Hello, one and all!

Sorry for the brevity of this chapter, it's somewhat of a breather for what's to come. Also I was kinda uninspired with this chapter, but I don't know why. However, I have big plans coming up as we finish the Kalos arc, and I hope to get these out as soon as possible.

Also I sincerely apologize if I misgender either Esmae or Zygarde in this chapter. For those who don't know, they're nonbinary. I've combed the chapter to try to find any incorrect pronouns, and I had a friend do the same, but I wouldn't put it past myself to have missed something.

In either case, enjoy!

Chapter Twenty One: Mistakes.

The green canine and the person riding it carefully examined each of us, neither of them saying anything. Xerneas spoke up once again.

"Zygarde, is that you!?" She asked once more.

"He can't speak, you know." The human responded, stroking the canine's neck. "Heh, poor thing can't say a thing when they're in this form. So, I'll take it upon myself to speak for them, and they can hit me or whatever if I misrepresent them." The human added.

"Hey, who are you anyway?" Sarah asked.

"Name's Esmae. I'm Zygarde's human, if you couldn't tell. We've come to give you guys some backup." Esmae said. I tilted my head in confusion.

"W-Why would we need backup?" I asked.

"Zygarde sensed something approaching you guys. We thought it would be TDA or whatever his name is and came to help. With Yveltal cocooned and all, we didn't wanna risk losing Xerneas." Esmae replied. "But it seems we've beaten him to you, so that's good." They added confidently.

"Are you sure whatever was heading for us was TDA? We'd assumed so at first, but we recently had an encounter with one of his subordinates, a Weavile spirit named Tranchant. Could it be possible that it was him you detected?" Reshiram asked. Esmae seemed to consider this for a moment, before their eyes widened.

"Shit!" They exclaimed. "Zygarde! Could you check to see if that anomaly is still heading here?" Zygarde nodded, their eyes starting to glow green. After a moment, their eyes suddenly returned to normal, and Zygarde began to bark. "Woah! What's the matter?" Esmae asked. Zygarde only responded with further barks. The green dog reared back, knocking Esmae off. Zygarde then… split apart. It was more of an explosion actually, green slime flying everywhere. However, the green slime seemed to have… eyes?

"What the hell?" Sarah said in disgust. Esmae, who was getting up after Zygarde knocked them down, facepalmed.

"Damnit, I hate it when they do this." They said. Taking note of our confused faces, Esmae decided to elaborate. "Ok, so basically Zygarde is composed of a bunch of green cells. They can split apart to take on different forms. For example, their most commonly known form is when they have fifty percent of their cells, while their canine form is when they have ten percent of them. Sometimes, they decide to split apart for no reason like this. I swear, I can't understand how this thing thinks sometimes." Esmae added. Just then however, the cells began moving close to each other, forming… letters?

"HE'S HEADING FOR MY ORB" It read.

Those five words instantly caused everyone to freeze up. It wasn't until the cells quickly coalesced back into Zygarde's ten percent form that any of us sprang to action. Zygarde immediately yipped and motioned for Esmae to get on their back. Xerneas ran to her den.

"Absalon! We must depart at once! TDA seeks to steal mine colleague's orb! Make haste, Absalon!" She yelled.

"Yes, Xerneas!" Absalon yelled back. Sarah looked at Zekrom.

"Well don't just stand there, bend over so I can get on top of you!" Sarah said to him. Zekrom looked flustered for a split second but shook his head and obeyed, surprisingly without pushback.

"Marcus, let's go." Reshiram said to me. I nodded and returned Grace to my Pokeball and motioned for Sammy to follow me. I yelled for Xerneas to get my bag, which still had Frenc in it, and Sammy and I got on top of Reshiram. Zygarde began running at top speed, with Esmae almost falling off of them. Zekrom took flight and began to follow them. Reshiram spread her wings and followed suit. As we took off, I could hear Xerneas yelling.

"Absalon! Make haste or else! And fetch our guests' bag while you're at it!"

…

On the other side of Kalos, a familiar duo stood outside of Terminus Cave, plotting an ambush. The human, an all too familiar Alolan, was looking over his notes and drawings, all neatly compiled. He'd had the plan for seizing the orbs of Kalos in mind for quite some time, seeing as it was the only region besides Kanto that had only three orbs. In truth, he would have targeted Kalos second, had Johto not been conveniently close to Kanto. But that didn't matter right now. He shot a sideways glance at his serpentine friend.

