ID: 14
Username: Super | Superperson00
Title: There is a Light That Never Goes Out
One billion people experienced today in a different way. Today is the worst day of someone’s life. Today is someone’s birthday.
Today is the first time Steven has killed someone.
Metang stands over him, shielding Steven from further harm. The Stone family residence is alight with flame. Thick, generations-old oak frames creak and strain under pressure.
Steven is still clutching his father’s Thunderstone. He wipes it against his sleeve, trying to clean the blood. The stains aren’t coming off.
We cannot stay. Metang says again.
“I know. Just one minute-”
There is a crash, and the ceiling is tumbling down upon them. Metang wills it to stay afloat.
Steven, Metang intones.
They go, and leave the soldier’s body behind.
Just like every other corner of the world, the Stones have been pulled into the Great War.
Steven’s cousin, Pierce, lost his parents in the ambush. He sits beside Steven and his father as they listen to Drake’s broadcast.
“Yesterday, the people of Hoenn were deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the National League.” The Champion stops, as if preparing himself to continue.
“Indigo has rejected our offers for the concession of annexed Unovan territories. They labeled us liars, oppressors, tyrants.Their foci centers not around the survivability of their people, but the continued perseverance of their national identity.
Drake Teach speaks more fluidly now, the words coming easier from his mouth. “When the rot has penetrated this deep, nothing can be salvaged.
From today, Champion Uther of Indigo has been named an enemy of the state. The National League has been disbanded.
As Champion, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. Indigo has refused to live any other way. Violence is the only language they understand.
Prepare yourselves. What we must do will not be easy. The greatest tasks never are.
Harden your heart.”
“In case I don’t see you again,” Winona says, and leans in.
Today is Steven’s first kiss.
Her breath tastes like bubblegum. Steven flounders with the grace of a fish in a birdcage, but Winona pulls him closer and his hands become steady.
He hears Pierce whoop behind him. Winona pulls away. Her cheeks are flushed.
“You ready?” She asks.
Steven opens his mouth, but he’s lost the ability to speak. He nods mutely.
“Let’s go,” Winona exclaims, straddling her Altaria. She motions for Steven to join her.
Before Steven follows, he takes one last look at his cousin. Pierce is mounting another pilot’s Skarmory. Steven can’t see his expression behind the flight goggles, but he can tell Pierce is winking at him.
The Skarmory takes off, and Steven barely manages to get into the seat behind Winona before Altaria takes to the skies as well.
Four ACE trainers and their teams versus an entire Indigo carrier.
It might have been Steven’s idea, but it doesn’t stop him from feeling intensely uncomfortable.
Fortree is one of Indigo’s only remaining footholds in the Hoenn mainland. Even after Fino Moore had razed half the forest to the ground against Koga, it remained impossible to retake Fortree when Kantonian forces could keep blending into the trees.
Instead, Steven had brought forward a proposal to starve them out. Indigo’s Fortree exclave was cut off from the rest of their numbers, and thus dependent on naval supply lines for food, medicine, ammunition. By isolating Fortree from further support, Indigo’s remaining forces would have no other option but to come out of hiding to resupply.
But first, Steven had actually to break the supply line…
Altaria begins to slow her flight, and Steven looks down. Winona had guided them above the clouds, well out of range of any psychics. Steven can barely distinguish the coastline from the sea at this altitude, let alone the Indigo fleet. “Are we in position?”
Winona checks her watch. “A hundred and forty knots, north by northwest, for fifteen minutes, and another thirty-five north for five minutes.” She glances over her shoulder. “If your math’s right, we should be nearly there.”
“Metagross’s math, not mine.” Steven corrects.
He can see Winona break into a smile. “Ah, so Metagross is the one to blame if we get lost.”
Steven clears his throat. “Well, technically, yes. But I’m sure we’ll figure it out regardless.”
Winona snickers. “You know, Steven, sometimes it’s okay to let loose a little. Life’s more fun that way.”
Before Steven can come up with a reply, they stop. Altaria leans into the wind, holding their position steady in the air.
Winona turns around, all humour on her face lost. “We’re here. It’s time. You gonna be alright?”
“Of course,” Steven lies. He does his best to smile, ignoring the nervous pace of his heart. “This is nothing.”
Winona nods back in agreement, but she’s biting her lip for reassurance. “Okay.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll see you soon.”
“Yeah.”
