For years, X's parents spent the majority of their time in distant lands due to work, and it was Y's mother, Grace, who took up the role as his caretaker. After X turned reclusive some time after the Junior Tournament, Grace continued to take care of him, and made sure to bring him his meals regularly. Two days before the Vaniville incident, Y had a fall out with her mother…

As morning arrives, Grace brings X's breakfast as usual, and sees the empty plates outside his bedroom door. She is glad that the boy finished his dinner the night before, and after putting down the fresh meal, sits outside his door and tells him about her frustration. Apparently, Y has continued to attend the Sky Trainer School, and it totally caught her by surprise. At first, she thought Y was just being rebellious, and expected her to last no longer than a month. However, she actually carried on, and is about to start the second semester soon, which means she is really steering away from the career of a Rhyhorn Racer.

Grace wonders what she should do, but the boy slips out a paper under his door, which asks her not to talk to him about it. Grace moans that X is so mean, and persuades him to help her out and suggest ways to stop Y from becoming a Sky Trainer. At that moment, Y storms in through the front door to greet X, and overhears her mother's words. She gets upset that Grace is talking to X behind her back, but Grace doesn't feel ashamed about it at all. Y tells Grace to mind her on business, and wants to know why she is thwarting her from pursuing the path she chose. Grace argues that suitability is more important than desire sometimes, but Y finds it ridiculous that Grace should be the one to decide what suits her best. X feels frustrated by the quarrel, and slips out another paper, urging the ladies to settle their problem somewhere else.

Grace sighs that they shall continue this conversation after she comes back from her journey, and says she shall take off tonight. She turns to leave with the empty dishes, and tells Y to take care of the house until she returns two days later. Y scoffs that Grace can go as long as she wants, and wouldn't even care if she never comes back…

And that was the last thing Y said to her mother before the Vaniville incident…

On Route 7, Cassius's van arrives at the Battle Chateau, which is an old fashioned mansion that has a royal hint to its design. Cassius gets off from the driver's seat and is greeted by the butler in charge, who thanks him for coming to maintain the Pokémon Storage System. Cassius praises the Chateau for being majestic as ever, and the butler humbly voices out his gratitude before welcoming him in. Cassius gets his team to disembark from the van and tells them to go ahead with the system check first. He reminds them jokingly not to smuggle out anything from the building, and the punks snicker that they shouldn't have placed valuables everywhere if they do not want them to be taken. Emma gets off last, and Cassius sees that she has become quite acquainted with the little Espurr. Emma grins that it is now called Mimi, and says she brought it along to help.

Cassius waits until the whole gang enters the Chateau and pulls the front door shut. He then returns to his van and opens up the back hutch, where the Vaniville kids are hiding underneath a large piece of cloth. Cassius states that it is safe to show their faces now, and Tierno, Trevor and Shauna immediately pop their heads out to take a breather while X and Y remain in their positions. Cassius apologizes that they have to cram into such a confined space, but says there is still some distance to Cyllage City. He tells them to take the chance to stretch their muscles while he handles some work, but wants them to stay inside the van. Tierno, Trevor and Shauna proceed to climb onto the passenger seats to spread themselves out, and recall how they ended up in the back trunk of Cassius's van.

Earlier, at Cassius's cottage, the group discussed about Clemont's claim that he and his rock type expert friend saw Y's mother, Grace, near the Soda Pop store in Cyllage City. Cassius believed that the only logical thing to do was to head to Cyllage to find some answers, and offered to give them a ride. Tierno, Shauna and Trevor were astonished by Cassius's kindness, but the man told them not to think too highly of him, and said it was just incidental that he had to make a service round. He reminded them that he worked as the maintenance guy of the Pokémon Storage System, and explained that there were constantly glitches and malfunctioning that needed fixing. Cassius then showed them the old van which they would be carpooling in, and warned them that the ride would not be comfortable at all. Yet, despite Cassius's jokes, Trevor could feel that the man was really kind at heart. After hearing about their encounters with the enemy, he came up with the idea to hide them in the back trunk, and believed that it would avoid people seeing them and minimize the chance of being ambushed.

Tierno sincerely hopes that they will find out what happened to Y's mother when they reach Cyllage, and Shauna agrees with a sigh. She takes a peek at Y inside the tent, and sees that she remains in a reclusive state, with the lower part of her body still wearing the flying suit. Trevor figures that the shock she suffered must have been intense, and Tierno finds it understandable since it involves Team Flare. Shauna sulks that seeing Y's current condition makes her sad, and Trevor fully gets what she means. After all, Y has always been their leader ever since they started on their journey, and there is so little that they can do for her now despite knowing that the pain she feels for her mother is much greater than anything they could imagine.