"Well, everything is going according to plan. Assuming Tranchant completes his job successfully, we should be outta here and off to Hoenn by the end of the day." TDA said.

"Are you sure? I wouldn't exactly call Tranchant reliable…" Giratina replied. His human companion smirked.

"That's why we have a contingency plan. If Tranchant is unable to carry out his task, then we can resort to that plan. It may be a little extra trouble for us, but I'm sure it won't compare to handling Zygarde. I hope anyway. If need be, we can always retreat." TDA said. Giratina chuckled.

"As much as I hate the prison world Arceus crafted for me, it does provide a remarkably easy method of escape. And now that you've broken the seal, I needn't worry about being trapped there." Giratina agreed. TDA let out a light laugh.

"That is true." He said. The two of them spent a moment looking at the entrance of Terminus Cave, letting the tension of an upcoming battle wash over them. The Renegade Pokemon, and the human he'd sworn to help and protect, felt excitement stir in them.

"Ready to head in?"

"Oh yes. I'll enjoy this very, very much."

…

Back at Xerneas' now deserted den, another antagonistic force was forwarding its plans. It turns out that it was none other than the tortured Weavile spirit, Tranchant. While being a spirit and his power boon both gave him increased speed and stamina, he was at the point of near collapse. Running from Xerneas' den to TDA, then back to Xerneas' den in a single day had done a number on him.

But it would be worth it if he could successfully carry out his mission. Besides having to run back to TDA once again. That part would suck, but other than that, it would be worth it. Tranchant shook his head, clearing it of such idle thoughts. He had a job to do.

It didn't take long for him to stumble upon the entrance to Xerneas' den. "Heh, looks like they left the entrance open." He muttered to himself. With no resistance to stop him, he entered the opening. Inside, he was surprised to find a rather luxurious looking living room, furnished with expensive looking couches, chairs, tables, and other things one would expect to find in a living room. The dead Weavile couldn't help but smile fondly. It brought back to him a sense of nostalgia, from before he died… Oh the lavish castle he used to inhabit! The many nights he'd spend associating with other Pokemon owned by royalty! It was so wonderful, so... so...

His brief moment of happiness quickly turned to anger, as things usually did when reminiscing about his past life. Those Legendaries… he hated them more than anything. They were supposed to look after their creations, yet they never did anything for them. And even hundreds of years after his death, it still seemed like the Legendaries hadn't changed their ways.

Tranchant yelled in anger and slashed at one of the tables with his sharp claws, splitting it clean in half. Still not satisfied, he began to do the same to the other pieces of expensive furniture. In his fit of rage, he noticed a framed picture on the wall, a framed picture of Absalon, though Tranchant didn't know this. "Who's the kid…?" He muttered. He quickly decided it didn't matter and slashed the picture, leaving three prominent scratch marks.

"Ugh, I'm getting off track!" The hate-filled Weavile yelled in frustration. He was supposed to see if there was a certain something around here. Having thoroughly trashed the living room, he decided to see what other rooms may hold.

What followed was an uneventful semi-romp through several different rooms as he tried to look for what it was TDA had sent him to get. As time passed, he began to worry that what he was looking for wasn't here after all. That is, until he stumbled upon a fancy looking wooden box.

"Oh? What's this?" He asked himself. He picked it up, noticing there was a lock on it. Not that it mattered, considering he was able to effortlessly rip the box open with pure strength. However, he was a little too forceful, causing the box's contents to fly out of it. "Shit!" He yelled, scrambling to grab what had fallen out. And that's when he noticed it. Right in front of him was a blue, glowing orb with an X on it. Tranchant grinned in pure glee.

"Those fucking idiots. Who the hell leaves a Legendary orb unattended?" He picked it up, making sure it was undamaged. "I guess that's what TDA planned for though. It's a good thing he sent me." He began to exit the den, still grinning, and somewhat dreading the large amount of running in his near future.

"Heh, well it's one step closer to a better world!"

Hehehehehehehehehehe, what a twiiiiiiiist!

I can't say much else. All I will say is stay tuned!