so we are hoping we can catch up to them once we know which way they went.." He explained to them. "Shrewn is alright, his friends wanted to remain in the dining room while he was unconscious, so I let them stay."
"Maybe we could go check on them." Luca suggests to his partner.

"Yes, let us do that." Ranii replies to Luca. 
"Is there anything else, Guildmaster?" Ranii decides to just stick with that title for the time being.

The Meowstic shakes his head. "No, that will be all. You two deserve a rest as much as everyone else that fought today."

"Well I won't argue with you on that." Ranii replies with a tired sigh. "Me and Luca could definitely use a rest, a time to celebrate.. Though first, I'd like to try and talk to Shrewn and the others again..."

There is no more to talk with Stic for now, it's best to leave him to focus on thinking about what to do next. So now it's off to the dining room, after going back to the mail hall and taking the stairs down to the first floor, one turn to the left gets them there.
"I'm telling you, Shrewn, they can help us." They can hear the familiar voice of that Vaporeon coming from up ahead, and it sounds like they are still talking.
"How can you be sure of that, Vaper...? These things you said about that 'Avali' being able to put a cabinet into a metal thing is...unbelievable." Shrewn responded, sounding exasperated. "I didn't liked Gar or Gaben but if the Four Eyes are willing to kill leaders like this, what's to say they won't be worse?"

It sounds like they're having an argument. Ranii wonders if she should bud in at the moment. Or not.

Luca pushes the double doors open, giving him and Ranii a way to see into the room...and budding in on this argument that is happening.
The other Eeveelutions are there too, but they have just been letting the two of them talk for now.
The Vaporeon looks happy to see them though. "Oh it's you!" Maybe with their help she can convince Shrewn better.
Seeing these two puts the ground-type a bit on edge though. "O-oh..."
Luca speaks "Shrewn...what seems to be the problem? I know you might have seen what we did, but you are having trouble believing in what we can do, right? I know you must know how much of a problem the nobles were."
"I..." He sighs. He looks to Ranii. "I know...Did you really come from 'space'? Are you really not from this world?"

"It's true." She says to him. "I hail from a species many light years away from this one. Many worlds away."

"You always said to us that good changes were coming, Shrewn.'' Espeon said.
"Maybe these are the changes, I know they came in a very unexpected manner but maybe they are good..." The Flareon added.
And the Leafeon too. "And they said that if we wanted we...didn't have to work for the Four Eyes, they aren't forcing us to keep being pruned, Shrewn. And they are helping rebuild the town as we speak..."
"And like I said before, they said they can help you too." Vaper said as she put her paws on his shoulder. "They already showed us something beyond our imagination, and they said they can help recover what was...taken from you." As she says that last bit she places a paw on his thigh, not too far from his groin, surely he will understand.
She indeed had said that to him some time before Luca and Ranii arrived, and it made him think before he got skeptical. But all things considered he wishes he could have done more when he and Vaper had 'sex', he wanted to please her more than he could have so it left him feeling sort of empty. "Can you really do that for me, Ranii...?"

"They're right, Shrewn." She replies, truthfully and assumingly. "I definitely can. If you don't believe me, Luca here is a living testament to that. His situation was a bit different to yours, he wasn't born noble. But he too was a victim of them. They took his malehold away from him as well. And now, he's sporting quite the package."
She decides to go back to the previous argument for a moment.
"If you still have doubts that this is for the better, let me ask you something. What do you think would be happening to you if The Grove had won?"

"Well..." He doesn't believe anything good would happen if turned out like that, so he thinks about this as he talks. "I assume everyone would have been in a worse spot than this, they likely would have been subjugating Sandstone's people by force if they won."

"Quite right." She says grimly. "We saw examples of such during the battle when we were still in the town. innocents being captured. Being raped by lusted soldiers, and a traitor guild with no restraint or discipline."
She takes a small breath before continuing. "And, while it's our understanding that the nobles had intended to simply flee and leave all of you to the grove's machinations instead of fight, what do you think would have happened to you and your friends specifically had they won on their own?"

"We would have been forced to serve them instead, they likely wouldn't even have considered treating us any better..."