“Steven? Kick their asses back to Kanto.”
He grins, unbuckles his belt, and falls.
The wind roars in his ears as he plunges through the air. The clouds part around him, and Steven can spot Pierce making the same drop a hundred feet away.
The Indigo battleship is enormous. Steven counts twenty, forty, sixty bug sized marines.
The distance begins to close.
A soldier on deck spots Steven. He’s got bright blond hair, with a Raichu by his side. He directs a Thunderbolt upwards, and others start to catch on. He sees an Arcanine and Mr. Mime materialise.
Steven releases Metagross. Their attacks sizzle to nothing.
Metagross’s eyes flash blue, and their acceleration increases by tenfold. Steven and Metagross smash through the carrier with the weight of a meteorite, letting water flood the hull. Pierce catapults through the command tower a split-second later with his own Metagross.
Steven hears screaming and soldiers falling overboard. With the psychic shield around him, he’s not even wet. Steven flicks the caches on his Pokéballs and releases the rest of his team.
Above him, Winona runs interference from the skies, preventing aerial interdiction from local reinforcements. He realises giddily that his plan is working. They’ve caught the Kantonians by surprise and it’s working.
Steven and Pierce are outnumbered fifty to one. The difference means nothing. He guides Claydol’s attention to a girl barely older than him with a Kingdra and Dragonair, and calls Aggron to drop the Arcanine in his teeth to engage a particularly large Electivire-
A Gengar pulls itself out from Steven’s shadow and lunges for his head. Metagross reacts faster than Steven can think, but even without Metagross’s knowledge Steven can tell that they can’t stop it in time. The ghost cackles, ghostly distortion brushing the nape of Steven’s neck, until-
Pierce’s Umbreon is there to save the day, tearing the shadow into a thousand wailing shreds. Steven releases a breath he hadn’t realised he had been holding.
He looks up to thank his cousin, but he can’t find Pierce in the madness. Aggron is thrown into the helm of the ship, and Steven turns back to see the same Electivire from before, glowing with the light of a thousand burning suns-
The Electivire launches an attack stronger than any Thunder he’s ever seen. Metagross is already there to shield him from the blow, but Steven isn’t the target. He watches, helpless, as the bolt of lightning shoots upwards in the blink of an eye to make contact with Winona.
He sees Altaria reel backward from the collision. He sees Winona fall from the saddle. He sees her Tropius dive after her, only to get tackled aside by a Pidgeot.
Save her! He thinks to Metagross desperately, but they would have already if they could get past the dampening field and the psychic shields and the distance. There’s nothing they can do to stop Winona from crashing into the water. Around him, Indigo soldiers start to cheer.
Steven sees red.
Over time, the Indigo League is pushed back to their own shores. Drake has no interest in stopping there.
Today is Steven’s first time in Kanto.
Fuschia lacks the firepower to hold them at bay, and with the help of some extra psychics, Steven’s platoon is easily able to flush Indigo’s forces from the city.
At least, for the first week.
Steven quickly learns that Fuschia’s army had never left. Instead, they’ve gone into hiding as freedom fighters, conducting operations in civilian clothing or in the dead of night. Every time he manages to corner them, they vanish, as if into thin air.
After the third attempt on his life, Steven is prepared. He pretends to go to sleep, hanging his belt up by the door and leaving Metagross to stand guard outside.
The moment Metagross’s telepathic link is broken by a pulse of distortion, Steven releases a Pokéball tied around his neck.
Pierce’s Muk materialises over him like the world’s most toxic suit of armour. He shuts his eyes and pinches his nose. This is the only way he can think of to catch his would-be killer in the act as she breaks through his window.
It takes everything Steven can take to not suffocate from the putrid stench. Muk makes an active effort not to dissolve Steven’s skin on contact, but the sensation still feels like the world’s worst allergic reaction. He can’t breathe, he can’t think, but it’s all worth it, because Muk has caught the girl as well.
Steven hears her scream, hears her try to escape with her Crobat. That won’t save her. Muk envelopes her and her Pokémon within its grasp and traps them beneath its toxic, burning weight.
He wonders if he should feel remorse. He doesn’t.
Metagross’s voice breaks through the distortion field. The Shadowed-Ones have fled. No intruders remain.
Good, Steven thinks. Let them run back to the dark. We’ll find them anyway.
