Pedestal: Chapter 89

"You're still trying, huh?" I stared at the pink-haired girl reclining easily on the Center couch. She had her feet propped up on the table and stared at me with unnaturally large eyes.

I didn't reply, instead backing up a step. I recognized her, of course I recognized her. It was Kamala's human form, the one she chose to use as a disguise in my dreams. The question was why she was here. She was dead. I hadn't dreamed about her since then. There was no reason in the world for her to be here.

"…Nevermind. Humans are so stupid. Impossible," she said, looking away with a bitter note in her voice. I flinched and took another step backward. This-this was exactly what she had said the last time this happened. But that was impossible. She was dead. This couldn't be happening. Not again.

"What… What's going on here?" I asked her with a weak, confused smile. This was a dream. A normal dream, one that wasn't conjured by ghosts or psychics. It was just my subconscious giving me a hard time or something. The stress was doing this. It was just a normal dream. Kamala was dead.

"What questions do you want answered?" she asked, fixing her gaze on me once more.

I stayed mute out of nothing less than sheer terror. This couldn't be happening. I wasn't going to relive this. I dug my nails into my arms in order to try to wake myself up-after all, this was a dream, just like it had been before, it had to be a dream-but it didn't work. I backed up until I was pressed against the far wall.

Unperturbed, she said, "I'm the goddess of-"

And that was where I had interrupted her last time. She halted at the perfect time. This was happening all over again, or, at least, her part was. It somehow made it scarier. "Wake up, wake up, don't go through this…" Not now. Not when I had to concentrate on the Gym race.

"…You know me. We've met several times when you're conscious. I actually really don't like you."

Though it was in the logical order and was what came next, her words stabbed at me like knives. I had known her. We had met. She didn't like me. She had attacked me several times in order to protect Nick. She had tried to save Nick. We had both failed in that.

"You're too selfish. You're not thinking of anyone but yourself. Yourself and that team of yours. You don't stop to think how you're hurting others! …You're not helping."

These words hurt worse. They were still true. I shoved my nails deeper into my arms but it didn't do the trick. I stared at her, jaw clenched, wishing dearly I could wake up and try to forget about this nightmare. No, wait, it wasn't a nightmare-this had actually happened once. This was real life, reminding me of what had gone wrong. As if I needed it. "Kamala… Don't do this to me, not again," I pleaded faintly.

"It's irrelevant at this point." How applicable her side of the conversation was to this, even now, was disturbing. I shook my head, though I was unable to tear my eyes away from her.

Cue Konstantin's arrival. He tumbled onto the scene, grey cloak flying, skull mask firmly in place. He dove at her and roared, "What are you doing?!"

"No-stop this, stop this, Kostya." I couldn't bear to go through this again. Not now, not when I knew what was going to happen next.

Predictably, Lassie appeared next and screeched, "What have you done?!"

I sunk to my knees, finally looking away at the fierce case of déjà vu in front of me. I heard the argument escalate. I clutched my head and curled into myself, begging myself to stop this. I didn't need to relive this. I knew what had happened: I had failed. I had failed Lassie, and Kamala, and Nick, and everyone. I had failed the warning and prophecy and Froslass begging for me to save her trainer.

Suddenly, the sound of the fighting ceased. I looked up, blinking back tears, and was surprised to find myself in a totally different place. The inside of some sort of building, looking like some sort of battle arena, like in a Gym.

A clear, sharp voice cut across my train of thought. "-and what have you done, Champion? What have you done?!"

I turned to find Nick glaring at me from across the room. I knew where I was. I was in the Champion's chambers, and Nick Sayre was facing me down instead of Cynthia. I was about to repeat the Champion's tragedy.

"No, no no no no no no-!" Once again, I found myself backing up until I was pressed against the wall. I didn't dare turn my back to him.