At that moment, Shauna suddenly realizes that X is missing, and the three hurriedly search around for him but to no avail. They then simultaneously think of the only possibility, and quickly look out from the van window together. Indeed, X has stepped off the van, and seems to be seeking out something in the tall grass with Elec. Tierno, Trevor and Shauna wonder what he is doing, and in the next instant, a Toxicroak leaps out to attack. X swiftly activates his Mega Ring to transform Elec into Mega Manectric, and after a brief close-up wrestle, Elec summons a thunderbolt down from the sky and fries the Toxicroak.

Shauna gets nervous since Cassius has told them to stay in the van, but before she can do anything, Cassius returns to the scene, and feels troubled that X didn't take his advice. X reverts Elec back to its normal forme, and states that he never promised to follow his instructions. Cassius relents that X is technically right, but nevertheless thinks he is inconsiderate. He sends out his Gourgeist to seize Elec, but the Manectric refuses to back down, and bites on its hair-like arm. Cassius remarks that he has a plan going for them, and calls X a fool for adding unnecessary obstacles to their quest in finding his girl's mother. X gets ticked off by Cassius's words, and flips out Kanga's Pokéball, ready to battle.

At that moment, Trevor throws himself in front of X to intervene, and apologizes to Cassius. He explains that X was simply practicing with Elec the Manectric to strengthen their bond since it is a new member to his team, and says X constantly works to get himself stronger in order to protect them. X gets annoyed by Trevor's behavior and demands to know what he is doing, but Trevor shushes him, and says it is unwise to stir up conflicts when they are asking help from others. He points out that for Y's sake, they must get to Cyllage as soon as possible, and in order to do that, they will require Cassius's help. X concedes after a moment of thought, and retrieves Elec back into its Pokéball. However, he thinks Trevor is giving his trust to adults too easily, first Prof. Sycamore and now Cassius, and remarks that he prefers to keep a distance from them. Without another word, he returns to the van and slams the door shut. Trevor bows and apologizes to Cassius once more, but the man tells him not to bother about it since he is used to such things. Trevor then steals a glance at Shauna and Tierno, who both let out a sigh. Clearly, without Y's leadership, their group has become disorganized.

Meanwhile, at the Team Flare Headquarters, a young woman cloaked in shadows calls upon Xerosic, and wants to know what has become of the people and Pokémon who went missing after Yveltal and Xerneas clashed at Vaniville. Xerosic replies that they have all been either seized or captured, and says the humans are being locked up in the underground dungeons while the Pokémon are trapped inside specially made Pokéballs. He mentions about one particular woman who made repeated attempts to run, and reports the need for heightened security measures on her.

The shadowed woman wonders if there are plans for the captured people, and Xerosic says since the Boss has given his permission, they will now use them to transfer the 'Tree' to their headquarters, which could solve the problem of not having enough Grunts. The shadowed woman grins that hostages may sometimes be more dependable than useless minions, and turns her attention to the male Team Flare Grunt who not only failed his mission bestowed by the Boss in collecting the Mega Stones but also lost the valuable list that contains their names.

The Grunt, who has his wrists and ankles bound by heavy chains, cries out in apology and begs for forgiveness. The shadowed woman states that his mistakes are indelible, but says she may just let him off the hook since he did manage to achieve two things. First, he succeeded in obtaining the Gyaradosite, which is now in their Boss's possession; and second, the Espurrs he used for battling brought them an unexpected hostage, which was purely accidental. Next to her, Clemont lays strapped against a box, and has apparently passed out.

The shadowed woman remarks that there are some pesky troublemakers they need to take care of, and tells Xerosic to use someone among the captured residents to do the task. She believes they will need to use Pokémon, and starts searching through the huge box of special Pokéballs that hold the captured batch. Suddenly, she finds a glass container which contains a normal Pokéball paired with some kind of electronic device, and sees that it is a Fennekin inside. She decides that it will suffice, and picks it out from the glass container while throwing the rest to the floor and crushing the electronic device with the heel of her shoe. She then calls upon Aliana, and demands her Pyroar back, since it is obvious that the Scientist is incapable of handling its powers and she has plans to use it herself. Aliana feels a bit dejected by the remark, yet has no choice but to comply.

Sending out the female Pyroar from the Pokéball, the shadowed woman steps into the light, and reveals herself to be no other than Malva. She walks up to a portrait of Lysandre, in which he is accompanied by his male Pyroar, and states that in order to be the woman who stands beside their Boss, it is necessary to equip herself with matching qualities…