Chapter Text
The asteroids yearned for their calling.
There was the law of gravitational force, which they followed. There was the law of Convergence, which they obeyed.
The stars glittered. Pulsing with energy.
Waiting.
It was impossible to read the emotions of God. Not with its expressionless face, not when there was only a pair of red-green eyes, offering a blurry window into the divine.
What could Arceus be thinking?
Gold thought it had to be approval.
The clarity in his heart was blinding. The attacks had ceased, and the back of his Togekiss shone. It was peace after a conflict finally resolved. It was love and understanding and pride.
He swore he saw a glint of satisfaction in those cold, red-green eyes.
Arceus had calmed down.
Gold had done it, he’d actually done it. He had found the key, having been hidden away in his own heart for far too long.
Togetaro... he finally understood his Togetaro.
Guilt began to build like plaque. How long had he spent in the dark, pushing Togetaro away from him?
No, it didn't matter then. What happened was that the little Togepi he’d raised from an egg had transformed into a beautiful winged Togekiss mid-air. With that, he knew he had finally done good by him. He had given him a chance to shine.
Which meant, just perhaps, even Gold himself...
The battle came to a close. Arceus took its leave. Seeing Togetaro offer his back, he didn’t hesitate to climb up.
He darted through the sky, feeling the wind push against his goggles, chasing after Arceus on beautiful white wings.
“Bye, Arceus! And thank you!”
Sure, the god of everything that exists didn’t need a trivial blessing from someone like him, but it was common courtesy.
In the distance, stopping its course through the skies, the Pokémon turned its head. Gold barely even noticed that it had begun to slow down.
“Eh? Wait, Toge! Stop!”
Arceus had slowed down so fast that Gold had come uncomfortably close to crashing into its body.
He looked up sheepishly, wondering what the god of creation was up to. A final word, maybe, or a blessing…
Looking into its eyes, he felt something terrible.
Gold felt the sickening pressure immediately in his ears clogging up with liquid metal. Space melted around them, time seemed to bend, and within the madness, he heard a voice:
“YOU ARE NOT YET WORTHY.”
“Huh?”
At least, that was what Gold wanted to say.
His voice had already been sucked into the void of time. A screen of shimmering dust appeared around his body, of which he was vaguely aware, mesmerising in its glittering beauty. Then, millions of individual points froze in place. In one long second, every single one shot into his body.
He let out a scream.
His vision turned white. Pain flooded him, and a voice pushed out from inside his mind, threatening to split it open.
“- HOWEVER — SOON —”
“Wai… Arce…! Wha… Wha-”
A swirling chunk of information entered his head. He buckled over and grabbed at his head; his nails dug into his scalp. It was like a thousand words spoken at the same time, all crammed into his head.
Agony.
“— SHALL - YOU WILL - A SYMBOL.”
“…wha-”
“- JEWEL OF LIFE. IT — SHALL -”
The words stirred within Gold. He screamed again.
Within the core of his being, he could feel a tiny, shimmering, iridescent crystal, sending tidal waves that refused to let his consciousness fade. He could feel it, he could see it, he could sense it. It was stranger than sight, or touch, or anything he had ever experienced.
“AS I DECLARE — YOU - ADHERE — STRINGS OF FATE.”
“Adhere… what? ARGH!”
He clutched at his head. The pain throbbed in an odd rhythm. He reeled once more.
The pain. The pain. The pain.
Space and time faded away to nothing.
...
When he came to, he found himself nestled in Togetaro’s feathers.
He opened his eyes wide. Within them, golden mist glowed and swirled. It took a few seconds to calm down, for his irises to regain their light amber tone. They were in the middle of a meadow, and there were faint fluctuations floating in the air, passively observing the ebb and flow of life around him.
He shifted his body, turning to face the sky. Something in him had changed, but he didn’t know what. He could feel it floating about: swaths of information crammed into his head, foreign and practically incomprehensible.
What’s happening? What… what do I do now?
Questions, with answers that seemed present, encoded somewhere in his mind. But when he tried to retrieve them, his head screeched again.
He sat up. He checked on Togetaro, who was slowly stirring. He blinked.
Something had changed in his Pokémon, too. It was only natural, given that the shimmery dust had enveloped them both.
