The scream tore his throat.

Sage's hand flew to his head. His mind still crackled and roared, mimicking the storm that once was.

I was involved in the ritual when she was there. I tried to save her, like she tried to save me.

He shook his head, his slit-like eyes narrowing further as they took in the shadows sizzling about his body. He convulsed. His gaze slanted on the flopping dark veins, kind of like shadow Magikarp out of water.

We both failed.

A swift flick of black, then a steady stream. Sage felt all the adrenaline and avarice in each and every shade, desiring to consume the destructive darkness that was Darkrai. His muscles were flapping like hats, dead white, loose. Another scream. Another stream. The shades were deflected by claws and Shadow Balls.

There was no such thing as control.

An adage came to mind as the shadows kept flowing to the puppeteer of nightmares, spiralling, wrapping zir like a mummy. Layers and layers of ominous, bleak papyrus stuck to Darkrai's skin — muffled struggles shot the air — till all one could see of zir was but his penetrating gaze, cold, cruel, silencing.

That was four years ago. In the one year, all was well.

No one dared to move, even when they had awoken and lifted their bodies from the dull slab of earth. They could only watch the dark papyrus cover zir left eye, yet the hostility only amplified. Even with one eye, there was so much might and terror evoked.

The eye seemed disembodied, a malicious azure dripping from the black iris. The shadows still went on their Kamikaze missions, unfazed, neglecting their anguished host.

Till the betrayal. Till the betrayal. By Yvette.

Thoughts thinned. The bandages on his wrist were a stark contrast to those entrapping Darkrai as he jerked, tried to contain the shadows, patch the scar, give it cover. They only burst out, lively as water overflowing from a consecrated well. Sage was paralysed.

As it seemed, nothing could be done. The only option was to wait.

Even then, the waiting game refused to end, as if realising, however trite, that good was to continue, and evil was to end. It presented such a detestable conundrum, only to be unanswerable for it.

Sage heard no other voices — even if there were, they would be muffled by the shade rush — other than those within, and this brought him down to a new low.

It was reminiscent of the takeover by his past self, his Other who was in the ocean where Titanic avarice sank. Shrike. Upon uttering the name, his lips would foam with disgust. Yet, he could now focus on nothing but Shrike who completed him. A flower and its bird. A present and its past. A sheath and its dagger. They had all come together.

His surroundings grew hollow, a vacuum in the void, in the Umbrage Zone. The epic, rancid flow of shadows halted. His heart bashed his chest like the gong in a grandfather's clock. This was it. This was the end.

With an outlandish screech, Darkrai vanished alongside the exploding shadows. Sage's scar was left open, the shadows now replaced by blood flowing like Redcoats in war, meeting an imminent doom compensating their social and moral decay.

Sage couldn't explain what was going on at all when at once his surroundings returned, the same dull grey, the same group of people, stalactites, and a squirming Zygarde.

"Are you real?" Sage got up and watched as a white ball of light bounced onto his scar, and upon dissipating, the blood no longer trickled out. He glanced at Jade and nodded. "This is all real."

"Was Darkrai always this weak though?" Jade breathed. "He didn't retaliate much."

It's because the shadows were too overwhelming. I thought I had almost been consumed, too.

"I... don't know." Sage clenched his fist. "But still... Order has returned, somewhat."

He walked over to the group and met a scene of Titan and Zygarde conversing. It struck him as amusing and odd, but he dropped any questions about it.

"Sage, you alright?" Zayn turned to look him in the eye. "Zygarde's no longer plagued with nightmares. Zie apologises for dragging us into zir dream."

"I'm fine," Sage said. "But is the world stuck in the Umbrage Zone?"

"Seems like it," Titan muttered. "Except the island. It's got a barrier."

"Psychic... Wyatt's Malamar."

"How would you know?" Mei blinked. "Everything's too supernatural to assume things. It makes no sense that she'll unleash this Mystery Zone to claim the world and not the island."

"True," Sage breathed. "Then this is a spectral barrier."

"Maybe." Jade placed a hand on Mei's shoulder. "But what now? If we can't get out of here, there's no point."

"Don't look at me, girl. Darkrai has sapped all my powers. Only the Bright One can return order to the world now." Zygarde shook zir head and groaned.

"I can't burn the world down," Titan said.

"No. Not you."

"There must be a bug somewhere! Yvette, the app, the world! It's supposed to be me." Titan coughed and flames spewed from his nostrils. "Wha—"

"Zie means me."

Zayn stepped forward, his head hung low before he chinned up, glancing at everyone. His radiant poise, his azure eyes, his air of pride all conflated into one image of a hero.

Titan denied it with much gusto. There had to be a mistake somewhere, somehow. He was a main character too, and chosen ones are often protagonists. Was being a protagonist not enough? Then there must be a kind of a criteria to fulfil that he hadn't known! What crude, cruel betrayal! The flames of damnation must pray for poor Titan.

Zygarde stirred and turned to Zayn. "A darker, stronger force is at work. You are still sullied, Bright One."

Zayn flinched. Whatever could that mean?

Zygarde relayed that the one and only way to cleanse him would be the AZ Floette's Light of Ruin. There was no immediate discourse following which, save for the one in Sage's head.

So, Zayn's the one Tarocchi speaks of.

No, I don't understand why Titan isn't it. He's supposed to be Order. Or, is there another problem that he's suppose to bring order to?

Maybe. Who knows?

You, Sage Shrike, should know. You now communicate with all shadows, after all. Hear what they have to say.

He heard nothing. He heard nothing, not because they were mute, but because they were muted by Zayn's sudden blast of light. A couple dirt fragments burst apart from his skin, pores, lungs, but an abundance remained. The void shivered a little, recovering light tinges. That didn't last long, for Zayn's stamina diminished faster than an Arcanine in Extremespeed.

"Not enough." Zygarde's chest ballooned. "Still sullied."

"So... We need to find that golden Floette." Zayn's eyes glimmered.

The Umbrage Zone snatched all colour from their surroundings once more. Zygarde slithered into zir cave and waited. Silence unleashed its tsunami onto them; its solace was bearings and news.

「」

The island remained gloomy. The cave's Seviper-mouth glinted with dewdrops, the cityscape lost all lustre and the tension failed to abate.

Amid the external chaos, it didn't help that Yvette had a slight migraine the moment Yveltal left for the third time. That didn't hinder her cackle in the least as she watched the helpless dolts in the cage.

Her hands were now full with a bell jar containing a whining flower with gilt petals, Yveltal's second gift. Her lips arched into an evaporating dish where sublime hope dwelled for a while.

"It'll soon be over."