"What reason do you have to leave Aron behind?"

  Steven turned away and restarted the slow cleanup of his small camp at the other side of the cavern.

  Astra watched him go, fully speechless. Was he always that dramatic? Having Tung scream so loudly was completely unnecessary, no matter what point he was trying to make. She was on the verge of a major headache, and her ears were still ringing! And her butt hurt from when she fell down! Ow, ow ow ow....

  Aron nudged her side, quietly chirping in concern. Astra looked down at her, smiling awkwardly.

  "He, uh, really likes hearing himself talk, huh?" she said.

  Aron stared up at her silently. Astra's smile fell, and she looked down into her lap.

  "I'm...not sure I got all of what he said," Astra continued, fiddling with her hands. "But...I don't know. Is it really that simple?"

  Learn from her mistakes? Don't do it again? She'd tried that before; the very day this entire adventure began, she'd sent multiple facefuls of Oran berry debris into her grandfather's patient smile. She'd learned from it, but the process was so agonizingly slow—and drawing the metaphor out, if it was her Pokémon getting smashed rather than fruit…

  She couldn't exactly just shrug and try again. The scale of consequence was simply on an entirely different level; coating herself in berry juice wasn't the same thing as hurting a friend. Even if she tried her absolute hardest, she was sure that she'd make a mess again…and next time, her Pokemon might end up with wounds like the ones covering Tung the Aggron. Could she keep going, knowing where the path of the Champion led?

  The flash of memory drew forth others, and she endured a moment of uncomfortable introspection as Steven fiddled with his equipment, his back turned. Grandpa, the guard, the smith, the entire village…

  An aching abyss formed within her heart, and Astra was struck by an intense longing. She wanted to see Grandpa again, to be with someone she didn't have to hide from. To share a meal of steaming hot Magikarp stew and laugh at terrible jokes. To have him hold her close and tell her it was all going to be alright. What would he say to her, here and now?

  'Then make a small mess,' the echo of her grandfather spoke from within her memory. 'Then a smaller mess, and an even smaller mess, and eventually there will be no mess at all. That is the secret to progress.'

  ...

  Well, she supposed she already knew, didn't she? He wouldn't want her to just give up. No matter how big the failure…

  He'd ask her to keep going, and make a smaller mess.

  Astra wiped away a tear, feeling the lump of warm steel bury herself deeper into her side at the motion. Determination and resolve washed through her mind. No matter what, she couldn't give up—all those faces in her memories were depending on her! She would try again and again, until the jam was done. Until her team was the best around, and Steven was the one on the floor.

  No matter how hard failure hurt.

  "Do you know what you're asking, I wonder?" Astra sighed, looking at Aron again. "Did you even understand what he said? Becoming part of my team wouldn't be peaceful at all." She met Aron's blank stare with as much severity as she could muster. "Yes, there's fun moments where we play around, but half of them are really injured right now, because of me."

  She paused, then reached into her pack and pulled out an empty pokeball. "That Aggron," she continued, brushing her thumb over the button. "He was pretty cool, right? You could become like him, but it might be in more ways than just form. Could you handle getting hurt as badly as he'd been, all because I screwed up?"

  "Aron," Aron chirped, her cheery answer coming so quickly that Astra had serious doubts that she'd even thought about her question at all.

  "This is serious, Aron!" Astra chided, frowning. "What if I caught you and then asked you to fight that Makuhita from earlier?" she asked, holding up the pokeball. "He nearly made you his dinner before, and I wouldn't be saving you this time. Could you do that!?"

  Aron stared at her, head tilting with a downwards jerk that Astra could only interpret as exasperated. Then she turned to the pokeball in Astra's palm.

  Then she reared up and headbutted it out of the Kirlia's grasp.

  "Wha—!?" Astra yelped, jerking back. Then she stared, dumbfounded, as the ball opened up on its way to the ground and shot a beam of light at Aron, enveloping her completely.

  "Aron!" she chirped decisively, lingering just long enough to nuzzle Astra one last time before she vanished from view.

  The pokeball clamped shut and fell to the ground. It shook once, twice, thrice...then chimed, and fell still.

  Astra stared at it, mouth agape. The corners of her mouth twitched, a faint giggle escaped her throat—and then she found herself laughing quietly, shaking at the audacity of that metal brat. Running headlong into the unknown despite knowing about the risks, just because she wanted to? Well, Astra herself hadn't exactly thought through traveling to Petalburg that fateful afternoon very much either…so what right did she have to complain?

  "Fine then, you iron airhead," Astra huffed, picking up Aron's pokeball and rising to her feet. "You win. But don't think I'll take it easy on you, got that?"

  She could almost imagine the pokeball jostle slightly in response.

  Shaking her head, the Kirlia tucked it into her sash with the others—and as she looked up, she saw that while she and Aron had been having their moment, Steven had put away more or less all of his materials. With a click he shut down the second of the three lights he'd set up, casting the cavern into a darker hue. He looked up at her approach, a faint smile appearing as he glanced toward the ground and found nothing.

