Broken Souls

Something Like Home

I enter the black room, standing alone in the footsteps of all my idols. From all angles, blinding white spotlights turn on and glare down at me, disturbed by my lack of companions. The six lights around the central one cast bright circles onto the floor, all of which are meant to be filled by my Pokemon team. I turn the still-warm Master Ball in my hand before placing it back in my bag and pulling out five modest looking Poke Balls.

One by one, I throw out my teammates.

Minerva.

Ten.

Reginae.

Pisces.

Fang.

In just over a year, we've done it. It wasn't the team I thought I'd be here with, and yet, seeing them silhouetted in the Champion's room, it feels as if it was fate. Despite their initial silence and awe, I can see purple bruises on Reginae and Pisces's skin, and the others are disheveled and panting.

Reginae catches my eye first.

"We did it." he confirms.

"We did it!" yelps Fang, and all the formality of the moment is gone as the Umbreon springs on top of me. Reginae and Minerva follow, helping me up, and Ten tries to initiate a group hug (and fails miserably). I pull out Hyper Potions and start spritzing the team up, which they all seem intensely grateful for, save for Pisces. She stares into her spotlight like a bug-type watching an open flame, unflinching.

"So, how did we do it?" asks Fang. "I mean, all of you seem just as shocked as I am. Who took out Bella? Pisces?"

Pisces doesn't move an inch.

"Minerva? Ten?" asks Fang, confusion growing in his voice. "Reginae?"

Reginae shakes his head. Minerva looks to the side, guiltily, and Ten shrugs his wings.

"Oh." Fang says, ears perked in realization. "Ashley, you didn't... you couldn't have..."

I catch Lance from a distance, turned outwards towards his room with his arms crossed. I know he's supposed to come out and congratulate me myself. The turnover of the Champion title is usually a televised event, with the new Champion's loved ones surrounding them, and I wish (not for the first time) that this could be a normal challenge with normal rules. Even if this was all over, though, the last few years have quelled my appetite for positions of power. If leading one team in treacherous circumstances is enough to break me, how would I ever lead the most powerful trainers in the region for the rest of my life?

"What now?" I ask Lance. He looks over and for just a second, I catch a glare so potent that it makes my heart stop and my skin grow cold.

The question hangs in the air between us for far too long.

***

"Well, we can all agree that he didn't go easy on us." Fang says, lying over the edge of the bed back in the hotel the next morning. I can feel their soreness as if I've sustained the wounds, the throbbing pain from their collective run-ins with Bella making my whole body ache even now.

Still, I'm not paying any attention. I stare up at the ceiling, tracing the ornate patterns on the wallpaper and thinking about the road ahead of us.

"Um, Ashley? Ashley?" Fang pokes my face. "You're in there, right?"

"She's thinking about the champion thing again," Minerva informs the team, and I feel my face burn with embarassment. The constant violation of my privacy is the biggest down

"Maybe a little," I admit. "Okay, maybe a lot. I just- this is a big deal. Possibly the biggest deal of my life. I guess I just can't help but feel like it's a bit anticlimactic? Lance might hate me now, too, so... that's going to be fun." I throw my hands out against both sides of the bed.