Arriving at Cynthia's villa, the courtyard was still peaceful.
Rayquaza was instructing Dialga, while Mewtwo sat to the side watching cartoons with Palkia.
The whole yard was very tidy, in sharp contrast to Flint's battle-damaged villa.
Other than a crane with red chains hanging from it, there was no sense of wrongness.
"Rooar?", Seeing Axel appear, Dialga, who had just been slapped to the ground by Rayquaza's tail, had no time to cry out in pain; its eyes brightened as it looked at Axel with delight.
'This bastard's finally back!'
Ever since Axel brought them here, these past few days had been hell for them.
Every day was either watching cartoons or getting beaten; they couldn't even find someone to make decisions for them if they wanted to surrender.
They'd been forced to level up Rayquaza and Mewtwo.
'This life is not fit for dragons.'
["Axel, I want to surrender!"], Dialga's eyes were eager.
"Ahem~", Axel blinked and produced the excuse he had prepared long ago.
"You two nearly destroyed Sinnoh back then. I'm from Aurient, telling me you want to surrender won't help. How about you wait until Cynthia comes back?"
Dialga: "..."
'Why does this scene feel familiar?'
'Am I being kicked like a football?'
Rayquaza told Dialga to ask Axel about surrendering; Axel told Dialga to ask Cynthia about surrendering.
'If I go to Cynthia, will Cynthia send me to someone else?'
Dialga realized that if he didn't take a risk, he might be stuck here for life.
He looked sincere and spoke seriously, ["Isn't this Aurient?"]
Palkia, who was watching cartoons, didn't dare speak but nodded frantically.
'Yes yes yes, this is Aurient.'
'So you decide!'
"Uh...", Seeing the two of them nod, and feeling Rayquaza's suddenly rising aura, Axel covered his forehead.
'Are Legendaries really this shameless now?'
'Just a few words and Sinnoh becomes Aurient...'
'And no thought for Giratina?'
If Giratina were swapped in for Kyurem, he'd probably come over and start a fight.
Axel cleared his throat and decisively ignored Dialga.
He let Rayquaza take Dialga to rest for a while, then walked with Gyarados and Gible over to Palkia.
Facing Palkia, who had never been beaten by Cynthia, Axel didn't feel so justified.
"Um… do you want to surrender?", he asked.
Palkia's eyes lit up while watching the cartoon; it glanced at Mewtwo with its peripheral vision.
Seeing Mewtwo nod, it immediately spoke excitedly.
["Yes, yes, yes!"], It even dreamed of surrendering.
A mighty god of space, a deity controlling important powers of this worls, being tied here to watch cartoons every day, what kind of life was that?
Even if forced, even if flayed or having its muscles pulled, it sounded better than this.
"Alright, alright," Axel smiled at Palkia.
Actually, after so many days of failing to get any tags out of the two dragons, Axel didn't want to bicker forever.
The temporal-spatial dragons' divine status was too special; leaving them confined too long could easily go wrong.
Axel planned to get something useful first, then have them promise to be guardian deities, to promise to guard Aurient's Sinnoh region, then let them go back.
They'd still be around in Sinnoh; he could come back to them after handling Alola. No rush.
For now, just secure what he could.
Axel floated slightly and patted Palkia's shoulder.
"As long as you let me pull a few of your teeth, and then let Gyarados beat you into submission, I'll let you go. How about that?"
Hearing Axel, Palkia froze.
'What? I was just joking, why do you actually want my parts?'
'And you want me to fight Gyarados, what kind of scheme is this?'
"Not agreeing? Fine, then forget it."
["No no no!"], Seeing Axel turn to leave, Palkia hurriedly called after him.
["It's not that I won't give them, it's that my teeth can't be pulled out."]
Palkia spread its hands, showing a don't-care attitude.
["I've been fighting Dialga for so many years; even when we occasionally clashed with Giratina, nobody's teeth were ever torn out. Since our birth, our bodies have been nearly perfect; many Legendaries even have automatic revival. Truly immortal. So… even if I wanted to give you a few teeth, you just can't get them out."]
"Then let's try?", Axel glanced at the tags on Gible.
Although Palkia's reasoning made sense, Gible wasn't weak... Pokémon are mysterious creatures; many species have unique traits.
Hypno can chant spells and use moves not belonging to any known skill.
Salamence's juvenile form, Bagon, has an incredibly tough head, falling off a cliff doesn't bother it.
As a quasi-legend, Gible also had his own trait.
His bite was extremely strong.
In the anime, Ash's Gible once even ate the robot Meowth made.
This Gible had astonishing aptitude, and could utilize tags at one hundred percent, doing even better than other Gibles.
["Try then, try,"] Seeing Axel persistent, Palkia decisively nodded.
He was sure Axel couldn't pull his teeth anyway.
No loss here; if he cooperated enough, maybe he could earn some favor points?
"Then I won't be polite," Axel crouched and signaled to the little Gible; the little Gible nodded and leapt up to clamp onto Palkia's mouth.
Without hesitation, it bit down hard.
Palkia didn't even react before the little Gible's jaw had already closed on its tooth.
Crack~
A crisp sound, the tooth developed a fine crack.
"Effective!", Axel's eyes lit up. If he could pull Palkia's tooth out, he'd have completed the first step in Gyarados's training.
Crack~ Crack~
The little Gible's movements were fast, leaving no time for Palkia to react; it bit at the tooth several times and managed to dislodge it.
Palkia's mouth instinctively filled with the powers of dragon and space, and the tooth regenerated.
The little Gible froze for a moment, he remembered biting it off, so why did it look like nothing happened?
'Try again!'
———
Ten seconds later, four of Palkia's teeth lay on the ground.
Palkia finally realized, and teleported the little Gible to its feet, face full of terror.
The whole dragon was stunned.
Something that hadn't happened for years was really happening to him?
He had thought he could freeload some favor points, then surrender and leave this sad place.
Who knew, his parts really got taken...
This was a total loss.
Nearby, Dialga also looked horrified and no longer mentioned surrender.
Axel was about to apologize to Palkia when a long-missed notification chimed in Axel's mind.
Palkia's tag had been taken by the little Gible.
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