  "Made your decision, did we?" he asked, folding up the light into a much more compact form and setting it aside.

  Astra snorted. "More like she made it for me. She headbutted the pokeball out of my hand and caught herself."

  Steven's smile grew as he huffed in amusement. "A memory to cherish, I would think." He hummed and drew himself up, idly holstering his hands in his pockets. "Now then, I didn't quite count that conversation to be the repayment I had mentioned; merely a bit of guidance from a senior in our line of work. Bringing you back to proper form rather than giving you something new, one might say."

  He nodded at her, his smile lingering even as his eyes sharpened. "Since Aron has graciously battered her way into your team, would you be interested in what I've found works best to raise and care for their species?"

  Astra was tempted by the offer, a little bit. Advice from the Pokemon Champion would surely let her train Aron to her fullest. But not only would it simply be following in a path that Steven had already trodden...

  There was something more important that she needed to know.

  "No," Astra said, shaking her head. "I appreciate it, but I'm going to train Aron my own way. I can't surprise you if I only copy you."

  "Unexpected, but fair enough," Steven said. Despite his casual wording, for a moment Astra thought that his smile had gotten a bit more approving. "Do you have an alternative repayment from me in mind? I'm not as good a teacher as Roxanne, but I think I could give you insight into just about anything in our line of work."

  Astra didn't answer for a moment. She looked back at the dark tunnel, recalling the horrible, forced decline Echo's home had undergone. Aron's shell had been weak, cracking under that Makuhita's blows much more easily than it should have, even accounting for type advantage. What had she eaten, with the lack of excavated iron ore and a now-extinct plant? And hadn't that Makuhita also been unwell? He'd taken a long time to react to her appearance, and seemed to be savoring the hunt a bit too much. Maybe Aron would have been a rare delicacy amongst endless days of consuming Zubat.

  Poisonous stew and blank Abra.

  The Granite Caves were drained and stagnant. Dying slowly, day by day.

  Had humanity truly needed to scour the caves clean? Hadn't there been another way? Any other option at all?

  And so the question remained:

  "I just...want to know: why?"

  Steven was silent for a moment, awaiting a follow-up. He quirked an eyebrow when none appeared. "Is that your question? You may have to be a bit more specific than that. Expounding on the nature of reality is more dense than our agreement can handle, I'm afraid."

  "Huh? Wait, sorry, I meant—ugh." Astra shook her head, frowning. "The Granite Caves. I was told that there used to be Lairon and Hariyama here, a long time ago. Some type of edible plant that grew along the walls too. But now they're all gone. And the Pokemon still here seem...unwell."

  She looked up at Steven, light crimson eyes meeting steel blue without fear or weakness. A declaration of unmistakable intent and gravitas. It was something she needed to know. To finally close the circle, and bridge that communication gap that had festered for forty years.

  Astra stared at him and asked:

  "What happened here?"

  Steven stood there, silently. His gaze bored into her for a long while.

  "Huh," he said, his head tilting the slightest amount. "Are you aware that the history of Dewford Island is recorded in a great many places, such as the local library? I'm sure you could check out a history book there."

  Astra hadn't, but it didn't matter. It had been humans—trainers—that had ruined the cave, not books. And Steven was in charge of them. He had to answer for them.

  "I want to hear it from you," she stated; she'd been reeling back and forth all day, now it was time to hold her ground. "You're the Pokemon Champion, right? And this is a problem about Pokemon. Wouldn't you know more about this than some book?"

  "A title does not mean instant, total understanding of every aspect of its namesake," Steven chided, but he still nodded thoughtfully. "But...perhaps. I will applaud you on noticing the dismal state of the wildlife," he added, smile widening. "Awareness like that would prove extremely useful were you seeking to become a researcher or ranger.

  "As for the caves...are you sure?" he checked. "The reasons aren't very happy, and you could get answers from many more mundane sources than I. Wouldn't you rather get a leg up for when you go up against Brawly again?"

  "I don't need your help to beat Brawly," Astra refuted, even if she did very much want it. "This is...more important."

  Steven considered her for a moment. He closed his eyes, releasing a weary breath that matched the faint whisper of a breeze that slunk through these ancient, stony halls.

  "Very well," he finally said, his voice somber. He opened his eyes, and what had once been a confident, steely gaze had been replaced by a haggard visage, looking beyond her into things long gone and far, far away. "I suppose it would be good to learn from the mistakes of the past. The full details are far too numerous for a mere conversation, but I will try my best to be thorough regardless."

  "Thank you," Astra said.

  Steven nodded at her, then looked past her again—this time literally, up at the cataclysmic mural. The furious countenances of primal creatures long past stared back, frozen in time.

