"It seems you have calmed down a bit."
Damian looked at Zygarde Z1, which had finally become quiet. He felt very satisfied and put away the Azure Flute.
Z1 remained silent. It stared at Damian with a mix of surprise and doubt. That was definitely the original energy of Arceus; there was no mistake. In other words, this human was someone recognized by Arceus himself.
Since he was chosen by Arceus, it meant this human had to be special. So, Z1 decided to give him a chance to explain. It didn't want to cause a misunderstanding and fight someone who might actually be on the same side. Yes, that made sense.
"Mewtwo, let it down," Damian said to Mega Shadow Mewtwo Y.
Mega Shadow Mewtwo Y lowered its arm. The psychic power holding Z1 disappeared. Z1 landed on the ground and immediately jumped in front of Z2. It stared at Damian with caution.
"You don't need to look at me so suspiciously. I won't hurt your other half."
"As soon as I arrived, I saw you attacking my other half!" Z1 subconsciously bared its teeth and hissed again. It was clearly very angry about that.
"I understand that you're worried about your partner," Damian said, raising an eyebrow. "But you keep hissing at me. You are being quite rude."
Damian continued, "Yes, I did attack it. But why don't you think about this? Your other half was filled with negative emotions and was being controlled by humans from Team Flare. If I didn't defeat it, what would happen to this city and the innocent people inside?"
"..." Z1 was silent.
"Besides, I also saved it from those people, right?"
"In the end, it was still humans who hurt it!" Z1 was still not convinced. No matter how Damian explained it, humans were the ones who had harmed Z2.
"That is true," Damian did not deny it. Team Flare had indeed hurt Z2. "But no matter the species, there will always be naturally evil individuals. As the watcher of the ecosystem, Zygarde, you should know this very well."
Damian added, "I have already sent people to catch the humans who hurt your other half. All of them will pay the price. They will spend their entire lives paying for their crimes. Zygarde, what do you think of that?"
Z1 did not answer. It still didn't look satisfied.
"If you think that isn't enough," Damian asked again, "you can suggest a solution. Should I hand them over to you? Will you kill them?"
Z1 looked at Z2, who was still unconscious. This was its other half.
Zygarde was a very mysterious Pokémon. Because its job was to protect the natural order, it could naturally split into many parts. It could turn its body into countless Cells and spread them everywhere to monitor the environment. However, Zygarde Cells had no consciousness of their own. They only watched. If the balance of nature was broken, the Core would gather the Cells to become Zygarde again and fix everything.
The Zygarde Cores—Z1 and Z2—were originally one being. Even though they had their own minds, they were the same entity. Seeing "itself" in such a miserable state made Z1 very angry.
However, now that Z1 had calmed down, it knew it couldn't really blame Damian. Of course, the main reason was that this human was someone Arceus had accepted and gifted with power. Even if Z1 wanted to release its anger, it had no reason to attack this person.
As for killing those people? What would be the point? For Zygarde, it didn't just want to punish the leaders.
"For your sake, I will not take action this time," Z1 said. "But if there is a next time, I will never forgive the humans on this land!"
If Damian hadn't appeared, Z1 would have definitely turned into its Complete Forme and caused a huge disaster. They had treated its other half so badly; did they really think Zygarde was easy to bully?
"Fine. If there is a next time, I won't stop you," Damian nodded.
Z1 took Z2 and left. In its 10% Forme, Z1 picked up Z2 in its mouth and jumped away skillfully. It soon disappeared from Damian's sight.
Damian shook his head. He had wanted to become friends with Zygarde, but it was clear that Zygarde was too emotional right now. This wasn't the right time.
"It's basically over. Diantha, I did what I promised you." Damian checked his phone. Platinum and the others had finished their tasks as well.
"Yes, thank you," Diantha nodded.
She looked back at the city, which was covered in ruins. She couldn't help but sigh deeply. "Is there really a winner in this battle?" she asked herself.
Did they win? Where was the victory? Although Lumiose City survived, more than half of it was destroyed. It would take a long time to rebuild. Countless people were scared and injured. Zygarde Z2 was hurt for no reason and forced to evolve, and Z1 almost took revenge on all of humanity because of it. If it weren't for Damian, the entire Lumiose City might have been erased from the map by Zygarde.
"Don't be so sad," Damian patted Diantha's shoulder to comfort her. "Look on the bright side. At least Team Flare, that extreme team, has been caught and destroyed. Otherwise, if Lysandre stayed hidden, he might have caused an even bigger disaster in the future."
"You're right," Diantha nodded and took a deep breath. Damian was correct. An extreme and crazy villain team like Team Flare was terrifying. It was lucky that Lysandre revealed himself early, or the losses would have been even worse.
