"There's something I need to tell you."
Those had been the words Gallows spoke to Ker when he appeared out of nowhere. He didn't explain why had suddenly come back to her when he supposedly no longer had any interest in seeing her or how he found her out of the hundreds of millions of universes in existence. He had simply manifested from thin air while she was moping atop that great castle and said those words. Ker didn't even get time to even process what was happening before he wrapped a tendril around her arm and dragged her into another dimension.
Now Ker found herself standing atop the summit of a tall mountain under a blanket of the starry night sky. Darkness shrouded her and Gallows, the only light in this strange place being from the Chandelure's flickering violet flames. He floated at a safe distance away, as though afraid of her. It wasn't entirely wrong to think that since he probably did feel very awkward around her, considering their last conversation. That however, begged the question of why he had brought her here.
Nothing about this made sense. Gallows himself admitted he wanted nothing to do with Ker anymore. Ker didn't think that much time had passed since the parting, though she was aware that maybe time moved faster in the dimension he had fled to after abandoning her. Maybe what had only been a day for her in her dimension had been weeks, months, or even years for Gallows. Maybe something had happened during that time.
What it was, Ker couldn't imagine. She wanted to think that maybe he realized he had feelings for her too and had come all this way to apologize for his behavior. Maybe he would even ask if they could have a relationship together, as in a real, genuine one, not whatever they had been before. She knew it was wishful thinking, but she couldn't help it. It wasn't as though there was a better explanation for his behavior anyway.
She wanted to say something, but couldn't. The tension building inside her was too great and froze her voice. She felt pathetic to be like this, to be no better than a stupid mortal teenage girl whenever she saw her crush pass her by.
Gallows wasn't doing any better. Though whatever he wanted to say was urgent, he didn't say anything. He only kept watching Ker carefully, studying her, as if waiting for her to say something first. Ker couldn't get a grasp on what he was thinking or feeling. He didn't have a mouth and his soul flames weren't betraying his emotions this time. They were burning as brightly and insidiously as they always were.
After a few moments of awkward silence between then, Ker couldn't take it anymore.
"First you tell me that you hate me, and now you suddenly want to talk to me again," she finally said. "Now we're just standing here in some random dimension doing nothing. You playing more games with me, Gallows? Is my dread too good for you to stay away from?"
"I never said I hate you," Gallows said simply. "I only said that you were making me uncomfortable."
"Yeah, like that's any better," Ker scoffed. "Why are we here, really?"
Gallows made what sounded like a sighing sound. His flames trembled for just a moment. Ker thought he might swoop closer to her, but he kept his distance. The more she looked at him, the more she started to realize something about him definitely wasn't right. His eyes weren't glowing as brightly as they usually did, his flames were just a slightly darker hue, and a strange, inky darkness was leaking out his domed body and took on the vague form of additional tendrils.
"As I said before, there's something I need to tell you," he said, his voice subdued in a way Ker hadn't heard before. "I do apologize for being rather hasty with you and taking you here without explaining myself. This is difficult for me, you must understand, for reasons beyond what you might anticipate."
"I'll say," Ker said with a scowl. "You look like a wreck. What are those things coming out of you even supposed to be?"
Gallows looked down at himself and visibly flinched. Apparently he didn't realize that shadowy appendages had sprouted out of his form. He sucked them back into his body, but they only stayed hidden for a few seconds before spilling back out.
"Hey I don't care what those things are, you don't need to worry about them," Ker said with a shrug. "They're kinda cool if you ask me. Besides, I'd prefer it if you just told me what's going on."
"Very well… I suppose I should stop stalling," Gallows said with a sigh. "We are running out of time after all…"
He swooped closer to her, but not too close. There was still a fair amount of space between them. Ker felt the tension come back, making it hard to look at Gallows in the eyes anymore. She told herself to quit being so flustered, but obviously that didn't work. Thankfully, Gallows seemed just as awkward around her, also struggling to keep his eyes on Ker. It was such a stark contrast to how things used to be, when they would be entwined with one another so deeply that it was difficult to tell what was Ker and what was Gallows, all the while they lapped up each other's dread.
"I suppose I should start by saying it was never supposed to come to this," Gallows said.
"You mean me falling for you? Yeah, I know, you don't need to remind me," Ker said bitterly. "It wasn't my choice, okay? It just happened."