  "Dewford," he began, his voice a monotone shaded with the weight of history, "started as a fishing town. It grew slowly over the years, and often lagged behind in gaining innovations the rest of Hoenn enjoyed. It never became a proper city until about forty-five years ago, when Wattson—now the Gym Leader of Mauville—entered the scene and successfully petitioned for the island be given the same infrastructure every other settlement enjoyed; a proper electrical grid in particular.

  "The result of this was that Dewford started growing rapidly, which was all well and good. But it also meant they had a need for larger buildings. Processing facilities for fish. Skyscrapers and shopping centers for business. Streetlights, power lines, transmission towers. All standard fare in other cities. Not to mention the naval base on the southwest corner of the island.

  "And all of them used significant quantities of metal in their construction."

  "Which Aron and Lairon ate," Astra interjected, recalling Echo's story. Steven nodded.

  "Yes. Before then...well, I imagine the Hariyama and Lairon would rarely leave the cave. Even if they did, they would be driven back or taken care of fairly swiftly. But the growth of the city attracted them toward the surface, and news of their increasingly frequent appearances in turn attracted trainers in greater numbers. More than similar events had ever drawn, as the recent invention of artificial pokeballs had granted significantly more newly-certified trainers license to capture Pokemon than in the past."

  "Artificial pokeballs?" Astra interjected again, confused. Wait, hadn't Brendan said that pokeballs had been made from Apricorns?

  "In the past, pokeballs were made solely from Apricorns," Steven said, confirming Astra's recollection. "We only cracked the secret of how to create pokeballs on our own fifty years ago. Apricorns required a level of artisanship to create—not to mention limitations in the actual orcharding and harvesting of the fruit itself—that made them near-impossible to produce in great numbers. Once the company that became Silph Co replicated the method, suddenly everybody could have as many pokeballs as they liked. The original models are quite fascinating, actually; cumbersome iron-gray spheres with a twisting latch—ah, I digress."

  He cleared his throat, his brief flare of enthusiasm guttering out like a snuffed candle. "Well, while the trainer rush lessened the problem for a little while, the city's advancement continued unabated. As hundreds of thousands of tons of steel poured into Dewford, Lairon began to pour out of Granite Cave more and more often. They began to emerge from the cave mere weeks or even days apart, and sometimes in groups. The Hariyama that fed on them followed, and found an entire city full of worthy fighters to challenge, which only encouraged them further."

  Steven sighed. "To make a long story short, the Lairon and Hariyama caused immense havoc to Dewford, sometimes collapsing buildings from beneath or brawling in the streets. I am unaware of the solutions considered in the wake of such an incursion; barricades or other deterrents along with incentivizing trainers to catch them, I would imagine." He shrugged lightly. "I believe there were talks about seeding trainer-instructed Lairon and Hariyama inside the ecosystem to stop the problem from within, as it were, but they never had time to put it into practice."

  Seeding trainer-instructed Pokemon? They would have scattered human-trained Lairon and Hariyama into the caves? How would that...? Hm. Well, if they had been trained by humans, they could have told them to make sure nobody headed for the exit, right? And if a few dozen really strong Lairon and Hariyama were taking over their wild counterparts communities, they could have discouraged everybody else, too.

  "Making the Lairon and Hariyama stop themselves...that actually sounds like a really good idea," Astra said, furrowing her brow. "Why couldn't they try it?"

  Steven stared through her.

  "Because forty years ago, Kanto and Hoenn went to war."

  The pieces in her memories slammed together at long last.

  She was back in Petalburg. In front of her, a kindly old man sat on a bench. "It's all you kids seem to do nowadays, is all. Pokemon this, Pokemon that…it's been like this ever since they let you kids tame Pokemon by yourselves. Did you know that you used to have to get special training to even attempt that?" Trevor had said, shaking his head. "Now it's so simple a kid can do it…how the world changes in just a few decades."

  The bench became a table, and she was back in the Town Hall. In front of her was Gav, hands moving animatedly and eyes shining brightly as he detailed how a single machine could cross the world in the blink of an eye and decimate everything within a mile.

  His face twisted into an old man's, wrinkled with apoplectic rage and misery unbound. "I say we take all of those damn Kantonians, march them straight up Mt. Chimney, and—!"

  "—When people disagree hard enough, and their emotions run too high, they can get into a fight," Brendan had said, his arm wrapped tightly around her shoulder. Even here and now, the remembered warmth and comfort suffused her like a bonfire. "And then someone can get hurt. But regions like Hoenn and Kanto are made of thousands and thousands of people. When two regions disagree, and they get into a fight...there are a lot more people that can get hurt, and they get hurt worse, and the fighting can last for a long, long time."

  The arm became hers, and she was holding Echo close, both of them staring into the glow of the fiery stones. [Ended forty years past,] she had said, describing when Granite Cave had been emptied of all but the weakest of Pokemon. When a great mass of trainers flooded the caves, capturing everything they could.

  Oh.

  ...Oh.

  "Why?"

  The question slipped out. Steven sighed.

