Chapter 23: Transition

Lunala and Solgaleo reached the area marked by the Universe Histogram Map. They looked around and found a shadowy figure flapping its wings away from them. Solgaleo dashed towards it and pounced it. When the Dawn Guardian inspected it, It could not believe Its eyes. The figure was another Lunala!

Solgaleo spoke, "Who are you? And why do you look like my sibling?"

It panicked. "I…I am sorry! I didn't mean harm, I…am just following Zygarde's order!"

"Zygarde? Is it that meddling beast that is eating Sereni's core?"

"Yes…yes! It is…uh… Oh no, what should I do?"

"Calm down," said Lunala, "Can you explain why are you casting night time all over the planet? And what does Zygarde has to do with your actions?"

The finicky second Lunala explained, "I…was captured by Zygarde from space when I was just a young Cosmog. That beast hastened my evolution to…what you can see right now and forced me to interfere with the night time, or else…"

It began to cry and continued to say, "I…am from a different planet from a different planetary system. My home is called Wondill, a planet with other Pokémon inhabit, and it is under threat by Zygarde. If I don't serve him, my planet will be gone…"

The Dusk Guardian comforted the second Lunala, "I see… But since that beast preoccupied on our planet, you can stop what you are doing and return to your home. Do you want us to accompany you?"

The second Lunala cheered up a little and stopped using her powers to extend the night time. "Oh! I didn't think of that. Yeah! My home planet is safe now. I can go home! Umm, it is okay. Since I have my newfound powers, I can use it to guide my way back home. Umm, I am truly sorry about the state of your world is in."

"Don't be. You were threatened by Zygarde, after all. I can understand why you have no choice but to do this."

Solgaleo interrupted, "I have to warm the planet up, so I shall take my leave, sis. I will restore your powers after a day has passed."

The Dusk Guardian replied, "Alright. I will go to the planet's core to aid the heroes then. See you."

After the Dawn Guardian flew away, Lunala advised second Lunala, "Young Lunala, if you want to revert to Cosmog state, all you need to do is to let yourself hit by the solar flare."

Second Lunala was astonished. "I did not know it is that easy to de-evolve! Solar flares aren't that common, but I can visit the star that is highly active in giving off the flares. Thanks, umm…Lunala! Haha! How funny to see that we came from a frail Cosmog and evolved into a highly respected Pokémon."

"Yes. Although getting respected depends on your actions as well. There is one being isn't pleased with what I did to her…"

"Who is she then?" enquire Second Lunala curiously.

The Dusk Guardian giggled, "Haha. I should not disclose that. Alright, take care of yourself. If you need help, feel free to communicate with me telepathically."

"Maybe I need to learn to perfect this telepathy link before I attempt to talk to you. Thanks for telling me that, and see you, Lunala!"

The second Lunala bowed to the Dusk Guardian, and then it flew away. Lunala then stared at Planet Sereni and opened a portal. It muttered to itself.

"It is time to foil that dastard beast's plan."

/

"Normad, our attacks are not working on him!" shouted Paul.

Normad replied while transporting Paul and maintaining distance from Zygarde, "I know! No matter…what moves we used, they are not effective."

"I don't understand why my Psychic is not working on him. Just how strong is he? No matter. We have to try to weaken it!" said General Cresselia telepathically.

Sergeant Dishita used telepathy as well, "Cobalt and I will heal all of you if you get injured. We will do our best to block Zygarde's attacks as well."

Celesteela spoke while flying next to General Cresselia, "This is just like fighting against that beast in my planet. None of our attacks was working!" then it pondered for a while, and voiced its idea, "I know! We can attack his eyes. That should blind him and lower his defences!"

General Cresselia responded, "Hopefully. I will attempt it now."

She used Psychic on Zygarde's eyes. However, the planet destroyer conjured a barrier to resist the attack. The planet destroyer then looked at General Cresselia and laughed.

"Good try, but all of you can't even break my barrier. This battle bores me. I should finish all of you quickly."

Zygarde began to generate a black hole. The group became desperate to stop its attack and threw everything they got. But the black hole sucked in their ranged attacks. The group had no choice but to proceed to abandon the battle. Celesteela opened a dimensional portal and told the rest of the group to get in. It said.

"We cannot afford to lose here. Let's escape and re-strategise!"

The rest of the group agreed. When they were about to go into the portal, another being with wings came out of it. That took the group by surprise. It was Lunala!

The Dusk Guardian used Phantom Force and suddenly appeared next to Zygarde and rammed it. The attack rendered the planet destroyer unable to focus on its black hole. Thus, the black hole closed. Zygarde was amazed by the attack and told Lunala.

"Hmm! Finally, an opponent that can oppose me."

The Dusk Guardian replied, "There is no need for you to stay here, Zygarde. I shall drive you away!"

Lunala shot Moongeist Beam. The purple electric-like beam rammed onto Zygarde with such force that even his barrier had shattered as he could not maintain his concentration. The planet destroyer then used Dragon Tail to try to fling the Dusk Guardian. But he failed as Lunala phased through his tail and countered with Moonblast. The consecutive hits from the Dusk Guardian did some injuries to the planet destroyer, but he became enthusiastic.