Nick continued with his speech, however. I had to experience the raw venom and hurt in his voice, listen to him demand explanations from the Champion for her negligence, blame her for his brother's death and for what went wrong, accuse her of caring for nothing but her title at the expense of Sinnoh's trainers. I kept blinking rapidly, but the tears came nonetheless. It had been bad enough watching it on video phone. It was a million times worse repeating it face to face, having him blame me for all of it. I couldn't handle this. I sunk to the ground, still pressed up as hard as possible against the wall, still trying to vainly blink back the tears that were already dripping onto my shirt.

"That's why I'm going to take them away from you," Nick finished grimly, eyes and voice hard. It sounded so personal that I couldn't separate myself from the actual events any longer. He was saying that to me. Next thing I knew, Chase was coming at me with his jaws wide open, teeth sharp and all too ready to sink themselves into my neck.

The room around me dissolved just as his mouth would've shut on my throat.

This time, it was a black world, the opposite of the white world I was accustomed to. I looked around wildly, still expecting Nick and Chase to be there, ready to tear me apart for what I did to them. After all, why shouldn't they? It was my fault anyway that this had happened. I hadn't listened to anyone, I hadn't been able to stop a single thing. They ought to blame me for what happened.

"My, my, what wonderful memories you have," a voice said suddenly. It was crackly and hollow sounding, and I was unable to tell whether it was male or female. I looked around myself in a panic. "I would have never expected to find this amongst everyone else… Still, everyone has their dirty little secrets, am I right?"

A figure came out of the darkness beside me. I stared up at him, mouthing the name but unable to bring myself to say it aloud.

Nick, hood down, hair hanging into his eyes, and with an uncharacteristic grin on his face, said, "And what a dirty little secret you have been hiding. You're the one behind Nicholas Sayre?" He still spoke in the hollow voice, the one that wasn't his own, but with his hazel eyes looking down at me and teeth bared in a wide, sadistic grin, it didn't have to be to send the message.

"I-I-"

"You are the one behind Nicholas Sayre. You're the one we can blame for everything. That poor little Froslass came to you, begging for you to save her poor, monstrous trainer, and you ignored her plea. Then those other ghosts… No matter how many chances you got, you just didn't do a thing about it, did you? You just clung selfishly to your own little world-but oh, what a world!" Nick said with a harsh laugh. "Rampant paranoia, all of these self-centered complexes of yours, and deep down, you're still missing your bestest buddy Nick, aren't you?

"Your Camerupt is pathetically weak to water, you're terrified your Breloom will leave again, your Luxray hates your guts, your Duskull is too scared to evolve because he wants to eat you, and now look! You have two more Pokemon to maim and over-protect or loathe or scar or whatever you think passes as training. You can't even train Pokemon correctly! You couldn't save a single human, you can't make a proper Pokemon team, you could have done so much but you always mess it up in the end, don't you?

"You could've saved Byron. You could have saved all of those trainers in The Tournament. You could have saved everyone Nick's killed. You could have saved so many-but here we are! You've accomplished absolutely nothing! You've saved no one!" Nick clapped his hands together in delight, kneeling down so that he was level with me. He kept his slasher smile firmly in place and slung an arm around my shoulders. "To think. If you had managed to save your best friend, to think what a wonderful world this would have been. As opposed to the hellhole it's becoming. This is all your fault! That's just delightful, isn't it?"

"N-No, it's not…" I tried to say, but my voice came out as a hoarse whisper instead. It was an excuse. A pitiful attempt to defend myself from the truth.

Then, Nick regained the use of his normal, actual voice. He dropped the psychotic smile and said seriously, "To think we had been best friends. To think I've been betrayed by you. You could have saved me. But… you didn't."

I woke up with a strangled sob. I curled into my knees and hugged them to my chest, the fabric of the blanket soaking up my tears. "Nick-Nick I'm sorry-please, please forgive me-I didn't mean to do this to you…"

I was dragged forcibly back to proper reality when above me, Vaikuntha started coughing and shouting as well. I looked up at the bunk above me, eyes still wide. I wasn't alone here; Vaikuntha was here. This was real. The nightmare was gone, and although its message was still too clear in my mind, I had to focus on the here and now.