  "Explaining every reason the war occurred is beyond the scope of your question," he said, wearily, "but one probable catalyst was that the sudden availability of pokeballs allowed for every single man and woman sent off to battle to have an entire squadron of Pokemon to themselves in the palm of their hands. Kanto was certainly eager to take advantage of it. Hoenn was forced to do the same. And Dewford had become a critical military port, whose safety and stability took precedence above all else."

  "And the Lairon and Hariyama were destroying the city," Astra whispered, eyes wide.

  "There was no more time." Steven closed his eyes, head bowing fractionally.

  "To answer your question at last, Astra…the reason that the Granite Caves have no Lairon or Hariyama is because they had become the solution to another problem. Kanto sought our extinction and brought a horde to crush us underfoot. We responded in kind.

  "We captured every single combat-capable Pokemon within these caves both to permanently stop their assault on Dewford, and to serve as soldiers on the front lines of our war…

  "And none of them came back."

  Silence. Steven stood there, waiting patiently as Astra stared at the floor and tried to process...everything.

  So. That's what had happened to them. Dewford had been forced to take them all and send them to die far away from home because Kanto had threatened them. She'd always been afraid of being captured. If she'd been a bit slower on that trail, she would have been a pet of that boy May had been with. A terrible fate, but she would have still just been a pet. The boy would probably have tried to be kind to her, in a way.

  But those Pokemon didn't even have that small hope for a caring owner. Would they have even known their trainers? Had friends and families been kept together or torn apart? She supposed that it didn't matter, in the end.

  The fighting… She knew that most other Pokemon didn't seem to have problems with combat. It had always been a little unnerving; while she herself enjoyed it as a leader and bystander, or a step removed in activities like Rebound, she wasn't like Treecko or her other teammates. Didn't like being…hands-on. Regular battling was akin to...enthusiastic sparring, which she could understand, but…

  But this hadn't been a spar. They'd just been marched to their deaths.

  "Did they have to take them all?" Astra asked plaintively.

  Steven hummed. "Perhaps if they hadn't been in conflict with Dewford," he speculated, "but the decision making processes that led to their capture in totality were long before my time. What was done remains done; all we can do is deal with the consequences."

  Astra started, then looked back up at him, eyes wide. Consequences? Consequences!? He had no idea what that decision had done! Her cousins were all but wiped out! Their children were poisoned and starving! And Echo—! Echo... She had been left all alone.

  He knew nothing about the consequences.

  None of them ever do.?

  Steven blinked, glancing around as if a shadow had twitched in his periphery.

  "Then why didn't you?" Astra asked, the accusation hissing through her transmission as she glared at Steven. "The cave is still completely dismal! Where are the new Lairon and Hariyama? Why are Zubat still the only thing to eat here? By the stars, how is any of this dealt with?"

  "It isn't," he replied, unphased by her outburst aside from a raised brow near the end. "I agree that the ecosystem here is very unhealthy. It's a shame that it's lingered in this state for so long."

  Astra couldn't believe this guy. "Then why haven't you done anything?"

  A sigh escaped him, as though he'd heard the same question a thousand times before.

  "I wish I had an easy answer for you," he began, folding his arms. "But I'm afraid it is just a simple one. I cannot personally revitalize an entire ecosystem overnight. Even with help, it can take many, many years for nature to return to its former state. It can be done, but it hasn't happened here because of one simple process."

  He unfolded his arms, one hand resting on his hip and the other holding up a finger in mimicry of a pose Roxanne had often used during her lectures.

  "Tell me," he said, "do you know what 'triage' is?"

  Astra frowned at him. "I don't," she said, cautiously.

  Steven nodded. "It is the process of assessing which survivors of battle should be treated first. Those who are in critical condition but are still saveable are given high priority, those who are too far gone are...made comfortable, and those who are the least injured or are stable, are left for last."

  He looked at her, eyes filled with sorrow. "The Granite Caves are miserable. But they are stable. Surveys indicate that the remaining Pokemon populations here are not fluctuating or trending downwards. Combined with its cumbersome nature as a cavern system, it was determined that the Granite Caves are of very low priority for restoration efforts."

  Stable!? How in the blazes was Echo's entire colony wasting away stable!? It wasn't like he knew about it, but the humans hadn't fixed the caves just because it wasn't a priority!? What else could they be—!

  Um. Wait. The way he phrased that...

  "Restoration efforts...?" Astra asked, her anger giving way to hesitance.

  "Astra," Steven said, patiently. "The Granite Caves were not the only place in Hoenn to be harmed in such a way. It wasn't even the worst. The war lasted for ten years. Can you fathom the amount of damage such a thing caused? Every single part of Hoenn was called upon to defend it, and we siphoned our home to the bone and cracked it open for the marrow just to survive another day.