No, yes, it had to be. Togetaro had been blessed by Arceus itself. Gold didn’t know for sure, but he had a very strong feeling.
Something had changed. Something had grown . Gold thought he knew Togetaro’s strength and limits, even considering he had just evolved. He didn’t know anymore.
Togetaro looked up at his trainer. A few specks of light floated in his eyes. In that moment, for some odd reason, Gold felt a sense of loss.
“Sorry, Togetaro. I’ll keep taking care of you.”
He rested his forehead on his.
“We’re in this together. Sorry for blocking off my heart to you before. Swear I’ll be better.”
Togetaro leaned into his trainer’s show of affection. “Don’t worry. It’s okay now.”
“…”
“…”
“…hey. Did you just speak?”
“Huh? Did I speak? I didn’t speak.”
Gold let go, and instinctively moved back an inch. “Wait, I can hear…? No, you’re not talking, but I can hear your thoughts somehow. Wait, they’re…”
Togetaro fluttered his wings and sat up. “Really? Wow! That means you can understand me, right?”
“Yeah… I guess I can.”
“So that means… I can finally talk to you? Like how the humans always do?” Togetaro looked excited. "Gold! I… y’know, I’ve always wanted you to know what I was thinking. Which is hard, but…”
He hesitated for a second. Then, he snuggled up to his trainer. “Was so happy when you finally understood what I meant and let me fight. Thank you. I… I love you so much!”
Gold hugged his fluffy body. Tears were threatening to leak from his eyes, but he didn’t let them. “Little rascal.”
How could he have been so blind before? Gold should have understood him from the beginning. This was how it had always been, him and his partners against the world. Now, more than ever. His expression turned serious.
“Togetaro, what do you remember about just now?”
“Huh? Oh… yeah. Arceus became extremely scary. Then injected our bodies with a weird crystal.”
“So it happened to you too, huh.”
Gold saw the shape of the crystal within him, with facets like a jewel but with a structure that looked... alien? He remembered what Arceus said. Something about the Jewel of Life?
His head started to ache again.
There were many things he was still confused about, but one thing was for certain. This thing was not coming off, not unless he wanted to know the consequences first-hand.
He didn’t allow himself to think about it. Instead, he got up, assessing his surroundings. He looked at his Pokégear and found that he was at least still in Johto, somewhere between the National Park and Olivine.
He looked at Togetaro and shook his head. “Still in the mood to head to Warm Beach?”
Togetaro seemed too embarrassed to answer.
“Yeah, me neither.”
Ring, ring...
His Pokégear started ringing. Checking the caller ID revealed that it was a call from Crystal.
He picked up the call. “Hey, Crys. What’s up?”
He was trying to sound as normal as possible, and probably succeeded. Though he doubted it would have mattered, given Crystal started the call with thunder and lightning.
“Where the heck are you?! Everyone’s leaving already, and your Pokémon are still with me! Don’t tell me you were too busy taking a siesta on the beach.”
“Ahh! I’ll be right back!”
“Seriously, Gold?”
“I’m sorry! We had a little mishap, okay? It’s the first time Togetaro’s flying, can you blame him?”
He smiled another apology to Togetaro, who was staring daggers at him.
“Yeah, sure, it was your Pokémon and not you being bad at flying.”
“Hey, what gives?! Would it kill you to have a bit of faith in me?”
He heard a sigh from the other end.
“How bad is it? Can you still fly back here?”
He sighed. “Nah, don’t worry. You head home first. Cherrygrove, right? I’ll meet you outside your house.”
“Hm, alright then. See you there.”
“See ya.”
He ended the call and let out another sigh. He ruffled Togetaro’s feathers, who leaned into his hand, though he still seemed pretty miffed about the earlier comment.
A few seconds later, his Pokégear started ringing again.
“Hm? Did Crys forget something?”
He checked again. Seeing the call was from the daycare lady, his eyebrows rose.
Gold flew gracefully on Togetaro’s back, gliding into the small town of Cherrygrove. Crystal was indeed waiting in front of her house. She tapped her feet as she watched them land.
“Yo,” said Gold, hopping off Togetaro’s back.
“Hey,” she sounded relieved, passing the Pokéballs back to him. “Don’t leave them behind next time.”
