The cartridge to this day haunts me with its questionable origins. For over two years, both the game and I have been called fakes. For over two years, people have insisted that the ROM hack could not possibly exist, that it is too complicated to be a real ROM hack. But I do not blame those people for being skeptical… they haven't played it. I can assure them all that hearing of the cartridge or hell, even having the cartridge is one thing. But playing it is something else entirely. For the past two years, I've searched the internet for the ROM of this hack... and found nothing, with the exception of the fan-game "Lost Silver". I can only assume that there is only one copy of this hack... and I have it.

So you all may be asking, why have I returned to speak again after over two years of near-complete silence? That will be revealed in due time. All I can tell you is that after the passing of these two years, I decided to play again and did some new exploring. And what I found was... interesting, to say the least.

Roughly a year and a half ago, I informed the fan-game designer of the "additional" parts to this hack, the parts other than the main story and the "Hidden" path. In addition, he informed the rest of you. However, I never gave him too much detail, and thus he gave you just as little. Sadly, it seems that he stopped making his fan-game a while back, before the additional parts could be added. However, after all these years of silence, I feel that I can no longer keep this hack's mysteries that I found forever hidden, especially with the great following that this story has developed and kept over the years. Therefore, I have decided that tonight, I will start to tell you everything, piece by piece, if you choose to listen.

For this third part, I simply played the game as I normally did, or however "normal" you can consider this hack to begin with. Upon passing the "TURN BACK NOW" sign and being dragged down from the graveyard, I entered the red room with the massive, immobile pillar. However, instead of walking north to Red as I originally did, I tried to interact with the pillar by pressing "A". With that, the screen went black and a textbox appeared saying "GO BACK".

As the message disappeared, I found myself walking out of the southeastern entrance of the Ilex Forest. Everything seemed like the normal Silver now, as my trainer sprite’s white color disappeared and its original red palette was restored. The normal forest music was playing too, without any glitch alterations. I was amazed at the possibility that I might’ve broken out of the hacked portion of the game and returned to the normal Silver that I intended to play when I first bought the cartridge over two years ago.

I checked my Pokémon, praying for something normal. What I found was a normal Celebi, level 100, an un-nicknamed Typhlosion, level 90, and an egg. Though my playthroughs of this hack left me unnerved by this party, the sudden lack of Unown seemed to ease the mood. I quickly checked their moves only to find nothing abnormal. Typhlosion had Flame Wheel, Thunderpunch, Return, and Leer, while the Celebi had only Future Sight. The egg simply said “It’s not time.” Closing the party, I looked at my trainer card, also praying for some sense normalcy. The card matched the one from the beginning of the hack, before all the gruesome deformities began. I also noticed that the player’s name was now “GOLD” rather than “…”. Closing the menu, I tried walking back through the southeastern gate, only to be met with the message “Not going back.” With that, I knew my only way to continue was to leave through the northern entrance.

However, as I began to traverse the forest, I started to notice that the forest had been distorted. It was as if entire sections of the forest had been moved and flipped with others. This, along with a constant array of cut trees blocking countless paths, made it very difficult to find the way through. But through trial and error, I eventually made it through most of the distortion and found myself in front of the forest shrine. Although I already had Celebi, I felt the need to interact with the shrine, so I pressed “A”. Suddenly, I heard Celebi’s cry. A message appeared saying “CELEBI is ready.” Confused, I pressed “A” again, only to get Celebi’s cry again, slightly louder, and a new message that “CELEBI wants to go now.” Taking it as a cue, I tried to continue my trek northward. However, I was stuck in front of the shrine as Gold would not move. With nothing else to do, I pressed “A” a third time on the shrine. Once again I heard Celebi’s cry, louder still, and received a third message that “CELEBI wants to end this.” With that, the screen went black again.

To my dismay, the area I was now in was Goldenrod City. However, it did not share either of the bleak tones from the “Hidden” versions of the city. Though the southern exit was blocked off, the palette was normal, as was the music. Traveling northward, I found all the gym leaders, the professors, Mom, and Lance, just as in “Hidden”, however now they were “normal”. Shockingly, given this hack’s usual tone, they each had their own words of encouragement to say.

Professor Elm said “This will lead to breakthroughs in Pokémon research! Make me proud GOLD!”

Falkner then said “You will fly to the greatest heights! Make me proud GOLD!”

And Jasmine said “Um… I believe in your iron spirit! Make me proud GOLD!”

The cycle continued with all of them, saying something akin to their personality, often with a pun on each gym leader’s type. I also noticed that all of them ended their dialogue with “Make me proud GOLD!” However, that changed when I reached the end of the line, where Gold’s mom stood and where she uttered something very different in tone.

"If it's what you must do, then I can't stop you. Please be safe GOLD."

This was surprising, as she was the only one who seemed to hint at doubt. She seemed worried. But before I could do anything, I heard Celebi’s cry again, as the screen went black.

I felt a chill down my spine as I found myself transported to the pathway leading to the Tin Tower in Ecruteak City, which I recalled from the “Hidden” part of the hack was where the first story took place. Just like there, the music was silent. However, knowing by this point that it was pointless to deviate from the hack’s set path, I pressed forward. In front on the tower, I read the sign which said “HE AWAITS”. Without any alternative, I braced myself and entered the tower.

It looked just as it did at the end of “Hidden”, however the northern path (presumably leading to the beginning of the hack, as was the case in “Hidden”) was blocked off. Upon walking to the far right side of the room, I found a ladder. The screen turned black and stayed that way for about 40 seconds, with the “climbed ladder” sound playing 8 times, once every 5 seconds.

After the 8th sound, Gold appeared on a floor of the Tin Tower that was only four squares big, eerily reminding me of the four square graveyard. One of those squares had yet another ladder on it, diagonal to Gold. As I moved toward the ladder, I received another message that read “DON’T D…”. Seeing as the last ladder was gone, I had no choice but to climb the final ladder.

At this point, I found myself at the normal roof of the tower and at the top of the screen, sat a normal looking Ho-Oh. Upon interaction, Ho-Oh’s cry screamed loud and pitched higher than normal. The battle began and Ho-Oh, level 99, appeared with a menacing look on its face. A sped up, yet pitched down version of the wild battle theme played. Since he was first in my party, Celebi went out. However, noting the obvious type disadvantage, I chose to shift Celebi out for Typhlosion, but was interrupted by text simply stating “No.” I tried again, this time met with “I can’t.” With no other choice, I proceeded to Celebi’s moves and chose Future Sight.

“CELEBI used FUTURE SIGHT!”

“CELEBI foresaw an attack!”, which despite it being the normal text, made me very uneasy as to Ho-Oh’s attack.

“HO-OH used SACRED FIRE!” It was a 1-Hit KO and the screen cut to black again. Afterwards, a message said “CELEBI was bu” and a distorted Celebi cry played.

As the screen faded back in, I found myself back at the beginning of the hack, once again (just as at the end of “Hidden”). I noticed no changes brought by this additional story at first. I continued back through the game as normal until I returned to the red room with the massive pillar. Gold had his ghostly features and the party of 5 Unown, as was normal, however his shiny Celebi now had the name “AWAY”. Upon further inspection, I found that the Unown had changed from the original “DYING” to a new word. “BURNT”.

From there, I played through the rest of the hack until reaching the end, in the graveyard, with the Unown that spelled “IMDEAD”.

By this point, I was becoming increasingly interesting in the hidden sections of this hack, now that I was quickly learning that the first story was only a tiny fraction of the full story. I knew I had to keep exploring. I knew that these stories had to connect somehow. There had to be more that I didn’t yet see… much more. 