Steven is free from Muk’s cocoon now, and he observes the struggling figure on the floor. “I thought you liked poison,” he tells her.
This is the one who tried to kill me, Steven thinks to Metagross. Go through her thoughts. See what she knows.
In an instant, Metagross scours her mind with all the empathy of a scalpel.
Her name is Janine. She hopes to avenge her Father-Mentor-Leader.
The Rock Tunnel network is how she plans-hides-escapes with her rebels without getting caught. The idea is clever. Steven files this aside, and Metagross pushes deeper.
She has a mission that trumps all else. Orders from Uther? Matthias? No, Indigo’s Champions are spread too thin. This is coming from someone new. But who?
Red hair. Confidence. A boisterous laugh.
“Me? I’m gonna be the strongest trainer in the world!”
Janine is flailing wildly on the ground now, wrestling for control against Muk.
The mission. What is her mission? Metagross ravages the corners of her mind, leaving no place unchecked.
The answer comes in flashes. A rocky outcrop. Everstones, more than he can count. A single name:
Mamoru.
Keep them from Mamoru.
Today, Steven sends a psychic to bring this information to Drake Teach.
Drake promotes him on the spot.
The Champion of Hoenn touches down on the outskirts of Fuschia. His hair is greying at the edges. Bags hang under his eyes.
Steven has never seen a more determined man.
Drake dismounts his Salamence and marches up to the Stone cousins. The dragon eyes them with thinly veiled disdain. A thick, rippling burn scar mottles the underside of his jaw. It looks fresh. They would have flown straight from Cinnabar.
“Captain,” he barks at Steven. “Status report.”
Steven tries not to wilt under the gaze of Drake the Dragon Master. Pierce notices his sudden case of petrification and clears his throat in an act of rescue. “We’re still finding new tunnels as we progress down Route 15. There’s a running theory some of them reach as far as Pewter City. It would explain how Agatha slipped the blockade.”
Drake huffs, reaching into his breast pocket for a cigar. Victor, his Salamence, spits it to life without a second thought. “Don’t get hung up on the vermin. Light some thermobarics and move on.”
Steven can’t put an image to the unfamiliar term, but Pierce blinks in startled recognition. He looks faintly ill.
Metagross fills him in. Vacuum explosives. They couple this statement with imagery of their effect on human lungs. Air pockets become fuel. …Efficient.
Metagross eyes Drake with an alien, grudging respect.
Pierce hesitates. “Is that necessary?”
“Plenty more fish to fry.” Drake the Dragon Master grumbles. He glowers back at Steven. “Now. Mamoru.”
Steven takes him to the caverns he uncovered with Aggron. The herd of Rhydon were long gone, but the passageway running deep into the cliffside still remained. Steven runs a finger along the too-smooth surface of the stone walls as they pass by.
A million questions lay at the tip of his tongue. Oh, the tests he would try on this chamber! If the decorative carvings were as old as he thought, kept to this state of care, who knew what quality of minerals (or even fossils!) could be lying just below the surface.
Walking through the hallway reminds Steven of long-forgotten childhood days with his father. In another life, Steven thinks, he would have made an excellent archeologist.
Drake walks much faster than Steven would have liked right through a wide and decorated chamber, only coming to a stop at a further sanctum. Great white pillars surround them in an octagon. Further above stands a polished statue with sapphires for eyes, illuminated by a single beam of light from the outside world.
The Dragon Master releases a Hydreigon without a second thought. “Creature!” Drake roars. “I know you are here. Challenge me!”
There is no response.
Drake spits out the last of his cigar, and mutters something to his Hydreigon. All three heads nod in unison, and, before Steven can protest, tear the monument down from its scaffold. The sculpture tumbles to the ground, cracking apart into pieces.
The whole world rumbles.
“You’ve done your part,” Drake says to Steven without turning his back. “Go.”
Steven makes it as far as the hallway before a deafening roar shakes the mountainside. He looks back, questioning if he should have stayed to help the Dragon Master, only to see the stone walls bend like water to block off the entrance.
Drake emerges three days later missing an eye and his left foot. His Flygon’s wings are ruptured through and one of Hydreigon’s heads lies limp.
In his hand is the horn of Mamoru, cornerstone of the First. From that day forward, Drake keeps the tip, and wears it as a pendant on a silver chain.