  "The Beautifly Festival used to nearly black out the sky and today, after two generations, they would be in awe if they saw more than a small cloud. Nobody has seen a single Ponyta near route 112 in nearly four decades. Wattson had to condemn an entire power plant so the Electric Pokemon we thought had gone extinct could use it as a home. There used to be dragons soaring around the volcano!" he stressed, gesturing wildly. "The only Gastlys left in Mt. Pyre are the ones who got to be interred as jars of ectoplasm, and Shoal Cave holds the only two wild Ice-types left in all of Hoenn."

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Astra could only stare speechlessly at Steven's wild gesticulations. This was the most emotive she had ever seen the man, and whatever held his emotions in place seemed to have faded a little bit, releasing waves of raw, indignant grief into the air.

  "Not to mention the horrors our people faced out there! Psychics tearing at people's minds, Ghost-types inflicting waking nightmares—and the evolutions! New Pokemon that could only appear in places of wretched misery! A man who caught a school of Luvdisc sent them into the fire and what came out incinerated the water. Thirty-six years dead and those Phosphearts are still burning. An entire generation was tossed into the grinder and for what? People who could have been artists, engineers, doctors—all gone! All—!"

  Steven paused mid-rant, only now noticing the effect his words were having. Whatever manic energy had driven him vanished, leaving the Champion—even if only for a moment—slumping in a lifeless pall. With a sigh he straightened up and adjusted his jacket, even as he seemed to glare at himself again.

  "Apologies," he said, giving her another neutral smile that absolutely wasn't hiding any awkwardness whatsoever. "I find it...difficult to remain composed when aspects of that time period are discussed."

  Astra's only response was a horrified, gaping silence. What did you even say to something like that?

  "As for my point," he continued, glancing aside with a grimace. "We bled ourselves dry to survive, and it's taken the work of many, many people to get ourselves back to where we are today."

  Steven's hand drifted to the letter in his jacket again, and he frowned. "Even if some groups think we haven't been doing nearly as much as we 'should' be."

  'Some groups?' What did he mean by that? Were there people who weren't happy about how fast Hoenn was recovering? Astra vaguely recalled Brendan mentioning something about environmentalists during the trip back from the Rusturf Tunnel. Wait, was he talking about Team—

  In days long past, when blood was shed,

  Two boys grew up and saw the end.

  One felt the fire, and blamed the means,

  One sank alone and blamed the men.

  Each sought sheep to create their band,

  And strive for might to mend their land.

  But both are wrong. Not quake nor squall;

  All will end in sand.?

  Astra blinked, glancing around the room in confusion. Huh? Had she just spaced out? It kind of felt like...had someone been talking?

  Refocusing on Steven, Astra looked on curiously as she saw him peering into nothing with a faint crease upon his brow. Had he heard something too? If he had, then...maybe it was just the distant echo of a particularly shouty Makuhita? Or the wind. In this...closed off room. Or maybe…

  Steven frowned, turning an intense stare back to Astra. There was something heavy behind that look. Her breath caught as he—

  There was a clattering of feet on glass, and then a harsh thud. The two blinked, then turned to see a Makuhita lying on the floor at the tunnel's mouth. One had wandered in? And...tripped. Her guess had been completely right, apparently.

  The rotund Pokemon clambered to their feet, groaning softly, before they spotted them and stood spear-shaft straight.

  To Astra's side, Steven huffed in annoyance. He pointed at the exit, leveling a firm glare at the intruder.

  "Out."

  The Makuhita yelped, nearly falling over again in their haste to leave. They ran back into the tunnel, making a peculiarly loud racket while doing so. Had there been more behind them? But no further Pokemon appeared, and after a few moments the sound of violently tinking stone subsided.

  "Well, that thoroughly ruined my train of thought!" Steven cheered, turning back to Astra. "I've had a few critters wander in here before; bad luck that it happened now."

  "Right." Taking a moment to calm herself, Astra gently pushed the memory of this latest strange occurrence down with the rest of them. It had just been a strange echo from a Makuhita after all, so there wasn't any point deliberating on it. "You were talking about the cave?"

  Steven's face fell, the moment of levity fading away. "Yes, right. Back to the topic at hand…despite our efforts, even now keen eyes can tell that the entire west half of Hoenn is still trying to get back on its feet. Granite Cave is bad, yes," he agreed, nodding at Astra. "But it isn't getting worse, and it is very hard to fix. And while we are keeping an eye on it, anything more will have to wait a while longer."

  But it was getting worse. Just...in a way that nobody could ever know about. But if everywhere else had been just as bad or even more terrible...

  Astra hated it. All of it. The stupid Lairon and Hariyama for attacking Dewford, the stupid war forcing the humans to devastate their own lands, and she hated herself for seeing Steven's stupid point. They couldn't have ever accounted for the colony. They had calculated the risks and costs accordingly, and had come to a reasonable conclusion.

  It...wasn't their fault that they were wrong.

  But the scale of it all...

  "I just can't picture it..." she muttered, cradling her head in her hand. "How could all of those Pokemon just...vanish?"

