Pokémon XYZ: Life, Death, Order, and Chaos (book 2 of the HBoD series)

Chapter 48: The Resurrection Pt. 2: The Woes of Cassandra

Lucario jumped in front of me, raising his fist to meet Zeraora's, only to be hit in the side and sent crashing into the wall. The ice around him cracked and he reverted out of his mega form, collapsing forwards. 

"Eve," I said, but Zeraora was in front of me now, fangs bared. I watched as a few sparks of electricity ran along his maw, then glanced back up at Eve. "I don't want to fight, not unless I have to."

"Good," she said, turning her back on me. "Then you and your friends can stay right there. I have to finish this."

"Eve," Robert walked forwards, but Zeraora held out a paw, claws extending, so he stopped moving, but kept talking. "We know you're trying to bring Cassandra back. But if what you're going to do to accomplish that will hurt Xerneas and Volcanion, we can't allow that."

Eve stopped walking, then, "Zeraora."

The Mythical Pokemon stepped back, his electricity dying away, but he was still wary. The leader of Team Radiance turned around and sighed. "Do you mean that?"

Robert looked confused. "Uh, yeah?"

Eve shook her head and waved her hand. "Follow me."

Zeraora closed his maw and began following her. Looking at my friends in confusion, we did the same after I returned Lucario to his pokeball.

"In the beginning I only had hatred towards you," Eve said. "I thought I would do whatever it took to get revenge and bring my mother back." She stopped in front of the tank containing her mother, nodding at Kamake who stood next to a console. "Everything stable?"

Kamake nodded, tapping a few keys on her tablet. "Yes. Vitals are stable?"

"Vitals?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow. "She has vitals."

"Not..." Eve pursed her lip. "Not Cassandra. Xerneas."

"Xer-?" Alex looked at the tank near Cassandra's, the white ancient tree floating inside clear liquid.

"We've been taking care not to harm her," Eve said, walking over to the tank and placing her hand on the glass. "That release of energy only happened so we could keep her stable."

"What about Volcanion?" I asked.

"Not one to miss anything huh?" Eve smiled drily and motioned for us to follow her again. We went to a metal door framed on the wall, the ice cracked around it. She nodded at a grunt and he pressed a couple buttons on a keypad mounted next to it. With a hiss, the door opened, steam releasing. The door was pulled all the way open and inside was a smaller room, but plenty big for the Pokemon inside.

Volcanion rested inside in a pool of water, steam filling the entire room. He looked much healthier than he had back at the Power Plant and didn't have a single wire attached to his body.

"I realized something during my time here," Eve said, a smile on her face now. "Team Radiance was originally created for a good purpose. Somewhere along the way, Cassandra's way of seeing that got twisted. Now, I mean to bring Radiance's old ideals back."

"So you exchanged information with Flare to obtain Volcanion," Robert's eyes widened as realization spread across his face. "Not to use him for easy energy to power your machines, but to save him."

She nodded. "Exactly. We did ask Volcanion ourselves if he could spare any energy. If he had refused, we wouldn't."

"And you never thought to inform us of your newfound goodness?" I asked her directly.

Eve smirked. "Would you have honestly believed us? Would this have gone any other way? You just travel around, seeing yourselves as heroes who stop the bad guys. I couldn't change that. Even now I bet there's a part of you thinking this is all a trick and that I'm actually doing something evil here."