"Right. If I'm the guessing type, I guess they would have had some sort of 'celebration'. One which would have involved Gaben and/or Gar 'helping themselves' to you and/or your friends. I don't know what all they did to you or them, but them being alive would not have had much of a better end for any of you. Let alone the town."

"Hhhmmmm, yeah..." He gives a slow nod to that. "Did you know that this was going to happen? That Sandstone would have come under threat for you to take advantage of that?"
Luca shakes his head. "No, we did not, we wanted the death of the nobles to go much quieter than this..."

"Hhhmmm..."
"So do you believe them too?" Vaper asks Shrewn.
He nods. "Yes, you made your point, perhaps you do want the best for Sandstone after all. The only thing I'm still skeptical about is these miracles that you promise, specifically the one you promised me. I say I will believe that one when I see it."
"Okay, we won't disappoint you." Luca said to him, if he just needs that to be absolutely sure then it shouldn't be too long before that comes to pass and he sees what the Avali are capable of when it comes to helping the pokémon under their care.

"About your specifically, if another avali crew doesn't pick it up, come see me in about a day or so. We need a bit of rest after all that's happened today, but in a few days I should be able to do it."
She thinks for a moment.
"Actually... I might be able to get a head start on it now. If you'd hold out your paw..."

The ground-type raises a brow. "If you say." He holds out one of his paws for her. "Like...this?"

"Yeah... I need a blood sample, you see. I hope you don't mind."

"Oh...just as long as it's not a lot..."

"Just a few drops." She takes out a small dagger, which she must have swiped from one of the wallbreakers during the battle, and holds the sandshrew's paw. She holds the tip to one of his fingers, and produces a small prick. Enough to get a trickle of blood flowing. She then takes a small container, holding it under the sandshrew's blood dripping finger, letting it fill it up with a few drops, before putting it back in her inventory and letting his paw go.
"There. I'll take that to the ship, and hopefully that'll be enough to start production. Like last time." She says.

Shrewn looks at the small prick on his finger, still a bit bloodied. "Okay then..." He looks at Ranii and nods. "I'm gonna be waiting, for now I need to figure out where we are going from here."
Vaper takes one of his paws. "We, we don't have much of an idea of what we are going to do, do we...leave?"
"Hhmmm...let's not jump to conclusions." He says to her. "Perhaps there is a better way."
Well, it looks like this turned out okay, Luca and Ranii are free to do what they want for the rest of the day.
"So...what do you want to do now for celebration?" The Lucario asks his partner.

"Well, first I'm going to get this into the lab straight away." Ranii says. "As soon as we step outside, I'm going to go right back to the ship, plug that in, and then come right back. Shouldn't take more than a few moments. You don't mind waiting here for a little bit, do you? It won't take long."

"Yeah, of course." He smiles and nods to her.

She nods. And leaves. Leaving Luca behind this time. 
He waits for her, as she does her thing up there.
A few moments pass. And just as he's starting to get bored... a familiar light shines from his side, quickly taking form.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Luca." Ranii says. "I've got the blood sample in the machine, got it all set, and it should start producing our new friend's ... replacement part in a day or so."

"Ah, good to hear." It feels kind of nice to know he won't be the only one that's going to receive such medical treatment. "Shrewn and his friends went to talk with Stic. Not quite sure what they have in mind for their future but I guess we will see."

"Yeah. Anyway, to answer your previous question... Well... I had one Idea. But it's best we save that for the end." Ranii says embarrassingly, putting her hand behind her head and scratching her own ears. "Anyway, did you have any ideas of your own?"

"Oooh uuuhh...not...really..." He sounds embarrassed to admit that. "When people celebrate all i know is that they get together to drink something strong...but Ara's place is closed so i'm not sure we can get anything like that." He thinks. "Hhhmmm, well we could go to a place out of town and look up at the stars, perhaps that place we were sitting at yesterday."

"So a little romantic 'date' between the two of us under the stars? Sounds like a plan!" She teases.

He likes the sound of that. "Yeah, let's go?"

Ranii takes Luca's paw in hers.
"Lead the way, big guy!"

