Chapter 345: The Controlled Zygarde! "Do You Intend to Stop Me?"
The whole of Kalos had erupted into chaos.
Lysandre's name already carried enormous weight across the region — his research institute's holographic technology alone had spread across the entire area. And now — what exactly had he just said?
Use the Ultimate Weapon to wipe out everyone besides Team Flare? What kind of madness was this?
And Lysandre's address wasn't done yet.
"Worthless, lazy people will only, slowly, devour the future whole."
"If this continues, the world can only grow uglier, and conflict will inevitably return."
Lysandre's voice was heavy with gravity, and in the hologram, his expression matched it exactly.
"I'll say it once more. We, Team Flare, will use the Ultimate Weapon to sweep this world clean, and remake it anew!"
"To everyone outside of Team Flare — regrettably, this is farewell."
The hologram ended there — but the real chaos was only just beginning.
Lysandre's declaration had gone out across the entire region via hologram — anyone with a holographic communicator would have received the message automatically.
"Mr. Lysandre... how could this be?!"
Serena stared, utterly disbelieving. She never could have imagined Lysandre harbored a thought process this genuinely terrifying, this extreme. Everyone had held him in such high regard.
"What even is this 'Ultimate Weapon,' anyway?"
Platinum, though, was more curious about that specific detail — after all, she'd already gathered from their very first day's briefing in Kalos that Lysandre was no good man.
"A device built by the King of Kalos three thousand years ago, known as the 'God's Device' — it wields extraordinarily powerful force."
Mammon stood, offering a brief explanation.
The King of Kalos from three thousand years ago — AZ — had possessed knowledge and technology far ahead of his era, and had built the Ultimate Weapon with it. Sadly, in the end, that same weapon became the single greatest source of his suffering.
"Using the Ultimate Weapon to wipe out all life? This man's genuinely, completely insane," Caitlin remarked.
"Activating the Ultimate Weapon requires an enormous amount of life energy, though other energy sources can theoretically substitute for it too. Come on, let's move out."
Mammon stretched. After waiting this long, things were finally getting underway.
"Now that Lysandre's gone and issued his declaration publicly, Team Flare's going to be moving fast too. Lumiose City's probably already a genuine mess by now."
And Mammon was right.
Lumiose City really was in a state of significant disarray at this point — the biggest reason being Lysandre's broadcast just now, on top of which the entire city had just gone into a full power outage. Team Flare had seized control of Kalos's power plant and siphoned off an enormous amount of electricity, causing the citywide blackout.
"I don't understand." Serena still genuinely couldn't wrap her head around it.
She'd faced the reality now — the man who'd once, so kindly, told her about the beautiful ideal world he wanted to build had become a genuinely terrifying extremist.
"Mr. Lysandre wants to create an ideal world, but why would that mean eliminating other humans and Pokémon? Isn't that just pure slaughter?"
Yes — that was the part Serena simply couldn't reconcile.
"In Lysandre's own mind, what he wants is a world genuinely free of conflict and competition."
Mammon walked at the front of the group, heading toward Lysandre's research institute, explaining as he went.
"Wealth, energy, resources — anything at all inevitably invites competition, and competition inevitably means scarcity for someone."
"So if you want a world genuinely free of that struggle, one that can go on living beautifully, the only real option is reducing the number of lives in it."
"Pokémon fall into this too. Humans and Pokémon help each other, and both prosper together — but precisely because of that, Lysandre came to believe Pokémon could also become a tool people fight over."
Mammon laid out Lysandre's reasoning.
"That's... that's not how it should be!" Serena's pupils trembled slightly, unable to accept a philosophy like that at all.
"Yeah~ what an extreme way of thinking. It's wrong, which is exactly why we're here to set him straight."
Mammon nodded. Conflict could never truly be scrubbed from the world entirely — not as long as people existed at all.
And Lysandre, shaped by his own bitter experiences, had stubbornly convinced himself that filthy, corrupt people were the source of all that conflict — never once realizing that the human heart itself was where conflict truly originated.
Honestly, extremist-Lysandre could genuinely share a table with Cyrus. Cyrus had craved a world stripped of "spirit" entirely — without spirit, naturally, there'd be no desire; without desire, naturally, no conflict at all. That was exactly the "beautiful" world Lysandre himself was chasing.
Not sure Lysandre's even still salvageable at this point, honestly.
—
In front of Lysandre's research institute.
Team Flare members in orange suits were locked in battle against a squad of officers led by Looker.
But clearly, Looker's side was losing ground.
"Chief! This isn't good — we can't keep this up much longer. Is backup still not here?"
An officer recalled his incapacitated Gogoat, addressing Looker urgently.