  A moment of quiet. And then Steven spoke, his voice as solemn as the echoing dark. It didn't rhyme, nor did he pitch his voice with any particular cadence, but what the Champion said next was undoubtedly more poetic than the lines he'd greeted her with.

  "The battling you know is just a sport. It's done for fun, for improvement, for challenging the best and bonding with your partners.

  "But that wasn't a battle, with neat rules and honorable conduct. It was a war, the first of its kind.

  "There was no place for trainers and their Pokemon.

  "It was just men, with monsters in their pockets."

  And that was it.

  Astra breathed out, slumping. That was how it had gotten this bad. The full story from both sides. Stars above, there really was nothing anybody could have done, was there? It was just...an inevitability.

  "I am sorry," Steven said, his voice reverberating in the ancient cave. "Knowledge of the past can be a terrible burden to bear, and I'm not very well suited to reciting it, I think." His face twisted, something that was probably meant to be a humorous smile attempting to take form upon it. "There's a reason I don't teach classes like Roxy does." His expression flattened, though somberness lingered within it. "I only thought that if this knowledge was important enough for you to ask me about it, I would simply answer as best as I was able."

  "No, it's fine," Astra sighed, looking up and giving Steven a thankful, if tired, smile. "I asked for it. Literally. Thank you for...wait, hang on."

  Astra paused, frowning. He'd told her about the Lairon and Hariyama, yes, but he'd never mentioned what had happened with Echo's family. The Kadabra that had stolen from the surface and had been...struck down. Not to mention the rampage Echo's most vengeful cousin had gone on.

  Steven tilted his head slightly. "Yes?"

  His eyes bore into her, puzzled. Astra hesitated; the answers to what had happened to the other inhabitants of the cave had been terrifying, and Echo had already said quite a bit about what had happened to her fellows. Did she really want to—?

  She cut off that line of thought with a vengeance. Yes, a hundred times yes. She needed to know the full story; anything less was unacceptable. She straightened, meeting Steven's inquisitive gaze head-on.

  "What about the Kadabra?"

  "The Kadabra?" Steven asked, blinking. "Oh, them. Right, I...hadn't forgotten them, but I'd considered their part in all this as a separate incident."

  "You said they were 'volatile,'" Astra recalled. "And Brendan had said they had a history of 'extreme violence.' What happened to them?"

  "Hm. I suppose that does fall under your question," Steven mused. "And you said you met one earlier today? It's good to know they are still around...well I suppose I could talk about them for a bit, though their part in all this was rather short."

  "Please do," Astra urged, all of her focus brought to bear on his next words.

  "Well…before the war started, we didn't actually have concrete evidence that Abra inhabited these caves at all," Steven began, rubbing his chin in thought. "There were only very rare and dubious reports of sightings by explorers, and no trainer had ever provided evidence that they'd battled, let alone captured one. But some time after Dewford conscripted the Pokemon in the caves, there were multiple sightings of Kadabra teleporting into town and stealing large quantities of food."

  Astra nodded. This tracked with Echo's side of things so far.

  "They didn't even know the Kadabra were natives, at first," Steven continued. "The largest known population of Kadabra were all in Kanto. Considering they had just entered hostilities, many thought the thefts were acts of sabotage. But those theories became more dubious when no actual military targets were affected; in every instance, they only stole large quantities of civilian food. One of the more bizarre incidents was when they methodologically emptied every single bakery in the city."

  Wow, they really had spent an entire day teleporting bread. Astra wondered if they'd been able to eat it all. Maybe some of it had gone to the mushroom farm.

  "Attempts to stop them were unusually troubled, and eventually Dewford had to employ anti-Psychic countermeasures en-masse within the town itself. I believe about five Kadabra fell prey to their methods before the thievery stopped, but they were too hostile for rehabilitation—every single native Kadabra on record has constantly assaulted every man and Pokemon around them while inducing cluster migraines," Steven explained, grimacing.

  Echo's Psychic-flooded language issues... If they hadn't had that flaw, what would have happened? Would they have spoken peacefully, or would humanity have only grown more agitated? And...the way he phrased that. Had they caught some of Echo's family? Well, even if they had, four decades was a long time. They would have returned if they were able. And they hadn't.

  "Some time after that, even more Kadabra were sighted in the Caves themselves for the first time, forcefully teleporting everybody who tried to enter back outside. They were actually taken care of by Rare Pokemon Hunters; I don't believe any succeeded in capturing one, but after the first few conflicts the teleportation business stopped and—as their stories spread around—another flood of trainers swept the cave system, hoping to snag one for themselves." Steven hummed, frowning in thought. "I think they only encountered two or three? I'm not sure, but none of them were successful."

  Right, the teleportation plan and then the retaliation. It had been done by trainers looking for special Pokemon to capture? And since they couldn't capture Echo's family, they just decided to...

  Astra's hands clenched inside her sleeves. It wasn't fair. Horrific, awful, nightmarish...words couldn't describe it.

  But what happened next wasn't any better, was it?

