Returning home sent a wave of ambivalence crashing onto Jade's heart.

For one, she was certain she would lock the doors all the time. In the span of two years, was there a burglary? She couldn't be sure if she was away. She could only be certain that she had most probably been taken away when she was in her house sipping tea. The glass teapot and empty porcelain teacup resting on the coffee table were evidence enough.

Another concern that smacked her nerves was a sudden craving for hints. Hints that her sister might have left her with.

Without warning, she rushed into her sister's room to meet a messy wardrobe, a grey laptop and a tidy white bed. Her desk was flooded with pencil and eraser dusts, and paper balls threatened to escape the bin by her chair through the awkward black lattice.

"Laptop!" Jade split the device open and punched the power button, waiting for it to glow like a sluggish Illumise. The rest of the group trailed into the room and sat on the bed. Silence expanded and contracted.

The Serperior Ouroboros chasing its tail on the screen faded, and a wallpaper featuring a black and green dog under numerous stalactites, zir thin, green scarf flying in the wind. Stretched-out, white, hexagonal eyes glinted in the negative space, beckoning one to feel zir immense aura. Pale yellow files assembled at the top left corner of the screen. The mouse shifted and landed on one labelled "Jewel's Discoveries", revealing its contents.

Most of them were centred around Kalosian myths and legends, archaeology, astronomy, and the discriminations and derogation of certain groups of people all around the world. Then, there was a folder on the occult. Upon clicking it, her findings on the Exitium Cult came to light. That was coupled with a map of the region, with a cross marking Terminus Cave.

"Zygarde!" Jade's hands flung to her ajar lips.

"The Order Pokémon, huh?" Titan scratched his chin. A thought spiralled around his swelling nerves: Can I stop this catastrophe? I was linked to Zygarde after all. If the roles are true, then we have to protect Mei from Yvette. And Sage will be the one to destroy Yvette.

"Let's get going," Zayn said as he turned around, and the rest followed. The journey would be an arduous one, for sure, but the spark in his eyes was a sign of his perseverance and drive.

Sage's slight, fleeting smirk acknowledged that. Of course, his attention had been on Titan upon his making the statement. Zygarde had done nothing at all when the Exitium Cult's ritual succeeded. Would zie be of any help now?

The answer, he decided, was apparent enough. After all, Sage Shrike had been the author of his past, present and future. With no uncertainty lapsing into a further, feral state, the path would be Clear Smog to him. All he needed now was to do nothing and let his prewritten words publish themselves as time ran short. Then, and only then, would it all unravel.

「」

The copse was silent.

It hadn't been a copse, but soon became one when the void propagated throughout Kalos. In seconds, its grandiose name of Allearth was reduced into no more than a mediocre Noearth, its size shrinking tremendously from that of an all-encompassing forest full of fairy lights and crowns to a thin thicket. Even the dethronement of these majestic trees proved to be more monumental as the void invited them into its homely interior.

Meanwhile, an enveloping murk eclipsed the greens, possessing much stealth and patience as its inky tentacles converged on the blue quadruped standing within the ring. Those darting eyes, those quaking thighs, those flickering antler-lights could but only sense an imminent danger, yet that shifting source, that snarling shadow, that swelling silence could but only creep ever closer whilst environing the beast, securing the space, moulding the lime. This invasion full of dark, peculiar rivers gave birth to an eldritch screech. This screech, wide open, broke into a single croak.

The shadowy roots of the void looped around, over and under zir. The strange futility of a Fairy, its foible being a void, was pure mockery. Any struggle proved to exacerbate the situation. Zie was tossed up like a pancake to soon be pulverised.

And like a pancake touching down on the scorching pan, zie was flipped over as zie fell into the void.

Though, this void led to a city painted in fifty shades of grey. It couldn't be called a city any longer since all that was left of it was but a kirk.

A kirk worshipping zir nemesis, a kirk overrun with shadows, a kirk immune to the void... yet a feeling deep down spoke volumes of the house of God being entrapped within the void. A kirk that was neither here nor there. It's as if it was a place where all lost things were gathered, only known to be a void to the world outside which could see nothing of its contents.

And as far as that world was concerned, the beast was a lost entity, as were fragments of those world-dwellers' identities that broke away too easily from the social fabric.

「」

It was a miracle that the group of five managed to stay awake and coloured naturally unlike those asleep on the patches of bluegrass, twitching and crying in agony. No one knew when they were carted into dreamland, but they knew for certain all of them must be trapped in some nightmare.

The sky was tinged grey, fading to black. The monotonous world cackled. They were in the void, gliding through bushy corners and rocky paths till a mist enshrouded their vision.

The world in the void paralleled theirs, save for the bleak hue.

"The world within the void," Zayn said as he led the group toward the coiling mist with much courage and determination. Branches scratched skin, and petals grazed flesh. The trippy road came in waves, compression and rarefaction increasing in frequency the further they trod.

"What's that?" Jade ducked a loose twig and leapt over a stump before helping Mei up as she tripped over mossy roots.

"Is it Hoopa?" Titan burnt the long weeds around them with his blue flames so any creatures in ambush will be exposed. "No, can't be."

"The rumoured Umbrage Zone, sometimes known as the Mystery Zone," Zayn said. "So it exists."

"And the world's main guardian is Marshadow," Sage added as he bent over to prevent his hair from sticking to an Electroweb spanning across seven trees.

"We're reaching Terminus Cave. I see some stalactites!" Zayn smiled. Soon, it will be over. All they needed was to seek Zygarde's permission to restore order to the world and send them off the grids of the Mystery Zone. Then, they can return and save their friends from Yvette.

Two steps more and cracks resounded. The earth behind them collapsed. All was nothingness. This was it, the wrath of the Umbrage Zone. They picked up speed, footsteps echoing in the odious terrain. Looking back, or going back, was no longer an option. They could only move forward. Sage lagged behind, his stamina lowering with each breath he took. Not good. A sudden gale came out of nowhere and wrestled his bandages out of his wrist.

Not again. He slanted his gaze. I can't lose it now. Or else, I can't perform at my best.

Using his hands was out of the question when the bandages were too far, gradually descending into the dark mire behind.

"Sage!" Zayn eyed him and turned back, legs cycling to make his charge effective enough.

No, don't repeat that again. Zayn shut his eyes and let loose a rope of warm light just as Sage's scar awakened.

Shadows pooled into the encroaching darkness, intersecting paths with the light. The white bandages nearly camouflaged with the mist, half of its being soaked in the dark. The path sank still. A growl unleashed itself upon the dull wilderness. The object fluttered in a spiral toward oblivion. Neither shadow nor light was prepared; they were entangled in each other.

The earth underfoot chipped off, and Sage leapt. He needed more. More. He must have it back.

The darkness stretched and swelled. The bandages were back in sight when the shadows consumed Sage, pulling him towards where the earth was still unaffected. He caught the white flash with his hand and let the shadows retreat, untangling from Zayn's light.

"Thanks, Zayn," he said as he looked at Zayn.

"It's nothing." Zayn turned away and hummed. "We should get going. Terminus Cave is nearer now."

As everyone shuffled their way forward, Sage did too, though a thought accompanied him: Did the space just distort? So, is it Hoopa or Marshadow guarding this realm? Or something else entirely? I don't understand.

Of course, he knew the truth, yet cannot meet it in any honest way.

The mist cleared when they reached the cave.

Instead of a Zygarde, though, a void of shadows emerged and consumed them all.