"Please... save Celebi."
"Please..."
The voice was soft and weightless, drifting through the dark like something heard from underwater.
Steven jolted awake, gasping. Sweat had soaked through the sheets. He sat there for a moment, chest rising and falling, blinking at the ceiling.
"Save... Celebi?"
He repeated it quietly to himself.
He checked the time. Ten in the morning — later than he had slept in weeks.
Steven dressed, and before heading to the bathroom, he stopped by Cynthia's door and knocked.
Thump-thump—
"...Ten more minutes..."
The voice from inside was half-conscious and entirely unbothered. Steven could picture her exactly — face half-buried in the pillow, one hand already reaching back toward sleep.
He chuckled and went to wash up.
Downstairs, he found two covered sandwiches on the kitchen table with a handwritten note propped against them.
You two — sleeping the day away won't do you any good. Heat these up before you eat them. — Grandma Caroline.
Steven smiled and put them in to warm.
Cynthia appeared on the stairs just as he was setting the table, yawning and blinking against the light.
"Good morning, Cynthia."
"Good morning~" she managed, dropping into the seat beside him.
She picked up a sandwich, took a small bite — and looked mildly surprised.
"Did Grandma make these?"
Steven kept his expression neutral. It was fortunate Grandma Caroline had already left.
"I think they're good," he said.
"No, no — they are. It's just..." Cynthia shook her head. "They taste familiar. She's gotten a lot better."
Grandma Caroline's cooking had improved considerably over the years, quietly and steadily, right in front of Cynthia's eyes. Though Cynthia had privately always wondered how her father had managed before that.
Steven reached over and gave her golden hair a light pat.
"Eat while it's warm."
"Mm!" Cynthia nodded and set about finishing the sandwich in short order.
"Please... save Celebi..."
Steven's hand stopped halfway to his mouth. He looked around the kitchen, frowning slightly.
"What is it?" Cynthia was watching him, cheeks still full, voice slightly muffled.
"Did you hear something just now? Someone speaking?"
Had he slept so poorly that he was hearing it while awake now too?
"No...?" Cynthia swallowed and leaned forward, studying his face. Her expression shifted into something more concerned. "Steven, you look pale."
She reached up and cupped his face in both hands, examining him carefully.
"You should rest today. I'll train on my own."
"It's nothing," Steven said. "I had an odd dream — I probably didn't sleep well. That's all."
He didn't feel unwell. He couldn't explain the voice. He didn't know what to do with either of those facts.
"Then at least no strenuous exercise." Cynthia gave his cheek a light pat, her tone firm despite the gentleness of the gesture. "You can watch from the side."
"...Alright."
After the Pokémon were fed, the two of them set off toward Mt. Coronet, which rose behind the house in layers of stone and pine.
Steven found a flat spot and sat cross-legged in the grass while Cynthia began her conditioning drills. Honedge and Togepi settled near him — Togepi perched on the ground watching Cynthia with great interest, occasionally waving a little arm in encouragement.
"Let's hope it doesn't decide to use Metronome," Steven said, watching it.
Togepi looked back at him indignantly and flopped onto its back.
Would not.
Steven laughed quietly and turned to Honedge, which was drifting in small, eager circles.
"You'll start your own training soon enough."
"Twist~"
The little Pokémon perked up immediately, radiating enthusiasm.
"Please... save Celebi..."
There it was again.
Steven pressed a hand to his forehead. A faint, creeping dizziness moved through him — not pain exactly, but something pulling at him from somewhere he couldn't place.
Why does it feel physical every time I hear it?
"Steven!"
He looked up. Cynthia had already crossed the distance between them at a sprint, her training forgotten.
He tried to smile. "I'm fine—"
"You are not fine." She looked at his face, which had gone pale again, and at the smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "We're going back. Now."
"Cynthia." Steven caught her arm gently. "Give me a moment."
He tilted his head.
Lucario was already there, kneeling at his side — silent, composed, one hand resting on Steven's shoulder. It must have come across the yard the moment something changed.
"Twist—"
Honedge spun anxious circles overhead.
Metagross!
Metagross was beside Steven within seconds, the ground trembling faintly under its weight. The rest of his Pokémon closed in around them.
Buzz.
Lucario closed its eyes. From its palm, a steady pulse of Aura moved into Steven's shoulder — a careful, probing wave that spread and read and came back with an answer.
Then Lucario's eyes snapped open. It spoke quickly.
Metagross lowered itself and pressed one leg to the earth, scribing letters into the dirt:
Master — the white and red Aura within you are destabilising.
Cynthia read the words and looked sharply at Steven. "You said the Aura wouldn't affect you!"
"I didn't know it would either. Mew told me—"
The sentence broke apart.
"Please... save Celebi..."
The voice came again, and this time the dizziness hit like a wave. The light went wrong. Steven pitched forward — and Cynthia caught him, both arms going around him as he went limp.
"Steven — Steven!"
She shook him gently. He didn't respond.
There was no sky. No ground. Just a space where silver and blue moved through each other like water, and Steven floated in it, his body translucent, weightless.
He looked down at himself. Then he looked up.
She was standing a little way off — or drifting, rather, since there was nothing solid to stand on. Long white hair, loose and tangled, framing a face that might have been beautiful under other circumstances. Right now it held nothing but worry, deep and exhausted. Her white dress moved with no wind to account for it. Where her skin showed, it was very pale.
Her eyes were white.
Steven felt something stir at the back of his memory.
"Have I seen you before?"
"There isn't much time." The urgency in her voice was quiet but absolute. "Please — go to Johto. Save Celebi."
Steven took in the lines of her face, the weight in her expression, and understood without needing to be told that whatever was happening was not small.
But there were things he needed to know first.
"Why me?"
"You're the only one I can reach."
"Who are you?"
He had a theory. The three sources of Aura within him — whatever they were, wherever they had come from — this might be one of them, standing before him in a form she had chosen or been given.
The white-haired girl shook her head slowly.
"I don't know. I have no name. I only know one thing — one thing I have always known, from the moment I existed." Her voice was fraying at the edges now, losing its steadiness. "Please — save Celebi. That is all I can ask."
Steven was quiet for a moment.
"I will go," he said. He let the words settle before he continued. "I'm the Hoenn League Champion. I don't walk away from something like this. But I need to know where to go — and I need to know one more thing."
He looked at her directly.
"Why are you inside my body?"
The girl stared at him.
For a long moment she said nothing, as if the question itself had reached somewhere she hadn't expected.
Then, softly:
"I don't know. I only know that since I first existed, there has been one thought I cannot be rid of."
"What thought?"
Her white eyes didn't waver.
"I want to see my son."
The words hung in the silver-blue light.
Steven's pupils went wide.