H-How could this be a Jirachi plushie!?
Humiliated and furious, Butler slammed the plushie onto the ground, pointing a trembling finger at Lorze like an angry god condemning a mortal.
"W-Where did you hide Jirachi!?"
"I don't know where Jirachi is hidden either. But the only certain thing is, as long as I'm here, I will absolutely not let the Wishing Star fall into your hands."
Having said that, Gardevoir beside him used telekinesis to move the plushie over and hand it back to Lorze. The young man patted the dust off it somewhat heartbrokenly: Even if it's just a plushie, it's still very cute! How could you be so ruthless, you bastard!
"You! You... Ahhhh! Hand over Jirachi!"
The hysterical man charged towards Lorze, but in the young man's eyes, not only was there no threat, it was actually somewhat comical.
He didn't even need Gardevoir to act; he could handle it himself alone.
With the assistance of telekinesis, he forcefully slammed Butler onto the ground, swiftly subduing him!
"You people... you don't understand what kind of powerful force is contained within Jirachi... Jirachi in your hands... is nothing but a reckless waste of a heavenly treasure!"
"Is that so? You want to forcibly drive Jirachi to obtain the comet's energy, and then use that massive amount of energy to clone Groudon. And that isn't a reckless waste of a heavenly treasure?"
Struck right at his weak point by the young man's words, the man even stopped resisting for a moment.
"H-How do you!?"
Lorze, however, kept holding Butler down firmly while feigning confusion and raising an eyebrow: "Then I really don't understand. Team Magma has already disbanded, so why are you still so obsessed with cloning Groudon?"
"What could a guy like you possibly understand..."
"I really don't understand. After all, Team Magma was destroyed by me. I watched your former superior, Maxie, get arrested by Officer Jenny with my own eyes."
The shock these words brought to Butler was even greater than the young man exposing his true purpose. He had been kicked out of Team Magma for a long time because his Groudon clone failed, which was why he harbored resentment and always wanted to fulfill this wish.
Not long ago, he had also learned the news that Team Magma had been wiped out. Not only did he clap his hands and cheer, shouting that they got what they deserved, but he never expected that this little brat approved by Jirachi was actually the mysterious person who destroyed Team Magma!? Can enemies really cross paths on such a narrow road!?
Just as Lorze slammed Butler down, a crisp female voice pierced the pitch-black sky canopy, drifting over faintly.
"Butler!!"
Hearing the voice before seeing the person, the newcomer was Butler's female assistant, Diane, who was also his childhood friend.
"Diane..."
Diane knew what Butler came here to do, so upon seeing her companion subdued by Lorze, she understood that Butler had failed.
"Mr. Lorze, I beg you to let Butler go... He just took the wrong path."
"Let him go back, and then continue to let you guys carry out your 'great enterprise' of cloning Groudon?"
"N-No, we won't anymore! Because I have already brought the bodily remains of Groudon. If I hand this over to you, it should be enough to show our sincerity, right?"
"Diane!? You can't do that! Ugh!"
Butler, trying to resist due to emotional agitation, was pressed down by Lorze once again. Then, the young man accurately caught the Groudon remains thrown by Diane: red fragments contained in a glass vessel, looking like a small piece of Groudon's shell.
"Sis Gardevoir, I'll leave it to you~"
"Sou!"
Taking the object from the young man's hand with tacit understanding, the black-skirted queen under the moonlight raised it high. Her eyes flashed with blue light, and using powerful telekinesis, she crushed it until not even dust remained!
"No!!!!"
With this, the terrifying terrestrial monster from the movie had no possibility of ever awakening again, eliminating future troubles forever.
As for the man subdued by him... Because Butler had been kicked out of Team Magma early on, he had inadvertently survived the previous great purge.
At the end of the movie, he suddenly woke up to reality after briefly losing his childhood friend. One could say his true nature wasn't actually bad; he was just an obsessive mad scientist who had gone astray.
"Mr. Lorze, the remnants of Groudon's body have already been destroyed by you. Butler..."
"No."
"What?"