The moment Lysandre's "announcement" ended, Looker had immediately led her people straight to the research institute — but Team Flare had clearly been fully prepared for it.
"I've already sent word. Command says Elite Four Malva is on her way to reinforce us."
Looker's expression wasn't looking good either — she genuinely hadn't expected Team Flare's actual strength to be this formidable. This whole thing had erupted far too suddenly, and Team Flare's scale had already vastly exceeded any prior estimate.
Team Flare members had surfaced across every direction of Lumiose City, working to seal off the city's exits — and with the power out, a great deal of equipment simply couldn't be activated at all.
"Still not done?"
At the entrance to Lysandre's research institute, a green-haired woman in an orange dress watched the fighting unfold ahead, though her mind clearly wasn't fully on it.
This was Team Flare executive Aliana.
Abruptly, a thunderous crash rang out. Aliana turned reflexively — and found a genuinely fierce Salamence hovering menacingly in the air, glaring down at her.
"Yo~ you look like you might be someone important."
Duruo, his white hair fluttering, dropped smoothly down from Salamence's back, a faint, lazy smirk playing on his lips.
"Who are you?"
Aliana's brow furrowed slightly, her expression growing more serious — this guy clearly looked strong.
"Duruo. Team Rocket, Senior Officer. Sorry to bother you, but — would you mind giving up on the pointless resistance?"
Duruo tilted his head slightly, pointing at the 'R' insignia on his black jacket, offering Aliana a grinning self-introduction.
As a Senior Officer, he had leave to wear plainclothes rather than the standard Team Rocket uniform — as long as the insignia was visible, that was enough. So Duruo had had the 'R' logo, representing Team Rocket, stitched onto his own favorite gold-patterned black jacket.
Yeah, Duruo genuinely thought it looked pretty sharp.
"Team Rocket's Senior Officer..."
Something sank in Aliana's chest. So Team Rocket really did come, after all.
Her face, of course, didn't show any of it.
"Is every Team Rocket member as insufferable as you? I'm Aliana."
Aliana opened her Poké Balls, and a large wolfhound and a Charizard-red dragon appeared in front of her.
"A Team Flare executive, and also a scientist."
"Tch~ honestly, I'm not really one for fighting women, but you don't exactly look like the type to go down without a fight."
Duruo clicked his tongue lightly, opening another Poké Ball, releasing his Dragonite to land beside him with a flap of its wings.
Aliana's expression darkened further, eyeing the Salamence and Dragonite standing in front of Duruo. Well, damn.
"Doesn't matter either way. Alright~ let's see it, then — show me what your Team Flare executives are actually made of."
Duruo flexed his hand, the corner of his mouth stretching into something faintly unsettling.
"Talking about wiping out everything outside of Team Flare — you must be pretty confident in yourselves, huh?"
Duruo could hardly hold back his laughter. A two-bit evil organization, and you're already talking about eliminating everything else in existence?
Did you even check with Team Rocket first?
Let's do this.
Meanwhile, in front of the research institute, the scene had only grown more chaotic — another group had just joined the fray.
"Chief! Are these reinforcements?"
An officer asked Looker, startled.
"Are you blind? Those are all Team Rocket members." Looker replied, a note of genuine exasperation in her voice, brow furrowing.
These Team Rocket members all looked quite young — sixteen or seventeen years old, on average, by the look of it. But their skill was genuinely impressive — every single one of them was pushing Team Flare's grunts back, and they all seemed genuinely... excited about it?
"Team Rocket, huh? Heard of them — supposedly an organization that specifically hunts down evil forces. Didn't think it was actually true," a young officer said, sounding genuinely bewildered.
Looker said nothing, giving no clear opinion either way.
Regardless of the details, Team Rocket's involvement was, at this moment, genuinely helping them.
"Chief Looker?"
Suddenly, a clear, pleasant female voice called out.
Looker turned, and found a dark-cherry-haired girl in a pink jacket standing there.
Looker's sharp eyes caught the 'R' insignia on the girl's chest immediately.
"Hello. You are...?"
"I'm Zicao, a Senior Officer with Team Rocket. It's an honor to speak with you."
Zicao brushed a strand of hair off her forehead, a little nervous, keeping a friendly, endearing smile fixed as she addressed Looker, whom she clearly recognized as a leader here.
"The honor's mine — thank you for your assistance." Looker, experienced and perceptive, noticed the girl's nervousness immediately and returned a warm, friendly smile.
"Please, think nothing of it — we're all fighting for the same cause here, and we're genuinely glad to help." Sensing Looker's genuine warmth, Zicao relaxed a little.
Hearing the sincerity in the girl's words, Looker's expression softened further still.
A genuinely kind, sincere young woman.