“We had quite the victory in the peninsula.” Steven puffs up a litte. Metagross stands behind him, expressionless. “The Indigo League is scattered. Perhaps even broken.”
The Warden’s eyes crinkle in delight. A yellow hand goes to polish a gleaming steel pendulum.
Wonderful! News of Mamoru has spread down here. Drake’s Hoard seems to grow by the hour.
“So I’ve heard,” Steven says. “There’s one arrival I’d like to see in particular. Can you take me to him?”
The aging Hypno is more than happy to oblige, gesturing for Steven to follow. The walls of the Trench might be bare, but Steven can feel the weight of the ocean upon the facility, thousands of feet beneath the sea. He and his father had helped oversee the construction of the Trench years ago, but it’s unnerving to be here in person.
“Mamoswine? An old man rasps feebly from one cell door. He shuffles closer to Steven, his eyes milky white. “Mamoswine, is that you?”
The Warden hardly looks up, flicking the prisoner back into dreamsleep. Steven does his best to ignore the blank faces staring up at him behind bars.
Here we are. Our newest guest.
Despite his prisoner’s garb, Samuel Oak’s eyes light up with the vigour of a man in his prime. “Ah! You must be Joseph’s boy! It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
The Warden eyes Oak with the same vehemence one would give a particularly troublesome boil.
I will leave you to your… discussion.
With that, the Hypno vanishes.
Oak nods in the Warden’s former location. “Quite the personality, wouldn’t you agree?”
Metagross runs a diagnostic. Their eyes flash. Blood pressure sits ninety over sixty. He breathes unencumbered. The Trench does not sway him.
Steven hadn’t been sure what to expect, but it wasn’t this. His prepared questions die in his throat.
“Why?” He manages to ask.
Samuel Oak seems amused. “Why what? Why did I surrender, instead of staying in Cinnabar? Why didn’t I flee to Orre? Why doesn’t the Warden serve breakfast? I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific.”
“Cynthia offered you asylum in Sinnoh.” Steven presses. “Seems a lot better than a life here or in the wastelands. Why didn’t you take it?”
“These old bones aren’t built for the cold!” The One-Ringed Oak laughs, though he sombers somewhat at Steven’s expression.
After another minute, he answers more seriously. “I have no interest in spending my days as a weapon to be passed around. Irene kept the peace while she lasted, but I doubt I’ll be anything more than a bargaining tool in the hands of this new generation. I pity you, really. You young ones can’t even imagine what peace looks like.”
Steven frowned. “That can’t be it. Don’t you have family? Friends? If you’re not protecting them, how can you expect for them to be safe?”
At that, Samuel Oak bristles, and for a moment Steven catches a glimpse of the Champion underneath. “My family is safe. I’m not here to protect them. I gave myself up to protect yours.”
Steven moves to argue, but Oak cuts him off with a look that signals an end to the conversation. Even here, locked away in the bottom of the sea, his presence commands respect.
“I made my decision. Now, I rest.”
As if on cue, the walls of the Trench shudder, and the fluorescent lights above start to flicker erratically.
Oak cranes his neck upward to observe the commotion. “It sounds like you have company.”
Company? At the bottom of the sea?
If someone managed to break in, the Warden would have notified us by now, he thinks to Metagross.
Metagross doesn’t respond.
Steven’s heart skips a beat. He tries again: Purple sour strawberries, hanging from a tree. Their code phrase.
Nothing.
Metagross stares back, eyes flashing blue. Steven can’t hear what they have to say. Sirens begin to blare across the corridor.
“I’d hurry, if I were you,” Oak advises.
Steven swears, and starts running to the control room. As he leaves, he catches sight of the cell inhabitant directly across from the Professor: a hunched, white-haired crone of a woman whose shadow looks back at him with bright red eyes. A smile breaks out on her face, yet it contains no kindness.
Then the ceiling bursts open in front of him, and a whirlpool continues down into the next floor below like a drill.
The rest of his team comes out to manage the flood, but the water moves with a mind of its own. Steven can barely make himself heard over the rushing torrents. He feels helpless.
He can’t talk to Metagross.
He can’t talk to Metagross.
Steven doesn’t know what to do. Distortion has interfered similarly before, but those experiences were comparable to a patch of static on the radio at best. This? This feels like a walking mute button. He can’t do anything. How is he meant to do anything?
Breathe.
One step at a time.