He said, "This is great! I can finally use my ultimate move."

He used Land Wrath. Although there was no land in the core, the seismic activity broke the wall that separated the magma and the planet's core. The magma came sweeping in, and its volatile properties created explosions. The group had trouble avoiding the explosion, so they had no choice but to escape in the dimensional portal. However, Lunala did not give up. It protected the portal and questioned Celesteela that had not yet entered the portal.

"Where is Solestral?"

"She…was sucked into the black hole created by Zygarde," replied the pillar being.

"I see… Don't lose hope. I am sure she will find a way to come back."

"I hope. How about you?"

Lunala grinned, "Magma is no issue to me. I will fight that beast until he is defeated. Please take Solestral's friends to the floating island in the north. They will be safe there."

Celesteela acknowledged, "Alright. May you succeed…"

The dimensional portal closed after the pillar being entered it. The Dusk Guardian continued Its attack. It kept on using Phantom Force, Moongeist Beam and Moonblast at Zygarde, but It was astonished that the planet destroyer enjoyed from receiving the hits.

He chuckled, "Oh, I have not experienced a volley of attacks before! Even my strongest attack did not baffle you. I need to land an attack on you, but how? Oh yes, I need to lose some weight."

He transformed into a hound dog. Then, he zoomed so fast that Lunala could not anticipate and Crunch It. The Dusk Guardian gritted Its teeth.

"So, my speed is your weakness? Haha! How are you dealing with this attack then?"

He used Extreme Speed combined with Crunch and repeatedly tackled Lunala. The Dusk Guardian decided to vanish to fool Zygarde's senses, but it did not seem to work. The planet destroyer sniffed Its whereabouts and used Spite. The curse attack drastically reduced Lunala's PP that It had only a few tries to use Its moves against him.

"How dare you!" said the Dusk Guardian angrily. It then thought of a different tactic. It flew towards what left of the Sereni's core and shielded it with Moonblast.

Zygarde replied, "You are protecting the core with your life? How noble! It is not that you can shield it that long!"

Lunala strongly protested, "I will protect it till the heroine comes back!"

/

At Lunala's domain, the sun had risen, and the land became less icy. The group that had arrived at the domain panted exhaustedly from the battle. They were worried that the Dusk Guardian might not hold up against Zygarde for long, but they had to think of a way to bring the planet destroyer down.

"Any ideas what we can do?" asked Paul.

General Cresselia responded first, "No. That beast was so tough that not even our items worked against him. But since its barrier is down, maybe we can finally focus on hirs vitals?"

"I think…the third clue of the truth might…help us plan for an attack. It can split into a hundred…of itself. I presume that it…might be weaker if we managed to make it do that," suggested Normad.

Paul applauded Normad for his idea, "That is a great idea! But how can we do that?"

"Explosion. That shockwave should able to do the trick," said Sergeant Dishita.

Cobalt spoke, "We can call our colleagues to join in the battle and use Explosion."

General Cresselia rejected the idea. "No. That is sacrificing yourself needlessly. I will condemn that action from you and your colleagues. But when you mentioned about colleagues, I have one in mind. Give me a moment."

She became quiet as she was talking to someone telepathically. On the other hand, Celesteela voiced its concern.

"It seems that all of you aren't lamenting Solestral's disappearance. Why?"

Paul replied, "Because…we know she is still alive somewhere, and she will come back to us soon."

"We have faith…in her. Besides, she is not…the type to quit an unfinished battle," responded Normad.

"Not that I know much about Solestral. Though, I can see she has a fighting spirit that is a rarity among all the Pokémon," explained Cobalt.

"It seems that Solestral might make a good commanding officer," said Sergeant Dishita.

Paul answered, "Oh, no! She is nasty. She never stops bullying me and being reckless. She is definitely not leader material."

The group laughed at his response.

General Cresselia said, "Alright, my friend is coming to our spot soon. He will be a great ally for the battle."

"Who is he?" enquired Celesteela.

"Let's say he is overprotective but has great leadership skill."

In a few minutes, a black shadow approached the group and materialised. He had two black flickering 'smoke' on the shoulders and red-jagged spikes on its chest. He peered at General Cresselia and hugged her.

"General Cresselia! Are you alright? Why you didn't contact me for so long?"

"General Darkrai," the crescent Pokémon replied, "We were at war. So, isn't it was not appropriate for me to chat with you all the time?"

"At least you can tell me that you were doing well… Ahem! Alright, I heard your plan. You want me to aid you to defeat Zygarde?"

"Yes. Your shadow skills will come in handy in defeating him."

General Darkrai folded his arms. "Hmm…I can contribute by using shadow techniques on all of you to avoid Zygarde's attack. If my Nightmare move works, it will be easy to take him down."

General Cresselia was impressed with General Darkrai's quick thinking, "Ah. You need to tag us before you can use your shadow techniques, isn't it?"

"That's the plan. So, when you are ready, let's proceed."