The crisis was finally over. There were still a few Team Flare members fighting in the city, but they were quickly being caught.
"Damian! Damian!"
A young girl's clear voice shouted loudly. Damian looked to the left. Rosa and the others were running toward him.
"Good job, everyone. I see no one is hurt. That's good," Damian said with a warm smile.
"Hehe! Damian, we caught seven Team Flare admins, including Lysandre!" Rosa said happily. She tilted her head up proudly.
"Oh? You did a great job. Thanks to you, Team Flare's plan failed."
"We protected this city! We protected the whole Kalos region!" Damian nodded with satisfaction. "Next, I'll need your help to maintain order in the city. Also, there are so many giant plants that need to be cleared away. Otherwise, people won't be able to live in Lumiose City."
Damian looked around at the huge, twisted plants growing through the walls. These were left behind by the angry Zygarde. It was actually quite strange. As a Pokémon that maintained order, Zygarde had the power to control plants. Even though Zygarde was Dragon and Ground type, maybe it was because of its ability, Aura Break? Or maybe it was related to the concept of the "ecosystem"?
But that didn't matter now. Although Complete Forme Zygarde was very cool, catching it seemed very difficult for now. After this event, both Z1 and Z2 had very low opinions of humans.
"OK, OK! We'll go help," Platinum and the others said. They were very motivated because they were doing something good.
"Go ahead. I've already spoken with Diantha," Damian said with a smile.
Lysandre, Malva, Aliana, Bryony, Celosia, Mable, Alain... So, Xerosic really isn't here, Damian thought, narrowing his eyes.
He was a bit surprised that Alain was there. However, it wasn't that important. In the anime, Alain was Ash's rival. In the finals of the Lumiose Conference, Ash-Greninja lost to Alain's Charizard. Damian had felt a bit frustrated when he watched that years ago. He wondered if he would see Ash fight Alain in this world. However, Damian felt that the current Ash wouldn't have a hard time beating Alain. Alain's talent was good, but compared to the true "monsters," he wasn't on the same level.
Platinum and the others left to help the League maintain order and clear the plants left by Zygarde. This was good because it would improve Team Rocket's image in the public eye. People should know that without Team Rocket, the Kalos League would have had a very hard time stopping Team Flare. Team Rocket were the heroes who saved Lumiose City!
"Do you want to go see the prisoners?" Caitlin asked.
"No rush. Let's go somewhere else first," Damian shook his head. The Team Flare prisoners had been taken away and locked up by Team Rocket, but Damian wasn't in a hurry to see them. Right now, something else was more important.
In Geosenge Town, there were almost no residents left. The town had been taken over by Team Flare.
In the center of the town, a giant machine stood tall. It looked like a blooming flower.
This was the Ultimate Weapon!
"Damn it! The boss and the others were all caught. Did we fail?"
Inside a secret base near Geosenge Town, a muscular man in an orange Team Flare uniform grit his teeth. He was Xerosic, the only surviving member of the leadership and the only male scientist in Team Flare. After the plan started, he had come to Geosenge Town to prepare. As a result, he became the only leader who wasn't arrested.
"No! There is still a chance! The Ultimate Weapon is still in my hands! As long as I can start it, the boss's dream can still come true!"
Xerosic quickly calmed down. Yes, even though Lysandre and the others had lost contact, it didn't matter! The Ultimate Weapon could still be fired, and a beautiful world could still be born! Once the dream was finished, he could go back to researching his battle suit.
But the problem was... starting the Ultimate Weapon required energy from Yveltal.
Team Flare had found Yveltal's Cocoon of Destruction and moved it to the base. But how could he control Yveltal and make it put its energy into the weapon?
Lysandre hadn't told him that part. Originally, if they had Zygarde, they could have used Zygarde to suppress Yveltal.
But Zygarde was gone now.
"If I wake it up directly and talk to it, will it listen?" Xerosic looked at the large black-and-red cocoon on the monitor and thought about the possibility. He really had no other choice.
In legends, Yveltal was a symbol of death and destruction. Its personality was probably very violent. Xerosic was worried. If he woke up Yveltal and it attacked him, what would he do?
"Whatever! Ali, go in there and wake up Yveltal."
After thinking about it, Xerosic decided to wake it up first. Maybe Yveltal was easy to talk to? But waking up Yveltal was a dangerous job, so as a leader, he wouldn't do it himself.
"Huh? Sir, you want me to go?" The Team Flare grunt named Ali shook with fear and pointed at himself.
"What is there to be afraid of? If I'm not scared, why are you?" Xerosic glared at Ali and then tried to comfort him with a confident look. "Don't worry. I'll be watching from here. If something happens, I'll support you. A mere Yveltal can't cause much trouble."