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Steven's entire body ached. Every muscle, every bone seemed to protest even the smallest movement. Still, the injuries were not as dire as they looked. In the Pokémon world, medical care had advanced far beyond what most people imagined, and on top of that, the human body in this world was naturally more resilient than average. A few days of rest and proper treatment, and he would be back on his feet.
"Tili?"
Victini had waited patiently, staying hidden until the last visitor had gone. Only once the room was quiet did the small Pokémon reveal itself, hovering near the foot of the bed with its tiny ears perked up.
"Victini, could you grab my Pokédex from the cabinet over there?" Steven asked, tilting his head toward the counter where the device sat. With his arms in their current state, reaching for it himself was out of the question.
"Tili!"
Victini gave an eager nod and beat its small wings, lifting into the air. It zipped across the room, snatched the Pokédex in both hands, and floated back to hover just in front of Steven's face.
"Now turn it around and point it toward me," Steven said quietly.
Victini tilted the device obediently, holding it steady like a well-behaved child following instructions.
Facial recognition complete. Welcome back.
The screen unlocked, and Steven was immediately greeted by the sight of ninety-nine or more unread messages and thirty-four missed calls. He felt his stomach drop.
He was in serious trouble.
He scrolled through the list, silently hoping that when he called back, Cynthia would still be somewhere in Sinnoh and not already halfway to Unova.
He pressed dial.
Doo—
The call connected before the second ring even finished.
"Steven! Where are you right now?"
The voice on the other end was tight with worry. Steven felt the corner of his mouth curl upward without him even meaning for it to. She hadn't shouted at him. Her very first words were asking if he was alright.
In the background, he could hear the rush of wind — the kind that came from high-speed travel. He had a feeling Cynthia was already on Garchomp's back. He just hoped she wasn't heading straight for Eindoak. Seeing him like this would only make her worry far more than he wanted.
"I'm at the Pokémon Center," he said.
"In Eindoak?"
"...Yes."
The line went dead the moment the word left his mouth.
Steven stared at the ceiling.
She's coming.
There was no doubt about it now. He had no choice but to start reading through the messages she had sent while he was unconscious. Each one was a variation of the same thing — concern, more concern, and thinly veiled panic dressed up in careful words. Steven found himself smiling at each one despite himself.
Sure enough, less than two minutes later, he heard rapid footsteps in the hallway outside. They slowed as they reached his door. There was a pause — perhaps ten seconds — and then the door swung open.
Cynthia stepped inside. She was slightly out of breath, her long golden hair just a little out of place, though it was clear she had taken a moment to tidy it before coming in. She opened her mouth—
"Ste—"
"Champion Cynthia, please keep your voice down," Nurse Joy said gently, having followed close behind. "Champion Steven needs his rest."
Nurse Joy had tried to keep pace, but Cynthia had moved faster than expected — asked about Steven's room number and immediately broken into a run before Nurse Joy could even offer to show her the way.
Cynthia turned and gave a small bow. "You're right. I'm sorry — I got a little carried away."
"It's alright. I'll leave you two to talk." Nurse Joy smiled warmly, pulled the door shut behind her, and the room fell quiet.
Just the two of them now.
Cynthia sat down in the chair beside the bed. She looked at Steven — at the bandages, the careful stillness of someone who could only move their head — and for a long moment she said nothing. She wasn't sure she should even reach out to touch him.
Steven looked back at her. He could see traces of makeup on her face, and he understood immediately. She hadn't slept. She must have come straight from her duties as Champion, not wanting him to see how exhausted and worn she actually was. People always tried to show their best face to the people who mattered most to them.
Cynthia reached over and picked up the medical report from the cabinet. She read it in silence.
Internal and external injuries. Multiple points of trauma.
"What happened?" she asked, her voice carefully level.
Steven gave a small, lopsided smile. "Nothing too dramatic. Zekrom hit me, and I nearly fell from about ten thousand meters up." He paused as if recalling a grocery list. "Then I almost got pulled into the upper atmosphere — got a pretty thorough sense of what it feels like to be left in a freezer. And then Rayquaza showed up, and that was… that." He exhaled. "So nothing too serious, all things considered."
