She woke up in a good mood today. That's what Clemont said at least as she ran around getting ready to train with Squishy. He'd compared her to her younger self, telling him how he wished she still had that much energy.
Not that she minded. It was fun back then. The four of them travelling together across Kalos, regularly coming across problems, partially because of Ash's tendency to become involved with a legendary level threat but also more subtle and daily things like Team Rocket attempting to take Pikachu.
Her mind wandered to the group for a second, trying to remember the last time she'd seen them. They had seemed lost, with no Ash to follow or Pikachu to catch they had clearly traveled around, probably not staying to one area for more than a month or two.
It was likely in Kanto where she'd last seen them between it and Alola, where Clemont had mentioned they'd been seen often, they likely spent most of their time there.
When they'd last met they'd tried to take Squishy, trying to trap it in the air, believing that it couldn't harm them if it was in the air. A simple call of Thousand Arrows had broken both the cage and balloon, ending with Team Rockets blasting off.
She was pulled back to by Clemont passing her some toast which she ate quickly waiting just long enough for Squishy and Dedenne to join her before bolting out to the battlefield and starting her training.
All of her Pokémon had doubled their efforts since hearing of the Tournament, Squishy most of all as it began to learn to use more of it's moves without having to call upon too many of the cells so it could allow the other core, Squishy 2 as she'd called it(much to it's distaste) to use them.
Her attention was turned back to the battlefield as her Pokémon ended their battles and returned to her. She crouched down to Dedenne who was on the verge of fainting and reached out to receive a Sitrus Berry.
As much as they'd tried to hide it from her, she knew about Clemont and Korrina's 'secret dates', which had taken place almost nightly since Korrina had moved into Prism Tower for the Tournament. She had nearly died from a mixture of Anger, Suprise and Excitement when Clemont had told her about their new relationship, Angry that Clemont hadn't let her help(which she knew he totally needed), suprise at her brother for actually asking her instead of the other way and excitement from the wide range of new ways he'd unknowingly given her to embarrass him (because she was an amazing sister that way).
She heard Korrina's voice call out from behind her, "hold down the gym 'Kay, me and Clemont are gonna get some food, we'll get you guys when we get back".
"Okay", she shouted back giving Korrina a grin as the gym leader turned around that was noticed, "just don't be gone for too long or I'll think that you're doing something you're not meant to."
She turned back to her Pokémon which all gave her nods of determination, the thought of food renewing their energy.
She then heard Korrina's spluttering as she tried to deny Bonnie's statement, giving up by sighing and skating away.
When she'd heard the skater's shoes fade away she turned back to her Pokémon, only to find Squishy curled up in it's core form, glowing slightly as it communicated with something, likely the other core.
Squishy stayed like that for around 10 minutes occasionally turning around, in an argument with something.
"I'm so sorry that I kept you waiting", Squishy said when they'd finally woken up, "do you feel that it's time we tried our new little secret once again"
She offered a large grin to her friend who bounced forwards onto the battlefield, where Dedenne, Florges and Tyrantrum were all stood, ready to begin their battle.
When she had started the battle Dedenne and Florges had both used a fairy type attack, Florges sending out a Dazzling Gleam and Dedenne shooting forward with a Play Rough. Tyrantrum marched forward with both a Dragon Tail and Dragon Claw ready, preparing to attack after the fairy type moves had hit, to stop it from taking super effective damage.
She herself called for Thousand Arrows, which all landed in front of Squishy, stopping both of the Fairy attacks from landing. Tyrantrum, however, took this opportunity and hit Squishy with a Dragon Tail, angling the attack to hit it towards the other Pokémon. Squishy resisted momentarily, preventing the attack from knocking it too far away.
Dedenne prepared by readying another Play Rough and Florges set up Misty Terrain, which caused Tyrantrum to shoot a small look of annoyance as it instead used Ice Fang.
To disrupt their plan to corner them, she asked Squishy to use Thousand Waves, which caused Dedenne to miss the Play Rough and Tyrantrum to stumble out of the way of the attack, crashing into Florges who launched a Fairy Wind back.
Squishy was knocked to the ground by Dedenne who had silently used another Play Rough.
She cursed under her breath shouting out an apology to Squishy who reassured her in return.
"You ready Squishy?", She asked the Legendary Pokémon
"Yes let's do this", the Order Pokémon responded, both of them concentrating on the other, feeling the familiar connection deepen as she opened herself to her ally.
Energy flowed through her, surging around her as she saw Squishy become engulfed in dust and a faint purple light.
Her sight changed slightly, the view now being split into two, one from the inside of the small tornado and her own.
The ground type energy blasted out in all directions but her own, hitting Dedenne and Tyrantrum as they took Super Effective damage and knocking Florges off her feet.
Squishy had changed in looks, growing to 10% Forme. It's once green areas had turned yellow, similar to the blonde of her own hair, with the red gem turning to a blue.