"I've noticed quite a few of your officers are injured. If it works for you, I'd recommend your side pull back and regroup — you can leave this area entirely to us. We're confident we can round up these Team Flare members ourselves."
Zicao said earnestly.
"There are still plenty of Team Flare members roaming across Lumiose City right now — I imagine you're needed far more urgently elsewhere. We can handle this front."
"...Then I'll leave it to you. I'll keep a few of my officers here to assist."
Looker considered it for a moment. Zicao's point was genuinely valid — Lumiose City was in genuine chaos right now, and they urgently needed hands to help organize civilian evacuations. Manpower really was stretched dangerously thin.
"Yes! Our boss has already coordinated with Champion Diantha directly — our organization will fully support your side throughout this operation."
Zicao added one more piece of information.
"Understood. Thank you." So it really was Diantha herself who arranged this partnership with Team Rocket's boss. Looker felt considerably more at ease at that.
Once Zicao watched Looker lead her officers away, she let out a genuine sigh of relief, silently cursing Duruo and the others.
Talking up how great her "diplomatic skills" supposedly were, insisting SHE be the one to negotiate with Looker — honestly, unbelievable.
Sure, it was one thing back at school, but this was Zicao's first time actually negotiating with a regional League figure in her capacity as a Team Rocket officer — of course she'd been nervous about it!
Still, once it was over, Zicao couldn't help a small, satisfied, adorable smile spreading across her face.
Papa — your daughter's really made something of herself now, yo!!
No way around it, though — getting the League's people to leave was really the best possible outcome, since Team Rocket needed those Team Flare prisoners for themselves. If Looker and her officers had stuck around, there'd probably have been friction over exactly who got custody of the captured Team Flare grunts.
Whatever else, Zicao genuinely didn't want any actual conflict breaking out with League personnel.
Zicao looked up at the massive research institute looming ahead, threw out her Poké Ball, and readied herself to join the fight properly — this was all merit points, after all!
Not far off, atop a fairly modest-height building, Mammon sat watching the institute with a faint smile, Caitlin seated beside him.
—
Meanwhile, inside the research institute.
Serperior and Hydreigon landed in front of her.
"Tch~ so that's all a Team Flare executive's got, huh."
Mei toyed idly with the Poké Ball in her hand, looking down at the Team Flare executive now kneeling on the ground before her — a purple-haired woman, apparently named Celosia.
"Damn it! Don't get cocky — our boss will finish you all off!"
Celosia gritted her teeth.
"Heh, don't worry, I'll take your boss down too, right along with you."
Mei shot back, pouting slightly, then signaled her people to bind and take away the defeated Team Flare executive.
"Move it a little faster — none of these Team Flare executives are especially strong, so let's not let the real prize slip through," Touko urged Mei, having already dealt with several grunts blocking their own path.
"Haven't spotted Dawn and the others anywhere — they're probably already inside."
They hadn't come through the main entrance, but Platinum and the others might well have taken that route themselves, since the mission's ultimate target was Team Flare's Champion-caliber leader, Lysandre.
That was the real prize.
Mei and Touko pressed forward and soon reached the door of the deepest room within the institute.
And sure enough — Platinum and Serena were already there, standing off against Lysandre in a tense standoff.
"Two more of you now? Also Team Rocket, I take it."
Lysandre's expression remained as composed as ever, as though he barely registered the four young women standing before him.
"Mr. Lysandre, please, give this up! Your ideal is fundamentally wrong!"
Serena couldn't hold back any longer, calling out to him.
"Why? Everyone trusted you so completely, Mr. Lysandre."
"Wrong? Serena, you still don't understand me at all."
Lysandre's expression darkened, gazing at Serena with genuine disappointment.
He'd genuinely thought highly of Serena as a promising young newcomer once — but in the end, she'd never truly understood him.
"I once wanted to use my institute's profits to help people — but... it was a drop in the ocean."
Lysandre lightly pressed a control on his mechanical wristpiece. A red data-visor flickered to life, and a series of mechanical camera lenses extended out from his arm guards.
"The world is simply too vast. There are far too many fools out there I could never possibly save."
"At this point, Serena, I no longer expect you to understand my reasoning."
"If you intend to stop me — then come and defeat me."
"But—"
Behind Lysandre, the mechanical gate slowly ground open, releasing a low, grinding, agonized shriek — pure fury and pain mixed together.
A dreadful red glow spilled out from the laboratory beyond, and a colossal black-and-red serpent slowly coiled its way through, settling itself directly behind Lysandre.
Savage. Feral. Twisted.
Fifty-percent Forme, forcibly controlled — Z2, Complete Zygarde, corrupted into a state of pure fury!
(End of chapter)
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