The words came out light, almost casual. But the events he was describing were anything but.
Being struck by a Legendary Pokémon like Zekrom — he made it sound no more alarming than a Pikachu's Static shocking someone by accident. The reality was on an entirely different level. And that was before accounting for Rayquaza.
Cynthia was quiet as she processed it. She didn't need a detailed explanation. Just picturing it was enough to make her chest tighten.
There was something else, too. The man who had put Steven in this condition had, in the end, been the same person who kept him alive. Steven understood that now, even if the thought had taken time to settle. As much as part of him had wanted to be furious at Dread — who had already suffered through the burning of the blue flame and watched his deepest convictions shatter — Steven knew there was nothing more to resent. The outcome had been what it was.
"Why does it always end up being you?"
Cynthia's voice was quiet. Her hands gripped the edge of her coat.
"Sorry?"
"With your strength, no one should be able to do this to you. And yet somehow, you always end up in the middle of something involving Legendary Pokémon." She looked at him, and her eyes were glistening. "Every single time, you come back like this."
It was a strange kind of frustration. Like someone who excelled at everything they put their hand to, only to walk into a situation where all of that excellence simply wasn't enough — where the scale of the challenge was something no ordinary preparation could account for.
"I don't have much of a choice in it," Steven said, a wry smile crossing his face. "You know I told you about my mother?"
Cynthia gave a small nod.
"This time was the same kind of thing. I—"
Thud.
The Pokédex that had been floating above him dropped squarely onto his face.
"Steven?!" Cynthia was on her feet in an instant, leaning over to lift the device away.
"Tili…"
From somewhere near the ceiling, Victini hovered with a deeply apologetic expression, its tiny paws pressed together.
"It's fine," Steven said, though his voice was slightly muffled for a moment. "Really."
He suspected he knew what had happened. The mention of his mother had stirred something in Victini, and the little Pokémon had lost its focus for just a second. It was understandable.
Cynthia straightened up and glanced around the room. "Is there someone else here?"
"Victini — it's okay. You can come out," Steven said softly.
"Tili…"
Victini drifted down into view from the upper corner of the room, wearing the expression of a child who had accidentally broken something. It looked at Steven with wide, guilty eyes.
"It's fine, really — Hss—!" Steven tried to lift his hand to pat Victini on the head, and immediately regretted it. The pain shot through his arm before he'd raised it even a few centimeters.
Victini seemed to understand. It floated down to rest beside Steven's cheek instead, and gently pressed its soft, round face against his. The warmth of it was immediate, and some of the tension in Steven's expression eased.
Soft. He'd never noticed just how soft Victini's face was.
Cynthia watched the small Pokémon with quiet curiosity — this creature with tiny wings growing from beneath its large ears — and after a moment, she understood.
"That's one of your mother's Pokémon, isn't it?"
Steven hadn't told her why he had come to Eindoak. But she had likely figured most of it out by now. It was probably something like the situation with Celebi — a calling he couldn't ignore and hadn't wanted to drag her into.
Part of him wondered, briefly, if things would have gone differently if Cynthia had come with him. Possibly. But then he imagined her caught in the path of Zekrom's attack, and that thought collapsed before it could fully form. He pushed it away.
No. His decision had been the right one. Only he had been hurt. That was enough.
"Speaking of which — where's Diancie?" Cynthia looked around the room, then at the Poké Balls resting on the cabinet.
Crack.
One of the balls opened on its own. Diancie emerged in a shimmer of pink and diamond light, immediately drawing in a long breath of fresh air.
"Finally… it's so much better out—" Diancie exhaled in relief, then caught a sharp whiff of antiseptic. Her small face scrunched. "Cough — cough cough!"
Steven let out a quiet breath of laughter. Cynthia pressed her fingers over her lips to hide her smile.
"Tili!"
Victini covered its mouth with both paws, shoulders shaking.
Diancie's cheeks puffed up. She drew herself up with as much dignity as she could manage.
"Don't laugh at me!"
The small room, for just a moment, felt considerably warmer than it had before.