She got excited as she shared her thoughts of joy to her Pokémon who offered only a small level of excitement back.
She then felt the same energy surge around in her head, which Squishy had definitely noticed as the energy quickly faded, the connection that was formed in the bond breaking until it reached how it was before.
When she came back around Dedenne was sat on her shoulder, gently tapping at her face as she was sat up, leaning on Squishy who remained in 10% Forme, its colours returned to Green with a Red Gem, yet again slightly glowing as it began to communicate.
She saw Tyrantrum looking at her with concern, staying slightly back to prevent itself from harming her, and Florges stood to her side, using aromatherapy on the two of them.
"Don't worry about me", she said giving her Pokémon a cheery grin to show she was fine (even if she was a bit upset about failing the transformation yet again).
She looked back at Squishy who was yet again turning around, although it was much more often than it had earlier, which probably meant that the argument it was in had heated up.
She heard Clemont shouting for her, the prospect of eating grabbing the attention of her and her Pokémon, besides Squishy, who didn't eat anyway.
Regardless, she picked up Squishy, grunting slightly at the weight as she walked, her other Pokémon walking behind her.
"You know of the risks that attempting this can bring.", Z2 said in annoyance, looking back to Z1, or as she had insisted on being called, Squishy.
"Yes, I do. And we both know that the girl can handle it. If not them she wouldn't be around with us anyway. She is a suitable conduit, Arceus chose her for this. That is why she is the one that found me. That is why I am still travelling with her. You know that the only reason the Pokéball she has even exists is to prevent Team Rocket or otherwise from attempting to catch me themselves.", Squishy shot back, turning to walk away from Z2(Squishy 2, as her friend Bonnie had named him).
Z2 let out a growl of annoyance as it turned into it's 10% Forme and ran in front of Z1, turning back into it's core.
"I do not care that Arceus believes she is suited for the role. He is a fool. If the two of you cannot even stay conscious enough to use 10% then how do you expect her to be able to withstand 50%, much less joining me to create Zygarde."
"She has the potential Squishy 2"
"Do not call me that. She has not earned the right to name me. I am not one of her pets."
"Fine then Z2, as if the name given by the madman is any better than the one by our Guardian. She has the makings for a fine Aura Guardian. She simply lacks the means of becoming one."
"And how, may I ask, will you find yourself an Aura Guardian to teach her?"
"She knew of a certain Ash Ketchum, one of Arceus' Chosen. He could teach her."
"He very well could. Yet, as all know, there is a major flaw to that plan. Namely that the boy is dead. We both saw what happened on that day. I'd be suprised if even Arceus' power itself could have saved him."
"That's why I wish you would return, stop hiding. All that was left from the Crisis all those years ago is gone now, Ash's Greninja aided us with that. There is no reason why they should appear again."
"Yet what would my return do besides raise questions and spread fear amongst both people and Pokémon of the world. The fear from you being active is enough to keep Xerneas and Yveltal at bay for centuries more. The humans may not understand us but they know we are feared. Weaker than only Ultra Necrozma and Arceus herself. Not even the Darkest Day could withstand our power, even at the peak of their own."
"I want you to think for just a second what we could do. What good we could do if we mastered this. You're paranoid about what could happen if you come into the open. Together we could work to defeat all of them. All of the terrible people who reside in this world and focus on themselves and nothing else. You saw the downfall of Team Flare, we all did. Do you think that's it. That we sit idly by as humans fight themselves to do our job. We are the order Pokémon for a reason. To maintain order. The order that a select few have disturbed."
Squishy 2 was quiet for a short while, contemplating the pros and cons of what could happen from this.
"Very well", he said at last, stepping aside to let Squishy leave the direction she had planned, "I may not like it but you can continue. Though I would suggest a Teacher before you try again. Be that Ketchum or the next best thing."
"It will be done. Now I must leave, lest our young friend becomes too concerned about my disappearance. I hope I see you again soon, under better circumstances than we have been recently"
I just want to address the pronouns thing in this Chapter in case it confuses anyone. Z1(Squishy) is genderless to Bonnie as she doesn't know but female to Z2(Squishy 2) and other Legendaries as they do know Z1(Squishy)'s gender.
Z2(Squishy 2) being the counterpart to Z1(Squishy) is the opposite gender(assume they become genderless when they form Complete Zygarde.
Arceus is referred as both male and female because of the idea that a God can be every race, gender and of all abilities as the same time.
Reference to Legendaries' Gender will often be inconsistent because of the nature of a Legendary Pokémon(bar Latios and Latias for being consistently male and female respectively to name an outlier).
I apologise if i accidentally misgender any Pokémon such as Serena's Mawile who I've written to be male to name an example. If you spot that it'd be great if you could point it out and would help a lot.
As always I hope you enjoyed. Leave a review for what I could do better and I'll see you next time
-Face