"Actually that was always supposed to happen," Gallows then said, his tone suddenly becoming ominous. "You were always meant to fall for me. That was planned from the very beginning."
An icy chill went through Ker's being.
"What did you just say?" Ker said, her voice failing her.
"Your feelings for me, I planned that," Gallows said again. "I know you better than you think you do, Ker. I know what you desire in a potential romantic partner. You want someone with a mind more morbid than yours because it validates your own view of the world when no one else shares it and even condemns it. You want someone with an eloquent manner of speaking to stir your heart that you pretend doesn't exist. You want someone that cherishes you and adores you, someone who regularly says to you 'my little wraith' and 'my dear, sweet Ker' so that you feel like you're actually worth something. You want someone to tell you how amazing and brilliant you are so that you can maybe stop believing the constant stream of thoughts that go through your mind about how pathetic you really are and that you shouldn't even be alive. Isn't that right?"
Ker didn't know what to say. She wanted to say it was all wrong, but the more and more she thought about it, the more she realized with startling clarity that every word he spoke was true. She must have been grimacing, because Gallows started laughing mockingly.
"I told you I understand you," Gallows said smugly. "But don't worry; many mortals can be fooled by the same trick. Many mortals hate themselves and want someone to distract them from this fact. Many mortals are deceived by someone who wears the same mask I wore in all the time I was with you."
"So you were tricking me the whole time," Ker said, scowling bitterly now. "You made me fall in love with you by being someone I've always wanted. Why? Was it because it was fun, is that what you're going to say?"
"If you wanted to simplify the reason, yes, because it was fun," Gallows admitted. "It was very fun. The most fun I've had in a very long time."
Ker was fuming now. She couldn't believe Gallows. She had known since day one that he was a manipulative ghost and was always toying with her, but she didn't think he had been manipulating her to this extreme. She shouldn't have been surprised, it looked so obvious in hindsight that the manipulative Chandelure was of course stringing her heart along. Yet, this revelation still hit her straight in the heart. She was angry, undoubtedly so, but the truth of it all also left her with a giant, gaping hole in her chest. It ached and ached and would have brought her to tears if she had eyes and not gemstones.
"Unfortunately, it seems my plan backfired," Gallows then said, snapping Ker out of her despair as he took on a more somber tone. "It seems that in the time I spent with you, your charm had an unusual effect on me. After a while, the intimate words I spoke to you were no longer a lie. They had become the honest confessions of my heart."
"Wait, you mean… you actually started to like me back?" Ker asked.
Gallows didn't say anything, but the way he averted his gaze and how his shadowy tendrils and flames trembled told Ker everything. She stepped closer to him. He didn't fly away, but seemed to tense at the lessening distance.
"And when did this start?" she asked.
"When it actually started, I can't say," Gallows answered. "Love has a way of being subtle at first to the afflicted. I began to realize how I felt after I had told you about my mortal life. Or rather, the past I had crafted for this particular mask of mine."
"So then when you said you weren't comfortable being around me anymore because I was in love with you… that was just a lie," Ker realized. "You said I was projecting when I thought you liked me, but no, I was right."
"Yes, you were," Gallows admitted. "How much I wanted to simply say you were, but alas, that couldn't happen. These unexpected feelings had complicated everything, so I left you out of fear of what was to come from this."
"And why exactly is you falling for me such a bad thing?" Ker asked. "You've been dancing around that this whole conversation. What, do you really hate the idea of being in a relationship that much?"
"I'm getting to that, don't worry," Gallows assured coolly. "There's much to explain and I need to do it correctly or else nothing will make sense. We mustn't have that. Trust me, everything will make sense by the time this conversation ends. Hopefully."
Ker didn't exactly know if she trusted him after he had just revealed he had been toying with her the entire time he'd known her, but she did want to see where all of this was going. Besides, she had to admit she liked being around Gallows again. Whether he had manipulated her or not, she still loved him and had a hunch that his newfound feelings weren't a lie. In a sort of morbid way, she actually found it hilarious and charming that he had tricked her for so long. God, she really was disturbed.
"It's problematic that I'm in love with you because this causes issues in a particular plan I crafted a long time ago," Gallows went on. "In order to understand what I mean when I say that, I need to explain that I'm not a ghost like you are. Well, I suppose this mask could be considered a ghost, but that's beside the point.
