its like. okay so in redux, arceus is the universe itself. every part of it is arceus. and then you have the like. the 1000 arms it shaped itself with. then you get the hands which are the shards of arceus the bits you see in game. and then you have like. the fingers. and the fingers are literally every other legendary. so like yveltal or latios or landorus is technically a part of arceus but theyre like. so far removed from it that they arent referred to as such. at least this is the like really simplified framework we say is the true lore of redux. this isnt really known to the average joe. most religions say other different shit. using hands and fingers is like a metaphor. we arent being literal. its weird.
but im starting with this to say that the legendaries, arceus's "hands" are what keep the world running. arceus, or at least a larger shard of arceus, only wakes up when shit is going quite frankly bad. and this event is big. it means that something has upset everything and the legends arent doing their jobs right for whatever reason and this process literally freaks out most of the major legends. like if youve watched the gen 4 pokemon movies youll know that all of them barring zoroark master of illusions centre around arceus like. waking up and how this drives dialga and palkia actually insane to the point theyre ripping time and space apart and fighting over it. imagine this but its every single major legend at once basically. thats how it kinda happens in redux. That Is Not Good.
now that ive explained that, zygardes entire job of keeping the balance of life and death as well as saving people and pokemon is a kind of big deal because if xerneas and yveltal fuck around and find out too much not only do they risk like. the entire world they also risk arceus waking up and dad waking up is worse. and there have been times far far far before we get to redux's story itself where zygarde has in a way failed and arceus has woken up over this. and if you fuck up as a legend enough times arceus just deletes you. maybe replaces you. because the machine that is the universe has to keep moving and the gods themselves are not stopping that. yveltals vagued stuff such as rules and breaking them before. a mix of innate things yveltal knows as laws of the universe and gods it must follow and rules decided upon by the legends themselves as like an honor system.
zygarde takes their job very seriously its all they exist to do and if they fail at it they risk losing their siblings, the only things they believe themselves capable of loving. this leads to zygarde hurting their siblings by punishing them harshly whenever they make minor mistakes. like legitimate abuse but in the way that teaches you fear because fear and pain keep you alive. keep you together. zygarde cares for their siblings deeply and is very scared and concerned for their safety all the time and also. really fucking cares about their one job their one reason for existing. zygarde has fucked their siblings up so fucking deeply, yveltal and xerneas are traumatized by it. but they love eachother because theyre siblings and thats what they have always done. its a weird messy thing. zygarde is the thousand arrows used to hunt birds and deer, and an arrow is nothing without what its used for. its a weird fucked up thing. a little abusive fucked up family thats been going in circles for thousands upon thousands upon thousands upon thousands of years since the beginning of life itself. their family is based partially off the diamonds from steven universe if that explains anything.
now part of taking this job seriously means also eliminating threats or perceived threats to their siblings and the balance. which is a problem when the perceived threat is maple. 1: maples ancestor was the one human who got the closest to killing any legendary pokemon. hell shes gotten closer than p much every legendary barring arceus had gotten. she also killed several chosens and did a lot of other fucked up things. to this day she haunts like every single legendary pokemon. yveltal and xerneas are of some of the more affected legends, and by proxy so is zygarde. because of this zygarde does not trust maple with chosen powers. zygarde is so vehemently convinced that its only a matter of time until maple uses the fact that shes now technically more powerful than her ancestor who managed to fuck shit up so severely to do it again and be successful this time, and that yveltal is too soft to stop it. zygarde percieves maple as the greatest threat to literally everything ever and wants her Fucking Gone. not only that, but zygarde also knows yveltal broke a rule in a sense by stopping her from dying. yveltal shouldnt do that. she should have died.
one of the first subtle events of redux, one barely noticable, is zygarde finding maple. zygarde continues watching until after alola where it notably proceeded to ramp up alongside the yveltal nightmares. revenant as an arc was going to be revealed later as an insane misunderstanding fueled by yveltal panicking and also not being able to fully explain without freaking people out that maple was in danger because zygarde was going to Kill Her. the entire arc was yveltal constantly moving to keep maple away from zygarde because if at any point zygarde did catch up to them yveltal wouldnt be able to stop them. in the end the redux gang would have both saved maple by now just. knowing more and now maple had more attention on her AND making everything worse by bringing in xerneas who didnt know the full situation (and yveltal making her aware would cause her to freak out) AND make it so that zygarde doesnt really have to be like. hiding in the shadows and making things quick because the others know legends exist now.
this would lead to basically an extended year long thing where zygarde would force their way into maples life and observe, manipulate, and abuse her both physically and verbally 24/7 with no one being able to stop her. im not going to sugar coat what zygardes plan was here. zygarde, now knowing they couldnt just kill maple, instead decided that they would kill maple by deliberately trying to destroy her mental health and support systems so she would kill herself. maple has mentioned being unmedicated and without a therapist. this is why.
eventually shit happens and miguel is made a chosen in very similar near death circumstances to maple. miguel also wants to kill maple due to a misunderstanding. zygarde wants both miguel and maple dead, and decides to purposely make this misunderstanding both in an attempt to get maple and miguel to kill eachother in a two birds one stone type of deal.
this doesnt work and once maple and miguel kinda. sorts make up and get wise to it all zygarde finally snaps and decides fuck it its just going to kill them now no secrecy no little plots just fucking nuke them off the face of the earth. and also nick whos kinda just there caught in the crossfire of it all. its here that xerneas and yveltal would finally stand up to zygarde and cut them off. for maple its been like a year and a half since then. this would have happened on new years right as it ticked over to 2026. even from the beginning this was planned. this was known. there has been a bit in the beginning, of zygarde hearing their siblings finally stand up for themselves and tell them off and yell that THEY DONT LIKE THIS! ZYGARDE IS HURTING THEM AND THEY DONT LIKE IT! only for it to take zygarde so off guard their cells and cores begin falling apart, unable to keep a form, as zygarde just keeps yelling "BUT I LOVE YOU! BUT I LOVE YOU!" and xerneas quietly saying "i dont know if i love you right now" and zygarde just falling apart with a scream.
zygarde has had no contact with theri siblings, miguel, maple, anyone. theyre currently back in lumiose with team mz. they did talk to shaymin briefly about things after everything where shaymin did assure zygarde that xerneas and yveltal did love them, they just needed space, and zygarde needed to improve. zygarde is trying to do better so that maybe one day their siblings will want to speak to them again. the current rule is that zygarde doesnt really have contact with xerneas or yveltal unless needed for legendary buisness, but i do think this will change. they are gods, they have all the time in the world, and zygarde does genuinely regret what they did. maybe they wont be close again for some time, but it will happen eventually.