After all that happened today, having a calm walk with her will be nice. "You got it, Ranii."
As they go around, they notice that the citizens and the Four Eye members are checking if the homes are okay, mostly if anything was broken like doors or windows. The damage is particularly more nasty around the entrance of the town, where the fighting took place, there is some rebuilding underway here, corpses being carried away. And the gate still has a hole in the center which Luca and Ranii walked right through to get outside.
"So...we managed to live through today." The Lucario says. "I'm very glad we did, i am really looking forward to enjoy my life with you and uuuh...you know, also get to enjoy the 'gift' you gave me~"

"Yeah. I'm glad we made it out okay. You in particular." Ranii says with a sigh. "I don't know how I would have handled it had I lost you. You're... the closest I've had to a pack member.
Ironic, really, considering a few months ago I was against this whole thing. And a few months ago, I couldn't stand you. And now? Well... Let's just say I wouldn't have bothered with that 'gift' if I still didn't like you."
She gives him a light peck on the cheek.

"I don't think I would be okay with losing another partner either..." He pats pat on the head a little kiss of his own on her cheek. "And I'm honestly glad I met you, even if at first it wasn't easy for us to work together."

"Yeah, that it wasn't." She sighs as she looks up at the stars with the lucario. "I was so used to being a loner, I just couldn't fathom the idea of working with someone, let alone under someone."

"Hhhmm, that bad huh?"
After some more pacing through the sands while looking up at the star-filled sky, they get to that place they were resting on yesterday, this is where they will be sitting together.
"Say, you came from up there right?" He points to the stars "Can you tell me why they shine like that?"

Ranii sits down next to him. 
"Certainly. Although, the answer is... kind of boring."

"Well? What is this answer then?"

"Well, first, tell me, what do you know, or at least, were told about stars?"

"Hhhmmm, well depending on who you ask, some say that it's either just lights in the sky that the gods put there, or that those are the many eyes of the ones that have died and watching over us from a better place." He explained.

"Heh." Ranii gives a small chuckle. "Hate to break it to you big guy... but those answers... are pretty much all wrong. Except maybe the 'gods put them there' thing, that may or may not be true. It's not like anyone can really prove or disprove that. But the truth about stars is..."
She takes a moment to drive up the suspense.
"Stars are one of three things. They're either A. Giant balls of gas burning hundreds upon quintillions of miles away. Or as we space-farers put it, tens to thousands of 'light years.' away. And when I say, 'big', I mean hundreds to thousands of times bigger than this world. Those are the most common things you'll see up there from this world. most having planets, like this one orbiting around them. In other words, they're very very far away suns."
She takes a small moment for it to sink in before continuing. 
"The other less common type are galaxies. Vast collections of stars even farther away. And the third and final type are just planets in this system reflecting light off the sun of this star system"

The answer doesn't really bore him, in fact it looks like he found it quite intriguing. "So these giant burning things are bigger than this world? Wow...I didn't know it was possible for there to be things that BIG out there."

"Well, your own sun is bigger than this world. Over a hundred times bigger in fact. It just appears small because it's really really far away."

"I see, so it's pretty far." He thinks for a moment about how to ask next. "What is your world like?"

"The one I spent most of my life on, you mean." Ranii simply assumes that's what he means. "It's cold. A tundra world. Rocky in most places, lots of snow in the winter. It was rather green in the short summers in most places, and quite colorful in the even shorter falls. Or... at least it was that way on the part of the world where I lived."

"Sounds like the opposite of where I lived all my life." He looks around. "Which is...well...here."

"Hot. No sign of snow or any vegetation anywhere. hot. Desolate.... and really hot." She says, deadpanning.

"Yeah, exactly."
Ranii begins hearing some heartbeats, quick heartbeats...and they are getting closer.

"Say have you-" Ranii frowns as all four of her ears twitch as she begins to tense up.

"Have I what?" He raised a brow.
Something lands right on top of the rock, it's her...that Lopunny, she is standing on top of that on all fours looking down at the two of them like a predator eyeing it's prey. And she is STILL mega evolved. "Hehehehe!~ What are you guys doing?~"
Luca gasped and backed away from there. "Shit i forgot about her...why is she still like that?!" He growls at her. "Look we are...not customers, we are not in Ara's place!"
She is grinding herself against the stone. "Mmmmmm~ yeah! it's closed, you are not customers, you are...friends~"
"...Great."