  "Was that it?" she asked, knowing very well it wasn't.

  Steven went quiet, visibly reluctant to retell the next part of the story. "No," he admitted. "There was one more incident. Soon after the second wave of trainers attempted to capture those Kadabra, a new one appeared. Initially thought to be an Alakazam, the Kadabra was horrifically strong and wielded five Psychic foci at once—completely outclassing experimental scenarios to this day and outright unheard of in the wild. And it was almost rabid with anger.

  "Wild Pokemon challenging people to a battle is an expected behavior, and actual assaults are rare but usually non-lethal. But a wild Pokemon who kills people cannot be allowed to roam free. And this Kadabra mangled every single trainer that entered the Granite Caves beyond recognition, with dozens of fatalities and very few survivors. It was only defeated when Glacia made a personal visit and struck both it and a good portion of the cavern system itself down.

  "Afterwards, a thorough sweep of the caverns was ordered again. Although several new passageways had opened up, and many more had collapsed due to the fighting, no other Kadabra were found…though there have been the occasional sightings since then. Strangely enough, a few weeks afterward trainers began reporting Abra encounters much more often than usual." Steven paused, thinking back on what he'd just said. "Well, if all the Kadabra had been keeping them from encountering trainers, maybe it isn't so strange. In any case, it wasn't long before someone had actually caught one, proving that Abra had, indeed, been living here this entire time. Somewhere," he added, shrugging.

  "…Well, I suppose I do know where, now," he recanted, looking over at the tunnel back to the lesser creche. "You must have passed through that cave out there to come here, yes? That cave is a new discovery; when I first arrived here, I found a half-dozen Abra sleeping in those alcoves. They've long vanished, of course, but I imagine they'll come back once we leave. It's funny; we've swept these caves top to bottom several times over, and yet there are still new passageways being discovered today. I wonder where else they're hiding..."

  Astra fervently hoped he would never find out. She sighed and rubbed at her eyes; even after Echo's Psychic-boosted sleep, she was feeling exhausted all over again. The last puzzle piece, finally found. Nothing truly new, but the story wouldn't have been complete without humanity's perspective.

  What a nightmare. What a tragedy.

  What was she going to do? If the current Champion found it difficult to revitalize the caves, how could she...?

  She paused, a small detail from Steven's recounting sticking out in her mind. Well, actually two; the word 'Alakazam' was familiar. Another Psychic Pokémon, similar to a Kadabra? Something Brendan had said pricked at her mind…but she shelved that thought for the time being. There was a more important detail; that person who had beaten Echo's empowered cousin...

  "Who is Glacia?" Astra asked, curious as to who could have taken down such an astonishing Psychic.

  "The previous long-term Champion before myself," Steven replied. A soft, sad smile came across his face. "She led Hoenn through those horrible years, and a few decades beyond as well. She remains as part of the Elite Four, and despite it all she still looks nearly half her age. Some say her affinity for Ice-types froze her in time, but... well, who can say for sure? To me she's a kindly woman who has seen terrible things, come face to face with awful problems, and has done her best to solve them."

  The previous Champion? Huh. Astra hadn't ever thought about who Steven had replaced; her fight was with him, not his predecessor. Well, it would be, except for her being part of the Elite 4, who she'd have to face on the way to challenging Steven again.

  "She was the one who dealt with E—the Kadabra?" she checked.

  "We've gone a bit off topic, haven't we?" Steven chuckled, moving over to the final light. "I suppose I can go on a tangent while I finish up here, but I do have places to be, remember."

  Pausing to light a lantern on the floor, he shut down the powerful lamp and engulfed the room in shadows with a pitched down bweeehhh—and, oddly, the muffled crunch of glass. He frowned at the contraption, but didn't seem to find anything wrong with it after briefly looking it over. Was that not supposed to happen?

  Shrugging, Steven began to pack it away regardless, looking up at Astra while doing so. "But yes; Glacia had to take precious time off from her duties in pushing back Kanto to secure the island personally. She recounts it as one of the hardest battles she ever fought—not that she brought it up often; maybe only once that I've known her. She wasn't keen on recalling the memory."

  Ah. Well, when she became Champion, now she knew who to...well, she didn't really know what she'd do with the information, but now she knew. But what was that about Kanto?

  "Pushing back Kanto?" Astra asked, curious. "She was in the war?"

  "Of course!" Steven said, giving her a strange look as he folded the last of the floodlight away. He picked up the lantern, holding it aloft and bathing them both in its soft yellow glow. "Astra, are you aware of what a Champion does?"

  "They're the strongest trainer who helps other trainers and tells them what to do?" Astra tentatively answered. Grandpa hadn't been completely certain about the matter, only that the Champion was something like an Elder in the village: a person of great wisdom and experience who gave guidance—and who you'd better listen to, or get such a lecturing.