The young man shrugged, showing a very innocent expression: "No matter how you put it, Butler has already committed such a grave sin. I cannot let the remnants of Team Magma harm others again, so I want him to apologize with his death."
Butler actually wore an expression of calmly facing death, but Diane beside him froze. With a thud, she knelt on the grass, and then pleaded with the young man in an almost begging voice.
"Mr. Lorze! I beg you, I beg you not to kill Butler..."
"But someone must bear this responsibility. Since you want to save him so much, how about you die in his place?"
Butler, who originally had an expression of righteous awe, cursed vehemently with intense emotion upon hearing these words: "A-Are you even a man!? To actually grasp a woman's weakness—"
Lorze said nothing, merely throwing a sharp small knife towards Diane.
Under the night sky, the blade reflected the comet's light, gleaming brightly. There was no need to doubt its ability to take a life.
The blonde woman touched the small knife on the grass with trembling hands, gripped it, and pointed it at her own neck without hesitation.
"Diane!? No, don't do that!"
"Butler... do you still remember when we were little? Back then, you could always perform many interesting magic tricks to make me happy. That was the happiest time of my life, Butler... When exactly did it start that we became like this? I believe Mr. Lorze is not someone who breaks his promises, so... Butler, you must live on well, and don't make such wrong decisions anymore..."
Ignoring Butler's heart-tearing, lung-splitting cries, Diane sobbed and shed tears, resolutely stabbing towards her own heart.
A spray of bright red blood splashed, and the woman fell stiffly.
"No! Diane!"
Lorze relaxed his suppression, and Butler rushed out recklessly, holding his dying childhood friend. Tears of remorse continuously seeped from the corners of his eyes, sobbing uncontrollably...
"So you see, people always only know regret after an important person leaves. Don't you think so, Sis Gardevoir?"
"Hehe, Big Brother Lorze is really cruel~"
"I just want to teach them a little lesson. I'll leave the rest to Sis Gardevoir!"
"Mmhmm~"
Trailing her long black dress, the majestic queen gracefully approached. She stretched out her hand, and from the palm covered in a black silk glove, a crystal-clear water droplet dripped down—Life Dew with healing effects.
Fairy is an attribute symbolizing life, and Gardevoir, having received Xerneas's Fairy blessing, already possessed the power to bring the dying back to life.
The blonde woman in Butler's arms had the wound on her chest heal at a speed visible to the naked eye, and after that, she opened her eyes like a medical miracle!
Stimulated by the thick rusty taste in her oral cavity, Diane immediately coughed up a large mouthful of congested blood.
"Diane!?" "Cough, cough! Butler... I-I'm fine, cough, cough..."
"Her life is not in danger, but her body is still a bit weak. I'm afraid someone will have to take care of her these next few days. So... you, who are loved by her, should also show some semblance of what a man should be, hmm?"
Looking up in astonishment, the young man's cloak flapped in the night wind under the comet. He looked down at him from a superior position, wearing an expression of disappointment at his failure to meet expectations.
After all, to Lorze, every day spent with his beloved Pokémon was treated as a precious treasure. For a guy like Butler who didn't cherish the person right in front of him, this little lesson was considered light.
"I'm sorry. I, understand..."
Only by uprooting Butler's obsession from his heart could this matter be considered thoroughly resolved.
In order to prevent him from repeating the disastrous mistakes of the movie, even if he had to use such radical methods, Lorze absolutely had to make Butler rein in his horse at the edge of the cliff—before irreversible consequences were caused, everything was worth it.
"Fufu... Sis Gardevoir, let's go find Jirachi."
Butler subconsciously looked up, finding that Lorze hadn't moved, but was just looking at him.
This time, he lowered his head.
"Yes. I won't scheme for Jirachi anymore..."
Lorze was in a great mood. He very gentlemanly took Gardevoir's hand and walked towards the place agreed upon with everyone.
—He couldn't wait to see the Wishing Star again. I wonder if the little cutie is still awake right now? Thinking about it, Jirachi in the movie had probably already fallen asleep by this time of night.
As Jirachi's guardian, he, of course, had to sleep with his arms around the little cutie.