"You see Ker, I'm not actually a Chandelure. I'm a mask, an avatar so to speak, of another being. To put it in another way, I'm one of countless puppets all across the multiverse. All of us masks take on different roles and personalities and forms, but we are all Nyarlathotep at the end of the day. You remember Grim, don't you? He's another mask of Nyarlathotep."
"Okay… I wasn't expecting that, but I kind of get it," Ker said slowly. "So then… what exactly is Nyarlathotep? I mean, what are you? I shouldn't call you Gallows anymore now that I know I'm just talking to a puppet right now."
"Oh wonderful, you're actually capable of saying that name," Gallows cooed. "That's a sign that this conversation is going well. As for what you can call me, you can keep calling me Gallows. I like it when you call me by that name. Nyarlathotep isn't my real name anyway; it's merely a name I attached to myself to make myself seem more godly. As for what I am, the one behind all the masks across this multiverse, that's also complicated. I wouldn't call myself a god because that would be a lie, though it's probably the closest word we have to what I am. So for simplicity's sake, let's say I'm a god that could rival Arceus if I wanted.
"Now that you understand that, remember how there was a Weavile that visited you some time ago that insisted you were a fragment of a greater being and that all of you need to merge back together to become that being again? Supposedly you need to do so to prevent the collapse of the multiverse, yes?"
"Yeah, I remember that and how stupid it sounded. Don't tell me that they were actually right about that."
"Of course they weren't. That was a narrative that I set up for all of them. Essentially, I made a story and cast them as characters to play particular roles with them completely unaware of all of this. Sometimes I used my abilities to make sure they stayed on track or to keep believing the narrative I had crafted, but they've all been following it quite well. You were also a character in the story I've made, Ker. You had a role to play, and part of that role involved being in love with a dashing Chandelure."
"And why was I given that exactly role?"
"Because I wanted to see how much a character would fight and struggle if they were motivated by romantic love. The thought that love is one of the strongest forms of power endlessly amused me with how ridiculous it sounded and I wanted to see just how true that could actually be. You seemed perfect for that."
Ker didn't know if she was disgusted or flattered at that. Either way, she struggled to wrap her head around this. This wasn't difficult to understand, it was just too bizarre to process. She knew Gallows was smart, but she didn't think he was so smart that he'd be able to actually trick several Pokémon on such a profound level. He had convinced all of those Pokémon that they had to end their existence for the sake of everyone, just like that.
"So then if your story wasn't real, then what was going to happen to all of those Pokémon that end up merging back together?" Ker then asked.
"Oh I'm glad you asked," Gallows said, an unsettling eagerness seeping into his voice. "They would have merged into one being, yes, but because the multiverse isn't actually falling apart, they wouldn't be saving anything. They would... how to say… ascend to where I really am. And once they got there… oh well that's where the fun really begins, Ker."
"What do you mean 'ascend to where you really are'? You just said you're a god of the multiverse. What, would they become a god like you too?"
The Chandelure started snickering then, his eyes taking on an ominous hue. His shadowy tendrils shuddered in anticipation as he swooped a little closer to Ker, closing more of that giant gap between them. However, he was still too far away for Ker to reach out and touch him.
"This multiverse you've been in your whole existence? It's not real, so to speak," Gallows explained. "All of this… everything around us… it's me. It's all me."
Ker shot him a bewildered look. Gallows must have realized he wasn't making sense, as he outstretched out his tendrils toward to the sky, as if to present the stars to the Sableye.
"All of existence in this multiverse is me," Gallows said. "It's a dream, so to speak. That's why I'm a god in this multiverse. You and those other so called fragments are the only real souls in existence. Everyone else is either a mask of mine that I can directly manipulate or a dream person that does whatever it wants. When all of the characters merge together, the main personality will escape this dream world and meet me in the actual reality I live in. Hence where me falling in love with you becomes a problem…
"I want you to reach me where I really am, Ker. I was happy with any of the characters reaching me, as I just wanted to see who could come out on top, but I've grown too attached to you. I couldn't bear the thought of you falling to one of the other fragments, snuffed from existence."
"So that's what this is about," Ker realized. "You were playing storywriter this whole time with a bunch of Pokémon. Then you gave all of them different motivations and watched to see which one would reach the end of your silly little story. Then you got too attached to one of the characters, as in me, and now you want me to be the one who gets to the ending."