  Steven huffed, smiling faintly. "Not entirely incorrect, but lacking quite a bit of nuance. My explanation is by no means thorough either, but to put it simply: I am in charge of Hoenn's Pokemon and the Trainers who call it home, for the purposes of protecting and improving the lives of those who live here. Both in times of peace, but also in times of conflict. Were Hoenn to come to blows with another region, I would be called upon to intercede where I deemed fit in the course of defending our region…and defeating theirs. The Elite Four, the Gym Leaders, and the general Trainer population would do the same, in varying capacities."

  Astra stared at him. "So when I become champion..."

  "When you do," Steven said, amused, "you would have to intercede in regional conflict, yes. There's a reason the Hall of Fame exists separately to the path that usurps my position. There are trainers who have beaten me since I became Champion, and they were honored appropriately in the Hall. None of them could take my place. The few that tried quickly realized their error, leaving me with the championship once again.

  "Of course, it's not all doom and gloom," he continued, reaching down and shrugging on his massive pack. "I've also been able to change many lives for the better in my time. Even if you never knew my name, I'm sure you in particular have benefited from my actions."

  Huh? Her in particular? She hadn't even participated in human society up until two and a half weeks ago; what would she have benefited from? And what singled out her in particular?

  "I don't think I have?" Astra said, cautiously. "Can you give me an example?"

  "Well, I'm the reason Tate and Liza are Gym Leaders," Steven said, grinning. It faded as he realized Astra didn't recognize those names either. "Hm? Roxanne said she gave you their phone number. I would have thought you'd have called them by now."

  Oh, that mystery card Roxanne had given her! To talk with other humans with albinism. Did that mean Roxanne had given her a way to contact another Gym Leader? Leaders, Astra supposed. She had mentioned it'd connect to her 'colleagues'; Astra hadn't realized exactly what that meant up until now. Were his improvements about the supposed albinism she was excusing her appearance with? Tch, of course it was.

  Stars, if she'd known this stupid ailment was going to be such a problem she would have come up with something on her own instead of appropriating the first plausible explanation she'd found from that Pokemart cashier. How was making two people with this condition Gym Leaders going to help her anyway? And how could two people be the leaders of the same Gym at the same time!?

  "I haven't," Astra sighed. "And I probably won't, either. I didn't even know who the number was for until you just said their names, and while I'm glad Roxanne wanted to help, I'm still not really interested in talking to them."

  "Ah," Steven said, disappointed. "I'm sure you have your reasons, but it is a shame."

  Astra remained silent, shrugging tiredly. Steven pulled out a Pokedex and checked something on it, humming.

  "And I believe that will be enough diversions for me today. I really must be going. It has been a memorable chat, Astra," he concluded, nodding and holding out his hand, a card flipping between his fingers. "And I wouldn't mind having more in the future, should you ever wish it so."

  Astra took the card and found that it listed Steven's name, along with what were probably a couple different methods of contacting him—she only really recognized a phone number, the other text just incomprehensible strings of letters and numbers. She would have to find some way to subtly ask Brendan or May about them; this was probably yet another thing that was 'weird' to not know.

  "Maybe." she hesitantly agreed, stuffing the card in her backpack alongside the other one. She didn't think she'd ever deliberately risk contacting her greatest opponent, but there wasn't any reason to deny it either.

  Steven smiled at her before turning towards the exit borehole. "I wish you well on your journeys, and hopefully we can have a proper rematch in Ever Grande.

  "And really, do reconsider calling the twins," he appended, looking back at her one last time. "They would be delighted to make your acquaintance, and connecting with your peers can help in ways you never expect. Though, actually, now that I think about it, how would the logistics of that call work..."

  He trailed off, mumbling to himself. Astra blinked, watching him head for the exit. An invisible weight sloughed off her shoulders at Steven's farewell, and Astra could feel the tension fade from her bones. She'd successfully fooled the Champion! Nothing overtly bad had happened, and she'd gotten the full story and some extra bits besides. She was finally in the clear.

  Well, it was only proper to wish him goodbye in return. Unless they were going the same way out of the cave? Er. Maybe she could just stay here and look at the mural a bit longer, and find her own way out after he was gone. She had wanted to peek at some of those other carvings...

  "Thanks for everything!" she replied, waving at Steven. "I really don't feel like I need to talk to anyone else with albinism though, so I'll pass on the call. But I will get that title, so watch your back!"

  There, a nice, normal send-off. Astra breathed a sigh of relief. For as tense as their entire interaction was, she had gotten oddly...casual with the guy. If it weren't for his incredibly scary strength and ability to crush her and her village if she made the slightest mistake, Astra would have said talking to Steven was...pretty interesting. That said, she was grateful that the verbose Champion was finally—

  He wasn't leaving.

  Steven stood stock still, only a few steps from turning the corner into the tunnel. An eerie silence filled the room once again, blanketing it like a heavy snowfall.

  He turned to her slowly, and Astra had the privilege of seeing the Champion of Hoenn squinting at her in full-on, open-mouthed bafflement.

  "What?"

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