I ran my wrist across my eyes and shakily got out of bed. I peeked over the edge of the top bunk. Vaikuntha was hunched over, shoulders shaking, still coughing. I could dimly make out the words between coughs. "Sa… Sarika…!"

"V-Vai?"

He jumped violently and turned to me. It looked like he had either been crying, too, or was near it. Almost immediately afterward, he clamped a hand over his mouth as he kept coughing. He took a couple deep breaths and turned back to me after it subsided, and managed to get out from between his fingers, "I-I'm sorry, brother, for waking you…"

"You had a nightmare too, didn't you," I whispered with a dawning, awful realization. Vaikuntha nodded, brow furrowed, hand still over his mouth.

Out in the hall, someone started shouting, and a moment later, a door banged open. More shouts and even screams soon followed. "I-It looks as if it was not just us," Vaikuntha mumbled, hands dropping to his lap. He slid off of the top bunk, gave me a reassuring, if impossibly weak, smile, and we both peeked out hesitantly into the hall.

More doors were opening, more heads were looking out. A couple trainers were already out in the hall. Most looked stricken or still had tears running down their cheeks. A sleepy-looking Gardenia was already out in the hallway, trying to figure out what was going on. I took a step out and glanced down the hallway. Alicia's door was still closed, as was Benjamin's. Still, they were in the minority. Most trainers were either standing in their doorway or were assaulting Gardenia with questions.

"What the hell is going on here?!" Somewhat predictably, Sela was one of the ones who was asking questions. "What sort of security does this place have if this could happen?!"

"Everyone, please, calm down!" Gardenia pleaded, though she was mostly ignored.

"I agree with Schaffer! This is an obvious attack!"

"Yeah! I-I mean, you don't accidentally order a Dream Eater or Nightmare on a whole floor of Gym race trainers, do you?!"

"Are you insinuating that it was one of us?!"

"Who else could it be?"

"Then just find out who didn't have a nightmare!"

"Who's going to tell the truth?! They could just lie about it!"

"Ask for specifics! No one could lie about-about these kinds of nightmares!"

"And are you going to volunteer the specifics of your dream first?!" Sela rounded on the bickering trainers, successfully silencing them. She glared at them, looking drained and slightly sick. It occurred to me then that this wasn't really just about me. Or Vai. Every one of these trainers had had a nightmare that had been just as disturbing. Every one of them had their dirty little secret, or tragedy, or something thrown in their face in the most brutal way possible. Sela gestured widely to the hallway. "No one here is going to want to talk about their nightmare, let alone actually share it with others. Unless you're going to step up first."

No one did.

And so the sixth day dawned. It dawned with panic and tears and screams and coughing and a floor full of nightmares. Whoever had done this had done a good job of it; no one had gotten any more sleep, so the trainers were dead tired the next day. The race was supposed to be tomorrow, too.

It was obvious we all wanted naps, though everyone was afraid to go to sleep until they knew it was safe again. Paranoia broke out, accusations were thrown, and there was little to no trust anymore. The Gym leaders tried to smooth it over as best as possible, but there was little they could do. It was more or less assumed that it had been a Dream Eater or Nightmare attack, which meant that a Pokemon was involved. Or even several. It meant that it was a trainer, however, who had access to a Pokemon with those abilities.

That meant a ghost or a psychic. Unfortunately, almost every trainer had one or the other, and all were fierce in protecting their teams, so it made for a lot of fights. Gone was the hesitant camaraderie of the Gym race and the nervous smiles exchanged in the hotel lobby. Now it was nothing but distrustful glares and scathing words.

I knew it wasn't my fault, at least not this thing, and I knew it likewise wasn't Vaikuntha since I woke up before him and the only ghost he had, Pollyanna, had been tucked away in her pokeball. This meant that we managed to escape a great deal of the suspicion and fear of the other trainers. We were more distant with each other, but really, who wouldn't be? I had woken up sobbing and he had woken up coughing and the rest of the floor had woken up screaming and everyone's nightmares were suddenly all too visible in their minds.

Lola had been right. Someone out there was using psychological torture in order to get ahead. The question was who.

One night full of restless sleep later, the race began.