"That about sums it up, even if it sounds far less glamourous the way you describe it."
Ker started laughing, but not because she found any of this funny. She laughed because she didn't know how else to react. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Everything she knew was a lie. Everyone and everything was just Gallows in some form. It was one thing to know that the multiverse was indifferent to your existence, it was another thing to know that all of reality was nothing but a figment of Gallows's imagination and that she was one of the few real souls in this so-called Gallowsverse.
However, she didn't completely lose herself to this harrowing revelation because of one thing: there was a way out of this fake reality. She could escape and go wherever Gallows really was, where Ker had actually come from. However, realizing that made an awful question surface into Ker's mind.
"Gallows…" she started to say, thinking over the words carefully. "You said me and those other fragments are the only real people in your dream… you dragged us down here from reality, didn't you? Why?"
"As I said, I wanted characters for a story," Gallows said flatly. "You eleven seemed suitable. So yes, I took all of you from the reality above and brought you into my dream."
"But why us? Why us out of literally everyone else?"
"I didn't have a reason. I simply chose eleven random Pokémon. It was the luck of draw."
So that was it. There was no reason why she specifically was down here. He must have seen her somewhere in the real world and thought she'd fit to play the role as a love-stricken damsel.
Ker felt sick. Everything was becoming more and more twisted with every sentence Gallows spoke. At first, she had found it morbidly amusing. Now that she knew everything about existence and her place in it was all a lie, it was becoming increasingly difficult to stand near Gallows, knowing he was responsible for all of this. His presence felt like poison, slowly rotting away her insides as she writhed in agony. She wanted to do nothing more than run away from him and go back to the way everything was before. Unfortunately, there was no going back. Her world had been shattered now that she knew what was actually going on.
She wanted to say she hated Gallows for doing this to her. He had dragged her away from whatever life she had before and had forced her to participate in a story of his own making. He probably didn't even ask her if she wanted to be a part of his plot. She was only here for his sick entertainment and it was by sheer luck that he had fallen for her and changed his mind about everything. If that hadn't of happened, she'd still be playing her part in this grand story and probably be eradicated from existence by one of the other characters.
But again, she couldn't hate him. She had known since the moment she met Gallows how manipulative he was, how devious he was. It honestly wasn't surprising that he planned something this big. Again, it amused her at how sick Gallows could actually be. She had a feeling he didn't even do this for a justifiable reason; he probably did all of this because it was fun. In some ways, she wasn't any better than him. Did she not spend all of her existence toying with mortals, terrorizing them not just because she needed their fear for nourishment, but because she found a morbid glee in watching mortals cower so easily?
That was also why she didn't give into despair now that she understood the true nature of this reality and her place in it. Maybe if she had lived out a life as a mortal like all those other characters of this story, she would have. However, unlike the other characters, Ker was stronger than them. She didn't let stupid things ruin her. She had already felt pathetic enough wallowing over losing Gallows; she needed to make up for that.
Besides, Gallows did love her. He said it himself. If she could overcome all of this and be the final remaining character at the end of the day, she'd escape this dream world and be with him. She could actually be happy with him like she always wanted. That was when another puzzling thought came to mind.
"If you like me so much, why don't you just take me out of this dream of yours right now and stop whatever plot you started?" Ker then asked.
"Because it doesn't work that way," Gallows answered. "I started this story and once it starts, it has to finish. That's the way it goes. If I terminate it now, it'll cause problems that can easily erase you from existence."
"That… doesn't make any sense. You're the creator of this multiverse, you should be able to do whatever you want."
"Well it's true and that's why I brought you here to discuss all of this. Trust me, if I could remove you from this story altogether and let you ascend on your own, I would."
Ker sighed. So she could only escape all of this if she ended up the victor in Gallows's story. She didn't like the thought and wanted to think Gallows was tricking her, but she couldn't fathom any reason for him to do so. If he really wanted her to suffer more, he would have left her alone and not revealed his true nature in the first place. He would have let her get assimilated by one of the other characters.
"Alright, fine," Ker said after a while. "I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around all of this, but I get that you just want to help me. Ahhh, to think this all happened because you fell in love with me…"
The Chandelure's flames flickered delightfully. He drew closer to Ker, finally closing the space between them. He took his shadowy tendrils and wrapped them around Ker's claws, holding them tight. They felt warm and pleasant to the touch. Ker squeezed them, hoping Gallows didn't notice how hot she suddenly felt.