He can hear commotion coming from the upper floors: guards battling, the screeching of Pokémon, the insurmountable flow of water.
Steven catches the attention of his team, and points upstairs. They get the idea. Skarmory shreds the ceiling with a single Steel Wing, and they ascend into chaos.
No less than three Dragonite are helping contain the Trench from caving in altogether. All three work in conjunction to contain a humongous Whirlpool, which Steven realises is what they must have used to puncture the hull of the Trench. Psychics from each side help keep the water in place, but none exert the same level of control as the dragons.
What was going on? Who was insane enough to rupture a prison facility at the bottom of the ocean?
There are other people here too. The entire rosters of two ACE trainers fail to hold back a rampaging Charizard, which Aggron leaps to intercept. Cell doors open left and right to a Mr. Mime accompanied by a man in a domino mask, each waking prisoners from their slumber. For a second it almost looks as though the trainer is teleporting alongside his psychics.
Steven does his best to run damage control, but the situation is futile. Between the whining alarms and flashing red alerts, he can hardly discern what’s going on. For every ACE trainer he and Metagross manage to save, half a dozen prisoners vanish into the whirlpool. Without Steven’s telepathy to provide support, Claydol slips up against an Aerodactyl, and Steven is forced to recall it back to its Pokéball.
The steel reinforcements of the Trench buckle under the weight of the ocean. Behind his shoulder, Steven sees one of the three Dragonite pulling away from the Whirpool to snap at an ACE trainer stupid enough to antagonise it. Steven lunges to pull the trainer away before this disaster gets any worse.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Steven shouts over the noise. “DO YOU WANT TO GET US ALL KILLED?”
Even without telepathy, Metagross is able to sense the incoming danger and stops fighting. Their eyes flash white like stars, illuminating the entire corridor. The Trench’s support beams groan, but manage to keep upright with the psychic intervention.
Metagross is the only thing still holding the Trench together.
In the corner of his eye, Steven catches sight of one last person. A Gyarados and Kingdra flank a man with red hair and a dark cloak. He is supporting a gaunt, female prisoner with similar features to his own, though the blue in her hair seems closer to silver in the dim light. A sister, or relative of some sort? Steven’s heart pangs for Pierce. He hasn’t seen his cousin in months.
Whoever this man and his companion are, Steven and Metagross are all that stand between them and the whirlpool. He looks tired, but the man’s jaw is set in a grim line. He’s prepared to leave at any cost.
Steven thinks - knows - he can take this stranger in a battle. It’d be close without telepathy, but if Metagross were to collapse the floor, they could get the drop on that Gyarados…
And then the Trench would be flattened under the ocean, taking all of its inhabitants with it.
Steven steps back, and lets the man pass. Their eyes meet.
This isn’t over, Steven tells himself. One day, I will find you, and I’ll stop you.
Today, Lance Wataru breaks in and out of the most secure facility on the planet. Samuel Oak declines to go with him.
Steven, if you’re reading this, I’ve defected from Hoenn.
I can’t do this anymore. What we’ve been asked to do isn’t war, it’s murder. I don’t recognise myself.
Take Metagross back to the colony for me. I know we’re technically on opposite sides now, but we’re still family. I won’t put Metagross in danger by bringing them with me.
Growing up with you and Pops were some of the best years of my life. I like to think that being around you changed me for the better. Deep down, you’ve always been a good person.
I want to stay, I really do, but I can’t even look you in the eye anymore. Indigo is changing us both. I’m sorry I can’t be there, but I hope you understand. Take care of yourself. You’ll always be my best friend.
Love,
Pierce
Matthias flees to Sinnoh as a Champion-in-exile, abdicating his title two months later. He is held under house arrest in exchange for a conditional truce between Drake and Cynthia.
Lance the Dragon Tamer remains, and Indigo still throws everything they’ve got.
Steven hunts Lance to the ends of the earth.
Cinnabar Island makes its surrender after two years under siege. Elite Four Blaine, the Blaze of Cinnabar, is captured and put to trial.
Despite the severity of his crimes, he’s offered a conditional amnesty on the provision he continue his cloning studies for Hoenn.
“I’d rather burn,” Blaine tells the jury, and his research is lost with him.
Today, Steven sees his cousin for the first time in more than three years.
Metagross clashes with two of Lance’s Dragonite in the midsts of Viridian City.