“Not like I meant to... Arceus set off so fast. Anyway, hey guys.” He smiled at his Pokémon through the casing. “Sorry, not resting yet. We still got somewhere to go. Oh, Crys, you might wanna join us."
“Hm? What’s going on?”
“Remember the granny and gramps working the daycare? They decided to move. Like, totally out of the region. I gotta help with their migration, so you probably wanna come along.”
“Oh! They’re near Goldenrod, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll come with you. You should’ve told me earlier, I could have met you there.”
“I would, but I literally did not know about this until after you called me.”
“Still...” She grumbled, but she had already sent out her Xatu.
’Of course she wouldn’t skip a chance to help out.’
Night had long fallen. They weren’t quite done yet, with only an evening’s worth of work done. They had finished moving most of the bulky stuff, though.
Gold was heading home. He was still smiling over a funny incident that involved the elderly lady cooing over Crystal’s new clothes. Crystal had become so unnecessarily flustered, vehemently denying her own involvement in said outfit, which had only made it worse.
’She’s gotta learn to let loose, seriously.’
Walking home like this, with Togetaro walking behind him, and his other Pokémon resting inside their Pokéballs, he felt a wave of emotion wash over him.
Grief. Did he know grief? Not in the way he did now, having lost nothing in particular.
The old couple had asked him if he could take care of an egg. It was a special egg to him, personally speaking. After all, it was laid by the Pokémon of his junior and senior: Red’s Snor and Emerald’s Snorlax. Gold would have been excited, to bring a life into the world and maybe even own a Snorlax of his own, but now, he hesitated. He said yes eventually, but the moment was soured.
Just then, he was almost able to forget that he wasn’t exactly… normal anymore. What a strange thought. But how was he to describe the change?
While ruffling through Togetaro’s soft feathers, he thought about himself. He thought he’d be exhausted by now, especially considering how tired Crystal was by the end of it. If anything, he felt a lot more energetic than before.
Yes, his arms were a little sore. If they weren’t after all the lifting and arranging he did, it would have raised a bit of an alarm a bit sooner. But even now, he could still confidently say he could have carried on for longer.
‘Jewel of Life’ . Arceus hadn’t given him much to work with. But if the name was any indicator, then maybe it had something to do with his newfound font of vitality.
The revelation hit him like a kick to the lungs. It was a great leap in logic, yet it had to be true.
A great gift had been bestowed upon him.
The promise of eternal life. Reunite the shards.
Another migraine struck. He cringed, enduring through his teeth as he stepped into his own home.
Paranoia washed over his mind. It lasted for only a second, but even within that time, a smattering of thoughts had been left behind in the tide.
Would he even age? If he didn’t, then what would happen when everyone around him starts growing older? And wouldn’t it just get worse? It brought him another type of headache, the kind that came from inside his heart.
He laughed at himself. How ridiculous. It had been a great leap of logic. Still, the train of thought lingered, and so did the uneasiness.
Shall… you will… a symbol.
Gold didn’t know what a symbol was, at least in the way Arceus spoke of. He did know, however, that symbols were not things that died. Hell, they didn’t even sound like they were alive.
He looked at his hands and took a deep breath.
He never had to think too far into the future. He didn’t want to think about it anymore.
…
That night, he held his Pokémon to sleep.
Usually, he would keep Togetaro in his arms, but he was too big for that now. Togetaro simply slept by his side, gently offering him warmth.
He rested his head on Explotaro’s belly. Ataro liked to snuggle up to Gold’s side, but recently had a small issue of having two huge hands for tails, and was currently negotiating a position that had his tails far away from his trainer’s face.
Pich was nestled in his hair, which he would sometimes find annoying, but not tonight — it was especially comforting tonight. Utaro and Suntaro shared the habit of sleeping upright, while Politaro assumed a typical frog position next to him.
Gold could read their thoughts vaguely, even if he hadn’t intended to. They knew something was wrong, but they didn‘t question him. They could feel his sadness and exhaustion intuitively, almost the same way he could. And even if they didn’t know what it was, they simply wanted to make him feel better.
He loved them so much.
One day, a conversation was needed. Not just for his Pokémon, but for everyone else who couldn‘t read his mind. Frankly, Gold didn‘t even know what to tell them.
One day.
For now, he was just him. A sixteen-year-old boy who deserved a good rest after having just saved the world, again, for the third time.
How cool was that?
…