"It was difficult to tell you all of this, but I'm glad you took it well," Gallows said pleasantly as another one of his inky tendrils stroked the Sableye's cheek. "I did worry that all of this would be too much for you, which is why I didn't tell you all of this immediately after realizing how much I had fallen for you."
"It's a lot to take in… but I can handle it," Ker said as she put on the biggest grin she could. "After all, if I end up being the main fragment that assimilated all the others, I get to be with you. And why wouldn't I want that?"
Gallows chuckled as he held her closer, burying the little Sableye in his domed form. She let herself melt against him, listening contently to the crackle of his flames. She missed this. She missed his touch, his company, his captivating words. To think that all of this wasn't even real and that greater joys awaited her outside of this dream reality.
"I love you," Ker said quietly, rubbing his tendrils with her claws. "I… I didn't realize it for a long time, but I do. You're the most wonderful being I've ever met in all of my existence. I feel alive when I'm around you, like I've actually got a heart. I didn't think I could ever be this happy with someone else."
"Yes, it's a rather remarkable feeling, isn't it?" Gallows said tenderly in return. "It feels good to hear you say those words, sweet Ker. I've longed to hear them for a very long time. They stir the flames of my very soul."
She looked up at him only to find he wasn't a Chandelure anymore. Now he was a Sableye just like her, albeit with a darker shade to his form. He was smiling at her with a wide, devious grin, the kind of grin she imagined he'd always have as a Chandelure if he actually had a mouth.
Ker shot him a stunned look, but then he was suddenly a Chandelure again, as if nothing had happened. Ker didn't know what to think of that. Maybe he had suddenly changed forms for just a moment because she saw Gallows as a different mask. Maybe now that she knew the truth, she was beginning to see him as what he really was, not what he wanted her to see.
As if to prove her point, when Gallows released his hold on her, he had changed forms again, this time into a Dusknoir. Dusknoir Gallows steepled his hands together.
"Now that you understand everything, there's much to be done if you want to be the character that ascends to me," Gallows said, his voice taking on a deeper voice to match the mask he now wore. "It will be difficult, but I promise you that if you do everything that I say and put all of your heart and soul into overcoming the trials that await you, you will reach me very soon."
"Of course," Ker said with a smile. "Nothing's going to stop me from getting to you, don't you worry. But… I've got just one question, before we started with all of this."
"Yes?"
"Who exactly was I, before you dragged me down here? I feel like I was a Sableye before all of this, but sometimes I think I always wasn't. Sometimes I feel like I was another Pokémon altogether. Sometimes I don't even feel like Ker is my real name… so who was I, Gallows?"
Dusknoir Gallows lacked a mouth, but the yellow lines along his stomach curved up into a something resembling a sinister, knowing grin. He chuckled darkly as his single, glowing red eye glinted ominously.
"You'll know when you return to reality," he answered. "Consider that motivation to escape this story I've crafted."
"What, me being in love with you isn't enough of a motivation?" Ker asked in a coy tone. "I thought love conquers all."
That grin of his only widened more. Something about that grin wasn't right. Ker wanted to chalk it up to him being coy with her in return, especially when he probably hated that saying about love, but that wasn't it. He was being too secretive about this.
"Can you at least tell me who and what you even are?" Ker then asked. "You must be pretty strong to make an entire multiverse with denizens inside of it… even if this all is supposedly a giant dream."
"You'll understand when you reach the surface," Gallows said again, just as tauntingly. "For now, let's just say that you and I aren't so different from one another in the real world… ketetetetetetet!"
Ker wanted to question him about that, but knew she wouldn't get anything out of it. If she wanted answers, she was going to have to find them in the real world. Besides, it wasn't like she had much of a choice. It was either escape this fake multiverse or be devoured by one of the other characters in Gallows's plot. She wanted to say she felt bad for the other characters and the fate that awaited them if she did devour them all, but she didn't. She had long since stopped caring about that sort of thing. If she didn't, she would have had a miserable existence as a ghost that fed on the terror of others.
"Alright," she then said as she looked to Gallows, who had become a Chandelure again. "Tell me what I need to do so I can be with you in the real world."