Lance Wataru is using every trick left in the hat. A great black Onix, the size of a skyscraper, rampages in the background against Sidney and Pheobe.
As planned, the others put the behemoth of an Onix under a distortive spell, and it begins to flail against its teammates under the midst of confusion. Steven has it under control.
Until he doesn’t.
The titan’s sheer destructive potential wasn’t something he’d properly accounted for. Steven watches, helpless, as the Onix collapses a dozen city blocks with a single swipe of its gargantuan tail.
If left unchecked, there’d be nobody left alive in this city to fight for.
Lance is clearly thinking the same, but he isn’t in a spot to take action. Neither can risk pulling back from the fight without becoming vulnerable to the other. Hesitantly, Steven works up the courage to make the first move.
“Truce!” he shouts, holding up both hands. Metagross pauses its grapple, one claw still pinning down a Dragonite’s wing.
Lance locks eyes with Steven. Is that a flicker of gratefulness? The Dragon Tamer nods back, and speaks into his wrist. “All units! Contain the King!”
The ceasefire is short-lasting but effective. Even the King Under The Mountain isn’t able to prevail against the combination of Lance and Steven, but the damage to the city remains catastrophic.
Steven pretends to miss Drake’s persistent calls over the communications array, and negotiates a joint search for survivors.
Metagross are the one to find Pierce’s body in the rubble.
The Colony-Coward-Friend is here, they tell him. Metagross’s telepathy stutters.
Steven’s hands tremble. “No. Not a coward, Metagross.”
Pierce had been so, so brave. Even when Indigo had been pushed to the brink of defeat, after so many had fought and bled and died, he’d been here - helping people evacuate instead of contributing to a circle of violence. Pierce had gone out rescuing a young boy, no older than ten or eleven, and his Nidoran.
It was all Steven’s fault.
He barely notices the Dragon Tamer approach.
Lance hesitates, fumbling over the words. “I’m sorry. About your cousin.”
What? Steven almost wants to laugh. His worst enemy is standing not two metres away. None of his Dragonite are anywhere to be seen. Metagross could cut his heart out before anyone would even notice. All he has to do is give the command.
Suddenly Steven feels very tired.
“None of this is right,” he rasps. “I wish… I wish the Great War never happened. My mother would still be here. Winona would be alive. Pierce…”
Lance’s posture shifts. Despite his gaunt, malnourished appearance, something has come to life in his eyes. “I think I have an idea.”
And Steven listens.
The small space only has a diameter of twenty feet, and the dais which is the source of the pale, purple light rests in the center.
Every inch of the space is covered in the dead. Desiccated corpses of Zigzagoon, Mightyena, Shelgon, a Salamence large enough to rival Victor, Vigoroth, and countless examples of other species tangle together all over the flat stone floor, many piled on top of one another with interlocking ribs and joints.
It is only Steven’s name and reputation that has gotten them this far.
Behind him, he can hear Metagross fight alongside Saph and Dragonite outside the entrance to the ruins. Lance said he’d buy them time, but Steven has no idea how long Lance can fend off Drake and the rest of the Elite Four.
An ear-splitting attack Steven has learnt to call Obliterator rattles all of Forina, and the mountainside shifts again.
The dry rock under Steven’s feet lurches. He barely manages to find safe footing before the tomb in front of him drops ten, twenty, thirty metres into the ground.
He wants to cry. Of course this had to happen now.
Even with the light to guide him, there’s no way for Steven to descend down to the dais safely. The only way to make contact with the amethyst crystal laying atop it would be if Steven were to jump. But at this height, without his team… it’d be the last thing he’d do.
All his life, Steven has longed for an end to the Great War. This whole time, the answer has been waiting here, right under his nose!
The purple light is soft, too gentle for the horrors the Draconids had wrote of.
The tomb rumbles again. The Dragon Master and the Dragon Tamer would tear this whole mountain apart if he let them. Steven knows he has to act now.
Even as Steven falls, he can’t help but wonder what he’s managed to accomplish. What was the point? Why is he here? Why is this happening? Why would Indigo start the Great War? Why is he fighting it? Why did Mamoru have to die? Why is he fighting? Why had Lance known about the way to this tomb? Why is he fighting?
From here, Steven can see Jirachi’s silhouette from under the crystal. The egg’s surface is pulsing, almost craving to be touched.
The light is fading from his eyes. Steven can barely bring himself to move.
He reaches out--